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World Remembers Queen Elizabeth II, 96; Trump to Respond after DOJ Appeals Judge's 'Special Master' Ruling. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Friday, September 9. I'm Don Lemon live in London. Brianna Keilar joins us from Washington, D.C. John Berman is in New York City.

[06:00:29]

This is CNN's special live coverage of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the only British monarch most of the world has ever known.

Let's look live now at some pictures of Buckingham Palace. A steady flow of mourners have been gathering since the news broke yesterday that the queen had died at the age of 96. She was beloved, and she was revered, here in Great Britain and also around the world. Many mourners bringing flowers and lighting candles, some even crying, others singing "God save the queen" in the London rain.

Look at all those flowers outside of Buckingham Palace.

The world joins them in mourning today, from New York City to Tel Aviv to Sydney, Australia. Lights are shining, flags are flying at half- staff, honoring the queen's seven decades on the throne.

Her reign spanned 14 U.S. presidents, seven popes, 15 British prime ministers. She visited more than 100 countries through the decades.

And this morning there is a new refrain in Great Britain. That refrain is, "Long live the king." Elizabeth's oldest son, Charles, now ascends to the throne. From this day forward, he is now King Charles III.

He will be speaking soon to his grieving nation and has already requested a royal mourning period lasting until seven days after her funeral.

And this is just into CNN. Prince Harry seen boarding a flight at Aberdeen Airport in Scotland earlier this morning. He rushed to his grandmother's home at Balmoral Castle yesterday, where other members of the royal family had gathered. So the family all gathering to honor the longest queen that most folks have ever known here.

So let's bring back CNN anchor Max Foster; also Simon Lewis, who served as the queen's communications secretary from 1998 to 2000.

Hello to both of you. Thank you for joining us. It's good to see you. Good to see you. Wish it it was under better circumstances.

Max, I'm going to start with you, because you have the news on what we can expect today.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: So we're going to start seeing a lot of the ceremonies start taking place. The bells will toll at Westminster Abbey in about an hour. There will be a special session of Parliament, where politicians can express their condolences to the queen.

And just in the park here there will be gun salutes, as well, at 1 p.m., so about an hour after that.

A special service at St. Paul's today, we expect, and also that crucial address to the nation from King Charles, which will be his most as king. And imagine the pressure he must feel the day after his mother died.

LEMON: Yes. And king now.

FOSTER: Yes.

LEMON: I mean, quite a title. The crown is heavy.

FOSTER: Well, it's interesting hearing people singing the national anthem, and they're singing "God save the king" instead of "God save the queen," which is quite an extraordinary moment. And it reminds us that so much will change.

The national anthem has changed. You know, the face on the bank notes, on the passports, on -- the queen was head of judiciary. She was a member -- she was part of Parliament. She was head of the government, you know, the head of the armed forces, everything in terms of the language will change now, and it will be replaced by King Charles III.

LEMON: Yes. What's interesting is we talked about Prince Harry, you know, at the airport coming back to London. It's not just, you know, I was about to say Prince Charles. It's not just King Charles. There are other members of the royal family that people are interested in what they're doing. They will play a role in this grieving process and in the ceremonies to come, in the days to come.

FOSTER: Yes. So I think King, you know, King Charles is expected back in London today. I think typically, he would be expected, wouldn't he, to maybe look at the flowers. I think that we'll see him today, and that will be a very powerful moment.

But we'll also hear from other members of the family. So Charles' siblings but also, crucially, Prince William. We would expect to hear a tribute from him. Very close to the queen, absolutely revered the queen, modeled his whole career, I'd say, on the queen.

So that's going to be a very powerful moment, I think.

And then, of course, all the tributes coming in from all over the world. She was head of state in 15 countries. LEMON: You spent a lot of time with the queen.

SCOTT LEWIS, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS SECRETARY FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II: Yes, I was privileged to work for the queen for two years, 1998 to 2000. And just listening to that, the thing that, of course, matters is everything has been meticulously planned. And the emotional side is one thing, but the individual funeral plans -- London Bridge as it's known for the late queen -- all these plans were in place.

So what we're seeing now is the working through of these detailed plans. But of course, there's human emotion. The king has lost his last parent. The family is grieving. So it's that combination -- and you referred to the crowds gathering here -- of the kind of reality of constitutional change, but the fact that this is a very human tragedy.

[06:05:06]

LEMON: Well, speaking of the human side of her, you got to spend so much time with her. Take us behind the scenes. We heard about her sense of humor. What -- what was she like, Simon?

LEWIS: She was enormously pragmatic. She was hugely experienced. When I was waiting to be interviewed by the queen, never having met a single member of the royal family, the interview was held for half an hour, and then out came Nelson Mandela. And I'm thinking, well, that's the kind of person she was just used to spending time with.

So that enormous experience, very commonsensical. Also, from my point of view and others, happy to take advice. I think if you're in this kind of role, then you want to have advice and take advice.

I mean, she would sometimes happily reject advice. I remember saying to the queen once, "I've got a great idea, ma'am, for a great event at the Buckingham Palace, and I've thought it through very carefully."

There was a long pause, and she said, "Simon, that's far too grand for us." So --

LEMON: She knew what she wanted.

LEWIS: So she knew what she wanted and a lovely sense of humor.

But also, I think, a great reader of people. You think the 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, have gone to Buckingham Palace -- well, not Liz Truss -- have been to have audiences with the queen. What an extraordinary experience she has and what an extraordinary opportunity for prime ministers to be with someone like that.

LEMON: Did you --

FOSTER: Sorry. Presumably, she'll -- there'll be -- Ms. Truss will have an audience with the king today.

LEWIS: Absolutely. She's already spoken to the king. So His Majesty the King will, I assume, continue the same routine. LEMON: Can you imagine being Liz Truss?

LEWIS: Three days in.

LEMON: Three days in on the job, and this is what you're having to deal with.

LEWIS: And as a country in this week, we've seen a change of government and a change of monarchy. Who would have predicted that could happen in one week?

And I think it's extraordinary and a huge testament to Her Majesty that three days before her passing, she received Boris Johnson. Let's not forget, she receives the outgoing prime minister, and then received Liz Truss and asked her whether she could form a government. And it's only when Liz Truss answered yes, did she then say, I'd like you to be my next prime minister." So these constitutional niceties actually matter.

LEMON: Think about the decades, gentlemen. I mean, you think about the 1950s. As Max and I were talking, listen, she became queen -- she was a young -- people may forget -- a young, beautiful woman. When you, you know, look at the young royals now, she was once a young royal, not just a young royal, she was the queen, right?

Through the 1950s, 1960s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and on into the 2000s, through decolonization, through the civil rights movement in the United States, through wars. And she is the one constant. Think about the life that she's led and the consistency that she has brought to the United Kingdom, the people of the United Kingdom.

LEWIS: And I think the extraordinary thing about it is she imperceptibly changed with the country. If you look back, even in fashion terms to those years and see how her style changed, the way she conducted herself, the programs she had, she was always -- and this was down to her -- she understood her country, I think, and understood the monarch had to represent the country but never too far ahead. I think it was an amazing achievement.

FOSTER: Considering we have nothing in common with her and how she always remained relevant, and that was a lot to do with the media strategy, wasn't it? Bringing in the media and using the media to show herself with crowds, to show herself with people.

And that could have been a threat to the media, but she used it as an opportunity and that allowed her, you know, the Christmas addresses. You know, going into every sitting room. It was always the highest rated show, wasn't it?

LEWIS: And I think it still is, yes. Absolutely right. The royal family completely understands there's a sort of tradeoff here. You can't have an invisible royal family, by definition.

So I think the queen, they understand that the relationship with the media is important. And let's be honest, it fractured following the death of the Princess of Wales, and I think slowly but surely that changed again.

LEMON: Well, I mean, she went from telegrams to this. I mean, she knew to use a phone. And you know, the gentleman that was on earlier telling the funny story about someone taking -- you know, giving her the phone and saying, Can you take a picture of us, and did not -- realizing that it was -- it was the queen.

So we've been looking backwards. Can you take us forward? Both of you gentlemen, take us forward to what it's going to be like here, if you can foretell what a king -- a king of England might be like. What England will be like under a king.

FOSTER: I think it's going to be -- it's going -- you know, in terms of stepping into shoes, it's a huge challenge. And Prince Charles had a very different view to being a royal than he will have now, I think. He reinvented the role of being Prince of Wales, and he professionalized it, and he worked incredibly hard. I mean, if you followed --

LEMON: How did he reinvent it?

FOSTER: So you know, in the past, it was waiting until you were king, and you sort of had a great time until that happened.

He made it a job. And he set up the Prince's Trust very early on. He worked very late into the evenings. I spoke to Camilla once, and she said he's always working. He's always at his desk at night. He was across every detail.

[06:10:07]

And when people talked about, you know, does he want to be king, he actually wanted to complete his work as Prince of Wales. He wasn't in a rush to become king. And now his whole way of treating his job will have to change.

He's going to have to become apolitical. He's not going to get involved in anything. He can't express any opinions anymore. And he said he's going to do that.

There is concern that he will continue expressing opinions and lobbying ministers, which he's done in the past. And that makes him a political figure. But he feels he can put that behind him now and become an independent figure.

LEMON: Two things. One, I'll get to the -- one is do you think that part of it was -- you said he changed the role as being the prince. Is it because of circumstances that were forced upon him because of what happened with Diana and --

FOSTER: No, I think it started all before that, didn't it?

LEWIS: Yes. I think he's effectively had the longest apprenticeship in history. And he's been preparing for this day, let's be frank, for a long, long time. I'm sure he didn't want it to come. So Max said, the Prince's Trust, his commitment to climate change, his

commitment to sustainability, his commitment to the broader environment, these are long-standing passions of his. And I am absolutely certain that that has been fundamental to him creating the role of the modern prince.

LEMON: So the other thing is that why is it considered -- why are people concerned that he may become political? Why is it such a concern to the people here?

FOSTER: Because head of state in the United Kingdom is above politics, has to be out of politics, and it's for politicians to express opinions, effectively.

Also, frankly, the Parliament is the one body that can dethrone him, and if he loses cross-party support, which he can do by making the smallest comment, that's the one thing that's going to get him out of a job.

LEMON: Yes.

LEWIS: And the late queen was absolutely brilliant at remaining above the political fray, and there were some pretty political moments during her reign. So there's a great role model to follow.

FOSTER: I remember when there was a hung Parliament, and no one knew where she was. She wasn't going anywhere near that. Because they were thinking, the only person who's going to sort this out is the queen.

LEMON: You may have had something to do with that, right? Thank you, Simon.

Thank you, Max. We'll see you a bit later, Max. Thank you. We really appreciate you joining us.

Right now, mourners are laying flowers outside of Balmoral Castle. That's where the queen spent her final moments. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was always told by my parents that sometimes when you're with someone that some people die of a broken heart. So I think it has a lot to do with, obviously, the Duke of Edinburgh passing away, as well, this year. So -- it's very sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have -- I'm actually quite upset about it. I've never met her, but I've seen her on the TV and everything like that. She was part of our life, like, for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're from Canada, and she was our queen, too. And it's going to be devastating, because it's like losing your mom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was very good to the country, you know, and it's very sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's always been there since I was a little boy. There's a void. So yes, sad. Prince Charles will do the job, though.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: I want to go now to Isa Soares. She's live outside of Balmoral near the growing memorial. Isa, tell us what the royal family's actions are this morning.

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Don.

I think it's fair to say that it would have been one of the hardest evenings for the royal family, at least the saddest of evenings, of course, given the fact that so many of the closest members of the royal family traveled to Balmoral to be by the queen's side and to grieve, of course, her passing.

What we do know is, of course, that King Charles III and the queen consort, they are still inside Balmoral estate, the 55,000 acres or so of land that she called home and she felt at home.

King Charles is there, King Charles III is there, along with three of his other siblings, as well as Prince William. Prince Harry was there to overnight, but he has left, has made his way to Aberdeen in the last hour and a half or so. It will be incredibly hard for them as you can imagine, but not only have they lost a monarch, but they've also lost a mother and, of course, a grandmother.

But they'll probably take comfort, Don, I think it's fair to say, in the fact that she passed away in a place of beautiful greenery and nature; that she felt truly at home when she walked her corgis, where she went on picnics, where she drove her Land Rover, where she felt like very much herself.

But of course, for Prince Charles III [SIC], Don, the mourning, the grieving continues, but so does the work. The work begins today.

We are expecting King Charles III to leave Balmoral with the queen consort sometime this morning and really -- and start making his way to London, and the hard work then begins.

[06:15:07]

He has a series of engagements, Don, in London with the Privy Council that will then proclaim him as monarch. He will have to go through the funeral plans for the queen, meet the new prime minister, Liz Truss, of course, and as well as address the nation.

So worth bearing in mind for our viewers around the world this is a man, of course, a son who is still grieving, very much grieving, but he now must take on the mantel that his mother so beautifully did for more than -- for some 70 years, Don.

LEMON: Yes. Very well said. Thank you, Isa Soares. I really appreciate that.

John and Brianna, I've just been paying attention to what's in front of me and speaking, you know, to the viewers around the world and not looking over my shoulder. Since I got here maybe an hour or so ago, I mean, the crowds have really grown, not even by the hundreds but by the thousands out here in front of the castle. Unbelievable.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Britons always show their heart outside of Buckingham Castle [SIC] there. We'll be seeing that continuing today.

Don, of course, we'll be getting right back to you here ahead, but our coverage of the life and legacy of the queen continues.

First, though, the Justice Department appealing a judge's decision to appoint a special master to review the evidence seized at Mar-a-Lago.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two Atlanta area sheriff's deputies shot and killed in what officials describe as an ambush. We have the details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Our special coverage from the United Kingdom on the death of Queen Elizabeth continues in just a moment. First, though, a check of some of the other headlines.

Two people were injured in a shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It happened in Uvalde's memorial park about a mile from Robb Elementary School. A mother tells CNN she was in the park with her daughter when the shots rang out.

The girl has posttraumatic stress and depression from the massacre at her school. Police say the park shooting is gang-related. They do have four suspects in custody.

Two sheriff's deputies were killed in what police say was an ambush while serving a warrant at a home just north of Atlanta, following an hours-long standoff with police. Two suspects are in custody this morning.

KEILAR: A Las Vegas journalist who was stabbed to death had the alleged killer's DNA underneath his fingernails. Nevada County official Robert Telles is charged with murder. Reporter Jeff German was investigating Telles when he was killed.

And the Michigan Supreme Court ruling that a citizen-sponsored initiative seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution should be added to the ballot in November.

The Justice Department has appealed a court-ordered special master review of the materials that were seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago, including more than 100 classified documents. It's arguing that the order would put U.S. national security at risk.

Joining us now, Sara Murray, CNN political correspondent, and Elliot Williams CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.

OK, Elliot, first, they're not appealing this outright, so just walk us through what's going on here, because it is a little confusing. ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It is a little confusing. What

they filed was called a notice of appeal that they can appeal it down the road.

But what they did is they said, Look, Judge, there are a few aspects of your opinion that just aren't workable, starting with the fact that we need to do this damage assessment to figure out exactly how national security was harmed here, but you said the FBI can't look at it.

Well, the FBI is a central part of our national security, so how can you make that work?

They point to a few places in the opinion where they just say it's not workable. Rather than saying, You were wrong, they're just saying, Let's just fix this, pause it for a few minutes, and then if we still think you're wrong in a week, we'll appeal it.

BERMAN: And Sara Murray, what's the process here? The Trump team has until 10 a.m. to respond today. Then how does it work from here?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. You know, tonight we are going to get a filing that is from the Trump team, as well as the Justice Department. They still have to put forward these candidates for special master.

The judge has asked the Trump team to sort of weigh in on how you feel about -- how you feel about this potential appeal from the Justice Department.

And then on Monday, they have to file -- the Trump team has to file a more formal response, getting back to, you know, this Justice Department idea that you not, you know, set aside these 100 classified documents, that you still let the Justice Department and national security agencies review them.

KEILAR: So these are government documents, just to be clear. These classified documents, they belong to -- they were originated from the government, highly unusual for anyone, including a president, to walk away with them. What would they have to do, Elliot, with attorney/client privilege or even executive privilege?

WILLIAMS: Well, they're very careful in saying, Look, we can segregate out the classified documents here because of the fact that they're all clearly marked. They say the word "classified" on them.

So even assuming they were President Trump's former -- former President Trump's attorney/client privileged documents, just take them out. Make those subject to the review of the special master.

But the special master has no business poking around these classified documents.

And a line they used throughout this is saying that the president has no, I think it's property, personal or legal interest in these documents, right? That, no matter what you think of the president, no matter what you think of his arguments, the law is abundantly clear that these belong to the government; they belong in the National Archives.

So it's -- it's -- you know, it's almost like a filing for the future. They're just laying out the case that's saying that, you know, some of the -- the law is very clear on a lot of this.

MURRAY: Yes, and they make the point of how sort of irrational it would be to assume that Donald Trump could be the owner of classified documents. They're saying the government is the one who designates these documents as classified. These are documents that are important to our national security.

The sitting commander in chief, who of course, is Joe Biden, is tasked with protecting the country's national security.

[06:25:04]

So the notion that somehow the executive branch and the current president and this current government could not have access to these classified documents just doesn't make sense.

BERMAN: And --

WILLIAMS: I'm sorry.

BERMAN: Now, I was just going to say one of the things that's also interesting about the appeal is that the government is like, you can have your special master. The special master, we're still going ahead with all the appointment of the special master, all the processes in that front, but we just don't think the special master should play in this one area. So it's interesting in the appeal on that.

Sara, I just do want you to explain, while we still have the time, there's another really important legal development involving Donald Trump and people surrounding him, which is we now know there is a grand jury that is investigating the fundraising surrounding the Save America PAC, which was raising money after the election, before the insurrection.

What's going on here? What do you know?

MURRAY: That's right. My colleagues are reporting that there are a number of, you know, former Trump administration officials, folks who are working for this Save American PAC, people who are advising this PAC, who have now gotten subpoenas to appear before a grand jury.

And essentially, what the government wants is more information about the creation of the Save America PAC, the fundraising, the spending, that kind of thing.

This is significant, because we've known the federal government has been investigating what led up to the January 6th riot. We know they've been investigating the rioters. We know that they've been looking into fake electors. But this is the first indication we've gotten that this is spreading to the former president's PAC, which has been his main fundraising vehicle and, of course, has been sending out all of that spam we've been getting, talking about how the election was stolen, donate, donate.

KEILAR: Yes, and look, if you get those emails, Wow, there are a lot of emails that you were getting around that time. You would get many per day. And they were alleging that, you know, the election was illegitimate. So certainly something to watch here.

Sarah hand Elliot, thank you to both of you.

So next, we'll have more on the end of a historic era in the U.K. and the commonwealth. We'll be joined by the former British ambassador to the United States on what's next.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II: I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)