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Signs of Escalating Trade War Come From India; Some Immigrants Not Aware Of Zero Tolerance Policy; Trump Claims Separation Is Democrats' Fault: It's Not; Hundreds Arrive In Spain After Week At Sea; Mexico Stun Reigning Champions Germany. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired June 18, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:12]

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: We need a country that governs with heart. U.S. First Lady Melania Trump weighs in on the U.S. immigration controversy and she doesn't seem to be siding with her husband.

A very different immigration story in Spain as migrants celebrate after their boat docked safely in Valencia.

Germany's football supremacy challenged as the defending world champions fall to Mexico.

Live from the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I am Cyril Vanier. It's great to have you with us.

Anger, frustration, disbelief, growing across the United States over the treatment of undocumented immigrants crossing into the country from Mexico. Families are being torn apart as a result of the Trump administration's policy to prosecute all people crossing the border illegally.

Some 2,000 undocumented children are being held in temporary shelters without their parents. On Sunday, Democratic lawmakers went inside some of those facilities. This is what one senator said afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR JEFF MARKLEY (D), OREGON: They call it zero tolerance, but a better name for it is zero humanity, and there's zero logic to this policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Meanwhile, a Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke from the border state of Texas led a protest to another site holding some unaccompanied children. He said responsibility for this situation falls on everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS: Things have to be really bad for you to leave Honduras, travel 2,000 miles, if you are lucky on top of not inside of a train known as the beast with your child, to literally take you and your child's life into your own hands and hope you will make it here.

Once you get here to request asylum only to find your child will be taken from you, and it's inhumane, and I would like to say it's un- American, but it's happening right now in America right now and it's on all of us, not just the Trump administration. This is on all of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: The Trump administration is defending the policy saying its doing more to enforce legislation that was already on the books. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted, "For those seeking asylum at ports of entry, we have continued the policy from previous administrations, and will only separate if the child is in danger. There's no custodial relationship between family members or if the adult has broken the law.

Our Dianne Gallagher toured one of the centers, this one houses more than a thousand children and this is how she describes it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I am in McCowan, Texas. Behind me there you see the Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center. They have a greater intake when it comes to processing undocumented people coming into the United States than any other in Texas.

And as it stands right now, under this new zero-tolerance policy from the Trump administration, they -- right since that policy went into effect, say that 1,174 children have been separated from their families while leaving this facility since that policy went into effect.

Now I went inside and took a tour myself, and, look, we should go ahead and stay, and this was a tour guided by border patrol agents. So, we saw what they wanted us to see in this case, but we did get a chance to talk to people who were being held in what I can really only describe as cages.

We are talking about 12-foot chain-link fences here, some of them housing single adult males and others single adult females, and then you go into a warehouse room where you see families together, younger children are with either a father in one pen area or a mother in another pen area there.

We had a pen inside where there were so many young boys. Some were undocumented minors, and some were teenagers they were keeping out of the family units. But at this facility, they are only here for -- there's supposed to be here for a maximum of 72 hours.

Some of the people I spoke with told me they've been here four or five days, but this is a temporary facility. They move on to either federal court if you are an adult or under the zero-tolerance policy the children move on to a government holding area or a group home or some other facility until they can, a., be reunited with their parents or, b., figure out what the next step is.

I spoke to a woman from Guatemala who had her 1-year-old daughter with her, she'd been separated from the group that she came across the border with. She said that she was unaware of the zero-tolerance policy.

She started to cry saying it was a very difficult journey here and she was worried with the people she came with she had been separated and left behind.

[00:05:08] There is some high emotion in there. A lot of the children, those unaccompanied minors that I spoke to, they told they were there by themselves. They were happy to be out of the elements, one boy said, but they are just sitting there.

It's a little sad to see young children, three, four, five years old with their father or mother sitting on a concrete floor or a metal bench while they have these mattresses that are piled up in these 12- foot chain linked pins.

So, the senators came down here as well touring another facility on another part of Texas, and they are trying to bring attention and awareness to see if they can put political pressure on the president to put an end to this policy or to say stop doing it because it's not a written law at this point.

VANIER: Let's talk about this with Ellis Henican, joining us now. He is a columnist for "Metro Papers" and a best-selling author. We've also got political analyst for CNN, Andre Bauer, a former lieutenant government of South Carolina.

Andre, to you first, Donald Trump keep saying this is not his doing. That he inherited this situation from the Democrats, but this is demonstratively false.

ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He did inherit this from the Democrats and Barack Obama --

VANIER: Not the separation of children from their parents?

BAUER: It plays great for politics, but at the end of the day, we are a nation of laws and we can't accept everyone that wants to come in to our country. It has become a great pawn to use children as a vehicle to say --

VANIER: Wait, OK, who is using the children here?

BAUER: The people that are coming across the border illegally when they know in fact it's illegal to cross our border.

VANIER: Yes or no, does the president have a choice to separate them from their parents or not? BAUER: The children have the biggest choice to endanger them in the first place to come across in an illegal set of boundaries, when they know there are dangerous people involved, they choose to put their children in harm's risk from the beginning of this.

So, let's really find fault where the fault is and that's people that choose to break the first law by entering the country. That's why we are the grand country we are because we have laws that we all live within. I would like to not pay my taxes for the last year, but there's consequences.

VANIER: All right. I want a yes or no answer from you, is this a stain on the president's record?

BAUER: Absolutely not. This is a stain on people that don't want to live within the laws that made our country the greatest in the world.

VANIER: Ellis, listen to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The children, the children who can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately. The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: So, Ellis, this comes to the same point, Donald Trump says he hates this but his administration started doing this.

ELLIS HENICAN, POLITICAL ANALYST: So, do something about it. Change it, with the poke of a Twitter finger or stroke of a pen he can change it by the time the segment is over. This is heartbreaking, right? Just actually saying the words yanking children away from their parents. No decent person can say that and not feel bad.

Melania Trump was expressing concern about it. Kellyanne Conway said it caused her great stress. No decent American can let it continue and say hold on, this is not who we are.

VANIER: Can you address Andre's argument that the parents of those kids are putting everybody, the United States and their kids in this situation by bringing their kids illegally across the border?

HENICAN: Well, listen, it would be great if there were no reasons to have to flee the violence and horror of their homelands and seek freedom in America. The world would be better if we didn't help those things going on in the world, but that's a reality, people come for a variety of reasons.

Most of them highly, highly sympathetic reasons, vulnerable people and coming here for the same reasons that our ancestors came here. It's a reality, we are a big and wealthy important country and we have to deal with it, yes, by providing border security and provide decency -- BAUER: We're not wealthy. We are $20 trillion in debt and trying to

solve the word's problems. Law abiding citizen in the U.S., if they put their own children in danger the Department of Social Services will come and take those children away from the parents. Again, they are doing things that put their children at risk from the onset of bringing them over here.

VANIER: But Andre, I suppose the -- I mean, I think everybody can agree that you have to just decide where to draw the line, and every country has to draw the line somewhere. Those borders are there for a reason and need to be protected. I think everybody can agree on that.

[00:10:08] But the question -- the thing that has people up in arms, and by the way, the first lady among them, it seems, is that we are talking about kids, who are less than 4 years old for some of them. Does that not give you pause, Andre?

BAUER: It does give me pause. I don't think we know all the facts about how long the children are separated. We know it can't be more than 20 days. We know these are caring people to take these jobs, to take care of them --

VANIER: So, you are OK with a 4-year-old being isolated for 20 days from his or her parents?

BAUER: No, but I will say this, the conditions that they are in here in America, where they have good meals and air-conditioning and tv is far better than what most people are telling me on the other side and that's the reason they left from where they were at. So, the argument doesn't hold water to say they are in terrible conditions, that's not the case, they are being treated better than most conditions they left.

VANIER: We will read the first lady's statement and then we'll leave at that, but for context, Melania Trump said the statement from her spokesperson says, "Mr. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hope both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.

She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart. It's difficult -- in fact, Ellis, this is not to be seen as a rebuke of her husband's immigration practice.

HENICAN: It is. As long as we can talk about this as human beings, and I understand these debates, but these really are kids in terrible situations psychologically damaging. We are better than this. I think people across the political spectrum ought to focus on the humanity here and put some of this angry political rhetoric aside, at least for a day or two.

VANIER: Ellis Henican, Andre Bauer, thank you very much for your time today. As always, much appreciated.

Turning to Europe now where hundreds of rescued migrants will have their asylum requests considered after arriving in Spain. They endured a grueling journey across the Mediterranean were they were turned away by both Italy and Malta. Lynda Kinkade has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jubilation at the Spanish port of Valencia as 630 migrants saved from the Mediterranean last week docked. The rescue ship "Aquarius" was held for two days between Malta and the Italian island of Sicily after Italy's interior minister, Mateo Salvini, refused to give the refugees safe harbor.

EL HADJI AMADOU GUEYE SY, SECRETARY GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS: In moments like this it is important to have principled humanitarian action like Spain did in welcoming people in need when others were rejecting them.

KINKADE: After Spain agreed to take them, the immigrants were divided into three boats, the Aquarius and two Italian Coast Guard ship. The migrants represent a wide range of people trying to get to Europe.

KARLINE KLEIJER, MEDICIRA SARRI FOUNDATION: Just to emphasize, we have more than 20 nationalities on the ship, people from Afghanistan and Nigeria. It's a wide variety of people. This is not just migrants from Africa, there are many people who left conflict and are looking for asylum.

KINKADE: Now the migrants will figure out their next steps.

MARIA JESUS VEGA, SPOKESWOMAN, UNHCR SPAIN: The Spanish authorities will provide everyone, migrants and refugees with documents that are valid for 45 days and they will inform them about the possibility of applying for asylum.

KINKADE: France has offered to allow some of the migrants to settle there. Italy's interior minister remains defiant, however, saying he hopes Spain takes in tens of thousands more. Lynda Kinkade, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VANIER: Sunday saw another shock at the World Cup in Russia. Reigning champions, Germany fell 1-nil to Mexico after this 35th minute goal by Irving Lozano. Germany had chances to even things up but couldn't quite capitalize. Hey, Mexico is on the hunt. Here's how one player described their mindset after the game.

JAVIER HERNANDEZ, MEXICO FORWARD (through translator): Emotional, very emotional. We felt a lot of positivity, basically a lot of happiness. Also what I felt and what the majority felt is that this simply is a step we're not going to feel like we deserve the World Cup, but we must be very calm and keep an even keel and starting tomorrow we have to get back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Not so much happiness for Germany, however. The team faces Sweden next. Right now, however, they are trying to figure out what went wrong. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[00:15:09] JULIAN DRAXLER, GERMANY MIDFIELDER: They defended very well today. Normally they try to attack earlier, but today they were waiting a little bit for us and I think it was clever because after that they had a few good contacts, so that's why they scored the 1-0 in the first half.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: CNN's Kate Riley joins me now more for on Sunday's action and a look ahead to Monday's games. Kate, what do we have?

KATE RILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are going to start with Sunday, and that wasn't the only shock results that Germany lost. In fact, Brazil also had a shocker in their tournament. Things really did not go their way against Switzerland, did they?

This was all about the road to redemption as far as the World Cup healing process is concerned for them on Sunday, the South Americans began their campaign against Switzerland in Group E with memories of that humiliating 7-1 semifinal loss four years ago to Germany likely still fairly vivid in the minds of many especially given that the tournament was staged in their homeland.

Well, Neymar suffered a tournament-ending injury, and Sunday he was back and with 20 minutes gone he would witness a sublime strike from the Barcelona forward. Brazil can put the game to bed, and there was a corner making it one all. So, with day four in the books, our attention turns to day five on Monday. Three matches on the slate.

I will try not to be biased for you. Here's a check in the games, 2002 semifinalist, South Korea and Sweden, and they will play the tournament first time as Panama and now England, my team will make its much-anticipated debut in Russia 2018, and they will face Tunisia in Group D.

The three lines will open their World Cup campaign on Monday. That's the last game of the day. This is (inaudible) first tournament as a manager. He played two games at the World Cup back in 1998, and he will hope to replicate the 2-nil victory that day. This is the World Cup and you can't take anything for granted, can you?

VANIER: I guess we know what you are doing tomorrow.

RILEY: Yes, I have been given special permission to wear my England shirt in the office.

VANIER: Kate Riley, thank you very much. We'll be talking to Kate again in 40 minutes for more on the World Cup.

The U.S. president and his lawyer has made it plain that he's no fan of the special counsel, but now he says those who are doing the investigation should be investigated. We will get to the bottom of it after the break. And Mr. Trump is very proud of his economic results and he is happy to let everybody know how much credit should he get for it? We will get an expert opinion.

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VANIER: The U.S. president's lawyer wants the investigators to be investigated. Rudy Giuliani tells CNN he believes Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe has been tainted since the moment it began.

Mueller's investigating obstruction of justice and Russia's influence on the 2016 presidential election. According to Giuliani, that probe is unethical because he says it was based on fired FBI Director James Comey's notes, which Giuliani believes were illegally leaked. That says Giuliani is grounds enough for an investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S LAWYER: If you fail to recognize the crimes, unethical behavior of federal law enforcement officials, you are undermining our system of justice, and if you call them out and do something about it which the Justice Department has not done yet but had to do, then you are reaffirming nobody is above the law, and that's all we want.

We want the Mueller probe to be investigated the way the Trump administration has been investigated and we would like to see a report with the conclusions and we will find out if it's as bad as what some people think or is it what I think or nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: A social conservative critical of the peace deal with Fark rebels is projected to be the next Colombian president. Ivan Duque received almost 54 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential run- off. He defeated opponents, Gustavo Petro, who got about 41 percent. No candidate won a majority in last month's election prompting the run-off. Some observers call the race on a referendum on the 2016 peace deal with Fark rebels aimed at ending Latin America's longest civil war.

Poaching is the biggest threat to elephants. The Wildlife Conservation Society reports that the world's elephant population dropped 62 percent between 2002 and 2011. In a CNN exclusive, David McKenzie travels to Mozambique, the new epicenter of poaching on the continent, where his investigation finds that China's ban on all elephant ivory has not stopped the slaughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have bought their way in here.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This investigator is actively tracking poaching syndicates. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know how to get (inaudible).

MCKENZIE: So, we are protecting his identity. Despite the ban, he says that Chinese continue to control the market.

(on camera): What does it mean for conservation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very, very bad. If it continues like that, there will be nothing left.

[00:25:07] MCKENZIE: Are the Chinese to blame for this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, 100 percent, 100 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: Tune in Tuesday to watch the rest of David's exclusive report from Mozambique. That starts at 5 a.m. if you're in London, noon if you're in Hongkong and it is only on CNN.

A major trading partner is hitting back at the U.S., coming up, the latest fallout from President Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs. We will also take a look at whether those tariffs come back to haunt Mr. Trump and the U.S. economy. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VANIER: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Cyril Vanier. Let's look at your headlines. U.S. Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to end its practice of separating undocumented families at the border with Mexico.

A group of senators and representatives toured several processing centers in South Texas on Sunday. Children have been separated from their parents as a result of the Trump administration's zero tolerance crackdown on illegal immigration.

Hundreds of rescued migrants sang and danced for joy as their ships arrived in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday, about 630 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya last week, but they were turned away initially from Italy and Malta.

Sunday's World Cup action saw a stunning defeat for reigning champions, Germany, in Moscow. They fell to Mexico 1-nil. The goal by Irving Lozano and it came in the 35th minute. Sunday also featured a surprise 1-1 draw between tournament favorite Brazil and Switzerland.

The latest sign of an escalating trade war comes from India in response to President Trump's tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, India is now proposing hike tariffs on 30 U.S. products.

[00:30:00]

They've updated their initial compliant filing with the World Trade Organization, the WTO. Nikhil Kumar is our New Delhi Bureau Chief. Nikhil, how is India going to retaliate?

NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN'S NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Cyril, as you say, they've updated their complaint filing with the WTO. One was made earlier this year when these tariffs were initially announced. A new filing which was circulated at the International Trade Body last week.

News just emerged this weekend - this past weekend covers 30 American products, 30 U.S. products. Everything from walnuts and apples to certain U.S. made motorcycles, some (inaudible) products and metal products. In total the new tariffs that India is proposing in response to the U.S. move, it totals to about $241 million.

Now that number is important because India makes the point that all its doing here is responding to the U.S. move. And it says that the penalties that it would face under the U.S. tariffs the Trump administrations steel and aluminum tariffs is about $241 million.

So this is exactly that amount and that same document, the filing with the WTO also contains what is effectively a warning, that India could revise these tariffs, push them higher if the U.S. pushes its tariffs higher. So this is a straightforward tit for tat action by India - excuse me, following the other actions that we've seen from other countries including the U.S. history principle trading partners, Mexico, Canada and the E.U.

So, India says, look you did this, we're doing this now. Exactly the same amount of money and we could drive this higher if you do so again. Cyril?

VANIER: Help us get a sense of the importance of this. How big is the trade relationship between the two countries?

KUMAR: The context absolutely is the important thing here, Cyril, because the number itself, $241 million it sounds small. It certainly sounds small compared to the numbers we've heard when it comes to countries like China but the context is important. India and the U.S. over the last several years have been going closer and closer and closer.

In 2016 the U.S. sold about more than $40 million worth of goods and services to India. That number has been steadily rising. The success of U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, a success of U.S. presidents have sought to cultivate a deeper, a better relationship with India, a potential foil to China.

So, if that's symbolism that matters that another U.S. ally in this region is now retaliating against the U.S. when it comes to trade because of these steel and aluminum tariffs. Cyril?

VANIER: Nikhil Kumar our New Delhi Bureau Chief, thank you very much for your insights. And the International Monetary Fund has a warning. It says, "Donald Trump's tariffs could undermine the global trading system and damage the U.S. economy." The IMF also says recent tax and spend measures could be risky to U.S. growth.

Well, the U.S. president for his part is not worried. On Sunday he tweeted, "Our economy is perhaps better than it has ever been. Companies doing really well and moving back to America and job numbers are the best in 44 years."

So for an assessement of Trumpenomics here is Jim Tankersley. He covers taxes and economics for the New York Times. Jim, the economy is very strong. Unemployment is the lowest it's been at least this century, 18 years and the Fed forecasts continued economic growth. So, is Donald Trump the economic maestro that he claimed to be during the campaign?

JIM TANKERSLEY, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, let's really question how much credit Donald Trump deserves for an economy right now that has proved rest since the end of the great recession and certain gotten better. Now, it's clear that growth has picked up since Donald Trump became president.

Last year it was a much faster economic growth rate in the United States than 2016 was. This year is on track to be faster. He gets credit for that, at least in part. Some of that appears to be driven by his policies. On the other hand low unemployment was something that was a steady march under President Obama and it already was very low when he took over. So, a lot harder for him to claim that he has brought unemployment that far down.

VANIER: Yes, let me - let me put that up on screen, in fact, so that everybody can see it. So, unemployment rate over the last few decades, you can see the very sharp rise in unemployment. That's 2008, the beginning of the economic and financial crisis in this country and then it goes steadily down so that happens to be during the two terms of Obama and then continues during the first year and a half of Mr. Trump's presidency down to 3.8 percent. So you - how much credit does Donald Trump get for that?

TAKERSLEY: So, I would say that you have to give him credit for continuing the recovery. The expansions continued and certainly when you're looking at the growth numbers Donald Trump has enacted some policies. He's signed some policies into law that have cut taxes and boosted government spending.

And in a lot of classic economic models that helps growth. And we're seeing that, I think, this year. Last year you saw a big boost in business confidence. Maybe some of that was from the deregulation that he's done. So, sure, he gets some credit for all of these things, but that (ph) also gets credit, bet it (ph) gets a lot of credit, actually, for - for the way the that the economy has gone, over the last several years.

[0:35:00]

But, you know, again, you can't give him all the credit. I mean, Barrack Obama's policies got us to very low unemployment, at the end of his team, and Trump inherited that.

VANIER: But I think, what a lot of people would like to ask you is you know, the argument, one of the great arguments for electing Donald Trump. An argument that he made and that many of his supporters agreed with was, well, he's a businessman, so he's going to know how to handle this.

And his two biggest economic moves have been, as you said, cutting taxes and cutting regulations. That is the conservative playbook. Does that mean that, if you apply the conservative playbook to the economy, it's going to deliver a strong economy?

TANKERSLEY: That has not always been true, over time, and I would also point out that Donald Trump has signed the law to expand government spending by a large amount, and that is not (inaudible) conservative playbook. You know, although, Ronald Reagan did it, George W. Bush did it, it's something that conservatives often do even though they don't campaign on it.

But you know, Donald Trump's playbook also includes tariffs, and that's - I think, we're going to see now, whether that actually works or whether it ends up throwing some sand in the wheels of the (inaudible) that he's created.

VANIER: Your latest article is a great read. You called it "Feeling Good About the Economy? You're Probably a Republican." Tell us what you found?

TANKERSLEY: So we've been pulling back, more than a year, with a group called SurveyMonkey, an online research firm, about how people feel about the economy. And we have found, consistently, as the best predictor, of how you feel about the economy is, whether you're a supporter of Donald Trump.

And in particular, what we've found, in the last few months is that, there has been a surge in economic optimism, in the United States and it's entirely confined to republicans. The passage of the tax cut bill, the signing of it by Donald Trump, at the law (ph), appears to have galvanized republicans, not just to be more optimistic about the economy than we can afford (ph), but to actually feel better about their current economic situation. That's just not true of independents or democrats.

VANIER: They - they just see the economy doing - doing differently, depending on whether they're republicans or - or democrats. I mean, that - that is just fascinating. Your article's a very interesting read. Look, Donald Trump also wants to everyone to know that this good economic new is only the beginning. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The economy, now, has hit 3 percent. Nobody thought we'd be anywhere close. I think we can go to 4, 5, and maybe even 6 percent, ultimately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VANIER: So this was last December. Do you think the U.S. economy can hit those numbers, 4, 5, 6 percent of economic growth?

TANKERSLEY: Well, first off, you don't hear anyone from the Trump Administration making those claims, much, anymore. I mean, there is - VANIER: But it's (ph) the president making those claims.

TANKERSLEY: Right, the president makes them, sure. I mean, I think that the - the economic answer to that is that, the Federal Reserve, it grows (inaudible), to swing towards those numbers.

We get incredibly worried about inflation, and if we saw inflation spiking along with the growth numbers, you see that, that act (ph) quickly, to raise interest rates, which would cut off the growth, which would prevent it from getting up to 6 percent.

6 percent is not a level you would really expect the economy, at this stage - at this point, to be able to achieve, at any state capacity. I mean, I think, 3 percent, for the next 10 years, is something that most economists don't think the United States could achieve without massive productivity gains. And so, the president's being optimistic and very boisterous here, as he always is, but that is not something that most economic forecasters buy.

VANIER: All right. Jim Tankersley on Trumponomics (ph). Thank you very much.

TANKERSLEY: My pleasure.

VANIER: Coming up, an alcohol ban around one of the World Cup stadiums may, shockingly, not be working. How one DYI distiller is celebrating, ahead.

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[00:40:00]

VANIER: A massive river of lava from Kilaeua Volcano activity is still pouring toward the ocean. It's erupting from a fissure in what's called the Lower East Rift Zone on the big island of Hawaii.

The lava now covers an area of 24 square kilometers, and officials say, 467 homes have been destroyed, poor air quality remains a threat, and perhaps the worst part of all of this, no one can predict when this is going to stop.

To China now, brightly colored and intricately carved, dragon boats lit up a river in China, on Sunday, marking a thousand-year-old tradition. The dragon boat races, in China's Hubei and Henan providences, attracted teams from across the country, rowing to the beat of a drum. It's always a fierce competition, and the races are part of the annual Duanwu Festival, which is so massive, that many migrant workers actually return home for these festivities.

The World Cup, in Russia, isn't just about sports, it's also about culture, and Russian hospitality it seems, demands bootleg alcohol. One alcohol producer is toasting footballers and fans from around the world. He says he's made 100 liters for the games, for socializing purposes, not to make money. His World Cup edition booze is made with plums, grapes, peaches, also, in there. He crafted, in the mountains, near Sochi. Authorities have actually banned alcohol near the stadium, but as long as players keep taking shots, so will he. Thanks for watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Cyril Vanier. Stay tuned, you have got the excellent Kate Reily, coming up with World Sport, more news from the World Cup.

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[00:45:00]

(WORLD SPORTS)