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Ukraine Takes Credit For Attack On Crimea-Russia Bridge; 5 Dead, 2 Kids Missing After Flash Flood Hit Pennsylvania; Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Is Interviewed About Jayapal's Statement That Israel Is A "Racist State". Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:10]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ukrainian forces target a critical bridge to Crimea. Now Russia says a key grain deal has been terminated. Major new developments on the ground in Ukraine.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two young children are missing this morning. They were swept up along with their mother in the flash flooding in Pennsylvania. The urgent search for these kids now with more bad weather on the way to the northeast.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: An Alabama woman who went missing on the interstate suddenly found. The baffling case all started with a 911 call. The woman made saying she saw a toddler walking alone on the interstate then she disappeared. So what happened? I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: Overnight, a daring attack on a key Russian asset with huge military and psychological implications. Ukraine is claiming responsibility for an operation on the Kerch Bridge. This is the only direct link between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia. It is a vital logistical crossing for the Russian military. It is also a critical artery for supplying Crimea with civilian goods.

Russian officials say there is damage to the roadway, railroad tracks that run parallel to the road. They are still said to be intact. Let's get to CNN senior national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt, who is in Odessa. This is a very symbolic and strategic target for the Ukrainians, Alex.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It is John. And when we see brazen attacks like this from the Ukrainians, we rarely get confirmation or admission that they are behind it. Now we are not only having Ukraine claiming responsibility, but they're trolling the Russians at the same time. We heard earlier on telegram from Ukraine Security Services saying the bridge has gone to sleep. Again, that is a reference to another attack on the Kerch Bridge that happened nine months ago.

At the time, Ukraine did not claim responsibility. They are doing that today, saying it was a joint effort between the SBU the security services and Ukraine's navy. They're not offering any details beyond that. But from the Russian side, we're told that this strike happened around 3 o'clock in the morning local time. That sea or surface drones were responsible for this.

As you noted, you got two -- assent -- two lanes, both car and truck and then railway lines that are run parallel the 12 miles or 19 kilometers across the Kerch Strait. We understand that the railways were relatively untouched, trains kept running but on a delayed schedule. But on the car side, the roadway side significant destruction that will late likely take quite some time to fix.

Now this was a personal project of Vladimir Putin, this bridge, that was put in place in 2018, four years after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, it costs almost $4 billion to build. So not only, as you noted, a very, very important to get people and food and fuel as well as military equipment across that that Kerch Strait that connection between southern Russia and Crimea, but hugely symbolic because of course, Putin considers Crimea to be very much a part of Russia.

How Russia responds now is the major question after that last attack in October of 2022. We saw one of the biggest if not the biggest Russian strike all over Ukraine since the war began last year, John?

BERMAN: Yes, this bridge, as you say, very important to Vladimir Putin himself. Alex Marquardt, thank you very much. Stay safe. So, Kate, I mean, this literally hitting Putin where it hurts.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And related, maybe not related, but definitely did another huge development out of Ukraine in all of this. Russia is now terminating the deal to allow Ukraine to export grain by sea. The deal was brokered last year by the U.N. in Turkey and had allowed Ukraine to move its critical grain supplies from its ports through the Black Sea to Turkey's Bosphorus Strait.

Before the deal Russia had blocked any Ukrainian shipment. And U.S. intelligence and found that Russian forces that actually been deploying mines in the Black Sea. What this means for Ukraine is significant but the impact on the globe is also huge. The European Commission says Ukraine accounts for 10 percent of the world's wheat market, 15 percent of the corn market, and 13 percent of the barley market. It's also a key player in the industry of sunflower oil, manufacturer of sunflower oil.

The U.N. has estimated that blocking Ukrainian grain could create food insecurity for as many as 47 million people around the world. CNN's Scott McLean has much more on this, he's joining us now. So Scott, why is Russia -- what is Russia saying about this? Why is Russia pulling out of this deal now?

[09:05:14]

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So first case, this is not entirely unexpected. The Ukrainian diplomat said last month that she was 99.9 percent sure that the Russians were going to not renew this deal. And obviously, that has turned out to be true. The Russians essentially say that the U.N. was not living up to its end of the bargain. Because in exchange for allowing Ukrainian ships packed with grain and other food to leave port safely, the Russians were supposed to get help from the U.N. to actually more easily get their own food and their own fertilizer out to market.

Now, there are no sanctions at all on Russian agricultural products or on fertilizer or anything like that. But as we know, there are plenty of sanctions on Russian banks. And that applies in many cases to the international payment mechanisms as well that make payment for this grain. This food, this fertilizer for Russia more complicated. And so one of the key demands that Russia has had is to be reconnected to some of these international payment mechanisms.

The U.N. has offered to connect the agricultural bank in Russia to that -- those systems but that's obviously been rejected. The U.N. says that they will continue to work on this. But an official also said today that Russia's decision is pretty final. In fact, they say that they've already removed security guarantees for ships passing through the Black Sea.

And as you said, this is an area that is mined with explosives, food prices, or grain prices that were already up, Futures up 3 percent on the news, the Russians do say that look, they could go back to this if their conditions are met. And on your question about whether or not this has anything to do with the Kerch Bridge explosion, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson was asked about that directly earlier today.

And he said this, quote, these are absolutely unrelated events, even before this terrorist attack, the position was declared by President Putin. And I repeat again, as soon as the part of the Black Sea agreements concerning Russia are fulfilled, Russia will immediately return to the implementation of the deal.

As you said, Turkey was one of the parties that helped broker this deal. President Erdogan today said that he may call President Putin in advance of their scheduled meeting in August. And I should also mention quickly, Kate, that Ukraine still can get grain out to market, it's just more complicated because it has to go by rail. And the difficulty is that the gauge on the Ukrainian railways is different than the gauge in Europe. And so it has to get transferred to another train at the border, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, it's it is critical for people around the world in what we're seeing, which is why we know as we can see Russia getting in the way is could be part of -- as part of their strategy. It's good to see you, Scott. Thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: With us now is CNN military analyst retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center. Thank you, sir, for coming in. I want to get to the Black Sea Grain Deal. It is off. It has been cancelled by Russia. Can you just explain the repercussions here because this is a worldwide repercussion, this doesn't just have to do with the region, correct?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's right. This is worldwide. It drives up prices. It restricts the volume of grain that's out on the market. It particularly attacks the U.N. World Food Program. And it puts some countries in the Global South in real jeopardy for real hunger crisis. They're all dependent on Russian and Ukrainian grain.

Russian grain has been moving out. But as we saw, Ukrainian grain is a significant part of the world's supply. And so this is going to have a big impact.

SIDNER: OK, so food prices, world food prices soaring, food shortages in places like Africa and the Middle East. Those are really big issues that this war has brought forward. I do want to ask you now about the 12 mile bridge that goes over the Kerch Strait. Hit by Ukraine, it links directly Russia to the Crimean peninsula. Can you give me some sense of how crucial this is for Russia and its military?

CLARK: Well, it is crucial in the sense of being able to have full flow of supplies to Russian forces that are defending against the Ukrainians coming through Crimea, and trying to prevent the Ukrainians from coming south from Zaporizhzhia. However, there are alternate routes of supply, the rail lines still open. And there are other ways of getting those supplies in from Rostov.

So this is significant. And it is a big symbolic blow for Ukraine. But it's not -- it's not decisive. It's not going to cut off all supplies to the Russian forces. It's just one more factor. But here's the thing, Sara, the Ukrainians are building up their ability to strike deep. They are going to produce their own ATACMS missile to strike into Crimea. Maybe they did this with drones. But the drones are getting more sophisticated and more capable.

[09:10:17]

So the Ukrainians are not going to want to allow Russia to have a sanctuary from which it can strike Ukraine, and certainly not Crimea, which they consider part of Ukraine, no sanctuary there. So Ukrainians are determined to strike deep this is part of their counter offensive, and they're not going to relent on this.

SIDNER: Let me ask you about striking deep, there are F-16s are going to be handed over to the Ukrainians. But first, they have to train for them. Two fold question here, how long does it training take? And how soon do you see those F-16s making a difference potentially in this war?

CLARK: Maybe six months at the earliest, probably nine months, they probably won't be fully operational, but before March, April, May of next year. And here's the thing, we would never have launched a counter offensive against this kind of a defense without air superiority. We've encouraged the Ukrainians to do so. And we've dragged our feet on providing them the F-16s. And the other air superiority qualities they need.

We don't have enough air defense to protect the ground forces on Ukraine when they're attacking from attack helicopters and other things, which is not our way of war. Our way of war is we have air superiority first. Ukrainians don't have air superiority, they don't have the air defense with those ground columns that they need. So we've really handicap their offense offensive.

And the sooner we can get those F-16s there, the better. And I would say this, Sara, in addition to the F-16s, the Ukrainians needs the long range ATACMS missile. Now the French are supplying the long range missiles, the Brits are supplying long range missiles. They're not the same missile as ATACMS. ATACMS is a ballistic missile, it's guided. It's very effective, and it should be provided now that the Brits and French have broken ground on this.

It's clear the Russians can't expect to sanctuary deep. So let's give the Ukrainians what they need to finish this fight more quickly.

SIDNER: Yes, the Ukrainians are saying, they are handicapped in the air. But they have been holding their own. So we'll see what happens going forward. Thank you so much, General Wesley Clark. Appreciate your analysis. John?

BERMAN: Five people are dead, a two-year-old and a nine-month-old still missing after getting caught in the fast moving floodwaters in Pennsylvania and more torrential rain is expected today.

So an unsupervised toddler roaming an interstate, a woman stopped to check in and then she herself went missing for 48 hours. What happened?

A group of House Democrats denouncing one of their own for comments she made about Israel, one of the central players joins us ahead.

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[09:17:16]

SIDNER: Deadly flooding and intense heat, a one two punch really, extreme weather is hitting areas across the country today. Right now, 80 million people in 12 states are on alert for dangerous heat from Florida to Texas, the mercury could climb to 115 degrees, meaning cities like Miami and El Paso could see their 36th and 32nd consecutive days of 100 plus degree temperatures.

And in the Northeast, tragedy striking, after powerful rain, a gut wrenching search to find a missing nine-year-old boy and his two-year- old sister is still happening as we speak in Pennsylvania. The children, their mom and grandmother were all swept away as raging floodwaters began to take over their car.

Let's go live now to southeast Bucks County where all of this happened. You can see that there are crews standing there behind Danny Freeman still on this case. What can you tell us about what they're saying this morning about these missing children?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, a brief press conference just wrapped up in the past few minutes from Bucks County officials and the two headlines is that those two children a nine-month-old and a two-year-old, they are still missing at this time. But because of actually the improving weather compared to over the weekend, first responders they've been able to actually triple the number of assets they have to actually put to this search.

But again, Sara, an incredibly difficult weekend. Local officials said this was a mass casualty incident the likes of which we've never seen before. Now initially over the weekend, there were seven people missing, five have been recovered and then those two that are still unaccounted for, those are those two children. And those two children belong to actually one particular family. It was a family of six. They were driving here in Bucks County, Saturday evening, they were up actually from Charleston.

They were visiting family in the area. They were going to a barbecue, a normal summer activity when those flash floodwaters hit. And that family of six included a mom, a dad, a grandmother and three children. Well the dad was able to save one of his children, a four-year-old son, the grandmother also was washed away but was rescued was taken to a hospital. However, yesterday, we learned that the mother had passed away. Her body was discovered in the water behind me.

And then also now that search continues for those two missing children. Take a listen to what the governor had to say about this just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): In short, all hands are on deck from the Commonwealth to work together with our local partners. We have your backs and we will be here as long as it takes to make sure Bucks County gets back up on its feet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:00]

FREEMAN: And Sara just to really emphasize the magnitude of this incident, it happened on the route right behind me, 532. There were also eight people who were rescued from cars that were swept into the creek, along with the five who passed away and then two others from the creek itself were also saved. But now, Sara, the resources are really coming in, in this press conference. We just learned there's air support, there's canines, underwater support as well, again, all efforts to try and find these two children. Sara?

SIDNER: What a horrific story. A mother gone, a father and a four- year-old saved but the nine-month-old and two-year-old, still missing at this hour. We will check back with you and let us know if you have anything new on this case. Thank you, Danny Freeman there from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. John?

BERMAN: This morning, major disruptions to air travel as a result of the severe storms over the last few days. The airlines scrambling to recover after thousands of flights were canceled or delayed. Heavy rain and fog at one point forced all flights to be grounded in New York and Boston. Let's get to CNN's Pete Muntean. Pete, you know, are things improving it all this morning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I love the graphic, John, that we have the FlightAware misery map. And it is true to its title, especially after yesterday, considering the fact that 1,700 flights were canceled. There's one big superlative there that puts it in the top five for cancellations since Memorial Day, and 9,800 flights were delayed. We have not seen this many delays this summer, 40 percent of all flights delayed on average, an hour and 10 minutes were flights arriving to their destinations.

So that is a lot of trouble for a lot of air travelers, especially on a Sunday when the numbers are typically pretty big. A lot of folks coming home at the end of the weekend, the worst airports, unsurprisingly and we've seen this over and over again this summer in New York, JFK, Newark LaGuardia. Those are the real trouble spots. And the FAA says it is short air traffic controllers there.

But when this weather rolls through, that's when the deck of cards really begins coming tumbling down. There was also a ground stop yesterday for flights going into Boston Logan also troubles stretching all the way down into D.C. I want you to listen now to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. He puts this pretty bluntly. He says that with climate change comes more and more extreme weather events. And that means more and more delays and cancellations. United had its own meltdown the last week of June. But he says the word of caution here, no airline is safe. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: Irregular operations events are, you know, going to be more likely to occur as the climate warms. We're heating atmospheric, Thermodynamics 101. We're going to have more thunderstorms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Thermodynamics 101, hot air rises, especially in the afternoon, creates more thunderstorms which we're looking at again today. According to the FAA, we could see ground stops in New York, in Boston, in Central and South Florida. So far, so good, though, John, only about 300 cancelations nationwide, about 1,300 delays, so let's see if the airlines can really stick the landing here again today.

BERMAN: Yes, look, fingers crossed. They need some time to get people, you know, to unrack the situation as it were from this weekend. Pete Muntean, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: I've been feeling you're searching for a word other than unrack and you really landed, you landed on a good one. But also I -- we can now decide -- we cannot say with certainty that the weather is not completely horrendous in terms of travel disruption if Pete Muntean is not in airport, so.

BERMAN: Good point.

BOLDUAN: He is in the D.C. Bureau today. So I'm thinking, fingers crossed, you should be fine, if you're flying today.

Coming up still for us, the chair of the House Progressive Caucus facing backlash from fellow Democrats over what she said about Israel this weekend. One of the Democrats now speaking up is our guest. Does Congressman Jayapal's cleanup effort go far enough?

[09:23:56]

Also this, a major pile up during the Tour de France, it involved nearly two dozen cyclists, riders and it may all have started with a selfie, details up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Democratic Congresswoman and chair of the Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, is walking back her words this morning. Here is what started at all at Netroots Conference this weekend. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Jayapal there was responding to pro-Palestinian protesters who showed up at the event on Saturday. By Sunday, Jayapal was trying to clean it up saying this in part, words do matter. And so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. The controversy comes just days before the Israeli president is scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress. And some progressives have already said that they will be skipping that.

Joining me right now to talk about this is Democratic Congressman Brad Schneider from Illinois. Congressman, thank you for coming in. The Congresswoman I just read part of her statement in which she was trying to clear up and clean up what she said on Saturday. Is that clean up and clarification, is it enough for you?

[09:29:49]

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): I think she's I spoke to her several times yesterday. I think she understands that she misspoke. Israel is not a racist state. She doesn't believe it is, she has said that. And expect she'll clarify that even more. At the same time we've had leadership of the Democratic Party chime in and make clear that as a party with support --