Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Fuel Tanker Exploded on Strategic Crimea Bridge; Former CIA Director Leon Panetta Says Russia's War Is "Very Dangerous"; Strong Jobs Report Triggers Big Selloff on Wall Street; Biden Pardons Those Convicted of Marijuana Possession. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired October 08, 2022 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): -- a fuel truck explodes over Europe's longest bridge, which links Russia to the annexed territory of Crimea. We have the latest developments in a live report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Plus, the White House is facing backlash over President Biden's comments, calling a potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine "Armageddon."
And many Floridians still struggling to recover more than a week after hurricane Ian devastated parts of the state.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We begin with multiple developments in Ukraine that are unfolding right now.
First, a fuel tanker exploded on a strategic and symbolic bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. The blast sparked a fire, which emergency crews are trying to put out, according to pro-Russian officials.
Now they also say that two spans of the roadbed of the bridge have collapsed. The 11-mile span is the longest in Europe and it was built after Russia claimed its annexation of Crimea in 2014. Now on top of that, we're getting reports of a fire in Ukraine's
second largest city following a Russian rocket strike. The mayor of Kharkiv said the city was hit by several rockets, causing flames to spread at a local medical facility.
He says officials are still checking if there are any casualties. So stay with CNN for updates on both of those stories.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is also reporting new gruesome discoveries in the newly liberated areas in the east. They include two burial sites found in the city of Lyman, which Russian troops abandoned last weekend.
While in the south, Ukraine says it's pressing ahead with its ongoing offensive, President Zelenskyy says his troops have reclaimed more than 2,400 square kilometers of land in that region. For more on developments in Ukraine, we're joined by Scott McLean in London.
Let's start with the bridge explosion.
What more do we know?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, a lot of new information coming in fast and furious. Let me give you the play by play on what we know for sure.
We are seeing now that there is closed circuit television footage, you're seeing it there, of the actual moment of the explosion. You can see on the bridge, all seems calm, all seems normal.
Then this huge fireball lights up the screen there. Now a little bit of context on the Kerch Bridge. It's 11 miles, 19 kilometers long, connecting Crimea to -- occupied Crimea to Russia. It's also a twin so part of the bridge carries road traffic, part of the bridge carries rail traffic.
And subsequent photos show that there are several train cars that appear to be burning, on fire, as well. And a local official in Crimea, a Russian appointed official in Crimea, says that two road spans of the bridge have been dislodged.
In one photo, you can see one of them partially submerged. So now the challenge for the Russians is to actually move that burning train out of the way. They say they're sending two locomotives to try to pull it apart, to try to clear the parts of that train that are not actually burned out.
According to Russian state media as well, Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered a government commission to examine the -- what he calls the Kerch Bridge emergency, though it's not exactly what that would entail.
It's also not clear what the timeline would be in terms of any kind of restoration because it is difficult to understand the importance of this bridge, not only strategically but also symbolically.
It was built, as you mentioned, after the annexation of Crimea. Vladimir Putin himself went over the bridge in 2018 to mark the opening of the span, the only real link between Crimea and Russia at the time.
Of course, now since the war restarted in February, there is -- there are other options to getting Crimea a land bridge, as well. But at the time this was the only link. So what we're seeing now is social media video, showing long lineups for fuel on the Crimean Peninsula.
Officials there are trying to calm those fears by saying, look, there is no shortage of fuel; there's a fuel supply of 40 days in Sebastopol. So there's going to be plenty of fuel to go around.
[04:05:00]
MCLEAN: What will they are doing, though, presumably to tone down any panic buying that might take place, regardless of what the officials are saying, is they are limiting people's ability to buy groceries.
They're limiting the amount of groceries that people can actually buy to make sure that food remains on that shelf. Now the Ukrainians, Kim, have not claimed responsibility for this.
But I want to make one quick point and that is that Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the national security and defense council in Ukraine, he posted a video of the aftermath of the explosion, alongside the song, "Happy Birthday." Yesterday was Vladimir Putin's 70th birthday.
He had the caption, "Good morning, Ukraine."
So Crimean officials, they are blaming the Ukrainians. But the Ukrainians at least explicitly have not taken responsibility, though it doesn't seem like they're denying it at this stage, either.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Exactly. Seeing some more comments coming out. As you say, they're still being very coy about taking any responsibility. But interesting and huge developments there. Scott McLean, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
White House officials spent much of Friday trying to clarify why the U.S. president referred to a potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine as Armageddon. Russia's president has recently hinted at the nuclear option as this war in Ukraine falters.
But in describing that threat as a private -- at a private fundraiser, President Biden chose stark apocalyptic language. U.S. officials say the president's grim assessment wasn't based on any new intelligence that Moscow's planning to launch a nuclear attack.
They say America's own defensive posture toward Moscow hasn't changed. Still, administration officials are being asked about it everywhere they go. Have a listen as the U.S. secretary of state dodges a reporter's question while in Peru.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)? (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Here's CNN's Phil Mattingly at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The warning was as stark as it was startling. President Biden at a private New York fundraising warning of the potential for nuclear Armageddon, as Russian President Vladimir Putin faces battlefield defeats and launches you new rhetorical threats.
Biden is sharply divergent from his top advisers and his willingness to details the risks they've acknowledged are real.
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: The administration has been clear that there is a risk given all of the loose talk and the nuclear saber-rattling by Putin that he would consider this.
MATTINGLY: But also not imminent.
SULLIVAN: We do not presently see indications about the imminent use of nuclear weapons.
MATTINGLY: Officials tell CNN that hasn't changed. Despite the vivid nature of Biden's warnings.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture.
MATTINGLY: And to this point, no comments from Biden on the issue since the remarks were released.
There is no new intelligence showing Putin has decided to use nuclear weapons or is preparing to do so, sources say. Yet Biden's warning comparing this moment to the last time the world was on the nuclear brink underscores the growing concern inside of the White House about what Putin may do if backed in a corner.
The risks and the administration's contingency plan have been present since the opening days of the invasion, officials say.
But White House officials watching Putin's speech announcing the sham annexation of Ukrainian territory were struck not just by the implicit nuclear threats but by a leader completely untethered from reality. Something Biden's national security adviser hinted at last week.
SULLIVAN: It is raving.
MATTINGLY: And it has been a central point of deliberations in the days since officials say.
JEAN-PIERRE: The kind of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen is no way for the leader of a nuclear arm state to speak and that is what the president was making very clear about.
MATTINGLY: One of the interesting elements of the president's remarks was that reference to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
We're just a few days away from the 60th anniversary and, to some degree, while they may be similar in the sense that the world is walking to the brink of potential disaster, there's a critical difference potentially in the leader that the U.S. President is dealing with here.
Khrushchev was always very clear that he understand the principles of mutual destruction.
Even if he was hyperbolic or the rhetoric was getting hot, he always communicated, according to historians, behind closed doors that he knew it was not an option to launch nuclear warheads.
The real concern -- and you got a sense of this when the president was talking about his inability to find an offramp with Putin -- is they don't know if right now Putin's a rational actor. Perhaps more than anything else is raising the most concern inside the White House -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Leon Panetta served as CIA director under President Obama and he spoke earlier with CNN and was asked if he thought Biden's Armageddon remark was too much.
[04:10:00]
LEON PANETTA, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I don't think there's any question here that we are in a very dangerous war. It's also a pivotal war. I've been saying this for a long time.
It is dangerous because, as this war has continued, particularly over these last few weeks, I think there's no question that Putin is increasingly cornered. They're not winning this war. The tide of war has changed in the Ukraine.
And Ukraine has put on a very effective offensive. And Russian troops are not holding the line; they're fleeing. And so the Ukraine is clearly taking the advantage here to the Russians. That puts Putin in a tougher position. He's fighting a war on two fronts right now. He's fighting a war in the Ukraine but he's also fighting a war in Russia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The Russian embassy in Washington said its diplomats will speak by telephone with two male citizens detained in Alaska this week after they crossed the Bering Strait seeking asylum, according to Russian state media.
The men are among hundreds of thousands who are part of a mass exodus from Russia, desperate to avoid the military draft. Ivan Watson reports from Kazakhstan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russians abandoning their homeland.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin's order, to conscript men, to fight in his war, in Ukraine, has created an exodus, of Russian draft dodgers. They line up daily, here, in neighboring Kazakhstan, to register with the local authorities. The Kazakh government says more than 200,000 Russians, fled to this country, in less than two weeks.
ALEXEI (ph), RUSSIAN DRAFT DODGER: Yes, we run away from Russia.
WATSON (voice-over): Vadim and Alexei (ph) fled Moscow, last week, to escape the draft.
VADIM, RUSSIAN DRAFT DODGER: We don't want this war. And we not recognize our --
ALEXEI (ph): Position of our government.
VADIM: Position, our government's.
WATSON (voice-over): Many of Russia's land borders choked, for weeks, with long lines, as citizens run for the exits. Draft dodgers, traveling by land, wait days in line or pay big money, for scarce plane tickets, to escape. And that's just the first step.
WATSON: Every day, more Russians arrive, at this train station, in Almaty, with their backpacks and they all tell you the same thing. They were afraid they could be sent to fight in Ukraine and they abandoned their country, on very short notice.
WATSON (voice-over): This married couple left together.
WATSON: Did you come because of the mobilization, for the war, in Ukraine?
SERGEI, RUSSIAN DRAFT DODGER: It was a final kick to start our journey, I guess.
WATSON: Yes.
SERGEI: Yes.
WATSON: Were you afraid that you would have to go fight in the war?
SERGEI: Yes. It's not something I want to participate in.
WATSON (voice-over): The flood of new arrivals, surprising local business owners, like the operator, of a co-working space, in the center of Almaty.
WATSON: This gentleman, just walked in. Is this unusual to see?
MADINA ABILPANOVA, MANAGING PARTNER, DM ASSOCIATES: Very usual. Every day's like this. They come in, with huge suitcases, because they couldn't find a place for living. And they're coming here, for working and sitting and looking for some accommodation.
WATSON: These are fresh arrivals --
ABILPANOVA: Yes.
WATSON: -- from Russia?
ABILPANOVA: Yes, yes.
WATSON: Arriving with their backpack --
ABILPANOVA: Say --
WATSON: -- on their back?
ABILPANOVA: Yes.
WATSON (voice-over): In this city, hundreds of miles, from the Russian border, I spoke with dozens of newly-arrived Russians, ranging from doctors.
ANASTASIA ARSENEVA, RUSSIAN DOCTOR DRAFT DODGER: If we refuse to go to this war, we should go to the jail.
WATSON (voice-over): To engineers, IT specialists and university students.
WATSON: You ran away from Russia?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, from mobilization, from --
WATSON: From military service?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
WATSON (voice-over): Most, don't want to be identified, to protect loved ones, still in Russia.
GIORGI, RUSSIAN DRAFT DODGER: How can I take part in the war without a wish to win this war?
WATSON (voice-over): This man says Putin's draft left him no other choice but to flee the country, leaving his wife and child behind.
GIORGI: We do not trust our government. We don't believe in what they say.
WATSON (voice-over): He says, the Russian government crackdown on dissent, has made protesting, futile, leaving hundreds of thousands of men, now suddenly adrift, trying to find work and accommodation, in foreign countries.
GIORGI: I am the citizen of the country that started that war. I did not support this war, never did. But somehow, I'm still connected with this team, because of my passport. And I am, at the same time, a refugee and the aggressor.
WATSON (voice-over): Russians, on the run, sharing a collective sense of hopelessness and guilt, over the destruction, caused by their government -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Kazakhstan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:15:00]
BRUNHUBER: Russian officials have declared three public figures foreign agents over their opposition to the war in Ukraine. They include Russia's most popular rapper, who goes by the stage name Oxxxymiron. He's been holding antiwar concerts throughout Europe but his songs are now investigated under Russia's anti-extremism laws.
Investigators also went after antiwar writer and journalist Dmitry Glukhovsky. He is facing charges under a lot of bans spreading fake information about Russia's military. And the writer is currently out of Russia.
The crackdown also included women's rights activist Elena Popova (ph).
A solid jobs report shows more Americans than ever are working.
So why did Wall Street react to the news with a major selloff?
We'll explain after a short break.
Also ahead, some major changes coming soon for people with federal pot convictions. What President Biden's new pardon means for decriminalizing marijuana. That's coming up after the break. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Labor Department reported more than a quarter of a million people joined the work force last month. Now normally that would be great news. Instead, it sent Wall Street into full retreat.
[04:20:00]
BRUNHUBER: Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): They're clapping but investors were disappointed because it shows the U.S. economy is still overheated, despite sharp interest rate hikes.
All three major indices took big hits in Friday's selloff. Of course, the strong economy is wonderful for people who need paying jobs. Unemployment has fallen to a 50-year low. As CNN's Matt Egan explains, Wall Street still sees the situation much differently.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR WRITER: Friday's jobs report is another reminder that we are still stuck in this weird economic moment. The jobs market got so hot that it actually needs to cool off.
Otherwise, inflation is going to keep crushing families, businesses and our retirement accounts. Today's jobs report is directionally where we want things to go, 263,000 jobs added last month. That is slowing down. It's a step in the right direction.
The problem is that it's really just a baby step. The unemployment rate actually went down to 3.5 percent, that is tied for the lowest level since 1969.
For context, Larry Summers says unemployment has to nearly double to 6 percent before inflation gets back under control. The bad news is that today's report suggests the Fed still has its work cut out for it.
This slight slowdown is not enough to convince the Fed to chill out with these dramatic interest rate hikes. If you throw enough rate hikes at this economy, eventually it's going to cause a recession.
That is what is freaking investors out, driving stocks sharply lower again. Here's the good news -- workers are still in demand, companies are still hiring and nothing about today's report suggests the recession has already arrived. The jobs market is just way too strong for it to be in recession -- back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: All right. Now to President Biden's October surprise for thousands of people with pot convictions. The U.S. President issued pardons this week to anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law since it became a crime in the '70s.
While no one is currently serving time in federal prison for simply possessing weed, this does clear a big hurdle for people trying to get a job, housing, apply to college or get federal benefits.
Right now recreational marijuana is legal on the state level in 19 states and five more will vote on legalizing recreational cannabis in November; 38 U.S. states have legalized it for medicinal use.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: For more perspective let's bring in Robert Solomon, a clinical professor of law and co-chair of the University of California/Irvine Center for the Study of Cannabis. He joins me from Irvine, California.
Thank you so much for being with us. Let's start with the biggest upside from the announcement as you see it.
ROBERT SOLOMON, CO-CHAIR, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF CANNABIS, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/IRVINE: The headlines are all about the pardons, which is terrific but affects very few people and doesn't get anyone out of prison. So the big news is in the second paragraph, which is we are starting a
move which may lead to the descheduling of cannabis. And that's really critical so we can get a lot of research done and know much more about the statutes that we're passing.
BRUNHUBER: I want to get back to the descheduling but let's start with what you started with, with the pardons. They'll have a limited effect in terms of the number of people pardoned, as you say.
Why is that?
SOLOMON: Well, most of the action in criminal law takes place in the states. So although the federal cases get the most notice, there's literally millions of people who are affected by this in the states.
Each state has a separate statute and each state looks at this differently. The Texas governor has already complained about the president asking governors to take action. And so this is really a pretty small step. And frankly, federal prosecutors have not been prosecuting possession for a while now. It's pretty rare. So this is the --
(CROSSTALK)
BRUNHUBER: Yes, that will only affect some 6,000 or more people who have been charged federally, I guess. So it doesn't go very far to undo those -- the racial injustices that have been perpetrated in the name of this war on drugs, which is to say that marijuana convictions disproportionately affect African Americans.
I think they're more than three times as likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than white people.
Is that right?
SOLOMON: Yes, I think it's actually four times. And when it comes to sentencing, the disparities are even greater. And going back to 1970, when Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, the Nixon administration was quite cynical. They wanted it to be a way to disempower the Black power movement and the antiwar movement.
[04:25:00]
SOLOMON: But those who paid the penalty were not college students who were fighting the war; it was largely the young Black men.
BRUNHUBER: So you say this puts us on a path to rescheduling it, which is taking it out of the same class of drugs as heroin and LSD, for example. So some advocates say that President Biden can do it through executive action. But it's not really -- it's not as simple as waving his wand. It's something normally done through Congress.
How realistic is it that he can reschedule it?
SOLOMON: Well, it can be done through executive action but it's a process. HHS, which is an executive agency, is involved. And ultimately the Drug Enforcement Agency has the final decision. That's also an executive agency, part of the Department of Justice.
So while Congress could deschedule it, the executive agencies could reschedule it. It is likely that rescheduling would be from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2. And frankly to make it really legalized on a federal level, we need it to be scheduled as Schedule 3.
So it's a question of testing, of having studies, of being able to prove to the drug -- to the federal government that this is a medicine that has value, has medical value. And you know, frankly we know it does. We know things that it's overclaimed but we also know it's great for pain, great for nausea, we know it's great for wasting.
But we don't have the studies yet to prove it. It's a little bit of a catch-22 because the reason we don't have the studies is that, since 1970, the federal government has done everything in its power to prevent studies.
The whole notion of "just say no" sums up our policy. In "just say no," it means there's no real value in even looking at cannabis as a drug. And that's the mistake we've made. And that's put us in this awkward position today, with state legislators and elections, you know, voters are voting on referenda to make this legal.
And we're doing it without the knowledge that we should have.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much for your insights, Robert Solomon. Appreciate it.
SOLOMON: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead this hour --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): -- an uprising in Iran is met with a brutal crackdown. Activists say protesters are paying a deadly price. How authorities are responding to the allegations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And hurricane Ian left a trail of destruction across Florida. More than a week later many are still trying to pick up the pieces. We'll have their stories next. Please stay with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Mourners in Thailand have been gathering at a Buddhist temple as families of those killed in the country's deadliest massacre plan funerals; 36 people lost their lives, most of them young children, after an ex-police officer armed with a gun and a knife went on a rampage at a day care center.
Thailand's king visited two hospitals on Friday to meet with wounded survivors and families of the victims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAHA VAJIRALONGKORN, KING OF THAILAND (through translator): I'm here today to support everyone. First of all, I would like to express my deepest condolences and sorrow that this kind of incident happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Anna Coren joins me now from the province where the attack took place.
Anna, I imagine most there are still struggling to come to grips with the tragedy.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Kim. I think it's going to take a long time certainly for the province, which is where we are, in Thailand's northeast, but also for the entire country to really deal with this massacre.
This is a rural farming community. This is also a very poor province. People know each other very well. This is not a place where massacres take place. Yet that is exactly what happened not far from here at a day care center, with 36 people killed, 24 of those children.
Now we are at one of the local temples where some of the bodies have been brought. And behind me you can see the coffins of four children and seven adults. Some of those children include the stepson of the attacker, that 34-year-old sacked police officer, who went on this deadly rampage.
He went to the day care center; he went on a stabbing spree, where he killed all the children, we understand, by knife. He then went to his home, where he fatally shot his stepson and his wife. Both their bodies are here.
Kim, we spoke a short time ago to the attacker's mother on the phone. She said that she is absolutely heartbroken at what has taken place and the immense loss of life. She said that no temple would take her -- her son's body.
However, she has confirmed that they managed to cremate his body at an unknown location. Certainly here today, what we are witnessing, the families, the relatives of the victims who are coming to pay their respects, Buddhist monks, there have been wreaths that have been laid because this is Thailand.
And this is part of, you know, the Buddhist rituals. They lay food, they lay drinks out for the dead. We saw the families, you know, knocking on the coffins, you know, communicating with the dead.
It has been incredibly emotional, Kim, even more so because of the immense loss of life and, obviously, you know, the fact that so many of the victims were children. We should also confirm, Kim, that the head of the national police, he addressed the media.
He said that the attacker, the 34-year-old sacked police officer, did not have drugs in his system.
[04:35:00]
COREN: Now that comes as a surprise to everybody because this man had a long history of drug use and he was sacked from the police force because of it. But the police have come out and said that he, in fact, did not have drugs in his system.
I think for people in this community, it just -- it makes it even that much more difficult to come to terms with this tragedy. It just makes no sense whatsoever.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. As you say, incomprehensible and heartbreaking. CNN's Anna Coren, thank you so much for the report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): In Iran, a powerful symbol of government repression. These are public fountains that artists have colored red all over
Tehran. They represent the bloody way in which security forces have been putting down recent demonstrations which erupted after 22 year- old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.
Over the past few weeks, countless numbers of protesters have been arrested, some of them burning head scarves and chanting, "Death to the supreme leader." On Thursday, police reportedly released 18 university students, who were detained during this mass rally last week.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: It's been just over nine days since hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida and began leaving a path of destruction. Officials say at least 120 Floridians have died because of the storm. Close to half of those deaths have been attributed to drowning.
Carlos Suarez is in Florida, where he had the chance to speak with one hurricane survivor about her harrowing experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here we go. Cat 5. Cat 5, 150 mile an hour winds.
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As hurricane Ian came ashore, the water kept rising inside the home of Kimberly Payano.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can see -- you can hear. Woo. OK. No, get your foot out. Get your foot out.
SUAREZ: The water rising so fast that Payano and her 12-year-old son Gustavo were trapped in their north Ft. Myers house that sits on the edge of a river.
K. PAYANO: I just see all of this and we got to start over but that's fine. It will just take time.
SUAREZ: Payano said her decision not to evacuate her home was the biggest mistake of her life.
Do you regret the decision?
K. PAYANO: One hundred percent and I'll never not evacuate again. Never. I put my son's life in jeopardy, so never. I will never not evacuate again. So sorry. Naturally, we're out of power. So get up here. My son is taking the water.
SUAREZ: As the water continued to rise, Payano's son wondered if they were safer getting on to a barge floating in the backyard instead of waiting for help.
And this is before we see the video. So you're inching your way closer in and in and in.
K. PAYANO: Right.
GUSTAVO PAYANO, HURRICANE IAN SURVIVOR: I was just trying to get us out of the house because I know it was dangerous because all the animals, we had two turtles and had to let them go. So yes. Just wanted to help my mom.
K. PAYANO: I hope we don't take on too much more water.
SUAREZ: Eventually, Gustavo's father made it to the home on a small boat. The water outside up to their necks.
K. PAYANO: We pulled the small boat we put my son in and went a mile, mile.5 to the bridge and that's where the rescue people were waiting. I'm watching this stuff float by me as we go through it trying to walk up to the bridge.
SUAREZ: How scared were you?
G. PAYANO: I started crying. I just wanted to leave. At the beginning, I told my mom we should have left.
SUAREZ: Payano who has lived in the area for 17 years is now trying to start over. She's staying at friend's house while Gustavo is with his father. She's determined to stay in Florida while her son finishes school, just not that close to the water.
K. PAYANO: I might go inland and buy a home off the water. I don't know that I'm going to stay here.
SUAREZ (voice-over): Carlos Suarez, CNN, north Ft. Myers, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A huge weather system is gaining strength in the southern Caribbean sea. Tropical storm Julia is picking up steam as it moves toward Central America. Hurricane warnings in effect for parts of Nicaragua. Julia is expected to make landfall Sunday as a category 1 hurricane.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[04:40:00]
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead this hour, U.S. authorities receive unclassified documents from Donald Trump but they fear he still could be holding on to more sensitive records. We'll have the latest on their investigation. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Justice Department has started to receive unclassified documents from Donald Trump after his legal team determined it wouldn't assert confidentiality claims over them.
But the DOJ fears he could still be holding onto some documents marked as classified. It's requesting all sensitive records from the former president to determine if they were mishandled. CNN's Jessica Schneider has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Our team has learned that Justice Department officials just don't believe that former president Trump has returned all of the materials that were taken when he left the White House.
And that includes classified material. So while the FBI agents in August seized 11,000 documents, 100 of them classified, DOJ officials do believe that there might be more remaining at Trump's properties.
And, in fact, we've learned they've told Trump's lawyers that Trump must return any outstanding documents. Now this concern that classified records were still missing, it has been hinted at in several court filings in recent weeks. We've seen DOJ lawyers reference those empty folders that were found
with classified banners at Mar-a-Lago during the search in early August. Investigators also raised the red flag after they were initially blocked from using those classified materials that they did get from Mar-a-Lago as part of their ongoing investigation.
They said in their order that this blocking of using these materials impedes efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored.
They told an appeals court that the order was preventing the FBI from taking investigative steps that could lead to the identification of other records still missing. So they've known about this and hinted at it.
So the question is, how do government officials proceed here?
Do they continue to negotiate with Trump's team?
Do they subpoena Trump or do they perform even another search at maybe one of his properties, whether it's Mar-a-Lago or others, or could they even get him to attest in court whether or not he still has classified material?
A lot of options for the DOJ. We'll see what their next move is, especially because they do believe that some of that classified material might still be missing -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. federal appeals court will decide whether Republican senator Lindsey Graham has to testify before a grand jury in Georgia. Prosecutors say his testimony is essential as part of their investigation into efforts by former president Trump and his allies to overturn the state's election results in 2020.
Graham has filed an emergency motion to quash a subpoena compelling him to appear. Georgia's secretary of state says the senator hinted he should discard some ballots. Graham has denied accusations that he tried to pressure state officials.
Attorneys have wrapped the first week of the trial of members of the extremist militia group the Oath Keepers. Friday, prosecutors presented new evidence that Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes called for a, quote, "bloody war," to keep then president Donald Trump in office after his 2020 election defeat.
Rhodes, along with four members of the far right group, are on trial for seditious conspiracy for their roles in the deadly January 6th Capitol attack. They have pleaded not guilty. CNN's Whitney Wild with more on the explosive testimony in court.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stewart Rhodes, the lead of the far-right group, the Oath Keepers, was the focus of today's testimony in the seditious conspiracy trial.
Prosecutors presented letters they say he wrote to then-President Donald Trump in December 2020. The chilling words addressed directly to the former president read, war isn't coming. War is already here. Strike now. If you fail to act while you are still in office, we, the people, will have to fight.
The letter, written around the same time Rhodes appeared at the so- called Jericho March in D.C., in December 2020.
STEWART RHODES, OATH KEEPERS LEADER: If he does not do it now while he is commander in chief, we're going to have to do it ourselves later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war. Let's get it on now while he is still the commander in chief.
WILD: the letters were signed by Rhodes and Kellye SoRelle, the self- described general counsel for the Oath Keepers, who was also know facing federal charges.
Prosecutors have leaned heavily on audio secretly recorded in the lead-up to January 6th, including from a virtual meeting Rhodes hosted just days after the 2020 election.
RHODES: There's no such thing as another election in this country of any meaningful sense of the term if you let this stand.
WILD: The meeting's purpose, preparing for battle at a pro-Trump rally on November 14th.
RHODES: He has to know that people are behind him, that he will not be deserted and he has to have positive pressure. But we got to be in D.C., You got to be willing to go to D.C., and street fight Antifa.
WILD: Prosecutors also presented a text Rhodes wrote in late December that said, they won't fear us until we come with rifles in hand.
[04:50:00]
WILD (voice-over): The defense continues to argue the Oath Keepers viewed their role as peace keepers, trying to protect Trump supporters.
EDWARD TARPLEY, RHODES' ATTORNEY: We just have to see. I mean, this is a marathon, not a sprint. So you know, every day, more information comes out and we'll just see how that all plays out.
WILD: The defense has also pointed out and several witnesses have agreed that at the several pro-Trump rallies that preceded January 6th there were no acts of violence committed by members of the Oath Keepers -- in Washington, I'm Whitney Wild.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The Nobel committee has now awarded its coveted Peace Prize. See how the ongoing war in Ukraine seems to have been an important factor in this year's decision. Please stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Russia's ruthless aggression in Ukraine appears to have been top of mind for members of the Nobel Committee as they decided on this year's Peace Prize. Out of over 340 candidates, it went to a trio of human rights activists from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
After the award was announced, the head of Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties called for Russia to be expelled from the U.N. Security Council.
[04:55:00]
BRUNHUBER: She also said Russian president Vladimir Putin should be held accountable at an international war crimes tribunal.
A high-profile friendly between the U.S. women's national soccer team and England's Lionesses Friday. The match comes against the backdrop of a newly released report that found systemic verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct within women's professional soccer in the U.S.
Prior to kickoff, members of both teams gathered together at midfield in front of a teal banner that read, "Protect the players." The players also wore teal-colored armbands for the soccer match, symbolizing survivors of sexual abuse. Still, there was a festive atmosphere that packed Wembley Stadium for the match as England beat the U.S. 2-1.
Many music fans are eager to know the answer to this question.
Which city will host the Eurovision song contest next May?
Ukraine won the popular songfest last year but, because of the war, it can't act as host for the next competition. So now we know that Liverpool, England, has beaten Glasgow, Scotland, for the coveted duties. Liverpool certainly has the pedigree to stage the big show. After all, it is the home of The Beatles.
Before we leave you, we want to tell you about a passing of note. This is Pebbles, the world's oldest dog, has died at the age of 22. The toy fox terrier was certified as the globe's most elderly canine citizen by The Guinness World Records.
Her owners said she had a long and happy life and had 32 puppies. Pebbles loved listening to country music and playing dress-up.
With that, we wrap this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ken Brunhuber. I'll be back in just a in a moment with more news. Please do stay with us.
