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Republican Presidential Candidates Squared Off for the Second Time, still without Donald Trump; Federal Shutdown May Happen if Congressional Stalemate Continues; Army Private Travis King Returns to the United States after his Expulsion in North Korea; Target to Shut Select Stores Due to Large-Scale Theft Crimes; Wagner Forces Reappeared after Prigozhin's Passing; Private Travis King Successfully Landed in U.S. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired September 28, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
Just ahead, Republican presidential contenders take to the debate stage for the second time, once again without Donald Trump.
American soldier Travis King is returning to the U.S. two months after crossing into North Korea.
And hundreds of former Wagner mercenaries return to the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: Well, it's two down, one to go for the U.S. Republican presidential debates. Seven candidates took to the stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The party's frontrunner Donald Trump was again not on the stage and that drew the ire of several White House hopefuls.
Almost everyone blamed President Biden for something, the economy, crime, the border crisis, even the auto worker strike. There was also a lot of shouting and talking over each other as the candidates vied for attention. We have more now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Republican candidates tangled furiously during a two-hour debate Wednesday night here at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. Time is clearly running out for many of these candidates to break through and emerge as a leading alternative to former President Donald Trump.
That was clear from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who early on in the debate directly confronted the former president.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added 7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have
ZELENY: A short time later, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie followed suit, of course he's been building his candidacy off of a critique of the former president. Now his indictments were not mentioned at all during the debate, but the former New Jersey Governor said this--
CHRIS CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald, I know you're watching. You can't help yourself. I know you're watching, OK? And you're not here tonight, not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You're not here tonight because you're afraid of being on this stage and defending your record.
ZELENY: South Carolina Senator Tim Scott had one of the strongest moments of the debate when he talked about the history of race in America.
SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our nation continues to go in the right direction. It's why I can say I have been discriminated against, but America is not a racist country. Never, ever doubt who we are. We are the greatest country on God's green earth. And frankly, the city on the hill needs a brand new leader.
ZELENY: As the evening wore along, a spirited debate broke out between Tim Scott and fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley. Of course, she is the former governor of the state who actually appointed him to a Senate seat in the first place. They tangled for one of the first times in the presidential campaign, going after their histories of spending and other matters.
Clearly this debate was a sign where these candidates are trying to emerge as the second place in this race against Donald Trump. There were common discussions on Ukraine, on China, on TikTok, on abortion policy and immigration. Again, not mentioned, the indictments facing the former president. So seven candidates were on stage, but the one, who was not Donald Trump, may have benefited the most of all.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Simi Valley, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: So, Jeff just mentioned Donald Trump chose to skip the second GOP debate, just as he did the first one. Instead, the former president traveled to the swing state of Michigan to campaign amid the auto worker strike. Now, unlike President Biden, who joined a union picket line the day before, Trump toured a non-union facility that isn't on strike. Here's what he told them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want a future that protects American labor, not foreign labor. A future that puts American dreams over foreign profits and a future that raises American wages, that strengthens American industry, that builds national pride and that defends this country's dignity, not squander at all to build up foreign countries that hate us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:04:58]
BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Alexandria, Virginia, Alice Stewart is a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator. Thanks so much for being here with us. So listen. Time's ticking, less than three months out till the caucuses. Did anyone take an important step here standing out from the pack as a Trump alternative?
ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Kim, it's great to be with you. And I'm sure a lot of people across the globe watching that debate are scratching their head, wondering is this really part of the process for choosing the president of the United States? And look, in terms of anyone standing out from Trump, they all stood out from Trump because they stood on the stage. It was raucous. It was a lot of insults. It was a lot of interrupting.
And all of them stood apart from Trump because the only one that came across looking better was probably Donald Trump. And he wasn't even there. Look, all of them, as we heard in Jeff's report, say that they went after Trump for many reasons, whether it was adding to the deficit as when he was president, whether it is evolving position on abortion, whether it is the fact that he did not show up on the stage.
All of those attacks against Donald Trump, nothing really landed on him as them making the point that therefore they would be a better Republican nominee and therefore a better general election candidate than Donald Trump. And no one brought up the fact that he is facing four indictments, and no one brought up many of the legal issues that are currently facing Donald Trump, which in reality is a factor for the independent voters that haven't made up their mind on who they're going to vote for. So I feel like this was a missed opportunity for a lot of those on the debate stage because they didn't really land a direct hit on Donald Trump. All of them didn't go after.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, no mention of the indictments other than what we heard there Chris Christie just making that brief mention I mean you talk about this being raucous all the interrupting I mean the format didn't really help this I guess and it was it was striking that so little time was devoted to one of the most important political issues for 2024. Abortion, by CNN's count, they spent less time talking about that than they did TikTok.
STEWART: Exactly. And that's unfortunate, specifically in a Republican primary, because Republican primary voters, the life issue, being a pro-life candidate is a big factor. And all of these candidates are pro-life, and all of them have different areas where they feel as though abortion should be legal and whether or not there should be a federal ban.
And the one person that is different from them on this issue is Donald Trump, because he has, in recent days and weeks, walked back his strong support for the life issue, and that is a liability with the social evangelicals in a Republican primary.
And I know I've spoken with many of them in the early states in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and the pro-life cause that has hailed Donald Trump for what he has done for the life issue are very frustrated with him now that he is evolving on this issue, and they're ready to turn the page and find someone else. But the fact that wasn't a big issue on the debate stage is not a positive factor for those that were on the stage.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and you talk about the winner of this debate being Donald Trump, even though he wasn't there, will he not pay a price for voters for not showing up or do you think his strategy was the right one to just give the whole thing a miss?
STEWART: Well, Kim, if you look at the polls, it hasn't been a factor. He didn't suffer at all from not appearing in the first debate, and I don't expect there to be a big factor coming out of this one, because the reality is his base has made up their mind. They're going to stick by him, whether or not he shows up at the debate, whether or not he is indicted again, whether or not he is convicted in these indictments.
His base will stand by him. And the more Donald Trump is out there making the case that he is a victim of what he calls a weaponized Department of Justice, and he is out there fighting for all Americans. He seems to be picking up support. He seems to be gaining in the numbers, and the rest of them continue to be 30, 40 points behind in these polls. So it's shocking, and it's unfortunate, because the voters should be hearing from all the candidates on the debate stage, comparing and contrasting their policies and where they stand on these issues.
But Donald Trump just is bypassing the entire process and it doesn't appear to be hurting him.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, in the meantime we showed the pictures there an old clip of him being in Michigan talking to a group of auto workers. Of course Biden was just on the picket lines of a UAW strike there. So what do you make over this battle over Michigan's blue collar workers in this crucial battleground state?
[03:10:00]
STEWART: Well, what the Trump campaign says is that he is not going, didn't go to the debate last night because he wanted to take his message right to the American people. And going into the heart of Michigan, this was really a rally and appeal to working class Americans in a battleground state. You know, granted this was a auto worker's strike, but Michigan is a battleground state and Donald Trump is working to get his message out, not just to middle class workers, but he really used the opportunity to talk about the environment and President Biden's policies with regard to energy and electrical vehicles and really use that to attack President Biden.
And for the most part, Donald Trump is running a general election campaign against Joe Biden more so than our primary election against the Republican challengers.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, of course he will be heading to Iowa next. So just before we go, you know, more candidates will drop out. How do you think the race changes as the pool shrinks, if at all?
STEWART: Well, I expect a few to come drop out in the next, maybe weeks, possibly months. Some are going to hold on through the Iowa caucus, which I think is unfortunate because the most important thing the party can do in order to get a candidate that's not Donald Trump, and in my view, in many rational Republicans' view, another candidate would be better in a general election. We need to winnow the field sooner, and we also need to unite behind one candidate because we cannot have a large fractured field outside of Donald Trump because that splits the vote.
So, if any of these candidates were to decide that the best thing for not only the party, but for their own legacy, is to get out and put their support behind someone who has momentum, that would be the best thing for the party. But the problem and the reality is it's a numbers game.
Right now, with Donald Trump with almost 50 percent of the vote, we need to really get all of the other candidates galvanized and united behind one candidate. And right now we're seeing head-to-head matchups who would be the best aside from Trump against Joe Biden and we're seeing polls that former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is the best candidate in a head-to-head matchup with Joe Biden if the race were held today.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll see, still a lot of ground to make up as I said, Alice Stewart in Alexandria, Virginia. Thanks so much for being here with us. Always great to talk to you.
STEWART: You too, Kim. Thanks.
BRUNHUBER: Only a few days remain before the U.S. government will be forced to shut down again due to a stalemate in Congress over how to keep the lights on. So unless Congress acts decisively, very soon federal agencies are set to run out of money at midnight Saturday night.
Now the prospect of a shutdown seems more likely than ever since no proposed solution so far appears to have any chance of passage. CNN's Manu Raju has the very latest from Capitol Hill.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now there is tension in the Senate and House GOP over how to move forward to avoid a government shutdown. You have moderate members in the House Republican Conference and the Republican leadership furious at some members on the far-right who are refusing to move forward with the House GOP's plans to keep the government open for a few weeks and to include new border security measures as part of it as well as deeper spending cuts.
Then you have Senate Republicans who don't like the fact that Kevin McCarthy himself backed away from a bipartisan deal he cut back in the summer to set overall spending levels. Instead McCarthy under pressure from his far-right seeking deeper spending cuts and now McCarthy pushing a plan that may not even get out of the House and certainly get approved by the Senate. Instead, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell trying to move ahead with a deal with Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader. They have cut a bipartisan deal to keep the government open until mid-November. Also as part of that plan, $6 billion for disaster relief as well as $60 billion for aid to Ukraine.
That is a flash point because a number of House Republicans are opposed to any aid for Ukraine in this funding measure. Also the Senate plan does not include any funding for border security. That is something that has angered members in the Republican conference. This all comes as some hardliners are warning that a shutdown seems imminent and say that they should not reopen the government unless they get what they want when it comes to securing the border.
REP. ANDY OGLES (R-TN): At the end of the day, leadership procrastinated and created a mess. Now we've got to find our way through it. And if that means staying a couple extra weeks with the shutdown, that's fine.
REP. MIKE GARCIA (R-CA): The tactic to take to say, hey, I want to shut the damn thing down, because it literally benefits no, and it especially doesn't benefit the conservative platform. This is not, you know, paralleling or supporting a conservative platform by any stretch of the imagination.
SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-WV): If you make a deal, you've got to stick to the deal. And I understand that the speaker has a lot of pressures on him, so I don't want to judge why he's doing what he's doing, but I think if we'd stuck with the original deal, but that was going to be impossible too from what we hear from the House.
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RAJU: But there is a sharp divide over tactics. Mitch McConnell as long as, as well as his top allies say shutdown simply do not achieve your policy objectives. Ultimately, you're forced to reopen the government with nothing at hand and there are only political backlash that you will endure. That is the fear among top Republicans right now amid this divide within their own party.
Still, McCarthy pushing ahead for a vote on Friday on his stopgap plan, even though at the moment he does not have the votes to pass this along party lines because of the opposition of more than four of his members. He can only afford to lose four votes.
The Senate still moving to try to pass his bipartisan plan, but it is expected to be slowed down and pushed into the weekend because of opposition from one member, Rand Paul of Kentucky, who plans to drag out the process because of its inclusion of Ukraine aid. Even though the Senate will pass its plan, McCarthy has made clear that he would not take up that proposal in the House, which is why the shutdown fears are real and that the expectations that there will be a government shutdown. The only question among a lot of the members that I speak to is how long.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: So even as Congress staggers towards a possible federal government shutdown this weekend, House Republicans plan to hold their first hearing on Thursday on impeaching President Biden. The House Oversight Committee is set to call witnesses as it opens its impeachment inquiry.
The chairman, Republican Representative James Comer, says President Biden abused his office to enrich his family members, but Republicans haven't produced any evidence of that, and none of the witnesses. And we'll hear from Thursday, appear to have any direct knowledge of wrongdoing by the president.
Indicted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez plans to address his fellow Senate Democrats later today as calls mount for him to resign. Menendez and his wife are facing multiple corruption and bribery charges involving three businessmen and the government of Egypt. At least 30 Democratic senators are demanding he step down from the Senate.
Menendez was arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan and he pleaded not guilty to all the charges and said he expects to be fully exonerated. Federal investigators say he and his wife took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars along with other items from three businessmen to help them and the Egyptian government. And you can see here the criminal charges the Senator and his wife are facing. He's acknowledged that they represent his, quote, "biggest fight," yet.
The American soldier has been released after months in North Korea in custody. Live with us on Travis King's journey home and what happens next. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The American soldier held in North Korea for more than two months has been sent back to the U.S. and we're waiting to hear whether he's landed. The flight carrying Army private Travis King is expected to arrive in San Antonio, Texas, where U.S. officials say King will be taken straight to an Army medical center.
Back in July, King claimed to be boarding a flight home but snuck out of the Seoul airport, joined a tour of the Korean demilitarized zone and darted over the border. According to state media, North Korea made the decision to expel King after its investigation was finished. Some analysts predicted the army private was of little value to the North.
Alright, let's get straight to CNN's Marc Stewart who's live in Beijing. So we understand he's heading to that center in Texas. Take us through what happens next.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alright, Kim. Expect a lot of procedure and protocol once Private King touches down at that military facility in Texas. As we have heard from U.S. officials since these events started to unravel, the prime focus immediately will be on his both physical and emotional health. He certainly will go through a physical exam at that military facility in Texas, but there will also be a focus on his state of mind.
The Department of Defense has a very specific program that is operated at that military base helping people who may have been held captive, may have been held prisoner, basically assimilate and reintegrate, get used to everyday living once again.
It has a very pronounced track record. It's something that Brittany Grenier was taken to when she was released from custody in Russia. Once all of that takes place, then the focus will be on some of the administrative issues, his legal status, his status with the military.
It's very interesting to note that as we watch this release take place, we are getting almost contrasting explanations as to what happened. The North Korean government is calling this an expulsion that took place after an investigation.
Yet when we listen to the United States and some of the remarks coming from the State Department, this being described as an intense diplomacy that involves help from the Swedish government as well as assistance from the Chinese government to help facilitate that release of Private King from North Korea over a bridge into China.
There are still many lingering questions. Of course, investigators are going to want to talk to Private King. But one final point to make on this issue of concessions. Did the United States give in at all to perhaps sway or persuade North Korea to release him?
The answer from the State Department has been a firm no. I want to read one particular quote from a senior official who said, the answer is simple, there were none, full stop.
Kim, this is something we're going to be monitoring, of course, here from Asia as well as the United States in the hours ahead.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thanks so much, Marc Stewart in Beijing. I Appreciate it.
Still ahead, chaos and crosstalk on the debate stage as the Republican White House hopefuls squared off in California without the party's front runner.
Plus, Target blames shoplifting for the closure of nine stores in some of the United States' largest cities. Stay with us.
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[03:25:00]
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BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump wasn't there to defend himself, but that didn't stop his Republican rivals from going after the party's leading presidential candidate. Seven White House hopefuls gathered Wednesday in California for the second of three debates. They blamed President Biden for everything from the economy to the auto worker strike, and they promised to address the migrant crisis on the southern U.S. border. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIE: What I'll do on day one is sign an executive order to send the National Guard to partner with Customs and Border Patrol to make sure that we stop the flow of fentanyl over the border but also to make sure that we send a much different message. We want you here in this country to fill the six million vacant jobs we have, but only if you come here to follow the law and only if you come here legally.
NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to make sure we put 25,000 more border patrol and ICE agents on the ground and let them do their job. I spent 400 miles down that border and I'm telling you, border patrol agents aren't allowed to do their job. Let's go back to remain in Mexico policy. Instead of catch and release, let's go to catch and deport.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Militarize the southern border. Stop funding sanctuary cities and end foreign aid to Mexico and Central America to end the incentives to come across.
MIKE PENCE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The truth is we need to fix a broken immigration system and I'll do that as well. But first and foremost, a nation without borders is not a nation. We have to secure the southern border of the United States of America. I know how to do it and we will do it again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And joining me now from Los Angeles is Caroline Heldman, a democratic strategist and professor of critical theory and social justice at Occidental College. Thanks so much for being here with us again. So I want to just start there with immigration.
You know it's interesting that this juxtaposition at the Reagan Library, you know playing -- they played a clip of talking about, you know, Reagan talk about amnesty but this party is a is a long way from the party of Reagan on immigration and just about everything else as well.
[03:30:00] CAROLINE HELDMAN, PROFESSOR, OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE: It sure is, Kim, i mean, it was that this interesting moment where in Simi Valley, the Reagan Library the setting, it really reminds us that the Republican party of today is not the party of Ronald Reagan, even though he was considered very conservative at the time he offered amnesty to about eight million Americans who are undocumented and nobody on that stage tonight holds even near that position the Republican party has moved much further to the right it is the party of Donald Trump today.
BRUNHUBER: All right, the party of Donald Trump, but they're trying to replace and so who do you think have a strong debate. Did Ron DeSantis sort of strengthen his whole list is the leading Trump alternative?
HELDMAN: Well I think so, he had a hard time getting word in edgewise he didn't get a question for about 15 minutes but once he got in it was a one-two punch against Biden and against Trump. I think DeSantis did a very great job kind of jumping in with succinct answers. That's not what we saw in the first debate.
I also thought that Nikki Haley did a great job, lots of zingers. And of course, this is seven candidates on a stage who are pretty desperate to kind of break through. If you look at polling, Donald Trump is up 40 points, DeSantis is next, and then you've got Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy at about 6 percent below, DeSantis and everybody else kind of in the one and two and three percent range.
But I thought those two candidates did a great job and then, the governor of North Dakota Doug came out and was confident and clear, this will certainly be some in terms of name recognition, but again, no breakout candidate here with Donald Trump up 40 points.
BRUNHUBER: You brought up Vivek Ramaswamy there in the first debate he made some waves but you didn't bring them up when you were talking about who sort of came out on top last night.
HELDMAN: Well, I think he did a great job in terms of delivering his message, but the other candidates, I think, were better prepared for him this time. They were better able to show how kind of extreme some of his positions are. And I don't say this as, you know, a Democrat or a strategist, but really looking at where most of the candidates were on that stage.
I mean, Ramaswamy proposed to overturn birthright citizenship, essentially override the Constitution. He has some very conservative positions and so candidates were -- other candidates were better able to kind of contain him he did invoke Reagan's 11th commandment which is you shouldn't go after other Republicans but they remember what happened in the first debate and, kind of, ridiculed him for that. So I would say, he did fine, but he didn't stand out and I would say it's Nikki Hayley and Ron DeSantis.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I mean, Reagan's plan, you shouldn't go after other Republicans, but you know, you have to try and depose the king here somehow. And there were a few shots at the frontrunner, Donald Trump, mostly about not showing up. Zero mentions of the indictments other than one passing one by Chris Christie. If you're going to beat someone, how do you do it without attacking them on their biggest vulnerability?
HELDMAN: Yeah, that's a great point, Kim, but you know, all these candidates are so worried about disaffecting the third of Americans who are strong and passionate Donald Trump supporters. And of course, Donald Trump doesn't show up because he's already competing in the general election. He's already competing with Biden. He's in Detroit. Biden was there yesterday, he's talking about the, you know, the abortion bans that DeSantis passed in Florida, being too strict so he's softening his position on abortion which has everything to do with the general election.
And you know he is at 40 points, we've never seen a candidate up this high this early so it really is dependent upon whether or not one of these candidates can break through and one of the early states and get that mojo running right, and that would be Iowa or New Hampshire.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, the question I mean as journalists we often have debates amongst ourselves. Do debates matter in this case it seems that they matter even less than normal because the front runner as you said is ahead by so much.
HELDMAN: I had by so much I'm not even bothering to show up because it would validate the candidacy of the other folks on that stage and also it would open him up and weaken him in a way that you get as a luxury of not having to worry about that and you bring up a great point, Kim, that which is that debates rarely matter and they matter even less when the front runner doesn't show up.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. All right. Listen, before we go, I'm curious to get your perspective on this as a democratic strategist. We saw Donald Trump skipping the debate, going to Michigan to talk to some auto workers. We saw the president, of course, on the picket lines.
You know, what do you make over this battle over Michigan's blue collar workers in this critical battleground state in ages gone by as you know, they'd be, you know, among the democratic faithful there, those union workers, but all that's changed under Trump. It's interesting to compare and contrast the different strategies going after the same auto workers, Biden, pro-union, pro-labor, Trump, anti- union, anti-environment.
[03:35:20]
HELDMAN: Well, and Trump is making the distinction that he is a pro- worker but anti-union boss, right, which is a fine distinction. And he did really well with unions in 2016. He won in Michigan, for example, in 2016, but then Biden edged him out in 2020 by three percentage points. And you're absolutely right that this is all about these swing states.
It is about Ohio. It is about Wisconsin. It is about Michigan in making sure that they're reaching those working class voters. And it's much more about image, I will point out that Donald Trump during his presidency appointed people to the National Labor Relations Board who were pretty anti-union, made it more difficult for the unions to collect dues, made it more difficult to become a union member. And so he lost, I think, a lot of popularity from 2016 to 2020, but he still needs to reach out to those voters because they're such a vital part of this base.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, fascinating to see how that shaped out. Always great to get your perspective. Carolyn Heldman in Los Angeles. Thanks so much.
HELDMAN: Thank you, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Police in Baltimore have arrested a convicted felon suspected of killing a tech executive. Jason Dean Billingsley faces first degree murder charges in connection with the death of 26-year- old Pavel Lapere. Police say Billingsley is also a suspect in a separate case of attempted murder, rape and arson last week.
Lapere was the CEO of tech startup Ecomap Technologies. She was reported missing on Monday and her body was found hours later with apparent blunt force trauma to her head. Police are expected to provide more information at a news conference in the coming hours.
The U.S. retail chain Target has nearly 2000 stores operating in the country. The company says it's closing nine of them in the number of cities due to what it calls persistent large-scale theft. The closures follow a trend of other giant retail shuttering locations.
CNN's Veronica Miracle has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another smash and grab this time in Philadelphia. Three stores hit last night, at least 50 people arrested. They were not part of an earlier police protest, officials say. Retail crime is again front-and-center as major brands close stores.
UNKNOWN: They're locking up the toothpaste.
MIRACLE (voice-over): The latest Target closing nine stores, citing theft and organized retail crime, threatening the safety of our team and guests and hurting business. At this San Francisco Target soon to close, even general merchandise is behind plexiglass.
UNKNOWN: It doesn't surprise me.
MIRACLE (voice-over): Regulars say they've seen the crime firsthand.
MIRACLE: You live across the street. Tell me what you see here on a daily basis happening at this Target.
HARVEY ZEPEDA, LIVES ACROSS FROM TARGET: At least once, twice a day, I would see the homeless come in here. They steal stuff, they take off running. Majority of them get caught but there is quite a few that do get away.
MIRACLE (voice-over): This Target joins two others in Oakland, closing on October 21st, along with three in Portland, Oregon, two in Seattle, Washington, and another in New York City.
UNKNOWN: We take all officers, we put them either in the garage or out here.
MIRACLE (voice-over): The NYPD says Target was paying for increased patrols at the East Harlem store, but thefts continued. Target is just the latest to take drastic action. Starbucks closed 16 stores last year, citing safety concerns.
We spotted grocery stores in San Francisco locking up coffee, another cable-locked frozen foods. In the 30 minutes CNN spent at this San Francisco Walgreens in July, we saw three people, including this man steal.
MIRACLE: Did that guy pay? Did that guy pay?
MIRACLE (voice-over): New data from the National Retail Federation says 28 percent of retailers reported closing stores due to crime. 112 billion in losses last year is an $18 billion jump over the year before.
From Nordstrom in Los Angeles to Lululemon near Atlanta.
And now an Apple store in Philadelphia. Dozens of high profile smash and grabs have business owners calling for tougher laws.
UNKNOWN: I want everybody to know this will not be our last protest.
MIRACLE (voice-over): This week, Oakland small businesses went on strike, closing their doors for hours. Standing in front of a shuttered restaurant, they demanded public officials do more.
UNKNOWN: This restaurant survived Occupy Oakland and the riots. This restaurant survived the pandemic, but this restaurant can't survive crime.
MIRACLE: The morning after Target made the announcement, there was a line of cars here. People were being turned away from getting into the San Francisco Target that's closing. It turns out this store and one in New York, they've abruptly changed their store hours. They're going to be now opening later. So already communities are feeling an impact. The stores across the country are not officially supposed to close until October 21st.
Veronica Miracle, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[03:40:09]
BRUNHUBER: Well, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may be gone, but some of the group's fighters are reportedly appearing again on the front lines in Ukraine. We'll have a live report after a quick break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BRUNHUBER: We're getting new details of what Ukraine calls a massive overnight drone strike. Kyiv says Russia launched several groups of drones going after targets across southern and central Ukraine. More than 30 drones have reportedly been shot down and officials are still assessing damage.
Meanwhile, Kyiv says some former Wagner mercenaries are showing up again on the front lines in eastern Ukraine and claim it shows Russia is desperate for troops.
For more, Clare Sebastian joins us from London. Clare, let's start with those drone attacks. What's the latest?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kim, this was pretty widespread, not concentrated in one area, according to Ukrainian spokesperson for the military.
Although according to the governor of Odessa, which has now been targeted for the third time this week by this overnight, this kind of overnight barrage, there was limited damage. They were able to limit it to just grass fires, he says, but a large number of drones, 44, according to the Air Force were fired, which they were able to shoot down, they say, some 34. It was along the southern front and southern regions and up into the central regions as well.
No casualties reported as of yet, but they are still trying to figure out exactly what the damage is here. So clearly, this is something we're watching really closely, especially as we get towards winter and there are concerns that Russia might step up attempts like it did last winter to target Ukraine's energy grid. So that is one thing.
On the eastern front, as you mentioned, there's a lot of scrutiny now on the question of Wagner, whether it has resurfaced in some form. What we're seeing, according to a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, is not a sort of Wagner 2.0, but just as President Putin had said before and in the wake of that mutiny that Wagner fighters would be offered the chance to join the Russian Ministry of Defense forces, it seems that has happened that in several -- several hundred of them according to the Ukrainian military are operating on the eastern front.
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The Ukrainians are painting this as a sort of sign of Russian desperation, the fact that they have a personnel problem and will take anyone they can get. But I think it's clear that it's something that Ukraine will be watching very closely, those Wagner fighters seen as some of the most effective on the Russian side, particularly when it came to taking Bakhmut, which of course Ukraine is now pushing very hard to try to retake. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right. Thanks so much. Clare Sebastian. I Appreciate it.
Israel will be joining the U.S. visa waiver program. The Biden administration announced the move on Wednesday, meaning Israelis will soon be allowed to enter the U.S. without a visa, and they can stay for up to 90 days. And the same will apply to Americans traveling to Israel. A group of Democratic U.S. senators had argued against the move based on how Palestinian Americans are treated when they travel to Israel.
And Israel's Supreme Court is hearing a challenge today to a new law making it harder to declare a Prime Minister unfit for office. CNN's Hadas Gold reports from Jerusalem.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: The case being heard in front of the Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday is one that could have the most far-reaching personal implications for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because it could directly affect his ability to serve as leader of the Israeli government. That's because the court is hearing petitions against a law passed in March that makes it much more difficult to remove a sitting prime minister from office by declaring them unfit to serve.
But many say that this law was passed specifically to benefit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he faces an ongoing corruption trial. Under this new law, the only way a prime minister can be removed from office is for physical or psychological reasons that the Prime Minister they themselves declare themselves unfit for office or supermajority in the cabinet ratified by a supermajority in the Israeli parliament vote to remove the Prime Minister from office. These are much higher levels, makes it much more -- much harder to remove a Prime Minister from office than what the previous system was, which was essentially the Attorney General had rather wide latitude to declare a Prime Minister as unfit to serve.
But the petitioners in this case, they argue that this law was inappropriately passed because it was done so, they argue, to specifically benefit Benjamin Netanyahu as he faces this ongoing corruption trial, charges of which he denies.
But supporters of this law say that if the Israeli Supreme Court annuls this law, there would be a danger to Israeli democracy, they say, because it will be essentially throwing out the millions of votes that people cast for Benjamin Netanyahu to be prime minister. A decision in this case could come within a matter of weeks. And it's only this case is only one of several blockbuster cases being heard in front of the Israeli Supreme Court, most of them directly connected to Benjamin Netanyahu's government's plan to overhaul the Israeli judiciary. Just a few weeks ago, the Israeli Supreme Court heard challenges to another law that was passed in July that severely limited the Supreme Court's ability to halt government actions that they deem unreasonable.
Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.
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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News. BRUNHUBER: Alright. Breaking news just into CNN. The American soldier
who went absent without leave by running into North Korea is back in the U.S. Have a look. Moments ago, we received confirmation that flight carrying Travis King has indeed arrived in San Antonio, Texas. He is getting off the plane more than two months after his escapade.
Back in July, King claimed to be boarding a flight home, but snuck out of the Seoul airport, joined a tour of the Korean demilitarized zone and darted over the border. North Korea says it made the decision to expel King after its investigation was finished.
Alright, stay with CNN. We'll be right back after this.
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BRUNHUBER: Alright more now on our breaking news the American soldier who went absent without leave by running into North Korea, He is back in the U.S. We received confirmation that the flight carrying Travis King has indeed arrived in San Antonio, Texas, more than two months after his dash over the military demarcation line in the Korean demilitarized zone.
Let's get straight to CNN's Marc Stewart who is live in Beijing. So Marc, take us through where exactly he'll be heading next and what happens.
STEWART: Right Kim, in the hours and even the days ahead, Travis King is almost going to go through a checklist of different chores instituted by the United States military.
First of all, the big focus is going to be on his health, his physical health and his emotional health. He certainly will get a physical exam from a physician from a group of individuals described by the State Department as being talented and experienced in these matters.
He also may be taken to a program that's operated by the Department of Defense to help people like Private King who have been held in captivity, who have been in a very difficult set of circumstances and then need to assimilate and get used to life once again.
It's a program the Department of Defense is well known for. Brittany Greiner was taken there when she was released from Russia. And then also, I think it is very safe to say that the United States military and other officials are gonna want to question him about his own personal experience in North Korea.
What questions were asked? What did you ask of them? What were the conditions like? What did you share? This is all part of a procedure that the Department of Defense has gone through with other individuals over the years and likely will put in place now that Private King is back on U.S. soil, Kim. BRUNHUBER: Interesting and the decision by North Korea to return him
so quickly I mean, it's unusual given some of the other precedents. Do we know what's behind this? Does it indicate sort of how they valued him?
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STEWART: Well, we've been hearing from a lot of analysts over the last 12 hours or so who have had different takes, some suggesting that because he was a low-ranking military official, he may not have been seen as of great value to the North Koreans as perhaps someone of a higher rank.
It is interesting, though, to hear the different explanations as to how this release took place. North Korea, being very adamant that this was an expulsion that took place after an investigation. Yet if we listen to the United States Department, the State Department is saying that this was an intense diplomatic effort. It involved, of course, the United States, but giving a lot of credit to the Swedish government, even the Chinese government, for helping to facilitate this release from North Korea over a bridge into China, and then being greeted by the United States ambassador.
One thing which is very clear, though, is the United States has been very adamant that no concessions were taking place. But as far as some kind of lasting impact that still needs to be determined Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I guess we only have about 30 seconds left. But do you think this will have an impact in terms of relations with North Korea, relations with China as you said they were involved in this?
STEWART: Well, let's talk about China where I am right now. I mean, the United States and China have had a very lukewarm relationship in recent times, yet we did see this act of assistance to make this transition take possible. So perhaps the State Department is doing that in a positive sense. As far as the United States and North Korea, right now they've had no formal diplomatic relations. There's no indication at this point that we are gonna see some kind of change, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting, all right, again, the breaking news. Travis King back on U.S. soil. Marc Stewart in Beijing, thank you so much for that. I Really appreciate that.
And all of you out there watching, thank you so much for watching us. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "CNN Newsroom" continues now with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
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