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Putin Unleashes Missile Barrage, Kills At Least 11 In Ukraine; Officer Who Shots Teen In McDonald's Parking Lot Is Fired; Ex-Officer Who Defended Capitol Releases Tape Of McCarthy Meeting. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 10, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Victor Blackwell, welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

We're starting with a shock and outrage in Ukraine and around the world after Russia retaliates and targets Ukrainian civilians.

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BLACKWELL: Overnight, the Kremlin unleashed a barrage of missiles at Kyiv and several other cities across the country and knocked out critical infrastructure. At least 11 people are dead, dozens more are hurt. And today, Putin is boasting about these attacks and vowing that there will be more.

He says the attacks are retaliation for the weekend attack on a key bridge that links annexed Crimea to Russia. Ukraine's president, Zelenskyy, meanwhile, says that Putin is the latest to solve show the world that he is a terrorist.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh's into Dnipro, one of those Ukrainian cities targeted overnight. Nick, what are you seeing there?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Well, what we saw here was a sign that while Russia boasts about its precision firepower, it's often hard to discern what its target was, and it's clear that it hasn't really hit it. Across Ukraine, we've seen startling brutality, frankly.

I should point out this is not the first time that Russia has it seems targeted or killed civilians since the start of this war. But we haven't seen a level of violence unleashed across pretty much all of Ukraine's major population centers like we've seen today for a number of months, possibly since the start of the war.

Kyiv fundamentally getting the brunt of this here, children's playgrounds hit, crowded rush hour streets hits, carnage, many bodies left in streets that would normally just be full of people on their way to work or even school here in Dnipro. We went to one site where two missiles had hit.

The first hitting an abandoned telecoms building, hard to really understand what they thought they were trying to hit. And the second, two minutes later, a common Russian tactic to fire one missile and then follow up shortly afterwards, possibly critics saying the bid to try and hurt -- injure rescue workers who run to the scene.

The second missile though, hitting in the middle of a public street, hitting a public transport, bus, five people critically injured on that bus, and many more requiring some kind of treatment. So, the death toll appears in this area, Dnipropetrovsk Region, to have reached five over a dozen people injured, 80,000 without power.

The extent of the damage to the infrastructure here and in other southern cities is not entirely clear, but they are reporting in major cities, some moments of power loss. But this is really it seems Russia's response to two things. The Kerch Bridge, its vital artery between its mainland and annexed illegally occupied Crimea, taken in 2014, that was damaged over the weekend by a blast.

Most people pointed their finger towards Ukraine, but Ukraine wasn't entirely responsible or hasn't -- sorry, openly claimed responsibility. The second issue Russia has to face is its constant faltering performance on the battlefield here.

There have been a bit of a disaster, frankly, for well over a month, and on multiple fronts have been in retreat with poor supply lines, poor command, and control. Lots of different reasons why that's happening, but it's been pretty much in one direction for some time.

This was certainly Russia's bid to show it had military might left. It doesn't have an unlimited supply of the sort of heavyweight cruise missiles so it's certainly a gesture it probably can't make that regularly.

But it has been a bit to show they still have a card to play, and not entirely clear how successful it's been in terms of setting back Ukraine's infrastructure. And it has also increased anger and resilience amongst many of the Ukrainians that we spoke to, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nick Paton Walsh, for us there in there in Dnipro, thank you.

Just minutes ago, Ukraine's Foreign Minister lashed out at Putin's attack on his country. This was during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of using the attacks to terrorize Ukraine's peaceful population and says that Putin is retaliating not just for that bridge, but as Nick said the battlefield losses.

Christiane Amanpour joins us now. Christiane, good to have you. Right after this interview, what else did you learn from Kuleba, and did they expect something like this after that Kerch Strait Bridge explosion?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You know, I don't know whether they expected this wide and this coordinated all at once kind of, you know, across the country response, but they knew that they would get a response.

First and foremost, as Nick said, they have not claimed responsibility for the Kerch Bridge. I actually asked the foreign minister and he said, A., I'm not there, B., you know, I don't have all the information, and C., I'm not going to say you know, one way or the other at the moment.

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So, officially, they have not claimed it. And what he did say, though, when I asked him about how it would affect them going forward to continue the battle and keep taking the battle to Russia, here's how that part of the conversation went.

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AMANPOUR: Do you agree that there is a escalatory ladder underway right now? And will what happened around your country today cause you to rethink your offensives and your counteroffensives to liberate the territories that have been occupied and seized?

DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINE'S FOREIGN MINISTER: No way. Nothing. Whatever he does -- whatever he does, we will continue to liberate our territory. I want you to understand a very simple thing. This is the war for the existence of Ukraine. This is the war for the existence of international law and rule-based order so he may escalate, he may do whatever he wants, but we're going to continue fighting, and we will win.

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AMANPOUR: So very defiant. But also saying the kind of thing that the United States says, President Biden or the European leaders say this is about more than just Ukraine. Ukraine is doing the fighting, but it's for all of our futures as democracies and as those who believe in a rules-based order. So again, today, President Biden put out a statement reiterating and reaffirming America's support, NATO has done the same, and that they will continue to help Ukraine in this fight.

But Ukraine does need, and Kuleba said this, to me a lot more of the help that they're already getting, more artillery, more ammunition, and most especially, more sophisticated air defense systems to protect their cities and their playgrounds, and their critical infrastructure from the kind of assault that they saw today.

BLACKWELL: Did Minister Kuleba have any insight, any thoughts on the statement from the president about the world being closer to potential Armageddon at any point in the last 60 years?

AMANPOUR: Well, they're very, very aware of it. And they know that Putin has kept, you know, sort of vaguely threatening. I mean, it gets more and more of a threat as the time goes on. But they say, look, we have tried everything, appeasing Putin, if that's what is asked to do, to stop the war, to negotiate, right now to cede our territory. Well, we can't do that because we have been trying -- and he said this

trying to be warm and fuzzy, I kid you not, that's what he said, and tried from the start to help ratchet down this situation. He said what do we get? We got the invasion of our country on February 24. And it is simply escalated since then.

So you can see that trying to negotiate as nice guys with Putin just doesn't work. We're going to continue fighting. And beyond that, he said, Victor, and it was incredible. He said, even if the West and our friends get tired of us, we will have no choice but to keep fighting. We have no choice and we will keep doing it.

BLACKWELL: Christiane Amanpour, thank you for bringing that interview to us. Thank you.

AMANPOUR: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Christiane, just mentioned that President Biden called out Russia's intensifying strikes on Ukraine, saying that they demonstrate the utter brutality of Mr. Putin's illegal war. CNN's senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly with us now. What else did the President say?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Victor, I think Christiane really tees up what's happening inside the White House right now, really inside European capitals, as well as they grapple with what has been a clear escalation certainly over the course of the 24 -- last 24 hours, but really over the course of the last several weeks.

Look, the assistance that has been consistent from the U.S. and its Western coalition partners over the course of the last eight months has been unbowed. There's no question about that. That is going to continue.

And in the president's rather lengthy statement condemning those missile attacks today, he made that point saying "these attacks only further reinforce our commitments to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes." And, Victor, the as long as it takes part has been something the president has repeated over and over again.

But tomorrow, there'll be a G7 video conference with the top leaders from the group of seven countries, and President Zelenskyy is expected to speak at that conference or at that meeting. And it is very clear, and I think Christiane kind of laid out some of the details here from the foreign minister that there are more requests.

The U.S. has said $17.5 billion in assistance over the course of the last eight months. They are very clearly working on more military aid packages, more economic assistance as well. But the Ukraine has provided very specific lists of what they need, particularly in the issue of air defense systems.

Where that lands and what the U.S. is able to provide, what U.S. allies are able to provide, that is going to be a central point of discussion, not just tomorrow, but over the course of the next couple of days.

Clearly what we've seen in Kyiv and other cities over the course of the last 24 hours has underscored a reality that the escalations have now put this conflict in a different place that we haven't seen in seven and a half or eight months and what the Western Allies are going to do for President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians in terms of their assistance.

How does it reshape that assistance is certainly a very real question right now that's being debated inside the White House and inside European capitals, Victor.

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BLACKWELL: Phil Mattingly, setting up our next conversation, Phil, thank you very much. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Liam Collins is with us. He is a co-author of the book Understanding Urban Warfare. Kim Dozier is CNN's Global Affairs analyst. Colonel, let me start with you. And the conversations that Phil says are happening inside the White House whether to adjust some of the military, the hardware support, is it time to give those longer-range weapons to Ukraine?

COL. LIAM COLLINS, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: They don't necessarily need to have anything that's striking to Russia proper, as long as they can reach the border which was I think, what they can do with most of their weapons systems. Now, there's probably not a need, but it's as the correspondence said, right?

It's ammunition, right, replacing basic artillery shells, you know, the high Mars rocket systems, those kinds of things that they need to get. So they definitely need to continue getting those. They don't necessarily need longer-range missile systems at this time.

BLACKWELL: Kim, was this in response to just the explosion at the bridge, or was this an explosion -- a response to all of the counteroffensive progress that the Ukrainians have made?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think the latter. This was about changing the channel. If you go with the dictum that all politics is local, think about what Vladimir Putin is hearing at home.

He's hearing about territorial losses day by day of his forces as winter approaches, and those losses are going to be set in stone for a bit. One neither side can really fight back. He's hearing from the military bloggers, the hardliners, criticism of his military campaign, not directly of him, but it's getting close enough.

Now, what are we talking about today? Not that strike on the Kerch Bridge to Crimea. We're talking about the fact that multiple cities across Ukraine got hit, including civilian areas, tourist areas. It was an expensive changing of the channel because those were a lot of smart weapons in amongst some of the dumb rockets. But for Vladimir Putin, it was probably worth it.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, can Putin keep this up? We just heard from Nick that he didn't have a whole lot of this hardware. COLLINS: No. I mean absolutely not, right? This was just a short retaliatory response with really little military value whatsoever as Kim said, it's really, really dissatisfied pro-war nationalists at home. And judging by how the war had been fought to date, they just don't have a large capacity expended many of their precision-guided munitions.

And if you look over half of the missiles that -- and rockets, they did shoot were actually shot down by Ukrainian, so additional air defense systems are absolutely critical to Ukrainians.

BLACKWELL: Kim, what should we expect out of this G7 summit tomorrow, a statement of condemnation or something stronger?

DOZIER: I -- you know, they keep issuing statements of condemnation and they're going to have to do that again. But behind closed doors, they're going to have to start talking about what Biden brought up, the whole Armageddon question. Could Putin be cornered into thinking his only way out is to use a tactical nuclear weapon?

Not the fault of the Ukrainians pursuing the defense of their homeland, just scary insight into what Putin might be thinking. And the Ukrainians I've spoken to are much closer to believing that's a possibility. That's got to come up in the G7 conversation.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, let's turn to North Korea. Kim says that the recent tests were simulations to demonstrate readiness to fire tactical nuclear warheads targets in South Korea. Does North Korea have the components to do that from what we now know?

COLLINS: They may have the components to do that, and -- but possessing the capability and actually employing them is -- are two completely different things for sure. As we've seen, no one has deployed a tactical or strategic nuke since World War Two. So again, having the capability and deploying are completely different.

BLACKWELL: Kim, the North Koreans are not interested in negotiations. They are not interested in talks. What can the U.S. do? What can the West do to put some pressure on Kim, if not directly?

DOZIER: Well, look, Kim is angling for recognition of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state. And he's taking the lesson from Ukraine that if you give up your nuclear weapons capability, here's what can happen, a bigger neighbor can try to gobble you up. So, they're-- that doesn't give the Biden administration a lot of room for maneuver. I think they have to hope that they can sort of run this out, let him bluster as he has in the past, and then see if this is yet again Kim trying to act out as a way to get to the negotiating table.

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BLACKWELL: So, we've returned to the strategic patience of the Obama years.

DOZIER: Without stating it out loud. That may be what we're in for.

BLACKWELL: All right. Kim Dozier, retired Colonel Liam Collins, thank you.

A San Antonio police officer is fired after firing 10 shots into a teenager's car while he was eating in the McDonald's parking lot, the latest on the teen's condition and that investigation. Also ahead, Republican Kevin McCarthy told two officers who defended the capitol that former President Trump had no idea that his supporters were behind the attack. But as you know, the testimony says otherwise. Hear the new tapes yourself.

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BLACKWELL: A Texas police officer has been fired after shooting a teenager in a McDonald's parking lot. Now police bodycam footage shows that he approached the teenager who was eating a meal in his car and then opened fire. Now the teen is in critical condition right now, that's according to his attorney. We're going to show you this video but we have to warn you that the video is disturbing. Here's CNN's Josh Campbell with the story.

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JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Authorities say San Antonio Police Officer James Brennand was handling an unrelated disturbance call at a McDonald's last Sunday evening when he saw a car he believed evaded police the previous day.

JAMES BRENNAND, SAN ANTONIO POLICE OFFICER: Hey, can you send me one more? I got a vehicle for me that fled from me the other day.

CAMPBELL: 17-year-old Erik Cantu was eating a meal in the parking lot. Body camera video released by police shows the officer walking up to the driver's side of the car, opening the door, and ordering the startled driver out of the car.

BRENNAND: Get out of the car. Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired.

CAMPBELL: According to the body camera video, the teen had put the car into reverse before the officer fired five times. After the driver shifted the vehicle and moved forward, Brennand fired five more times. The San Antonio Police Department said the teen was found a block away suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

A passenger in the car was uninjured police said. Erik Cantu was hospitalized in critical condition. His attorney told CNN the teen is literally fighting for his life every minute of the day as his body has endured a tremendous amount of trauma. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Police Department announced it has fired Brennand for violating several department policies.

ALYSSA CAMPOS, SAPD TRAINING COMMANDER: In this circumstance, the department terminated the probationary officer's employment due to his actions during this incident, which were in violation of departmental tactics, training, and procedures. CAMPBELL: According to SAPD, the department's deadly force policy does allow police to fire if someone is using deadly force against the officer for self-defense. But the manual also says an officer in the path of an approaching vehicle shall attempt to move to a position of safety rather than discharging a firearm. And officers should not shoot at any part of a vehicle in an attempt to disable the vehicle.

The SAPD said it is investigating the incident and will forward its findings to the Bexar County District Attorney. The District Attorney Civil Rights Division is conducting a full review of the case which it will then submit to a grand jury.

Meanwhile, the DA has dismissed the charges of evading detention and assault on an officer against the teen, saying in a statement the facts and evidence we've received so far led us to reject the charges against Erik Cantu for further investigation. The county's online court record system shows Cantu's case has been closed.

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CAMPBELL: Now, Victor, police claimed that this former officer, James Brennand, was struck by the door of that vehicle as the teen reversed. Now we don't see that from the vantage point of that officer's body camera. And, of course, there's no other video of this incident. Because although this former officer had called for backup, he didn't wait for them before he actually approached that car.

Now we've reached out to Brennand to seek comment on what was going through his mind, his comment on how this transpired. We have not yet heard from him or whether he has legal representation. We are learning who will not be representing him. We just got a statement a short time ago from the San Antonio police officers union.

They say that they will not be representing this former officer. He was a probationary officer. He didn't serve the full year that would allow him -- entitle him to those police union benefits. And so we'll have to wait and see where this case goes.

It's currently being investigated by SAPD. The district attorney says that he will then review the case. And finally, this will be in the hands of a grand jury, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's see where it goes. Josh Campbell, thank you for the reporting.

Let's go to New York now and a shooting on the property of Congressman Lee Zeldin injured two people. Bullets landed just feet away from Zeldin's teenage daughters who were inside their home during this incident. No one in his family was hurt.

According to police, the shooting has no connection to the Congressman's family. Officials are investigating whether it was possibly gang-related. Zeldin is the Republican nominee for governor in New York. He's made a rise in crime a central theme of his campaign. A Democratic opponent, Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted that she's glad his family is safe and added that she's grateful for the officers' quick response.

Former DC Metropolitan office of Michael Fanone secretly recorded a meeting with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy months after the insurrection. Now, in these recordings obtained by CNN, the California Republican maintained that Donald Trump was unaware of the violence inside the Capitol.

Although testimony to the January 6 House committee revealed otherwise, that Trump actually watched hours of TV coverage of the violent attacks. CNN's Whitney Wild is with us now. So, what else have we learned from these recordings?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me just set the scene, Victor. It was during this private meeting last summer between, as you mentioned, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Fanone, as well as U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Gladys Sicknick.

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She is the mother of an officer who died after the riot. His name was Brian Sicknick. McCarthy told all three that former President Donald Trump had no idea his supporters were carrying out the attack. Here he is, in his own words.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R-CA): He wasn't watching TV. He lives with his family.

GLADYS SICKNICK, MOTHER OF OFFICER KILLED DURING CAPITOL RIOT: He knew what was going on. He knew what was going on. He knew people were fighting for hours and hours and hours. You know, this just doesn't make any sense to me.

MCCARTHY: I'm just telling you from my phone call, I don't know that he didn't know that.

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WILD: Well, Fanone felt compelled to make this recording because he wasn't sure that what Kevin McCarthy was saying would -- you know publicly, would reflect what the reality was, so, again, taking us behind the scenes. Here's how Fanon describes, you know, making this decision and why he felt like it was important to actually make these tapes. Here he is.

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MICHAEL FANONE, FORMER DC METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: I'm glad I recorded it. And that's why I recorded it was because I didn't expect Kevin McCarthy to, number one, tell the truth. Number two, recount the conversation accurately. And number three, I wanted to show people how indifferent lawmakers are, not just Republican lawmakers, but all lawmakers to the actual American people that they are representing.

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WILD: Well, Victor, the tapes also show Fanone confronting McCarthy for his support of Trump's statement that day, and pushing very hard for accountability, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Whitney Wild in Washington, thank you.

The LA City Council president has now resigned after leaked audio revealed her making racist remarks. We have that story for you ahead.

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