the lead starts right now. new witness tran scripts released from the january 6th committee, including one from donald trump s own son, and an unusual request from one sitting gop senator. then, officials are calling it the largest russian missile strike since the war began. ukrainians say it could have been so much worse. plus, some signs of relief on the horizon for tens of thousands of southwest pas passengers who have been stuck in the airline s meltdown for now eight days. welcome to the lead, i m phil mattingly. and we begin with our politics lead and new insight into the january 6th investigation. the committee released more testimony transcripts from 19 witnesses, including trump s son donald trump jr., trump attorney christina bobb, kimberly guilfoyle, stephen miller and former white house press secretary stephanie grisham. there s one key thing that sticks out, and that s the role of mark meadows. he was, of course, trump s chief of staff on january 6th an
79-year-old leonid was jarred ab awake when missile debris hit next to his house. setting his son s car on fire. ripping trees out by the roots. yet he remains stoic. i was born in world war ii, so i m very calm about explosions, leonid says, today, i was only worried about my son. his son is fine. ukrainian officials insist russia s target, yet again, was the country s energy in infrastructure. kyiv mayor vitali klitschko is blunt. the russians want to bring depression, especially right now, christmas time, new year. the russians want to bring us to black time, to without lighting, to without heating.