Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY SATURDAY

Trump Arrives Late to the G7 Summit; Canadian Tariffs Were Analyzed; CNN's Anthony Bourdain Dead at 61; Chinese Hackers Access Military Records; Queen Celebrates 92nd Birthday at Buckingham Palace; The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Makes Appearance with Royal Family. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired June 9, 2018 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: There's Kate and William, George and Charlotte. We need to see Meghan. Where is Meghan? That's what people are waiting to see as well.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The duchess of Sussex I'll have you know.

PAUL: Sorry. That's right. The duchess. She no longer Meghan? We're not allowed to call her that. I thought they said we could. All righty -- and Meghan is in the background we see. All right.

BLACKWELL: I'm told this is a Lancaster Bomber and two spit fires flying overhead. Coming from executive producer who has been looking forward to this all morning. Still waiting to see Duchess Meghan. We'll have more throughout the morning. Stay with us for the next hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump sticking up for Russia and sticking it to allies.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is it that he's so interested in flattering one of the most brutal dictators in the world?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I would say to these European leaders is welcome to America first.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I said I've been preparing all my life. I always believe in preparation, but I've been preparing all my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casinos and theme parks, President Trump may feel right at home next week on Singapore's Sentosa Island, the luxurious location of what are some are calling the meeting of the century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. Good Saturday morning to you. We are just moments away from resuming the meetings there in Canada. President Trump and some of the world's other leaders are about to kick off day two of the G7 Summit there in the Charlevoix region of Quebec.

PAUL: It's gorgeous, isn't it? And despite publicly sparring with the leaders of France and Canada on Twitter earlier this week, day one included no fireworks. What can we expect from President Trump today? How will America's allies react when he leaves the summit early. He's leaving to prepare for his meeting with North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.

CNN's Boris Sanchez live there. So, Boris, what do we expect from the president today?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Christi and Victor. Yes, President Trump likely to spend a few hours that he has left here in Quebec exchanging pleasantries with the other world leaders much as he did yesterday with smiles and handshakes during that group photo that you just showed and during that round table session where he cracked a couple jokes and sort of was chummy with these world leaders.

Definitely, a departure from the language he used on Twitter earlier this week when he called out his French and Canadian counterpart in Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau, calling him out for what he perceives to be illegal trade practices, unfair trade practices.

Of course, you had Macron responding to President Trump by saying that if the American president wants to isolate himself, then the other members of the G7, the other six nations would move forward alone.

That doesn't appear to be the case. The president is scheduled to take part in a ceremonial signing of a traditional document that's part of the G7 tradition, as I noted. Listen to some of what President Trump said about his British -- rather his French and Canadian counterparts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs, all trade barriers between Canada and the United States. So, I'm very happy.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I would say NAFTA is in good shape.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But we are actually working on it. But our relationship is very good.

The United States has a very big trade deficit for many years with the European Union and we're working it out. Emmanuel has been very helpful in that regard and something is going to happen, I think it will be very positive.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: President Trump is set to take part in a breakfast discussion about gender equality before then joining the other world leaders for that document signing and then taking part in another group session about gender equality before ultimately departing for Singapore.

The president notably skipping out on sessions that he was originally scheduled to attend about climate change and the environment, and the health of the world's oceans. We should point out we've not got a notice that a number of other world leaders from Macron, Trudeau, Theresa May of U.K., Shinzo Abe of Japan, and further on.

[08:05:08] Many of them are having press conferences with open availability by reporters to ask questions of these leaders. President Trump skipping out on that as well as he heads for this historic summit in Singapore with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un -- Victor and Christi.

BLACKWELL: Not unexpected. The president has ended several of these multilateral events without the traditional news conference. Boris Sanchez for us there in Quebec City, thanks so much.

Joining me now, CNN political analyst, Josh Rogin, and CNN senior economic analyst, Stephen Moore, also an adviser to the president during the campaign. Good morning to both of you.

Stephen, let me start with you. This is a meeting of the seven largest economies in the world and the president started by saying we need to get Russia back at the table although it wouldn't qualify as number eight. Should Russia be readmitted to the group?

STEPHEN MOORE, CNN SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST: Good morning. Well, you know, your analyst was saying that Trump has done some nontraditional things. I would say that's Donald Trump, right? He is nontraditional.

I think he certainly threw a wrench in these whole discussions with that announcement yesterday that Russia should be admitted back into to G7 to make it G8. I think a lot of conservatives were very concerned about that.

Look, I myself am an old Reagan cold warrior where the Soviet Union was the enemy. You've got Boris Yeltsin -- sorry, you've got Russian leaders that really have been very aggressive. The reason that the Russians were omitted from the -- ejected from the G7 is because of their occupation of Crimea and Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: And that hasn't changed. So why should they be readmitted?

MOORE: Until that happens, they should not be readmitted. That's the position of most conservatives. I don't fully understand Donald Trump's position.

BLACKWELL: Josh, it's not just the position of most conservatives. It's the position of the U.S. government. Let me read for you here this statement from the State Department on U.S./Russia relations as it relates to the annexation of Crimea.

"Russia held an illegitimate, fabricated referendum in Ukraine in a futile attempt to legitimize his purported annexation of Ukrainian territory. Crimea is part of Ukraine and our Crimea-related sanctions will remain in place until Russia returns control of the peninsula to Ukraine. Is the president essentially rewritten the U.S. policy with that statement on Friday?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what he's done is he's contradicted it and also contradicted the views of his secretary of state, secretary of defense, his vice president, his U.N. ambassador, his own party, the Democratic Party, American tradition, et cetera, et cetera, right.

But this is not just about Russia and the G7. I mean, that's largely symbolic punishment. This is about the big strategic game that's underway. All right? And what one of Russia's large strategic aims is to split the United States from its European allies.

And what Trump has done is he's effectively done their work for them. OK? For no reasonable gain, no perceivable benefit other than to stick his thumb in the eye of our closest allies out of a peak of announce and frustration. OK, it's counterproductive. It's strategically stupid.

And you know, we can assign all sorts of like assumptions as to why he did it. I don't know. I'm not in his mind, but it's sufficing to say it hurts our alliances, hurts America's position in the world and helps Russia do what it's trying to do which is to break up the transatlantic alliance that's been their 40-year project.

And you combine that with all of the other slights and insults that President Trump has levelled on our allies. I was in Singapore last week, Victor, and I'm here to tell you, it does take three days to get there, OK. I can confirm that to you right now.

He could have stayed for the rest of the meetings. It wouldn't have taken anything away from his North Korea diplomacy, but again, he's just bailing on it. He's undermining this institution.

Now the G7 is not the end all, and be all of all institutions, but again, let's look at the context. This president who has spent the last year and a half treating allies poorly and coddling enemies. It's baffling and it's destructive, and you know, I don't blame the Europeans for being upset about it.

BLACKWELL: All right. Live pictures here, the obvious here, these are live pictures of the next G7 meeting. You see in the foreground here you have German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Theresa May of Britain, and you saw in the background Justin Trudeau of Canada. We're awaiting President Trump's arrival. Stephen, let me come back to you with what was printed in Josh's paper late this week.

ROGIN: I don't like it already -- teasing.

BLACKWELL: And it was specifically on these tariffs in which 29 ambassadors, E.U. ambassadors to the U.S., they wrote this. I'm going to read just a bit of it, "The fact is we are both winning and have been for years. Claims to the contrary including that the U.S. is at a losing end of this relationship deserve to be debunk because the United States makes more money doing business with the E.U. than with anyone else." Your response to that, that framing from these E.U. ambassadors to the U.S.

MOORE: Well, there's no question that the eruption of world global trade over the last 25 years and the reductions of tariffs has been a good thing for everyone including the United States. There's no doubt about that.

But I think Donald Trump also has a point. You know, a lot of people are saying, gee, why is the United States antagonizing our allies and so on. Look, if I were your rich uncle and paid your bills all the time and so on and said the jig is up here. You wouldn't be too happy about it.

Donald Trump ran an America-first presidential candidate, which means I'm going to put America's interests first. That's why he dropped out of this crazy climate change deal. It was not on America's economic security interests.

He's being -- trying to force the NATO countries of Europe to pay more for their own national defense. That's something a lot of Americans are in favor of. Finally, on the issue of tariffs, which is the discussion that they will have today that the fact of the matter is that the Europeans do impose higher tariffs on our goods than we impose on theirs.

You know, Donald Trump is right. It's not a level playing field and he's going to try to cajole these European leaders to reduce their tariffs which would be better off. With respect to Canada, look, we have an important relationship with Canada. They're by far our largest ally for the last 200 years, but it is true on things like intellectual property that NAFTA has to be modernized.

BLACKWELL: Stephen, let me ask you to hold for just a second and let's listen to Mr. Trudeau.

TRUDUEA: -- as well as the nation who have lived on this territory for generations. We thank them for the welcome to this land. I want to welcome as well as friends from all around the world who have been working over this past year to put forward recommendations and reflections on how as a G7 and indeed as a world we could do a better job of inclusion, of striving for equality, of understanding it's not just the nice thing to do, it's the right thing to do and the smart thing to do.

We recognize that gender equality is not a theme to be looked at on its own for an hour session. It's a theme that needs to cut through everything that this G7 has done. And I thank all the leaders for having been open and engaged as we move forward on this theme, as we reflect on how we can do better.

The recommendations by this council are broad, far-reaching, ambitious and exciting. And I'm very much happy that this council has been as bold as it has in putting out a document that obviously has a significant impact in the conversations that we're going to have around the world.

I would like to now turn it over to Isabel for a couple of words and then we'll chase the media out and get started on our conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) --

BLACKWELL: All right. We've been watching live here the Gender Equality Advisory Council Breakfast. You heard from the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau not in the room, President Trump. We don't know why he's not there.

I just from watching the video of the live pictures we have here we saw Trudeau, Abe of Japan, I believe I saw Macron there. We know May and Merkel were there as well, the European Union and Council.

We have not seen President Trump. This is not something obviously you see from the people who arrived that was a surprise. This was on his schedule. We expected he would attend. We're working now to try to figure out why President Trump is not attending this breakfast.

As you know, and we reported he's scheduled to leave early to head off to Singapore for his meeting with Kim Jong-un. And that's to be in a few hours from now around the 11:00 Eastern hour, but he was scheduled to attend this G7 breakfast.

[08:15:05] We don't know why this is happening. But we, of course, as soon as we find out will get that to you. Josh, your reaction? I saw your eyes bug out as soon as I reported that the president is not there.

ROGIN: Well, yes. Again, I don't -- we need to see this G7 meeting for what it is. It's not going to change the problems of climate change and gender equality and transatlantic relations or trade. It's symbolic.

OK. It's meant to show solidarity between large countries with large economies that have shared values and shared interests. The whole point is to show that united front publicly and Trump just doesn't want to do it. And it's baffling.

And I don't -- you know, it's sort of like, you know, we could have discussion about trade and sure there are things that need to be fixed. I happen to believe he should take a tougher position with China than he should with our allies.

But put that to the side for one moment. All he has to do this weekend is show up, 80 percent of success in life is showing up and he just can't do it because he just can't bring himself to stand shoulder to shoulder with America's long-held allies. That has an effect.

It's hard to measure that effect. It's hard to say, OK, because he did this, that will happen. But there's no doubt that these relationships are being damaged. And, you know, if you want to damage them a little bit in order to get something, I can understand that. But to damage them a lot for nothing, that doesn't make any sense at all.

BLACKWELL: Hold on for a second, Stephen. I want to get to Boris Sanchez in Quebec City. Boris, what do we know, if anything, about why President Trump is not attending this meeting with the other world leaders?

SANCHEZ: Hey there, Victor. I'm actually reaching out to White House officials to figure out exactly why President Trump wasn't at this breakfast. He was scheduled to take part in this, as you noted. He did cut his day short here at the G7.

To give you an idea logistically what is going on right now, essentially these leaders are off site, away from where we are right now, and they let in small units of press to be able to shoot the scene, to be able to get some of the audio that you just heard from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

And then it is fed back to us here. So, it does not appear that at any moment in any of the video that we saw that President Trump was there we couldn't confirm with our own eyes whether he was in the room or not. Again, it does not appear that he's there.

I'm reaching out now to White House officials to find out why he was scheduled to be there, but it does not look like he's there. And frankly, it isn't surprising when you hear that sources have indicated the president was hesitant to come here to the G7.

He didn't want it to be a distraction from his meeting with Kim Jong- un next week. And further the White House announced on Friday evening that he would be leaving early. He arrived late. So, perhaps not a surprise that the president isn't there right now, but again we don't have word on exactly why he isn't present for this --Victor.

BLACKWELL: Boris, thank you. Let me go back to Stephen Moore. Stephen, you know, we don't know why the president is not there. So, let's start this conversation with that. But if this is simply because the president didn't want to go or didn't see it as a priority, this does nothing to quell those concerns about G6 plus one.

MOORE: So, this is my whole point. Let's get serious here. These are important discussions about the future of the world economy and especially the western countries and also Japan and they're having a breakfast on gender equality.

Come on, all the Europeans and the Canadians want to talk when we're in trade negotiations with them are issues like climate change and gender equality when, in fact, they have to get their economies moving --

BLACKWELL: Hold on, hold on, hold on. Both of you hold on. Both of you hold on. The president just walked into the room.

MOORE: OK. He's there.

BLACKWELL: He's just late.

MOORE: Get serious about talking about trade and how are we going to resolve this conflict. Donald Trump has some legitimate gripes. I hope it turns out, so every country reduces their trade barriers. Every time we enter negotiations, I talked to the White House trade representatives.

Every time we start talking to Canada about a new trade arrangement, they bring up issues like gender equality and climate change, which have nothing to do with a new trade agreement between our United States and our major ally.

ROGIN: OK. I think we need to say here that we should be able to get serious on trade, which I actually agree with Stephen that we should do and have other discussions with our allies. We can do both. We can walk, and we can chew gum, OK? To say that, oh, the president is rejecting climate change discussion because he's getting tough on trade is non --

MOORE: He doesn't agree with their agenda on climate change.

[08:20:06] ROGIN: So, go and have that discussion -- you know, show up for the meeting and be respectful and at least show that America is willing to engage with its allies in a human manner. It's really basic diplomacy. To sort of treat our allies like that is diplomatic malpractice.

BLACKWELL: I think what we're all learning is to the president or from his perspective, what is expendable at the expense of renegotiating some of these trade deals. We'll talk about that throughout the morning. Stephen Moore, Josh Rogin, thanks so much for staying with us, longer than we expected, but we had to figure out why the president was not in the room.

MOORE: Just a little late.

BLACKWELL: Thanks to both of you.

MOORE: Great to be with you.

PAUL: Just to reiterate, the president is indeed that that room.

BLACKWELL: A little late but he's there.

PAUL: He's there.

We have this coming up, of course, the conversation so many people have been having about Anthony Bourdain, about his curiosity and passion for exploring food and culture and what it did for all of us watching as he took us along with him.

BLACKWELL: Plus, a new report from "The Washington Post," Chinese hackers stole a trove of highly sensitive data related to submarine warfare. Why the Navy is saying this is a new threat to national security. PAUL: Also, moments ago, Meghan Markle making her debut on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the queen's birthday celebration. We're live in London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:37]

BLACKWELL: In just a few hours, President Trump will head to Singapore for his meeting with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un. Ahead of that historic summit, the North Korean propaganda machine is already at work with posters of peace on a country that was viewed as an enemy earlier.

PAUL: President Trump says it's attitude not so much preparation that matters when dealing with Kim Jong-un, but we've got to remember who he's dealing with. The North Korean leader, known for murderous ways, may not be a pushover here. I spoke to a woman who escaped from North Korea with some of her family members and is now living in the United States. Here is what she said about life there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE JO, NORTH KOREA REFUGEE: Wake up in the morning, they worry about what they can eat during the day. And in the evening, they worry about what we are going to eat for tomorrow morning. So, basically citizens are starving and hungry. So, only concern and only worries they have is how to find food.

So, the regime's strategy is make citizens starve to almost dying by starvation because the regime doesn't want people to think about something else, for example, politic issues, the government issue. They don't want those citizens to think about those important issues because they're afraid to see the revolution, of course, and the citizens against their own government.

So that's why it's their purpose to make citizens starve in North Korea. Regular North Korean citizens they know they're hungry. They have difficulties to find food, but they cannot think other than that because they were brainwashed, and they were lectured since they were able to speak.

So, they learned that their own government regime is the best and that the government is the only way they can rely on. So basically, they cannot think any other issues control. However, they know they cannot rely on their own government anymore, so they're trying to find their own ways to find their food and do little black markets, business and trying to help themselves to survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All righty. So, I want to talk about the upcoming summit. What can be done here? Jung Pak, chair in Korea Studies at the Brookings Institute is with us here. Thank you so much for being with us. As we just heard from Grace talking about what it's like there, is there in this meeting do you believe an angle, a persuasion that President Trump can introduce that would actually affect some sort of change for the North Korean people?

JUNG PAK, CHAIR IN KOREA STUDIES, BROOKINGS INSTITUTE: I think on human rights which the U.N. Human Rights Council has called North Korea a systematic and widespread and gross violations of human rights violations and that includes rape and forced abortions and other sexual assaults as well as torture.

So, President Trump has gone back and forth on this human rights issue, most recently when Prime Minister Abe was in town he said he would bring up human rights. But for North Korea and for Kim Jong-un, human rights is a very sensitive issue. They would see it as an invasion of their sovereignty.

And you know, the reason it's a sensitive issue is because Kim Jong-un needs to repress his people to stay in power, so if President Trump does bring it up, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't push it to make sure that the environment or the conditions for summit remain positive.

PAUL: So, the president has tamped down the expectations for this meeting, you know, initially saying he would accept nothing more than verifying denuclearization. Now saying this is going to be a "let's get to know each other" sort of thing. Do you anticipate that anything more will come out of this meeting besides a photo op?

PAK: I think it's great that he's looking to establish rapport and that he's taming expectations and you know, to the years of the Korea experts are looking at this, it's great that he's acknowledging that this will be a process and that nothing will be magically solved overnight at this summit.

So, I think for the summit, I think it's important to get Kim Jong-un to at a minimum say that he is willing to give up his nuclear weapons and let's hope for more than the minimum, right? Let's try to set up some details about how that would be implemented and what kind of accountability that we're going to hold Kim Jong-un and ourselves.

[08:30:00]

PAUL: How much does Kim Jong-un need this? How much really at the end of the day leverage does President Trump have?

PAK: You know I think from what we've seen with the north Koreans so far, Kim really wants this meeting and I think judging from what President Trump has been saying so far, North Korea knows that President Trump also wants this meeting. Since both sides want to have a successful meeting or at least have a great optics of having a successful meeting, that I think the meeting in and of itself will be an okay affair.

But I think the devil will be in the details in terms of how we're going to move forward on reducing the North Korean threat, and for President Trump, he's been vague about whether he is going to stay in the meeting. He says he'll walk out if he doesn't see possibilities for moving forward with Kim, you know, and that sanctions may be lifted or they may not be lifted. So I think he's leaving it vague enough to have -- at least to maintain some minimum leverage over Kim.

PAUL: OK. Jung Pack, I appreciate your insight so much, thank you.

BLACKWELL: An extraordinary break from America's closest allies. President Trump calling for the G7 to readmit Russia, but is the President's suggestion playing into Putin's hands?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:00]

BLACKWELL: All right, right now President Trump is meeting with world leaders and some of America's closest allies. You see there speaking with Christine Lagarde of the IMF. This is a breakfast at the G7 Summit in Canada.

PAUL: The event on women's empowerment began without the President who showed up in the middle of remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, had a lot of people wondering, wait, is he there? Is he not there? Is he going show up? And of course there he is. He did show up later and later today, we do need to point out that he's leaving the G7 early to head to Singapore to prepare for his historic summit with Kim Jong-un which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday. In the mean time President Vladimir Putin is in china this morning for a state visit there; his third trip in just over a year to that region.

BLACKWELL: Now Putin arrived Friday, the same day President Trump said Russia should be allowed back at the table at the G7. Critics including some members of the President's own party say the President's suggestion is just rewarding bad behavior. CNN's Brian Todd has details this morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Analysts say it's the kind of endorsement the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, could only dream of getting, but now it's coming from a very powerful source, the President of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?

(END VIDEO)

TODD: President Trump's impromptu idea to reinstate Russia into the G7, the elite group of the world's leading industrial nations, delivered on his way to the summit is exactly the type of victory critics say that Putin wants.

(BEGIN VIDEO) TONY BLINKEN, FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: President Trump extending this invitation really does make Vladimir Putin's day. It's accomplishing everything Putin has set out to accomplish in dividing the United States from its closest partners.

(END VIDEO)

TODD: That's because experts say Putin is facing trouble at home like a stagnant economy and that he longs for the days of the Soviet Union when his country was considered a super power. They say he isn't so much trying to strengthen his own hand as he is trying to destroy others. That's why analysts say Trump's public battles with his NATO allies Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron play right into Putin's hands.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

SARAH MENDELSON, PROFESSOR AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: Putin's goal is to weaken democratic institutions in the west, whether it's informal organizations like the G7 or formal organizations like NATO, the fact that Trump is playing along for Mr. Putin leaves the United States in a bad place.

REP BEN SASSE, (R) NEBRASKA: I want to introduce my...

TODD (Voiceover): Senator Ben Sasse saying in a statement, this is weak. Putin is not our friend and he's not the President's buddy. He is a thug using Soviet style aggression to wage a shadow war against America. And from Senator John McCain, "The President has inexplicably shown our advisories the deference and esteem that should be reserved for our closest allies."

Russia was suspended from the G7 after Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea then part of Ukraine. But since being retaliated against, Putin has doubled down on his aggression, meddling in America's elections, allowing his war planes to buzz American ships, and allegedly poisoning his adversaries, even on foreign soil. The President claims he has been tough on Putin leveling hard-hitting sanctions on the Russian President and his friends.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

TRUMP: I have been Russia's worst nightmare. If Hillary got in Putin is probably going, "Man I wish Hillary won."

(END VIDEO)

TODD: But many analysts disagree, saying Trump's apparent deference to and compliments of Putin have only fueled Putin's swagger. One example in interviews this week Putin says he's got no intention of handing Crimea back to Ukraine and listen to how he raised the specter of a security threat from Ukraine to the upcoming World Cup in Russia, a threat which there seems to be no public evidence of.

(BEGIN VIDEO) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through translator): I hope there will not be provocations by Ukraine during the World Cup. If this happens, it will negatively affect Ukrainian state hood.

MENDELSON: He is on the one hand threatening Ukraine which is an extraordinary thing to do. On the other hand, he's also already instigated war in Ukraine. The fact that he's threatening their state hood, sovereignty is deeply problematic.

(END VIDEO)

TODD: For his part, Vladimir Putin recently denied wanting to divide the European Union saying the E.U. is his biggest trading partner. Analysts say that's a disingenuous comment by Putin and a deflection of what he really wants to do, divide the E.U.,

[08:40:00]

to divide the U.S. and divide them from each other. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

PAUL: We'll continue to follow that for you, of course, this morning. And this, the Dutchess of Sussex appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the first time as a member of the Royal Family. There she is. We're taking you to London live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:00]

PAUL: I know so many people have been struggling with what's happened in the last 24 hours. CNN's Anthony Bourdain, of course, has died at the age of 61. He took his own life. He was found in his hotel room in France yesterday where he was working on an upcoming episode of "Parts Unknown." This was a man that was such a talented chef, a traveler, a gifted story teller. He used his books and his shows to explore cuisine and so much more than that, culture really. Celebrities and friends of Bourdain have been sharing their memories with us, giving us a little bit of a glimpse of his off-camera life of the chef known all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

FRANK BRUNI, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": This was a man who really devoured the world, you know, who -- who modeled for us a kind of adventureness, a fearlessness. I think there are no shortage of Americans who have gone out in search of delicious food in places they never would have beforehand, who have an appreciation for other cultures because Anthony Bourdain encouraged them to. His legacy is a sort of open mindedness not just toward food but toward culture and inclusiveness not just about food but about everything.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: So many people say there was nobody like Anthony Bourdain and there was no show like "Parts Unknown." CNN wants to pay tribute to him, Anthony Bourdain, with a special night of episodes beginning tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Well let's talk about these reports of threat to U.S. national security after Chinese hackers stole a massive amount of data from the U.S., from a private contractor. "The Washington Post" reports that hackers broke into the computer of a navy contractor and stole more than 600 gigs of data, some of which included secret plans to develop a super-sonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines. Now, the Navy and the FBI are conducting an investigation. Let's talk about this with CNN National Security Analyst, Samantha Vinograd. Samantha, welcome back.

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So I was of course this reporting is from "The Washington Post." I was reading "The New York Times" write about this and they wrote this is hardly the largest or most sensitive of designs and systems stolen by Chinese hackers. That was surprising to me. How common is this and the significance of what we're reading here from the "Post"?

VINOGRAD: Victor, this is disturbing reporting but I don't think anybody that works in national security or even business is surprised by this account because we know that China has both the will and the capability to conduct different kinds of cyber attacks.

We have cyber espionage which is really the Chinese government spying on private companies for economic gain. We talked about that in the context of President Trump and his lifting of these penalties on ZTE, for example. And then we have cyber warfare and China has in the past been accused of hacking into other government sites. We had the FDIC.

We had the Office of Personal Management. So this is hardly the first time that China has been accused of hacking into government systems and the truth is I think we have to be a little bit honest with ourselves here. This is exactly the kind of information that foreign intelligence services try to get from each other. So I don't know that china is alone in trying to access another military's planning documents.

BLACKWELL: So let's talk specifically about China because we were having the economic conversation earlier, right, about this concern of realignment, geopolitical realignment. You've got Putin with Xi this week and Xi calling him his best, most intimate friend and concerns over what was said at the G7.

VINOGRAD: Trump said that, too, right?

BLACKWELL: Yes they have talked about their personal relationship. But, are we seeing some realignment here that China is no longer just a frenemy but more of a geopolitical foe than it has been in recent history?

VINOGRAD: I think traditionally or at least when I was in the Obama Administration we made very clear that China's economic rise is not a black and white scenario; it's not one for one, and that China can peacefully rise as a country and an economy alongside the U.S. economy.

We sell different things. We grow in different ways. But what we traditionally stress and what the Trump Administration has also raised with the Chinese is that this cyber espionage element is anti- competitive and gives the Chinese economy an unfair advantage around the world. And candidly Victor, across Administrations we have been unsuccessful in deterring China from the cyber espionage.

I do wonder and have to say this, we have not been tough on Russia when it comes to hacking and when it comes to cyber security so to an extent, I wonder how much other cyber actors around the world are wondering how tough the penalties are going to be, if they don't behave.

BLACKWELL: So the possibility of encouraging this type of activity by not properly punishing it when it happened before?

VINOGRAD: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: All right. Samanthan Vinograd. Thanks so much for being with us.

VINOGRAD: Thanks.

PAUL: Well do stay with us here because the Duchess makes her debut on the Buckingham

[08:50:00]

Palace balcony. We're live from London with you with more on Meghan's moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, the Queen turned 92 in April. Today though is the official celebration of her birthday in the United Kingdom. The military parade called Trooping the Color. The queen was joined by the Royal Family including the newest member, you see her there Meghan Markle formally known as the Duchess of Sussex making her debut on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. CNN Correspondent Nina dos Santos is there. Nina, what's happening?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Christi, people are tidying up and it's time to go, all of the action has already happened, but boy did we get a lot of action. Over the last couple hours we saw the Royal Family gather twice on that balcony at Buckingham Palace behind me as the queen inspected her troops and went back into Buckingham Palace. She was joined by her immediate family on the balcony for a fly-by and that was the first glimpse we saw of Meghan Markle in this official capacity now as the Duchess of Sussex standing alongside her husband, Prince Harry. She was also in the carriages going back and forth towards the horse guard's parade where the main military parade took place and coming back to Buckingham Palace.

now, I should point out that this isn't the only time we'll see Meghan Markle in these official royal engagements. She's got another very high profile one coming up on the Thursday of this week when she'll be making a visit on her own in the attendance of her Majesty the Queen, back to you.

PAUL: All right, Nina dos-Santos. thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Well, it started as a shop that sold soap in Los Angeles and now it's an eclectic megastore for the pop cultural trinkets. It's today's Start Small, Think Big.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

BILLY SHIRE, ARTIST AND ENTRENPRENEUR: Hi, I'm Billy Shire. Welcome to Wackos.

Wacko is irreverent un and mind boggling. When you walk into Wacko you experience sensory overload We have people who come in and they're taken aback and two hours later you'll find them lost in the aisles.

My mother and I founded Soap Plant in 1971 for $1,800. When we first opened we had basically soap. I bought my mother out in 1978 and took over completely. We started out as soap plant, but everybody knows it as

[08:55:00]

Wacko. The one misconception about entrepreneurship is that it's easy and that it all just comes to you. Most of the time they've worked on that idea a long time before it's come to fruition. Wacko is a reflection of me. I'm wacky. I'm a kid at heart and always concentrated on the visual and pop culture. We really set trends and established different types of things as gifts. I think my mom would be very proud of me sticking with it and carrying on her legacy.

(END VIDEO)

PAUL: So had you not seen that, if I would have said to you, Victor, let's go to Wacko. I don't know what you would have thought I would have been talking about.

BLACKWELL: Oh, why would you set me up like that?

PAUL: Because it's the end of the show and I can.

BLACKWELL: I don't know I would check my pocket for singles...

PAUL: There you go.

BLACKWELL: ... I guess. I don't know.

PAUL: I don't know.

BLACKWELL: Who's checking at the door bell so that's great.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Thank you Christi. You see she just sets me up sometimes. PAUL: It's Saturday morning. We just need a little bit of levity.

BLACKWELL: That's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 Eastern for CNN News Room.

PAUL: Smerconish is coming at you next. Stay close.