Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

Is Trump Using Department Of Justice As A Political Weapon?; Trump's New Lawyer Giuliani Keeps Contradicting The President; Acid Rain And Ballistic Rocks Threaten Hawaii; Sarah Palin on Senator McCain's Regrets Regarding Running Mate Decision; Iran's Leader Shares Photo Reading "Fire and Fury"; One Week Out Before the Royal Wedding. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired May 12, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:12]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rudy Giuliani at it again. Reportedly says President Trump blocked the proposed AT&T/Time Warner merger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is saying it's not me, it's the DOJ. It's the antitrust division. Rudy is saying the opposite. He's saying the president decided to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump does not like CNN. He doesn't like CNN's parent company, Time Warner, which is who AT&T is trying to buy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not an apology for what Kelly Sadler said about Senator McCain.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not going to comment on an internal staff meeting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president put his foot down and said you will not apologize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't understand what kind of environment you're working in where that would be acceptable, and you can come to work the next day and still have a job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rocks in the steep crater walls are falling into that, and that's creating gas explosions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should just let mother nature do its thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning you to. He's a drama machine. That's how one former biographer is describing the president's new lawyer this morning, and drama is exactly what Rudy Giuliani is causing once again for the White House.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Less than a month into his new role, Giuliani contradicting the federal government and his boss, calling into question the independence of the Justice Department. Will he have to walk back these comments as he's been forced to do multiple times already this month? Here's CNN's Hadas Gold.

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA AND BUSINESS REPORTER: Rudy Giuliani is causing another headache for the White House, and now also the Justice Department this weekend. It's all because of comments he made in an interview with the "Huffington Post."

Giuliani told the "Huffington Post" that whatever lobbying, Michael Cohen, did on behalf of companies like AT&T, who paid him for consulting as we recently learned did not work. Giuliani is the example of AT&T's proposed merger with Time Warner.

Now, the Justice Department blocked that merger, they sued to try and stop it because that they said it would harm consumers. But Giuliani said in his interview with the "Huffington Post" that it was the president who denied that merger.

Now that matters because the Justice Department is supposed to operate independent of the president. They said that they sued to block the merger without any sort of interference from the president or any sort of political bias.

Rudy Giuliani's comments fly in the face of that. And in fact, there was even a sworn affidavit from the head of the Antitrust Division for the Justice Department saying that he was not influenced at all by the president or White House or anybody involved.

But Now Rudy Giuliani is saying that, in fact, Donald Trump himself was the one who denied this merger. The question is what AT&T will do with this information. A judge is currently taking his time deciding whether this merger can go through or not.

We're expecting a decision from him on June 12th. AT&T could issue some new filings on appeal, they could try to bring up this political bias defense. It's really giving them another part of their arsenal that they can bring forward in this defense. At the end of the day, it's another Rudy Giuliani headache for the White House and the Justice Department. Hadas Gold, CNN, Washington.

BLACKWELL: Thank you. Full disclosure Time Warner is CNN's parent company. Now let's talk. We have got "Politico" reporter, Daniel Lippman and CNN legal analyst, Joey Jackson. Daniel, first, good to morning to both of you.

Daniel, on the day of the announcement that Rudy Giuliani was joining the president's legal team, it's almost laughable now to say it, but he told CNN's Dana Bash that his role would be, quote, "limited." His focus would be interfacing with Robert Mueller. It has not been limited. What is Rudy Giuliani doing, and what is he supposed to be doing?

DANIEL LIPPMAN, REPORTER AND CO-AUTHOR OF PLAYBOOK, "POLITICO": He's supposed to be the lawyer for President Trump and trying to deal with Robert Mueller. A man who he knows well over their dealings over the years in the Justice Department. Instead, he's been making pronouncements on Iran, on North Korea, on other issues. And it's almost like he's trying to pretend he's like a secretary of state, a role that he wanted in the Trump administration but was denied. So, this has cause the confusion among our allies and Americans in general paying attention to this because Rudy Giuliani is not talking to the president about these matters, yet he's still pontificating.

BLACKWELL: All right. Joey, I need you to walk a line for us and explain why in the specific the statement the president denied the merger is legally significant. Don't push us too deep into the legal weeds where people are dozing off.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, it's significant. I'll try to keep you awake up this morning. It's 6:00.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

JACKSON: Here's the reality, if you're going to have a Department of Justice, it's a Department of Justice for that very reason, right, because that's what its focus is. As it relates to any merger, you don't punish companies for commercial success, you don't punish companies because of what they're doing and what they bring.

[06:05:09] You look and analyze the merger and see what is the effect on trade, what's its effect on competition? Is it something that's legal? Is it something that's proper? You have commercial statutes that address this.

When you go away from this and it starts to be about motivations that are political, it demeans the process and makes you wonders how independent the judiciary is. We know we have an unconventional president, Victor.

We know certainly he attacks judges, the press, he attacks his enemies. You know, we get that. It's different we understand it. But now you're going to intermeddle, and you are not going to have Justice Department doing what it historically does, which is to analyze something on the merits.

And now get into an issue -- and I should remind you that in terms of discovery, we know lawyers do discovery, that is what information do you have, share it with me, if it's relevant to the litigation.

The lawyers attempted to get the communications between the White House and the Justice Department, if any. And the judge ultimately denied them of that. But the simple legal answer is that you have to have a Justice Department that focuses in and protects people, right, doesn't protect a president or carry out a president's whims. That's problematic.

BLACKWELL: So, Hadas laid out the contradiction here pretty well. Daniel, to you -- what does -- I mean, they've got to walk this back, right? What does the president say this time? Again, he'll get his facts straight eventually? I mean, where do you go from here?

LIPPMAN: It's hard to see President Trump throwing Rudy Giuliani under the bus more than he has done so already. I think we should remember that they are friends from New York. This is not a Washington lawyer that Trump just met.

And so, you're more loyal to your friends and so he's not going to really criticize Rudy Giuliani too much. And he doesn't want to weigh in and antagonize Rudy. But it looks really bad because you don't want a Banana Republic.

And if you have the president deciding on DOJ matters, that is very problematic. My fellow guests said. So, it's hard to see how President Trump defends Rudy Giuliani in this.

BLACKWELL: So, joey, it may be sloppy. It may be distracting. It may be embarrassing. Is Rudy Giuliani doing actual legal harm for the president?

JACKSON: You know, I really think he is, Victor. I don't think there's any question about it. I mean, I thought that his acquisition to the legal team was tremendous. He brings a knowledge of the process given his U.S. attorney history. He knows the players certainly. You know, I thought he was very good in terms of strategy.

The president respects him, and he could speak to the president and say don't say that, Mr. President. But when you get into thes issues -- and I won't bring up Stormy Daniels, this is not such segment.

The reality is if you look at his comments relating to contradicting Michael Cohen, contradicting the president, contradicting everyone, saying something, walking it back, having a redo, now he's talking about this dealing, and the president denied it, trying to explain that the 600 grand Cohen got didn't make much of a difference.

Look, the reality is at the end of the day, this has to be a deal that's completed or not completed with its focus on how it affects competition. Rudy Giuliani making these statements -- I don't see friends from New York or not, and they have a long history, someone either has to add value to what you do, or they don't.

When they embarrass you, demean the process, and contradict you, I think it's time to go. We know this president's penchant for firing people. But then again, Rudy's not just any other person, he's a longstanding friend.

BLACKWELL: We'll have to see if the president or White House actually walk this back sometime today because this is an important one. Daniel Lippman, Joey Jackson, thank you both.

PAUL: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly's backtracking on a comment that he made that President Trump is, quote, "embarrassed" by the Russia probe. Kelly later clarified that he meant to say that the president was distracted by the investigation. I want you to hear what Kelly originally told NPR. This was an interview from Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF (via telephone): There may not be a cloud, but certainly the president is somewhat embarrassed, frankly, when world leaders come in, you know, the first couple of minutes, very conversation might revolve around that kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, just hours later then Kelly dialed back those comments speaking in the Rose Garden telling reporters that the investigation is, quote, "unfair."

BLACKWELL: There's a new threat to the island of Hawaii. Scientists are warning that another eruption could blast ballistic rocks into the air in the next few weeks. We'll talk to an official in Hawaii about how people who live there and emergency workers are preparing. That's coming up.

PAUL: And no apology. The White House refusing to condemn a White House aide's cruel joke about John McCain.

BLACKWELL: Also, only a week remains before the royal wedding, and the British are so excited, they're betting on everything from how soon a royal baby will be born to --

PAUL: Heavens.

[06:10:09] BLACKWELL: Give them a minute, please.

PAUL: Give them a minute, people.

BLACKWELL: To who has designed the bride's gown. It's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So, President Trump has declared a major disaster in the state of Hawaii as reports of a new volcano eruption threatens that big island. Geologists we know are warning that the Kilauea Volcano could erupt, quote, "ballistic rocks" into the sky. That that could come in the coming weeks. The threat of acid rain, falling ash, more lava, all among some of the possible hazards here.

BLACKWELL: Now the emission of toxic gases also a major issue posing serious health risks for people who live there and the emergency crews. Earthquakes are rocking the island this week. Authorities told people that they can return to their homes to collect their belongings. Officials warn they may have to leave again just at a moment's notice.

[06:15:04] CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar joins us with an update. It is tough to imagine having to live that way, that yes, you can go back, but in a second you may have to pick up and live again.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You don't unpack the bag that you brought back. You leave it by the door in case you have to head out. So, the main concern would be a new eruption in addition to what we've already had. This is such incredible imagery.

This is thermal imagery from the Kilauea Volcano summit. This is what we've referred to as the lava lake. What you need to focus on is the bright colors, the oranges, the pinks, watch this, that was April 23rd, now May 5th, now May 6th. Notice how it's shrinking down.

We are losing a lot of that magma. It's condensing, shrinking back down into the earth. Here's why -- here's why in is so important, OK. This is the volcano in question, OK. Now we take a look inside. There's that magma, OK.

Now as the levels drop as we showed in the picture, as it continues to drop, it's going to get closer and closer, down into the levels where the groundwater is, if I can get it to play -- there we go. This blue area here, this is the water. As the magma continues to drop down, it will interact with that water underground.

That seem builds up pressure, and as you lose that magma, rocks will build up. The pressure comes out. It's not only going to provide the ash and lava that you normally have, but now you have giant ballistic rocks as they referred to.

These aren't the size of golf balls, baseballs, even volleyballs. This is like having your grill or riding lawnmower thrown at you. These are huge boulders. That poses yet another concern on top of what we have.

Let's look at the concerns that we already have. We still have a lot going on. We could have another eruptive explosion. We also have earthquakes that are continuous pretty much on this island. Not necessarily as frequently as we had last week, but they are still continuing.

And that is a sign, a precursor, if you will, to another eruption. You also have additional fissures, not to mention the sulfur dioxide gas which can be dangerous if inhaled, and acid rain. If acid rain mixes into it, it can turn into acid rain.

BLACKWELL: Horrible, all of it horrible. Graphic designer, employee of the month. Wanted to point that out. Allison, thanks so much.

PAUL: That was good.

So, let's talk more about this -- Hawaii police spokesman, Alan Richmond, with us now. Thank you very much for being with us, sir. First of all, can you help us understand as a whole how important, how big is the threat of a new eruption on the big island?

ALAN RICHMOND, HAWAII POLICE SPOKESMAN: Well, when you're dealing with mother nature, it's unpredictable to say the least. We've had this volcanic activity occurring since last Thursday when we had a 6.7 earthquake, and I'm about a mile from the crater of Kilauea right now. And we just had another 3.0 earthquake.

We've had lots of those during the day. The 15 fissures that have opened up down in the Putna area of Hawaii have stopped with the lava flow. But there's still a lot of steam and gas coming out of those fissures. The 1,700 or so folks that live in that area have been evacuated. However, they've been able to go back in permitting all the volcanic activity, to gather their belongings. They're most effective. As was mentioned a moment ago, up at the summit, the question is when will that explosion occur if it occurs? And so, we're on pins and needles waiting to see what happens with that.

PAUL: Are pockets of the islands unsafe? I'm trying to understand how expansive the danger is for people there.

RICHMOND: Well, that's a good point. The big island of Hawaii as it's called is large in mass. If you took all of the Hawaiian islands, they would fit inside the big island. We're talking on the eastern rift of the volcano toward the ocean. Again, it's on the Hilo side. Most of the activity is generated down there. That's about 20 miles from the summit of Kilauea.

[06:10:00] That's where the new activity might come as that lava lake drops further and further until it hits the steam and that explosive activity starts. So, the other side of the island, there's a lot of island left that's not affected.

PAUL: Is that why they're saying, tourists, you can come? But if there is a major eruption, what does that mean for rest of the island? Do you suggest tourists still keep their plans if they had planned to be there?

RICHMOND: Well, I would say yes. I would continue to come -- a lot of tourists come to the Kona side and also the Hilo side to go to up to Volcano National Park, however, the park is closed. Closed today and will be closed until further notice. If you're planning to come to go hiking at the volcano, not a good time to do that. There's plenty of other safe activities around the island.

PAUL: Talk to me about these people in the neighborhood. Do you get the sense that they will be able to eventually go back and rebuild or take care of what needs to be taken care of, or has this been permanently changed?

RICHMOND: I think it's been permanently changed. When you have sidewalks opening up with fissures, six to eight to ten inches and lava shooting up 150 feet in the air, and as some of your video showed earlier, a car being engulfed, and the lava is slow moving but still moving, you're not going to really stop it. So, I think a lot of those areas will be impacted, and people will have to rebuild. They lost 36 buildings. And of those, 27 have been homes.

PAUL: OK. Mr. Richmond, Alan Richmond, Hawaii police spokesman. We appreciate your insight. Thank you very much and wishing all of you the very best as we continue to watch what happens there.

RICHMOND: Thank you very much.

PAUL: Absolutely. Take good care.

BLACKWELL: This morning, still no White House apology. And listen, people are angry over this aide's cruel joke about John McCain dying. Here's the question -- is it fair or appropriate to suggest the tone that set the stage for a joke like that comes from the president?

PAUL: And Iran's supreme leader visited a book fair in Tehran. Nothing out of the ordinary perhaps except that he was reading a specific book. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has that story from Tehran -- Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The supreme leader went and saw the book "Fire and Fury." He was pictured with it. We'll have much more on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:20]

PAUL: It's 27 minutes past the 6:00 hour. You're up early, we're glad for it. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you. The outrage really is growing over the reports that this Trump White House mocked Senator John McCain, his cancer diagnosis, at a staff meeting.

His communication staffer, Kelly Sadler, according to a White House official, she joked that the McCain's opposition to the president's CIA director pick doesn't matter because he, this is a quote, "is dying anyway."

PAUL: So far, the White House has refused to apologize or really even acknowledge Sadler's comment. Abby Phillip has the latest for us from Washington. Abby, we want to be clear here, the White House has not denied that she said that, is that correct?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They have not. They've really only characterized this whole incident as an unauthorized leak of private conversations that happened in the White House. What this means is that the White House isn't even denying that she said it.

They're not addressing the substance of her comments at all. When asked whether or not this was a top-down issue, that President Trump who has in the past criticized John McCain, accusing him of not being a war hero because he was captured during the Vietnam war.

Whether the president himself is setting the tone, listen to what Sarah Sanders had to say in response to that line of questioning from CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: If you won't comment on the specific comment, what does the White House believe about Senator McCain, and is there a tone set from the top here where it is allowed for an aide to say he's dying anyway?

SANDERS: Certainly, there is not a tone set here. We have a respect for all Americans. That is what we try to put forward in everything we do both in word and in action, focusing on doing things that help every American in this country every single day. I think if you look at the policies we've put forth, you'll see that reflected.

ZELENY: Why not apologize to Senator McCain --

SANDERS: Again, I'm not going -- again, I'm not going to get into a back and forth because people want to create issues of leaked staff --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So, no acknowledgment, no apology, even though the wife of Senator John McCain, Cindy McCain, responded to this over the weekend as well as his daughter, Megan McCain. A bipartisan of lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have condemned this comment, calling for the White House, for Sandler to apologize. So far that has not happened, however, we do know that Kelly Sadler did call Megan McCain by phone this week to apologize to her privately -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All righty, Abby Phillip, thank you for walking us through it.

BLACKWELL: Former Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin says that it is sad to hear that John McCain has regrets about past decisions including the 2008 presidential campaign.

[06:30:00]

Her comments come after "The New York Times" reports that McCain writes in his new memoir that he should have ignored warnings from his advisers and chosen Senator Joe Lieberman as his running mate, calling it another mistake that he made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did that hurt to hear him say he'd have rather chosen Lieberman?

SARAH PALIN, FORMER REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I don't lie, so I'll tell you a bit. You know, I think I described it earlier as a gut punch. But again, you know, I'm going to choose to look back on the good times that we did have together because, you know, a lot of that campaign really was actually fun for us personally and for our families. You know, I will never disparage someone who has served our country and made a lot of sacrifices as a vet now. And that's how I look at him, as someone who served all those years. And I certainly appreciate that and many other aspects that I see, characteristics that I appreciate in the senator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Palin calls Senator McCain a friend and says she will never disparage someone who has made a lot of sacrifices as a veteran.

CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer is with us now. And let's start with the Kelly Sadler comment as we say good morning to you, Julian.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. BLACKWELL: You're a presidential historian, so I don't need to tell

you that aides have said despicable things in other administrations, have made off-color jokes. But to what do you credit the decision not to acknowledge it, apologize for it, and move on?

ZELIZER: I think there's two parts of it. One is, you're right, many aides have said all sorts of things over the decades, over the centuries about other people within the White House. One thing that makes it different is the tone that the president has set since his campaign where he often disparages people, and he can do it in an ugly way. And so I think that's why this comment is seen by some as a reflection of the mood and the tone that the president himself has set for the country. And the second is the lack of response. Almost, you know, digging in not to apologize or not to say this was wrong. And so that's what makes it feel different.

PAUL: OK. So two things here, to Zeleny's point and to yours still, is there detriment, first of all, to the White House not apologizing? And secondly, I know that you write in an op-ed on CNN.com, quote, "The race to the bottom has accelerated quickly." What did you mean by that?

ZELIZER: Well, political rhetoric has been getting worse for several decades now. As polarization gets worse, both parties have been willing to say some pretty bad things about each other. But now we're in a moment when the president has almost given legitimacy to this kind of rhetoric. And that hurts or democracy. We want a democracy where opposing sides can speak to each other in civil fashion. And so that matters. And we don't want a president legitimating this kind of remark or these kinds of remarks about opponents. And so that hurts us as a country and it certainly hurts the presidency.

It's an issue that he doesn't need to be dealing with on the week of many foreign policy developments from North Korea to Iran that frankly, you know, he'd probably rather be talking about.

BLACKWELL: And finally, this excerpt out of his upcoming memoir about Sarah Palin. It's interesting that Sarah Palin kind of reacted to the suggestion that picking her was a mistake, but the excerpt spoke to the decision not to pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate, as the mistake here.

What do you know from studying the 2008 run about how John McCain felt about the decision to pick Sarah Palin specifically, not -- you know, not picking his friend, but picking her specifically?

ZELIZER: Well, he was doing it to try to energize his campaign. He felt that he needed to do something big to respond to Barack Obama, then a candidate. And he needed to do something to show that he could connect to a different generation of Republican voters. So a lot of the conventional wisdom said a pick like Lieberman would actually be more interesting, it would create this bipartisan ticket. But he went for Palin. Initially it was a success. But that quickly faded as Palin stumbled in front of television and on the campaign trail.

So I think he regrets it. I think that was why he did it. And it also opened the door to some of the elements of the Republican Party that McCain is now dealing with.

[06:35:02] Some of the world of Donald Trump comes together in the Palin pick and with Palin joining the ticket. So I think that's also part of his regret.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I expect we'll learn more about that decision and the regrets since in his upcoming memoir.

PAUL: Julian Zelizer, we appreciate you being here. Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: OK, so many people are trying to figure out President Trump's playbook, including Iran's supreme leader. So this is the ayatollah here reading a book. But check out what he is reading. That's Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury." We'll have more on this picture.

PAUL: And you know it's the final week before the big royal wedding. Some Brits are so excited they're wagering who designed the gown, how soon will there be a new addition to the royal family. Give them a minute, people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:05] BLACKWELL: Iraqis are voting today in the country's parliamentary election. It's the first vote since Iraq declared victory over ISIS last year. Now in front of mind for voters, jobs, corruption, rebuilding their communities after so many years of conflict. They're voting on 329 seats. A quarter of those are reserved for women.

Prime Minister al-Abadi is seeking re-election. We know the country's Shiite bloc has split into several major coalitions here which makes it difficult to predict who will come out on top.

We'll continue to watch that.

PAUL: And it looks as though everyone wants to know what's going on in the Trump White House, including Iran's supreme leader possibly. Take a look at him here spotted at a book fair. Checking out a Farsi edition of Michael Wolff's booing "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Not just that, he shared the picture himself on Instagram.

BLACKWELL: Maybe he's trying to get a glimpse inside the president's playbook. Perhaps he should be reading "The Art of the Deal," which is how the president has been playing it this week. Know when to walk away from the table.

CNN international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is live from Tehran.

Fred, hello to you. Is the ayatollah trolling the president? I mean, how are we to read this photograph tweeted out?

(LAUGHTER) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting because there was a bit of an exchange, wasn't there? And you heard the ayatollah criticizing the president this week. That picture was actually taken at a book fair here in Tehran that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei went to as well. He was pictured there reading that book. It's unclear or he didn't say what exactly he thought of the book. So we'll wait and see whether he goes on Instagram even more and says stuff about it.

However, of course, after President Trump, on a more serious note, pulled out of the nuclear agreement on Tuesday, the ayatollah did have some very choice words for him. He said President Trump's corpse would be fodder for worms while the Islamic republic will still stand. So it certainly comes after a week where many Iranians have become very, very concerned after the U.S. pulled out of that nuclear agreement, that their country could be even more isolated on the international stage in the future.

Then, of course, you also had those skirmishes apparently between Israel and the Iranians taking place in Syria. So a great deal of concern here. And yesterday, guys, I was at Friday prayers, which is a hardliner event, and there was a lot of anger there directed toward the United States.

PAUL: We know that Iran has said, the Foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said that they're threatening to restart the nuclear program on an industrial scale.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

PAUL: Since this announcement from the president. How likely is that to happen when we know he's meeting on Tuesday with other leaders to try to solidify this deal?

PLEITGEN: Well, Christi, that's a really, really important, I think really complicated question, also one that's very important here for the future of this country. So what the Iranians are essentially saying is that they hope that the nuclear deal can somehow survive. They hope it can survive on a smaller scale. Basically with the original signatories, China, Russia, the European countries being Britain, France, and Germany, minus the United States.

That's why the Foreign minister, Javad Zarif, is visiting all of these countries to try and make that case diplomatically. But the Iranians are saying, look, if that's going to happen, you guys need to stick up for our interests, which means he wants Europeans to do business with Iran, he wants European countries to do business with Iran. That's something of course that the U.S. wants to prevent.

So essentially what the Iranians are trying to do is they're telling the Europeans, look, you guys have to stand against America on this. Very unclear whether or not the Europeans are going to be willing to do that. Certainly seems to be stuffed with some conflict potentially between the U.S. and European countries.

And then look, if the Iranians don't get what they want, they say they're going to leave the deal. I mean, they say, they can ramp up their nuclear program again very, very quickly and on an industrial scale, as they've said. But they also say that they don't have any desire to build a bomb -- Christi.

BLACKWELL: All right. Fred Pleitgen for us there in Tehran. Fred, thank you very much.

PAUL: Thanks, Fred.

A United Nations agency says North Korea's government has promised to no longer carry out unannounced missile tests and other activities hazardous to commercial aviation.

BLACKWELL: Pyongyang says its nuclear arms program is complete. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week were warm and good. Two words from the secretary of State. In fact, he says they share the same vision as the U.S. and South Korea for the Korean peninsula's future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: If Chairman Kim chooses the right path, there is a future brimming with peace and prosperity for the North Korea and the North Korean people. America's track record of support for the Korean people is second to none. If North Korea takes bold action to quickly denuclearize, the United States is prepared to work with North Korea to achieve prosperity on the par with our South Korean friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: President Trump and Kim Jong-un set to meet on June 12th in Singapore.

[06:45:02] Now the president says he hopes an agreement can be reached, but has also warned that he will walk away from the talks if the conversation with Kim Jong-un does not go well.

All right. So next week at this time, you're going to be sitting here watching the royal wedding. It's coming up.

BLACKWELL: Yay. Yay.

PAUL: People are so excited about this. We've got some inside information here about what's going on there on the other side of the break. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Well, this time next week, London will be just buzzing for the royal wedding.

PAUL: Prince Harry, American actress Meghan Markle, tying the knot at this time next week.

Max Foster has more for us from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: A week to go and no official announcements about the wedding for days now. But that hasn't stopped the speculation. When there's a vacuum of information from the palace, we tend to revert to what people are betting on. So here's what Brits have been obsessing about this week.

[06:50:03] First, the dress. Ralph & Russo are the firmed favorites as the designers. Erdem and Christopher Bailey are the other frontrunners. The palace insists they won't confirm or deny any of the rumors until Meghan actually steps out of the car at the church on the wedding day. Maybe she's had two made and hasn't decided which to go for, we could speculate for England.

Now Harry's outfit isn't causing nearly as much excitement of course but people are betting that he'll be wearing a uniform on the day, and money is also being placed on whether he'll keep his beard. Most thinking he'll shave it off for the big day.

Then of course the weather. This is the U.K. and we obsess about nothing more. There's a mini heat wave on its way apparently. And bets are being placed on it being the hottest day of the year. Good news for Markle, who's brought up in the California sun. Less so for Harry, though, especially if he's in that stifling ceremonial uniform.

Finally, they aren't even married and people are already talking about the baby. Ladbrokes have slashed their odds on Markle making a pregnancy announcement by the end of this year.

Let's give them a chance, though, shall we, to enjoy their first big royal event together without any of this. Not long now.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Took the words right out of my mouth.

BLACKWELL: Just give them a minute.

PAUL: Let them enjoy each other for a little bit.

BLACKWELL: Can they just be newlyweds for a little while?

Tonight, CNN's Alisyn Camerota shares the untold stories of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Harry wants to keep his relationship with Meghan private as long as he can. But just four months after that first date, the news is out. And the paparazzi pounced once again. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, there was a photographer who got inside

Meghan's house in Toronto. The paparazzi were camping on her mother's front lawn and following, you know, and harassing all members of her family, anybody really who knew her.

CAMEROTA: Despite starring in a TV show, Meghan is relatively unknown. Now the British press wants to know who she is and if she's fit for the royal family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a woman who has been married, people fascinated by the fact that she was divorced. People fascinated by her background, her acting, a career woman, how would that work being with someone in the royal family, that's not what we have seen before.

CAMEROTA: They also have not seen someone biracial dating a member of the royal family. And some of the conversation is blatantly racist.

AFUA HIRSCH, JOURNALIST: There was one newspaper headline saying, "Straight Out of Compton," suggesting that she was from a gang ridden neighborhood.

CAMEROTA: Afua Hirsch is a journalist and recently wrote a book about race, identity and belonging in Britain.

HIRSCH: Would Harry be dropping around for tea in gangland, which was very clearly racially loaded.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A whole another issue exploded, which was the number of rather horrific social media racist comments began to flood in from the darkest, vilest corners of the internet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: CNN's special report "A ROYAL MATCH: HARRY AND MEGHAN" airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. And that's followed by another special, "DIANA: CHASING A FAIRYTALE," that's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

BLACKWELL: Well, the Toronto Raptors just finished their best season in franchise history. So time to change coaches, right, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Victor, you don't hear this very often. Dwayne Casey actually just won a Coach of the Year award but now he's in the market for a new job. I'll explain coming up in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:08] BLACKWELL: It went for the Cavs last night.

PAUL: Mm-hmm. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

SCHOLES: Yes, good morning, guys. The fans there have been watching and waiting for this for a very long time. Last time the Capitals were in the conference finals was 20 years ago. You know who was in the White House then? Bill Clinton. So you know it's been a long time.

Now their star, Alex Ovechkin, has a reputation for not being able to win the big one, and this is the first time in his stellar career that he's made it out of the second round. He continues to just come through in the clutch in these playoffs. He had a goal and an assist last night. The Capitals won game one 4-2 over the lightning in Tampa. Game two of that series is going to be tomorrow night.

All right. Two days after being named the National Basketball Coaches Association's Coach of the Year, Dwayne Casey is out of a job. The Toronto Raptors fired him yesterday after his team was swept by LeBron James and the Cavs for the second straight season. The Raptors' 17 record with 59 regular season wins this year and earned the East's number-one seed. The GM of the team, though, saying that the change was necessary to get the team to the next level. And the players and NBA analysts were shocked by the move. Reggie Miller tweeting, "Wow, wow, wow. I hope the Raptors are bringing in the ghost of Red Auerbach."

All right. Tiger Woods making the cut to the Players Championship, but only after getting a little help from two of the top players in the world. He shot a 171 and had to wait and watch and if that would be good enough in order to play into the weekend. It looked like it was going to be a long shot, but Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth both bogeyed the final hole making Tiger's score just within the cut line. So Tiger is going to play this weekend. He trails leader Webb Simpson by 14 strokes. Simpson is on fire yesterday, tying a course record with 63. He starts today's third round with a commanding five-shot lead.

All right, finally what's the best way to drive a softball field after nearly a six-hour rain delay? How about a helicopter? Well, that's what they used in Madison yesterday in order to get Minnesota and Wisconsin back on the field in the big-10 tournament. After 45 minutes of hovering around, guys, the field was good to go. Someone should probably start a service. Right? Wider field anyway with my helicopter.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: It makes some good money, I would think.

BLACKWELL: Right? Well done.

PAUL: Andy Scholes --

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: Thank you so much.

SCHOLES: All right.