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NATO Vowing to Boost Support for Ukraine; At Least 44 Killed in Russian Attacks across Ukraine on Monday; Russia's Shadow War; Israeli Strike Near Khan Yunis School Kills 25; Floating Hospital Treating Gaza Patients; NGOs, U.N. Have Warned of Gaza Starvation Crisis for Months; Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Urges Skeptical Democrats to Hold Criticism; Parting Shots. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired July 10, 2024 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Welcome to our second hour of the show. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, where the time is 6:00 in the
evening.
Ukraine taking center stage on the first day of the NATO summit, with President Biden promising new air defenses for the war-torn nation.
At a Florida rally, Donald Trump challenging President Biden to a debate without moderators and focusing his remarks on the fissures in his
opponent's party.
And nine months of war has taken its toll on some of Gaza's most vulnerable. I speak to the invisible victims seeking critical medical care
aboard a ship some 30 or so kilometers off the coast of Gaza.
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ANDERSON: Well, we start with NATO, vowing to step up efforts to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.
That key message coming as the summit marking the alliance's 75th anniversary holds a full day of events in Washington. U.S. secretary of
state, Antony Blinken, addressed the NATO public forum last hour, saying, quote, "It won't be long before Ukraine gets the much desired Western air
support that it's been asking for."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm also pleased to announce that, as we speak, the transfer of F-16 jets is underway, coming from
Denmark, coming from the Netherlands.
(APPLAUSE)
BLINKEN: And those jets, those jets will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend
itself against the Russian aggression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, that promise followed a similar vow of support from U.S. President Biden. In a speech to NATO leaders at the formal opening of the
summit on Tuesday night.
And these promises of new help are coming as Ukraine is left reeling from the Russian missile strike on a children's hospital in Kyiv that left
dozens dead or injured and unrelenting attacks on the country's infrastructure.
We've got Fred Pleitgen back with us this hour. He is in Kyiv. And Kylie Atwood is in Washington.
Kylie, let me start with you; a major announcement from Secretary Blinken.
What more did he say?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, he said that those F-16s are on their way to Ukraine.
They're coming from Denmark, they're coming from the Netherlands. They are in transit right now. And the secretary of state said that they will be in
the air of Ukrainian airspaces by this summer. That's a significant development. Now we don't know exactly how many of those are on their way.
We'll try and figure that out but we're learning about bits and pieces of this overall commitment, the security a commitment, this military
commitment that NATO is going to make to Ukraine here at this NATO gathering over the course of the last few days here.
We're expecting to learn more yesterday. As you said, President Biden announced new air defenses, many new types of air defenses, that are going
to be going to Ukraine.
And he was very specific to say that some of those air defenses are really, really focused on the capability to shoot down those missiles, like the
ones that we saw in just the last few days that targeted that children's hospital in Ukraine. So we'll watch to see what more details we get.
But it's very clear that these NATO leaders feel like they are providing a very robust military commitment to Ukraine at this moment in time. And one
of the other things that they have been talking about is that NATO is standing up this new command.
The secretary of state said, this is the first time that they're setting up a command for an aspiring nation that wants to join NATO. Of course, they
continue to say that NATO is in Ukraine's future. Not exactly explicit about when that will happen.
But when you talk to diplomats, they say that the fact that they are setting up this command really demonstrates that commitment isn't just
rhetorical; it is actually being acted on in practice as well.
ANDERSON: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of course, at that meeting. We are showing images of him. Now
Fred, let me bring you in. This will be welcome news for Volodymyr Zelenskyy and for Ukraine, some 13 months into this war, 2.5 years. And not
least in light of the attack on the children's hospital there behind you this week.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
I think for several reasons, Becky, first of all, you're absolutely right. Of course, it will be very welcome news, not just the fact that secretary
of state Blinken just talked about those F-16s but also some of those longer-term commitment that NATO members and especially the United States,
that have been making.
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PLEITGEN: Of course, the Ukrainians also quite uncertain about the future with the election coming up in the United States. But also with some of the
elections that have been happening in Europe as well.
But the focus really of this NATO summit right now on that help for Ukraine and especially help for Ukraine as far as airpower is concerned, is
extremely important for the Ukrainians right now.
Of course, it's not just cities that are getting bombarded by the Russians but Ukraine's front line troops as well. And what the Russians have now
apparently figured out is how to -- how to use their own air force more effectively than they have been able to before.
They've developed bombs now that they can throw off much further away from the front lines. And there's really only two ways that the Ukrainians would
be able to deal with that.
One of them is jets with more powerful radars and more powerful missiles. Hence, the F-16s. And the other thing is more powerful surface to air
missile systems. That's why the Ukrainians say they so badly need those Patriot air defense systems and also the longer range systems from other
countries as well.
So it really seems as though what Ukraine has been asking for right now is what NATO appears to want to be giving. And certainly wanted to make that
statement at that NATO summit.
As far as the air defense is concerned, there's really two nuances that we've been looking at as far as the pledges are concerned. I am standing,
as you've just pointed out, on the place where that missile strike took place at the children's hospital, flattening large parts of the building
that you see behind me.
The Ukrainians are saying that they need a lot more surface to air capabilities. And in those pledges that we heard yesterday from President
Biden and now, of course, also from other NATO members as well, there's not only those longer range air defense systems but also medium and short-range
ones.
And, of course, we know, Becky, that the Ukrainians are saying the building behind me, was hit by a Russian cruise missile and certainly medium range
surface to air missile systems would be capable of taking something like that out.
The Ukrainians are saying they need more of that to protect their cities. Also in light of the fact that a lot of their critical infrastructure,
especially heating and electricity right now, is getting targeted by the Russians.
And the Ukrainians say if there aren't able to do something about that very quickly, a lot of people are going to be freezing without electricity once
the winter comes, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes. Fred, g(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): U.S. bases in Europe are on the highest alert for a decade.
This key American and Polish supply hub, an hour from Ukraine, peppered with air defense. This Ukrainian cargo plane from Norway, a major part of
NATO's weapons supplies to Kyiv.
You're watching an odd paradox. The largest loudest arming effort of our times happening in near secrecy, fences obscuring what they can. The main
reason the threat of Russian sabotage, persistent, real; growing across Europe along the supply lines to the Ukrainian border here.
WALSH: While supply hubs like these have never really been more vital for Ukraine trying to hold the front line. But a senior NATO official has told
me of a six- to nine-months' effort by Russia to sabotage NATO weapons supplies into Ukraine.
A fair bit of it going right down these tracks. Now they described it as something that is against, at times, the point of production, against those
making the decisions, against the storage of weapons or even their actual delivery, saying the operation has been bold.
WALSH (voice-over): It too is something in the shadows with a huge potential for escalation. This is the moment, first broadcast here, a vast
saboteur operation in Poland gave itself away.
Caught on camera is Maxim, a 24-year-old Ukrainian living here, recruited online by Russian agents, who first just asked him to daub anti-war
graffiti, filmed buying a lot of energy drinks, a move that led Polish agents to arrest him and 15 others because he dropped a receipt from here
at a crime scene.
His Russian handler, Andriy, had begun asking for much more, positioning cameras, some here overlooking these tracks to Ukraine; others, where
Poland trained Ukrainian troops and for Maxim to commit arson. In all, it got him six years in jail.
WALSH: Amazing how the Russians are recruiting people straight off Telegram, who find themselves here in maximum security.
WALSH (voice-over): He gave our producer a rare interview inside.
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We could not record, so an actor is voicing his words.
MAXIM, UKRAINIAN RECRUITED BY RUSSIAN AGENT (voice-over): It was easy money. I needed money badly. I didn't think any of it could cause any harm.
It seemed so insignificant.
When Andriy told me to install cameras where Poles were training Ukrainian soldiers, that's when I knew it could be serious. It made me feel uneasy.
That was when I decided I'd quit. But I never got a chance. I got arrested the next day.
WALSH (voice-over): Put together, suspected Russian sabotage is quite widespread, with arson around Poland at an ammo depot and even a shopping
center. Concerns voiced over a fire at a key Berlin metals factory.
Czech officials have pointed at Russia over railway hacking. France arrested a pro-Russian separatist plotting to blow up a Paris hardware
store. And last month, intelligence chiefs warned, on a Swedish island close to Russia, there was an increased risk of sabotage of weapons bound
for Ukraine.
But it gets fiercer here, right next to Russia, in Estonia. Russia's appetite to disrupt led them, at this tense border crossing one May night,
to sneak out in these thermal camera images and remove the buoys marking where Estonia ends and Russia begins, literally removing the border.
Tank traps and razor wires speak of how bad it has got. Estonian GPS signals have been jammed. In the skies above, Russians film us filming
them.
WALSH: Your job is also to filter out any of the Russian agents who might be being used to come and do hybrid attacks, right?
EERIK PURGEL, HEAD OF ESTONIAN BORDER GUARD BUREAU, EAST PREFECTURE: All the time, 24/7, and trying to filter those people out. I think the Russians
now are trying to see how we will react to different things.
WALSH (voice-over): Security officials say Russia was using amateurs here, too; 10 people arrested in February after an attack on the Estonian
interior minister's car, fears the Ukraine war may, in the future, make Russians more aggressive still.
HARRYS PUUSEPP, ESTONIAN INTERNAL SECURITY SERVICE: We saw significant rise in their activity in last autumn. We have seen it moving toward
physical attacks. Yes, they are at the moment were against -- more against properties.
There are people who take part in the war against Ukraine. They have more experience; their mindset is more violent. They are perhaps not so patient
anymore, trying to get results.
WALSH (voice-over): A shadowy standoff where the unthinkable, in a matter of months, becomes reality -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Narva, Estonia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Well, still to come tonight here on CONNECT THE WORLD:
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DR. AHMED MUBARAK, HOSPITAL DIRECTOR: Our biggest challenge is opening the borders so that we are allowing the injured Palestinian people to come to
our facility and to have advanced level of care.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Well, I meet the doctors working in a floating hospital to treat the invisible victims of the war in Gaza. My report is
just ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ANDERSON: Well, a source tells CNN that mediators are cautious but hopeful ahead of hostage ceasefire talks taking place in Doha today.
And speaking to a White House official, Israel's prime minister emphasized that he is committed to a deal as long as, quote, "Israel's red lines are
preserved."
Meantime, this is the reality on the ground in Gaza.
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ANDERSON (voice-over): Palestinian officials are decrying a, quote, "heinous massacre" after an Israeli airstrike on a school complex in Khan
Yunis on Tuesday. The Palestinian health ministry says at least 25 were killed and more than 50 others were wounded.
Meantime a new report for the U.N. by independent experts says famine has now spread across all of Gaza as a result of a, quote, "intentional
starvation campaign" by Israel.
And U.S. officials say their troubled military pier, once lauded as a feasible route for desperately needed aid into Gaza, will be permanently
dismantled as soon as next week.
And aid into the besieged enclave, of course, has slowed to what can only be described as a trickle. Countless Palestinians displaced by the war in
Gaza, a handful of whom are being treated on this ship.
It's a floating hospital docked just off Egypt's coast. I met with doctors there treating victims who have been left without critical medicine and
treatment during this nine months' bloody war.
A warning that some of these images may be hard to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON (voice-over): It's been a grueling nine months for 4-year-old Julia Abu Zeiter. Diagnosed with an extremely rare neurological disorder
known as AHC, little Julia suffers with attacks of paralysis and epilepsy. Since the war began, access to the life-saving medication she needs has all
but dried up.
MUBARAK: She lost all of her medication. She has started to have a lot of seizures for minimum of two months.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Dr. Ahmed Mubarak is the medical director on board this floating hospital docked in Al-Arish off the coast of Egypt, just 40
kilometers from the Gaza border.
An ER doctor by trade, Mubarak says Julia is an invisible victim of the grueling conflict, caught up in what Medecins sans Frontieres' head of
emergency programs describes as "Gaza's silent killings."
In a recent op-ed, Mari Carmen Vinoles says, quote, "Delivering life-saving supplies into Gaza is nearly impossible amidst the Israeli authorities'
blockades, delays and restrictions on humanitarian aid and essential medical supplies."
Quote, "The people of Gaza are paying the price, not only the tens of thousands already injured in the war but also all those with other medical
needs."
ANDERSON: Since Julia arrived here about a week or so ago from Gaza, the staff have been able to stabilize her with the appropriate medication. And
they are now sufficiently confident that she can be evacuated back to the UAE, where her care will continue.
The real work that goes on here for some 2,500 patients, who have come through over the last eight weeks, has been the critical care for the
severely wounded in the intensive care unit, like this one, and here, in what is a makeshift operating theater.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Doctors on this UAE medical ship have performed nearly 1,000 surgical procedures since late February.
ANDERSON: (INAUDIBLE) is 9 years old. He was born with a deformity to his leg. The surgeons here are absolutely confident, now he is here on this
ship, they are going to be able to correct that.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The team of doctors and nursing staff here tell me they've seen some of the most difficult cases of their careers.
ANDERSON: What's your biggest challenge?
MUBARAK: Our biggest challenge is opening the borders so that we are allowing the injured Palestinian people to come to our facility.
[10:20:00]
And to have advanced level of care and to secure all of their injureds (ph).
ANDERSON (voice-over): Since Rafah's border crossing was destroyed during Israel's operation in May, evacuations have almost completely stopped. With
the help of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, a U.S. based NGO, Julia made it through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, with only her 21-year-old
Aunt Dareen allowed to cross with her.
Displaced from Northern Gaza, where her aunt says Julia witnessed explosions and shelling, a journey to safety now continues.
Along with a group of mostly critically ill children and cancer patients, bound for Abu Dhabi aboard a specially equipped Etihad Airways flight as
part of the Emirati initiative to relocate some of the conflict's most vulnerable for further treatment.
ANDERSON: It's been a very long day for this little girl. It's half past 5 in the morning here now in Abu Dhabi.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Julia will be given the longterm medical support she desperately needs, the very visible face of Gaza's invisible victims.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: For more on this, I'm joined by Arwa Damon, who is the founder and president of aid agency INARA. She is also a former CNN senior
international correspondent. Many of you watching the show may recognize her. I'm sure you remember her sterling work.
It's good to have you, Arwa. I know that you've been into Gaza twice in the past few months and you are just back.
Can you describe what you've witnessed?
ARWA DAMON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, INARA: Actually, Becky, you know, I can't because you think a situation can't get worse and then it does.
And it's really hard to believe that, for nine months, we have all actually been saying more or less the same thing.
You have this growing crush of people enduring an increasingly shrinking space with, bottom line, insufficient humanitarian assistance, an inability
to access clean water, an inability to access proper food, nutrition, an inability to access proper medical assistance.
And you still continue to have nowhere in Gaza that is actually safe. Four schools were hit in the last four days, schools where the displaced are
sheltering. You look at what's happening in Gaza City right now, where people were initially told to go from the east to the west and then to
evacuate it completely.
And they're making their way down what's known as Salaheddin Road past -- and I was driving that road -- it's like the apocalypse. Huge swaths of
Gaza look apocalyptic. It's shades of gray and black.
And then your eye every once in awhile catches the glitter of a sequined dress, for example, and you start to really understand what has been lost
here, not just in terms of lives but just how everything has been so completely and totally obliterated.
And the closure of the Rafah border crossing and the impact that that has had on the ability to medically evacuate the injured and those like little
Julia, who you are reporting on, has been absolutely devastating.
ANDERSON: Yes.
It's the medical evacuations out, the humanitarian aid in, including life- saving medication for chronic conditions that we were reporting on there. Thousands have been killed, thousands, tens of thousands killed and
injured.
I guess the question is this, with no ceasefire in place as we speak, not even a truce at this point, what are the -- what are -- what are the things
that can be done on the ground immediately to cope for the, for example, invisible victims of this war, those with chronic conditions like little
Julia?
What have you found?
What's the strategy, if anything?
DAMON: That's the problem, Becky, and it's the worst feeling because there is no strategy. There's nothing that you can actually do if you can't get
your hands on the supplies that you need.
Look, my last trip there, we had a little girl at one of the camps that we're working in. And she's diabetic. She needed insulin. So we went
around, literally scouring pharmacies for insulin, because that's been incredibly hard to get in to Gaza for some reason.
[10:25:00]
In the three days that (INAUDIBLE) find the insulin, this little girl was hospitalized. Now she's fine but that just gives you an idea. This is one
girl, this is one supply of insulin that is not just about giving the insulin.
How does the family refrigerate it in a camp that has no electricity?
If we look at this article that was published by "The Lancet," specifically talking about the indirect health implications that extend beyond the
direct harm from violence, and what we see and what they're talking about is that, based on previous conflicts indirect deaths can range from three
to 15 times the number of direct deaths.
So they're using a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death, which puts the -- what they're calling the not implausible
estimate up to 186,000 or more deaths that could be (INAUDIBLE) what we're seeing in Gaza.
And that is if the conflict ends today.
ANDERSON: Are there specific blockades and restrictions that keep medication and medical supplies from getting in at this point, if any aid
is getting in at all?
DAMON: Look, here's this utterly bizarre sort of "Black Mirror"-esque, world, that we aid organizations are trying to operate in. There's so many
different obstacles and challenges.
And then what gets into the south is different than what gets into the north. We have these growing warnings of famine across all of Gaza. And
that is because, right now, for example, into the south, about two thirds of the trucks that are getting in are actually commercial trucks, not
humanitarian aid.
So they're bringing supplies to the market, which is, on the one hand, good but, on the other hand, it doesn't make a lot of sense because most people
can't afford the basic cost of fruits and vegetables.
When I was there around 10 days ago, a kilo, 2.25 pounds of chicken wings was around $30. I mean, no one can really afford these sorts of prices. And
you don't have hygiene kits going in. You don't have baby powder going in, you don't have diapers going in.
We've been asking for awhile to be able to use alternative routes because it's also not just an issue of what Israel is clearing.
We're also now facing this added layer of challenge on the other side because of the desperation, the growing lawlessness of criminal activity,
of actually being able to safely move what is being cleared from the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, into the warehouses for further distribution.
If you look at what's happening in the north where the famine is at its worst, there you really only see flour that is coming in. And obviously
people can't sustain themselves eating flour alone.
And you try to move certain goods from south to the north, it just -- it doesn't work. I mean, the system has always been broken. And now there's
just layers upon layers of challenges that we're having to face.
And it's extraordinarily disheartening when you're in these camps and you're literally distributing whatever you can get your hands on, right?
So we managed to get our hands on, for example, this -- sanitary pads. And we're handing those out and, yes, people are grateful.
But they're looking at us saying, you know, is this all you have?
And you have to say yes. You know, I'm sorry. This is all I have. We're just waiting for everything to get in and we're putting it out there as
quickly as we possibly can.
ANDERSON: Arwa, briefly, the U.N. has said that, and I quote here, "it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold in the Gaza Strip."
Continuing on to say that they declare "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people," describing it as a
form of genocidal violence, which has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.
As you've described, having been into Gaza just over the past few days -- and you said, "I saw the death of the human soul."
Is this U.N. declaration -- I know you've said that there are supplies available in some places.
But is this U.N. declaration that we've just got here, is this just too little, too late?
I think I probably know the answer to this.
DAMON: I mean, to a certain degree, yes.
But we also have to take into consideration, Becky, that, you know, even if the U.N. had put out that declaration months ago, really, what difference
would it have made?
You know, we've seen some statements from the U.N. and other powers as well, asking for more aid to be let in and asking for Israel to live up to
its responsibility that it has, to protect aid convoys and to facilitate the distribution of aid.
And none of that has actually happened or really materialized. And one year there, it really does feel very deliberate as a strategy of war.
[10:30:04]
Just enough is let in for Israel to be able to say, look, some things are getting in.
But the reality is that people are very hungry. And people do not have access to the resources that they need. And the challenges that are being
faced on a daily level, I mean, this isn't living. People aren't living in Gaza right now. They are barely surviving.
They are constantly bombarded and constantly having their traumas triggered and retriggered and every single, small aspect of their day being
shepherded and told to move around.
The destruction which is Gaza right now, on a fairly regular basis, trying to etch out another little miserable patch of land, to try to survive on, I
mean, it does feel very, very deliberate because also there are things that can be done, Becky.
There are alternative routes that can be used by aid organizations that would potentially allow for the safer transport of goods. There are
different things that can be put into place to just ease a little bit of the suffering.
And yet what we end up seeing, time and time again, is the exact opposite that actually takes place.
ANDERSON: Look, Arwa, keep up your work. And I know you will. Thank you for everything that you do and thank you for giving you -- us your time
tonight. It's good to have you, Arwa.
You heard Julia's story a little earlier on. You can find a full write of my team's trip to Al-Arish and to that floating hospital in an article that
has been penned by me and my colleagues, Nadeen Ebrahim and Mostafa Salem. That's also in CNN's "Meanwhile in the Middle East" newsletter. Please sign
up for that.
And we'll take a very short break. Back after this.
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ANDERSON: Welcome back.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson, 34 minutes past 6:00 here in the UAE.
[10:35:00]
Just after 10:30 in Washington.
And right now, President Biden, hosting the NATO summit, there taking center stage on the world stage as questions linger at home about his
reelection campaign. Mr. Biden's aides tell CNN they are finished talking about his poor debate showing and that they are fully focused on beating
Donald Trump in November.
But several Democratic lawmakers are publicly calling for the president to step aside. One senator told CNN that Mr. Biden could lose big and bring
other Democrats down with him.
But former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging her party to hold off on the criticism. She didn't call for Mr. Biden to step aside but she
didn't offer her unequivocal support, either.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does he have your support to be the head of the Democratic Senate?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: As long as the president has -- it's up to the president to decide if he is going to run.
We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has said he has made the decision. He has said firmly this week he is going to run.
Do you want him to run?
PELOSI: I want him to do whatever he decides to do. Let's just hold off. Whatever you're thinking, either tell somebody privately but you don't have
to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, the president has been adamant about staying in the race and says he has no plans to step aside.
After days spent laying low, as it were, Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail and he is using President Biden's disastrous debate
performance to fuel a fresh round of attacks on him.
Speaking at a rally in Miami on Tuesday, Trump mockingly challenged Biden to another debate; this time, without a moderator. CNN's Alayna Treene has
the latest from Washington.
And you have been following the Trump campaign. The deadline, of course, is nearing for him to announce his running mate. We should talk about which
names are on the top of this list. But I want to just start very briefly with getting your sense of what his strategy is as Biden takes so much
incoming flak at this point.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
Well, on your second part of your question, Becky, look; Donald Trump and his team are relishing the criticism surrounding Joe Biden, the questions
over whether people within Biden's own party, the Democratic Party, believe that he is fit to serve for another four years.
But at the same time, there's also some concerns -- and I can tell you from my conversations with Donald Trump's advisors, they note that they've spent
millions of dollars on mining data, on advertising, on modeling all of these things with a single focus on going after Joe Biden.
And with the assumption that he would be the opponent that Donald Trump will face in November. And so, behind the scenes, they don't say this as
much publicly. But behind the scenes, they want Joe Biden to continue to be the candidate because that is what they are prepared for.
They are not sure what would happen if he were to ultimately step aside and have somebody else run in his place.
Someone like Vice President Kamala Harris and what -- how that could impact their campaign over the next four months. We did hear Donald Trump attack
Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly last night.
I will argue that that's actually some of the first real attacks we have heard from not just Trump but also his campaign overall. So far throughout
his campaign, he has largely ignored attacking Harris. But clearly they are monitoring this situation and weighing right now who -- what's going to
happen next.
They are watching like the rest of the world about what decision Joe Biden will make.
Now as for the first part of your question about questions over who could potentially be his vice presidential pick, there are still three top names
that I keep hearing from his team.
Marco Rubio, who was at that rally last night with his entire family; senator JD Vance as well as Doug Burgum. And every day I talk to Donald
Trump's advisors about this. And they say they still are not sure who it's going to be. And they also are unclear if even Donald Trump himself knows
who it is going to be.
But Monday is the kickoff to the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee. And that is really seen as the deadline for when Trump must
announce. Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes. All right. Good to have you. Thank you very much, indeed.
Alayna Treene on that story for you out of Washington. We're going to take a very short break. Back after this.
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ANDERSON: Just on a few Parting Shots this evening, think back to what you were doing when you were 16 years old. Maybe you were doing your homework
or hanging out with mates or playing video games.
Maybe at 16 you were doing all of those things. Now what I'm certain you weren't scoring a pivotal goal in the semifinals of an international
football tournament. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Nice try -- oh, (INAUDIBLE) goal. This 16 -year old Lamine Yamal.
ANDERSON (voice-over): That was Spain's Lamine Yamal, scoring what was described as astonishing, terrific goal against France last night to help
send his country into Sunday's Euro 2024 final.
In-between games, the -- well, he's a babyfaced teenage prodigy, isn't he?
He's been diligently doing his own homework but that hasn't stopped him becoming the youngest player ever to score at the championships. His
performance drew comparisons to another footballer who plied his trade at Barcelona, one Lionel Messi.
To top it all, these photos taken in 2007 circulated social media after the game as six-month-old Lamine Yamal being bathed by then 20-year-old Lionel
Messi for a charity calendar photo shoot. He was even more babyfaced back then, wasn't he?
You couldn't make this up, could you?
That's it from me. CNN continues after this.
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