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Report: Trump Nears First High Stakes Meeting With Putin; NYPD Cop, Mother Of 3, Killed In Unprovoked Attack; Star To Sand -- What Happened To Christie's Career? Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired July 05, 2017 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00] BEN JUDAH, STUDIED PUTIN FOR YEARS: Please remember about Vladimir Putin, as far as western leaders are concerned, he's seen it all. He first started meeting them when they visited St. Petersburg, when he was the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg and he's now seen four U.S. presidents. He's seen a lot more European leaders. And he's really immune, at this point, to sweet talk, sweet nothings about Russia's greatness, and for Putin, the most important things in the world are money, how secure my money, how influential is my money, and military grit, military girth. Like how many divisions do I have, how far advanced --
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Well, in a sense, the two would have that in common.
JUDAH: Well, I don't think that Putin is going to be very vulnerable to Trump talking up Russia's sort of role in the world. But from what we've seen about President Trump, he does appear to be very vulnerable to flattery. Now, if Trump wanted to be really, really, really brilliant, what would he do? What he would do is he would have a look at the initial KGB assessment of Vladimir Putin's character. This was done when he did the initial test to admit him into the KGB. Now, this test said that Vladimir Putin was not vulnerable in the slightest to women or alcohol or flattery, but he was vulnerable to a lowered awareness of danger.
BALDWIN: What's that supposed to mean?
JUDAH: It's supposed to mean that Vladimir Putin wouldn't realize how dangerous the situation would be, that he would charge ahead. He could be foolhardy, that he wouldn't appreciate the risks associated with certain power moves, with certain operations, and that he would behave in a rather more boyish way, not thinking ahead at the risk this could entail and not being sufficiently frightened of them.
BALDWIN: Do you think just at a very base level, does Putin respect Trump?
JUDAH: I think that the people that Vladimir Putin respects the least are ideological hypocrites, people who are very blinded by the talk of the 1990s, and those people are, a lot of them, middle tier officials and the middle tier leaders in the European Union. That's something they'll both have in common, that they will not have a great deal of respect for. Is Trump high on Putin's list of respect? I think we can safely say no. Is he at the bottom? Definitely not. Because, as Trump would remind us, he has indeed been very successful in achieving power in the United States and that's something that Putin will be impressed by.
BALDWIN: The meeting is Friday. The world will be watching. Ben Judah, you have been excellent. Thank you.
JUDAH: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Coming up next, a New York City police officer, mother of three, ambushed and assassinated while sitting in her patrol car. We'll talk live to the Bronx City Councilwoman who was at the hospital last night as the tragedy unfolded.
[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: New York police are calling a brutal attack against a fellow officer an assassination. She was officer Miosotis Familia, a 12-year vet who was on patrol in the Bronx, a vet of the police department, and a mother of three. She was shot in her head early this morning. Authorities say she was just sitting inside her command mobile -- mobile command vehicle with her partner when the gunman walked up and fired through the window.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! 10-85!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your location.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me a [ bleep ] bus. Give me a [ bleep ] bus. My partner is shot!
JAMES P. O'NEILL; NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: Based on what we know right now, it is clear this was an unprovoked attack on police officers who were assigned to keep the people of this great city safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The gunman here was later shot and killed by police. His motive is not clear, but with me now, Vanessa Gibson, New York City Councilwoman representing the Bronx. She also chairs the public safety committee. She was at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning. Vanessa, thank you so much for coming in. My heart weeps for the community, for this family she leaves behind. Tell me about her family. Let's talk about her in that sense first. Three children.
VANESSA GIBSON, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILWOMAN: Three children a 20-year- old and two twin 12-year-olds. A loving single mother, loved her family, loved her children, vibrant, energetic, just full of life. All the officers of the 46th precinct are devastated because they all knew her and they knew the work she had done and she was just doing her job. You shouldn't be killed in cold blood anywhere in this country just for doing your job.
[15:40:00] BALDWIN: From how it was explained to me from a friend of mine that she was sitting in this mobile command vehicle, this massive vehicle there at the corner, guy walks out of the deli where there had been a triple shooting some months before, one bullet.
GIBSON: Right.
BALDWIN: Cold good, assassinated. There was an officer who took her to the hospital. Tell me about that person.
GIBSON: She had a partner that was sitting in the mobile command center with her. That is the officer that made the 911 call that really is really hard to listen to, to hear her cries. It's really hard to listen to that because she was calling out for help for her partner and two officers that were in the area that got the radio call immediately ran to the mobile command center and raced her to St. Barnabus Hospital and the doctors there, experienced, professional, trauma center worked on her as much as they could, but ultimately her damages were just too extensive and she was later on pronounced dead a few hours later at the hospital.
BALDWIN: You left the hospital at 4:15.
GIBSON: Yes.
BALDWIN: In the morning.
GIBSON: Yes.
How crowded, how many people, how somber was that scene?
BALDWIN: It was packed. Unfortunately, as the chair of public safety and the city and she was later on pronounced dead a few hours later at the hospital.
GIBSON: It was packed. Unfortunately, as the chair of public safety and the city council, I've been to the hospital one too many times when too many officers have been killed in the line of duty. And this morning was no exception. The NYPD came out in numbers, officers from the 46 all over the borough, all of the top brass were there responding, praying. We had members of our NYPD chaplain there. We were praying because we knew her condition was serious.
We knew that she was shot in the head and her chances of survival were very minimal so we were praying for a miracle and officers there were just heartbroken, a lot showed emotion but some didn't. They were just sitting there, very stoic, waiting for just some glimmer of hope. I watched as her family walked in. It was devastating to get a phone call at that early hour in the morning to tell you that your loved one has been shot. So, it was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do, and I've done it before. But it never, ever gets easier.
BALDWIN: Vanessa, our condolences to the children, to the Bronx community, thank you so much for taking the time and rearranging your time to talk about her. Let me say her name again. Miosotis Familia.
GIBSON: May she rest in peace.
BALDWIN: May she rest in peace. Thank you.
And let's also take a moment right now to share this name of an American soldier just killed in Afghanistan. We are told private first-class Hansen Kirkpatrick died from his wounds. He was a member of the First Armored Division out of Fort Bliss. Hansen was from Wasilla, Alaska. He was just 19 years old.
[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: He was once a rising political star. Republicans begged for him to run for president, and now, Chris Christie is sunbathing with a 15 percent approval rating as the governor of new jersey. That number, by the way, is the worst for any governor in any state ever surveyed. Chris Christie, of course, pictured relaxing on a beach a couple of days ago, a beach he himself closed because of the budget crisis in new jersey. So, joining me now, the man who literally wrote the book on the governor, author and syndicated columnist Bob Ingle. He wrote the book, "Chris Christie, the Inside Story of His Rise to Power".
What happened? What went so wrong in his career?
BOB INGLE, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST & AUTHOR: Sometimes politicians get so full of themselves, they start believing their own press releases. And then they think they can do no harm and that's what happened.
BALDWIN: In "The Washington Post," you said that the photo of Chris Christie sitting on that empty beach with his family was essentially him giving the people of New Jersey, to quote you, you chuckle, it's pretty good, the giant middle finger.
INGLE: Well, you know, New Jersey people are used to doing that in traffic and other places, so it means a great deal more if you happen to live in the garden state. But that's exactly what it was. He wanted to show them how little he cares that he's at 15 percent, and he's governor, he can do whatever he wants to. But I tell you, I really think it does matter to him. I think this is a lot of put-on for show. I think it matters to him. I think he would like to be at least 20 percent.
BALDWIN: Well, what's interesting to me, and I realize New Jersey is not a microcosm for the rest of the country, but what's interesting to me is when you look at, say, President Trump versus Governor Christie. Your look at Christie with a reputation of being blunt, I'm going to tell it how it is. Plum president Trump, similar, the whole let Trump be Trump worked for him. Why do you think it didn't work for Chris Christie?
INGLE: Because when he started running for governor or when you - started running for president, he was out of the state a lot. That's one of the things that irked people. The other thing that happened was bridge-gate. There are a lot of people who believe that if he had gone for the nomination in '12, he might have gotten it. But he wanted to have a little more experience, he wanted to hang on a little longer. And then bridge-gate happened and it was all downhill from there. BALDWIN: Bob, he's out of the governor's seat in a couple of months.
What do you think he does next?
[15:50:00] INGLE: I think that he would love to work for the Trump administration, except he's got one problem. He put Jared Kushner's daddy in prison. So, that's --
BALDWIN: Right, that.
INGLE: Can you imagine Thanksgiving at the Kushner house if Trump had hired Christie on for something? The other thing he likes to do is get together with one of my former radio colleagues in New York, Craig Carton, he does a morning sports show, and I think he would like to do sports radio if anybody would hire him.
BALDWIN: Maybe we'll listen for him.
INGLE: Yes.
BALDWIN: Bob Ingle, thank you so much.
Coming up next, what began as a warm relationship between President Trump and the Chinese president seems to have cooled off a little as the world struggles with how to deal with a nuclear North Korea. We'll discuss where the relationship goes from here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:55:00] BALDWIN: North Korea has launched a missile that could reach the U.S. it has put a lot of pressure on the relationship between the president and Xi Jinping. If we look back in April, the president got to know president xi after a visit down to Mar-a-Lago and said this after their get-together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: China came to the United States, the president who I have developed a real good relationship with. I think he's a terrific person. I got to know him really well over a two-day period. We were together hours and hours and hours by ourselves. We had a 15-minute scheduled meeting and it lasted for three hours. The same thing happened yesterday. We have a good chemistry together. He knows there is a problem. He's working on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Just last week China signed up for an arms sale with japan and imposed sanctions on the China bay for doing business with North Korea. Plus, President Trump said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've had a very good relationship with China, in all fairness, and I do like President Xi. I wish we would have a little more help with respect to North Korea from China, but that doesn't seem to be working out. But I do like the president a lot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Let's go to David McKenzie who is live in Seoul, South Korea. What do you make of it, David? What is your read on the relationship between President Xi and President Trump?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, it was one of those big surprises of the Trump presidency. Going into the presidency, Trump wasn't particularly keen on China. He often bashed the country and then subsequently had this almost kind of chummy relationship with the Chinese president after lengthy meetings with him at his resort in Florida. But now North Korea again seems to be kind of the thorn in the side of this China-U.S. relationship, and after saying that China held the key or holds the key to sobering North Korea, perhaps it's getting a little bit complicated for the U.S. president and his diplomatic call. Brooke?
BALDWIN: What about China and Russia, David? They met this week. They said they would work together to solve the North Korea ICBM crisis. What sort of sway may China or Russia have with North Korea versus the U.S.?
MCKENZIE: Certainly, China and Russia have a much more direct way of North Korea. China is the biggest trader of North Korea, so it holds the key to this issue. But it has a different calculation to the U.S. you don't see Pyongyang directly threatening China. It's the only ally in the region, like it does the U.S. you heard the ambassador Nikki Haley saying the U.S. still wants to work with China, but said that countries that do significantly trade or break U.N. sanctions against North Korea will be in the diplomatic firing line of the U.S. so you have this difficult two-step that the Trump administration will have to try to play with China to get them on board to tightening the screws on North Korea. But they don't seem to be putting tougher sanctions on the environment. We'll have to see what happens.
BALDWIN: Now they're heading to the critical G20 summit. We'll take you there live. Stand by.
