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CNN International: Laphonza Butler to be Sworn in as California Senator; Former Trump Chief of State John Kelly Offers Sharpest Criticism Yet of Former President; Armenia Reports One Soldier Killed in Cross-Border Attack. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 03, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. These are the top stories this hour.
The U.S. House of Representatives could vote on a resolution in the next day or two to remove its top Republican Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. This comes after a representative Matt Gaetz introduced a motion to vacate the speaker.
And Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. -- of the U.S. president, is due in a federal court in Delaware today. His attorney says he'll plead not guilty to three felony gun charges.
NOBILO: In the coming hours, Laphonza Butler will be sworn into the U.S. Senate, making history in more ways than one. She was picked by California Governor Gavin Newsom to fill the seat left open by the passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein last week. She'll be the only Black woman serving in the Senate, but also the first out Black lesbian to serve in Congress. Vice President Kamala Harris will swear her in. And California's governor says he couldn't be more pleased with his choice.
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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I am proud and honored to have had so many extraordinarily qualified people that expressed interest in this job, and I was able to engage them in conversations. Period, full stop. And I could not be more proud of Laphonza's interest and her qualifications and her willingness to do this.
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CNN's Kyung Lau has more now on the historic appointment and what a race to elect a new senator will look like next year.
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LAPHONZA BUTLER (D-CA), U.S. SENATOR-DESIGNATE: Because our story is the story of how when women win, we all win. KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seated next to her young daughter and wife, California's future senator, Laphonza Butler, speaking then as the head of Emily's List.
BUTLER: Young women, older women, all women -- this is where our power lies.
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LAH (voice-over): Butler, who has roots in California's most powerful unions, moves from the advocacy world to the U.S. Senate as California's Governor Gavin Newsom appoints his long time Democratic ally to fill the late Dianne Feinstein's seat.
BUTLER: Our bodies belong to us. Our freedoms are not up for debate.
LAH (voice-over): In appointing Butler to the Senate, Newsom fulfills a promise to select a Black woman.
Since Kamala Harris left in 2021 to serve as vice president, there have been no Black women serving in the chamber. Newsom also avoids a political pickle with three congressional Democrats already running for the Senate seat, Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee, who had lobbied publicly to be Newsom's choice.
REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA): Of course, it would have been great if I -- because I did want to fill the vacancy, if in fact that occurred. But listen, we all have to just focus on what we're doing and I'm running very seriously.
LAH (voice-over): Newsom's office said Butler's appointment comes without any strings attached, so she could run or not run for the Senate seat in 2024. Before she's even been sworn in, some Democrats say she should not.
REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): I just think it's terribly unfair that she would do so. And the word around here is that whoever he appointed would not run and be air dropped into this is simply not fair and by the way, I don't think many people know her.
LAH (voice-over): Butler has four months before California's primary to change that as the sitting senator. Only the third Black woman in U.S. history and the first Black lesbian to openly serve in the U.S. Senate.
AIMEE ALLISON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, SHE THE PEOPLE: I like to think of it as a embarrassment of riches. There are so many talented Black women who have never had a shot at being in the Senate and we hope that behind the scenes, as the dust settles, that we will as a movement figure out who to get behind and get a path to victory here in California, so that Black women are represented in the long-term.
LAH: Soon to be Senator, Butler moved to Maryland in 2021 to lead Emily's List. She registered to vote in the state of Maryland in 2022. Governor Newsom, speaking to reporters, says that Butler remains a long-term California home owner, and she has already reregistered to vote in the state of California.
Kyung Lah, CNN Los Angeles.
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FOSTER: A federal judge has set May 6th as a trial date for U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Menendez, his wife and three others are facing bribery charges. Prosecutors accused the New Jersey Democrat of using his political power to aid the government of Egypt.
NOBILO: They also say there could be a superseding indictment. Menendez has vehemently denied the allegations and refuses to give up his Senate seat. He has yet to say if he will seek reelection next year.
FOSTER: Donald Trump's longest serving White House chief of staff is offering his strongest rebuke yet of the former president. In an exclusive statement to CNN, John Kelly called his boss -- his former boss -- a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators and is now going on the record to confirm a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors. More now from CNN's Jake Tapper.
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TRUMP: I, Donald John Trump --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No other president has had so many former top aides making such harsh public assessments. Most recently, Cassidy Hutchinson.
CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE: I think that Donald Trump is the most grave threat that we will face through democracy in our lifetime and potentially in American history.
TAPPER (voice-over): She joins a growing chorus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's unfit for office.
BILL BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else.
TAPPER (voice-over): And today, Trump's longest serving former chief of staff, John Kelly, is chiming in with his harshest criticism yet. In an exclusive statement to CNN, Kelly says about Trump: What can I add that has not already been said?
Calling President Trump, quote: A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.
For the first time ever Kelly sets the record straight with on the record confirmation of a number of damning details about Donald Trump from background sources. Including from a 2020 "Atlantic" story, reported with unnamed sources by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Including the stunning detail that Trump turned to Kelly on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in 2017 and asked, I don't get it. What was in it for them?
This is Kelly confirming on the record, stories of Trump insulting Senator John McCain, and former President George H.W. Bush because in Vietnam and World War II respectively, the former aviators were shot down.
Kelly describes Trump as quote:
A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spent years being tortured as POW are all, quote, "suckers" because, quote, there is nothing in it for them.
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A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because quote: It doesn't look good for me.
A person that demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family, for all Gold Star families on TV during the 2016 campaign. And rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are quote, losers and wouldn't visit their graves in France.
Kelly confirming on the record a story reported in the book "The Divider," where Trump tells Kelly he wants a military parade, like one he saw for Bastille Day in France except that he does not want any wounded veterans.
Kelly confirming that Trump in 2018 in France, refused to visit graves of Americans killed in World War I.
To CNN Kelly calls Trump a hypocrite, saying he is quote: ... not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on Evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women.
And he concludes Trump is quote: A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.
He concludes: There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.
TRUMP: He's doing a great job as chief of staff.
TAPPER (voice-over): A stunning repudiation by a man who worked side by side with Trump longer than any other of Trump's many chiefs of staff.
Kelly also criticized Trump for saying that former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley should be executed. In a departure speech on Friday, Milley responded.
GEN. MARK MILLEY, OUTGOING JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We don't take an oath to a king or queen or to a tyrant or a dictator and we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. TAPPER (voice-over): Some of the people who know Donald Trump the best now warning of the threat they think he poses if elected in November 2024.
Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.
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NOBILO: The U.S. Postal Service is honoring a long serving Supreme Court Justice and cultural icon. The USPS unveiled its latest forever stamp, featuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of 87 after spending 27 years delivering progressive votes on social issues, including abortion rights, same-sex marriage and access to healthcare.
FOSTER: Chief Justice John Roberts praised his late colleague at the dedication event, saying it was a fitting time to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg 30 years after she sat on the court for the very first time.
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JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE: Now everyone here knows that the court has had another New Yorker so iconic that mail could have been delivered to her by a mere sketch of her appearance. Indeed, perhaps even a sketch of just her signature collar. And now a new stamp will honor this outstanding American, an eminent jurist who gave so much to our country as scholar, teacher, lawyer, judge and justice.
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NOBILO: Still to come, new reports of an attack on Armenian soldiers amid tensions at the border with Azerbaijan.
FOSTER: Plus, NASA is producing what it says will be the world's first quiet supersonic jet, how it could change air travel for us all.
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NOBILO: Welcome back. Armenia's Defence Ministry claims an Armenian soldier was killed and two more injured after an attack from Azerbaijani forces on Monday. But Azerbaijani's Defense Ministry calls those reports completely false.
It comes amid a mass exodus of refugees after the fall of Nagorno- Karabakh. More than 100,000 refugees have fled Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia amid the crisis, according to the United Nations refugee agency. CNN's Scott McLean joins us. And we finally had some international observers going to that area.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and the first time that a UN mission has visited Nagorno-Karabakh in 30 years. There was plenty to see, but frankly, not. A lot of people for them to actually talk to. They went to Stepanakert, the now former, I suppose, capital of this separatist region. This majority ethnic Armenian region that has been essentially vacated. It is a ghost town. They -- the estimates that they got were that between 50 and 1,000 people only remain in the entire territory, 55 zero. These numbers are incredibly low.
They also saw -- I suppose this is good news. Most buildings, civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, houses, things like that intact for the most part. They said that the Azerbaijanis are beginning to restart healthcare services, try to get utilities back online. But there were no stores open and you can understand why, because there is absolutely nobody there. And nobody to buy from them anyways.
They did manage to speak to obviously the few number of locals that are still there, who said that, you know, there were no reports that this UN mission got of any violence after the ceasefire had ended.
But of course, where we are starting to see violence is along the border regions of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Yesterday, as you mentioned. One soldier killed, 2 injured, according to the Armenians along that border. It comes after the Russian -- a Russian peacekeeping mission who is doing patrols, joint patrols with the Azerbaijanis also reported taking sniper fire. No one killed there, but they don't know where it was coming from precisely. Both sides are denying that they had anything to do with it.
On Saturday, you also had a similar incident where an Azerbaijani soldier was killed -- again, blaming Armenia. They deny it.
There have been precious few people, at least reports of arrests amongst the civilian populations, but obviously there are some high- profile exceptions, some former military commanders and also the former state minister, all of them arrested as they were trying to flee toward Armenia.
The children of the former state minister, Ruben Vardanyan, they appealed yesterday publicly for the international community to step up to try to do something to actually help their Father Get out. Because they say that, look, he's in Azerbaijani custody right now. We have not heard from him since he was arrested Wednesday last week.
FOSTER: OK, Scott, thank you.
The U.S. Army private, who bolted to North Korea from the Demilitarized Zone, has been reunited with his family at an Army medical center in Texas. He arrived early on Thursday. He spent around two months in North Korean custody after the army said he willfully and without authorization ran across the border into the reclusive country in July.
U.S. officials say they conducted intense diplomacy with several countries to secure king's release.
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An Army spokesperson says his status changed from absent without leave to present for duty, and he'll now undergo a reintegration process, which includes medical care.
NOBILO: Still, to cut no jackpot winner in Powerball's Monday night drawing and the prize money has skyrocketed yet again. Details ahead.
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FOSTER: LeBron James's 21st NBA season is about to begin, and he says he'll dedicate it to his son, Bronny. James says his son has had an amazing recovery after he suffered a cardiac arrest at a USC basketball practice in July. James says nothing else matters besides his family, and he thanked his son's medical team for helping him bounce back. 18-year-old Bronny is rehabbing in hopes of playing for USC -- playing USC hoops this season. His dad would not say if this might be his final season, but LeBron did express interest in playing for Team USA at the Paris Olympics next year, where he could win his third gold medal.
NOBILO: Major League Baseball players get underway today and new data show the sport is just as popular as ever with fans. The league says attendance at ballparks topped the 70 million mark for the first time since 2017. That's almost 10 percent higher than last season, and more people are streaming games than ever before. MLB TV says viewers watched 12.7 billion minutes this season. That's almost 10 percent higher than last season. And more people are streaming games than ever before. MLB TV says viewers watched 12.7 billion minutes this season, up nine percent from last year.
And stories in the spotlight for you this hour. NASA is developing a brand-new type of aircraft, one that will drastically reduce travel time but won't shatter your eardrums if it flies above you. It's a supersonic research jet that they call X-59.
FOSTER: It will break the sound barrier, but scientists say new technology and design will keep it much quieter than similar jets. This one will produce what NASA calls a gentle sonic thump instead of a loud sonic boom.
NOBILO: A little bit of an oxymoron.
FOSTER: Now -- this is your favorite story. This is the one that Bianca asked to have on the show. It's a long-time favorite doughnut shop in Atlanta, Georgia that twice burned down. It's set to reopen next week. Though the landmark Krispy Kreme is owned by basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal.
NOBILO: I do love Shaquille O'Neal, though, although one time he was in front of me at a concert that I got really good tickets for so --
FOSTER: You couldn't see a thing.
NOBILO: I could not see anything.
Now this first opened back in 1965 and was a fixture in the city until it was destroyed by arson in February 2021 and then caught fire again several months later. It won't be open 24-hours anymore, but hot glazed doughnuts will still be served right off the line as usual. FOSTER: Don't panic. And finally --
NOBILO: Too bad.
FOSTER: That script to come. There was no winner yet again in the U.S. Powerball lottery drawing on Monday night, and the jackpot continues to soar. The prize money for Wednesday's drawing is now an estimated $1.2 billion.
NOBILO: That's the largest Powerball jackpot this year. The lottery crossed the billion-dollar mark after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Saturday.
FOSTER: Good luck! Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is up next for you, we'll see you tomorrow.
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