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Russia: Ukraine Missile Strike Hits Russia's Black Sea Fleet HQ; Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY), Is Interviewed About The Plan To Avert Government Shutdown; Authorities Find 8 To 10 Kilos Of Drugs In Day Care Trap Floor. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 22, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:26]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ukraine hitting at the heart of Russia's Black Sea Fleet taking the fight directly to Russian controlled Crimea. New videos coming in of the fiery missile strike today.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Loss of control, with days before a government shutdown, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sends members home because he can't get Republicans to agree on anything else. Can he hang on to his job?

BOLDUAN: Desperation at the U.S.-Mexico border. CNN cameras were rolling as children are pulled through barbed wire as a migrant surge unfolds once again along -- all along there with renewed calls for help. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

Let's start with the big news out of Ukraine that's still really unfolding as we speak, a missile strike on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. We now have new video coming in that shows the scenes afterward. You can see plumes of smoke coming out of a building there. At least one Russian soldier is reported missing that's right now. This is Sevastopol. This is one of the largest cities in Russia, Russian controlled Crimea.

And Russian state media says the debris from the strikes scattered hundreds of feet from the point of impact. Over the past month, Ukraine has really been ramping up its attacks on Russian military bases and other sites in and around Crimea as part of their counter offensive. And this looks to be a big move today. CNN's Katie polglaze has more on this. She's tracking this from London. Katie, what more are you learning about this strike this morning?

KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER: Well, we're learning that clearly. This was quite a big target for the Ukrainians, potentially the biggest one so far in this area. This is the headquarters for the Black Sea Naval Fleet. Now, in terms of what hit it, we're reporting currently that it's a missile. Again, we're talking a lot about these long range missiles that Zelenskyy is after and you can see why. This is the kind of impact that missile attacks can have. We're seeing in those videos, you showed really devastating huge plumes of smoke. Residents are being told by the Sevastopol governor to stay inside, take shelter while it's not safe, particularly in the city center. We're hearing about this debris reaching really quite a wide area. There's also this Luhansk theater right in the center of town that's been damaged by debris. This is really showing how it's impacting civilians right in the middle of the city and the impact it's having.

And again, these attacks on Crimea, they are strategic. We were putting just yesterday on the Saki Airbase last week, again, on a ship repair facility in Sevastopol. This is an area that has a strategic value to Russia in this war. It's an area where a lot of this war effort is organized where a lot of ammunition, weaponry support for the invasion is conducted and stored and then transferred closer to the frontline.

So really have incredible strategic importance to Russia, and to be hit successfully by allegedly the Ukrainian authorities, although we haven't heard anything from them yet. That would be a major success for them. The question really is how this managed to happen, how the Russian defenses didn't stop this from happening. And clearly, quite a lot still to monitor as we see this attack still unfolding.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I was -- and I was going to ask you about that. Because what we're hearing from Ukrainian military yet, if anything, which you said we haven't yet. And also what is also always important how Russia is characterizing whenever they've been hit by something like this. So farther there's they're reporting one Russian soldier missing. But what more are you hearing?

POLGLASE: Exactly in the description is interesting. Just an hour or so ago, they were saying that that soldier was dead. Now they're missing. There's clearly a level of chaos here in terms of trying to glean information from their own side as to what's happened here. And again, the presentation of the Ukrainian side often when these attacks unfold, whether they explicitly take credit for them or not, is always that this is a success, that this is part of the effort to make sure that Russia feels afraid at home, taking the war back into Russian territory away from the frontline, because let's not forget that some of the frontline battlefield has been really quite marginal in terms of gains. And so targeting Russian infrastructure further away is clearly part of Ukraine strategy currently. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. Katie Polglase, thank you so much. We're going to be following these developments is going to be much more information coming in throughout the show about this. John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is scrambling to find a new plan to keep the government open and maybe keep his job. This after the last plan failed and the one before that and the one before that depending on how you're counting. All he's been able to do on the face of a government shutdown just eight days away is send members home for a long weekend. Part of McCarthy's bind is that if he works with Democrats to pass a funding bill, some conservative members might try to push him out of his speaker's role. [09:05:18]

At least two Republicans say they are now ready to take a rare procedural step to join Democrats and get the job done. Overnight, President Biden responded to the Republican chaos. He said last time there was a government shutdown 800,000 Americans were furloughed or worked without pay. But enjoy your weekend. We did just learn the federal government will soon formally start the process of preparing for a shutdown really, it's just eight days away. CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill are with the latest. Lauren, so what's actually happening?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Plan A failed, plan B failed. I think we're on Plan C or D at this point. And House Republicans now are going to try and pass 11 individual spending bills in just a matter of days. But as you noted, they are back home for the weekend. There are expected to be meetings happening in House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office today and perhaps even into tomorrow.

But right now, the House Rules Committee is expected in a couple of hours to begin the process of trying to put on the floor individual spending bills. But the problem with that gamble is that anything that they pass would be dead on arrival in the Senate. And it's not clear that they would have the Republican support that they would need because one of the bills that they're working on is that Department of Defense spending bill that would fund the Department for one year.

But they failed to pass a procedural step yesterday on the floor. It was the second time in just a matter of weeks that that legislation has failed. So that is what Kevin McCarthy is working against. And he's acknowledging that he has some people in his conference that may never get to yes.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's frustrating in the sense that I don't understand why anybody votes against bringing the idea and having the debate. And then you got all the amendments, if you don't like the bill. This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down.

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FOX: At this point, one of the only solutions is for Republicans and Democrats to find a way forward, the votes would likely be there for some kind of short term spending bill that would include disaster aid or Ukraine funding. But you would have to make a decision as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whether or not he was going to bring that to the floor, because as you noted, any decision to work with Democrats could mean the end of his speakership. And that is why this is such a politically precarious position for McCarthy to be in right now. John?

BERMAN: He can have government funding, he can have his job. It's not clear that he can have both at this point, as we sit here this Friday morning. Lauren Fox, keep us posted on what you hear. Kate? BOLDUAN: Let's talk much more about exactly that, John. Joining us right now is Republican Congressman Marc Molinaro from New York. Congressman, thank you very much for taking the time this morning because you're really in the middle of all of this. As Lauren Fox was laying out this new effort to move spending bills, one by one, the strategy seems to make a shutdown unavoidable. Is that the plan now?

REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): Well, I -- no, and I appreciate being with you. No, I mean, a shutdown is not unavoidable. In fact, our commitment needs to be to earnestly move forward on these appropriation bills. I think what we saw over the course of the last couple of weeks is still that you know that we have a conference and a majority that comes from different perspectives and one end wants to be certain that we're earnestly moving forward with considering bills that shrink the size, scale scope of the federal government focus effectively on protecting and securing our border and funding the military.

And, of course, there's another side that wants to do that, but also ensure that we're keeping government functioning. What I proposed yesterday with a number of my colleagues was simply getting that process back up and running. And I think an earnest effort to prove that we mean business on behalf of the American people is going to unstick the logjam while we continue to take these incremental steps forward.

BOLDUAN: Look, and Congressman, I think what you're getting at is something that's really important because two things are true. Many things are true at one time, which is, as Lauren was reporting, these individual bills moving forward. They are the reporting is they're dead on arrival in the Senate. So they would not go anywhere, but still also true at the same time, is the need to show that you are trying.

And I want to read out and read for you how political playbook, put it this morning. It is insightful, because a lot of this is strategy and trying to, I'm going to call it herd cats at this moment, and this might be getting to it. If you squint hard, you might see a possible scenario in which McCarthy allows a week to be wasted on the Gaetz plan, but they're calling it the Gaetz plan, but this is a plan that you're talking about right here. But then bowing to pressure from the Senate, the public and his own conference passes the Senate short term spending bill with a bipartisan vote at the very last minute or after a short shutdown. What do you think of that?

[09:10:01]

MOLINARO: Well I wouldn't squint too hard. The goal here is not -- this isn't a head fake, this is an earnest effort to show to the American people and to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, two things. We have a bipartisan government by design or default, we have to find some common ground between the Senate. And I'd offer it instead of the President sitting on the sideline laughing about the fact that we have yet to move those appropriation bills, perhaps providing a de a decent amount of leadership to focus our attention on the fact that this government spends money doesn't have, taxes people --

BOLDUAN: Wait. But do you actually think President Biden getting involved right now would make it any easier for Republicans to come together because this is a Republican problem at this moment?

MOLINARO: Well, listen, it's an American problem. We have allowed this White House to allow thousands of undocumented individuals into the country, it's crushing the city of New York. But my point is that what we do need is earnest effort on both sides of the political aisle. I know all, both houses of the Congress and the White House. But to the point, this is an earnest effort to confront the wasteful spending show earnestly that we mean, to rein in the size, scale and scope of the federal government.

And at the same time, I hope that that that kind of earnestness will send a message to the Senate that you can't just discard the concern of the American people, you got to focus on the fact that they're spending more than people can afford and have yet to secure the national borders.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Focusing on spending and the amount of spending is important. But with eight days to shut down, you start needing to prioritize just as the federal government and different agencies are now going to need to start prioritizing who they're going to furlough and who they're going to keep on. So while that debate is important, it needed to happen a lot further along before now. You guys need to deal within an earnest effort is important, but Republicans need to deal with the Republican mess right now.

And you as Kevin McCarthy has said, you've got people who just want to burn the place down or see the place fall apart. That's not a Democratic problem that's in within your party right now. You've talked also talked publicly about, go ahead. I'm not saying I don't think I said anything that needs correcting do I?

MOLINARO: No. And I was actually going to jump to what you were about to say, which is you're correct. By the way, the other side of that equation is what I've said, and that is that, that I came here to meet the needs of the people I serve. And there are a good number of us who do understand that some don't want to say yes to anything. And there are a good number of us who will not allow this government to shut down and shirk its responsibility to the people. And our goal now member driven with this with the speaker, sort of blessing the effort, which is an earnest effort, try to move forward to meet that commonality.

BOLDUAN: Do you think there are some of these -- some Republicans just want to embarrass Kevin McCarthy right now?

MOLINARO: I don't play the personality game. I mean, I will say that what people want to do on Twitter or X, whatever it is these days is ultimately between them and their keyboard. I think what I saw yesterday, and I spent 12 years as an executive trying to build consensus around budgets, what I saw yesterday was people who didn't agree only moments ago agreeing to a process one that I put forward with others meant to unstick the logjam. And I think that that is a remarkable concession on both sides. And the hope here now is that we can focus effectively on wasteful government spending and securing the border.

BOLDUAN: What you're saying is right now, it is not a binary choice between working with Democrats on putting a bill on the floor or shutting down the government. But you are open to and will if it comes to it, you'll work with Democrats to get something on the floor to avoid a government shutdown.

MOLINARO: I've said this consistently. I was not sent here to shut things down. I was sent here to meet needs the people I serve. And I'll work with anybody, Republican or Democrat from any part of the country whose earnest and honest about meeting those needs. Right now the focus again, and I think to the point it's not a binary issue, we both come to this issue from different extremes. The focus right now is developing the process, committing to the process that earnestly shows commitment to rein in spending and confront the lack of security at our borders.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Molinaro, thank you so much for coming in your perspective critical in this debate and will be critical to see how it changes over the next 24, 48 hours, eight days. Thank you very much.

MOLINARO: I appreciate and I'm still here.

BOLDUAN: And you are still here. You are still standing right there in the Capitol which is worth noting. Thank you very much.

And John also worth noting, as I toss it over to you, is Marc Molinaro is one of the Republicans, he's a freshman Republican who won in a district that Biden won. So he is a top target for Democrats, a top target even for other Republicans, depending on how things go here. This is a tough call for a lot of people.

BERMAN: It is incentive for him to get something done or try to get something done.

A trapdoor on the floor of a daycare hiding 8 to 10 kilos of drugs, new details in the investigation into the death of the baby from exposure to fentanyl.

[09:15:06]

A bus plunges off the interstate, two people killed, dozens injured, what officials are saying now about the possible cause?

And what could be the first decent polling news for President Biden in some time. New polling from what has been a swing state in the past.

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BERMAN: This morning new details about a Bronx daycare where a one- year-old died after being exposed to fentanyl. Three other children were hospitalized. Authorities now say narcotics were hidden inside a trapped floor at the daycare. They found 8 to 10 kilograms of drugs wrapped up in the floorboards. The woman who owned and operated the daycare in a second suspect have now been indicted on various charges including murder.

Now investigators are still searching for a third suspect believed to be the woman's husband. He was seen on surveillance video leaving the center last week with plastic bags that appeared to contain large square items, authorities believed that he was carrying out fentanyl.

[09:20:10]

CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller is here with us. Now, let's talk about what is a manhunt for someone the authorities, I think believe was key in this operation.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: They do believe that I mean, the fact that he is the husband of the woman running the daycare center really raises this question, was the daycare center just a daycare center or was it a front for a much more profitable drug organization? And the answer is appearing more to be the latter, meaning having those kids there, they were licensed by the city in the state to care for up to eight kids. And that means a lot of coming and going, cars pulling up, parents going in, dropping off, picking up, which actually gave a veneer of a busy location on a quiet residential street that allowed for the other business to continue all those ins and outs looking normal.

BERMAN: And the business of fentanyl is quite a business, John.

MILLER: Well, it's changed the drug industry, but it's also changed the life and death nature of using illegal drugs. The CDC estimates there's 150 people across the country who die every day of fentanyl overdoses that fit into the larger, over 100,000 overdoses every year. But why? The Mexican cartels figured out with fentanyl being 50 times more powerful than heroin, that just a tiny amount of it added to another drug that you're marketing, heroin, cocaine, so on. And then anything else, lactose, milk, sugar to make up the rest. You're saving a lot of money by using way less heroin, more filler and a tiny bit of fentanyl. It's really caused profits to skyrocket and lives to end in very unpredictable ways.

BERMAN: And causes people to engage in what appears to be a horrifying scheme that put children's life on the line, it may have cost of life.

MILLER: When you look at this, you've got babies sleeping on mats in the floor. And then behind where the mats are folded up, you have a kilo of this fentanyl. And in the floor, mixes of heroin and fentanyl beneath this trapdoor, literally with, you know, two of the babies were brother and sister. There was the third and then the child who died. And the third when that child got home, the parents had to rush him to the hospital and caught that in the emergency room with drugs that revived them.

BERMAN: All right, the investigation the manhunt continues. John Miller, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We're going to take you now to the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking for the General Assembly, let's listen in. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: -- in Morocco. The Abraham Accords were a pivot of history. And today, we all see the blessings of those of Accords. Trade and investment with our new peace partners are booming. Our nation's cooperate in commerce, energy, water, agriculture, medicine, climate, and many, many other fields. Close to a million Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates in the past three years.

Every day, Israelis save time and money by doing something they couldn't do for 70 years. They fly over the Arabian Peninsula to destinations in the Gulf, India, the Far East Australia, the Abraham Accords ushered in another dramatic change. It brought Arabs and Jews closer together. We see it in the frequent Jewish weddings in Dubai, in the dedication of a tourist school in a synagogue in Bahrain. In the visitors flocking to the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Casa Blanca, we see it in lessons that are given to Arab students about the Holocaust in the UAE.

There is no question. The Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace. But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough and historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Such a piece will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will encourage other Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel.

It will enhance the prospects of peace with the Palestinians. It will encourage a broader reconciliation between Judaism and Islam, between Jerusalem and Mecca, between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael. All these are tremendous blessings.

[09:25:11]

Two weeks ago, we saw another blessing already in sight. In the G20 conference, President Biden, Prime Minister Modi and European and Arab leaders announced plans for a visionary corridor that will stretch across the Arabian Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fiber optic cables.

This corridor will bypass maritime checkpoints or chokepoints rather, and dramatically lower the cost of goods, communication and energy for over 2 billion people. What a historic change for my country. You see, the land of Israel is situated in the crossroad between Africa, Asia and Europe. And for centuries, for centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere.

But today, today as we tear down the walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents. Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East.

BERMAN: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking to the United Nations General Assembly. This is his first address before that chamber since he retook office in Israel. And as someone who was very experienced speaking to this body, it comes in a bit of a different time for him where his biggest challenges aren't necessarily abroad.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. I mean, typically in years past, when we've actually been covering this together, John, the thing that he's focuses on is the external threat of Iran in obtaining a nuclear weapon, and so on and so forth. But this time, his problems are internal, which he's not really talking about here that we've heard so far. His problems are internal with his push to completely overhaul the judicial system in Israel and the big backlash and protests they've been seen internally and externally because of it.

BERMAN: All right, we will continue to monitor that speech and there is other news coming into the newsroom. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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