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7 U.S. Troops Injured In Raid That Killed 15 ISIS Members In Iraq; Mississippi Bus Crash Kills Seven People, Injures Several Others; Trump, Special Counsel At Odds On How To Move Forward With Election Subversion Case; Polio Vaccination Campaign To Begin Sunday In Gaza; NHL Star Johnny Gaudreau, Brother Killed On Bike Ride. NHL Star Johnny Gaudreau, Brother Killed On Bike Ride; Harris And Biden To Rally In Battleground Pennsylvania On Labor Day; Exclusive Look At Ukraine's Surprise Incursion Into Kursk, Russia. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired August 31, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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[12:00:00]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: -- Khudadadi made history again this week. She won bronze in taekwondo, becoming the first member of the refugee Paralympic team to win a medal.

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AMANPOUR: That's all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/podcast and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. Thank you for watching and see you again next week.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. Thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt in this weekend for Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with breaking news. We are learning that seven U.S. troops were injured in a raid that killed 15 members of the Islamic extremist group ISIS. That raid happening on Thursday in Iraq. Two of the seven were evacuated from the area for further medical treatment. U.S. Central Command says that the operation was targeting ISIS leaders in order to disrupt the group's ability to plan further attacks.

CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is joining me now live from London. So Nick, what do we know about this operation?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alex, quite extraordinary development here essentially because of the number of U.S. troops injured in this incident, seven, five of whom apparently during the Operation Two, it seems, from a fall separately relates to that, one of whom requiring follow on care outside of theater.

Now, we're getting a statement, too, from Iraqi military high command that talks, as you say, about 4:00 in the morning Thursday rays and airstrikes against hideouts of ISIS group following on, it seems airdrop units being put in there and further action that then subsequently led to an early Saturday morning search of the area where the Iraqis say they found 14 bodies of those targeted.

The American statement putting that slightly higher at about 15. The American statement to referring to how these ISIS fighters were heavily armed with suicide belts and multiple firearms. And this clearly, Alex, is a reminder of how the threat of ISIS persists inside Iraq and Syria too, I should point out.

Now, of course, it's something we haven't talked about for five plus years, really. So much in the background, ISIS, since the fall of Baghuz, their key sort of hideout back in Syria back in 2019. But they have been regrouping it seems. In recent statements from CENTCOM, the U.S. military command responsible for that particular area have made it clear that they are seeing the number of attacks just in the beginning months of this year, looking set to double compared to the year before startling numbers, frankly, that they have been putting out in recent in recent days.

And I think it is -- it's fair reflection of how since in 2019, when their sort of major strongholds were taken out, there wasn't really a follow on political campaign, so to speak, to find solutions to those ISIS fighters left behind, to the grievances perhaps in Iraq and Syria that initially caused ISIS to spring out of both resistance and rebellion movements towards the U.S. occupation in Iraq and part of the Syrian civil war, too.

So a clear reminder here from this operation, which absolutely clearly did not go to plan, but is also one it seems of dozens that the U.S. had participated in over the past months or so. You do not obviously expect to maintain -- to sustain this level of injury in an attack like that.

And I think, you know, we've seen intermittently ISIS leaders being taken out by the U.S. And the STF allies in Syria and the Iraqi military in Iraq as well. Al-Qurashi, their current leader does appear to be managing to stay alive, to keep his hold on the group for quite some time, and that may be allowing them to see some more sort of stability and to perhaps grow again into this group, which are a significant issue indeed for both Iraq, Syria and the United States.

A surprising shocking level of injuries in this one raid, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Yes, these anti-ISIS operations are not often talked about but are certainly going on in both Iraq and Syria.

Nick Paton Walsh, thanks very much for that reporting.

Now to some more breaking news, seven people were killed and several others injured in a bus crash in Mississippi this morning. The large commercial bus overturned 35 miles east of Jackson. Let's get straight to CNN Correspondent Rafael Romo with updates. Rafael, what happened here?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alex, we're learning new details about what happened overnight in Mississippi. First of all, we're talking about a big commercial bus that overturned. What we have been able to confirm so far is that seven people were killed and several others were injured when the bus crashed just east of the city of Vicksburg in Mississippi. More specifically, this happened near the city of Bovina.

We have also learned that some of those who died were children. According to the Warren County Coroner, siblings aged six and 16 are among the victims.

[12:05:05]

The driver of the tow truck that helped recovers the vehicle and some of the victim's bodies said that it was hard to get to the site of the crash. Let's take a listen.

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KEITH ALLISON, TOW TRUCK DRIVER: The traffic was hard to get to it for one because the roads were blocked. But once we got there, it was about 1:00 this morning when we got the call. And we had to get the bus stood up to get it where the bodies had come through the windows. So, there's pretty much a lot of waiting game to recovery for them to recover everybody and then get the bus out.

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ROMO: Tow truck driver Keith Allison also told CNN affiliate WAPT, it took a long time for authorities to recover some of the victims because the bus ended up in a ditch and many passengers were ejected. Let's take a listen.

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ALLISON: Even think about time, but probably a couple of hours by the time they recovered the bodies and some of them were pretty hard to drag up the hill. So we helped with that and get them to the corner. Other than that, it was just a long process of getting the bus, keep it from flipping to get it all the way up. It was down in a ditch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: We also contacted the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the law enforcement agency conducting the initial investigation into the accident. We inquired about the identity of the passengers and a spokesperson told us that there were several Mexican identification documents that were recovered, but we don't know if they were passports or any other type of identification.

They also confirmed that the bus belongs to a company called Autobuses Regiomontanos, but we don't know if the Spanish name means that it was a tour bus or a transportation company that caters to immigrants. In any case, Alex, a very, very tragic accident. Now back to you.

MARQUARDT: Yes, a horrible scene that driver was describing.

Rafael Romo, thanks.

A new late night court filing in former President Donald Trump's election subversion case appears to signal that that case will not be going before a judge before the election in November. In a joint filing on Friday night, both Trump's lawyers and Special Counsel Jack Smith, they're at odds on how to -- how the case should proceed.

While Smith's team is not offering firm dates for the next phase of this case, Trump's team, meanwhile, is recommending that a schedule -- recommending a schedule that would carry the pre-trial disputes through the beginning of next year.

I'm joined now by CNN's Holmes Lybrand, who has been following all this. So, Holmes, what more can you tell us about this court ruling late last night, the court filing and what happens next?

HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: That's right. So I want to step back for just a minute. You'll remember in July, the Supreme Court granted Trump pretty sweeping immunity for presidential acts. Now, because of that, in response to that, earlier this week, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed that superseding indictment --

MARQUARDT: right.

LYBRAND: -- that really focuses on Trump's actions as a candidate, as a private citizen. Now moving forward, as you mentioned, late last night, pretty late, there was a filing, a joint filing from both of these parties telling the judge how they think that they should move forward in the case.

The big disagreement is whether they can handle things simultaneously or whether or not they want to go through, step by step, each of these motions that Trump wants to file as well as the issue of immunity. Now, as you mentioned, Trump gave pretty firm dates of how he thinks that this should go forward.

That would push this past inauguration day in 2025, and they say maybe even to the spring or the fall of next year. Special Counsel Jack Smith is not offering dates, and instead, he's putting this on the onus, the onus really on the judge. Saying, you know what, Judge? It's your court. You can determine how we move forward. We think that we can handle the issue of immunity as well as Trump's motions to dismiss simultaneously.

That's the big disagreement. There's a hearing next week, before the judge in D.C., that the parties are going to have to hash this out. I've been told by multiple lawyers who have practiced under this judge, Tanya Chutkan, she likes to move fast. There's a lot to get through in this case. We, hopefully, will learn more about how she sees the case, and how quickly she thinks we can get through these issues. MARQUARDT: So bottom line, Jack Smith still trying to get around that immunity ruling by the Supreme Court back in July filing this slimmed down superseding indictment but there's clearly a lot to get through. So even if she wants to move fast this, could be quite an extended timeline.

LYBRAND: That's exactly right.

MARQUARDT: Holmes Lybrand, thanks very much for that reporting.

Still ahead, a temporary pause in fighting in Gaza as officials begin vaccinating thousands of children against a deadly resurgence of polio. And a suspect is now in custody in the suspected killings of a California couple at a nudist resort. What authorities found under his home that led to his arrest.

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MARQUARDT: Right now, aid workers in Gaza are preparing to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against polio. The vaccinations are expected to begin tomorrow and will continue for almost two weeks. The highly infectious virus was found in sewage samples recently, followed by the first recorded case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.

New video shows some babies receiving the inoculations today ahead of the bigger rollout plan. Israel says it has agreed to pause fighting as workers enter each area.

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CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem for us. Nic, there are a lot of moving parts to make this plan work, including Israel committing to stopping fighting for hours at a time. How complicated is this going to be?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is hugely complicated. It's never been tried before. It's going to be monumental in what it's going to sort of press the U.N. and all the workers there who are going to try to put this together to do. This is something that of a scope and a scale and a speed that they've never done before.

Now, some of the vaccinations did get underway Saturday. The deputy health minister in Gaza said that what was really required was a complete ceasefire for a whole week. When the campaign begins Sunday, though, that's not going to be what they get.

The rollout is going to look like this. It'll be done in three phases. The center of Gaza first, then the south, then the north. Each phase gets three days. And on each of those days, there's about seven to eight hours of vaccination time. 640,000 children to get through, which if you do the math, works out to be about 10,000 children every hour they need to get through. But they're going to be about 3,000 people out doing the vaccinations. They'll use health centers, they'll use health clinics, and they'll even have mobile units out in the tent camps, in the sand dunes, all those hard to reach places, trying to get the vaccines out. But clearly, they're up against speed, up against time here.

But I asked Sam Rose, one of the U.N. coordinators of this, just what is at stake here.

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ROBERTSON: You're going to be tested to the max. I mean, what's at stake if you don't manage to get to all the children you need to get to?

SAM ROSE, UNRWA DIRECTOR OF PLANNING: I mean, what's at stake is a spread of polio. And right now, we know of one case, one confirmed case. We don't know if there are more. We've not had the ability to check. But if the disease spreads, it will be catastrophic.

ROBERTSON: Can it break out of the region?

ROSE: Who knows how far it can spread. There's a probability that it could spread beyond the borders of Gaza, indeed.

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ROBERTSON: There's a huge challenge here as well. On top of this already, they need to do a second round of doses in four weeks time. There's no guarantees they're going to get the pauses, the humanitarian pauses to do that. And what Sam Rose told me was, if you don't do the second round of vaccines, then there's been -- you get no effect from that first round. It will effectively not have happened at all. So huge amount at stake here, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Huge amount of stake and really highlighting the desperate situation in Gaza.

Nic Robertson in Jerusalem, thank you very much.

Let's get more on the situation on the ground in Gaza. Joining me now is Arwa Damon, who has just left the Gaza Strip. She's the president and founder of INARA, the International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance. And, of course, she's a familiar face to many of you, as a former Senior International Correspondent for CNN, working, of course, a lot in the Middle East.

Arwa, it's great to see you. This polio vaccination plan, it is a huge logistical undertaking. Nic Robertson was just laying it out. Even if this wasn't in a war zone, it would be very complicated. Describe for us the conditions on the ground in Gaza that aid workers will now have to navigate to get this done.

ARWA DAMON, PRESIDENT, INTL NETWORK FOR AID, RELIEF AND ASSISTANCE: Alex, imagine an apocalyptic scene of an expanse of rubble that is inhabited by the vast majority of the residents that used to be there, where streets and roads no longer exist the way that they used to in the past, where you have a congestion of, you know, a handful of vehicles, donkey carts, human traffic, a road in Gaza that would, you know, say normally take you 15 minutes can take you up to 3 to 4 hours.

That's how congested the entire strip is. So it's not easy for these, you know, mobile units to move around. It's not easy for people to get to the various points. Then we also have to take into consideration how it is that polio managed to reemerge.

And if you boil it down, it's due to the lack of hygiene. It's due to the fact that every single aspect of infrastructure in Gaza has been utterly decimated. Sewage runs openly in the streets. And as aid organizations, we can't even get hygiene or a bar of soap into central or southern Gaza right now.

MARQUARDT: Arwa, this was your third trip to Gaza just since this war began just over 10 months ago. What struck you most this time?

DAMON: I think it's how each time I go, I think it can't get worse and it does. The amount of aid getting in is significantly less. The volume of people who need it is significantly higher and accessing them within Gaza is significantly higher.

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And, you know, humanitarian organizations and a number of other entities and individuals have been advocating for a ceasefire for the last 10 months right now, advocating for more access, advocating for secure routes. But what we've been reduced to right now and what people are begging for right now is a bar of soap.

A bar of soap, the ability to be able to properly clean, you know, wash your hands, that can reduce the spread of disease by 40 percent. And that includes polio, which obviously is the headline right now. But then you have these horrible cases, Alex, of children who are getting the skin infection called impetigo.

And if that's not properly treated, certain strains of it can lead to kidney failure, which can obviously lead to death. You have meningitis that's spreading. You have two children per day, Alex, just in Nasser Hospital alone, who are dying of Hepatitis A. All preventable diseases --

MARQUARDT: Right.

DAMON: -- all also highly contagious.

MARQUARDT: So, Arwa, what are the obstacles to getting something as simple as soap in? Because we often hear from senior Israeli officials saying, we're inspecting these trucks, we're not blocking anything from getting in, and yet, there aren't -- there isn't enough aid getting in, and the aid that is, isn't getting necessarily to the people who need it.

DAMON: There's a number of obstacles. So, first and foremost, when the Israelis say we're letting aid in, that basically means that they're dumping it at certain crossing points, right? So let's talk about Kerem Shalom, which is the most familiar one to viewers.

Aid being crossed into Kerem Shalom to the specific point where we as organizations have to pick it up, Alex, the Israelis might as well be leaving that aid on the moon. Because the routes that we have to take to go and pick up the aid are specifically determined by Israel, and they are highly insecure. Certain chunks of them are very insecure.

We cannot traverse these routes without these criminal gangs and these looters that have emerged that are constantly, you know, attacking aid trucks that are moving through there. There are alternative routes that can be used. There is the fence road, for example.

There are ways that these routes can be better secured or aid organizations can be permitted to try to figure out how to provide security for themselves, whether it's using, you know, Gaza's old police force or, you know, vetted individuals.

But let me add one more thing to all of this, Alex. Hygiene kits and soap are getting into the north of Gaza. But we, as aid organizations, are not permitted to move them from the north of Gaza to the central or southern areas. So, even though there is, for example, the option of scaling up what's coming through to the north from the Erez Crossing point, we're not permitted to pick that up and move it to the south.

MARQUARDT: Yes, that -- it's just unbelievable how the aid situation has not been figured out yet. And Arwa Damon, we know that you're right there in the middle of it, so we really appreciate you coming on and explaining the difficulties there. Thank you.

Now the sports world is in shock after NHL star Johnny Hockey, as he was known, and his brother were killed in a New Jersey crash just hours before their sister's wedding. How teams are remembering them. That's next.

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[12:27:40]

MARQUARDT: An unimaginable tragedy. The sports world is in mourning this weekend after NHL star Jonny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were killed by a suspected drunk driver on a bike ride in New Jersey. The two were just hours away from serving as groomsmen in their sister's wedding.

Police say the driver unlawfully passed a vehicle on the right, causing him to strike both brothers on their bikes. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

CNN's Polo Sandoval has details on the life and the very untimely death of hockey all-star Johnny Gaudreau.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his younger brother Matthew killed by an alleged drunk driver Thursday night on the eve of their sister's wedding where they were set to be groomsmen. State police confirmed the siblings were bike riding in southern New Jersey when they were hit by an SUV.

Sean Higgins is believed to have been the driver. The 43-year-old now charged with two counts of second degree vehicular homicide. Police records say he admitted to drinking five to six beers before the accident, and that he failed a field sobriety test. Higgins made an initial court appearance Friday, where a judge ordered he'd be held until his next hearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll see you back in court on Thursday.

SEAN HIGGINS, DRIVER WHO IS CHARGED IN THE DEATHS OF GAUDREAU: So I'm here until Thursday?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Gaudreau or in the nickname Johnny Hockey was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2011.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Number 13, Johnny Gaudreau.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2022. "Johnny played the game with great joy," reads a statement from his team. "The impact he had on our organization and our sport was profound, but pales in comparison to the indelible impression he made on everyone who knew him."

But despite his succession in the rink, Gaudreau's true passion appeared to be off the ice, as a loving husband and proud father of two babies. The youngest born this year and carries dad's name. Matthew followed in his brother's footsteps playing side by side with Johnny in Boston college days. Coaches there described the brothers as full of joy for the sport.

JERRY YORK, FORMER HEAD COACH, BOSTON COLLEGE MEN'S HOCKEY: If you ask us the name of our favorite players, you know, they've got to be, both boys are going to be among them.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): An uncle of the Gaudreau brothers released a statement saying, "Last night, we lost two husbands, two fathers, two sons, but truly, two amazing humans."

Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

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MARQUARDT: And now we're hearing from Johnny Gaudreau's widow, Meredith, who shared two Instagram posts after her husband's death. Among the family photos, she shared heartfelt captions saying, quote, "We are going to make you proud. We love you, end quote. A GoFundMe was also set up to help Matthew's widow, Madeline, and their unborn son Tripp. The fundraiser has already raised more than $300,000. For more on Gaudreau's legacy and career, I'm joined by Aaron Portzline, a senior writer for The Atlantic and a long time Columbus Blue Jackets beat writer. Aaron, thanks very much for joining me. This is truly a profound loss for the sport of hockey. How is the -- the hockey community? How are the Blue Jackets dealing with this news?

AARON PORTZLINE, SENIOR WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes. Well, thank you, Alex, good to be with you. I think there's still a sense of disbelief, honestly, that -- that this has happened, such prominent -- such a prominent hockey player, Johnny, such a prominent family, the Gaudreau's. I mean, if -- if -- if -- really an NHL player whose star power transcended hockey, which is rare for that -- for that league.

Every people knew Johnny hockey, even if they weren't big hockey fans. That -- that name resonated with people. There's just, I think there's utter sadness, is the way to say it, just unrelenting sadness. And then I think first and foremost, people can't stop thinking about the Gaudreau family and what they have lost in this, just, you know, unimaginable, what they're going through.

And -- and people, you know, wanting, begging for a way to be able to help when really there's nothing anybody can do right now as they start this -- this process of trying to move on, which just has to be impossible.

MARQUARDT: Yes. It -- it really is unimaginable. I mean, just the -- the level of -- of sadness, it just it -- it leaves you speechless. Aaron, for viewers who may not follow hockey is closely, Gaudreau was an exceptional player. He had 243 career goals, 743 points over 7 -- 6 -- 763 games. He made seven All-Star appearances. Put into perspective for us, the -- the -- the career that -- that Johnny hockey had, how dynamic a player was he?

PORTZLINE: Well, I -- I think first of all, you look at just the talent, the ability, as you mentioned. The statistics show that. He was an enormously skilled player. He was, I -- I think, to so many people, a really inspirational player, too, listed at 5'9, probably generously, might have been closer to 5'6 or 5'7. I don't think he ever weighed more than 165 pounds.

Now, the NHL is not the NFL, yes, but these are big, physical players. This is a tough league. Many wondered if he would ever even make it to the NHL. Even his family has called this an improbable career. Not only did he make it, he was a dominant player in this league. And there are young players, young kids who maybe would have been steered away from playing hockey. You're not big enough, who could look at Johnny Gaudreau and say, oh, yes, I am. I can do this. And -- and he was a marvel in the way he played and -- and what he overcame to play that way.

MARQUARDT: And -- and to that point, his -- his impact on people, particularly younger people. What was he like off the ice? How -- how did he engage with -- with his fans?

PORTZLINE: Yes. Well, he had an aura about him as Johnny hockey, this larger than life figure, and in -- in my two years of -- of dealing with him here, it was pretty obvious that he always did his best to sort of dispel that notion or dissuade people from -- from looking at him that way. He wanted to be a man of the people, just part of the crowd. He wanted to have a good time and joy was a big part of his approach to life.

I mean, you know, I -- I -- a few times now in a room full of very well paid athletes, it's not uncommon to see very expensive clothing, even on a non-game day, these guys have money and dress accordingly. Johnny preferred an old t-shirt that usually represented a -- a small business from back home. He preferred flip flops. He was a low key guy. And I think that really resonated with people here, that they felt like he was one of them.

MARQUARDT: Yes, I think what you're describing we're seeing come across in some of the pictures that we've been showing of a -- of a smiling down to earth guy. It goes without saying that our -- our -- our thoughts are going out to the Gaudreau family today for this -- this horrible and -- and tragic loss. Aaron Portzline with The Athletic thanks so much for coming on today and sharing your thoughts.

PORTZLINE: Thank you, Alex.

[12:35:01]

MARQUARDT: Still ahead, former President Donald Trump doing damage control on his mixed messages on abortion access in Florida. How the Harris campaign is capitalizing on that confusion?

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MARQUARDT: On Labor Day, Vice President Kamala Harris will be campaigning in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania, in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania. She'll be joining forces with President Joe Biden, who grew up in Pennsylvania and Scranton in particular, for it will be a rare joint campaign rally in Pittsburgh.

[12:40:09]

Recent polls show Harris and Trump locked in a tight race in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state that both campaigns believe is a must win in the race for the White House. Now Trump won in 2016 but then Biden flipped Pennsylvania back in 2020.

Joining me now to talk more about the race for the White House is Alex Isenstadt. He's a national political reporter for Politico. Alex, thanks so much for joining us on this Labor Day weekend. Now this is traditionally around the time turning into this final stretch when voters start to pay more attention to the presidential race, those undecideds, the campaign's hope become decideds.

What do you make of Harris now holding this joint rally with her boss, President Joe Biden, not just in Pennsylvania, but in western Pennsylvania, where traditionally there's less Democratic support?

ALEX ISENSTADT, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Well, what's interesting is, is that if you look at polling, especially in those Rust Belt states, otherwise known as the Blue Wall, there's states that the Democrats really feel like they need to win. Harris actually for -- her numbers are actually a bit poorer than Biden's was in Pennsylvania. And so this is a state where potentially he could -- he could help her.

He has -- he's, obviously, is a Pennsylvania native. He represented Delaware next door. So Biden has some -- some Pennsylvania roots that could potentially help Harris in this race. Now, buying isn't necessarily going to be helpful to Harris everywhere in all seven of the battleground states, but Pennsylvania is a state that really could potentially decide the election. And it's a state where he could be helpful to her. And she could have him, she could bring him in, really over the next couple of months, to campaign with her and -- and act as a surrogate.

MARQUARDT: We also saw the former President Trump campaigning in Pennsylvania last night. He attacked Harris for saying that in the past, she wanted to ban fracking, which is a -- a real issue in -- in Pennsylvania. It was talked about in her exclusive interview with CNN, with our Dana Bash. Harris talking about how her views have shifted on -- on fracking. Let's take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's be clear. My values have not changed. I believe it is very important that we take seriously what we must do to guard against what is a clear crisis in terms of the climate.

What I have seen is that we can -- we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Alex, what did you make of that answer for -- she was saying, you know, focus on the -- the values. Is this really a major issue with Pennsylvania voters?

ISENSTADT: It's a major issue with -- with Pennsylvania voters. And what you've seen is, is other Democrats who've been able to win Pennsylvania statewide, people like John Fetterman and Bob Casey. They've had to walk a pretty narrow line between the Democratic Party's more liberal base, which of course, wants tighter restrictions on oil production, and the need to win over blue collar voters, more conservative Democrats, union Democrats, who, of course, are reliant and new economic -- parts of the state that are economically reliant on that kind of drilling.

And so she needs to figure out a way to thread a needle here, and you can bet that the Trump campaign and the former president are going to make this a big issue in Pennsylvania over the next couple months.

MARQUARDT: Donald Trump, meanwhile, is trying to thread the needle on his views on reproductive rights, not doing a great job, because he's sort of saying two things out of -- out of each side of his mouth, spent the last few days try -- trying to clean this up, angering conservative Republicans when he seemed to indicate that he was supporting giving women more than six weeks for an abortion, this is when it comes to -- to Florida's constitutional amendment.

But then he reversed course just yesterday, saying that he's now going to vote against that abortion measure on the ballot in November, which would make abortion legal in the state until a fetus becomes viable. So Alex, how do you think this flip flopping on abortion might impact him with the voters?

ISENSTADT: Trump is all over the place when it comes to abortion. It -- it's head spinning. It's hard to keep track of. But what all this really serves to illustrate is the degree to which Trump sees abortion as an issue that could really make or break his campaign. It's an issue that he has privately talked about has doomed Republicans, especially in the 2022 midterm elections.

And so on the one hand, he's trying to deal with that, and he's trying to come off as more moderate, present himself as more moderate on this issue. But at the same time, he's dealing with a very conservative base, even -- of evangelical voters, that don't want him to shift too much on this. And you know, evangelical voters were really important part of Trump's electoral coalition in both 2016 and 2020.

[12:45:01]

And so he can't scare them off too much. And he's trying this balancing act, but day by day, the different positions that he's taking, they're almost becoming a little bit hard to track. And also, now what you're going to have is you're going to have the Harris campaign that's going to be hitting him and saying that voters really can't trust him on this issue.

MARQUARDT: Yes, the Harris campaign about to launch another bus tour focusing on -- on reproductive rights, and we can be sure that she's going to be bringing up this -- this back and forth from Trump over the past few days. Alex Isenstadt of Politico, thank you very much.

ISENSTADT: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Ukraine says they want to fire U.S. missiles deeper into Russia. U.S. is saying, we'll think about it. Next, we have details on a meeting between the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Ukrainian counterpart.

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[12:50:28]

MARQUARDT: In Russia's latest attack on Ukraine, at least six people were killed and near -- nearly 100 more injured when rockets hit a residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. The strikes coming as Ukraine's defense minister met with Biden administration officials yesterday here in Washington, yesterday here in Washington, at the Pentagon and the White House, presenting them with a list of targets that Ukraine wants to hit inside of Russia. Let's bring in CN -- CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, and who joins us from Ukraine. So Fred, why are Ukrainian officials coming all the way to Washington to make their case?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Because I think for them, it right now that's really existential, not just in the eastern part of the front, in the areas where the Russians are really pushing back the Ukrainian military, but of course, also, for instance, in the Kursk region, where the Russian -- where the Ukrainians themselves are trying to advance.

And I think one of the things that we saw from the Ukrainians yesterday is they really want the U.S. to lift some of those restrictions, because they want to strike some of the weapons that the Russians are using to hit the Ukrainians from a longer distance, so they want to strike deeper into Russian territory.

And it's really two things. On the one hand, it's a lot of those missile launch sites, for instance, for the S-300 missiles that don't really travel very far. But the big problem that the Ukrainians have, for instance, in the Kharkiv region, is that they only have about 30 seconds or so after a missile like that is launched to when it impacts. And the other part of that is also suppressing Russia's Air Force, at least to a certain extent.

One of the things that we've seen in the past 24 hours, since we've seen the Ukrainian defense minister, obviously, at the Pentagon, and your interview with him last night, is that we've had attacks by the Russian Air Force in Kharkiv, they weren't just using missiles. They were also using aerial glide bombs, which, of course, are very heavy weapons that drop a lot of ordinance. Several people killed there yesterday.

Today, another village in the Kharkiv area was also targeted by the Russian Air Force, dropping what's called a KAB-500 bomb that's also a glide bomb as well, with half a ton of explosives in it. One person was killed in that. And then also the Russian Air Force today putting out video of their jets allegedly dropping bombs on Ukrainian forces trying to advance in the Kursk area.

And we've also heard from Ukrainian forces on the ground that that is making their life quite difficult. So the Russians right now able to really project power with their air force a lot better than they have in the past. And Ukrainians now saying they need to try to target some of those airfields, some of those fuel depots to try and help their troops out on the front lines. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Yes. And -- and Fred, the Ukrainian defense minister, telling me that the Biden administration is still analyzing that Ukrainian pitch. There is no answer yet whether they can use those U.S. missiles inside of Russia. Fred Pleitgen in Kyiv, thanks very much for that report.

[12:53:07]

Still ahead, new details in the suspected death of a couple at a nudist ranch in California, their neighbor is now in custody after a stunning finding underneath his home.

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MARQUARDT: Now to the developments in the suspected deaths of an elderly couple missing for nearly a week from their home at a nudist ranch in Redlands, California. Police have arrested the couple's neighbor, Michael Royce, excuse me, Michael Royce Sparks after cadaver dogs indicated the presence of human remains under his home. He's now being held on murder charges.

CNN's Camila Bernal is tracking the latest developments in this case. She joins me now from Los Angeles. So, Camila, what are you learning?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alex. This was definitely a gruesome discovery and a very dramatic arrest. Authorities now saying that it is a coroner's office trying to identify those human remains that were found in bags underneath the suspect's mobile home. So authorities essentially describing a bunker underneath the home of Michael Royce Sparks. And what they're saying is that this was a concrete area. It was about five feet below the home, and that's not only where they found the remains, that's also where they found their suspect who was barricaded inside of that mobile home.

This couple was last seen last Saturday, and it was a neighbor that said that when they didn't show up to church on Sunday, she was extremely concerned. Went to their home, found some of their belongings. Their car was also found nearby and unlocked. And so this neighbor called authorities. You mentioned they lived in a resort, a nudist resorts. And so this community just sort of coming together and saying they are shocked and really saddened by this loss. Take a listen to some of the friends and neighbors and what they have to say.

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TAMMIE WILKERSON, NEIGHBOR: It just plagues me. I can't believe somebody would do something like this to them, and it hurts my heart.

SANDY MARINELLI, FRIEND: I just want them back. They don't deserve this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: So you see that emotion there. Now taking a step back, this suspect was actually found on Thursday. Authorities went to his home. They had to use this heavy machinery to essentially knock down the front wall of his mobile home, and that's because he was barricaded inside, and he was armed. Authorities say he had a rifle and he tried to kill himself, but that rifle misfired, so they had a lengthy negotiation with him, trying to get him out of the house.

[13:00:11]

They actually used cameras that the city uses for the sewer. And that's the camera that they used to put inside of this bunker to make sure that it was safe for authorities to go in there. You see some of that video and how dramatic it was. He is expected in court on Tuesday. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Really troubling story -- story. Camila Bernal in Los Angeles, thanks very much.

BERNAL: Thank you.