Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Skepticism Tempers Optimism at Summit Between U.S. & Russian Leaders; Putin Characterizes Summit with Biden as "Constructive"; The Fed Moves Up Timing for Rate Hikes; Hawks Rally from 26 Down to Shock Sixers. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:33]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: and I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, June 17th, it is 5:00 a.m. exactly in New York.

And we begin this morning with President Biden, he is back in Washington landing late last night at Joint Base Andrews, returning from his high stakes summit with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Their meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, lasted just about three hours.

Afterwards, the two presidents held separate news conferences but hit some of the same tones and themes, mutual respect and optimism tempered by realism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did what I came to do. The bottom line is I told President Putin we need to have some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by. I made it clear to him that I believe. Consequences of that would be devastating for Russia. I don't think he's looking for a Cold War with the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: President Putin seemed to be looking for the right category for Mr. Biden, among the four U.S. presidents he's met with during his 20 years leading Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is very balanced, professional man. It's obviously clear that he is very experienced and it seems to me that we did speak the same language. Certainly doesn't imply that we must look into each other's eyes and find a soul or swear eternal friendship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Our chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is live in Geneva.

Jeff, good morning.

You've now had some time to process the summit after all of the preparation and anticipation.

What are your key take a ways from this first meeting between Presidents Biden and Putin?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

I mean, as President Biden is back in Washington the summit is still reverberating here in Europe, and that, of course, was the point of President Biden's first trip abroad, it was to strengthen alliances and to confront the aggression of Russia.

A couple key tangible takeaways, the ambassadors to both respective countries will return to their posts in Washington and Moscow. Of course, they were sent home because of the rising tensions. So that is the first real tangible benefit.

The second is really having a task force on cyber attacks and security. Beyond that, it was simply the relationship that was beginning to develop between President Biden and President Putin.

Frankly, we do not know where that was going to go. President Biden was very clear about that. He spent over the next three months, six months, even a year, that will determine whether Vladimir Putin wants to normalize his behavior, wants to essentially, you know, rejoin the international community.

So the biggest takeaway of all is that President Biden went ahead, had this summit, even though some of his advisers questioned whether he should so he is has now opened this dialogue and that's what he said he wanted to do. Not to, you know, ease tensions entirely, but to stabilize this very teetering relationship.

ROMANS: But their differences on the table as the "Washington Post" headline states it this morning.

ZELENY: Right.

ROMANS: The president spent weeks prepping for this summit with Putin. Now he has to come home and face the domestic challenges, first being his stalled infrastructure plan. What's the priority for the president back on home soil?

ZELENY: Right. That is going to confront him when he wakes up this morning, there is no doubt about it, because the reality is over the last week, talks have continued on the president's jobs plan which has been stalled.

The bipartisan negotiations that broke down right before he left for his trip have resumed in a different fashion but the president has asked last evening here before he got on air force one if he had been following the latest on infrastructure and he was pretty candid and said he has not. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain has been leading these negotiations. So, the president will get seeped back into them, but infrastructure, of course, police reform those are two of the top items on the agenda but it is a return to fighting a COVID-19 and really lifting up the economy.

But for all the warm reception that president Biden received here on the world stage, in fact, he was flanked by his fellow world leaders, now he's back to the realities of a very deeply divided partisan Washington where his reception will not be nearly as warm and he, of course, knows that better than anyone -- Laura and Christine.

[05:05:03]

ROMANS: In that environment, governing can be hard.

All right. Thank you so much, Jeff Zeleny in Geneva. Thanks, Jeff.

JARRETT: All right. Russian President Vladimir Putin describing his summit with President Biden as, quote, constructive. The Russian president said there was no hostility and voiced optimism about the possibility of future results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN: The meeting had results, it was substantive, it was concrete and it took place in an atmosphere that was geared toward achieving results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: But the points of conflict between the two nations are obvious here. President Putin denied Russian responsibility for an uptick in recent cyber attacks. President Biden hinted at U.S. retaliation if they do not stop.

Joining us now, international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live in London for us.

Nic, good morning.

Does Russia see this meeting as a win?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Put -- yes, Putin did play that as a win, played it as a win in the press conference. Look, these press conferences are always going to be a play to domestic audiences.

So when he looked his most uncomfortable which is being pressed on questions about Alexey Navalny, on questions about Ukraine, on questions about the cyber threat, he always deflected and spun it as this is a U.S. problem. This is not us. This is the United States being the country that's accused of the most sort of cyber attacks.

We always answer their questions, they don't answer ours. Navalny is essentially a stooge of the United States. They want to bring down the Kremlin. So, you know, this was heavy spin by Putin. I think the real question here is was Biden able to get in the sort of long strategic planning and mindset of Vladimir Putin. Remember here that Putin is in power until 2036 so he has a long ways to go. He knows that he can outlast -- he knows that he can outlast President Biden. But Biden was saying things particularly about China and we know that China is the big sort of threat that Biden sees in the future and he was laying out some lines there for Putin on China.

You know, Russia shares thousands of miles long border with China. Russia is being squeezed economically by China. You know, that was when Biden was sort of pushed on why does he think his getting around Putin's, you know -- Putin's denials, essentially that he thinks his sort of getting into the long mindset of Putin and, of course, we have no idea, Biden said three to six months to get any sense that have at all.

But that's where we don't know what Putin took away and that is maybe where Biden's message was landed most strongly.

JARRETT: All right. Nic Robertson, thanks so much. Always great to get your analysis.

ROMANS: So a booming economy and rising inflation has the fed moving up its timeline for an interest rate hike. The Central Bank now expects to raise interest rates in 2023. Now, it previously predicted keeping rates near rock bottom near zero for at least two years. So, this is a shift in its outline.

Fed Chief Jerome Powell downplayed the update saying any interest rate hike is still far off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Liftoff is well into the future, the conditions for liftoff are very far from maximum employment, for example. It's a consideration for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Prices are higher for most things Americans buy, but Powell blames supply chain woes a normal by-product of the economic rebound and he says that will correct over time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POWELL: The prices that are driving that higher inflation are from categories that are being directly affected by the recovery, from the pandemic and the reopening of the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: He cited lumber surprise prices, they spiked due to bottlenecks but have since come down. Still investors do not like the idea of interest rates rising even if it's way off in the future in 2023, more expensive borrowing costs could eat into corporate profits and U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday although they bounced off their lows. U.S. futures are down right now.

But, Laura, big picture, the economy is booming and the Fed actually raised its outlook for economic growth this year. It now expects 7 percent economic growth this year, leaving no need eventually for emergency stimulus. That would be the strongest economic growth I think since Reagan was president.

JARRETT: Wow. The question always for me is who gets helped and who gets hurt in that, right?

ROMANS: Exactly. When interest rates are so low, it's almost like, it's like free money for speculators and so, you know, you've got to tamp that down eventually.

JARRETT: Yeah.

All right. Coming up, the Justice Department releasing brand-new violent videos of rioters trying to break into the Capitol on January 6th.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:14:10]

ROMANS: Dramatic new video from the January 6th insurrection. It shows the mob trying to batter its way into the U.S. Capitol.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

ROMANS: The video just released by the Justice Department it's in the case of a 23-year-old Connecticut man he's charged with assaulting police officers, he's pleading not guilty.

Congressional reporter Daniella Diaz is live on Capitol Hill for us.

So, Daniella, this video, it's the first video to be released since the court decision forcing media outlets like CNN to seek video case by case. Will we see more?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Christine, I think that's what the goal is here. You know, more than a dozen media outlets, including CNN have been seeking access to video that has been used in these court cases against Capitol riot defenders -- defendants, including police body camera footage, surveillance footage and more.

[05:15:13]

You know, this marks the first public disclosure after a judge ordered prosecutors release this footage. You know, these four newly released clips are from a case against Patrick McCaughey. This 23-year-old Connecticut man who was accused of assaulting police in a tunnel on the way to the Capitol building. This was the first release of video order by a judge since a recent decision to force media outlets to seek access to Capitol riot evidence case by case.

It only adds to a few other clips that have become available through court proceedings related to the riot. The bottom line here is that we are expected to see more because more judges are reviewing whether to release video in a handful of other Capitol riot cases where it's been used in court against these defendants -- Christine.

ROMANS: Officer Fanone of one those officers who suffered a heart attack after being assaulted during that January 6 riot. He went up to Capitol Hill yesterday and let's just say things didn't go well.

What exactly happened?

DIAZ: Things didn't go well certainly an understatement, Christine. He actually ran into Congressman Andrew Clyde, a conservative Republican from Georgia who is one of these house Republicans that voted against awarding the congressional gold medal to the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. He ran into him yesterday and tried to shake his hand but the congressman denied his handshake.

Take a listen to what he told our Don Lemon last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL FANONE, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE OFFICER: I saw Congressman Clyde standing outside of an elevator, I was there with Officer Harry Dunn who accompanied me throughout the capitol. Went into the elevator, I told -- I, you know, greeted Congressman Clyde, I was very cordial, he extended my hand to shake his hand. He just stared at me.

I asked him if he was going to shake my hand and he told me that he didn't know who I was. So he introduced myself, I said that I was Officer Michael Fanone, that I was a D.C. Metropolitan police officer who fought on January 6 to defend the Capitol, and as a result I suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as a heart attack after having been tased numerous times at the base of my skull as well as being severely beaten.

At that point, the congressman turned away from me, pulled out a cellphone, looked like he was attempting to pull up like an audio recording app on his phone and, again, like never acknowledged me at any point. As soon as the elevator doors opened, he ran as quickly as he could like a coward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAZ: You know, Congressman Clyde is one of these congressmen that has been down playing what happened on January 6th, the insurrection. You know, he made headlines recently because he actually during a congressional hearing compared what happened on January 6th to a normal tourist visit.

Again, as I said earlier, there were 21 House Republicans who did not vote -- who voted against a bill in the house to award the congressional gold medical to these officers that defended the Capitol on January 6th.

This is just the latest chapter of many of these conservative Republicans who continue to down play what happened on January 6th -- Christine.

ROMANS: And, Daniella, I think it's important to remind our viewers where Congressman Clyde was on January 6th and what exactly he was doing. We showed a picture in that clip with Don Lemon but he was behind barricades because people were trying to get in to the chamber where he was, right?

DIAZ: Absolutely. It was a photo that we all remember clearly that came out after he compared what happened on January 6th to a normal tourist visit which it certainly was not that.

ROMANS: Apparently he barricades himself behind big pieces of heavy furniture when the tourist right side in the Capitol.

All right. Thank you so much, Daniella. Nice to see you.

JARRETT: So while some lawmakers in Washington are playing the denial game about the big lie on January 6th, local election officials around the country are still feeling the after effects of just doing their jobs. According to a new survey, nearly one in three feel unsafe because of their job and 17 percent say they have received threats.

Now, the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU Law School conducted this study. They recommend creating an election threats task force at the Department of Justice.

ROMANS: Former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge, rushed to the hospital Wednesday after suffering a stroke. He underwent a successful procedure to remove a blood clot. He was in critical but stable condition as of Wednesday evening.

Ridge served as the first director of the White House Office of Homeland Security you will recall after those attacks on September 11th. One of his most high profile moves was to oversee the creation of the color coded threat warning system.

[05:20:00]

JARRETT: Well, the Atlanta Hawks making another big comeback this game five last night. Coy Wire has your "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: All right. Another huge comeback puts the Hawks in command of their series with the 76ers.

Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESEPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you.

Atlanta has been making a habit out of their big comebacks. They rallied from 18 down to win game four Monday night. But the way the Sixers started game five back home in Philly, you would have thought there is no way Atlanta is coming back again. Joel Embiid came out on fire leading the Sixers to a 26-point lead

just before halftime.

[05:25:03]

They led by 18 after three quarters, but Atlanta starts the fourth on a 15-0 run. Trae Young wouldn't be denied, getting two of his 39 points here that jumper. Look at that, telling the crowd, I can't hear you now. Danilo Gallinari sealing it with a fade away.

The Hawks stunned Philly 109-106, taking a 3-2 series lead back to Atlanta now.

Sixers coach Doc Rivers says he hasn't given up hope yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOC RIVERS, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS HEAD COACH: We will be back here for game seven. I believe that. We have made this hard on ourselves. We have to own up to that, all of us, and then we have to get up and be ready for the next game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Clippers pull off a stunning game five win in Utah, their best player Kawhi Leonard out indefinitely with a sprained knee. His replacement Terance Mann, oh, man, that was on Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert. Paul George takes over, 37 points, 16 rebounds for Playoff P. Clippers win 119-111, taking a 3-2 series lead, back home to L.A. Game six is Friday night.

The winner of that series facing the Western Conference Finals will face the Suns, but their heart and soul 11-time all-star Chris Paul entered the NBA's COVID-19 health and safety protocol. He could miss some games. He could miss some games.

Head coach Monty Williams didn't say whether Paul had been vaccinated or not. Paul will continue to get tested while in protocols. The team said they're going to update his status on Saturday.

Let's go to the U.S. Olympic trials where superstar Katie Ledecky is so hot, she's turning swimming pools into a boiling pot. Five time Olympic gold medalist on her final lap, the competition is still swimming the other way. Not another swimmer in frame.

She wins the 15 meter free style in 15 minutes 40.5 seconds, that's 10.5 seconds ahead of second place. She won the 200 meter free an hour before that. That's three wins in Omaha this week for Katie.

She finishes with so much time to spare at the trials that means extra time to celebrate, becoming a college grad. Go Stanford. Katie knew she would be competing during the ceremonies so she posed for a picture with her cap and gown over her swimsuit.

Finally, Jimmy Kimmel with a big announcement on his show last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: Let's go live now to the brand-new and beautiful SoFi Stadium here in Los Angeles, which is now the site of the inaugural Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl. That's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: This is not a joke. Kimmel signing a multi-year deal to rename the L.A. Bowl to the Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl. It will be playing at SoFi Stadium on December 18.

I mean, is this going to be the most fun bowl game in all of existence? I think it might. No word on a halftime show yet. I don't know what y'all are doing that day, maybe we could work something out, all three of us.

JARRETT: He didn't have enough on his plate? He needs to get into this, too.

ROMANS: Exactly, exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

JARRETT: Thanks, Coy.

ROMANS: Nice so see you, Coy.

WIRE: You too.

ROMANS: All right. Twenty-seven minutes past the hour.

Balloons strapped to explosives, the latest flash point this tensions in the Middle East. We're live in Jerusalem, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)