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Don Lemon Tonight

Special Master Demands Proof Of Trump's Allegation; Forced Reservists Headed To Ukraine; Russians Fleeing Their Country; Another Lawsuit Filed Against Governor DeSantis; GOP Candidate Deterred By Women Suffrage; Ukrainians Helping Their Own Citizens Start A New Life. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired September 22, 2022 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Not so fast there, Sara Sidner.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. Yes.

LEMON: How you doing? How you doing?

SIDNER: How you doing?

LEMON: OK. Remember we have -- we have to remember we're on television.

SIDNER: Yes. Sorry.

LEMON: So.

SIDNER: Keep it together.

LEMON: We-- your segment about cancer, death rates falling. We are living in the future. When you look at can -- cancer death rates falling, I'm sure you remember back in the day when you had to have this whole host of cocktails for HIV.

SIDNER: Yes.

LEMON: Now it's either shot or pill, and there is possibly a cure in the work. Same thing with cancer. I mean, we're living in -- in the future.

SIDNER: We have to remember that when we are doing the Debbie Downer segments, right?

LEMON: Yes.

SIDNER: I mean, we talk about a lot of the problems in this country. That is a beautiful reality.

LEMON: Yes, it is. And so are you.

SIDNER: Ditto? Enjoy it, Don.

LEMON: See what I did there.

SIDNER: I saw it.

LEMON: I'll see you. Have a good one, Sara.

This is DON LEMON TONIGHT.

And the former president's run of bad, well, it just keeps rolling along. Remember? Rolling. Rolling. Rolling. Special master has just about had it with the legal team and I remind you, this is their handpicked special master. This is really a put up or shut up moment for team Trump.

Judge Raymond Dearie ordering the Trump team to back up his out of court claims that the FBI somehow planted evidence during their search of Mar-a-Lago. Back it up or put up or shut up, as they say. The search that turned up more than 100 classified documents.

Now, the judge wants him to give him a sworn declaration with a list of specific items that they claim were planted. And that's the thing. This is about facts. It's about evidence. You can't just make wild accusations in court without a shred of evidence even if that is your main M.O. out in the court of MAGA opinion.

The judge also considering testimony from, quote, "witnesses with knowledge of the relevant facts." And let's not forget the former president would have you believe that he could declassify documents just about by thinking about it, which is not a thing. Senate Republicans not buying that either.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): Up here we take it very seriously. People can get hurt. People can get killed if it's not stored correctly. And if that information gets out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, plus problems mounting for Vladimir Putin. At the U.N. today, world leaders slamming him over his invasion of Ukraine while he is scrambling to restore his battered war machine. And sources tell CNN personally giving directions to generals in the field.

That as he calls up 300,000 citizens and reservists to fight in Ukraine, a mobilization not seen since World War II. And meanwhile, Russians who want to avoid the mobilization are crowding the borders. While the families left behind, say goodbye to loved ones, they know that they may -- may never see again.

But is a desperate Putin and even more dangerous Putin, and how much support does he still have from the Russian people? We've got more to come on this later on in the broadcast. We've got a lot to cover in the couple of hours that we have with you this evening.

But I want to begin right now with CNN's senior legal analyst, Laura Coates, and national security attorney Bradley Moss.

Good evening to both of you. Thanks for joining us.

Laura, let's see. Let's talk about this special master, which was the handpicked special master from team Trump overseeing this Mar-a-Lago docs, ordering Trump's team to back up their claims that the FBI possibly planted evidence. He is telling Trump's lawyers really to put up or shut up.

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Exactly. And it's one you can file this all under, be careful what you wish for team litigation Trump, because you just might get it. You've asked for a special master with credentials who has the experience judicially to be able to understand what they are looking for. The FISA court experience about the notion of classified documents versus unclassified, the idea of privilege versus non-privileged.

But ultimately, you have somebody who's in a position to know the difference between the court of public opinion, Don, and the court of law. And what you can say in the court of public opinion might be much more expansive, but what's required in a court of law is that, if you make an allegation or an assertion, you have to actually substantiate it.

Here, the special master is saying similar to what the 11th circuit said just yesterday. Look, you have articulated, your client has articulated, all these notions about either planting evidence or declassifying documents. Where is that statement in a court of law? If it's not there, that is not going to bode well for the overall assessment.

And frankly, it might actually translate into the court of the electorate or the court of public opinion as to the veracity, credibility of all of the claims that he has made regarding that search on his estate.

LEMON: Bradley, the special master is also opening the door to witness testimony, which is kind of surprising. There -- there've been a lot of questions about the chain of custody and also who may have moved the documents from the basement to Trump's office. Who do you think could be called as witnesses? A witness or witnesses?

[22:04:58]

BRADLEY MOSS, NATIONAL SECURITY ATTORNEY: Yes. So, there's any number of people who work or worked at Mar-a-Lago who would potentially be relevant. There's obviously, Donald Trump's some of his former -- or sorry, some of his personal attorneys who are not working on this per -- current particular civil litigation, you think of Alina Habba, you think of Christina Bobb.

Now there's obvious issues there. There's privilege issues. There's what they could talk about in the extent to which this is within the special master's authority.

But to, you know, kind of supplement what Laura was saying. This is all a problem of Donald Trump's own making. He brought this civil litigation when he didn't need to. He gave DOJ the opening to provide the public with more information about what was going on, that he didn't need to let them do.

And now he's got both the 11th circuit and the special master breathing down his neck, telling him what are you doing here? You can't just make these wild accusations. You have to back it up with sworn affidavits. You have to back it up with exhibits. You've done none of that. We're not going to play games with this stuff. Either you provide the evidence or your case is done.

LEMON: Yes. Laura, listen, you know this, a lot of people will say, especially when it's a high-profile person, they want the court of public opinion. They think that they can sway people. They think that they can sort of push the legal system into what they're thinking.

I mean, what -- I want to continue to talk about what you said and what Bradley just said. I mean, what does it say that both the special master and the 11th circuit are taking on Trump's public claims that haven't been put forward in legal filings, declassifying, the possibility of planted evidence and, and so on and so forth.

COATES: You mean, the idea of what his interview, I think with Sean Hannity was. To suggest that you could declassify somehow through telepathy, Don. I mean, the idea that you could just think about something and all of a sudden it goes away, a nuclear secret. You know, when we think about it, I guess it goes away, classified documents. And we think about it no longer classified.

I mean, the absurdity of these statements is very much that self- inflicted wound. And so, the judges have the benefit of really two things. One the facts before them and the absence of evidence. And also, they're remembering back to a time not so long ago when there were similar statements made in the court of public opinion about evidence of voter-related fraud, about election-related lies.

And then when asked in a court of law to support that, to substantiate it in some way, they did not. So, in some respects, and only are we seeing the judges learning from what's happened in this particular exclusive matter. But they're learning from experience based on other instances where there has been a statement made by the former president in the court of public opinion, trying to inject and infuse it with a particular narrative.

And then when a court of law, they're brethren and sisters of the court, there's crickets there. So, unfortunately, he is, I think now becoming the victim of his own making in the sense of every web of statements that are unsubstantiated creates an opportunity for really a -- him to undermine his own cases and matters even before there's a single criminal charge.

LEMON: Here's the interesting thing, Bradley. I think, you know, Donald Trump has been very litigious. That is no secret, right? That's what the evidence shows. And he has been able to wait people out, right, financially, you know, have them spend a lot of money and then have things just go away because people don't want to be entangled with the legal system and they don't want the fees.

So, what do you expect this, this instance is different, right? So, what do you expect Trump's lawyers to do? I mean, they have a client that makes a lot of claims about the FBI, about seized documents, but so far Trump's attorneys have been more restrain. It would be a crime if they knowingly lied in court, correct?

MOSS: Correct. Absolutely. They don't want to commit perjury or suborn perjury. And the lawyers who've recently come on all know who Michael Cohen is. They all know who Rudy Giuliani is. They all know who Sidney Powell is. They don't want to go that way. They don't want to either go to prison or find their licenses at risk.

So, they're going to try to find this middle ground with this client who doesn't listen to them. who forgets that he has the right to remain silent. And if he doesn't, things can be held against him. They're going to try to thread this needle in what they actually put forward to the court and the arguments they use to just try to drag this out.

They're not expecting to win anything with this civil litigation as far as I'm concerned. They know the law is not on their side. Their goal is one thing, to drag this out, to muck up the process, make it so that the government can't bring itself. They can't -- sorry -- can't finally get to a decision on whether or not to bring an indictment or not in this case and make it so that we get closer and closer to November 2024. At which point all this could get shut down if either Donald Trump or someone favorable to him were to win the presidency.

LEMON: Well, here's what I don't understand, Bradley. Why on earth, I mean, if it was your client, wouldn't you -- wouldn't you like handcuff him to lock him in the room so that he wouldn't go on television and do an interview and possibly make things worse for you.

Why are they -- why on earth are they allowing him to go on television and make claims and then have the special master say, you're going to make those claims then show them, show, prove it.

[22:10:05]

MOSS: Well, it's the -- let's be really honest. It's all about the money. All right. The only the lawyers he's got that are actually willing to work for him at this point are ones who're demanding things up front like a $3 million retainer. You're entitled to get hire any lawyer you want. The lawyers are not required to agree to be hired.

The only lawyers who are left are those who are simply not ready or qualified to handle this situation, or basically told Donald Trump, look, you can do whatever you want because it's your life. And it's going to be your potential, freedom at issue. I will do what I can within the bounds of the ethics rules to defend you in court. I won't suborn perjury and I won't commit perjury myself. I won't do what apparently, Christina Bobb may have done and potentially have committed perjury and lied to the feds. But you can go off and do that stuff and say whatever you want to say

to Sean Hannity because it's your life. As long as my check clears, I got what I want.

LEMON: Laura, Judge Raymond Dearie is someone Trump's team put forward as a candidate for a special master. They think they get someone more favorable. I'm sure they did.

COATES: I think, Don, their hope was that he would be somebody who had an ax to grind against the FBI. Remember that Judge Dearie was on the FISA court. That's the one, the court that oversees surveillance of individuals. And one of the people that the FBI had put forth before this judge as a part of the FISA court was Carter Page.

I remember Carter Page had this infamous three-time renew warrant to surveil him. But then ultimately at the detective general's office at the FBI found that it was problematic to say the least.

And so, one of the times it was actually sworn to and allowed to go forward was under this very judge. So, I suppose the Trump litigation team may have been hoping that they had planted enough of a seed of doubt in the mind of this judge to suggest that it was fair game to doubt the credibility of law enforcement, particularly the FBI.

Of course, what you -- his team have found is that this judge so far, and we don't know everything that's going to happen, but so far, this judge is adhering to what he is asked to look at. Remember it was either classified documents review. They've said no now, from the circuit court, or the idea of privileged documents. Neither of which relates to a potential act to grind.

And frankly, to suggest that he would proceed under that notion would really belie what we've known to have been his credibility on the bench and tenure for the better part of three decades.

LEMON: If you make a claim, you got to prove it. That's what happens in a court of law. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

A mobilization the likes of which Russia hasn't seen since World War II. Desperate Russians trying to escape across borders, families saying goodbye knowing that they may never see each other again. As Putin's problems multiply at home and then the war in Ukraine, what will he do next?

[22:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It's the first call up in Russia. Since World War II, a 300,000-person partial mobilization. Vladimir Putin trying to restore his battered forces in Ukraine in the wake of major setbacks in the unprovoked war he started.

CNN's Matthew Chance has our report on the reaction from the Russian people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suddenly, an Exodus across Russia's borders. Social media now filled with images like these near the country's southern frontiers of vehicles backed up out of sight.

"Everyone is on the run from Russia," the male voice says, "endless cars, it's mind boggling."

In the west towards Finland, border officials also reporting significantly higher traffic, nearly 5,000 crossing in a single day. And were expected by the weekend as Russians make for the exits.

Across Russia there's a growing sense of alarm. Even anger that the call up of reservists to fight in Ukraine.

(CROWD CHANTING)

CHANCE: More than 1,300 protestors have already been detained. Many of them women. Terrified their husbands and sons will be killed.

"I've got two kids of conscription age," says this protestor. "I brought them up alone and I don't want to lose them." She cried.

"And for what," asks her friend? "Yes, just so they can kill the sons of other mothers." She answers.

But the mobilization is taking place regardless. Images of reservists like these boarding a military transporter in the Russian far east show how many are heeding the call to arms.

At assembly points, families are saying emotional goodbyes before their men, some apparently in middle age are bus their own. Is what was always cast as a limited special military operation feels more and more like a full-blown war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (on-camera): Well, Don, if the stakes at home for Vladimir Putin are rising tonight, he is continuing to raise them as well in Ukraine, because tomorrow, the series of referendums are going to be held on bringing areas occupied by Russia in that country into the Russian state. And if that happens, senior Russian officials are, again, warning that nuclear weapons could be used to defend those territories if they continue to be attacked. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: All right, Matthew, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowing those migrant flights who Martha's Vineyard were just the beginning. But not if my next guest has anything to say about it. Stay with us.

[22:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowing to transport more

migrants from the border. But a Florida lawmaker is trying to stop it. Tonight, he has filed a lawsuit against DeSantis to block him from transporting any more migrants from the southern border to other states. That lawmaker is Florida State Senator Jason Pizzo, and he joins me now.

Senator, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.

And it's, I mean, it's very -- the timing couldn't be better that you're here because you just filed this lawsuit about an hour ago. And you say that the governor and his administration broke the law when they paid for flights to move Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Massachusetts.

Tell us about the case that you're making.

STATE SEN. JASON PIZZO (D-FL): It's -- thanks for having me on, Don, and for -- and for reporting on this very critical issue. In the state of Florida, this past legislative session just a few months two bills were passed and signed into law.

[22:25:06]

One was the appropriations bill where all of the state revenue and budget goes. And the other one was an immigration related bill that prohibited certain activity for people to be transported.

And both of those bills, which again, the governor signed into law very simply said that only money could be used for the transporting of unauthorized aliens from the state of Florida. And by all the reports, all accounts, even his own braggadocio, you know, repeatedly operatives were sent in from the vendor into Texas to gather and corral up a group of people, take a pit stop on the tarmac in Florida, call that being from Florida and then off to Martha's Vineyard.

But this is a very narrowly tailored injunctive relief, prior for relief just to stop making these payments.

LEMON: Yes. All right. Well, let's talk about it because this is a justification for the flights. He says, he's pointing to a provision in the state budget that sets aside $12 million for a new program to transport migrants unlawfully in the United States. What's your response to that?

PIZZO: I'm a bit of a textualist. So, what it actually says, is that the Florida Department of Transportation is required to implement a program. That program has to receive at least two bids. We have no indication that there were two bids, and the allocation appropriation of $12 million could be spent again, very important on unauthorized aliens. And we can question the immigration status of the individuals that were brought here from Texas. Not all of them are unauthorized, if any, because they were processed and paroled into the system.

And second from this state. And Don, very clearly, by all indications, all reports, videos, testimony, other lawsuits filed. Nobody originated here in Florida. No dollar can be spent outside of Florida.

LEMON: OK. So, the migrants on these flights were not from Florida, as you said, he's repeatedly suggested that the action was validated because Florida is in the final destination of many migrants. Is that a fair assessment?

PIZZO: It's about it's fair of assessment saying that instead of flying up here to Tallahassee, the state capital and spending, you know, the night with my kids, you know, an anticipation of where I might be next week, you have no idea.

So, to try to get into the head of 48 migrants of where they intend to go or may matriculate to is so anticipatory and so attenuated that it should find absolutely no place in the law, nor will it.

LEMON: Senator, DeSantis has vowed to transport more migrants from the border. He said that the flights to Martha's Vineyard were just the beginning and he -- he's not backing down at all. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Now everybody is talking about it. And look, they're busing to New York City, D.C., all this stuff. And that's not the solution, though. The solution is to recognize the policy has failed and to change the policy. And you could do that very easily in ways that have been proven to work. So, hopefully, we're going to be talking about this a lot more now. This was not an issue of concern even two weeks ago. Now it seems to be on the front burner. So, we're proud of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Interesting. So, Senator, he gets a lot of applause for this at his rally. So clearly, it is a hot button political issue.

PIZZO: It is to his base. And Don, for the past four years that I've been in the state Senate, it's been less about Democrats versus Republicans and the ideology or policy. It's more about Republicans sort of distinguishing and distancing themselves to their base and showing who could be more right of the other one.

Here's the deal. And this is, it really gets kind of sentimental and personal for me. Like governor DeSantis, we both are the great grandsons of women who came here from Italy who were illiterate and who stuck out a claim for themselves and their families and worked very hard and came up through the system and had the benefit of every opportunity available in the United States.

I just seemed to remember it and tried to cherish that and work towards that. And he likes to forget it to play it his base and not to his ancestry. This is just cruel and inhumane. And that's -- that's the focus of our bill is to stop the wasteful, unlawful spending outside of the state of Florida.

LEMON: OK. So, you did this tonight. So, what comes next for you? PIZZO: I'm hoping to get an emergency hearing tomorrow. I'll remain

here in the state capitol until we hear from the circuit court here in Leon County, Florida in Tallahassee. And if we don't get it tomorrow, then I'll remain until we do.

LEMON: All right. Thank you, Senator Pizzo. I appreciate it.

PIZZO: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: And please come back and update us. Thank you so much.

PIZZO: Thank you, sir.

LEMON: A Republican congressional candidate coming out swinging against women's suffrage. What century is this? We'll talk about it next.

[22:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and now someone who is rallied against women's suffrage when Senator Mitch McConnell warned his party about their, quote, "candidate quality." Is this what he was talking about?

Joining me now CNN political commentators, Ana Navarro and Margaret Hoover. I mean, we could -- good evening. We could be here all night talking about this. I mean, don't you think, Margaret?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's enough material.

LEMON: OK. So, listen, I got to go over these names. So let me put on -- let me put on my glasses here. The GOP's got -- they've got a lot of extreme candidates on the ballot. In Ohio's ninth congressional district the Republican congressional committee seems to be losing faith in congressional candidate J.R. Majewski. Pulling their ads. He is an election denier. He was also at the capitol in January 6th. He has repeatedly shared pro-QAnon material. He's running against Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who has been in office for nearly 40 years.

How is this playing out, Margaret?

HOOVER: It's playing out for a much smaller like, margin, that Kevin McCarthy is likely to have in his majority. Like let's not kid ourselves. It is still likely that Republicans hold the House of Representatives.

[22:34:59]

But Kevin McCarthy was hoping for a 40-person majority in House representatives and that number just ticks down and down and down. They pulled a million dollars of ads for somebody in a Trump plus three districts in Ohio that should have been a walkaway race. And instead, they've got these crazy. By the way, your question was, is candidate quality, what Mitch McConnell was talking about when he said this?

LEMON: Yes.

HOOVER: You just talked about members of the House of people who are running for House. He was talking about the Senate.

LEMON: Senate, right.

HOOVER: Right? I mean, but that --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But he -- but I thought he was talking about candidates in general, not Republican candidates --

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: -- but he was saying -- but to the point, they're still going to hold the House. Not maybe not the Senate. And that's a candidate quality.

LEMON: Now I'm picking over what you're putting down. So, GOP congressional candidate, John Gives, this is for you, Ana, once argued that America has suffered since women's suffrage. He ran a think tank in early 2000s, and this is what a K-File dug up. OK?

The K-File dug up that he said that we conclude that increasing the size and scope of government is unequivocally bad. And since women's suffrage has caused this to occur on a larger scale than any other cause in history, we conclude that the United States has suffered as a result of women suffrage.

What does this say about the candidate quality here? What does this say?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'll tell you what I -- I just couldn't believe. You know, you just had his picture up. Did you notice something about him?

LEMON: That he's black.

NAVARRO: That he's black. In other words, he didn't have a right to vote for a very long time --

LEMON: Yes.

NAVARRO: -- until the Constitution was changed.

LEMON: His people.

NAVARRO: So, right. So, so right. Well, OK.

LEMON: Yes.

NAVARRO: Yes. I guess his ancestors.

LEMON: Right.

NAVARRO: Didn't have, you know. And so, for a, an African-American man to be against women's suffrage to be praising an organization that wants to abolish the 19th amendment is hypocritical. It's crazy. It's shameful. It's like 200-year-ago type policy. I mean, really this guy should be running for Congress of caveman not for Congress in 2022.

LEMON: Well, Margaret, he said that women did not possess the characteristics necessary to government.

NAVARRO: Neither does he, he doesn't possess a brain.

LEMON: But how -- how did someone like that end up being a candidate? Come on.

HOOVER: Here's why. Thank you for asking me. I was hoping we would get to solutions instead of the inanity that has become the base of the Republican Party. Closed partisan primaries. Just say that over and over again. Closed partisan primaries cater to the most extreme and the most fringe in a part -- in parties where special interest -- use -- special interests used to be the problem.

Now it's just conspiracy theories and crazy sort of flat earth society women can't vote. Women can't think for themselves. And it is. It has the -- the party is not just the party of Trump. It is the party of conspiracy theories. It is a party of, you know, the big lie, all that. And this kind of asinine stuff that, by the way, this is a D plus five to nine district. Peter Meijer, the Republican --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: That's where I was going to ask.

HOOVER: -- who voted for impeachment and frankly had DCCC money run against him so that this clown could lose the seat to the DCCC.

LEMON: That was my next question. How does that happen? How hypocritical is that? How does that --

HOOVER: Well, it's going to play out OK for the Democrats.

NAVARRO: Which -- which hypocrisy are we talking about? Please be a little more specific.

LEMON: This particular one, him, hence, you -- you say a plus what? It was a plus nine.

HOOVER: I mean, look, it's somewhere between D plus five to D plus nine. Peter Meijer could have held it.

LEMON: Yes.

HOOVER: This guy is not going to win. NAVARRO: You, when we started this segment, you said we're going to

talk about weak candidates and bad candidates. I said which one, because there's such a plethora to choose from, right? And on the Senate side, it's going to be incredibly frustrating for Mitch McConnell because not only does he have some very bad candidates in places that should be wins for the Republicans. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada. I mean, it's just go on and on.

But he also has a very bad chair of the National Republican Senatorial committee, where there's a bunch of money missing that nobody knows where it's gone. And there's a bunch of misspending that people want to -- donors want clarified. So, Mitch McConnell has -- had to come to the rescue. And all of this -- all of this are the seeds planted by Donald Trump. Having election deniers, having conspiracy theories, having Herschel Walker, having all of these people. Mehmet Oz. That is a result of what -- of what Donald Trump has the havoc he's wrecked on the Republican Party.

And I'd also tell you, so he's got -- you've got all these really bad candidates. You got a really bad chair of the NRSC, and then you got people who used to be good candidates like Marco Rubio.

HOOVER: Yes. Becoming bad.

NAVARRO: You know, becoming, you know, trying to figure out how to become more MAGA. Marco Rubio who has spent all of his career talking about against communists and socialism railing for TPS for Venezuelans is now railing against the Venezuelans who are suing Ron DeSantis for using them as a political prop.

[22:40:04]

What happened, Marco? You used to be the Republican savior. Now you're the Republican verguenza. Shame.

HOOVER: Thanks for the translation.

LEMON: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: This is day.

NAVARRO: It's Hispanic heritage month. There's I could teach you a few words this month. This is my month. I'm taking it. I'm embracing it.

LEMON: Listen, to Ana's point, it - it's -- it has become tougher and tougher with every single day to say that the Republican Party is not the party of what you guys are saying. Because there are people saying, no, that's not the party, but.

HOOVER: Well, you know, there's a couple of us who are hanging our hats on Lisa Murkowski's reelection on the Susan Collins and the Mitt Romneys and the senators who voted for impeachment and will live to tell about it. I mean, Lisa Murkowski, by the way, did I mention those three words?

You know how I said closed partisan primary. Yes. Guess where they don't have closed partisan primaries. Guess where -- guess where the moderate candidates who actually represent the majority of the Republican Party get reelected. Alaska.

LEMON: OK. I want to say this. Gibbs campaign --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Well, I was holding my hat on Liz Cheney and I now got no hat.

LEMON: All right. So, Gibbs campaign says that he believes that women should be allowed to vote and work. And he says this. That John made the site to provoke the left on campus to draw attention to the hypocrisy of some modern-day feminists. It was nothing more than a college kid being over the top. So, there you go. What do you think?

NAVARRO: I already told you what I think of him. Should I repeat it?

LEMON: That's your response?

NAVARRO: OK.

LEMON: No, I just want to make sure you said what you said.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Listen, the reason -- the reason --

HOOVER: The response is in there.

NAVARRO: The reason -- the reason -- the reason that there's all these issues regarding women voting is because there's a lot of pissed off women. Because you don't take a right that had become an accepted national right for women and take it all of us away.

All of a sudden, we don't, you know, we, as women are reading daily about the 10-year-old girl that gets raped that can't get an abortion, about the woman who's got carry a child without a skull and give birth to it. How about the consequences on IVF? How about the consequences with birth control.

And those things have got women and I, you know, hell knows no fury like a woman's wrath. And there's a lot of us who are very angry, particularly, because it seems that it's a bunch of old white men like Lindsey Graham, who I bet you could, would have a very difficult time being able to identify the different items in a woman's reproductive system if he saw a chart telling women what they're going to do with their bodies. That is why they have an issue with women's suffrage.

LEMON: We'll leave it at that. Don't you think, Margaret?

HOOVER: OK. Yes. LEMON: Yes. Thank you. Twelve refugees in one bedroom apartment -- in

a one-bedroom apartment. We're going to look at the people helping Ukrainians flee from war, next.

And at the top of the hour, the special master handpicked by team Trump telling them to put up or shut up.

[22:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All this week, in a series we call Champions for Change, we are highlighting people who are rising to the occasion, tearing down barriers and making the world a better place. As the war in Ukraine continues, Erin Burnett's champions are helping refugees escape and resettle in the U.S.

These three siblings who immigrated from Ukraine years ago are doing whatever they can, including opening their personal homes and providing financial support.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Mariupol, Ukraine last Christmas.

Mariupol, Ukraine now. Since the start of the war, more than seven million people have been forced to flee Ukraine. Oleksandr Urazov and his wife, Olha (Ph) were just two of them. They were trapped in Mariupol with their three children. I met the Urazovs in a park in Brooklyn, New York. Their daughter was about to celebrate her seventh birthday. It was just months after they'd left Ukraine. And at times it is still so hard for them to even tell their story.

OLEKSANDR URAZOV, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): An explosion wave took out our front door and looters came in and took whatever they like. The shell fragments remain in my back and there is a hole in my head.

BURNETT: The Urazovs escaped, thanks to another family who lived 5,000 miles away.

ALEX VELYCHKO, REFUGEE SUPPORTER (through translator): He's my childhood friend. We met when we were about five or six years old.

VELYCHKO: Alex Velychko and his siblings, Nick and Angela came to the United States from Ukraine over the past two decades. And they started a small and now thriving business operating car dealerships. When Putin invaded Ukraine, their lives changed, too.

UNKNOWN: We start calling our relatives, friends, asking how they are there and people were panicking.

UNKNOWN: Yes. The condition was really bad.

UNKNOWN: We decided that we have to like, help them get them out from there. Somehow. BURNETT: One of the things that sticks with me is that it took the

Urazovs 19 days to get from Mariupol to the Ukraine border. They had three young children. They had an eight month old. In the early days of the war when I left Ukraine, along with hundreds of thousands of refugees, it took 19 hours and it was a grueling experience.

And in the context, you think, wow, the suffering that they endured and what they went through, the trauma is really unimaginable.

They first lived in Alex's one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. Hi. One bedroom, one bathroom. And in that space, he and his wife have hosted as many as 12 refugees at once.

VELYCHKO (through translator): Of course, we have our challenges, but at the end of it all, I understand that they don't have anything else. They have nowhere to go.

[22:49:59]

BURNETT: The Velychko has reached out to their local Jewish organization. It's the Edith and Carl Mark's Jewish Community House. And they worked with them and the United Jewish appeal to help the Urazovs. And so many other families who have been desperately fleeing Ukraine and trying to come to the United States to start a new life.

How much money have you all spent and how are you managing that?

NICK VELYCHKO, REFUGEE SUPPORTER: It's hard to tell how much money you have to get the apartment room. You have to get the taxi.

BURNETT: Yes.

N. VELYCHKO: You have to get the tickets both ways. It's -- it's really hard. So.

UNKNOWN: And then we rented the apartment here in United States for them --

N. VELYCHKO: Everything. Yes.

UNKNOWN: -- maybe 150,000.

BURNETT: Oleksandr wants to find a home for his family. He wants to get a job, but he's struggling to find work here in the United States.

OLHA ERAZOVA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): It would be easier if they simplified the job permit process. It is hard. We've been here for five months with no income.

ANGELA WILSON, REFUGEE SUPPORTER: We're just trying to help them and save as many people we can, as many families we can. We already brought 15 families here.

BURNETT: Fifteen?

WILSON: Yes, five, five more already to come to United States. They approved and more people are waiting over there in the country in Ukraine. And it's very hard to choice.

BURNETT: It's a choice that no one wants to make, but the chosen in the face of such great loss are grateful for life.

O. URAZOV (through translator): They are doing a noble thing. They help people get out of the country where the war is underway.

BURNETT: Oleksandr uses the word noble, and that's what Alex, Angela and Nick are, sacrificing their time and their hard-earned success just to help others have a chance to build new dreams.

O. URAZOV (through translator): I dream of getting a good education here so I can have a good job.

MARIIA URAZOVA, UKRAINIAN REFUGEE (through translator): I want to go to school as soon as possible and make good grades.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Wow. Erin Burnett is here with me right now. Erin, what a fantastic story. The Urazovs say that they have been trying to get jobs in the U.S. for five months. Why is that?

BURNETT: Five -- five months, Don. And you know what, the -- it's getting the work papers. They're here under what's called humanitarian parole status and you can get that and then you have to get work papers to be allowed to work. So, Alex is a crane operator and he simply can't get work.

And, you know, he talked about it as sort of, you know, affecting his dignity and self-worth, he wants to provide for his family. And you saw some of those other refugees who are actually in Alex's apartment now. Among them as a mother and a daughter. They were accountants at big companies in Ukraine in Mariupol, Don. And now one of them is taking classes online and the other is working as a nail technician.

LEMON: Yes.

BURNETT: And she's doing that because they can't get work papers. So, this work paper backlog is a really, really huge issue right now.

LEMON: Yes. And listen, after the war, we were all doing stories on each of our shows about people who were resettled here. And in your story, we saw how Alex has had up to 12 Ukrainian refugees and his one-bedroom apartment at a time. And how can people help Ukrainian refugees right now, if they want to?

BURNETT: You know, the most incredible thing about this, Don, is that they've opened their -- their hearts and their homes and their wallets, all of them. And I know people watch and say, what can they do to help? Well, you can, if you want to take people in, you can do that.

There's a process. You go to welcome.us. There's a button you click for Ukrainian refugees and you can see exactly how to do it. It involves sponsoring families. That's what they've done for each of these families. Sponsored them, right? So that they can come to the U.S. under this humanitarian parole status for two years.

That takes a huge amount of commitment. More Americans can do it though, if they want to. And of course, you also can donate. I mentioned the United Jewish appeal and the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House, Red Cross. There are other ways of course, that you can help.

But Don, as you know, there is still so much help needed because they're still coming here and they just desperately want to work and to start to build new lives, as you heard those children say, they expect to live here now maybe for the rest of their lives.

LEMON: Yes. Erin, thank you so much. Again, it's a very inspirational story. I appreciate it. And we will continue to share these inspirational stories all week and be sure to tune in on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern for the Champions for Change one hour special. We'll be right back.

[22:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, it's going, you know, be careful what you wish for. The Trump legal team taken to task in court today by the special master that they requested. Judge Raymond Dearie today demanding the former president's lawyers provide proof for their claims that the FBI possibly planted evidence, and opening the door to witness testimony about the Mar-a-Lago documents as part of the review process.

So, joining me now to discuss this, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, Mr. John Miller, and former assistant special Watergate prosecutor, Mr. Nick Akerman, and former federal prosecutor, Mr. Jim Walden.

So glad to have all of you on. Good evening.

John, I'm going to start with you. So, the special master is telling the Trump legal team he wants him to specifically a declaration of, quote, "any specific items that were on the DOJ's list that they believe were not taken from Mar-a-Lago."

So, basically, he's saying, you know, this P.R. strategy about this was planted, whatever, and making that claim, he's saying prove it.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, the special master, who is Judge Dearie, is a special master in this case, not a judge, but he's acting a lot like a judge. What he's saying is if you're going to make these allegations, make them sworn under oath and bring proof starting with that the FBI planted classified documents and other things at Mar-a-Lago. So, he's trying to speed up the process, which is put up or shut up.

LEMON: How do you think, Nick, the Trump's lawyers will respond to this?

[23:00:02] NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: I think they're going to hide under the rocks.