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Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) Charged With Bribery; Ukraine Strikes Russian Black Fleet Headquarters; Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Sends Members Home Early Without Plan to Avert Shutdown. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 22, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ukraine is calling it a successful hit after a fiery strike on the heart of Russia's Black Sea fleeting in Crimea. The fallout still unfolding as Russia reports one soldier is missing.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: If he makes a deal with Democrats, it could cost him his job. If he doesn't, the government could very likely shut down. So, what will House Speaker Kevin McCarthy actually do?

BOLDUAN: And the breaking news. This hour, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars and checks. That's what investigators say they found in the home of a sitting U.S. senator, a senator now indicted.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And we do have breaking news, an indictment, a federal indictment with major implications in Washington and abroad. New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife have been indicted on corruption-related charges.

Menendez is the powerful chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He and his wife were accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for the Democratic senator's influence.

What's more, this is the second time in the past ten years that Menendez has faced charges like this. We are getting new details and new pictures from this indictment, including gold bars.

CNN's Kara Scannell outside the federal courthouse in New York following this all. Kara, what are you learning?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So, as you say, the senator, his wife and three New Jersey businessmen all indicted on corruption-related charges. And what authorities here allege is that Menendez and his wife had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and then used that for some of their influence to affect influence. Here are some of the details that we're learning from this indictment.

So, we learned that authorities had executed a search warrant on the senator's home in New Jersey in June of 2022 and on safety deposit boxes they had. And what they found when they executed this search warrant was $480,000 in cash placed in envelopes, in times stuffed in jackets, including jackets that say the senator's name on them.

[10:05:06]

We also learned that they found gold bars that they would receive from one of the businessmen. And those envelopes of cash, the authorities say that they found the DNA of another one of the businessmen on that time into them.

They also found a luxury vehicle that a third businessman had given the Menendezes and they also alleged that they had received -- made payments for home mortgage. They had received no-show jobs and also that luxury vehicle.

Now, what we've also learned from this indictment so far is that one of the things that they say that Menendez had done in exchange for these bribes was that he had pressured the Department of Agriculture official to help the businessmen who has this exclusive arrangement with Egypt to export halal-certified products, also that the Menendez had provided sensitive U.S. government information that secretly aided the government of Egypt.

They also say that he sought to interfere with criminal investigations into two of these businessmen, one of them, Jose Erbe (ph), they tried to disrupt the criminal investigation, and they also alleged that Menendez tried to recommend that the president nominate someone for the U.S. attorney in New Jersey to try to influence an investigation into one of the businessmen of New Jersey developer Fred Daibes. Daibes has pleaded guilty to a bank related charge and his sentencing is scheduled for next month.

But these are just some of the details that we're learning to kind of give a scope of what prosecutors say the Menendezes had did and how he tried to influence policy, including providing sensitive U.S. information secretly to Egypt.

I have reached out to Menendez's representatives and his lawyer, have not heard back yet on the charges. The U.S. attorney will be holding a press conference at 11:00 A.M. We'll probably learn additional details then, John.

BERMAN: Yes. We will be following that news conference, to be sure, to learn much more about the scope of this indictment.

Kara, as you have pointed out, what makes part of this so interesting is the Supreme Court has actually made it harder to convict public officials on corruption charges. You have to prove -- really, it's hard to prove an official action was taken. And part of the reason we know this is because Senator Bob Menendez himself had charges brought against him. There was a trial, a mistrial, and, ultimately, those charges were thrown out. But talk to us more about all that. SCANNELL: Right. So, Menendez was charged initially back in 2015 in a scheme involving a friend of his that was a doctor. He was charged with bribery, honest services fraud, a lot of these corruption-related charges. He'd gone to trial on that. The jury was hung. They couldn't come together with a verdict, so the judge declared a mistrial.

And then the Supreme Court had ruled in this case involving, again, bribery involving the governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell. And in that case, the Supreme Court really focused on what is an official act, so the quid pro quo of a bribery. And they had said that just setting up meetings for a friend is not enough to say that it's corrupt and in criminal.

So, they raised the bar on what prosecutors would have to establish as an official act. And that opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

And now so what we're seeing here, you know, I've been still going through this indictment, it's 39 pages, but they do seem to have some specific examples that go beyond setting up a meeting, and that is what this new hurdle is. Although, of course, this will be exactly what Menendez's lawyers challenge when they are in court facing these charges, John.

BERMAN: Yes, using influence maybe to get a U.S. attorney appointed allegedly, you know, revealing some kind of sensitive information to the government of Egypt allegedly. Again, those could be actions that, in theory, cleared this new bar for public corruption. This will be so interesting to hear the details of this news conference. Kara, we'll be watching alongside you. Thank you so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We also have new developments this morning out of Ukraine, Ukraine claiming responsibility for a fiery attack on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

New video is coming in showing that plumes of smoke just coming out of the buildings in the aftermath of this strike. Russian state media says debris has been scattered hundreds of meters.

Ukrainian officials are warning the Russian Black Sea fleet could be, quote/unquote, sliced up like a salami, is how they're saying it, if they don't surrender the Navy headquarters.

These new attacks come as Ukraine is ramping up its counter offensive continuing to try to push on its counter offensive operations against Russian military bases. So far, one Russian soldier is reported as missing after this latest attack.

CNN's Katie Polglase is tracking this from London for us. Katie, what more are you picking now?

KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER: Well, as you mentioned, clearly, we are now hearing that Ukraine is taking responsibility and the language is quite astonishing. You mentioned, cut up like a salami. Well, hear this. they say as well that Russia has two options for the future of its Black Sea fleet, voluntary or forced self- liquidation.

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Now, this is quite strong language from the Ukrainians, and, clearly, it's coming off the back of some confidence here at a very successful major attack on this headquarters of the Black Sea naval fleet. And it isn't just the attack today, there was also an attack yesterday at the Saky military air base also in Crimea and there was also an attack last week also in Sevastopol at a ship repair facility.

All of this is key infrastructure for Russia's war in Ukraine and, surely, this naval sea fleet headquarters is the biggest infrastructure head of all, really.

And if you look at what's been happening in the Crimea in the past few weeks, this is clearly part of Ukraine's strategy, that they are targeting areas that they believe are not only crucial for Russia's war effort but also notably Russia has held since 2014. These are areas that have long been annexed, illegally annexed by Russia from Ukraine and Ukraine's leadership have been very insistent that they intend to take it back.

And, clearly, this is being quite a damaging attack. As you can see from those videos, there's a lot still unfolding.

BOLDUAN: Very good point and you're all on top, of course. Thank you so much, Katie. John?

BERMAN: And, look, there's also just huge symbolic value for Sevastopol here on the tip of the Crimean Peninsula from where the Russians host their Black Sea fleet to try to control the whole Black Sea. This was a city of poor founded by Catherine the Great. This was the location of the Crimean War in the 1850s. It held out against the Nazis as long as it could in World War II. And then the Russians actually leased it back from Ukraine after the Cold War in 1991. This place, again, huge symbolic value to Russia.

With us now is Ben Hodges, retired Lieutenant General and former Commander of U.S. Army Forces in Europe. General, thank you so much for being with us.

I mentioned the symbolic value. Talk to me about the strategic value for Ukraine to continue to strike this port hard.

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER OF U.S. ARMY FORCES IN EUROPE: John, Crimea is the most important terrain for this entire war. It's what we would call the decisive terrain. Ukraine knows they'll never be safe or secure as long as Russia is able to operate from there. Russia does not care about Donbas except that that's where the land bridge is to Crimea. So, if the Ukrainians are able to liberate Crimea, then this war actually I think will be over.

So, what's happening, what your team has been describing very well, this is part of the counteroffensive. The counteroffensive is much more than the land operation. It's also the air and sea and Special Forces. All these things that are happening, this is the plan that is designed by the Ukrainian general of staff that is putting enormous pressure on the Russian general of staff.

And so as the commander of the Black Sea fleet, how the counteroffensive is going, he would tell you it's going terrible from a Russian perspective.

BERMAN: To give people another view of what's going on here, Sevastopol is down here on the tip of the Crimean Peninsula. The land part of the counteroffensive is largely up here with Ukrainian forces trying to push anywhere on Russian lines here.

And we have one other view of people, General, I want to show here of this. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Ukrainians were able to get armor through right here in this region, to break through some of the Russian lines. And the map I'm showing the audience from the Institute of the Study of War shows just how deep these Russian lines are.

So, if the Ukrainians have been able to get the first armored vehicles through some of these lines, what's the significance?

HODGES: So, the way that the Ukrainians will eventually liberate Crimea is by first isolating it and then making it untenable. So, the ground part of the counteroffensive is aimed at just that, to isolate it by cutting the land bridge. That means either by physically sitting on top of it, which is going to be much more difficult, or with the penetrations that you're talking about, they will soon be able to bring up longer range rocket launchers and artillery that could disrupt any traffic moving down the land bridge. So, the land part of this is a critical part of isolating Crimea.

Meanwhile, all of these strikes against Sevastopol and Saky and Dzhankoi, this is all part of making it untenable so that the Russians can no longer operate from there.

BERMAN: I got to let you go very quickly, but what in the aids package that Ukrainians are asking for, what weapons do they want in order to try to pressure the Crimean Peninsula?

HODGES: Of course, what they need is the ATACMS, the long-range precision strike capability that would be hitting Sevastopol and Saky and Dzhankoi every day.

A great package by the U.S., the U.S. continues to do a lot. The dual purpose improved conventional munitions, the cluster munitions very effectively for the artillery, but we still have not given the ATACMS on us, which would be the key.

BERMAN: Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, great to have you on. Thank you so much. Kate?

[10:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Let's turn out of the mess on Capitol Hill. In eight days, the government will shut down if Congress doesn't do its job and pass a funding bill of some sort to keep things rolling. This morning, a familiar deja vu is starting to set in. The Office of Management and Budget, they are now making plans to soon formally initiate the process of preparing for a potential shutdown, as we have seen so many times before.

And this is all about House Republicans. Hard right Republicans delivered House Speaker Kevin McCarthy another blow, blocking forward motion again on a related bill. So, McCarthy burned again, sent members home for the weekend.

Still, some Republicans are trying to work this out, even saying that they're willing to work with Democrats to avoid a shutdown. Here's one of those Republicans speaking to us just last hour.

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BOLDUAN: You'll work with Democrats to get something on the floor to avoid a government shutdown?

REP. MARC MOLINARO (R-NY): I've said this consistently. I was not sent here to shut things down. I was sent here to meet the needs of the people I serve. And I'll work with anybody, Republican or Democrat, from any part of the country, who's earnest and honest about meeting those needs.

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BOLDUAN: CNN's Lauren Fox following all this from the Hill. Lauren, what now?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL: Yes. I mean, this is a huge question right now, Kate, in part because we are just eight days away from a government shutdown. And Republicans' last ditch plan is they are going to try to pass 11 individual spending bills on the floor of the House of Representatives, one of which is the same bill that failed to advance yesterday on the House floor.

So, that is the predicament that House Republicans find themselves in right now. The House Rules Committee is going to gather to try and move a couple of these bills forward. But once they come to the floor, it's another question entirely if the votes will be there. And lawmakers are now gone for the weekend.

Meetings will continue. They're going to still try to get some work done. But actual votes on these bills, they're not going to start to happen until next week when they are just five days away from government shutdown.

So, at this point, the question is what is the Senate going to do and is the Senate going to send something over to the House of Representatives. And if so, would House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put it on the floor knowing that he is imperiled if he does anything to work with Democrats from his right flank.

It's really a question right now. Do you want to keep your job if you're Kevin McCarthy or do you want to avoid a government shutdown? And that is a tough calculation to make if you're the speaker of the House, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and one that he might be by design or at least the rock in the hard place might be by his design is where he's ended up here on this one. Let's see what happens. There's always a miracle possible.

It's good to see you Lauren. John?

BERMAN: All right. Thank you so much.

So, for the first time in a while, a swing state poll that might have Democrats smiling.

And we are waiting on what could be a major announcement from the United Auto Workers' chief with thousands -- will thousands more striking workers hit the picket line in just a couple hours? Will thousands of more workers hit the picket line in a couple hours?

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BOLDUAN: A new CNN poll out this morning, a new source of hope for Joe Biden's re-election campaign. Biden, now with the advantage and a hypothetical face-off with Donald Trump in New Hampshire. Take a look at this. Poll has Biden with a 12-point lead, even.

BERMAN: Yes, in New Hampshire, which at one point was a swing state. I mean, Biden beat Trump by about eight points there, but Hillary Clinton only beat Trump in New Hampshire by a few thousand votes.

Let's bring in CNN's political director, the esteemed David Chalian. David, what stands out to you in this poll?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I would pay less attention to the margin that spread at 52 to 40 and just more at each candidate's support number, because some of that 8 percent on shore you could see ending up in a Trump column, let's say.

But what is noteworthy there is that all the national polling that we've seen, guys, shows a margin of error race. And on our brand new exclusive New Hampshire poll in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire, Biden is besting every Republican tested outside the margin of error.

So, to John's point, you know, this begs the question, is New Hampshire truly a swing state or is it a blue shaded battleground state? But definitely Biden looks stronger here than he does nationally.

BOLDUAN: And what's the -- okay, can you talk to me about the possibility, no possibility, what's going on with the DNC rules and Joe Biden getting on the ballot in New Hampshire? What's happening and what do people think about it?

CHALIAN: Well, we did look at the Democratic primary in New Hampshire as well. And take a look, Joe Biden is dominating in this primary. Excuse me. He's got 78 percent support in the primary, 9 percent for Robert Kennedy Jr., 6 percent for Marianne Williamson. So, he is the clear favorite among likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire.

Kate, you mentioned Joe Biden is looking to change the order of things. He wants South Carolina to go first, not New Hampshire. Well, if New Hampshire ignores that call because of their pride at being first in the nation, they may be under sanctions from the DNC. Their contest may not count towards the delegate process and Joe Biden may not appear on the ballot then.

Guess what? New Hampshire Democrats don't care. Our new poll says 69 percent of them would still write his name in on the Democratic primary ballot.

BERMAN: Well, that is interesting because a lot of Joe Biden's problems in national polls, including CNN's own poll, was some squishiness or softness among Democratic voters. So, what does the polling in New Hampshire tell us overall about his support and questions that Democratic voters there have?

CHALIAN: So, we do see the same concern about age, right?

[10:25:00]

We asked the open-ended question in New Hampshire, what is your biggest concern about Biden as a candidate. 57 percent said his age. But look at his favorable numbers here, John, 68 percent favorable among likely Democratic primary voters, 16 percent neutral, 16 percent unfavorable.

We also asked, you know, would you like someone else to run in the 2024 Democratic primary? So, you would see this number, 37 percent say, yes, and that may cause Democratic hand-wringing. But then when we asked for a name, there was no name. Nobody had anybody to support.

So, you can't really beat somebody with nothing. And you see how low Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr. are. So, yes, there may be some hunger for something else that Democrats have. They don't know what that is. And they are rallying behind Biden when he matches up against Trump. 94 percent of Democrats are supporting Biden in the Biden versus Trump matchup. That's true of only 79 percent of Republicans for Trump, John.

BERMAN: Look, and that's why the Biden campaign is so -- working so hard to frame this now as a Biden versus Trump matchup.

David Chalian, great to see you.

CHALIAN: Precisely.

BERMAN: Thank you, as always.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, David. BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN Political Commentator S.E. Cupp. And I want to continue with one of the themes we just ended on there, S.E.

The New York Times had a remarkable tidbit of reporting today saying that, you know, several months ago, the DNC, on behalf of Joe Biden, had been doing polls of head to head matchups of Biden versus President Biden versus prospective Republican candidates. Well, now, apparently they've stopped asking questions about Ron DeSantis, the implication being they just don't think he's a threat anymore. They don't think he's going to win the nomination. It's just Donald Trump.

The direct quote is, now as Mr. Trump's leading the primary has grown in heart, the party has dropped Mr. DeSantis from such hypothetical matchups in the Biden campaign's polling on Republican candidates is now directed squarely to Mr. Trump. What does that tell you?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That tells you a lot. Look, Ron DeSantis was really hyped. He was hyped as being Trump but smarter. And I've said this before, it's almost like he's Trump but dumber, at least when it comes to running a political campaign. I mean, he's lost donors, he's had to fire staff, he has not found his lane.

And, you know, despite throwing out a bunch of stuff, you know, spaghetti on the wall to see if it would stick, you know, picking on Disney and picking all those culture wars, nothing has really boosted him. He's only gone in the opposite direction.

And I think he was always sort of a donor invention, almost a Manchurian candidate, with not a lot of there there. I don't know who Ron DeSantis is outside of like the culture wars. And that just isn't a salient enough message to win in what a lot of voters consider a bad economy and with a lot of real problems having nothing to do with Disney and drag shows.

BOLDUAN: And from Disney and drag shows to transition to the mess on Capitol Hill --

BERMAN: Which would be a great drag show, but that's an aside. Go ahead.

BOLDUAN: I think we've just hit on something. We wanted to get your take on what's going on in the House with Republicans and the government shutdown coming in eight days. And we thought it might be a good opportunity for this episode of the CNN News Central game show that we would like you to be playing. Game show of the week involves this, McCarthy or Gaetz. Those are your two options. Who had a better week? Kevin McCarthy or Matt Gaetz?

CUPP: I guess if these are the choices, Matt Gaetz. I mean, I saw yesterday where Kevin McCarthy was sort of frustrated and said, it's like they want to burn it all down. Yes, yes. Have you met these guys? Have you met Matt Gaetz? Have you met Marjorie Taylor Greene? That's all they want to do. And these are the people he bent over backwards, right, to placate and get that 15th vote to become speaker. These were the hostage takers. And now, guess what? He's a hostage. And he's having to, you know, follow Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene around to get anything done. And he's acting like he didn't know how this happened.

It's bizarre. But, listen, the chickens have come home to roast.

BERMAN: Well, so who's driving this ship as we sit here on Friday heading into this -- well, we're in the middle now of this congressional long weekend that they just declared. Who is steering this? And when you put their pictures back up on the screen, here are your two choices, Kevin McCarthy or Matt Gaetz.

CUPP: I mean, it seems like Matt Gaetz is. Listen, even after McCarthy capitulated and decided he was going to go ahead without a vote and start impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden, minutes after, Matt Gaetz still said, well, I'm still going to call a motion to have him vacate. Even after he got what he, what he, I thought wanted, he wants more because, again, the goal is not to govern.

[10:30:01]

The goal is not to solve problems. The goal is to get famous. The goal is to grandstand.