Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Russia's Withdrawal From Grain Deal Deeply Regrettable; 80 Million Americans Under Heat Alerts Today; Death Valley Sets New Heat Record At 128 Degrees; Judge: Be Ready To Discuss Trial Date At Tomorrow's Hearing In Trump Documents Case; Typo Sends Millions Of U.S. Emails To Mali. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: I don't want to get ahead of legislative process or speak to what the president will sign or won't sign, but he feels strongly that we have to continue to do everything we can to welcome our allies, our Afghan allies ...

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, so we're listening there to John Kirby, spokesman speaking at the White House there and he just said there from the briefing room that the White House -- we're listening there to John Kirby speaking from the White House briefing room saying that the White House is condemning Russian for blocking grain shipments from Ukraine through the Black Sea. He noted that corn, soy and wheat prices have already gone up and he said that Russia alone bears responsibility for the costs of this situation.

He also rejected this idea that there may be some kind of escort in order to help grain get out of the area and he also rejected the suggestion that this was a response to that bridge attack that we saw on the bridge spanning Russia to Crimea.

He also talked about this meeting that we've learned is going to happen between President Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. He said they spoke today. He did not say if they're going to be meeting at the White House. He said those details are still being worked out. But this is probably going to be happening by the end of the year.

And he also touched upon as he was asked about Pramila Jayapal, the chairwoman of the House Progressive Caucus saying that Israel is a racist state, something that she has faced backlash for, that she's apologized for. He said it was the right thing to do for her to apologize and that there the Biden administration's commitment to Israel is ironclad. He stressed that there. We'll continue to monitor this and bring you anything else that comes out of this briefing going on at the White House.

In the meantime ahead, deadly flooding and intense heat, extreme weather is hitting major parts of the country today. We're going to show you which areas are expecting the worst of it.

Also, the first hearing in former President Trump's classified documents case will begin tomorrow. And today prosecutors are revealing a point of contention about the timetable. We'll going to have details on that when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Dangerous weather conditions are affecting every corner of the nation today. In the Northeast, the deluge of flash floods and an urgent search for a 2-year-old girl and her 9- month-old brother in Pennsylvania. The family car was swept away in a powerful storm killing their mother.

Flash floods also killed four others and as that same region braces for more rain in coming days, other parts of the nation are suffering from extremely high temperatures. 80 million people in 12 states are under excessive heat warnings. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is standing by in the Weather Center. Chad, with these floods, what are you expecting over the next few days? What's the outlook?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The outlook is now that the 48 hours that just passed put down 2 to 4 inches of rainfall in many locations that certainly didn't need it. But at least for now that rain is gone. There will be showers overnight tomorrow night, but I don't think there's anything that's going to really exacerbate really what we have out here where the flash flood watches are. The ground is saturated. There's nothing the ground can do to absorb any more. And yes, there will be some showers around, but nothing that really lingers. Nothing that lasts a very long time. And there's a slight risk of too heavy of rainfall in the yellow area and that's honestly just because it has rained so much for so long.

Something else in the atmosphere -- I mean, the bases are loaded on weather today. I mean, obviously smoke back in the area across parts of the Midwest. This all part of the high-pressure in the West itself bringing down smoke from Alberta and British Columbia fires here.

There's your heat dome making all the heat across the South and the Southwest. Records broken yesterday in some spots and certainly in the next couple of days a hundred or so records -- more records will be broken out there. Look at right now in Vegas, it's 110 degrees. Right now. And they don't put these watches and warnings out just because it's going to be hot. It has to be above a threshold to get to these extreme temperatures, to get to these warnings and watches and advisories. Phoenix on Wednesday it'll be 118. Death Valley making a run today at 124. It's already in the upper 110s right now of course.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Eye-opening temperatures. Chad Myers, thank you so much for that. Chad just mentioned Death Valley in California. They set a daily heat record of 128 degrees over the weekend.

Our next guest is a park ranger at Death Valley National Park. Nichole Andler, thank you so much for being with us. You've spent a lot of time out there, some of the hottest days on record have been recorded at Death Valley. What is it like to experience that record-breaking temperature? NICHOLE ANDLER, PARK RANGER, DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK: Oh, well, 128

degrees is kind of intense. Some folks like to say it's like when you get really cold and you feel the pins and needles. Well here when it gets this hot, you can really feel the sun on your skin.

SANCHEZ: And what is it like in the area for folks who are around there? There's a lot of danger associated with temperatures at that level.

ANDLER: Yes. We actually try to get as much information out to the public and help them prep for their trips out here to Death Valley as possible, letting them know that they should continue to stick to paved roads during their visit. When they're out here experiencing Death Valley, don't get too far away from air-conditioning, whether that's in your vehicle or buildings, so you have a spot to cool down.

[15:40:00]

And drink plenty of water. At least four liters per person per day and eat salty snacks.

SANCHEZ: All good pieces of advice. But I'm wondering from your perspective, I've seen these reports of climate tourists flocking to Death Valley to experience, you know, this record-breaking heat. Would you prefer that those folks just stay home and stay hydrated?

ANDLER: Well, when he want everyone to be safe. The national parks are federal public lands. So we don't want to limit anyone's ability to enjoy these places, you know, in a way that they choose to. But we want them to come and to be safe. That Death Valley seems to be getting hotter. Nine out of the ten hottest summers here in Death Valley have been in the last 17 years. That is not something we're necessarily excited about. But if you're going to come and enjoy your public lands, please enjoy them responsibly.

SANCHEZ: Very good idea. Nicole Andler, thank you so much for taking the time. We appreciate it.

ANDLER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Brianna.

KEILAR: Millions of emails intended for Pentagon employees, some featuring sensitive information were inadvertently sent to email accounts in Africa. How a common typo sparked this major mishap.

Plus, there will be a critical hearing in court this week, in former President Trump's classified documents case. We're going to break down what to expect.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Tomorrow we will see a major pretrial hearing in the classified documents case against former President Trump. The judge is telling special counsel prosecutors and Trump's defense lawyers to be prepared to discuss a trial date. The hearing will also focus on setting up a framework for sharing the classified documents at the heart of the case. But any new filing today prosecutors indicate they have run into some delay tactics on that front.

We have CNN's senior Justice correspondent Evan Perez with us on this story. All right, Evan, walk us through this new filing from the prosecution first year.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's a continuation of the theme. We've seen the former president and his legal team try to figure out how to delay this, perhaps beyond the 2024 election. And here what the special counsel prosecutors are saying is that they've been trying to back door, at least trying to set up a conversation with Donald Trump's legal team to discuss some of the issues of -- some of the how to handle some of the classified information that is at the center of this case. And I'll read you a part of what it says here.

The government asked to have a call on July 14th with the council counsel for the defendants in order to see if it was possible to address some of the defendants' concerns. And that they have not heard from defense counsel since sending that email on July 14. And this filing is -- this motion is now to avoid further delay.

What is at work here is that Jack Smith and his team want to set up a protective order. They're asking the judge to set up a protective order that'll essentially restrict how this information that is shared with the defense, how that information is handled for obvious reasons. Right? Some of it is classified and it's also very sensitive.

And what they say is, that the Trump team has raised some objections but they won't say specifically what their objections are. So we can expect tomorrow that Judge Aileen Cannon, the first time she's going to be having both sides in front of her in this courtroom in Fort Pierce. She's going to talk about some of the issues related to classified documents, but also what you just raised just now, she wants to talk about the potential trial date. Which the special counsel says they're going to be ready by December. Donald Trump's team says don't set a trial date just yet.

KEILAR: Maybe something in the middle. We'll see as they discuss this tomorrow.

It was about a year ago that Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in favor of what was a Trump delay tactic was appointing a special master to review the Mar-a-Lago documents. She ultimately was rebuked. Her decision was overturned. And I wonder if that could affect how she is going to proceed looking at the timetable for the rest of this.

PEREZ: If she's like other judges, I think it does have an effect, right, to have the 11th circuit, which is a conservative circuit rebuke her really strongly. Republican-appointed judges basically said that she was wrong on every aspect of that. So you can expect that everybody is going to be watching everything that she says tomorrow very closely, including obviously the Trump team. They want -- as we just discussed -- they want this trial to be put off as long as possible. They say that they want the -- essentially the voters to decide. And then of course, if Donald Trump becomes president, then he could try to get -- have this thing wiped away. So we'll see whether she sides with them in trying to delay this or whether she finally says, no, here's a trial date, you got to get going.

KEILAR: It makes sense that she wouldn't be told again that she did the wrong thing. She's doing a bad job. Especially by those other judges. Evan Perez, thank you for that -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, how a common typo sent millions of U.S. military emails to a Russian ally. Stay with us.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Listen to this. Millions of emails intended tor Pentagon employees were mistakenly sent to email accounts in West Africa. How? All because of a typo. The messages were meant for owners of .MIL email accounts -- MIL. The internet domain owned by the U.S. military but because of typos there instead sent to the .ml domain.

KEILAR: CNN's Sean Lyngaas is following this story for us.

[15:55:00]

OK, so explain to us who got the emails because you might think, oh, it is going to bounce back and yet that's not exactly what ended up happening. This went to the country's domain.

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: That is right, Brianna. All of us have in fact taken and email made a mistake, and trying to email Boris at CNN and I do Boris at CRN and it goes somewhere else. When you do that, you hope it is not something sensitive like family information that you're putting in their. In this case, this entrepreneur, this Dutch person who was contracted to run the .ML -- the Mali domain, was realizing that he was getting all this incoming emails and he was curious about it.

So he set up sort of a work around where he could catch the emails and kind of filler them and see what is going on. Now he talked to us after he had informed the U.S. government about this, so he wasn't, you know, running to the press about this. But this is over 10 years. So millions of emails, like you said, many of them were spammed, but many of them weren't.

We can look at some of them. In one case there was an FBI agent emailing a U.S. naval office asking for personal information so he could, you know, SSN -- social security number -- so they could come and visit the FBI facility.

Another case it was a high ranking general, Army Chief of Staff, his hotel reservations that the hotel employee emailed .ml instead of .MIL by accident. So, this is a mistake. And it's not necessarily anything that you couldn't do to wipe away this type of mistake. But the Pentagon told us that they're trying to get less use of personal emails to deal with this, but also raising awareness with other people that you have to put that extra "I" in the middle to make sure that you're connecting with the Pentagon employee.

SANCHEZ: You got to be careful what you type. Sean, now I'm curious. What were you trying to tell me in the email.

LYNGAAS: Well, just trying to get lunch with you later in the week maybe.

KEILAR: He was sending his tax return. That could happen in some of these cases.

SANCHEZ: Would rather get lunch than a tax return. Your more than welcome to join us too, Brianna.

KEILAR: Thank you very much. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts after a quick break.