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Russia: At Least 133 Killed, 100+ Injured In Concert Hall Attack; Putin Expresses Deep Condolences Over "Barbaric Terrorist Act"; Congress Averts Government Shutdown, Passes Funding Bill; NY AG Prepares To Seize Trump Properties If He Can't Post Bond; Catherine, Princess Of Wales, Diagnosed With Cancer. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired March 23, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN "BREAKING NEWS".

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[12:00:41]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. And thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredericka Whitfield in Atlanta. And we're watching several breaking news stories this hour.

In Russia, fast moving developments on the shooting at a Moscow area concert venue that has left more than 130 people dead.

And in the U.K. and around the world shock and sadness over news that Catherine, the Princess of Wales has cancer.

CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster is standing by outside Buckingham Palace. I will take you there in a moment.

But first, the massacre near Moscow. A short time ago, Russian state media reported that the suspected attackers are all foreign citizens. ISIS claimed responsibility for the rampage on a concert venue yesterday. The death toll rising, once again, today, to at least 133 people.

And in his first video message since the attack, President Vladimir Putin called it a barbaric terrorist act.

CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is monitoring developments from Berlin.

Fred, good morning to you. Have authorities given any more details about the suspects in this attack?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have the Russian authorities certainly have and it seems to diverge a little bit from what we've been hearing from the U.S. and also from ISIS itself. Of course, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack that happened late last night. They offered an additional social media post still earlier today.

And then, you had the U.S. that came out and said that they have absolutely no reason to doubt ISIS has claimed of responsibility. Of course, the U.S. coming out very early.

Now, the Russians have a bit of a different take on all of that. They say that they have, at this point in time, apprehended 11 individuals in total that includes the four shooters, whose they say went into that concert venue yesterday evening outside of Moscow in the town of Krasnogorsk, and started shooting up almost everybody that came across their path.

The Russian saying some of those people shot at point blank, we're seeing some of the aftermath. on our screen right now.

The Russians are saying as you pointed out that none of those individuals are Russian citizens. They do say, and this comes from Vladimir Putin, who went on Russian state TV earlier today that apparently these individuals tried to make a getaway to Ukraine. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): All for direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, or those who shot and killed people were found and detained. They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border. A total of 11 people were detained.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, the interesting thing that Vladimir Putin is saying, allegedly, a window was open for them on the other side, as he put it, obviously, seeming to mean some sort of opening in the border, which would be remarkable because of course, that border currently is the front line between Ukraine and the Russians a lot of fighting that's going on in that area.

So, the Russians apparently trying to somehow were apparently implicating or at least linking all of this to Ukraine. The Ukrainians at this point in time having none of it, saying they have absolutely nothing to do with all this, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much. And I should say, good evening to you. 5:00 there. Thanks so much.

All right. Let's bring in CNN national security analyst Steve Hall and CNN, chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. Great to see you both, gentlemen.

So, Steve, you first. ISIS, you know, quick to claim responsibility for this attack. But we heard Putin suggests that the suspects were trying to flee into Ukraine. He obviously wants to make some sort of correlation with Ukraine, perhaps, you know, added justification for Russia's invasion of that country? STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Fred, it's worth remembering that whatever comes out of the Kremlin is serves no other purpose than to support Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin's policies.

So, whether it's numbers of casualties, whether it's who committed this terrorist act, whether it's whether they were going to Ukraine or not, which frankly, makes zero sense whatsoever from pretty much any perspective unless you're trying to protect Vladimir Putin from embarrassment for not listening to intelligence that was provided by the United States and probably others.

There is really nothing to believe there. So yes, it doesn't -- it seems to make sense to me that it would be a terrorist element.

[12:05:01]

The United States government doesn't see any inconsistencies with it being ISIS. So, you know my inclination is to believe any other source before you believe the Kremlin.

WHITFIELD: And John, in fact, the U.S. and other western governments have warned Russia earlier this month about the possibility of an ISIS attack. Putin labelled the warning outright blackmail during a speech earlier this week.

So, help folks understand even though Russia is an adversary of the U.S., America adheres by this so-called duty to warn.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, the duty to warn doctrine applies particularly in terrorism where there is information that one intelligence service may come into, that means people may be killed in another place.

And even if that place is not a U.S. ally, even if it's a hostile foreign power, the duty to warn is to protect innocent people, no matter what the politics. And so, U.S. intelligence passed the information they had about terrorist chatter about an upcoming attack in Russia.

And then on March 7th, four Americans in the region, actually posted that on the embassy web site. And yes, right, as you said, Vladimir Putin came out and said, this was an attempt to destabilize, you know, Russians feelings of safety.

Yesterday was the fog of war. Today, what we have is the fog of propaganda. So, let's break it down. For Vladimir Putin, it's going to be very important to try and leverage this not into a massive intelligence failure, massive security, failure, confused response, but rather to make this Russia's October 7th. Innocent people slaughtered, and who better to push that blame to even tacitly than to the Ukraine.

So, we're seeing that unfold now, in a mix of propaganda, but also information coming from official channels and Putin himself. From the U.S. standpoint. ISIS claimed responsibility through -- for this, through its official channels, but out more material today, and has a history of animosity towards Russia, going back to the Russian bombing of its camps and fighters in Syria on behalf of Bashir Assad, its actions in the caucuses against the Chechens and other Muslims in the region. So, it fits, but we're going to see a tug of war in the propaganda space right now.

WHITFIELD: Interesting.

And Steve, it's been barely a week since Putin was elected to his fifth term as president. He has long branded himself as a strong man leader, able to keep peace and order. So, how does this attack affect that perception to his people and his defiance against believing that issued threat?

HALL: Yes, Fred. I think this is what Vladimir Putin is most concerned about in this attack. He's certainly not really concerned about, you know, the loss of -- the loss of Russian life. You know, if that were the case, he wouldn't be sending tens of thousands -- hundreds of thousands of young Russian men to die for no good reason on Ukrainian front line. So, that's not his main concern.

His main concern is that he's got a deal with the Russian people. And the deal goes something like this. Russian society is prepared to say, look, we don't need all of the -- all of these freedoms that they have in the West.

You know, these things that you guys call elections, they are not really elections in Russia, but that's fine. We're not going to speak out too strongly against that, and in return for a limiting of those civil liberties that we're used to in the West. Putin is supposed to provide security.

So, when he fails to do that, as he clearly did in this case, and it's made worse by the fact that he knew about it beforehand, from intelligence, that could cause the Russian people to say a whole lot of second, how come we're being repressed when we try to protest? How come people like Navalny are dying, and all these resources are going to control these sort of so-called opposition forces, and we can't even go to a concert without getting slaughtered?

That gets into that -- it starts to erode that agreement between Putin and Russian society. And that's what I think he's got to be very worried about right now.

WHITFIELD: All very powerful. All right. Steve Hall, John Miller, good to see both. Thanks so much.

And following her impassioned announcement, support is pouring in from around the world for Catherine, Princess of Wales. Yesterday, she revealed that she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. She made the announcement in a somber, but powerful video post. Take a look.

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KATE MIDDLETON, PRINCESS OF WALES: We hope that you'll understand that as a family, we now need some time, space, and privacy while I complete my treatment. My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy. And I look forward to being back when I am able. But for now, I must focus on making a full recovery.

At this time, I'm also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And intrigue about out Kate spiked after so many months of not being in public view until a doctored photograph appeared.

[12:10:07]

A royal source tells CNN that she started preventive chemotherapy in late February. CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster is joining me from outside Buckingham Palace. So, Max, what has it been like outside Buckingham Palace since the princess's announcement?

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think they're decompressing. Obviously, the princess has been decompressing for some time. I think the British public are now decompressing this idea. There's young, vibrant, you know, picture of health of a princess has succumbed to cancer.

I think that's been a real surprise. And it was the one rumor pretty much that didn't circulate online over the last few weeks.

So, I think people have been making sense of it overnight. And now, you know, that big conversation online is finally dying down because they know what the reason was for her disappearing as it were, but also a huge amount of sympathy, because in that video, she explained very powerfully why she had waited until now, to share her diagnosis simply to make sense of it to get on with a treatment, to recover from what we now know is not a major surgery.

But primarily, the children were breaking up from school yesterday going into the holiday and she wanted to wait until they left school. So, the kids weren't surrounded by all that news coverage whilst they were at school, which inevitably would have been a huge conversation at school.

So, I think it all makes sense to people now the conspiracy theories are dying down, thankfully. And a lot of conversation about how much privacy they should be afforded.

All right, Max Foster, outside Buckingham Palace. We'll check in with you again soon. Thanks so much.

All right, still to come. A U.S. government shutdown averted. The U.S. Senate passes a government funding package very -- in the very early morning hours. What's inside the bill? That's next.

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[12:16:41]

All right. U.S. senators on Capitol Hill worked well into the early morning hours to pass a spending bill to avoid a potentially catastrophic U.S. government shutdown.

CNN's Annie Grayer has the details on the bill and how the vote came together.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, Fred, there is a sigh of relief on Capitol Hill, because lawmakers finally have averted a government shutdown.

The Senate was working late into the night to pass this bill. And they finally did it at 2:00 a.m. It now heads to the president's desk where he's expected to sign it. So, we're not expecting to see any lapse in federal funding.

This bill funded the remaining government agencies. So, that includes the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services, among others.

So, now, that the government is funded through this fiscal year, we can just take a step back and realize how chaotic and tumultuous this was. We always knew it was going to be challenging to fund the government in a divided Congress. But this really was next level.

Republicans have such a small majority in the House and Democrats control the Senate. And what made this really challenging was Republicans tried to put a number of partisan policies into these appropriations bills, which set up a stalemate and long painstaking negotiations with the Senate.

So, we saw lawmakers passing this short-term extension is usually, right up until the 11th hour, until we got to this point.

I mean, think about it. Kevin McCarthy essentially lost his job for his handling of this back in October, when Republicans ousted him as Speaker.

House Speaker Mike Johnson now is facing a threat from Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene over his handling of the appropriations process.

We'll have to see how that plays out. But now that lawmakers have funded the government through the end of this fiscal year, they have time to reflect before they have to do it all again soon, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Annie Grayer. Thank you so much.

All right. Let's talk more about all of this that last minute vote. With me now, Kadia Goba, she is a political reporter for Semafor. I'm also joined by Stef Kight, a political reporter for Axios. Great to see you both ladies.

STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Good to see you. Thanks for having me. WHITFIELD: Great. Stef, let's begin with you.

House Speaker Mike Johnson avoiding another shutdown, with the help of Democrats, once again. So, who is claiming victory today?

KIGHT: I mean, this has certainly been a long road. And, of course, Johnson was able to get these final spending bills pass. But it's important to note that this came at the cost of, you know, more than half of the Republican conference in the House not voting in support of this package, which of course, is going to put Johnson in political trouble here.

And as we've noted, this is also the exact same situation that Kevin McCarthy found himself in, which ultimately led to his ousters. Well, there is definitely trouble there, for sure. And then, in the Senate, which was, you know, up until 2:00 a.m. this morning, trying to pass these packages, we see both sides, kind of pointing the finger over why it took so long to get there.

WHITFIELD: I mean, Kadia, here we go again, right? I mean, this deadline, votes are becoming a recurring nightmare for everyone, but especially for lawmakers. I mean, this is the fifth time since September that Congress has had to scramble at the last minute to avoid a government shutdown.

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They'll have to do it all over again come September, a month or two, you know, before the election.

So, what does it say about the dysfunction of Congress? And how might this kind of chaos or real regularity, so to speak, impact the 2024 election?

KADIA GOBA, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Well, it's a great question. I think it says a lot. I mean, you have Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, you know, filing a motion to remove the Speaker from the house amid all of this.

I mean, there was already some concern about whether or not the House could pass the -- or avert a shutdown by passing the legislation or the bills. Well, if they did with more Democrats than Republicans, but even then, so, you have firebrand, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you know, putting forth a legend --

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WHITFIELD: Threatening.

GOBA: Putting forth filing a resolution to remove the Speaker. And her -- she, herself is calling it just like intolerable, and saying that, you know, the House is in chaos, putting all of this on her own Republican Party.

WHITFIELD: I mean, and Stef, the Republican majority -- I mean, it's in trouble, right? I mean, it continues to shrink. Yesterday was, you know, GOP Congressman Ken Buck's last day in Congress, after he decided to retire and leave office early.

And then, Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher just announced that he will resign next month. And when Gallagher leaves, Republicans will really only be able to afford to lose one vote, with full attendance without Democrats support. So, you know, how might these departures impact the GOP agenda overall in Congress?

KIGHT: I mean, it's really been one thing after another since Republicans took back control of the House. And, you know, yesterday was a particularly low point for the party, and for the conference. With you -- as you point out, it was Ken Buck's last day on his way out. He decides to join a petition trying to force a vote on Ukraine aid, despite you know, Speaker Johnson's unwillingness to vote on the issue. Of course, the news of Mike Gallagher, also stepping away down to just one seat majority for Republicans right now.

And we've already seen how leadership continues to struggle to get the support for some of the biggest issues such as government funding. There are going to be more fights in the future. Of course, we're going to restart this whole government funding conversation again in September.

This is going to make things very difficult to get anything done between now and November. And, of course, we're in the middle of a heated election cycle, which means that everyone is going to be even less willing to really stick their necks out politically on any of these issues.

So, it has been chaos from day one, since Republicans took control of the House. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

WHITFIELD: And Kadia, let's see now, a bit more of that moment. You talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene and her, you know, her threat, you know, getting the wheels in motion, that really puts Speaker Johnson in another tough position.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I filed the motion to vacate today. But it's more of a warning and a pink slip.

This was our leverage. This is our chance to secure the border. And he didn't do it. And now this funding bill passed without the majority of the majority.

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WHITFIELD: So, Kadia, what do you think she is up to? I mean, is this just, you know, posturing or does -- I mean, is she really saying and can, you know, deliver on this is a pink slip that he really might be in trouble?

GOBA: Yes. She told reporters yesterday that this was more of a warning than a pink slip. And she didn't want to throw the House into chaos like they did in October, when the same procedure resulted in the ousting of Speaker McCarthy.

But it's not really clear how much she's support she has. When I talked to members on the Hill yesterday -- I'm talking about people like Tim Burchett, who actually voted to remove McCarthy. He said, well, you know what, we have a tight majority. I don't want there to be a Democratic Speaker.

There are also other people who just said that there is -- there is just no time for this. We're nearing an election and to put Congress through this, again, would be just indicative and not a really good talking point for members who are trying for Republican members, who are trying to convince their constituents that they deserve to have the House once again in the -- in the coming year.

WHITFIELD: All right. More theatrics. Straight ahead, likely. Kadia Goba, Stef Kight, good to see you both ladies. Thank you.

[12:24:45]

All right. Coming up, racing to secure a half billion dollars. Former President Donald Trump has two days to find the money to post bond, while appealing his civil fraud case in New York.

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WHITFIELD: All right. The clock is ticking. Former President Donald Trump has just two more days to come up with a massive bond in New York. He owes more than $460 million, following a judgement in his civil fraud trial. But Trump's lawyers have made it clear in detailed court filings that Trump doesn't have the cash.

Joining us right now, attorney Mitchell Epner. He is a litigator in New York, who focuses on commercial and white-collar issues. Mitchell, great to see you. So, Bloomberg reported a while back that Trump has $500 million in cash, but he'll really need about what? $557 million. Trump has other loans, which require him to have tens of millions in cash on hand.

[12:30:03]

So, what happens if he can't deliver this half billion dollars on Monday?

MITCHELL EPNER, ATTORNEY, ROTTENBERG LIPMAN RICH, P.C.: So if he can't deliver the security, and the court doesn't give him dispensation from having to deliver the security, then starting on Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James can start trying to execute against his property, which would be broken down into three categories. One would be cash and cash equivalents and things like bank accounts and securities accounts. Two would be personal property, which is everything from clothing, to furniture, to cars to planes. And then third would be real estate.

And on that spectrum, the cash can get grabbed the most quickly, personal property will take a little bit longer. And the real estate takes the longest period of time, but that process will start on Tuesday. And once that starts, he really can't do anything in order to stop it from happening.

WHITFIELD: So the Attorney General Letitia James, while she's entered the judgments in Westchester County, where indeed he has at least two properties that we know of right, and you talk about the sequence, you know, it would be bank accounts, then personal property, real estate, and when you're talking about this kind of money, it would seem with a real estate is going to get you that amount of money a little bit sooner.

I mean, he's got that golf property. You know, in Westchester, that Seven Springs estate, if that's where she's already made her filings. How long would it be before you would see lien notices on that property, if Tuesday is when bank accounts would be seized, et cetera?

EPNER: So the notices, the start of the process, I think will happen very quickly, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and that will be both Westchester and in New York City where he has, for example, 40 Wall Street, his small remaining ownership interest in Trump Tower, his small ownership interest in Trump International Hotel in Columbus Circle where CNN headquarters used to be. Those sorts of things will happen very quickly. But getting to the end of the process on real estate takes months or years, whereas getting to the end of the process on bank accounts would take days, maybe weeks.

WHITFIELD: And just to clarify, while CNN, yes, used to be headquartered in Columbus Circle, it wasn't in the Trump building, the Trump building was across the street, just to be clear.

EPNER: Yes. I'm sorry. I did not --

WHITFIELD: That's OK. That's OK. So, Trump's lawyers say, you know, more than 30 underwriters, you know, refuse to post the bond. But Trump seems to have undermined his argument that he can't pay posting on Truth Social, in fact that he currently has $500 million in cash. So if that's true, do you see that there's no in which, no way in which he could hide that kind of cash, it would be in stateside banks where there would be access to Letitia James or her people?

EPNER: So the problem he has is New York has very exacting post judgment discovery. Within the week, he will have questions in front of him. And probably within two weeks, he will have to sit for a deposition to explain where all of this cash is. And if he fails to answer or if he answers untruthfully, he could be held in contempt of court. And that could lead to truly horrific consequences for him. I'm not saying it would happen, but the consequences could be literally devastating for him.

WHITFIELD: You know, he wants to be back in the White House. If all of -- if he doesn't, you know, produce the $500 million. And if indeed properties are seized, and Election Day rolls around, he finds his way back in the White House, what happens to the process of collecting on this penalty?

EPNER: So if he becomes president again on January 20th, I would not be surprised if he tried to interject the Department of Justice to stop this process. That's never happened before. So I don't have a good answer for whether or not the Department of Justice would be able to do anything. But former President Trump has demonstrated that he will use all of the levers of power available to him to serve his personal interest.

WHITFIELD: All right, all fascinating. Mitchell Epner, thank you so much.

EPNER: Thank you for having me.

[12:34:56]

WHITFIELD: All right, when we come back, more on the Princess of Wales announcing she has cancer and how the monarchy is handling her stepping back from her duties. We'll go live outside Buckingham Palace, next.

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WHITFIELD: All right turning to Kensington Palace were messages of support are pouring in after Princess Kate's cancer diagnosis. President Biden saying in part, Jill and I join millions around the world and praying for your full recovery. The Princess of Wales revealed in a video message that she is in the early stages of chemotherapy. I'd like to bring in CNN's Max Foster. Max there outside Buckingham Palace. And like any Saturday, you've got a lot of tourists and people there. And I wonder how people have been reacting to this news?

[12:40:21]

FOSTER: Well, they're all decompressing, I think. I mean, obviously, the princess has got an awful lot more to decompress, and her family. But no one saw this coming, this announcement, particularly in the way it was delivered. I'm going to bring in one of our regular royal watchers, Bidisha, because it has been a fascinating, quite traumatic, and shocking 24 hours, hasn't it? I mean, it's not even 24 hours since we saw this video. I mean, how would you describe the atmosphere in the U.K. now and the change in tone online? And you know, what I'm hearing, as you know, calls for privacy amongst everyone now.

BIDISHA MAMATA, ROYAL WATCHER: I think that that's exactly right. There was absolutely lured speculation between January and just a few days ago, greeted with Princess Kate Middleton's extremely dignified, self-control, very professional, very candid and direct video message. I sincerely hope it wasn't produced under duress, from all of the gossip that was stirring around. And I think your analysis is exactly right. There has been a sense of seriousness, immediacy, shock amongst people, messages from all over the world from world leaders saying exactly what I hope she wants to hear, which is, we have heard this message, we have enormous empathy and sympathy.

We will now turn down that pressure gauge of gossip because of course, the royals are not just the royals, they are, as she says herself, a family. And she's thinking not just of her career or her public role, not at all. She's thinking of her three children and her role within her family. FOSTER: Interesting seeing the front of the tabloids as well today, as they were published here in the U.K., all very on message with the palace. And this comes after quite a troubled period. You have to admit after that doctored photo was released by the palace and a lot of trust was lost. Do you think the Princess has managed to rebuild trust with the media and broadly with the public as well now that they fully understand why she disappeared as it was called on social media?

MAMATA: Yes, I think that that has been immediate. I hope that the sense of shame, the sense of apologies, I'm actually welcoming all of those people, including celebrities who were posting very jokingly just a week ago. Now saying, I'm sorry, I recognize that actually what has happened is that a grown adult woman wanted privacy because of a medical issue. She has now made a statement. We recognize that this is very serious.

The time for this sort of laughing, joking, gossip is now over. And I've actually been quite happy to see the immediate change in public perception and public opinion. I think people don't want the past to repeat itself. This sort of fervent gossip that comes about, yes, OK, everyone had their fun. Let's now stop that and recognize that this is about cancer. This is something we all think about, because the statistics of this kind of thing. They are so common, it could happen to any of us.

And of course, you immediately think how would I handle it? How would I break the news to friends and family, even without all of the pressure that comes from being one of the most scrutinized women in the world?

FOSTER: OK, Bidisha, thank you so much. Also Fredricka, I think, you know, that is the tone I'm getting from here. I think they are going to be afforded this privacy certainly for a while now that everyone really understands this, but there is a bigger question that will be investigated, I think going forward. And that's the pressure now on the royal family and the British monarchy. Two out of three of the most senior royals out of action, the other two supporting spouses who need support and are unwell. So it's going to be interesting to see how the Queen and William are going to have to step forward whilst having a huge amount going on back at home.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I mean, I think collectively, all of our hearts were very heavy after listening to her and watching her video. Max Foster, we'll check back with you. Thank you so much.

So in light of Kate's recent diagnosis, she and William, you know, will be stepping away understandably from royal duties to focus on her treatment. And she said so, and that we do not know what type of cancer she was diagnosed with. Kensington Palace announced in mid- January that the Princess was recovering from planned abdominal surgery. And in the princess's video she said that cancer was revealed after surgery.

[12:45:04]

I'm joined now by Dr. Sujatha Reddy, obstetrician, gynecologist and women's health specialist. Dr. Reddy, great to see you. I mean, she said some interesting things in that video, including having pre- cancerous chemotherapy. What is that?

DR. SUJATHA REDDY, OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST: So she called it preventative chemotherapy.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

REDDY: And the idea was probably to prevent whatever cancer is there from spreading would be what we would consider preventative. So I don't know if she used it that way or if it was more a therapeutic, sometimes even if it's an early cancer, in case there are cells that have escaped, you do chemo to try to, you know, get rid of whatever cancer may still be there. So, you know, either way, it is really standard for multiple cancers after a surgical procedure to undergo chemotherapy.

WHITFIELD: OK. And so and there are variations of chemotherapy, right? I mean, there's even an oral version, versus say, a port or something like that.

REDDY: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Help me understand that.

REDDY: We've come a long way with chemotherapy.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

REDDY: One of the best ones we have now. And people may be familiar with it, because of Jimmy Carter's cancer diagnosis. It kept him alive for and keep continuing to keep them alive. He was on a monoclonal antibody. And those are very tailored types of chemo. So the traditional ones, like you're mentioning with an IV port are still around and still very effective. So we've come a long way, though, side effects are better tolerated, because we have medications and treatments, you know, women don't lose their hair as much because we have these caps that can help them.

So we have come a long way. But I think it's very, you know, it's very informative to us that she's sharing with us what she's going through. And chemotherapy is part of it.

WHITFIELD: It really is. I mean, she shared a lot, then there were things that she didn't. And understandably, I mean, she wants, you know, her privacy protected. But I think human nature, is there still a lot of questions about abdominal surgery. That could be a lot of stuff. There's a lot of soft tissue in there, right? You've got stomach, you've got liver, you've got pancreas, you've got reproductive health, any -- and all of those areas could be impacted, I guess the target of abdominal surgery and thereby a discovery of cancer.

REDDY: Correct. So it sounds like she had something going on. They went in, did the surgery, whatever it was, remove whatever part of an organ or whatever was wrong. And when we do surgery, I do this, we take the tissue, we send it to pathology. They will then look under the microscope and diagnose what's going on. And this happens where it was a bit of a surprise clearly that they thought it was non-cancerous and it turned out to be cancerous.

So it then changes what happens going forward, obviously. So had it been benign, process tumors, she probably would obviously need chemo. And this was turned out to be a cancer and sometimes we do miss it. There are also tumors that can be borderline where they cannot be a cancer but then turn into one or be one that you're worried about that maybe if you left it in longer, it could have become a malignancy. So she could be dealing with something like that. Could be ovarian, uterine, could be colon.

But I think what's another thing that's important I think her coming out helps us with this. We've seen a lot more cancer in younger people.

WHITFIELD: Right.

REDDY: What I mean by that is under 50. And she's 42. So I think it's a good time to remind people, what can you do? Go to your health care provider, get those cancer screenings, know your family history, because that's something that can really impact getting cancer at a younger age. I think living a healthy lifestyle. Definitely don't smoke, exercise, be active and eat a healthy diet can all help us try to figure out, you know, ways to reduce cancer risk. But also those are things I think young people need to focus on because we are seeing more cancer in people below 50.

WHITFIELD: Right. And that is something that was just recently announced by the American Cancer Society and others have just, you know, it's no longer over 40 over 50, you know, audiences who need to be thinking about getting screenings, but you got to start early and pay attention. Dr. Sujatha Reddy, always great to see you. Thanks so much.

[12:48:53]

All right, straight ahead. More than 70 million Americans are facing severe weather today we'll show you where.

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WHITFIELD: All right, more than 20 million Americans are under winter weather alert for the first week of spring. Two back to back storms will bring a more snow to some parts of the Midwest than they'll have had all winter long. Something is wrong with this picture. CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa is tracking these storms for us. So we're calling them winter storms. But they really are crazy spring storms that feel like winter.

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And what's incredible is over the winter months, December, January, February, we kind of missed all of this. We could be looking at blizzard conditions and it's March. Here's a look at what actually happened over winter. All the red dots showing all the places where we had the warmest winter on record to date. All of these red states wrapped up their warmest winter on record.

Now these states in the northern plains, the Upper Midwest here could be looking at close to a foot of snow by the end of the week. But look at the current snow depth. Again, there hasn't really been much the last couple of weeks and we've got alerts that are out for the winter alerts as we go through the next couple of days.

So here's a look at a forecast for Minneapolis where they could be looking at 8 to 14 inches through the weekend into Tuesday. But so far all winter, they've only gotten 11 inches of snow. So we could really be getting more in just a couple of days than we did in an entire season.

Here's a look at a storm we have right now that's wrapping up with the rain and snow up in New England. You see winter storm warnings in effect from Maine back down into upstate New York. Now we have another storm right behind it that's going to bring the snow conditions even a little bit of a blizzard warning starting to come up for parts of the upper Midwest. I think we'll see more of that blizzard warning as we go through the next couple of days because by tomorrow, we're really starting to find this snow pumping.

[12:55:17]

It will come with some gusty winds. So that's where it's going to fly around with blizzard conditions from Minneapolis and then into the Dakotas. Also comes with some severe weather down the front into the Central Plains as well where you see that red as well. So we'll have to track this going into Sunday and Monday, the snow side and the severe side. A lot of threats with this storm. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Oh, Bert (ph), don't put away those coats and jackets and scarves just yet, sadly. All right, Elisa, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right, coming up at least 133 people are dead after an attack at a concert venue near Moscow that terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility. We'll have the latest.

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