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CNN This Morning

Third Of U. S. Population Under Air Quality Alerts As Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Sweeps Across Nation; New Battleground Polls Show Biden & Trump Tied In Pennsylvania, Biden Leading Trump In Wisconsin; Yankees Pitcher Domingo German Throws Perfect Game; Questions Mount Over Whereabouts Of Top Russian General Who Reportedly Knew About Rebellion Plot; Crews Recover Presumed Human Remains In Debris From Titan Submersible Wreckage On Sea Floor. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 29, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Governor Ned Lamont says the goal is to lift residents out of poverty.

All right, thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. CNN This Morning starts right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. We are glad you're with us. Something very exciting happened last night in baseball.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: I was very excited.

HARLOW: We're going to get to that in a moment.

MATTINGLY: We spent three hours talking about pitching.

HARLOW: You just did?

MATTINGLY: No, you and me.

HARLOW: No, I'm very excited.

MATTINGLY: And Michelle (ph), is that we're allowed to do that?

HARLOW: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Wait, no, there's news too.

HARLOW: I'm very excited. Yes, there's a little news going on in the world. But we're going to talk a lot of baseball this morning, so let's get started with five things to know for this Thursday, June 29. Buckle up.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tells CNN that today, one of the busiest travel days of the holiday weekend is going to be a major test for the airlines. The industry, of course, has been roiled in chaos all week. United says they are all hands on deck trying to get the airline out of a multiday meltdown of their schedule.

MATTINGLY: Also this morning, Russian President Putin is set to speak this hour as fallout continues from the rebellion. Today, there are serious questions mounting over the whereabouts of a top general who reportedly knew about the planned insurrection.

Also, parts of the Titan submersible have been recovered from the ocean floor. The U.S. Coast Guard says they've found what they believe are human remains.

HARLOW: Madonna forced to postpone her world tour following a health scare that has landed her in the ICU. We've got the latest on her recovery.

MATTINGLY: And in the most important story of the day, without any question, history on the diamond. For the first time in more than a decade, it has been a perfect game in Major League Baseball New York Yankees Domingo German.

CNN This Morning starts right now.

HARLOW: I love this for more than just the fact that it is the first time in 11 years --

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: -- that it's happened?

MATTINGLY: 2012 Felix Hernandez.

HARLOW: Why do you love it?

MATTINGLY: Because baseball is such a beautiful and wonderful game. And the perfect games happen only 24 times in the history of Major League Baseball.

HARLOW: Right.

MATTINGLY: Four times for the New York Yankees, by the way. Best team in the world.

HARLOW: Last time was 99.

MATTINGLY: You don't know. You can't expect it. In Oakland, worst team in baseball. No one's actually going to their games anymore. Domingo German has been terrible for the last two starts. Comes in, throws a perfect game. It's just like you never know what you're going to get.

HARLOW: It's very harsh to the Oakland A's.

MATTINGLY: I think their fans would agree.

HARLOW: OK. I also love this because he did it for his uncle. His uncle died two days ago and he said this was all for his uncle. So I love that part of the story. I also love this.

MATTINGLY: OK.

HARLOW: Who is that?

MATTINGLY: Why?

HARLOW: Who is that?

MATTINGLY: Are you intimidated?

HARLOW: Who is that, Phil Mattingly? Scholar athlete?

MATTINGLY: That was literally the peak of my baseball career, was photo day. My freshman year. That was like the most action I think I got during my career at Ohio State. But that's -- I like the wristband too. You like the --

HARLOW: You have not aged.

MATTINGLY: In case I was sweating during the team photos.

HARLOW: You have not aged. You're also going to see that a lot in the next three hours.

MATTINGLY: That's great. Thanks, guys. That's -- I appreciate everybody not mentioning that in the morning meeting. That was really nice.

HARLOW: Yes, you're welcome. Wasn't even my idea. Blame the control room.

MATTINGLY: I always do.

HARLOW: Much more of that ahead. But this morning, more than 120 million Americans under alerts for dangerous air quality as a thick wave of smoke from Canadian wildfires smothers the nation. That's a third of the entire U.S. population from Indianapolis all the way to Washington, D.C.

Take a look at these live pictures from cities across the country. This morning, Chicago and our nation's capital have been ranking as the most polluted cities in the world. Minneapolis, Cleveland, Detroit, also in the top 10. This -- at the same time, a deadly and record breaking heat wave is scorching the south and expanding with more than 80 million people facing this extreme heat.

So let's start off this hour with our meteorologist, Jennifer Gray, tracking all of it for us from the Weather Center. Good morning. There's the smoke and there's the heat, not a good mix.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's not a good mix. And it's going to be a while before we start to see relief from this. We are seeing the red and purple dots all around Chicago, Detroit, even spreading into portions of the mid-Atlantic, even the Northeast. New York City even under a moderate level for that unhealthy air quality.

And so, these are some major cities across the Midwest and even into the Northeast. This is a story we have heard before. We said that this could happen again and it is. Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, D.C. could all suffer from poor air quality today.

New York City not technically under that air quality alert, but very, very close. So you will have some hazy skies. Chicago D.C. taking the top two spots for the poorest air quality in the world right now for any of the major cities across the world. Nothing to brag about there.

[06:05:02]

We have visibility that's very, very low, less than 1 mile. In Cincinnati, a lot of places are right at 1 to 2 miles of visibility. So the forecast moving forward. We do have some thick smoke across Chicago, as we saw, but it will start to dissipate throughout the day today and even in tomorrow.

You can see these blue colors still indicating smoke in the atmosphere. But this is most likely higher level smoke. So you'll notice it in your sunrises, sunsets, things like that but it won't be as oppressive as we've seen with that lower elevation smoke.

Also, the heat is a huge story. We have an area of high pressure heat is just trapped under this, what we call a heat dome across the south. And we still have excessive heat warnings in effect. Heat advisories could still break records for today.

Temperatures are going to be very, very hot, especially spilling farther to the east, places like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. We're looking at temperatures feeling like the triple digits today. Actual temperatures will be in the triple digits for some places. Dallas, another day in the triple digits, 102.

We start to see temperatures fall, though, in some of these locations still above normal and still very hot. But at least we're seeing temperatures trending in the right direction, guys. So it's going to be another dangerously hot day today. This heat wave still going strong.

HARLOW: Jennifer Gray, I appreciate the update. Thank you.

MATTINGLY: We also have politics this morning, a lot of politics. It is a presidential election, after all. There's new polling in that 2024 race. Now, I'm going to caveat this literally every day until November --

HARLOW: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- of next year. Polls are snapshot. Polls do not tell the whole story. We are a long way from the first caucuses. We are a very long way from Election Day. However, that snapshot is important. Were you raising the roof, John Avlon? You're not -- I haven't even introduced you yet. You're not allowed to take --

HARLOW: You guys should have seen what he just did.

MATTINGLY: There was raising of the roof. It's the raising of the roof in a minute. On that new polling, though, in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, President Biden, former President Trump just about even, 47-46, that's according to Quinnipiac University's latest poll.

In Wisconsin, the latest Marquette Law poll, critical poll in that state finds Biden leading Trump, 52 to 43. Now, that new polling comes as Donald Trump continues to maintain significant frontrunner status in the GOP primary, despite those growing legal threats.

One of his rivals in the race, Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, slamming Trump last night to our Kaitlan Collins on CNN, calling him a grifter for using fundraising donations for his legal defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to middle class men and women in this country, and they're donating $15, $25, $50, $100 because they believe in Donald Trump and they want him to be president again. They're not giving that money so he can pay his personal legal fees. And let's remember something, he's a billionaire. He's a billionaire. Self-professed billionaire.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Why do you think he's not using his own money to pay for his legal fees?

CHRISTIE: Because he's the cheapest person I've ever met in my life. That's why.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now, Elliot Williams, CNN Legal Analyst, Former Federal Prosecutor John Avlon -- noted ambassador to the youths with his raising of the roof that you all weren't unfortunately able to see -- analyst -- Senior Political Analyst and Anchor for CNN, and Jessica Washington, Senior Reporter for The Root.

Jessica, I want to start with you, because I thought that we have seen the former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie level a number of kind of different attack lines at former President Trump over the course of the last several weeks. But this is one that I found interesting because it gets at the core of his supporters themselves.

And this idea of you continue to hit a button that oftentimes you hit a donation button and it's a repeat donation, you don't even know it's repeating month after month after month. He's taking their money. He's not using it for his campaign. That would seem to resonate to people that don't necessarily like that. Do you think it does?

JESSICA WASHINGTON, SENIOR REPORTER, THE ROOT: I think it's difficult. It's really hard to imagine a situation where Trump's base leaves him over something that Chris Christie says, particularly calling him a grifter. These are not new attacks against Donald Trump. I mean, this has been going on since the 2016 election, even before then. So I think it's difficult to imagine that Chris Christie is going to be able to hit that note with his supporters. HARLOW: There's something else I thought was interesting. If we can play a little bit more of Kaitlan's interview with Chris Christie, and this is him talking about mistakes he thinks were made last time around in terms of not going after Trump early enough and what they need to change -- the other candidates he thinks needs to change this time. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: This isn't new, Kaitlan, the boxes thing. We would get on Trump's plane, and the first thing that would happen when he sat down is Keith would go and get that box and put it in the seat next to Trump, and Trump would open the box, and he would start going through the papers.

When they call up, you know, his beautiful mind boxes --

COLLINS: Yes.

CHRISTIE: -- the staff called them. I knew exactly what they meant. It was like a security blanket for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: OK, sorry, that was not what we're looking for, but let me -- what he did say to Kaitlan is, "We did go after Trump enough. We allowed a certain narrative to set in about Donald Trump that then became impossible for us to change or overcome".

[06:10:07]

Your -- do you think that he will convince more of his rivals in this primary to go after Trump in the way he is?

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think he's opening the door. I think he's got the charisma of commonsense and his convictions, and that authenticity reads in politics. And all these other candidates kind of tiptoeing around Donald Trump. I think that projects weakness.

And you need clarity, you need to play offense in politics. It's always the best defense. Donald Trump understands it. Some of the other candidates think you can co-off parts of their base. The reason I was raising the roof earlier, Phil, was because I think we do spend too much time focusing on horse race politics and not enough about underlying dynamics.

They're snapshots in time. They're valuable, they're interesting, but they're not the main event. And I think Christie has done himself really a lot of favors, beginning with the CNN town hall, by reminding people he's actually a pretty unique political talent. He speaks clearly. He cares about policy, and he's telling the truth. And that itself has a charisma about it.

MATTINGLY: Elliot, we talk about the legal issues constantly. We don't talk about them through the lens of puncturing, kind of -- as Jessica is referring to, kind of the core base of Trump support. And I don't think anybody's naive enough to think that that would actually happen. I think the Trump team knows that as well.

But as you -- as cases, plural, continue to kind of unfurl, more reporting comes out to go with the indictments we've already seen. If you're an independent voter, if you're a Republican who's maybe not totally sold on the foreign president, even if you like your policies, what are you thinking about as you're seeing the legal issues in terms of severity?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's funny. I, as a former federal prosecutor, see someone get indicted and think, wait a second, perhaps this individual isn't the best standard bearer for the political party I might belong to, right?

AVLON: Yes, it's a novel.

WILLIAMS: No, no, but, again, no, having sort of lived in that world for quite some time, to me, it just seems undeniable. But I, you know, I certainly could not tell people how or how they ought to vote. Now, I think if you break the cases up into a few different buckets, a number of them involved people.

So let's take New York and New York, the district attorney, and in Atlanta, these were people that ran for office committing or at least pledging to prosecute the former president, right? And to some extent, there was more of a political Paul hanging over the cases. You look at --

HARLOW: Which has, by the way, been a criticism.

WILLIAMS: It's a criticism.

HARLOW: Example in these cases.

WILLIAMS: And I'll go --

HARLOW: And there's some merit to that criticism, you know?

WILLIAMS: Yes, I go further, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes.

WILLIAMS: I'd say it's an entirely valid criticism.

HARLOW: Yes.

WILLIAMS: When a prosecutor goes runs for office, attacking an individual that they --

HARLOW: Yes.

WILLIAMS: -- intend to prosecute, look, you know, that's fair game for them to pick on. The documents case, the possession of documents at Mar-a-Lago I see as being in a different class. One, because the proof is relatively straightforward, and two, because the former president is on the record not saying you're going to convict him, but he's on the record saying he possessed the documents.

And he's on the record saying that he's aware of their sensitivity. And I just think as a criminal matter, it's just far more straightforward.

AVLON: You know, let's not forget about the common sense of this all. Yes, having an indicted standard bearer is not good, particularly if the indictments go -- cut across some of your core values, right? I mean, fiscal responsibility, national security, caring about the country, patriotism. And yet this Donald Trump is undeniably sticky.

That said, there is erosion even in CNN's last poll, a home vocal poll. That, you know, that people -- some Republicans are saying that's too much. 26 percent say he should not -- he should drop out of the race because of the indictment and it's likely to get worse, not better.

HARLOW: Yes, 26 percent of Republicans --

AVLON: Correct.

HARLOW: -- and a majority of independents in that as well.

AVLON: Correct. Correct.

HARLOW: Says a lot.

MATTINGLY: Did you point to me because I was supposed to raise -- it's like a --

AVLON: Yes. No, I was pointing you because I was hoping they'd show the picture of you and the uniform again. Because the biggest news take is clearly the perfect game.

MATTINGLY: No, that I agree with, and that's actually what I want to talk to you. Stay with us.

AVLON: Yes.

MATTINGLY: We have a lot more to get to on this type of stuff. But I think we've got some Yankees fans at the table and baseball fans at the table. For only the 24th time in nearly 150 years, baseball fans witnessed perfection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Esteury Ruiz stands in his way. Grounded to third. Donaldson has it. (INAUDIBLE) perfection for Domingo German.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That is Yankees pitcher Domingo German sat down all 27 Oakland A's he faced last night in dominant fashion, throwing only 99 pitches. We call that the matics on his way to immortality. He's only the fourth Yankee to throw a perfect game and the first pitcher to do so since the King Felix Hernandez at Seattle Mariners back in 2012. CNN Sports Correspondent Carolyn Manno joins us now. But this is great. Like --

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- I woke up this morning and after day, after day, after day of looking at my phone alerts about the Yankees, angry most mornings when I wake up very, very early. I was thrilled. Can't get enough of it. Why?

MANNO: Well, I feel bad being out here because I know John Avalon is greeting from ear to ear and probably wanted to tell the story himself. But what's special about this is that German has had a really up and down year. I mean, his last outing was completely abysmal, and so, to hear him say that he thought that this could be a possibility early on in this game is really surprising.

[06:15:06]

But on his mind was his uncle, who he was really close with who passed away on Monday and he said that he had been really emotional in the clubhouse this week. He dedicated this game to him, and it was just perfection. The Yankees A's was completely masterful. I mean, he retired every Oakland batter in an 11-0 win for the Yankees.

72 of his 99 pitches were for strikes. You could see the 30-year-old really picking up steam as the game went on. Mixed in, 51 curveballs, 30 fast balls, 17 change ups, a sinker. The crowd was on its feet. He said he felt a kind of pressure that he has never felt in this last inning.

The key, he said, was not to overthrow, just stay within his range. So much pressure, but so rewarding. And as John Avlon knew so I think just wants to comment on this.

MATTINGLY: We'll allow it.

MANNO: You know, it's crazy that the Yankees have been so good and so bad. And when they need pitching, they don't get it, and when they don't need pitching, they get a break game.

AVLON: Great. We actually score -- we. Yankees actually score last night.

WILLIAMS: No, this is us. This is --

MANNO: Oh I'm sorry, yes.

WILLIAMS: We are.

MANNO: It's to everybody.

AVLON: No problem. I mean, this is Don Larsen, David Cone, David Wells and tonight, last night. And look, yes, it's against Oakland. But my kids waking up this morning are going to be thrilled. They've never seen perfection. We haven't had it in recent years so much. MANNO: Yes. Look, we're softens in the league but it doesn't matter, especially for a guy like this, who has had such a tough time this year, facing a suspension for a little bit of resin, coming back, having terrible outings, and to see this moment. I mean, his team just rallying around him. For him to be able to hold onto it until the very end, it just like it made you smile. This is so good.

WILLIAMS: I don't think it made you smile. I think it made God smile (INAUDIBLE). Whenever this scrappy upstart third place New York Yankees, we need this. 27 world championships is just --

MANNO: Not enough.

WILLIAMS: -- not enough.

AVLON: Absolutely.

MATTINGLY: What I love about sports in baseball in particular is the very like contained and careful Elliot Williams, the prosecutor who isn't going to go outside of the lane or be hyperbolic.

AVLON: Invoking God.

MATTINGLY: Does exactly that. And that's why we love sports, you know, and that's why the Yankees --

WILLIAMS: No, I'm just putting out there, just, you know, God is a Yankees fan.

AVLON: I keeps the kids and that's a lot.

WILLIAMS: I don't make the rules, Phil. I don't.

MANNO: This is fun. This is really fun.

MATTINGLY: And it was great. And that's a great story. Carolyn Manno, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

HARLOW: The U.S. Coast Guard making a grim discovery, finding presumed human remains within the wreckage of the imploded Titan submarine. We have new details from that investigation ahead.

MATTINGLY: And Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow this morning as questions remain about the whereabouts of one of his top generals following that revolt against the Kremlin. That's coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:14]

HARLOW: One of Russia's top generals who reportedly knew about that mercenary rebellion over the weekend in advance is apparently missing this morning. CNN asked the Kremlin about General Sergey Surovikin and where he was. They told us, no comment. Just yesterday, The New York Times reported that he knew that the plot -- about the plot, as well as the U.S. intelligence knowing and trying to figure out if he actually helped plan it. There have been reports from Russian military bloggers and journalists that the general has not been seen in days, that he might be under interrogation, and that he hasn't been in contact with his family.

Nic Robertson has this reporting. He's tracking the latest developments, and he joins us now. Nic, CNN also reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry, is that right?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We did. And they said they can't speak about it. No comment were the words that the spokesman gave. Today, we're expecting President Putin to speak to a business development forum in Russia. I think we can look at this as another Kremlin as victory lap, where Putin does a victory lap for a victory didn't have at the weekend where he claims it.

The security services came together. Everyone did marvelously well. The people supported the -- people supported him. People supported the Kremlin. The reality is, there are big questions out there. Not only the whereabouts of Sergey Surovikin, who knew Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary boss, when they both served in Syria for the Russian military.

Prigozhin back then was providing services for the Russian military. Surovikin was a Russian military commander in Syria. They knew each other back then. In fact, Prigozhin thought Surovikin was one of the best, if not the best general, the only one worthy of a story, a star in the Russian military.

But this is where the mystery deepens over the weekend. The last we've seen, and you're seeing him here now, is Surovikin speaking to the camera, looking incredibly uncomfortable, appearing perhaps to read from a prompter or a message held up in front of him telling Prigozhin to stand down.

This is, you know, sort of questionable at best, and it becomes more questionable when you realize a second senior Russian officer made a similar on camera plea to Prigozhin at the same time. This guy was the deputy head of the Russian military intelligence. And guess what? They're both filmed against a very similar background. The wall looks almost identical.

So it just raises more questions. Were they under duress? Were they being held when they made those features? And of course, the whereabouts of Surovikin right now. I mean, let's face it, these guys don't always appear on camera all over the place. But Surovikin in that video looked under duress and he is somebody who strongly been rumored to sort of be fairly close to Prigozhin. And Prigozhin certainly thought he was.

HARLOW: Yes. Wow. Nic, thank you very much for the update this morning.

MATTINGLY: All right, crews have recovered what they believe to be human remains from the site of the Titan submersible wreckage. The Coast Guard releasing a statement yesterday saying the remains were part of the debris and evidence crews brought back from the sea floor. A ship delivered pieces of the submersible to appear in Newfoundland, Canada.

Now five people died last week when it, quote, catastrophically imploded on a trip to see the sunken Titanic. CNN's Paula Newton is live in Ottawa this morning. Paula, you've been covering this story. What do we know about the latest in that ongoing, I think, recovery and investigation?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Phil, we found out so much yesterday and obviously, the headline for the families is these presumed human remains, which I will say that the U.S. Coast Guard says that U.S. medical professionals will now conduct a formal analysis. No doubt, Phil, an equal measure.

A grim finding, but one that may bring a sense of relief to the families who are trying to figure out exactly what happened and crucially, if their family members knew what was going on and if they suffered. All really, really difficult questions for the friends and the family.

[06:25:10]

But again, there are multiple investigations underway. And to that end, we saw those large pieces of debris from the Titan come ashore in St. John's. As a follow up as well, the U.S. Coast Guard commented, but so did the Canadian Transportation Safety Board.

I want you to take a look at what they said late yesterday evening in a release. They say their investigators have finished collecting relevant documents and completed the preliminary interviews with those on board that support the vessel polar prints. You'll remember that was the mothership to Titan. "The investigation team has taken possession of the vessel's voyage data recorder, which has been sent to the TSB engineering laboratory here in Ottawa for further analysis."

Phil, they also say that the key here is those pieces of debris that were brought up by the ROV, the remote operated vehicle, that they have inspected those, they've cataloged those, but now they are in possession of the U.S. Coast Guard. What does all this mean? Multiple investigations.

I want to be clear that the Transportation Safety Board is only talking about safety, trying to figure out what happened, making sure it doesn't happen again. In parallel, perhaps criminal investigations both on this side of the border in Canada, but also the United States.

But as I say, Phil, a day, which was good news for all the investigators involved. Really hard work there and yet one that really the grim findings really bring it home for the families. Profound grief there.

MATTINGLY: Yes, no question about it. Paula Newton, thanks so much. Well, Madonna is postponing her world tour as she's now recovering from a, quote, serious bacterial infection. We're going to have the latest on her condition coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]