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Oregon Supreme Court Declines to Hear Trump Ballot Access Case; Will Winter Weather Impact Iowa Caucuses?; U.S. Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired January 12, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:51]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A dramatic escalation in the Middle East, the U.S. and the United Kingdom hitting Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. Now that group is vowing retaliation.

The White House and its allies say they will do what it takes to protect shipping lanes in the Red Sea. The latest on this conflict.

Plus: crunch time in Iowa, candidates making their case to voters with just three days until the first-in-the-nation caucuses. But their battle isn't just with each other. Now fierce and frigid weather could threaten turnout.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And some of that same weather is snarling air travel today, a problem made even worse by the grounding of those Boeing jets as that company faces a new lawsuit over what happened on a flight last week.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Boris Sanchez, alongside Brianna Keilar in Washington, D.C..

And this afternoon, we start tracking the fallout after a significant escalation by the United States in the Middle East,the U.S. and Britain launching airstrikes overnight targeting Houthi military assets in Yemen. This is in retaliation for dozens of recent drone and missile strikes that the Iran-backed rebel group has fired up at commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

President Biden is warning that further measures could follow, and the administration is casting these efforts as self-defense strikes.

KEILAR: Many leaders in the Middle East have condemned the attacks by the U.S. and the U.K. And the move could put Washington and Tehran on a potential collision course. The Houthis are a key Iranian proxy. They have been emboldened since Hamas, also backed by Iran, launched those terror attacks on Israel on October 7.

We have Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon. We have Nic Robertson in Israel on this.

Natasha, tell us about these strikes. What do we know?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Brianna, we are learning a little bit more about the assets the U.S. used to carry out these strikes, including 22 fixed-wing aircraft, which include F- 18s that took off from the Ike aircraft carrier that is currently stationed in the Red Sea, as well as the fact that the U.S. deployed 80 Tomahawk missiles to strike these targets inside Yemen that they say were being used by the Houthis as command-and-control centers, weapons depots to store drones.

And the U.S. says at this point that they do believe that the damage that they caused to the Houthi infrastructure was -- quote -- "significant," but they still don't know at this point, they're still doing a damage assessment about just how degraded the Houthis' capabilities actually are at this point.

Now, importantly, we are already seeing what could be the beginnings of a Houthi response. We are tracking reports that a missile has been fired towards the Gulf of Aden near Yemen. Defense officials are looking into those reports right now.

But, look, the Houthis have vowed to retaliate against the U.S. and British attacks that occurred overnight. And the Houthis actually released a new statement just a moment ago saying that American and British interests are -- quote -- "legitimate targets" for the Houthis.

They say that their presence in the Red Sea as part of this multinational coalition is -- quote -- "unacceptable and they violate all laws and they will be dealt with in an appropriate manner."

Now, of course, all of this raises the major concern that this conflict is going to escalate even further. And the National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, spoke to that a bit earlier today. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, NSC COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: We share that concern, Becky (ph). We don't want to see this escalate. There was a huge diplomatic effort that preceded these attacks. And I think it's safe to say that you can expect to see the United States continue all those diplomatic consultations and discussions going forward.

We know people are anxious there about escalation. We are too. And, again, everything we're doing and everything we're trying to do is to prevent any further escalation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: Now, the U.S. says that they conducted these strikes in self-defense and not as an escalatory measure. But you have to remember, of course, the Houthis are backed by Iran.

And so one of the key questions here is whether these strikes that the U.S. and the U.K. launched against these targets are going to prompt a more significant involvement by Iran in this conflict.

[13:05:04]

SANCHEZ: Natasha, walk us through the multinational aspect of this, specifically why the U.K. partnered on these strikes.

BERTRAND: Well, the U.S. did not want to do this alone. They had been weighing options for quite some time about how to retaliate against the Houthis, because the Houthis began these attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea back in November.

And the U.S. was developing options for a potential response, but they were reluctant to do so without kind of an international coalition and without a partner nation conducting these strikes in this operation alongside them. The U.S., particularly President Biden, he likes to do things in conjunction with allies.

And so the British, who have also been very active in the Red Sea protecting shipping lanes and shooting down missiles and drones that the Houthis have been firing, they decided to take part in this as well. And the U.S. and the U.K., they got support, albeit not operational support, from a number of other countries, including, significantly, Bahrain, which is an Arab nation that is a majority Shia Muslim.

And so there was clearly a lot of buy-in here from a significant coalition that the U.S. believes was necessary in order to get the support it needed to launch these strikes in Yemen, which are very controversial and were hotly debated inside the administration, because, of course, the Houthis and the Saudis had been undergoing a civil war that the U.S. brokered a peace for.

That fragile peace obviously could be upended now.

KEILAR: And, Nic Robertson, to you. What's the reaction been like in the region?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, there is concern in Saudi Arabia and the UAE because they backed the legitimate internationally recognized government of Yemen since the Houthis forced them from power back in 2014, which led to the UAE and Saudis supporting Yemeni government troops on the ground inside of Yemen and led to the Houthis firing Iranian-made cruise missiles at the capital of Saudi Arabia and drones at targets in the UAE.

So, these countries are very alive to the threat and the possibility of escalation, although both stress the importance of these vital international waterways, the he Red Sea. Of course, Saudi Arabia has many ports on the Red Sea. It is a very important and vital economic link for Saudi Arabia.

We have heard from Jordan and Kuwait as well expressing their concern about what they see as an escalation, Egypt also concerned about what they see as an escalation of violence. Iran, for its part and some of its proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, have come out very clearly in support of the Houthis. No surprise there because the Houthis are a proxy of Iran.

But their comments very clearly frame this as a U.S.-U.K. attack, not on the Houthis' military capabilities but on the whole of Yemen, which, of course, that's not the intention, but they're framing it like that. They're framing it in a way that the United States and the U.K. are coming out in support of Israel.

So, the rhetoric there is really designed to inflame tensions at the moment. So it is a moment of great concern. The British, of course, not -- for all the reasons Natasha mentioned, of course, their -- one of their ships, HMS Diamond, was targeted earlier this week.

And, of course, easy for the prime minister to convince his Cabinet and opposition figures that this was the right thing to do to join the coalition.

KEILAR: All right, Natasha Bertrand and Nic Robertson, thank you so much to both of you for those reports.

And as things are escalating in the Red Sea, let's take a look at the group that is at the center of this. The Houthis are an Iran-backed rebel group that has been fighting Yemen's government and a Saudi-led coalition that the U.S. has been helping to arm for years now. They emerged in the '90s out of the Yemeni civil war.

Like Iran, unlike Hamas, which is Sunni, they are Shiite, and they control a significant part of Yemen. The United Nations says the nearly 10-year-old civil war in Yemen is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. It's estimated that some 377,000 people have died, many of them from a lack of food or from water.

And the Houthis, they see themselves as part of the Iranian-led axis of resistance, which includes Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. And you may be wondering, how have the Houthis been able to carry out these sophisticated attacks that they have been carrying out?

Well, with Iran's help, the Houthis have been building up their weapons stockpiles over recent years, and they include everything from cruise missiles to ballistic missiles and long-range drones as well. And, as I mentioned, they control just a huge part and a significant part of the country here, the northwestern territory of Yemen and, as you can see here, the capital of Sanaa.

[13:10:00]

So, why did the Houthis start attacking ships in the Red Sea when the Israel-Hamas war broke out? Well, declared their support for Hamas, which is also, of course, backed by Iran. And the Houthis said they would target any ship that was traveling to or from Israel.

Keep in mind, though, many of the ships that the Houthis have been targeting actually have no apparent connection to Israel. And since November, the Houthis have launched 27 attacks. They have used drones, they have used missiles, and they have launched them on ships in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden.

And the White House says that those strikes have affected the shipping interests at this point of more than 50 countries. The fallout has been huge here, incredibly extensive. Shipping activity in the Red Sea, it is down 20 percent at this point. That is largely because these big transport companies like MSC and Maersk announced that they're just avoiding this area altogether.

And what that means is that they have actually had to move their ships around. They are traveling, instead of their normal route here through the Suez Canal, 11,000 nautical miles, they have been forced to go around Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, 14,000 nautical miles, which adds eight to 10 days to their shipping routes.

And then just overnight here, you can see the economic effects of these strikes that we have been watching. These have rattled the energy markets. Oil prices shot up 4 percent already.

So let's break this all down now with retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

What can you tell us about the weapons that the U.S. and the U.K. used in this? What does it suggest about the goals here?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So one of the key elements here that we have is really quite important to look at because what we're doing here is we're going through a whole series of different targets.

And what they were doing is targeting the U.S. and the U.K. -- we're going -- let's use a different color here, going after places like airports, areas where there would be radars, areas where they would have drone launch sites, military bases, and, of course, a military air base.

And those are the kinds of areas, Brianna, that they would be targeting, because the more that these people can see, the more the Houthis can see, the easier it is for them to counteract American and U.K. efforts. So the first thing you do when you make an -- conduct an attack like this is, you get rid of the radar sites and you get rid of any capability that they have to attack you.

So that does two things. It prevents them from attacking the incoming forces, but, more importantly, it also prevents them from attacking the commercial shipping right here in the Bab-el-Mandeb area of the Red Sea.

KEILAR: So we should also mention, the Houthis, they have vowed to retaliate. What kind of reach do they have? And is this attack really enough to degrade what they have been doing?

LEIGHTON: So, it remains to be seen exactly how they're going to do this. But take -- let's take a look for example at -- well, in one of these areas here where we have the different areas where they have been able to work in places like Saudi Arabia, they have been able to attack the capital of Riyadh in the past.

They have also made attacks in the UAE. So they have a reach that extends throughout the Arabian Peninsula. And when you have that kind of a reach, it becomes really important to get rid of those launch sites of those ballistic missiles and also cruise missiles that they have.

So these are the kinds of things that the Houthis are still capable of. And if they are not -- those capabilities are not degraded, that's going to present a problem not only for Saudi Arabia, but potentially also for Bahrain, which, of course, helped in this effort.

KEILAR: Yes, of course.

I think there's this perception in the U.S. that Iran would like to draw the U.S. into a broader war in the region. Iran has said it doesn't want a broader war in the region. The U.S. has been clear it doesn't want a broader war in the region. Where is the truth? Where are the risks here?

LEIGHTON: So it depends on which faction is going to gain the upper hand in Iran.

But, generally speaking, if things go the way they are supposed to go, what will happen is, you're going to see more efforts in Iraq where proxy forces that are guided by the Iranians are probably going to mount attacks on American forward operating bases in these areas and potentially also in Syria. That's a possibility that has happened in the past.

It's probably going to happen again. Of course, the Iranians have their own problem. They had explosions as well when ISIS-aligned elements went after them during the celebrations on the anniversary...

KEILAR: Huge casualties.

LEIGHTON: Huge casualties, over 100 casualties in Kerman there in Iran when they were celebrating the anniversary of General Soleimani's death.

So the Iranians have a lot of risk here. They know that they are not going to be able to control all of their proxies directly. The other thing that they're not going to be able to do is control the responses to all of these efforts that are going on here in the Red Sea, as well as they're going to have difficulty controlling what Hamas does in Gaza in response to the Israelis, let alone what Hezbollah does in Lebanon against the Israelis as well.

[13:15:07]

KEILAR: Yes. And some of these attacks of the Houthis, it might just be a little damage to a ship. They can't guarantee that. There could also be casualties, and there's this feeling, I think, that we have not seen the potential worst of this.

Cedric, thank you so much, as always, for taking us through that. We do appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brianna.

KEILAR: And still ahead: extreme winter weather in Iowa forcing Republican candidates to cancel events with just three days until the first-in-the-nation caucuses. Will bitter cold temperatures influence turnout on Monday?

SANCHEZ: Plus, that fierce winter weather already wreaking havoc for travelers. We're talking about the highest number of flight cancellations in some six months. We're on top of that.

And despite a revolt from his right flank, House Speaker Mike Johnson says he is moving forward with that spending deal he brokered with Senate leader Chuck Schumer. Coming up, we're going to speak with one of the hard-line Republicans pressuring Johnson to back out of the deal.

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[13:20:17]

SANCHEZ: Just moments ago, the Oregon Supreme Court declined to hear a bid to remove former President Donald Trump from that state's ballot, at least for now.

KEILAR: The court didn't rule on the merits of the challenge, which is based on the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist ban. Instead, it said that it's going to wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the issue.

The Oregon decision following Trump's removal from the primary ballot in Colorado and also in Maine because of his role in the January 6 insurrection.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is with us now on this.

Marshall, remind us where the ballot issue stands right now with the Supreme Court.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: With the Supreme Court, you're going to want to mark your calendar for February 8.

KEILAR: All right.

COHEN: That's when oral arguments are scheduled here in the nation's capital on this historic question of Trump's eligibility. And the Supreme Court's looking into this because we have had different outcomes in different states.

You mentioned Colorado and Maine, where he is off the ballot, but, in New Hampshire, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and now Oregon, he is on the ballot. And that news today out of Oregon from the Oregon Supreme Court, they said in a one-page decision that, basically, they're doing the same thing as we are. They're going to watch the U.S. Supreme Court and see what they have to say on this matter. And then if there's possibly an avenue for the challengers in Oregon

to continue their pursuit against Trump to get him off the ballot, for instance, if it's a narrow decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that maybe only applies to Colorado, then they can refile their case. And the Oregon court was very clear about that today. They said, we're not taking this up for now, but we're going to wait and watch.

And one more thing I should point out here. You hear Donald Trump very often on the campaign trail -- we heard it yesterday -- where he makes the case that this is all one massive partisan witch-hunt by liberal judges, Democrat judges who are just trying to get him off the ballot. The decision today from Oregon was a win for Trump. He's still on the ballot there.

That court, all of the appointees on that court came from Democratic governors, and the Democratic secretary of state of Oregon agreed with the decision. So it's not the massive conspiracy that Trump is alleging.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's a flawed argument, even in Colorado and Maine. The Maine case was partly brought by a Republican that is anti-Trump. And in Colorado, it was a bipartisan group, including Republicans.

So, Marshall Cohen, thanks so much for the update.

COHEN: You bet.

SANCHEZ: So, this is the final stretch until the Iowa caucuses.

Just three days to go, and there are concerns that dangerous winter weather could threaten turnout. Monday's caucuses are expected to be the coldest ever. Windchills, temperatures could drop -- or, with windchills, temperatures could drop to as low as minus-40 in some parts of the Hawkeye State.

Today, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson are holding campaign events, but Nikki Haley has canceled all in-person events because of blizzard warnings. The front-runner, Donald Trump, returns to the campaign trail this weekend with rallies planned there. And as the candidates make their final pitches to caucus-goers, one voting bloc remains top of mind, Iowa's evangelical voters.

The latest Des Moines, Iowa, poll shows Trump leading among evangelical voters. They are a key group in Iowa's Republican base, and often they have been consequential in the caucuses.

Let's get some perspective now from Ralph Reed. He's the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

Ralph, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

Compared to 2016, Trump has gained significant support among evangelical voters, despite some of his personal behavior that likely wouldn't make him a role model at church. What would you say has changed? Is it Trump and his team, or is it evangelical voters?

RALPH REED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think it's really night and day compared to when he first ran in 2015 and 2016.

Our organization, Faith and Freedom, has a very strong organization...

SANCHEZ: Oh, it looks like we're having some issues.

Ralph, can you hear me? We're having some issues with your signal, Ralph.

REED: Yes, I can hear you.

SANCHEZ: Oh, that's -- Ralph, can you hear me?

REED: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I think the blizzard might be messing with the signal. I'm sorry.

You cut off near the beginning of what you were saying, that it was night and day for Trump from 2016 to now.

REED: Yes, I mean, when he ran the first time, there was a lot of skepticism. Frankly, there was a lack of trust.

And if you look at the outcome of the evangelical vote in 2016, Ted Cruz got about a third. Donald Trump got about a fifth of that vote, so a little over 20 percent. Fast-forward to where we are today, and Trump is getting 51 percent of the evangelical vote to Ron DeSantis' 26 and Nikki Haley's 14.

[13:25:08]

So he's gone from a fifth of that vote to a majority of that vote in a crowded field. And I would say the reason is really primarily because he's running almost as a quasi-incumbent. He's got a record. And on the life issue, the sanctity of life, support for the state of Israel, his Supreme Court appointments, and religious freedom, he convinced them. He persuaded them.

So this has made it a challenge for some of the other candidates to make their case. But, look, there's a lot of twists and turns. Not a single vote has been cast. I certainly don't want to get ahead of the caucus attenders in Iowa and make a prediction.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

You mentioned the issue of abortion being of major importance to evangelicals. It's fascinating to me that Ron DeSantis has been harping on that aspect to his record. He's trying to paint himself as much stronger on restrictions to abortion than Donald Trump. But it doesn't appear to have moved the needle much in polls.

How critical is that issue for DeSantis? And how do you see him potentially faring in Iowa broadly? Does he still have a path to the White House if he comes in third? REED: Well, I don't think he wants to come in third. I mean, I think

-- again, I'm not a pundit or a prognosticator, and I'm not in the prediction business, but I think he would have to come in a healthy second, I think.

And it's very interesting, because, again, as I said, Boris, we have had a number of candidate forums and events and town halls and house parties where all of these candidates have gotten a chance to meet these voters of faith. And I interviewed Ron DeSantis at one of the biggest of those events with over 1,400 pastors and pro-family activists in Iowa.

It was one of the biggest events before the caucuses. And he was outstanding. He made his case. He talked about signing the heartbeat bill in Florida. He talked about creating a culture of life. I think he's done extremely well.

I think the challenge is that, when it comes to the primary electorate, Donald Trump is not a big fish in a small pond. He's a whale in a bathtub. He's got a lot of support. And if you look at the polling, it's very enthusiastic. It's intense. And intensity counts for something.

So it's not necessarily that any of the other candidates have done anything wrong.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

On the question of enthusiasm, Ralph, I got to ask you about how the weather might impact turnout. Are you predicting that Iowans are going to brave those potentially subzero negative-30-degree temperatures come Monday?

REED: Well, it depends on exactly what the weather is like from a precipitation standpoint.

If it's just cold, if you have lived in Iowa for more than six months, cold weather is nothing new. And even cold snaps that give you a day or two or three of subzero temperatures is not that big of a surprise.

But if it's -- if the wind's blowing 40 miles an hour and the snow's falling sideways, that could be a problem. But without -- with that as the caveat, there were 190,000 votes counted in the caucuses in 2016, the last time it was contested and competitive.

We predicted, again, weather aside, that it would be north of that this time. The people of Iowa take this very seriously, Boris. They're very deliberative. They play a cherished role in the selection of the leader of the free world and the next president. And I think, barring a really catastrophic weather event, I think they're coming, and I think they're coming in record numbers.

SANCHEZ: Ralph Reed, appreciate the insight. Thanks for spending time with us.

REED: You bet. SANCHEZ: Of course.

There is more turbulence ahead for Boeing. Passengers on board that terrifying Alaska Airlines flight that a door busted out on in midair, they're now filing a class action lawsuit against the company. We're following the latest fallout -- after this.

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