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New Day

U.S. Reels After Ten More Mass Shootings in Deadly Weekend; Trump Mobilizing MAGA Allies to Defend Him Ahead of 1/6 Hearings; U.S. and South Korea Fire Missiles After North Korea Launches. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired June 06, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

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RAFAEL NADAL, TENNIS PLAYER: I achieve my dream and I enjoy what I am doing.

[07:00:03]

Yes, I understand the question and I know the press and the people are always carrying about this stuff, but in some way I know that I am an important part of the history of the sport and that makes me feel proud, happy, and at the end it doesn't matter much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Persevering pain and injury, tennis legend Chris Everett, John, called this Nadal's most meaningful Grand Slam title yet.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The psych up music he listens to before matches, Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber.

WIRE: Love it.

BERMAN: True story. Coy Wire, thank you very much.

New Day continues right now.

Good morning to viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

A deadly weekend in the United States with ten mass shootings since Friday, ten, that is according to the Gun Violence Archive. In Philadelphia, one of the busiest nightlife spots in the city, that's where it took place there. In Chattanooga at a nightclub, in Arizona at a bar, in South Carolina, Virginia, and Texas, it was graduation parties, in Phoenix, a strip mall, Omaha near an apartment complex, in Macon, Georgia at an abandoned house. All told 12 people were killed, more than 60 hurt, the victims all ages including teenagers and senior citizens.

So far, in 2022, the U.S. has seen 246 mass shootings, 33 of those since the elementary school attack in Uvalde, Texas, just about two weeks ago.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Now, this morning there is cautious optimism on both sides as key senators say that a bipartisan deal on gun reform is within reach. Negotiators will continue to talk this week and CNN's Lauren Fox is live for us on Capitol Hill covering it all.

I will say there's been some fluctuation on confidence in this process, Lauren. Where does it stand right now?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yesterday, the leading Democratic negotiator in these talks, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, telling our Jake Tapper that he was more confident than ever that they would be able to secure a deal. Obviously very significant, lawmakers returning this week to Capitol Hill, but here is what Murphy said about the prospects for getting a deal finally on some narrow scope of gun measures.

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I've never been part of negotiations as serious as these. There are more Republicans at the table talking about changing our gun laws and investing in mental health than at any time since Sandy Hook.

Now, I've also been part of many failed negotiations in the past, so I am sober-minded about our chances. I think there's agreement amongst the negotiators that we're going to take some commonsense steps that do not compromise Second Amendment rights.

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FOX: And Senator Patrick Toomey, a Republican negotiator, also striking an optimistic tone, saying he did believe that some change, some expansion of background checks was on the table.

Now, the House Democrats taking a different tact. They are trying to pass legislation that goes much further than what this small group of bipartisan senators are trying to pass over in their chamber. They are trying to move forward this week with the House Judiciary Committee's past bill that includes legislation to limit the size of magazines. There's also a fight to try to get enough votes to pass an assault weapons ban. There's still questions about whether or not there's enough Democratic support in the House to move that provision forward. Brianna?

KEILAR: Very good point. Lauren Fox live for us on the Hill, thank you.

BERMAN: So, we have major political news out of the United Kingdom that broke in just the last few hours. It is possible that the leader of America's closest ally could be out of a job by tonight. It was just announced that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face a no-confidence vote within his own party. This comes after months of Johnson being dogged by the party-gate scandal accused of flouting COVID restrictions, and then there was this, he was booed. You can hear it right there, booed during the queen's platinum jubilee celebrations.

Our Max Foster was covering that live. That was a sense of the trouble he was in, Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. I was at the concert as well on Saturday night on the crowd and Boris Johnson arrived, massive boos again. His polling numbers in the U.K. are really down. But this is really today -- it's happening very quickly -- how the members of parliament in his party feel, because they are the ones that decide who their leader is.

And we found out this morning that enough of them want him out to trigger this internal confidence vote which will happen today.

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If 180 members of parliament vote against him, he will be expected to resign. But even if it's very close, it's going to do a huge amount of damage to his credibility, although his top team are saying today, you know, a win is a win. You know, even if he wins by one vote, he's going to stay in office, which shows his determination to stay in position. But it's a very serious situation for him. It really does show how unpopular he is right now.

The big question is who would replace him if he went? Who are the contenders? And they are not very clear. There's no organized campaign against him right now and I think that will be playing on MPs minds tonight, if they get rid of him, who are they going to get instead.

BERMAN: Max, it's a secret ballot, right, so that people can say nice things about him in public but then politically stab him in the back if they so choose?

FOSTER: Yes. But if you imagine, you know, maybe 160 of those MPs are on government payroll, they are being paid effectively by Boris Johnson. If they vote against him and he finds out about it, then they will be out of a job. So, that's why there's a lot of confidence that the Boris Johnson team will win tonight, but I think there's going to be a lot of damage to his credibility either way.

BERMAN: Yes. So, some gnawed at fingernails still over the next few hours. Max Foster, thank you very much for being with us.

This morning in the United States, the national average for a gallon of regular pass $4.87, that's according to AAA.

I'm joined now by CNN Business Correspondent Rahel Solomon. That's a long way from where it was a year ago.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: In fact, a year ago, John, it was $3.06 a gallon. So, this march higher for gas prices has been steady and some would argue painful.

It has some wondering if we're already starting to see demand destruction, essentially folks traveling less, putting more -- or putting less gas in their tanks because it's so expensive. GasBuddy saying weekly that U.S. gasoline demand fell 2.3 percent from the prior week.

And if you are wondering at home, well, could lower demands here in the U.S. mean lower prices, probably not because we know oil, of course, is traded on a global market. And while demand may be dropping in the U.S. and other parts of the world, such as China, where COVID lockdowns are easing, demand is going up. So, that's not likely going to help. And without a solution or a clear solution in the short-term, the finger pointing continues.

We heard from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over the weekend on ABC, take a listen to what he had to say.

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PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the oval office. And when an oil company is deciding hour by hour how much to charge you for a gallon of gas, they are not calling the administration to ask what they should do. They're doing it based on their goal of maximizing their profits.

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SOLOMON: Now, look, when I spoke to the American Petroleum Institute last week about the same story, they said, well, more supportive policies from the White House in terms of increasing drilling, encouraging drilling, that would help lower prices.

So, again, lots of finger pointing but, John, I think one thing that a lot of people are actually -- there is a consensus about, is that prices seem to be going higher and likely will be. GasBuddy puts the average likely to hit $5 a gallon by June 17th. That's just next Friday. JPMorgan says they're expecting $6 or more on average by Labor Day.

BERMAN: Wow. All right, so there is more room to go up still. Rahel Solomon, thanks so much for being with us.

KEILAR: We're learning that former Vice President Mike Pence's former chief of staff, Marc Short, warned the Secret Service before January 6th of the risk Pence faced because of the rift with President Trump.

CNN's Whitney Wild joins us with more on this. This is a big development. What did he tell them?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: It's a major development. This story was first reported by The New York Times, now confirmed by CNN. The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reports that on January 5th, Marc Short brought the head of Pence's detail, Tim Giebels, to his office and told him, quote, the president was going to turn publicly against the vice president and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it.

A source tells CNN that account is accurate. However, it's important to note and Maggie's story points this out, that Marc Short didn't know what form the threat would take. He couldn't define what the threat would look like, and that's important when you consider that the Secret Service is pushing back on this narrative. The Secret Service says that the agency had no knowledge of that conversation, according to people with firsthand knowledge, at the time there was never any physical threat of any kind communicated about the vice president.

Eventually it is very likely we're going to get a lot more detail to square these differing accounts because we know that Marc Short is very likely to testify publicly, The New York Times reports that he was asked about this during past testimony. We also know that several members of the Secret Service have spoken to the committee. They have cooperated fully with this investigation.

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And a source has confirmed to CNN that Tim Giebels, the head of Pence's detail, the one who was in this meeting with Marc Short, testified to the January 6th committee at length.

At its core, this is really about a story about the concern at the highest levels of government, at the highest levels of the White House, that there would be violence on January 6 and that the former president would be a catalyst for that. Connecting Trump directly to the violence is one of the most important if not the most important theories that the committee is going to try to move, Brianna. Certainly, this storyline, this concern is going to come up as we move into these hearings.

KEILAR: Yes. And if there was this warning and it was not passed on, that would be a huge lapse. So, we will be looking for more answers to questions about this. Whitney, thank you for that reporting.

We are only three days away now from the first public primetime January 6th hearings and CNN is learning that former President Trump is mobilizing his most loyal allies to come to his defense while these hearings play out.

Let's discuss this with CNN Capitol Hill Reporter Melanie Zanona and CNN Congressional Correspondent Ryan Nobles. Both of them contributed to this new reporting along with our Zach Cohen.

Fascinating stuff. First, tell us who was doing the asking here and who are they asking and what are they asking now?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: So, it's Trump. He has reached out to some of his most loyal allies on Capitol Hill and asked them to defend him and push back on the select committee while these public hearings play out.

And some of the people who were answering that call are House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who, of course, was subpoenaed by the committee. There could be some damaging information that comes out about him during these hearings. And he's also under a lot of pressure right now to show his support for Trump after he was caught on tape criticizing Trump in the immediate wake of January 6.

And then there's Elise Stefanik. She's conference chair. She replaced Liz Cheney in leadership. She has become one of Trump's most loyal defenders. She is going to be in charge of messaging. And he is also meeting with her later today at a fundraiser. So, some of his demands could become more clear.

And then as you see up on the screen, Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, who were initially supposed to be on the committee, rejected by Pelosi, they are also going to play some sort of messaging.

But, look, most of the Republicans that Ryan and I talked to would rather just ignore the committee, they think it's better to pivot to other issues, they don't think it's worth trying to, in some cases, defending the indefensible but this is all for an audience of one, and that is Donald Trump.

KEILAR: Off the Hill, right, they're going to get some -- he's going to get some help as well from the RNC, from Matt Schlapp, what is this about a potential war room?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, there's different scenarios that they are talking about as a way to kind of provide Trump this cover that he's looking for as the committee hearings go on and it will probably mean reaching out to different, you know, sympathetic newsrooms and sympathetic media voices, Newsmax, Fox, other places like that, and then, of course, just their social media feeds, to try and bolster this idea that the committee is just a partisan witch hunt, that it actually doesn't have a true legislative goal in mind, that the only purpose of it was that Nancy Pelosi wanted to find a way to get Donald Trump.

The problem here is that you do have some Republicans on this committee and the committee is going to have hard evidence that discusses all the different ways that Trump and his allies played a role in inciting the violence on January 6.

The big question, of course, Brianna, and this is the biggest problem the committee has, right, is that many people live in an echo chamber. And the people, the Americans that the January 6 select committee really needs to meet and try and convince of the problems here may never see any of this hearing because it won't be on these media outlets that need to hear it the most.

KEILAR: How much more pressure, Ryan, is Kevin McCarthy under to really show up for Trump here considering there is this old audio of him criticizing Trump that recently surfaced?

NOBLES: Well, I think it's very high priority for Kevin McCarthy but it also demonstrates this tightrope that he's walking that Mel points out.

I talked to a number of Republican advisers who have a singular focus and that's winning back both the House and Senate in the fall midterms and they do not want to talk about January 6 at all. They actually believe that most Americans aren't even thinking about January 6 anymore. They would rather be talking about kitchen table issues, like gas prices, the economy and even President Biden's low approval rating. So, the idea that Donald Trump is going to force them to talk about it, to bring this conversation back into the public square, it's going to reintroduce this topic to end independent and moderate Republicans that may not necessary love Donald Trump but love his policies and that's not necessarily good for Republicans in the fall election.

KEILAR: Mel, there are five Republicans, as you guys point out, in this story who resisted subpoenas from the committee. So, they resisted being deposed, they didn't turn over documents that they were asked to turn over. It doesn't mean, though, that other people did not provide information about what they were doing on January 6th or in the lead up to it.

Are we going to have a moment on Thursday during this hearing and the hearings to follow where, oh, my goodness, here is a little surprise about this or that member of Congress and what they were doing that day?

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ZANONA: Well, so there's a lot that we do know thanks to some of the great reporting by Ryan and some others at our network, as well as the committee. They have released some of the text messages that Mark Meadows was receiving and sending, including with Jim Jordan. We know a lot about what Jim Jordan was doing behind the scenes, but there is still a lot that we don't know.

It's clear that the committee has done a lot of investigation behind the scenes. I mean, we are talking thousands of documents, hundreds of witness depositions. So, absolutely, there could be damning revelations about some of those exact Republicans.

NOBLES: And, Brianna, that's the biggest problem Republicans have here, is that there's only so much spin you can put on this committee given the fact that they have done so much work and they have so much hard evidence. You can call it a partisan witch hunt but if they have a text message or they have a meeting or they have a deposition where someone has testimony that specifically talks about some of the efforts so undermine the election results or connections with some of these right-wing groups that ended up in the Capitol on that day it's hard to explain that away.

And so they can try to spin it all they want, they can create as many war rooms as they want but if the committee has the goods, it's going to be difficult to ignore that.

ZANONA: They also don't know what's coming because they decided to boycott the committee. So, they have zero insight into what might turn up.

KEILAR: They do not have the visibility. All right, Melanie, Ryan, great reporting, along with Zach Cohen, thank you so much.

Next, the U.S. and South Korea responding to eight missile tests by North Korea with eight missile tests of their own.

Vladimir Putin warning the U.S. not to give Ukraine long range missiles or he will attack new targets.

BERMAN: And a former Wisconsin judge killed at his home in a targeted attack. The other names on the suspect's hit list, coming up.

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KEILAR: This morning in a show of force, the U.S. and South Korea launched eight surface-to-air missiles into the sea after North Korea's eight short-range ballistic missile launches one day earlier, their 17th round of missile tests so far this year.

Let's bring in CNN's Paula Hancocks live for us this Seoul. A missile for a missile here, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Brianna, I mean, this is pure tit-for-tat, isn't it, the exact same number of missiles. And what the U.S. and South Korea are doing here is showing their displeasure clearly about these eight short ballistic missiles that North Korea fired on Sunday morning local time, but they're also effectively saying, according to the chiefs of staff, that they know exactly where these missiles were launched from and if they wanted to, they could hit them with precision.

Now, of course, the launches that they carried out went into the sea from both sides, so there was no direct striking or targeting, but what it shows is North Korea is pushing things forward, Japan's Defense Ministry saying that this is unprecedented, eight separate launches from multiple sites within about 40 minutes. So, clearly, that is keeping many concerned within the region.

It comes just after the U.S. and South Korea Navies finished a three- day exercise, there was also another exercise that was carried out between the militaries of the U.S. and Japan, once again, the U.S. and its allies in the region trying to show that they are united the show of force against Pyongyang.

We have also just heard from the IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency, and they say that they believe that North Korea at their nuclear underground testing site, they have observed indications that one of the entrances to those tunnels has been reopened, they believe it could be in possible preparation for an underground nuclear test. This would be the seventh underground nuclear test. And according to the IAEA, it would be a cause for serious concern pointing out it's against all U.N. Security Council resolutions.

We have also heard from both U.S. and South Korean military and intelligence agencies that they believe Pyongyang is ready for a seventh underground nuclear test. And the fact it hasn't happened so far could suggest that it is now a political decision for Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader to decide when or if he wants to carry it out. But, clearly, that would have more serious repercussions. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, thank you. BERMAN: So, in a new interview with Russian media, Vladimir Putin warned the United States that Russia would strike new targets if the west supplied longer range missiles to Ukraine.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: In general, all this fuss around additional weapon deliveries, in my opinion, has only one goal, to drag out the armed conflict for as long as possible.

If they are supplied, we will draw appropriate conclusions from this and use our own weapons of which we have enough in order to strike at those facilities we are not targeting yet.

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BERMAN: Joining me now is former Congresswoman Jane Harman. She served as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and is a distinguished fellow and president emerita of the Wilson Center. Great to have you here.

Vladimir Putin threatening further missile strikes, he hit Kyiv over the weekend, he's grinding out small tactical victories in the east, he's starving in a way the Ukrainian population, withholding grain there. What does this all tell you?

JANE HARMAN, DISTINGUISHED FLLOW AND PRESIDENT EMERITA, WILSON CENTER: Well, it says that he will do what he wants until he is stopped, which is why Ukraine is right not to be bullied and to ask for more advanced weapons. Volodymyr Zelenskyy made absolutely clear they're not using these weapons on Russia, they are going to defend their cities and they're going to try to free up their ports in order to ship out grain.

Let's understand there's a food security shortage in the world. Africa is now complaining because they can't get food, a third of their populations may be starving in the next few months. This is very serious and the fault lies with Vladimir Putin.

So, I think Ukraine is doing the right thing and I commend President Biden for supporting Ukraine doing the right thing and saying Ukraine should not be surrendering territory.

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BERMAN: You get the sense that Vladimir Putin there is prepared for a long war. He will stay there as long as he needs to. You know that Ukraine has the will to fight as long as it needs to. The question is the west and the supporters of Ukraine here in the United States. What concerns do you have there?

HARMAN: Well, I do have concerns that our attention span is short, the elections are, you know, in political time a few months off but in real-time five minutes from now and things keep changing and the networks, not this one, are now covering and they should, school shootings, inflation and a bunch -- and formula shortage and a lot of other things that are important, but so is this. This is the fight for freedom.

And if Zelenskyy is forced to surrender territory against the will of the Ukrainian people and if things go badly, which they are not going right now, that's really bad news for encouraging Russia. And you just had a piece on North Korea, who do you think is watching this? For sure, Kim Jong-un is watching this, the Iran nuclear deal is stalled and, oh, by the way, China, which isn't doing that well economically but nonetheless it's moving to make Russia a vassal state of China.

So, the world is a mess, to quote my old friend, Madeleine Albright, and it's very important, very important.

BERMAN: And it's all connected, right?

HARMAN: It needs to be connected, John.

BERMAN: Obviously, fuel prices are going up partially because of the sanctions against Russia right now and gas prices are going up here in the United States, which is forcing President Biden to do things he may not have wanted to do. One of them is to go meet in July, we're now told, with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. This is what then-candidate Joe Biden said about how he would treat the Saudis a couple years ago. Listen.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered and I believe in the order of the crown prince. And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.

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BERMAN: Make them, the Saudis, the pariah that they are. That was candidate Joe Biden, now we are told he will go visit with the Saudi crown prince in a little bit more than a month.

HARMAN: And note that he's going there, it's not MBS coming to the states.

Khashoggi was a green card holder. He was legitimately in America. He was promised by MBS's brother, then the ambassador to the U.S., that he would be safe if he went into the embassy to get some papers in order to marry his fiance and then he was brutally murdered and dismembered.

Biden didn't talk to MBS after Biden was elected refused to talk to him, and then MBS refused to talk to Biden. It sounds like a child's fight. But this is because we want lower OPEC -- we want more OPEC oil and lower oil prices and gas prices for Americans.

And real politic makes me a little -- very uncomfortable. I kind of understand it, but I still think that MBS has to account for what happened on that brutal day that he was responsible for.

BERMAN: So, do you approve of the trip? Do you approve of Biden meeting with him?

HARMAN: I approve of efforts to lower oil and gas prices. I think there are reserves in the U.S. that we are still not tapping. There is a fight between the Joe Manchin oil producers and the greens on what to do next, but I think we should be doing everything we can in America and shipping excess oil and gas to Europe. And Europe should be investing in LNG terminals, which it hasn't invested in.

BERMAN: How do you tow that rhetorical line if you are President Biden meeting with someone who you, at one point, said you were going to make a pariah?

HARMAN: It's pretty hard to explain away. I mean, Biden has been dealt a tough hand. A lot of things have gone wrong in his presidency, some of them not his fault, and the oil and gas problem is bigger than just Ukraine. Surely it is, but he is trying his best to help America. That's what he was elected to do and to keep America secure and the fight in Ukraine is a big piece of that, he's doing that well and organizing a trade group in Asia and working with the quad in Asia's part of that, some kind of aggressive strategy against North Korea is part of it, but there are a lot of fires and the need for, A, one global strategy for American leadership, which we have lacked since the end of the cold war.

BERMAN: Jane Harman, great to see you. Thanks so much for helping us understand what's going on everywhere right now.

So, the suspect who allegedly killed a retired Wisconsin judge in his home had a hit list and we are now learning who else he was targeting.

KEILAR: And Georgia Democrats angry over a gas give away by a pro- Herschel Walker group in a heavily Democratic area, but was it illegal?

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