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Panel Subpoenas Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone; Israeli Knesset Dissolves Itself, Stage Set for Next Election; Putin Denies Russia Responsible for Missile Strike on Mall; Zelenskyy Pleads with West to Ramp Up Pressure on Moscow; NATO Formally Invites Finland and Sweden to Join; Hong Kong Prepares to Mark 25 Years Since Its Transfer to China. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 30, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The committee is now getting serious.

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER AIDE TO WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS: Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of please make sure that we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy, keep in touch with me, we're going to get charged with everything imaginable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he is remaining silent, he is certainly encouraging and enabling that conspiracy.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): To argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen, every one of us bears to perpetuate the Republic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: It's Thursday, June 30th, and the aftershocks of that bombshell testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Tuesday are still being felt in Washington. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack is now seeking more information about Donald Trump's actions leading up to the insurrection. This time issuing a subpoena for former White House counsel Pat Cipollone. He's considered a key witness who repeatedly resisted Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his name has come up multiple times at prior hearings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

HUTCHINSON: Mr. Cipollone.

HUTCHINSON: Mr. Cipollone.

HUTCHINSON: Mr. Cipollone.

HUTCHINSON: I see Pat Cipollone barreling down the hallway towards her office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pat Cipollone said, yes, this is a murder-suicide pact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called Pat Cipollone ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Cipollone.

CHENEY: Mr. Trump's former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: A source tells CNN Cipollone might agree to a limited interview but avoid some topics, citing executive privilege. However, committee members say they could easily work out a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): If you look at Ms. Hutchinson's testimony yesterday, there were quite a few things that he could tell the committee that would not be subject to privilege.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): He has a huge volume of relevant evidence and he was there at every level of each of these assaults on democracy and the rule of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Ryan Nobles explains why Cipollone's testimony is crucial to the January 6th investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After spending the last few weeks publicly calling on the former White House counsel Pat Cipollone to appear before the January 6 select committee, the committee is now getting serious taking the dramatic step of issuing Cipollone a subpoena that would require him to cooperate with their investigation.

Now, Cipollone is a former White House counsel, that means that he had unique access to the former President of the United States Donald Trump. And he represented the interests of not just the president but the office of the presidency. And that could mean that much of what he knows could be protected under executive privilege. But the committee says in their letter to Cipollone that they understand that and they want to work with him to allow him to come and testify about these important matters that they believe are a part of their investigation that won't necessarily run up against these executive privilege claims.

Now, there also could be a role for the Biden White House to play here. They are the holders of privilege, they are the ones that could decide whether or not Cipollone's information is protected under those privilege claims.

Now, Cipollone has had very informal conversations with the committee already. He's thought of as being more someone as a background witness that is supported or lent insight to some of the information that the committee has already learned. But they want to know more specifics from him, and particularly some of the information that was revealed by Cassidy Hutchinson in her dramatic testimony on Tuesday.

Questions about the advice that he was giving the former president and his top aides as it relates to their challenges of the election certification and what was happening on January 6. For instance, Hutchinson testified that Cipollone strongly warned the president not to go to the Capitol because it could be dangerous and because it could put him in legal jeopardy.

Now at this point Cipollone has not responded to the subpoena request. He is someone who is a lawyer with an extensive knowledge of how this process works.

[04:05:00]

It's likely that this will just trigger a negotiation between the two sides so that they can find an area where he is comfortable to testify about what he knows.

Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, some Trump allies are trying to discredit Cassidy Hutchinson as a reliable witness. And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is calling her testimony hearsay. They're focusing on Hutchinson's secondhand account of how Trump lunged at the steering wheel of his limo when he was told that he couldn't go to the Capitol. The Secret Service is refuting this claim but Hutchinson stands by her testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOFGREN: She went under oath and stands by her testimony -- which by the way wasn't what happened but what she was told. And you know, we can -- if there's a dispute, we can put other people under oath. But the main point is this, no one is disputing that the then president wanted to go to the Capitol to be with the rioters. That's a pretty disturbing fact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: House Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Republican, is also praising Hutchinson for her bravery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: Her superiors, men many years older, a number of them, are hiding behind executive privilege, anonymity and intimidation. At this moment we're confronting a domestic threat that we've never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.

To argue that the threat posed by Donald Trump can be ignored is to cast aside the responsibility that every citizen, every one of us, bears to perpetuate the Republic. Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution. At this moment --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well besides Hutchinson's public testimony, the committee continues to hear from other Trump officials behind closed downs. The Sean Dollman, who was chief financial officer for Trump's 2020 campaign testified on Wednesday. The Trump campaign's post-election fundraising is under scrutiny after the former president peddled false claims of election fraud to collect campaign funds.

Now I got some breaking news out of Israel. The nation's Parliament, the Knesset, has just voted to dissolve itself which means Naftali Bennett will be out as Prime Minister and Israelis will be heading to the foul polls for the fifth time in less than four years. Isn't that right, Hadas? It's been a slow motion process but you know, a tough time for voters to keep having to vote in new governments.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been political chaos definitely for the past few days. But for the past few years for Israelis who have been going back to the polls over and over again. But finally, just in the last 30 minutes or so, the Israeli Parliament voted to dissolve itself. It was a pretty clear vote, but it was after a long drawn out process that took several days and after several weeks of this slow motion collapse of the coalition government.

What it means now, is that Naftali Bennett will no longer be Prime Minister as of 12:01 tonight. The foreign minister Yair Lapid will officially take over as a caretaker interim Prime Minister. Because he is taking over as a caretaker prime minister during a dissolution of parliament. There will be no sort of formal swearing in process.

This also will trigger elections, as you noted the fifth election in less than four years. Those will take place on November 1. Meaning that Yair Lapid will have several months in power to try to convince Israelis that he should keep the job.

Although of course, the elections and the political chaos also presents a really big opening to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have a path back to power. And he spoke on the Parliament floor in the last few hours vowing to the Israelis that he will return the honor to the people of Israel. But I should note that although the poll shows that his party, the Likud party, will have the most number of seats out of all the other parties, doesn't mean that his bloc of right wing parties or any sort of allies will necessarily have the number needed for majority to turn Netanyahu back into Prime Minister.

But especially in the next couple of weeks, all eyes will be on Yair Lapid because President Joe Biden is still scheduled to arrive in the next couple weeks for his first visit as president to the region. And it will be Lapid who will welcome him on the red carpet and Lapid who will be meeting with him. And I'm sure of course Yair Lapid supporters are really hoping that those images of this former actor, former journalist and anchor, now turned politician and Prime Minister, that those images will be enough to convince Israelis that Yair Lapid should keep the job.

FOSTER: Hadas Gold keeping busy in Jerusalem. Thank you.

Now (INAUDIBLE). OK, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pleading for the west to ramp up pressure on Moscow saying current measures are doing little to deter Putin. But the civilian targets he says were hit by ten Russian missiles on Wednesday in the southern city of Mykolaiv. At least five people were killed.

Meanwhile Ukrainians are celebrating the return of 144 troops in a prisoner swap, nearly 100 of those released were defending the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol before their surrender more than a month ago. Ukraine's defense ministry says many of the returning soldiers are badly wounded.

CNN's Nada Bashir is standing by for us in London. But let's begin with CNN's Scott McLean live in Kyiv. And it'll be interesting to hear what these returning Ukrainians have to say about their time in detention.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's pretty remarkable for a couple reasons here, Max. First off, more than 40 of those 144 prisoners that Ukraine managed to get back in exchange for 144 Russian troops, more than 40 of them were from that Azovstal regiment. 95 of them were inside that Azovstal plant where Ukrainian troops held out for three months before finally surrendering. After many of them, including the leadership -- whom I remember interviewing and telling me, look, we're not going to leave here without a gun in our hands. And so that means we're going to fight to the death.

Obviously, that didn't happen. 2,500 laid down their guns, 1,000 of them according to Russians were taken to Russia for investigative purposes they said. Now, the Azov regimen has been what Russia has really tried to use as a propaganda tool because it has extremist far right roots. It's now part of the regular Ukrainian army. But the Russians have sort of used this part of the military to make their point that Ukraine needs to be de-nazified in their words. And so, it is a little bit surprising to see members of that regimen turned over in this kind of a prisoner exchange.

Perhaps not surprising though, because as Volodymyr Zelenskyy points out, these are public prisoners. These are people that the world is keeping tabs on because there has been so, so much focus on that situation in Mariupol for so, so long.

I want to mention a couple other things as well, Max. The other is that mall missile strike. That missile strike on that mall in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine, far, far from the frontlines, Human Rights Watch today came out with a report where it claims that it was on the ground for the last two days and they saw no evidence that there was any ammunition, any munition stored on the site.

Remember this is how the Russians are justifying this strike by saying that they were aiming at foreign ammunition depot that was near to that mall and the subsequent explosion caught the mall on fire. Ukrainians say there is no evidence of that. My colleague Salma Abdelaziz was there yesterday with the prosecutor for that region who said that if there was ammunition on that site, you'd have bullet holes everywhere because it would have exploded. The Ukrainians and the president says, look, this is part of the pattern of the Russians deliberately aiming for civilian infrastructure and he says that more clearly needs to be done. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I called on NATO countries to speed up the supply of missile defense systems to Ukraine and significantly increase the pressure on the terrorist state. The Russian strike alone at the city of Mykolaiv, ten missiles at once and all of them were aimed at civilian targets proves for absolutely everyone in the world that the pressure on Russia is not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: Now, President Putin said yesterday that Russia doesn't have to hit civilian infrastructure because they have plenty of information to know exactly what they are aiming at. But to Zelenskyy's point, there was a five story apartment building hit in Mykolaiv, at least five people were killed.

And here's a pretty sobering statistic on Mykolaiv, that southern city in Ukraine, the mayor there says that since the war began -- remember it has been going for more than four months -- there has only been 18 days when the city has not been struck. Before it was more cluster bombs and more shelling. Now missiles seem to be the weapon of choice.

Yesterday President Putin said that the goals of this special military operation as he called it remain the same as they were before, what is changing is the tactics and of course missiles seem to be a popular tactic these days -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Scott, thank you.

Nada, this is in the context of a NATO meetings currently happening in Madrid. Very strong words from NATO. Looks like a united front. Even Turkey signing up to having Sweden and Finland as members. What's the context here, how would you describe the tension between the two sides?

[04:15:00]

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, Max, we've certainly seen Russia and President Putin stepping up not only rhetoric but also actions when it comes to NATO presence and intervention in the region, particularly in Ukraine. You heard there in Scott's reporting that President Putin -- or the Kremlin, rather, and it's defense minister claiming that Russia was striking foreign weapons, U.S. and European supplied weapons allegedly according to the defense ministry. That stands in contrast to what we've heard from both Human Rights Watch and Ukraine officials.

But the Kremlin and President Putin have been doubling down on that place. But this really comes in the context of what we've seen from the Kremlin in terms of really voicing their opposition to NATO's presence, to that foreign presence and support to Ukraine. As you mentioned there, Sweden and Finland now set to bring an end to decades of neutrality, a significant blow to one of President Putin's primary objectives throughout this intervention -- throughout this invasion rather, in Ukraine to really stem the extension of NATO along its borders.

And yesterday we heard from President Putin speaking after a meeting with the Caspian 5 leaders in Turkmenistan. And he really issued a fresh warning to NATO that if Russia is to see military contingents and infrastructure deployed to both Sweden and Finland in the future, then Russia would be forced to respond in kind. Now President Putin also said that this would obviously, in his words, increase tensions in the region.

And we have indeed over the last week or so seen Russia stepping up its regional military capabilities. Russia and President Putin announcing plans to send nuclear capable missiles to Belarus. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is currently in Belarus holding talks with his counterparts there. The Russian defense ministry has also said this week that it is stepping up its defenses. It is strengthening its western border in view of this NATO expansion Max -- .

FOSTER: OK, Nada and Scott, thank you both very much indeed.

Now still to come, a visit from the Chinese leader as Hong Kong is set to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China. CNN's Blake Essig is there.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Xi Jinping has arrived in Hong Kong, his first time back in five years and first time leaving mainland China since shortly after the pandemic began. Coming up, we'll tell you why he's here and what he has planned.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Stormy skies forecast across much of the U.S. over the upcoming July 4th holiday and that could mean trouble for airline passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration is working with airlines to plan for potential weather delays and increased passenger numbers this weekend. Staffing shortages have plagued U.S. airlines for some time now. Delta Airlines predicts customer volume not seen since before the pandemic.

Tropical rains may be bringing heavy downpours along the Gulf Coast. Much of the region is in a drought, so the rain could bring much needed relief. CNN's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the forecast for you.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Max. We've got lots of wet weather across a large area of the United States to tell you about. The Southwest monsoons are cranking across the four corners region in the southern United States. Apparently, a stationary frontal boundary has kept this region unsettled but also a potential tropical disturbance trying to develop as well off the coast of Texas.

But parts of Georgia, as much as 5 1/2 inches of rainfall have come down. If you speak to anyone across this region they will tell you, temps have been a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more bearable here as the wet weather has kept those temperatures at bay. I often talk about the evaporative cooling. Every one of those raindrops takes energy out of the atmosphere and allow the temps to cool off just a little bit.

So, some benefits there but there is a threat for severe weather across the northern tier of the United States, albeit the slight risk their for damaging winds, for some large hail in Green Bay, Marquette. Some of these areas could see storms generally for Thursday afternoon that could have some of those qualities.

But notice the Gulf of Mexico, it is somewhat quiet. But off the coast of Texas, there is an area of disturbed weather, 40 percent chance this forms in to a tropical feature. And if you would ask me, I would tell you, doesn't look like that's going to play out. The conditions across the ocean, across the Gulf of Mexico are certainly environmentally favorable, but the upper atmosphere not as much. And it is a little close to land here but we do expect what is left of the system to produce quite a bit of rainfall in a drought-stricken landscape where about 80 plus percent of Texas is underneath drought conditions. About 50 percent of Louisiana experiencing the same. So again, beneficial rainfall in store generally far eastern Texas, western Louisiana there.

Some pockets of rainfall exceeding maybe 6 to 8 inches. That would be from Friday into Saturday, but some wet weather across this region that could lead to some localized flooding as well.

A little farther toward the south, another tropical system trying to form, another one that's going to struggle to do so. It is a little too close to the equator, so that skim, that rotation that's necessary with these systems not going to play out, it is also going to interact with land. But we do think the tropical storm will eventually prevail and make possibly make landfall there across Nicaragua some time Friday into Saturday -- Max.

FOSTER: Thank you to Pedram.

Now to Northern California where a wildfire that prompted evacuations continues to spread. The so-called Rices Fire has burned through more than 900 acres in Nevada County. Its destroyed at least one structure, five firefighters have suffered heat-related injuries. The blaze is only about 10 percent contained. Crews hope to have it fully contained by Sunday. What caused the fire is under investigation.

The desperate need for aid in Bangladesh after what's been called the worst floods in living memory. More than 7 million people need shelter and emergency relief. Torrential rain caused rivers to overflow leaving hundreds of thousands of homes underwater. It's the worst hit areas, entire neighborhoods are submerged, more than 200 people have died since the floods began back in April.

Now, a short while ago Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong one day ahead of the 25th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China. Crowds with flags greeted the Chinese leader as he arrived by train. This is his first trip outside mainland China since the start of the pandemic.

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CNN correspondents are covering all the developments for you. Ivan Watson and Blake Essig are live for a us this hour in Hong Kong and Steven Jiang is standing by for us in Beijing. Ivan, 25 years on, doesn't seem that long, does it, but so much has changed there in that short period.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that you wouldn't recognize the waterfront and the city scape of Hong Kong comparing 25 years ago to today. In fact, a lot of this coastline here is land reclamation. So, there have been physical transformations. Xi Jinping has not been to this city in five years and there have been other very serious changes that have taken place even in that short period of time. Changes that he alluded to in his opening remarks shortly after he got off this train from the mainland. Take a listen.

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XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): Over the past few years Hong Kong has withstood one severe test after another and overcome one risk and challenge after another. After weathering the storms, Hong Kong has emerged from the ashes with vigorous vitality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: He is talking about a rebirth for this city. What has it been through? Well, in 2019, there was a year of increasingly violent anti- government protests here which culminated with the Beijing-appointed government here imposing a national security law and a massive crackdown on organized political opposition and dissent in the city. Whereby the opposition lawmakers who were in the Hong Kong legislature when Xi Jinping was last year five years ago, those elected lawmakers, most of them are either in prison or they have been forced to flee for their own safety. And much of Hong Kong's lively civil society has really been crushed, everything from student unions to labor unions as well as the independent press.

On top of that, you have the challenges of the COVID pandemic which Hong Kong handled pretty well in the first year -- certainly compared to Western countries with low case numbers and deaths due to the infection. But with time, Beijing's zero COVID policy have made this one of the most isolated places in the world where travel from outside, from foreign countries was almost completely blocked. And you faced some of the world's strictest guarantees coming here. And cross- boundary travel between Hong Kong and mainland China is also to this day largely blocked. All of that has had an impact on demographics here and on the economy. Back to you.

FOSTER: Blake, a buzzing atmosphere I'm sure on the ground there because it's momentous, whatever your view of mainland China. What's the atmosphere like?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Max, you know, so far on the streets today we've seen a lot of empty streets. You know, whether it's been raining throughout the day, but also a really large police presence doing everything they possibly can to keep people away from President Xi Jinping. Into this point, the details surrounding the Chinese president's visit to Hong Kong have been shrouded in secrecy. But what we do know is that Xi arrived at the West Kowloon train station about an hour ago and was greeted by both the incoming and outgoing chief executives as well as people waving flags and chanting welcome.

Xi is now heading here to the Science Park and we expect him to arrive really any moment now. The purpose of his visit to this particular location which already serves as a tech hub and innovation hub has to do with the economic master plan that Beijing has been developing in southern China. That plan is to take advantage of economic potential and drive growth by creating a tech center that would rival cities like San Francisco and Tokyo. The Greater Bay Area as it is known essentially combines Hong Kong, Macao with nine other cities in mainland China.

And while Xi is expected to visit Hong Kong hub today, and tomorrow local media are reporting that the Chinese leader will be spending the night in Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese city just across the border to the north of Hong Kong. And it is worth noting that Xi traveled to Hong Kong using the high speed rail which has been closed to the public since the start of the pandemic. The likely reason he is deciding to commute is in part because of the COVID situation here in Hong Kong where more than a thousand cases have been reported daily for the past two weeks. And in Shenzhen, where security measures can be more tightly controlled, the daily case count has essentially been in the single digits this week.

Now throughout Xi's visit to Hong Kong, he'll attend the inauguration and a new administration -- of a new administration, excuse me, a number of officials here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the handover. And although Hong Kong police say there will be a designated area for people to gather.

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