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Biden, Zelenskyy To Sign Long-Term Security Agreement; G7 Leaders Agree To Loan Ukraine Money Backed By Profits From Frozen Russian Investments; Supreme Court Allows Abortion Pill To Remain On Market; Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 13, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:48]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington, alongside Boris Sanchez.

And we begin today waiting to hear from both President Joe Biden and his rival for the White House, former President Donald Trump, both expected to speak this hour.

Trump is here in Washington. He's rallying GOP lawmakers behind him in his campaign for president. And it is notably his first visit to Capitol Hill since the January 6th insurrection.

Biden is in Italy for the G7 Summit and will speak here in minutes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussing the state of the war in Ukraine and a new security pack between Washington and Kyiv.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're going to bring you both Biden and Trump live.

Meantime, there is also huge news. One of the most important political issues of 2024, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision maintaining access to the abortion pill, mifepristone, by rejecting a challenge to the FDA's regulation of that drug.

The ruling is going to allow the pills to continue to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor's visit. But their decision does leave the door open to future court challenges.

We're covering these three stories in depth this hour on Capitol Hill at the Supreme Court and overseas.

Let's begin there with CNN's MJ Lee, who's traveling with President Biden in Italy.

It sounds like she might be having some audio issues.

MJ, what are we expecting to hear from President Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, just behind me, the two podiums are set up for that joint news conference between President Biden and President Zelenskyy coming on the heels of some major moves by the G7 and the United States to try to shore up global support for Ukraine as it continues fighting the war in Ukraine.

But G7 countries have reached an agreement on that $50 billion loan program for Ukraine that would use money. Interest accrued from hundreds of billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets.

So that is a big deliverable to come out of this week. And then the next time that we do see both presidents on stage, they will have just signed that new bilateral security pact. This is something where the two countries are agreeing in essentially over the course of some 10 years to cooperate on everything from training armed forces to intelligence sharing and the production of important military equipment.

And, you know, it's important to think about the fact that for both of these leaders, really time is of the essence.

Of course, President Zelenskyy has made very clear and really almost all of his public statements that he does need this kind of global support and a boost in security assistance to try to turn things around on the battlefield.

And then for President Biden, of course, all of this is coming just a few months before the November election where everyone is aware, of course, the possibility of a second Donald Trump term could raise a lot of questions about the endurance of the U.S.'s support for Ukraine and all of the progress that is made at this G7.

Now, this is a two and two press conference, meaning, each of the leaders will get an opportunity to call on two reporters of their choosing.

And, of course, again, all of this is coming at such a high stakes moment for both President Biden and President Zelenskyy.

KEILAR: Yes. We're looking at some live pictures, MJ, as you were giving your report.

All of that, what will this look like in a year, two years, three years, hanging over this summit there at the G7?

Let's go to Alayna Treene now. She is following former President Trump's movements on Capitol Hill.

Alayna, tell us what Trump's goal was today with his visit there.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, first of all, Brianna and Boris, I do want to just lay out how significant these meetings are.

You mentioned that this is his first time to Capitol Hill since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, something that has really made enemies of some of Donald Trump's Republican allies on the Hill or then allies on the Hill.

People like Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, as well as others who still remain very angered about how that all went down.

But then also, this is the first time Donald Trump is meeting with a big group of lawmakers since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, and also since he was found guilty of falsifying 34 counts of business records in Manhattan trial earlier this month. So a very big day indeed.

[13:05:14]

But look, when I talked to Donald Trump's advisors in the lead-up to this meeting today, they really said they wanted to this to be about unity. They wanted to get Republican lawmakers on the same page with Donald Trump about messaging ahead of what is expected to be a very contentious several months in the lead-up to November.

Now they also said that they wanted to discuss some key policy agenda items so that the entire party could hit the ground running if he were to win the election in the fall. And so that was the goal of the meeting.

However, we were lucky to have some good reporting from inside the room this morning with his meeting with House Republicans. He's currently meeting with Senate Republicans right now.

But we were told that while he did talk about some policy, including the economy, immigration, abortion, a lot of it was also kind of devolved into a chaotic pep rally of sorts. We heard Donald Trump share a lot of jokes and anecdotes similar to what we see on the campaign trail with him.

Now, he also did bring up some things. He talked about Taylor Swift. He talked about Nancy Pelosi made some, you know, off-color jokes at some points.

But for the most part, I will say from all of the lawmakers that our Hillsborough (ph) colleagues have talked to about this, they said that look, we really did feel like we were rallying around Donald Trump. It was that rah-rah kind of feel that I know a lot of Republicans. But of course, Donald Trump's team also were hoping for.

KEILAR: And, MJ, it was a big day for the issue of reproductive rights, of course, here in the U.S. I know as well that it was on the mind of the president. Tell us what happened there at the G7.

LEE: Yes. We just got such a good reminder that domestic issues never stop being a top priority for the president, even when he is traveling abroad.

What U.S. officials have told CNN is that the president actually really fought to keep language about reproductive rights in the G7 communique. That is the leader statement that comes out at the end of the summit and really sort of pushed back on Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni who wanted to strip out some of that language.

One senior official telling CNN that the president felt very strongly that the language had to include mention at least of the work that the G summit did last year in Japan on this issue.

Of course, this comes as back home. We've seen the Biden campaign, the Biden White House really seizing on the Supreme Court's decision today on abortion medication.

And I don't have to tell you how much Democrats believe this is an issue that is one that they want to make central to the 2024 campaign. They believe that it is one that has galvanized and mobilized voters in the past and they want to repeat that come November.

SANCHEZ: And, Alayna, part of the reason that Democrats are eager to seize on this issue is because they sense a sort of weakness or perhaps ambiguity when it comes to defining specifically where President Trump stands on the issue of reproductive rights.

And he talked to Republican lawmakers today, specifically about abortion. What did he say?

TREENE: That's right. And just as much as MJ was outlining how Democrats want to make this a central focus for the election, Donald Trump does not. He does not want Republicans to be talking about this. It's something that he continues to say privately that he thinks is a political loser.

But look, we did hear from Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina who said and kind of laid out what Donald Trump said on the issue. This is what she told our colleague, Kit Maher. She said, "He talked and pushed for exceptions for rape, life of the mother and incest. He talked about the way that we need to talk about it, quote, correctly, his words, not mine. And I really appreciated his comments as a woman, a suburban mom."

And so this kind of aligns with all of our reporting and what we know Donald Trump thinks about abortion policy.

He, again, does not think this is a good issue for Republicans to run on. He also has angered a lot of very conservative anti-abortion groups and allies by saying that he thinks this should be a state's issue.

He's kind of waffled between wanting to take credit for the overturning of Roe versus Wade while also playing this political dance and, you know, not trying to make this a huge issue ahead of the election.

Now, I also think it's very important to note the context of this coming with this major Supreme Court ruling. I know I reported recently that Donald Trump had promised in April to release policy and make an announcement on how Republicans should be talking about the abortion pill, mifepristone.

However, that never came. And I think that's just a further example of Donald Trump kind of running away from this issue.

SANCHEZ: Always two weeks away. The specifics are always --

TREENE: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- two weeks away.

Alayna, MJ, thank you both so much.

[13:10:00]

CNN International Diplomatic Editor, Nic Robertson, joins us now.

Nic, we want to turn back to focus on the issues facing Ukraine and the question of aid, how much urgency do you think we're seeing from the G7 to provide help to Kyiv in the face of what have been recent gains by Russia on the battlefield?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's a huge sense of urgency here and perhaps that's really embodied in this untried, untested initiative to take all these $300 billion of frozen Russian assets and turn that into a loan for Ukraine.

And the move to get this done is because the loan needs to be the aim of the G7, is to have the loan in the hands of President Zelenskyy before the end of the year, quite simply, because once he has got that $50 billion loan, which is what's expected, and he has a duty and an obligation, Ukraine does ultimately to pay that back over time.

Once he's got that money, that's not something that can be reversed if Donald Trump becomes president. And that's what concerns the majority of these G7 allies and partners here.

So that part of the deal is very important. I think we get a sense of just how much they're trying to push it through, that the leaders have agreed this in principle, but the details, some of the sort of financial details of how to underwrite it, really haven't been -- haven't been finalized yet.

But they're expected that they will be a burden to be picked up by the United States and the European Union.

But for President Zelenskyy coming in here, look, he knows his among friends. He knows his among allies and partners here. And his message for Ukrainians coming here was that this is really going to provide us with financial and military certainty going forward.

Of course, he's got a shopping list of other things he wants, like a joint fighter coalition to really give him more power in the skies, more ability to hit Russian forces where it's going to have a major impact and affect the battlefield. The air defense systems that he needs has been talking about those as well in advance of coming here.

But that big trudge of money, that's a big deal. And if it goes to plan, that will be in his pocket before there will be potentially any significant change in the White House.

KEILAR: So he's among friends. Is he getting what he wants from his friends here at the G7 summit?

ROBERTSON: Yes, absolutely. I mean, look, when the body language was there from the greeting from Giorgia Meloni, the prime -- Italian prime minister, who's very pro supporting Ukraine, a right-wing politician has a lot of characteristics, policies, plans, ideas, ideology in line with Donald Trump.

However, she is very pro supporting Ukraine. And the body language, when she greeted him when he arrived, really told you a lot about the reception he was going to get.

And when he sat down around this symbolic, huge olive tree table where the leaders were sat, the warmth of reception, the way that he interacted with the leaders there told you again, he felt that he was among friends.

Is he going to get all he -- all he wanted? We know President Zelenskyy, right? There are always other things on his wish list, but he's getting this bilateral security arrangement with the United States. That's big. That's significant.

President Biden expected to announce additional sanctions on Russia to stop it, circumventing sanctions and getting things like chips and technology that it's using in its weapons.

So -- and he's also here, I think we should remember, ahead of a peace summit that is going to this weekend. Of course, there's a peace summit without Russia because Russia is not in the business of making peace with Ukraine right now.

So he's got big exposure outside of Ukraine with friends going to get more exposure over the weekend.

So this is all that -- all that he can take back to Ukraine. And this is what he's telling the Ukrainians that this will give better support for the country during the very tough times that they're having right now.

SANCHEZ: Nic, notably, part of that bilateral agreement includes essentially executive approval on behalf of the United States, meaning that a future U.S. president could essentially undo it and that 10- year agreement is undone.

What are you hearing from other G7 leaders about the potential for another four years of Donald Trump who has been reticent to send anything to Ukraine?

ROBERTSON: There is concern about that. I think kind of what's interesting about the way that these security arrangements are structured builds in a little bit of resilience to how Ukraine gets its support.

[13:15:00] If Donald Trump won the presidency and decided to turn this back, this security arrangement, what President Zelenskyy would then be able to turn to, and it wouldn't be the same. Let us not fall ourselves that way. But he will also have multiple other bilateral security agreements with other NATO nations. It's not the same.

Look, last year at the NATO summit, he wanted to get the Article Five and attack on one is an attack on all. He wanted to get under that NATO umbrella so that everyone would come to his aid.

But what he got instead, these individually very strong, particularly when you bring them together, like a bundle of sticks, if you will, they're much stronger together than they are individually. But if you pull out one stick from this bundle and his left with just 31 bilateral security relationships and agreements, as powerful as the United States one is with his other partners in NATO, that strong, that's some resilience.

But nobody is under any illusion here that Donald Trump could turn this around, could make it much more difficult. And that could put Zelenskyy in a very difficult position of needing -- of needing potentially to get into talks with Russia.

And this is something the Europeans absolutely do not believe is the right way to go because they think Putin will just want and take more. That's where they stand.

KEILAR: All right. Nic, thank you so much for that report live for us from Italy.

And next, much more on the major news coming from the Supreme Court, the justices allowing the abortion pill, mifepristone, to remain on the market, suggesting other ways opponents can try to restrict the medication, though.

The latest details and what it all means right after this.

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[13:20:11]

KEILAR: We're following a big decision by the Supreme Court. Today, the justices unanimously rejected a challenge to how the FDA regulates the abortion pill, mifepristone. And this means the drug remains on the market and can still be mailed to patients without requiring a patient to visit a doctor in person.

A recent survey found 20 percent, that is one in five abortions, were medication abortions, where the patient got the pills by mail after a telehealth visit.

Before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, that number was just four percent.

SANCHEZ: The same survey found thousands of women every month that live in the states where abortion is severely restricted, get abortion pills in the mail.

Today's decision is the first major one on reproductive rights since the court overturned Roe. And it's a setback for the anti-abortion movement.

Joining us now is CNN chief legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid. Paula, walk us through how the high court came to this decision.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And this is one of the biggest cases we were watching this year.

And here, Justice Kavanaugh wrote the opinion for the unanimous court. And he's effectively saying, look, we know a lot of people, a lot of citizens, a lot of doctors have been concerned about broaden access to mifepristone, but they lack standing here.

You have to illustrate that you have actually been injured, right, by this drug in order to have the right to bring the case. That's what standing is.

Instead, he said, "Citizens and doctors who object to what the law allows, may do -- may always take their concerns to the executive and legislative branches and seek greater regulatory or legislative restrictions on certain activities."

So it's effectively saying, if you don't like broaden access to this drug, you should call your congressmen or congresswomen, because that is your path to changing access. We can't do it here unless you're someone who has actually been injured.

So what they did here is they basically preserved the status quo. And the reason we've been watching this case is because of the enormous impact it could have, not only for women who want access to this drug.

But the question was whether the FDA had overstepped its authority, so this could have an enormous implications for the FDA, for the entire pharmaceutical industry and potentially for the November election, because this is a big issue.

KEILAR: With the way they ruled on this, though --

REID: Yes.

KEILAR: -- not really addressing the actual issue head on. Are you expecting that there's going to be some other way that a case is brought that works its way up to the Supreme Court challenging medication abortion?

REID: Yes. I really do think that is likely. It takes years to get to the Supreme Court, but in the opinion, Justice Kavanaugh really left that door open. Some people may even read it as sort of an invitation, right?

SANCHEZ: Mm-hmm.

REID: And there are already cases that could be this case, but people would have to again establish that they had standing.

But to your point, they didn't actually decide, yes, the FDA had the authority, this was proper. Mifepristone will continue to be protected in this country. They sidestepped it. They tossed this case, but the issue remains potentially a live one if you can find someone with standing.

But this is not the only abortion case the Supreme Court is looking at. We are still waiting for a decision on another case that deals with what happens when you have restrictive state laws.

Do those -- when those run up against federal laws, which one, right? Which one rules in the wake of the court overturning Roe v. Wade?

So this is one of two big abortion cases. The first one, again, they tossed it on standing. The second one, we're still watching and waiting over the next few weeks for how they decide.

KEILAR: Yes, it's a big few weeks. Big few weeks for you too, Paula Reid.

REID: Yes.

KEILAR: It's going to be. Thank you so much for that. We appreciate it.

Medication abortion has now become the most common form of abortion, as we were saying. It accounts for nearly two out of three abortions in the U.S. when you look at the numbers from 2021 according to an analysis of CDC data. And it's also been shown to be safer than both procedural abortion or childbirth.

SANCHEZ: Yes. The rate of major complications for medication abortions is only about one-third of one percent. It's safer than common prescription drugs like penicillin or Viagra, according to data analyzed by CNN.

[16:25:09]

Let's discuss with emergency room physician, Dr. Megan Ranney. She's the Dean of Yale School of Public Health.

Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. What's your reaction to the court's decision?

MEGAN RANNEY, DEAN, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This is a victory for science. This is a victory for our regulatory process for medications in the United States and it is, of course, a victory for women and families who are seeking access to these medications.

But the fight is not over. They made so clear in their decision, as your previous commentator mentioned that this is still in the hands of legislators and the executive branch. The elections ahead matter both in terms of who we elect as legislators in terms of ballot initiatives to preserve access to medication abortion and, of course, in terms of the executive branch knowing that that's who appoints the head of the FDA.

And if we're going to continue to have a science-based process of approving and retaining approval for medications at the FDA, we have to make sure that the head of the FDA is still empowered to act based on science.

But overall, I and many others, across the country, are quite relieved by this decision.

KEILAR: And as Paula mentioned there, there is this other issue that we are waiting for on abortion from the Supreme Court, which has to do with whether Idaho hospitals must provide abortions for women whose health is at serious risk.

As an ER physician, how important is the court's decision on this?

RANNEY: So that decision is the one that worries me as much if not more than this one.

As an emergency physician, I have a responsibility to take care of anyone who walks through my door to stabilize them, to save their life, to do whatever procedures or treatments are needed in order to save them.

If that Supreme Court case goes the wrong way, it is going to limit the ability of physicians and other healthcare providers in Idaho and likely in other states to be able to save women's lives.

It is going to literally result in deaths. It is going to result in doctors and other healthcare providers leaving those states. And it is going to further worsen our already abysmal maternal mortality rates in this country.

SANCHEZ: So, Doctor, you're obviously an ER physician at a teaching hospital. I'm wondering if you've had any conversations with medical students that might be making decisions about where to start their careers based on varying state laws when it comes to abortion.

RANNEY: Medical students, residents, so people that have finished medical school and are in training and public health professionals, are all making decisions to not move to states with restrictions on abortion, because they are afraid that they are not going to be able to provide the care that is needed both to respect a patient's autonomy, but also potentially to save a woman's life.

It is absolutely impacting those decisions. And I hear it on an almost daily basis.

KEILAR: It's really interesting.

Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much for being with us on a very important day. We appreciate it.

RANNEY: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still to come, we're waiting for both President Biden and former President Trump to speak one on the world stage, one on Capitol Hill.

And also this hour, the Senate will vote on a bill that would protect nationwide access to in vitro fertilization procedures. We'll have an update from the Hill.

SANCHEZ: We're also following a potentially catastrophic situation in South Florida. That area has been swamped in rain for three straight days. And more is still to come.

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