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"Sham" Voting Underway In Russian-Occupied Areas Inside Ukraine; Biden Attends Democratic Event, Draws Clear Contrast With GOP; FL Lawmaker Sues DeSantis To Block Future Migrant Flights; Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 23, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell.

We begin with Vladimir Putin's latest illegal attempt to justify his war in Ukraine. Today, he's orchestrated a referendum where separatist leaders in four occupied Ukrainian regions are voting on whether to become part of the Russian Federation. Now, these referendums are considered a sham by Kyiv and other Western nations. U.S. officials believe Putin will use the results to escalate the war even further.

CAMEROTA: Back in Russia, we're seeing more emotional goodbyes as people are forced to leave their families and join Putin's military.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Speaking in a foreign language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got two kids at conscription age, says this protester. I brought them up alone. And I don't want to lose them, she cried.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Speaking in a foreign language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And for what? Asks her friend. They're just so they can kill the sons of other mothers, she asks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN International Security editor Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. So, Nick, let's start with this referendum vote. Officials say that some Ukrainians are being forced to vote. How's that being done?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, some of this is clearly because of the implied pressure of being occupied by a military force of Russia or in terms of the times the direct pressure. It appears that moment ballot boxes are being brought to people's homes. There's been a suggestion people have simply been walked to polling stations. I should point out. There's been great confusion as to how this whole process, I should call it that not really a vote was going to play out. Their thoughts that the in-person voting would happen in the last days, appear to be much more haphazard, and people are simply being asked to put their marks on a piece of paper. But none of this, of course, is anything remotely approaching democracy and being done under the pressure of military occupation.

The point of course, though, is that we emerge probably in the middle of next week with a round endorsement, an extraordinarily high percentage number of people in these occupied areas according to these Kremlin results, we're likely to see who will endorse becoming part of Russia. Why does Moscow need that? Well, they, of course, need to pretend that there's some sort of mandate that the people they've gone in, in their mind to save from what they falsely refer to, as an extremist government in Kyiv want to become part of Russia. Subsequently, they can then say, well, maybe now these are part of Russia, we have the right to use further measures at our disposal to defend these areas.

They've tried it before in other parts, certainly Crimea and in Chechnya as well in the past and look set to repeat it here. Ukraine, absolutely clear that this is a scam as on many Western officials, and at the same time, Ukraine telling people to not go along this, to report pressure against them. And fundamentally middle of next week, the big question is, how does this change? What Russia think is you can get away with on the front lines, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for being there for us and reporting. So blindsided and outraged by Putin's draft order, protests have erupted across Russia, leading to more than 1300 arrests.

BLACKWELL: And three days Russians have been rushing out of that country. Traffic lines, the highways of Russia's border towns, a border guard official says more than 6400 Russians crossed into Finland on Thursday alone. Russians fear a more widespread draft could be in their future.

Joining us now is CNN national security analyst Steve Hall. He's the former CIA chief of Russia operations. Steve, good to see you. I wonder what -- from your perspective Putin makes up this rush out of the country for people to get across the borders after his call for this national unity of this partial mobilization?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Victor, I think it's one embarrassment after another for Vladimir Putin. I mean, everywhere he steps, every move he makes on the international scene, where we have clear access to see what's actually going on, you know, it's just embarrassing. I mean, you've got, you know, a good portion of your young male population who could be called up voting with their feet. Interestingly, the Baltics have closed the border to most Russians. Finland is one option for them still, as are some other places that have less of a -- of a strong visa regimen like Turkey, for example. But you know, no matter what happens, he seems to pay a price for it at least in the eyes, I think not necessarily of the Russian people so much but in terms of those who surround him. His senior lieutenants are looking at this and saying, Geez, it's just not going very well for Vladimir Putin these days. And they're right about that.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's talk about the Russian people and the sentiment of the Russian people because we -- see, we have some videos of families obviously, you know, being -- saying these very emotional goodbyes because the men are being called up in the reserve to go fight. You can see girlfriends, wives, mothers, children, not wanting them here to go, very emotional.

[14:05:05]

Is it possible that there is such widespread unhappiness with this move that the public sentiment does turn against Vladimir Putin, and then what happens?

HALL: You know, the video that you all showed at the lead into the segment was fabulous with that one -- with that one woman saying, (speaking in a foreign language) what for? I mean, if there's one message that Vladimir Putin needs to hear from his people, it's why are we doing any of this? It's the Secretary of State -- the American Secretary of State said the other day, yesterday, I believe, there's only one person who's responsible for all this and it's Vladimir Putin. And I think, you know, the populace knows this.

However, on the other side, we have to remember that Vladimir Putin is an expert at penetrating and understanding and neutralizing what these opposition groups and you know, not necessarily formal groups, sometimes just groups of rioters, groups of protesters, they'll just send the police and beat them up and send them to jail. But what he is concerned about is if the system in Russia starts to fray at the edges, starts to break apart, then those strong lieutenants that surround him are going to say, you know, it's not going very well, the direction we're going in Vladimir, we're going to have to do something different maybe with a different leader. So I think that's what he's really got to be concerned about, as opposed to, you know, rioters or protesters on the street,

BLACKWELL: The votes that are happening in these four areas to join the Russian Federation, again, Ukraine, the West, they call those these sham votes. What should people expect after these votes and how Putin will use these to escalate this war?

HALL: Well, he's going to annex. That's exactly what he's doing. And I think there's two important things about this week. But the first is we in the West have a short attention span. You know, I can -- I can already hear it. Six months from now, somebody's going to say, well hold on a second, didn't they hold referendums in those locations? Didn't the people of Donbass and in the southern part of Ukraine actually vote to be with Russia? The answer is absolutely not. This is Russia running an operation that leads to annexation.

The second thing is, is that this is all, of course, illegal. It's against international law which in places like the United Nations, Russia loves to tout its international law. And until of course, they start breaking international law. It's a mystery to me why the United Nations can't, for example, do something about Russia not participating and not paying any attention whatsoever to the UN Charter by doing things like annexing its neighbors.

CAMEROTA: Steve Hall, thank you very much for your help explaining all of this.

BLACKWELL: 46 days now until the midterm elections and leaders in both parties are hammering home their targeted messages. President Biden today at a Democratic National Committee event drew a clear contrast with Republicans on key voter issues including abortion rights.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Justice Alito said the woman can decide the outcome of this election paraphrasing some "in the -- in the actual decision." Well, he isn't seen nothing yet. I don't believe the MAGA Republicans have a clue about the power of American women. Let me tell you something. They're about to find out.

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CAMEROTA: OK. Then over in Pittsburgh, it was the Republicans' turn House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans unveiled their new agenda called commitment to America. CNN's Melanie Zanona is in Pittsburgh for us. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House. Arlette, I'll start with you. So what is President Biden's message to voters before the midterms?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, President Biden actually just arrived here back at the White House moments ago after trying to offer that contrast between what he has billed as Magan -- MAGA Republicans and their agenda and what Democrats have to offer in their platform. Much of the president's speech today really offer a posed as a rebuttal to that proposal that was outlined by GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy earlier today, the President calling that" a thin series of policy goals with little or no detail."

The president said that Kevin McCarthy made no mention of trying to protect Social Security or Medicare or abortion rights. The issue of abortion is something that the White House has really been leaning into in recent days. The president in that speech, vowing that if Republicans were to win the House and Senate, that he would veto any legislation that might ban abortion, Democrats are really hoping that the issue of abortion rights will help energize and galvanize voters heading into the midterm elections.

But the president also once again pushed back against what he has described as MAGA Republicans who have refused to accept the result of the election. The president saying that that has become a litmus test in the Republican Party, and he pushed back against those Republicans who have not condemned insurrectionists

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: MAGA Republicans didn't side with law enforcement. They sided with the insurrectionists. And they still do. Don't tell me you support law enforcement if you can't condemn what happened on January the sixth. Don't tell me that. You can't -- you can't be pro-law enforcement and pro-insurrection.

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[14:10:14]

SAENZ: So the president in that speech touching a number of these issues that he believes are at stake in the -- in this election, including saying that he believes democracy is at stake.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn to you, Melanie, and this commitment to America. What's the headline here from Kevin McCarthy's event with members of his conference?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, you know, Victor, what really stood out to me today was what wasn't said at the event. And that is the topic of abortion. That is something that Republicans have struggled with. They've tried to avoid talking about the subject. As Arlette pointed out, it is an issue that Democrats have been galvanized by. And so they did not talk about it at all today, and their platform only has a passing reference to abortion, saying that they're going to protect the lives of unborn children and their mothers without articulating how exactly they plan to do that.

And the other thing that wasn't really talked about a lot today was Donald Trump. There were no MAGA hats. There was no Donald Trump gear and the audience would be typical for an event like this. But his MAGA policies were woven throughout this agenda that was unveiled today, especially when it comes to crime and the border. Take listen to how House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy talked about these issues at the official rollout today.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R-CA): We've watched what's happened to our border. But now we're watching it create every community to be a border community. Fentanyl, the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. That poison starts in China and comes across our border. Do you realize it's killing 300 Americans every day? It's like an airliner crashing each day. That happened three days in this country would say it's a crisis and we change it. But the White House tells us it's secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: Now, this agenda also has a focus on the economy and fighting inflation, as well as education rights and holding the Biden administration accountable with investigations. These are the issues that Republicans think are going to be the most salient in the midterms. And so really the goal here, Victor and Alisyn, is to give candidates a platform to run on in the fall and draw a contrast with their democratic opponents. CAMEROTA: Really interesting to hear what both sides are leaning into there. Arlette, Melanie, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: A Democratic lawmaker in Florida is suing Governor Ron DeSantis. He says the governor violated state law when he flew migrants to Martha's Vineyard. That lawmaker joins us next.

CAMEROTA: And Canadians are bracing for what could be the strongest storm to ever hit their coast. And we're monitoring another hurricane threat to the U.S.

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CAMEROTA: Hurricane Fiona is heading for Canada. People in Nova Scotia are preparing for possible 40-foot waves. Emergency officials warn it will likely be a significant historic weather event.

BLACKWELL: And forecasters in the U.S. are closely watching this tropical depression. This could become the first hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. possibly by next week. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking both storms. Jen, what do you see?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Guys, there's a lot to cover. We'll start with Fiona because this one's significant and the impacts of this are really already being felt across the coast of Canada and will be deteriorating as we go throughout the evening hours. This storm has 130 mile-per-hour winds with gusts of 160. It's moving very quickly right now at about 35 miles per hour. You can see already rain on the coast of Nova Scotia, basically covering all of Nova Scotia.

Now, this is going to slow down significantly right after it makes landfall. We're talking about a storm with 100-mile-per-hour winds possibly on the eastern side of Nova Scotia, this is tomorrow morning. So it quickly reaches the coast and then slows down. We could see six to eight feet of storm surge, wave heights of 26 to 40 feet, unbelievable. You can see these colors in hot pink, that indicates 35 to 40-foot wave heights across that eastern edge. And then they'll continue as we go into Saturday morning, Saturday evening, the rainfall accumulation could be anywhere from six to 10 inches across this region. So that is going to be significant for Canada.

This is Tropical Depression Nine. You can see it right there with 35- mile-per-hour winds moving at 14. Now this one's going to be interesting because the water is very, very warm across the Caribbean. We could see a major storm. This storm could go through rapid intensification where it strengthens very, very quickly. And so we're going to be watching it closely. Category 1 possibly, and then even Category 3 by the time it makes it to Florida in the middle part of the week. We're watching it closely, guys.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jennifer Gray. Thank you.

GRAY: Thanks. CAMEROTA: OK. So New York City is planning to open emergency shelters to house the more than 13,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since April. Many are arriving on buses sent by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. In Florida, a state senator is now suing to block Governor Ron DeSantis from putting more migrants on flights to and from other states that have nothing to do with Florida. State senator Jason Pizzo argues that last week's flights from Texas to Martha's Vineyard violate Florida law, and he claims DeSantis illegally misspent taxpayer dollars. That state senator, Jason Pizzo, joins us now. Senator, thanks so much for being here.

[14:20:01]

So, you think that Governor DeSantis does not have the authority to spend one and a half million taxpayer dollars from Floridians to deal with migrants in two other states, Texas, and Massachusetts? But Governor DeSantis says that he does. And he basically says that you and your fellow lawmakers in Florida gave him that authority. So here's what he says.

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GOV. RON DESANTIS, (R-FL): The legislature gave me $12 million. We're going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we're protecting the people in the state of Florida.

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CAMEROTA: OK, so why is that wrong?

JASON PIZZO, DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR, FLORIDA STATE: The legislature gave him $12 million in the general appropriations budget of $109 billion this year, with a few requirements that are pretty easy to understand. The first is it has to be an unauthorized alien. That's a requirement. The second requirement is they have to be from this state, the state obviously being Florida. And when you're paying for hotel rooms and meals and haircuts, and $12,000 per person to fly them with to pitstops on the way to Martha's Vineyard, you're spending Floridians' dollars in contravention of the law.

CAMEROTA: So what's the status of your lawsuit? How long will this take to resolve?

PIZZO: We filed it last night. We heard back from the judge about scheduling a case management conference to try to expedite the proceedings. And it's not a typical lawsuit. It's for injunctive relief. Within the four quarters of a very simple to understand the law that was passed just this session by his own party, he's just not playing by the rules that he said. And so we expect in this coming week, we were hoping for today, but in this coming week, just to stop the bleeding and the hemorrhaging of dollars going outside the state of Florida.

CAMEROTA: The 50 migrants that Governor DeSantis flew from Texas to Martha's Vineyard were from Venezuela. And they say that they were fleeing Nicolas Maduro, who they consider a dictator. I don't have to tell you that southern Florida -- South Florida has the nation's largest Venezuelan population. Do you know how they're feeling about all of this?

PIZZO: Sure. Many of my 550,000 constituents are Venezuelan-born. And I personally know a number of people who have successfully received asylum, that if they were to return, they have a credible fear of being persecuted. And so this is the ultimate sort of hypocrisy, you know. Governor DeSantis and I sort of track ancestral history the same, you know. Our families came over around the same time. And to see in southern -- in South Florida, especially Republican, especially Hispanic Republicans, forgetting where the last generation or two generations and how they got here under what circumstances, is hypocritical and shameful, to say the least.

CAMEROTA: CNN and NBC are reporting that there's a financial link between that airline charter company that made that flight and DeSantis's state basically immigration czar, the person that he chose to help fight he says illegal immigration, so that somehow that man, Lawrence Keefe, had worked for the airline company. Is that a problem?

PIZZO: You know they got component taxes, not on crime. And let me just be very, very clear. Our injunction is very, very narrowly tailored. A law was passed -- two actually, this past session just a few months ago, signed into law by this governor, and he can't comply with that. I am simply narrowly -- I mean, there's a bunch of emotion and passion as right there should be and I'm sure we're going to find out about nefarious clandestine connections, but very simply, he cannot spend these dollars outside of Florida on unauthorized aliens or aliens at all outside of Florida. I think we're going to see a lot that's going to come out of this. I think there's probably going to be a continuing pattern of stereotypical cronyism. Absolutely, the single purpose for my injunctive relief is simply to stop the hemorrhaging of dollars.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly. We just listened to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy talking about the fentanyl crisis and how many Americans are being killed by fentanyl. And fentanyl is coming, he says over the southern border. And so in that way, does Governor DeSantis have a point that yes, Florida wasn't involved in any of this between Texas and Martha's Vineyard, but that fentanyl affects every state, and every state has to do something about what's happening at the border?

PIZZO: Rather uniquely, even though I'm a Democrat in an overwhelming majority legislature, bicameral, the overwhelming majority is Republican. I'm the chair of the criminal justice committee in the Florida Senate. I agenda the bill as it relates to increased penalties for opioid abuse, including the death penalty, and I voted for the bill. I'm a law enforcement guy. I'm law and order.

Absolutely, I believe that's a problem. And if the governor had proposed to this legislature, can we use some Florida dollars to go over the border to help interdictions on drug possessions and drug seizures? I'm all for it. I might even personally chip in. That's not where we are.

CAMEROTA: Florida State Senator Jason Pizzo, thank you very much for your time.

PIZZO: Thank you.

[14:25:00]

BLACKWELL: The House GOP officially unveiled the party's agenda ahead of the midterms with a focus on border security and the president's handling of inflation, the White House communication director's response next.

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BLACKWELL: In the final push towards the midterms, Republicans are focusing on issues that hit close to home like inflation. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed Democrats today for not tackling the issue. This is in Pittsburgh.

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