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Russian Court Denies Brittney Griner's Appeal; Interview With Former U.S. Special Representative For Ukraine Kurt Volker; Midterms Two Weeks Away; Missouri School Shooting Investigation. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 25, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Sad news today. The former Defense Secretary Ash Carter has died after suffering a cardiac event. Carter served under President Obama from 2015 to 2017. He is survived by his wife and two children. Ash Carter was 68 years old.

Thanks for your time today on INSIDE POLITICS. We will see you tomorrow.

Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Great to have you with us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for being here.

Yeezy's season is over at Adidas. The sportswear giant has cut ties with Kanye West, after his recent antisemitic remarks. We will break down the massive cultural and economic fallout.

Also today, we have new information on that terrifying shooting at a Missouri high school and how it could have been even more tragic when a 19-year-old stormed in with a long gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. We will take you live to the scene with the latest.

Plus, it's crunch time in the midterm campaign, two weeks to go, and warning signs are piling up for Democrats, as key races tighten, including one that could determine who holds the Senate. Tonight, the nation will be watching as Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-endorsed Republican Mehmet Oz face off in the only debate for that critical Pennsylvania Senate seat.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Harrisburg. And Athena Jones is here with us in New York following a closer-than-expected New York governor's contest.

Let's first go to the action in Pennsylvania.

Jeff, what's the pulse there right now?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Ana, there's no doubt that this Senate race has been a marquee race of the cycle, and tonight's debate is certainly a marquee event. It's the only time these two candidates, John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz,

will come face to face. In fact, they have never met one another or shared a debate stage at all. The reason, of course, this is so important, Democrats believes still this is their best opportunity to pick up a Republican-held Senate seat.

But this is certainly a unique debate. And here is why. John Fetterman, of course, still recovering from that stroke he suffered late in the spring, and, tonight, at the debate, it's going to look very different than the other debates we have seen throughout the midterm election campaign season. There's going to be closed captioning. There's going to be two large television monitors that are going to be typing out all of the words from the moderators, from Dr. Oz.

And this is something that John Fetterman still uses because he has auditory processing issues. What that means, his doctors say, he's able to understand, but he's not necessarily able to hear everything and respond in real time. So, this is causing the Fetterman campaign to lower expectations for the debate.

Now, take a look at this memo that his campaign advisers released earlier really laying out the stakes, but, again, lowering the expectations. And they have a blunt admission.

They say this: "Remember, John did not get where he is by winning debates or being a polished speaker. John is going to win this race even if he doesn't win the debate"

So, of course, he's debating Mehmet Oz, who made his career and fame as a television doctor, of course, brought into the spotlight by "The Oprah Winfrey Show" years ago. So he is very polished as a speaker. So the expectation-setting is clearly going on here. But the Oz campaign says, look, they're going to focus on the policy differences between the two candidates on crime, on the economy, on inflation, on abortion rights.

So set aside the unique aspect of this, and they are focusing on the policy differences. But all that is clear, two weeks from today, of course, Election Day, but tonight, certainly the biggest event in the Senate race so far, Ana.

CABRERA: So a lot of eyes on what happens there in Pennsylvania.

There's also this high-profile debate in New York tonight in a race that was supposed to be a cakewalk for Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

Athena's here following this one. What's the latest?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a closer- than-expected race.

We always talk about deep blue New York, and this is a state that hasn't elected a Republican to statewide office since 2002. But Lee Zeldin is hoping he can pull this out. I mean, he's been eager to debate Governor Kathy Hochul. They're debating tonight, just their only scheduled debate. It will be one hour.

And we have seen in recent polls that he's really tightening this race. One is the Siena College poll you will see there. There's still an 11-point difference, Kathy Hochul 11 points ahead, but that lead has shrunk six points in the last month. There was also a Quinnipiac poll out recently that showed Kathy Hochul just four points ahead.

And so Lee Zeldin himself, Republicans in general are hoping that maybe this can be the year that Republicans can do this again, and so you can expect him to hit Kathy Hochul on crime. That has been his main issue. And, in fact, according to the polling of New York voters, they see that, New York voters see a crime as a top issue, Republicans raking it, 42 percent of them, their most urgent issue, followed by inflation.

So we have been seeing Zeldin going to bodegas and subways and anywhere there's been a violent incident reported to talk about concerns about public safety and how he will be better at protecting New Yorkers who are worried.

Listen to New Yorkers I caught up with last week in Brooklyn talking about their concerns about crime.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My nephew was mugged in Lower Manhattan not that not that long ago. I mean, it could be me tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to move. We want to move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have lost a lot of enthusiasm because things seem to continue to be the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, that last woman you heard from, she was talking about enthusiasm. She was less concerned with crime, but we were asking her -- it sounds like she was leaning toward Hochul, but she wasn't very enthusiastic about her vote. And that's another concern for Democrats, a lack of enthusiasm.

CABRERA: Quick fact-check: Is crime on the rise?

JONES: Well, in some ways, it is.

So, transit crime is up about 40 percent year over year, but so is ridership. It is not up 40 percent, but ridership is also on the rise. When it comes to things like murders and shootings, those things are down. And if you talk to someone like Mayor Adams or Kathy Hochul, they will say that part of that is getting guns off the streets.

So the numbers are mixed. But the real issue is how people feel.

CABRERA: Yes. JONES: And if you talk to voters and everyone I know, people are

concerned about crime.

CABRERA: And safety.

Thank you so much, Athena Jones and Jeff Zeleny. Appreciate you both.

We're getting more information now about the deadly shooting at a St. Louis high school. Police killed the gunman, but we're learning more about his plans and what he was prepared to do. And we're learning about the victims, a teacher passionate about making a difference, nearing retirement, and a girl less than a month away from her sweet 16.

CNN's Josh Campbell, who leads our new Guns in America unit here at CNN, is with us, and Adrienne Broaddus is joining us as well.

First, Josh, what more are we learning about what happened and what could have happened?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ana, yet another school shooting here in the United States of America.

I will tell you what we know about the shooting suspect at this hour. Police say that this is a 19-year-old who was a former student at that school. They described him as having no prior criminal history. They say that he aggressively entered the school building, began shooting.

And, of course, it's this last new chilling detail that we got last night from police that really shows that this could have been so much worse. Police say that the suspect, in addition to this long rifle, actually had nearly a dozen high-capacity magazines capable of carrying up to 30 rounds each.

Now, of course, in all of these incidents, whether it's Uvalde, whether it's Highland Park, Illinois, the issue of high-capacity magazines has returned again and again, because they allow shooters to shoot for much longer. Here, it appears that that gun may have jammed, and then the suspect was engaged by police, but chilling details there.

Again, this could have been so much worse. And, of course, for the two victims and their families, obviously this is a tragedy, Ana.

CABRERA: And, Josh, officials say the doors were locked. Again, this person was not a current student at the school. So how did the suspect get in?

CAMPBELL: Quite frankly, we don't know.

We posed that question to the police there in St. Louis. The police commissioner said that he doesn't want to say because he doesn't want to telegraph to potential future school shooters where weak points in security might be. I don't know how long that approach will hold up, because, of course, students and their families, they want to know that they're going to a school that has robust security measures in place that can help keep threats out.

CABRERA: Speaking of that, there were seven security personnel inside the school when the gunman entered, according to the investigation. So we're told it took about eight minutes from when police arrived on scene to make contact with the gunman. How are we supposed to make sense of that?

CAMPBELL: Yes, the police commissioner says that he doesn't know whether all seven of those personnel were actually armed there. Of course, there are security personnel around the country that do good work that aren't armed.

But when you are outgunned, as it appears that they were, by a suspect with so many rounds of ammunition, that obviously raising questions about whether armed personnel should be in schools. We're told that police after the 911 call responded within four minutes. They were able to make their way through the building, actually querying fleeing students, asking them, where is he? Where is he?

And then, once they heard those gunshots, they were able to go to the sound of the shooter, eventually engage in a shoot-out. And, as you mentioned, he died later at a hospital.

CABRERA: And it was a teacher and a student who were killed in this, seven others injured.

What are you learning about these victims, Adrienne?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we have learned that teen who was killed would have celebrated, had she survived, her 16th birthday next month.

Those who knew and loved her say she was a talented dancer who made everyone smile. And it's important to underscore this school where she was shot and killed is a performing arts school.

We're also learning more about the beloved teacher. She was a 61-year- old physical education teacher. And here's what her students are saying about her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXIS ALLEN-BROWN, STUDENT: She made you feel real inside of the class and out. She made me feel like you was healing, and she was just so sweet.

BRANDEN LEWIS, STUDENT: It wasn't always fun when she stuck to the rules or whatnot. We got sent to detention a little more than I would care to admit. But, all in all, she was just a really kindhearted person, and she loved everybody. And she was one of those teachers that you could really tell cared about the students.

[13:10:03]

Ms. Kuczka was one of the special teachers. She really cared heavily. and she was the same towards everybody. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS: Her heart was really on display.

Meanwhile, the other students who were injured physically, 15- and 16- year-olds, with a variety of injuries, including gunshot wounds -- Ana.

CABRERA: Well, it's so painful to hear of this new school shooting.

Josh Campbell and Adrienne Broaddus, thank you both.

Now, we have this just in. A Texas man who sold a gun used in a standoff at a synagogue earlier this year has been sentenced to nearly eight years in federal prison. Prosecutors say Henry Dwight Williams is a convicted felon with no business owning, much less selling a firearm. The buyer went on to hold four people hostage at gunpoint for 11 hours.

It was only after the rabbi picked up a chair and threw it at the gunman that the hostages escaped, and law enforcement then killed the gunman.

Now to a stunning intraparty squabble over U.S. involvement in Ukraine. Progressive Democrats just moments ago withdrawing a letter they wrote to President Biden after another Democrat called it a -- quote -- "olive branch to a war criminal." What's going on here?

Plus, check your bathroom cabinets. More than a dozen dry shampoos from popular brands now being pulled from the shelves over a cancer- causing chemical.

And Adidas finally steps up and gives Kanye West, or Ye, the boot over his toxic behavior, his antisemitic rants. So who's still standing with him?

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[13:16:02]

CABRERA: It's just a stunning turn of events.

In a massive unforced error really right ahead of the midterm elections, moments ago, liberal Democrats withdrew and open letter they sent to President Biden's suggesting the U.S. tried to negotiate with Vladimir Putin to end his invasion in Ukraine.

Now, that sparked fierce backlash within the party. Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss tweeting -- quote -- "This letter is an olive branch to a war criminal who's losing his war."

The congressional Progressive Caucus chairwoman, Pramila Jayapal, even defended the letter initially, but now she's saying it was sent by mistake.

Let's get right to Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Manu, what's going on here? What is the truth?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a number of these members who actually signed this letter that was released this week were surprised. They said they were blindsided.

I talked to some of them who said they did not anticipate that Jayapal's office would release this letter this week. They, in fact, had signed this letter in June pushing the Biden administration to pursue more diplomacy in the war Ukraine, Russia's war with Ukraine. But some of them said that, if they knew this was going to be released this week, they would never have released it in the -- they have never would have signed on to it in the first place.

One veteran Democratic member told me that Democrats were -- quote -- "furious," including some members who are in difficult reelection races who did not want to open up a debate, an intraparty feud about how to deal with Ukraine when the party has united behind sending billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine at a time when Republicans are divided over this issue.

So, after backlash, Jayapal just announced moments ago that she would retract this letter that was sent to President Biden. She said in her statement, in part, that the idea that conflating the Democratic position with the Republican position concerned about more aid was -- quote -- "Nothing could be further from the truth about that."

And she said: "Every war ends with diplomacy, and this one will take -- this one will too after a Ukrainian victory. The letter sent yesterday, although restating that basic principle, has been conflated with GOP opposition to support for the Ukrainians' just defense of their national sovereignty. As such, it is a distraction at this time, and we withdraw the letter."

Now, it has not been yet fully explained why this was released this week. We had asked Jayapal's office about that. They declined to comment about the reason. But after that initial backlash from when it was released on yesterday, she released a statement clarifying the position saying the support the administration's position, but ultimately untenable, as Democrats tried to push back, made clear that they wouldn't have signed on to this letter, forcing an embarrassing about-face from the leader of the Progressive Caucus, someone who has an eye on potentially elevating in the Democratic leadership in the next Congress.

But, nevertheless, Democrats are hoping to put this feud behind them and move on to the midterm elections, where they're focusing on other issues as they struggle to keep control of the House.

CABRERA: Manu Raju, thank you for that update.

Let's discuss now with former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker.

Ambassador, there's a lot of drama inside the U.S. right now. Could Vladimir Putin exploit that, especially given we know the election is right around the corner? And he has meddled in the past.

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE: Right.

Well, Putin is in exactly that frame of mind right now. He is losing the war on the ground. So he is making threats. He's making threats about nuclear use, about dirty bombs, about blowing up this dam that's going to flood the city of Kherson. He is trying to get people in the West to do exactly what that letter did, trying to get people to say, oh, we need to negotiate. We need a cease-fire. We need to settle it now and to do this directly with Russia.

That's what Putin is aiming at. So it is what he's trying to do. I'm glad to see that the Democratic Caucus withdrew the letter, because no one should be playing into this Putin agenda right now.

CABRERA: Ukraine is holding its own, certainly, but Russia continues to cause more suffering, more death, more escalation in terms of tactics it's using.

[13:20:06]

Does something need to change in the U.S. approach to this?

VOLKER: Yes.

I think we have held back unnecessarily on types of weapons that the Ukrainians need in order to defend their cities and their civilians better. First is air defenses. We are finally getting some better air defenses into Ukraine now. We could have done that months ago, because we knew this was the only resort that Putin had.

We also need to get them longer-range artillery shells. We're restricting the firing range now to 80 kilometers. But things like the Kerch Strait Bridge, the naval base at Sevastopol, the lines of communication that Russia uses to supply its forces are more than 80 kilometers away.

So the Ukrainians need these longer-range munitions in order to force the Russians to pull back. And that will make the Ukrainian cities safer.

CABRERA: There are a couple of key arguments against the U.S. trying to insert itself in a diplomatic fashion, other than what it's already doing. And that's that Russia isn't indicating it wants to negotiate, the other being that it's for the Ukrainians to decide their future.

But I do wonder, does the U.S. even have pull over Russia right now to make that kind of a difference?

VOLKER: Not at all.

So, I think you hit the key arguments, and there are a few others. But Russia and Putin personally is determined to claim some kind of victory here. It would essentially allow Putin to claim that he has conquered 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and annexed that to Russia. That would be completely unacceptable from anyone's standpoint.

It would vindicate Putin and effectively assure him that he would stay in power, and therefore threaten Ukraine and threaten others again. So we should not be seeking to negotiate a solution with Putin now. The only thing that's going to create European security in the future is if Russia pulls its forces out and recognizes what it has done, accepts responsibility for the aggression and the war crimes, and then agrees to live within its borders in the future.

If that doesn't happen, we're going to face continued threats to European security, for which the U.S. is ultimately responsible for years to come.

CABRERA: And so back to what's happening inside the U.S., on Capitol Hill, you have this letter by the Progressive Caucus creating the controversy, especially among Democrats.

And then you have Kevin McCarthy, who could become the next speaker of the House here in just a few months, if Republicans win the midterms. He has suggested that they may not support as much Ukrainian aid from the U.S.

What do you see as the U.S. role in this conflict going forward? How could it change perhaps with a new Congress?

VOLKER: Right. So -- yes, so, first off, the problem with a letter from the Progressive Caucus is not the timing. It's the content.

It did not call for Russia to stop the war, did not call for Russia to withdraw its forces, did not call for Russia to stop killing Ukrainians and committing war crimes. It was all about negotiating with them. So that's just wrong on the surface.

What Kevin McCarthy did was say that there will be no blank check for Ukraine. And that's a very different message, because it implies we need accountability, transparency, reporting on where the money is going. We need to exercise congressional oversight. That is a reasonable position for Congress to take, and not be -- not saying that they're going to cut or that we should not support Ukraine.

Neither did the Democrats, although the implication was that in their letter. But I would say, the bottom line here, we have, after the midterm elections, still two years of, I would say, relatively stable and supportive U.S. policy for Ukraine.

Both parties, the majority in both parties, Republican and Democrat, the majorities in both chambers, the House and the Senate, strongly support aid to Ukraine, strongly support sanctions and pushback on Russia because of their war crimes. And I think that will continue for the next two years to -- and that will support the position of the Biden administration.

CABRERA: Ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you very much for taking the time and appreciate your insights.

(CROSSTALK) VOLKER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Russia having no mercy on Brittney Griner, confirming today her nine-year sentence will stand.

A Moscow regional court denied the basketball star's legal appeal to overturn or at least reduce her sentence on drug charges. The State Department says Griner is being wrongfully detained, a political prisoner caught in the middle of Russia's war on Ukraine.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now from London.

Matthew, the U.S. has suggested a prisoner swap. So far, Russia hasn't agreed. What's it going to take? What does Russia want?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question, Ana.

I mean, certainly, it's been several months now since the United States and the Russians have been engaged in intensive negotiations at times to try and work out how they can come up with a deal that would involve the release of Brittney Griner back to her family in the United States.

[13:25:14]

And what the Russians have come up with, of course, is the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who's serving a lengthy prison sentence in an American prison. They want him. They want other Americans too in exchange for both Brittney Griner and the other prominent American, one other prominent American who's in a Russian jail, Paul Whelan.

But there hasn't been an agreement on the sort of detail of what that would involve. It must be incredibly frustrating for Brittney Griner and her family, of course. She stood in that courtroom today on the outskirts of Moscow. Actually, she appeared in it by videoconference, making an impassioned plea to the judge to reduce her sentence significantly.

She talked about how agonizing it was to be away from her family. But those kinds of emotional appeals simply fell on deaf ears. The lawyers for Brittney Griner, who have been doing a sterling job trying to represent her, saying they're bitterly disappointed that there was very little done in the court in terms of alleviating her sentence.

They reduced the prison sentence by a couple of months. Instead of nine years, she will now serve something in the region of eight-and-a- half. But that's nothing to kind of ease the suffering and the pain of this basketball star who is now marooned in Russia until and unless a deal with the United States is done.

CABRERA: Matthew Chance, I appreciate your reporting. Thank you for helping us understand the situation.

Now to the U.K. The new British prime minister has only been on the job for a few hours, but is already getting down to business. Rishi Sunak formally met with King Charles this morning, and is now reshuffling the Cabinet. Sunak inherits a country in turmoil. His predecessor, Liz Truss, only served about six weeks after she abandoned her tax cut plans that sent financial markets tumbling.

Sunak acknowledged the country's economic struggle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Some mistakes were made. And I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister in part to fix them. And that work begins immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Sunak is the first British prime minister of color. He's also the youngest in 200 years.

A major recall for dry shampoos over a chemical the CDC says causes cancer. What you need to know.

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