Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

'Epic' Cold Blasting Northeast; Pentagon: Chinese Spy Balloon Moving Over the U.S. Right Now; Putin Evokes WWII in Vow of Victory as Russia Strikes Intensify; House Votes to Remove Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee; Murdaugh's Finances Under Scrutiny as Alleged Motives in Murders; Orange Juice Prices Soar. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Broke the seal. It has three-and-a-half- inch screen, 2-megapixel camera. Another one just like it closed at auction for $39,000 back in October. Bidding is opening at $2,500. It closes February 19.

[06:00:17]

Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. Have great weekend. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crazy thing about it is, is that this is protective netting. Look, how crazy. Wow. Look at that. Yes. It looks like it's frozen water. Geez. That is pretty crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That's some ice for you on a Friday morning.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. We are so happy you are with us. Don is on assignment in Los Angeles.

And the Northeast, as you can see, is bracing for an arctic blast. Extreme wind chill, set to be the lowest in decades. This morning, the areas impacted by the cold temperatures. We'll take you live to Boston.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a suspected Chinese spy balloon the size of three buses has been seen hovering over U.S. air space. Where it was just spotted and what the Pentagon plans to do now.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): They see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That is Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She has been removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Democrats accusing Republicans of racism. What Kevin McCarthy is saying, ahead.

We do begin this hour with extreme arctic weather, unleashing some of the coldest temperatures the Northeast has seen in decades.

Forecasters are warning this could be a once-in-a-generation deep freeze, with wind chills plunging to 50 degrees below zero in parts of New England. Take a look at some of these wind chills in the forecast.

Here in New York City, minus 7 degrees. In Boston, minus 32. We'll go there live in a moment. That's not a typo.

The wind chills could reach 100 degrees below zero -- minus 100 -- on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, because of hurricane-force winds.

This all comes after a deadly ice storm swept across the South, leaving at least eight people dead.

Athena Jones is live in Boston, where it is, fair to say, insanely cold right now.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Poppy.

It's cold. It's a few degrees below freezing. But I would say it's not insanely cold yet. I'm pretty comfortable. I'm not from the North. But it's going to get much, much worse as you guys have been forecasting.

Really all told, we're talking about 15 million people across a wide portion of the Northeast, basically everything from Northeastern Pennsylvania, New York state, and everything North, under wind chill warnings or alerts of some sort.

Because this wind, this temperature is going to steadily drop over the course of the day into tomorrow. As you mentioned, you can see wind chills as low as 21 degrees here in Boston tonight; 27 on Saturday.

And so that is why officials are taking all sorts of precautions. Boston public schools are closed. So are public schools in surrounding areas, as well.

There are going to be warming centers open for people who may lose power. One National Weather Service source we spoke to said that it's not just the wind chill. There's extremely high winds, dropping the temperature to dangerously low levels, where you can get frostbite in a matter of minutes.

It's also the wind itself. In some places, the gusts could be so strong that they end up knocking out power, to knocking power lines. That can lead to power outages. Very, very dangerous, those temperatures. That's one reason they're going to have warming centers all around Boston to try to get -- t help make sure people stay safe.

HARLOW: OK. Athena Jones, to you and your crew, hang in there. All right.

Kaitlan.

COLLINS: A remarkable story coming out overnight. Right now, the Pentagon tracking a massive balloon currently over Montana. Defense officials say they are confident this is a Chinese surveillance balloon.

The balloon is described to be the size of about three buses, while it's unclear what China is looking for in Montana. And officials have not speculated publicly, we should note.

Montana is home to one of three American Air Force bases that operate and maintain those intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to respond forcefully, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying, quote, "China's brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is destabilizing -- is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent."

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live from the Pentagon. CNN's international correspondent, Marc Stewart, is covering the angles from Hong Kong.

Thank you both for being here.

Oren, what are we hearing from defense officials this morning as they're tracking this?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Pentagon says they've been tracking these for several days now. They won't give any specific current location of where the balloon is, but we know where it has been. It's been spotted over Billings, Montana.

[06:05:10]

And defense officials here say it has passed over numerous sensitive sites. They won't specify what those sites are in the Northern U.S., but as you pointed out, Montana is home to one of the country's ballistic missile silo fields.

So perhaps that's the site that the surveillance balloon was trying to gather information on, gather intel against the United States.

The key question, of course: what do you do with this balloon now? President Joe Biden asked for military options, asked for should it be shot down? The top officials at the Pentagon, including General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs, recommended against doing that for now.

There was a risk to what's on the ground, both facilities and people. But the Pentagon will continue to watch this. NORAD will watch this. And if the risk goes up, they will keep that military option on the table, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And if they've been tracking this for several days, you know, why are we finding out about it now? Why are they making this information public?

LIEBERMANN: So it's worth remembering that the Pentagon has said there have been several of these occasions in the past, though the won't specify where or when.

And because it's a balloon, it doesn't appear to be moving very quickly. It's possible this has been in the air for quite some time now.

But they're publicizing it right before Secretary Antony Blinken's visit to the region. A high-stakes visit, with tensions running very high between Beijing and Washington. So this will only add to that tension, but it makes it public, what the U.S. is going to talk about China with to see if there's any breakthrough with Blinken or if the tensions, the relations there, at this point, just keep moving in the wrong direction.

COLLINS: Yes. Blinken's visit makes him the first top diplomat from the U.S. to be there in six years.

Marc, what are we hearing from the Chinese government this morning? What are they saying? Are they offering any kind of explanation or even, you know, saying that, yes, this is their spy balloon?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we just received a response in the last few hours, and I think it can be categorized as both cautious and diplomatic.

Right away, I want to go to a statement that we received late today from a foreign ministry spokeswoman, in which she says, quote, "China is a responsible country. We act in accordance with international law. We have no intention in violating other countries' airspace. We hope relevant parties would handle the matter in a cool-headed way."

And that phrase, "cool-headed way," comes, as we have discussed, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken marks his first visit in the very near future to China.

Not only will he have to discuss this most current case but also the buildup of U.S. troops in the Philippines, along with other issues such as trade and -- and a lot of the intellectual property issues with semiconductor chips.

But it will be interesting to see if this dominates the discussion or perhaps it doesn't come up at all. As we know in diplomacy, both nations, to an extent, had engaged in some kind of surveillance over the years. It's just a state of business. It's the way things operate. It will be interesting to see how much of a focus this has.

COLLINS: Yes. Hard to see how he doesn't bring it up, at least privately.

Marc Stewart, Oren Liebermann, thank you both so much for staying on top of this bizarre story.

And ahead, we're going to dive more into this discussion with CNN's John Miller and Jim Sciutto. Stay with us.

HARLOW: OK. Defiant Vladimir Putin is promising victory in Ukraine as Russian missiles and rockets rain down on key Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian intelligence says Putin is getting ready to launch what they are deeming to be a, quote, "massive offensive" and that he plans to seize the entire Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine by next month.

Our Sam Kiley is live on the ground in the Southern city of Mykolaiv as Russian strikes there have overnight intensified. Sam, is that right?

SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. There was a very intensive bombardment last night. A number of different residential buildings were hit in Kherson. And at least two people are reported to have been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Now, this is situation normal, really, for Kherson, although the level of bombardment has been increasing. There's no expectation, necessarily, that the Russians are going to launch a ground strike back across the Dnipro River against the city. But they are taking on its civilian population.

And this is what a few hours on the ground looks like this in that beleaguered city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (voice-over): Twelve weeks ago, Ukrainians celebrated the liberation of Kherson for months of Russian occupation.

This is the scene today.

KILEY: The Russians continue to fire with direct fire from tanks across the river, which is just a few hundred meters in that direction. And on top of that, locals are telling us that it's being regularly shelled with gravs, the multiple rocket-launching systems, completely indiscriminate.

KILEY (voice-over): Homes have been blown up, hospitals torn by high explosives in weeks of an ever-intensifying bombardment.

[06:10:10]

Local authorities here talk of scores of artillery attacks from Russian positions just across the Dnipro River. Every day, firefighters and emergency workers keeps their base location secret. They're prime targets for Russia's guns.

Two people were killed around the city overnight.

A missile landed very close to here recently, adding urgency to this food distribution to people who are still here, because they're trapped by poverty.

"Grav rockets flew in during the day, at half past 3, right here. Our guard was standing there. The guard got hit," they said. KILEY: And why do you think the Russians are doing this?

KILEY (voice-over): "Revenge, probably," she said. "Probably revenge, because they ran away."

This underpass is a brief refuge taken by desperate civilians seeking help and food.

"Most of the houses are destroyed," he said. "People are staying without electricity, water and gas, and there's constant shelling. We're on the contact line. We live near the bridge."

Anatoly will take what help he can get from local government.

A Russian strike against city hall five days ago means this plastic sheeting can be put to better use.

KILEY: What are you going to do with that?

KILEY (voice-over): "I'll board up the windows. The window's out; no glass." He'll have to walk home. No one will drive to his neighborhood. It looks out across the river at the Russians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY: Now, facing off the Russians, Poppy, in the East, there's been a very, very valiant business. And there are deep concerns in Ukraine with the big troop build-up on the other side of the front line. Russia might open a front -- another front, for example, in the South.

HARLOW: Sam Kiley, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

COLLINS: Also this morning, House Republicans have voted, using their new power, to remove Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar from the high- profile Foreign Affairs Committee.

The GOP serving up retribution, they say, in response to Democrats and the long-running partisan battle over committee assignments.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins me know. We know this was expected. But you know, it actually did take longer than the Republicans believed it would get there. What was happening on the House floor yesterday?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, Kaitlan, despite threats from three Republicans to oppose the resolution, removing Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, all but one voted in favor of it. David Joyce voted present.

And if you look at the buildup to this, a lot of people were -- were worried about the rules process and the processing for removing a member from the committee. They didn't want this to just be seen as a tit-for-tat.

And they have since secured agreements from McCarthy to have a more bipartisan process moving forward on the Ethics Committee to remove members moving forward. Congressman Ilhan Omar said yesterday that she believes Republicans

are targeting her because she is black, Muslim and an immigrant. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR: There is this idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant or if you are from certain parts of the world or a certain skin tone or a Muslim.

Is anyone surprised that I'm being targeted? Is anyone surprised that I am somehow deemed unworthy to speak about American foreign policy or that they see me as a powerful voice that needs to be silenced?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So Kaitlan, you know, many Democrats vary angered by this decision and a lot of criticism coming from the left. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has said that he thinks that this was less about accountability and more about political revenge.

COLLINS: Yes. And you saw several Democrats who were Jewish standing up for her, standing alongside her. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for that report.

TREENE: Thank you.

HARLOW: So as you just heard, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is off her committee over comments that, in some case, have been criticized by both sides of the aisle as being anti-Semitic.

We should point out that she apologized in 2019 for comments, quickly saying, "Anti-Semitism is real," saying she unequivocally apologized. Yesterday, actually, she just -- before that vote, she signed on to a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

Contrast that with Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, who had their committee assignments reinstated. Both have ties to the far right. Greene has a history of anti-Semitic comments, some of which she's apologized for.

[06:15:04]

Gosar put out an anime-style video showing a character with his own face attacking Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Biden. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says he has not apologized to her. Here's what she told our John Berman last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY) This was about revenge. This was about petty politics.

But also, I think it's also important that -- to state that this was not just about Republicans trying to feed a base that they have already primed for years, under Donald Trump, with racism, misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia, but also it represents a stripping of an important perspective on the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Ilhan Omar, as a refugee, as an immigrant, as the only Hijabi woman in the United States Congress presents.

And that perspective is critical in terms of American foreign policy.

When you look at Swalwell and Schiff, they're targeting -- and the Republican Party's targeting of all three of them have always been about campaigning, and it has always been about the perspective that they bring.

It is about political revenge in the case of all three of them. Political revenge for Adam Schiff for his work on the impeachment of Donald Trump. Political revenge with Eric Swalwell in the incisive -- his incisive ability to communicate against the Trump administration and the wrongdoings of the Republican Party.

And in the case of Ilhan Omar, I believe that -- that hers is absolutely especially amplified with racist targeting, because this is what fed her base.

This is the same representative that Donald Trump held rallies around saying, send her back to her, quote unquote, "her country."

These individuals that Kevin McCarthy has appointed, chosen to appoint to committee, George Santos claimed that his grandparents were in the Holocaust. That was a lie. A disgusting lie.

Marjorie Taylor Greene regularly trafficking in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Paul Gosar inciting -- these are individuals, Marjorie Taylor Green included, inciting violence against specific members in the body.

He has appointed all three of them to House committees, not just one but multiple. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was engaging in 9/11 conspiracy theories, Kevin McCarthy appointed her to the Homeland Security Committee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: So now I can think about this morning where does this go from here? Right? Some of the representatives, including one we'll have on in a few hours, says this is about consistency. But where does this go from here, do you think?

COLLINS: I think a lot of the Republicans were concerned because they are against Gosar and Greene being removed from their committees saying, basically, you can't punish them for what they said. And then they're voting for this measure.

That's why you saw such a struggle.

HARLOW: A lack of consistency.

COLLINS: And look, I -- I was on the Hill yesterday. What I heard from Republicans was basically what won them over was they believe McCarthy essentially strengthened the appeal process for members like Ilhan Omar and others.

HARLOW: Nancy Mace had said that that was a key issue for her.

COLLINS: Yes. I mean, part of that is already available to them. They can already appeal it to the Ethics Committee. But Ken Burke (ph) and others said that they strengthened it further. And that's why they eventually moved her. But it wasn't as easy as I think some Republicans thought it was going to be.

HARLOW: Yes. That's for sure. OK.

COLLINS: All right. Taking you to South Carolina now. Questions about Alex Murdaugh and why would he kill his own wife and son? What would be his motive?

That is what prosecutors are now turning to and putting the spotlight on, on Murdaugh's finances and the allegations that he stole millions of dollars from his law firm.

We heard new testimony about the Snapchat video that his son recorded right before he was murdered.

Randi Kaye has been following the murder trial for us from Walterboro, South Carolina.

Randi, what are we -- I mean, every day, it seems that the developments in court are more stunning than the previous day. What happened yesterday?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the -- this is the Snapchat video that we're talking about, Kaitlan. It's the second video from Paul Murdaugh's phone that was shown in court.

And while it does show this very lighthearted moment between father and son, prosecutors seem to be using it to lay the groundwork that Alex Murdaugh showered and changed clothes after allegedly killing his family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I work for Snap as an employee (ph).

KAYE (voice-over): This employee from Snapchat was called on to testify for the state so she could authenticate this video. The video was extracted from Paul Murdaugh's phone, months after he and his mother, Maggie, were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The user name listed here is Paul9499.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't see Paul on the video. But you hear him laughing at his father, Alex Murdaugh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you determine when you reviewed the records whether -- excuse me -- that account sent out that particular video?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was sent on the same day, June 7, 2021, at 23 -- oh, I'm sorry, 7:56 Eastern Time.

KAYE (voice-over): Seven fifty-six p.m., the night of the murders. That's less than an hour before prosecutors say Paul Murdaugh's phone ceased all activity, which they say was about 8:49 p.m.

[06:20:12]

Remember, Alex Murdaugh told investigators he hadn't seen his family since suppertime, that he discovered their bodies and called 911 at 10:07 p.m.

What's especially significant about this video, besides the time stamp, is what Alex Murdaugh is wearing in it. Notice the long pants and the short-sleeve blue shirt.

Testimony shows when police responded to the 911 call a couple of hours later, Alex was wearing something different: shorts and a white T-shirt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're foreshadowing their effort to prove that somehow he showered off, washed his clothes, made those clothes disappear and changed clothes.

KAYE (voice-over): On cross-examination, the defense seemed to try and show that perhaps someone else might have known where Paul Murdaugh was, based on his Snapchat, and that person killed Paul and his mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it possible for -- I don't know how it works -- for some or all of Paul's friends to have access to his location through the app?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. If he -- if he made his settings visible, his location visible to his friends, yes.

KAYE (voice-over): That plays right into what Alex Murdaugh told investigators after the killings. That Paul had been receiving threats following a boat crash he was involved in.

A young woman died in that crash, and Paul had been charged with driving the boat drunk and causing her death.

On the issue of motive, out of the jury's presence, the judge allowed testimony from this state witness. The chief financial officer of Alex Murdaugh's former law firm told the court she confronted Alex about hundreds of thousands of dollars in missing funds just hours before his wife and son were killed.

The judge hasn't decided if he'll allow testimony about Murdaugh's alleged financial schemes. He's accused of defrauding clients of nearly $9 million before he was disbarred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had the firm received this $790,000?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did this matter ever come to your attention again at a later time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. That would have been in September after we found some other misappropriations and we had confronted Alex and he had resigned.

KAYE (voice-over): Prosecutors say Alex killed his wife and son to distract from his alleged financial fraud and prevent it from being exposed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (on camera): And getting back to that Snapchat video and this idea that Alec Murdaugh cleaned himself off, there was an investigator on the stand yesterday; and on cross-examination she said that she examined the drains at the Murdaugh home for traces of blood or tissue, and she found nothing -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Wow. Randi Kaye, thank you for that update.

All right. Also this morning, if you thought the price of eggs was bad, take a look at orange juice.

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: The cost is skyrocketing. Big questions about what is behind the surge? How expensive could it potentially get?

HARLOW: Plus, how many Republicans will end up running against Donald Trump? Would a crowded GOP primary actually be a good thing for the former president?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:46]

HARLOW: Breakfast is getting more expensive. Maybe you're buying orange juice right now, and it costs you a lot more, right? First it was eggs. Now it's O.J. Fewer oranges means pricier orange juice.

Florida is expecting its smallest crop in almost a century. And that means a jug of orange juice can cost 8 percent more than last year.

Vanessa Yurkevich joins me now. I definitely notice it. Because it used to only be the organic special fancy stuff, and now it's all of it.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It's across the board. It's across all sizes. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture has cut their outlook for production for Florida this year. It will be cut in half compared to the previous growing season. So that is sending prices, too, on average, across all sides about $4.

And we mentioned it. Year over year jump, 8.2 percent. That's huge in a growing season from 2021 to 2022. Usually, we like to see the jump around 1 to 3 percent. Eight percent is quite a bit. So my question is why? There are a couple of weather events that

happened in Florida. So two deep freezes. One in January, one in December. And then there was Hurricane Ian, which was so devastating for the state and for citrus farmers.

There's also a deadly disease called greening. This actually turns the oranges literally green. You can't grow -- you can't sell them now. You can't turn them into orange juice.

And Florida is the biggest producer of oranges for orange juice. So this is really hitting them hard. One agricultural expert said to me citrus farmers, they just really can't catch a break right now.

HARLOW: Yes. No question.

COLLINS: Well, how much of that cost would be a cost to you?

YURKEVICH: This was free. However, prices, people want to know when they're going up. Where they're coming down?

So inflation has cooled overall. But we've seen grocery store prices still remain quite elevated. Juice year other year, is up about 11 percent in the grocery store.

But I -- this is so interesting. Juice actually has a futures market. Orange juice has a futures market. Which is so interesting.

HARLOW: Remember on "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas? And -- right? I remember them talking. Sorry, I'm old.

YURKEVICH: The futures are pointing up about 4 percent. So unfortunately, not seeing a decline yet. And weather plays such a big factor in all of this. So wait and see, unfortunately.

COLLINS: Yes. OK. Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you.

COLLINS: Enjoy it.

YURKEVICH: Hang onto that glass.

HARLOW: A notorious mob boss on the run for 16 years finally arrested after pretending to be a genuine pizza chef. How did he pull it off?

COLLINS: Plus, the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is preparing to visit China in the coming days. CNN has spoken to the families of those wrongly-detained Americans urging him to prioritize securing their release during that trip. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)