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Biden Turns To Camp David Diplomacy For 1st Trilateral Summit With Japan & South Korea; Some U.S. Officials View Crimea Strategy With Skepticism; Entire City Of Yellowknife Forced To Evacuate As Fires Rage; Defense Argues Accused Killer Bryan Kohberger Was Out For A "Late-Night Drive". Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 18, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:32:49]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Happening this afternoon, President Biden is hosting the leaders of South Korea and Japan in the first ever trilateral summit with those two countries.

The gathering in Camp David brings together two Asian powers that have decades of tension and mistrust behind them.

Here's some sound from President Biden. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not only the first summit I've hosted at Camp David. It's the first-ever stand-alone summit between the leaders of Japan and Republic of Korea and the United States.

And I can think of no better way to mark our new chapter of our trilateral cooperation than meeting here at Camp David. Our countries are stronger, and the world will be safer as we stand together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The trio's common goal today is to show unity and force in the face of a rising China and an increasingly provocative North Korea.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Also overseas, Russia is blaming Ukraine for another attempted drone strike on Moscow today, calling it a terrorist attack. A bit of irony there, given the number of missiles Russia has lobbed at Ukraine.

Moscow's mayor says the drone damaged a nonresidential building after they say it was shot down by Russian air defenses. The strike forced four Moscow airports to close.

It marks the third time in the past month that the Moscow district has been struck by a Ukrainian drone.

These alleged attacks in the Russian capital come as we learn U.S. officials are growing skeptical of another piece of Ukraine's strategy, and that is the decision to ramp up missile strikes specifically on Russian-occupied Crimea in southern Ukraine.

CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is in Dnipro, Ukraine, for us. Katie Bo Lillis is here in Washington.

So, Katie, explain the U.S. skepticism about this piece of the Ukrainian plan.

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So, Jim, it's against the backdrop of this stalled Ukrainian counteroffensive that Ukraine, in recent weeks, has turned to striking Crimea at an increased pace.

They're using missiles to strike bridges connected to Ukrainian mainland and Russia. They're using artillery to try to strike ammunition depots, logistic hubs and command-and-control hubs.

[13:35:05]

And for Crimea -- for Ukraine, the goal is to try to isolate Crimea and try to make it more difficult for Russia to be able to sustain its military operations on the mainland.

Now, U.S. military and intelligence officials that we've spoken to say it's a little bit too early to tell whether or not this is going to be effective at making it tougher for Russians to stand up to these Ukrainian offenses.

But more than that, Jim, what we are hearing is that, behind the scenes within the U.S. government, there is a growing sense of skepticism among some Biden administration and military officials that this tactic of hitting Crimea is really a good idea.

They're concerned that this is essentially spreading the resources too thin. At best, it's a distraction, at worst it is a waste of valuable resources at a time when the U.S. government broadly is worried that Ukraine has spread itself too thin across multiple axes of attack.

I want to share with you what we heard from a senior defense official who said to us it's knocked the Russians off balance a little bit, but it's not doing anything decisive. And it would probably be better for everyone for them to just focus on the counteroffensive.

SCIUTTO: See how they make that argument to the Ukrainians. They very much view Crimea as Ukrainian territory. It goes back to the 2014 invasion.

Nick Paton Walsh, you are in Ukraine. As you know, Crimea's something of a bone of contention between the West and Ukraine because there are some in the West who think that may be a bridge too far, even if they do not recognize it as Russian-annexed territory.

From the Ukrainian perspective, how do they view these strikes that they've been able to carry out on Crimea and other places behind enemy lines, as it were?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I think it's very true that there are concerns in the West that Crimea is a deep red-button issue for Vladimir Putin.

And that could potentially cause a ration of responses if they felt that significant part of Russia's, I think, pride in what they've tried to do in occupying parts of Ukraine were, indeed, threatened.

But I don't really get some of the skepticism about why hitting Crimea doesn't assist the counteroffensive. A lot of Russia's occupying military forces are in Crimea.

A lot of the supply route to the parts of the counteroffensive that the Russians are trying to hold back come up from Crimea and a function on that western part of the southern counteroffensive where a lot of Ukraine's push is happening right now.

So the strikes we've been seeing on ammo depots in northern Crimea, the northern bridges heading up from Crimea, around that area, certainly could have an impact on Russia's ability to hold Ukraine back south of Orakiv, an important part near that region where I'm standing.

Plus, also, too, the Kerch Bridge is another supply route that doesn't involve bringing weapons all the way across the Azov Sea, along that land corridor, also in peril potentially, too.

So I think a lot of what we're seeing here are concerns by the West about Crimea becoming the focus of Ukraine's energies. But, at the moment, that's pretty farfetched.

They're desperately trying to cut off the land corridor from Russian mainland that heads down to Crimea. In an ideal world, they might be able to push the Russians back to their 2014-2015 boundaries.

But they're still struggling to get towards the Azov Sea in the first stage of this counteroffensive.

And I think it's fair to say the Ukrainians see hitting these military infrastructure targets in Crimea as most certainly impacting Russia's ability to defend itself in that key part of the southern front -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: And Ukrainian forces suffering just devastating losses in that battle on the ground in the east.

Nick Paton Walsh, there in Ukraine, thanks so much.

Katie Bo Lillis, here with me in D.C.

Boris, over to you.

SANCHEZ: Some 20,000 Canadians are fleeing their homes as wildfires are moving in. We have the latest from the region.

[13:38:55]

Plus, he's accused of brutally killing four University of Idaho students, and he's due in court today for a hearing focused on his alibi. The details, just minutes away.

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[13:43:33]

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

The head of world soccer body, FIFA, getting flack today after telling women's soccer players they should pick the right battles if they want to, quote, "convince us, men, what we have to do concerning equal pay." Yikes.

According to a recent CNN analysis, soccer players at the 2023 women's World Cup are going to average -- on average, earn just 25 cents for every dollar earned by the men at their World Cup last year. May want to pick his words a little bit more carefully.

Also, in a sharp break from an Arkansas state order, the Little Rock school district says it will offer an A.P. African-American studies course that will count towards graduation.

Earlier this month, Arkansas state education officials said the course would not receive graduation credits, citing an executive order signed in January by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

That order prohibited what she described as indoctrination and critical race theory in schools.

We also want to share this with you, a frightening video captured on board a Southwest Airlines flight in the skies over Houston. Not what you want to see coming out of your plane engine.

Flames bursting out, forcing the distressed flight to quickly return to the Houston airport shortly after takeoff. Southwest says the plane landed safely and was taken out of service for review.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes, what a thing to see outside your plane window.

[13:44:59]

Well, dangerous fast-moving flames, not in Hawaii but ravaging parts of Canada. An out-of-control wildfire has now forced an entire city to evacuate.

The city of Yellowknife, home to approximately 20,000 people, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories, is now virtually empty.

A frantic scene there with hundreds of people lining up to register for emergency evacuation flights. Others had to flee in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the one road out of

town. Many worried, not knowing if their homes will still be standing when they come back.

Officials say the fire has already burned more than 400,000 acres. Could reach the outskirts of Yellowknife this weekend.

CNN's Paula Newton joins us now from Ottawa with more details.

This is quite an evacuation underway here, an entire city, the capital of the Northwest Territories. How is it going?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the Canadian officials just wrapped, in fact, a press conference. They said that, thankfully, the evacuation is going well so far.

It has been calm. Traffic on that one highway, as you mentioned, traffic has calmed there. The route out is so far safe.

And I want to point out, Jim, how harrowing this can be. That route out actually goes right through the forest fire. Smoke has been thick there for several weeks.

And that is another reason why officials weren't taking any chances. I mean, look, Jim, we just saw what happened in Maui, right?

And they did not want this community, this large but, again, isolated community, to actually be left at the mercy of a wildfire where they just could not predict where it was going next, largely because of the wind.

What does that entail, Jim? As you can imagine, the most vulnerable are the concern right now. There is an unprecedented air lift going on right now that involves commercial airplanes but also the military.

I want you to listen now to Canada's minister of defense as he was just telling us how they are getting the most vulnerable out of the city. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BLAIR, MINISTER OF NATIONAL DEFENCE OF CANADA: They have fit-for- purpose aircraft that are able to move people who may be non- ambulatory on stretcher or in wheelchair. And they can also provide medical personnel to provide support and assistance to those who may need it.

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NEWTON: Now, those who obviously need medical evacuation are going out on other kinds of aircraft.

Jim, I also want to point out that, in British Columbia at this hour, in Kelowna, they have another fire that is out of control. Thousands there warned to get out now. Others on alert.

Again, this is all part of an unprecedented wildfire season. Jim, already the worst in Canadian history.

And throughout this weekend, people in both the northwest in the United States, the Midwest and the northeast should watch the weather carefully and those alerts.

They do expect some of the smoke from these fires to dip down into the United States certainly by the weekend -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, you see events in Kelowna, in Maui, and you see the importance of making evacuation decisions like this.

Paula Newton, in Ottawa, thanks so much.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, the suspected killer of four Idaho college students in court right now. The major focus of today's proceeding? Bryan Kohberger's alibi, where he says he was during the murders.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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[13:52:58]

SANCHEZ: Out for a late-night drive by himself -- that's the alibi attorneys of the accused killer of the slayings of four University of Idaho students are defending during a court hearing underway right now.

Bryan Kohberger has pled not guilty to four counts of the first-degree murder in the November 13th slayings.

But the state has argued he must provide a lot more details about his whereabouts that night, but the defense is now fighting that.

CNN's Jean Casarez has been following the case very closely.

So, Jean, how are things expected to play out in court today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you, Boris, the hearing has just started. And the defendant has a gray suit and tie, very formally dressed. He sat down very quickly next to his defense attorneys. Now there is argument underway.

And there are cameras in that courtroom. We are going to be able to see this hearing, every bit of it. But the judge's rule is not until the hearing is over will that video be distributed. So we'll have it as soon as it is culminated.

One of the big issues is, this trial, this death penalty trial, is supposed to start in about a month and a half.

Why? Because the defendant has exercised his right to a speedy trial, which means that it has to be held within six months after the indictment. He's even gotten a little bit of an extension.

Prosecutors, through their filings, want to know, when is this going to start?

Because we've got victim families that need to be prepared. There are so many reports. And discovery has to be exchanged. Are you sure you want it to start this soon? That's got to be looked at today.

Second, it's like you mentioned, that alibi. The defendant filed notice that he is seeking an alibi. He will have an alibi that he was not in that house that night when the murders were committed.

Well, he is supposed to give specifics, exactly where you were, witnesses who will testify their names, addresses, all the information, to state that you were not at that house.

Here is how the defense has responded in legal filings.

[13:54:58]

Quote, "Mr. Kohberger has long had a habit of going for drives alone. Often, he would go for drives at night. He did so late on November 12 and into November 13, 2022. He was out driving during the late night and early morning hours of November 12 and 13, 2022."

So they place him outside of his own apartment in a car, but not in that house. We need to see how that develops too. Because if you don't give particulars, Boris, as the defense, you may not be able to have an alibi defense.

SANCHEZ: Yes, they can't keep it that vague moving forward, especially when the prosecution is zeroing in on him.

Jean Casarez, thank you so much for the reporting.

Jim?

SCIUTTO: Coming up next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, we'll take you live to Maui where more than a thousand people could still be missing. And now federal investigators are coming in to track down what caused this historic disaster.

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