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UK PM Boris Johnson Faces No-Confidence Vote Over Scandals; Charges Expected Today Against Two Involved In Philly Shooting; U.S. Gas Prices Near $5 A Gallon, National Average Hits $4.87; Biden Will Host Mexican President At The White House In July After Obrador's Boycott Of Americas Summit. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 06, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:07]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. Alisyn is off today.

Right now, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fighting for his political life. His Conservative Party is holding a no confidence vote right now with results expected soon. Now, if a majority of votes come in against him he's out as the party leader out as the Prime Minister.

Johnson has been under intense scrutiny for his behavior in the height of the pandemic when he disobeyed his own COVID rules and held a party while the rest of the country was under mandatory lockdown. And at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this weekend he was met with boos, watch.

In a letter making his case to lawmakers today, the Prime Minister insisted Britons will never forgive it if he's ousted, but a snap poll today show six in 10 want him gone.

CNN Bianca Nobilo joins me now from 10 Downing. So what's the mood there?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The mood in Westminster among Boris Johnson's own MPs is extremely strange. It's fraught and it's grown more and more grim and despondent as the days gone on. At the beginning of the day, Victor, the expectation was that the Prime Minister will surely win this confidence vote in large part, because, as you've mentioned, he only needs 180 votes in order to stay on and about 160-170 of his MPs are on the government payroll in some capacity, meaning that they're likely to vote for him.

But in the last hours, we've had resignations from parts of the government. We've had resignations that of his anti-corruptions tsars, citing the fact that Boris Johnson has clearly breached the ministerial code of integrity and responsibility. So the mood is more difficult to predict.

MPs I speak to now feel like they have a less of idea or less of an idea about how this vote is actually going to go, which is quite incredible for a sitting Prime Ministers to be in this position. I personally, Victor, and along with other journalists can't properly gauge the level of the Prime Minister's support, in part, because the ballot is secret.

So it's easy for ministers to say one thing to the press or one thing publicly and then vote in another direction, but also because those who support him and also those who are against him are very confused and disparate part of the party. So it's really hard to ascertain where his blocks of support lie and if, in fact, they are enough to save him tonight.

BLACKWELL: Again, the results are expected soon now if Johnson is ousted, who's there waiting in the wings to replace him?

NOBILO: Well, precisely because of what we've been talking about and how the criticism for Johnson is so broad and across all wings of the party, the same can be said for a potential successor. There is no clear person whom the party would coalesce around, because you have the right-wing you have the progressive wing with different priorities, different reasons. They wanted to get rid of Boris Johnson that makes it really anyone's guess.

I can't remember a leadership situation like this and part of that is because one of the front runners was the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who lives in the building to my right, and he was tipped to be the future leader of the party was polling very well. But then encountered his own set of scandals with party gate and his own and His wife's tax affairs, and as chancellor that hit him very badly, so he's been more or less removed from the running at the moment.

You have the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who many likened to Margaret Thatcher and also Jeremy Hunt someone who contested against Boris directly to become prime minister when he was running for leadership. And he's another figure from the sort of center-left of the party that could be an option.

But it's really anyone's guest and, first things first, those votes need to be counted right now and we'll get the result probably in just under an hour, that will tell us whether or not Boris Johnson will stay on and remain prime minister.

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BLACKWELL: Last one very quickly for you, Bianca, will we get the count of the yays or nays or is this a pass and fail?

NOBILO: I believe that we will get the count and that's quite an important thing for MPs and journalists to understand and that's because it's all about margins. And I'm glad that you asked that question because even though he technically only needs 180 votes, if he gets anywhere near that, and the vote is on a knife edge, his authority and power is all but completely drained.

He really needs a chunk, two-thirds or so of his party to support him in this if he wants to have any argument to continue as Prime Minister, Victor. So definitely all eyes on the actual tallies when they come out at around 9 pm my time, at 4 pm your time.

BLACKWELL: All right. Bianca Nobilo for us there in front of 10 Downing, thank you very much.

CNN's Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour is with us now from London. So let's start with - we've got this new reporting on the tone there that no one believes tonight will end well. MPs are awaiting the results drinking on the House of Commons terrace. Put the moment, the vote itself into context for us why this is such an important day?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, first of all, it's not often but it's not infrequent, either, that a leader does actually face these confidence votes. We've had it in my experience anywhere ever since Margaret Thatcher, we had it with her various successors, various party leaders and I'm talking just about the Tory party. And you remember Theresa May and now of course, Boris Johnson.

The difference there is that most of those previous ones, Victor, were about, let's say, policy and party ideological reasons. That's why votes were triggered against them. Now, in this case with Boris Johnson, it is not that, it is mostly because of what's been perceived by the people of this country and by the law, because he's been fined, the first ever Prime Minister to be accused by the police of actually breaking the law, but in any way, about a personal failing, about an honesty issue, about integrity. And that has been matched by what the people say. You just put up that poll. It is something like six in 10 British adults want the Conservative MPs to vote Boris Johnson out of office.

Now, in context, as Bianca and you were discussing, we will know how many votes yay or nay. And to be honest with you, all the analysts, all the MPs, that's why you're hearing that the mood is grim because no matter what happens, it is the beginning of a slippery path out.

Most votes of confidence have, even if they've been won, have lost the prime ministership of the particular leader within weeks or months. So it's the beginning of an unbreakable, unstoppable dam of loss of confidence. The Party won't have confidence in him, what about upcoming elections and that's kind of the context we're seeing it in now.

BLACKWELL: Beyond the U.K., what is the impact for the U.S., the rest of the world even if Boris Johnson survives this vote, but you have a politically wounded Prime Minister, now on the world stage?

AMANPOUR: Well, look, to be very, very frank, Boris Johnson has not been very popular because he's the Brexit man. The United States didn't like that. You remember President Obama actually tried to persuade people or give his opinion that Brexit wouldn't be good for Britain, wouldn't be good for Europe and wouldn't be good for U.S.- British relations and that has continued.

The United States, particularly the Congress, are not pleased with Boris Johnson's Brexit insofar as it deals with the Northern Ireland peace accord, because he has promised one thing, said he's going to go back on it and they believe that that will threaten the U.S.-backed Good Friday peace accord.

And so Nancy Pelosi and other US leaders, elected leaders have said that if that happens, if Boris Johnson tears up that deal, then there will be no free trade agreement with the U.K. which is what Boris Johnson wants. Beyond that, people in Europe the leaders in Europe are not thrilled with Brexit either, because it has caused quite a lot of dissent between Britain and the rest of Europe.

Now, some of it was patched up because of the Ukraine war and Britain has - and Boris Johnson has stood up and has pledged a lot of aid and a lot of military hardware to Ukraine. But those policies won't change, I was told, no matter what happens to him. The policy of support to Ukraine won't change. People are hoping that if he does go with that ideology about Brexit, maybe there might be some welcome policy change if that does, in fact, happen.

BLACKWELL: All right. Again, we are awaiting the results of this no confidence vote as we heard from Bianca Nobilo, it could happen near the top of the hour. Christiane Amanpour, always good to have you, thank you.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. It's Monday and America is once again reeling from another bloody weekend of gun violence.

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At least 10 mass shootings over two days has left more than a dozen people dead, at least 60 wounded. There was gunfire in the northeast, in the south, in the Midwest all across this country, look at the map.

In Chattanooga, 16 people were shot near a nightclub. Two of them are dead.

In Phoenix, a 14-year-old girl was killed at a strip mall. Eight others were also hit. Somerton, South Carolina, it was a graduation party where a shooter killed one, hit eight others.

In Philadelphia, this packed popular area, South Street. It was the backdrop of a mass shooting of 14 people. Three of the people there killed.

CNN's Alexandra Field is in Philadelphia. Just got an update from the District Attorney, what did you learn?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are expecting charges related to the case later today. Those details not yet clear they should be coming up later this hour. This as the investigation continues into a mass shooting that happened in this busy downtown area. It's just another case, one of which we saw all across the country of innocent people killed while doing extremely ordinary things. Investigators say there were hundreds of people who are out here in

the streets when several gunmen opened fire, following a dispute. They say one of the shooters was killed. They say two other people were killed, 11 people were injured. They have been looking for other suspects relying on the public for their help in doing that. They say at least four weapons were involved. Listen to this.

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LARRY KRASNER, PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: There were at least four guns involved in the shooting. Three of them were nine millimeters firearms. One was a 40-caliber. It is possible that there are more firearms involved. I went to the scene myself the morning after the shooting to see what was there and it was chilling, no less chilling that had happened in more than 10 places around the country.

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FIELD: More than 10 places across the country, it's certainly not just Philadelphia's problem, the entire nation's problem. That's why local lawmakers and local officials right here in Philadelphia are calling on those in Washington to act now to help them curb gun violence in cities like this one all across the nation.

Philadelphia taking the steps that it can at this moment, increasing police presence where they're able to. The mayor even going so far as to implement a curfew in parts of downtown Philadelphia overnight last night, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Every weekend in this country. Alexandra Field, thank you.

So the spate of shootings raises the stakes for Congress to enact some kind of gun law reform. Four key senators at the center of the talks on guns. They're meeting Monday, according to Senate resources that Chris Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. And key moderate Sen. Joe Manchin just offered a sign that this time could be different.

Let's go to CNN Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, so what did you learn from your conversation with Sen. Manchin?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manchin is part of a larger group of bipartisan negotiators in the Senate trying to find a deal. You mentioned the four who are having discussions today, they are also talking with that larger group, which includes Joe Manchin and he made very clear to me earlier that he believes any final deal must include two things, a deal with the rising gun violence and massacres we're seeing all across the country.

One dealing with state red flag laws, minimum standards to ensure that authorities could take away from guns, away from individuals deemed a risk. And also he called for raising the age of person purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

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RAJU: Some Republicans say raising the age is unconstitutional, what's your response?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Why do we have driver's license? Why is there a certain age for everything that we do in this society? It's always been accepted. So I don't see how this one thing can be any different than other things we do. I think that it's - here, you want to you want to look at two things that could have prevented this, an age requirement would have prevented an 18 year old and basically a red flag law that's basically intended to try to help a person get some mental health.

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RAJU: Now, Manchin also indicated an openness to backing an assault weapons ban. That's something, of course, that Joe Biden has pushed, but which has faced stiff resistance among Republicans on Capitol Hill. And also the idea of raising the age from 18 to 21, I'm told, appears at the moment unlikely to get into a final package that is expected to look at those issues of red flags dealing with mental health issues, dealing with an expansion of background checks, potential secure - school security measures. But this week is critical to see if they can get a deal on even that as lawmakers meet tonight.

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The senators due to see whether they can make progress to achieving that goal of getting a deal or whether we will see these talks collapse yet again. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Manu Raju for us on Capitol Hill, the latest on the talks, thank you.

So the national average price for a gallon of gas is inching closer to $5. Just how high will prices go this summer, we'll talk about that next.

And the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection is set to go prime time this week, with some members describing the evidence that will be presented as chilling.

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BLACKWELL: All right. Prices at the pump continue to rise according to AAA, the national average for a gallon of gas today is $4.87 up a quarter in just the past week. CNN's Matt Egan is out in the streets today at a gas station Gas today is $4.87 up a quarter in just the past week.

CNN is Matt Egan is out in the streets today at a gas station in New York City. Matt, listen, we're getting close to $5 a gallon. I mean, that clearly is coming soon.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Victor. Unfortunately, $5 a gallon nationally, that could become a reality very soon. Prices are going up at a dizzying pace, 27 of the last 28 days have had a national record high. The latest record as you mentioned, $4.87 a gallon, $0.25 increase in just the past seven days. And we now have 10 states that are averaging $5 or higher, the latest Michigan and Indiana. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, they're just pennies away and unfortunately this could get worse before it gets better.

Oil analyst Andy Lipow who tells me that the next 10 days, he does think the national average is going to hit $5.05 a gallon. And here in Manhattan, drivers here are already paying $6 a gallon. And as you can imagine, they have some strong views about this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel that our friends in Europe are taking the brunt of all of this. We complain about a few dollars more without thinking about what the rest of the world is going through and the sacrifices that people in other nations are making and they're really getting hit by high energy costs. I say suck it up, drive less, conserve in other ways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know when these prices going down. It drives me crazy. It drives me - like I'm looking at this thing right now, $5.99, are you serious? I don't know what to do, man. But what can you do? You're driving a car, you got to put gas in the car.

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EGAN: "What can you do?" You hear that frustration in that driver's voice. And listen, this is all about supply and demand. Demand is strong, supply is not. The war in Ukraine has caused all kinds of chaos on the supply side. OPEC pumping more oil but not fast enough and US oil production is still below pre COVID levels.

If you look at the rig count, which is an early indicator of future supply, it crashed in 2020 when COVID erupted. It's coming back but not very quickly. So Victor, you added all of this up supply can keep up with demand prices have nowhere to go, but up.

BLACKWELL: All right. Matt Egan watching it for us. Matt at the station there in New York City, thank you very much.

Also today the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador just announced that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas this week in Los Angeles. This is out of protest of the Summit's exclusion of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. But a senior administration official said that he will accept President Biden's invitation to the White House next month.

CNN Senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly with us now. Phil, this snub to the President here.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The U.S. is the host. President Biden is the host. The U.S. is deciding who gets invitations and who does not and the decision by the Mexican president not to come even though he's threatened for several weeks now this could be the case and certainly a matter of frustration internally here at the White House. Look, you talk to White House officials in the lead up to the Summit

of Americas, they wanted this to be a demonstration of a newly reengaged United States in this hemisphere, very cognizant of gains China has made in the region disputes over the course of the prior four years between the United States and countries in the region. And now that has been overshadowed by the issue of invitations, the issue of a border country, an extraordinarily important border country, particularly when it comes to issues of trade and migration now deciding not to show up at all.

Now, Victor, as you noted, the United States making clear invitations would not be going out to Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua and the Mexican president making clear would that be the case, he was not going to show up. However, behind the scenes now for several weeks, there have been intensive efforts by U.S. officials to try and clear the path forward for him to come.

He obviously announced today he would not. He didn't note that he was not blaming President Biden for that decision. And as you noted, U.S. officials say he will be here visiting the White House in July. But more than anything else, this undercuts the moment that the White House is looking forward going into this summit. It happens every three or four years. It's very important kind of underscoring the U.S. role in the region. The U.S. leadership in the region, something the administration has been wanting to display in a very kind of highfalutin moment out in Los Angeles. Right now, though, the issue and the story seems more about who's not coming then the actual summit itself, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We'll see if the White House can take back that narrative there. Phil Mattingly for us at the White House, thank you very much.

Donald Trump is rallying his supporters and asking his allies to come to his defense ahead of this week's primetime insurrection hearings.

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BLACKWELL: The House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks has announced their second public hearing to reveal their findings. That will be the morning of June 13th. Now, they'll start to take the steps to make their case to the American people this week in a primetime televised hearing.

Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney is imploring the American public to watch. She says there are new revelations to show just how close the democracy came to peril.

[15:30:00]

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REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): We are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened.