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Three Days Away, Biden and Trump Face Off in CNN Presidential Debate; Synagogues, Churches Targeted in Dagestan Attacks; Soon, Hearing Resumes in Trump's Classified Documents Case. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: So sweet.

[07:00:00]

Swift met the Royals backstage. She snapped a selfie alongside her love, Kelce, but it didn't stop there.

You hear that? The British Royal Guard getting in on it. A little can't stop, won't stop grooving. They got music on their mind too. That's all right with us.

Okay, very much fun. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. I'm Kasie Hunt.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, what is going on behind closed doors just days before the historic CNN debate? We've got new details on the preparations.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And 19 people killed, dozen injured in southern Russia after gunmen targeted synagogues and churches. A massive investigation underway right now as some Russian officials are blaming international terrorists.

Also, climate protesters tackled to the ground after running onto the fairway during the final round of the PGA's Travelers Championship. What the players are saying about this disruption.

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

BERMAN: Welcome to the first workday of the most important week of the presidential campaign. It is certainly the most historic. The earliest general election debate in history right here on CNN. Every minute between now and Thursday night is essential to these candidates and everything they do and say between now and then tells a story.

This morning, the Biden campaign is releasing a new ad blasting Trump for the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe versus Wade. This is the second anniversary of that decision. Donald Trump is both mocking President Biden for his debate preparation, but also noticeably shifting on how he is setting expectations.

We're joined now by CNN's Arlette Saenz and Alayna Treen. Arlette, let's start with you and the White House, the Biden campaign, what are they doing this morning?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Biden remains hunkered down at Camp David where he is preparing for his debate against Trump on Thursday. But the Biden campaign today is engaged in an all out push to warn that abortion rights remain under attack. Vice President Kamala Harris. We'll speak at two events in Maryland and Arizona to highlight the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

And this morning, the campaign is also releasing a stark new ad attacking Trump over his position on abortion. The ad features a Louisiana woman named Kaitlyn Joshua, who says she was turned away from two emergency rooms when she experienced a miscarriage at 11 weeks, in part due to Louisiana's abortion ban. Joshua, in this ad, directly blames her experience on Donald Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pain that I was feeling was excruciating. I was turned away from two emergency rooms. That was a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade. He's now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions. But he will let women and doctors be punished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, this ad, notably, is also the second time that the Biden campaign has used Trump's criminal convictions in its campaign advertisements to try to argue that he is unfit for office.

Now, the White House and the campaign are also bracing for the Supreme Court to possibly make a major decision this week relating to emergency access to abortion, but this all comes as Biden's advisers continue to believe abortion rights remains a potent political issue heading into November's election and Biden's debate against Trump on Thursday. Democrats saw success in the midterms in large part due to the issue of reproductive rights after the Dobbs ruling came down two years ago. And that is something Biden's team is hoping to replicate in this November's election.

Now, the president is spending time with his advisers at Camp David to run through potentially mock debates in preparation for his showdown with Donald Trump. And this issue of abortion rights is one that the Biden campaign is eager to raise in the days ahead of the debate and on that debate stage, as they believe it presents a real stark contrast with Trump and what he has said on abortion, including his appointment of conservative justices on the Supreme Court that led to the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz at the White House, Arlette, thanks very much.

SIDNER: All right. Let's go now to Alayna Treene. This is an issue that Donald Trump has been talking about, although less so. What's his strategy when it comes to reproductive rights and abortion?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, this anniversary today is not something that I know the Trump camp was looking forward to. This is not an issue that Donald Trump wants to be talking about. However, of course he is being forced to address it.

[07:05:01]

Now, he was in Washington, D.C., this weekend on Saturday at a Christian conservative conference. It's called the Faith and Freedom Coalition. And he did bring it up the issue. And he did what he always does, which is try to walk that fine line between taking credit for the overturning of Roe versus Wade while also trying to stay politically safe on the issue. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In my first four years, we totally transformed the federal bench. Thanks to these justices, we have also achieved what the pro-life movement fought to get for 49 years and we've gotten abortion out of the federal government.

I believe in exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest. Some people do. I think most people do actually, but some people don't. You have to go with your heart, but you have to -- also remember, you have to get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: That last line there, you have to go with your heart, but you have to remember to also get elected. That is exactly how Donald Trump views this issue.

And, look, his comments at that conference are very common for what we've seen with Donald Trump when he's in front of a group where he knows that they care very much about the abortion issue. A lot of evangelicals helped him get into the office in the first place in 2016. He tries to tout what he did more so. However, I know that in the lead up to the debate this week, they have been discussing Donald Trump and his campaign as well as senators vice presidential contenders, policy experts, they've all been meeting with Donald Trump behind the scenes for what his team is dubbing policy discussions, abortion has been a key focus, because they know that this is an issue that Republicans are more vulnerable on, something that you saw Donald Trump address there on Saturday.

Now, as for the debate in itself, I will tell you that unlike what Arlette just laid out about the Biden camp and potential mock debates, that is something that Donald Trump is not engaging in. Instead, we really saw this week keep up a very aggressive campaign schedule. His team argues that Donald Trump's version of preparation is speaking at these rallies, doing media interviews, taking questions. However, again, we do know that, of course, Donald Trump is preparing. As much as they are trying to downplay the amount of preparation he needs, he is huddling behind the scenes with key people talking about these exact same issues that they think he's going to have to sharpen his rhetoric on.

The other thing I think that's very important to keep in mind as we look ahead to Thursday is the expectations game. Donald Trump and his team for months now have tried to paint Joe Biden as this week and feeble candidate, someone who they argued would not even be able to stand up on stage for the 90 minutes allotted for this debate. However, we've really seen them change that language in recent days. They're trying to raise the expectations for Biden, knowing that they don't want to set a low bar for him on Thursday.

And so we're seeing a lot of that play out particularly this week. I think you're going to see a lot of Donald Trump's advisers and surrogates really trying to change those expectations. We saw a lot of them on Sunday as well trying to argue that Biden is a worthy debater, something Donald Trump himself has said.

And so we're going to see a lot of that messaging this week as we look forward to Thursday. We certainly heard it from Doug Berman -- sorry, Burgum, you're not running, who talked a lot about that on the Sunday shows. And he is, of course, a V.P. contender.

Alayna Treene. Thank you so much for all your reporting.

BERMAN: All right. Today, the suspect in a mass shooting at a grocery store is expected in court. We have new details on the accused shooter and the potential motive.

Protests outside a synagogue turn ugly as police struggle to keep pro- Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrators separated.

And look at that. Just look at that. We will have a second-by-second breakdown of what might be the most important video, if not in our lifetime, certainly in the last few days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

SIDNER: Authorities in Russia's Dagestan region have declared three days of warning following attack Sunday on churches and synagogues. At least 15 police officers and four civilians, including a priest, were killed in a coordinated series of attacks in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala. The total number of victims remains unclear and so far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Russian state media says that counter-terror operations following the incident have been completed and several suspects have now been charged under a terrorism act.

CNN's Clare Sebastian is live for us in London with more on this story. Clare, do authorities know exactly what happened yet?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the details are still unfolding, but what they are confident in, Sarah, is that this was a set of coordinated attacks. What we see is that they happened really simultaneously in these two cities, Makhachkala, which is the regional capital in this predominantly Muslim region, Dagestan and then Derbent, which is, you know, more than 100 kilometers, 80 miles away down the Caspian Sea Coast. There's also, of course, the pattern that we see with these houses of worship being targeted, churches and synagogues, in both cities.

We know that it unfolded, or at least reports suggest that it started to unfold in the early evening, a summer evening, in this region. They used, according to initial reports, automatic weapons to fire on synagogues and churches. At one church in Makhachkala, we heard that some 19 people were sort of holed up in there as a shootout happened outside and were later brought to safety.

[07:15:05]

And a priest was also killed at -- an Orthodox priest in Derbent, according to one local official, gruesome details, by having his throat slit. So, all of this, they are still investigating sort of piecing together.

But, you know, clearly Russia's investigative committee views this as terrorism. It's being investigated under the Terrorism Act. And, you know, I think the key point at this stage is that we have no claim of responsibility from any specific group, but what we do have are various suggestions from Russian officials that it could have originated outside of Russia, law enforcement sources saying to state media TASS that this was adherence to foreign terrorist organizations. One Russian M.P. even suggesting that the special services of Ukraine and NATO could be behind it, though I think we should take that with a pinch of salt at this stage.

SIDNER: We're looking at those pictures. They are disturbing. You know, Putin's really prided himself on keeping Russia secure while at the same time perpetrating his war in Ukraine. Are there questions now being asked in Russia?

SEBASTIAN: Well, I think the main questions are, is that how could this happen again? This is just three months after the worst terrorist attack, the deadliest terror attack that Russia had seen in two decades, the attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, that concert hall, where more than 140 people were killed. You'll remember that ISIS-K, the branch of the Islamic State in, Afghanistan claimed responsibility for that attack. But that did not stop President Putin laying the blame at the door of Ukraine and the west as well.

I think the other question and the important piece of context here is that Dagestan is a very turbulent region in Russia's south. It borders Chechnya. We've seen flare-ups of violence over the years and decades, including terrorist attacks, terror attacks even originating in Dagestan, you remember, the Boston bombers in 2013, they had lived in Dagestan.

And we've seen ethnic tensions flare recently fanned by the war in Gaza. In October, a mob stormed the main airport in Makhachkala when a flight from Tel Aviv landed. There were some pretty tense and terrifying scenes there for several hours. So, the fact that synagogues were among the places targeted here is raising questions in the region that also has an ancient Jewish population. And all of this, as you say, of course, the very last thing that Putin needs as he tries to mobilize the whole of Russia to prosecute the war in Ukraine.

SIDNER: All right. Clare Sebastian, thank you so much, live there for us from London.

All right, ahead, stuck in space, two astronauts on board the International Space Station have been there far longer than expected. What Boeing is now telling them about just how long they'll be there before they can return to Earth.

Plus, hundreds of Iowans need to be rescued after dangerous flooding hits that state, all that's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: This morning, we are standing by for back to back hearings in Donald Trump's classified documents case. Very shortly, Federal Judge Aileen Cannon will hear a new motion to dismiss the case. Trump's lawyers are arguing that Special Counsel Jack Smith's office was illegally funded. Smith will then make his case for Trump to get a new gag order.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is outside the federal court in Florida today. Katelyn, what are you expecting?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, John, it is going to be another long day in court before Judge Aileen Cannon arguments from both Donald Trump's lawyers and his co-defendants' lawyers, as well as arguments from the prosecutor's side. We haven't seen that many hearings in this case where it's the prosecutors coming to Judge Cannon and asking for something, but that is what is going to be happening in the afternoon today.

But, John, first this morning, it's part two of the Donald Trump test of the special counsel's authority. So, what Trump and his co- defendants have been trying to convince the judge of is that the special counsel is illegal and doesn't have the authority to prosecute him because it's not in the Constitution the way it's operating.

Now, the Justice Department has pushed back and said they've been using special counsel's for years, this is absolutely something that even other judges across the country have signed off on. But on Friday, it was a full day of hearings about the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith and the oversight that the attorney general has of that office. Today, it's about the money. Is the money that's funding the office appropriate under the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution? Is Congress allowing their money that they're assigning to the Justice Department to go to something like this, the sort of argument that has really kicked up a lot in politics, too? On Capitol Hill, there have been people questioning this as well. So now it's going to be the judge's attempt to look at that.

And then, John, in the afternoon, we do get back to that prosecutor's request where they want to put a gag order, limit Donald Trump's speech about law enforcement, because he has spoken in misleading ways about how the FBI searched his house at Mar-a-Lago, saying he was falsely in danger at that time. He wasn't even in Florida when it happened. Prosecutors want to put a stop to that through the judge, have her change his conditions of release, so that they are protecting the integrity of this trial and those FBI agents that could become witnesses as well. John?

BERMAN: And, of course, every day that there is a new hearing, there is a new delay dragging this out even longer. Katelyn Polantz, thanks so much for being there.

All right, here's a quote, it's not the worst idea I've ever had, those words from Donald Trump after he suggested that migrants should form a sort of fight club.

And we are getting new details about what happened inside a grocery store when a gunman opened fire, the courage of one victim who was killed while trying to save another.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

SIDNER: Happening today, the suspected gunman who police say randomly opened fire at an Arkansas grocery store Friday will make his first court appearance. The 44-year-old suspect is accused of killing four people and wounding several others. Four counts of capital murder are expected in this case. This as we are learning new heartbreaking details from the victim's families about the loved ones they lost.

CNN's Carlos Juarez following the latest developments for us. What can you share with us this morning?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, as you can imagine, it has been an incredibly difficult few days for the families of the victims that died in the shooting, as well as those that were injured. The youngest victim killed during Friday's mass shooting was just 23 years old. She was identified as Callie Weems.

[07:30:00]

According to a GoFundMe that was set up by the family and some friends, Callie was a new mother, and she leaves behind a ten-month- old.