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Biden Vows To "Win This Election" As Some Dems Panic; Trump Criticized For False, Misleading Statements At Debate; SCOTUS To Rule Monday On Trump's Criminal Immunity Claim, Limits Obstruction Charges Against January 6 Rioters; Prelim Results Show Iran Moderate Candidate In Lead; Battleground State Voters Assess Debate; First Round Of French Parliamentary Elections Sunday; Civilians Are Trapped In Area Under Israeli Attack; Global Media React To Biden's Debate Performance; Over 100 Dolphins Stuck In Muddy Waters Off New England Beach. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired June 29, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers watching in the United States and around the world.
I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong.
Renewed vigor on the campaign trail for President Joe Biden.
But is it enough to silence the calls for him to step aside?
A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court limits charges against some January 6th rioters. How Trump's team could use that to their advantage.
And French voters head to the polls on Sunday.
Will Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance hold firm or could we see an upset from the far right?
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COREN: Joe Biden, the White House and top Democrats are in damage control mode after the U.S. president's faltering performance at Thursday's presidential debate. But on Friday, a stark contrast.
Biden was animated as he spoke at a rally in North Carolina in the afternoon with a teleprompter, a very different setting from Thursday night's debate when he was in the room with only Donald Trump and CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. He told the crowd on Friday that he doesn't debate as well as he used to.
But he does have the energy and experience to run the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Folks, I give you my word as a Biden, I would not be running again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job.
Because quite frankly --
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: -- the stakes are too high stakes. The stakes are too high.
COREN (voice-over): Despite calls for him to drop out of the race, his campaign says he is staying. First lady Jill Biden told supporters on Friday that, after the debate, the president said he didn't know what happened and that he didn't feel that great.
Donald Trump did not escape criticism for his debate performance. He lied throughout the entire event. But at a rally in Virginia, the former president put the focus on Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Despite the fact that crooked Joe Biden spent the entire week at Camp David resting working, studying, he studied very hard.
He studied so hard that he didn't know what the hell he was doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz has more on the fallout from the debate and Biden's attempt to bounce back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIDEN: When you get knocked down, you get back up.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Joe Biden in North Carolina, attempting a major reset after his debate against former president Donald Trump. One Democratic lawmaker telling CNN, Biden's performance was a disaster.
BIDEN: I know I'm not a young man. Say the obvious. I don't debate as well as I used to.
But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.
SAENZ (voice-over): On the campaign trail, the president fiery in his attacks against his rival.
BIDEN: Donald Trump will destroy democracy, I will defend it.
SAENZ (voice-over): A stark contrast from Biden's showing at CNN's presidential debate, which has sent Biden's advisers scrambling behind the scenes to calm Democratic panic after moments like this.
BIDEN: Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the -- with the COVID -- excuse me -- with dealing with everything we had to do with -- look, if -- we finally beat Medicare.
TRUMP: Boy, he's right. He did beat Medicare, he beat it to death.
SAENZ (voice-over): Donald Trump seizing on Biden's struggles.
TRUMP: I really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don't think he knows what he said, either.
SAENZ (voice-over): Even as he made multiple false claims and hedged yet again when asked directly if he would accept the results of this year's election.
TRUMP: If it's a fair and legal and good election, absolutely. I would have much rather accepted these but the fraud.
BIDEN: I doubt whether you'll accept it because you're such a whiner.
SAENZ (voice-over): But those moments overshadowed by Biden's shaky demeanor and delivery. Midway through the debate, aides explaining his hoarse voice was the result of a cold. Now the campaign facing questions about what comes next for the 81-year-old president.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Are they going to stick by him or are they going to come with pitchforks?
SAENZ (voice-over): Despite the slip-ups, many top Democrats defending Biden.
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, there was a slow start but it was a strong finish.
[03:05:00]
This election and who is the President of the United States has to be about substance. And the contrast is clear.
SAENZ (voice-over): Former President Barack Obama writing, "Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself."
But in private, some Democrats less assured, questioning whether Biden should remain at the top of the ticket. Biden's team spent part of the day calling donors and lawmakers trying to ease concerns.
One adviser telling CNN, quote, "We are in a dark place but we're moving forward."
That path forward is ultimately up to Biden himself, who so far has shown no signs of backing down.
BIDEN: I give you my word as a Biden, I would not be running again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul, I can do this job. SAENZ: The president continued his campaign swing here in New York
City, where he attended a fundraiser with LGBTQ+ supporters. A source familiar with the event told me the president was expected to raise $3 million for that event.
It comes on the heels of the campaign saying that they brought in $14 million around the debate, saying that that is the largest investment grassroots fundraising day since their campaign launch.
Now the president is expected to have three more fundraisers over the weekend. But it all comes at a time when Democratic and Biden advisers spent a portion of the day on Friday on the phones calling not just Democratic lawmakers but also Democratic donors who have expressed concerns about his campaign -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, traveling with the president in New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Joining me now is Caroline Heldman. She's a professor of critical theory and social justice at Occidental College.
And Shermichael Singleton, who is a CNN political commentator and Republican strategist.
Great to have you both with us.
Caroline, if we can start with you, President Biden obviously woke up today to a barrage of criticism and calls for him to step aside after his disastrous debate performance. And then he delivered this rousing speech at a rally in North Carolina. Let's first take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don't speak as smoothly as I used to. I don't debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: this was a completely different Joe Biden, a completely different man.
What happened?
POLITICAL SCIENTIST, OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE: And I would say that even there he's stumbling a little bit but, boy, yes, definitely more energy than last night.
This debate was just catastrophic for Biden and not in the sense of like, hey, Obama had a terrible debate against Romney in 2012 or Ronald Reagan stumbled in his first debate against Walter Mondale way back in 1984.
This was a huge shift in terms of people thinking about his fitness for the presidency. His age has been an issue, been on polls for about a year. And what he did last night was to put himself in a very deep hole, which is why you have so many Democrats behind the scenes and even publicly calling for him to step aside.
And just a little bit ago, "The New York Times" editorial board asked him to step aside.
COREN: Yes, Trump, remained calm and also in control.
Shermichael, Donald Trump, he spent 90 minutes on stage telling lie after lie after lie. He was rewriting the narrative for the January 6 insurrection and then today he spent most of the day gloating. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Joe Biden's problem is not his age, it's not his anything really. It's got no problem other than it's his competence. He's grossly incompetent. You know, they keep saying old.
I know people that are much older than him that are doing unbelievable things, making a fortune. I knew a man that at 79 he was never a success and he made $1 billion, $1.5 billion from '79 to '92. And that's what it is.
It's not his age, it's his competence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Shermichael, his base is going to love him. That's not to discuss. But the performance of Donald Trump onstage for those 19 minutes -- sure, he was calm. He was in control.
But did it scare moderate Republican voters?
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't think so. I think this idea that the quote-unquote "Nikki Haley voter," which I presume you're alluding to, a substantial percent of them voted for President Biden in 2020.
The expectation for most of us who sort of do this stuff for a living is that most of them will stick with President Biden or whomever the Democratic alternative would be in November.
However, there are some internal polling data from the RNC, from the Trump campaign and some other right-leaning -- and by right-wing I mean, Republican leaning entities.
[03:10:06]
They suggest that there's a 3 percent to 4 percent of those voters who may have a little buyer's remorse and maybe potentially interested in voting for the former president again, depending on who his running mate is, depending on if he can showcase the ability to not be as chaotic as we have somewhat become used to.
And he accomplished that goal in that debate, just like Joe Biden had the goal of showcasing vitality and youthfulness and the ability to govern for another four years at 81. Donald Trump had to showcase that he can moderate his tone. He had to showcase that he wouldn't react aggressively to every single insult like a child.
And he did that. Now we can talk about the number of times he made statements that were not true with veracity of the claims. People sort of used to that from the former president. That's not the expectation that they have that Donald Trump has all of a sudden this truth bearer.
If that were the case, this election wouldn't be as close as it is. And so for all intents and purposes, I would argue that Donald Trump is more than likely on his way back to the White House.
COREN: Caroline, Democrats, clearly, were panicked last night and many, obviously still are. Biden needed to prove he had the energy, the vigor, the stamina, the mental acuity for another four years and that his age was just a number.
He showed he was every one of his 81 years last night.
What conversations are being had at high levels about him stepping down from his inside circle, his family and even his wife, I mean, it must have been excruciating for them to watch.
HELDMAN: Absolutely. The fact that they sent Kamala Harris out almost immediately and they had spin about him being sick and also how he did better in the second half than the first half of the debate, which I actually don't think is true. I think he had a peak maybe in the middle.
This is the discussions that are happening right now are, as Shermichael pointed out, having to do with the fact that he is not likely to win the election, given his performance last night. And I say this as a historian of this, that these things almost never matter.
And it wouldn't matter last night at all if he had just shown up and did a typical job. Instead, deer in the headlights, mouth agape. He looked like he was zoning out. He was losing the topic, the topic of abortion came up and he brought up the topic of immigration. And didn't hit it out of the park.
HIs abortion topic the way that he should. I think right now, the conversation is about whether or not he's -- essentially his people ego (ph) will allow him to step aside. Power doesn't give up power. This is a public servant, a patriot, someone whose service has been incredible to the country.
And at this point in time, the only way that he could be replaced, really, in a fashion that would render the party just in tatters, would be for him to give his delegates, release his delegates at the Democratic National Convention or before that. That happens in August in Chicago.
And have them coalesce around another candidate. So I would imagine there are all sorts of strategy sessions going on at night, close friends are definitely encouraging him to do that. But at the end of the day, if Biden doesn't want to step down, he's not going to step down.
COREN: Shermichael, I'm interested as to whether Trump will turn out for a second debate and also how he would feel about running against a Gavin Newsom or a Gretchen Whitmer or even Kamala Harris for that matter.
SINGLETON: If I'm advising him no to a second debate, I'm certainly going to focus on running against Joe Biden. But you're going to plan potentially for V.P. Harris or Gavin Newsom, which would sort of be odd if they skipped over the vice president, first Black woman; I don't think Democrats would make that mistake because you risk turning off a lot of Black voters.
So you would probably focus on potentially building a strategy to compete against her. But from everyone that I've spoken with, that have known President Biden for years and I mean a number of years, he is going to stay in this thing.
And so Donald Trump is going to run a race against him. And the question is going to be for the American voter, do you remember the first two years of the Trump administration before the COVID pandemic?
And we can certainly criticize those last two years.
Or do you want someone who potentially isn't competent to lead the country forward on economic front, inflation, immigration, the potential for the United States to be drawn into some type of a foreign conflict with Russia or China in the South Chinese (sic) Sea.
These are real serious questions that the American people want answers to. And I think Trump could potentially make an effective case that President Biden may not be the greatest person to have solutions to those very complex problems.
COREN: Shermichael Singleton, Caroline Heldman, we appreciate your analysis. Thanks for joining us.
[03:15:00]
COREN: Monday will be a big day for the U.S. Supreme Court. That's when we should get the court's ruling on some important cases, including Donald Trump's immunity claim. Details coming up.
Plus Iran's presidential election may be headed for a runoff, we will take you live to Tehran for the very latest when we return. Please stay with CNN.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) The U.S. Supreme Court is set to issue a major ruling on Monday about
whether former president Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution. Monday will also be the final day for the justices to release opinions on other high-profile cases.
On Friday, the court ruled that the Department of Justice overstepped its authority by charging hundreds of people who took part in the January 6, 2021, riots with felony obstruction charges.
Trump's legal team expects to use the ruling to attempt to get his obstruction charges dismissed. The ruling has forced prosecutors to reopen cases against dozens of rioters. More now from CNN's Katelyn Polantz in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday decided that the way that the Justice Department charges January 6 rioters has to be limited.
[03:20:05]
That there has to be specific intent and language that the Justice Department uses when it brings cases against these rioters for felony obstruction. Many rioters, hundreds even, were charged with obstruction of the congressional proceeding on January 6th of 2021 and they were taken to trial.
Some of them pled guilty and many have been sentenced. There's only a couple remaining cases in the system where those people continue to serve those sentences. And so now with this Supreme Court ruling, there's going to be a lot more work for the Justice Department to do.
These cases are very likely to go back to the trial judges now and be revisited in different ways. Within two hours after the Supreme Court ruled on Friday about these January 6th rioter cases, a federal judge in D.C., who sits at the trial level, told the defendants under her, rioters, that they would need to be resentenced.
So she's going to put those on the calendar, resentencing dates for some of these people who are serving prison time.
And then in another case, a very well-known case, against Jacob Chansley, the so-called QAnon shaman, the man with the horns and the sphere with the American flag and the bull horn, urging rioters to come inside the building.
He, Jacob Chansley, may have to be retried. He's one of the only rioters to only face that obstruction felony count. And so the Justice Department may need to revisit how it deals with that charge against this man who's already completed his prison time.
So a lot, a long way ahead on that. There's also the Trump case. Donald Trump faces this same charge that the Supreme Court is ruling on. But the Justice Department tried to get ahead of things here and say
that Donald Trump's case is much different than the rioters, that he was trying to obstruct the proceedings of Congress in a lot of ways, including with that fake elector scheme and with a lot of actions that didn't just occur on January 6th -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Washington.
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COREN: Vote counting is underway now in Iran's snap presidential election and preliminary results show the reformist candidate in the lead. According to state media, moderate lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian is leading hardline former nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.
With nearly 20 million votes counted, Pezeshkian leads by about 1 million votes.
If no candidate gets 50 percent plus one of the vote a runoff will be held.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Tehran.
Fred, good to see you. Voter turnouts, as we know, historically low in this election.
Do we feel that this boycott is a protest?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, not necessarily sure it's a protest or a boycott but definitely the authorities won't be very happy with the turnout as far as we see it so far. If you look at it right now, the turnout stands at around 40 percent.
That's not necessarily going to change at all. And if you look at previous elections, even the one where Ebrahim Raisi was elected, where he didn't really have a moderate candidate running against him. But turned out there was 48 percent where the last parliamentary election. It turned out there was 43 percent.
So certainly the turnout is very low and the authorities will not be very happy with that at all. And the supreme leader, of course, has said that the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic's political system, in many ways, relies on word voter turnout.
He said it's strong; if the turnout is strong and it's weak and it gets denounced as he put it by its enemies, if the turnout is weak, so the authorities won't be happy with that. The big question now is going to be, is there going to be a run-off between the two top ones who were still in the running?
Or were it now that the votes are being counted or is one of the candidates going to be able to get a full majority in the first round?
COREN: Yes, Pezeshkian seems to be leading at this stage by 1 million votes ahead of Saeed Jalili. Explain to us the difference between these two candidates and how they are likely to deal with the United States.
PLEITGEN: Yes, first, that's a really interesting question because, while Masoud Pezeshkian is seen as a reformer and a moderate, he still is someone who has been endorsed by the political system.
That's why he's allowed to run. He's someone who's pledged allegiance to the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. So there would be reforms but they wouldn't necessarily be all encompassing. He does say and he has said that he wants better relations with countries here in the region.
He wants better relations, of course, also with the West as well. It was quite interesting because the supreme leader himself came out and warned Iranians not to necessarily trust politicians who too badly want better relations with the United States.
He said, not all good necessarily comes from the United States. So that could be a point of friction. In the end, one of the things of course we understand is that no policies would be put an action without the blessing of the supreme leader of this country.
[03:25:00]
And of course, all the other entities that are so important here in Iran, like the clergy, like the military. So there are chances for reforms if a candidate wants to go that way. But it certainly would have to be in conjunction with the top authorities, especially with the supreme leader here in this country.
COREN: Finally, when are we expecting to learn the election results?
PLEITGEN: I would say it's going to be probably in the early afternoon.
You just mentioned that I think around 20 million, less than 20 million of the votes were counted. It looks as though about 24 million people cast their ballots. So I think it's still going to take maybe a couple of hours for the final election results to come through.
One of the things that we're hearing is that the accounting is still very much going on in bigger cities. So that is something, of course, could take a little bit. That's also by the way, an area where the moderates believed that they could show quite well.
So we're going to have to wait and see how that plays out and whether or not one of the candidates possibly will get the absolute majority in the first round.
COREN: Fred Pleitgen joining us from Tehran. Good to see you. Thank you.
Reactions still pouring in after Thursday's debate between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Still ahead we'll hear from people whose opinions will matter this November in a battleground state, Georgia.
Plus political uncertainty in France as voters go to the polls to decide whether to go to the far right or the far left or stay in the center. Those details ahead.
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COREN: Welcome back.
Well, Joe Biden's appearance at a rally on Friday was quite different from what the world saw at Thursday's debate with his Republican rival. The U.S. president was animated as he spoke at a rally in North Carolina in the afternoon with a teleprompter.
[03:30:00]
Fifty-one million Americans tuned in to watch the debate and saw Biden forget words and at times lose his train of thought. Donald Trump did not escape criticism for his debate performance with his blatant lies throughout the event.
Well, a blistering editorial from "The New York Times" suggests that Joe Biden should drop out of the presidential race.
The editorial board's writeup published Friday says, quote, "Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges. And the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal.
"But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for reelection."
Speaking to Anderson Cooper earlier, CNN contributor and "The New Yorker" staff writer, Evan Osnos, said, he thought Biden maybe undeterred by the latest criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I mean, it's significant. It is not the kind of thing that "The Times" does lightly. It's pretty rare to think of last time that "The New York Times" has called for a Democratic president to step aside from his re-election attempt.
But I also think, if you're trying to understand what's going on inside Joe Biden's world right now, inside his mind, I think you've got a pretty clear sense of that today, when he got up and he said in this crowd in North Carolina, and he said, "When you get knocked down, you get back up."
For him, that is an idea that is way more than just a sort of bromide that you might throw around. This is kind of his central political mantra and it's been a part of his life for a very long time.
The question now is, does he believe it so strongly that he is perhaps not as open to seeing what the other evidence is that's going to come out over the course of the next weeks and days about -- days and weeks about what sort of support he has?
That balancing those two, I think, Anderson, is going to be at the core of how he navigates this over the course of the days ahead (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Our Gary Tuchman caught up with Biden and Trump supporters as well as undecided voters in the battleground state of Georgia, to see where they stand after Thursday's debate.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We talked with Georgia voters at a sports pub in Atlanta immediately after the debate was over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm only 25 and I see --
Well, they're both old and they're both either avoiding questions or they're both like don't know what the hell they're answering.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): And we talked with Georgia voters on the recreational Beltline that surrounds Atlanta after everyone had the night to think about the debate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't necessarily feel competent in either candidate's ability to run a country.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We had conversations with dozens of Georgians, many of them very uninspired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate that it's between these two guys because I don't like one candidate more than the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like a younger candidate on both parties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The headline old man versus conman really resonated with me.
TUCHMAN: Before the debate, were you leaning toward Biden, Trump or undecided?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably leaning toward Biden.
TUCHMAN: After this debate, how do you feel?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without a home.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Many who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and support him currently are frankly depressed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My genuine hope is that perhaps somebody else will step up for that nomination.
TUCHMAN: On the Democrats?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): These two women say they are strong Biden supporters but watching the debate was difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was concerned, very, very concerned about Biden's real ability to carry this nation forward just from a physical perspectives.
TUCHMAN: Do you feel the same way?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I care about where our country is going to be rather than who delivered the most stellar debate on stage. And I care about who tells the truth. It's going to keep me safe. Who's actually going to do things for the country. I don't feel like that's Trump.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Speaking of former President Donald Trump, many Georgians leaning toward voting for him. Tell us that President Biden's debate performance was not at all surprising to them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought he sounded unsure rather confused and not.
Well, prepared. I'm sorry to say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that they -- Biden, you know, looked sad. Trump was Trump.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Here in the Beltline and back at the Wicked Wolf's sports pub, voters we talked to who had already decided to vote for President Biden still plan to. And voters who support Donald Trump aren't planning to abandon him at the ballot box either. But we did find a few undecideds who may be on the verge of a decision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought that Trump, in this debate and overall, I think he's more reasonable and more cogent and more, yes, thoughtful, than what he was four years ago. I'm undecided but I'm thinking voting for Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was pretty undecided.
TUCHMAN: And what are you thinking now?
[03:35:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm leaning more toward Biden.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): And we also found some people who feel like this woman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that we could all benefit as a country from someone other than the two options that we have today. One is a convicted felon and the other was unable to coherently explain his stance yesterday.
TUCHMAN: So who do you vote for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure if I will vote because of it.
TUCHMAN: We did talk with three voters who say they will do definitely vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. One of them voted for Donald Trump four years ago, one for Joe Biden one didn't say who he voted for. But what they all have in common, none of them say they were inspired by what they heard at the debate -- Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Twenty-four hours from now, voters in France will be going to the polls deciding whether the government will be led by the far right, the far left or remain in the center.
What's at stake for France?
That's coming up.
Plus new problems for a U.S. humanitarian pier in Gaza. Why the structure had to be removed for the third time in six weeks -- straight ahead.
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COREN: French voters go to the polls on Sunday to choose between President Emmanuel Macron's centrist alliance and far right or far left parties in the first round of voting.
The far right is expected to make significant gains in the snap parliamentary elections. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne has details from Paris.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): He's known for bold moves.
But nobody saw this bombshell coming.
French president Emmanuel Macron's surprise call for snap elections after his party's defeat at the hands of the French far right in the E.U. elections caught everyone off guard, even his prime minister.
[03:40:00]
KEVIN ARCENAUX, POLITICAL SCIENTIST, CENTRE FOR POLITICAL RESEARCH, SCIENCES PO: If his bet pays off, he'll go down as a brilliant statistician who, when everybody else thought that he was doing something ridiculous, he had really done something that was amazing for his party.
If not, I think he will go down in history as somebody who essentially exploded the traditional party system in France.
VAN DAM (voice-over): So why did Macron do it with a centrist coalition lacking the majority and already struggling to get laws through parliament?
Observers say a no confidence vote loomed. Voting happens over two rounds with the French electorate heading to the ballot boxes to send 577 MPs to the national assembly.
Macron's announcement sent parties and politicians scrambling to form coalitions. His biggest threat, France's far-right national rally. Seen as Russia friendly and skeptical of the E.U., the party is led by Marine Le Pen's acolyte, 28-year-old, Jordan Bardella.
He's a strong contender for France's next prime minister, a role that the president appoints from the party that wins a majority. Other challenges include the new Popular Front, a new coalition of socialists, Communists, Greens and the far left who want to officially recognize the state of Palestine.
And this man, current prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who's only been in the job five months, now back on the campaign trail for Ensemble, peddling a message of economic stability.
Whoever France's new prime minister is, they will stand shoulder to shoulder with Macron on the world stage in less than a month's time as Paris hosts the Olympic Games.
This political uncertainty has spilled onto the streets. A quarter of 1 million people marched throughout France in recent weeks to oppose the national rally. Emmanuel Macron's political gamble in dissolving the parliament hurts his legacy in serious jeopardy.
His last years in office could be plagued by political uncertainty or worse. He could be remembered as the French president who paved the way to the far right -- Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: There's less than one week to go until elections in the U.K.. Three opinion polls last week forecast a comfortable win for the Labour Party. Despite the predicted change in leadership, there is a bit of apathy about the upcoming elections.
Residents of a small town outside Manchester say they're feeling left behind by the main parties and disconnected from the political process.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just want to fight for working class people and someone to get back to the roots of just looking out for the little man, look out for the people that are living on a breadline, not the people going in corporations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's not (INAUDIBLE) him because what -- I don't know what I'm going for. I don't really pay attention to it and I don't really understand it. Everyone is (INAUDIBLE). They don't bring anything to me. They don't give me anything. I still have to pay a tax and do this and do that and pay for people's holidays.
So, no, I'm not -- I'm not voting. I don't see the point in it.
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COREN: Election in the U.K. is on Thursday, July 4th.
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COREN: Many civilians are trapped in the midst of an ongoing Israeli attack in a Gaza City neighborhood. That's according to the Palestinian civil defense. The group says the Shejaiya neighborhood has been under non-stop artillery fire since Thursday and at least seven people have been killed.
But the evacuation route given by Israel has become difficult to use because of the fighting. Many residents have no place to go and no place to hide from the attacks.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're sitting in (INAUDIBLE). Debris fell on us and we had to flee. My cousin was murdered. We tried to put him to hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There were 60 people in the house.
Is that what Netanyahu is fighting?
What is our fault?
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COREN: For more, let's go to London, where we're joined by Nada Bashir.
What more you learning about these strikes on Shejaiya?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Intensive and bombed by the Israeli military since they entered the neighborhood on Thursday.
This is, of course, an area where civilians were still known to be sheltering and many are still unable to leave the area, to leave the neighborhood given the intense bombardment and clashes that we are seeing in the northern neighborhood.
As you mentioned, the Israeli military has highlighted and outlined an evacuation route on the Salaheddin road but that has also proven difficult to move. It has proven unsafe, of course, and many civilians are fearing for their lives and the lives of their children as they attempt to flee the bombardment in this area. We have seen footage of civilians attempting to flee, to move
southward but for many of them, they simply do not know where they are fleeing to.
[03:45:00]
Whether this will be a safe area for their families and, of course, for the authorities on the ground, for the civil defense and for the paramedics. We have heard in separate statements that it has proven extremely difficult for them also to get access to the neighborhood.
The Israeli military of course, says it is targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating in the area. Both organizations have said in separate statements that they are also engaged in clashes with the Israeli military.
Clearly, the situation in the north growing more and more challenging for the civilians caught in between.
COREN: On the issue of the U.S. built pier that was obviously installed for aid, it has to be removed for the third time in six weeks. It's been plagued with issues ever since it was first built.
Why so many problems?
BASHIR: Well, look, it was initially built and established as a temporary measure. This has been repeatedly reiterated by U.S. officials. But clearly it has not proven as effective as the U.S. would have hoped.
And, of course, as aid organizations would have desperately hoped. We have seen the pier being dismantled multiple occasions now, due to the conditions on the coastline, the high seas and heavy winds, once again, it is being dismantled because of fears over those conditions.
But what we've also seen and what has also proven to be a challenge now is an overload of the amount of aid getting in and getting stuck at that particular coastal route. Now what has happened due to the security situation is aid organizations are finding it increasingly difficult and challenging to distribute aid within the Gaza Strip.
We have seen huge backlogs around this maritime corridor area. We've seen huge backlogs, of course, to those land crossings where aid organizations, haven't been able to get those crucial trucks through those crossings.
And so what is happening now, because the World Food Programme has been forced to suspend temporarily its operations due to security concerns, is we are seeing aid piling up now on this coastal area by the pier.
And, of course, what is a concern is if this pier continues to face these difficulties, then maybe increasing calls for the U.S. to pull the plug on its endeavor entirely. That is certainly when the call from some U.S. officials have accused the Biden administration of wasting taxpayers' dollars on this. COREN: Nada Bashir joining us from London. Thank you for the update.
After the break, the European media have harsh words for Joe Biden after his halting debate, performance more on that next.
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COREN: The fallout over President Biden's debate performance has reached Europe where media outlets are using words like "disaster" and "drowning."
Nic Robertson reports.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): In Moscow, state media lampooned President Joe Biden's debate performance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Congratulating him for not falling over, criticizing him for what they called a 20-second freeze up, saying he had trouble remembering who and where he was. If Russia was gleeful, Europe was shocked.
Newspapers agreeing, Democrats panic, British tabloids, Biden bombed, even this kick from the populist "Sun," Joe-matose. In France, Italy, Germany headlines much the same; Greek and Middle East newspapers suggesting Biden step aside.
Leaders were silent. Several met him two weeks ago at the G7 in Italy, where he also seems slow and kept them waiting. The growing reality for them now, a Donald Trump redux in more dangerous times.
Many of them will remember those bruising days, not just physically but verbally too. His tone and topics on NATO unchanged, suggesting Putin is Europe's problem.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, I got them to put up hundreds of billions of . It has a bigger impact on them because of location because we have an ocean in between.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've never heard so much foolishness. This is a guy who wants to get out of NATO.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): According to the Kremlin, President Putin didn't stay up to watch the actual debate, because --
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I don't think you expect that the Russian president could have set an alarm clock woken up in the early morning hours.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): He will likely now be up to speed if only through the unfriendly filter of his own media and likely pleased too. Trump who also hinted at cutting funding for Ukraine potentially shortened his odds on winning the election.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also likely feel relieved, a Trump reelection good for him, given what Trump's saying about Israel.
TRUMP: You should let him go and let him finish the job.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): And falsely accusing Biden of tying Israel's hands in its fight against Hamas.
TRUMP: He doesn't want to do it. He's become like a Palestinian.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): But like America, substance not the big takeaway overseas, everyone judging performance, policy, a worry for another day -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
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COREN: Martin Mull, the comedic actor who came to fame in the 1970s in Norman Lear's satirical soap opera, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" has died at age 80. He went on to star in the spin-off. "Fernwood Tonight" and later appeared in "Roseanne," "Veep" and "Arrested Development," among others.
His daughter, Maggie Mull, said he had died after what she called a valiant fight against a long illness. Many of his fellow actors have put out statements praising his humor, talent and humanity.
A rescue mission is underway to help more than 100 dolphins stranded off the coast of New England. The International Fund for Animal Welfare calls this, quote, "the largest single mass stranding event in the organization's 25 year history."
They say the dolphins were found Friday in a muddy, difficult location.
[03:55:00]
Ten had died by the time they arrived. A rescue team is trying to herd the animals further out of the shallow mud flats. The fund describes this stretch of coast as the epicenter of mass strandings. That is due to the tides and the curvature of the shores.
Well, the crew of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, will have to stay on the International Space Station for at least a couple more weeks. NASA and Boeing busy testing and troubleshooting issues with the craft's thrusters, which have been problematic since the start of the mission.
A NASA manager just sought to reassure the public about the situation, saying, "I want to make it clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space."
Let's hope not.
Chinese scientists are getting a first-hand look at some precious materials from the lunar surface. The samples are from the moon's far side as part of China's Chang'e 6 mission.
Earlier this month, the Chinese space agency landed a probe on the previously unexplored area. It collected about four pounds or two kilos of soil, which were sent back into space and arrived on Earth on Tuesday.
At first glance, China says the soil is different from previous samples.
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GE PING, SPOKESPERSON, CHANG'E-6 MISSION (through translator): From the appearance, we found that the samples look stickier than previous lunar samples and are more compacted, which is clear to see.
Certainly we also look forward to new scientific discoveries and results through systematic follow-up work.
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COREN: The samples will be studied for clues as to how the moon and the Earth may have been formed.
Well, thanks so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM is with Kim Brunhuber after this short break, please stay with CNN.
