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Biden to Meet Palestinian Authority President Abbas; Ex-White House Aide Details Trump-Secret Service Confrontation; Brittney Griner's Trial Resumes in Russia; At Least 23 People Killed in a Russian Strike in Vinnytsia, Ukraine; Sri Lankan President Officially Resigns. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 15, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:48]

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and around the world. I'm Becky Anderson live for you from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from where we are following President Biden's trip to the Middle East.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christina MacFarlane in for Max Foster here in London following our other top stories. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): I think any other president would have moved very quickly to try to prevent violence and bloodshed in an attack on the Capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Brittney was always a great teammate and that is why I'm here, to support her and be there for her at this difficult time. We miss her so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The shield which was my only protection, I was lying on the ground all covered in glass. I didn't know if I would even survive that moment and you can go take a look, the ATM machine over there is completely destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: It's just past 11:00 a.m. on a very warm morning here in Jeddah. U.S. President Biden will be here later today, but right now, he is preparing to meet with the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem. No major breakthroughs are expected, although the U.S. is also announcing tens of millions of dollars for Palestinian hospitals, refugees and internet upgrades.

Mr. Biden reiterating his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, yet there no apparent plans for reviving the Middle East peace process. Meanwhile, the White House confirms that President Biden will meet one-on-one with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he is here in Jeddah. On Thursday in Jerusalem, Mr. Biden and the Israeli Prime Minister

Yair Lapid agreed that Iran should never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.

So let's bring in CNN's Hadas Gold live this hour in Jerusalem. And as you and I speak, President Biden speaking at a hospital in east Jerusalem. Let's just talk about what he's achieved on this, the first leg of his trip in Israel.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, the first leg of the trip was focused on the Israelis. He spent about a day and a half in Jerusalem meeting with various Israeli leaders. And for Israel, it was important to show that the relationship with the United States still stays strong no matter what sort of political chaos is happening internally in Israel because Yair Lapid is now a caretaker prime minister who actually only took over less than two weeks ago.

And I'm sure Israelis were very happy with what they heard. President Biden talking about his deep rooted support, he called it bone-deep support for Israel, for Israel security, for its right to defend itself saying even you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist. He received the Israeli president's Medal of Honor. And we did hear some sort of divisions between the Israelis and the Americans specifically on Iran, and how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

President Biden once again saying that he prefers the diplomatic route before anything else and still thinks that there is time but that he will not give Iran forever, while Prime Minister Yair Lapid standing right next to President Biden on the stage yesterday at the press conference saying that diplomacy and words just simply won't work and the only way to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is to present a credible military threat on the table.

There was some reassurances, though, for the Israelis because President Biden did say in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 that they would be willing to use force as a last resort. This is a hardening of the language because the Americans have always said that all options are on the table. But really also top of mind for the Israelis and the Americans on this first leg of the trip was the relationship with Saudi Arabia.

President Biden after his visit here in Bethlehem will head straight from Tel Aviv to Jeddah. And they have just announced this morning an agreement that the Saudi Arabians will now allow all Israeli flights to fly over Saudi air space.

[04:05:08]

It doesn't seem like a very big deal, but it is a big deal when you think about the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It would have just been unthinkable a few years ago and this is very much being seen as those small steps towards what the Israelis hope will one day be normalized relations with Saudi Arabia same as they have with the UAE and Bahrain.

ANDERSON: CNN's Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem. Thank you for that. And Barak Ravid is a contributing correspondent for Axios, joining me

now live from Tel Aviv. And I just want to pick up where Hadas left off there. The White House praising Saudi Arabia's decision to open air space to all carriers. And as we've just been reporting, this decision paving the way, the White House hopes, for a more integrated, stable and secure Middle East region which they say is vital for the security and prosperity of the United States.

This has been in the works of course for months. And on a trip that's frankly lacking in big wins for the White House, Barak, this is certainly one of them. What's the significance, to your mind, what does it signal as far as the kingdom is concerned about the potential for fully normalizing with Israel anytime soon?

BARAK RAVID, CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Thank you, Becky. Well, I think this is a major and significant foreign policy achievement for both the Biden administration and Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid who just assumed office two weeks ago and is now cutting this ribbon. And as you said, this thing was in the works for months. The White House has been negotiating quietly between Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt on a much broader deal than just the overflights.

The overflights are one part. The second part is the deal around two strategic islands in the Red Sea that are going to be -- finally are going to be totally transferred from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and is needed to give an OK to this process which happened yesterday. Only after Israel gave its OK the Saudis agreed to the overflights. And I think that the significance here is that this opens the way and creates this momentum that can, you know, down the road, six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, get us to a whole new chapter of the Abraham Accords in some sort of a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

This will be a roadmap. It's not going to be like this one giant leap from zero to 100. We moved I think today from zero to 20. And in two years' time, I think we can close this gap between 20 and 100, but it will happen very gradually.

ANDERSON: Now you make a very good point. Look, I mean, it's very clear that the White House has brought the idea of promoting Israel's further integration into the region as a key narrative here. We are also looking at the consolidation of the sort of regional players in alliances or agreements with, for example, the idea that Iran needs to be repelled, a regional alliance, against Iran. And to that point, the bigger story here is that talk of regional security arrangements which could see the Israelis integrated into, for example, air and missile defense systems.

And we are talking about an integrated system with a number of key players around the Gulf and Middle East. Again, your significance, the significance to your mind.

RAVID: Well, I think, Becky, let's take a step back for a second and look at what the Biden administration did since it assumed office. At the beginning, in the first -- I think until September 2021, in the first eight, nine months, the Biden administration did not really engage on getting Israel and the Arab countries closer together.

This process I want to remind you started with the Abraham Accords which were brokered by the Trump administration. And for many months the Biden administration was very cautious about this thing because it saw it as sort of a Trump legacy and it wasn't sure how much it wants to go into this.

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But since the first year anniversary of the Abraham Accords in September last year, the Biden administration really started, you know, putting its foot on the gas, starting to push this thing forward, which is very, very positive. And as you said, it's not only this issue of the overflights and the islands, it's the whole U.S. strategy in the region which is based on how do we get the Arab countries, the Sunni countries, to work closer together with Israel on regional security so that the U.S. could be, you know, less involved with boots on the ground.

How the U.S. can take, you know, sort of frameworks that already exist like the U.S. Central Command that Israel today is part of, how can we use CENTCOM in order to take the Israelis, take the Arabs and get them together in their exercises, in the same consultations, in the same exchanges of knowledge and intelligence in order to create the sort of, you know, alliance that doesn't always have to be a formal alliance where people sit in a room and sign a piece of paper, but an operational alliance, how to get the Abraham Accords an operational alliance, get more (INAUDIBLE).

ANDERSON: Barak, I'm going to leave it there because unfortunately the technology is playing havoc with us. But you are making some extremely valid and cogent points and we will continue to take a deep dive on what the Biden administration is achieving on this trip as we anticipate the U.S. president's arrival here in Saudi Arabia. For the time being, sir, thank you very much indeed.

Barak Ravid is in Tel Aviv.

OK. Well, we expect the U.S. president later this evening. He will be meeting with King Salman here. And then a meeting with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his other advisers. Tomorrow, Christina, we will see the U.S. president get together with the key leaders in this region, GCC, that's the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Really important times for this region on what is the U.S. president's first Middle East trip.

For the time being, let's head back to you in London for our other stories.

MACFARLANE: Thanks very much, Becky. We know you will be tracking all of that of course for us here on CNN.

Now to the investigation into the January 6th insurrection. A source tells CNN that a Washington police officer has confirmed details about the heated exchange between former U.S. President Donald Trump and a Secret Service agent when he was told he could not go to the U.S. Capitol after his rally. According to the source the officer who was in the motorcade has spoken to the January 6th Committee about the confrontation.

We first heard about this from Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide to the former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who spoke under oath about what she was told.

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CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS: The president said something to the effect of, I'm the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now to which Bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The president reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and Mr. Ornato had recounted the story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): And was Mr. Engel in the room as Mr. Ornato told you this story?

HUTCHINSON: He was.

CHENEY: Did Mr. Engel correct or disagree with any part of the story from Mr. Ornato?

HUTCHINSON: Mr. Engel did not correct or disagree with any part of the story.

CHENEY: Did Mr. Engel or Mr. Ornato ever after that tell you what Mr. Engel had just said was untrue?

HUTCHINSON: Neither Mr. Ornato nor Mr. Engel told me ever that it was untrue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, a Secret Service agent official now denies Trump grabbed the steering wheel or an agent, but CNN did speak to two Secret Service staffers who said that for more than a year similar stories had been circulating inside the agency about Trump's behavior before and on January 6th.

This comes as CNN also learns the U.S. Secret Service erased text messages from the day before and on the day of the insurrection. Deleted after investigators requested them according to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, an allegation the Secret Service denies.

And the January 6th Committee member Adam Kinzinger tells the "Wall Street Journal" the committee is still weighing whether to ask Trump himself to testify.

[04:15:05]

Kinzinger said the panel is also deciding whether to subpoena former Vice President Mike Pence or request a written interview. The committee has spoken with top aides to the former vice president but so far Pence has given no indication he wants to engage with the committee. Only saying this during a speech back in February.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. But President Trump is wrong and frankly there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Now American basketball star Brittney Griner is back in a Russian court today after Thursday's hearing ended without a verdict. Russian authorities accuse Griner of smuggling significant amount of a narcotic substance. Well, the U.S. State Department says she is being wrongfully detained.

CNN's Nina dos Santos joins me now here in the studio.

Nina, it's unlikely anything will happen to Griner until there is a verdict. So when do we expect that to be?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And when you mean anything will happen you mean in terms of potentially getting her back to the United States.

MACFARLANE: Exactly.

DOS SANTOS: Well, at the moment this is the fourth day of the trial. Remember that already last week she pleaded guilty to owning these canisters of cannabis oil but essentially were found in her luggage when she tried to depart from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in early February. That was when she was first released. And it's always been suspected that she is a high profile political hostage if you like.

But in the Russian court system, essentially admitting guilt to a crime doesn't necessarily mean that the trial is over. So what we've got taking place today, we saw her in those pictures that we just put on air there a moment ago being led into the courtroom, her handcuffs were taken off and she was put into the cage that we often see defendants in these trials.

For the moment, though, we know that this probably isn't going to be the end of it. And we're probably not going to get a verdict today. What essentially her defense team is doing is putting forward oral and written submissions. So yesterday we saw a basketball coach of a Russian team give a character reference for Brittney Griner saying that she was professional, that she was a reliable person. That's what we're seeing over the next couple of days.

But you're right, it is likely that this could be a pretext to a prisoner swap, but that could only happen once the trial is finished in a few days' time.

MACFARLANE: All right. We'll wait to see. Nina, thanks very much.

OK, shock and disbelief after horrific Russian missile strike in Ukraine. Still ahead, you will see the exact moment when missiles hit the city of Vinnytsia killing almost two dozen civilians.

And it is finally official, the Sri Lankan president has resigned. Ahead, how that played out and the next steps in choosing a new leader.

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MACFARLANE: We're getting reports of significant damage after a barrage of explosions rattled the city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Its mayor says 10 strikes targeted the city overnight. They destroyed multiple buildings and caused heavy damage to this hotel. Two universities in the city were also hit.

Those explosions in Mykolaiv follow Thursday's horrific missile strike on the city of Vinnytsia. They killed at least 23 people and left more than 60 others injured. And rescuers are still digging through the rubble of collapsed buildings looking for more than 40 people still missing. Because of that President Zelenskyy called for Russia to be declared a terrorist state.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This day has once again proven that Russia must be officially recognized as a terrorist state. No other state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia. No other state in the world allows itself to daily destroy peaceful cities and ordinary human life with cruise missiles and rocket artillery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, for more we're joined by Scott McLean who is outside a hospital in Vinnytsia that's treating some of the victims.

Scott, this was a shocking loss of life. What is the recovery effort like there today and any idea why Vinnytsia was targeted? Because we know it's so far from the frontlines.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. We are nowhere near any kind of frontlines. And, you know, just 24 hours after the blast, we're seeing new security footage that shows just how shellshocked and surprised people were. They were just going about their daily lives, walking through the streets or buying a coffee.

We are nowhere near oil depots or rail infrastructure or anything that the Russians are typically targeting this far from the frontlines. And so the reality is that 30 minutes after those air raid sirens went off, most people likely did not think that anything would come down in this area.

One of the victims we know was a 4-year-old girl named Liza. And earlier in the day her mothered had posted on Instagram a video of them walking down the street, and this little girl was pushing her only stroller. It was an hour or two later that this little girl was killed in that stroller.

President Zelenskyy mentioned this girl in his nightly address stressing the fact that Liza was just 4 years old. As you heard there, Zelenskyy is calling on the international community to recognize Russia as a terror state. His argument is that if this same thing happened in Dallas or Dresden, surely you would call it terrorism.

Now in terms of the injured, the latest numbers are that 71 people have been hospitalized. That's the official numbers. We know more than that have sought some kind of medical attention. We're at one of the hospitals where people have come and the hospital director says that people are in very bad shape. Those are his words to describe the kind of injuries that we're seeing.

I also spoke with another patient here, a soldier actually who is being treated at this hospital after being wounded on the frontlines and he said that lot off the victims coming in from the blast are doctors and nurses because, as we know, one of the places that took the brunt of one of those missile strikes was a medical clinic that was still operating at the time.

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Now there are still efforts to search for any bodies that may be remaining. There are 18 people who are unaccounted for. Yesterday we saw people going through with dogs trying to find the remains of anyone, but this will be difficult considering that they have had a difficult time identifying the people that they have actually found.

And one more thing, Christina, and that's that we still don't have any kind of official word, any kind of official explanation for the Russians as to why on earth they would target this kind of a civilian site.

MACFARLANE: Yes, it is so tragic, so sad. Scott, outside the hospital there, thank you very much for bringing us the latest there from Vinnytsia.

OK. After a tumultuous week filled with chaos and confusion over who's in charged, Sri Lanka's president is finally out. Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned via e-mail on Thursday after fleeing to Singapore and that resignation became official earlier today. Not long ago Sri Lanka's prime minister was sworn as the interim leader during a ceremony in Colombo. He had already been acting as president after Rajapaksa fled the country earlier this week.

The Sri Lanka speaker of parliament says the process to elect a new president is now under way and that he will summon lawmakers on Saturday and reveal a timeline for voting. Earlier huge celebrations in the capital. Well, protesters say the ousting of the president marks a victory over

government mismanagement and corruption.

Let's bring in Kyung Lah who is monitoring developments. And Kyung, obviously jubilant scenes, but the reality is the country remains in economic and financial crisis. So what's going to happen next here?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the political process has taken a step forward, but the prime minister now being sworn in in just the last couple of hours as the acting president. So what you are seeing at least as far as who is going to occupy the presidency now that he has been sworn in by a judge is there is some stability in the presidential office. There is actually a person who is there instead of a president who has fled the country so there is some semblance of stability at least for the time being.

There is going to be now an election, a decision by the parliament on who should not be the acting president but who will take that job full time. But you are absolutely right, the big problem, the reason for all of this, which are the economic woes of this country, which are very serious, go beyond just the mismanagement of the country.

Yes, there has been political mismanagement that has fueled the economic crisis. But those underlying problems still exist. There is a lack of fuel, food, medicine. Inflation is skyrocketing. Double digit at 40 percent. So there has to be some sort of monetary bailout. The anticipation is that the IMF is going to come in to assist. But without assistance from outside, this is a country that will continue to be very unstable. So whoever comes in next, that person has a very big job ahead.

MACFARLANE: Yes. Definitely an understatement. Kyung Lah, thanks very much for the latest there.

All right. President Biden heads to Saudi Arabia in the coming hours. He'll meet one-on-one with the Saudi crown prince but won't say if he plans to bring up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Those details are just ahead.

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