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Remembering D-Day. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 06, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:03]

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Listening here to the French president, Macron, who wouldn't be speaking (inaudible) if you follow this. Shortly after, we're going to be -- we're likely to be here to hear from, of course, these programs can shift slightly here and there, likely to hear from the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and then President Biden himself more, as we have been discussing and laying out a very important moment to mark, of course, in history, but an important speech in the present and for the future.

We bring in Jim Sciutto once again. Fascinating to listen to the Secretary of American Battle Monuments --

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- Jim, and talking about the, you know, the strongest weapon system past president future still remains is really beautiful remarks

SCIUTTO: And quite pointed remarks directed expressly at Russia. He said a stronger weapon than T-72 tanks, of course a reference to Russian tanks crossing the border into Ukraine. But also, he specifically referenced Chinese ships in the South China Sea. So connecting this moment 80 years ago, when the US stood up against Nazi Germany, to US and US allies challenge not just to Russia and Ukraine, but China in Asia, South China Sea, but also of course, Taiwan.

It's notable that they are globalizing this fight in effect, connecting it to history, and making it clear that that fight extends from Europe to Asia today. It was -- they were quite pointed, fiery words, I would even say, for the head of the Battlefield Monuments Commission, which I believe we will hear echoed by President Biden when he speaks.

We should note that when he was speaking to ABC earlier today, Biden had quite strong words for Vladimir Putin as well, saying no, he was not a decent man. He is a dictator. Again, drawing lines between what the US stood up to those 80 years ago today to what President Biden and Macron believe it is standing up to the US and its allies, I should say, standing up to today.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Charles, you -- who is in charge of us monuments around the world. He was a member of Congress, a Republican member of Congress some 14, 15 years ago from Hawaii, one of the former Republican members of Congress who ultimately endorsed President Biden in 2020. Again, I do believe there is likely some symbolism there.

This is not a political trip. This is a trip that obviously President Biden mine is taken as head of state to commemorate the US involvement in the allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. But there are obvious political implications here in the United States. And there is very much a domestic audience to everything you're seeing today, and we'll see over the next few days.

Let's get to our senior White House correspondent Kayla Tausche, who is also in Normandy watching all of this, as we wait President Biden's address. His first moment, really the kickoff moment, over what will be several days for him to address the world but also, Kayla, the American people.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And first, we will hear from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin just in a few moments after the French president concludes. But, John, you're right there is a domestic audience for this speech, as leaders often do. President Biden is expected to talk at length about the heroics of D-Day, about the battle that followed over the course of more than a month, and the thousands of lives that were lost, many of them buried here at the American Cemetery.

He's expected to talk about the peace, the stability, the security that followed that mission and how that is the goal today, as it stands. Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, has said that President Biden is expected to draw what he called a through line from World War II to today. The importance of keeping these alliances ironclad, continuing to stand up to tyranny, continuing to stand up to dictators, and continuing to stand up to aggressors around the world, even if they are not in the active act of aggressing.

To send a message to adversaries, that this alliance is ironclad and remains in synchrony for the mission that is at hand. That is what we expect President Biden to sit to say today. And an interesting relationship to watch as well, is the relationship between President Biden and President Macron.

[07:35:03]

That bond has grown much tighter over the last few years despite the opportunity for a few fractures. You might remember early on in President Biden's term, there was a falling out over the exclusion of France from a partnership with Australia and the UK to develop nuclear-powered submarines in the Iron Pacific. That eventually was mended. And then there's been something of a rift between the two leaders on the handling of the situation in Gaza, with Macron saying recently that France was ready to recognize the Palestinian state, essentially a break with the US position which has said that that should be reached through a negotiated process.

So there are certainly moments of difference between these two leaders and they're going to be discussing all of those things later today at a state visit. But for today, it is the purpose of standing shoulder to shoulder themselves. The other world leaders who are here and, of course, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose presence here itself is symbolic of the fight at hand and the unity that these leaders are trying to keep together, despite the fact that now it has been years they have been funding and fighting funding for the fighting in Ukraine. And that fight, of course, will continue for the foreseeable future.

BOLDUAN: I believe President Macron is now speaking in English to the audience there at Normandy. Let's listen in.

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BOLDUAN: Promise sounds like it. He was at one point.

BERMAN: Let's go to Nic Robertson who also is watching this. Nic, I want to read to you from an interview that President Biden gave this morning, and we're going to hear more from this interview --

BOLDUAN: From Normandy.

BERMAN: -- from Normandy. We're going to hear more from this interview over the course of the day. And it is one of I think the significant events that the President is doing during this trip. President Biden was responding to some criticism of the US now allowing Ukraine to use American made weapons to strike into Russia. And President Biden said, I've known Putin for over 40 years. He's concerned me for 40 years, Biden told David Muir of ABC News.

He's not a decent man, he's a dictator. And he's struggling to make sure he holds his country together. While he keeps this assault going. We're not talking about giving Ukraine weapons to strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin, is to strike just across the border. Obviously, Nic, Ukraine very much on the President's mind.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR : Absolutely. And this is something that undoubtedly, you could expect President Zelenskyy to push him, to push President Macron and any other leader who's supplying weapons. And President Biden has made it clear, it appears at least, for these weapons can be used to strike inside Russia -- Russian positions that are striking, for example, recently in Kharkiv. Right up in the northeast of Ukraine, right close to the border there.

Zelenskyy would dearly like to be able to use all the weapons he gets from the West, including the fighter jets when they come, the F-16, to be able to reach deeper into Russia. But these are significant because they, if you will, prevent Russia having the ability to stand just a few miles back in the case of Kharkiv, 20 or 30 miles back from the target, and love these massive S-300 surface to air missiles that they repurpose for firing civilian targets in the cities there that they've been doing with impunity.

So it makes a big difference for Zelenskyy. Putin has said that there will be consequences for the United States for this unspecified consequences, but consequences nonetheless. This is something of a threat from President Putin, has made plenty of threats in the past. They're not to be taken lightly, of course.

But this is where Zelenskyy feels he needs that additional edge that he wants to be able to target the missile launchers, the rocket launchers, the ammunition dumps, the things that is using their own indigenously made attack drones for oil refineries deeper and deeper inside Russia, but to weaken Russia's ability to take on and target the Ukrainian population.

I think, you know, when you look more broadly, at what is happening today, as we are here. For these veterans, this veteran getting a medal bestowed upon him by the French president there. What they knew and know, and understood about fighting nationalism. There's a sense that across the generations since it is being lost, that the outcome of not fighting nationalism, of not taking on that threat is being lost as we see it resurge in Europe and other places.

BOLDUAN: Christian, let me bring you in just kind of bring our viewers in as well as what we're watching in this moment, see the French president awarding veterans that nation's highest honor.

[07:40:09]

And just look at the strength still of these veterans standing to receive these awards, these much deserved awards there on stage with the leaders, Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Remarkable. What the French president is doing is calling each one by name. And saying to the name he calls out, I award you, the -- I make you a Knight of the Legion of Honor. And it is the highest civilian award that they bestow. President Biden also then goes to meet with each and every one of them.

In part of his French speech, at the beginning, President Macron said one of the most beautiful sights in all of France, and all of French monuments, is right here. These graves, Colleville-sur-Mer, which is the American Cemetery where we are, and the other allied cemeteries, the cemeteries that contain French and many others. These are the most beautiful spots in France, he says, because it reminds us of what you all did to help us and to liberate us.

And we saw also some of the guests taking part here, Tom Hanks, actor Tom Hanks, who with his production company, has done so much to tell the history of World War II to an enormous and wide not only American lay public but around the world. But importantly, also his partner, and standing right there as I speak, in film, Steven Spielberg, who has done so much to tell and remember, and gather the story of the Shoah. His work on preserving the memory of the Holocaust. His interviews is monumental and landmark.

And remember, on the morning of D-Day, what President Eisenhower said to people when he broadcast. He said, although the initial assault may not have been made in your own country, he said to Europe, the hour of your liberation is approaching. And many of these people, plus many other veterans, British and others, liberated, eventually, the concentration camps, 6 million Jews had been slaughtered. And the world frankly did not intervene to help them. And it was only at the end of the war when Europe was liberated, that the full horror of what Hitler did became fully apparent to everybody. And this is the aftermath and the echo of what we experienced today that anti-Semitism rises, these terrible wars continue, the war in Gaza continues, the war in Ukraine continues. These are the kinds of battles that it had been hoped there's kind of values that have been fought for. It had been hoped that they would at least put paid to those kinds of wars, and yet they continue.

And the memory today of all these heroes who stood up and gave their lives, and these who survived that massive monumental battle, the biggest, amphibious landing in history is just remarkable to witness.

BOLDUAN: As I was just thinking, it would just be so wonderful to be able to hear these kind of intimate conversations between these veterans and the leaders now when they're being bestowed these honors. It's just really important to see and it's really wonderful to see.

BERMAN: Retired General James "Spider" Marks with us also. Again, Spider, as we are watching this, we're watching the president of France bestow these honors on these American heroes. Looking toward the past, as we said, but, Spider, always thinking toward the future.

JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: These are marvelous ceremonies. Kate, just ask the question, what are the private conversations between President Macron, President Biden and the young soldiers?

It's probably a quick joke. It's a very sincere thank you. It's a giggle about something silly that occurred. These are just guys who happen to be incredible, incredible patriots. What I see and what I absolutely am so proud to be a part of is when you see these young soldiers, these young serviceman -- servicemen and women, and they're standing next to these incredible patriots that came before them.

You remember that the most important duty of any soldier is to remember, to realize that when he and she get up in the morning, they have purpose, and they will not forget those that came before or dishonor those that came before. And that's what this ceremony says to me. It's so simple. It's sweet. It's honorable and it's eternal.

[07:45:01]

BOLDUAN: The sweetness and the simplicity of it is exactly what hits so hard, in a world that's so complicated. It's this simple courage that changed the course of history.

BERMAN: You know, we have, not for this part but President Biden has been greeting these veterans all morning long. And we've got some excerpts of the types of things that he's been saying to them. You saved the soul of the nation. You really did, Biden told one of the veterans. Give me a hug. God love you. It's my honor, my honor, President Biden told another.

BOLDUAN: It sounds very Biden. God love you. BERMAN: One of the vets asked Biden apparently, I have a question, when the hell do you sleep, to which the President responded when the press isn't looking. So that's the type of exchange that might be happening now between President Biden and these veterans.

You can quote, you know, honestly, look at President Biden say, you know, young man, the President Biden.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Nic Robertson join us in this conversation. What are you seeing in these (inaudible)?

ROBERTSON: They're very powerful. I mean, you think of these men and they've come in many cases so we don't forget their buddies, their friends, who they lost on the beaches, who they knew well, they trained with, perhaps stood next to in the landing vessel, made the first few steps across the beach. They saw them fall, they knew their names, they may have held them when they die. And they come back in part to remember them.

But here they are, all these years later, being honored in this incredible way. The presidents of two great nations, hugging them, kissing them, bestowing this lesion donor, this Legion d'honneur, this Knighthood of France upon them.

They've waited -- I don't think they've waited all their lives for this. It's not what they've waited for but what an honor, what a tribute. They were willing to sacrifice themselves. They saw their friends sacrifice, have come back to honor their friends, and to hope that they did a good job. And that it was worth it.

And that we will cherish the values which they held so high. That, of course, is going to be the President's message as well. But it really sends tingles down your spine, I have to say, watching these men struggle up from wheelchairs in some cases. And the look in their eyes, clear-eyed, looking at these great men that stand in front of them. And these great men, these presidents, look at them and see great men in front of them. Yes, it's moving.

BOLDUAN: It really is. Jim, what do you see?

SCIUTTO: Quick thought, you know, there will come a moment, sadly, quite soon when there will no longer be living veterans to pin those medals on at this ceremony. Think of it, 80 years ago today, even if you lied about your age to get on those landing boats and you were 15, 16. You're 96 years old. The oldest living veteran as I understand it is 108 years old. Every year, the number of those veterans standing there dwindles.

And there will come a time not too far away when there won't be any, who were on those beaches who remember personally will remember, will know the history, will have the videos, will have their stories. But moments like this, they're becoming fewer and further between over time. So it's truly remarkable to see them there.

And, boy, you know, they're all pushing 100 or past 100, and are still, well, they're looking pretty good. BOLDUAN: That's right.

BERMAN: It's amazing to see them there. I want to play some sound if we can, if we have it, from an interview that President Biden gave from Normandy with ABC. Because as we've said, I mean, while this is honoring the heroes of that day some 80 years ago, the minds of the leaders, they're very much on the President about the future, the future of Europe, the future of democracy around the world, and President Biden spoke about the situation in Ukraine. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: I've known him for over 40 years. He's concerned me for 40 years. He's not a decent man. He's a dictator. And he's struggling to make sure he holds his country together, while still keeping this assault going. We're not talking about giving the weapons a strike Moscow, to strike the Kremlin, to strike against -- just across the border where they're receiving significant fire from conventional weapons used by the Russians to go into Ukraine to kill Ukrainians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)0

BERMAN: Again, that was President Biden speaking to ABC News about Vladimir Putin who said he knew for 40 years. I don't believe that so. Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer in East Germany at the time 40 years ago, in the early 80s, but certainly President Biden has known Vladimir Putin for a while.

[07:50:10]

Christiane Amanpour, who is still with us right now, no doubt President Biden and Emmanuel Macron, who we're seeing on your screen right now, spend much of every day right now thinking about Vladimir Putin.

AMANPOUR: I mean, that's absolutely right. Vladimir Putin first came, you know, into the public sphere, in a, you know, in a global way when Boris Yeltsin, the president of Russia, who President Clinton and all the Western leaders at the time had worked with, because it was Yeltsin who oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of Gorbachev's term. And it was Yeltsin, who the West thought they could work with to create a different kind of Russia.

And finally, a different kind of relationship on the continent of Europe, that would be democratic and free, and that would be uncontested in that regard. And it was Yeltsin, who then raise to his prominent place, Vladimir Putin saying that he wanted him to succeed and in part because he thought Vladimir Putin would protect his family, would not pursue any corruption charges against him.

Vladimir Putin had grown up through the intelligence services, notably before the wall came down in Germany, and he called that the worst catastrophe for Russia in the 20th century.

BERMAN: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has begun to speak. Let's listen in.

LLOYD AUSTIN, US DEFENSE SECRETARY: President Biden, Dr. Biden, President Macron, Mrs. Macron, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and above all, the veterans of World War II, I am honored to stand again at this hallowed place. We bow our heads to remember the more than 9,000 US and allied soldiers killed or wounded on D-Day by Hitler's forces. On behalf of the United States Department of Defense, I am here to give thanks, inadequate as that word may be.

Eighty years later, we thank the young Americans who took the beaches, who helped liberate France, and who helped free this continent from Nazi tyranny. We thank every allied warrior who fought for freedom on June 6 1944. And we thank the American and allied veterans who have rallied once more on the shores of Normandy.

Victors of D-Day, we are humbled by your presence. Young Americans who fought through the clamor and the chaos on D-Day have grown old or leftist. And whenever a veteran of D-Day is gathered to his maker, in the fullness of time, after a long life live in freedom, he wins a final victory over Hitler. You helped defeat what Churchill called a monstrous tyranny never suppressed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. And you laid the foundation for a more just free and decent world.

Together with our allies, we build peace out of war, a hard headed peace, a peace renewed by constant commitment, a peace forged by the generation that won the bloodiest war in human history.

And so, our gratitude must never fade, our memories must never dim, and our resolve must never fail. We still seek a world where aggression is a sin and where human rights are sacred, and we're all people can live in freedom. And so, we must rally again to defend the open postwar world of rules, rights and responsibilities.

[07:55:03]

Those rules protect us, those rights define us, and those responsibilities summon us once more.

At this hinge in history, we must again stand firm against aggression and tyranny. And as I said here last year, if the troops of the world's democracies could have risked their lives for freedom then, surely the citizens of the world's democracy can risk our comfort for freedom now.

So, let us again uphold the spirit of D-Day. Let us again defend the principles that the allied armies carry. And let us again thank the heroes of D-Day who kept freedom alive for us all. You save the world. You save the world and we must only defendant.

Gentlemen, we salute you. May God bless the American and allied troops who fought here, may God bless the United States of America and may God bless all who cherish human freedom. Thank you

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