in kyiv insist the battle is not over yet. we have a live report from ukraine and i ll talk to the ukrainian ambassador to the united states about the state of the war. also tonight, president biden faces a growing crisis right now. with a special counsel now in place to investigate his handling of classified records. we re learning more about documents that were found as the white house fails to explain its delay in revealing key details. and new scenes of devastation in the southeast. the death toll rising after dozens of tornados including a powerful twister that pounded selma, alabama. we re getting official updates on this disaster and the rescue and recovery operations that are now underway. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. and we begin this hour in ukraine. and the stunning video just into cnn. a huge explosion in the eastern town of soledar at a building apparently occupie
us as we take a moment to rest and reflect a bit. we here at deadline white house are thinking about the families in ukraine, and what this holiday season must feel like for them. christmas eve marked ten months since the start of a russian war that has not let up even though it s now in the thick of winter. when russia unleashed the air strike on december 24th, it was the largest attack on that state since world war ii and then putin s forces two weeks later laid siege to maripol. devastating, and yet the twice impeached disgraced ex-president continues to claim with no evidence whatsoever, if he were the president ukraine would be just fine. on the day russia invaded ukraine, russia released this gem. if i was in office this deadly situation in ukraine had never have happened. to think if only trump were our president there would be peace in ukraine it s laughable thanks to an exhaustive and riveting new piece in the new york times, we have reason to believe trump was s
at the inception each of these investigations in the same way. by bringing in a special counsel to review the biden side of this document saga, i think the attorney general has done exactly that. he needs to now resource it in the same way that he has the other special counsel, he needs to step away from it. not subjected to the sort of day-to-day oversight that you have given maybe two u.s. attorney. that seems to be the way he s treating jack smith. i have no doubt he ll do those things. but from this point forward, laura, these cases will go, i suspect, in very different directions. they will follow the facts in the law, and so far, from what we ve seen, the facts of these two situations are very different. john, i m really interested, based on your prior role in particular, about the idea of why it is biden was tightlipped about the investigations. obviously, from the doj perspective, there is a level of gravitas that must be assigned, and you don t really want transpar
two 2024 potential candidates investigated by a special council, we ll bring in former fbi director andrew mccabe and former white house council john dean, you got two presidents under investigation, and now by special counsel, both about mishandling of classified documents, there s a fork in the road where each of their behavior seems to go in different directions but very significant, nonetheless to have these investigation absolutely. significant and i think you know, that s what this moment calls for, it calls for the justice department to handle at least at the inception each of these investigations in the same way, and by bringing into especially council to review the biden side of this document is a ago, i think the attorney general has done exactly that, he needs to now resource it in the same way that he has the other special council, he needs to step away from it, not subject it to the sort of day-to-day oversight that you would have given maybe to a u.s. attorney
it s the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i m alisyn camerota. i m victor blackwell. two presidents accused of mishandling classified documents and two special counsel investigations. there were no answers at today s white house briefing about why the biden team delayed for months to tell you why documents were found. we are learning that the documents from biden s team included briefing memos about foreign leaders. the justice department is still questioning if he has any of his files on his properties. the fbi got more than 300 from trump s possession after he resisted requests to return those. we re joined by phil mattingly and cnn s senior crime and justice reporter, katelyn pol polantz. phil, did we learn more today? reporter: we learned that if you have any questions, you should refer them to the white house counsel s office and the justice department or the special counsel at this point in time, and i say that somewhat in jest, but i think that s the reality