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Daughter of Putin Ally Killed in Car Bomb; Sen. Lindsey Graham Gets a Pause to Testify Before a Grand Jury; Biden Administration's Recent Gains and its Impact on the Midterms; Asylum Seekers Arrive in New York from Texas; Indiana Governor Visits Taiwan; Legal Battle Over Abortion Rights Ignites in the U.S. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 22, 2022 - 02:00   ET

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

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead, murder investigation in Moscow after a car bomb killed the daughter of the Russian president's spiritual guide to the Ukraine invasion.

From Mar-a-Lago documents to find me votes in Georgia to the January 6 and his family business dealings. What a new poll shows about Americas tolerance of all of these Trump's investigations.

Plus, abortion bans set to go into effect in three more U.S. states this week. We will tell you which ones they are and how activists are preparing to fight back.

Thanks for joining us. A murder investigation is underway in Russia. ater a car bomb near Moscow killed the daughter of a prominent supporter of President Vladimir Putin. Daria Dugina died Saturday night after the vehicle she was driving exploded.

According to the Russian news agency "TASS" the investigation has revealed that 400 grams of TNT was used. The Russian investigative committee says it believes someone ordered and planned the blast. Dugina is the daughter of Alexander Dugin who has been called the spiritual guide to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A Russian foreign ministry official has implied Ukraine maybe responsible, but Ukraine is strongly denying that claim. CNN's Scott McLean joins me now from London. So, Scott, what more are you learning about this story?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, look, given the purported influence of Alexander Dugin and also his daughter, Darya Dugina, there is going to be enormous interest in getting to the bottom of who exactly planted this bomb which detonated on Saturday evening. You mentioned the investigators, this is according to Russian media citing the investigator, said that that bomb was planted on the driver's side underneath of the Toyota Land Cruiser when it went off. They are also saying that there were some 400 grams of TNT inside of

that explosive device. Now, the reason that Darya Dugina was outside of Moscow to begin with is because she was attending a festival called "Traditions" which sort of has discussions around cultural trends, things like that.

And so, this is about 50 kilometers or so west of Moscow. So, she had been in a small village, about two or three kilometers away is sort of the main highway that she would have gotten on to go to Moscow. And that, according to a family friend, is when that bomb actually detonated.

To be clear, there are no indications at this point as to who or what may have been responsible, but the blame game started pretty early on. The first came from the head of the Donetsk People's Republic who blamed terrorists of the Ukrainian regime with no evidence.

That claim was then repeated by the Russian foreign ministry spokesperson as you mentioned who said, "If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed and this version was voiced by the head of the DPR and it must be verified by the competent authorities, then we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the Kyiv regime. There have been plenty of facts accumulated over the years. From political calls for violence, to the leadership and participation of Ukrainian state structures in crimes."

Now, the response from Ukraine was also quite swift. It came from Mykhailo Podoliak speaking to Ukrainian journalists in an interview. He's an adviser to the Ukrainian president. He said, quote, "Ukraine definitely has nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, which the Russian federation is. And even more so, we are not a terrorist state."

Now that term, terrorist state is something that has been leveled at the Russian government repeatedly by the Ukrainians especially after, you know, civilian targets have been hit repeatedly over the course of this war. The Russians obviously trying to repurpose it to describe the Ukrainians as well.

Now, the Ukrainian denial though does stand out because when there have been explosions or strikes on Russian territory, typically military installations, the Ukrainians have not claimed responsibility. They haven't even acknowledged that these strikes actually took place.

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But in this case, the response was quite swift. As for who may have been the culprit, obviously the list of possibilities is a mile long. And U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was asked about this just yesterday and he said that, look, there are so many factions, so many groups within Russia that could have been responsible that anything is possible.

And he said that he hopes that this was in fact a Russian internal affair and he hopes that this was nothing emanating from Ukraine. And he hopes that their representations have been correct. One other thing to mention, Rosemary, and this could be total coincidence, but it's worth mentioning, is that this explosion happens to take place two years to the day of the poisoning of prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

CHURCH: That is interesting. Scott McLean joining us from London, bringing us the very latest on this story. We appreciate it.

Well, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. are once again calling for an end to fighting around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In a phone call on Sunday, they also urged a visit by the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog as soon as possible. The area around the plant has been the sight of repeated shelling in recent weeks raising fears of a nuclear disaster.

Well, a U.S. federal appeals court says Senator Lindsey Graham does not have to testify for now, before a grand jury investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Graham's attorneys say he called Georgia election officials as part of his duties as the then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and was only to discuss the process of counting absentee ballots. Graham is among a handful of key Trump allies the grand jury has subpoenaed.

Meantime, a vocal Republican critic of Donald Trump says she has no regrets sacrificing her political career to defend democracy against the former president. U.S. Representative Liz Cheney is just days removed from a crushing defeat in her reelection bid in Wyoming.

She became a top target of Trump and his supporters after voting for his impeachment, and now serving as the Vice Chair of the January 6th Committee. Cheney told ABC News her greater concern is the direction of the Republican Party.

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REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): No regrets. You know, I feel sad about where my party is. I feel sad about the way that too many of my colleagues have responded to what I think is a great moral test and challenge of our time. A great moment to determine whether or not people are going to stand up on behalf of the democracy and on behalf of our republic.

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CHURCH: Cheney went on to say she is now focused on keeping Donald Trump out of the White House.

Meanwhile, a majority of U.S. voters say the various ongoing investigations into alleged wrongdoing by Donald Trump should continue. According to a new NBC poll nearly six in 10 voters back the investigations. This poll was conducted following the FBI's search of Trump's Florida home.

Joining me now is Jessica Levinson. She is a professor of law at Loyola University and the host of the podcast "Passing Judgment." Always good to have you with us.

JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR OF LAW, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: Good to be here.

CHURCH: So that NBC News poll we just mentioned found 57 percent of registered voters want investigations into former President Trump to continue compared to 40 percent who do not. And one of those investigations is the Georgia election meddling probe. But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who was set to testify this week in relation to that investigation was granted a temporary reprieve by an appeals court Sunday. So, what could this mean potentially?

LEVINSON: A delay of potentially months at least for Senator Graham's testimony. It's interesting, when people ask me where do I think the former president could have the most immediate legal exposure, meaning when could he be indicted the soonest when it comes to all of these investigations. I've always pointed to Georgia because in that case we have a phone call, we have evidence, we have witnessed testimony.

And it's pretty clear I think to all of us when we hear that phone call where he says just find me almost 12,000 votes, what he's asking for. Now, Lindsey Graham was part of that story and what he has said is, I don't have to testify. I have total immunity from a subpoena because of the speech and debate clause, which basically protects sitting lawmakers from being subjected to subpoenas for issues that fall within their legislative duties.

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This has gone kind of up and down above, excuse me -- up and down between the trial court and the Court of Appeals. But what the Court of Appeals said is go back to the trial court and try and figure out if some of this information is covered by the speech and debate clause and some of it is not. The bottom line here is it's not great for the investigation because this could take as I said, months.

CHURCH: Right. And top Republicans are demanding the release of the affidavit that authorized the recent search of Donald Trump's Mar-a- Lago home, but it will need to be redacted before it's released. And the Department of Justice is preparing for the hearing with a Florida magistrate this week on what can and can't go public. What will they likely decide and if it's too heavily redacted, could that run the risk of fueling more conspiracy theories?

LEVINSON: Well, I think there are going to be conspiracy theories unfortunately, either way, but yes. If we see just enough information so that basically everything is open to interpretation, it could absolutely lead to even more disinformation.

Now, what's interesting is as you mentioned, a lot of Republicans are calling for the release of the affidavit, but the former president, while he's called for the release outside of court, he did not join the media organizations in saying let's release this affidavit.

So, it does matter what you say out of court as opposed to in court. In terms of what the judge is going to look at here, the Department of Justice has been asked to go basically go line by line, anything they need to redact, explain why to the judge. The judge will then determine, okay, it is within a national security interest or, yes, this is legitimate to protect witnesses or to protect a roadmap for the investigation.

At that point, it's probably not over. This is an order that can be appealed to the chief judge in that district. And so, it could take a while before we have an answer on what's redacted and what isn't. And frankly, if we see anything other than the words and, the, and or.

CHURCH: Yes. Indeed. And while all of this is happening, Donald Trump is struggling to retain and hire top tier lawyers. What is the significance of this?

LEVINSON: So, I think that a lot of people in the Republican establishment and in the legal establishment have seen that there are serious -- this is going to be an understatement, but client control issues when it comes to the former president. Now, I think he will retain counsel, but let's remember that counsel also has official duties so that they can't misrepresent to the court.

And they have to only say basically what's true. They can't make things up. And that's part of the reason why particularly when you and I talked about the post-election litigation, I said focus on with the former president and his representatives say outside of court versus what they say in court under oath. I think people will look at the former president as a potential client and again, they see some serious client control issues there.

CHURCH: And while Republicans are doubling down on conspiracy theories, the Democrats are racking up some legislative and policy wins as fuel prices drop and employment numbers strengthen. But Joe Biden's approval rating is still low, around 42 percent or so. So, what might this mean for the midterm elections do you think?

LEVINSON: So, we're having this conversation in August. I think the answer is, if the midterms were held right now then Joe Biden doesn't have particularly big coattails. There is still about three months. And I think the last two things you mentioned are probably the most significant. It's the economy, right? It's fuel prices.

It's not really fair because presidents don't control the economy. There are so many factors that go into this. But I think if people are paying less at the gas pump, less at the grocery store, less for all of their basic goods and services, that's going to be better for the party in power, which are the Democrats. If there is some major bombshell when it comes to the January 6th Committee, I don't actually know if that moves the needle that much. I think that's where we are in American politics today.

CHURCH: Alright. Jessica Levinson, always great to get your analysis. Many thanks.

LEVINSON: Thank you.

CHURCH: And those recent legislative winds we mentioned for the Biden administration covered a number of issues, from climate change to a major expansion of veteran benefits. And while inflation remains high, gas prices have now dipped to a national average of $3.90. That's 50 cents less than one month ago. Jobless claims, also fell slightly last week and appear to have

settled around the 250,000 mark. Despite that, a new NBC News poll shows 68 percent of voters think the U.S. is in an economic recession. One White House economic adviser is looking to ease those concerns.

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JARED BERNSTEIN, MEMBER, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISER: I think one of the things that we continuously need to do, whether it's the Inflation Reduction Act, whether it's our work in the ports, whether it's the strongest labor market in generation, is to make sure that the American people know just how hard we're working for them to achieve the kind of results that we began to see, begun, you know, a little bit of a crack of light of there, no victory laps, begun to see in the last week or so.

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CHURCH: And this week, we will be getting the second quarter GDP revision and reports on new home sales and weekly jobless claims.

At least 140 asylum seekers reached New York City early Sunday in what officials are calling the largest single day arrival of migrants from Texas to date. Three buses carried individuals and families with children on a roughly 1,700 mile trip.

Asylum seekers were met by representatives from city agencies and volunteers hoping to help. They had access to medical and legal help, along with transportation. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has now sent thousands of migrants to cities like Washington D.C. and New York in a fight with the Biden ministration over immigration policies. Republicans have defended Abbot's tactics.

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CHAD WOLF, FORMER ACTING U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: You talk about four or five or maybe even 6,000 migrants that are going to New York City and Washington, D.C. That's what comes across the border in a single day. Not only in Texas, but obviously also in Arizona and elsewhere.

And so, I think what you're saying is we need the federal government to step up and clearly his calls for it, his pleas with the federal government are not working.

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): What he's doing is he's sending a message, that there is no secret there, right? This isn't a policy move. This is a move of desperation to get someone to pay attention to what we're dealing with in Texas.

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CHURCH: New York City Mayor Eric Adams and others have accused Texas of forcing migrants onto buses and not coordinating with the city on the transfer of people.

Well, still to come, a U.S. governor is leading a delegation to Taiwan and the third visit by American lawmakers to the island this month. We will have the latest in a live report.

Plus, why some of Taiwan's farmers feel they are caught in the middle of diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington. The story after the break.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, emergency crews in Somalia are sifting through the rubble of what was once an upscale hotel. They are searching for any remaining explosives after security forces ended a 30-hour standoff with Al-Shabaab militants on Sunday.

At least 21 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the Hyatt Hotel attack. The siege was the biggest in Mogadishu since Somalia's new president was elected earlier this year.

Taiwan is now hosting a third delegation of U.S. lawmakers in less than a month. This time it's a group led by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. And they are on an economic development trip to the region that will also take them to South Korea. Holcomb also met with Taiwan's president earlier.

And we are joined now by Kristie Lu Stout who joins us live from Hong Kong. Good to see you, Kristie. So, how is China responding to this latest visit?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, no immediate response from China. And I should also add that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China is in recess this week. So, we won't get a response from MOFA this day either. But Eric Holcomb, the governor of Indiana is the latest U.S. official to pay a visit to Taiwan amid rising tensions with China. This visit comes less than three weeks after the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her controversial visit to the island.

This latest visit also comes a week after another U.S. congressional delegation led by the Senator Ed Markey pay a visit to the island and China reacting quite angrily to those two visits. In fact, it escalated military drills in response. But we are still waiting to see how China will respond to this latest visit.

Eric Holcomb, the governor of Indiana and his delegation arrived in Taipei on Sunday. They are due to visit not just Taiwan, but South Korea as well, on the agenda to meet with top officials including as you see on your screen, the Taiwan president, Tsai Ing-wen. They also will be meeting with top business officials and academic institutions in Taiwan.

Now, this press conference took place a few hours ago. It was an interesting one to watch. During that we heard from Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwan president, and she pledged to keep Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain sustainable. In fact, at one point, calling Taiwan semiconductors, quote, "democracy chips." And she also shared her thoughts on what the Democratic alliance between the U.S. and Taiwan must do. I want you to take a listen to this.

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TSAI ING-WEN, PRESIDENT OF TAIWAN (through translation): Presently, we are facing the continued expansion of global authoritarianism. In the midst of, its Taiwan has been confronted by military threats from China in and around the Taiwan Strait. At this moment, Democratic allies must stand together and boost cooperation across all areas.

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LU STOUT: And cooperation is being boosted. We have learned that the U.S. and Taiwan, they are due to begin formal trade talks this fall. Also, quite recently, the U.S. President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act in order to boost U.S. competitiveness in semiconductors and Taiwan plays a role in that.

Taiwan's TSMC is the world's biggest contract chip maker, has pledged $12 billion to make chip a fab in Arizona. Another Taiwan semiconductor company called Media Tech has also pledged to open a chip design center in the U.S. state of Indiana. Back to you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Alright, Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

LU STOUT: Got it.

CHURCH: Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan is being investigated under an anti-terrorism law. Police documents seen by CNN accuse him of threatening to, quote, "take action against Islamabad's head of police and a female judge." The accusations stem from a rally Khan held on Saturday for his former chief of staff who is facing sedition charges.

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Khan, for his part, claims the government is trying to censor him by blocking his speeches from being broadcast on live television. Khan was ousted from power in April and has been giving fiery speeches around the country ever since calling for new elections.

Well, still to come, as several states prepare to enact strict new abortion laws, advocates say the fight is far from over. The details after the break.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, legal battles over abortion access are heating up across the United States. And most states -- as more states move to impose strict bans on the procedure. In the hours ahead, a hearing is expected in a lawsuit over Idaho's near total ban on abortion set to take effect Thursday. Tennessee and Oklahoma are expected to enact similar laws this week.

But even in states where abortion is still legal, it can be hard to access care. In Kansas, voters went to the polls this month and chose to protect abortion rights. But recent data shows around 98 percent of counties there don't have clinics that provide abortions.

We're also seeing more pushback from some elected officials in states that have imposed stricter abortion laws. In Florida, a state prosecutor was removed by Governor Ron DeSantis after he pledged not to go after people who seek or provide abortions.

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And nationwide, more than 80 district attorneys signed a letter saying they would not enforce abortion bans in their state.

Well, joining me now from Los Angeles, Brenda Feigen is a lawyer, feminist, and former vice president of the National Organization for Women. She's also the author of Not One Of The Boys: Living Life As A Feminist. Thank you so much for talking with us.

BRENDA FEIGEN, LAWYER: My pleasure.

CHURCH: So, legal battles over abortion bans and other laws that limit the procedure are underway in more than a dozen states after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion on June 24 this year, and some states are now in the process of implementing what's called trigger bans on the procedure, all of this, resulting in a confusing mess of different abortion laws that women and girls are having to figure out at a time when they are at their most vulnerable. What has been done to help them and give these women and girls a legal path to this healthcare procedure?

FEIGEN: Well, thank you for having me. I think the first thing you were talking about has to do with the state of Florida, and the prosecutor there, Andrew Warren, who was suspended or fired from his job by Ron DeSantis, the governor, because he spoke out and said that he was not going to prosecute people who were violating the law, so to speak.

In other words, people who were providing. He was not going -- he was -- he was going to prosecute-- excuse me, he was not going to prosecute people who are providing abortions, or women who are getting abortions. And that is a very -- that's a very interesting approach because what's happened now is that DeSantis has made such a mess that Andrew Warren is in federal court suing under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, saying that he has a right to speak out and say that those laws should not be enforced, that women should have the right to have abortion.

And that's a really interesting issue because it raises the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, saying you have a right to an abortion and he has the right to not prosecute. There are places where there are so many other serious crimes that are being committed and they simply don't have the person power to go ahead and prosecute them. So they don't want to have there are other places like Michigan and Georgia that literally do not want to prosecute in certain counties, doctors or women getting abortions.

CHURCH: Yes. And a hearing is set as we mentioned today as Idaho's near-total ban on abortion is scheduled to begin August 25. On that same day, Tennessee's Human Life Protection Act, which prohibits abortion, will take effect. And on Friday, Oklahoma's abortion ban takes effect. And as more U.S. states impose restrictions on access to abortions, more people, as you pointed out, including elected officials are now vowing to either break the law or not enforce it in some cases.

So you mentioned the prosecutor in Florida, as we did at the start there. Let's look at that as a possibility for pushing back on this. But I mean, there are clearly, will be some legal ramifications right there.

FEIGEN: Sure. I mean, I think the most important thing is that you can't force a prosecutor to bring a case. I mean, they have a lot of discretion to decide what's best for their constituents. And voters elected this man, Andrew Warren, to his position as a prosecutor. And his statement is that you should not have Ron DeSantis coming after him saying that he's going to be fired.

There's another part of the lawsuit, which called -- is called Quo warranto, which means that DeSantis has basically overstepped his authority. And he wants to know what -- by what authority is DeSantis able to fire him when the voters have elected him to this position. And it's not just there, by the way, in Florida, but there are -- there are valid reasons for saying that elected officials should not be forced to prosecute certain kinds of crimes as they don't think they should if there are other priorities.

There's -- for example, and if I can just mention this in Georgia, there are -- the DAs did simply believe both in Atlanta and Augusta that they have other priorities and they don't -- they don't want to prosecute women or providers for -- provided for getting abortions or providing them. They wanted to go after serious violent crimes, and they have a right to make that priority.

CHURCH: Yes. It is an extraordinary situation for a lot of these very vulnerable women and girls trying to figure all of this out along with a whole lot of other people across the country. Brenda Feigin, thank you so much for trying to sort some of this out for us. We appreciate it.

FEIGEN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, the prime minister of Finland is getting some support after coming under fire from opponents over a leaked dance party video. We will get the latest in a live report.

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CHURCH: This leaked footage of the Finnish Prime Minister dancing with friends continues to cause a stir. Sanna Marin is pushing back against criticism sparked by the video showing her at a party. She says it was meant to be private and she's disappointed it was shared. Critics say her behavior was inappropriate for a world leader, but the 36-year-old prime minister says she's done nothing wrong. And she's taken a drug test to prove she wasn't under the influence.

So let's get more details now from CNN's Melissa Bell. She is joining us live from Paris. Good to see you, Melissa. So what is the latest reaction to this leaked dance video of the Finnish Prime Minister?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sanna Martin had come in for such criticism from opposition MPs last week about that leaked video. As you say she came out Friday for that press conference saying she had taken this drug test from which we await the result. But saying, look, I've never taken drugs even as a teenager. This was a private event. I'd done nothing wrong.

And the backlash, the reaction over the last couple of days have been much more of support from all over Europe, videos that women have been posting, doctors, lawyers, university professors in support. Some of them dancing in their kitchen, some of them dancing elsewhere out and about to show that it is possible to be a professional woman and be taken seriously and have a video of oneself dancing without it being catastrophic for one's career.

And this is something that's happened before for Sanna Marin. She was elected, if you'll remember Rosemary, 2019, the youngest MP at the time, 34 years old already. Long before this video, she stood out for her looks for what was made of them. And she had last year posed for a cover of a magazine at the helm of a story talking about how she managed to balance work in life. She's a young mother of one.

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And because she'd been wearing no top under the vest had also been the subject of some controversy. Now, a lot of women and men came out at the time a #I'mwithSanna was created where people put on similar clothing to show that it was possible to be again seriously and wear clothes that were after all in fashion at the time. And I think this is what goes to the heart of the story. And the reason it's touched a nerve so much is that here's a woman who is being held. After all, nothing illegal was done at this party. She's taken the drug test. It was in her time off. She was doing what 36-year-olds do in their time off.

The idea here is that women can be held to such higher standards of behavior, such higher standards of account, that that is what the backlash is about. Should a 36-year-old woman be able and should it be accepted that she goes about dancing, and doing things that are of her age in her spare time? Can she wear clothes that are fashionable and appear on the front covers of magazines? The answer from those people, at least who's been posting videos in support is a resounding yes. And I think that goes to the heart of the controversy that we're seeing at the moment, the idea that a young woman in power can be a young woman in power and still be taken seriously, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, women can dance. Melissa Bell, thank you so much. Joining us there live from Paris. Appreciate it.

And thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. For those of you here in the United States and in Canada, I'll be back with more news after a short break. You're watching CNN. Do stay with us.

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