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tv   The Lead With Jake Tapper  CNN  March 20, 2023 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT

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also making clear he supports putin's objectives. >> translator: it is true that both of our countries share the same or similar goals. >> cnn's matthew chance is in moscow with a closer look at how this meeting could strengthen putin's murderous resolve. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: it's a crucial state visit, the first by a chinese leader since russia invaded ukraine last year. and just days after the kremlin's strong man was indicted for war crimes. now one of the world's most isolated leaders gets to sit at the side of one of its most powerful. it's a potent alliance. >> it is true that both of our countries share the same or
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similar goals. we have exerted efforts for the prosperity of our respective countries. we can cooperate and work together to achieve our goals. >> reporter: but china has so far drawn the line at military aid for russia's war. there are concerns that may change, but right now it's only chinese diplomacy on the table. the kremlin-leaning peace plan calling for talks but stopping short of demanding a russian withdraw, a key ukrainian demand. >> translator: we have carefully studied your proposals onseting the acute crises in ukraine. of course we'll have an opportunity to discuss these issues. >> reporter: there's little sign putin is open to compromise. this was the russian leader on sunday, driving through the captured and devastated city of
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mariupol. local residents, according to state media, are shown thanking him and asking to shake hands when a heckler briefly makes her breath heard. none of this is true is the cry. it's all for show. the russian leader seems undisturbed. now with one of the world's most powerful leaders at his side in moscow, president putin may increasingly feel he can afford to ignore his critics. jake, for tonight the meetings have already come to an end, and the leaders, the two of them, are scheduled to hold more formal talks tomorrow on how to bring these two increasingly autocratic countries even closer together and discuss that chinese-backed floated peace proposal.
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as for ukraine, they still haven't had a phone call from xi jinping about what their role would be in any future negotiations, although i'm told that could change in the days ahead. >> matthew chance in moscow, thank you. cnn's phil mattingly is at the white house. how is the white house reacting to this moscow meeting between putin and xi? >> reporter: deeply skeptical as relates to china's pitch they would be peacemakers might be an understatement. u.s. officials, certainly white house officials and the national security council closely watching every moment for where this relationship will go next. white house officials acknowledge chinese and russian officials have certainly gotten closer. the ties between the two countries have grown significantly closer over the last several months and years, but they also believe that the relationship in the words of national security spokesman john kirby, is one based on
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convenience, not necessarily affection. the big question is whether the chinese are still pushing the idea of providing lethal assistance. this is how kirby framed things today. >> we still don't believe china has taken it off the table, we haven't seen any indication that they're moving in that direction or they've made a decision or are going to do that. we continue to believe it's not in china's best interest to do that, to help putin slaughter innocent ukrainians. >> reporter: jake, one of the big questions is what will come from a tangible policy basis. u.s. officials don't really have a great idea. as mathew noted, they're also urging the chinese to reach out and range a call between president xi and president zelenskyy, something that hasn't happened yet. they're saying that needs to happen in order for xi to play any type of peacemaker role, if you will. when i asked john kirby whether
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u.s. officials viewed russia as a state of -- >> let's go now to ukraine and cnn's david mckenzie live in odessa. how are ukrainian leaders reacting to this meeting? >> reporter: jake, they've been careful not to directly criticize china. a foreign ministry spokesman saying they hoped china would use their relationship and power over russia and try to push this in a way that makes sense for ukraine. of course, as mathew touched on, no negotiations will happen from a ukrainian perspective unless vladimir putin withdraws his troops from ukrainian land. the peace plan china has put on the table is kind of dead on arrival as it sits. and whether there will be a call between zelenskyy and xi jinping, they were always going to talk to putin first. i think officials hope that will
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happen after these meetings wrap up. >> as china symbolically displays support for russia with this meeting, there's also a significant ramp-up in support for the european union for the ukrainian cause. >> reporter: yes. more than a million ammunition rounds, that's what the eu and norway have pledged. that's crucial for the artillery pieces that are pounding away at russian positions, jake, that are trying to push through towns like bakhmut. you also had norway bringing in more tanks and other key bits of artillery into the country. i think that zelenskyy in particular is showing this is the moment where he's getting unit from nato, from the u.s. and other al plies at this moment when putin is talking to xi. >> david mckenzie in odesa,
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thank you. former u.s. ambassador at large for war crimes issues, clint williams. mr. ambassador, thank you for joining us. china which still refuses to call putin's invasion an invasion is calling xi's trip to moscow a, quote, journey of peace, urn quote. what would you call it? >> i would call it unfortunate. i think the timing of xi's visit to moscow is shameful. clearly the chinese have seen what's been going on in ukraine. i don't think they can be surprised at the fact that vladimir putin has now been charged with war crimes. as secretary blinken said earlier today, instead of condemning these atrocities, they're providing diplomatic cover for russia to continue committing those crimes. >> this is a major meeting between two superpower, even though they may be pariahs to a
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degree. does xi's support to putin increase the threat level to the ukrainian people, does it increase the threat to the international community do you think? >> i think certainly vladimir putin feels bolstered by xi coming there, particularly right on the heels of this arrest warrant being issued. but i think it's reflective of where china has moved on international justice issues. when i served as ambassador during the bush and obama administrations, i dealt with the russians, dealt with the chinese with the security council on these issues. while russia was already hostile to any sort of international justice efforts at that point, the chinese had a much more pragmatic ap approach. now they've moved into the same camp as russia with open hostility. >> u.s.-chien dma relations
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already stretched way thin. john kirby told cnn this morning a call between biden and xi has not been scheduled, but it will happen at the appropriate time. when that appropriate time happens, what do you think biden should say to president xi? >> i think he should reenforce to him that he's putting himself on the wrong side of history. i think history is going to judge vladimir putin very harshly, no matter whether he's brought into the document at the international criminal court or not. the chinese have always been quite careful to not align themselves too closely with people committing crimes like this. i think it's a strong message that president biden can deliver and should deliver when he speaks to him. >> the state department's human rights department highlights the war crimes committed by russians against the ukrainian people, secretary of state tony blinken writes, quote, there were reports of execution, torture, rape and attacks against
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civilians and civilian infrastructure by russia's forces, all of which constitute war crimes. this comes a few days after the international criminal court issued the war crimes arrest warrant for putin. but we should also note the state department did not draw specific connections between putin and the war crimes they allege occurred. why not? >> i think at this point the administration has not seen all the evidence that was reviewed by the panel of judges in the hague. but we have to rely on the fact that you have now an international judicial institution reviewing this evidence that has been presented by the icc prosecutor, kareem kahn and it's determined it's sufficient to link president putin personally and his commissioner for children's rights to these crimes being committed, particularly these abductions of children and
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forced assimilation into russia. >> in that same report blinken said the u.s. has formally determined that the armed forces on all sides of the conflict in northern ethiopia, all sides have committed war crimes. what's the best way for the u.s. to help administer justice and accountability there. one of our great international reporters, has done reports about the horrors going on there. what should the u.s. do? >> i think the conflict in ukraine has overshadowed what is going on in ethiopia. in many ways this has been a hidden conflict for a long period of time. i think the state department got it exactly right here. there have been climbs by ethiopian military forces and the defense forces as well. so i think the united states can push for accountability in the
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region, trying to put pressure on the ethiopian government and regional bodies like the african union to do more to try to ensure accountability arising from this conflict which has taken a horrific toll on the civilian population in that area. >> the biden administration announced another $350 million in security assistance for ukrainian force. the number one thing on ukraine's wish list continues to be fighter jets. in your opinion do you think it's time for the biden administration to provide those? >> this is probably venturing a little bit beyond my expertise. i'm certainly inspired by my dealings with the ukrainians in terms of their will to see this conflict through till the end. this is an attitude they've exhibited since day one. it hasn't flagged at all. i would like to see the united states and all of our allies
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being as supportive as we can in providing whatever types of assistance they need to maintain their defenses. >> clint williamson, thank you so much. appreciate your time. coming up, why miami beach could issue a stricter curfew during the height of spring break. a new conviction related to the january 6th insurrection as donald trump potentially becomes the first former president to be indicted on a separate matter. ne money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. oh! it's daylight saving time. what's the big deal? gasp! what's the big deal? what's the big deal? what's the big deal? ♪marching band music♪ ♪marching band music♪ i'll get a cart.
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a state of emergency in miami beach. two fatal shootings over the weekend prompting city officials to put in a curfew to crack down on unruly spring break crowds. carlos, local officials are discussing even more measures. what's next? >> reporter: jake, it's becoming increasingly clear that the city of miami beach is going to bring back that emergency declaration and with it that curfew. it's an issue that city commissioners are at this hour debating before a group of angry residents who want to see a good deal of change for a good part of miami beach. that curfew looks like it's
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going to come back to miami beach on thursday, the 23rd, and it's going to last through at least sunday, the 27th. what we're looking at is a midnight curfew that will last until 6:00 in the morning. there appears there's going to be additional restriction on the sale of alcohol. and hotels are going to be allowed to stay open, however, only able to service guests. we've talked to a number of businesses, workers up and down ocean drive where both of these shootings took place. everyone out here expressed a great deal of concern about the situation, not only this past weekend but in the weekends leading up to what happened out here. they all say they've already seen their bottom line, their sales, their wages, a lot of their money is being impacted because of all of this violence. city leaders, they stress, look, we understand that people's salaries are being touched by this, but so are people's lives. ultimately what matters to them at least in the short term is protecting the folks visiting
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south beach, miami beach from here through the early part of april when spring break is expected to wrap up. we heard one of the commissioners talk about this very issue. here is what he said. >> these aren't spring breakers, they're law breakers who don't respect police, don't respect law, don't respect innocent lives. i need to follow the recommendation of our law enforcement. when they tell me they need this emergency order to protect our city. this is not about dollars and cents, it's about law and safety and lives and safety. >> reporter: the city of miami beach has been dealing with this issue for several years now. one other item they're taking up is whether or not the city ultimately is going to have to produce metal detectors. that's something the chief of police as well as the city attorney said, look, we're not going to be able to do that in the short term, not able to do that over the next week or so. we can take a look at this issue perhaps for next year and the
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spring break that follows. but already, jake, there's constitutional arguments to be made here because a lot of the gathering is taking place in very public spaces including public parks. >> all right. carlos suarez in miami beach. still ahead, a look at how donald trump's lawyers are trying to fight back against any number of possible indictments in multiple cities. stay with h us. ♪ what will you do? will you make something better? create something new? our dell technologies advirs can ovide you with the tools and expertise you need to bring o the innovator in you.
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only from xfinity. the future starts now. everything's changing so quickly. before the xfinity 10g network, we didn't have internet that let us play all at once. every device? in every room? why are you up here? when i was your age, we couldn't stream a movie when the power went out. you're only a year older than me. you have no idea how good you've got it. huh? what a time to be alive. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. the future starts now. in our politics lead, six people affiliated with the far right militia group the oath keepers were convicted on charges related to the january 6th, 2021 capitol insurrection.
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kaittelyn polantz has the story >> reporter: these six weren't the leaders of the group. we've already seen those trials take place and the justice department earned convictions there for seditious conspiracy theory conspiracy. this group were convicted of the conspiracy to obstruct congress during january 6th. what these charges revealed and what the jury agreed with, what was convicted here is members of this group were moving together in a military-like fashion, moving toward the senate chamber. so this is the type of case -- it isn't the tip of the spear in the justice department's prosecution of members of the oath keepers, but yet another conviction they have secured, the third trial in a row where they've gotten convictions and able to highlight the risk of violence at the capitol on
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january 6th, that these people affiliated with the oath keepers were working together, they had a plot and coordinating getting firearms around the capitol building in washington, d.c. former president donald trump is criticizing prosecutors today after announcing he expects to be indicted as soon as tomorrow in the stormy daniels hush money case. he's staring down possible indictments in georgia and washington, d.c. let's bring in cnn's kara scannell and sara murray. kara, what's trump's team doing today to prepare for this widely expected indictment? >> reporter: trump's team has pushed the manhattan district attorney's office to call before the grand jury today a witness they think might be favorable to them, bob costello, an attorney that's represented several trump allies. at one point he represented michael cohen. costello was testifying before the grand jury for about three hours.
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he left just before 5:00. what he was coming in to say, according to trump's attorneys, is that he had information that could undercut michael cohen's credibility. cohen is the star witness in this case, the person that facilitated these hush money payments he said he did at the behest of donald trump. costello brought with him hundreds of pages of documents and including emails to say that cohen told him previously that he believed that trump had done nothing illegal. after costello left, we also learned that michael cohen who was here as a potential rebuttal witness, he left without testifying. his attorney, lanny davis says cohen was available for over two hours but he was not needed. it's not clear if cohen will be called back. we'll certainly be getting to the end of this with a decision likely soon. >> sara murray, you've been following the case in atlanta, georgia. we've learned georgia prosecutors are considering
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racketeering and conspiracy charges. trump's lawyers were in court today to slow this down. tell us more. >> reporter: this is another case where we're waiting to see if there are going to be any indictments. this is the first legal move we've seen by trump's team. they filed a very lengthy motion essentially trying to get a lot of the investigative work that's been done over months and months tossed out. they're have concerns with the way the grand jury was set up. they're saying the judge should throw out the special grand jury's final report. they're also saying you should throw out all the evidence that this special grand jury collected. all the testimony they got from the 75 witnesses should be trashed, and any documents they may have subpoenaed and had returned to them as part of the special grand jury's investigative work should also be thrown out. they're also asking for the district attorney who has been overseeing this case to be disqualified. it's a big swing are the trump team to try to get all or part of this case sworn out before
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there's even charges. >> trying to keep track of all these trump investigations. the one in new york, the one in georgia and this one at the federal level, katelyn. he's investigating two things, one is january 6th, the other is his handling of classified documents. tell us about that. >> reporter: you hear what's happening in new york and georgia. there's still a very precarious situation for donald trump in the mar-a-lago documents investigation that's been going on for a year. what has happened over the past few days has really put him and his team on the defensive. that's because the justice department had taken this extraordinary step to try and force answers out of his defense lawyer, evan cork rin. a federal judge agreed with the justice department on friday, that was judge howell in the d.c. district court. corcoran now is trying to hold off having to go back and testify to the grand jury and provide even more information about his private conversations
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with donald trump related to the classified documents at mar-a-lago after the presidency. that's a really big thing. we don't know what happened in that proceeding today or that hearing today. we do know that evan corcoran, his lawyer and a lawyer for trump were all at the courthouse for a short period of time. they're all under seal. every time we see these people, they are on the defensive and continuing the have to fight for donald trump against all of these on going criminal probes. >> it's tough to keep them all straight. we'll need some march madness graphics to keep track of this -- march maganess. you can copyright that. let's talk more with our panel. this was interesting. in his first comments about the case, ron desantis has been under pressure from trump allies, please say something, please defend -- maybe not please. you need to defend him, you need to say something. governor desantis, a potential rival did finally weigh in today. here is part of what he had to
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say. >> i don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn stoor secure silence over some type of alleged affair. i can't speak to that. i've got to spend my time on issues that actually matter to people. i can't spend my time worrying about things of that nature. >> ramesh, what's your take on that? that was kind of saucy, i thought. >> yeah. that rhetorical technique. i'm not going to mention even this this lurid story about president trump. i think he struck a balance. i think a lot of republicans are going to have no sympathy for trump's underlying conduct here but are also going to have questions about whether this is a political prosecution. he sounded both notes and i think he did it in a pretty clever way. i think he actually made the case against the politicized
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prosecution better than trump himself does because he's in more command of the facts. >> here is what he also did. he didn't defend trump, but he also pivoted to a culture war argument. as part of that comment he mentioned this is soros-backed prosecution which is on line code for anti-semitism and the idea that one of the world's biggest philanthropists who is a hole caught survivor is somehow running this investigation? >> let me come back to the soros thing, but i want to note one other thing, which is that donald trump did respond to this. he said on truth social ron desanctimonious will probably find out about false accusations and fake stories sometime in the future as he gets older, wiser and better known when he's unfairly and illegally attacked. even classmates that are under age or possibly a man, this is attached to a story about how when desantis was a teacher in his 20s, a photo of him with
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high school kids much younger than him -- possibly a man. what is he insinuating there? fake stories? >> some people are saying. my initial takeaway from that is that these guys are ready to bloody each other. they are ready to go at it. desantis is signaling that he's not going to come rush to donald trump's defense to preserve his front-runner status in the nominating contest. donald trump is saying, if you punch me, i'm going to punch you back and it's going to get nasty. and the soros stuff on the side, too, right? >> i think donald trump clearly needs to figure out how he's going to attack ron desantis. there have been talk about meatball ron, ron
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desanctimonious. now he's going high school locker room with this idea that somehow he might be gay and there are whispers about him. we'll see how effective it is. there's more to come. ron desantis who did very well in florida hasn't faced somebody who is sort of down and dirty in the way that -- >> but trump hasn't either. >> some races end up in the gutter. this one is starting there. it hasn't even started and it's already there. what strikes me about this is trump is not holding anything in reserve. he's already gone to about the most vicious attack. there are multiple lines of attack that desantis has to open on trump he hasn't taken yet. he's been very careful in not frontally taking on. today is as harsh as he's been. >> he doesn't need to. he has prosecutors in three major cities doing it. to the soros thing, george soros is a billionaire philanthropist, political activist, very progressive. through a network of non-profits
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soros has contributed more than $100 million to progressive candidates and causes just in the 2022 election. so he has helped elect progressive prosecutors, that is true. but obviously because he's jewish and a holocaust survivor, there are also people who use the soros thing as a smear. that's also true. here is desantis and kevin mccarthy, speaker of the house, both talking about that. >> i have not seen any facts yet, and so i don't know what's going to happen, but i do know this, that the manhattan district attorney is soros-funded prosecutor. >> this is a d.a. that got more than a million dollars from soros that funds for political purposes on who becomes a d.a. >> you automatically think that's anti-semitic to do that? >> i think it taps into something that exists online right now. criticize any philanthropist that you want. but when you specifically talk
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about soros giving $32 billion of his charities around world but you hone in on him as a holocaust survivor and then talk about the ol conspiracy theories about jews controlling the world, that's been there throughout the trump campaign. it's been there for weeks leading up to the news cycle. it's a quick catch phrase that signals to all their followers that, yes, this is an explanation for what's really going on with our guy, donald trump. >> we would see this on the other side, too. whenever sheldon adelson, who has since passed away, whenever he and netanyahu were doing things, they were pore trayed as puppet masters. people on the left would say it's anti-semitic. >> i view it as i view criticism of israel. it can be anti-semitic. we shouldn't let it chill our debate about it. in the case of soros, it's not just one going being singled out. this is the major funder of this
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campaign to elect progressive prosecutors around the world, a campaign that has been very successful and of course will be controversial. it would be unnatural to attack without mentioning soros, especially since soros has been a major liberal funder and has gotten to be a bogeyman for conservatives for years and years. i think it's important to try to keep your distance from the anti-semitic criticism of him. >> this points to a bigger problem of the fact that d.a.s have to be elected. there was recently a story about how former new york real estate mogul donald trump was one of the biggest donors to one of the biggest d.a. in new york. >> another disturbing part about this as well, the fact that some of the folks involved in the prosecutions are african american. sometimes you hear donald trump
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ranting saying these people are going after him because he's white. >> he calls them racist. >> right. he's the victim. >> there's been a 20-year campaign in the conservative movement to discredit george soros. i would say for anyone watching this, if you want to know what you're supposed to think of george soros, google the open society foundation, find out what causes he's given to. he's been part of progressive causes, also part of ensuring people have access to the pallet. the reason people have negative associations with his name is because of conspiracy theories. i think that's the trick. if you look at george soros' politics and say i don't like that, that's fine. if you hear his name and think it's something bad, i don't know what it is, it's some qanon thing, that's where the problem lies. it's important to do your homework. >> one other defense i thought was interesting from speaker mccarthy. take a listen to this. >> it doesn't matter what side of the issue you're on. it doesn't matter if this was
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president trump or if this was a democrat. there should be equal justice in america, and stop going after people because you have political differences. >> now, we should note that in response new york congressman dan goldman tweeted hillary clinton and hunter biden would like a word. >> who is he talking to when he says stop going after him? regular voters or actual lawyers working to uphold the rule of law. there are four separate cases in three different jurisdictions. that's not part of any political conspiracy theory. what it is is trying to hold the commander-in-chief accountable in the same way that anybody else in the united states would be accountable to the law. >> i guess one of the interesting arguments here is that there are more serious charges from special counsel jack smith on what's going on in fulton county and this one from bragg which is, as far as we know, based on misdemeanor,
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based on some accounting procedures. they clearly were trying to hide the hush money payment from the voters, and probably from his wife as well, but does it taint all of it? >> i think if you're pro-trump, you're going to try to use it to taint all of them, particularly if bragg moves first which is the way it's looking. this i think has a lot of the markers of a weak case. we're talking about something the federal prosecutors decided not to take. we're talking about something that bragg's own office declined to go forward with last year, and it led to a lot of protests. it has all the makings of a political prosecution. of course republicans are going to object to that. >> we should also just note, another issue, president biden issued his first veto today about a resolution to overturn a retirement investment rule that would allow managers of retirement funds to consider the impact of climate change and other environmental, social and governance factors when picking investments. basically it's people
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protesting -- the biden administration was trying to encourage what his critics would call woke policies in investment funds. the house and senate said no. biden is saying yes. this woke business -- >> whatever the hell woke means. >> considering environmental, governance and social factors when picking investments. joe manchin would say you should be picking what's going to make money. >> joe biden has been in a bit of a tough place trying to sort of be good on the tiermt. he has this other really loud chorus of conservatives screaming woke, they're screaming this about this bank, for instance, saying their woke policy led to the collapse of this bank even though it was about interest rates and general mismanagement. no. i think this whole idea of woke is going to be a big topic, a conf confusing, nonsensical one in the 2024 discourse among republicans. >> it's also tough to explain.
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we'll see how successful it is. it's difficult to explain what it all means. some people struggle to define it as well. thanks for being here. coming up, the murdaugh murder saga continues in south carolina. a body could be exhumed to see if the family was tied to that death. details next. hey david!d! connect with an advisor to create youour personalized pla. let's find the right investments for yoyour goals. okay, grgreat. j.p. morgan wealth m management. will you pause it real quick? (mumbles) just sold the car to carvana. all i had to do was answer a couple questions and got a re offer in seconds. then, they just picked up e car and paid me right on t spot. sellour car at carvana dot com today.
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in our national lead, the body of stephen smith, the teenager found dead in the middle of a south carolina road in 2015 could soon be exhumed. this comes two years after the investigation into smith's death had been reopened. that was because new information came to light following the 2021 deaths of maggie and paul murdaugh. all this renewed scrutiny over smith's death comes weeks after disgraced attorney alex murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife maggie and their son paul.
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cnn's dianne gallagher joining us from charlotte, north carolina. dianne, why is the murdaugh family linked to this case despite no connection made by police? >> reporter: so that's important, that no direct connection has been made by police. in part the reason why they're linked to it is because of a statement from the state law enforcement division they put out in june of 2021 where they said they were opening the death investigation into the killing of stephen smith because of new information that was gathered during the course of this double murder investigation of paul and maggie murdaugh. now, look, from that point on, we've seen rumors and innuendo. a lot of it has found its way into documentaries and podcasts and social media where rabid followers of that murdaugh murder trial began to talk about the stephen smith case. buster murdaugh, the only surviving son of alex murdaugh was a classmate of stephen smith
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and has been at the center of those rumors. he broke his silence today in a statement sent to cnn where he basically said he hadn't been talking about this at all because, look, his father was on trial for the murder of his brother and his mother, he's been grieving. he added these baseless rumors of my involvement with stephen and his death are false. i unequivocally deny any involvement in his death and my heart goes out to the smith family. jake, state law enforcement division has never, ever discussed what that information they gleaned from the murdaugh murders investigation was in terms of stephen smith. >> so what are the next steps into the investigation into smith's death? >> reporter: so there's two investigations now. one of them being that state investigation which we were told on sunday is still on going and active and the other one is a new private investigation that was announced today by the
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mother of stephen smith and her attorneys. and their first step they say is to petition a judge so they can exhume stephen's body. >> what we're going to do is start over. we're going to hire experts who are going to come into this case with a fresh set of eyes, with an open mind, without any preconceived conclusions. >> it's important to me because i just love my son. since i couldn't protect him, i'm going to fight for him. i want to thank everyone who has donated and supported us from the beginning. but i hope to find the real reason for stephen's death and the real why. >> reporter: look, the way she is likely going to pay for much of that, jake, more than $70,000 have been dounated to a gofundm
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so they can begin this independent investigation as well as attempt to afford exhuming the body of her son. >> dianne gallagher in charlotte, north carolina, thanks so much. the climate time bomb is ticking, and it may already be too late to reverse the damage. what you need to know, that's next. so no matter what the market's doing, he's readydy. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never s stops workig for you with merrill, a bank of america company. ♪ this feels so right... ♪ adt systems now feature google products like the nest cam with floodlight, with intelligent alerts when person or familiar face is detected. sam. sophie's not here tonit. so you have a home with no worries. brought you by adt.
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we know what is needed is the political will, and that is get off of fuel zip burn as soon as is humanely possible. of course giant oil companies and petro states have no interest in changing the status quo. that's why we haven't seen any cut in fossil fuel use in recent years, just a minor stop in the rate of growth, less than a percentage point. this report is calling for a 50% cut by 2030. just seven years from now, and a total cut by 2050, and that alone gives us a 50% chance of holding it at 1.5 degrees celsius. >> realistically, bill, can anything be done? is it just too late? >> it's not too late. it's never too late. it's a matter of how much is worth saving on the other side of 1.5 right there. it's the moral thing to do for rich countries. they can start by helping the developing countries not cut down the forest, helping coal towns transition in a humane,
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just way. there's so much that can be done. it's going to take everything and everyone in all aspects of life. these little things will add up. we can't give up on this, and there's so many incredible solutions right there for the taking. people will make fortunes on this new transition. it's just the big question about how long big oil and the lobby can drag out the fight, and how much life will be lost as a result of that. >> bill we, thank you so much. tweet the lead @cnn, if you miss an episode of "the lead," you can listen to from whence you get your podcasts, all two hours, sitting there like a delicious giant taco. our coverage with wolf blitzer, right next door in a place i like to call "the e situation roroom," see you tomorrow.
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