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Hala Gorani Tonight
U.S. Delegates In DMZ To Prepare For Talks; Trump Still Aiming For June 12 Summit In Singapore; Malian Migrant Climbs Paris Building To Save Child; Former IMF Official Nominated As Interim PM; Ireland Votes Overwhelmingly To Repeal Abortion Ban. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired May 28, 2018 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:00:38]
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Live from CNN London, I am Hala Gorani.
Tonight, will they or won't they? It looks more and more likely that the North Korean summit President Trump canceled last week is back on. We'll
explore the questions.
Also, ahead, an unbelievable rescue, a man scales a four-story terrace building to rescue a dangling toddler. How France is honoring its newest
superhero.
Plus, torrential rains set off flash flooding so strong that these waters collapsed building. The latest on search and rescue operations in the U.S.
state of Maryland.
Well, the leaders of the United States and its nemesis North Korea could meet next month after all. U.S. teams are fanning out, working out the
logistics and the agenda. Remember when U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the meeting, well, that was last week, and we are in the
new cycle that we are in.
Now CNN's Kaitlan Collins tells us he may have changed his mind just as abruptly again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (voice-over): U.S. officials traveling to North Korea Sunday, the clearest sign that the canceled summit
between President Trump and Kim Jong-un may be back on.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We are talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We'd like to do it. We're going
to see what happens.
COLLINS: President Trump confirming the meeting on Twitter praising North Korea's brilliant potential to become a great economic and financial
nation, noting "Kim Jong-un agrees with me on this, it will happen."
The U.S. delegation led by former South Korea ambassador, Sung Kim, meeting with their North Korean counterparts in the demilitarized zone after a
surprise second meeting between the South Korean president and Kim Jong-un Saturday.
President Moon telling reporters that Kim committed to a summit with Trump and to a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a key
prerequisite for talks. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill expressing skepticism.
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I remain convinced that he does not want to denuclearize. In fact, he will not denuclearize, but he wants to give
up this perception that he is an open leader that is peaceful, that is reasonable.
SENATOR JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: I think the North Koreans realize that total denuclearization on their part is not in their national interest.
That is how they see it.
COLLINS: In a sign of uncertainty about the summits future, President Trump going after the "New York Times" Saturday for quoting a White House
official who said that holding the summit on June 12th as previously planned would be impossible due to timing restrictions.
The president insisting the official does not exist and is a phony source, but the remarks happened during a formal briefing organized by the White
House that dozens of reporters attended. The only reason the remark was not on the record was that the White House's insistence. The comment was
later confirmed in audio posted online.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: That was Kaitlan Collins reporting. There still hasn't been any official word that the summit is back on, but there is an enormous amount
at stake. North Korea has in the past bragged that its nuclear weapons could reach the U.S. Where are we exactly now?
Let turn to CNN's Michelle Kosinski at the State Department. So, Michelle, what are the odds? What are the chances that we are still looking at June
12th in Singapore?
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they sound pretty good right now just because the president has been so insistent. There is
this team as we've said in Singapore, a team in the demilitarized zone. One trying to nail down the substance and how do we move forward passed
that chasm that existed only a week ago over whether this should be a slow process of denuclearization or should it be quick before North Korea reaps
any rewards.
What does denuclearization mean anyway to each side? And then we have a logistical team trying to nail down the nuts and bolts of how this meeting
actually happened. So, with that kind of pressure from the top, with the president pushing this, even despite what his own aides have said publicly
and privately, it looks there is a pretty good chance that the U.S. will do everything possible to make this happen.
I find what's fascinating about this to be the question of how much does the U.S. give and what it's willing to accept input-wise from North Korea
to move this forward?
[15:05:07] I mean, for while the U.S. side was talking about what North Korea needs to show that they understand the denuclearization means, total
denuclearization, and it means rapid denuclearization.
Well, clearly, North Korea did not agree with that. So, now, just to have, you know, at least superficial victory of having a meeting at all is the
U.S. willing to bend a little debt on what it sees as denuclearization, you know, at least from the point of view of how North Korea views it before
they are willing to have this summit.
GORANI: Everything about this has been so unconventional. I mean, just the fact that we've had whiplash from its canceled, its potentially back.
We are not 100 percent confirming it.
Also, usually these big summits that deal with big questions, you know, you have advanced teams, you have working groups, you have mid-level meetings
before any of this stuff happens. It doesn't appear as though any of this really took place for this one?
KOSINSKI: Well, it hasn't. It's been like the biggest, strangest soap opera with the most at stake that we have ever seen in our lifetimes. So,
yes, the summit could happen. We just don't know what the parameters are now and how they changed.
Are they willing to have this summit just to have this summit or how much will they actually accomplish in these meetings? We just don't know. What
we do now is that this weekend North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, sat down with the South Korean president.
And coming out of that South Korea said, well, North Korea is, you know, willing to move forward that they are committed to denuclearization. We
don't still have a good sense of what that even means, though. So, what are North Korea's demands is going to be?
So, it could very well be that we have this summit and that the Trump administration declares it as a victory to even get Kim Jong-un to the
table, and yes, that will be something, but longer-term, whether this amounts to what the U.S. wants it to amount to is a whole another ballgame.
GORANI: Michelle Kosinski at the State Department, thanks very much. What is the end goal, that is a good question and also, what is the South
Koreans think right now?
CNN's Matt Rivers is joining us live from Seoul. We saw that surprise meeting after a cancellation of talks between South and North Korea over
the weekend. What -- I mean, what is the view of South Korean officials about, it is on, it's off, and it's potentially may be back on again.
MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You could say right from the very beginning, Hala, that no one has pushed for this summit harder than
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his administration, and so there was deep disappointment, right?
Just four days ago when the president out of nowhere, seemingly canceled this summit, there was a huge sense of a setback here in South Korea of
disappointment. All the work that had gone in, going all the way back to the peace Olympics as Moon Jae-in called it.
You know, the Winter Olympics here that that South Korea really took advantage of and used to kind of reset relations between North Korea and
South Korea, and yet then the summit gets canceled.
But what the South Koreans didn't do was just kind of sit back and say, well, that is that, and you have seen a concerted diplomatic push from the
South Koreans and North Koreans frankly, to make this summit a reality.
So, you saw that surprise meeting at the DMZ and think about how incredible that is, for the second time in a month, Hala, the two leaders in North and
South Korea met this last meeting happened just in the span of 24 hours.
A couple months ago that would have been unheard of and yet they made it happen. And so, what that shows you is that both the South Koreans and the
North Koreans want this summit to happen.
What you've seen the Americans do over the last several days shows that they too are willing to take the steps to make this summit happen. Now
whether it happens on June 12th, whether it happens at all, how successful it will be, these are all questions that we do not have the answers to at
this point.
But if we are looking at what is happening right now, take it all in totality, it shows that all the stakeholders want this summit to happen.
GORANI: Right. The question is, what's the end goal and what do -- what do different people depending on the side they are on think
denuclearization means. There are so many questions out there. We'll keep following it. I know a lot of journalists have not canceled their plane
tickets. Thanks very much, Matt Rivers in Seoul.
Now to something completely different, if you are afraid of heights, take a deep breath but do not look away because here is what a hero looks like.
(VIDEO CLIP)
[15:10:20]
GORANI: Malian migrant, Mamoudou Gassama, scaled four floors of a Paris apartment building to save a toddler dangling from the balcony. For that
heroic and extraordinary act, French President Emmanuel Macron invited Gassama to the Elysee Palace to thank him personally and by the way, tell
him that he will be granted French citizenship and he's been offered a job by the Paris Fire Brigade.
By the way, in the time it took him to scale four floors, there was one guy on the ground floor that did not even make it over the fence. Afterward,
Gassama explained he dared to climb the outside of the building and how he pulled it off. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAMOUDOU GASSAMA, RESCUED CHILD DANGLING FROM BALCONY (through translator): We came here to watch the football match at a restaurant, I saw a lot of
people yelling. Cars were honking. I got out and I saw the child who was about to fall from the balcony. I like children, so I will hate to see him
get hurt in front of me. I ran and I thought of ways to save him and thank God I scaled the front of the building to that balcony.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): How did you climb? It seemed easy.
GASSAMA (through translator): I got on top of a door and I managed to pull myself up from balcony to balcony and thank God I saved him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: It was arms and the superhero gym apparently. The story with a happy ending on several fronts. But what about the migrant experience more
broadly in France. Let's discuss that and this incredible rescue with the deputy mayor of Paris, Patrick Klugman. Thanks for being with us.
You watched the video like everyone else in your city, in the 18th arrondissement, what went through your mind when you saw it?
PATRICK KLUGMAN, DEPUTY MAYOR OF PARIS: Well, you cannot believe, but it is a true story. The mayor of Paris called Mamoudou Gassama the French
Spiderman from the 18th arrondissement. But Spiderman is a character in the comic strips and Mamoudou Gassama is for real.
And this guy who is a migrant, an illegal migrant in Paris did not ask himself for second if he would endanger his life. He just thought of
getting the child and saving the life of the child and climbing this building, the fourth floor of this building.
What he did is truly amazing for all of us, city of Paris, for the population of Paris and it allows us a new look of who is this migrant
crossing deserts sees to seek asylum, to find a shelter, but also saving lives of some child in Paris.
GORANI: And he was offered a position at a fire brigade in Paris?
KLUGMAN: Yes, the president, Emmanuel Macron, received Mamoudou Gassama earlier today and promised him first, to make him a French national and
also to be incorporated in the Parisian Fire Brigade, which I think a very good idea because, of course, the firemen needs brave mean able to climb
buildings and save lives.
GORANI: Yes. When you look at what he did it appears to me probably perfect for the job, and many others in fact. This is, of course, all
happening in a climate in France and across the western world that has turned quite anti-immigrant.
I mean, in France, the latest poll that over 60 percent of French people think there is too much immigration in France. Deportations are being
freeze under Emmanuel Macron. Do you think this type of story might change some minds?
KLUGMAN: If you recall a few years ago there was a picture of a dead little child after the Syrian disaster and it changed completely the
western look on the Syrian crisis. I think this kind of situation (inaudible) makes us think all of ourselves how we see these people and
what they can offer to us.
They not only here in the western world in France to take jobs or money, but they have a lot to offer, and these people are kind of brave -- they
are brave people. They are very brave and there are also some people that we can learn of not only that we have to judge.
[15:15:00] So, I think this Mamoudou Gassama story can turn a lot and we in Paris and the level of (inaudible) the maximum to find a shelter to every
people who are seeking some asylum and (inaudible) in the city our policy that no one should sleep
in the streets when you are in Paris. No matter where you come and the reason where you are seeking asylum.
GORANI: You are the deputy mayor of Paris and the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, as you mentioned tweeted her congratulations and saluted the heroism of this
young man, but what is the -- and there's the tweet by the way, were putting it up.
The city of Paris will obviously be keen to support him in his efforts to settle in France. What will the city of Paris do to reach out to this
young man?
KLUGMAN: Well, for instance, the firemen, Department of Defense, also from the city of Paris so we have the love to receive also this gentleman as
being a fireman worker soon and we can help him I think to find a decent housing because a lot of the social housing different from the city.
But it's not -- the decision has been made, but the decision of the office of the mayor is to look after this gentleman to make all we can do to make
him in a good situation in Paris because he did a tremendous accomplishment for Paris and for young Parisians.
GORANI: Because being undocumented means that he did this knowing that it could attract the attention and potentially get him deported.
KLUGMAN: Yes. But this does not rely on the city of Paris and we have a policy the same as in New York City, for instance, that everyone in the
city can have (inaudible) of Paris notwithstanding you are legal or not legal immigrants of the city, you have the rights to use certain
facilities, have access to certain services of the city.
And Parisians are not only French nationals or French or legal residence in Paris and this is very important for us. We are an international open city
and if someone is in Paris, the city of Paris has a duty to him and we have the duty to express our biggest gratitude to Mamoudou Gassama because what
he did for Paris and for young Parisians.
GORANI: It was really credible. It certainly spoke to many people all over the world. It has made headlines around the globe. Patrick Klugman,
the deputy mayor of Paris, thanks very much for talking to us about this young Malian who distinguished himself so heroically and saved this 4-year-
old.
Still to come tonight, Italy is in limbo after populace failed to form an acceptable government. Italy's political chaos next.
And voters in Ireland repeal a controversial ban on abortion by a landslide. How that victory has activists putting to Northern Ireland,
next. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:20:31]
GORANI: To Italy now where there is a major political crisis and it could affect Europe. The populist parties who won the election haven't been able
to form a government, and this comes after the country's president refused to endorse a Euroskeptic finance minister.
Instead he's asked a former IMF official, a bureaucrat, Carlo Cottarelli, to be interim prime minister until fresh elections next year. Confused?
Barbie Nadeau explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): The latest resort for Italy's political crisis is a man they called Mr. Scissors. No, not this one.
This one, Carlo Cottarelli, a former director of the International Monetary Fund, who earned his nickname "Mr. Scissors" for his severe cuts in public
spending has been given a mandate to form a caretaker government that will guide the country towards a new election.
He knows global markets are worried, but he says the economy is growing adding that he would guide a moderate government where in his role in the
European Union remains essential.
Cottarelli came to power after populist parties that won March elections on euroskeptic campaign promises failed to form a government. Steve Bannon,
President Trump's former adviser has been especially interested in the rise of populism in Italy, which is here to support.
STEVE BANNON, FORMER ADVISER TO U.S. PRESIDENT TRUMP: This populist movement is a global movement is to show the world that every day men and
women can take control of their lives, take control of their countries.
NADEAU: It is clear that this country is in political chaos staying in the eurozone, which is what E.U. countries that the euro as their currency call
themselves is no longer something people take for granted here.
I asked Italians in Rome whether they want to stay in or get out of the Eurozone. (Inaudible) as they say here. The Italians are clearly divided
when it comes to the Euro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, what does this mean for Italy, its relationship with the E.U.? Let's get more from Rome now, Barbie Nadeau is there. So, because
of all of this and because by the way, some of these populist parties have seen their popularity increase since the election. Should this be worrying
to Brussels, to the European Union, that this is happening in the region's third largest economy?
NADEAU: I think it is very worrying to the rest of Europe and I think that we saw that sort of pressure on this country's president, Sergio
Mattarella, when he vetoed this Euroskeptic minister of the economics really had been against the Euro from the start.
And you know, Italy, you have to think about Italy in the context as one of the founding members of the European Union, 1957, the Treaty of Rome, and
you have to question what has gone wrong and why Italians today see the Euro more as a necessary evil than something that's actually helping them
out.
GORANI: Is -- essentially, does it boil down to austerity because all these countries in the E.U. where austerity has been imposed on them to
redress these budget imbalances. It seems like the population blames Europe for that. That we are suffering enough, and we have to cut
spending, and this is making unemployment worse.
NADEAU: I think that is exactly what brought the populist party into power. They were tired of this austerity, and more than that tired of
Brussels telling them how to cut their budgets and you know, the Euroskeptic economic minister, one of his mantras is essentially do not --
to take the power away from Brussels, to give it back to the Italians to let them decide where they need to tighten the belt, where they need to
make cuts.
I think that is what we are going to see going forward is the struggle between the populist and the technocrats, those who think that they know
better for the country. And when this country goes back to the balance over the next election, I would be surprised if we wouldn't see a similar
result or if we wouldn't see those populist parties grow even more -- Hala.
GORANI: Well, certainly in many other parts of the E.U. their popularity is growing. Barbie Nadeau, thanks very much live in Rome.
[15:25:02] In Ireland, a landslide victory has supporters of abortion rights looking more. Two-thirds of Irish voters chose to repeal the Eighth
Amendment of the Constitution, which bans abortions in almost all cases.
Now the result represents a palpable change within the traditionally Catholic country and puts British Prime Minister Theresa May under pressure
to allow a vote on abortion in Northern Ireland, where terminating a pregnancy is still illegal.
As the results rolled in Saturday, abortion rights advocates held up signs saying the North is next. Let's look at what this result could mean for
Northern Ireland. Erin McLaughlin joins me here.
So, Erin, the question most people might have is Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. Why do they have different abortion laws than England or Wales
or Scotland's?
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question, Hala, and that has to do with the way abortion law is determined in the United Kingdom and
it's essentially set by the devolved parliaments, which allows Northern Ireland to have more restrictive laws or actually the most restrictive law
in all of the United Kingdom.
It's also why, in part, it looks increasingly unlikely that abortion laws will change in Northern Ireland any time soon. Even though campaigners are
hoping to build on the momentum from the weekend in Ireland.
Now, it's also put a lot of pressure on Theresa May given the fact that Northern Ireland does not have an assembly. In fact, it hasn't had an
assembly for the past 18 months after a power-sharing agreement collapsed.
Many even within Theresa May's own party are looking at the British prime minister to have Westminster step in with some sort of legislation or
perhaps a referendum, something that Downing Street says will not happen if the issue of abortion is for the devolved parliaments to decide.
GORANI: But so, there is no border between Northern Ireland and Ireland so previously if an Irish or a woman in the Republic of Ireland wanted an
abortion, she would go to England, let's say. Now, if someone in Northern Ireland would want an abortion once the law changes in the Republic of
Ireland, they just drive south, right?
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, that's right, but campaigners want to still see that change in Northern Ireland. Interesting, though, to note that public
opinion in Northern Ireland is deeply divided, conservative Catholic, fundamentalist Protestants, do not want to see the abortion laws in
Northern Ireland change.
Other people feel differently although they perhaps might not want to see the kind of drastic change that we've seen over the weekend in Ireland,
perhaps they want to see the law changed to allow abortion in the case of say, for instance, rape, which again is currently illegal in Northern
Ireland.
So, public opinion deeply divided, it would be up to the assembly, which of course, does not exist, had it existed it is entirely possible that
Democratic Unionist Party would block it.
GORANI: Right. And they are supporting Theresa May's government. Thanks very much, Erin McLaughlin with the very latest on that. The times,
though, they are certainly changing in terms of abortion laws and the Republic of Ireland will see if that migrates north.
Still to come tonight, it seems to defy explanation, the U.S. government has lost track of 1,500 undocumented children across the U.S. border,
alone. It arranged their housing, but it says it is not legally responsible for them.
And on this Memorial Day in America, we meet a veteran who was there when thousands died. He remembers the Pearl Harbor attack every day and he
wants to make sure others do not forget. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:58] HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Well, maybe for saying it's a complete outrage prying migrant children from the arms of their
parents and separating them as they cross the U.S. border, asking for asylum. The scenario has happened hundreds of times in recent months as
the Trump administration cracked down on illegal immigration but also on asylum seekers, because some of these people are asking for asylum at the
border, that's when their kids are taken away. Officials have defended the policy as a deterrent that it gets more blow back the president is now
blaming Democrats.
Mr. Trump tweeted over the weekend, put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from their parents once they cross
the border into the U.S. Now, that's hard to square with what his own attorney general said just weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: If you're smuggling a child then we're going to prosecute you. And that child will be separated from you
probably, as required by law. If you don't want your child to be separated, then don't bring him across the border illegally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: That's Jeff Sessions, the U.S. attorney general.
CNN's Rosa Flores is covering the story from San Antonio, Texas and joins me now live. Is it the law to take children, babies sometimes, away from
their parents if they cross the border?
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Hala, this new policy definitely shines light on that particular issue, because what Attorney General Jeff
Sessions is talking about there is that once a case goes through prosecution, then it's part of that process the children are separated from
the parent that is going through the justice system in the United States and so that creates the separation, that then sends children to detention
centers and deems them -- children that don't have a parent. So that's where all of this conversation is happening because there's a lot of
questions about the U.S. government taking children from their parents when they've already lost 1,500 of them.
GORANI: Right. And with the 1,500 that were lost these -- we're not talking about the same kids here separated at the border, right? That's
another group of children.
FLORES: So those 1,500 and that number comes from a federal agency checking on the sponsors and these children back in December. They checked
on about 7,600 of them and they couldn't find 1,500. And so the way that the process works is once that child is deemed accompanied, then a federal
agency has the responsibility to place child in the custody of a parent or of a relative or a non-parent, non-relative and so that's where the
discrepancy is. They checked on these children and they don't know where they are.
GORANI: But how does this compare, the separation of children from their families at the border? How does this compare to what happened during the
Obama administration?
FLORES: You know, this is not a situation that is isolated to the Trump administration. This problem has happened for generations, really, because
any time that there is a separation of a parent due to prosecution, this has happened. Now, Hala, I should mention that under the Obama
administration, a Senate committee investigated this issue because there were real concerns about the efforts of federal agencies and if their
policies and procedures were appropriate and adequate to keep these children safe. And the answer -- and there's a 2016 report that says that
those policies and procedures were not adequate, that they were inadequate because this subcommittee found that in multiple cases, children replaced
in the hands of human traffickers or ended up somehow in the hands of human traffickers and so since then, they've implemented new policies here in the
United States to check backgrounds, to check fingerprints and to check sex offender registries, which really raises eyebrows, because even after doing
all of that, here we are with 1,500 children that are still unaccounted for in the United States of America. We have a lot of policies, procedures,
databases across this country, federally at the state levels. And so a lot of people are wondering. The United States of America, how can this
country lose track of children that were in their custody?
[15:35:49] GORANI: Right. Thanks very much, Rosa Flores there in San Antonio. And let's bring in White House reporter, Stephen Collinson to
help us to understand what's going on.
And the Obama administration deported more people than I think the two administrations before his combined, right? Is this new though now the
repaying a part of families, the taking away of children at the border?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I think what you're seeing is there is a new and stated policy that the Trump administration will treat
asylum seekers and undocumented migrants that come across the border through prosecutions rather than necessarily refugee and asylum
proceedings. That's why this is a big issue right now, because it begs the question of what is going to happen to presumably many more children that
are going to get brought since the United States and separated from their families and then sort of go into the system and not be accounted for. I
think that's why this moment, this is such a pertinent question and it's raising questions about whether for all its desire to be tough on
immigration, for political reasons after all this is the issue that set the fire under Donald Trump's campaign, where the United States has a morale
duty even to people that were brought across the border illegally, children who are separated from their parents. What duty does the United States
have to these young children?
GORANI: I mean, it just seems heartless, to be honest, obviously, internationally there's been a lot of reaction to this. The idea that you
can have a border agent take from the arms of its other, a baby, place it in the system do that many times a day , do that over and over again, even
to asylum seekers who for -- they're doing it right. They come to the border and say I'm persecuted or I'm afraid for my safety. I'd like to
seek asylum in the United States. What justifies this kind of action is what many people are asking abroad?
COLLINSON: Well, that's a humanitarian question for many people who support Donald Trump. This is a political question. There is support
among Trump's political base for a hardline to stop people coming into the country. You saw in that previous report there, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions, his warning that if you bring your children across the border, you're likely to be separated from them was intended to cut down on border
crossings. It's understood the president himself is getting increasingly frustrated with his difficulty in getting that border well built. People
are still coming across the border.
And as I said, this is the key issue of the Trump campaign. So this is the humanitarian consequence of the hardline on immigration that is the center,
the very DNA of the Trump administration. The question politically is, whether these reports about sort of so-called missing children, whether we
get footage of children being separated from their parents is not going to change the political argument. We've already got Democrats. This week,
they're going to start holding rallies asking, where are the lost children? So I think this is something that's going to really explode in the run-up
to the midterm elections in November.
GORANI: But when you hear how the president, how some in his administration describe immigrants, you know, perhaps among his supporters,
there is a feeling they don't deserve to be treated with respect or with humanity. I mean, is that something that - is that something that is being
said what critics are saying or what the Trump administration that the way he describes them is any humane, and so therefore treating them in an
inhumane way might be acceptable?
COLLINSON: I think people who support Trump take the position that if you don't want to be separated from your children, you shouldn't bring them
across the border and you shouldn't come into United States illegally, having bit of many Trump election rallies and seen the way that the
president's rhetoric on this --
GORANI: But they're not all illegal, right? Some of them are asylum seekers.
COLLINSON: Right. But the people who support Trump generally don't make that distinction. Trump has cut down on, for example, the number of
refugees that are coming to United States. His whole political method is based on the fact that the culture and the country of the United States is
under threat from people who are not Americans coming into the country. So this is part of that. And then that's just part of the Trump political
persona.
[15:40:25] GORANI: And that's entirely political, because obviously evidence doesn't at all support the fact that America is under attack from
any immigrant ways.
Stephen, I want to show you and our viewers, you've seen this. A tweet by Ivanka Trump that some are calling tone deaf, because as we've been
discussing, children ripped from the arms of their mothers. Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter posted this picture with her son yesterday. And
one critic responded, isn't it just the best to snuggle your little one know exactly where they are safe in your arms. It's the best, the best
right Ivanka. So at the same time, you have this type of messaging coming from the president's daughter.
COLLINSON: Right. And this has created a social media storm. Today is a holiday in the United States, Memorial Day, so the political activities not
particularly intense. But I'm sure that it's going to be a major story heading into this week. The Trump administration's critics and the critics
of the president's daughter so this is yet another indication of her being completely out of touch with political reality even though she is a member
of the administration. It's not as if she was just a family member of the president who's being sort of highlight in this way. As a member of the
administration, she deliberately posted this picture, either it shows sort of indifference or questionable political judgments at least.
GORANI: Stephen Collinson, thanks very much for joining us.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
GORANI: They marched into hell, so America could know the blessings of peace and die so freedom could live. Those rolls from President Donald
Trump today as he marked Memorial Day in the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
GORANI: You see the president there placing a reef of the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington National Cemetery. He paid tribute to fallen service
men and women and said their memories would live on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To every family member of the fallen, I want you to know that the legacy of those you lost does not
fade with time but grows, only more powerful. Their legacy does not like a voice in the distance become a faint echo, but instead their legacy grows
deeper, spreading further, touching more lives, reaching down through time and out across many generations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Among those who travel to the U.S. capitol for Memorial Day is one veteran and he survived his own health. He was there when Japan attacked
the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. CNN's Dianne Gallagher told us even now the memories are still fresh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A day that still plays out in the mind in Ray Chavez.
RAY CHAVEZ, PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR: Every day.
GALLAGHER: Seventy-six years later.
CHAVEZ: I saw all the ships on fire and terrible smokescreen through the harbor and covering the ships.
GALLAGHER: At 106 years old, Chavez is the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor veteran.
CHAVEZ: It never good in a way. All what you see and learned. And that's the way I am. I remember, and then I forget, and remember again.
GALLAGHER: Remembering, it's what brings Chavez to Washington, D.C. this weekend. Although he did meet President Donald Trump at the White House.
CHAVEZ: I looked forward to it because I didn't vote for him, and I enjoyed meeting him. I was pleasant enough to have me right next to him,
when we were seated.
GALLAGHER: Chavez traveled across country from San Diego to D.C., stopping in Kansas to refuel and meet the fellow veterans, to attend the 158th
Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. He and his family are the guests of Defense Secretary James Mattis. But the navy veteran
says more than all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding his visit, his focus is on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It's the act of
remembering that it's most important this holiday weekend.
CHAVEZ: National Remembrance Day, because it's very important that the younger generation know and learn at the beginning of the war.
[15:45:09] GALLAGHER: Vice President Mike Pence spent part of his Friday at the TAPS Good Grief Camp, but the younger generation that knows the
consequences of war all too well. All of these children have lost their loved ones who served in the Armed Forces.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A room full of heroes.
GALLAGHER: And many will spend part of their Memorial Day here, in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, remembering their fathers, mothers,
sisters and brothers, veterans of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and post-911 conflicts.
CHAVEZ: I would do it again if I was called to active duty. But chances there than never.
GALLAGHER: Ray Chavez hopes that he can honor the memory of those he served with.
CHAVEZ: And then we won't forget that because I met with some real fine young men.
GALLAGHER: And the sacrifice of the men and women who came after as well.
Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, there is some major leap extreme weather climbing the United States. One man is missing in Maryland. The floods have toppled
buildings, upended cars. We'll have all the details next.
And in Hawaii, more people are forced from their homes as the Kilauea volcano shows no sign of stopping. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: In Maryland, one man is missing after flashflood waters poured through the streets of Ellicott City yesterday, Sunday. We're looking at
the -- and this is really the wrath of Mother Nature herself. Violent flashes of water snatching away cars, trapping residents and triggering a
state of emergency. Suzanne Malveaux has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I know this area well Ellicott City. This is where my parents live, but outside of the historic
district on higher ground, but here, people are describing this as devastating catastrophic, historic even, even worsen what they saw back in
July of 2016. That this flooding happen so rapidly, so quickly that it just lifted cars and just had the water gushing down main street,
catapulting into buildings. Buildings collapsing, people just simply running for their lives. If you'll just push on here to see the aftermath
of the devastation. I had a chance to talk to one of the officials here who said that there's one person that is missing, hopefully they are OK.
But amazingly no reported fatalities or serious injuries. There were 30 rescues that happened overnight. The old courthouse came down, folks,
restaurants putting SOS signs, flags outside of their place of businesses. Even a wedding party that we ran into. The couple saying their vows, but
did not make it for the reception, had to run and escape as quickly as possible.
So far, no one has being led back into their homes or businesses until they can figure out what is safe, what is not safe. There's gaping holes in
some of the streets where the water and the mud and the debris has collected. The gas has been turned off because of a gas leak. All of this
happening in a very short period of time. What is even more tragic is 96 percent of the businesses that had been devastated just a couple of years
ago were actually back up and booming, 20 more new businesses have also been placed in the area that was a lot of whole peer and the rebuilding
effort, even a $1 million grant from FEMA to do additional flood warning systems in place that was supposed to start next year. All of this upended
as people try to figure out what to do next.
Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Ellicott City, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[15:50:50] GORANI: Some of these images are incredible, giant cracks in the earth, flaming rivers of lava, founds of molten rock. Hawaii's Big
Island is a paradise that is utterly transformed. A new fast-moving lava flow sparked immediate evacuation yesterday.
And take a look at these incredible pictures. The Kilauea volcano is seen from space. Twenty-four cracks have opened up in the grounds since Kilauea
erupted more than three weeks ago. Clearly visible from that high up.
The plastic items we use every day have become a disaster for the environment, from cutlery, to bottle, to drinking straws. We are
surrounded by this stuff. But so are our beaches that is becoming a catastrophe. It's estimated that every year, eight million tons of plastic
ends up in our oceans and it doesn't readily biodegrade. On Monday, Europe began to take action unveiling plants to ban many single-use plastic items
by 2025. Right now, just 10 times of plastic items make up 70 percent of all the litter in EU waters and shores. Of course you have those items
that you can choose not to use like straws and the rest of it. But then other are very difficult not to depend on.
And CNN is doing its own part. We are marking World Oceans Day next week by asking students around the world to have a zero plastic lunch and lunch
with no single-use plastic items. For more on this initiative, go to cnn.com or use the #ZeroPlasticLunchDay.
More to come including flying or maybe floating through Paris. This could be what your taxi looks like the next time you visit the City of Light.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Well, they've never sold alcoholic drinks until now. Today, Coca Cola released its first-ever alcoholic drink range. However, there is a
catch. You can only buy them in Japan. The soft drink giant ends the tap into that nation's growing market of young drinkers, especially women. The
new range includes three lemon flavored alcopops -- alcopop, I guess -- okay. I thought that was kind of like an ice cream. And they're at
offering a sweet alternative to beer. Coca Cola says there are no plans to release the new products outside of Japan.
Imagine commuting to work with no traffic and a view of the Eiffel Tower, as startup in Paris is making it a reality. Our Melissa Bell tells us more
from the Seine River.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's the SeaBubbles and it just landed in Paris. Its designers hope it
will be the taxi of the future, not only in its French homeland, but in as many as 250 cities worldwide that might choose to use their waterways as a
new ecofriendly urban pass way.
[15:55:17] ANDERS BRINGDAL, CEO, SEABUBBLES: Well, it's a boat but it's an ecofriendly transport system that we have designed. It's to try to help
limit the situation that everybody's in traffic jam, the city is polluted city and they're trying to get rid a little bit of that. You leave no
wait, there's no sound and there's no pollution.
BELL: They call it a flying water car and the idea is only two and a half years old, it was ramped up by the team behind a catamaran that has been
breaking failing records, thanks to its elevation out of the water.
BRINGDAL: We're coming from dream into reality. We're a startup company. So when you start a startup company and they had a great idea. This is how
it's going to work and everyone goes, cool. And then once you actually show it to them, then this is the next step right now. Well, we have to
take this into how can we now deliver thousands of these boats around the world.
BELL: As you can see, the SeaBubbles gave a fairly smooth ride. Now, there's still so many obstacles for the people trying to get these out on
to the rivers onto the world, things like the regulations that exist on the main waterways inside big cities. Things like finding operators to make
them available commercially to a vast number of people. But they didn't believe that it can be done. And that this will soon provide you with a
smooth ride from the Eiffel Tower that we've just passed taking you ease down this end in a matter of minutes avoiding the dreadlocks of Paris'
street in favor of the fluidity of its river.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, that's going to do it for me. I'm Hala Gorani. Stay with CNN, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is next.
END
