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Pres. Biden Calls for Supreme Court Reforms, Including Term Limits; Sec. Blinken, Austin Hold High-Level Talks in Philippines; Deadly Landslide in India, Rescue Operations Underway; Team USA Scored First Men's Gymnastics Team Medal in 16 Years. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired July 30, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of today's top stories.
Rescue and relief operations are underway this hour in southern India, after a massive landslide left at least 57 people dead. Emergency responders say hundreds of people could be trapped or stranded there. The landslide also destroyed a key bridge.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited special forces in the border region of Kharkiv on Monday. Russian troops launched a surprise ground offensive there in May, but Ukraine's military thwarted that attempt. President Zelenskyy said Kharkiv's air defenses are being strengthened and that there have been fewer Russian air attacks in the region.
And the man arrested in connection with California's Park Fire has been charged with arson. Ronnie Dean Stout was arrested just hours after the fire began. Park blaze is now the sixth largest fire in California history.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: President Joe Biden is proposing a long-shot radical change to the U.S. Supreme Court. Term limits for justices. Liberal activists have advocated for such limits and other reforms, and those calls are amping up after the court's conservative majority forced through several decisions with huge ramifications.
Arlette Saenz has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Joe Biden hit the road for the first time since leaving the 2024 race, issuing an urgent plea to the country.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy.
SAENZ (voice-over): Biden now in a new phase of his presidency, growing reflective about serving alongside the first Black president and first woman vice president.
BIDEN: I've made clear how I feel about Kamala, and she's been an incredible partner to me, a champion of rights throughout her career.
SAENZ (voice-over): Though he won't appear on the Democratic ticket, the president is pushing forward with plans that could motivate the progressive base of his party. With the backing of Harris, Biden is proposing changes to the nation's highest court, including an enforceable code of conduct and 18-year term limits.
BIDEN: We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power and restore faith in the Supreme Court.
SAENZ (voice-over): The president also calling for a constitutional amendment to limit the broad presidential immunity granted by the court's conservative majority last month in a controversial ruling involving former President Donald Trump.
BIDEN: The president is now a king above the law. Just imagine what a president could do in trampling civil rights and liberties given such immunity.
SAENZ (voice-over): The reforms have virtually no chance of passing in this divided Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson declaring the president's moves dead on arrival. Biden delivering his message at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, a site offering historical parallels between the two Democratic presidents. Before Biden, President Lyndon B. Johnson was the last president to abandon a reelection bid in an election year.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, THEN PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
SAENZ (voice-over): The president celebrating Johnson's landmark Civil Rights Act, outlawing segregation and discrimination on the basis of race signed 60 years ago.
BIDEN: These three acts have made this nation fundamentally more fair, fundamentally more just, and most importantly, fundamentally more consistent with our founding principles.
SAENZ (voice-over): Biden now hoping to leave his own imprint on the country as his time in office winds down.
SAENZ: Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed President Biden's proposals in a statement on Monday saying that the Supreme Court is facing a crisis of confidence. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One that the vice president was closely involved in the process of coming up with these proposals, saying that President Biden consulted her expertise as a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and as Attorney General of the state of California.
Arlette Saenz, CNN traveling with the president in Austin, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Donald Trump will give a victim interview to the FBI more than two weeks after surviving an assassination attempt. The FBI says it's looking for Trump's perspective on what he observed that day as the investigation for the would-be assassin's motive.
FOSTER: U.S. Secret Service officials are testifying to Congress about the security failure. The acting director is set to tell lawmakers on Tuesday about the agency's new measures for approving security plans for events for protectees. Meanwhile, Trump says he'll continue to hold outdoor rallies.
America's top diplomat and the Pentagon chief are in Manila where they just wrapped up talks with their Philippine counterparts, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
MACFARLANE: The visit comes as confrontations between China and the Philippines have taken place repeatedly this year in the South China Sea.
CNN's Mike Valerio is with us from Seoul. So, Mike, yesterday we saw the U.S. upgrading military relations with Japan. Today we're seeing them trying to boost those relations with the Philippines.
Just tell us a bit more about why the South China Sea is so central to these talks today.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, and Christina and Max, good morning to you. So why this matters is because the South China Sea is so central to global trade. Max and Christina, if you have a phone on your desk right now or a computer, chances are either of those came through the South China Sea. Up to 30 percent of global trade flows through the sea. So who controls it is of critical importance.
So, of course, we have the pomp and pageantry, the first time that the U.S. Secretary of Defense and State have been invited to Manila to talk about a subject like this.
But at the heart of what we're talking about is the map. So we'll put it on the screen right here. This is China's territorial claim to the South China Sea, which has been in the Chinese conversation since about 1952, since the time of Mao. This is known as the Nine-Dash Line. China is saying, hey, we have ancestral claim to all of this within the red dash line that you see on the screen right here.
Who disputes that? Plenty of nations, among them the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam.
[04:40:00]
The Philippines, though, having very tense clashes around 40, 42 days ago on June 17th with China in terms of who controls access to these waterways and small outlying islands. So what the Philippines wants today, help from the United States to maintain freedom of navigation, and they are getting it in the form of a $500 million check.
Let's know what we heard on that front.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is really designed to support the modernization of Filipino forces, the Coast Guard, as they transition to focus on external defense. We're building on a lot of progress the Philippines has already made to be better positioned to defend their sovereignty and that is what this is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: So Max and Christina, bottom line, in the days and weeks to come, we're going to see if this assistance does anything to change China's behavior. But of course, China thinks in terms of decades, in terms of centuries and millennia. It is very rare that they give back any kind of claim. So it would be fascinating to see what happens. Certainly watch this space -- Max and Christina.
FOSTER: Yes, it really is the center of a global issue there. Mike, thank you so much for joining us from Seoul.
Now, a landslide in southern India has killed at least 57 people, according to state media. Officials say rescue and relief operations are underway and that they've rescued hundreds of people so far.
MACFARLANE: It's unclear how many others are trapped. The landslide occurred after heavy rain in the state of Kerala. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is following this live from Tokyo.
And the images we're seeing from this are just devastating. What more are we learning about those rescue efforts?
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christina, I mean, you said it right. It's very devastating for India right now. It's a very dire situation.
We know that at least 57 people have died and several hundred more are feared trapped or stranded because of these massive landslides that took place earlier Tuesday morning.
Now, we also know that at least 250 people have been rescued, and we're now getting some details about the status of some of those rescued survivors. They've sustained lacerations, fractured bones, and they also have mud in their lungs.
Doctors are having to use ventilators to keep those survivors alive because they've spent so much time under debris that they now have mud in their lungs.
Now, rescue operations are still underway to try to find those remaining survivors, but they're facing a number of hurdles. One is the fact that a very crucial bridge that connects to a couple of remote villages has completely collapsed, meaning those villagers are now isolated and stranded.
Electricity is also down, so they cannot physically call for any help. I want you to take a look at this video that shows just the extent of devastation near this collapsed bridge. Take a look. (Video of area near collapsed bridge)
I mean, really frightening images for these locals, Christina and Max. And we also know that emergency workers are trying to use a couple of helicopters to airlift some of those survivors. But because the weather in Wayanad, where these landslides took place, continues to be very bad, they cannot physically fly these helicopters, meaning they can't get access to those remaining survivors.
Now, I also want to note that it's currently monsoon season in India right now. It lasts until about September. So for hilly places like Wayanad, which are particularly prone to landslides, they're completely devastated right now due to this most recent emergency.
But for the entire country of India, for India as a whole, they're going to have to grapple with several more weeks of this sort of devastating and very fatal extreme weather -- Christina.
MACFARLANE: Such challenging conditions for rescuers, isn't it? Hanako Montgomery in Tokyo, thanks very much.
All right, still to come, Team USA brings home a rare medal in men's team gymnastics. We'll have the latest on the summer games after the break.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Welcome back. The Paris Olympics are heating up finally after that opening ceremony in the rain. France is experiencing its first major heat wave of the year, and today will likely be the hottest day of the year so far in the French capital.
More than two dozen sports will hold competitions in the days ahead with medals up for grabs in eight of them.
FOSTER: Look at the medal count. Japan on top right now with six gold. Four countries are tied with five each, including host country France.
Team USA is in sixth place with three gold, but the most medals overall. We're 20 -- I always think it's quite odd when we give the tallies as you go through because obviously the sports are changing as you go through. Surely you don't really know doing the athletics and stuff like that.
MACFARLANE: And it's only day three, isn't it? But, you know, we like to keep track of these things. We, you know, who are --
FOSTER: We like numbers.
MACFARLANE: We do. Let's go out live now to Paris where our World Sports Amanda Davies is ready and waiting there.
And so many headlines to choose from already, Amanda. But I think last night was a night to remember for Team USA, this time in the men's gymnastics, and for one man in particular. Tell us more.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, please don't test me on that medal table and who has won exactly what and where. There is a lot going on. But, yes, we should have learned from Clark Kent, shouldn't we? Not all superheroes wear capes. Some wear thick, black-rimmed glasses and can complete a Rubik's Cube in 8.68 seconds, which I'm told is very, very fast.
And that is the case from Team USA's men's gymnast, 25-year-old Stephen Nedoroscik, an electrical engineer from Penn State, somewhat controversially picked because his only discipline is the pommel horse. He doesn't do any of the other disciplines. But if you've only got 40 seconds to nail your event at an Olympic Games, you've got to make sure you do exactly that.
He sat on the sidelines mentally preparing. He said he went through his routine 100 times whilst his teammates did their thing in the other disciplines. And, boy, did it pay off. He helped Team USA to their first men's gymnastics medal for 16 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN NEDOROSCIK, AMERICAN GYMNAST: Went up there, did my routine, and during that dismount, I was just, like, already smiling, I think. I slid to the judges and looked at these guys and they were jumping up and down. I mean, it was just the greatest moment of my life, I think. So happy to have been there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVIES: His dad had bought a pommel horse in an auction and put it in the garden. And that is what he's dedicated his life to, literally, since he was, like, 11 or 12 years of age.
[04:50:00]
Simone Biles congratulated the men's gymnastics team because, of course, today it is over to the women. If the atmosphere we saw in the qualifiers is anything to go by, it promises to be another spectacular evening of action.
And there have been those fears over the fitness of Simone because of that massive bandage on her ankle and calf in the qualifying round. How do you allay those fears? Well, you select Simone Biles for all four of the disciplines in the team event. That is what she's due to take part in today.
And really good news for Team USA fans. They begin on the vault. That's expected to give them a really big lead as they are very much the favorites.
But this is the Olympic Games, and as we saw last year, or last time out in Tokyo, things don't always go to plan, do they?
FOSTER: No. And the organizers could probably say that as well. I want to ask about the Seine because, obviously, you've been reporting for years on how they've been cleaning it up, ready for this event.
You know, we had the rain at the opening ceremony, all sorts of sewage flooded in there. It's not clean enough yet. The poor triathletes aren't able to compete, and they've got this very strange backup plan.
MACFARLANE: Seems very unfair. It seems very unfair on the athletes, Amanda. What's the mood there about this?
DAVIES: Yes, well, it was really interesting, speaking to the president of World Triathlon yesterday. She said to me, this is what we have to deal with in our sport, particularly in this current era of climate change.
But I have to say, I was speaking to Jo Rowsell, a former British cyclist, a little bit earlier on. She said, I cannot believe it. As an athlete, you've trained, well, in this cycle, three years, but most of the time your entire life for this, the pinnacle, to compete, to represent your country at an Olympic Games. And the men's triathletes have woken up this morning to be told that their event isn't taking place because of the pollution.
It's ironic, with this heatwave, with the gorgeous sunshine, it's the rain that we saw on Friday and Saturday that has seen the pollution levels rise. There is the hope that the event will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, in line with the women's event. But the contingency, as he rightly mentioned, is that the triathlon becomes essentially a duathlon, which is really unfair, you have to say, for those whose favorite of the three disciplines is the swimming.
Apparently, the course is meant to be insane as a triathlon track. The problem we've got is that, at the moment, the athletes are not being allowed in the River Seine.
FOSTER: OK, Amanda, thank you. I think that's a very bizarre back-up plan.
MACFARLANE: Insane or not, looks like it's not going to happen, does it? Our thanks to Amanda there. We'll be right back after this short break. Stay with us.
[04:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Jason Kelce has declared himself an honorary superfan of U.S. women's rugby. The recently retired NFL veteran met with Rugby 7's team and --
FOSTER: In a video posted online, Kelce seen himself pledging his steadfast support for the squad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON KELCE, RETIRED NFL FOOTBALL PLAYER: I am officially a fan of women's rugby, Olympics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got Jason Kelce!
CROWD CHEERS: Yeah!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Is that a beret he's wearing there as well?
FOSTER: Well, it's a French-themed month.
MACFARLANE: Unofficial, of course, I know. It's punchy, I like it.
And that'll do it for us here at CNN NEWSROOM. I'm not Max Foster, I'm Christina Macfarlane.
FOSTER: That's a true fact. We like to stick to the facts here on CNN. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up next after a quick break.
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