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White House Wants to Move On; Blinken Expresses Optimism for Ukraine Joining NATO; Baldwin Trial Begins; Boeing Starliner Mission Update. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 10, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: To all of the members of Congress where he makes it very clear that he is going to stay.

And so I think she said what she said because, as you know, there are still Democratic lawmakers that are concerned. And as one of the strongest leaders and most well-respected leaders in Congress, she doesn't want to be seen as shutting everybody up and telling them to swallow their concerns. She is somebody who has been very effective because she is all about consensus. She is all about making sure that everyone's concerns are aired.

What she said today is, let's not air them in front of the world stage because, frankly, every time that happens, the way that Senator Bennet did, and with all due respect to the senator, what he says and how he says it does not help President Biden. And, in fact, it is a huge help for Donald Trump, especially as we are heading into this election.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The former speaker knows that President Biden wrote the letter, Simon, and she did not say, I'm super psyched that he wrote that letter. I'm super psyched he's staying in. She basically made it sound like he hasn't decided yet and needs to, correct?

SIMON ROSENBERG, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND CONSULTANT: Well, I want to be clear about a few things. I'm 100 percent behind Joe Biden. I think that the Democratic {arty is very much supporting Joe Biden's presidential run. And we've got to keep our heads down and keep doing the work here. We can't lose weeks of time in this campaign. This is going to be a very close election, and I know the polls have slipped a little bit, but we're still in a very close and competitive election.

And I think what Nancy was saying, and I -- actually, I don't want to speak for the speaker, the former speaker. I think though what is -- my advice to Biden world is to recognize that they should be worried, not so much about the defections of House members or senators, but, you know, there is concern in the public, and in inside our own coalition, about his capacity to serve, not just in the next few months, but over the next four years. And I think the campaign has to recognize that we're in a new place. We've fallen back a few points. The election's gotten a little bit harder for us. The president's going to have to work harder. And they're going to need to make it very clear to us in the coming days how -- what their plan is for victory in a far more adverse, adversarial set of circumstances for us.

I still think we can win this election. I think Donald Trump's the worst candidate that we've ever seen. I think there's been one guy who had a bad debate performance and then disappeared for 12 days, and that wasn't our guy. Our guy was out there busting his ass being president, campaigning in the battlegrounds, while this other guy was out playing golf and taking it easy. I mean if there was any evidence of the vigor that we needed to see from Joe Biden, we've seen it in the last few weeks.

But the election's gotten harder for us now. And I think the Biden world would be wise to do more to try to assuage the concerns and telling -- instead of telling everybody that it's time to move on.

BERMAN: Simon, just very quickly, let me follow up here.

ROSENBERG: Yes.

BERMAN: As someone who says he's 100 percent behind Joe Biden and wants Joe Biden to stay in.

ROSENBERG: Yes.

BERMAN: Were you happy that former Speaker Pelosi phrased it like that? Do you wish she'd just come out and said that, you know, yay, Joe Biden?

ROSENBERG: Yes. John -- John, we're having a debate, right? Debates are healthy. We're in a democracy. Debate, deliberation is the hallmark of democracy. And that's part of what I'm getting at is that there is a chunk of our party and is deeply concerned, that is -- wants Joe Biden to step aside. I mean this is -- this is not just a few random folks. This is millions and millions of Democrats are concerned. They want to win. And they have concerns about Joe Biden's candidacy right now.

The president, rather than dismiss them, should be addressing them head on. The campaign needs to take this on because we need everybody on board. Like, we can't leave anybody behind. If we're going to win this election, our coalition has to be 100 percent committed to Joe Biden. And there is a part of our coalition right now that is wavering. And we've got to do more to bring them along instead of dismissing their legitimate concerns about not what he's done over the last three-and-a-half years, but what he can do over the next four years. That's what's in front of us now. It's not just a referendum on his successful presidency. He has been successful. The country's far better off. What we're going to be voting on is whether he can do the job for the next four years. And I think there are legitimate and serious concerns about that, that needs to be more forcefully addressed by the president and his campaign.

BERMAN: All right, following that reasoning, Maria, how, how should the president addressed this and how much or much not does it involve a teleprompter?

CARDONA: There is no better way for the president to show that he is up for the vigor of the campaign and for the next four years than to continue to do his job and to continue to campaign the way that he has been. As Simon said, he has been out in the battleground states, John. He has been doing rallies, yes, with teleprompters, but he's also been talking to voters. And you know what the campaign is hearing from grassroots voters, John? They are hearing that they are backing him.

[09:35:01]

They are backing him 100 percent. They are not happy with these national Democrats that are out there trying to get the president to step aside after he has gained and he had 14 million voters vote for him during the nominating process. He has a vast majority of delegates that are committed to him and are focused on trying to get him elected.

A lot of these grassroot Democrats are in the swing states. You have Latino voters. You have black voters. Women voters who are super concerned about their reproductive rights. All of those voters, John, have said time and again to me, to the Latino leaders that are out there, the black leaders that are out there, the grassroots leaders that are out there going door to door, that they will take Joe Biden on his worst day instead of somebody like Donald Trump, who will impose an imperial presidency and try to take away all of our rights and freedoms because that's the choice in front of us. That's what they're focused on.

And at the end of the day, the Democratic Party has got to come together if we want to beat Donald Trump in November.

BERMAN: Maria Cardona, Simon Rosenberg, thanks for being here this morning. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, ahead, what Secretary of State Blinken just said that could have a very real impact on the war in Ukraine.

Plus, the jury is about to hear opening statements in the manslaughter trial against actor Alec Baldwin, accused of accidentally shooting and killing his director on the set of the movie "Rust."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:53]

SIDNER: All right, day two of the NATO summit in Washington underway right now. Moments ago, Secretary of State Tony Blinken was speaking about NATO's continued support for Ukraine. Here now with me, Jim Townsend, former deputy assistant director of defense for European and NATO policy, and former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker.

Thank you both, gentlemen, for coming in.

I want to quickly get to what we just heard just moments ago from Secretary Blinken about Ukraine wanting to join NATO and his thoughts there. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: The first time NATO's had a dedicated command to helping an aspiring country join the alliance. And that has very practical components to it. That will, I think, speed Ukraine's accession to the alliance. And we talk about a bridge. It's nice to have an image, a metaphor. As my colleague Jim O'Brien likes to say, it's a bridge that's going to be strong, well-lit, and with this command I think it will be a short bridge too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: A short bridge noted there.

Ambassador Volker, what do you make of his comments there? Does that sort of give the opening that he would like to see Ukraine join NATO?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, I think he's making the best out of a decision not to invite Ukraine to join NATO at this summit. First time NATO said Ukraine can become a member was in 2008. It's been 16 years. Last year at the Vilnius summit, we tweaked the language a little bit. We said, yes, they can still be a member but when NATO is ready and when they're ready. Now we have a bridge. But still not an invitation. But I think he's making the best of it that we can.

My own view is that Vladimir Putin is going to keep attacking Ukraine and go into keep trying to destroy the people, the country, to wipe them off the map until we ensure Ukrainian victory against Russian forces. And part of that victory has got to be bringing them into NATO so that we can establish deterrence in the future and prevent the next war.

SIDNER: Jim, obviously there are concerns about doing just that, what Ambassador Volker said, which is bringing them into NATO because then NATO has to respond. What are your thoughts on how this would work, and what it would mean if they were able to join NATO as the war is happening?

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN AND NATO POLICY: Well, I think it's a -- it is a gamble. This is something that the administration has been spending a lot of time trying to figure out, are there ways to bring them in more quickly without causing a kind of backlash?

I think there have been some good ideas out there in terms of trying to integrate them into the headquarters on an unofficial basis, have them sit in committees, have them take part in NATO activities even though they're not members, but kind of almost an informal membership, if you will. There are ways I think that we could have pushed the envelope more than we have.

But right now, the attention is on this bridge. And the bridge is made up mainly of military assistance, not so much the political side, but I think it's the most the alliance could live with for this summit. But we have to hope that the next summit will bring more political progress in terms of membership that we all want to happen as soon as possible.

SIDNER: I -- you know, we were sitting here watching President Biden stand very strongly with NATO, making very clear that he believes the United States and NATO are one and he doesn't want to break that up. We have not heard the same from former President Donald Trump, who is the leading candidate for the Republicans and will be their nominee.

Does NATO see Donald Trump as an existential threat to the alliance if he is indeed elected? I will start with you, Ambassador.

VOLKER: I think existential threat is a bit strong. They are concerned about what it would be. It's a lot of uncertainty as to how he would behave as president. We've seen statements from him saying that, you know, he wouldn't necessarily come to country's defense if they did not spend their share of GDP on defense. He would argue that that's just to get them to do their share. It's about strengthening NATO by getting Europe to pay more. But it's unsettling for a lot of European allies.

[09:45:02]

At the same time, they're unsettled by the questions over American leadership today that we see people in the Democratic Party calling for President Biden not to be the nominee or changing the nominee at the last minute. So, all of these things are questions about American leadership and the future. And they are unsettling to allies and they are casting a shadow over the summit here this week.

SIDNER: You know there's fear over the shakiness of it. Is there any, in your mind, Jim, any chance that the United States, if Donald Trump becomes president, pulls out from NATO? And if so, what would that mean to NATO?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think the NATO of today is not the NATO that Trump knew four years ago. As the ambassador pointed out, allies are -- 23 of the 32 are spending 2 percent or more on defense. The Europeans are doing a very, very fast job right now of trying to build out their militaries, compared to where they were four years ago. Putin has really put the fear of having to deal with an aggressive neighbor into their -- into their thinking.

And so we're seeing now a lot of action that Trump called for four years ago. It's happening now. So I'm thinking that if Trump were elected, those things that he might have done four years ago, it might not be necessarily on the agenda this time around.

And one final point. Mark Rutte (ph), who was the new NATO secretary general, got along well with Trump back when Mark was the prime minister of the Netherlands and Trump was president. So, I think -- I think with that kind of relationship between those two, as well as the new NATO that we're seeing right now, there's less of a reason for Donald Trump to feel that he wants to move out of the alliance and teach the Europeans a lesson.

SIDNER: Jim Townsend and Ambassador Volker, thank you both so much for your insightful answers this morning. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we are just minutes away from opening statements in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Alec Baldwin.

And scorching temperatures, screaming winds, rain made of glass, and now the smell of rotten eggs. A new discovery found that one dangerous planet is also very stinky.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:30]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Opening statements are about to begin in the involuntary manslaughter trial against Alec Baldwin. The actor has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge in connection with the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."

CNN's Josh Campbell is outside court in New Mexico. He's been tracking this all from the very beginning.

What is expected to happen in court today, Josh?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, we're about to head inside for the start of this trial. Opening statements begin this morning. And, of course, there's long been this question, how do you find an impartial jury in a criminal trial involving a megastar that has been seen around the world but the court here thinks they did just that empaneling a jury yesterday, 11 women and five men who will sit in judgment of Alec Baldwin.

Now, the prosecution spent most of the day yesterday basically asking jurors about what type of media coverage that they had received. Almost everyone in that courtroom said they had heard something about this case. Most of them said they could set all of that aside.

Now, for the prosecution's part, interestingly, they actually brought up former President Donald Trump, appearing to make reference to his unflattering portrayal on "Saturday Night Live" by Alec Baldwin. The defense attorney actually saying that, look, although this is an actor, he may have played someone in a way that you didn't like, imitated a character that you didn't like, please set that aside and render an impartial verdict here.

Now, as far as the prosecution, there is one critical thing that will not be discussed during this trial. And, Kate, of course, you and I were live on the air last year, an exclusive TV interview with the lead prosecutor at the time. Let's remind our viewers what they said the strategy in this case was then.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CAMPBELL: Is Baldwin being charged as an actor who was holding the gun or as a producer on the set who was negligent about the safety standards? Can you help describe that?

MARY CARMACK-ALTWIES, NM 1ST JUDICIAL DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He's being charged as both. He was the actor that pulled the trigger. So, certainly he is -- he is charged as an actor. But also as a producer, he also had a duty to make sure that the set was safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, that second part is key here because the judge in this case, in a major victory for Baldwin's team, says his role as a producer cannot be brought up in this trial. That's important because what prosecutors wanted to do was say he was not just the person holding the gun when it went off, but he was also responsible for this culture of unsafe practices. That will not be part of this trial.

Again, opening statements begin in just a short time. This trial expected, Kate, to last about two weeks.

BOLDUAN: All right, Josh, thank you so much for laying it out for us. Important day there.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning we will hear from the crew of the Boeing Starliner for the first time since they launched. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, they are still in space on the International Space Station, kind of stuck there, weeks after they were supposed to come home because they've had a technical issues.

Kristin Fisher is with us now.

OK, it'll be nice to hear from them. When can they get back?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: We just don't know yet. You know, John, these two astronauts were supposed to return to earth sometime in mid-June. It's now almost mid-July, and we still don't have a targeted return date for when Boeing's maiden voyage of its first crewed test flight of this Starliner spacecraft is going to return to earth.

No targeted return date. In fact, they've even tried to extend their time up there by rejoicing the battery packs on Starliner spacecraft. So, it could be several more weeks before we come back.

And, of course, we know that they ran into some issues on that flight to the International Space Station. They had those helium leaks. And then the big thing was they had some issues with those thrusters.

[09:55:00]

And these thrusters are like really tiny motorized engines that are used to make small maneuvers in space. Specifically, you know, those tricky maneuvers like actually docking with the International Space Station and de-orbiting and re-entering the earth's atmosphere. A critical part of re-entry, which is a pretty dangerous time as the spacecraft is re-entering the earth's atmosphere and hitting those really high temperatures.

So, that is what they are troubleshooting right now. NASA says that this spacecraft is safe for them to return in an emergency situation, but they still haven't allowed them, obviously, to go back in a normal situation.

So now, John, we finally are going to get to hear from these astronauts themselves. And the big question I have is, you know, do you guys feel safe to get in this spacecraft and go back to earth? NASA says it's safe for an emergency situation. But would you all feel safe actually getting in the cockpit and flying back to earth, John.

BERMAN: And very quickly, Kristin, I understand you've got news about a molecule on a very sticky planet.

FISHER: Yes, it's outside the solar system. It's a planet that's even bigger than Jupiter. And --

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

FISHER: Can you hear me? And what they found was a small amount of hydrogen sulfide. And, you know, sulfide, it really smells like rotten eggs here on planet earth. So, this was a discovery that was made by the James Webb Space Telescope. And so they've known so much about this planet for so long. It has this glass rain (ph), really hot temperatures, but now, thanks to this discovery from the Webb Telescope of hydrogen sulfide, it's probably pretty stinky too, John.

SIDNER: Feeu (ph).

BERMAN: That's what they say in space, I'm told.

FISHER: You want to live there?

SIDNER: No thanks. I'm good here on earth. Appreciate it. Thank you, Kristin.

And thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. CNN NEWSROOM with Jim Acosta, it will not be stinky, up next.

BERMAN: A high bar.

SIDNER: I mean --

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)