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Russian Strikes Crippled Ukraine's Power Supply; Biden Reaffirms U.S. Defense Agreement with Japan and the Philippines at the Trilateral Summit; Former Football Star O.J. Simpson Dies; Remembering the Chibok School Kidnapping a Decade After; Round One of The Masters Delayed by Rains. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 12, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom".
Russian airstrikes cripple Ukraine's power system as Ukrainian leaders urgently call for Western aid.
Israel staying on high alert as Iran again warns of punishment for a deadly airstrike in Damascus. We'll hear from several key players.
Plus, President Joe Biden reaffirming the U.S. defense agreement with Japan and the Philippines. We'll have a live report on how China is responding.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's power grid is taking fire for a second straight day. In the past hour we received reports that Russia launched a new barrage of drones overnight. Ukraine says it shot down almost all of them, but falling debris from one drone caused a fire at an energy facility west of Zaporizhzhya.
That's happening after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged allies to walk the walk when it comes to military aid. He spoke at a regional European summit in Lithuania on Thursday, saying the allies need to put their promises into action. It comes after Ukraine's power plants took massive damage in yesterday's attack, as Fred Pleitgen reports.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kyiv's largest power plant destroyed. The energy company Centro Energo declaring Thursday quote, "a black day". The dark smoke on the skyline marking the end of the company's energy supply. All three of its power plants across the country either destroyed or occupied.
Russian strikes systematically targeting power facilities have been a constant in Ukraine since late 2022, but have ramped up in recent weeks. DTEK, Ukraine's largest power company, saying two of their plants were
also targeted overnight. They say their facilities have suffered their worst attacks this month since the war began, with 80 percent of their infrastructure already destroyed.
Employees trying to repair and to rebuild the burnt out skeleton of their facilities needing to be back up and running as soon as possible, echoing each other's calls for the world to ramp up its weapons support.
UNKNOWN (through translator): We need more air defenses. If we don't have air defenses, there won't be anything left. A lot of missiles and drones get through and we get a lot of hits.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): It's a call heard many times over with the Ukrainian president currently in Lithuania to meet European leaders and to ensure those calls do not become a white noise in this very long war.
Warnings by generals also becoming more desperate, with the country's parliament voting on Thursday to overhaul mobilization rules, potentially allowing the military to call up more men.
GEN. YURIY SODOL, COMMANDER, JOINT FORCES OF UKRAINE (through translator): The enemy outnumbers us by seven to 10 times. We lack manpower. We are holding the defenses on the last breath.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The bill still needing to be signed into law by Zelenskyy is a sign of an exhausted front line.
Civilians in Kyiv spending the night once again underground, a routine too familiar for a country resilient as ever.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Delphi, Greece.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The head of the U.S. European Command says Russia has been quite successful at rebuilding its military since invading Ukraine more than two years ago, despite severe losses and heavy sanctions from the West. Moscow is replenishing its forces while Ukraine struggles with manpower and weapons. Officials say Russia putting its entire economy on a war footing is unsustainable in the long run. But for now, General Chris Cavoli admits Russia has grown back. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. CHRISTOPHER CAVIOLI, COMMANDER, U.S. EUROPEAN COMMAND: The attrition that they've suffered so far has been very significant, but it's been localized. It's been mainly in the ground forces. They lost a couple thousand tanks in the ground forces. They lost as many as 75,000 killed from the ground forces, but they've replenished those. They've grown back to what they were before. They've got some gaps that have been produced by this war, but their overall capacity is very significant still, and they intend to make it go higher. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, members of the U.S. Congress continue to battle over support for Ukraine, to the point where it threatens the speakership of Republican Mike Johnson at the hands of some in his own party. Now, Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats wouldn't want to see the speaker ousted for pushing a critical aid vote on Ukraine. Here he is.
[03:03:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), U.S. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: And I believe that there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing. Observation, not a declaration, because we have to have a conversation. I didn't necessarily mean to rhyme there, but a conversation amongst ourselves as House Democrats before making such a solemn decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Speaker Johnson has suggested House Republicans are working on their own bill, but that has yet to materialize.
A key humanitarian aid group is operating once again in Gaza. American Near East Refugee Aid, or ANERA, resumed work on Thursday, ending its temporary pause after the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen workers earlier this month. ANERA's president says Israeli authorities have assured him certain measures would be taken to protect his staff.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has carried out another airdrop of humanitarian supplies. U.S. Central Command says its planes dropped 6,000 pounds or nearly three tons of food into northern Gaza on Thursday. The U.S. military says it has now dropped approximately 855 tons of supplies into the territory since early March.
Hamas says it needs more time to gather information on the number of hostages held in Gaza and their exact location before agreeing to a peace deal with Israel, the group said. Last week, it wasn't able to identify and track down 40 Israeli captives who met the criteria for phase one of a possible deal. One official says hostages are being held in different places by different groups, and some of them are buried under the rubble killed by Israeli strikes. The official says negotiators are discussing getting heavy equipment into Gaza to clear the debris.
Meanwhile, Israel is preparing for a possible attack from Iran. The U.S. is working to prevent it. Iran's foreign minister spoke by phone this week with his counterparts from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Reports say the U.S. has called those three diplomats, urging them to help lower tensions in the region. Israel is bracing for retaliation after a strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, last week that killed a dozen Iranian military officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's preparing for all scenarios.
Meanwhile, the top U.S. general for the Middle East is currently in Israel. The Pentagon says General Eric Carrillo has moved up his meetings with the Israeli military leaders because of threats from Iran.
CNN's Scott McLean is covering all this live from Istanbul. So, Scott, Netanyahu says Israel is preparing. Take us through what the threat might be and what's being done.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kim, good morning. Look, the United States, since the outset of the war, has said that it wants to prevent the conflict in Gaza from spreading throughout the region.
And yet here you have Israel preparing for exactly the opposite. You mentioned the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says that they are preparing for scenarios outside of Gaza.
And he says that they're abiding by a simple rule, which is whoever harms us, we will harm them.
And then behind the scenes or maybe in the forefront, you might say you have the top U.S. general for the Middle East moving up meetings with Israeli officials. You have the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, on the phone with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Galant, reiterating America's ironclad commitment to Israel's security.
And then you have this flurry of diplomatic activity. You have the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on the phone most recently with the Turks, the Chinese and the Saudis, trying to get them to deliver a message to Iran not to escalate, arguing essentially that escalation helps no one in the region. But many U.S. officials believe that that is inevitable, that there will be retaliation either on Israel or on American outposts in the region, either from Iran or more likely through some of its proxies.
You also have U.S. allies, the Germans on the phone to the Iranian foreign minister, the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, also on the phone with the Iranian foreign minister, urging them about the possibility of a miscalculation which could further inflame tensions. But according to Iranian state media, what the Iranian foreign minister told David Cameron was that it was the American and the British silence on this attack, on that diplomatic compound in Damascus that had been enabling Israel to not only continue the war in Gaza, but to escalate tensions outside of Gaza.
[03:09:45]
And the U.N. mission to or sorry, the Iranian mission to the U.N. wrote this on X, quote, "had the U.N. Security Council condemned the Zionist regime's reprehensible act of aggression on our diplomatic premises and premises in Damascus and subsequently brought to justice its perpetrators, the imperative for Iran to punish this rogue regime might have been obviated", meaning removed.
Now, the U.N. secretary general had condemned the attack, but the U.N. Security Council had discussed a Russian drafted -- Russian drafted memo or statement that would have condemned the attack. But the U.S., the U.K. and France said at the time that the dust hadn't settled on all of the details. And so ultimately nothing was agreed to because they needed a consensus from everyone to put out that statement.
And that seems to still be the U.S. position that, look, if this was an attack on a diplomatic outpost, this would be concerning. But they say that they're still assessing what the ultimate use of that place was, which seems to echo the Israeli line that they say that this was not an embassy at all. This was used for military purposes. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Alright. I appreciate you breaking that down for us. Scott McLean in Istanbul.
A controversial U.S. surveillance bill is now headed for the full House of Representatives, which is expected to begin debate on its reauthorization on Friday. A few hours ago, the House Rules Committee cleared the way for a revised version of the so-called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The current law expires on April 19th. But Republicans sank an attempt to reauthorize it on Wednesday after a call by former President Donald Trump. Under a new proposal, the law would be extended for two years instead of five.
Police in Paris are stepping up security ahead of this week's Champions League matches after threats from ISIS and its affiliates. And there's growing fear the terror group could strike in the U.S. CNN's Melissa Bell reports from Paris.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was ISIS-K training in Afghanistan back in 2016. Now it is to the United States that the group presents an urgent threat, according to FBI Director Chris Wray.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: The potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, like the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall just a couple of weeks ago, is now increasingly concerning.
BELL (voice-over): That attack in Russia, the deadliest in decades, killing more than a hundred and quickly claimed by ISIS-K, the affiliate of ISIS that's been regrouping in Afghanistan and the surrounding region.
ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: ISIS-K is like a blob that forms and reforms and disappears. What's left of it in Europe is a brand. And it's anybody who perceives a great injustice and has the capabilities can claim an attack in the name of ISIS. And this is what makes it so difficult to close this movement down.
BELL (voice-over): And now this clear sign that in the West, too, the group is back. A terror threat posted by the pro-ISIS Al Azaim media outlet saying kill them all and identifying four major European stadiums, including London's Emirates Stadium, Paris's Parc des Princes and Madrid, where security was also tightened this week as Al Azaim broadcast an image of a drone flying above the stadium with the message strike them from the sky.
BAER: But where people congregate, it's virtually is impossible to protect them, as we saw in Kansas City. Carrying weapons around this country is very easy. You can take a truck, stolen, leased, whatever, and run it into a mass gathering.
BELL (voice-over): The latest threats only adding to the pressure already being felt in Europe, with France more than doubling the military personnel that patrol its streets in the wake of the Moscow attack.
EMMAUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Our hope is that the culprits can be found as quickly as possible and that we continue to fight effectively against these groups which are targeting several countries.
BELL (voice-over): Those groups now also targeting the United States at unprecedented levels, according to the FBI.
WRAY: I see blinking lights everywhere I turn.
BELL (voice-over): The attack on the Moscow Krokus music venue now seen as a wake-up call for the West, too, as ISIS-K revives long- dormant terror fears.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Up next, Asia-Pacific allies hold a first of its kind summit, one of the key areas of cooperation and China's response.
Plus, fraud charges filed against Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter. How much he's accused of stealing from the L.A. Dodgers superstar and the next steps in the case. That's all coming up. Stay with us.
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[03:15:00]
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BRUNHUBER: Returning to our top story, Ukraine's power grid is taking fire for a second straight day. In the past hour, we received reports that Russia launched a new barrage of drones overnight. Ukraine says it shot down almost all of them, but falling debris from one drone caused a fire at an energy facility west of Zaporizhzhya.
And joining me now from Kyiv is Ukraine's former defense minister, Andriy Zagorodnyuk. Thank you so much for being here with us. So I want to start with these attacks on the Ukrainian power infrastructure. Take us through what effect they are having right now.
ANDRIY ZAGORODNYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: A lot of the -- a lot of the settlements and cities already having trouble with the troubles with the electrical supply. And we believe that these attacks will continue. The country would be seriously disrupted with no electricity or some severe disruptions of the -- of the electricity. So obviously, that has effect to pretty much everything which we do.
BRUNHUBER: Putin has said that these strikes against Ukraine's power infrastructure were in part a response to Ukraine striking targets in Russia like oil refineries. So from a military standpoint, what's the point? What's the value in these sorts of assaults on Russian territory?
ZAGORODNYUK: First of all, Russia started to attack Ukrainian infrastructure back in the last winter. And so they they've been trying to damage our energy pretty much during the whole war. So that's obviously not true that it suddenly started just right now. It's basically another wave of attacks which we've seen before.
Secondly, what happens is that I mean, it's not a surprise that all armored vehicles, all tanks, all basically all military equipment are run by fuel, by diesel fuel mostly. And the diesel fuel is produced in the -- in the refineries in the Russian, European part of Russia. So basically, what Ukraine is trying to do is to disrupt those supplies in order to somehow slow down Russian military machinery in Ukraine.
BRUNHUBER: The attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure underline the need for air defense systems, which President Zelensky has emphasized, but also offensive weapons. Europe's top general says Ukraine will be outgunned by Russia 10 to one in the weeks ahead without U.S. help. Is that right? I mean, how dire is that situation right now?
ZAGORODNYUK: There are different estimations. Some estimations are saying that right now we have five to one. Sometimes they say six to one, seven to one. It's very approximate. But we have a very serious disparity in the firepower right now. That's absolutely the case.
And that disparity is growing because we're running out of weapons. There is a massive disruption from the supply with the supplies from the West. And Russia is building up slowly but steadily building up its industry. So they are actually increasing. So, yes, that disparity grows.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, it's striking. Just I want to ask you, I mean, it's striking that this time last year, the talk was turning towards Ukraine's spring counteroffensive, which didn't accomplish nearly as much as was hoped. And now, you know, this critical shortage of ammunition, surely the talk is more trying to hold what they have, much less another counteroffensive. Is that right? I mean, what are Kyiv's goals, do you think, in the next coming months?
[03:20:07]
ZAGORODNYUK: Next coming months, we need to stabilize the front line and obviously repel Russian attacks and gear up forces so that Ukraine can confidently stand against Russian offensive assaults and attempts and then and then basically build up for the counteroffensive. We're absolutely certain that Ukraine can still win.
The overall -- the overall setup of the front line hasn't changed. We are leading in a number of the areas, particularly, for example, we're leading in the maritime domain where we reinstalled the freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. That was absolutely unimaginable task two years ago and which we did.
And we severely disrupt Russian operations still, because if we wouldn't be doing that, they would already be moving in quite actively in our territory.
So, yes, a year ago we were talking about Ukraine counteroffensive. Yes, it didn't go according to the plan. However, Russia at the same time tried to do their own offensive operations, which we stopped. So effectively, we know exactly how to stop Russians from moving. We just need means to do that. That's -- that's the only problem which we have.
BRUNHUBER: We just talked about the -- the shortage of ammunition. But, you know, Ukraine has a shortage of manpower as well. And this week, Ukraine passed mobilization legislation aimed at boosting the nation's depleted fighting forces. But it has been controversial, some saying it didn't go far enough in terms of maybe punishments and so on. Others say it went too far because it didn't include any provisions that that would have capped mandatory service at 36 months, which may come later. So explain the need behind this bill and whether you think there will be any public backlash to it.
ZAGORODNYUK: Yeah, first of all, mobilization was happening during the whole war. So we're constantly trying to bring we means the Ukrainian government and basically Ukraine tries to bring more people into the war effort. And that's ongoing process. What the law did is basically set up some updated rules on that. So how it's going to go. And there are obviously discussions about every new law, whether this is perfect or not. And perhaps it's not perfect. But at the same time, at least some at least some kind of updation -- update of the of the rules into mobilization. It's not that like it st -- arts mobilization.
Mobilization is happening all the way through. And yes, unfortunately, as long as the war goes, it would require more people. And that's -- that's a sad truth. And that's why we want more decisive breakthroughs, which need to be, again, coming back to the weapons.
If we are going to drag that situation, of course, that's not going to be good for Ukraine demographics, because I mean, the troops, I mean, the armed forces would need more and more, more and more people. Russia has exactly the same situation, except that it has much larger population and they -- they take people from the far regions and so on.
So, I mean, we don't want to be in that sort of manpower game or manpower race. And that's why we need to be asymmetric. That's why you need to be breaking through their lines of defense.
Unfortunately, that's only possible when these people, which we're talking about right now, they have available means to do that.
BRUNHUBER: We will have to leave it there. But always appreciate getting your perspective, Andriy Zagorodnyuk. Thank you so much. I Appreciate it.
China appeared to be front of mind during historic talks at the White House Thursday. U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the first ever trilateral summit with the Filipino president and Japanese prime minister. The three leaders issued a joint vision statement, say they're equal partners and trusted friends bound by shared values.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is following this live from Hong Kong. So Kristie, take us through what was discussed and China's response as well.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. The trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines is a major move to counter China and its increasing pressure in the South China Sea. And China is pushing back. In fact, we just learned that China's foreign ministry has summoned a Japanese diplomat to express serious concerns and strong dissatisfaction. We also learned earlier today that the Coast Guard of China is patrolling near disputed islands, talking about the Diaoyu or the Senkaku Islands.
And this we learned from state-run media or CCTV. Now, on Thursday, the U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the Japanese leader as well as the Philippines president in this White House summit. This was believed to be the first of its kind between the U.S. and its two allies. And Biden said that U.S. defense commitments to both countries should remain ironclad. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad. They're ironclad. As I said before, any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:25:01]
LU STOUT: On Thursday in the White House, the Philippines, Japan, the United States announced plans to bolster the Philippines with new investments and infrastructure projects in the following. Let's bring it up for you. In ports, rail and clean energy and semiconductor supply chains, as well as wireless communications. The three countries also pledged to deepen cooperation in disaster response and humanitarian aid.
Now, on Thursday, we also heard from Japan's prime minister. He addressed Congress and he called China the greatest strategic challenge. And China's foreign ministry has criticized Japan and the U.S. for their alliance, for ratcheting up tensions.
On Thursday, we heard from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The spokesman Mao Ning said this, quote, "U.S.-Japan relations should not target other countries, harm their interests or undermine regional peace and stability". She goes on to say China firmly opposes the Cold War mentality and small group politics. And Mao Ning also added that China's actions at sea are in full compliance with international law, unquote.
This is what's at play here. Japan has a dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. The Philippines has had several tense encounters with China in the South China Sea. And China's provocative moves across the Indo-Pacific region have drawn regional allies closer together.
And as evidenced, the White House, the events that we saw there on Thursday, closer to the United States. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right, thanks so much, Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. I Appreciate that.
The former interpreter for Japanese baseball superstar Shohei Otani has agreed to turn himself in to authorities today. Ippei Mitsuhara is facing federal bank fraud charges for allegedly stealing more than $16 million from the Dodgers slugger to support his gambling activities. Prosecutors say they have recordings of him impersonating Otani and calls with the bank in order to transfer money from Otani's accounts. And they emphasize there's no indication Otani was aware of or involved in illegal betting and that he is the victim.
Now, CNN spoke with attorney Areva Martin about the case, and she explained what's at stake for Mitsuhara issues. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: These charges are very serious. Let's start with that.
They carry up to 30 years in prison if he is indeed convicted. I suspect, though, John, in a case like this, there's going to be a plea deal. There's not very much by way of defense that this interpreter can put forth that would allow him to escape liability for these crimes. They have the video, the audio tapes, I should say, of him making calls. They have his phone. They have Otani's phone.
They have the transfers from the bank. So they have the kind of evidence that's going to make it pretty difficult for him to launch any kind of defense. So I suspect that there's going to be a plea deal where he'll accept some pretty large amount of jail time for these crimes.
I mean, like I said, 30 years are at stake. So I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see some deal where he's in seven to maybe 12 years pleading out. It's not all that extraordinary.
We see this, unfortunately, all too often with sports figures where they trust their managers, they trust a financial person. And there's fraud that goes on. This went on for three years. And as you said, the numbers are just jaw dropping when you hear the amount of bets that were placed and the amount of money that was lost.
Again, Otani is a victim, as the U.S. attorney has stated very clearly. He was unaware of these transfers. He was unaware of the fraud that was being committed. He was unaware that his friend that he trusted was impersonating him and making these transfers with the bank.
I just think it's a wake up call, obviously, for anyone that has the kind of money that Otani has in terms of being much, much more diligent in terms of reviewing your finances and records.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead from starting a trade war to going after perceived enemies, Donald Trump is making plans for a possible second term in the White House. We'll have a look at his agenda next.
Plus, O.J. Simpson's double murder trial and subsequent acquittal thrusts victims, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, into the spotlight for years. Other families reacting to the Simpsons passing, after the break.
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[03:30:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom".
Barring any unforeseen last-minute legal maneuvering, jury selection is set to begin on Monday in the New York hush money trial against Donald Trump, despite the former president's numerous attempts to delay.
An appeals court judge ruled on Wednesday the trial can go ahead while Trump challenges a gag order imposed in the case. This would make him the first former president in U.S. history to go on criminal trial. He's also now the presumptive Republican nominee for president in November, making this a remarkably unique situation.
Law enforcement and the Secret Service are beefing up security. Trump is expected to be there, as he doesn't have the option of skipping any of the trial, which is set to last six weeks.
Now, Trump's rhetoric has grown increasingly heated, as he faces dozens of federal and state charges in four criminal cases, all while running for his second term in the White House. And that heated rhetoric is offering a preview of what another Trump presidency might look like. CNN's Phil Mattingly reports.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a disgraceful thing. This is for a third-world country.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF U.S. DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just days before Donald Trump becomes the first former president to go on criminal trial.
TRUMP: It's all coming out of the DOJ. A thing like this has never happened before.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): His unyielding and fact-challenged rhetorical defense on the campaign trail obscured a stark reality.
TRUMP: These radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): What he alleges is the exact authority Trump plans to claim in a second term, according to a CNN review of campaign policy proposals and conversations with advisers and allies. The threats leveled at his opponents.
TRUMP: I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Ready to be acted on if voters return him to the Oval Office.
As one Washington Republican who talks to the Trump campaign framed it, Democrats hit first, we are going to hit back harder.
When confronted with the lack of any evidence of White House involvement, the Republican said, that's what he believes. That's what his people believe. And unlike last time, this is his party now. And many voters don't seem to mind.
Trump has repeatedly attacked prosecutors and judges, their families, their relationships, former officials, and his political opponents. He called for former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney and the rest of the January 6th Committee to be jailed. He's even floated execution the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The guy accused the president of being on cocaine last week, and nobody even blinked, one Biden campaign official said when asked about Trump's strength in the polls.
After all, this animating feature of Trump's 2016 campaign never actually came to fruition.
And though Trump's affinity for vengeance existed long before that first campaign.
TRUMP: If given the opportunity, I will get even with some people that were disloyal to me.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And was often raised in his first term.
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: One of my favorite preoccupations during my time as national security advisor was counting how many times Trump said John Kerry should be prosecuted.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): It ran headlong into advisers, Congress, and the courts loathe to bend to his will.
TRUMP: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): This time, it's different.
Four indictments and 88 felony charges have sharpened Trump's privately raised desire for revenge.
[03:35:04]
TRUMP: If they do this, they've already done it. But if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Congressional Republicans who push back on Trump are gone, or on their way out. Almost always replaced by loyalists who owe their election to Trump's endorsement.
Federal courts blocked or forced withdrawal of an unprecedented number of Trump rules. They are now stocked with hundreds of young and sharply conservative Trump appointees. At the same moment, Trump and his advisers embrace a maximalist theory on his presidential authority. The advisers who block Trump's wishes, replaced by Trump devotees.
TRUMP: I put great people in, but I also put people that I made a mistake with.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Who form the backbone of expansive policy proposals targeting Justice Department, national security and intelligence officials, laying the groundwork to terminate career government officials deemed insufficiently loyal.
TRUMP: We need to make it much easier to fire rogue bureaucrats who are deliberately undermining democracy.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And with Trump escalating his rhetorical warfare in advance of his trial next week on charges brought by the New York District Attorney, it should be noted there's a policy proposal for that, too.
TRUMP: I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical D.A. and A.G. in America for their illegal, racist, in reverse enforcement of the law.
MATTINGLY: The point here is this. Donald Trump, without question, heading into the first criminal trial of a former president in history, faces the most significant legal peril of his entire career. Decades in business, eight years in politics.
But if he survives that trial, and any other of the four criminal trials he may face, and wins re-election, he will enter the Oval Office a more powerful, with more power consolidated president than any we've seen over the course of a period of decades.
His team, his advisors and his close allies make clear that's not a bug, that's a feature. That's exactly what they want. And they plan to act and utilize that power going forward. That's something that his team makes very clear people should be aware of. Democrats also say people should be aware of. There's no question
about it. The legal peril aside, Donald Trump is in a position right now, somewhat paradoxically, that he may be one of the most powerful presidents in recent decades if he's re-elected.
Phil Mattingly, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: Iowa has taken a page out of Texas' playbook to the dismay of Mexico's foreign ministry. Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law on Wednesday that allows for the arrest of some undocumented migrants taking effect on July 1st. It's similar to the controversial Texas law currently on hold in a federal appeals court that allows state officials to detain suspected illegal immigrants. The Mexican government says the Iowa law criminalizes Mexican migrants and it will explore legal resources to defend their rights.
The Biden administration is closing the gun show loophole by finalizing a rule that will require those who sell firearms at gun shows and online to conduct background checks on customers. The finalized rule increases the requirements to obtain a federal firearms license by using a better definition of what it means to be in the business of selling guns. The White House says the new rule could impact around 20,000 people engaged in unlicensed firearms sales and will go into effect in 30 days.
Abortion access faces yet another setback in the U.S.
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Chaos erupted in the Arizona State House on Wednesday after Republicans blocked an attempt to repeal the state's near-total ban on abortions. Now this comes a day after Arizona's Supreme Court revived the Civil War-era law that almost completely halts access to Arizona's already-limited abortion services.
CNN's Kayla Tausche reports on the White House's response.
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KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris plans to visit Tucson Friday for a forceful defense of reproductive rights. Her second visit to the state of Arizona since just the beginning of this year and her fifth visit as vice president as the issue of abortion access is now moved to the forefront of Democrats' platform for 2024.
Biden campaign and administration officials alike believe that abortion will be the galvanizing issue for voters in 2024 and they believe it's the issue that provides the starkest contrast between Democrats and the Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump. Here's an ad that President Biden just released.
BIDEN (voice-over): Because of Donald Trump, millions of women lost the fundamental freedom to control their own bodies. The question is, if Donald Trump gets back in power, what freedom will you lose next?
TAUSCHE: The White House declined to say whether President Biden himself would be stumping on the issue of abortion. A lifelong Catholic, it's described as a complex and evolving issue for the president. But when he was asked in the Rose Garden during a joint presser with the Prime Minister of Japan what his message was to the voters of Arizona and to women in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in that state, he said, very simply, elect me.
[03:40:10]
Kayla Tausche, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: O.J. Simpson, the former U.S. football star who was acquitted in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, has died at the age of 76. His family says he died Wednesday after a battle with prostate cancer.
Simpson's career achievements were overshadowed, of course, by his 1995 double murder trial. Millions watched the slow-speed police chase of Simpson's white Bronco on live TV after he was charged with two counts of murder. He was acquitted in the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, who was later found liable in a wrongful death civil lawsuit in order to pay millions in damages.
More on the victims now from CNN's Brian Todd.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nicole Brown met O.J. Simpson when she was 18, working as a server in a Beverly Hills nightclub. They began dating while the football star was still married to his first wife, Marguerite, a tempestuous beginning to a relationship that would become unstable and violent.
During their seven-year marriage, there were reports of physical abuse, with Nicole calling the police on O.J. multiple times. There was also a disturbing 911 call in 1993 following their divorce, with Nicole sounding terrified.
911 OPERATOR: What does he look like?
NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON, FORMER WIFE OF O.J. SIMPSON: He's O.J. Simpson. I think you know his record.
911 OPERATOR: OK, just stay on the line.
BROWN SIMPSON: I don't want to stay on the line. You're going to beat the shit out of me.
TODD (voice-over): Nicole Simpson was attempting to start a new life with the two children she'd had with O.J. Simpson at the time of her murder on June 12, 1994. She was 35 years old. At that time, 25-year-old Ron Goldman was an aspiring actor and model who also had dreams of opening his own bar or restaurant. He was working as a server at a restaurant called Mezzaluna on the night of the murders and went to Nicole Brown Simpson's home to return a pair of glasses that someone in her party had left at the restaurant that night. He was stabbed to death just a few weeks shy of his 26th birthday.
Throughout O.J. Simpson's trial, Goldman's father Fred and his sister Kim were in court just about every day. The expressions on their faces, reflecting an anguish they seemed to constantly be reliving.
FRED GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S FATHER: He's a sick man, and he ought to be put away.
TODD (voice-over): Fred and Kim Goldman broke down as the acquittal verdict was read for O.J. Simpson. Since that day, Fred Goldman's done everything he could to keep his son's memory alive.
F. GOLDMAN: A family member of a victim of violent crime doesn't get closure. That horror stays with you in your head forever.
TODD (voice-over): The Goldman and Brown families later filed a civil lawsuit against O.J. Simpson. Simpson was found liable for the deaths, but Fred Goldman has said they were only able to collect about $130,000 out of a judgment of over $33 million. Still --
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: By using the media in the way that they did, I think it helps other victims who may be involved in similar situations have a road map for how they, too, can put pressure on law enforcement as well as keep the memory of their loved ones alive.
TODD (voice-over): Since the murders, Nicole Simpson's sister, Tanya Brown, has published books on mental health and domestic violence. And Kim Goldman works as a victim's rights advocate.
KIM GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S SISTER: I'm going to just take it one day at a time. And, you know, this is -- this is the life that victims and survivors lead.
TODD: Responding to the news of O.J. Simpson's death, Fred Goldman chose to not make it about O.J. at all, telling "People" magazine, quote, This is just a reminder for us of how long Ron has been gone, how long we have missed him. And nothing more than that. That is the only thing that is important today. He told NBC News, quote, It's no great loss to the world.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Veteran sportscaster and CNN contributor Bob Costas became friends with Simpson after they worked together at the NBC television network. He says that the height of Simpson's fame, he was, quote, "not just admired, but beloved". Costas was covering basketball finals on the night of the infamous police slow speed chase in 1994. He says he was told to hand off to NBC's Tom Brokaw for an update on the Simpson story. Costas tells CNN he visited Simpson in jail and learned that during the chase, Simpson tried to call him from the Bronco. Listen to this.
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BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: O.J. and Al then, as part of small talk, say, we tried to call you from the back of the Bronco. And I inquired, why? Why would you call me in that moment? And his statement was they were the press was on me, not so much about this, but about my whole reputation on my whole life. And in effect, he wanted me to act as a character witness for him.
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BRUNHUBER: And Costas also recounted the conversation during that jail visit about the double murder. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTAS: He tried eventually, as I'm sure he did with others, to convince me that he couldn't possibly have done this. Bob, you know me. I wouldn't do this. And if I did it, I'd be smarter than to leave all this evidence behind or however he phrased it.
[03:45:01]
And to everything he said, I just said as gently as I could. Well, you're going to have your chance to tell your side of the story in court and you'll be well represented by capable people. And as it turned out, that jailhouse visit was the last time I saw or spoke to him.
I think he deduced those in his circle of friends who still believed in his innocence and those who, like me, reluctantly came to the unavoidable conclusion that much as we would like to hold out a sliver of hope, there was no other conclusion to reach other than that he did it.
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BRUNHUBER: Up next, a look back at the mass kidnapping that shocked the world, revisiting Nigeria's Chibok girls 10 years after their lives changed forever. That's straight ahead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: We turn now to Nigeria, nearly 10 years after the Chibok school kidnapping that stunned the world. In April of 2014, Boko Haram militants stormed a school in the north of the country, snatching nearly 300 students and sparking a global cry to bring back our girls. Stephanie Busari and CNN's "As Equals" makes the journey to Chibok to meet some of those who managed to escape and the families of those still missing.
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STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SR. EDITOR, AFRICA (voice-over): The road to Chibok, northeastern Nigeria.
10 years on from the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls. We've come to meet some of the girls who were taken that night in April 2014 and see how the threat of abduction still shapes children's lives here.
HAUWA ISHAYA, FORMER CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRL KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM: They came from this way.
BUSARI: And there were many cars, many trucks.
ISHAYA: Yes, they had plenty.
BUSARI (voice-over): Hauwa was just 16 when she was snatched from her boarding school late at night by Boko Haram militants.
ISHAYA: And then they burned the hall for writing exams.
BUSARI: So they burned the hall where you were supposed to write your exams.
ISHAYA: Yeah.
BUSARI: They were really against education that much.
BUSARI (voice-over): The Islamist group took more than 270 girls into the vast Sambisa forest, though some managed to escape.
Amina, now 27, was also abducted that night, told by Boko Haram leaders that marriage was the only way to avoid repeated abuse by fighters in the camp.
AMINA ALI, FORMER CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRL KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM: They just say they will take us as a slave and then anytime he want to sleep with you, he will sleep with you. And then when he tired of you, he will hand over to someone. So I just think that I better agree to get married to the one person.
BUSARI (voice-over): She was the first of the Chibok girls to escape after being held in a forest, emerging with her Boko Haram husband, who also fled the group, and their young baby after two years.
Now eight years old, Amina's daughter has faced stigma for being a child of a Boko Haram fighter.
[03:50:04]
School kidnappings are a shadow that hang over the education system in northern Nigeria, with an estimated 1,700 children abducted from school in the past decade, according to Amnesty International.
Just last month, more than 100 students, some as young as eight, were taken by armed men who stormed their school in Kuriga, Kaduna province. In recent years, criminal gangs have created a kidnapping for ransom industry spanning across the northwest of the country, which successive governments have struggled to grapple with.
OBY EZEKWESILI, CO-CONVENER, BRING BACK OUR GIRLS CAMPAIGN: The failure of governance around the Chibok girls' issue led to an industry of abduction, a society that has scant regard for human life.
BUSARI (voice-over): Many Nigerian mothers are now too scared to send them to school.
EZEKWESILI: Guess what Chibok girls' tragedy did? It made the mothers feel guilty in their mind that what they did by arguing for education for their daughter was to say, pay with your life in order to be educated.
BUSARI (voice-over): Fewer than 50 percent of Nigerian girls attend school at a basic education level, according to a UNICEF report, in a country with five percent of the world's children by 2030. The United Nations has said, quote, "what happens to children in Nigeria matters significantly to regional and global development".
Back in Chibok, for many mothers, the pain continues a decade on.
Yana's daughter, Rivkatu, was among the Chibok girls stolen from school and remains missing along with 81 others.
BUSARI: Do you believe in your heart?
YANA GALANG, MOTHER OF KIDNAPPED CHIBOK SCHOOLGIRL: Yes.
BUSARI: That she's alive?
GALANG: I believe she's alive. She's my blood and I believe she's alive.
BUSARI (voice-over): She's kept her daughter's clothes ready for when she returns.
GALANG: This is how we keep it. We always wash the clothes, fold it, and then keep it for almost 10 years now.
BUSARI (voice-over): Never giving up hope, despite the agony she and so many parents in Nigeria have to endure.
Stephanie Busari, CNN, Chibok, Nigeria.
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BRUNHUBER: Now this report is part of CNN's ongoing "As Equals" series on gender inequality. And you can learn more in a special interactive session section of our website. That's at cnn.com/asequals. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BRUNHUBER: Fast melting snow and ice caused one of Europe's longest rivers to burst its banks, triggering catastrophic flooding in parts of Russia and Kazakhstan. Local officials expect the Ural River to continue to rise through the weekend.
More than 100,000 people have already been evacuated, and there have been protests over the government response in some areas. Kazakhstan's president said the floods might be the biggest disaster in more than 80 years.
This year, weather system with flash floods has been sweeping through the eastern U.S. In Pennsylvania, emergency workers scrambled to rescue people trapped by the rising waters on Thursday. Elsewhere, a funnel cloud loomed above coastal Florida and appeared to touch down earlier in the day. The strong storms moved through the state also triggered flood emergencies.
[03:55:00]
And Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama were hit by at least five tornadoes on Wednesday. The storm caused widespread outages and damage to homes and businesses.
And bad weather roughed up the first round of The Masters tournament here in Georgia. In Augusta, pushing the start time back by hours, golfers will tee off in about four hours to finish the round after play was suspended on Thursday due to darkness. Tiger Woods is among those still needing to finish round one. Now, this is the sixth straight year the Masters has experienced weather delays, but it didn't appear to affect Bryson DeChambeau, who blazed through the course to the top of the leaderboard.
CNN's Don Riddell has this report from Augusta National.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Day one of The Masters is in the books, but not quite the first round.
The start of play on Thursday morning was delayed by two and a half hours because of the weather. And when the action did finally get underway, it was pretty gusty out there during the afternoon. But despite all of that, we still saw some very, very impressive scores.
Setting the pace so far, the former U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, the American, meant business right from the off, birdying each of his first three holes, making eight birdies in total for a seven under par score of 65.
He says that he's found a new approach to the game. He's keeping it simple.
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: It's been a journey, to say the least. One that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but also it's taken a big toll on me in numerous situations. I'm just doing the same thing every single day in and day out. I'm not trying something new. I'm trying to figure something out. And that's what I feel like is just accumulated into playing some really good golf.
RIDDELL: Meanwhile, he's got the world number one, Scottie Scheffler for company at the top of the leaderboard. He arrived in Augusta on a red hot streak, and he navigated a gusty course without dropping a single shot.
The 2022 Masters champion is extremely well placed. Just one off the lead on six under par.
As usual, much of the excitement on the course of this afternoon concerned the 48-year-old five-time champion Tiger Woods. He says he believes that he can win a sixth green jacket this week. And so far, so good. He managed to get in 13 holes before darkness fell. He's on one under par.
All things considered, it's been a pretty good day for Tiger Woods, but he will have a lot of golf now to play on Friday. Back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much for joining me. I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. The news continues with Max Foster in London after this short break.
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