Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden Hosts Day Two of Summit of the Americas in L.A.; Man Charged With Attempted Murder of Justice Brett Kavanaugh; PGA Tour Suspends Golfers Participating LIV Golf. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 09, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: We'll be right back.

[10:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Soon, President Biden will host day two of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, unveiling his climate initiatives. During his first speech last night, he was heckled by a small group in the audience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No fossil fuels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I think part of that said no fossil fuels. But reporters in the room could not decipher fully what the people were saying. Biden continued with calling for cooperation and a renewed focus on democracy.

Arlette Saenz is in Los Angeles. What's on the agenda today? What is the goal for the White House here?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy and Jim, President Biden is trying to show the U.S. commitment to Latin America, as he hosts nearly two dozen leaders from the region here in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas. But even as President Biden is trying to show the sign of solidarity with the region, there are leaders of several countries, including Mexico, who chose not to attend the summit due to the U.S. excluding the authoritarian leaders from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Now, the White House insists that their nonattendance here will not affect the substance of the summit

Now, in addition, to the official program of today, day two of the Summit of the Americas, President Biden is holding important meetings, including with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been a key partner to the U.S., confronting Russia's aggression in Ukraine. There's also a meeting with leaders from Caribbean countries. And then there is that sit-down between President Biden and Brazil's President Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro had considered boycotting this event himself but ultimately agreed to come as he got that one-on-one meeting with the president.

Now, this is the first time the two men will be engaging since Biden took office. Of course, Bolsonaro was a longtime Trump ally who just this week was questioning, casting doubt on Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Bolsonaro has also questioned the election system in his own country.

The White House is insisting that the president, no topics will be off-limits and that the president will be discussing, quote, free, fair, transparent democratic elections in that meeting with Bolsonaro.

HARLOW: Okay. Arlette, thank you very much for that reporting, Arlette Saenz in Los Angeles.

Well, between the January 6th hearings and the looming major Supreme Court decisions, security is getting escalated in the nation's capital and growing concerns over safety there as well. More on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

HARLOW: Overnight, new video shows the FBI raiding the California home of a 26-year-old man attempting to murder or kidnap Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The suspect's arrest near Kavanaugh's Maryland home is yet another example of America's growing, growing problem, beyond problem. I mean, this is a crisis with political violence.

SCIUTTO: The Department of Homeland Security is warning that threats in the U.S. could become more volatile over the upcoming months and that has led to an increase in security at a number of places around Washington.

Let's bring in CNN's Sara Sidner, also CNN's Whitney Wild.

Whitney, the DHS, the DOJ for some time has identified right-wing extremism, especially white supremacist extremism, as the biggest domestic terrorist threat. I wonder, does that remain the case in this latest warning? Are they expanding the danger or the risk of danger as they see it?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, the way that the newest terrorism advisory bulletin is framed is that this threat exists on both sides of virtually any debate and it's particularly relevant when we are talking about the abortion debate.

Throughout my several weeks of reporting what poses the major risk to Washington at this moment, when we have a series of high-profile events descending on Washington, large-scale protests, the January 6th hearings, and these really hot-button issues that the Supreme Court is poised to take and rule on, it becomes clear that Department of Homeland Security officials are very concerned that the risk for domestic violence extremism, again, particularly with the abortion debate, exists on both sides of the aisle.

So, for example, we have this man last night who told police he intended to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. One of the reasons was he was angry about this leaked Supreme Court opinion on abortion. Another reason was because he thought that that Supreme Court justice would rule in favor of the Second Amendment and thus loosen gun laws. So, that's one example.

There's another example that appears in other intelligence documents that I've seen where there are calls for violence against people, for example, who are protesting to preserve abortion rights. So, there's -- it's a wide range of ideologies and extremist ideologies and personal grievances that are coming together.

And what homeland security officials have said over and over is that the motivations are not always the same but they bear similarities in that it's people that are acting on events that are happening in the public, reacting to them, either they're inspired by or reacting against those big events, like the shooting in Uvalde, like the abortion ruling, like the pending ruling on guns, and then further using those events as justification to carry out their own personal anger in a violent way.

And so the behavior pattern becomes very similar. That's what federal officials are really keying in on and that's what they're trying to make very clear to all of the elements who might encounter a threat as it's arising.

[10:45:05]

So, that's local police, schools, mental health providers, community leaders and faith providers. Back to you.

HARLOW: And, Sara, building on what Whitney just ticked through, I mean, you have been on the ground for years now covering this, really, I think, bringing it to our attention when people didn't realize what a big risk it was. Such a spike in domestic terrorism, violent messages to members of Congress, obviously, the insurrection, just a few days ago, a man murdered a retired judge in Wisconsin. How do you see this? Is this a trend that is getting worse and worse and worse?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is getting worse. And I think if you start looking at the numbers that the government itself, the government accountability office has been calling these numbers for years and years and years. And what they show is that that the majority of people that are killed in political violence are usually right-wing extremists. It's just a fact as you look at the numbers.

But what is also happening is that conversations, even personally, have really started to change. How many people do you know anecdotally that are no longer speaking to a family member or have sort of decided not to be friends with someone because of their political views? Because we are using words like evil, we are using words like invaders, we are using words that really put us as enemies because we have different positions than as people with different ideas.

And I do want to read this to you because it really struck me. This came into my email. I get emails from both political parties because I cover them at times. And so you know how this works, you start getting emails.

Here's one email, it happens to be from a Republican in Florida. It starts with, we have to fight back against the enemy. Our country is currently facing a great threat. And the enemy, by the way, are Americans who have different beliefs, what they are calling the woke mob.

And that is this email goes on and on and on, talking about the enemy. The enemy is going to ruin your family. The enemy is going to ruin this country. And if that's the political discourse that is being sent out while they are trying to raise money, it was for a donation, and I get dozens of these a day, and every time I see them, I feel as if I'm -- like everyone is being sort of put in this position of either you're an enemy --

HARLOW: You say that's from a lawmaker?

SIDNER: Yes, it is a --

HARLOW: I thought that was just someone going --

SIDNER: No, no. This is a fundraising effort, yes. And so, basically, calling other Americans enemies and I get these emails all the time.

And so I think the discourse, and then you pile on everything else. Social media has been a disrupter, right? We're all learning to deal with that. COVID has been a terrible disrupter. People feel very out of control and not -- and alone. So, mental illness has been a problem. So, I think all of these things combined is really creating this uncontrolled anger.

HARLOW: Sara, thank you very much. Whitney Wild, to you, thanks so much for the reporting you both do on this consistently. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Major developments in the world of pro golf. PGA Tour is taking action against golfers participating in a New Saudi golf league with its first event in England today. Lots of money involved. We'll have the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN. The PGA Tour is taking a major step suspending the 17 professional golfers who so far have announced they will play in the LIV Golf events, LIV, as it's known, which are backed by the Saudi government.

HARLOW: CNN's Alex Thomas joins us now from outside of the inaugural LIV Golf event near London. So, who are we talking about here and how long does a suspension like this last?

ALEX THOMAS, INTERNATIONAL SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, we're talking about some of the best players in the world, but some golfers, many who even follow sports won't have even heard of. This project did look rather dead in the water a couple months ago but it's gained huge momentum this week building up to the first of eight events, many of which will be held in the United States, finishing with a climax in October, the Donald Trump-owned Doral course in Florida.

And, frankly, the PGA Tour statement that's just come out in the last hour is so boiling over with sort of simmering fury that I would go as far to say that men's professional golf is now in all-out civil war, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, the biggest names competing out on the course behind me here at the Centurion Club, just outside of London.

But, already, the organizer, the new LIV Golf series, as you say, backed by the billions of dollars of Saudi Arabia's public investment fund, have responded, and their statement is very interesting. It says, today's announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the tour and its members.

It's troubling that the tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London and beyond.

This follows the two-page, nine-paragraph memo from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan that was addressed to the golfers still on the PGA tour.

[10:55:01]

It had a real sort of mafia vibe about it, like you're dead to me, to those players that decided to quit or just jump ship and join LIV Golf series. They're being offered huge sums of money. The winner of the PGA Tour in Canada this week gets $1.5 million, the winner here this week gets $4 million.

SCIUTTO: Follow the money. Alex Thomas, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Thanks, Alex.

And thanks to all of you for joining us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan will start after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]