Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Toronto Van Attack Suspect Charged with 10 Counts of Murder; President Trump Meets with French President Emmanuel Macron; Former President George H.W. Bush in Intensive Care; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 24, 2018 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00] ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- looking into that in terms of trying to determine that motive.

John, terror is for now being ruled out. But of course when you see the style of this horrific attack, all you can do is think of the other ramming attacks that we've seen all across Europe, over the last few years, and, of course, the one on Halloween in New York last year -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Alex Marquardt for us in Toronto. Alex, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, thank you so much for being with us. Look, they're not calling it terrorism. That's a whole separate discussion I suppose we can have in a minute. But what you see here is such a deadly style of attack that has been used by Islamic terrorists before in places like Nice, we saw here in New York City as well. Now it's becoming a weapon for even more people.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. In some ways people not affiliated with ISIS as far as we know now are using and learning the tactics that ISIS has essentially professionalized, mostly in Europe, which is to either rent a car or get a car and plow down an urban area either at night or as yesterday was during the day.

What was interesting and very terrifying about what happened yesterday was that at three different moments he sort of did the plow, right over the course of a stretch of a mile or so. It means that the crime scene is going to take a while as we heard yesterday. But it also means that his deliberate nature, this was -- you know, this was someone who was radicalized, right, and was terrifying but obviously was not radicalized by anything more than potentially other mass murderers, in particular Elliot Rodger, here in the United States.

BERMAN: Yes, every bit as deadly, every bit as deadly no matter how he was radicalized.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: Is there any way to protect against or defend against this type of attack? You know, big events we see the giant vehicles, trucks filled with rocks, parking off intersections. You can't do that every day on every street and every sidewalk.

KAYYEM: You can't. And honestly you don't want to. And that's the big challenge of living in open societies is that we actually have to accept a level of risk. To do -- to get the kind of security apparatus in place that would lower the risk of someone getting on a car would mean that we wouldn't live in cities anymore. At least not cities as we -- you and I have come to love. And so what you try to do obviously is figure out who might be getting radicalized work with car companies, you know, rental companies, make sure that you stop them from getting a weapon of mass destruction, so to speak.

And then also as we saw yesterday, it has to be said, the response of many, including the public, was really essential.

BERMAN: Tell me where this investigation goes and how it would be different if this were, you know, an Islamic terror attack versus this type of attack.

KAYYEM: Right.

BERMAN: Which, by the way, you know, it could end up being terrorism if he had some kind of political motive, if it was to emulate this guy from California and he had some ideology. That's terrorism, too.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. And, you know, there is a difference between terror and the law -- legal definition of terrorism. So this was clearly a form of terror. So what we do know now is that this is mostly a Canadian case. It may have United States implications because we don't know if he was in contact with Elliot Rodger, the person he -- beforehand, the person that he, you know, emulated in this case or if he only knew about Elliot Rodger from media reports.

But the good news is that when something like this happens, right, the entire world ratchets up, everyone's intelligence agencies are figuring out what's going on. They then can ratchet down now, knowing that this is primarily domestic event and the investigation will, you know, go to -- was there a triggering event, what was his motivation.

I should remind viewers, Elliot Rodger was motivated by a different form of hate. He was -- he hated women. And he said so. And so this will be very interesting in this case to see, you know, was there some triggering event that led to this attack.

BERMAN: Juliette Kayyem, great to have you with us today. Always an education. Appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

BERMAN: We're getting some new information in about the health of former president George H.W. Bush. We'll have an update next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:38:23] BERMAN: We're just seconds away now from getting our first look at the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and the French leader Emmanuel Macron. The two met with the official state arrival, the pomp and circumstance, the ceremony on the South Lawn.

Speeches from the two presidents, President Macron of France said the two nations must battle aggressive nationalism and defend multilateralism, which is different than we have heard from President Trump at times. We're going to hear from the two men shortly. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, they're all saying what a great relationship we have and they're actually correct. It's not fake news. Finally. It's not fake news. So it's a great honor. Great honor that you're here. But we do have a very special relationship. In fact I'll get that little piece of dandruff off -- we have to make him perfect. He is perfect. So it is really -- it is really great to be with you and you're a special friend. Thank you.

PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON, FRANCE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

I want to thank President Trump and your country, your people, for this very warm welcome. This wonderful ceremony. Indeed we, both of us, just reminded how great our common history is and that each time we work together in order to protect liberty and freedom and now peace.

And we have a lot of challenges ahead of us regarding our two countries. Terrorism, security, and a lot of other issues we will discuss, so we have a lot of work to be done together.

TRUMP: Right.

[10:40:08] MACRON: But I'm very, very honored and very pleased because whatever the context could be, this relationship is stronger than the events. And on top of it, we have an excellent personal relationship.

TRUMP: That's true.

MACRON: So I want to thank you for that.

TRUMP: Thank you.

MACRON: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What would you like to say about Iran during the talk with the president?

TRUMP: Well, we'll be talking about Iran, and we'll be talking about many things, terrorism, generally. But we will be discussing the Iran deal. I know the president wants to speak to me about that. We'll be discussing probably the Paris Accord and various other things. So we're going to have -- we have not much time to do a lot of discussing, but a lot of things will work out.

We have got a very special relationship. I don't imagine it's ever been closer in the history of our two countries, and that's a long and beautiful history. So we will be talking about a lot of different subjects, but the Iran deal will be one of them, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you willing to consider staying in the Iran deal?

TRUMP: We're going to be talking about it. We'll see. I mean, people know my views on the Iran deal. It was a terrible deal. Should have never, ever been made. We could have made a good deal or a reasonable deal. The Iran deal is a terrible deal. We paid $150 billion. We gave $1.8 billion in cash. That's actual cash. Barrels of cash. It's insane. It's ridiculous. It should have never been made. But we will be talking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And what about --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what about Michael Cohen? Are you considering --

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Stupid question. Go ahead, any other -- anybody else, please?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What will you tell the president about the Iran nuclear deal?

MACRON: (Speaking in foreign language)

What I just said is that the Iran deal is an important issue, we will discuss that. But we have to take it as part of a broader picture.

TRUMP: Sure.

MACRON: Which is security in the overall regimen and we have the Syrian situation. We have upcoming election in Iraq. We have stability to preserve for our alliance in the region. And what we want to do is to contain the Iranian presence in the region and JCPOA is part of this broader picture. Thank you.

TRUMP: It just seems that no matter where you go, especially in the Middle East, Iran is behind it. Wherever there is trouble. Yemen, Syria, no matter where you have it, Iran is behind it. And now unfortunately Russia is getting more and more involved. But Iran seems to be behind everything where there is a problem. And you just have to take a look.

You look at the fighters what's happening. You look at the fighters. Iran -- it is always there. And we're not going to allow certain things to happen that are happening. And the Iran deal is a disaster. They're testing missiles. And what is that all about? You look at the ballistic missiles that they're going and testing, what kind of a deal is it where you're allowed to test missiles, all over the place? What kind of a deal is it when you don't talk about Yemen and you don't talk about all of the other problems that we have with respect to Iran, especially look at what they're doing in Iraq.

You just take a look at what is happening in any -- virtually any place in the Middle East, Iran is behind it. So what kind of a deal is this where it wasn't even discussed? And I know John Kerry made the statement that he didn't want to discuss other things while he was making the deal. Despite all of the money that we gave them, he didn't want to discuss it because it was too complicated.

That's not the way to do it. Because it was too complicated. So we made this terrible deal, but we'll be discussing it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But Iranians say they'll restart their nuclear program if the deal --

TRUMP: We'll find out. You'll find out about that. Won't be so easy for them to restart.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, are you --

TRUMP: They're not going to be restarting anything. They restarted, they're going to have big problems. Bigger than they've ever had before. And you can mark it down. They restart their nuclear program, they will have bigger problems than they have ever had before.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

MACRON: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go, guys. Let's go. Everybody, out.

TRUMP: Excuse me? You'll find out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go, guys. Out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

BERMAN: You're watching the conclusion of that Oval Office appearance by the French leader Emmanuel Macron and President Trump, extraordinary melange, if I can use some French there, of topics there.

[10:45:09] Joining me to discuss, retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, CNN military and diplomatic analyst, and also Julie Pace, CNN political analyst, Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press.

Guys, there is the issue of the relationship between the two men, there's the issue of shouting down ABC reporter Jonathan Karl when he asked a question about Michael Cohen and the president calling it a stupid question.

But, Admiral Kirby, first and foremost, the issue of Iran there, the president, I think, making a little bit of news. He was asked whether or not he might agree to stay in the Iran deal, he made clear he hates the deal, he listed all the reasons why he hates the deal. And then he said if Iran restarts its nuclear program, that would be presumably if the U.S. pulled out of the deal, that they would have bigger problems than they've ever could have imagined.

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Yes. He said it won't be easy for them to restart and exactly that. It was a very threatening tone that he struck there with respect to Iran possibly restarting it.

One thing I would agree with the president on is he's right, it won't be easy for them to restart it, because the deal has been in place now for a couple of years and they have lost whatever breakout capability they once had. And I take great issue with what he said about Secretary Kerry.

Secretary Kerry said we didn't talk about -- he didn't say that it was too complicated to talk about missiles and the other programs and Iran's destabilizing behavior. The point of the deal was to take away their nuclear weapons capability. That was the whole crux of the deal. And if you started throwing in other things, such as the things he complained about just there, there was no way Iran was going to stick at the table. They were going to walk away.

The only thing that was going to be bartered and negotiated was their nuclear capability. So he's just fundamentally wrong on the history here, but he certainly has now laid out another fire and fury kind of comment with respect to their potential, you know, future restart, which I don't think is going to make President Macron feel any easier about the tensions that he just finished talking about in the region.

BERMAN: CIA director Mike Pompeo, in his confirmation hearing for secretary of State, confirmed that Iran is abiding by the provisions of the Iran nuclear deal insofar as he sees.

KIRBY: Yes.

BERMAN: Julie Pace, to you, Jonathan Karl asked a question that is very much in the news these days, are you considering a pardon for Michael Cohen, your personal lawyer who is being investigated by the FBI, his response, the president's response was, stupid question. Interesting.

JULIE PACE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that really underscores what we've heard from White House officials for the last couple of weeks, which is that the FBI raids of Michael Cohen's offices, the seizure of his materials is really getting to President Trump. Because he knows just how much access Michael Cohen has had over the years to his personal finances, to the finances of the Trump Organization, and so you see that, that frustration, that tension, and quite frankly the concern from the president really I think coming through there when he is asked that question.

This is one piece of this broader investigation that has really eaten at him perhaps more than anything else. And so I think he was, again, letting that frustration show publicly, but it is not a stupid question that Jon Carl asked. I mean, this is the president of the United States, his personal attorney who is now caught up in this investigation. It is a very legitimate question for journalists to be asking him about at this point.

BERMAN: Admiral Kirby, back to the issue of France and the United States. It strikes me that for President Macron, the friendship with President Trump is a means to an end. For President Trump, it's an end in and of itself.

KIRBY: Yes.

BERMAN: It seems as if what he cares most about is the appearance of a friendship, they're even joking about removing a speck of dandruff from the shoulder of the French president.

KIRBY: Yes. That's right. He believes, Trump believes it's all about relationships and anything can be done with a warm and friendly relationship. But to the degree that this is a actual friendship and I don't know that it really is, it is because Macron has put so much energy into building it and to crafting it. And he knows that Trump is a transactional guy.

Yes, he loves the respect and the homage, but he's transactional. And Macron is equally pragmatic as he approaches this relationship with Trump. He's very smart. He tweeted out his thanks last night for the Mount Vernon dinner. He's met with FOX News the day before coming into the country because he knows Trump watches FOX News. He's working this relationship very, very hard for very transactional pragmatic reasons.

BERMAN: And we will see them again shortly, they will hold a joint news conference. Who knows what the questions will be there and if the president will approve of them.

Admiral Kirby, Julie Pace, great to have you with us. Thanks so much.

KIRBY: Thanks.

PACE: Thanks.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, former president George H.W. Bush is in a Houston hospital. And we are getting new information about his health. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:54:08] BERMAN: New information this morning about the health of President George H.W. Bush.

Ed Lavandera outside the hospital where he is in Houston right now with the very latest on his condition.

Ed, we got an update just a little while ago. What have you heard?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there seems to be some good news emerging here from the hospital in Houston where George H.W. Bush was admitted Sunday morning. According to the president's spokesman, the president is alert, awake, and even talking about where he's planning on spending his summer vacation.

According to the spokesman, the president is determined to make it to Kennebunkport, Maine, where his -- anyone who has followed the Bush family for some time knows it is where they have spent many summers at the family home up there. And that President Bush is determined to make it up there once again.

Of course, this has been a rather scary 48 hours for the Bush family, just hours after the funeral service and the burial of Barbara Bush on Saturday.

[10:55:09] President H.W. Bush was admitted here to this hospital with a blood infection. In fact, according to a source close to the president, there were a couple of times during the day on Sunday where it wasn't exactly clear if the president would be able to come through the infection and battle it back. But apparently, according to a spokesman, he's starting to respond positively to the treatment that he's receiving here and is showing signs of being alert, awake and talking here this morning in Houston, Texas -- John.

BERMAN: Wonderful to hear that former President Bush wants to get to Walker's Point in Kennebunkport probably as quickly as he can.

Ed Lavandera, in Houston for us, thanks so much for the update.

So we have seen President Trump and the French leader Emmanuel Macron meeting in the Oval Office, and greeting on the South Lawn of the White House. This is them a little while ago walking through the colonnade to that Oval Office meeting. We're just minutes away from their official news conference. Questions to the two leaders. We'll bring that to you live. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.