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Putin Declares Martial Law In Four Ukrainian Regions; Oath Keepers: We Were Ready To Stop Election By Any Means Necessary; U.S. Confirms American Imprisoned In Saudi Arabia; Study Shows That Sleep As Important To Heart Health As Diet, Exercise. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 19, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is the reality that the Ukrainian government sees about this martial law, and so they're appealing, you know, for all the allies and friends to make it very clear as they did when Russia forcibly annexed these four areas and the U.N. Security Council almost unanimously by a massive majority rejected Russia's illegal annexation.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: We've also learned, Nic, about these forced evacuations, right, as they're being condemned. As we're learning more about them, do we have a sense of how many people have been moved at this point? What's really behind that? One former official told the BBC that -- one former Kherson official Ukrainian said he thought this was really about maybe some cover to get Russian troops out.

ROBERTSON: Yes, look, there's a real reality of that happening here because what Russia is doing is forcing the civilians out of Kherson, strategic town, important for the Russians, but they're losing territory.

Ukrainian officials say the Russians are whipping up hysteria by saying, you know, you're going to get shelled in your houses. The Ukrainians are going to blow the dam. They're going to flood your river. It's your last chance to get out. You have got to get out.

But look, one other part of the conflict when you analyze this has Russia really cared about the Ukrainian civilian that are caught up in the war. So many of them have been killed by Russian forces. They're bombing them here every day.

So, there's a real level of skepticism about what the Russians are saying here. They -- the reality is there's a potential they could use these forcibly evacuated civilians as human shields as cover to pull back their forces. T

heir military general says they're losing territory. The civilian commander there says his moving his civilian command to the other side of the river. It looks very much like Russia is preparing to pull its troops out and what safer way for them to do it than hidden among or at least with the cover of civilians who are being forced out, and by the way, the civilians there woke up to a text message this morning telling them to get out. By the middle of the day, that text message had turned into martial

law which meant the army was in control, and we don't know what powers the army has if somebody says, no. I would like to stay in my home. If I have a choice, I want to stay. Well, under martial law, that could be a very ugly picture.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right, Nic Robertson for us. Thank you so much there in Kyiv.

Joining us now CNN national security analyst Steve Hall, former CIA chief of Russia operations. Steve, why now? I mean, Putin has declared these annexes of Russia. He's got his hand-picked civil leaders, the government leaders there, the military is already there. Why now a declaration of martial law?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, there are some interesting things going on here. The first thing is the martial law that's been declared by Russia inside the so-called annexed area of Ukraine, the Donbas, Luhansk and Donetsk, that's just sort of silly.

I mean, you can't really impose any type of law, martial or otherwise if you don't actually control, you know, the levers of government in the territory itself. It's quite clear that inside of that portion of Ukraine that the Russians have tried to take and annex that they don't control it.

So, it's almost more of a domestic thing. It's being able for Russians and Russia to say, look, we control those areas and so we can do martial law there. What really interests me though is oblasts, these regions that surround the areas where the war is going on in Ukraine.

The decoration of martial law inside Russian territories. And we oftentimes say, why does -- you know, you'll hear me say, there's no rule of law in Russia, but then something like this happens.

I think what's really going on in this location is that, you know, the military just needs to be able to take over from the local governors. And say, look, we are now running these areas of Russia because they're concerned about sabotage and paramilitary operations coming from Ukraine. So, it's kind of a complicated -- different situation for different martial law areas in and outside of Russia.

HILL: Is it also a sign or an acknowledgment in some ways that Russia recognizing that things aren't going in their favor at this point in those areas?

HALL: Well, certainly that's the implication because I mean, you don't declare martial law unless you absolutely have to. That's certainly true in those areas that are inside of Russia that are bordering on, you know, the war that's going on in Ukraine.

So yes, that's a tacit I think admission that the Ukrainians might get behind the front lines, they might get into that part of Russia and conduct, you know, blow up bridges and things like that. So yes, I think it definitely is a tacit admission that there's some weakness on the Russian side, which of course, we know from the military activities.

HILL: Steve Hall unfortunately we've got to leave it there but we'll bring it back as you know. Thank you.

[15:35:00]

An Oath Keeper cooperating with the government says he felt he had to, quote, conquer or die after attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in courts were failing. New details from court, next.

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HILL: In some stunning testimony -- which I feel like we keep saying a lot when it comes to this testimony -- a member of the Oath Keepers says his group was ready to stop Joe Biden from assuming the presidency by any means necessary.

BLACKWELL: Jason Dolan is the first of several Oath Keepers to plead guilty. He told a jury yesterday that he packed his car full of weapons because he wanted Congress to be afraid. CNN's Whitney Wild joins us with more on the case. So many discoveries coming out of this testimony.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Jason Dolan is the first cooperating witness, and what I mean by that is he's the first person to plead guilty as part of the conspiracy who is now a cooperating witness for the prosecution. Notably he did not plead guilty to seditious conspiracy, but another charge that was obstructing an official proceeding.

[15:40:00]

The prosecution is really trying to use Jason Dolan as a translator, to translate the text messages and evidence that has been presented so far from an insider's perspective. Because a lot of this case hinges on intention and mindset.

And what Jason Dolan said throughout his testimony when he was interviewed by prosecutors was that he was there for the purpose of stopping Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. And further he wanted Congress to fear him. He thought that if they were afraid of him that maybe he could coerce them into doing what he thought they were obligated to do.

One of the quotes from his hearing yesterday was: I wanted them to be afraid of me -- them being Congress.

Again, primarily prosecutors want to use him as a window into the intention. The defense attorneys also keyed in on that because they really pushed him to try to admit that the -- basically the pieces of the conspiracy are not in themselves illegal. So, for example, he admitted to bringing a mass of weapons to Virginia. Nobody's been charged with a weapons crime.

Another example, the defense really keyed in on was Jason Dolan admitting that there was no overarching plan to go into the Capitol. Right at this moment, prosecutors are working on their redirect where they will try to get Jason Dolan to basically offer a rebuttal to the defense attorney's theories. Back to you.

HILL: Wow, I mean, no shortage of revelations coming out of that courtroom, Whitney. Appreciate it, thank you.

The latest study on heart health shows just how important sleep is. In fact, just as critical as your exercise, a healthy diet. So, how many hours a night do you need to live a hopefully long, healthy life? We're going to ask that to Dr. Sanjay Gupta next.

[15:45:00]

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HILL: The State Department confirming an American is detained in Saudi Arabia and now his son is condemning the Saudis for sentencing his father. Saad Ibrahim Almadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison for tweets that he sent while he was living in Florida -- he's American. The 72-year-old was first detained in November when he was on a visit to Saudi. He was there to see family.

BLACKWELL: Now the son said Almadi has been tortured while in Saudi custody. CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood has the latest. Now, Kylie, the State Department says the U.S. just spoke to Saudi officials in D.C. a few days ago about Almadi's case What do we know?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the State Department said that they have been consistently in touch with Saudi officials over concerns regarding Almadi's detention. Of course, now his 16-year prison sentence.

They've said they have had those discussions with folks from the Saudi Embassy here in Washington, D.C. this week. It had those discussions with Saudi officials over in Saudi Arabia, and they've also brought that up as soon as they found out that Almadi had been detained -- that was last year.

Of course, he was detain when had he arrived in the country in November of last year and he has been sentenced, as you guys said, to 16 years in prison. We heard from his son just last night on CNN talking about the fact that he has been told his father has been tortured while he has been in that prison cell.

He has not been able to talk to his father at all while he has been in prison. And he is calling on the State Department to declare his father's wrongfully detained.

So, that's something that we'll watch for because if that is given to Almadi in this situation, that would essentially galvanize the U.S. government to really work actively to try and secure his release. And of course, we should note, this comes at a very a contentious moment in U.S./Saudi relations with president Biden calling out the Saudi's for what he says is being on the side of Russia due to their recent OPEC oil production decision -- guys. HILL: Certainly, a lot of focus on it for those reasons as well.

Kylie, appreciate it. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Now just in to CNN, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is revealing new details about the hit that sparked outrage over the NFL's concussion protocols. What he remembers and what he does not. That's next.

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HILL: So, researchers say diet and exercise are not the only paths you can take to better health and a healthy heart. A new study says getting a good night sleep is important and in fact, maybe just as important.

BLACKWELL: CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us now. So, there are two new studies reinforcing the benefits of sleep. Let's start with duration and what they say about how long they say people should sleep and the importance of it.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean the magic number that you hear a lot is getting at least 7 hours of sleep. And I think I would tuck that in the back of your brain in terms of what is the right amount.

What was interesting about the study, though, this first study they followed 8,000 people for 25 years and they started at age 50 and they were perfectly healthy 50-year-olds. And they wanted to see what happened to people who weren't getting enough sleep -- five hours or less on average.

And what they found if you were 50 and not getting adequate sleep you had a 30 percent increased risk of developing significant chronic diseases, not just one but several diseases over the next several year. The risk went up even higher if you're still sleeping poorly at 60 and even higher if you are still sleeping poorly at age 70. So, this was a pretty long study that actually looked at this, which I found really interesting.

The second study showed a lot of the same things but also found for Americans in particular about 63 percent of people are getting inadequate sleep. This is a real problem. In fact, the American Heart Association always has their healthy seven lists of things you should do to try and avoid heart disease, biggest killer of men and women. They now added number eight to that list, which is healthy sleep. So, you know, tons of study out there about sleep but long studies now showing the long term impact of poor sleep.

HILL: And so, just really quickly before we finish on the sleep. Is this really all about, in terms of what sleep does for your body recharging your batteries?

GUPTA: There's a lot that goes on when you sleep. I mean, people often think about as like sort of hibernation. It's really not that, it's a very restorative process and your brain can be very active. There's four stages of sleep. And the way they come up with the seven hours is that you have to go through these four cycles -- these four stages several times, four to six times through the night. And if you do the math that ends up being at least seven hours of sleep.

But each of these stages do different things. And that's part of the reason that you arrive at this seven hours. For example, there's one stage of sleep where the Glial cells, which are the brain cells are clearing lots of waste from your brain, really important.

There's a second one, which always gets people's attention, shows if you're not sleeping enough there's a hormone called leptin which basically signals to the brain that you've had enough to eat, that you're full. Well, that production goes down. So, if you're not getting enough sleep, you're hungry or as a general and you tend to put on weight.

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So, these are some of the reasons people develop, you know, long term chronic diseases as a result of poor sleep.

BLACKWELL: All right, good to know. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Got it, thank you.

HILL: Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. Stay tune, "THE LEAD" starts after this short break.

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