Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden Announces New Rule Regulating "Ghost Guns"; Ukraine: Russia Begins Major Offensive In Donbas Area In The East; JetBlue Cancels Flights Due To "Challenging Staffing Situation"; Cheney: No Dispute In Committee Over Criminal Referral To DOJ. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 11, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But the defendant got 60 years.

[15:00:04]

Steve also partnered with community leaders and law enforcement to help prevent violent crime. He's worked with the police to combat domestic extremism and to take violent criminals off the street. Steve's record makes him ready on day one to lead this agency.

And, by the way, in 2009, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed him to serve as U.S. attorney. I look forward to working with the Senate to get him confirmed once again. With what I know about him and why I'm so enthusiastic about support him, I'd like to introduce my nominee to lead the ATF to you.

Steve, come on up here.

(APPLAUSE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right. Let's recap now what we heard from the president. Look forward, this is the nominee for the ATF, Steve Dettelbach.

Let's bring in now CNN correspondent Shimon Prokupecz, CNN law enforcement analyst Anthony Barksdale.

First to you, Commissioner. Your reaction to what you heard there from the president in the context of the gun violence that we watch across this country.

ANTHONY BARKSDALE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I love what the president just talked about. A lot of very important angles, and like I said earlier, this is bigger than just banning those guns, and a lot of the issues that he talked about shows that there's focus at the highest level about the violence that we're seeing in our communities.

When he say get it done by summer, he's right. We all know the violent crime rises in the summer, job reentry programs. When people come out from jail that they have served their time, get them back to being productive in the communities, community policing.

I mean, Victor, the president hit a lot of solid points. One of the biggest -- it's placing someone at the top of the ATF, it's unbelievable that significant, important agency that is crucial to reducing violence hasn't gone without a solid appointed leader for so long. So, President Biden -- I love what he just talked about. Love it.

BLACKWELL: All right. Shimon, the commissioner likes what he heard from the president. The challenge here is though that a lot of it was aspirational. It requires legislation.

There's not going be, in this Congress, an assault weapons ban, universal background checks. A lot of funding he talked about. It's aspirational, a lot of the goals that the commissioner likes.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. He talked about funding the police, not defunding the police --

BLACKWELL: Right.

PROKUPECZ: -- which I think was obviously there for political reasons. But he also understands clearly that law enforcement and cities across this country are facing a challenge right now. Crime is front and center for many people. Many people living in various communities not feeling safe. I mean, every day there are shootings. Innocent people walking the streets getting shot, gun violence is still a major problem.

And it is aspirational, right? The idea that somehow he's going to get the assault weapon ban, or any of these other issues that he wants. But the big thing is he's talking about giving money and going back to some of the roots of policing, community policing, violence interrupters, those kinds of things.

And then the ghost guns, obviously, putting serial number on these weapons, asking these commercial manufacturers to do background checks before they go ahead and sell these guns, these kits, those are going to be important steps.

But it's still not the end of it. It's too many guns already on the street and you need to arm law enforcement with the equipment and ability to stop people who are carrying the guns. That's what law enforcement across the country is still complaining about. The other issue, Victor, of course, you heard him say was that anyone who uses a ghost gun will be federally prosecuted. And the reason why is because many law enforcement officials feel prosecutors, local prosecutors are not tough enough on some of these criminal who are carrying weapons.

We see this in New York, people getting arrested for carrying weapons. And they're just getting out, you know, that night, that same night only to commit more crimes days later. So, that's why if you go through the federal system, it's entirely different.

The punishment is more severe and obviously they not guided by some of these state laws that some folks feel are lenient and you have these bail laws. So, that's why he wants the federal government, the FBI, and the U.S. attorneys to go after that. That is going to help certainly for law enforcement, but it's going to take a lot more obviously.

And as you said, I think what you say is so key in all of this, Victor. It's aspirational. And we've heard this talk before.

[15:05:01]

Let's see what happens.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. When he was vice president after the Sandy Hook shooting, he tried to get universal background checks through Congress, and it could not happen then. We'll see how the president at the White House moves this forward.

Shimon Prokupecz, Commissioner Barksdale, thank you.

Ukraine says Russia's onslaught in the east has already begun and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his nation is ready for this full- scale combat actions in that area. His military leaders say more Russian troops regrouping in Donetsk, in the Luhansk regions.

A short time ago, the Pentagon confirmed that Vladimir Putin's forces are using what you see here, an eight-mile convoy to try to resupply and reinforce Russian soldiers in the east.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: It's not clear how many vehicles are in this convoy and what they are bringing. It does seem to be a mix of personnel-carrying vehicles, as well as armored vehicles and maybe some artillery. Maybe some enabling capabilities, not exactly clear. But this does seem to be an early effort by them to reinforce their efforts in the Donbas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: President Zelenskyy continues his pleas to allies to rush the weapons to the war zone. Today, he appealed to South Korea's assembly to save Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia is preparing another offensive hoping to break our national resistance. The occupiers concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers and a huge amount of equipment to try to strike again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: At least 11 people were killed on Sunday alone from Russian shelling. In the Eastern region's biggest city and capital, Kharkiv, a 7-year-old boy was one of them. Today Russia bombarded another rail station damaging only property this time unlike the attack Friday that killed more than 50 people.

And in another sign that the war is entering a new phase, Putin has assigned a new general to the Ukraine command, Alexander Dvornikov, who has been called the butcher of Syria.

We're going to turn now to CNN's Jake Tapper in Western Ukraine. He is in Lviv.

Jake, Ukraine says that Russia's offensive has begun in the east. It's no longer imminent. It is now.

What do you know?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's something of a disagreement between the Pentagon and Ukrainian government when it comes to whether or not the full scale battle has begun, although the Ukrainians say, look, this part of the war is not going to be the way it kicked off in February. It's not going to be one big volley of missiles and bombs going off. It's going to be different.

In any case, what we can say is that clearly, the Russians are preparing for this full assault anticipated in the Donbas and in addition to that, there's been a lot of missiles and bombs fired at other part of the east including Kharkiv which is north of the region. It does not feel as though as of now, from what we're hearing from the front lines, that the full on assault, the full on large scale battle we've been told is coming. The World War II style of engagement of multiple tanks versus multiple tanks, that has not begun yet.

But you just mentioned that railway station in the east, to the Ukrainian railway station being bombed where nobody was hurt. It's believed that's more of an infrastructure railway station, not a transportation railway station, which is nobody was injured reportedly, nobody was killed, meaning that the Russians are doing this to prevent the Ukrainians from being able the fight this major fight.

BLACKWELL: Important distinction there. This butcher of Syria, as he's called, this general, Alexander Dvornikov. Tell us about the significance of his now being tapped to lead this fight in Ukraine.

TAPPER: Well, the thing about Dvornikov that he was brought in in 2015 when the resistance in Syria was putting up a fight and it was just a complete and utter decimation of places like Aleppo, where there was just no regard given by the Russians and their partners in the Syrian government to civilian casualties.

So, even though we have seen what are believed to be war crimes and we have seen what can only be the purposeful targeting of civilian apartment buildings and the whole scale slaughter of individual Ukrainian citizens in Mariupol and Bucha and other parts of the country, it is possible and actually to be candid, it is imaginable, it could get even worse and could be even more bloody and brutal than what we have already seen.

[15:10:00]

BLACKWELL: Jake, I understand you spoke with one of the Ukrainian prosecutors being deployed around the country to interview witnesses. Tell us about that conversation.

TAPPER: Yeah. So, as you know, the prosecutor general whom we're going to be speaking with coming up on "THE LEAD" has dispatched a whole bunch of prosecutors all over the country to take witness testimonies, talk to Ukrainians about what they have seen, getting every detail they can in terms of when it took place, who the individual was, what kind of uniform they were wearing.

Here is just one little bit from a woman named Natalia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATALIA, UKRAINIAN SURVIVOR (through translator): I can't say a word about these people. I don't even -- I can't even call them people. Maybe they have no brains at all. I don't know what they are thinking, and how their mothers growing them up and bringing them up and giving meat to this war.

How they can be punished. I don't think they will be punished and how severely. Only God can punish them. What they have done, it cannot be repaid by any money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And, Victor, I also spoke with prosecutors who came from the U.K. who went to Bucha today. He came back and he said the degree of savagery, you can't even understand it. You can't believe it what the Russians did in the town of Bucha -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. And the world may never know the full scope of what happened in some of these citizen towns. Jake Tapper, thank you. Jake will have more reporting from Ukraine on the lead next hour. That's at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Joining us now is retired Army colonel and CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton.

Colonel, good to have you.

Let's start here with this convoy, eight miles in Eastern Ukraine. There were weeks of questions about the 40-mile convoy. It turned out that it just eventually did nothing and dissipated. What's your concern about this one?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this one might be different, Victor, and the reason I say that is if you look carefully at these picture, you can see the distance between the vehicles here, and that shows that the Russians are learning dispersal techniques. What they are moving the vehicles apart so they are less vulnerable to attacks, to acts of sabotage and those thinks the Ukrainians might be able to do against this convoy. It's the area where you can see a change in the Russian tactics.

Whether or not this becomes another convoy that disappears into the ether or becomes something of a great concern especially for the city of Kharkiv, that remains to be seen but it is absolutely an area that needs to be watched by the Ukrainian intelligence forces and their reconnaissance forces.

BLACKWELL: Bringing in the hard ware and resupply options here, this part of the country is different. The landscape is different. The topography is different there. I wonder if this gives the Russians an advantage.

LEIGHTON: It does actually. So, when you look at the area around Kyiv, this is a hilly, wooded area. These are the great plains and this is what it looks like.

This is a perfect area for tanks to be that maneuvering. You can see in the distance here, this is the kind of thing that would confront Ukrainian troops. This is what these soldiers would be confronted with.

This happens to be carrying a javelin aiming it into the dance. That's kind of thing they will be doing quite a bit of especially if they don't get the T-72 tanks that they are asking for on the Ukrainian side.

BLACKWELL: This new commander over the war in Ukraine from the Russian side, Dvornikov, we have watched weeks of the atrocities like what we saw in Bucha and Borodianka and on and on, Mariupol, we all know the names of the cities, his appointment -- I mean, it's hard to believe it could get worse.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, it is hard to believe, but unfortunately, there are different degrees of terrible. And this man, you know, he's about 60 years old, as it says here. He's the commander of Russia's southern military district which means he may have already had a hand in what happened in Bucha.

That's the district that borders on Ukraine and his previous experience as the butcher in Syria, as we're calling him there, that speaks a lot to what happened in Aleppo, the barrel bombs that were used there and the kinds of tactics and techniques that were employed by the Russian forces.

[15:15:02]

Clearly, he knew of them. Clearly, he has personally bought into these kinds of tactics.

And that's what we can expect to see with somebody of his background and his experience level. We have to remember also, Victor, that he is a hero of the Russian Federation. So, he's seen very highly by Putin. He's held in high regard by him. That also speaks volumes to what type of person he probably is.

BLACKWELL: Very important context. Thank you, Colonel.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Victor.

BLACKWELL: A Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney denies that there's a rift among the House Select Committee members on whether to refer former President Donald Trump for criminal contempt. We'll talk more about that story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:06]

BLACKWELL: JetBlue is about to start cutting some flights. There were lots of cancellations over the weekend. They cancelled every one if five flights. So, one of every five flights, that happened today.

CNN Pete, what's going on with JetBlue?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting here, Victor. You know, the spring break travel rush is showing the airlines they have to plan carefully for the big numbers of this summer, 2.23 million people flew nationwide yesterday. It's 93 percent of the same day back in 2019 before the pandemic.

But the issue here is that there's just not enough airline staff to handle all those people. Remember, airlines got a lot smaller when COVID struck. So, that brings us to this past weekend. JetBlue had to cancel hundreds of flights, and the airlines paying the blame on challenging staffing situations combined with bad weather. So, now, JetBlue is making this tough call. It's slashing 8 to 10 percent of its flights starting next month and lasting throughout the summer.

Here is the statement from JetBlue. Given that we anticipate continued industry challenges and heavy demand into the summer, we're planning more conservatively and trying to be proactive where we can with cancellations due to disruptive weather and air traffic control events.

Now, JetBlue says it's already hired 3,000 new workers since the start of this year. But it's not just JetBlue having to trim its schedule. Alaska Airlines said last week it is cutting 2 percent of its flights through the end of June. Delta Airlines pilots say they are over worked.

Just one more example here, Victor, of how these worker shortages are making travel tougher for everybody right now.

BLACKWELL: Also, we know from the CDC that they will offer this week a framework around these mask mandates on public transportation. What do we know about that?

MUNTEAN: Well, we know that the transportation masked mandate put in place by the Biden administration was extended by 30 days. It was said to expire on March 18th. Now, it's said to expire on April 18th, just a week from today. So, we will see if that gets extended.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the new Biden administration COVID czar said no commitment just yet. He's put in place a framework maybe too have to extend that, although we will see. This is something we're staying on top of here, Victor. No commitment from the administration just yet.

BLACKWELL: Pete Muntean in Washington for us -- thank you, Pete. Well, CNN has new reporting that there is a rift within the committee

investigating the January 6 insurrection over whether to refer former President Donald Trump for criminal charges. But Republican chairwoman, she's the vice chair, Liz Cheney, is pushing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): We have not made a decision about referrals on the committee. I think that it is absolutely the case. It's absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing, what a number of people around him were doing, that they knew it was unlawful. They did it any way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining me now, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, as well as Harry Litman. He is a former U.S. attorney and columnist for "The L.A. Times".

Harry, first to you, your reaction of what you heard from Congresswoman Cheney. Also, if this goes to eventually Merrick Garland, the AG, and the likelihood that he's going to move on some charges against the former president.

HARRY LITMAN, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Yeah. So, on the first point that she says there's no doubt, there is no doubt. It's been clear for a long time. It's not the same as saying Garland should pull the trigger, but that's got a certain, you know, drama to it. But it's just a fact.

On this idea you have a rift, you know, it seems to me it's a very reasonable debate now. You could say don't do it. Don't actually refer because it puts pressure on Garland, makes an eventual decision look political. On the other hand, remember, Mueller stayed his hand and never said anything definitive at the end. It seemed kind of mealy and there's a real value of the eventual report, says what's a fact, that they found he committed a crime.

I think they are working through it and they'll make, you know, the decision. That doesn't strike me as a big rift as of yet.

BLACKWELL: What's your take on that, Gloria? The pushing back against that there's this rift, that there's this dispute? Maybe it's just a debate, she says?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: In my reporting with the committee, I can tell you that there is a difference of opinion about whether it makes sense to do any sort of official word of referral, everybody on that committee seems to think. In fact, the way Liz Cheney does, that the president behaved in an unlawful manner.

I think the question is, could this boomerang on them? They are trying to do a serious investigation, interviewing what seems to be almost a thousands people, trying to figure out the president's intent and what happened that day and who was behind it. They don't want to taint, some of them, believe that they don't want to taint their own investigation by saying we want to have a criminal referral because some believe that would happen and they believe that if the Justice Department were to read their report, and see what they've done and watch their hearings, they would -- the Justice Department would reach the same conclusion.

So, why make anything seem political when they have done so much work on it.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. And I guess their expectation is AG Garland will get there on his own. Let's not put the congressional weight on it.

BORGER: Some people.

BLACKWELL: Some people on the committee.

BORGER: They believe he's been slow. They believe he's been slow, but --

BLACKWELL: Yeah, okay.

BORGER: But he'll do it on his own time.

BLACKWELL: Harry, let me ask you about what's happening in Georgia. Go ahead, go ahead, if you got one point.

LITMAN: Well, just one more quick point is the referrals on contempt. There have been four of them. They are the victim there and when they refer that, it has weight for the Department of Justice. But as Gloria says, this is just information presenting to the department. It will be presented with or without the referral tying it up.

I'm sorry. Back to Georgia.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's go to Georgia then, and a federal judge considering whether to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman there, off the ballot for reelection under the 14th Amendment.

Harry, what do we need know about the legal consideration?

LITMAN: It seems strange, Victor, but it's bona fide and serious. There are qualifications in the Constitution. You can't be under 25, for example. This is the same as somebody in Georgia saying she's over 25 but check her passport. She's 24. It's that's kind of challenge.

The qualification was put in after the civil war to keep people from -- who had engaged in insurrection from then going back to Congress. That's what's in there and it's a constitutional weight. It's a serious thing.

One more point, unlike these disputes that go on forever, this is going to be decided in the next four to six weeks because there's got do be ballot. Her name has to be on it or not. It's happening elsewhere, including with Madison Cawthorn.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, in North Carolina. That's under a state law, but this they say under the 14th Amendment. Gloria, let me come to you on the Pennsylvania primary for Senate there, Republican primary and endorsement from former President Trump. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: By the way, I endorsed another person today, Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz. Great guy, good man, good man. Harvard educated, tremendous, tremendous career. And they liked him for a long time.

That's like a poll. When you're in television for 18 years, that's like a poll. That means people like you but he's -- he's great guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: What is interesting here is that some of his high profile staffers on the White House, Hope Hicks, Stephen Miller on the other side of this fight with Dave McCormick.

BORGER: Right. Watching that clip of Donald Trump, it made me think he's kind of talking about himself. If you've been successful on TV, that's kind of like a poll. That means that people like you.

So, who do you think Donald Trump is thinking of when he chose Oz over McCormick? Himself. But people who are conservative, lots in the Republican Party, believe that Oz is not a conservative and that he is not the right person for the job, and they have been very verbal about it.

They have been saying, how can you endorse Oz over McCormick? What's interesting, of course, is that McCormick visited Mar-a-Lago just recently and spoke with Donald Trump about getting the endorsement. He's been very pro-Trump at his rallies and even though his former staffers, some of them as you point out are working for McCormick, he decided to go with somebody who seems to be a little more of a showman, like he is.

And so, those who know Donald Trump are disappointed but they're not really surprised that he picked someone who had been a TV star.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. Of course, remember that former President Trump was on Dr. Oz's show during the election and he gave him the thumbs up on the letter on his health.

BORGER: On his health.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, remember that.

BORGER: I do.

BLACKWELL: Gloria Borger, Harry Litman, thank you both.

LITMAN: Thanks. Thanks, Gloria.

BLACKWELL: Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Mariupol. That's according to Ukraine's president. He issued another plea to allies for weapons to stop the Russian attack.

A member of Ukraine's parliament is with us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)