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U.S. Gas Price Average Hits $4.97; Man Charged with Attempted Murder of Kavanaugh at Home; January 6th Committee to Make Case in First Hearing; Biden Hosts Summit of Americas, Despite Snubs from Key Leaders. Aired 6-6:30a et

Aired June 09, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: That is wild. All right, Derek, thank you. Appreciate it.

[06:00:05]

Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm Laura Jarrett. NEW DAY starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is Thursday, June 9. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

And we begin with the price of gas, closer than ever to the dreaded $5 a gallon mark. The national average for a gallon of regular gas hitting $4.97, up nearly 2 cents overnight. And this is the 13th straight day of record highs for gas prices. It's the 30th in the last 31 days, the surge hitting Americans right where they live and drive.

BERMAN: So it is worth noting that, when you adjust for inflation, prices are not at record highs, not yet, but they do keep rising with no real end in sight.

This is what President Biden said about soaring gas prices during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, inflation is -- is the bane of our existence. Inflation is mostly in food and in gasoline.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": Yes.

BIDEN: At the pump.

KIMMEL: That's what kills you, because it's a little billboard telling everyone how expensive everything is. If Donald Trump leaves one of those Sharpies over for you, you could maybe change the price on that, you know.

BIDEN: We could.

KIMMEL: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, this morning, we will ask the White House about their strategy for handling gas prices and inflation. First, though, let's go to CNN's Gabe Cohen. He is live for us at a gas station in Alexandria, Virginia, outside of the nation's capital.

What are you seeing there, Gabe?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, look, not only are we seeing gas prices continue to climb, but now they're rising at an even faster rate, in some cases 4, 5, even 6 cents a day.

Just look at that national average, now up 64 cents in a month, up a quarter in just the past seven days.

And look, just about every driver has been hit, but certainly, in some states more than others. Here in Northern Virginia at this gas station, the price, $4.85 a gallon, but if you go up the road to Washington, D.C. They hit the $5 mark days ago.

Take a look at the states that have already reached $5 a gallon. There are 21 of them, the most expensive being California, which is well over $6 a gallon at this point; followed by Nevada, Illinois, Washington state and Alaska.

And look, Brianna, that $5 mark is significant. AAA surveyed drivers, asking them at what price point would they change their driving habits, would they change their lifestyle?

And if you look at the chart, at $5 a gallon, there is a significant jump. Seventy-five percent of drivers say at that point, at $5 a gallon, they're going to change the way they drive.

So what does that mean? Well, what we're hearing, what we're seeing is people canceling summer travel, people trying to commute less, maybe take fewer trips to the store.

But the federal government does track gasoline demand. And at this point, demand for gas doesn't seem to be going down. If anything, it's been ticking up, which is what it tends to do during the summer.

So it's unclear when these gas prices are actually going to knock down American demand for travel.

Look, you heard the Biden administration for days has said, at this point, it's not really clear how they can drive down those prices, especially with the supply issues we have seen globally. And with China coming out of COVID lockdowns, there's surging demand for gasoline there, sending up global prices.

And oil prices also topping out over $120 a barrel yesterday, which typically means gas prices are going to follow and continue to rise.

I've talked to the folks at Gas Buddy, who say you can expect $6 a gallon, potentially, by late summer -- guys.

KEILAR: Six dollars a gallon. Gabe Cohen, thank you so much.

BERMAN: Let's get some more perspective on this. CNN chief business are correspondent Christine Romans is here with me.

Jimmy Kimmel was joking that maybe the president should have a Sharpie. The fact is, though, the White House does not have a Sharpie that can change gas prices. What the White House is trying to do is suggest the oil companies are making a lot of money, a lot of profit here.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: They are making a lot of money, if you look at their profits in the first quarter. I mean, epic. Billions and billions of dollars. As these oil prices have risen, so have the returns for shareholders, investors in these companies.

The president last night was really complaining about share buy backs. It's just not fair for these companies to be buying back shares to enrich their -- you know, their shareholders at the same time when American drivers are really getting hurt so badly.

You look at the share prices of the energy companies, the stock prices of energy companies, you can see it's gone up something like 65 percent this year, compared to the S&P 500, which is probably what's in your 401(k), down 13 percent, John.

[06:05:03]

BERMAN: Wow.

ROMANS: That's just -- that's the divide. That is the divide. The money being made right now is in the oil companies, the oil company stocks, and the investors there.

And, you know, you've got some people talking about a windfall tax. You've got others talking about maybe a gas tax holiday to help consumers, a gas tax holiday that's pegged for subsidies for lower income consumers. All of these things are being talked about.

But the bottom line is market forces here are much more powerful than anybody in any, you know, capital around the world. And we -- no one, frankly, knows really for sure what's going to happen next, but the path of least resistance for oil prices is higher.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

KEILAR: We do have some new video just in of FBI agents raiding the California home of the 26-year-old man charged with attempting to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Investigators say Nicholas Roske called emergency services after arriving outside of Kavanaugh's Maryland home and said he was having suicidal thoughts and that he had a firearm in his suitcase, and that led to his arrest. A criminal complaint shows that he was carrying a tactical knife. He

had a pistol with two magazines and ammunition. He had pepper spray, zip ties and several other items of concern.

The man told investigators he was upset about the leak of the Supreme Court opinion related to abortion rights, and he was also upset about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. And he thought that Kavanaugh would loosen gun restrictions.

Joining us now, former FBI deputy assistant director and FBI chief of the counterespionage section, Peter Strzok. He's also the author of "Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump."

First off, this is just incredibly alarming what we're seeing here. What concerns is this raising for you?

PETER STRZOK, FORMER FBI DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: I think it's very serious. I mean, the fact of the matter is that somebody who apparently self-radicalized, by all accounts acting alone, on the West Coast was able to obtain a gun, get on a plane, and show up at the residence of a Supreme Court justice.

And some reporting indicating that not only was the Supreme Court justice home, but his family was, as well.

So the question is not just this one event, which is extraordinarily serious, but what this demonstrates and what this shows us about the broader threat picture about people in the United States, about the climate we're in, and about whether or not we're headed into an environment where more and more individuals might be motivated to go get weapons, get arms and make similar sorts of threats and attacks.

KEILAR: Because it speaks to that DHS bulletin that you're talking about, right, pointing to the let from lone wolf offenders that we're seeing.

STRZOK: That's right. And just this Tuesday, so the day before the attempted attack on Justice Kavanaugh, DHS issued a terrorism bulletin, essentially advising of a variety of threats that the United States faces as we head into the summer.

And one of those points to self-radicalized individuals, lone wolves who work alone, who are extraordinarily difficult for law enforcement to identify, because they're not part of a broader structure that can be targeted, that can be investigated.

So this sort of threat is exactly what DHS was pointing to in the bulletin on Tuesday. And it's particularly concerning because of the wide range of issues we're facing as we head into the summer.

KEILAR: Specifically, did the system to this case, did the system work the way it was supposed to here? Did this raise any potential vulnerabilities to you?

STRZOK: Well, I think the system worked as best as it could. I mean, you know, there were two marshals who were stationed outside of the justice's home, as most of the supreme Court justices have now.

There is pending litigation that is right now in the House to increase security surrounding the Supreme Court.

But I think, again, to the extent the system is able to protect against threats, it's very hard to do that in this context. There is very little that anybody in law enforcement can do to stop one individual if they choose to go buy a weapon and show up at somebody's House to target them.

KEILAR: The Senate passed that. The House hasn't. Is that tenable? Do you think they need to move forward?

STRZOK: Well, I think absolutely the House needs to move forward. I would expect, given this -- this threat that was interceded and prevented yesterday, I would expect that the House, whatever contentious issues remain in that legislation, that the House would find a path forward fairly quickly.

KEILAR: They want clerks protected, but this would protect family members. I think we can all agree this is very important. Peter Strzok, thank you so much.

STRZOK: Thank you, Brianna.

BERMAN: Tonight, the January 6th Committee will begin to reveal its findings to the country in prime time, and CNN has new details about just how they plan to do that.

Lauren Fox joins us live from Capitol Hill this morning. Lauren, what have you learned?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, months of preparation, months of closed-door interviews all culminating tonight in this primetime hearing. We expect that tonight is going to be kicked off by the committee chairman, Bennie Thompson, who will have an opening statement, trying to put this into historical perspective, according to committee aides.

We also expect that Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the committee, is going to have an opening statement.

After that, it's really going to be broken down into three different areas, the public getting an opportunity to see never-before-seen video footage of private interviews that the committee did with Trump officials inside the White House, campaign officials, as well as members of Trump's own family.

[06:10:19]

Who exactly we're going to hear from, that is still under wraps.

We also expect to see largely unseen video footage of some of the violence at the Capitol that day to remind people, according to committee aides, about what is at stake, what transpired. And really to supplement all of that video and image that people are going to be watching back home is going to be two live witnesses. You're going to hear from a U.S. Capitol Police officer, Caroline Edwards, who was on the front lines that day. She was one of the first injured outside of the U.S. Capitol. She suffered a traumatic brain injury that day.

You're also going to hear from Nick Quested, who's a documentary filmmaker who captured some of the violence outside of the Capitol and had a unique perspective and access to some of the extremists who were outside the Capitol that day.

So a lot happening tonight, and we expect that there's going to be a little bit of a preview of what is to come baked into the committee hearing this evening -- John.

BERMAN: All right. We will be watching. Lauren Fox, thank you very much.

Here with me now, Elie Honig, former federal prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst. Elie, the question is what will we find out? What are the unanswered questions that you have?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: John, so issue No. 1, those 187 minutes, what was happening in the White House between 1:10 p.m. when the breach -- the building around the Capitol was breached, and 4:17 p.m., when Donald Trump finally issued a statement? What was he doing?

There are some things we do know. We know that powerful people were texting Mark Meadows, begging him to get Donald Trump to issue a statement. He did not do that.

We do know some things, however, about what Donald Trump did do during that time frame.

2:24 p.m., over an hour into that period, Donald Trump issued a tweet attacking verbally Mike Pence, and shortly after that, the crowd started chanting "Hang Mike Pence."

We also know, John, from Stephanie Grisham, a former White House official who told you, John Berman, breaker of stories, scooper of scoops, this. He, Donald Trump, was in the dining room gleefully watching on his TV, as he often did. That's really important to know. He was gleeful, according to Stephanie Grisham.

Now, how might we learn more about what was happening during those 187 minutes? We may hear, not tonight but eventually from Cassidy Hutchinson, a mid-level White House official who has talked to the committee multiple times.

And remember, the committee went to court and won their case to get internal White House documents that were being stored at the National Archives. We don't know what's in those documents, but they could help flesh out those key 187 minutes.

BERMAN: What else are you looking for? So are there any connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud

Boys and the White House or other officials. We know that the leaders of those two groups have been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for seditious conspiracy.

Now, is there any link to anyone in power? We don't know the answer to that. We do know that Roger Stone, long-time adviser to the president, has long-standing connections with the Proud Boys. This is him with Enrique Tarrio, who is the leader of the Proud Boys.

Tonight, we will hear from this documentary filmmaker, as Lauren just said, Nick Quested, who followed around the Proud Boys. We will see if he has any evidence or information that makes any of those links.

BERMAN: Seems on this first night, they're putting a lot on him to tell the story, to build this narrative. How much do you think they'll be looking into other members of Congress?

HONIG: Yes, that is a big question. Look, we know that members of Congress spread the big lie. We know that they encouraged people to protest. We know that they planned to object in Congress.

Here's Josh Hawley, of course, entering the building on January 6.

Mo Brooks spoke to the crowd at the rally. He told them to, quote, "kick ass and take names."

We know that the committee has subpoenaed five of its fellow colleagues in Congress. None of them are going to testify. They've all defied their subpoenas. The committee has not taken any moves towards forcing them.

But let's keep an eye on this allegation that Representative Barry Loudermilk gave tours of the Capitol the day before, designed to help rioters the next day. There has been no proof of that that we've seen. He has denied it, but the committee wrote in a letter to him, quote, "The Select Committee's review of evidence directly contradicts that denial."

We'll see if they have that proof. They better, because that's a really serious allegation.

BERMAN: How about the whole idea of unheeded warnings before January 6?

HONIG: How much did people inside the White House know there was a threat of violence. Cassidy Hutchinson, who I mentioned before, told the committee this. They put it in a letter: "I know that there were concerns brought forward to Mr. Meadows. I know that people have brought information forward to him that had indicated there could be violence on January 6."

We also know that Marc Short, chief of staff to Mike Pence, alerted the Secret Service that he was alarmed there could be a threat against Mike Pence. So we'll hear from other insiders, will we find out just how much did Donald Trump and others around him know about the threat of violence the next day?

[06:15:06]

BERMAN: Elie Honig, it seems you have some experience presenting evidence and facts in a concise way.

HONIG: I've been through it.

BERMAN: Thank you very much for this.

HONIG: Thanks.

BERMAN: Revealing new audio of what House Republicans were saying around January 6. How they really felt about the bogus threats of election fraud and the attack on the Capitol.

Plus, why President Biden says he will not use executive actions at this point on guns.

KEILAR: And a heartbreaking new interview with the pediatrician who treated the children murdered in Uvalde, many of whom he had cared for since they were babies. Why he chose to testify in detail about the horror that he witnessed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMMEL: Can't you issue an executive order? Trump passed those out like Halloween candy. Isn't that something that could happen?

[06:20:04]

BIDEN: Well, I have issued executive orders within the power of the presidency to be able to deal with these -- everything having to do with guns, gun ownership, whether or not you have to have a waiting -- all the things that are within my power.

But what I don't want to do -- and I'm not being facetious -- I don't want to emulate Trump's abuse of the Constitution and the constitutional authority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Biden sat down with Jimmy Kimmel for his first live late-night appearance since taking office. Listen to what he said when asked about trusting Republicans behind the scenes when it comes to issues including guns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I've always had a straight relationship with -- with the majority -- with the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. You know, he's a guy that, when he says something, he means it. I disagree with a lot of what he says, but he means it. There are a number --

KIMMEL: Like when he said we can't confirm a Supreme Court justice with a year left?

BIDEN: That's right.

KIMMEL: And then said the opposite.

BIDEN: Well, no. What he did -- I mean, look, he's -- he's a leader of a party that's moved very hard right. And so in order to get anything done, he has a different problem than he did early on, before Trump became president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is CNN political commentator and Spectrum News political leader, Errol Louis. Always interesting when a president sits down for an interview even in late night.

I do want to talk about the substance, though, of what we just heard there, because it deals with guns which are so much in the news right now.

He kind of set the parameters, in some ways, for what he will and won't do there. He won't really use executive actions more than he has going forward on guns. And he does feel that he has someone to negotiate with on the other side.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, he may be wrong on both counts, to be honest with you. When he says he has somebody to negotiate with, who is that person?

He says Mitch McConnell and even Jimmy Kimmel, a comedian makes a joke about that. The notion that you can negotiate with Mitch McConnell, given what he has said in the past.

He's not a man of his word. He has gone back on deals with the Obama administration and with the Biden administration.

So for the president now to say, Oh, this is somebody I can work with, he's talking about a past that just doesn't exist anymore, you know.

And of course, the problem, politically speaking, is that elections are about the future, not the past. It was a very discouraging appearance in a lot of ways. If you really care about making change when it comes to gun violence, because the president was talking about 1994. You know, it's a generation ago. He's talking about, we got the assault weapons ban passed, and I was the lead on that.

Yes, well, that was in the 1990s, and we're in an entirely different situation now.

BERMAN: The challenge he faces, though, is you have the American people telling you two things at once. No. 1, we want something done, and No. 2, we want to see you working together.

LOUIS: Yes. That is a challenge. And, look, frankly, look, that's the Biden brand, right? He got elected, in large part, because he said we have to bring the country together. I'm a unifier, I can make that happen.

I think what he did not reckon with was the fact that this MAGA movement was going to move even further to the right, be even more extreme, even more radical. He doesn't seem to have a solution to that, other than to do what we saw him on do on this comedy show, which is to say, I'm going to keep trying to work with them, almost knowing that for them, it's literally like a joke.

BERMAN: I will say, we are going to talk to Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, a little bit later in the show. And there has been some optimism from the Senate, from his camp and people who have talked to him, that there may be some kind of a deal, some kind of progress on working together. We'll see. We'll find out how that works.

I do want to play one more bit of sound from this interview, because President Biden talked about Roe v. Wade and the pending Supreme Court decision. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: It's clear that if, in fact, the decision comes down the way it does, and these states impose the limitations they're talking about, it's going to cause a mini revolution. And they will vote a lot of these folks out of office.

We've got to keep it focused on if you -- if they overrule Roe v. Wade and the state of California won't do it, but other states say that you cannot do the following, and it's always a law, you can't cross the border, you can't -- all the things that some states have, then you've got to make sure that you vote. You've got to vote, and let people know exactly what the devil you think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What do you think? He thinks there will be a mini-political revolution, where people will be voted out of office, based on what people assume will be a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

LOUIS: Yes, I'm not so sure about that, John. Because if you go state by state, somebody elected those legislators -- those state legislators that have put all of these restrictions on and have virtually eliminated the right to an abortion, functionally, in state after state after state.

Somebody elected that Texas state House. Somebody elected those folks in Georgia and some of these other states. When you say, yes, voting counts, you know, it's going to make a big difference.

But the idea that there's some revolution that's at hand, the polling doesn't show it. The outcomes in state after state don't suggest that. I'm not sure why he thinks that's going to happen, unless that's kind of a hail Mary pass.

[06:25:06] I mean, obviously, as the leader of his party, the Democrats have to try and mobilize their base around this issue. But to assume that it's going to happen, I'm not so sure about that.

Errol Louis, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for coming in.

LOUIS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Today President Biden set to host high-stakes bilateral meetings with leaders attending the Summit of the Americas. So let's go now to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who is following this in Los Angeles live for us. Tell us what we're expecting.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, these are notable meetings, and one in particular will be with the Brazil's president, Bolsonaro.

Now, U.S. and Brazil have had strained relations, and Bolsonaro had actually considered boycotting this summit and has even cast doubt over the 2020 election in the United States and Biden's victory.

But the two are set to meet today, and one of the issues they are likely to discuss is democracies and elections. This is an issue that President Joe Biden touched on last night in his inaugural remarks. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Our region is large and diverse. We don't always agree on everything, but because we're democracies, we work through our disagreements with mutual respect and dialogue.

At this summit, we have an opportunity for us to come together around some bold ideas, ambitious actions and to demonstrate to our people the incredible power of democracies to deliver concrete benefits and make life better for everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, of course, some presidents will not be in attendance, including Mexico's president, as well as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

But they do have delegations here, and that, officials say, has given them confidence that they will not -- that that will not disrupt their initiatives, which they plan to rule out over the course of the next few days. And that includes on trade, climate, economy and migration, all important issues in the Western Hemisphere.

And all of which we'll continue to hear announcements on as Biden has meetings with leaders -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Priscilla Alvarez, ahead of a busy day for the president. Thank you so much. So we do have some brand-new audio of what Republican lawmakers were

saying privately, just days after the January 6th attack. Why it's so different from what they're saying now.

BERMAN: And new revelations that a whistleblower raised the alarm about Abbott's baby formula plant months earlier than previously known. We have the details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]