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Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Dies After Being Shot at Campaign Rally; Today: Ex-WH Counsel Cipollone Testifies Before Committee. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired July 08, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Devastating news here in Japan today. Doctors at Nara Medical University Hospital confirmed just a few hours ago that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has died after being shot twice, once in the chest and once in the neck while speaking at a campaign rally ahead of the upper house elections set for this Sunday.

Doctors treating Abe said that he was bleeding profusely and that the bullet that killed him was deep enough to have reached his heart. In the end, about 20 doctors were fighting to save his life. They said that they faced difficulties stopping the bleeding, and it was that loss of blood that Abe died from.

Now, the shooting happened while delivering a speech around 11:30 this morning, local time, in the western Japanese city of Nara. Several hours after the shooting, a visibly emotional Fumio Kishida, the current prime minister, held a press conference calling the shooting an unforgivable act. Abe's brother and current minister of defense Nobuo Kishi also addressed the media, calling the attack an affront to democracy and the suppression of freedom to speech.

The suspect, as you described, a man in his 40s, was arrested on the spot in possession of what NHK is describing as a handmade gun. He made no attempts to flee before being swarmed by the security detail. Witnesses say that Abe was shot from behind, he didn't collapse after the first shot, but did collapse after the second shot before receiving CPR.

While a controversial figure here in Japan at times, Abe is an incredibly important figure, not only here in Japan, but around the world, and news of this shooting has absolutely sent shock waves around the nation, and the world. In hours following this shooting, many have taken to social media to say that they hoped at the time that he would pull through, with many calling today's shooting a barbaric act that shakes the root of democracy, saying that whether or not you agree with this political stances, violence to suppress political stances is unacceptable.

And I mentioned it earlier, but current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida really encapsulated the feelings of the people here in Japan during the press conference after the shooting. He appeared emotional, almost in tears, while speaking to the press, and said, again, this is not a forgivable act, and that we will comprehend the situation and then take appropriate measures.

Simply put, John, there is an overwhelming sense of sadness and shock across Japan and around the world today, tomorrow, this weekend, after hearing and learning the news that former prime minister Shinzo Abe has died.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely, Blake Essig, please stand by in Tokyo for us. Thank you very much.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The death of Shinzo Abe marks the end of an era in Japanese and Asian politics. Abe had hoped to revitalize Japan's economy during his recent eight-year run as prime minister. He was only partly successful with that. CNN's senior international correspondent Will Ripley looks back at the life and the legacy of Japan's elder statesman.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Japan's longest serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, had big dreams of a Japanese comeback, a comeback marred by a series of setbacks. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Abe's greatest achievement, Japan spent billions only to see the games postponed by the coronavirus pandemic. The games were a cornerstone of Abe's plan to revive a struggling economy and transform Japan into a global destination.

Abe promised a brighter future, a future looking bleak after 2011's massive earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Abenomics was an ambitious plan to overhaul Japan's economy with stimulus and reform. It led to record high government debt and failed to make a lasting dent in decades of deflation, problems made worse by Japan's aging population and shrinking workforce.

Abe also tried to strengthen Japan's military, reinterpreting the nation's pacifist constitution, drafted after World War II. The move led to massive protests in the Japanese capital. Abe's visits to a controversial war shrine angered his Asian neighbors. He was criticized for not making a new apology at the 70th anniversary of World War II, accused of trying to rewrite Japan's brutal wartime past.

Abe began fighting for more military power during his first time as prime minister in 2006. At 52, he became Japan's youngest post war leader. Corruption scandals within his party caused Abe's popularity to plummet. He resigned a year later, blaming health problems. Abe had ambition and roots in a powerful political dynasty, two prime ministers in his family.

[08:05:00]

Re-elected in 2012, Abe declared Japan is back. He tried to raise Japan's profile on a global stage, developing allies in Europe, India, and southeast Asia, trying to mend frosty relations with China. Abe made history in 2016, appearing alongside former U.S. president Barack Obama in Hiroshima and later Pearl Harbor.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: -- the United States and Japan.

(APPLAUSE)

RIPLEY: Abe was one of the first world leaders to form an alliance with Donald Trump, taking the U.S. president out for a hamburger in Tokyo. Shinzo Abe leaves behind Akie, known as a vibrant and popular first lady and his wife of more than three decades.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

BERMAN: And Will Ripley joins us now, also CNN's Kyung Lah. She based in Japan for five years for CNN. You both were based there. And Will, let me start with you. When we're speaking to people in Japan this morning, just shock, just shock that this could even happen there.

RIPLEY: Yes. Politics aside, critics of Shinzo Abe aside, nobody could have imagined that he would be standing, giving a stump speech just a couple of days before a national election and that somebody could get that close and could fire, of all things, a gun, when guns are simply not accessible to pretty much everybody in Japan, unless they are a hunter and they go through a very extensive screening process. You can walk through the streets, and Kyung can testify to this for her years living in Tokyo, any hour of the day, you're never going to feel unsafe.

And so to be in the middle of the morning, and to have somebody pull out a gun and assassinate perhaps the most influential figure in Japanese politics to date, certainly longest running prime minister, but still highly influential even after resigning as prime minister, shock is an understatement. It is almost numb, trying to piece together, put your head around what has just happened.

KEILAR: Kyung, I remember visiting you years ago in Tokyo, and that was one of the things that stood out, small children, even in the evening, may be walking around as they were going to lessons, and they were completely safe, even in the middle of what felt like a very vibrant and busy city, and you would explain that there wasn't so much danger.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. And I think it is really important, especially as Americans, for us to understand what the violence figures look like in Japan. I was just looking at what the police statistics were in 2021. There were fewer than a dozen shootings in Japan. In a country with half the population of the United States. Half the population, there was one gun death in 2021. It just doesn't happen.

And so for this to happen, to the former prime minister, a man who was so influential that the economic system he ushered, Abenomics, was named after him. He really stood apart from a lot of modern figures in Japan, for many, many reasons. But that this happened to him, and in a country that doesn't have this experience, it's truly shocking. You don't have kids doing drills in schools. You don't worry about anyone carrying a handgun because they don't have any. It's just something you don't live with.

And if I were living there, I would send, a kid as young as five or six years old, I had both of my children in Japan, I would send them on the subway by themselves because it is just that safe. It is also part of the social fabric to take care of each other, for people to not rob you. If you drop something on the street, people return it to the police. Police who generally are not armed, they carry large sticks and kobans, which are the local boxes that people ask directions from the police from. It's a different world compared to what we experienced here in the United States, and that really is what is so shocking in Japan.

BERMAN: Kyung, what do you think the impact then of this will be? Or what will you be looking for in the coming hours and days?

LAH: It's -- I think there is going to be a number of impacts. There is probably going to be something that is done officially, meaning something done by the government. I cannot see how something this monumental happens without some sort of official response. What that is, I just don't know. But there has to be some sort of response from the government when it's something this seismic.

But it also breaks my heart because Japan is so special, the sense of safety and community and really a connection among neighbors and friends there that to see anything chip away at that is really heartbreaking.

During the sarin gas attacks in the 1990s, some of those attacks happened in connection to trash cans.

[08:10:01]

And all the trash cans disappeared after that. The Japanese adjusted. And you don't see trash cans anymore in the street because that was a societal response. It's something that sweeping, and something that simple, but you really feel it when you live in the country. So I think there are going to be some significant changes, but it's really sort of that loss that I'm going to be looking for, and the one that is really going to break my heart.

BERMAN: Kyung, Will, our thanks to both of you.

Other major news this morning, here in the United States, the highly anticipated June jobs report comes out just moments from now. Stand by for that. Plus, the January 6th committee set to hear from former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. What could come from this closed-door videotaped interview.

KEILAR: And ahead, one of the youngest survivors of the Highland Park parade shooting is now paralyzed. A family spokesperson will join us on how he's doing this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We have more on today's breaking news, the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. He was gunned down during a campaign event. Joining us now is the anchor of THE SITUATION ROOM, Wolf Blitzer. Wolf, you woke up to this news. What was your reaction when you found out?

[08:15:00]

BLITZER: It was just such a jolt, so shocking to hear that there was an assassination along these lines with a gun in Japan. I've been to Japan, and gun violence is, you know, basically very, very unheard of in Japan. They have very strict gun control laws over there.

And it was just such a shock to see a very popular former prime minister, only 67 years old now, gunned down the way he was by this assassin. This is a political assassination. I have no idea what the assassin's goal was, but it certainly was a stunning shock, not only to the people of Japan, but people around the world, especially to those of us who have been to Japan and have seen what a wonderful country it is.

I quickly noted that the U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken echoed what all of us feel when he said, this is a very, very, very sad moment. And Rahm Emanuel, U.S. ambassador to Japan, former mayor of Chicago, former congressman, said Abe has been an outstanding leader of Japan and unwavering ally of the United States, which is true.

He worked with so many U.S. presidents and other world leaders and he really did an amazing job. And it was just heartbreaking to see that a former Japanese prime minister was assassinated along these lines.

And for those of our viewers old enough to remember, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the United States, I'm sure for the people of Japan that will go down along those line lines, just a horrible, horrible moment that everyone will remember where they were when they first got word that Prime Minister Abe had been assassinated. A shocking moment.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Longest serving prime minister in Japan's history and very visible to people in the United States as well. Having been the first Japanese prime minister to go to Hiroshima with a U.S. president, first Japanese prime minister to go to Pearl Harbor with the U.S. president, very visible.

Wolf, you've also been in the news yourself the last day, because of a very, very interesting interview you had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where you asked him specifically about something that is very much an issue now, which is if there were negotiations with Russia to end this war, what would Ukraine be willing to give up? Would they give up territory?

Listen to his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): Ukrainians are not ready to give up their land. As new territories of the Russian Federation, this is our land. We have always said this. And we will never give it up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Never give it up, Wolf. So what then, how then would negotiations happen?

BLITZER: Well, he's really counting on the United States and other NATO allies to continue providing a lot of heavy artillery, a lot of major new weapons systems, to fight the Russians. This has been a brutal war as all of us know. He was determined.

He repeatedly said to me, Ukraine is not going to give up an inch, an inch. He used that word, of land to the Russians. They're going to continue to fight. They're going to continue to deal with this, despite the setbacks they're suffering right now in the eastern part of the country.

He made it clear they're not negotiating with the Russians and they're not going to give up anything and Putin is going to pay the price for all of this, when all is said and done, Ukraine will win. He was determined to make that point and he had really harsh words for Putin himself. So it was a very, very strong statement from the Ukrainian leader.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I also want to listen to where you asked Zelenskyy about Putin calling him a Nazi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: When you hear Putin accuse you and other Ukrainian Jews of being Nazis, is that painful for you.

ZELENSKYY (through translator): It just doesn't give me any emotions. It's just laughable. It's like a joke. It's like a caricature.

I always thought it would stay in the past. It will never happen again and now it is returning.

People who say these things, they're just sick. You can't really laugh at sick people. A disease can be cured, but what I hear from them is a disease that can't be cured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's a really interesting response that he gave you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah. No, he made it clear that he really -- it is obvious he hates Putin for what Putin is doing to Ukraine. And the words that Putin and other Russians are uttering accusing him, and he's Jewish, of being a Nazi, and his family went through the Holocaust, it is just something he can't -- he can't really understand why anyone would be making those accusations against him and other Ukrainian Jews who went through World War II through the Holocaust and then all of a sudden, the Russians invade Ukraine and do what they're doing.

So he is really angry. He's really determined to go ahead, as are the Ukrainian people, I suspect, to fight this until they win, until they remove the Russians from Ukraine.

[08:20:01]

This war is going to go on.

KEILAR: Certainly is.

Wolf, you know, normally, you join us from the treadmill. We thank you this morning for coming on TV and being with us. It is great to see you.

BLITZER: Good to see you guys. Thank you. You're doing a great job.

KEILAR: Thank you.

And, of course, you can catch Wolf tonight on "THE SITUATION ROOM" at 5:00 Eastern.

He could be the most important witness yet for the January 6th committee. What Pat Cipollone knows and what he's willing to tell the committee.

BERMAN: And CNN sits down with the families of the victims of the Uvalde shooting, how they are reacting to the new report about the police response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:24:34]

BERMAN: A key figure in the Trump White House testifies before the January 6th committee today. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, his deposition will be behind closed doors, but it will be videotaped. We could see excerpts at the remaining committee hearings, the public ones.

Joining us now, David Laufman, the former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence session.

David, thank you so much for being with us. They wanted Cipollone to sit down. They're getting him. This is their one shot.

[08:25:00]

What is the committee doing?

DAVID H. LAUFMAN, FORMER CHIEF OF DOJ COUNTERINTELLIGENCE SECTION: Well, look, this has the potential to be an evidentiary bonanza for the committee, and potentially for the Department of Justice. What we have been missing thus far to our knowledge is testimony by senior White House officials in direct proximity to former President Trump, people who are in the room, had direct conversations with him.

We know Mr. Cipollone was in that inner circle. We have every reason to believe that he had conversations with Mr. Trump about the matters that are squarely within the scope of the select committee's investigation, and the Department of Justice's investigation.

We know that he pushed back on some of the wildest theories including the stop the steal, and election fraud theories. We have reason to believe he knew there was impending violence, prior to January 6th. Obviously, we knew he was horrified by what he saw on January 6th.

He may possess percipient knowledge and be able to put words in Trump's mouth, which is the key really to potential progress by the Department of Justice, attributing knowledge to the president at key junctures, he should be able to do that, but we also may have to manage our expectations because as it has been reported, the committee has agreed to place limits on what Mr. Cipollone will testify to, including direct conversations with the president, which is kind of where the rubber hits the road here.

So, we'll have to see how it all shakes out. But fingers crossed that we will be able to move the evidentiary needle with his appearance today.

KEILAR: Because he's not exactly a hostile witness, but he's not the most cooperative one, say compared to a Cassidy Hutchinson that we have seen. So how is that going to play into this, how much discretion does he have to say, no, I'm not going to talk about this, that and the other thing and what does the committee have to push back on that, David?

LAUFMAN: Well, they already agreed to ground rules. We don't have a lot of visibility no what they are. "The Washington Post" I think reported that as in his April interview, the committee has agreed to place limits on what he'll be asked to testify to, including as reported direct conversations with the president. But there was a carve-out apparently in April for conversations on January 6th, so we'll just have to wait to see, you know, what he agreed to testify to, and what they agreed he doesn't have to testify to.

He's not going to be able to assert attorney/client privilege, the president wasn't his personal client. His client was the government of the United States, the office of the presidency. I don't think he's likely to be able to invoke executive privilege. That's a privilege held by the sitting occupant of the White House, President Biden, not by the former occupant.

So there may be a bit of a tug of war, but think at the end of the day, what he was looking for was a subpoena, sometimes referred to as a friendly subpoena, though I don't think he viewed it as particularly friendly here to give him ground cover with other conservatives. He had to come forward today, facing a subpoena. He didn't want to litigate this.

This is a guy who is a prominent member of the Washington bar. He wants to have a career ahead of him in practicing law. He wants to be able to attract clients. He wants to enjoy the esteem of his fellow members of the bar and I think he assessed it was in his best interest to come forward now.

BERMAN: He did agree to have it videotaped, which does indicate at least he's okay with the American people seeing everything that he has to say, maybe even wants them to see it. One has to wonder.

David Laufman -- go ahead.

LAUFMAN: He knows how this movie is going to go. He knows the committee is going to assemble the greatest hits cassette tapes of his testimony and use it strategically as they have in other hearings.

BERMAN: Yeah. Maybe he wants the American people to see that.

David Laufman, thank you very much.

So we are minutes away now from this month's highly anticipated jobs report. We're going to give you a breakdown on what it says, ahead.

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