Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

U.S. Attorney: D.C. Shooting Suspect To Face First-Degree Murder Charge; Top Zelenskyy Aide Resigns After Anti-Corruption Police Raid His Home. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:01:27]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, upgraded charges for the suspect accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House. This after one of the soldiers dies, the other fighting for his life.

And welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Erica Hill. Wolf and Pamela are off today. You are in The Situation Room.

Happening now, we are learning more about Wednesday's deadly shooting in Washington, D.C. An attack that targeted members of the National Guard. These two members were from West Virginia. The U.S. attorney for D.C. revealing new charges for the suspect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR D.C.: There are certainly many more charges to come, but we are upgrading the initial charges of assault, two murder in the first degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom died yesterday from her injuries. The secretary of defense attended her dignified transfer. The other member who was shot, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition. West Virginia's governor sharing this message from Wolfe's family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PATRICK MORRISEY (R-WV): He's in very serious condition. And I know that from talking with the family and they asked me to convey this, that their only ask is to send prayers to Andrew and to have everyone across the state and the country say, let's lift him up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Brian Todd is live in Washington, D.C. He's been covering this since, frankly, the moments after that attack unfolded on Wednesday afternoon. So what more do we know, first of all, Brian, about these new charges for the suspect?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Erica, you play that sound from Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia just a moment ago, where she alluded to the fact that they are now going to pursue charges of murder in the first degree for this suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

He had previously faced three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm with intent to commit violence. Now, those charges not necessarily replaced by the first degree murder charge. He could still face some counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, because at the moment we know that Andrew Wolfe and at least one other one other guardsmen who are attacked have not passed away.

So that -- those charges could still hold, as could the count of possession of a firearm with intent to commit violence. We did just get an update a short time ago, a slight update from a spokesperson for Task Force D.C., Joint Task Force D.C. That's the unit which oversees the National Guard deployment here in Washington.

That spokesperson said about that wounded guardsman, Andrew Wolfe, that he is still in critical condition at a local hospital. The spokesperson said she was not aware at the moment of any pending surgeries or procedures, but is, quote, working to nail that down. So we hope to get an update later -- later today on Andrew Wolfe's condition and whether he's going to undergo any surgeries.

Also, we're trying to ask what unit of the hospital he is being treated in. And we've not gotten information on that. Again, more information that we've learned about this suspect is named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29 years old from Afghanistan. According to Jeanine Pirro when she spoke to reporters yesterday, she said that he resides in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and they believe five children that he worked with the CIA in Afghanistan.

He came to the United States in 2021. He was granted asylum in the United States by the Trump administration in April of this year. And a U.S. official said that in his time working for U.S. forces in Afghanistan and working for the CIA in Afghanistan, which, by the way, he started working for them in 2011. So he had been working for them for quite some time. A U.S. official said he was vetted by intelligence agencies and, quote, came out clean on all checks.

[11:05:13]

So, again, you know, there's a lot more to dig into as to what could be a motive. We were pressing officials yesterday pretty hard on that question. Do you have any information about a possible motive? They were not able to answer that question. They also said that the suspect was not cooperating with authorities. Erica?

HILL: Which is also an important development to know that he is still not cooperating. Brian, appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, the Trump administration is working to, quote, permanently pause migration from all third world countries. That's according to a post from the President in the wake of this shooting attack. The White House says it also plans to review all asylum cases which were approved under the Biden administration and also to reexamine green cards issued to people from 19 countries deemed to be of concern.

Now, just a reminder here of the timeline, which Brian just touched on. The suspect came to the United States in 2021 under a program that was implemented during the Biden era following the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was then granted asylum in April of this year, April of 2025 by the Trump administration, according to multiple law enforcement officials who told CNN.

CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes is with us now and joining us from Florida, of course, where she's been traveling with the president. He is -- he is there at Mar-a-Lago. So, Kristen, what can you tell us about this new immigration crackdown?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, Erica, a couple of things to note. One, you just mentioned the Afghan visa program and how the suspect entered the country. I do think that as political as we're seeing a lot of this response to this shooting, that is going to be something that ends up being bipartisan just because it happened across two administrations in particular.

This idea of what exactly was happening at that time, bringing people in and what did the vetting process look like. Because as you mentioned, he came in under Biden, but was granted asylum under Trump. So there's going to be a lot of questions as to how many steps happened in between and why someone like who was capable of something like this was granted asylum and was in our country in the first place.

Now, when it comes to the immigration crackdown, it is clear President Trump is going to continue to ramp up all of the policies that he has been discussing with his team, that he has mentioned, many of the policies he mentioned on the campaign trail. Take a listen to what he said when discussing this crime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just saying this atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remained in our country. For the most part, we don't want them. When it comes to asylum, when they're flown in, it's very hard to get them out, no matter how you want to do it. It's very hard to get them out, but we're going to be getting them all out now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I see here him saying we're going to be getting them all out now. We don't have a list of details yet on what exactly that entails, but here's what we do know. This is the kind of drip-drip of information we have about this immigration crackdown. A lot of this you mentioned, but it's working to, quote, permanently pause migration from all third world countries, looking into deporting the suspects family. That's one of the things that President Trump mentioned.

U.S. citizenship and immigration services are reexamining green cards issued to people from 19 different countries. And I actually think we have a map here of what those 19 countries are. This was from a proclamation in June.

And you can see on the map here various countries in Africa and the Middle East. I'm not going to list all 19, but some of them include Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Libya. These are all places that they're going to be reassessing these green cards from and they're going to be reviewing all asylum cases approved under Biden.

I do think, again, when it comes to simply the asylum process that happened in 2021, particularly with these Afghans, there is going to be bipartisan support for a review of how all of that happened.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Support for that review, as there are so many questions to your point at this hour. Kristen, appreciate it. Thank you.

Also with us, CNN senior correspondent Josh Campbell, who, of course, is also a former supervisory special agent with the FBI. Josh, when we look at this, and I want to pick up where Kristen left off there, that there is this expectation that there will be bipartisan support to review these processes. And that, of course, also comes on the heels of CNN's own reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies said that he was deemed, quote, clean on all checks. There would have been multiple checks, not just 2021, but of course, to get to the point where one is granted asylum. How much do we know about what is actually involved in these background checks?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's important for people to understand that the whole vetting process is inherently an imperfect process, because if you're running someone's name against what the U.S. government knows, it's just that you're running only what they know. And despite, you know, myths out there, the U.S. intelligence community isn't all seeing, all knowing. And so it's important to note that the whole vetting process can help mitigate risks of dangerous people coming into the country. It cannot eliminate it.

[11:10:11]

The way the process works is that the U.S. intelligence community, whether that was, you know, when was an FBI agent, CIA officers, NSA officers and analysts, if they come across someone who is a known or suspected terrorist during the course of their work, they will populate that into these various databases. One of the key databases is called Tide, and this serves as a repository.

So when the State Department is about to issue someone a visa, that person's name is run against those holdings. And if it doesn't come up that they were in contact with someone, then typically that person would move far along in the process. But again, it's limited to what the U.S. intelligence community knows. One thing I will note in this case, just quickly on the motive, is that we still don't know whether this individual was directed or inspired by a foreign terrorist organization or whether he was acting on some kind of personal grievance. Based on the facts that we know right now, I would be a bit surprised if it turns out he was, you know, directed or inspired for two key reasons.

First, and this is grim, but you look at the victim pool here, two people that were shot. ISIS doesn't want two people shot. They want 200 people shot. And so someone who is working at their direction or inspiration, you know, would know that. And then the second thing I'll note is the type of weaponry, Erica, really stands out here.

The suspect used a revolver. This is a clunky type of firearm that can often take longer to reload, if someone doesn't have a lot of experience. There are a lot of other options for firearms out there that will allow this person to continue to shoot and quickly reload. But he opted for this revolver. So a lot of -- a lot of questions.

HILL: Yes, there certainly are a lot of questions. Also, I think a lot of people have questions about what could it mean, right, that this is somebody who at one point worked with the CIA in Afghanistan? How much more do we know about what that role was, how he was working with the CIA? I mean, it started when he was fairly young, but just give us a sense to just how widespread some of these programs were.

CAMPBELL: Well, there's little that we know about his specific role, but I'll tell you that for, you know, the CIA officers working overseas or U.S. military, FBI agents, foreign nationals are often critical to allowing them to do their work because they're simply places that a Westerner can't go when especially when you're talking about trying to counter terrorism in various parts of the world. And so foreign nationals are key.

They can serve as interpreters. They can serve as what are called fixers, helping case officers and agents navigate the local processes within a particular country. And they can, quite frankly, also serve as human assets, gathering intelligence on behalf of these agencies. We don't know where he fits specifically in that role, but these types of roles are critical to allowing the U.S. intelligence community to counter threats.

HILL: Josh, always good to see you. Appreciate the insight. Thank you.

CAMPBELL: You bet. Thanks.

HILL: Happening now. We are keeping a close watch on this fire out of St. Louis. So at an empty warehouse complex, we do know that it's prompted more than 200 firefighters to respond. You see the smoke there. This is near the Mississippi River again in St. Louis, Missouri, breaking out overnight.

The city's fire chief telling CNN affiliate KMOV that the blaze they expect could actually burn into the weekend, noting at least four buildings had caught fire and that nearby electric lines and train tracks had also caught. That's according to, again, to our affiliate KMOV. The somewhat good news here, no injuries reported. It is still unclear, though, at this hour what started the fire.

Still to come here, Vladimir Putin doubling down, demanding Ukraine hand over territory, withdraw its forces as U.S. officials prepare for more talks in Moscow.

[11:13:40]

And a post-holiday headache for millions of travelers, the dangerous cross-country storm that could slow down your trip home. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: New this morning, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's closest aides has just announced he is resigning. The stunning move from Andriy Yermak coming just hours after his home was raided by Ukraine's anti-corruption police. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is following these developments for us from London. There have been a number of investigations over the last couple of weeks that we've been hearing headlines about what happened today.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, this is an extraordinarily damaging moment, I think, for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. His chief of staff and top negotiator for the ongoing peace talks forwarded by the Trump administration, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation.

It's been accepted by the president hours after his home was raided by anti-corruption investigators. The same investigators who are looking into an extensive energy kickback related scandal that until this recent bout of diplomacy trying to revive a peace deal was the main headline in Ukraine, increasingly encroaching on Zelenskyy's inner circle. We don't know if this morning's raids were directly related to that scandal.

Let's face it, they probably were. And regardless of that, Zelenskyy has framed this resignation as, frankly, a bid to remove doubt in Ukraine, to try and draw a line ultimately under this distraction. He thanked Yermak for his work as top negotiator, said that the oncoming talks with the United States would continue and name the individuals who'd be part of that.

[11:19:55]

But the question ultimately for Zelenskyy is here. Look, he's at the most politically vulnerable domestically. He's been because of this corruption scandal. The fact that his number two, the man who is a T.V. producer with before government, who was essentially his right hand man throughout the war, who led the key talks with the Russians and the Ukraine and the United States over the past months.

The fact this man has now had to step down because of these questions. Does that increase the heat on Zelenskyy or reduce it? We'll find out in the months ahead. But it simply adds to the false Russian talking point about the Ukrainian government's legitimacy. And I'm sure it's something that President Trump will be paying attention to as well.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Nick, really appreciate it. Thank you.

I want to continue the discussion now with the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor. He's also a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Ambassador, always good to talk to you. So, you know, as -- as Nick was just noting, Andriy Yermak was the man leading Ukraine's negotiations here. So how does this complicate these negotiations now?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, we will see. Nick's right. We will see over the next month or so. But Andriy Yermak was a controversial person. He was controversial domestically in Ukraine. He was controversial internationally among observers. So this may, in some sense, help Zelenskyy move forward on this.

As Nick points out, Zelenskyy wants to draw a line under this investigation. He has fired a couple of ministers and now he's accepted the resignation of another person apparently implicated. So Zelenskyy is trying to put that behind him. No one has accused Zelenskyy of any of those kinds of problems. And as I say, Yermak had his own set of detractors.

HILL: So when we look at where things stand then, you know, sort of with the -- with the big unknown over the developments just earlier today, Yermak had told "The Atlantic" Ukraine would never cede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal, saying, quote, not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory.

This has always been an understandable point of contention in any of these negotiations. Of course, that 28 point plan had Ukraine ceding territory that Russia didn't even occupy, which, of course, was a nonstarter. How much of the focus, right, or how high on the list, I should say, is this idea of territory at this point as Ukraine moves forward to try to get something done?

TAYLOR: Very high, Erica, very high. It's -- it's right up there in the top couple of issues. And Yermak is right. And Zelenskyy has made the same exact point. That is, Ukrainians are not going to give up legal claim to all of their territory, all of the 1991 borders. They will acknowledge, Erica, they will acknowledge that the Russians occupy. What you're showing there, that shown in red is 19 percent of Ukraine's territory is occupied right now.

That's a fact by the Russians. That's a fact. They will acknowledge that fact. They will not give up claim. They will not acknowledge that the Russians own that. Nor should anyone else. Nor should the Americans, nor should the Europeans and the Ukrainians will never give up claim to that territory.

HILL: There is -- there has been an ongoing discussion for some time now about what it is that would actually get Moscow to budge a little bit, to concede something, because the concessions have largely come or -- or been asked of the Ukrainians at this point. There is, depending on who you talk to, some evidence that sanctions may be having an impact.

But I was speaking earlier with Colonel Cedric Leighton, who said he really felt it was only the presence of troops, maybe NATO troops that would really push Russia in that direction. Do you agree?

TAYLOR: I do agree. I think there are military things to be done and economic things to be done to put pressure on Putin to it, to -- to realize, to acknowledge that he can't win on the ground. But the military, I mean, Colonel Leighton is exactly right. It has to be a military. It's -- it's long range weapons.

It's Tomahawk missiles from the United States. It's probably European troops on the ground in Ukraine to be sure that the Russians don't attack again. And then it is also important to put those sanctions on, to squeeze the revenues going into the Russian economy.

HILL: We are out of time, but just a yes or no, if you can. Do you think we are getting closer to a place where there could be a deal?

TAYLOR: I do. I do. I think it's because the Europeans and the Ukrainians and the Americans are now agreed on the 19 point plan, not the 28 point plan that the Russians wrote and like. But on the 19 point plan, there's unanimity.

HILL: All right. We'll be watching for it. Ambassador, always good to talk to you. Thank you.

TAYLOR: Thank you, Erica.

[11:24:49]

HILL: Still ahead here, a troubling surge in measles cases, even in places that had once been declared measles free. The stark new warning from the World Health Organization is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: New this morning, the measles making a very unwelcome comeback. The World Health Organization says cases are surging in dozens of countries, including the United States. And going on to say eliminating the disease is now a, quote, distant goal. CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is here. Meg, this is a really swift 180 in a lot of ways.

[11:30:02]

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really is, Erica. I mean if you look at deaths, for example, there we actually do see something that looks like good news.