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CNN Tours Camp Wagner Fighters Could Use In Belarus; Twitter Threatens To Sue Meta After Massive Launch; CNN Original Series "See It Loud: The History Of Black Television" Celebrates Creators Who Brought Black TV To Life. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 07, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Belarus which contradicts the terms of the ceasefire he brokered last month to end Wagner's rebellion in Russia. CNN's Matthew Chance is in Belarus with a look at the camps that were prepared for those Wagner mercenary troops.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Will you join me here in this military base in Belarus about an hour's drive outside of the capital, Minsk, and see it's a vast tent city with all these enormous canvases, which we're told can house about 5000 people. They've been erected in the past few weeks. There were satellite photographs of this place before and after. And we all believed this is the location where Wagner forces, the mercenaries from Russia would be located if they came to Belarus.

That was part of a deal, remember, with the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko inviting Wagner and its leader to come into exile in Belarus as a way of diffusing their military uprising in Russia last month? Well -- I mean, at the moment, though, these tents are completely empty. I mean have a look inside at one of these here.

Completely empty. There's nobody in there. It's too dark for us to show you inside but I can tell you, it's just wooden platforms, nobody is in there at the moment. But ultimately, it can house as many as 5000 people.

The problem is, of course, the events of yesterday here with the revelations from Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian leader, that actually is that that plan is no longer sort of in operation. It's on hold at the moment. And at the moment, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner leader is not here in Belarus. He said to be in Russia. And not a single Wagner soldier has so far come here.

And so, we don't know whether there is going to be a transfer of Wagner to Belarus or not. At the moment, all we can tell you is that it hasn't happened yet. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: That was our Matthew Chance with a rare look inside. Belarus. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, so interesting. Nothing to see. No one there.

Trump is heading to the critical state of Iowa today as the special counsel investigation into 2020 election interference looms large. Trump arrives there on the heels of this really not-so veiled swipe from his former Vice President Mike Pence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But look I honestly believe the different times call for different leadership. And I'm very confident. More so, after this week that the people of Iowa are going to take a fresh look, not only at us but at the former president. And that all the candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, Axios' senior contributor Margaret Talev. That's a body blow from Mike Pence right there. No, look, he is talking directly about his former running mate, and to an extent seems slightly more emboldened to do so. What do you see, Margaret?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: John, I think you're right. Coming from Mike Pence, this is really a market shift from where he was a few months ago. And I think when you look at it collectively, you're seeing from Pence, from Chris Christie, from Nikki Haley, this sort of general theme about turning a page and then from DeSantis, or folks supporting DeSantis, much more willingness to attack Trump on social issues to try to fall to the right of him.

Collectively, if what this does is take all of those GOP rivals and make them more willing to go after Donald Trump, that would mark a real turning point. Remember, for the last several months, it's been you know going after each other or criticizing DeSantis or kind of criticizing Trump and then walking away. But you know, a real carefulness about going directly after Trump because these rivals didn't want to alienate the base.

Remember, this is also coming, as all of these legal issues are heating up. So, Trump might want to go to Iowa and talk about ethanol. Nobody else in that -- in that field really wants to concentrate on ethanol. They want to concentrate on Donald Trump. And anything Donald Trump says on the stump can be used against him by prosecutors also. So he needs to be more careful.

BERMAN: What about that? I find that so fascinating. It had been -- I've been looking for examples of ways where maybe Trump is careful about how he talks because prosecutors and judges have told him this is now admissible in the federal case against him.

TALEV: Yes. And I think we -- look, every reporter in America wants to know how he's going to handle this, too. We have to wait and see.

But you see, like, just within the last couple of days a judge in a completely separate case, this is the former FBI agent Peter Strzok's wrongful termination lawsuit against the DOJ, a judge saying Trump could be deposed because he had spoken so openly and willingly about it before. So, you're beginning to understand here how Trump's actions in public can make their way into the courtroom.

Is he going to be more circumspect? I don't know. History doesn't suggest that he's been very good at that. But a legal case is really, really different than running for office or even congressional hearings, and so I think it will be important.

[11:35:09]

BERMAN: So he's headed to Iowa. Mike Pence is leaving Iowa. If we think back to some of the past Republican Iowa caucus winners, names that come to mind, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz.

TALEV: Yes.

BERMAN: they all have something in common --

TALEV: Yes.

BERMAN: -- which is that they never became the ultimate Republican nominee.

TALEV: You're correct.

BERMAN: But something else in common is that they ran, I think, to become popular among evangelicals with the religious right there. Does that lane still exist in Iowa, or has Trump exploded that?

TALEV: Well, by all early polling accounts, and the later we go in the season the less early that polling is, the more it just becomes the polling. It certainly suggests that he still has a lock in this area. Tim Scott, obviously is another candidate who has a case to make to evangelicals. The other question is, is Iowa really going to be, you know, pivotal? And I think that was your earlier point.

So, we don't -- we really don't know the answers to any of these questions. Really interesting new poll. This is a Politico-Ipsos survey of Americans showing two really interesting things. One is that more than six in 10 Americans now say they actually want this trial over the classified records on withholding records to be started and done before election day.

And the other is that if you combine the share of Republicans who either already think Trump is guilty in that case or who say they don't know, you're at around 45 percent. So, you've got close to half of Republicans now either saying they think the former president did what he's accused of in the holding onto records case or that they're not sure. And that could be important also.

BERMAN: Yes. We've just never seen anything like this. So, every day is a new experience in terms of how we analyze it and process it. Margaret Talev, great to see you.

TALEV: Yes.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

TALEV: You too. Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us. Twitter is now threatening legal action over Meta's Threads app. So, what has Elon Musk just so upset?

Plus, Long Island is on the lookout. Officials now stepping up patrols for sharks after a spike in encounters this week. The technology being deployed and what it means now for people headed to the beach. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:41:44]

SIDNER: It is perhaps the clearest sign yet that Elon Musk sees Mark Zuckerberg's brand new and instantly popular Threads app as a threat. Twitter now threatening Meta with a lawsuit. They are accusing Zuckerberg's company is stealing trade secrets and intellectual property by hiring ex-Twitter employees. Meta's response, that's just not a thing.

CNN technology reporter Brian Fung has more on this story. What is Twitter arguing? What is Elon Musk arguing here and accusing Twitter of -- sorry, Threads of?

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: Yes, Sara, Musk is saying that Twitter's former employees took devices and documents with them away from the company when they left. And that Meta turned around and hired these people with the intent of using their knowledge to develop this new Threads app which has gained 50 million new signups in just the last 24 hours -- in the first 24 hours of its existence, which just gives you a sign of how big this app has gotten.

Now, let's take a quick look at just what this letter -- this accusation includes and how Twitter is saying it's going to defend itself. It says "Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights in demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information."

Now, it's -- Musk followed up this threat with a tweet saying that competition is fine. The cheating is not. Meta, of course, here flatly refusing or denying these add -- these allegations saying that no one on Twitter's and -- excuse me, on Threads' engineering team is a former Twitter employee. That's just not a thing.

It's too soon to say whether or not this will actually go anywhere. Of course, this is just a warning of potential litigation. It's not an actual lawsuit. But legal experts say you know if this does progress to an actual courtroom, expect it to be pretty nasty and drawn out and which might be exactly what Twitter is trying to do here cause a distraction for Meta as it rolls out this new app, Sara.

SIDNER: Brian Fung, you know what also could be nasty? The cage match that these two billionaires say they are going to have. We are all waiting to see what happens on all the fronts. Thank you so much. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Five people were bitten in two days off the coast of Long Island, New York. It has sparked a new effort and utilizing new technologies to patrol for potential threats stepping up to help everyone headed to the beach better avoid dangers.

CNN's Polo Sandoval, live on Long Island. He joins us now. Polo, what did this -- what did these patrols really mean?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Kate, whether people are doing it intentionally or not as we soak in the day here on this beautiful day on Long Island, folks are following the advice of officials which is stay close to the shore and also staying in groups as well. This after what was originally believed to be a group of sharks that was spotted just off the coast here at Robert Moses State Park, which we learned today according to officials, they later amended that and said that they were able to conclude that it was actually a school of black drum fish. So, what happened though yesterday is then sort of restricted some concerns when a drone operator spotted a 10-foot thresher shark in this particular area.

[11:45:06]

The lifeguard sprang into action asking people to get out of the water allowing that shark to then swim out to sea incident free. But the concern here and what we've seen the last couple of days here is a series of incidents involving what authorities believe to be sharks, some non-lethal encounters, some five and all in the area, we have a list of breakdown for you. Started on Monday, and a couple of them on Tuesday, not far from where we are. And that is why you're seeing state officials really sort of ramp up the efforts that we've been seeing for the last year now in terms of boosting their presence, not only on the sand but also on the water flying those drones.

And that's why Governor Kathy Hochul recently announcing that they're going to be able to provide some of this drone technology and the training equipment -- or the training to use that technology to some of those municipalities because they know it's going to be a very busy summer. They want to make sure that they can avoid any of the incidents that we saw earlier this week. And reminder, lightning, even bees killed more people than sharks every year. So, this is simply precautionary.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Great perspective on that and a beautiful view behind you in Long Island. Polo Sandoval, with the best assignment of the day. John?

BERMAN: Bees have smaller teeth. New reporting --

BOLDUAN: They don't even have teeth. BERMAN: Yes. (INAUDIBLE). New reporting coming out by the day on the special counsel investigation into Donald Trump in January 6, including a CNN exclusive about a key Oval Office meeting. So, what does this tell us about how close they might be to pressing charges?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:12]

SIDNER: Today, we're in the midst of a resurgence of black voices and stories on television. It's another milestone in the 80-year struggle for black artists to be seen and heard on TV. Now, the new CNN original series "See It Loud: The History Of Black Television" celebrates the creators who brought black TV to life. And it looks at the impact it's had on American culture as a whole. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I think about the history of black television, I really think about progress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the longest time, we were footnotes in history.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is so important for us to have African American representation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've talked about things that nobody in this country was willing to have a discussion about.

SHERRI SHEPARD, AMERICAN ACTRESS: I was like, can you believe they call us icons?

AMANDA SEALES, AMERICAN ACTRESS: That was one of the first times I saw myself in the Sci-Fi drama.

VIVICA A. FOX, AMERICAN ACTRESS: That show was so successful. It launched a rival network.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tyler Perry, who owns a studio in 1950. You could never have imagined it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was an era to be as loud as possible and as black as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are the story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining us now is legendary actor of screen and stage, a triple threat, Ben Vereen. thank you so much for being here.

BEN VEREEN, AMERICAN ACTOR: My pleasure. And let me say this right away, blue fire to almost Sigma brothers and sisters out there.

SIDNER: You've played so many memorable roles. Your face is in so many things, it's hard to count. But the See It Loud series focuses on your role as Chicken George. That was in the iconic miniseries Roots.

This role means so many things to so many people. There was a particular part where you are freed and you say as free and everyone remembers that line. What did it mean to you?

VEREEN: It -- well, you know, for me this -- first of all, praises to Alex Haley for having the courage to write something like that, and to ABC have the courage to put it on. It meant the fact that we have an opportunity now to be free, which we're doing it now you know, by you celebrating 80 years. It's taken us 80 years to talk about having black shows. I got -- I'm worried about that. I'm thinking also about my American indigenous people along so take them to the show.

But that moment, in the show itself was just -- it was -- wow, you know, I think back on that particular episode, I think about that time when we -- what we were going through in the country and the fact that I was grew up I already had a paragraph, you know, you were slave and Lincoln freed you. And then Alex Haley would -- did this wonderful story, and I got the chance to talk about our freedom, our strive to be free, and we're still running for it today. It will never stop.

SIDNER: I think One of the things that made Roots so groundbreaking was the fact that it was so realistic in the acting and in the scenes and in the discussion of what was going on very similar to what actually happened. Do you see that there's any show today that is giving America that same sentiment that is having the same kind of cultural impact?

VEREEN: Not like Roots. It was a different time. But instead, we only had three channels, ABC, NBC, CBS. Now, we got computer heavens and iPhones, a tick phones -- and iPhone and tick phone. So it's the impact of focus is spread out over the internet or over the airwaves.

[11:55:02]

So, there is no focus really on what is going on at that particular time in history. That's why it's important we continue to tell the story. We must be reminded of where we came from.

It will be repeated again to other people about ourselves. That's what is important in the story being told. There are great shows out there as well. I'm so thankful that now we finally seated the old and not just one time but people have talent. There's a -- there's a vast number of people, my people, your people were telling our story. That's a television about, isn't it? That's what storytelling is about.

SIDNER: It is what storytelling is about. Don't miss the premiere of the new CNN Original Series "See It Loud: The History Of Black Television" this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

BERMAN: I'm so jealous you got to talk to him.

SIDNER: He was marvelous. So, excited.

BERMAN: Jesus Christ, super hour. You know such a great singer and dancer. Amazing.

SIDNER: Sure.

BOLDUAN: I just love how it like, beautifully happy he is.

SIDNER: He is. He's in a great mood all the time.

BERMAN: Just like us. Have a great weekend, everyone. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)