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Zelenskyy Meets With NATO Leaders at Critical Summit; 70 Million-Plus Under Heat Dome in South from Arizona to Florida; Timeline of Trump's Legal Proceedings Could Conflict With 2024 Campaign Schedule. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 12, 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: -- to have her here, a lot of emotions, what everything that we've been through.

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All the sacrifices that she made for me was really special to have her here for me.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: 3-2 win, it's the N.L.'s first all-star win since 2012 and just their fourth in the last 26 years.

CNN This Morning continues right now.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy are about to meet after a very public disagreement over when and how Ukraine can enter NATO.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NATO alliance members very wary of tying themselves to any specific timetable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zelenskyy calling the decision, quote, unprecedented and absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden is hoping to focus on what the U.S. can offer Ukraine in the here and now and also down the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of businesses and homes under water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not out of the woods. This is nowhere near over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flooding only the beginning, extreme heat baking other parts of the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 115 degrees won't be out of the question. Temperatures just continue to go up. SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After 24 hours of backlash, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville finally condemning white nationalists.

REPORTER: So, do you believe that white nationalists are racist?

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): Yes. If that's what a racist is, yes.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under pressure, he moved, and I guess it's better than nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 200 law enforcement officers have joined an intensifying manhunt for Prison Escapee Michael Charles Burham.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities say they found small stockpiles or camp sites they believe are associated with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe he's a dangerous individual and people need to be alert to that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the beginning of the tournament, if someone would tell me that I will be in the semifinal and beating world number one, I would just say that they are crazy.

Just happy I could bring a little happiness to the people of Ukraine.

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MATTINGLY: Well, a good Wednesday morning, everyone. A lot of news going on, but I think this is an important day for the NATO summit because much of the summit at this point has been about what Ukraine hasn't been able to get. This is going to be a day of a lot of substance on what they will be receiving from that coalition.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's really been building to this day. I mean, really, no shortage of news on this Wednesday morning, as has been the case all week. And the final day of a critical NATO summit is underway right now as the war rages on in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting face-to-face with President Biden and other world leaders as he pleads for more weapons and an invitation to join the NATO alliance. He has been openly frustrated with NATO for not giving a clear timeline when Ukraine can become a member.

MATTINGLY: Well, just moments ago in a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Zelenskyy thanked the allies for pledging new weapons packages, this as he softened his tone over NATO membership, but he did not relent.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I would like to have a success on this summit for everyone, for our soldiers, for our citizens, for our children, for everyone.

We can state that the results of the summit are good but should we receive an invitation would be the optimum.

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MATTINGLY: Well, Zelenskyy is set to meet one-on-one with President Biden next hour after the group meeting with NATO leaders wraps.

Melissa Bell is live in Vilnius. And, Melissa, we're told by the NATO leaders have agreed to send a significant new aid package to Ukraine. What details do we have at this point?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We're beginning to hear, Phil, from individual member states about their particular commitments, many of them very substantial, many of them including weaponry that some of these countries have been reluctant to provide so far.

And what you just heard now in that press conference that was just held between Jens Stoltenberg and President Zelenskyy, you're quite right, no relent from President Zelenskyy on the message that while these aid packages are important, they are not the same as NATO membership with that frustration behind his words, and the frustration quite well hidden.

But there, nonetheless, in the voice of Jens Stoltenberg, and we've seen this over the last couple of days, that we've been here, saying, look, what you have got, what you are getting, what you will get, is substantial. And it doesn't just include the military aid, the equipment, the weaponry, which continues to be raised up a notch. I'm thinking here of the F-16s, for instance, that we've learned here, that 11 countries are going to be training Ukrainian pilots on with Ukrainians believe the possibility that the F-16s will be delivered in time to be operational on the battlefield of Ukraine by March of 2024.

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So, substantial gains in terms of Ukrainians' ability to wage their war.

But it is, Jen Stoltenberg explained, much more also about the political guarantees that are coming, the fact that we are here now as equals and soon to be allies in order that this kind of war can never be waged again.

MATTINGLY: Yes, clearly a pathway going forward. When that actually will take place, though, still an open question. Melissa Bell, thanks so much.

BROWN: And the face-to-face between Presidents Biden and Zelenskyy is no doubt a sign of unity. But earlier today, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan faced a contentious back and forth with a Ukrainian activist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jake, please advise me, what should I tell my son that President Biden and NATO didn't invite Ukraine to NATO because he's afraid of Russia, afraid of Russia losing, afraid of Ukraine winning, or there are back channel communications with Kremlin, which is terrorist organization, to reach the Minsk Three deal? Should I prepare my son to be a soldier and fight Russians when he will be 18 years in seven years?

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Certain insinuations or implications inherent in your question which are not founded get checked at the door so that we can talk to one another in goodwill, in good faith. And there has been a lot of conspiracy theorizing that simply is not based on any reality, whatsoever.

And also I would just say the American people have sought in watching and wanting to stand in solidarity with the brave and courageous people of Ukraine to step up and deliver. And I think the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude.

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BROWN: Well, CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger joins us now live from the summit in Lithuania. David, I'd like to get your reaction there with the Ukrainian activist, and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to President Biden. You heard a little touch of defensiveness there from Jake Sullivan.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You did. And I think what you're hearing here in public is a little bit of at least the tenor of the conversation that has taken place back and forth between the Ukrainian leadership, including President Zelenskyy, and President Biden and his staff.

You know, early on in that relationship, Mr. Zelenskyy would come to the meetings with President Biden with sort of a shopping list of what it was he needed. But as the war has gone on, it's become clear that what Zelenskyy really wants, and as you were discussing earlier, is to be in NATO, so that all of the NATO countries, all 32, once Sweden is in, are committed to coming to the defense of Ukraine with their own troops, if need be, in the commitments that all NATO members make to each other.

And the fact of the matter is no one was really going to be prepared to let Ukraine in, in the middle of a war, because as President Biden has frequently said, that would then put us in direct combat with the Russians. And in President Biden's view, that's the way on to World War III. So, that's what he's been trying to avoid. And this has been bubbling beneath the surface, but you're just seeing it come out in public now.

MATTINGLY: David, I think it's a great point. I want to get you to expand on this a little bit. Because in covering this White House's administration over the course of the entirety of this war, there is the kind of public posture and how they interact with or discuss the relationship with Zelenskyy and his team. And I think there's the behind the scenes. And you see the tension spill out into public at times, but you also see when Zelenskyy seemed to back off a little bit. In that press conference with Stoltenberg, you saw that kind of rye grin on his face when he made clear we would really like a NATO invitation, which was the similar face he made when he was talking about getting more Patriot missile systems when he was at the White House visiting President Biden.

And that back and forth, that dynamic and what we don't see publicly, what more do you know about that?

SANGER: Well, this tension, as I said before, has been around for a long time. I think there is a little bit of concern within the White House, and you heard it in Jake Sullivan's comments, that they feel like the Ukrainians aren't grateful enough for what has been a pretty remarkable amount of arms, intelligence, training that the U.S. and the NATO allies have given, far more than we would have all predicted at the beginning of this war, and certainly far more than Vladimir Putin predicted.

But if you're the Ukrainians, you're fighting for your survival, and you know that this war is not going to just go away, we're 500 days in, which is 497 days more than Putin thought this was going to last. And the other thing that's going on here is that we are likely to see this war go on either at high levels or low levels for some long time to come.

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And that's why the most interesting thing that's happening here is what isn't happening. There has been no discussion so far of opening peace negotiations, ceasefire negotiations. No one is ready for that because they want to see if the counteroffensive can work.

And so it's been a pretty remarkable absence a year-and-a-half into this war that we don't have any discussion underway of what the endgame is.

BROWN: Yes. And that's one of the key questions, right?

MATTINGLY: It's such a good point, because behind the scenes, I think members of NATO are talking about what it would take to start to set up that construct. But Ukraine has made clear they want to be involved and aren't ready for it yet. That's such a good point, David. I hadn't even been thinking about that. I assumed at this point these discussions would be live, and you haven't heard a word about it.

David Sanger, great to see you as always, my friend, thank you.

All right, well, coming up later this hour, we're going to speak with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Ukraine's future in NATO, just as President Biden is set to meet with President Zelenskyy.

BROWN: And there is no escape as a perfect storm unfolds across the planet. That's what one scientist tells CNN. Record-breaking heat and flooding have been seen all over the globe daily. Tens of millions of Americans are seeing expanding heat alerts from Southern California to Florida this week. Arizona is currently experiencing dangerous triple- digit temperatures. Phoenix has seen 12 consecutive days with a high over 110 degrees.

So, let's bring in CNN's Lucy Kafanov joining us now live from Scottsdale, Arizona. Lucy, it is still early this morning, but the temperatures are up. What does 110 Fahrenheit feel like?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, I can tell you from yesterday when we were out shooting, and it is brutal, the dehydration, the exhaustion hit you really fast. The sun is obviously not up yet, so it's probably the most tolerable part of the day but we are expecting temperatures of 112 degrees later today, with the mercury expected to soar past 118 by this weekend.

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KAFANOV (voice over): Scorching summers may be the norm for Arizona's desert cities, but the brutal heat wave engulfing Phoenix and much of the American Southwest could be the worst on record. Cities sizzling under triple-digit temperatures with no break in sight.

CAPT. ROB MCDADE, PHOENIX FIRE DEPARTMENT: This heat wave that we're experiencing right now can be fatal.

KAFANOV: Firefighters are seeing a jump in calls related to heat sickness.

MCDADE: You should absolutely be leery of extreme heat like this for extended days. And that's what worries us, is the long periods of time where we just don't seem to get any relief.

KAFANOV: At the Phoenix Zoo, relief for hippos and elephants came in the form of cold showers, other animals cooling down with frozen treats. Humans, however, are being urged to stay inside. Those who have to work outdoors are taking extra precautions.

GRETCHEN KINSELLA, DPR CONSTRUCTION: Where is our access to hydration? Where is our access to shade? When are we planning to take breaks?

KAFANOV: Heat is often an invisible killer. Last year, Maricopa County recorded 425 heat related deaths, with most of the victims people experiencing homelessness and the elderly. As one of America's hottest cities, Phoenix created a first in the nation city office dedicated to heat.

DAVID HONDULA, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HEAT RESPONSE: Heat is a really serious public health hazard. We don't talk about it as seriously as we should all across the United States.

KAFANOV: To beat the extreme temperatures, the city has opened hundreds of cooling centers and water stations.

SCOTT JOHNSON, PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR, THE SALVATION ARMY: It's life saving. I mean, people are not used to this kind of thing for this many days in a row. We have seen episodes like this from time to time. But this is one that's been extreme even by Phoenix's standards.

KAFANOV: A refuge that for some could mean the difference between life and death.

What would it mean for you if you didn't have a place like this to go?

DEREK JORDAN, HOMELESS: It would be death. I mean, you can't last very long out there and most places to go indoors. You have to be able to spend money and may not have that option.

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KAFANOV (on camera): You heard Derek there. It's so difficult for the city's most vulnerable population. And, look, this area is used to hot temperatures. Phoenix is used to 110-degree weather. What's unusual is just how long this heat wave stretch is, 12 consecutive days of over 110 degrees. And if this continues, they need another seven days to break the all-time record. Pam?

BROWN: Try to stay cool while you're there, Lucy Kafanov, as hard as that is, thank you so much.

When we push back, Ron DeSantis' digital war room, why some Republicans are expressing concern over the Florida governor's online narrative. We have some new reporting just ahead.

KAFANOV: And Donald Trump's Republican rivals are reacting to his request for a delay in his classified documents trial. That's coming up next, too. Stay with us.

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BROWN: One of Donald Trump's 2024 rivals is weighing in on the former president's push to postpone his trial in the classified documents case. Our very own Kaitlan Collins asked former Vice President Mike Pence about Trump's legal move and whether he thinks it would be fair for voters to have to cast their vote before the case goes to trial.

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MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The allegations in that indictment are serious. I don't ever want to diminish the seriousness of handling the classified materials of this country. But at the end of the day, I want to let that process work. Let the President have his day in court, make his defense. And I'll trust the court and the judges to make the right call on when and where that happens.

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BROWN: And joining us now, CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray, CNN Legal Analyst and former Federal Prosecutor Elliot Williams, and Semafor Politics Reporter Shelby Talcott. Thank you all for being here. So, Sara, as Trump typically does, right, he likes to take all the oxygen in the room, and he's doing that, right, with all these legal cases, this question of whether the trial should come before the election or after the election, I mean, it looks like this is going to continue to play a bigger and bigger role in the discourse among these Republican candidates.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. I mean, I think if you're Donald Trump, this silver lining, I guess, to getting indicted and maybe indicted again is that you're in the news cycle a lot, people are talking about you.

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He's obviously used it to his advantage when it comes to fundraising.

And I think the other is when we see people like Mike Pence who are so cautious and so unwilling to criticize him, you have to wonder if you're Donald Trump. I mean, what is the real downside for this when it comes to the rest of the Republican field? I mean, he knows basically everyone else in this race is trying to court the same Republican base that is a huge fan of Donald Trump at this point. And so we're not seeing a lot sharp criticism.

BROWN: Ron DeSantis isn't going after him.

MURRAY: Right, exactly.

BROWN: His biggest opponent right now.

MATTINGLY: I just appreciate our eternal optimist, Sara Murray, always finding the glass half full, no matter the issue or the person or--

MURRAY: If you're going to get indicted, I guess you should raise a lot of money off of it? is that the lesson?

BROWN: And, by the way, it's true, like it's actually happening.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's true and it's effective.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Let's go half empty. So let's hear --

MATTINGLY: Let's go half empty.

BROWN: Let's do it.

MATTINGLY: I'm not ready for a half empty question. I am also an optimist, Elliot. I do have a technical question, though, which is why I brought you on. This is why you paid all that money for law school solely for this.

WILLIAMS: Solely for you.

MATTINGLY: There was a lot of attention paid to Aileen Cannon, who is the judge in the classified documents case. And I think I was always a little bit reticent to draw conclusions on any past cases or who nominated her or any of those types of things because you just don't know in a situation like this.

However, the request to delay with kind of an ambiguous timeline given the campaign and the election, this rests on her to some degree, right?

WILLIAMS: Yes, it absolutely does. And I would second your view. You just don't know what any judge appointed by a Democrat, appointed by a Republican is going to do. You can look at their past rulings a little bit, but sometimes they're unpredictable. They live in their own worlds. But it's really up to the judge.

Now, the judge has full discretion over when to set the trial. She ought to set it at a reasonable time to give the parties and particularly the defendants time to prepare. Now, that will certainly be months ahead in the future.

Now, if she really issues a clunker and just does something that is just outside the bounds of law, the Justice Department could move to have her removed from the case. And based on those past rulings, they could also say this judge really isn't up to the task.

But that's a big stretch. Really, federal judges have a lot of leeway and latitude when it comes to scheduling.

MATTINGLY: And is there like precedent here? This is, again, a kind of a technical thing, but what is a judge looking at when they decide a timeline?

WILLIAMS: Well, number one, the complexity of the case, and just looking at past classified documents cases, not even involving presidents of the United States, they take a long time to get to trial. Even rinky dink little trials can take three or four months. So, this whole idea, even of the Justice Department saying that they can get this to trial this December is really, really ambitious. So, it's probably going to be bumped in next year, if not at some point beyond. And that's not the judge engaging in silliness. It just takes a long time to try a classified case.

BROWN: Yes. Shelby, I want to bring you in because you have some new reporting about the so-called DeSantis war room, the digital operation that is behind some of the controversial ads we've seen. What have you learned?

SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yes. I think the big question behind the digital operation, in light of these controversies, they had the A.I. earlier this month, and then they had the pride video that they pushed out was, are they on the same page as DeSantis himself, because they are generating these, by and large, negative headlines. And the answer is, yes, they are.

And DeSantis, in particular, is an operator who is very in tune with his campaign. He's not going to let a whole faction of his team run rogue and have these messages that are not in line with what he believes. And so the idea behind the political, the online operation is simply that they're sending out the same message as Ron DeSantis but in a more aggressive way. And they're targeting the kind of harder right, more online supporters and allowing DeSantis to then go on the ground and talk to these less online, more everyday Iowa, New Hampshire voters who might be turned off by that aggressive messaging.

MATTINGLY: And they're comfortable with it right now?

TALCOTT: 100 percent, yes.

MATTINGLY: Interesting. That's going to be interesting to watch play out.

All right, Sara, Shelby, Elliot, thanks, guys. We appreciate it.

BROWN: Well, new this morning, NASA is marking the James Webb telescope's first year in space by releasing this incredible picture. Look at this. NASA says it is the nearest star forming region to Earth. And ahead, we're going to literally take you out of this world. Astronaut Stephen Bowen is currently living and working on the International Space Station. I can't wait to talk to him, so many questions. He's going to join us live, up next.

MATTINGLY: And what's the first thing you do after you knock out the world's number one tennis player?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you do in the next day-and-a-half to prepare for a Wimbledon semifinal?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, first of all, I'm going to have a beer, probably.

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BROWN: I have been literally so excited all morning about this segment. Like I feel like a kid in a candy store.

All right, so, first, he helped build it. Now he is actually living there. Since March, NASA Astronaut Stephen Bowen has been living and working at the International Space Station. He was an integral member of the crew that helped expand the ISS in 2008, adding a new bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, an exercise machine and water recycling system.

And joining us now approximately 250 miles above Earth and his home away from home, NASA Astronaut and Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen, live from the International Space Station. Stephen, great to see you.

I prefer the mic to be floating rather than holding it, but maybe we'll see that as a little gimmick during the conversation. But I'm wondering, first of all, what is your day to day like on the International Space Station? Does it ever just feel like you're adjusted to it, like it feels like normal?

STEPHEN BOWEN, EXPEDITION 69 FLIGHT ENGINEER: It takes a while when you first get here, and as you said, I'd been here before, but I'd only been here for very short periods of time.

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So, in a shuttle mission, you're only here for a couple of weeks. You kind of just work your way through.