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Holiday Weekend Marred By Mass Shootings; Antony Blinken Meets With Xi Jinping; Did FBI Delay Trump Investigation?; Titanic Tourist Sub Goes Missing. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: It also means that South Carolina would vote 18 days after Nevada's primary. Iowa and New Hampshire, meanwhile, still have yet to decide their hotly contested primary dates.

And an important CNN interview you're not going to want to miss. Former President Barack Obama sits down with CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour in a global exclusive, "Obama and Amanpour: Will Democracy Win?" it airs Thursday, June 22, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thank you so much for joining me on INSIDE POLITICS today.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A Titanic tourist sub goes missing in the North Atlantic Ocean, and now there's an operation -- an operation under way racing against the clock to find it and rescue those on board.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a new report in "The Washington Post" accuses the FBI of slow-walking an investigation of Donald Trump's role in trying to steal the 2020 election. What it means for the former president's legal troubles and the potential for another indictment.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Two superpowers hoping for a recent. The top U.S. diplomat sat down with China's leader. Both sides say they made some progress, but mending the bruised relationship will take more than one meeting.

We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in white here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We begin this afternoon in the Atlantic Ocean with an urgent search-and-rescue operation happening right now.

Gone missing, a submersible operated by a company that runs tours of the Titanic wreckage. We're told that several government agencies and deep sea companies are working on reestablishing contact with that submersible.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us now with more details.

Miguel, what do we know about this search-and-rescue?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know that several ships have left St. John's in Newfoundland to head to that area. This is about 380 nautical miles from the Newfoundland coast where this submersible has gone missing.

OceanGate Expeditions is the company that runs this submersible. They do everything from research to have underwater photography and video. And then on one of these subs that can hold as many as five people. And, sometimes, they do take tourists on those -- on that sub as well.

The company releasing a very brief statement, saying that they are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring their crew back safely. And their entire focus is on the crew members on the submersible and their family members.

But, right now, we are trying to gather more details to figure out sort of where this was, what exactly it was exploring. It is in that area where the Titanic went down in 1912, but they do other sorts of research and take people to sort of see canyons in very, very deep. The Titanic is about 3,800 meters deep.

The sub or the submersible that they may have been using is a newer one that they seem to have launched in 2021 made of titanium and carbon fiber. They are desperately trying to reestablish contact with it and figure out if they can bring people home safely -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Miguel, you noted the depth. We're talking about nearly 13,000 feet below the ocean's surface. So, obviously, anyone who may have been at those depths in any kind of submersible risks extreme danger.

Has the company given any official count of how many people may have been on board?

MARQUEZ: No, it can hold up to five, but it doesn't necessarily have five people on there.

And, as you note, the pressure once you get to that level in the ocean is extreme. And this submersible is -- it appears that they launched it a couple of years ago, the sort of the newest and latest and greatest in submersible technology. The Titanic, there was a different company that mapped it recently.

There has been a lot of submersibles that have been able to get down there since the mid-1980s. And now this may be the first accident or certainly concerning situation with the Titanic since it went down in 1912.

SANCHEZ: We will stand by for any updates, obviously racing to find out the fate of those aboard, hoping for a rescue.

Miguel Marquez from New York, thank you so much -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: New today, "The Washington Post" is reporting the FBI waited more than a year to launch a formal investigation into Donald Trump's role in January 6, as well as his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The "Post" report found that the DOJ and FBI may have been overly cautious because they did not want to appear partisan. There was debate among prosecutors about how much evidence was actually needed to probe Trump's actions.

[13:05:12]

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now.

Katelyn you have been following this for some time. I know that CNN has some of its own reporting regarding the decision-making here. Was this a deliberate decision not to investigate the president early on? Was this part of a broader, methodical approach to this?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Jim, this is just two sides of how the different approaches could be, right?

There are people in hindsight who, apparently, in "The Washington Post" are now saying that they were dissatisfied with the way that this was moving early on. But then the attorney general himself had publicly stated that they would be following the facts as they led them.

And CNN here, our own reporting has been for several months now that, even in 2021, as the Justice was -- Justice Department was faced with an onslaught of Capitol rioter cases in court, something that they had never seen the likes of an investigation like this before, they were approaching it with the full green light to take an investigation the whole way to Donald Trump, if they needed it.

But they needed to follow the facts and the law, as Merrick Garland was publicly announcing at this time. So, "The Post" now is illuminating some really interesting meetings and discussions that were taking place at a fraught time at the Justice Department. How hard do you go for Donald Trump early on after the Capitol riot?

And now, looking back, what we know is that the prosecutors, even before the special counsel came in to formally look at Trump as part of the January 6 investigation, they came in and they were trying to follow the finances, the money early on. Was there an infrastructure built to fund or help rioters who came and did violent acts on the Capitol grounds?

That investigation continues now under the special counsel. We know there's a financial aspect to it. And we also know, Jim, that the special counsel investigation, as soon as it was appointed in November of last year, moved very fast and got lots of testimony, including from Mike Pence, the former vice president, something that would have been unheard of in other investigations, very fast.

SCIUTTO: Right.

So, what you're saying, based on your own and CNN's reporting, there was not a deliberate decision here to kind of put this on a shelf, on a -- but that there was a process under way to decide who to prosecute first and build it from there. Is that what the takeaway should be?

POLANTZ: Yes, and there's different people who have been out there saying they wanted things to happen a little bit earlier.

But our understanding is that this investigation unfurled. I mean, if you remember, right after the Capitol, insurrection, the U.S. attorney acting at that time publicly came out and said, people should be charged with seditious conspiracy.

The Justice Department had to take up a month or even a year, several months, to get to the point where they were able to charge that. And they were able to ultimately prosecute both members of the Proud Boys and members of the Oath Keepers and obtain convictions for that. So, this was a long process still under investigation now.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and one that continues, no question. Lots of decisions still to be made.

Katelyn Polantz here in Washington with us, thanks so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Jim, also today a new order from a federal judge that Donald Trump will not be allowed to share any of the evidence in his classified documents case with his supporters or the media.

This is a ruling that bans the former president and his close aide Walt Nauta from talking about any of the information that is shared with their legal team during the discovery phase. Trump also cannot post about it on social media.

CNN's Evan Perez is joining us now on this.

I think, Evan, that the team, his team expected this. So perhaps that's not surprising. But this is something that, if past is prologue, might be kind of difficult for Donald Trump to do.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

I mean, his discipline, let's just say, is not something he's known for. And so the question is, can the former president abide by these rules? So anything under this protective order that his team has agreed to, by the way, with the special counsel, anything they get -- this is the unclassified part of the discovery that they're now going to start getting.

Anything he sees in those sessions with his lawyers, he's not allowed to disclose. And that goes for him and his co-defendant Walt Nauta. And, obviously, the next step is for the Justice Department to begin start -- to start sharing some of the classified materials that, right now, his lawyers are trying to get their approval for a security clearance, so they can start reviewing this stuff.

But this obviously is a standard part of the process in these cases. When you have something like this ongoing, it's very routine to have these orders. But, as you pointed out, it is Donald Trump we're talking about. And that's one of the issues that will be obviously something that the judges are now going to be overseeing. [13:10:07]

KEILAR: Yes, he's going to want to defend himself.

PEREZ: Right.

KEILAR: But some of the information that he might use to do that would be classified, so that's huge.

PEREZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Two former Trump Cabinet officials, Bill Barr and Mark Esper, are criticizing his handling of declassified documents. Tell us a little bit about that.

PEREZ: Well, these are two people who took a lot of criticism during the time that they were working for Donald Trump for doing things that seemed like they're protecting him, right?

And so it is remarkable to see the criticism now you're getting not only from Esper, but also from Bill Barr, who, obviously, sometimes people criticized him for him -- the way he ran the Justice Department, tilting things in Donald Trump's favor.

Listen to their comments over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Do you think Trump can be trusted with the nation's secrets ever again?

MARK ESPER, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, based on his actions, again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel, no.

I mean, it's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk.

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country's interests. There's no question about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And that's -- you hear how stark that criticism is.

Again, these are people who worked very closely with the former president.

KEILAR: Yes, especially Bill Barr. I mean, he is just not backing him up on this at all.

Evan, thank you for that -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, some progress in the midst of serious tensions. The U.S. and China take steps to lower the temperature, Beijing still not budging, though, on a number of key issues, including Taiwan. What Secretary of State Antony Blinken is saying about his high-stakes meetings with Chinese leaders.

Plus: tanks packed with tons of explosives blown up remotely. Russia could be using that as an alarming new battlefield tactic, as Ukraine claims some new gains in its ongoing counteroffensive.

And they spent hours reeling in a giant fish for put $3.5 million prizes. Then another sea creature seems to have spoiled the party. There's always a bigger fish.

Details when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:27]

SCIUTTO: Critical talks hoping to cool things down between the superpowers.

That is U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departing Beijing a short time ago this morning on his way back to the U.S. after two days of crucial meetings with top Chinese officials, including a significant, though relatively short, 35-minute meeting with the president, Xi Jinping, as tensions continue to grow between the two nations over Taiwan, trade, China's support to Moscow in the Ukraine war and more.

Both sides hailed some progress this morning, though they said there were no key breakthroughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Very candid, very in depth and, in, places constructive. And, in other places, we have a lot more work to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Senior national security correspondent Kylie Atwood, she is live in Beijing.

And, Kylie, there was a lot of expectations-management going into these meetings. Neither side was saying they were going to fix all their problems or even leave with any deliverables. But they were talking. What did the U.S. officials say they accomplished here?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, what the secretary of state said is that both sides agreed on the need to stabilize the relationship.

That, in and of itself, Jim, as you know, is pretty significant. He said it's his expectation that there is going to be better engagement between the U.S. and China going forward here. That is something that the U.S. wanted heading into this meeting, because what they don't want is for this competition between the two countries to spiral out of control, to become an issue where there could be miscalculation, there could be conflict.

But one thing that they did set out to try and stand up here were military-to-military communications. There are not regular channels of communications on that front between the U.S. and China right now. And the secretary of state told me at the press conference here this evening before he left Beijing that China simply didn't agree to stand those up at that at this time.

And that's something that the U.S. is going to continue to press for, saying that that is a vital to get into place. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLINKEN: I think it's absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications, military-to-military. That imperative, I think, was only underscored by recent incidents that we saw in the air and on the seas.

And, at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, there were a whole host of issues where it seems that both parties were pretty ingrained in their positions heading into the meeting and heading out of the meetings.

Taiwan was one of those issues, human rights another area where that was the case. The secretary of state said he raised human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Tibet and Xinjiang in his meetings. Of course, no movement from China on that front, but where there was movement was a commitment from China to stand up a working group on fentanyl.

We know that there is an opioid crisis in the United States, and a lot of those precursor chemicals actually come from China. So it's significant that they are agreeing to work with the United States to stem that flow into the U.S. -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, those military-to-military communication key, with those close calls we have seen in the air, on the sea there. We will see if they could work that out going forward.

Kylie Atwood in Beijing, thanks so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, let's talk about this more now with Kimberly Dozier CNN global affairs analyst and senior managing editor for "The Military Times."

[13:20:06]

How concerning is it, Kim, that you are not seeing this military-to- military channel restored after these talks?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it's dangerous, because, without that hot line, the next time a Chinese warship plays chicken with a U.S. warship, and, maybe this time, the U.S. doesn't hit the brakes fast enough and they clash, well, that's the kind of thing that can escalate into something more dangerous, like armed conflict.

But I think that probably Xi wants to wait until a potential meeting face to face with President Biden at the APEC summit this fall in the U.S. before he makes that kind of a concession, if only for the rhetoric, the messaging to his own people, that we don't we don't give this kind of concession to a secretary of state. We will only do it leader to leader.

KEILAR: How key is that, a summit between the two leaders for their truly to be a thaw on?

DOZIER: I think, in terms of some of the things at play, it's the only way to resolve some of it.

And Xi knows that Biden needs successful trade ahead of the next election. If there's a burst of market activity and trade between the U.S. and China, that's positive. But what the Biden administration needs to see is that the Chinese stop doing some of its provocative behavior. It's doing more patrols in the South China Sea.

It's asserting its influence, whereas Beijing is saying, hey, this is our area. Back off. You stay in yours. This is ours to do with what we will. Stop doing things like your nuclear sub deal with Australia. You're messing in our backyard.

KEILAR: We were talking about in the break how, security-wise, the U.S. and China may be diametrically opposed, but they need cooperation economically.

Further compounding how difficult a needle that is to thread, you have the 2024 election upon us. And China always factors so large in the rhetoric. We even see, for instance, state-level legislation blocking Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural land. That includes Ron DeSantis in Florida, right?

So this is going to be very big. What are you looking for?

DOZIER: Well, and there's a lot of bipartisan support on Capitol Hill on both sides.

There -- you have got Democrats and Republicans who've read the top secret intelligence reports of Chinese spying, Chinese stealing of U.S. intellectual technology, and also the continuing cyberattacks that happen on several different levels. But you can expect there will almost be a competition between the Republicans and the Democrats who can be strong enough on China, even as they're one of the U.S.' largest trading partners, and the Biden administration needs business to get back to normal.

KEILAR: All right, Kim, thank you so much. It's really a difficult situation the president has to contend with right now.

Kimberly Dozier, always appreciate the analysis -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Russia reportedly showcasing a possible new tactic on the battlefield. It says this tank was detonated remotely and caused a massive explosion. We're going to take you live to Ukraine in just moments.

And at least one person is dead after a possible tornado rips through Mississippi, the threat there not over yet.

These stories and more still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:14]

SANCHEZ: A rash of gun violence across the country, shootings turning celebrations into chaos.

Now, here are just three cases. In Willowbrook, Illinois, just outside Chicago, a mass shooting at a Juneteenth event, killing one person, injuring 22. Police say they're searching for an unknown number of suspects there. Meantime, in St. Louis, a 17-year-old was killed, nine other teens injured when a shooter opened fire at a party downtown. Police recovering an AR-15-style rifle and a handgun. A 17-year-old is now in custody.

And bullets were flying Saturday night at a music festival in Washington state. Two people were killed, three others injured. Police say, after the initial shooting, the suspect ran from police and began randomly firing into the crowd before being taken into custody.

CNN's Josh Campbell joins us now live.

And, Josh, there have been more mass shootings in 2023 than there have been days this year. What does the data show us about how frequently these are happening?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris.

And there were 15 mass shootings in this country over this holiday weekend alone. I mean, the numbers here tell a really horrific story about the epidemic of gun violence that is sweeping the nation. As we look at the total number of gun deaths in this country, you can see we're talking nearly 20,000 people killed this year alone from a firearm, nearly 17,000 injured, 315 total mass shootings this year.

And as you look at year by year, I mean, one thing, if there's any good news on all of this, there are fewer gun deaths in this country this year than there were last year. But that's only a slight number. I mean, you look at specifically 2019, look at that spike on your screen. From 2019 through to 2021, there were -- there was a spike of about 25 percent gun deaths.

[13:30:00]