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Steve Bannon Lashes Out After Conviction; No Photos, Call Logs, Diary Entries Involving Trump On January 6th; Discovery's "Shark Week" Shows Diver's Close Call With Great White; WH Doctor: Biden's COVID Symptoms "Continue To Improve"; Russian Missile Strikes Odessa Port After Grain Deal Made; Man Accused Of Putting Sister In Two-Year Coma Has Died; Greenland Ice Melting Rapidly Due To High Temperatures. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 23, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:58]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
Less than three hours, that's all it took for a federal jury to find Steve Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress. The former Trump adviser convicted after refusing to supply documents and give testimony to the January 6th Committee. The panel believes Bannon's cooperation would be key, pointing to his contact with then President Trump in the lead up to the Capitol attack. His presence in a hotel war room of sorts of Trump allies prior to the insurrection, and his ominous podcast prediction that all hell was going to break loose.
Bannon now faces a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail and will be sentenced in October. Meantime, he is not staying silent, of course.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: I only have one disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 Committee, didn't have the guts to come down here and testify in open court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Of course, Bannon did not have guts to testify during the January 6th hearings. His legal team vows to keep fighting and claims that he is protected by executive privilege.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID SCHOEN, ATTORNEY FOR STEVE BANNON: This is a bullet proof appeal. Have you ever in another case seen a judge six times say in a case that he thinks the standard for willfulness is wrong? He said it doesn't comport with modern jurisprudence. He said, it doesn't comport with the standard -- the traditional definition, but he said he feels his hands were bound by a 1961 decision. You will see this case reversed on appeal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And joining me now CNN senior legal analyst and former federal are prosecutor Elie Honig.
Elie, great to see you. Team Bannon says this is a bulletproof appeal. What do you think?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Jim, I admire the optimism from Steve Bannon's attorneys if I don't quite share it. Of course Steve Bannon has the right to appeal and will appeal. I do not think his appeal is bulletproof or anything close. In fact I think it's quite likely to lose.
The gist of Bannon's appeal it sounds like from his lawyer is going to be the -- judge did not allow Steve Bannon to turn this into a political circus to defend himself by attacking the committee, by attacking Bennie Thompson and Nancy Pelosi.
And here's the thing, Jim, first of all, that judge was a Donald Trump nominee from 2019, who earlier in this career had clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. Second of all, while a defendant has every right to defend himself zealously and vigorously, you can't go into stuff that's completely irrelevant. And the judge said, look, defend yourself. But we're not going to turn this into a circus of irrelevancy.
And for that reason, I think Steve Bannon's appeal is quite unlikely to succeed. If it does not succeed, Jim, as you said, Steve Bannon will have to do at least 30 days behind bars. I think it's quite likely the judge actually goes a bit above that. And that will be a long coming moment of accountability for Steve Bannon. He's dodged it before. He got pardoned out of a prior federal indictment by Donald Trump. And so he's brought this on himself.
ACOSTA: He certainly has, and when it comes to Donald Trump, we saw the January 6th Committee lay out in painstaking detail Trump's 187 minutes of inaction and betrayal while the attack unfolded, and one thing that emerged was that there were no photos. I thought this was fascinating, no photos, call logs, diary entries during that period.
Let's take a quick listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): There's no official record of President Trump receiving or placing a call between 11:06 and 6:54 p.m. As to what the president was doing that afternoon, the Presidential Daily Diary is also silent. It contains no information from the period between 1:21 p.m. and 4:03 p.m. The chief White House photographer wanted to take pictures because it was, in her words, very important for his archives and for history, but she was told, quote, "No photographs."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Yes, Elie, that seems fishy. HONIG: Yes, there's something very wrong here, Jim. We're talking
about the most basic records that as you know from your time covering the White House, the call logs, the diary, the photographs, those are made every day of the year.
[16:05:01]
Yet, on this one day, which obviously was going to be enormously significant politically, legally, historically, no records were made. And what that tells me, and Representative Luria referred to this, is somebody made a decision let's keep this off the books if we can. And to me that's really important. Looking at this as a former prosecutor, that suggests what we call consciousness of guilt, meaning somebody knew that what was happening was very wrong, potentially very illegal.
You don't keep records off the books unless you think there's something to hide. And let's remember, Liz Cheney said we'll be back in the fall with more hearings. I think this is one of the big unknowns and something that I expect the committee to dig into.
ACOSTA: Yes, it's the only moment I can think of where Donald Trump did not want his picture taken. It's just sort of remarkable.
And, Elie, the January 6th Committee says they've done their jobs laying out the evidence. Now it's up to the Justice Department to do theirs. Merrick Garland, the attorney general, was asked about this. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: No person is above the law in this country. Nothing stops us --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Even a former president?
GARLAND: No -- I don't know how to -- maybe I'll say that again. No person is above the law in this country. I can't say it any more clearly than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: So what do you make of that? He was pretty direct about it.
HONIG: Yes, look, Merrick Garland seemingly is saying this every day as is Lisa Monaco, his top deputy, the FBI, and in fairness, Jim, it's all they can say. It's all they should say. They can't say, hey, everyone, let's open up our books. Here we are on our investigation.
A couple of things are clear, though. The January 6th Committee gave us remarkable evidence, some of which DOJ, maybe much of which, did not have and they clearly have turned up public pressure on DOJ. Whether DOJ responds to that, they shouldn't, but they're clearly feeling it because virtually every day now we're hearing the same talking points from Merrick Garland.
Here's what we do know. There are signs of a slowly expanding investigation, but Jim, as you and I have discussed all the time, things are just moving too slow. We're 18 months out now. Nobody with any meaningful proximity to power here to Donald Trump has been charged with anything, and as time goes by, it gets more and more difficult for DOJ to prosecute, especially if and when there comes a moment when Donald Trump declares his candidacy. So DOJ in my view is hampering its own investigation just by the sheer speed or lack of speed of it.
ACOSTA: Right, and now we've entered the realm where, you know, the inspector has emerged where, you know, Trump can say, you know, I'm running for president and this case against me is just a political prosecution, I'm being persecuted of course. He has all the soundbites locked and loaded, ready to go.
Elie Honig, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
HONIG: Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: Now let me bring in conservative attorney and contributing columnist for "The Washington Post," George Conway.
George, great to see you. Thanks for coming in and being with us in person. Steve Bannon and his team seem very confident. Perhaps it's all the shirts that Steve was wearing to the courthouse that they're going to get this verdict thrown out during the appeals process. What do you think?
GEORGE CONWAY, ATTORNEY: Well, you know, he was very confident that he'd have this medieval attack on the prosecution's case, that he'd win the case. I don't think, I mean, as Elie has said, I don't think they have any real chance. I don't know what they're talking about in terms of willfulness. Any standard of willfulness I think he met, and I think he's showing that, frankly, by his post-verdict conduct.
He's smirking at the court, smiling at the court, and basically thumbing his nose at the jury's verdict, and saying that basically the court was lawless, and all that stuff you heard about him saying, oh, the January 6th Committee didn't have the courage to show up. I mean, that's like saying, OK, I went 100 miles an hour on the New Jersey turnpike and I got pulled over by a cop, and saying to the judge or saying after being convicted of speeding and reckless driving saying, you know, the highway commissioner had no courage and he failed to show up at my trial.
I mean, it's just nonsense. I mean, it's silly.
ACOSTA: Yes.
CONWAY: The question is, did he obey the subpoena? No. Did he have an excuse to obey the subpoena? No. End of story.
ACOSTA: And that's why the judge was saying, it's a cut and dry case.
CONWAY: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: Yes. Let's talk about the explosive hearing that we had the other night from the January 6th Committee. Let's revisit this exchange. The former White House counsel Pat Cipollone responding to a question about whether anyone in the White House didn't want the Capitol riot to stop. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): And you on the staff did not want people to leave the Capitol?
PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: On the staff?
CHENEY: In the White House about --
CIPOLLONE: I can't think of anybody, you know, on that day who didn't want people to get out of the Capitol once the -- particularly once the violent started, no. I mean.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): What about the president?
CHENEY: Yes.
CIPOLLONE: She said the staff. So I answered.
CHENEY: No, I said in the White House.
CIPOLLONE: Oh, I'm sorry. I apologize. I thought you said who else on the staff.
[16:10:06]
I can't reveal communications, but obviously I think, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Yes, you know. Pretty telling moment.
CONWAY: Look, it was devastating in what he didn't say. I mean, he's clearly signaling that Trump was the one with the difference of opinion. I mean, this whole -- this was a bit of a kabuki dance, the privilege lines that he drew. He said he couldn't speak to anything that he told the president or the president told him, but he could tell -- he could tell the January 6th Committee what he said to everybody else, and that's just silly.
I mean, if I'm the counsel to the president and you're the chief of staff and you ask me, the president needs your advice on X, and I give you -- well, my legal advice is Y, and you pass that on to the president, my conversation with you would be privileged.
ACOSTA: Right.
CONWAY: And the problem is here, there was no privilege, and what the January 6th Committee did was they just allowed him to engage in this legal fiction, in this fig leaf so that they could get what they could get out of him in the time that was allotted, and they did, and they got a lot out of him. I mean, the fact is there's no reason to believe that he was -- that Pat Cipollone was not saying to the president what he was saying to everybody else, which is we got to -- he's got to make a statement. He's got to go out there. We have to do something about this, and we have to stop this.
ACOSTA: Yes, it was a baffling moment. And let's talk about last night's Trump rally that he had in Arizona. He lied again about 2020, the big lie never dies when it comes to Donald Trump. He teased a 2024 run again, and he was talking about the select committee. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I ran twice. I won twice, and now we may have to do it again. He's a RINO coward who participated against the Republican Party in the totally partisan unselect committee of political thugs and hacks. They want to damage me in any form so I can no longer represent you. They will damage me in any form they can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: He's already rehearsing what he's going to say in the event he's indicted, it sounds to me.
CONWAY: Right.
ACOSTA: If he's prosecuted. And, I mean, on top of the fact that it sounds like he's running.
CONWAY: Yes, I mean, that's -- you know, part of the reason why he ran in 2020, I mean, there were some suggestion in I think "The New York Times" and some other places that some people around him understood that one of the reasons why he ran for re-election was because he wanted to continue to have immunity from prosecution for the various things that he was being investigated for.
I mean, he could have been charged with obstruction of justice as a result of the Mueller investigation. I think there could have been charges from the Ukraine -- the Ukrainian situation that resulted in the first impeachment, and certainly he's got exposure for state crimes that he committed while he was a businessman and for tax fraud and he's got exposure for what happened on January 6th and events leading up to that.
And I think he thinks that by running for president -- and there's -- I mean, there was a great "Rolling Stone" piece about this very recently, he can sort of politically immunize himself even before he's elected. And you know, this is the ultimate, you know, abuse of the presidency and the presidential election process. This is all about him. This was all about him trying to stay in office so that he could be immune from prosecution.
And this is all about him trying to get back there so he could be immune from prosecution, and this is all about him -- this is going to be a campaign about him. It's not going to be -- you know, he's going to have advisers saying, you got to talk about inflation. You've got to talk about foreign policy. You've got to talk about -- ACOSTA: That's just window dressing.
CONWAY: That's going to be window dressing. This is -- he's running -- this is a vengeance tour, the 2024 Trump vengeance tour, and he's going to wreak havoc, you know, if he can't win. He's going to basically burn the house down, and that's, frankly, what Senator McConnell said on February 13th when he was talking about, you know, after his vote against permanently barring Trump from office, McConnell basically said that Trump wanted to cause as much damage as he could on the way out. McConnell said that, and that's what he's going to do in this upcoming election campaign.
ACOSTA: And what's remarkable about this and "Axios" has had a report on this in just the last couple of days, I picked up on some of these rumblings as well that the Trump world is already planning what a new Trump administration might look like. Not only installing Trump loyalists by the thousands, but purging the government of, you know, all sorts of federal employees, and it says sources close to the former president said that he will as a matter of top priority go after the national security apparatus, clean house in the intelligence community and the State Department, target the woke generals at the Defense Department. That's in quotes, and remove the top layers of the Justice Department and the FBI.
I mean, he's talking about bringing Jeffrey Clark in potentially as an attorney general if he's put back in office. What do you -- I mean, what do you think about all of that?
[16:15:00]
CONWAY: He basically -- you know, he was great at ripping away guardrails for four years, and now he wants to destroy all the guardrails even if it means the cost of the civil service, and even if it means basically the cost of a functioning United States government. I mean, even people like -- you know, even loyal Trump administration servants like Jeffrey Rosen who became acting attorney general at the end and Donoghue became deputy -- acting deputy attorney general, and Pat Cipollone -- I think of the lawyers because I'm lawyer.
ACOSTA: Right.
CONWAY: Those people would be excluded from the next administration because they weren't radical enough. They wanted to obey the law, and here what Trump -- the Trump people are planning to do is they're planning to create lists of people who are more loyal than these people who are loyal to the -- more loyal to Trump than they are to the Constitution and pick people from that list, and not only that, expand the number of people that they can appoint -- expand the number of jobs they can appoint these people to.
That's why, you know, not just schedule C regular political appointees. They want to create a schedule F, and create, you know, throw out thousands of civil servants so that they can put people who are ultra-MAGA in and who are going to be -- it's going to be more corrupt and more lawless than we saw during the last four years.
ACOSTA: Yes. It sounds like an administration of Kool-Aid drinkers.
CONWAY: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, that's what we saw at the end of the last administration.
CONWAY: The Jonestown program.
ACOSTA: There you go.
All right, George Conway, great to see you again. Thanks very much.
They're back to take a bite out of summer. For more than 30 years Discovery's "Shark Week" has thrilled audiences fascinated by what's lurking in the deep. We'll get a sneak peek at the rare footage you'll see in just a few moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:20:51]
ACOSTA: Summertime of course means hitting the beach. But a string of shark attacks in the northeast is putting swimmers on high alert. A warning now, some of these pictures you're about to watch are a little gory. A 16-year-old surfer was bitten by a shark this week off of Fire Island in New York leaving him with a pretty sizable gash on his foot. You can see it right there. The team compared the experience to getting stuck in a bear trap.
And while the sight of a fin sticking out of the water can terrify us, there's also just something about sharks that never fails to fascinate. Just ask the teams over at Discovery as they gear up for the 34th year, that's right, 34th year of their ever popular "Shark Week." Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a shark, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us five, what's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're staying deep, and they're coming up and hitting. I've already had two bumps now that have been pretty deliberate. They look like they're getting a little bit more fired up. What was that? Is that a shark?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it was. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Wow. And just a note to our viewers, he did survive that episode, but unbelievable stuff.
Joining me now is legendary "Shark Week" producer and filmmaker Jeff Kurr whose work you will see on Discovery and Discovery Plus which shares a parent company with CNN. Jeff, just some extraordinary footage there. You were on a boat nearby
when that diver had that terrifying experience. Take us back to that moment.
JEFF KURR, PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, DISCOVERY CHANNEL'S "SHARK WEEK": Yes, it's something I'll never forget. I've been doing "Shark Week" for 32 years. I've never seen anything like that, an encounter like that, and the fact that we captured it, you know, on camera, I actually thought he was dead. When a 16-foot great white shark comes at you like that, it's almost something that's unsurvivable, but somehow Jimmy, who was in the cage there, he managed to survive without a scratch, which is unbelievable.
ACOSTA: Wow.
KURR: To have a shark that big coming that fast with an open mouth like that, and he's an awesome in the water guy, and he's a great water guy, and he's very, you know, a great swimmer and all that stuff, and a very experienced shark expert, so, you know, even with those things going for him, that was really hard to watch, even watching it, you know, the replays of it still makes my heart flutter because like you say, I was right there and I felt completely helpless. There was really nothing we could do to help him. He just had to swim for it.
[16:25:06]
ACOSTA: And that container that he's floating in, is that supposed to be able to withstand a shark attack in that way? And was this shark just more powerful than perhaps you imagined, or how did that happen?
KURR: Yes, you know, truth be told, a great white shark could break into any cage that we put in the water.
ACOSTA: Wow.
KURR: A cage is a bluff, and these animals are so strong. I've seen them tear apart aluminum cages, steel cages. It doesn't really matter. What we always count on is when the shark actually feels something unusual in the water with its snout, it will back away. And we saw a lot of cases of sharks touching that particular cage and as soon as they touched it, it felt weird to them and they would back away.
This one shark in particular, he didn't care. And he came from such a distance that he probably didn't see the cage because it was -- it's a polycarbonate plastic, very, very strong, and he went through it like a knife through butter.
ACOSTA: No kidding, unbelievable.
KURR: So, you know, it's part of the thing when you work with -- yes, you work with huge predators like this and a few of us do out there, these are the things you have to expect to happen every now and then. It's just in 32 years of "Shark Week," I've never seen anything like this, and I hope it doesn't happen again, but it's still an amazing sequence, and we learned a lot about white sharks just from watching it.
ACOSTA: Yes, and Jeff, you're famous for being the creative force behind the "Air Jaws" franchise as it's called. I want to show another clip that we can look forward to of a great white shark breaching the water. This is also remarkable to watch. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a repeat performance for the 10 and a half footer, but this time it's completely inverted and still locked onto its target like a fighter jet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: I mean, that is wild. What is it like when you see something like that? I mean, an animal, creature of that size jump out of the water?
KURR: Yes, I don't think there's anything more spectacular in nature, and you know, we're so fortunate to be able to actually film this and create the series that we call "Air Jaws." It's been on the air now since 2001, and people that are "Shark Week" fanatics, they never seem to tire of seeing these sharks fly out of the water. It's an amazing behavior, and we're lucky because now we have these incredible cameras that shoot 4k, 6k, 8k, and the resolution is unbelievable.
In fact, I've said before that when the shark opens its mouth, you can actually count the teeth in his mouth. That's how good the resolution is. And of course in super slow motion it's just spectacular. So yes, this is our 15th episode of "Air Jaws." We're always, you know, sort of upping the bar and finding new stories to tell, but people love this particular series.
ACOSTA: Well, Jeff, it's a remarkable footage. I can't wait to see what else you have in store for the viewers. But just amazing work as always.
Jeff Kurr, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Good talking to you.
KURR: Thanks for having me.
ACOSTA: And be sure to catch Jeff during "Shark Week" on Discovery and Discovery Plus. It all kicks off tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:17]
ACOSTA: President Biden's doctor says his symptoms are continuing to improve following his COVID diagnosis on Thursday.
In a letter today, the president's physician writes that Biden has completed his second full day of Paxlovid, the antiviral COVID drug.
Our Arlette Saenz is joining me now from the White House. Arlette, what are we learning about the president's condition? I guess
we're now learning that he's using an inhaler. What does that mean.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, President Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, says the president has been using an albuterol inhaler as needed for his loose cough. The doctors saying he's doing that about two to three times a day.
But he added that the president is not experiencing shortness of breath and his oxygen saturation levels remain excellent. And also that his lungs are clear.
Dr. Kevin O'Connor today released a letter summarizing the president's current state. He included some new symptoms that the president is experiencing. And that includes a sore throat as well as body aches.
And he also said his voice is deep. That is something that we heard yesterday as the president appeared virtually in a meeting with his economic advisers.
The president has just wrapped up his second day of Paxlovid treatment. And Dr. Kevin O'Connor says he will continue using that antiviral drug.
Take a listen to what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president's chief medical adviser, had to say earlier today as he summarized the president's condition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: When he does get colds that have nothing to do with COVID, he has a history of asthma, and he uses a bronchodilator to make sure he just breathes well.
He has no trouble breathing at all right now, as he's vaccinated, doubly boosted. He's on an antiviral drug that has a very good track record of preventing people to progress to disease that is serious.
[16:35:03]
So he's doing very well, and he continues to improve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, the president's physician, Dr. O'Connor, also said that the early sequencing results of the President's COVID diagnosis have come in and it is most likely that he has the BA.5 variant.
That highly contagious variant that the majority of the country, Americans who contract COVID-19 at this moment currently have.
Now, additionally while the president is here at the White House over the weekend, his wife, first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, is spending the weekend in Wilmington, Delaware. Her spokesperson tells me that she tested negative earlier today and
she still is not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, even as she is a close contact of her husband.
Dr. Kevin O'Connor said the president will continue to isolate, according to CDC guidelines. And the message from the White House has been that the president has been continuing his work as his symptoms are improving.
ACOSTA: All right, Arlette Saenz, thank you very much.
Major developments right now out of Ukraine. This morning, the State Department confirmed two Americans were killed in the Donbass region. Officials have not yet identified the individuals.
That news comes as a bipartisan House delegation met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. We're told he briefed them on today's Russian missile strike on Odessa.
It was a brazen attack targeting a key port less than a day after Russia agreed to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain shipments.
CNN's Nic Robertson is in Kyiv with more.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Jim, there are, as you know, a lot of different missile strikes all over Ukraine, but these in Odessa are really troubling.
The Ukrainians had really, you know, a deficit of trust going into this big diplomatic breakthrough, this grain export deal with the Russians, brokered by the U.N., brokered by Turkey.
There was a real level of distrust going into. So the fact that it's been tested by these missile strikes so soon is really concerning for everyone involved here.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(EXPLOSION)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): A missile slams into Odessa just hours after Russia signed a deal agreeing safe grain shipments from the port.
At the impact two boats on fire, firefighters struggling to bring the blaze under control. Not far away, windows blown.
Officials sure the port was targeted by Russian cruise missiles.
NATALIA HUMENIUK, SECURITY & DEFENSE FORCES OF SOUTH OF UKRAINE: Four missiles were launched from the Black Sea. They were aimed directly at the Odessa port. Two missiles were shot down by antiaircraft defense forces. Two hit the port infrastructure facility.
ROBERTSON: The brazen attack so soon after the breakthrough grain deal that was designed to get Ukraine's grain to the world's needy triggering anger. OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, MEMBER, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: That shows again to
the role that Russia does not expect any agreements, any deals, showing that they want to continue to threaten the world's food security.
ROBERTSON: Overnight, Ukraine's president warned of possible Russian provocations. His foreign minister cast doubt on Russia's commitment to the deal, too.
DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINE FOREIGN MINITER: Ukraine does not trust Russia.
ROBERTSON: For many in Odessa, the deal signaled safer days ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoo.
ROBERTSON: Instead, beachgoers cheered as Ukraine's air defense shot down two of the missiles.
MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU, TURKISH DEFENSE MINISTER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ROBERTSON: In Turkey, where the deal was signed, the defense minister who was a guarantor of the deal said Russia told them in no uncertain terms they had nothing to do with the attack.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Well, Ukraine's deputy infrastructure minister is still in Istanbul where the deal was signed. Ukrainian officials say they're committed to making this deal work.
But really this latest attack really raises the question, will shipping companies, will their insurers feel that it's safe to send ships into Odessa and other Ukrainian ports to pick up the grain supplies if they're going to be still under attack.
That's a really big question on people's minds right now.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department is reporting the death recently of two U.S. citizens in the east of Ukraine. Now, out of respect and deference to their families, the State Department is not announcing their names, nor the circumstances of their deaths.
But these two U.S. citizens, State Department now confirming dead in the east of Ukraine -- Jim?
ACOSTA: All right, Nic, thank you.
[16:39:30]
And coming up, a shocking story out of West Virginia. A man dies just days after his sister wakes up from a two-year coma to identify him as her attacker. All the twists and turns coming up in this case next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: A stunning twist in an already shocking case out of West Virginia. A woman awakes from a two-year coma and tells police it was her brother who attacked and nearly killed her.
Now that man, her brother, has died in police custody.
CNN's Jean Casarez has the latest developments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SHOUTING)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daniel Palmer III, charged in the brutal attack of his sister, Wanda Palmer, was said by law enforcement to be uncooperative as they tried to get him to jail after an initial court proceeding.
(SHOUTING)
CASAREZ: Now officials say he's dead.
Palmer died Thursday night in a hospital after being in jail for five days.
Palmer, of Jackson County, West Virginia, was charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Wanda, in 2020, allegedly bludgeoning her with a hatchet or axe in the head and face.
It was Wanda's mother who called 911 after it happened.
EILEEN PALMER, MOTHER OF WANDA PALMER: They came Wednesday morning to mow her grass, and they found her in a big pool of blood, they said. And they run up on the Hill real fast on a four-wheeler and told us and I called the police and ambulance.
CASAREZ: Wanda was found in her living room.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: We show up and see her on the couch, bloodied, battered, bludgeoned in the head and face area.
[16:45:05]
CASAREZ: They believed she was dead, but then heard sounds, quote, "commonly referred to as the death rattle." But Wanda was alive.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: I wouldn't have wagered a nickel for her life that morning. She was in that bad a shape.
CASAREZ: According to the criminal complaint, a witness saw Wanda's brother at her trailer that night and investigators say there was a history of violence between them.
But law enforcement had no weapon, no eyewitness to the attack, and no phone records or video.
And Wanda was in a coma until about three weeks ago when she woke up in her nursing home, the sheriff says, and she told investigators the attacker that night was her own brother.
MESSI POWERS VICTIM'S FRIEND (voice-over): For her to be able to wake up and give a name, thank god. That's all I can say, thank god.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: This case is really about the perseverance, the toughness, and the strength of the victim.
CASAREZ (voice-over): From the beginning, Jackson County Sheriff's Department tells CNN that Palmer was so uncooperative, they couldn't take a brand-new mug shot of him. And he wouldn't sign the paperwork allowing for an attorney to represent him.
Now the question is, would he not cooperate or could he not cooperate because of medical condition that no one ever new existed?
His attorney and guardian ad litem, Ryan Ruth (ph), tells CNN that he will be looking into that. And also says that Palmer was in bad shape, nonresponsive and basically alive by the machine in the hospital.
Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Coming up, CNN travels to northern Greenland where there's enough ice melting right now to leave the entire state of West Virginia under a foot of water.
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[16:51:31]
ACOSTA: Imagine enough water to fill seven Olympic sized pools or picture West Virginia under a foot of water. That's how much ice has melted in northern Greenland just over the weekend during unusually warm temperatures that scientists fear will have a ripple effect around the world.
CNN's Rene Marsh reports from Greenland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Off the coast of Northwest Greenland, the water is perfectly still. But puddling on icebergs indicate a transformation is underway.
That's the sound of rapid melting, triggered by a few days of unusually warm temperatures. During CNN's first three days in northern Greenland, the temperature topped out nearly 10 degrees higher than normal.
(on camera): It's days like today warm enough to wear short sleeves, near 60 degrees in Greenland. It's a high melt day when it's this unusually warm. And it's also deeply concerning for scientists.
KUTALMIS SAYLAM, RESEARCH SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-AUSTIN: It definitely worries me. We are at 67 Latitude here on top of the world in North Pole. And we could just, yesterday especially, not today, but yesterday we could wander around in our T-shirts. That was not really expected.
ASLAK GRINSTED, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: It's basically at the melting point today. As you can see now we can make snowballs.
MARSH (voice-over): At a research site in northeast Greenland, near- melt conditions at an elevation of nearly 9,000 feet made what's usually a frozen landing strip inoperable.
GRINSTED: They have a problem when it's this soft as the surface is now.
MARSH: Climate scientist, Aslak Grinsted, tweeting, "Mini heatwave. Negative 1.6 degrees Celsius in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet. Our planned planes are postponed because our ski way is not that good when it is this warm."
Unable to fly out, the scientist pass the time playing volleyball in shorts atop the ice sheet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
MARSH: Pre-global warming, Grinsted says, temperatures near 32 degrees Fahrenheit at this altitude were unheard of.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center tells CNN, from July 15th through 17th alone, a melt surge in northern Greenland caused ice sheet runoff of about six billion tons of water per day.
That's about the volume of 2.4 million Olympic-sized pools. Put another way, enough water to flood the entire state of West Virginia with one foot of water in three days.
SAYLAM: The amount of melt from the iceberg was, to us, was very surprising because it was very warm day. You could even hear the iceberg just melting in front of our eyes.
MARSH: Research scientists tell CNN this extent of melt in North Greenland this past week is quite unusual and will contribute to global sea-level rise, which impacts coastal communities half a world away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Its land is like no other on earth, wild, isolated and unexplored. Now a brand-new CNN series is unlocking the wonders of Patagonia in South America.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: Now courtship can begin with the water dance.
(MUSIC) NARRATOR: The male makes the first move, the dunk.
(MUSIC)
[16:55:04]
NARRATOR: Step two, the synchronized head bob.
(MUSIC)
NARRATOR: Step three, head turns.
(MUSIC)
NARRATOR: The female ends the dance. He'll do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Beautiful stuff. Catch a brand-new episode of "PATAGONIA, LIFE ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD" tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on CNN.
And we're back in a moment.
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