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Biden WH Privately Expressing Deep Concern About Trump Mar-a- Lago Docs; World On Edge About Possible Attack On Ukraine Nuclear Plant; Drought Forces Massive Cuts In Water Consumption In Southwest U.S.; One-On-One With Bill Nye; Vanessa Bryant Testifies Crash Photos Caused Panic Attacks, Anxiety; Mexican Court Issues 83 Arrest Warrants In Disappearance Of 43 Students In 2014; Finnish Prime Minister Faces Backlash After Partying Videos Go Public. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 20, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[16:59:45]

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: And did you -- were you trying to do some kind of fusion? I mean not just to reach out but in general when you'd have some influence and then you'd try to meld it into -- with something you were doing?

BILLY JOEL, MUSIC LEGEND: Well, a lot of times I'm thinking of somebody else other than me singing what I'm writing because I don't like my own voice. I never did.

I liked to sound like somebody else, and I'm thinking of somebody else when I'm writing. I want to conjure up somebody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: It's going to be a fascinating discussion, "FAREED ZAKARIA SPECIAL: EXTRAORDINARY WITH BILLY JOEL" airs tonight at 9:00 right here on CNN.

And you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Right now fears of a possible disaster are growing at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The massive facility sits right on the front lines of Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war. The U.S. warning Russia has shown complete disregard for the security of Ukraine's nuclear power facility.

Officials in Kyiv say Russia is storing heavy weaponry inside the complex, and using it as a cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine cannot return fire.

Meantime, Moscow has claimed that Ukrainian troops are shelling the site, but new satellite photos we should note obtained by CNN suggest otherwise.

CNN's Sam Kiley has more on a potential diplomatic breakthrough in an attempt to avoid a nuclear disaster. Here's more from Sam.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, yes, it could be seen as some kind of diplomatic breakthrough that the Russian president has endorsed the idea that the International Atomic Energy Authority, the body responsible for invigilating, if you like, nuclear power stations around the world, should be allowed to go to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station and check it out, and perhaps install and reinstall the monitoring systems.

The fact of the matter is, though, that this is a repeated Russian offer and amidst a Russian rejection of the international community's demands that they demilitarize the nuclear power station and the town around it.

Now, the reason the international community wants to see that is that this has been the locus of fighting. It's effectively on the front line. We know for an absolute fact, Jim, that there are missiles being fired out of that location by the Russians.

The Russians claim that the Ukrainians are counter attacking. Ukrainians reject that out of hand. The Ukrainian position has a good deal of support from our own analysis of satellite imagery, which shows that there hasn't been any significant strikes of any size at any rate since July the 19th, more than a month back.

And now locals that we've spoken to who have recently escaped from the town next to the nuclear power station, they say that in their view, the Russians are conducting kind of false flag attacks. They say that there is a gap between when the Internet and mobile phone networks get turned off of about 30 minutes, and then they hear smaller impacts coming from mortars.

But since all of these shellings have increased over the last month, they say that the Russians are very rarely seen on the street and they seem to be concentrated in and around the nuclear power plant.

That is the testimony that we've had from Ukrainian eyewitnesses. We've got no independent corroboration of that. But in this wider context, of course, this is of deep concern to the international community because in the view of lately, the French President, Emmanuel Macron who rang Vladimir Putin in the last 36 hours asking him to dial down, to deescalate around that nuclear power station because if there were a significant accident, the words of the Turkish president, it could be another Chernobyl.

In the words of the U.N. Secretary general, it would be suicide. It would be suicide for the Russians because, of course, they've got no means of communicating some kind of -- or controlling some kind of meltdown in that environment.

But this is a clear indication of just how things are so (INAUDIBLE) here. So difficult to solve, right across the front lines whether it's nuclear weaponry or the much wider diplomatic issues, Jim.

ACOSTA: Thanks to Sam for that report.

And this just in, actor Gary Busey is facing sex offense charges. Cherry Hill, New Jersey police say officers responded at the site of the Monster Mania convention last weekend for a report of a sex offense, as a result, of that investigation police filed charges against Busey including two counts of criminal sexual contact. They say the investigation is ongoing. We'll follow the developments in that case.

Here in Washington, there is deep concern growing within the Biden White House about the classified documents found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. That's despite the administration publicly maintaining their distance from the investigation. Current intelligence officials are also worried, a source telling CNN that people within the intelligence community have talked with the Justice Department, Congressional Intelligence Committees and the National Archives in recent months about potentially missing sensitive documents.

[17:04:50]

ACOSTA: CNN's Arlette Saenz is following this from the White House in Wilmington, Delaware. Arlette, what more are you learning about how the Biden administration is viewing this investigation into Trump?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the White House has largely refrained from commenting on that FBI search of the Mar-a-Lago estate, but trying to keep some distance from the Justice Department's probe.

But privately, officials are expressing concern about the former President Donald Trump

taking some of these classified documents to his Florida home. And that includes what are implications this might have for the intelligence community.

Now, the White House does not know exactly what material was taken by the president, but there are concerns that sources and methods that the intelligence community uses to collect information could be at risk. Many of the types of materials that were taken were classified, top secret, needing to be viewed in highly secured settings.

But instead, they were down in Mar-a-Lago in various places including a basement level storage facility. Now, the intelligence community has also expressed some concerns about what exactly the former president has taken. As you mentioned, there's been some discussions about possibly missing sensitive documents.

There are also some diplomatic implications and concerns of whether there might be any tension that arises with allies about some of those documents that the former president might have taken with him.

We know from reporting that some of the documents that the FBI found including information on French President Emmanuel Macron. Now, the White House has really taken great lengths to try to keep themselves and adapt to this very tight-lipped strategy when it comes to that FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. The White House has said that President Biden has not been briefed on the probe, and they don't know exactly what materials were seized during that search. But they still are -- even as they're not saying anything publicly, privately they are voicing deep concern about those classified documents. ACOSTA: All right. Arlette Saenz, thank you very much. I'm joined now

by two former staffers from the Trump administration -- high level staffers. former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. She's the author of "I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw At The Trump White House". also with us Olivia Troye, former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence.

And Olivia, I know you were in the national security realm working with the vice president at the time. And we don't know what's in those top secret documents from Mar-a-Lago. And we also don't know, we don't have an answer to the question why Trump took them to Mar-a-Lago. We still don't have an answer to that question, despite everything that he said since that search took place.

But what do you make of people expressing these private concerns inside the Biden White House about these documents? I suppose it goes without saying that they would be concerned about this?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO MIKE PENCE: They should be concerned. I think anyone who cares about our national security and intelligence community should be gravely concerned about the fact that these documents have been missing and were not properly stored.

I think, you know, I think what you're seeing here is the community wondering what exactly is at risk. And our sources and methods, have they been compromised and what do they need to be doing to protect the rest of the intelligence enterprise as well as intelligence officers and military officers who potentially are deployed overseas and running operations on the ground.

And look, if you're a foreign partner who sometimes shares intelligence with the United States, given the fact that, you know, Donald Trump was pretty much exhibited bedfellows behavior towards some of our foreign adversaries at times, if you're an international partner, you know, they should be concerned as well. I'm sure that they're watching this wondering what does this mean for them in terms of compromising their intelligence and their defense posture in conjunction with ours.

ACOSTA: Right.

And Stephanie, you know Mar-a-Lago well. You spent time there when you worked with Donald Trump as president. and his allies -- he and his allies claimed that he had a standing order to declassify any sensitive materials that he wanted to bring home, bring down to Mar-a- Lago.

Was this ever a topic of discussion when you were the White House press secretary that there might be concerns about Trump bringing, you know, top secret classified documents down to Mar-a-Lago or mishandling them in some way at the property?

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was never discussed. I've talked about this before a little bit. We didn't exactly have a culture of compliance at the White House when it came to how we handled things, and I think that came straight from the top as we're certainly learning now. But you know, he did things all the time that made people kind of shake their heads and have to scramble later.

There was never a standing order. I was never -- I never heard of a standing order. I was never told when I became press secretary and director of communications and got my briefings. that was never something in a briefing that I received.

[17:09:42]

GRISHAM: So as usual, this is them trying to throw some, you know, anything at the wall to see what will stick and distract people from the fact that he potentially broke the law and potentially put the country and, as Olivia was saying, our intelligence community, potential foreign intelligence sources, potentially in danger, and that's very, very serious.

ACOSTA: And Stephanie, just a follow-up to that, I mean, given what you know about Mar-a-Lago, is that a place to take top secret classified documents and store them, do you think?

GRISHAM: Absolutely not. Mar-a-Lago when we were down there despite it being called the winter White House, it was a Membership club first and foremost. Members could bring guests. There was very little vetting.

I know that the president's current lawyers are saying it's this very secure property, but that's just not true. A teenager got on property once just to see if he could do it. Of course we had that Chinese national who got on property one time.

You go down to that beach area and anybody can access Mar-a-Lago from the beach. There is Secret Service there, but they're just looking for weapons. They're not checking IDs, they're not seeing who's coming. So Mar-a-Lago is honestly probably one of the worst places I can imagine it being of all the Trump properties.

ACOSTA: And Olivia, you were one of some 18 officials, former Trump administration officials contacted by CNN who, you know, described this standing order excuse coming from Trump world as ludicrous. Why did you say that? What were your thoughts there?

TROYE: Well, I feel like as someone who worked on counterterrorism issues globally and homeland security, I would have probably been briefed about this blanket authority that existed. I think Mike Pence would have been aware of it, and the national security advisers would have heard about this, but thus far, you know, if that's the case, then release the paperwork.

There's got to be a paper trail here because it doesn't just kind of happen overnight. You don't just wave a wand and say boom, you know, miracle -- it's declassified.

It's a long process here that would involve the White House counsel. It would involve the intelligence community, the Director of National Intelligence, and there would be a paper trail like I said. And it would also, you know, these documents would also be stamped. There should be some sort of notice on them that says declassified on so and so date by President Donald Trump at the time or whatever, you know, sort of emblem that should be on there that specifically states this.

And so it's a -- you know, fine, let's go down that route and we'll see if those documents surface along the way. But thus far, those of us who served in national security, especially in the Trump White House have not heard of any such thing.

ACOSTA: Right. And Stephanie, the cover sheet of the Mar-a-Lago warrant application was unsealed, and one of the potential crimes mentioned is willful retention of national defense information.

This comes back to the central question why? Why would he go through all this hassle to keep these boxes? I spoke with former Trump fixer Michael Cohen earlier today, and here's his theory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP SPECIAL COUNSEL: I believe Donald was going to use it as a get out of jail free card. I think he was going to look to ultimately extort America in order to prevent them from incarcerating him or at least indicting him.

You put me in handcuffs, this goes out to China, North Korea. It goes out to Russia. Would he use information to blackmail the country in order to keep him free? Absolutely 100 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I mean, Stephanie, you know how Donald Trump thinks. What do you think about that?

GRISHAM: So that's chilling to hear. You know, and I would say if anybody knows Donald Trump better than I do, it would be Michael Cohen. I think that that's certainly a possibility. I think that there were -- maybe the possibility to profit off of some of the information that was taken. I mean, we don't know.

Only Donald Trump knows. Hopefully it will come out. But there was -- there would be no need to take a lot of what is being reported right now, you know, national defense documents. So there had to be something behind that. These are not just mementos of his love letters with KJU or Putin, et cetera. We'll have to find out.

ACOSTA: And Olivia, prosecutors told the court that before the search they were concerned evidence might be destroyed. All those discussions we've had on the show about Trump and his habit of improperly disposing White House documents, flushing them, you know, it runs the gamut. All of that seems pretty relevant now.

TROYE: It does, and this is a pattern of behavior that we've seen with Donald Trump when it comes to obstructing things and destroying documents and evidence. And you know, the investigation will play out as it should, but we've also seen before the January 6th select committee what the circle has been capable of in terms of the intimidation of witnesses, the bullying, and so there should be concern on how their behavior would impact and be obstructionary (ph) in terms of an in terms of an investigation and what they would do prior if they got knowledge of that. Same concerns for the people whose names may be potential witnesses and protecting their lives because we've seen what these people are capable of.

They don't care. They think they're above the law. They don't follow the law at all.

[17:14:46]

ACOSTA: Indeed, you're right. All right. Olivia, Stephanie, and I know both of you, you deal with an onslaught of all sorts of nasty comments when you speak out publicly about what you saw inside the administration and when you talk about your thoughts about what's happening now.

So once again, if we don't say it enough, thank you for coming on and speaking with us. We appreciate it.

TROYE: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, the water woes out west. Unprecedented restrictions set to go into effect as a key water source drops dangerously low.

We'll talk about it with someone you know well -- Bill Nye the Science Guy. There he is right there. He's just a fountain of knowledge, and we're going to tap into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: In the western U.S. right now, there's just not enough water to go around. Severe drought and overuse has all but dried up the Colorado River and emptied the country's biggest reservoirs. It's forced the federal government to set in motion mandatory water cuts.

But experts say this drastic step won't be enough to tackle the ongoing mega drought, which is made even worse by the climate crisis.

CNN's Bill Weir reports from Lake Mead.

[17:19:55]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting. That supposed Mark Twain quote, has been a Western Slogan since the first settlers.

But now the worst drought in 1,200 years has water managers in seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico fighting over every precious drop. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But to date the states collectively have not

identified and adopted specific actions of sufficient magnitude that would stabilize the system.

That was the commissioner in charge of dams and reservoirs admitting that upper and lower basin states have failed to agree on ways to cut their water use by up to 25 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think ultimately the states are going to realize they're playing Russian roulette, and they're going to have to come to their senses.

WEIR: For almost 30 years, Pat Mulroy was in charge of southern Nevada's water and led an aggressive conservation campaign to tear up lawns, reuse wastewater and scold water wasters.

PAT MULROY, FORMER COMMISSIONER, SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY: Can't water in the middle of the day, ma'am, you'll be fined if you don't change your watering clock.

WEIR: All measures she'd like to see happen downstream.

I think they're kind of kicking the can down the road past the election. If you want me to be very frank about it. I don't think anybody wants to make great public announcements about measures they may have to take prior to the election.

WEIR: Rather than enforce new action, the Feds will let the states keep talking while the next round of automatic cuts will lower water delivery by seven percent to Mexico, 8 percent to Nevada and 21 percent to Arizona.

You can hear this crunching. It's just starting to dry up.

WEIR: Here alfalfa farmers are already being paid to let their fields go fallow, while some are switching to crops like wayuli (ph), a rubber plant that grows in the desert.

Crop switching, looking at lower water use crops is one of the solutions we need to be looking at in a drier future to allow communities to sustain themselves.

WEIR: Reporter: thanks to some creative water accounting, California will not face mandatory cuts next year but their governor is already warning of a future with a lot more people and a lot less water.

The science and the data leads us to now understand that we will lose 10 percent of our water supply by 2040, if all things are equal, we will lose an additional 10 percent of our supply by 2040.

We have the very real possibility this coming year if we have another lousy winter, all things being equal, that we will drive this lake down to elevation 1,000. That is 100 feet above dead pool, and you're at the bottom of the martini glass. So it doesn't take much to tip that over and get to the point where nothing can go downstream. And if you don't take it seriously now, if you think that you're going to avoid this, do a rain dance, go pray, do whatever that we have a great winter, you're insane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: She's right it's a very distressing situation.

Joining me now to talk about this Bill Nye the Science Guy. He's host and executive producer of "The End Is Nye" premiering this Thursday on Peacocks. He's also the author of Bill Nye's "Great Big World Of Science.

Let's just start with the mega drought out west. 40 million people relying on the Colorado River, Arizona and Nevada having to pull back their water usage. I mean, have we seen anything like this in some time? Does this stand out to you to be an abnormal situation?

Well, it's abnormal in a sense, but it's also consistent with climate models. This is what -- and the word model, software, computer programs that meteorologists and climate scientists have written to predict the future and this is exactly what everybody's been talking about for decades for pick a number, 30 years.

So it's happening, but I'll tell you just anecdotally, if the challenge is to reduce water use by 25 percent, that is probably achievable. It's reducing it by 50 percent or 80 percent that will be really hard. and so let's see what -- let's see what happens. The whole thing is, everybody, the big message is we are in charge. Humans are running the planet now. This was not something that human kind ever intended probably, but here we are by having water management practices in place, we can keep -- we can avoid a catastrophe.

ACOSTA: Right, and we can't wait for the next generation to fix it. We have to start -- we have to fix it now.

And Bill, the New York Times" is reporting that President Biden is planning a series of executive actions to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What do you think those should focus on?

[17:24:53]]

BILL NYE, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, THE END IS NYE: Well, greenhouse gas emissions are part of the problem, and I say this all the time. We have to work -- we have to work everything all at once. It's not a question of just reducing our gas of reducing greenhouse gases so we don't cause any more warming than is already in the system. By the system, I mean the atmosphere and ocean.

And we have to hook them up with new crops that need less water. We have to change the way we use our water domestically individual like myself in the Los Angeles neighborhood. We have to change the way we allocate water legally, who's allowed to use them, what farmers are allowed to use it when.

We have to do all these things, and we need to provide more electricity to more people as the world's population continues to increase.

Should we run in circles screaming? No, we should get to work, and I claim and I've said this for a long time, Jim. The United States has to be in the lead. The United States has for decades, centuries been the world's innovator, so let's solve this problem. Let's do this, everybody.

ACOSTA: Yes. And you know, this is something we talk about a lot on CNN, what's happening with glaciers and the melting of the largest ice sheet that we see right now melting and crumbling faster than scientists first thought.

What do you say as a scientist, are you hopeful that we can make a big enough impact when you see the ice sheet crumbling the way it is right now?

NYE: Yes, we can do this. Now, look, everybody, a couple of things. I am a science educator. I'm a chemical (ph) engineer. I made a living off classical physics, so what's happening with the ice sheet is physics. As the world gets warmer, the ice sheet starts to slide. As it starts to slide, it scrapes the rock it's bearing on, it slides faster and faster.

Then furthermore as the fresh water melts on the surface and flows into the glacier, the gaps or the holes that are created get bigger faster because even though it's cold, the liquid water is warmer than the ice, so it carries heat away, transmits heat to the ice and carries water away. So it's going to be bad, everybody. The ice sheet's going to fall off of Greenland, big pieces of it. I've been to the east Greenland ice core research project. I've seen big slabs that might fall off the glacier. It's amazing.

So what we have to do is prepare for this. We have to accept that it's happening and prepare for this and then take steps to slow it down as fast as we can. It's easy for me to say, but I just want to disabuse everyone.

It's a fine thing not to print emails, just to only use electronic emails. That's good. Don't wastewater. Wash your dishes. Fill your dishwasher and wash all your dishes at once using the efficient dishwasher than hand bar. Ok. That's all good.

But we need big ideas. We need electrical transmission, electrical generation, and electrical storage, and for this it's going to require investments.

And so -- and you wrote a book about this, but having half of our lawmakers not on board with what's happening around us is frustrating, but now with this drought it's happening in the west where the -- where many conservative lawmakers get their votes, so I am --

ACOSTA: They're paying attention.

NYE: -- optimistic about the future, but it's going to be a near run thing. ACOSTA: Yes. And you were just mentioning we need to make some

technological advances, and there's no question about it. That leads me to something I wanted to you ask about, it seems exciting, lots of money being invested in this and getting so-called flying taxis off the ground, which would cut down on emissions I would assume.

What do you think of this idea, you know, forgive the science fiction dork in me who wants to see the age of flying cars finally come, but the Jetsons and so on, can that get us through some of what you're talking about in cutting down on emissions and being more efficient?

NYE: Well, what it is, everybody, it's another electric vehicle. So electric vehicles do not solve your problem, but they have this wonderful quality that they don't know where the electricity is coming from.

It could be from conventional coal fired plant, gas fired plant, it could be from a fusion plant of the future.

And the more efficient we make our vehicles, the more efficient our transportation becomes, and the less greenhouse gases and so on we put in the atmosphere.

It is science fiction to be sure, but this vehicle is fabulous. It relies on a couple of just remarkable things. The energy storage batteries were not available 20 years ago.

[17:30:00]

The technology is advanced. People have been working on it.

The materials that the vehicle, the plane, is made of are so much lighter weight than conventional airplane materials, aluminum.

And the other thing is the computer systems that used to keep these aircraft stable. You know, stability and control. That's my whole biz at Boeing.

ACOSTA: Yes.

NYE: Just to get the stability and control when you got six electric motors running in vertical and horizontal mode. Not trivial.

But it's happening, and so I am hopeful about the future.

But I say this all the time. If you think you're going to lose the game, if you're pessimistic about winning a game, a board game, a sports game, you'll lose.

But if you're optimistic, if you think you have a chance, then you'll get something done. So let's go, people. Come on.

ACOSTA: I like the attitude, positive mental attitude, and let's innovate our way out of this. It is possible. We've done it before in other challenges, and we can do it again.

Bill Nye, thanks so much for joining us. It's always great to speak with you. We appreciate it so much.

And I always learn something when I listen to Bill Nye. I hope everybody else does.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: And don't forget to check out the new show on peacock this , "The End is Nye."

Thanks, Bill.

NYE: Thank you.

Vote, everybody.

And thank you very much.

ACOSTA: All right, appreciate it. Good message there.

Coming up, inside the emotional testimony from Vanessa Bryant as she sues over leaked photos of her husband's helicopter crash. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:56]

ACOSTA: An emotional Vanessa Bryant took the stand in a Los Angeles courtroom yesterday in a federal civil trial over leaked photos of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and their daughter along with seven others.

Bryant broke down in tears as she described the panic attacks and anxiety she feels over the possibility that the photos could one day surface online.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles for us with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We heard tearful testimony from Vanessa Bryant on Friday as she told heartbreaking stories of new panic attacks she's never had before.

But that she started experiencing that after she found out through an "L.A. Times" article about a month after the crash that L.A. County sheriff's deputies and county firefighters had taken and shared close- up images of her loved ones remains from the crash site.

She talked about the moment she found out about that, how she was with family and had to run out of the house so that her daughters would not see her fall apart.

She said that she felt in that moment like running and screaming and jumping into the ocean but, quote, "I can't escape my body. I can't escape what I feel."

She also talked about disturbing messages she would get from strangers online. One of them was even shown to us in the courtroom, a direct message on Instagram from someone using helicopter and flame emojis and threatening to leak the images of Kobe's body.

Vanessa Bryant is a co-plaintiff in this case. She's been sitting next to Chris Chester, who also lost his wife and daughter in the same crash.

Both of them have described this fear and anxiety that these photos could someday surface and that it's a feeling on top of the grief that they already felt from losing family members.

The county and defense has emphasized that neither of them have ever seen any of these photos surface on the Internet.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva was on the stand in the afternoon. He stated that his highest priority was to stop these photos from getting out. In other words, to not let the horses out of the barn.

And so he asked the deputies to delete the photos in question instead of waiting for a formal proper investigation to go through.

Now, the plaintiffs' attorneys asked him, does he know for a fact that they were all deleted? And he said, I believe that they were deleted. When further pushed on that, he said, quote, "Well, god knows, and that's about it."

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Natasha Chen, thanks very much.

Coming up, a nearly decade-old crime in Mexico back in the spotlight. What a new report reveals about the violent abduction of dozens of students.

And join Dana Bash as she goes inside the fight against the world's oldest prejudice. This new CNN special report, "RISING HATE: ANTI- SEMITISM IN AMERICA," begins tomorrow at 9:00 p.m.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:42:50]

ACOSTA: At least 20 people are dead after gunmen attacked an upscale hotel in the Somali capital of Mogadishu last night. Authorities say the gunmen stormed the hotel after setting off car bombs.

The hotel's popular with lawmakers and government officials. The al Qaeda-linked terrorist group, al Shabaab, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A court in Mexico is issuing arrest warrants for 83 people in connection with the disappearance of dozens of students eight years ago. Members of Mexico's military, judicial authorities and police officers are among those implicated.

This comes after Mexico's former attorney general was arrested in relation to the mass kidnapping that has been under investigation for years now.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins us now.

Rafael, I mean, this has been a mystery for a very long time, and it sounds like there might be some movement in this case. What are you learning?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's right, Jim. The report released by Mexico's Truth Commission is full of new details that give us a better idea about what happened in the hours before those 43 students from a rural teacher's college went missing in 2014.

Among other damning conclusions, the report says that Mexican security forces followed the students and knew at all times where they were and what they were up to and didn't move a finger when they were attacked.

But the report, Jim, doesn't answer a question that the parents of the missing have been asking for years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ROMO (voice-over) Where are our children? The question has been asked thousands of times, but the answer remains elusive.

For last eight years, the parents of 43 missing college students have been asking the same question.

(MUSIC)

ROMO: They have marched around Mexico.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMO: They have met with top Mexican government officials.

(CHANTING)

ROMO: Even with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who welcomed them at Mexico's national palace, the presidential mansion.

At one point, they even commandeered toll plazas in a desperate effort to remind a forgetting nation that their children were still missing.

[17:44:56]

It's been almost eight years since 43 students from a rural teacher's college in the southern Mexico state went missing and the whereabouts of most of them remains a mystery, except three who were confirmed dead after small bone fragments were identified thanks to DNA testing.

ALEJANDRO ENCINAS, MEXICO'S UNDERSECRETARY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ROMO: A report unveiled by Mexico's undersecretary for human rights, Alejandro Encinas, who led a Truth Commission on the case, provided more details but no definitive answer.

He said the disappearance constitutes a crime of the state in which members of a criminal gang and Mexican security forces were involved and complicit.

ENCINAS: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ROMO: Encinas said that the disappearance constitutes a crime of the state in which members of a criminal gang and Mexican security forces were involved and complicit.

He also said federal authorities at the highest level looked the other way and were negligent, even when they had knowledge of what was happening.

Yet, no answer for the only question that matters for the parents. Where are our children?

Through a human rights group, the parents only said that they have decided to deeply analyze the commission's report before making their reaction public.

A month after the students went missing, Emiliano Navarrete told us his son called him the night he disappeared to let him know the students were being shot at by police.

By the time we met him again a year later, the government's version that the students were killed and their bodies burnt in a landfill had been discredited by an independent group of forensic experts.

When we met again, he was still clinging to the hope of finding his son alive.

EMILIANO NAVARRETE, FATHER OF MISSING STUDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ROMO: "Believe me, I will bring him back," he said.

Other parents have told us over the years that they aren't even hoping for justice to be done anymore.

A parent once told me, we just want to be able to give our children a proper burial.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMO: And, Jim, there's a new bombshell in the case, what we were talking about at the beginning. Late last night, the court in the state of Mexico issued arrest

warrants for 83 people in connection with the disappearance of the students, including, listen to this, 20 military officers and soldiers stationed in the city where the students went missing.

The list also includes more than 40 local and state police officers as well as 14 alleged members of a local criminal gang.

But really, it breaks your heart, Jim, when you think about what these parents have been going through for the last almost eight years.

Back to you.

ACOSTA: Yes, Rafael, I mean, this has been a case -- it's just been a heartbreaking case for those families all of that time. They haven't been able to get very more answers from the Mexican government.

Is there a sense in Mexico that this is finally moving in the direction of being solved?

ROMO: There's a lot of movement with the new report, Jim. But one has to wonder whether this is more of a political move.

Because, remember, the case has spanned over two different administrations. And so the current administration is arresting officers and officials from the previous administration.

And it remains to be seen if this is real progress in the investigation, if we're closer to the truth, or only some sort of political move for the current government to look better than it actually does.

ACOSTA: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you very much. We know you'll stay on top of it. We appreciate it very much.

Coming up, the world leader facing backlash after videos of her partying with friends goes viral. Perhaps you've seen this. We'll dig into that next.

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[17:52:59]

ACOSTA: Finland's prime minister is defending herself this weekend after a video leaked online and went viral that shows her dancing and partying at a private gathering.

CNN's Melissa Bell has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A private video leaked to the public from a night of singing and dancing is causing quite a headache for Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin.

Video of the 36-year-old leader of the country's governing Social Democratic Party shows her and friends that she describes partying in a boisterous way inside a private home.

But that's where the fun stops. The videos caused a political backlash with some opponents calling the behavior unbecoming of a world leader. And some M.P.s, including members of her own coalition, demanding that she take a drug test, which she did on Friday.

SANNA MARIN, FINNISH PRIME MINISTER (through translation): I consider these accusations to be very serious. And though I consider the demand for a drug test unjust, for my own legal protection and to clear up any doubts, I have taken a drug test, the results of which will come in about a week.

BELL: Marin said she's appalled that the videos were leaked as they were filmed in a private setting.

She says alcohol was consumed at the party but she was not aware of any drug usage. And at no time did the night out affect her work or her ability to perform her official duties.

MARIN: I didn't have any work meetings planned for that weekend. They are confirmed usually beforehand. And I didn't have any meetings. For example, Saturday or Sunday.

I had work meetings on Monday, but I, of course, handled -- we didn't have any government meetings during that week and I had time off and spend it with my friends and did nothing illegal.

BELL: As one of the world's youngest serving prime ministers, Marin's supporters say she's being targeted because of her age and gender.

[17:55:02]

Her private life was previously under the spotlight last year when a photo surfaced of her in a nightclub after the Finnish minister tested positive for COVID-19.

Melissa Bell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And I don't think she's finished having a good time.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Phil Mattingly takes over CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

Have a good night, everybody.

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