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Trump to Send More Troops to Mideast after Iranian Threat; Trump to Kick off Reelection Campaign Tonight in Florida; Trump Threatens to Deport Millions Beginning Next Week; Biden Says He Can Beat Trump in Southern States; Masked Gunman Killed in Shootout at Dallas Courthouse; Prosecutors Identify Man Accused of Paying for David Ortiz Hit; Phoenix Mayor to Hold Meeting After Police Draw Guns on Family. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 18, 2019 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Pentagon has authorized 1,000 additional troops to the Middle East.
[05:59:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iranians continued to state they unequivocally were not behind the attacks on those tankers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I trust the U.S. intelligence community. If they say it was Iran, we accept their position.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump officially launching his 2020 campaign today.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I plan on campaigning. I plan on winning the South. I plan on winning Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not spending my time behind closed doors with a bunch of millionaires. I'm spending my time building grassroots organization.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, June 18, 6 a.m. here in New York.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nice of you to be here.
CAMEROTA: Nice of me to show up. Nice to be seen.
I had a lovely weekend. Great to see you. How are you doing?
BERMAN: Great. Thanks.
CAMEROTA: Good. I hope you're ready. BERMAN: Missed you.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. I missed you, too. We have a lot of news to get to.
BERMAN: All right.
CAMEROTA: All right. Tensions are escalating between the U.S. and Iran. President Trump ordering an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East after Tehran warned it will be out of compliance with that historic deal designed to keep Iran from making nuclear weapons.
Fears of a confrontation are growing after the U.S. accused Iran of carrying out an attack on those two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon releasing new photos that you can see here on your screen that it claims are proof that Iran was behind these attacks.
BERMAN: Also, this is the day that President Trump officially launches his 2020 reelection campaign. Now, he's held dozens of rallies already, but he heads to Orlando in a few hours for an official kickoff event. How will this one be different?
Also breaking overnight, the president seemed to announce what would be a huge operation and make mass arrests of undocumented immigrants in the interior of the United States. This includes families with children and not just at the border. He said millions would be targeted.
Now, it's unclear if this is an actual plan or if the budget or resources even exist to make it happen. We're watching it all this morning.
Let's begin with CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with the new developments with Iran. Barbara, a thousand U.S. troops headed to the region in an increasingly tense situation.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
The secretary of defense announcing that late last night, that a thousand additional forces will be going. Their job still will be to defend and deter Iran from further attacks.
The focus will be on additional intelligence and reconnaissance, aircraft and missile defense systems for protection of U.S. forces in the region and allies.
The U.S. still insistent that Iran was behind the attack and taking the extraordinary step of releasing high-resolution color imagery. I want you to look at one in particular here, an overhead image of a white boat that the U.S. says is exactly the type of boat Iranian forces use in the gulf, and that there were Iranian forces on board the time stamps. They're remnants of the mines that were taken, the time stamps for these 4-D images match the time and day of the attack, according to the U.S.
Now, the acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, issuing a statement about all this and saying in part -- let me read it -- "The recent Iranian attacks validate the reliable, credible intelligence we have received on hostile behavior by Iranian forces and their proxy groups that threaten the United States personnel and interests across the region. The United States does not seek conflict with Iran."
That last statement being most important. The Pentagon says this is still about deterrence, not about conflict with Iran. And the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, now says she wants to get a congressional briefing on all of this and make sure the focus is on diplomacy -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, Barbara. Thank you very much for the update. Please stand by for us throughout the program.
Moments ago, Iranian military officials responding angrily to the U.S. Iran's president says they're trying to avoid a confrontation but still taking jabs at the White House.
Frederik Pleitgen is live in Tehran with more. What's the situation there, Fred?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. Yes, they certainly are.
We got a couple of reactions from the Iranians just a few minutes ago. A senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is of course, their elite military force, coming out and saying that U.S. naval forces in the region do not pose a threat to Iran, because Iran's military is such a high state of readiness and also in a very high state of strength, as well.
Now, this comes after another Revolutionary Guard commander came out and said that they were closely monitoring U.S. forces in the region and that there would be a crushing blow if those forces made any sort of move. So some pretty bellicose rhetoric coming from the Iranians, as well.
One of the things we always have to point out, Alisyn, is that the Iranians are saying that, if it ever did come to a shooting war between the U.S. and Iran, Iran would not just use its regular military but would use some of the proxy forces that they have in the region, as well.
Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to the United Kingdom telling our own Christiane Amanpour that he fears Iran and the U.S. could be heading for a very dangerous confrontation. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID BAEIDINEJAD, IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.K.: We are heading towards a confrontation, which is very serious for everybody in the region. I hope that the people in Washington will be very careful not to underestimate the Iranian determination that, if they would be wrongly entering into a conflict, they would be very sorry about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PLEITGEN: Now, the Iranians continuing to say that they do not want
this to escalate. They don't seek escalation. They want to solve all this diplomatically, as well.
Iran's president coming out earlier, as you mentioned, Hassan Rouhani saying Iran does not want conflict with any other nation but taking a jab at the White House, as you said, saying the problem Iran has is that they're dealing with inexperienced politicians in Washington, D.C., John.
[06:05:08] BERMAN: All right, Fred. Stand by for us in Tehran. It's great to have you there as these tensions escalate.
Meanwhile, a huge day in politics. In just hours, President Trump is set to formally kick off his reelection campaign at a rally in Florida, this while overnight the president announced a huge operation to round up millions of undocumented immigrants in the country's interior. Unclear if this is, in fact, a real plan.
CNN's Joe Johns live at the White House with the latest -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Well, it's pretty clear the president is sending signals on Twitter overnight that he is planning on going back to the well to try to drudge up some of the very same feelings among voters that he used to propel him into office, including on immigration, which arguably, by many metrics, has simply become a more pressing issue since the president took office.
Nonetheless, you can expect the president tonight in battleground Florida to try to declare his first years a huge success.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (voice-over): Four years after making this escalator ride down into Trump Tower --
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am officially running for president.
JOHNS: -- President Trump officially kicks off his 2020 reelection campaign in Florida tonight. In that first speech, then-candidate Trump made headlines with this incendiary statement.
TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crimes, they're rapists, and some, I assume are good people.
JOHNS: Mr. Trump's anti-immigration focus still a major part of his campaign. The president tweeting last night that "Next week, ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States."
A senior Trump campaign official says President Trump's campaign will focus on promises made, promises kept, President Trump seemingly providing a preview of his upcoming rally speech after firing off tweets about the southern border, fake polls, the Mueller report, and once again mentioning his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Trump telling ABC News in an interview, he just has to be himself and doesn't need to change to appeal to swing voters.
TRUMP: Safety, security, great economy, and I think I've done more than any other first-term president ever.
JOHNS: It's as if the president never left the campaign trail, holding close to 60 political rallies across the U.S. since his inauguration in 2017.
TRUMP: Make America great again.
JOHNS: This time, he's heading to his adopted home state alongside first lady Melania Trump. Also on the roster, Vice President Mike Pence and members of the Trump family.
Some groups planning a protest against President Trump's rally, including several Latino organizations representing a key voting bloc in Florida, many in opposition to President Trump's border policies and his response after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are fed up. You haven't done what you have said to do for our community.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: And we are still looking for more details about the president's late-night tweet, or should I say early-morning tweet about removing millions of undocumented immigrants. So far, no response from the administration -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Yes, Joe. Whenever you get a response from them, please bring it to us on that announcement.
All right. Meanwhile, a bold prediction from Joe Biden. The Democratic frontrunner says he will win the south, including Florida, if he and President Trump end up going head to head. But Biden is also getting slammed by a surging rival, Senator Elizabeth Warren.
CNN's Rebecca Buck is live in Washington with more. What's everyone saying, Rebecca?
REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, a flood of candidates yesterday making their case at the Poor People's Campaign here in Washington. But Joe Biden not taking the bait from his rivals, who are going after him, instead forging ahead with his strategy of taking on President Trump directly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUCK (voice-over): Former Vice President Joe Biden laying out an ambitious vision of how he plans to win the 2020 race. BIDEN: I plan of, if I'm your nominee, winning Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, believe it or not. And I believe we can win Texas and Florida if you look at the polling data now. It doesn't mean -- it's a marathon. It's a long way off.
BUCK: The Democratic frontrunner defending his long-held position of working with Republicans.
BIDEN: So folks, look, if you start off with a notion there's nothing you can do, well, we might as well all go home then. We have to be able to change what we're doing within our system.
BUCK: Senator Elizabeth Warren pushing back.
WARREN: If we're in the majority and Mitch McConnell, wants to block us on the kinds of things our country needs and the kinds of things they elected me and other people to enact, then I'm all for getting rid of the filibuster. We cannot let him block things the way he did during the Obama administration.
[06:10:03] BUCK: Biden's advisers are keeping a close eye on Senator Warren's recent rise in the polls but ultimately sticking to the strategy of making the case against President Trump. They believe Warren's recent popularity is eating into Bernie Sanders's base, not Biden's.
This as Biden reveals new fundraising numbers, saying he has 360,000 individual donors, contributing an average of $55, amounting to nearly $20 million this quarter. Warren criticizing the former vice president for holding so many private fundraisers.
WARREN: I'm not spending my time behind closed doors with a bunch of millionaires. I'm not spending my time behind closed doors with a bunch of corporate lobbyists. I'm spending my time building a grassroots organization.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BUCK: Now, one candidate who was not on the trail yesterday, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, had to return home following an officer- involved shooting. He'll be back on the trail, is expected to be in South Carolina this weekend with the rest of the field. And of course, this is the final push, John, before the big debates next week -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Rebecca Buck for us in Washington. Rebecca, thank you very much.
Overnight, a dramatic back and forth between comedian Jon Stewart and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell. McConnell told FOX News he does not understand why Stewart was, quote, "bent out of shape" over funding for the 9/11 victims' compensation fund. This is the money that goes to first responders from September 11, who are now dealing with all kinds of condition. So McConnell said that.
Stewart had a special message for him and a special place to deliver it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Many things that Congress have at the last minute. We've never failed to address this issue, and we will address it again. I don't know why he's all bent out of shape, but we will take care of the 9/11 Victims' Compensation Fund.
JON STEWART, FORMER TALK SHOW HOST: Honestly, Mitch McConnell, you really want to go with the "We'll get to it when we get to it" argument for the heroes of 9/11?
Listen, Senator, I know that your species isn't known for moving quickly. If you want to know why the 9/11 community is bent out of shape over these past, let's call it 18 years, meet with them tomorrow as soon as possible, and don't make them beg for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to extend the 9/11 Fund after Stewart's appearance before a committee there. Its fate in the Senate remains unclear, though you heard McConnell say they will get to it.
CAMEROTA: When?
BERMAN: They will get to it, he said.
We did speak to two first responders last week who are directly affected by the outcome.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN FEAL, FOUNDER, FEALGOOD FOUNDATION: After 278 trips to D.C., I have zero tolerance for any member of Congress or the Senate. And I hope they don't like me.
Mitch McConnell, we're on our way. Lindsey Graham, we're on our way. You know who we are. We met with you before. We're just not going to take your crap this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: They're on their way, and the issue is they shouldn't have to be. They shouldn't have to be. This is something that should happen easily and quickly.
CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, Mitch McConnell sees it differently, and I think what's interesting is that he -- to say, like, "bent out of shape" does show a lack of sensitivity, I would say, for the people that Jon Stewart represents. He thought he was addressing Jon Stewart directly, but Jon Stewart sort of speaks for that whole community.
BERMAN: John Feal lost his foot. He had his foot amputated after a beam fell on it when he was responding after 9/11. The other man we saw there, a firefighter who had to quit his job a few years ago because of breathing issues.
CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, the FBI is scrutinizing the military history and the social media history of a former soldier who tried to storm a Dallas courthouse with a cache of weapons. But he never got in. But still, the stand-off was dramatic. It was captured close-up by one great photographer.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher is live with more. What was behind all this, Dianne?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Alisyn, first of all, make no mistake. This was potentially a massacre averted here in Dallas.
I want you to take a look real quick here behind me. That's the building. That is where the FBI says that 22-year-old Brian Clyde came essentially armed to the teeth. We're talking four -- we're talking five 40-round magazines, a rifle on him; shot into that building.
Now, he was stopped before he could get inside. Three hundred people inside at the time, not to mention the people walking around busy downtown Dallas around 8:40 Central in the morning.
One of those people, Tom Fox, the photographer who captured a photo in that very moment where he appears to almost be making eye contact. You see it on the front page of "The Dallas Morning News" at the time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM FOX, PHOTOGRAPHER: Just prayed. Just prayed that he didn't walk past me, because I'm in -- I'm in plain sight. And if he saw me sitting there with a camera, he -- I have no doubt he would have shot me. Instead, all I heard was the sound of breaking glass and repeated gunfire into the building. And he was literally just around the corner, 8 to 10 feet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:15:13] GALLAGHER: Now, the big question for authorities right now, John, is why. They're going through his social media. They're looking into his Army history from 2015 to 2017 and trying to talk to people who knew this 22-year-old to figure out why he decided to come and open fire on this building.
BERMAN: Yes. Dianne Gallagher in Dallas, thank you. We're going to speak to an FBI agent, a former FBI agent with some insight as to what he's seeing in the clues here.
Also, we're asking the White House for answers on the breaking news. Is there an actual plan, as the president announced, to round up millions of immigrants in the U.S.?
And what you're seeing on the screen here, a possible breakthrough in the investigation into the shooting attack of baseball great David Ortiz. Authorities say they know who paid for the attack.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:20:41] BERMAN: New details emerging this morning in the David Ortiz shooting. Dominican prosecutors say they now know who paid for the attempted hit on the Red Sox legend. Why still not clear.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann live in Santo Domingo with the very latest. Patrick, what have you learned?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to these court documents, for the first time, we have a name. We know who paid for the hit on Big Papi. We have a better sense of the timing and planning that went into this plot.
A week before the shooting, you had this new suspect, Alberto Miguel Rodriguez Mota, meeting with an intermediary, with someone who's already in prison for homicide charges, someone who obviously has gang ties, is involved in the underbelly of the Dominican Republic. And they set up a team of assassins that then began plotting to kill David Ortiz.
And we still don't know the connection between this new suspect, Rodriguez Mota, and Ortiz, why he would want to kill him. If he perhaps is just working for somebody else. There are so many different levels to this.
But the day of the shooting, this team of alleged assassins met at a gas station just before Big Papi was shot. They get a photo from the individual in prison saying, "This is your target." Then they go ahead and carry out the shooting.
So this is just the latest in this very complicated case, but we are told that later this week, prosecutors will explain to us the motive, why Big Papi was shot.
CAMEROTA: And it's so mystifying, Patrick, why they would need a team of assassins, as well, and why the team didn't do the job very well, if they were all trained assassins.
But in any event, thank you for the reporting, and we will talk about it later in the program.
Meanwhile, organizers expect emotions to run high tonight as Phoenix holds a community meeting over this video on your screen showing officers drawing guns on a family whose child took a doll from a store.
CNN's Scott McLean is live in Phoenix with more. What's the situation, Scott?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.
The Phoenix Police Department is no longer commenting on this incident because of pending litigation, but it did release surveillance tape from inside the dollar store where all of this happened.
In that video, you can see Dravon Ames, Iesha Harper, and their 4- year-old daughter, who seems to pick up a doll, show it to another adult, and then eventually leave the store with her parents without paying for it.
Now, the couple says this surveillance tape doesn't show anything significant beyond what we already knew, and Ames is also denying the police account of the event which says that he admitted to police that he had stolen underwear from the store.
Now, the couple held a press conference yesterday with their lawyers and supporters where Ames was asked whether he stole anything from the store, and the question seemed to prompt an emotional response. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DRAVON AMES, POLICE PULLED GUN ON HIS FAMILY: My family has been through enough. And you see in the video the fear, the sounds of my daughters crying and you're asking me about some drawers. Police putting guns to my daughter's face, and then you're asking me about some drawers. That may -- that has no -- that's insensitive. That's insulting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: So the couple and their lawyers made clear that, regardless of what was or wasn't stolen from that store, no petty theft justified the heavy-handed police response that ended with guns drawn and one officer threatening to put a cap in their expletive head.
Now, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, he told local media that the police response was disturbing and unacceptable but that he wants to wait for this to play out, because he thinks there's more here.
The mayor, she's holding a public event. The couple and their supporters, they promise to be there to protest that event. And they're planning to do the same thing at a city council meeting tomorrow -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Scott, thank you very much.
All right. Overnight, the president threatening to round up millions of undocumented immigrants already living inside the U.S. Is this a real plan or a campaign tactic? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:29:02] BERMAN: Breaking this morning, the president claims the government will launch a huge operation next week to begin rounding up millions of undocumented immigrants in the country's interior. This is not just at the border, and it does include children.
So is this for real? Or is this just words on Twitter? It does come the same day the president is officially launching his reelection bid.
Want to bring in Samantha Vinograd, former senior advisor to the national security advisor and CNN national security analyst; Joe Lockhart, former Clinton press secretary and a CNN political commentator; and CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.
Let me read you what "The Washington Post" says about this, how they explain this operation or nonoperation.
"Trump and his senior immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, have been prodding Homeland Security officials to arrest and remove thousands of family members whose deportation orders were expedited by the Justice Department this year as part of a plan known as the 'rocket docket.' In April, acting ICE director Ronald Vitiello and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were ousted after they hesitated to go forward with the plan."
So that's what we know about the plan in general. What we don't know is if it's actually going to be launched next week, John. What do you make of all this?
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