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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Biden in UK to Begin Meetings Today with Global Leaders; U.S. Purchases 500M Pfizer Doses for 92 Low-Income Countries; Former White House Counsel McGahn Confirms Trump Pushed Him to Fire Mueller. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 10, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We have reports from England, Uganda, Washington, Moscow and Tokyo. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Thursday, June 10th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

Well, we are about to find out whether Joe Biden's half century of diplomatic experience is enough to move the needle with allies and adversaries abroad. Today is the first day of meetings in the U.K. ahead of major summits with G7 leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: At every point along the way, we're going to make it clear that the United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: President Biden faces an additional major complication. You know, no U.S. president has ever gone overseas with democratic ideals under attack as fiercely at home as they are abroad.

The question, will Mr. Biden be able to convince the world America is really back for good?

International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live in southwest England for us.

Nic, the president says America is back but needs allies to join him and that's not necessarily the case in some important issues here.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. I mean, look, the legacy that he is living of President Trump -- former President Trump in the United States is a legacy he will be living here when he meets the European Union leaders. Angela Merkel for one and French President Emmanuel Macron have both been strongly saying over the past -- over the past couple of years of President Trump's leadership that Europe needs to set a different course and it set a different course in setting up a trade relationship with China just before President Biden came to office.

So President Biden's message of unity against China, unity against China's trade practices, unity against China's human rights abuses lands a little flat with those European leaders. Yes, they share his views that democracy is important, that we are at a historic inflection point in terms of sort of choosing between a democratic -- choosing between democracies and autocrats. That message stands up with these leaders, but they don't know if they can really align themselves as strongly with the United States as they could in the past.

So both Macron and Merkel are pushing back on some of the lines that President Biden wants to take with China. I think that's going to be a slightly hard sell. Of course, all the nations at the G7 will have slightly different views on it, but it's not going to be easy to shake off either domestically as you were saying or internationally that legacy that President Trump has left that President Biden could be replaced by someone who is not as aligned with allies as historically has been the case.

JARRETT: Nic, the U.S. and the U.K. often speak of this special relationship. Biden and Boris Johnson are set to meet today. They are expected to commit to lifting COVID-19 travel restrictions, also a new Atlantic charter. We haven't really seen this since FDR and Churchill.

Given what democracy looks like right now, explain why this isn't just symbolic.

ROBERTSON: Yeah, this Atlantic Charter, it's symbolic for Boris Johnson. It's important because he wants to portray Britain now that he has left the European Union as being a stand-alone on the global stage and stand up tall next to big important allies like the United States, global Britain.

But it's important at substance because some of things it aims to bring are improving trade relations with the United States, particularly in the areas of technology, the idea that both nations will stand up for sort of defense and the importance that democracy is defended, that autocracies are confronted, if you will, that there is stronger security by working together.

All of those values will be in that charter. Important, as you say, goes back to 1941, important today visually. They will see why this charter is signed, they will see the HMS Prince of Whales which is Britain's largest British port built battleship, largest built battleship here ever. So that's huge.

But the other aircraft carrier, and it's an aircraft carrier, the other British aircraft carrier is already in service doing what President Biden wants it to do on the way to the South China Seas, carrying U.S. F-35s. So it's -- some of the things they will talk about are also sort of future planning. [05:05:04]

But the symbolism of seeing that aircraft carrier, another one is on the way for South China Sea as part of a joint military operation, that's important, too.

JARRETT: All right. Nic, always great to have your analysis as usual this morning. Appreciate it. See you soon.

All right. Meat supplier JBS said it paid $11 million ransom after that cyber attack that shut down its entire U.S. beef processing operation last week. The company said it paid the ransom after most of its facilities were back online. It says it paid off the hackers believed to be based in Russia by the way to prevent any potential risk to its customers.

Now, it's unclear whether the White House knew about this payoff, but U.S. officials have urged companies not to pay ransoms to avoid encouraging more cyber attacks like this.

ROMANS: All right. Everything is more expensive as the economy roars back to life. That's the down side of a hot economy -- inflation, steel, lumber, plastic and gas prices all rising. Your grocery bill is bigger as the cost of vegetables, sugar and sunflower oil rise.

The housing market is red hot, cars are becoming more expensive, so are diapers and toilet paper. And get this -- demand for paint is so strong, Sherwin-Williams will hike its prices 7 percent in August.

Now, the pandemic disrupted supply chains and consumer behavior working out kinks in distribution is causing shortages and price spikes. All eyes will be on the consumer price index that's out in just a few hours.

The forecast a 4.7 percent price increase from last year. That would be the biggest jump in consumer prices since the summer of 2008. Prices are rising almost everywhere you look and customers, they tell us they're feeling it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIQUITA NORRIS, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: We buy different, sometimes it could be more expensive than what we usually buy, depending on a name or the product.

BARBARA MASSEY, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: The meats. The meats are more expensive. The milk, the eggs, bacon. Oh, crazy prices. Bacon is crazy.

WAJIHA QURESH, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: It has been a struggle, yeah, because, you know, with especially struggling with everything, you know, in regards to COVID and then these prices. Of course, it's a struggle.

TROY ALLSTON, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: You have to make the necessary adjustments. You have to make the necessary adjustments, you know? That's the key to survival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Fed has repeatedly said those price spikes will be temporary but increases aren't showing any signs yet of slowing down.

JARRETT: You know, I need to rent a car in August, it is double what it was last summer. Is that part of this, too?

ROMANS: It absolutely is.

They sold their fleet, but it's pa part of this, too. Used car prices for the first time ever $25,000 for a used car price, we have never seen the average price of a new car that high, but you have just seen so many sort of kinks in the system that need to be worked out and prices spike in the meantime.

JARRETT: And it goes to the people who bear the brunt of it, the U.S. consumer.

All right. The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline pulling the plug on that controversial project five months after the Biden administration revoked its permit. TC Energy of Canada says it will coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and indigenous groups to ensure a safe exit from the project.

The cancellation ends more than a decade of controversy over the pipeline and a big win for environment lists who argue the project would worsen the climate crisis.

ROMANS: All right. A major investment in vaccine diplomacy by the United States. The need is growing faster is poorer countries. CNN takes you live to Uganda next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:37]

ROMANS: Making sure the rest of the world is vaccinated is key part of America's COVID strategy now. The U.S. is donating 500 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine to nations in need. This international vaccine initiative COVAX will deliver doses to 92 low income countries in the African Union but that initiative has not helped everyone who has been promised help, including Uganda.

JARRETT: That's right. For the second straight week, the country is reporting a triple digit spike in infections.

Larry Madowo has the latest from Kampala, Uganda.

Larry, we know that hospitals are struggling with capacity. The Uganda government insists that this crisis was avoidable. I know you've been doing a lot of reporting on this. What are you finding?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura, we're finding that the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis in Uganda is so bad that the country has turned its main national stadium, Namboole, into a COVID hospital, where they usually play football games, under the stadium, they have turned that into 100 ward capacity for COVID patients and that might increase the ministry of health telling us they are ready to add up to 1,000 beds if it gets to it.

And we were there and we saw a body being carted out. Even though the government of Uganda tells us this is supposed to be for mild to moderate cases, even people there are dying and it speaks to how bad this second wave has been in Uganda. The World Health Organization says cases were up 137 percent last week.

And Uganda said it was entirely avoidable if they had vaccines after the first wave they would not be here this, would not be so bad. But Uganda only got less than a million shots from COVAX. That is a global vaccine shot initiative. And they've used up more than two thirds of them by -- two days ago, they only had 20,000 shots left. And you see how this is affecting people.

We went inside a private hospital here and into the ICU, most people were on life support. There are people there who have been there two, three weeks, and they just cannot imagine that they got so sick and now one of them told us you cannot play with COVID because it can take you at any time. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN NTAMBI, COVID-19 PATIENT: Now that I have a second chance, people shouldn't play with their lives recklessly when it comes to COVID. The way I feel now, I feel like God has given me a thousand more years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: So Stephen will be lucky to go back to his family and his family is excited, his three kids, to have him back with you there are so many others who are dying. Around 400 people have died in Uganda so far but some doctors tell us that number is probably so much lower than what the actual number is because there doesn't exist a proper system to track all of them.

Uganda has to go back to something close to near total lockdown again, banned travel within districts, have closed schools, they have restricted most public gatherings and for many people, if they don't show up to marketplaces, to bus stations, to the places where they do their daily labor they cannot make an income. So the big concern is if they can get vaccines, they can avoid a third or a fourth wave.

JARRETT: Larry, really important reporting here as usual.

Thank you for shining a light on this. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: Always so heart-breaking to hear how it's ravaged families, this disease.

All right. A quick programming note for you though, new details about what happened on January 6th. Drew Griffin talks with those who were there. "Assault on Democracy: The Roots of Trump's Insurrection," Sunday, June 20th at 9:00 p.m., only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:31]

JARRETT: Frustrated, perturbed, trapped, that's how former White House counsel Don McGahn says he felt dealing with his boss then President Donald Trump.

In a newly released transcript of his testimony to a House panel, McGahn confirmed Trump did urge him to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

ROMANS: McGahn said he declined, partly out of worry over his own criminal exposure. McGahn was also asked whether he once told one time chief of staff Reince Priebus that Trump tried to get him to do crazy expletive. McGahn's answer, he called it a fair characterization.

CNN's Paula Reid has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura and Christine.

Well, McGahn's testimony last week came after years of legal fights over whether his testimony was actually required and he answered a lot of lawmakers questions about his interactions with former President Trump related to the special counsel investigation and he told lawmakers that he often felt trapped, that he was repeatedly having the same conversation with former President Trump about the former president's desire to have the special counsel fired.

McGahn said he would repeatedly make his stance clear and then the former President would just bring it up again. And he talked about how the former president really just wanted him to pressure the former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to oust special counsel Robert Mueller. Of course, the former deputy attorney general, he was the one overseeing the special counsel investigation.

But McGahn believed that in doing that he could set off a chain of events, he called something like that a point of no return, something he did not want to pursue. He was worried that it would set off something similar to the Saturday Night Massacre in Watergate.

Now, lawmakers also pressed him about some notes that were uncovered by his secretary in a meeting between McGahn and the former president. They asked if McGahn believed that the former president had committed obstruction of justice and McGahn said, in fact, he actually did not -- could not go that far. He said that his notes merely reflected his notes at the time and that there could be questions about obstruction of justice.

And, of course, there were questions about whether the former president tried to obstruct this investigation and the House has also been looking into whether the former president has obstructed justice for years. They of course impeached him on obstructing Congress during the Ukraine scandal which came, of course, after the special counsel investigation -- Laura and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Paula, thank you for that.

JARRETT: Nearly the exact same moment President Biden and President Putin upping the anti ahead of next week's much anticipated summit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:26]

JARRETT: Sky watchers, you are in for a treat this morning. These are live pictures of the Ring of Fire solar eclipse that can be seen in portions of the U.S. and Canada as the sunrises across the Northeast.

Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin is with us now.

Tyler, the peak is minutes away. It is gorgeous.

TYLER MAULDIN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, that's right, Laura, and get outside and enjoy. This is the first one, if you can see it, this is the first one of 2021. There will only be two, the second one so if you miss this one the second one will be in early December.

What exactly is a solar eclipse? Let's chat about that. You got the moon orbiting around the earth, and when the moon is in its new phase and it passes between the sun and the earth, the moon will cast a shadow on the earth and you've got a solar eclipse.

This one is interesting because it's an annular eclipse meaning that it's farther away from the earth and it actually appears a lot smaller in the sky compared to the sun and it creates this ring of fire effect that we can see with one of these types of solar eclipses.

Now, not everyone is going to see it because of the position of the solar eclipse. Canada, Greenland going on into Russia, they are the ones that will see the total lunar solar eclipse.

But some of us here in the States will be able to see a partial solar eclipse, I'm mainly talking to you up here in New England from, let's say, Maine all the way down to Boston, even New York could see a little bit of it, maybe even a little bit out in the Midwest as well, Minneapolis you could see that, maybe even Chicago, too.

That is if the weather allows it to happen. Some of us are dealing with a lot of cloud cover, Minneapolis is dealing with some cloud cover. So Chicago, Philadelphia a little bit of cloud cover, but once you get into New England, Caribou and Boston, I think you should be able to actually see that partial eclipse.

Get outside as we were talking about just a second ago because it is occurring right now and you only have a couple hours to see it.

JARRETT: Very cool.

Christine and I have something to do for the next 30 minutes, but the rest of you get outside and check it out.

MAULDIN: There you go.

JARRETT: All right. Thanks so much.

EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

JARRETT: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: Thursday morning, I'm Christine Romans. It is just about 30 minutes past the hour.

This morning, President Biden is just beginning his overseas trip, but it is clear his mind is already on the end of the journey. Mr. Biden telling a hangar full of U.S. troops he is in Europe to defend the very concept of democracy.

That sets high stakes for his first trip abroad as president and marks a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Biden plans to raise sensitive issues.