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New Day Saturday
Russia And U.S. Disagree Over Trump-Putin Meddling Talk; Soon: Trump, Xi Meet On Strategy For North Korea Threat; Ivanka Helps Launch Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative; Tensions Hang Over Trump's Meeting With Chinese President; Hamburg Police Send In Reinforcements Due To Protests; Russia and U.S. Disagree Over Trump-Putin Meddling Talk; Economy Beats Expectations, Adds 220K Jobs in June; On the Front Lines of the Battle for Raqqa; Which World Leader is the Most Macho?. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired July 08, 2017 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:00:09]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president confronted Vladimir Putin on U.S. concerns that Russia meddled in last year's election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Putin denied such involvement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a single fact has been presented.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's going very well. Look forward to a lot of very positive things happening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He used the language that this concerns the American people. He never said as far as we know that this concerns him. What's troublesome is that it does not appear that it is his concern.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This continued well into the night on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Melania Trump was on lockdown as protests raged outside her hotel. By dinner time the Trumps emerged. The first lady's companion was none other than Vladimir Putin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. A critical moment for President Trump on the world stage. In just a few hours in fact, the president will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping hoping to use the company's leverage to stop North Korea's ballistic missile program. However, the meeting comes as tensions are rising over U.S. military action near China. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And President Trump just announced plans to mint a new trade deal with the U.K. very, very quickly, he says, but as the president tries to talk trade, he cannot escape the questions about Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'd like to thank Prime Minister May for being with us. We've had tremendous talks. There's no country that could possibly be closer than our countries. And I just want to say thank you very much.
We are working on a trade deal which is a very, very big deal, great for both countries and I think we'll have that done very, very quickly. We have all of our trade people, we have all of the trade people, Rex and I had a tremendous meeting yesterday with President Putin and we've had really great meetings with a lot of people.
We're having a lot today, but Prime Minister May and I have developed a very special relationship and I think trade will be a very big factor between our two countries so I want to thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, did the Russians lie about your meeting yesterday?
(CROSSTALK)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I will be going to London, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When will you be going, sir?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We'll work that out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: That question you heard there on the heels of another, he said the president has found himself in Russia's foreign minister telling journalists that the president accepted Mr. Putin's word that the kremlin was not involved in the 2016 election. A senior Trump administration official immediately denied that claim.
We have a team of reporters and political analysts around the globe standing by. Let's begin with CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta live in Hamburg, Germany.
Jim, there is a pretty serious discrepancy here in the accounts of this meeting with Putin. Tell us more about how the administration is responding.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. As a matter of fact, we did hear from a senior administration official who said that no, the president did not accept Vladimir Putin's claim of noninterference in last year's election, but it is one of the big questions coming out of this historic meeting here at the G20.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: President Putin and I have been discussing various things and I think it's going very well.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Just after the cameras were kicked out of the room, President Trump reportedly did what many of his critics saw as unthinkable.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm delighted to be able to meet you personally.
ACOSTA: The president confronted Vladimir Putin on U.S. concerns that Russia meddled in last year's election. During a meeting that ran much longer than expected, two hours and 15 minutes, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the president raised the issue repeatedly.
REX TILLERSON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The president pressed President Putin on more than one occasion regarding Russian involvement. President Putin denied such involvement as I think he has in the past.
ACOSTA: Briefing reporters off-camera, Tillerson the two leaders never came to an agreement on the issue of interference.
TILLERSON: What the two presidents I think rightly focused on is how do is how we do move forward? How do we move forward from here? Because it's not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed upon resolution of that question between the two nations, so the question is what do we do now?
ACOSTA: But that's not exactly how the Russians described it. Speaking to reporters on camera, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the president accepted Putin's denials.
[06:05:07]SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): President Trump said he heard Putin's very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government did not interfere in the elections and that he accepts these statements. That's all.
ACOSTA: Lavrov said Putin complained he is still waiting on proof of Russian meddling.
LAVROV (through translator): Not a single fact has been presented and this is something that has been acknowledged by the people in Congress.
ACOSTA: A senior administration official told CNN President Trump did not accept Putin's denials. Still the president's decision to press Putin on interference is a significant shift. Just a day ago in Poland, the president continued to express doubts about Russian meddling contradicting his own intelligence community.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think it was Russia and I think it could have been other people in other countries. Could have been a lot of people interfered. ACOSTA: And hours before his meeting with Putin, Mr. Trump continued to blame others, slamming former Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta, tweeting, "Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful."
Podesta who had no ability to turn over the DNC computer server to investigators as he was heading Clinton's campaign responded, "Get a grip, man. The Russians committed a crime when they stole my e-mails to help get you elected president."
As for the president's meeting with Putin, there was some harmony.
TILLERSON: There was a very clear positive chemistry between the two.
ACOSTA: Both leaders agreed to work to deescalate hostilities in Syria. A pledge to continue discussions on Russian aggression in Ukraine. That may not be enough for European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who appeared to flash an eye roll during her own exchange with Putin.
Mr. Trump had other meetings at the G20 that made way such as this sit-down with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. The president spared any diplomatic niceties when he was asked whether he still expects Mexico to pay for a wall on the border. Absolutely, he said.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, one of the other big questions that need to be resolved coming out of this G20 Summit is just what the president thinks about these conversations about Russian meddling and last year's election.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Christi and Victor, said that the president was essentially passing on the concerns of the American people, expressing some of his frustrations according to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
That does not tell us whether or not the president feels like the U.S. intelligence community feels that Russia definitively meddled in last year's election. We'll have to find out whether he is asked that question later on today.
As you noted in that spray that bilateral spray with the British Prime Minister May, he did not answer that question whether the Russians lied. There will be some other opportunities potentially for the president to be asked this question.
He's going to be sitting down with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later on this afternoon and Chinese President Xi, as you mentioned. Of course, because of those two meetings, North Korea will certainly be on the agenda as the president holds these meetings with the other world leaders here at the G20 Summit. He'll be wrapping that up heading back to Washington within the next 24 hours. Guys, back to you.
BLACKWELL: All right. Jim Acosta for us there in Hamburg, thanks so much. PAUL: What's noticeable here is the kremlin having an entirely different view of their meeting with President Trump than the U.S. did. Let's go to CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson. He is live for us in Moscow. Ivan, what is the narrative you're hearing there?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Russian officials seem delighted with this meeting saying you've got a top leader here in Moscow saying it was a breakthrough. You've got media reporting that the bilateral meeting has eclipsed and overshadowed the entire G20 Summit.
Then we have these divergent accounts of the actual one-on-one, face- to-face meeting with the Russian top diplomat coming out and basically putting words in President Trump's mouth.
Saying for example as we just heard from Jim that President Trump accepted Vladimir Putin's denials of any meddling in the November 2016 presidential election and going one step further and claiming that President Trump said certain groups in the U.S. are trying to fan to inflame the topic of Russian interference in the U.S. elections ostensibly for domestic political gain.
And as we heard from Jim, then you had to have a White House official speaking unnamed denying that version of accounts. There are other areas where the two sides did agree on setting up a local cease fire in Southwestern Syria in that awful civil war.
Other areas where they disagree namely North Korea. The Russian position is that North Korea did not fire an intercontinental ballistic missile. They insist it was a medium range ballistic missile despite claims to the contrary by both North Korea and the U.S. military -- Victor and Christi.
PAUL: All right. Ivan Watson, appreciate the update. Thank you.
[06:10:05]BLACKWELL: All right, let's bring in now Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor for Spectrum News, and Kelly Jane Torrance, deputy editor at the "Weekly Standard." Good morning to you.
So Errol, let me start with you and this discrepancy. On one side you have President Trump who has late as Thursday could not say absolutely that the Russians meddled in the 2016 election.
On the other side, you have Lavrov, who according to the U.S. intelligence community is just flat-out lying about the denial of interference in the election. What's the significance of the discrepancy and does one have more credibility on this than the other?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the discrepancy is the result among other things about having an American administration that has consistently not been clear about what they think happened.
So you know, if -- if Lavrov says well, the president said that he thinks that, you know, it's unclear what the source of the meddling was or where it came from or whether it was really the Russians that is consistent with what the president said even the day before.
To make things a little bit more difficult from the point of view of the credibility of the Trump administration's version of the facts is that ridiculous tweet about John Podesta. Everyone here is talking about it. Who does he mean by everyone?
It's safe to say that most of the foreign diplomats in the G20 have no idea who John Podesta was or what that relatively narrow point from the 2016 election, which is almost a year ago now, what significance it might have been on this very critical question.
So I think the Trump administration just by being unclear, by having that nonsense tweet and by failing to actually have a straightforward on camera briefing with reporters right after the meeting sort of did themselves no favor.
BLACKWELL: So Kelly, let me come to you on this new ceasefire that was announced. This is not the first ceasefire that would have been brokered between the U.S. and Russia. There was one that was announced about ten months ago that lasted three days. What's the significance of this one? Put it into context.
KELLY JANE TORRANCE, DEPUTY EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": Exactly. You know, as soon as I heard big news out of the Trump Putin meeting, there is a Syrian ceasefire agreement, I thought, well, how long is this one going to last?
As you said, the last one, three days, and you know, I remember John Kerry at the time Trumpeting that ceasefire agreement and it did not last. And you're saying, hey, this is one of the big things that came out of the U.S. meeting with Putin is we got a ceasefire agreement.
Well, I don't expect it to last and let's face it. One of the reasons that the Syrian civil war has escalated is because of Russian's involvement. Russian involvement on behalf of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
And you know, we have a pretty good idea that the Russians have been involved in some pretty nasty things in Syria. They have helped bomb civilians it looks like and I wonder, did President Trump bring that up with Vladimir Putin?
BLACKWELL: Speaking of this new cooperation, Lavrov and Tillerson announced this bilateral working group on many things, Errol, one of them being cyber security. I want you to look at what we heard from Adam Schiff who's ranking Democrat on House Intelligence.
He said, "It tacitly adopts the fiction that the Russians are a constructive partner on the subject instead of the worst actor on the world stage." Your reaction to this new working group.
LOUIS: Yes that -- that's well put. I mean, what I was thinking was it was a working group made up of say the cops and the burglars to investigate crime, to investigate theft would be an odd sort of formation. In this case what has consistently been missing in this whole conversation has been does the United States in the form of the Trump administration acknowledge that the crime even happened?
And everything that they've said is we'll have to agree to disagree on the basic facts although the U.S. intelligence agencies, the relevant agencies have been crystal clear repeatedly and publicly.
Once you decide that you're going to, you know, sort of shuffle this off to a committee and work with the very perpetrators of this important sort of destructive act, it's a way of really trying to bury the entire issue which is not going to stop the investigation.
So it means that the congressional investigations, it means that the special council that's looking into this is going to have to be the place where this gets resolved, not in this new committee.
BLACKWELL: So just a few moments ago, President Trump announced a $50 million pledge to a World Bank initiative to offer financing to women entrepreneurs around the world. I want you to listen to what the president said just a few months ago in April.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We enriched foreign countries at the expense of our own country, the great United States of America, but those days are over. I'm not and I don't want to be the president of the world. I'm the president of the United States. And from now on, it's going to be America first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So agree with the investment or do not? We'll put that aside. Is there a discrepancy here between this $50 million pledge and the president who said I'm not the president of Paris, I'm not here to represent Paris, I'm here to represent Pittsburgh, America first.
TORRANCE: Definitely. It is -- you know, we have to mention of course that this fund was the brain child of Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, and we've gotten so many mixed signals out of this White House.
And we've heard the president's daughter is saying that, you know, basically implying that she's a moderate, she's trying to moderate her father and he's kind of going along with it when it suits him.
But to me what's incredible is what an opportunity President Trump had at this G20 Summit and his meeting with Vladimir Putin to finally, you know, answer some of his critics who have been -- I mean, this Russian stuff has been dogging him since the beginning, since he was elected.
And imagine if he had had a strong on camera statement to Vladimir Putin saying, listen, we know you did this, it's not acceptable. He would have silenced his critics. What an incredible opportunity and instead we are hearing the kind of double talk on, you know, just about every issue that he's discussed at this meeting.
BLACKWELL: It's important to point out that we've heard Secretary Tillerson's account of what the president said. We have not heard the president say anything about Russia meddling since Thursday when he was non-committal saying it could have been Russia, it could have been other countries as well. Kelly Jane Torrance, Errol Louis, thanks so much.
PAUL: There's a new CNN documentary exploring the question, did Russian President Vladimir Putin use his power to help elect Donald Trump. You can catch this CNN special report, "The Most Powerful Man in the World." It's tonight at 10:00 Eastern only here on CNN.
BLACKWELL: Also, a key meeting for President Trump in just a few hours. Can he convince the Chinese president to help with North Korea?
PAUL: Also, a CNN exclusive for you. Our team is the first to get inside the walls of the self-declared ISIS capital. We're on the front lines as U.S. backed forces fight to regain the city.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The progress here marking potentially the last time that ISIS can say they hold a city in Syria.
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[06:21:32]
BLACKWELL: The United States military is sending a message to North Korea after its latest missile test. Two U.S. bombers flew around the Korean Peninsula overnight as part of a 10-hour military drill with South Korean and Japanese air forces.
The commanding general says it was a warning to Kim Jong-un that the U.S. and its allies are ready to unleash the "full lethal capability" of their air forces. The U.S. also plans to test its missile defense system. It's also known as THAAD.
This is going to happen in the next few days we are told. Defense officials tell CNN the test is not a direct response to North Korea's latest test although the system is designed to defend against missile threats. Shorter distance than the ICBM but still this can be taken in that context.
PAUL: These drills come as President Trump prepares to meet with the Chinese president at the G20 Summit a little bit later this morning. We will have that for you when it happens.
But Secretary of Rex Tillerson says the U.S. is still hoping China can help solve the situation in North Korea. President Trump contends he's ready to go it alone if he has to. Can the allies find some common ground here? Here's CNN's Andrew Stevens. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: A man that I've gotten to like and respect --
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was hailed as a budding bromance. All smiles as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump met at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in April.
A key issue for the two leaders, North Korea. Trump famously said he'd listen to Xi explain Chinese-Korean history to him for 10 minutes and it made him realize it's not what you would think.
But in the months since Trump's had a lesson in real politics. This week's missile test showing that North Korea, the U.S. and China are still miles apart.
TONG ZHAO, FELLOW, CARNEGIE NUCLEAR POLICY PROGRAM: The issue is North Korea is quickly becoming a major barrier in a bilateral relationship between Washington and Beijing. Both countries see North Korea as a major headache. They both want to resolve it very earnestly, but the issue is they are not on the same page about how to most effectively deal with North Korea.
STEVENS: Trump appears to believe that China is still the key to controlling North Korea judging from his tweets on China over the past few days. China is North Korea's closest and main trading partner and Trump wants China to apply more economic pressure on Kim Jong-un.
China says it had implemented U.N. sanctions including blocking coal exports from North Korea, which cuts off a key source of hard currency for the Kim regime. The U.S. says that's not enough and the bromance has been turning sour.
President Xi this week complaining of, quote, "negative factors," which are complicating the U.S./China relationship. China is dismayed with a recent U.S. arms deal with Taiwan, U.S. sanctions on a Chinese bank with alleged ties to North Korea, and the U.S. Navy sailing through disputed waters in the South China Sea claimed by China as its own.
GLENN SHIVE, DIRECTOR OF HONG KONG - AMERICA CENTER: So we're almost at the end of a honeymoon. They're doing things that are now getting under China's skin. So it's a combined sort of now we like you, but on the other hand, now we're going to press you. And as if to say, we can manipulate China into behaving the way we want to. I don't think that works too well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is not the way to play China.
[06:25:02]SHIVE: I don't think so. I don't think China especially now Xi Jinping has to look strong, has to look consistent, and has to be the man of stability. He's not going to do something that is at Trump's bidding.
STEVENS: China is also clear that it does not want regime change in North Korea. ZHAO: The dilemma is as follows. In order for economic sanction to be able to force North Korea to denuclearize. The sanction has to be so tough that it directly threaten the stability of economic system and therefore threaten the stability of the regime.
STEVENS: Andrew Stevens, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Well, more than 200 police officers have been injured in a second day of violent protests outside the G20 Summit in Hamburg.
BLACKWELL: This comes after thousands of protesters set fires there in the streets. They've looted, attacked police with rockets and bottles. Police in turn fired water cannons and this all went into the crowds here.
They've even called in reinforcement from across the country to help. CNN senior international correspondent, Atika Shubert, is in Hamburg with more. Just about noon there, a little afternoon where you are. How are things now?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, things so far are a very festive atmosphere. You're right. We saw cars burning last night, quite a bit of looting, a number of people injured but today is a very different atmosphere.
This is the "Solidarity Without Borders" march and there are thousands of people taking to the streets. This will be by far the biggest protest. I'm going to ask my cameraman to lift up his camera so you can see the crowds, how far back they stretch and it's a mix of people here.
We have anti-capitalist groups. We have environmental activists. We also have Kurdish nationalists all marching along here today and it's not the only protest. There is also another protest marching through the city so there will be a lot of people on the street and a lot of riot police as well.
Thousands of police are out here to try and keep it calm, hopefully that stays the case. So far we don't see any of those protesters that have triggered some of the violence in other demonstrations and so the hope is this festive atmosphere will keep on for the rest of the day.
BLACKWELL: All right. Atika Shubert for us there in Hamburg. Atika, thanks so much.
All right. Protesters we told you angry about health care. We've talked about this weekend as the Senate will go back to session in just two days. Will this bill move forward? We're hearing that Mitch McConnell says he may have to work with Democrats.
PAUL: And that was a surprise to the White House, the White House said. So we'll talk about that.
Also you know, President Trump is meeting this morning with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He already sat down with Russian President Vladimir Putin, of course. What has to be said now? We'll talk about that in just a moment.
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[06:32:22] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to your weekend. So glad to have you with us here. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.
President Trump still has many meetings with world leaders on the final day of the G-20 in Hamburg before he heads back to Washington.
PAUL: First up today British Prime Minister Teresa May. President Trump talked about the bond between the two countries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Prime Minister May and I have developed a very special relationship and I think trade will be a very big factor between our two countries so I want to thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, did the Russians lie about your meeting yesterday?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So you heard the questions being shouted. That meeting came a day after the head liner that the president's more than two hour discussion with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and both sides have their own versions of what happened.
PAUL: And meanwhile there is another high stakes meeting looming later this morning. President Trump sitting down with Chinese president Xi Jinping before returning to Washington, most likely talking trade there as well as North Korea, but he'll be leaving protests behind in Hamburg.
Take a look at the pictures we're getting in here of what's been happening, some of which have turned violent. More than 200 officers, in fact, have been injured.
And I want to share with you some of the pictures we're just getting in from the happenings there in Hamburg this morning. Moments ago President Trump meeting with his Indonesian counterpart, (INAUDIBLE), there and we have another meeting here, I believe with -- well, we do know that President Putin did meet also earlier this morning with the Turkish President Erdogan.
And here's the thing we're talking about what's happened in the last 24 hours. There are two very different narratives coming out of what happened in the meeting behind closed doors with President Trump and President Putin. What Russia is saying is very different from what the U.S. is saying in terms of the takeaway. BLACKWELL: Yes. Let's go to CNN international diplomatic editor Nic
Robertson. And again, you know, we're hearing from President Trump who really has never been committed to that Russian interference in the election and from Lavrov who the U.S. intelligence community says is defending the underlying lie that Russia was involved.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and there was an opportunity to ask Lavrov questions again today and he was asked about the difference of interpretation of what came out of that meeting, and he said -- well, the question was clear to him who to trust, you or the Americans? And he said trust Lavrov, I don't work for Tillerson. That was his answer.
[06:35:02] But it fell to the White House to answer a question late last night, why was it that the Kremlin and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had two different accounts of what happened in that meeting.
We were told that President Trump put to President Putin concerns of Americans, not his own concerns but concerns of Americans of the meddling in the elections, and that the -- Secretary Tillerson said that they realized there was an impasse over there. They weren't going to re-litigate the past and President Trump decided to move on because they were -- he was getting on well with President Putin and they just saw it better to work on the future rather than to go over that issue.
You know, Putin told Trump, we're told by Secretary Tillerson, that he wasn't involved and that Russia wasn't involved in the meddling in the U.S. elections. But the Russian interpretation of that was that that statement was accepted by President Trump and the White House has said no, that wasn't correct. It wasn't accepted by President Trump, so a clear difference of explanation there, and therefore, you know, many people are left wondering what really went on in there and that's why all the questions were being shouted out to President Trump at the end of the meeting there he had with the British Prime Minister Theresa May which is something we've become familiar with because there was no White House press briefing on camera.
Afterwards Secretary Tillerson off-camera, on audio, taking journalists' questions and answering. But that's why there were the follow-ups and all those shouted -- many shouted questions to President Trump this morning.
PAUL: All right. Nic Robertson, so appreciate the update. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Senator Mitch McConnell's suggestion about holding bipartisan talks on a new health care bill comes as a bit of a surprise to the White House. Officials tell CNN some in the White House were caught off-guard by his comments earlier this week.
Right now lawmakers are in recess, but some are facing their constituents back home. The majority leader told Kentuckians, if Republicans cannot do it on their own, some other kind of action must occur. PAUL: In the meantime want to take you to Ohio here. Several
demonstrators, some of them disability activists, were arrested at Republican Senator Rob Portman's office. They've been protesting against the GOP health care bill since Thursday. Officers dragged away people who blocked the building's doors there.
And House Speaker Paul Ryan, by the way, back in his home state telling residents he expects senators to resume working on passing a new health care bill as soon as possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Let's have a system that stabilizes the health care marketplace. Let people buy what they want to buy, give people an advance refundable tax credit to go buy health insurance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: Lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill, by the way, next week.
BLACKWELL: All right. The stock market got a little jump from the latest jobs report. Closed nearly 100 points higher yesterday following news that 222,000 jobs were added in June.
PAUL: The Trump administration touting the report, exceeding well expectations. Unemployment did tick up slightly, but CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans breaks the numbers down for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, companies were hiring at a pretty brisk pace at the end of the spring and into the early summer. You can see in June 222,000 net new jobs created and the prior two months were revised higher from earlier government forecasts so this shows a robust clip of job creation.
When you look at the unemployment rate it's still near the lowest since 2001. It ticked up just a little bit to 4.4 percent. That number is still historically low and the reason why it ticked up is because some 350,000 people even a little more than that came off the sidelines and started looking for work.
So an increase in the unemployment rate for the right reason because people feel emboldened by what they're hearing from friends and family, what they're seeing on the news about the job market and they're ready to go and try to find a job again.
It was pretty broad based, big gains in jobs. Another thousand jobs created in manufacturing. Over seven months now, you've seen a little bit of renewed activity in the manufacturing sector because of a weak dollar and good global growth. The food and bar, bar and restaurant jobs another 29,000 of those. That's maybe a sign that, you know, consumers are spending and companies have to hire people to wait on them and serve them. And business and information services, these tend to be higher paid
office jobs, some of these are technology, consulting jobs. These jobs -- a good job creation there. And in health care we saw very good job creation in health care. That is something that has been a year's long trend overall.
Where does this stack up in President Trump's promise to create 25 million jobs over the next 10 years? Well, if you could do this every single month you'd get there. How does it stack up to what we've seen in past years? It's a continuation really of a trend of strong growth over the past few years and you can see here 863,000 jobs created in the U.S. from February to June. Just a little bit shy of the strong jobs creation we've seen the two prior years -- Victor and Christi.
[06:40:06] BLACKWELL: All right. Christine, thanks so much.
Let's turn now to a major milestone in the fight against ISIS in Syria. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has an exclusive look inside ISIS' de facto capital now surrounded by U.S. and rebel forces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are now inside the old city walls of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate and the territory in which they will make their final stand in Syria and really the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Forty-five minutes past the hour right now and we have for you a CNN exclusive on the front lines of the war against ISIS. Our teams were the first journalists to travel inside the wall surrounding Raqqa, Syria. It's an area that U.S. backed forces took back from ISIS control just days ago and this marks a major milestone in the ongoing battle to drive ISIS militants out of their self-declared capital.
[06:45:02] So here's CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh's exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are now inside the old city walls of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate and the territory in which they will make their final stand in Syria and really the Middle East.
That wall a key milestone for coalition forces and the Syrian Kurds and Arabs who now control fully about 200 or 300 meters inside of the old city here. Down that way, 200 meters, are ISIS' positions. The forces here don't move around much in the daylight because of the risk of ISIS snipers, less so in these streets. But it's at night where the majority of the movement forward is, in fact, made. We have seen U.S. forces here, not far from these positions, anxious
not to be filmed or even noticed, frankly, but we understand it's them calling in the airstrikes and often the artillery that's allowing these forces to move forward, frankly, so quickly.
I have been surprised how little of the city ISIS apparently are in right now, an area possibly 1.5 to three miles in terms of size, so, increasingly small in the terrain that they hold, but as we saw in Mosul in Iraq, civilians apparently held in their midst unable to flee because of the ISIS snipers, a real impediment for these Syrian, Kurdish and Arab fighters, but still the progress here marking potentially the last time that ISIS can say they hold a city in Syria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: All right, Nick. Thanks for that report.
Let's go to Japan now where storms there have turned deadly. At least 15 people have died from floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains. More than a dozen people are missing. Tens of thousands are being evacuated from the area.
This monster storm has really forced the rivers to burst their banks, destroyed buildings. Look at this. The roads there impassable. Rescuers are working through thick mud to try to reach the stranded survivors.
Police in Florida now say Venus Williams lawfully entered the intersection before last month's fatal crash.
Andy Scholes joins us now with more. What have we learned?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, the police are calling the accident an ongoing investigation. And new surveillance video is helping them determine what happened.
We'll show you that video coming up in this morning's "Bleacher Report."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:51:23] BLACKWELL: Police in Florida now say Venus Williams lawfully entered the intersection before last month's fatal collision.
PAUL: And there's video now of the accident that's been released.
Andy Scholes has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report." You've seen it. What's your take?
SCHOLES: Yes -- well, it's interesting. We now have a visual of what, you know, Venus' lawyers has said that happened all along. And guys, you know, Venus was originally determined to be at fault in that car accident that killed a 78-year-old man but police in Florida say this is an ongoing investigation and new video evidence proved that Venus did lawfully enter that intersection. Now Palm Beach Gardens police releasing a statement yesterday, along
with this surveillance video of the accident. Now in the video it shows Venus entered the intersection lawfully and was forced to stop because a car turned in front of her. That's when a car driven by Linda Barson went through a green light and struck Venus' vehicle.
Now Barson's husband Jerome was killed in the crash. Venus was not cited for the accident. The Barsons' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Williams, citing negligence.
Now Venus meanwhile moving on at Wimbledon. She was the only American to advance on Friday beating Naomi Osaka in straight sets. Venus is going to play again Monday in the round of 16.
All right. Bethanie Mattek-Sands tweeting for the first time since her horrific Wimbledon injury earlier in the week. Mattek-Sands, one of the most popular players on the tour, received an outpouring of support after going down during her match. Now she tweeted, "To the best family, friends and fans a girl could ask for it's been a painful and emotional 36 hours but thank you for all of the love and support."
Now Mattek-Sands also says she's be doing a Facebook live at 8:00 Eastern this morning to give an update on her injury.
Finally the Yankees young slugger Aaron Judge at it again last night. The 6' 7" right fielder hitting his league leading 30th homerun of the season and with that homerun Judge also breaking Joe DiMaggio's record for most homeruns by a Yankees' rookie that he set way back in 1936 and Judge did it in the first half of the season.
PAUL: Wow.
SCHOLES: The 25-year-old from California also join us Mark Maguire, the only two rookies to have 30 homeruns before the all-star break.
Guys, you know, people say Judge is the best young Yankee slugger since Mickey Mantle.
PAUL: Wow.
SCHOLES: That's how high some people are on this guy. He's definitely making Yankees baseball fun to watch.
PAUL: Love (INAUDIBLE), though. All right. Thanks, Andy.
BLACKWELL: Thanks.
SCHOLES: All right.
BLACKWELL: All right. Question here, why is France's new president Emmanuel Macron being compared to James Bond?
PAUL: And why not Victor?
BLACKWELL: I know. Right?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:57:54] PAUL: Live pictures for you here of crowds gathering for another day of protest as the G-20 summit wraps up in Hamburg, Germany.
BLACKWELL: French President Emmanuel Macron is being compared to legendary British spy James Bond. Well, maybe it could be the way he was airlifted aboard this sub. That's one possible reason.
PAUL: And depending on who you would put in this category, that may depend on which world leader you find to be the most macho.
Here's Jeanne Moss.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pick the most testosterone fueled leader. Is it President Putin? President Trump? Or is it France's new 39-year-old president after tweeting out a photo of himself being lowered from a chopper to the deck of a French nuclear sub? Comparisons were made.
SEAN CONNERY, ACTOR: Bond. James Bond.
MOOS: "My name is Macron. Emmanuel Macron," one tweet. OK, it was a winch, not a jet pack. But still President Macron dressed in a naval uniform and took part in a missile launch simulation, a periscope, tweeted someone, "Coming soon, president drops in on International Space Station, snaps selfie."
Macron first established his testosterone-cred by practically arm wrestling President Trump during a handshake.
PRES. EMMANUEL MACRON, FRANCE: Thank you very much.
MOOS: Of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin had his mini-sub photo-op long ago. He's been fishing and riding horses bare-chested for years. His naked torso has become a regular on "SNL."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Putin is going to make everything OK.
MOOS: The real Putin has been hand-gliding with cranes, tagging tigers.
(On camera): It's as if world leaders are trying to out-macho each other, even if Canada's prime minister was only joking with his pushup.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boom.
MOOS: It doesn't hurt to know that he can actually do this.
The Trump handshake is his signature tough guy move, surpassed only by the time he pushed Montenegro's prime minister out of the way, but holding a golf club isn't nearly as high in testosterone as holding a gun and compared to being airlifted onto a sub at sea --
