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Trump Agrees To Delay Tariffs On European Products Until July 9th; Trump Not Happy With Putin After Attacking Ukraine; Trump Wants Names And Countries Of Foreign Students At Harvard; FTC Probes Media Matters Over Ad Boycotts Of Elon Musk's X; Kim John Un Furious After North Korean Warship Tips Over; Jewish Americans In WWII Now Buried Under Starts Of David. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 25, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:01:57]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. Jessica Dean has the day off.

We have breaking news tonight. President Donald Trump agreeing to give the European Union a few more weeks for trade talks and delaying tariffs until July 9th. He was just speaking to reporters before boarding a flight back to Washington. Trump said he had a quote, "very nice call" earlier tonight with the European Union Commission's president.

That's a significant shift in tone, by the way, from just days ago when Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs against European goods.

CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joins us now.

So, Kevin, you and I were listening to the president's comments together as he went out and made them. What is so significant about this news?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, certainly it's important that the president is now delaying these tariffs that he said would go into place on June 1st. But we should also note that the new date that he has put in place, July 9th, was actually the original date, that is the date by which the president's 90-day negotiation period, after he lifted those reciprocal tariffs back in April, would expire.

And so in a lot of ways, this is going back to the original deadline that he set. It did come after this phone conversation with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president. Just the fact of that phone call was significant in itself. These two leaders had not spoken since President Trump took office back in January even amid all of these trade tensions between the United States and the European Union.

So this clearly was an important moment for Von der Leyen to talk to the president about some of the remaining disputes between the two sides, and there are some significant differences. You know, European negotiators have been in Washington for the last several weeks to try and strike a new trade deal. From the European perspective there had been some confusion about what precisely President Trump and the White House were looking for in these talks.

On the American side, U.S. officials were sort of frustrated that the Europeans weren't coming to them with what they viewed as serious enough offers. And that is part of what led President Trump to announce that new June 1st 50 percent tariff, saying that the trade talks are going nowhere, and the E.U. had been very difficult to deal with. The president having quite a different tone after his phone call this evening. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had a very nice call. Could we move it from June 1st to July 9th? And I agreed to do that and that she said, we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So now, clearly the clock still ticking for the E.U. to come up with something that will be satisfactory to President Trump and his economic team. But a grace period, certainly before those new tariffs will go into effect -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: And Kevin, as part of it, Trump also had, I mean, really some of his sharpest words yet for Russian president Vladimir Putin. I mean, what did he say on that front?

LIPTAK: Yes, and this is quite significant. The president voicing perhaps the strongest frustration to date at what Putin has been doing in Ukraine.

[19:05:07]

And you'll remember just over this weekend, Russia launching more than 300 drones and missiles on dozens of Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv. Perhaps as many as 12 people dead. The president really voicing frustration directly at Putin, suggesting that the Russian leader had changed. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. OK? We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, it's only a week ago tomorrow that the president and Putin spoke by telephone. Afterwards, President Trump said that he thought that Putin was serious about trying to reach a peace deal. He said that Ukraine and Russia would start direct negotiations to try and come up with a ceasefire, essentially saying that the U.S. would back away from a mediating role. He also told European leaders on that day that he would not go along, at least for now on new sanctions on Russia.

But the president saying something very different this evening when he was asked whether new sanctions were possible. He said absolutely. And so the president clearly very frustrated that the pace of these ceasefire talks is not proceeding perhaps as quickly as he would like -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Kevin Liptak, really appreciate the reporting.

A lot to talk about here, joining me now to discuss is Republican strategist Katie Frost and Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Chuck Rocha.

Now the president had previously said he was not looking to make a deal with the E.U., insisting the 50 percent tariffs were the deal. Now he's pushed that deadline back for a few weeks, back to the original deadline for the reciprocal tariff, saying it was, quote, "his privilege to do so."

So, Katie, I guess the question is, does that move back, I guess, negate the whole purpose of these tariff tactics from the president? I mean, does it risk the credibility of the next threat that he may make on the terror fronts? How do you see this?

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, it's great to be with you again, Omar. And I'm coming to you live from Truist Park in Atlanta. So my apologies in advance if you hear any disgruntled Braves fans in the back who just lost, it was unfortunate, to the Padres, but as far as the tariffs go, when I look at these, I've always believed that tariffs were a tool. And you know, the numbers that President Trump would initially throw out a lot of times they would be a tool to bring people to the negotiating table. And then the final result is very different to the initial proposal.

This man literally wrote the book on negotiation, the "Art of the Deal." So when he's talking about having these astronomical tariffs on China, then they end up being at 30 percent, he's talking about tariffs on the E.U., now all of a sudden people want to negotiate with him. They want to talk. That's the whole purpose here. So I'm not surprised that the E.U. wants to come to the table. And I look forward to seeing where this deal goes.

JIMENEZ: And you know, Chuck, to that point, I mean, look, the tariff threat was made, the leader of the E.U. clearly pushed to get a call with the president, was happy to tweet about it, that the call went well. And then we have this deadline pushed back. So in a sense, did the threat sort of work here? How do you see this?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think it's Donald Trump backing down again because he knows that the cost of things are going to continue to go up. And he's feeling the pressure. He's feeling it. And he's also hearing from lots of congressmen who are just forced to pass this bill that's going to balloon the deficit and hurt people as well.

When you continue to see prices go up, and you continue to pass stuff that hurts folks. he feels the pressure that. So he's going to do everything he can. This is just another extension of that. By extending the deadlines on these tariffs. Because tariffs is nothing but a tax when you continue to tax people more, you have to pay more and it's going to come back to bite the Republicans in the midterms.

JIMENEZ: And you know, it's one portion of the economic picture right now. And let's talk about the bill that's been passed in the House so far because Republicans in the Senate are now pushing back at least on some aspects of the sweeping legislation threatening to really derail this bill. Just take a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-MN): I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic. But I still would support the bill even with wimpy and anemic cuts if they weren't going to explode the debt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: So House Speaker Mike Johnson is warning those lawmakers against making any significant changes to the bill.

So I guess, Katie, I mean, should the Senate listen to the speaker's warning? Should the speaker be open to what the Senate clearly wants to modify? Where is this going to end up?

FROST: Well, I think the Senate rarely listens to what the House wants and vice versa. Anyone who's been in Washington long enough knows that the two chambers are rarely on the same page.

[19:10:00]

But remember when we initially were having these conversations about how many -- what the cuts were going to be, where were they going to come from? You know, the House went to cut over $1 trillion. And the Senate, they were only looking at a couple of billion. So there's obviously a disagreement between the two chambers on just how much we can cut. But regardless of where we're cutting it, we have to make significant changes to our spending if we're going to remain financially solvent as a nation.

That is something that both chambers do agree on. How they actually get to that point will be interesting to see. I will say, though, you will see the approach is going to be different in the Senate because the Senate you're negotiating with more moderates like Murkowski and Collins, whereas in the House version, they were really having to work hard to get some of those deficit hawks from the Freedom Caucus, people like Congressman Chip Roy, Congressman Andrew Clyde, on board. So the final product that comes out of the Senate, I expect it to be

slightly weaker than what the House passed. But I would like to see the Senate do exactly what the House did.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, Chuck, there's a few things that even Republicans have issues with. I mean, Murkowski, for one, has an issue with the work requirements in their current form for Medicaid, that it could kick a number of people off of their Medicaid programs, as other estimates have shown. But also on the deficit, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated this House bill could add nearly $4 trillion to the nation's debt, even if cuts in spending, even if there are cuts in spending in this.

So I guess the larger scale question is, if you're a Democratic strategist watching this, is this something that could come back to haunt Republicans when it comes time to the midterms? Because some Senate Republicans clearly do have issues with it in its current form?

ROCHA: Omar, absolutely. Let me break some news for you right now. Politicians and these senators, just like the House members, care about two things. They care about money for their campaigns and they care about votes. It's the only thing any politician has ever cared about in my 35 years of doing this. And that's why they're worried about this bill because it costs 13 million people their health care.

It cost the American people $4 trillion to what you just said and having to pay that goes to our debt. It costs children on food stamps, food in their mouth, and it's going to cost the Republican seats in the midterms. Thats what you see in the Senate right now because you have a senator up in North Carolina, you have a senator up in Maine, you have senators up in other places, and they're worried about losing the Senate.

They feel pretty confident that they're going to lose the House, because that's what happens in a midterm election. But if this thing does not get rewrote in the Senate, it's going to cost the Republicans their majority in the Senate, too.

JIMENEZ: Katie, do you feel -- do you worry about those same reverberations to the midterms?

FROST: Well, I would say that the Republicans aren't the only people who have senators up. In my home state of Georgia you have a Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff. He's up for reelection. He's in a very precarious position. And yet he continues to embrace radical policies from the left wing of the Democratic Party. He voted against banning biological males from participating in girl sports. That was an issue that resonated broadly with the American people.

The most effective ad President Trump ran in the last cycle was Kamala Harris is for they-them. Donald Trump is for you. And in spite of that, the Democratic Party continues to embrace those policies that alienated so many Americans. So you can point to some Republicans, but I would remind our audience that there are Democrats that are in precarious positions as well. And while there are only three Republicans who hold congressional seats that were won by Kamala Harris, there are 12 Democrats in seats that were won by President Trump. So they have a lot of territory to defend.

JIMENEZ: Chuck, we got to go. But final word. I saw you, you were trying to get something in.

ROCHA: Look, you can put all the lipstick on that hog you want to, but it still smells a little bit like a hog. And that's what the Republicans do every time they want to talk about trans or they want to talk about this or that, it's because they want to deflect. Nice job by my sister Katie. I get what she's doing, but pay attention to the midterms.

JIMENEZ: All right. Chuck Rocha, Katie Frost --

FROST: Only for you, Chuck, would I leave -- I had seats behind home plate. And only for you, Chuck, would I leave in the bottom of the eighth to come to you.

ROCHA: This is true. This is true.

JIMENEZ: All right. Good to see you both. Thanks for being here. Go enjoy the game. Or I guess, you know, the game is over. But good to be -- glad you're here. Glad you're here.

FROST: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Coming up next, Trump saying, I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. More on that and why Trump is actually sounding optimistic about a nuclear deal with Iran. We're going to have more on the breaking news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:58]

JIMENEZ: President Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moments ago, Trump said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. I've always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. OK? We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, his comments coming just hours after Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine of the three year war, killing at least 12 people across the country.

CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier joins us now.

So, Kim, I mean, what is the significance of this statement by Trump? There are a lot of people who are going to look at this and say, well, what Putin did he think was going to be at the table to begin with? And how is this any different?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It feels like he's creeping towards reality, the reality that Ukrainians, Europeans, have all been living, have been watching, going through on the ground.

[19:20:08]

Even right now, according to my phone, the various cities around Ukraine are under threat of attack from my phone, the various cities around Ukraine are under threat of attack from a number of Shahed drones. These are Iranian made drones fired by Russia. So it's good news that Donald Trump seems to be catching up to this. But it's the same stuff that's been going on for the past three years.

And unless it leads to a real sea change in his actions to go along with the rhetoric, the Ukrainians on the ground aren't sure how long they can hold out at least as much territory as they're holding right now.

JIMENEZ: And as you're speaking, we're seeing the president exit Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. It does not appear he's going to be walking over to reporters, as he did in New Jersey. But we're going to continue to watch.

When he just spoke to reporters a little while ago, Kim, one of the things he said is that he would be open to more sanctions on the Russians. That said, he has been the first to say that, well, we're trying to negotiate with the Russians, so I'm not going to impose further penalties on them in the middle of this negotiation.

Would more sanctions be smart at this juncture of wherever they are in the peace process?

DOZIER: More sanctions would definitely send a signal. And also, the longer this goes on, the more Europeans and other nations figure out how to lock down on the little bit of oil that Russia is getting out and selling through its ghost fleet. They're finding various different ways to make it harder on Putin and make it harder on the cronies around him.

So if the U.S. were to join in sanctions, it would be one sign that Donald Trump has finally understood that Putin is just drawing this out and using every day of negotiation to continue fighting.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

DOZIER: Now, Trump's own, envoy, Keith Kellogg, did tweet this afternoon, I think we still call it a tweet, a condemnation of Putin. And so when I saw that, I wondered if Trump would condemn him. But it seems like Trump instead agrees with him. So that is somewhat good news. But I'm on a message board with a bunch of Ukrainians, and when a Ukrainian journalist put this news up of Donald Trump's comments, the majority of the emoji reactions were not complimentary. They were things like heads exploding, et cetera. In other words, didn't you know this is what's been going on?

JIMENEZ: Mind blowing. Yes, yes.

Kim Dozier, we didn't even get to talk about the president being optimistic on Iran negotiations, but we're going to have to leave it at the emoji analysis, which was on point, I will say.

Kim Dozier, really appreciate the insight. Thanks for being here.

DOZIER: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Still ahead, President Trump ramping up his attacks against Harvard, calling on the university to hand over the names and countries of its foreign students. We'll talk about it coming up.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:27:39]

JIMENEZ: President Trump is weighing in tonight on his administration's standoff with Harvard University, explaining why it's singling out foreign students who attend the storied institution. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Look, part of the problem with Harvard is that there are about 31 percent, almost 31 percent of foreigners coming to Harvard. We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which we're probably not going to be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. But there are 31 percent. But they refuse to tell us who the people are. We want to know who the people are.

Now, a lot of the foreign students we wouldn't have a problem with. I'm not going to have a problem with foreign students, but it shouldn't be 31 percent. It's too much because we have Americans that want to go there and to other places, and they can't go there because you have 31 percent foreign. Now, no foreign government contributes money to Harvard. We do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Joining us now is CNN media analyst Sara Fischer. She's also media correspondent for Axios.

Sara, good to see you. What are you hearing from your sources about this new explanation? Not a problem with the students themselves, but with the makeup of the student body.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, it's part of a broader attack on Harvard that Donald Trump can leverage in the absence of having power to sway the courts. You'll recall Donald Trump recently got into an entanglement with Harvard and basically said that he was going to block students, international students from going in. The Harvard University folks sued. A judge issued an injunction basically siding with the university.

And so anytime you hear this type of rhetoric coming from the president I believe it's to bully the university because he doesn't have the presidential power quite frankly, and he doesn't have the power and the support through the courts to be able to sort of rule in his favor.

I also think one of the interesting things that he's arguing here is that these international students, which I believe it makes up closer to 27 percent, not 31 percent as the president said, are, you know, blocking the spots of U.S. students. You know, one way to think about it and sort of critics of the president would argue that the international students often are not getting aid, and as a result, they're paying full tuition so that full tuition is often what's helping to supplement U.S. students who rely on aid to be able to go to the university.

Now, proponents of what Trump is saying say that, hey, this would open up spots for U.S. students no matter what. But, Omar, expect this again to continue to go down in court battles because there's no way Harvard goes down without a First Amendment fight here.

[19:30:08]

JIMENEZ: Yes, and they have been the most -- they have been the university that has fought back the hardest to this point and that's likely why the Trump administration has picked on them so much.

I want to ask you about another thing because the Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation into Media Matters and the investigation is over claims the liberal group coordinated an advertising boycott against Elon Musk's X.

What does this say about the use of various government agencies to go after groups that are at odds with friends of the President because it feels like a similar type of attack to what we're seeing even at Harvard where the leadership there clearly seems to be at odds with President Trump?

FISCHER: Yes, I just don't know that the Federal Trade Commission has that kind of jurisdiction.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

FISCHER: The FTC has jurisdiction over something called false commercialization. Meaning fraud or spammy advertising. I don't think that they have the jurisdiction to go after, you know, two private marketplaces online. Remember, the FCC is mostly cable and broadcast. The FTC has purview over everything but two entities, online free market entities that are at odds to argue this is anti-trust to me, seems like a stretch. What you also need to remember is that Elon Musk's X had previously sued Media Matters.

That's a big deal here, because one of the things the FTC is arguing is that Media Matters had colluded with agencies specifically to go after X, and so it's sort of a continuation of Elon Musk's fight even though he has now removed himself from DOGE and he's out of the government.

The last thing I'll say here, Omar, last year, Republicans in Congress who are leading the House, they brought in "The Daily Wire," a conservative online news site, and some ad agency's executives to go over this exact issue. And I remember thinking at the time that this is going to be a big theme in the Trump administration if he wins that, they're going to go after the advertising sector for colluding against media properties. In this case, X, that they think is unjust and I think we're just going to see more of that.

JIMENEZ: Sara Fischer, always appreciate the time and reporting, thanks for being here.

FISCHER: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right, meanwhile, many Americans are looking forward to the opportunity to sleep in tomorrow morning, fingers crossed, that's me too, we'll see -- then celebrating Memorial Day at barbecues, pool parties or relaxing at home, that will not be me, that's already confirmed. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten joins us now to run the numbers this holiday weekend.

All right, so, I feel like -- I feel like this is going to be you tomorrow, but do Americans consider this weekend the unofficial start of summer?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Well, Americans and I perhaps disagree on this one a little bit, Omar. Let's take a look at what Americans say and then I'll give you an idea of what I say. Okay.

When is the unofficial start of summer? Well, get this, 45 percent say, it is this weekend, Memorial Day weekend. Yes, it's time to go to the beaches. It's time to go to the ocean; 41 percent say the last day of school. Now, I don't want to admit anything about my age on the air, Omar, but I've been out of college now for over a decade, so this does not apply to me. Though back in the day, I definitely agreed with the last day of summer. Or how about 10 percent say your summer vacay when that begins, if that's the case for me, Omar, it wouldn't actually happen until the end of summer, the end of August, my goodness gracious.

I think that I'll just go with meteorological summer, which is what June 20th, June 21st, depending on the year.

JIMENEZ: I knew you're going to go with that.

ENTEN: What do you say my friend?

JIMENEZ: I knew you were going to go with the with the exact meteorological definition. For me, it's this weekend. Summer starts Tuesday, we're ready to roll. Let's get this show on the road.

ENTEN: Okay, you're part of that majority, you're part of that majority.

JIMENEZ: Yes, that's me, that's me. ENTEN: Yes.

JIMENEZ: But wait, so are most of us going to get the day off tomorrow? I know I'm not, but what are you doing? Do most people get the day off?

ENTEN: Okay, so I think you and I are on the same wavelength right here. I do not get the day off tomorrow. That is unlike many of our fellow Americans, 90 percent get a paid day off tomorrow. Amongst those who get paid days off, we are part of the 10 percent. The proud 10 percent, Omar, who say no. We are going in to work tomorrow. I believe that I am on at 8:40 tomorrow morning on CNC, which airs on this network from 7:00 to 10:00 A.M. at least the morning edition here in New York. So I'll be part of that 10 percent who are working tomorrow.

JIMENEZ: All right, we'll, you will be up earlier than I am, though, I don't want to jinx myself. You never know.

ENTEN: You never know.

JIMENEZ: All right, if we're going to both be working, a lot of people are going to be barbecuing. If we were not working? What would you be putting on the grill?

ENTEN: Okay, so I'm going to come in for work, and then I'm going to try and get the heck out of here. And I'm going to try and barbecue. I'm going to try and get both things in. That's the synergy, my dear friend.

Favorite food to barbecue, how about a hamburger -- that's 39 percent. I haven't had a hamburger in like five years, though. How about chicken at 27 percent, pork 11 percent, this juice says, how about 11 percent for fish? I like a good piece of salmon and maybe with some veggies. I like to keep it healthy as we go into summer. Omar, as we go into bathing suit season, I like to look my best. How about you? What would you barbecue?

JIMENEZ: Well, we got to get a burger. We got to get a burger in there. This is like the -- this is the time. If you haven't had it, would you say ten years, nine years?

ENTEN: At least five.

JIMENEZ: Okay at least five. All right, we'll fix that. We'll fix that next time around. All right, that's for good weather. Weather might be bad in some parts of the country tomorrow. So in that case you're going to see a movie You're going to go do anything like that. Any movies, actually, there's one at the top of my head, and I have a feeling it's going to be top of yours. But what are movies looking like right now?

[19:35:28]

ENTEN: Yes, okay, so I think there are two possible ones. How about "Mission Impossible," how about that rotten tomatoes score, that's an 80 percent, hey, hey, hey, I remember I saw the first "Mission Impossible" in theaters. I think, like, '95 or '96 with like the last standing movie theater in our town. Tom Cruise, "Mission Impossible", a good film, but perhaps some of the younger folks in our audience, "Lilo & Stitch," that comes in at a 69 percent. But you know if that's going to make bank -- bank this weekend? Over $100 million projected "Mission Impossible" coming pretty good north of $50 million but not anywhere close to "Lilo & Stitch." But yet I think you and I are on the same wavelength here.

We're going to see "Mission Impossible" if we see any film, right?

JIMENEZ: I already saw it. I already saw it.

ENTEN: Oh you already saw it.

JIMENEZ: So, I'll go back and see it again, why not?

ENTEN: Will you go with me?

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes, let's grill, let's get some burgers and bring them in to the theater because what goes better with watching "Mission Impossible" than the smell of us eating burgers.

All right, last thing, a few of us might be watching the Knicks, maybe, Pacers later on. Any shot for the Knicks to come back in the series? What are the odds if you're down two-zero.

ENTEN: One in five -- one in five, my dear friend, 80 percent the Pacers. But you know what? I never say die. I never say die. Go Knickerbockers. The bottom line is, when we are down in New York, that is when we are best. We come back up and I feel good about our Knicks tonight. Go Knickerbockers.

JIMENEZ: You heard it here first. Harry Enten always appreciate it. Let's go get some burgers.

ENTEN: Sounds good, my friend.

JIMENEZ: Yes, that was that was great. That was good stuff. All right, we got a lot more news. We are following this evening, including some new fallout in North Korea over the botched launch of its new naval ship. We're going to bring you the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:42]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back, three shipyard officials have been detained in North Korea after the disastrous launch of the country's newest warship, according to state media. Joining us now is Jean Lee. She's the Presidential Chair of the East-West Center in Honolulu and the former A.P. Bureau Chief in Pyongyang. So, thank you for being here. Kim Jong-un apparently furious. How is he likely to respond here?

JEAN LEE, PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR OF THE EAST-WEST CENTER IN HONOLULU AND THE FORMER A.P. BUREAU CHIEF IN PYONGYANG: He is going to want someone to pay the price for what was a massive mishap, I mean, a 5,000-ton mishap that he is going to take seriously. I think we have to remember that these destroyers are at the center of his current campaign, not only militarily, but also for his legacy, for the propaganda. And this catastrophe is one that just can't be covered up with propaganda.

So, he probably felt that he not only had to acknowledge it publicly, both at home and abroad, because he knows we're watching, that's part of the point. But also to make sure that someone pays the price, that somebody is held responsible so that this type of thing doesn't happen again. It's going to be tough for those officials involved. They've got a -- they had a very short timeline to build and conceive and execute this task, but that's no excuse for Kim Jong-un.

JIMENEZ: And I guess to that point, I mean, state media says three shipyard officials have been detained. Has there is there any evidence to show that they were the ones at fault here?

LEE: According to the state media, the investigation is underway. But the fact that they've been named so specifically is quite unusual and probably means that they are going to face some repercussion or some punishment. So, we don't see that very often, but we have seen examples of this, the one that comes to mind was Kim Jong-un's own uncle, who was named and punished and eventually executed. So, it is not often that these officials are named so explicitly in their state media, but I think it shows the extent of Kim Jong-un's ire, his anger that that this ship capsized at what was meant to be a historic moment, another milestone moment in his legacy and his military campaign.

JIMENEZ: Yes, you know, satellite imagery and footage suggests that this warship could actually share some design elements with similar Russian Navy ships. I mean, is this a sign of Pyongyang's tightening relationship with Moscow? If that's the case, is that something that could even be likely here?

LEE: That is something that experts are going to be looking at very closely. Kim Jong-un is aware that we are watching very closely by satellite. Every single move that they're making from above and watching very closely for signs of this exchange of technology. This is also a moment that Kim Jong-un wants to show, that that alliance, that relationship, thanks to his choice to send soldiers to the front lines in that campaign, in that war in Ukraine, has a payoff for him as well, technologically.

JIMENEZ: Yes,

LEE: And so, absolutely, there are some signs of Russian -- I believe there are some signs of Russian technology and some of that some of that equipment on that Destroyer. So that's something that we should be concerned about as well.

JIMENEZ: Jeanne Lee, thank you for being here. Thanks for the time and perspective.

For everyone else, we'll be right back.

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[19:49:49]

JIMENEZ: They made the ultimate sacrifice, Jewish-American soldiers killed while fighting Nazis during World War II. But for more than 80 years, they were mistakenly buried beneath Latin crosses. CNN's Dana Bash went to an American cemetery in Italy with the nonprofit Operation Benjamin, as those inadvertent errors were corrected and as we honor America's fallen heroes this Memorial Day weekend.

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DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In this cemetery outside Rome lay more than 7,800 Americans killed in battle liberating Italy during World War II, now buried alongside rows of beautiful Roman pines.

[15:40:08]

RABBI JACOB J. SCHACTER, PRESIDENT, OPERATION BENJAMIN: Faith in each other --

BASH (voice-over): And on this day, families of three soldiers traveled to Italy from the U.S. to honor their sacrifice.

SCHACTER: Today we are setting the historical record straight. We will give them the marker that is appropriate for their faith.

BASH (voice over): More than 80 years after they died, correct inadvertent errors. Burial beneath Latin crosses instead of Jewish stars.

SHALOM LAMM, CHIEF HISTORIAN & CO-FOUNDER, OPERATION BENJAMIN: We're all here in some way to honor those who have rested here for all of these many years under an incorrect identity.

BASH (voice-over): All thanks to the non-profit, Operation Benjamin, which works with the American Battle Monuments Commission. Shalom Lamm is chief historian.

BASH: Many of the servicemen who are buried under crosses, even though they're Jewish, it's because they didn't want to show that they were Jewish on their dog tags.

LAMM: Right. There was a real fear of being captured. And if you were captured by the Germans in particular, that was really terrifying. These are not purposeful. These were true errors. America really tried to get it right, but they naturally missed some.

And our job is to come back through all these decades and find those guys. It has happened again and again and again that I introduce people to someone who's just a shadowy figure in their memory. They were real flesh and blood human beings. And we know that story.

BASH (voice-over): Stories like that of technician fourth grade Ben Bernstein.

His nieces and nephews finally learned details of their uncle's sacrifice. A member of the elite First Special Service Force killed by a Nazi grenade on December 3rd, 1943 in the Battle of Monte la Difensa.

BASH: Your name is Ben.

BEN SHERIDAN, NEPHEW OF BEN BERNSTEIN: Correct.

BASH: You are named for your uncle.

SHERIDAN: He was a hero. He was always a hero in everybody's eyes. But we knew so little. We knew he stormed a hill in Italy and died. We knew he was a paratrooper. We knew he volunteered for force. That's about it.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

BASH (voice over): Now they are here giving their uncle a proper burial.

BASH (on camera): This is the gravesite of Second Lieutenant Sheldon Finder, who was shot down and killed on August 16th, 1943 during World War II. As you can see here, he was Jewish and he's laid to rest beneath a Jewish star.

Well, the only other person to die in that very same mission in August of 43 was Paul Singer. He was also the only other Jew in that mission. He's under a cross. That's going to change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In death, they are nine feet apart. In life, they were three feet apart. One was the navigator, one was the bombardier.

SCHACTER: Paul, on behalf of the members of your family, and on behalf of the Jewish people, we welcome you home.

BASH (on camera): Your cousin, Paul Singer, died 82 years ago, and he's been under a cross until today. What did it mean to you to be here and to be a part of the ceremony to honor his Jewish faith?

JODI REFF, COUSIN OF PAUL SINGER: We are very committed Jews. It's so special to have something from your religion that's now and that's connected families.

BASH: He was orphaned at 16. He was an only child.

REFF: Right.

BASH: It's probably why it took so long to have this changed.

REFF: Right, because they were trying to contact these aunts of his, but right, you know, there wasn't any other family. So it's nice to be able to be here and represent the family to be able to do this.

BASH (voice over): Sheldon Finder's family feels the same way. BASH: So this is your uncle.

JONATHAN FINDER, NEPHEW OF SHELDON FINDER: That's my uncle, Sheldon. I have a great picture of my father and my uncle as children.

BASH: Did your dad talk about him?

FINDER: Very little. Very little. I feel like by being here today, I honor his quiet grieving for his entire life.

BASH: Until now, there was never a proper funeral.

FINDER: No, as a matter of fact, I don't think anyone in my entire family has ever been here before.

BASH (voice over): The two families met here in Italy for the first time.

REFF: I knew the name and I knew he was buried here. I didn't know he was buried this close, but then to meet them is really incredible.

RICKY REFF, RELATIVE OF PAUL SINGER: It puts a lot of meaning to this whole experience. That it's not just about one person, it's about all of these individuals.

[19:55:04]

BASH (voice over): Headstones in military cemeteries can only be changed with approval from soldier's families. Shalom Lamm does the research.

LAMM: The amount of proof we're required to deliver it to the American Battle Monuments Commission is really huge. It's really tough and it should be tough. We're changing something for eternity.

BASH (voice over): The stone from the cross that's removed never leaves the cemetery.

SCHACTER: We lower our heads in gratitude and respect to these silent civil sentinels who have so majestically stood guard over these young men for all of these decades. How magnificent is it that these men here on these grounds were comrades in arms against a common foe, good on one side and absolute evil on the other.

BASH (voice over): Dana Bash, CNN, Nettuno, Italy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Thank you all for being with me this Memorial Day eve. Jessica Dean is back next weekend.

I'm Omar Jimenez. Eva Longoria "Searching for Spain" next.

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