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Storm Forecast To Hit Florida As A Major Hurricane Within Days; Interview With Naples, Florida Mayor Teresa Heitmann; Russia's War On Ukraine; Trump Waging Secret Court Fight To Block January 6 Testimony By Ex-Aides; PA Senate Race: John Fetterman Holding Campaign Rallies In Philly; Dr. Oz's Fight For Republican Support; Desperation At Border As Russians Flee Putin's War Draft; Alex Jones Says He's Done Apologizing To Sandy Hook Families. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 24, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:30]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with a state of emergency in parts of Florida ahead of what is expected to be the first major hurricane to hit the state since 2018.

Tropical Storm Ian strengthened overnight and is forecast to intensify into a major hurricane when it moves into the Gulf of Mexico in the next few days. The landfall possible in the west side of Florida as early as Wednesday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has put a state of emergency in place for 24 counties in the storm's path, and is urging people across the state to start getting ready.

We have team coverage tracking Tropical Storm Ian. CNN's Carlos Suarez is covering storm preparations and meteorologist Allison Chinchar is in the weather center. Let's begin with you, Allison. So you've got a new update from the National Weather Center?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We did. We did and we're getting a good look now. Now that we have sunlight now for several hours of what this storm looks like on visible satellite. It's starting to come together. You can see signs that the storm is beginning to strengthen even though the winds really haven't jumped all that much.

We're still looking at sustained winds about 45 miles per hour, gusting up to 60 miles per hour. We have tropical storm watches in effect for Jamaica, but hurricane watches for the Cayman Islands and the reason for that is we anticipate this storm is expected to strengthen to at least a Category 1, possibly even a Category 2 hurricane by the time it crosses over the Cayman Islands.

Then it will strengthen even more as it is making its way up towards Cuba, perhaps getting into that major hurricane strength once it's making its way into the Gulf of Mexico.

Part of that reason is look at how warm these sea surface temperatures are in that forecast track. You're talking mid-to-upper 80s right there along the surface. But even as you start to go down tens of feet, when we look at that overall ocean heat content, it is still also very warm.

So even though the layers beneath it, it's that very warm water that helps fuel these types of storms. Then it begins to make more of that right-hand turn back towards Florida. As of now basically anything from Apalachicola all the way down to Key West is still a possibility in terms of landfall with this system.

Obviously, the center point closer to Tampa, but you could see this shift over the next couple of days. Part of that shift is because the models are not in very good agreement.

The European model, the blue dot here is much faster, making landfall likely in the first half the day Wednesday but it's in south Florida. The American model, the red dot, much slower. A landfall more likely to be later into Thursday, possibly even Friday morning. But up towards the big bend area of Florida. big bend

And so that's that inconsistency and that uncertainty in the models that really makes us kind of question exactly when and where this storm is going to go.

Fred, the other thing is we still got a lot of other systems out in the Atlantic that we will be watching in the coming days as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted on that, Allison. Thank you.

Carlos, what are officials across Florida telling people?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, this morning we got word that we might be getting an evacuation order out of Monroe County which are the Florida keys. But just a few minutes ago, officials there said that they weren't going to issue any order just yet because there is so much uncertainty about exactly where Ian is going to ultimately end up at.

That being said, officials have been telling folks to use the weekend to go ahead and make their final preparations because they want them to be done by Monday night.

Now, going into the weekend, the governor did declare a state of emergency in 24 counties and he also activated the Florida National Guard and he put them on stand-by. Now exactly where all of these resources will ultimately end up depends on where Ian ultimately tracks.

We are being told that if any evacuation order came out of the Florida Keys as of right now, it would really only involve anyone that is visiting that part of the state or folks that live in a mobile home. Fred, as you very well know, the folks down in the Keys, no strangers to hurricanes, but a lot of them have been -- WHITFIELD: Yes. They're vulnerable.

SUAREZ: -- they have been and they've been rebuilding since about 2017 when Hurricane Irma made landfall. That was a Category 4 storm and it really wiped out a good part of the middle and the lower keys.

WHITFIELD: Yes. This is going to rattle a lot of nerves today and tomorrow and the next day.

SUAREZ: The good thing is there is plenty of time. So they just want folks to, if you can go and get it done today and tomorrow, do it. But if not, be ready by Monday night.

[11:04:53]

WHITFIELD: Sandbagging and boarding up. All right. Carlos, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right. Let's bring in Teresa Heitmann, the mayor of Naples, Florida which is in the path of the storm. Mayor Heitmann, so good to see you. So how are people preparing there?

MAYOR TERESA HEITMANN -- NAPLES, FLORIDA: Well, as you can see behind me, everyone at the beach is relaxing and -- wonderful calm before the storm.

And now into the community, of course, people are preparing, they are buying their water and their canned foods and make sure you have that handheld old-fashioned can opener as I have been telling people.

But basically, right now, we are preparing and planning for the potential hurricane.

WHITFIELD: And so tell me about that stocking up because something tells me that might be particularly difficult this go around because already a lot of stores have been without fully stocked shelves for a very long time and now you have people who have a great need for water, batteries and all of that. Do you have the supplies in -- at the ready?

(CROSSTALK)

HEITMANN: We do have supplies.

WHITFIELD: Do you have of the supplies ready?

HEITMANN: We do have the supplies and we definitely have trucks coming in to resupply what we need. The thing right now is just making sure that people are prepared. You know, preparing their -- whether it's records that they might have to take with them, pet kits, making sure that their homes are prepared.

That, you know, they are securing any potential flying objects because you know, this might be the calm before the storm, but when those gusts potentially start winds on Tuesday and possible storm surge, sometimes that can be even far more devastating than a hurricane that could come towards us.

WHITFIELD: Governor DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for 24 counties. What do you expect will be needed over the coming days for your county?

HEITMANN: I'm happy that he has declared a state of emergency. That prepares us for FEMA flood funds. And also for price-gouging, which is really important.

(AUDIO GAP) our residents are preparing and we'll have a meeting tomorrow with our emergency management and our city manager, Mr. Jay Boodheshwar to make the plan when we might have to declare a state of emergency, which means (AUDIO GAP).

WHITFIELD: All right. Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann. We're going to leave it there because, obviously, the signal isn't the greatest but again, we are on the precipice of a major storm, that is threatening your area and pretty much the entire Gulf Coast of Florida. Thank you so much.

All right. Now, to another major storm that we are watching. Fiona is slamming eastern Canada after making landfall as a post-tropical cyclone earlier this morning. Hurricane warnings are in effect as damaging winds and heavy rain pound the region.

Fiona is already leaving behind a bringing down trees and power lines. More than 500,000 customers are without power. And some folks in Nova Scotia are being asked to shelter in place amid widespread outages and damage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRIAN BURTON, CHANNEL PORT AUX BASQUES, NEWFOUNDLAND: We've kind of right up until the 11:30 p.m. last night, we were still making calls to residents to try to give some heads up that you need to be up, you need to be watching what's going on and you need to be ready to move at a moment's notice if you don't already move right then.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Fiona has already caused massive destruction for millions in Puerto Rico. The storm hit the region as a Category 1 hurricane, killing two people and knocking out power to the entire island at one point.

And right now, just over half the island is still without electricity. And many people still don't have running water.

On Thursday President Biden authorized 100 percent federal funding for power restoration, debris removal, and search and rescue efforts.

Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM, what's being called a sham referendum is underway in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine today. This as President Biden offers a fresh warning to Russia. Live to Ukraine coming up. Plus, countdown to the midterms. In this country, John Fetterman hits the campaign trail today as he fends off fresh criticism from Dr. Mehmet Oz. We will take you to the battleground of Pennsylvania.

[11:09:39]

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WHITFIELD: Ukrainians are voting again today in what are being called sham referendums on joining Russia. The referendums which are illegal under international law are taking place in four Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

President Biden says the U.S. will never recognize results of the vote and also warned of further economic consequences if Russia tries annexing these territories.

The referendums come as protests continue across Russia over Vladimir Putin's new military draft.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. So, Nick, where do things stand?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as it stands, it is remarkable to learn that in one of the occupied areas of Ukraine that's occupied by Russia where the sham vote is happening at the barrel of a gun often, in fact, as are men taking ballot boxes around people's houses.

In Donetsk People's Republic, early figures suggest that only 19,000 people have in fact already voted. Only 550 of those did so actually in that occupied part of the Ukraine. The rest were voting inside of Russia.

[11:14:56]

WALSH: And that gives you an idea really as to kind of how -- how the integrity of this vote, even under official statements, is playing out. But we saw ourselves exactly what it means for ordinary Ukrainians in areas held by Ukraine, and that's the vast majority of the country, what life was like for them when those who are under occupation were being forced to take part in this referendum. Those are the ordinary Ukrainians who were still experiencing shell fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: As Russia forces a fake choice in a sham vote on occupied Ukrainians, elsewhere, Igor and Zeena make the daily deadly choice of their own. They must brave the shelling to go and get food.

ZEENA, BAKHMUT RESIDENT: We have no relatives, nowhere to go.

IGOR, BAKHMUT RESIDENT: It's worse and worse.

ZEENA: That's it. We're going home. WALSH: They have heard of Russia's staged referendums here in Bakhmut. But Moscow makes itself felt here with artillery rather than imposing a ballot, likely having entered the city's east.

The streets in a strange quiet as if in the eye of a storm where nobody is in control. They will still have to fight their way in.

A sign of how things are changing fast here. Ukrainian forces have blown the bridge in the middle of the city in the last day or so. Russian forces getting close.

The people left ask us not to film the outside of shelters as the Russians will target them and they've already gone underground as much as they can.

He is saying some of these things are taken from buildings that are being bombed and brought here. A lot of people want the back of their head filmed possibly because they are concerned that in the days ahead they may be under Russian control.

He tells me perhaps 20,000 people are still hiding out here, but there is no real way to know. The choice Russia imposes on Ukrainians here is spending nights underground and scurrying between shelter.

Days of hot words from Putin haven't cooled Ukraine's advance though. The threat of nuclear annihilation carries slightly less horror here on the road to liberated Izium where it looks like the apocalypse has already come, bar the radiation.

Ten days ago, Russia was kicked out of here after heavy fighting. Even the Russian Orthodox Church has collapsed. The devastation seems almost spur of the moment.

Announcements in Moscow about partial mobilization haven't really changed the dynamic here of an army that feels it's moving forward.

They've heard about Russia's mobilization and nuclear bombast here, too.

"It will have a role," he says, "but you need to train and supply people, so it won't make much difference as we have destroyed most of their armor."

"There is nothing worse than nuclear war," another says. "But you must understand these decisions aren't taken by one person and we see in Russia not everyone supports these moves."

This liberated road is where Donetsk region begins. Ukraine already taking back the places Putin made central to his goals and where fake ballot boxes and absurd claims of official Russian sovereignty cannot change who owns and who scarred the land.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

But in the extraordinary scenes we have seen in Russia as they mobilize, it seems thousands of individuals conscripted to go to the front line from vast swaths of Russian society. They made another key change too and that's to remove the deputy defense minister for logistics and replaced him.

The key issue for Russia having been over the past six, seven months -- they simply can't, as you heard there, equip, train or supply their regular army on the front line and that issue is clearly going to haunt the hurried and precarious drafting of ordinary Russians we are seeing at the moment. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much. We'll check back with you.

All right. Still ahead, the secret battle former President Donald Trump is waging to prevent a federal grand jury from getting information from his inner circle. A CNN exclusive next.

[11:19:26]

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WHITFIELD: All right. CNN has learned of a secret court battle being waged by former President Donald Trump's lawyers. Sources say Trump's attorneys are fighting to keep witnesses from testifying before a federal grand jury about Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

And as CNN's Jessica Schneider reports, this is the most aggressive effort yet by Trump to assert executive and attorney-client privileges.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Trump's legal team is looking to create a firewall here, a situation where a circle of former Trump aides and White House aides, if they are called before a grand jury, they would have a broad ability to deflect questions under this premise of executive or attorney-client privilege.

Now, we already know that at least four former officials have been before the grand jury regarding January 6th and that they have all declined to answer at least some questions citing executive privilege.

But the question here is how broad is executive privilege or attorney- client privilege. And that's what the DOJ and Trump's lawyers are litigating right now in secret.

[11:25:00]

SCHNEIDER: Now our team was tipped off about this when they saw several of Trump's lawyers leaving the D.C. federal courthouse on Thursday.

Our team has even uncovered emails from Eric Herschmann. He's a lawyer who worked for Trump. And in those e-mails, he's expressing frustration that he was told by Trump's team just to assert privilege over everything he could, resist answering any questions from the grand jury.

So now actually his subpoena is on hold while this fight plays out about how broadly privilege can be asserted. And if Trump's team loses here, that could mean that some of the White House officials who have already testified, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, they could be called back to the grand jury to give more detailed information.

But of course, this is all being played out under seal in secret court proceedings. So it could be a while to see exactly how this case is decided.

Jessica Schneider, CNN -- Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Joining me to talk more about this and other legal developments in the Trump investigation is Michael Zeldin. He is a former federal prosecutor and host of the podcast "That Said With Michael Zeldin".

Good to see you, Michael. So is this --

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Hey, Fred.

WHITFIELD: -- is this a viable route? Trump's secret court battle to keep aides from sharing information about efforts to overturn the 2020 election?

ZELDIN: It is. And what this is, is about essentially Watergate, Nixon tapes part 2. In the Nixon Watergate tapes case the independent counsel wanted the Watergate tapes that Nixon said he was not going to give because they were executive privilege, the Supreme Court said otherwise and they had to turn them over.

Here we have oral testimony where these counsel to the president have been told by the president not to speak to the special prosecutor here, the justice (AUDIO GAP) about their communications.

The Justice Department has said Nixon is precedent. We get to hear this testimony and you know, start talking. And Trump is saying otherwise and this court will decide this question and this question could viably make it to the Supreme Court because it really is a continuation of the Nixon Watergate tapes case theory.

WHITFIELD: So how would these conversations be protected when we're talking about what's at the root, which is potentially overthrowing government?

ZELDIN: Well, that's exactly the Justice Department argument saying that maybe there are certain classes of communications that a former president may have a right to assert executive privilege with respect to, but when you have a criminal investigation ongoing and we need to have communications told to us about the planning of that insurrection, then we have a greater need to know than the executive privilege, which is not absolute, would allow for. So that's -- you hit exactly the head of the DOJ argument.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And now separately this week, an Appeals Court handed the Department of Justice a victory allowing the DOJ to look at documents marked as classified, seized at Mar-a-Lago. So what is the big takeaway here on the impact of that ruling?

ZELDIN: Well, the district court judge -- Judge Cannon was upbraided (ph) by the 11th Circuit that her analysis was unsustainable. And what the Court of Appeals said here was that the Justice Department had to have these documents as a part of their national security investigation. Was there any compromise of sources and message and individuals? And that that investigation was inextricably linked to this damage assessment.

So that that all means that the DOJ can investigate the case with the classified documents and that nothing should prevent them from doing this.

This is what Judge Cannon, the district court judge, prevented which the Court of Appeals strikingly said, no, you are wrong, Judge.

WHITFIELD: And then Trump also tried to make the argument that a president can declassify a document without notifying anyone, any agency, or anyone else. That's not the case, right? So how will he continue to push that argument?

ZELDIN: What the Court of Appeals has said and what the special master has said is prove it, essentially, show us what you did to declassify it. Unlike his interview with Sean Hannity, you can't just think about it and have it mysteriously become declassified.

Show us the process that you followed. Prove to us that you declassified these documents and then we'll think about what that means. I don't think he is going to be able to do that because I don't think he did that, and I think, therefore, he loses on that effort, and therefore, the Justice Department will be able to look at these documents, continue its criminal investigation, continue its damage assessment. And we'll move forward and see whether these are viable cases for criminal indictment.

[11:30:05]

WHITFIELD: All right. And now a third legal matter involving the former president. This week the New York attorney general filed a $250 million civil lawsuit against Donald Trump and members of his family.

The suit accuses them of inflating or deflating assets for their gain in a massive fraud scheme that spans years before he ever entered the Oval Office. So do you believe the New York A.G. has a strong case here?

ZELDIN: Well, she has filed a complaint. We have to always remember in all litigation that the complaint or the indictment is just one side of the story. So this is Letitia James' story. She says that he inflated improperly values and that constituted fraud. We have yet to hear from the former president or Cushman and

Wakefield, the appraisal firm that is tied up in this thing, or Deutsche Bank, which is the bank that did the lending. So we really have to wait and see as the evidence unfolds how strong her case is.

But on the paper, she says that these values were artificially and fraudulently inflated and incites striking differentials between the appraised value that Trump submitted and what she says is the real appraised value.

But having worked at a big four consulting firm for 13 years, I know that valuations are very subjective and complicated. So I think the best thing to say is let's see. Let's see. Can she prove it and if she can, then she has a very strong case for disgorgement of profits and perhaps even disbarring her -- disbarring the Trump family from doing business in New York.

WHITFIELD: All right. Michael Zeldin, we will leave it there for now. Thanks so much.

ZELDIN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, the contentious battle for the Pennsylvania senate seat. A race that could be the key to Democrats keeping control. We're live in Philadelphia next.

[11:32:07]

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WHITFIELD: We are just over 45 days away until the high-stakes midterm elections, and one of the most closely watched races is for the senate race in Pennsylvania. Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman will face off against Republican rival Dr. Mehmet Oz.

And just this week Oz released his health records, a move which brings both candidates' health to the forefront as it comes after Fetterman recovers from suffering a stroke back in May.

CNN's Dan Merica joins us live from Philadelphia where Fetterman is holding a rally next hour. So Dan, what do we expect to hear from him?

DAN MERICA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, since Fetterman suffered that stroke in May he took about two months off the campaign and as we've seen him re-emerge it's been pretty standard Democratic fare.

He touched on important issues like abortion and other things that motivate Democrats. But a lot of it has been focused on Oz. You can hear how raucous the crowd is already here. Probably about 30 minutes to an hour before Fetterman comes out.

This is a -- in a sea of red in Pennsylvania in 2020, there were pockets of blue. Biden, obviously won the state. This was the bluest of blue pockets. Philadelphia County 81 percent went for Biden. This zip code that we're in right now 96 percent voted for Joe Biden. Fetterman needs to keep those totals to beat Oz in November. And his

team is well aware of that. That is why they are here. This is not about convincing people why he is a better candidate to Oz. This is about making sure that the Democrats here, Democratic-leaning voters are energized, excited and turn out for midterm elections.

Frankly, Fred, you know this. Democrats and Republicans, frankly, have not turned out in the levels in midterms that they do in presidential elections. That's what Fetterman is trying to counter here.

Now, the race between Oz and Fetterman, yes, it is centered on issues like the economy, inflation and abortion. It has also gotten notably personal.

You noted Oz put out his medical record, this week has called on Fetterman to do the same. That has been a center point of this race. Oz attacking Fetterman on his stroke and then the recovery he has had to undergo since then.

In response, Fetterman spent most of the summer accusing or attacking Oz of living in New Jersey until very recently. In fact, outside -- right here outside, there is a merchandise truck selling merchandise for Fetterman on the bumper -- up on the bumper is a New Jersey license plate with an arrow pointing to it that says "Doesn't that look familiar, Dr. Oz?"

So you're seeing how, yes, this is a race that's been about policy but Fred, it has also gotten very personal. This race is, arguably, the best chance Democrats have of picking up a senate seat in 2022. And this is going to continue to get more personal as we get closer to November.

WHITFIELD: Dan Merica, thank you so much.

Meantime, some members of the Republican Party are still not convinced Dr. Mehmet Oz is the right candidate for them.

CNN's Jessica Dean asked them about their concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bedford, Pennsylvania is home to an historic downtown. Scenic landscape and some of the Commonwealth's most conservative voters.

Former President Donald Trump won this county with more than 83 percent of the vote in 2020.

CROWD: The United States of America --

DEAN: Every week a group of retired veterans meets at the Route 220 diner to drink coffee and talk politics.

[11:39:48]

CLAY BUCKINGHAM, BEDFORD COUNTY VOTER: These are people that are running businesses and saying let us run our own show. We may not have all the education that you do and we may not know all of the -- all of the intricate things about economics, but we know how to balance a checkbook.

DEAN: This is the same diner Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz visited back in February. Oz eked out a primary victory after a recount, winning by just 951 votes. And faced the immediate challenge of consolidating the support of a somewhat skeptical Pennsylvania GOP base.

NED FREAR, BEDFORD COUNTY VOTER: Oz was Trump's candidate. He is not our candidate. People in Bedford County are probably going to hold their noses and vote for him because Fetterman is a dead loss as a candidate.

BUCKINGHAM: That's my feeling about Oz. I'm sorry that I am going to have to vote for him. But I would rather see him as a Senator than see Fetterman.

DEAN: A recent CBS News poll showed just 36 percent of Oz's supporters say they are, quote, "very enthusiastic" about voting for him. 64 percent of Republican voters in Pennsylvania said they wished someone else had been nominated.

Still in Bedford and neighboring Somerset County where Trump won with more than 77 percent of the vote, most Republican voters we spoke with are ready to cast their ballot for Oz. More than anything, eager to deny his opponent, Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, a win.

GUY BERKEBILE, CHAIRMAN, SOMERSET COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY: The big prize is control of the senate.

DEAN: Guy Berkebile is the chairman of the Somerset County Republican Party and he acknowledges that some local voters had doubts about the television doctor.

BERKEBILE: We are a very Christian-based conservative county. They were somewhat hesitant on Dr. Oz at first. You know, they weren't sold on his Second Amendment stance, a lot of pro-lifers here. They weren't told on whether he was pro-life or not.

Some of them took a little bit of time. But they're realizing that you know, my best option is to vote for Dr. Oz.

DEAN: Like a lot of the people who live here, Karen Walker Shaffer and Terry Mitchell have known each other for decades and they share a lot of the same concerns about the state of the nation.

KAREN WALKER-SHAFFER, SOMERSET COUNTY VOTER: The economy, inflation is just out of this world right now. Energy, it's a big issue right now. And, of course, the border crisis.

DEAN: Mitchell said she met Oz and his wife and found them to be genuine.

TERRY MITCHELL, SOMERSET COUNTY VOTER: Obviously, he is our candidate of choice now. So we need to back him because red is better than blue.

DEAN: Jennifer Faidly also saw Oz in person when he visited Somerset.

JENNIFER FAIDLY, SOMERSET COUNTY VOTER: I want to listen to what he had to say. And I liked a lot of things that he had to say.

DEAN: Are they voting for Oz or against Fetterman?

BERKEBILE: The sense that I get is that it's a very small portion of the voters who are saying I got to hold my nose and vote for Oz, I guess. You know, most of them come onboard. I am not getting any feedback that people are going to sit the election out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. And then something else to look forward to tomorrow. He is talking to some of the biggest names around. Catch "WHO IS TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE?" tomorrow night at 7:00 right here on CNN.

[11:43:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

Nearly 1,500 protesters have now been detained across Russia since demonstrations began on Wednesday, according to a monitoring group. That's when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a draft calling more Russians into military service for the war in Ukraine.

The same monitoring group said some protesters this week were conscripted directly into the military. There have also been scenes of long lines at border crossings of people trying to leave Russia.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has recaptured more than a thousand square miles of territory from Russia and the U.S. says Russia has lost dozens of tanks and other military equipment in recent fighting.

Let's bring in Susan Glasser. She's a CNN global affairs analyst and staff writer at the "New Yorker" and she's also the author of the new book "The Divider, Trump in the White House 2017 to 2021". Susan, good so see you.

All right. So what does it tell you that Putin has instituted this military draft?

It looks like we have a frozen signal there from Susan. All right. We're going to try and reestablish a connection. I think we are having an audio problem. We can see her but she can't hear us.

Oh Ok, Susan, how about now? Can you hear me now.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Ok. Thanks.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Hi. GLASSER: Yes. Absolutely

WHITFIELD: All right. Good to see you.

So I'm wondering, how do you interpret this. Is it a level of desperation by Putin that now he is instituting this draft of the military?

GLASSER: You know, I have to say I do think that for months Putin resisted this step. There is a reason why you can see that in some of the video that we're seeing come out of Russia with protests in the streets, you know, especially in rural areas, even you're seeing villages where many of the men are being rounded up even in the middle of the night.

The risk for backlash to Putin has grown enormously. It's one thing when you are waging a war and an intensive propaganda campaign among your own population and they don't feel its direct impact.

[11:49:48]

GLASSER: It's another thing when your husband, your father, your colleague in the office have the possibility, the very real possibility of being dragged away and within weeks into the front lines.

And so I do think the political risks of the war have gone way up for Vladimir Putin.

WHITFIELD: And I read that in some of these small towns, among those who are being rounded up against their will, drafted, conscripted -- however you want to put it -- they are hunters, they are fishermen, they are not -- they do not have a background of going into battle.

But it also means that many of them, you know, are not resisting. I mean, they're doing this against their will. Do you see that potentially once they are in country of Ukraine that they could very well just say I'm not doing this?

GLASSER: Well, certainly one of the big advantages -- Ukraine, of course, is a smaller country, doesn't have the same population as Russia, but it has the advantage of morale and it has the advantage of being in an existential fight, which means that the population in Ukraine is stuck together in ways that clearly Putin and his advisers, such as they are, did not anticipate.

And they have repeatedly -- the Ukrainians have repeatedly given us reports that their Russian opponents are not fighting, sometimes putting down their arms. They're intercepting communications in which they're, you know, complaining about the war as we saw in this very successful Ukrainian counteroffensive near Kherson recently. They were abandoning large amounts of equipment very abruptly. And so I do think that an advantage that Ukraine has right now is the morale of its fighters.

WHITFIELD: And then CNN reported this week that some of Putin's generals are disagreeing on where to focus their efforts to bolster Russian defense. How significant is that, that there is dissent within the ranks?

GLASSER: Well, look, of course, you know, there's always going to be disagreements. The question is how much do the Russian generals and military establishment feel free to present those objections to Vladimir Putin? By all accounts, and there's an interesting report in the "New York Times" suggesting that, you know, Putin is directly micromanaging aspects of the war in ways that recall some of the disastrous interventions of Stalin during World War II.

And you know, again, when you have civilians micromanaging and potentially military leaders not free to make decisions based on the military's best interests, that does not speak well of the war effort either.

Obviously, Vladimir Putin is not a military strategist and if this is his war, then also the consequences of its failure could redound more directly to him as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll leave it there for now. Susan Glasser, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. All eyes on Florida right now as a potential monster storm takes aim at the state. The latest on Ian's track in minutes.

[11:52:49]

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WHITFIELD: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones taking the stand this week at his latest defamation trial and getting into a heated exchange saying he is through apologizing to the families of Sandy Hook victims.

The "Infowars" host erupted in a fiery rant after tense questioning by the victims' attorney, and that exchange and shouting between attorneys prompting an admonishment from the judge who warned they could be held in contempt.

Here's CNN's Brynn Gingras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS: Yes, surprising twist in this trial when the defense attorney for Alex Jones decided to not put him back on the stand for cross-examination. It's within his legal right.

Defense attorney Norm Pattis (ph) actually said it was his decision to make but it does come after a very explosive testimony from Alex Jones the day before where the plaintiffs' attorneys questioned him on a number of things leading to some very fiery exchanges. Here's one.

CHRISTOPHER MATTEL, PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEY: You have families in this courtroom here that lost children, sisters, wives, moms.

ALEX JONES, "INFOWARS" HOST: Is this a (INAUDIBLE) session? Are we in China? I've already said I'm sorry hundreds of times and I'm done saying I'm sorry. I didn't generate this. I wasn't the first person to say it. American governors are being blamed for this as the left did so we rejected it mentally and said it must not be true. And I legitimately thought it might have been staged and I stand by that and I don't apologize for it.

MATTEL: Don't apologize, Mr. Jones. Please don't apologize.

JONES: No, I've already apologized to the parents over and over again.

MATTEL: Because we know --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Objection.

JONES: I don't apologize to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection. Objection, Judge. Objection, argumentative.

JONES: I don't apologize to you.

JUDGE BARBARA BELLIS, CONNECTICUT SUPERIOR COURT: Well, it's hard for me to get a word in edgewise.

GINGRAS: And after that happened, the judge actually warned not only Jones but both attorneys that they could be held in contempt of court if this kind of manner continues.

Now, it's the ending to a very emotional week where we heard from a number of victims' family members who talked about their loved ones who died in 2012 and how their lives continue to be impacted by not only Jones, but "Infowars" and his followers and the lies that they continue to spread.

Now it's unclear where we go now for court. That picks it back up next week. However, we do know that the defense attorney Norm Pattis said he does reserve the right to call Alex Jones back to the stand, so that is very possible to happen sometime next week.

I'm Brynn Gingras in Waterbury, Connecticut -- CNN.

[11:59:55]

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WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. Right now, a state of emergency is in place for parts of Florida.