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Russia Warns NATO; New York Manhunt. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 13, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And don't forget, you can also listen to our podcast. Download INSIDE POLITICS wherever you get your podcasts.

Big breaking news day. CNN continues its important coverage right now. Dana Bash picks up.

Enjoy your afternoon.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Dana Bash in New York. Ana Cabrera is off today.

Two major stories this hour, first, the intense manhunt under way now more than 29 hours after a mass shooting on this New York City subway. Police today are naming 62-year-old Frank James as a suspect. They say James unleashed smoke grenades inside a train car just before firing 33 shots; 10 people were hit, another 20 injured, including five children who were heading to school.

We're also following the latest out of Ukraine. A new report from the OSCE, an international security group, is calling Russia's actions in Ukraine or crimes, specifically calling out Russia's targeted killing of innocent civilians and medical facilities.

Every day, we learn more about the scope of the atrocities, as more bodies are found, some tortured after Russia's retreat in parts of Ukraine. One mother's anguish needs no translation, as her son's body is discovered in a manhole.

President Biden's declaration of genocide is not triggering any immediate U.S. policy change, but could it in the future? We're going to have the latest on the ground in Ukraine.

But, first, we begin here in New York and the hunt for the subway attacker.

CNN's Josh Campbell is live for us in Brooklyn.

So, Josh, we just got new video of the shooter appearing to discuss his desire to kill. What more are we learning?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Dana.

As this massive manhunt continues for the suspect who opened fire here yesterday in a car here in Brooklyn, a railcar, we are getting new insight into the mind-set of this shooter. In a series of YouTube videos posted online, the shooter talks about wanting to conduct violence, wanting to possibly attack people he believes had harmed him, in his own chilling words, saying, we need to see more mass shootings. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK JAMES, SUSPECT: I have been through a lot of (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

What can say, I wanted to kill people. I wanted to watch people die right in front of my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) face immediately. But I thought about the fact that, hey, man, I don't want to go to no (EXPLETIVE DELETED) prison.

We need to see more mass shootings. There. (INAUDIBLE) does not know. We need to see more -- have to see more mass shootings to make people (EXPLETIVE DELETED) listen, you're going to die. It's not -- no, it's not about the shooter. Nope. It's not about the shooter. It's about the environment in which he is -- he has to exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So obviously a very troubled person there, obviously a very dangerous person, opening fire inside that subway car here in Brooklyn.

Again, the manhunt continues. We have seen no indication from authorities that they know where the suspect is. But we're told that there's a multiagency effort under way to try to find him, Dana.

BASH: That video, both of those videos are so chilling, and it really is miraculous, Josh, that nobody was killed during this attack. What can you share about the victims' status right now?

CAMPBELL: That's right, Dana.

If there's any good that came out of this or any good development, it's that none of these injuries appear to be life-threatening. That said, some of these victims still remain in hospital. In total, there were 29 people hospitalized, including 10 who suffered gunshot wounds. There were other victims who suffered smoke inhalation.

We know that the suspect had launched some type of smoke device inside that car. There were also victims treated with panic attacks. We heard earlier on CNN today from one of those victims talking about the chaotic moments inside that car. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOURARI BENKADA, SHOOTING VICTIM: I had my headphones on. I just thought it was a regular smoke bomb.

And then the smoke kept going out. This pregnant lady was yelling: "I'm pregnant. Help." Everybody was pushing. I'm thinking, they're just smoke bombs. I grabbed her from the -- I grabbed her from the back, so she didn't get shot in the back. She was pregnant. And a lot of people kept rushing. And that's when I got shot in the leg. That was when the shots kept going off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, just horrific details. We have been continuing to hear from those who were witnesses to this attack.

Again, Dana, that manhunt continues at this hour. Authorities say that this person is now being elevated to a suspect. Originally, they called him a person of interest, but CNN reporting just a short time ago that authorities were able to find the firearm that he allegedly used inside of that car, tracked it back to a point of sale.

He is the registered owner of that weapon, that causing authorities to, in their minds, view him as the suspect who opened fire. Again, that manhunt continues.

BASH: That's a very interesting development, in and of itself. A lot to unpack, as they look at the gun and how he got it and why he got it, given the apparent state that he is in.

[13:05:06]

Thank you so much, Josh. Appreciate it.

And with me now is Tom Verni, former NYPD detective and law enforcement consultant.

Thank you so much for coming on.

So let's pick up where Josh just left off about this person that they're now calling a suspect. He is still on the loose. How safe is the public here in New York City right now?

TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Good afternoon, Dana. And thank you for having me on.

So I think, as of right now, the public is pretty -- is pretty safe, because the NYPD now has extra patrols, extra personnel out there, particularly within the subway system. People have talked about the fact that they see a noticeable uptick in uniformed personnel.

So that's a good sign. Any time something like this happens, that's an automatic reaction, particularly by the NYPD, is that they add additional personnel and extend tours, if necessary, to keep personnel around, just to make sure that there is an overabundance of personnel available to thwart any potential threats that may be out there.

BASH: And I should say, we just got word that the NYPD will hold a press conference at the top of the hour, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, to give an update on the latest in their investigation.

But we do know, Tom, that police are now calling Frank James a person of interest. They were calling him a person of interest, I should say. Now he's a suspect. Can you talk about that change?

VERNI: Correct.

So, yes, when they were able to make their way to that truck that they were looking for and found it, between that, as well as other evidence, video evidence, and some other evidence, I mean, there is a treasure trove of evidence that's been left by the shooter, right?

There was all the evidence on the train, including the weapon itself. So, with all of that, and some video footage that was collected from the surrounding area, regardless of the fact that the video surveillance was not all that functional in the subway system, that you start to put together a puzzle.

And the puzzle, these days, especially with video evidence, as well as passerbys and people who -- calling the tips line, that you start to put this puzzle together pretty quickly, right?

And through that, there was enough evidence collected to make that change, from calling him a person of interest to now a suspect. Now, clearly, there's enough to connect him to the shooting itself, where they definitely want to get this guy into custody.

So we would put it out there to anyone who's watching to continue to give authorities as much information as they know, even as irrelevant as they think it might be, any -- anything that they saw, anything that heard, particularly -- we know this person to be associated with either the state of Wisconsin or the city of Philadelphia.

So, anyone that knows to areas specifically, if they have to see him roaming around, they would want to notify their local authorities immediately.

BASH: And you talk about all the pieces of the puzzle, and you mentioned several of them, including that van or truck out of Philadelphia.

How -- take us a little bit further into an investigation of this kind, how they get to the ultimate goal in the short term, which is actually finding him.

VERNI: Well, again, I think a lot of what was pieced together yesterday, because the big concern was that there was -- there was very little, if any, video footage from the subway cameras themselves.

But people tend to forget that there's so much video footage nowadays just on the average person's house, right, never mind -- and that area of Brooklyn, for those who are not familiar with Sunset Park, is largely a residential area.

So you have homes and you have apartment buildings and you have businesses that have video cameras all over the place. The New York City highway system has video cameras all over the place. So, it takes a little while sometimes to connect the dots and go from A to Z with all the dots. But, eventually, one thing will lead to another now more than ever, where it leads investigators at least into a direction. And once it was put out there that this particular vehicle might be

connected with that -- I mean, this is kind of a noticeable vehicle, a U-Haul rental-type truck. So those are pretty easy to spot generally, as opposed to an average passenger car.

BASH: Yes.

VERNI: So, once you start looking, when you have the public looking for that specific type of vehicle, people start calling in.

The public, generally, their help is very, very important and invaluable in cases like this, where they throw these tips in, and then it helps investigators start to narrow down and go from a wide net to a narrow net very quickly.

BASH: Yes, putting the word out is obviously so simple.

[13:10:00]

But you're right. What a difference technology has made just in the past few years, never mind the cameras that the city has up around, but everybody has on their phone.

Thank you so much, Tom Verni. Appreciate your insight.

And we want to turn now to Ukraine. Video from there posted on social media appears to support claims that Russia is using cluster munitions in civilian areas. Here, you can see a series of explosions several seconds apart. On the right side of your screen, you can see a smaller so-called bomblet landing a few feet away and then exploding.

The U.N. accuses Russia of 24 such attacks and says they -- quote -- "may amount to war crimes."

CNN Fred Pleitgen is in Kyiv.

So, Fred, this comes as Russia is clearly repositioning its forces, preparing for a new offensive in the east. What is the latest there on the ground?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Dana.

Yes, certainly, a higher intensity offensive than what we have seen so far, because the Russians really never stopped their attacks in the east of the country either. But it's also very interesting to see that video there from Kharkiv as well, because, of course, our teams on the ground have said that they have seen increased shelling of those areas.

And, of course, those cluster munitions are extremely dangerous, not just to Ukrainian forces, but to Ukrainian civilians as well. As we can see, there's only civilian vehicles around there. We have actually also been with an explosive ordnance crew here around Kyiv. And they also found the remnants of cluster munitions, which, of course, are very dangerous. Now, what the Russians seem to be doing in the east of the country,

where they have now really positioned most of their forces -- there's almost none left here -- in fact, there are none left here around the Kyiv area and all the way up to Belarus -- is, they're really trying to do a pincer move to try and circle some of the Ukrainian forces that are in the Donbass region.

And just some of the reports that we're getting today certainly strongly indicate that they're leading up to a very large offense. The French say they believe that it's something that could begin in the next couple of days, possibly the next 10 days.

You can see it on your map. If you look all the way from that town Dnipro right now to that town of Izyum, that's essentially the area where the Russians are going to try and go down from to try and do that pincer move of the Donbass area.

We have obviously seen some satellite images of large Russian columns moving towards that area, and foreign militaries, like, for instance, the U.S. and the French, believe that that large offensive is something that could begin very soon, the next couple of days, possibly the next week or 10 days or so, as the Russians continue to reposition forces that they had here around the Kyiv of area towards the east of Ukraine, moving, of course, towards -- through Western Russia.

At the same time, yesterday, Dana -- and I think this is very important -- the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, came out and said that negotiations are at a dead end, the Russians would continue to prosecute their military offensive against Ukraine. So it really doesn't bode well for any sort of negotiated solution of this war that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine, Dana.

BASH: Yes. No, you're right. It doesn't.

But then the Ukrainian government said, well, we're still talking. So a lot of it seems to be positioning and posturing, which, of course, happens throughout something like this.

Fred, thank you so much for that report.

There are new fears of escalation in Ukraine today, as Russia issues another new threat: Any U.S. and NATO vehicles transporting weapons on Ukrainian soil will be viewed as legitimate military targets.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Brussels.

Nic, this feels like a very, very big deal and the kind of thing that NATO countries have been very worried about when it comes to the notion of being pulled in militarily in a way that they haven't so far.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, what Russia is saying, that it will target these supply columns or that have heavy military equipment on them, attack -- attack-capable equipment inside Ukraine. So that's sort of one level of threat reduced. They're not saying that

they would attack them in Poland or another country or another NATO country. Russia has said this before.

But talking to officials here, particularly at NATO, they do point out -- they don't draw a lot of attention to it, but they do point out the fact that Russia so far has not been good with its dynamic targeting, that is, targeting convoys on the move, that it can target stationary objects, like buildings like oil refineries, but, actually, to get -- to try to target a column of tanks, let's say, on the move would be -- unless they're very close to the front line, not particularly easy for Russia, partly because Ukraine's got -- still got some air defense capability.

The sense is that Russia's threat is a serious threat, but it's not something that they have acted upon. Although they have said it before, they haven't acted upon it. But it certainly does escalate the tensions, and particularly at a time as we're sort of shifting a little bit, shifting in the phase of war, and Ukraine asking for bigger-ticket items.

[13:15:07]

It's going to be getting tanks. They're not like smaller shoulder- launched missiles that have been so effective, the Javelins. They're not so easy to hide on the road, if you have a column of those or they're being transported by train. Then the train tracks and the train stations become vulnerable.

And we have -- since NATO announced that tanks were going to be sent to support Ukrainians, we have seen train stations increasingly attacked. So, Russia does seem intent on potentially carrying this through.

BASH: Yes. No, and it's such an important bit of context that you just provided, that they're not saying that if -- that they're going to go after weapons or tanks or anything of the sort in the NATO countries, such as Poland.

But the question is what happens if that happens -- if Russia attacks as they are coming across the Ukrainian border. It's going to be a big decision for NATO to have to make. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that report.

And coming up: A key inflation measure just hit a new record high, but could the worst already be over? We're going to discuss.

Plus: the Kremlin kids. While Russian leaders attack the U.S. and Europe, their children enjoy luxury apartments, upscale educations and much more here in the West. Details ahead.

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[13:20:48]

BASH: Just minutes from now, the Pentagon is expected to confirm it is sending about $700 million in new military aid to Ukraine.

We're also learning that the Pentagon is meeting today with top weapons makers to talk about the industry's ability to support Ukraine in a prolonged war. That's according to a defense official and an industry official.

With us to discuss, our CNN military analyst Major General Paul Eaton and Beth Sanner, former deputy director of national intelligence.

Thank you both for joining me.

General, I want to start with you on this announcement we're expecting in moments from the Pentagon, this new weapons package. Is it enough? Is it appropriate?

MAJ. GEN. PAUL EATON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, we need to continue what we're doing with the weapons systems that we're delivering.

But this new phase that we have been talking about for a few days, maneuver warfare, on terrain more suitable to tanks than we have seen in the past, and the easiest system to use to kill a tank is another tank.

And if we can provide sufficient numbers, so that the Ukrainian military can occupy favorable terrain for tank warfare, and to execute a mobile defense system to take on the Russian tanks.

BASH: And, Beth, as a former intelligence official, you see what is being publicly talked about from the administration, from the Pentagon. And then I'm sure there is a whole lot going on quietly behind the scenes when it comes to the transfer of things, even like tanks, that they don't want to talk about, understandably.

Do you have a sense that Ukraine's military has -- certainly, they need more, but has more than we know about from the West?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think that they probably have more than the Russians know about. And that is good.

The Ukrainian ambassador was talking recently with U.S. defense contractors directly and saying they would prefer to surprise the Russians with what they get. But they're not getting enough. And you -- and Zelenskyy today, in his press conference, he went through literally pictures of weapons systems that they need.

So, hopefully, today, we will provide a lot more.

BASH: And there is video from social media, Beth, of apparent cluster munitions in a residential neighborhood. And that is the neighborhood of Kharkiv.

Would you consider this evidence of a war crime?

SANNER: Well, I think that, in most instances, it would be considered a war crime. The OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe,

today issued a report. And they indicated that there were patterns of this. And cluster bombs was certainly one of the things that they were looking at. And we also D that horrible train station attack, there is video evidence that cluster bombs were present in that attack as well.

BASH: And, General Eaton, the realignment of the way that Europe is -- has been functioning for decades appears to be really continuing. And that is, if you look at what's happening with the potential for Finland, for Sweden to want to join, apply to join NATO, which they have been, forgive me, but aggressively neutral for so long, what does that tell you?

EATON: Well, if ever there was a good idea, it is to join NATO today.

If you're the Finns and share a long border with the former Soviet Union, currently, Russia, the Swedes, similar situation, both of their armed forces are very, very good. They're well-armed. They're well- manned. They are good outfits. And they have a very good reason right now to president a credible reason, as do the Baltic states, to join the finest alliance I have ever seen in my lifetime, and probably all of us in the same boat.

BASH: Yes.

And, Beth, I remember interviewing in the past couple of months the president of Finland, who was talking about -- I think there's sort of an infamous Vladimir Putin quote that now he looks at Finland and he sees a neighbor. And if they join NATO, he looks at Finland and sees an enemy.

[13:25:05]

So, there are definitely, as the general was saying, a lot more pluses than minuses. But that is a real consideration for countries like Finland.

SANNER: This will be a major shift.

And Finland and Sweden both our eyes wide open about the fact, because Russia has been very clear that this -- as you said, it will be -- pose a threat. And so I think the period between when they join and when they apply -- or when they apply and when they join, they are going to feel a little bit more uncomfortable.

But I think we also have to prepare ourselves for what happens next. And I think that the Russians have said that they will reorient their forces. And ten I think that means that we will see a buildup, for example, in that enclave Kaliningrad that lies between the Baltic states and Poland.

So, more dangers ahead.

BASH: Yes, unfortunately, that appears to be the obvious reality that we're all looking at.

Beth Sanner and Major General Paul Eaton, thank you so much to both of you for your time.

And a key inflation measure just hit a new record high. Is there any relief in sight? We're going to talk about that next.

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