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Biden Aims to Ease Concerns Over His Re-Election Bid; Alec Baldwin's Movie Set Shooting Trial Underway; Police Capture Triple- Murder Suspect in London; NASA Astronauts waiting on ISS Confident in Boeing Spacecraft. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 10, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

MARK ESPER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST AND FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Two polls saying that states that were in a lean Democratic bucket are now toss-ups and ones that were likely Democratic are now leans, and they see these. They see the momentum. They see Joe Biden's disastrous debate, and they're bracing, bracing for what may come.

And look, if they believe, if you are to believe what President Trump says, he says he will not support Ukraine. He has threatened in the past to withdraw from NATO, and he can do any number of other things. And, of course, that's just our European allies.

I'm sure our allies in South Korea and Japan recall what happened the first term, and some of the messaging he delivered there are concerned as well because they are facing off against a more ambitious and aggressive China as well.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: And just quickly before I let you go, does that concern you?

ESPER: Well, yes, it deeply concerns me because, look, the world is under a lot of stress these days. There's conflict breaking out everywhere. President Biden is right.

This is an era where the democracies are facing off against the autocracies of the world, and the world requires American leadership. And if we don't lead, that vacuum will be filled by somebody else, and we don't want it filled by China or Russia. America needs to lead on the world stage.

Bearing that leadership is a heavy burden, I know, but it's very important if we want to maintain a stable, prosperous, global order, one that is based on our values and interests, much like we have the last 75 years for the next 75 years going forward.

DEAN: Yes, there's a lot at stake. All right. Secretary Mark Esper, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

ESPER: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: And I had prosecutors look to paint Alec Baldwin up as someone who breaks gun safety rules as his manslaughter trial gets underway. You're looking at Live Pictures. We'll take you inside next.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Some dramatic moments to share with you as testimony begins in Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial.

The jury was shown police body cam footage capturing the chaotic aftermath of the deadly shooting on the set of his film Rust. We should warn you, some of this footage is graphic and it includes the frantic attempts to help cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Sousa after Baldwin's prop gun went off. Hutchins, of course, would not survive.

DEAN: In their opening statements, prosecutors accused Baldwin of recklessly mishandling a firearm, while the defense argued weapon -- weapon safety was not part of his job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX SPIRO, BALDWIN DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This was an unspeakable tragedy, but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. He was an actor acting, playing the role of Harlan Rust. An actor playing a character can act in ways that are lethal, that just aren't lethal on a movie set. These cardinal rules, they're not cardinal rules on a movie set.

ERLINDA JOHNSON, PROSECUTOR: He pointed the gun at another human being, cocked the hammer and pulled that trigger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now to discuss is defense attorney, Misty Marris. And Misty, great to have you on. We're watching these live pictures as this trial continues today, and it's coming to a close on this on this day. What has stood out to you?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the opening statements were certainly very compelling on both sides, but there was something in the defense opening statement, and we can expect to hear the same theme throughout the trial. So prosecutors said every actor is supposed to treat a gun, whether it's a prop gun, whether or not they're an actor, they should pretend that it is a loaded gun. And therefore, Alec Baldwin acted recklessly because he was holding that gun and pointing it at people, putting his finger on the trigger, recklessly using it as a pointer. That's the prosecution's argument.

But the defense said none of that really matters because a live bullet was found on that set. And that never should have happened. Alec Baldwin could never have known that that would be the case. It was incomprehensible.

Something else we heard in the opening statement. We know Alec Baldwin made a very public early on interview. He said, I never pulled the trigger. Well, the defense walking back a bit on that, saying it doesn't matter whether or not he pulled the trigger because that live bullet never could have been foreseen. So these are themes we're going to see from the defense throughout the course of the trial.

SANCHEZ: And Misty, there was sort of a win for the defense, even before the trial started, when the judge ruled that Baldwin's role as a producer on the movie was not going to be considered during the trial. Why do you think the judge came to that conclusion? And how does it shape the proceedings moving forward?

MARRIS: Absolutely a huge win for the defense. So for the entirety of this case, the prosecutors had two theories. One, Alec Baldwin as the actor. That's what we heard about in the opening statements. How he mishandled the gun and shirked his safety responsibilities. That's now the argument that's going to be raised in this trial.

The alternate argument that the judge will not allow in is Alec Baldwin as producer. The argument was that since he was a producer on the set, he was actually responsible for all of the safety failures, including hiring an armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was not qualified for the job. All those arguments have been thrown out, including testimony and video footage showing Alec Baldwin rushing through scenes, rushing to keep production on track.

So now that none of that's in the case, this was so critical for the defense because it really narrowed what evidence prosecutors are going to be able to show. And since he's not responsible for the safety on the set overall, that -- the prosecutors really lost an argument about how to establish recklessness.

[15:40:05]

Now it's just relating to Alec Baldwin's handling of the gun. The reason the judge came to that conclusion, she said she didn't understand how he could have been the actor and then also responsible for all of those safety failures when there's these contractual responsibilities, that it simply didn't make sense and was too prejudicial. So that was a big win for the defense.

DEAN: All right, Misty Marris, more to come on this. Thanks so much for your analysis there.

Still ahead, an urgent manhunt in London comes to an end after police tracked down the man accused of killing a BBC journalist's family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

SANCHEZ: The man suspected of using a crossbow as part of a triple murder in the U.K. is now in custody. Police located him in North London following a massive manhunt. His victims include the wife and two daughters of a BBC journalist.

CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us now with the latest. And Nic, officials say that the victims likely knew this suspect.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the police were called to their house when they heard women screaming and the police went in with medical services. They discovered the women, all three of them injured, but they died shortly afterwards. And the video of a man leaving the premises with a crossbow is what led the police to this cemetery here.

Kyle Clifford was his name. He lived in this neighborhood of London, about 45 minutes away from where the women were discovered. And within 24 hours, the police had tracked him to this cemetery where they say they captured him. He was injured. They say no shots were fired, but he was medically evacuated, given medical treatment on the scene and been taken to hospital.

Quite how he knew this family isn't clear. But by the nature of the fact that all three women, three women were killed by this man, that their injuries were such that they died shortly after the emergency services getting that does seem to indicate that he had that level of proximity and knowledge them to be -- to be in a house with them. So this is clearly part of the police investigation and questioning. The BBC's John Hunt, who was married to Carol and it's his -- who was killed and his daughter, daughter's Hannah, 28 years old and Louise, 25 years old. The BBC say they're utterly devastated for their colleague.

But in any terms in the U.K., a triple murder is utterly out of the ordinary. And one that would involve a crossbow is beyond people's expectations here. And I spoke to people on this street who witnessed the fire service, the paramedics, the armed police show up here to catch Kyle Clifford.

For them, clearly nothing like this had happened on their street before. So it's a case of I think the country being in somewhat of a shock over this.

SANCHEZ: Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that update from the U.K.

Still to come, a pair of NASA astronauts are calling Boeing Starliner spacecraft truly amazing after its maiden manned flight, despite those serious issues that delayed their return to Earth by weeks. How they are describing their unexpected extra time in orbit next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: In a call earlier today from space, two NASA astronauts insist they're not actually stranded on the International Space Station. The Boeing Starliner crews say they are confident the spacecraft will return them safely to Earth, even though it's a bit delayed, right?

DEAN: Yes, they left Earth on June 5th. They were expected to return nine days later. We passed that date.

Now their return has been delayed indefinitely after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft suffered a series of technical issues. So let's bring in our space correspondent, Kristin Fisher. Kristin, how did the astronauts explain this extra lengthy stay in space?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: So both members of the Starliner crew, Butch and Suni, say that they remain confident that this Starliner spacecraft is going to be able to get them back safely to Earth.

The way that they explain this, Jessica and Boris, is that what they want to do, the reason that they're staying up there is they want to do more testing to figure out the cause of these problems, to figure out what caused the helium leaks and these thruster failures. And so that's what they say this delay is all about, because the place on the spacecraft where these problems took place are on a part that's not going to survive reentry.

So scientists on the ground and engineers on the ground are going to lose all that data once they undock for the International Space Station.

But this was the first time that we've heard from Butch and Suni since they've been up at the International Space Station. Here is the commander, Butch Wilmore, talking about why they're still up there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTCH WILMORE, NASA ASTRONAUT AND STARLINER COMMANDER: Failure is not an option. That's why we are staying here now. We did have some degradation in our thrusters, and we know that. And that's why we're staying, because we're going to test it. That's what we do. That's what we do in this business.

We're going to get the data that we need to help inform our decisions so we make the right decisions. And that's when we feel confident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And so not only is that testing continuing in space, but they're also continuing to test at a facility in White Sands, New Mexico. But bottom line here, we still don't have a return date for these two astronauts. At the earliest, it's looking like end of July, more likely August, Boris and Jessica.

But get this, something else that we learned today during this press conference right before they launched NASA had to add some hardware, a replacement pump for the toilet up at the International Space Station inside Starliner. So to do that, they had to take out some weight, remove some mass.

And what they chose were Butch and Suni's suitcases, two personal suitcases, one for each astronaut. Inside were their toiletries, shampoo, personal soaps. So things you might need for an eight day mission in space, but you would definitely want if you're up there for as long as they've been up there.

[15:55:03]

SANCHEZ: Well, so they couldn't go with their own personal belongings because they had to take a toilet pump out there. I hope that there's extra shampoo on the ISS, Kristin.

FISHER: There is. But I mean, that would be like using the hotel shampoo for a month. Who wants to do that?

DEAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Is that weird? I do that.

DEAN: I don't know. He's it seems like Boris could do it just fine. We might struggle a little more, but maybe you should go to space. You could survive.

SANCHEZ: I heard the food is pretty good. As long as the toilet works. Kristin Fisher, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A pint sized Picasso is taking the art world by storm. Laurent Schwartz might be just two years old, but he's been selling his paintings on the international market for a whopping 7.000 bucks each. The young artist's mother says she noticed her son's talent while the family was on vacation in Italy last year.

DEAN: His mom says that she then set up an Instagram featuring her son's work. It picked up close to 30,000 followers. And now she says she gets countless messages from people who are big fans of his work. Some even stand in the front of their house and say that's where the mini Picasso lives.

Despite his young age and fame, Laurent's parents are thinking ahead. All the money is saved until he turns 18, and then they say he can decide what he would like to do with it. He's only two to his little to be painting like that.

SANCHEZ: But is it that good? I don't know. I feel like I could do that.

DEAN: Well, right. Don't you think? Yes, I believe in you. Of course you could do that.

SANCHEZ: I don't know if I could sell them for seven thousand bucks.

[16:00:00]

DEAN: Well, there's only one way to know, Boris.

SANCHEZ: There is. There is. If I were his parents, I would just start having random people finger paint and claim that it was the mini Picasso and then just start mass producing these paintings.

DEAN: Meantime Mini Picasso is asleep with a nap.

SANCHEZ: Pay for his college education.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. You know who loves finger painting? The great Jake Tapper. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.