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U.S., Canada Launch Probe Into Sub Implosion; 3 San Antonio Officers Charged With Murder; Biden Reaffirms U.S. Support For Ukraine In Calls With Leaders Of U.K., France, Germany; State Dept. Addresses 36-Hour Revolt In Russia. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 26, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:06]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: It is the top priority for the U.S. Coast Guard, combing the sea floor to find debris from the doomed "Titan" submersible that claimed the lives of five people.

Multiple international agencies are now looking into what caused this catastrophic implosion. The Coast Guard's highest level of investigation now involved here. The Marine Board will review voice recordings and data from the sub.

We have CNN's Miguel Marquez following all of this from St. John's, Newfoundland.

Miguel, tell us the very latest on these investigations.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, six investigations or inquiries in all so far. Four different countries, the U.S., Canada, French and the U.K. will all be -- their agencies will all be investigating.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, they may bring criminal charges or start a criminal investigation if the facts of this case warrant it, they say. They will be looking into all of that.

That is the "Polar Prince.". This is the ship that took the "Titan" out to the "Titanic" wreck site.

It was docked across the harbor here in St. John's for most of the weekend where the TSB here in Canada, the Transportation Safety Board, was speaking to the crew, to OceanGate employees and to some of the family members.

Christine Dawood that was on that ship, she was supposed to be on the "Titan," she gave up her spot for her son. She talked to the BBC about saying good-bye to her husband and son before they boarded the "Titan."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE DAWOOD, LOST HUSBAND & SON IN SUBMERSIBLE IMPLOSION: We just hugged and joked, actually, because Shahzada was so excited to go down. He was like a little child.

UNIDENTIFIED BBC CORRESPONDENT: A lifelong dream of his to do it?

DAWOOD: Yes, absolutely. He had this ability of childlike excitement. So they both were so excited. It was supposed to be Shahzada and I going down and then I stepped back and gave the space to Sulaiman because he really wanted to go.

MARQUEZ: So in all, there were 11 surface ships, four planes and several submersibles searching an area of about 13,000 square miles in that very distant area of the Atlantic from where we are. This is the closest land to it, 460 miles away.

The cost of this in the millions. We don't really -- none of the agencies can give us a sense -- a fair sense of the costs yet.

But the U.S. Coast Guard says likely, like they do in all emergencies, it will be them and us, the taxpayers, picking up the tab.

Back to you.

KEILAR: Miguel, what about the transparency issue that is dogging this process? The authorities did actually know, for instance, the biggest thing, which was a sound consistent with an implosion long before they ever let the public know that.

MARQUEZ: I think that will be part of all of this because that came from the Defense Department, because there were sensitivities there. It is difficult to say what precisely they knew and why they didn't make that information more evident to investigators or to the public.

But look, investigators and the search and rescue they maintain that they believed -- they didn't have enough information and they believed they might be alive.

It was always a sliver of hope. And they believe that as long as there was that sliver of hope, they would continue to search -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Was that information of that sound only confirmed by what was found on the ocean floor? That is certainly a possibility.

Miguel Marquez, live for us in Newfoundland, thank you.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, three San Antonio police officers have now been charged with murder in the death of a woman in her apartment. Today, the family of 46-year-old Melissa Ann Perez says they are heartbroken and reportedly plan to file a lawsuit against the city as well.

[13:35:03]

Those charges come less than 24 hours after the officers fatally shot Perez as they responded to a police call over her allegedly cutting wires to the fire alarm system at her apartment complex. Body cam footage captures the moment officers opened fire on her.

We do want to warn you, you may want to turn away, the video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

MELISSA ANN PEREZ, SHOT DURING POLICE ENCOUNTER: You ain't got no warrant.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Go.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Watch out.

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Watch out.

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Back up.

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: All those shots. In all, more than a dozen shots are heard on that body cam video. Perez was shot at least twice. She died at the scene.

San Antonio's police chief says she did not pose an imminent threat, was having an apparent mental health crisis, deadly force not reasonable.

John Miller, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, joins me now.

John, given how quickly prosecutors came forward with charges here, within 24 hours, what does that tell you about the circumstances of the shooting?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think what it tells us is that the video told the story.

Which is, when you watch that video as a police professional, what you're asking yourself is, where is the attempt to deescalate the situation? Where is the attempt to slow down the action here?

If anything, it seems that their encounter with -- with Melissa Ann Perez is speeding things up and increasing the intensity.

The real -- the real wild card here is that there's two police officers there who get the call but they are accompanied by a sergeant. And it's really the supervisor's job, Jim, to take control of the thing and say, she's fled into the house, you know, we've displayed weapons, she has said "shoot me." She's clearly mentally imbalanced, let's call in the crisis negotiation team, let's get containment.

But none of that happened. It went to gunfire very quickly. And I think that's why the case has moved so quickly, as we saw in the Memphis, Tennessee, case, with a lot of transparency, releasing the videos very quickly.

SCIUTTO: The family -- the family attorney, I should say, put out a statement saying, quote, "We believe that there are systemic problems in the department that allowed this to happen."

Based on what you know about this case, is there evidence that this was not an isolated incident, that there are systemic issues here?

MILLER: Well, you have shootings in 2014, in 2016 by the San Antonio Police Department that have received a lot of scrutiny, a lot of attention and a lot of controversy.

This one, because it's captured on video and the facts of it are so stark, I think is adding a spotlight there.

Bill McManus, the police chief there, has been a police chief in Dayton. He's been the police chief of Minneapolis. He comes out of Washington, D.C. He's a graduate of the FBI's National Executive Institute. He has been working to reform that department.

And I think if you look at the swift actions of the chief, suspending the officers, firing the officers, working with the prosecutors to get charges there, you are seeing a police department that is going to be in the spotlight and under scrutiny, but it's moving quickly.

SCIUTTO: No question. Here is a picture of the victim there. Certainly a case where there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

John Miller, always good to have you.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A horrifying tragedy at a Texas airport to share with you. A ground worker ingested by a plane's engine. We have the latest on that investigation.

[13:38:53]

And some stunning images out of the Midwest after an outbreak of deadly storms. Today, millions of people are under threat of more severe weather. We're going to show you who is at risk when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

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[13:43:33]

SANCHEZ: Here is a look at some of the other headlines we're following this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Federal and local officials are investigating a horrific death at the San Antonio International Airport. Officials say that an airport worker was ingested into a Delta plane's engine on Friday night killing them.

The plane had just arrived from Los Angeles and was taxying to one of the gates. Delta says they are heartbroken over the death.

Meantime, in Indiana, dramatic video showing a tornado ripping through a town on Sunday. At least one person was killed, some 75 homes were damaged, according to local officials.

The Red Cross right now setting up an emergency shelter for those displaced by the storm.

Severe weather is also wreaking havoc on the airline industry. More than 2,000 flights have either been delayed or canceled today after powerful storms ripped through parts of the United States.

And the White House announcing a major investment to close the digital divide. President Biden and Vice President Harris unveiling a plan this afternoon to provide all Americans with affordable and accessible high-speed Internet.

That plan involves $42 billion in federal funding to deliver reliable broadband to all corners of the United States by 2030. The White House estimates more than eight million households lack Internet service. President Biden calls it an investment to help all Americans.

Brianna?

KEILAR: In the meantime, Boris, the White House has been fairly muted on the Russian revolt. However, President Biden emphasizing today the U.S. and its allies were not involved, contrary to Russian claims.

[13:45:06]

He was on the phone speaking with other world leaders about the rapidly evolving situation.

We have CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House for us.

So, Jeremy, do we know what the president was saying in those conversations? And what are this he doing now that this coup attempt has fizzled out?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as they have been all weekend, White House officials are continuing to monitor the repercussions of this failed coup attempt inside of Russia.

That's because U.S. officials simply don't have the confidence yet that this agreement allegedly brokered by Belarus has entirely diffused the situation.

And we heard President Biden today reaffirming that, saying that it is too early to know yet with any certainty where this is all going.

So in the meantime the president has been focused on coordinating with U.S. allies ensuring, as he has throughout Russia's invasion of Ukraine, that there is a coordinated NATO approach to the conflict and to the unfolding events surrounding it.

And the president also emphasized the fact that, as we heard very little from the White House this weekend, that was strategic, that was intentional, in part, because the U.S. didn't want to give the appearance that they were weighing in or influencing events on the ground.

The president weighed in on that moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And we know that President Biden spoke with the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy yesterday. He said that he may speak with him again later today.

And the other part of this is reaffirming the U.S.'s continued support for Ukraine. We are expecting tomorrow another $500 million aid package for Ukraine coming down the pike -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond, we will be looking for that.

In the meantime, let's head straight to the State Department where they're holding their briefing right now after this attempted coup attempt in Russia.

MATTHEW MILLER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: The United States does not make a position on the leadership of the Russian Federation. We do not take a position on the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Our policies have always been with respect to actions that Russia has taken. We want a Russia that is not invading its neighbors and trying to violate the territorial integrity and sovereignty of its neighbors. We want a Russia that is not conducting malign influence operations across the world.

That has always been our policy with Russia, not the disposition of the Ministry of Defense or any other offices inside the country.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: An on-the-record statement that came out on Saturday was the confidence in command and control of the nuclear forces. And I infer from that that there's military to military communication, as one would expect, between us and the Russians. In contrast, obviously, to a different situation. M. MILLER: I won't speak to any inferences. I will say that I will let

the Pentagon speak to any military to military communications, whether it happened or not.

I will say, however, as the secretary said yesterday, we did not see -- do not see any change in the disposition of Russian nuclear forces and have not changed the disposition of ours.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The secretary did say in some of his interviews that Putin's influence, power, whatever, has really been shaken by this, by the speech, by the whole nexus of what has happened. Can you speak to that?

M. MILLER: Yes, I will say, as I said a moment ago, this certainly was a new moment in -- if you think of the events of the last few years.

As the secretary said, 16 months ago, the Russian Federal and Vladimir Putin envisioned that Russian forces would be taking Kyiv. Instead, over the weekend, we saw Russian forces taking a Russian Ministry of Defense office inside a Russian city.

We saw the entire pretext of this war being questioned openly, something we have done, something our allies and partners have done, something that you have not seen inside the borders of Russia. In fact, you can be thrown in jail for taking that step as an ordinary citizen inside of Russia.

We saw Yevgeny Prigozhin directly questioning not just the Ministry of Defense officials, as he's done for some time, but really directly challenging President Putin's leadership.

Those are all significant steps and a significant change from what we've seen, certainly in the last 16 months, but over a number of years. Where that -- what that means going forward, we don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has Vladimir Putin, as you know him and as this administration knows him, tolerated this kind of insubordination -- whether in the immediate future or long term, would he tolerate this kind of challenge to his authority?

M. MILLER: I would not ever want to speculate on how Vladimir Putin might respond to any events, certainly not an event inside Russia.

(CROSSTALK)

[13:50:03]

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On the diplomatic efforts that were made over the weekend, did Russians respond to those messages from U.S. diplomats, Ambassador Tracy and the others?

M. MILLER: I won't speak to the Russian response. I will just speak to the messages that we delivered to them.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) to characterize I'm asking you to -- (CROSSTALK)

M. MILLER: It was a conversation. It wasn't a communication -- a one- way conversation and the other side hangs up. It was a conversation, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One thing that the secretary said over the weekend is that to the extent that Russia is now distracted by what's happening internally in his country, that could create an additional advantage for the Ukrainians.

How exactly is the United States encouraging Ukraine to take advantage of this moment?

M. MILLER: So, I would say that -- I would frame it slightly differently. We continue to supply Ukraine with the weapons they need to conduct the counteroffensive and to defend themselves long term.

We continue to have intelligence-sharing training with the Ukrainians. We continue to have military channels, we have diplomatic channels that are open with Ukraine.

What the secretary was speaking to is the fact that you did see Wagner forces withdraw from Ukraine and instead move on a Russian city.

How that shakes out, what happens in the coming days with respect to Wagner forces or other Russian military forces, I don't think we can say.

But certainly, we're in close consultation with Ukraine and the Ukrainian military about the ongoing counteroffensive.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you. Last night, the White House and the State Department said that Prigozhin and (INAUDIBLE). What changed do you think changed between Prigozhin and Moscow? Anything, do you think?

M. MILLER: I think it's too soon to tell. It's too early to tell how any of the existing Wagner operations or Wagner arrangements will change, if at all, moving forward.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The Chinese foreign minister and the Russian foreign minister had a meeting yesterday. Do you know about the contents of their meeting?

M. MILLER: I do not know the content of the meetings.

I will say -- I'll reiterate what Secretary Blinken said when he was in Beijing in a number of interviews afterwards, which, when we were in Beijing over a week ago now, or week ago, Sunday and Monday, the issue of Ukraine and Russia's invasion of Ukraine came up in our meeting.

And Secretary Blinken was quite clear with Chinese official that is he met with, that if they wanted to play a constructive role in helping find a just and lasting peace that recognized Ukraine's territorial sovereignty -- territorial integrity and sovereignty, we would welcome them playing such a role.

But I don't have any -- any read out on that meeting that took place.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you. Is there anything you can pass from Chinese statements about the mutiny?

And I guess, do you think that this -- seeing this instability and the cracks in the Russia regime might give China sort of a pause in their support for the Russians?

M. MILLER: I wouldn't want to speculate on how they might read this situation.

I would say that -- I would reiterate what Secretary Blinken said in his meetings to them, which is we would urge them to continue to not support Russia with direct military assistance.

We've obviously made our concerns about potential support public in the past. We've not seen them take that step. They discussed that in their meetings.

And, whether it changes how they approach this conflict, I don't know.

But if they did want to play a constructive role that recognized the need to preserve Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, it's a role we would welcome them playing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) Has there been any direct contact with between the United States and Lukashenko?

M. MILLER: Not that I'm aware of.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is there any message or any impact on relations? They're already quite bad with Russia, but how do you see the fact that Prigozhin is going into (INAUDIBLE).

M. MILLER: I think before I comment on that, I want to wait and see what actually happens, where Prigozhin actually does end up before I make any kind of speculative comment about (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think it's possible he'll wind up in Belarus?

M. MILLER: We just don't have any assessment at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You mentioned Africa, the Wagner operation there. You can't say yet what is going to happen. Is there a message the United States has to countries, like Mali or some of these others that have partnered with Wagner, about what this unrest shows, the activity (INAUDIBLE)?

[13:55:16]

M. MILLER: I'll say two things. Number one, to reiterate the message we've given to these countries publicly and privately in the past, which is that any time Wagner enters a country, death and destruction follows.

We've seen Wagner exploit local populations. We see them extract local wealth. We've seen them commit human rights abuses.

We have always encouraged any country not to engage with Wagner forces because of the deleterious effects it will have on their countries, and most specifically, on their people.

Second, with respect to this, I would say, what happened over the weekend, it would just reiterate -- reinforce the concerns we stated about the instability that Wagner brings with it when it enters any country.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Couple questions to follow up. What is the State's Department definition on what happened or failed to happen over the weekend?

M. MILLER: What do you mean?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You said the events that happened. Do you have a definition of how you call it?

M. MILLER: I think the events that happened was Yevgeny Prigozhin took a group of forces and marched on Rostov and continued on to Moscow and stopped.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: As far as any other --

(CROSSTALK)

M. MILLER: I would say no one in the United States government has used that term. I won't speak to his eventual motivations, what his intentions were.

It's Vladimir Putin that raised the specter of 1917, not anyone in the United States government.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is there a timeline? Can you give a precise (INAUDIBLE)? We're they accurate?

M. MILLER: I'm not going to speak to Lavrov's characterization. The conversations that we had with the Russian government were on Saturday and they were along the lines I outlined a minute ago. I won't go through them again.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And final, the secretary said yesterday, "We haven't seen the last act yet." Might this just be a long-running internal fight in Russia?

M. MILLER: I think what the secretary was speaking was quite obvious in that this is a situation that remains dynamic and we do not yet know how it will end.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How does the secretary envision the last act?

M. MILLER: The secretary envisions the final act as Russia withdrawing its forces from Ukraine. And if not, Ukraine being victorious on the battlefield. Beyond that, I wouldn't want to speculate.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have an assessment on the status of the Wagner forces after the weekend's events?

M. MILLER: I do not. I do not.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just to summarize what happened, whether you call it a coup or not, there was almost a coup within the world's largest nuclear power over the weekend.

You mention him questioning the war as kind of a positive. This is also the same guy, Prigozhin, who has criticized Putin for not being aggressive enough in the war with Ukraine and said things like, "Russia should become more like North Korea to have success in this war."

He took over Russia's southern military district. That's 60 miles away from one of their nuclear air bases. So in general, this seems like an incredibly dangerous situation.

I see you're viewing some of the developments in a positive light. To me, it seems like this was the most dangerous situation that's happened since the beginning of the war.

My question is, you know, given how much funding we've provided in this war -- we provided more than any country in the world, more than the two countries fighting the war.

We could end this diplomatically to avoid another situation like this. But you say we're still steadfastly supporting Ukraine to the end.

Was there no consideration of how differently this coup could have gone, how out of hand this could have gone?

Does that affect your consideration into, like, is it worth it? Is it worth this nuclear risk? Is it worth it a mercenary getting access to Russia's nuclear arsenal, you know?

(CROSSTALK)

M. MILLER: Let me stop you. That was a lot. Wow.

I will say -- well, first of all, I don't agree with your characterization of how we interpreted the events here.

Number two, I will say there are no heroes on either side of this conflict between the Russian regime or Yevgeny Prigozhin.

We've seen both Russian military forces and Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner forces commit brutal atrocities in Ukraine, attacking civilians, attacking civilian infrastructure.

[13:59:58]

Second, that we do not take any position, as I've said a number of times, on what is an internal Russian matter, which is ultimately a decision for the Russian people to make.