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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
President Biden Heads to England for G7 Summit; Lawmakers Urge Businesses to Beef up Cybersecurity Amid Recent Attacks. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 09, 2021 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:23]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. French President Emanuel Macron smacked in the face as he shook voters' hands in a small village in southern France. The man who smacked him called for the end of Macron's presidency before being tackled and arrested by security. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen who is battling with Macron right now for the presidency, she condemned the assault. She said, we can attack him politically but violence is unacceptable in a democracy.
EARLY START continues right now.
Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Laura Jarrett. It's 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.
President Biden escaping Washington at just the right time. He's heading overseas on his first foreign trip as his bold agenda at home runs into some trouble. Infrastructure, voting rights, policing, gun violence, immigration and more all facing an uncertain future now. Infrastructure talks have collapsed between the president and Republican Senator Shelly Moore Capito. Now there's a new proposal from a bipartisan group of House members and renewed talks with a bipartisan group of senators, but the size of this plan and how to pay for it are still sticking points.
ROMANS: The bottom line here passing almost anything requires at least 10 Republicans assuming all Democrats are on board, especially in the wake of an aggressive push by Republicans in the states to submit hard line right-wing laws on things like, you know, voting access and gun rights.
One big question remains, did President Biden spend too much time trying to get cooperation from an obstructionist GOP after watching former president Obama try and fail firsthand?
JARRETT: With his agenda held up in Washington President Biden now heads to Europe for the G7 Summit where his control of U.S. foreign policy gives him a freer hand, if you will, and after years of circling America's foreign policy establishment as senator and Vice President Biden will for now for the first time take center stage, but that comes with its own new challenges including the pandemic, of course, and critical decisions on vaccine distribution.
It's time for three questions in three minutes. Let's bring in our international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.
Nic, nice to see new morning.
ROMANS: Hi, Nic.
JARRETT: We know President Biden is trying hard to reengage the world. But is the world ready or willing to reengage the U.S.? What is the global view of the United States ahead of these summits?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, the E.U. just had a press briefing on the G7 Summit coming up and that was one of the questions and the answer was, yes, we're getting on nicely with the United States. Of course, we do, amongst E.U. members, have different positions and I think that's more broadly what we hear from other nations around the world, but they are lining up to be sort of more on track with what President Biden wants.
We heard from the Australian prime minister heading here to Cornwall in England for the G7 saying that he wants there to be tougher repercussions for China on China's, you know, tough trade policies. So that's something that President Biden really wants to hear. So, yes, the really short answer is there are some differences, but the world is largely and broadly lining up behind President Biden's foreign policy agenda. It won't be all smooth sailing, but it will be way better than it was under the last president.
ROMANS: You know, Nic, before the summit President Biden will meet with the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and they are not of the same political mind of course but there are mutual reasons to improve that important relationship. Tell us why.
ROBERTSON: Yes, one of them is, you know, Britain wants to portray itself as global Britain and it really needs the United States to do that. Boris Johnson wants a strong and positive relationship with President Biden and all the indications are that there will be -- that there will be a positive and strong announcement on that. You know, Boris Johnson is also looking to President Biden for support for some of his post-Brexit wrangling, particularly over Northern Ireland.
Now on that, President Biden doesn't favor Boris Johnson's position. He favors the Irish position. So a lot of persuasion going on and that will have to go on in that bilateral meeting to change President Biden's position. But, you know, as far as Britain and the United States go, strong allies looking forward to a better future and Boris Johnson will certainly try to portray himself as not a clone of Donald Trump as he was seen several years ago.
JARRETT: So, Nic, Biden's trip is going to end with this face-to-face with Vladimir Putin, sort of the most highly anticipated event of this whole trip. His predecessor's summit with Putin obviously very well- documented. You know, the reporting from CNN is his aides actually wondered what did he have to gain from meeting with Putin.
[05:35:05]
But apparently the president was dead set on having face-to-face talks, something he thought was important. In your view what's the end game for the president?
ROBERTSON: Yes, I think the end game is two things and that is to send a very clear unambiguous message to President Putin that meddling in U.S. elections, hosting ransomware attackers that take down pieces of software and data infrastructure that are critical to United States security is not going -- is not going to get a free pass. That there will be consequences. So this policy is something that's going to be broadly accepted by the United States allies.
They want to see a firm U.S. position that doesn't change, and it was ambiguous and moving under President Trump. So that will be one of the end games. But the other end game here, of course, is for President Biden to engage in arms control and other issues that are of mutual interest to the United States and to China. So it's going to be a question -- a situation of saying this is what's going to happen to you if you transgress on these issues and this is what we'd like to work on if you'd like to work on them with us.
Arms control, Russia just pulled out of the open skies agreement allowing overfly of spy aircraft, short notice over each other's nations. So there's a lot to work on but people would point to the extension of the new START arms control talks that were extended for five years right at the beginning of President Biden's presidency. So there is a positive potential goal at the end of these talks.
JARRETT: Certainly a lot on the agenda. That is for sure.
ROMANS: All right, Nic Robertson, nice to see you. We'll talk soon. I know. A lot going on this week. Thank you.
JARRETT: Thanks, Nic.
ROMANS: All right. As President Biden heads out, Vice President Kamala Harris is coming home. She spent two days in Guatemala and Mexico announcing millions of dollars in investments and a new anti- corruption task force, but sources tell CNN her bumpy answers to questions have left some administration officials quietly perplexed, in particular this exchange with NBC's Lester Holt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Do you have any plans to visit the border?
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At some point -- you know, we are going to the border. We've been to the border. So this whole -- this whole -- this whole thing about the border, we've been to the border.
HOLT: You haven't been to the border?
HARRIS: And I haven't been to Europe. I mean, I don't -- I don't understand the point that you're making.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Behind the scenes, sources say the vice president's team is frustrated by what they see as questioning framed by GOP talking points like questions about when she plans to visit the U.S./Mexico border, and falsely painting her as the administration's border czar. Harris has said she's determined to get to the root causes of migration to the U.S. and all the focus on a border visit is shortsighted. By the end of the day Tuesday, however, she said that she would eventually visit the border. No timeline on when that might happen, though.
ROMANS: Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega escalating his strongarm political tactics arresting a fifth opposition figure overnight ahead of November elections. Charges against the opposition leaders have included acting to undermine the independent, sovereignty and self- determination of Nicaragua. A top State Department official for Western Hemisphere Affairs on Tuesday described Ortega as a dictator and called for an urgent international response.
JARRETT: Back here in the U.S. elections new this morning, the winners of two gubernatorial primaries in Virginia and New Jersey. Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe beat four other challengers to become the state's Democratic nominee. The race is viewed by some in Washington as a bellwether for midterms next year. McAuliffe will face Republican Glenn Youngkin, a first time candidate in November's general election.
If McAuliffe wins he would be the first person in decades to serve multiple terms as governor of Virginia where consecutive terms are barred.
ROMANS: And in New Jersey Jack Ciattarelli won the state's Republican nomination over three other candidates. Ciattarelli will take on current Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy is considered the favorite.
JARRETT: A Pennsylvania man has been charged with impersonating former President Trump's family members on social media to raise money for a fake political organization. This is a crazy case. Prosecutors allege 22-year-old Joshua Hall pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars by using fake accounts to post endorsements of himself in a phony fundraising organization that didn't exist.
Hall is accused of impersonating Trump's deceased brother Robert as well as his 15-year-old son Barron. The accounts apparently had more than 100,000 followers.
ROMANS: All right. New evidence the rich, well, they're not like the rest of us. An incredible new investigation from Pro Publica. Pro Publica showed never-before-seen IRS records of the 25 richest Americans including Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk. The investigation documents how the billionaires legally -- legally avoided paying income tax or paid next to nothing considering how much they are worth. [05:40:07]
Take a look at this particular statistic. Pro Publica said the 25 richest Americans were worth $1.1 trillion by the end of 2018. It would take 14.3 million average wage earners to put together the same amount of wealth. The personal federal tax bill for those top 25 in 2018 was $1.9 billion. Compare to that to the tax bill for all those wage earners, $143 billion.
The IRS and the FBI are investigating the leak of these secret tax records. The Biden administration also said it's looking into the situation and repeated President Biden's proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for his spending plans.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: New hate crimes plaguing the U.S.
[05:45:01]
Police in Arizona are investigating anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on the door of a synagogue in Tucson. It's the second time in recent weeks a temple in the city was vandalized. A rock was thrown through the window of another synagogue back in May.
JARRETT: In Utah police are investigating racist slurs painted on an Asian food truck. Several cities have seen an increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Asian hate crimes this year. The Anti-Defamation League says anti-Semitic incidents have more than doubled since last year. And a study from California State San Bernardino revealed anti-Asian hate crimes rose nearly 150 percent last year.
ROMANS: All right, toughen your defenses. Top Cabinet members stressing the importance of cybersecurity after this series of attacks on American essentials like gas, beef, hospitals and more. The Commerce secretary is urging businesses to modernize their cyber defenses and the Agriculture secretary took particular interest after a major meat supplier had to close its plants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: I think it's fair to say that we've transitioned out from a system and a situation where people looked to steal information and data to a new day when people seek to disrupt processes and that creates a disruption and obviously can roil the markets, create challenges for producers and consumers. So hopefully this is a wake-up call for everybody.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: One example of less than stellar security, Colonial Pipeline. Hackers were able to access the Colonial Pipeline's network through an account that did not have multi-layered security. You know, how you hear about two factor authentication? Well, it was protected by a single password.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BLOUNT JR, PRESIDENT AND CEO, COLONIAL PIPELINE: It was a complicated password so I want to be clear on that, it was not a Colonial123 type password.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Amid growing calls not to pay ransoms Colonial's chief executive defending his decision to do so. He testified before Congress just minutes after officials confirmed an external e-mail vendor for House members was hit by a ransomware attack.
CNN's Alex Marquardt reports for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura and Christine. The CEO of Colonial Pipeline gave a full-throated defense for his decision to pay a ransom to the hackers who attacked his company despite knowing that the U.S. government doesn't want companies to pay ransoms in general and he says he didn't consult with the FBI before paying it.
Joseph Blount told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee that in situations like the one he was facing it takes days to figure out what was accessed by the hackers. Blount said that given that and the fact that the shutdown of the pipeline was affecting gas delivery up and down the East Coast he made the difficult decision to pay $4.4 million in Bitcoin as a ransom payment.
He described it the hardest decision he's made in almost 40 years in the industry but he said he knew how critical the pipeline was and he said he put country first. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOUNT: I believe with all my heart it was the right choice to make, but I want to respect those who see this issue differently. I also now state publicly that we quietly and quickly worked with the law enforcement in this matter from the start which may have helped lead to the substantial recovery of funds announced by the DOJ this week.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: Remarkably, though, Joseph Blount did admit that even though they had been spending tens of millions of dollars every year for cybersecurity, his company had not planned for the possibility of a ransomware attack which these days is pretty essential and basic in terms of corporate cyber preparation.
Colonial's CEO will testify again on Thursday alongside a senior official with (INAUDIBLE), which is the cybersecurity firm that was hired by Colonial to help them after the attack -- Laura, Christine.
JARRETT: Alex, thank you for that report.
Well, the NYPD is partnering with the ATF to reduce gun violence in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio says it will allow ATF agents to embed directly with the NYPD and create a more open stream of intelligence between the two agencies. Officers and agents will work to investigate the source of guns coming into the city, identify traffickers and increase gun arrests. The city has seen a surge in shooting incidents this year.
ROMANS: Water levels at the largest reservoir in the U.S. are expected to reach their lowest point in decades. Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam experiencing the effects of a crippling drought in the western U.S. The reservoir provides water and generates electricity for Arizona, Nevada and other parts of the United States. Officials say water levels are expected to keep dropping until November.
JARRETT: A Massachusetts high school senior's academic achievement is outweighed only by her generosity. At her graduation ceremony Harvard- bound student Verda Tetteh receiving a $40,000 scholarship surprised everyone by asking the school to pay it forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VERDA TETTEH, HARVARD-BOUND SENIOR: I am so very grateful for this, but I also know that I am not the one who needs this the most, and knowing my mom went to community college and how much that was helpful, I would be so very grateful if administration would be -- would consider giving the excellence scholarship to someone who is going to community college because I know it is such a great honor, but I also know that I am not the most in need of it.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
[05:50:28]
JARRETT: Love that. Tetteh, who is already getting a full ride to Harvard, says she had applied for the award but was sure it would go to someone else who needed it more. School administrators tell CNN they're contacting the family that set up the scholarship to see if they are open to reallocating the money. Glad she is taking care because she is awesome.
ROMANS: Wow. A future leader for sure.
All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning, taking a look at markets around the world. You can see Asian shares have closed mixed here. Inflation watch, the price of goods leaving China's factories is rising at its fastest pace in 13 years. Higher prices could have global consequences, manufacturers may pass along those higher prices overseas.
Back on Wall Street, stock index futures at this moment barely moving here. It was a mixed day Tuesday, the big news from the Labor Department this record 9.3 million job openings, help wanted signs all across America. A workforce not quite ready to get back to normal.
The Dow finished down about 30 points, the S&P 500 ended flat falling short of a record high, the Nasdaq eked out a small gain.
So prices are rising on everything from food to gas to prescription drugs. A report from AARP found the price of drugs last year mostly used by seniors increased at the slowest annual rate since 2006, but that increase was still twice America's inflation rate. The report shows older Americans take on average 4.7 prescription drugs every month. AARP said it's worried the country is reaching a point where people aren't going to be able to afford the medication they need.
It was supposed to be the renaissance of a car country, right? Two years ago General Motors sold its Ohio factory to Lordstown Motors which was supposed to revive it into a major hub. Now Lordstown is warning it may have to close. The electric truck startup said Tuesday it's running out of money and could be forced out of business in the next year. The plant is supposed to start production on its Endurance pickup in September. Now it says it doesn't have enough money to start. Lordstown said it's looking for additional financing.
JARRETT: All right. Another sign things are coming back to normal, Starbucks lovers dust off those old mugs. Beginning in two weeks Starbucks customers will once again be allowed to use their own reusable mugs at stores in the U.S. The program was of course suspended due to COVID. It's now being reinstated but there are some important changes here.
Baristas will only accept clean mugs and they won't touch them. Instead a customer will have to place their own mug into a larger ceramic mug, the barista will then hold the ceramic mug's handle rather than the cup when preparing the drink. This all begins on June 22nd.
ROMANS: All right. An 8-year-old boy in Virginia got a sweet surprise when he set out on a mission to save his dog's life. Bryson Kliemann's puppy Bruce needed expensive medical treatment to survive after contracting a virus. So Bryson sold his most valuable possession, his Pokemon cards to raise money for the treatment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did you get that idea?
BRYSON KLIEMANN, SOLD POKEMAN CARDS FOR HIS DOG'S TREATMENT: At school. I was drawing on the back of my paper and then I started to write about my dog.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bryson's mother posted a photo of him with his "Pokemon for sale" sign, to put this on a local Facebook group. Immediately people started asking to donate so Bryson's mom created a GoFundMe. In just a few days Bryson's family raised more money than they needed to cover Bruce's treatment and we are very happy to report he has received his treatment and is now healthy and at home with his devoted owner.
JARRETT: Somebody get that kid all the Pokemon cards in the world, please. (LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: That story makes you want to cry.
JARRETT: All right. This article was published in error, maybe the understatement of the century. "The New York Times" published then quickly deleted an article Tuesday headlined "Fields of Watermelons Found on Mars" written by, no joke, Joe Schmoe. According to the report the FBI would not confirm the watermelons but did say falling kiwis have been spotted. The writer Mr. Schmoe calls the story terribly boring but we respectfully disagree. The page on the "Times" Web site where the article briefly appeared now says it was intended for testing a content management system.
ROMANS: Oh, my gosh.
JARRETT: OK. That was sort of bizarre.
ROMANS: Oh, my gosh. Yes. Thank God for the clarifications and corrections.
All right. Thanks for joining us, I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
[05:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Brianna Keilar on this NEW DAY. Just a short time from now, Joe Biden departs for his first trip as president, but he's leaving his domestic agenda. It is coming to a halt back home.
Plus, cicadas wreaking havoc overnight. They caused a car wreck and they invaded and grounded the plane of the White House Press Corps, trampling on the First Amendment.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Which is weird because they're clearly for freedom of assembly and free speech. Right?
BERMAN: Well done.
KEILAR: Thank you.
