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Pope at G7 Summit for Meetings With Biden, World Leaders; GOP Unites Behind Trump in Closed-Door Meetings; Supreme Court Could Rule Soon on Access to Abortion in the E.R. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 14, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: He was booted from the contest this week after striking an endorsement deal with the plant based Impossible Foods, plant dogs. Now, the two are coming together, though, for a heavyweight showdown. This is going to be a live Netflix special titled Chestnut vs. Kobayashi, Unfinished Beef. The beef is going to get served up on September 2nd.

We are not joined currently by Matt Gorman, who is apparently like the eating champ expert of all experts. I don't know if any of you actually watch any of this. I do not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, but don't tell me this country isn't great.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's amazing. Kobayashi weighs 128 pounds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.

WILLIAMS: That dude is a beast.

HUNT: It's insane. All right, thanks very much to you guys. Happy Friday. Thanks to you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The pope, presidents and artificial intelligence, the unusual combination coming together at the G7 summit. Why A.I. is topping the agenda today after critical talks about the war in Ukraine. It's the concerns about A.I. that have the world leader's attention.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump now says he has a pretty good idea who he wants as his running mate this time around. The senator who once called the former president cultural heroine may be topping that list.

And in just a few hours, the site of one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history will be torn down. Demolition set to begin at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a building that has become a tragic time capsule, where 17 students and staffers were gunned down. It's about to be taken down.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sarah Sidner. John Berman is off today. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Today, for the first time ever, the pope is at the G7 summit in Italy meeting with President Biden and other world leaders. In an address next hour, Pope Francis will talk about the risk of artificial intelligence. His message will be one drawn from his own experience with A.I. last year. Take a look at this deep fake photo of him in a white puffer jacket that I'm going to go ahead and show you the picture that went viral.

CNN's M.J. Lee is in Italy, where President Biden will meet one on one with the pope today. M.J., let us know what you're going to discuss, and we should mention that that was not the picture with the puffer jacket. We have all seen it. He's got this big, huge puffer jacket on that actually he wasn't wearing. What are what are they expected to discuss? There it is. There's the A.I.-generated fake image there. But it is so interesting that the pope is discussing this with his age, with his knowledge about what's going on in the world to all of these leaders who are deeply concerned about things like deep fakes.

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, you're right. We have all seen that deep fake and remember it really well. It did go viral. And that is one of the reasons that the pope is set on discussing this issue that is important to the world leaders when he comes to the G7 today, he arrived actually in the last hour or so, and making history, becoming the first pope to attend this gathering.

But there are a number of other really weighty issues that we expect the pope to discuss with the world leaders, including the two conflicts that have been the focus of some of these sessions already, the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, where, of course, the pope has been calling for an immediate ceasefire.

But as a senior official talking to reporters here earlier today was saying it's also the pope, you know, he really has the freedom to talk about any issue that he would like with the leaders and going in the other direction, too. You can imagine that the leaders are going to be eager to talk to him about a number of different things when they meet today. And the president is going to be meeting separately and privately with the pope as well.

They, of course, met back in 2021 at the Vatican. You can imagine that that was a really personally meaningful sit down for the president when that happened, given his faith. These are two men that are -- two of the most powerful and well known Catholics in the world. So, whatever comes out of that is going to be really interesting to seeing what kinds of things the two men end up discussing.

The other thing I would just note the pope aside that is on the agenda for day two of the G7 summit today is a session on the Indo-Pacific. And I bring that up because this is the session where the G7 leaders are expected to talk about China's contribution to Russia's war economy and its defense industrial base and also just the broader issue of China flooding the global system with what the U.S. has warned is a production and manufacturing overcapacity.

[07:05:09] And I do bring that up because that has been such an important feature of President Biden's foreign policy in his first term, trying to sort of deter China from all of those things that I just mentioned.

So, the fact that that is going to be a focus of one of the working sessions coming up today, that is notable as well.

SIDNER: And there was also this moment where a reporter asked President Biden about Hunter Biden's conviction, his son's conviction. What happened in that exchange?

LEE: Yes. You know, last night at the press conference was the first time that President Biden weighed in publicly about his son Hunter's conviction on those three felony gun charges. After the verdict came down, he stood by his son. He stood by the judicial system as well. And then he reiterated his previously stated position on the question of pardoning his son. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I am satisfied that I'm not going to do anything. I said I abide by the jury decision. I will do that. And I will not pardon him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And I should note, Sara, you know, White House officials definitely suspected that the president would be getting questions at some point about his son, given that it just happened three days ago. He hadn't talked about it publicly yet and particularly on the issue of the commutation because the previous day White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre had been asked about this issue and she wouldn't rule it out. She wouldn't say yes or no the president would or wouldn't commute his son's sentence. And that in and of itself had sort of taken on a life of its own and the White House knew that the president had a very good chance of being asked about that.

I will just quickly note the first lady, Jill Biden, is not traveling with the president on this trip, but several of his grandchildren have joined him on this trip, and actually some of them were sitting in the front row at that press conference last night.

SIDNER: M.J. Lee, thank you so much for all your reporting there and Bari, Italy. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump kicked off his 78th birthday celebration surrounded by some of his staunch supporters, returning to Capitol Hill for the first time since the insurrection. Trump met with House and Senate Republicans. And it appeared to be a love fest, likely by design, even a friendly reunion with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

One question now this morning is who, we're going to show you, in this video, potentially could be his running mate. During an interview, Donald Trump teased that his V.P. was probably in the room during these meetings. Let's get over to CNN's Alayna Treene. She's got much more on this. What is Donald Trump saying? What are you learning about this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, first of all, Kate just about your birthday comment, not only did they give him a early birthday present by giving him that warm reception that he was craving with that visit to D.C., they also literally sang him happy birthday during the House Republican meeting yesterday, and we know he's going to have another big celebration today at Mar-a-Lago as part of that Trump 47 committee event.

But look you're exactly right. There's a very good chance that who Donald Trump ultimately picks as his running mate was in one of the rooms, one of the meetings yesterday with House and Senate Republicans. And, really, the majority of people under consideration are lawmakers. You can see it here on the screen now. That includes Senators J.D. Vance, Senator Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, as well as Congressman Elise Stefanik and Byron Donalds. And so very well there could be someone who was in that room yesterday who is Donald Trump's potential vice president.

And Donald Trump himself addressed this last night when he was asked this question. Take a listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was your pick for V.P. in that room with you?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Probably, yes. Probably. I don't want to go, but probably. I think we'll probably announce it during the convention.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know who your V.P. is?

TRUMP: I have sort of a pretty good idea. Look, we have some really talented people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Kate, look, it's always hard to predict who a presidential candidate's running mate will be. It's even harder to predict with Donald Trump. And when I talk to his advisers, they tell me that even now, his decision is still in flux, and this is Donald Trump we are talking about.

So, really, until this is formally announced, he could still change his mind, so keep that in mind as we have these conversations about who potentially might be at the top of his list.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Speaking of convention and Milwaukee, what is Donald Trump saying about that sitting?

TREENE: Well, we were lucky enough.

So, this was a closed door meeting with lawmakers yesterday, both the House and Senate meetings, I should say, were closed doors. And our great Hill reporters got some inside the room reporting.

[07:10:01]

And one of that, one of those instances was Donald Trump said, and I'm going to quote what we have from our sources, that Milwaukee was a horrible city. He said, Milwaukee where we are having our convention is a horrible city.

Now, according to our sources as well, he was talking about that in the context of it being rife with crime. I did have a Trump adviser texting me as this was all playing out in real-time and said that the coverage of this was, quote, B.S.

But, look, I think part of this was they recognized it was a closed door meeting. I'm not sure how much Donald Trump expected some of this to leak out. But at the same time, this is a core issue for Donald Trump. He wants to run on crime, he wants to talk about crime, but it's not exactly a good look to be using that kind of language and rhetoric around the city where your party is hosting its convention.

Now, we did actually hear from the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee. He told Laura Coates, our Laura Coates last night, that he thinks this comment could make a difference in how voters are deciding. We also saw the Democrats really jump on this immediately. The DNC is planning to put up billboards around Milwaukee this weekend with Donald Trump's, quote, calling the city horrible.

And so, you know, I think this is just another moment where Donald Trump, he will say things particularly in private and people will be able to run with them after the fact. But this, again, I do want to stress that the campaign and the Republicans in the room yesterday said that this was in the context of crime. And so take with that what you will, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And so begins the resurgence of the trend of then Republicans outside of this meeting needing to put context or clean up what Donald Trump is saying in private. Alayna, thank you so much.

All right, so we're going to speak to the point that Alayna was talking about off the top about Donald Trump's V.P. hopefuls. One of those contenders, if you will, is going to be joining us a little later in the show.

Still ahead for us, the Supreme Court rejected an effort to restrict access to the abortion pill, but the high court could also hand down their decision on another critical abortion case as soon as today.

Plus, ISIS isn't done with us, the new warnings from U.S. officials after the arrest of eight foreign nationals with suspected ties to the terror group.

And tense moments at a Chris Brown concert. The singer, the performer seen left dangling from the ceiling. We'll have more on that ahead.

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[07:15:00]

SIDNER: This morning, reproductive rights are once again taking center stage at the Supreme Court. The justices could soon decide what happens when a pregnant woman shows up to the hospital during an emergency in a state where abortion is banned. It comes just one day after the Supreme Court ruled the abortion pill Mifepristone can stay on the market and after Senate Republicans voted to block a Democrat- led bill that would guarantee access to IVF nationwide.

CNN's Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell is joining us now. How does this ruling on Mifepristone impact what could happen in the ruling that is going forward on emergency room care?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. So that Mifepristone decision was a unanimous tossing out of the case really on standing. They did not get into the merits of the case, and that is not expected to be the case with this next opinion that comes down regarding abortion. This one concerns a federal law known as EMTALA, which concerns hospitals that provide emergency care and participate in Medicare, which is essentially most hospitals, and it's a federal law that was enacted in 1986, essentially requiring those hospitals to provide stabilizing care to any patient who shows up, including pregnant women. And it's regardless of the patient's ability to pay. This was really put into place to avoid dumping patients at other hospitals if there were concerns about their ability to pay.

Now, this law, folks say, is in direct conflict with Idaho's abortion ban. Idaho's abortion ban essentially bans all abortions except to save the life of the pregnant person and with rare other circumstances. And so there's that question over the saving the life of the patient versus stabilizing the health of the patients. And what doctors argue is that you could have situations where somebody shows up who is pregnant and they're having a complication that could threaten their organs, their future fertility, the only way to treat them is an abortion. And right now they say in states like Idaho and particularly Idaho in this circumstance, doctors are afraid to provide those procedures. And we have even heard about patients being shipped out of Idaho to other states so that they can get that care because doctors are too concerned to provide it.

So, we are waiting to see if we get that opinion from the Supreme Court today. We do not know how that is going to go. But the previous decision yesterday came down allowing access to medication abortion, which is the most common way that people access abortion in the country right now. About two-thirds of abortions are obtained through medication abortion. 19 percent of those are obtained through telehealth. And that was really a key thing that's allowed to stay the same for medication abortion as a result of yesterday. Sara?

SIDNER: So, the status quo for medication abortion, but we don't know what's going to happen, of course, with this next ruling when it comes to a pregnant woman going to an emergency room. We will be waiting for that. I know he will be back if you get that decision during this or the next few hours.

[07:20:02] I appreciate it. Thank you, Meg Tirrell.

Still ahead, one of the final heartbreaking remnants of the Parkland School shooting will be demolished. Demolition crews are preparing to finally take down the building where a gunman killed 17 people six years. We'll speak with a mother who lost her daughter in that shooting on this symbolic day.

And what does Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un have to do with an emergency phone call this morning? We'll explain.

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BOLDUAN: Any moment now, Pope Francis will meet with world leaders at the G7 Summit in Italy. The topic, on the surface might seem surprising, artificial intelligence, but the pope has actually a history with A.I. and has preached about it before.

And already today, the Pope has met with some of the world's biggest comedians. Among them, Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louis- Dreyfus, Chris Rock, Conan O'Brien.

CNN's Christopher Lamb has more on this. And, Christopher, I was looking at his comments, his line about praying for a sense of humor for the last 40 years was pretty spot on.

[07:25:04]

But what was this all about?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this was a kind of conclave of comedians in the Vatican with the big name stars from all over the world meeting the pope. But what Francis was trying to do is emphasize the importance of a sense of humor and the important work of comedians today. I mean, he said to them in the midst of so much gloomy news, you have the power to spread peace and smiles. As you mentioned, he prays for a good sense of humor each day. It's something that's very important to him. The pope himself likes to crack jokes. He said to the comedians, please pray for me, not against me. And he was laughing with them at the end of the meeting.

Whoopi Goldberg you mentioned was there, she apparently has offered the pope a cameo in Sister Act 3. The pope apparently knows Sister Act. Whoopi Goldberg afterwards saying that she's going to email the pope to follow up on the request. Kate?

BOLDUAN: I mean, I'm just, I'm listening to you and also I'm just watching this video that's been coming out from the Vatican this morning has been just fantastic, seeing like Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon jump up as if like they're going to -- they're like photo bombing behind the pope in the Vatican. I mean, it's pretty remarkable in the midst of it all. And talk about a wild Friday and then now he has the G7 summit to talk about his fake puffer jacket. There's a lot going on here for the pope today, that's for sure.

It's good to see you, Christopher. Thank you so much. So, Donald Trump has a new warning to Republicans about how to handle their messaging on abortion and abortion policy. We'll have more on that coming up.

And the show must go on apparently. Chris Brown keeps singing despite being literally left hanging on stage.

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