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President Trump Arrives in Japan Today For G20 Summit; CNN Gets Access To Controversial Texas Migrant Facility; Voters Weigh In On First Democratic Debate. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 27, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:32:29] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few minutes from now, President Trump will arrive in Japan for the G20 summit. The trade war with China and tensions with Iran -- they could very well dominate these meetings.

Our Kaitlin Collins is live in Osaka with the very latest. Again, we expect to see the president very shortly, Kaitlin.

KAITLIN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's going to get here in the next half hour or so, John, and the only thing on his schedule tonight is a working dinner with the prime minister of Australia. But it's tomorrow when you're going to really see things get underway and see a lot of scrutiny for the meetings that the president has on the sidelines of this summit.

Now, first up, of course, is a meeting with the host of the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who President Trump criticized on his way out of Washington before he got on Air Force One to come here to Osaka, where he was essentially saying that there's this unequal defense alliance between the two and that if America was attacked, Japan would watch it on television.

Now, the one after that is with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who the president also criticized, John, on his way out of Washington, talking about the unequal spending for NATO -- defense spending, that is.

But then, the third leader that the president is going to be meeting with tomorrow is one he did not criticize as he was leaving town. That's Russian president, Vladimir Putin. And, of course, the president has made clear he doesn't seem to be intent on bringing up election interference with the Russian president. And, of course, this will be their first face-to-face meeting John since the Mueller report came out.

Now, it's the next day where the president has also got another series of sensitive meetings on his schedule.

The first one is going to be with the Saudi Crown Prince. Now, the president has said, so far, he doesn't find him personally responsible for the death of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, even though in recent days you've seen that United Nations report come out saying, essentially, that the Crown Prince orchestrated that.

Now, two other big meetings that the president has on his schedule the next day is the Turkish president, Erdogan.

And, of course, Chinese president, Xi Jinping, where that trade deal is really going to be looming over that -- whether or not a trade deal is going to move forward, John. But basically, what our sources have been telling us is they're hoping this could be a chance to restart those trade talks -- to actually make some progress because we know they've essentially been stalled since they broke down in Washington several weeks ago and there hasn't been a ton of progress on that yet, John.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I'll take it, Kaitlin. Thank you very much for the report from Osaka, Japan for us.

So, CNN got an inside look at a controversial migrant facility in Texas where children are being housed and where there have been eyewitness reports of filthy conditions and lack of access to basic needs, like soap.

CNN's Nick Valencia toured the facility in Clint, Texas. He joins us with what he saw.

[05:35:00] Nick, I was excited for a second. I thought they were going to let you bring your camera in, but they didn't.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn. We tried to get a camera inside but no cameras were allowed during our visit.

And it's also worth pointing out there was 100 less child migrants than when those legal monitors visited this facility last week. Now, those monitors calling conditions inside unconscionable.

What I saw when I entered the processing center was a facility that was clearly overcrowded. We were sent to an area of about nine cells -- a total of nine cells with between 20 and 24 people in them. Those cells were clearly overcrowded.

Many of them look disheveled. Some of them looked sick but weren't quarantined.

I saw children as young as one and two years old, some sleeping on the ground because it was just simply so overcrowded. There were those mattresses about an inch thick -- blue padded mattress on the ground.

When asked why they finally decided to let us into this facility, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman said that they had to defend themselves against the allegations of inhumane conditions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER MAIER, SPOKESMAN, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: It was a decision made that headquarters thought it was important for the press to see what's actually happening here. So, by opening the doors and letting you see it, we think it's an important part to provide some balance to the story that is being told, you know, without our voice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: A Customs and Border Protection official tells us that the facility wasn't specially cleaned for the reporters' tour. But the environment, from my perspective, did smell sterilized, almost like a hospital.

A Customs and Border Protection source familiar with the situation tells me that the facility was prepped for our tour, adding it's an endless cat and mouse game with Customs and Border Protection -- John.

BERMAN: Nick Valencia, great work. So important to get inside there. We need your eyes and ears down there.

Thank you so much for your reporting. Please stand by and keep us posted.

VALENCIA: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: All right, the first Democratic debate last night. As we've been saying, we want to see the data -- what's key data? What voters are actually saying?

We talked to voters in a key early voting state to find out what they thought happened. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:06] BERMAN: This morning, you might say it's time for the hangover in the first 2020 debate binge. The first half of the Democratic debates were last night. What did voters think about it?

We sent Martin Savidge to a bar -- or as he likes to call it, a pub -- in Greenville, South Carolina to watch with voters to get their reaction, Martin. What people actually thought while this was going on.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's true dedication on my part, John.

I have to tell you that most people -- Democrats in South Carolina -- are very familiar with these candidates because most of the candidates were in South Carolina just a couple of days ago, all speaking at the Democratic State Convention.

That said, last night was an opportunity for voters to hear a lot more than just campaign stump speeches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): At a pub called Connolly's in Greenville, South Carolina, Democrats gather for debate round one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like, I want to learn more about all of the different candidates. SHARON PETERSON, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: I want to be able to refine and kind of pick out which one seems to be more electable, really, at this point.

ISABELLA RODRIGUEZ, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: A lot of them do have really similar positions but I think this is their opportunity to really take assertive stances and kind of make themselves stick out.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): But for the first half hour, the crowd seemed to find few standout moments. That changed when the split-screen started as the candidates took on each other. Like when Beto O'Rourke and Julian Castro debated on immigration.

JULIAN CASTRO (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm still talking about everybody else.

BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But you're looking at just one small part of this.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Do you like that sparring back and forth?

JEVARUS HOWARD, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: Absolutely. I think it's important, again, for citizens to be able to see the differences between where they stand.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Who won that one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Castro did. He has more experience but he hasn't been on the national stages much.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): In fact, it was the lesser-known candidates that seemed to stand out the most for these Democrats, like the congressman from Ohio.

SAVIDGE (on camera): I noticed you were watching -- I think it was Ryan -- Tim Ryan. It was sort of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I really like Tim Ryan.

SAVIDGE (on camera): What did you like about what he was doing there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's fiery.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): And, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a combat veteran. She earns respect in this state with strong military ties.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's lesser-known but if you look at her compared to other candidates she's poised, she's presidential. I think saying a little less and saying it well might be more in the end.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Most of the crowd didn't stay for the two full hours. Only a handful hung on to the bitter end.

PAMELA PARRISH, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think a lot -- there's a lot of good ideas that bringing back the country to civility, to truth.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): And for these Democrats, round one didn't provide any knockouts or clear-cut winners, only more to ponder.

JUSTIN MEARS, SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think it helped me better understand overall the candidates, not just the general ideas of what they stand for but the actual policies that they're going to implement.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: A lot of the voters that we were talking to last night said look, they didn't expect these debates would help them choose a candidate. But they are hoping it could help them whittle the list down to something more manageable -- say, the top five.

That said, I'm not sure last night helped in that regard. Many of them say, actually, the candidates they support in this state are actually in round two.

So, we'll be back for more tonight. That's dedication -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, honestly, the hardship duty of hanging out in a bar, Martin, it is admirable. So, thank you very much.

SAVIDGE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for bringing that to us.

OK. So, here is President Trump just arriving in Japan. You can see Air Force One there. It -- he has just arrived for the G20 summit.

We just saw Kaitlin Collins, who beat him there in Osaka, report -- previewing for us what will be happening there.

BERMAN: He's got tons of important business besides the China trade war by big meetings with Xi Jinping, big meetings with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. The issue of Iran on the table. A huge few days for the president there.

And what is on his mind as he lands? The Democratic debate. He was making fun of the production quality --

[05:45:00] CAMEROTA: And the production --

BERMAN: Yes, and the --

CAMEROTA: -- quality of the Democratic debate.

BERMAN: Good to see his head is where it should be.

CAMEROTA: So we'll have a split-screen of all of these important things unfolding this morning.

So, what can we expect in round two of the debates tonight? Our analysts give us a preview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAMEROTA: OK, so tonight, 10 more candidates take the stage for night two of the Democratic debate, including four of the leading candidates. So, what can they learn from what happened last night?

Back with us if Joe Lockhart and John Avlon.

John, what was instructive from last night that they will apply to tonight?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think, first of all, some of the candidates, like Andrew Yang, who have been focusing on individual issues, may be able to get another breath of air by differentiating themselves.

But what they've got to do that didn't happen last night is they're putting out these very far-left visions of policy with all the specifics of a Shabrovara (ph) poster.

[05:50:05] It's not enough to simply say I'm going to steal all the -- take all the money from the rich and give to the poor. How? How are you going to pass it through Congress?

There is a -- some kind of reality litmus test that should apply to someone who wants to be President of the United States.

CAMEROTA: Fair.

BERMAN: Joe Biden is on the stage tonight, Joe Lockhart. That's obviously going to be the huge difference.

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes.

BERMAN: He is the front-runner. He's polling over 30 percent in the polls. And I think he probably watched last night and thought you know what, they didn't lay a finger on me.

LOCKHART: Yes. No, it was -- they focused on each other and on telling their own stories.

I think -- I want to pick on John's point a little bit. I really do think that this race is kind of a risk assessment the Democrats are taking. I think there are some Democrats that --particularly, progressives -- that say this is the time for bold action and Elizabeth Warren spoke to that last night.

But I think there's a lot of other Democrats who are saying that this is time to beat Donald Trump and we ought to be -- we ought to put forward a candidate who is not going to be open to the socialist tag or something like that.

And I think in last night's debate there wasn't a lot of pushback on Elizabeth Warren. I think this Medicare For All and saying that you're going to abolish private insurance --

AVLON: Yes. LOCKHART: -- is a real problem with moderate Democrats and Independents going forward.

I think tonight you're going to see a much fairer fight. I think you're going to see there's much more power in the center tonight -- not just with Biden but with Buttigieg and others -- Kamala Harris.

AVLON: Harris.

LOCKHART: So I do think that that's what I expect to see much more engagement on tonight.

CAMEROTA: And when Joe says engagement, do you imagine the other candidates going after Biden -- challenging Biden on stage?

AVLON: Look, that will be the gravitational pull, right? Can you -- especially if the energy in the party is on the left.

And this is where I think the food fight that there was last night -- a very undisciplined debate by both the candidates and the moderators not being really able to control it -- an enormous amount of crosstalk -- could really hurt Biden because if he looks like he's being talked over and talked across, despite the fact that he's got the largest gravitational pull as the best-known figure in the race, that could be a problem for him.

He's got to show that he is vital, that he is vibrant, that he is crisp (ph), and not going to be talked over and pushed around, without screaming like old man screaming at the sky.

BERMAN: I think, Joe, though, that he may just talk above everyone. I don't mean like louder, I mean in a different plane than everyone was talking like night and the people on stage might be tonight because the electability lane -- that we have to be the present no matter what lane --

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: -- no one drove in it last night. And I don't know that you're going to see others tonight.

AVLON: Well --

BERMAN: Go, Joe.

LOCKHART: Yes, I agree with that. I think that, in some ways, that's what Elizabeth Warren did last night. No one really challenged her. They were -- there were too interested in getting their stories out rather than challenging her story.

I do think there'll be -- there'll be some pushback.

But I want to pushback a little bit on John on the undiscipline. This was a very different debate than we saw in 2016 where Donald Trump seemed to pull everybody down into the gutter and really make it a clown show. There were a lot of good ideas out there last night.

AVLON: Yes.

LOCKHART: I hope tonight they get into a better back-and-forth on sort of the middle versus the far left.

AVLON: Look, this was definitely policy-rich.

But, Tim Ryan actually was giving a strong message for Democrats to listen to if they want to focus on defeating Donald Trump. But he seemed marginalized by the gravitational pull of the party to the left last night. We'll see where it ends up tonight with the center.

BERMAN: All right.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you.

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: There were some laughs last night, most of them unintentional. And the late-night comics -- boy, did they have fun with the debate. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:09] CAMEROTA: OK, the late-night shows were live last night to take some jabs at the first Democratic debate.

BERMAN: We're live every morning. I'm just saying.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Why do they get credit?

BERMAN: What the hell?

CAMEROTA: We're live right now.

BERMAN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: Here are your "Late-Night Laughs".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (Speaking Spanish).

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": When Beto was hablaning the espanol -- this is true -- in the closed- captioning it just said, "Speaking Foreign Language". Like that really got through -- really penetrated.

Foreign language? Can we get a look at NBC's closed-captioning guy? Yes, it makes sense.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": Cory Booker saw Beto speaking Spanish and decided to join in, too.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (voiceover -- speaking Spanish).

FALLON: It sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger learning Rosetta Stone -- like (speaking made-up language).

COLBERT: Oh, snap. It is -- it is on, it is on. It is an espanol off -- or as they say in Spanish, grupo de idiotas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's what you want to avoid. If you're in debate prep thinking about whether it's a good idea to try this if you're on the O'Rourke team, that's the one thing you want to avoid.

CAMEROTA: So they should have just let, what, the first one speak Spanish, like Beto, and then not done it --

BERMAN: I don't know.

CAMEROTA: -- because they really jumped on the espanol train (ph).

BERMAN: Si.

CAMEROTA: Muy divertido.

BERMAN: All right.

NEW DAY's special coverage of the first Democratic debate continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: On day one, we end the ICE policies that are violating human rights.

CASTRO: Watching that image of Oscar and his daughter Valeria is heartbreaking. It should also piss us all off.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every American should say that is not America. Those are not our values.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's three women up here that have fought pretty hard for a woman's right to choose. I'll start with that.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not about making it Trump all the time. This is the moment Democrats can say here's our vision for the America that we can build.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: OK, we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, June 27th, 6:00 now in New York. And we begin with who dominated and who disappointed in the first Democratic primary debate.

Senator Elizabeth Warren made the most of her time on stage as the only candidate polling above five percent. Warren was asked the first question of the debate and got the last word in as the final candidate to deliver a closing argument.

Here's a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN: I am in this fight because I believe that we can make our government, we can make our economy, we can make our country work.

END