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Interview with Representative Francis Rooney; How Capable is North Korea's Missiles?; Interview with Brian Austin Green; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired July 06, 2017 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:31:45] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. These pictures from moments ago, President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump arriving in Hamburg, Germany.

This is the G-20 Summit now. In about an hour the president meets with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and then tomorrow, perhaps the most high stakes meeting of this trip, he sits down face-to-face with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin.

Joining me now to discuss, Republican Congressman Francis Rooney of Florida. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Before I get to the trip here, I want to bring up something Congressman Lieu said just moments ago, sending his thoughts and prayers to Steve Scalise and his family, the House majority whip who's been admitted back to the hospital in intensive care.

I know you've dined with him the night before he was shot. Do you have any update on his condition?

REP. FRANCIS ROONEY (R-FL), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: I don't have an update other than what you have. But my thoughts and prayers are with Steve and his family. Let's hope that this infection is dealt with expeditiously. He continues his recovery. He's a great American, a great patriot, a great father. Yes.

BERMAN: And he's a fighter. He's getting terrific medical care. Again our thoughts are with him.

All right. President Trump, earlier this morning, he was in Poland. He was asked again about Russian election meddling and he said nobody knows for sure. He goes, yes, I think it was Russia, it could have also been some other countries.

Congressman Adam Schiff was the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, just put out a statement. He says that what the president says continues to directly undermine U.S. interest. This is not putting America first, but continuing to propagate his own personal fiction at the country's expense.

Your reaction, sir. ROONEY: That might be good for Mr. Schiff, but I don't think it's

appropriate. I think it's actually fails for proportionality and blows it out of proportion. I think there's co-action and certainly disinformation are routine intelligence tools that virtually every country that's in the intelligence business uses. And regardless of whether we may feel badly about what Russia did, we haven't seen any tangible effects other than bugging the DNC. Well, not bugging, but hacking the DNC.

BERMAN: Right. But the idea nobody that knows for sure whether the Russians meddled in the U.S. election, do you agree with the president? Because his intelligence agencies and leaders, including political appointees Mike Pompeo and Dan Coats, they say the Russians did this.

ROONEY: Yes, I have heard that. And I'm not surprised. I think people spy on people all the time. You know, when Angela Merkel turned out to have been spied upon by us, you heard the Spanish say, well, I tell you what, if there's spying going on around here, we're in on it. You know, that's the nature of espionage.

I just think we need to say, OK, they tried to do that, they tried to disinform and destabilize around the world. And maybe we're smarter than them in not wanting to publicize what we do.

I also have a personal feeling of the culture of the Slavic strongman that Vladimir Putin emulates going back to the old Kiev roots that I think he probably wanted to make sure everybody knew he could do that.

BERMAN: Is it worth, you know, the culture of the Slavic strongman, as you put it there, your words, is it worth confronting someone who abides by that culture, mentioning to Russian President Vladimir Putin when he sits down tomorrow with President Trump that hey, stop it, don't do it?

[10:35:02] ROONEY: Well, I think I take the position that the Russian activities were more about Putin and less about Trump and Clinton. And if I were Donald Trump, I hope what he'll do is focus on establishing a strong relationship with President Putin based upon defending our national interests.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: The president today --

ROONEY: I think we have a great opportunity to engage -- we have a great opportunity to engage Russia in the North Korea problem.

BERMAN: Look, there's North Korea, there's Syria, there's Ukraine. All hot spots around the world where there needs to be both U.S. and Russian involvement. Today, and really the clearest terms yet when he was in Warsaw, the president sent a message basically saying stop the destabilizing activities around the world. Your assessment of that comment.

ROONEY: I think that was a really good comment. First of all, it defines our view of their actions, which relates to our strategic interest. And the other thing is what I hope, and maybe I'm optimistic, that sets the stage for Russia to maybe take a different tact on some things.

BERMAN: Does that include, by the way, election meddling? I mean, isn't election meddling destabilizing inherently?

ROONEY: No, I don't think it was destabilizing. I think President Trump won the election fair and square.

BERMAN: Winning and whether or not it's destabilizing, you know, can be two totally different things. And we have another country meddling in your election system, forget the United States, what about France? What about other countries where Russia has been accused of such things? You know, is that kind of intelligence operation destabilizing?

ROONEY: Not unless they can prove that it did something. Trying is what intelligence services do all the time. Cyber attacks, like I say, submersion, disinformation. Those are the tried and true tactics of intelligence. Every country does it.

BERMAN: Again --

ROONEY: If you don't have any impact --

BERMAN: Well, whether or not there was collusion doesn't necessarily mean there was impact or whether or not votes were changed doesn't mean there was an impact.

You know, again, all of our intelligence leaders say it happened, it worked, they weaponized it to an extent they never had before. But I heard your argument there.

But I want to get you on North Korea for one moment here because you brought up the importance of that crucial moment here. How do you want to see the president navigate this over the next few days.

ROONEY: Well, I hope that he makes it clear to both the Chinese and the Russians that what he said earlier today, that there's no option off the table to prevent this madman from menacing the Western world, and particularly the United States and its allies. That should set the stage for diplomacy to work. I believe diplomacy works best when it's accompanied the potential hard power.

BERMAN: Congressman Francis Rooney, a lot on the president's plate. We appreciate your time today, sir. Thank you so much.

ROONEY: Thanks for having me on.

BERMAN: All right. He disappeared 80 years ago. Now a newly discovered photo could help solve the mystery about what happened to Amelia Earhart? Could that be her in this blurry photo after she disappeared over the Pacific? We'll investigate next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:42:27] BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Trump says he is considering what he calls some pretty severe things after North Korea launched a missile that could potentially hit the United States. What exactly, though, is the North Korean regime capable of?

Tom Foreman explains.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What this tells us, John, is that the North Koreans are going full steam ahead. They are on course to have a record number of missile tests this year. More than a dozen already. And each one is steadily expanding our sense of how far they can probably send some part of their arsenal.

The latest one a real milestone. Analysts saying now for the first time they believe that they would be capable of actually reaching on to U.S. territory somewhere up here in Alaska.

So let's take a look at this missile and talk about what we're dealing with here. This is a life-sized model of it, not terribly tall, a little more than 50 feet. So it's about as tall as a basketball court is wide. And even if you believe what the North Koreans said about it, it didn't fly that far horizontally, less than 600 miles.

So why is everyone so excited? Because of how high it went. The altitude of this thing took it way, way above the International Space Station and, if we believe everything we've seen here, it came back under some sort of control to a splashdown. That speaks an awfully lot about their advancements in propulsion and in guidance.

So where do we stand now? In terms of range, we have to give them a green light because they've shown now for the first time they can launch an intercontinental missile of some sort. They have to replicate it. But yes, they keep going this way, they could hit places in maybe Hawaii eventually, maybe even places in the Lower 48 if they keep making progress.

What about accuracy? Now this is a yellow light. A caution light here. They have not yet proven that they can make something fly this far and necessarily hit what it is aiming at. That is also a big hurdle to get over there. And remember, they had some big failures in their missile tests earlier this year as well. And the really stopper of course is the last one here.

The purpose of an ICBM, quite frankly, is to carry a nuclear warhead. And there is no indication that they have yet been able to miniaturize a warhead and make it reliable enough to be carried by any of their missiles.

But still, consider all of this, put it all together, and you still have to say, they are making progress on all these fronts in a very worrisome way for the rest of the world -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Tom Foreman for that.

[10:45:02] Things get a little heated at Wimbledon. One player flips out on an umpire and gives new meaning to the phrase "cheap shot." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. A Russian tennis player in hot water at Wimbledon for throwing coins at an umpire in a fit of anger.

Coy Wire has more on in this morning's "Bleacher Report" -- Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John.

I have never seen anything like this before in tennis. Daniil Medvedev was not happy with the umpire throughout his second round match at Wimbledon with Ruben Bemelmans. You see Medvedev arguing calls with the umpire. Did this the entire match. Even told her at one point to her face that he wanted a new umpire.

Well, after he lost, Medvedev opens up his wallet and throws coins toward the umpire's chair as he's walking down where he threw away more money than just those coins because he has reportedly been fined $15,000 by the International Tennis Federation.

[10:50:05] All arise. Court is in session. And once again, we hear the case of Aaron Judge and whether or not the Yankee slugger is in fact human. The 6' 7", 280-pound beast threw out his league leading 29th homerun of the season, tieing the legendary Joe DiMaggio's Yankee rookie record for most homeruns in the season. Now DiMaggio needed 138 games to make this mark happened. Judge needed just 81. Watch him in the homerun derby in Miami on Monday.

How would you like to earn $400,000 every time you posted on Instagram? That's what soccer star Christiano Ronaldo makes every time he makes a sponsored post. The "Bleacher Reports'" Instagram posted "Instagram Rich List." Singer Salina Gomez sits at number one with $550,000 per sponsored post. The only other athlete in the top 10 was LeBron James coming in at number 10, $120,000.

Now I just posted this picture of me from the '90s during my (INAUDIBLE), hoping to get some takers for sponsorship. I will post for wings, I will post for cold beverages. I will never forget how much I love the '90s or that I once had hair -- John.

BERMAN: Saved by the bell, Coy Wire. That picture is phenomenal.

All right. Thank you for that. You made my day.

WIRE: You're welcome.

BERMAN: All right. On the subject of the '90s, this Sunday CNN is hitting the rewind button with the original series "THE NINETEES," which journeys through the most iconic moments and influential people of that decade.

One of the most memorable TV classics at that time, undoubtedly, maybe of all time, "Beverly Hills 90210." Here is a sneak peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the '90s, you suddenly had shows that were aiming at a young audience. One of the things that really made "90210" stand out is that it was one of the first dramas to really get into the teenager's point of view.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have protection?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course. That's always been my problem. Lots of protection, but no one to protect.

DARREN STAR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, BEVERLY HILLS 90210: I wanted to do a TV series that was going to be relevant to teenagers. And it's not about the parents solving the kids' problems, it's about the kids basically solving their own problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are we supposed to do, sit him down, have a kid-to-parent talk?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you can't talk to parents on that mature a level. Tragic but true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the '60s had Beatlemania, the '90s had "90210" mania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now is one of the stars of "Beverly Hills 90210," actor Brian Austin Green.

Brian, thanks so much for being with us.

BRIAN AUSTIN GREEN, ACTOR, BEVERLY HILLS 90210: How are you, John?

BERMAN: That was some really -- I'm great. That was such a deep analytical take on "90210."

GREEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Do you think it was something quite that serious, looking at being a teenager from a teenager's perspective?

GREEN: It was --

BERMAN: Or was it just hot people in California?

GREEN: Well, there was no Internet at the time so it was something new. You know, people want to know about Beverly Hills and I think because we were, like, you know, kids could follow us in school and in life. It meant something.

BERMAN: Yes. It's really interesting to hear that perspective. Again I was in college at the time so maybe like one or two years older than the target demographic. But we all watched. I mean we all went to the TV to watch what was happening every weekend.

GREEN: Yes. BERMAN: And in some ways, you know, the characters were all sort of

arch types of, you know, teenage angst as it was.

GREEN: Yes. Yes. Yes, we tried. We had one of everyone. So we had the sports guy, we had Dylan with the cars and my character with rap music and, you know, we were trying to cover everything.

BERMAN: You mentioned, and this had never occurred to me, that it was sort of before the Internet took off. Do you think life -- do you think life for teenagers, you know, in the '90s when that was on, how different do you think it is than it is for them today?

GREEN: I think, as a cast, we were lucky that the Internet didn't exist because, you know, like we had for paparazzi, we had like two photographers that were sort of covering everything. And they would develop pictures and sell them. And it was a different time. So we got away with a lot.

BERMAN: Do you think we're at a moment of '90s nostalgia? Obviously CNN is running this whole series of the '90s and you can see the promotions and you're just -- you're just taken back, you know, to these moments watching Al Gore and Bill Clinton run in short, short shorts, for instance.

GREEN: Which, by the way, I think Ian had those shorts. So --

BERMAN: He may still have those shorts.

GREEN: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, for all we know.

GREEN: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: I think when you have it, you never quite get rid of because no one will take them. But do you think this is a moment of '90s nostalgia?

GREEN: I think, in general, like shoes, everything sort of, you know, going back to older stuff and the oldies but the goodies.

[10:55:04] You know, I mean, I have just last week threw out my CD collection because I was like, you know, I don't have a CD player in my car anymore.

BERMAN: That's so funny.

GREEN: Or CD player at home. I don't have a CD player in my computer.

BERMAN: My wife and kids gave all of our CDs to our -- my wife, you know, gave our CDs to our kids and they were like, what are these?

GREEN: Right.

BERMAN: What do I do with them? GREEN: Right. I was passing -- I was passing Amoeba Music out here

which they sell videos, and I was like videos? Who has a video player? Like who can watch these, you know?

BERMAN: The olden days of the '90s.

GREEN: The olden days.

BERMAN: Brian Austin Green, star of "90210." A pleasure to speak to you. Thanks for bringing us back.

GREEN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: And everyone, make sure to check out CNN's new series, "THE NINETEES." It airs Sunday 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right, the G-20 Summit in Europe. The president has arrived right there. He meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel very shortly. And then tomorrow, the high stakes meeting with Vladimir Putin. We will take you to Hamburg, next.

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