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Trump-like Candidate Expected to Become Mexico's President; New Concerns Kim Trying to Deceive U.S. on Nukes; New Film Looks into American Jails; Mother and Daughter Reunited After 60 Days Apart; Man Wounds Nine People in Idaho Stabbing Spree; Trump Administration Faces Deadline to Reunite Families. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 01, 2018 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: He is preparing to nominate the next Supreme Court justice.

The president tweeting earlier, "A big week, especially with our numerous victories in the Supreme Court. Heading back to the White House now. Focus will be on the selection of a new Supreme Court justice. Exciting times for our country. The economy may be stronger than it has ever been."

CNN White House correspondent Boris Sanchez with us now.

Boris, the president said he planned to talk to one, maybe two potential Supreme Court nominees this weekend -- or candidates, I should say. Some key lawmakers were also making their preferences known.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. The president told reporters Friday that he was hoping to interview one or two potential nominees this weekend. We've reached out to the White House for a progress report on that, if the president had any updates as to who he might have spoken to. No response yet. The White House would only confirm that President Trump has actually been speaking to advisers and allies, including White House counsel Don McGahn, about the process in broad strokes.

You mentioned the lawmakers that are speaking out. One of the key issues that we will hear about again and again throughout this confirmation process is the issue of abortion, notably because the margin for error for Republicans is razor-thin. They're going to need every single vote to get a nominee confirmed, and there are some Republicans that are essentially pro-choice, or they lean pro-choice before.

One of them, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, was on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning with Jake Tapper, saying essentially that if a nominee were to come up that did not support for "Roe v. Wade," or have support for "Roe v. Wade" she would not lend her vote to that candidate. Listen to more from her now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I would not support a nominee who demonstrated hostility to "Roe v. Wade" because that would mean to me that their judicial philosophy did not include a respect for established decisions, established law. And I believe that that is a very important, fundamental tenet of our judicial system, which as Chief Justice Roberts says, helps to promote stability and even handedness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And Collins is not alone. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also sort of leans that direction as well. Notably I did want to point out something that Collins said during her interview with Jake Tapper, that last week during a meeting with the president and some other lawmakers at the White House, she asked President Trump to look for a nominee that respected legal precedent.

She says that it's something that she liked about Justice Neil Gorsuch, that it's part of the reason she pushed for his confirmation. Meantime, we have other lawmakers like Tammy Duckworth of Illinois arguing that perhaps lawmakers should be more skeptical, that just because of a conversation that a lawmaker has with a potential nominee, that doesn't mean that once the nominee becomes a justice, they will follow through with their previous statements.

So it is all coming down to a very jam-packed week for the president. He's expected to continue doing these interviews or perhaps start doing these interviews. Again we don't have an update from the White House on that just yet. But the announcement is coming in just about a week from tomorrow, so it seems like the White House is playing out some sort of "Apprentice" Supreme Court version. We'll see what the president says in the coming days -- Ana.

CABRERA: The anticipation is definitely building. Boris Sanchez, thank you very much.

Want to talk more now about the immense impact the next Supreme Court will have on this country. Neal Katyal is a law professor at Georgetown University and the former acting U.S. solicitor general, who has argued more than 30 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Neal, so glad you could join us. Glad to have your expertise on this issue. Justice Kennedy, of course, was the swing vote on a lot of issues that were pertinent, same-sex marriage, voting rights, affirmative action, reproductive rights, capital punishment. Realistically, do you see any of these being overturned with the new bench?

NEAL KATYAL, FORMER ACTING U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think that many things are open or planned. I mean, I think the thing that all of us thought when we litigated before this Supreme Court was that Justice Kennedy was going to listen to your arguments, even if he had some kind of preconceived notions, and give you a fair shake.

To be sure, over the last couple of years, he's drifted pretty far to the right. But for the most part, you know, on things like abortion, he did cross, you know, the kind of traditional party lines and side with abortion rights. Obviously the key vote on the same-sex marriage equality cases and the like.

So, you know, I do think that this gives President Trump a real opportunity to move from what has been a center right justice in Justice Kennedy to a really potentially far-right justice in his new nominee.

CABRERA: I mean, given that Justice Kennedy, though, was conservative, is a conservative justice, and yet he did surprise people with some of his votes on those issues I just mentioned, couldn't his replacement be equally as unpredictable?

[18:05:08] KATYAL: It's certainly possible, but I think, you know, the key thing about this seat, there are nine justices on the court. But this is the seat that really matters. This is the one that could in the past have gone either way in some of the hot-button cases, and now it's one, at least looking like what their vetting process is going through, to go to someone who is really far, far to the right of Justice Kennedy historically has been.

So it's a potentially very momentous nomination. It's one that the Senate has to take incredibly seriously, far more so than they have in any nomination in recent years.

CABRERA: We keep talking about "Roe v. Wade." Do you think that is the issue, that is at biggest risk?

KATYAL: I think that's at risk, but I think it's a lot more than that. But I think I'd say something even broader than just any particular issue, abortion or same-sex marriage. It's more, you know, the legitimacy of the court. I mean if you look at last year, the Supreme Court decided 59 percent of its cases unanimously. Three years ago, it was 66 percent unanimously. You have to go back to really near 1940 to find similar rates of unanimity.

I think the real concern when you have a new nominee taking away from Justice Kennedy's more moderate record, is that that tradition of unanimity is going to be destroyed and the court is going to look potentially more partisan. So that's why I think this nomination is really important not just on the issues but also on the temperament of the justices.

Is this someone who is going to really kind of break new ground and overall precedents and, you know, not care as much about the legitimacy of the court, or is it someone who is going to care about the rule of law? And you know, this Supreme Court, you know, these justices, have sort of inched away from some of the commitments to law that we, you know, historically associated with the Supreme Court. And so this nominee is incredibly, incredibly important.

CABRERA: So you are worried about the Supreme Court's independence and it's at risk, it sounds like, of becoming a branch or an arm of the administration. Is that what I'm hearing you say? KATYAL: Absolutely. So, you know, if you think about our Supreme

Court, it's the crown jewel of our democracy. It's the one institution that gave us "Brown versus Board of Education," the marriage equality cases, and so many other things that have moved this society forward. And I do think that there is a risk that this nomination would move the court in a really dangerous direction.

CABRERA: This vacancy also comes at a crucial moment in the Russia investigation. Some Democrats have said this president shouldn't be able to nominate a new justice while he is still potentially under investigation himself. What's your take?

KATYAL: Yes. I mean I do think the Republicans have a real problem. These are the folks who blocked the most qualified nominee in our lifetimes, Merrick Garland, I mean a guy who was the chief judge of our nation's second highest court, who hadn't ever been overruled by the Supreme Court in two decades, held every important position at the Justice Department and elsewhere. This was an incredibly, incredibly talented not controversial nominee, and they refused to even give the guy a hearing.

And so, yes, I think that there is going to be some concern about the independence of President Trump's nominee, particularly when he's hand-picking a nominee who might actually sit and, you know, judge some of the cases that he might personally be involved in, not just as a government official but in his own personal doings. And that is, you know, really not a position that I think is the right and appropriate position in general for a president to be, you know, possibly accused of, you know, having personal concerns in his Supreme Court pick.

CABRERA: And when you talk about the president's personally being involved, you think about the issue of being -- can a sitting president be indicted or what are the powers of pardons? Can a president pardon himself? I mean these are some of the issues potentially that could rise to the Supreme Court level during this administration.

Neal Katyal, we'll have you back. I'm so glad that you could join us. Thank you for spending part of your weekend with us.

Coming up, a horrific attack in Idaho, a knife wielding man targeted a 3-year-old's birthday party and injures nine people, including six children. What we're learning about the suspect in custody next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:13:29] CABRERA: Breaking news now from a horrific and violent crime scene in Idaho. That is where a man with a knife stabbed nine people Saturday night, most of them children, and some of them today are fighting for their lives.

I'm going to bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval who's been following the details.

And Polo, this is almost impossible to comprehend. Children. This was a 3-year-old's birthday party?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who had absolutely nothing to do with anything that was going on out there. Let me tell you what we know about the suspect, a man identified as 30-year-old Timmy Kinner, 30-year-old man from Los Angeles, who police say had a lengthy and violent criminal record. He was reportedly staying with a resident at an apartment complex in Boise that is home to a mix of families including refugees from Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia, families who had left war torn countries to come here to the U.S.

Well, Kinner was reportedly asked to leave on Friday. He did so peacefully. But then he returned yesterday seeking out the person who had essentially kicked him out. Police say that he was unable to find that individual. He was armed with a knife and instead turned his attention to a 3-year-old's birthday party that was happening at the complex.

This is how the police chief William Bones describes how it all happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF WILLIAM BONES, BOISE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Due to his behavior, he had been asked to leave. Kinner had done so. He returned last night to exact vengeance not just on those that he had been with as they were not at the apartment, that at any target which was available. The tragedy was that a 3-year-old little girl was having a birthday party just a few doors down from where Kinner had been staying.

[18:15:03] Kinner attacked, targeting the children initially. The 3- year-old girl whose birthday it was, was one of those seriously injured, including two 4-year-olds, a 6-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 12-year-old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Chief Bones also addressing a question, also a very important one here, a possible motive here. They do believe that this was not a hate crime based on what they have revealed, but they are certainly following every afternoon in this investigation.

Again, nine injuries right now. Several of them life-threatening, but investigators believe they will be able to pull through. And the heart-wrenching number here, Ana, six of those are children ages 3 to 12 years old. That 3-year-old was being celebrated for her birthday.

CABRERA: And it's so sad. Our fingers crossed, our prayers are with those families.

SANDOVAL: Yes.

CABRERA: Thank you, Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: Thank you.

CABRERA: Still ahead, a day after nationwide marches against family separations at the border, President Trump warning Democrats that taking on ICE is a losing battle. Are Democrats playing into the president's narrative that they are anti-law enforcement? We'll discuss.

Plus an emotional reunion in Miami between an immigrant mom and her daughter. We will take you there.

First, here's CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. It is a short week on Wall Street. U.S. markets are closed Wednesday for Independence Day. Then the real action comes at the end of the week. On Friday, the Labor Department releases the June jobs report. Wall Street watching whether the unemployment rate stays here at historic lows. In May it fell to 3.8 percent, matching the lowest jobless rate in 50 years.

A deeper drop in the jobless rate or a big bump up in average hourly earnings could stoke fears of inflation. And that could spur the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more aggressively.

Friday is also a key day in the escalating trade showdown with China. That's when U.S. tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products take effect. A second phase on an additional $16 billion worth will happen after a public comment period. China has vowed to retaliate.

Trade fears roiled the stock market last week. Analysts say until investors get more clarity on trade policy, it's likely to remain an overhang for the near future.

In New York, I'm Christine Romans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:00] CABRERA: Such an emotional reunion. A 7-year-old girl is now back in her mother's arms. Hugs and kisses, tears of joy after 60 long days apart. This little girl named Yana is from Guatemala. She was held in Michigan hundreds of miles away from her mother. Watch as Yana and her mother reunite today in Miami.

Let's get right to CNN's Kaylee Hartung now.

We can't take our eyes off these pictures, Kaylee. You were there in that moment. What have you learned about this family?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Ana. We witnessed this intensely emotional experience between mother and daughter right here in the Miami International Airport a short while ago. You saw Yana embrace her mother for the first time in 60 days. Very hesitant to let go. Other family members here as well. That's how Buena Ventura ended up here in Miami after crossing the border from Guatemala.

I want to give you some context, through, to this family's story so you better understand the emotions of this moment and what they have experienced over the past 60 days. It was on May 1st that Buena and her husband made the decision for her to take their infant son and head to the U.S. border in hopes of finding a better life for their family. The plan was for father and daughter Yana to stay behind to let her finish her schoolwork for the year. But just a week later, they followed, too.

By the time they, though, got to the U.S. border, the policy here had changed and that father-daughter unit was separated. So while Buena had made her way here to Miami to be with family members after being detained for a while in Arizona, she comes to find out her daughter has been sent to Michigan, her husband to Georgia.

The process of reunification very difficult for this family as you can imagine. Buena was allowed to speak to her daughter on the phone once a day for just a few minutes. And her daughter telling her that her head hurt, that she didn't feel well. Come to find out she suffered a tooth infection while being held in Michigan, adding to the helplessness that this mother felt away from her daughter.

You saw those tears. But we also saw laughter today as there was an agreement that Yana would get her favorite pizza tonight for dinner back together with her family. Buena also made the point of saying there is sadness here because this family is not yet whole. Her husband still being held in a detention facility in Georgia, his fate in this country still yet known.

And another piece of emotion that Buena was able to share with us was her message for other mothers. As I said, they came here hoping for a better life for their family. She says to other families who are seeking refuge, find another country. She said don't come to the United States. The laws here are too harsh and people here don't have a heart. That is the feeling of this mother as she is reunited with her daughter.

[18:25:05] CABRERA: The impact and a bittersweet moment obviously.

Kaylee Hartung, thank you for sharing their story.

It has become a desperate rallying cry in the nation's immigration fight. Families belong together. But bringing families back together, like Yana and her mother, is proving to be rather complicated. We still don't know exactly how many children have been separated. The reunification plan and whether parents and children even know where to find each other. The Trump administration now has less than a month to reunite families separated at the border and less than two weeks for children under 5. Judge's orders.

As the administration sorts out reunifications, Democrats have a rallying cry of their own. Abolish ICE. Will this idea go mainstream and is it an effective strategy?

Let's talk it over with CNN's presidential historian, Tim Naftali, former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, and Harry Enten, CNN Politics senior writer and analyst. So, Harry, let me start with you. I mean, President Trump is trying

to tie all Democrats to this issue, this idea of abolishing ICE. Good strategy for him?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: I think it's a decent strategy. I don't know if it's a good strategy. There's been very limited polling on ICE, whether or not it should be abolished or not. But it's certainly something that the -- the Democratic Party, yes, there are some people like Senator Gillibrand who is saying, yes, we should do that. But if you talk to, say, other Democrats, it's not so clear. So this is a good issue at least to divide Democrats on. That's the concern.

CABRERA: Even Tammy Duckworth this morning was saying she didn't think that that was the way to go because if you have this same administration in place with the same policies, abolishing ICE isn't going to make a big difference.

ENTEN: Correct. Senator Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut said the exact same thing. So this is something to divide the Democratic Party, which is not something they want heading into this midterm election.

CABRERA: Tim, could this backfire on Dems?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It certainly could backfire on Democrats because what the president would like Americans to believe is the Democrats believe in open borders and don't believe in following the rules.

Here's the problem in my humble estimation. The zero tolerance policy does not accept the idea of refugee. You come into this country illegally, in other words, without a visa, without permission, and you are going to be treated in a very harsh way.

Let's not forget where ICE and the Customs and Border Patrol Organizations come from. They're a product of the war on terror. They were important and necessary creations. 19 people from outside this country came into this country, and on 9/11 caused havoc and death.

CABRERA: And you bring up a good point because ICE was just created in 2003, post-9/11.

NAFTALI: Yes. But its organizational behavior, its patterns, its targets, the work it does, it's all linked to counterterrorism and work against narco terrorism. Absolutely necessary. We shouldn't get rid of ICE. The problem is the way in which it's being used to deal with refugees. It's not the right organization to be used to deal with the problem of refugees. And our government -- that includes Congress -- and the courts have to recognize what the world recognizes, which is there are refugees, and they have to be treated differently from criminals who are trying to come into our country to commit crimes. And that's not what's happening. So ICE is the symptom. It's not the problem. The White House's policy is the problem. CABRERA: Now ICE becoming this sort of political football of sorts.

I mentioned Tammy Duckworth a little bit ago. She had a warning to Democrats of going this direction. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D), ILLINOIS: You can't win the White House without the Midwest, and I don't think that you can go too far to the left and still win the Midwest, coming from a Midwestern state. I think you need to be able to talk to the industrial Midwest. You need to listen to the people there in order to win an election nationwide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So, Harry, you touched on this earlier. But could immigration, specifically ICE but even more broadly, become a major issue dividing Democrats?

ENTEN: Absolutely. And it's something that more than divides Democrats, unifies Republicans. Donald Trump won the White House in large part -- at least he won the primary in large part because of his stance on immigration. And if you look at the exit polls in 2016, you saw the exact same thing. Those people who said that immigration was their most important issue went overwhelmingly for Donald Trump while on the Democratic side, look, Tammy Duckworth is no person who is in the center. She's no moderate. She's pretty far to the left. So the idea that she's against this, to me, indicates that, yes, this could be a problem for Democrats going forward.

CABRERA: You talk about some of the history as well when it comes to immigration. And so I'm going to just bring this up because we're looking at border apprehensions, and they have actually been largely going down. Most recent peak here was in 2000. 1.6 million apprehensions that year. And since 2010, really we've seen year after year, less than 500,000 border apprehensions.

Do you think -- does this speak to Trump's ability as a messenger to create this narrative that this country has a major immigration crisis?

NAFTALI: No -- well, I don't -- look, I think part of the problem here is that we're not actually talking about why we have this migrant flow. El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are in crises. These three countries. These people are not coming from Mexico.

[18:30:00]

In fact, illegal immigration from Mexico has dropped way down. It was high in the '90s because Mexico went through an economic crisis. There's a crisis in three Central American countries. There's a way to manage this. It's not easy, but it's manageable. In other words, we go and we work with those three countries.

We work with Mexico. We say to Mexico, these people are coming through your country. How can we help them? How can we help these people stay in their homes? And how can we deal with this as an international humanitarian problem?

If we focus on it that way rather than thinking of these people as future, possible terrorists, I think we might be able to deal with it. Thinking about it just in terms of numbers, yes, the numbers are dropping, but there is a humanitarian crisis happening in those three countries.

Most of the migrants are coming from three Central American countries. There was a time when our country had foreign policy and when we realized that working on problems abroad, before they came here, was the way of dealing with some of these challenges.

We're not doing that now. President Trump could send the Secretary of State, Pompeo, to these three countries to talk to their leaders and say, we have a problem here.

CABRERA: Well, he did send Kirstjen Nielsen there. She was there, as well as the Vice President, just recently --

NAFTALI: Yes, and although --

CABRERA: -- in fact, this past week.

NAFTALI: But she is an -- she symbolizes a different part of the policy. Let's send our Secretary of State. Let's send someone to talk government to government and see how we can help together manage this problem.

In the meanwhile, the numbers are dropping. There isn't a crisis on the border, but there are 600,000 people -- between 400,000 and 600,000 people who want to come through the southwestern border. That's still a lot of people.

CABRERA: Right, right.

NAFTALI: And there are folks in Arizona and Texas who worry about it.

CABRERA: All right. Guys, thank you very much for both of your input. Harry Anton, Tim Naftali.

Up next, he has been called anti-establishment, country first, someone who knows how to draw a large crowd. No, I'm not talking about Donald Trump but, rather, the man running to his -- to be his Mexican counterpart. Live in Mexico City in just minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:37:45] CABRERA: We are monitoring the presidential election in Mexico this evening. Polls close within the next few hours and leading the pack for president, an anti-global nationalist who has tapped into Trump-like populism.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador likes NAFTA -- he dislikes NAFTA, I should say. He claims Mexico got a bad deal. He vows to stand up to President Trump and insists Mexico will not pay for a border wall. Lopez Obrador also wrote a book. It's titled "Listen, Trump." CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Mexico City where voting is underway right

now.

Leyla, how important has this anti-Trump message been in turning out the vote?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, there is a huge turnout. There are long lines at the polls already. Election officials have said that they may not have enough ballots at all the voting sites for people to vote. That's how big of a turnout this is.

There's a lot at stake, a lot of seats up for grabs from mayors to governors to even congressional seats. And, of course, there is that big one, the presidential bid, the bid to be the next head of state for Mexico. And there, there is a clear front-runner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANTIAGO (voice-over): Even in Mexico's largest stadium, he fills nearly every seat.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, once Mexico City's mayor, now a man on his third attempt to become Mexico's president.

The leftist candidate has promised to crack down on corruption and violence. And at a time when homicides are at an all-time high and the current president's approval rating is remarkably low, the populist candidate's message for change is resonating with voters.

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, MEXICO (through translator): Neither Mexico nor its people will be a pinata of any foreign government.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): He has vowed to put Mexico first.

CLIFF YOUNG, PRESIDENT, IPSOS PUBLIC AFFAIRS: He is one more example of a populist wave that, by the way, Trump was part of as well. You'll have -- you have Trump's "Make America Great Again" versus AMLO's "Make Mexican -- Mexico Great Again."

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[18:40:00] SANTIAGO (voice-over): At a rally earlier this month, he carefully chose his words. He called President Trump passionate and claimed he is the man to stand up to Trump.

He's even written a book called "Listen, Trump," in which he pushes back on el muro, Trump's wall.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANTIAGO (voice-over): Nothing can be resolved by building walls, he says. And that's not the only issue he'll have to take on should he become Mexico's next head of state.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we don't negotiate a great deal with Mexico and Canada, we will terminate NAFTA, and we'll start all over again.

(APPLAUSE)

SANTIAGO (voice-over): NAFTA, the controversial free trade agreement that has become a point of contention.

OBRADOR (through translator): I propose we keep the agreement.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): As Mexican business leaders urge AMLO to support the agreement, he has pledged, like Trump, to make sure it's a good deal for his country. Protecting Mexico's interest always.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANTIAGO: So we could see a big change for the U.S. southern neighbor. We're just a matter of hours away from the polls closing here in Mexico City. And around midnight tonight, local time, we expect to get the first preliminary indications from officials on who has the majority of the votes.

CABRERA: Leyla Santiago in Mexico City for us. Thank you. The Mexican election is just one of many international issues the President will be dealing with this week. Which brings us to your "Weekend Presidential Brief," a segment we bring you every Sunday night, highlighting some of the most pressing national security information the President will need when he wakes up tomorrow.

And joining us now is CNN national security analyst and former National Security Council adviser Sam Vinograd. She spent two years in the Obama administration helping prep the President for his daily briefs.

So, Sam, we just heard an update there on the Mexican election. Should we be worried there's trouble brewing south of the border?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think this could actually be a fresh start for President Trump if he chose to take it.

He had a really tense relationship with the last Mexican president. And so when he calls the new Mexican president, he could congratulate him, and he could really focus on a positive agenda.

But one thing's for sure, Mexicans disapprove of Trump over 90 percent. And over 90 percent of Mexicans disapprove of the border wall.

So President Trump manages to get through calls with people like Vladimir Putin without raising bilateral irritants. Could he get through this call without raising things like the border wall and, instead, focus on an affirmative agenda on issues like drug trafficking and combating crime so that this is a reset opportunity for President Trump and the new Mexican president?

CABRERA: OK. As we wait for the election results, let's talk North Korea because there is a new report in "The Washington Post" today that intelligence officials are telling them, their sources, that North Korea is showing signs of trying to deceive the U.S. and other world countries who are watching for denuclearization. In fact, the exact opposite may be happening according to their report.

Now, NSA, or National Security Adviser, John Bolton says don't get too caught up. Don't worry about this.

Should we be concerned?

VINOGRAD: I think so, not only because this has implications for other negotiations around the world. As you mentioned, right now, it's advantaged North Korea.

The reports are showing that they haven't just not frozen their program. They're enhancing their production capabilities, and they're trying to conceal activities at multiple secret production sites.

They have only said that they have one site, so they're lying to us, which is nothing new. And they're getting away with it. We haven't heard any statement from President Trump, saying something's going on, let's put a stop to it.

At the same time, North Korea hasn't even returned the prisoner of war remains that they said that they were going to return. They're asking China for sanctions relief, so they want a reward for bad behavior. And we've given something up. We stopped these joint military exercises with South Korea.

And so think about how this plays with Putin. Putin's about to meet Trump in Finland. So he could think, OK, I'll show up. I'll sign a piece of paper, saying maybe I won't meddle in elections going forward and just expect President Trump to stay silent, turn a blind eye to what's going on because he doesn't want to admit that he was wrong.

CABRERA: So with the Singapore summit as a backdrop, do you think Putin will show any flexibility when he meets with President Trump?

VINOGRAD: I don't think so. I think Putin's going to stay really stubborn, and he's going to double down.

Putin's a lying machine. John Bolton said on T.V. this morning that Putin told him that Russian state agencies weren't involved in election interference. Well, reality check, we've actually sanctioned Russian state entities for exactly that, for election interference.

So I think he's going to keep lying, and he's going to put his foot down in places like Crimea where President Trump has shown some leg towards Russia. He said that maybe we should look at the annexation of Crimea differently, and so Putin built a bridge to the Crimean peninsula from Russia. He's exporting electricity generators. And he's really putting down more physical footholds because he feels like he can.

Russia, also big oil. OPEC apparently agreed to raise production, right? [18:45:00] VINOGRAD: They did. And from what we know, OPEC has

agreed to raise production by about a million barrels per day, but just for the month of July, which can't come too soon. It's really hot out, and a lot of Americans are getting ready to gas up their cars to go on vacation.

Donald Trump -- President Trump took credit for this in a tweet. He said that OPEC agreed to do it because he asked. Saudis are denying it, which is not surprising.

But privately, you have to wonder. If Saudi Arabia agreed to push OPEC to raise production, they probably want something from it, particularly on issues like Iran. So we probably gave something to them. Nothing's for free.

CABRERA: Stay tuned.

VINOGRAD: Thanks.

CABRERA: Sam Vinograd, as always, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:03] CABRERA: The United States puts more people in prison or jails than any other nation in the world. More than 2 million people are being held right now.

And tonight on CNN, our new original film, "American Jail," takes a provocative look at our criminal justice system, what is working, what's not, and how to fix it. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER, "AMERICAN JAIL" (voice- over): In my hometown of Easton, Pennsylvania, nothing stood taller than the jail on the hill. Every family had been touched by it. We all had tales of broken men, in and out of lockup. I just assumed I would end up there, too.

WILLIAMS (on camera): How many of you know someone who has been in jail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody.

WILLIAMS (on camera): Wait a minute. You've been in jail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Americans knew what was happening in prisons and jails, they would demand change.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lockdown. (INAUDIBLE) folks to get home.

TEXT: Mass Incarceration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's inevitable to end up here.

TEXT: Mass Control.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the jails were filled with White kids from the suburbs and then they were making those White kids work for no money, how long do you that operation would be allowed to last?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The criminal justice system in this country's only real function is controlling the poor people.

TEXT: Mass Injustice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I went away as a kid, it taught me nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got to change it around in here!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "American Jail," a CNN film.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: It is tonight. And with me now, Academy Award-winning writer, director, and producer of "American Jail," Roger Ross Williams.

Thank you, Roger, for being here.

WILLIAMS: It's great to be here.

CABRERA: You know, you told me this project is very personal to you. Tell us more about that and why you decided to do it.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Well, you know, I wanted to show the on the ground, the community where I came from and the devastation it's had in my community in a very personal way.

But, you know, it's a personal story, but it's actually a story that affects all Americans. And it's important that all Americans realize that the cost is enormous to them in taxpayer dollars, in lost opportunity and income of prisoners when they're let out of jail and they don't get jobs and can't work. And that really has cost everyone.

So while it's a personal story, it affects everyone.

CABRERA: What do you say is the biggest problem or even just misconception about what's going on?

WILLIAMS: I think that there are -- the prisons have become places where we put people who have issues like mental illness, substance abuse. And we put them there instead of treating the problem.

And so we create sort of a massive population of people who, with the prisons having a 70 percent recidivism rate, we are -- they are going back into the communities, and they're destabilizing the communities.

And those communities -- people pay in those communities with higher crime rates. And it's -- so it's destroying, like, communities. And that's what people don't know.

CABRERA: And you talked to an inmate turned activist in this film who said that if only Americans knew what was happening in these U.S. prisons, using American tax dollars. What do you think would be most surprising for people to find out?

WILLIAMS: I think that when you walk into a prison, it is heart- wrenching to see how much people are suffering.

We are not there to rehabilitate, to help people, to get people back on their feet, to get them out and get to the core of what the problem is and why they're there in the first place.

What we do is we lock them up. We forget about them. We throw away the key. We give them bad food, inhumane conditions.

And it is -- and when you come out of prison, you come out a criminal. You come out more hardened than when you go in prison. And that's because we don't offer compassion. We don't try to help people.

CABRERA: You also go into what -- the disparity when it comes to race. I mean, you talk about how people of color are treated differently than people who are White.

WILLIAMS: People of color are more likely to go to prison, be locked up. And when I set foot in a prison and I saw the -- we all know this, but when you see the amount of Black and Brown faces in prison, it's devastating.

It's devastating to me as an African-American man to go into prison -- and I know that one in three Black men in their lifetime will go to a prison. That's a crazy, outrageous number, and -- but to see it and to see the lost opportunity.

I mean, a lot of these men in prison have so much potential if they're given an opportunity and a chance. And they're not. And it's just -- it's very devastating. And it costs all of us.

CABRERA: Roger Ross Williams, I look forward to seeing the film tonight. The clip was compelling by itself.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

CABRERA: I know this has been a labor of love for you. We'll be watching. "American Jail" premieres tonight at 8:00 right here on CNN.

[18:55:01] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Memorial services for at least two "Capital Gazette" staff members killed this week have been set.

A celebration of the life for assistant editor and columnist Rob Hiaasen will take place tomorrow evening. The paper quotes an online invitation as reading, Rob would never want you to put on a suit for him, so the dress is summer casual, and shorts are welcomed. Reporter and editor Wendy Winters will be remembered on a memorial

service on Saturday. And in lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made to the Girl Scouts of America, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, or the American Red Cross.

I'm Ana Cabrera. Thank you for being here.

Coming up tonight on CNN, Van Jones talks with Senator Tim Scott at 7:00, followed by the CNN film "American Jail" at 8:00 and "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA" at 10:00.

Have a great night. Thanks for being here.