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Biden Expected to Announce Reelection Bid Next Week; Suspect in North Carolina Shooting Arrested; Supreme Court Mifepristone Ruling Nears; Russia Bombs Itself. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 21, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY ELDER (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Disgraceful lie that the Democrats put on everything, which is that America is systemically racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: A Tennessee lawmaker now resigning over ethics violations two weeks after helping expel two other lawmakers for protesting against gun violence.

A local TV station confronted Tennessee House Representative Scotty Campbell about sexual harassment allegations involving interns. He resigned the same day. Campbell says he had -- quote -- "consensual adult conversations" outside the workplace.

Thanks for your time. We will see you Monday.

CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Russia mistakenly bombs itself, hitting a city of more than 400,000 people, leaving a massive crater and blowing a car onto a roof.

So just how effective is the Russian war machine? The accidental bombing that is again raising that question.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Deadline day for a case with huge implications for the entire country. A Supreme Court decision could drop at any moment on medication, abortion and the fate of a pill that millions of women have used for more than two decades.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The worst kept secret in Washington, President Biden is set to announce his 2024 campaign next week, with the election a mere 564 days away. That went fast.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL. SANCHEZ: A powerful explosion overnight right in the heart of

Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border, not the work of Ukrainian forces, but a Russian fighter jet, with debris flying through the air.

The Kremlin has acknowledged that one of its own warplanes accidentally dropped the bomb right in the center of a Russian city. Russia says the blast injured two people and caused this massive crater a whopping 65-feet-wide.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Eastern Ukraine.

Nick, what is the Kremlin saying about what happened?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very little, frankly, apart from that this was essentially an accident that is under investigation, according to Russian state media

Obviously, deeply embarrassing, but perhaps less embarrassing than admitting that this sort of explosion may have been caused by Ukrainian armed forces. This was an Su-34 strike jet. It's entirely unclear whether the munition simply fell off the aircraft as it was flying over Belgorod, a city to the northeast of Ukraine, not far from its border, or if there was some other mistaken targeting or firing instance here.

As you say, it caused a significant crater, did a lot of damage to the side of an apartment block, leaving one woman with brain trauma, head injuries and another woman with lacerations that were treated on the scene.

Remarkable, frankly, that it didn't kill more Russian civilians, but also, for those in Ukraine, often the target of indiscriminate, inaccurate, appallingly judged, indiscriminate bombing against civilians, little comfort to see it happen to Russian citizens too.

But we were with some women who've been sheltering in a basement of an apartment block for months when they heard the news over the radio. And, to them, they said it was the best thing they had heard of in a while, but still an appalling sign of Russia's military effectiveness.

SANCHEZ: And, Nick, the NATO secretary-general is in Germany right now meeting with Ukrainian officials.

Jens Stoltenberg saying that Ukraine's future is in NATO, but he didn't give a timeline for that, correct?

WALSH: Yes, absolutely.

And, of course, bear in mind that Ukraine were it to join NATO while it's at war with Russia would automatically presumably trigger Article 5 and, then NATO would be part of that war as well. And so a lengthy timeline likely ahead. Ukraine's military are rapidly equipped here, with NATO equipment still far behind the standards required to join NATO.

But here's the sentiments echoed by the NATO chief. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: All NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a NATO member.

But the main focus now is, of course, on -- on how to ensure that Ukraine prevails.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, it's a very complex task. It requires unanimity across all of NATO members. It was even difficult to get Turkey and Hungary to fully sign on to Sweden and Finland, who aren't at war with Russia right now, to become part of NATO.

But the key point there is not to be distracted from the key task at hand. And that is getting all the munitions that Ukraine needs now, tanks, anti-aircraft, to assist with the forthcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive that many think may be hours, if days away -- back to you.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and Stoltenberg also saying he wants Ukraine's military to be up to NATO's grade of weapons and munitions, et cetera.

Nick Paton Walsh from Ukraine, thank you so much for that report.

[13:05:00]

And, Jim, as we send it over to you, surprising that the Kremlin would even acknowledge that they made this kind of mistake.

SCIUTTO: It is, no question. And it's a big mistake.

Let's take a closer look now with CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Good to have you on, sir.

So, let's take a look at this miss. It looks very close to the Ukrainian border. But, to be frank, this is 25 miles inside Russian territory. And, as you know, a lot of this territory here is actually controlled by Russian forces as well.

So, how surprising is a miss I imagine that was intended for a target somewhere over here?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's quite surprising, Jim.

And the reason it's so surprising is that these aircraft, the Su-34, is designed to go ahead and actually use a stand -- be used as a standoff weapon. So, as a standoff weapon, it can use these missiles to go attack targets very far away.

When this weapon, when this bomb came off, it was probably a weapon that was designed in the old Soviet era and had been modified with GPS and wings. And, as a result of that, those wings probably failed to deploy. And instead of going straightforward, it went down and hit an intersection right in the middle of Belgorod.

SCIUTTO: The U.S. has these this as well. They're called JDAMs. You basically put some wings on there that you can control.

So what you're saying, in effect, it was meant to fire somewhere over here, standoff or over-the-horizon, and instead dropped on Russian territory.

LEIGHTON: That's one possible scenario.

The other scenario is that it was a deliberate act, because it hit right in the intersection of a major street. And that was also kind of unusual, to say the least. And, of course, that's a civilian target. And that's something that should not have happened at all.

SCIUTTO: Here's the other issue here. And this is a bigger picture problem for Russian aircraft.

And that is that Ukrainian air defenses, they're not perfect. We see bombs and missiles dropping all the time. But they have effectively made Ukrainian territory a no-fly zone for Russian aircraft, because the air defenses are significant enough to put those pilots, those Russian pilots, in danger.

Is that a disadvantage the Russian forces that they have to fire from this side of the border, in effect?

LEIGHTON: It is, absolutely, because if they were able to have air supremacy over Ukraine, they could fly anywhere throughout the entire country.

Because they can't do that, because the systems are good enough to prevent a lot of that flying, that they did not achieve air supremacy or air superiority throughout the entire airspace of Ukraine, that means that this particular situation could happen much more frequently. And it also means that the Russians are at a considerable disadvantage in targeting.

They can't target as accurately as they otherwise would be able to.

SCIUTTO: And -- listen, and, as we said, it was a significant mess. That's the size of the crater there.

But it's notable. Remember, early on, the assessments were that Russia would establish superiority or supremacy in the air in the early stages of the war. We're more than a year later, and they haven't been able to do it.

Brianna, again, Ukrainian forces overperforming.

KEILAR: All right.

And here, at any moment, something else that we're watching here. The Supreme Court could issue a decision on the abortion pill. This is not the final call, though, but it could still be a blockbuster ruling.

And that is because even this interim decision today could ban or restrict the way that many women get abortions or even treat miscarriages, including in states where abortion is legal; 11:59 p.m. tonight, that is the court's self-imposed deadline to issue a decision on the next step for this drug mifepristone, the most widely used medication to induce abortion.

And medical abortion, medication abortion is the most common method in the U.S. It accounts for more than half of all the abortions performed here. The justices are going to rule on whether to let lower court rulings stand here, which could mean mifepristone would no longer be able to go through the mail.

To take a deeper dive on what could happen today, I have CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero here with us.

All right, Carrie, let's go through some of the possibilities, because this isn't as simple as yes or no.

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

So this is a really unusual situation, Brianna. Federal courts, to my understanding, have never before ordered the FDA to revoke a drug that it had previously approved so much time longer and, in this case, 23 years from the time that the FDA originally approved it.

So, the Supreme Court tonight could do many different things, or today, up until midnight, could do many different things. They could ask for more time. They could say, we need more time to decide this. And so it might not actually have a substantive opinion today. They could align with what the Fifth Circuit did, which was take the rules back to what they were in 2016, not go all the way back to 2000,but go back a few years and address the mail issue.

And so that would limit the ability to use it. They could go back to the Northern District of Texas judge who wants to take things all the way back. Or it could say, we think the Fifth Circuit went too far. We think the Texas judge went too far. And we're going to let this work its way through the courts, but, in the meantime, the access that people had available to this through providers is going to -- and through the mail is going to continue while this makes its way through the courts.

[13:10:09]

KEILAR: The Texas judge you mentioned is Matthew Kacsmaryk.

He is the one who canceled, his decision if it were to go through, the FDA's 23-year-old approval of the drug. CNN's KFILE actually uncovered two interviews that he gave back in 2014 that he failed to disclose during his confirmation process. Let's listen to this part of one.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JUDGE MATTHEW KACSMARYK, U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS: People who experience a same-sex attraction are not responsible, individually or solely, for the atmosphere of the sexual revolution.

It's a long time coming. It came after no fault divorce. It came after we implemented very permissive policies on contraception.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KEILAR: I don't think it's a good look for this judge that he didn't disclose this, but is there any real fallout from this?

CORDERO: So, I don't think -- I mean, these are comments -- comments that he's making on cultural issues.

I don't think that it is going to affect this particular case at this time, because, at this point, it's with the Supreme Court to decide how this is going to progress and whether or not women are going to have access to this medical care and this provision and this drug in the foreseeable future.

One of the ironic things, Brianna, about the Dobbs decision that occurred last summer that overturned Roe v. Wade is the Supreme Court said, we think this should go to the states, and we think the federal government should stay out of it. And, in this particular situation, it's actually the exact opposite. We have a federal judge who has now inserted himself into this decision-making process.

KEILAR: Yes, in states where abortion is legal, right? This is huge ramifications here.

Carrie, thank you so much for that insight. We appreciate it -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: In court today, the man accused of shooting this 6-year-old girl and her parents after a basketball rolled into his yard; 24-year- old Robert Singletary turned himself to police in Hillsborough County, Florida, more than 500 miles from Gastonia, North Carolina, where these shootings took place.

A short time ago, he waived extradition. So, soon, he's going to be returned to North Carolina.

Let's take you there now with CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who joins us now from Charlotte.

And, Dianne, you spoke with a little girl's mother, and she told you that she was surprised he made it all the way to Florida, but that she's relieved he's now in custody.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris.

In fact, as soon as I heard that Robert Singletary had been arrested in Florida, I reached out to Ashley Hilderbrand, because I had been speaking to her just moments before about how frightened she was that he was still on the loose.

Well, my reach-out was the first that she had heard of the arrest, and she said that she was extremely relieved and needed to gather some information. As soon as she did, she texted me: "I am just so glad and can't believe he made it all the way to Florida."

I talk -- talking to her a little bit afterwards, she talked about the relief that her family felt from this arrest. And that's something that people in the neighborhood had told me before as well, Boris, that they had not been able to get any sleep since the shooting and didn't think they would until the suspect was apprehended.

Now, look, Robert Singletary, the 24-year-old suspect, did appear in a court in Hillsborough County, Florida, this morning. He waived his right to extradition from Florida. The judge did set a date of April 24. So, if he is not extradited by then, if authorities in North Carolina don't transport him back here by then, they will have another hearing to determine the status of that extradition.

He's facing four counts of attempted murder, as well as two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. That's against that 6-year-old girl, Kinsley, and her father, Jamie White. Her father remains in the hospital here in Charlotte, with several very serious injuries to his internal organs, including his liver and his lung, Boris.

His family says they're very concerned about him and the long road ahead that he does have in that recovery.

SANCHEZ: Difficult to make sense of this incident.

Dianne Gallagher from Charlotte, thank you so much -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right, get ready for round two, Biden versus Trump 2024. New details on the president's plans for a reelection campaign.

Later: A Tennessee Republican who voted to expel two black Democrats has now himself suddenly resigned. We're going to tell you why.

Plus: the disturbing notes left by the gunman who opened fire inside a Louisville bank. What they say about his motive.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:52]

KEILAR: Surprise! OK, maybe not really.

But, next week, President Biden is expected to formally launch his 2024 reelection campaign, sources telling CNN his team has circled Tuesday on the calendar, which just happens to be four years to the day after he launched his 2020 run.

CNN's Phil Mattingly is at the White House for us on this.

Phil, why now? PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know,

there's been a lot of debate about timelines, Brianna, as you know quite well.

And I would caveat -- and you know this as well as anybody, having covered the current president when you were down here -- that you can't necessarily know he's going to do what people think he's going to do until he officially does it. And that has been a caution that we have been given from the people who have confirmed that this is definitely the current plan or what they're leaning towards right now.

He will be headed to Camp David later this afternoon. It's going to be a weekend spent really discussing the kind of structure of the campaign, how things would work, before he officially signs off on that Tuesday date.

But I do think it's important where you noted the anniversary here, four years to the day of when he launched his 2019 campaign. You think back to that launch and kind of the whole ethos of that campaign, the battle for the soul of America idea, the really connective thread from the campaign through his first two-plus years in office and where he views there's more work to be done.

[13:20:05]

I think it's been something he's been saying publicly, even as he's waited to announce his official campaign run over the course of the last several months. It's been something that advisers have really played into and will structure the events going forward when they think through the campaign and how it's actually going to work.

That anniversary is not unimportant. Now, this isn't going to be some massive relaunch rally. This will be a campaign-style video with a fund-raising request tied to it. And the president's mostly going to be doing his day job throughout the course of next week, a very busy week on the presidential schedule.

But does -- if he decides to make the announcement, which it looks like that's going to happen, it will certainly launch what everybody has known is coming.

KEILAR: Yes, very different than four years ago, no pandemic. He's now a sitting president. So we will wait to see how this plays out.

Phil Mattingly, live for us at the White House, thank you so much -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss further now with Biden biographer Evan Osnos. He's the author of "Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now."

Evan, as we were listening to Phil, he noted that this isn't a coincidence. April 25 is a significant date for President Biden. Some have characterized the president as being perhaps a little bit sentimental, even superstitious.

EVAN OSNOS, BIDEN BIOGRAPHER: Yes, fair enough.

Look, he's also a person who believes, as he often says, that hope and history rhyme. He has a kind of -- there's a sentimental quality about the way he thinks about his own life. And, look, it didn't work -- it worked out pretty well the first time. I think he's sticking with it.

But, more importantly, I think he also senses right now that he's allowing things to play out on the GOP side. There's a lot of infighting over there. Meanwhile, he is, as he would put it, conducting the business of the presidency.

And he gets to do this, in effect, from the Rose Garden, from the bully pulpit. That's an advantage, in and of itself.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a lot to sort out on the Republican side, including several criminal cases for former President Trump. We will get to that in a moment.

But when Phil was speaking, you turned to me, laughed and said, "That's true," when Phil was talking about how deliberative President Biden is with some of these decisions. Who are the folks that he leans on when he's going through this deliberative process?

OSNOS: Yes, he has a very close circle of advisers who have been with him for a very long time, people like Steve Ricchetti, people like John -- sorry -- people like Mike Donilon, very close to him in the White House. Anita Dunn has been working on a lot of the campaign preparation, Jen O'Malley Dillon, who's been working on this, his deputy chief of staff.

He also, in the end, turns to family. Look, Jill Biden is as core as you get to this as a political enterprise, as a family enterprise, he wasn't going to do this not only if she didn't want to go through another campaign, but also if she didn't think he had the gas in the tank.

So you can be sure she has the last vote in the room.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a great glimpse into that personal dynamic.

We have to talk about age at this point. President Biden...

OSNOS: Everybody is on this time. I mean, voters are, indeed.

SANCHEZ: It's a significant issue, in part because President Biden, when he was running in 2020, especially late in the primary, made the promise that he was a transitory candidate.

Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So we have a graphic to share with our viewers that highlights the ages of Donald Trump and President Biden. And if he were to serve out another term, by 2028, President Biden would be 86 years old. That's not exactly passing the baton to a new generation of leaders.

OSNOS: No, and I think you hear this a lot from voters.

It's probably the single biggest concern they have, the single biggest objection. I got some sense from him during the campaign last time about how he thought about this transitional idea. And what he really meant was, I'm going to stock my administration with people who don't look like me, of a younger generation, a more diverse community.

And you have seen them do that. I mean, it's true also with their appointments to the federal bench. You have seen them with the appointments within the -- within the White House. And so, look, there are people who are saying: You said you were going to run for one term.

He will say: I never quite said that.

(LAUGHTER)

OSNOS: But I did say I'm going to open up the doors to more people.

SANCHEZ: So, I promised you a question about former President Trump.

Do you think this is who President Biden wants to face?

OSNOS: Absolutely.

Look, Joe Biden would tell you he's the only person in America who's beaten Donald Trump for the presidency and then, in effect, in his mind, beat him in the midterm elections in 2022. He looks around and he says: I don't see anybody else who can give you that track record.

This isn't me saying it. This would be President Biden. And it's hard to argue with that. In the end, look, he is not the person -- we know this -- that everybody gets excited about. But he -- they weren't excited about him in 2020 either.

What they do is, they see somebody who has had a few laps around the track, has passed some laws. And, as he says now: We have sort of gotten it done legislatively, but now give me a chance to make it real. Let me actually put these things into action into your lives.

SANCHEZ: And, from his perspective, it's probably easy to, as you said, sit back and watch all the things that are unfolding around Trump unfold.

Evan Osnos, got to leave the conversation there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

[13:25:00] OSNOS: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Jim.

SCIUTTO: We are learning more about one of the reasons a gunman killed five co-workers at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky.

And, later, what led prosecutors to drop charges against Alec Baldwin, new facts on the "Rust" movie set shooting.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Here's a look at this hour's top stories.

A major bomb strike in Russia carried out by Russia.