Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

FBI Director to Warn Lawmakers of Terror Threat in U.S.; Arizona GOP Blocks Vote to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban; Judge Denies Trump's Attempt to Delay Hush Money Trial. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 11, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good morning.

We begin with the latest demand from former President Donald Trump to House Republicans, quote, kill FISA. FBI Director Christopher Wray is expected to deliver a sobering response to Trump's decree. This is no time to mess around with a law known as FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, amid the turmoil in The Middle East and following an ISIS attack in Russia that could inspire acts of terrorism here on U.S. soil. The law allows the U.S. to collect the communications of non-Americans overseas. It's up for reauthorization as it's due to expire next week.

But the continuing chaos up on Capitol Hill in the House may doom it. 19 conservative House Republicans have killed the latest effort to re authorize it, defying House Speaker Mike Johnson and obeying Trump. His marching orders on Truth Social, quote, kill FISA. It was illegally used against me and many others. They spied on my campaign, end quote. That is false, of course. We'll talk about that in just a moment.

But in the meantime, CNN's Lauren Fox is up on Capitol Hill for us. Lauren, does this create more headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson? I think I know the answer to that. And does this episode raise the question, who's in charge up on Capitol Hill?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, if it's a day that ends in why there's some chaos happening, especially in the House of Representatives, Jim. And you are highlighting one of the biggest issues for Mike Johnson right now, which is this slim majority that he has, which means every single vote, even the procedural ones, like we saw yesterday on the House floor, are very difficult to get across the finish line.

Now, there were 19 Republicans who voted against advancing this legislation yesterday. It wasn't just one or two. It wasn't just a matter of twisting one or two arms. It is very clearly a problem within his conference.

Now, we are getting new reporting this morning that Mike Johnson is optimistic that they can go back to the House Rules Committee, try to rework this process, restructure it in order to quell some of the conservative concerns that we saw demonstrated on the floor yesterday.

It's still unclear, however, whether or not that will happen today, whether that would actually resolve the issues that have been underlying since December, when leaders had to pull this bill before Christmas. And I think that there is a lot of question right now given the fact that there's an April 19th deadline, and the Senate still has to act on whatever the House does, that this is potentially heading into a situation where this may not get done ahead of the deadline.

Meanwhile, there are a number of Republicans who are deeply frustrated with the amount of tumult that they are seeing within their ranks, including Representative Troy Nehls. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): All you have to do is say, we've got seven more months to the presidential election. Let's try to not completely burn the damn place down. Let us not burn a place down. Let just get Donald Trump in here. That's it. That's what we should focus. That is why, though, we're dysfunctional. We are. It's come somewhat embarrassing and may bite us in the butt a little bit in November. But my focus is Donald J. Trump now, because nobody can manage his conference. The Lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to head to Mar-a-Lago tomorrow to meet with Donald Trump. He obviously has a hold on the Republican Party.

Now, he did have that post on Truth Social yesterday, and, certainly, people like Matt Gaetz, who were already planning to vote against the rules, said that that was a major boost for them.

But we should note that this has been a division within the Republican Party for months, for years, this division between those who want to protect the U.S. intelligence capabilities and those who are more concerned about the surveillance of Americans. But, obviously, Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are going to have a lot to talk about tomorrow.

ACOSTA: All right. Lauren Fox, thank you very much.

And let's bring in Andrew McCabe. He's CNN's senior law enforcement analyst, was deputy director of the FBI.

[10:05:00]

Andrew, thank you so much for being with us.

Let's cut through some of the noise on this. What are the consequences of this law being killed as Trump would like to see it?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes. So, let's understand exactly what we're talking about here, Jim, because what you're hearing on the Hill and from Donald Trump is really confusing the issue.

So, FISA is a big law. It has a lot of different sections. Part of it is used against people here in the United States. You go to the court for a warrant enable you to do electronic surveillance. That's not what we're talking about. Section 702 is only used to capture the communications when people meet three criteria. You have to be a foreign person in a foreign place, and the purpose of the collection has to be to get foreign intelligence.

It is our primary vision into what terrorists and spies and people who use weapons of mass destruction and nation states that use cyber tools against us what they're doing overseas.

It is an incredibly valuable tool but what makes it different from regular FISA is there are no warrants. And the reason for that is you don't have to go to court and get a warrant because people -- foreign people in foreign places are not protected by our Constitution or our Fourth Amendment.

So that's what it makes different. That's the thing that expiring on the 19th and it is absolutely essential that we get it renewed.

ACOSTA: And it's used to stop terrorist attacks, I mean, full stop. I mean, that that's the purpose of the law.

And let's go back to Trump's post on Truth Social, Andrew. He's calling on House Republicans to block reauthorizing it saying, quote, kill FISA. It was used illegally against my campaign. They spied on my campaign, end quote. Is there any truth to this?

I know we're kind of back over, relatively speaking, some ancient history and one of the Trump's old complaints dating back to the 2016 campaign.

MCCABE: Yes. So, to be clear, no, there is no truth or accuracy in that post at all. 702 authorities were never used in the course of that investigation of Donald Trump and his campaign and some of his campaign associates.

He may be referring to the FISA that was obtained to surveil Carter Page. We now know there are many mistakes in that FISA. Those are all regrettable. But that is not Section 702, a totally different thing here.

My guess, Jim, is that it's not surprising that Donald Trump is against surveillance capacity and authority for the FBI because he is someone who's been investigated by the FBI. But, nevertheless, he is absolutely wrong on this count.

ACOSTA: But when you're commander-in-chief and you have access to the presidential daily brief, for example, you have access the classified information, we will go down that road, that's a different kind of road for Donald Trump, but you are aware of what this capability does in terms of gathering intelligence information to make sure acts of terrorism are stopped before they happen on U.S. soil. And, Andrew, I mean, do want to ask you about this. Former Attorney General Bill Barr spoke to CNN about this, and Barr was ripping Trump for pressuring Republicans to block reauthorizing it. Let's listen to this, talk about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: We're faced with probably the greatest threat to the terrorist attack and our primary means of defending against that as FISA. And to take that tool away, I think, is going to result in successful terrorist attack and a loss of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Is that possible, Andrew?

MCCABE: It is absolutely possible. The former attorney general is exactly right here. And you're right, Jim, anyone who has been a consumer of the intelligence that Section 702 provides us, and that, of course, would include former President Trump, should understand the significance of that.

And then let's overlay on the time that we're talking about right now. Israel is at war with Hamas. Hamas, we know, has a presence here in the United States. The idea that we would turn off the prime vision, the prime insight that we have into terrorists who are overseas, terrorists like Hamas terrorists, who may in fact be talking to people in the United States and planning activities here.

We don't know that, but it's certainly a top priority for the FBI right now. The idea that we would turn off that flow of information, which is entirely lawful and has survived every court challenge, is just astounding to me. There is no one in the community, in the intelligence community who would support such a thing.

ACOSTA: All right, Andrew McCabe. Thank you very much for the straight talk. I always appreciate it.

[10:10:00]

All right, let's discuss more now with Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California who's on the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. Congressman, thanks for being here.

I mean, we were showing this a few moments ago, Trump encouraging House Republicans to kill FISA, and just hours later, they blocked its reauthorization over the objections of the House speaker, Mike Johnson. The speaker is sounding as though perhaps they can resurrect this, but it sounds like Donald Trump is the real speaker of the House right now.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Jim, when it comes to your safety, the safety of your viewers, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, it's just me, me, me. And so for Speaker Johnson, who has signed up to essentially run a law firm that represents Donald Trump every day in Congress, that means standing with Trump when comes to national security means standing with terrorists, and we're not going to renew this ability to track terrorists.

Standing with Donald Trump as it relates to Ukraine means standing with Putin, and standing with Donald Trump as it relates to the border means standing which chaos and disorder. That's just where he takes you. He's not interested in governing. He's not interested in solving any problem in your life. He is just interested and solving his own problems and he's now completely wrapped up the House of Representatives in that and it's going to have real consequences.

ACOSTA: And the speaker is in a tough spot. And I think a reflection of that is CNN is reporting that Johnson will travel down to Mar-a- Lago. He will appear alongside Trump at what they're calling an election integrity event. What's your reaction to that? What did you think when you saw that?

SWALWELL: Well, I'm happy that they are celebrating the most secure election ever, the 2020 election, but I am afraid that's probably not what they're doing. They're going to seek to further undermine it. And Johnson's budget, by the way, has always proposed at the behest of Donald Trump to make us less able to track foreign disinformation that would most likely benefit Donald Trump.

So, there's no election integrity coming out of Mar-a-Lago. There's only survival mode because Donald Trump has a crescendo of court cases that are finally reaching the peak of accountability. And so he's just looking at how he can win an election by any means necessary so we can avoid accountability. That's what this is about.

ACOSTA: And, I mean, Johnson's speakership, as you know, is being threatened by the likes of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She says she will bring a motion to vacate to the House floor if he delivers some form of funding for the war in Ukraine.

I talked to one of your colleagues, Congressman Krishnamoorthi. He said he would support Johnson during another possible right wing revolt if he delivers aid to Ukraine.

I mean, this is a tough nut to crack. How do you make heads or tails? What would you do in that circumstance if that comes to pass?

SWALWELL: Yes. So, I'm going to support, you know, whatever helps Hakeem Jeffries become speaker or function as speaker. Because, essentially, if you look at paying our bills to lift the debt ceiling, keeping the government open crisis after crisis, Hakeem Jeffries has delivered more votes than the Republicans. And never in the history of any parliament, certainly in our Congress, have you seen the minority party provide the majority of votes on anything of consequence.

So, am I open to it? Yes. We have to keep the government open. We have to fund Ukraine. We need security at the border. But I'm going to work with our leadership to make sure that, you know, our priorities, which are the American people's priorities, as we put people over politics are achieved here.

ACOSTA: I mean, if you don't mind me asking a follow-up, Congressman, does that mean that in the circumstance where Johnson's speakership may be going down in flames, that you might be of the mindset that perhaps that should go ahead and happen in the possibility that may come to pass that Speaker Jeffries, that Hakeem Jefferies could become the speaker of the House, if that's a scenario that might actually emerge?

SWALWELL: Again, he's the functioning speaker. He may be the actual speaker. And as I said, we are showing that we want to govern, we will provide competence in the chaos. And so I stand ready to do that. I'm open to whatever delivers, as I said, for the people over this crazy politics that Donald Trump and MAGA Mike Johnson and his gang keep bringing us.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it.

SWALWELL: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Still to come, chaos in Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame on you. Shame on you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Republicans in this state block a vote to repeal an abortion law from 1864, before Arizona was even a state. I'll speak to the head of Planned Parenthood Arizona. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

ACOSTA: Chaos erupted on the Arizona House floor last night over the Civil War-era law that bans nearly all abortions in the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The chants of shame on you after the Republican majority blocked a vote to repeal the controversial ban, it came a day after the state Supreme Court revived the 1864 law that was approved before Arizona became a state and before women could vote.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump says the ruling goes too far just days after he declared that abortion should be left up to the states. The former president also claimed he wouldn't sign a federal abortion ban if he's re-elected. That's a complete reversal of a promise he made as a candidate back in 2016, and stuck to while in office.

[10:20:03] Angela Florez joins us now. She's the president of Planned Parenthood in Arizona. Angela, what's your reaction to Arizona Republicans blocking that vote to repeal the abortion ban and what happens next in Arizona? It sounds like it's going to be on the ballot this fall.

ANGELA FLOREZ, PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD ARIZONA: Yes. You know, frankly, Jim, Arizona and really Planned Parenthood Arizona doesn't have time to think a lot about what happened on the floor of the House yesterday because we're focused on providing care for the patients as long as we possibly can. We just don't have the luxury to think about whatever chaos is happening on our legislative floor.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask about how this is impacting women in your state. But to that point that you were just making a few moments ago, there is a video circulating online of some Arizona Republican lawmakers gathering in a prayer circle on the Senate floor on Monday, just a day before the state Supreme Court ruling on abortion. That group was led by Republican State Senator Anthony Kern. And some of the folks in this group can be heard speaking in tongues. Let's take a quick listen to that.

I mean, I guess, Angela, I think I can guess how you're going to respond to this. But, I mean, how do you find common ground on this issue when it appears, I mean, this is a pretty clear example of how polarized things are politically in Arizona? You're not going to get support from folks in that prayer circle there to come to your side on this.

FLOREZ: No. Look, I mean, the prayer circle, I think, showcases just the kind of chaos that we are experiencing post this Arizona Supreme Court decision, right, that is emblematic, I think, of the chaos that our patients are experiencing when they're in our health centers, right? They need to know that they can receive care and they're confused. There's a lot of chaos. People want to know just how long we're going to be able to provide services.

Like I said, we are very, very focused on ensuring that Arizonans have access for as long as we are legally able to provide access.

ACOSTA: And so what are women in your state doing right now? If they need to seek an abortion, if they're in an emergency situation, they need to have this reproductive health care service performed, what do they do now?

FLOREZ: Sure. So, Planned Parenthood Arizona's doors are still open. We are still accepting appointments and we will be providing abortion services until the very last minute that we are legally allowed to do so.

You know, we're not slowing down. We're ramping up. In fact, we can't slow down because, as you said, right, the people in our state who need abortion care are counting on Planned Parenthood Arizona to keep our doors open and to ensure that they have full access to services.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, Angela, please keep us posted on how things develop. I know there will be lots of developments in the coming days. Angela Florez with Planned Parenthood, Arizona, thank you so much for your time this morning, we appreciate it.

FLOREZ: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Coming up, he allegedly stole millions from one of the best baseball players in the game. Ahead, how investigators believe Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter pulled this all off. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

ACOSTA: Time is running out for former President Donald Trump. Trump tried a true strategy of delaying legal proceedings and get against him as running out of runway in the hush money case. For the third time in three days, a New York judge has rejected Trump's attempt to delay his criminal trial. It's set to begin on Monday.

Let's discuss with CNN Political Commentator Karen Finney and Republican Strategist and former RNC Communications Director Doug Heye.

I mean, Doug, what are you thinking about? What are folks in the party thinking about as it looks like this trial is going to start on Monday? They're going to start the jury selection process and it's happening.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, you know, Trump has been so effective at delaying this and pushing it back further and further. There was sort of a sense that, well, maybe none of these actually get there. But what we're seeing with New York is, and we've even heard this to some extent from Democrats, this appears to be the weakest of the cases against Trump, that if his name weren't Donald J. Trump, they probably wouldn't be going through that process. Of course, he still is.

And we know what his playbook is. He's going to trash the judicial system, as he's been doing for years. He's going to declare himself both a victim and a martyr at the same time as he's done for years. What we don't know is how effective will that be, ultimately, and what happens then within the courtrooms.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Karen, it's not the January 6th case, but it is -- it's sorted. It's unseemly. It's --

KARE FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is.

ACOSTA: If you're running a campaign, it's not what you want in the headlines every day, Stormy Daniels taking the stand.

[10:30:00]

FINNEY: And we also don't know what we're going to learn about -- I mean, we've heard some of it from Michael Cohen over the years. What lengths was Trump willing to go to?