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CNN International: Los Angeles County Fire Burns 14,000 Plus Acres; Biden, Trump Court Voters; IDF's Tactical Pause Seemed to Create Confusion in Government; Mass Shooting Across U.S. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The winds are probably going to be the biggest factor in battling this blaze.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw the smoke coming up, but it wasn't that bad yet. Eventually the sheriff was just like, you guys got to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So the fire can move quickly.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees. Two more, two more.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Black population wants law enforcement more than any other population.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two men who comprise Israel's war cabinet, which manages this war against Hamas, seemingly being unaware that this tactical pause was something that was going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Monday, June the 17th, 9 a.m. here in London, 1 a.m. in California, where a massive fire is burning in Los Angeles County.

The Post fire has scorched more than 14,000 acres. That's nearly 6,000 hectares. Authorities say it's only 2 percent contained so far, with high wind gusts and very dry air making it difficult for firefighters to contain it.

The National Weather Service is warning these conditions could potentially fuel the flames, and a red flag warning is in place until this afternoon. The wildfire, which began on Saturday, has forced hundreds of people to evacuate the area. Authorities say the cause of the blaze is under investigation.

CNN's Camila Bernal has been following the developments and has more from California.

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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Firefighters are working around the clock to try to gain containment on this fire. So what you're seeing here behind me at the moment is actually a controlled burn. What firefighters on the ground are trying to do is keep the flames from spreading to areas where you're seeing that green vegetation.

And so they are working here on the ground and also communicating with pilots in the air to then come and do water drops. We've seen consistent water drops throughout the day and firefighters saying that this is actually a very difficult fire because of a number of things. The high temperatures, the low humidity and the wind.

The wind is a huge concern. On Sunday, wind gusts of 45 to 55 miles per hour throughout the day. And it is the evening that is most concerning, the overnight hours. The National Weather Service saying wind gusts of 60 to 70 miles an hour. Take a listen to what the Forest Service is saying about all of this.

FLEMMING BERTELSEN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Every one of us is concerned with the wind. That's the single most driving factor of this fire. It does -- it burns fairly frequently along this corridor, which keeps it from there being a very large brush component.

However, now we have more light flashy fuels so the fire can move quickly. And then when the wind lines up with the drainages and starts ripping right through them, it's definitely a concern. So that's what we're looking at.

Hopefully these winds that are forecasted tonight don't materialize to the extent they're supposed to, which is 60 miles an hour. And maybe tomorrow will be a more calm day.

BERNAL: And authorities in this area telling people to be extremely careful to have their belongings packed in case they have to evacuate. Already, at least 1,200 people are under evacuation orders. Many others are under evacuation warnings.

And that's because these flames can spread quickly. I mean, again, this is a backfire. This is something that they're doing on purpose to try to contain the flames. But it could spread quickly. And authorities just telling people to be extremely careful.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Lubbock, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, a significant heat wave is expected to sweep across large parts of the U.S. this week. The record-breaking heat is building from the Midwest and Great Lakes up to the northeast. More than 260 million people could see temperatures above 90 degrees, with some cities likely topping 100 degrees. It's potentially the longest heat wave experienced in decades for some areas, with high temperatures expected to continue into next week. Meanwhile, there is a risk of excessive rainfall today in the upper Midwest from a stalled low-pressure system. The region could see three to four inches of rain by Tuesday morning.

[04:05:03]

Now, U.S. President Joe Biden warning Americans that a second Trump presidency would be catastrophic for the nation. At a star-studded Los Angeles fundraiser, he framed this year's presidential election as an inflection point in U.S. history, hoping this will rally more support for his re-election campaign.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez reports.

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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Biden over the weekend underscored the stakes of the election at a glitzy fundraiser in Los Angeles, in a conversation that was moderated by Jimmy Kimmel. The president warned about a second Donald Trump presidency, but he did so this time by focusing on the Supreme Court, saying that in the next four years, it's possible that there will be more vacancies on the Supreme Court, and posed the question as to what that could mean if it was Donald Trump as president during that time.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees, two more, two more. He's already appointed two that have been very negative in terms of the rights of individuals. The idea that if he's re-elected, he's going to appoint two more firing flags upside down is really, I really mean it.

JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST AND COMEDIAN: Could this be the scariest part of all of it?

BIDEN: Well, I think it is one of the scariest parts of it. Look, the Supreme Court has never been as out of kilter as it is today.

After the decision that overruled Roe v. Wade, the Dobbs decision, you had Clarence Thomas talking about the fact that there are going to be other things we should reconsider, including invitro fertilization, including contraception, including all these things.

ALVAREZ: The president talking there about reproductive freedoms, a galvanizing issue for the Biden campaign and one that they have fanned out across the country to talk about and to make the argument that they are at risk, reproductive freedoms are at risk if Donald Trump were to win a second term. But seated next to President Biden was also former President Barack Obama, who also talked about the values of candidates. And that, too, should be considered by voters when they go to the polls.

But this was also an event that would that allowed Democrats to rake in more money. And indeed, this was the largest ever Democratic fundraiser with more than $30 million raised. And that is the momentum of the Biden campaign is trying to keep going into November as they also try to maintain that cash advantage over Donald Trump.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Well, meanwhile, Donald Trump spent the weekend traveling to the state of Michigan, where he made an appeal to Black voters at a community roundtable in a predominantly Black church in Detroit.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The crime is most rampant right here and in African-American communities. We don't want to get robbed and mugged and beat up or killed because we want to walk across the street to buy a loaf of bread. But the Black population wants law enforcement more than any other population.

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FOSTER: He also spoke at a conservative conference where he baselessly cast doubt on the 2020 election as a way to attack this year's election. A New York Times Siena College survey of battleground states released last month shows Trump winning more than 20 percent of Black voters in a two-way matchup with U.S. President Biden. That would amount to a historic high if it translates to votes in November.

Compare that to Trump winning roughly one in 10 black voters nationally in 2020, according to multiple estimates.

Natasha Lindstaedt is a professor of government at the University of Essex. She joins us now from Colchester, England. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, what do you make of this latest appeal from Donald Trump in that church?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, he has been trying to appeal to a lot of demographics that Democrats have traditionally done well with, not just African-American voters, but also Hispanic voters. And we've seen that the polls haven't been very good for Biden with this wide group of different people that he has to attract, not just young voters, Hispanic voters, Black voters. Biden has been hemorrhaging support amongst African- American voters, and Trump is trying to capitalize on that.

Now, what some of the polls also reveal, though, is Trump is not able to grab a lot of those voters because many of them have said, maybe we won't vote or we're going to vote for a third-party candidate. A recent poll looking at the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania were showing that, though Biden is losing a lot of support and only has about 60 percent favorability rating among African-American voters there, Trump isn't making huge gains. And so it's a bit of a mixed picture there.

[04:10:00] And you also have the recent conviction, which Trump claimed would appeal to African-American voters, and the majority of them found this really offensive. And you had two-thirds of those same voters in those two swing states that said they were less likely to vote for him because of his conviction.

So while he may be chipping away a little bit at Biden's huge lead that he had in 2020, it's not really a sizable amount of voters that will help Trump. He's going to be likely to be gaining support elsewhere.

FOSTER: It's interesting, wasn't it, because at the last election, when he got in, he obviously leaned very much into blue-collar workers. But it's a much broader demographic, as you say, this time. He's trying to reach every demographic.

LINDSTAEDT: He is, because I think he thinks that these blue-collar, white, non-college-educated voters are probably a lock, and that for him to win this election, he's going to have to appeal to these newer demographics that seem to be leaning towards him. I mean, one of the most notable ones are Hispanic voters that have just completely soured on Biden. And this had traditionally been a huge block for the Democratic Party.

But particularly in swing states where you have large amounts of Hispanic voters, Trump is doing really well. I mean, at this point, Florida is a lock for Trump, and that used to be a state that was more of a swing state.

FOSTER: What do you anticipate for the debates? We've obviously got one coming up on CNN, and he's a very powerful debater, isn't he, Donald Trump? How do you think President Biden will try to differentiate and undermine him?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, this debate is really important for Biden more so than Trump. Trump has this very unorthodox debating style. I don't even know how much he actually prepares, because he doesn't really have to know policy, and he doesn't really have to know facts, because he tends to spew out a bunch of misleading comments or lies or slogans and just sort of overpowers and bullies his opponent.

Now, with this new feature that they're going to mute the person who is not speaking, that should help Biden. But there's a lot on the line for Biden. And similarly to his really well-done State of the Union address, where he was able to at least quiet concerns about his age and robustness, he can't have a bad debate. He's going to have to appear energized and quick on his feet.

I know the way Trump will perform it will be the same way he always does. It will be sort of this loud, powerful performance that is full of a lot of mistruths, but will resonate with his supporters.

FOSTER: And what about voter, you know, engagement here? Because a lot of the polls are suggesting people don't want either of them. How engaged are they and how much of an issue is voter turnout going to be? LINDSTAEDT: This is a huge turnout, of course, for Biden. He's going to have to galvanize and mobilize a wide coalition of people to support him. And as he was saying at the recent fundraiser that they had in Los Angeles, this is all about democracy.

Democracy is on the line. There could be other Supreme Court justices that will overturn even further and roll back even further reproductive rights and possibly the rights of the LGBTQ plus community. And it's not just that, that the Supreme Court justices, it's that Trump will weaponize the justice system in his favor and will appoint more just federal judges.

He appointed almost as many federal judges in four years as Obama did in eight years. So that's going to be the key talking point for the Democrats, that this is really the most important election in spite of the fact that no one's particularly energized because you have, you know, the same matchup as last year. That will be what the Democrats are going to try to sound the alarm on.

FOSTER: OK, Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you very much, as of your insights.

And do be sure to watch CNN host that U.S. presidential debate next week, Thursday, 27th of June, 9 p.m. Eastern in the U.S. That's 9 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong.

Well, two U.N. agencies say they've seen no change in the amount of aid entering Gaza, despite the Israeli military's tactical pause that started over the weekend and was supposed to allow more aid to get into the enclave. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told CNN the pause was not a new thing on the ground. It was simply a packaging of an announcement reflecting what we've been doing here in Gaza for over a week.

It goes on to say, however, the lack of any police or rule of law in the area makes it very dangerous for us to move goods there. For example, yesterday, we were unable to use it at all. Adding, the war between Hamas and Israel is not the only issue we have on the ground.

[04:15:02]

Meanwhile, the tactical pause apparently created confusion at the highest level of the Israeli government. The Israeli official tells CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unhappy when he heard about the announcement. That source said Netanyahu was assured that the fighting in Rafah will continue.

Israel's government says it wants to strengthen Jewish settlements. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office says Israel's security cabinet will vote on proposals at its next meeting. This comes after four countries recently recognized an independent Palestinian state.

Israel's foreign ministry says the recognition was a reward for terrorism.

Journalist Elliott Gotkine joins us live from Tel Aviv. Elliott, first of all, the West Bank. Just take us through what the plan is there.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: We don't really know, to be perfectly honest, Max. All we have is this statement saying that the government is going to continue to look at the various options that it has. But certainly ever since this government came into effect, what it has done is after every militant attack, for example, in the West Bank against Israeli settlers, for example, or any terrorist attack that has taken place, is that it has kind of responded by giving approvals to more settlements.

Now, usually this is just additional dwellings in existing settlements, but it has also made moves to legitimize so-called outposts, which were not accepted by the Israeli state as settlements. So certainly this is something that Israel is considering.

And as I say, it would be, you know, in keeping with this government's previous announcements, which is that every time there is some kind of attack or against Israel from the West Bank in particular, or it feels under threat, for example, with the recognition of a Palestinian state by countries such as Ireland that we had just the other week, then its kind of response is to, you know, push through more settlement building in the occupied West Bank -- Max.

FOSTER: And just take us through this tactical pause as well. Obviously, some confusion in the Israeli government and on the ground, it doesn't seem to have made much difference anyway.

GOTKINE: Look, it may be early days too early to see if there is going to be a difference because it's only came into effect on Saturday. Indeed, one of the U.N. agencies said as much, but certainly there doesn't seem to have been made any difference thus far. In terms of the actual announcement, it's a very curious situation, isn't it?

Because what we had was a statement from the Israeli military saying that this tactical pause, this came out on Sunday morning, saying this tactical pause came into effect on Saturday and would remain in place until further notice from 8:00 in the morning until 7 p.m. local time. That was swiftly followed by a clarification saying that this doesn't mean that there'll be a cessation of hostilities in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, particularly in Rafah, where Israel says it is going after the last redoubt of Hamas, the last remaining battalions of the militant group, something it needs to do in order to destroy the militant group's governance and military capabilities.

Now, we, as you said in the introduction, Max, we understand that Netanyahu says that he didn't know about this, that he only learned about it from media reports. Israeli media saying that the same thing goes for Yoav Galant, the defense minister. So effectively, you have the two people that make up the war cabinet now that Benny Gantz has gone, the two people that make up the war cabinet and are therefore in charge of the war in the Gaza, apparently being unaware of something that is apparently as significant as this tactical pause.

But I think what it does also do, Max, is it kind of shows the competing pressures that Netanyahu is under on the one hand from the United States to get as much aid into the Gaza Strip as possible, and on the other from the far-right ministers in his governing coalition who don't want him to make any concessions to the Palestinians because it says that these are concessions, rewards effectively, for Hamas.

I would liken this a little bit to President Biden's ceasefire plan, which he announced about three weeks ago, which he said that Israel had signed off of. No sooner had President Biden put out that statement and on the Jewish Sabbath, which is very rare, the prime minister's office putting out a statement almost not denying the existence of this plan or Israel or his approval of it, but clarifying that this doesn't preclude Israel or Israel will continue to fight Hamas in the Gaza Strip so long as it has yet to achieve its objectives of destroying Hamas's military and governance capabilities, preventing the Gaza Strip continuing to be a threat, and also getting all of those hostages home.

So I'd liken it to that situation, where Netanyahu isn't necessarily denying -- well, we understand that he's denying, but it may be that he was aware of it, but at the same time felt the need for this clarification so as to avoid alienating the far-right ministers in his government -- Max.

FOSTER: I'm Elliott in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.

Palestinian Muslims in Gaza marked the holy day of Eid al-Adha on Sunday, but there was little to celebrate.

There were prayers amid the rubble, like this event in Khan Younis.

[04:20:00]

But with fears of family in many parts of Gaza, feasts that normally accompany the holiday just didn't happen. In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden wished the world a blessed holiday and said he's doing everything possible to end the war, free the hostages, and work towards a two-state solution.

A deadly weekend in the U.S. rocked by more than a dozen mass shootings. Meanwhile, we'll have details when we come back, including one shooting left an eight-year-old boy and his mother in critical condition.

Plus, there's been intense fighting near Ukraine's border as a peace summit in Switzerland wraps up, a live report ahead.

And later, a topsy-turvy day of golf for the U.S. Open. We'll take a look at who came out on top.

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FOSTER: Gun violence rocked a number of cities across the U.S. this weekend. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were at least 14 mass shootings that killed nine people and injured dozens of others. In Massachusetts, seven people were shot during a spontaneous car club meetup outside Boston.

[04:25:00] In Texas, at least two people were killed when gunfire broke out at a Juneteenth celebration just outside Austin. And in Michigan, authorities are searching for a motive after a gunman opened fire at a Splash Pad Park Saturday, including, well, shooting nine people, including children. Our Gloria Pazmino has the latest on that investigation.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Several communities impacted by gun violence throughout this weekend, including this community in Rochester Hills in Michigan, where nine people were wounded by gunfire, including an eight-year-old and a four-year-old. One of them shot in the head, remains in critical condition, along with his mother, a 39-year-old woman who sustained gunshot injuries in the stomach and on her leg. She is also in critical condition. Police telling us that these victims are all part of the same family.

Police are telling us that they have identified the gunman as Michael William Nash, 42 years old from Shelby Township. They say that this shooting appears to have been at random. They've yet to identify any sort of motive for this shooting, but they said that he drove up to the Splash Pad where young children and families were gathered. He got out of his vehicle and opened fire 28 times, even stopping to reload his weapon.

He then fled the scene and took cover at his mother's house. She happened to be out of the home at that moment. And there was a struggle between police and the gunman as he continued to barricade himself inside the home.

Police tell us that they later found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the house where they also found additional weapons, including a military-style rifle that was sitting on top of the kitchen table.

We have images from that collected by a drone that was sent into the house as they were trying to contain the suspect in the house.

I want you to take a listen to the local sheriff talking about how this event unfolded and how it could have been worse and also witnesses who were not far from the scene and heard when the gunshots first rang out.

CHERYL DELCOTTO, WITNESSED SHOOTING: We were sitting on the patio and we heard like, we heard, we thought it was firecrackers and it was, I guess it was gunshots because we heard people screaming like, help us, help us.

MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY SHERIFF: I believe that because we had quick containment on him that if he had planned to do anything else and it wouldn't surprise me because having that on the kitchen table is not an everyday activity that there was probably something else, a second chapter potentially.

PAZMINO: Now, this is the second mass shooting in the last five years for this community of Oakland County. This is home to the Oxford High School. That's where the Oxford High School shooting took place back in 2021.

This community once again left reeling from this gun violence and from what we have heard so far, it looks like the number of victims could have been much greater given the amount of times that the gunmen fired into that playground where people were gathered.

We've also learned that White House officials, including the president, President Joe Biden, have been in touch with the local representatives offering support and any resources.

In New York, Gloria Pazmino, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: As Gloria indicated, what happened in Michigan this weekend is far from an isolated incident. So far this year in the U.S., the Gun Violence Archive reports there have now been 227 mass shootings defined as four or more people shot in a single incident, not including the shooter.

After break, a Chinese premier visits Australia for the first time in seven years. We'll have more on that agenda next.