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Trump Leaves Earlier Than Expected; Trump Slams G7 Allies; Suicide Rates Increase; Judge Blocks Deportation. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 11, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:31:30] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is getting ready for this high stakes sit down with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un. The White House just announced moments ago that the president will hold a news conference, a media availability, right after the summit before returning to the United States. He's going to leave for the United States tomorrow roughly at 8 a.m. Eastern Time. That's sooner than we thought he was going to be going. Why?

In the meantime, the fallout continues after this weekend's tense standoff with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the other members of the G-7.

Let's bring in CNN national security analyst Michael Hayden.

General, thank you so much for being with us.

I want to read you some of this release that we just got from the White House on this meeting. The White House says the discussions between the United States and North Korea are ongoing and have moved more quickly than expected. That statement just from the White House about these working group meetings. That statement doesn't say they're going better than expected. It says they're going more quickly than expected and that they move the president's departure time earlier. Do you think we should be reading anything into that?

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, John, in terms of the overall atmospherics it appears our government's now trying to create for the meetings tomorrow in Singapore, I think it's a good thing. We've begun to dampen expectations a bit. I saw that in the words of Secretary Pompeo two weeks ago. I saw it again today. You know, this is just -- just the beginning of a process.

And so if we just kick this off, if the wheels don't fly off, if we get a work program out of this, I think that would be a very good thing. And to try to overachieve right now I think would be a very unfortunate tactic on our part. So, frankly, I'm a bit heartened that we're trying to cabin this a bit and realizing, John, frankly, to get to complete irreversible, verifiable denuclearization means the North Korea that we know would have to cease to exist. And if that's even possible, it's not possible in one gulp.

BERMAN: All right, you dealt with Kim Jong-un. You dealt with North Korea for some time. You know, how does he view this summit, general? HAYDEN: Well, I think he's already pocketed the thing he really wants

from the summit, the goal that he was pursuing with all that energy that he put into nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. He's got a meeting with the president of the United States, face-to-face, with a sense of equivalency. That's a remarkable achievement. We've already paid that bill, John, by having this meeting. And now we need to push Kim in a direction where we're now going to be getting something. And, again, I think it's a very long process.

BERMAN: And let's take a step back even further if we can here, general. The president arrived here in Singapore having completed this journey where he attacked one of America's closest allies, Canada and the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and had his senior advisers say that the Canadian prime minister stabbed him in the back. How did you react to that?

HAYDEN: Yes, that was a mixture of sadness and, frankly, anger because no country deserves to be treated that way. Certainly having officials in one government criticize the head of government in another country, I don't think I've ever seen that before. And for God's sake, doing it against Canada after the prime minister issued a fairly mild statement about the Canadians just standing their ground and then to have him attacks on the Sunday morning talk shows.

[08:35:20] You know, John, it reminded me every inch of Sean Spicer going out there a day or two after the inauguration, clearly at the direction of the president, saying things that were clearly not true but he did it for personal survival. I saw the same kind of atmosphere in yesterday's commentary.

BERMAN: Does it have any strategic value that you see to say the things that they said? Does it help the president in any way as he sits down with Kim Jong-un?

HAYDEN: Oh, my God, no. And one of their arguments was that the president can't show weakness in what Trudeau did, require this robust response, otherwise the president would appear to be weak as he flew to Singapore. Actually, Trudeau did not make President Trump look weak. President Trump made President Trump look unstable, erratic and thin skinned.

BERMAN: You've worked with Canada, like you've worked with everyone around the world over time. What kind of an ally was Canada from your perspective?

HAYDEN: John, it was rare for me to go to a war zone to meet my own folks without meeting Canadians who were thoroughly integrated. You know, they're a part of the Five Eyes Alliance. And with regard to NSA and the Canadian equivalent, we don't just cooperate, we're by and large integrated because we have common values and common legal systems and common strategic objectives.

I -- and back to embarrassment, we, frankly, ought to feel a little bit ashamed for treating such a good friend the way they were treated yesterday from very high levels in our government.

BERMAN: From friends to adversaries back here to North Korea.

Again, the president will sit down face-to-face with Kim Jong-un. If you could give advice to President Trump based on your experience, what would your advice be for how the president should behave when he's in that room? We understand one-on-one for up to two hours with just translators.

HAYDEN: Yes. So I actually think the president should follow his own advice, which he mentioned I think last Friday on the South Lawn, which was, this is a get acquainted session. Let's begin to build this feature one block at a time.

You know, I was fearful of three, four, six months ago, John, that we're going to go in there and have, as our initial demand, that the North give up its weapons. I suggested earlier, to get to complete irreversible denuclearization, North Korea would have to cease to exist as we've known it.

John, they've got a philosophy of juche (ph), which is self-reliance, which is the opposite of accepting securing guarantees. They believe they're in a permanent state of war which allows them to be a dictatorship and secretive, both of which have to end if we're going to have verification.

And then, finally, the purpose of the North Korean state is the unification of the peninsula on their own terms. And that, of course, would end in this new kind of strategic relationship. So this is a really big lift on our part to get Kim into a new place.

BERMAN: General Michael Hayden, it is always a pleasure to talk to you and draw from your lifetime of experience.

General, thanks so much for being with us.

HAYDEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: And, Alisyn, we'll go back to you.

Again, I am fascinated by this notion, as the general just suggested, maybe the president trying to lower expectations even more suggesting now that these meetings won't get extended and he's going to leave Singapore perhaps more quickly than we all thought.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe, or maybe he's lowering expectations so then he can boost the expectations and stay an extra day.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: It's very hard to play this guessing game, but it's wonderful to have you there on the ground to bring us all of the developments.

And, John, now to this story that we've spent so much time thinking about and struggling with over the weekend. More people in the public eye now are opening up about their own struggles with suicidal impulses, including our own Kirsten Powers. After the loss of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade last week, Kirsten wrote a very personal op-ed for "USA Today." She joins us to discuss it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:43:28] CAMEROTA: With the deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain, the inevitable question is why. According to the CDC, suicide rates in the U.S. have increased 25 percent since 1999. Why is this happening?

Joining us now, we have CNN political analyst Kirsten Powers, who recently wrote about her own experience with contemplating suicide. Also with us is the director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, John Draper.

It's so good to have both of you here with us for this conversation.

Kirsten, it's such a private -- these feelings are so private and sometimes shameful and so I applaud you for sharing them. But why did you want to share them so publically in your column?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I was, you know, thinking about writing a column about suicide. This was actually after Kate Spade had died. And then the numbers came out about how suicide had gone up by 25 percent across the country. And so I reached out to John and I said -- who happens to be my fiance's brother -- and said, hey, is there anything that people aren't writing about that would be helpful? And he said, yes, actually, what -- and what he explained to me, which I put in my column is, that the media, you know, we tend to just focus on the person who killed themselves, which we need to do. We need to talk about that person. But what we -- what he said is really helpful to people who are contemplating suicide is to hear stories from people who contemplated suicide and didn't go through with it, which is actually most people, but we only focus on the people who go through with it.

And so I said, well, I had this experience, would it be helpful to share it. And he said, absolutely. And so that's why I wrote about it.

[08:45:02] CAMEROTA: I applaud you. and, you know, I felt that exact same way on Friday when we were reporting on Tony Bourdain's suicide. I felt like, why am I going to sit here on this set and pretend that I've never had these feelings of despair, pretend that I've never contemplated this. Like, let's just peal back the curtain and have an honest conversation about how often people do feel this way, John.

So how should the media be talking about it in a way that isn't dangerous?

JOHN DRAPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE: Well, there's a few things. And, really, I so applaud Kirsten. Thank you so much for doing that. It's made a difference for so many people. And it always does when people speak out.

In fact, I see a lot of people who are nervous about talking about their history. And when they do, it's not only a relief to them, but they're typically very surprised at the outpouring of support.

What we have seen is actually studies that have shown that when people talk about their positive coping through suicidal moments and they share them with the media or in a public forum, it's been associated with a reduction in suicide rates. It's basically a contagion of hope that we can spread.

CAMEROTA: God, that is such a great message.

I want to put up the statistics that are really troubling. These were just released by the CDC the day I think before Anthony took his life. And suicide rates are rising across the U.S. In 2016, nearly 45,000 Americans died by suicide. Twenty-five states had suicide rate increases of more than 30 percent. Fifty-four percent of people -- this is the one that gets me -- who died by suicide did not have a known mental health condition.

And I know that you wanted to talk about that, too, Kirsten. And so it's like -- it's situational. Something horrible happens in your life. You may not have been depressed before that or you may have been, but something happens. In my case it was the end of a relationship, the end of a job and it just all feels like life may not be worth it after that.

POWERS: Right. And I -- you know, and I think for me it was my father died and then, on top of that, there were a lot of other things going for me, the end of a relationship, I had left my job and was freelancing, so I didn't have the structure of going into an office every day. So I was spending a lot of time alone. And all these -- and my mother had breast cancer and had been fighting breast cancer all year and things start to just pile up. And -- and you -- and I -- and I always -- and I also had struggled with anxiety for most of my life, which I thankfully have finally, you know, learned how to manage. But, at that point, I really hadn't. And so I think it all came together and became overwhelming.

And as I talk about as well, I had gone on a new antidepressant and I think I may have been having a reaction to that as well. And so, you know, all these things come together.

But I also -- you know, one of my friends who was -- I was with every day, she was my business partner, tweeted out, like, I was with Kirsten every day and I had no idea, you know? And -- and I -- and she said, I should have asked more questions. And what I said was, you could have asked more questions, but unless you caught me at that moment, I never would have told you because of the stigma. You know, I would have lied.

And so I think that what people have to do is sort of I guess -- you know, I had lost 15 pounds. And so if you -- if you start noticing there are things -- you know, someone just lost 15 pounds in a month and their father just died, maybe take extra time to check in on them. Spend more time with them, those kinds of things, because I don't think a lot of times -- and John can speak to this, people want to tell people this because it feels shameful for sure.

CAMEROTA: Yes, for sure.

DRAPER: Yes, I'd love to comment on that statistic, too, Alisyn. I -- it's a really important finding that 54 percent don't have a known mental health condition is two things. One, that's a known mental health condition. That's also a statement about access. A lot -- they noted that most of those were males who aren't seeking help. And so, therefore, they're not diagnosed. So part of it is an access to care problem.

But even more importantly is this focus on situations because you see those warning signs that are often listed. It's hard to really -- for people to diagnose people's changes in behaviors based on a list of symptoms. But it's real easy to spot when somebody's lost a job or somebody's lost a relationship. And that's when you go and pay extra attention to the people that you care about. And then you start asking yourself, are they sleeping differently? Are they showing more anxiety? Are they withdrawing? That's when we say, I've got to go check on them.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

I just want to end on this, Kirsten. This is what you think could make a difference. You write, changing our culture is critical. Being honest with others about our own personal struggles and dark nights of the soul is the first step. People on the edge need to hear stories that assure them that there is a way through the all-consuming pain to a meaningful life. And you and I, Kirsten, are living proof of that. It does get better.

POWERS: Right.

CAMEROTA: Time does change things. These feelings do pass. And I do think that that is such a valuable message.

[08:50:02] And, again, thank you for sharing your personal story in "USA Today."

One more time, here's the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It's 800-273-8255. It's available 24 hours a day.

John, you're doing God's work. Thank you so much for being here with us this morning.

DRAPER: Thank you.

POWERS: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, now to this story.

A pizza delivery man's deportation blocked. Why a New York judge gave the Ecuadorian father of two a reprieve? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: A federal judge in New York temporarily blocking a pizza delivery man from being deported. He was detained by immigration officials when he tried to deliver food to an Army base.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is here with the latest.

Explain this, Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this man right now, Alisyn, in the virtual fight of his life here. Pablo Villavicencio. He remains in a New Jersey detention center this morning after nearly being deported to his native Ecuador this weekend. A judge temporarily stopped his removal proceedings.

[08:55:02] The 35 year old trying to make a delivery on June the 1st to a Brooklyn Army base. Well, to gain access to that facility, he was subjected to an onsite background security check. Well, the system showed that he had an active warrant for deportation. Villavicencio agreeing to self-deport in 2010, but he failed to do so, and that's what triggered this removal order. His defense team telling me over the weekend that this order was not the result of any sort of police action, but instead of an administrative process.

This 35-year-old man did file for a green card about five months ago, according to his defense, and he was waiting to get a response from the government when this all went down on June the 1st. His lawyer also adding that this was not the first time that he made a delivery to that Army base in Brooklyn. And it's also unclear if this man actually signed off on the background check. But you hear from ICE, you hear from also the base, they say that he did.

Obviously, this potential deportation is triggering a large amount of response from people. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, for example, over the weekend writing to various high-ranking officials in ICE and also other government figures calling for an investigation of ICE and also the release of this man.

Alisyn, he has an American wife and two U.S. born children and he just does not want to leave, obviously.

CAMEROTA: It's just very interesting to see who gets a reprieve and who doesn't in this moment.

SANDOVAL: Right.

CAMEROTA: Polo, thank you very much for bring that story to our attention.

SANDOVAL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Anderson Cooper in Singapore will pick up. Coverage of the historic summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un after this very quick break.

See you tomorrow.