Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

America's Choice 2024; Punishing Putin With Major New Sanctions. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:01:48]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: South Carolina, you are almost on the clock. Election eve for the Republican primary there, what Nikki Haley and Donald Trump are pitching voters in these final hours.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The US imposing the largest single day round of sanctions on Russia since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago to the day tomorrow. We're waiting for President Biden, he's supposed to speak this hour after this big move to punish Vladimir Putin.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Three Alabama clinics have now paused IVF treatments after the state Supreme Court rule frozen embryos are children. There are new ramifications by the hour. I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is the final 10:00am edition of CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Dab at the center of the political universe right now, tomorrow is the state's Republican presidential primary. Early voting is already been underway. Today, both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump are delivering closing messages to voters. Several stops planned in the Palmetto State. Though, Haley has done much more campaigning if you want to call it traditional campaigning in her home state and Donald Trump -- yet, Donald Trump remains far ahead in the polls among voters there, like 30 plus points ahead.

If you're keeping track at home, friends, here's the delegate count which is how you secure the nomination in the end in that primary. Donald Trump has 63 delegates, Haley has 17. But 1,215, that's the magic number needed in the end. Fifty delegates at stake in South Carolina.

Enough with the math, let's get to the trail. CNN's Kristen Holmes and Kylie Atwood are in South Carolina.

Kristen, you're in Rock Hill. That is where Donald Trump is going to be stopping. What are you hearing from him and his team headed tomorrow?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, first of all, I'm very impressed by your math skills. That was very -- that was very impressive. So when we talk about South Carolina and talk about Donald Trump, his team really believes that this primary is his to lose, and there's a reason for that. Even though Haley far outpaced him on the campaign trail here, even though she far outspent him, even though this is Nikki Haley's home state where she was the governor, those polls show him leading by roughly 30 points. They look like he's going to steamroll her.

Now, we have heard from Donald Trump himself, really dismissing the fact that she has stayed in the race. But senior advisors tell us that that's not the case behind closed doors. That he's been frustrated and annoyed that he can't move on to the general election as the nominee. Here's what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I guess she's got an ego or something. I'm not a big fan of hers. She's doing very bad things for the Republican Party. I don't care at this point if she says that she's getting very few votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES And, Kate, just to reiterate, he does care if she stays in which we have heard from number of people who have talked to him about it directly. But I do want to note that even though the primary is not over, as you said there are still so many delegates at stake. The polling across the country really shows Donald Trump leading in every state, particularly on Super Tuesday. And it's starting to feel more and more like a prime -- a general election. And that's what we're kind of seeing when it comes to Democrats and Republicans.

[10:05:09]

Democrats seizing this opportunity to hit Republicans, and particularly Donald Trump, over abortion after that Alabama ruling that said that frozen embryos were people, as Republicans have really struggled to come up with their messaging on abortion.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Kristen. Great to see you in South Carolina. Kylie, let me bring you in on this. If this looks more like a general election, Kylie, the general election matchup that Nikki Haley wants to focus on, is the fact that polls show that she would be Joe Biden by more than Donald Trump would be Joe Biden. She's got a long way to go before she'd ever see that though. What are you hearing from her team?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It will certainly be an uphill climb if she's able to do that at all. What we've heard from Nikki Haley over the course of the last few weeks here in South Carolina are a number of things. First of all, that she believes that the American people can do better than an eight-year-old president going after President Biden and former President Trump in the same message, as we've heard her do over the course of her entire campaign. And also going after Trump on a number of fronts, saying that he is complaining about those legal woes about him, he's making it personal. He's not caring about the American people. That he is using campaign donations to actually pay his legal bills, which she said is not normal.

And she's reminding South Carolinian voters of what she did here in the state when she was governor to try and bring people together when there were challenges at the state facing the tone at the top matters. And here's what she said yesterday on the trail about why her campaign is still alive, saying it's about something greater than herself and reminding voters to get out tomorrow with their friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tell your friends, tell your family, email everybody, text them, all of that. This is the time South Carolina can really step up and show the direction that we want our country to go in. I believe in you. I've always trusted you.

Then they are talking about my political future. I don't care about a political future. If I did, I would have been out by now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now after the New Hampshire primary, where Nikki Haley lost to foreign president Trump by 11 points. She said the goal here in South Carolina was to close that gap. That certainly seems like a lofty goal now that we have seen polls over the last few weeks that show her 30 to 35 points behind former President Trump. But she has been defiant this week, giving a speech earlier in the week essentially saying that no matter what happens here in South Carolina, her campaign will be alive on Sunday. We'll just have to watch and see what happens. Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's the beauty of it. We don't know until the voters have their say. It's great to see you both, Kylie, Kristen. Thanks, guys. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. To continue this conversation, Republican strategist and chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, Andrew Boucher, thank you so much for joining us.

I want to cut to the chase. We've just heard the numbers and we've heard from Haley. Is there a path for Nikki Haley to win in her home state of South Carolina as you see it right now?

ANDREW BOUCHER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, anything can happen. And I'm long past the days of trying to make political predictions. But I will say that of every turn and throughout her entire political career, Nikki Haley has been underestimated. That being said, Donald Trump clearly has a strong lead. He's got a strong base of support. It's deep and it's wide, and it's going to be tough to overcome tomorrow.

SIDNER: Look, the Republican Party made it pretty clear that they stood down on this, that they were expecting Trump and wanted Trump to be the nominee. Why do you think that Nikki Haley is staying in the race? You heard her say there, it's not about her political career. So what is it about?

BOUCHER: Well, I think she has a message that she wants to get across. And I think she believes she has a path to the nomination. And what we're doing right now here in South Carolina is part of the process. We've seen tremendous energy. We've seen folks coming out of the woodwork asking how they can get involved and how they can be a part of this process. And I think it respects the voters that both of the candidates have been crisscrossing the state, getting their message out there, making their final appeal, and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

SIDNER: All right. I do want to ask you about some of the comments we've been hearing from former President Trump. He has continued to rail against mail-in voting. As the chairman of the Republican Party in a state that does allow for mail-in voting, although it is pretty specific, I think 65 and older can do mail-in voting, along with some other exceptions. What are your thoughts on that? Are you worried that it hurts the Republican Party for him to keep coming out and saying that there is fraud with mail-in voting when there has been no proof of that?

BOUCHER: Well, I think you've got to, you know, vary state by state. South Carolina has limited mail-in voting and it's limited primarily, as you mentioned, to senior citizens and folks who are overseas and have to sign an affidavit.

[10:10:07]

We have two weeks of early voting, which just wound up yesterday. And we've seen tremendous interest in people being able to schedule their vote, being able to make sure that they're out there, you know, they voted yesterday, because they're going to be out of town tomorrow. I think it's an -- it's a convenience. And it is a way for Republicans to win.

So we've got to make sure that we take advantage of every single avenue whether it's mail in voting, early voting, or Election Day voting.

SIDNER: Can you give me some sense of what Charleston County looks like for the early voting? Do you have any sense of whether there has been a big turnout?

BOUCHER: There has been a pretty impressive turnout here in Charleston. We only have three early voting sites for this election, so it is kind of a logistical challenge. But we've seen more than we expected over the past two weeks, and it's a testament to the fact that people are getting used to the process of early voting. But it's also about the energy that people are, you know, experiencing here in South Carolina.

They want to be a part of this process. They want to make their voices heard. And if they're going to be out of town tomorrow or have family commitments tomorrow, it gives them an opportunity to vote and make their voice heard.

SIDNER: I forgot to ask you this when we're talking about mail-in voting. Have you heard from anyone that is concerned about mail-in voting in your state? Because when you talk about 65 or older, I mean, you know, that is the population that does tend to vote more than any other. BOUCHER: Yes. No, there are concerns. I've seen some of the concerns firsthand. I've never gone through an election cycle where people didn't have situations where they were trying to find the ballot that they had sent in, or they got a duplicate ballot. We see this every single time, it is not a perfect system, believe me.

You know, with early voting, at least you're going into a site and you're voting on a regular voting machine. But when you've got to trust the US Mail, you've got to trust the signature verification process. Short early voting by mail adds a layer of potential problems to the mix. So we don't discourage voting by mail. We'd like to focus on early voting in-person and voting on Election Day.

SIDNER: Andrew Boucher, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: President Biden set to speak shortly after slapping Vladimir Putin and hundreds of Russian entities with the biggest single day round of sanctions in years. Hopeful parents and Alabama in limbo, yet another IVF clinic has paused treatments after the state Supreme Court declared frozen embryos are children. And a devastating diagnosis for former talk show host, Wendy Williams. Now her legal guardian is suing the network about to broadcast a documentary on her life and health struggles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:26]

SIDNER: Very soon, we are expecting to see and hear from the President. He is at the White House. This is the first time we'll hear from him since a major new push to punish Vladimir Putin. The White House, just last hour, imposed more than 500 sanctions on Russia, the largest single day round since the start of the war in Ukraine. And it came in direct response to the death of Putin critic Alexei Navalny, and on the eve of the two year mark of Russia's brutal invasion to Ukraine.

The Kremlin this morning so far has yet to respond. And Biden is calling them responsible for Navalny's death facing a sweeping new blow to the money fueling his war machine. That's how Biden puts it. Let's get reaction now in Ukraine from CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

You're in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Nick, can you give us some sense of the significance if there are any to what's happening there in Ukraine on the ground?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I mean, the sanctions obviously have been part of a toolkit that the Biden administration has continued trying to kind of borrow into over the duration of this war, whilst it's sometimes making sure that don't disrupt the US economy, but at the same time to try and find extra ways of making this hurt for Russia.

Now, Ukraine has been very clear that, for example, tonight, some of the Shahed drone attacks and the missile attacks it's been facing over past years have been facilitated from technology sometimes purchased from US computer companies, shipped in very circuitous ways around the world, and then essentially finding their way into components that become part of the Russian war machine. Potentially, some of the sanctions may target parts of that, but it's still been getting through.

Russia is also quite flush with cash at the moment, frankly, partly because of heavier taxation on its own people. But also, it's making up some of the sales of crude oil that it isn't making to the West by selling it entirely, legally and aboveboard to India in huge amounts as well. And there are some suggestions from shipping monitors. And in fact, some of those sales to India have to use a dark fleet, a shadow fleet to potentially get round some of the price cap sanctions. A complex mechanism the US and its allies put in place to be sure that the Russia can't use G7 or Western allied nations to sell oil for anything more than $60 a barrel of crude.

All of this has been stacking up over the past two years of the war. But fundamentally, it hasn't left Russia, not in a better position than it is indeed now. And we're seeing definite signs of Russia having the equipment the personnel, the cash it needs to keep its war machine moving forward, while the opposite frankly is beginning to be true of Ukraine. They are certainly suffering for that $60 billion worth of USA being held up by this functionality and a Republican-led Congress.

[10:20:08]

And so today, Ukraine dealing with the awful news of three dead overnight from falling drone debris in Odessa, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling Fox News, a key audience is reaching out to the tie to that Republican parts slowing down aid, that they might go for another counter offensive. But it is a bleak time here as that third year of the war edges towards us, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes. The sanctions, Ukraine said, they're fine, but what they really need are arms ammunition. Thank you so much, Nick Payton Walsh, for all your reporting there. Stay safe. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now was Bill Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign founded in honor of Sergei Magnitsky, who was serving as Mr. Browder's lawyer when he died in Russian detention. Bill, thanks so much for being with us.

This new round of sanctions, the largest since the Russian invasion of Ukraine announced just shortly ago, how much of a difference do you think they will make?

BILL BROWDER, CEO, HERMITAGE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, the problem is that we have sanction and sanction, and sanction Russia, so whatever we're doing right now is incremental. It's not going to be decisive.

It's good. I'm sure that as we pick it apart, it's -- I'll look at these things and say, these are some very strong sanctions. I'm sure that people who are on the other side of these sanctions are going to have their lives ruined.

But there's one huge problem in this whole story, which is that, and we're not addressing it, which is that Russia earns somewhere around $500 million a day from the sale of oil outside of the country. And they're spending that money on weapons. And they're killing Ukrainians. And we have not done anything to cut off that supply of oil.

And as long as they continue to sell oil, they'll continue to make money, they'll continue to buy weapons, and they'll continue to kill Ukrainians. And so, it's great to do sanctions. And, you know, I'm probably, you know, most -- one of the biggest enthusiast of sanctions packages, but we've left this one thing out, and that's the elephant in the room.

BERMAN: Is Vladimir Putin winning?

BROWDER: Well, Vladimir Putin is not winning in the sense that -- I mean, his economy is Iraq. He's lost hundreds of thousands. I think the latest estimate is 400,000 soldiers. It's a total mess over there. But he doesn't care. So he doesn't care about deaths of his soldiers, he doesn't care about the economic damage that he's done to his country. And he's not living in a in a world where the press is attacking him or the voters want to vote him out.

He can do whatever he wants. He can create so many harsh conditions and nobody can do anything. And as a result of that, he can carry on, well, worse, we're all grumbling. And as you mentioned before, there's a big package of military aid that's being held up by certain people scuffling in the far right of the Republican Party. And so, he has -- time is on his side, it's not on the side of any of us who live in democracies.

BERMAN: Alexei Navalny died in prison. A lot of people pointing the finger at Russia and Vladimir Putin for that. Who do you think might be next?

BROWDER: Well, my biggest fear is a close friend of mine. His name is Vladimir Kara-Murza. He is what I would describe as probably the second most well-known and important political prisoner in Russia. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He spent -- he's already been there for two years.

They tried killing him with poison twice before like they did with Navalny. They sent him to a Siberian prison like Navalny, they put him in solitary confinement like Navalny, and he's speaking out from prison like Navalny. And I fear for his life.

And I'm hoping that now that Navalny is no longer with us, the West will wake up and take seriously that this terrible stuff happens to these political prisoners. And we'll do something to try to get him out and get some of the other important ones out, because we're going to need these people to be leading a free Russia at that moment when the Putin regime finally fractures. And we need people who believe in democracy and free speech, and in good relations with the West, which is what Vladimir and his compatriots believe in. And that's why they're sitting in prison.

BERMAN: We're looking at pictures right now of your friend Vladimir Kara-Murza, someone that CNN has spoken to extensively over the years. And he is now in a Russian prison, and there is great reason to be concerned about his well-being.

There was a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine and ended up in Spain after over the last two years, who turned up dead in the last week. So there are people who think that Russia has reached goes far beyond the borders of Russia itself. Do you fear for your own life?

BROWDER: Well, I very much do this. The murder of Alexei Navalny, I think, it sort of opened the floodgates. If Putin cares so little about what the West thinks about him, and he's ready to kill Alexei Navalny, he's ready to send out his assassination squads all over the world and kill all the people who are calling him out, who are his enemies.

[10:25:07]

I'm certainly high on that list as our other friends and compatriots here. And, you know, Putin is truly a menace. And I should point out, it's not just us who are at risk. I mean, if, you know, Putin, I don't think he'd hesitate to kill a Western politician if that were to serve his purposes. I think that he's truly like a mafia boss ready to do anything to anybody anywhere, and certainly in his own country.

BERMAN: Well, Bill Browder, we appreciate you talking with us. It goes without saying please stay safe. We'll talk to you again soon. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Opening the floodgates for Vladimir Putin is a scary warning. An important one coming from him, John, that's for sure.

Coming up for us, fertility clinics are shutting down IVF services. Fertility doctors are left with a nightmare scenario on their hands and hopeful families are terrified. The impact of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling is still setting in. The personal stories of what is happening there, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)