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CNN International: Storms Force Thousands of Flight Delays, Cancellations; 80+ Million Under Air Quality Alerts in U.S., Canada; Trump Responds to 2021 Tape: I Did Nothing Wrong; U.S. Officials Interview Giuliani in Election Case; Putin: Russian Security Forces Stopped Civil War; Supreme Court Rejects Controversial Election Law Theory. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 28, 2023 - 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 a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Max Foster in London. Bianca is off for the week. But just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will never fly with United again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People have planned vacations for a long time. It's been a horrible couple of days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Completely disregarding his responsibility to protect secrets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that disqualifies those people from being president. And I think that I would say the same for any of them who said he should be pardoned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Halfway to Moscow, they will squash you like a bug.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russia is entering very difficult turbulence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

FOSTER: Well, it is Wednesday, June 28th, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast where severe storms are causing a travel meltdown right before the July 4 holiday weekend. Meanwhile, wildfire smoke in Canada is stretching from the Midwest to the Northeast bringing poor air quality and reducing visibility. We're starting over the travel misery. Because the Federal Aviation Administration ordered temporary ground stops on Tuesday night for flights going to all three major airports in the New York City metro area due to thunderstorms. A deja vu travel nightmare playing out with more than 1,000 flights delayed or canceled already today. Newark International Airport, some passengers are sleeping on cots. Passengers stuck waiting for hours in long lines to rebook their plans.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been awake for 24 hours. And so, now we have two, three days that -- and then we try to get rebooked, but we can't get out until Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our rebooking that they gave us by default is for like July 2nd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We definitely got canceled. I talked to some other passengers, they were saying that -- you know when they tried to book it, all filled. So sleeping at the airport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you are sleeping here for now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Data from FlightAware shows more than 9,000 flights were impacted on Tuesday, down from more than 11,000 flights Monday. United Airlines was the most impacted. CNN affiliate reporter Eliecer Marte with News 12 New Jersey has more from Newark International Airport.

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ELIECER MARTE, REPORTER, NEWS 12 NEW JERSEY: Yes, uncertainty and frustration, those are the two major words for passengers here at Newark Liberty International Airport. Take a look at the lines behind me. This Spirit line, I can tell you that the number of passengers waiting to either rebook a flight or two get refunded has more than doubled in the last two hours.

Now follow me this way. This is a family literally resting and sleeping on the floor. They were supposed to leave back home to Oakland, California at 5:00 in the morning, but their flight has been canceled. And honestly, they told me that they do not know when that they'll catch a plane next.

So, this is what is happening here at Newark Liberty International Airport. Many people traveling for different reasons. Vacations, to meet with the family, for medical purposes, or like this father you are going to hear from right now, who is supposed to drop off her daughter at a college program in Indianapolis. Her program begins tomorrow, but she's not going to be making it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were supposed to attend college for her in Indianapolis city. And they said it -- initially they said it got postponed for like two minutes, but then now they are saying that it's canceled. They have booked flights, I have booked a car reservation, everything. I don't know what happens to everything.

MARTE: And yes, Newark has been the most impacted airport within the last two days as far as like the number of flights canceled and delayed.

In Newark Liberty International Airport, I'm Eliecer Marte, News 12 New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: More than 80 million people from the U.S. Midwest to the East Coast are under air quality alerts as smoke from the Canadian wildfires sweeps across the border. Chicago and Detroit had the worst air quality in the world throughout the day Tuesday -- according to IQAir. Officials in the U.S. are warning of reduced visibility and closing some public spaces.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, this is pretty insane, guys. This is not fog. This is smoke.

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FOSTER: Canadian authorities say more than 200 wildfires are burning out of control right now. This was the view from farms in Wisconsin on Tuesday. The smoke is expected to linger for the next few days. It's Canada's worst ever fire season and has led to country's highest emissions on record.

The heatwave has been baking Texas. It's starting to expand across the U.S. More than 60 million people are under heat alerts from Arizona to Florida and as far north as Kansas and Missouri. A number of Texas cities saw highs over 100 degrees including Del Rio which has set a new record each of the past ten days.

The day after CNN obtained an audio recording of Donald Trump discussing classified documents, the former U.S. President insists he's done nothing wrong. That recording is a piece the evidence the U.S. Justice Department -- in the U.S. Justice Department's indictment against Trump. Here is what he told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a whole desk full of lots of papers, and mostly newspaper articles, copies of magazines, copies of different plans, copies of stories having do with many, many subjects. And what was said was absolutely fine and very perfectly. We did nothing wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not concerned then with your own vice on those recordings?

TRUMP: My voice was fine. What did I say wrong in those recordings? I didn't even see the recording. All I know is I did nothing wrong. We had a lot of papers. A lot of papers stacked up. In fact, you could hear the rustle of paper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: In the past Trump denied holding onto any secret documents after he left office. He is not repeating those denials now. He does say he doesn't know if there are any other recordings of him out there and he blames what he calls fake news. Trump's former attorney is backing him up.

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TIMOTHY PARLATORE, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Well, certainly you can hear the rustling of papers there, but as to what he is specifically holding, the tape in my opinion is unclear. And you can when you hear the sound of his voice, he does seem to be acting with a bit of bravado and playing to the crowd.

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FOSTER: Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts including conspiracy to hide classified documents from the U.S. government.

CNN has learned that U.S. federal investigators have interviewed former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, as a special counsel investigates efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Paula Reid tells us what we're learning.

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PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He was accompanied by his lawyer, Robert Costello, for this sit down with special counsel prosecutors. But we have some idea of what they might want to talk to him about. We know late last year he was subpoenaed for documents related to payments that he received around the time that he was filing legal challenges on behalf of former President Trump trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

And that subpoena came when it was still a Justice Department investigation. Before special counsel Jack Smith was appointed. Once Smith was appointed, Giuliani doesn't hear anything for over six months. And there were questions being raised about whether that meant that he was possibly a target and not just a potential witness in this investigation.

So the fact that he has now sat down with prosecutors, talked to them, presumably answered questions, that is notable.

Now we just got a statement from his spokesman Ted Goodman who said, quote, the appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner.

From all of our reporting on this side of the special counsel probe, you know, looking at efforts to overturn the 2020 election, we always knew that this was going to have a longer timeline than the Mar-a-Lago documents probe. Because look, there are more people, right, with potential criminal exposure, more potential crimes. It's just a broader, more diverse array of potential criminal activity. But it does appear that over the past few weeks we have seen a flurry

of witnesses going before the grand jury. We've seen other activity that suggests strongly that the special counsel could be nearing a charging decision. So far, he has not brought any charges related to January 6 but appears that could be coming. But it is completely unclear if Rudy Giuliani or former President Trump or anyone at all will definitely be charged. We're definitely seeing an uptick in activity.

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FOSTER: Let's turn to Russia now where President Vladimir Putin is trying to keep a firm grip on power after the rebellion over the weekend. But in Ukraine, the Russian invasion is still very real. Right now rescue teams are working tirelessly to find victims caught in a deadly missile strike in the eastern city of Kramatorsk. At least nine were killed and dozens injured in a blast that hit a crowded downtown area.

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In his nightly address President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the attack on civilians comes one year after a similar strike in Kremenchuk which killed 22 people. Many are accusing Russia of deliberately targeting the city. And Ukraine's president says they need to be held accountable. The strike comes amid frontline advances for Ukrainian forces taking advantage of Russia's split focus.

Meanwhile, a report in the "New York Times" says a senior Russian general may have known in advance about Yevgeny Prigozhin's plans for a rebellion. The paper says U.S. intelligence is trying to learn where General Sergey Surovikin may have helped in the planning. He was the top Russian commander in Ukraine until he was replaced in January. Current and former U.S. officials tell the "Times" Prigozhin would not have launched his uprising unless he believed others in power would come to his aid. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is praising Russian security forces for stopping a civil war. CNN's chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh reports.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): President Putin is used to conjuring his own reality on state T.V. But it was not clear during an array of post-rebellion pomp on Tuesday who is left buying it. His top brass whose removal it was all about still remarkably there too. As Putin surreally thanked land forces who barely intervened as Wagner advanced on Moscow at the weekend for saving Russia.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): You defended the constitution. You saved our people, our homeland virtually, you stopped a civil war.

WALSH (voice-over): And he bizarrely later told soldiers the Russian staked him, in effect had paid a billion dollars to the rebellious Wagner Group as it fought in Ukraine over the past year. PUTIN (through translator): I want everyone to know about this. The maintenance of the entire Wagner Group was fully provided for by the state. We fully funded this group from the Ministry of Defense and from the state budget.

WALSH (voiceover): It was a strange self-own, a bid to paint former confidant turned insurrectionist, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last seen here in Rostov on Saturday as a corrupt profiteer.

But the new spin is too late as Prigozhin no longer the target of Russian prosecutors Tuesday appear to have fled to Belarus. According to its president, Alexander Lukashenko, who relished in colorfully describing a starkly contrasting weekend to Putin, in which he persuaded Prigozhin in a phone call to stop his tanks moving on Putin. There was cursing.

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, PRESIDENT OF BELARUS (through translator): Yevgeny was in complete euphoria. There were 10 times more expletives than normal words. I said Putin will not talk to us due to the situation. He was silent and then said, but we want justice and we'll go to Moscow. I said halfway you will be just crushed like a bug.

WALSH (voiceover): Lukashenko said later Saturday, Prigozhin agrees to stop his advance in return for his offer of safety in Belarus, and added Wagner would be useful in Belarusian ranks.

Putin's headache now slightly further away, but still pounding. A drama, miles from the wars grind where Ukraine's President Zelenskyy has hailed advances in all directions, but where a breakthrough is lacking.

Russian troops targeted here outside Bakhmut usually don't have phones and may not have learned yet of Wagner's revolt. What morale will be left to shatter when they do.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: For more on all this, CNN's Clare Sebastian with me in London. We'll talk about the latest attacks in Kramatorsk in a moment. But first mystery about the existing Wagner fighters whether or not they are signing up with Russian military or heading somewhere else.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, I think if we assume that Lukashenko is correct and Prigozhin is now in Belarus, the question shifts to we don't know exactly how many of Prigozhin's 25,000 Wagner fighters. He says that very few have accepted the offer to sign up with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Lukashenko, along with the Pentagon say that some of them are still in Ukraine. Lukashenko, saying they returned to their camps there. So that is something for Ukraine to watch.

But will they then go to Belarus is the big question. Lukashenko denies that they are building camps there for Wagner fighters but said they could have to sort of abandoned land there if they won. Are we looking at some sort of Wagner 2.0? Is it going to be a unit of the Russian military, a unit of the Belarusian military? I think the key thing is what matters to Ukraine is not so much who they are affiliated with but how many of them return to the battlefield. Take a listen to the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

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DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: If Wagner disintegrates or falls into pieces but part of it will move to the regular -- will become part of the regular Russian army and end up on the frontline fighting in exactly the same way as they did being a part of Wagner, then the change will not be that visible. But if something deeper and more damaging will happen to them and some of them, some for example, some of the veterans with excellent fighting record will decide to retire entirely, yes, that helps.

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SEBASTIAN: So if fewer Wagner fighters return, particularly the elite forces -- which they were originally known for, of course -- then that helps Ukraine. I think the key thing to understand here is that wherever they end up, this is a band of hardened, battle-hardened fighters. But many of them also very serious criminals who were sort of taken out to prison and put to the battlefield. It's a volatile force wherever it ends up.

FOSTER: In Kramatorsk we saw this restaurant being attacked by a Russian missile. Children -- you know, it's a very well-known restaurant. Apparently where lots of people sort of frequent. Do you think any of this is linked to what we saw in terms of the insurgency?

SEBASTIAN: You know, I think is key to remember -- obviously, Wagner was instrumental in the land war that Russia fought with very limited success over the winter. Any success can largely be notched up to the efforts of Wagner who took all 16 square miles of Bakhmut over the winter.

But Russia can still fight the air war where it still has supremacy. This is something that Kuleba also warned about. And they can do that without Wagner. So this was another adding to the very bleak list now of mass casualty events for civilians in Ukraine. Nine people now killed including a 17-year-old girl, two twin 14-year-old sisters in the restaurant. Kramatorsk is in the Ukrainian held part of Donetsk. It's only about an hour's drive from Bakhmut. So it is an important area where you find a lot of military, a lot of journalists. And a lot of them did frequent this pizza restaurant. So we don't know if that was the specific target or not. But certainly they're still looking through the rubble. It seems that, you know, we're still getting a full picture of what exactly the destruction is here. And Zelenskyy extremely angry, wanting to investigate this among other things as a potential war crime.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you. U.S. stocked rallied Tuesday after the Consumer Confidence Index rose

to more than 109 four this month. Up from 102 in May. That means Americans remain confident about the state of the economy despite multiple interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Bank of America CEO said it could take until 2025 for U.S. inflation to hit the Fed's 2 percent target. It is currently sitting at nearly 4.5 percent.

Here's a look at the U.S. futures as we await the opening bell in New York, in the coming hours. A bit of a mixed picture there, but the Dow looking slightly up.

Still ahead, tensions flare in a Paris suburb after a teen is shot during a traffic stop. We'll have the details on that.

Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a controversial election law theory favored by many conservatives. The fallout of this key decision, that's just ahead.

Plus, Meta testing some new safety features for Instagram and Facebook Messenger. We'll tell you what they are after this break.

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FOSTER: The death of a teenage driver is being investigated in France after shots were fired during a traffic stop. His death sparked clashes between young people and the police on Tuesday. Police say it happened in a Paris suburb earlier in the day after the 17-year-old reportedly refused to comply with a stop order. The Paris police chief says about 350 police and paramilitary officers have been mobilized due to the unrest. While 24 people were detained.

Video of the incident has emerged showing two people -- two police officers beside the car before the driver pulls away. And a warning, some viewers may find the video disturbing.

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FOSTER: Police say the car then crashed into a pole. The local prosecutor's office says one of the police officers is currently in custody for culpable homicide.

Federal prosecutors have charged five more people in connection with a human smuggling operation that left 53 migrants dead in Texas last year. All five are now in custody and accused of managing the operation that stuffed migrants into the back of a truck in sweltering heat without a working air conditioner. They were being transported from the Mexican border to San Antonio. A former U.S. Marine who held a Black man in a deadly chokehold is due

to appear in at a Manhattan court today. Criminal charges against Daniel Penny will be unsealed at his arraignment following the death of Jordan Neely last month. Penny was recorded on video restraining Neely on a subway train in New York City.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Supreme Court rejecting an obscure legal theory that had the potential to upend federal elections. The justices were warned during arguments in December that if the court adopted the independent state legislature theory, it could create election chaos.

NEAL KATYAL, ATTORNEY: The blast radius from their theory would sow elections chaos forcing a confusing two-track system with one set of rules for federal elections and another for state ones.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): But Chief Justice John Roberts writing the opinion in the 6-3 decision upheld the authority of state courts to overrule election maps, laws and rules, put into effect by state lawmakers.

Backers of former President Trump pushed the conflicting independent state legislation theory after the 2020 election, claiming that because the elections clause of the U.S. Constitution says the legislature controls the times and places and manner of holding elections, state courts had no authority to overrule state lawmakers.

But now, the U.S. high court has rejected that argument. Spelling out how courts have throughout history been final arbiters enforcing state and federal constitutions.

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The chief justice writing, the elections clause does not insolate state legislatures from the ordinary exercise of state judicial review.

KATHAY FENG, COMMON CAUSE: We beat back the most serious legal threat our democracy has ever faced with today's ruling in Moore v. Harper.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Voting rights advocates praised the decision, with former President Barack Obama even weighing in. Writing: This ruling is a resounding rejection of the far-right theory that has been peddled by election deniers and extremists seeking to undermine our democracy.

The decision stemmed from a voting map dispute in North Carolina, where the Supreme Court initially struck down a congressional map drawn by Republicans who then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying their state's highest court had no right to step in.

But while this case was ongoing, the partisan balance of the North Carolina Supreme Court changed, and they ruled in late April that state courts have no role to play when it comes to policing election maps.

JOSH STEIN, (D) NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL: So we know our general assembly is about to pass a bunch of ugly, gerrymandered maps that are going to make it hard on voters.

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): And North Carolina's attorney general warns, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision might not mean the end for state legislatures trying to meddle in federal elections.

STEIN: When people have power, they want to try to grab more power and we see that with state legislatures across this country.

SCHNEIDER: Now Chief Justice John Roberts did write in the opinion that although state courts can overrule state legislatures, they don't have, quote, free reign. And that could leave the door open to future litigation lawsuits as we move into the 2024 election cycle.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

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FOSTER: Students in New York City will be learning more than reading, writing and arithmetic this fall. Mayor Eric Adams says public schoolchildren from pre-k to 12th grade will be required to do two to five minutes of mindful breathing practices at school. The mayor's office says the program in coordination with the Yoga Alliance is intended to help increase students' physical and mental health. They had of the city's health department says the breathing exercises will benefit young people in their daily lives and teach them healthy coping skills they can use throughout their lives.

New tools for Instagram and Messenger will give parents more control over how teens use the apps. One can show how much time teens spend on Messenger and who they're interacting with. Instagram is testing a feature that'll block explicit images appearing in direct message requests. The new tools are rolling out today in the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

Coming up, a top U.S. Republican official is doubting out loud whether Donald Trump is the strongest Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race. That's next.

Still ahead, actor Kevin Spacey's trial begins in London. He's facing numerous sexual assault charges. The latest on his case in a live report next.

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