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President Biden to Address NATO Summit; NATO Set to Add Sweden to Alliance; Catastrophic Flooding in Vermont, Parts of Northeast. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 11, 2023 - 06:00   ET

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

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR/CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, everyone, from Washington, D.C., Poppy is off this week. My friend Pamela Brown --

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Great to be here.

MATTINGLY: -- is here with me. Thanks for joining us. We have a very busy news day. Let's get that started with "Five Things to Know" for this Tuesday, July 11, 2023.

Right now, President Biden is in Lithuania to kick off a high-stakes NATO summit. Ukraine's future set to dominate the agenda, including its bid to join NATO and its push for security guarantees.

BROWN: New overnight, Donald Trump's legal team filing a request for a lengthy delay to the start of his trial in the classified documents case. His lawyers saying they want to wait until after the 2024 election.

MATTINGLY: And catastrophic flooding hitting parts of the Northeast overnight. Officials say more than 50 people had to be rescued in Vermont. Some areas received more than 8 inches of rain in a single day.

BROWN: Northwestern University has fired its football coach, Pat Fitzgerald. This firing coming after an investigation looking into alleged hazing within the football program.

MATTINGLY: And happening today, senators will get a classified briefing on artificial intelligence. Now, this will be the first-ever briefing of its kind. We're told the director of national intelligence will be attending.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

We're going to get you straight to the news, because the news is happening right now. We're going to take you to Lithuania. These are live pictures from Vilnius. Just moments from now, President Biden is set to speak at that critical NATO summit with allied leaders as the war in Ukraine rages on with no end in sight.

The high-stakes meeting comes after the huge announcement that Turkey will no longer block Sweden from joining the alliance. It's a giant strategic blow to Vladimir Putin.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan says the U.S. is coming into this summit with, quote, "full" -- "with a full head of steam" following the Sweden announcement. He says the allies will also discuss a path for Ukraine to possibly join NATO in the future.

We're going to start with CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz. She's live on the ground there. And Arlette, what exactly heading into this high-stakes summit is the White House hoping to achieve?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, President Biden is hoping to emerge from this summit with a strengthened and united NATO that will ultimately disappoint Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Now, any minute now, we will see President Biden alongside NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg. And this meeting between the two men really comes on the heels of a big win for both of them, after Turkey announced a stunning reversal to approve Sweden's accession into NATO.

Turkey had been blocking Sweden's entrance into NATO for a little over a year.

And the fact that Sweden will very soon be joining NATO really speaks to an expanded NATO alliance that, in part, has been driven by President Biden. Now President Biden spoke with Turkish President Erdogan as he flew from the U.S. to Europe over the weekend on Air Force One. And he made clear in that call that he wanted Sweden to be accepted into NATO as soon as possible.

We are expecting to see President Biden and Erdogan hold a bilateral meeting a bit later today.

But another big question facing leaders at this summit is the future of Ukraine and a possible pathway for Ukraine to one day join the NATO alliance. President Biden poured cold water on the idea of Ukraine joining the alliance at this moment as the war in Russia is ongoing.

But Zelenskyy has been trying to seek some security guarantees and a clearer pathway to membership.

This morning, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the U.S. and allies will be ready to send a positive signal to Ukraine when it comes to that possible membership. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: There's consensus, including from Ukraine, that the question is not Ukraine and NATO now here at Vilnius. The question is what's the pathway towards Ukraine's future membership?

I think we can come to a good understanding about that here in Vilnius among all of the allies and with Ukraine. That's really what these next two days are about. And I think that's what will be reflected in the communique.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, Sullivan also said that they don't have a timeline to outline right now for when Ukraine could join NATO. That is also something that could possibly come up as President Biden is set to meet here with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at the NATO summit tomorrow.

There had been some questions about whether Zelenskyy would be attending. But it will be a major show of unity as the president is once again trying to show that the NATO alliance is right behind Ukraine, ready to offer that support in the face of that war against Russia.

[06:05:06]

MATTINGLY: All right. Arlette Saenz on the ground for us in Vilnius. Stay with us.

BROWN: Yes. A lot going on this Tuesday morning.

Let's bring in CNN national security analyst and former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner and CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger will be joining us from Lithuania in just a moment.

David, we'll talk to you soon.

First to you, Beth. So short of Ukraine getting an invitation to NATO, which we know President Biden has ruled out, what does success look like for this NATO summit and for Ukraine?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the NATO summit itself, you know, is absolutely historic in terms of bringing in Finland and now bringing in Sweden.

But I think at the end of the day, the real success here is having a positive view coming out, a view of inspiration and hope coming out and not one of just utter disappointment that they haven't been able to thread that needle between Ukrainian -- not -- Ukraine not getting an invitation and Ukraine getting some kind of security guarantee. And that -- that's really the issue on the table today.

MATTINGLY: David, I was heartened when I was listening to your stellar colleague, Ben Hubbard, last hour talk about how he was surprised when Turkey signed off, or at least cleared the pathway for Sweden to join the NATO summit; because I was surprised, assumed that people like you and Ben probably had some secret knowledge that all of this was happening.

But it was fairly shocking yesterday that all of the kind of roadblocks seem to be moved out of the way. For people maybe who aren't following this at such a granular level like we all are, explain what this means, both Turkey's decision and Erdogan's decision to clear the way here, but Sweden joining generally.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Turkey had blocked Sweden, because it believed that it was promoting, or at least allowing, what the Turks call terrorists and what were, in fact, dissident groups that -- that, for a long time, you've seen President Erdogan try to -- try to put down. And he's been very sensitive about this.

But it became clear over time that he had his price. And part of the price was that Turkey is not in the European Union. It looks like they will now get an accelerated way into the European Union.

The U.S. Congress was not going to release F-16s to Turkey until they approved Sweden. It now looks like he's going to get his F-16s.

The other question is what other concessions were made to Turkey? Turkey is a very unusual NATO ally, because it flirts with Putin left and right. It's bought a good deal of his weapons; it's done a fair bit of trade with them.

And so there's always been a lot of tension back and forth.

But this was a surprise, and it was a surprise to me and Ben as well as to you, Phil. So you weren't missing anything.

BROWN: And clearly Russia is not too pleased about that. We have the statement from a Russian defense official saying that Russia has gone from being a neutral country to now being an unfriendly one after this move.

SANNER: Turkey, yes.

BROWN: Sorry, Turkey.

SANNER: Well, you know, Putin and Erdogan have such an interesting relationship. I mean, their forces have literally come to blows in Syria, and yet, they seem to somehow figure out how to manage their symbiotic relationship.

They have a lot of things that they depend upon each other, especially economically.

But Erdogan has done a number of things over the past few days. Releasing the Azovstal leaders. Saying publicly that Ukraine should be a member of NATO; and saying that he and Ukraine will agree to extend the Black Sea grain initiative even if Putin doesn't and that he'll use Turkish warships to escort.

So I would love to be a fly on the wall during the meeting between Erdogan and Putin when Putin is supposed to visit Turkey next month. It is going to be a doozy, but I think they'll work it out. I think they'll work it out.

BROWN: That's optimistic.

MATTINGLY: I was reading the transcript of Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, briefing with you guys earlier today. I'm interested, now that the Turkey/Sweden issue seems to have been resolved satisfactorily for the White House. Obviously, NATO membership for Ukraine is always a significant issue at this summit.

When you talk to White House officials, what do you see as the fault lines? What are the key kind of deliverables they want out of this summit?

SAENZ: Well, I think the overall theme that they want to project from this summit is that they are entering with a more united and strengthened NATO alliance that, in part, has really been, in some responsibility, from President Biden's leadership.

Given that he has pushed forward when it comes to delivering security assistance to Ukraine, a push forward in trying to unite these countries over the course of the past year and a half of the war against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

[06:10:09]

And I think that they want to ensure and tried to stress this message that there aren't any fractures within the alliance.

You know, you saw President Biden, right before he was traveling over here, announce that he was going to send over cluster munitions, controversial weaponry to Ukraine. That counters some of the -- the legal positions of other allies as many have signed on to this convention that bans that type of weaponry.

But I think what's important in that briefing, Sullivan was noting that, even though legally, these countries are opposed, they can't encourage the use of this type of weaponry, you haven't seen them out there contradicting or criticizing President Biden directly for that decision.

That is another example of how they're trying to show that the allies are all together at this moment.

That meeting with Zelenskyy will be a really high-stakes moment. It will send a message not just to the alliance but also to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. and its allies continue to be behind him. So I think that's another -- one of the key moments to watch here at the summit over the next two days.

BROWN: And David, you heard Beth lay out some of the steps Turkey has taken in recent days and weeks against what Russia would want. What does that tell you in terms of how Turkey, Erdogan, views Russia and Putin right now? And how much does all of that weaken Putin?

SANGER: You know, the situation between Turkey and -- and Erdogan and Putin is similar to the one between Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, and Putin, which is to say that they've got a relatively tight relationship, as Beth explained before. It's a contradictory one. There are moments when they're on opposite sides of these issues.

But it is born, essentially, of mutual need, different needs than they have with the Chinese.

I think where -- the place where you're going to see this really play out may well be in the decision about what to do with Ukraine getting admitted to NATO at some point in the future.

You heard Jake Sullivan say it's not going to happen now, but you also heard President Biden, in his interview with CNN last week, say to Fareed Zakaria that he had two objections.

And the first objection is that Ukraine isn't ready, that it's not yet a democratic country. It hasn't gone through the reforms.

But the second one was that, if you go in now during a war and bring Ukraine into NATO, then the United States is directly at war with Russia, because the core of NATO is a self -- a mutual defense pact. And that's really going to get in the way here.

So you'll have President Biden, Germany opposing anything that sets too much of a time line. You're going to have the Baltic states try to say it's time for this to happen.

BROWN: And we're going to be talking to the British defense minister, Ben Wallace, later in the show about just that.

MATTINGLY: All right. Arlette Saenz, David Sanger, Beth Sanner, thank you very much. Stick around. We are still waiting for President Biden to give some remarks at the top of this summit.

But first, we want to turn to the historic and catastrophic flash flooding in parts of the Northeast. It's being called a once-in-a- millennium rainfall. We're seeing the clear effects of that, particularly in Vermont, which is bracing for more after nearly two days of intense rain and impassable roadways and massive damage.

Officials warning that two dams are expected to breach their spillways today. Already, more than 50 people needed to be rescued from their homes.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is live in Montpelier, Vermont, one of the hardest-hit areas. Miguel, I've been watching the pictures in your reporting over the course of the last 12 or 13 hours. What can you tell us about what's happening on the ground there?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news is the sun is starting to come out, and the rain has slowed down significantly. It rained for most of the night here in the Montpelier area. But this is the state capitol. If you look at that car down there,

that was -- the water was about six or seven inches below that car earlier. I tried to get it. That's State Street. The capitol is about a block away from here. I couldn't get there. The water is flowing too fast through here.

All of this, through the Winooski River, which is right behind us. We're going to just walk over here. I want to show you what this looks like and let you listen to it, as well.

It crested at almost 21 feet overnight, and that's not the record. The record was in 1927. But it is absolutely raging. And we keep seeing these pulses of water coming up out of the street.

This is the Taylor Street Bridge. I'm going to stop talking for a second and just let you listen to this.

That is the power of this river. We have also heard explosions in the last hour or so. They may be electrical transformers. Hard to say what they were. But there was a series of explosions here in downtown Montpelier earlier today.

[06:15:07]

One big concern right now is that Wrightsville Dam that is North of here. It's about six feet left of space before it hits the spillway. If it goes over that spillway, it's going to drop more water into the North branch of this river and bring more water here into the capitol.

You know, they are starting to dry out today, but it is going to be a long, long process of getting their lives back together in Vermont. This state has been slammed.

Back to you, guys.

MARQUEZ: Incredible pictures. Miguel Marquez, keep us posted. Thank you.

Well, Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv hours before the start of that NATO summit we've been discussing. We're going to be live on the ground in Kyiv with the latest.

BROWN: Plus, attorneys for former President Trump are asking the judge in this case to postpone the start of the classified documents probe until after the 2024 election. Their arguments just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: We're going to take you live now to that NATO summit in Lithuania. Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, is speaking. President Biden expected to speak shortly. Listen in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's good to be here. Thank you for continuing to deliver.

As I made no -- the press is not all surprised that I've been touting the fact that I think it's really important at this critical moment in Ukraine -- in the whole NATO that you continue to lead NATO. You're trusted. No one knows the situation that we're facing better than you do.

And this historic moment, the adding of Finland and Sweden to -- to NATO, is consequential. And your leadership really matters. And we agree on the language that -- that we've proposed, that you proposed, relative to the future of Ukraine being able to join NATO. And we're looking forward to a continued united NATO.

I've heard -- my American press heard me say many times, I still think President Putin thinks the way he succeeds is to break NATO. Not going to do that. Especially with you leading. So thank you for being willing to do it.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you so much. Thank you.

BIDEN: Thank you, all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what is your role in getting Turkey to agree -- Mr. President, Mr. President? Why weren't you at the signing --

MATTINGLY: You were just watching President Biden and NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius, Lithuania, at the start of a very consequential NATO summit and a NATO summit that comes as the 31st member of NATO, Finland, has already joined the coalition; and the 32nd, Sweden, appears to now have a pathway forward after a lengthy process, where Turkey and to some degree Hungary, as well, were standing in the way. Those pathways have now been cleared.

The president making clear on what a significant moment this is, adding those two countries to the alliance at a very consequential moment in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

BROWN: That's absolutely right. So let's bring in someone on the ground there, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

Thanks for joining us. I want to get your reaction, if you would, first to what we just heard from Stoltenberg and President Biden.

BEN WALLACE, BRITISH DEFENSE SECRETARY: Look, it's really good news Sweden have, you know, literally got the final 99 percent of succeeding into NATO. It just has to go through the Turkish Parliament.

[06:20:02]

You know, a lot of us have been working quite hard behind the scenes with the Turkish and others to make sure this happens.

It's really important because, first of all, Russia will pick on countries that don't manage to get in or are transitioning from non- membership to membership. And that -- that can leave them exposed, and Russia we often see try and use division. But it's also really important for the integrity of the alliance that,

you know, we have an open-door policy. We say if you meet certain conditions, you can join. And you know, Sweden is a strong member of Europe, a member of, you know, in a sense the U.K.'s backyard, Scandinavia. It's very, very important that they got that protection alongside long-standing members such as Norway and Denmark.

BROWN: Can you tell us any more about how this came to be? I think it was surprising to many watching all of this unfold, how quickly there was an about-face from Turkey. Can you tell us more about what concessions were made to Turkey for this deal to happen?

WALLACE: I think Sweden made the main concession, which was at the outset of this, Turkey faces quite a lot of terrorist threat, whether that's from ISIS, whether that's from al Qaeda or whether that's from the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist group that is prescribed across Europe.

And Turkey felt that Sweden's counterterrorism suite of legislation was not sufficient enough to deal with that threat. And the new Swedish government changed the legislation.

And there was a point -- I used to be the government security minister, and there was certainly -- you know, Sweden had a set of legislation that wouldn't really reflect the legislation we have or the United States have.

So, I think they made those changes. And when they started to show the Turks they'd made actual solid recommendations, they've taken bills through Parliament, I think that helped move the Turkish a long way.

And then the international community talked to the Turkish at length and said, Look, it's really in everyone's favor. The only winner of this schism would be Putin.

BROWN: But of course, also Turkey wants to be part of the E.U. They want F-16 fighter jets. So, it seems like this also paved the way for those to happen, as well. Would you agree?

WALLACE: Now, I don't know if there was anything extra. You know, Turkey is a long way from E.U. membership. We're no longer a member of the E.U., but certainly, I think, you know, Turkey would have had some asks.

But fundamentally, I'm delighted that we turn up today in Vilnius and we're literally in the place where Sweden will be joining us.

BROWN: All right. You talked about the conditions that have to be met to join NATO. You say that Sweden has met those conditions.

You said Thursday that NATO should look at clearing hurdles in order for Ukraine to join the NATO alliance. You heard Secretary-General Stoltenberg saying just a minute ago here, that we carried live on CNN, that NATO plans to remove the requirement for a membership action plan.

Yet, you have the White House saying that, in addition to waiting until after the war, Ukraine still has further reform steps to take before joining. Do you disagree with the United States' stance here?

WALLACE: Well, I totally agree with the United States that we can't have a new member the middle of a conflict. I mean, that would just import war into the alliance.

And I think it's certainly the case that we -- we should all, as we are, work together to make sure that Russia fails in its attack, and it's an illegal invasion of Ukraine; and we end up in a position where we can then discuss the future.

But you know, after this war, I think first of all, given we have an open-door policy, it's important to state that we believe Ukraine does belong in NATO. There are some steps that need to be met to get there. And those steps would involve the likes of making sure its military is up to standard.

But we can see right now that its military is up to standard. Its military is taking on a vast superior-sized Russian force and has dealt it a heavy defeat.

So I think overall, you know, Ukraine is not far off membership. But obviously, we're an alliance of, by then, 32. And everyone has to move at the same pace.

But from Britain's point of view, Ukraine belongs in NATO. But we agree with the White House, we have to wait until this conflict is over. But a lot of the reforms that were set out back in 2014 by NATO accession, the rules actually going earlier than that towards 2008, Ukraine has followed. We've been involved --

BROWN: So let me ask you, then --

WALLACE: -- with the country forum, the United States, Canada. We've been helping them modernize. And you know, they've started to deal quite strongly with corruption that had been a hallmark of Ukraine. That's very much in a much better position.

So we think the path is set out. Ukraine have followed it. It is starting to be a healthier democracy and demonstrate that it can -- can stand for people.

And all those people fighting right now for their freedoms, they aren't going to give that freedom up lightly after this war by just turning it into a former Russia sort of Russian state with lot of corruption. They're determined to look to Europe and behave like Europeans. And I think that is -- should be recognized.

So I don't know. Whenever this conflict finishes, we should be prepared, as quickly as possible, to bring Ukraine into NATO.

[06:25:05]

BROWN: So let me just ask you. Because it's -- you clearly agree with the U.S. in terms of waiting until after the war is over, but the U.S. has also said that --

WALLACE: Huh?

BROWN: -- Ukraine needs to take more reform steps. Could you not hear me? Can you hear me? Are we having some audio issues?

WALLACE: No sign. Noting.

BROWN: That's too bad. Because we do have some more important questions to ask, including about cluster munitions. Hopefully, we can get the defense minister of the U.K., Ben Wallace, back with us on the show.

Not sure what happened there. But those technical issues happen, especially the fact that he's all the way in Lithuania. We are in Washington, D.C., right?

MATTINGLY: Very significant player in Lithuania, as well.

BROWN: Of course.

MATTINGLY: Was considered a potential prospect to be the next NATO secretary-general. Obviously, Jens Stoltenberg's term has been extended by another year. But has been a critical player within the alliance over the course of several years now, obviously, in his role as U.K. defense minister.

And also very interesting perspective. There are some disagreements underneath the surface, but aligning to some degree, with the U.S.

BROWN: It was interesting. What I was going to ask him is he made clear that the U.K. agrees with the U.S. when it comes to waiting until after the war to include Ukraine.

But he also made clear, it sounds like, what he was saying that he's not quite on the same page when it comes to all the different steps that Ukraine needs to take, the reform steps to become more democratic to join, as we heard from Jake Sullivan and President Biden.

MATTINGLY: Right. Which is a critical component, something Ukraine has both acknowledged and also been working on for a significant amount of time. So what that actually means going forward --

BROWN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- that's a good interview.

BROWN: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, we have more. A gym, a spa, a Turkish steam bath. It's not Jake Tapper's house. It's new, rare footage that's showing the luxuries inside Vladimir Putin's secret bullet-proof train. See what else CNN uncovered. That's coming up next.

BROWN: And Jake Tapper is coming up later in the show. Gee, we'll have to ask him if that's really not his house. Yes.

MATTINGLY: Stay with us. [06:30:00]