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Alexey Navalny's Mother Pleads For Son's Body Amid Kremlin Tensions; Presidential Campaigns Heat Up Amid Navalny Fallout; Urgent Search For Missing 11-Year-Old Girl In Texas; Republicans Divided Over Holding Putin Accountable; Biden To Unveil Major Russia Sanctions Package; Alec Baldwin Appears In Court Over Rust Shooting; Julian Assange Extradition Hearing Raises Human Rights Concerns. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired February 20, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:52]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: An emotional plea. Alexey Navalny's mother now calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release her son's body. This as his younger brother has been added to that country's wanted list. We'll explain why. Meantime, all of this is happening as the presidential campaigns ramp up. We have more on President Biden's new message as he is hitting the trail and what we can expect to hear from his likely Republican rival as Donald Trump prepares for the South Carolina primary just days away.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And an urgent search for an 11-year-old girl in Texas, the person that police are now focusing on in the disappearance of Audrey Cunningham. We'll be right back. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: We begin with the United States trying to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for the death of his most famous critic, Alexey Navalny, and the two years of war against Ukraine. Today, the White House announced that on Friday, President Biden is going to release the details of a major sanctions package against Russia. A Kremlin spokesperson says that allegations that Putin is to blame are, in fact, boorish. In the meantime, Alexey Navalny's mother is struggling to retrieve her son's body for burial. She stood outside the Siberian gulag where the Russian opposition leader died last Friday and made this demand. Watch.

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LYUDMILA IVANOVNA NAVALNAYA, ALEXEY NAVALNY'S MOTHER (through translator): Behind me is the IK-3 polar wolf colony where my son, Alexey Navalny, died on February 16th. I haven't been able to see him for five days. They won't give me his body. They don't even tell me where he is. I'm addressing you, Vladimir Putin. The solution to the issue depends only on you. Let me finally see my son. I demand that Alexey's body be immediately handed over so that I can bury him humanely. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Navalny's widow, Yulia, is now urging the European Union not to recognize the results of next month's elections in Russia. Let's get the latest now from CNN's Melissa Bell. Melissa, several members of Navalny's family are now facing problems, after his death.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris. Oleg Navalny, the latest in the family to face legal problems. An arrest warrant has been issued in his name. Now, this is a man who'd already done prison time in Russia on fraud charges that were widely believed at the time in 2014 to have been linked to pressure being exerted on his brother, who even then was representing a formidable figure of challenge to the Kremlin. He is now out of the country, but still that arrest warrant was issued, Boris, just moments after we saw those extraordinary developments this morning when the mother of Alexey Navalny made that very emotional and courageous plea. I think it's important to remember where she was speaking from when she delivered that video message, just outside that Polar Wolf colony, one of the most brutal in Russia, some 2,000 kilometers away from Moscow in the Arctic Circle.

[14:05:09]

Openly calling for the release of her son's body and more information than has been forthcoming from Russian authorities at a time when, over the course of the last four days and ever since the opposition leader's death, we've seen any, however timid attempts there have been, to lay flowers, to pay tributes to his memory, being repressed. Hundreds have been arrested. Flowers have been taken down no sooner had they been put up.

And I think when we look at what Lyudmila Navalnaya had to say today so openly from inside Russia, one has to recognize that there's a tremendous fiber of courage that runs through the family. Now, you mentioned those fresh sanctions from the United States. There are groaning calls here in Europe as well that fresh sanctions should be imposed on Moscow, this time related directly to the internal report. And I think that's a very important point. And again, as you say, just a month before elections that are almost guaranteed to see the leader, Vladimir Putin, get the fifth term that he seeks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Melissa Bell, live from Paris. Thanks so much for the update. Brianna.

KEILAR: The question of how to hold Vladimir Putin accountable or not has become a potent dividing line in domestic U.S. politics. And the contrast between the two parties on this issue is becoming more pronounced in the wake of Alexey Navalny's death. As former president Trump refrains from even criticizing Russia while rehashing his attacks on NATO. Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes. Kristen, the party of Reagan when it comes to Russia has fully transformed into the party of Trump, it appears.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there really seems to be an internal battle that's been going on within the Republican Party since 2016 when Donald Trump began running for president. You see that between the group of Republicans who wants the U.S. to have some sort of global presence. And those who follow Trump's agenda, his America first more isolationist agenda.

And every day it appears more and more people start to back Donald Trump's thinking that we shouldn't be giving aid to foreign countries. Instead we should be focusing solely on America. Again, a policy initiative that critics call more isolationist.

Now, we did hear from Liz Shayne (ph), who has been a longtime Trump critic, essentially saying that there was a Putin wing of the Republican Party. She herself, a Republican. I think a lot of Republicans would take issue with that, including Donald Trump himself. But as you noted, he has not criticized Putin at all. In fact, the only statement that he's put out on the death of Navalny has been about how he relates to Navalny, essentially saying that he is being politically persecuted in the United States by President Joe Biden. Obviously, this is a long messaging strategy that Donald Trump has taken about all the various legal cases that he is facing.

The other part of this is that the quickest way to and probably easiest way for Republicans to put down the bare minimum against Russia would be to approve the Ukraine foreign aid bill or at least bring it to the floor, which we know Speaker Johnson has not done and seems unlikely to do. It's something that Donald Trump doesn't want the House passing. And as we have talked about, more and more people daily seem to be falling back in line with Donald Trump and his version of the Republican Party.

KEILAR: They certainly do. Kristen. Holmes, thank you. Let's go to MJ Lee now at the White House. And MJ, we just heard from President Biden as he was heading out the door to California for a fundraising swing that he's going to be unveiling a major package of sanctions against Russia soon. What can you tell us?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's been clear for a while, ever since we got the news of Alexey Navalny's death, that the U.S. intended to respond in some way. Of course, we are now learning that there is going to be additional sanctions from the U.S. against Russia, the president saying, and other U.S. officials also echoing that these sanctions will be unveiled on Friday.

It's not clear as of right now exactly what that package of sanctions is going to look like. But we did just hear from Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, saying that it is going to be a package and a major package at that that targets numerous targets. So, we are waiting on details on what exactly that will look like. But, of course, it's important to note that the Biden administration. Has taken actions to this end in the past, really, ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine some two years ago.

So, it's unclear whether the administration believes that these sanctions are going to have sort of the intended effect or has had the enough of an intended effect in sort of having Russia sort of change its conduct. Obviously, the war is continuing on and there are serious concerns that U.S. officials are voicing right now about the fact that Congress has still not approving the additional U.S. aid that the administration has been pushing for so much.

And they say and we heard the president saying this over the weekend that there's a real concern that additional towns could fall and that there could be continued detrimental effects on the battlefield for Ukrainian forces if that aid is not approved quickly. Obviously, unclear right now exactly how that can materialize, given that House members are not even in Washington, D.C. right now, Brianna.

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KEILAR: Yeah, very good to point out there. MJ Lee, live for us from the White House, thank you. Let's discuss this now with our CNN senior political analyst, Gloria Borger. A major Russia sanctions package coming on Friday, Gloria, does that make it any more difficult for Republicans in Congress to say no to this aid to Ukraine that would counter Russia?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I don't think so. I think Joe Biden will impose a new sanctions package, and as MJ was saying, they imposed a sanctions package two years ago, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. But I think there's a certain wing of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives that is just stuck in the mud, in the cement, I should say, and they're not going to move. They're not going to move, and the Speaker is also stuck because he wants to save his job, and they could kick him out of his job because they could, you know, you only need one vote to say we want to have a vote on vacating the chair.

There is a majority of folks in the House, I believe, who would vote for Ukraine aid if it could come up on the floor, and unfortunately, they're on a vacation now for a couple of weeks, homework period, as they call it, and so I don't think anything will change soon.

SANCHEZ: To your point, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed that if Ukraine aid got to the floor, she would personally lead the effort to oust Speaker Johnson. And further to your point about this wing that's stuck in the concrete or the cement, that's the same wing that Liz Cheney was talking about this weekend in her conversation with Jake Tapper, the Putin wing. Right. Of the Republican Party. The Ronald Reagan Republican, I think of the past, it seems.

BORGER: Well, the Ronald Reagan Republican Party is dead and gone, and I looked up today the famous evil empire speech that Reagan gave in 1983, in which he called the Soviet Union the focus of evil in the modern world. This is Ronald Reagan talking. That is not the case now. I mean, you know, we see this. This allegiance, in a way, to Putin, following Donald Trump, who, as we all know, when he finally said something about Navalny, he made it about himself and didn't even mention Putin.

So, there is a wing of the Republican Party that is isolationist, as Liz Cheney calls it, and I think she's right, and she's calling on them to put their country first, and I think their answer would be, well, take care of the border first. There was a bill to take care of the border first, and they wouldn't let that occur. KEILAR: Are we being generous to say that it's just about, you know, nationalism and isolationism and America first? Is so much of this just to do with former President Trump's personal animus towards Ukraine because of a phone call that got him impeached, and that the world order as we know it, and that the U.S. has enjoyed for decades could potentially hang in the balance because of a quote-unquote perfect phone call that has Republicans getting in line between Trump on?

BORGER: I think there's something to that. I mean, as Donald Trump said when he was running for president again, I am your retribution. He's his own retribution. And that phone call, the so-called perfect phone call for which he was impeached unsuccessfully, you know, sticks in his craw. He doesn't like Zelenskyy. He will never like Zelenskyy. And I think that is a big part of this. I also think that he likes Vladimir Putin. He's always liked Vladimir Putin. He likes strongmen. He likes authoritarians. He's called Vladimir Putin very smart, remember, at the beginning of the Ukraine crisis.

So I think, in a way, you're right, Bree, it's a combination of both of those things, which are both very personal to Donald Trump, who says he gets along with these authoritarians, whether it's Putin or Kim Jong-un or whomever. And there are Republicans who will follow him right over the cliff on that.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious to get your perspective on the prism of politics when it comes to attracting voters. How does this Trump affinity for people like Vladimir Putin and Putin specifically, how does that sit with folks that are ultimately going to decide the next president?

BORGER: It depends what party you're in. I mean, you know, 74 percent of one poll, one recent poll, 74 percent of people in this country support the war in Ukraine and the U.S. efforts to help the Ukrainians. But when you break it down by party, it's overwhelmingly Democratic and not Republican.

[14:15:19]

So I think you have to say that the Republican Party is now the party of Donald Trump. That is what it is. And what Donald Trump wants, Donald Trump gets. And I think there's no way around it. There are a group of Republicans fighting this, particularly we see in the United States Senate, who believe that not to give aid to Ukraine is the equivalent of appeasement. And they're fighting it. But Donald Trump has his thumb on the scale, and it weighs very heavily. And at this point, it's hard to see what Mike Johnson can do about it unless he does put this bill on the floor and endangers his own security as Speaker.

SANCHEZ: Yikes.

BORGER: Yeah, yikes is right.

SANCHEZ: Gloria Borger. I appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much.

BORGER: Thanks. SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come this afternoon. Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are making a last-ditch attempt to stop his extradition to the United States, where he's wanted by authorities on 18 criminal counts, the latest on that effort. Plus,an American woman is missing in Spain. Could the last messages sent from her phone reveal where she is or what may have happened to her? And later, millions of pieces of space junk are circling the planet. There's a new program though that aims to clean up the mess. All this and much more still to come on CNN News Central.

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[14:20:09]

KEILAR: Right now, actor Alec Baldwin is expected to make a remote appearance in a New Mexico courtroom over the 2021 fatal shooting on the set of his film, Rust. Baldwin held the gun that fired a bullet killing cinematographer Helena Hutchins. He said he never pulled the trigger and has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Initial charges against Baldwin had been dropped in this case, but then earlier this year, a grand jury indicted Baldwin with prosecutors saying, quote, additional facts have come to light. Joining me now is attorney Areva Martin to talk a little bit more about this. So many people watching all of these developments, Areva. where is this headed?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it looks like it's headed to trial, Brianna. We know that the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, her case is scheduled to begin trial sometime this month. And there's been some new developments in this case that have been reported out. One, as it relates to the new charges against Alec Baldwin, we know that new prosecutors were brought onto this case. They got the FBI involved. There was an additional examination of the gun involved and new experts that have come onto the case. And Alec Baldwin's statement to the effect that he didn't pull the trigger is inconsistent with the forensic evidence in their investigation and examination of the gun.

Also, we are now learning that this armorer, who we know was very inexperienced, hadn't had the level of responsibility on a movie set that she was given on this particular set, may have been using cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana the night before the shooting took place. Even some allegations, that she is the one that brought the live ammunition onto the set, had the live ammunition with the dummy ammunition in her hotel room the night before. Apparently, there were text messages where she's talking about getting high. So, there's a lot of damaging information that I think is going to be difficult for the armorer to overcome in her trial and then could bleed into the trial for Alec Baldwin because the charges against him is that he was indifferent to the safety of the cast, not as an actor, but as a co- producer of this film.

KEILAR: So, Areva, you mentioned Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's trial. That is going to begin with jury selection starting tomorrow. And hers has to do with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. You mentioned that alleged drug use. Evidence of that is going to be allowed in this trial, in her trial, and that is going to be key. But what kind of preview, is that trial going to give us of Alec Baldwin's presumed trial? And also, how could what happens in her trial affect his?

MARTIN: Yeah, I think a couple of things we need to be watching for in Reed's trial. One, again, Alec Baldwin was not just the actor on this movie set. He was also a co-producer. So, he has different obligations as a co-producer than he has as an actor. As an actor, I think everyone would agree that he didn't have a duty or any obligation to check the gun that was handed to him. Actors rely on other experts on sets to make sure that there isn't live ammunition in a prop or a gun that's handed to him or her.

But when you are a co-producer, Brianna, you have different levels of responsibility. And that level of responsibility requires you to not be indifferent to the safety of every member on that movie set. So, to the extent that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed may be, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter because of her negligence in the handling of the ammunition on this set, that could speak volumes about what may happen in a trial against Alec Baldwin.

KEILAR: If he did or did not know about any concerns about Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or anything about her behavior, how pivotal is that going to be? I mean, if he was flying blind here and didn't know anything until after the fact versus if he did perhaps have some sort of inkling ahead of time that perhaps she wasn't the best employee.

MARTIN: Yeah, again, it goes to foreseeability and reasonableness. So if you are a co-producer, if you're someone in an employer situation where you now have a duty of care that's different than, again, as an actor, it becomes a question of what you should have known, not just what you actually knew, but what you knew or should have known. That's going to be the standard.

[14:25:29]

And the question is going to be as a co-producer, should he have had information about Hannah Gutierrez Reed's experience? Should he have known about her ability to handle the responsibilities on a set? Should he have known that there was a possibility that she could be engaging in conduct like drug use, alcohol use if those facts are indeed proven at trial? So, it's going to turn on, again, not what he actually knew, but what, as a producer/co-producer, he should have known.

And then the foreseeability of those actions. Is it foreseeable that someone like Hannah Gutierrez Reed, again if she was engaged in the conduct that prosecutors allege, was it foreseeable that live ammunition could have been mixed up with dummy ammunition and that the killing of Miss Hutchins could have occurred based on that conduct?

KEILAR: Yeah, all right. Well, we'll all be watching this closely. The tragedy of this one is still hard to fathom even all this time later. Areva Martin, thank you so much for that. Boris. SANCHEZ: We want to turn our focus to London now, where a hearing is taking place on whether Julian Assange has the right to appeal his extradition to the United States. The WikiLeaks founder, you may recall, is wanted by U.S. authorities on 18 criminal counts after the organization published thousands of classified documents and diplomatic cables. about the murder of a woman and the murder of a man in the middle of the night. CNN's Max Foster has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. has been fighting for years to have Julian Assange extradited from the UK to the United States. It's gone from the High Court to the Supreme Court right up to the British government that signed off on this extradition. What these two days worth of hearings are discussing is whether or not the government was right to sign off. Did it breach Julian Assange's human rights? He argues that he's in an unfit mental state. He could take his own life if he's sent to the United States. He says he's just a journalist and that the move is politically motivated. The British government is politically motivated to sign off on this extradition warrant.

Another extraordinary allegation coming from Julian Assange's lawyer is that they have compelling evidence of a CIA plot to kidnap or assassinate the WikiLeaks founder during his time when he was held up in the Ecuadorian Embassy, which is from 2012 to 2019, where he was effectively hiding from the British judicial process. These claims haven't been verified. If the judges think there is something in them, then they could have further hearings. If they don't think there's anything in them, then the extradition process does begin, and Julian Assange could be sent to the U.S. in a matter of days or probably weeks.

There is a chance he could appear to be in a position to do so, but we're not sure how that process would work at this point. At the moment, it's just hearing about those human rights and whether or not they were breached by the British government by allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the U.S. Max Foster, CNN London.

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SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Max Foster for that report. Still had new developments in the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl in Texas. Police now questioning a family friend about the case. We have a live report in just a moment.

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