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Super Typhoon Ragasa Floods Kill at Least Two in Taiwan; Suspect Arrested After Fire at a Florida Synagogue, Days Before Jewish New Year Celebration; Drones Disrupt Nordic Airports, Russia Denies Involvement; Trump Accuses U.N. Of Fueling Uncontrolled Migration; Trump & Zelenskyy Hold Meeting at the United Nations. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 23, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:33:20]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. A super typhoon now cutting a path across East Asia, including Taiwan where at least two people were killed in flooding after a dam breach. Here you can see its impact on a nearby town, cars and trucks washed away by the flood waters. It's now bearing down on Hong Kong and mainland China where schools and businesses are closed as people are bracing for what was at one point the most powerful storm on the planet so far this year.

It's also blasted the Philippines with winds equal to a Category 5 hurricane, and there's more incredible video. Some fishermen had to be rescued from a boat that had capsized, rescuers using a chainsaw to cut that boat open and free the fishermen who emerged covered in oil.

Also, a 31-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a fire at a synagogue that investigators in southwest Florida are treating as a hate crime. Blake Richard Hoover made his first court appearance today. He's being charged with arson and criminal mischief for last week's incident. According to court records, Hoover was arrested after his mother heard about the fire and feared that her son was responsible. It happened just days before Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year. No injuries, thankfully, were reported.

And mysterious drone sightings disrupting travel at two of the busiest airports in Scandinavia, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded overnight. The drones were spotted near the main airports in Oslo and Copenhagen, forcing authorities to postpone flights for several hours. Denmark's prime minister suggested that Russia was to blame after similar incidents in Romania and Poland.

[13:35:00]

Moscow, for its part, denies any involvement. Danny?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": President Trump closed today's address to the U.N. by attacking the General Assembly he was speaking to. Trump accusing member countries of funding and creating "uncontrolled migration" around the world. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Not only is the U.N. not solving the problems it should, too often, it's actually creating new problems for us to solve. The best example is the number one political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration. It's uncontrolled. Your countries are being ruined. The United Nations is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from London. Nic is the claim that the U.N. is responsible for, again, "uncontrolled migration" that affects Western countries, is that shared by other and Western leaders?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They wouldn't agree with that. They would see migration as being an issue to do with poverty, with political instability, to a number of different issues that pushes people to leave. They want to get better jobs, but not at the behest of the U.N. There'll be plenty of leaders sitting in that room whose countries actually do produce a lot of migrants. It was interesting that the president didn't address himself directly to them. The other thing I found interesting here was the fact that after the event and President Trump there, really heaping a lot of frustrations, his frustrations on to the U.N.

Backstage afterwards, he met with the U.N. Secretary General, an entirely different tone. The president saying that he sees the potential of the U.N., that this is something he can work with. And the U.N. secretary general appearing to pick up on something President Trump has said, where he said he had brought peace to seven countries and the U.N. hadn't given him a phone call, hadn't thanked him and hadn't helped him. U.N. secretary general is saying, wherever you are, I see what you're doing. Peace is central to your -- to what you're trying to achieve here. You're going east, you're going south, you're going west, you're going north. My teams in all those countries will support you. I'll support you. My staff will support you. So it was a kind of an entirely different tone backstage, let's say.

FREEMAN: Nic, just before you go, I understand President Trump also took a jab at London's mayor. Do we have any response from the mayor? Can you explain what happened there?

FREEMAN: Oh, yeah. There's certainly a response. These two are old sparring partners when it comes to the media, social media. The president said, look, the mayor of London is part of the problem of immigration. He said the U.K. has changed so much. They're pushing for Sharia law. The mayor of London has come back and said quite categorically, I'm not pushing for Sharia law, pointed out that he is there at the pride marches in London. He supports all communities. He's been on record about that a long time. He has pushed back on this issue in the past. But it was notable that of all the people around the planet and there are 8 billion or so of them, the president could have singled out, he picked the mayor of London. Maybe it was fresh on his mind from his visit here last week. Anyway, the mayor wasted no time punching right back.

FREEMAN: Yeah, President Trump's words really ricocheting around the world. Nic Robertson, thank you as always for your time. Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up in a moment, Kamala Harris is opening up about her presidential campaign as her book about the race drops today. Coming up ahead, the latest on what she told "The View" and other revelations from the book. This is "CNN News Central."

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[13:43:24]

KEILAR: Moments ago, President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sat down and took questions. This again is just from moments ago. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, do you think that NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace?

TRUMP: Yes, I do. Sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, any update on your talk to President Putin and do you still trust him?

TRUMP: I'll let you know in about a month from now. OK?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, your message to the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, are you willing to provide Ukraine with the security guarantees the same way as the European allies do?

TRUMP: Well, that's later down the road. We'll be talking about that. Hopefully, we'll be in a position to talk about that a little bit later on. It's a little bit too early to answer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think Mr. Putin is not willing to meet with both of you, President Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, your message to President Orban who is refusing to stop buying Russian oil?

TRUMP: Well, he is a friend of mine. I have not spoken to him, but I have a feeling if I did, he might stop. And I think I'll be doing that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What progress do you think has been made on ending Russia's war against Ukraine since the last time you saw President Zelenskyy?

TRUMP: Well, the biggest progress is that the Russian economy is terrible right now, as you know. It's crashing. And that frankly, Ukraine is doing a very good job of stopping this very large army. It's pretty amazing. This is a war that should have ended in three days, four days. People said it was going to be very quick and you got to hand it to the Ukrainian soldiers and everybody involved. It's still going on. And that's, yeah, that's not a good thing for Russia. This was supposed to be quick.

[13:45:00]

And so, Russia doesn't look very distinguished having taken three-and- a-half years, is that right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: So about three-and-a-half years of very hard fighting, and it looks like it's not going to end for a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, have you been briefed on the latest alleged drone incursion into Denmark? What do you think of that? And --

TRUMP: Where -- where are they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Into Denmark, Copenhagen. Denmark is saying that, there were some drones that shut down airport, possibly Russian sabotage. What's your response to that? Will the U.S. have a material response to that?

TRUMP: Well, I have no response until I find out exactly what happened. I know about it, but they haven't -- they don't know what happened. But we're going to find out very soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you back up NATO allies? You said that you thought that they should shoot down the Russian aircraft. Would you back them up? Would the United States help them out in some way?

TRUMP: Depends on the circumstance. But we're very strong toward NATO. NATO has stepped up. When they went from two percent to five percent, that was great unity. Trillions of dollars is being pumped in and they're paying us for the weapons that we send. But, that was a big day that nobody thought anything like that could happen. You had countries that weren't paying two percent and now they're all paying five percent. That's a lot of money. It's a lot of weapons they're buying and they're buying them from us. They're buying them from the U.S.

In the old days, Biden gave them everything, gave them $350 billion worth of money and weapons. It's a lot of money and a lot of weapons. And we got really not much for it. We gave -- we gave the money to Ukraine to fight. And we've -- they've proven they're very brave. I mean, look, they're fighting and this is a war going on three-and-a- half years. And people thought it would be over quickly because the Russia is a big military power. And Ukraine, I'll tell you, they are good fighters, got to hand it to them. They have a lot of courage, a lot of guts.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Press. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. Some really interesting news there. President Trump was asked if he thinks that NATO countries should shoot down Russian jets if they're in NATO airspace. "Yes, I do" he said, all the more newsworthy because this morning, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio indicated the United States would not shoot down Russian jets that enter NATO airspace, but said the alliance would continue to intercept them. So just really interesting topic that has been discussed today, and that's the word from the president. He was asked, does he trust Vladimir Putin? He said, I'll know in a month from now. That's -- he frequently punts a month, a couple of weeks.

And he was asked if he would pressure Viktor Orban to stop using Russian oil after he came down so hard on European countries for not reducing their reliance on Russian energy. Actually, a lot of them really have, but some countries in Europe that have not have close personal relationships with President Trump and that was a very pointed question to point that out. I want to bring in former Defense Secretary under President Obama, Leon Panetta. Secretary, what did you think about what you heard there, specifically about the shooting down of Russian jets, considering we've seen some of these incursions here recently?

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it's the way the president talks and usually goes ahead and says, shoot them down without thinking about all of the consequences. I would prefer that the president would make clear to Zelenskyy and make clear to our NATO allies, that what we really need to do is to form an air defense system over Ukraine and the other European countries that basically protects them from those kinds of incursions. I think that would be the right way to go.

But, obviously, at least hearing the president say what he said, the one thing I feel comfortable about is that he seems to be making clear that the United States is going to stand with Ukraine in its war against Russia. And that's an important point to make.

KEILAR: When he was talking about, has he seen progress on ending the war, he's pointing to the Russian economy. What did you think about that?

PANETTA: Well, the reality is the Russian economy is falling apart as a result of Russia's efforts to continue this war. Everybody knows that. And it makes a great deal of sense right now, very frankly, for the president to stand up and push for additional sanctions against Russia.

[13:50:00]

This would be the appropriate time to do that because Russia is hurting with regards to its economy. The president recognizes that. To some extent, he may be bobbing and weaving in hope that the Russian economy will collapse without having to push them. But the reality is that it would be important right now for the president to do two things, to move forward with additional sanctions, to make clear that we're going to continue to put pressure on Putin, to basically either agree to a ceasefire or negotiations.

And secondly, I think it would be really important for the United States to provide the weapons necessary in order for Ukraine to be able to defend itself. We established an iron dome for Israel. It's effective over 90 percent in terms of knocking down drones and missiles. We ought to do the same thing for Ukraine right now and give them the kind of defense system that would stop these constant incursions by drones and missiles from Russia.

KEILAR: Secretary Panetta, if you can stand by for us, we'll be having more with you here coming in the next hour. We're going to get in a quick break. A big day today in New York as we are watching the U.N. General Assembly. We'll be right back.

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[13:56:23]

KEILAR: A 107-day sprint to Election Day, former Vice President Kamala Harris' new book on her failed presidential bid is out today. And she's making the round sharing details on what's in it. And here's what the former vice president told ABC's "The View" on the historic challenge that she faced running a shortened campaign after President Biden left the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is unprecedented. Think about this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

HARRIS: That there's a race for president of the United States. The current sitting president is running for reelection. Three-and-a-half months from the election, he decides not to run. The sitting vice president then takes the mantle, running against a former president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

HARRIS: Who had been running for 10 years, with 107 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: And we're joined now by CNN National Politics Correspondent Eva McKend. Eva, talk to us about what -- what didn't stand out in this book? Honestly, because so often these political books, they can be boring, but this one is not. It's kind of like a barn burner with the bombshells.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It is, but she's in a much different position now. As vice president, by her own telling, she was really restrained. In her view, this was not a White House that was all that interested, at least in the beginning, in seeing her shine. And now, she can say whatever she wants to uninhibited. And listen, she has a lot of regrets about not distinguishing herself more from President Biden on the campaign trail, but she's also immensely grateful to him for making her his vice president.

And so, you see that constant tension there. She also recounts the vice presidential candidate interviews that she had with folks including Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, in which she reminded him that being a vice president is not a co-president and that really was enlarged because of her own experience. And then also, I think that she views herself as an important voice in this book to continue the voice of the resistance, continuing to sound the alarm about President Trump. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I think it's important as we move forward, to realize that they did what they said they were going to do. I heard a story about -- a friend of mine was telling me about a Cuban American whose partner was being deported to Sudan, and that person was a big Trump supporter and thought, well, why is this -- well, but they -- he said he was only going to go after criminals. I think there are lessons about you've got to listen to what they tell you, and this is bigger than Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And she also says that ultimately, she knows that this race came down in many ways to the cost of living issue, and that Trump has not held up his end of the bargain when it comes to that critical point.

KEILAR: What has she said about her political future? And I'm so curious about this because it's not often that someone with designs on a grand political future would write a book like this.

MCKEND: Exactly. And I wish she was as candid about her political future as she is about everything else. But she remains true to form on that front, saying that that is not her focus right now. But listen, I mean, she still views herself as an important voice in the party. Time will tell if that translates to wanting to do this all again.

KEILAR: So interesting. Eva, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And the next hour --