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Navalny's Widow Vows to Continue Her Husband's Work; Experts Rank Presidential Greatness Across American History; Sources Say, Harris Hoping to Have Bigger Role in Re-Election Effort. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired February 19, 2024 - 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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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ACHOR: Alexei Navalny's widow vowing to pick up the mantle, continue her husband's work and also demanding that they find out exactly how he died. Putin's critic, family and more searching for answers.

FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And Israel now warning it will expand its military operations in Rafah if Hamas does not return all hostages by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The new warning as the death toll rises in Gaza.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly the entire state of California under flood alerts this morning, another atmospheric river slamming the state. What this means for 37 million residents.

I'm Sara SIDNER with Fredericka Whitfield and Kate Bolduan. John is officer of the day. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: This morning. Alexei Navalny's wife, Yulia, blasting Russian officials in a defiant new video posted online. She says she is not afraid and she is determined to find out how her husband was killed. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YULIA NAVALNAYA, ALEXEI NAVALNY'S WIDOW: I ask you to share your rage, rage, anger and hatred with me towards those who are daring enough to kill our future. And I address you with Alexei's words, which I believe it is not a shame to do. It's not a shame to do little, but it's a shame not to do anything. It's a shame to make yourself intimidated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And there are many new developments this morning. Already, Navalny's mother and his legal team, they say that they have been blocked from seeing his body. But the Kremlin now insists that the return of Navanly's remains is not their responsibility, though he was in their custody in a penal colony. People around the world continue to express their outrage over the activist, the opposition leader's unexplained death. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in cities across Europe to pay tribute to Alexei Navalny.

In Russia, more than 400 people have been arrested simply for paying tribute, for leaving flowers, even at makeshift memorials.

Let's get the very latest that we can. Joining us right now is Fred Pleitgen. He's got much more on this.

Fred, what has been the response? What more are you hearing the response from Russian officials about Alexei Navalny's death and the demands we're hearing from his widow and family?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, one of the interesting things about it is that Yulia Navalnaya obviously, you know, it takes so much strength and courage at this point in time to then remain in the public sphere. In fact, she, right now, as we speak, is actually already meeting with European leaders, with European officials right now to obviously try to drum up some of that support for the anti-corruption foundation of Alexei Navalny, which she now says she is going to be the head of. The foreign policy chief of the European Union, also saying, as he put it, that Vladimir Putin will pay for the death of Alexei Navalny.

So, she apparently already is getting into that role of trying to continue his work as she's already out and about here in Europe trying to drum up that support and, of course, also condemning the death of her husband, Alexei Navalny.

[10:05:11]

So, that is something that has been going on, a lot of European officials coming out over the weekend. This really blasted right into the Munich Security Conference, which happened here over the weekend. A lot of leaders from Europe but around the world also condemning the death of Alexei Navalny and, of course, squarely putting the blame on Vladimir Putin and, of course, the Russian government as well.

It's been quite interesting because there was a call earlier today by the spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, where he said, look, an investigation is ongoing, it is open-ended, it's unclear what that investigation will find.

Of course, that directly feeds into some of the things that Yulia Navalnaya has been saying and also some of those who follow Alexei Navalny has been saying that they simply don't have any access to his body, that his mother was there at the morgue there and was told that she could not have any sort of access to it.

So, that's something that is certainly going on. Obviously, no trust in the investigation that's going on there in Russia right now, whereas the Russian officials say, look, there is an investigation going on, guys.

BOLDUAN: Yes, to say the least, it's good to see you, Fred. Thank you for the very latest. Much more to come on this. Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me now is former CIA Officer Bob Baer. Bob, great to see you.

So, Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnya, posted a video this morning claiming Putin killed her husband and that Russian authorities are hiding his body. There's no evidence to substantiate her claims. Obviously, Russia doesn't want the world to know his cause of death. Do you think they're trying to erase or manipulate Navalny's cause of death and will eventually return his body?

ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: I think they are manipulating it. Russian intelligence is very good at creating poisons which dissolve in the body, and one of them is saturated potassium chloride. It will dissolve in the body, as I understand. I'm not a forensic specialist but this kind of poison could have caused his death.

WHITFIELD: Navalny knew his life was still in danger, even after returning to Russia after the Novichok poisoning in 2020. Was it your calculus that Navalny would die in prison? Is there something about this timing for him to die now?

BAER: Well, a lot of it has to do with Putin's paranoia. He thinks there're enemies trying to destabilize him and Navalny was part of a western plot. And as for the timing, what goes through Putin's mind, it's hard to say.

But I think when Navalny got on a plane to return to Moscow, he pretty well knew his life. He would not die naturally. He sacrificed his life -- autocracy.

WHITFIELD: And now his wife, Yulia, has now said that she will pick up Alexei Navalny's cause. We see how demonstrators and mourners are being arrested. Is she now in danger?

BAER: Oh, absolutely. I think given access to her Russian intelligence, we'd kill her with a poison, Novichok, whatever. Don't forget, as we've talked about, Fred, the Russians tried to attempt to kill somebody in Miami a couple of years ago, and there's no place she'll be safe.

WHITFIELD: Putin had to know that there would be this kind of global outpouring. How do you see him further exerting his power by using Navalny's death as an example?

BAER: Well, I think Fred we've got to come to grips with the fact that he's a Stalinist and he intends to increase Russian power around the world. He thinks it's a superpower. He thinks that 1991, that break up with the Soviet Union was a was a terrible tragedy for the Russian people and he intends to reconstitute that empire, the Soviet Empire.

And I think we will see pieces of this appear everywhere, from the Baltics, to Eastern Europe. He is not going to stop and especially the way the front is going in Ukraine. If he wins the war in Ukraine, he will only be encouraged to keep on going. WHITFIELD: All right. Bob Baaer, great to see you, thanks so much. Sara?

SIDNER: Thank you, Fred.

This morning, there are growing calls for former President Trump to condemn Navalny's death and to call Putin out, the latest, his Republican political rival, Nikki Haley. But so far, Donald Trump is not doing either. Instead, he's using Navalny's death as a springboard to air his own grievances.

This morning, he used his words to compare what is happening in the U.S., namely the perfectly legal trials against him, to what Russia is doing with its political opponents, saying the death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our own country.

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CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes is joining us now. Can you walk us through what Donald Trump has been saying? We've also heard from some in his own party who have said, look, we need to start looking at Russia very differently. What do you think and what is he telling you? What are the people around him telling you about his reaction to this?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, the reaction is not all that surprising. When you talk about what he's saying, it's really what he's not saying. He's not condemning Vladimir Putin. He's not condemning the death of Alexei Navalny. Instead, he is using these vague references, trying to compare himself in some ways to Alexei Navalny, saying that he is a victim of political persecution.

Obviously, this has been his main messaging line amid all of these various legal cases, that this is all brought by Joe Biden. In fact, he went on to post an op-ed, an obscure media outlet that essentially compared him to Alexei Navalny.

Now, his GOP rival, Nikki Haley, as you said, is seizing on this, calling for him to respond. Take a listen to what you said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And it's amazing to me how weakened the needs he is when it comes to Putin because you look at the fact he is yet to say anything about Navalny's death, which Putin murdered him. It's what he does to his political opponents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And I will note that when we reached out to the campaign for comment on Navalny's death last week, they pointed us to a post by Donald Trump in which he didn't mention Putin or Navalny, and instead just said that America is no longer respected. But just a quick reminder that Donald Trump has a history of not only ignoring Putin, but in a sense praising him. Even just a few weeks ago, he alarmed our NATO allies by saying that he would encourage Russia to invade a country, a NATO country, if they had not paid those bills for NATO, again, sending off a lot of alarm bells throughout the country and throughout the world.

SIDNER: Yes, a lot of concern and a lot of talk about that. We will see what happens throughout the day.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for all your reporting there in Washington. Kate?

BOLDUAN: New reporting from CNN about Vice President Kamala Harris, her push to have a bigger role in the Biden-Kamala Harris re-election campaign and her concerns that she's voicing about voter turnout in November.

Now, the Palestinian Health Ministry is putting the death toll on Gaza at more than 29,000. This as Israel warns, it could soon expand its military operations. The very latest from there.

And the incredible video of a Florida police officer saving the life of a six-month-old baby after a terrible car accident, how that baby is doing today.

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SIDNER: If you're wondering why the banks are closed and why your mail hasn't been delivered yet or maybe why you're not at work, it's because today is President's Day. And in a contentious election year with the Oval Office up for grabs, the latest polls show a potential rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

And that is closer than ever. Harry, shut up, sometimes I make mistakes. But how do they rate among the other commanders-in-chief for the third year in a row? The Presidential Greatness Project surveyed the nation's top scholars to rank U.S. presidents from best to worst.

As I mentioned, our Harry Entenhere, senior data reporter, is that what we're doing now? Are you just chief data reporter? I'm going to give you (INAUDIBLE) chief out there.

All right, so how do they stack up? Let's look at Biden and Trump.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, let's look at Biden and Trump. All right, so where do political scientists rate them out of 45? Biden is 14th. Donald Trump is 45th. You can't do any worse than 45 out of 45, according to political scientists.

But this has been a long time hobby horse of mine. I just honestly think that these political scientists are biased and I want to just give you an understanding of why I think they might be biased. All right, so take a look. This is Trump in New Hampshire, right, because we can go down to the town level there. I just want to look at Dartmouth, that's Hanover, and UNH, that's Durham. And take a look here at Dartmouth. Look at this. Trump just got 13 percent of vote in the Republican primary. So, it's not just that you have a lot of Democrats there. Even the Republicans who are voting really don't like Trump. UNH, he just got 29 percent of the vote there in the Republican primary, 22 percent in the 2020 general election.

So, the fact is, yes, Donald Trump is rate historically low by political scientists. But the fact is, they are amongst -- they are very liberal themselves. And even the Republicans in their ranks are not exactly Trump-friendly. So I'm not sure I exactly trust it, though Biden will certainly take his ranking over Donald Trump's 45th at that a full fit.

SIDNER: I think that is very fair. All right, but who ranks the highest? Like where are the top ranked presidents?

ENTEN: Yes. Who ranks the highest on this President's Day? You can spell it with an apostrophe, not before the S, after the S, or you can just say it's Washington's birthday observed. I like that one pretty well.

Washington, interesting, ranks third on this list. FDR ranks second. Lincoln ranks first. You were pointing out to me, Sara, you were like, wow, Washington ranks. I should note that sometimes these go back and forth. So, I've seen rankings that have Washington first or Washington second. But these generally tend to be the top three.

But one of the things I was pointing out earlier, how I don't necessarily Trump, where political scientists rate them right now, because the fact is, these things can move.

SIDNER: Of course.

ENTEN: Look at these, presidential ranking, big movers. Back in 1962, Ulysses S. Grant was 30th. Look where he is now. He's 17th. Andrew Johnson, on the other hand, was above Grant in 1962. He was 23rd. Now he's near Trump at 43. Historians have sort of looked back at the record, a different generation of historians say, you know, we really don't like Johnson. We vastly prefer Grant to him.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Trump and Biden rankings move as we go forward in the future.

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The fact is this is just a snapshot in time, just like a poll is, right?

SIDNER: That's right. And there's sentiment changes when you look at the history when sentiment changes, you might see the numbers change as well.

Harry Enten, it's always lovely to see you. ENTEN: It's a pleasure to see you.

SIDNER: On President's Day, as apostrophe, that's how I do it.

ENTEN: Okay.

SIDNER: All right. Kate?

BOLDUAN: I'm just marveling. Don't obviously the full screen with Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew Johnson up here.

So, we're going to go from the present in the past to now who will be the president in the very near future.

Joining us right now is Susan Page watching to be your chief for USA Today and Seung Min Kim, CNN political analyst and White House reporter for the Associated Press.

Seung Min, CNN has -- CNN's Isaac Dovere has some really interesting new reporting about Vice President Kamala Harris, the role that she has had in the re-elect, but also it's more about how she is pushing to break through Biden's campaign information, quote/unquote, bubble, pushing to have a more prominent role in the campaign strategy.

Let me read this for you. Multiple leading Democrats anxious about a campaign they fear might be stumbling past a point of no return, say their conversations with Harris have been a surprising and welcome change after months of feelings left off by the White House and Biden campaign headquarters and Wilmington, Delaware.

There's a lot of talk about resets and if there's even time for resets for the Biden campaign. What do you think about this in terms of the role Kamala Harris has played could play and is playing in the re- elect?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, that reporting was fascinating because we know that -- looking at Biden world, it can be a very insular circle. President Biden relies on a very tight, you know, small group of close advisers who aren't always necessarily receptive to outside concerns. You know, these Biden -- these people close to Biden look at the fact that a lot of the Democrats, a lot of the political pundits were wrong in 2020, 2022, 2023, and they'll be wrong again in 2024.

But Vice President Harris, by the virtue of her -- in her position that she is, can break through Biden's inner circle in a way and kind of be that bridge to other Democrats who can air these concerns kind of openly and candidly to her.

And if she could -- and, you know, we know that she's taken a much more prominent role in the last couple of years within the White House, obviously being the administration's point person when it comes to abortion rights, we saw her take a big role in foreign policy at the Munich Security Forum over the weekend.

And in terms of campaign strategy, if she could kind of be that bridge between the outside Democrats who want to tell her, you know, we're hearing these concerns in Michigan, we're hearing these concerns in Nevada, can you get our concerns to the president's inner circle and the campaign team, that certainly could be an effective role for her.

BOLDUAN: Susan, I want to get your take on this because there's also this in the reporting that Harris often says in one-on-one conversations and smaller group gatherings, as described to CNN by two dozen people, that she doesn't worry Biden will lose to Trump, but she does worry about losing, quote/unquote, to the couch.

How real is that fear, the fear that people just -- the enthusiasm gap, they're just not going to show up, they're just not into it?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: You know, it's a big threat for Democrats because Democrats rely on the votes of some very reliable voters. Black voters have been very reliable voters. But they also need the votes of some people who are hard to get to vote, including young people. They need support from young people and they need them to turn out, and, by the way, turn out for them, not for some third party candidate.

So, energizing their base, energizing swing voters who may be against Trump, but not so much for Biden, that is one of the primary jobs that the Biden campaign faces in the election year.

BOLDUAN: That's absolutely right. And, Seung Min, there's also new reporting, I want to highlight some new reporting from Melanie Zanona and Haley Talbot, and lean on your past experience with me covering Capitol Hill on the shocking number of high-profile retirements among House Republicans. I mean, we're talking -- you've got just some of the high-profile -- you're seeing the numbers on your screen.

But you've got the chair of energy and commerce, Kathy McMorris Rogers, Mike Gallagher, who's really seen as the future, one of the people that kind of embodies the future of the party. I mean, he just announced that he's leaving. And here's how Ken Buck, how he's put it, they've signed up to do serious things, and we're not doing serious things.

How big of a deal is this? I mean, we're talking about serious down ballot upheaval in a presidential year.

KIM: Right, right. I mean, if you were telling me that the chairperson of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is one of the most powerful positions you can hold on Capitol Hill, you have oversight over so many important issues of the day, if you were giving that up before your term limits were up saying, I'm out of here, that is a serious bad sign for the Republican Party. And you're talking about Mike Gallagher as well, really seen as the rising star of the Republican Party courted to run in that Wisconsin Senate race against Tammy Baldwin.

[10:25:08]

And it can mean one of two things. One, it could certainly mean that a lot of Republicans are concerned about their party's prospects of keeping control of the House in November. Obviously, they have the tiniest of majorities right now. But also, two, even if they were in the majority, this is not some place where they want to be anymore. They don't see themselves being able to do the public service that perhaps got them to run for office in the first place. And either side, either way, is a really bad outlook for the Republican Party.

BOLDUAN: It adds some more uncertainty to what we're going to be seeing very soon.

Susan, let me ask you this, Susan, because among many Republicans that remain, there seems to be this cognitive dissonance right now over Vladimir Putin that's being exposed once again. Tim Scott kind of embodied it this weekend, calling Putin a murderous dictator on CNN and then applauding Donald Trump's approach to Vladimir Putin. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN TIM SCOTT (R-SC): We need strong leadership coming from America that actually pushes back against Russia and other dictators. Unfortunately, Joe Biden is not up for that charge and Donald Trump is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Can that last, this kind of cognitive dissonance for elected Republicans here?

PAGE: Talk about your serious political gymnastics there. So, you know, Tim Scott took a very hard line against Putin and then turned around and said, yes, Donald Trump is the one to stand up to him, even though Donald Trump has yet to mention Putin, for instance, in response to the death of Navalny.

We saw the House Intelligence chairman, Mike Turner, do a similar maneuver. If Donald Trump is elected president again, I don't think you're going to be able to see members of Congress effectively do that turn because he'll be calling the shots on the actual implementation of American policy. So, if you want to take a tough line against Putin, that's going to be hard to do if you're a Republican with Trump in the White House.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's quite a thing to see, but it's also quite a thing to see you two. It's great to see you guys. Thank you so much. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Kate. Coming up, new details on the search for a missing 11-year-old girl in Texas. Why police say they believe a man jailed on unrelated charges may be involved.

Plus, incredible new video shows the moment a Florida officer pulls a six-month-old baby out of a car following a horrific.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on, hold on, let me get you guys out of there. Let me -- hey, sweetheart, come here. Come here, sweetheart. Come here, sweetheart. Come here, sweetheart. Come here, sweetheart. Come here, sweetheart. Come here. I know, ma'am. I'm helping you. I'm trying to help you.

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