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CNN This Morning
Haley Swipes at GOP Frontrunners Trump, DeSantis in Town Hall; NTSB to Investigate Crash of Flight with Unresponsive Pilot; Russia Claims It Foiled Large-Scale Offensive in Donetsk; Pediatricians Speak out on Gun Violence. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 05, 2023 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And just like that --
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR/BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello.
HARLOW: -- it's Monday morning.
Good morning, everyone. We are so glad you are with us to start off the week. I'm so glad to have my friend, Rahel Solomon --
SOLOMON: Thank you.
HARLOW: -- here with me. Let's get started with "Five Things to Know" for this Monday, June 5.
An investigation now under way after U.S. fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unresponsive aircraft. That's right. The plane ultimately crashed in Southwest Virginia on Sunday. The response, though, caused a sonic boom across the nation's capital.
SOLOMON: Also, a big week in the GOP race for the presidential nomination. It started at last night's CNN town hall with Nikki Haley. The former South Carolina governor sharpened her attacks on Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, and took questions on abortion and guns.
And new this morning, tension with China. U.S. Navy releasing video of the moment a Chinese warship crossed in front of an American destroyer, coming within 150 yards of the U.S. ship. The Navy slamming this as an unsafe interaction in the Taiwan Strait.
HARLOW: Today could be Apple's biggest product launch since the Apple Watch. Will the company's official push into virtual reality land with consumers and investors? Also, it's expensive. We'll get into that.
SOLOMON: Yes, it is. And we are all tied up. Miami Heats up to hold off the Denver Nuggets in game two of the NBA finals.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
HARLOW: That was a good one, Miami Heats up. SOLOMON: I know. Heats it up.
HARLOW: Did you watch?
SOLOMON: I was asleep.
HARLOW: I know. I was going to bed, and my husband is on the couch, still watching, and I hear him, like, aggravated. I think he wanted the Nuggets to win.
SOLOMON: He's a Nugget fan?
HARLOW: Yes. Game two making it an even more exciting series. We'll get to sports in a moment.
But let's begin here with politics this morning. Nikki Haley taking some big swipes at Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis during last night's CNN town hall. The Republican presidential hopeful sharply criticized her party's frontrunners. She blasted DeSantis for his feud with Disney and also slammed Trump for praising North Korea's brutal dictator, Kim Jong-un. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's nothing good or decent about Kim Jong-un.
I don't think we ever should congratulate dictators. Congratulate our friends. Don't congratulate our enemies. It emboldens them when we do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Nikki Haley also faced really important questions over red- flag laws when it comes to guns. Also, over any potential federal abortion ban and other key issues.
Let's begin this hour with our chief national correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, live in Des Moines, Iowa.
Jeff, good morning. It was such an interesting town hall, full of so much substance. She got a pretty warm welcome from a lot of the folks there. But this was her chance last night to separate herself from a growing field. Did she succeed in that?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.
Growing field and one that's even bigger this week. Look, she definitely sought to introduce herself by touting her economic credentials during her time as the governor of South Carolina. And she talked about her conservative credentials, as well.
But it was critical how she was trying to draw even the sharpest distinctions with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who she called out for being hypocritical in his fight with Disney.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HALEY: I'm in this to win it.
ZELENY (voice-over): Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley seeking to elevate her candidacy for president by calling for consensus on polarizing issues like abortion.
HALEY: I think we can all agree on banning late- term abortions. I think we can all agree on encouraging adoptions and making sure foster kids feel more love, not less.
ZELENY (voice-over): At a CNN town hall in Iowa, she broke with two Republican frontrunners on key foreign policy issues, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
HALEY: You can't be trustful of a regime that goes in and tries to take away people's freedoms. And for them to sit there and say that this is a territorial dispute, that's just not the case. To say that we should stay neutral.
It is in the best interest of America. It's in the best interest of our national security for Ukraine to win. We have to see this through; we have to finish it.
ZELENY (voice-over): She called out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' legal battle with Disney as hypocritical.
HALEY: He went and basically gave the highest corporate subsidies in Florida history to Disney, but because they went and criticized him, now he's going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit.
ZELENY (voice-over): Haley also said former President Donald Trump and DeSantis have not been straight with voters about the fiscal solvency of Social Security and other programs.
[06:05:04]
HALEY: I think it's important to be honest with the American people. We are in this situation. Don't lie to them and say, Oh, we don't have to deal with entitlement reform. Yes, we do. Yes, we do. It's the reality. I'm always going to tell the truth. Is it going to hurt? Yes.
ZELENY (voice-over): At 51, Haley has said she would bring a generational change to the White House. Asked whether she believes she would experience sexism as a female candidate, she said this.
HALEY: None of my jobs have ever had a line going to the women's bathroom, ever.
ZELENY (voice-over): But she drew applause when she said it was time to break the presidential glass ceiling.
HALEY: Because I'm a big fan of women. We balance. We prioritize. We know how to get things done. Honestly, we've let guys do it for a while. It might be time for a woman to get it done. ZELENY (voice-over): The town hall put an exclamation point on a busy
weekend of campaigning in the state, that opens the Republican contest early next year.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, hello, Iowa!
ZELENY (voice-over): With DeSantis joining some of his Republican rivals as they shook hands and introduced themselves to party activists.
DESANTIS: There is no substitute for victory. And we need to dispense with the culture of losing that has beset the Republican Party in recent years.
ZELENY (voice-over): Trump was the only major candidate who declined an invitation to Sen. Jodi Ernst's annual Roast and Ride, where motorcycles and barbecue come with a side of politics.
Yet the former president looms large over the presidential race and sits at the center of the choices facing Republicans as the campaign intensifies.
ZELENY: What's the balance in your party, do you think, of people who want to turn the page and move forward versus turn back to Donald Trump?
HALEY: I think there are a lot of folks that want to move forward. I know that President Trump has a great base here. It is strong. But at the same time, people don't want to hear about what has happened in the past. Because we've had two years of a Biden administration that is just destroying our nation.
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ZELENY: And that is the central challenge and the question hanging over this Republican electorate. Do they want to turn the page and move forward or stick with former President Donald Trump?
And Senator Ernst there was pretty blunt in saying she believes many want to move forward. She said that -- that Trump can also move forward and look ahead. But, of course, it's an open question if he will do that.
As for Nikki Haley, she made a strong impression on the Republican voters in the room last night. The ones I talked to after the town hall said they liked her humor; they liked her forcefulness on many of these issues.
Of course, this week the race gets more crowded, when Chris Christie is set to jump in tomorrow and Mike Pence here in Iowa on Wednesday. He's formally jumping in -- Poppy.
HARLOW: And Jeff, that's really interesting what you heard from folks coming out of the town hall. Because I'm assuming they went in there. You know, some of them Nikki Haley supporters but certainly not all of them. ZELENY: Exactly. I mean, they certainly were familiar with her record.
But most are not steeped in the specifics.
HARLOW: Yes.
ZELENY: But the ones we talked to afterward were very impressed with how she presented herself.
And Poppy, interestingly, she's been doing these town halls all across Iowa, just not with the TV cameras on. I think that came through, because she was very practiced --
HARLOW: Sure.
ZELENY: -- on these answers. So there are more open minds here among Republican voters than people might think. So that is an interesting fact as this summer intensifies on the campaign trail.
HARLOW: It really is. Jeff Zeleny, thank you for the reporting in Des Moines.
Also, Jeff mentioned former Vice President Pence jumping in the race later this week. That's going to happen Wednesday. And our Dana Bash will moderate a CNN Republican town hall live from Iowa with former president Mike Pence. That is 9 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday night, only right here on CNN.
SOLOMON: This morning, investigators will head to a crash site in Virginia after a private jet with an unresponsive pilot went down. And in an attempt to intercept the plane, military fighter jets scrambled so fast they caused a sonic boom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SONIC BOOM)
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SOLOMON: The National Transportation Safety Board says that it will begin the process of documenting the scene and examining the aircraft. Authorities say no survivors were found at the crash site. Brian Todd in Greenville, Virginia.
Brian, good morning. So what more do we know about what happened here and also where this jet was heading?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel, the jet was originally scheduled to head to Long Island. This morning, investigators are trying to determine what caused that pilot to become unresponsive in the cockpit.
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TODD (voice-over): It was the boom heard far and wide across the Washington, D.C., region. Disrupting a Sunday music rehearsal.
(MUSIC)
(SONIC BOOM)
TODD: And sending people and pets running for cover.
The cause, U.S. 16 fighter jets, scrambled to reach a Cessna Citation private jet, unresponsive and flying through tightly-controlled Washington, D.C., airspace.
According to Flight Aware, the civilian aircraft took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, at 1:13 p.m. and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York.
[06:10:10]
The plane, with four people onboard, then turned around over Long Island, heading back over the Washington, D.C., area, nearly two hours after it originally took off.
That's when NORAD scrambled the F-16s, who were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds in pursuit of the jet.
According to a news release from the Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, the pilot of the civilian aircraft was unresponsive as the F-16 fighter jets attempted to make contact.
At one point, according to the statement, the F-16s used flares in an attempt to draw attention from the pilot.
The Cessna 560 Citation 5, traveling more than 300 miles off-course going off radar at 3:23 p.m. and ultimately crashing in a rural mountainous terrain near George Washington National Forest near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Late Sunday, according to a statement from Virginia State Police, first responders reached the crash site by foot but found no survivors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (on camera): Now according to FAA records, that private jet was registered to a company called Encore Motors out of Melbourne, Florida, owned by Barbara and John Rumpel. They told "The Washington Post" that family members of theirs were onboard that plane, including their daughter, a grandchild, and her nanny.
They told "The New York Times" that the family was returning to their home in East Hampton, New York, from another family home in North Carolina and that their grandchild is 2 years old.
NTSB investigators are expected to be at the scene later today -- Rahel, Poppy.
SOLOMON: Brian Todd, thank you.
HARLOW: Yes. Thank you so much. Joining us now, CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean.
Pete, good morning to you. What -- what can be ruled out right now?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: A lot can be ruled out here, Poppy. But all of the signs point to that this was a rapid decompression of this Cessna Citation jet.
The air inside is pressurized, enabling those inside to breathe normal air while outside the air is thin and unbreathable. This is very similar, very likely, to the Payne Stewart crash of 1999 that killed that professional golfer onboard a Learjet.
What is so interesting about rapid decompression is it essentially leads to a ghost plane, one of the spookiest outcomes that professional pilots worry about. Up high at altitude, when the airplane decompresses very quickly, that leads to air inside being very unbreathable.
At 34,000 feet, where this plane was cruising, that leads to effective performance time, EPT. Consciousness of only 30 to 60 seconds. In that time, the flight crew needs to put on oxygen masks very quickly or risk becoming hypoxic. The symptoms, it's an insidious killer.
First off, you feel drowsy. You feel like you're drunk. And then ultimately, you feel sleepy, and then you lie into unconsciousness. It is a very creepy outcome here. And very similar to that crash in 1999.
Of course, something the National Transportation Safety Board will look at here, Poppy and Rahel. Although, they will have to figure out, of course, from autopsies, whether or not this pilot crew onboard ultimately was hypoxic.
HARLOW: And can we learn anything about -- about what may have happened from the flight path?
MUNTEAN: The flight path tells a very interesting story here. And the plane was very likely on autopilot. It stayed perfectly at its cruising altitude filed to the FAA at 34,000 feet when it went from East Tennessee all the way to MacArthur Airport in Long Island, New York.
But then the question here is why did the airplane turn?
HARLOW: Right.
MUNTEAN: Why did it turn back to the Southwest and over Washington, D.C., and then ultimately crashing in Virginia? Likely something with the autopilot. It may have stayed on. We would have to actually see equipment onboard, and that's something that the NTSB will dig into with the records of the airplane. Why did it turn? What were the settings on the autopilot? And why did it simply keep flying?
It's very likely that NORAD knew that there was not much of a risk here. The airplane was up high. We knew the airplane was unresponsive. It was above, well above some of the restricted airspace in Washington, D.C., although it did penetrate it, which led to the scrambling of those fighter jets in pursuit, breaking the sound barrier, that sonic boom. That boom that was heard far and wise from Annapolis to Leesburg, really everywhere, those fighter jets trying to catch up with it. They had to go faster than this jet was going, about 400 miles an hour.
SOLOMON: Really startled a lot of people. Pete Muntean, thank you.
HARLOW: Thank you, Pete. Thinking about the four people. We have new and exclusive reporting this morning. Ukraine is recruiting agents inside Russia and providing them with drones to stage attacks. Those details ahead.
SOLOMON: Also, tensions with China are on the rise after a Chinese warship nearly collided with a U.S. Navy destroyer. What both countries are saying this morning.
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[06:18:45]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shhh!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is a new Ukrainian video posted on social media, urging silence around plans about the highly-anticipated counter-offensive, of course, against Russia.
This video ends with a banner, and it says, "Plans love silence. There will be no start announcement."
Meantime, Russian forces have been claiming to foil a major Ukrainian offensive in Donetsk. The Russians releasing new video which they say shows Ukrainian military vehicles coming under heavy fire in that battle.
And we also have really fascinating new exclusive reporting this morning of sources saying Ukraine has cultivated a network of agents to act as sabotage cells within Russia. U.S. officials believe that Ukraine has been providing them with drones, including the one that hit the Kremlin last month that has gotten so much attention.
Our Natasha Bertrand joins us now. Natasha, this is fascinating reporting that you have for us this morning. Tell us what you've learned.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy. So there has been a steady drum beat of mysterious fires and explosions inside Russia over the last year, largely targeting oil depots, fuel depots, railways, pipelines.
But officials have noticed a marked increase in those kinds of attacks on Russian soil in recent weeks, including just how brazen they've become beginning, of course, with that drone attack on the Kremlin last month.
[06:20:05]
And U.S. officials are now telling us that they do believe that Ukraine has agents and sympathizers inside Russia who are carrying out these attacks on Ukraine's behalf.
And not only that, but also that Ukraine has actually given them drones in order to carry out these acts of sabotage.
Now, there are still a number of questions here, including whether all of the drone attacks that we have seen over the last several weeks inside Russia have been carried out by these pro-Ukraine sympathizers and agents. And it's unclear whether that is the case at this point.
But what U.S. officials do believe is that that attack on the Kremlin last month that had -- that saw two drones target the Kremlin Senate palace in May. They do believe that that incident was carried out by these pro-Ukrainian operatives inside Russia.
Still unclear at this point who exactly in Ukraine is controlling these operatives and these kinds of sabotage cells. Right? But U.S. officials do believe that they're controlled by elements within Ukraine's intelligence community.
And they note that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy does not require signoff on every one of the operations that these agents and saboteurs carry out inside Russia.
So, a really interesting look here at how Ukraine is taking the war to Russia itself.
HARLOW: It really makes you look at the statements out of Ukraine over the last month or so that -- insisting it has not been directly involved in any of those drone attacks inside of Russia.
What about the West? The position of the United States, Western allies, NATO? Supportive of this tactic?
BERTRAND: Yes, Poppy. So outwardly, U.S. officials say that they do not support these kinds of attacks inside Russia.
But privately, U.S. and Western officials actually tell us that they think this is a pretty smart military strategy. And, in fact, the U.K. foreign secretary told reporters just earlier this month that Ukraine, quote, "has the right to project force" beyond its borders to undermine Russia's ability to project force into Ukraine itself.
And the French vice admiral actually told CNN on Friday that these attacks are merely, quote, "part of war." So they believe that it is a good strategy to distract Russia to divert resources and, importantly, make the Russian population fear that they really are not safe anywhere -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Natasha, thank you. Fascinating reporting this morning.
Rahel.
SOLOMON: Staying overseas now, massive crowds stretching a mile long, taking to the streets in Warsaw, Poland, this weekend.
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(CHANTING)
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SOLOMON: As we see here, hundreds of thousands marched with banners reading, "Free European Poland" and voicing dissent to eight years of right-wing conservative rule by the Law and Justice Party.
The marches took place in several cities, and were organized by the opposition, who want to deprive the government of its claims to the legacy of Solidarity. That's the trade union movement that led the struggle against communism and Russia after World War II.
The protest coming ahead of the critical general election in the fall.
HARLOW: As communities across the country protest gun violence, especially this weekend, nearly 100 people were shot and lost their lives as a result. We'll hear from the people saying enough is enough. That is next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: To you, gun violence is a disease.
DR. NICOLE WEBB, CALIFORNIA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: Yes. And the country is the victim in this case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[06:27:12]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. A Trump-appointed judge in Tennessee has ruled that a law restricting drag shows in the state is unconstitutional.
In his ruling, released late Friday, he called the law unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad. He also said it violated free speech rights.
Republican Governor Bill Lee signed the bill, which restricts public drag performances, into law in March, prompting protests in the state. GOP lawmakers argued that they wanted to protect children from what they characterize as overtly sexual performances.
In a statement Saturday, Tennessee's attorney general said he does expect to appeal the ruling at, quote, "the appropriate time."
HARLOW: This morning officials in Sunnyvale, Texas, are searching for the suspects involved in a late-night shooting that killed one person. Four people were also injured. Three of those, by the way, are children. Their injuries are not -- are serious but not life- threatening, we're told this morning.
And this weekend alone, nearly 100 people died from shootings in this country, just this weekend according to the Gun Violence Archive. Doctors who are on the front lines of this crisis liken it to a deadly illness plaguing the country.
Watch this report from our Josh Campbell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEBB: This is the No. 1 cause of death in American children, which is just unacceptable and astonishing.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): Those on the front lines, saving children's lives, fed up with America's gun violence epidemic.
CAMPBELL: To you, gun violence is a disease.
WEBB: Yes. And the country is the victim in this case.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): The outrage felt by this pediatrician, Dr. Nicole Webb, on display across the country this past weekend --
(CHANTING)
CAMPBELL (voice-over): -- as demonstrators took to the streets, demanding an end to the endless gun violence ravaging the nation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Enough is enough.
JADA HUGHES, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR, SPRINGFIELD, VIRGINIA: Let's take it upon our receives to inspire action so that students across the country can worry about homework and tests, not gun violence.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): National Gun Violence Awareness Day began after the brutal killing of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton on a Chicago playground in 2013, murdered one week after marching with her school's band in a parade celebrating Barack Obama's second presidential inauguration.
Pendleton's mother speaking out.
CLEOPATRA COWLEY, MOTHER OF HADIYA PENDLETON: There have been thousands of other, you know, families that, unfortunately, have joined this fraternity that no one wants to be a part of.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): But tens of thousands more have been impacted since her daughter's death.
More than 18,000 people have been shot and killed so far this year. The federal government calling gun violence a public health crisis.
And while guns are often politically polarizing, most Americans surveyed in a recent CNN poll agreed gun-control laws should be stricter. American health professionals say common-sense evidence- based safety efforts should not be partisan at all.
WEBB: States with red-flag laws, the fewer high-profile mass shootings, states that have closed loopholes in the background check system see fewer shootings involving illegally-obtained weapons.
CAMPBELL (voice-over): A recent troubling trend: guns in the hands of children. In recent weeks, at least nine teens arrested for bringing guns on campus.
[06:30:00]
