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CNN International: Trump Endorses Jordan as Next U.S. House Speaker; Reports: Trump Allegedly Discussed U.S. Nuclear Submarines with Foreign Mar-a-Lago Member in 2021; Ukraine Reports New Strikes in Kharkiv, Odesa Region; Syria: At Least 89 Dead in Strike on Military College; Plans Underway for Potential Biden-Xi Meeting. Aired 4:00- 4:30a ET

Aired October 06, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Bianca is off today, but just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jim Jordan knows he has his work cut out for him. He has been making calls specifically trying to win over those moderates and part of his pitch. I'm told is that that he is the best position to try to unite the conference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never expected out of a president. I mean, he's giving secrets to people and carrying secrets into his home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Biden administration announcing that it is waiving 26 federal laws in order to green light the construction of a border wall in South Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

FOSTER: This Friday, October the 6th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Washington, DC, where the race for the White House -- or rather the House speakership, took a surprise turn in the past few hours, with former U.S. President Donald Trump endorsing Congressman Jim Jordan for the post. Jordan and fellow Republican Steve Scalise are the only two lawmakers who have said they'll seek the leadership position. When the House reconvenes next week to pick a new Speaker this after an ugly House vote for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to step down because of a small group of Republicans on the far right. But Jordan is considered closely tied to that group, and that could prove to be a big obstacle. CNN's Melanie Zanona explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: I think that could be one of his biggest vulnerabilities in this speaker's race. Of course, his flame throwing brand of politics as well as the fact that he's the face of the Biden impeachment inquiry is going to be a tough sell among vulnerable members, particularly in those districts that were won by Joe Biden. And one GOP lawmaker who's a lot -- a moderate told CNN that he is not anxious to support Jordan's and that challenge is that he built the monster that's part of the problem.

And remember, Jordan was a cofounding member of the Freedom Caucus, which was home to many of the members that ultimately voted to oust Kevin McCarthy. But Jim Jordan knows he has his work cut out for him. He has been making calls specifically trying to win over those moderates and part of his pitch, I'm told, is that he is the best position to try to unite the conference, in part because he has the ear and respect of that Freedom Caucus.

And one other group I would look out for is the moderate members who were loyal to Kevin McCarthy. Because a lot of bud, bud between Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, the other Republican who's running, has happened over the years. And Jim Jordan was really a loyal ally of Kevin McCarthy, particularly in January during the speakers race. And so that could really go a long way in convincing at least some of these members to get behind Jim Jordan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: In an exclusive interview, CNN's Christiane Amanpour asked former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her take on the ongoing dysfunction within the Republican Party. And here's some of that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: So should the Democrats have saved him, so to speak, should they have voted to keep him in?

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You know, that was a very tough call for the Democratic caucus, but the problem was for them, as I understand it, he was totally untrustworthy by any measure. He immediately after they did help him keep the government open, as you know, began to blame them for all kinds of, you know, extraneous matters. And at some point, a leader who has lost all credibility in dealing with the opposition, where you want to have an open line of communication, you want to be able to trust his word, is going to, you know, ask for their help and not get it.

AMANPOUR: It said that the main contenders for his position are Jim Jordan, who you knew very well from Benghazi --

CLINTON: Well, I don't know him well, I watched him and, you know, stared at him for 11 hours while he made stuff up about me. So I don't know him, but I've seen him in action.

AMANPOUR: So what will it mean if he gets the speakership?

CLINTON: Well, I mean, he is one of the principal ringleaders of the circus that's been created in the Republican Party for the last several years. I have no inside knowledge about what the Republicans will do, who they will end up voting for. But when do they put the country first?

[04:05:00]

They do not represent a majority of even the Republican Party. When you look at the extremists in the House, they certainly don't represent a majority of the country. And you know somebody has to stand up and say enough. You know, we could have disagreements. I'm all for that. I was in the Senate for eight years. I worked with a lot of Republicans and, you know, oppose them when I didn't agree. But at some point there needs to be a backlash against the control that this small group of extremists have, and I don't know who will lead that, but let's hope whoever becomes the new speaker will.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well be sure to catch Christiane's full interview with Hillary Clinton, airing Monday on Amanpour. That's 1:00 p.m. in New York, 6:00 p.m. in London, right here on CNN.

There are damning new reports about Donald Trump's handling of classified information after you left the White House. ABC News and "The New York Times" cite sources who say the former president allegedly discussed details about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago club months after leaving the White House. That person is Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who then shared the information with dozens of other people, including foreign officials and journalists.

Trump reportedly shared details on how many nuclear warheads U.S. submarines can carry and how close they can get to Russian submarines without being detected. CNN has confirmed that federal investigators have interviewed Pratt, and it could be a witness in Trump's classified documents trial. But the allegations were not included in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of Trump.

A Trump spokesperson, put out a statement saying: These illegal leaks are coming from sources which totally lack proper context and relevant information. The Department of Justice should investigate the criminal leaking instead of perpetrating their baseless witch hunts while knowing that President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency and acted in a proper manner according to the law.

Australia's former ambassador to the U.S. is downplaying the alleged breach. He says Australian service members have been serving on American submarines for years and the countries share weapons technology. But CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling tells Anderson Cooper there's still a lot at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: He knew exactly the kind of information that has been given to others. They can certainly take steps to try and fence the information, fence the capabilities, sense the type of secrets that have been given away. That's happened multiple times. We look at spies that have given information to foreign governments and there's that reaction of the intelligence community or the military or the State Department to try and mitigate the risk that concur with this.

But you never expected out of a president. I mean, he's giving secrets to people and carrying secrets into his home where, you know, everyone that that is read in to classify document signs a piece of paper that says I will not divulge this because each of these secrets have something to do with national security and divulging it could cause either grave or serious harm to the United States. And it appears that there have been incidents with President Trump just willy nilly giving that because he wants to appear big. You know, there have been times on CNN where you all have asked me questions that I've known the answer to because of my background and because of secret information I had. But I'm not going to give it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, in the hours ahead, the Trump organizations former controller is expected to resume his testimony in the civil fraud trial against Donald Trump. That's after the New York Attorney General's office accused the Trump team of overvaluing two key properties, including a Trump Tower apartment. CNN's Kara Scannell is following that case.

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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now they've moved inside the Trump Organization calling the former controller Jeff McConney. He just retired earlier this year, but he has been the person that has put together these financial statements that are at the heart of this case. And what the state has begun to do for the first time is to connect the financial statements to the lenders. The people who gave the Trump Organization money, and this goes to one of the claims that the state has in this case, these statements were issued to receive favorable interest rate.

So we've seen the Seven Spring Stanley property being mentioned for the first time in a document and also seeing another bank -- that Deutsche Bank loan is being referenced in how they incorporated these financial statements into their credit report.

So this is the first time we're seeing this case move a little bit away from just the financial statements and on in McConney's notes that he had put in a handwritten note at the top of one of the statements that the final review would be done by DJT -- so Donald Trump. So connecting him and the former president to these statements for the first time.

[04:10:00]

But these are all still the building blocks of this case. We're only in day four, and it's expected to last as much as three months. But the state is starting to move forward. Kind of transitioning the case in some of these other areas that they're looking to make the claims on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: There's a new court filing from Donald Trump in his federal election interference case. Attorneys for the former U.S. President are asking the federal judge overseeing the case to dismiss the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. The indictment alleges that Trump illegally plotted to stay in office after losing the 2020 presidential election. His attorneys argue that Trump has immunity because he was president at the time. In addition, they argue that Trump was acquitted by the Senate after he was impeached on charges of inciting the January 6th insurrection.

And in Georgia's election interference racketeering case, sources tell CNN that the Fulton County District Attorney has opened talks with several defendants about plea deals. It's a bid to whittle down the large pool of 19 defendants. Only one bail bondsman, Scott Hall, has formally accepted the deal. No word on whether any sort of deal has been offered to Trump. At a hearing last week, the DA's office said they would probably offer plea deals to defendants Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro. Both attorneys are set to go on trial later this month.

Two regions in Ukraine come under Russian fire and residential areas take hits from missiles. We'll have the latest on overnight strikes for you coming up.

Plus, Syrian cadets graduating from military college attacked by drones. We'll show the much different scene just minutes after these pictures were taken.

And a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping is in the works. We'll tell you where and when it might take place.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Well, turning to Ukraine, whose second largest city took a major hit from Russian missiles overnight. Ukraine says a three story residential building was destroyed in Kharkiv whilst two more buildings were damaged. Nine people were wounded in the attack, which also started a fire that was eventually put out.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is also reporting a massive drone attack on its Odesa region. The drones sent -- or set several vehicles on fire and damaged port infrastructure on the Danube River, which Ukraine uses for grain exports.

All that is coming on the heels of one of Russia's most horrific attacks since the war began. Kyiv says a Russian missile hit the village of Hroza, on Thursday, killing at least 51 people. It happened whilst the victims were holding a wake for a fallen Ukrainian soldier. President Zelenskyy, who attended a meeting of European leaders in Spain, pleaded for more air defenses. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I believe that today it is impossible to protect people, especially during the winter, except by air defense. To protect people who died absolutely tragically because of this inhuman terrorist attack. 50 civilians were killed during the funeral. Russia does this every day in the Kharkiv region and only air defense can help. And so, Europe has a lot of its own issues, different challenges. But from Ukraine's point of view, the key topic was air defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Let's bring in Nic Robertson. I mean, there's multiple attacks. Interesting how they're using drones in a different way.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I think what we're seeing here is a consistent pattern. You know, when the drone -- when they Russians first began using drones, they had a limited supply. They got 400 or so from Iran. But we now know that with Iranian help, they're manufacturing themselves.

So you're seeing consistently today, 33, 25 of them shot down by the Ukrainians. So you're seeing this consistently growing larger number of drones coming in and consistently again targeting the grain export facilities in the town of Izmail on the Danube but also shutting down the ferry across the Danube to Romania. Awfully close to Romania, and that's been giving Romanian politicians a great deal of concern as well.

But I think what you see when you see that strike and Kharkiv and some new numbers have come in now and the casualty toll has actually gone up there now significantly to 23 people and one 10-year-old boy killed in that strike, 11-year-old baby injured there. That's quite close to the that big strike yesterday.

So again, it's about Russia putting this psychological pressure on the northeast of the country where they've been trying to press against that frontline. And of course, Russia right now is looking to test Ukraine and see where they are other -- where they're not willing to fire a lot of ammunition because they're concerned about supplies maybe not coming in.

So I think I think the picture when you look at it is this consistent, increasingly consistent and higher number of drones being used effective at shooting some of them down. But to what Zelenskyy said yesterday and to what U.S. Secretary of Defense said a couple of weeks ago when meeting with allies and partners about supplies for Ukraine, air defense, air defense, air defense, that's the critical thing --

FOSTER: It's become a numbers game in a way.

ROBERTSON: -- and that's the reality. If you're the government in Ukraine, you've got limited stocks of air defense. What do you protect? You try to protect the population centers. But as we see in Kharkiv, second biggest city, it's not even -- not even possible. FOSTER: Thank you.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the successful test of a new generation of nuclear powered cruise missile as part of a program unveiled in 2018 to develop intercontinental and hypersonic missiles. This is file video of the current Russian cruise missile.

The latest version is known by NATO as the SCC-X-9 Skyfall. Its nuclear propulsion allows for near unlimited range and the low flying stealth projectile could be capable of outmaneuvering missile defense systems. Here's President Putin speaking on Thursday in Sochi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:20:00]

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I want to assure everyone that at the moment the response from Russia to a nuclear strike on its territory is absolutely unacceptable for any potential aggressor. Because from the moment the enemy missile launch is detected, no matter where it comes from, from any point in the world's oceans or from any territory. In a retaliatory counter strike, so many hundreds of our missiles will appear in the air that not a single enemy will have a chance of survival in several directions at once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, Syria is vowing revenge for a drone attack on a military college graduation ceremony that killed at least 89 people. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Syrian government blames terrorist organizations supported by what it called well known international partners.

Meanwhile, the White Helmet Civil Defense Group reports 12 people were killed when Syrian regime forces attacked towns and villages in Idlib and Aleppo. They say schools markets and aid workers were targeted there. CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman his live for us in Rome with more on that. What do you have, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we understand is that this strike, this drone strike in the Homs Military Academy took place in the afternoon. In fact, the ceremony was breaking up when this drone attack happened. The Syrian Arab News Agency -- that's the official news agency of the Syrian government -- is putting the death toll now at 89. Among them, 31 women and five children who, of course, were family members and the relatives of those who were graduating at that ceremony. The current number of injured has put at 277.

Now the U.K. based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that as many as 123 people were killed in this drone strike. However, at this point, neither of these numbers, the claims can be verified. Now, it's presumed that the drones were launched from Idlib province in the northwest of the country, which is controlled by a variety of opposition groups -- although none of them have claimed responsibility.

And the Syrian government has announced three days of mourning and flags to be flown at half mast as well. And of course the Syrians are vowing revenge on the what they call the terrorist group or groups that were behind this attack.

And as you mentioned, we've seen a series of Syrian government strikes on the northeast -- or northwest of the country, killing as many as 12 civilians. In addition to Turkish drone strikes on Kurdish targets in the northeast.

And of course, it's important to keep in mind that Syria is the battleground for a variety of international forces. In addition to the Syrian government, there are Russian troops, American troops, Iranian advisers, fighters from Lebanese Hezbollah. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes on Syrian targets. So this is definitely a country which doesn't get much attention in the news these days, but it's very much the seen for what is essentially a proxy war between a variety of regional and international powers -- Max.

FOSTER: Yes, Ben, thanks for bringing us that context from Rome.

Now plans are underway to arrange a potential meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping at the next month's APEC summit in San Francisco. That's according to officials familiar with the matter. Joining me now is CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing. So why do we think this is happening and how significant will it be -- Marc?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Max. Look, there has been a lot of conversation in recent months about getting this relationship between the United States and China back on track. In fact, if we look back to June when Secretary of State Antony Blinken was here meeting with Xi Jinping, some of the language that came from the meeting talked about the need to stabilize this relationship. And the APEC meeting in San Francisco would be a logical next step in all of this.

We have seen a lot of high profile visitors from Washington here in Beijing in recent weeks. That includes Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen. That includes Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. And one of the goals of these meetings is to find out where there are points of common ground between the two nations. But also where there are red lines. I mean there are some very thorny issues that that get in the way of the relationships between the United States and China. Such as Taiwan, such as human rights, such as some of the chip issues.

[04:25:00]

The point is if these areas are established ahead of time. If and when this meeting between Xi Jinping and President Biden were to take place, there would be some definitive starting points in all of this, Max.

FOSTER: And this is an ongoing conversation, obviously, so leaders from the U.S. will also be heading to China next week.

STEWART: Right. We are expecting to see a Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer here as part of a bipartisan delegation. It's being described with a focus on security issues, on tech issues, economic issues between the two nations. They will also be going to South Korea and to Japan. And in addition, we're hearing from Senator Bill Cassidy, who's a Republican from Louisiana, Max, he says this delegation will indeed meet with Xi Jinping. So we'll have to see if that really does happen.

FOSTER: Marc Stewart in Beijing. Thank you.

President Biden backtracks on a board of promise. Why the wall touted by Donald Trump is going to expand.

Plus, migrants making the dangerous check across the southern U.S. border are facing even more hazardous conditions in northern cities. After the break, the situation in Chicago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Welcome back to The NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you just join us, let me bring you up to date with the top stories this hour.

The race for U.S. House Speaker took a surprising turn in the past few hours with former President Donald Trump endorsing Ohio representative --