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CNN International: Today: Biden Holds News Conference Amid Calls To Drop Out; Angry And Stunned Democrats Blame Biden's Closest Advisers For Shielding Public From Full Extent Of President's Decline; Biden Announces New Military Aid Package For Ukraine; Trump & Allies Try To Distance Campaign From Project 2025; Sen. Menendez Corruption Trial Expected To Go Jury Tomorrow; New Study: Nearly Half Of Cancer Deaths Could Be Prevented. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 11, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:48]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: It's 8:00 p.m. in London, 9:00 p.m. in Stockholm, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington.

I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.

It is question the sitting U.S. president does not want to face and did not expect to grapple with, should he remain in the race for reelection? And against an opponent he describes as a threat to democracy?

In a few hours, President Joe Biden will confront the growing calls for him to withdraw from the campaign, including many in his own party in his first major live and unscripted event since the debate two weeks ago. The stake is enormous.

Just moments ago, the 12th sitting Democratic lawmaker called for Biden to step aside. That announcement to, quote, pass the torch to a new generation coming from Illinois Congressman Brad Schneider and our team's new reporting just in to CNN about the intensifying anger and frustration from current and former Democratic officials about why the debate came as such, a surprise and who inside Biden's inner circle may have shielded the public from Biden's decline.

CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee joins me now. She helped break that story.

Tell us, MJ, they're speaking about a notable decline. I wonder how the White House is responding to that.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, Jim, you know, my colleagues and I have been speaking to many Democrats across the party since that very shocking debate performance some two weeks ago. And what has been striking is that all of the folks that we spoke with and that includes people that know the president well, have known the president the years and regularly spend time with him. All of them basically said they had never seen that version of the president that you saw on the debate stage, that that version that was so halting at a time, days was really unrecognizable to them. And the reason that so many of these folks that we spoke with are so angry and stunned right now is because they believe that there is a daily operation at an apparatus that is in place at the White House that is basically designed to shield that full side of the president that might give a better sense of his condition, and some would say his decline from the public.

Now, one example that we have in our story is, according to two sources up before the president attends these cabinet meetings with his cabinet officials, these cabinet officials are submitting questions, including bullet points of what they might present to the president in these closed-door meetings. What one of the two sources told us is, quote, the entire display is an act. They would come and say, hey, the president is going to call on you about 25 minutes in and ask this question, what are the bullet points that you'll respond with?

Now, the White House is defense on that has been that, you know, that's sort of general practice for any administration striation. We want to be mindful of his tie. We never want him to be caught off guard and want him to be aware of what topics are going to come up.

But we also checked in with our sources from going back to the Obama administration and they said there were no cabinet meetings during those years that were this meticulously scripted or anything close to it. And, you know, in response to our broader story and the anger that Democrats are showing that we've heard so much about, the White House sort of broadly different defended the breadth of the president's travels, his schedule, his interviews, and not to mention his record over the last three-and-a-half years and said, you know, the president welcomes these kinds of questions and about his age, his fitness from reporters.

And obviously, in a couple of hours, that is going to be put to the test. We'll see how he handles all of those questions when he has this formal press conference.

SCIUTTO: I mean, the thing is this criticism is coming from inside the party, right? I mean, this is -- these are, these are friendly fire attacks as it were.

I wonder what the White House view is in the face of that. I mean, they had a meeting with Democratic senators yesterday to hear their concerns, but also lay out how they believe Biden can win. What exactly is that plan is their view that he could sort of come out of this slump in effect and gain back some traction against Trump?

[15:05:01]

I mean, is that a hope? I mean, or is it a plan?

LEE: Look, I think there have been some real ups and downs ever since that debate. There were days where it really felt like he thought everything we were hearing, you know, maybe the president is going to survive this after all. I think the last 24 to 36 hours, things have felt really tenuous for the president and his campaign, and we're obviously seeing the Biden campaign go to real lengths to try to allay these concerns that are so widespread, including heading up to the Hill today to meet with Senate Democrats behind closed doors to reassure them.

But my colleagues on the Hill who have been talking to these members that have been coming out of the lunch, we've gotten a range of responses, including, for example, Senator Blumenthal saying he just needs to see more data. And I think that is probably one of the more telling responses that I have seen coming out of Capitol Hill today.

The focus on the data is so important because there are Democrats who really do believe, sure, maybe the inner circle of advisers, maybe the family can convince him at some point to drop out of the race, but also what is the data going to tell him if he gets convinced he is going to bring down the House's effort, the Senate's effort to keep the keep the, you know, each of the houses in on Capitol Hill, the maybe that could end up playing a big role in him realizing this is going to be bad for the party.

SCIUTTO: MJ Lee at the White House, thanks so much.

So as President Biden tries to save his candidacy in Washington, there is some spotlight growing on his vice president, Kamala Harris. "The New York Times" reported today that Biden's team has privately polling how Harris would do at the top of the ticket. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll has some answers on that.

Biden runs even with Trump nationally Harris, while within the margin of error outperforms Biden with a two-point edge against Trump, again within the margin of error.

With me now to discuss Leigh Ann Caldwell of "The Washington Post" and CNN senior reporter Isaac Dovere.

Leigh Ann, there's been so much talk and were two weeks out from the debate about the data, right? And even Trump's own team, it was CNN's reporting, conceded in the days after the debate, if -- if they saw polls are plummeting, they might reconsider.

I mean, is there enough data already combination of public and private internal polling as to the damage done, or is it still something of an open question?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CO-AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST'S "EARLY BRIEF": Well, it depends on who you ask and it depends on what data people are looking at. If you talk to members of Congress and senators on the Hill, those that are concerned, they tell you that they've seen the data and the data shows that President Biden can't win, or that at least his path is narrowing.

And what they're also mostly concerned about in addition to Biden is also the data showing that battleground states and battleground House districts, so Senate and House races are also struggling more now in a post-Biden debate scenario than before. And that's why you're seeing such a freak out on Capitol Hill and some corners about President Biden. But when the senators just met with administration and campaign officials and those officials told the senators that the data shows that Biden still can win, that there actually is a path to 270 electoral votes.

And so, you know, there's some concern that President Biden is not seeing the data that he needs to see. And so, everyone's just looking at what they want to look out right now. But when you talk to a lot of people on Capitol Hill who want Biden to step aside privately, they say that the data doesn't look great.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, can win and is winning are two fundamentally different things. And, of course, there was concern prior to the debate that he was behind.

Isaac, the Biden campaign is responding to the numbers that relate to a Harris-Trump matchup, putative at this point, the response hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, says the White House, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment than any Democratic nominee will encounter.

I mean, that's true. That's true. Here's a question because this follows the key -- the key question hanging over everyone now is will he or won't he, right? Does he stay?

But then the next question is, if he were to leave, what does that look like? I mean, it's not -- I mean, it's still an open question, is it not, as to whether it would be Harris or some sort of open, many primary or series of town halls, right? Does anybody talking about what follows?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I mean, the answer is it would be a mess no matter which way it goes and a particularly messy, messy, I think is what it really comes down to. The way that this, the rules are the Democratic Convention, Joe Biden has the delegates pledge to him they can only really vote for someone else if he steps out of the race. If that happens, there will be an enormous amount of pressure from all sorts of corners of the Democratic Party, and in all sorts of ways to move to Kamala Harris.

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That doesn't mean that she would have it locked up, but as more time on this has gone on, the edge that she was seen as having in this hypothetical situation has in many peoples minds gotten much bigger. And so she would go in front of the convention that might be an open convention, that might be essentially a process engineered for her. And either way, a lot of Democratic operatives think it would be a little bit far-fetched to see someone actually come up against her and say, I will be the first one through the door to do this.

Now, that may change as this goes, its been a very unpredictable couple of weeks.

SCIUTTO: A few surprises, yes.

DOVERE: But I think importantly, this idea of some sort of town hall process, those are all just Democrats spending letting of things that they could try to insert into this process. There is no situation, there is no process for this that has been worked out.

SCIUTTO: Leigh Ann Caldwell, our number is now up to 11 House Democrats who have called for Joe Biden to step aside. That's far for most. It's a small percentage, but it is public and they are Democrats.

There is a view and Representative Mike Quigley, one of those 11, has said this, that after NATO, after the NATO summit, today's last day, that the dam could break, that others will give the president the time not to say it while he's here with world leaders. Is that do you think an accurate -- accurate view?

CALDWELL: It could be. I mean, that's what we're hearing, that there's a lot of speculation that there's so many more people who are saying it privately that have these concerns privately that have not yet come public, that after NATO, as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday, give the president the time during NATO, and then we'll see.

So maybe they are listening to her. There's a couple of who didn't. She wields a lot of respect in the caucus, but given the amount of private concerns being relayed about President Biden, the question is, do these people come become -- go public.

Now, there's some sort of debate and discussion about is it better -- is it a better way to convince Biden to say something publicly? Or is this internal quiet behind the scenes pressure the right approach?

And so, there's some strategizing and conversations about that, too. But we're going to have to see if it's -- if it's a disaster tonight. I think that you could absolutely see a total of flood of people. But if he knocks it out of the park, maybe it quiets all this speculation that people are saying you can't unsee what happened at the debate two weeks ago.

SCIUTTO: For a time, right, until the next public forum, right, when the same questions might be asked.

Leigh Ann Caldwell, Isaac Dovere, thanks so much.

We're going to have more from the ongoing NATO summit here in Washington, just after the break when I'll be joined by the foreign affairs minister of Canada.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

NATO leaders in the Ukraine council are currently in their final working session of the NATO summit here in Washington. In the last two hours, President Biden announced a new military aid package for Ukraine. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia will not prevail in Ukraine, will not prevail in Ukraine. Ukraine will prevail. Ad I want you to know, we're going to be with you every step of the way.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Together, we are preserving Ukraine's independence and freedom. And this is historic actions that will protect the world from -- from similar wars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: In its final summit communique, NATO declared Ukraine is on an irreversible path to membership. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, quote, NATO steps at the summit will require Russia to make decisions to contain the alliance, something of a too veiled threat there.

So as this summit wraps up, what has been achieved, how will it impact the war in Ukraine?

Joining me now, former NATO supreme allied commander for Europe and founder of Renew America Together, Wesley Clark.

Sir, thanks so much for joining.

WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you, Jim. Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you first about this irreversible path to membership. Is that genuine? Because when I've spoken to NATO officials, they will acknowledge at least in private that as long as Ukraine is at war with Russia, it cannot be a formal member because that would put the alliance at war with Russia. Is it a reality, right, that someday Ukraine will join the alliance as a full-fledged member?

CLARK: Well, I think it's a step forward rhetorically from just saying that someday, they'll join the alliance. So if you say it's irreversible, that's one more measure of assurance of course, everything is -- looks the way it does today. Couldn't join while they're fighting with Russia. But that's also been discussed.

And a year from now, things may look different. We don't know, but from my perspective, the summit achieved a quantum step forward by saying that the Ukraine's in NATO's future, and it's irreversible. That's a quantum step forward.

SCIUTTO: Now, the fact of the matter is with a new commander in chief following the November election, could be Donald Trump, and this is a fear I discussed quite openly with several NATO officials. He could reverse that path for NATO. I mean, he could reverse U.S. involvement in NATO.

He could -- he's attempted to do so before, he might attempt to do so again. Is it correct to say that the future of the alliance or at least the future of America's participation in the alliance is effectively on the ballot in November?

CLARK: I think that's exactly right, Jim. I think if Donald Trump is elected or re-elected to the presidency of the United States, we have no idea what's going to happen to NATO.

You know, Article Five, which everybody talks about, doesn't say an attack on one will be followed by a counterattack against the attacker. It says, nations will take action as appropriate.

So, it is inherently flexible. It's not ironclad but with President Trump in office there, there's no telling what he's going to do.

SCIUTTO: Yeah. And how about as relates to Ukraine specifically, because Donald Trump has said he could end the war in a day. I mean, it's certainly not clear how he does that, given the war is still very much underway in Russia, occupies large portions of Ukrainian sovereign territory. As a practical matter, would Trump's election mean the end of significant U.S. military aid to Ukraine?

CLARK: Well, it could mean the end if that's what he wants to do. But I think, you know, there are a lot of people in the Republican Party who would be with his national security team, but would not advocate during that. I think he faced some resistance.

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They would tell him that if you're going to have an agreement that's going but any chance of success, you've got to continue to support Ukraine during the time that this agreement is being talked about, negotiated, because you can't negotiate an agreement after you've already said you surrender and quit. So there's going to be some carryover. I think of during this period.

But what happens after that, Russia won't have given up its aimed to take all of Ukraine. The Baltic States are still in danger. And when I in Europe recently, everybody understands what the risks are.

The risks are that the United States is already even under President Biden really focusing on Asia and that Europe is got to do more to take care of itself, and they also understand that a hybrid war is alive and well in Europe, with assassination attempt, sabotage, and that they're probably like fifth column elements that would jump up and take over governments if the United States pulled back and probably this is what Putin wants.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

CLARK: So, it's a high-risk game for Europe as they're watching American politics.

SCIUTTO: And Russia has carried out these tactics for more than a decade in Europe, as you know well, including in the cyber, in the cyber realm.

Wesley Clark, thanks so much for joining this afternoon.

CLARK: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Joining me now for more on the NATO summit and the major questions being dealt with there is the Canadian foreign minister, Melanie Joly.

Minister, thanks so much for taking the time this afternoon.

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Hi, Jim. It's a pleasure. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Listen, I know you've been asked this question already, but the fact is, it is a question hanging over the conference and that is this. Do you -- does Canada have confidence in President Biden's leadership of this country and of the NATO alliance.

JOLY: Of course, we do and we think that President Biden has been doing great work. He has a lot of foreign policy experience. He has sought has -- has had to do a lot of foreign policy work over his entire career, and I think that we're getting out of this NATO -- this NATO summit stronger, more united than ever.

And look at what we've achieved, Jim, collectively. We were able -- now we're at 32 members. We were able also to reinforce the entire eastern flank, Canada leading the one in Latvia of NATO. We've done many, many things together. We've been able to work also all together and be united against Russia in support of Ukraine. And that's what we'll continue you need to do and I'm very glad that we are having a very successful summit here in Washington, in the U.S. for 75th anniversary.

SCIUTTO: As you know, the two candidates on the ballot here, Trump and Biden, have very different views of America's role in NATO, of America's role in the world, and of the alliance itself. And I don't want to ask you to comment on the politics of this, but the fact is the results of the election in the fall we'll have an international impact and I wonder what would that mean for Canada? What would Trump's reelection mean for Canada and for the alliance in your view?

JOLY: Well, Jim, of course, I'm being asked that question a lot. And, of course, my answer will always be that American people will decide and we will adapt to anyone that is in charge of the White House and the administration. And we've done so in the past. We've been able as a government in Canada to deal with the Obama administration, with the Trump administration and now with the Biden administration.

What I can tell you, though, is that the world has changed since Ukraine's invasion. We know that we're in an international security crisis. War has broken in Europe and the Middle East and Africa. We also have rising tensions in Asia. And we are an arctic country and we know also that we are in a neighborhood that is more competent located than even five years ago.

So anybody that is in the White House will have to deal with this new contexts and Canada is the best friend, closest ally to the U.S. and we will work with the administration of the day.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned the Arctic. There's this new polar partnership announced today. And the fact is --

JOLY: Indeed.

SCIUTTO: -- in the arctic area, of course, you have not just a Russian challenge, but you have China challenge. And I wonder how central the China threat has become to the alliance because, of course, it used to be the focus was entirely European, Russia, but in recent years, more and more NATO allies are turning their attention east.

Is it correct to say that it is now a two front alliance, Russia and China?

JOLY: Well, we are in charge of protecting the northern of NATO, which is, of course, the Arctic, but also with the U.S., we are protecting the western part of the territory which is really important.

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And right now, we're dealing with threats coming up, of course, from Russia, but also from the DPRK, from Iran, and also, we see the cooperation that China is having with Russia and these different partners, which is fundamentally problematic.

And so, that's why we need to be able to invest in our military, invest in our security, and make sure at the end of the day, that NATO is stronger. And I think we've shown, we've been able to do that by enlarging also the membership of NATO, by having strong partners with Sweden and Finland, and Canada was the first ratify that session because they're Arctic nations and we wanted to reinforce their membership, and their path toward membership at the time.

And at the same time also, we're making important investments in our own defense sector.

SCIUTTO: On that point, as you know, Canada agreed in 2014 with other members to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense spending today. I believe the numbers are 23 out of 32 NATO members have reached that mark. Canada has not yet done so.

When will Canada -- not just meet it, but lay out a plan to meet that spending target?

JOLY: Yeah. So we announced today we would be there by 2032. We've made major investments, $178 billion in the past years because indeed, we needed to invest more because the world has changed as I mentioned.

Just to give you sheer numbers, we've just bought 200 aircrafts, of that at 88, F35s. We just bought 15 surface combatants. We just launched a procurement to by 12 new conventional powered submarines. We just launched also, this partnership to build icebreakers.

We are doing all the right things to make sure that we are ready. But fundamentally also, Jim, which is important to understand and for Canadians watching us and for Americans watching us is Canada is indeed does friendly neighbor. But we were blessed by geography. We -- because of the fact that we were surrounded by three oceans, with a friend -- a friend to ourselves and a lot of frozen water.

But because of climate change, because of the war in Ukraine we are now investing more, not only in NATO and the Indo-Pacific, fundamentally, our new defense policy and or new defense investments, Jim, are right now in ourselves, in the Arctic, in order to make sure that we're able to protect our sovereignty and protect also the NATO territory.

SCIUTTO: As you know, Trump the candidate and Trump as president had said, that if NATO allies don't pay that 2 percent, the U.S. won't defend them. And I wonder when you hear those words, and he said it more than once, do you believe that's a genuine threat that he might not -- might not protect treaty allies based on a dollar figure?

JOLY: Jim, I understand the importance for any American president to see that its all allies are doing some burden-sharing. I understand that, and that's what we're doing and that's why we're making the right investments.

You know, Canadians were by the book. So when we say something, we do it. And that's exactly what we've said. We said we would invest. We're investing.

We said we would get by 2 percent, not at a date that we're just giving like that. No, we have a real plan and we'll be able to achieve it by 2032. And meanwhile, we will work with the American against to defend, of course, North America.

SCIUTTO: Foreign Minister Joly of Canada, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us.

JOLY: It's always a pleasure, Jim. Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Well, Donald Trump says he does not know who is behind the right-wing agenda labeled Project 2025. Up next, a CNN report showing, well, the opposite is true.

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SCIUTTO: Project 2025 is a radical plan from a top conservative think tank to remake the federal government in Donald Trump's image. But today, Donald Trump again said he has nothing to do with it. In fact, knows nothing about it, writing on Truth Social, quote: I know nothing about project 2025. I have not seen it. I have no idea who is in charge of it.

CNN's Steve Contorno looked into it and found the effort might be more closely tied to Trump than his post would have us believe.

Thanks so much for joining us, Steve.

Tell us what you have learned about who specifically is involved in this.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jim, when you look at the roster of authors, contributors, and the conservative groups that were behind Project 2025, it is very clear there are Trump ties there and we want to know, how deep are those ties?

Well, incredibly deep, 140 people who worked in the Trump administration were authors and contributors to Project 2025 signature project. It's 900-page playbook for a next Trump term.

Dozens were also involved in the advisory groups that overlooked this entire project. And there were many people as well who were have been involved with Trump's campaign, his transition team people he has appointed to various offices over the years, and these aren't just low-level staffers that we're talking about. It is the highest reaches of Trump's government.

Six people who worked in Trumps administration has cabinet secretaries contributed to Project 2025, including entire chapter written by one of his secretaries, Ben Carson, who was in charge of HUD. Another one was written by an OPM secretary. There are people who were ambassadors who were authors on this project, people who helped orchestrate and enforced his immigration policies. They have a huge role in Project 2025.

So when we took all this evidence to the Trump campaign, they said, look, yes, we acknowledged, there are people who worked for us who are involved in Project 2025, but they don't speak for us now, they may never work for us again and if you want to know what the president believes, that you should look at the agenda he has posted on his website.

The problem is though, is that as Democrats and other groups continue to link Trump to this Project 2025 efforts, he has also spoken about heritage foundation, which is the group that put this whole thing together. And he has praised the leader of the organization, Kevin Roberts.

[15:35:01]

And someone who else who was in charge of this entire thing, Paul Dans, worked for Trump in 2020 in the 2020s, and he says he would like to work for Trump again.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, a lot of Trump alums in that group because as we showed on the screen there.

Steve Contorno, thanks so much for digging into it.

Coming up next, my conversation with the foreign affairs minister, the newest member of NATO, Sweden.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:27] SCIUTTO: At this year's NATO summit in Washington, the alliance is one nation larger than it was a year ago. Global leaders welcome Sweden as the newest and 32nd member, ending decades of Swedish strategic neutrality as the threat from Russia has grown.

Sweden's ascension is a critical strategic gain for NATO in its defense against Russia, particularly in northern Europe, the Arctic and the Baltics, which could be Putin's next target should he succeed in the war in Ukraine.

Yesterday, I spoke to Tobias Billstrom. He's the minister of foreign affairs for Sweden. And have a listen to our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: A lot is being made of at this summit, the addition of two new NATO allies, Finland in 2023. Of course, Sweden this year, all in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. What does Sweden's addition to NATO mean for the alliance?

TOBIAS BILLSTROM, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF SWEDEN: Well, I think it means a lot and we feel, of course, warmly welcomed because we will be a security provider, not a security consumer. We bring significant capabilities to NATO. We bring significant capabilities when it comes to both land, naval, and air forces or cyber, A.I., and, of course, also space. Sweden being one of only two E.U. member states with the ability to launch satellites from our territory. The other one being France.

So I think that all in all, you can say that we also bring new graphical change about because with Sweden and Finland having joined NATO, all countries who now have coast around the Baltic Sea, bar (ph) Russia, will be NATO members.

[15:40:01]

And this is a geographical, geostrategic shift of big proportions.

SCIUTTO: You will hear from Russia, but also from Russia's defenders in Europe and even here in the U.S., that NATO expands into Russia's backyard and they will often be the implication that this is under U.S. direction.

Who made that choice for Sweden to join NATO? Was its Sweden, or was it someone else?

BILLSTROM: Of course, it was Sweden who chose to join NATO. And what you see is just the old usual Russian narrative.

And the support for Sweden's joining NATO went up straight after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 from 20 percent to 65 percent. And then it went even further to 72 percent approval ratio for Sweden having joined NATO.

And that is the third highest in Europe. It's only Poland on 91 percent and the Netherlands 75 percent. Think that shows the commitment of the Swedish people. And let -- let's not forget that we had a general election in Sweden where we had eight parties who stood and six were in favor of NATO, two were against NATO membership and we have more than three -- three fourths, 75 percent majority in our parliament in favor of joining NATO.

So, the democratic process cannot in any way be questioned and nobody has coerced Sweden to joining NATO. On the contrary, we have seen with our own eyes what Russia is capable of doing in its illegal warfare against Ukraine and finding safety and security within NATO and under Article Five was the reason why we chose to join NATO and nothing else.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned, of course, elections. Of course, this country has its own elections in November of this year. Do you believe that the future of NATO and the future U.S. role in NATO will be decided in the November election in the U.S.? Because you have two candidates with very different views of the alliance.

BILLSTROM: Well, first of all, let me be very clear on one thing, it is the American people, the American voters, who make the decision who is going to be the president of United States in November. And, of course, Sweden wouldn't like anyone to come in and tell us who's going to run our country. So I'm not going to do that either.

What I would like to point out is that NATO is, of course, reliant on U.S. participation. U.S. is an indispensable partner to a member of NATO. And of course, we, Sweden, value the transatlantic link very high. And this is for this reason that we want to show the American people that we live up to our commitments. U.S. alone should not bear the burden of financing or powering NATO alone.

Sweden has already reached the 2 percent target. We will very soon reach with 2.6 percentage of our GDP going to defense spending. We encourage all other partners to do the same. And we feel that regardless of the outcome of the election in the U.S., Europe has to do more.

We have to see to it that we increase our defense spending and that we ramp up so that we can both protect our own territory and aid Ukraine. We are very grateful for everything that the American people have done so far in aiding Ukraine. But we ourselves in Europe also has to do more.

And we have to pay attention to the Indo-Pacific area where we know that the U.S. fears (ph) China, we should also pay attention to the Indo-Pacific for the same reason.

Doing more is one thing, but the fact is that replacing U.S. leadership, the U.S. portion of defense spending just the largest U.S. military in the world if a future U.S. president were to pull back from NATO to some degree, does Sweden -- does NATO have a plan B to be responsible for not just more, but perhaps most, or even all of its own collective defense?

BILLSTROM: Once again, I would like to point out that if we want the U.S. to be committed to Europe and work with us on this, we have to also pay attention to what the U.S. feels is important.

And I know very well from having been in discussions with both Democratic and Republican senators, but China is perceived to be the greater threat of Russia and China. And that's, you know, stands to reason. But we will so would like to see the linkage being made between the Euro Atlantic area and the Indo-Pacific because if Russia were to win in Ukraine -- well, that will be the signal. The whistle will grow so for China to become even more assertive in the Indo- Pacific area.

So let's talk about realities and not -- let's not talk about plan B.

[15:45:01]

We need the U.S. to be committed to what's going on in Europe. But if we want that to be -- to be the case, we have to pay attention to what the U.S. and the U.S. electorate thinks its important, and that is China.

SCIUTTO: Before we go, do you have any doubts about president Biden's leadership as a leader in NATO or even the leadership of the U.S.

BILLSTROM: Well, I've just been listening to President Biden taking the floor here at the North Atlantic Council. And I can only say that Sweden then is, of course, open and has to be open to work with whoever enters the White House after the U.S. elections.

Right now, it is President Biden. I think he has shown especially during the process of bringing Sweden and Finland into NATO, but various leadership in place in the White House, and I think that is what really counts at this moment in time, when we see the international rules-based order being challenged by China, by Iran, by North Korea, and by Russia, who are all forming a group of authoritarians states who were trying to overturn things.

We have to put our trust and our ability in this alliance, which has now existed for 75 years, the most successful alliance and Sweden is very proud to have joined it. We have to put our trust in this ability of us to cooperate and to provide unity. This is the big thing coming out of this summit here in Washington, the unity of a NATO -- NATO alliance.

SCIUTTO: Tobias Billstrom, minister of foreign affairs for Sweden, thanks so much for joining us. Congratulations on your country's accession to NATO.

BILLSTROM: Thank you very much. Pleasure to have -- have joined you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Just after the break, possible life-saving steps, a remarkable new study showing nearly half of all adult cancer deaths in the U.S. could be prevented.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SCIUTTO: The federal corruption trial of New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is now expected to be in a jury's hands tomorrow after closing arguments wrapped up earlier today. Menendez faces charges including extortion, wire fraud, bribery, and acting as a foreign agent.

CNN's Kara Scannell, she's outside the courthouse with where things stand.

This has been proceeding fairly quickly.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim. So, the prosecutor just finished his rebuttal, speaking to the jury for three hours today, the jury has been listening to closing arguments in this case now, for four days.

[15:50:02]

They just are taking a quick break, then the judge is going to instruct them on the law that is what a prosecutors need to prove in order to get a conviction that will take some the time the judge already telling the jury that they wont begin deliberating in this case until tomorrow morning sometime.

So, tomorrow will be when this case is in the hands of the jury, but a lot of strong advocacy, impassioned speeches from both the prosecutors and the defense. The prosecutor's final words today, urging the jury to convict Menendez, going through what they say was this met corruption on a massive scale, saying that the former -- the senator, the senior senator from New Jersey, has taken gold bars, half a million dollars in cash, and a Mercedes Benz convertible, all in exchange for acts he took to help the government of Egypt, including ghost writing a letter for the government for them to try to convince other senators to fast-track some military aid for them.

The prosecution telling the jury that is not the work of a diplomat. That's the work of a corrupt government official. They also say that he tried to interfere in criminal prosecutions of some of the associates, the men that had paid him these alleged bribes.

Now, in the defense since both lawyers for all three of the defendants, including the senator, has said that these were not bribes, but they were gifts, because that is a clear distinction within the law of whether bribery was committed and Menendez team also arguing to the jury that what he did was not part of a quid pro quo, but were actually routine normal acts that a senator should be doing, telling them that he was doing his job and he was doing it well.

So again, Jim, now, we're going to have the judge tell the jury what is required under the law for prosecutors to prove their case. And then this case will be in the hands of the jury. That's interesting. Both lawyers for the senator and for the prosecution really emphasizing to the jury how important this case is because Menendez is a sitting senator and he's accused of acting as a foreign agent for the government of Egypt -- Jim. SCIUTTO: And just to highlight a point, because of course, what you hear from the current Republican nominee for president is that the Justice Department is targeting Republicans. This is a federal investigation of a Democratic senator. That's a fact.

SCANNELL: Right. I mean, right. And this is a Democratic senator who was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a very powerful position in the Senate, longtime senator in New Jersey, someone that the Democratic Justice Department brought in the U.S. attorney here appointed by the president is behind this case, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Kara Scannell, thanks so much for being there.

And before we go, a story you'll want to hear because this is a significant development in the fight against cancer, something important to all of us. A new study from the American Cancer Society finds that nearly half, nearly half of cancer deaths in the U.S. could be prevented.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joins us now.

Meg, walk us through this because typically the good news in the cancer space is, right, a percentage increase in survival rates, et cetera. But this is saying half of deaths could be prevented?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Jim, I mean, this is an American Cancer Society study looking at cancer cases and deaths and people over the age of 30, what they find is that 40 percent of cases and 44 percent of deaths they estimate are attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors.

Now, what are those? Well, the top one will surprise nobody. It's cigarette smoking, so they estimate that 19 percent of cases of cancer, 29 percent of cancer deaths were contributed to by cigarette smoking. The second is excess body weight, 8 percent of cases, and 7 percent of deaths, and alcohol consumption, 5 percent of cases and 4 percent of deaths. Beyond those things, like UV radiation are big contributors as well, obviously to skin cancer.

The types of cancer they say are most affected by these risk factors that we can modify or things like lung cancer, obviously, that connection to smoking. Female breast cancer, that's connected both with excess body weight and with alcohol consumption, skin melanoma, and colorectal cancer.

So the experts actually say, Jim, that this is good news because even making changes now can immediately start to reduce somebody's risk.

SCIUTTO: And these are fairly basic changes, right? I mean, they're not complicated ones. They may not be easy, right, giving up smoking is not easy. You know, reducing way is not necessarily easy, but they're straightforward, right?

TIRRELL: They are, and it's a really helpful reminder to know that this can actually make really palpable difference in your risk for something like cancer, smoking is an obvious one, as you said, maintaining a healthy body weight, making sure you get exercise, cutting back or cutting out alcohol, and protecting yourself from the sun. These are things that we know. Eating fruits and vegetables are other things, reducing red meat and processed meat consumption.

But they also point out there are real societal and policy level things that can be done as well. For example, with cigarette smoking, they say the most effective policy there to reduce smoking rates has been making it more expensive for people through excise taxes.

[15:55:02]

So pack of cigarettes in Missouri cost about half what it cost in New York. And if you look at lung cancer rates, they are dramatically higher in Missouri than they are in New York.

There are other things like parks and just making things healthier for everybody, making it easier to be healthier. That's really important, Jim.

SCIUTTO: It's actually that the price matters because, of course, you've already heard about the facts of banning indoor smoking, et cetera, you know, as contributing to that habits. But the -- well, price matters.

Meg Tirrell, thanks so much for bringing us a little good news.

TIRRELL: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: And thanks so much to all of you for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

And "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.