Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
CNN International: G7 Leaders Expected to Focus on Russia, War in Ukraine; U.S. Frustrated by Hamas Changes to Ceasefire Proposal; House Republicans Hold Attorney General in Contempt; Sandy Hook's Young Survivors Graduate High School. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired June 13, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Is Merrick Garland above the law? I mean, I thought the whole argument is that no one is above the law.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is such a monumental day, and we all can feel what we've lost.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been nearly 12 years since a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 first graders and six educators.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 21 gun salute hails the arrival of the Russian frigate Gorshkov in Havana Harbor and an old Cold War alliance against America is rekindled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Thursday, June the 13th, 9 a.m. here in London, 10 a.m. in southern Italy, where the 50th annual G7 summit is set to kick off next hour with a major focus on Russia and its war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden will unveil more than 300 new sanctions targeting Russia. They're meant to weaken Moscow's ability to source materials for the war, particularly from Russian ally China. Mr. Biden is also expected to sign a new 10-year security pact with Ukraine on the sidelines of the summit. It'll include training for Ukrainian forces, more weapons and military equipment and greater intelligence sharing.
And G7 leaders are set to announce a $50 billion loan to Ukraine paid for with proceeds from Russian investments which have been frozen since the war began.
Live now to CNN's senior White House correspondent, MJ Lee, traveling with the president. So what do you expect the big headline to be, MJ? MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, President Biden certainly has a packed day ahead of him as the G7 gets underway, including the ceremonial aspects of kicking off the summit, a meet and greet with Prime Minister Meloni of Italy. They are going to participate, of course, in that working group photo that is so famous when it comes to the G7 summit and then followed by a number of working sessions throughout the day.
But you're right that in the evening, President Biden is going to be signing this security pact with Ukraine that will be so symbolically significant. This is an agreement that came to be after months of negotiations between the two countries. And what it would do is commit the U.S. for 10 years to things like training Ukrainian armed forces, cooperation when it comes to production of military equipment, intelligence sharing, military assistance.
But as symbolically significant as this pact is going to be, particularly given the moment that we're in with the war now in its third year and with Russia gaining some gains, making gains rather in the battlefield recently, it is important to note that there is a huge asterisk when it comes to this pact.
And it is that it is not officially binding for future presidents of the U.S. after President Biden is out of office. And if that happens in November, obviously there are U.S. elections coming up. A different president, like say Donald Trump, could decide to undo this pact.
And I think that reality is one that world leaders are going to be particularly sensitive to. A good reminder that really everything could look very different next year. You know, as President Biden embarks on this final G7 of his first summit, it's a good reminder that it comes just three years after the first G summit that he attended as president.
And back then, you know, U.S. officials had talked about how there was a lot of relief for world leaders, seeing somebody who was talking about reinstating the U.S.'s leadership on the world stage. And I think President Biden, as he kicks off this 50th G7 summit, he's going to confront questions about how successful he has been when he looks back on that pledge that he made three years ago of making sure that he is sort of strengthening and building upon those U.S. alliances that a lot of world leaders thought had been weakened by former President Donald Trump -- Max.
[04:05:00]
FOSTER: MJ Lee in southern Italy, thank you so much for that. We'll be with you throughout the day as all that unfolds.
The war in Gaza also looming large over that G7 summit. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Italy from the Middle East, where his latest diplomatic push failed to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Blinken left the region frustrated over numerous Hamas changes to the proposal, and he questioned whether Hamas is proceeding in good faith. But he said work would continue to try to bridge the gaps between the two sides. CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now from Tel Aviv. And Blinken seems to be very much putting the ball in Hamas's court at this point.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasn't looking for a breakthrough while he was here. He wasn't in the region all that long, several days. But he was clearly trying to lay the groundwork for an area to move forward. And the question is, how large is that area now, if it even exists, or has this fallen apart where it has so many times before in the details?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when he spoke here as he moved through the region, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Qatar, made it clear that from the U.S. perspective, the ball is in Hamas's court. Israel is on board with the ceasefire proposal and the hostage deal on the table. And now it's a question of getting Hamas to agree. He openly questioned whether Hamas was negotiating in good faith, saying they had shifted positions to which they'd already agreed to.
Now, he did say in the response they finally gave 12 days after President Joe Biden publicly backed a proposal, there were numerous changes, in his words. Some were workable, some are not. And it's that some are workable that gives a window here to try to move forward, to try to get to some agreement. And he and his Qatari counterpart said they would work to try to bridge those gaps and make this happen.
Israel, however, viewed Hamas's response as a rejection of the ceasefire proposal on the table. Meanwhile, in an updated response from Hamas just a short time ago, they said they had shown the necessary positivity to move forward with negotiations and with the process here, and instead said Blinken should put pressure on Israel, pointing out that Israel's leaders have not publicly stated and openly stated their commitment to the ceasefire proposal that's on the table.
If you look at the situation, it looks like this process may have once again fallen apart, even though this time, at least in theory, it has backing from the U.N. Security Council resolution that passed with 14 in favor, and only, if I'm not mistaken, Russia abstaining. The hope was that that sort of international backing would help get this over the line, and yet this falters on the point where it has many times before, and it's that Israel wants to see the war continue, its ability to continue its campaign in Gaza, whereas Hamas wants to see a ceasefire proposal that brings a permanent end to the fighting, and that is a gap that nobody has been able to bridge yet.
FOSTER: Oren, in Tel Aviv, thank you for that.
All right, we're going to go to Washington now in a House vote led by Republicans to hold the U.S. Attorney General in contempt of Congress. At issue, Merrick Garland's refusal to release audio recordings of an interview with President Biden during the investigation into his handling of classified documents. Garland called the contempt vote deeply disappointing. CNN's Manu Raju has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, along mostly party lines, the House moving ahead to refer the Attorney General of the United States to be held on contempt charges, the vote 216 to 207, just one member defecting. That was Republican David Joyce of Ohio. But what we saw in this fight was Republicans demanding that Garland comply with a subpoena, the subpoena demanding audio recordings of an interview that the special counsel Robert Herr did with President Biden over Biden's handling of classified documents.
Of course, in that report that Herr released months ago, it details how Joe Biden responded to some questions, questioned about whether Biden could have even been prosecuted over this because he believed the jury would view him as a sympathetic elderly man with a poor memory.
Now, there was a transcript that was released that Democrats and the Justice Department believe were sufficient to satisfy Republican demands, but Republicans wanted the audio tapes as well, something Democrats believe would be used for political purposes.
The Justice Department contended that releasing that audio tape essentially would impair the ability to go ahead and interview witnesses in separate investigations in the future. Perhaps witnesses would not want to come forward if they were concerned that audio would release publicly or released to Congress.
But even as this vote happened today, some Republicans called for prosecution of Merrick Garland, and even some said he should go to prison.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Is Merrick Garland above the law?
[04:10:00]
I mean, I thought the whole argument is that no one is above the law, and now that we've held him in contempt of Congress, he should be prosecuted by the Department of Justice, and he deserves the exact same fate as Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Well, I mean, the Department of Justice isn't going to go prosecute the Attorney General. I mean, but, you know --
RAJU: It's supposed to be symbolic.
ROY: I wouldn't call it symbolic. Hold him in contempt. We'll see what he does. I mean, hopefully he'll look at this and see the error of his ways.
RAJU: But there is virtually no chance of prosecution of the Attorney General of the United States, in large part because this now gets referred to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia, which is under the Justice Department.
Now, on top of that, the White House has asserted executive privilege on those audio tapes, and the position of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is that if the president asserts executive privilege and they affirm that it was correct in this regard, that essentially that is the correct position of the executive branch. So this is essentially a dispute between the executive branch and the legislative branch.
And ultimately, if this gets resolved, it would have to be by the courts to determine whether Congress has the right to that audio. And if this plays out in the courts, this could take months and months and months to resolve, certainly after the November election. So ultimately, that's how it could play out.
But prosecution, as Republicans will concede, highly, highly unlikely.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: U.S. Republican lawmakers are getting ready to welcome former U.S. President and convicted felon Donald Trump back to Washington today as he tries to shore up support within the party ahead of the November election. Although Trump won't be entering the U.S. Capitol building, this will mark his first appearance on The Hill since the January 6th insurrection more than three years ago. And it'll be his first meeting with top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, who he's butted heads within the past.
But other Senate Republicans who have been critical of Trump, such as Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, either said they wouldn't attend his meeting or wouldn't commit to being there.
Now, the former special prosecutor in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case says he believes Trump will absolutely be put on trial, even if he wins the White House. Right now, the case remains indefinitely postponed after a Senate appeals court agreed to take up the defendant's push to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
She's accused of having an improper relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who has since resigned from the case. The appeals court's pause makes it highly unlikely that a trial would happen before the November presidential election. Wade spoke to CNN's Kaitlan Collins about the case and what it would mean to potentially prosecute a sitting president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: If Trump wins the election and the district attorney next spring when this when this does go before the Court of Appeals is not disqualified from that, is it constitutional for a district attorney to put a sitting president on trial? And if he's convicted in jail, potentially?
NATHAN WADE, FORMER SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: So let's -- let's look at the question in reverse. Is it? Are you asking me if there's anyone who's above the law at any point in time in their life?
COLLINS: No, but I don't think it's been litigated about a sitting president, of course, going on trial. We've never seen that.
WADE: Never seen it. Never expected to see it, which is why a lot of the questions about experience. No one has ever done this before. No one. This is this is a new animal.
But if he wins the election, then certainly there are lawyers out there who will be charged with figuring out that issue and maneuvering around it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, more heavy rain and more flooding expected in South Florida for a third day in a row. The life-threatening flooding prompted the governor to issue a state of emergency for five counties. The National Weather Service says flood warnings are in effect until 8 a.m. today for much of the region. Officials are urging residents to avoid driving or walking through floodwaters, which was knee-deep in some places. Some areas have seen more than 18 inches of rain over the past two days. Flood watches are in effect for over eight million people, and a flood watch has been extended until Friday evening for some cities, including Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Some vehicles were stranded and almost submerged after two days of torrential rain. According to flightaware.com, more than 600 flights were cancelled at airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, more than 100 already cancelled for today.
Now, they survived one of the United States' most deadly mass shootings when were just six and seven years old. How former Sandy Hook students, now high school graduates, are turning their heartbreak and pain into action and hope.
And later, Vladimir Putin's show of force. We'll explain what a flotilla of Russian ships and a nuclear-powered submarine are doing in Cuba.
[04:15:00]
Then, why the Federal Reserve chief says U.S. interest rates will remain at a 23-year high, although there's a bit of hope on the horizon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: A fire is burning out of control at an oil depot in northern Iraq, according to local reports. No word on the cause, but the blaze reportedly began at an asphalt storage warehouse at a depot in Erbil late on Wednesday. A local official tells CNN one worker was injured, but he's now stable. Other workers experienced shortness of breath but are now safe.
New York police are investigating a man arrested early on Wednesday after he was pulled over with a loaded gun, 100 rounds of ammunition, two axes, knives, and other weapons. They're trying to find out whether he was plotting an attack. Police are working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, though it's too soon to say if the incident is terror related. New York's police chief says it all started because his license plate was obstructed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JEFFREY B. MADDREY, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT: An obstructed plate turns into an arrest for a person that is heavily armed, gun, knives, weapons, very dangerous for our community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:20:00]
FOSTER: New York's governor told CNN there's no tolerance for the man's behavior and says he'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
On Wednesday, several dozen students who survived one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history graduated high school. They were first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman murdered 20 of their classmates and six adults.
The new graduates tell CNN's Brynn Gingras how their lives have been shaped by the tragedy and how they're determined to keep massacres like it from happening ever again.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT HOLDEN, SANDY HOOK SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It is bittersweet, you know, knowing that they should have been there.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Matt Holden is among the more than 300 Newtown High School graduates. Today, they'll be missing the 20 classmates who aren't celebrating with them.
ELLA SEAVER, SANDY HOOK SHOOTING SURVIVOR: This is such a monumental day and we all can feel what we've lost.
GINGRAS (voice-over): It's been nearly 12 years since a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 first graders and six educators. The horrific memory still so vivid in these minds.
LILLY WASLINAK, SANDY HOOK SHOOTING SURVIVOR: We just heard popping and popping. So the loudspeaker came on with our principal telling us to get to our safe spots when we heard the phone drop, which was something I'll never forget. And then we made it to the firehouse where we lined up by grade and immediately we saw the chunk of our grade that was missing.
GINGRAS (voice-over): CNN talked to a six-year-old Seaver weeks after the shooting on her first day back to school.
GINGRAS: What do you think you're going to do today?
SEAVER: I don't know.
GINGRAS: You don't know? Excited to see everyone? GINGRAS (voice-over): Back then, Seaver didn't know how the tragedy would shape her life. Now, it's more clear. She wants to be a therapist.
SEAVER: I want to help give back to people who either are struggling and went through, you know, an act of violence with a gun or people who just need help in their normal lives.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Seaver, Holden, Waslinak among a group of Newtown seniors who are now activists. Last week, meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss gun violence.
SEAVER: It is so frustrating. You know, you turn on the TV or you scroll on social media and you see these kids now and you say, now they're like me.
WASLINAK: For me to take that tragedy and try and do something with it, whether it's stopping others from happening in the future or just making the most of my own life since theirs got cut short.
GINGRAS (voice-over): Holden attending George Washington University in the fall, eager to be a politician.
HOLDEN: The way I see it, the only way that I'm going to get the change I want to happen is by doing it myself.
GINGRAS (voice-over): But first, a diploma. Oh, what they survived. But oh, the places they will go.
GINGRAS: And the graduation ceremony was full of remembrances of those lives lost. The seniors wore green ribbons on their gowns. The names of those 20 students who should be walking across that stage getting a diploma were read out loud. And there was a moment of silence.
Brynn Gingras, Newtown, Connecticut, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: All right, just ahead, three Russian warships and a nuclear- powered submarine arrive in Cuba. What they're doing there and where they may be going next as well.
Plus, G7 leaders are about to kick off their summit in Italy and reportedly help Ukraine using profits from frozen Russian money.
[04:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, here are some of today's top stories.
The leaders of the world's biggest economic powers are in Italy for the 50th annual G7 summit. High on the agenda will be plans to announce a new $50 billion loan for Ukraine, hundreds of new U.S. sanctions against Russia, and the 10-year security pact between the U.S. and Ukraine.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is accusing House Republicans of turning their congressional authority into a partisan weapon. It comes after they held him in contempt of Congress for not releasing audio from interviews with President Joe Biden during the classified documents investigation.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Italy for the G7 summit after his latest diplomatic push failed to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. He's expressed frustration over numerous changes Hamas has made to the proposal, and he questioned whether Hamas is proceeding in good faith.
U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady as expected on Wednesday. The big news is their new projections for rates cuts later this year, or rather the lack thereof. Back in March, officials had been expecting three cuts in 2024.
Now the median outlook is for just one cut, with four officials predicting no cuts at all. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that whilst inflation pressures have eased, the Fed wants to see even more progress. The key phrase remains, and that is data dependency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: We want to gain further confidence. Certainly, more good inflation readings will help with that. I'm not going to be specific about how many, because, you know, really it's going to be not just the inflation readings, it's going to be the totality of the data.
What's happening in the labor market, what's happening with the balance of risks, what's happening with the forecast, what's happening with growth. You look at all of that and you ask, are we confident, have we reached an appropriate level of confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably to 2 percent? Or alternatively, do we see really unexpected signs of weakness in the labor market that would call for a response?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Powell's comments coming after an encouraging new read on U.S. consumer inflation, annual price growth, easing slightly to 3.3 percent in May, but inflation still remains firmly above the Fed's 2 percent targets.
Now, shades of the Cold War off the coast of Cuba. A group of Russian Navy ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, have arrived in Havana, just about 90 miles, or 140 kilometers, from the U.S.
They made quite an entrance, firing off a 21-gun salute, which was then answered by the Cubans with cannon fire. It's the biggest show of force between Russia and Cuba in years, and it comes as tensions between the U.S. and Russia are already high over the war in Ukraine.
[04:30:00]
