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Ukraine Strikes Moscow in Biggest Drone Attack to Date; Antony Blinken: Russia has Received Ballistic Missiles from Iran; Harris and Trump to Face Off for the First Time in Presidential Debate. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Large explosion at a high- rise building.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

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BERMAN: All right, with us now is White House National Security Communications adviser, John Kirby, thank you so much for being with us. What's the U.S.' view of the utility of these drone strikes inside Russia, particularly at Moscow?

JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, WHITE HOUSE: Well, look John, I'll let the Ukrainians speak to their operations one way or another. This is not the first time that they have conducted these kinds of strikes inside Russia.

I would just tell you that nothing has changed about our view. We're not enabling or encouraging attacks inside Russia, certainly not with U.S.-made weapons, that's still our policy and our approach. But what we are trying to do is make sure that they have what they need to defend themselves, certainly within their own territory.

And that's why we just announced another package of $250 million worth of weapons and material to help them do just that.

BERMAN: Do you see the strikes as changing the situation on the ground in Ukraine at all?

KIRBY: It's difficult to, you know, certainly -- you know, in the wake of this particular attack overnight, it's difficult to see that there's been any tangible change to the -- to the battlefield. I mean, right now, the Russians still have assailant of forces all the way from the northeast of Ukraine, down towards Zaporizhzhia in the south, and they have made some progress in recent days and weeks in moving forward a little bit, not much.

And of course, the Ukrainians have got a ground operation going on inside Russian territory, inside Kursk where they're sort of now trying to dig in and defend themselves against what they believe will be some sort of Russian push-back here in the coming weeks. But it's difficult to see that these particular drone attacks have had any tangible change to the battlefield front in any way.

BERMAN: Just a short time ago this morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed the shipment of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia to use in Ukraine. The Secretary said there will be sanctions on Iran over this. How do you see that? What's the impact that you see on the military situation in Ukraine with these Iranian missiles?

KIRBY: I tell you, the biggest worry, John, from these -- what are called close-range ballistic missiles. They got a range of about 75 miles, and our biggest concern is the impact on the civilian population in Ukraine, because that is how Mr. Putin has proven, willing to use ballistic missiles in the past, hitting civilian infrastructure, civilian residential areas.

And so, the biggest threat to Ukrainian civilians and not so much on Ukrainian military forces. That's another reason why in this latest package of material that we've announced for Ukraine, that there's quite a bit of air defense capabilities in there to try to help them shoot these things down.

But the biggest threat is to the Ukrainian civilians, and that Mr. Putin wants to buy more ballistic missiles in this case from Iran, he gets them from North Korea too, just shows you the depravity here. He just wants to slaughter and murder innocent Ukrainian civilians.

BERMAN: As you know, there is this new report from Congress on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in this report, the one offered by Republicans in the House, it refers repeatedly to the Biden-Harris administration, seeming to want to place the Vice President at the center of a lot of the decisions that were made.

There's one quote from this report that says, quote, "Vice President Harris despite publicly championing Afghan women's rights, appears to have been working in lockstep with President Biden behind the scenes to withdraw all U.S. troops, no matter the consequences to Afghan women and girls." The idea of Harris working in lockstep with President Biden on the Afghan withdrawal. Is that accurate?

KIRBY: She certainly was at the table for all those national security decisions. She's spoken herself about her support for the decision to end the war and her contribution to the policy discussions in the planning that went into the withdrawal. She was at the center of that, of course, as she would be as Vice President.

But this idea -- first of all, that they're now throwing him under -- and this is clearly just shows the partisan nature of this report and the political nature of it, the timing of it here, coming the day before the debate. I mean, it's hard to escape that. But this idea that either the Vice President or the President were just recklessly moving to this withdrawal without concern to Afghan women and girls just flies in the face of the facts, that is not true.

I mean, we worked very hard during the three-and-a-half years prior -- of this administration still have, to try to do what we can for Afghan women and girls. It's obviously more difficult now with the Taliban in control. But the effort to try to do what we could on behalf of the Afghan population was sincere.

Again, we got out 120,000 Afghan civilians from Afghanistan, and what? Seventeen days at one point, a plane was taking off safely once every hour. So, I just find it -- again, just more indication of the partisan one-sided political nature of this report.

[09:35:00]

BERMAN: Very quickly, one of the things the report also says is that what was being said publicly by White House officials about what was happening there, and the prospects for Afghans were different than what was being discussed behind the scenes. How do you respond to that?

KIRBY: I talked about this yesterday from the podium, John, it's just absolutely false. It's not true. And I was one of those spokesmen, both at DOD and here at the National Security Council. And I can tell you in all earnestness, we did the best we could to be as transparent, as informative and as open with the American people as we could during the withdrawal and after the withdrawal.

We wrote a couple of after-action reports, DOD did one, the State Department did one, heck, we did one here at the NSC. We made all that public for the -- for the American people to see. And we've testified to Congress on numerous occasions, there was no intent to deceive or to be less than transparent about it.

That -- there was a plan, not everything went according to plan, sadly, 13 brave service members were killed in a tragic terrorist attack at Abbey Gate. We still mourn with those families. And there were other deaths as well of Afghan civilians, not only in that attack, but throughout in other times during the withdrawal.

All of that is tragic, but it doesn't take away from the very earnest effort to be as open about it as we can to investigate these issues, and we've done that and released those investigations. So, again, I think it's just more evidence that this whole report is really being driven by politics and partisan rancor, rather than an honest undertaking to try to get a ground truth for what happened during the withdrawal.

BERMAN: John Kirby, we appreciate you coming on this morning, thank you very much for your time. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Say it with me, friends, it is debate day in America. What could be America's only opportunity to watch a one-on-one debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, we have much more coverage on that ahead. And no question, it is a tough job to be up on a presidential debate

stage. Another tough job being the moderator of such debate. Two former debate moderators join us.

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[09:40:00]

SARA SIDNER, CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Welcome back. We are just hours away from the high-stakes debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. And while the candidates have spent countless hours preparing, so have the two moderators. I'm joined now by Susan Page; Washington Bureau Chief for "USA Today", and someone who has moderated a debate herself.

First, let me start with this. You moderated the Harris -- Harris' last debate, the vice presidential debate between her and Mike Pence. What -- give me some sense of what it's like sort of out there on the debate stage as a moderator, who was also being very much judged for the performance that you give.

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: You know, Sara, maybe you've had this experience because you're so experienced at being on the air. But when I walked out there, I was pretty nervous, when I sat down, I was only aware of myself and the two debaters and everything kind -- everything else kind of faded away.

And for 90 minutes, I was just really focused on our -- on our conversation -- and, you know, it's different from doing an interview. When you do an interview with a newsmaker, you want to push them to say something that's even just incrementally a little new. When you're doing a debate, you always have in the back of your mind what is useful to the voters who are watching, including millions of voters who are just tuning in and learning about these candidates, especially in this case, Kamala Harris for the first time.

SIDNER: This is a debate that is similar to the last one, in that the rules are the same, there's no audience, the mics will be muted. But what do you make of that, and how does that sort of affect these two candidates? Because we have seen for many years, a room full of people responding in real-time to what they're saying.

PAGE: Yes, and an audience, I think -- I think an audience tends to be disruptive. So, I think it's great that there's not an audience there. You know, the muted mics -- who knew that muted mics would serve Donald Trump's purposes, because they definitely did in the first debate, the debate he had with Joe Biden, it imposed a discipline on Donald Trump, helpful to him.

And I think that was one reason that Harris people said this time, they wanted open mics, which they didn't get.

SIDNER: If you know, there are attacks -- in the last debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, we all remember the barrage of attacks, but also the barrage of misinformation that was coming out of Donald Trump's mouth, and then Joe Biden could respond to that or he could sort of go on to tell his own story.

What do you think of that dynamic that we may see that again. Should the candidate respond to what false information or should they sort of stick to their own policies and what they want the American people to know about themselves?

PAGE: You know, that Sara, that's such a hard question that Kamala Harris will face tonight, because on the one hand, I'm sure there'll be things that she'll want to correct or respond to or counter. But people already know what they think about Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, they have an opinion of him.

A lot of Americans don't know about Kamala Harris. So, I think her greater task today is to talk about herself and her own plans, and the President she may need to worry more about is not the one on stage, not Donald Trump, it's Joe Biden because she has the task of being loyal to him by providing a description or examples of how she would be independent of him, different from him, how she would turn the page in an election where we know most voters say they want to see big change with the next administration, not more of the same.

SIDNER: Since you've covered, you know, politics for such a long time, who do you think has the most to lose in this debate?

[09:45:00]

Winning a debate is one thing, but this is one of those pivotal moments potentially in a race that we've never seen in a race this tight. It's literally neck-and-neck.

PAGE: It's so -- it's so extraordinary and it's so short. We're not accustomed to campaigns that are this -- or that are this short. You know, both candidates have a lot at stake tonight. You know, we talk all the time about this as a pivotal moment. This is a defining moment. Well, tonight, really is a pivotal moment.

And I think more so for Kamala Harris than for Donald Trump because she is less well-known, she has got to make her case to people that she's up to the job. She has to describe what she would do that is different and independent from Joe Biden, and she needs to stand up to what is usually a very aggressive debater who will be just right next to her on stage.

SIDNER: She has to define herself and defend herself at the same time. Susan Page --

PAGE: Yes --

SIDNER: Thank you so much for coming on this morning and talking us through that, really appreciate it.

PAGE: Thank you.

SIDNER: John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, thousands forced to leave their homes as raging wildfires burn dangerously close and a record heat could make it even more dangerous.

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[09:50:00]

BERMAN: New this morning. Several prominent Republicans, including Senator J.D. Vance are spreading fake claims involving Haitian immigrants eating household pets. Now, this is a hoax that centers around Springfield, Ohio, where it started as a rumor posted on a Facebook page. CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Even in the toxic political climate of our times, this is a wild claim. Republican Vice Presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, who has railed about a large influx of Haitian immigrants into the rather middle-sized town of Springfield, Ohio, posted reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.

And this claim which focuses on kittens and ducks has exploded in the far-right echo chamber, amplified by the Trump campaign, conservative commentators, Senator Ted Cruz, Donald Trump Jr., Elon Musk and more. They are saying and/or implying if you elect Vice President Kamala Harris, her immigration policies will put your pets at risk.

But to be clear, this allegation against these immigrants is patently false. A far-right fever dream which could easily prey upon racist and xenophobic fears. According to Springfield city officials, there is no foundation for any of this. In a statement they said, "we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.

Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents' homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic."

Yet, when CNN asked Vance's office why he is pushing such a blatant lie, they said, Senator Vance has received a high volume of calls and e-mails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield. His tweet is based on what he is hearing from them. But again, there is no truth to what he is hearing, and that is easy to check.

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BOLDUAN: Wow, thank you, Tom Foreman. This morning, firefighters in California and Nevada are fighting more than 60 wildfires. The fires have destroyed more than 2 million acres and already forced thousands of people from their homes. Let's get over to CNN's Nick Watt, he's live in California for us. What are they up against there right now, Nick?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, it's going to be another tough day because what they're up against, again, is going to be heat and terrain. It's not even 7:00 a.m. here and the temperature is beginning to rise, going to be another 100 degree-plus day, there's going to be some westerly winds.

Now, the heat just sucks all of the moisture out of this vegetation. And if you look at this terrain, it is also steep. That is also what they're up against, because firefighters, there are crews on the ground trying to dig fire lines that will contain this fire. There are also Black Hawk helicopters C-130 is trying to hit the fire from above.

But right now, this fire, 26,000 acres, it's about 40 square miles, grew overnight. Overnight, it does tend to lie down the fire, during the day when the heat picks up and the wind, the heat -- well, actually the rising air will actually drag those flames up the sides of these mountains. Now, the winds are going to be dragging the fire.

We hope today, away from the more densely-populated areas down on the flats, but up into the hills. So, Big Bear, which is a ski resort in the Winter lake resort in the Summer, that could be in some danger. There's a little community just over the side of the tail Angelus Oaks, that was evacuated yesterday.

We've just seen in the past 20 minutes or so, some puffs of smoke there. Now, the other issue with the wind, of course, is it can take those embers far and spread this far. So, it's going to be another tough day. They're hoping as the week progresses, those temperatures are going to drop, and that is going to help them. But today, they are scared of further spread of this fire, Kate.

[09:55:00]

BOLDUAN: And they need help. I mean, because it's not just one fire. It's like dozens of fires we're up against.

WATT: Yes, I mean, 60 fires, 2 million acres, you know, the other fire we're really keeping an eye on is the Airport Fire, which is about 50 miles away from here, down in Orange County. And there, we really saw how quickly these fires can spread. Yesterday, in the space of just four hours, that fire went from 7 acres to 1,900 acres because of the heat, because of the wind.

This is fire season in California, 1,700 personnel just on this fire alone. So, they are scrambling to contain this, waiting, hoping for those temperatures to drop, to give them some respite. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Nic, thank you so much for that update, we'll follow this one closely.

SIDNER: It's always a good day when you see Nick Watt, it's a bad day when you see the fires --

BERMAN: Yes --

SIDNER: So, but you get both, you get a little good, a little terrible -- BOLDUAN: Exactly.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much for joining us, this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL with John Berman, Kate Bolduan and myself, I forgot my name --

BERMAN: Sara Sidner!

SIDNER: Yes, thank you. "CNN NEWSROOM" is up next.

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