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Russia: Ukraine Targeted Moscow With More Drones Today; Russia Launches New Attacks As Ukraine Steps Up Counteroffensive; American Nurse, Child Kidnapped In Haiti; 70 Million Plus Under Heat Alerts Across The U.S. Today; Trump Calls On House GOP To Go After The Bidens; NY Times: Chinese Malware May Disrupt U.S. Military Ops; Frisco, Texas Police Drawing Guns on Family During 'High Risk' Traffic Stop; Biden Executive Order Overhaul How Military Prosecutes Sexual Assault; Interview with Former Judge Advocate General and Former Commissioner Independent Review Commission on Military Sexual Assault Meghan Tokash; Bonny Fire Burns 2,000 Plus Acres; Women Increasingly at Risk of Alcohol-Related Deaths; Angry Sea Lion Sends CA Beach Crowd Scattering. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired July 30, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:01:08]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Sunday, July 30th. I'm Erica Hill in for Victor Blackwell.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be with you, Erica. I'm Amara Walker, and thank you so much for being with us this morning.

Here's what we're watching for you. We're following a developing story out of Haiti where an American woman and her child have been kidnapped. What we know about the case and the efforts to rescue them.

HILL: Severe storms ripped through parts of the Northeast on Saturday. As you can see here uprooting trees, knocking out power grounding flights. We have a closer look at the damage left behind and what you can expect today.

WALKER: Terrifying moments for one family as they are pulled over at gunpoint by police in Texas. And it turns out it was all a mistake. A mix up of one letter on a license plate.

President Biden signs a historic order removing prosecution of military sexual assaults from the chain of command. So what does this change actually mean and why advocates say it is a move in the right direction.

Russia says Ukraine targeted Moscow with more drone attacks today. The Russian Defense Ministry says three drones were intercepted. A business and shopping center, though, were hit. It's just the latest in a series of attacks. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (BOMBING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Let's bring in CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live from Zaporizhzhia. I mean, you can hear the screams from that woman there taking that video. I mean, it's remarkable, isn't it? This drone strike with the war coming to ordinary Russians.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, a war that many in Moscow's elite thought or were told would last a matter of days now in its second year and now impacting civilian life in Moscow. Ukrainians watching those images will, of course, know that that is what they endure every single night across the country.

But this is extraordinary series of drones trikes not overtly claimed by Ukrainian forces. They've simply said obliquely, their air force that the tranquil backwaters of Moscow are no longer so. But this appears to have been, according to Russian officials, three drones, two taken down by electronic jamming.

Some of the damage there, another shot down. And the Russian claim is that no lives were lost, no injuries, no fires even started as a result. But Moscow City, an upscale, almost financial district, where some of the elite would live in glass towers. A symbol, I think, perhaps, of how so much of Russia's population hasn't been impacted by the war much, although so many, too, have lost their loved ones in the fighting here.

But at the same time as these strikes were ongoing, Ukrainians again being hit by Russia's often indiscriminate bombardment, more acutely in Sumy, in the north of Ukraine, near the Russian border. Two dead, 20 injured when multiple strikes hit a high rise dormitories and an educational establishment.

Also two here in Zaporizhzhia city. Two dead, two injured, in rare strikes that appeared to hit civilian targets as well. This comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the front lines in the east near Bakhmut on what Ukraine calls its Special Forces Day, again showing solidarity with troops on the front line.

And his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, met African leaders in a summit in Russia, where there is sort of an African bid to launch some kind of peace initiative. Frankly, a bit far-fetched. But Putin gave some rare comments, I think, on the possibility of negotiation, saying that a ceasefire, one of the things mooted in this peace summit, is something hard to implement when Ukraine's on the counteroffensive, as we're seeing here, too.

Bear in mind that ceasefire at this point would probably concretize a lot of the territorial gains Russia has made and that it looks possible it may lose if Ukraine goes increasingly on the counteroffensive.

[07:05:11] Ukraine is pushing forwards in the south near where I'm standing here, and has launched strikes just in the last 24 hours on a key railway bridge that brings supplies up from Crimea to where I am. That's often a harbinger of potential future moves on the battlefield. They seek to cut supplies off ahead of that.

So a lot moving here, certainly, but overnight tolls on the Ukrainian civilian population and a rare moment of disquiet for Russian civilians in Moscow's elite too.

HILL: Nick Paton Walsh, appreciate this reporting and the insight as always. Thank you.

WALKER: Now to a developing story out of Haiti where an American nurse and her child have been kidnapped.

HILL: That's according to the Christian aid agency she was working for. Alix Dorsainvil is the wife of the charity's country director. The group says she and their child were kidnapped near port of prince on Thursday. The state department has urged Americans to leave Haiti because of the growing violence and unrest there.

CNN Correspondent Paula Newton has more.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the charity El Roi did, in fact, confirm the abduction, and the details are quite disturbing. Remember, this is a nurse from New Hampshire. She was in Haiti working for the charity El Roi. She was abducted along with her child. And this was actually on what they call as the campus of this charity close to Port-au-Prince.

Now, they announced this abduction on their website for El Roi. And in a statement, they say that, "Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti and her home, the Haitian people her friends and family. Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus".

Now, U.S. officials say that they are aware of this abduction. In a statement to CNN, also said that the U.S. State Department and our embassies and consulates abroad have no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.

It is interesting here that the U.S. had already asked for all Americans to leave Haiti. They made that call again on Thursday on the day that this nurse and her child were abducted. But also they made it seem as if it was much more urgent for Americans to leave. And that is because they also evacuated nonemergency personnel that worked for the U.S. government there from Haiti.

Now, this is unfortunately, a state of terror that so many Haitians live in day after day. Many people are released, sometimes for no reason, sometimes for ransom. But clearly this is a dangerous situation for this family. The charity at this hour saying that they are asking for everybody's prayers and they are also asking for privacy. Erica, Amara? WALKER: All right. Terrible situation. Paula Newton, thank you for staying on top of it.

Extreme heat fueled violent thunderstorms in the Northeast Saturday. Strong winds ripped through the D.C. Metro area last night, toppling trees and knocking down power lines, as you see there. Fire and rescue crews received triple the number of calls they normally get. At least two people were injured when a tree landed on a car, and that's according to the emergency officials on the scene.

HILL: That rain did help to cool down the Northeast a bit after several days of prolonged heat. So today, much of the region will see a dip in temperatures, thanks to a cold front. CNN's Athena Jones has worn out how people in New York City are trying to beat that heat radiating off the pavement and, of course, the humidity.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there. We're here in New York's Washington Square Park. This is the heart of New York University's campus, and we are dealing right now with a real temperature of 91 degrees, but it feels like temperature approaching 98 degrees.

Take a look around this park, though. You would not know from the number of people out and about here that we're approaching a heat index of 100 degrees. But this is one of the areas New Yorkers come to cool off. We talked this week about the urban heat island effect, and that is cities and parts of cities with a lot of concrete, a lot of asphalt, not a lot of water sources, trees or grass.

Those areas can reach a temperature or feels like temperature 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the area. This is not one of those areas. A lot of people we've seen throughout the course of the day have been getting in and out of that fountain, looking to cool off and doing any number of other things to make sure they can beat the heat.

Take a listen to what some of the folks we've talked to told us.

JOSH, VISITING FROM ATLANTA: Like a lizard. On day like that, you got to stay in the shade. You got to move slowly, you know, keep the heart rate low. Otherwise you're just going to be sweating bullets. You know, it's too much. It's too much.

JONES: And what else are you doing? Are you going in and out, like looking for air conditioning?

JOSH: Air conditioning, you know, getting the cup of ice on the neck, the forehead, you know, the whole 9 yards. You got to play safe, you know?

JONES: Does this concern you at all?

JOSH: 80 days of smog, you know, and the next 20 years, like, this is -- we're past a point of return, right, like we have been. So, you know, it's just kind of one of those things where it's a new normal and c'est la vie, you know?

[07:10:10]

JONES: Of course, given this dangerous heat, city and state officials are warning people to take precautions, to stay hydrated, to stay out of the sun, and to stay as cool as possible. So stay in air conditioned rooms if you can. But when it comes to air conditioning, Con Edison, the power company is also concerned about this high -- this heat taxing the power infrastructure.

They're urging residents not to use all of your air conditioners if you have more than one, to run one at a time and to run it at the highest comfortable temperature you can to avoid the dreaded power outages.

One more thing we're hearing from the electricity company, thunderstorms could be headed this way in the next couple of hours that should help relieve the heat. But as of right now, that heat advisory is in effect here in New York and the surrounding areas until 08:00 p.m.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

HILL: CNN Meteorologist Britley Ritz is with us now. So, Britley, temperatures starting to cool down in the Northeast. It's a little more comfortable, I have to say, when I left my house earlier this morning.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HILL: But relief here, not everywhere. Things heating up again in the south. What are we talking about in terms of temperatures?

RITZ: Yes, I mean, our temperatures hammer are like about 10 -- 5 to 10 degrees above normal. That heat dome has migrated over toward us here in the Southeast, and it's just that warm ocean air that gets trapped under this ridge of high pressure. So places like New Orleans stopping out at 100 degrees on Monday, Birmingham at 96. Monroe, Louisiana, 100 degrees both Monday and Tuesday.

And when we factor in the dew point, that measurement of moisture near the surface, when it's 70 plus, with a temperature of 95, it feels like 103 degrees. In Montgomery, Alabama, and Jacksonville, Florida, at 108 degrees. There you saw the Northeast and much of the Great Lakes back down closer to where they should be in the dew points down as well.

But when we get all of that heat settling in, we wind up with heat advisories. Houston, Dallas, Oklahoma City, back into New Orleans and Jacksonville, down to Miami and the Florida Keys, all under that advisory. Areas in Fuchsia, that's an excessive heat warning for places like Tallahassee. And these areas are going to be dealing with this today and tomorrow.

But eventually we'll get to see a bit of a cooldown like Phoenix, 111 degrees today. So we'll add to that another day where we've had consecutive days above 110. But here we are at 107 on Monday. Finally, that cooldown, that monsoonal rain setting in. But by the time we get into next week, we're cranking it back up to 115 degrees.

I mean, look at Palm Springs at 110. Phoenix 111 today. The Northeast, there's that cold front. Much relief here where temperatures are back down into the 70s in places like Boston and back into Chicago. Amara?

WALKER: I'm already over the summer. I just can't wait for the autumn temperatures.

RITZ: Me too.

WALKER: But hey, at least for you, you know, you have the nicer temperatures in New York, right, Erica?

HILL: Yes. Come on up to New York.

WALKER: You know what? I'm going to do that.

RITZ: We're all visiting New York.

HILL: I have a nice air conditioned house waiting for you.

WALKER: Now, take your fun on that. Just wait.

Thanks so much, Britley.

So former President Donald Trump says it is likely he will be indicted two more times. But the imminent threat of more criminal charges doesn't seem to bother the Republican frontrunner.

HILL: Appearing in Erie, Pennsylvania on Saturday, the former president was defiant about the legal peril hanging over him, claiming it was because he is a threat to President Biden's reelection. CNN's Alayna Treene has more.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Erica and Amara. Like with all of Donald Trump's rallies, there was a big crowd and a lot of energy here in Erie, Pennsylvania. But one thing that I did find interesting was that the venue was not entirely full. That's not typical for Donald Trump's rallies.

There were many people there last night, of course, but there are also many empty seats. But Donald Trump took the stage at around 06:00 p.m., and he gave a pretty typical 2024 stump speech. He went through his 2024 agenda items. He also went through his highlight reel of his time in office, and he also spent a lot of time criticizing President Joe Biden.

And one thing that I want to point to is he called on Republicans and made an appeal to them to do more to investigate Democrats and the Biden family specifically. He also argued that they need to do more with the information that they've already gathered through the committee's investigations and said any Republican who doesn't go forward with that should be primaried.

But he also spent a good chunk of his rally speech talking about his own legal troubles. He railed against Special Counsel Jack Smith, he criticized the Department of Justice, and he argued that the charges that he is facing amount to election interference. And that is a well- worn playbook that we've seen him use time and time again.

And he was very defiant during his speech. But I also know from talking with his allies and many of his that privately he is very frustrated by the mounting indictments that he faced.

[07:15:05]

But the rhetoric that he used on stage on Saturday is working really well with his supporters. My colleague Kate Sullivan and I spoke to some of the rally attendees as they were filing into the venue on Saturday, and they kind of used the same rhetoric that Donald Trump did, which is that they think he's a target of political and that more attention should be paid to President Biden and his family.

And so, I think you're going to continue to see Donald Trump moving forward with his very aggressive campaign schedule and using the same rhetoric that he used on Saturday night.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Erie, Pennsylvania.

HILL: Thanks, Alayna, for that report.

Well, former President Trump's former number two having a harder time winning over those Republican voters.

WALKER: Several candidates appear to have met the polling and fundraising criteria to make the first Republican primary debate, but not former Vice President Pence. CNN's Kyung Lah reports on his efforts to court voters.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica and Amara. Former Vice President Mike Pence continues to campaign through the state of Iowa, going county to county on an effort to win voters over one at a time. It is slow and steady, says Pence. And he says in that slow and steady pace, he still is a little short of qualifying for the August debate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we're maybe a couple of weeks away yet based on the pace of things coming in because our focus is on the campaign, to be honest with you. You know, the criteria of 40,000 donors being added to the requirement of being at a certain place in the polls is somewhat new. We accept that criteria. Confident that we'll get there.

LAH: Pence campaign in Nevada, Iowa, talking to first responders about public safety at the community level, he did not directly go after Donald Trump, his former running mate. When asked about the attack delivered by Will Hurd on an Iowa stage, the former vice president said he always believed that Trump was going to run for reelection.

He had intended to right from the start. So he didn't buy that line of attack, saying that Trump was running to stay out of prison. And herein lies the difficulty of being a candidate like Mike Pence. When you speak to caucus goers here in Iowa, they will widely tell you that they dismiss any new federal charges.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People see through this as a political trial. It's just political by nature, so people see through that. And that they're supporting him in the polling is just reinforcing the fact that they see this as a politically driven trial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think Trump is undermining. I think the acts that he's being accused of will play out in court. I think they're doing a level fishing expedition, looking at all sorts of avenues of his life, and they're digging for things that are going to stick and things that they're going to come up with.

I think the Republicans are starting to catch up. And looking at the Biden family corruption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: The former vice president plans on spending his Sunday in Iowa, campaigning more for those one-on-one voters. Erica, Amara?

WALKER: Kyung Lah, thank you very much.

Joining me now is David Sanger, a CNN Political and National Security Analyst and White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times. David, good morning. Good to see you.

Let's start just big picture politics at the race on the Republican side, because as you saw on Friday, none of the Republican presidential hopefuls other than Trump made a big splash at the all- important GOP Lincoln dinner in Iowa. So I would imagine that the candidates, if they do qualify, they're going to be putting their hopes in the first primary debate on August 23 to boost their fortunes.

Should these candidates who do make it to the stage, do you think they're hoping for or against Donald Trump showing up? Because right now we don't know if he would.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's a really hard question because, on the one hand, if Trump doesn't show up, you've got to think that the debate will probably either be lackluster or not that many people will watch. It's sort of the repeat of what you saw in 2016 when, you know, Trump dominated those. On the other hand, if he does show up, he'll take all the oxygen out of the room.

I think a second really interesting question comes up out of Mr. Trump's own statements yesterday at the rally. At one point, as you reported earlier, he called for withholding all aid for Ukraine until the Republicans have gotten all the answers they want on Hunter Biden and Burisma, the Ukrainian company he was a member of.

[07:20:03]

You remember, this is the first time we've heard this suggestion from President Trump since he was impeached. The first impeachment on basically the same issue, withholding aid to Ukraine, because he wanted their cooperation and help in pursuing Biden.

And I thought it was pretty remarkable that he came back for that theme. I mean, you may agree with him or disagree with him, but aid the Ukraine is based on our national interests, whether you think it's a good idea or a bad idea to oppose Russia here. So it was fascinating that he was mixing this with his effort to tar President Biden --

WALKER: Yes.

SANGER: -- with whatever charges are around Hunter Biden.

WALKER: Yes, the irony is rich here, isn't it? I want to turn to your reporting, which really is stunning and deeply concerning. You're reporting that the Biden administration believes Chinese hackers likely working for the government, have hidden malware in our networks. What kind of potential disruptions are we talking about specifically when we're talking about the military, right?

SANGER: So the networks that we reported on concern actually the infrastructure, power, communications, water supplies that are in communities, many of them around military bases. And it's one of the fascinating elements of this, that most military bases in the United States, except the nuclear complexes, get their power and communications and water by and large from the surrounding communities.

So what we reported is that the administration has been holding a lot of classified meetings in recent times about the discovery of malware in this critical infrastructure, much of which supports military bases. And the question is, are the Chinese doing this to slow our response, if there is, for example, a Taiwan incident where time is of the essence and the Chinese would want to be able to take the island before the U.S. could come to their aid.

And you'll remember that President Biden has now said four times that the U.S. would actually send troops in to defend Taiwan, most likely something that he has not been willing to do in Ukraine.

WALKER: And before we go, can you just talk a little bit about what the U.S. government is doing about it? What do we know?

SANGER: Well, what we know they're trying to do right now is eradicate this kind of malware when they can find it. But in the past two years, the Chinese have gotten far more stealthy in how they've been able to plant malware around the world, not just in this case, but in many cases. You saw that in the way that they were able -- without much detection, to get into the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the U.S. Ambassador to China, Nic Burns and others.

And these new techniques are very hard to detect. So the debate in the administration has been, do you wipe it all out when you find it, but then you're alerting the Chinese that you have found it and they may have time to re-infect these systems with better hidden methods. Or do you just sit and watch this code and try to move against it only in a time of crisis? So they wouldn't have time to come back in.

And so, for now, what we understand is they are going in to try to remove it.

WALKER: OK. And coincidence or know, you know, we did learn on Friday from the Biden administration that the government will be transferring weapons directly to Taiwan for the first time under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which basically accelerates the delivery of the weapons as opposed to sales to Taiwan, which has been happening for a while.

We'll leave it there, David Sanger, thank you very much.

All right, let's turn now to Georgia, where a decision whether to indict former President Donald Trump and his allies is imminent. A state level investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results has been ongoing since early 2021, and some of the biggest players in the Trump orbit are involved.

In a new episode of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper" airing tonight, CNN's Sara Murray takes us inside the events that led to the sprawling investigation in Fulton County.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm looking around at who else is seeing this. Like, hey, does anybody know what's going on in that room?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Room 216 at the Georgia State Capitol, just one floor below where the Democratic electors were meeting to certify the Georgia vote for President-elect Biden.

MURRAY (on-camera): So you follow him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I followed him.

MURRAY (on-camera): Do you go into the room?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went into the room and I walked in the door. Hey, what's going on here? What are you doing? Like what's is -- we're having a meetings and there was a woman's voice and I'm looking around and I've got the thing going. And then she says, who's got a camera going?

[07:25:07]

And then another fellow comes and just sort of hustles me out. I said, but what is this meeting? And she says, it's an education meeting.

MURRAY (on-camera): So they told you it was an education meeting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, then they all frog marks me out of the room.

MURRAY (voice-over): Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then they posted somebody out front to make sure nobody else went in.

MURRAY (voice-over): So were you convinced it was an education nation meeting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was convinced it was exactly what I thought it was.

MURRAY (voice-over): And what he thought turned out to be right. A group of Republican shadow electors gathered to sign an illegitimate certification for President Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Catch an all new episode tonight at 08:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

HILL: Still to come here, a stunning mistake by police in Texas, and law enforcement are apologizing after drawing guns in a traffic stop on an innocent family. We're going to walk you through this disturbing encounter.

Plus, President Biden issuing an executive order that overhauls the way the military prosecutes cases of sexual assault and other serious crimes. What could this change? That's ahead

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[07:30:16]

HILL: We've made a mistake, that's what police in Texas are saying after they pulled over a car and what they thought was a high-risk traffic stop. They approached the car, pulling guns on the family, even handcuffed a child.

WALKER: Wow. Frisco officers say they ran the car's plates but typed in the wrong state, leading them to believe the car was stolen. CNN's Camila Bernal walks us through the newly released body camera video.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Amara, Erica, it was one wrong letter that left police officers in Frisco apologizing multiple times and then, that apology from the chief of police I didn't from the chief of police. But despite these apologies, the family here says they want to bring awareness to their issue, they want others to see what happened to them. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever happens to me, I'll be --

BERNAL (voiceover): An overwhelmed father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all pulled a gun on my son for no reason.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I explain it to you?

BERNAL (voiceover): Police say it was all a mistake. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ran an AZ for Arizona instead of AR.

BERNAL (voiceover): On July 23rd, a Frisco, Texas police officer ran plates on a black dodge charger. But instead of typing AR for Arkansas, she says she typed AZ for Arizona. The information came back as a possible stolen car. Police say it was a high-risk traffic stop and at least one officer had his weapon drawn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody in the car, hands outside the window. Hands outside. Maintain your hands outside. Hey, find out if there's any weapons in the car.

BERNAL (voiceover): The family tells police they have a gun in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the glove box. In the glove box.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you reach in that car, you may get shot. So, be careful. Do not reach in the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have bad anxiety. I'm trying. I'm trying.

BERNAL (voiceover): Demetria Heard was behind the wheel. In the car, were her husband, her son, and their nephew.

DEMETRIA HEARD, PULLED OVER IN HIGH-RISK TRAFFIC STOP: Look at my baby.

BERNAL (voiceover): They were on their way to a basketball tournament. She explains what it was like to see her sixth-grade son involved.

HEARD: They actually bring him in, cuff him, and put him in the car. They're walking to put him in the police car. And I'm already have been -- I'm crying, I've been hyperventilating.

BERNAL (voiceover): She says they were instructed not to move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not move.

HEARD: My husband explains to me that my nephew is in there literally screaming for his life, and telling him, uncle, we are about die.

BERNAL (voiceover): But finally --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officer made a mistake on the plate. It was ran differently.

BERNAL (voiceover): -- the officer realizes it is a mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: AR is Arkansas, correct?

BERNAL: An incident review is now underway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not justifying anything. I'm just saying like it wasn't the computer that read it, it was our human error that did this. And so, please forgive us, ma'am. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I made a mistake.

BERNAL (voiceover): The ongoing review would identify further changes to the department's training, policies and procedures.

HEARD: And I thank God that we were not physically injured, but we have suffered a lot of mental and emotional trauma from this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL (on camera): And in his statement, the chief of police admitting to the mistake, saying that the department does not hide from their mistake and instead learns from them. He says he spoke to the family and understands why they're so upset. Amara, Erica.

HILL: Wow. Camilla, appreciate it. Thank you.

Coming up here, a major overhaul in the way the military handles sexual assault cases as President Biden proves prosecution outside the chain of command. A farmer jag officer who has been calling for new prosecution standards joins us to discuss.

[07:35:00]

HILL: A new executive order from President Biden ushering in some big changes in how sexual assaults and other serious crimes are handled by the military. The order moves key decision-making authority outside of the chain of command to newly formed panels of independent military prosecutors, and those panels will handle cases not just involving sexual assault, but also domestic violence, child abuse, murder and other serious crimes.

Joining me now is Meghan Tokash. She's a former federal -- former, rather, judge advocate general, former commissioner on the Secretary of Defense's Independent Review Commission on Military Sexual Assault. Meghan, you have been very vocal in your support and your belief in the need for these changes for some time now. What will the impact be here?

MEGHAN TOKASH, FORMER JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL AND FORMER COMMISSIONER INDEPENDENT REVIEW COMMISSION ON MILITARY SEXUAL ASSAULT: Good morning, Erica. The impact is literally worldwide because service members serve us worldwide, and it's really critical that we prioritize the safety of the men and women who serve us in the military, and a key issue with respect to safety is making sure that offenders in the military are held accountable in terms of crimes involving sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, stalking and other covered and related offenses.

Sok, this executive order that was signed on Friday creates just a sweeping change to the uniform code of military justice since it was born in 1950. It removes the power to investigate and prosecute special victim crimes from the hands of military commanders and places that into the hands of independent specialized military prosecutors.

HILL: And why did that make such a big difference? Is it that it makes it easier for people to come forward now, for victims to come forward? Is there less retaliation?

TOKASH: It makes such a big difference because the Independent Review Commission listened to service members who told us that commanders were ill-equipped to handle special victim cases. They do not have law degrees. They are focused on discipline and not justice issues. They also have bias within the chain of command.

Many victims who report sexual assault and those who are accused of sexual assault were reporting through the chain of command who was making the decision whether to prosecute or not. So, this historic executive order takes that power out of the hands of military commanders and again, gives this power of prosecutorial discretion to independent military prosecutors.

[07:40:00]

HILL: This is so important. It's historic, as you've pointed out. The first change since 1950. At the same time, I know you say this a lot better. It is not perfect. And one of the things you pointed out is that these four offices, essentially, are going to be headed up by men. How much transparency has there been in that decision and how these folks were vetted and chosen?

HILL: Yes, the military does many things well. One of the things that it could continue to work on is transparency, and it remains a mystery as to how the heads of these offices were, in fact, selected. The secretary of defense emphasized that specialization is critical for the heads of these offices. That is that the people who investigate these crimes and the military prosecutors who will prosecute these crimes must have expertise in dealing with special victims. They have to have the emotional intelligence. They have to have the prosecutorial discretion to be able to decide which cases should go to trial, which cases should not go to trial.

So, it remains a mystery as to how the heads of these offices were, in fact, vetted. There are some concerns, at least with respect to some who were chosen that they may be more generalist rather than specialists in the special victim's space.

HILL: Quickly before I let you go. I know you are calling for uniform prosecution standards. That's something that would have to come from the secretary of defense. Where does that stand?

TOKASH: Yes. So, that's right. So, Congress, you know, made and created historic legislation with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, which was the impetus for this executive order that President Biden signed on Friday. These changes are historic and sweeping, but they are only as good as having uniform prosecution standards that are applicable to all of the services because what you don't want to happen is to have a disparity in services where, say, the navy is using a probable cause standard to refer a case to trial, but the army is using evidence to obtain and sustain a conviction as another prosecution standard.

It doesn't serve victims of sexual assault and related offenses and ultimately, it does not serve the American public. HILL: All right. So, we will see on that. Meghan, really appreciate

your insight this morning. Thank you for joining us.

WALKER: A very important conversation. All right. Still to come, a rising risk for women in America. The rate of alcohol-related deaths is growing as women close the gap on women -- on men, excuse me. That's next.

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WALKER: In Southern California, at least one firefighter has been injured as a major wildfire expands in Riverside County. Cal fire officials say it has surged to more than 2,000 acres amid a heat wave there, and crews have only been able to contain about 5 percent so far in extremely rugged and steep terrain.

We want to show you timelapse video of the fire that started Thursday. An evacuation order was issued for residents of at least one community in the area.

In health this morning, alcohol-related deaths are on the rise across the U.S. A new study shows the increase is taking place at a much higher rate among women than men. Now, historically, due to alcohol have been more prevalent among men. CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard has more.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: As alcohol-related deaths rise, women are increasingly at risk. And here's what we now know. In recent years, between 2018 and 2020, alcohol-related deaths rose by 12.5 percent among men compared with 14.7 percent among women. So, the gap in alcohol-related deaths among men versus women is narrowing, and this doesn't appear to be solely due to the COVID-19 pandemic because when researchers eliminated the year 2020 from their data, they still had similar findings.

And the researchers are now calling for more study into what could be driving these deaths. It could be related to how some people turn to alcohol to cope with stress or other factors, but these findings are really a remainder that if you choose to drink, watch how much. The CDC recommends limiting yourself to no more than two drinks a day for men and no more than one drink a day for women. That means within a week, men should have no more than 14 drinks and women, no more than eight.

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HILL: Jacqueline Howard, appreciate it.

Still to come here, a sea lion spectacle on the California coast. A little playful banter between two creatures sends beachgoers scrambling. We're going to show you that wild encounter, next.

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WALKER: A day on the sand was anything but relaxing for people at one California beach.

HILL: Yes. A sea lion charged out of the water, understandably, sending people into a panic. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It's just a day at the beach for the sea lions at La Jolla Cove in San Diego until a whopper, the locals call Chonkers, charges. Chonkers may have been charging at another sea lion on the beach, but tell that to freaked out beachgoers.

JAPHET PEREZ ESTRADA, SHOT VIDEO: Moms running with their kids, grown men squealing like little girls. I loved it.

MOOS (voiceover): Japhet Perez Estrada shot the video from the water, where he was swimming. He sometimes keeps a camera in a waterproof cover hanging around his neck. He gets annoyed at tourists for aggravating the animals.

ESTRADA: I've seen kids throw rocks at sea lions.

MOOS (voiceover): From sea lions to sea otters, 450 miles up the coast in Santa Cruz, otter 841 has become a local legend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh.

[07:55:00]

MOOS (voiceover): 841 wears a tracker. Raised in the Monterey Bay Aquarium then released into the wild, lately she's gotten too wild. There are signs posted, warning aggressive sea otter. She's a fugitive. Worried she's a menace to herself and the public, wildlife authorities are trying to recapture her, hoping to place her in an aquarium or zoo, but the otter 841 fan club is pushing back with petitions to keep 841 free, being an otter is not a crime.

As for Japhet, he would be "lion" if he denied rooting for the sea lion.

ESTRADA: It felt good. Yes. I'm a local. And seeing these tourists get a taste of their own medicine, it was great.

MOOS (voiceover): He's getting a charge out of Chonkers' charging.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I love that he enjoyed watching them get a taste of their own medicine, as he says. HILL: I know. He may have a point, right?

WALKER: Yes. I mean, that sea lion is saying, it's my beach.

HILL: Yes. Exactly.

WALKER: That's correct. Jeanne Moos, thank you.

The next hour of "CNN This Morning" starts right after a quick break.

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