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Prince Edward Discusses Meeting; NYC Candidate Gives Tour of Home; Solar Eclipse Happening Today; Military Daughter Introduces Biden. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 10, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

PRINCE EDWARD, QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SON: Level of personal experience and knowledge. It's -- I mean sometimes it's (INAUDIBLE) sort of -- it can (INAUDIBLE) overall some people and I think most people can (INAUDIBLE) wishing that they'd had a little bit longer. That's usually -- that's usually the response. God, I just so would have liked to have had a little bit longer because that was fascinating.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: They always stay private, these conversations, don't they?

PRINCE EDWARD: Yes.

FOSTER: So that's a -- that's a -- it's almost like a very high level of counseling in many ways. And prime ministers have spoken about that.

PRINCE EDWARD: And it's very, very important. That -- the fact that they all stay private is something that is a bit strange in this world. You expect a communicator to appear almost instantly or a press conference. But the fact that nothing like that ever happens does mean that actually people really do respect the fact that this is a -- this is a genuinely private, off-the-record conversation. So they really can talk about things and get to the heart of things in a very genuine fashion because they know it's not going to come out.

FOSTER: Does she ever let slip to you in any way?

PRINCE EDWARD: Goodness, gracious, of course not.

FOSTER: (INAUDIBLE) Sunday (ph) lunch?

PRINCE EDWARD: Of course not.

FOSTER: So you won't hear anything about the meeting with President Biden.

PRINCE EDWARD: Well, even if I did, I've forgotten about it the next day.

FOSTER: Thank you very much for speaking to me.

PRINCE EDWARD: A pleasure. Thank you for your interest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: President Biden and the first lady will be flying in to Windsor Castle on Sunday for that meeting with the queen.

We have received a communique on a little of what we can expect to see. There will be a guard, honor, there will be the national anthem, and then the couple will go in with the queen into the castle for a very private tea.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Of course it has to be tea. Of course they're going to have tea.

Max, this was an exclusive interview that you did. I wonder how it's being received there in Britain. How is the press reacting to this?

FOSTER: Yes, well, it's made lots of headlines. I think, you know, Prince Edward is particularly close to the queen, particularly now that Prince Philip is gone. He lives there at Windsor. He sees her all the time. He's one of the few people in power to speak on her behalf. And when he says that she's found this rift difficult, I think we can see that as an understatement. He says family is family. This isn't just any ordinary family, though, is it? It's the most famous family in the world. And they've been speaking about very private matters in public. I think he probably speaks for most people, really, when he describes the situation as very sad in terms of the rift.

But, you know, this castle is a thousand years old. The family's been living in there for a thousand years. They've got through other crises before. I think they'll get through this one as well. It's a matter of time. It's reshaping, reforming all the time.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But I think you're right, I think, you know, him in saying it at all was interesting and was news and was clearly an understatement for, I think, what feelings are going on inside that family right now.

Max, thank you very much.

FOSTER: Yes, I mean -- thanks, John.

KEILAR: I don't mean to disparage tea, by the way. I'm actually a big tea drinker, so I hope it didn't come out there way.

BERMAN: Well, no, no, I -- immediately I thought, well, what would happen -- who would be the first U.S. president to go in and say, you know, no, thanks, I'll have coffee or, you know, do you have -- do you have a Diet Coke instead.

KEILAR: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Yes, I'll have a Diet Coke instead.

KEILAR: Who would be? A Diet Coke. I have a guess, actually, on that one. A leading contender to be New York City's next mayor, insisting that he really does, yes, live in New York. That's a qualification, right? What he's doing to refute a report that suggests maybe he doesn't.

BERMAN: Plus, a Florida high school halts distribution of its yearbook over pages dedicated to Black Lives Matter. The controversy ahead.

Also, the last seconds of the eclipse that we've been covering live, step by step.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:36]

BERMAN: So this bizarre turn in the New York City mayoral race, a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination facing questions about where he actually lives. It prompted Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to give reporters a tour of his apartment.

CNN's Alexandra Field live with the latest.

This was pretty interesting, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is really happening, John.

Look, the Democratic primary is the race that you watch in New York City, as you well know. It is less than two weeks away. This is a candidate who has made so much of his campaign about being a real New Yorker that now he's feeling the pressure to actually prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: This is also my bathroom. And downstairs is where my bed is.

FIELD (voice over): Democrat Eric Adams, a leading contender in New York City's mayoral race, insisting he really does live in New York.

ADAMS: This is our small, humble kitchen.

FIELD: Adams, who currently serves as the Brooklyn Borough president, giving an emotional press conference.

ADAMS: This is a real journey. This is my block. These are my neighbors, even the new ones. I'm proud to be a resident of (INAUDIBLE).

Where I study.

FIELD: Then taking reporters on a tour of his Brooklyn pad after a "Politico" piece raised questions about whether other tenants were really living in the apartment, if Adams is spending his time at a property he owns with his partner in New Jersey, or if his home is actually his office in the city building, Borough Hall.

ADAMS: It's been over 40 days and I've been crashing out right here at Borough Hall on my bed.

FIELD: Adams touted moving into Borough Hall back in March of 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, saying at the time the arrangement helped him best manage the crisis besetting New York.

But with COVID positivity rates now below 1 percent in New York, "Politico" reports Adams has still been spotted a number of times arriving at Borough Hall close to midnight and not leaving until early the next morning.

ADAMS: I've been into at Borough Hall in 1:00 in the morning working until 3:00 to 4:00 with my staffers who come in because they believe. And then getting up at 6:30, 7:00 to go to the train stations.

[06:40:03]

It's not a mystery where I am.

When I walk through the door sometimes, after two or three days, just being at Borough Hall bumming it, I just feel good to be home. No matter how modest it is, it's my home.

FIELD: The man who wants to be New York City's next mayor, now saying that while he visits his partner in New Jersey, he doesn't spend nights there.

The former state senator has focused his campaign on his New York roots, his 22-year career with NYPD, and a tough on crime approach.

ADAMS: We need to stop the gun violence.

FIELD: He is also tough on other candidates, especially when it comes to time spent in New York, launching repeated attacks on another mayoral front-runner, Andrew Yang, who admitted leaving the city during the pandemic.

ADAMS: So why should we trust you now? You may flee again during a difficult time.

FIELD: Yang now firing back with his own questions for Adams like, why would anyone vote for a candidate who can't even be honest about where he lives, and these more pointed questions from progressive candidate Maya Wiley, WTF, and WTF again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: So that house tour didn't put all the questions to rest, at least when it comes to the other candidates. As you see there, the Yang campaign calling on the Adams campaign to even release his Easy Pass records, something that the campaign has said are available and can be picked up at city hall.

The candidates are also piling on to Adams, saying that he is dodging questions about where he spends his nights by choosing not to participate in a leading contenders debate scheduled for this evening. The Adams campaign says that they have a previous engagement. They'll be at a vigil for a 10-year-old boy who died of gun violence.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Alexandra Field, thank you very much for that report.

Joining me now, Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News and CNN political commentator.

Errol, Eric Adams was on with Don last night and said that he would release his Easy Pass records. And my question to you is, really, this is what we've come to here?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it's the silly season, John. We're coming down the home stretch. You know, the reality is, this is a candidate who owns multiple properties and spent a lot of time sleeping in his office during the pandemic and, at times, afterwards.

You know, he's got kind of a crazy home life situation, which might be the most New York thing of all, frankly. And he says he's going to explain all of it as much as people want to hear it.

Here's the politics of it, though, John. He's been in the lead and he's been rising in the polls. Every poll -- you know, the poll that we've done, the poll that others have done. And this is an attempt by his opponents to disqualify him. If you can't beat your opponent, you try and disqualify them, knock them out of the box altogether.

You know, good luck with that. I don't think that's going to bring anybody a victory that they weren't otherwise going to win. But that's what his opponents are up to right now.

BERMAN: Yes, it is interesting. And I'm not defending him. And I'll let -- I'll let them have it out. But it does seem to me they're suggesting his infraction is working so much that he has to sleep in his office, which is a strange charge to make.

LOUIS: Yes, I mean, a strange accusation. I'm not sure what they thought people might think, you know, if that -- if the main accusation is that the guy works too hard and sleeps in his office, OK, let's see what the voters think about that.

BERMAN: Now, he has been rising, as you say, in the polls, and there may be also a reason for that based on what this campaign has largely become about, Errol.

LOUIS: Absolutely. Our polling showed that something like 72 percent of New York voters think that we need more cops on the street. Not just that they're concerned about safety, which was overwhelmingly their number one concern, far outstripping COVID, the economy, even education and housing, which are normally the top concerns. Not only is it the big concern, but they actually want a particular solution, and it happens to be the solution that Eric Adams has been campaigning on for months and months, as well as having a 22-year career in the NYPD, which works in his favor. So the stars have lined up for him at of this moment. And, again, the

other candidates are trying to change that real. But we've got a crime problem here. We've got a spike in homicides. We've got a spike in shootings. We've got these heartbreaking cases of a 12-year-old killed, a 10-year-old killed, a 4-year-old killed in Times Square. You know, this has got to change is what the voters are saying. And unless somebody else has a better solution than what Eric Adams has been proposing, he's going to stay high in the polls going into the election.

BERMAN: Yes, look, there are a lot of issues that are very important to New York City voters and there are some issues that may not be quite as important. So we'll have to see how this all plays out.

Errol Louis, as always, thank you so much for your insight.

LOUIS: Thanks.

BERMAN: We have an important update, I think you just saw it on your screen there, on the no longer eclipse. It appears to be over, Brianna.

KEILAR: That's devastating. It happened so quickly.

[06:45:01]

It was beautiful.

BERMAN: While it lasted, but now it's gone. The ring of fire solar eclipse, gone. We'll get reaction from maybe the moon or somebody coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: All right, we have some live pictures here of the ring of fire solar eclipse, happening now.

BERMAN: I feel like I have to issue a correction, right?

KEILAR: Yes, you do.

BERMAN: Because before I reported the end of the eclipse, and apparently there's still parts of the world where it's still going on.

KEILAR: Other places matter too, right?

BERMAN: I guess. I guess that's right.

KEILAR: But we didn't know. Where we were seeing was coming out of Canada and it looked like it was over.

But, if you were in Norway, which is where this is coming from, it is very much happening. It is beautiful.

I want to bring in our meteorologist Allison Chinchar to talk about this. All right, this is cool. I always nerd out on this, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. I think a lot of people do because, look, this doesn't happen every day. And even for some places, it may take several years before you get to see it where you actually live.

[06:50:04]

So it is. It's a very neat phenomenon to see.

Yes, this is what it looks like right now over Oslo, Norway. Again, this is going to continue to change minute by minute where you start to see the black area become to overtake the orange-ish yellow shade, if you will, over the sun. And that's going to continue for at least the next several hours.

Now, this is brought to you by Carvana, the new way to buy a car.

Now, the unfortunate part for some folks is the forecast didn't really work out for everybody. If you were trying to look outside, this is New York City. You can see a few clouds there. This is at about 5:30 Eastern Time this morning. You can see a few clouds trying to obstruct your view of it, but not too bad. You can still actually see a little bit of it.

Other locations, not so much. We had some showers out there. We had some more clouds, especially the farther south you went, say areas of West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, and even portions of North Carolina and even areas up around Minnesota and Wisconsin had some of those extra clouds and even some rain shower this morning that likely obstructed some of that view.

But the views are going to continue. You just have to be a little bit farther north, guys. The closer you get to the North Pole, the better it's going to be for you to be able to see this over the next couple hours.

KEILAR: That's what --

BERMAN: Great, you're checking the flights right now?

KEILAR: Kind of.

Allison, that's awesome. Thank you so much for letting us know where we can see it.

Would you go that far north to see it very well?

BERMAN: You know, I -- my wife wants to see the northern lights. So we're thinking about ways we can get super far north to see things.

So, yes, I mean I would go that far north to see something like this, yes.

KEILAR: Yes, I do -- that's a once-in-a-lifetime amazing thing to see. BERMAN: Yes.

KEILAR: That would be amazing.

So next we're going to speak with the 14-year-old who introduced President Biden onto the world stage in front of U.S. troops in England.

BERMAN: Plus Donald Trump says a new watchdog report exonerates the claims that he cleared protesters for this infamous photo op. Does it? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:19]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYDNEY GLASCOCK, INTRODUCED PRESIDENT BIDEN AT ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL: Good evening. I'm Sydney Glascock. And as a military child for my whole 14 years, I can appreciate what the words "military family" really mean. With both my parents actively serving in the military, my mom is a command chief and my dad currently deployed, I understand that military family involves more than just my family unit but rather everyone in this room.

That's what makes me incredibly proud to share this community with our next guest.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome our commander in chief, the president of the United States, Joe Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So that was Sydney Glascock, 14 years old, the daughter of two active duty service members. And you heard it, she introduced President Biden before he spoke to U.S. troops at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall, where U.S. troops -- a lot of U.S. troops are posted. Her father is currently deployed to Afghanistan, her mother, a big deal, she's the command chief master sergeant at Mildenhall.

And Sydney joins us now, along with her mother, Chief Master Sergeant Kathi Glascock.

Good morning to both of you. Honestly, congratulations to both of you. And I say that because I want you to listen to President Biden's response to your introduction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I was 14 years old, I would have been -- I mean this sincerely -- scared to death to stand up in front of a microphone, with a large crowd or small crowd. See, when I was as child, I used to stutter badly, for real. I had great difficulty speaking in front of other people. And so I expect that when you're president, you'll remember me. You'll remember me. You're really quite a polished young woman. Thank you.

You know, it's got to be hard to have your dad deployed in Afghanistan, and I also know how proud you are of him, and your mom, chief master sergeant, for being part of the leadership team here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Sydney, you kind of knocked his sox off there. It's pretty cool to do that to the president of the United States.

What did you think?

SYDNEY GLASCOCK, INTRODUCED PRESIDENT BIDEN AT ROYAL AIR FORCE MILDENHALL: Yes, yes, it was a very big honor and it's definitely a memory I'll keep forever. It was a lot of fun.

KEILAR: It was a lot of fun.

You are very understated in that. I'm going to let your mom take it away then. Chief, look, thank you from my military family to yours. Thank you for your service.

What did you think about your daughter there?

CHIEF MASTER SGT. KATHI GLASCOCK, COMMAND CHIEF, 100TH AIR REFUELING WING: Oh, my gosh, we were blown away. She is absolutely incredible. And from the moment we met the Bidens, they were so absolutely fabulous at helping Sydney feel at ease, feel comfortable. They kept making sure that she was taken care of, that she was ready and prepped to go up on stage. And then for her to get up there, and, of course, mom, you know, little butterflies in my mom role. But when she got up there, and she just did exactly what she always does. And that confidence was there. And we were super proud of her. She did an excellent job.

BERMAN: I mean you say that the Bidens made you feel at ease, Sydney. It seemed to me that you were making the president feel at ease. It almost seemed that you were trying to, you know, to calm things down so he -- you know, he would make the whole thing go smoothly there.

What was the interaction like between you and the president?

S. GLASCOCK: Well, both, the president and Dr. Biden, they were both very personable. And getting to speak with them before I actually went up and spoke, we were very -- it was like we had known each other before.

[07:00:00]

They were very personable and they were always making sure that I knew where I was going, what I was doing. And, yes, they really put me at ease. They were very comforting.