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President Biden Meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris regarding Aid Package for Ukraine's Defense against Ongoing Russian Invasion; President Biden to Deliver Speech at Normandy about Continuing Global Fight for Freedom and Democracy. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired June 07, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Years back. How does that impact the case? Could there be even more than when you see that gap?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes, the district attorney was out there yesterday and said there is an unknown amount of killings that could have taken place that we're going to continue to investigate. So we know the precipice for this new indictment was another six-hour search of his home, a nine our cadaver search in Manorville, New York, that's now linking these two new victims to Rex Heuermann. But we're talking about another 10 years that now investigators are going to go back, look at these missing persons cases, and say, well, is there a link here as well that can be traced back to Rex Heuermann? So certainly there could be more to come from this case.

BOLDUAN: Wow, wow, and wow. Thanks, Mistry, for walking through it with me, really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A bilateral meeting ahead of a critical speech in Normandy, President Biden announcing a new aid package for Ukraine as he gets ready to call on world leaders to take a stand against authoritarianism around the globe.

And a working mom's dual roles. Jill Biden fulfilling her duty as first lady on the world stage and juggling it with her duty as mom, standing by her son, Hunter Biden, as he stands trial. How the first lady is juggling it all.

Plus, risking it all for some views. A YouTuber faces charges after a pretty jaw-dropping stunt. It looks like something out of a movie.

I'm Omar Jimenez with Kate Bolduan. John Berman and Sara Sidner are out. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: We are learning right now that President Biden just wrapped a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Paris, and he's now preparing to head back to Normandy for a high-stakes speech focusing even more on democracy and freedom and the threats to it. Just last hour before they went behind closed doors, President Biden spoke to cameras, we brought that to you, and he reiterated the United States unwavering support for Ukraine, also rolling out a new $225 million aid package for Ukraine.

And now, very soon in Normandy, Biden is going to attempt to underscore the threats that he says democracy faces from the likes of Vladimir Putin in Europe after the invasion of Ukraine, as well as probably the subtext, Donald Trump at home. The speech is going to take place at the same site where Republican President Ronald Reagan 40 years ago delivered what's regarded as a most memorable speech on these issues, freedom and democracy. For Reagan then it was a crucial moment during his reelection campaign. That connection definitely not lost on Biden.

CNN's Kayla Tausche traveling with the president in France back with us this morning. Let's start, Kayla talking about what more have you learned about the meeting, even behind closed doors, between Biden and President Zelenskyy?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, know that President Biden and Zelenskyy were planning to discuss the state of play, according to officials, on the ground and in the air in Ukraine with the country having brand new capability to use western provided weapons to strike across the border to nearby locations inside Russia. They're expected to discuss the efficacy of that strategy as well as this new aid package, which is the sixth package provided from the tens of billions of dollars in aid that Congress greenlit back in April after six months of negotiations.

That set Ukraine back on the battlefield. And for that President Biden apologized to Zelenskyy. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I apologize for the weeks not knowing what's going on in terms of funding and because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And at Utah beach, this is where President Biden will be delivering those remarks a short time --

TAUSCHE: Of course, this meeting proceeds a meeting that President Biden will have during a state visit with French President Emmanuel Macron later this weekend as well as a G7 summit next week and a NATO summit the following month. In each of those occasions, the leaders are expected to discuss even more aid for Ukraine, which has asked for fighter jets and more patriot antiaircraft system, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And Kayla, we just we just learned that President Biden has left Paris on his way to exactly where you are, back to Normandy. Walk us through what you're learning from the administration, from the White House about the goal, the mission, and the stakes of this speech coming up.

TAUSCHE: Well, I've learned from senior administration officials that the president is going to focus on the people involved in the effort 80 years ago to scale these 100-foot cliffs, destroy the German lookout positions, and essentially enable the allied forces to win on D-Day, and the months that followed that ended the war in Europe.

[08:05:07]

I know that President Biden is expected to single out one of that trend in particular. His name is John Wardell, and he was its an Army soldier who descended on Pointe du Hoc, right here 80 years ago in the days following D-Day to help secure this position. He's expected to be in the audience tonight according to officials. And that is just one of the luminaries that's expected to be here when President Biden speaks, including French officials, museum leaders, military officials as well.

But it's, of course, far different from when President Reagan was here 40 years ago. He included 62 of the Army Rangers involved in that very mission here accompanying him. Of course, many of those, if not all of them, are not alive today, given the time that has passed. But President Biden is expected to try to draw the parallel between the bravery that took place here today and the fight that's going on on Europe's front lines in Ukraine to try to shore up more support at home and around the world for that continued fight. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Very interesting hearing his remarks today. Kayla, thank you so much. Kayla Tausche is there covering it all for us. Omar?

JIMENEZ: A lot to talk about. With me now, CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, former commanding general in U.S. Army Europe in Seventh Army, and David Sanger, CNN political and national security analyst. It's good to see you both.

David, I want to start with you because, look, the president is stepping into this moment and this setting 40 years after Ronald Reagan also delivered a speech here in what many have described as one of his more iconic moments. What are you going to be listening for in this speech today?

DAVID E. SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, there's a political element to this that comes from the fact that he is speaking from exactly where Reagan spoke at the 40th anniversary, and that looms over everybody as a speech that was probably one of the most notable and memorable of Reagan's presidency. And it came just as he was running for reelection. And there are some around Walter Mondale, who was running against him, who thought that that speech actually did a lot of damage to Mondale along the way.

So you can expect that the president will invoke the imagery, and then say that the battle for Ukraine is the successor 80 years later of this effort to keep Europe whole and keep Europe free. And he will basically turn Putin, I think, along the way into the force that needs to be contained here. The question is, how far he's willing to go in a moment that, of

course, the momentum in the war has turned toward the Russians. The president hasn't really given a speech in Europe on this since that happened.

JIMENEZ: And General Hertling, I want to pick up on that Ukrainian front, because obviously this is a very critical time in Europe when he's given this speech. It is not happening in a vacuum. We literally saw President Volodymyr Zelenskyy embracing World War II veterans at one point yesterday. And we heard Biden say today, we are not going to walk away from you. I apologize for weeks of not knowing what's going to happen, talking about when funding wasn't going through on Capitol Hill. Do you see any parallels militarily with the climate in Europe today compared to either 40 years ago, or what we saw leading up to the late 30s?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Oh, my gosh, Omar, there are so many. The president is going to give this speech at a place called Pointe Du Hoc, which your reporter just said. I've been there many times. He is going to attempt to seize that high ground. It is the highest point on the Normandy shores. The president is going to do that. That's a military axiom. You always go for the high ground both morally and physically.

The second thing is I think the president, like he did yesterday, is going to travel in time. He's going to go backwards to say what these individuals did on this cliff 80 years ago. Then he's going to talk about today, what is happening in Europe today. Then he's going to go into the future, I think, and talk about what are we going to be remembered for?

One of the things, I was actually at Gettysburg yesterday, Omar, and we talked a little bit about the 80 year just juxtaposition of our nation. When President Lincoln gate his Gettysburg address, he talked four score and seven years ago. That was back to the institution of the establishment of our government, the Declaration of Independence. Those veterans that climbed this cliff were 80 years forward of that Civil War, 1860s to the 1940s.

We are now 80 years forward of that, another 80 years of looking back on people who saved our nation and saved democracy. The president is going to, I believe, say, what are people going to see on us 80 years from today? What are they going to connect with what we've done in terms of saving liberty and democracy?

[08:10:07]

And in this case, it's going to be pointed directly at Ukraine's fight for their sovereignty and their territorial integrity yes.

JIMENEZ: And look, it is hard to miss the historical context here and the historical comparisons. When we look at today in particular, and this climate in particular politically, and David, I know you alluded to this a little bit, when Reagan spoke, he was also viewed by some as tools to be the running for election. And then again, it turned into one of his more iconic moments. That's obviously a criticism that has been lobbed at President Biden as well at this point. Politically, what is this moment for Biden?

SANGER: Well, I think it's twofold. You're right, the Reagan age issue was there, though, of course at the time, he was a lot younger than President Biden is today, or than former President Trump is.

The second element, though, of this is that the president has got to figure out how to make this about Donald Trump without naming Donald Trump. And I think the answer to that is to associate Trump with the isolationist movement that he alluded to when he talked about the conservative Republicans to President Zelenskyy who had held up the Ukraine aide.

Basically, at this point, a segment, a large segment of the Republican party that had been the most anti-communist, the most anti-Soviet Union, and even the most anti-Russia has now turned basically to say this is not a war and a conflict for us. And I think you can expect to hear the president basically say, we have voices like this in the United States, in the America First movement, the Lindbergh American first movement of the 1930s. And we're seeing it again today.

JIMENEZ: That speech expected to happen a little bit later this morning here. And as you both have so eloquently put, this is a very critical moment that is not happening anywhere close to a vacuum. General Mark Hertling and David Sanger, really appreciate your time. Thank you.

HERTLING: Thank you, Omar.

SANGER: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Kate?

BOLDUAN: The new Biden border policy is in effect and already taking heat from definitely Republicans, also even some Democrats, and facing a legal challenge. What is the administration going to do about it? The Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is our guest.

Plus, the new detail and data laying out how the United States is still the worst when it comes to maternal mortality rates among all wealthy nations. Why is the U.S. still so far behind when it comes to caring for pregnant women and new mothers? One woman who has become a leading advocate on this issue, Christy Turlington Burns, she'll be joining us.

And offsides. A bear crashes a high-school football team's practice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:40]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail now for the first time as a convicted felon. Speaking to supporters in Arizona, Donald Trump found his footing in familiar themes, railing against political enemies and what he calls the rigged courts out to get him.

And also being in Arizona, he took on President Biden's newly implemented executive action on border security --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are all fake. The impeachment is a fake, the court cases are a disgrace to our country.

Everything is fake, so they come up with this order. I won't say it because I don't like using the word bull (bleep) in front of these beautiful children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Secretary, thank you for the time.

Your response to Donald Trump from last night?

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, US HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Kate, it is inappropriate for me to respond to a political candidate's statements. Let me just say that President Biden has taken an executive action to strengthen our border security after Congress has failed to act, but only Congress can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.

BOLDUAN: The policy went into play starting midnight, going into Wednesday morning. Should everyone assume right now that this crackdown, this shut down, if you will, will now be in place for weeks?

MAYORKAS: It is in place, Kate. It will be in place until we experience seven consecutive calendar days where the number of individuals encountered at our southern border on average, is less than 1,500. Until that time, this will be in place.

I am incredibly proud of our workforce for being able to implement this executive action so rapidly. It is really a remarkable operational feat.

BOLDUAN: I was looking at -- I was trying to dig into the rules because you are the man tasked with reopening the border, if you will, allowing those asylum claims where people are trying to cross illegally to allow that once again, once you've hit this threshold and there are additions like seven days consecutive and then 14 days after that.

So is it, no matter what, it is going to be 21 days regardless and then you'll see what happens after that?

[08:20:07]

MAYORKAS: That's right.

It is all based on what we are experiencing at the southern border and the numbers that have been identified are based on the limited resources that we have.

The president in the last year, in August, in October sought additional resources for our department to strengthen our border security, Congress failed to act.

The extraordinary bipartisan Senate legislation that was negotiated over months would have resourced not only our department, but the Departments of Justice and State that are also involved in the administration of immigration law. We would have been resourced as we needed to be, and as we continue to need to be.

In the absence of those resources, in the absence of congressional action, the president took this strong executive action to strengthen our security.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you this --

MAYORKAS: We are doing what we can with the limited resources that we have.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you this, kind of dovetailing right off of that. House Speaker Mike Johnson, he went very hard at you during an interview this week over this policy. He called you a liar and then said, this, I want to play it for you about you and President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): If he really wanted to solve the border, Neil, he could close the border entirely. But this half measure executive order he just did actually exacerbates the problem.

He is allowing thousands of people over the border every day before they just begin to enforce existing federal immigration law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you say to that?

MAYORKAS: Well, I think it is mistaken. I wish the Speaker would actually promote and pass the Senate's bipartisan legislation that would be the toughest enforcement measures in more than 30 years.

Our immigration system hasn't been fixed since 1996 so action speaks louder than words and the words are mistaken.

BOLDUAN: It is not just Republicans who have spoken out against the policy. I've seen Democrats speaking out against it.

Alex Padilla, a Democratic senator says by reviving Trump's asylum ban, President Biden has undermined American values. The ACLU is now promising to sue over this. Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney, putting it this way, saying they've been left with no choice but to sue, saying that it was illegal when Trump did it and it is no less illegal now. How do you respond?

MAYORKAS: Kate, look, first of all, the immigration landscape is a volatile one. We know that for many years, but this measure, this executive action, is far different than what the former president sought to do.

We have not eliminated asylum. We are allowing between fourteen and fifteen hundred individuals to use our processes, the CBP One application to come to a port of entry at a predesignated appointed time and claim asylum in a safe, orderly, and lawful way. That was not the case under the prior administration.

In addition, this president, President Biden, has established an unprecedented number of lawful pathways for individuals to seek humanitarian relief in the United States, including asylum outside of the grip of exploitative human smuggling organizations.

So this is far different than what the prior administration sought to do. We are adhering to our nation's values and strengthening border security.

BOLDUAN: And that clearly is going to have to be fought out in court because the ACLU thinks it is basically the same and Democratic senators are saying similar.

But again, that will have to be litigated, and until then, policy in place.

Secretary, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate your time.

MAYORKAS: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Well, Jill Biden is expected to be back in court to support her son, Hunter Biden as he heads back to trial once again. This week really revealing the stark contrast of her dual roles as First Lady and mother. More on that.

And any moment now, we are going to learn if the hot jobs market is showing any signs of cooling off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:57]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Today, First Lady Jill Biden is expected to stand by her son, Hunter Biden once again during his federal gun trial.

Now, her arrival in Delaware comes just hours after she attended commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France.

The First Lady attended the ceremonies after several days of intense emotional testimony. CNN White House correspondent, Arlette Saenz joins us now.

Arlette, I mean, she is coming in for this, but she is not staying long.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, she is not, Omar.

And First Lady Jill Biden has really gone to great lengths to try to stand by her son amid this legal trial playing out in Wilmington, Delaware.

I am told in conversations that I've had with sources close to her that there really was no question for the First Lady that she wanted to be on hand for this trial, really forcing her to navigate and juggle her responsibilities as First Lady, while also trying to serve that all-important role of being a mother.

The First Lady was on hand for the first three days of the trial earlier in the week. She then took a red-eye flight to France for those D-Day celebrations before returning last night back to Wilmington, Delaware where she is once again expected to be in court today.

She in fact, will jump on another plane to France as she is set to be there for the state visit tomorrow.

But the First Lady at the start of the week spent hours in that courtroom sitting behind Hunter Biden. At times, she would have to listen to the re-airing of many of the sordid details of his struggles with addiction, a very tumultuous period for the Biden family.

She could also be on hand today when other members of the Biden family testify.

[08:30:27]