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Protesters & Police Clash at G-20 Summit; Trump, Merkel Meet at G-20 Today, Tomorrow Trump Meets Putin; Trump Criticizes Obama, Media, U.S. Intel on Foreign Soil; Trump Warns North Korea of "Severe Response". Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 06, 2017 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: About 12,000 people came out today. They're expecting more 100,000 over the next two days. So I think this is essentially a warm-up for what we're going to be seeing over the next three days.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. Wow. To hear that this is a warm- up, to know that night has yet to fall there, and that they are anticipating some 100,000 protesters.

Atika, you have been phenomenal. We'll come back to you.

Fred Pleitgen, we're going to pivot back over to you.

Fred, you were saying earlier it seemed to be dispersing, but just from the looks of our pictures, it's tough to determine that.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, no. You're absolutely right, Brooke. It seems as though things are a little bit more charged up again. The cops have moved in with more water cannon trucks here and there's a lot of people yelling at them now. There was actually one instance just a couple of minutes ago where we saw a bunch of ems personnel come through here, carrying someone on a stretcher who seemed to have been pretty badly injured. So it looks as though there have been injuries in this demonstration so far.

Another one of those announcements by the police, telling people to -- the area is going to be cleared away. As you can see, we're actually quite close to these water cannon truck. Maybe you want to get out of the way a little bit. Might want to move back a row or two just to make sure, case they start using those, we don't want to be in the front line when that happens. They're just telling people to move out of the way, that, otherwise, the police are going to kick into action again, that these water cannon trucks are then going to be used.

Stay around here. I'm sure you can still see the water cannon trucks over there. That's now the front line. The police seem to be moving forward. They've cleared the bridge over the overpass and there's some -- some of these folks out here who seem to be, you know, very aggressive at this point in time. You can see someone sort of wearing sunglasses, hooded. Someone putting gloves on as well. So the atmosphere is actually pretty charged here at this side of the protest -- Brooke? BALDWIN: Fred, what are police telling them?

PLEITGEN: Well, the police are telling them to move out of the way immediately. They say that they're not complying with the rules the police put in place for this demonstration to take place in the first place because all these demonstrations, they have to apply under certain terms and now the police are saying that they're not adhering to those terms and one of the reasons they're saying is because people are covering their faces. You can see people here wearing scarves over their faces, and that's something not allowed in German demonstrations. Police are saying, cut that out. And generally, they're saying this area needs to be clear so this demonstration can move forward. They're telling them to get out of the way and, otherwise, the police are going to move forward, which is something they've done. They've sort of cleared the area to both sides. Now they've moved some of their assets to this side to confront what they think are some hardcore protesters, especially the guys in black that you see here sort of standing in the front line, sort of confronting them right now.

BALDWIN: OK.

PLEITGEN: More of a standoff at this point in time. But there is quite a charged atmosphere.

BALDWIN: OK. Fred Pleitgen, thank you. We'll come back to you.

Atika, also in the thick of it as well.

Again, these are live pictures. Atika said it was three kilometers. That was roughly about two miles from the epicenter of the G-20. You have all these world leaders coming together.

We know that this is the eve of the all-important first face-to-face between Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and the president of the United States. We know that President Trump has just met with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

And so this is just gives you an idea of sort of the tale of two stories of two different versions of the G-20 there.

But I want to go back to substance with my panel. And David Sanger, I want to go back to you, because -- all right, we don't -- Asha, let me ask you this question.

Back to the president, today, directly questioned his own intelligence community there on foreign soil. I mean, you are former FBI. You know, even if you question the findings, to say that as he did, publicly, and abroad, that cannot go well -- you know, just over well with the intel community, the agencies.

ASHA RANGAPPA, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It won't go well -- over well with the intel agencies. And actually, that was music to Putin's ears. I mean, to have a president openly question the credibility of his own intelligence agencies, this is exactly what they want. And also what he said was not entirely accurate. He seemed to suggest that there was not unanimity among the intelligence agencies because there are 17 intelligence agencies and he hadn't heard from all of them. We have so many intelligence agencies because they all do different things. The National Reconnaissance Agency is not going to give a conclusion on Russian meddling because they monitor satellites. They don't monitor foreign intelligence activity. And so among the intelligence agencies that matter and work on foreign intelligence, specifically, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, there is unanimity. And so undermining their credibility in a foreign setting is not a good move. He really -- you know, that's -- we always expect our presidents to speak with one voice when they're facing the external world. And I think both at home and with regard to what's going to happen tomorrow with Putin, these are not good signs.

[14:35:25] BALDWIN: OK. All right. Thank you so much.

Mackenzie, your response to that? Again, the point I was making earlier, too, not only not holding -- he's not holding Russia accountable, right, and this is the day before he meets with Vladimir Putin. I mean, you advised a lot of Republican candidates. Your interpretation of that.

MACKENZIE EAGLAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's President Trump, right? So everything has a qualifier. And I would say he did do a little light, but at the same time, for him, it was his harshest criticism of Russia to date since taking office. So, perhaps, you know, that signals a desire to want to show some toughness with President Putin. I don't know. But if he talks about primarily Syria and Ukraine, as I expect he will, and not the election, then he's going to want to project strength and show toughness. Look, his staff, when I did brief them, said that candidate Trump was a self- professed federalist. He believes deeply in the concept of sovereignty, returning power to the states. But if you care about sovereignty, then you care very much about what Russia did to Ukraine by gobbling up territory that does not belong to that country and basically stealing it under the threat of violence. So, yes, I agree he went light on them. And look, President Trump needs the intelligence community to succeed. It's in his best interest. That's what he doesn't seem to get. This rocky relationship only hurts the president. It doesn't hurt the intelligence community.

BALDWIN: Well, yes. And you know, you bring up Ukraine, and according to administration officials telling CNN, and it's Ukraine and Syria that are really the top priorities ahead of this Putin meeting.

Mackenzie, thank you so much.

Again, you're looking at live pictures here in Hamburg. This is maybe two miles away from the epicenter of the G-20, with all these world leaders coalescing.

Fred Pleitgen is there.

Talking about water cannons, what are people tossing? PLEITGEN: Well, they're tossing, looks like throwing bottles. You

can see there's a bottle flying right now. Some were actually shooting fireworks at these police trucks as well and the police is responding in kind. They have the water cannon trucks sort of shooting at the folks here. So the situation here is just escalating. There's also a guy sort of sitting in front of the water cannon trucks and trying to stop them from moving forward as well. So, it's certainly escalated somewhat here. You can see they're using those water cannon trucks again. So the past couple of minutes certainly -- there we go.

Police seems to be trying to sort of clear that area. They've used these water cannon trucks pretty extensively, especially over the last hour or so and now really seems as though things might be escalating here again. As you can see, there's people sort of taunting the cops. Taunting the cops, throwing bottles at them. And the police are just sort of like pushing them away with those very, very powerful water cannons. I can tell you in the past, I've felt those water beams a couple of times and it's not fun when you get hit by those. They're pretty strong.

Yes. So here the situation right now is really escalating. You can see the guys are getting hit there by the water at the moment. At the same time, I don't know if you can hear it, Brooke, but the police are also -- they keep making those announcements. They keep telling the people to get out of the way. That's a legal thing here in Germany where you have to warn people of police action before the police actually goes into action. They're going to keep making those announcements. And every time they make the announcement, they also always name the time of day that it is at that point.

(CHANTING)

PLEITGEN: Now the crowd is cheering, "Go away, go away," to the police. And maybe we can move forward just a little bit to see if we can sort of get a little closer. That's some medics coming through here as well. Make sure that we don't get too close to this. But yes, as you can see, it's really --

BALDWIN: We can see the water.

PLEITGEN: -- a standoffish sort of environment at the moment.

BALDWIN: We can see the water. We can see the people with their cell phones, you know, filming it.

And let me just say, you know, I apologize for the middle finger that just popped up on TV. But listen, it's a frenetic environment and this is -- folks, this is live TV.

For people, though, Fred, who are just tuning in, again, this is the G-20. Several days there in Hamburg, Germany. Who are these people, and what are they protesting?

[14:39:49] PLEITGEN: We're going to move over here a little bit. You can see them right here. A lot of them are sort of anti- capitalist groups. One of the interesting things about Europe is that in Europe, a lot of these groups that are critical of governments here. They really have united in Europe as well. So you have folks here who come from all over the European continent and beyond as well. We've seen guys from Mexico here. We've seen some from America as well so there are a lot of organized left-wing groups. There's also, quite frankly, a lot of regular folks from Hamburg as well who don't like the G-20 necessarily taking place here. Have to watch out a little bit. But it is really -- people come from very broad backgrounds and from a multitude of places.

And you can see right now, the police really moving forward here right now. Really just going forward and sort of hitting everything in their path with those water cannon trucks. And these guys here, if you look at the protesters here, they're just screaming at them and sort of standing in the way.

But, yes, it's a multitude of people. And you do sometimes sort of have folks who you can tell are looking for a fight.

We're actually in a bad position right now. We've got to move out of the way, Brooke. There's folks throwing bottles behind us. We don't want to get hit by those.

BALDWIN: Yes. Please be careful. Please be careful, to you and your crew. Let me give you a pause, take a breath, you know, collect yourselves.

Fred, thank you so much. We'll come back to you.

Atika Shubert is also in the thick of this. She was saying this is just the beginning. They're anticipating some 100,000 people over the course of the next couple days.

Atika, where are you and what are you looking at?

SHUBERT: We're at the end of the march. The march has been able to continue. You can see the march moving forward, even though the water cannon is still at the front there, kind of trying to keep things in control.

I'll have my cameraman will turn around. You can see over there, right behind as well. So what they've done with the protesters here, contingent at the front and contingent at the back. The Black Block protesters, they worry about that when they go in. But for now, the march will continue.

BALDWIN: Atika, I'm having a tough time hearing you.

You'll have to forgive us. This is live TV and this is all playing out here in Hamburg, Germany. It's a mix of, you know, media, bystanders and, of course, a crush of protesters here at the G-20. About three kilometers -- Fred Pleitgen, let me go back over to you, because it was so tough to hear Atika. I think she was standing by. There was a pre-planned march in addition to these protesters, yes?

(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: Fred, you're live.

PLEITGEN: Hi. Yes, Brooke, I'm in the -- again, we have a situation right now. This guy's throwing bottles at the cops again. It's sort of kicking off here again. The police are moving forward. I think what we're actually going to do is go this way.

We have to go this way really quick.

Wait, wait, wait.

Sorry, Brooke. We kind of have to move out of the way really quick because the thing is we're in a bit of danger right now to get in between the police and the guys throwing the bottles. So, we kind of have to keep moving in this direction.

BALDWIN: Well, please move away. Let's get you guys to a safe place. Safety is the number-one priority here. I can just -- let's get you pulled away.

It's a tenuous situation. We want our crews to be incredibly safe as we try to cover, really, both threads of this G-20 story for you. The meetings of these world leaders here in Hamburg, Germany, and of course, these images that we've been watching play out on the screen for the better part of nearly an hour.

Fred, we still have your audio. Are you OK?

PLEITGEN: Hey, Brooke. Yes, it's all fine. It's all good.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let's have a conversation. We don't have to have you on TV.

PLEITGEN: I'm right here. That's OK. I'm right here.

BALDWIN: I see the water cannons.

PLEITGEN: Yes. Yes, exactly. So, we're -- I'd say we're about 50 yards away from that right now. There are some guys who set up barricades here. I'm not sure if they're going to be able to see those. So they've set up barricades here in the middle of the road. We'll just move over here a little bit. So they've sort of barricaded the road here and the cops are moving in with those water cannon trucks. So what they're -- it's clear that they're trying to clear the path as they come down here. Look at the amount of bottles and rocks and other things that are flying at them right now. And they're going to get up to this barricade at some point.

We're going to have to keep moving backwards, Brooke, because we don't want to get in a situation where we're in between the bottles and the cops shooting their water cannons. And I'm going to keep moving backwards.

The police moving forward really quickly. As you can see, they're also spraying to the sides because some of these areas, they have quite tall buildings on the sides so people -- sorry about that -- with people standing on them where the cops have been taking bottles as well. But right now, this is full-on police action that's going on right now. You have guys throwing stuff and running away. We have crowds running at us as the police move forward. But, yes, they're really, really using all their assets that they have right now just sort of plowing forward with those water cannon trucks. They have cops in full riot gear that are moving forward in the same direction as they go along. So you can tell they're definitely clearing this route right now, starting to push these people here are actually getting pushed towards the area where the summit is taking place. You can see this is sort of central Hamburg. This is part of the old town of Hamburg so sort of pushing them in that direction. Obviously, hoping to disperse the crowds.

We're going to wait for a second here. So it seems like the cops are going to clear that barricade that was set up. Now they're chanting, "All Hamburg hates the police."

[14:45:51] BALDWIN: Hey, Fred?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Fred, hang tight for me. We're just going to come back to you in a second. Because we have another vantage, I think, from up high to sort of see where you are.

Jeff Zeleny's our White House correspondent, covering, of course, the presidential visit in Hamburg.

But Jeff Zeleny, as we were talking substance, can you show me with your camera down below? I see you're perched up high. But can you show me where this is in conjunction to where you are?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sure. I am about -- I would say about 300 yards or so. And we'll see if we can pan over in that direction. Let me ask my excellent cameraman, Bill, here to pan over in this direction if we can. If you can see that.

And, Brooke, you can see some smoke in the distance there. That was black and billowing earlier. That has calmed down significantly. But you can see the images and the people along the river there. And I would say it is dissipated somewhat.

The one thing that I have had my eye on, and they weren't there nymph anymore, was a line of SWAT officers or something of that kind, tactical officers with white helmet on that were sort of blocking the way there. But you can see the bridge, and that's where Fred is reporting from, down there up that thoroughfare right there. So this is literally we're on a hotel rooftop, not far from there at all, Brooke. So you're getting a sense of what is happening from there.

But as of now, I do not see any fireworks we saw earlier. I don't see any tear gas we saw earlier. The water cannons that were flying, we don't see those as well. We hear helicopters overhead, some sirens in the distance here. But for now, at the moment at least, from this rooftop view, things

seem to be calmer than they were a short time ago. But Fred, of course, would be in the thick of it to see things directly up close.

BALDWIN: No, I appreciate you and Bill, your P.J., just for giving us the perspective. We can see all of Hamburg and the pockets of the city where --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: -- these protests have erupted.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Jeff.

ZELENY: And now we do see those fireworks again. Now we do see those fireworks again. And it's something potentially more than fireworks, actually, Brooke. We shouldn't say we necessarily know that there are, you know, American fireworks, of course, or something like that. It could be some other type of smoke bomb or tear gas. But it's something that is being set up and filling that area with a bit of smoke here.

And again, it's early in the evening. Brooke, we have more than an hour, about exactly an hour, until sunset here. Still very -- it almost feels like the afternoon here, Brooke. Very, very bright here. Police are standing by. They believe that these protests could go on into the evening hours, likely will go on into the evening hours.

The rest of the city, I can tell you, Brooke, people are running along the river there, riding bicycles. It is a beautiful night here in Hamburg.

But we can now hear protesters shouting there in the distance with, you know, a variety of different messages there, trying to get the attention of the G-20 world leaders gathered here in Hamburg -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: It's incredible. I'm going to guess those aren't decorative fireworks. Maybe you have Fourth of July of your brain. I think that's perhaps law enforcement, as you point out, some sort of flash bang or something set up in the sky.

ZELENY: Unclear, though. It looks like they're coming from more of a rooftop angle. So it's not the yellow -- it's not the orange tear gas we saw earlier from the flash bangs. It is different than that. So again, it's dissipating. And again, we should point out, still relatively peaceful as far as these protests go -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you, from Hamburg.

Still light out, nearly 9:00 at night. I think the sun doesn't even set there until around 10:00.

Let's talk more substance as we pivot back and forth between the pictures of these protests and these all-important world leader meetings.

I have standing by, Matt Qvortrup, author of "Angela Merkel, Europe's Most Influential Leader," and political science professor at London's Coventry University.

So, Matt, thank you so much for joining us in the thick of everything that we've been covering here.

You know, let me just read this. This is what you have written, that, "Merkel has been able to outsmart male opponents who have declared their hand too early."

Do you think that Chancellor Merkel will be able -- you know, that we know the meeting's over. But do you think she was able to sort of outmaneuver President Trump at all today, and how?

[14:50:14] MATT QVORTRUP, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, COVENTRY UNIVERSITY, LONDON & AUTHOR: I think she will do that. And, in a way, she's already done that by setting the agenda for the meeting. The agenda is to talk about climate change, to talk about international trade, and add to that women's rights. So those are not issues that Donald Trump is famous for loving. The way she will do it is she'll be very charming. She's somebody who has a good sense of humor. She likes Monty Python. So she'll be chatting away. And the way that she normally does it is that she will barrage people with facts. She's very articulate person who -- she has a doctorate in quantum physics, of all things. And she would give all these facts to Donald Trump and then she'll try to say that what she's actually achieving is the things he's been fighting for all along. That's how she dealt with Tony Blair back in the day. And that's how she's met with Putin and other leaders. This combination of charm, barraging of facts, and trying to get people to think that actually they have agreed with her all along. She has quite a good track record on that. And I think she probably used that to her advantage again.

BALDWIN: Matt, just a little bit of information we learned about their meeting. Apparently, it lasted a good hour. They talked about several foreign policy hot topics, the situation in the Middle East and the conflict in eastern Ukraine. This is according to a spokesperson. You wrote about her first encounter with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Tell me what happened.

QVORTRUP: That was just a few years ago. And she came up to him and said, I have 10 problems. My first problem is charisma. Do you think my chief of staff could shadow your chief of staff for a couple weeks so he could learn the ropes and then we can be all friendly. And Tony Blair said, of course, he could do that. He thought he was going to get an ally there. And the first meeting after that, Angela Merkel then turned around and negotiated a deal that Britain wasn't too pleased with. So basically, a lot of people will be charmed by her and then she'll be very, very shrewd afterwards. She's very much a Germany-first politician, although she dresses herself up very much like an internationalist.

BALDWIN: In addition to that, though, you also point out that she's an avid listener. Who could find common ground with her opponents? Where do you think she may try to -- where she may have tried to find common ground with President Trump.

QVORTRUP: I think where she will find common ground is over NATO. She has now committed to paying 2 percent of GDP to common defense, and she will say that she -- there will be common ground there. The devil will, though, however, be in the perennial details. The German definition of what counts as defense spending will be considerably broader and will be beneficial to German industry as well. But she'll try to say, well, I listened to you on the campaign trail and now we're doing exactly as you've said, but in addition to that or in return for that, as a quid pro quo, maybe you will reconsider international trade and a number of other issues. She'll also be pleased that Donald Trump has come out being unusually critical of Vladimir Putin, especially over Ukraine.

Also at the meeting, Angela Merkel will be meeting Vladimir Putin. Angela Merkel, of course, speaks very good Russian. She won the gold medal for best Russian speaker in primary school back in the early 1970s. And in that meeting, she'll be pressuring Putin to basically give way on Ukraine, as she has actually successfully done before. So she'll be quite pleased that Putin is not sort of just pally with Donald Trump, that Donald Trump has criticized Putin over Ukraine, which has been a thing that the Germans have been waiting for and wanting for quite some time.

BALDWIN: She speaks Russian and has a doctorate in quantum physics, Angela Merkel.

Matt Qvortrup, thank you so much for that --

QVORTRUP: Thank you.

BALDWIN: -- as we know that the Trump/Merkel meeting has wrapped. Thank you so much, sir.

As we stay on these pictures here of these protests in Hamburg, another one of today's big headlines, President Trump says he's considering severe options in response to North Korea's missile launch. This, as his defense secretary says the launch does not bring the U.S. closer to war.

Let me turn now to Jeffrey Lewis. He is the director of the East Asia Non-Proliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Non- Proliferation Studies

Jeffrey Lewis, nice to have you on.

JEFFREY LEWIS, DIRECTOR, EAST ASIA NON-PROLIFERATION PROGRAM, JAMES MARTIN CENTER FOR NON-PROLIFERATION STUDIES: Sure. It's a pleasure to be here.

BALDWIN: So, if North Korea actually fired at the U.S. homeland, can the U.S. military stop it?

[14:55:03] LEWIS: That's a really good question. I'm not sure anyone knows the answer, including the United States military. There's a missile defense system that's in place. But it's been tested fairly rarely, and has a pretty mediocre test record. The way the Pentagon approaches things, they'll throw everything they have at it and hope they get lucky.

BALDWIN: Define mediocre.

LEWIS: You know, they give it every intercept about a 50/50 chance but 50/50 really isn't a statistical measure. It's more of a who knows. The had they've had a lot of problems that are kind of common. The intercepters themselves are not terribly well designed and they've proven to be pretty finicky. So in theory, everything should work but just the reality is often they miss and it doesn't work when it's raining and other things like that.

BALDWIN: So, should. So I mean, so we don't know how certain the U.S. would be, then, in terms of having the U.S. knock down a missile.

LEWIS: No, not at all. You know, the reality is tests cost sometimes up to $200 million, so the system just can't be tested the way that you would want for a statistical confidence. And so the reality is there's a system in place, you know, it's designed to do this job, you know, people work very hard on it, but you just -- you're just never going to know. This isn't the kind of thing that you want to rely on. The way the Pentagon plans to do it is to fire four or five intercepters at every missile and just hope if you figure everyone is 50/50, you get lucky.

BALDWIN: Wow. I don't know how Americans would feel about those kinds of odds. I mean, in this time, Jeffrey, of uncertainty, is there anything the U.S. can do to prepare for any sort of worst-case scenario?

LEWIS: Well, at the end of the day, you just have to try to look at this problem holistically. I mean, I think we try to imagine that they're going to be military responses that will save us. So you imagine a missile defense system can solve it or perhaps you could try attacking the North Koreans. But I think at the end of the day, what we really learn is that we live in a world that's global and that we have a certain level of vulnerability that we just can't escape. And that means dealing with the fact that North Korea has nuclear weapons. And, you know, ultimately sitting down and talking with them, which isn't always that fun, and it's not a political winner. But if they have the bomb, what are you going to do?

BALDWIN: I mean, you know, I've talked to a lot of smart people on TV, talking about options on what you're going to do. I don't -- to listen to you, I don't know which is the most viable. I was talking to someone yesterday who said, well, here's the best of the worst, which echoes, you know, what I'm hearing from you. Is there concern that just the talk of U.S. military action could somehow provoke Kim Jong-Un?

LEWIS: Yes, sure. I think the thing we worry about is -- look, the North Koreans aren't going to wake up tomorrow and use their nuclear weapons against the United States or South Korea. Those weapons are there, they think, to prevent them from falling to a scenario like struck Saddam in Iraq or Gadhafi in Libya. BALDWIN: Right.

LEWIS: So the good news is they're not planning to start a nuclear war. The bad news is they're planning to use them very early if a war starts. So the thing most of us worry about is a miscalculation. If the president says something incautious that leads the North Koreans to think a war is imminent and they decide they need to go first because they won't have a chance to go second.

BALDWIN: All right, Jeffrey Lewis, thank you. James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Studies. Thank you for your time on North Korea. Appreciate it. Let's move on.

You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We begin with these massive protests that have been breaking out here in Hamburg. This is just about two miles from really this G-20 summit. This is from where President Trump has been meeting with world leaders. These are live pictures we've been looking at for the better part of this hour from Hamburg where German police have been using water cannons and flash bangs and tear gas. And we've also been watching these protesters throwing bottles and other objects right back.

Inside the summit, President Trump has already met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And tonight, he's in a closed-door meeting with both the leaders of Japan and South Korea.

So we have Jeff Zeleny standing by on a perch on a hotel above where some of these protests have been playing out. He's our senior White House correspondent traveling and covering President Trump for us.

We also have Frederik Pleitgen, CNN senior international correspondent, down on the streets in the thick of these protests as well.

Fred, let's begin with you this hour.

What's happening where you are?

PLEITGEN: Hi, Brooke. Yes, it's interesting. Right above the police right now, you can see the police water cannon truck. It looks like they're actually trying to get the truck moving again. They were sort of marching down here a little bit. That is remarkable after some of the stuff we've see. This is sort of the buffer zone the police have created.

If we pan all the way in the other direction, you can see back there, look at that sea of blue flashing lights. That's the other end of that sort of police perimeter that they built up. That's the buffer zone. There have been bottles flying. Different water cannon trucks you can see right here, right in front of us actually. Absolutely taking aim at people. Police have been using it defensively. These water cannon trucks usually --