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Biden Says Special Relationship with Britain Affirmed During Talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson; Bipartisan Group of Ten Senators Announces Agreement on Infrastructure Spending Plan; FDA Advisers Debate Evidence Needed to Authorize COVID-19 Vaccinations for Children Under 12; Kim Jong Un's Apparent Wight Loss Raises Health Questions; Interview with Legendary Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired June 10, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:03]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You can tweet the show @theleadcnn. Our coverage continues now with one Mr. Wolf Blitzer right next door in The Situation Room. I'll see you tomorrow.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, President Biden says he and Prime Minister Boris Johnson affirm the special relationship between the U.S. and Britain during talks also aimed at smoothing over their differences.

Bipartisan Senate negotiators now say they have, I repeat, have struck a deal on infrastructure spending, but many of their colleagues remain skeptical it will ultimately be a success.

And FDA advisers hold the sometime very heated debate about authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12. One of those advisers will join us live and take us inside the deliberations.

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

Let's go straight to our Senior White House Correspondent Phil Mattingly, he's in England for us right now. Phil, President Biden has wrapped up the first full day of his first overseas trip. So, tell our viewers what did he accomplish.

PHIL MATTINGLY, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That meeting today was focused on the relationship between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Obviously, there were political and personal differences that have been made clear between President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but those were nowhere to be seen, at least not publicly throughout the day as the two leaders focused on strengthening the historic ties between their two nations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Tonight, President Biden starting off a week of critical meetings with foreign leaders with an effort to reinvigorate the special relationship. JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: It is. It is. Many (INAUDIBLE) many times but this is the first time as president of the United States.

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Everybody is absolutely thrilled to see you.

MATTINGLY: Biden sitting down with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a carefully choreographed first overseas meeting, devoid of the tension behind the scenes over a handful of issues, most notably Brexit and the position of Northern Ireland.

BIDEN: We discharged and discussed a broad range of issues on which the United Kingdom and the United States are working in very close cooperation. We affirmed the special relationship.

MATTINGLY: Instead, a meeting framed with deliberate symbolism, the two leaders viewing the original copy of the Atlantic Charter signed in 1941by U.S. President Delano Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill amid the rise of fascism across the world.

BIDEN: With the revitalized Atlantic Charter updated to reaffirm that promise while speaking directly to the key challenges of this century.

MATTINGLY: As he and Johnson signed an updated version of that declaration, the latest pierce of an overarching effort by Biden to present a unified and reinvigorated alliance of western democracies, one that will be challenged in just a matter of days as Biden sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Biden's closest adviser, his wife, Jill, telling reporters he's up for the challenge.

JILL BIDEN, U.S. FIRST LADY: Oh my gosh, he's overprepared.

MATTINGLY: The days ahead, a calibrated effort to lead the post-World War II western alliances to meet the challenges of a new era.

BIDEN: America will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19, just as America was the arsenal of democracy during World War II.

MATTINGLY: With a new vaccine effort at the center of that push, Biden announcing the purchase of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be donated to 92 lower middle-income countries in the African union.

BIDEN: America will be the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against COVID-19, just as America was the arsenal of democracy during World War II.

MATTINGLY: Those first doses scheduled to ship out in August.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (on camera): And, Wolf, President Biden making clear that the U.S. is not acting in isolation here. There is an expectation that when G7 leaders meet tomorrow, the other countries in that group will also pledge donations as well, really trying the U.S. try to serve a leadership role as the president and allies leverage what they have in their large market economies to distribute those vaccine doses to countries of lower and middle income status, making clear they believe this would be a key component of both diplomacy and extremely important from a public health perspective, Wolf.

BLITZER: Certainly is, all right, Phil, stick around. We're going to get to you in a few moments but right now I want to go to our Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, she's also in England covering this summit.

Clarissa, before becoming president, President Biden once called British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a physical and emotional clone of then-President Trump. So how did the two men get along today?

[18:05:00]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what a difference a couple of years makes, Wolf. We heard Prime Minister Boris Johnson called President Biden a breath of fresh air. And if before he was being compared to President Trump, now he's hoping he will be compared to Winston Churchill, who, of course, he admires greatly, has even written a book about.

And he wants to sort of shift the narrative here, looking at the U.S. and the U.K. as two great global leaders working together in partnership harkening back to that relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt and reshaping the global world in this time of great challenge. You heard them really try to strike a united front, a jovial, jocular often tone and sometimes even deferential. Take a listen to this one exchange between them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I told the prime minister we have something in common. We both married way above our station.

JOHNSON: I'm not -- I'm a little the same from that one. I'm going to disagree with the president or disagree with anything else. I think I do like you (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: So you heard that there. I'm not going to disagree with anything he says. The emphasis here not just from the U.K. but from many people who President Biden will be meeting on in the run up to this very important summit with President Putin is that liberal democracy must stand together, and they must deliver, Wolf, a very concrete and firm message that the age of multilateralism is not over, that international cooperation is still relevant and important and that the U.S. can still play a significant role in global leadership. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. These are really historic and very, very important talks that are going on. Clarissa, stay with us.

I want to bring in the President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haass. He's also the Author of the important book entitled, The World, A Brief Introduction. There's the cover right there. So, Richard, give us the at times frosty, given the at time frosty relationship between these two men, how do you think the president handled this first crucial hour, this moment on his first major foreign trip with the British prime minister?

RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, the big news of the day was the change in U.S. vaccine export policy and that was well received and welcome for all sorts of reasons. I think in terms of the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., the U.K. needs the United States much more in large part because of Brexit. One of the important rationales for this relationship was that what the United States could have influence in Europe through the U.K. That is now over. So the U.K. now needs the U.S. more.

The problem is the U.K. is somewhat less valuable to the United States, again, because of its separation from Europe. And also given the Northern Ireland issue, it's not only the short-term differences there, Wolf, but also the potential for Scotland and Northern Ireland to threaten the integrity of the U.K. itself.

BLITZER: Yes. That's obviously really, really important. President Biden, Richard, he clearly wants to signal a clean break with the Trump era, but there are still some serious issues on which the U.S. and its European allies clearly don't see eye-to-eye, right?

HAASS: Oh, absolutely. They don't see eye-to-eye on how to deal with Russia. They don't see eye-to-eye on how to deal with China. There has been the vaccine issue. A lot of Europeans look at American society, issues like guns and they shake their heads. They don't recognize that America issues over race. So there are enormous issues and I haven't even brought up trade and other things.

That said, let's be fair, this president has made the strategic decision, Wolf, that he is going to approach the world not unilaterally, as the previous administration so often did, but from a foundation of America's relationship with its principal allies in Europe and Asia. And that's one of the big differences between the two administrations.

BLITZER: Yes. It's a huge difference indeed. In some ways, Richard, this trip, we could say, is decades in the making. President Biden obviously was deeply involved in foreign policy as a senator for some 36 years, as vice president for eight years. Are we seeing that right now on display?

HAASS: Well absolutely. All those times he would go with John McCain to the Munich Security Conference, he's comfortable, the same way that he was comfortable in the Senate, talking to Republicans and Democrats alike. He's comfortable going overseas and talking to foreigners. He also is a great believer in personal diplomacy. Often, American presidents exaggerate how important the personal element is if he does, he wouldn't be the first to do so.

BLITZER: You know, Clarissa, these key U.S. alliances, they're about to be put to the test when President Biden actually sits down next Wednesday in Geneva with Russian President Putin. It's going to be a major test how it unfolds, right?

[18:10:00]

WARD: Of course, and that's why everybody is paying such close attention. And everybody, really, I think, is asking the question as well, what is actually achievable here? What does success actually look like? There are so many different competing interests from the various democracies that kind of have a hand in this, that have great concerns about Russia's behavior on the world stage.

And at the same time, there's very clear limitations as to what president Biden will be able to achieve by sitting down with President Putin. He's not going to simply say to him you can't be cracking down on the opposition in the form of Navalny and expect President Putin to stop doing that.

So the question becomes, what does success look like out of this? What are people expecting and hoping and how can that be delivered?

BLITZER: And we will find out in the coming days. All right, guys, thank you very, very much.

There's more breaking news coming into The Situation Room right now, a new hope for an infrastructure deal as a group of Democratic and Republican senators announce they have reached a new plan, they've agreed on a new plan.

Plus, new developments in the police shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., what state autopsy results are confirming about the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:00]

BLITZER: The breaking news right now, a bipartisan group of ten senators, five Democrats, five Republicans, they have just announced they've reach an agreement on an infrastructure spending plan days after White House talks with Senate Republicans broke down.

Let's go to our Congressional Correspondent Ryan Nobles, he's up on the Hill working the story for us. So, Ryan, tell us what's going on.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is significant, Wolf, this bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats, ten in total, have been working behind closed doors on doors on this infrastructure package. And they just announced in the last few minutes that they have struck a deal. And we are learning exactly how much money they plan to spend on infrastructure if they can get this proposal passed through the United States Senate and House.

So, according to sources who are familiar with this deal, they're telling us that this deal is focused on core physical infrastructure. This, of course, a big part of the debate right now on Capitol Hill, exactly how do you spend this money. They are going to plan to do this without any tax hikes. They're going to propose $579 billion in new spending. Added to that, they're going to repurpose even more money in the total cost of $1.2 trillion over eight years.

Now, this is a significant step, Wolf, the fact that we do have Republicans and Democrats agreeing on a proposal but it still has a long way to go. Already, many Democrats are expressing concerns about these negotiations, this deal far short of what many had hoped and what the Biden administration had hoped for and also the fact that they're planning to put this proposal forward without any kind of significant tax increase also has many Democrats concerned. In fact, there were Democrats telling our reporters today that they should just walk away from these talks and move on.

But there is some optimism from leadership here in the Senate, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, saying he's open to seeing what these negotiators could come forward with. Wolf, they still have a long way to go. It still requires 60 votes to get something passed in the Senate. Right now, they only have ten for sure, so this deal far from over.

BLITZER: Yes. But those ten as we keep pointing out, five Democrats, five Republicans. That's pretty significant. Ryan, thank you very much.

I want to get more on these developments. CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman is joining us. She's the Washington Correspondent for The New York Times. Also with us, our Senior Political Correspondent Abby Phillip.

Abby, is this potentially the breakthrough a lot of folks have been waiting for?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITCAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, We'll see. I think this is the closest that we've gotten to actually seeing what more than one Republican might be willing to agree to in terms of a bipartisan deal.

Now, there are a couple of roadblocks yet ahead, potentially. How will this fare in the House of Representatives where already progressives are saying these talks are pushing the bill too small, taking out some important priorities, like climate change and other things, and they are very skeptical of what might come out of this.

And then, secondly, in the Senate, will Mitch McConnell allow his members to go ahead and vote for something, even if it's bipartisan? I think there's a strong political desire among Republicans to just say no to pretty much everything that the Biden administration wants.

BLITZER: At least five Republicans are on board.

This, you know, Maggie, just minutes before the deal was announced, some Democrats were saying it was time, as Abby points out, to pull the plug on these negotiations. Does this announcement, from your perspective, really change what's going on?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, Wolf, it certainly is a step and from the White House's perspective, I think what they have wanted is, all along, to keep things moving. And they have talked about how there are multiple paths, whether, as Abby says, that's realistic for this version to go through, I think, remains to be seen.

But there is this concern among some Democrats that the focus on this bill in particular, given the roadblocks that it's facing, is coming at the expense of other priorities, most notably a voting rights act bill. There are Democrats who would like the Biden White House to be more vocal about getting involved. We know there's an announcement coming from the justice department tomorrow on voting rights. But what that looks like remain to be seen. And so I think that, that is an area where you are going to hear increasing concern among, or at least increasing level of concern among some of Biden's fellow members within the Congress.

BLITZER: You know, yesterday, Abby, when the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, from the Biden administration was here, he seemed to agree with me that we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Now, this may not be a perfect deal from a lot of Democrats' perspective and certainly from a lot of Republicans' perspective, but a lot of them might conclude it's a good deal.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, that is -- that ought to be the mantra in Washington, but often it's not. It will be interesting to see whether the White House will be willing to play really ball on this deal. I mean, this is really the closest that they've gotten to really getting something from Republicans that Democrats may also be willing to agree to.

[18:20:01]

And it's going to be hard for them to just walk away and say this isn't good enough for us. This number of new spending that Ryan just described, that's an important factor here. How much new spending is there?

BLITZER: $578 billion.

PHILLIP: $578 billion, which is significantly more --

BLITZER: It's a lot of money.

PHILLIP: -- than the previous negotiations was going to be, but it's still less than Biden wanted. Still, it's somewhere in the middle. And I think that that's going to be important for this White House. And I think it will be hard for them to just walk away from this, but this may not be the final version. I think we may have some more iterations of this to go before we may even get to a vote.

BLITZER: It's still in negotiation. You know, obviously, you know, Maggie, we're still in the process of what's going on. How much of this, for President Biden's perspective, is just about some optics, do you think, to simply be able to say he did everything he possibly could to get a bipartisan deal? He clearly, given his years in the Senate, would like a bipartisan deal.

HABERMAN: You know, I think that there is sincerity when Biden says that he would like a bipartisan deal. I think that has been his approach the whole time. I also think that there is concern about something that Abby addressed before, which is the question of whether Republicans are going to try to stymie any legislative priority that the president might have, and that's an understandable question just given that there was certainly that level of opposition when Biden was vice president under President Obama and now when Biden is in the White House.

But I think that they are prepared or at least they're signaling they're prepared to potentially do this bill in other ways such as reconciliation, such as breaking it up into two bills. I think, as Abby says, we are ways away from what the final product could look like. But even this agreement from this group is something of progress, just given how little commonly there has been between the two parties in Congress for a long time.

BLITZER: Yes, at least this moving in the right direction. All right, guys, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, will COVID-19 vaccines be authorized for younger children by the end of the year? I'll talk to an FDA vaccine adviser who was inside today's rather intense debate.

And new information emerging right now about the gunman behind the San Jose massacre offers up more evidence that authorities missed very significant warning signs.

Stay with us. You're in the Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, FDA vaccine advisers have wrapped up a sometimes contentious discussion about what it will take to green light COVID shots for children under 12.

CNN National Correspondent Erica Hill has our pandemic report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A focus on children as an FDA advisory panel decides what should be considered before authorizing the COVID vaccine for kids 11 and younger.

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: What they are talking about today is the nitty-gritty, the logistics and practicalities of doing clinical trials in children as young as five or even as young as six months of age.

HILL: Among the committee, some disagreement on the urgency for these trials as infection rates drop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The burden of disease is so small and the risks are just not clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know what's going to happen. I think that's precisely the reason why we want to have these in our arsenal. HILL: Moderna just filed for emergency use authorization of its vaccine for 12-17 year olds. Pfizer's EUA was expanded for 12-15-year- olds late last month. About a quarter of that age group has had at least one shot.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If everybody else gets vaccinated, percentage wise, children are going to be the most susceptible section of our population to get COVID, so we need to protect them, first and foremost.

HILL: More than half the residents in these eight states are now fully vaccinated. Nationwide, it's just over 42 percent.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We knew it was going to get harder as this effort went on. But one thing that we have learned more clearly than anything else is that this vaccination effort will move at the speed of trust.

HILL: Trust with a dose of incentive.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Mark, you won the million dollars. How are you guys doing?

MARK CLINE, OHIO VAX-A-MILLION WINNER: It was pretty surreal. You know, from the moment we looked out and we saw you on our doorstep.

HILL: If cash isn't enough to encourage more Americans to roll up their sleeves, officials hope their warnings about the fast-spreading delta variant made do the trick.

MURTHY: This variant is even more transmissible than the U.K. variant, which was more transmissible than the version of the virus we were dealing with last year. And there's also some concern that it may be more dangerous as well.

HILL: Good news for J&J's single dose vaccine, the FDA just said it can be stored for 4.5 months, that's 6 weeks longer than previously allowed. The news comes days after Ohio warned some 200,000 J&J shots would soon expire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (on camera): And, Wolf, just one other note on that Johnson & Johnson vaccine. A member of J&J's board, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan, telling CNN earlier today that one of the reasons they just don't know how long this vaccine can be stored is because, frankly, everything has happened so quickly as part of this emergency, but he did say, Wolf, that those studies are ongoing.

BLITZER: Erica Hill in New York for us, thank you very much.

Let's discuss all of this with a key member of the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee who was in today's meeting. Dr. Paul Offit is also the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital in Pheladelphia. Dr. Offit, thank so much for joining us. So take us inside the deliberations today. Are you confident that American children under the age of 12 will be able to get the COVID vaccine by the end of the year?

[18:30:00]

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: I'm confident that there was unanimity among the advisors that it's important to have a vaccine for children. I'm confident that we all agreed that there are probably going to be differences in terms of how we view the 6 to 12-year-old versus the two to six-year-old, versus the six-month to two-year-old in terms of what we want from each of those categories, in terms of whether we want it to be through an emergency use authorization or licensure, how many thousands of children need to be studied in each of those groups, how much work do we need to have in terms of those ranging studies, et cetera, I'm not sure. I certainly think we would have a vaccine by early next year and hopefully we'll have a vaccine for the 6 to 12-year-old by the end of the year.

BLITZER: One expert in the meeting, Dr. Mark Sawyer, said we need the vaccines for kids, in his words, sooner rather than later. First of all, do you agree with that?

OFFIT: I do. I mean, children certainly suffer and are hospitalized and occasionally die from this virus. There have been about 4 million children who have been affected, about 550,000 between zero and four years of age. You've had almost 40,000 hospitalizations, you've had thousands of children who have to suffer this disease called multisystem inflammatory disease, which is frightening, frankly and about 300 children have died. So this is a virus that can cause children to suffer, be hospitalized and die. And for that reason, I think children do need to be protected.

Now, if we're past the pandemic, if this is all behind us, then that's not going to be an issue, but we're not past the pandemic. I mean, the variants are still out there and becoming more contagious. I think when the winter comes, you're going to see this virus surge again, so we still need a vaccine. Frankly, as long as this virus still exists in the world, and it does, if 195 countries out there, many of which have never given a single dose of vaccine, as long as this virus exists in this world, we're going to need to have a population that is highly immune.

BLITZER: Yes. I just checked before the show with Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day average of deaths here in the United States, last seven-day, daily deaths, 410, the seven-day average of cases now 14,932. So there's still a lot of Americans suffering from this even though we've made tremendous progress with these vaccines.

Officials are sounding the alarm over the rise of these so-called delta variant, which is apparently much more contagious. What does the U.S. need to do right now, Dr. Offit, to prepare for the possibility of this new variant actually becoming the dominant strain here in the U.S.? OFFIT: Right. So this is the third variant, right? The first virus that came into our country was a variant, then came the so-called U.K. variant or the alpha variant. Now we have this variant that was first detected in India, the so-called delta variant. The virus keeps mutating so that it gets more contagious. As long as that's true, then you need to have a higher, higher percentage of the population that's immune.

But we're not there yet. I mean, you're seeing even in the summer when this is basically a winter respiratory virus, you're still seeing tens of thousands of cases, still seeing hundreds of deaths. We need to get this population vaccinated as high as possible, as fast as possible to stop the creation of these variants.

BLITZER: We've made tremendous progress, but this battle is, by no means, yet over. Dr. Offit, thank you so much for joining us.

OFFIT: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead, new information about the San Jose gunman who killed nine co-workers possibly missed -- possible missed signals about the threat he posed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

BLITZER: New developments tonight in the police shooting death of Andrew Brown Jr., a state autopsy confirming he died from a gunshot to the back of his head.

CNN'S Brian Todd is working the story for us. And we want to warn our viewers some of the video you're about to see is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, a new autopsy report from the North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office confirms what Andrew Brown Jr.'s family and their attorneys have asserted for weeks, that Brown died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head when sheriff's deputies trying to arrest him, fired on his car in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on April 21st. The manner of death, according to the new report, homicide.

It also says Brown suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound and other wounds to his right arm. Tonight, one piece of crucial information has still not been made public, which of the three deputies who discharged their weapons fired the fatal shot.

ROBERTO VILLASENOR, FORMER CHIEF, TUCSON, ARIZONA POLICE: I think the issue is still the investigation is going to have to show where that shot came from if they can determine what the threat was at that moment of the shot.

TODD: The district attorney's office does not dispute that Brown died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head. What is in dispute, whether Brown was simply trying to get away and tried to avoid the deputies, as his family says --

KHALIL FEREBEE, ANDREW BROWN JR.S SON: He got executed. It ain't right.

TODD: -- or if he was using his car as a weapon, as D.A. Andrew Womble claims.

ANDREW WOMBLE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, PASQUOTANK COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: Mr. Brown's actions caused three deputies with the Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office to reasonably believe it was necessary to use deadly force to protect themselves and others.

TODD: On the deputies' body camera video, officers are seen surrounding brown in his car. He backs the car up. Deputies scramble. Then he moves forward, turning toward the left. Deputies open fire and the car speeds away. The D.A. elected not to prosecute any deputies, leading to questions about his objectivity.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You cannot have the local district attorney who's evaluating and investigating cases prosecuting police that they rely upon to bring about successful prosecutions for them in their own local jurisdiction. It doesn't work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): Two Brown family attorneys tell CNN tonight that by the end of this month, the family plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit regarding Andrew Brown Jr.'s death against multiple jurisdictions and the individual officers involved.

[18:40:11]

In a statement today, the family attorneys accuse D.A. Andrew Womble of trying to hide the facts in this case of showing, quote, cowardice and deceit. Womble's office has not responded to CNN request for comment. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Brian, thank you, Brian Todd reporting.

Let's get some more on all of this. Harry Daniels is joining us. He's an Attorney for the Andrew Brown Jr. family. Harry, thanks very much for joining us.

What else can you tell us about this lawsuit you're planning to file?

HARRY DANIELS, ATTORNEY FOR THE ANDREW BROWN JR. FAMILY.: Well, we are planning on it very soon. We are in the process of putting it together. So it's coming real soon. We don't have an exact date, but it's coming real soon. And the lawsuit is going to speak for itself. I think that it's crystal clear on the video that they have shown this point that this is an unjustified killing of Andrew Brown. There's no way you can get around it.

You can -- all expert analysts across the nation have determined this was not justified. The only person who reasonably believes it was justified is the district attorney and his objectivity is not there because he -- like you said, he works with the officers every day who are accused or involved in the shooting of Andrew Brown.

BLITZER: How much do the results of this autopsy bolster your argument, Harry, that the officers involved in the killing should be prosecuted?

DANIELS: Well, one thing that I want to point to the autopsy in the report there's, no stippling or gun powder residue around the entry wound in Andrew Brown's head. That's a clear indication that the bullet was shot from a distance and a high caliber weapon. They discharge almost 13 to 14 shots at Mr. Brown.

Autopsy determined that it was bullet wounds to the arm as well as a gunshot wound to the back of the head. There's nobody ever said the wound did not -- the wound, the fatal wound was not in the back of the head, but it's a concrete confirmation definitely coming from the state of North Carolina autopsy that Mr. Brown was killed while he was trying to flee and get away.

BLITZER: There are still several unanswered questions and I know you're working it very, very closely. We'll stay in close touch with you. Harry Daniels, thanks so much for joining us.

DANIELS: Thank you, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Coming up, we're learning the gunman behind the San Jose mass shooting was disciplined at work multiple times before he killed nine coworkers.

Plus, a remarkably thinner Kim Jong-un and the potential national security implications of his significant weight loss. We'll update you on that as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:06]

BLITZER: New information tonight about the gunman who killed nine coworkers at a San Jose rail yard before taking his own life last month.

CNN's Dan Simon is joining us right now.

Dan, so what are you learning about the number of times he was disciplined at work before the shooting?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Wolf. There were four incidents and these will surely raise additional questions whether or not this shooting could have been prevented.

Let's go to July 2019, the shooter Sam Cassidy suspended for two days without pay for insubordination.

But the one that is certain to raise eyebrows occurring in January 2020. There was some kind of altercation with a fellow employee. That employee went to management and quoted another coworker who reportedly said if someone was to go postal, it would be him. But the VTA said today there was nothing in Cassidy's disciplinary history or any additional information to support that particular allegation.

There were two other incidents, wolf, one involving misusing a radio, the over the shooter's failure to get CPR certification, nothing that hinted at any potential violence, but the VTA says it still has thousands of documents to go through.

The bottom line here, this is somebody who had a contentious relationship with his employer and as we know from previous reporting, he was somebody who was highly disgruntled -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yeah, there were signs out there.

All right. Dan Simon, thank you very much.

Also tonight, new questions right now about the health of the North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un after what appears to be a rather significant weight loss.

CNN's Will Ripley has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Time may not be the only thing Kim Jong-un's watch is good at telling. Can it also be a barometer for the North Korean leader's level of fitness?

Kim is often pictured wearing the same $12,000 IWC Swiss timepiece, believed to be one of his favorites. Images released Saturday by North Korean state media and analyzed by South Korean media appear to show the watch fitting on a much tighter notch than in previous sightings, indicating a thinner wrist and sparking widespread speculation about a weight loss transformation. Side by side video comparisons do appear to show Kim to be much more svelte now than in 2020.

But far from just being an Internet curiosity, Kim's suddenly slimmer appearance could have geopolitical implications. His weight is one of many things global intelligence agencies monitor.

Why would spy agencies in South Korea and the U.S. be looking at something like Kim Jong-un's weight?

COLIN ZWIRKO, SENIOR ANALYTIC CORRESPONDENT, NK NEWS: His health is obviously a concern of foreign governments in the region because the country has nuclear weapons. It's a dictatorship with a cult of personality leadership system. So, if something happens to the leader, that affects regional security.

RIPLEY: Experts have long assessed that Kim Jong-un was at high risk of cardiovascular disease.

[18:50:04]

His father also has a history of heart issues. Kim's father and grandfather both died of heart attacks while head of North Korea. In November 2020, the National Intelligence Service of South Korea reportedly told lawmakers they believed Kim Jong-un's weight had ballooned to about 308 pounds, speculating that he had gained some 108 pounds since coming to power in 2011.

In recent months, the already reclusive Kim has been out of the public eye, more than usual, amidst rumors of declining health. His reappearance Saturday on the global stage, arguably reignited that conversation among foreign intelligence agencies.

Could this shedding of pounds be the result of some mysterious illness or is he thinner by choice, a conscious effort to achieve better health and extend his longevity as leader?

The answer, only time will tell.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (on camera): The fact that we are even talking about Kim Jong- un's watch strap, Wolf, just shows how secretive North Korea is when it comes to the health of Kim Jong-un. This is the leader who famously brought his own toilet to summit meetings with Donald Trump so foreign governments couldn't sneak a DNA sample.

BLITZER: Excellent reporting. Will Ripley in Taipei, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, we're going to speak to legendary Coach Mike Krzyzewski. There he is. He's standing by live. Duke University, he's retiring after 40 years. We'll discuss. A special interview when we come back.

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BLITZER: Finally tonight, we're joined by one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time, the legendary Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University. There you see him.

He recently announced plans to retire after an epic 40-plus years of coaching and winning.

Coach Krzyzewski, thanks so much for joining us. I'm a huge fan, as you know.

Why did you decide now was finally time to announce your retirement?

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI, DUKE UNIVERSITY MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH: Well, it's going to be 47 years at the end of this year. I'll be 75. My wife is 75. And it's just -- it's time to enjoy our 10 grandchildren.

And by the way, it's been a dream of mine to get into the darn SITUATION ROOM. I finally got (AUDIO GAP). I'm proud of that.

BLITZER: Well, we're thrilled that you're joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM because you're simply amazing.

Let's talk a little bit about your fabulous career. Looking back, what do you consider to be the greatest moment of your coaching career? KRZYZEWSKI: Well, it's representing the United States on the world

stage. Again, not to put down our five national championships, but there's nothing like winning the Olympics or the World Championship and seeing our flag raised above the others, and the national anthem being played and our guys with their hands over their hearts. You've got to be kidding me. As a West Pointer, there could not be a finer -- finer moment than that.

BLITZER: Yeah, it's an amazing moment indeed. And you were the head coach of the USA basketball team at the Olympics, what, until 2016.

College basketball, let's talk a little bit about college basketball. I love basketball. It's changed a lot since you started coaching what, 47 years ago. Some people say it needs a radical overall right now, that it's time to start paying the players.

What do you think?

KRZYZEWSKI: Well, it does need an overhaul. There's no question. And it's the result of not doing overhauls along the way, and now there's a major one.

And with NIL coming into play, transfers and all that, it really needs really centralized leadership, because at the end of the day, men's college basketball is a billion dollar business. And it has to be run a little bit more like a business.

BLITZER: Do you think it's going to change?

KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, it has to. Hopefully, we're going to get some help from Congress in the next couple of weeks to make sure that the name, image and likeness will be the same around the country, because right now, it's not.

And this is a big summer for college sports and especially for men's college basketball.

BLITZER: It certainly is.

And let me, while I have you, Coach, let me get your thoughts on the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games. As we noted, you coached Team USA men's basketball until 2016. If you were still coaching now, would you think it's a good idea to travel to Tokyo for the Olympic Games during the middle of this pandemic?

KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I would really follow, like I always do, the advice of our medical people. If they said it was right, then I trust them. And we would not put -- we would not want to put any of the players in harm's way.

So, they'll do that in a very diligent way. And then I would follow the advice. As a leader, you want to pay attention to the smart people that you have around you, and certainly, our medical people are some of the smartest in the world.

BLITZER: So if they said go, you would go, is that what I'm hearing? KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, absolutely. And I know Gregg Popovich, a good

friend, one of the great coaches of all time, you know, he'll have our team ready, along with Jerry Colangelo, who is running the men's program right now.

BLITZER: You have one more year of coaching before you hang it up, right? So, give us a sense. How is that going to be?

KRZYZEWSKI: Exciting. I'm happy. I'm going to have a great group of young men, our freshmen here in summer school.

You know, Wolf, for me, I'm always -- right now, I'm 55 years older than the kids I coach. How many 74-year-old guys have an opportunity to be with young kids who are ambitious and striving to be their best? It's -- it's been a joy.

BLITZER: It certainly has been, and it's been a joy watching you over these years, as well.

Thank you, thank you so much for all you have done. We'll stay in close touch.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.