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Strike on Kharkiv Kills 10-Year-Old and His Grandmother; ABC: Trump Allegedly Discussed Sensitive Nuclear Submarine Info with Mar-A- Lago Member in 2021; New Jersey AG Opens Inquiry into 2018 Fatal Car Crash Involving Nadine Menendez; Kevin McCarthy Expected to Step Down from Congress. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 06, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Russia continues to reign death and destruction on Ukraine. A missile strike on residential buildings in Kharkiv today killed a 10-year-old and his grandmother. Dozens more were left injured.

Meantime, in the small village of Hroza, they are still reeling. At least 52 people there were killed yesterday as they gathered to mourn a local soldier. The building they were in was obliterated when Russia targeted it with a large ballistic missile.

Joining us now to discuss retired Lieutenant General and CNN military analyst Mark Hertling. General Hertling, thank you so much for being with us. So a spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia doesn't target civilians. But a grocery store where there was a memorial for a fallen soldier, that doesn't strike me as a military target.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's not a military target, Boris, and this town of Hroza is a relatively small town, small population far away from the frontline. Struck by what appears to be a scanner missile. Now that kind of missile delivers over 1,000 pound warhead, a 1000 pounds of dynamite. It has close to a 300-mile range. It has inertial guidance, that is GPS guided to a target.

[15:35:00]

When you take all those things into consideration, knowing Hroza is a small town without probably any air defense from the Ukrainian Forces around it. This is an indicator of Russian targeting and it's an indicator of a war crime. Since this missile did go against civilian infrastructure that had no military value. In effect, Boris, this is called premeditated murder.

SANCHEZ: Wow, given that, General Hertling, do you think it's a coincidence that this deadly civilian attack, the deadliest one that we've seen in more than a year, comes at a time when it appears to be that support for Ukraine in the form of aid and funding from the West appears to be hitting a rough patch? HERTLING: Yes, certainly, Boris. Anytime you are in combat, you always have to weigh the physical with the psychological. And that's what Mr. Putin is doing. Last winter, as you recall, there were continuous strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure. Now we're talking about these kinds of strikes, which I would suggest should be counterproductive to Mr. Putin's war aims. When you see these kinds of things, it would seem to me that most people would step up and say, let's help Ukraine stop this. Let's contribute to their continuing their fight for their sovereignty and their freedom.

But in fact, what we're seeing right now in Congress is just the opposite. Where there is an increasing number of relatively small number of Representatives in our Congress, who are saying let's not give aid to these people who, in effect, as I just said, are being murdered, who are being executed and are targeted by Russian military when they're civilians.

SANCHEZ: General, while we have you, I do want to ask about the new reporting from ABC. That months after he left the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly shared sensitive information about U.S. nuclear Subs with an Australian billionaire at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Allegedly the former president, sharing details like how many warheads are typically on these submarines and how close they can get to Russian submarines without being detected. What are the implications of that kind of information being out there?

HERTLING: You know, Boris, all classified information is provided to those who have a need to know. And the president when they're in office certainly need to know a lot of things in order to help them make decisions. But when you're out of office and sharing this kind of information, which I would, you know, suspect, is it given it's a nuclear submarine, is at the highest level of classification, top secret, and perhaps even some code word kind of information.

Sharing that just haphazardly at the resort at Mar-a-Lago or perhaps even other information that one of his golf courses to civilians that don't have a need to know is extremely dangerous. Puts our country at risk and also puts certainly those members that are serving in the submarine force at risk. Because it's basically giving away information that they like to keep secret and is required for their operations. So to me it's just another indicator that there is a lack of security in the in the past administration in terms of dealing with our nation's secrets. And that's extremely dangerous.

SANCHEZ: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, we very much appreciate your expertise and perspective. Thanks so much.

HERTLING: Pleasure Boris, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So in the federal indictment against Senator Bob Menendez and his wife for bribery, it was revealed that she apparently hit and killed a pedestrian back in 2018 before they were married with new details on the incident when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: According to "The New York Times," the New Jersey Attorney General has opened an inquiry into a 2018 fatal car crash involving Nadine Menendez, the wife of Senator Bob Menendez. The accident happened before they were married and is mentioned in the federal bribery indictment against them -- that car was. CNN has obtained surveillance footage from the crash in which a pedestrian was struck and killed. Police questioned Nadine Menendez at the scene and concluded she was not at fault, though she was not tested for drugs or alcohol. CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller is here with us, with more. So, John, what more do we know about this new inquiry from the New Jersey AG and what will investigators be looking for?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, what we know from the new inquiry is, you know, the Bogota, New Jersey Police Department provided us with the records really just almost immediately after we requested them earlier this week. Yesterday, we came to the Bergen County Prosecutor's office with questions and those questions have remained unanswered.

The prosecutor's office is important here, Pam, because the police are the initial response. But when there's a fatality in the accident, the prosecutor's fatal accident investigating unit basically takes over the investigative part of the case.

So, one of the things that is central here is about whether or not they should have been able to get her phone at the scene and figure out if that played a factor in the accident. So let's go to a dash camera video from the police car that night of them asking Nadine Arslanian about that phone at the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[15:45:04]

NADINE ARSLANIAN, SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ'S SOON-TO-BE WIFE: I didn't do anything wrong?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no.

ARSLANIAN: You know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I understand. Before you go. I just want to confirm that you do not want to give me your phone. Correct?

ARSLANIAN: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And that's your statement that you were driving this way. The guy came from this way and he ran into your vehicle.

ARSLANIAN: He jumped on my windshield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MILLER: So why is that important? That's important because as the individual, Mr. Koop, is being struck by the car and he falls off the car, the car sits there for a full minute, stock still. Nadine Arslanian doesn't get out of the car. After a minute, the car goes about 100 feet forward and pulls over to the side. There is no apparent effort to get out of the car to check on the man who's down in the street to see if he's OK or if he can talk.

So the questions we had is, was she using the phone at the time of the accident? Texting, looking at something on the screen, talking to someone? Second question, did she use that phone to call 911 after the accident? Or did that call come from someone else? Third question was did she use that phone to call anyone else up to, including her boyfriend at the time, Senator Menendez, to ask what to do.

All of those questions were in our list for the prosecutor's office, and they basically said submit a records request -- which is ironic because at the same time we were asking for those records, members of the state Attorney General's office were there seizing all the records from the prosecutor's office and the Sheriff's Department regarding this accident so they can review it. So there's a little bit of a circling of the wagons here and some kind of probe beginning to unfold into how all that went that night and in the days after.

BROWN: So a lot of looming questions as you point out. John Miller, thank you.

Still ahead, breaking news on the future of the now former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Breaking news. Into CNN, sources tell my colleague Melanie Zanona and me that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to step down from Congress before the end of his term. We're going to go first to her report, let's get back to Melanie Zanona on Capitol Hill. So Melanie, we're both hearing that McCarthy plans to stick around through the vote for the speakership, right? But then his future in the House is uncertain, right?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes, that's exactly right. And in talking to sources who are close to Kevin McCarthy, they are expecting him to leave before the end of his term. This is something that he has been toying with. And he even said in a closed-door conference meeting after he was removed as speaker that he wants to go home and spend time with his family.

But he does want to stick around at least through the rest of this speakership election. He really wants to make sure that the conference, which has been so chaotic over the last few days especially, is calm and steady before he leaves. Now he doesn't plan to get involved in the speakers race. We're told

he's not expected to endorse any candidate, but he does want to be around to really see this through.

And keep in mind, this is a huge seismic shift for the party. Kevin McCarthy came to Congress in 2007. He was a state lawmaker in California before that. He has spent his entire adult career in politics. He came to Congress. He worked his way through the leadership ranks. He's held multiple leadership roles over the years. And he tried to become speaker back in 2015. And at that time, the House Freedom Caucus denied him the gavel, but he kept fighting. He eventually became the leader of his party. And when they took the majority last year, you remember that January vote. It took him 15 rounds to become speaker, and he did finally get there.

But Kevin McCarthy says he has no regrets about how he acted during speaker. Whether it was the bipartisan debt ceiling deal that we saw earlier this summer or his decision, his consequential decision on Saturday to put a stopgap funding bill on the floor to fund the government, which ultimately led to his ouster earlier this week.

But again, just so much uncertainty in the Republican Party because we still don't know who is going to replace Kevin McCarthy. At the moment we have an acting speaker and interim speaker. That's Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. But two men are vying to replace Kevin McCarthy. That is Jim Jordan of the House Judiciary Chair and Steve Scalise, the number two Republican who has also been in leadership right behind Kevin McCarthy for many, many years.

So we're going to have to see how this all plays out next week. But as of right now, it looks like Kevin McCarthy might not be sticking around in Congress, though he could still be involved politically as someone who is, he has strong fundraiser and someone who's very plugged in to Republican politics -- Pam.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a very significant move. So many Members have come out and essentially said that this ousting had to do with him being trustworthy. But we should note his final act as speaker was to come to a consensus to keep the government open.

BROWN: It absolutely was. And what's interesting here, is you noted that he is considering leaving Congress altogether after the speakership election. But it's interesting that he also wants to sit this out with the election, right? He's not throwing his support behind either candidate right now. Both had actually voted for him to stay in the speakership. And we expect that to continue, right? We expect him to continue sitting this out, right, Melanie?

ZANONA: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, he has Jim Jordan, who has actually become a really close ally of Kevin McCarthy, which has been just a fascinating transformation to watch. Because Jim Jordan once ran against Kevin McCarthy for the role of leader of their party. But he became an ally and has been a very vocal supporter of Kevin McCarthy. And then you have Steve Scalise, who has been a deputy of Kevin McCarthy.

[15:55:00]

There's been some sort of tepid relationship between the two of them over the years because Steve Scalise was long seen as a potential rival against Kevin McCarthy one day. But at this moment, Kevin McCarthy does not want to get involved. He doesn't think his voice at this point would be any helpful to really uniting the bitterly divided conference. So he is happy to stay on the sidelines right now. But like I said before, he still wants to ensure that the party is able to steer in the right direction, that they're able to come together and eventually settle on a new speaker.

BROWN: And bring us in very quickly into his mindset of wanting to leave Congress after the election, you know, and how the ouster played into that.

ZANONA: Well, look, I mean, once you're deposed as the speaker, I don't know what role you could really play, at least in leadership for Kevin McCarthy. There probably wouldn't be a role for him to play in leadership. So do you really want to serve as a backbencher member of Congress after you held all this power before? I mean we did see Nancy Pelosi though. I think, you know, she was former speaker and when she stepped down, she decided to stay in Congress. So not entirely out of the realm of possibility for Kevin McCarthy. But at this point, the expectation is he will resign from Congress at some point.

SANCHEZ: Yes, major breaking news from Melanie Zanona and Pam Brown. Pam, thanks for joining us this week and thank you for joining CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts after a short break.

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