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One World with Zain Asher
New York Mayor Adams Indicted On Bribery, Conspiracy Charges; Israel Military Says It Carries Out "Precise Strikes" In Beirut; At Least Two Killed, 15 Injured After Southern Beirut Strikes; "Catastrophic" Hurricane Set To hit Florida At Cat 3 Or Above; Zelenskyy To Make Urgent, In-Person Plea To Biden And Harris; Helen Moves Towards Florida As A Major Hurricane; Aired 12-1p ET
Aired September 26, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:32]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga. Zain is off today. You are watching ONE WORLD. And we begin with
breaking news.
Bribery, conspiracy, illegal campaign contributions. Just minutes ago, we got the details of the federal indictment of New York City Mayor Eric
Adams. Prosecutors say Adams had been accepting improper benefits from wealthy Turkish businessmen and government officials for a decade.
The indictment alleges a conspiracy to funnel money and benefits to Adams and his political campaigns. Adams has denied the charges and is asking New
Yorkers to wait to hear his side of the story before they rush to judgment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC ADAMS, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: And I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments. In about 30 minutes, you're going
to hear a story of the case that is in front of us. The story will come from the federal prosecutors and I ask to wait and hear our side to this
narrative.
DAMIAN WHITE, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Mayor Adams engaged in a long-running conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly
accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations.
As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal. And even though he knew these contributions were attempts by
a Turkish government official and Turkish businessman to buy influence with him.
We also alleged that the mayor sought and accepted well over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits from some of the same foreign --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: To help us understand exactly what is in the more than 50-page indictment, let's bring in CNN's Gloria Pazmino in New York. You were
listening there to the charges being read by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District, as well as the federal attorney who is prosecuting the
case against the mayor.
We should note this is the first sitting mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. And there are five federal charges, as we
said, bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, specifically that from Turkey. Give us more detail in what we just heard.
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what Damian Williams alleged in this indictment and what he detailed in the last hour is a long running
effort by the mayor, as well as his associates to solicit donations knowing they were illegal and then taking exchanges -- exchanging them for gifts,
luxury travel, dinners, expensive trips, all of this, he said, they did for several years knowing that it was against the law, knowing that they could
get in trouble for it, all in order to raise more money for his political campaigns. This goes back more than 10 years.
Damian Williams said that Adams took the contributions even though he knew they were illegal, accepted well over $100,000 in travel benefits. He
failed to make any of this -- he failed to disclose any of this here in New York City. Public officials are required to file yearly disclosures of
gifts that they receive and he never disclosed this.
Damian Williams has said that this was an effort by the mayor to keep the public in the dark. Not only did he do that in the lead up to his 2021
campaign, but once he secured donations, he went back and started raising money for his 2025 campaign. He did this once he was already in office.
Damian Williams also alleged that the mayor and his staffers tried to cover up their tracks. They tried to delete the paper trail. They tried to delete
text messages and they tried to cover up the actions of what they had done, as soon as they realized that they were under federal investigation.
The mayor also, in written statements and text messages, emails between him and his staffers, talked about how he knew he was aware that these trips
were expensive and he wanted to cover up that information. He said, the attorney -- the U.S. attorney said that the corruption was long running.
Another important aspect of this indictment, Bianna, is the alleged actions that the mayor took on behalf of the Turkish nationals who had donated to
his campaign. Perhaps the most prominent allegation here is that Eric Adams took favorable action on behalf of Turkish officials to help them open up
the Turkish consulate in Manhattan.
[12:05:02]
They were awaiting an important visit by Turkish officials here to New York City. The building was not ready to be opened. It had failed to pass the
inspection it needed to do so. And Eric Adams placed a call to make sure that the inspection could be sped up and that the building would be able to
open up in time for that visit.
Prosecutors alleged that he did this because he was getting these donations and those officials were getting treatment by the mayor. These donations,
according to the indictments, some of them were talked about and discussed in Turkey.
Damian Williams making the point that the whole reason our campaigns are not allowed to receive donations from foreign nationals is to make sure
that campaigns and elections are not influenced by any foreign country.
So just the magnitude of all of this laid out in 57 pages of this federal indictment. As you said at the beginning, Eric Adams showing no sign that
he plans to go anywhere. He has said that he will call for a speedy trial. He wants New Yorkers to know the truth. He wants New Yorkers to hear his
side of the story.
And I have to say, that is one really important element in all of this. How are New Yorkers going to react? How is the Eric Adams base going to react
to all of this? Will they want to see him have his day in court? Or will they see a mayor that is just wrapped up in legal chaos right now, who will
be distracted from being able to run the city and want a change in their leader.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. The next mayoral race in New York City will be in 2025. Something that the mayor had already been began campaigning for, which is
in part some of this money that he's alleged to have received from Turkish nationals is part of this indictment.
Governor Hochul, we should note, has the power to remove him as governor. She has yet to weigh in on this, but we do have elected officials from New
York, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have already in the past 24 hours, before this indictment was handed down, called for his resignation.
Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.
Bernarda Villalona is a criminal defense attorney and former New York prosecutor. Quite damning allegations here in this indictment, as we noted,
five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations that prosecutors said the mayor was well aware of and
tried to cover up.
Walk us through what stood out to you the most and the consequences that he now faces.
BERNARDA VILLALONA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY AND FORMER NEW YORK PROSECUTOR: Well, what stood out to me the most is that the length, the
timing of the federal government actually looking into Eric Adams and people that are associated with them.
We're not talking about an investigation that just took a couple of days, but we're talking about months and months of investigating of going through
and looking through the electronic data, cell phone data, following the money trail.
And with that information, it is very damning. I'm curious to see who's cooperating with the federal government and testifying against Eric Adams
because this is not simply just a paper case. This is -- this definitely involves cooperators within his own inner circle.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. We know that this is, in general, some of his top advisors over the course of the last several months as this investigation has played
out, some of it publicly, as we've seen some of their homes, his top eight homes raided. The mayor himself had his electronic devices seized by
authorities.
Are you surprised at the length of time these allegations are said or this activity is alleged to have taken place? As we heard from a prosecutor, it
was nearly a decade in timespan and going back to not only when he was running for mayor in 2021, but when he was Brooklyn Borough president as
well.
VILLALONA: Yes. So Eric Adams was Brooklyn Borough president. So, obviously, the Southern District is dating back their investigation up to
when he was actually Brooklyn Borough president, because they feel that his actions within that candidacy, he used it in performing some of these
crimes.
So they're doing a look back to try to tell the entire story of what's happening, how this started, how he got to the position that he did,
because it didn't just start allegedly when he became mayor, but something that started from when he was Brooklyn Borough president.
Again, these investigations, they take a long time. They take years, because you have to deal with, number one, getting the electronic data, but
also getting people within your inner circle to cooperate to give information, to be able to tie this investigation together and be able to
get enough evidence that you feel that if you are going to go after the mayor, that it's going to be sufficient enough to get a conviction at the
end if the case were to go to trial.
[12:10:59]
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Fifty plus page indictment here going into a great detail. Prosecutors also alleged that the mayor changed his phone passcode and then
forgot a new code.
VILLALONA: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: -- in an effort to conceal his conduct. And again, we should remind viewers it is illegal for a U.S. politician to knowingly receive
campaign donations from a foreign national.
The mayor has been stating throughout the course of the last 24 hours that he is innocent. We're expecting to hear from him later regarding his
response to these charges. And we'll bring that to you live here at CNN when we do hear from the mayor.
Bernarda Villalona, thank you -- Villalona, thank you so much for your time.
We want to turn overseas now to breaking developments in the crisis gripping the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority president says Israel
has almost entirely destroyed Gaza and must stop the war in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly a short while ago, saying the entire world is responsible for what's happening in Gaza and the West
Bank.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT (through translator): I come to you today as my people. And for almost a year now are subjected to one
of the most heinous crimes of our era. It is a crime of a full-scale war of genocide that Israel is perpetrating.
Israel, the occupying state, a crime that so far has killed more than 40,000 martyrs in Gaza alone. And thousands remain under the rubble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Israel denied the allegation that it is committing genocide in Gaza.
Meantime, the Israeli prime minister is scheduled to address the U.N. Friday. Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing back on a call from the U.S. and its
allies for a 21-day pause in the fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border, saying that he told the military to fight with full force.
This as Israel pounded Lebanon's capital once again, saying that it carried out precision strikes on Hezbollah targets today in Beirut.
Overnight, the IDF says that it hit at least 75 targets in Lebanon as Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel. Tens of thousands of civilians
in Lebanon are fleeing as this conflict escalates. Israel says that its aim is to dismantle and degrade Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon.
Listen to a government spokesperson for the Israeli government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MENCER, ISRAEL GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Hezbollah simply won't pull out of Southern Lebanon because we've asked them to, by email or by any
sort of document that could be signed right now, because they've spent the last year firing at us, even though the U..S and France and others have
asked them actually to stop.
So our requirements are very, very clear. They are -- and they're reasonable as well. We want to create a situation where our citizens in the
north, tens of thousands of our people, who've been dislocated and left their homes for a year now that they're able to return to their homes in
safely -- in safety.
And we also say in a loud and clear voice that this will be achieved when Hezbollah understands that it cannot attack Israel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: We have CNN reporters covering the story from all angles. Ben Wedeman is in entire south Lebanon. But let's begin with Jeremy Diamond,
who is in Haifa, Israel.
And, Jeremy, there had been some speculation as to the timing of when the prime minister would leave for New York to address the U.N. General
Assembly. We know that he's already left the country, but still left unanswered as whether or not Israel will accept a ceasefire that western
allies are quickly working to put into place.
As of now, it appears Israel has not accepted that ceasefire. They're saying, listen, Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel unprovoked on
October 8th. And what they are doing now is to avoid a larger scale war, but you've got tens of thousands of residents in both Israel and Lebanon
now unable to go to their homes.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. And the Israeli military, the Israeli government clearly very willing at this
point to continue escalating the situation and to a point where we are really very close to an all-out war.
And frankly, it has become semantics at this point. I mean, we've seen the level of strikes that we have seen in Lebanon over the course of the last
week are like nothing like we have seen since the 2006 war.
And so at this point, whether we call it a war or not, it's kind of besides the point. What is clear, though, is that the Israeli military and the
government haven't yet made the decision to send Israeli ground troops into Lebanon, but it certainly is something that they want to be known.
And that's because yesterday we heard the Israeli military's top general, General Herzi Halevi, saying that Israeli troops are preparing to go into
the north, that the airstrikes that we have seen over the course of the last week are on the one hand designed to degrade Hezbollah, but they are
also designed to shake ground for ground troops to be able to go in to kind of clear the path for them to be able to carry out such an operation.
[12:15:15]
But certainly the green light has not yet been given. And the Israeli prime minister, even as he says that he has not yet accepted any kind of a
ceasefire proposal, that he is instead instructing the Israeli military to continue pounding Hezbollah targets with full force.
We are told that one of the main purposes of his visit to New York, in addition to delivering a speech at the U.N. General Assembly, is to engage
in some of these diplomatic discussions surrounding this U.S.-French ceasefire proposal, which has the support of multiple other western
nations, as well as several key Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
So the questions now is, what does Israel actually need out of these ceasefire negotiations in order to accept? And is the Israeli government
willing to accept something that will temporarily allow Israeli residents, some 60,000 who have been displaced to return to their homes? Or is a
permanent solution the only thing that Israel will accept at this point?
And there's no question that the Israeli prime minister is under considerable political pressure from the right wing of his government, who
are all saying that they do not want to see a ceasefire right now, that they want to see Israel finish the job effectively in Lebanon, with many
calling for a ground invasion to be the next steps that we see in this ongoing conflict.
So there are a couple of different paths in front of the Israeli prime minister. And I think it also bears repeating that this talk of a ground
war, this political pressure, all of that is certainly playing a part in these ongoing diplomatic discussions, these ceasefire negotiations that we
are seeing begin to play out. It is adding to the pressure on the table.
And perhaps that is part of the strategy here to get a more favorable outcome, something that the Israeli prime minister could actually sign onto
in order to advance these -- the situation in the north.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Right now, the ceasefire timespan is set to be around 21 days, three weeks. As you said, we have no confirmation from the Israelis
yet as to whether or not they will accept it.
Let's go to Ben Wedeman, who is in Lebanon. And, Ben, we have the Lebanese representation at the U.N. General Assembly. Obviously, no one from
Hezbollah. It is viewed as a terrorist organization here.
But any sense from Hassan Nasrallah, as Israel is reporting now that they have killed another one of their commanders, an Air Force chief. Any sense
from whether Hezbollah would accept a temporary ceasefire deal at this point?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. There's no indication what Hezbollah's position on a ceasefire is at this point.
They've remained fairly silent.
What's clear is that they aren't going to surrender at this point. They haven't backed down, despite the fact, since the beginning of last week,
what we saw was the pager attacks, the walkie-talkie attacks, a strike on Beirut, now multiple strikes on Beirut since then, but -- and they continue
to fire.
In fact, just a few minutes ago, we saw a volley of rockets being fired from south Lebanon towards Israel, that in addition to all the strikes
we've seen from the Israeli airstrikes on the mountains behind me throughout the day.
Now, we understand that Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has -- there were reports that he had accepted the U.S. proposal. CNN contacted
his office. They said, no, he welcomed the proposal, but he was waiting for some sort of commitment from the Israelis who he said need to stand by
international commitments on the -- regarding Lebanon.
So we're sort of in this ambiguous limbo at the moment whereby the Lebanese government, which is largely powerless in determining the course of events
at the moment, is really struggling with a real refugee crisis at this point, with perhaps well over 200,000 people at this point who have had to
flee their homes in the south.
So the government, A, doesn't have much power over Hezbollah and B is sort of overwhelmed at the moment with everything else.
So at the end of the day, it's Hezbollah that decides and Hezbollah, until now, has remained silent. Now we haven't heard from Hezbollah Secretary
General Hassan Nasrallah for quite some time now, but all indications are that they -- even though they suffered severe blows since the beginning of
last week, they are continuing to fight back and surprisingly so given all of the blows they have taken from Israel in the last 10 days. Bianna.
[12:20:59]
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And as it's repeating that we heard from the Israeli Chief of Staff there, Herzi Halevi, saying that they are preparing at least for
the option of a land invasion in southern Lebanon, as we're expecting to hear from the Prime Minister of Israel here in New York tomorrow. We will
bring our viewers his remarks.
Ben Wedeman and Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.
Well, Hurricane Helene is intensifying over the U.S. Gulf Coast and is likely to cause catastrophic damage when it makes landfall in Florida in
the coming hours.
Torrential rain has already flooded parts of the state ahead of Helene's arrival. We're also expecting damaging winds, life-threatening storm surge,
potential tornadoes and power outages that could last for weeks.
Hurricane Helene is forecast to grow into a massive sprawling monster as it tracks north. Eighty-six million people across five states are on alert.
CNN's Derek Van Dam is in Apalachicola, Florida. And, Derek, give us a sense of what Floridians are in for in the hours to come. It's expected to
make landfall. I believe 8:00 P.M. tonight.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. This is near the Big Bend of Florida in Franklin County, where there are mandatory evacuations
for all residents, although there are clearly still people who have decided to ride out this storm, as we've seen a couple of vehicles onlookers kind
of pass through the city streets, check on their businesses, check on their homes.
There's been steady rain since about 10:00 P.M. last night, kind of cooling up and then draining. And, of course, the residents here, this is not their
first hurricane, right? So they know what to expect in terms of how vulnerable this area is to storm surge.
So some of the local businesses here already boarding up or have boarded up. They've rushed the preparations to completion here ahead of the storm
that will make landfall, as you said, this evening. There's some sandbags.
You might think that that's a little bit futile because the expected storm surge values here within Apalachicola, the Big Bend Region, are well over
twice the height of me. I'm nearly five-foot-ten. So we're talking maybe 10 to 15 feet of storm surge within this general area.
But I want to talk about the immediate threats that we're facing across the southeastern U.S. as a whole, because before Helene even has made its
landfall, it is overperformed in terms of the amount of rain that has fallen from the sky, not even associated with Helene.
So this is new to the national -- to CNN from the Weather Prediction Center. And I want to highlight this area here from Tallahassee,
Apalachicola, where I'm located, including Atlanta Metro all the way to Asheville, North Carolina. They had upgraded to a high risk of excessive
rainfall that could lead to flash flooding.
This is extremely rare. It only happens about four percent of the time, but when it does happen, 40 percent of fatalities occur within those locations
and 80 percent of damages occur from those flooding areas.
So this storm is just knocking up, kind of backing up against a cold front that is ringing out all this tropical moisture. I mean, you can see it
basically on our radar here, stretching from Atlanta to Charlotte. This is causing a lot of traffic problems, the air problems at the airports.
And then the eye, of course, still well off the center of the Gulf of Mexico here, so several hours before landfall. But the rainfall rates here,
one to two inches per hour, will only pick up and that is why we have flash flood warnings for many locations here across the Florida Panhandle.
Hurricane Helene officially 290 miles to my southeast here in Apalachicola, but it's now getting more of a defined look to it, indicating to
meteorologists that the storm is strengthening. And it's not only strengthening but it's expanding. And this means that the impacts of the
storm will be felt well outside of the center.
I am deeply concerned about not only its landfall locations. So Tallahassee to the coastline, the Big Bend, the storm surge threat, the tornado threat
and the flash flooding.
But I want to highlight the inland threats as well because this is equally as important. It can catch people off guard who maybe are used to tropical
systems moving in. This storm will have such an expansive wind field that hurricane force winds will be felt across the central parts of the state of
Georgia, maybe even in the higher elevations of South Carolina.
Atlanta Metro. You're anticipating tropical storm force winds. And there are so many trees between here and that part of the southeastern U.S., so
it doesn't take much to topple these trees in an already saturated environment.
And, Bianna, believe me, just looking at this map. This is incredible as a meteorologist to see the entire state of Georgia, South Carolina, Florida
under some sort of tropical threat. Tropical alerts, whether it's hurricane warning or tropical storm warnings, as this system will move in so quickly,
it'll bring the brunt of its impacts, minus the storm surge, to the inland communities.
So we need to keep our heads aware, the eye to the sky, because this flash flood threat, the tornado threat, will be very real, come tonight and into
early Friday morning across the southern Appalachians, into the Atlanta metro region, and the strongest of winds really look to be over eastern and
central portions of Georgia and to South Carolina, where we expect hurricane-force gusts at times. Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: Just a massive storm, as you noted. The governors of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, all declaring states of emergency. The
governor of Florida Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 61 of the state's 67 counties. So basically that entire state is under hurricane
effect now and watch.
And as you noted, Derek, there are millions of Americans that are going to be experiencing some form of this storm in the hours to come. Everyone
should be heeding their local warnings as well.
Thank you so much and stay safe.
Well, right now, Donald Trump's lawyers are trying to convince a New York appeals court to overturn a $454 million judgment against the former
president.
Live pictures here of that hearing, you see on the screen, earlier this year. Trump and his two oldest sons and his business were found liable for
fraud, as well as falsifying business records. The judge ruled that Trump inflated the value of his assets to get more favorable terms for loans and
insurance.
Trump is not in court today, we should note. The appeals court is not expected to reach a decision until after the November presidential
election. We'll be keeping an eye on that hearing and bring you the latest throughout the day.
Well, the president of Ukraine is walking the halls of U.S. Congress now, trying to shore up support for the war effort. We'll take a closer look at
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Washington.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:18]
GOLODRYGA: Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet and set to visit the White House in the next hour. That's where he'll make an urgent plea for the
Biden administration to continue providing aid to his war-torn country. The Ukrainian president will present what he calls his victory plan to defeat
Russia. His Oval Office visit follows a round of meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
President Zelenskyy is looking for all the help that he can find in a time of political uncertainty. That's why President Biden has ordered the
Pentagon to allocate all remaining Ukraine funding approved by Congress before he leaves office. That's roughly about $8 billion.
And as President Zelenskyy looks for more support in Washington, people in Ukraine are coping with a new wave of Russian missile attacks.
[12:30:01]
I want to take you live to Kyiv and CNN's Fred Pleitgen, because as the president and his entourage are here in the United States, the war sadly
continues there in Ukraine. And it is the civilians who are suffering the most. Kyiv, once again, taking a beating. Talk to us about what you're
seeing on the ground there now.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. First of all, you are absolutely right that as Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian
president, is there in Washington, D.C., we certainly have had a flurry of air raid sirens that were going off throughout pretty much all of last
night.
We did hear some impacts in the Kyiv area as well, but really that all went into this morning and into the better part of the day here as well.
One of the things that we've heard from the Ukrainians is that once again the Russians launched dozens of those drones towards Ukrainian territory.
Most of those were shot down. But one of the troubling things for the Ukrainians is that they also say that the Russians launched several
hypersonic missiles called Kinzhals towards Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainians, of course, try and take those down with their air defenses. But in total, there were several people once again who were killed on the
ground here in Ukraine, and of course several people who were wounded as well.
So you're absolutely right that as the Ukrainian president there is in Washington, D.C., trying to drum up support, the war certainly has not
stopped or has not slowed down in any way, shape or form on the battlefield, but also for Ukraine's critical infrastructure and for
Ukraine's civilians also.
And I think that's also one of the messages that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to present to the U.S. president, to President Biden, saying that the
Ukrainians want to bring this war to a close, but they want to be able to do that on their terms, or at least favorable terms, where they essentially
try to force the Russians into negotiations. And that's what that four- point plan for victory, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls it, appears to be all about.
And there are certain outlines that we've already heard about. One of the key components Ukrainian president has said, these Ukrainian incursions
into Russian territory, of course, that's been going on for a couple of weeks now.
And the Ukrainians appear to want to trade some of that territory that they've taken inside Russia, possibly for territory that the Russians have
taken for them and continue to occupy in the eastern parts of Ukraine.
But one other thing that I think is really crystallizing now and is really becoming ever more clear, as the Ukrainian president is on the ground there
in the United States, is that a key thing for the Ukrainians is to be able to use some of the longer distance weapons that the U.S. and other NATO
countries have already given to them to be able to use those, be allowed to use those, to strike deep into Russian territory.
That's something that, again and again, on the ground here, we hear from Ukrainians they believe is key to their own effort if they want to try and
blunt the big Russian offensive that's still going on in the east of the country, where the Ukrainians right now are having a very difficult time
trying to hold the Russians up. And also for the Ukrainians to possibly try and turn things around.
The Ukrainians have long distance strike capabilities, but they say they'd be able to do much more if they were allowed to use those U.S. and Western-
made weapons, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: And they've been asking to use these long-range weapons now for months. Hopefully they will get some sort of definitive answer from
President Biden today.
Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.
Well, time now for The Exchange. We want to take a deeper dive into this major news story, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Washington. Joining me is
Alexander Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He was most recently the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on
the U.S. National Security Council. He's also the senior adviser for VoteVets. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.
Can't overstate how consequential, really, this meeting is between President Zelenskyy and President Biden. As we noted, President Biden has
already green-lit the additional, the $8 billion that had been allocated for Ukraine by Congress, including he will be expected to provide Ukraine
with glide bombs but used by F-16 fighter jets, and Patriot battery systems air defense missiles. All of that is crucial for Ukraine's defense.
But let's just get to it that the real ask they need right now is the green light to the -- to use long-range missiles inside of Russia.
What are you expecting to hear President Biden say on that today?
LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET.), FORMER DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Hi, Bianna. It's always good to be on with you.
I'm not sure if we're going to get a decision today. Frankly, I would expect that we will have to wait until after the election, probably towards
a lame duck period. I hope that I'm surprised, pleasantly surprised. And that the administration does lift its prohibitions.
The things that Zelenskyy is really looking for is two things, fundamentally, fulsome support, not kind of slow metered, sometimes
lethargic, a day late and a dollar short type of support that Ukraine has kind of been experiencing, but fulsome support. Lots more equipment, lots
more ammunition planned ahead of time to resource, not just defending but also attacking.
[12:35:01]
And then I think the next thing he's looking for is the elimination of the remaining constraints. This idea that Ukraine, once it takes possession of
these weapons, should be able to employ them, and it's not a national sovereign interest without any limitations.
We don't have those kinds of limitations when we provide weapons to other countries. We do some end-use monitoring to make sure it doesn't kind of
violate international law. But there's special circumstances around Russia and the fact that Russia has a nuclear power where we're being overly
cautious to avoid any risks whatsoever, even though those risks really are a mirage don't exist.
So those are the two things he's looking for. But I think it's also probably slightly bigger than just the war effort. Ukraine's electrical
grid, the energy grid is quite fragile. He's looking to drum up support for the kinds of resources that he needs from around the globe to weather a
really, really difficult and cold weather, where -- a winter where it's going to be difficult for the population based on the fact that they're
rolling power outages.
This is the backend of a trip to UNGA where he spoke to the world. And now he's doing the D.C. component where he's talking to lawmakers. But we're in
a state of paralysis really until the end of the election, then things will be a little bit clearer.
We have, you know, some gamesmanship from the Republicans just over the past 24 hours with this nonsensical fake outrage around Zelenskyy visiting
this ammunition plant. You know, they didn't have any complaints when he visited or called President Trump to congratulate him on being a Republican
nominee. So there's just a lot of politics involved right now. We'll have to wait until we weather that.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Fake outrage is how you made to describe it, but you have the Speaker of the House now saying, demanding that President Zelenskyy
fire his ambassador to the United --
VINDMAN: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: -- States for that visit to the missile plant in Pennsylvania, accusing the president of interfering with U.S. politics.
But does not -- does that not set the stage for what Ukraine is very fearful of? And that is if Joe Biden -- if Kamala Harris loses this
election and Donald Trump comes back into office. It'll be very clear that they'll have to take him at his word, perhaps, that this war will end on
day one and likely not to Ukraine's favor.
VINDMAN: It will certainly not end on day one. It won't end a year from whenever Trump is inaugurated. I think the fact is that Ukrainians have the
will and they have the resources. The Europeans will be there to support them. They've grown their defense capacity.
It's not sufficient to fill the vacuum of U.S. absence, but they are growing their defense capacity. And the Europeans will have to actually
probably double down on support to deter Russian aggression. They have to send the signals, especially with the U.S. absent, that they're going to be
there to defend their interests, because Russia acts on weakness and believes it could act with impunity.
But I think that -- you know, what we have here is -- I don't know. For some people, it might be additional clarity on where the Trump
administration would be.
For me, it was evident since 2019, certainly evident by the time we had the beginning of this war, starting in 2022, that Trump was going to be in
Putin's corner. He's going to be in Putin's corner cheerleading him. He was going to be in Putin's corner, even to the extent of damning the U.S. as
the culprit behind this war.
And what we have is maybe for some people take the blinders off that Trump is, in fact, in Putin's corner. He could care less about our allies and
friendships. He will be who he said he's going to be. He's going to be a friend to our enemies and a threat to our allies.
This is exactly what I've been talking about. I just published a piece in Foreign Affairs laying out what the disaster of a second Trump
administration would be, specifically in the fact that we have a very, very good chance of a larger war in Europe because of a Donald Trump election.
GOLODRYGA: It is still, I think, TBD (PH) on whether meeting with Donald Trump. We know that he'll be presenting his victory plan to President Biden
and to Vice President Harris.
And I'm told, included in this victory plan, obviously, is reassurances that Ukraine is seeking and strategic alliances and partnerships. Also
included is a pathway, an expedited path towards NATO membership.
And as you know, even some of Ukraine's most ardent supporters say, that's just a fanciful pipe dream at this point.
So, do you think that that was a mistake, or that is a mistake, for President Zelensky to still be pushing for at this point?
VINDMAN: I think at this point, probably not a necessary aspect of a strategy that he rolls out. Because we just had the NATO 75th anniversary
summit in Washington, D.C. in July. And that was obviously not kind of ripe for discussion then. Nothing has fundamentally changed.
[12:40:00]
I don't think that was -- that should have been an ask. It should be more focused on what they need over the course of the next year. You know, my
strategy is what I lay out is a hold, build, strike idea where the Russians, you know, have to be held back. They're making some small gains
in the Southeast. That the Ukrainians need to stabilize those lines.
Over the course of the next nine months to a year, the Ukrainians need to build. They need to build a military. They need to do some mobilization.
They need additional support from the U.S. The Ukrainians need to invest in their own military industrial complex, building out drones, building out
some equipment that they produce and then strike.
This is -- this is going to require a lot of preparation and training where the U.S. could play a critical role. They should have focused on something
probably more narrow to position them for a successful offensive next year.
On the heels of a Harris administration, it would probably be enough to force Trump -- correction, Putin to negotiate in a Trump scenario. It's
going to just allow them to hang on and, you know, whether the Russian onslaught, but probably all still spiraling towards a broader war.
There is no chance of Trump being able to have his way and achieve any peace in any reasonable timeframe. This will play out over the course of
months and with Trump over the course of years. So it could be quite disastrous.
And I really hope Zelenskyy doesn't meet with Trump for one specific reason. That would be, to me, a clear sign of kind of gamesmanship and
interference in U.S. presidential elections.
Part of the reason that Trump might be playing hardball at the moment is to get a meeting, even though Zelenskyy might not be interested in doing it,
but you know, he's a -- he's a predator. He susses out ways to potentially get what he wants, but it would be a mistake for Trump -- for Zelenskyy to
meet Trump.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
VINDMAN: There was no reason to do it. Trump is not in government. He should be meeting with officials like he's doing in D.C. now and then move
on and lead his country through war.
GOLODRYGA: That meeting with President Biden set to begin, I believe, in the next hour. Of course, we'll bring you any headlines out of it that we
hear.
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, thank you for your time.
And we'll be right back with more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:13]
GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to ONE WORLD. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
So, how does today's political polarization affect children? We at CNN partnered with a political scientist from Stanford and a psychologist from
Arizona State University for a study looking at polarization among fourth graders.
With permission from their parents, we spoke with children at schools in New Jersey, Texas and Arizona. And as children so often do, they gave some
brutally honest opinions of the candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the first word that pops into your head when you hear the name Kamala Harris?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the first word that pops into your head when you hear Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pure evil.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like all he does is like complain and like yell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump, he's given his life and his heart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which one of these two candidates do you think is more likely to do bad things?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Convicted felon against a liar. Oh, who do I pick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It'd be good for us to have a black woman as president for the first time in history.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But my vote's kind of still on Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that she's a woman and she's black, that could help kids who are like her or are different feel a lot more accepted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel like boys would probably be better as president, but she's pretty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Wow. That was really eye-opening.
We want to go straight to the White House now where we are hearing from Karine Jean-Pierre. We're expected to hear from the head of FEMA, the U.S.
emergency's agency, giving an update on Hurricane Helene, obviously, as we have told you, barreling towards Florida's Gulf Coast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And the entire Biden- Harris administration stands ready to provide further assistance to impacted states as needed. We continue to urge residents, especially those
who have been instructed to evacuate, to heed the warnings of local officials.
With that, I have -- I have here to my right the FEMA Administrator Criswell. Come on up. Deanne, thank you so much for being here.
DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE U.S. FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Yes. Thank you, Karine. Good afternoon, everybody. As you heard, I
did just finish briefing President Biden on the impacts that we are expecting to see from Hurricane Helene.
And as I told him, we have been preparing for this storm for a number of days. And we began moving into Florida on Monday.
I just want everybody to know that this is going to be a multi-state event with the potential for significant impacts from Florida all the way to
Tennessee. And the president wants to make sure that everyone is paying attention to the potential life-threatening impacts that this storm may
bring. And he has directed me to travel there tomorrow to assess the impacts.
The entire state of Florida is under some type of warning right now, whether that's a hurricane warning or a tropical storm warning. And we
expect life-threatening flash flooding in the states north as the storm continues to move north.
And so I need everybody to pay attention to their local officials. They are going to have the best information on the specific risks where you are at.
We're already seeing impacts in Florida and the forecast indicates that we could see up to 20 feet of storm surge.
So just think back two years ago to Hurricane Ian. The peak storm surge from that was 14 feet and we saw the amount of destruction and 150 people
lost their lives. The majority of them from drowning. So please take this threat from storm surge seriously.
Residents that are in these areas, they can still take action. They can take action now to move out of harm's way. And remember that you may only
need to go 10 or 15 miles inland to get away from the threat of the storm surge itself, because water is the number one reason that we see people
lose their lives in these storms. So please don't underestimate what the impacts could possibly be.
So at the president's direction, we have over 1,100 personnel so far across the federal government supporting the preparedness efforts for this storm.
We also have an additional 700 personnel from FEMA that are already in these states supporting other disasters that we can quickly pivot to
support any of the response needs as needed.
Some of the resources that we have already deployed include eight search and rescue teams across Florida and Georgia, as well as resources from the
Coast Guard, the Department of Defense, to immediately support any life- saving operations as needed.
[12:50:00]
The Army Corps of Engineer has power restoration teams and debris specialists who are going to be able to help restore power and support
debris removal operations as soon as it is safe to do so.
We have health and medical task forces from Health and Human Services to evaluate the impacts to medical facilities. We have food, water,
generators, and tarps that are deployed to staging locations across the region, and so they are easily accessible and movable post storm.
And the Red Cross is actively standing up shelters in areas that are expected to see and feel the impacts from Helene.
My regional administrator is currently embedded in the Florida emergency operations center, as well as incident management assistance teams in
Florida, Georgia and Alabama. And we have one currently moving to North Carolina today so we can ensure seamless communications between the federal
government and the needs of the states.
I'm very grateful, as you heard, President Biden quickly approved pre- landfall declarations for Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. And this allows us to immediately provide any of that life-saving support in the
coming days.
And I'm grateful for the rest of the federal family that is there on the ground working with us side by side as we prepare to support the American
people for what is to come over the next several days.
I just want everybody to know that the Biden-Harris administration, we are ready for this event. We have aggressively pre-deployed resources. We are
postured for whatever response might be needed.
And so let me just say one more time before I take any questions, take the storm seriously. People in Hurricane Helene's path, you need to listen to
your local officials. If they tell you to evacuate, please do so. And if they tell you to shelter in place, then that's what you should do. They're
going to give you the best information that you can do for your specific situation. Those decisions can save lives.
And with that, I'm going to take questions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karine. Thanks, Deanne. So this is likely to be the 21st billion dollar weather or climate disaster this year. So, does
FEMA have the resources to keep on responding to disaster after disaster like this?
CRISWELL: So we have absolutely enough resources to continue to support the life-saving response that we need to for this event. I think everybody's
aware that we went into immediate needs funding as our disaster relief fund, the funding was running low.
But the reason we do that is to make sure we have enough money for an event just like this. And so I want everybody to know that we have exactly what
we need and there are no limitations to our ability to support the response for this disaster.
As we continue to go through the recovery though for all of these disasters that also takes personnel and we're going to continue to work through with
our states about what they need and how we can best adjudicate those resources, but we are seeing an increase and we're seeing a strain on our
staff with more of them deployed for longer periods of time helping to support these communities recover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just also related to the money here, some pretty substantial losses projected --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: (INAUDIBLE) reporters at the White House.
I do want to go to Chris Gloninger, who is a meteorologist and climate scientist, for more on storm Hurricane Helene now and its impact on a large
swath of the country, affecting some 86 million Americans. Thank you so much for joining us.
So we heard from the FEMA Administrator saying that they have enough resources, but also acknowledging that these storms and the increased
severity and number of the storms that we've seen over the course of the last several years has had an impact on staff, on the resources at hand.
She said they're sending 700 personnel to multiple states now. Eight search and rescue teams are already going to be in place. But just walk us through
what you will be looking for specifically in some of your top concerns as Helene is making its way towards the Panhandle there in Florida.
CHRIS GLONINGER, METEOROLOGIST AND CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Bianna, the storm surge is the number one impact that we're going to be looking at. And with
the geography of the Big Bend Region, if you think of a garden hose and you put your finger at the end of the nozzle, the speed of the water increases.
So as that storm surge gets kind of tightened into this area and trained up in the coastline, that's why we're expecting a 20-foot storm surge. The
freshwater flooding is the other element where we could see feet of rain across parts of the Southeast.
So those are the two aspects, meteorologically, that we're concerned about. From an emergency management perspective, we are seeing a billion-dollar
disaster every two and a half weeks in this country. That is disaster fatigue. The response, which only lasts a couple of days, is exhausting,
but it's the recovery that can last months and years, and that is what's taxing with climate change, Bianna, we're seeing a lot more of these
disasters. Again, already this year 19, this is sure to be number 20.
GOLODRYGA: Those residents that are in the path of the storm. The most important is obviously to heed local warnings. But in the hours to come,
especially we see that multiple states now have declared states of emergency, what's most pressing for residents there to focus on?
[12:55:15]
GLONINGER: To understand what 20 feet of storm surge looks like, the average two-story home in the United States is about 25 feet tall. You can
maybe go to the attic and gain a little bit of elevation. You cannot survive this kind of storm surge. If you're in a one-story home, forget
about it. In a two-story home, it would be very difficult to survive.
And because of the large size of this storm, not just the intensity, but the geographical size of the storm, there are going to be many communities
facing dangerous storm surges.
So if you are in an evacuation order, I cannot stress this enough, please get out and get away from the coastline, gain a little bit of elevation and
get yourself out of harm's way, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. The Helene is forecasted to hit roughly 40 miles south of Tallahassee at around 8:00 P.M. Eastern tonight. Take this storm seriously,
as all the authorities have been saying. We're paying close attention. Bring you any updates that we get here at CNN.
Chris Gloninger, thank you so much for joining us.
This has been a busy hour of ONE WORLD. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Bianna Golodryga. "AMANPOUR" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:00:00]
END
