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Zelenskyy Calls For "Air Shield" Against Putin's Intensified Strikes; Russian-Speaking Hackers Knock Multiple U.S. Airport Websites Offline; J.D. Vance, Tim Ryan Clash In Debate As Senate Race Heats Up. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 11, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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

We begin with a new urgency in Russia's war on Ukraine. World leaders held an emergency meeting. At that meeting, Ukraine's president called for an air shield against Putin's deadly assault. For a second day, Ukraine has endured a blitz of missiles throughout the country, at least 28 today, according to President Zelenskyy.

Yesterday, he said 84 missiles were intercepted plus countless drones. And this is all part of the Kremlin says Putin's retaliation for the explosion of a key bridge linking Crimea to Russia. Ukraine says Russia's onslaught on Monday alone killed 19 people, wounded more than 100. Among those killed a children's doctor, who was also a mother of a young daughter. Zelenskyy told leaders of the G7, this group of seven nations, that much more is to come from Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Speaking in a foreign language.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia ordered 3400 Shahed drones in Iran according to our intelligence reports. That Russian president is still a threat to us. He can escalate this threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, today, Russia also admitted to striking Ukrainian energy facilities as winter approaches. The Ukrainians are calling that move a war crime. CNN International Security editor Nick Paton Walsh is with us now. So, Nick, fewer missiles today, but what do we know about those attacks?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Certainly, they seem to have been aimed towards an electrical infrastructure -- energy infrastructure. But there do appear to possibly have been one civilian casualty in Zaporizhzhia, a city that's been hit relentlessly for the past week. Making what we've seen since Monday, not a novelty I should point out for Russia's campaign in Ukraine, more an intensification. And as you mentioned today, there were less strikes, certainly. At one point Ukrainian officials saying 33 either drones or missiles had hit their targets and 33 had been shot down during the period of the day. These numbers do occasionally fluctuate.

Suggesting that Russia didn't try and emulate the same ferocity as of Monday and may have been potentially focused more on infrastructure. It -- frankly, it's often hard to tell if the awful toll on civilians we saw yesterday was purposeful or if they thought they were going to hit something else or if today simply they looked at further flown targets away from population centers. That's something that I'm sure Ukrainian officials have been studying carefully.

But to some degree, Ukraine's President wasting no time in his meeting with the G7, a virtual summit it to ask for an air shield, to ask as they have long asked for Russia to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism. They've referred to the attacks against civilians here as terrorism. And also asking for a international monitoring force across the border between Ukraine and its neighbor, Belarus.

And elements of what happened yesterday that was somewhat lost in the barrage of attacks, Russia and Belarus declaring that they will create a joint force of some description. Belarus falsely declaring that was a response to them thinking Ukraine was about to invade them. Zelensky is saying, right well, let's get an international monitoring force across the border there to calm that situation down but a sign certainly Russia escalating and trying to drag in its authoritarian neighbor, Belarus, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nick Paton Walsh for us there, thank you. With us now, CNN military analyst, retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, and Jill Dougherty, former CNN Moscow bureau chief, she's now an -- a CNN contributor and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Welcome to you both.

General, let me start with you and this request for an air shield. The attacks of the last few days have been decentralized. They hit the Capitol. They hit the Dnipro. They hit Lviv out in the West. What would it take to assemble that air shield, and how long would it take to do something like that?

MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, Victor, I'm going to rebut the concept of an air shield. And I know this is going to be an extremely unpopular opinion because I'm a big admirer of President Zelenskyy. But with air defense weapons, you cannot establish an air shield. The eastern border of Ukraine is 480 miles wide. It's not like you can drop a curtain and prevent any kind of missiles or rockets coming in from the other side of that border. It is impossible.

[14:05:08]

Looking at the map you have up right now, you can see where Russia has hit targets throughout the country, a country that is the size of the state of Texas. And what you're talking about with air defense is a point defense capability. It can't, you know, put up a curtain, like I said. You have to surround what you're attempting to defend with air defense equipment. Whether -- it doesn't matter what type it is, you have to surround it and be stationary to prevent a strike against an electrical plant or a school or a house, or a street.

And when you're talking about large cities -- and I'd compare it to what the Israelis do in Tel Aviv. When you're talking about large cities trying to defend them against any incoming missile, it would take literally dozens of air defense equipment. And right now, Ukraine does not have that money. So what President Zelenskyy, in my view, is what from a military perspective, what he's asking for is as much air defense equipment as he can possibly get, but him suggesting that he's going to put up a shield or a curtain is just impossible for any army to do whether it's a Western one or a Ukrainian one.

BLACKWELL: That's important context, especially as we look at that map that you reference that shows where these attacks happened over the last couple of days. Jill, that was one asked from President Zelenskyy. The other -- among others, was to declare Russia a state sponsor of terror. What would that change?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think actually, it would change that much other than going forward. Let's say when the war is over, it could open up Russia, and actually the leadership of Russia to international recriminations and perhaps going to The Hague for war crimes. And that could be one. But I do think -- I did want to pick up on what General Hertling is talking about --

BLACKWELL: Sure.

DOUGHERTY: Because he's absolutely right, that it's not a shield. However, I think the Russians are quite worried about any type of air defense weapons because you just look at what's been going on on the ground, they really are not strong. They've been having severe problems with their troops off the ground. That's one of the reasons for retribution for the bridge bombing, of course.

But one of the reasons you're going to the air campaign is because that's really pretty much what they've got left that can be really effective. And if the West were to come in with any type of air defense systems, I think the Russians would be very, very concerned that you know, the weapon that they can use is not going to be as effective. And I would note that just today, within the past few hours, you've had kind of a diplomatic barrage coming from the Russian ambassador to the United States, and also a top diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, who's a deputy foreign minister, both warning the West, watch out, this is a red line, stop providing all these weapons to Ukraine or we could -- as they said, we could take asymmetrical steps to retaliate. So, I think that's a sign that they are really worried about this.

BLACKWELL: General, the Russians now acknowledged that they are striking energy facilities. And the acknowledgment is the news here because they've been doing that before now, now that they're just owning up to it. What do you think of the military strategy of hitting these energy facilities?

HERTLING: It is not a strategy, Victor. And first of all, I want to say I'm in violent agreement with Jill with what she just said. What Russia is doing is not a strategy. They are continuing what they have done from the very beginning. Their ground forces are incapable of conducting operations so they have relied almost exclusively on rocket and missile forces. It is a terror weapon the way they're using it because they are not using those rockets and missiles against the Ukrainians military. They're using them against the civilian population, against infrastructure, against hospitals, schools, energy, and it is -- anytime the Geneva Convention clearly points it out that anytime you're using military forces, against the civilian environment, and not just people, where they live, where they go to school that does not have any military outcome, then it's a war crime.

And truthfully, this is what Mr. Putin has been doing. He's a bully. He's a criminal. And he's continuing this kind of approach toward trying to put Ukraine under their thumb. It is criminal activity. He should be brought before The Hague. And truthfully there is no change in strategy. It's what he's been doing from the start of this conflict.

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BLACKWELL: All right. General Hertling, Jill Dougherty, thank you.

More than a dozen U.S. airport websites including LAX and Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson are back online after an apparent cyberattack by pro-Russian hackers. There were no immediate signs of impact to air travel operations but the hack did affect sites where travelers check flight information, or parking, other airport details. The hacking group known as Killnet is claiming responsibility.

Joining us now is John Miller, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst. John, this group, Killnet, what do we know about them?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this is a pro-Russian hacking group, not a part of the government, at least not yet. It's a group of hackers that have attacked on behalf of Russia, a number of other countries. What's interesting is we hadn't really seen them in the United States until just a few weeks ago. In August, they attack Lockheed Martin, claiming to try to get into control systems and get employees' information. Lockheed Martin, of course, is the manufacturer of the HIMARS missile system that we've been given to the Ukrainians that they've been using with tremendous effect.

The weekend's airport attack, not sophisticated, a DDoS attack which is basically flooding all of the websites with hundreds of thousands of requests from IP addresses until you crash them. But it's effective in that it was a nuisance that knock websites off. Didn't get into air traffic control, none of the safety systems, but they're making their presence known. And they do a little victory lap claiming credit on behalf of the Russian nationalist cause.

BLACKWELL: How vulnerable are the U.S. critical infrastructure sites, especially because as you said, this one was an annoyance? But could they do more? Could they be even more impactful? MILLER: Victor, I think we're entering the critical infrastructure cyber hacking perfect storm. You know, you have Russian groups. These are the pros from Dover, center 16. These are elements of the FSB and the SVR, the Russian intelligence services who have spent years carefully infrastructure -- carefully infiltrating and compromising U.S. critical infrastructure systems. And that's going to be out there.

At the same time, the main cyber actors on the state side, in terms of rogue nations are Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, all of whom are aligned against the United States and most of whom are aligned with Putin and Russia right now. So, the potential onslaught of critical infrastructure attacks from malicious state actors is going to be pretty high for a while.

BLACKWELL: All right, John Miller, appreciate the expertise. Thank you.

Debate night in Ohio, and it got personal. Senate candidate Tim Ryan called his opponent J.D. Vance an ass-kisser, and Vance called Ryan a toddler. We've got the more important bigger takeaways. That's next. And Senator Bernie Sanders is warning Democrats about the messaging they're putting out ahead of the midterm elections. Why he is alarmed about the big focus on abortion?

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BLACKWELL: Let's go to Ohio now in this critical Senate race. Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican JD Vance faced off in what will be their only debate last night. The candidates clashed over abortion and immigration, party politics. CNN's Omar Jimenez has the details.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): A nail-biter Senate race heating up in Ohio.

J.D. VANCE, REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE, OHIO: We're in close to Halloween and Tim Ryan is put on a costume where he pretends to be a reasonable moderate.

TIM RYAN, DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE, OHIO: I'm for Ohio. I don't kiss anyone's ass like him. Ohio needs an ass-kicker, not an ass- kisser.

JIMENEZ: Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance in a closer-than- expected contest that could determine the balance of power in the Senate. On abortion, Ryan pledges to codify Roe v Wade.

RYAN: We've got to have some moderation on this issue. He's got a very extreme position. J.D., you called rape inconvenient, right? That's rape is not inconvenient. It's a significant tragedy. And he thinks that we should have Ohio State law which says if you rape or incest -- pregnant through incest, that you should be forced to have the baby. This is the largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetime.

JIMENEZ: Vance says he's not as extreme on the issue as Ryan claims.

VANCE: I am pro-life. I've always been pro-life. My view on this is, generally speaking, Ohio is going to want to have different abortion laws than California, than Texas. And I think abortion -- I think Ohio should have that right. But some minimum national standard is totally fine with me.

JIMENEZ: But then the abortion issue took a heated turn when Vance brought up a 10-year-old girl's rape case. That girl traveled to Indiana for an abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and Ohio banned abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

VANCE: And I've said repeatedly on the record, that I think that that girl should be able to get an abortion if she and her family so choose to do so. The thing they never mentioned is that poor girl was raped by an illegal alien, somebody that should have never been in this state in the first place. You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim. If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place.

JIMENEZ: Vance then went on offense to paint Ryan as toeing the Democratic Party line despite former President Donald Trump carrying the state twice.

VANCE: Tim Ryan has done nothing to stop the flow of fentanyl.

[14:20:01]

He talks about wanting to support a stronger border. He talks about wanting to be bipartisan and get things done. Well, Tim, you've been in Congress for 20 years and the border problem has got worse and worse and worse.

JIMENEZ: Ryan, then alleging the former venture capitalist depended on foreign workers.

RYAN: He has businesses in Ohio that actually hire foreign workers. Do you think we're stupid, J.D.? And we're not. I'm just telling you that you are so -- you're from Silicon Valley, you don't understand what's going on here in Ohio.

JIMENEZ: And claiming a new wave of younger leadership is needed in Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want President Biden to run again in 2024?

RYAN: No, I've been very clear. I'd like to see a generational change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

RYAN: Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, the president, everybody like we need a new generation of leadership.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Gentlemen, it's --

JIMENEZ: Vance and Ryan also sparred over the threat of MAGA Republicans and election deniers.

VANCE: Are we having a good time? It's a great day for the president back in Ohio.

JIMENEZ: Vance has repeatedly invoked Trump's support throughout his Senate race and rallied with him.

RYAN: I want people in Ohio to understand this is the crowd that J.D. is running around with, the election deniers, the extremists. He's running with an extreme element here. That's very, very dangerous.

VANCE: I find it interesting how preoccupied you are with this at a time when people can't afford groceries, people can't afford to walk down the streets safely. Let's focus on the significant issues right now, Tim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Now, Victor, this was maybe the most contentious debate we've seen so far in this midterm cycle. Now, this is also a state that President Trump won twice yet, now in this race, there's no clear leader, which is even more significant when you consider that Republicans have spent a little bit over $90 million on ads through this week compared to Democrats, around $30 million spending. And only when you look at Senate races in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia do you see more spending on both sides when it comes to ads. And the one thing all those places have in common, they're going to be close, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Omar Jimenez, thank you. Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst, and senior editor for The Atlantic. Ron, good to have you back.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Victor.

BLACKWELL: So, we heard a lot about abortion there, a bit of inflation as well. You've got a new opinion piece on cnn.com. We say this comes down to one simple question, one phrase, your money or your rights, this midterm campaign. Explain.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, you see it in debate after debate and that debate last night, Arizona, Wisconsin last week. In essence, the tug of war between the parties is this election going to be about what Democrats have done with power, or what Republicans will do with power if they get it in November.

Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Biden is handling the job of president, particularly on inflation, crime, and the border. That's where Republicans are zeroing in. On the other hand, it's pretty clear in polls that a very large number of Americans view the Trump-era Republican Party as a threat to their rights, particularly on abortion, to their values, and to democracy itself. And that is where Democrats want the focus to be. And that is the ultimate tug of war in this election. What will it be about for those last few voters who will tip some of these very close states?

BLACKWELL: You write something that I found really interesting in the six states that'll decide who has control of the Senate that something unusual is happening among the support from voters who disapprove of the president's performance. What did you find?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. I mean, you look at the polls that have come out in the last week and even some today, in places like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin today, even in Colorado, a much more democratic state, Joe Biden's approval rating and all of those states is only around 40 percent. Victor, we don't have many examples in the recent political history of senators from the president's party winning in states where his approval rating is that low.

In the exit polls in 2018, Republicans lost in every state in the Senate race where Donald Trump's approval rating was under 48 percent. In 2010, Democrats lost 13 of the 15 races in states where Obama's approval was below 47 percent. And yet, in all of those states I mentioned, the Democrat is either leading or neck and neck with the Republican. And what you are seeing is an unusually large number of voters who disapprove of the president still saying they're willing to vote for candidates from his party. And I think that is a reflection of what we were just talking about, the resist -- the reluctance of many voters to turn over power to the Republican Party, even while they are deeply disappointed with how Democrats have used their unified control of the government.

BLACKWELL: A growing number of voters detaching in some way the Democratic candidates from the Democratic president.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: You talked about what the Republicans are prioritizing, the Democrats are prioritizing. What are the independence obviously, a crucial group here, what do they prioritize as they look at the list of topics that are being sold to them?

[14:25:07]

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think there's a clear class divide among independents and among the electorate, more generally, I think that among white-collar college-educated suburban voters who maybe feel pinched by inflation, but not fundamentally, you know, just lodged by it, they are showing more focus on the rights issues, abortion, democracy, and so forth. But for -- I think for blue-collar voters, it's pretty clearly the bread and butter economic issues that are -- that are predominating. And that's why in this piece, and you mentioned Bernie Sanders, there are a large number of Democrats who feel like in the final weeks, the party has to figure out a way to get competitive on those economic issues.

I think the large number of manual -- incentives for domestic manufacturing and the infrastructure, semiconductor, and climate bills are going to be a powerful weapon for Democrats by 2024. But not so many of those plans have opened yet. It's not really a ripe issue at this point. And so I think there's a lot of pressure on Democrats -- Democratic candidates to find a way to rebut this Republican argument that the Democratic unified government has mismanaged the economy.

BLACKWELL: Ron, we got a live shot here of the event happening in Georgia, the Republican nominee, Herschel Walker, is speaking. You see on the left of your screen, Senator Tom Cotton. On the right, you've got Senator Rick Scott, who is head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. His job is to get Republicans elected. This visit -- do these visits mean much typically and is this different in any way these endorsements, these stomping speeches by the members?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, usually, the answer is no, not that important. But I think, obviously, for Republican partisan voters in Georgia, it's a signal to stick with Walker. You know, he face it -- look, it's -- I think it's highly likely to in the first round, he finishes behind Senator Warnock. But, of course, Georgia has that 50 percent runoff provision.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: And no one really knows if you get to the end of the line in November and you have -- if Republicans say, win Nevada and Democrats win Pennsylvania, we will be back in a situation where Georgia again decides who has the majority. And I think on balance there are -- there are potentially just enough suburban Republican- leaning voters, especially women who might be resistant to Walker in the first round. But if you get to a runoff, where the issue is essentially which party is going to control the Senate, can they bring back some of those Republican voters under that circumstance? I think it's a very open question. I think Democrats will sleep a lot better if Warnock can get the 50 the first time.

BLACKWELL: Ron Brownstein, good to have you. Thank you, sir.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Quick programming note. Tonight, President Biden talks exclusively with Jake Tapper. That airs at 9:00 p.m. on his new primetime show, "CNN TONIGHT WITH JAKE TAPPER." And for the first time ever, parents are being urged to screen their children as young as eight for anxiety. We'll tell you what's driving the new recommendation. That's next.

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