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CNN Given Access To Town Critical To Ukraine Keeping Control Of Kharkiv; NYT: 2nd Controversial Flag Seen At Another Justice Alito Property; Sen. Cruz Defends Justice Alito's Use Of Controversial Flag; NOAA Warns Of Busiest Hurricane Season Ever For The Atlantic. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired May 23, 2024 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:33:48]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is reeling after another brutal attack by Russia. Officials there say the city was hit by 10 strikes. That's just today alone. One of them smashed into a printing company. It killed seven people there.
Kharkiv, which is the second-biggest city in Ukraine, has been facing relentless attacks in over two years of war.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: CNN was given exclusive access to a small village that is critical if Ukraine is hoping to keep Kharkiv in its hands.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh visited the soldiers holed up there and filed this report.
We should warn you, some of the videos shows victims of an attack. And it can be hard to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Some towns they can never let Putin take, and this, Lyptsi, is one of them.
Destroyed artillery on the streets. Homes aflame from an airstrike. They can only move at night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lights off.
WALSH (voice-over): It's a perilous grip they keep, but lose here, and Russian artillery will be in range of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv.
(on camera): You can still smell the smoke here from an airstrike that landed just in the last hour or so.
(EXPLOSION)
(CROSSTALK) [14:35:00]
WALSH (voice-over): This is life under the drone. We're the first reporters into the heart of the town.
(CROSSTALK)
WALSH: Only soldiers left here underground. The Khartila 13th National Guard first tackled Russia's new offensive.
OLEKSANDR, KHARTILA NATIONAL GUARD BRIGADE (through translation): You saw how it's all burning. It's like that every night.
WALSH (on camera): Do you think there were good enough fortifications here?
OLEKSANDR (through translation): Nothing was prepared here. Nothing. Just nothing. All the positions are being built by the hands of the infantry.
The Russians are trained professional soldiers. We can see it from their equipment, from their tactics.
WALSH (voice-over): There were eight airstrikes just in the last hour, so we leave soon.
A buzzing noise near us, very close, and the only way they know whose drone this is, is if it attacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Is it your drone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Who knows?
(GUNFIRE)
WALSH (voice-over): All around Kharkiv, they don't have enough guns and the Russians have too many drones.
The 92nd Assault Brigade show us something that isn't even theirs.
(on camera): Russian artillery piece that they captured in the first year of the war in the fighting in Kharkiv region.
And now they use, strangely, French mortar rounds to fire from here. It's just a sign of how little appropriate ammunition they have available to them.
This wire is a protection from FPV drones.
(voice-over): Above. Above. He sees a drone with two battery packs, a long- range scout.
(on camera): Run. Basement.
(voice-over): It is not friendly.
If you can tell, it's an attack drone. Hide.
This seems to be a scout. So, running is better before it calls in shelling.
Another artillery unit wants to show us something not even Russian, but Soviet. Made in the 1940s, it can still fire newer Polish shells. In the autumn, it was a hundred a day. Now it is 10.
(on camera): Extraordinary to see something here that's three times the age of either of these two guys holding back a new Russian offensive in 2024. I say the metal is so old that that limits the number of times.
(voice-over): That sound warns another drone is incoming. And back in the bunker, they show us the online bought $30 gadget that is their best warning mechanism.
(EXPLOSION)
WALSH: The team here embody Ukraine's exhaustion and resilience. Older guys, wounded infantrymen.
(EXPLOSION)
WALSH: Artur (ph) has drone shrapnel in his arms still.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Moving towards Lozova?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Yes, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Orlan! Don't go out at all for now.
WALSH (on camera): He just saw an Orlan Russian drone passing overhead. So, he is saying, better stay inside.
(voice-over): On the way back into the city, we see what fuels this defense. This was a lakeside resort, football, cocktails, a beach.
(on camera): Extraordinary devastation. And they're here to collect the bodies.
(CROSSTALK)
(voice-over): A seven-month pregnant woman was among the seven dead here. Another body found later. Just fragments in the mulch.
Russia's advance looms over whatever life persists here, belching out over homes.
(AIR-RAID SIREN)
WALSH: The darkest little salvation. This may be a drone being hit, but they kill, too, when they crash in failure.
(AIR-RAID SIREN) WALSH: Flares breached the enforced blackout. Moscow is getting nearer again. And there are always too many blasts before dawn.
(EXPLOSION)
WALSH: Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for that story.
[14:38:54]
Please stay with CNN. We're back in just a few minutes.
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[14:43:17]
KEILAR: "The New York Times" is reporting a second controversial flag that was spotted outside a home owned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Photographs obtained by the news outlet show this flag -- it's an Appeal to Heaven flag with a pine tree there -- flying above Alito's beach house in New Jersey last summer.
This is a flag that dates back to the Revolutionary War, but recently has been used by Trump's supporters and was notably carried by some of the capitol rioters on January 6th.
Just last week, "The Times" reported that an upside-down American flag was flown outside of Alito's Virginia home in 2021. In that case, the justice said his wife had put it up there.
Now, some lawmakers are calling on Alito to recuse himself from critical cases involving Trump and January 6th.
Neither the justice nor the court have responded to requests for comment from CNN and "The New York Times."
Joining us now is former Florida Governor Jeff Swartz. He also is a former chairman of the Florida Supreme Court's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, which is obviously an important perspective as we talk about this.
Sir, according to the Supreme Courts Code of Ethics, a justice should recuse himself or herself if there is any doubt that the justice could be impartial.
Based on that, is it time for Justice Alito to recuse himself in your opinion?
JEFF SWARZ, FORMER FLORIDA JUDGE & FORMER CHAIRMAN, FLORIDA SUPREME COURT'S JUDICIAL ETHICS ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Hi. It's been time for a while. It's been time for Justice Thomas for a while. If the things that they have done and the appearance that they have
created was done by a trial court judge, whether it's state or federal, those judges either would have been disciplined or removed a longtime ago.
It is the appearance of the impropriety that's important. It doesn't matter whether it's your spouse or your children.
[14:45:02]
In this particular case, you have flags flying over your house. You live in those homes. You know, those flags are flying.
And yet, you do nothing to change the appearance that has been created that Justice Alito, in particular, seems to be leaning towards insurrectionists and, or at a theocracy, which some of us believe he has already indicated he wants.
And therefore should disqualify himself from any cases involving January 6th. And that includes cases involving the former president of the United States.
KEILAR: There are some Republican lawmakers, for instance, House Judiciary Committee chair, Jim Jordan, who is defending Alito. He's blaming Democrats.
And this is what Senator Ted Cruz told our colleague, Kaitlan Collins, last night.
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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Look, I think this entire hoopla is greatly overstated. And I think there is a concerted effort that is driven by Democrats in the Senate to try to delegitimize the court.
And he said he didn't have anything to do with it, that it was his wife that did it.
But number two, this is all about trying to delegitimize the court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: How do you see this? It's becoming partisan. But if you were to flip this on its head, how do you think lawmakers should be responding, you know, if this was something that, say, the justices who are nominated by liberals were to be behaving like?
JEFF SWARTZ, FORMER FLORIDA JUDGE: I can tell you that Senator Cruz's response to that would be exactly the opposite of what he's spoken of.
Except for he said that they're trying to delegitimize the court, the Democrats are trying to do that. And people who are objecting to Justice Alito and Justice Thomas are, in fact, doing that.
That is exactly what Justice Alito and Thomas are doing. They are creating an appearance of partiality and politicalization of the court that clearly affects the respect the court has and affects their ability to have the respect of people around them to enforce their edicts and their -- their opinions.
Remember, the Supreme Court doesn't have an army. It is the fact that people, in fact, respect what they say and believe in their legitimacy in interpreting the Constitution that makes them effective.
And if, in fact, people don't believe that, then the court loses its legitimacy. And that's exactly what is happening here.
And I think that Senator Cruz, having served as a clerk on that court, knows better than what he's saying and what some others are saying. They know full well what's happening here. But somehow or another, whatever they're saying seems to fit their scenario.
KEILAR: Judge Jeff Swartz, always great to have you. Thank you for your perspective.
SWARTZ: Thank you, Brianna. Have a great day.
KEILAR: All right. You, too.
So next, NOAA has just released its forecast for hurricane season and it's not good. It is ominous, to say the least. So well talk about why it is expected to be so bad.
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[14:52:22]
SANCHEZ: The National Hurricane Service is warning that it could be one of the worst hurricanes seasons in history -- in history in the Atlantic Ocean. The agency just put out its most active preseason forecast ever, predicting stronger storms than usual.
KEILAR: We have CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers with us to talk about this.
OK. So, Chad, hurricane season is starting next week, June 1st. What are you going to be expecting here?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A very active year, without a doubt. Everybody is going active. The water is very warm and El Nino is going away.
So what did NOAA put out today, 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes with four to seven of them being major, which is three or greater, you know, the category three or greater.
And all of this here is indicated by the warm water and that lack of El Nino. And 85 percent chance of an above-normal year and only a 5 percent chance of a below normal year. So we're way in that 85 percent above.
But the biggest thing -- this is the headline to take away -- the ACE forecast, Accumulated Cyclone Energy -- you'd may have never heard of it. Go look it up. You go to CSU, Colorado State University. They had -- know all about it. Basically, they made it up. And 150 to 245 percent of normal for this year.
What is ACE? It's how much wind is in the atmosphere in these storms and for how long. They added it all up and you see the number. An ACE of 150 to 245, somewhere in these years of 145, 95, 145, 179. We're above all those last years because the water is very warm.
Back you up to the last time we were even close to 250 was 2005, Emily, Dennis, Katrina Wilma, Rita. You get the idea.
This is what May 22nd looked like in '05. Here's what it looks like now. Even warmer water. And also the La Nina pushing the jet stream to the north, relaxing the shear that tears the storms apart.
And what that shear does, or lack of shear, it allows the storms to continue to go. Storms don't like to be pushed around by winds. They don't like any shear in the atmosphere. They want to be all by themselves.
Three to five degrees above normal. In fact, many places here, across where we're going -- where we're going to see the hurricanes start, are on the warmest level ever. Months ahead of schedule here for some of this heat.
Alberto will be the first named storm. And there will be other things going on here.
If you haven't been paying attention because you're in the northeast or the west, it has been a very wet spring. In fact, even for New Orleans, almost 10 inches of rain above normal already.
The ground in the south is saturated. You get wind, you get more rain. Look at Texas in the 579 inches, 13 inches above normal for College Station already. The ground is wet.
[14:55:03]
What happens to trees in wet mud? They fall over. What happens when the rain can't soak in? It runs off. You get flash flooding. And that's where we're going to be with his 2024 hurricane season.
It's a rough season. It looks a lot like it could be 2005, and we know what happened in 2005. We -- I remember Katrina. I remember Emily. I remember Dennis and Rita hitting the Texas coast. It was a rough year.
And this looks like something pretty close.
KEILAR: All right, that's -- I mean, that's very scary as we look at this.
So talk to us a little bit about the role of climate change in what we're seeing here.
MYERS: Well, certainly, the water is warm. You know, a lot of people think about climate change being the air is warming. Well, yes, the air is warming, but that warm air has to go somewhere. It gets sucked into the ocean. CO2 gets sucked in but so does the heat.
When you make the heat in the ocean so high, then, all of a sudden, that's what the fuel to the fire is here. And 85 percent chance above normal, because the water is so very warm.
Aside, El Nino and La Nina, that has nothing to do with climate change. It's always there. But it's the hot water that's going to be out there making these numbers quite scary.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
Chad Myers, thanks so much for the update.
Ahead next hour, the latest on this bipartisan border bill. The Senate vote wrapped up just moments ago. We have more on the result and what it means for this issue as we get closer to the November election.
That's coming up after a quick break.
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