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Putin Warns of Protracted War; U.S. Considers Giving Ukraine Controversial Cluster Warheads; Trump Team Finds 2 Docs with Classified Markings at Storage Unit; First "Harry & Meghan' Episodes Released as Palace Braces. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 08, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: My son, my daughter, my children are mixed race and I'm really proud of that. When my kids grow up and they look back at this moment and they turn to me and say, what did you do in this moment? I want to be able to give them an answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:00:56]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. There's a lot of royals on the air, all over the TV. You're going to read a lot about it.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: There will be even more soon.

LEMON: I know. As the new Harry and Meghan docuseries is out, and we're getting a look at the accusations against the royal family over race and why Harry is comparing the treatment of his wife to his mother, Diana. We're going to break it all down with our team in London. How the palace is reacting.

COLLINS: Also this morning on the global front, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now warning that nuclear risk is increasing, while acknowledging that the war in Ukraine is going to, quote, "take a while."

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a break in the case. Idaho police now searching for a white Hyundai Elantra. That is the car they think may be in connection with the college murder case. Where that investigation stands this morning.

LEMON: But we're going to begin with this this morning, a new chilling warning from Vladimir Putin, warning Russian citizens to prepare for a longer war in Ukraine and not ruling out the first use of nuclear weapons. His invasion now in its tenth month, with winter underway in Ukraine.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live for us in Berlin this morning.

Hello to you, Fred. What is Putin's message to the Russian people and to the world this morning? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that

certainly things are going to be tough, that things are going to take a while, Don. You're absolutely right.

This comes, obviously, as Russia is having a lot of trouble on the battlefield. One of the things that Vladimir Putin said is that this could take a very long time. that Russia would fight with all available means at its disposal.

He also said that right now, there wouldn't be another mobilization of Russians to go to the war. However, of course, he didn't rule out that happening in the future.

But what really raised eyebrows around the world was that Vladimir Putin was specifically asked whether he would rule out a first use of nuclear weapons by the Russian Federation, and Vladimir Putin refused do that.

Now, he did say that Russia considers nuclear weapons as being defensive weapons. But the U.S. has already come out and said any kind of talk like this is absolutely irresponsible and goes against the rules of nuclear nonproliferation -- Don.

LEMON: He has said things like this before. Is it all a big bluff, or we just don't know now?

PLEITGEN: Well, that's the thing. You just really don't know. And obviously, Vladimir Putin has a huge nuclear arsenal at his disposal.

One of the things, however, that we have seen is that, at the beginning of the war, Vladimir Putin already put his nuclear forces at a heightened state of alert.

He then later also threatened nuclear weapons, saying that other nations should realize that Russia is not bluffing. This was months into the conflict, when things were already going difficult for the Russians.

Definitely impossible to rule out whether this is a bluff or not. But certainly, you also see by the international reactions that the U.S. and allies seem unfazed by all this and certainly are saying they are going to continue to support Ukraine, Don.

LEMON: Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much.

COLLINS: Now to a CNN exclusive this morning. The Biden administration is considering one of the Ukrainian military's most controversial requests, potentially, since Russia's invasion began.

They are now asking for access to the U.S. stockpile of cluster warhead munitions, which are banned by more than 100 countries but are being continually used by Russia.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins me now. Natasha, what do we know about the communication of these Ukrainian requests to the U.S. government and what the U.S. government has said in response? NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan. The Ukrainians have

been making very clear over the last several months to the Biden administration that they feel they could use the stockpile of cluster munitions that the United States has, kind of gathering dust in storage at this point, to great advantage on the battlefield against Russia. Because of course, Russia is using them, as well, to devastating effect inside Ukraine.

And the Ukrainians, they have said that these cluster munitions really could be a game changer for them.

Now, the Biden administration is not taking that off the table. They're actually considering that request, as they do with every other request that Ukraine makes for weaponry.

But it's really tough at this point, because Congress actually imposes limitations on the ability of the U.S. to transfer these kinds of weapons, which are potentially extremely dangerous to civilians, to foreign countries.

So the Biden administration does have the ability, technically. President Biden could overrule those congressional limits to send those weapons, but it's a very high bar, considering how dangerous these weapons actually are.

[06:05:06]

COLLINS: Yes, because they're essentially these bombs that have smaller sub-munitions in them, leading to what you said there about the concerns about where it goes.

I think the question here is why is that what the Ukrainians believe this is what they need now?

BERTRAND: Yes, so this -- these weapons, because they are so powerful, and because they have those submunitions that explode over a wide area, they can potentially be very effective in targeting large concentrations of Russian troops and Russian tanks.

So the Ukrainians say, Hey, we don't need as much normal ammunition if you give us these cluster munitions, because they are -- they are more effective than just, you know, the regular ammunition and rockets and artillery that we are actually getting here.

So their argument is, Hey, the Russians are using this. Why can't we use it back at them? We're not going to use it against civilians, like the Russians are. We are only going to use it against the Russian military -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Natasha, we'll wait to see what the administration formally says on that. Thank you.

HARLOW: We do have new developments now in the saga of former President Donald Trump and the mishandling of classified documents.

Two more items marked classified have been found at the former president's storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida.

An outside firm that was hired by Trump's attorneys found these documents. And this comes after, of course, federal agents obtained hundreds of classified documents from Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. That's what prompted the federal judge to order Trump to take a harder look at his properties for any potential remaining classified materials.

Kaitlan, this is your -- your reporting. What is most significant about it?

COLLINS: There's still a lot of questions about this. We don't know how significant these documents are that they found. They have classified markings, we should note. Obviously, that is something that that that May grand jury subpoena said all of that should be returned to the government.

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: And so what our reporting had been is that there was concern from the federal investigators here that not everything had been turned over.

HARLOW: Right.

COLLINS: And -- and this would seem to reinforce that, that they did have the right to be concerned about that.

And there was also the question raised after the Mar-a-Lago search happened in August about other properties that Trump has. Obviously, he's got the Bedminster Club that they now searched. He's got Trump Tower here in New York. He's got a lot of properties.

And so what's notable about this is that it was the Trump legal team that hired this --

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: -- these individuals to go and search the documents. This is not something the Justice Department was part of. They offered --

HARLOW: That was also interesting to me, that part, that they offered, and they didn't.

COLLINS: And we talked -- I talked to Evan Perez, our Justice Department colleague reporter about this, who covers the Justice Department. He said that Justice Department investigators would not go and sign off on something like this unless they themselves are the ones conducting the search.

LEMON: So that's what I was wondering. The prompt wasn't from outside or from the DOJ. It was actually from the Trump folks to search, just to make sure that there weren't documents in other properties?

COLLINS: But it's not like they just did it because they were like, Let's just make sure. There is the judge here who basically said you need to make sure that there's nothing else. And she made that pretty clear in a message to the Trump legal team.

LEMON: It would be bad if there was something else in this investigation, and you did not turn it over, and we didn't know about it.

COLLINS: Yes. And so they searched these four properties. It's not clear, I don't think that they searched any others, based on the sources that I've been speaking to.

They did find these two documents. There had been some reporting that they had told the government they hadn't find anything. They actually did find these two documents. They've turned them over.

The question, though, is the significance of that and whether or not there's other stuff at other properties, I think, is the question for investigators.

HARLOW: And a storage unit --

LEMON: Yes.

HARLOW: -- by the way.

COLLINS: Which as you know, the Trump team is pushing back, saying Trump -- It was a -- it was storage unit that had all these personal belongings that he did not know personally what was in there, that they had really --

HARLOW: I was just thinking about, like, lack of security at a storage facility.

COLLINS: And lack of, like, cataloging where things are.

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: Which is, you know.

LEMON: Why are they there?

COLLINS: Regardless and whether or not what you think the intent here is, the question is that there are these materials that could be classified that are out there at storage units in Florida.

HARLOW: Really interesting reporting.

All right. So let's bring in attorney Bradley Moss, who specializes in this kind of stuff, in securities clearance law.

Seems like a pretty significant deal, though it's important to note from Kaitlan that they don't know what's in the classified documents or we don't know yet. What do you make of it?

BRADLEY MOSS, PARTNER, LAW OFFICE OF MARK S. ZAID: Yes. So now that we're all over the shock, total shock, that Donald Trump still had classified documents sitting in another property, there are two things of note here, kind of following up on what Kaitlan was saying. One was the obvious national security concern. These are documents

with classification markings. We don't know the sensitivity level. But any classified information is itself a national security risk to be outside a secure location.

Sitting in just a storage facility, not in accordance with security protocols for classified documents.

The second issue is obviously the legal one. We know there's the ongoing grand jury proceeding. We know there's this ongoing back and forth, legal fight, between the Trump team and DOJ.

Does this reinforce the government's view, its likelihood that it will ultimately seek an indictment here? I think this makes things worse for Donald Trump that there were other documents.

[06:10:05]

LEMON: So Bradley, what is the legal jeopardy, then? You talked about the larger implications here and what -- you know, all of this, Mar-a- Lago under investigation. Now, potentially, Bedminster and the storage unit, and what have you? So then what's the legal ramifications for -- if any, for Trump?

MOSS: Sure, this ties back to two parts. One is that grand jury subpoena that was back in May. They were compelled, they were ordered to turn over all documents with classification markings. It didn't just say Mar-a-Lago. It said all documents in their possession.

There's no indication that the Trump team ever even looked at this facility, regardless of what they thought may or may not have been there. That would have been due diligence. That would have been reasonable. They never did it.

And the other part, again, this is somehow all these documents with classification markings, showing up with all these other records. Trump says they were personal belongings. So what? You can't have them. It speaks to the Espionage Act provision again, that this is the unauthorized retention of this information.

COLLINS: Bradley, as we have made clear, although this is something that was carried out by the Trump team, Trump's attorneys hired these people to do these searches. What does it say to you that this isn't something where the Justice Department felt they had probable cause and could get a search warrant for Bedminster, for Trump Tower, for these storage units in Florida?

MOSS: Yes, so I saw that. And my view is that the Justice Department probably was sitting there, contemplating, considering the idea of going back to it. They likely were pushing the judge to say, Look, we don't want to have to make another spectacle of this. This was coming all up. These proceedings were going on in during the course of the final weeks and days of the election. They obviously had limits on what they could do. They didn't want another media spectacle.

And the judge pushed on the Trump team, said you have got -- as a matter of national security, first and foremost, you've got to make sure there's nothing else out there. You can't be having this stuff sitting in these facilities.

And if you don't do this properly, it's likely the government is going to come back to me and say we're going to have to go with another search warrant. And that won't be good for you.

So the Trump team finally did something reasonable here and finally did a proper search of all properties that we know of so far.

COLLINS: Look how long it's taken.

HARLOW: So long.

COLLINS: Bradley.

LEMON: A saga.

HARLOW: Bradley Moss, thank you very much. Kaitlan, great reporting. We'll keep following that.

LEMON: The new Harry and Meghan Netflix docuseries revealing new details about their relationship, what really happened behind the scenes, and the unrelentless [SIC] British media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: This is about duty. And I feel as though being part of this family, it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media. No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth. The institution knows the full truth. And the media know the full truth, because they've been in on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Harry went on to discuss his mother's death and the harassment she faced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: Back in my mom's day, it was physical harassment. There were cameras in your face, following you, chasing you. The harassment really exists more online now. Once the photographs are out and the story's then put next to it, then comes the social media harassment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: He also opened up about the difficulties of watching Meghan go through negative media coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: To see another woman in my life who I love go through this feeding frenzy, that's hard. It is basically the hunter versus the prey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. Let's go to London now, CNN's Max Foster, Kate Williams, and British journalist and broadcaster, Bidisha Mamata. They all join us this morning.

Good morning to you. You guys have been covering this overnight. We have been watching your coverage. I woke up to it. The biggest takeaways, Max Foster?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, no great bombshell but a fleshing out, if you like, of why the couple was so unhappy in the institution.

So Harry talks about this temptation of men in the family to marry women who would fit in. Diana refused to fit in, he says, and Meghan refused to fit in.

He talks about the lack of support, lack of protection, effectively, in the palace system. So this onslaught of media harassment that his wife suffered. The family, effectively, said, Well, our wives had to suffer through it. What's different about your girlfriend?

And he responded saying, Well, race is the difference. He refused to accept the status quo, almost a conspiracy, he would describe it as, between the palace and the royal correspondents to push out a narrative which didn't necessarily work for Harry and Meghan. So they just left the system. That's ultimately why they left the U.K.

LEMON: Bidisha, it had been thought that there would be more revelations, i.e., the Oprah interview, you know, as it related to race. Were there any big revelations on this front so far in what you've seen?

BIDISHA MAMATA, BRITISH JOURNALIST/BROADCASTER: Interestingly, across multiple episodes, there are no big revelations. I was waiting for a sharp left turn of something shocking and scandalous. This is not that.

This is a beautifully-produced, multiple-episode series in which there' is an overwhelming sense of being misunderstood, of desperately and continually, and in fact, repeatedly saying what you think is the real story is not the real story. This is the real story. Please just understand how we feel.

I'm not sure that we're going to learn very much from it, except that they are asking us to make a leap of empathy, to try to understand what it's been like.

There is such a sensation of we have been betrayed. I wish you could understand us. We are not just these images. It's us the couple versus the media, versus the royal family. And they, capital "they," are all in on it against us.

HARLOW: Kate, I think back to that moment when they were overseas, and Meghan was asked by that reporter, Are you OK? And she said, I'm not OK. And it seems like this gives us more of a lens into that. KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes. Just as Bidisha was saying

there, this is really a portrait of suffering, a portrait of Harry and Meghan, and particularly Meghan, suffering within the royal family, suffering from what happens to women when they marry into the royal family. As Harry said, women who marry into the royal family, they have a bad time. There's sexism, and with Meghan, of course, there was racism.

She says very explicitly, I was never treated as a black woman until I came to Britain. And the tabloids, the media, the racism was out of control.

And there's really a lot here about -- in episode 3 about the history of Britain with slavery, the history of Britain in terms of, you know, racist -- the sufferings of people who -- people -- the black people within this country.

And really, I think this is being very explicit here. They're very explicit about the media, about how much suffering they created. But also about the royal family.

Harry says that he was told by the members of the royal family that she was an American actress; it wouldn't last. He said the fact that she was an actress -- these are his words -- clouded their judgment.

So they are really saying that they were left abandoned without support. Meghan had no support. There was racism; there was suffering.

And just as Max and Bidisha were saying, there were no big revelations necessarily, but I think we are going to see some next week, particularly in what we've seen in the trailers, the suggestion that actually, members of the royal Household were planting stories against them. Now that will probably come in the next week, but certainly, that is a big bombshell.

COLLINS: Well, and Max, on that front, I imagine the royal family was probably bracing for this to come out. They're obviously going to watch to see what -- what is said. What are you hearing from your sources about how they're prepared to respond to this new docuseries?

FOSTER: This is -- this is it, isn't it? So you've got the Sussexes, who feel that -- big claims in the media, misinformation, as they call it, should be called out every time.

And then the palace system, which is to rise above that and not to respond to everything in the media. We've basically got a clash of communications strategies there.

I think the palace are responding more these days, as they did to the race allegations of last week, under King Charles. I don't think there's much here for them to respond to.

But behind the scenes, the word "balance" has been said to me, which is if there are major allegations, there does need to be balance there. So I think if there are some bombshells next week, as Kate suspects there will be, and I do, as well, then there will be some comment for their next three.

LEMON: I can't help but, Bidisha. I mean, look, let's be honest. Everyone was expecting, you know, all -- these big revelations, and what does -- it seems like a big P.R. stunt for Netflix, because everyone is talking about it. But yet, there are no new revelations.

COLLINS: And for Harry and Meghan.

LEMON: Yes. And for Harry and Meghan, who I mean, it kind of feels like the Kardash-ification, if that's a word of --

COLLINS: I think you just made it.

LEMON: -- the royals. I think I just made that -- I mean, a new word. But I mean, it feels like the sort of reality TV series sort of what's happening with the royal family. I'm not sure how that's going to play. A lot of people may be interested in it, but I think you get my point here.

MAMATA: I love that word. And if we haven't already coined that phrase, then we absolutely have to. The Kardash-ification of the royals.

In fact, Harry and Meghan say that themselves in this series. They say that their engagement announcement was an orchestrated reality show.

And you're absolutely right. In fact, Max was right, too. Because this is about the American style versus the British style. Harry and Meghan and are about speaking your truth, bringing it front and center; talking about racism; talking about mental health challenges; even talking about whether or not your father, your father-in-law actually betrayed you, speaking about the process of becoming famous.

Now, the British style is put up and shut up, stiff upper lip. Say nothing unless forced.

[06:20:03]

And so you have the clash of the new world and the old world. And that's exactly why both sides are now suspicious of each other. And that's the sense you get throughout this entire series.

HARLOW: We have a new word added to the lexicon. But thank you all for your analysis. Bidisha, Max and Kate.

Well, investigators have zeroed in this morning on two possible motives for that targeted power grid attack in North Carolina, and both do center on extremist behavior.

COLLINS: And what could be the first big break in that investigation, where mystery has remained, into the murders of those four University of Idaho students? We have more on that, next.

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[06:25:07] HARLOW: This morning the lights are finally back on -- thank goodness -- in Moore County, North Carolina. This follows that targeted attack from those two power stations that left them in the dark for days.

Multiple law enforcement sources tell CNN that investigators still, though, don't have a motive for this gun attack. They are zeroing in on two possible threads centered around extremist behavior, including online threats encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure.

Also, a series of recent disruptions at LGBTQ events by domestic extremists across the country.

So the FBI has been on the scene all week and released this poster asking the public to come forward with any information. Ahead, we'll take you live to Moore County.

COLLINS: Also, this morning police in Moscow, Idaho, say that they're looking for a car that was spotted near that home where the four University of Idaho students were found stabbed to death. It's a white 2011, 2013, potentially, Hyundai Elantra. The license plate number is unknown, but police say that people in the car might have critical information to what happened that evening.

It's the first major development that we've actually gotten in this investigation after the murders happened last month.

Authorities are now also removing the students' belongings from the home. They said that those items are no longer needed for the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JIM FRY, MOSCOW, IDAHO, POLICE: We're going to be getting that -- those items back to the families. It's time for us to get those things back that really mean something to those families and, hopefully, to help with some of their healing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Authorities say those items will be moved to a secure location until their families can collect them. Meanwhile, the house is still considered a crime scene.

LEMON: When the GOP takes control of the House, the party is already warning about investigations into the Biden administration. Republican Congressman James Comer is going to join us to discuss what to expect. He's next.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS: I remember when I was doing "Hunger Games," nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Jennifer Lawrence facing some criticism for that comment. The response she received on social media, ahead.

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