Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Russian Missile Explodes In Ukraine; Manhunt For Escaped Inmates; White House Ends COVID Emergency. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 09, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ED DAY (R), ROCKLAND COUNTY, NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE: The people coming in this country, regardless of how it's being done, they're the victims right now. And this is just making matters worse.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Executive, we do appreciate your time. Please, keep us posted. Thank you.

DAY: I will do that, John. Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Putin gives a defiant speech in Moscow from a pared down victory day parade. The significance of his one single tank on display on a day that is usually a favorite for Putin to rally public support.

And, we are just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street where pre-market futures are down today. The S&P 500 finished higher Monday after its worst week in nearly two months.

Today, there is a big national backdrop, as you know, as congressional leaders and the president meet over a key issue for the national economy, avoiding a June default.

Two new analysis are backing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's forecast that default could hit as early as June if Congress does not act.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:51]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight the Ukrainian air force says it intercepted 23 of the 25 Russian cruise missiles launched their way. Fifteen targeted the capital of Kyiv. This video you're seeing right here shows the smoke trails from the explosions over the city at dawn. It is the fifth heavy assault on Kyiv this month. And there was a CNN team just 700 yards from where one missile landed in southeast Ukraine.

Watch this.

(VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: That was CNN's Nick Paton Walsh's team. He joins us now from Zaporizhzhia.

Nick, thanks for being here.

I want to show folks also -- show what - what you - what you did -- showed us later was you actually stood in the crater of that blast of what was created and what was left over from that explosion. That's enormous, the kind of destruction. Just a reminder yet again of the destruction that these missiles leave behind.

What are you hearing and learning about the strike, the target and what people there are preparing for now?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I mean, what you're referring to there is a town called Orahiv (ph), which has been mauled, frankly, by Russian air strikes and artillery for I think it's fair to say the last month or so. It is on the front line on the southern front where many expect Ukraine's counteroffensive to put most of its energy.

But what startled us over a number of days there was the sort of indiscriminate nature. I mean, yes, you could possibly think there might be military targets around they could hit. We can't discuss them in detail (INAUDIBLE) reporting restrictions. But often these strikes miss wildly.

And the missile that flew over our heads cost half a million dollars according to some western estimates. So, these are not things to necessarily be trifled with or used liberally. But they are used in great indiscriminate frequency along that particular front line.

So, this is a sign, I think, of Russia beginning to express its rage, its bids to hold Ukraine back. It's unclear how effective that is necessarily going to be. We did see ourselves, black smoke further on the horizon that suggested a key objective for Ukraine, a town called Talkmik (ph), might be being hit quite hard. So, this is all part of the general sense that we may be seeing the opening stages of the counteroffensive getting underway.

Russia continues to launch barrages of drones and missiles nightly, frankly, for the past week across all of Ukraine, startling the volume they're sending. What's more startling, frankly, is the effectiveness so far of Ukrainian air defenses. You mentioned how all 15 cruise missiles targeting the capital were intercepted according to Ukrainian officials and only two got through across the country.

We've seen intermittent awful moments where some of these missiles have got through in Oman, in Kherson, some shelling got through last week as well. But the broader story is that Russia's barrages are not really that effective because of Ukraine's improved air defenses.

A secondary story to all of this now is we begin to see the tension around this counteroffensive building is the extraordinary disunity of Russia's messaging at the moment. We've talked about the victory day parades in Moscow, shrunken smaller. But, at the same time, the mercenary team, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has bene going back and forth as to whether or not he's going to leave the symbolic city of Bakhmut. And, today, saying, in fact, well, he's not getting the shells he needs and so he's not clear what he's necessarily going to do there.

So, real Moscow disunity on display on a day - victory day, they're trying to project unity and strength. A lot wrong in the house of Russia.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, no kidding. Good to see you, Nick. Glad you and your team continue to be safe and smart. Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: Joining us now to discuss is CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

Thank you so much. I love talking to you in the morning because you give such good analysis. I want to ask you first about Russia, which has scaled back its victory day, which wouldn't seem like a big deal except they've had someone, we don't know who, had a drone hit the Kremlin.

[09:40:01]

And then, of course, you have this war going on in the background. They tried to tell their citizens wasn't a war at first. It was even illegal to say the word. So, what does it tell you this display where there's just a single tank on the ground and then you see the young soldiers there as well?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sara, it's great to talk to you, too. And when I woke up to the pictures of the May Day Parade, I was just appalled. I mean it was - it was fascinating to see what little they were doing in a parade that's supposed to capture the imagination and the - and the heritage of the old Soviet Union.

It was - I mean it was just laughable to have one tank with a Soviet flag. They did have other vehicles, but they were old, they were trucks, there weren't any combat equipment in there other than their launchers for some of their ballistic missiles. So, it just gives an indicator of how much trouble Russia is in.

And Nick Paton Walsh's commentary just now about the missiles that are continuing to miss the mark, to go into cities where they're hitting buildings that civilians live in, but not doing any -- having any kind of military effect really is a commentary on a lack of something we in the military call precise targeting.

Artillerymen and missileers work at this very hard to get their rockets on a specific target, and it just seems to me like Russia is firing these arbitrarily at different locations. The very fact that Nick was standing in a hole that was nowhere near any target tells me everything I need to know about how poor the Russians are still conducting this campaign. SIDNER: Yes, and, of course, some would argue that they are purposely

hitting some areas where civilians are.

I do want to mention something that you just talked about, Ukraine's military says it intercepted 23 of 25 Russian cruise missiles. So, again, to your point, they are able to sort of thwart some of the attacks.

I want to go back to the parade and something that we heard from the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary force. First that force threatened to stop fighting, to pull its fighters back because there was not enough ammunition. So, it tells you a little something about where they are. And now the head of that force is criticizing the Kremlin for even having this parade. Here's what he said. He said, Victory Day is the victory of our grandfathers. This is the part that really gets you. We haven't earned that victory one millimeter. Does that really tell you what's happening in Ukraine at this point in time?

HERTLING: You know, Sara, I've been following the drama that's existed between Prigozhin, Shoigu (ph), who's the defense ministry of Russia, Grasamav (ph), who's the equivalent of the chairman of the joint chiefs, and Putin. And this has just been political intrigue inside of the Kremlin that's burst out into the open. The Russians are seeing this.

The world is seeing this. There's this individual who has no military background, that's Prigozhin. He is not a soldier. He knows very little about soldering, just throwing meat at the Ukrainians and killing a lot of Russians and then proclaiming that he's not getting support. It's just amazing to me a lack of professionalism and the fact that Russian generals, who aren't very good by my assessment based on personal conversations and also what I'm watching, are allowing this to happen and that Mr. Putin is using this as a strategy to stoke things inside the Kremlin.

SIDNER: Mark Hertling, always a pleasure to speak with you.

And I just want to mention, we are seeing pictures of Bakhmut there, which has been under siege for many weeks now.

John.

BERMAN: So a manhunt in Philadelphia after a prison escape goes undetected for 18 hours. You will never believe how they got out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:16]

BERMAN: So, this morning, a manhunt I underway in and around Philadelphia after two inmates escaped from a correctional facility. One of them faces multiple homicide charges. Police say 18-year-old Ameen Hurst and 24-year-old Nasir Grant were able to slip through a hole in a fence and they were not discovered missing until a day later.

CNN's Danny Freeman is live in Philadelphia outside this facility.

A hole in the fence? Seriously?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, this doesn't necessarily sound like the "Shawshank Redemption" here, but let me get into what we know at this point because, I'll be honest, John, even still, this story alarmed a lot of Philadelphians and we heard about it first last night. So, like you said, according to police, two prisoners, Nasir Grant, Ameen Hurst, they broke out Sunday night around 8:30 p.m., but the department of prisons here, they said that they did not learn about it until 3:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon.

And we got word from the department of prisons, the head of that department, saying that that means they must have missed at least three head counts. One at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday night, 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. then on Monday morning.

So, back to that hole in the fence. Again, the question of how. Basically, the department of prisons is saying they're still investigating, they're still going through security footage all in the prison behind me. But as far as they can tell right now, they slipped through a hole in the fence of the rec yard. It's one of the spaces that the prisoners here, they do have access to.

So, that's -- as far as we know right now, how this escape happened.

Now, the mayor actually, Mayor Jim Kenney, he was in Harrisburg at the time that this news came down yesterday afternoon. He drove back from Harrisburg to do a press conference and 7:30 last night, visibly frustrate. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JIM KENNEY (D), PHILADELPHIA: Clearly the system screwed up. And people didn't do what they're supposed to do. It's very - it's clear.

[09:50:00]

I'm really angry about it. There's no reason for this. And if everybody followed through and do what they're supposed to do, we wouldn't have this problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: So, again, Philadelphia officials are saying, these men are dangerous. Hurst, he said, charged with four homicides, Grant charged with narcotics violations as well. They're on the lookout. The U.S. Marshals are look out. And also, I should note, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, they're going to be coming into Philadelphia to assess the prisons for any weaknesses and vulnerabilities that may still exist.

John.

BERMAN: You know, Danny Freeman, what a stunning report. They missed three head counts if they got out apparently when they did. Thank you so much for that.

Sara.

SIDNER: The federal government's Covid-19 public health emergency will come to an end in just two days. We'll talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about what happens next and whether doctors think the emergency is truly over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: More than three years after the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world, we are just two days away from the White House ending the national and public health emergencies here in the United States.

[09:55:04]

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has guided us through the ups and downs, masks and tests and vaccines from the very beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There are criteria that are somewhat defined to call something a pandemic. And let me just preface by saying, you know, this terminology that we're going to start using now isn't so much to cause panic but rather to really cause a focus on preparedness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Dr. Gupta, I remember you calling this a pandemic before it was officially announced because you saw what was happening. You've got a new essay out on cnn.com about the end of this pandemic officially. But what does this really mean and are doctors who were in hospitals, do they feel like the emergency is over?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think - I think it depends. You know, there are certainly people who are still very venerable. I think for a lot of people, this is going to feel a bit arbitrary and abrupt, and for others it's going to feel like, hey, I didn't even realize we were still calling this a pandemic. They sort of had turned out months if not a year ago.

Let me just show you quickly, Sara, you know, if you look at the number of cases overall, you - this is sort of -- sort of look at the history of the pandemic, if the country were my patient, I would sort of say, here is the chart. And you can see, there have been times when the patient was really quite sick in the ICU, needing critical care, but there's still about 77,000 cases per week of Covid.

When it comes to hospitalizations, again, there have been some ups and downs. About 1,200 people in the hospital right now. And then when it comes to deaths, still about 1,100 people per week.

What I would say is this, Sara, to your question. If you do the math and you say, look, the numbers are going to stay sort of plateaued now, we're calling it the end and they're going to plateau here, that would equating to about 54,000 to 55,000 people dying a year. That's similar to a bad flu season. And we could do a lot better in terms of bringing those numbers further down before declaring the end, but I think the collective will seems to have, you know, sort of dissipated here in terms of manning this.

We're treating this like a bad flu season, essentially. And I think that's how doctors think about it as well. Some say, hey, look, if you're healthy, you're not likely to get very sick from this and die. But if you are someone who is elderly or has pre-existing conditions, there's still a concern.

Let me just show you quickly. I mean, you know, we talked about the elderly being at high risk, but people who have these pre-existing conditions put you at high risk as well. Everything from kidney disease to obesity can significantly increase the risk. If you have immunity, if you have access to antivirals, like Paxlovid, there's no reason at this point to get very sick or die. And I think that that is sort of he bottom line from the medical community.

SIDNER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always nice to have you. And you did predicted we'd have to live with this, and that's exactly what happened. Appreciate it.

John.

GUPTA: You got it.

BERMAN: A group of FDA advisers is considering whether to approve an over-the-counter birth control pill. Why some scientists say this is a bad idea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)