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CNN Obtains Audio Of Trump Discussing Classified Docs; Justices Reject Trump-Backed Election Law Theory; Candidate Suarez Fumbles Question On Uyghurs In China. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 27, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: CNN obtains an exclusive recording of former President Donald Trump talking about holding secret documents that he didn't declassify. His campaign insists the tapes prove that he is innocent. We're going to play them for you and break down how they fit into the broader investigation.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: So, how exactly did the Russian revolt in? There were new details about the deal believed to be brokered by the Belarusian president. What Alexander Lukashenko claims he told the Wagner chief if he did not stop his forces from marching on Moscow?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And a major Supreme Court decision today, the High Court just rejected the legal theory backed by Donald Trump that would have radically changed the U.S. elections. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: CNN has exclusively obtained an audio recording of Donald Trump post-presidency, discussing classified materials that were in his possession. The tape is a crucial piece of the Justice Department's case against Trump. And we know this because it's quoted in the federal indictment. But now, we're hearing parts of that 2021 conversation that we're not mentioned by prosecutors.

CNN's Paula Reid has been tracking this story for us. So, Paula, what does Trump say in this meeting that we should point out he knew was being recorded?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's one of the most remarkable aspects of this tape, Boris, is the fact that the former president knew he was being recorded. He was being recorded by his own aides at his request. And yet, here he can be heard casually discussing retaining some of the nation's secrets even after he left the White House.

Here, he appears to be trying to argue his case before two auto biographers working on a book about Mark Meadows and two of his own staffers at one point saying look at this. Look at this. These are the papers as he tries to prove a point about General Mark Milley, and who if anyone wanted to attack Iran. It shows that he's preoccupied with his image with convincing these auto biographers of his side of the case all appearing alleging to brandish some of the nation's secrets. But let's listen to him in his own words.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are bad sick people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was your coup, you know, that against you. That --

TRUMP: Well, it started right at the --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like when Milley is talking about oh, you were going to try and do a coup. No, they were trying to do that before you even were sworn in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trying to overthrow your election.

TRUMP: What was Milley -- let me see that. I'll show you an example.

He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn't it amazing? I have a big pile of papers.

This thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this.

This is off the record but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

TRUMP: We looked at him. This was him. This wasn't done by me. This was him. All sorts of stuff. Pages long, look. Wait a minute, let's see here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: I just found -- isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential secret.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: This is secret information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TRUMP: But look at this.

(END AUDIO CLIP) REID: Following his indictment, the former president told Fox News's Bret Baier that he didn't actually have that document. That it was just a pile of papers, magazine clippings.

But there, for the first time, you can hear him saying these are the papers. That's a quote that was not included in the indictment or our previous reporting. And it really undercuts this argument that what he shuffling through is a bunch of random documents. So, ultimately, he will expect it to be -- it is expected to be up to a jury to decide what exactly they're hearing here.

[14:05:09]

SANCHEZ: Really stunning audio. Paula Reid, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. Joining me now to talk more about this is CNN anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS," and chief political correspondent Dana Bash. Dana, good to have you.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's nice to see you.

SCIUTTO: So, let's set aside the legal consequences of this, given what the president said on tape.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Speak just politically for a moment here because you have the president speaking at a minimum dismissively about highly sensitive documents, which he describes as such, and sort of makes jokes about it as his staff laughs along with him here. You've seen some Republicans who have said this is a problem, by and large, brushed it off. Does this move any of them further in the direction of saying here was the president -- a former president who just didn't care about the consequences of it?

BASH: You know, I -- an "INSIDE POLITICS" today interviewed Tim Burchett, who is a Republican congressman from Tennessee, who last week, I believe, told our colleague Manu Raju that if Donald Trump is convicted of what he was indicted for, then he should not be president again. Today, when we play some of this audio that you just played just a minute ago, his answer was still the same on being convicted. But when listening to him, it's trumping Trump. Oh, this is typical Donald Trump. And it was very instructive to me because that's what he's hearing from his constituents in a conservative district in Tennessee --

SCIUTTO: Right.

BASH: -- which is not unlike the kind of constituents and voters who are the most important to the Republican presidential nominating process in Iowa and New Hampshire and beyond.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BASH: So, that's a long way of saying in the short term, it doesn't look like it's moving the needle. The long term when it comes to a general election, if it becomes the nominee --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: -- that's a completely different question.

SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE) Because I have -- we saw Asa Hutchinson here last week.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Someone who's been very critical of the former president who said similarly that he often hears from voters that they see Trump as being picked on with these cases.

BASH: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: You know that's primary voters. It's not independent voters in a general election. Could be a different result there.

When you speak to Trump campaign officials, etcetera, do they express any acknowledgment of the irony that here's someone who ran for president in 2016 criticizing Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, and now seems to have had no -- at least no greater concern right about the sensitivity of these things, or is that long forgotten?

BASH: I think he -- I think he must have missed the funeral because irony is dead.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: I mean --

SCIUTTO: Well, it's --

BASH: I mean I'm making a joke.

SCIUTTO: See that every day.

BASH: But it's -- right. But it's --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: But it's not. That is part of a larger discussion about our kind of body politic right now that yes, I mean, people who are fair- minded, sort of objective viewers or consumers of this information will see it like that.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BASH: I mean, of course. And when you -- actually, what's interesting about -- one of the many things that's interesting about hearing the audio is that when we saw the transcript, we didn't see it in the indictment. They took the Hillary Clinton part out of it.

So, the fact that he's even -- there's even an acknowledgment, I think it was one of the staffers who mentioned her name first --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: -- in this discussion --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: I think --

SCIUTTO: This is notable.

BASH: -- it answers your question, which is no, they don't see the irony.

SCIUTTO: Just before we go, no time to play the audio, but you're aware of Kevin McCarthy's interview where he's -- he granted.

BASH: Yes.

SCIUTTO: He said, I'm not quite -- I'm paraphrasing here. I'm not quite so sure Donald Trump is necessarily the strongest GOP nominee in 2024. Were you surprised to hear that from him?

BASH: I was. And apparently, so were a lot of Trump supporters. Our colleague Kristen Holmes is getting great reporting. She said her phone's ringing off the hook by people saying that they're upset about it. It would not surprise me, Jim, to see or hear some clarification from the speaker in the near future.

SCIUTTO: Yes. A clarification could -- also known in Washington as a walk back. But we'll see what he says. I think you have an anniversary tomorrow. Work anniversary, is that right?

BASH: I might.

SCIUTTO: All right. It's a big one.

BASH: I might. Just a few years.

SCIUTTO: OK, just a couple of years. We all -- we all have big ones. But, Dana Bash, a legend at CNN --

BASH: Oh, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much.

BASH: You too.

SCIUTTO: Brianna.

KEILAR: Indeed. She is. Today, Vladimir Putin praised his Russian forces for stopping a "Civil War" when a mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin threatened to march on Moscow this weekend.

Russia also announced charges would be dropped against the Wagner fighters. Belarus's president helping negotiate a deal to end this rebellion. Today, he detailed those talks at length.

Alexander Lukashenko is saying at one point, Putin told him that Prigozhin would not respond to his -- Putin's calls. Lukashenko also revealed that he got Prigoahin on the phone and that Prigozhin -- told Prigozhin that he would be "crushed like a bug if he continued on to Moscow."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, PRESIDENT OF BELARUS (through translator): The most dangerous thing as I understand it is not what the situation was, but how it could develop and its consequences. This was the most dangerous thing. I also realized that there was a harsh decision taken to destroy. I suggested Putin not to hurry. Let's talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:10:23]

KEILAR: We have CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, live for us in Kyiv, Ukraine. I do want to talk to you, Nick, of course, about this Russian revolt. But before we do that, there are some breaking details about a Russian strike on a civilian area in Eastern Ukraine. What do you know at this point?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that drama around Moscow of the civilian toll that Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continues to exact. Kramatorsk a city not far from the Eastern front lines, not far indeed from Bakhmut where Wagner fought so fiercely over the winter hit, it seems by one, possibly two missile strikes. The images you're seeing right now of a pizza restaurant in the city center. It has a clothing shop and jewelry shop near it too. It appears to have been hit by the strike.

There may be casualties injured, possibly dead, possibly as well. You're seeing, there are local people clearing through the rubble. A search and rescue operation there is frantically underway. A local official posting on Facebook simply the word tragedy.

Now, we don't know if this was specifically targeted. It is popular with locals. Can be busy at earlier times during the day. Off-duty military there often as well. Russia notoriously clumsy and bad in its are targeting with heavy weaponry, but also to occasionally finding its target.

We'll learn about that more in the hours ahead, but essentially, the possibility of the loss of life here. And again, many thinking this is Russia losing nearby in Bakhmut to Ukrainian advances and lashing out at civilian areas nearby. A common tactic but one that appears to have taken possibly innocent lives or caused injury in the last hours or so. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, terrible pictures of that restaurant coming into us here. Talking about this revolt led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, we've heard from Lukashenko that Prigozhin is in Belarus. But do we have any specifics on that, Nick?

WALSH: No, we don't. We don't even have any Prigozhin saying he's there himself. Although he does appear in his last statement to be going along with the narrative we're now hearing from Lukashenko and from the Kremlin as well.

Look, we've had the split screen bizarreness today, frankly. Vladimir Putin in Moscow standing in front of troops -- land troops, who frankly did very little to stop the Wagner advance on Moscow on Saturday, but telling those same troops, thank you. Your duty, your courage has saved Russia and saved Russia from Civil War indeed.

And then going on to talk about how in fact, the Wagner group can be given over a billion dollars over the past year by the Russian state, by Putin himself. A bizarre sort of self-own of the role of Prigozhin over the past year by Putin casting a very different narrative what we've heard over the past few days.

One, which I'm sure many Muscovites will struggle, frankly to even grasp. Secondly, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the man who seems to have intervened in all of this. Well, he goes on to talk about the conversation he had with Prigozhin where he essentially in what he referred to as an expletive-laden conversation, persuaded the mercenary chief to turn the tanks around and come to Belarus.

He's now a thorn, certainly in Lukashenko's side, Prigozhin. And that threat possibly moved slightly further away from Putin. Not gone away. The charges have been dropped against him. But what an utterly bizarre series of explanations we're getting here. And, frankly, a weekend that has shaken Putin like never before, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. You can see some of it too in the expression on his face as he's speaking there. Nick, thank you so much for that report for us from Kyiv. I want to turn now to Nic Robertson. He is in London. He's our CNN International Diplomatic Editor.

Nic, part of this agreement here was that the Wagner fighters were supposed to turn over their equipment to Russia today. What are you learning about what is happening?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is what the Russians have said. They're offering, of course, an amnesty to all those Prigozhin fighters who were on the march towards Moscow for saying that there will be no charges against them. But they're under instructions to dump their weapons and turn them into Russian military bases. We don't have any images from the Russian authorities, who you'd expect to want to put -- make some of that public as they're trying to show that they're doing a good job here.

We also know from the -- from the Belarusian President, Lukashenko, that if the Wagner mercenaries want to go -- want to go there, to his country, to Belarus, they can do that. But they can't take their weapons with them. And did the legal system inside Belarus wouldn't allow them to have weapons in the same way that they can inside Russia?

Interestingly, the Belarusian President also said that he -- well, he actually described Prigozhin as some sort of hero.

[14:15:01]

He said those Wagner mercenaries have a lot of experience at the frontlines. There's something that they could teach the Belarusian military, so he wouldn't mind having a unit of the Wagner mercenaries in his military. It is all very bizarre. He said he's got a guarantee from Prigozhin that if he comes, he and any of his fighters won't kill anyone in Belarus. He said if they do that, then all bets are off.

KEILAR: Yes, it is interesting times as we see and waits for him to pop up if this narrative is true. Nic, thank you for that report from London. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still ahead. The Supreme Court rejecting a controversial legal theory that would have radically changed the U.S. elections. We have the details.

Plus, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis with dueling campaign events, and at an important primary state of New Hampshire. We're going to take you there.

And later, another experimental weight loss drug. This one claiming to scale back your body fat by 24 percent. Stay with us.

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SCIUTTO: A major decision today in the Supreme Court with national implications for elections. Justices issued a blistering defeat to a Republican-led effort that would have radically changed how elections are governed in the States.

[14:20:07]

In the six-three ruling, the court shot down a controversial legal theory that said the judicial branch should have no oversight in reviews of election rules. This is known as the independent state legislature theory. It was notably a theory championed by former President Donald Trump and his supporters as they tried to overturn the 2020 election results.

Here with us now is CNN Supreme Court Reporter Ariane de Vogue. I mean, the implications for this beyond an effort in 2020 to overturn an election but for just how elections are governed by the states are enormous.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Yes. Well, the supporters here of President Trump and others, they made this broad part. They said that state courts have no role in overlooking rules set by state legislatures when it comes to federal elections.

This was extremely broad. It was considered sort of this dormant legal theory that was brought back up. And critics said, look, if this goes into effect, it will upend elections as we know it because it could lead to rogue state legislatures moving in, right?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: And different rules between federal and state elections.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: So, then, what you had is Chief Justice John Roberts today saying no. And he was joined by his Conservative colleagues, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, and the liberals, and they totally rejected a broad reading of this.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: And this is what he said. He said state courts retain the authority to apply state constitutional restraints when legislators act under the power conferred upon them by the elections clause. So, that was a sigh of relief today for supporters of voting rights.

SCIUTTO: It was -- (INAUDIBLE) because under this, it would have been possible for the state legislature. You get a majority of one party and you basically write the rules so much in your favor, which we've seen attempts to do.

DE VOGUE: Right.

SCIUTTO: You do say that there was a caveat contained in this decision. Describe what that is.

DE VOGUE: What a human Roberts said is he said, look, state courts don't have free rein here. Federal Courts can oversee it if they want to -- if they want to step in. So, that would add an extra layer to litigation.

You think of elections. You go to a state court. Someone would take it to federal court. But the most important thing that this Court did and decided to do this now is to try to get rid of the chaos. The thought of chaos coming in with the state legislatures.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DE VOGUE: And that's what they did in this opinion today. Six-three.

SCIUTTO: There was another election coming up. And by the way, someone running in that election, who tried to use this to his advantage in 2020. Ariane de Vogue, thanks so much. Boris.

SANCHEZ: 2024 Republican presidential candidate and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez found himself in an awkward position during a radio interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. He was asked a foreign policy question about China but he appeared completely unaware of the issue. Listen to how it went down.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HUGH HEWITT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Will you be talking about the Uyghurs in your campaign?

FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: What -- the what?

HEWITT: The Uyghurs.

SUAREZ: What's a Uyghur? You gave me homework. Hugh, I'll look at what was it. What you call it, a weeble?

HEWITT: The Uyghurs. You really need to know about the Uyghurs, Mayor. You got to talk about it every day. OK?

SUAREZ: I will -- I will talk about -- I will follow -- I will search Uyghurs. I'm a good learner. I'm a fast learner.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is here with us. Also, notably a fast learner. Jeff, not a good look for Mayor Suarez. But he has issued a statement.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He issued a statement claiming he didn't quite hear Hugh Hewitt on the radio this morning. But he did go on to say he's well aware of the suffering of the Uyghurs in China. Of course, this is a persecuted minority group in China, which you know is widely discussed. It's a hallmark of U.S. foreign policy. China, of course, is a central part of any presidential election.

When you're running for president, you're running to be the commander- in-chief. It's a job application. And today, he failed. No doubt.

He's not the first and only candidate, of course, to make missteps like this. It's why running for president as a mayor, as opposed from federal office can be more difficult. So, look, it is a one-off but it's hard to imagine that he will be able to sort of move beyond this in the sense of being a serious candidate. If he makes the debate stage, of course, since this obviously will come up. But he said weeble, of course, Uyghur is the term.

SANCHEZ: Yes. On to two other Republican candidates, perhaps the top two in the field, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, both of them holding dueling campaign events today in New Hampshire.

ZELENY: They were. And that, of course, also created some controversy. The former president was speaking to the federated a women's Republican organization of New Hampshire.

SANCHEZ: Right.

ZELENY: Governor DeSantis scheduled something at the same time. So, this women's group said that look, the governor should not be essentially trying to compete with attention for this.

[14:25:00]

Beyond all of that, though, I thought -- I think the substance of what the governor said was actually quite interesting. He went after the former president about draining the swamp. He said he will not be a swamp -- he said was not drained. He said he will break the swamp. So, that was sort of interesting as well.

And he also was standing behind a backdrop that says restore sanity. That is a new phrase that he -- a new billboard if you will, or so for the Sanders campaign. But for Trump's part, he did not specifically go after DeSantis. But look, they are head to head in competition, but Trump certainly has a stronger showing in New Hampshire now.

SANCHEZ: Is it likely that they're going to cross paths at all?

ZELENY: It's not. They will speak around each other -- sort of to each other, but they're not expected to cross paths.

SANCHEZ: It's surprising that DeSantis is going to take on that women's group which is venerated in New Hampshire, especially as he's so far back in the polls.

ZELENY: Right.

SANCHEZ: I do want to ask you about a surprise visitor at the White House today too.

ZELENY: Interesting lunch today at the White House. Former President Barack Obama who used to have weekly lunches with Joe Biden and his vice president was back at the White House today having lunch with the current president. I'm told by advisors to both men it is a chance for them to catch up. It's also a chance to sort of boost enthusiasm for the Biden reelection bid.

I'm told that Obama is likely to do some fundraising help later this week on the digital side sending out a message. So, my guess is we'll see a picture or parts -- or perhaps a video from this lunch. But this is all coming as the end of the second quarter fundraising period ends this week.

But pretty unusual. Doesn't happen all that often that the president has the former president open who used to have his job over for lunch at the White House. No word on what was served just yet, but we'll find that out.

SANCHEZ: We look forward to reading the menu. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

ZELENY: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: Coming up. Fallout from the Wagner insurrection in Russia, that's still reverberating. The Russian government now saying the group will hand over its heavy military equipment. And a new update on the whereabouts of the Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin. We will discuss it all with Congressman Seth Moulton next.

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