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Trial Begins for Only Officer Charged in Breonna Taylor Raid; Biden Meets with at Least 3 Potential Supreme Court Nominees; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) Discusses U.S. Warning Ukraine That Full-Scale Russian Invasion Is Imminent; U.N. Warns Wildfires Are Getting More Frequent & Intense. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 23, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:32:53]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Nearly two years after Breonna Taylor's shooting death by police a former Louisville police officer involved in that raid is now on trial.

Brett Hankison is charged with firing shots that landed in a neighboring apartment.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Louisville with the very latest.

Jason, what are you hearing today?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dana, the first witness called to the stand today is a man by the name of Cody Etherton. He lived in the apartment next door to Breonna Taylor.

And he described at one point when he had to hit the floor and, he says, roll into the hallway when shots rang out.

And at one point, telling his girlfriend, who was living there with him at the time, to call 911, that police, he says, were firing into the wrong apartment, his apartment.

Also during opening statements, the prosecuting attorney in this case, Barbara Whaley, laid out, Dana, what this case is about in her estimation and what it's not about.

She says it's not about Breonna Taylor. She said Breonna Taylor clearly should not have been killed that night. She says it's not about search warrants. It's not about reforming the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.

She told jurors what this case is about is Brett Hankison and his actions that night.

She spent a great deal of time during the opening statements describing what Hankison did the moments before the shooting.

In speaking to Breonna Taylor's mother, she said this should have been about her daughter. Obviously, this is not the trial she wanted to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMIKA PALMER, MOTHER OF BREONNA TAYLOR: Frustrated, angry, heartbroken, disappointed, the list goes on. It's just this vicious cycle of not trusting in the system.

CARROLL: Do you feel justice is being served?

PALMER: No, not at all. But it's a start, I guess, for somebody. Not Breonna at all.

LONITA BAKER, TAYLOR FAMILY ATTORNEY: This is the justice that her neighbors deserve but it's still not the justice Breonna deserves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:34:58]

CARROLL: Hankison's attorney, for his part, during opening statements, saying the shooting was, in fact, justified, telling jurors that Hankison fired after he says that he saw the door was breached, he heard gunfire and saw a muzzle flash.

Hankison, for his part, is expected, Dana, to testify during this trial.

And we also just found out minutes ago that the jurors in the case are expected to actually visit the apartment building where this all took place. That's expected to happen on Friday -- Dana?

BASH: Jason Carroll, thank you so much. Such an important interview with Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor's mother. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Thanks, Jason.

Sources are telling CNN President Biden met with at least three potential Supreme Court nominees and that decision should be coming soon.

CNN's justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, joins us now.

Jessica, what are your learning?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, we've talked to multiple sources connected to the candidates. They've all been given the impression from the White House that the president really has not decided on his pick yet.

Despite his own self-imposed deadline that's looming. He promised to make a pick by the end of the month, which is on Monday.

We do know, however, that President Biden has interviewed the three top candidates. Ultimately, one of these women will be the president's pick.

At the top of a lot of lists is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. She's been on the federal appeals court here in D.C. for almost a year now and before that spent almost a decade on the district court.

Notably, while serving on that court, she wrote a 100-plus page opinion in 2019 knocking down the Trump administration's argument the White House counsel at the time, Don McGahn, did not have to testify for congressional committees.

She wrote in that opinion, it's been much cited, that "presidents are not kings," in her words.

She also ruled recently against Trump's claims of executive privilege in December. She sided with the unanimous three-judge panel there when Trump tried to stop the White House records from going to the January 6th committee.

Also a heavy front-runner is California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Krueger. She has appeared numerous times before the U.S. Supreme Court, where she worked in the solicitor general's office during the Obama administration.

And then rounding out the three is Judge Michelle Childs. She is at the federal district court in South Carolina. She's been pushed by Congressman Jim Clyburn, of course, a top ally of President Biden in the House.

So, Dana, a lot looming for however this pick will be. Justice Breyer retire until late June/early July. But next term's cases are already being lined up, including cases on affirmative action, also same-sex marriage.

So a lot looming for whomever is this pick -- Dana?

BASH: That is for sure.

All right, Jess, we know that you're going to be all over this.

SCHNEIDER: That's right.

BASH: Appreciate it.

And back to our breaking news. The U.S. is warning Ukraine a full- scale Russian invasion is imminent. A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chris Coons, of Delaware, joins me next.

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[13:42:55]

BASH: Back to our breaking news. The U.S. now warning Ukraine that a full-scale invasion by Russia is imminent.

A senior defense official telling CNN 80 percent of Russian forces amassed on Ukraine's border are in forward position and ready to go.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons. He's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And, Senator, you are in Lithuania. You've been traveling through Europe the past week talking to America's allies. I want to talk about that in a second.

First, what can you tell us about this new U.S. warning of an imminent full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, I agree strongly with sharing critical intelligence about Russian military plans.

This is alarming. But frankly, we've had weeks to prepare for the possibility of a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

And President Biden has done a strong job pulling together our NATO allies, building a global coalition to do its best to deter Putin and to support the Ukrainian people.

BASH: You called for crushing sanctions against Russia really soon after Vladimir Putin's speech on Monday night.

Is what the Biden administration doing right now crushing, to use your term, enough?

COONS: Yes. What President Biden has done is initially roll out a first tranche of sanctions.

And then wait for our German allies, our Canadian allies, our British allies, our European Union to also meet us and roll out tough sanctions.

Which they have done, on Nord Stream 2 by Germany, on oligarchs by the British, many other sanctions.

And there are additional waves of sanctions that have been prepared by the Biden administration.

And as Putin continues to carry out his aggressive actions we will continue to see coordinated, sustained international sanctions that will be crushing.

BASH: And when you come back into session in the U.S. Senate, will there be a bipartisan bill to add to that?

[13:45:05]

COONS: Yes. I'm confident there will be strong bipartisan support to keep our NATO commitments.

Dana, I'm here in a country of three million people. Lithuania punches above its weight. It's one of our NATO allies.

They were occupied by Russia for decades before and after their period as the Soviet Union. And they know what kind of a threat they face.

I stand firmly behind and so will a bipartisan majority of the Senate, President Biden's commitment that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.

I visited with American soldiers here earlier today who are training alongside Lithuanian, German and other NATO soldiers. Their morale is good. They are well trained and well equipped.

And they are 100 miles from the border with Belarus where there's now 30,000 Russian troops.

This is a critical moment of testing for the West, for NATO and for American leadership.

I'm convinced Putin will only stop when we stop him. And I think President Biden is just the right leader for us at this moment.

BASH: And you talk about meeting with U.S. troops. I know you've met with leaders in various European countries not just where you are in Lithuania.

What are you hearing from them about the generational potential shift in how Europe and, indeed, the globe is with regard to the West versus Russia?

COONS: Well, Dana, I have been traveling with Senator Durbin of Illinois, Senator Shaheen of New Hampshire.

We were in Poland meeting with their president, their foreign minister, defense minister. Here, we've met with the foreign minister and prime minister.

And we've heard strongly from both of them. They have grave concerns about this moment, their commitment to our NATO partnership and their hope that the United States will stand strong with our treaty allies here in Europe.

Before that, I was in Munich where a broad bipartisan delegation from Congress, along with Vice President Harris, met with many leaders from throughout the world, primarily focused on this critical moment, this turning point in modern European history.

I think we are aligned the right way to confront this moment. And I think it will lead to a shift in the future of the continent.

We are up to this challenge, but we need to hold together and stand firm with our NATO allies.

BASH: Well, on that note, I have to ask you about something that the former president, Donald Trump, said in talking about the aggression. Of course, we know he has a history of cozying up to Vladimir Putin.

He called what he is doing right now genius. Your reaction?

COONS: So part of what President Biden had to do in his first year as president was to repair some of the frayed relationships with our key NATO allies.

President Trump during his four years said and did a number of things.

Taking the word of Vladimir Putin over our own Intelligence Community, for example, on the question of whether there was Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election.

Harrying and harassing and bullying and publicly disagreeing with key NATO and European allies. That weakened our alliance.

I think that laid the groundwork for encouraging Putin to take the bold risks that he's taken in Belarus, in Ukraine and elsewhere.

And, frankly, President Biden has done the hard work in his first year as president to rebuild these relationships.

And that's one of the things I heard interest leaders both here in Lithuania, in Poland, and in Munich and Germany at the security conference.

BASH: Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it.

[13:48:48]

And the number of intense wildfires is set to surge in the years to come. More on yet another disturbing report on the climate crisis ahead.

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[13:53:27]

BASH: A dire new report from the United Nations warns wildfires across the globe are becoming more intense and more frequent.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray joins us.

Jennifer, we've seen it with our own eyes, but lay out for us what this report says.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You're right. We've seen it across the U.S. But this report says all around the globe fires are going to become more frequent, more intense.

You can see the areas shaded in orange and red. Basically, the southern hemisphere is where we see the majority of the fires.

But the report says the fires are going to skyrocket by 20 to 30 percent over the next 20 to 30 years and there's really nothing we can do about it. So it is a grim report. In the U.S. alone, look at 2020 and 2021. We have seen these fires off

the charts, 10 million acres burned in 2020. And 2021 had seven million acres burned.

We saw the Dixie Fire, which was California's large fire, in 2021. In fact, eight out of 10 of the largest wildfires in Californian history have occurred in the last five years so this trend is going up.

And around the rest of the world. Look at Europe. And 2021 was an unprecedented here. We had record heat not only in Spain but Greece.

Wildfires spreading out of control at the fastest rate we've seen. So that's what made 2021 just so incredible.

Look at Australia, 23,000 square miles burned from 2019 to 2020. That's equivalent to the entire state of Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey combined, 14.6 million acres burned.

[13:55:08]

And so we are going to continue to see this trend go up. The study says we are going to have to learn to adapt and live with this, the frequency and severity of the wildfires that are going to be inevitable in years to come.

And, Dana, you have to keep in mind the resources that's going to take on the ground. Firefighters putting these out 24/7.

And they're also going to start burning in places we've never seen fires burn before. And so cities and states are going to have the adapt to the new norm as we go in the future -- Dana?

BASH: Boy, is that grim, but so incredibly important.

Thank you so much for that, Jennifer Gray.

That does it for me. I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Until then, the news continues with Alisyn and Victor after a quick break.

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