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CNN This Morning

Russia Says Ukraine Grain Deal 'Has Been Terminated' as Land Bridge Bombed; Flood Waters Leave 5 Dead in Philly Suburbs; 80 Million Under Heat Alerts as Record-Breaking Heat Wave Intensifies; Candidates Take Aim at Each Other as Race Heats Up; Pressure on DeSantis as Campaign Filing Reveals He's Spending Quickly; Investigator, Gilgo Beach Murder Suspect May Have Killed More People. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, from Washington, D.C. Poppy is off this week. But my buddy Abby Phillip is here.

[06:00:33]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Hi.

MATTINGLY: Let's go ahead and get things started with "Five Things to Know" for this Monday, July 17, 2023.

First off, breaking overnight, Ukraine attacks a crucial bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. Rail traffic is still moving, but road traffic is stopped.

Ukraine intelligence officials said the damage will hurt Russia's ability to move supplies for its war in Ukraine.

PHILLIP: Airlines trying to get back on track today after another brutal weekend. More than 1,700 flights cancelled yesterday. The FAA blaming it on it on severe storms.

The Philadelphia suburbs hit especially hard. Officials say at least five people died in flash floods.

A top investigator in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case is describing the suspect charged with murdering three women as a, quote, "demon." He also tells CNN the investigation remains active and that they continue to gather evidence and have more human remains to analyze.

MATTINGLY: And happening today, Senator Joe Manchin set to speak at a No Labels town hall event in New Hampshire, the visit stoking speculation of a potential third-party run.

PHILLIP: And are you feeling lucky? The Powerball jackpot has grown to $900 million. It is the third largest Powerball prize in history. The drawing is set for tonight.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

MATTINGLY: We're going to figure out what Abby Phillip would do with $900 million.

PHILLIP: I wouldn't be sitting next to you. That's one thing.

MATTINGLY: A little bit harsh for a Monday morning. But I'm here for that energy.

And on this Monday morning, we do have some major developments in the critical war in Ukraine, two major developments specifically overnight.

First Ukraine claiming responsibility for an attack on the vital bridge connecting Russia to the annexed peninsula of Crimea. A source inside Ukraine's security service says it was a joint operation with Ukraine's naval forces.

Russian saying the attack was carried out by two Ukrainian seaborne drones. Ukrainian intelligence says the damage will create difficulties for Russian forces who use the bridge as a, quote, "major logistics hub" for moving resources into the territory.

And that comes as we also learn just a few hours ago that Russia is pulling out of a crucial deal that allows Ukraine to safely export grain to the world.

Let's get straight to CNN's Alex Marquardt, live in Odessa, Ukraine, with more. And Alex, when it comes to the bridge specifically, tell people why this is such a critical hub for Russia.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, this is an extraordinary attack, both because of how important this bridge is, but of course, but also how symbolic it is. It really does symbolize the Russian annexation of Crimea, which Ukrainians very much consider to still be part of their country. It connects Southern Russia with the Crimean Peninsula. It's used for both civilian and military purposes.

It is absolutely vital to carry people and products from Russia into -- into Russian-occupied Crimea. It has both a roadway, as well as train tracks that run both ways.

Food supplies, fuel, military supplies going both ways. And what we understand is that Ukraine has claimed responsibility. That in and of itself is quite extraordinary.

When we see these brazen attacks, both in Russian-occupied Ukraine and in Russia itself, Ukraine almost never claims responsibility. Usually, they're quite coy.

This morning, they are saying very clearly that we were responsible for this attack. It was carried out, as you said, by the Ukrainian security services, called the SBU, in a joint operation with the navy.

Russia, of course, calling this is a terrorist attack, saying it took place around 3 a.m. in the morning, so around 10 hours ago, by those sea drones. And so this will have significant ramifications. Just to talk to the symbolism a little bit more, this was opened back

in 2018. It cost billions of dollars. And at the opening, Putin himself drove a truck across it.

And last time this bridge was attacked, some nine months ago, which Ukraine, by the way, did not claim, we saw the biggest number of Russian strikes against Ukraine since the war began last February -- guys.

PHILLIP: And Alex, this is coming at a critical time. So we just spoke about that grain deal that was set to expire. Why is Russia now saying that they are ending it?

MARQUARDT: Well, Abby, they have simply said for quite some time now that it is unfair. Most of that grain leaving from here in Odessa, this is a critical port city.

Yesterday, we learned that the last ship was part of this Black Sea grain initiative had already left. And we were ticking down the hours until this grain deal was going to expire at midnight tonight, local time.

[06:05:12]

Russia has preempted that, saying that they are terminating the deal. This deal was brokered last year by the United Nations and Turkey, of course, between Russia and Ukraine, so that Ukraine could continue to ship grain to the world through the Black Sea, getting safe passage through the Black Sea.

Now, Russia says it will no longer guarantee that. They say that they are being unfairly punished, that this deal is one-sided. They're not able to export their own food and fertilizer.

So this could have a huge impact on a number of different levels: food prices, grain prices, and of course, the Ukrainian economy. But the effects will be felt well beyond Ukraine -- Phil, Abby.

MATTINGLY: All right. Alex Marquardt. Two major developments this morning, live for us in Ukraine. Thank you.

PHILLIP: And here in the U.S., it was a brutal weekend of extreme weather across the nation, from record-breaking heat to deadly floods. And the threat isn't over yet.

At least five people are dead and two children are still missing in the suburbs of Philadelphia after torrential rain and flash flooding struck the Northeast again.

This was the scene in Connecticut. The governor there says that the amount of rain was biblical. More than 3 million Americans now are still under flood watches this morning.

And around 80 million people are under heat alerts today as unrelenting heat intensifies across the South and the Southwest. Down in Miami, the heat index has topped 100 degrees for 35 straight

days. And over in Phoenix, it's been hotter than 110 degrees for more than two straight weeks.

Derek van Dam is standing by in the Weather Center, and Danny Freeman is over in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Danny, I want to start with you. A toddler and a baby are still missing there after floodwaters may have swept them away.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Abby. A toddler and a baby, it's just been an incredibly challenging weekend here for this Bucks County community.

We're right now in Upper Mayfield Township. We're not far from Route 532. That's where a lot of this most damaging flooding happened.

I mean, initially over the weekend, there were reports of seven people missing. As you said, five people were ultimately recovered and pronounced dead.

And perhaps no one was more impacted than this family of six. And I want to tell you a little bit about what we know about this family.

A family of six, including a mother, a father, a grandmother and three children. They were all here visiting from Charleston, South Carolina. Then that floodwater hit on Saturday evening.

I just want to say, a father and 4-year-old son, they were able to escape. The grandmother also was swept away but was able to be rescued.

But the mother, we learned yesterday, she was pronounced dead after being discovered by first responders. And then as you say, a 9-month- old boy and his 2-year-old sister both still missing at this time. That's what first responders -- that's who first responders, I should say, are going to be searching for all throughout the day.

Take a listen also to what Governor Josh Shapiro said when he appeared at a press conference yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): This is a moment that calls on all of us to come together, to lift up Upper Mayfield and the Bucks County community, and that is exactly what we are doing.

On behalf of more than 13 million Pennsylvanians, I want Bucks County to know that we are here with you. We are praying with you, and we will continue to do everything in our power to lift you up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, Abby, just to emphasize how big this operation was, eight people were also rescued from their cars that were swept into the creek here over the weekend. Two were rescued from the creek. First responders expected to be out

here again today. But you can see the fog has been challenging. The weather has been challenging also through Sunday.

So this job to find these two children still hard and difficult as we move forward -- Abby.

PHILLIP: Very much. Danny Freeman, thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Let us go over to Derek now. The heat wave there has been breaking records left and right. In Death Valley alone, the temperature hit 128 yesterday. It was 116 in Las Vegas.

Is there any relief in sight at this point, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately not. It's going to get worse before it gets better, Phil.

And listen, it's all about this deeply-entrenched area of high pressure. We call it a heat dome. Because it literally traps the solar radiation that comes from the sun, and of course, it doesn't take much to just radiate that back, and we get temperatures like this.

But I want to identify Las Vegas and Phoenix. Granted, it's 3:09 in the morning for these two locations. But that is a real temperature right now as we speak, so there is no relief when your body anticipates it.

So that is the concern here. We're jumping up and down talking about records, how they're being shattered continuously. But the problem is that it is so impressive, with these overnight lows that just don't drop below 90 degrees.

High temperatures above 110 for consecutive days. And that is when it becomes oppressive and downright dangerous. We have the potential to break over 145 record highs and minimum lows overnight.

[06:10:06]

And nothing screams summertime more than this map here. We've got wildfire smoke across the Midwest and the East Coast, and over 80 million Americans under this heat advisories.

Now, I talked about the dry heat over the Southwestern U.S., but it's a completely different type of heat in Miami, where I was actually just located on site, talking about this very story last week. A very muggy air mass, because water temperatures there are at record- breaking territory.

More of the same across the Gulf Coast. This is what it feels like as you step outside. Corpus Christi, 106 degrees today -- Abby, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Derek Van from the Weather Center, thank you.

PHILLIP: And the alarm bells, they are ringing for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. New campaign finance reports show that his campaign is burning through the cash. We'll break down his campaign shifts, next.

MATTINGLY: And Democratic lawmakers denounce comments made by fellow Congresswoman Jamila Jayapal after she called Israel a, quote, "racist state." She's now walking it back. It's coming next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: Happening today, three GOP presidential hopefuls are set to deliver rival speeches at an event in Virginia. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence are all set to speak to voters there.

Republican candidates crisscrossed the country this weekend, taking shots at each other as the 2024 race is starting to heat up.

CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes is here with us. Kristen, it was a very busy weekend, a lot changing on the campaign trail.

[06:15:07]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, it certainly feels like we are in campaign season now. And not only do we see these candidates crisscrossing the country as you said trying to court voters, we also got our first full financial look at the presidential race.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): The 2024 Republican primary is in full swing. As presidential hopefuls hit the campaign trail --

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As commander in chief on day one, we rip out the political agenda out of the military.

HOLMES (voice-over): -- and the airwaves this weekend.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Leading people by 15, 16 points, and you say, why would you be doing a debate?

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He should show up at the debates and defend his record.

HOLMES (voice-over): Some candidates speaking to young conservatives at the Turning Point Action Conference in Florida.

VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not running against anybody in this race. I am running for our country.

ASA HUTCHINSON (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And yes, I'm running for president of the United States.

HOLMES (voice-over): Including former President Donald Trump. The GOP front-runner, who took aim at top rival Ron DeSantis, who skipped the home-state event.

TRUMP: I don't know why he's not here these couple of days. He should be here. He should be here representing himself.

HOLMES (voice-over): The Florida governor spent the weekend campaigning in Iowa and Tennessee, where he jabbed at President Joe Biden.

DESANTIS: My wife and I were in Iowa earlier today, and so this is the second state on our agenda. Biden, I think, has been in two states, too, today: confusion and disorientation.

HOLMES (voice-over): The money race also coming into focus as candidates filed their latest campaign finance reports. DeSantis' report showing his campaign burning through cash at a rapid rate, raising $20 million but already spending nearly 8 million, including $1 million each on travel and payroll. And another $800,000 on digital fund-raising consulting.

DeSantis contrasting his haul with Trump's.

DESANTIS: And we raised more money than Donald Trump did into his campaign, who of course, was the former president.

HOLMES (voice-over): The former president's report showing his campaign raised $17.7 million in the second quarter, leaving it with $22.5 million cash on hand at the end of June.

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott just behind him with $21.1 million after raising nearly $6 million over the last three months.

After announcing his White House bid last month, former Vice President Mike Pence getting off to a slow start, bringing in less than $1.2 million, placing him near the back of the pack.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): And I will tell you guys, I spent the evening with Trump advisers on Saturday after those numbers came out, and they were absolutely giddy at those DeSantis numbers. They had been very concerned as to what exactly that was going to look like.

MATTINGLY: Kristen, stay with us. I want to bring in CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief at the "The Boston Globe," Jackie Kucinich. Alex Thompson, national political reporter at Axios.

I want to start, Jackie, with the DeSantis campaign and kind of where it sits right now. Twenty million dollars is a lot to raise. But the burn rate, the small donor numbers, and the fact that, according to reporting, he's shedding some staff right now, what does that tell you about the current state of his campaign?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It seems like they're trying to reboot right now. I mean, those small donors are important for lots of reasons. Not only can you keep going back to them and they can keep giving you money as the campaign progressed, but it shows enthusiasm for your candidacy.

And DeSantis was supposed to -- How he sold himself initially as this behemoth, is someone who has Trump but someone who's not as dramatic. And right now, he had -- he has a kind of failure to launch because in part of the buildup, because of the standards he set for himself coming into this race.

PHILLIP: And Kristen, you mentioned the Trump campaign being extremely giddy right now. One of the reasons probably is because of the small donors numbers, right?

HOLMES: That and the burn rate.

PHILLIP: And the burn rate. And the DeSantis campaign really struggling to get those small donors. Meanwhile, the big donors are also starting to say, Hey, wait a minute. We need to take a look at other people like Tim Scott.

HOLMES: Exactly. And the other thing here is Donald Trump never thought he was going to get the big donors, never. Maybe he had hoped for, you know, his big donors. But this is -- he did not think he was going to be raking all of these giant donors in. He saw the writing on the wall pretty early, particularly after his last presidency.

But they were very happy to see that DeSantis, many of those donors had tapped out. They aren't sure. You know, other donors, we heard them say on the record that they're not sure who they're going to support now, as you said.

Some people going to Tim Scott. There's a lot of money there. That is a huge amount of money in his arsenal, a lot of it moved over from his Senate campaign.

But again with the DeSantis -- you talk about the Trump team being giddy. The other part here is you talk about -- Jackie was just mentioning this big excitement around Ron DeSantis.

Well, also there was so much concern among Republicans that he didn't have a national staff, that it wasn't big enough, that he couldn't run a campaign.

Now all of a second, you're looking at these records. They have 90 people on a campaign that is -- essentially has gone down in the polls since he has announced. I mean, it makes sense for them to be shedding people. That is an enormous number of staff for a campaign this early.

[06:20:16]

MATTINGLY: I'm a little biased here, given the fact I covered the White House, and that's why I'm asking you, because you cover the White House very closely, too, and have since President Biden came into office.

That was the FEC filing I was most interested in digging into. Because there's so little we know about kind of the early nascent stages of the Biden re-election campaign.

Seventy-two million dollars raised, joint fund-raising agreement with the DNC. Everybody's trying to find, like, the apples-to-apples comparison, whether it's Obama in '12 or Trump in '20.

When you took a look kind of under the hood, what stood out to you?

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: One number in particular, $10 million, which is the amount of money, about $72 million, only $10 million came from small donors. Those are donations less than $200.

Now, by comparison, Obama, I guess it was 12 years ago, raised over double that in this exact same period.

Now, this has been a lingering worry for the Biden camp. For a while, even back in his last primary, is that small-dollar donors, Democrats, grassroots are not excited about his candidacy. They are over-reliant on big-dollar donors in this FEC report.

Now, they're relying on sort of a bank shot, which is that all those people are going to come home once Donald Trump is the nominee, or Ron DeSantis is the nominee.

I mean, it was the case last time around, but who knows? I mean, the -- that is -- you're depending on something in future in order to rally those people. Are those people a little bit in it for the next fight? We just don't know.

PHILLIP: It's -- we should also note that the Biden campaign spent exactly zero money. Like, they spent no money in the last quarter and have four staff on payroll.

But I want to move to something else that happened over the weekend. I want to play this. This is from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, talking about the state of Israel. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state; that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy; that the dream -- that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us; that it is not -- that it does not even feel possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Now, she's at Netroots Nation there, I know Jackie, you know that progressive gathering. She was cheered in that setting.

But her colleagues in the House are denouncing her, and she has actually walked it back. But this is part of a broader set of problems for Democrats, dealing with some members who have been pilloried as anti-Israel.

KUCINICH: And you see this pop up every so often. It is a real fissure in the Democratic Party. And they haven't really figured out a way. Every time this happens, this sort of dance, that they go out, as to have to clean up what whatever member says at that time. And they haven't been able to fix this. And we'll going to kind of see it then try to fade into the background. However, this is something that, long-term, they're going to have to deal with at some point.

MATTINGLY: Well, it's in the background. But the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, is expected to speak.

KUCINICH: Yes. Suboptimal timing.

MATTINGLY: Some members have said that they're not going attend, which is a position obviously they're more than welcome to take. But it's kind of a ceremonial position inside of Israel, and I think he's not necessarily at all representative politically of where the Netanyahu government is.

I guess my question, Alex, is to Jackie's point, this continues to pop up every couple of months, and it's an internal battle that Democrats have had.

Does this become a more prevalent issue going forward into a major campaign season?

THOMPSON: Absolutely. I mean, you -- Israel used to be a bipartisan issue where, you know, large support basically on both sides.

What you've seen is this growing part of the Democratic Party of not being, you know, anti-Israel, at leaving having a much more nuanced position.

I mean, Joe -- Joe Biden, who's been a longtime supporter of Israel throughout his career, you're seeing some of this nuance. There's a reason he has never invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to the United States, and it's the president instead.

He's trying to do this dance, too, because he realizes that there's some disagreements within his own party, and you know, in the country, writ large.

MATTINGLY: All right, guys. Kristen, Alex, Jackie, thanks. Appreciate it.

Also this morning, a CNN exclusive. Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis joins Jake Tapper one-on-one on the campaign trail. That's going to be tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern.

PHILLIP: And a suspected serial killer captured in New York, more than a decade after human remains were found on Long Island's Gilgo Beach. How police used a leftover pizza crust to zero in on that suspect.

MATTINGLY: And later --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lionel Andres Messi!

(END VIDEO CLIP) [06:26:00]

MATTINGLY: It was a -- we can go ahead and say "Messi," right? -- see what I did there? -- in Miami. That's going to be ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Welcome back. A top investigator in the Gilgo Beach serial killings says the suspect may have murdered more people.

Suffolk County, New York deputy police commissioner called Rex Heuerman a, quote, "demon" and told CNN, quote, "Anything is possible in this investigation."

Now, police arrested Heuermann on Thursday and charged him with murdering three women over a decade ago. They said he's also the prime suspect in a fourth murder.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Massapequa Park and on Long Island this morning. And Brynn, what do we know right now about what seems to be a very much ongoing investigation?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Phil. You can see behind me the law enforcement presence still at the house of Rex Heuermann. All weekend long, they were taking out evidence from that house. That's very much part of the investigation, of course.

Also, they've been fielding calls through a tip line. Authorities, that big thing, Phil, is going to be that DNA. Authorities are trying to see now, is he linked to other cases, other bodies that were discovered along this same area?

[06:30:00]