Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Putin Blames West for Playing "Dangerous, Bloody & Dirty" Game; CNN Gets Look at Ukrainian Power Plant Hit by Russian Attacks; Rep Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) Discusses Arrest in Katie Hobbs HQ Burglary, 6 Cases of Alleged AZ Voter Intimidation Referred to DOJ, GOP & Dems Efforts to Win Latino Voters. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 27, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin blames the U.S. and other Western countries of playing what he calls "a dangerous, bloody and dirty game."

And CNN gets exclusive access inside a Ukrainian power plant destroyed by Russian strikes. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:34:59]

GOLODRYGA: Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin says the world is facing the most dangerous decade since World War II.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): We never intentionally said anything about the possibility of using nuclear weapons by Russia. We only responded with hints to Western leaders' statements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: He was speaking at a think tank. And Putin again denied that Russia was planning to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. And accused the West of engaging in what he calls "nuclear blackmail" against Russia.

CNN got an inside look at a Ukrainian power plant repeatedly targeted by Russian forces. Workers trying to make repairs are constantly interrupted by air raid sirens.

GOLODRYGA: We're not identifying the plant's location for safety reasons.

But CNN's Nic Robertson walks us through all of that damage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is where power plant officials say one of two drones slammed into the ground. It was the same day the plant was hit by a cruise missile as well.

The drone, they say, got tangled up in the high-voltage cables up here, ripping equipment apart. All on the ground here, all around burnt-out cables and, over here, burnt-out equipment.

And the problem, officials say, is that this part of the site was the most sensitive part, the place that's the easiest to take the whole system down. The plant now completely offline.

And the other problem is some of this equipment here is very hard to replace. It's scarce. Some of it is not even made anymore.

What they're saying they're doing is turning to other power plants across the country to scavenge useful items. Repair work is going on all the time.

But for many of the engineers here, part of their days are spent underground in bunkers. You still get a lot of air raid siren alerts. This is still a target. And they're worried about it.

Already, some of the easier to repair parts of the plant have been put back together. New concrete columns here. A cruise missile landed right here, taking them out.

But it raises the big question for the government now, can they repair at a faster rate than Russia is destroying? And 30 to 40 percent of the country's electricity-generating capacity is down.

The public have been told to expect blackouts. They've been told to keep their phones and power banks charged. Not to use high-energy appliances in their homes, particularly during peak hours in the evening.

It is really a problem facing the government. A real pressure point that President Putin is putting on them right now.

Nic Robertson, CNN, at a power-generating plant in Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: You see a third of the country's power is out. It's getting colder in Ukraine right now. And the concern is that for civilians there, if there's going to be more of these attacks, and how will they survive through the winter months?

BLACKWELL: Officials in Kyiv say the strategy is to avoid a complete blackout. And we'll talk about that with our experts, coming up next hour.

All right, 12 days out from the vote count, both parties are targeting Latino voters. This is a critical voting bloc. But it shifted towards Republicans in 2020. We'll talk about what Democrats are doing to win back support. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:58]

BLACKWELL: A short time ago, in Phoenix, police announced they arrested someone in connection to a break-in and burglary at the campaign office of Katie Hobbs.

She's the Democratic Party nominee for governor of Arizona. Still no word about what was stolen in that break-in or the identity of the suspect.

Also in Arizona, a pro-democracy organization filed federal lawsuits this week against groups and individuals accused of trying to intimidate early voters at ballot drop boxes, sometimes with guns.

Joining us now is Arizona Democratic Congressman and BOLD Pac chairman, Ruben Gallego.

Congressman, good to have you back on the show.

Let's start here with this break-in of Katie Hobbs' campaign headquarters and her calling out Kari Lake.

She said that, for nearly two years, Kari Lake and her allies have been spreading dangerous misinformation and inciting threats against anyone they see fit, pointing directly at her opponent.

The investigation is just starting. You think that's appropriate to draw that connection to Lake?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Well, I don't think Katie is just talking about this particular instance. We'll hear -- we'll hear what happened.

Look, we have armed men standing at drop boxes stalking people with cameras, videotaping them as they get into their cars and driving -- writing down driver's license.

This is all coming from the rhetoric of Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, basically trying to continue this lie that, in 2020, the election was stolen, right?

So this increased rhetoric, this increased potential violence is being caused by those two candidates, in particular, because they're just stoking their own base with these -- with these lies. And, you know, they're responsible for this.

BLACKWELL: So you're saying they're responsible for the environment or they're responsible for what their supporters go and do if there's a connection --

(CROSSTALK)

GALLEGO: -- for the environment. It's not a bunch of Democrats that are sitting outside of a drop box with masks and weapons and, you know, staring at people as they put their ballots down.

[14:45:04]

It's caused by election denialists who are trying to suck up to Donald Trump.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And I'll say, let's wait for the investigation and see what police learn about the motive of this person --

(CROSSTALK)

GALLEGO: Right. But again, I'm talking about the environment in general.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GALLEGO: Specifically, the fact that there's voter intimidation happening right now.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about these people sitting by these drop boxes. The Arizona chapter of the League of Women Voters, they've filed this lawsuit claiming intimidation of voters.

In Arizona, depending upon the distance -- here's some video of two of the people who sit out there, also during the day. This is not breaking state law. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland says that voters will not be intimidated.

What should, if anything, the DOJ be doing about this now?

GALLEGO: We should be investing to see how is this organized. Who is behind this? Are they dangerous?

Election observers are a very common thing, but why do you feel you have to show up in tactical gear? You have your face covered.

They cover up their driver's license plates, but yet feel comfortable walking up to people and taking pictures of them and their vehicles as they're dropping off -- as they're dropping off their ballots.

We should, number one, make sure they're not dangerous. Number two, what is the organization that is supporting them? And, you know, is this going to spiral out of control?

Because at what point does a family feel like they can't go drop off their votes when they feel they may be a threat of violence. What does that mean for Election Day?

So it may be not illegal, but it certainly is against the spirit of democracy to have people with weapons at the polling place when we're trying to vote, especially just two years after an insurrection.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about what I talked about before in the break, the aggressive push for Latino voters. Every two years, every cycle, these parties talk about having to bring in minority voters. Happens with black voters, too. What is the Democratic Party doing now? What should it be doing after

we saw a large portion of Latino voters shift toward Republicans in 2020?

GALLEGO: Well, number one, not a large portion, by the way. The reason --

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: It's significant.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: I'll say a significant portion.

GALLEGO: It's because Latinos came out and voted for him in overwhelming numbers, including in Arizona.

I think the narrative keeps moving from what actually happened where they -- the Republicans did gain a little, to somehow, it's a large portion. That's just not the case. In certain areas, that's the case. But not across the country.

Number two, what we're doing right now, what we have been doing -- hoping we should have been doing in the past, is that early contact with Latino voters, talking to him about the issues that matter to them.

This is the first time I actually have seen very strong investment by the Democratic Party, a very strong investment by individual candidates. And it was early. It was not waiting until the last two weeks of the campaign.

I think that's extremely important. It's a very hard year because of the economic environment. And we're going to have to work extra hard to make sure we keep the margins that we have consistently had in the past.

But let's be clear it's an election that's going to be decided by Latinos. If we keep our margins where we usually do in the 64 percent range, we're going to win a lot of these races. When we fall below that, that's when we lose.

But it's not something that is shifting strongly towards Republicans. That's just, I think, some campaign rhetoric that continues being amplified incorrectly.

BLACKWELL: Depends on the district or the state, though. We have seen significant shifts. I will admit that maybe overstating large shifts, but we have seen some significant shifts.

GALLEGO: Right.

BLACKWELL: Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you.

GALLEGO: Thank you. GOLODRYGA: Well, several people who were once closed to the rapper

formerly known as Kanye West say he's long been fascinated by Adolf Hitler. CNN's exclusive new reporting, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:12]

BLACKWELL: The artist now known as Ye, formerly Kanye West, showed up at the Los Angeles offices of shoemakers Skechers yesterday and was promptly escorted out by two executives.

Skechers said he showed up unannounced, uninvited, and with video cameras to engage in unauthorized filming.

GOLODRYGA: In a statement, the company says, "Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech."

Now several companies have cut ties with West over his anti-Semitic remarks. And now there are disturbing news allegations that West created a hostile work environment, partly due to an alleged obsession with Adolf Hitler.

CNN entertainment reporter, Chloe Melas, is here with the exclusive details.

And I don't know what's more disturbing, this fascination with Hitler or how many people actually knew about it for a great deal of time.

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: So, you know, there's two different parts here to this exclusive story that we just put out on CNN.

So I'll start with the album, which a lot of people are talking about, especially on social media in the last hour.

So in 2018, Kanye released an album called "Ye." And four high-level individuals who worked on that album, who were part of Kanye's team, told me that Kanye wanted adamantly to name it "Hitler."

And that there was a lot of contention in his camp that this is not a good idea, this is career suicide, you can't do this.

And that it took a lot of convincing. Up into the hours right before the album came out, you know, he still had not decided on a title and reluctantly, according to these four sources, picked "Ye."

CNN, we reached out to Def Jam, which is part of Universal Music Group that put out this album, along with Kanye's Good Music label, and they declined to comment.

[14:54:59]

But, you know, it's incredibly shocking. But it also supports a lot of what, you know, Van Lathan recently said about being at TMZ when Kanye showed up in 2018 and said that slavery is choice.

And that edited remarks were taken out of Kanye praising Hitler and allegedly saying, you know, I love Hitler and look at all the good that he did.

And so we spoke to somebody who was in that room, part of Kanye's entourage at the time, who was at TMZ, who backs up what Van said and said it's true.

But we don't know why TMZ cut that out of the broadcast. We've reached out for comment, and they haven't said anything.

BLACKWELL: How is this fascination with Hitler that so many people knew that you have got four sources on it, but it wasn't public, that they kept this quiet, they kept it under wraps for so long?

MELAS: You know, look, there are confidentiality agreements that these high-level executives signed. Many of them breaching those to speak to us anonymously. And they're speaking to us anonymously for fear of retribution.

One of those high-level executives actually had a settlement that CNN obtained. And one of the parts in there had to do with a toxic work environment, harassment.

And that Kanye would often praise Hitler and brag and talk about reading "Mein Kompf", which is Hitler's autobiography, and that this was a very common thing in the workplace.

How it was kept a secret for so long, it probably was confidentiality agreements.

GOLODRYGA: We may hear now from others who knew about it as well.

Chloe, thank you for your reporting.

MELAS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Lawyers for former President Trump were spotted heading inside a Washington, D.C., federal court today. This is part of a battle with the Justice Department in a secret dispute stemming from the Mar-a-Lago search. We've got more details for you, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)