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Zelenskyy Says Putin Not Bluffing on Nuclear Threat; NASA's DART Spacecraft Nearing Impact with Asteroid; British Pound Plummets against Dollar; Texts Show Brett Favre Pressing Former Governor on Funding. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 26, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Really they're just, I think, hoping it doesn't happen. And really the focus at the moment is, rather than on a potential nuclear attack, it's really trying to gain as much ground as possible.

In fact, we just got back from a town -- I can't mention the name because -- for security reasons -- but it was taken by Ukrainian forces on Saturday afternoon into the evening. What we saw was multiple pieces of Russian armor, either completely abandoned in perfect working order or totally destroyed.

And we saw several areas where there were dead bodies, dead Russian soldiers. We counted 22. And we were only, because of time limitations, allowed to go in a part of the town at that point.

But what we saw on our way up there was really -- you know, I've been covering Ukraine since last March. I have never seen so much armor heading to the front lines as I saw today. So it really appears that the Ukrainians are pressing this offensive as hard and as fast as they can.

This town we were in, just about 1.5 hours ago, it was retaken Saturday afternoon into the evening. And within less than 36 hours, the Russians had fallen back another 10 or so miles.

And speaking to the commanders on the scene, they said the Russian forces are in total disarray. When the Ukrainian forces started to push into town, they essentially abandoned most of their equipment that hadn't already been destroyed and simply left it and fled whatever way they could, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We've seen so much of that. Ben, it's good to have you there. Please keep you and your team safe.

Joining me now to discuss, Steve Hall, CNN national security analyst. He previously oversaw the CIA's operations in Russia.

Steve, good to have you on this morning.

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be here, Jim.

SCIUTTO: I've been speaking to U.S. officials, people recently in government and Russia observers a lot in the last week to ask their assessment of the nuclear threat. And I have noticed a change, a greater concern than they had a week ago or even a month ago.

And I wonder, do the public warnings we're hearing from U.S. officials, Blinken's comments, for instance, mean that their private concerns of the nuclear threat have grown more serious?

HALL: You know, without the detailed intelligence, Jim, and our understanding of what precisely we know, it's hard to say -- it's hard to compare the public, you know, approach versus the private one or the one that's informed by stuff that we don't know about.

I mean, I think it's quite clear -- and we saw this in yesterday's interview with the secretary of state. Of course, you have to take it seriously. It's not something that we can be flip about and just say there's no issue here.

But I think another important thing that Blinken said yesterday was there is a chain of command.

I think the question was, can anybody stop Putin from launching a nuclear strike?

You know, the answer is, yes. There is a chain of command and it's not a typical American or Western chain of command. But there are people who are watching this carefully inside of the power circles in Washington.

And I think at this point, if there was contemplation on Putin's part, serious contemplation, I think that would worry a lot of people in Moscow. And I think that's what has to be focused on.

SCIUTTO: To date, I should note that U.S. officials have said they have not yet seen movements of Russian nuclear forces, which would preface the use of them. We should note that.

But I do want to ask you, as an intelligence officer who has covered Russia for years, in your view, has Putin's losses, have his losses in Russia -- in Ukraine, rather -- the failure of virtually all -- I mean, really all of the strategic objectives there -- made such an attack more likely?

HALL: You know, to start with, from the intelligence perspective, you know, nuclear threats are, of course, some of the highest collection requirements that the U.S. government and our Western allies are watching.

So I think it's important viewers understand that there are all manner of intelligence assets set up by the United States and by our Western allies, NATO and others, to try to monitor this.

And you're correct. I think the word from the administration has been, while we are watching this, we have yet to see anything specific. SCIUTTO: Right.

HALL: So that's a very -- that's a very positive thing. But I think it's also -- you've heard from the administration, saying, look, the worse the options are for Vladimir Putin, you know, the more -- the higher the probability of him doing something that would normally be just unheard of -- whether it's a tactical nuclear weapon or a chemical or biological attack inside of Ukraine.

So yes, I think that's heightened. But again, it's not as though Putin can just do absolutely whatever he wants.

[09:35:00]

HALL: There are people in Russia who understand that, if you were to take those steps, it would get even worse for Russia.

And at what point do those other leaders in Russia say, look, we can't -- this we cannot tolerate?

And I think there's a high likelihood that, if there was a nuclear option out there, that would be -- there would be a lot of conversations inside the Kremlin walls about that.

SCIUTTO: OK you raise another important issue there and that is internal opposition in Russia.

From the outside, we like to talk about it a lot and we will see protests there and say, hey, maybe this shows that his support is not as strong as we thought or that there is a viable opposition, either at the popular level or that leaders, who could potentially challenge Putin, might be emboldened by the protests they're seeing there.

That said, we've seen protests like this before and they've faded away.

Given your experience, is the internal opposition to Putin more credible today than two months ago, than a year ago, a few years ago?

HALL: Pressure is definitely building. And I would argue that, you know, you're right; we have seen a lot of, you know, previous protests -- people taking to the streets. But this is, I think, a little bit different in the sense that you've got bigger issues at play.

Now you've got young Russian men being called up or essentially co- opted, forced, into a military conflict that, you know, a couple of weeks ago, they were watching from their couches. That is going to pull people out into the streets.

On the other side of the equation, though, of course, the Russian FSB, their internal security service plus the police forces and so forth, have these protests and these organizations extremely well covered.

And so, again, it's -- these things I'm sure upset Putin and anger him.

But it's, again, those senior people inside the Kremlin, who are saying, all right, how far are we going to go?

Things are looking bad in some of the areas that we thought were frozen conflicts previously. And they're becoming unfrozen. These are bad signs. So the pressure is indeed increasing on Putin.

SCIUTTO: Speaking of pressure, there are continuing questions about if and when European unity falters against Russia. First of all, you have economic pressures; you have a winter coming with potential energy crisis there but you also have political developments.

You look at Italy; Giorgia Meloni, far right candidate there, she supports Ukraine. But many in her coalition are pro Putin. And you see the results of other rightwing parties winning in other European countries, not so committed to supporting Ukraine.

Is that political risk one that could threaten that unity?

HALL: I think that Western unity, just to state the obvious, is absolutely critical. And our diplomats and other Western diplomats have to work really hard and I think are going to continue to work really hard to keep -- to keep Europe and the rest of the coalition, if you will, going against Russia strong.

The election of farther right wing governments in Europe, of course, can make that more challenging. But I am slightly positive about this because there's been a lot of bureaucratic things put in place -- sanctions; a lot of laws have been passed in the E.U., targeting not just Russia but those doing business with Russia.

So there's a lot of stuff that's in train that will be difficult to just put the brakes on if there's a change in power someplace.

SCIUTTO: You can say the same about here in the U.S. Large bipartisan votes on these measures. Steve Hall, always good to draw on your experience.

HALL: My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: Well, we are just hours away from a real life "Armageddon"- like -- I'm talking the movie there -- test mission. NASA planning to crash a rocket into an asteroid.

Why?

How are they going to do it?

That's coming up.

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[09:40:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING) SCIUTTO: Tonight, a cosmic mission that could one day save all

mankind. That is not a Hollywood intro. For the first time ever, NASA will attempt to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid in order to knock it off its trajectory. It could one day prevent a planetary disaster if one of those guys comes this way. CNN's Kristin Fisher joins me with more.

It's not going to blow it up like "Armageddon"-style; it just wants to divert it like a pool ball, right?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. The goal is not to make this asteroid explode; they're just going to nudge it off track. Remember, this spacecraft, the DART spacecraft -- short for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: That's really simple, yes.

FISHER: -- they love their acronyms -- it's been traveling in space for about 10 months. Tonight is what they call impact night. So at about 7:14 pm Eastern time, NASA is going to try to crash that spacecraft into an asteroid about the size of the Pyramid of Giza.

Not that big when you're thinking about the vast expanse of --

SCIUTTO: Coming in your direction, you would think differently.

FISHER: -- yes, absolutely. Yes, and this spacecraft only about the size of a refrigerator. So challenge number one for NASA is they have to prove that they can actually hit this thing. That spacecraft is traveling at 4 miles per second, about 14,000 miles per hour.

SCIUTTO: If we were to picture it would be it like a big boom or more like flick.

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: NASA describes it as a nudge. The goal is only to push this asteroid just a little bit off of its current orbit. So what we're going to see is -- there's going to be live cameras; we're going to see the impact. Spacecraft is going to shatter.

SCIUTTO: Wow, cool.

FISHER: But the asteroid, the goal, challenge number two, is to push this asteroid a small percentage point off its current orbit.

[09:45:00]

FISHER: And that is going to be observed by ground base telescopes all over the world. So they are going to see it and it's going to take a few weeks. But hopefully they will be able to see that they were able to --

SCIUTTO: What time is that today exactly? FISHER: 7:14 pm Eastern time is the actual impact.

SCIUTTO: OK.

FISHER: So cameras on board, you can watch it live, should be exciting.

SCIUTTO: Definitely. Thanks so much, Kristin Fisher.

This morning, the British pound plunged nearly 5 percent to a record low against the U.S. dollar, levels like this not seen since the '80s. This amid growing fears of instability in the U.K.

Friday British officials announced the largest tax cuts in 50 years while also boosting government borrowing and spending --worries there this will be inflationary. CNN's Christine Romans joins us now for more on this.

So tell us more -- I mean, this is an enormous stimulus, right, already in an enormous inflationary environment.

Is that what the markets are concerned about?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this seems to be a vote of no support for the new government here and it's a big ambitious plan announced late last week.

This will be the biggest tax cut in Britain in some 50 years. They would be removing planned corporate tax hikes and removing a cap on banker pay. And that is deemed as something that the government had hoped would be stimulative.

But at the same time you already have its central bank raising interest rates to try to cool down inflation in that economy. So a lot of cross currents here. Just how steep this move was, big moves in the U.K. bond market really getting a lot of attention here.

They have come up off the lows a little bit because there is some speculation that the Bank of England will have to step in and make some announcement about these moves and say whether or not they will do anything to try to make it a little bit more stable.

But certainly, I mean, for Americans traveling, business travelers going to the U.K., you will notice this big difference.

I will also point out the euro is at a 20-year low against the U.S. dollar, too. The Fed has been aggressively raising interest rates. That increases the value of the dollar. All of these cross-currents at work in a very chaotic global environment right now.

SCIUTTO: I was there when it was 2 to the dollar --

ROMANS: Right.

SCIUTTO: -- $2 to the pound. This is a remarkable drop.

ROMANS: Some are talking about parity. They think there could be parity, a dollar per pound.

Can you imagine?

SCIUTTO: Time to go shopping. Christine Romans, thanks so much.

Coming up, new details in the welfare scandal surrounding former NFL star Brett Favre. Text messages uncovered in a new court filing -- that's coming up.

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[09:50:00]

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SCIUTTO: There are new details this morning on the welfare fraud scandal linked to former NFL football star Brett Favre.

The text messages released in the civil lawsuit appear to show the pro-football Hall of Famer repeatedly pressured former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant to use state funds to build a university athletic center at his alma mater, even after being told it could be illegal.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has been following this.

Dianne, this case is remarkable and disturbing on a whole host of levels, not just Favre's potential involvement here.

But what do these text messages show us?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this is an ongoing civil court battle. There are several investigation into this enormous welfare scheme, where more than $77 million of money that was meant for the neediest people in the poorest state in America were misspent.

Several people have been charged and pleaded guilty in this. But this new filing is from former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant's team in its quest to keep the totality of his communications about the University of Southern Mississippi volleyball center private or at least out of the eyes of the media and the public.

They argue that the governor didn't know that welfare money was being used for this project. And in part of this filing, they submit very select text messages, the majority of which are either about or with Brett Favre, who had been pushing this project for more than two years with the governor.

The founder of a nonprofit who has been convicted on charges related to this scheme and the head of that welfare agency, who also has pleaded guilty in connection to this scheme.

Now on one of those text messages, after meeting with the new head of the welfare agency, after the one who has since been convicted was fired, Brett Favre texted the former governor, quote, "We obviously need your help big time and time is working against us.

"And we feel that your name is the perfect choice for this facility and we are not taking no for an answer. You are a Southern Miss alum and folks need to know you're also a supporter of the university."

Former governor Phil Bryant responded, "We're going to get there. This was a great meeting. But we have to follow the law. I'm too old for federal prison," smiley face and sunglasses emoji.

Now Phil Bryant and Brett Favre, we've seen in other text messages, did have communications as well as with the founder of that nonprofit, Nancy New. Throughout a two-year span where more than $4 million was put toward this volleyball center and Brett Favre was also paid more than $1 million for his speeches that the state auditors said he never gave, Jim.

Now Brett Favre has not been charged in this. He is a defendant in a civil suit that was brought by the state. Former governor Phil Bryant is not a defendant in that suit and he has also not been charged.

SCIUTTO: So Favre, does he face potential criminal liability here?

Or is this purely a civil issue for him?

[09:55:00]

GALLAGHER: Right now it is purely a civil issue. There are several investigations right now, Jim, into this, including a federal investigation. The Department of Justice looking into this as well.

The FBI has been involved. And what is interesting here is that, at one point, this volleyball center was part of a criminal investigation from the state. But that was taken away. At this point the volleyball center not included in the criminal investigation.

There is nothing to say it could not be brought back and that federal investigators are not looking into it as well. Again, Brett Favre's attorney said that he did not know welfare money was used for this project and maintains that he has been nothing but, quote, "honorable" in this project.

SCIUTTO: Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for covering.

Well, hurricane Ian is gaining strength in the Caribbean, putting Cuba and later Florida on alert for a possible monstrous storm. CNN is live as the cities brace now nor the worst.

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