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Russia Claims Drone Attack on Kremlin, Unverified Videos Purport to Show Attack; Former Biden Executive Assistant Contacted by Special Counsel Overseeing Biden Classified Documents Probe; Today, Suspect Accused of Killing Five Neighbors to Appear Before Judge. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 03, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers from the United States and around the world.

We start with breaking news out of Moscow. Russia making a stunning claim that Ukraine tried to assassinate Russian President Putin with a drone attack on the Kremlin. Ukraine is denying it this morning. Zelenskyy spokesperson calling this a trick, but the accusation alone could now act as Russia's excuse to escalate its brutal war on Ukraine.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new warning from Facebook owner Meta this morning, how they say A.I. could target your cell phone. What you need to know to keep your device safe.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And new this morning, what could be a major move in the classified documents probe involving President Biden. The special counsel has now made contact with Biden's former executive assistant. She just testified before a House committee. It's all coming up right here on CNN News Central.

BERMAN: So, there is breaking news out of Russia this morning, and to be clear, these are claims from Russia. There is new video circulating online that shows what Russia claims is a drone attack on the Kremlin.

Now, CNN has not been able to independently verify this video. Russian state media claimed that two Ukrainian drones were flown toward the Kremlin overnight. Russia says this was some kind of an attack on Vladimir Putin's life, an attempt, I should say.

Ukraine responded saying they had nothing to do with this incident. They added they have no information on the strike on the Kremlin, if it even happened. A spokesperson for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia's allegation of this assassination attempt, they are calling it, quote, a trick.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Eastern Ukraine, Nick Paton Walsh is in Dnipro, in Ukraine, that's toward the south.

Nick Paton Walsh, first to you. You received a detailed response from Ukraine on these Russian claims. What did you hear?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, look, they've been very clear from two separate officials. The first, the spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying they have no information about this particular attack and that they do not act on attack Russian territory, act only to defend Ukraine and to get Russian forces off Ukrainian territory.

Secondly, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is straightforwardly saying obviously they had nothing to do with it and suggesting this may be part of a Russian bid to foment emotions, I'm paraphrasing here, amongst the Russian population, adding too that this attack does nothing to advance Ukraine's military goals and would simply allow Moscow to continue to justify its, I'm paraphrasing here, unjustifiable nightly attacks against civilians in Ukraine.

The information we have, John, is very limited. It is a statement from the Kremlin making remarkable claims that the heads of Russia, Vladimir Putin, was subject to an assassination attempt in the small hours of this morning from two drones. They say that the drones, the fragments from them landed and did not hurt anybody and that Vladimir Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time in which this occurred. But, importantly, that same statement says that they reserve the right to take retaliatory measures.

Now, it's important to put in context what they might be meaning for that. We know Russia is a nuclear power. We have no indication at this point that they have any change in their posture in that regard and they've made nuclear threats repeatedly over the past year. But they are in a difficult military place here in Ukraine at the moment with the counteroffensive by Ukraine that's been planned by NATO, financed by NATO, assisted by NATO, breathing down the neck of Russia's beleaguered military here in the days ahead.

So, the timing of this statement with little to back it up in terms of evidence at this point despite the video you will see shortly or may already be seeing, showing smoke over the Kremlin, something we can't verify ourselves.

The timing of the statement is particularly important. It suggests possibility that Russia is looking to foment emotions amongst his population. It also suggest some degree of Russian weakness, frankly, and that this has even occurred or have been alleged to have occurred over the seats of their government in the very heart of Moscow, its cultural heart, frankly, political heart centuries of Russian history running through that building.

And also, too, it begs the question quite what Russia's response may end up being. Given militarily, they're floundering so badly over the past months, their major goals not achieved and that we are seeing Ukraine potentially beginning this counteroffensive.

Vladimir Putin, who began this voice of choice through his own decisions, a man many said was isolated through the pandemic and receiving poor advice, the target of this attack.

[10:05:05]

And it put a lot of focus on to quite what his response would be and quite whether or not this is something that is being put together by Russia to justify a future act or whether we are actually seeing a devastating lapse of security in the heart of Moscow. John?

BERMAN: Nic Robertson, to you. The speed and the clarity of the Ukrainian denials are notable here. This wasn't us. Frankly, this doesn't help us is a paraphrasing of the statement we're hearing from Ukrainian officials. What do you see going on here, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Russia does seem to be putting forward a narrative that gives it a number of options by escalating whatever happened here to calling it the potential assassination attempt on the president gives them a roadmap, if you will, to run up another false flag operation, to claim something that proves to be in the end patently untrue, that these perhaps weren't Ukrainian drones, had nothing to do with Ukraine, as you Ukraine says, but gives President Putin a path to perpetrate another act of atrocity on Ukrainian civilians. Is that what this is about?

What Ukrainian officials seem to imply is very well aware that in just the couple of days, the 9th of May is the big victory day celebration parades in Red Square right outside the Kremlin, where you see hundreds of military vehicles normally paraded by all of the big generals, all of the president's men are standing there historically, as they do on platforms as a flyby of Russian aircraft. It's a big day. It's a big day coming in. It commemorates the loss of tens of millions of Russians during World War II. It's an important day for President Putin.

And the Ukrainians are saying that ahead of this event that commemorates the death of tens of millions of Russians during the Second World War, Putin is essentially going to have a hard time selling a counter-narrative to that when he is losing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands potentially of troops in what he's still calling a special military operation, not a war inside Ukraine. And the Ukrainians were essentially saying that this can be used by the Kremlin as a diversion to the losses that it's having in Ukraine.

The concern in Ukraine is what will Putin choose to do off the back of this. And the reality is that there is a potential counteroffensive that's building up. And I think the other piece of the puzzle here that the Ukraine will look at, that Ukraine will be distinctly aware of, are the number of strikes that have occurred or attacks that have occurred inside Russia just beyond the borders of Ukraine at Russian supply lines and supply facilities that help fuel the war in Ukraine that have happened this week.

Two attacks on train lines inside Russia leading to Ukraine, 20 carriages destroyed in one attack, and just this morning another fuel depot close to Ukraine's borders that inside Russia blown up unexpectedly. This will be a background narrative Ukrainians don't claim them that this will be something that will sting, sting in the Kremlin. BERMAN: Again, I think it's fascinating that so far, it seems to be that it is the Ukrainians most rattled by this video and these claims today, not necessarily the Russians. Our Nic Robertson and Nick Paton Walsh, please stand by, we'll come back to you in a bit. Thank you so much for your help on this. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Joining me for more on this breaking news is CNN Senior Correspondent Alex Marquardt and our Matthew Chance who has recently left Moscow and is now in London.

I'm going to start with you, Alex. The secretary of state, Tony Blinken, is speaking in just a bit, I think within the hour. What do you expect we'll hear from him? Will he make a statement about what has happened here and the claims Russia is making?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, Secretary Blinken certainly knows that all eyes are on Moscow right now and that people would hope to hear something from him in terms of the explanation. What we are hearing for now, Sara, I have been speaking with a number of Biden administration officials who say they are still very much trying to figure out what happened here.

They're scrambling to figure out exactly what happened. But what I have heard from two different officials is that whatever happened here, they were given no heads-up. So, Washington for now appears to be in the dark.

Sara, the U.S. is keen to help Ukraine fight Russia but inside Ukraine. They don't want to see Ukraine necessarily carrying out provocative attacks like this one would be inside Russia and certainly not in the heart of Russia.

Now, of course, Ukraine has struck Russia in the past, and what I've been told by administration officials is that, of course, Ukraine is being attacked and they have the right to defend themselves. But the U.S. is not enabling or encouraging Ukraine to carry out these attacks, they say.

The longest range rockets that have been given to Ukraine by the U.S. max out at 160 kilometers.

[10:10:01]

They have not been given the longest range rockets that they had been asking for. That is in part because the U.S. does not want to see Ukraine strike inside Russia with those rockets, they do not want to provide any sort of provocation in this conflict or escalate this conflict. The U.S. is very keen to see Ukraine again fighting against Russia inside of Ukraine.

Now, the backdrop of all this, Sara, is that we know, as Nic was just saying, that Ukraine has carried out strikes before. And, in fact, according to one of these leaked documents that just came out obtained by the Washington Post, Ukraine was planning to strike Moscow on the anniversary of the invasion back in February. And in the end, Ukraine did not carry out that strike, according to this document, because Washington managed to persuade Kyiv that this would be too provocative.

So, you can certainly be sure, Sara, that, right now, Washington is calling Kyiv, the White House, the CIA, et cetera, to confirm that Ukraine was not behind this and really to try to get to the bottom of what happened. Sarah?

SIDNER: All right, Alex. Let me now turn to Matthew. Matthew, you talked about just how extraordinary it is, not only that something was able to get into Russia, that it was able to actually hit the Kremlin, this fortified place where you can see the huge red wall that goes around it. Russia is claiming that not one but two drones hit the Kremlin on Tuesday night. And they have said some very strong words, saying this was an attempted assassination and this is a terrorist attack and they will retaliate. Ukraine, in response, saying this is a trick. They had nothing to do with it. How do you see this escalating?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean -- and you're right. These pictures are absolutely incredible to watch, particularly if you've been watching the Kremlin, as I have, for so many years. And it makes it sort of astounding to even contemplate the possibility that Russia staged this, although they may well have, of course. I'm not ruling anything out. But the fact that you see an explosion literally on top of the grand Kremlin palace, the physical, geographical, spiritual, symbolic center of the Russian state, and that's on videotape, basically, the drone seems to have hit the flag pole carrying the Russian flag in the center of the Kremlin.

I mean, that is a remarkably potent image of vulnerability and it's extraordinary to think that the Russians may have sort of put that out themselves as justification for stepping up their campaign in Ukraine. I mean, I'm not even sure that they need a reason to step up their campaign inside Ukraine, never mind having to sort of broadcast images which expose just how sort of -- just what a weakened state the Kremlin is currently in.

And so, yes, extraordinary scenes, these will be viewed -- as you can see, they're being viewed with horror in Ukraine to some extent because people are concerned about what the consequences might be, what retribution there may be for this, but there is also going to be people around Russia who are watching these images absolutely astonished that a war that they were told was a special military operation that wasn't going to touch them, that has nothing to do with them, really, has come right into the center of the Russian capital. And that's going to be a very, very potent message indeed from these images.

SIDNER: A very good point. At one point, you could be arrested for using the word war there inside of Russia. Matthew Chance, thank you so much analysis, as well as Alex Marquardt. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's talk more about this, especially this unverified video. Joining me right now is CNN Military Analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. General, thanks for coming in. What do you see -- first and foremost, what do you see in what would be extraordinary video that so far this video circulating on social media is unverified? LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Well, first of all, Kate, it's a very small UAV, alleged UAV, it could also be artificial intelligence, a mock-up of a UAV attacking a critical building inside the walls of the Kremlin. Having been to that location before, it's fascinating that it hits right at the peak of that dome. That would be the equivalent of some type of attack on the dome of our Capitol.

So, it could spur up quite a bit of anger among the Russian people. It could be a false flag operation, it also could be a Ukrainian strike. And I've calculated listening to your reporters about six different potential courses of actions that led to this, some from internal to Russia, some external. But that's -- if you're talking about a drone strike from Ukraine, that's a 600-kilometer distance from the frontlines of Ukraine to the capital in Moscow.

[10:15:08]

It is very difficult to have a drone flight that long for that small of a drone.

Secondly, it could be a strike from anti-Putin activists or special operators from Ukraine inside of Russia at a closer distance, or it could be a lot of other things. So, we have to be very careful about what we are confirming is our bias on this strike and what the results are.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, as Alex Marquardt was just reporting, U.S. officials are now looking to gather more information. The kind of line that Alex Marquardt has gotten from the U.S. official is that no matter -- whatever happened here, there was no advance notice given on the U.S. side. What are you hearing that, hearing that from a U.S. official?

HERTLING: Yes, I'm hearing the same thing. And that just kind of confirms the fact that not a whole lot of people know what happened, but on the Russian side, the Ukrainian side, the U.S. side. There's only probably a few people that know exactly what was behind this strike.

But it's interesting. You said earlier during the last hour, Kate, as you were kind of talking about the May parade on May the 9th, the Mayday Parade. That just doesn't happen on May the 9th. There have been literally tens of thousands of soldiers practicing for that parade right near where this drone strike hit. So, if it was a Ukrainian strike, I don't know why they would do it in the dark of night and allege it to be an assassination attempt on Putin. To me, that's ludicrous. Putin is not going to be in that building at 3:00 in the morning, likely, and one drone strike, unless it has a missile onboard, is not going to kill him.

So, all of that is part of what Russia terms maskirovka. I'll introduce you that word. It's the word that Russia always attaches to any kind of operation where it's deception. You never know what's going on in Russia. Every story that comes out of Russia has an element of disbelief to it. So, if they're publicizing this in the afternoon on the day after it occurred or the morning after it occurred, then they're probably working their generation machine of misdirection and miscommunication and misinformation in all of these areas.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. It's always great to have you, General. Thank you for having on, reiterating, John, a healthy dose of skepticism around all of this until something is verified one way or the other.

BERMAN: Absolutely. We are monitoring all the incoming developments there.

Also, at least nine people are dead, including nine children after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Serbia. What we know about the gunman.

Former employees of President Biden going under oath about their knowledge of the classified documents found in his private office.

And new unrest in the skies, a man is arrested and banned from future United flights after he apparently attacked an employee and it was all caught on video.

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BOLDUAN: On our radar this morning, a new experimental Alzheimer's drug is one step closer to FDA approval, it appears. The Eli Lilly drug, Donanemab, significantly slowed cognitive decline by 35 percent, according to a large clinical trial. That is the ability when we're talking about the cognitive ability, the ability to think clearly, remember things and do daily activities, of course.

The data is coming from the company did show a risk of brain swelling and bleeding. Three of the more than 1,700 participants in the trial died from side effects.

Also, a judge in Utah has blocked the state's ban on abortion clinics. That law was set to take effect today. It was to prohibit Utah from granting licenses to abortion clinics, and it was also to ban all abortion clinics from operating in the state starting next year. It would allow the law, it would allow hospitals to continue to perform the procedure, however. The judge said the ban singles out abortion clinics and is discriminatory. An appeal to that ruling is expected.

And in San Francisco, a man has been arrested on a United Airlines flight for attacking an airline employee. Watch this.

Everyone was, like, seriously stop.

A witness tells CNN it all started when the suspect's wife was sitting in the wrong seat. A crew member insisted that she move and that is when the suspect now having been identified as Cody Lovins became agitated and then very clearly started throwing punches and was violent. He was taken off the plane, charged with battery. Lovins has now been banned from flying with United Airlines again. John? BERMAN: That is some video.

So, we have new reporting this hour, President Biden's former executive assistant has been contacted by Special Counsel Robert Hur. He is the one who is overseeing the Department of Justice classified documents probe. And we are learning new details after testimony before the House Oversight Committee about the handling of classified documents that were found at President Biden's former private office.

CNN's Sara Murray joins us now with your new reporting on this. So, we are getting some details about that House testimony, Sara. What did you learn?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Our team has gotten our hands on this memo from Democratic staff on the committee that includes portions of Kathy Chung's testimony. And, of course, she is a key witness. She was the person who was packing and unpacking the boxes.

[10:25:02]

And in these portions of transcript, she makes clear that she thought all of the classified documents had been removed from Biden's office when he was vice president as she started packing. She told the committee that there were essentially file folders in a drawer that they then moved to a box.

So, here's what committee investigators are asking her in her testimony. They're saying, at that time when you took the file folders, there were documents in these file folders. And Kathy Chung confirms, yes, that's the case. And then they continue their questioning and they say, did you go through the file folders and the documents at this point? And she says, no.

She makes it pretty clear she did not know there were classified documents. She wasn't looking page by page and she sort of describes that there were policy papers in there, there were condolence letters about Joe Biden's late son, Beau Biden. There were photos. There was a memorabilia. But she said she didn't know when she was packing the boxes or later when she unpacked them at the Penn-Biden center that they included any classified documents.

Now, it's likely federal investigators already know a lot if not all of this information. She spoke to federal investigators as part of their initial review back in January. And since then, her lawyer has been contacted by Special Counsel Robert Hur.

And, again, she is an important person. She is a key witness in what is now this criminal investigation into Joe Biden's retention of classified documents. But what we see from the snippets of her testimony is what she's telling the committee does support Biden's claims that he was surprised when he learned that he still had classified documents in his possession.

We don't have the full transcript. Republicans said they are in the middle of this investigation so they're not going to release the full transcript yet.

BERMAN: All right. Sara Murray for us in Washington, again, new reporting just coming out this hour. Thank you so much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also at this hour, we are tracking multiple manhunts under way across the country. In Florida, let's begin, police are searching for Al Stenson. He's facing charges, including four counts of first- degree murder after authorities say that he shot and killed a woman and three of her children. Police say they're aware of Stenson's whereabouts and they're actively working to take him into custody.

Then in California, students and staff at U.C. Davis, they are on edge, and understandably so right now, as police are still searching for clues related to three stabbing attacks. Two of the victims died, as we've been reporting. Authorities say that the attacks were, quote, particularly violent and brazen and they did say that they see similarities in terms of a pattern in the three stabbings. School officials say for now in-person classes are canceled after 6:00 P.M. in light of this.

Then officials in Mississippi, they're hunting for one remaining suspect who broke out of a county jail. Four inmates initially escaped from the Raymond Detention Center. That was on April 22nd. Officials say two of those inmates have since died, one captured and one remains on the run this morning.

And federal and state law enforcement in Virginia and North Carolina, they're searching for two men who also escaped from jail. One of them was charged with murder for killing a sheriff's deputy. The two escaped from a jail in Farmville, Virginia, this past weekend.

With all of that in mind, at least one high-profile manhunt is now over today. In Texas, police arrested Francisco Oropesa yesterday evening. He's accused of shooting and killing five people last week, including a woman and her nine-year-old son. Officials say Oropesa was found hiding in a home roughly ten miles from the crime scene.

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SHERIFF GREG CAPERS, SAN JACINTO COUNTY, TEXAS: Somebody got a tip and found that tip to be true.

Bottom line is we now have this man in custody. He was caught hiding in a closet underneath some laundry.

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BOLDUAN: And this morning, the sheriff's office has said several other arrests have been made in connection with Oropesa. Ed Lavandera having fresh reporting on that, he is facing five counts of murder and has a bond hearing later today. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Let's discuss all of this with CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. Thank you so much for coming in to talk about all of these things. This is such a disturbing case, five people dead, his neighbors, including a nine- year-old. But the law enforcement got to him in, what, four or five days.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: That's right.

SIDNER: But there's not been one arrest, there are two. Tell us about what happened in that second arrest and what it tells you, I guess, about his partner, wife, I'm not who she is to him.

MILLER: When law enforcement began searching for him, they work in these concentric circles. This is a spontaneous crime, but it was also a spontaneous escape without a plan, without resources. So, first, they focused on family members. Then they focused in the outer circle of friends and associates and then they focus on the public where there is because of the horror over this crime a real motive for anybody who spots him to see something.

[10:30:00]

In Montgomery County, just on the other day, there was a sighting by a highway in a wooded area. There was a giant police response.