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WAPO: Trump Rejected Lawyers' Push For DOJ Deal; Biden Speaks Action Against Hidden Junk Fees; Closing Arguments Underway In Synagogue Attack Case. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 15, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The Republican field is getting bigger today and so is former President Trump's war chest, raking in millions of dollars in the wake of his indictment. We have more on that and who just jumped into this race.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And blowing the whistle on artificial intelligence. A survey of 119 CEO shows that more than 40 percent are worried AI could destroy humanity in just five to 10 years. What? We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We're following major developments in the 2024 Republican presidential primary beginning with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and the legal strategy he's using or not using in his classified documents indictment. The Washington Post is reporting that the former president rejected his attorneys' push to hammer out a deal with the DOJ in an effort to avoid charges. Today, Trump announced his first rally since that unprecedented indictment drop as one more challenger enter the already crowded primary.

We're covering every angle of these stories with CNN Senior Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid, CNN National Correspondent Kristen Holmes, and CNN Congressional Correspondent Jessica Dean. Paula, to you first because literally, as we were getting started this hour, we're hearing for the first time from the controversial judge, Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing these classified documents case.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. For the first time, she has entered an appearance in this court case. And she is directing the lawyers, both for the government and for the Trump team, to consult with the Justice Department and expedite all the necessary clearances for all team members. And she wants an update by June 20.

Now, this is kind of standard procedural stuff, right? You have to have the proper clearances because this is a national security case dealing with sensitive classified information. But the fact that this is moving along pretty quickly, right? We were just in court two days ago. She's giving a timeline of five days. This is so significant because what we've been saying is one of the keyways that she can influence this case is through timing. And that's in ways big and small. And one of them is scheduling, right?

If you want to wait a week to make an announcement, then give people another few weeks, that's one of the ways that you could potentially work against the special counsel who wants a speedy trial. But here, this is the first time we're hearing from her. She's two days out from the initial appearance, the arraignment and she's saying, look, you have five days to update me on the status of your clearances. So, that is a significant development in this case.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially because when you consider what we've been hearing from Trump's team, they kind of want to pump the brakes and make this take as long as possible.

REID: Yes. Exactly.

SANCHEZ: And you're also getting some new information about that Washington Post reporting regarding an attempt at a deal by one of Trump's attorneys to try to avoid this entire mess, one that reportedly Trump rejected.

REID: Exactly. And reportedly is the keyword.

SANCHEZ: Right.

REID: Because we have our own reporting that casts some doubt on whether his attorney who's actually representing him right now in Florida, Chris Kise, whether he really pushed to broker a deal with the Justice Department early on. It's possible that Kise and Trump had a private conversation which would be privileged.

But the rest of the legal team was not privy to these discussions. And it's not clear if he would have been the one to even approach DOJ. But look, we know the former president has received conflicting advice from advisors about how cooperative to be with the Justice Department.

[14:05:03]

We also know a problem is he hasn't been completely transparent with his advisors, right? He was not only hiding documents for investigators but he's also hiding them from his own lawyer. But at the end of the day, the advice that one out was advice he got for many people, including the head of Judicial Watch, as Kristen and others reported back in August to fight, fight, fight. And that's the prevailing wisdom that he followed and partly how he got himself in this current situation.

SANCHEZ: How fascinating to get a look at the inner workings of the legal front in this fight for Trump. On the political front, though, this indictment financially has been a boon for him.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And they were waiting to see what this looked like. We knew that they had a huge boon after that Manhattan indictment.

SANCHEZ: Right.

HOLMES: That was good for them. They weren't sure what this was going to look like. Because are people going to get tired of this idea that he keeps getting indicted was that initial shock going to wear off? And I was told that after that big insight -- that big rush after the Manhattan indictment, that there had been some lagging numbers.

So, this is a big deal for them. We were saying seven million dollars is what they've brought in, in fundraising just since that indictment was announced. And most of that is coming from digital fundraising, which means those small-dollar donors.

That is what Trump's team has said was going to carry them through this. That is what we are seeing right now. But again, this model of getting money every time you get an indictment and then no money in between is not -- doesn't seem sustainable, or else we just don't know because this is just such an unprecedented situation.

SANCHEZ: Absolutely. He also got a bump in polling after that first indictment. Still probably too early to say what kind of bump he might get in polling now. Looking at the rest of the Republican field, though, as he leads in polling, there's another entrance in the 2024 race, Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Another day, and the field expands yet again. This is Miami's Mayor Francis Suarez. Two- time mayor in Miami. His pitch is that he really feels like he should be running in this race. That he is uniquely positioned to do this.

Now, obviously, he's got some name recognition to make up, right? You have Donald Trump. You have Ron DeSantis. Also, coincidentally, both are from Florida as well, and he's now the Miami mayor.

And they've been at odds with one another. He's been at odds with Ron DeSantis and with Donald Trump over the years. We are expecting to hear him speak later today at the Reagan Library out in California. So, we'll hear more of his message.

But something else to keep in mind when you're getting in this late. And that first debate, remember is August 23. So, just in a couple of months.

SANCHEZ: Right.

DEAN: And the RNC has set limits and you know, different places that they need to -- different markers that they need to meet to be on that debate stage. And for somebody like this that isn't known across the country, he was the head of the Mayor's Council -- a bipartisan Mayor's Council who did travel around the country but isn't widely known, doesn't have that name recognition --

SANCHEZ: Right.

DEAN: -- you really need to do a lot to get on that stage. That stage is going to be really important.

SANCHEZ: Yes, he's asking for one-dollar donations in order to meet that threshold --

DEAN: Right.

SANCHEZ: -- of donors to try to make it to the debate stage. Jessica, we're also getting perspective from an outsider on the Republican presidential field in former President Barack Obama.

DEAN: Yes. It was very interesting to hear him weigh in on this. It's not often that we hear him talking about politics much anymore.

It's from time to time. He obviously was very active during the midterm elections. But he did talk a little bit about the GOP. I'll let you listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If a Republican who may even be sincere in saying I want us all to live together doesn't have a plan for how do we address crippling generational poverty that is a consequence of hundreds of years of racism in this society and we need to do something about that. Now, we can't just ignore all that and pretend as if everything's equal and fair. We actually have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

DEAN: So, we're going to hear more from this ever-expanding Republican field. It is always interesting to hear the former president, Barack Obama, weighing in on this. Of course, the man that took over after him that succeeded him is also running yet again.

So, it's quite an interesting dynamic but we're looking ahead now to see what Suarez says later tonight. And then, of course, just to all of your reporting, this X Factor of what does the former president's newest indictment mean, how do these candidates continue to evolve on their messaging around it, and what does that look as we get ever closer to that first debate.

SANCHEZ: Now, the shadow that looms large over this primary process.

DEAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Jessica Dean, Kristen Holmes, Paula Reid, we covered a lot of ground there.

DEAN: We did.

REID: We did.

HOLMES: Yes.

SANCHEZ: We did. Yes. Thanks so much for joining us. Brianna? KEILAR: The U.S. military just announcing that these F-22 fighter jets right here have been deployed to the Middle East because of concerns about unsafe and unprofessional behavior by Russian pilots there. This is a move that is coming as the U.S. says there's been a recent increase in aggressive flights by Russia in the region.

Joining us now to talk a little bit about what this all means, we have retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. So, walk us through this. Tell us why the U.S. is deploying these F-22 raptors. And I'm just going to start by looking at some of these capabilities that you can take us through.

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CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Sure. Absolutely, Brianna. The F-22 is really an air superiority fighter. And it's got a top speed as it says here at 1500 miles per hour, height of 60 -- ceiling height of 65,000 feet, and it can fly easily over 1800 miles in distance. So, that's one of the key things there.

But the key thing that they're going after are incidents like this. These are Su-35 jets from the Russian Air Force that are attacking the F-16s -- they were doing maneuvers as if they were attacking F-16s. And they're coming in as if they were going to do a dogfight as you can see from the gun camera footage right here.

So, what that means is that they're engaged in maneuvers that are really dangerous to the F-16s that are currently deployed over Syria. So, we're bringing a far more capable aircraft, the F-22 in to do that.

KEILAR: And so, when you look at the numbers of this. Since the beginning of March, Russia has violated those deconfliction protocols 85 times. I mean, that's a lot. And we can't forget as you pull up this next slide, that the U.S. has a military presence here.

LEIGHTON: That's right. We have 900 service members based in Syria right now at various locations throughout the country from early in the Northeast and the eastern part of the country. And what this really means is that we not only have to protect the skies and the types of deconfliction protocols that we've worked out since the Syrian civil war, but also we have to protect the forces on the ground.

I -- we've got special operations forces there. We've got folks who are handling relations with the Kurdish forces. These are all critically important pieces of the element right here in Syria.

KEILAR: This -- these aggressive actions now we're seeing them over Syria in these astounding numbers. We haven't seen them as well over Ukraine.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. And also over the Black Sea right next to Ukraine. You may remember that this is the footage of a Su-27 going after a drone. This is footage from the MQ-Nine Reaper as it is being approached by the Russian jet. And the Russian fighter is dumping fuel all over it, which ended up destroying the drone because it would -- it had to be crashed because it was no longer serviceable.

KEILAR: International waters --

LEIGHTON: Exactly.

KEILAR: Over international waters, right?

LEIGHTON: That's exactly right. International waters, international airspace. When it comes to Syria, airspace that was de conflicted between the U.S. and Russia. So, these are the kinds of things that shouldn't be happening. And what the Russians are doing is extremely dangerous.

KEILAR: Yes. Russia tried to make a distinction that this was part of their special exercise area, but that's just sort of them labeling the area. Last month, as we talked about some of the things going on in Ukraine and we talked about the capabilities now that Ukraine has. Ukraine claimed that it took down six of these hypersonic Russian missiles, the Kinzhal missiles --

LEIGHTON: Right.

KEILAR: -- with the U.S. Patriot air defense system. Tell us why this is such a big deal.

LEIGHTON: This is a really big deal because the Kinzhal missile was advertised as a hypersonic missile. Basically, that means it goes faster than Mach Five for five times the speed of sound. Well, the Patriot, it was thought could not handle this kind of capability.

But the -- turns out that these Patriot missiles are actually capable of going after the Kinzhal missiles because they can handle the altitude and the speed that the Kinzhal flies. When Putin talked about the Kinzhal and other hypersonic missiles, they were touted as weapons that could basically take out anything that could not be defended against. It turns out not to be true.

KEILAR: Is it a game-changer? How do you see it?

LEIGHTON: I see it as a game-changer that we were able to shoot down this -- or the Ukrainians were able to shoot down this missile. And that's a big, big thing because it means that the Russian weapons systems aren't as capable as advertised. And our weapons systems so far are better than advertised.

KEILAR: All right, Colonel, thank you so much for taking us through all of this. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still to come. The prosecutor in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting says the defendant "hunted his victims." More on the closing arguments that just got underway. And we're live in Greece where hundreds of people are still missing after a migrant boat sank. What Greek authorities are saying caused the ship to go down?

And later, Mexican officials are investigating the mysterious deaths of two Americans whose bodies were found in a hotel room. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be back in just moments.

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SANCHEZ: We want to take you straight to the White House where President Biden is making an announcement on combating junk fees. Let's listen in.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Junk fees are ones that companies charge right at the end of the purchasing process after you've already spent the time comparing your options. So, the solution is -- the solution is what it's called all-in pricing. And that's where companies fully disclose their fees upfront when you start shopping, so you're not surprised at the end when you check out.

The companies represented here today are voluntarily committed to all in upfront pricing. Some of them have used this process for years to sell tickets to events like TikTok -- tick pick, excuse me, dice, and Newport Festival Foundation. Tens of millions of fans have already benefited from their decision.

Others, like Airbnb, have started giving customers the option of seeing all-in prices since we call for action last year. And other businesses are committing today. Started in September, Live Nation will automatically list all prices upfront for all tickets to events, and more than 200 venues of its own, benefiting over 30 million customers. And will give customers the option of an all-in price for all other tickets sold on its platform. The ticket seller SeatGeek is also set to give customers the option of seeing all-in upfront prices.

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And I'm pleased we're also joined by XP -- XBK, a small venue in Des Moines, Iowa that's going to be using all upfront pricing for its hundred events a year as well. Folks, we're just to the latest private sector -- we -- these are just the latest private sector leaders who are responding to my call for action. And I'm asking their competitors to follow suit and adopt an all-in upfront pricing as well.

This is -- this is a win for consumers in my view, and proof that our crackdown on junk fees has real momentum. But there's more to do to address the problem of online ticketing -- for testing -- excuse me, to address the problems on the online ticketing industry and to get junk fees across all industries. I want to thank members of Congress who are working on legislation to address these junk fees and ticketing, lodging, and other industries. This is real transparency, which leads to more competition, brings down costs for working Americans, and keeps growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. And I'm going to now turn it over to Lael, our director of my National Economic Council to start a discussion. So, thank you.

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SANCHEZ: We've been listening to President Biden at an event at the White House talking about cracking down on junk fees, calling this White House initiative "a win for consumers" that several companies are now going to present the fees that they charge for different kinds of tickets up front, allowing consumers more choice and more transparency when making financial decisions. Brianna?

KEILAR: Closing arguments are now underway in the trial over the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history that left the 11 people that you see behind me here dead all because, prosecutors say, their faith. Robert Bowers could get death for his shooting rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue back in 2018. Lawyers for the 50-year-old defendant presented no witnesses after 60 were called for the prosecution.

CNN's Danny Freeman has been following this trial over the last several weeks. Danny, tell us what happened today so far.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, very active day in court so far. We just learned actually that the government has finished its rebuttal, so the jury should be getting this case momentarily. But I want to run through some of the things that we heard today in closing arguments from both the prosecution and the defense.

First, the prosecution. They really tried to paint a contrasting picture earlier this morning of an otherwise peaceful day at a synagogue on a rainy Saturday morning in October of 2018 within the moment that Robert Bowers, the defendant, and I'm quoting here from the prosecution, "turned a sacred house of worship into a hunting ground." The prosecution further said that Bowers killed Jewish people just because they were Jewish.

The prosecution, then this morning continued to show some of the most graphic, horrible images of the victims of the synagogue shooting. They were, again, very visceral. They were brutal. They showed something -- played some of the 911 calls that we've heard throughout the past two and a half weeks of this trial as well.

And I want to say that we've actually had a view this time in the courthouse of the family members and some of the victims who survived this attack as well. They all the while sat stoically just very intently listening to the prosecution.

Then we took a lunch break. Then this afternoon, the defense brought up its case and -- rather its closing argument. And, Brianna, the defense only spoke for less than 25 minutes.

The defense said that there is no dispute that Bowers was the one who killed those worshippers. Instead, the defense tried to say that his motives were in question here. That he did not kill these people because they were Jewish, but because one of the congregations -- one of the three that were present at the Tree of Life supported a refugee group. And that this mass killing was more about immigrants and not specifically about Jewish people.

As I said, the prosecution then made a rebuttal statement basically saying to the jury, disregard that. That is not what happened here. This is about this man trying to kill Jewish people. Again, this case going to the jury momentarily, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching as you have for weeks, Danny. Thank you for that report from Pittsburgh. Boris?

SANCHEZ: We are following a major story overseas. A tragedy unfolding in Europe, one of the largest-scale migrant vessel disasters ever. Officials say at least 78 people are dead after a boat carrying hundreds of migrants sank off the coast of Greece early on Wednesday morning. Authorities are now blaming a sudden shift in weight for the shipwreck. More than a hundred people have been rescued and are now recovering in a makeshift warehouse.

Let's take you there live with CNN's Melissa Bell. Melissa, emergency workers are now struggling to contain some of the fallout here.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's been an absolutely shocking day here in Kamalata.

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First of all, Boris, of course, because there have been the survivors that have been brought back traumatized deeply by what they've seen. Then, of course, the ongoing search for some of those who have at this stage lost their lives.

We now think we're coming up to the nearly 48-hour mark since this boat sank, that the tails of the survivors spring off a boat that sank within 10 to 15 minutes with, Boris, a hundred children in the hold of the boat.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

BELL: Many of the women down there as well. The survivors were one who are -- the ones who are at the very top of this overcrowded boat. What we're also hearing conflicting accounts of exactly what happened.

The Greek coast guard explaining that they had tried to bring rescue to the boat, but had been told by the boats -- the people on it, the migrants, and the ones shepherding them that they didn't want their help. They wanted to head all the way to Italy.

One, many of the NGOs who patrol these waters say is that in fact, what they understand happened is that both Greek and Italian coast guards were given warning that the boat was in distress. And it was several hours later that any attempts were made to try and rescue it. In the end, some 700 people may have lost their lives, Boris -- SANCHEZ: Wow.

BELL: -- in what is one of the worst catastrophes to strike the Greek Coast. They say that that is the biggest operation certainly this country has ever launched. But what we're seeing here in Europe is a progressive closing of the borders.

Countries like Greece and Europe and Italy have long been calling for Europe's external borders to be tighter. The EU is moving in that direction. And those NGOs that try and prevent people from drowning in what has become the deadliest migrant route in the world say that that could lead to many more of these disasters to come, Boris and Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Melissa Bell reporting from Greece, thank you. Brianna?

KEILAR: Since the debt ceiling deal included a spending agreement, lawmakers are now gearing up for a knockdown drag-out fight this fall. We're going to tell you why and how it will once again test Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership skills. Next.

Also ahead, a CNN exclusive. More than 40 percent of CEOs surveyed believed artificial intelligence could destroy humanity, get this, in five to 10 years.

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