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CNN This Morning

Today: 80 Years Since D-Day Invasion During WWII; Soon: President & First Lady Meet With D-Day Veterans; Twister Rips Through Maryland, At Least 5 Injured. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 06, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:38]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, June 6.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:

President Biden in France to commemorate today's 80th anniversary of D-Day, and to send a message to America's allies.

Plus, multiple tornadoes sweeping across Maryland, homes damaged, people injured, and trapped.

And Donald Trump's election interference trial in Georgia delayed indefinitely until an appeals court decides whether D.A. Fani Willis can stay on the case.

(MUSIC)

HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington. This is a live look at the Normandy American cemetery in France, as world leaders gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden in Normandy at this hour to meet with the precious few remaining veterans who took part in the largest amphibious military operation in history. The president is going to speak later on next hour. That's coming up very soon.

June 6, 1944 was perhaps the most consequential day of the Second World War, beginning around midnight, the D-Day invasion code named Operation Overlord, saw more than 150,000 troops when the U.S., the UK, Canada, and other Allied countries arrive on five stretches of the coastline of Normandy, France.

D-Day and the months that followed helped the Allies secure stronghold on the French coast and eventually lead to the end of Hitler's reign over Europe. But it did come at a very high cost. U.S. forces suffered substantial losses at Omaha Beach, some 2,500 American troops died on D-Day. In all, nearly 4,500 Allied troops its confirmed dead.

As the years passed, the number of men who survived D-Day is shrinking. The few that remained making the journey to the shores of northern France this week to pay their respects.

And joining me now from Normandy, France, is Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has traveled there to mark this occasion.

Mr. Jeffries, Leader Jeffries, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

Let's just start with your reflections, especially as you see what is left likely to be for these men, the last major commemoration of this day.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Well, it's a serious, it's a solemn, it's a very sober day, and it's been an honor to have the opportunity to shake hands with and talk with some of the folks who -- the heroic folks who participated in D-Day, or were part of the struggle during World War II, which was really a struggle between freedom and fascism, and it was a great cost and great sacrifice and many lives were lost.

And we honor and uplift them today and always, and sort of recommit to freedom and democracy and the principles that they fought so valiantly for, to make sure that we can keep them alive.

HUNT: Mr. Leader, this commemoration comes as an uncertain future looms over the West, to be quite frank about it. There is a ground war raging now in Eastern Europe, and there is a presidential campaign that very well reelect a man who has questioned NATO, which is really the security foundation that these men at D-Day fought and died to build, to make it possible for the peace that followed the wake of World War II.

What does this anniversary mean in those contexts?

JEFFRIES: Well, the resolve that was shown by the young men 80 years ago today and they were young men 18, 19, 20, putting it all on the line for liberation and for freedom and for democracy on a continent that they had never been on before, fighting for these values, I think we can draw strength from the incredible resilience that they showed.

[05:05:11]

And also show the reverence for the sacrifice that they made, by making sure that we all recommit to making sure that we can maintain this rules-based society across the world, that certainly is under threat right now because of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

HUNT: Mr. Leader, the president of the -- the former president of the United States, after he was convicted in his trial in New York, referred to what he called American fascism, in that context. I'm interested to hear your reflections on his use of that term as we mark what was a day to defeat fascism during the Second World War.

JEFFRIES: Well, America is a democracy. It's a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and we have to fight to make sure that we can keep that going, moving forward, over the next couple of months and beyond. The fight against fascism was waged by our brave American heroes joined by their partners from Great Britain and Canada 80 years ago today, which began the liberation fight at the highest level against Nazi Germany, Hitler, and fascism.

And certainly, I think nobody ever wants to go back to where we were on those very, very dark days in world history and again, I think we can draw strength from that resilience, from their struggle, certainly reverence for their sacrifice and make sure we can keep this great American democracy thing going, always and forever.

HUNT: Why do you think there seems to be an interest or appeal some Americans who support Donald Trump, certainly among for Donald Trump himself, it's very clear he has a specific affinity for strongmen, for dictators? Why is it that that's appealing to some Americans right now?

JEFFRIES: While I'm sure that that is going to be a question that many historians will explore when they look back upon this particular period of time, I do think that we've seen over the last several years an important recommitment to the principles of democracy, to an understanding that democracy is not a self-executing proposition, it doesn't simply run on autopilot. It takes all of us to lean in, to show up, to speak up, to stand up for what we know is right for classic American values, and that shouldn't be a partisan thing, not a Democratic thing, or an independent thing, or a Republican thing. It's an American thing, democracy in the United States.

And I'm confident that, you know, based on what we've seen over the last 248 years now, that the American people will pull together in ways that are consistent with the founding principles of this great country.

HUNT: Congressman, Mr. Leader, before I let you go, I do want to ask you about a controversy brewing here at home that actually also touches on history and the collective progress that we have or haven't made, and that's Congressman Byron Donalds who held an event, as you know in Philadelphia and he said, quote, you see during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservatives, but more Black people voted conservatively.

You obviously responded to him. He responded to you last night right here on CNN, and he pushed back. He said: Nobody ever made nostalgia. That wasn't the point. This is where the media and yes, Hakeem Jeffries, and a lot of other people are taking it.

I'm interested to know your response to Mr. Donalds.

JEFFRIES: Well, I had an opportunity to speak to that situation on the House floor yesterday, and so, I'll reserve comment at this moment simply because I think it's most appropriate that on this day, we give respect and reverence and, of course, remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for America, for the free world, for democracy, and for the liberation of Europe.

HUNT: And for voting rights, for everyone.

Congressman Jeffries, I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much, sir.

JEFFRIES: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, any moment now, President Biden set to meet with World War II veterans in Normandy.

Plus, terrifying moments for drivers in Maryland coming face-to-face with a possible tornado.

[05:10:06]

And, why Donald Trump's election subversion case in Georgia is on hold indefinitely.

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HUNT: Any moment now, President Biden and the first lady in Normandy, meeting with the remaining World War II veterans on this 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Very few of those veterans remain with us. There were 73,000 Americans who stormed the beaches that day. And we are getting a live look there at King Charles.

[05:15:00]

CNN's Max Foster is with us now from London. In addition to being our international anchor, he is, of course, also -- I believe the title is chief royal correspondent, or at least royal correspondent.

Maybe I promoted you, Max.

This is a somber day. This is the first time we're seeing King Charles in public since his cancer diagnosis. What do we expect from him and how is this day hitting in Europe where you are?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: I think what's hitting is the names that you see behind Charles.

So this is a new memorial for the British veterans and those who fell. There wasn't one for the British there. And actually, it was ten years ago, I was in Normandy reporting on the royals and my colleague at the BBC, Nick Witchell, met one of the veterans there at the time saying this should be a British memorial.

Nick for the last ten years has been working with this veteran who sadly passed away a few years ago to build this incredible memorial. They have to buy the land, they had to get to permission. They had to get everyone involved in is quite stunning.

But when you look at the names and you see their ages, many of them are in their early 20s and teens, and if you combine that with the fact that the only veterans that are able to be there now would have been 18, 19, 20 years old, at the time of D-Day.

So it really drives home. How young they were that what sort of sacrifices they made as well. There were even 16 year-olds involved with the navy and the air force, and they had to lie about their age to get involved.

So it's a completely different era. And to King Charles, his biggest public engagements since he got his cancer diagnosis, and he is involved in events as you can see, but he's not going to be involved in all the events because his doctors are basically said you need to go at your own pace and not put yourself at risk.

HUNT: Max, it's hard not to watch all this and to reflect on where, you know, this -- this Western order that has brought peace to our hemisphere for so many decades because of the sacrifices of these men seems to be fraying and its hard not to think about that context as we cover this and we see that we are losing. We call them, here are greatest generation and we face a, an uncertain future with Putin having invaded Ukraine, you know, a ground war in Europe. And, of course, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has questioned the security foundation that built that piece in questioning NATO.

How are those questions looming over this event today as world leaders gathered to mark this occasion?

FOSTER: I think, probably, with the absence of President Putin, the Soviets, obviously, fought, in the war as well, and made a huge contribution and lost many lives as well.

And he has attended these events before, but obviously not this time because the current war in Europe is being perpetrated, of course, by Russia. And he was actually speaking about that yesterday, talking about how this idea that the U.S. has allowed Ukraine to use its weapons to fire into Russian territory. Putin suggesting that could be seen as direct conflict with the way West. He may respond with using nuclear weapons, and also, we may respond actually -- other suggestion was that by arming Western adversaries.

So, you start thinking about Iran being supplied with Russian weaponry. So, it's escalating again. It feels like it's escalating and he's the only words at this point.

But in the words of one veteran I spoke to earlier today, he cant believe world leaders are going back to war, having seen what happened on D-Day.

HUNT: All right. Max Foster for us in London -- Max, always grateful to have you. Thank you so much.

All right. Coming up next, plus, the staggering scale of D-Day and what it meant for the free world.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GENERAL DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, U.S. ARSMY: The tide has turned. The free men of the world are matching together to victory. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

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[05:23:40]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back. Time now for weather.

Millions remain under an oppressive heat dome out in the West this morning and clean up is underway in parts of Maryland where a massive touched down last night.

Footage from just west of Baltimore were powerful way ends and uprooted trees pulled down power lines, crushing several homes in the area, leaving at least five people injured.

(BEGIN VDIEO CLIP)

PETE PIRINGER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY FIRE & RESCUE: A very large tree went through the center of the house. They were trapped under there, a lot of debris or technical rescue team they come in here and we're able to get them out.

JOSE GAITHERSBERG, RESIDENT: The wind picks up all of a sudden. The rain just starts pouring down. Before you know it, trees are falling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Last name actually.

All right. Our meteorologist Elisa Raffa is tracking all of it for us this morning.

Elisa, good morning.

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

The National Weather Service will need to go out into the community today to survey the damage, to figure out just how strong the tornado was. Just incredible to see that tornado touched down and in the suburbs. They're Baltimore, in Maryland, an area that you typically don't think of getting too many tornadoes.

Look at all of the warnings that were issued, again, just south and just north there of Baltimore right, in the suburbs, highly populated area. The weather service office in Baltimore issued 22 tornado warnings. That is the fourth most they have issued from their office in a day.

[05:25:03]

So it was definitely a very busy day for them with that tornado touching down. This all comes as a system brought some strong severe storms from parts of the mid-south there and then going up towards the east coast, could see a couple of tornado reports up from the Great Lakes and then there are those that are in the Baltimore, Maryland area, 19 reported tornadoes, just from yesterday. That takes our numbers since January 1st, up to about 1,100 when

average would have been just shy of 800. So, again, it's been a very active year. We're above average four tornado reports.

The risk today includes I-95 corridor from New York, Philly, down into to Baltimore there, even including Charlotte. It's a marginal level one risk. And we do have that kind of level one risk through the next couple of days, a little bit of a bulls-eye there, in Nebraska Plains by Friday where we could find some damaging thunderstorms there as well -- Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Elisa Raffa for us this morning -- Elisa, thank you very much.

All right. Next here, 80 years since D-Day, we're going to be lied at the cemetery in Normandy, where many of the Americans who died that day were laid to rest.

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