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CNN This Morning

Soon, Biden Meets with King Charles at Windsor Castle; 25 Million Across Northeast Under Flood Alerts After Deadly Flash Flooding Strikes New York; Air Travelers Brace for More Disruptions After East Coast Storms Cause Thousands of Flight Delays and Cancellations. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 10, 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 MALE: We have an emergency situation here in Southern Orange County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parts of New York recovering from a once in a thousand year flood event.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. It's up to my knees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officials say at least one person has died in floodwaters after powerful storms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see water gushing past houses and rising around cars.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The president starts his trip in the U.K. meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two leaders have actually met six times, believe it or not, over the past six months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While in London, he will meet with King Charles at Windsor Castle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two men are expected to discuss climate issues, which they keep priority for King Charles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That NATO summit will be the centerpiece of President Biden's trip here to Europe..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: High on the agenda, Ukraine's push to join the alliance, as well as Sweden's bid for a session.

TAPPER: Zelenskyy told Erin Burnett that that decision is entirely up to President Biden.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't think there is unanimity in NATO to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now in middle of a war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A warning today about a sports drink that is all a rage with the young people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have created all our own drink company.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Prime is engaged in a vast advertising campaign aimed at kids, even though kids aren't supposed to drink a drink with this much caffeine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drama in the Gold Cup quarterfinals. The U.S. answering a late goal from Canada in the final minutes, sending it to penalties.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he misses, if Turner saves, the United States moves on to the Gold Cup semifinal. And it's off the bar. The U.S. wins it.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, I'm Phil Mattingly here with Pamela Brown in Washington D.C. Poppy is off. And I know you were staying up late to watch the Gold Cup quarter finals.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Of course, I'm going off of like an hour of sleep right now. So, it's all good.

MATTINGLY: Great match. The U.S. women also winning a week before the U.S. World Cup.

Most importantly, though, Pamela, as we hang out this morning, there's a ton of news on a Monday morning, which I greatly appreciate.

BROWN: I do too. That's not always the case, right?

MATTINGLY: Better than coffee. And that's exactly why we're going to begin in London where President Biden has kicked off his high-stakes trip to Europe after spending the past couple of hours meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The president is about to head about 20 miles west to meet with King Charles for the first time since his coronation.

BROWN: And these back to back high-profile meetings, they come ahead of tomorrow's NATO summit in Lithuania.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is live at 10 Downing Street as CNN's Max Foster is standing by at Windsor Castle. Arlette, let's kick it off with you this morning. What are you hearing about Biden's meeting with Sunak?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, President Biden spent about 40 minutes here at 10 Downing this morning to meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The president described their conversation and their relationship saying that they have an incredibly strong bond. And, really, that bond and connection has been built around the U.S. and the U.K.'s continued unity and support for Ukraine during its war against Russia. This comes as the president is set to head to the NATO summit. So, this meeting between Biden and Sunak gave him an opportunity to kind of consult ahead of that meeting of the NATO alliance.

And it also came just a few days after President Biden approves sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine, a move that puts him at odds with many allies within NATO, including the United Kingdom. Sunak has noted that the U.K. is one of over 100 countries that has signed on to a convention that prohibits the production and the use of cluster munitions and also discourages the use of them by other countries as well.

And the White House has really tried to downplay this difference that there is between the U.S. and allies, saying that there is not going to be a fracture in the alliance when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

So, the president here started his day talking about Ukraine.

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They also touched on other issues, like climate technology, artificial intelligence and also China. And now he is heading on his way to Windsor Castle for that first engagement with King Charles III since his coronation.

MATTINGLY: All right. Max, I have to ask, there's always a lot of intrigue when it comes to President Biden and the U.K., President Biden and royalty to some degree. What are the expectations heading into Biden's first meeting with now King Charles?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, the red carpet firmly being rolled out, as it always is, for the U.S. President. This is the single most important bilateral relationship for the United Kingdom. So, arrive here at the castle, there will be a guard of honor, they will play the U.S. national anthem, then they'll go into the castle for tea, as something that U.S. presidents always enjoy.

The first serving president that term King Charles met with was Eisenhower back in 1959. So, there's a long history there obviously plays into Queen Elizabeth's history as well, with the many U.S presidents that she met.

What is different about this visit is that we're actually being told what they're going to discuss, which would never have been the case with Elizabeth. Those conversations were always highly confidential. We're told they will be discussing environment, something that King Charles and the president of the U.S. share a lot of common interests over. So, we can have a discussion about that.

A lot to fix, actually, frankly, in this special relationship, as it's called here in the U.K. There are tensions, Arlette was talking there about Ukraine, not just about these cluster bombs, but also about how quickly Ukraine should become a member of NATO, and also reportedly, President Biden rejected U.K.'s choices, head of NATO as well.

So when it comes to the head of state meeting with the president, this is all about firming up the very long term relationship between the two countries. So, some pressure, actually, on King Charles to get this one right as a big meeting for him at the beginning of his monarchy.

BROWN: Yes, the first meeting with President Biden as the king. Thanks so much, Max Foster, Arlette Saenz, we appreciate it.

MATTINGLY: And new this morning, we're now hearing from the Kremlin that Yevgeny Prigozhin met with President Vladimir Putin after that short-lived mutiny at the end of June. We're told the meeting took place on June 29th, five days after that rebellion.

CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us live from London. Clare, this is still kind of the stunning news of this morning. What exactly do we know right now?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it felt another major twist in this tale. As you say, the Kremlin saying the meeting happened on June 29th, just five days after that armed rebellion and 11 days ago. So, that raises, of course, questions why did they wait so long to tell us. There was, though, there a leak in a French news outlet.

We know that it lasted three hours, according to Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, that he doesn't say what exactly was discussed, and that it involved 35 people. They're saying all unit commanders and the leadership of the campaign, including Prigozhin.

This seems to be deliberately ambiguous. They're not saying whether these are the commanders of the overall so-called special military operations. So, Ministry of Defense figures the Kremlin would not comment on whether any representative of the Ministry of Defense was there.

But they do say that Putin listened to the explanations provided by the commanders and offered them further options for deployment and a further combat use. Again, major questions around that. Does this signal that Wagner could still have a role to play in this conflict? That, of course, is crucial to Ukraine.

We still don't know, by the way, where Yevgeny Prigozhin is. If this meeting was on the 29th, we don't know where he's gone since then. There have been no photos or videos of him emerging since the armed rebellion itself, where he was seen leaving Rostov in Russia. So, many, many, many questions about this.

One really interesting comment, though, I want to bring out from Peskov, he said that these commanders said that they were staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and supreme commander, so Putin himself. He said they were also ready to continue to fight for the motherland.

So, are they reaffirming their support for Putin? Does Wagner, as I said, continue to have a role to play in this war? Many, many questions.

MATTINGLY: Many questions left reading the tea leaves. Clare Sebastian. Thanks so much.

BROWN: Yes, you want to be a fly on the wall, Matt, meeting, right, three hours as well?

All right, so let's bring in former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, he is the vice president of the Russia and Europe Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace, CNN Military Analyst, former member of Joint Staff at the Pentagon and former Deputy Director for training at the NSA, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, and CNN Senior Political Analyst Nia-Malika. Henderson, all star panel for you on this morning to talk about all the news happening, so much going on.

Let's start with this meeting, right? I mean, I want to get your reaction to this, Ambassador, this meeting between Prigozhin and Putin just days after this attempted coup.

WILLIAM TAYLOR, VICE PRESIDENT, RUSSIA AND EUROPE CENTER, USIP: Pamela, it's hard to understand. I mean, here's President Putin, who came out guns a blazing on the 24th June saying that Prigozhin was a traitor and had stabbed the Russian nation in the back and he was going to crush him, and then he meets with him again.

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I think this demonstrates Putin's weakness. I think it really shows how weak he is.

MATTINGLY: Okay. So, where's he been for the next 11 days?

TAYLOR: Who knows? That's the question, Phil. We don't know where this guy was. But, clearly, he was not under control. Clearly, he was not in Belarus. He was not going by the deal that he apparently struck with Putin through Lukashenko. So, we don't know.

BROWN: So, what is the significance of this and like in the larger picture with the war going on in Ukraine?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Pamela. The big thing that I look at this is, as Ambassador Taylor said, this guy is weak. I mean, if you were going to be playing the czar, in Russian history, you always had the czar as the center of all things good. Even though there was evil happening in the middle of the bureaucracy, the czar would take care of you eventually. So, Putin could have played that role, but it appears that he didn't play that role.

And since he didn't do that, I agree with the ambassador, this makes him very weak. And from a military standpoint, this could mean that the Wagner group comes back into Ukraine, could mean. It could also mean that they're trying to reorganize things because they have a shortage of munitions, or they have a shortage of weapons systems or a shortage of personnel. And I believe they have a shortage in all those three areas. MATTINGLY: So, everything is clear as mud, obviously in Moscow, which is par for the course to some degree. But this is all happening as President Biden and NATO leaders head into a very consequential summit in Lithuania.

From President Biden's perspective, what's kind of the key takeaway? What does he need from this meeting, from this summit?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think stability, right, and this ongoing support of the Ukrainian war effort you have in America. Polls showing that Americans, by and large, support this. It's over 50 percent. It's more than Biden's approval rating. And so he needs to keep this alliance together. He needs to keep NATO strong, right?

If you flash back to President Trump's presidency, a very different take on NATO and America's position in the world.

So, I think if you're Biden, you want to strengthen NATO, you want to also, I mean, just sort of, politically, for his own benefit, I think, you want to make no mistakes, right? No gaps over there that are visible and sort of easily picked up on by the American public. But mainly, I think it's making sure that this alliance stays together, that they stay strong in support of this effort of Ukraine.

Listen, there has been some disagreement around these munitions, for instance, the cluster munitions, some disagreement here from his people of his own party, and then, of course, some disagreement with the NATO alliance as well.

BROWN: And on that note, I'm wondering, Ambassador, because as a former diplomat, behind the scenes, you heard Jake Sullivan, the president's National Security Advisor, say, look, we haven't had any issues with our allies over the cluster munitions, even though a majority of the NATO countries have banned cluster munitions in the production of it. He said there's been no issue. You had that statement from Sunak, the prime minister of the U.K., expressing the U.K. stance.

But behind the scenes, do you think it's a different situation in terms of what the allies are saying to the Biden administration about this decision?

TAYLOR: No. I think what the allies are saying is we need Ukraine to win. The allies are saying, we are united behind Ukraine. We want them to we want them to push the Russians out. In order to do that, the Ukrainians need ammunition, 155 artillery ammunition.

It turns out they don't have very much it turns out we don't have very much of the unitary. What we have a lot of are these cluster munitions.

So, in order to get them the ammunition they need for right now, until we can ramp up production of this unitary, they need to provide ammunition so that the Russians can't run them over. BROWN: Can I just follow up really quickly, if you don't mind, in terms of the difference between the cluster munitions the U.S. is sending over versus what Russia has been using, break it down for us, Cedric. I guess it's called the dud rate, right?

LEIGHTON: That's right. Yes, the Dud rate is basically the failure rate, if you will, of these munitions. So, for the American munitions that are being planned to be shipped to Ukraine, the dud rate is about 2.35 percent. For -- those are the official figures. In real life, it will probably be a little bit higher than that, but it is definitely not going to be as high as the Russian rate, which is around 30 percent to 40 percent, which is incredibly bad.

MATTINGLY: Ambassador, can. I ask you a critical kind of sub-story of this NATO summit is Sweden and Turkey's continued blocking of their accession into NATO. Finland is already in. Sweden is kind of hanging out there right now.

I think if you read between the lines of what President Biden has said, to some degree, some of the statements out of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, there is a potential deal in the works or hanging out there. Turkey obviously wants access to F-16s. They have a lot of very powerful Capitol Hill objectors to that idea, including the top two senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Perhaps you would build up some of Greece's defense capabilities as well. You do it as kind of a package deal to get an agreement for Turkey to sign off.

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I'm not trying to make this into 6D chess here, but how does this -- is there an endgame here that you see?

TAYLOR: There is an endgame, Phil. We will see Sweden in NATO. Maybe we'll see it this week.

MATTINGLY: Really?

TAYLOR: Maybe we'll see it this week? Maybe there's a deal. As you said, President Biden talked to President Erdogan, they've had a conversation about F 16s, about Sweden. There's a deal there, and I expect that that will happen this week. But if it doesn't happen this week, it will happen shortly thereafter.

MATTINGLY: Even with -- I mean, Congress does have a say over weapons capabilities being sent, even to allies.

TAYLOR: And that gives President Biden leverage when he talks to Erdogan. He said, you are going to need to let Sweden in or else there's no chance of getting the F-16s.

BROWN: Yes, that's important. And then you have the looming question about Ukraine and its desire to join NATO, right? You heard the president say, not right now. But the president doesn't want to get into a war with Russia. You look at Article 5. If Ukraine joined, it would certainly complicate things.

How important, though, is it for the president to work with the allies to lay out a path for Ukraine to join it?

HENDERSON: Listen, I think it's incredibly important, but I think people understand, right? Because if you let Ukrainian now, this is a war with Russia, and that is what Biden, that's what the allies want to prevent at all costs.

So, it is important to sort of lay out what are the guidelines, right? There has to be some sort of settlement, I think, of this war, some sort of peace deal, as well as some sort of democratization as well. President Biden talked about that with Ukraine. So, there's got to be some sort of path.

But it sounds like, at this point, the allies are all in agreement, right, that letting Ukraine in at this point would be a disaster because it would mean a strike against Ukraine would invite, basically, World War Three.

BROWN: Yes. And they say, the president saying, after the war. Well, what does that mean? What is the endgame as this war continues to drag on?

Thank you all so much. Great to hear your perspective, your expertise on these issues this morning.

MATTINGLY: Well, it's being called a once in a millennium rainfall. Ahead, the areas in the northeast that are still at risk this morning.

BROWN: And manhunts are underway on both coasts this morning after inmates, right here, you see them described as dangerous by authorities. They escaped from jail, and they're on the run.

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MATTINGLY: Well, right now, at this moment, there are more than 25 million Americans across the Northeast that are bracing for flooding as a powerful storm pushes north after drenching New York with huge amounts of rain and deadly flashfloods.

Just north of New York City, parts of the Hudson Valley saw a once in a millennium levels of rain. This was the scene in Highland Falls, New York. Look at that. It's incredible. And a woman was reportedly swept away by raging floodwaters and drowned while trying to evacuate from her home with her dog.

Rescue teams using a boat right there to save this man who was stranded in his house. You could see piles, trees and debris pushed up against the homes. And the storm dropped nearly eight inches of rain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Flooding was so bad that people had to swim out of their cars after becoming stuck.

BROWN: And now, the storm system is bearing down on New England. As of right now, more than 1,000 flights are already canceled or delayed today.

We have team coverage. Pete Muntean is tracking the travel chaos the storm has been causing. Let's start, though, with Polo Sandoval. He is live on the ground in Rockland County, New York. What is the situation there right now, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam and Phil, good morning to you. With that range shifting to the north, as you just mentioned, that means a break in the clouds here and an opportunity for recovery, but the impact certainly still being felt.

For example, you look behind me, that roadblock here on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, that is detouring drivers here most of the day. If you've driven on it, you know, it's extremely busy, especially on a Monday here just north of New York City.

But as you mentioned, one of the most affected areas just north of here where those floodwaters proved deadly last night.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at the people's doors. Oh, my God.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Historic flooding slamming southeastern New York on Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's up to my knees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know.

SANDOVAL: Orange County officials say at least one woman died after she was swept away in floodwaters in the town of Highlands.

STEVE NEUHAUS, EXECUTIVE, ORANGE COUNTY: We have an emergency situation here in Southern Orange County, in particular the Highland Falls area.

SANDOVAL: A state of emergency was declared in Ontario and Orange County Sunday by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. in Orange County, Hochul and the Orange County executive said it was due to, quote, life-threatening flooding and power out outages to more than 12,000 homes

NEUHAUS: Throughout the county. We have flooding situations and emergency calls. If you do not need to be on the road, stay off the road.

SANDOVAL: At West Point, intense rain recorded there totaled more than 7.5 inches in six hours, according to preliminary data from NOAA. A CNN analysis of NOAA's historical rainfall frequency data indicates this would be a one in a 1,000-year rainfall event.

Also in Orange County, the city of Cornwall issued a no travel advisory due to numerous flooded roadways, stranded vehicles, water rescues, mudslides, downed trees and debris. In Rockland County, flooding stranded vehicles. Police say they've been assisting local fire department and EMS helping to get stranded motorists to safety. New York State Police urging people to avoid the Palisades Interstate Parkway due to heavy flooding and washouts.

And it's not just New York State feeling the brunt of it. On Sunday, Vermont Governor Phil Scott declared a state of emergency. Friday, heavy rain washed out a portion of Route 4 in Killington.

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SANDOVAL (on camera): And this morning, an Orange County official confirming from that they are now going to be putting in place a non- emergency vehicle and pedestrian ban there in Orange County through this evening. That's just north of here, Pam.

But the threat far from over with still some 25 million Americans under some form of flood threat with the potential for excessive rain just north of New York State tonight.

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BROWN: It reminds me of the scenes of my home state of Kentucky a year ago and that rebuilding still going. Our thoughts and prayers are with the folks there.

Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: Well, more than 10,000 flights were delayed or canceled yesterday as that wall of storms pummeled the East Coast.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is live for us at Reagan National Airport, just outside the nation's capital. Pete, a nation's travelers turn their lonely and weary eyes to you. Give them good news, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The weather has cleared out today, Phil, and that is the good news, although airlines are still recovering after that huge day for cancellations yesterday, just checked FlightAware, 437 cancellations already today after the more than 2,000 nationwide yesterday. That puts it in the top five for cancellations this year.

A busy day for a lot of folks. In fact, the TSA told me they screened 2.63 million people at airports nationwide yesterday, all the folks coming back from the holiday week.

The worst airports, New York especially hard hit LaGuardia. Half of all flights in or out canceled yesterday. Newark, 8 percent of all United Flights canceled, JFK, huge international hub, about one in five flights there canceled, Boston Logan hit hard, Philadelphia hit hard, even here at Reagan National Airport, 20 percent of all flights canceled.

Here's what happened. The FAA says, as that weather moved through the East Coast, it cut off some major flight routes, essentially the on and off ramps to get in those busy airports.

So, we are still hearing about ground stops today. We are not out of the woods just yet. The FAA warning of ground stops in New York, also in Boston and in Florida, as the day goes on.

This is the big tip and the big takeaway you should take from this, according to travel experts. Try to take the first flight out if you can. It's the weather that builds later in the day that's usually the problem. And if you leave early, you have a 25 percent better chance of getting to where you want to go on time. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Pete, you should have, like, a travel website. This is like it's good tips. Don't minimize yourself as just our brilliant aviation correspondent

BROWN: And diversify yourself.

MATTINGLY: Diversify. Pete Muntean, sharing his brilliance and his travel tips to the world. There you go.

BROWN: And he here we have, a business stride, just Phil Mattingly.

MATTINGLY: Pete Muntean for us in Reagan Airport, thanks, buddy.

BROWN: All right. So, let's turn to Iowa, Republicans there ,they have voted to move up their first in the nation caucuses. How this could impact the crowded 2024 race.

MATTINGLY: And a short time from now, President Biden expected to meet with King Charles. We're going to be live in Windsor. Stay with us.

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