>> now that's a great idea, nailed it good morning. you were alive in the cnn newsroom, america hill in for jim acosta 80 years ago today, the course of world war and democracy changed forever president biden joining other world leaders at this hour as they mark this milestone anniversary of d-day, the allied invasion of normandy. >> you see there of course, the french president emmanuel macron, as well as ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy. this morning, mr. biden meeting with a handful of the last remaining us veterans stormed those beaches, are parachuted behind enemy lines. as the men today, they're all around 100-years-old, making this anniversary, especially poignant as a world pays tribute to this greatest generation the man who, fought here became heroes. not because they're the strongest and toughest job or fiercest although they were. but because they're given an audacious mission knowing everyone on the new the probability of dying was real. but they did it anyway they knew and beyond any doubt there are things that are worth fighting and dying for some 2,500 americans died on d-day along with 2000 of their allies. the invasion of nazi occupied france marked a major turning point leading to the end for nazi germany. and to the emergence of the us as a superpower. this year, ceremonies common mid rising tensions both abroad and at home. as wars raged and ukraine, i didn't gaza. and as democracy is once again at risk joining me now to discuss further, we're joined by leah wright rigueur, of course historian, as we look back on this, leah, the comparisons that have been made by world leaders, this morning, including president biden, including defense secretary lloyd austin, drawing parallels to what the world was facing 80 years ago oh ahead of this invasion of, on d-day. and what the world is facing now in terms of threats to democracy, is that parallel accurate i think it's a fantastic parallel. >> we're on the precipice of a different kind of challenge to democracy. and one that certainly has parallels to what we saw between this eruption between the allied and axis forces in the 1940s by dk june, the very famous june 6 invasion on the beaches of normandy. so certainly, i think the president of the united states and secretary of defense will be trying to make these comparisons and we'll be trying to be talking about the significance of democracy. this is a perfect time to do it. it's also an incredibly important time incredibly significant time to do it because so much of the question of democracy is in crisis globally, we have countries around the world that have simply, i think forgotten what it means to be a democratic globe or democratic nation. >> so this is an opportunity, particularly at the precipice of this moment with ukraine, with other global geopolitics, political global issues that are arising around the world. >> it is a perfect time for the united states to remind the world what our role has been in it, and what our role should be around the context of democracy only has stayed with him ever going to come back to that. i also to bring in my colleague christiane amanpour, who is at the american cemetery in normandy christiane, you have covered this anniversary since 1994. we're talking there about the link. obviously the president biden had made that historic link. i was struck by something you said earlier today two is where we were just looking at pictures of president zelenskyy. they're making the comparison that the police we are hearing from ban mirror zelenskyy in this moment or not at all, dissimilar to what churchill was doing some 80 years ago trying to rally support look, that's absolutely right at that time, america had no real reason to be entering the war until 1941 off pearl harbor, of course. >> and it was attacked on the homeland but in the meantime, you know, even before that the british who had been fighting off the nazis for as long as they possibly could. and that was the blitz. and there was the bombing of the uk and obviously europe was occupied. they would desperate for the united states to join this fight because they just, they knew they needed that weapon three, that heavy weaponry that only the united states had, plus they needed more people is very similar to what you're seeing in ukraine right now and when we heard all the speeches, you everything was framed today in the fact that these people who have laid to their final rest in the cemetery behind me and so many others on d-day and throughout the liberation of occupied europe, they fought for something that nobody expected to see, a raging war in europe. at years after i spoke to the chairman of the joint chiefs general cq brown, i spoke to the head of nato general christopher cavoli, an all of them said the same, and erika interestingly, i also spoke to tom hanks. now, yes, he is an actor, but he has spent so much of his acting life and his production company along with steven spielberg creating an anthology of world war ii starting with saving private ryan two, then the band brothers the pacific and now masters of the air on apple tv he is really committed himself as a lay historian to keeping this history alive for people and for future generations and both of them, were here. i managed to speak to tom in an exclusive interview. he came and joined me and this is what he said about storytelling i remember when we, when we should and by the way, this is one of the reasons steven spielberg wanted to make the movie. he said finally, i'll be able to do with film technology. i'll actually be able to capture what happened on omaha beach. and here's what i'm gonna do it. first. it's going to take three weeks as i gotta is going to be your single day. and third, we're going to have all kinds of stuff going off and forth in-between. there will make some sort of movie at the same time, we're trying to load it up with as much authentic. i wanted to use the word again, verisimilitude is weekend. okay, that's our job as filmmakers it's also our job as lay historians because for good or for bad that movie is a document that has to accurately reflect the tenor of that day. and i'd like to think that we did and hearing it from a number of people that said, as confusing as that is while multiply that by, we did not have this smell of core died or burning flesh or blood on the sand. but we did have some version of that. how whatever you can get out of emotion picture. i think we captured it and to stevens credit and i will also go along with the audiences credit as well. they were willing to suspend whatever disbelief of it and say, i've always if you've ever wondered what it was like, that's as close as somebody in davenport, iowa, oakland california, or minneapolis, minnesota was going to get to that of course, he's right. 26 years after saving private ryan, it remains such a watch films such irrelevant film, and i just wanted to tell you something. >> tom said that the people who who who met the call on d-day, the young kids, some of them 17-years-old. so many of them did it because it was the right thing, not a lot of them had a lot of choice, but in general, the americans, the british, everybody knew that it was the right thing to fight this kind of a tyranny. and so i was interviewing 101-year-old veteran and survivor of d-day jake larson, just a couple of hours ago and i said to him do you remember why you were doing this? >> and excuse my language around quoting him. >> he said yes our job was to kick hitler's out of europe and we did it it's amazing that's essentially the sum up of this whole day. and actually today it's putin who threatens the security of europe and the whole north atlantic alliance and the rules of the road that the united states led an implemented for the world in the international world order after world war ii, all that's a threat and it scared right now, well, in terms of what is it threat, what is it's taking or tom hanks talking about the importance of storytelling, the storytelling in this moment we live in this age of misinformation and disinformation and there's also a sense in many ways, as i know, you know, all too well, that a number of perhaps world leader there's and even citizens in democracies at this point don't see this threat in the same way and don't necessarily feel the democracy is. >> in fact under attack the way that we are hearing it is from these leaders. this morning. is there a sense that these ceremonies today, that this reminder of what happened 80 years ago could change that well, i think there's certainly a hope i'm clearly if people are paying attention, it is obviously going to jog people's memories. >> you know, who have memories and maybe inspire those who have no, not much about it. i think i spoke too to several people here today who felt that if the time came, let's save the homeland was attached to all that kind of thing. then they would rush to its defense as as as you've seen ukrainians do today in their country. and what you saw on d-day and throughout the whole of the liberation of europe, back in the 1940s. and you know that right now, democracy is under attack all over the world authoritarianism is on the rise, and this is a real problem, even this weekend, they're going to be elections to the european parliament and it stores but that the far parties, whether it's in france, in germany, in the netherlands elsewhere, we'll do very, very well. and this is incredibly, incredibly worrying. but again, biden raised what reagan said 40 years ago, that democracy is worth dying for our countries are worth dying for, because this democracy and this freedom as reagan said, is the most noble form of government ever devised. >> and biden essentially reprised that thought and he is framing a lot of what he speaks about today and tomorrow. >> he'll go to plan to hawk just overlooking omaha beach and give another big speech there tomorrow. and it's all framed in this notion that what we have is worth fighting for. and if we do not fight for it, we will lose it. and that is a very clear, clear situation right now. >> yeah, absolutely. and so many so many parallels that speech around paul reagan, some 40 years ago, really coming up again and again christiane. appreciate it as always. thank you so much i want to continue the conversation now with retired air force colonel and scene and military analysts cedric late and colonel latent defense secretary lloyd austin, earlier today said, at toward the end of his speech, you save the world, speaking to those veterans, they're saying we must it's now defendant has christiana and i were just talking about i'm wondering if that message for you hits different this year well, i think it really hits differently because of the really the strife that we're dealing with politically as well as some of the challenges that we're dealing with especially when it comes to ukraine, but also the challenges in the middle east all of these come out in a way that really makes it difficult for us to focus on what these people did a bag 80 years ago. >> and what our job really is today, because today we have an obligation not only to defend democracy, but to solidify democracy. not only here you're at home, but also abroad. and it has proven to be, as unworkable as it seems to be in many cases. it really is the best form of government that man has devised so far and that is what it was worth fighting for back 80 years ago. and it's worth fighting for today. and that becomes erika, i think one of the critical elements here we are in essence celebrating not only what they did on d-day, the immense logistical achievements, the immense achievements in terms of intelligence, in terms of military operations. but also the fact that they rolled back a tyranny back then and now we have to carry that torch forward to de to do, in essence, the same thing and make sure that tyranny doesn't really grab a foothold. aware, it shouldn't grab a foothold and that's really anywhere on earth we're talking so much about what this means today in the broader context, right? the diplomacy that we're seeing it play the very important speeches, but there is also such a personal element to this. and it's very moving. these ceremonies are so moving not just because of what they represent, right? what could have been where this not successful, but also because of these gentlemen who we you see gather their average age of 100. this is likely one of the last milestone anniversaries, which will have veterans who were there on that day at those ceremonies. and i know there's a personal connection and your family as well, just let's talk about that moment. if we could, because i think this is what really hits a lot of americans in the gut and really inspires that gratitude for veterans across this country to see these gentlemen who, as we know, this greatest generation, they didn't talk about what they did. that was not the point here they are today. it is so moving. >> it really is. and erika, when you look at the faces of these gentleman and a few ladies out there who, who served during that time, you really see not only a pride in what they did, but also that's stoicism that i think was part of the way they did things. and in my personal as far as my family is concerned, my dad served in world war two as an army and ceo with that particular point in time. and he was in the intelligence business. he was a signals intelligence operator and one of the things that happened as d-day was basically evolving as it was unrolling on the shores of normandy. all the radio traffic from the germans, from the british from some of the resistance forces in france, in belgium, all of that radio traffic increased exponentially plea networks that had been silent for a long time, all of a sudden came back to life. and this was the moment that many people in occupied europe had been waiting for. i occupied france said suffered for three years, four years at that point in time, the under nazi occupation patient i, other parts of europe had suffered for even longer periods of time. this was the beginning of the ability to turn back the tide there had been an invasion of italy earlier. there was also an invasion of southern france, but this was the preeminent invasion, and this was the one that made the difference in western and central europe. >> yeah, they really did kernel always appreciate talking with you, my friend, but especially today. thank you. >> thank you. eric and our live coverage will continue as world leaders commemorate this 80th anniversary of d-day the increase in wildfires is exponential unpredictable uncontrollable overwhelming kotb. consequences. >> the need to do something is urgent this violet birth, when we have schreiber and the at night of on cnn, why choose asleep numbers smart bad? >> can it keep me warm when i'm cold wait. >> no, i'm always hot. 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millionth monthly coffee subscription boxes. so we're sending custom. thank you gifts to our team, our customers rep is just as excited as we are and knows what great quality products to get celebrate your milestones with custom gear, get started today at customer i'm dr. sanjay gupta and this is cnn breaking news to bring you back here in the hunter biden case. i want to go straight to my colleague, paula reid. polo, a star witness, just called. what more can you tell us? >> that is exactly right. hallie biden. so the widow of hunter's a late brother, bo biden, has just taken the stand and she is really the most significant way fitness for the prosecution because they have said that she is going to testify to hunter's drug use around the time he purchased the firearm at the center of this case. now, she was also romantically involved with hunter for a time and she he is the one who tossed the gun that he purchased into a dumpster where it was eventually recovered. and we expected to hear from her yesterday after hearing testimony from hunter biden his ex-wife, and his ex-girlfriend, but she is arguably the most significant witness for the prosecution because right now they are obviously charging hunter out lying on a form when he purchased just a firearm, when he said that he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs but they have not presented any direct evidence, anything that would prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt that he was indeed tv using illegal drugs in october 2018, they have people testifying they saw him using drugs as late as september 2018, but they don't have any direct evidence and she is the most likely person who's gonna be able to provide that for the prosecution to all eyes on that witness stand to hear what she has to say in this case polo, this is just the most recent, so we heard from both his ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend yesterday laying out what they did or didn't see around the time of this gun purchase. >> this is so significant thi