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Federal Government Starts Preparing For Potential Shutdown; Interview With Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) About Possible Government Shutdown And Senator Bob Menendez Bribery Charge; Heavy Rain, Flooding, High Winds Slam East Coast; Russia's Lavrov On U.S.: "They Are Directly At War With Us"; CNN Poll: Biden Leads Trump In Potential New Hampshire Rematch; Authorities Kill Gator Found With Human Torso In Its Mouth. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired September 23, 2023 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:30]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good afternoon.

A major new deadline hangs over Washington and the heads of federal employees across the country. Just one week from today the federal government will face a midnight shutdown unless some kind of funding bill can be passed and signed by the president. With every passing hour that looks more unlikely.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent lawmakers home for a long weekend after far-right Republicans defied him and his spending measures so federal agencies have begun their formal process of preparing for a shutdown. For millions of federal workers and military personnel their paychecks could be delayed possibly for weeks.

And it all comes as a crisis grows at the southern border. Federal officials are sending more resources there to help with this resurge of migrants crossing into the U.S. Today House Speaker Kevin McCarthy conceded he has to win over Republican hard-liners but he's hopeful he says that they'll fall in line to pass some kind of stopgap spending measure and prevent the shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I think when it gets crunch time people will finally -- that have been holding off all this time, blaming everybody else, will finally hopefully move off because shutting down and having border agents not be paid, your Coast Guard not to get paid, I don't see how that's a victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju is here.

Manu, great to see you in studio with us. Tell us. Where do things stand? Are we heading towards a shutdown?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there's a very good chance of a shutdown at this point. I mean, we'll see. There's still a week to go but there are two sides on opposite pages. It is up to two sides, where we typically talk about Democrat and Republican. It is Republican on Republican.

Today in the House the speaker had a conference call with his members. This was the message to his members. Avoid a government shutdown. Pass a stopgap spending bill. Keep the government running for some time while they negotiate the larger year-long bill. The problem is he doesn't have the votes because he has made a strategic decision to try to pass this along party lines. They want a Republican position coming out of the House to negotiate

with the Senate on it and try to come up with a compromised plan.

But there are a group of hard-liners that are simply not there. There are probably about seven or so who oppose any sort of short-term measure. So -- and he can only afford to lose four votes. So therein lies the challenge. And you heard Republicans come out today. I spoke to some of McCarthy's top allies trying to make the case for their members that they believe if there's a shutdown they'll get the worse solution.

They'll get jammed by the Senate. And that's exactly what Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, told me earlier this week, on Thursday. I talked to him about this impact, Jim, about what would happen. He said they're going to cut a deal and they're going to try to jam the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We may have to now go first. Yes. Yes, I do. Given the House. Leader McConnell and I are talking and we have a great deal of agreement on many parts of this. It's never easy to get a big bill, a CR bill done, but I am very, very optimistic that McConnell and I can find a way and get a large number of votes both Democratic and Republican in the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that's really the little challenge there for McCarthy. If the bill comes out of the Senate with 70 or 80 votes, how does he say no to that? But if he puts a Democratic bill or a bill with Democratic support on the floor that means a potential challenge to his speakership, which his very real right now, and that is really part of the dynamic that is driving things for the speaker.

ACOSTA: Right. I mean, he pushes the balloon on one side it comes out the other. I mean, Kevin McCarthy is in a jam right now. We'll see how this plays out.

Let's pivot over to Democratic senator from New Jersey, Bob Menendez. I mean, this really came across like an earthquake up on Capitol Hill. The New Jersey Democrat is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for his help on certain things. His wife also faces corruption related charges. You know, all of this news came out with images of gold bars and Mercedes-Benzs and jackets full of cash and so on. You're starting to see some members on the Democratic side call for

Menendez to step down but he's standing firm at this point.

RAJU: At this point he is. He made it very clear. He said I'm not going anywhere. But it was interesting to see John Fetterman become the first Democratic senator to come out and say that he should resign. We have not heard that from the Senate majority leader. Schumer said yesterday that he's entitled to innocence and to fight this out in court. But he has lost his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Also an interesting development was Andy Kim, who's a member of the House from New Jersey, announced a primary challenge against Bob Menendez.

[16:05:04]

I mean, he's up for re-election next year. And that is the real concern among Democrats. If he continues to run, could this may -- I mean, if he wins the primary, this could be a seat that could potentially flip in a very difficult map they already face to hold on to the Senate. The last thing they want to do is spend money in a state like New Jersey. But that is the fear, if he continues to run. And at the moment Menendez seems to be digging in.

ACOSTA: Yes. Democrats don't want to spend time worrying about New Jersey. That's not what they want to worry about. Plenty to worry elsewhere.

And then tomorrow a new era begins, Manu, for you and here at CNN. You officially take reins of "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY." What are we going to be seeing tomorrow?

RAJU: Well, I appreciate it. Thank you for the plug.

ACOSTA: Yes.

RAJU: So, yes, this is a -- I'm excited for the show. I'm still covering Capitol Hill, which gives me direct access to these members and we're going to bring new interviews in about some of the key issues that happened over the past week. What's happening in the coming week. Whether it's about the shutdown, Bob Menendez, or about what's happening on the campaign trail. Interviews from some top leaders of Congress, McCarthy allies, more from Chuck Schumer as well, and also potential primary challenge that Lindsey Graham may face when he's up for re-elections.

So a lot of people who care about politics, who follow politics hopefully will tune in, you'll hopefully learn a lot.

ACOSTA: Right. Well, nobody knows it better than Manu Raju. Thank you very much.

Make sure to watch Manu's debut as anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY." That's tomorrow at 8:00 -- excuse me, 11:00 a.m. That's right, it's 11:00 a.m. now, Eastern, only on CNN. Joining us now with more on all of those stories, California

Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell who'll of course be watching Manu's show tomorrow.

Congressman, great to see you. I guess let's just get quickly right into this. What is your take on where things stand on the shutdown right now? You heard Manu just say a few moments ago it looks like we are heading towards a shutdown at this point, barring some kind of unforeseen compromise that comes out of the Republican Party.

I mean, do you guys in the Democratic Party, in the House, sort of on the sidelines or watching this from the bleachers at this point? What do you think?

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): When it comes to a shutdown, Jim, Democrats are working for working people. And in the Senate Republicans and Democrats came together to fund the government, take care of our troops, take care of our police, take care of our border agents, take care of the American people. The president stands ready to sign that legislation. House Democrats stand ready to pass it.

But we've seen complete failure by House Republicans. They've failed to govern. They've failed to fund, and by doing that they have failed to protect the American people.

ACOSTA: Do you think McCarthy's speakership is in jeopardy right now? Might have -- Congressman, hang on just a second. We lost your audio. Hold on. Congressman, stand by just --did he come back? Congressman, are you still there?

SWALWELL: Yes. I can hear you.

ACOSTA: OK. Sorry about that. We lost your audio there for just a second. I was just wondering if you thought, if this is real, you know, concern inside the House right now? Maybe not on the Democratic side, but that Kevin McCarthy's speakership is in jeopardy? Do you think it's in jeopardy right now?

SWALWELL: Jim, as I said, when it comes to the shutdown Democrats, we're working for working people, and we see the Republicans have failed the American people. They have failed to govern so they have failed to fund. And by failing to govern and fund they've failed to protect the American people. They are the failures.

And if we're talking about Kevin McCarthy's job, and if that's what Kevin McCarthy is worried about, then he's not worried about the millions of people who will be affected if the government shuts down. The federal workers who won't get paid. The FBI agents, the border agents, the troops who won't get paid. The air traffic controllers who won't get paid. We kind of need them to move Americans around so our economy can keep humming along.

And so this isn't about one person's job. And if Kevin McCarthy put the country ahead of his job, I promise you two things will happen. We'll fund the government. We'll have votes on the Democratic side to do it, and actually the clowns to his right, they don't have the votes to replace him. There's no alternative and they don't want an alternative. And so if he could just not be afraid of a shadow and not a spectator speaker the right result will come out.

ACOSTA: And this week Attorney General Merrick Garland went before the House Oversight Committee. And you had a moment that a lot of people were talking about. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SWALWELL: Mr. Attorney General, my colleague just said that you should be held in contempt of Congress, and that is quite rich because the guy who's leading the hearing room right now, Mr. Jordan, is about 500 days into evading his subpoena. About 500 days. So if we're going to talk about contempt of Congress, let's get real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:10:05]

ACOSTA: Yes. Congressman, why did you decide to do that? Why did you decide to call out the congressman there?

SWALWELL: Well, the American people, you know, want the Department of Justice to work for them, and to hear Jim Jordan, you know, make these baseless attacks on Merrick Garland, I thought folks should know that Jordan has no credibility. And funny enough, as soon as I started speaking he starting running away as if I had like a congressional subpoena in my hand. But you have to discredit MAGA Republicans every time they try and land any of their points because these are pro- insurrectionists.

They rooted for the insurrection, they were part of inciting it, they acquitted it when we voted on impeachment, and they get comfort by going to visit the January 6th defendants. And so they don't have credibility. And then we have to pivot to, you know, debunking any of the false claims they put forward and also to let the American people know that if we were given the keys again to govern in Congress that we'll focus and deliver on what they want. So discredit, defend and deliver. You know, the three D's is I think the best way to deal with these guys.

ACOSTA: Well, and that sort of leads me to my next question because I wanted to ask you about these stunning revelations facing New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. We saw these pictures earlier when we're talking to Manu, the gold bars, the fancy cars, the cash. Menendez is vowing to fight these bribery charges. We just heard a few moments ago that Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Fetterman, John Fetterman, is calling on Menendez to step down. Do you think he needs to step down at this point?

SWALWELL: Well, it doesn't look good, Jim. And, you know, I'll say right now I'm waiting to see what my New Jersey colleagues do. You know, some in the delegation have spoken up. So, you know, this is their delegation in the other chamber. It doesn't look good. But what the American people should see from this is that the independent attorney general who was accused this week of favoring Democrats just indicted a Democratic chairman on the Foreign Relations Committee.

So that should put to bed any idea that Merrick Garland is doing anybody any favors. He's not showing, as you said, any favor nor any fear of being independent. And I hope that makes people feel better as look at, you know, how he's making decisions with the former president and how he's making decisions regarding the current president's son.

ACOSTA: And do you think that that's having any impact? Have you heard from any of your Republican colleagues up there on the Hill saying, well, now that they indicted Menendez, perhaps there isn't much to this weaponization allegation?

SWALWELL: Jim, they will find some crazy interpretation of this, you know, to further justify why they need to continue to impeach Joe Biden. And I just want your viewers to know that the impeachment of Joe Biden, and by the way, as we're hurdling towards a shutdown, next week these guys are holding their first hearing on impeachment. It's just a continuation of the insurrection.

They've never accepted Joe Biden as the legitimate president. They, you know, tried to insurrect their way back to the White House. That didn't work. They are now trying to impeach him. So this is just a continuation of their failed efforts to overthrow Joe Biden. It's not going to work. The American people are going to reject crazy and chaos. They want community and confidence.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks very much for your time. Might have to check back in with you to see how things are going with these shutdown talks. But we appreciate your time. Thanks a lot.

SWALWELL: That's right. Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Thank you.

All right, let's continue this conversation. Joining us now is Ron Brownstein, senior CNN political analyst, senior editor for "The Atlantic."

Ron, a lot to chew on after both of those conversations, both Manu and the congressman there. But let's start with this threat of a government shutdown. We're only about a week away from this midnight deadline. I suspect next Saturday night is going to be a painful one for a lot of us here in Washington.

What do you think? Is Kevin McCarthy in -- it sounds like he's just in a pickle. He's just in a bind. He has such a slim majority at this point. He has MAGA hard-lined Republicans in his caucus who just don't want to compromise. He just doesn't have the votes to push through a stopgap spending measure at this point. What's your sense of it?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first, I think in many ways he has compounded his own problem because his strategy throughout the speakership has been in the end to give his critics on the right most, not almost all of what they want, and expect the members in more moderate districts, more competitive districts to fall in line ultimately. And in fact, that's what happened multiple times. And so it's not unreasonable for those, you know, who are pressuring him to think that he's ultimately going to fold.

Again, I guess I had felt that this point, this day, was almost inevitable from the moment that he avoided a default on the federal debt if not from the moment that he took 15 ballots or so to, you know, get approved as speaker. There is a portion of the Republican caucus, John Boehner had to deal with it, Paul Ryan had to dealt with it, that wants to be seen as imposing a maximum disruption on the system on using every possible tool to, you know, take the fight to the libs, and to advance their agenda.

[16:15:02]

And once McCarthy maneuvered out of the truly catastrophic possibility of a default on the U.S. debt I had felt that he almost certainly was going to have to let that impulse play out on the government shutdown, which is damaging and disruptive, but not nearly as much so as a default on the debt would have been.

ACOSTA: Right. And, Ron, let's talk about Menendez. He's facing calls to resign. We just heard that John Fetterman, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, is calling on him to step down. I just asked Eric Swalwell a few moments ago about this, and he was being a bit more cautious, wanted to wait and see if more of his fellow Democrats in the House in New Jersey are going to go down this road and call on Menendez to resign.

But he did make the point, you know, how can you go about it if you're on the Republican side accusing the Biden administration, the Justice Department, of weaponizing the judicial system if they just indicted Bob Menendez?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, and also -- I mean, look, you know, in the Trump era politicians both of us know are now trying to tough out things that they never would have before. Right? I mean, Donald Trump is under 91 felony indictments. And by the way, you are not hearing these calls from the Republican members of Congress for him to drop out of the presidential race.

I think Bob Menendez's instincts to try to tough it out is very much, you know, reflecting that shift in the belief among politicians in both parties that you can now survive things that didn't seem to be survivable just by putting your head down. What changes the dynamic, Jim, though, as Manu noted, is that he is up for re-election next year. So he has to face a primary in June at a moment when Democrats have to face really eight seats that they are defending that are not at all guaranteed to hold.

The idea that they would have a wounded incumbent in New Jersey I think really changes his circumstance, and there will be, I think you saw Andy Kim already, I wonder if there'll be others. Mikie Sherrill is someone who many in the Democratic Party representative from New Jersey, will be a national star. That could change the equation here and put much more pressure on him than if he was up for re-election, for example, in 2026. ACOSTA: And if you're a Democrat, doesn't it sound more consistent to

call for Menendez to resign, if you've been out there calling on Trump to, you know, get out of the race or that he's not qualified to run for president and so on?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, that's kind of actually a mixed bag, I think, because, I mean, there's a lot of regret in Democratic circles about pressure that Al Franken faced to resign. And there were a lot of, you know, Democrats who feel that Republicans rally around their own and basically just, you know, tell the other side to stiff it, you know, and hold on. So I don't know if that it's. I think it's really more if he was not up for re-election this year, I have a feeling this might play out very differently.

But the fact that he is up for re-election in '24 means that whatever other Democrats say, and whether he faces -- whether he ultimately resigns or not we know now he's going to have at least one challenger and he may have more challengers, and if he doesn't step down I think the voters -- Democratic voters of New Jersey are going to have to decide whether he is their best standard bearer going into the '24 election.

ACOSTA: And let's talk about what's happening down at the border. A new surge of migrants this week strained federal resources there and, you know, tested the policies of the administration. What is your sense of it right now in terms how big of a problem is this for President Biden in his chances for re-election, if this continues unabated?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. You know, I'm down in Texas myself, at the Texas Tribune Festival. And certainly there's a lot of Democrats and others talking about this here.

Look, the president took a -- President Biden and the administration took a very bold step this week to resolve, to try to respond to the immediate, most immediate, most pressing political problem he had, which was the mayors of large cities, Democratic-run cities, especially in New York, complaining that many of the asylum seekers that they are now housing simply under the existing rules can't work for 180 days.

So what the president did was, after some reluctance earlier, earlier in his presidency, he extended what's called temporary protective status to 470,000 people from Venezuela which should allow most of them to work much more quickly.

ACOSTA: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: But that -- you know, that is kind of at the other end of the pipeline. The issue at the front end of the pipeline of how do you get control over the large numbers of people who are coming north through the Darian Gap, through Central America? They don't have a full answer to that yet. I mean, I think they're hoping that more of them, and in fact most of them already are staying in other countries along the way, but the fact is over seven million people have left Venezuela in its turmoil. As someone said to me this week, it is a refugee crisis of the

magnitude of Syria or Ukraine, although we don't think of it that way. The vast majority of them are settling elsewhere in the Americas but even the portion who are coming to the U.S. are putting enormous strain on the system, and I think that sooner or later they are going to have to figure out more of a response than they have been able to do so far.

[16:20:11]

They don't want to go down the road that Trump did. Separating parents from kids. Remain in Mexico. Very punitive policies that essentially shut off the asylum process. But the status quo is dangerous for them. As I said in the story this week, you know, the Biden administration has basically wanted to avoid this issue, keep it out of the front of the headlines as much as possible but they are now in a situation where doing nothing is even riskier than doing something, and I suspect that this TPS announcement this week will not be the last step that we'll hear from the administration.

ACOSTA: And if you're talking about shutting down the government at the same time that could potentially strain resources down at the border even more. It's hard to say let's have a government shutdown and by the way slam the Biden administration over its handling of the border. You've got to put resources into the situation if you're going to get on top of it.

Ron Brownstein, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

Coming up, Tropical Storm Ophelia brings dangerous rain and wind to the East Coast, blowing out power lines, causing flooding. We'll have the latest forecast on the storm in just a few moments.

And later, from actor to wartime president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stepped up as the bombs rained down. Later in the program we'll discuss with actor Sean Penn. He made a documentary about Ukraine. He has some other thoughts on what's happening here in the U.S. on the political front as well. So stay tuned for that.

And a horrifying sight in Florida where people saw an alligator with human remains in its mouth. We'll have that story just ahead.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:45]

ACOSTA: Tropical Storm Ophelia is hitting the East Coast right now.

All right. Heavy rain and winds knocking out power for thousands of people who are in the dark across the mid-Atlantic with flooding in beach areas of New Jersey and Delaware. Coastal areas of North Carolina near where the storm made landfall earlier today had been bearing the brunt of the damage. In Washington, North Carolina, residents were warned to avoid the downtown area after a three to four-foot storm surge.

The winds and rain caused treacherous conditions off of Cape Lookout where five people including three children were rescued from a boat.

CNN's Brian Todd and CNN meteorologist Chad Myers are tracking the storm. Let's begin with Brian in Alexandria, in Virginia.

It's a wet weekend for a lot of us here on the East Coast, Brian. What's the latest?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, of all the hurricanes and tropical storms that I've covered this has one of the oddest weather patterns I think I've seen. From overnight last night until now, this storm has kind of come and gone in this area strangely. We heard the rain. Saw the rain overnight. Then when we came out here to downtown Alexandria earlier today it would kind of come and go.

And now we're getting another squall of wind and rain, and we're told it's going to get worse. Now over here, at the Potomac River, you can see kind of the pattern over there. The rain is coming this way. The river was at high tide about an hour ago. And high tide will come again of course early tomorrow morning. That's kind of what they're concerned about. About an hour ago the water was coming over the river and kind of towards this way.

And one of the problems here in Alexandria that we're going to show you about is regarding drainage here. Drainage is a problem here in old town Alexandria. It's a low-lying area. It was built on a marsh and drainage is an issue.

Right over here, this whole area here was basically covered in water a little over an hour ago. Still, as the rain builds you're going to have problems with the sewers overflowing here and elsewhere in Alexandria. That's been an issue. That's been an issue for decades here but that is part of the problem. They have issued a flood watch here in Alexandria from 8:00 p.m. tonight until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.

I just texted with a city official who said that crews are going around trying to repair traffic lights that are out. Otherwise, he said they've gotten through the storm pretty well, but what they are advising people as we see the wind picking up here in downtown Alexandria is that you've got to secure the things that are on your balcony or on your patio, chairs and things like that that are kind of loose. Bring them inside or at least try to tie them down because, again, this is going to be kind of coming and going throughout the afternoon and evening into tomorrow morning.

We also we talked to some business owners down there who while they often put sandbags on their entrances and windows, they're not doing that now because they don't expect the actual flooding to be that bad right now, but one of them said they're going to monitor high tide tomorrow morning at about 7:00 a.m., because that's when, she said, some of the water tends to kind of come up in a second surge.

And with the tropical storm adding to that surge, that's what they're worried about here, Jim. So, you know, again, it's a strange pattern. Kind of comes and goes here in Alexandria. We're getting hit with another squall right now and some flooding is expected here in the coming hours. So we've got to keep an eye on this area -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Brian Todd, thank you very much.

And Chad Myers, I suspect that's what a lot of folks here on the East Coast are worried about, you know, what's going to happen in low-lying areas, flood-prone areas. People have to be worried about and mindful of flash flooding concerns as well.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It wasn't that it was a 70-mile-per- hour wind, Jim. It was that it was from the same direction for so long. Pushing that water from the ocean over some of the outer banks. Pushing it in into the Nuss River, into the James and all the way up where you're seeing right there all the way up even toward D.C. And the wind tonight will shift again, but from the south-southeast pushing that water back up toward the Potomac.

So, yes, the outer banks suffered a lot. Most of central North Carolina had significant beach erosion. Some of the dunes have even been really destroyed in some spots. This was a surge of about four to six feet. The most we could find up the river is three and a half to four. But that's just enough to get you above flood stage when you get to high tide.

[16:30:02]

When the tide goes down, the low tide, all of a sudden your water is gone. But then high tide comes again 11 hours later and you see the water come back up.

The reason why Brian is seeing a squall after squall and a stop, and it's because we're kind of in a pinwheel now. We have dry air that has wrapped inside of the storm so that every time the dry air comes by, the winds die off, and it really doesn't rain, but then all of a sudden, another one of those little pinwheels comes by the rain comes down, it brings the wind with it, and things get gusty again.

We're down to 35, 45 mile per hour gust at this point. So most of this storm has really worn itself out. It's been on land for a very long time, but there's already quite a bit of damage done, obviously, power outages, and people now picking up pieces in places along the North Carolina coast, and even all the way up toward the Delmarva where that water came in overnight.

ACOSTA: Very good. And, Chad, just very quickly, is there a reason why -- it seemed like we went from having a storm system off the East Coast that could bring a lot of rain this weekend too, it became a tropical storm. And it was, you know, 70 mile-per hour winds and big flooding concerns.

Is there something about the conditions along the East Coast, water temperatures or it's just typical hurricane season type stuff? Why is it that it develops so quickly? It seemed to me maybe not so much to you that it became a tropical storm -- a named tropical storm so quickly. MYERS: It's because the storm went right over to the Gulf Stream. That warm water that comes from Cancun around the Florida Keys and then on up the East Coast. That's where that water was. That was the fuel to the fire to make it so much bigger.

ACOSTA: All right. Chad Myers, thanks for staying on top of it for us. We appreciate it. Appreciate the time.

Coming up next, Russia's Foreign Minister at the United Nations, moments ago, saying the U.S. is directly at war with Moscow. This is Russia's Black Sea Fleet comes under attack. We'll have the latest. You're live in CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:09]

ACOSTA: Russia's top Democrat or diplomat, I should say, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, has used his address to the United Nations General Assembly today to denounce the U.S. and the West as an empire of lies, rarely even mentioning his country's war in Ukraine. And at a press conference later, he took that warning to the West one step further.

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): So you can call this whatever you want to call this, but they are directly at war with us. We call this a hybrid war, but that doesn't change the reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: This comes just one day after a missile attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, an occupied Crimea. Ukrainian forces claimed the strike killed dozens of Russian troops.

And CNN's Fred Pleitgen is on the ground in Ukraine with more.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Jim. Well, the Ukrainians certainly believe that things are looking up for them in their counteroffensive in the South. In fact, I was able to speak to the commanding general of that counteroffensive, and he confirmed that they have had a bit of a breakthrough near a town called Verbova [ph].

Now, he also said that that strike that the Ukrainians conducted on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet is very important to him as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: Smoke billowing from Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sebastopol, Moscow blaming Ukrainian launch cruise missiles Kyiv only confirming they hit the building.

I sat down with a commanding general for Ukraine's counter offensive in the south, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, and he tells me strikes like these are invaluable for his troops.

OLEKSANDR TARNAVSKYI, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES (through translator): A strike commander means a destroyed command link. And if there is no command, then there are no coordinated actions hitting infrastructure like factories, bases, warehouses. Containing weapons is also a factor for victory.

PLEITGEN: In the past weeks alone, the Ukrainian say they've hit a Russian ship, a submarine, an airbase, and a surface-to-air missile system in occupied Crimea. Still, Ukraine's president faces skepticism both for many Republican lawmakers and the public about the U.S.'s continued support for Ukraine.

Tarnavskyi asking for patience.

TARNAVSKYI (through translator): We have one goal, liberation of our territories, however hard it is, we will keep on working. And I want to thank even the skeptics, their criticism also influences our task success.

PLEITGEN: It's been a slow grind for the Ukrainians on the southern front, progress, so far, incremental.

But the question is that, do you think that there will be a point when all -- there will be a big push?

TARNAVSKYI (through translator): I believe so. When I think this point will be (inaudible). They are relying on the depth of the offensive line there. I worry less about the sort of weaken line more about the crossroads tree lines in the minefields between the tree lines.

PLEITGEN: But the U.S. has cautioned, time might be running out, as fall progresses, making the earth here soggy and movement difficult.

How much do you think that you can achieve before the winter sets? And how far do you think your forces can get, realistically?

TARNAVSKYI (through translator): The weather can be a serious obstacle during an advanced, but considering how we move forward, mostly without using vehicles. I don't think the weather will heavily influence the counteroffensive.

PLEITGEN: General Tarnavskyi says, he remains optimistic that Ukraine's counteroffensive will be a success, especially if Ukraine continues its campaign targeting Russian forces in the rear like Crimea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: So that's Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commanding general of Ukraine's counteroffensive in the south of the country. And he also said that that strike was really important for the morale of his own troops. And he also said it's important because it hurt the morale he believes of the Russians, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Fred Pleitgen in Dnipro, Ukraine for us. Fred, thank you very much.

Still ahead, a new CNN poll shows President Biden has a big advantage in New Hampshire. Is that an anomaly or a trend? We'll run the numbers just ahead. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[16:40:10]

ACOSTA: President Joe Biden has strong support among Democrats. Former president Donald Trump is far ahead of his Republican rivals. But what does a head to head matchup rematch look like in the early voting state of New Hampshire?

CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten, joins us to run the numbers. Harry, great to see you. A new CNN poll came out this week. What do you think? I mean, you know, we've talked about these head to head matchups, you know, on a popular vote basis nationally, but this is a key state New Hampshire. What does it show?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. You know, Jim, we've spoken about those nationals. How many times have we done the nationals? I come in here --

ACOSTA: A lot.

ENTEN: -- I do the song and dance. You tell me what 13, 14 months from the election was this actually mean, it gets to determine the Electoral College anyway. So I decided to bring the goods for you.

ACOSTA: There you go.

ENTEN: Here's the situation in New Hampshire. There we go. Here's the situation in New Hampshire. Joe Biden has a 12-point advantage in our poll. And that to me is outstanding, given, you know, New Hampshire has generally been a key swing state, it was a state that Hillary Clinton won by less than a point back in 2016. So a 12-point lead is huge.

[16:45:09]

And more than that, it seems to be part of a trend in these northern swing states, right? Wisconsin, which was a state that was won by Biden by less than a point back in 2020. He's up by nine points in a poll that was taken earlier this summer.

Pennsylvania, another state that Biden won by only about a point. His lead is holding there. So what you see is the national polls suggesting a real shift to the right more favorable polls for Trump than we saw back in 2020.

But when you look at the state polls, at least in these northern swing states, we see something very different. We see by either doing about the same or even better than he did back in 2020. So this is one of the most positive signs that New Hampshire poll, honestly, Jim, was probably the best poll that Joe Biden has got publicly, perhaps this entire year.

ACOSTA: Yes, there's no question about it. That's a reminder that we have an Electoral College in this country. And, you know, no matter what those popular vote polls show at this point. And this seems to line up with what you're seeing in special elections for Democrats doing better than expected. But what do you see there?

ENTEN: Yes. You know, if you ask a Democrat, you say, look, they'll, you know, point out these bad national polls, they'll say, well, what about the elections that are actually taking place on the ground? You know, we've had a bunch of special elections, state legislative special elections, you know, U.S. House special election.

And what do we see? We see that the Democrats are actually outperforming Biden's margin from back in 2020 by about six points on average. And this has happened across about 30 special elections. So this isn't just one, you know, there was one special election this past week where Democrats are well. Yes, that's just one.

I'm talking about across about 30 special elections. Democrats have been doing exceedingly well. And when you put that with those state polls that we were just talking about, they paint a very different picture than the national polls. Which one is right? I don't know.

Look, we're still 14 months till the election. But this is a good data point for Democrats.

ACOSTA: And this week, we had Volodymyr Zelenskyy visiting Washington, the Ukrainian president. A lot of Republicans didn't want to meet with him, didn't want to be seen with him publicly. What does this say in terms of how things line up with how voters feel about all this?

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, Zelenskyy's unfavorable ratings among Republicans. Look how high they have gotten, from six percent back in 2022 to 41 percent now in 2023. Democrats, the unfavorable rating has shifted up a little bit, but not to the extreme levels from among Republicans.

The fact is, a lot of Republicans don't really want to fund the Ukrainians anymore, and they don't necessarily like Zelenskyy. It's quite a different Republican Party than we saw 20 years ago that was quite hawkish. It's become a much more dovish party in Zelensky. The negative feelings towards him is part of that.

ACOSTA: And that seems to echo, I think, a lot of what you see in conservative media about Ukraine and Zelenskyy. I think that might be reflecting a little bit of what we're seeing in the polling.

And we can't sign off you, Harry, without talking about football. It's a big football weekend for us. Your Bills against my Commanders. I hate even bringing this up. Just because I, you know, it's too early for me to be optimistic about my Commanders, even though they're off to a decent start. What are you seeing?

ENTEN: I hope you'll be less optimistic after tomorrow. If you look at the odds makers, the Bills have about a 70 percent chance of winning. I'm hoping for a good game, but you still won that Super Bowl over us. So you got to hang out over it, even if we do win tomorrow. Go Bills.

ACOSTA: That's true. I will -- I will continue to hold that over your head. No question about it. But I think it's going to be an interesting game. And I think it's going to be a tight game. We'll see what happens.

All right. Harry, we'll check back in with you on that. Thanks a lot, Harry. Appreciate it. And make sure you check out --

ENTEN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: -- Harry's podcast, as always.

Coming up, a horrifying moments of alligators seen swimming down a Florida canal with human remains in its mouth. We'll have the latest on that. We'll be right back.

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[16:50:12]

ACOSTA: Tonight, investigation is underway after residents in Florida witnessed an alligator swimming down a canal with a human torso in its mouth, Rochelle Alleyne from CNN-affiliate, WFTS, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JA'MARCUS BULLARD, SAW THE ALLIGATOR WITH A HUMAN TORSO IN ITS MOUTH: I was walking over here, so work and interview.

ROCHELLE ALLEYNE, WFTS REPORTER: An afternoon stroll to a job interview brought divers, deputies in distress to a Largo neighborhood on Friday.

BULLARD: That's happened, I look over in this lake. And I saw the alligator head, but then I once I look closer it had like a bottom like torso in its mouth.

ALLEYNE: Demarcus Bullard tells us, he didn't believe what he was seeing.

BULLARD: My brain was trying to like not believe it, but like, it's -- it was a real.

ALLEYNE: ABC Action News Air One shows cruise pulling that gator out of McKay Creek, just north of Ridgecrest Park, and witnesses say it was killed.

BULLARD: They told us it was 13 feet long. And there was a second gator that was bigger. The helicopters picked up a heat signature from the infrared but they couldn't get it.

ALLEYNE: The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are investigating this incident.

But as those crews cleared out, those who live in and walk around this neighborhood say they're left afraid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My kids walked by there all the time. So it's really scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's scary. And it's a lot of kids that come from school and they walk this way. They don't have any like gates or anything, so.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And that was Rochelle Alleyne from our affiliate, WFTS, reporting there. An autopsy will be conducted on the adult body found in the alligator's mouth.

Coming up later on tonight, our special champions for Change series. Here's a quick preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we go. Here we go. Come on. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was about how many people can you help.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Join us for Champions for Change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel a source of inspiration and pride. Just coming together.

[16:55:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want you guys to truly forget the word can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As CNN journalists spotlight the change-makers who inspired them.

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: She teaches you to break through that fear to get to where you need to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turns out that one human being can do a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's opening a door for people that are desperate for freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These aren't throwaway animals. These are precious bands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See how these community champions use creativity, heart, and grit to lift society up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the music starts, something happens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I surround myself with positive people. They helped me be that inspiration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Champions for Change a special event tonight at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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