Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
Russian Strike Hits Grain Terminals At Odessa Port; USAID Chief Blasts Putin For Backing Out Of Grain Deal; How Genetics May Shape Who Gets Sick From Covid; Search Warrant Filed In Tupac Shakur Murder Case; CMT Pulls Jason Aldean's Controversial Music Video. Aired 2:30- 3p ET
Aired July 19, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A puzzling story.
Ivan Watson, thanks so much for the update.
Brianna?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: For a second night in a row, Russia has unleashed a barrage of missile and drone strikes on the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Defense officials accused Vladimir Putin of deliberately targeting military and fuel infrastructure associated with the Black Sea grain deal.
Ministry officials say it'll take at least a year to fully restore the damaged facilities, which also stored tons of food according to Ukraine's president.
Alex Marquardt, our CNN national security correspondent, has a closer look at the aftermath.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUN FIRE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An extraordinary display of firepower as Ukrainian air defenses furiously try to fend off a major Russian air assault.
(GUNFIRE)
MARQUARDT: It was the second night in a row that Ukraine's biggest port city, Odessa, came under Russian drone and cruise missile attacks.
(EXPLOSIONS)
MARQUARDT: Tracer rounds soaring into the sky, some appearing to make contact. The sky glowed.
(EXPLOSIONS) MARQUARDT: The second night's barrage, significantly larger than the first. Multiple enormous blasts echoed across the city on Wednesday before dawn. So violent, it made car alarms go off.
(EXPLOSIONS)
MARQUARDT: It was a city, still rattled, when top Biden administration official, Samantha Power, head of the U.S. development agency, USAID, arrived at the Odessa port on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview, she blasted Russia's decision to pull out of the grain deal.
SAMANTHA POWER, ADMINISTRATOR, USAID: The idea that Putin would play roulette with the hungriest people in the world, at the time of the greatest food crisis in our lifetimes, it's just deeply disturbing.
MARQUARDT (on camera): Are you still optimistic that the Russians can be brought back in?
POWER: It'll require pressure not only from the United States and United Nations but from those countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, who will suffer most from the higher grain and oil prices.
MARQUARDT: The Russian complaint has been that this has been one- sided. Ukraine has been the only one that have benefited from this. They haven't been able to export their foodstuff or fertilizer.
What do you make of that argument?
POWER: Sanctions have not been imposed on Russian food and fertilizer. The idea that Russia should benefit from a deal designed to undo the effects of Russia's cruel and inhuman blockade against a sovereign country is observed.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Power announced the U.S. would be giving another $250 million to help Ukrainian agriculture, an investment, she argues, will help stabilize global food prices as the Russian onslaught continues.
Overnight, an Odessa resident was trapped under a collapsed house after it was struck by a cruise missile.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MARQUARDT: "He's alive," a man says, "he's breathing."
Just one person was hurt in the more than two-hour Russian attack on the city.
(GUNFIRE)
MARQUARDT: The military practiced firing at would-be Russian targets at sea, preparing for all kinds of attacks that, with or without a grain deal, Power says, will continue. POWER: You are a bully and an aggressor. It's always easier to lob
missiles and syndromes at civilian infrastructure. So I think we absolutely should expect the worst from the Russian Federation as it continues to struggle on the battlefield.
(EXPLOSIONS)
MARQUARDT: The Kremlin have said that Tuesday's attack on Odessa and elsewhere in the south was a retaliatory strike for Ukraine's attack on the Kerch Bridge, which Russia illegally annexed Crimea.
According to Vladimir Putin spokesman, Moscow is still looking at other ways to respond even further.
Alex Marquardt, CNN, Odessa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Alex for that report.
Ahead, how your genetic makeup could impact just how bad a case of Covid you might get. We will explain.
Plus, rap icon, Tupac Shakur, was shot and killed more than 25 years ago but there's a break in the case. The new actions police are taking in the investigation.
[14:34:14]
CNN returns in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: We may be a step closer to understanding one of the great mysteries of the Covid pandemic and that is why the virus is devastating to some while others who caught it showed no symptoms at all or hardly any symptoms. A new study is shedding light on how genetics may actually play a role.
We have CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, joining us to break all of this down.
Really interesting, Meg, because I think everyone looked at people around them, saw the differing levels of symptoms and outcomes people were having. What are researchers learning?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, this is really fascinating. There were two different studies that really look at the different spectrums of Covid, asymptomatic Covid, no symptoms at all when you get infected, or Long Covid.
So if we start with the first, a symptomatic Covid, here, researchers looked at people based on what form of HLA they had. This is human leukocyte antigens. This is a marker on cells that's important in the immune response. And they found that folks who tended to have asymptomatic Covid had one specific form of HLA, one particular mutation. The prevalence is about 10 the prevalence is about 10 percent of European descent.
And what they found is that people in this group, who have these genes, they were twice as likely, if they got infected, to have an asymptomatic infection as somebody who didn't have this gene mutation.
[14:40:59]
People who had two copies of the mutation were eight times more likely to have an a symptomatically infection.
So this is really a powerful finding. It doesn't explain all of asymptomatic Covid but it is one factor, potentially.
KEILAR: That's interesting with the two copies of the gene here.
There's also a separate study that looked at why some people may be more likely to get Long Covid. Tell us about that.
TIRRELL: Yes, so in this study, they compared the full genome sequences of people and they found people who got Long Covid were more likely to have a DNA sequence around a gene called FOXP4.
They found that folks with this genetic sequence were 60 percent more likely to develop Long Covid than people who didn't have this sequence.
And they say this is a really important finding because it could help with better development of treatments or help understand prevention.
For both of these, this could potentially improve our vaccines and help with treatments.
So this is really providing insights into this virus that we've been living with for more than three years.
KEILAR: Yes. I think a lot of us just have anecdotal experience where someone who maybe wasn't all that healthy had a fine outcome or someone who seemed quite healthy beforehand, didn't. And we sort of wondered, what is going on here? Maybe this will answer at least some of those questions.
Meg, thank you for taking us through that.
Boris?
SANCHEZ: It's one of the world's biggest unsolved cases: Who killed Tupac Shakur? The rap icon and actor was gunned down back in 1996, and no one was ever charged or even arrested.
But now, there's a new movement in the case. Las Vegas police say they executed a search warrant in nearby Henderson, Nevada.
CNN's Chloe Melas joins us now to discuss. Chloe, do we know what led investigators to this home?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Boris, this is a major break in the ongoing investigation that has been opened for more than two decades.
So, this is what we know. We know the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have told CNN that, yes, they executed a search warrant. They are not giving details as to what led to this, as to the location of the residence.
But we do know that it is in Henderson, Nevada. And they had information that led to them going in there and taking things out of the residence.
You know, look, we know this is something that has been the focus of not just fans and the family but of the authorities over the past 26 years, since he was gunned down in 1996.
And remember, he was leaving a boxing match in Vegas at the MGM Hotel when he was in the car with Suge Knight, a very famous record executive, and as they were stopped at a light, a car, a Cadillac pulled up in front of them and that's when 12 shots were fired.
And remember, Tupac was raced to the hospital with serious injuries. He was alive for a few days before he succumbed to the injuries.
And obviously, there have been so many questions as to what happened that night, and who knows what, and who might be hiding something.
So, perhaps, two decades-plus later, Boris, we might be closer to finding out what happened on that night, and could there be an eminent arrest. We will keep you posted.
SANCHEZ: You have to imagine, it should be a significant piece of evidence for them to go back nearly 30 years later and launch this search.
Chloe Melas, keep us posted with the latest. Thanks so much.
Brianna?
KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines we are watching this hour.
The federal government has launched a major crackdown on those annoying robocalls that you get. Officials say they are not only targeting telemarketers and the companies that hire them. They're also targeting the firms that collect and give out your phone number without your consent.
Federal and state authorities have tried for years to stop the unlawful practice. Hopefully, this new effort, Operation Stop Scam Calls, will do the job.
Also, President Biden is trolling Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Greene, using a speech that she gave to Turning Point USA to tout his own legislative accomplishments.
Greene was trying to criticize Biden by comparing him to former Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA) (voice-over): Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on and Joe Biden is attempting to complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The response from the Biden campaign was to slap, "I'm Joe Biden and I approve this message" on it.
And the head of FIFA is pleading with New Zealand fans to, quote, "do the right thing" amid poor ticket sales for the women's World Cup games. New Zealand and Australia are hosting the matches. They will be starting tomorrow. And Australians are set to fill their stadiums.
Boris?
[14:44:57]
SANCHEZ: Next, a country music singer's new video pulled from Country Music Television. A controversy surrounding this song. We will explain when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: CMT, Country Music Television, has just removed the new video from one of its biggest stars. Jason Aldean's song, "Try That in a Small Town," raised eyebrows months ago for lyrics that critics described as evocative of racism and retaliation.
But then he dropped the new music video clip. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[14:50:18]
SANCHEZ: Not only does the video include footage from police brutality protests, but it was shot in front of the Maury County, Tennessee, courthouse. Historically, that courthouse has seen a lot of racial violence, including, in 1927, the lynching of a black man.
Cheryl Crowe tweeted this, quote, "There is nothing small town or American about promoting violence."
Chris Willman is the senior music writer and chief music critic for "Variety" magazine. He joins us now live. Chris, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: CMT pulled this video offering no explanation. Critics claim that it is a modern-day lynching song. I'm wondering what you see when you watch this video and listen to the lyrics.
CHRIS WILLMAN, SENIOR MUSIC WRITER & CHIEF MUSIC CRITIC, "VARIETY" MAGAZINE: Well, I don't blame people for thinking that, knowing the context, as you mentioned, the lynchings going back to the 1920s.
Aldean's people have said privately that they didn't know about the lynching when they shot the video at that site and that a lot of videos and films shoot there and have that location, unfortunately.
You know, it's hard to know whether to ascribe racism exactly to what's going on here. I see it more as kind of a general xenophobia that you see in the song and the video about small towns, big towns.
We don't want any city slickers coming in here with their demonstrations and their Molotov cocktails and their city ways in general.
But when you hear lines in the song like, "See how far you get leaving town," I think that is the kind of language that historically people have heard from the south and associate with people being unfriendly to either certain races or demonstrators who had very high-minded causes.
So I don't blame people for taking that leap, I guess, is what I would say.
SANCHEZ: Aldean points out on Twitter that none of the lyrics touch upon race. He calls claims that this shows he's displeased with the protests as meritless. Where do you think he's coming from on all of this?
WILLMAN: Yes. The song itself is a little bit more vague. When I first heard the song before the video, I kind of gravitated toward thinking about the quote, unquote, "Second Amendment advocacy" that he was saying people are going to come for our guns, I hear, see what happens if they try that. And, you know, I think that sounds kind of vaguely threatening and paranoid.
But then, you know, when the video came out, it really seemed to be about we hate protesters, we hate these demonstrators. I don't doubt that Jason Aldean hates white demonstrators such as he hates black demonstrators. So, you know, however much we want to read into that.
I think still, you know, what climate this comes out of is back during the pandemic when the Black Lives Matter demonstrations were happening and there were a number of country stars on the very conservative side who made it known how they felt about the demonstrations.
Now, you know, it's a couple years later, three years later, and Jason Aldean has the song where the video has all this footage of demonstrations that makes it very clear that's what he was thinking about.
And the general tone of it is that demonstrators deserve maybe a beating if they try to come in and do that in their part of the woods.
SANCHEZ: You pointed out there's a specific portion in the song in which he references the Second Amendment, not directly but in sort of an allusion to it.
He specifically referenced Route 91 in a tweet. That was the event where he performed that turned into the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history in Las Vegas. There was a gunman perched on a hotel window who shot at people that were enjoying this concert.
He's pushing back against criticism that the song promotes gun violence, though.
WILLMAN: Yes. I think it's a legitimate point of view to look at that history he has and think that should have made him more sensitive to gun violence.
Instead of creating a song that's not only advocating his right to bear arms but creating this obviously kind of fantasy scenario that I think most people don't think exists in the real world where the government is going to confiscate your hunting rifles in the south and saying, "just try that."
[14:54:57]
It's setting up a strawman as I think people -- you know, some people on the far right may or may not classify as, quote, unquote, "gun nuts, who try to get it out there that politicians are going to kind of come into your home and take your guns away.
I think that's one of the most disturbing portions of the song for me. Does he really believe that? Does he want to foster this kind of paranoia about the government that makes people maybe more trigger happy in a way, if they think that, you know, their rights are going to be abridged in such a radical way?
SANCHEZ: I have to be honest, Chris, I would not have been aware of his music or his video had he not been now taken off of CMT.
But the content itself, as someone who's covered dozens and dozens of Trump rallies, it doesn't seem that different from what is in those rallies and what content is put out there for that audience.
WILLMAN: Yes. I certainly see from the reaction that I've gotten initially to what I wrote, it was, you know, positive from people in media circles followed by a lot of backlash from Trump supporters once Candace Owens Tweeted out something I had tweeted. I immediately started hearing a lot from, you know, them.
I understand that there's room for a plethora of opinions in country music. Certainly, it's not a surprise that people hold some of these views.
But I think country music has striven to become a welcoming place, a big umbrella, but not that they're going to change all of their values.
But this really talks about the superiority of small towns, even though Jason Aldean has never lived in a small town. He grew up in Macon. But he kind of presents as if he did sometimes.
So it's not a radical shift maybe from what certain portions of country music has represented in the past. They've flited around the area of being pro-Trump.
And now Jason Aldean is finally coming out and saying, I don't care if I'm divisive, I want to rile people up.
That's a difference from what we've seen in the past where it was more subtle or people kept it out of the songs.
SANCHEZ: Chris Willman, thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it.
CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns in just a moment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
