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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Up Close: Russia's Brutality In Ukraine; Report: Russian Camps Have Held At Least 6,000 Children From Ukraine During Past Year; Source: Mark Meadows Subpoenaed By Special Counsel In January 6 Investigation; Hundreds Gather At Michigan State Vigil For Three Murdered Students; Victims' Families Confront Buffalo Mass Shooter At Emotional Sentencing Hearing; Jurors See Crucial Third Interview Of Alex Murdaugh By Investigators In Double Murder Trial; Rescue Workers Still Manage To Pull Out Survivors Even After 10 Days After Earthquake Hit Turkey, Syria; Sole Winner Of November's $2.04 Billion Powerball Jackpot Revealed. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired February 15, 2023 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:43]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening.
We begin tonight with a single frame of video from the war in Ukraine that captures the stunning reality and brutality of this war. This is the image.
What you are looking at is the precise split second before a Russian missile explodes next to a team of aid workers including an American tending to a wounded civilian in Bakhmut earlier this month. It may be hard to see, but we've circled it in light.
The missile is circled, it is flying parallel to the ground. It's an anti-tank missile, which means that someone had eyes on the target, which is the vehicle driven by the aid workers to the left of where the missile is about to go, the vehicle, they are standing right next to.
One of the men killed is Pete Reed, a Marine Corps veteran. In January, he went to work in Ukraine with the aid organization Global Outreach Doctors, it's called and on the second of this month, he was killed.
Tonight, we also have stunning information about a systematic program run by the Russian government to take Ukrainian children and re- educate and indoctrinate them in camps in Russia and Crimea. Some of the kids are believed to have been given weapons training and others had been sent to live with foster families or even put up for adoption in Russia.
There is a new report documenting a network of camps, 43 of them in all across Russia and occupied Crimea, where thousands of Ukrainian children have so far been taken against international law.
So there is a lot to get to tonight.
We begin with the story behind the missile attack on the aid workers and we warn you, some of the video you'll see is hard to watch.
CNN's Matthew Chance did the reporting. He joins us now.
What more can you tell us about this attack?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, an absolutely terrible attack, of course, and colleagues of Pete Reed now saying that they believe he was the victim of a targeted strike by Russian forces using a laser guided anti-tank missile.
Now, think about the important thing about those kinds of weapons is they require line of sight, Anderson, so they are very deliberate indeed. Well, CNN has now obtained exclusive video of the actual moment that took place on February 2nd a short time ago.
And again, colleagues of Pete Reed saying it underlines and illustrates the despicable tactics as they call it, being used by Russia against medics in the war zone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice over): These are the final seconds before volunteer medics in Ukraine, including American, Pete Reed seen here exiting the white van come under vicious attack.
The images obtained exclusively by CNN show the explosion ripping through the scene, leaving Reed among the dead.
But incredibly, you can also hear the screams of survivors, survivors like Erko, a volunteer from Estonia witnessing all of this from just feet away.
ERKO LAIDINEN, VOLUNTEER MEDIC: Yes, the last one second that I remember before the blast or when the blast happened, I saw the big ball of flame and it was like instantly. My thoughts were the darkest that can be.
CHANCE (voice over): Volunteer medics working in Bakhmut are no strangers to the extreme violence ravaging this city. Fierce fighting for control, making it one of Ukraine's deadliest frontlines. Soldiers dubbing it a meat grinder.
But the part of town where the medics were answering their emergency call on February 2nd seemed relatively calm.
CHANCE (on camera): But when you arrived at the scene where you'd had these reports of casualties, and you saw the casualties there, was there any fighting going on? Were there any artillery shells coming in close by that you would have made you aware that this was a particularly dangerous spot?
LAIDINEN: No. No. It was -- it was actually awfully quiet there. We didn't get no warning because usually you can hear when the rounds come in, you can hear the whistle noise that determines that there is some mortar or artillery shell coming in. There was nothing like this.
CHANCE (voice over): And he catches the exact moment on his own cell phone.
[20:05:10]
A frame by frame analysis shows what military experts tell CNN is an anti-tank missile striking the vehicle, a weapon that requires line- of-sight targeting to be this accurate.
Minutes later, the medics dashcam records a second strike. Slow motion revealing, it is yet another anti-tank missile.
LAIDINEN: It was observed and aimed directly and to be sure that it's going to be perfect hit, they waited until the complete stop and after that, they instantly fired.
CHANCE (on camera): So do you think that you were deliberately targeted by the other side?
LAIDINEN: Yes, I think that there is not much of a debate about it. They shot two different vehicles. They tried to hit another one also. So they were ready. They were prepared.
CHANCE (voice over): Russia has repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilians, but over this gruesome video of the aftermath, the Russian private military company, Wagner, says the volunteer medics were foreign mercenaries, hit by what it calls an accurate strike.
Even for humanitarian volunteers in this Bakhmut meat grinder, protection, it seems, is scarce.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: It's so incredible. I want to show this video just one more time, this targeted attack. So you get a sense just how quiet it was right before this.
[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]
COOPER: I mean, there is no indication that this is about to happen. Did the rescue worker you spoke to give it any more clarity about why the Russians might be targeting medics in this area?
CHANCE: They did. Yes, you're right to point out how quiet it is, and I have been to Bakhmut myself, and it is extremely noisy when there is fighting going on. And so, it really is striking the silence that you can hear sort of in the background there.
In terms of, you know, why they would have been targeted, what the medic says that look, the Russians know very well, these volunteers from the United States, from other countries are doing enormous amounts of good to the civilian population inside these areas. Sometimes they're the only sort of medical presence on the ground.
And the Russians, they say are determined to stop that, to take that away, to deter these people from going to the frontlines. The medic I spoke to in that report, Erko said, for his part, it's not going to work. He is determined to go back and says he will be back near the frontlines in just a couple of weeks -- Anderson.
COOPER: Wow. I just want to show a still image again where you see that missile. I've never seen an image like this. It took me a while to actually even see the missile and once I realized it was parallel to the ground, you also see where Mr. Reed and the others were.
The van that they were in, the medics were in, I know the van that the man who pulled up from -- who took the video was in -- that was clearly marked. Did the van that Mr. Reed was in with the others, Pete Reed was in, was that marked at all as a medics van?
CHANCE: It doesn't seem to be, does it? I mean, it looks like a white civilian van. I mean, I understand that inside, it is converted into an ambulance, but it doesn't have the sort of big red crosses daubed on it that you might expect in that kind of location.
Look, I mean, what the medic says that there is no way this could have been mistaken for anything other than an ambulance, simply because these medical teams, Pete Reed included, had been working in Bakhmut for months upon months, and the Russians knew very well what they were doing, what these medical sort of volunteers, the kind of action they've been involved in, and the kind of way they work.
They say, there is no way this could have been mistaken for anything military at all, which again, you know, underlines for them this idea that they were particularly watched and then targeted by Russian forces.
COOPER: Yes, and as you said, they tried to get another vehicle as well with another missile.
Matthew, I appreciate the report. Thank you.
Now to that new report, which has uncovered the extent to which Moscow is conducting an extensive campaign to take Ukrainian children to Russia and sometimes even give them military training or forcibly adopt them. Actions according to the report's authors that constitute war crimes under international law, possibly even evidence of genocide.
The report was produced by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab as part of a State Department supported program for gathering evidence of Russian war crimes. It identifies 43 facilities that are part of a network, stretching from the Black Sea to Siberia. Their primary purpose appears to be political reeducation.
[20:10:04]
Nathaniel Raymond is the Humanitarian Research Lab Executive Director and oversaw the report.
Nathaniel, I saw you call this an Amber Alert for Ukraine's children. Can you just explain what you mean?
NATHANIEL RAYMOND, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HUMANITARIAN RESEARCH LAB: Well, Anderson, what I mean is that, well, we know now that at least 6,000 children have been through the system, we think the number is actually far larger and we are basically dealing with the largest network of children's camps seen in the 21st Century that stretches from the Black Sea, all the way to the Eastern Pacific Coast, about 1,300 miles from Alaska.
And so in these 43 facilities, we have four-month-olds all the way to 17-years-olds, many of which have not been able to contact their parents in months.
COOPER: I mean, how is this organized? Who is in charge of this? How high up does this go in in Russia?
RAYMOND: This goes all the way to the Kremlin. The leader of the program, is a woman known as Maria Lvova-Belova, who is under US sanctions. She is the Child's Rights Commissioner for Russia. And what we identify in this report is 12 individuals, some of which reporting directly to the Lvova-Belova that are not under US sanction yet, or international sanction, including for regional governors.
And this is very important. Russia is running sort of what could be described as a Twisted Sister Cities Program, where communities from Russia are sponsoring communities in Ukraine on an individual town by town basis to bring those children into Russia for reeducation purposes, including military training, too, Anderson.
COOPER: So in some instances, they are actually giving children, teenagers military training and they are doing reeducation in the sense of sort of Russian-focused reeducation. They're trying to make them into Russians. Is that right?
RAYMOND: Yes, which does constitute a potential crime against humanity, and violation of the 1998 Rome Statute in the Genocide Convention. It is illegal under international law, even temporarily, to transfer one group of children to another group for purposes of erasing national identity or ethnicity. That was actually the first trial held at the Nuremberg Tribunals against the Nazis after World War Two.
COOPER: The Russians, at least some in the government, they seem proud of this. I mean, it's not as if they are doing all of this in secret. They are embracing this as like a national project, it seems.
RAYMOND: A hundred percent. The primary audience here for what is dubbed a humanitarian project can be described as a performance for Russia's domestic citizen rating.
At the end of the day, this is part of an effort to rebrand the invasion, but what's clear is that it's a violation of the Geneva Conventions. And we're basically talking about thousands of children that are in a hostile situation where they could be used as a bargaining chip in any future prisoner exchange with the Ukrainians.
And first and foremost, the Russians had an obligation under Geneva Convention to move them to a third-party country, not to Russia, that right there, no matter how long they stay makes this a war crime. COOPER: And some of them, correct me if I'm wrong, who may have parents are considered -- are labeled orphans and being adopted into Russian families or fostered by Russian families.
RAYMOND: We found two locations including a psychiatric hospital and what the Russians call a Family Center in Moscow where children, some of them infants and toddlers are being adopted and fostered by Russian families.
After the invasion, Putin and the Kremlin changed Russia's adoption law to allow for the first time adoption of Ukrainians. Additionally, they added a $200.00 a month bonus in basically Russia's Social Security system to encourage adoption.
So at the end of the day, our number one information source was the statements of Russia's own officials as they were promoting the program and speaking about it, it is something they were proud of.
COOPER: I mean, this is truly sickening. I mean, this is sick.
RAYMOND: I have been a war crimes investigator for 24 years. I've worked on everything from torture, to large scale massacres. This has been one of the hardest reports I've worked on because I'm watching a disaster that is a Human Rights emergency that's going to radiate for decades for these children happen and there is so far little we can do about it.
COOPER: What can be done?
RAYMOND: Well, we have submitted our report to the US Department of State. They are reviewing the information in the report to see if there are steps such as sanctions or other efforts that the US can do against these specific individuals or this program and we'll see what the US government does.
I think that there are four things that can be done, Anderson. First and most critically is registration. Going back to Bosnia, Kosovo, many recent conflicts, having a clear internationally monitored registration system is the first step to reuniting families. Second, communication. The phones of these children when they had them have been taken in many cases. Reestablishing a means for them to call home, call mom, call dad is a critical first step.
And the third thing is we need international monitors in there from the United Nations and other international government organizations because right now, it is only Russia's word and that's not good enough.
And fourth and finally, there needs to be movement of these kids to a third-party country as required by the laws of war.
COOPER: Nathaniel Raymond, your report is stunning. I appreciate it. Thank you.
RAYMOND: All honor to my team.
COOPER: Russia's embassy in Washington has responded to the Yale report just today dismissing it as "absurd."
Next for us tonight, two pieces of breaking news from inside the Special Counsel's investigation of the former President including how high up the subpoenas now go. Details when we come back.
And later, confronting the Buffalo mass killer. Families get their chance on sentencing day and don't hold back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:11]
COOPER: Two pieces of breaking news tonight in Special Counsel, Jack Smith's investigation of the former President. One speaks to the number of court battles he has been forced to wage to get what he wants; the other concerns who he wants to talk to you now, namely, Mark Meadows, the former White House Chief-of-Staff, someone as close as anyone was to the former President in and around January 6.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins with the reporting on this joins us now along -- as well as CNN political commentator, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Director of Communications under the former President and CNN legal analyst and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Elliot Williams.
So Kaitlan, what have you learned?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: So the subpoena has come from the Special Counsel's Office, Jack Smith, it was sometime in January I'm told, and basically what they want from Mark Meadows is testimony and documents related to January 6th, and Jack Smith is investigating two things at once.
One, the classified documents taken from Mar-a-Lago, but also Trump's actions leading up to and on January 6, and obviously, Mark Meadows is one of his most senior aides, if not his most senior aide that day, who was in and out of the Oval Office, as we've talked about what that looked like. And so, he is someone who would obviously have good insight into what Trump was doing that day.
But obviously, this is likely to set up a very big fight over executive privilege. You've seen, you know, in the other subpoenas that we've seen from the Special Counsel recently, namely the Vice President, the former Vice President, he has said that he is going to fight it.
COOPER: Does -- Alyssa -- I mean, Mark Meadows must know, as much as anybody knows.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right, I would say that he is as much a target in the investigation as he is a witness in going after the former President in the final stretch leading up to January 6. He was, you know, uniquely involved in everything from false electors to the pressure campaign against Mike Pence to the actual organization of the Ellipse rally.
So he is a wealth of information of what I would imagine, the Special Counsel wants to look at. I anticipate that he'll do one of two things. He will either outright try to contest it on the grounds of executive privilege, or he may sort of faux cooperate on some small details, and will ultimately invoke --
COOPER: Which is what he will do with the January 6 Committee?
GRIFFIN: Exactly, and I think this warrants a bigger conversation around like should electioneering be covered by executive privilege? This was purely a campaign matter. This was about the election. This wasn't like the deliberations of the President around policymaking.
COLLINS: He is calling the Secretary of State in Georgia. Remember, he set up the call with Brad Raffensperger, went and visited on an election site in Georgia. He was deeply involved in that aspect of it we know.
COOPER: Elliot, former Vice President Pence says he is fighting the subpoena from the Justice Department on the separation of powers grounds. What about Meadows? I mean, is there a legal basis to defy the subpoena? Especially if he's also not just a witness, but a potential subject of a criminal investigation.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, there are a few questions in there, Anderson. Number one, it's harder to see how he is a subject or a target of the investigation now. The Justice Department tends to not compel people to testify that they're going to go on and charge with a crime. And here is the big problem with doing so, what you've done is force him to testify against his wishes. It is really hard then to sort of to charge him with a crime after that, because you've already got testimony from him.
You know, we don't make people testify against themselves. That's a little tricky, hard to see what they do there.
Now, with respect to executive privilege, we should talk about what we mean and what that stands for. And Alyssa got into this a little bit. We expect then as a country that the President of the United States is entitled to a measure of protection for the conversations he has with his senior staff. That's not a bad thing.
But that can't extend to wrongdoing or concealing crimes. If the President were to say to his Chief-of-Staff, hey, let's go rob a bank tomorrow, no one and no Court would ever say that that statement ought to be protected.
So look, Meadows will, I think likely try to challenge this on executive privilege grounds. Some of the conversations he had with the President might be protected. But look, if we're talking about possible criminal wrongdoing of the President or someone around him, it's going to be really hard to not have some of those statements be brought into Court.
COOPER: Elliot, this may be a really dumb question, but if he had been a potential target, is it possible that they made a deal with him in order to not be a target in order to become a witness? WILLIAMS: It's absolutely possible, and that does happen frequently, Anderson where someone might be investigated by the Justice Department or any law enforcement entity, and you know, and they say, look, you know, we won't charge you with a crime if you will come in and testify.
Maybe that happened. It's just hard to know. We just don't have enough information to suggest that. But that absolutely happens across the world of prosecution all the time.
COOPER: Because there have been a lot of talk about whether -- there were questions raised a while ago whether he was somehow cooperating.
COLLINS: Yes, and to that point, you know, we don't know actually, if he's negotiating with the Justice Department on this, if he is cooperating.
His attorneys, we reached out to them, they did not comment and neither did the DOJ. But to that, there has been a breakdown in communication between his attorney and the Trump attorneys, the Trump legal team. They are not communicating or talking. That doesn't mean anything, but it could be an indication potentially.
He has also tried to fight subpoenas before based on this. Remember, the Georgia grand jury, when he tried to fight it, saying that he had executive privilege. The Supreme Court of South Carolina decided against that and said that he did have to testify on that.
[20:25:11]
So we'll see what he actually is doing in this and it does speak to the level of though how aggressive Jack Smith has been with all these subpoenas.
COOPER: There's also, Alyssa, this report about just the sheer number of cases that the Special Counsel is fighting. I mean, it's kind of extraordinary the lengths to which they are going.
Do you think it has to do with the 2020 election or the classified documents?
GRIFFIN: I think that's kind of the magic question right now, because I think there was a sense maybe several months ago that, you know, Trump's undoing and the real target of DOJ was going to be the classified documents.
I think that frankly, in some ways, listen, there are two parallel investigations into Biden and Trump, but they're separate. But I think that the momentum behind that may have shifted when it came to light that many former Presidents and Vice Presidents had had classified documents.
I think there was a little bit of a sense that there was a sleepiness on January 6th, and this puts kind of new life into it, that probably the senior most person other than third most senior after the President, the Vice President has also been subpoenaed, now, Mark Meadows has.
It shows that the Special Counsel is looking into January 6th, and again, this was an extraordinary historic moment that took place and the actions leading up to it. It calls for extraordinary measures, but it's an uphill battle.
I mean, most of the most important cooperating potential witnesses are going to fight it.
COOPER: Yes. Alyssa Farah Griffin, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. Elliot Williams as well, appreciate it.
Coming up next, the outpouring in Michigan State, how people there are remembering the three students killed by a mass shooter and how they are coping in the wake of it.
And in a Buffalo Courtroom, families confront the man who murdered 10 people they loved on sentencing day, excuse me, from the Tops Supermarket. We will be right back.
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[20:30:10]
COOPER: Two communities tonight dealing with the wrenching thoughts and feelings, so many Americans have gone through in the wake of mass shootings. In East Lansing, Michigan, on the campus of Michigan State, people had candlelight vigil for the three students murdered there this week. Governor Gretchen Whitmer spoke about the need to take action against gun violence. She quoted something that one of the victims, Alexandria Verner wrote to an underclassman in her High School yearbook. "Today may be hard" she wrote, "but tomorrow will be better."
In Buffalo, emotions spilled over as people who lost loved ones at the Tops Grocery mass murder made their voices heard at a sentencing hearing for the man who killed 10 people close to them. CNN's Omar Jimenez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA MASSEY MAPPS, SISTER OF SHOOTING VICTIM KATHERINE MASSEY: I'm not going to be nice. My name is Barbara Massey. I'm Katherine Massey's sister. You killed my sister.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sentencing day for a shooter became families processing pain they've carried with them for almost a year. Katherine Massey was 72 years old.
MASSEY MAPPS: Your little pumpkin ass decided to come and kill my sister. I talk to Kath every single day.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Her sister, Barbara, making sure the shooter knew who he killed.
MASSEY MAPPS: Kath was a saint among sinners. You come to our city and decide you don't like black people. Man, you don't know a damn thing about black people. We're human! We love our kids to go to the schools. We love our kids. We never go in no neighborhoods and take people out.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Barbara's son lunged in. Family after family pulling no punches.
MICHELLE SPIGHT, TWO RELATIVES KILLED IN BUFFALO SHOOTING: You journeyed down my grandmother's straight and then walked up at Tops and killed two of my family members. I want you to think about this every day of your life. Every day of your life, think about my family and the other nine families that you've destroyed forever. Forever! May 14th will never be the same for me.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): It wasn't just emotions. It was reliving May 14th, 2022 all over again. The shooter walked into a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo and killed 10, wounding three others with the express intent of killing black people. In court, the shooter apologized, but it didn't seem to have any impact.
BRIAN TALLEY, BROTHER-IN-LAW OF SHOOTING VICTIM GERALDINE TALLEY: How can you possibly get any kind of -- how can you possibly stand up here and say that you're sorry? The hatred that you must have in your heart for black people, I will never understand. I don't want to understand it. But I must say this, I pray to god they do not kill you.
MICHELLE SPIGHT, TWO RELATIVES KILLED IN BUFFALO SHOOTING: If you don't know God, I invite you to find him, because you are going to need him.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): He was sentenced to life in prison, the judge leaving no room for interpretation.
JUDGE SUSAN EAGAN, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK: There can be no mercy for you. No understanding. No second chances. The damage you have caused is too great, and the people you have hurt are too valuable to this community. You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): After court, the families hope their message was more clear than the sentence could ever be.
ZENETA EVERHART, SON WAS INJURED IN BUFFALO SHOOTING: Yes, somebody rushed him at him today in the courtroom. But that's the emotion that all of these families feel on the inside. I feel like that every single day. We all feel like that every single day. I was happy to see him scared today. He should be able to feel what those families felt that day when he pointed that gun in their faces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And Omar joins us now. There are still federal hate crime charges, and also weapon charges. Is that right?
JIMENEZ: Yeah, so at the federal level, among them, 10 counts of hate crime resulting in death, and what's significant about those is, these are federal charges that could carry the potential for the death penalty. Now, Attorney General Merrick Garland is yet to make a decision on that type of pursuit, but back in December, the shooter's attorney said that they would plead guilty if it meant that the death penalty or the possible death penalty would be taken off the table. It led some to believe, including the local DA today that the apology we heard in court may have been to try and wiggle away from that possibility, whether it was actually authentic, that apology, or as many of these families believed that it was not.
COOPER: Omar Jimenez, appreciate it. Thank you.
Up next, pivotal day in court in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, jurors seeing footage of state investigators directly asking Murdaugh if he killed his wife and son. The details on that next.
[20:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Pivotal day in the double murder trial of disgraced former South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh. Murdaugh is accused of killing his wife and youngest son in an alleged attempt to cover financial crimes. Jurors today saw footage from a crucial third interview that Murdaugh had with the lead investigator from the SLED, which is the Southern Carolina Law Enforcement Division, just a couple months after the murders. In it, the investigator tells Murdaugh that he is the focus of their investigation. Randi Kaye has details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID OWEN, SPECIAL LEAD INVESTIGATOR, SOUTHERN CAROLINA LAW ENFORCEMENT DIVISION: Did you kill Maggie?
ALEX MURDAUGH, ACCUSED OF MURDERING WIFE AND SON: No.
OWEN: Did you kill Paul?
MURDAUGH: No.
OWEN: Did you kill Paul?
MURDAUGH: No, I did not kill Paul.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the first time we hear Lead Investigator David Owen ask Alex Murdaugh directly if he killed his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and their son Paul.
OWEN: Do you know who did it?
MURDAUGH: No sir. I do not know who did it.
KAYE (voice-over): Special Agent Owen had a lot more questions for Murdaugh too, including why he was wearing something different after the murders than he was earlier in the night on this Snapchat video pulled from his son's phone.
OWEN: At what point did you change clothes?
MURDAUGH: I'm not sure. You know, it would've been, I guess that changed when I got back to the house.
KAYE (voice-over): The prosecution has suggested that Murdaugh showered and changed his clothes following the murders. The defense pushed back on that.
[20:40:00]
JIM GRIFFIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY IN THE MURDAUGH MURDER CASE: Wouldn't you expect to find some trace evidence of blood somewhere in the house?
OWEN: There was no trace evidence of blood found in the house, no.
GRIFFIN: Thank you.
KAYE (voice-over): Alex Murdaugh has told investigators several times that on the night of the murders, he had dinner with his family, then took a nap and later drove to his mother's house.
OWEN: How long would you say you were at your mom's?
MURDAUGH: 45 minutes, an hour.
KAYE (voice-over): 45 minutes to an hour? Remember, his mother's caretaker testified Murdaugh came by the house for just 15 to 20 minutes that night. At least four times during this interview, Owen asked Murdaugh if he was at the kennels where the murders took place earlier that night, before he says he found his family dead. Each time, Murdaugh denied being there.
OWEN: And you didn't go back down there after dinner until after visiting your mother?
MURDAUGH: Yes, sir.
KAYE (voice-over): Owen also asked Murdaugh if it was his voice on a video investigators extracted from Paul Murdaugh's phone. It had been recorded at the murder scene at 8:44 p.m., just a few minutes before Paul and Maggie were killed.
OWEN: And that was prior to the murder (ph). Was it you?
MURDAUGH: No sir. Not if my times were right.
KAYE (voice-over): At least eight witnesses have testified that it's Alex Murdaugh's voice on that recording. Murdaugh also had some questions for Owen during the interview.
MURDAUGH: Can you tell me for sure, (INAUDIBLE) -- is this one person, two persons, three persons?
JUDGE CLIFTON NEWMAN, SOUTH CAROLINA CIRCUIT COURT: Is that the first time he's ever asked me that? OWEN: Yes, sir.
NEWMAN: Ever?
OWEN: That I recall, yes.
NEWMAN: In the whole investigation to this point?
OWEN: Yes, sir.
KAYE (voice-over): And just before the interview ended, Owen made it clear to Murdaugh that investigators are focused on him and only him.
MURDAUGH: Do you think I killed Maggie?
OWEN: I have to go with the evidence and the facts.
MURDAUGH: (INAUDIBLE). And you think I killed Paul?
OWEN: I have to go where the evidence of the facts take me, and I don't have anything that points to anybody else at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Randi joins me now from South Carolina. What else stood out to you in the interview with Murdaugh that was played in court today? It's fascinating to hear the investigator, you know, admit that he is the suspect.
KAYE (on camera): Yeah, absolutely. And we hadn't heard that before. But there was a really key moment with the investigator told Alex Murdaugh that they had already determined that a family-owned weapon was used in the murders, and he really had no reaction to this. Alex didn't ask, "How did you know that, or where is that weapon now?"
He also told the investigator that Maggie Murdaugh had wanted to come to the house that night, but her sister had testified that Maggie told her that Alex had asked her to come to the house that night, along with their son Paul. And there was one really disturbing moment, Anderson, where Alex asked the investigator how far apart Maggie and Paul were when they were shot, and if one knew the other was dead. Of course, the killer would likely know that information. The investigator did not have an answer for him, Anderson.
COOPER: Randi Kaye, appreciate it.
10 days after the devastating earthquake, rescuers are still pulling survivors from the rubble in Turkey. We have an elderly woman and a family we want to tell you about next. Plus, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us the devastation from the air.
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[20:47:27]
COOPER: Almost 10 full days off after the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, rescuers today pulled out a 74-year-old woman. Her name is Jamila Kekatch (ph). Now, we don't know much more than that, other than she was immediately transferred to the hospital.
Also today, a mom and her two children, amazingly, were pulled from the rubble. Her name is Ela (ph). Her children are Masam (ph) and Ali Baghdad (ph). We don't know their ages. We do know that when Ela (ph), the mom, was pulled from the rubble, her first question was, "What day is it?" I'm joined now by CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who's been in Turkey observing how doctors are trying to keep the survivors alive. Sanjay, what did you see today?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN'S CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yeah, Anderson. I mean, these stories are really remarkable. You may remember when we were in Haiti together, we would hear about some of these remarkable stories even this many days out. I can tell you, the mood is very much still rescue and relief. That's the tone that you feel. Some of these places in this mountainous sort of area of the world, they're hard to access. They were already hard to access, and even harder given all that has happened. So in order to get to people, provide that relief, they've had to take to the skies.
(voice over): The skies over Turkey are continuously pierced with the sound of helicopter blades still performing crucial search and rescue, but also delivering people and goods to places hard to access, and now near isolated from the rest of the world, like Antakya in Hatay Province. Look what the earthquake did in just minutes here. So many buildings razed to the ground. More than eight days later, too many people still going without even basic supplies.
(on camera): Donations continue to pour in from all over the world. To give you an idea, they have things like baby formula. These are safety hardhats over here. These are the types of things that are coming in. Over here, you have bread. So they have all sorts of dry foods that are coming in. These are donations that are coming from individuals, things like blankets and warm clothes. And really, just as far as the eye can see, there's all sorts of supplies that are now trying to get from this airstrip to the people who desperately need them.
(voice over): Over and over again, spontaneous supply lines, like this one, form and within minutes, dozens and dozens of tents are loaded onto the helicopter. Today's mission, to provide cover and protection in Hatay, a province that has lost both. From the sky, it is easy to see why they are so necessary.
[20:50:00]
A group of men can be seen waiting earnestly for their temporary new homes. They quickly unload the helicopter, struggling against the whirl of the blades, which never stop.
(on camera): So they've just unloaded the tents here in Hatay. This is one of the hardest hit areas in the quake (ph).
(voice over): Off in the distance, a floating hospital, a near necessity after natural disasters like this. After all, as with most other buildings, the hospitals often don't survive either. These hospital ships provide immediate beds and operating rooms, like this one, with 37- year-old Mehmet (ph) received an operation on his leg after falling two stories during the earthquake.
MEHMET (ph), EARTHQUAKE VICTIM IN TURKEY: [Foreign Language].
GUPTA (voice over): Even a maternity ward. Yes, tragically, more than 40,000 people have died, but there has also been new life here, a beautiful baby girl. Another benefit the captain tells me, unlike the field hospitals on firm ground, these hospital ships in the water are relatively protected from the numerous aftershocks that continuously devastated the land. For now, the ground is quiet, but the skies are loud and that is good, as this part of the world slowly, surely finds its footing.
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COOPER: Sanjay, we have seen these hospital ships before. I remember you were on one of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. How effective are they?
GUPTA (on camera): Yeah, they're really effective, Anderson. If you think about it, the hospitals are just as vulnerable as all the other buildings in a quake zone, so the hospitals, in some way, become their own patients. So bringing in a ship with all those resources, it's critically important. And I saw that in Haiti. That was the (INAUDIBLE) Carl Vinson that actually flung me out there to perform surgery on a little girl named Kimberly. But the thing that struck me today, talking to the captain of the ship was, look, there's all these aftershocks and you put in a field hospital, they can be vulnerable to these aftershocks. It's something they had to sort of anticipate. Get a ship in the water, they're somewhat buffered, insulated from some of the damage, Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah. Sanjay, thanks very much. I'm glad you're there. We'll be right back.
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[20:56:10]
COOPER: For months, the identity of the lucky winner of November's record- breaking $2 billion jackpot has been a mystery. Now the mystery is finally solved.
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ALVA JOHNSON, CALIFORNIA STATE LOTTERY DIRECTOR: The name of the person who is the only player to match all six numbers of the historic Powerball drawing last November is Edwin Castro.
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COOPER: Castro won the largest-ever lottery jackpot in history. He chose the lump-sum payment, taking home nearly $1 billion. Castro, I think, wisely declined to appear at the news conference, but said the real winner is California's public schools, which will receive more than $150 million in supplemental funds, another record-breaking total. Joining me now is your favorite Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten. How much food can one buy with $1 billion?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN'S SENIOR DATA REPORTER: OK, so I have set it up in three -- three different levels, OK? Let's say you want to go to the most expensive route, to the most expensive restaurant in the entire world. You can buy about 400,000 meals.
COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: Let's say you want to go expensive, but not too expensive.
COOPER: Umm, Boston market, you want to get to Boston market.
ENTEN: So you can go to -- we're going to go to Boston market in a second.
COOPER: Alright.
ENTEN: We are going to Ruth's Chris first.
COOPER: Oh, Ruth's Chris is good.
ENTEN: Great restaurant. You can buy about 7 million tomahawk steaks there.
COOPER: Wow, OK.
ENTEN: Or you can go to one of your personal favorites, and mine.
COOPER: Boston Market, yes.
ENTEN: Boston Market.
COOPER: Are there any left? Like New York, they've been fascinating.
ENTEN: Not in Manhattan.
COOPER: Yeah.
ENTEN: But there are in Queens, so you can go out there.
COOPER: OK. OK.
ENTEN: And we can buy 77 million whole chickens. It's about $12.99 for whole chicken.
COOPER: I like the turkey meal there.
ENTEN: I like the turkey meal. I like the chicken. I like the half chicken. I get two sides with that.
COOPER: I like chicken with creamed corn (ph).
ENTEN: Creamed spinach?
COOPER: Sure.
ENTEN: How about the cornbread?
COOPER: No, cornbread. No, but the creamed corn was good.
ENTEN: The creamed corn?
COOPER: Yeah. So how does the -- I think the winner was wise not to show up, and it's good his name is Edwin Castro, because --
ENTEN: My new best friend by the way.
COOPER: It's probably hard to track him down. He's your new best friend?
ENTEN: He's my new best friend.
COOPER: How does he stack up against the richest people in the world?
ENTEN: So, I think this gives you an idea that --
COOPER: So, he gets just $1 billion or they're just handing him $1 billion?
ENTEN: They're handing him $1 billion, of course, then there are taxes, so it's closer to somewhere, let's say, $600 million.
COOPER: $500 million.
ENTEN: Yeah, somewhere $600 million, somewhere in the neighborhood. It's still a large sum of money. But I think if you can compare it to some of the richest folks in the world, their net worth, it gives you an idea that this is a lot of money, but not anywhere close to the richest, right? So, go to Bernard Arnault who is the richest men in the world, Louis Vuitton, a personal favorite of mine.
COOPER: Not really.
ENTEN: But -- Michael Jordan is a little bit closer, but Bernard Arnault, he is worth about, you know, $216 billion in that neighborhood, $215 billion, $214 billion, and you look at someone like Michael Jordan, he is worth a little bit less than $2 billion. So essentially, you'd have to go win the Powerball twice to get to the level of Michael Jordan. You have to win it about 200 times to get to the level of Arnault.
COOPER: And take -- with inflation, taking that into account, how much have these things changed?
ENTEN: Yeah. So I think we can have two different baselines here. First, let's use the year you were born. So how much was $1 billion today worth when you were born? It's closer to about $100 million.
COOPER: Wow.
ENTEN: That's how much inflation has really taken things. COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: How about Joe Biden who, of course, was born in 1942? That, now, $1 billion today is worth only about $50 million, $50 million back when Joe Biden was born. That, it's about 20 times. It's incredible how much inflation has --
COOPER: OK.
ENTEN: So essentially --
COOPER: It's a little confusing to me.
ENTEN: Basically, the idea is, as you know, if you were a kid, you're like $1 billion -- you're like, wow, that's a ton of money. Today, $1 billion is worth a lot, but it not anywhere near the same.
COOPER: So the $56 million when Joe Biden was born, that's the equivalent of $1 billion today.
ENTEN: Correct. And about $100 million when you were born is worth about $1 billion today.
COOPER: Wow, fascinating.
ENTEN: So inflation really has evolved. But I think --
COOPER: Is it wise to take the lump sum?
ENTEN: Absolutely. Because then you can invest in different ways, right? So if you are good investor, you can invest in different ways.
COOPER: Right.
ENTEN: It depends how much inflation --
COOPER: But if you're going to go crazy and blow it all, then it's probably not a good idea.
ENTEN: Correct. Depends on how good are you with your money, Anderson. Ask yourself that question. It's a question I ask myself every night.
COOPER: Alright. Harry Enten, thanks very much.
ENTEN: Thank you.
COOPER: News continues, "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.
