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CNN NEWSROOM

Chaos at Euro 2016; Romney on Political Heartbreak; ISIS Claims Deadly Damascus Bombings; Queen Elizabeth II Celebrates Birthday; Solar Plane Lands at JFK; Political Twitter War Goes Nuclear. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired June 12, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


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JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Bottles and tear gas fill the air at the 2016 Euro football tournament. Russian and English fans clash in Marseille, injuring dozens of people.

Donald Trump strikes back. The billionaire goes after former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney after being accused of trickle-down racism.

Plus: ISIS taking heavy losses as Libyan forces retake key coastal territory and Iraqi troops close in on Fallujah.

Hello, I'm Jonathan Mann and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

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MANN: Thanks for joining us.

In France, football fan violence for a third straight day in Marseille. English and Russian fans clashing yet again Saturday as their teams met in the Euro 2016 championship. On the pitch, Russia and England ended in a 1-1 draw. But authorities were determined fighting fans from both sides would lose. Police used tear gas against bottle-throwing crowds and made more than a dozen arrests. CNN's Alex Thomas has more from Paris.

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ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When Dimitri Payet scored a sensational goal on the opening day of Euro 2016 to make himself a national hero for host France, it appeared that football had finally shoved the negative headlines to one side.

But only 24 hours later, matters off the pitch again stealing the spotlight at this European football championship. Reuters reporting after England's game against Russia, Russian fans charged into the section containing England supporters. There was panic and there was a bit of a crush. We are yet to receive details precisely of injuries. We know that the authorities were expecting possible trouble outside

the Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Bars had been asked to close and not serve alcohol.

But inside the grounds, there did appear to be a lack of policing and stewarding, according to social media reports.

The wife of one of the England players, Rebekah Vardy, married to Leicester City striker Jamie, saying on Twitter, "That has to be up there with the worst experience EVER at an away game! Teargassed for no reason, caged and treated like animals! Shocking!"

The organizers of Euro 2016, UEFA, European football's governing body, said they won't comment about possible sanctions against either Russia or England or both until they receive more information from their disciplinary departments, UEFA have observers at all their matches, of course.

But it was just the latest in a long line of incidents, three days of violence in Marseille in the south of France that ended up on this Saturday with around 500 people rioting, police having to break it up having to use tear gas canisters once again.

And police saying the total tally of arrests over two days was 17. And on the Saturday, there were a total of 31 injuries, four seriously hurt, and three police officers receiving minor injuries.

The French interior ministry has felt obliged to comment as well, saying preventing violence is a priority for them. They have banned already 6,000 known troublemakers, including 3,000 from the U.K., who have three representatives at this Euro 2016 tournament. And 204 foreign police officers are helping the police forces here in France to deal with it.

They're saying that they had planned for possible football hooliganism and it won't take resources away from the security services planning to prevent any possible terror attacks.

As I said, all those bad headlines taking the focus away from matter on the pitch, where England had led for so long against Russia before the Russians got a late equalizer. It means Wales topped Group B after winning their game against Slovakia earlier on in the day.

And Albania nil Switzerland won in Group A was the other result on day two of Euro 2016 -- Alex Thomas, CNN, Paris, France.

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MANN: The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is swinging back at his predecessor. In Pennsylvania, Donald Trump responded to an exclusive CNN interview with former presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The vocal Trump critic told CNN Trump would bring what he called trickle-down racism and misogyny.

And now Trump is relying on an attack he's used before, slamming Romney for losing to President Barack Obama in 2012.

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DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's absolutely pathetic. He lost. He choked. Like a dog, he choked. And now it's time for somebody else. We are going to win, folks. We're going to win. We are not going to be choking. I don't choke. I don't choke.

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MANN: In another exclusive, CNN obtained an audio recording of Romney, speaking at a private retreat with millionaire Republican Party donors. Romney got --

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MANN: -- emotional when talking about the rise of Trump and the future of the Republican Party.

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MITT ROMNEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: I find this so troubling that -- and I know a lot of folks are saying, Mitt, just get off your high horse on this and get behind the guy.

But I -- these things are personal. These -- I mean, I love this country. I love the founders. I love what this country is built upon and its values. And seeing this is breaking my heart from the party that (INAUDIBLE) --

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MANN: Joining us is Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.

Thanks so much for being with us once again. Mitt Romney says that Donald Trump as president would usher in racism, sexism, bigotry, misogyny. I mean, he's saying this about his own nominee.

Republican executive Meg Whitman likens him to Adolf Hitler.

Once again, prominent Republicans saying this about a Republican nominee, Is this normal?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: No, it is absolutely extraordinary. We haven't seen anything like this since 1964, when Barry Goldwater was nominated by the Republicans and lost in a landslide to President Lyndon Johnson.

And to be honest, you actually have to go back to 1912, when President William Howard Taft was opposed by a former president from his own party, Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as an independent. We just don't have this kind of party disloyalty very often. And this will go down in history, however the election turns out. MANN: Well, does it matter to the outcome of the election?

I ask because the head of the Republican National Committee told Romney and Whitman and the other rebels in the leadership ranks that Trump will win with them or without them.

Does Trump need these people?

SABATO: He does need them. He needs at least some of them. And the Republican National Committee, of course, is whistling past the graveyard. He knows very well what this means if it doesn't change.

And how do you take back the words uttered by Mitt Romney or some of the other prominent Republicans?

You can't simply wake up one morning and say, well, he's apologized and everything's fine.

MANN: Now you say that he knows what's going to happen.

What's going to happen?

SABATO: I think, assuming Hillary Clinton is not indicted on the e- mail problem and assuming that the convention goes well for Clinton and she gets a good vice presidential choice, she is going to be the front-runner.

She may be a substantial front-runner; we'll have to see how the campaign develops. But I think Democrats are going to have to try awfully hard to lose this election.

MANN: Well, let me ask you, there are people who don't exactly agree with Romney and Whitman's analysis of the situation. Some prominent Republican leaders have more or less rallied to Trump's camp.

And I'm curious, to your mind, why that is.

Do they see some value in his candidacy?

Or are they basically trying to balance between fears, balance between navigating interests? All of the Trump supporters, potentially, versus whatever concerns they may have about an actual Trump presidency.

SABATO: Jonathan, you used the right phrase, "in theory." I would say they haven't rallied behind Trump, they have acquiesced in his nomination because they can do nothing about it. Their job is to try to save Congress.

Republicans have both houses. They worked very hard for years to get those houses back. They don't want to lose them.

And so you have the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who has said some very critical things of Donald Trump even this past week, still supporting him, in theory. And Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is doing the same thing. They are

on the edge of the fence. They are trying to maneuver between Trump's strong supporters and the party base and their need to elect their threatened members in November. It's not a position to be envied.

MANN: Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia, thanks so much for this.

SABATO: Thank you.

MANN: Police have identified the man who shot and killed singer Christina Grimmie. They say Kevin James Loibl approached Grimmie while she was signing autographs after a performance in Orlando, Florida, Friday, and opened fire.

Loibl then shot and killed himself after Grimmie's brother tackled him. Grimmie, 22 years old, was a former contestant on the NBC singing show, "The Voice." She was discovered on YouTube, though, where she had more than 3 million followers.

ISIS says it targeted a Shia center of worship that's revered by foreign fighters battling Syrian rebels. A Syrian opposition group based in the U.K. says twin suicide bombings killed at least 20 people near the Sayyidah Zaynab shrine in Damascus. Hezbollah --

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MANN: -- militia men and other foreign fighters have cited protecting the shrine as one of their main reasons for entering the war.

And ISIS is resorting to more and more to attacks like that one as its losses mount on the front lines. Ben Wedeman reports on how the group is being slowly turned back in Iraq and Syria and Libya.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ISIS is now under more pressure than it has been since its creation. In Libya, forces from both the eastern and western parts of the country have stripped ISIS of its control of a stretch of almost 200 kilometers on the Mediterranean coast.

On Saturday, forces from the west said they retook the city or Sirte, a port which is 5 kilometers to the east of the city and they're poised to go into the city proper.

Here in Iraq, Iraqi forces continue to press their offensive to retake the city of Fallujah from ISIS. Fallujah came from under ISIS control, the first major urban center to be taken by ISIS in January 2014.

Since a year and a half, Iraqi forces have retaken from ISIS the cities of Tikrit, Baiji and Ramadi and all that's left under -- firmly under ISIS control is the city of Mosul in the north.

But according to U.S. officials and Iraqi officials, measures are afoot to begin an offensive eventually -- it's not clear when -- to retake that city.

In Syria, Russia is backing Syrian forces who have reentered for the first time in well over a year the province of Raqqah, where of course the city of Raqqah, ISIS' de facto capital, is located.

Elsewhere in the western part of Syria, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have surrounded the town of Manbij, which is northeast of Aleppo, pressing the offensive there.

Of course, the worry is that as ISIS moves its ground and territory, it's striking back. In Syria, two massive bombs in Damascus killing more than 20 people.

On Thursday, there was a suicide bomb and a car bomb in Baghdad. All of them claimed by ISIS, that clearly sees, as it loses on the battlefield, it will resort ever more to terrorism in the cities -- I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, Baghdad.

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MANN: Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 90th birthday in regal style. We'll show you all the pomp and circumstance in London -- next.

Plus, Britain's big Brexit referendum is looming ahead. We'll ask some foreigners who live there how they would vote and why some are worried.

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MANN: Welcome back. Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her 90th birthday with a huge spectacle in London this weekend. Britain pulled out all the stops for its longest-reigning monarch with three days of festivities filled with pomp and pageantry.

Just have a look. The queen attended the traditional trooping the color military parade Saturday and concluded the day by greeting her subjects from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Our Max Foster was there.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: The day starting with a cavalry, leading the pomp and pageantry that Britain is so famous for. Then the queen appeared in a spectacular neon green outfit. She always says she wants to be seen, to be believed and she certainly achieved that today.

She then headed to horse guards parade to see the trooping of the color. It's an annual event. But this year, had special significance because this is the queen's official 90th birthday, a year of celebration. And she's had three celebrations personally this year, so it's certainly a special year for her, a special year for the country as well.

She headed back to the palace in another carriage procession.

The big question was, would we get to see Princess Charlotte and Prince George on the balcony for that royal family appearance. We always expect that every year. We had it again this year and, indeed, they did appear. One group, one photo, bound to make the front pages of newspapers around the world.

In the background, concerns about security. But the queen always wanting to get as close to the public as she can. And in the end, it went off without a hitch.

And on Sunday, another party, this time for all of her charities. They are going to fill the streets here, all the volunteers that work for those charities and they are going to have lunch together and the queen will wander through -- Max Foster, CNN, Buckingham Palace, London.

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MANN: Well, as you just heard, the queen's birthday celebrations continue in the hours ahead and CNN will have it all. Log on to cnn.com/royals to see the latest royal events.

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MANN: At the same time, Britain is less than two weeks away from a critical vote on whether to leave the European Union. Polls indicate the race is now too close to call. CNN meets E.U. citizens living in London who are worried about the upcoming vote and about their futures.

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ULRIKE FRANKE, GERMAN PH.D. STUDENT (voice-over): I came to the U.K. about three years ago and I have been in London for about a year. London is a buzzing city. There is always something happening here.

If I was a Brit, I would never vote for Brexit. I think it's a horrible idea. If I was living in London, I would be worried that E.U. migrants would leave. And this is what makes the city a great city. London really is the European capital.

EMMANUIL PAPAVASILEIOU, GREEK JOURNALIST (voice-over): I like the fact that the British society, compared with other societies, is definitely more open, is definitely more accepting to foreigners. I do not believe that I will need a British passport. I am fully eligible for one because I have been living here for nine years. And I do not think it is worth it.

SONYA EBERMANN, FRENCH-GERMAN LAWYER (voice-over): When my great- grandparents and grandparents were alive, they were actually fighting each other in the wars. And today, we have peace in Europe. It's largely due to the European Union. I am very concerned. Working here will become much more complicated, much more difficult, maybe impossible.

ALESSANDRO LATERZA, FINANCE-TECH PROFESSIONAL (voice-over): I was born in the (INAUDIBLE) of Italy. I'm sad to hear that one of the main reasons why the U.K. wants to abandon the E.U. is focused on migration. In my heart, I feel that people of Britain will be pro- Europe.

PAPAVASILEIOU (voice-over): I'll tell them to definitely go vote.

EBERMANN (voice-over): Be very aware of the consequences, the U.K. leaving the E.U. would have.

PAPAVASILEIOU (voice-over): Voting in this country is not as popular as in my country, Greece.

LATERZA (voice-over): Since I have been here for almost five years, I think I will apply for citizenship.

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MANN: OK. We move from politics to a plane now.

This is a fun story. Derek Van Dam is with us.

The plane we are talking about is called the Solar Impulse 2. You may recall, it's a solar-powered airplane that's been making its way slowly across the planet.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Very slowly, about 55 kilometers an hour.

MANN: But it's up in the air again.

VAN DAM: It's getting there. And this is a historic flight, Jon. Andre Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, two names we want to become very familiar with. And I think we will be saying those names frequently in the future because, in my opinion, these guys are the new Wright brothers.

MANN: Wow. OK.

VAN DAM: You told me a little bit of a history about the Wright brothers, not only are they are the pioneers in modern aviation but they were --

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VAN DAM: -- also bike mechanics. Didn't know that.

You are looking at the Solar Impulse 2, which has made another part of its historic flight and landed in New York City early Saturday morning. And that actually landed at JFK Airport about 4:10 in the morning.

Take a look at this beautiful skyline photo. There's Solar Impulse 2, there's the 1 World Trade Center and the Manhattan skyline, there's the Statue of Liberty at the bottom portion of our screen.

Now it was meant to land on Monday morning. But bad weather hampered that decision. They had to delay a few days. Obviously not landing until early Saturday morning.

This is a very slow circumnavigation of the world, 55-100 kph optimum cruising speed for this plane, which is powered by the sun. And weighs roughly the weight of a family vehicle. It's about 72 meters in wingspan. That's bigger than a Boeing 747. And it is hugely weather dependent.

And you say, well, Derek, why do we want to travel this slowly across the world?

Why would we want to do that?

Well, think about it. The Wright brothers had to start somewhere. These two gentlemen also have to start somewhere and this is pioneering solar flights. And we could be on something very big here.

We have already achieved 29,500 kilometers. And they have got to make that big jump across the Atlantic Ocean, landing in somewhere Europe or perhaps into North Africa.

A little bit of a detail about the plane, there are four rechargeable batteries on this particularly plane. And interesting to note, there's about 17,000 photovoltaic cells helping absorb the sun or the rays from the sun. And those photovoltaic cells are about the width of a human hair, just enough to keep that outer exterior of a plane extremely fragile, if you ask me.

I want to talk quickly soccer because I'm a huge soccer fan myself. We have the UEFA championship taking place at the moment. We've got 10 stadiums across France -- by the way, nine of which are open air stadiums. Only one of them has a retractable roof, so obviously weather dependent. Here's a look at the details. We have rain expected for the noon game this afternoon, Turkey versus Croatia, in Paris. And you can see that the weather not looking to really cooperate much -- Jonathan.

MANN: Wow. We were hoping for better news.

VAN DAM: We were.

MANN: Hopefully the Solar Impulse will have better weather.

VAN DAM: I agree.

MANN: OK. Thanks very much, Derek.

VAN DAM: Thanks, Jon. MANN: The race for the White House growing more fierce by the day. We'll take you to the biggest battleground in the race right now -- it's Twitter.

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MANN: Welcome back.

This U.S. presidential race has been full of harsh talk from both sides. And a lot of that talk has been on Twitter. Our Jeanne Moos breaks it down tweet by tweet.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's Twitter war on one keyboard.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Crooked Hillary.

MOOS (voice-over): On the other keyboard --

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He can say whatever he wants to say.

MOOS (voice-over): -- may the best tweeter win.

After President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm with her.

MOOS (voice-over): -- and Donald Trump fired first, "Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama. But nobody else does," to which Hillary's campaign tweeted, "Delete your account."

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MOOS (voice-over): Her followers made it seem like the greatest insult ever. They posted GIFs, expressing shock and awe over Hillary's comeback, from, "Oh, snap," to, "Boom," to a congratulatory toast.

Now not all of us understood the magnitude of "Delete your account" as a zinger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just smack talk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I don't even know what that means but apparently my producer said that's what kids use to like say they don't like you.

I think -- I think the technical term is... MOOS (voice-over): The "Delete your account" diss was presumably sent by a Hillary aide since tweets Hillary herself writes are signed with an H. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, jumped in, tweeting at Hillary, "If anyone knows how to use a delete key, it's you."

Last week, Hillary tweaked The Donald for his Twitter habits.

CLINTON: I'm willing to bet he's writing a few right now.

MOOS (voice-over): And sure enough, his counter attack to "Delete your account," soon arrived.

"How long did it take your staff of 823 people to think that up?

"And where are your 33,000 e-mails that you deleted?"

But amid the tweet storm, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren went after Trump.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASS.: No, Donald, you should be ashamed of yourself.

MOOS (voice-over): Which led Trump to tweet, "Pocahontas is at it again, goofy Elizabeth Warren is a nasty mouth. Hope she is V.P. choice."

Warren then doubled down on The Donald. "No, seriously, delete your account."

Politicians, choose your weapon, tweets or sound bites.

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary Clinton.

CLINTON: I really could care a less.

MOOS (voice-over): But how could we not care when someone unexpected chimed in on the subject of Hillary's "delete your account" tweet?

"Too late for some of us," deadpanned Anthony Weiner.

There's nothing like a war of tweets to put the twit in Twitter -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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MANN: And finally in the U.S., a cowboy on his horse coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress. Seriously. A suspected thief was fleeing on the woman's stolen bicycle when the cowboy grabbed his rope and lassoed the man.

The scene straight out of the Wild West actually took place outside a shopping center in Oregon. The hero, a professional cowboy, who just happened to be passing through to do some shopping, kept the suspect tied up until police arrived.

Someone ought to buy him a drink in the nearest saloon.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Jonathan Mann. We'll be back with the headlines. You are watching CNN.

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