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Ukraine's Counteroffensive Beginning; Trump Uses his Arrest to Boost Campaign Fundraising; Trump Defiant after Pleading Not Guilty; Dr. Kameelah Phillips is Interviewed about Childbirth Complications. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 14, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:17]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

Ukraine's long-awaited counteroffensive against Russian forces is now in its opening stages. And CNN is the first American network to get access to Ukraine's frontline.

Our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is live in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

And, Fred, look, I try to follow this stuff closely. I think we're also, from our side of things, watching the information war play out in terms of what's happening on the ground. You're actually there. What are you seeing at this point?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Phil.

First of all, you're absolutely right, there is a big information war that is indeed playing out. But when you're on the front lines, what we did see was that the Ukrainians certainly are trying to push forward. They say they have enough gear to try and do that, but it is some very tough going for them because the Russians are fighting back in a very fierce way. They're not only blanketing the Ukrainians with artillery, but they're attacking them with jets as well.

Here's what we witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice over): Ukrainian forces firing at Russian troops holed up in Blagodatnoye (ph) in south Ukraine. This video, the brigade says, shows the Russians making a final stand here.

Much of the area near the front lines deeply scarred by combat.

PLEITGEN (on camera): This is the area of Ukraine where the heaviest fighting is currently taking place. And you can see what it's done to a lot of the buildings in the cities and villages around this area. And that fighting is set to get even worse.

PLEITGEN (voice over): We're with the 68th Yager (ph) brigade which has been making important gains here. The soldiers confident and grateful for U.S. supply gear.

A lot of the times it saved my life, he says. It saves our life every day from shrapnel, shelling and bullets.

But some of the vehicles have already been lost and the Russians continue to fire back. Constant artillery shelling and even air strikes too close for comfort as our crew had to duck for cover.

Still, the deputy brigade commander says his soldiers are just getting started.

Our counterattack will definitely be successful, he says. We believe in victory. We are moving forward towards our goal. We are advancing.

On this part of the frontline, the Ukrainians believe they have the gear, the manpower and the determines to advance far into Russian-held territory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: So as you can see, some pretty tough battles. And that was just one small area of a very long frontline. I think one of the things that Phil said is absolutely correct, this is the opening stages still of the Ukrainian counter offensive. We do see them making those gains. Those gains are certainly significant, but there still is a long way to go, guys.

MATTINGLY: Yes, a long way to go. Stunning visuals there.

Fred, stay safe. Great reporting, as always.

Well, former President Trump using his arraignment to bolster his presidential campaign. Details on the fundraiser he held immediately after leaving court, coming up next.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the Biden administration, as we were talking about, remaining silent, so far at least, on Trump's indictment. Inside their strategy on this ahead.

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[06:37:47]

HARLOW: Former President Trump went from court yesterday to a popular Cuban restaurant in Miami, back to New Jersey, where he held a private fundraiser. We are waiting to find out how much money the Trump campaign brought in from that.

Alayna Treene is near Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he made those remarks last night. Clearly a campaign stump speech. You're learning the mood of Trump's team behind the scenes. Not

exactly as happy at least as what was portrayed last night, is that right?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That is right, Poppy. I think the Trump that you saw last night and also the Trump you saw after his arraignment when he went to that restaurant, the Versailles (ph) restaurant in Miami, is the Donald Trump that he wants you to see, the defiant Donald Trump.

But behind the scenes the mood is quite different. I've spoken with a number of Donald Trump's allies and advisers over the past several days now and they tell me that there is some real concern about the legal implications of this. Our colleague Evan Perez was also in the courtroom yesterday and he noted that Donald Trump appeared glum. He let his attorneys do all the talking for him. And he had his arms crossed over him for long periods of time.

And also behind the scenes I'm told that Donald Trump is very angry about this and he's admitted as much that he is - doesn't want to be indicted. He does not want this stain on his record. It reminds me of when I covered Donald Trump when he was impeached or he had went through his impeachment trials while president, he didn't want to be impeached either. He doesn't want this to be his legacy.

And so even though you're seeing Donald Trump used the bravado in his speech. He's surrounding himself with the most sympathetic supporters and his fiercest allies during that speech last night. That's what he's using to try to give and portray to the public that he is defiant and he's ready to fight back against these charges.

But I do know that privately it's not exactly what he's putting out there.

HARLOW: It's so interesting because we don't have cameras in the courtroom for this, and we won't, probably, for the trial.

TREENE: Right.

HARLOW: And so, you know, all we see is what he presents outside of it.

Alayna Treene, thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, the former president and his allies have been ramping up their attacks against the Justice Department and FBI recently. And last night, no different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The other picture that was so vile, you remember that one, it was angry and corrupt, was the photos staged by the FBI and those that raided Mar-a-Lago.

[06:40:05] They were putting documents all over the floor. Remember that famous picture? All over, say confidential, said presidential, said all sorts of things, and it was supposed to be there like it was that way when they raided it. It wasn't that way. They put them there, took the picture and released it illegally to the press.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Experiential and sequential. See if we can do that.

You made a really interesting point during the break, which hopefully you don't mind me talking about now that we're live on television, but what we were talking about what the current president is doing, not talking about these things, not weighing in, making clear to his team they are not to weigh in either. Contrast that with what we've seen from the former president repeatedly, but especially last night, and that what President Biden doing -- is doing is actually what used to be known as the norm. Is that a fair assessment?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No, it is. And, you know, under the Trump era, I mean that was one of the norms that was shattered, the independence between the White House and the Justice Department. I mean it started with this campaign where he was talking about, you know, the FBI should lock up his political opponent, which was obviously, you know, a talking point. But even throughout his administration, he was either trying to bring DOJ close or, you know, slamming them.

But you go back and look at history. I mean the norm has been that the White House keeps distance for two very important reasons. First, you don't want it to look like you, as the president, are meddling in an investigation, you know, trying to go after your allies. But, two, if you find yourself under investigation, or your administration, for example, you know, history lesson, every president since Nixon, other than Barack Obama, had someone senior in their administration under investigation by the FBI. If that person is cleared, you don't want the thinking to be, well, you were meddling in that. And so that's why that distance has been there. So, for Biden to say, no, I'm not going to comment on what the DOJ is doing is not new. That's actually how it used to be done.

LAURA COATES, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Look at that talking point that he tried to raise, and the word meddling sticks in my mind. The perception that the photographs that we're seeing potentially in the indictment suggests him referencing in that way probably trying to appeal to people to say, wait, I've seen photographs of documents all over the floor before and, wait, this is the FBI that's doing this in some respect. And so you're conflating the two things to suggest that what you're seeing in this very picture the audience is looking at right now somehow might be in line with it. These photographs are a part of the indictment. Include photographs taken by his own team, not by members of the FBI.

MATTINGLY: But can you explain, though --

COATES: Sure. MATTINGLY: You're dead and what he's trying to do is conflate it seems

like. But what he's referring to is from the search warrant -

COATES: Right.

MATTINGLY: In response to a suit that he filed.

HARLOW: That's right. That's right.

MATTINGLY: There was a picture included where the FBI had laid out what they had recovered, which is different from what was in the indictment that he was arraigned on yesterday, which were pictures from cell phones of -- you are covering this every day as well -

HARLOW: His people.

MATTINGLY: Am I on the right track here?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean what we saw in earlier court documents after Mar-a-Lago was searched is the FBI, you know, lays out some of the documents they found, they're taking photos to document the results of their search. And Donald Trump was very upset by that. He says, they make it look like, you know, I'm just throwing documents all over the floor.

MATTINGLY: We didn't leak it. It was in response to a suit he filed.

MURRAY: No, they didn't leak it. It was - yes, in a court filing. But then it turns out, you know, we learned from this indictment and from the pictures his aides are taking, that the way the FBI meticulously laid the documents out, frankly, not that far from the boxes of documents just splayed all over the floor in a storage unit at Mar-a- Lago. Not - sorry, in a storage room.

COATES: I was going to say, or bathroom.

MURRAY: Or bathroom.

MATTINGLY: Or stage.

COATES: Yes.

HARLOW: Or stage. Or bedroom.

MATTINGLY: That's a really good point, how he (INAUDIBLE) conflation (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: All right, guys, thank you very much. Stick with us.

In the 8:00 a.m. hour one of Donald Trump's fiercest critics, Congressman Adam Schiff, will join CNN THIS MORNING. What's his reaction to the indictment?

MATTINGLY: But up next, autopsy results now reveal Olympian Tori Bowie died of childbirth complications. A closer look at this troubling trend in healthcare, next. Plus -

HARLOW: Sir Paul McCartney asking for help from now artificial intelligence. What this means for new Beatles music and how he's coming together with AI so you can hear John Lennon's voice.

A very good tease.

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[06:48:26]

HARLOW: We do have new details this morning about the shocking, tragic, sudden death of U.S. track star Tori Bowie. According to her autopsy report, the 32-year-old three-time Olympic medalist died from complications of childbirth in May. Those complications may include, quote, respiratory distress and eclampsia.

Joining us now to talk about this is Dr. Kameelah Phillips. She's an OB/GYN and founder of Calla Women's Health.

It's good to have you, Doctor.

DR. KAMEELAH PHILLIPS, OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST: Thank you.

HARLOW: And I'm joined at the table by someone about to go through childbirth, someone who's gone through it, somebody who's gone through it, somebody who's been in the room for four. And you - you look at what happened to her, and we're going to talk about this picture for everyone at these different stages. So young, so healthy, so active and yet this happens.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Well, first of all, I do want to reassure people that pregnancy is generally a very safe experience, but we do have an incidence of pre-eclampsia in this country that is increasing. And basically it is due to high blood pressure in pregnancy. And I think in this instance, while the autopsy is limited, that maybe she didn't know she had pre-eclampsia and then suffered a negative side effect, eclampsia, as a result.

HARLOW: OK. So, when I was reading about this at first, I thought, I don't know what eclampsia is. I know what pre-eclampsia is. Can you explain the difference and how people can even know?

PHILLIPS: Right. So, pre-eclampsia is basically an increase in your blood pressure after about 20 weeks. And most of the time it's well managed if it's identified, treated with blood pressure medicines and then the patient delivered.

[06:50:02]

Eclampsia is actually a subset of that, 1 percent to 2 percent, which is hallmarked by extreme increases in blood pressure and, most importantly, seizure. Seizure can lead to loss of consciousness, respiratory depression. If the blood pressures are very high, even stroke and, in this case, death. HARLOW: So -

MATTINGLY: No, go ahead.

HARLOW: No.

MATTINGLY: What I was going to ask is, I think I was very lucky, one, that I was the husband in this relationship and wasn't having to think through this in an acute manner, but, also, we had great doctors. We had great care. We were regularly being checked, blood pressure, scans, all of that type of stuff. That is not necessarily the norm. In fact, I think people would be stunned to realize how little that is the norm in our country when you look at -

HARLOW: That's right, maternal -

MATTINGLY: Maternal mortality, which is stunning particularly in terms of how it has grown over the course of the last three or four years. Why?

PHILLIPS: Right. Right.

MATTINGLY: The wealthiest country in the world. Why?

PHILLIPS: Right. I think being the wealthiest country in the world we really need to reassess our priorities and prioritize maternal health.

You know, women these days are having babies at an older age, we're using IVF more, African American women in particular have higher rates of maternal mortality. And all of these things combined are leading to our rates of maternal mortality being three to four times of their white counterparts.

So, despite the technology, education, access, addressing racism in medicine and society -

HARLOW: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Which does impact our health care and the delivery specifically to black women is something that we need to prioritize.

COATES: You know, obviously I'm sitting here at the table as a black woman and have had two children. After my first child, I almost died. I had - I was hemorrhaging. I'll save all the details of it. Had to have multiple transfusions. And this was me going into it believing that, one, I was - I'm an educated woman. I, relatively speaking, was a woman of means compared to some. And the idea of being my own champion was always on my mind because I was hearing the stories about the bedside manner of some doctors or not taking the pain that a black woman feels very seriously. I remember that chart on the wall with the smiley faces.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

COATES: Tell me your pain. And I was like, it's not an emoji, I'll tell you that right now, and wanting people - not wanting me to go through labor as opposed to the c-section that I was requesting because I knew that was going to be the ultimate end, and it was. How can people be their own champion in those rooms? Because, I'm not a doctor. I was scared like anyone else. I desperately wanted my child to be healthy and for me to live through the childbirth as well. What do you recommend for people?

PHILLIPS: Yes. Yes. I really think it's important for any person considering pregnancy to actually start preparing for pregnancy before you get pregnant. And that's with the preconception visit where you meet with your OB/GYN or your primary care doctor and really identify things that you can optimize before you even get pregnant.

Once you get pregnant, it is imperative that you find and create a team of people that you trust, people that you know hear you and people that respect your wishes as you go through this process. I also think it's important to be flexible, because we understand that pregnancy can change on the -- the drop of a hat, like your experience with hemorrhage. And so being with a team that knows, loves and respects you is really paramount to having safe outcomes.

MURRAY: You know, obviously, as a currently pregnant person, like this story has really stuck with me because it is just sort of, you know, a worst case scenario, another thing to be, I think, worried about, even though I appreciate you saying that, you know, it still is rare. But, you know, I wonder in cases like this if people -- if it is the quality of the healthcare, if it's people just not appreciating just what a physically taxing process you are going through here and how frequently you do need to be checking in with your medical professionals.

PHILLIPS: Yes. I think people don't realize how taxing pregnancy is. We, as working women especially, sort of downplay the struggle and the physicality of pregnancy. But what I would say is that it is important that you know the warning signs of preeclampsia and not ignore them. Headaches that don't go away. Changes in your vision. Pain in your chest or under your breast. And check your blood pressure. Report those concerns to your physician so that they can be addressed as well and properly managed for safer outcomes.

HARLOW: Thank you so much, Doctor, for shining a light on - on all of this. Appreciate it.

PHILLIPS: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: Of course.

MATTINGLY: Well, former President Trump claiming he had, quote, every right to keep the classified documents he took from the White House. We'll break down the Presidential Records Act with our legal panel and what happens now, coming up ahead.

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[06:59:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In the nearly 234 years of the American presidency --

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: The very first time that a former president of the United States has been arrested and arraigned.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The first ever to face years in prison if convicted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people in charge of this country do not love America.

ASA HUTCHINSON (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to be straightforward about this and not play political games.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: It's a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: He knew the significant information, and he intended to use it for his own benefit. If just half of the evidence that we've seen is true, it's really almost indefensible.

MIKE PENCE (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't defend what's alleged. These are serious allegations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can't just deny what President Trump did was wrong. It's clear as day wrong.

[07:00:01]

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): This is Trump in true form. He says one thing to his supporters, says another thing privately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pardon Donald J. Trump for these offenses.