Plans underway for Biden to welcome Ukraine President Zelensky to White House for surprise visit

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are planning to meet at the White House Wednesday, according to two sources familiar with the planning underway. The visit would mark his first outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February. Plans are still being finalized but Zelensky’s trip to Washington, DC could also include an address to Congress while the Biden administration is trying to send Ukraine a new defense assistance package that will include Patriot missile systems. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego serves on the House Armed Services Committee and recently led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Kyiv. He joins AC360 to discuss how significant this visit is for Zelensky. Plus, sources tell CNN that former President Trump’s White House ethics lawyer, Stefan Passantino, told Cassidy Hutchinson to give misleading testimony to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Olivia Troye is a former homeland security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. She tells AC360 if she’s surprised by this allegation against someone in the former President’s orbit. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For the first time since Russia invaded his country, tried to take the capital, topple
0:06.6	his government and reportedly try to take his life, Ukraine's president is leaving his
0:11.6	country and according to two sources already on his way here.
0:16.3	John Berman here in Ferranderson, and to say that Vladimir Zelensky's journey could be
0:20.0	risky, he's no overstatement.
0:22.4	Then again, so was his visit today to Bachmoud on the front line to award combat medals
0:27.2	to the troops. And to say his expected visit to the White House and address to Congress
0:31.6	tomorrow would be moments of the highest significance in drama is no understatement. It certainly
0:37.5	has echoes of Winston Churchill's Christmas time visit to Washington in 1941 just two
0:42.6	weeks after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the Second World War.
0:47.7	He made that crossing on the Royal Navy Battleship Duke of York, the crossing took ten days.
0:53.3	And Zelensky's journey will be a lot shorter, but the stakes could not be higher.
0:58.4	See, it's filmaddingly, at the White House starts us off tonight.
1:01.4	Phil, so what do we know about this visit, which is already beginning?
1:06.0	Yeah, president Zelensky already on his way to the United States, according to two sources.
1:11.2	And while the history and symbolism are undoubtedly very obvious here, the substance here too is
1:17.4	also critical.
1:18.4	John, keep in mind, president Biden and president Zelensky have spoken by phone more than a dozen
1:22.7	times, spoken by video conference several times as well, but have not met in person since
1:27.6	the invasion of Ukraine.
1:29.3	And president Biden has been explicit that the U.S. support, which is now totaled more
1:33.1	than $20 billion in defense and security assistance over the course of the last nine
	...

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