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CNN International: Far-Right Parties Projected to Win Record Seats in EU Elections; Trump's Team Wants Him to Talk About Issues, Not Conviction; Key Israeli War Cabinet Member Benny Gantz Quits Emergency Government; U.S. Doubles Down on Rescue Mission Support. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET

Aired June 10, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: European level is a result of the European elections held over the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are ready to rebuild the country, ready to revive France.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regrettably, Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward true victory, which is the justification for the ongoing and painful cost of war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't have any U.S. forces on the ground. Second, we've been working for months to support Israel and its efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything that's an illicit activity, they're going to engage in for a profit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The FBI El Paso can confirm that members of Tren de Aragua have crossed into the United States.

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

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Monday, June the 10th, 9 a.m. here in London, 10 a.m. in Paris, Brussels and Berlin as Europe starts the week on a shifting political landscape. That seems to be moving further and further as well to the right. Results are coming in for the next European Parliament and far-right parties are projected to win a record number of seats after four days of voting in 27 countries. Exit polls show the mainstream center-right European People's Party will remain the largest group.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen celebrating her party's success whilst acknowledging that extremes on both ends of the spectrum are gaining traction. URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: The center is holding. But it is also true that the extremes on the left and on the right have gained support. And this is why the result comes with great responsibility for the parties in the center. We may differ on individual points, but we all have an interest in stability and we all want a strong and effective Europe.

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FOSTER: Protesters in Paris expressed their outrage at gains for French right-wing parties which took more than one in three votes cast according to the official results. French President Emmanuel Macron has dissolved Parliament and called snap elections in the coming weeks.

Joining us now is Clare Sebastian. We're focusing on France because it's the most dramatic story. But if we take the top three economies, Germany, France and Italy, whilst the bigger picture is that the center-ground held their position, in key countries the right surged.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, obviously, particularly dramatically in France where the National Rally, which is the biggest far-right party, took more than 30 percent, more than double what Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance Party took. But the AfD in Germany, the Alternative for Germany party, also was second place. This is a party that has been deemed so far-right that Marine Le Pen of the National Rally actually kicked them out.

You can see it there of the ID grouping, which was already seen as the most extreme right grouping in the European Parliament. So they now gained seats in Germany. And in Italy, Giorgio Meloni's Brothers of Italy had a really strong showing as well.

So it is, as you say, these key countries, these key parties that are now really mainstreaming these far-right policies. And in terms of those policies, take a listen to what Marine Le Pen said in France after this result.

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MARINE LE PEN, RASSEMBLEMENT NATIONAL LEADER (through translator): We are ready to exercise power if the French trust us during these future legislative sessions. We are ready to rebuild the country, ready to defend the interests of the French, ready to put an end to mass immigration, ready to make the purchasing power of the French a priority, ready to begin the reindustrialization of the country. Overall, we are ready to rebuild the country, ready to revive France.

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SEBASTIAN: Ready to put an end to mass immigration, no surprise there. That has always been the sort of core focus of the European far-right as it has been gradually rising over the past years and decades.

Purchasing power, an interesting one there. This is, of course, an appeal to people in Europe who have been suffering under the weight of a cost-of-living crisis, are worried about the cost of policies like the Green Deal, support for Ukraine, things like that. So I think this is a real show of where we are, right? We've seen five years where we've seen increasingly more Europe with this Green Deal, with the sort of joint approach to COVID, with the solidarity of Ukraine.

[04:05:00]

These parties are now looking not to exit Europe, like we saw with Brexit, but to control Europe from within and to reduce its influence over these parts of life.

FOSTER: And the most profound immediate impact is this French general election. It's not as if Macron's going to be out completely, but he may end up having to deal with a far-right prime minister, effectively. And this is just ahead of the Olympics.

Why on earth did he choose to call this election? Many people are baffled by it.

SEBASTIAN: Yes, I mean, the eyes of the world will be on France at this point. He says that he's looking for clarity, right? He needs to have clarity for the people, effectively, for the legislature to reflect the will of the people, given the strong showing for the far right.

But it's a gamble, right? He wants it to go his way, and Elysee source telling CNN that convince, convince, convince will be the approach in the lead-up to the election. If it does go his way, he then will gain a greater mandate for his liberal agenda.

Right now, he has lost already his absolute majority. He's already struggling to get policies through. So in that sense, perhaps he has nothing to lose.

But if not, he then has to perhaps, if the far right gain the most seats in Parliament, cohabit with a far-right prime minister. And then we look ahead, of course, to 2027, when France is having presidential elections, where Marine Le Pen has her sights clearly set on that.

FOSTER: OK, Clare, thank you.

It wasn't just Emmanuel Macron that faced a stinging rebuke in Germany. As Clare says, the Social Democrats, Chancellor Olaf Scholz scored their worst ever result, just 14 percent.

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FOSTER: That was the moment that the far-right party, Alternative for Germany, learned the exit polls show it winning. 16 percent of the vote takes second place there. The party known for its anti-immigrant policies has risen from a fringe group to a huge mainstream presence now. Leslie Vinjamuri is the head of the U.S. and Americas Programme at Chatham House, joins us from London. Because, Leslie, a lot of people suggesting that without Trump, none of this would have happened.

LESLIE VINJAMURI, DIRECTOR, U.S. AND AMERICAS PROGRAMME AT CHATHAM HOUSE: Well, I think that might be a stretch. I mean, if you really think of the global context, which is driving so much of what we're seeing, the COVID pandemic, low growth in Europe, the effects of climate change, the pressure on the energy transition in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I mean, the far-right has been gaining traction for some time in Europe. This is clearly at a different level.

And there's no doubt, as you've suggested, Max, that Donald Trump and those around him have worked in significant ways, below the radar, above the radar, to try and give a voice to far-right elements across Europe. And certainly we'll see this as a success story for the conservative movement to which they're committed.

But I think that, as we've said with Donald Trump and with Trumpism, there's an argument to be made that Trump is a symptom of a number of underlying causes that are leading many people to suffer much more harshly the effects of those sort of global factors that I've just outlined.

The unequal effects of low growth are significant, and the ability of the far-right to displace that frustration onto immigrants, which, in fact, what we need is a sound immigration policy to help solve some of the problems of labor shortages that Europe will face, and the U.S. is obviously needing to think about this. Instead, we're seeing quite the reverse, that even the center is tacking to the right because of the pressure from this far-right.

FOSTER: It would strengthen, though, Donald Trump, wouldn't it, arguably, in terms of foreign policy? Because leaders like Marine Le Pen would be expected to be closer to his alignment and work more closely with him, and many of the far-right leaders do identify with a lot of what Trump says. So if he becomes president, he would have more allies in Europe.

VINJAMURI: I think that's right. I think it's clear that Donald Trump has, as I've said, been a fan of those he was quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, supportive of Brexit and of the far-right in the U.K., certainly in Europe. But if you look at the broader European push right now, some of it in light of the anticipation of a possible Trump election is to work together to build strategic autonomy and coherence within Europe.

This will see anything but that. Right now we're seeing really a pull inwards. France is going to be focused very much internally.

Two days before the Washington summit, before the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., France will be mired in a domestic election.

[04:10:00] So the focus internally, this will inevitably make it more difficult for Europe to think strategically about the possibility of a Trump election. But yes, you're absolutely right, that for Donald Trump and those around him, this is a movement that they would like to see, a focus more on sovereignty, on nationalism, anti-immigration, and especially pushing back against the climate change agenda, oil and gas being absolutely critical to the Trump election.

So that movement, I think, is one that the former president will certainly welcome.

FOSTER: You mentioned environment, you mentioned immigration. One of the key elements of the right-wing campaigns appears to be inflation as well, cost of living. And that appears to be what has tapped into this election and tapped into people and got them a lot of support, something that the mainstream moderate parties haven't really managed to do.

And then this second issue, which was Ukraine, which ties into it because of the cost of supporting Ukraine. We don't know exactly where Trump stands on Ukraine, but where does all that tie together?

VINJAMURI: Well, as you rightly pointed out, inflation, low growth, stalled growth, the effects of that are highly unequal. We're seeing that even in the United States where the growth has been much stronger, where job creation has been very good for the whole, but the effects are still highly unequal. And it's those voters that are suffering the effects, not only of the invasion of Ukraine, of the sanctions of so-called poly-crisis, are finding their voice through leaders that are mobilizing them around agenda that isn't clear will actually deliver the benefits that they need to see.

The question of how you invest in a way that distributes goods more across the whole of society is an absolutely critical one. It's one that people on the left are thinking very seriously about, but the right has been much more effective in certain corners at mobilizing those voters who are simply not seeing the benefit. They're experiencing the hurt of those problems of growth, and they're attributing it to the migrants that are coming across the borders.

They're seeing climate change as increasing their cost of living. So that message has been very powerful and one that Europe is struggling with, as is President Biden in the United States, to communicate a new way of thinking that can really put forward a broad and longer-term agenda. Very difficult to see those gains if you're on the bottom end of the income scale.

FOSTER: Yes. Leslie Vinjamuri in London, really appreciate your time, as ever.

Now, in the coming hours, a probation officer is set to interview Donald Trump as part of the sentencing phase of his hush money trial. The meeting will be virtual, with his attorney present as Trump is back on the campaign trail. Trump's advisers are eager for him to leave talk of his legal troubles out of his speeches, but so far, that's not the case. CNN's Alayna Treene reports.

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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Former President Donald Trump in his first campaign rally since being convicted in a Manhattan courtroom last week surprisingly did not talk about that trial specifically during his speech. Instead, he spoke about his legal troubles more broadly. He also criticized special counsel Jack Smith, who was not part of this case, referring to him as a, quote, dumb son of a bitch, and also claimed that the weaponization of the Justice Department in this country is worse than what you would find in a third-world country.

Take a listen to how he put it.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I tell you what, no third-world country has weaponization where they go after political candidates like we have either. This guy can't get elected anything without cheating. The only way he can get elected is to cheat.

TREENE: Now, despite that rhetoric, I will tell you that from my conversations with Donald Trump's campaign, they really do want him to leave this weeks-long trial in the past and really begin turning back to a general election campaign message. That includes talking about immigration, something he spoke about at length on Sunday, as well as the economy and crime.

And he did make one new announcement on Sunday. He said that a second administration of his would eliminate taxes on tips, and that's something particularly important to voters here in Nevada, especially given the state's reliance on tourism and transportation.

Now, just looking ahead to Monday, Donald Trump is set to have a pre- sentencing hearing with a probation officer. Now, this is pretty routine, following a conviction like his. However, what's not normal is that it is going to be virtual. We're told he'll be at his Mar-a- Lago home with his defense attorney, Todd Blanche, for that.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Las Vegas.

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FOSTER: Up next, a shakeup inside Israel's emergency government after a key official says he's quitting the war cabinet. The announcement, a blow to Israel's prime minister, even as he celebrated a rare rescue of hostages.

Why that operation in Gaza is now drawing scrutiny. A reaction from across the globe.

Ahead, how the U.S. national security advisor responded to questions about the death toll in Israel's latest operation. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz says he is stepping down from the country's emergency government. His departure comes just weeks after he issued an ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he called on him to lay out a new plan for the war against Hamas by June the 8th. Netanyahu asked Gantz to change his mind, saying now is the time to, quote, join forces.

But Gantz made his thoughts clear, accusing the Israeli leader of putting his own political considerations ahead of a strategy for a post-war Gaza. Here's part of what he said in a televised statement on Sunday.

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BENNY GANTZ, RESIGNED AS WAR CABINET MINISTER (through translator): Regrettably, Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward true victory, which is the justification for the ongoing and painful cost of war.

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That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with full confidence. I call on Netanyahu. Set an agreed election date. Don't allow our people to get torn apart.

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FOSTER: The announcement came a day after Israeli forces rescued four hostages in an operation in Gaza, where officials say scores of Palestinians were killed. We're tracking all these developments from here in London. Nada's here, also, Elliott. Nada, if I can just start with that operation. We've had more detail about, you know, the wider effects of it, effectively.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. And this is being described as perhaps one of the deadliest days that we have seen in Gaza in months. Gaza authorities saying at least 274 people were killed over the course of this operation, nearly 700 others injured.

And we have seen the graphic and, again, distressing images emerging from the Nuseirat refugee camp. This was an area, of course, where we knew thousands of civilians had been sheltering. It has, of course, come under heavy bombardment, as we have seen in recent days and weeks.

And, of course, we've been hearing from civilians on the ground who've described the chaos and carnage which took place afterwards, the heavy bombardment, the lack of anywhere, really, to escape to for safety. We've also seen images emerging from the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. As we know, this is a hospital which was already severely overrun given recent airstrikes that we have seen in the area.

But, again, bodies piled up in these overrun malls. We've seen casualties being treated on the ground. According to some eyewitnesses on the ground, ambulances weren't actually able to get into the area to provide support for those injured because it had been deemed a military zone and that bombardment had continued.

And, of course, this has really stoked concern over, really, what the actual purpose of this operation is in terms of the protection of civilians. We've seen those warnings from world leaders calling for the Israeli military to do more to protect civilians over the course of their military operations, be that targeting Hamas or trying to rescue, of course, hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza. But, again, this is one of the deadliest attacks that we have seen in recent days and weeks.

FOSTER: And, Elliott, this did play into Gantz's resignation.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It did. He was due to announce his resignation on June the 8th. That was the deadline.

That was Saturday. As a result of the rescue of the four Israeli hostages, which you've just been talking about, of course, and the other effects of it, Gantz postponed it by a day. So Sunday evening, goes before the cameras and announces his resignation.

And it's interesting because at the beginning of the war, Gantz joined the government. He formed this national unity government because Israel, he said, you know, we need to be united now in this war against Hamas. And they formed this war cabinet.

And Gantz specifically insisted that he be a part of the war cabinet. It's basically him, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Prime Minister Netanyahu. There are a couple of observers as well. And specifically ensured that the far right ministers in Prime Minister Netanyahu's governing coalition were not in the war cabinet.

So all of what we've seen in the war, the decisions that have been made by Israel and the actions have been a result of the Israeli war cabinet.

Now, Gantz has gone from that. We've already got National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who never even served in the Israeli military, by the way, because his views were considered to be too extremist. He's now clamoring for inclusion in the war cabinet. And I suppose what we've had until now is that Gantz provided an element of cover for Netanyahu to say to his right wing coalition members, look, you know, this is kind of the way that we're doing things because this is our war cabinet.

And now that cover has gone. I think that you could see the war cabinet taking decisions which maybe Gantz would not have approved of.

FOSTER: That's how Netanyahu's beholden to the right wing more than he was.

GOTKINE: Quite, because, you know, he still has the numbers in the Knesset, the parliament. His government is not under threat. His position as prime minister is not right now under threat unless his coalition parties leave the government.

He's got 64 out of 120 seats in the coalition right now. Next election elections are planned for October 2026. But now, absolutely, he's more beholden than ever to those right wing members of his government.

And I think in addition to the war, the other thing that we're, of course, paying attention to is the ongoing hostage talks. Now, we had President Biden come out a couple of weeks ago with that ceasefire plan, which the Americans say Israel has already accepted. And the ball is now in Hamas's court.

Is Israel likely to go forward with a deal that those right wing ministers have already said would cause them to leave the government, leaving Prime Minister Netanyahu the unpalatable prospect of elections, which opinion polls say that he would lose? Well, it's, you know, one would imagine that given what Gantz has been saying, that Netanyahu is now acting more out of his own personal political self- interest, that that is something that would come into play even more with these peace talks.

FOSTER: If a peace deal or Israeli proposal becomes more right wing, it makes it less likely to be achieved.

BASHIR: Absolutely. And in fact, these ongoing attacks that we're seeing targeting areas where we know civilians are sheltering are making it more difficult, of course, when it comes to Hamas's perspective on those ongoing ceasefire negotiations.

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That's been the warning for some time now from regional leaders who've been playing a key part in mediating talks between Hamas and, of course, Israeli officials and the United States. We've heard from Egyptian officials just yesterday saying that this latest round of strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp will have a negative impact on those ongoing discussions. We heard that previously, of course, with regards to the situation in Rafah, that any sort of ground operation in Rafah would scupper those ceasefire negotiations.

And while we've seen this supposed peace plan put on the table by President Biden, supposedly with the approval of the Israeli government, calling for a peaceful exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, clearly what we've seen now is a release, thankfully, of Israeli hostages, but at the cost of more than 200 lives, of course, in Gaza.

And so that has really put concern for regional leaders, particularly in the Middle East, who have been pushing for this peace plan, the United States, of course, putting more pressure on the Israeli government and on Hamas to both accept this peace proposal. But if we continue to see these rounds of strikes that we are seeing in Gaza, where we are seeing these significant civilian casualties as a result, that is likely to scupper any sort of ongoing peace negotiations.

And, of course, we've got Blinken now travelling to the Middle East, meeting with officials in both Egypt and, of course, in Israel. And, of course, there is that mounting pressure from the U.S. government, from the Biden administration for both sides to come to a lasting agreement. But clearly, we are not seeing those movements on the ground with regards to any sort of attempt to actually push towards that peace plan.

FOSTER: OK, Nada, Elliott, thank you both very much.

The U.S. national security adviser says the -- oh, an enduring ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is the only credible path forward and is calling on Hamas to accept the latest proposal. Those comments from Jake Sullivan coming just a day after the Israeli military operation that rescued those four hostages from Gaza, where officials say there were scores killed, as Nada was saying.

Sullivan was asked about that during an interview with CNN.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We didn't have any U.S. forces on the ground. Second, we've been working for months to support Israel in its efforts to rescue and recover hostages from Gaza.

Civilians were killed, and that is tragic. It is heartbreaking. I've said before that the Palestinian people are going through hell in this war. They're caught in the crossfire.

Hamas hides among civilian infrastructure, hides underground, and puts the Palestinian people in harm's way. And this whole thing, this whole tragedy could be over. All the hostages could be home.

There could be a ceasefire if Hamas would just step up and say yes to the deal that the Israelis have accepted and that President Biden elaborated a week ago. So the world should call on Hamas to take this deal.

The United States will support Israel in taking steps to try to rescue hostages who are currently being held in harm, held by Hamas. And we will continue to work with Israel to do that.

We will also continue to reinforce the point that all of their military operations, including hostage rescue operations, should take every precaution to minimize the amount of civilian harm or civilian casualties. That is a point we will reinforce in all of our engagements with the Israelis.

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FOSTER: After the break, Hunter, Biden's trial set to resume hours from now. Will the president's son take the stand in his own defense? We will have more on that.

Plus, a Venezuelan gang has sowed terror in several Central and South American countries. Now U.S. officials warn they're entering the United States.

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