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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

CNN Obtains Tape of Trump Talking Classified Docs; DeSantis Rolls Out Border Security Plan; State Media: Russia Drops All Charges Against Wagner Mercenary Group for Insurrection; Senate Democrats Reveal New Details About Intel Warnings Ahead of January 6th Attack. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 27, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on EARLY START, CNN has obtained the tape of former President Trump, talking about having secret documents that he did not declassify.

[05:00:09]

And just in, Russian officials say they are dropping insurrection charges against the Wagner mercenary group.

And a Senate committee has just released a report detailing the intelligence failures leading up to the January 6 Capitol attacks.

Good Tuesday morning, everybody. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Christine Romans.

Overnight, CNN has obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting where former President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents that he did not declassify. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: Isn't it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look, this was him. They presented me this -- this is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.

WRITER: Wow.

TRUMP: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn't done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff -- pages long, look.

Wait a minute, let's see here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh.

(LAUGHTER)

STAFFER: Yeah.

TRUMP: I just found, isn't that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except, it is like highly confidential. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: See as president I could have declassified it.

STAFFER: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Now, I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.

STAFFER: Yeah. Now we have a problem.

TRUMP: Isn't that interesting?

STAFFER: Yeah.

TRUMP: It's so cool. I mean, it's so, look, her and I, and you probably almost didn't believe me, but now you believe me.

WRITER: No, I believed you.

TRUMP: It's incredible, right?

WRITER: No, they never met a war they didn't want.

TRUMP: Hey, bring some, bring some Cokes in please.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: This conversation is a critical piece of evidence in the case of Trump's alleged mishandling of classified information.

CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This recording is from the summer of 2021 at Trump's Bedminster golf club. He is speaking to two people working on an autobiography for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and the former president knew he was being recorded, his own aides were making a recording of this meeting, in addition, the folks working on that autobiography.

But even though he knew he was making a record of this conversation, the former president was, as you can hear on this tape, surprisingly casual when talking about some of our nation's most sensitive secrets. He admits that this information that he is sharing with others in the room, who do not have proper clearance or any clearance at all. He acknowledges this is classified information, that he could've declassified it when he was in the White House, but that he no longer had the power to do so.

Now, in public, the former president has repeatedly said that he did not have these documents, that it is not actually that document that he is referring to in this tape.

One interesting quote that you hear on the CNN version of this tape which was not included in the indictment is that the former president said, these are the papers. And so, he is insisting that in fact, whatever he appears to be showing other people in the room are the papers that he alleges will vindicate him in terms of Mark Milley's comments about Iran.

Now this tape is expected to be a central piece of evidence for the special counsel. Another aspect of the tape that was not included in the indictment is former President Trump and least one of his staffers, mocking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server. Now, that's, of course, not really pertinent to the criminal case, but in the court of public opinion, it does appear to be hubris.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, we might hear more reaction from this directly from the former president today. He will be campaigning in New Hampshire.

Let's bring in Daniel Strauss, senior political correspondent and coauthor of the "Run-up" column at "The New Republic".

So nice to see you, Daniel. You know, the polling, recent polling, even a few days ago, shows Trump strongly in the league for the Republican nomination. I wonder if developments like the audio from the -- you know, from this tape, how that resonates at all with the GOP base?

DANIEL STRAUSS, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW REPUBLIC: I mean, the evidence we have seen so far is that developments like this on any of the investigations against Trump do not really splinter his base in any substantial way. I have talked to Republican and Democratic pollsters in the past who have said that there is just a 30 percent chunk of Republican parties that won't move and see anything like this, any investigation as an actual witch hunt against the former president.

So, no, this does not present new information. A lot of Republican base voters see him -- already know that he is under these indictments, that he faces questions over a key being very sensitive national security documents.

[05:05:02]

They don't seem to care. They are still interested in voting for him.

So, unless, there is some kind of scandal bigger than this, I doubt that voting bloc is going to move in any substantial way.

ROMANS: Yeah, two things can be true at the same time. There could be mounting legal jeopardy for the former president, and on a legal front, things can start to look pretty tough.

And at the same time, his voting base, especially evangelicals are not going to move. They are firmly behind the former president.

Okay, so DeSantis, Trump and Nikki Haley are going to all be in New Hampshire today, apparently there is some campaign drama. DeSantis planned his event at the same time as the annual fundraising lunch of the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women, an event that Trump is headlining.

The group released a statement slamming DeSantis and calling the move, quote, unprecedented.

What does that mean? Is that a political misstep for DeSantis here?

STRAUSS: It is almost hard to tell in New Hampshire, because so much of the politics is hyper local, and in any presidential cycle, it is always about what state lawmaker has which endorsement, and what a very traditional event a lawmaker is interested in going to.

So, you know, look, I mean, this is -- New Hampshire voters are all about tradition, being recognized as the pacemakers of the early Republican presidential campaign. So, it might not help. But DeSantis' his problems in advance just really extend beyond one single fund- raiser.

ROMANS: Yeah, he was -- yesterday, DeSantis was at the border of the Texas-Mexico border, outlining his border security plan, sending military to the border, ending birthright citizenship among other things.

Listen to part of what he said about President Trump and the border wall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Obviously, you know, you did have some wall built, but not nearly enough in terms of that. I don't think they even started doing it for a number of years going forward. So I think a lot of the things he is saying, I agree with. But I also think those are the same things that were said back in 2016.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So is the message here, I agree with the president, the former president on border security, but I could do it better?

STRAUSS: DeSantis is clearly following through with his plan so far, which is that he wants to draw a contrast between Trump and himself, he wants to argue that he has -- this easy, stronger alternative on the issues that base voters care about like border security. Not that Trump is focused on the wrong priorities, just that he has been inefficient in trying to get those things done. That is DeSantis's argument in trying to thread the needle here, both in winning over those Trump voters who are rapidly supporting the former president, but also not challenging them or criticizing them in any way, which would draw them away from DeSantis or another candidate, going closer towards Trump.

ROMANS: All right. Daniel Strauss, always nice to chat with you so early in the morning. Thank you.

STRAUSS: Thanks.

ROMANS: Okay, this just in, Russian officials say they are dropping the insurrection charges against the Wagner Group for armed insurrection. Officials say that Wagner's weapons law will be handed over. This comes as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks out this morning saying he was, quote, painful to watch the armed rebellion inside of Russia. Lukashenko allowed Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to go to Belarus after that chaotic insurrection.

Both Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin are now breaking their silence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): An armed rebellion would have been suppressed in any case. The organizers of the rebellion could not fail to understand this. They understood everything, including that they resorted to criminal acts to divide and weaken the country, which is now confronting a colossal external threat, an unprecedented pressure from outside.

YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN, WAGNER CHIEF (through translator): Two factors played into my decision to turn around. First factor, we wanted to avoid a Russian bloodshed. The second is that we marched in demonstration of a protest, not to overturn the power in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)(

ROMANS: We are also learning U.S. intelligence officials had information about the revolt before it happened, which they kept secret from most allies. Sources tell CNN U.S. officials were able to gather an extremely detailed and accurate picture of Prigozhin's plans.

CNN's Clare Sebastian live in London with more.

Clare, what are we learning this morning about these new developments about the charges being dropped and Wagner's weapons being returned?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So this appears on the charges, Christine, to be the FSB, the federal security service making it official what the Kremlin spokesperson said on Saturday night, which was that those involved in the march of Wagner fighters would not face criminal liability, the reason why outlined in a statement from the FSB seems to suggest that they are dropping the charges because they stopped their march, they did not actually carry on, they aborted before they got to Moscow. So, that's the justification there.

[05:10:01] They don't mention Yevgeny Prigozhin by the name. There's still some confusion around whether the charges against him for organizing the rebellion still stand, or will as the Kremlin spokesperson suggested on Sunday night, be dropped. Significant though, we also get news via state media from the ministry of defense, that Wagner is preparing they say, to hand over their weaponry to the ministry of defense.

This is something that Prigozhin and his audio message on Monday said that they have been planning to do, by June 30th, before that alleges strike, he accuses Russia of doing on the Wagner camp, which he says was the trigger for his so-called march for justice in Russia.

So this appears to be Wagner reverting to that plan to actually hand over those weapons. Significant, because it does smack of some kind of dissolution of the group itself, even though Prigozhin in that same audio address said that -- he talked about how the president of Belarus, Lukashenko, have offered a way for Wagner to continue its work in a legal jurisdiction.

So, this is a crucial question going forward, what will in fact be the status of the Wagner group?

ROMANS: And, Clare, what else has the leader of Belarus, Lukashenko been saying this morning?

SEBASTIAN: So he said, Christine, that he is putting his army on full readiness in light of events in Russia. We got a lot of expressions of support, unity and inextricable ties with Russia, we know that relationship although entirely unequal. Belarus is essentially functions as a sort of subsidiary of Russia, is extremely close and I've grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.

He said it was painful to watch, the events which took place in the south of Russia. And he says in no case should you make a hero out of me for his role in that, or Putin, or of Prigozhin in fact because he says, they missed the situation and thought it would resolve. But it didn't. So, an interesting admission now of how things spiraled beyond perhaps what they were expecting.

One thing that he did not see, a crucial elephant in the room, the whereabouts of Prigozhin himself, he's been told that he could now relocate to Belarus, we are still watching and waiting to see if that happens.

ROMANS: All right. Clare Sebastian, I know a lot of rapid developments over the weekend. Thank you so much for following all of it with your expertise.

So much to break down from the aftermath of this short-lived Russian insurrection, protest?

Let's bring in CNN military analyst and former member of the joint staff at the pentagon, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton.

So nice to see you this morning. What do you make of the news that the Russian officials say they are dropping insurrection charges against the Wagner group, and that heavy military equipment will be handed over to the Russian military?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, good morning, Christine. I would say that means Putin has won, at least this round of the battle between the Wagner group/Prigozhin, and Putin. So, it seems as if what the Russian administration of Putin's folks are doing, is taking control of the Wagner group. It's going to be really interesting to see how this unfolds on the battle, again, on the battlefields of Ukraine, as well as in Wagner's far flung empire, if you will in Africa and in Syria, places like that.

ROMANS: You say Putin won, but is the weakened by this episode, and by how much?

LEIGHTON: Yes. He is definitely weakened by this, Christine. The reason why he is weakened is because of the very fact that this rebellion was even mounted and Prigozhin got as far as 125 miles from Moscow.

That's a significant deal. That is a significant challenge to Putin's leadership. And it means that although weakened, Putin is going to lash out as much as much as he can against the elements of Wagner or anybody else who tries to mount some kind of rebellion like this.

This is something which has happened a lot of in Russian history in the past, where a group will demonstrate the dissatisfaction. They will be subsumed temporarily by the state, or whatever organization runs the territory at that point in time. And then, the dissatisfaction will find another expression, and result in something else, something more serious than what we have seen so far.

ROMANS: It will be so interesting to see what happens to the Wagner Group. I mean, it is a major player in the African continent, in Syria and a lot of places, doing the bidding of the Kremlin, sometimes unofficially, in such a big way. It will be interesting to see how that all plays out.

We have now heard from the major players in last week's Russian insurrection, the president of Belarus Lukashenko, of Vladimir Putin, the Wagner chief Prigozhin, what do you make of Putin in particular, his tone and messaging in the statement, armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyways?

LEIGHTON: Yes. I think he is looking at this from a historical standpoint, and also from the very powerful standpoint, a powerful position that he holds, he kept the oligarchs in line, he kept the military in line. He kept the intelligence services in line.

[05:15:01]

With those three elements of power he maintained control, and he knew he had that control. Prigozhin also knew he had that control, I think that is the real reason why Prigozhin stopped just short of Moscow. He knew that he couldn't win, at that point, he knew that the game was up.

ROMANS: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for your expert analysis. Nice to see you.

LEIGHTON: Nice to see you, too.

ROMANS: All right. This morning, nearly 45 million people are under heat alerts, and those high temperatures are just going to get hotter.

And this just into CNN, a Senate committee has just released a report, laying out January 6 intelligence failures. The details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Just in, security failures behind a January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, quote, there provide was literally to kill people. That's from a new report just released by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

It focuses on the apparent intelligence failures across multiple federal agencies in the lead up to January 6.

[05:20:04]

Let's bring in CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. She's also a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and a Harvard professor.

Good morning.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning.

ROMANS: I'm sure you had a chance to digest this. I have been going through this just released up from the Senate committee.

And the report finds, Juliette, quote, former President Trump was the primary cause of the insurrection. That's in this report. But it goes on to say this, quote, the fact remains that the federal agencies tasked with preventing domestic terrorism and disseminating intelligence did not sound the alarm. And much of the violence which followed on January 6 may have been prevented had they done so.

Pretty pointed language there, putting, you know, the energy behind the attack squarely on the former president, but faulting authorities for not preventing -- seeing what was going to happen.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. As it says, this was an insurrection in plain sight. Those of us outside of government were sounding the alarm. We were monitoring the same public information that the FBI was.

The FBI, for a number of reasons that the report cites, was just unwilling or unable to do so. I mean, one -- there are three explanations. One is just clearly, the agents understood what was going, on but they just could not grasp that this was likely to happen.

The second is that they erroneously focused on intra right-wing fighting. So they were focused on the groups going against each other rather than the groups unifying and going after politicians.

And then the third is just your basic technological issue, which is for inexplicable reasons, and I am not into conspiracy theories, but January 1st, 2021, the FBI switches its public monitoring system, public data monitoring system, a well-known system called data minor, to a new system. So, all of the agents are caught off guard as the system switches. And it was not up and running.

So there are a lot of bad explanations for why this happened.

ROMANS: And confusion about who was in charge. I mean, this report states this, DOD officials pointing to DOJ as the lead. The DOJ and FBI officials say that no agency has been designated the lead, and officials from other agencies also report confusion about who was in charge.

What are the lessons going forward from that in particular?

KAYYEM: Well, one way they could've made someone in charge would be to designate January 6 like on inauguration, like any other major event, we call these special national security events. Those are ones in which then the federal government will focus. You will have a lead agency, generally the secret service.

Because January six was just like a date that nobody had ever thought of before, because the question of certifying your electoral votes never came up, right? No president has ever directed an insurrection. There was no focus on it as a security threat. Therefore, none of the agencies knew if this was a law enforcement issue, a military issue or was this a homeland security issue.

That could have easily been corrected had they taken the threat seriously and said look, we have a problem.

ROMANS: All right, Juliet Kayyem, certainly food for thought there in this report, no question, nice to see you.

All right, severe weather across the U.S. causing and as for air travelers. More than 1,000 flights are already delayed or canceled today, as thunderstorms snarl traffic in and out of some of the country's busiest airports.

Meanwhile, millions of people across the south are facing an extreme heat wave, expected to continue through the beginning of the holiday next week.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray has the forecast.

Jennifer, where is severe weather expected to really affect travelers today?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Christine, the problem we have had some rough weather across the northeast, you have impacted some of the busiest airports in the country. And it really has a domino effect across the country when you think about it. So we have had some strong storms across the east coast, the eastern

seaboard, up into the northeast. We had seven tornado reports in the last 24 hours, 202 wind reports. Some really rough weather. That cold front is not quite all of the way through.

So, we're still getting some showers and storms across the mid- Atlantic into the northeast and New England. So once that front pushes through, the storm should clear out.

So, we are going to look for an improvement by the time we get into, I would say, late today. We still have storms to deal with today in this evening, once we get into the overnight hours into tomorrow, you can see much, much better weather.

So, we still have some lingering storms today. However, the biggest threat is going to be out near the plains, with damaging wind, large hail, the potential for tornadoes today as well.

Meanwhile, you mentioned the heat across Texas. This extreme heat wave, still going on. This dome of high pressure over the Lone Star State. It's really trapping all of this heat in, it has been going on for more than two weeks, will extend another week, more than 60 high temperature records are possible.

[05:25:02]

You can see temperatures are really not letting up much at all. Little Rock in the triple digits for several days. Jackson hitting 110. Austin in the triple digits. Dallas, 110 today.

Temperatures staying in the triple digits. And so, we are looking at uncharted territory across many of these places, Christine, with this extreme heat setting many all-time records as well across Texas.

ROMANS: All right. Everyone stay safe. Thank you for that, Jennifer.

GRAY: Thanks.

ROMANS: Still ahead, a look at Putin's rise to power over the past few decades.

And officials in Italy are trying to track down this man. Yeah, that's right. He carved his initials in the Colosseum all in the name of love.

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