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Virginia Primary Race Still Undecided; Putin in North Korea; Heat Wave; New Mexico Battles Wildfires. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:56]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Fires burning through New Mexico, destroying hundreds of structures and upending lives, just one of several major wildfires burning in the West, as the East Coast copes with triple-digit temperatures that aren't going anywhere.

And what Putin calls a breakthrough in Russia's alliance with North Korea, as he signs a security pact with Kim Jong-un, one with potential consequences from Ukraine to South Korea.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And a major move by the L.A. School District, banning cell phones during school hours. We're going to speak to the superintendent on the significance of that step.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: We begin with what has just shaped up to be a vicious triple threat, deadly fast-moving wildfires in New Mexico, zero percent contained, a dangerous heat wave smothering parts of the Midwest and Northeast, and tropical storm conditions intensifying in Southern Texas.

Right now, people in Ruidoso, New Mexico, are under full town evacuation orders. There are two wildfires there trapping their town, one from the north, another coming from the south, and at least one person has died.

CNN crews just sent in this new video showing the extensive damage there from the wildfires, the governor declaring a state of emergency and warning that the blazes are devastating and that they are enormous. They already scorched well over 20,000 acres so far, and one evacuee describes the fear like this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC MORO, EVACUEE: Yes, we don't know what's going to happen with our home. And my daughter was crying when I was packing stuff up. She thought we were leaving home. She thought we were never coming back.

And I said: "No, we're not leaving. We're not giving up the house. It's just dangerous right now. And we have to -- we have to -- you know, in case the fire comes, we have to be prepared. We can't stay here. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Ed Lavandera is in New Mexico following this story for us.

Ed, what are they dealing with there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's that helpless feeling of uncertainty, as crews here continue to battle these wildfires.

We're here on the edge of Ruidoso to kind of give you a panoramic view of those two wildfires, Brianna, that you're talking. Way out there in the distance, that is the South Fork Fire of out in the Sierra Blanca Mountains north of town. You can see in various spots the flames and the smoke shooting up.

You can also see here one of the choppers that is flying over the area bringing in water to help fire crews on the ground get these flames and fires under control.

And, as you move over to this side over here, just along the backside of this mountain ridge, you can see the smoke coming up from the other side of that fire. And that's why all of this area is under evacuation orders. More than 8,000 people have fled this area to towns like Roswell and Alamogordo about an hour away, 8,000 people; 1,400 structures, we are told, so far have been consumed and burned by these fires.

So this is a very intense and frightening time for many of the residents who call this area home. And we spoke with one man that we met at a motel in Alamogordo about an hour away, and he's waiting to find out exactly what kind of condition his house is in and trying to get back to his home.

He also kind of talked to us about just how treacherous and surreal it was to escape from this area Monday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SCOTT, FIRE EVACUEE: At that point on the radio, it was a continuous evacuate, evacuate, get out, get out. That's all the radio was saying. So we did what they said. We rounded up our three dogs, few little possessions, the clothes I have on, and we got in our two vehicles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And so it's just a very delicate time for a lot of these residents as they're trying to manage just the waiting game as crews continue to work on all this.

[13:05:07]

Brianna, one sliver of good news, there is rain in the forecast. It's expected to come into the area later this afternoon and into tomorrow. And that could be the relief this area needs -- Brianna.

KEILAR: That is some good news.

Ed, thank you for that report.

Let's get a little bit more news on the weather front with our meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, talk about the forecast, what they're expecting.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Expecting a wind shift, Brianna, and that is good news for the Salt Fork Fire, pushing it to the west, but not so good news here for the Salt Fire itself.

So, South Fork may be moving away with the wind shift, but the South Fire, probably the Salt Fire, probably not. Here comes the wind. It's part of Tropical Storm Alberto, in fact. That's where the moisture is coming from as well, coming from the east. That's the push of the wind. That's the push.

And we're still going to see winds of 20 to 30. So, even though rain comes, if it doesn't come early enough with the wind, that could certainly be more problems. Here's what the smoke forecast looks like. And you can see the town of Ruidoso there, and the smoke will eventually blow toward the west.

But that also could mean bad things for that, obviously, that southeastern fire from Ruidoso.

KEILAR: Yes. And as we look more towards the Midwest and especially the Northeast and we look at the heat wave that people are experiencing there, what are you seeing?

MYERS: You know, it's the heat dome. We talked about it.

It's like closing the windows on your car, closing the door, and parking the car in the sun. It's all being trapped, all that heat being trapped under the dome. We are going to see another 150 record highs probably over the next three days.

Already seeing a heat index up in Maine of 103. And, I mean, you just don't have all that air conditioner, and people are up there trying to just survive, staying in the shade, drinking a lot of water. The pets, the plants, they all need more water, especially with the heat index in Syracuse today of 104.

High tomorrow again, hotter even into New England, hot in Boston, Buffalo, and all the way through. Buffalo, I mean, I grew up there. Our pool that we had in our backyard, round, circle aluminum pool, never got above 72. Yesterday, the entire city was somewhere around 96 to 98 degrees out there.

We just never experienced that kind of weather in the '70s and in the '80s, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, they're not prepared for it. Chad, thank you so much for the latest there.

MYERS: No.

KEILAR: Boris.

SANCHEZ: On the heels of a new agreement, the deepening bond between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un is raising serious concerns worldwide.

Today, the Russian president and the North Korean leader signed a new partnership pact, pledging to help each other if the countries are attacked. Kim hailed North Korea's alliance with Russia as a watershed moment.

Earlier, Putin was met with a lavish celebration that included a military parade and a ride in an open limo while thousands of North Koreans lined the streets waving flags and chanting, "Welcome, Putin."

Let's get perspective now live from Moscow with CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance.

Matthew, what does this agreement mean to the two countries?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's called a strategic partnership treaty.

And that implies that it's a broad-spectrum agreement between Russia and North Korea on all sorts of fronts. I mean, we haven't seen the text of the treaty, so we don't know exactly what's been agreed to. But Vladimir Putin himself said after the signing of the treaty in Pyongyang, after that lavish celebration of his arrival after 24 years absent from Pyongyang, he said that it included an agreement for mutual assistance, much like the NATO Article 5 assistance to come to the help of any member of the alliance if it's attacked.

And so there's going to be a very strong security aspect of it. And that's what's causing concern, because we don't know what that means, whether it means that North Korean forces could be asked to join the fight in Ukraine, for instance, as Russian territory is attacked by Ukrainian forces.

Would that mean that Ukraine -- that Russia would be able to sort of invoke that clause and bring North Korea into its fight against Ukraine? I know that seems very far-fetched, speaking from it -- from this perspective in time right now. But we already know that millions of rounds of ammunition from North Korea have made their way to the front lines and are helping Russia sustain its barrage of something like 10,000 artillery shells every day on those front lines.

Russia, by the way, and Pyongyang deny that, because it would be in contravention of U.N. sanctions for an arms agreement. But, nevertheless, that's the assessment from U.S. officials and others. And I guess the concern now is that that could amplify because of this treaty.

And, of course, what South -- what North Korea, rather, gets back in return is also of concern. It wants technology for its ballistic missile program, its nuclear program, and that could destabilize the Korean Peninsula -- Boris.

[13:10:05]

SANCHEZ: Yes, this opens the door for a range of possibilities. And we don't quite have clarity on everything it could entail.

Matthew Chance live for us in Moscow.

Thanks so much, Matthew.

Let's get some perspective now with CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's also the author of "New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West."

David, great to see you, as always.

What do you make of this new pact? It strikes me that the timing is not coincidental, given what we saw at the G7 last week in Italy.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's right, Boris.

And at that G7, you saw a security pact between the United States and Ukraine. And, again, the question was, what did it actually commit the United States to doing? And, as you read into the text, really not a huge amount beyond consultation if they got further attacked by Russia.

Here, well, we also haven't seen the text, but I think the most interesting two elements of it, Boris, are this. The first is the possibility that the North Koreans are raising the price now for supplying the Russians with two things they really need, thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition, mostly artillery, where the Russians have had sort of a 50,000-round-a-month deficit.

And the North Koreans have stepped up with tens of thousands of rounds themselves. And the second is, if they are raising the price, is Putin now willing to give them some of the missile and nuclear technology that previously he wouldn't?

Because, remember, the Russians for the past 25 to 30 years engaged with the United States in China in trying to restrain the North Korean nuclear program. And that's over now.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's kind of ambiguous language, Putin actually saying that he's not ruling out developing military technical cooperation with North Korea.

That sounds like it leaves the door open for cooperation on the development of potentially nuclear weapons.

SANGER: It does. I mean, they would be prohibited by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty from doing so, but North Korea exited that treaty many years ago.

And that's part of the problem here. But Russia would still be under obligations not to spread nuclear weapons. But that's the big change that's taken place now with both Iran and North Korea. To think back just seven or eight years, when the Iran nuclear agreement was being negotiated, China and Russia were sitting on the U.S. and European side of the table facing the Iranians.

If that was happening today, they'd be on the other side of the table with the Iranians. A number of years ago, China and Russia worked to organize something called the Six Party Talks to try to get North Korea to give up a good deal of its nuclear arsenal.

They have now surrendered that. They are voting against sanctions on North Korea. And now Putin has signed, as you rightly call it, an ambiguous agreement that would give him plenty of running room to provide them with technology they need.

SANCHEZ: David Sanger, always great to get your analysis. Thanks for being with us.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still ahead: a cliffhanger congressional primary and a key test of former President Trump's influence. We're following a battle in Virginia that says a lot about the state of the Republican Party right now.

Plus: baseball icon Willie Mays passing away at the age of 93. We have a look at his inspirational life on and off the field.

And the nation's second largest school district cracking down on cell phones and social media. Now students can't use either during the school day. We're going to talk to the superintendent about reaction not only from kids, but their parents too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:53]

SANCHEZ: We're closely tracking a major test of former President Donald Trump's influence. It still hasn't been resolved just yet. It's a Virginia congressional race that's turned out to be a real cliffhanger.

And a short time ago, the incumbent, Congressman Bob Good, who's currently behind by roughly 300 votes, tweeted that he's not backing out of the race. Good says that he believes he can still prevail against state Senator John McGuire. McGuire got Trump's endorsement. Good did not.

KEILAR: No, he didn't.

Even though he was among the Republicans who traveled to Manhattan to support the former president during his criminal trial, that apparently was not enough to win Trump over after Good had backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during the presidential primary.

Let's talk more about this now with CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger and CNN political analyst Laura Barron-Lopez.

All right, Gloria, how do you...

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's my favorite picture, of him standing out there during the trial. You know, it's...

KEILAR: Yes, it's not unique, right? Many a Republican sort of has this kind of picture.

BORGER: Right.

But he had endorsed DeSantis. And you know how Trump feels about anybody who endorses anybody else. He considers it a personal slap in the face. So he goes with all these other members of Congress, dresses like Donald Trump, and stands out there and supports him.

[13:20:12]

And, of course, it's not enough for Donald Trump, who supports his opponent. And so now he's hanging by a thread. There are lots of other reasons, aside from Donald Trump. He is the head of the Freedom Caucus. He does have some friends, conservative friends, but he has a lot of enemies who are upset that they have held up getting anything done in the Congress.

SANCHEZ: Laura, to the point about Trump and his, let's say, vindictiveness, his political vindictiveness, a lot of his potential V.P. picks have been critical of him, and they have endorsed other candidates for the White House and candidates that didn't really get along with Donald Trump.

But yet he seems to sort of forgive them and still hold this grudge against Good.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, if Donald Trump, I think, held tight to all of his grudges, then he maybe wouldn't have a V.P. pick that he could pick from or that long of a list, because, at some point, there are a lot of Republicans that have either endorsed another candidate or found themselves on the opposite sides of Donald Trump in a downballot race.

That being said, this race right now, Bob Good's, which it looks like he may very well lose, is all about loyalty. And he is a Trumper. He is considered MAGA. He's someone who is an election denier as well, just like his challenger, McGuire.

Despite all of that, because of the fact that he endorsed Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump is saying, no, you have to have ultimate loyalty to me across all fronts. And that's why he got involved in this race, despite the fact that sometimes those around him, his aides, don't like him to get involved in these Republican-on- Republican races, because they worry that he won't end up endorsing the winning candidate.

BORGER: You know, I think the timing of this is what mattered to Donald Trump.

This is pretty recent, supporting DeSantis, and that shoved it in his face. And he doesn't -- Donald Trump has a long memory and forgives when he believes it's in his own self-interest to do so. I don't think he necessarily thinks it's in his own self-interest to forgive Good.

And so he's out there against him. And if Good loses, it's not by a lot. And what does that tell you about Donald Trump's political power? Is it as strong as it used to be if Good loses, but just by a hair? I mean, what does that tell you?

KEILAR: Maybe at least that it may have made the difference in this case, right?

BORGER: It may have, right.

KEILAR: But, to your point, Gloria, I wonder, Laura, when you're looking, we have some of these data points here from primary races recently, but what is the health of a Donald Trump endorsement right now, when you look at the primaries, but then you also look at expectations for the general?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, I mean, I think a lot about 2022 and when Donald Trump endorsed a lot of extreme candidates, ones that were created in his image, ones that were -- lied about the 2020 election, even went so far as to say that maybe 2022 was going to be rigged, a la Kari Lake, and they didn't win statewide.

A lot of those candidates did not win across the board, Senate races, governor races, secretary of state races. And so we're going to see again whether or not these more extreme candidates are able to prevail. Now, in this race, in particular, the Republican is going to win. It's a safe Republican district.

But in those toss-up races, the election deniers don't seem to prevail or do very well.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about what could be a close race in the Seventh District, the House seat that's being left behind by Abigail Spanberger.

Eugene Vindman won the primary, the Democrat. He campaigned basically by being fired, by having been fired by Donald Trump. He's the brother of...

BORGER: And the whistle-blower, yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes, being a whistle-blower.

He's the brother of Alex Vindman, who famously was a key witness in Trump's first impeachment trial. Do you think his victory is specifically tied to that? BORGER: I do. I do. I think, first of all, it made him easier -- it

was easier for him to raise money. He raised over $5 million, and that's a lot of money in a congressional race. And I think his name recognition helped him do that.

However, this district is a tight district, and it's not an automatic win for a Democrat. Spanberger only won by 4.6 percent. Glenn Youngkin won that district last time he ran, not by a lot, but he won it. So I think Vindman's probably going to have a race on his hands.

KEILAR: We will be watching it. And, certainly, the polls show it's tough right now for Biden in Virginia as well.

BORGER: Yes.

KEILAR: And maybe he will -- Virginia's thought of as a blue state, but we will have to see what that means when you're talking about a Vindman race, for instance.

[13:25:03]

You guys, thank you so much.

BORGER: Sure.

KEILAR: We really appreciate it.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come on NEWS CENTRAL.

Remember the iconic nickname, the Say Hey Kid, an iconic play known simply as The Catch? Willie Mays' legacy stretched far beyond the baseball diamond too. We're heading to where his legend began in just moments.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: There's a long drive, way back in center field, way back, back. It is -- oh, my, caught by Mays!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)