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Biden Arrives in France; Judge Cannon to Hold Hearing; Garland Spars with House GOP; Trump Encourages Mail-In Voting; Alex Thompson is Interviewed about the Biden Trial. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 05, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:57]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back.

President Biden arriving in Paris this morning to kick off a five-day state visit hosted by President Emmanuel Macron, which begins with commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day. That's tomorrow.

On June 6, 1944, soldiers from the U.S., France, Britain, and Canada stormed the beaches of Normandy. The beginning of the end of Hitler's Nazi rule.

Events are also planned across England and France today. And we are just minutes away from King Charles' royal address.

CNN's Kayla Tausche joins us live from Paris, where she's covering the president.

Kayla, good morning to you.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kasie.

President Biden arrived here in France this morning where he is set to embark on a series of high-stakes engagements with world leaders aimed at strengthening the transatlantic alliance against the backdrop of two wars. One, on the front lines of Europe.

In Normandy, alongside those ceremonies to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-day, President Biden will meet directly with President Zelenskyy. And they'll discuss the state of play in Ukraine, on the ground and in the air, and discuss how the U.S. and other allies can continue supporting Ukraine.

Biden has recently authorized Ukraine to begin using American made weapons to strike inside Russia over the border, which National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called common sense.

When Biden returns to Paris, he and President Macron are going to be having a conversation about, again, how they can continue supporting Ukraine and shore up more funding both from other European defense budgets, as well as Russian assets that are frozen in the continent. That's going to be a key deliverable at next week's G-7 Summit.

But, Kasie, zooming out here, as President Biden is trying to project strength overseas, it all confounds him at home, where voters have given him low marks and are becoming frustrated with his handling of the myriad foreign policy issues that he's been presented with.

Take just the issue in the Middle East. Twenty-eight percent of voters surveyed by "The New York Times" and Sienna approve of his handling. Here in Paris, pressure is building on Biden and allies to reach resolutions to both the conflict in the Middle East and in Europe.

Kasie.

HUNT: All right, Kayla Tausche, for us live in Paris.

Kayla, thank you. Enjoy your trip.

All right, new developments in Donald Trump's classified documents case. Judge Aileen Cannon is expanding an upcoming hearing on the former president's request to declare Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel invalid. Trump's lawyers want Judge Cannon to throw out the case. Trump has attacked, of course, just about every judge he's encountered in his legal battles, except this one, Aileen Cannon, who he happened to appoint.

The former president has frequently praised her in public, describing her as smart and highly respected. On Tuesday, Judge Cannon ruled a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars who are not otherwise involved in the case can join the oral arguments in two weeks.

Elliot Williams -

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

HUNT: How normal is this?

WILLIAMS: Not normal at all.

HUNT: OK.

WILLIAMS: There is literally no reason why the judge needs to have additional folks come in at the oral argument.

Now, it is a very common practice, the Supreme Court does it all the time, to have parties - outside parties, called amicus submitters, right -

HUNT: Uh-huh.

WILLIAMS: To file briefs on the court that lay out their views, and the judge can read them and help them in crafting her opinion, but she doesn't need to have this free for all open argument where multiple parties, no matter how great their scholarship has been, they don't need to be arguing in court.

And this question that they're raising here, this question of, was Jack Smith appointed lawfully, it came up in the context of Robert Muller, Hunter Biden has raised it, and it's lost every single time. So, the idea that the question needs to be reopened now and litigated is just sort of silly.

MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, I mean, the question, I think, throughout his case has been whether, you know, the unorthodox way Judge Cannon has approached this -

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BALL: Is a result of her - her relative inexperience, or some sort of bias toward the defendant. And the upshot of all of it has been to delay the case repeatedly.

[06:35:01]

There's been, you know, multiple times over the course of this case where she's sort of indulged motions from the defense or put things on the calendar, decided to consider things at length or just not sped up the case in a way that I think makes watchers of this case, particularly who are not so sympathetic to the defense, very frustrated and exasperated because the end result of it all has been that this is not going to trial anytime soon. And I think that's what people are concerned about.

You know, in polling, when we ask voters, would you like to see these cases reach a verdict before the election, the - resoundingly, large majorities of American voters say, yes, they would like to have this information about how these cases his are going to be disposed in a legal system before they go to vote. But that is just not going to happen.

HUNT: Well, and, Matt Gorman, I mean, I - there's sort of a sense, at least among Republicans I talk to, that maybe this classified documents case was the most dangerous one for Trump only because of its sort of simplicity in being able to understand what was going on and sort of the general feeling that, well, if I took something classified home from my office, right, that would - that would, obviously, not be legal. And yet it's the least - probably the least likely of all of them to actually see a verdict.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: It's true. And if you remember, back in the primary, it was really - it was the only case where another Republican candidate attacked Trump on. I believe it was - Nikki Haley I know did. Maybe one other. But I know - I remember Nikki Haley doing it vividly.

And so, you're right, you have like this weird little conundrum because while the New York case, you know, while it was litigated, et cetera, it was a little bit more technical. It was tougher, but also a tougher jury pool, tougher judge. You have a little bit more Trump- appointed judge. Maybe a little bit more sympathetic jury pool. But the facts of the case are quite different. And it's - and according to many people, maybe a little even more clear cut.

HUNT: Yes.

Patti, I want to get you to weigh in on this next story. We're going to turn now to Capitol Hill, where Attorney General Merrick Garland had this message yesterday for House Republicans who had been threatening to hold him in contempt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented, and they are unfounded.

I will not be intimidated. And the Justice Department will not be intimidated.

This is dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Garland pushing back against allegations that he's protecting the president by refusing to hand over audio of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, and rejecting an onslaught of GOP accusations that he's politicized the criminal justice system against Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The special counsel's prosecution of the former president. It comes alongside false claims that a jury verdict in a state trial by a - brought by a local district attorney was somehow controlled by the Justice Department. That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself.

We do not control the Manhattan district attorney. The Manhattan district attorney does not report to us. The Manhattan district attorney makes his own decisions about cases that he wants to bring under his state law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Patti, this is - Biden - or, excuse me, Garland is being more aggressive and he has been in the past. Part of me wonders if it's for this reason.

So, "Politico" wrote this headline, "Merrick Garland was Biden's consensus pick. Now everyone hates him. Rather than being revered as a straight shooter, Garland's become reviled. He is a man alone on an island in Washington, taking unyielding blowback from the right and left."

The left thinking he's not been aggressive enough.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Yes. He's in a tough spot, that is for sure, given all of the different trials and prosecutions around both Democrats and President Trump and Republicans.

I thought he did a very good job yesterday. I thought, particularly in that sort of theatrical circus of politics.

But, look, the bottom line is, the Trump campaign, Republican Party writ large, have decided that the way to put lipstick on this 34 count conviction and 50 plus other indictments that Trump is facing is to call this a political witch hunt and to insert politics into it.

There is no real basis. It has been debunked. As Garland said quite eloquently at the hearing yesterday, the Manhattan DA is completely independent and separate.

But this is the only way that they can navigate moving forward in this campaign is to call this a political witch hunt. And, look, for their base it's working. It is absolutely working.

Let me give you another - a word on this.

GORMAN: No, I think to your first point though, you know, one of the big issues is when - Biden nominated Merrick Garland, who's great. Oh, you know, the guy who didn't get the Supreme Court vote, et cetera. But then also - he didn't have a constituency. He's not a former senators. He's not a former governor. He's not a former Democratic political official, who obviously Republican. So he doesn't have a built-in base constituency. And right when - the only thing in the middle of road is roadkill. So, he doesn't have people to stand up for him and to rally behind him.

[06:40:05]

And that's why you have headlines like that.

HUNT: Put that on a bumper sticker, our politics right now.

DOYLE: One would argue, nor should he. He is the attorney general. He - he's not supposed to be political.

GORMAN: It's unheard of, you're right, for political appoint - for a political official to be nominated attorney general. I think it's a little different.

HUNT: I mean, look, the ideal is supposed to be that, yes, he - I mean he was - he - he wanted to bring that ideal back, right? But, obviously, as you - that - if you're in the middle of the road, you're roadkill, I feel like says so much about the state of our current politics today.

GORMAN: Yes.

HUNT: Briefly I want to touch on, Elliot and Molly, this is a likely future legal battle, but we know that Republicans are already sort of setting the stage the potentially fight court battles over the outcome of the 2024 election if it doesn't go the way especially Republicans are hoping that it will. And Donald Trump, we caught this, it's very interesting, seemed to have changed his tune on mail in voting in a pretty significant way.

Let's - let's watch - you'll see what he said yesterday, interspersed with his previous comments.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you have mail-in voting -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: RNC?

TRUMP: You automatically have fraud.

Whether you vote early, absentee, by mail or in person, we are going to protect the vote.

I think mail-in voting is - is going to rig the election. I really do.

But if you can't make it, you need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible.

Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because they're cheaters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: We talked a lot about this in 2020 because people listened to him. They didn't vote by mail in 2020. And now I guess somebody finally has gotten to him and said, no, no, like, this - this is - we need to fix this.

BALL: This has been a consistent frustration from Republicans since he started saying it because he's leaving votes on the table.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BALL: And there has been a feeling among Republican political operatives, like this was just killing them, the way he, as you say, successfully sowed doubt with so many of their voters in - and - and you think about who is most likely to vote by mail. A lot of it is, you know, elderly people, important Republican constituencies, people in rural areas who might otherwise have to drive for hours to the polls, whole states where they only vote by mail now, and that's been an increasing trend. I think the statistics are that in 2020 more than half of Americans voted before or outside of election day, not by going to the polls in person.

So, there's been a feeling on the Republican side, like, Trump was just killing them with turnout. And they've gotten him finally to address it. The question is, can he reversed all those perceptions -

HUNT: Yes.

BALL: Since so many base Republicans now are so suspicious about elections. And he continues to say -

HUNT: Right.

BALL: Falsely, that 2020 was rigged and stolen.

HUNT: And they might be able to get them to record a video saying what they want him to say, but whether they can keep him on the teleprompter in future instances -

BALL: Exactly.

HUNT: I also have many questions about that.

All right, just ahead, we're going to take you inside the courtroom in the federal gun trial of Hunter Biden.

Plus, the half-naked driver. I believe this was a Florida man who crashed his car into the lobby of the county jail.

And our shot of the day, a bear in mid-air, about to be caught in a tarp. Oh, my gosh. The tree-bound bruin was tranquilize in Pennsylvania. He will now be set free on state land. We'll have more.

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[06:47:35]

HUNT: All right, 47 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Wisconsin's attorney general filing forgery charges against three men accused in a fake electors schemes to keep Donald Trump in office after the 2020 election. Kenneth Chesebro, Mike Roman, and James Troupis, all charged on Tuesday.

Florida police investigating a man who drove his car into the lobby of the Martin County Jail. Police say he was also spewing, quote, "hatred for Donald Trump," end quote, while tossing rubber snakes from his vehicle. He also apparently was not wearing pants.

Alec Baldwin announcing he and his family will star in a new TLC reality show in 2025. The actor, his wife, Hilaria, and their seven young children will be involved. Baldwin says he is inviting America into his home, quote, "to experience the ups and downs, the good, the bad, the wild, and the crazy." At least we're acknowledging that. We should note, TLC and CNN share a parent company.

And this, a group of insiders from OpenAI and Google calling for transparency from artificial intelligence companies about the risks of AI and demanding they protect employees who speak out. In an open letter posted by current and former AI employees they write this, quote, "AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight." And they also say under current law, AI companies will not share critical information about the technology voluntarily. OpenAI tells CNN it's proud of its track record, providing the most capable and safest AI systems, and that they recognize a vigorous debate - welcome a vigorous debate about the significance of the technology.

I don't know, I'm still stuck on the man with no pants driving into the jail.

WILLIAMS: As well you should be. As well you should be.

HUNT: I don't think I've ever had as much trouble keeping it together on television as I just did.

BALL: It's just a model of effective political activism, you know? I mean, this is what's really going to finally stop Donald Trump.

GORMAN: Every sentence was better than the last. Throwing snakes. No pants. Like, it was like, every - he just kept topping that sentence.

WILLIAMS: Crashing - crashing into jail. Don't leave out crashing into the jail. Right. But if you're going to crash into jail, why would you have pants on in the first place? I just think that, you know -

DOYLE: Exactly.

GORMAN: Very comfortable, I guess.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

DOYLE: Yes.

HUNT: I wonder -

WILLIAMS: He was all in. All in.

HUNT: Did they do a blood test? I feel like the need -

WILLIAMS: Everything. Everything.

(CROSS TALK)

GORMAN: Everything.

WILLIAMS: All of it. All of it.

HUNT: OK.

All right, on a more serious note, we are just a few hours from Hunter Biden's federal gun trial resuming in Delaware. Court began yesterday with the jury hearing opening statements.

[06:50:00]

Prosecutors and defense attorneys battling over one fundamental issue, whether the president's son purchased a gun in 2018 while he was knowingly addicted to drugs. Hunter's main defense in the case is that he did not consider himself an addict at the time of the purchase. Biden's defense attorney reminding the jury, quote, they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hunter knowingly violated the law. The prosecution trying to refute their case with an FBI agent

testifying, Hunter texted he was smoking crack days after buying the firearm.

They also used Hunter's own words against him, playing several passages from the audio book for his 2021 memoir.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER BIDEN: If I could find some new treatments, some new approach, some new lifeline, I thought I could still claw my way back out. During the nearly four years of active addiction that preceded this trip to California, which included a half dozen rehab attempts, that's what I told myself after each failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining me now rom Wilmington, Delaware, is Alex Thompson, national political reporter for "Axios."

Alex, good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us.

I actually want to dig into something that happened outside the courtroom yesterday in this reporting from NBC, where Hunter Biden's wife reportedly confronted a Trump - a former Trump aide, who has now become a - very much an antagonist of the - of Hunter Biden's family. This is Garrett Zieglar. Melissa Cohen Biden reportedly saying, quote, "you have no right to be here, you Nazi POS." This seems to really underscore the incredible attention that is on display here. The stakes for the family.

What did you see in court yesterday?

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "AXIOS": Yes. So, Garrett Ziegler, if you don't know, he runs this thing called the Marco Polo Project, which, among many other things, literally posted it - transcribed and posted Ashley Biden's, you know, sobriety trauma journal. He also has compiled a laptop report, which is based on the hard drive that came from Rudy Giuliani and co. And that report, you know, is, you know, several hundred pages long, includes every single sort of, you know, inappropriate or, you know, nude video, picture, everything. And that is part of the reason why Hunter's wife reacted the way she did. He was sitting among the reporters. You know, I saw him when - when he was there.

But to your bigger point, I think it just shows how emotionally fraught this entire thing is. While she, you know, I actually saw Melissa's, and Hunter's wife, she mouthed an explicit - you know, and explicit name at - right after the prosecution ended their opening statements that I can't repeat on television.

HUNT: Right.

We should note, for transparency sakes, Ziegler did tell NBC News, quote, "it's sad. I've been sitting here the whole time and haven't approached anyone. For the record, I'm not a Nazi. I'm a believer in the Constitution. I haven't said one thing to them."

Alex, bring us inside the courtroom in terms of how, especially Hunter, his family, reacted to some of what was heard in court yesterday. It seems like the prosecution was trying to make a distinction between judgments and choices that you can't make when you are addicted, as compared to what they described as a choice to purchase a weapon.

THOMPSON: Yes, they made very clear that he is not being prosecuted for drug possession, or drug use. He is being - but he is being processed for buying a gun. And there's a difference between the two. They are - they are saying, we are not trying to stigmatize addiction, but we are trying to say, you can't buy a gun if you are an addict.

Now, obviously, as you've discussed, that Hunter's team is going to say that he didn't knowingly believe he was an addict at the time.

In terms of how the family's reacting, you know, it's incredibly heavy. They - they all have different reactions. Ashley Biden, Hunter's sister, was, you know, wiping tears throughout the morning and then actually left in the middle of the opening statements yesterday - or, sorry, not during the opening stands, during the first - the first testimony. Jill Biden tried to look stoic when she was there. And you could tell that Hunter's wife was - was sort of - was sort of angry, was sort of defiant.

Now, this is only going to get more fraught today because today we are expecting to hear from Hunter's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, one of Hunter's, ex-girlfriends, who he was with around the time when he purchased the gun, and - and Beau Biden's widow, who was romantically involved with Hunter, Hallie Biden. We are expected to hear from potentially all three today. And Hallie Biden and Kathleen Biden are subpoenaed for the prosecution. And Abbe Lowell, Hunter's attorney, indicated that Naomi Biden and Jimmy Biden are going to be witnesses for the defense. So, really, it's Biden versus Biden in this - in this case.

HUNT: Very - very - just really difficult for the family for sure.

[06:55:03]

Really interesting dynamics at play.

Alex Thompson, really appreciate your great reporting. Thanks very much.

All right, let's turn now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Today, Biden is on the cover of "Time" magazine. That's right, he's court and the youth vote where kids hang, print media. Next stop, Zeppelins.

It is brave. I believe that it is brave for Biden to do this cover because he's side-by-side with his nemesis, time. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, as concerns about Biden's age continue to swirl around his candidacy, there's reporting this morning from "The Wall Street Journal," and they are trying to raise questions about the 81- year-old president and his mental acuity. "The Journal" reporting this morning that behind closed doors, they say, Biden is showing signs of slipping, that they say, according to interviews with more than 45 people, both Republican and Democrat, who either participated in meetings with Biden or were briefed on them at the time.

The White House is pushing back against those - those claims. They write this, quote, "congressional Republicans, foreign leaders, a non- partisan national security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment. Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.

Patti Solis Doyle, this is something that's been flying around Washington since it was posted overnight.

DOYLE: Yes.

HUNT: How - what is the reaction in Democratic circles to this?

DOYLE: Yes, well, I can just tell you, since last night, I - it has been forwarded to me, I've been texted, I've been emailed, you know, this is a terrible story for Biden, obviously because it feeds into the narrative that is being painted by the Trump campaign that he is too old and - and his challenges, or that they say on his mental acuity.

I don't - personally I read it. I don't think the story is very good for Donald Trump either. It talks about his mistakes and flubs and - on the trail.

But look, this is a challenge for Joe Biden. No question. Polling shows that Americans do believe he is too old to be president. And he's just going to have to really defy those challenges on the trail because his accomplishments, you know, speak to a presidency that got a lot done in four years. And so I think he's just going to have to drive that point home on the trail. And in the debates.

HUNT: All right. So, Matt Gorman, one of the things that stood out to me about this reporting was how the White House reacted when they figured out the story was being reported out. So, "The Journal" writes this, quote, "the White House kept close tabs on some of "The Wall Street Journal's" interviews with Democratic lawmakers after the offices of several Democrats shared with the White House, either a recording of an interview or details about what was asked, some of those lawmakers spoke to "The Journal" a second time and, once again, emphasized Biden's strength." And they have Gregory Meeks on the record saying like, yes, you know, they kind of said to me, well, you should call - you should - we should call you back.

GORMAN: Yes.

HUNT: It really, I think, underscores the nerves they have around this.

GORMAN: Absolutely. It's - look, set aside the fact I think this is the biggest liability, bigger than the economy and policy issue that - for Biden. But when it - look, when I'm dealing with reporters, especially on a tricky story, you can tell very quickly that reporters couch - they understand your body language and they understand how you react to the story and the question. And that also feeds into whether they think there's something there or not.

So, for example, if you get on the phone with a reporter, there's a tricky topic and you start kind of freaking out or getting very defensive, that tells most reporters that they're on to something here. If you brush it off, they - they really read how you react to these things. And I think the White House reaction, I can't speak for the reporters here, fed, we're onto something here, and caused them to chase more.

HUNT: This is, of course, Molly's (INAUDIBLE).

GORMAN: Yes.

BALL: Yes, and my colleagues who reported this story did an absolutely incredible job. You know, they were extremely meticulous. You know, this is something that, on the one hand, you can tell the White House is extremely sensitive about because it is something that confirms what a lot of voters believe. On the other hand, I don't think it should surprise anyone who watches President Biden in public, right? This is the same thing that we see when he speaks publicly, which, of course, is less frequently than almost every other president in recent history.

So, you know, people have a lot of doubts about - and it's not the numerical age, right? When you dig down in polling and focus groups, voters are not saying, well, the number next to his name concerns me, or the - or how old he's going to be at the end of a potential second term, it's - it's his capabilities, right?

HUNT: Right.

BALL: It's - it's can he function in these settings. And, you know, it is not just Republican saying it. We spoke to a wide array of Republicans and Democrats who all spoke to this dynamic saying, you know, yes, he's been effective in some ways, but in some of these meetings, like you - they - they question his - his command of what's going on.

HUNT: All right, I will leave you with this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:10]

HUNT: You might remember that very famous movie. Well, in real life, a group of kids up and close and personal with a

t-rex. Obviously, less scary. Not alive. "The Associated Press" says three young cousins were wandering through the North Dakota badlands when they found a t-rex bone. It is now a special exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science called Discovering T-Rex. And there's also a new documentary.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Wow, you never know what you might find when you're out hiking.

Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for being here. I'm Kasie Hunt. CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.