Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

New Round of Russian Strikes Underway in Ukraine; Maine's Secretary of State Removes Trump from Primary Ballot; Democratic Mayors Plead for Federal Help With Migrant Surge. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 29, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Happening now, the largest Russian air attack on Ukraine since the invasion nearly two years ago. Just a short time ago, we got new reports of Russian missiles falling in the northern city of Sumi. And this follows hours and hours of attacks across the entire expanse of the country. In the east, in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia in the south, Odessa, all the way in the west in Lviv, also the capital, Kyiv, and in Central Ukraine in Dnipro.

I can show you some video of what happened in DeNipro. A maternity ward and a shopping mall hit there. You can see some of the devastation. We are getting new casualty counts from the entire country. At least 26 dead at this point, over 100 injured. That count is expected to rise in the coming hours.

The Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelenskyy, says they are being hit with almost every type of weapon, from drones to cruise missiles to air bombardments, heavy air bombardments again across the entire country.

A short time ago, we heard from CNN Portugal's Helena Lins on the ground in Kyiv. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HELENA LINS, CNN PORTUGAL INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: 6:00 in the morning, we were in an area where a business building was hit. It was not being used, so partly destroyed, but no people inside. Also from the other side of the street, there was a metro station that was also hit. The main entrance was closed. People could still access it from another side. And the metro was already working.

Right now, we are not very far from that area, but actually in a place where there's some warehouse. And this warehouse behind me was actually hit during this attack. Let me just take you inside and show you what actually the destruction that is inside. Because the warehouse was hit, it caught fire. When we arrived here, the smoke was still very visible from the outside. Right now, we can still see smoke in the inside.

The smell is actually also strong. And for some time we couldn't access the inside of the warehouse because firefighters were still trying to stabilize, so nothing could actually fall. We now have permission to enter. And as you can see, the structure is completely destroyed. The roof of the warehouse is totally destroyed.

And we are actually walking most of the time on shattered glasses, on fragments of the warehouse, but also of the equipment that was inside. I was speaking with the general manager of the company, which is actually a German company working in Ukraine, and he was telling me there is only electro-technical equipment here, there's no weapons and it's now mostly destroyed. So, warehouse is destroyed. They'll have to look for a new one. What is inside. They are trying to understand whether or not they can still recover something, and now estimating also the costs of the destruction.

The company is still going to continue working in Ukraine.

[10:05:00]

That's at least what he was telling me. But it's very difficult right now to recover from all this loss.

There was no one inside the warehouse when the attack happened. It was in the early hours in the morning. But speaking with the firefighters, at least -- I mean, two people asked to be assisted by the emergency services because this was the main warehouse that was hit. But there's also other buildings around. So, two people needed to be assisted by the emergency services.

As I was telling you, firefighters are still here. Work is still being done in these warehouses, where there's still a lot of smoke and the smell is really strong. But as you were saying, not only Kyiv was hit, which was very unexpected, sirens have been going off in the capital for almost every day, but no one was expecting this size of destruction, but also other cities in Ukraine. And this shows the scale of the attack of last night and this morning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Helena Lins still inside the smoldering wreckage in the capital of Kyiv. Danny?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, still just incredible footage right there.

For more on this, let's bring in CNN Contributor and former CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty. Jill, this was the largest attack since full scale invasion began. What do you think was the purpose for these attacks?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You could, Danny, say, well, they were responding, the Russians were responding to that sinking by the Ukrainians of the ship in the Black Sea the other day. That was pretty major. But I think what's going on is this is much bigger.

And it actually was not totally unexpected because over the past few months, many people who were watching the situation predicted that Russia was saving up armaments, saving up men, doing what it could to prepare for a gigantic blitz in the winter, as it did last year, hitting infrastructure, energy, et cetera.

But this is almost, I think you'd have to say, wanton destruction at this point. On Russian T.V., they're essentially gloating over this. And you have the situation when you have bombing like this, it's very destructive not only to the infrastructure but to the emotions of the people who are in Ukraine right now.

Imagine being hit entirely across the country. Winter is here. It's the middle of the holidays, and it gives people -- it can terrorize people into feeling that this is never going to end. And then if they look at the United States, they see the Congress stalled in giving any type of aid.

So, it's pretty serious situation. And I think right now the Russians are trying to destroy the will of the Ukrainian people.

FREEMAN: Well, Jill, and also I'm curious your take on this, because this latest barrage from Russia came only a few days after The New York Times actually reported that Putin was quietly considering a ceasefire. Does this latest attack suggest that that is actually far from reality?

DOUGHERTY: Well, there's a lot of debate about that. I personally think that he's not, which is not to say that if circumstances changed and remember, in March, he's up for re-election, he might switch gears, he might want to be Mr. Putin the peacemaker and say, let's do a deal.

But right now, I think what they are doing is he has turned his country into a wartime economy. That essentially is what it is. And I don't think that he has any intention of stopping. And I think there is a lot of, let's say, desire to just show the Ukrainians that they cannot win this, to try to show them that and show that Russia is strong.

Putin needs that internationally, but he really needs it domestically to show that the war that he started, in his estimation, he's going to come out in some fashion winning it, whether he spins that or whatever. But I don't think that he's going to stop.

FREEMAN: Jill, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that, quote, Russian troops are fighting Ukrainian women, children, the elderly and civilians. The crimes that Russia has committed in Ukraine are its revenge for its inability to turn the tide of the battle in the fight against the Ukrainian Defense Forces. I just want to ask you, do you agree with that assessment?

DOUGHERTY: Well, it's a little hyperbolic, I think. But I think what they're saying is if you look at the targets that the Russians hit across the entire country of Ukraine, they hit civilian targets.

Now, the Russians are saying we don't hit civilian targets, but it's quite obvious that they did. And so I think in cold sober terms, yes, they are attacking civilians and they are attacking women and children. And you see the results from our reported there in Kyiv and in other places in Ukraine.

[10:10:04]

FREEMAN: Jill Dougherty, thank you so much for giving some context to these stunning developments that we've seen overnight. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: All right. So, will Oregon deliver Donald Trump his third primary ballot blow? A decision could come anytime, as soon as this morning.

Late last night, Maine became the second state behind Colorado to bar Trump from the primary ballot, this after the secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, decided the 14th Amendment disqualifies him because of its ban on insurrectionists. The U.S. Supreme Court seems destined to weigh in.

With us now, CNN Legal Analyst and former White House Ethics Czar Norm Eisen, he served as special counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Trump's first impeachment. Ambassador, great to see you.

You and I have had a chance to talk about this now a few times. So, I want to focus on some new territory here, if I can, and it has to do with the decision from the Maine's secretary of state who said, yes, she thinks Donald Trump committed insurrection, yes, she thinks she has the power to ban him from the primary ballot, in fact, the responsibility, she says.

And that's where it gets interesting, because we've talked about the text of the 14th Amendment, and Section 3 clearly states that no person shall hold any office who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion or given aid and comfort to enemies thereof. That's Section 3.

Section 5 says the Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. The secretary of state of Maine is not the Congress. So, why does she have the power and the responsibility to do this?

NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: John, because there's one word missing from Section 5 only. It does not say only the Congress shall have the responsibility. It's well understood that both with the 14th Amendment and other parts of the Constitution, unless there's that key limiting language, only, that it's a concurrent responsibility on federal and state government officials to enforce the Constitution.

It's common sense, John. We wouldn't say that a state official has no obligation to follow the First Amendment, that a state official is free to restrict the speech of person in the United States. And we don't say that the 14th Amendment Section 3 is off limits for secretaries of state.

But that's not the whole story, because the other piece of the puzzle is that a secretary of state has to have some authorization within their state law to take the next specific step of ruling somebody ineligible. Some states give that authorization to people in office, like the secretary of state. That is what Secretary Bellows found, that she had that power under state law. So, then she went with it and she disqualified Trump.

BERMAN: All right. So, if you are 100 percent convinced that it won't be an issue with Section 5, because it doesn't say only Congress shall have sway here, if and when the Supreme Court does get to weigh in here, where do you think they might have problems with what Colorado and Maine have done?

EISEN: Unfortunately, there are no 100 percent convictions when it comes to these questions of first impression with the Supreme Court. And so although I think it's wrong personally, having looked at the law and the facts and the history, they could say, Norm, we disagree with you. We think that the -- even though that word only is not there, we're going to read it in and we're going to say this is a congressional responsibility. That's one off ramp for the Supreme Court.

A second off ramp is the one that was taken by the lower court in Colorado, again, I disagree, but the lower court found Donald Trump was an insurrectionist. But because the 14th Amendment Section 3 doesn't specifically mention the president, it only talks about officers of our government, that the president is not included. And there are a variety of other technical exceptions that the Supreme Court could use here, if they don't want to address the issue squarely.

I think they should address it. I think Colorado and Maine correctly interpret the 14th Amendment, but we do not know what the Supreme Court is going to do, John. There's no prior history.

[10:15:00]

BERMAN: There certainly isn't. Due process could come up as well.

I look forward to reading a Supreme Court decision that begins with the words of, Norm, we don't agree with you.

Norm Eisen, great to have you on thank you so much.

EISEN: Thanks, John.

FREEMAN: All right. Still ahead, the Justice Department threatens to sue Texas over its new immigration law as Democratic mayors plead with the White House for help dealing with the thousands of migrants being bused and flown north.

Plus, New York City is gearing up to kick off 2024, but the security steps the NYPD is taking to make sure the New Year's Eve celebration goes smoothly is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, three Democratic mayors from New York, Chicago and Denver, they're making urgent pleas for federal help as they deal with the surge of migrants in their cities. These mayors all spoke to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): The meeting with the White House, I think much more could be done with all of our national leaders from a decompression strategy to making sure the cost of this is not falling on the lapse of everyday taxpayers in our city.

So, it's not just about New York City, it is all of these cities that are being impacted from Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, Chicago, New York, Denver.

[10:20:06]

This is really an issue that you're seeing play out on the streets of our cities.

MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D-CHICAGO, IL): We have infrastructure in our local communities that are not designed to carry such a burden. Local municipalities are not structured to be able to carry the weight of a crisis like this. And I've sent a delegation to the border to see firsthand what our bordering cities are experiencing.

And what we have said repeatedly is that there has to be a better coordination. And without a coordinated operation, this is going to crush local economies because there is a financial responsibility that we have all taken on.

MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON (D-DENVER, CO): Part of the challenge is we need federal resources also, and that's where I think the supplemental budget that the President has pushed is being held up in Congress right now.

What, you know, the breaking point, as Mayor Johnson described it for us, is when you're talking about 10 percent of the budget to allocate for cities on this, that's unsustainable. When we have every single hotel room in the city full of migrants that have arrived, that's unsustainable. And so the federal resources are what the Congress has held up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So, joining us now is Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, a Democrat from Texas. Congresswoman, you hear the mayors from those cities. On Wednesday, DHS said more than 7,000 migrants were apprehended at the southern border. How big of a problem is this?

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): It's a huge problem. And if anyone is sitting around and acting as if it isn't, then they simply aren't aware.

I just want the American people to know that Democrats as well as Republicans acknowledge this. You talk to a number of Democratic mayors that are complaining about this issue. And I appreciate what was said in that very last statement, which was the fact that the president has actually put forward a supplemental package that would actually provide relief to cities.

Republicans don't want to tell the truth about what the president is trying to push forward and that may absolutely acknowledge the problem. The problem is Congress.

The president can't do this by himself. He can't just shell out money. It takes action on behalf of the House as well as the Senate. And right now, the House is in shambles and can't do anything right. So, when people are complaining about the migrant crisis and Republicans are saying that they are the ones that can fix it, I want to remind people that, basically, the Republicans have said the house is on fire. We see it's burning, but no, we are not going to do our part. That's exactly what they've done while the president is trying to provide some immediate relief as well as long-term solutions.

BERMAN: What changes, if any, would you be willing to make to asylum laws to relieve some of the pressure here?

CROCKETT: So, I don't think that that's the problem. So, for me, that's not the fix. You know, it's one of those things that Republicans like to put out things and make it seem as if this is going to fix the problem for people that have never been involved in this. As someone who comes from the state of Texas who was serving in the Texas House when Operation Lone Star began, I understand what doesn't look like a fix, but I also understand what makes people feel better.

And Republicans simply want to campaign on fixing immigration when they know that it's not an actual fix. They don't want to provide the resources that are necessary. We need to make sure that we have the courts that are fully staffed.

We need to make sure that these persons that are coming over seeking jobs have the ability to actually work so that they're not a burden, but instead they're doing exactly what they want to do, which is working and supporting themselves and adding to our tax resources. We need more tax income anyway.

So, I mean, we absolutely can work through this, but Congress has to be willing to fully fund everything around immigration.

BERMAN: Well, there are those who say that changing the asylum laws would reduce the draw over the southern border. Is there anything you -- I know you disagree, but I'm asking you a different question now. Is there anything that you would do to reduce the draw of people from over the border?

CROCKETT: Absolutely. So, for me, it is a multifaceted issue. And part of the issue is the destabilization in the countries that these persons are fleeing right now. And so as we're talking about foreign aid to other countries, a lot of people are very upset about how much money we send.

We only spend about 1 percent of our budget when it comes to federal or foreign aid. What we need to do is make sure that we go back to supporting these countries and making sure that they're stable, entering into smarter trade agreements and things like that so that they don't feel the need to leave. It's not that they say, oh, well, never mind. I just don't want to live here.

[10:25:00]

We're talking about dangerous circumstances. We're talking about life or death. And it's cheaper. Our dollar goes a lot further in a lot of these different countries than it goes here.

So, absolutely, we need to get smarter about making sure that we do what we've historically done, which has been big brother and helped to stabilize some of these communities to decrease the desire to leave.

BERMAN: Your governor, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, has issued this new border law which grants Texas authorities the power to arrest migrants and gives judges the ability to issue orders to remove people from the country.

The Justice Department is telling people that that's unconstitutional. What's your view?

CROCKETT: I have the same view as a licensed attorney, and it is dumbfounding sometimes to me when I think about the fact that our governor actually does have a law license.

Listen, this isn't -- the Governor of Texas doesn't get to decide that he's going to do whatever he wants to do, and Texas law will reign supreme over federal law. If our governor felt like he really wanted to come up with some federal enforcements, he should have ran for president of the United States. Currently, he serves as the governor, unfortunately, of the state of Texas. And you can't make Texas law go over and above what federal law says. And that's what he's trying to know.

Historically, under Operation Lone Star, what he did was they came up with a scheme to arrest people under criminal trespass, which was present law. They found that, number one, it costs us more money. Number two, it puts us at risk for more lawsuits because Texas doesn't have air conditioning in our jails. And they were throwing them into prisons because they didn't have the space.

Long story short, it was ineffective before what Greg Abbott was doing when he was trying to arrest migrants, is going to be ineffective again, and it is costing us tax dollars. But it makes people feel good, so he panders and puts that out there. People should start demanding to see the receipts and demand that we have actual fixes to these problems.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from Texas, we appreciate your time this morning. Have a Happy New Year.

CROCKETT: Good to see you.

FREEMAN: All right. Still to come, New York City is ramping up security ahead of its New Year's Eve celebration as the Israel Hamas war adds to safety concerns.

Plus, this case inspired documentaries, books and true crime podcasts. Now, a woman who helped kill her abusive mother has been released from prison. Ahead, we'll speak with the executive producer of an upcoming docuseries on Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]