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CNN International: House Voted Planned As U.S. Barrels Toward Shutdown; Trump Won't Seek to Move Case to Federal Court; Biden: MAGA Extremists Want to "Burn the Place Down"; Stoltenberg Makes Unannounced Visit to Kyiv. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired September 29, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:31]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster, joining you live from London.
Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: In this job, you're going to have A, B, C, D, E, F, G --
REPORTER: What letter are you on now?
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Government shutdowns are stupid. They are not the kind of thing that we should do. Nobody wins a government shutdown. It doesn't save any money. It cost us a lot of money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a shutdown, our troops aren't going to get paid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment.
REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): This hearing wasn't supposed to be about fireworks, and bells and whistles. This isn't the January 6 committee. This isn't a stunt.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I thought they were tried to move the federal court. There's a lot of reasons to do that, starting with the jury pool for Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
FOSTER: It's Friday, September 29th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Washington where the U.S. government is barreling towards another shutdown.
NOBILO: The government will run out of money at midnight, on Saturday. The House vote is planned today on a stopgap spending bill and even some Republicans who controlled the chamber say they won't support it. Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he still has time to work things out.
(BEGIN VDIEO CLIP)
REPORTER: It's clear that you know the votes better than we do. Your members aren't going to vote for it.
MCCARTHY: I still have time. I got time to do other things.
In this job, you got to have A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So --
REPORTER: What letter are you on now?
(LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: I haven't spelled my name out completely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, tensions are running high amongst Republicans and conservatives are threatening to oust McCarthy from his role of speaker.
Congressman Matt Gaetz is leading that charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It sounds like you got into an exchange of the speaker. What happened?
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): You know, I asked him whether or not he was paying those influencers to post negative things about me online.
RAJU: He said he wouldn't waste time on it.
GAETZ: Yeah, that is what he said.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Lawmakers stayed late into the night, Thursday, to vote on a series of funding bills. None of which would've prevented a shut down. And, now everyone's anticipating the outcome of today's House vote.
CNN's Manu Raju has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RAJU: Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing ahead to have a vote on Friday at a short term bill to keep the government open for just a handful of days. But there is a problem. He doesn't have the votes because he has decided he wants to try to get a bill passed on Republican votes alone, and there are more than four Republicans who plan to vote against the short term plan, even though he could only afford to lose for Republicans if all Democrats vote against it. And at the moment, that is what is expected because he's included spending cuts the Democrats won't accept.
This includes some border security measures that Democrats also won't accept. And nevertheless, though, the speaker is still trying to go down this route. Because he believes it will strengthen his hand, with the United States Senate.
Also, lingering over the speaker, the possibility. If you were to cut a deal with Democrats, there could be a vote to try to oust him from the speakership as a threat that has been waged time and time again from some of those members on the far-right.
But this all comes as the Senate will become its own track trying to pass a bipartisan measure through the Senate to keep the government open, but summoning the speaker himself, this all comes as finger- pointing is now starting to dominate. Not just behind the scenes, but publicly, as Republicans are concerned that their divisions could lead to protect a shutdown.
SEN. LISA MURKWOSKI (R-AK): I think everybody loses. I think that Republicans lose. I think the Democrats lose. I think the administration loses. I think the country loses.
That's why we've got to figure out how we do our job here. Simple.
MIKE GARCIA, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: It's not great. I mean there is no one in that conference, and within our conference that wants to shut down. I don't hear people saying they want to shut down.
ELI CRANE, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: You know, I think that members should be looking for stronger leadership. And you know what? Quite frankly, I know the people in my district, that I represent, want to see stronger leadership. So I'm all about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (on camera): I had the chance to ask the speaker what his plan is if the Friday vote, does indeed fail. He would not say. He said he has plans but he will not reveal them.
[04:05:01]
He also would not say if he had time to work with Democrats to cut a bipartisan deal, something that would likely be able to pass the House and passed the United States Senate, and get signed into law, one that could cost him his speakership.
He said he's not concerned about the vote to push him out of speakership even though that threat is real. It continues to be wielded by a number of conservatives. But the speaker claims he has a way out of this and the question everyone has, at this, moment is what is that plan and will it work?
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
FOSTER: Well, the shutdown will have major impacts across every sector of the U.S. Many social safety net program will be on hold, air travel disrupted as tens of thousands of air traffic controllers will be forced to work without pay.
NOBILO: And millions of essential federal employees, and duty troops won't get paid until the shutdown is over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SABRINA SINGH, DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: The service members have rent to pay, mortgages, childcare. You know, you think over the daily expenses that you make, grocery bills. And those bills are still going to incur for our service members, for our civilian colleagues. And they're not going to be receiving a paycheck during this time. So, those bills are going to mount up. It's an incredibly stressful time, for folks, when there's any type of government shutdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: A surprise court filing by Donald Trump's lawyers yesterday reveal that the former U.S. president won't seek to get his election subversion case in Georgia moved to federal court after all.
FOSTER: Yeah, Trump had signaled for weeks that he intended to file such a motion by today's deadline. But the recent experiences of some codefendants may dissuaded him.
CNN's Jessica Schneider explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: They are in fact, telling the court, that they're not going to try to remove it. So this is what they're seeing in the court filing that just came down. They're saying President Trump now notifies the court that he will not be seeking to remove his case to federal court.
This decision is based on his well-funded confidence that this honorable court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial, and guarantee him due process of law, throughout the prosecution of this case and the superior court of Fulton County, Georgia.
So, Trump's team filing that in state court, saying we are not going to try to move to federal court. This may be because it's so far been an uphill battle for Trump's codefendants to try to get removal. It was just a few weeks ago that a federal judge rejected Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows' attempt to move his case out of county court, state court, to the federal level. So perhaps, you know, we know that Donald Trump's lawyers are closely watching that proceeding.
And, you know, by all accounts, Mark Meadows would've had a good case. He was chief of staff working directly for the president of the United States. And he said that most of what he did was within his official duties. But the federal judge rejected that argument. So perhaps Trump's lawyers thinking that it would be an uphill climb if they tried to remove the case to federal court.
So Trump's case will, in fact, now officially go forward in state court in Fulton County, Georgia. And that case proceeds as this other cases are moving. And we're seeing a lot of pretrial notions in the cases of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents, as well as the submerging case in January six here in Washington, D.C. But for, now we know, that it least one more case will not be added to the federal court docket.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, CNN legal analyst, Jennifer Rodgers, is a former federal prosecutor. She explained what she thinks Trump decided not to fight this political, particular battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They clearly decided it was better to save, conserve their time and resources, and focus that on other matters where it could, perhaps, be a better payoff. Plus, he likely would've had to testify, or even had a chance to prevail, and that carries significant risk for him in terms of his -- first of all, not being a credible witness but also his statement being potentially used against him in the case in Georgia, if it proceeded, and also, in a federal case involving January 6.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Trump's civil fraud trial is scheduled to get underway on Monday in New York after an appeals court rejected his request for a delay.
FOSTER: And that followed Tuesday's ruling by a state Supreme Court judge that Trump and his two adult sons were liable for fraud for grossly inflation asset values on financial statements. But a judge also canceled the Trump Organization's business certification.
Now, with a possible government shutdown just days away, President Biden on Thursday took direct aim at hard line Republicans who have stalled the funding.
NOBILO: Mr. Biden didn't mince words, warning that Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are trying to, quote, burn the place down.
CNN's Kayla Tausche has more now from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden with a stark warning for American voters.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's something dangerous happening in America now. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy, the MAGA movement.
[04:10:03]
TAUSCHE: The president issuing a blistering critique of the far-right wing of the House GOP.
BIDEN: The extremists in Congress more determined to shut down the government, to burn the place down.
TAUSCHE: And making a not so subtle reference to his top 2024 rivals, Trump and DeSantis.
BIDEN: Consider these as actual quotes from MAGA, the MAGA movement. Quote, I am your retribution. Slitting throats of civil servants.
TAUSCHE: The impassioned speech from battleground Arizona, the state who is 2020 election results Trump tried to overturn.
BIDEN: The defeated former president expressed, when he was in office, he believes applies only to him. This is a dangerous notion. This president is above the law, no limits. Trump says the Constitution gave him, quote, the right to do whatever he wants as president, end of quote.
TAUSCHE: It's that familiar rebuke from Biden spurred to run for president while watching the Charlottesville riots, cautioning on political violence from Capitol Hill to independents hall ahead of the midterms.
BIDEN: Equality and democracy are under assault.
TAUSCHE: This address, just one day after the Republican debate, where 2024 hopefuls fought for airtime on the debate stage at the Reagan Library.
Biden unveiling a library for his late friend and longtime Senator John McCain, says not all Republicans are extreme.
BIDEN: For John, it was country first -- honor, duty, decency, freedom, liberty, democracy, and now, history has brought us to a new time of testing.
TAUSCHE: And that, another area of cooperation is within reach.
BIDEN: When we put partisanship aside, and put country first, I said we must and we will. We will.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAUSCHE (on camera): Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington appear farther apart than ever with Republicans embarking on impeaching the president with hearings that just begun, and barreling toward a government shutdown that could begin this weekend.
Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.
NOBILO: About 25 million people, an excessive rainfall, threat in the Northeast including New York and New Jersey.
FOSTER: And right now a flash flood warning is in effect, and western long island and the threat is coming from a new storms that's joining forces with the remnants of Ophelia. The new tense rainfall could cause serious flash flooding on roads and even in subway stations.
CNN's Chad Myers has more on the flood threat on the East Coast and the summer-like heat in the Central U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A very significant flood event shaping up here for the New York City metro area, I said metro area because it could be over parts of eastern Long Island, could be central Long Island, could be Queens and even Manhattan, and certainly, we're going to run this up into Connecticut and possibly even a little bit of Upstate New York involved as well.
Hour after hour of rainfall. This is computer program that tries to predict where that rainfall will be. And for many hours, very heavy rainfall here in the metro area. So it's really hard to tell you in six or seven hours where each thunderstorm will be. But this is a low pressure system, off the East Coast, not tropical, it doesn't have a name but it certainly will put down significant amount of rainfall. Two to four on this model, I've seen other models that are more than double that.
So think about that over the next 24 hours how much rainfall, how much flooding would be possible but how that affects your commute for today? Something else going on. Heat in the Midwest, all the way up from Chicago, all the way down, south even into Texas.
Omaha will be in the 90s for the next few days. That shouldn't be happening. Your normal high should be 75. Down to the, south into Texas, back into summertime here, Dallas should be 85 and today you'll be 97.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Travel advisories in effect right now for New York City. The city's emergency management department put the alert in place from Friday 2:00 a.m. until Saturday at 6:00 a.m.
With officials warning that the morning commute could see some heavy rain and flooding, too. The Metropolitan Transit Authority still plans to offer service. Officials are encouraging residents to use public transportation if they do need to travel.
FOSTER: Heavy rain storms continue to pummel Greece, where officials say some parts have several months worth of rain in less than 24 hours. This is a second severe storm to hit that region this month. The mayor of one port city says 18 percent of the city lost power
Wednesday night because of the storm. The heavy rainfall flooded homes, businesses and roads and left cars stranded. One resident criticized how officials are responding to the flood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YANNIS GAVANOUDIS, RESIDENT OF VOLOS, GREECE (through translator): We saw the river was overflowing. We have been battling the situation with the water for 20 days. They do not come to help us. They open one small drain and then leave the rest. And the bridges have been built really low. It doesn't make sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: More rain is in the forecast for the next few days. Fortunately, they are not expected to be severe, though.
NATO's top leader makes a visit to Ukraine and pledges to keep the military aid coming. We'll have a live report on Jens Stoltenberg's trip to Kyiv.
FOSTER: Plus, more money for some workers in California. We've got details on the state's new minimum wage for fast food employees.
And --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's extraordinary for you to come here tonight, Tom. The orders are on the way, by which time, I --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: He made Dumbledore come to life as the top wizard in nearly all of the Harry Potter films. Still to come, Michael Gabon is being remembered for his special performances.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: This just into CNN, at least 30 people have died in what is reported as a suicide attack in Pakistan's southwest Baluchistan Province.
[04:20:02]
Another 40 have been injured. The information minister says the attack occurred at the religious procession. Deputy superintendent of police who was killed in the explosion is set to have been the target of that attack, and no one has claimed responsibility just yet.
The Armenian government says more than 84,000 people have arrived from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is now under control of neighboring Azerbaijan. NOBILO: That means approximately, 70 percent of the enclave's ethnic
Armenian population has fled since last week, choosing to leave behind their ancestral homeland out of fear of persecution.
FOSTER: Armenia's prime minister says the exodus this quote ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan. The self-declared republic of Nagorno-Karabakh will cease to exist soon after its president signed a decree on Thursday dissolving state institutions citing military and political situation.
NOBILO: Turning now to reports of new attacks of infrastructure on both Ukraine and Russia.
FOSTER: Russia says a wave of Ukrainian drones targeted the power grid in its western Kursk region on Friday morning, causing a fire at an electric substation, while Ukraine says Russia launched a missile strike on an infrastructure facility in the southern city of Mykolaiv. There are no reports of deaths or injuries on either of those attacks.
NOBILO: All of this happening a day after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met President Zelenskyy during an unannounced visit to Kyiv. The NATO leader says work is underway to provide Ukraine with two and a half billion dollars worth of new ammunition. He also praised Ukraine's advances on the ground, despite their slow pace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Today, your forces are moving forward. They face fierce fighting, but they are gradually gaining ground. Every meter that Ukrainian forces regain is a meter that Russia loses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have given the greenlight to a batch of military aid for Ukraine.
NOBILO: On Thursday, they overwhelmingly passed a bill that approve $300 million in new assistance, that was one of several spending bills to pass the House that does nothing to prevent a looming government shutdown.
Salma Abdelaziz has been following these developments in Ukraine.
Salma, let's get back to this unannounced visit -- from publicly unannounced visit from the NATO secretary general to Kyiv. Do you think that is going to bring any breakthroughs in the provision of ammunition, and how long will that take?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it is more about the show of solidarity at this time, which is so important to President Zelenskyy when he is facing criticism that say for the progress of the counteroffensive so far, for the slow pace of the offensive thus far, particularly among Republican lawmakers in the United States.
So, Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general showing up in the capital and saying we stand with you, we are with you, and there is more aid coming. He mentioned, of course, about $2.5 billion in ammunitions support that's on its way to Ukraine, that gives the boost that President Zelenskyy needs.
But as you played in that sound bite, the key word is gradual because months into this counteroffensive, we have not seen some major victory on the ground. That has been upended, here it is indeed gradual. It is inch by inch a ground war.
The latest of courses all along the southern, front that is the key area for Kyiv's troops where they are trying to push towards the land bridge if you will that connects Crimea to those other Russian occupied regions in recent weeks. They have claimed a couple different villages, towns, settlements, including Robotyne and Verbove, about a week ago, the next major step Ukrainian general say is to take Tokmak.
Again, this is to the south of Zaporizhzhia, a strategic hub for Russia, but I have to emphasize just the challenges they face on the ground. You are talking about lines of defensive positions, back-to- back antitank systems, trenches, mines, all of this that has to again inch by inch be fought by Ukrainian forces.
FOSTER: We heard the stories of the Ukrainian children forcibly removed from their homes, taken to Russia and those reports, there's an effort to bring them back understand.
ABDELAZIZ: This is an interesting campaign that was launched this week by Ukrainian state television. It is called "If you know, Tell". Freedom TV, a state network, it plans to run stories about some 20,000, those 20,000 children Ukraine says that have been forcibly displaced, taken away from their families, sent to Russia.
So the state television network will be writing, stories, videos pictures on them and it also has a Telegram channel. Ukrainian officials they already on the Telegram channel, there is a Russian audience. There's a significant number of Russian people on that Telegram channel who want to help, who want to report on these children, but don't know how, or are afraid of consequences.
[04:25:08]
So they have promised anonymity if anyone comes forward. You have to remember just how much of an issue this is for Ukraine. We are talking about 20,000 children. We're talking about something that President Zelenskyy has promised to resolve, to bring those children home. We are talking about something that led the ICC to issue an arrest warrant against President Putin.
So very interesting to see Ukraine, directly appeal to Russians to try and bring these kids home.
FOSTER: OK. Salma, thank you so much for bringing us that.
NOBILO: The parents of "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich say he remains defiant six months after he was detained in Russia on spying charges. FOSTER: Gershkovich, "The Journal" and the U.S. government have all
strenuously denied the allegations. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. Evan's parents have been able to go to Russia twice to visit him since he was detained.
They describe to CNN's Anderson Cooper how it felt to see their son again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKHAIL GERSHKOVICH, FATHER OF EVAN GERSHKOVICH: His voice just made me very happy. Of course it also made us very sad leaving, because we couldn't take him with us.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: How did he look to you?
ELLA MILMAN, MOTHER OF EVAN GERSHKOVICH: He looked well. And, he is defiant. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's smiling. He understands what is going on. And I have to say, under all of the circumstances, he is doing really well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Republican lawmakers hold their first impeachment inquiry into President Biden but failed to prove any evidence to support their claims of corruption.
NOBILO: Plus, more trouble for Chinese real estate giant Evergrande. We're live in Beijing with allegations against the company's chairman.
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