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Dems Face Political Test in California Amid Contested Races; House Dems Investigating Whether Foreign Gifts to Trump Went Missing; Mom Terrified of Running Out of Specialized Formula for Sons; U.S. Investigating Possible Insider Attack on Military Base in Syria. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 07, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: ... I think what we are seeing a few years later is that withing these positions of responsibility it just isn't politically sustainable to steer by that as your only light. If you are in a position where you have impact on public safety, public safety is part of the job. And voters are demanding that, so I think whether you're talking about Karen Bass or perhaps the best example in the L.A. mayoral race. She's talking about adding -- she has been an advocate of police reform. She's not abandoning that idea but she is talking now about adding officers to the LAPD. And she is promising to end the encampments as well. On both fronts, Alisyn, she can't, won't go as far as Rick Caruso does, the former Republican billionaire developer who's running. So, the question will be can she move enough to convince voters in the middle that she represents enough of a change from a status quo that they are clearly rejecting. And I think that is going to be the challenge for her however it pans out tonight.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Ron Brownstein, really interesting, thanks so much for helping preview all of this.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: House Democrats want to know if Donald Trump kept expensive gifts from foreign leaders, thousands of dollars' worth of items are apparently either missing or were not tracked properly. That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: First on CNN, there are growing questions today about what happened to foreign gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that were given to the Trump administration and are now missing.

CAMEROTA: The missing gifts are now part of an expanding investigation by the House Oversight Committee. CNN's Kylie Atwood is covering this for us. Kylie, what kind of gifts are we talking about here?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're talking about gifts that were given to President Trump by foreign governments over the course of the year 2020. So, for example, when he went to India that year, there are reports that the Indians among other gifts gave him a marble replica of the three monkeys statue. So that is one of the things that the U.S. government now doesn't know where that is, and they know that it was given to President Trump because of those news reports. But there isn't actually a U.S. government official record of that gift being given to President Trump. And traditionally what happens here is that the White House provides a list of all of the gifts that were given to the president and other White House officials to the State Department, and then at the end of the year, the State Department makes that list public. But the problem is that the White House never actually gave that list to the State Department in 2020, and therefore, the State Department wasn't able to make that list publicly available.

And so here comes in the House Oversight Committee who is investigating this. And the State Department doesn't have access to White House documents, and so now the House Oversight Committee is saying to the National Archives, hey, can you give us any documents related to these gifts over the course of 2020, so we can figure out where they are? What happened to them? How much they were worth? All of those questions, and that is the investigation that is occurring right now.

And when it comes to the significance here, it's not just that these gifts are missing, it's also what these gifts could have meant. The sway that they could have had over the president while he was in office or after he left office. And I want to read to you a statement from this letter from Chairwoman Maloney to the National Archives that explains this.

She says, quote, the revelations about unaccounted for gifts raise concerns about the potential for undue influence over former President Trump by foreign governments, which may have put national security and foreign policy interests of the United States at risk, and about possible violations of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which prohibits the president from obtaining benefits from foreign entities while in office.

And of course, this investigation is just another example of House Democrats using their authority to investigate laws when it was related to ethics and the like, that the president, President Trump, former President Trump is suspected of violating -- guys.

BLACKWELL: Very, very interesting. Kylie Atwood, thank you.

The White House says another shipment of baby formula from overseas is headed to the U.S. but one mother says that she is terrified of running out of a specialized formula that her sons need. She joins us next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The White House says a 5th shipment of baby formula from overseas will head to the U.S. This batch of 110,000 pounds of baby formula will fly out from Germany and arrive in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday. Now, HHS officials say that store formula sales have increased but the crisis is still critical for so many families, Alexa Beichler says that she's terrified because she's running out of

a medical grade formula, two of her sons need because of a metabolic condition. And Alexis is with me now. Thank you for spending a few minutes. How much of this formula do you have left, and tell us about PKU and why your boys will need to take this formula?

ALEXA BEICHLER. TWO SONS REQUIRE MEDICAL GRADE FORMULA: Hi, thanks for having me back. So, my two younger sons have PKU, which is a metabolic inborn error of metabolism. So, their bodies can't process one of the amino acids in protein. So, they can't have anything with protein in it. They get a very low amount. They get two grams of protein a day, and that's not very much at all. This formula is about 85 to 90 percent of their daily nutrition because they're so young, so it is critical.

We have about I think eleven days left because the company just sent us nine days and thought they did their job, even though we should have had a two-month supply already.

[15:45:00]

We have about eleven days left, and that's only because we have been cutting back supply, and because we knew this was going to take a long time, so if they don't have this formula, they could have really bad intellectual disabilities and brain damage.

BLACKWELL: So, we're seeing pictures of the boys. You've got a 6- month-old, a 20-month-old, Jax and Taylor. Have you heard this company Nutricia -- and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly -- have they given you any insight into when this backlog will be filled. I know you ordered for several months. You got much less saying, listen, we don't have any more to give you?

BEICHLER: Yes, so yesterday I heard from -- I've been in contact with the director of All North America for quite some time now, and she has been telling us it's coming, it's coming, and that it takes time to get from them to our DME, which is how we get it and it ships straight to us. So, we heard that it could be the end of June by the time it gets to us. Which 11 days is sooner than the end of June.

BLACKWELL: So, what are you going to do if you get today 12 and you don't have a shipment.

BEICHLER: So, we're been trying to transition my son Taylor back to the infant PKU formula and he's not having it. He is now suspicious of everything that we're doing. He can taste the difference because he's been on this so long, and he knows and loves his formula. So, he's now suspicious of all of this food. I think he's just drinking enough so it makes him like not hungry and having these hunger pains. So, it breaks my heart as a parent, and I just know that his brain is growing so much right now, and so much bad stuff could be happening right now, all because we don't have this formula.

BLACKWELL: What does this feel like?

BEICHLER: Oh, it's the worst feeling you could possibly imagine being helpless as a parent. I can't run to Walmart or Target. I can't drive to California. I can't drive to Kentucky or any other state in the United States or go to any other country because it's made right here in New Jersey, and it's just not anywhere. It's not to be found. It's not made yet. It is in the process of being made. So, it's not like I can go to the United Kingdom or down in Mexico and get this. It is just not here.

And how we're transferring to the new kind of formula? it takes so long. People do it by teaspoon by teaspoon to try to get them to transition to a new formula. So, I don't have time to do that. Time is running out, so I need this formula to be delivered to us as soon as possible.

BLACKWELL: Two boys who need this Taylor and Jax need this specialized formula. And Alexa has just eleven days for the boys. Alexa Beichler, we hope you find it. I know you were searching online. You were on the message boards, you're in these groups with parents, and keep us up to date, we'll stay in touch. Thank you.

BEICHLER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: My gosh, what a challenge.

All right, meanwhile, the military is investigating an explosion that injured four U.S. troops in Syria. They want to know if it was an inside job. That's next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The military is now investigating whether a U.S. service member carried out an insider attack on an American military base in Syria.

CAMEROTA: This attack injured four U.S. service members back in April. CNN's Barbara Starr is covering all of the developments at the Pentagon. So, Barbara, what have you learned?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a disturbing and bizarre story, to say the least. It was back in April when the military first announced it thought that U.S. troops came under attack from rockets and mortars at a place called Green Village, where U.S. troops are in northeastern Syria.

A week later, they corrected the statement and said, no, the explosions had actually happened on the base. And now, they are investigating a criminal investigation by the Army and Air Force into whether a U.S. service member in the middle of the night on that base deliberately set off two sets of explosives. They believe they have identified a suspect, according to a statement issued by the Pentagon. Innocent until proven otherwise. No charges have been brought, nobody is in custody, but they have identified a military suspect that they believe may have been responsible for all of this.

And as you say, four service members suffered traumatic brain injury from the explosions. The explosives that were set off apparently were not insubstantial, described to us by two officials as larger than a hand grenade. And of course, the critical question to which there's no answer at this point, what was the motivation? Why would some U.S. service member set off explosives that could hurt teammates? Victor, Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Important to get some answer there. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thank you, Barbara.

So, there is some optimism about possible gun reform in the Senate. The latest from Washington is ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: You ever sent a text and then immediately wished you could just take that back?

CAMEROTA: I feel like this is hitting close to home for you. The regrettable text sending.

BLACKWELL: It is.

CAMEROTA: Is this your story?

BLACKWELL: Listen, I've said that I would be married if I could take a text back. We're celebrating a first anniversary.

CAMEROTA: When then guess what? I have good news for you.

BLACKWELL: OK.

CAMEROTA: There's a new Apple update. The upcoming software is going to allow users to edit or unsend text messages. This is for you. But you only have 15 minutes after a message is sent to recall it.

BLACKWELL: It takes me a little time to realize I made a mistake. So, I need -- Apple, can we make that like 45 minutes to an hour?

CAMEROTA: So, you keep sending a lot of regrettable texts.

BLACKWELL: Just the wrong ones at the wrong time. It's not every day, but man, when there's a moment, I send the wrong texts.

[16:00:03]

CAMEROTA: All right, well, your life is about to change because this update will be available for all of you who feel like Victor in the fall.

BLACKWELL: I need to update my phone. You still have the iPhone 6?

CAMEROTA: OK. I don't hold that against you. I really don't.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now. END