Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
U.S. Intel: Israel Preparing Possible Strike On Iran Nuke Plants; Trump's Son Doing Big Business In Vietnam As Clock Ticks On Tariffs; New Book Details Instances Biden Forgot Names Of Longtime Aides. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired May 20, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:04]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news just in to CNN, U.S. intelligence showing Israel is preparing to possibly strike Iran's nuclear facilities. We have the very latest on this major and fast moving story this hour.
And also, Eric Trump in Vietnam about to break ground on a golf course there, reportedly looking to build a Trump Tower, all while Vietnam desperately wants Trump to drop his tariffs. Is America for sale?
And kill everyone -- Ukraine says those are the words of a Russian commander. We have exclusive audio intercepts and drone video here at CNN that appears to show Ukrainian forces being killed just after they surrendered.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, we're following several major stories. First, the breaking news just in here, the nuclear strikes Israel tonight, making preparations for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. This is according to new intelligence obtained by the U.S. it is a brazen and dangerous move that would signal a major break with the Trump administration and obviously could lead to a much wider war.
Jim Sciutto is breaking this news, is OUTFRONT now.
And, Jim, as you're getting more details here coming in, what more can you tell us about this alarming intelligence?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, this new intelligence includes both intercepted Israeli communications and observations of Israeli military movements that could suggest an imminent strike. Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence tell myself and my colleagues, Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand.
Among those military preparations the U.S. has observed are the movement of air munitions, as well as the completion of an air exercise. We should note officials are cautioning it is not clear Israeli leaders have made a final decision, and there is disagreement within the U.S. government about the likelihood that Israel will ultimately take action.
However, and I'm quoting here from one of the officials, the chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months, and the prospect of a Trump negotiated U.S.-Iran deal that does not remove all of Iran's uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely. That's the situation as we know it.
BURNETT: And, obviously, extremely alarming given the premise there. Unless you remove all of the uranium, which is -- it is not in the world that we live in, at least currently, doesn't seem to be on the table.
So, I guess the real question is here, Jim, would Israel actually, you know, do this? They need -- would need American support in some sense it would seem. But would they do this basically to fly in the face of what Trump seems to want?
SCIUTTO: Fair point. Such a strike would certainly be a brazen break with President Trump, these officials acknowledged. However, an Israeli source tells CNN that Israel would be prepared to carry out military action on its own if the U.S. were to negotiate what this source described as a bad deal with Iran that Israel cannot accept.
We should also note, and you know this well, Erin, that Trump himself has publicly threatened military action against Iran if these nuclear negotiations fail. And in a letter to the Iranian supreme leader back in March, Trump said a 60-day deadline for those efforts to succeed that, according to a source familiar with that communication, it's now been 60 days since that letter was delivered.
So, we should keep that timeline in mind, as well as both Israel and the U.S. watching Iran very closely.
BURNETT: All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much with these breaking details this hour. And as Jim is obviously monitoring this closely, responses coming in from the White House, Pentagon, we will keep you updated.
Now to our other big story tonight, the Trump family cashing in big time. President Trump's son Eric is now arriving in Vietnam. In just hours, he will be breaking ground on a new $1.5 billion golf resort there. This is according to "Reuters" and the billion dollar investment is front page news there.
And the headlines are quite clear about what this is. Here's one: U.S. president's son, Eric Trump, to attend groundbreaking ceremony. You saw the first two words there, U.S. president.
And then we actually went to take a look at the website from the Vietnamese group involved in the deal. Look at the picture that they have posted about the deal. It's interesting. You see in the center, President Trump.
Are you ready for this? I'll tell you about this picture, about a month before Election Day, this picture, was put out. This is President Trump taking time from the campaign trail to appear with his son, Eric, at the signing of the deal to build golf courses and hotels in Vietnam. Time from the campaign trail to sit in the middle and to sign that deal.
And this golf course is one of several major projects Trump Org now has in Vietnam, including hotels and towers. "Reuters" reports. Eric Trump as part of this trip, is going to go to Ho Chi Minh City this week, where Trump Org is now considering plans to build a luxury Trump Tower.
City officials treating Trump to a dinner party expected to accompany him as he tours all sorts of upscale areas.
[19:05:06]
And while Eric Trump is in Vietnam receiving a king-like welcome, it may come as no surprise that back here in the United States, Vietnam is a high priority for a trade deal for team Trump.
Officials from Vietnam are reportedly in Washington for a second round of trade talks, and Vietnam has been singled out by President Trump directly.
Here he is on what he calls Liberation Day, the day he announced his trade war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Vietnam, great negotiators, great people. They like me, I like them. The problem is they charge us 90 percent. We're going to charge them 46 percent tariff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So that was on April 2nd. Two days later passed, near 48 hours since Liberation Day, and what country did Trump again publicly singled out? Vietnam. On April 14th -- April 4th, I'm sorry, he writes: Just had a very productive call with To Lam, general secretary of the communist party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their tariffs to zero if they're able to make an agreement with the U.S.
So, Vietnam is actually doing exactly what makes sense here. Does it have a choice but to embrace Trump's son to put up a Trump building, however many he wants golfers or whatever? Did he have a choice but to allow Elon Musk to launch Starlink satellite service in Vietnam?
I mean, enriching the Trump family is a very small price to pay when Vietnam is facing those tariffs of 46 percent, if it doesn't make a deal by the end of June. It is a very small price to pay for Vietnam when their exports to the United States account for 30 percent of their entire gross domestic product. So, a third of their entire economy is relying on the U.S. They know where their bread is buttered. And Eric Trump is in the city now.
And Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House to begin our coverage.
So, Kristen, this is one of those stories where I think it's pretty obvious if this were a different administration. We know what Republicans would be saying if this was Biden, for sure. So now the shoes on the other foot, we'll see if they will call it out. What is the White House saying about Eric Trump's business in Vietnam?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, they're not saying anything at all. And that's intentional. They have essentially told me, and this is the White House official, that there's no reason to engage in this story because it has absolutely nothing to do with the White House.
Now, of course, as you mentioned, this is happening at the same time that the White House and the administration is negotiating on these tariffs. Vietnam, one of these 150 countries that is trying to get a deal with the United States, trying to get a deal before they get a letter saying that their tariffs have been raised, at least according to Donald Trump, is how this is all going to play out with those letters.
But this is really not the first time that we have seen the administration doing business the same time, in the same place that Donald Trump's organization or Trump Organization is also doing business. He was just in the Middle East last week following several business deals that the Trump Organization did there, talking about his golf resort in Doha, to Trump Hotel in Dubai. These are all places that Donald Trump visited. These are all places where Donald Trump made business deals on behalf of the country, as well as the Trump Organization, on behalf of the Trump Organization.
Now, Donald Trump's team has said to me on multiple occasions that Donald Trump himself is no longer part of Trump Organization. But the thing to keep in mind here, when you talk to those ethics experts, when you talk to Democrats and even some Republicans, is the fact that Donald Trump never formally divested from Trump organization, meaning that any money that is going to Trump organization can eventually be given back to Donald Trump and enriches his family as a whole.
However, again, the White House says there is no connection between the two that Donald Trump stepped down and this is solely being run by his son, particularly Eric, right now.
BURNETT: All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
I want to go straight now to Congressman Ro Khanna, Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, also on Armed Services.
Congressman Khanna, I don't know if we can pull the picture up again. The White House is saying Trump has nothing to do with this. He is at the signing of the deal for this a month before election day, when they posted it with Eric Trump and the head of the Vietnam -- Vietnamese group. There it is, right, big U.S. flags, by the way, behind him, very presidential, in fact, it looks like, a month before he won the White House again.
What do you think about the fact that Eric Trump is now in charge of this $1.5 billion deal/tower/golf course in Vietnam?
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Well, look, you don't have to be an ethics expert or a lawyer or on the oversight committee to know that this is just wrong. America never used to be for sale. No president in my lifetime has done something like this where they are negotiating the tariff deal on a country based on whether that country is going to invest in their family's businesses.
And it's a pattern. I mean, you saw with UAE, they were willing to invest in meme coins for Donald Trump, and then they do a deal. You see Qatar willing to give a luxury jet so that they can curry favor with Donald Trump. And it's also, by the way, the problem with blanket tariffs, because Trump is using it as a tool to reward people who he likes or who are doing business with his family and to punish people he dislikes.
[19:10:09]
BURNETT: So, what do you make of the timing here? I mean, obviously, as I pointed out, it was two days after Liberation Day when Trump had a call, right, with the leader of Vietnam and said that he had that call, right, even as he wasn't doing other calls. And now these talks are advanced, it seems. They're in round two more than other countries, as -- and with Vietnam -- as Eric Trump is over there getting this king-like welcome.
I mean, what about the overlap between those two things?
KHANNA: Well, Erin, as you reported, Trump and Eric Trump don't even have to say anything. I mean, that's the system they've set up, nor does anyone in the Trump administration. They know that other governments are going to try to curry favor to get favorable terms.
So, if you're the Vietnamese government, the communist party, you're thinking, well, what's $1.5 billion when it could save us billions of dollars in getting the 46 percent tariff removed? And you have a scramble in other countries to try to curry favor with Donald Trump, including enriching his family businesses. It's really just shameful, given what this country stood for, that this is happening.
BURNETT: Yeah. I will say, Congressman, one thing about this that appears to be the most disturbing is this is one of those basic things, as a journalist, you can just say it's wrong. And it would seem most people would know this is wrong. And yet we're not hearing that from many of your colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle. I know we'd be hearing from them if this were a different party, right?
And you just wish at times that people would just say what's right and what isn't right.
I want to ask you also in the context of the armed services committee on which you sit, which I mentioned at the top, the breaking news Jim Sciutto was just reporting, the new intelligence suggesting that Israel is preparing a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. That would be a brazen break with Trump. That's a U.S. officials are saying that. He's been working on that diplomatic deal with Iran.
The question for you, Congressman, is at this point, from the information that you have in armed services, does Trump have any sway on Netanyahu at this point?
KHANNA: It does. I mean, they're obviously dependent on the United States for aid, for support. And I praised actually President Trump recently saying that he was trying to get an Iran deal. In fact, some people in my own party criticized me for that. But it would be a disaster to have Netanyahu launch a strike. Most military experts don't believe it actually would be effective, just given how dispersed a lot of Iran's sites are.
And the fact is that some of them are in population centers based on public reporting. So, it is a -- it is my view that Donald Trump should make it clear that that's not good for stability. By the way, it's not good for oil prices, gas prices.
The one thing Trump does understand is the economy is consequences of a war. And I'm very hopeful hell stand up to the hawks in his own party and stand up and make it clear to Netanyahu, this is not a -- this is not something America wants.
BURNETT: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is involved in the U.S.-Iran talks, which are being led, of course, by the New York real estate lawyer Steve Witkoff. But, you know, rubio, because you co-sponsored legislation with him when he was in the Senate, right? Youve worked with him.
KHANNA: Yeah.
BURNETT: He was on Capitol Hill today. And I want to play something that your Democratic colleague, Senator Chris Van Hollen, said to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you, for secretary of state. You and I served together in Congress for 15 years. We didn't always agree, but I believe we shared some common values, a belief in defending democracy and human rights abroad, and honoring the Constitution at home. That's why I voted to confirm you. I believed you would stand up for those principles.
You haven't. Youve done the opposite.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do you agree with him?
KHANNA: I do, it's sad to me because I worked with Senator Rubio on a White House economic development initiative, and he was very thoughtful about it. But I know what's going on.
Look, Donald Trump basically announced to the world, there's going to be an "Apprentice"-like contest for the 2028 primary that he wasn't going to just anoint J.D. Vance. He mentioned Rubio, and they're competing for his approval to be the nominee.
And so, this is not the Marco Rubio that ran against Donald Trump in 2016. It's not Marco Rubio who did the Gang of Eight deal on immigration. It's not Marco Rubio who used to work on human rights with people like Senator Van Hollen. And it's not the Marco Rubio who worked with me on economic development. It's Marco Rubio is trying to out-right J.D. Vance.
BURNETT: All right. Congressman Khanna, I really appreciate your time. And thank you so much.
KHANNA: Thank you.
BURNETT: Next, from calling Obama a terrorist to speaking at a white nationalist conference, Trump allies who were deemed too toxic to work for Trump in his first term.
[19:15:01]
Well, guess what? KFILE has reporting. They're back and they're working for Trump now.
Plus, new details about how former President Trump, on multiple occasions struggled to recognize -- President Biden, I'm sorry, struggled to recognize his own staff. That's from the book "Original Sin". The authors, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, are my guests.
And everybody knew his name from the hit TV show "Cheers". And tonight, we remember the actor who played Norm MacDonald.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, they're back. A new investigation by KFILE reveals some of the most controversial figures from Donald Trump's first term are not only back to work for Trump, they have more power than before.
[19:20:03]
One of the men KFILE investigated, calling President Obama a terrorist leader and suggesting a former CIA director be executed. Another attacked a woman's right to vote.
CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and the KFILE team have been tracking these individuals for years.
And, Andrew, that is the incredible reporting, because is it only in doing that that you can actually get the totality and the context in all of this that is so crucial.
So, you uncovered these -- some of these extreme beliefs during Trump's first term. So, you know, top job at the Pentagon is just an example.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to walk through just a few of them for people. But so, these are at least four people that we found, Erin, in our reporting, that were deemed too toxic, too inflammatory, too extreme to get Senate confirmation in a couple of these jobs or three of these jobs, and in one case, to even keep their job, one of them was fired.
And let's start right off with Anthony Tata, who is nominated now to be -- who was nominated in 2020 to be the undersecretary of state. That is the third highest ranking position at the Pentagon. His nomination stalled after we reported on some of his inflammatory comments, including a tweet that people just saw a second ago in which he claimed sort of odd conspiracy theory, that John Brennan, who was the CIA director under Barack Obama, had tweeted a code to assassinate Donald Trump because he shared a quote from Cicero, who was a Roman statesman.
I had to -- I had to look it up. And you can see he said it was a, quote, clear threat against POTUS.
Now look at this follow up tweet that he then sent to somebody who was which he sent it to Brennan saying that he -- to Brennan, it might be a good time to, quote, pick your poison, firing squad, public hanging, life sentence. As a prison bench or suck on your pistol. Your call.
We reported on that. That tweet was removed. Obviously violated Twitter's terms of service, at least at the time.
BURNETT: At the time.
KACZYNSKI: And yeah, so now, he's renominated to head military readiness at the Pentagon. And we'll be interested to see with the Republican Senate now, because all of those Trump nominees, with the exception of Ed Martin, who we've talked about on the show, have pretty much gotten through.
BURNETT: All right. So, you know, he said all those things last time that was enough to get you removed this time? Apparently not, because obviously all this is known. This is known to team Trump.
So that's one example. We also mentioned there was somebody who said women should not vote. Who's that?
KACZYNSKI: Well, that's right. That's John Gibbs who is in charge of all policy and research now at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gibbs was nominated in 2020 to lead the Office of Personnel and Management. Thats sort of the HR department for the federal government. It's actually a very, very, extremely --
BURNETT: Very powerful.
KACZYNSKI: Very, very, extremely, extremely important job. He did not see his nomination advanced originally at the time because we reported on that, he shared some very bizarre conspiracy theory that Clinton's campaign chairman had engaged in satanic rituals. This is something he said on Twitter in 2016. He also defended a person who was sharing neo-Nazi era propaganda, saying they shouldn't have been removed from the platform.
Then, let's fast-forward to 2022 to what we referenced here. He ran for congress. Trump supported him. He ousted a Republican who voted to impeach Trump. Gibbs gets the nomination. And we found that in the 2000, Gibbs ran a self-described think tank called the Society for the Critique of Feminism, which argued that women shouldn't be able to vote and want people to look at some of the quotes that we found because they really are something.
This is from his website. It said some argue that in a democratic society, it's hypocritical or unjust for women who are 50 percent of the population not to have the right to vote. He cites the Founding Fathers, said they didn't believe so. And then he goes on to basically say that people under 18 can't vote. So, we cannot say that women should be able to vote simply because they are a large part of the population.
He went on a little bit further --
BURNETT: It's incredible.
KACZYNSKI: -- and he argued in another comment, where he's talking about the federal government has grown since women. He's a Republican, so he's mad the federal government has grown since women have gotten the right to vote.
And he goes: We conclude that increasing the size and scope of government is unequivocally bad. And since women's suffrage has caused this to occur in a large scale than any other cause in history, we conclude that the United States has suffered as a result of women's suffrage.
So, now, he's nominated or he's appointed at HUD. He runs all research. So he's back in a position that's possibly even -- possibly more powerful than what he had before.
BURNETT: I'm just trying to think how one gets to the logic of since women's suffrage has caused government employment to go up. That's incredible.
Okay. So then, okay, so we've got the, you know, calling for the possible assassination of the CIA director. Weve got women shouldn't vote.
[19:25:00]
What about the person who spoke alongside white nationalists?
KACZYNSKI: So that's Darren Beattie. He was a speechwriter in the Trump White House. He was fired in 2018 after I reported that he spoke at a conference alongside white nationalists.
In the seven years after that happened, he's willing now -- he has been appointed, first off, as the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, which is a pretty important job.
BURNETT: Yeah.
KACZYNSKI: In the years since then, he has pushed a lot of racist conspiracy theories, misogynistic comments. He cheered on the January 6th riot at the Capitol as it was happening. And then he later spread conspiracy theories that the federal government had been the people that did the January 6th, did January 6th.
He also made a lot of inflammatory sort of racist comments, including writing that competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities and demoralizing competent white men.
And then we also found that on January 6th, he sent a lot of tweets that were targeting Black lawmakers and Black organizations, Black leaders, including that mostly said they should, quote, take a knee as a sign of respect for MAGA. He said, Tim Scott -- there's the one you see about BLM. The BLM must take a knee to MAGA. They must learn their place.
And he targeted Senator Tim Scott, Black Republican, saying Tim Scott needs to learn his place and take a knee to MAGA. All of these tweets were sent on January 6th after, as I mentioned earlier, he had been cheering on the rioters.
BURNETT: And I think any person in this country knows what -- know his place means in the context of American racial history. What are they saying now?
KACZYNSKI: So, we reached out to Beattie. We didn't get a response. We reached out to Tata. He declined to comment, but he did apologize. Two weeks ago during his confirmation hearing, he said those comments were out of character.
Gibbs gave us a comment where he said, just as President Trump has modeled courage and resilience in the face of vicious assaults, attempts to degrade my character with false attacks have not and will not succeed. The best is yet to come.
BURNETT: All right. Again, just to be clear, those posts you shared were from him.
KACZYNSKI: Absolutely.
BURNETT: All right. Andrew Kaczynski, thank you very much. Incredible reporting. We're going to kind of rewind and watch that one a few times. Let it all sink in.
OUTFRONT next, the book that has everyone talking, revealing Biden at one point struggled to recognize his own staff. It's sad. It's hard to hear, but it's important. And it's from "Original Sin". The authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are OUTFRONT.
Plus, a CNN investigation exclusive new audio from Ukraine that we have tonight. It appears to show Russian commanders giving the order to kill Ukrainian soldiers after they surrender.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:32:19]
BURNETT: Tonight, new details about how much President Biden struggled at times to either recognize or remember the names of his own staff. It's all according to the new book, "Original Sin".
One of these instances happened even before Biden was president. Authors Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson reporting, and I quote from their book during an eight day, grueling bus tour in Iowa in December 2019, Biden gave his aides pause while doing prep. He struggled to remember the name of longtime aide Mike Donilon.
You know, you know, he said, groping for it. His aides side-eyed one another. Donilon had worked with Biden since 1981. And that's all the way back in 2019, which is kind of give you pause just thinking about this.
But there were more instances, according to their book. In 2022, they write, standing in the outer oval with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Kate Bedingfield, his communications director, he couldn't come up with either of their names, according to one witness. Steve, he said to Sullivan, Steve, he continued, obviously struggling to recall Jake's name.
He turned to Bedingfield, "press" he called her as he beckoned them into the Oval Office. Sullivan says he doesn't recall this happening.
But the book also says Biden didn't appear to recognize Jaime Harrison. Now, that's important in the context of Joe Biden, because Biden had supported him to be DNC chair. This reportedly happened at an event in 2023. Biden took Harrison's hand and just kept shaking it without saying anything.
And this is all just the newest revelations in a book that everyone is talking about. "The Wall Street Journal" says it details a conspiracy in plain view. "The Washington Post," "Original Sin" indicts the cover up of a steeply declining Joe Biden. And in "The New York Times", a damning portrait of an enfeebled Biden protected by his inner circle.
OUTFRONT now, CNN's Jake Tapper and "Axios'" Alex Thompson, the authors of "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again". And it is now formally out today.
And it is a real pleasure to have you both here in person to talk about this.
Okay. So, I mean, just the examples, the latest ones that I just laid out from your book are stunning. You and Alex spoke to about 200 people for this book, and I -- and I know now thinking about it. And now you're doing interviews about it. What stood out to you or surprised you the most in your reporting?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Well, the first thing is after we started writing this book after the election, we were pitching it, and we were hoping that we'd get good stuff. But we didn't know, really. And the fact that we were able to talk to more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, almost all of them after the election, was -- that was shocking because there were just so many of them wanting to unburden themselves, wanting to get this off their chests after keeping this horrible secret for so long.
[19:35:00]
And it's not like all of them knew all of it, right? People knew little pieces of it. And I think that in itself was shocking.
But then if I had to just pick one scoop from the book, I think ultimately, the moment that I keep thinking about is Senator Bennet of Colorado saying that after he leaves the White House, an immigration event in June 2024, and Biden's having a really rough time, he leaves and things like, no wonder our immigration policy is such a mess. This guy cannot manage the portfolio. And I think that was a real shock to me.
BURNETT: To see that what it could affect.
TAPPER: The policy implications of it. Yeah.
BURNETT: So -- yeah?
ALEX THOMPSON, CO-AUTHOR, "ORIGINAL SIN": I would just -- just one thing to add is all those examples you did, those are actually a fraction of actually what we had. We actually just had to cut them down because it became repetitive. The number of people that would that Joe Biden.
BURNETT: So, this is a fraction of what you.
TAPPER: Oh, yeah. We -- yeah. We handed that book. We handed the book in about 20,000 additional words. We had to get it down to 85,000 to meet the production schedule. So, we yeah, we cut --
BURNETT: Twenty-five 5 percent. Well, I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: I mean, I'm just saying that's a lot that you have, yeah.
THOMPSON: But -- and like so many people that have known Joe Biden for so long, recounted experiences, especially by the end of 2023, where they would go up to him and then they would see in their words, sort of just this vacant stare, and they would say hi. And they just in their heads, they were like, I don't think he remembers me.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah.
All right. So, Alex, how people couldn't see this and you guys talk about that when you say people knew little bits and pieces of it, but your book revisits this how people, you know, couldn't see it in front of them. And you write about Joe Biden.
You write, one person from Bidens orbit asked, I feel anger at Jill. How do you not recognize that the person you live with is in decline? And now this is this is a question. Do you think she knew? THOMPSON: I think intuitively she knew. And you can tell that by the
way that she behaves. Right? I mean, she -- you can see it the way even in the view interview two weeks ago, the way that she would jump in, right, and help him with his answers.
And that's not new. She'd been doing that increasingly for the last 2 or 3 years. I don't know if she necessarily realized what she was doing, but by her actions, she knew that he was not the same and needed someone to help pick up the slack.
BURNETT: So, Jake, the cancer diagnosis is coming two days before the book comes out. And I know there are some who think that this is a -- that was to detract from your book or take away from it. You know, there's those theories out there.
In the book, though, you talk about how the Biden struggled with transparency on health and specifically with beau Bidens cancer.
TAPPER: Yeah.
BURNETT: So, I'll read that excerpt. You write: Beau's cancer treatment also demonstrated the Biden's capacity for denial and the lengths they would go to avoid transparency about health issues. Beau would remain the sitting attorney general of Delaware for the entirety of 2014, even as his family secretly flew him all over the country for a variety of experimental treatments.
Beau's wife, Hallie, told people she didn't understand why they had to keep his illness a secret, making it public would have led people to rally around the family, but both Biden and Beau opposed disclosure.
TAPPER: Well, let me just say, I knew Beau, and that's a huge loss. He's a really good guy, and it's heartbreaking that that we lost him as a country.
But that said, like, this is a pattern with this family. They do not tell the truth. They do not disclose when it comes to especially health issues.
But beyond that, a person close to the family told us this is internally almost like a family motto. Don't -- the way they put it is in the family, it's going to sound crass, it's not my terminology. Don't call a fat person fat. It means don't acknowledge ugly truths.
And this person close to the family said this is a family motto in terms of how they live. Don't acknowledge that Beau is dying. Don't acknowledge that Hunter has a serious addiction problem. Don't acknowledge that Joe is deteriorating and its part of how they live.
BURNETT: So, you know, when people say, Alex, there was this conspiracy among those close to him, right, that they were going to prop him up and get him through this election. I mean, is that a word that you think is fair to use?
THOMPSON: I think -- I think on the back cover, we say we'll let the facts speak for themselves. And the truth is that while some of these things may have been -- begun innocently enough, you know, just trying to make your principal look good and realizing that there are some things he's not as good at anymore.
But by the time you get to late 2023 especially, it's clear that he may not -- not only that, he is definitely, in the words of many senior administration officials, not up to this job for four more years, but he may not even be up to that job now. And I think that's where you get to a point where you're not helping your principal, and you sort of are losing sight of the bigger -- you're part of something bigger than just helping Joe Biden.
BURNETT: All right. So, it's an incredibly reported book you have, and I don't know if you expected this. Maybe you did a little bit, but maybe not to the extreme that it is occurred. You have come -- I see the look on your face. You know where I'm going. You have come under withering criticism.
TAPPER: I'm not actually withering, but yes.
BURNETT: You are not withering. But the criticism itself is attempting to wither.
TAPPER: It tends to wither, yes.
BURNETT: So, President Biden's granddaughter, Naomi, she kind of -- I think this summarizes a bit. She says the book relies on an unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving, false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare.
[19:40:05]
There are real stories to be told. One day they will be, I suspect history will reward the truth.
You know, there are some saying you're doing this to make money, others saying --
TAPPER: I hope history respects the truth. I hope so.
BURNETT: But I want to give you a chance because you're both Washington insiders, in the sense you live there, you know it. And there are people who say, come on, Jake Tapper, you had to have known. What do you say to them?
TAPPER: I say that I knew what we all knew, which was I saw him deteriorating in front of the cameras, like in the stuff that was public. But I didn't know anything more than that. I knew that he was okay in the interview I did in 2020 and old, but still with it in the interview I did in 2022. But no, I didn't -- I didn't know more --
BURNETT: It was the same impression, by the way, I had in June 2024 with him. I mean, it's consistent.
TAPPER: Old but okay. But I didn't know about all these horrible moments. The reason why the debate was so shocking is because that was a
president who is nonfunctioning, not a president who had a gaffe, not a president who tripped on a stairs, a president who is nonfunctioning and was basically nonfunctioning for 90 minutes to different degrees.
BURNETT: Yeah.
TAPPER: So, I think that is why it's so shocking. And I think the reason why there's such interest in this book is because people want to know what really happened.
As for Naomi, we know, and we report in the book that the Biden family is very close and they stick together. And I don't -- I don't begrudge her standing up for her dad and her grandfather.
BURNETT: No.
TAPPER: But I will say we stand by our book, and we do hope that history does reward the truth.
BURNETT: And I hope that there will be -- then you get the sequel with the other 25 percent. Okay?
All right. Thank you both. And congratulations on incredible work and all that it took to do this.
All right. Thank you both so much.
And next, here are the chilling orders on intercepted Russian radio calls that we've exclusively obtained at CNN. An investigation you'll see first here OUTFRONT.
Plus, the actor best known as Norm on the long running sitcom "Cheers" has died. We'll tell you something you didn't know about George Wendt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:40]
BURNETT: Breaking news CNN obtaining exclusive radio intercepts and drone video. Together they appear to show Russian forces executing a group of Ukrainian soldiers who had just surrendered. You see those bodies there?
It comes as a ceasefire appears to be even further away. After Trump's two-hour call with Vladimir Putin.
Nick Paton Walsh is OUTFRONT tonight with this investigation. I want to warn you, it does include graphic video.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): Arta, listen to me! Ask who the commander is. Take the commander and kill everyone else!
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before even this moment of surrender, the fate of these six Ukrainian troops was sealed. Ukrainian drone images from the southern front last November show the horror that comes after defeat. A Russian hiding in the bushes shoots one Ukrainian in the head.
Ukrainian officials gave CNN intercepts of Russian radio orders from their commanders to their troops here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): Take them to the road.
WALSH: We can't verify them independently, but they help paint a chilling picture of what appeared to be executions, to order, of a plan to kill prisoners given from above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): Get the f**k out! Take the senior one and get rid of the others!
WALSH: The Russian in the bushes seems to fit a mask and then emerge. He's joined by another Russian. They talk. Theres no visible threat from their prisoners. And one captive Ukrainian seems to gesture at them. But nothing changes his fate. Shot in the head calmly.
Another Ukrainian gets up. Presumably the commander, and takes off his armor. But the voice on the radio is impatient.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): Did you take them down That's a question!
WALSH: The commander is led away. In total, six times the order to kill was given. According to the intercepts.
A forensic study for CNN, the files and audio found no reason they weren't authentic, and a Western intelligence official described them to us as, quote, credible.
We have geolocated the footage of the killing to this tree line just outside of Novodarivka in Zaporizhzhia region, where fierce fighting raged late last year. Ukrainian prosecutors say the executions of surrendering Ukrainian troops by Russians are increasing. They say they opened eight cases in all of 20, 23, 39 for all of last year. And in just the first four months of this year, 20.
YURII BIELOUSOV, UKRAINE PROSECUTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE: It's a well- coordinated and well-planned policy and execution of prisoners of war, as well as other war crimes which have been committed in Ukraine. I think that goes up to the -- to the presence of Russian federation.
WALSH: Another video supplied to CNN by a Western intelligence official shows a similar scene, also from Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainians are surrounded and surrendering to Russians with red tape on their helmets.
But two others join them. White tape on their helmets. They appear to use their radios and then a white helmet opens fire.
As the smoke clears, a red reloads his weapon and shoots another Ukrainian in the head. There's no radio intercept here, but a Western intelligence official told CNN the order to kill likely came from the white to the red, killings aimed at hitting Ukrainian morale, but also cynically just at easing Russian logistics.
[19:50:09]
A stark window into Moscow's mindset. Surrender means nothing, and mercy is not an option.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: That is incredibly difficult to watch, Nick, and it's incredible reporting. I know you're in Kyiv tonight.
I mean, what else are you learning about these stunning images? What they're saying is that Russia killing, and it appears to be very commonplace soldiers who have surrendered.
WALSH: Yeah. I mean, what's rare about this evidence here is that it seems to match the specific radio orders given by Russia's command to the drone images of those executions. Now, images like those have been popping up across the front lines. We first reported on them last year, but to actually hear the specific command certainly evidentially here legally, you might also argue, as well as to the severity of the allegations here.
You saw there the numbers they're now talking about Ukraine struggling with at the beginning. I think making some of these public because of the impact it might have upon morale chilling to hear the fact this might sometimes simply be a logistical matter, of making sure they haven't got captives to try and manage and organize.
Weve reached out to Russia's ministry of defense for comment, and they haven't responded. Senior officials have said in the past that they treat prisoners in accordance with international law, and denied allegations like this.
But we've also spoken to the United Nations special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, who said to CNN this would not happen with such numbers and frequency without orders or at least the consent from the highest military commanders, which in Russia means the presidency.
So significant allegations made here. Signs of a troubling policy and another sign, really, of the limitless nature of what Russia is willing to do to secure victory here, Erin.
BURNETT: An incredible reporting and an incredible, as you say, that something like this could go all the way to Putin himself.
Thank you so much, Nick, in Kyiv tonight.
And next, George Wendt, best known for his role as Norm on "Cheers", has died. Harry Enten with a look back on his career, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS, "CHEERS", PARAMOUNT+) [19:56:39]
BURNETT: Actor George Wendt, best known as norm on the long running sitcom "Cheers" has died. The comedian was 76 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still pouring, Norm.
GEORGE WENDT, ACTOR: That's funny. I was about to ask you the same thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Some storm, huh?
WENDT: Yeah. I don't get home to Vera soon. That roads going to be closed. I'd say about another half hour or so ought to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. Joining me now, Harry Enten, to tell us something we don't know.
And, Harry, hard to quantify how popular "Cheers" was, because, you know, characters like Norm, he -- this --
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Norm!
BURNETT: Part of the national consciousness. So, give it a try.
ENTEN: I'll give it a try. Look, take a look at how many episodes the show ran for over it's 11 seasons. I mean, we're talking about, get this, 275 episodes live studio sitcoms with most episodes in the last 50 years.
"Cheers" is number two. It's only beaten out by "The Big Bang Theory" at 279. And then, of course, the "Cheers" spinoff "Frasier", 264.
But we were just talking beforehand. I think our anecdotes tell the story as much as the stats. I remember watching "Cheers" in reruns on WPIX at 11:00 at night on Saturday nights, and that's how I grew up with it. It wasn't just the live runs, it was in the repeats as well.
BURNETT: It was the repeats. And, you know, that's the irony. You know, the omens of life. Wendt died on the 32nd anniversary of the "Cheers" finale, right? What -- you know, you think, how could that happen? It did.
And you went back and looked at me. Just play a clip from that finale. Yeah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WENDT: You know what? I think the most important thing in life is love. You want to know what I love?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Beer, Norm?
WENDT: Yeah. Have a quick one.
Sammy, I love that stool. If there's a heaven, I don't want to go there unless my stool is waiting for me. And I'll tell you what, even God better not be on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wouldn't dare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You know, this, of course, makes you sort of laugh. And despite the sadness of this, how many people watch that finale?
ENTEN: Yeah, it's the last non-live event that had over 80 million people watching it at the same time. Look at that, 80.5 million. Could you imagine any non-live event, basically anything outside of the Super Bowl these days, to pull in more than 80 million people?
BURNETT: No.
ENTEN: No, you can't imagine it. People came together to watch that event and enjoy it.
BURNETT: It's incredible, 80 million.
All right. Beloved for some of his "SNL" cameos as well, including one as a Chicago sports fan super fan, here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WENDT: We are coming to you live from here on Thanksgiving Day, a day for giving thanks for or taking punishment from a team that is known as da Bears.
CROWD: Da Bears!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right, tell me something I don't know.
ENTEN: I'll tell you two things that you don't know. Number one, I'll tell you. I think there are a lot of Green Bay Packer fans who like that as well. It wasn't just Chicagoans. Another thing I'll tell you that you don't know is that he's actually the uncle of Jason Sudeikis, who, of course, is a great comedian actor in his own right.
And I went back and I looked at this. How many Emmy nominations between the two of them were there? Get this 15 Emmy nominations between the two of them. My goodness gracious. I doubt that there is a more successful uncle and nephew than those two.
BURNETT: That is incredible. Genetics.
ENTEN: Genetics. Hey, it works wonders, right?
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you so much, Harry.
ENTEN: Thank you, George Wendt. Great guy.
BURNETT: All right. And thanks so much as always to all of you.
Anderson starts now.