the lead starts right now. president biden s surprise trip to ukraine, how did the white house pull it off? plus the new promise the president is making while some republicans chastise him for growing. russian families on the run from the brutal war and ending up at the u.s. southern border. what one family went through to escape. and the murder of a bishop found dead in his california home. new details just coming in in this case. welcome to the lead. i am john berman in for jake tapper. moments ago president biden arrived back in poland after his unannounced trip to ukraine and stood side by side with president zelenskyy where biden declared putin is failing as the war nears its one year mark. biden said his trip was important to reaffirm unwavering u.s. support. one year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of kyiv. america stands with you, and the world stands with you. as part of the trip, biden announced another half million-dollars in assistance for ukrain
zelenskyy s mission, impossible. ukraine s president visiting the capital to make a last-ditch effort to win military aid for his war against russia. but republican lawmakers appear to be willing to say no deal and leave for the holidays without passing a significant aide package. this as we are learning startling new details about russia s losses in ukraine. plus, strong words from president biden and an ally. biden says that israel is losing support in that it s offensive in gaza, and the prime minister netanyahu has no choice but to change his government. and exclusive cnn reporting. former president trump made to a former mar-a-lago employee. that employees know eyewitness amenities trials. those calls were apparently made for charges before the case was filed. we are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming up right here to cnn new central. thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, i m boris sánchez alongside rahel solo
important to note the west delivers weapons and money to kyiv quite regularly in huge kwa quantities allowing the companies to earn money and steal weapons to sell to terrorists around the world. and he has become pretty hard lined himself in the past couple of months. this is one of the narratives we are seeing the kremlin push, and they say they are not in a war with ukraine but in a war with the west who is giving weapons to ukraine. one thing we will also probably hear in putin s speech as well tomorrow, john. we will be listening. fred, thank you very much. with me now is cnn national security analysts and former deputy director of intelligence, and a cnn military analyst. put this into context for us. how big of a deal was it for president biden to make this trip happen? i think it was a big deal.
airtime. congressman, what do you make of the similarities between the white house and kremlin push back in all this in terms of fake news, witch-hunt. apparently that doesn t squash skepticism from those in congress pushing for more information. no, it s not. it s strikingly similar how the push back is from the creme lip a kremlin and the white house. that s why we need to push for a bipartisan independent investigation. republicans control congress. there s no indication they support a select committee investigation. there s no indication at this point that the justice department will appoint a special counsel. that leaves the house intelligence investigations as the yofficial inquiries. i have concerns.