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Cracks Continue To Grow In Trump's GOP Support; Rudy Giuliani Pushed Trump Administration To Grant Visa To Ukrainian Official Promising Dirt On Democrats; Chaos In Parliament As U.K. Lawmakers Vote To Delay Brexit Vote; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Expected To Announce Bernie Sanders Endorsement; Bernie Sanders Return To Campaign Trail After Heart Attack; U.S. Officials: Ceasefire In Syria Is Not Holding; Reuters: U.S. Launched Secret Cyber Operation Against Iran; "Declassified" Airs Tomorrow at 11 P.M. ET. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired October 19, 2019 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, again, everyone, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin this hour with new cracks emerging in President Trump's wall of support.

Former Republican Governor and CNN Political Commentator John Kasich of Ohio now says the President should be impeached this comes as GOP Congressman Francis Rooney tells CNN that he would not rule out voting to impeach the President. The fallout coming after the Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitted to a quid pro quo in the quickly expanding Ukraine scandal and then Mulvaney tried to walk it back.

"The New York Times" reports that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell now believes that an impeachment trial is "Inevitable". All of this as sources tells CNN that the President's Personal Attorney, Rudy Giuliani, asked the U.S. State Department and the White House to grant a Visa to a former Ukrainians official who promised to dig up dirt on the Democrats.

But let's start with that storm strolling around Mick Mulvaney's stunning quid pro quo admission. The President's Acting Chief of Staff is now planning to meet today with a group of Republicans a Camp David for damage control and strategy. Kristen Holmes is at the White House for us. So Kristen, what are you learning about this meeting to take place?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, I think we can safely assume that admission, that stunning admission of a quid pro quo will be top of mind when they head to Camp David. Here we are again waiting for an official readout, but let's just remind everyone what exactly happened because this has really changed the course for a lot of Republican lawmakers.

The Acting Chief of Staff stepping out and essentially announcing the fact that yes, in fact, they did want dirt on Democrats, they did want information on Democrats and now was one of the reasons that they were holding back on some of this funding for the Ukraine. Then, when reporters said you're describing a quid pro quo, he said get over it, it happens in foreign policy.

Now we know from sources that President Trump was not thrilled with his performance and the coverage surrounding that performance, but this is not the only thing that Republican lawmakers are pushing back on. We heard many of them on the Hill saying they needed Mulvaney to clarify his remarks and do want to note here Fred, he did issue a statement shortly after he made these remarks saying that there was no quid pro quo, of course I didn't say that, but it is pretty hard to argue with the tape.

Let's talk about the other things as well. We know that there are serious push backs when it comes to Syria and withdrawing those troops as well as the announcement that this foreign leaders summit the G-7 was going to be held at Trump's property in Doral, Florida. A lot of antennas raised here Republicans saying this needs to be more transparent, we don't know if we can defend this. Most of them just coming up to the line, but we did hear from that U.S. Florida Congressman Frank Rooney as you mentioned, take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying at this point you're not ruling out the possibility that this is an impeachable offense for the President?

REP. FRANCIS ROONEY, (R-FL): I don't think you can rule anything out until you know all of the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes, so clearly here this is the farthest we have seen anyone go but, it's remarkable to see these kind of cracks even if they are settled. Remember this is the President who the Republican base has rallied around, has supported no matter what he said, really. So it is interesting to see this is starting to form, again, it doesn't mean that the entire base is breaking but it does mean that something interesting is happening here with these Republicans.

WHITFIELD: Something interesting. All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. The new developments are setting the stage for another week of major testimony in the impeachment inquiry. As several diplomats and Trump Administration officials are expected to testify and it comes after a full week of testimony by diplomats and ambassadors who bolstered many of the whistleblower's claims.

CNN's Marshall Cohen joining us now with the breakdown of some of the critical testimony from this week so Marshall, good to see you. How important were these depositions this week in this impeachment inquiry?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Fred, it was a busy week here in Washington. One witness after another came in behind closed doors to provide their testimony so let's take a look at three of the biggest witnesses it started off this week with Fiona Hill, she, of course, was a top White House Advisor on Russian issues kind of a Putin Hawk.

So not totally in step with the President but she testified to the lawmakers that she saw wrong doing in the way that the U.S. was handling the Ukraine issue, specifically the involvement and influence of Trump's Personal Attorney Rudy Giuliani.

[12:05:00]

COHEN: She was so concerned about that she brought some of those issues to a White House lawyer which all things considered is a pretty drastic step. Then they heard testimony from Michael McKinley who has been a Senior Advisor to Michael Pompeo, the Secretary of State.

He resigned last week in protest and told lawmaker that's he did so after asking over and over for Pompeo to defend the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from public attacks coming from right wing conservative media. He wouldn't do it and so McKinley resigned, sort of adding to the friction at the upper echelon of the State Department.

And then one final witness who came behind closed doors, the current United States Ambassador to the European Union, still a Trump official, he was appointed by the President, so it is really critical that he came in and provided this testimony even though the White House doesn't want any cooperation.

He pointed the finger directly at Donald Trump and testified that it was Trump who directed him and other cabinet officials to work hand in hand with Rudy Giuliani on Ukrainian issues really a startling admission behind closed doors. Tying the President into this effort this sort of shadow foreign policy to influence Ukraine and manipulate Ukraine to potentially for some help with the election.

WHITFIELD: And then Marshall, how in sink are these testimonies to what is believed to be in - the formal complaint of the whistleblower? Again the whistleblower hasn't been interviewed, no deposition taken but there was a formal complaint filed by that person.

COHEN: We've seen Democrats already started to say that they have heard so much compelling information that they might not even need to call the whistleblower to testify, but when you stack it all up and you look at the evidence that has been gathered so far, the whistleblower complaint has been largely corroborated and confirmed.

The allegations that there was some shady business going on some shadow dealings with regards to Ukraine being controlled in large part by Rudy Giuliani, now we know that that is appearing to be totally corroborated.

WHITFIELD: Marshall Cohen, thank you so much, good to see you. All right, now to details learned first on CNN, Rudy Giuliani and Personal Attorney of the President taking matters into his own hands after pushing the Trump Administration to grant a visa to Ukrainian official promising dirt on Democrats. CNN's Senior Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju has more.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, new details about how Rudy Giuliani used his influence to try to get dirt on Joe Biden then later tried to push the federal government to reverse a decision that it had made.

Now according to testimony that George Kent a career diplomat gave to Congressional investigators earlier in the week. We're told from four sources familiar with that testimony that Kent had actually objected to Giuliani's efforts to try to get a visa for Victor Shokin, who is a Former Ukrainian Prosecutor who Biden tried to get removed from that post.

Giuliani wanted to get Shokin a visa. The State Department rejected that request and Giuliani went around the State Department and urged the White House to grant him the visa. Now the visa was never granted and Giuliani carried out subsequent interviews with Shokin via Skype, and those interviews form the basis of a number of records that had dirt on not just the Bidens, but also Marie Yovanovitch, the Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.

A lot of the allegations unsubstantiated but nevertheless Giuliani took those records to the State Department, ask the State Department to investigate. Later those were turned over to the Inspector General of the State Department which then turned it over to Capitol Hill to further investigate this matter.

Now Shokin has accused Marie Yovanovitch for being too close Joe Biden which is one reason why that he was seeking her removed from her post. President Trump removed her from that post as well after Giuliani had targeted her and that has caused a much controversy in the previous weeks and months in causing the resignation of at least one high level advisor who was concerned that she was being unfairly targeted for political reasons.

But all of this, Giuliani's efforts form the basis of what the whistleblower complaint that the President used his office to try to benefit himself politically and trying to urge a foreign government to investigate and dig up dirt on a political rival, and of course that forms the basis of the Democrats' impeachment inquiry and it is just another detail that shows up the depth of Giuliani's efforts to drive U.S. policy towards Ukraine. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

WHITFIELD: Still ahead in Great Britain, parliament delaying a new Brexit plan as Prime Minister Boris Johnson vows not to negotiate an extension with the European Union.

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WHITFIELD: Plus Bernie Sanders is back on the campaign trail just after that heart attack he suffered, his big plan to gain in the race for the White House, coming up.

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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back, we're following a developing story out of London. Another big setback for Brexit is igniting chaos in parliament today. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains defiant after lawmakers voted to delay a deal on Brexit. Johnson is now vowing to move ahead without parliament's approval which could signal a blatant disregard for the law. CNN's Nic Robertson is live for us from London. So Nic, what happened and what is about to happen now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: What is about to happen is hard to answer. What did happen, the vote essentially against the Prime Minister was 322 to 306. There was supposed to be a second vote on the Prime Minister's deal after that. That vote, the first vote, was to demand essentially that the Prime Minister take more time to pass all the legislations that's required for his deal.

Instead of having a vote on his when that first one lost, he said let's canceled it and he'll bring in that legislation next week.

[12:15:00]

ROBERTSON: So it will be next week now when MPs get to vote essentially, in a way, on his deal. So that true test has not happened. But in the meantime by 11:00 British time tonight and we're talking about six hours or so away, the Prime Minister is compelled by law to send a letter to the European Union asking for a three-month extension until the end of January 2020 for Brexit negotiations. And he said these are his words now, that he will not negotiate that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I will not negotiate a delay with the EU. And neither - and neither does the law compel me to do so. I will tell our friends and colleagues in the EU exactly what I've told everyone in the last 88 days that I've served as Prime Minister that further delay would be bad for this country, bad for our European Union and bad for democracy. So next week the government will introduce the legislation needed for us to leave the EU with our new deal on October 31st.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So take that, that's what the Prime Minister says the law compels him to send a letter. It doesn't say compels him to negotiate, and that's why I say, we don't know what's going to happen because it is again a - we say this so many times uncharted territories, but do expect if he doesn't send a letter for the Prime Minister to face legal challenges that could go very quickly to the Supreme Court here. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's quite extraordinary. And this, you know a first time Saturday session like this, first in about 37 years, so it is serious business. All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much, in London. All right, still to come, Bernie Sanders expected to get some big name supporters as he returns to the campaign trial today. Where his campaign goes next? Right after this.

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[12:20:00]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back, as Senator Bernie Sanders back on the campaign trail today a little more than two weeks after suffering a heart attack. Sanders will host his first campaign event since that health scare with a rally today in Queens, New York and that begins at the top of the hour, so just about 40 minutes away. And at that event he is expected to officially receive an endorsement from one of Washington's biggest names. CNN's Correspondent Ryan Nobles is live of us at the big rally in Queens. So what is the expectation?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, first off, this is a big crowd here in Queens. The crowd is still streaming in, this event scheduled to take place in about half an hour from now, and really the size and the energy of this crowd reminds me a lot of the Sanders launch rally in Brooklyn back in the winter.

It has that same kind of vibe and feel to it and that makes a lot of sense because in many ways this is just the re-launching of the Sanders campaign after that heart attack he suffered a little more than two weeks ago.

And you mentioned that big endorsement this was a big win for the Sanders campaign. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will stand on stage with Sanders later this afternoon and announce that she is formally endorsing him for President.

And of course Ocasio-Cortez is a raising progressive star. She is someone with a huge social media presence. She has a lot of fans particularly in the younger demographic of the Democratic Party and her endorsement was very much sort after both Senator Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were really doing everything they can to bring her on their side.

And the fact that Sanders was able to bring her into the fold this early on in the campaign is significant and it shows that Sanders is taking this next stretch of the campaign very seriously. There was one thought that Sanders said that he was going to dial things back a little bit because of the heart attack, not do as many big rallies, but still was committed to staying in the race and seeing this through to the end.

That he wasn't in just as a protest candidate that he wants to win the Democratic nomination and that is what this event here today is going to signify a huge rally with someone like Ocasio-Cortez by his side so that Sanders is in it to win it. The question of course Fred is this blame to the left wing of the party, the magical lecture if you will to winning the Democratic nomination and then ultimately beating Donald Trump.

That is the case that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are going to make here today. And Fred, they're going to do it in front of a very big crowd.

WHITFIEKD: Wow! So Ryan, is there any way of telling whether you know the crowd is made up of people who have been devoted to Sanders from the beginning, or is there a lot of newcomers to his camp?

NOBLES: That is a great question Fred and we're actually going to make our way into the crowd here in just a few minutes and get a closer vibe there. I do think you're going to have most of the folks here long time Bernie Sanders supporters. What I do believe that there is going to be a new level of energy that's infused into his campaign because of Ocasio-Cortez.

Sanders have always traditionally done very well with young voters, but that is where Ocasio-Cortez is the strongest. The energy and enthusiasm of her as a politician comes from those younger voters, but I also think the important thing to keep in mind here Fred, is that Sanders has always consistently had a very strong base of support and they are still behind him despite the fact that he had this health scare.

That was the big concern of the campaign when he started to believe support because people were concerned of that - because he had that heart attack and what it meant for the longevity of his campaign. What they're going to demonstrate here today, is that supporters going nowhere. Keep in mind he has more than $30 million in the bank to spend on this campaign. Sanders is still a force to be reckoned with, he may not be first in the polls right now but he is still going to have a major say in who the Democratic nominee ultimately becomes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ryan Nobles thank you so much. Let's talk more about all of this. I'm joined now by Jackie Alemany Author of the "The Washington Post's" "Power Up". Jackie, good to see you.

JACKIE ALEMANY, AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST'S "POWER UP": Good to see you too.

WHITFIELD: So you know Sanders has been recovering now for the better part of two weeks. He was on the debate stage. What does he have to prove today? What is the kind of message that the needs to send?

[12:25:00]

ALEMANY: Well, I think Ryan is exactly right. This is a really important reset for the campaign and I think there was nothing better for them to reset based on coming out with the faces of the progressive flank, the most popular rising stars of the Democratic Party who have potentially the highest name ID out of anyone in the party as well.

And these are two people that Warren and Sanders were both battling with, and now that they're the two in the top tier along with Joe Biden trailing on their tails. I think after Bernie's health problems there is no better way to contrast sort of this perception that maybe he is not up to the task than appearing aside these fresh faced young progressive stars that are really popular with young voters.

That being said, it is questionable just how important endorsements can be. It can provide that much needed jolt, there are 100 days until the Iowa Caucus that is quite a bit of time, and Bernie is only a few points behind Elizabeth Warn at this point of time and we see how quickly those, these polls move.

And Hillary Clinton for example had all of the big endorsements in the world from beyond say to - and that wasn't able to put her over the edge. Again though, you know there is no bigger name than AOC and Ilhan Omar right now and I think this can provide a really strong reset button for them.

WHITFIELD: So what is the message - if a message is being sent just by the endorsement, even by the appearance of you know say Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez there with Bernie Standers. What are Bernie Sanders and his team achieving by being side by side on stage at his sizable rally of this magnitude today?

ALEMANY: I think that is a great question. I think what they're trying to show is that he is up to the task. That this health scares was just a scare, that he is moving forward, and that despite some of the media perception, that Bernie Sanders is actually a front runner and he has consistently been consistently polling pretty high in the polls since he jumped into the race.

But Warren has been able to expand her appeal beyond that progressive base. That is where sort of these endorsements come into question but millennial voters are really important. And I think that there are no stander bearers to bring out the millennial vote and to get out the vote then AOC and members of "The Squad".

There is also Ayanna Pressley though who is a Massachusetts's Congresswoman who has a close relationship with Elizabeth Warren that they're both obviously from the same state so it's possible that she comes out for Elizabeth Warren but again I think this is just sending a message to the party that Sanders is a front runner. He can potentially win the nomination and that take him seriously the way that AOC and members of "The Squad" and some of the most important and rising stars of this party are.

WHITFIELD: The weekends are busy for any candidate who is trying to get out there pressing flush et cetera. Sanders is one of seven candidates that we understand who is out on the trail today. Joe Biden is not among them but his wife Former Second Lady, Joe Biden is, this is her first event since her - since their son Hunter Biden's interview discussing his dealings with Ukraine and China. So is there a strategy here that she would do this, you know, on the heels of Biden's son talking?

ALEMANY: Well, what we do know is that the Biden campaign has tried to come out more forcefully against these baseless accusations that Trump and really the GOP has been peddling about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and the whole Ukraine impeachment scandal.

That being said, you know, there is no potential stronger message bearer than a mother speaking to her son's values. We have seen Joe Biden speak in the past about Hunter and his values, and where his heart is, and where Joe's heart is.

And on Tuesday Joe Biden wasn't able to do that as successfully as I think people were anticipating, sort of coming out pretty weak against some of the accusations almost as an afterthought. I think his verbal flubs, his long winded tangents have sort of caught up to him and voters have taken notice, he is lagging in the polls.

Again polls only matter so much right now. There is still a lot of time until the primaries, but it can't hurt to having Jill Biden out there who can really speak with that mother's touch to her son and his values.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Flipside of that Senator Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete Buttigieg you know dead well enough on that stage that it has helped them considerably in their campaign fund raising. Both of them you know raising a lot of money right away.

[12:30:00]

And collectively they both targeted Elizabeth Warren, in particularly on paying for Medicare and all of that, how much of a dent is that making?

ALEMANY: I think if it's making a dent more in the moderate candidates like Joe Biden. There is some concern that Buttigieg is really cutting into Joe Biden's polling and his appeal in Iowa. I think, you know, Klobuchar has been pretty low in the polls consistently. This is a boost to potentially keep her in the race for maybe longer than she anticipated.

But, you know, Buttigieg has consistently popped up again and again as with these, you know, a burst of energy. And to show that he is a formidable contender here. It's clear why Elizabeth Warren was trying to avoid, she doesn't want a GOP ad being made against her that shows that she's going to raise taxes on the middle class.

But I think, you know, standing next to someone like Bernie Sanders who said yes, we are going to raise taxes but that's because you're getting to get better healthcare. It makes it a bit of a weakness, and I think Klobuchar and Buttigieg attacking her directly on that was smart on their part.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jackie Alemany, thank you so much. Good to see you.

ALEMANY: Thanks, Fred. Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up next, breaking news in Syria. U.S. officials now say Turkey has broken an already shaky ceasefire with Kurdish forces. Details on that straight ahead.

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[12:35:33] WHITFIELD: We're following breaking news out of Syria.

Two U.S. officials are telling CNN that the ceasefire is not holding. Turkish-backed forces broke the agreement, Friday morning, just one day after the ceasefire was worked according to a U.S. official. The clock is ticking down to a Tuesday deadline for the Kurds to leave their settlements in a buffer zone along the Turkey border.

Earlier this month, President Trump announced U.S. troops were pulling out of Northern Syria. And then just days later, Turkey began its military offensive to force Kurds from the area.

The president is facing sharp criticism over the pullout even from Republican ranks including his usual ally, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, "Withdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake. It will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances."

Nick Paton Walsh is in Kurdish territory in nearby Erbil, Iraq. So Nick, what are U.S. officials telling you about what's happening?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, those U.S. officials that you said say that the is not holding, now that is based on one of their assessments but a good grasp of what's happening on the ground that it was on Friday morning, the first morning of the ceasefire that Turkish-backed forces, remember, there are lots of Syrian rebels that as U.S. official has described as extremists mostly, who were doing a lot of the fighting on the ground for Turkey. These Syrian rebels fighting for Turkey went for the town of Ras al- Ain which they only control a fair bit off but over which there are still pretty intense clashes.

Now, they say that they moved in on this -- that the Syrian Kurds who were America's ally until the Trump administration decided to kind of cut them loose to some degree. The Syrian Kurds had stopped operations as part of the ceasefire, their commitment to it but they were then attacked. The official saying-- and they hadn't really heard of the air strikes that the Syrian Kurds seem suggest were behind some of the violence against them yesterday.

This is key, though because this is sort of you might say a more objective attached assessment from the battlefield from (INAUDIBLE), in fact were doing the actual monitoring. The U.S. is not there as monitors of how badly it is deteriorating. I asked why this happened, the U.S. official said, in fact, what we are seeing here is possibly these Syrian rebels working for Turkey, either working outside of Turkey's control or Turkey simply not caring what they do.

But this is a stark really because you run the opportunity now of sides feeling less inclined to obey a ceasefire if the Americans believed is not holding. I have to tell you, it's incredibly hard to know what an infraction looks like on a ceasefire of which there are two completely separate versions.

The Turkish version which involved Syrian Kurds pulling back from this area that they want to control along the 440 kilometer stretch of the border. And then the American version, as far as we can tell as explained by the chief envoy to Syria James Jeffrey, that seems it's just a much smaller area, either way, Ras al-Ain is supposed to be in it but then you fear Turkey too who might say well, we're acting a self-defense and it's the Kurds who are supposed to be leaving.

Both sides were supposed to be stopping operations (INAUDIBLE) that they're not doing so Turkey saying they're been harassed 14 times since the beginning of the ceasefire. Put that tit for tat aside on the battle here between the two warring factions, it's really the Americans here who were saying they don't believe a ceasefire that their diplomats brokered is in fact holding.

Back to you. WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. We'll check back with you.

All right, coming up, the U.S. launches a new countermeasure in Iran following attacks in Saudi Arabia. What does it mean as tensions in the region continue to grow?

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[12:43:11] WHITFIELD: All right, this week, we're learning how the U.S. chose to respond to Iran's suspected involvement in recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities. According to Reuters, the U.S. carried out a secret cyber operation against Iran in the wake of those attacks last month. Officials reportedly say the operation targeted Tehran's ability to spread propaganda.

Let's bring in CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent under President Obama. Good to see you, Jonathan.

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Nice to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: So tensions have been escalating with Iran since the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. What's the impact of these cyber operations?

WACKROW: Well, I think it's important to bring the cyber operations into context and why there's a little bit of, you know, ambiguity around what a cyber attack is. So to compare it to a traditional military operation is actually incorrect. And the reason being is that there's no smoking gun here. There's no pile of rubble, there's no images of missiles being launched.

So, to actually assess the actual impact of these cyber operations becomes difficult without disclosure. And what I mean by that is, traditionally, when the U.S. is attacked by a foreign entity or their proxies, private corporations are targeted. And by that fact, we get some sort of public disclosure via the media. However, when the U.S. makes -- engages in cyber operations against an adversary, the majority of the time they're not making any type of make a public disclosure because it could compromise the military or intelligence objective of that mission.

In this case, there was a disclosure to Reuters and that could be part of the strategy just to show that the U.S., you know, has these capabilities. Part of the problem, Fred, is that the impact of cyber operations can take a long time to come to fruition.

[12:45:01] So when you have nation-states going back and forth at each other, the ability to have fully assessed the damage becomes more difficult.

WHITFIELD: So, the U.S., you know, reportedly targeted physical hardware, you know, as well as Tehran's ability to spread propaganda. What does that mean? WACKROW: Well, I think it's -- you know, it's important to understand when we talk about targeting, oftentimes we understand what the overall objective is, but we may not fully ever understand what the techniques are being utilized by, you know, the military or intelligence sources as they remain classified.

It is important to note that in any cyber operation they follow the same methodology as traditional warfare where the U.S. does not target the civilian population. So, the same way that we don't bomb hospitals, it's the same way we don't launch a cyber attack against a hospital.

In this case, the propaganda and the physical hardware. I'll take the propaganda first, Iran has been engaging essentially in the Russian modeled by utilizing proxies to engage in disinformation campaigns. So the U.S. would have launched a -- an operation targeting those specific proxy organizations, their servers, and their ability to disseminate that information.

More striking to me though is the disclosure that they had, you know, attacked physical hardware. And to me, what that means is that the U.S. is targeting SCADA systems, systems, and technologies that control machinery. So what most likely occurred is that machinery linked to military or radar systems were attacked in -- by the U.S.

WHITFIELD: Do you think this is going to further escalate?

WACKROW: Well, listen, I think it's very difficult. This is not a game of tennis. They're not (INAUDIBLE) back and forth. There is a power imbalance between the United States and Iran when it comes to cyber capabilities. Iran is quickly becoming a significant adversary but they fall short of U.S. capabilities.

So we can anticipate that Iran and their proxy will, you know, try to come back at one point. So knowing that, what we have to be prepared for is who are they going to target? They're not going to typically target the U.S. Government because again, our defenses are so strong. What they're going to try to target is what we've seen in the past, it's U.S. corporations and entities.

So, the onus at that point becomes a private sector responsibility to understand what this threat is, how to mitigate it. Again, it's very difficult when you have, you know, nation-state and hostile actors attacking U.S. private entities but you have to be able to understand what that threat environment is and how would it impact your organization.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much.

WACKROW: Thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, shocking surveillance video shows the moment a three-year-old was kidnapped from a birthday party in Alabama. The new steps police are taking to bring her home.

But first, more than a billion tons of (INAUDIBLE) end up in the world's oceans every year, and that's the equivalent of a garbage truck dumped every minute. And this week's CNN hero is a lawyer in Mumbai who took it upon himself to tackle this global problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AFROZ SHAH, CNN HERO: The whole beach was like a carpet of plastic. For the first time in my life, I didn't want to be near the water because the garbage was, like, five and a half feet.

This problem of pollution is created by us. And with this in my mind, I started to clean the beach. Then I told myself it would be difficult for a single man to do it, so I said why not take this personal journey to others.

If this huge ocean is in a problem, we'll have to rise up in huge numbers. When you have complicated problems sometimes solutions are simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Incredible to see how that first beach he began cleaning looks today. Go to cnn.heroes.com right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:39] WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories.

The funeral for Atatiana Jefferson has been postponed amid what appears to be a bitter family legal battle. Jefferson was supposed to be laid to rest today one week after she was shot and killed in her Texas home by a police officer. However, Jefferson's father has been granted a temporary restraining owner to stop the burial after he claims he was cut out of the funeral planning and would like to be involved.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday to determine if the restraining order will continue. Jefferson was just 28-years-old when former Fort Worth Police Officer Aaron Dean fatally shot her while she was playing video games with her nephew in her home. Officers were responding to a wellness check, Dean has since been charged with murder.

In Alabama, the search continues for a missing three-year-old girl. Kamille "Cupcake" McKinney has been missing for exactly a week now. Police say 39-year-old Patrick Stallworth is one of the two people connected to a vehicle that witnesses saw take McKinney from a birthday party Saturday night.

Stallworth was taken into custody for questioning earlier this week before he was released on bond. Stallworth has not been charged in Kammile's disappearances but he now faces federal charges after police say they found child pornography on his phone.

And more parents are changing their pleas in the sweeping college admission scandal. The U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts says Michelle Janavs is the third parent to agree to a plea change this week. Prosecutors say she agreed to pay college scam mastermind William "Rick" Singer over a half-million dollars on behalf of her three children. Janavs' plea hearing is scheduled for Monday.

And tomorrow, the CNN original series "Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies" is back with a brand new episode. This week, host Mike Rogers takes us inside the manhunt for one of the most notorious war criminals of all time who committed unspeakable atrocities during the Bosnian war. Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mladic and Krstic applied the same standard that Hitler did in World War II, and we could not just stand by and allow them to get away with it.

[12:55:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), it was so horrendous that the United States went to the NATO allies and said we can't allow this anymore. This was the Clinton administration saying, we've been in office two and a half years, it's horrible, it's continuing no more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Clinton made the decision, I am not going to be president of the United States and stand by and allow that to happen. And it was at that point as chief of staff where I realized if the United States doesn't lead this effort, it's not going happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was suspected that some of these people this Krstic would be indicted because they've done criminal things but President Clinton understood that before we can bring them to justice what you really needed to do was get a peace plan and stop the killing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Don't miss "Declassified" tomorrow night, 11 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

Still to come, with the impeachment inquiry into President Trump now in full swing, are some of his Republican supporters changing their positions on the matter? More, coming up.

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WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for being with me this Saturday, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

At any moment now, Vermont Senator Bernie Sander will speak at a rally in New York, his first since returning to the campaign trail following a heart attack earlier in the month. And he's coming back in a very big way.