Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for being with me this sunday. Im fredricka whitfield. We begin in Southern France where right now the leaders of the g7 summit have gathered now for an official dinner. This is just moments ago. They were gathering outside before going in. See nice friendly kisses there with President Trump and Angela Merkel of germany. This is a rather unique moment of this threeday event when all seven of the leaders of the worlds Major Economies seen together, looks like an image of unity, right . This coming as President Trump sends rather mixed messages over his growing trade war with china. Initially, the president saying he has second thoughts about the escalating standoff with beijing and then later, the white house reversed course saying the president s only regret was not raising tariffs even higher on the chinese. Adding intrigue and confusion amid the global tensions, irans Foreign Ministers surprise arrival at the summit to meet on the sidelines with his french counterpart. A Trump Administration official calling the visit a, quote, curveball. Earlier today President Trump was asked about the news of irans javad zarifs arrival. Mr. President , on a separate issue, there are reports that the Iranian Foreign minister is coming to biarritz. Can you confirm that and if you plan to meet with him . No comment. The iranian official says he came at the invitation of france to review an antinuke commitment which the u. S. Has withdrawn from. The french president says g7 leaders are looking for a way to ease the growing tension between the u. S. And iran. Cnns chief White House Correspondent jim acosta is covering all these developments for us at the summit. So, jim, you know, this surprise visit, the white house calling it a curveball, what is meant by that . Right. Well, i think it means that they werent really expecting this to take place. At least not heading into this summit. And then it took place and i think some of the backstory here, fredricka, is that the french president Emmanuel Macron would very much like to get President Trump onboard with this multilateral approach to curbing Irans Nuclear ambiti ambitions. The president doesnt want to do that, he wants to take on iran by himself. You heard the pressutreasury sey earlier in the day saying the president would meet with iranian leaders if that were to come to pass. He has no preconditions for that. It didnt end up happening. Javad zarif met with the french president Emmanuel Macron and did not meet with President Trump. Were seeing the leaders going into their dinner tonight at the g7, just saw what they describe as the family photo. Just a few moments ago. And you saw the president and president macron exchanging some words. Theyve been doing this throughout this g7 summit. As you saw, earler in the day, the president making those comments about having second thoughts about his trade war with china and then the white house reversing on that. There have been so many distractions for this president on this trip and a lot of that overshadowed what was going to be something the white house wanted to rally around and that is the president announcing this new trade agreement with the japanese Prime Minister shinzo abe. So the president as we have seen at many of these summits on the world stage, he makes his own waves and sometimes those waves overcome his message of the day and some of the things they would like to tout coming out of these summits and that happened here today, fredricka. All while that is taking place, you had a conversation with white house adviser Stephen Miller who has been leading up the Trump Administrations immigration approach and policies. What did he have to say . Thats right. Yeah, he typically travels with the president on these trips, fredricka, because he writes a lot of the president s speeches so it wasnt a big surprise to see Stephen Miller here but he was talking about the issue of immigration. He has been the ashlrchitect of many of the administrations controversial immigration policies and he was talking to reporters earlier this afternoon here in france about this new policy that the administration has to hold migrant families with children longer than the 20day requirement that is part of the socalled flores settlement. I pressed Stephen Miller on whether or not if the administration can scrap the requirements that are baked into that agreement, whether or not the administration is comfortable with the prospect of detaining children for extensive periods of time. Heres what he had to say. What about the people who dont want to see americans dont want to see kids detained far long period of time. What americans dont want to see are children being smuggled in record numbers across our border to take advantage of a loophole created by our court system. Americans want to see an immigration system that doesnt put children in harms way. The only way to accomplish that end is to make sure that smuggling a child does not guarantee entry or admission into the country. Why should this change will dramatically reduce instances of child smuggling. Including instances of fraudulent families which weve seen a huge uptick in in recent years, again, to try to take advantage of the flores ruling. Then they get locked up in the u. S. Thenlocked up on the border. This will end the incentive for child smuggling, hopefully all decent people can agree our immigration system should have no incentives, no rewards for the smuggling of children which is heinous and must be stopped. The president totally on board why do people thanks, steve. Reporter so, fredricka, you hear Stephen Miller there trying to defend the administrations policy saying this is going to end the incentive for child smuggling but as you and i have been talking about, you dont only see children coming to the border with the u. S. And mexico because of child smuggling, in many cases, you have families coming across the border, many times mothers and children and those children are not being smuggled and so what you saw there during that exchange is Stephen Miller, the architect of many of these immigration policies for the administration, not really answering the question about these the prospect of lengthy child detentions if the administration is successful with this new policy. Right. And also trying to change the narrative of the intention of the crossing of the border involving so many children by this blanket statement of, you know, child smuggling. All right. Jim acosta, thank you so much. Thats right. All right. With me now is vali nassar, a professor at the school for advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins university, also an expert on iran and the middle east. Good to see you. I want to talk to you mostly about this surprise visit of irans foreign minister at the invitation of france. So catching so many of the other leaders, particularly the u. S. , by surprise, the u. S. , in fact, calling it a curve ball. So in your view, you know, how clever or, perhaps, cunning was this invitation . It might be a curve ball for officials in the Administration Like john bolton or secretary pompeo, but im not sure it was a curve ball for President Trump. I think the perception has been that all the initiatives that have happened before like when Prime Minister of japan went to iran was undermined by the white house, by bolton and pompeo. President macron decided to do something that would sideline those american leaders that he thought were undermining an engagement with iran. He had met with irans foreign minister in paris a week ago. He had lunch with President Trump yesterday. So i would assume that macron was negotiating already between iran and President Trump directly and President Trump, perhaps, knew that this was going on and by having the Iranian Foreign minister come to biarritz, it was a way of nailing down at least certain elements that he was talking to both parties about. In your view, is this macron trying to trying hard to try and bring, you know, trump, you know, in some facetoface conversation with an iranian representative, not the foreign minister, than perhaps this is a prelude to the kind of talks that the president has been boasting that hed be an advocate of . I think so. First of all, the Iranian Foreign minister coming to biarritz is a very big signal because he would have come with approval of irans Supreme Leader and iranian president. He didnt come there on his own. So that this already shows that iran is willing to engage trump. And i think before they get into kind of a big talk about the Nuclear Issues and the larger issues, they have to arrive at some preliminary agreements that would deescalate tensions that have been at heightened between them. That means tanker attacks in the persian gulf. Drone attacks. Threats that have been going back and forth between iran and the u. S. Perhaps the two sides can make an agreement that would deescalate the situation and pave the way for engagement. And i think the iranians by coming to biarritz suggested theyre willing to engage and perhaps macron heard things from trump at lunch then he conveyed to the Iranian Foreign minister when he had his meeting with him. Do you see potentially the other g7 leaders are more willing and maybe at this g7 summit more willing to come into agreement or talks with iran and this kind of underscores a g6 plus 1, you know, kind of concept, that it would be the u. S. Would be the only one left out. No, i think that nearttheory already been disproved. We had two years when the europeans have been able to do absolutely nothing to save the nuclear deal. Theyve been under pressure from the United States not to do business with iran and they have basically complied. The main function of the others is basically now to play the role of the intermediary. Which macron is doing. You know, macron is saying i cannot keep this deal going by myself, france cannot do business with iran but maybe what i can do is talk to both sides and see whether i can play the role as a mediator and seems france is much more successful as a mediator than it is as a war power that could keep the deal alive. So this meeting, you know, also coming after the Israeli Military says it foiled an imminent largescale attack by Iranian Forces in northern israel with a series of air strikes near the syrian capital of damascus. So could that incident have played a role in irans decision to say, yes, ill show up . No, i dont think so. I think israel has been hitting iranian targets in syria for the better part of the last four, five months and have been all fairly severe. Have even hit iranian targets inside of iraq. It has killed mere yayriads of revolutionary guards commanders and soldiers in the last several months. This is nothing new. Maybe its more intense than the last ones but its nothing new and the process between iran and the United States unraveling, turning into tanker attacks, talk of talks, failed attempts to engage, has also been going on for a while. And macron started his process of starting to use the g7 as a way of breaking through to President Trump and to iran about two, three weeks ago, and he met with the Iranian Foreign minister last week. He met with trump at lunch yesterday and talked about iran at length with trump. So this is a project that macron embrace ed knowing the g7 woulde happening, he would have an opportunity with trump. Let me say quickly, iran surprised trump idea by asking for an impromptu lunch for trump which was not on the agenda. Thats true, two surprises. It really started yesterday. Okay. All right. Vali nasr, always good to see you. Its been too long. Thanks for coming back. Thank you. All right. Still ahead, two town halls, one big night. 2020 president ial candidate Steve Bullock and bill de blasio take to the stage and comes as the two try to secure their spots for the next democratic debate. Plus, celebrities descend on dayton, ohio, the scene of a mass shooting just three weeks ago. How theyre inviting others to take a stand against gun violence. Work so hard give it everything you got strength of a lioness tough as a knot rocking the stage and we never gonna stop all strength, no sweat. Just in case you forgot all strength. No sweat secret. All strength. No sweat. 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Detergent alone doesnt kill bacteria but adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99. 9 with 0 bleach. Lysol. What it takes to protect. ® all right. They have struggled to crack 1 in the polls. Tonight 2 of the 21 democratic hopefuls will get another chance to make their pitch to voters as cnns president ial town hall series continues. Montana governor Steve Bullock takes the stage at 6 00 p. M. Followed by new york city mayor bill de blasio at 7 00. It comes days before the deadline to qualify for the third democratic debate. Neither de blasio nor bulliock have made the cut so far. Joining me, jess mcintosh. And basal, former executive director of the new york state democratic party. Good to see you both. Good to be here. Thanks. In our latest cnn poll voters were asked to name up to three candidates besides their current choice for the nomination they that wanted to hear more about and it was bill de blasio who got 2 , Steve Bullock who got 1 , so, jess, what do these candidates need to say tonight to grab attention . Well, you know, honestly, im not sure there is a ton that bill de blasio can do tonight. He got a lot of airtime on the debates that he was able to be on stage in. I think he showed people who he was and what he was about and people maybe didnt react as positively to that as he would like. Steve bullock on the other hand, i think is one of the candidates who is right now polling at that under 1 who really does have the opportunity to make a different compelling message. Hes the governor of a red state that is very hes very popular in montana. Right now, hes the only governor of a red state who is running for president. So i think that experience might give him a way to differentiate himself from other candidates. Town hall format is fantastic because you can actually tell anecdote, can tangent, show your sense of humor. Youre in the spotlight. Youre not competing with anything. This is a big moment for him. Or anyone. Weve seen several candidates, however, you know, quit the race in just the past week including washington governor jay inslee, massachusetts congressman seth moulton, so, you know, 2 1 left. Is the writing on the wall for those at the bottom of the pack to make an impression in some way or get out . Its going to be tough, speaking as a new yorker to have bill de blasio, mayor of the center of new york and our senator, kirsten gillibrand, on the threshold of not making it to the next set of debates is a little disheartening. You talked about washington governor inslee, you know, given all thats happening in the amazon right now, id love for somebody to be on that stage to talk about climate change, so to jess point, you know, theres a lot that bill de blasio has said and other candidates have said and added to this debate and what happens is when they lead, when they exit the stage, we lose some of that messaging and some of the policy discussion which is unfortunate, but would say that as we get closer and closer and you winnow the number of candidates down i expect a little more fireworks on that stage. So thats actually something to look forward to. Yeah, while the climate k crisis is of top concern, at least with the amazon those fires, it is being those fires are intentionally set. You know, to clear land for farmers. So, you know, jess, the president has said the economy is the signature reason for why he should be reelected. A new cbs news poll found that 38 of people say they are optimistic about the economy. 35 say they are pessimistic. So, jess, do these numbers, you know, spell trouble potentially for the president . Yes, they do. We saw in other polls this week there was the cnn poll that said people were those numbers about people feel