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Two States: Reinstating Travel Ban Would "Unleash Chaos Again"; Legal Battle Over Trump's Travel Ban; Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals Could Rule This Week; Police Investigating Wave Of Anti-Semitic Vandalism; SNL Takes On Trump, Bannon, And Spicer. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 06, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a new CNN/ORC poll revealing President Trump's approval ratings two weeks into his term. CNN political director, David Chalian, joins us to break down the numbers. What's the headline?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, Chris. Well, the headline is that overall approval rating number. Take a look here, 44 percent approve, 53 percent disapprove. There's no honeymoon here for Donald Trump.

In fact, look at that 44 percent number through history, how it compares to all the previous presidents for which we have polling, it's way at the bottom here. Look at these honeymoons that Obama, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Carter had.

President Trump 44 percent, no honeymoon whatsoever. Now what about that travel ban policy? How is the country reacting to that? A majority are oppose, 53 percent of Americans oppose the travel ban, 47 percent in favor but partisanship matters here.

Look at this 47 percent by party, 12 percent of Democrats are in favor, 46 percent of independents, 88 percent of Republicans, where you sit on the partisan divide is how you see the travel ban issue.

And then the Supreme Court, he nominated Neil Gorsuch last week, take a look at this, 49 percent of the country, a plurality does believe Gorsuch should be confirmed. This is about where Alito (ph) and Sotomayor (ph) were when those presidents first rolled out those justices -- Chris.

CUOMO: Very interesting. David, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, coming up, he scored the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, and in a few minutes, he will be here, Patriot's running back, James White.

CUOMO: But first, the fate of President Trump's travel ban is now in legal limbo. What will happen if the executive order in the courts? We have the man on this process is going to tell you which way it could go, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:12]

CUOMO: All right, this legal battle is playing out in realtime over the president's travel ban. The states of Washington and Minnesota just explained why they think a judge's ruling to put President Trump's travel ban on hold should stand. What happens next? How does this turn out?

Let's discuss with Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School. My mentor, always good to see you. Do you believe that Trump's lawyers did him a disservice and kind of set themselves up for early failure in this process?

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Absolutely. They foolishly tried to get the Ninth Circuit to issue a reversal of the stay in Washington without briefs being filed on both sides. Any good lawyer would know that they would be turned down for that and that they'd be headlines all over the world saying that Trump lost. They should never have done that.

They should have simply asked to schedule an expedited appeal with the briefing schedule, which is what the court ultimately did. Look, almost everybody who's been analyzing this problem has been taking extreme positions.

Either the entire executive order is unconstitutional or the entire executive order is constitutional. The reality is that parts of it are probably constitutional. Parts of it are probably unconstitutional.

All of it are terrible, terrible policy, but policy and constitutionality do not get equated when you get litigation in courts of appeals.

CUOMO: So I want to get what you think happens here, but one step sideways for a second, do you believe or do you agree with any of the criticism that the president didn't just criticize the judge by calling him a so-called judge and blaming him for any negative outcomes, but that he questioned the constitutional check and balances and that it was actually a more profound wrong?

DERSHOWITZ: I do. I have an op-ed on that today in which I talk about how this case really shows how our system of checks and balances though it's not efficient and often not pretty is so essential to protecting our country when you have one party controlling the White House and one party controlling the Senate or the House.

At least you have a judiciary which is comprised of judges appointed over a many, many year period by many judges and it serves as a really effective check and balance, but it causes confusion and difficulty and inefficiency but that's what the framers had in mind.

And so if you're an originalist, you should be praising our system of checks and balances and praising the judiciary from becoming involved. Here you have one judge in Washington State ruling one way and you have a judge in Boston Massachusetts ruling another way. You have different opinions coming out.

Ultimately, the case comes probably to the Supreme Court, which sits divided 4-4 because the Republican senators wouldn't give a hearing to the previous nominee, President Obama. That's part of what is causing the mess and the new justice nominee will not get to the court in time to become the ninth justice to resolve the dispute.

CUOMO: Let's talk about the outcome, but interestingly to your point about checks and balances and what the court can provide, I think you'll have a Carter and Obama and H.W. Bush nominee who will be seeing this in (inaudible), in bench, which means the whole Ninth Circuit panel will hear the case so how do you think it comes up?

DERSHOWITZ: Well, they all have one thing in common. They're all partial law professors. They all have taught law. I think they tend to be on the quote, "liberal side" of this issue but, you know I do think that they're going to strike down some of the provisions as unconstitutional as they relate to American persons.

People who are in the country lawfully and people that are permanent residents, but I think they will have difficulty striking down some of the provisions that apply to strangers, a family from Yemen that's never been in the country that applies for the visa in the American conciliate -- they don't give them a visa.

[06:40:10]There's no constitutional right to get a visa. On the other hand, the First Amendment doesn't only talk about constitutional rights, it says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

And a good lawyer and there will be good lawyers in this case can argue that this is a prohibition not only Congress but on the president and here we have a law that establishes religion by preferring Christianity over Islam.

Now the executive agreement doesn't say that but obviously President Trump made it clear that the statute is designed to protect Christians. The answer on the other side is Christians in fact are a persecuted minority in some of these countries so it's a rational distinction.

This is far from over and it's not easy to predict and nobody should believe people who say in broad terms this is either completely constitutional or unconstitutional. I suspect we are going to see a calibrated nuanced decision, which gives something to both sides.

CUOMO: And it might wind up at the Supreme Court. Alan Dershowitz, thank you very much. Appreciate it as always.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, now to this story, there's been a spike in anti- Semitic language and graffiti spreading across the country, but love still shines through. We will tell you where this is happening and how people are responding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAMEROTA: There is a wave of anti-Semitic hate crimes. They are being investigated in major cities across the U.S. Vandals breaking into synagogues and plastering public spaces with swastikas. But some communities are banding together to combat hate with love. CNN's Brynn Gingras has more.

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[06:45:04]BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the New York City subway amongst all the advertisements hateful messages targeting Jewish people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who wants to see that right now?

GINRAS: So Jared Nied did something about it.

JARED NIED, ERASED ANTI-SEMITIC GRAFFITI FROM NY SUBWAY: The light bulb went on, I said, all right, who has hand sanitizer? Alcohol will clean this.

GINGRAS: The scrubbing of the anti-Semitic drawings was captured by a fellow New Yorker who posted pictures on Facebook commenting, "I've never seen so many people simultaneously reach into their bags and pockets looking for tissues and Purel."

It went viral getting the attention of Chelsea Clinton and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tweeted this picture about a separate swastika found on a train adding, "This is what New Yorkers do. We turn hate into love."

Disserving vandalism reported in other major cities this weekend as well. In Chicago, police are trying to track down this person who they believe broke out synagogue windows and placed swastika decals on the temple's front door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More of that going on these days.

GINGRAS: School officials at Rice University in Texas trying to determine who scrolled this Nazi symbol under the name Trump on a statue in the campus quad. And federal authorities have opened a probe into bomb threats made to dozens of Jewish community centers and 26 states over the past month.

DAVID POSNER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE, JCC ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA: It is significant. We have not seen things like this before. Isolated incidents may be but nothing like this.

GINGRAS: Back on the subway, Nied says he hopes even his small act erases the hate he says he is now seeing more than ever.

NIED: If we all come together and you know, pool what we have we can get through this. We can fight this. We can resist.

GINGRAS: Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: Only thing I disagree with is it wasn't a small act. Who knows? If not for that first action maybe no other one follows and we don't have this story. We don't have this reminder that especially in New York. That's what we are. We are our diversity for strength and always have been and always will be.

CAMEROTA: The subways in New York are the melting pot extraordinaire. Just take one ride on the subway, and you see what, you know, New York is made of.

CUOMO: Purel and tissues apparently. That's two of the main ingredients.

CAMEROTA: You know what, that can fix a lot.

CUOMO: All right, up next, "Saturday Night Live" taking on another member of the Trump White House. Where does Melissa McCarthy's show stopping imitation of Press Secretary Sean Spicer rank in SNL's long line of political spoofs?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I wanted to ask about the travel ban on Muslims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:51:22]

CAMEROTA: All right, you have to see this. "Saturday Night Live" taking on another member of the Trump administration. Melissa McCarthy stole this show with her memorable impression of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask about the travel ban on Muslims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The travel ban is not a ban, which makes it not a ban.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you just called it a ban.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I'm using your words. You said ban. You said ban.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president tweeted and I quote, "If the ban were announced with a one week notice."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just said that. It's your words. He's using your words when you use the words and he uses the back, it's circular using of the word and that's from you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We have to talk about it and we have more to show you as well as something that happened last night at the Super Bowl. CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter is here, and CNN media analyst, Bill Carter.

OK, Brian, Melissa McCarthy, I mean, she embodied Sean Spicer. She became a man. She took on some of his expressions. It was really --

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: She became Sean Spicer and we don't know yet how long this was in the works whether it was her idea. I would love to find out exactly how it came about because I think we're going to remember this for a long time. She will win awards for it and I'm sure she will be back.

CAMEROTA: But we have her --

CUOMO: Put the split screen.

CAMEROTA: Let us just enjoy this moment, but we have heard Bill that it wasn't long in the works.

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: No, it only apparently was done very late Friday when they did rehearsals the first time people saw it, but she is so perfect for it. Why did they think of her? How did they come up with it and the audience didn't realize it was her right away.

It was amazing that they could pull that off. She wasn't supposed to be on the show. It was a surprise appearance. Everything about it was spectacular including how well written it was because it really played off the extremes of what happened in the press briefing.

CAMEROTA: Some of it is verbatim.

STELTER: And not to get serious about it, but it shows a problem for the White House. We have known this White House has a credibility gap and this now showing that Spicer is a punch line at least to some people it's a problem for the White House going forward.

CAMEROTA: The SNL is very relevant and they're playing on the polarization. They get a lot of heat for things as well. Here's another part of it where she uses props to make a point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My words too big? I got to show you in pictures. Here we go, when it comes to these decisions, the constitution gives our president lots of power and Steve Bannon is the key advisor and our president will not be deterred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: She then holds up a Bullwinkle and lamb to say Muslims, which was really funny. All right, so the negative side winds becoming, wow, you are insulting the president. They have never done it like this with any other president and it shows the "us and them" that divided the country and brought Trump into power.

STELTER: That's why they're going for broke with regards to Trump. The show is always critical of presidents but more so Republican presidents.

CARTER: More so but they have done -- they have done staff before. Ron Nessen (ph) once hosted the show when he was -- and they went after Ron Zigler (ph) back in the day.

[06:55:07]They have done that but a little rare to do a press secretary because people don't know who he is unless you watch CNN during the day and see a performance like that.

CAMEROTA: And they also depicted Steve Bannon.

CARTER: Yes, they did as (inaudible) yes.

CAMEROTA: And we have a moment of that as well. Let's play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Steve. You look rested.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a long day and tired and cranky and I feel like I could just freak out on somebody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then maybe you should call Australia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for still accepting our refugees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Obama said America would accept 1,200 refugees. Your countries compassion will not be forgotten.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No refugees. America first, Australia sucks, prepare to go to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: It is interesting that they -- "Saturday Night Live" is really going all in on this. The show was really heavily, they did an ad about the people coming to the airports and the rules changing. Kristen Stewart comes out and first thing she talks about is the crazy loony tweets that Trump sent about her and her boyfriend. It is really unrelenting. I don't I've seen them this on the attack.

CAMEROTA: There's been a theory and I believe you are on it as well that they know that President Trump watches SNL and that they're almost like telegraphing it directly to him.

STELTER: Right. That they're programming this for one person. I saw "Entertainment" writer, Mark Harris, writing about this over the weekend. The idea that, you know, they know that the president has to tune into SNL. They are crafting these segments, for example, the Bannon one directly for him. Let's point out though the president declined to tweet about it.

CUOMO: That was impressive because this image of Bannon pulling his strings has got to hurt because he knows it's widely believed. That some of these early controversial moves seem as being his agenda in full effect and that it's hurting the president.

CARTER: Sketch ended with him at the desk, Bannon at the desk and Trump at a baby desk.

CUOMO: (Inaudible) which is also fascinated me as I've gone through my kids --

CAMEROTA: Well, there you go.

CUOMO: The interview this is never a tour de force, but did you feel that O'Reilly did himself and the audience a disservice by how light he went on the president?

CARTER: He also got news out of the guy.

CUOMO: Not at high bar.

CARTER: The stuff he was saying about Russia was so provocative. When he interviewed Obama at one point he said does it disturb you that people hate you. I mean --

CUOMO: And what Donald Trump said, so he goes 3 million people, forget about that. Forget about that. He waves off Bill O'Reilly. Bill O'Reilly shuts up and lets him keep talking about the registration thing.

CAMEROTA: May I just piggy back on this and say that Bill O'Reilly has said I'm not there to be a fact checker. Now if you're a journalist, aren't you there to be a fact checker?

STELTER: It was strange at one point, yes, you are and you should drill down a little deeper on some of these issues. There is 30 minutes we haven't seen yet so maybe there's some news in the rest of the interview, but in that voter fraud segment, O'Reilly seemed to agree with Trump.

Trump said, many people agree with me that 3 plus million people voted illegally and O'Reilly said, yes, that's right but you need the data. Eventually Trump said forget about it. We'll have an investigation and the vice president is going to run it.

O'Reilly said that's good. We need to get to the bottom of this. So O'Reilly was certainly supporting the president.

CARTER: He didn't go back and say those are registered. He could have said like your daughter was registered.

CUOMO: We haven't seen him going back to each of those topics and pointing out obvious mistakes. STELTER: I agree he was a more subdued version of O'Reilly. I would have like to see the more fiery Bill O'Reilly that interviewed President Obama.

CUOMO: I have to tell you I don't think you do the president any favors either because we both interviewed him. He is at his best when challenged.

CAMEROTA: Brian, Bill, thank you.

All right, thank you to our international viewers and for you, "CNN NEWSROOM" is next. For our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president has the ability to determine who has access to this country when it comes to national security.

CUOMO: The intensifying legal battle over President Trump's controversial travel ban.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have three branches of government. They are equal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think really what matters at the end of the day are the results.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Why you think our country is so innocent?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has the U.S. ever made any mistakes, of course. Is the U.S. at all like Putin's regime? Not at all.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I respect a lot of people but that doesn't mean I'm going to get along with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy is a fraud.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We can be babies. When you take a look at the registration, you have illegals, dead people -- really a bad situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do begin with the legal fight over President Trump's controversial travel ban. A federal appeals court refusing to re --