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Putin Signs Decree To Increase Military Staff; Florida Pair Pleads Guilty To Stealing And Selling Ashley Biden's Diary; NASA's Artemis 1 Mission To The Moon Set For Monday Launch. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 26, 2022 - 07:30   ET

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


[07:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Russian shelling from the power station has increased. This is the result of one of 70 artillery and rocket strikes here in the last 24 hours, officials said.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

KILEY (voice-over): "The shelling every day -- every day -- it just happened to hit here. Good thing no one was at home or there would have been casualties," she says.

Russia's responded to international demands to demilitarize the power plant by adding troops, inevitably increasing the chances of a disaster, whether by accident to design.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And Sam, also something that happened yesterday that was a pretty big reversal of what we've seen Putin doing in recent years is he signed this decree ordering a sharp increase in Russia's military by about 137,000 active service members. You know, that would put the total at about 1.15 million. That suggests -- it seems to suggest that he is preparing for a pretty long battle here.

KILEY: I don't think there's any doubt at all that the Russians have had to shift their thinking away from that very swift decapitation they hope to achieve in a few days to an entrenched -- and I use the term deliberately -- long-term war in Eastern Ukraine. Because ultimately, the Russian aim here is to destabilize Ukraine and prevent it becoming a stable, successful, Western democracy that would then infect his own country with that kind of ideology.

So, according to the Pentagon -- we've got no other verification for this -- the Russians may have lost some 70,000 frontline troops. So, effectively, what he's trying to do is build up -- replace those losses and also build up for a longer-term campaign. His other problem, of course, is that a lot of the troops that he's already lost have been elite -- they've been well-trained -- and it will take time to refresh those men and women. That is also, I have to say, something that the Ukrainians are facing, which is why they're so desperate for these NATO weapons to be coming in as the United States has so recently announced, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. It raises so many questions about how long this is going to go on for. And yes, they do need time to train but they -- they're worried about a long winter ahead in the United States.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sam Kiley, thank you so much, as always, for your reporting.

So, two people pleading guilty to stealing and selling personal items belonging to President Biden's daughter.

COLLINS: And we are just days away from a historic moon mission. We will be joined by the NASA administrator ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:36:34]

COLLINS: Two people from Florida have now pleaded guilty to stealing the personal belongings of Ashley Biden, including her diary, and then selling it to the conservative media group Project Veritas for $40,000.

Joining us now is CNN's Brynn Gingras. And Brynn, what we saw yesterday is probably the most in-depth account so far of how prosecutors are revealing how Trump's allies tried to use this diary to undercut Biden's campaign.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and they go into great detail in this court document.

So let me explain the relationship here. Aimee Harris resided in a Florida apartment where Ashley Biden once lived. It seems like they had a mutual friend, according to that court paperwork. And Biden asked if she could leave some of her belongings there and it seems Harris then took full advantage of what was left. A journal, as you mentioned, with personal entries, tax records, a camera card with family photographs, a cellphone.

Now, Harris linked up with Robert Kurlander and concocted this plan to sell these things to the highest bidder, first going to the Trump campaign just a few months before the 2020 election. And text messages show the campaign told Kurlander they couldn't use it. That the materials should go to the FBI.

TEXT: [Trump] campaign can't use it. They want it to go to the FBI. There is NO WAY [Trump] can use this. It has to be done in a different way.

GINGRAS: And so, the duo had to find a different way, deciding to reach out to this conservative group Project Veritas and meeting with them with some of the materials here in New York. Forty thousand dollars is what they got paid, even going back to Florida to take more things at Project Veritas' request.

Now, prosecutors say they knew how detrimental this material could be in the hands of Project Veritas. Another text message between the two reading like this. "They are in a sketchy business and here they are taking what's literally a stolen diary and info and trying to make a story that will ruin Ashley Biden's life and try and affect the election."

Kurlander and Harris have pleaded guilty. They face up to five years in prison.

As for Project Veritas, it was not charged. Nothing was published. It says it stands by its news gathering, saying it was done ethically and legally. But as part of Kurlander's plea deal, he is going to cooperate with the government. So, guys, it's not clear if that's signaling that this isn't over for Project Veritas -- guys.

COLLINS: Major questions there. Major questions, of course, in Biden's orbit about that.

Brynn, thank you for bringing us the latest.

We also have new CNN reporting this morning on how President Biden came to that major decision this week to cancel some student loan debt.

BERMAN: Plus, a young boy losing his family in a deadly highway crash. How firefighters went beyond the call of duty to reunite him with a special companion.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:44:05]

BERMAN: First responders in Arizona worked tirelessly to help bring some comfort to 6-year-old Alex Stone, the sole survivor of a tragic car crash that killed both his parents and older brother last month.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov takes a closer look at how firefighters went beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The scene was traumatic, even for veteran first responders. The Stone family, driving home last month from a family reunion, slid across the highway in a rainstorm near Ash Fork, Arizona, crossed the center divider, and collided with a semi-truck. Parents Brian and Alison Stone, and their 8-year-old son Oliver, were killed. Only 6-year-old Alex Stone survived.

TRACY ZINN, KAIBAB ESTATES WEST VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: I told him that you've got to be tough and just come on -- we've got to get you out of here.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Tracy Zinn, a local volunteer firefighter, just happened to be driving by the day of the crash. He took us back to the scene.

ZINN: That car was so crunched that the little boy was in the front seat window.

[07:45:05]

KAFANOV (voice-over): The entire Kaibab Estates West Volunteer Fire Department also responded. Five days later, they got another call for help. Alex was in the hospital and kept asking for his stuffed animal, Cookie.

JESSICA PUISIS, KAIBAB ESTATES WEST VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER: I remembered seeing the blue on the hill and that day I didn't realize it was a Cookie Monster. But I saw a blue, stuffed something that day.

KAFANOV (voice-over): So the team headed back out to the site to look for it on the highway still littered with debris.

PUISIS: We kind of passed the scene so we came back and walked down the freeway until we found the spot. And we came up to -- on a mission to rescue Cookie Monster. That was the goal of the day.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Even the fire chief's daughter pitched in to help.

VIOLET GUNN, ASSISTED IN SEARCH FOR "COOKIE": So, he was over here kind of hidden by the bushes, and all I could see was a bit of blue. He was covered in hardened dirt, mud -- all of this debris, and just was really torn up from what happened.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Cookie, muddy and battered, needed some first aid.

PUISIS: He's obviously been very well-loved, so I just scrubbed him up as best I could in the sink and just rinsed him and rinsed him and scrubbed him and -- until he was blue as he was going to be.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Then they headed to the hospital.

PUISIS: We didn't have time to dry him because we knew it was going to be so late already. So, Tracy held him out the window of the truck, drying him, the entire hour and 15-minute drive.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Alex's grandmother says everyone at the hospital was excited when they walked in.

CINDY MASON, ALEXANDER'S GRANDMOTHER: It was so important to Alex to have Cookie, you know. He just loved him. And so, just to see them was really just -- I will never forget it.

KAFANOV (voice-over): She says Cookie and his big brother's teddy bear are always close by. MASON: When we told Alexander about Oliver, the first thing he asked for was Teddy. But just -- he was just so glad to get Cookie and so they were just -- he huddles them both together now.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Alex is expected to fully recover from his injuries. He's now holding on to Cookie as well as memories of his parents and his brother.

ALEXANDER STONE, FAMILY KILLED IN CAR CRASH: I remember that picture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

STONE: We were laying on the coffee table.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The firefighters are also supporting a GoFundMe campaign for Alex and his grandmother, who is not his primary caregiver. She asked Alex what he'd like to tell the firefighters who helped him.

STONE: I thank them for giving me Cookie. I want them to come be here so I could see them again.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Denver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Thank you for giving me Cookie. You know, more important, they gave him love. I mean, they showed him just extraordinary love when he needed it the most.

COLLINS: Small steps. And, you know, shout out to Jessica, the volunteer firefighter who was talking about that and the help that they did. And we'll be sure to tweet out the GoFundMe as well for people who watched and want to help out.

BERMAN: He's going to need that love going forward.

COLLINS: Yes.

BERMAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:33]

COLLINS: NASA is going back to the moon and maybe beyond. When the Artemis 1 mission blasts off on Monday it will not be carrying any people but it will, instead, be full of materials that NASA says represents the first long-duration, deep space, biological experiment. This is all part of the effort to return astronauts to the moon for the first time in decades.

So, joining us now to talk about this is Bill Nelson, a NASA administrator and former U.S. senator from Florida. Good morning, and thank you for joining us.

You know, this really is a historic mission and I want you to tell us why it's such a critical step in getting humans to the moon again.

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR, FORMER FLORIDA SENATOR: Hey, Kaitlan. Yes, we're going back to the moon in preparation to go to Mars. That's the difference.

Fifty years ago we went to the moon for a day -- a few hours -- three days max. Now we're going back to the moon to stay, to live, to learn, to build. To do new technologies all within mind that then, at the end of the decade of the 2030s we're sending humans to Mars.

COLLINS: And I know you -- you're also hoping to open the door for the first woman, the first person of color on the moon. And when it comes to this journey, how long is it going to be and where is it going? And then I've got one more question about the details of it. What exactly this mission is going to look like.

NELSON: Well, this is a test flight. We stress it, we test it. We would do things to this particular mission that we wouldn't do with a crew.

The number one objective is we want to know that heat shield is going to work on the fiery heat of reentry. It's coming in hot, it's coming in fast, 32 times the speed of sound -- Mach 32, 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. We have to know that heat shield works.

COLLINS: Yes.

NELSON: That's the primary objective.

We're doing 42 days. The -- part of the spacecraft's only rated to 21 days. So you see how we are stressing it in order to push the limit to make sure it's safe when, in two years, we will have a human crew and we'll go back to the moon.

COLLINS: Right. And obviously, the heat shield is so critical here. So instead of having actual people on board, you're going to have these mannequins. And I have a lot of questions about these mannequins. One, I would like for you to send me one so I can put it in John Berman's office when he's not looking.

But two, you know, these mannequins -- people are remarking how creepy they look. But they're important to have them there as you do wait to see that actual people could be on board, right?

NELSON: In particular, we are going to make sure that the radiation that those mannequins receive is acceptable. Of course, if there is a solar explosion with a human crew, we're going to have to figure out a way that we can try to protect them from that radiation. And this is all a part of the testing process.

[07:55:00]

And Kaitlan, I'll give you a little secret. They closed out Orion -- the hatch -- two nights ago. The last thing that they put in is Snoopy in his spacesuit. And you will see Snoopy floating along with the mannequins as we head to the moon. COLLINS: That's going to be a lot of fun -- fun for kids to watch as well.

Is the deadline still for NASA -- for returning American astronauts back to the moon, are you still going to be able to achieve doing that by 2025, do you think?

NELSON: Yes. In two years, we will go back to the moon with humans. It'll be a crew of four. They will orbit the moon and come home, check out all the systems, and then a year later -- late 2025 -- we go back with a crew of four. They go into lunar polar orbit and that polar orbit is a place that they rendezvous with SpaceX lander, and then two of the four will go down. And that will be the first woman and the next man to walk on the moon.

COLLINS: What about Mars? What's your timeline internally looking like for that?

NELSON: President Obama announced the goal. He said 2033. It looks like it will be the late-2030s -- perchance, 2040.

COLLINS: OK, 2040. But first, we are going to be looking ahead to August 29, 8:33 am Eastern. We'll be watching.

And Bill Nelson, thanks for joining us this morning, and don't forget to send me that mannequin.

NELSON: OK, thanks. See you.

COLLINS: And NEW DAY continues right now.

BERMAN: So, this is no typical slow summer Friday. We have major developments in the search of Mar-a-Lago, and a big development coming on the state of the U.S. economy.

I'm John Berman. Brianna is off. CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins is with us and bringing the news.

COLLINS: And we've got a lot to talk about today.

BERMAN: Yes. So, sometime in the next few hours, the Justice Department will release a redacted version of the affidavit used to justify the FBI's search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The affidavit lays out why investigators believe there was probable cause that crimes had been committed. A federal judge ordered the DOJ to release it but agreed to keep key portions of the document from public view.

COLLINS: It's also a critical day for the U.S. economy. We are going to get a key report on inflation this hour. And later on, investors are going to be watching incredibly closely for news not from Wall Street, not from Washington, but from Wyoming. That is where Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell is set to deliver a speech about the growing concerns that we have on inflation and a possible recession as well. And everyone will be watching to see what exactly he says this morning. BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans, and CNN global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar.

Christine, just first, tell us what exactly is happening today, and what are people expecting to hear from the Fed chair.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": So, this is the annual gathering of central bankers, right, in Wyoming. This is why Wyoming is the center of the financial universe every year at this time.

Last year at this speech, that's when the Fed chief said that there were narrow places in the economy where there was inflation and it would be transitory. He was wrong. The conventional wisdom -- the consensus was wrong.

Now we want to hear how far is the Fed into its inflation-fighting mode, what could it do next, and what does it think about the incredibly chaotic and conflicting signals we're getting in the economy? I think inflation will be issue number one. I think you'll hear about supply chains and fiscal policy, too. But this will be a day we'll learn more about how the Fed is feeling about inflation and its fight against it.

COLLINS: And so, how does he project confidence about their handling of inflation without declaring victory? Because people clearly are not feeling that yet.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST, GLOBAL BUSINESS COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: That's the big question. He really has to hit it to the middle because he wants to show the markets look, we're going to fight inflation. We're going to crush it. Don't worry.

But he doesn't want to scare the market so much that they're going to topple. I mean, people are more invested in the markets than they ever have been in America. They really feel it when stocks go down, when housing prices go down.

Some of that is good. Too much scares everybody. So he really wants to hit it to the middle.

COLLINS: Yes.

BERMAN: What data points? I mean, specifically, what topics could he hit that people are sort of -- and I keep saying people are on the edge of their seats -- they are. I mean --

FOROOHAR: Yes.

BERMAN: -- Wall Street is watching this very closely.

ROMANS: Yes. There's -- there have been on summer doldrums and we're in an economy like none I -- we've ever seen. There are so many conflicting signals in the economy. He'll talk about PCE -- personal consumption expenditure price index.

We're going to get a fresh reading on that in just about half an hour. That's their preferred inflation gauge.

We'll hear about what he thinks about energy prices and about whether inflation is peaking. That's critical.

But I think we shouldn't put too much on what he says today -- and this is counterintuitive, and here's why. A lot can change between now.