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YouTube Takes Down Media Accounts Linked to Russian Scheme; Putin Responds to U.S. Crackdown on Alleged Election Meddling; Ukraine's Zelenskyy Hails Success of Kursk Incursion; Marathon Runner Rebecca Cheptegei Set on Fire, Dies. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 06, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. Some top stories for you today.

The father of a 14-year-old suspected mass shooter in the state of Georgia is now behind bars. A 54-year-old Colin Gray faces second- degree murder charges and eight counts of cruelty to children in connection with a shooting at Apalachee High School Wednesday, where four people died and nine others were wounded. His son, Cole Gray, has admitted to the crime, telling investigators, quote, I did it.

A decision is expected today on whether Donald Trump's sentencing in the New York hush money case will be delayed. Trump's legal team has requested it to be put off until after the election. Right now, sentencing is scheduled for September the 18th. Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Trump was speaking about his multitude of legal cases whilst on the campaign trail this week. He told a crowd at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday that -- excuse me -- Democrats, in his words, are trying to throw their political opponents in jail. He then said, quote, two can play at that game.

Now, the kickoff to early voting could be delayed in North Carolina, where a judge is ordering a temporary pause on ballot distribution today.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants his name removed now that he's dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump. His request was ultimately rejected by the Superior Court, but Kennedy was given 24 hours to appeal. The State Board of Elections has instructed counties to not send ballots just yet, but they could also go out this afternoon unless an appeals court orders another delay.

Allegations from the U.S. Justice Department that several right-wing media accounts are spreading Russian propaganda have prompted YouTube to take them down, including those of Tenet Media and its co-founder, Lauren Chen. Tenet and Chen are linked to an alleged Russian scheme to interfere with the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the allegations by trolling Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday. More on the story from CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vladimir Putin responded to a U.S. crackdown on alleged Russian election interference with more election interference. The Russian president claims his preferred candidate was Joe Biden, but --

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He was removed from the race, and he recommended all his supporters to endorse Ms. Harris. Well, that is what we will do, too. We will support her. And also, she laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means she's doing well.

TODD (voice-over): Putin's comment drew a sharp rebuke from the White House.

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: Mr. Putin ought to stop talking about our elections, period. We would greatly appreciate it if Mr. Putin would, A, stop talking about our election, and, B, stop interfering in it.

TODD (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump also quickly jumped in, posting on Truth Social, quote: President Putin would much rather see comrade Kamala Harris in office, as he strongly said.

Could Putin be using reverse psychology in publicly supporting Kamala Harris?

[04:35:00]

BRET SCHAFER, ALLIANCE FOR SECURING DEMOCRACY: Do I think he prefers a candidate? Do I think he prefers Trump? Probably.

But what he really prefers is for us to be more at each other's throats. So he's playing us against each other, which is what he's done for years.

TODD (voice-over): This comes as CNN learns the identity of a Tennessee-based company that the Justice Department says was funded by Russian operatives as part of a Kremlin-backed campaign to influence this year's U.S. presidential election. A U.S. official briefed on the matter tells CNN that company is Tenet Media. Prosecutors say Tenet Media, with Russian money, hired right-wing social media personalities to fuel Russian narratives.

Among those stars, content creators Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Dave Rubin. Combined, those three have about six million subscribers on YouTube alone. Pool once interviewed Donald Trump on his podcast. Benny Johnson interviewed Eric Trump.

Tim Pool's show, Timcast, features opinions that the Kremlin might want to see broadcast as widely as possible.

TIM POOL, TIMCAST: Ukraine is the enemy of this country. Ukraine is our enemy.

TODD (voice-over): All three of those stars say they were deceived in this scheme, that they are victims, that they created their own content without input from anyone.

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I do think that these people do have responsibility at least to understand whose paying them.

TODD (voice-over): In 2016 and 2020, officials say, the Russian election meddling campaign against the U.S. involved hacking and releasing e-mails to embarrass politicians and establishing dummy accounts to spread disinformation. How much has that campaign evolved since then?

SCHAFER: It's evolved significantly. But that's why the Tenet thing was so sophisticated and smart, is they found real Americans, Americans who are influential, who have massive audiences, and they were trying to manipulate that platform.

TODD: Analyst Brett Schafer says one of his biggest worries going forward is that whatever election meddling activity the Russians have been doing that the U.S. has caught, that they could be doing 10 times more of it that hasn't been caught. He likens it to trying to catch drug smuggling across the southern border.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just finished addressing a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Rammstein Air Base. It's made up of about 50 countries that focus on Kyiv's military needs to fend off Russian attacks. The group was founded after Russia's invasion by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is also there for the meeting. Clare's been monitoring what's coming out of it.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is the first time actually that President Zelenskyy has in person attended a meeting of the Rammstein Contact Group at the U.S. Air Base. He attended one in Brussels last year. But I think that underscores, even though this is the 24th meeting of this contact group that was set up to coordinate military aid, just how important he feels this moment is.

He's really trying to leverage the momentum of this now month-old Kursk offensive, the morale boost that it's given to troops, the sign that it sends to the West that they are getting a real dividend from the weapons that they have provided so far, and really push for more. Here's what he said about that offensive and its impact so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Dear friends, today marks one month since our armistice operation began in the Kursk region of Russia. This is the borderland from which Putin was preparing to expand the war into Ukrainian territory.

He was preparing to launch a new offensive against our city of Sumy, and we have turned the tables and are pushing the war into Russia through our counteroffensive. Today we control an area of more than 1,300 square kilometers in the Kursk region, and this includes 100 settlements. A significant part of this territory was abandoned by Russian troops. They simply fled when they saw our forces approaching.

Of course, a significant part of the territory was taken under control by our forces in the battle. So far during the first month of our operation in the Kursk region, the Russian forces have lost about 6,000 soldiers killed and wounded in Kursk only and added tens of thousands of Russian troops in other war zones.

Thanks to our actions, there is currently no threat that Russia will launch a new offensive operation on our territory against the city of Sumy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN: So what he said at the end there is significant because this backs up what we heard from an interview that Christiane Amanpour did with the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said that the reason they chose Kursk in the first place was because they believed that Russia was planning to launch a new attack on the city of Sumy, which is just across the border from Kursk.

This would be a sort of mirror action to what we saw in May when Russia opened a new front towards the city of Kharkiv and successfully pushed across the border there, although Ukraine has sort of stabilized that front now.

So that is how they are justifying this. He then goes on to make an argument, Max, that he has made before, which is that essentially what Ukraine has done in sort of stabilize that front now. So that is how they are justifying this.

He then goes on to make an argument, Max, that he has made before, which is that essentially, what Ukraine has done in launching this operation over into Kursk has essentially made a mockery of Western fears of Russian red lines.

They have invaded Russia. And we see, obviously, stepped up Russian aerial attacks and the offensive on the Eastern Front ongoing, but nothing really out of the ordinary course of this war. So he's saying this really does undermine the whole issue of Russian red lines.

He said, we need to hold to our values, not what he called in this speech, red lines soaked in blood.

FOSTER: And the U.S. has just announced more money for Ukraine, which suggests it's not completely against this strategy, which would have been unthinkable a few months ago.

SEBASTIAN: Yes, I mean, this, look, the issue now for the sort of the military supplies from the U.S. to Ukraine is that it's not just about how much, right, they've already provided some 55 billion or so in they are by far the biggest provider. It's about the limitations on using them on Russian territory.

So we don't know exactly what's in the detail of this new aid package. But what Ukraine is now really pushing for is to be able to use long range weapons, long range missiles on targets inside Russia.

And so far, the U.S. is still holding back on that. Having said that, though, Secretary Austin did talk about the Kursk offensive. They are, it seems, you know, Ukraine's allies broadly supportive of this, just not at this point, the use of those long range weapons.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

Africa's diaspora has long been a crucial driver of the continent's economic growth, mainly through remittances and individual business investments.

One prominent member of the African diaspora has been championing various initiatives across Africa. Victoria Rubadiri joined him recently on his latest venture in Rwanda in this edition of Connecting Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MASAI UJIRI, PRESIDENT, TORONTO RAPTORS: For me, it's the pride of my people. For me is the pride of where I come from. It lives in me. And for me, it will always be a passion. It will always be a passion to come back here, to help as much as we can, and to help grow sports on the continent, but to help grow people like you.

UJIRI: Sports bar. Here's the hotel.

VICTORIA RUBADIRI, CNN CONNECTING AFRICA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Masai is committed to giving back to his homeland. He's been investing in different countries across the continent for over 21 years. Zaria Court in Kigali is his latest project.

RUBADIRI: You're the first African NBA team president. What does that mean for you to hold such a position in a sport like basketball?

UJIRI: It means more to me if you bring more people along. I think it is key that I'm not the only one. And you have to continue to do well. You have to win. And I always say, you must win on the court, and you must win off the court.

I see the talent. And I think Africa's biggest jewel is its talent. And there's so many people much, much more talented than me, that given the right opportunity, I think, will be in this kind of a position. I have to create that path.

MICHAEL AMISI: My dream is to play basketball as a professional. To be known, we let everyone say that Michael is one of the kids that Rafiki Club. IAN NTWARI GISA: I would like to play in the NBA, it's mine and my

comrades dream here. But as you know, we start from small, and we go big.

RUBADIRI: When we talk about dreams, I was talking to a couple of the kids at Club Rafiki and asked them, you know, what's your dream? They said NBA, NBA.

But how do we also get them to see the value of playing on the continent?

UJIRI: That's key for us. We need this youth. We need this competition. We need the players to grow. We need them to think about business in Africa. But sports as a business has to elevate on this continent, because there's plenty, plenty jobs to be created.

We want Zaria Court to perform, and not only as a template, but to show the rest of the continent that this actually works.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei is highlighting the prevalence of gender based violence. CNN's Amanda Davies has more on the tragic situation with wider implications.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR (voice-over): A grieving mother struggling to come to terms with the unthinkable.

AGNES NDIEMA-CHEPTEGEI, MOTHER OF REBECCA CHEPTEGEI (through translator): She was a good child. Very polite. And she didn't have a lot of issues. I just don't know.

DAVIES (voice-over): According to police, Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan athlete based in Kenya, was attacked by her boyfriend, who doused the 33-year-old in petrol before setting her alight at their home near the city of Eldoret.

Sadly, though, this is not an isolated incident, just another that highlights the ongoing issue of gender-based violence and femicide in Kenya. According to government data from 2022, 34 percent of women in the country report having experienced physical violence after the age of 15 committed by anyone with married women at particular risk. And a number of athletes have been victims.

JOAN CHELIMO, ATHLETE: We didn't know that there was gender-based violence.

DAVIES (voice-over): Joan Chelimo competed against Cheptegei in the marathon at the Paris Olympics and is one of a group of athletes who co-founded Tirop's Angels in 2022 in the wake of the killing of Kenyan Olympian Agnes Tirop.

CHELIMO: Agnes was my friend. You could not tell what she was going through because every time you could see her, she was just smiling. We felt like it was a wake-up call for everyone.

DAVIES (voice-over): Tirop's Angels provides counselling and support to victims of GBV and aims to educate and empower young women in the region.

NANCY LAGAT, ATHLETE, TIROP'S ANGELS, KENYA: As more people came to us and report issues of GBV, we realized that it is a pandemic that is affecting everybody in our community and especially the whole country.

CHELIMO: Iten is a very small community. It has around 10,000 people. About 2,000 of them are athletes. And what happens is young girls come here after school, after high school or after primary school and they end up being taken advantage of. We knew, we heard about GBV all over the world.

But setting up the foundation, more women came up, speaking up about what they are going through in their lives.

[04:50:00]

Not only athletes but also the community.

DAVIES (voice-over): Amnesty International Kenya launched a campaign in January calling for the country's government to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of femicide cases. A campaign that goes on, but sadly not enough to prevent the death of Rebecca Cheptegei as her family and the distance-running community come to terms with another of their members taken too soon.

Amanda Davies, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We'll be back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Key U.S. economic data due out this morning. That's after markets in New York were mixed yesterday as uncertain investors rate the U.S. jobs report to calculate whether the Fed will lower interest rates by either an expected quarter or half of 1 percent. Inflation is slow, but the job market has as well.

Wall Street is looking for signs that the job market is cooling steadily rather than plunging towards recession territory. And not knowing whether the Fed is behind the curve or not is causing some edginess shown by the volatility in the past week.

[04:55:00]

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft will begin its journey back to Earth today. NASA plans to have Starliner undocked from the International Space Station without its crew on board. NASA decided it was too risky to fly astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back home. They will remain in the space station as a result until February.

Join us for coverage of the Boeing Starliner return to Earth. At six in the evening Eastern time, 11 p.m. in London, we'll see the spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station. And just after midnight Eastern, NASA and Boeing plan for the Starliner to land at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

Alex Morgan, one of the most prolific goal scorers and well-known footballers in the world, has announced her retirement from the professional game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MORGAN, U.S. SOCCER GREAT: This is also not the retirement video I expected when I initially thought I was going to do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the legendary U.S. national team member posted an emotional four-plus-minute video on social media to say she'll play her last match this weekend. The two-time Women's World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist is currently a striker for the San Diego Wave. Morgan also revealed she was pregnant with her second child during that video.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the 39-year-old Portuguese soccer superstar, claimed the 900th goal of his career on Thursday, a record milestone for any male player. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner scored in the 34th minute of Portugal's 2-1 win against Croatia in the UEFA Nations League. That was the group stage.

And thank you for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Forster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up after a quick break.