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CNN International: Biden, Trump Preparing for High-Stakes Debate Thursday; Julian Assange Agrees to Plea Deal, Avoids Prison in U.S.; Dangerous Heat Shifts to U.S. Southeast and Central Plains; Netanyahu: We Will Not End War Until All Hostages Return. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired June 25, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julian Assange will soon be a free man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Assange claimed his mission was to shine a light on evidence of war crimes and abuses of power.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If everything goes well, Julian will be on a plane, on the way to freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Biden is preparing for whatever version of Donald Trump might show up Thursday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The format for this Thursday's debate will give Donald Trump far fewer opportunities to score with those unscripted, colorful moments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over the next few days, more than three quarters of the country will see temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Tuesday, June the 25th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. at the CNN studios in Atlanta, where the first U.S. presidential debate will be held in just two days.

President Joe Biden huddling with top aides at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, and his Republican rival Donald Trump says he's been preparing for the debate by going to events and taking questions. He indicated podcasts may be the best way to get ready for the showdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How are you preparing? I'm preparing by taking questions from you and others, if you think about it. But I'm preparing by dealing with you. You're tougher than all of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, CNN's MJ Lee has a closer look now at the Biden camp and how it's preparing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody knows he's a liar, but I just want to make sure. I want to make sure --

TRUMP: But you -- you're the liar.

BIDEN: I want to make sure --

TRUMP: You were last in your class. I'm first in my class.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four years after this contentious debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, featuring a torrent of insults, name-calling, and interruptions --

TRUMP: Why won't you answer that question?

BIDEN: Because the question is -- the question is --

TRUMP: -- justices, radical left.

BIDEN: Would you shut up, man?

LEE (voice-over): President Biden is again preparing to face off against his unpredictable predecessor on the debate stage.

CNN is learning that Biden is preparing for whatever version of Donald Trump might show up Thursday night, including a potentially disciplined Donald Trump, recreating the experience of going up against Trump, a key feature of the mock debates.

BOB BAUER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: You want to find some balance between recreating the experience and attempting to, if you will, audition for "Saturday Night Live."

LEE (voice-over): Top campaign aides insisting that, regardless of whether the ex-president is unhinged or more demure on Thursday, there's simply no altering his record.

MITCH LANDRIEU, BIDEN CAMPAIGN NATIONAL CO-CHAIR: People are going to know that he's a twice-impeached convicted felon who's been found to have defamed somebody, sexually abused somebody, and gone bankrupt six times. They will always know that.

LEE (voice-over): Ahead of the high-stakes debate, set to unfold inside CNN's Atlanta studio, Biden hunkering down with more than a dozen of his top aides at Camp David, the campaign hoping to showcase two starkly different visions on a whole host of issues. The economy, democratic institutions, and reproductive rights. BIDEN: Decades of progress shattered just because the last guy got four years in the White House. You know what will happen if he gets another four. To MAGA Republicans, Roe is just the beginning.

LEE (voice-over): Democrats on Monday seizing on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade and placing blame squarely at Trump's feet. A new Biden campaign ad featuring a testimonial from one Louisiana woman who says she was turned away from two emergency rooms after a dangerous miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's now a convicted felon. Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions, but he will let women and doctors be punished.

LEE (voice-over): Vice President Kamala Harris, who has emerged the administration's leading voice on the issue, one of many top Democrats blanketing the country today.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.

LEE: Now, if it's impossible to predict how former President Donald Trump might behave on Thursday, even Biden allies would acknowledge that President Biden's performance can be mixed. There are days and events where the president is very focused and sharp and other times when he is simply less on his game.

[04:05:00]

So there's no question that the president and his group of aides that are huddled right now at Camp David are also going to be working on the performance aspects. And they're certainly hoping that the President Biden that gave his State of the Union remarks back in March, that that is going to be the version that shows up to the debate stage on Thursday night.

MJ Lee, CNN, at the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Every debate presents opportunities for shocks and twists, of course, and Thursday's showdown will be no exception. CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten looks at some of the great debate unknowns.

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HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: How rusty will these candidates be? We're dealing with record old candidates and neither of them debated during the primary season. That is the first time that that has ever happened where neither candidate debated during the primary season.

Usually at least one, if not two, has done going into a general election debate. So how rusty will they be come Thursday? We're just going to have to wait and see.

All right. How about some other great unknowns heading into this debate? Does Trump name a VP?

He's kind of teased a little bit, because if he does, it might be the only thing that we talk about post-debate. If all of a sudden you have a complete ticket on the Republican side, it could cover up for a potential gaffe that he, in fact, might make. Maybe if he feels like the debate is going well, he won't actually say anything.

All right. That's two unknowns. How about a third unknown?

Which Donald Trump shows up at the debate on Thursday night? Are we going to get that first debate Donald Trump from 2020, where he's constantly trying to interrupt folks? Or are we potentially going to get a calmer Trump, a calmer Trump to maybe throw Biden off, who's so prepping for Trump to try and interrupt him at every turn, but all of a sudden we get a Trump that is, dare I say, a little bit more presidential?

Of course, presidential and Trump, not necessarily two things that always go together in a sentence.

Finally, one other thing I'll note, what will be the impact of the fact that this is the earliest debate on record by far? This is happening three months before any prior general election debate. It could make for a maximum effect, right? Oftentimes we have these debates and then you see a debate a week later, a vice presidential debate, which basically keeps the sort of bump a candidate might have at a minimum. Maybe we could have a maximum effect on this one, especially considering there are no other debates anytime soon.

So this is going to basically take up a chunk of the news cycle, not just this week, not just next week, but going into July.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Be sure to watch CNN as it hosts the U.S. presidential debate. It's on Thursday, June the 27th, 9 p.m. Eastern in the U.S. That's 9 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong, 2 a.m. here in London.

Well, tempers flared during a long day of hearings in the classified documents case against Donald Trump. At one point, the judge told a prosecutor she did not appreciate his tone. She also appeared skeptical about placing a gag order on Trump, who had appointed her.

The special counsel's office says the gag order is needed because law enforcement officers are facing threats after Trump repeatedly and misleadingly claimed that the federal agents who searched his Mar-a- Lago estate were authorized to murder him.

But Judge Aileen Cannon said prosecutors must show connecting facts between what Trump said and the actual threats. Cannon hasn't yet issued a ruling on either the gag order or on allegations from Trump that the special counsel's office is being improperly funded. A temporary election worker in Arizona is under arrest after allegedly

stealing a security fob and keys from an election center in Maricopa County. Court documents reveal Walter Ringfield was seen on surveillance video last week grabbing a lanyard with keys and a fob attached to it. He was later confronted by a supervisor and the fob was found during a search of his home. Ringfield now faces charges of theft and criminal damage.

Arizona and Maricopa County specifically has been a hotbed for election conspiracy theories since 2020. But Arizona officials say Ringfield's arrest shows that election safety protocols in the county are working.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is expected to appear in a U.S. courtroom on Wednesday to accept a plea deal with the Justice Department. But it won't be in New York or in Washington. The 52-year- old Australian is heading to the northern Mariana Islands after spending the last five years in a London prison. He's expected to plead guilty to a single count in one of the largest ever leaks of classified U.S. government material. In return, Assange will avoid spending any time in an American prison and return to Australia a free man. Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian. Were you expecting this?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, in a sense, we were, because we had heard back in April comments from President Joe Biden that he was considering a request from Australia to sort of stop this case, to end the prosecution against Assange. Australia had been lobbying for a while, but that really did shift the narrative, those comments from Biden.

[04:10:00]

And when we saw the last hearing that he had in the U.K. courts in May, there were a lot of banners up saying, let him go, Joe. And the Wikileaks head at the moment told me that he was placing a lot of hope on the political process.

What we didn't expect, and I think this is characteristic of a tale with so many twists, is how this is all now unfolding. He is, Assange, while having to plead guilty to one count, and I suspect that we shall hear more about that from Wikileaks. He is avoiding having to ever set foot on U.S. soil. He is going to make that plea on a remote Pacific island chain, the town of Saipan, the northern Mariana Islands, which is a U.S. territory in the Pacific near Guam. He will make that plea there. A federal judge in a federal district court based there will then either approve or not, but we suspect approve the deal. And they will sentence him to 62 months. That's what U.S. prosecutors are asking for.

But that will be offset by the time he's already served in Belmarsh High Security Prison in the U.K. So this is something that, you know, seems to have happened very quickly, but his team recorded a video a week ago where they seemed to be already confident that this was going to go through. Take a listen to a portion of that video with his wife, Stella Assange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STELLA ASSANGE, WIFE OF JULIAN ASSANGE: Throughout the years of Julian's imprisonment and persecution, an incredible movement has been formed. A movement of people from all walks of life, from around the world, who support not just Julian and not just us and our family, but what Julian stands for, truth and justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: Truth and justice is the argument that you hear from his supporters, his team, that this was all about journalism and that the charges against him. There were, by the way, 18 charges, 17 of which were under the Espionage Act in the U.S., only one of them he's now having to plead guilty to. But as I said, we will likely hear more about that.

We think that a plane that is believed to be carrying him has now landed in Bangkok, that will then be heading on to the northern Mariana Islands. The hearing set for Wednesday morning, their time around 9 a.m., about 15 hours or so from now. It has been 12 years, Max, since he has walked free.

FOSTER: Yes, OK, Clare, thank you so much.

In the U.S., some regions are receiving very heavy rainfall, while other areas are experiencing blistering temperatures. Cities like Sioux Falls in South Dakota saw over a month's worth of rainfall, and flood warnings are still in place in waterlogged areas and along rivers as water levels there are running well above normal.

And as rivers in the region swell, an aging dam in Minnesota is said to be on the brink of collapse. Authorities say they don't know if the Rapidan Dam near the city of Mankato will totally fail, but for now it's still intact and there are no plans for mass evacuations.

Emergency officials say the Blue Earth River cut around the west side of the dam, carrying damaging debris and causing power outages. The dam has been around since 1910 and was once a source of hydroelectric power.

Now, the U.S. National Weather Service is warning that temperatures will continue to soar across parts of the country today. States in the Central Plains could see temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 37 degrees Celsius. CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has your latest forecasts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, another hot day in places across the southeast, across parts of the Midwest, across parts of California. Still fairly cool across New England and even upstate New York, but we've seen all of this very heavy rainfall keep mainly the northern part of the country cool here across the U.S. with heavy rainfall. Some spots picking up a foot and a half.

Now, that's just about a half a meter of rainfall in 72 hours. And every place there is flooding, some places major flooding, other places record flooding. A lot of water still to get down into those bigger rivers.

There'll be a few scattered storms across the Midwest, across parts of Iowa, all the way through Chicagoland later on today. But the storms keep moving. Notice they're not just sitting in one place. When they sit that's when they create all of that havoc when it comes to the flash flooding.

Could feel like 110 degrees, though, with the heat and humidity in places before it does decide to rain later on today. And over the next few days, more than three quarters of the country will see temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, yes, a couple of cool days in store for Boston, even New York. 90 doesn't feel that bad compared to where you were, almost 100. D.C., you did get to 100. It'll be 93 later on today. And even for Atlanta, a high of 97.

So stay cool if you can. A few more days of this still on the way.

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FOSTER: For more now, Julian Assange's release from a U.K. prison. I'm joined by Rebecca Vincent. She's director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Some people suggested something was moving in this case and then the news came in, didn't it, last night. How did you react to it?

REBECCA VINCENT, DIRECTOR IN INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS, REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS: I mean, we're hugely relieved to finally have some good news in this case. It has certainly been a long time coming. We've been campaigning for many years in support of Julian Assange because of his contributions to journalism.

[04:15:00]

And although some good news in this case, it has certainly been a long time coming. We've been campaigning for many years in support of Julian Assange because of his contributions to journalism. And although we were following the legal proceedings in the U.K. courts, we've long said that this is a political case, that a political solution could be possible. And we've advocated with the U.S. government and the other governments involved for precisely this outcome. So frankly, we're delighted.

FOSTER: So he avoids U.S. prison. He'll avoid any prison time, won't he, as I understand it, because he served so many years here in the U.K. already. He has admitted one point of guilt, though, hasn't he? Just take us through that.

VINCENT: So the full details have not yet been released, and I believe that they're still held under legal seal. So I'm not able to speculate fully. We're very much waiting to see the details of this. But it is true he's already served more than five years in prison in the U.K. And he's been deprived of his liberty, in fact, for 13 years in various means. So we've maintained on a point of principle that he should not have spent a single day deprived of his liberty. We believe that the publication of these documents was in the public interest.

Nobody should be pursued like this for publishing in the public interest. So this is now a victory for journalism, for press freedom and for everyone's right to know.

FOSTER: Can I just go through the journalism on this as well? Because just to explain why this is so important to journalism, because there's obviously shades of grey here, isn't it, for many parts of the journalism industry, because there was releasing what many people see as a public interest document. But with that was released a list of unredacted names, which is an issue a lot of journalists do have with it.

So where do you stand on that? Because it put many lives at risk as well.

VINCENT: So actually, I would refute that framing a little bit. That was part of the U.S. government's legal case against Julian Assange, but it was far more complex by that. Actually, WikiLeaks republished the leaked information.

It was another party that accessed the unredacted documents, and it was never intended to be released in that way. WikiLeaks had worked in partnership with the Coalition of Professional Media Organizations to treat the information journalist journalistically before it was published.

But indeed, it is a complicated case. It is one that has put our democracies to the test, that has tested what journalism means, what press freedom means, what we really mean by freedom of information. The reason that we have defended this case so ardently is because of the implications it would have for journalism around the world.

This is the first time that the U.S. government has pursued a publisher under the Espionage Act in this way. We've seen that law used against whistleblowers in the past, but never a publisher. If they had succeeded in bringing him to the U.S. and possibly sentencing him up to 175 years, that precedent could be applied to any journalist, any media organization, anyone around the world working with leaked classified information, which is a normal journalistic process.

So it's not just about the rights of this one person, although that matters too. It is about the future of journalism. And I have to say now we think journalism is a little bit safer with this release.

FOSTER: But there will be some precedent that will be broken here, won't there? Because he will be facing -- he will be found guilty and he will be accepting guilt and he will be receiving a sentence on part of what you've been fighting. VINCENT: So what matters now is that he's free. In principle, we would have liked to see it done in a different way. We have been calling for all of the charges to be dropped and for him to be released. But most importantly, this man will not spend a single day further unjustly deprived of his liberty. His mental health has been of serious concern. His physical health has been of concern.

I've been really worried following some of my prison visits to him. The conditions there were grim. It wasn't really as bad as he would have possibly faced in the U.S., so I'm pleased that we will never find that out. But enough is enough. We can't undo the past 13 years, but we can do the right thing now. I'm glad that the U.S. government finally has.

Frankly, we expect better from the country of the First Amendment and I hope this kind of a case will not be repeated. We need to see in the earliest stages urgent reform of the Espionage Act so it cannot be used again in this way to target journalistic activity.

FOSTER: You've obviously come to know him well. What do you expect him to do when he gets back to Australia?

VINCENT: I think first and foremost he'll probably want to spend time with his family because, of course, he has two young sons who have only seen him in Belmarsh Prison. I also hope that he'll seek some medical care and take some rest. Frankly, we're hoping to be able to speak later today.

The last time I saw him was about a month ago in prison and he seemed more upbeat than during some of my previous visits, so perhaps good news was already on the horizon. But as a person, I think he probably needs some time to recover.

FOSTER: OK, Rebecca Vincent in Paris, really appreciate you spending your time with us today. Thank you.

Now Princess Anne, the younger sister of Britain's King Charles, in hospital with a head injury, suffered during a walk at her home on Sunday.

[04:20:00]

Buckingham Palace says the 73-year-old is being treated for a concussion and other minor injuries and should make a full recovery. The exact cause of the injury is unclear, but her medical team believes the Princess may have been struck in some way by a horse.

King Charles and Queen Camilla are preparing a lavish welcome for the Emperor and Empress of Japan. The royal couple arrived in the U.K. on Saturday. They spent the weekend attending informal engagements. Today's festivities will start with a ceremonial welcome at Horse Guards Parade.

The state banquet scheduled for tonight at Buckingham Palace. Royal watchers will be looking for Prince William's wife, Catherine, who attended only one royal engagement since announcing her cancer diagnosis in December.

More high-level talks today in Washington, where Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is meeting with U.S. officials to discuss the war in Gaza and the growing tension between Israel and Hezbollah. The details next.

Plus, Iran is gearing up for its presidential election this week. We'll head to Tehran to gauge the mood in the country ahead of the vote.

And later, celebration in South Florida. Details on the exciting winner-take-all game, seven of the Stanley Cup finals.

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[04:25:02]

FOSTER: We are following breaking news out of Israel where the Supreme Court has ordered the government to draft ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews into the military. The ruling is a blow to Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition which relies on ultra-Orthodox political parties to govern what continue to follow developments and bring those to you as soon as we learn them.

Israel's defense minister is set for another day of talks in Washington where top U.S. officials hope for more clarity on Israel's war plans in Gaza. This comes amid mounting fear that tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in the north could spark a wider conflict. In the hours ahead, Yoav Gallant will sit down with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Yesterday he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who emphasized the need to stop the war in Gaza from escalating. The two also discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire and a hostage-release deal.

Gallant's visit comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told local media on Sunday that he was prepared to agree to a temporary pause in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages and that the war would continue after a ceasefire with the goal of eliminating Hamas. That move appears at odds with a recent proposal that would result in a permanent ceasefire.

A day later in the Knesset, Mr. Netanyahu said the war would not end until all hostages are returned to Israel. And insisted he wasn't walking away from the proposal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We will not end the war until we return all the hostages, 120 hostages, both the living and the dead. We are committed to the Israeli proposal that President Biden endorsed. Our position has not changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Nada Bashir joins us in London with more. Please explain to our viewers what's going on here.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well look, we've seen Netanyahu walking back on those comments before, but what we've also been seeing is mounting pressure on the Israeli Prime Minister from his own citizens, particularly, of course, the family members of hostages currently held captive by Hamas in Gaza. We've been seeing the protests on the streets of Tel Aviv for months now. What we've actually seen over the last day is one organization which represents hostages and their family members releasing footage showing this scene on October 7th as three hostages were abducted.

I believe we have the full video. Warning to our viewers, it is distressing and graphic. You can see the three Israeli citizens being abducted by Hamas militants on October 7th, being placed on the back of a pick-up truck.

One of those hostages, an American Israeli citizen, Hersh Goldberg- Polin, can be seen with his face bloodied, his arm seemingly injured. And what we've been hearing from these family members, from these organizations, is continued pressure and calls on the Israeli Prime Minister, on the Israeli government, to focus more on securing the release of these hostages.

And, of course, those comments that you mentioned from Netanyahu in his first one-on-one interview since October 7th with Israeli media, suggesting that there would be a pause in fighting, that there would be a partial deal, but not a full deal as has been laid out on the table by the Biden administration.

Now, of course, Netanyahu has walked back on those comments. He says the war will not end until all hostages are returned. And that is what is stipulated in this three-phase ceasefire agreement, which has been, according to the White House, put forward by the Israeli government, which would see a full release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails.

Many of them, of course, important to note, under administrative detention, meaning no charges laid against them. And we've been hearing from other Israeli sources who have said that the Israeli government has reiterated its commitment to mediators in Qatar to stand by this deal. But again, that agreement is still currently stalling at this stage. Continued pressure, of course, from U.S. officials on both sides to agree to this deal.

FOSTER: OK, Nada, thank you.

Still to come, a new finance bill in Kenya has young protesters ready to shut down the nation's capital. We'll explain why the bill has Gen Z, at least, upset.

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