Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Pentagon Investigating Scope And Scale Of Document Leak; Thousands Of Israeli Settlers March To Outpost In West Bank; U.S. And Philippines Begin Annual Joint Military Exercises; Bakhmut Evacuees Find Refuge In Nearby Town As Attacks Continue; Bakhmut Evacuees Find Refuge in Nearby Towns; Long History of U.S. Presidents Seeking Out Irish Roots; Dalai Lama Apologizes for Asking Boy to 'Suck' His Tongue. Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired April 11, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:00:36]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause.

Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Can America keep a secret? One of the biggest leaks of U.S. Intelligence has Washington scrambling to reassure allies assess how much and what was leaked and by whom?

Can Israel's Prime Minister restore security as violence flares on almost every front while he's most senior ministers lead a controversial march into the West Bank to an evacuated settlement?

And can the U.S. president end the yearlong political crisis in Northern Ireland 25 years? After the Good Friday peace deal, Joe Biden will soon arrive in Belfast where anger has been building over a post Brexit trade deal.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: Who, how and what? Who is responsible? How did they do it and what exactly has been leaked? Three questions where senior officials within the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Justice are scrambling to answer while at the same time trying to reassure global allies after one of the biggest leaks of classified documents in recent memory, which has revealed top secret information about U.S. surveillance of close partners including Israel and South Korea that Washington was also spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as sensitive intelligence about Ukrainian losses on a battlefield, the air defense capability and shortages of missiles.

The Pentagon is still trying to determine the scope and scale of this breach and just how much top secret information might still be dumped online via social media for the world to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PRESS SECRETARY, PENTAGON: We don't know who's behind this. We don't know what the motive is. And I think I can't remember who asked before, but we don't know what else might be out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Kremlin says it's looking closely at the information about what was leaked from the Pentagon and when asked to comment if Russia was somehow involved, spokesman Dmitry Peskov was dismissive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESMAN (through translator): We know there is a tendency everywhere to blame Russia for everything. This is a general affliction, so there's nothing to comment on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Live now to Seoul, South Korea, let's get reaction there. CNN's Paula Hancock standing by live.

So, the Ukrainians have dismissed this leak as Russian disinformation, at least publicly. The South Koreans are taking it a lot more seriously it seems. So, what are they saying and why?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, John, there were documents, which did suggest that there was a conversation between senior South Korean officials that had been listened to and it was discussing selling ammunition to the United States.

Now, this is a deal that we know is potentially in the works. But South Korea has a policy that they do not sell lethal aid and lethal weapons to any country at war.

Now, we also understand that the U.S. would potentially want to send that ammunition to Ukraine to help in their fight against Russia. So, it was according to this document, at least we cannot verify whether or not this is the case. But this is a conversation about this, the fact that South Korean officials were concerned that there may be U.S. pressure put upon the South Korean side to give this ammunition and sell this ammunition to the U.S. which would then be moved on to Ukraine.

Now, one official according to this document did say potentially we could sell it to Poland suggesting that would be a way to get around the policy, but not actually to change the policy. Now, we have had official statements from the South Korean side over the past couple of days saying that they are talking to the United States about this. We know that there was a phone call just this morning, just a couple of hours ago between the defense minister of South Korea and the Secretary of Defense in the United States, Lloyd Austin.

Now according to the South Korean side, that was a phone call that was asked for by the U.S. side so that they could explain some of the media coverage they say regarding this potential documents leak.

Now, it's also becoming a bit of an internal domestic issue here, the opposition party saying that this is a clear violation of South Korea's sovereignty, saying it also could potentially just be the tip of the iceberg what else potentially is out there.

But from the presidential side, they are saying at this point that they are talking to the United States to find out more.

[00:05:01]

There's also been a response from Australia as well, the chief of the Australian Defense Force General Angus Campbell was speaking to a Sydney think tank the Lowy Institute this morning and he said, "He is concerned about what he calls the serious leak".

Now, Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which includes the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and the United Kingdom.

So, certainly there are concerns in this neck of the woods about what exactly is behind these leaks and whether or not there is more to come, John.

VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul, we appreciate the update. Thank you.

Steve Hall is a CNN National Security Analyst and the former chief of Russia operations for the CIA. It's good to have you with us, Steve.

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (on camera): Great to be here.

VAUSE: OK, so the big questions here seem to be who and how? I guess once investigators know who leaked the information, that sort of answers the how part and a lot of other stuff as well.

HALL: Yes, you know, at this point, it is early on, I'm sure that the U.S. government certainly knows -- or I hope certainly knows more than we do at this point.

But right now, it's extremely difficult to tell because we just haven't been clued in much on the status of the investigation, we're keeping it pretty close hold.

But I do think it's worth asking the question, who benefits from this happening? Who benefits from these leaks getting out there? And I think that the first country that comes to mind, obviously, is Russia on that one.

Russia does benefit by driving wedges between America and its allies. It does benefit when it says things like, well, you know, that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost a lot more than apparent, or that has been made public, and that the Russians have lost a lot less.

So, when you look at it, the Russians certainly have a lot to be gained from being involved in this, at least from the start, or perhaps later on just jumping on and trying to take as much advantage as they can from the situation.

VAUSE: I want you to listen to Chris Meagher he's the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MEAGHER, ASSISTANT, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS: The Department of Defense is working around the clock to look at the scope and scale of the distribution, the assessed impact and our mitigation measures.

We're still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue. There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom.

We're also still trying to assess what might be out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You touched on this, you said well, maybe we're not being told everything. But at this stage of the investigation, should we still be the we don't have much of a clue stage. It's more than five days since the defense secretary was briefed about the leaks. And does this explain why there's been no briefing by the U.S. for the other members of the Five Eyes, the U.K., Australia, Canada and New Zealand?

HALL: Yes, well, there's a lot of layers to that. So, I think -- I think what the spokesman was saying is absolutely true. In other words, the investigation is still very young, and they're still trying to figure out what has happened and how it happened.

It does allude to the second possibility, if it's not the Russians, then could it have simply leaked from the, you know, someplace in the U.S. government, perhaps the Pentagon. That, of course, has to be investigated very, very carefully. And that gets to one of the earlier questions that you asked, which is, OK, how. If it wasn't the Russians who produced this themselves, or somehow, you know, got access to this information, then how did this information get out? And that is what I think the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, and a lot of counterintelligence folks are trying to figure out exactly what happened.

I'm sure that behind the scenes, even though there may have been no formal briefing with the Five Eyes, you can be sure that our liaison, our intelligence liaison relationships with those people is robust enough to have offline discussions about what's going on. And the idea of keeping our liaison partners involved in this and up to speed as to what's going on will be a critical part of that intelligence relationship.

VAUSE: Politico has this reporting which I found interesting. The saga has left the U.S. relationship with its allies in a state of crisis, raising questions about how Washington will correct what officials worldwide view as one of the largest public breaches of U.S. intelligence since WikiLeaks dumped millions of sensitive documents online from 2006 to 2021.

So, on top of that, you can add the recently found hundreds of classified documents which were scattered around the Florida home of the former now indicted President Donald Trump.

And then there was the Edward Snowden NSA leaks back in 2013. Before that the WikiLeaks released the Iraq War logs that was back in 2010. They're just the major ones.

So, is the anger or concern among allies over being spied on or just the fact the U.S. doesn't seem able to keep a secret?

HALL: Well, again, a lot -- a lot of different layers in this complex situation. The first is I think it's a vast overstatement to say that there's some sort of crisis between the United States and its allies with regard to intelligence or really anything else on this particular issue.

[00:10:01]

I mean, the level of unity that we see visa vie Russia and the war in Ukraine is actually quite remarkable.

Secondly, when you compare the simply the volume of information that is out there with this particular situation, and you compare it to the WikiLeaks, or to Snowden's case, I mean, those leaks of information dwarf in both size and importance, the type of intelligence that's getting out there.

And to your question with regard to can America keep a secret? Well, this is one of the challenges that open societies that democracies have. It's easy for Russia, for China, for other authoritarian regimes to use their security services to make sure that this kind of thing never happens, because they have no rule of law, they can simply crack down however they want.

In our societies in the West, you've got open laws that allow people to say what they want, and to try to get it out there publicly. And it's much harder to deal with that tension between secret information in an open society. Much bigger philosophical question, one that the Department of Defense is probably not that much focused on right now. They're trying to get to the bottom of how this got out there and who put it there?

VAUSE: Yes, probably a question for another day, I guess. But certainly, one to think about.

Steve, thank you for being with us. Really appreciate it.

HALL: My pleasure.

VAUSE: After a wave of recent terror attacks in Israel, pro settlers, led by seven ministers from within the Israeli coalition government have marched and evacuated Israeli settlement in the West Bank, demanding its legalization. Thousands of Israelis waving flags and singing religious songs took part in the march.

Nearby, the Palestinian Red Crescent reporting more than 200 people close to the town of Beita were injured during clashes with the IDF. 22 were hit by a rubber-coated bullet. The Israel Defense Forces says rocks were thrown at soldiers lightly injuring two.

This clash took place near the abandoned Israeli outposts where Israel's national security minister led a call for Israel to legalize the outpost. More settlements on land Palestinians claim for a future homeland is seen by these ministers as a way of preventing terrorist attacks inside Israel.

Meantime, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about tensions between Israel and its neighbors, which fled after Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last week, the third most holy site in all of Islam. Netanyahu also announced his defense minister who he fired last week will remain in his post.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): There have been disputes between us, even difficult disputes on certain subjects. But I have decided to leave these disputes behind us. Gallant remains in his post and we will continue to work together for the safety of the citizens of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more now on Monday's controversial and provocative march into the West Bank.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Amid an already highly charged atmosphere, thousands of Israeli settlers marched in the West Bank to an abandoned settlement called Evyatar, demanding to open it back up.

DOR LEVI, PRO-SETTLEMENT DEMONSTRATOR: We are ready to fight for it if it needs to be with our enemy (INAUDIBLE) government, because nobody will disconnect that from this land.

PLEITGEN: Evyatar is classified as an illegal outpost by Israel's government built on land Palestinians say they own.

But now, even members of Benjamin Netanyahu, his cabinet are marching here, like the far right National Security Minister, whom we met.

We are (ph) strong and Evyatar will be strong in Tel Aviv, he told us. We won't get into terror, not in Evyatar, not in Tel Aviv.

Three large turnout here at this demonstration and the folks who came here, they do feel that there is a government in power in this country now that's more sympathetic to their demands. And they demand that they be allowed to have more settlements in this area.

TZIPORAH PILTZ, PRO-SETTLEMENT DEMONSTRATOR: Even though they have many, many Arabs settlements over here, but this area is the land of the Bible. OK, over here, Abraham, Isaac and Yaakov went and walked in this area so we want reach out continuation with them. PLEITGEN: But the violence continues to spiral. Crisis started when Israeli security forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem twice last week, arresting hundreds of people.

Israel answered a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon and Gaza with airstrikes. And even this weekend, things didn't stop.

Israeli war planes and drones bombed positions in Syria after several rockets were fired from there towards the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.

And Monday, the Israeli military shot and killed a 15-year-old boy Mohammad Fayez Balhan in another part of the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They shot him in the head during the raid. What will happen to us? What is going to happen to our Palestinian people?

PLEITGEN: The Israeli say their forces were attacked during an anti- terror raid in the village. Back near the abandoned settlement, Palestinians who say they own this land confronted Israeli security forces as the settlers were marching, vowing to build even more outposts with high members of Israel's government backing their quest, despite the risk of further inflaming a country and a region already on the brink.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:15:24]

VAUSE: Live now to Jerusalem Elliott Gotkine is with us. So Elliot, what's the status now? Because quite often, when these marches take place to these evacuated outposts, the settlers who go there, they tend to stay, and they tend not to leave not without a struggle, not without a fight. So, what's the situation now?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST (on camera): Well, John, I mean, the settlers that you saw marching there, and supporters of Evyatar being legalized will still maintain their position.

For now, the big Israeli Government position is that it is an illegal outpost, and that it is not there for a settlement that it is going to support.

Now, of course, that could change when you see senior government ministers like National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir marching there, along with several other ministers as well.

But for now, the situation remains that it is not an official settlement, although, as I say, that could change.

And of course, the other big thing that we were watching yesterday, John was this press conference from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now it's quite rare for him to give a press conference of this nature, not unprecedented, but quite rare.

And I suppose what he was trying to say, following the deteriorating security situation, not just visa vie the West Bank, not just because of clashes we've seen between Israeli security forces and the worshipers, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and not just because of the rockets fired from the Gaza strip into Israel from the Hamas controlled entity, and also that barrage of rockets from Lebanon, the biggest barrage from Lebanon into Israel since the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

But really just to show that his hands are still on the wheel, that Netanyahu is still in control, that he is going in his words, to reestablish deterrence and fix the damage we inherited. He blamed the previous government that was in power for one year for the current situation in terms of Israel's security.

And he was also I suppose, really trying to respond to this. His plummeting poll numbers, opinion poll published by channel 13, showing that not only is Netanyahu no longer Israeli's first choice of Prime Minister, he's not even the second, he would be the third choice, and that if an election were to be held tomorrow, he and his right wing allies would be out of office.

The other big news of course, which you mentioned in your introduction, was the sacking of his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant which turns out not to have been a sacking at all. You recall that the sacking of Yoav Gallant after he came out and called for a pause to the government's judicial overhaul, which would remove pretty much all checks and balances on the government, that sparked mass spontaneous protests and a general strike and finally persuaded Netanyahu to hit the pause button on those plans for a judicial overhaul.

Well, in his press conference last night, Netanyahu said that he wasn't sacked after all, and that he remains the defense minister, you have Gallant even tweeting out a picture of the two of them together, showing that they are very much in control and doing their best to promote and support Israel's security.

The other thing to watch out for today, John, is the funeral of Lucy Dee This is the mother of the two British Israeli girls who were killed by Palestinian government in the West Bank. They were buried a couple of days ago, the mother succumbed to her wounds from that attack yesterday. The funeral is expected to happen this afternoon in the same settlements of Kfar Etzion, just south of Jerusalem, John.

VAUSE: Elliott, thank you. We appreciate the update there at this early hour. Elliott Gotkine there in Jerusalem.

Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, China wraps up a round of military drills as the United States prepares for its own military exercises with the Philippines. The thinly veiled messages behind these exercises, that's next.

Also, Ukraine accusing Russia of scorched earth tactics in Bakhmut.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:21:25]

VAUSE: The Italian coast guard is working to rescue more than a thousand migrants adrift on three separate vessels in the Mediterranean. One overcrowded boat with about 400 people was taking on water at last report. The captain reportedly left the migrants to fend for themselves.

Italy right now grappling with another surge of migrants this year, mostly from North Africa. The U.N. says almost 28,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea since the start of the year.

The U.S. and the Philippines have marked the start of the annual military exercises just hours ago. Over the next two weeks, more than 17,000 participants from both countries will be training bases across the Philippines.

This comes just one day after China finished its own military drills in which it simulated attacks on Taiwan and ended a buffer zone just beyond the islands airspace.

CNN's Selina Wang has more now reporting in from Beijing.

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): China launched three days of military exercises around Taiwan after the island's president met the U.S. House speaker. China's military said the drills create an all-around encirclement of the island and simulate precision attacks on key targets.

In reaction to the military drills, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China's "provocative measures have clearly challenged the international order undermine peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and the region."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WANG (voice over): China's fighter jets fly around Taiwan skies, military ships sail off its coast, China says it's simulating precision attacks on key targets in Taiwan.

While Beijing has not launched any missiles, its military released this animation, showing missiles fired from land, sea and air into Taiwan, two of them explode in flames.

Beijing is showing the world its fury, launching three days of military exercises around Taiwan after the island's President Tsai Ing-wen met with Us House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

For the first time, it appears Chinese simulated strikes with warplanes that took off from an aircraft carrier. This video shows Taiwan's Coast Guard confronting a Chinese ship. The Taiwanese sailor says you are now seriously damaging regional peace, stability and safety. Please turn around immediately and bleak. If you keep proceeding forward, I will take eviction measures. The encounter, highlighting the risks of any miscalculation in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing sees democratically ruled Taiwan as a part of its territory that will eventually be reunified with the mainland.

Chinese military said the drills are "A serious warning against the Taiwan separatist forces' collusion with external forces and a necessary move to defend national sovereignty."

Experts say Beijing is normalizing military activity around the island that already sends military jets and ships around Taiwan every day.

On China's heavily censored social media, some are commenting that the drills do not go far enough. One writes, let's just take Taiwan. Another says, if you're not going to attack, then don't waste taxpayer money.

When then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last summer, China responded with military drills that simulated a blockade. For the first time, China even fired missiles over the island.

Experts say the military response this time is more restrained because the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy was held on American soil to avoid provoking Beijing.

Both Washington and Taipei have called the visit just an ordinary transit stop, but the symbolism was undeniable.

[00:25:03]

TSAI ING-WEN, TAIWANESE PRESIDENT: We're stronger when we are together.

WANG: With Washington's support for Taipei only growing, Beijing's anger will only intensify.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WANG (on camera): On China's third day of military exercises around Taiwan, the U.S. Navy sent a destroyer close to a contested Island to the South China Sea. Now Beijing claims the island is theirs and called the move illegal.

Meanwhile, the U.S. says they can operate wherever international law allows. So, it's not just Taiwan but the South China Sea is another source of tensions between the U.S. and China.

And with these latest exercises around Taiwan, experts say China's military is flexing its military might showing the world that it has the ability to conduct blockade and missile strikes on targets in and around Taiwan.

Selena Wang, CNN, Beijing.

VAUSE: Two prominent Chinese civil rights lawyers have been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for subversion. They were originally detained after privately meeting with other activists in 2019.

Ding Jiaxi was given a 12 year sentence according to his wife who lives in the United States. His partner Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to 14 years. They've both called for accountability in China's government, expressed pro-democracy sentiments. Both men were tried in several cases behind closed doors, pleaded not guilty to the charges. They are notable for actually using China's constitution in legal cases.

Still to come, a march in Northern Ireland turns violent with petrol bombs thrown at police just a day before a visit by the U.S. president, more on that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Ukrainian commander is accusing Russia of switching to so called Syrian scorched earth tactics in an effort to take the city of Bakhmut, destroying buildings and defensive positions with airstrikes and artillery fire.

The Ukrainian military also says dozens of Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine have been repelled since Sunday, and a Russian helicopter and six drones have been shut down.

Meantime, residents from Bakhmut are taking shelter in a nearby town Chasiv Yar.

CNN's Ben Wedeman met with some evacuees who shared stories of tragedy and survival from the frontlines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the safest way out of Bakhmut, but not really safe at all. Video obtained by CNN of the view from a Ukrainian armored vehicle shows the wasteland the city has become. And it was in a vehicle like this. Marina and Yevhenia escaped from Bakhmut. They're building was hitting him bombardment last Thursday, killing three. Among them, Yevhenia's 33-year-old grandson.

I had to help him, she recalls. But I couldn't do anything.

[00:30:06]

They waited in their ruined homes with the dead for three days before the army could rescue them.

Marina's (ph) daughter was married to Yevhenia's grandson. "What will I tell my daughter?" cries Marina (ph). She and my grandchildren are in Poland.

The shelter in nearby Chasiv Yar provides them some comfort and warmth, but they're still not out of danger. This town is well within range of Russian guns, and since the battle for Bakhmut began seven months ago, it has regularly come under shelling.

On this day, the Russians were firing incendiary munitions over the city, designed to cause fires. One resident showed us a spent capsule from the rocket.

WEDEMAN: Officials say there are perhaps 1,000 civilians left in Chasiv Yar. Evacuations are possible, but there don't seem to be many takers.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Alexander (ph) drags firewood home. There's no electricity or running water here. He fled to Chasiv Yar from Siversk, an hour from here where his home was destroyed. Is he leaving?

"No," he replies. "My wife died here. My parents are buried here."

Sergey Choust (ph) heads the town's military administration. "Since last April, we've been trying to convince people to leave, talking with them, reasoning with them," he tells me, "but we can't make them leave."

Yet again, the old and infirm refuse to leave, despite the danger.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Chasiv Yar, Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Police in Northern Ireland came under attack Monday during a march commemorating this month's anniversary of the 1916 Easter uprising in Ireland.

Masked men threw petrol bombs at police vehicles in Derry during the march, which was organized by the political wing of the new IRA. Police say nobody was hurt in the attacks, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, the historic peace deal, which brought an end to decades of violence, known as the Troubles.

In Belfast, pro-union loyalists marched on Monday in their own peaceful Easter parades. All this a day before U.S. President Joe Biden leaves for Northern Ireland, commemorating the Good Friday agreement, which was brokered by the United States. This set up a power-sharing arrangement between pro-British Protestants and pro- Irish Republicans, which, according to some is now faltering.

From Northern Ireland, Mr. Biden will then travel to his ancestral homeland, the Republic of Ireland, what promises to be a joyous visit. He'll become the eighth sitting U.S. president to go there.

But as Donie O'Sullivan tells us, perhaps no president has embraced his Irish roots quite as deeply as Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm currently at probably theme most highly- regarded landmark in Ireland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Barack Obama Plaza.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's become a viral favorite on TikTok. On the side of an Irish motorway, a rest stop named after President Barack Obama.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, Ireland! My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall Obamas.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Barack Obama Plaza was built here in the tiny village of Moneygall, where Obama's ancestors immigrated from in the 19th Century.

OBAMA: You don't always dress up this much.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Obama visited the village in 2011.

O'SULLIVAN: That makes you guys --

HENRY HEALY, DISTANT COUSIN OF BARACK OBAMA: Eighth cousins. Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: What's your nickname?

HEALY: He gave me the nickname Henry VIII.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Henry Healy is Obama's distant cousin and is now a manager at the Barack Obama Plaza.

O'SULLIVAN: I think it definitely raises some eyebrows in the United States when they hear there's a rest stop at the side of a highway named after an American president.

HEALY: Does me (ph) some shock and awe. The cardboard cutouts that we have here are phenomenally popular.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands cheer with the enthusiasm that only Irishmen can muster.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Ireland's love affair with U.S. presidents began when President John F. Kennedy visited his ancestral home here in New Ross, County Wexford, in 1963.

O'SULLIVAN: And you were sitting in the front row.

MARK MINIHAN, SON OF FORMER NEW ROSS MAYOR: I was about to say, I'd say maybe 10, 15 yards out there.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Mark Minihan's dad was mayor of New Ross at the time and was to introduce Kennedy to the crowd.

ANDREW MINIHAN, FORMER NEW ROSS MAYOR: Can you hear me now? Can you hear me?

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Some of the microphone stopped working just as JFK arrived.

[00:35:04]

M. MINIHAN: Microphones broke down just before he started, so he was even more uptight.

O'SULLIVAN: The microphones broke down?

M. MINIHAN: The things broke down when President Kennedy was only over and coming along the street here.

A. MINIHAN: We're in right trouble now.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The technical glitch was eventually resolved, and the speech ended up going ahead.

A. MINIHAN: It took 115 years to make this trip.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A trip which included a visit here.

O'SULLIVAN: So this is the original farmyard the president -- the president's great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, left from.

M. MINIHAN: He actually left through that gate, the same gate --

O'SULLIVAN: Wow.

M. MINIHAN: -- during the famine when he went off to Boston.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Like many Irish-Americans, Kennedy's great- grandfather immigrated to the United States during the Irish potato famine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he decided to come back to Europe and show that he was proud of his peasant roots.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Kennedy began a tradition of presidential visits to Ireland. Reagan visited in 1984.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So many Irish men and women from every walk of life played a role in creating the dream of America.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The interiors of this pub in Reagan's ancestral village of Ballyporeen were eventually shipped to California to the Reagan Presidential Library.

Now, perhaps the most Irish of Irish-American presidents is about to visit the country, and his cousins, the Blewitts, here in Ballina, County Mayo, are getting ready.

O'SULLIVAN: Tell us how you're related to the president, first of all.

JOE BLEWITT, IRISH RELATIVE OF JOE BIDEN: So my dad is his third cousin. So his great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, left Ballina in the 1860s, and he went to move to Scranton.

O'SULLIVAN: Girls, how does it feel to be related to the president?

LAUREN BLEWITT, IRISH RELATIVE OF JOE BIDEN: It's very exciting.

EMILY BLEWITT, IRISH RELATIVE OF JOE BIDEN: Yes.

L. BLEWITT: He's president.

O'SULLIVAN: Have you met him before?

E. BLEWITT: Yes.

L. BLEWITT: We've met him twice.

E. BLEWITT: We've met him twice.

O'SULLIVAN: What did he say to you?

E. BLEWITT: He was just -- he was just eating our chips and when -- when the fancy meals came out, he just wanted the chips and chicken nuggets. So --

O'SULLIVAN: He was stealing your chicken nuggets?

E. BLEWITT: Yes.

L. BLEWITT: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Biden's ancestors, the Blewitts and the Finnegans, immigrated from Counties Mayo and Louth.

O'SULLIVAN: Your dad and Joe Biden are third cousins?

LAURITA BLEWITT, IRISH RELATIVE OF JOE BIDEN: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: But you seem to be the favorite cousin.

L. BLEWITT: I don't know why, but -- well, maybe it's just my personality.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hi, everybody.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Biden has visited Ireland in the past, and Laurita Blewitt has made multiple trips to the White House. But this would be the first time they will welcome him to Ireland as president.

L. BLEWITT: We've struck up a great friendship since the first day that we met. You know, his family were steeped in Irish traditions. You know, he talks about it all the time. He tells great stories of growing up and basically growing up in an Irish household, even though, you know, obviously, they were very much American.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): From accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom --

BIDEN: You know, I can't let it come and go by without quoting an Irish poet.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): -- to accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president --

BIDEN: The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote --

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): -- Biden always seems to have a line of Irish poetry to hand.

BIDEN: But then, once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme.

J. BLEWITT: He's just so proud of the Irish roots. Like, he's really proud of the Irish roots. And yes, we've had the other presidents. But this president is more important, I think, to Ireland than the rest of them.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, County Mayo, Ireland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come on CNN, first came the inappropriate kiss, then the inappropriate request. Now a tone-deaf apology from the Dalai Lama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:37]

VAUSE: The Dalai Lama seems to be the latest religious leader who has reacted with a tone-deaf apology after he was recorded during an inappropriate moment with a young boy.

First, he's seeing kissing the boy on the mouth, then asking the child to suck his tongue. The incident happened in February during a public event in India, but the video went viral online in recent days, sparking widespread outrage, followed by what seems to be a non- apology apology.

CNN's Vedika Sud has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VEDIKA SUD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know there's outrage. And there's outrage. There's anger. People across social media are absolutely shocked and disturbed at that video.

Very quickly, John, that boy, that young boy who was at a public event in February this year, all he asked for was a hug from the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual guru. And that's when the Dalai Lama called him onstage.

SUD (voice-over): And not only asking for a hug, but a kiss on the cheek, as well. And the boy obliged.

Moments later, you had the Dalai Lama then ask him to give the Dalai Lama a kiss on the mouth. He drew the boy in, pulled on his chin, and kissed him on his mouth.

And then seconds later, he went on to say, "Suck my tongue."

SUD: Now this is extremely disturbing. It's unsettling for even parents who watched this video across social media. And moments later, we had -- or rather hours later, we had the Dalai

Lama's office come out and issue a statement where they said that the Dalai Lama regretted the incident.

SUD (voice-over): Just an extract from that press release, and I'm going to read it out here. "His holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and the family, as well as his many friends across the world for the hurt his words may have caused."

Interesting, the use of what the word "hurt" and the use of the word "word." They're not talking about the actions of the Dalai Lama --

SUD: -- that may have hurt the people, hurt the boy, hurt the family, but the words used by the Dalai Lama.

Now like I said, there's been extreme anger and outrage over this video. You've had the Dalai Lama come out and apologize. But like I said, for his words, and not for his actions, which have been questioned by activists, as well across India, where they've questioned the Dalai Lama, who holds such a high post, a spiritual leader, religious leader who's acknowledged across the world. And his actions completely, completely disappointing is what many have to say -- John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Vedika, thank you for that. I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts after the break. See you in 17 minutes, 20 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:44]

(WORLD SPORT)