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Trump Aides Left Speechless; Two Men Charged in Migrant Deaths; Sgt. Aquilino Gonell is Interviewed about January 6th. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 29, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:54]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This is a bombshell. That was the word from former Trump aides after Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony.

Joining us now, CNN's Gabby Orr and Brendan Buck. He was a former top aide to Republican House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner.

Gabby, first to you.

Your reporting, your phone was burning up during and after Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony from people within Trump world. What were they saying to you?

GABBY ORR, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, Trump aides initially reacted with shock at what they were hearing during yesterday's testimony. Some of them telling me that they were taken aback by a number of the accounts of Trump's outbursts on January 6th when he was told by Secret Service that he could not, in fact, go to the U.S. Capitol to join his supporters there, but also when he first learned that Bill Barr had publicly declared there was no widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election.

One Trump aide told me that this cut right through the view that many Trump supporters have of him. And that is of somebody who was always in control. So that is one of the pieces of fallout from this.

But, you know, the former president did deny a number of the claims that Hutchinson made yesterday in nearly a dozen posts to his Truth Social website.

[06:35:07]

He was sort of furiously responding in real-time to what she was testifying under oath. He disputed parts of her account about his reactions on January 6th, his reactions again to that specific moment when he learned of the Bill Barr interview. And his aides are now seizing on this new claim on background from a person close to the U.S. Secret Service, noting that these two agents, Tony Ornato and Bobby Engel, would be willing to also testify under oath that part of that incident that's under question in the presidential vehicle did not, in fact, occur on January 6th. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Gabby, could this be like so many things

where some Republicans look at it and they think maybe this is a game changer, but in the end they wait to see where the base is and then actually it isn't?

ORR: Yes, absolutely, Brianna. I mean, I was speaking with somebody yesterday who told me that this is basically a campaign ad for Ron DeSantis. And then a few minutes later I spoke with another Trump aide who said, look, the former president is Teflon. Nothing has taken him down to this point and nothing will. His supporters will remain loyal through it all.

So, I do think that this is a looming question, how this plays out over the next few weeks, even the next few months, especially as Trump continues to weigh a future presidential bid.

BERMAN: You know, Brendan, we just had Amie Parnes from "The Hill" saying she was hearing from people within Ron DeSantis's orbit who were looking at this with some level of pleasure yesterday.

And then I noticed conservative commentator Erick Erickson put out this tweet. He said, gut feeling, January 6th testimony does little publicly to push GOP from Trump. Does a lot to make them privately slowly walk away.

And it's that last sentence that's so interesting to me. Is it possible that people within the Republican world, especially as they looked to '24, just say, he's not worth it anymore, it's not worth all of this trouble?

BRENDAN BUCK (R), FORMER TOP AIDE, HOUSE SPEAKERS PAUL RYAN AND JOHN BOEHNER: Well, it breaks down to, do people in Washington who look at who's most electable think we should walk away from Donald Trump, or do actual base voters, as Brianna said, are they willing to walk away from Trump. And I'm really skeptical of that. I mean how many times have we had this conversation, is this the time where people walk away. And I don't think we should fool ourselves into thinking Trump supporters are really ever going to bail on him.

That doesn't mean this isn't damaging. I mean I think there are independent voters, people who are looking at this very clear-eyed who are going to say, even if you don't really like what Joe Biden is doing, this is a risky proposition. And I think Donald Trump's electability has been really hurt by this.

The problem is, Donald Trump doesn't think rationally. Donald Trump doesn't think this is going to hurt him, doesn't think his supporters are going to walk away from him and he's probably going to run for the nomination. And if he runs for the nomination, I think it's likely going to be him, no matter what Ron DeSantis does. I think that the base is still with him enough where he's going to be the nominee of the Republican Party and -- but probably going to be having this hanging around his neck and make it very easy for Joe Biden to wage a campaign against him.

KEILAR: Brendan, I know you weren't still on The Hill while Cassidy Hutchinson was coming up there with Mark Meadows and was part of these meetings, but he had this practice, you were telling us, of having a notetaker with him. And I was wondering if you could speak to just the access and the credibility as you see it of her testimony.

BUCK: Yes, absolutely. Mark Meadows was well-known to always have a young aide with him in every meeting and always insisted that they be in, in this case it was Cassidy Hutchinson, well-known that no matter how small the meeting was, no matter how high level the meeting was, if it was just senior aides, he was going to insist that she was in there. Obviously, not to participate in the meetings, but to be there as a notetaker, to be there to mark history. And, obviously, this is coming back to bite him a little bit.

Now - and this is interesting pushback from the White House, people I talked to who worked in the White House at the time. Nobody's really challenging that she was in the room. Nobody challenges that they had access. The message they were putting out is that she'll say anything. She's a fabulist. You can't trust her. And I imagine if you become a 25-year-old top aide to the White House chief of staff, you probably make a few enemies. So I take it -- take it with a grain of salt.

But what I'm really worried about is what Gabby mentioned, this pushback to some of her - some of her stories. If that - if this committee didn't chase down whether or not that limo incident actually took place or talked to other people about it, that's a huge failure of this committee. I hate that they would have put her out there on this limb, something that she didn't actually witness. And so that's where I think they're going to be going after her now to say that she made things up, we told you she wasn't someone you can trust and now we've got the pushback. So I'm very curious to see how that plays out.

BERMAN: Brendan Buck, Gabby Orr, thanks to both of you for being with us this morning.

We're going to speak to the former White House press secretary and communications director Stephanie Grisham about all of this. You'll hear what she thinks the biggest takeaways are.

So it may be the worst human smuggling event in U.S. history. The bodies of 51 migrants found in the back of a sweltering semi in Texas.

[06:40:01]

Two people have been charged. We have a live report ahead.

Another major Supreme Court decision looms this morning at what may be the most consequential climate case in decades.

KEILAR: And President Biden making a big announcement this morning that shows Vladimir Putin's war is backfiring.

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KEILAR: This morning, authorities say two men are being charged in connection to the unprecedented smuggling tragedy in Texas. Fifty-one migrants, 39 men and 12 women died after being trapped inside of an abandoned semi-truck in sweltering heat.

CNN's Rosa Flores live for us in San Antonio with more.

Rosa, what can you tell us about this?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, good morning.

This morning we are learning new details about where the victims were in their final moments and where some of the individuals who were severely hurt were found. Now, this is according to the U.S. attorney of the western district of Texas who described the scene as follows, quote, dozens of immigrants were found dead or incapacitated in and around a tractor-trailer with over a dozen others hospitalized in critical condition.

[06:45:13]

The key new details there is that these individuals were found in and around this tractor-trailer. Now, this is from the woman who was filing the charges against the individuals connected to this tragedy. According to charging documents, two individuals have been charged so far. Those documents show that federal agents ran the plates on that semi, found the registered address, went to that location and arrested and charged two men with possession of a weapon by an undocumented person, a charge that carries up to ten years in prison. No one has been charged so far for smuggling.

HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, is leading this investigation. I talked to the special agent in charge who described this tragedy as the worst smuggling event in the United States. The death toll has increased to 51. This includes mostly Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan nationals, 39 are men, 12 are women, the ages are still being determined by the medical examiner. More than a dozen people are still hospitalized, Brianna, including two in the hospital that you see behind me.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Do we know how they're doing, Rosa?

FLORES: You know, some are in critical condition, others are in stable condition. Many of these individuals suffering from dehydration or other heat-related injuries. Of course, we're staying in touch with these hospitals to learn how these people are doing.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Rosa Flores, live in San Antonio, thank you.

BERMAN: So, former President Donald Trump knew some of the people at his rally were armed, but he fought hard to join them at the Capitol anyway.

Staff Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, one of many Capital Police officers who responded during the January 6th attack, suffered serious injuries in the line of duty, and he joins us now. Thank you so much for being with us.

You were at that hearing yesterday. You heard Cassidy Hutchinson testify that she heard the former president talk about the people at his rally, saying he didn't care if they were armed, he wanted them to march to the Capitol anyway.

How did that make you feel?

SGT. AQUILINO GONELL, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

It's pretty damning, the level of betrayal, disbelief. You could take -- you have a list of items of which one can you get more outraged from the lack of action for -- from the president when he saw that we were being attacked, from the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, not caring about what was happening to the point of, you could see Michael Flynn pleading the Fifth and meanwhile he's still receiving VA benefits in his retirement from the government that he tried to overthrow.

So, it's a list of crimes and things that could -- it's - in disbelief that, you know, so many things happened, whether by action or inaction, and we're still talking about this. And I think the American people should be very concerned because this person is trying to get back into the White House and he shouldn't be nowhere near the White House.

KEILAR: Sergeant, during the attack, the president tweeted about Mike Pence, and then he waited so long, hours, before he asked his supporters to leave.

Knowing what you learned yesterday, how does that change that knowledge that he was at the White House waiting and really not doing anything?

GONELL: I mean, if you look at the timeline from the January 6th committee, around that time when he tweeted that, we were fighting -- fairly intense fighting with the mob on the west front of the entrance, in the tunnel. That's when I got hurt around that time for my shoulder. And instead of sending people to reinforce the Capitol, instead of using his influence over the rioters, he -- to stop the assault, he egged them to continue the assault. And as a matter of fact, based on the testimony yesterday, he wanted to lead the assault himself. That is very scary, that the president of the United States is trying to attack another branch of his own government to try to remain in power.

[06:50:04]

It's kind of like one of those movies, "Tyrant" or something like that, authoritarian from overseas that you keep hearing about the people on the right that they don't want this country to become, but yet they are doing this -- everything possible to make it possible to become a third world country or authoritarian regime, like Venezuela, like North Korea or Russia. BERMAN: Sergeant, we know you have to run to work. You've got to go do

your job, which you've done consistently. So, we thank you for being with us this morning. Be well.

GONELL: All right. Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: We have a new CNN one-on-one interview with the first lady of Ukraine. What she says about Russia's war, what it is doing to her family, coming up.

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KEILAR: Like so many Ukrainian families, the country's first lady says her own is suffering and separated by the war that has forced them to live apart for so long.

[06:55:06]

Olena Zelenska spoke one-on-one with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: How do you specifically feel about yours and your family's safety?

OLENA ZELENSKA, FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE (through translator): Fortunately, those two months when I didn't see my husband at all, that's in the past. I can see him sometimes in -- for a short time, and not very often, but I can physically feel him next to me.

This isn't normal. It's not a normal relationship when children cannot see their father and have to talk to him on the phone. So, our relationship is on pause just as it is for many -- well, all Ukrainians. I would say that half of our population are apart, are not together, and we, just like every family, are waiting to be reunited, to be together again, to spend evenings, to have dinner together, to talk to the children about their things. And not only their children's things, but my daughter, for example, is a young adult now.

But we're hanging in. We are -- I like this image, we're holding on just like that cupboard in Borodyanka when the occupiers bombed a buildings and bombed all the buildings there and we saw this photo of one of the buildings and there was a wall remaining and there was a wardrobe or a cupboard there that stood undamaged.

So, we're holding on. We're telling each other, how are you? I'm like that cupboard in Borodyanka. So, I'm trying to hold on, just like that cupboard.

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KEILAR: More on our special coverage of the January 6th hearings. We will play you the 15 times during the hearing that Trump and his allies were warned of potential violence.

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