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Blinken Holds News Conference After Xi Meeting; At Least Nine People Killed, Dozens Injured in Weekend Shootings; Biden Silent on Trump Indictment in First 2024 Rally. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 19, 2023 - 07:00   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: In the U.S.

[07:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody ran. It was chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden is officially back on the campaign trail in Philadelphia for his first rally since announcing his candidacy.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm looking forward to this campaign because you got a story to tell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should voters look past the federal indictment of the frontrunner, Donald J. Trump?

MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: This whole matter is incredibly divisive.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Every American is innocent until proven guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A sheriff's deputy in Florida saw a driver vanish underwater and immediately went after him, only to be sucked in himself through a drainage pipe for a terrifying 30 seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This happening, his biggest moment of the day, who takes down all the stars in Los Angeles to win the United States Open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just felt like my mom was watching over me today. But I just feel like I've worked so hard, and I've dreamed about this moment for so long.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is speaking now in Beijing. Let's listen.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SCRETARY OF STATE: -- share with so many others, a free, open, stable and prosperous world with countries upholding and updating the rules based order that has for years safeguarded peace and security globally.

To shape that future, we start with diplomacy, including with China. I came to Beijing to strengthen high level channels of communication to make clear our positions and intentions in areas of disagreement and to explore areas where we might work together when our interests align on shared transnational challenges, and we did all of that.

Here in Beijing, I had an important conversation with President Xi Jinping, and I had candid, substantive and constructive discussions with my counterparts, Director Wang Yi and State Councilor Qin Gang. I appreciate the hospitality extended by our hosts.

In every meeting, I stress that direct engagement and sustained communication at senior levels is the best way to responsibly manage our differences and ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. And I heard the same from my Chinese counterparts. We both agree on the need to stabilize our relationship.

During those meetings, we had a robust conversation about regional and global challenges, that includes Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. I reiterated that we would welcome China playing a constructive role along with other nations, to work toward a just peace based on the principles of the United Nations Charter.

We also spoke about North Korea's increasingly reckless actions and rhetoric. All members of the international community have an interest in encouraging the DPRK to act responsibly, to stop launching missiles, to start engaging on its nuclear program. China is in a unique position to press Pyongyang to engage in dialogue and to end its dangerous behavior.

I raised U. S. concerns shared by a growing number of countries about the PRC's provocative actions in the Taiwan Strait as well as in the South and East China Seas. On Taiwan, I reiterated the long standing U.S. One China policy. That policy has not changed. It's guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three joint communiques, the six assurances, we do not support Taiwan independence.

We remain made opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross- trade differences. We remain committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act, including making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.

We also spoke about a range of bilateral issues including continuing to develop principles to guide our relationship as discussed by President Biden and President Xi and Bali. Late last year, we exchanged views on our respective economic policies, including our concerns about China's unfair treatment of U. S. companies.

During my meeting today with U.S. business leaders who are operating in China, I heard about the problems that U.S. businesses are facing, including recent punitive actions against American firms. I also heard that U.S companies want to continue and indeed grow their businesses here. And so in my meetings, I sought to clarify any misperceptions or misunderstandings about our approach. There is a profound difference for the United States and for many other countries be between de- risking --

BLACKWELL: All right, we'll continue to listen to Secretary Blinken as he delivers these remarks after his meeting with President Xi there and other senior Chinese officials, and we will continue to monitor that for any developments.

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Joining us now, CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto, CNN Contributor and Staff Writer at The New Yorker and Biden biographer Evan Osnos, author of Joe Biden, the Life, the Run and What Matters Now, who's also written about and lived in China, also joining us, CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst Bianna Golodryga.

Jim, I'm going to come to you first and specifically on Taiwan. You are just back from Taiwan. The Chinese, they reiterated that Taiwan is the most consequential issue, the most pronounced risk. I want you to contrast and compare what you heard from the Chinese, from Secretary Blinken and what we've heard over time from President Biden and the U.S.'s commitment to defending Taiwan.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting to hear from Secretary Blinken there, the word provocative in describing Taiwan's actions -- China's actions in the Taiwan Strait, putting the onus on China, the responsibility on China for inflaming the situation, much as Xi had put the onus on Taiwan and the U.S. for inflaming the situation.

I spent the last week in Taiwan, including going to the Penghu Islands, which are right in the Taiwan Strait. These are Taiwanese- controlled islands. They have army, navy and air force bases there. And I visited those and I watched exercises where Taiwanese forces are preparing for the possibility of a Chinese invasion. I watched them do an exercise that was responding to a simulated Chinese airborne attack on those islands. So, they are taking that threat very seriously. They do these exercises all the time, so they are prepared.

But I'll tell you this. I spoke to a number of senior Taiwanese officials, and they said while they are preparing, they do not want to provoke, they don't want to make the situation worse. And I'll add that, in private, there's a sense there that they feel somewhat caught between the superpowers here, the U.S. and China, worried that you have folks in the U.S., you have folks in China speaking in very evocative terms that make them nervous at times.

And they fear that as there's a one-upmanship, perhaps in the U.S. to be tougher on China on the Taiwan issue, you certainly have Chinese leaders speaking very publicly about their desire to eventually at some point reunify with Taiwan, that Taiwan, which would be most happy with the status quo, doesn't want to see that inflame and escalate. And then they find themselves in the middle of a war. There're genuine preparations for the threat of a Chinese invasion, but also a sense there that they don't want to make things worse, right? And they welcome these talks between Blinken and Xi to avoid that sort of escalation.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Evan, I see you shaking your head as Jim is going through all of that there. So, this is where we stand. I guess the question is, what happens next, right? If there is this real focus on the status quo, can that be maintained, given all these other factors?

EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there is just tremendous pressure around the relationship, and that's why this visit really set the lowest possible expectations. You heard Washington saying going into it, we want to build a floor. I mean, that's the lowest bar you can build, right? And coming out of it, the early signals we're hearing from both sides is that they wanted to essentially say, let's agree to continue meeting, let's open the phone lines.

I mean, that's been the biggest challenge. They've gone into the deep freeze, and it's not abstract. Remember, there was a Chinese fighter jet that came too close to an American plane last December. Afterwards, the United States said, let's talk. Let's get on the phone. The Chinese said, no. The U.S. wants to prevent that from happening again.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: We've seen those dangerous. And provocative movements again just recently along the Taiwan Straits, too. So, I agree. I think the bar was very low here. We were hoping for a meeting between President Xi and Antony Blinken. We got that. But this is not about detente. This is about reestablishing relations.

I mean, you can't understate the significance of the spy balloon and what that did in terms of the relations between the freeze that really created the relations between the two countries. This was a meeting that was set to happen in February, obviously in light of the spy balloon that didn't take place. But President Biden is really hoping to meet with President Xi, hopefully at the G20 later in the fall. We'll see if that plays out.

But we have seen some promising signs in terms of high level officials starting to meet. The CIA director, Bill Burns, had recently now, we learned, flew to China as well, and Jake Sullivan had met recently with his counterparts. So, things are progressing. No one wants to see things escalate at this point.

BLACKWELL: Jim, the Chinese foreign minister has agreed to come to Washington. We -- of course, as Bianna just said, there was this meeting between Secretary Blinken and President Xi. Do you think those two meetings make a summit more likely than it would have been before they happened this weekend?

SCIUTTO: Not a guarantee, more likely. And just the idea lines are open again, Blinken going to China in a way that he wanted to months ago before the Chinese balloon got in the way of that, the Chinese, in effect, returning the favor there, having those lines of communication open are important to all sides.

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You hear from U.S. officials, you hear from Chinese officials, and I certainly heard it from Taiwanese officials, and I certainly heard it from Taiwanese officials as well. Because without those lines of communication, the concern is that those events, like a Chinese Navy ship pulling in front of a U.S. destroyer, or a Chinese jet pulling in front of the nose of a U.S. surveillance jet, that if you have an accident in those circumstances, a wing clips another wing, a ship clips the valve, another ship, that those don't then escalate into something much worse.

There's enormous concern about that and those are real risks in this context. So, to have the lines open matters, particularly, there's a particular interest from the U.S. side, and I know from the Taiwanese side as well, to have military to military hotlines, as it were, open again, because while those do exist, as I was told in Taiwan, I've been told by U.S. officials as well, Chinese don't always pick up the phone.

HILL: Yes, he kind of needs them to pick up the phone if that's going to be productive.

It was interesting, we heard Secretary Blinken, Bianna, note that there was some conversations about Ukraine, about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and that he said China -- they would welcome China playing a constructive role to come about a just peace in Ukraine. Interesting phrasing.

Based on the relationship between Xi and Putin, what are the real chances of that role being constructive?

GOLODRYGA: Well, that role thus far -- I mean, here's what we've learned from the Chinese. They've tried to present a diplomatic phase right about this, introducing a 12-step solution peace plan between the Ukrainians and the Russians, nobody really the takes that peace plan seriously.

It was the United States intelligence, and it was a confrontation between Blinken and his counterpart in Germany earlier this year, where he said to him personally, we have information suggesting that you are thinking about providing Russia with lethal aid. We are telling you, do not do that.

We don't yet know whether China has made a definitive decision on whether they will cross that line. Obviously, there are economic ties between these two countries. They have called themselves the best of friends in the past. Whether President Xi continues to move forward and decide at some point to provide military aid, lethal military aid to Russia, will really be a huge marker in relations between not only Russia and China but China and the U.S.

BLACKWELL: At the very start of this administration nation, they determined that China was the biggest geopolitical test. And that really matched the rhetoric from the campaign for years, from President Biden, then-vice president, and so on. The relationship is not better, arguably worse. The significance of this meeting, this relationship, this period, as he's looking for re-election to the president?

OSNOS: It's the most challenging and really an unprecedented relationship we have. Just consider one fact. In the final years of the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had about $2 billion of trade per year. The U.S. and China have about $2 billion of trade per day. And at the same time, we find ourselves clashing over these security issues.

These are things that have to be done simultaneously. You have to figure out a way to manage America's economic interests and assets abroad and also figure out a way to manage and prevent a kind of security disaster.

This is in the foreground of Joe Biden's foreign policy agenda, and he has to demonstrate success. This kind of baby steps that we're seeing today could have gone badly. And what we see so far is that it doesn't seem to have gone badly.

HILL: All right. Jim Sciutto, Bianna Golodryga, Evan Osnos, thank you all. Stick around. Much more to talk about throughout the morning.

Meantime, as Americans celebrated Juneteenth and Father's Day over the weekend, this proved to be yet again a holiday marked by gun violence, multiple shootings upending gatherings large and small across the country. Take a look to the life of a state trooper in Pennsylvania also impacted.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus joining us now this morning with more on these events over the weekend. Adrienne, what more can you tell us?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, entrances leading to the parking lot where this shooting happened are still blocked. And police are still on scene this morning as the search for the group or person responsible is still on.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never been at anything like this, honestly.

BROADDUS (voice over): At least one person was killed, 22 others injured at a shooting Saturday night during a Juneteenth celebration in Willowbrook, Illinois. That's about 21 miles west of Chicago. The DuPage County Sheriff's Office says deputies were on site to monitor the event, but around 12:25 A.M., they were called to respond to another incident, but immediately returned when they heard gunfire erupt.

CRAIG LOTTIE, WITNESS: We were all just out and next thing you know shots just got the going off and everybody ran and, yes, it was chaos.

BROADDUS: Investigators say the shooting took place in a parking lot and an unknown number of suspects fired multiple rounds into the ground. No arrests have been made. [07:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motive behind this incident is unclear.

BROADDUS: In St. Louis, a 17-year-old male is dead and nine others injured after a shooting at a party in an office building. St. Louis Metropolitan Police say the victims range in age from 15 to 19.

CHIEF ROBERT TRACY, ST. LOUIS METROPOLITAN POLICE: Additionally, a 17-year-old female was possibly trampled coming down the stairs running from the scene and has serious injuries to her spine.

BROADDUS: Investigators say they found multiple weapons at the scene, including an AR-15-style rifle. Officers say a 17-year-old suspect is in custody.

Two people are dead, several others hurt after a shooting at the campgrounds near the Gorge Amphitheatre near Quincy, Washington, about 160 miles east of Seattle.

MARIANO KEMP, ATTENDED FESTIVAL: It's really sad that that happened, too, like people were just trying to come out here to have fun.

BROADDUS: Officers responded around 8:23 P.M. Saturday during the first night of an electronic dance music festival. The Grant County Sheriff's office says the shooter shot four people in the campground, then continued firing into the crowd. CNN-affiliate KOMO says when officers caught up to the suspect, they fired their weapons, injuring the alleged shooter who survived.

KYLE FOREMAN, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, GRANT COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: We don't know what the motives were or what the intentions were of the shooter.

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BROADDUS (on camera): And this weekend, where folks celebrated Juneteenth and Father's Day, now marked by violence. So far this year, there have been more mass shootings across the country than the number of days in a year. Erica?

HILL: That is sobering, sobering burning fact. Adrienne, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: President Biden officially in re-election mode. His 2024 campaign is starting to take shape. We've got details ahead.

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WILLIAM BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Would he put the country at risk if he was in the White House again? He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country's interests. There's no question about it. This is a perfect example of that. He's like a nine-year-old -- a defiant nine-year-old kid who is always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It's a means of self assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he's a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the countries, his personal gratification of his ego.

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BLACKWELL: Former Attorney General Bill Barr delivers a blistering assessment of his former boss, who is charged with 37 felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Barr called Trump's alleged actions reckless and deceitful. He also made it clear that he thinks Trump is not a victim in this case and that defenses offered up so far are wacky, his word.

While current and former Republican officials are weighing in, President Joe Biden is not. During his first re-election campaign rally this weekend, the president maintained his position of not commenting on these charges against his potential 2024 opponent.

Back with us to discuss is CNN Contributor Evan Osnos, also joining us is L.A. Times Columnist L.Z. Granderson. He's also the host of the ABC News podcast, Life Out Loud.

Let me start with you, Evan. As the Biden biographer, do you think this is sustainable even through the general election to say nothing about this, specifically if there are charges that come on January 6 when he's made the defense of democracy so central to his case to the American people?

OSNOS: It's not by accident he's saying nothing. Look, the strategy here is to try to reinforce the sense that Department of Justice operates independently. The president is not putting a thumb on the scale. But there does come a point where people want to hear something about the crisis face of the United States when it comes to a Republican frontrunner who is, after all, under indictment.

So, you may hear him eventually start to make general comments about the importance of the rule of law, nobody being above the law, but I wouldn't expect to hear him begin to make pointed comments about Donald Trump and his specific legal troubles.

HILL: It's interesting. We were also talking last hour about the lack of pointed comments from other either former Democratic officials or high ranking Democrats. You're hearing a little bit, but maybe not as much as you're certainly hearing in terms of a defense from the Republican side for the former president. Is that a mistake in terms of missing an opportunity for a conversation about concerns raised when it comes to national security in that indictment?

L.Z. GRANDERSON, OP-ED COLUMNIST, L.A. TIMES: Well, I think it really depends upon the motivations for the silence. If you're being silent because you're trying to appease Republicans who may think this is politically motivated, that's a futile effort. But if you're being silent because that's just what's proper during these proceedings, then I think it's not in vain.

The question is why are some of these elected officials, to your point, being silent? Because if there's a failed attempt to try to like woo independents who are on the fence, we've seen enough video now, I think, to know that facts alone won't change a person's mind, not a Donald Trump supporter's mind. And so why are you being silent? And is that the best way, to your point, to support President Biden?

BLACKWELL: And let's put the independence aside for a moment and talk about the base of the party. It seems like these candidates would have to pick a lane. Because right now, what some of them are doing or saying, they're saying that, yes, what is written here in this indictment is reckless. I cannot defend it. But on the other side, this is a weaponized Justice Department. How can you say both of them that this is serious but also this is a political prosecution?

GRANDERSON: Well, you know, the dirty secret is that these two ideas have been running concurrently for much longer than this. This is Juneteenth. Let's just be real with it, right? As a black person, you're well aware of how certain aspects of the intelligence agency was weaponized against black people and civil rights leaders, right? So, this conversation isn't happening in a vacuum. There is documented proof of that.

I believe the important thing to do is to acknowledge that history and to talk about how this is different and how this is not like this. Use the evidence. Don't run from it. We all are aware of it. There are tapes. What are we doing here pretending as if, no, that's impossible? No. Acknowledge the frailties, acknowledge where we've gone wrong, and then talk about why these cases in particular are not like the others.

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HILL: What are the chances, Evan, of that actually happening?

OSNOS: I think it would be an eloquent case to make, and it's a hard one for Biden to do and land the plane correctly. I think you'd make a strong case for doing it.

I think there comes a point, Biden at the moment, right now, is trying, in effect, to say, look, I am out here giving you a choice. There's one of us here who is the president of the United States, who's going to talk about rebuilding bridges. It's unglamorous stuff. He's talking about junk fees on hotels and flights, but he's also talking about reducing prescription drug prices. And he's saying, look, I am not trying to take up as much of your headspace as this other guy.

And that is the choice that he's trying to lay out for the American people. It's, in a sense, conspicuous in its silence on these questions, and I think you're right to raise it, but I think at the moment, he's inclined to say, let's let the events speak for themselves. Let's let Donald Trump be his own, in effect, worst enemy politically while I go about doing, as he would put it, the people's business. BLACKWELL: The president held his first rally in Philadelphia. There is a senior adviser to Biden who told The Washington Post that they don't think they need to have they need to be out campaigning right now because they don't have an opponent. Sure, they don't have a serious primary opponent. But in the questions of his age and seeing about on the campaign trail, if he goes light, does that support, does that justify some of those concerns if he's not aggressively out there campaigning, even now in June?

OSNOS: It's a balancing act. Because on the one hand, you want to get him out there, show that he's vigorous, show he can do the job, but you don't want to create all of these opportunities for there to be a piece of footage that shows him tripping on a stage, as we saw not too long ago. So, this is a case where they're trying to manage him. And being in the presidency, you do have control over your schedule. You get a lot of opportunities to run from the Rose Garden, as they say.

So, they're going to be judicious. They're going to wait as long as they can before they put him out on the road in that grueling way that we know a presidential campaign. But this is not one where you can be running from Delaware, as he was in 2020. He's going to have to be running out there.

GRANDERSON: I think this is why it's important, too, that the governors that were Democrats continue to act as if they're his surrogates and making sure that his policies are a constant conversation locally and they aren't depending on him to show up to these states in order to talk about the infrastructure build.

And we do see Governor Newsom doing that. I believe Governor Whitmer out of Michigan has been doing a lot more on video talking about the policies of the Democratic Party. I think leaning on your governors and other local leaders will help alleviate some of the messaging and so that President Biden doesn't have to be physically there all the time during this campaign.

BLACKWELL: All right. L.Z. thank you, Evan, thank you as well. All right.

HILL: U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken meeting, as we know, with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. We have new details about those discussions. Was any progress made?

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