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Interview with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS): U.N. Watchdogs in Zaporizhzhia to Inspect Nuclear Plant; Heavy Explosions Reported in Several Parts of Kherson; DEA: Cartels Target U.S. Youth with "Brightly-Colored" Fentanyl; Texas Has Spent $1.2 Million-Plus to Bus Migrants to DC & NYC. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 31, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: And there are some critical witnesses that your committee, the January 6 Committee, has suggested interest in interviewing. Has there been any further discussion with former V.P. Pence, for example, about potential testimony or providing information? Or what about Ginni Thomas?

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Well, we had a conversation this morning, the vice chair and myself. The vice president's name came up. Ginni Thomas' name came up. We continue to discuss it. We'll have a committee meeting tomorrow, and I'm certain that it will. No person is off limits.

Our charge as a committee is to follow the facts and circumstances that brought about January 6, and make recommendations to Congress and others, to make sure that those situations like January 6 never happen again.

So we're doing our work. We spent a good bit of time during the August break just pulling recommendations together. Looking at potential hearing opportunities for September when we reconvene.

So I'm convinced that when we roll out what we've been working on, the public will be clear as to how close we came to losing our democracy as we've come to love it.

CABRERA: So just to be clear and make sure I understand correctly, are you going to ask Pence to testify? Is that where this is headed?

THOMPSON: Well, we will be engaging that. If the vice president would come, we'd love to have it. We've had back-and-forth discussions for the last year with his attorney.

It would add to the credibility of our work if the vice president would voluntarily come in. He's made public announcements indicating that there's some interest in him coming. And we plan to give him that opportunity to come before the committee.

CABRERA: I know you've been working on your report. Can you tell us timing-wise, will it come before or after the midterms? THOMPSON: Well, our goal -- we had a lofty goal, but we've had a lot of work. We've interviewed over 1,000 witnesses, and several hundred thousand documents in the process. So it's been a labor of love, but it's been intensive.

I would say that some of our work will release before, but the final document will come after the November elections.

CABRERA: Congressman Bennie Thompson, chairman of the January 6 Committee, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, thank you very much for taking all the time today.

THOMPSON: Thank you for having me.

CABRERA: As fears grow of disaster at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, U.N. inspectors are on a mission to keep that from happening. We have the latest on the ground from Ukraine as those inspectors arrive.

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[13:37:56]

CABRERA: It's about 8:30 p.m. in southern Ukraine and inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog group are on the ground in Zaporizhzhia.

Tomorrow, they're expected to visit the largest power plant and figure out how much damage occurred from artillery shelling in and around the complex.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in Kyiv for us.

Melissa, conditions around the complex have been deteriorating for weeks. What exactly are inspectors looking for?

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're going to be looking, Ana, for any damage the Russian forces who have been occupying the plant have been speaking of, the shelling damage they say that has been caused to the building.

But they're also going to be looking at its sustainability more long term. In fact, the idea is that there's a first part of the mission.

So Rafael Grossi, the IAEA lead inspector, and his team of 13 other people will get into the plant tomorrow morning. They're already in Zaporizhzhia and will be in the plant itself tomorrow morning. They will spend a couple days there, they hope.

And the plan is to leave a permanent mission inside the plant. Hugely importance news to the whole of Europe that has been watching this frontline play out all around this nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.

Here is what Rafael Grossi had to tell journalists as he arrived in Zaporizhzhia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAEL GROSSI, IAEA DIRECTOR GENERAL: With the risk that that entails, allow me to say that it is going to be risk free but something we need to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: You're talking about six nuclear reactors that are active, that are functioning, Ana.

And the real fear is not so much the damage to the infrastructure but really the fear of power outages as we saw last Thursday, when President Zelenskyy said, look, Europe was one step away from a nuclear disaster.

CABRERA: Melissa, we're now two days into Ukraine's counteroffensive in the southern part of the country. What's the status?

BELL: Well, according to the Ukrainian side, progress is being made.

We have been hearing from military sources and spokespeople that they have managed to continue targeting the Russian ammunition depot, Russian infrastructure as they have in the couple weeks leading up to the start of the counteroffensive.

[13:40:06]

Also, that they've been able to make substantial gains in terms of some of the villages they've been able to retake. And that is backed up by British intelligence.

We had a statement from the British Ministry of Defense saying that they see the frontline has, in part, been moved some distance forward and taken positions that were thinly guarded by Russian forces. Suggesting, in fact, they have been put on the back foot.

Of course, this is going to be a long slog. There's a lot more to go. We've been hearing also in the last couple of hours of heavy fighting and shelling at Nova Kakhovka, across the water from Kherson.

It's going to be a long grind, as one of the senior presidential aides said here at the start of the offensive early this week -- Ana?

CABRERA: Melissa Bell, in Kyiv, thank you.

They look like candy and the DEA says that's exactly what drug cartels want, rainbow Fentanyl pills meant to lure young Americans. More on the warning ahead.

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[13:45:48]

CABRERA: A critical new warning from the DEA, sounding the alarm on a new method drug cartels are using to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly Fentanyl, making it look like candy, bright and colorful, to better target young Americans.

And here to discuss is Steve Carleton. He is executive clinical director of Gallus Medical Detox Centers. And he specializes in Fentanyl treatment.

Steve, thanks for taking the time.

First, I want to get your reaction to what we just showed and this new warning. These drugs, they truly look like candy.

STEVE CARLETON, EXECUTIVE CLINICAL DIRECTOR, GALLUS MEDICAL DETOX CENTERS: They do, Ana. They're -- the Fentanyl that we're seeing on the streets now has primarily been blue. And now we're starting to see these colorful pills show up on the street.

And the DEA has told us that there's no difference in the contents of these pills from the old Fentanyl pills that we've been seeing, other than the packaging and clearly marketing to kids and adolescents.

CABRERA: Explain what makes Fentanyl so, so, so dangerous.

CARLETON: It's - primarily, it's the potency and the concentration. If you think about a sweetener packet in a coffee shop, that amount of Fentanyl is enough Fentanyl to kill six people.

So when we talk about Fentanyl, it's a tiny amount can be deadly.

CABRERA: We know overdose deaths are on the rise nationwide. In fact, overdose deaths in 2021, from April to April, topped 100,000 for the first time ever.

I'm curious, where does Fentanyl fit into the bigger picture when it comes to drug overdoses?

CARLETON: So it's been -- the opioid crisis has been going on since 1999. And we saw a steady rise in opiate deaths and opiate overdoses. And in 2015, since then, it's been an exponential increase.

When you look at the 108,000 people, what we know is nearly two-thirds of those involved Fentanyl. So Fentanyl is the driving force behind this deadly overdose rate that we're seeing right now.

CABRERA: So if there's this effort to really lure in younger people, what should parents be looking out for? And what signs are there in someone using Fentanyl?

CARLETON: I think the telltale sign that somebody is using Fentanyl is pinpoint pupils. Your pupils are a small dot.

You notice a lot of drowsiness, although mood can range from anything from euphoria to a deep state of depression.

More than anything, what you want to look out for in your loved ones is a dramatic change in behavior.

Most of addiction is driven by people struggling with mental health. People that have experienced a significant trauma. People that are having chronic pain or some other type of medical condition.

That's typically what drives these things.

CABRERA: Steve Carleton, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us and offering some real pertinent information, vital, potentially life-saving information today. Appreciate it.

CARLETON: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: If you or a loved one is struggling, there is help. Dial 988 to connect directly to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. And you can also call 888-306-3122 to connect to the team Steve works specifically at Gallus Medical Detox Centers.

[13:49:21]

The Texas governor's answer to the immigration crisis comes with a big fat price tag. That's next.

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CABRERA: Over the last 24 hours, 92 immigrants arrived in Washington, D.C., from Texas. Governor Greg Abbott has been busing thousands of asylum seekers to the nation's capital and New York.

Governor Abbott is a fierce critic of President Biden's immigration policies.

And whether this is all a political statement or a stunt, CNN has now crunched the numbers on the costs.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is here with that now.

Polo, what have you learned?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, whether you see this as a political stunt, Ana, or a necessary cost to try to get migrants out of Texas, it is certainly resulting in a pretty significant tab, and it continues to grow, by the way.

Here's some of the numbers that were provided to me by the state of Texas in response to my question of, how much has the Lone Star State spent as part of Governor Abbott's program that is offering free rides to these migrant families that have been processed by the Department of Homeland Security and then released and allowed to travel throughout the country?

Well, the numbers now showing -- there's a bit of a conflict between some of the figures that were given to me by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

We can pop them up for you so you can see here.

An average roughly of these migrants now showing that they're paying roughly $1,400 a person, a total of about 12.7 million. That is as of August 9th. I can personally tell are you I can personally tell are you there have

been many buses that have still gone to Washington, D.C., and New York City since then. So that number is probably significantly higher.

We have reached out to Governor Abbott's office repeatedly to try to kind of get a response from him to see if this actually even makes sense.

Especially considering that many of these migrants usually pay out-of- pocket to travel throughout Texas and outside of the state.

And that usually costs them about $232 if they book themselves a Greyhound ride from eagle pass, Texas, to New York. And about the same or slightly more if they buy themselves a plane ticket.

[13:54:59]

So again, those are some of the tough questions that the governor certainly has to answer to, if this makes any economical sense.

CABRERA: Again, $12 million. Is all that money coming from taxpayers?

SANDOVAL: It seems to be, especially when you hear his remarks from April when he made this announcement that he said that the Texas taxpayer would have to shoulder the cost.

Look, I'll close with this really important question that I keep getting, which is, what would be the cost of potentially keeping them in Texas?

That should be a nonstarter. Because Governor Abbott was very clear in saying that the families that are being shuttled to New York and D.C., these are families that never intended to stay in New York to begin with.

CABRERA: All right, thank you so much, Polo Sandoval.

And that does it for me today. I'll meet you back here tomorrow, same time and place. Until then, you can always find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera. Thanks for being here.

Much more news to come. Victor and Alisyn take over right after this.

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