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At Least 22 Killed In Russian Missile Attacks Across Ukraine; Flood Warnings Across Midwest As Mississippi River Swells; Fed Autopsy On Silicon Valley Bank Details Grave Mismanagement. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 28, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:51]

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL ANCHOR: Major destruction in Ukraine this morning after Russia fires a wave of missiles on targets across that country. At least 22 people have been killed. Dozens more are injured after several apartment buildings were hit. CNN's team has made it inside one of those bombed out buildings. We will take you there live.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL ANCHOR: Incredible video out of Florida, a huge tornado wiped out dozens of homes overnight. Now some 50 million people across the southeast are bracing for more severe weather as two major storms target that region.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL ANCHOR: A big win for abortion rights in two Republican dominated states bills restricting abortions failing and failing because a handful of conservatives helped block them were following these major stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: The death toll just keeps rising this morning hours after a Russian cruise missiles struck innocent civilians in this apartment building in central Ukraine. At least 20 people now have been killed. One woman who lives in that apartment documented the aftermath. A Ukrainian official share that video online. We're going to share it with you. But we want to warn you it is graphic and will be disturbing to watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I never thought this would happen. A rocket hit or building. We're all covered in blood. I don't know. Our windows were blown out. This is the room where children were sleeping. It's good, we're all alive. We're just all covered in blood. God we don't have windows nothing. I was so afraid.

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SIDNER: This is the reality of war, the attack part of a wave of strikes on multiple cities across Ukraine. In the Dnipro Russian attack killed a mother and her two-year-old child and sparked this raging fire. CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from inside a building that has been struck. Nic, can you give us a look at what exactly it looks like where you are, I mean, it looks dire.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Sara, look, you know, it's hard to explain the amount of destruction that we've been witnessing today and the number of bodies that have been pulled out from the rubble. But you can see it starkly here. David, if you just pan over to the side a little bit, you're seeing daylight, you're seeing the other apartment buildings through there. That was the rest of the building. That space should not be a space. We are right at the top above the ninth floor in the crawlspace above these apartments, and they literally pancake down and collapse.

You're looking at half an apartment building here. That edge wasn't an edge. That was where, that was the ceiling to the apartments that have collapsed below. And this is where the rescue recovery mission is going to switch in the coming hours. Once the firefighters get done going through the rubble on the first floor of the building, they're going to come up here. They're going to use these ropes that they've laid out here. And there'll be going over the edge onto that pancake concrete we were looking at earlier from down at ground level, which is the remainder of several apartments.

And from what we understand from at least one witness here, she believes that her friends two daughters a 13-year-old and seven-year- old are still down there. They -- she told us that the family were on the eighth floor that the mother survived, the father's in hospital but the two daughters they don't know where they are. So when the recovery rescue effort gets up here, they can start searching for them.

But this attack the number of people killed here, the biggest single civilian loss since January in a single strike this year. The Ukrainians say they shot down 21 of 23 missiles fired at the country last night. But what we're looking at here is the evidence of what happens when just one gets through. We've talked to residents around here in the neighboring buildings. They're absolutely terrified. They heard the whoosh the missile come in. And one lady told her she put her kids in the bathtub put pillows on their head just hoping that they would live into the morning.

[11:05:07]

Most people in this building of course were fast asleep. It was 5:00 a.m. when the missiles hit, 109 people registered living, well, in that collapse space where the building was.

SIDNER: How horrible. And I just want to thank you Nic Robertson and your crew for taking a risk to go up there because I know it is extremely dangerous. We appreciate your reporting from Uman, Ukraine. Those pictures are just a reminder of how terrible you and I have both been to Ukraine. How terrible this is for everyday people trying to live their lives.

BERMAN: It's horrifying. It's amazing to see Nic in the middle of it all. It's horrifying to think that this is an apartment building with no strategic value, where people just were living there were 46 people apartments inside that building. That was hit. This is again, some of the aftermath right there, 27 of the buildings were destroyed. That's according to the Minister of International Affairs of Ukraine. Kyiv has not been targeted in an airstrike since early March, as most of the fighting persists in eastern most Ukraine.

I want to bring in CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Cedric, again, we're looking at images of the cities now some of the destruction that was done in both Dnipro and Uman, where Nic Robertson was. And I just want to remind people of where the cities are in Ukraine. You see Uman, right here, right in the middle of the country, Dnipro over here very far away from where the frontlines of the fighting are right now. So what is Russia get out of attacking these cities?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Basically, John is terrorized -- terror, terrorizing the civilian population, I mean them, making sure that they can really tell the Ukrainians that no place in Ukraine is safe. And that's really what we're seeing here. This is a war of terror against the civilian population. There is no other way to describe it. And it is, you know, quite frankly, a violation of many of the laws of war that other powers have adhered to over the -- over the last few years.

BERMAN: And again, these are apartment buildings with no strategic value whatsoever. Look, there are Patriot missile batteries being sent into Ukraine. This is what the Patriot missile batteries look like. These are for air defense. Are these the types of things that can protect against assault like this?

LEIGHTON: Yes, potentially, they can. The missile that probably struck the building in Uman was a Kh-101, which is an air launch cruise missiles. So what the Russians did was they brought one of their bombers either a Tu-95, or a Tu-160 in an area that was within range of Uman and launched the missile from an aerial position. So yes, the Patriot could very well destroy the missile as it comes in. It of course, you know, requires a lot of precision to do that, record is the right information or flight radar signature. All of those kinds of things would play into this. But it would certainly help the Ukrainians achieve the kind of protection that they need for their civilian infrastructure.

BERMAN: Cedric, I want to ask about the upcoming perhaps Ukrainian counter offensive. Nick Paton Walsh shoes in Zaporizhzhia, in central Ukraine, has been reporting one of the notions out there, no one knows for sure. But one of the goals of the Ukrainians might be to try to isolate Crimea, Russian occupied Crimea, to cut it off from this contiguous land bridge now has with mainland Russia, if Ukraine was able to push through right there, what would they get out of that?

LEIGHTON: It will be a significant victory for the Ukrainians, John, you know clearly what the would happen here is would be a cut off with Crimea, once again, not only from the Donbas area, but also potentially from Russia itself, the Kerch Bridge, for example, the one that the Ukrainians blew up a few months ago. That is another resupply route for the Russians. And if the Ukrainians are able to interdict that, in other words to prevent that from working, they can then a really isolate Crimea and potentially starboard of supplies, and that, of course, would be a major goal from a military perspective.

BERMAN: We will have to see what the Ukrainians decide to do and when they decide to do. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you as always for your help. Kate?

BOLDUAN: There's a chance of severe weather today for more than 50 million Americans. But yesterday was already bad enough with a round of tornadoes striking the south and flooding of course right now is swamping the Midwest. The path of destruction card in Florida has been pretty stunning and spectacular. The roofs completely ripped off several homes after a tornado hit just west of Tallahassee. You can also see as we see, often after a horrible tornadoes, just trees snapped in half. Some of the greatest risk for severe weather today, it will looks to be in Texas with concerns over large hail. As for the flooding I mentioned CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is live in Davenport, Iowa where the river there just keeps rising. Adrienne, what do you see in there?

[11:10:14]

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, no cars are getting through this area of downtown Davenport. I'm on Main Street walking across the street where cars normally travel. Behind me is river drive. And as you can see, the Mississippi River is flowing along a river drive. Behind me, the park benches are underneath water. This is an area where people come to relax and enjoy the Mississippi River. But right now it's not creating enjoyment for local business owners. We spoke with a woman who's had her business here in downtown Davenport for 14 years. She says as the river rises, so do her anxiety levels. Listen in.

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CLAUDIA ANDERSON, BUSINESS OWNER IN IOWA: It's part of the downtown and Davenport, we flood all the time. And we -- I don't know. They won't put a flood wall up, thinking that everybody wants to look at the river. Well, we're tired of looking at the river. It's enough. We got 22 employees, very hard working a lot. A lot of them have been here since we opened. So it's hard. And I hopefully we don't lose anybody, but you never know.

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BROADDUS: And take a look at this image. It's a sandbag. You will see these in front of businesses across the area. There's a temporary wall in place here. And across the area here in the downtown area throughout the week, people have been helping their neighbors filling up those sandbags trying to take steps to mitigate any damage because they know the river isn't expected to crest until late Sunday night or early Monday morning. And that is according to the National Weather Service. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And Adrienne, as we're seeing you standing in the water, we're also seeing these I think it's probably drone video or sky cam video from some of the local affiliates there in Davenport, Iowa to see, oh, it's -- it is just widespread and of how the river is just over, over its banks just going right into the town. It's so hard to see. You can see the Ferris wheel right there kind of in the middle of it as an island. Adrienne, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: Overnight, bills nearly completely banning abortion failed in two states with Republican led legislatures. And it was conservatives who helped think those bills. In Nebraska tears of joy after the so called Heartbeat Act failed to pass.

You're seeing that video there that bill would have banned most abortions. After approximately six weeks of pregnancy when many women don't know they're actually pregnant. And in South Carolina, the states only five female senators, three of whom are Republican, banding together to filibuster a near total ban on abortion there. CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us now. I think this marks the third time that the South Carolina State Legislature has failed to pass an abortion ban. Give us some more details of how this keeps happening.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're exactly right, Sara. It is the third time and each time it has been led by these five women senators, three are Republicans, one independent, one Democrat. Since the Dobbs ruling, there have been three of these introductions of these near total ban on abortion in South Carolina from the point of conception, with very, very limited exceptions. Now, each time it has been those women who sort of lead the charge here. But there are men, of course, that all of the Democratic men have voted with them as well as three Republican men on Thursday.

But it's those impassioned speeches from those five women leading that filibuster in South Carolina, where, look, they did talk about the fact of the climate right now and how this could politically backfire. But it's also important to note that South Carolina Senate, it's Republican control, they outnumber Democrats two to one there. So it's not just about the political climate. Instead, these women's talked about biology. The senators talked about the idea of legislative priorities, and also the idea of control. Take a listen to how Senator Sandy Senn, a Republican pointed that out.

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SEN. SANDY SENN (R-SC): Because abortion laws have always been each and every one of them about control. It's always about control plain and simple. And in the Senate, the males all have control. We the women have not asked for as the senator from Orangeburg pointed out yesterday nor do we want your protection. We don't need it.

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[11:15:12]

GALLAGHER: Now, these were similar arguments during filibusters that these senators made in September when they killed a bill very similar to this during a special session. But Sara, abortion is not necessarily off the table for the legislative session yet. The Senate did pass a six week abortion ban that would iron out some issues that Supreme Court had with a law they had originally passed, but the house that appears, only wants to take up essentially a band from the point of conception.

SIDNER: And after the Dobbs decision, all the fight went to the States and we're seeing that play out. Diane Gallagher, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: So what caused the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, the Federal Reserve just released the findings from its investigation.

Mike Pence under oath, the former vice president testifies before the grand jury investigating his former boss in the events of January 6th, and Brittney Griner overcome with emotion during her first press conference since she returned to the U.S. after being detained in Russia. Her coach joins us just ahead.

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[11:20:51]

BERMAN: All right, just moments ago, the Federal Reserve released a report on the stunning bank failures that rocked the U.S. economy last month. The internal review was meant to pinpoint what went wrong with Silicon Valley Bank and what led to its collapse. CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now. I'm stuttering here, because you just handed me like literally this entire report. And I'm trying to read through it in 10 seconds. The first line, let me read the first line because this tells a story, Silicon Valley Bank failed because of a textbook case of mismanagement by the bank.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, EARLY START: And that is issue number one, this is a bank that grew very, very quickly and did not grow its compliance. And its basic risk management, along with that growth. And it really got caught up in a really bad way. This was the second largest bank failure in American history here. And had to be taken over by the FDIC and really sparked an awful lot of stress in the whole financial system. So here's what else they say, four key takeaways from the Fed. The Fed, by the way, is the regulator and the supervisor here. So this is a self-critical report.

This is the Fed having to say, look, we did some stuff wrong as well. I mean, the Fed pointing out there were 31 open warnings or complaints that supervisors had flagged about this bank, and they were all still open when this bank failed. The Board of Directors failed to manage the risk of this bank and failed to manage leadership. Supervisors that's, you know, federal banking supervisors didn't explore appreciate the extent of the vulnerabilities and even what they did, they didn't follow up in time.

Also on page 16 of this report, super interesting 15 and 16. It talks about, John, how the climate has changed. We saw how quickly this bank went down, money's moving faster. There are really kind of innovative new kinds of financial products and players in this arena. And social media meant that there was a failure of confidence very quickly spread. And so the Fed regulators need to do a better job and make new tools in some cases to prevent this from happening again.

BERMAN: I guess my question, as I've now just read the entire report, as you were speaking.

ROMANS: Speed reader.

BERMAN: It does seem to suggest that what happened to Silicon Valley Bank was because of Silicon Valley Bank.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: Is there any indication at all they think there was a systemic issue involved?

ROMANS: They go out, the second paragraph, our banking system is sound and resilient with strong capital and liquidity. This is an outlier. They say they use the word outlier, SVB was. We're going to learn later today about Signature Bank, that's a New York bank that used to cater to law firms and then got into the crypto world, that one failed just about the same week. We're going to hear from the FDIC about that bank later today. So we'll find out if that's another outlier and whether how many more outliers there are out there. But overall, you've got a banking system that strong is what the Fed is saying.

And the Fed acknowledging it as Fed Chief Jerome Powell says in here a self-critical drill down of what self-critical because they are the regulator and the supervisor here at the Fed.

BERMAN: But outliers is if there are a lot of them, they aren't actually outliers.

ROMANS: Exactly. So far, we have two outliers in thousands of banks.

BERMAN: All right, Christine, Romans, thank you for the gift and --

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Thank you for the analysis there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Not bitter at all.

BERMAN: I know. Not even a little. Not even a little.

BOLDUAN: As I look down at you from my perch, thank you, friends.

All right, we are learning some more today about what about Mike Pence going before the grand jury. Sources tell CNN that Pence spoke for hours to the federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump's actions around January 6th, the testimony, this testimony from Mike Pence, as you can probably guess and understand, it really is unprecedented. Trump tried four times to block Pence from testifying. Pence even tried fighting it as well. But this is the first time that he spoke under oath about his direct conversations with the President that he served beside. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more on this. Katelyn, you've been working this. You're there when all those started coming out of the breaking news happened yesterday and we're learning a touch more about potentially maybe what Mike Pence spoke about to the grand jury. What are you picking up? It's clearly difficult to get some -- get what -- get out of there, what they're been discussing and that grand jury.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right, Kate. I mean, this grand jury, it's secret. It's a secret proceeding. It's very, very protected and the Pence team hasn't even acknowledged at this point that Mike Pence testified yesterday but we were able to confirm through our sources after he left the building and was done for the day so he testified for more than five hours yesterday. One of his top advisors, Marc Short, who travels with him quite frequently, I just saw him in Washington. They were together earlier this week. He was also someone who testified to the grand jury even previously. Short did an interview on News Nation. Here's what he said.

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[11:25:30]

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO MIKE PENCE: I think that the Vice President, you know, had his own case based on speech or debate clause. He was pleased that for the first time, a judging knowledge that applied to the Vice President of the United States but he was willing to comply with the law and courts have ordered him to testify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So Short there is not really divulging anything at all about what Mike Pence would have spoken about. But our reporting has really traced how this court fight that he refers to evolved. And what we learned through that reporting through that court fight is that Donald Trump wanted to block Mike Pence from speaking about their direct conversations, Trump lost that fight. So that's very likely something that Pence would have gone in and spoken about before the grand jury yesterday.

We know there were several conversations that the two men had. And also we know that judges did believe that Trump may have been acting corruptly in some of those conversations. Pence would have had to talk about those as well. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right great reporting, as always. Katelyn, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: The International Space Station gets a boost during a historic spacewalk that's happening right now. Those are actually live pictures from space NASA astronaut Steve Bowen and UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi are upgrading power channels on the space station. Alneyadi is making history. He is the first Arab astronaut to perform a spacewalk. John?

BOLDUAN: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his Republican allies in the state are taking new steps to keep his travel records and other information private. We're going to go live to Florida for details on how these efforts could gut the state's robust public records laws. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)