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Car Bomb Kills Daughter of Putin Ally Near Moscow; Indiana Governor Latest U.S. Official to Visit Taiwan; Top Republicans Demand Release of Affidavit; Vaccine Clinic Set Up at North Carolina Pride Festival. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 22, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead --

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The upper echelons of Russian politics and especially Kremlin controlled media, you do hear a lot of anger there. And of course, this is had a chilling effect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin's close advisers may not be happy about how the war is going and may want to let Putin know but in a not direct fashion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've seen so much backlash from Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Such a historic move that the FBI and the Department of Justice has taken. They need to take such an historic move to bring some transparency to this.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Eric Holcomb, the governor of Indiana, is the latest U.S. official to pay a visit to Taiwan amid rising tensions with China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll seek to continue to build strategic partnerships with you.

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ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: It is Monday, August 22, 4:00 a.m. in Washington, 9:00 a.m. here in London and 11:00 a.m. in Moscow. Where new details are emerging after the death of Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia has launched a murder investigation after she was killed in a car bomb on Saturday near Moscow. The Russian investigative committee believe someone ordered and planned the blast. A foreign ministry official has implied Ukraine may be responsible, but Ukraine is strongly denying that claim.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following all the developments from the Russian capital.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A car engulfed in a massive fire ball on a highway outside Moscow. Police say the vehicle exploded and then crashed. The driver dead on the scene.

That driver was Darya Dugina, a well-known commentator and supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine who was sanctioned by the United States and by the U.K. She was also the daughter of prominent right wing idealogue Aleksandr Dugin who promotes Russian expansionism.

According to Russian state media, an explosive device detonated Saturday night, setting the vehicle on fire. Russia has opened a criminal investigation. The investigative committee says they believe Dugina was murdered.

Taking into account the data already obtained, the investigation believes that the crime was pre-planned and of an ordered nature, a statement said.

While forensic work continue, the foreign ministry implied that Ukraine may be behind the attack. "If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram, "then we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the Kyiv regime." The Ukrainians deny any involvement.

MYKHAILO PODOLIAK, ADVISER TO THE HEAD OF THE OFFICE OF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I emphasized that 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.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But some in Russia believe Darya Dugina wasn't the actual target of the explosion but rather her father. Aleksandr Dugin -- also sanctioned by the U.S. -- remains highly influential in Russia as he calls for the annexation of large parts of Ukraine. An ultra-conservative philosopher and TV personality with roots in the Orthodox Church, he is a champion of Russian expansionism. Some claiming he may have influenced Vladimir Putin's decision to further invade Ukraine.

In 2014 Dugin said Russia must quote, "kill, kill, and kill" the people running Ukraine and that there should be no more discussion.

Darya Dugina was 29 years old when she was killed. Russian investigators say they are frantically working to find those responsible.

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FOSTER: Fred joins us now from Moscow. Many people seeing this as an attack on the philosophy that drives Putin. I mean, how much truth you think there is in that?

PLEITGEN (on camera): Well, I think it's just extremely difficult to say at this point. I mean, we've heard some of those claims and counterclaims across really between Ukraine and Russia but also inside Russia as well. It seems as though right now no one no one really knows where exactly this came from and why exactly this was carried out. At the same time, Max, you still have the investigation which really is very much in the early stages.

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The latest that we have from the investigative committee is they tell us that they found out that bombed that they say that was attached to the car had a yield of about 400 grams of TNT. They say they found some remnants of what they believe is that explosive device and they have sent those in for a forensic investigation. So, that's moving along but at the same time, of course, you do have a lot of speculation as to what exactly may have been behind all of this. Very little in the way of hard facts.

One thing I will say though is that right after this happened you did have a lot of folks here in Russia, from Kremlin -controlled media but also in political echelons, sort of pointing the finger at or blame at the Ukrainians. But then the Ukrainians coming out and vehemently saying that it was not them.

So, right now there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding all of this. But I can tell you here in Russia if you look at state TV, if you look at the public sphere. It is a massive thing that is being discussed as to what exactly may have been behind all this and especially who may be behind this -- Max.

FOSTER: A lot of Russians I understand are learning about Dugin and Dugina now because they weren't necessarily the most famous people. But they were very influential, weren't they, in the coddles of power.

PLEITGEN: Well, you know what they absolutely were. Especially Aleksandr Dugin for a very long time has been a very well-known figure. I think we saw in that report just a little bit -- you know, he was on TV and on social media channels a lot and he was at a lot of rallies that called for the expansion of Russia. And he really propagates that sort of expansionist idea, especially when it comes toward Russia and Ukraine. Especially when it comes to Russia trying to take territory away from Ukraine. The Donbas region, he was at rallies and some of those Donbas organizations that obviously want the Donbas to become part of the Russian Federation.

So certainly, someone who in state-controlled media was a very prominent figure someone is very well-known, someone who obviously also was at least listened to by the top echelons of power here in Russia. Some even saying that Vladimir Putin himself.

There has been talk in Western media a little bit about, you know, him having a lot of influence on Vladimir Putin, some even coining the term that he was Putin's brain, sort of the philosopher behind Putin's idea of beginning the special military operation in Ukraine.

That might be going a little bit too far. He was certainly someone who endorsed that policy, who may have even wanted that policy to be a little bit more strong than it actually is at this point in time -- even though of course it is a really big operation that the Russians are conducting there. But to say that this is someone who directly influences the politics of Vladimir Putin might be going a little bit too far -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Fred, back with you when you get more details. Thank you.

Former CIA chief of Russia operations and CNN national security analyst Steve Hall weighed in on who could be behind the weekend car bombing.

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STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think it's safe to say that we'll probably never know for sure because of course these investigations in Russia will never be made actually public. But what will be done, there will be a lot of propaganda.

But you look at it it's two different possibilities, there are two groups of possibilities. The first is an external group. So, Ukraine certainly falls into that category. You know, they certainly have reason to be upset with the Kremlin, no doubt about that, but the idea that they would mount some sort of paramilitary operation and only go after Dugin. I think if you're going with a car bomb, you're going to go for somebody that is much closer to Putin and the Kremlin.

Undoubtedly what's going to happen at some point is the Russians are going to say, well the United States or Western allies were involved. They're going to see you know, dollars on the floor of some safe house or some staged event that the embassy would try to do.

But I don't think that the external option is a good one. I think it is more interesting to look at the internal possibilities. One is that Putin's, you know, close advisers may not be happy about how the war is going and may want to let Putin know but in a not direct fashion. This would sort of shake things up especially if they can say, look, Russians across Russia are unhappy with this war and this is what's going to happen -- more of this is going to happen if you don't sort of somehow make the war in Ukraine better. So, I think it is much more likely that there is an internal explanation, not an external.

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FOSTER: Well, thanks to Steve Hall for his perspective there. Later this hour, CNN's David McKenzie joins us live from Kyiv with the very latest on the fighting in Ukraine.

Educators from Ohio's largest school district are going on strike just days before school is scheduled to start. Members of the teachers' union voted to reject the terms of the school board's labor contract. This will be the first time the Columbus City School employees will go on strike since 1975. The school board called the outcome disappointing. According to the district's website, the school year will still begin Wednesday but classes will be led by substitutes and be entirely online.

Time is running out for millions of Americans with federal student loan debt.

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The current pause on repayments is set to expire at the end of the month and Americans are still in the dark about whether it will be extended again. But the Biden administration says an announcement is coming soon.

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MIGUEL CARDONA, U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY: We know August 31 is the date that many people are waiting to hear something from. We've been talking daily about this and I can tell you that the American people will hear within the next week or so.

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FOSTER: Not all the details have been announced. The administration has already canceled almost $32 billion in debt for some borrowers and the White House is reportedly considering more forgiveness plans.

Despite some positive economic signs, many Americans remain concerned about the state of the economy. In fact, a new NBC news poll shows 68 percent of voters think the U.S. is in a recession. One White House economic adviser is looking to ease those concerns.

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JARED BERNSTEIN, MEMBER, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS: 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've begun to see -- begun, you know, a little bit of crack the light there, no victory laps -- begun to see in the last week or so.

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FOSTER: But inflation remain as problem. The Brookings Institute estimates it now costs more than $300,000 to raise a child through high school. And higher mortgage rates have made buying a home more expensive. Last week rates appeared to be moderate but a 30 year fixed rate remains above 5 percent.

Meanwhile jobless claims fell slightly last week and appear to have settled around the 250,000 mark. A report on the latest numbers is expected later this week.

U.S. commuters are getting some relief as gasoline prices have been dropping steadily. The national average is now down more than 50 cents from a month ago and five cents from a week ago. The cost of a gallon of gasoline has come down more than $1 since the hitting that high point -- highest average price really on record back in June.

Taiwan is now hosting a third delegation of U.S. lawmakers in less than a month. The group is head by Indiana governor Eric Holcomb. State officials are on what they call an economic development trip that will also take them to South Korea. It comes after visits by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a few weeks ago and by a Senate delegation last Sunday. Holcomb met with Taiwan's president earlier today and spoke about his hopes for mutual economic development.

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ERIC HOLCOMB (R) INDIANA GOVERNOR: Because we share so many common values and interests and goals, there are more opportunities ahead of us than I think there ever have been before for us to continue to strengthen and cultivate and nurture this relationship as our economies grow and grow together, we will continue to seek to build strategic partnerships with you.

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FOSTER: We're joined now by Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong. Not as high a profile visit, but it's going to be a frustration to the Chinese, nevertheless.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a frustration to the Chinese especially as they see these ever tightening economic ties between U.S. and Taiwan and yet curiously still no response from China to this latest visit.

The Indiana governor is the latest U.S. official to visit the island, this visit comes less than three weeks after Nancy Pelosi the U.S. House Speaker made that controversial visit to Taiwan. It comes a week after another Congressional delegation led by the Senator Ed Markey paid a visit to the island.

After those two visits, which really angered Beijing, China responded by escalating military drills. In response to this visit, no response from China just yet. Now Eric Holcomb and his delegation, they arrived in Taipei on Sunday. They plan to visit South Korea as well as Taiwan. On the agenda, meetings with top officials in Taiwan, including the Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, as well as business officials and academic institutions.

And after meetings today, we heard some pretty interesting remarks from the Taiwan president who said that Taiwan was committed to having a sustainable semiconductor supply chain. She also called Taiwan's semiconductors, quote, democracy chips -- an interesting turn of phrase. Here is Tsai-In-wen.

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TSAI-IN-WEN, TAIWAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Economic security is an important pillar of national and regional security. Taiwan is willing and able to strengthen cooperation with democratic partners in building sustainable supply chains for democracy chips.

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STOUT: Now the timing of the latest visit is significant. It comes after the Biden administration pledged to start formal trade talks between the U.S. and Taiwan this fall. It also comes after the U.S. president signed the Chips Act which pledges to boost American competitiveness in the semiconductor industry. And Taiwan plays a critical role in that.

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In fact, Taiwan's TSMC, the chip making giant, has pledged $12 billion to build a new chip fab in the U.S. state of Arizona. Another Taiwan semiconductor company called MediaTek has pledged to open a chip design office or center in the U.S. state of, you guessed it, Indiana. Back to you -- Max.

FOSTER: Kristie, thank you.

The U.S. is approaching the end of primary season for the 2022 midterm elections. Only a few states have yet to make their party choices. Tuesday will see Congressional primary races in New York and Oklahoma, but Florida is getting most of the attention. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis who is already talking about running for president in 2024 must first win re-election in November. Tuesday's vote will determine his Democratic challenger.

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 re-election 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 6 committee.

Cheney told ABC news her greater concern is the direction the Republican Party is taking.

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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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FOSTER: Cheney went on to say she is now focused on keeping Donald Trump out of the White House. And we're just days away from finding out whether a federal judge will release a redacted version of the affidavit to search Donald Trump's Florida home. Justice Department officials have until Thursday to make their case about what should be blocked out in order to protect their witnesses and investigative methods. Former President Trump reportedly wants the full affidavit released. A growing number of Republicans support that move and are angered his home was searched.

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REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): I still haven't seen any evidence that he was even asked -- that Trump was even asked to give these documents back. He's been cooperating with them on these issues for a while now for months. And so why take it to this extreme extent? And I think that's why you are seeing so much backlash from Republicans, you're seeing everyone coalesce.

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FOSTER: Meanwhile a majority of U.S. voters say that there is ongoing investigations into alleged wrongdoing by Donald Trump should continue according to a new NBC poll, nearly 6 in 10 voters back the investigations.

A U.S. federal appeals court says Senator Lindsey Graham doesn't 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 it was only to discuss the process of counting absentee ballots. Graham is among a handful of key Trump allies the grand jury has subpoenaed.

Dozens of asylum seekers arrived in New York City early on Sunday. How Republicans are defending a move by Texas to send migrants to the East Coast, ahead.

And actor Gary Busey is in trouble with the law. Details on the criminal charges he is facing later this hour.

Plus, heavy rains are bringing the threat of dangerous flooding to parts of the U.S. Pedram Javaheri will have the latest for you.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, parts of Texas on alert when it comes to the flooding concerns. We'll touch on this and also how much rain is expected, coming up in a few minutes.

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FOSTER: At least 140 asylum seekers reached New York City early on Sunday in what officials are calling the largest single day arrival of migrants from Texas to date. They were met by representatives from city agencies and volunteers who provided medical and legal help along with transportation. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent thousands of migrants to cities like Washington, D.C. and New York in a fight with the Biden administration over immigration policies. Republicans have defended Abbott's tactics.

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CRENSHAW: We're talking about the New York and D.C. busing, we're talking about a few thousand immigrants. That's what we deal with on a daily basis in South Texas. So, look, what he's doing I think is out of desperation and it's highly necessary. Because somebody has to solve this problem. This is an infringement on our sovereignty. It's an infringement on our rule of law. You know what, it's unfair and it's immoral to millions upon millions of good law abiding immigrants or asylum seekers around the world that have no chance of getting into our system because of the backlog that people are creating because they are geographically close to the United States and they can just walk across. It's not fair.

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FOSTER: U.S. officials report nearly 2 million encounters on the southwest border this year.

The Biden administration is trying to make the monkeypox vaccine more available to the LGBTQ+ community. Most reported cases in the U.S. have been amongst men who have sex with men. A pride festival in North Carolina was the first event to feature a vaccine clinic specifically for the community. CNN's Dianne Gallagher reports.

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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time that people in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina have been able to gather in person for pride in more than two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But now health officials say that they can also use the pride festival this weekend to help educate and vaccinate for monkeypox.

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After an initiative from the Biden administration, this pilot program sending 50,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine to pride events and other LBGTQ centered events around the nation is kicking off here in Charlotte this weekend.

Now according to health officials, they received 2,000 doses from that strategic national reserve and they are able to give them to people who qualify underneath the criteria at this parade and other festival satellite events. Now we didn't see a lot of advising for this at the parade, but one man we talked to said it was actually health officials here in this county walking around, finding them and telling them to come and get the vaccine.

ABE GADIKIAN, CHARLOTTE PRIDE ATTENDEE: I think there's a lot of questions as far as where to get it, how to get it. And doing it at an event like this and having people reaching out and telling people where to get it, when to get it, and especially that you can get it right now. You don't have to make an appointment, made is very easy.

GALLAGHER: There are a lot of concerns and messaging here as well, making sure that this doesn't create some type of stigma. Because anybody can get monkeypox. But right now, it is disproportionately affecting men who have sex with men and transgender people here in the United States. And now there is a criteria, not everybody is eligible for this

vaccine and they have that listed in places to get the vaccines. And in addition, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina they have already transitioned to a new method of injecting the monkeypox vaccine, intradermally instead of in the arm here, to expand and extend the amount of supply. Because they can use about five dose per vial instead of one vial per vaccine. Dianne Gallagher,

CNN, Charlotte, North Carolina.

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FOSTER: And an outbreak of E. coli has been traced to fast food chain Wendy's in four U.S. states. At least 37 people have got sick, 10 of them hospitalized. The CDC is investigating but says no specific food item has been confirmed as the cause of the outbreak so far. Wendy's has removed romaine lettuce from its sandwiches after many of the sick reported eating sandwiches with it. So far, the CDC has not advised to avoid eating at the restaurants.

Millions of people are under flood watches and warnings in parts of Texas and Louisiana Through Monday. Across Texas -- across the Texas border, rather, in New Mexico, a flash flood trapped nearly 160 people at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Rangers tried to evacuate the park but the only road in and out became impassable. The tourists were forced to shelter at the park's visitor center for hours with little food available. Our thoughts with them, Pedram, really extreme weather in certain places over there.

JAVAHERI: Max, a lot of these areas seeing at least several hundred percent above what is normal for the monsoonal season. This is the wet season. We know beneficial rainfall comes down, but of course you get too much of it in short duration and scenes like that play out.

And the concern now kind of shifting over portions of Texas on to say Oklahoma, onto even Arkansas and Louisiana eventually. Where quite a bit of heavy rainfall in store here. The last 24 hours we've seen rainfall amounts exceeded 4 to 6 inches in a few spots and even into the early morning hours. Dallas metro and points just to the east already reporting some very heavy rainfall. So, we know flooding again going to be an issue here. And you will notice again pockets of very heavy rains already observed. So, anything on top of this goes to becomes problematic.

And then you kind of look at the flood alerts, portions of about 15 million Americans underneath these flood alerts that are currently in place there. And the biggest concern is into the late morning hours where we think some of the heavy rainfall events could really shape up across a major metro area like Dallas that leads to a lot of flooding.

In fact, when it comes to have a rain over concrete, about 55 percent of it turns in to runoff. You put heavy rainfall over natural ground, the soil certainly absorbs quite a bit of it and only 10 percent is left for runoff. So, this is something important to note here for heavy rains that are in store across the Dallas area especially during the morning commute where so many people are out and about. But notice moisture content is plentiful over the next 24 hours across

the southern U.S. So, we do expect pockets of heavy rain to continue along this region. Again, Dallas eastward eventually work its way toward New Orleans, Louisiana this afternoon and we think heavy rains are in store as well across the region.

When it comes to the excessive rainfall list, that is a level 3 on a scale of 1 to 4. Includes Dallas includes Shreveport as well, so we'll follow this again into the morning hours.

And Max, we've talked so much about the drought situation, just about any location in Texas, you're going to pick your location, you're looking at the top ten driest years on record, all of them playing out here in 2022. So, we know the rainfall is beneficial. Unfortunately, the amounts that come down in short duration, a lot of it is not going to be absorbed as quickly as you think just because of how arid this landscape has been. So, runoff becomes a major issue for a lot of these communities -- Max.

FOSTER: Yes, tough times. Pedram, thank you very much indeed.

Now there's a daunting and dangerous effort under way in Ukraine.

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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This small area has taken several days and you are not even finished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we've merely scratched the surface.

MCKENZIE: And you've got an entire country potentially.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MCKENZIE: How do you possibly do that job?

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FOSTER: Ahead, CNN joins one of the teams working to clear landmines and other dangerous explosives that now litter the Ukrainian landscape.

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