Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Georgia Election Breach Investigation; Concern Grows Over Ukrainian Nuclear Plant; Body Found in Memphis Identified as Abducted Teacher; Heat Wave; Uvalde Students Return to School. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 06, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Senator Toomey and Dr. Oz spent the majority of that press conference calling out Oz's opponent, Democrat John Fetterman, for so far refusing to debate.

A full itinerary for top Biden administration officials to mark the 9/11 terror attacks. The president will travel to the Pentagon. First lady Jill Biden will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Vice President Kamala Harris plans to attend the memorial in New York City.

Thanks for your time today on INSIDE POLITICS.

Enjoy your afternoon. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and thank you so much for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We are staying on top of several developing stories this hour.

In Uvalde, Texas, a new school year but the pain of the past are very present. Students are back in class for the first time since classmates and teachers were gunned down just months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZEKE, UVALDE STUDENT: I can still hear the gunshots. It was very terrifying and traumatizing for me.

QUESTION: It still is?

ZEKE: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Coming back to school.

ZEKE: It's scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The latest on the district's new security measures just ahead.

Plus, bracing for blackouts. A brutal heat wave blankets part of the nation. People are cranking up their A.C. units, and it could be more than California's power grid can handle.

And CNN obtains surveillance video that shows a Georgia election official escorting two pro-Trump operatives into an elections office the same day a voting system there was breached.

But let's begin in Memphis. Police there have now identified the body of Eliza Fletcher. The mom and teacher was reported missing on Friday after police say she was kidnapped while jogging.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is live in Memphis.

Gary, what are officials saying this hour?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, the accused kidnapper of Eliza Fletcher is now the accused murderer of Eliza Fletcher.

We were told by Memphis police this morning that a body that was recovered yesterday late in the afternoon behind a vacant duplex is indeed the body of the 34-year-old mother of two, wife and schoolteacher.

Already, before this happened, before the confirmation, a hearing was going to be held in courtroom 13 here in the Shelby County courthouse, an arraignment on the kidnapping charge. That arraignment did take place. The suspect, Cleotha Abston, came inside. He was wearing a mask, so It was hard to see his emotion. But he -- in his eyes, there didn't seem to be any emotion. He seemed a little indifferent.

Her family members who were inside, not her husband or her parents, but other family members, and they sat there quietly and respectfully. And then at the end of the hearing, the end of the arraignment, the prosecutor told the judge, we also want to add another charge, first- degree murder. And the judge said, we will take that up tomorrow.

He currently has a $500,000 bond that he said he can't afford. The prosecutors want to drop that bond, want it revoked, and that's what they will do tomorrow during that hearing.

We can tell you that this guy is no stranger to jail bars. In the year 2000, he kidnapped a man here in Memphis who was an attorney. That man was able to escape. But he was sentenced to much time in jail. He got out of jail 20 years later in 2020 in November, a little less than two years ago. And now he's back in the system.

We talked to the district attorney today. And he took note of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN MULROY, SHELBY COUNTY, TENNESSEE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Any kind of violence, of course, is unacceptable, but repeat violent offenders particularly deserve a strong response. And that's what they will get from this district attorney's office.

We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and work closely with them, as we already have, so that we can do our best to bring justice to this tragic situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Eliza Fletcher was an avid runner. When she was kidnapped, she was five miles east of her house on a path right next to the University of Memphis.

Where her body was discovered was eight miles west of where she was kidnapped at the University of Memphis. And then something that's important to note, one of the reasons they were searching that area is that a witness told police that she saw this suspect cleaning his car right after the kidnapping and looking odd, and that was a half-a-mile away from where her body was found.

This is such a sad and tragic story. But the family, as you might expect, held out hope until the last minute that she might be found alive. Those hopes, of course, have now been tragically dashed -- back to you.

CABRERA: When we see that picture of their two young kids, it is such a tragic story. Gary Tuchman, thank you for that update.

And now to Uvalde, Texas. Students there are back in the classroom for the first time since a gunman murdered 19 kids and two teachers on May 24. Robb Elementary, where that happened, remains closed. Kids are attending nearby schools instead.

[13:05:01]

And those schools have now changed since that awful day. There's new fencing, new cameras, extra counselors and more officers. Kids were also greeted by this, therapy dogs brought in to help ease the transition.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Uvalde for us.

Ed, despite the increased security measures, some parents and some kids say they still don't feel safe?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a theme that we continue to hear over and over. We know that there are more than 130 families that have chosen not to return to in person school here in Uvalde, and have since chosen to do virtual learning, at least for the time being.

And that really speaks to the volume and the anxiety, the volume of the anxiety and frustration that so many families here in this community have. But it has been a day of really kind of poignant juxtapositions. You see smiling teachers trying to put on brave faces for the children, welcoming them back into the classroom for the first time.

Also, we hear from parents, children that are very nervous about going back into these schools. And many people and parents sharing first day of school pictures, but we were struck just moments ago seeing a picture that a gentleman named Brett Cross shared. And he is raising one of -- his nephew he was raising his own son. And this is a picture that he shared on Twitter just a short while ago, and it is the urn holding the ashes of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia. That is his nephew that, as I mentioned, is raised -- he's been raising him as his own son.

And in the picture, Brett Cross writes that, as he sees all the other first day of school pictures, the hole in his heart is ablaze that this will be the image that continues to be his first day of school pictures forever, because they no longer have the opportunity to take their own son back to school.

A few days ago, we actually sat down with Brett. And he talked about the emotion of this first day of school following a tumultuous summer of anger and frustration that so many families here in Uvalde have been dealing with it, as they have tried to learn more about why 19 children and two teachers were killed at the end of last school year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT CROSS, UNCLE AND GUARDIAN OF UZIYAH GARCIA: The school says that they're doing certain things, but then you look around and they're not done.

This is something that terrorizes you daily and nightly. I close my eyes, all I see is my son. I hear the gunshots. It's something that doesn't ever go away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: So, Ana, you can see just the difference in the range of feelings that so many people here in this community have about going back to school.

You can see behind me this is the campus where the second and third graders from Robb Elementary last year who are now third and fourth graders, this is the campus that they now attend to. It is surrounded by an eight-foot fence.

And we have talked a lot about how security officers and campus monitors are being brought in to make sure that doors are always locked and windows are checked and all those sorts of things and all those precautions.

But for many families, Ana, it's simply still not enough.

CABRERA: Yes.

Ed, thank you for that reporting. We had a hard time getting that picture to load that you referenced, but I'm glad you describe it for us. My heart is heavy for those families, especially those who lost loved ones. Thank you, Ed.

And now to the unrelenting heat wave in the West and dangerous flash floods in the East. Right now, more than 50 million people are under flood watches, including major cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

And on the West Coast, people in California have been told to prepare for rolling blackouts today,as sweltering heat is driving demand for electricity to all-time highs.

CNN meteorologist Tom Sater joins us now.

Tom, we're talking record-breaking temperatures there in California and for an extended time now. How high are they likely to go and for how much longer?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ana, yesterday, of course, Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer, but we're seeing not only the highest temperatures we have seen for the summer, but the entire year.

Across the U.S., we have broken over 300 all time high temperature records and only three-all time lows. Sacramento, all-time highest September temperature 114, Salt Lake 104 yesterday. That's not only the highest September temperature you will see today. This will be the 30 -- actually, they have had 32 days at 100 degrees or higher in Salt Lake City. They have shattered the record by 11 days more.

This is just unrelenting, most of California into the warnings, the advisories northward. This is long-duration. We're in the seventh day of this now, and it's going to continue through the end of the week. Some of the numbers from yesterday, these are all-time September high temperatures, even Stockton at 112 degrees.

So, today should be the peak. I mean, we're on track to break 200 records in this heat wave. We will break another 50 today, believe it or not. But when you look at the numbers, I mean, it doesn't get much better, Sacramento 116. You're still at 112 on Thursday night, Bakersfield 111, Death Valley 124. If they get to 125, that will tie at the all-time highest September temperature.

[13:10:06]

Look at the fires, though. This is a big problem, 49,000 fires. We're almost at 49,000. The average is 41,000. We had a very quiet August, but now we're starting to see it pickup again, with over 6.2 million acres scorched, and now our national preparedness level for fires has risen up now to level four. That's the second highest from the very top.

Conditions are terrible for the fires today and have been. Four have already died in California.

CABRERA: Yikes.

What about the rolling blackouts? How do those rotating outages work?

SATER: Well, as the temperatures are getting higher in this long duration, more and more people are noticing, hey, the air conditioning can only do, so much they keep turning it down.

Well, it's using more energy. So now what they're saying is, we can only put out so much power. And we're breaking records now for demand. So at 4:00, set your A.C. to 78 degrees. Try not to use large appliances. Unplug everything you can in your home, or they will block off and shut down that power for your grid area for at least an hour. And they're going to try to roll this.

So it's going to be difficult for everyone. But the power demand is again breaking records, Ana.

CABRERA: And here out East, it's been so hot and dry, unusually dry.

SATER: Yes.

CABRERA: And now it's raining cats and dogs. We have a flood problem.

What should folks on the East Coast and elsewhere be looking out for today?

SATER: Well, here's the problem. And just like in the West we have a drought, we had a flash drought this summer in parts of New England.

Now, a week-and-a-half, parts of Rhode Island, which was all in the highest level, had some rainfall. But we dropped 8.3 inches on Providence yesterday. This ground is like concrete. So it was creating this run-off. We have had so many rain events in the last couple of weeks.

But now the rain is just lingering. So we do have the warnings. For those that decided not to fly yesterday and fight the crowds, you're going to have some delays today, because we have got watches from areas south of Philadelphia to near the Boston area, warnings as well.

Slowly, but surely, Ana, this is going to pull away, but there's going to be some lingering rain. So it's going to take a while for some of that flooding to kind of recede. But we're going to be looking at much more rainfall from Philadelphia, New York area, Long Island, and points to the north. Crazy weather.

CABRERA: OK. Totally.

And heads up to everybody out there. Thank you, Tom Sater.

Everybody, stay safe.

Turning now to Ukraine, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says it is -- quote -- "gravely concerned" about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and is calling for a nuclear safety zone. Russian forces still control that facility, which has been the target of shelling for weeks. Inspectors who visited the plant just last week said they also saw Russian military equipment and personnel inside the plant.

CNN's Sam Kiley is in Odessa, Ukraine for us.

Sam, what more are we learning about those concerns over personnel and the power supply at the plant? SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think

that's one of the key issues you rightly pointed out there, Ana, is the personnel.

So, in terms of personnel working on the physical safety, the integrity of the plant, they're at 40 percent capacity. In terms of the firefighters that are operational there, of a complement of 150 is now down to 80. The fire station there has been closed due to damage from the war and move to the nearby town of Enerhodar.

So, clearly, the U.N. is extremely concerned about the physical safety at the nuclear power plant there. It is the biggest in Europe after all. And on top of that, they're also pointing out, which we already knew, is that there have been a series of power cuts of electricity to the plant.

These are vital, Ana, because they drive the cooling systems. Now, the backup diesel generators in particular have been triggered. They also have backup from a neighboring or nearby thermal traditional power plant. But, in all of these cases, they are extremely -- it does raise the prospect of some kind of meltdown if those other power systems should fail.

They also point out that Ukrainian staff there are working under extreme duress, and that there are severe problems in terms of the supply of spare parts, maintenance, and so on.

So, the long-term sustainability of this nuclear power station is being called into question. And then, of course, they rightly point out that there was shelling on the day that they arrived. They are not pointing the finger at who is doing the shelling. This is -- there has been some shelling inside the power plant itself, but particularly in the dormitory town nearby.

The Ukrainians blame the Russians and the Russians blame the Ukrainians for that. But we do know it's used as a fire base for the Russians, Ana.

CABRERA: And let me ask you this, Sam, because a U.S. official is telling CNN that Russia is in the process of buying a huge amount of artillery from North Korea?

What does that say then about Russia's military capability right now.

KILEY: It's quite intriguing that they would be going all the way to North Korea, a nation that is already under a vast array -- array of economic sanctions and pressure from the West, natural allies perhaps in terms of international pariahs.

[13:15:05]

But, more importantly, Korea does have an arms industry. And it's clear, then, if they are buying supplies -- and according to people talking to CNN, they're talking about thousands of rockets and artillery shells -- that means that the Russians are beginning to run down the stocks of their preexisting stockpile of heavy weapons or the machinery or the missiles to put in their heavy weapons, which would indicate that they're naturally -- they're running dry, that their old stockpiles are running down.

That is dangerous for them.

CABRERA: Sam Kiley, it's all interesting. Thank you for the latest.

What were they up to? New video first obtained by CNN shows pro-Trump operatives entering a Georgia election office on the very same day a voting system there was breached. We will talk to you about who that woman is coming up and bring you the details.

Plus, the war over where you work. More companies demanding a full return to the office, but more workers are pushing back. Who has the upper hand?

And he was on house arrest waiting for his sentence for the biggest corruption scandal in U.S. Navy history. Now that man known as Fat Leonard is on the run.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:35]

CABRERA: Today, new video first obtained by CNN is shedding more light on the day a voting system in Georgia was illegally breached, the video showing a former Republican county official escorting two operatives from team Trump who were both hired by an attorney for then-President Donald Trump showing them into an election office there.

Drew Griffin has this reporting for us.

Drew, you have got this video. Who's on it exactly? What does it show?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let me set the scene.

This is Coffee County, Georgia. So this is a very rural Georgia at an office where voting machines were illegally breached January 7, Ana, 2021, the day after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

At the door is Cathy Latham. She is the former chairwoman of the Coffee County GOP. This woman is already under investigation for posing as one of those fake electors who signed the documents declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election, instead of Joe Biden. Latham is now escorting there in that video a team of these pro-Trump operatives into the elections office, including an I.T. specialist working with Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.

Text messages, e-mails, witness testimony from a civil lawsuit in Georgia shows that there's a connection between Latham and a plan to give this group access to this office. Now, about a week before this voting machine breach, before, Latham is testifying before the Georgia state legislature with Rudy Giuliani about alleged voter machine irregularities in Coffee County. Latham's attorney told CNN in his statement: "Ms. Latham has not acted

improperly or illegally and that Ms. Latham did not authorize or participate in any ballot scanning efforts, computer imaging or any similar activity."

And, Ana, Coffee County, why is it happening there? This is a huge Republican stronghold. Donald Trump won the county with 70 percent of the vote. It seems fairly obvious they found a very sympathetic election official who would give them access to this election office.

CABRERA: So, what more can you tell us then, Drew, about the other two people in that video, those two guys who showed up at the office, and what did they say their intentions were on that day?

GRIFFIN: Well, those two guys, one is Paul Maggio. He seems to be the leader of this group. He's the I.T. guy.

And the other one is Scott Hall, who's kind of just like a political, do whatever kind of aide kind of guy. What we know is that, later on, we have video that we have listened to of Hall talking about what they did down in Coffee County. And he specifically said: "We scanned all the equipment, we imaged all the hard drives, and we scanned every single ballot."

We haven't been able to get in contact with either one of those men to say exactly what they were doing. But that is according to audio we have of Mr. Hall. That's what they were doing.

CABRERA: And, Drew, when we talk about voting systems breach, this apparently isn't the only place this kind of thing has happened?

GRIFFIN: No, there are a series of these breaches, Ana, in voting machines in other states. At least one of the breaches in Michigan looks exactly like this. And, there, some of the same people are connected to this.

And look at this. We want to show you this man. This is a week-and-a- half later. That is the CEO of Cyber Ninjas at that same Coffee County elections office, Doug Logan. He was there for two days. His company, Ana, remember, who manned that partisan so-called audit in Arizona, he is also named as a co-conspirator in this vote machines scheme in Michigan.

And now here he is in Coffee County, Georgia, where election machines were tampered with. It all points to a coordinated type of plan to try to overturn the election results of 2020, which, of course, there was no fraud, so they couldn't prove. But this was all part of their plan to prove it -- Ana.

CABRERA: And what a Web of connections between all these different states, with some of the similar players involved.

Drew Griffin, thank you for your reporting.

Let's discuss now with CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers with me here in New York. Jennifer, just how big of a deal is this new surveillance video

evidence?

[13:25:01]

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's powerful evidence of these connections, right?

I mean, it's one thing to say that local officials were on board with calling the election fraudulent and trying to do audits or even trying to commit crimes themselves by breaking into the voting machines or what have you. But the connections to team Trump are really strong here, that Sidney Powell's people were involved in this, this Rudy Giuliani connection.

So that's where it gets interesting, because, of course, it's one thing to say you think somebody might be pulling the strings. It's another thing to look at the people who were pulling the strings the strings on the videotape.

CABRERA: Again, the timing here, day of the breach to a voting system, when we see the surveillance video captures people entering that elections office.

If investigators can actually prove any of those people illegally breached the voting system, how much trouble are they in?

RODGERS: Well, so this is not really something that federal law addresses. But all 50 states have laws that cover this, including Georgia.

So there are laws against interfering with voting apparatus. There are laws against computer intrusion. So it really just depends what they can prove was done. But one way to go about this and probably the simplest way is to charge some of those people with the kind of lowest level crimes, like a computer intrusion or something like that, once you can prove it, and then you flip them and then you talk to them about who they were working with, and so on and so forth, and go up the chain to see whether you can build a bigger conspiracy case.

CABRERA: Again, Cathy Latham, the woman who escorts these pro-Trump operatives into this elections office, is already under investigation in two criminal investigations, or at least involved in these two. This is the Fulton County investigation in Georgia I'm talking about, as well as the Justice Department investigation into the fake electors schemes.

She signed the slate to be a fake elector from Georgia. Would she become somebody prosecutors might try to flip in these broader investigations?

RODGERS: Potentially, especially since she seems to be involved in multiple pieces of them.

I mean, one interesting thing here, though, is, to the extent that they focus on a narrow criminal issue, the intrusion issue, that's a Coffee County issue. That's not a Fulton County issue necessarily. And the federal side, they won't be able to charge that either, because it's a Georgia law.

So the interesting thing is, who's going to charge her with what, where is the charge is going to be broad, and then how can they try to bring this all together into the bigger picture scheme?

CABRERA: Again, surveillance video on the day of this breach, also the day after the insurrection. What do you make of that?

RODGERS: Well, their efforts continued.

The transfer of power didn't happen until the 20th. And we know that, almost up until that moment, there were still these machinations going on among the Sidney Powell types, the Rudy Giuliani types, and all these other folks surrounding the president to try to overturn these results.

So, unfortunately, it didn't end on January 6, Trump is still talking about it now.

CABRERA: That's a good point.

Thank you so much, Jennifer Rodgers. I really appreciate you being here. Good to see you.

Summer is almost over. For some of us, it may already feel that way, because it's after Labor Day. Schools are back. Kids are back in school. And there's this new push to get workers back in the office heating up. More companies are looking to scale back all those work- from-home policies.

But do they risk driving their workers away permanently?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]