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G7 Leaders Vow Support to Ukraine Against Russia; Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Public Prayer on School Football Fields; Protests Erupt Over Supreme Court Abortion Decision. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 27, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The worker was charged with second-degree -- second-degree assault.

Illinois Representative Mary Miller says she misspoke after she said this at a Trump rally on Saturday:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE REP. MARY MILLER (R-IL): President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Miller's campaign says she misread her prepared remarks, which said right to life.

Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS today. Hope to see you back here tomorrow.

Fredricka Whitfield picks up our coverage right now.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in New York. Ana Cabrera has the day off.

Today, a nation seemingly more divided than ever, as more protesters dig in across the country. In the four days since the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial abortion decision, the choices for women come down to the state that she lives in.

As some states rush to ban abortions, others work to protect them, hours ago, Mississippi certifying the state's trigger law that makes nearly all abortions in the state illegal. We're following all those developments and the Supreme Court's latest decision that sticks with a familiar trend, dismantling the separation of church and state.

All right, first, we go to CNN national correspondent Nadia Romero in Mississippi.

Nadia, talk to us about the state's latest move and where it falls in the big picture. NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we knew

that the state's first female attorney general, Lynn Fitch, was a big supporter of overturning Roe v. Wade.

So it was just a matter of time before she certified Mississippi's trigger law. That happened just this morning. So now there's a 10-day period where the clinic behind me, the state's last abortion clinic, can keep its doors open and can continue to perform abortions.

Today, they are not performing abortions. The clinic is closed, but they will begin again tomorrow and for the next nine days after that. Once those days are up, the clinic's days really are numbered. They have to shut down for good. The clinic will then move its operations to New Mexico.

And when you look at a map of the Deep South here, when you look at Mississippi, it's surrounded by other states with trigger laws, other states like Missouri, other states like Arkansas, other states like Alabama.

Let's take Alabama, for instance. Once the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, their trigger law was already on the books, had been in the books since the 1950s. And so, immediately, the abortion clinics in the state of Alabama had to shut down. Women were in the clinics. They had appointments set up. They had to be canceled immediately.

You can imagine what that meant for those women who thought they were having that procedure that day and did not have it. And so that's what you're seeing in states of surrounding Mississippi. So when I asked the abortion rights supporters here and the clinic staffers here, and they said that women in Mississippi will have to drive several hours.

They will have to take a flight. They will have to take off work. There will be this great expense if they do proceed to try to have an abortion. They will have to do it outside of the state of Mississippi, because the new law here bans abortion pretty much overall, except with very few exceptions, if there's rape, and it's been reported to law enforcement, if there is an extreme case of a medical emergency where the mother's life is in danger.

And if -- and if someone performs abortion in the state of Mississippi after those next 10 days, because the A.G. certified it to law this morning, then that provider could face up to 10 years in prison. And that's what we're seeing in states all across the country, these trigger laws now going into effect -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nadia Romero, thank you so much for that update.

All right, let's get the latest on the U.S. Supreme Court decision coming down today on a religious liberty case that further erodes the line between church and state. It ruled that a school district violated the First Amendment rights of a high school football coach when he lost his job for praying at the 50-yard line.

CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue joining us now. Ariane, tell us more about the ruling in this case.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Right, another big win for religious conservatives at the High Court.

This coach, he decided he wanted to pray at the 50-yard line after gains at the public high school. He said he had made a promise to God to do so. And it started off, his prayers, didn't get a lot of notice. But soon it became something else.

Players joined him. Players on the opposing teams joined him. Some parents joined him. And the school district took notice. They offered him accommodation and say, look, maybe say your prayer, but off the field. And he refused.

He was ultimately suspended because the school district basically said, if we allow this, it'll look like we're endorsing religion. But he turned around and he sued the school district. He said it's a violation of his free exercise clause, free speech.

And, today, Justice Neil Gorsuch writing that 6-3 opinion, breaking the court down along ideological lines, ruled in favor of the coach.

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Here's what Gorsuch said. He said: "The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression for religious and non-religious views alike."

The liberals on their half dissenting again in this momentous term. And they basically said that they were very worried about students feeling coerced. They showed pictures in the record of the prayers, of the coach surrounded by the players. And they said, look, some of these students might have done this not because they wanted to pray, but maybe because they wanted to get in his good favor, maybe to play more or maybe to get a good college recommendation.

And the dissent said that the school shouldn't be able to put those students in that kind of position. But they lost in another big religious liberty loss for the liberals on this court. It's the second time this term that the majority of this court has ruled in favor of religious conservatives.

And in this case at hand, it means that more religious speech is going to be allowed in the public sphere.

WHITFIELD: Again in this case 6-3.

Ariane de Vogue, thank you so much.

DE VOGUE: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's bring in CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero. She's a senior fellow at the Center For a New American Security.

Good to see you.

So could this ruling be considered an erosion of the separation between church and state?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, with respect to the opinion that Ariane was just describing, it is a step different than the court has taken in the past in terms of allowing more prayer, in particular at a public place on the football field at a public school district.

And so it does. It changes -- this is the new conservative majority. And so they have clearly ruled in favor of what they view as religious liberty, very different than the view that the dissent provides, which is that, as you described, it potentially can affect those other individuals who maybe feel compelled in some way to participate, even if that's not really what they want to do.

WHITFIELD: More specifically, on the majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch writes this.

I'm quoting now: "The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression for religious and non-religious views alike."

Some religions don't ban abortion, if we're talking about Roe v. Wade. So, in the case of civil liberties and respecting religious choices, is this a violation of the First Amendment?

CORDERO: Well, I think that we're talking about the religion case. And so there -- this is a new interpretation. This is a different interpretation in terms of the Establishment Clause.

If we're talking separately about the case that has to do with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, which is the Dobbs case, which the court handed down last week, I think that is a absolute tsunami in terms of an overturning of a longstanding precedent of the Supreme Court.

So, in that case, the new conservative majority totally overturned what had been 50 years of precedent. And so when it comes to the Dobbs case, which is the subject of the protests that we're seeing around the country, the subject of the individual actions in each state, what we're really looking at is an abandonment by this new conservative majority of judicial restraint.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I need to interrupt you, Carrie. So sorry. I need to interrupt you on this. We have some breaking news.

I want to bring in Josh Campbell, on what is taking place -- Josh.

I'm sorry. Jessica Schneider.

Sorry about that, Jessica.

All right, so what is going on?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, we just got a surprise announcement from the January 6 Select Committee.

We thought that there weren't going to be any more public hearings until the week of July 11. They have just announced a hearing that will happen tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. The committee is not giving many details here. What they're saying is that this hearing will be to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony, so no word on what that new evidence might be or who exactly will be there to testify.

But this would be the 6th hearing from the January 6 Select Committee. Again, we weren't expecting any new hearings until just about the middle of July. But what's interesting is after the last hearing, we actually heard from one of the committee members, Jamie Raskin.

And he said that they had received in those recent days a deluge of new evidence. So it's possible that they also have a tip line. So maybe they got some new evidence, more tips, something that would prompt them to add a pretty urgent hearing.

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So the committee saying that, at 1:00 tomorrow, there will be another hearing. As typically goes, these hearings have been running about two to three hours. Again, no word who the witness is, how many witnesses we might expect, but, Fredricka, a surprise announcement from the select committee.

They will be presenting more evidence. Remember, up to this point, we have been hearing evidence about the former president's pressure campaign on the Justice Department, on state election officials. We have heard extremely compelling testimony from those election officials in Georgia and Arizona.

It was just last week we heard from three former Justice Department officials about how they were repeatedly and consistently pressured by the president and the people around him. So, no doubt, this hearing will probably go even more in depth into that. It still remains to be seen who exactly will be testifying, but tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Jessica Schneider.

Let me bring back at Carrie Cordero.

So, your thoughts on this. We had been told by the committee that hearings would resume in July. And now we're hearing tomorrow, according to Jessica, right there. What do you suppose is at hand? Because, initially, the don't delay would give them enough time to look at interviews that were obtained by the documentarian. What do you suppose has changed?

CORDERO: Well, the question is, has a new witness come forward? So perhaps there was somebody who the committee had been talking to who they wanted to testify who previously didn't agree to and now has agreed to testify in open court. It could be additional just actual evidence that they have obtained. What's interesting about it, Fred, is that the committee has been very deliberate about how they presented the hearings so far, the five hearings that we have had over the last two weeks.

Each hearing had a topic .It had set individuals, and they had very carefully -- the committee had very carefully curated the video testimony that they have obtained through deposition.

So I am very curious to see if the committee changes its approach in this newly announced hearing, and presents an individual who they have not previously deposed, because you would want -- if you're the committee, what you want to do is you want to present a witness that you know what to expect when they appear publicly.

So I do wonder if it's someone that they have maybe been talking to over time and now has committed to appearing.

WHITFIELD: Right. It won't likely be a surprise to the committee, but what we hear will potentially be a surprise for all audiences.

All right, Carrie Cordero, thank you so much.

And, again, that hearing picking up tomorrow, the January 6 commission hearing pick up tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.

All right, G7 leaders vowing to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, as Russia makes fresh gains in the eastern part of the country, the group of nations taking new steps to punish the Kremlin for this unprovoked war.The latest from Austria.

Plus, a growing number of U.S. companies say they will cover travel costs for employee abortions. We will talk to one employer.

And rethinking return policies? Why some stores could wind up paying you not to bring back those unwanted items.

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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

Ukraine's president says there were more than 1,000 people inside a shopping mall in Central Ukraine when a Russian missile was fired at the building.

Officials say at least 10 people died and 40 more were wounded. And the search continues for more victims.

The attack came as President Zelenskyy addressed the G7 summit in Germany today by video, telling President Biden and other world leaders he wants the war to be over by the end of the year, and that Ukraine needs their support more than ever.

CNN's M.J. Lee is covering the summit for us. So, M.J., what are G7 leaders saying about the war overall in Ukraine?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a major highlight from today was that the G7 leaders got the opportunity to hear directly from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

We know that he talked about sort of how he sees the trajectory of the war. And that is basically that he wants to see an end to the war by the end of this year, and that he would like to regain momentum in a matter of months, not a matter of years.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is traveling with the president, told reporters in Germany that Zelenskyy wants to make maximum use of the next few months. Now, this is going to be important context for President Biden and the other G7 leaders as they figure out in the coming days and weeks how they can continue to help Ukraine as they fight off Russian aggression, particularly on the military front.

We know that President Zelenskyy in this meeting requested more air defense systems, particularly the variety of that can shoot down Russian missiles in the sky. We know that, of course, one of the important things that is driving President Zelenskyy as he make these requests and has these conversations with G7 leaders is the human suffering.

You just played a couple of minutes ago there on the screen the images, the horrific images that we're seeing from Central Ukraine, this major shopping mall that has been struck by a missile. We don't even know at this point how many people might have been injured. We don't know how many people might have been killed.

So we know that that is a part of the urgency coming from the Ukrainian president and the G7 leaders, that they all are in agreement that they would like to see this war come to an end as soon as possible -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, M.J. Lee at the G7 summit,thank you so much.

Retired General Wesley Clark joining us right now. He is a CNN military analyst, a former NATO supreme allied commander and a senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center.

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All right, so good to see you.

We're seeing pictures of this horrific attack on a shopping mall. What more does this tell you about Russian forces and their targets, which continue to be civilians? But does this take it to a new level?

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This is just an effort to intimidate the people of Ukraine and also to send a warning to the people of Europe that, if we continue to assist Ukraine, then our civilian populations are also at risk. It's terror tactics by Russia. But it's also a sign of some desperation, in the sense that they haven't made the progress they wanted to make in Donbass as rapidly as they wanted to. And so they have escalated using these longer-range weapons that are not effective tactically.

WHITFIELD: Sources tell CNN that the U.S. is expected to supply advanced a medium-to-long-range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine.

This is the same system that is used to protect the Washington, D.C., area right now. How much of an impact potentially could this system have?

CLARK: No, it could have a wonderful impact.

But it depends again on how many systems? One or two systems? No, they don't have the coverage to do that. You need two dozen, three dozen of these systems. You need them now, not later. They must be overlapping. There must be logistics and training.

So, Fredricka, everything about our assistance has been wholehearted and genuine, but it's slow. And this is the problem is, can we get ahead of the Russian juggernaut, as it's pounding these Ukrainian forces that are defending and flying the missiles in?

So we need that air defense in Ukraine tomorrow. If you could disassemble it from countries in Europe and ship it in, at that rate, you would still take three weeks to get it in there. So we don't know when this is going to be delivered. But time is of the essence. I think that's what President Zelenskyy was going to say.

And I think that all the European leaders want it over, but the only way this is going to be over in a successful way is to convince Mr. Putin that he won't win. And that means defeating Russian forces on the battlefield and blocking their airstrikes on Ukraine.

WHITFIELD: So, when you hear President Zelenskyy saying he wants this war to be over by year's end, you see him as really sending a signal to allied nations to say, hurry it up, send me more, so that this -- I can defeat or at least continue to protect my country sooner than Putin -- since he -- the cards -- he has the cards right now?

CLARK: That's right, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CLARK: And given the way it works in Ukraine, and warfare historically, is, July, August, September, October, those are the months when the land is relatively dry, when you can maneuver forces.

And President Zelenskyy wants to force the Russians out of the southern part of the country, out of Donbass, and then we will see what happens with Crimea. But if he doesn't get the weapons quickly, he can't undertake the offensive operations that will allow -- enable the war to end.

We will end up stuck again in this terrible winter morass with more shelling and more death. So that's his sense of urgency.

WHITFIELD: And how do you see the state of play right now?

CLARK: Everything's in the balance, honestly.

What we know is that there's terrible artillery fire going back and forth. We have heard publicly the Ukrainians are losing 100 to 200 men a day. From a force of 50,000, 60,000, 70,000, strung out linearly, if you count three to five wounded for every killed, then that's 1,000 people a day. That goes on for 20 days, that's 20,000 people out of the line.

Maybe a few get back. But that's a heavy hit on the force. Now we are looking at what the Ukrainians report the Russians are losing. And, yes, they're taking losses too, but much less loss now than they were taking in the early battle north of Kyiv.

And so it seems to me that what we have got is a linear defense, essentially linear, on that front, inadequate ability to maneuver afterwards. The Ukrainians can't afford to give up the ground. And what usually happens in cases like this is, the superior force eventually punches a hole in the defense and exploits and gains territory.

That's what we don't want to happen. So, that artillery support, the air defense, some more armored vehicles, that stuff has got to get in there right away. It's urgently needed.

WHITFIELD: General Wesley Clark, good to see you. Thank you so much.

CLARK: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling comes down.

Now companies across the country say they are ready to pay up, promising to cover the travel costs for employees who need an abortion.

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More on how corporations are responding.

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WHITFIELD: In terms of raw demographics, the impact of Roe v. Wade being overturned will not be felt evenly across the country.

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