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Blinken: Netanyahu "Reaffirmed" Commitment To Ceasefire Proposal; Interview with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY); Soon: Jury Deliberations In Hunter Biden's Felony Gun Case Resume; Biden Holds Juneteenth Celebration At White House; Trump Tells Christian Conservatives "Democrats Are Against Religion". Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 11, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The defense minister, the leader of the opposition, and Benny Gantz, who until just a couple of days ago, was a member of the war cabinet before he resigned.

[07:30:07]

From the Israeli perspective, that's everybody you'd have to meet with two potentially get Israel to agree to a ceasefire proposal once it's at that stage.

But Blinken knows he's still has work to do and that's why he's now in Jordan and then going to meet Qatari officials who've been a key mediator here. He's trying to move this forward even after the events of the weekend and a hostile a hostage rescue operation in Israel that killed scores of Palestinians. Incidents like that have brought negotiations to a grinding halt in the past. He is trying to push them forward.

The proposal on the table right now, here is the rough outline. Phase one would see a cessation to hostilities, temporarily, that would allow for more negotiations to take place. A hostage release, Palestinians released from prisons as well, and hostages remains released.

That then would lead to phase two. That's a withdrawal of Israeli forces, a permanent end to hostilities. That conclusion of the hostage release.

And then phase three would be the rebuilding of Gaza. From the U.S. perspective, and the Biden administrations perspective, they believe they have Israel in a position where they'll agree to this. The question for Blinken, does Hamas and specifically Hamas's leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, agree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We await the answer from Hamas, and that will speak volumes about what they want, what they're looking before, who they're looking after. Are they looking after one guy who may be for now safe, very -- I don't know, ten stories underground somewhere in Gaza, while the people that he purports to represent continue to suffer and across fire of his own making, or will he do what's necessary to actually move this to a better place, to help the suffering of people, to help bring real security to Israelis and Palestinians alike?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Hamas has made some positive noises about a U.N. Security Council resolution that passed in the last 24 hours or so, calling for a permanent end to hostilities. But there is still the details to be worked out and that, John, is where this has certainly fallen apart in the past. That's what Blinken is trying to prevent right now and his whirlwind of meetings through region.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. Just about every time in the past it has fallen apart when it gets to those details.

Oren Liebermann, thanks so much. Keep us posted on what you hear.

Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also new this morning, conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and unfounded threats of violence must stop. That's from the attorney general, Merrick Garland, speaking out this morning in a new opinion piece to defend his agency and also call out really no uncertain terms the people and politicians attacking the Department of Justice.

Garland saying, in part, quote, in recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny and criticism and legitimate necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal and dangerous.

Also saying: Disagreements about politics are good for our democracy. They're normal. But using conspiracy theories, falsehoods, violence, and threats of violence to affect political outcomes is not normal. They are dangerous for our democracy. This must stop.

Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Greg Meeks from New York. He is the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thank you for being here.

This, of course, is as Republicans are moving forward with another step today toward potentially a full House vote on a contempt of Congress charge against the attorney general.

What impact will this have?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Nothing. It's, again, another false allegations.

And when the Republicans have virtually done nothing in their majority, nothing for the American people. They keep coming up with plots and investigations and hearings that mean absolutely -- and turns out to be nothing. They're nothingburgers. This is -- you know, I've been in Congress for over 26 years and this

is like nothing ever before. We should be doing legislative work. There's a lot of things that we need to be doing, should be doing in a collective manner, in a bipartisan manner for the American people.

Oftentimes, you've seen Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats step up to do the kind of thing that the American people need. But these endless investigations in virtually every committee, Kate, just about every committee.

My committee on foreign affairs -- you know, we've had and had to debunk these false allegations from time to time and time again. So it's just something that is I think horrendous and needs to stop. And let's do work for the American people.

BOLDUAN: The fact that they're moving into rules committee, do you think -- Republicans could only lose two votes. Do you think that suggests they have the votes to push this through?

MEEKS: But, look, I don't know what their dysfunctioning is, and oftentimes to get certain things out of the rules that were important for the American people, it took Democrats to get that done.

So whether they have the votes to get it out of the rules, whether they just don't want -- you know, want to try to divert the American people's attention away from their candidate who has been convicted as a felon, whether they are trying to close their eyes to the fact of the damage they've done to Ukraine by holding the supplemental for six months.

[07:35:15]

And so, it seems to me that they are trying to pull a bait-and-switch to try to keep the people's attention away from what is really taking place in the House of Representatives, which is absolutely nothing.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about what happened here in New York yesterday. The U.N. Security Council approving a hostage -- throwing their support behind a hostage and ceasefire deal for Israel and Hamas. The fact that they could agree on anything is a big deal considering how divided the council has been and divided the U.N. has been over this war.

And Tony Blinken said this morning that in meetings, Netanyahu reaffirmed his commitment to that peace proposal.

Do you -- do you -- we have not heard from Netanyahu publicly endorsing a peace proposal. Do you -- does it concern you that we have not?

MEEKS: I think that the fact that you see Secretary Blinken there, you see the CIA Director Burns there, and Brett McGurk there, and talking to the various people in the region, I think that -- and the Israeli people, you know, we see them talking about, they want a deal. Everyone wants a deal and that's why I think it's important to now, everyone should be focused on Hamas -- BOLDUAN: Uh-huh.

MEEKS: -- and have Hamas to agree to a deal.

You know, I'm so happy we've got those four hostages home. But there was prices to pay for that. And the way to prevent the price of death for innocent individuals and putting Israeli soldiers in harms way is to have a deal done. It is time to do a deal.

And I think that President Biden has shown the great leadership that he always does and pulling people together that we should be able to get a deal done. Saudi Arabia wants a deal.

And this then begins to talk about what takes place after there's a deal, which was what Benny Gantz was talking about, which is really important.

BOLDUAN: Which and still remains a huge question right now.

The House has passed a sanctions bill against the International Criminal Court for moving to seek for a -- seek arrest warrants against, including Benjamin Netanyahu for what the court had said was they saw crimes against humanity and war crimes. Forty-two Democrats joined Republicans in the House to support the sanctions vote.

The White House does not support it, but I want to play -- I want to play for you one of the Democrats who voted with Republicans, Jared Moskowitz. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): The ICC thing is outrageous, okay? They have no jurisdiction over Israel. They had no jurisdiction over Syria.

In fact, the ICC specifically said, well, the reason why we didn't go after Assad for war crimes and we didn't issue a warrant at -- after he killed 300,000 civilians with chemical weapons, by the way, gassing them, it's because we don't have jurisdiction.

Well, they don't have jurisdiction here with Israel, but now we have a made-up rule, right? It's magical. All of a sudden, they gave themself jurisdiction when they don't have any.

So, that's why it was critical that we pass this bill yesterday on a bipartisan basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You voted against this -- this very same bill. Why are you right and Moskowitz wrong on this one?

MEEKS: First of all, it's premature. What we had is a prosecutor who applied for a subpoena for the arrest of Mr. Netanyahu and of Sinwar from Hamas.

BOLDUAN: Uh-huh.

MEEKS: That hasn't happened. It's premature, number one.

Number two, it undermined some because we celebrated not too long ago when the ICC did appropriately, it was -- went to the judges and the judges decided that they would ask for the arrest of Mr. Putin, should he do something of that nature.

Now, clearly, what is wrong is the prosecutor. And I think that the bill that passed was so wide, you know, in sanctioning allies that would have been sanctioned and other individuals who are friends that it was just too much.

And what we need to focus on narrowly is that prosecutor, to try to equate Israel to Hamas, that is absolutely condemnable, and something that we are all upset about.

And so, there's a way that we could work together, and if it was a singularly focused in that regard to think that we could have talked about it. But this bill was far too broad. It had unintended consequences that would hurt our relationships with members (ph) around the world.

BOLDUAN: A lot on your plate right now.

Congressman, thanks for coming in. Really appreciate your time.

MEEKS: Thank you for having me, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Very shortly, jury deliberations resume in Hunter Biden's federal gun case. The president's son has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts related to a 2018 gun purchase.

With us now, former deputy assistant attorney general, Tom Dupree.

Counselor, great to see you this morning.

The jury gets back shortly. They walk into the deliberation room.

[07:40:01]

What do you think is at the top of their minds?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it's a good question, John, and I think today is the day we're finally going to get a verdict in this case.

I think when the jury resumes its deliberations today, my guess is they're probably going to start marching through all the evidence. I thought the prosecutors and their closing argument did a good job and reminding the jury that regardless of the fame of the defendant, you know, his last name, he is the son of the president, the jury's task is to focus on the evidence, and I suspect that the jury will go about that task this morning. I suspect they're going to march through and discuss what they heard

from all witnesses. The physical evidence, and then really begin focusing their attention on reaching a decision.

BERMAN: The prosecution overtly referred to the people in the gallery, Hunter Biden's family, really that has been coming to this trial.

Why do you think that is? Because the defense hasn't exactly. I mean, they've been there and supportive Hunter Biden.

DUPREE: Right. I think the prosecution here is addressing the elephant in the room. They are acknowledging implicitly, but acknowledging that this is the son of the president who has standing trial, and that the jury can look out and see the first lady of the United States, and other political celebrities.

This is obviously a family that is very well known in Delaware, many of the jurors have had some sort of interaction or at least are pretty familiar with the Biden family. And so I think it was the prosecutors way of basically saying, look, let's step back, let's focus on the task at hand and let's put aside any sympathy or any feelings that we may have for this famous defendant and his famous family.

BERMAN: As all defense lawyers try to do, Abbe Lowell, you're actually seeing a sketch of him, right there has tried to give jurors than a narrow out of reasonable doubt, that is to paraphrase here, roughly that Hunter Biden in his mind it was not addicted to drugs when he signed a form that said he wasn't addicted to drugs on that day and that day alone. At the moment the pen hit the paper, Hunter Biden didn't think he was addicted to drugs. That's the defense argument there.

Is that something, is that enough for jurors to grab onto?

DUPREE: Boy, I think that is a pretty narrow path. Look, I think that's an argument that a lawyer can love. I'm not sure a juror is going to love it.

I suspect that the jury is going to say that the law doesn't require that Hunter Biden was using drugs the morning and he purchased the gun, or the hour before or after he purchased the gun. I think they are going to say did he buy this gun and fill out that form at a point in his life when he was abusing crack, when he was under the influence of controlled substances, when he was addicted to controlled substances.

And my hunch is that they are not going to parse the law as finally, in his name he really is the defense lawyers are doing.

That said, I understand their strategy. I don't think they have a lot of cards to play, and I think they're just putting their best foot forward and hoping, hoping they can kick up enough sand to create reasonable doubt in the minds of these jurors.

BERMAN: All right. Tom Dupree, Dupree's diamond blue, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for being with us.

So Donald Trump's message to evangelical voters, the latest promise he's making on the campaign trail.

Clashes overnight and a major U.S. university with new arrests.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:47:29]

BERMAN: This morning, Singapore Airlines is offering payouts to passengers from a flight that hit severe turbulence and had to make an emergency landing last month, one passenger was killed. One woman was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown into the air. Her husband said he was not even sure she was still alive.

Singapore Airlines says, all passengers will have their flight refunded it and people with minor injuries will get $10,000 a piece. Those was serious issues will get advance of $25,000 with possibly more to come.

New this morning, the FDA is warning about the serious health risks associated with micro dosing mushroom infused chocolate bars. It says the Diamond Shruumz brand it has left several people sick in. Some had to go to the hospital. He reported symptoms that include seizures, confusion, abnormal heart rates, and nausea. The company is still promoting its products on social media, but does not mention the reported illnesses. CNN reached out to the company but has not received a response yet.

So this morning, Connecticut fans are still rejoicing for UConn coach Dan Hurley rejected a reported $70 million contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers. In a statement to CNN, Hurley says he is humbled by the experience, but at the end of the day, he is proud of the culture at UConn, which includes, I should note back-to-back titles.

The deal would have placed Hurley among the NBA's highest paid coaches. He would have had to go to the Lakersville.

BOLDUAN: But then there's that.

In honor of Juneteenth, President Biden has hosted a star-studded concert at the White House yesterday with performances from Patty LaBelle, Gladys Knight, and Charlie Wilson.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BOLDUAN: Juneteenth celebrates the day when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their emancipation two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

And President Biden signed a bipartisan bill making June 19 an official federal holiday in 2021.

And while the event was a collaboration of freedom, the president also took the opportunity to rail against what he called some political leaders working to take away the hard-won freedoms of Black Americans.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House, with much more on this.

What was the president's message?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, President Biden used this Juneteenth celebration event to stress that he remains committed to protecting and advancing the rights of black Americans in this country.

[07:50:03]

He, in his remarks argued that black history is American history and he did not mention Donald Trump or any specific Republican opponents by name. But the president was seeking to really draw an implicit contrast with Republicans. He spoke out against book bans, attacks on diversity programs, as well as efforts to restrict voting.

Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Where all goes (ph), new garments trying to take his back. Well, there are taking away your freedom and make it harder for Black people to vote, have your vote counted. Closing doors of opportunity, attacking the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now the presidents message comes as Black voters are expected to be a key part heading into the November election, the Biden campaign and administration in recent weeks have really been I'm trying to tell some of their works to help the Back community, talking about things like wiping out student loan debt, capping the price of insulin, as well as other economic advancements for the Black community.

But if you take a look at polling, former President Donald Trump has made gains a with Black voters in this election. If you take a look at a recent poll from "The New York Times" and Siena College, while Biden was ahead with about 63 percent of support from Black voters. Donald Trump had 23 percent. That's a historic high for Republicans, crossing that 20 percent margin.

Now, if you take a look at 2020, you've seen a much wider gap in that contest. Black voters really made up a key part of Biden's constituency back in 2020. And campaign advisers acknowledged they have more work to do heading into this election, especially as we have seen, this narrowing of support.

So, as you saw in the president's remarks, you saw in recent events, thinking back to his speech at Morehouse College, speech at an NAACP event, out in Detroit. The Biden campaign working to hold onto that and rebuild that support from Black voters, which will once again be key if he's trying to win a second term to the White House.

BOLDUAN: Arlette Saenz, thank you so much.

John?

BERMAN: All right. New fallout this morning after Donald Trump vowed to walk side-by-side with a group of conservative political activists that opposes abortion in all cases and calls the procedure child sacrifice. In a video message, Trump touted his past accomplishments on the pro-life agenda and said that Democrats are against their religion.

CNN's Alayna Treene is here now with the very latest -- Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, good morning, John.

Yes. Donald Trump addressed this group. It was part of their Southern Baptist convention and annual meeting that they have and he really honed in on saying luck Democrats are against your religion as, as you mentioned, and tried to convince them to continue to support his campaign. What I find really interesting about this is because with Donald Trump, he has been kind of -- he's waffled on abortion over the past year. It's really not an issue that he wants to discuss.

However, when he is put in front of these groups, particularly ones that but are very much against abortion. He very much leans into what he has done for the evangelical community and also people and groups that are against abortion as well. Take a listen to what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now is the time for us to all pull together and to stand up for our values and for our freedoms. And you just can't vote Democrat. They're against religion. They're against your religion in particular.

I know that each of you is protecting those values every day and I hope we'll be defending them side-by-side for your next four years. These are going to be your years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, as I mentioned before, I just want to make very clear what Donald Trump is trying to do here.

He is trying to convince these groups that they have to vote for him, and that if they vote for Republicans, that they'll try to continue to undo some of the work he did while in office, which of course touting his stacking of the court with three very conservative Supreme Court justices that helped overturn Roe versus Wade. But I will say, as we often hear from Donald Trump, he likes to tout that he was the most pro-life president in history.

He's also really angered a lot of abortion active anti-abortion activists by not really taking a position on a federal ban. He said that he wants to leave abortion up to the states. And so this is really angered a lot of these groups as well. And so this message is really him trying to ensure that these people come out for him in November -- John.

BERMAN: Alayna Treene in Washington -- Alayna, thanks so much.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is a CNN senior political commentator, Ana Navarro, and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

Maria, this pushes this -- what John and Alayna were just talking about this? Pushes abortion once again into the spotlight Donald Trump did not include any specifics on abortion policy, what he'd support, what he doesn't support, he doesn't even mention the word abortion at all in that tape or mark.

[07:55:04]

That does what?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he thinks that it's going to help him screen him from being the one that actually was responsible for taking away Roe v. Wade, for taking away women's freedoms and rights to make decisions over our own bodies.

But he can't have it both ways, Kate, it was very clean here. What he was trying to do in this video, it's very clear what he tries to do whenever he is in front of these Christian groups. And in fact, when he is in front of these Christian groups most of the time, he can't help himself and he brags about being the one that was appointed, the three conservative justices who are responsible for, of overturning Roe v. Wade.

And so, the more that he talks about this even though he doesn't say the word abortion, the better it's going to be for Democrats, the better it's going to be for President Biden and for everyone frankly, running on this issue about how women should be the ones, the only ones to be able to make decisions about our own bodies for themselves, their families, their communities. And that frankly and underscores that this election is about more than just that. Its about our rights, freedoms in general.

And it was very rich that he stood there talking about values and freedoms when he is the one that is completely devoid of values and is the one who's trying to take away our rights and freedoms.

BOLDUAN: You know, Ana, "Politico" has a quote from one Trump voter who it says was in the room for these taped remarks at this gathering, saying this -- this from -- this is coming from a man named Rick Patrick: He sounded more like a politician who wanted to be elected I voted for him and I plan to vote for him again, but he was not like the other speakers who were here talking about religious things.

I read that thinking. Does that just encapsulate what is President Biden's problem though? This guy is not happy about what he heard from the, from the candidate that he says he voted for before for you will vote for again. But it's not like Donald Trump trying to have it both ways. Donald Trump but its not both sides in it, but Donald Trump at one point saying that he was going to come up with a abortion policy that was going to make everybody happy.

He's not going to -- its not going to stop him from voting for Trump, even if he doesn't like what Trump is saying about it.

ANA CABRERA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I think a lot of evangelicals cross that bridge already and they did so in 2016 after they voted for Donald Trump after they heard him boast about sexual assault on video and on tape.

And this campaign, to me, it's just so -- so weird, bizarre, right? How many times have we now heard Trump and his surrogates compare him to Jesus, compare him to being martyred on the cross, crucified, taking all of this pain for us? It's all of these religious Jesus like themes that are somehow weaved into Donald Trumps existence, which sounds as crazy as can be. It's crazy for him to say that Democrats are against religion at a time when we are led by Joe Biden, who in my lifetime is the most religious president I can recall.

He's not a Christian conservative. He's an Irish Catholic, church- going, practicing Catholic. And look, this hasn't worked for them, but I do think that there's going to a come a time when the rubbers going to hit the road, when Donald Trump is going to be confronted and on a stage like a debate stage, say, a CNN debate stage, and asked, okay, be specific about your abortion decision because yes, on one hand, he takes credit for the Dobbs decision. He takes credit for having appointed those judges.

He goes to groups like this and he makes veiled, ambiguous, but very specific remarks about abortion criticized this is Joe Biden on it, but then on in front of other audiences, he says, oh, no, just leave it up to the state. Well, at some point on some stage, he's going to have to come clean an answer.

BOLDUAN: Or is he? I mean, not -- not yet?

Maria, let's talk about -- talk about what is good to talk about in politics. What is good for politics and not, here's an interesting one, Donald Trump now wondering aloud about Taylor Swift. He's apparently coming from an excerpt from a forthcoming book about his work with the producer of "The Apprentice".

A conversation that took place as in November 2023, Trump saying this about Taylor Swift: I think she's a liberal. She probably doesn't like Trump, but she is liberal or is that just an act, he asks.

She's legitimately liberal. It's not an act. It surprises me that a country star can be -- can be successful, being liberal, Trump said, before the author noted that Swift crossed over to pop music years ago, the crossover. She -- she can -- she can do whatever she wants, I would say.

Is it good for politics to take on Taylor.