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LeBron James' Son Stable After Cardiac Arrest During Practice; January 6th Grand Jury To Meet As Possible Third Trump Indictment Looms; Trevor Reed Injured Fighting In Ukraine; U.N. Experts Find Mines at Russian-Occupied Nuke Plant. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 25, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:34]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: A serious health scare on the basketball court. Bronny James, the son of NBA superstar LeBron James, goes into cardiac arrest, collapsing during practice at USC. Reaction is now pouring in. We have the latest on his condition.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And so many eyes on a Washington, D.C. courthouse. The grand jury investigating former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election is expected to reconvene today.

We are following the latest movements on that, plus stop the block. Hundreds of military spouses are calling on senators to end the impasse over military promotions. Now the man at the center of this controversy, Senator Tommy Tuberville, is responding.

We're covering these major developing stories and many more all coming in to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We begin this afternoon with a major health scare involving LeBron James' son, Bronny. He suffered cardiac arrest during basketball practice at the University of Southern California. Now this happened yesterday morning, but details are coming out just now. The 18-year-old was hospitalized and his family released a statement saying in part, quote, "Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He's now in stable condition and no longer in ICU."

The family is asking for privacy and they are promising to update the media. According to TMZ, Bronny was unconscious when he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

We're joined now by CNN sports anchor, Andy Scholes, and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Andy, first to you, what are we learning about what happened in that practice session?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Boris, we're not really getting a lot of details as of yet. You know, we don't know if Bronny collapsed on his own or if he took some sort of hit to the chest area, similar to what we saw with the Bills' Damar Hamlin during last NFL season. So we're still waiting to see what those details are. The good news of course is that in less than a day, Bronny was already out of ICU and in stable condition, according to the family.

And amazingly, this is the second time this has happened to the USC basketball program in the past year. Last summer during workouts, Vince Iwuchukwu, he also went into cardiac arrest while practicing there at USC. He was taken to the hospital and he actually ended up returning to the Trojans program 191 days after going into cardiac arrest. So they of course -- you know, that is -- was great news for him and his situation. We're still learning about what's going on with Bronny right now and his condition.

And I'm sure Dr. Sanjay Gupta can talk more about what's next for Bronny but the good news is for the James family is that he is in stable condition and is still, of course, hoping to continue his basketball career at some point. Of course, the good news is health wise he seems to be doing OK as of now.

SANCHEZ: Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

Let's turn to Dr. Sanjay Gupta now.

Now, Sanjay, how common is this sort of thing among younger people? He's only 18 years old.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, thankfully, it's pretty rare among people that age. We're talking a few thousand people a year, 6,000 to 7,000 that might actually suffer a sudden cardiac arrest outside of the hospital. Often times for them, it is the first time they've had any indication there's something wrong. So there's not like a sort of earlier symptoms or something that would have served as some sort of warning.

This is the first time that they have any kind of issue at all. And when it comes specifically to sports, it's more common. So sports involvement about close 39 percent, 40 percent of people under the age of 18. When you get older, there are other considerations beside sports that become more common. But basketball players, more common, men more common.

And again, thankfully, it's rare, but 6,000 to 7,000 times a year this could happen, and many times it sort of unfolds just the way that we've been hearing about it with Bronny James.

SANCHEZ: And Sanjay, there is an important distinction between cardiac arrest and heart attack. Walk us through the difference.

GUPTA: Yes. So, simply put, sudden cardiac arrest, that means your heart has stopped. It just stops beating. And that can be for a variety of reasons. Someone will lose consciousness. They're not getting blood flow to their brain. They oftentimes may need a defibrillator to restore the electrical rhythm to the heart.

[13:05:08]

With a heart attack, because of a blockage in some of the blood vessels that give blood to the heart, the heart muscle itself is not getting enough blood flow, and that heart muscle can begin to die. That can lead to a cardiac arrest, so ultimately, it can lead to the same sort of thing, but there may be very different causes for one versus the other.

Sudden cardiac arrest, again, more common. You're going to see that in younger people. So, for example, over the age of 35, if someone has a cardiac arrest, it's typically more likely due to a heart attack. Under the age of 35, there is no predominant reason. It could be due to an electrical problem in the heart, it could be due to some sort of anatomical problem that had not yet been diagnosed. There can be a variety of things, but those are the major distinctions, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Sanjay, as Andy alluded to, there have previously been basketball players that have been in similar situations with cardiac arrest. Many of them have been able to get back on the court. So what does the recovery look like now for Bronny?

GUPTA: Well, they've got to sort out what happened here. So, as Andy was talking about, I think one of the big headlines obviously other than the fact that Bronny had this sudden cardiac arrest is that he is already out of the intensive care unit. That's really important piece of information, because as you may remember with Damar Hamlin, it was a few days. With other players, it's often been a few days before they get out of the intensive care unit.

There's still this period of instability where they're not sure if the heart is going to go into another cardiac arrest. They felt confident enough, it sounds like, to say, hey, look, whatever happened, we've still got to figure that out, but he is stable enough to not require intensive care. So now they're going to sort of sort out what happened here. That might involve putting an ultrasound on his chest and actually looking at his heart, seeing if there's some sort of anatomical abnormality, Boris.

There's almost -- already is likely happened is they've got electrodes set up to basically measure the electrical pattern of his heart. The electrical patterns of his heart may be normal most of the time, but over a day or so or couple of days they may see these abnormalities, which they hadn't seen before and that might be some indication as to what happened here.

It is possible that they never figure it out. They never understand exactly what caused the sudden cardiac arrest. But unlikely for that to be the case. You remember with Damar Hamlin, even it took some time before they were definitively saying this was due to cordis commotio, which is due to that sudden blow to the chest wall.

It doesn't sound like that's what happened here, obviously, but there is a reason, and it's likely they're going to figure that out.

SANCHEZ: We're glad it sounds like Bronny is doing better and we hope to see him on the hard wood again soon.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for your expertise. We appreciate it. Jim?

SCIUTTO: So the big question in Washington, will today -- could today be the day the federal grand jury examining former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election is expected to meet today. We are watching this meeting closely because the grand jury could vote at any time on whether to indict the former president.

This comes as Special Counsel Jack Smith continues to make moves in what appears to be the late stages of such an investigation. He just received a trove of documents from former New York City police commissioner, Bernie Kerik. Kerik alongside former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, led the Trump campaign's probe into false claims of election fraud. For months, Kerik withheld the documents, claiming they were privileged, but now he has handed them over just weeks ahead of his own scheduled sit-down with federal prosecutors.

CNN has also learned the special counsel is interested in particular in a February 2020 Oval Office meeting where sources tell CNN Trump actually praised U.S. election security.

CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid, joins me now to discuss.

A lot to get to. First, we're not going to know until we know, right?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: But why the particular focus on today's grand jury meeting?

REID: So the grand jury that's been hearing evidence in the January 6th case typically meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now, that schedule can be amended as needed, but we have a producer at the courthouse, Casey Gannon, Jim, she's been there for months. She knows the grand jury, she knows all the players. And she --

SCIUTTO: She knows where to get coffee.

REID: Exactly, or the lobster bisque, which they talk a lot about as well, but she hasn't seen the grand jury come in today. So, look, if Casey hasn't seen it, it's unlikely that they're actually there.

SCIUTTO: Right.

REID: That doesn't mean they can't come in later today. But, look, even if they don't come in today and we're looking again on Thursday or even potentially seeing them tomorrow, the special counsel has plenty of work to do.

SCIUTTO: Right.

REID: They've just received in the past 48 hours thousands of documents. And we obtained many of those documents last night, a team of us went through them.

And look, Jim, after reviewing many of these, these documents do not seem like something you have to review before possibly pursuing an indictment again former President Trump.

[13:10:05] There's just not a lot of "there" there in the documents. They're still withholding some, but we know they also have upcoming interviews with people, including Bernie Kerik, the former New York police commissioner who handed these over. They have as of now at least more interviews scheduled in August. So what we're trying to figure out now is will they indict the former president and then continue their work, which is what we saw in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, or will they wait until they complete this phase before moving ahead with a possible indictment?

SCIUTTO: Yes. And given that Kerik led that effort to find fraud that wasn't really there, it sounds like he would be essential to the special counsel's final conclusion on this.

REID: You would think, but it's also possible that they don't think that he's at the heart of their case against the former president. It's something that we're trying to reconcile right now in our reporting.

SCIUTTO: Understood. OK, we also have Michael Moore with us right now. Of course, with a tremendous amount of experience in cases such as this, as a lawyer.

It's our understanding, Michael, that the special counsel is scrutinizing among other things a February 2020 meeting where Trump praised U.S. election security. Why would that potentially be central to the special counsel's investigation?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yes, well, I'm glad, Jim, to be with all of you. It's always a benefit for a prosecutor to be able to get inside the head of a potential defendant. You want to get in there and figure out what they were thinking, when they were thinking it, what their motivation was, why they may have taken this act versus that act. And so to hear about the meeting, to learn about the meeting, the special counsel will be sort of trying to figure out where Trump was on the line.

Was he on one end saying that the election security was bad? Is he on the other end saying it was good? Or where was he somewhere in between? So it just gives him a way to sort of gauge his reactions. Then he'll try to use, I expect, whatever evidence and information he gets to argue against potential defenses from Trump that this was a legitimate legal challenge. That they have real belief in the fraud, that how could he be at fault for this, because, you know, he had this evidence or that evidence.

He could then turn around and say, well, wait a minute, at this meeting, you were saying that, you know, that that wasn't so and this was the best election lead-up in history. Of course, it was early on. The election hadn't happened, but it was something that will be of interest to.

SCIUTTO: Because as I understand it, you and I have talked about this before, but for folks at home, it gets to intent. And I asked actually Paula Reid this question yesterday, can wishful thinking be a defense for the former president? You know, just to say, yes, I kind of thought there was enough fraud for me to win over, you know, to actually win this thing. What degree of confidence in your own what ultimately ended up being fraudulent claims of fraud do you have to have to be protected from, you know, legal issues?

MOORE: Yes. I don't know that I would put any stock in a wishful thinking defense any more than a wishful thinking not guilty from a jury that may hear the case. And, you know, what they're going to have to prove is that he had a reasonable belief. That there was some -- you know, that's why I say they, I mean, Trump, he had a reasonable belief with this defense. I mean, he has no burden of proof, he doesn't have to come in and present the facts. But the government is going to have to get by that and say, look, his beliefs could not have been reasonable.

There's nothing to indicate that there was fraud. He knew there wasn't fraud. He was told this. Remember there's nothing inherently illegal about talking to your lawyers, about being creative about possible defenses, about looking for ways to maybe challenge something in court or to challenge any of the administrative proceeding. That's all perfectly fine. But the difference and I guess you cross the Rubicon when you get to a place where you start talking about doing unlawful and illegal acts like unconstitutionally seizing voting machines and this type of things, that makes it a criminal act.

And so it's going to be getting across the hill, and I think these meetings and other things that he did and talk about them will push the special counsel to believe that he had no reasonable belief that there was any fraud in this election, this was simply a power grab by Trump and his team.

SCIUTTO: Right. Or to seat fake electors, for instance.

Michael Moore, pretty sure we'll be talking to you again about this. Thanks so much for joining us.

MOORE: Great to be with you all. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Boris?

SANCHEZ: Explosive mines at a nuclear power plant. U.N. inspectors say they found those mines at the site of Europe's largest nuclear plant which is in Ukraine, but under Russian control. What officials are now saying about the danger. Plus, his most direct threat yet. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy floating a potential impeachment inquiry for President Biden. House Republicans punted on that idea just a few weeks ago, so what changed?

And heat hell. How the deadly heat wave is putting millions of people at risk, destroying our oceans, and making storms more severe. And why experts say they know what or better yet who is responsible.

[13:15:04]

That and much more still ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SCIUTTO: We are following this breaking news. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed, who you may remember, was wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly three years before he was released -- recently released in a prisoner swap was, after that, wounded while fighting in Ukraine.

These are images of Trevor Reed being freed in that April 2022 prisoner swap.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand has been covering from the Pentagon.

Natasha, do we know the severity of Reed's injuries?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Jim, we don't yet know Trevor Reed's status at this point. What his condition actually is. All we know at this point is that he was injured fighting in Ukraine and he was transported to a hospital in Kyiv and since then, he has actually been medically evacuated out and into Germany.

[13:20:07]

We still don't know just what condition he is in, but remember, Trevor Reed was released from Russian custody in April of 2022, so he has been out for about a year now after being wrongfully detained in Russia for nearly three years. He was arrested in Russia in 2019 and the Russians actually made him spend or said he was going to spend nine years in prison before the U.S. engaged in a prisoner swap with the Russians for a convicted drug smuggler, Konstantin Yaroshenko.

Now Trevor Reed, he has been active on social media over the last year so of course he has been on our air many times. He was tweeting just about as recently as a month ago. It is unclear when he went to Ukraine, but we are told that he was, again, injured there. Don't know just how badly he was injured, but that he has been evacuated to Germany at this point -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And among a number of former American service members who volunteered to go there to fight as well as from other countries.

Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon, thanks so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: U.N. atomic inspectors say they found explosive mines at the site of Europe's largest nuclear plant, which is under Russian control. The U.N. team says the mines were in a buffer zone on the periphery of the Zaporizhzhia plant and facing away from the site. Meantime, Ukraine is reporting small gains on the battlefield near the city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has dragged on for months. But the small gains there could reap big rewards.

CNN's Alex Marquardt is in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.

So, Alex, how worrisome is this report about mines near the Zaporizhzhia plant?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, we're getting this information from the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. And they're saying that if there were to be detonations or explosions from these mines, that it would likely not affect the nuclear safety or the security of this plant. So that is good news.

Of course, you never like to hear the word explosives or mines alongside a nuclear power plant. This is the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe and it has been in Russian-controlled territory since almost the very beginning of this war. So what this does really speak to is Russia building up its fortifications. Russia really entrenching itself in and around this plant. The IAEA was aware of other explosives inside and outside the plant, they say.

What we understand these ones are that were spotted by IAEA experts over the weekend are directional anti-personnel mines that they are pointing outwards so away from the plant. Anti-personnel mines are of course designed to hurt, maim, or kill humans. And so they would not be expected to harm the plant itself, of course, should they go off.

Now, the experts who were there on the ground, they were told by people who were working in the facility, and these are still, you know, nuclear experts. These are people who have been working in the plant for some time, despite this Russian occupation, that this was a military decision. That this is an area controlled by the Russian military.

And then we heard also, in this statement from the IAEA, an understatement, if you will, Boris, that these explosives are inconsistent with safety standards and nuclear security guidance, just a nice way of saying that we would much rather that explosives and mines were not near the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes. An understatement indeed. Alex, what can you tell us about the small gains that Ukraine has made in Bakhmut?

MARQUARDT: Obviously positive momentum for Ukrainian forces, but they are modest gains both in the east around Bakhmut and in the south. Now of course Bakhmut is one of the most fiercely fought-over cities since the beginning of this war. Russia does control it, but Ukraine is pushing -- is trying to encircle it, not doing so well on the northern part of the city, but they say that they are pushing around to the south, which could eventually cut off Russia's efforts to resupply the city and take higher ground.

And then in the south, which is arguably the bigger priority in this counteroffensive, we understand that they have made some gains on two different axes, as they try to push down towards the Sea of Azov. The big goal there, Boris, is to cut this land bridge, this very wide stretch of territory that connects Russian-controlled Crimea with Russian-controlled Donbas.

We hear from the Institute for the Security of War which is an outside monitoring group that Ukrainian forces have managed to push forward about a mile, just over a mile, 1.7 kilometers, but they have had to dig in. This is an extremely tough fight. We've been there, Boris. We've spoken with the soldiers. It is a very densely mined area and those forces are facing a fierce artillery from the Russian side, but they are making some small gains here -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Alex Marquardt reporting from Odessa. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Retired Major General "Spider" Marks here with me now.

So, General Marks, put a bunch of mines and explosives close to the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, was that in a deliberate attempt, preparations do you believe by Russia to create, well, the possibility of a radiological attack there?

[13:25:07]

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: No, I don't think that. I think what the Russians were doing or saying, we own this and we have no intent of giving it up. It also restricts, when you look where Zaporizhzhia is relative to Crimea and the new land bridge, if you will, that's connected Donetsk and the Donbas region to Crimea, it limits the maneuverability for the Ukrainian forces and for the Russians.

It gives them a good -- the Russians a good defensive position and it limits maneuverability for the Ukrainians in that area, if they're trying to isolate either north or to the south and west.

SCIUTTO: Understood, but you're not concerned about the nuclear proliferation?

MARKS: No.

SCIUTTO: Because there have been talk and concern -- you heard this from Ukrainian officials, about Russia laying the groundwork for a false flag attack, which they have tried to do multiple times in other categories to do something truly dangerous like that, but blame Ukraine.

MARKS: I really don't see that. I mean, there is nothing but losers across the board, if that were the case. I think it would be catastrophic, it truly would, and it wouldn't be able to be mitigated in any particular way. So I don't see that as a risk to Zaporizhzhia.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. Let's go on to the progress of the war. Ukrainians are reporting some small territorial gains around Bakhmut. But in the larger picture, the progress, the counteroffensive has not been as fast as expected. Did some reporting on this a number of weeks ago. How concerned are you about that? And do you believe that Ukrainians have the ability to turn that around?

MARKS: Well, several things here, Jim. First of all attacking through these offensive barriers that the Russians have put in place is going to be very difficult. It's slow maneuvering. You have to have really good intelligence, you have to reach out, you have to know where you want to go, but it takes a lot of firepower once you can identify a gap and you have to exploit that. So these kinds of operations take time.

So I don't know what the pace is supposed to look like. Many would label this as a desultory pace, it's very slow. Yes, it might be. But it needs to be in order to size up what the Russians are up to. So I'm not concerned that this is necessarily off-kilter or off-pace.

SCIUTTO: OK.

MARKS: The Ukrainians are doing that at a tempo that they can sustain.

SCIUTTO: And by the way, as I understand it, you need three-to-one advantage typically to attack the defended positions.

MARKS: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: The Ukrainian president just last week attached some blame for this on the slow delivery of weapons systems from the West and he made the point that you get those systems, and you have to train Ukrainian forces up on them. And that gave Russia time to dig in further. Do you think that's a fair criticism?

MARKS: I don't. I don't. Look, let's just state, President Zelenskyy is a Churchillian kind of leader. That's great. I think what you have to realize is you look at this Ukrainian military. It's getting the support from the West. And each one of these enablers provides an advantage, but you have to synchronize all that together. You have to conduct operational art, maneuver, achieving tactical objectives, tying them together.

And you have to do that in a three-dimensional space. You have to command the air, you have to command cyber, you have to have great intelligence, you've got long-range fires. All that has to be synchronized. And I don't think they have the numbers of those enablers in order to achieve that level of operational success.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Well, listen, there's still time. We'll be watching closely.

MARKS: Of course.

SCIUTTO: General Spider Marks, thanks so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Is that a threat? House Speaker McCarthy didn't just crack the door on pursuing a Biden impeachment, he's appearing to now throw it wide open, a shift from just a few weeks ago.

A live report from Capitol Hill when we come back.

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