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Biden Arrives in Asia Facing Multiple Crises in U.S. & Abroad; Committee Probing Tour Given by GOP Lawmaker on Eve of Attack; Oklahoma Lawmakers Pass Nation's Strictest Abortion Ban; Family Rations Formula for Daughter as Shortage Worsens. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 20, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. Brianna Keilar is away, Erica Hill with me this morning on this NEW DAY. A high-stakes Asia trip, a pivotal moment for President Biden and his plans to counter China.

[05:59:53]

The January 6 panel wants answers from a Republican lawmaker who gave a Capitol tour on the eve of the insurrection.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, Oklahoma lawmakers pass a bill banning almost all abortions. If signed into law, it would be the strictest anti-abortion law in the country.

And testimony from Johnny Depp's former talent agent, former business manager and ex-girlfriend. What they had to say about his behavior and challenges with working with him.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Friday, May 20 and a busy morning.

Just a short time ago, President Biden arrived in Seoul, South Korea, kicking off his first visit to Asia since taking office. Biden joined the new South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, at a Samsung semi- conductor plant, an immediate display of unity.

The main goal of this trip is to reassure U.S./Asian allies of the American commitment to counter and contain China. The president will also visit Japan on this trip.

HILL: Meantime, there's growing concern over what North Korea will do next. The U.S. now bracing for the possibility that Kim Jong-un would conduct a missile test in coordination with Biden's trip.

The White House says it is prepared for all contingencies. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also on minds as Vladimir Putin continues his vicious unprovoked war.

After a week-long delay, the Senate finally passing $40 billion military, economic and humanitarian aid package for Ukraine. We'll have more on that in just a moment. BERMAN: Let's go first to Seoul and South Korea. Chief White House

correspondent Kaitlan Collins traveling with the president. The president landed a short time ago and already onto the business of this trip, Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's at a Samsung facility now having a tour. He has gone to make some remarks here shortly. Those will be the first remarks of the president's first trip in Asia since taking office.

And John and Erica, this is typically a trip that would have happened a lot sooner in his tenure. Obviously, it was hampered by the COVID-19 restrictions, but now he is here in South Korea. He will be going to Tokyo next.

While he's at the Samsung facility, he'll be talking about semiconductors. Obviously, that is something that has had a huge spotlight on it ever since the pandemic because of the short supply and how that's affected daily life, not just in the United States but around the world.

And this is a trip that is all about countering China. That is going to be the message that you are seeing President Biden send while he is here.

But also, North Korea is looming very large over this, because U.S. officials have assessed that they do believe North Korea is preparing to fuel a missile, which is, of course, one of the last steps before a launch. And often it's not long between that fueling process and when the launch actually happens.

And so officials have been telling reporters they were bracing for this possibility. The idea that North Korea could launch a missile while President Biden was on his way here or while he's on the ground in South Korea. Of course, not that far away from North Korea.

And so the big question, if that does happen, is how he responds and how the new president here in South Korea also responds to that, because he has taken a much harder line approach to North Korea than his predecessor. And so that is a big question.

We should note it comes as officials say there has still been virtually no contact between the U.S. side and North Korea, because they don't believe those officials have any interest in meeting with them, talking with them, certainly not either with President Biden.

HILL: Kaitlan, business also, of course, continues back in Washington. This historic aid package was passed.

The president plans to sign it, but as I understand it, he's not waiting until he comes back.

COLLINS: No, of course, this is something he wants to sign urgently. He was calling on Congress to pass this long before it actually made its way through the Senate. So I'm told they're actually flying that bill over here to South Korea

for the president to sign it while he's here on the ground, so that money can go ahead and start flowing into Ukraine. That is, of course, something that the White House has said would help arm Ukraine for the next several months, continue helping them push back against Russia.

And so this is a staggering amount of money, $40 billion. It's actually $7 billion more than President Biden had initially asked for, and it came on the day that he had met with the leaders of Finland and Sweden at the White House before he departed for this trip here in Asia.

Those are two things passing a massive bill like that and meeting with those leaders to discuss their applications to the military alliance known as NATO that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago. And it shows how the global response and certainly the United States response has changed and shifted just so much in the last several months since this invasion has gone on.

BERMAN: Yes, $40 billion is a lot of money. Military commanders say it's the kind of money that can make a difference on the ground there. So a big development. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much.

HILL: The January 6 Committee says it has evidence that Republican Congressman Barry Loudermilk of Georgia led a tour of the U.S. Capitol complex on the day before pro-Trump rioters stormed the building.

The committee has sent a letter to Loudermilk, requesting his voluntary cooperation. Whitney Wild joining us now from Washington with these new developments.

[06:05:0]

So Whitney, do we have any more specifics as to what they believe happened on that tour?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, all they're saying is that they have evidence that directly contradicts previous claims by Republican lawmakers who said security footage from the days before January 6th shows there were no tours, there were no large groups, no one with MAGA hats on inside the Capitol complex.

The letter to Barry Loudermilk goes on to state, "The foregoing information raises questions to which the Select Committee must seek answers. Public reporting and witness accounts indicate some individuals and groups engaged in efforts to gather information about the layout of the U.S. Capitol, as well as the House and Senate office buildings in advance of January 6, 2021."

That assertion echoed claims by democratic lawmakers made early last year that Republicans led reconnaissance tours the day before the riot.

However, lawmakers have never presented any real evidence that that actually happened, and Republicans have insisted it simply didn't happen. Loudermilk denies that he was giving a reconnaissance tour, writing in

a statement that the tour in question was a constituent family with young children that never entered the actual physical Capitol building.

Loudermilk, along with Republican Rodney Davis, blasted the committee, writing, "The Select Committee is once again pushing a verifiably false narrative that Republicans conducted reconnaissance tours on January 5th."

In an interview on January 6th with a local radio station, Loudermilk described that group like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARRY LOUDERMILK (R-GA): We actually had about a dozen people up here that wanted to come by and visit. We had them in our office. They definitely were, you know, peaceful people, people that we'd met at church. They were supporters of the president, and they just wanted to be up here as if it was another rally.

We've actually checked on them to make sure that they're safe. When they saw what it was turning into, they immediately turned and went back down the Mall to get away from the crowd here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Loudermilk was one of the Republican representatives who even texted former President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on January 6. He was, based on this text message, very worried about the riot as it was unfolding, texting this: "It's really bad up here on the Hill. They have breached the Capitol."

Meadows responded, "POTUS is engaging."

Loudermilk responded bluntly: "Thanks. This doesn't help our cause."

Loudermilk is just the latest in a long list of Republican representatives with whom the committee would like to speak, Erica.

HILL: All right. We'll be looking for any further developments. I know you'll stay on it. Thank you.

BERMAN: Big developments overnight. Oklahoma lawmakers have passed it. The state's Republican governor says he will sign it. This is a bill that outlaws abortion, not at 6 weeks or 15 weeks, but from the moment of fertilization. This, in many ways, would be the strictest abortion ban in the nation.

Joining us, "EARLY START" anchor Laura Jarrett, attorney at law. From the moment of fertilization, Laura.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. This is really a game changer. We talk a lot about the patchwork of laws across this country that we've seen in the past couple of months. This is going to be different. When this gets signed it's going to be

the strictest law in the country when it comes to abortion because, as you said, it's really redefining the definition of personhood to start from the moment of fertilization. So way before most people know that they're pregnant, let alone when exactly they can pinpoint it.

Now, it does make some exceptions here for the health of the mother, for medical emergencies, for rape, for incest, but you do have to report those to police.

The other thing to watch here is how it gets enforced, because this is really a civil enforcement mechanism where private individuals, anyone off the street, can sue an abortion provider or anyone who supports a woman getting pregnant -- getting an abortion, you know, maybe somebody who pace for a Lyft or maybe even donates to a group that supports abortion rights can now be sued.

The other thing to watch here is what happens with IVF, because obviously, embryos are made in a lab. That triggers a whole set of circumstances that CNN has been doing some great reporting on. So there's going to be a lot of implications that come out of this by doing it from the moment of fertilization.

HILL: There is a lot of concern for IVF and that, as you point out, doing some great reporting. There's also this question about women who have an IUD or birth control, and that was tackled.

JARRETT: So this saying it's trying -- this explicitly says it's not going after any sort of methods of contraception. It's trying to make that carve-out, because it knows that the argument against it has raised those issues.

That doesn't mean that it's going to be smooth sailing. It doesn't mean that this isn't going to get litigated. It doesn't mean it's not going to have a chilling effect.

Already we have seen women in some clinics turned away because of -- they're trying to get pills that induce abortions and turned away. Even if there are carveouts, all of this stuff is happening on the ground with real people, and those people are going to be the ones who decide whether or not they want to get sued or not.

[06:10:00]

BERMAN: This is really just part of a flurry of activity we are seeing and will continue to see as we get ready to hear from the Supreme Court.

JARRETT: This is the post-Roe reality. Even though Roe hasn't been struck down, it's really in name only, because right now in Oklahoma, I mean, as soon as the governor signs this, you will not be able to get an abortion.

HILL: Really quickly, what about a legal challenge to that, especially based on what we're waiting to hear from the Supreme Court? JARRETT: You could try, but think about sort of the landscape of where we are. Really, everything changed back in September when the Supreme Court refused to act on that Texas law.

And ever since that Texas law went through and the justices refused to act on it, it's really been open season on abortion rights in this country. And you've seen a flurry of red states act very quickly to pass all kinds of laws when it comes to restricting and rolling back rights in anticipation that the court will, in fact, do it.

And really, it's not just, you know, women in Texas, but -- and Oklahoma, but women all over the country, because they're now going to have to travel further. And what does that mean? It means women who do not have the most means are going to be the ones who are most affected.

BERMAN: Laura Jarrett, thank you so much.

JARRETT: Sure.

BERMAN: So President Biden -- we just saw the pictures -- arrived in South Korea just a short time ago. Much more on what North Korea plans to do around this.

And desperate parents resorting to rationing baby formula. Is that safe, and is enough being done to end the shortage?

JARRETT: Plus, the first funeral in the mass shooting in Buffalo, as new details surface about an invitation the gunman sent so people could watch his murderous, racist rampage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:47]

BERMAN: Moments ago, President Biden arrived in Seoul, South Korea, the first stop in a belated trip to the region that remains central to his foreign policy goals.

Biden's visit to staunch U.S. allies South Korea and Japan comes at a high of high tension in Asia as provocations from North Korea have intensified, and China continues to flex its military and economic muscles.

Joining us, CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood and Gordon Chang, a columnist at "Newsweek" and author of "The Coming Collapse of China."

Kylie, let me start with you, because we've had this reporting. We saw Kaitlan moments ago in Seoul. That the U.S. believes North Korea could very well test an ICBM during President Biden's trip here. What's the latest reporting?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it would be highly provocative. Right? So intelligence officials have told us that they've seen movements at this test site that indicate that North Korea could be preparing for one of these ballistic missile launches.

There are a few things that we should consider here. First of all, the Biden administration doesn't really want to talk about North Korea on this trip, right? This is a trip for them to shore up their alliances with Japan and South Korea. We haven't seen them focus very much on North Korea throughout the last year of President Biden's presidency. So this isn't a great situation for them.

But the other thing to consider is we aren't just learning that North Korea is preparing to do this from intelligence officials. It's also the national security adviser on his way to Asia alongside the president saying, this is in the realm of possibility.

And this is something we've seen the Biden administration do: get ahead of events that they think are coming so that people like us are discussing them, so that when it happens the shock factor is a little bit less.

But of course, it is not a great thing when it comes to security officials to consider the president being in a region when a very, you know, belligerent country could be carrying out a test like this.

HILL: As Kylie points out, right, the administration sort of trying to get ahead of this. The reality is very -- you know, a lot is going to be made of what the message is that President Biden is sending, and this adds that. There was always an element of what is the message going to be in terms of North Korea. How does this change things?

GORDON CHANG, COLUMNIST, "NEWSWEEK": It changes things, because it's great for China. You know, if this trip is supposed to be about rallying the allies and friends and partners about China and then North Korea does something, well, then people don't talk about Beijing.

And so the Chinese have traditionally used the North Koreans to do that, to divert our attention. So there's any number of things that could happen here. They've also been digging a tunnel for a nuclear test.

And remember, in 2017, the North Koreans actually promised an atmospheric test of a nuclear weapon. That could happen, too.

BERMAN: Gordon, it strikes me that in, you know, 50 years we could be talking about foreign policy as pre-Ukraine and post-Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I am curious. As China and these nations in Asia look to what's happening in Ukraine, what lessons are they taking from it?

CHANG: Well, first of all, they're taking -- I think the most important one is that they saw the United States, the European Union and Great Britain, which much more powerful than Russia, failed to deter Vladimir Putin.

And I think that that is it certainly encourages the Chinese. The other thing is that the sanctions that we've imposed on Russia, they're not complete sanctions, and China believes that no one is going to impose sanctions on China because they're Chinese. The arrogance of this.

So I'm a little bit worried about what they're seeing from this. And you're absolutely right. This is a historic inflection point. And the Chinese may actually believe that, in the new era, they can do what they want, because the international system has been taken down by the Russians.

HILL: How much is that influencing what we're seeing from the administration, because the president wanted to focus on China, wanted to take this trip to Asia, as we know, a long time ago, and yet ,here we are.

ATWOOD: That's right. And I think as you point out, he wanted to take it a long time ago, right. When President Biden came into office you heard a lot from Biden administration officials that they were going to focus on competition with China.

Obviously, we had the awful withdrawal from Afghanistan. That was a bit of a distracter. And then we have this conflict, this war in Ukraine. So they haven't been able to really galvanize their entire foreign policy to focus on China and competition.

[06:20:04]

And that is why he's making this trip right now. But as you point out, because these things have happened, because these events have happened over the last year, it's not exactly a trip that is without ramifications or without connections to what the world has been seeing the United States do.

They rallied NATO allies to respond to Ukraine, but they also didn't respond or, you know, deal very well with that withdrawal from Afghanistan. So there are questions about, you know, U.S. power right now.

BERMAN: Kylie, Gordon, great to see both of you. Thanks so much for coming in.

CHANG: Thank you.

HILL: Desperate families now rationing baby formula to make sure their infants are fed. The latest attempts to end this critical shortage.

BERMAN: And new testimony from Johnny Depp's ex-girlfriend, alleging drug use and its destructive impact.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:11]

BERMAN: We have new reporting this morning on the baby formula shortage in the U.S. Some parents now forced to ration formula for their children, even as the White House and FDA work to increase supplies. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now live. Rationing, Elizabeth, that

doesn't sound good.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it really doesn't. And I'll tell you, we've been speaking with these families. It is really, really hard to hear their stories. They are being hit very hard. These are children with specific medical issues.

So I want to introduce you to Claire Holland. She's a sixth grader in Louisiana. She just got the science award -- Congratulations, Claire -- at her school yesterday. She's on the honor roll.

But Claire was born with a genetic condition where she can't digest protein. And so she, from birth, has had to take a special formula. She will have to take it all her life. What she can eat is very limited, so she really relies on this formula.

Her parents now cutting the amount of formula they give her in half. They said they've gotten some from Abbott. That's who supplies the formula, but they don't know when they're going to get more. So they have a month or two left, but they say they don't know when they're going to get more. So they're being very careful about how much they give her.

They say for now she's OK, but they're really worried about the long- term consequences of this. Let's take a listen to Claire's mother, Shannon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANNON HOLLAND, RATIONING FORMULA FOR DAUGHTER: It's scary, because she's taken this for so long. And as a parent I feel bad that we didn't have a backup, that we didn't have something else she could take. It never would have occurred to me that suddenly, we wouldn't be able to get her formula.

I usually try to be on top of things, and then when this happened and we had no -- no backup that she could take that we knew that she would like, as a mom I felt very terrible. And I felt worried for her. I never expected not to have access to her formula. It just never really occurred to me that would happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: You can just see what these parents are going through.

I also want to introduce you to 11-year-old Owen Steiber. He lives outside of Chicago. He also has a rare condition where he is allergic to many foods. And so they've got to be really, really careful about what they give him.

They also don't have enough formula. They have even more [SIC] -- they have even less formula than Claire's family. And so they are really struggling with how they're going to get enough formula for him, and they are also rationing his formula. So unfortunately, we are hearing more and more stories like this. And

the end to this formula shortage is not anywhere in sight. The federal government is taking many steps, but still, those are just steps. Parents still aren't seeing the results on grocery store shelves yet -- John.

BERMAN: These are difficult challenges and choices. And moreover, I think, unimaginable to most parents, to these parents probably a year or two years ago.

COHEN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: They just never thought they'd have to be making choices like this. Elizabeth, thank you so much.

COHEN: That's right.

HILL: As the baby formula shortage continues to impact families across the country, some Republican lawmakers who a few days ago were criticizing the Biden administration's response, criticizing them for not doing enough, are voting against the bills that would help ease the crisis.

Joining us now, CNN's senior political analyst, John Avlon. So what is this really about here?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The issue is, as you said, hypocrisy. For the last several weeks, Republicans have been banging on the Biden administration because of nationwide shortages in baby formula.

This is one of the most personal examples of the dangers of supply chain shortages, it's affecting families personally. There's pressure on lawmakers to act.

But when the bills have come forward, you see a divided Congress. Now, we're making slow progress, but two bills met very different fates the other night, one bill offering just $28 million in supplemental funding to the Food and Drug Administration to help alleviate the shortage. Basically broke down on partisan lines. Republican leadership opposing passage of the bill, that they've been railing against the core problem for days.

The second bill had more broad support, and only nine Republicans opposed it, but these nine are the classic Trumpists we've seen embroiled in all the hyper-partisan efforts to date, names like Biggs and Gosar and Gohmert and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert.

So you just see that, even on an issue where there's widespread outrage, that people are still willing to play politics on it. And that's just a sign of the dysfunction and division in Washington that has folks so frustrated.

BERMAN: For those who were criticizing the administration response but then voted against, especially the first measure, what was the justification? AVLON: Well, the -- the first measure, which had broad bipartisan

disagreement, only a dozen Republicans crossed the aisle to join with Democrats on that, their concern is that simply giving $28 million.