Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Soon, Biden Speaks at Ceremony Marking 80th Anniversary of D- Day; Chairman of Joint Chiefs on D-Day Anniversary, Freedom is Not Free. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 06, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

KEN BURNS, DIRECTOR, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: Back our forces.

[07:00:00]

Success may not come with rushing speed but we shall return again and again. And we know that by thy grace and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, really remarkable moment, Ken. And, actually, I'm so glad that you brought us there. Thank you for your time today. We actually have that prayer that he offered on that day and we're going to leave you with that this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 32ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Almighty God, our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, we are observing a moment in history at the same time as witnessing an effort to define the future. We are standing by to hear from President Biden on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy, June 6th, 1944. But on June 6th, 2024, the president will also speak of the alliance fighting Russian aggression in Ukraine and the threats to democracy around the world. And you can bet, for the domestic audience, the president will implicitly or overtly describe what he feels are the threats to freedom if Donald Trump is elected again.

There is a lot of news on the election front this morning, a list of potential running mates for Donald Trump. They're all given homework assignments. New polling that suggests a shift in the race since Trump's criminal convictions, and new information about a helium leak in orbit on the Boeing Starliner. We're going to get to it all.

But, first, as we said, a moment in history, past, present, and future. We've got CNN anchors and reporters and analysts from all around the world with us this morning.

First, let's go to Christiane Amapour in Normandy at these commemorations. Christiane?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: John and Kate, well, it is an extraordinary atmosphere, like it always is, when these veterans get together. And this 80th anniversary is the one where everybody knows we may not see this number of survivors anymore, because they are in the region of a hundred years old. I'm sure that's their average age.

I spoke to one Jake Larson, who stormed on to Omaha Beach 80 years ago, an amazing person who talked about just the sheer fear, but then having just battled through it and got on with it and managed to get across that beach.

We know that it was the greatest amphibious invasion in history. It's never been matched, neither before or since. It was a secret. They deceived the Nazis. They landed at these five beaches down where we are in Normandy. The Nazis thought by, you know, misinformation and disinformation that it was going to be at a different point.

Nonetheless, there were encampments and positions above on these cliffs that simply mowed down so many of those brave soldiers who came from America, from Canada, from the U.K., and just came up, and also from Poland as well. The free Poles came on shore as well.

And today, we're going to hear from President Biden, from President Macron. We're going to see flyovers of the C-130 transport planes. We're going to see the Air Force fly over towards the end. There'll be taps. A number of U.S. veterans will be given the Legion d'Honneur, which is like the Presidential Medal of Honor, so to speak, for their service. And it is an incredible moment because, as you say, perhaps no one ever imagined that that kind of tyranny that the Allies liberated Europe from, the Nazi tyranny that, you know, slaughtered 6,000 Jews in the Holocaust and so many others around Europe in the fighting, that people thought was done after World War II.

But now, 80 years later, we are in the midst of the first raging, massive ground war in Europe since that time and the stakes are massively high, as everybody knows and everybody will be referring to today.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Christiane stick with us, as we're looking continue to watch these live pictures in France. We also just saw the U.S. secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, take to the stage. We'll be hearing from him as well.

Kayla. Let me bring in on this. Christiane was talking about that President Biden will be speaking commemorating this day and also will be offering a message to folks at home back at home as well. What is that message?

[07:05:00]

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's going to be highlighting common themes for the President, Kate, service, sacrifice and the importance of learning from history, which, in President Biden's words, can repeat itself. We expect him to talk about the mission. The mission on D-Day mattered. The mission was a noble one. And the mission that allied countries are fighting around the world right now is also a noble one.

At home, though, this message is going to be received by a war weary electorate who heard from President Biden back in 2020 that he planned to end forever wars, like the war in Afghanistan, where the U.S. withdrew in 2021, albeit in a chaotic way. And since then, two new hot wars have begun, the war in Ukraine, that is now inching toward the three year mark, and the war between Israel and Hamas, which while only months-long at this point is still far longer than anyone in the Biden administration had expected it to last. And there's frustration among the electorate about how long these wars will continue to last and how long the U.S. will continue funding the defenses of this country.

There also is expected to be an implicit nod to the future and the risk of isolationism, depending on the policies that some of these countries may pursue. We don't expect President Biden to name Donald Trump by name, either today or tomorrow in his speech from point to hope, which is the point overlooking the beaches here that cliffs that Army Rangers scaled to overtake the German lookout positions. But he is expected to warn of what would happen if the U.S. or other countries stepped back from these alliances and what would happen to the world in those cases.

We know that Congress, in the case of NATO, has provided some safeguards, some guardrails that would prohibit a future president from withdrawing from NATO unilaterally. But that is not to stop a future president from, say, making NATO dormant or slowing some of the exercises or reducing the troop footprint across Europe. So, President Biden is going to talk at a very high level about the importance of these alliances and how important they will be for the future going forward.

BERMAN: Kayla Tausche also at Normandy. Again, you're looking at live pictures from the stage. You see the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, sitting on the right hand side of it right there. Aligned behind him are many of the remaining veterans of that day some 80 years ago. It is worth noting President Biden, almost definitely, definitely the last U.S. president who will be -- have been born before D-Day, June 6th, 1944. In fact, he's the first U.S. President born before D-Day since George H.W. Bush, who served obviously with distinction in the Pacific in World War II.

I want to go to our Jim Sciutto, our chief national security analyst, who is watching this. Again, this day is to commemorate the past, Jim, but all around Europe, all around the world, the concerns are very much about the now and the future and the threats seen in capitals around the world. What are those threats?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, that point that Christiane was describing, as we'll hear from Biden, as we are commemorating history today, we are witnessing history underway. Another war in Europe, another attempt to redraw the borders of Europe by force, as the world rose up against those 80 years ago, it may sound rhetorical but it's a fact and it is certainly the way those closest to the threat view the moment today. The Ukrainians certainly view themselves as fighting for their lives and for the existence of their country.

And when you speak to Eastern Europeans in particular, they see the war in Ukraine as defining, that if Russia is allowed to win there, then it doesn't end there. Again, a test like the world saw in 1939, in 1941, in 1944, that Hitler at the time, when he started moving east, he didn't stop. He kept going. And the fear in Eastern Europe is that Putin will do the same and that he will take western exhaustion with this war, western delays in providing aid to Ukraine as a signal that, well, he might be able to get away with this again.

And, by the way, we don't have to look back to 80 years ago to get those lessons. You look at the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, Russia's first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, and, of course, again, the full scale invasion in 2022, that that is the history playing out before our eyes today. So, that connection to the test of the past of World War II and the test that the U.S. and its allies are facing today is quite a real one, and that's how it is very much viewed in Europe, whatever the political debate back here in this country.

The other point I would make is this. There is genuine, genuine concern among America's closest allies in Europe as to what a re- election of Donald Trump would mean for them, because they listen to what he says about, well, a less than fulsome commitment to the NATO alliance, to protecting those eastern allies from Russian aggression.

[07:10:08]

And to Kayla's point, while Congress has passed measures that would make it harder for a president to unilaterally pull out of NATO, an alliance and a mutual defense agreement is only as strong as it is believed by U.S. partners and by U.S. adversaries. And if they doubt that a U.S. commander-in-chief would honor that agreement, then that agreement doesn't exist anymore, right? It doesn't have the deterrence it had in the past. And that is a genuine concern.

And, by the way, I've spoken to former senior Trump advisers who were quite senior in his administration, John Kelly, John Bolton and others, who say that in a second Trump term, he might very well pull out of NATO. So those are not undue concerns. They're quite public questions about this moment in history. And the choice, the choice that this country faces in the election in the fall.

BOLDUAN (voice over): And to Jim's point, Christiane, let me bring you in. You spoke to the Joint Chiefs about this?

AMANPOUR (voice over): I certainly did. And as we watched the announcement that the colors are now going to be raised ahead of the world leaders coming in, it's worth saying and repeating what President Reagan did here 40 years ago, the 40th anniversary, when he basically said, one's country is worth dying for. Democracy is worth dying for because it is the most noble form of government ever devised.

And to that point, I did speak to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs in an exclusive interview, and he had a very about the value of democracy and freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEN. CHARLES Q. BROWN, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Our freedom is not free. And democracy can stand on its own, but we got to make sure we're prepared. And, you know, one of the things I focus on is ensuring that we have the war fighting skill to deter a future conflict.

AMANPOUR: And it's been said that Americans of this generation have not yet internalized what apparently a lot of military, certainly NATO military, believe, that it's not inconceivable that there could be a great power war again, and that you have to prepare for it. Do you think people at home, even in Europe, understand how difficult a situation we're living through right now?

BROWN: Well, what I'll tell you, I have a sense it's coming along. And having you know, worked in the Indo-Pacific before, here in Europe and in the Middle East, I've watched over the years, and particularly over the past few years, how the awareness not only for those of us in uniform, but with our elected leadership and the American public.

And we got to continue to remind folks that when you look at the situation that we're seeing, that we just can't watch. We got to be -- we got to leave (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice over): And, again, let me read you this fragment of a speech. It's better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea. We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist heart and an expansionist intent.

Which president was that? Ronald Reagan. These are words that could be spoken today by an American president. And we'll see how President Biden shapes his remarks in the framework of what's at stake 80 years after D-Day.

And as we're seeing pictures of those days being shown under that tent behind me. We're hearing the invocation from the religious leader here ahead of waiting for the president of France and Britain and the King of England and others to come in. Back to you.

BERMAN (voice over): Christiane mentioned Wanda Hawk (ph) and Ronald Reagan. Of course, Reagan spoke there at the 40th anniversary of D- Day, a famous speech. And we do know from Kayla and other White House reporters reporting that the Biden administration has looked at Ronald Reagan's trip there some 40 years ago for the remarks that he gave and somewhat modeled this trip in parallel to that. Obviously, Joe Biden's foreign policy, not unlike in many ways to that of Ronald Reagan, more like Ronald Reagan's than Donald Trump's just like Ronald Reagan's.

BOLDUAN (voice over): That's a really good point. Spider Marks is also standing by, retired general. It's great to see Spider. Talk to us about just the parallels from, you know, 1944, the parallels you see now.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES SPIDER MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, you must have read my notes and my thoughts. Clearly, the juxtaposition between '44 and '24 are quite significant. Look, it's a war of conquest that we saw in 1944 that had to be stopped, yet this autocratic nation that was expansive wanted to expand its capabilities, wanted to expand its way of life, its cruel intent. And what we see today is not dissimilar in Ukraine.

The challenges between those two periods are quite different, right? In the 1930s, 1940s, look, America and the world was a very hard, scrabbled place.

[07:15:04]

They were on the heels of a depression, a decade of economic retrenchment, and individual suffering, a desire to try to get back to some level of normalcy and redefine that normalcy. And so the notion of linking arms, gripping hands, and trying to pull yourself out of that was second nature.

Fast forward to today, we're a nation of incredible riches, scientific developments over the years, medical developments, economic growth that's unparalleled, the ability to be anywhere instantaneously on the globe or in space through our connections in cyberspace. It's quite phenomenal.

And so what you see today is this increase of self-absorption, this notion of isolation, individual isolation. So, is the world today ready to embrace and grip hands again to resist what we see not only taking place in Ukraine, but the potential for conflicts elsewhere, clearly with China and Taiwan? Will we be able to step up and say, yes, we're going to make a hard call here, we're going to have to sacrifice? And we know it's going to be very, very tough.

We see today the indications that that is taking place, and clearly with NATO. It's quite remarkable, and I pray that NATO is going to continue to hold together over the course of time. It needs to be able to hold itself together.

BERMAN (voice over): Spider, thanks so much. You can see live pictures there, the French president, Emmanuel Macron and President Biden. They have now arrived on this stage, the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing on Normandy D-Day. Let's listen for a moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Distinguished guests, the president of the United States of America and Dr. Biden accompanied by the president of the French Republic and Mrs. Macron.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Distinguished guests, please remain standing for the national anthem of the French Republic, followed by the national anthem of the United States of America. BERMAN (voice over): As we watch this ceremony unfold here again, you can see the French president, Emmanuel Macron, President Biden standing there.

[07:20:05]

Our Jim Sciutto is with us now. Jim, I understand you've got a preview of what President Biden will say in his address.

SCIUTTO (voice over): Well, Biden is going to connect this moment 80 years ago to the moment Europe and the world is facing today with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And it strikes me as Christiane's was recalling Reagan's words 40 years ago about the fight for democracy, fight for freedom around the world, that that echoes the words of Eisenhower 80 years ago, a letter that he sent to all those soldiers who stormed the beaches on the morning of June 6th, 1944 contained these lines. It said the eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

Eisenhower on that morning was making D-Day, making that war about the a fight for freedom around the world, much as Reagan did 40 years ago, and much as now we'll hear from Biden, we'll hear from other leaders, connecting that moment generations ago to this generation's war, the war that we are watching unfold in Europe today, and making it not just about Ukraine, not even just about Europe, but about the world standing up for the cause of freedom.

BOLDUAN (voice over): Nick Robertson, let me bring you in on this, that making that connection in words, in these speeches and remarks we're going to hear, but also in the meetings that President Biden is going to be having. He's going to be meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): Yes, and for Zelenskyy, there'll be that additional poignancy because, of course, he is poised -- his country is poised ahead, if you will, of what D-Day was, which was this huge sacrifice, this huge force of 156,000 troops, 4, 414 who died on D-Day, 2,000 of them dead and injured on Omaha Beach, not far from where the president is standing now, by the end of that day.

And of course, President Zelenskyy is in this moment where he is trying to improve recruitment, toughen conscription laws, because he needs his generation of people in his country to rally to the flag in the same way that those generations did who we're commemorating today, who were willing to sacrifice themselves for their nation, for its future. And it's not easy.

And the difference being, of course, while he has the support of the weapons from these allies, and we talk about the importance of the allies standing with Ukraine, huge, tremendously important for him, he has to stand alone in terms of troops. So, he will be very cognizant today of the type of sacrifice that he may be calling upon his servicemen and women to perform in the coming years.

So, I think this will be a very poignant day for him. We know he's well-versed in trying to persuade world leaders to give him that additional support, but this will be a reminder for him that the thing that he genuinely lacks the most stacked up against the Russian military today, it's troops. And this will be something perhaps he will be trying to address in the coming months, years even.

BERMAN (voice over): Again, you are watching the ceremony marking the 80th commemoration of the Allied landing in the beaches of Normandy D- Day, June 6th, 1944.

Christiane Amanpour, listening to all of you discuss this and getting the preview of what's about to be discussed here, yes, the importance of D-Day, a successful Allied invasion, a successful alliance is paramount in everyone's mind, but the warning is less about 1944 and it seems to me more about 1938, 1939, when Europe, for a moment, let Nazi aggression spread. And the risks in not responding, the risks in allowing tyranny to have its way, even for a moment around the world, I imagine that's the parallel Volodymyr Zelenskyy is most concerned about this morning.

AMANPOUR: Absolutely. And, again, this speech in this day is framed around this. And as we're talking, the military chaplain there is talking about what happened back then. When we needed a soldier, you raised your hand when we needed, you know, a Marine, an airman, you raised your hand. And they keep showing these pictures of the surviving D-Day veterans, and it's absolutely astonishing.

There's some two dozen Americans here, about 40 Brits, and maybe a dozen or so Canadians, people who came aboard and came ashore 80 years ago who are still alive to demonstrate exactly what you've just said, that they were willing and, in fact, they threw themselves at this job.

[07:25:07]

I mean, I spoke to this 101 year old guy who said he faked his age from 15 to 18 just to be allowed to get into the military and to defend his country.

These are amazing heroes and that is really the frame and the celebration of this day as all these speeches get made, but as you say, putting it into stark relief, black and white, that we are facing something incredibly dangerous and very similar to what happened, you know, all those years ago. And is everybody up to the task? That will be the big question politically and in every other way.

And just remember just like Zelenskyy has sometimes one could say maybe irritated some of his best benefactors by constantly asking, by constantly complaining that he's not getting enough, Churchill was exactly the same. They had a very, very sophisticated operation to persuade President Roosevelt to get into World War II on behalf of them and the rest of the continent in order to defeat the Nazis, who the British and the Europeans could see exactly what their aim was. And help came late, but it came in time and that turned the tide of history. And this is the memory that we celebrate and honor today.

BOLDUAN (voice over): Let's jump back in and all together. Listen, as the program continues and is really just starting to get underway. We're going to be hearing from the French president as well as President Biden. Let's listen in for a minute.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- to fight for simple, humble values, the values of freedom, liberty and democracy.

And when the job is done, when the mission is accomplished, when the tyrant is taken down and democracy is stood up, America does something unique in the history of mankind. We go home.

All that America asks for in return for the sacrifice of our young, our brave, and our finest are a few small plots of land to bury our dead. All of you are seated here in one of those small plots of land.

That is why this date, June 6th, this place, Normandy, and this ceremony here is so important. It is a reminder to all of us of the true cost of war and the real price of freedom. It is a price that we paid on D-Day 80 years ago. It is a price that we remind all authoritarian dictators today that if necessary, we will pay that price again to ensure the success of freedom.

And that is ultimately why France knows, the United States knows, and we know La France (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) that the world's most powerful weapon system is not a T-72 manned by mercenaries, it is not a Fujian aircraft carrier patrolling artificial islands, it is not a suicide terrorist killing and slaughtering innocents, no. The world's most powerful weapon system was, is and shall forever be a free people willing to fight for freedom.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming here. Thank you for remembering here. Thank you for renewing your faith in freedom. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE), may God bless each and every one of you, France and the United States of America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the president of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).