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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Ukraine: 2 Killed In Russian Drone Strike In Sumy; Washington Post: In Meeting With CIA Director, Ukraine Revealed Strategy For Ceasefire Negotiations With Russia By End Of The Year; 2 Dead, 28 Injured In Baltimore Mass Shooting; Desantis Campaign Shares Video Slamming Trump's Past Vow To Protect LGBTQ Rights; Israel Launches Largest West Bank Military Operation In Over 20 Years; Scientists: Cows Can Play Part In Emissions Solution. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 03, 2023 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:01]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The -- she also -- I think she inhaled a bug, is that right, during one of the performances?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: She gives us good content.

SCIUTTO: A little rain. She's tough, and she's still --

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: She's a superstar. This tour might be the first ever to make $1 billion. Isn't that crazy?

SCIUTTO: Incredible. She deserves all the praise she gets.

KEILAR: Sure does.

And THE LEAD starts right now, boy.

(MUSIC)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: An incremental gain for Ukraine, but that's not stopping Russia.

THE LEAD starts right now.

CNN on the front lines where Ukraine's fight for freedom is in the trenches. The U.S. CIA director was there before a critical meeting of NATO allies. Why he thinks instability in Moscow is creating a unique moment.

Then, a holiday block party in Baltimore turns tragic. Now, the hunt for shooters who opened fire killing two injuring nearly 30 others, including teens. The mayor's urgent plea for lawmakers nationwide to do more.

Plus, can cows help curb the climate crisis? You might have heard their possible gas problems, but this time, cattle may be eating their way to a solution.

(MUSIC) PHILLIP: And welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Abby Phillip, in for Jake Tapper.

We start with our world leader. Multiple Russian attack drones hit apartment buildings and an administrative center in Ukraine's northeast city of Sumy. And so far, officials say two people were killed, and 19 were hurt including a 5-year-old. As Ukraine presses on with its slow by steady counteroffensive, Ukraine's deputy defense minister claims that they've clawed back around 14 square miles of territory from Russia in the last week.

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed Russian leader Vladimir Putin, insisting he's, quote, weak after the short-lived mutiny by the private Wagner army last week. We'll show you more of that interview in just a few moments.

But, first, we'll bring you close to the front lines where CNN's Ben Wedeman is in the eastern part of the country.

So, Ben, can you put those 14 square miles that Ukraine claims that it gained into some perspective here?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, 14 square miles, it's divided between the area around Bakhmut where about a third of those 14 miles were taken, and the other is south in the Zaporizhzhia region. That's a pretty modest gain for an entire week of fighting.

But you have to keep in mind that the Russians were prepared for this counteroffensive. We've been talking about it, the Ukrainians have been talking about it, observers and analysts have been talking about it for months. And today, we heard from the spokesman for Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine speaking on national TV that according to him the Russians have deployed along the eastern front 180,000 troops. That's more than twice the size of the entire British army.

And around Bakhmut alone, in the city and around it, 50,000 troops, and they've been moving up armor and lots of ammunition, and you know, we've been speaking even to Russian prisoners of war. It's somewhat confusing because their account and many of them are convicts and whatnot, they say that morale is poor, supplies are poor, there isn't much food, they don't have a lot of medicine, their commanders are incompetent, but it appears that the Russians have thrown so many people into this fight that perhaps quantity is overcoming quality.

Now, it's early days. We're now into the fourth week of this offensive. The Ukrainians still really haven't thrown the bulk of their forces into the fight. They will tell you they're still probing to find those weak points in the front line. So it's early days, but certainly so far the going has been difficult for the Ukrainians -- Abby.

PHILLIP: And, Ben, today we also learned that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest of its kind in Europe, has been reconnected to backup power, but it's still, quote, extremely fragile according to the international atomic agency's director. So, what is the latest on control of that facility?

WEDEMAN: It remains under Russian control. The facility, the nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, is in shutdown mode. But it's important to keep the reactors cool and the water in the reactors cool. But according to the head of Ukrainian intelligence who last week said that the Russians had mined the cooling pools to the reactors and also had deployed explosive-filled trucks outside four of the six reactors at the plant.

[16:05:08]

In addition to that, there's this puzzling news that the Russians are actually pulling -- it appears technical staff out of the power plant and sending them elsewhere. At the same time, they have planted mines around the grounds of the nuclear power plant, as well.

So it's good news that this backup power line has been installed at the nuclear power plant. But there's a lot to worry beside that -- Abby.

PHILLIP: Yeah, a continuous worry for the planet, frankly. Ben Wedeman in eastern Ukraine, thank you very much.

And meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the Wagner rebellion shows that Putin's power is, quote, crumbling. And when asked by CNN's Erin Burnett about negotiating an end to Russia's terror campaign in his country, Zelenskyy reiterated there is no victory without Crimea, which was annexed by Russia nearly ten years ago. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing -- war is not over yet.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: To be clear, in victory, in peace, is there any scenario where Crimea is not part of Ukraine?

ZELENSKYY: It will not be victory then.

BURNETT: I know the U.S. CIA chief Bill Burns has come and visited you regularly. He was here recently. What did you tell him about your plans to take back territory in the counteroffensive?

ZELENSKYY: To be honest with you, I was surprised to see the information in some media both in the U.S. and Ukraine and European media. My communication with the CIA chief should always be behind the scenes, an immediate tension because we discuss important things, what Ukraine needs and how Ukraine is prepared to act. We don't have any secrets from CIA because we have good relations, and our intelligence services talk with each other.

I don't know what were other contacts. I don't really remember which media I read it in. The situation is pretty straightforward. We have good relations with the CIA chief, and we are talking. I told him about all the important things related to the battlefield which we need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Let's bring in CNN's Kylie Atwood over at the State Department.

So, Kylie, a very notable dodge there on the thrust of Erin's question. But what do we know about this visit that the CIA chief, Bill Burns, made to Ukraine recently?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, what we know is that obviously he met with President Zelenskyy himself, he met with his Ukrainian intelligence counterparts. And according to a U.S. official, the thrust of his message was that the United States will continue sharing intelligence with the Ukrainians as it continues to face this Russian aggression, as this war drags on.

Now he didn't answer Erin's question as to exactly what he discussed with Bill Burns, but according to "The Washington Post," one of the things that the Ukrainian officials laid out for Bill Burns while he was there was their plans, their strategy to retake the territories that have been occupied and taken by the Russians, and also their plans to enter into negotiations, cease-fire negotiations with the Russians by the end of the year.

Now that is significant. That means they're looking at this year as a year that could potentially start conversations that would end this war. We should note, however, the timing surrounding this visit, Abby. It happened before Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's attempted insurrection.

And according to a U.S. official, that attempted insurrection was not a part of their conversation. But we know that U.S. intelligence did have some indication that that was coming in advance of it actually happening.

PHILLIP: And, Kylie, also over the weekend, Director Burns said that disaffection with Putin's war in Ukraine has created a, quote, once in a generation opportunity for the CIA to recruit Russians. Have recruitment drives like about been successful in the past?

ATWOOD: Well, yeah. I mean, what he said is that the CIA is ultimately a human intelligence service. So what that means is that it relies on the human instinct and human desire to share information. And when they are disaffected with leadership in their country, clearly the CIA has seen in the past that there is a willingness to share information.

Now, Bill Burns earlier this year, the CIA rolled out a recruitment video that they actually shared in the region, in Russia, trying to encourage Russians and not just Russians in the intelligence space, but also Russians who work for businesses or Russians who work in the tech space to share information with the CIA. They rolled out some pretty clear details, sharing with them how to actually do that.

[16:10:03] So it's clear that the CIA has seen this as an opportunity to recruit folks, to share information with them for a while now.

And Bill Burns was clear, as you said, in calling this a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity -- Abby.

PHILLIP: Very interesting stuff there. Kylie Atwood, thank you very much over at the State Department.

I want to bring in the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Jim Himes.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

I want to go back to what you heard Ukraine's president tell Erin Burnett just moments ago, that the war will not end unless Ukraine retakes Crimea. Do you think that that is a likely outcome?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): It's really hard to say, Abby. I'm not sure that a week ago, any of us would have predicted a coup attempt against Vladimir Putin. So really hard to predict.

Now, what is true and the reason the president is saying that is that Crimea is Ukrainian territory. So frankly, it would have been more newsworthy had you said no problem, the Russians can keep it. But you know, given what's happening inside Russia and given the gains that Ukrainians are making, slow though they may be, President Zelenskyy's hand is strengthened. And I would expect him to say precisely what he did which is this is not over until we've gotten every square inch of land back.

PHILLIP: That being said, retired General Wesley Clark, someone who knows quite a lot about the art of war here, told CNN that Ukraine probably doesn't have the military power to retake Crimea. So if the United States, he says, provides them with perhaps long-range tactical missiles like the ATACMS and F-16 fighter jets, do you think that that could change the course of the war in Ukraine's favor?

HIMES: Well, again, you know, I would probably not quarrel with General Clark on these issues, but the Ukrainians have been surprising the world for the last year and a half in terms of their ability to do things that nobody predicted that they could do. And, of course, you know, this isn't purely about gun on gun, tank on tank, missile on missile. It's about what happens inside the Russian state.

Imagine what it must be like right now to be a Russian conscript on the front. You just had this -- by their measures heroic guy, Prigozhin, Wagner, obviously well-respected and supported within Russia, witness his ability to get tens of thousands of men to Rostov without any resistance. If you're that conscript sitting in eastern Ukraine, you're saying to yourself I have no idea what's happening at home.

Prigozhin, who I may or may not respect, is telling me that this war was badly conceived, strategically a catastrophe. My point here is, of course, that this is as much about the staying power of the Russian military, the morale of the Russian military, the staying power, frankly, of Vladimir Putin as it is about exactly how many tanks and ATACMS the Ukrainians have.

PHILLIP: But on the question of what the United States should provide, there is a question now, they are deliberating about providing cluster munitions to Ukraine.

Do you think that those should be provided on the battlefield right now?

HIMES: So my -- from moment one, my view has been let's give the Ukrainians what they want and need. And you know, frankly I wish that the United States and that the administration had moved faster on providing more weaponry. We finally got around to aircraft. We finally got around to longer range missiles, Patriots, et cetera.

But there's something untenable about being comfortable in North America while thousands of Ukrainians are dying every single week, and we're saying, yeah, we're not sure you need what you say you need.

So I think we should give the Ukrainians what it is that they are asking for. We shouldn't second guess them. And I think that compared to a year ago, the notion that Vladimir Putin -- that our fear that escalation may be responded to by Vladimir Putin, by more escalation, first of all, he's lost the ability to escalate because he's lost so much of his military.

Secondly, I think the Chinese have been very clear with Vladimir Putin what happens in the event that he uses a tactical nuclear weapon. And so, I again, continue to feel that we should provide the Ukrainians with what it is that they think they need.

PHLLIP: So yes to the cluster munitions, just to be clear?

HIMES: Yes -- again, if they have asked for it, they need longer range missiles, I -- you know, they need more ability to control the battlefield from the air, we should be giving it to them.

PHILLIP: All right. Congressman Jim Himes, thank you very much for all of that.

HIMES: Thank you, Abby.

PHILLIP: And here in the United States, new details on that tragic mass shooting in Baltimore. Two killed, 28 others, mostly teens, injured, and fears of retaliation.

And the new video from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that has his 2024 rivals questioning his campaign tactics and calling him out.

Plus, the deadly result of what is now Israel's largest military operation in the West Bank in some 20 years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:18:55] PHILLIP: And topping our national lead, police are searching for two suspects involved in Sunday's mass shooting in Baltimore, Maryland, that left two people dead and 28 others injured. More than half of the injured are children between the ages of 13 and 17.

CNN's Danny Freeman reports on the chaotic violence that suddenly unfolded during a festive neighborhood block party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A holiday weekend block party turned chaotic and deadly in an instant. Surveillance video taken early Sunday morning captured people running for their lives as gunfire broke out in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood.

MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT (D), BALTIMORE, MD: We won't stop until we find those responsible and hold them accountable. We won't.

FREEMAN: Twenty-eight people were injured, including 15 children under the age of 18. Eighteen-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez and 20-year- old Kylis Fagbemi were killed in the shooting.

SERITA ANDERSON, RESIDENT: It was frightening, and, just went straight into prayer, you know, protection for this community.

FREEMAN: Police say the crime scene stretches multiple blocks.

[16:20:01]

And at this point, they have not made an arrest but believe there were multiple shooters.

ACTING COMMISSIONER RICH WORLEY, BALTIMORE POLICE: We are still looking at every casing. We have multiple casings from one caliber of weapon. But that doesn't mean every one came from that same weapon.

FREEMAN: Police also fear this shooting could lead to even more gun violence.

WORLEY: We are always concerned about retaliation at every single incident.

FREEMAN: And today, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called for stronger gun laws.

SCOTT: This is not just a Baltimore thing. We have to be honest. This is the United States of America. This is our longest standing public health challenge, and we need to focus on gun violence regardless of where it happens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN (on camera): Now, Abby, at this point, there is a $28,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and charges in this case. And the city said they're really relying on tips from the public to help crack this one. But also remember, the holiday weekend still is not over yet. And the city really was working hard in the press today to emphasize for the big Baltimore Fourth of July events still to come, those will be safe spaces, and they're sparing me to expense when it comes to resources to make the public feel safe -- Abby.

PHILLIP: All right. Danny Freeman in Baltimore, thank you very much.

And ahead for us, the campaign video that has the political world talking. That LGBTQ ad from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the possible intended strategy as critics call him out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:25:57]

PHILLIP: And in our politics lead, here's one way to mark the end of Pride month. A campaign Twitter account for Ron DeSantis 2024 presidential bid shared a video that touts his own anti-trans record and slams Donald Trump's previous promise to protect LGBTQ rights. It features a clip from Trump's acceptance speech in the 2016 Republican convention just after a gunman killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins us now.

So, Jeff, in addition to that video being just kind of terrible on its face, I wonder what is the point from a political perspective? It seems like the reaction has been pretty strong even among Republicans against this video.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think the point is to draw attention, the point for Governor Ron DeSantis is to perhaps change the conversation away from his really difficult summer, his summer challenges in Iowa and New Hampshire. And he's trying to stoke the culture wars here without question -- really without context, as well.

He points out in that video that the campaign -- they didn't create but own it, they share it, the comments that Donald Trump, then a candidate, made saying he will support Americans who are in the LGBTQ community. Well, as you said, that was in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, in Governor DeSantis' home state of Florida. That is something left out of that.

But that is why it is getting widely condemned, not necessarily because of the anti-trans legislation, a separate conversation, of course. Some of the reaction has been pretty quick. The Trump campaign jumped on this very quickly, as they often do with

Governor DeSantis going back and forth. Let's look at a comment over the weekend that a Trump campaign spokesman made. He said the DeSantis shows, quote, a desperate campaign in its last throes of relevancy. That's from a Trump campaign spokesman.

Perhaps even more to the point and a broader conversation here is a reaction from the Log Cabin Republicans. Of course, that is a Republican group, a conservative group made up largely of gay Americans, gay and lesbian Americans. This is what they said talking about just the political stupidity of this.

They said: Conservatives understand that we need to protect our kids, preserve women's sports, safeguard women's spaces, and strengthen parental rights. For Ron DeSantis' extreme rhetoric has just ventured into homophobic territory. They go on to say it may be a short-term gain to try to win over some conservative voters, perhaps evangelical voters, even that's an open question. But a long-term challenge because they, of course, need moderates and independents to win the White House. So that's why this is viewed as a -- a short-term gay and perhaps long-term problem. But the bigger picture overall, they're trying to gain attention, and I guess we've given it to them -- Abby.

PHILLIP: Yeah, attention and perhaps they want the backlash, who even knows?

Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our political panel here.

So, Alencia, this DeSantis video, one of the weird things about it is that it -- he describes himself in the video by showing all these headlines as draconian, at one point, he's described as evil. In another headline, that's shown in the video. What kind of campaign strategy is this?

ALENCIA JOHNSON, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, BIDEN 2020 CAMPAIGN: I don't think there is a campaign strategy here for this except for to shock and awe. And maybe heats thinking let me figure out a way to pull attention from Donald Trump. I don't think this is the smartest way to do that. I mean, this is extremely homophobic, extremely trans phobic, and to the point that Jeff was making, it's concerning for moderates and independents who, again, are your general election voters.

It's also concerning that this video dropped literally right after the Supreme Court decision on Friday where a lot of LGBTQ Americans on both sides of the aisle are concerned about their safety moving forward.

[16:30:05]

So in addition to this shock value and how absurd this literally is, it's not quite the strongest campaign move for him if he wants to separate himself.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, this is -- this is an example of someone trying to do Donald Trump things without being Donald Trump. So Donald Trump gets a lot of support from his supporters because he says look at my enemies, judging by my enemies, they say horrible things about me, I'm on your side.

This DeSantis video is trying to do that, right, saying, look at all of this things people are saying about me, they're saying I'm evil, they're saying I'm draconian, but it's people you don't like saying this. So that's why you should support me.

The problem is there's only one Donald Trump, and it's Donald Trump. And a video like this is -- in some ways trying to reach a bizarre audience. There's a lot in it that to the outside observer would look strange. Very inside jokes for Internet. You have to be like a Reddit super user to get some of them.

So, what the Venn diagram of Reddit super users, conservative Republicans and primary voters -- I don't know how big that overlap is.

PHILLIP: You know, there's another Venn diagram. There's the Pete Buttigieg Venn diagram and the George Santos Venn diagram. The center is in them both describing this video as basically, you know, homoerotic at the end of the day with all the oiled up men. He told you that, Dana.

I do want to ask you about this because last night, this is according to "Politico," Steve Cortez, he's a top spokes person for the Ron DeSantis super PAC. He said this, right now in national polling, we are way behind. I'll be the first to admit it. I believe in being blunt and honest. It's an uphill battle, but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.

That was also a description not just at the national polls, he said in this Twitter Spaces event they were double digits behind in the key battleground, early battleground states in the primary. What does that tell you that he's willing to be that blunt?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It tells me he's trying to get a message to the DeSantis campaign. It's a super PAC, and they're be technically supposed to speak, they're not legally supposed to speak. And so -- in my experience, I don't know about you all, in covering the campaigns when the super PAC is very large, it has a lot of money and has a lot of power that they're supposed to wield, they send up flairs publicly. That looks like a giant flare coming from the DeSantis super PAC.

PHILLIP: That's so interesting. You also spoke, Dana, today actually with Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. I want to play here what she said about Trump and whether he's gone far enough on this issue of a 15-week abortion ban.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARJORIE DANNENFELSER, PRESIDENT, SUSAN B. ANTHONY PRO-LIFE AMERICA: I've met with him as I've met with all of the candidate, and I think while they're clearing their throats, there's a lot of throat clearing here, Democrats are gaining the advantage. And as long as our candidates, including the top picks are not defining themselves, Democrats are defining them. So the bright line remains, it's 15 weeks is the minimum standard.

BASH: So no, he is not --

DANNENFELSER: Not yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And also DeSantis, too, right, on the national level?

BASH: Yes. Yes, yes. In that particular part of our conversation, we were talking about Donald Trump because he -- we remember last week I believe it was spoke to a conservative group here and for the first time said that the federal government has a vital role in dealing with abortion which was a big push to get him to do that. Because he is in the camp inside the GOP that the more you talk about this, the more you lean into conservative positions on abortion, the more it will hurt you and, in his case, since he's a frontrunner, hopes to be the nominee, will hurt him in a general election. And you have people like the head of the Susan B. Anthony group and others, Mike Pence on the campaign trail, who say no, no, no, the reason why Republicans did poorly in the midterms post-Dobbs is because we didn't lean into it enough, and we were running away, had our head in the sand.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: I find is so interesting because we know Trump is being pressured, there are allies in the Republican Party not just in these groups, the anti-abortion groups, but there are other Republicans who want him to support the 15-week ban, and it's clear he's like, I'm not listening to anybody. I've got my eyes on the prize. I think we know that Donald Trump more than anyone else kind of knows how to play the game, and he's like right so -- so far he's not willing to tie himself to a specific timeline for a federal abortion ban no matter what other Republicans would like to see him say.

PHILLIP: I mean, when you're 30 points ahead and your nearest competitor is doing what Ron DeSantis is doing, I guess there's no incentive for Trump to tack further to the right at this moment.

ANDERSON: Well, remember, the big first state coming up will be Iowa. Iowa's a place where there are a lot of evangelical voters, the vote is important in the GOP primary. With that said, we don't know what the debate situation is going to look like, we don't know to what extent people are going to be continuing to try to comment Donald Trump from the right versus trying to comment Donald Trump at all.

[16:35:08]

Right now, there are people in the field who don't want to talk about Donald Trump whatsoever. So it's still unclear to me how the politics of that issue will play out and whether that issue alone is enough to cost Trump his solid standing with, say, evangelical voters. JOHNSON: Well, I will say someone has worked at an abortion

(INAUDIBLE) for six years at Planned Parenthood, the further the Republicans continue to go and actually define themselves, it actually is helpful for Democrats and independents. And we've seen that in the midterms. We saw this even before the midterms, but especially the midterms, and after the Dobbs decision.

And so, Democrats do want Republicans to go further and to go on the record because it will help our base, it will help independence, as well.

MITCHELL: But that's the thing, Donald Trump has resisted going further to the right despite what other conservatives want. But he's also not getting attacked for it by his conservative foes, the other people running in the GOP primary.

BASH: Except Mike Pence.

PHILLIP: Correct.

MITCHELL: Mike Pence, but as we know, pence will attack and then pull back. He's not really being consistently attacked by anyone besides maybe Chris Christie, and Chris Christie's not going to attack him on the issue of abortion.

BASH: That's right.

PHILLIP: Right. Yeah. So need I remind everyone, Donald Trump is also still awaiting and perhaps facing a couple more indictments coming up. But CNN dug up old comments from him back in 2016 when he reacted to the news that then-FBI Director James Comey had reopened an investigation into his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Watch what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial.

(BOOS)

It would grind government to a halt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: That is no longer a hypothetical scenario, right. I mean, he could be the nominee, he could be re-elected. And he could also be facing several indictments, including multiple federal indictments.

BASH: That's right. And Chris Christie yesterday, I asked a question of him not just as an opponent but former U.S. attorney, whether or not Donald Trump should be treated like anybody else if he is convicted, meaning go to jail. And his answer was, yes.

And that's going to be if he is actually convicted. We're a long way from that. If he is convicted, that's good to be a very big debate. It goes back to the clip of what he said about Hillary Clinton which wasn't close to that point.

PHILLIP: Yeah, I mean, the irony of it for folks like you supported Hillary Clinton --

JOHNSON: I literally was like oh, my god, her emails? And here we are again, and to be honest the Biden campaign should be playing that loop of Donald Trump saying it in his own words until the entire -- until he's out of the primary hopefully.

PHILLIP: I think they may very well take you up on that suggestion. Thank you all for joining us here.

And to the Middle East next for us. And Israel's largest military operation in two decades, what people in the West Bank tell CNN about the deadly violence. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:12]

PHILLIP: In our world leader, we're following the largest Israeli military action in the West Bank in some 20 years. As CNN's Hadas Gold reports, the main targets are militants inside a huge Palestinian refugee camp at Jenin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of Israeli soldiers descending on Jenin. Massive raid supported by air strikes and bulldozers, tanks on the outskirts of the city -- the largest incursion into the West Bank in two decades since the days of the Second Intifada.

RICHARD HECHT, ISRAELI ARMY'S INTERNATIONAL SPOKESMAN: We want to break of the camp being a safe haven for terrorists.

GOLD: Easier said than done. Israeli forces facing stiff resistance. The army bulldozing its way through. Air strikes hitting what the military said was terrorist infrastructure.

Soldiers firing from nearby homes in their hunt for weapons, explosive tunnels, at what they say are militants.

Palestinian authorities have condemned the raid, calling it a new war crime against our defenseless people.

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PRESIDENT (through translator): We renew our demand to the international community of the need to provide urgent international protection for our people and to impose sanctions on the occupying entities.

GOLD: In Jenin, some residents say they were overwhelmed by the sheer force of the Israeli attack.

HUSSEIN ZEIDA, JENIN RESIDENT (through translator): We are unarmed people. We don't have anything in the camp to respond to this force. There is nothing safe in the camp. They dug all the streets with bulldozers.

GOLD: The Israeli government says it's not at war with Palestinians like Zeida, but with these men who are blamed for violence against Israelis.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER: Our troops are battling the terrorists with unyielding resolve and fortitude while doing everything, everything to avoid civilian casualties.

GOLD: The latest raid on Jenin building on over a year and a half of regular military operations, following a recent wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

But the cycle of violence only intensifying. Militant group Hamas calling on its members to strike Israel by all available means. But for those caught in the crossfire, Israel warning the operation will last as long as necessary even if it says it doesn't want to hold ground.

HECHT: We are focused on the infrastructure inside the camp. It could be hours, it could be days.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLD (on camera): Now, Abby, the Palestinian ministry of health saying so far eight have been killed, more than 100 injured. The Israeli defense forces, though, saying that as far as they understand they claim no noncombatants have been killed. They acknowledge that civilians are among the injured -- Abby.

PHILLIP: Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thank you so much for that.

And let's bring in CNN's Alex Marquardt.

Alex, you're covering a lot of this conflict in the next hour on "THE SITUATION ROOM".

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I will be digging into there more. It is an extremely concerning situation, Abby.

[16:45:01]

It does feel more combustible than some of the more tit-for-tat violence we've seen. These tactics not used by the Israeli military in the West Bank in two decades, on the ground, in the skies.

Obviously, this has echoes of the second intifada in which thousands of Israelis and Palestinians were killed. So, extremely concerning, extremely combustible. We'll be getting into this with two of the foremost experts, former U.S. officials, Aaron David Miller and Mark Nembicks (ph).

We got that and a lot more in "THE SITUATION ROOM" at the top of the hour. PHILLIP: Yeah, incredibly important moment, and really a dangerous one once again in that part of the world. Alex Marquardt, we'll look for you the next hour on "THE SITUATION ROOM".

And coming next for us, the bovine intervention. How cows are breathing new life into headquarter America's heartland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:15]

PHILLIP: In our earth matters series, scientists believe cows can be part of the solution for tackling the climate crisis, and it all revolves around a sustainable grazing method.

CNN's Bill Weir takes a look at this experiment which could improve the planet's soil, water and wildlife.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the beginning was the buffalo. Tens of millions of them, wandering the land, munching wild grasses, and using poop and hooves to create rich, fertile soil up to 15-feet deep.

Look at this.

PETER BYCK, ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, FILMMAKER: Yes.

WEIR: But since Americans replaced buffalo with cows, generations of fertilizers and pesticides, tilling and over-grazing have turned much of that nutrient-rich soil into lifeless dirt. But not on farms where they graze cows just like wild buffalo.

BYCK: Well, so adaptive multi-paddock grazing, amp grazing, is a way that mimics the way bison have moved across the Great Plains. And so it's really about the animals hit an area really hard and then they leave it for a long time.

WEIR: Peter Byck is a professor at Arizona State University. And he believes that if enough beef and dairy operations copy this simple hack, cattle could actually become an ally in the fight against climate change.

BYCK: I anticipate we'll get a lot of pushback because people are not thinking that cows can be a part of the solution.

WEIR: Not only are you going against the grain of environmentalists who think meat is evil for lots of reasons -

BYCK: Yes. Yes.

WEIR: You took money from McDonald's for this.

BYCK: Yes. I asked for money from McDonald's for this. I -- I wanted to go to big companies because if they don't change, we don't get there.

WEIR: For his docuseries, "Roots So Deep You Can See the Devil Down There," Byck assembled a team of scientists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're really interested in insects that live in poop.

WEIR: Experts in bugs, birds --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, bob white!

WEIR: Cows, soils, and carbon. They spent years comparing five sets of neighboring farms in the southeast. On one side, traditional grazers who let cows roam one big field for months at a time and often cut fertilized grass for hay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo! Come on!

WEIR: On the other side, amp grazers who never mow or fertilize.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You open a gate. They go through. It takes five minutes. Cooper will roll up a wire.

WEIR: And with a single line of electrical fence, move their cows from one patch of high grass to the next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's building fence. This is how easy it is, Peter.

WEIR: While their science is yet to be published and peer-reviewed, Byck says early data has found amp farms pulling down up to four times the carbon, while holding 25 percent more microbes, three times the bird life, and twice as much rain per hour.

BYCK: If it's a thousand-acre farm, it's 54 million gallons of water that's now washing your soil away versus soaking into your land.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, look at this grass!

WEIR: But this is also a human experiment, to see whether data and respectful discussion can change hearts and minds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was grazed about 40 days ago and this hadn't been fertilized in 12 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when we got out of spending money on fertilizer, it was huge. Huge. And I didn't think it would ever happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is such a stress relief. We just don't worry about a lot of it anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you don't even fertilize when you plant your rye grass. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing. It sounds crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it works.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But just letting mother nature do the work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take it. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would it be an interesting thing if you didn't have to pay for fertilizer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wouldn't that be wonderful.

WEIR: Curtis Spangler is one of the conventional farmers in "Roots So Deep," and he says his mind was changed when he realized he now has a way to double his herd and quit his second off-farm job.

CURTIS SPANGLER, TENNESSEE FARMER: And right now, we're having to dump thousands of dollars into nitrogen every year that really, if we just change a couple things, might be able to save that money to put it toward other resources.

WEIR: Is that something you're committed to doing now as a result of this project?

SPANGLER: Oh, yes. We're -- yes. We're really looking and seeing the benefits of it and how we can work it.

WEIR: So, as we hit the height of grilling season, a little food for thought.

BYCK: There is ways to produce meat that is not good for the planet. And there's ways to produce meat that's really good for the planet. And that's the nuance that's been missing.

WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, Jasper, Tennessee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: Something for you to chew over as you enjoy your Fourth of July barbecues.

Bill Weir, thank you for that reporting.

And up next for us, the understandable freak-out in North Carolina over a crack in a roller coaster's support beam and what is being done about it now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:59:37]

PHILLIP: So, check this one out in our national lead, something you don't ever want to see at an amusement park. That is a crack in the roller coaster's support beam. It's supporting the tallest roller coaster in the country. It's the Fury 325 at Carowinds just outside Charlotte, North Carolina.

Its peak reaches 325 feet, hence the name, and hits speeds up to 95 miles per hour. But today, crews from North Carolina's Labor Department inspected the ride, and a man visiting the ride spotted the crack on Friday. This ride has been shut down ever since. And I will never be going on it.

But our coverage continues right now with Wolf Blitzer over in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- actually Alex Marquand who's in "THE SITUATION ROOM" for Wolf.