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Eagles Coach Speaks After White House Visit Was Canceled; Rep. Ryan on Trump's Self-Pardon Comment, No One Is Above The Law, Democrats And Republicans Have Plenty To Celebrate. Aired: 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 06, 2018 - 10:30   ET

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

MANU RAJU, CNN: -- and we'll see how the President and the White House reacts because so far, the President has continued to make these unsubstantiated charges.

POPPY HARLOW, HOST, NEWSROOM: Guys, hold one second. Let's listen to the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, the uninvited team at the White House yesterday.

DOUG PEDERSON, COACH, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: I am not discussing it. It is over. What you've seen and what you've heard is enough and I am not discussing that. I am not going to stand here and discuss it because we get two OT practices, I have got a mandatory camp next week and I am focused on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is your team right now?

PEDERSON: Excuse me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is the mood on your team right now?

PEDERSON: Great. The team is great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coach, how is that you that you're up here having to answer these questions instead of (inaudible)?

PEDERSON: No. No. We are united. We are a team. Been that way - been that way since I have been here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do make sure, coach (inaudible)...

PEDERSON: We are focused on today. We are focused on getting a great practice in today, tomorrow, three days next week and our goal is 2018 and that's motivation enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you (inaudible) situation with these players in the team meeting?

PEDERSON: No. No, I mean, listen, it's no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're taking that (inaudible) guys practiced yesterday (inaudible) anybody talking about?

PEDERSON: Nobody was talking about it. Nobody. It is over. It is behind us. We are moving on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) out there today. (Inaudible) leadership (inaudible)...

BRIANNA KEILAR, HOST, NEWSROOM: All right, Coach Doug Pederson, the Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles there commenting after the Philadelphia Eagles were disinvited from the White House.

I do want to bring back our panel to talk about the other breaking news that we are following which is that the House Speaker Paul Ryan really in a way, Poppy, kind of playing referee here because Trey Gowdy and Devin Nunes who is the head of the Intel Committee, they had gotten the same briefing when it came to this idea really that President Trump has wrongfully propagated, this idea of spygate, that the Obama administration put a spy in his campaign. This conspiracy theory that he has been sowing persistently on Twitter, we have seen that.

And he really sided with Trey Gowdy here. I want to bring in Shimon Prokupecz, you have been covering the fact check on this. We have been talking about, you know, over and over how the President is saying is alleging spy gate, when really, it's not even a real thing. So, what does this do? What is the significance of this where you have the House Speaker saying that there is no evidence to the contrary that Trey Gowdy's initial assessment following this briefing about what happened was accurate?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER, CNN: This is pretty huge and significant - what Ryan there is saying is essentially backing up what the FBI, certainly people we have talked to, people at the Department of Justice have all been saying and this is hugely significant in that they have been beat up by this President. The FBI has been beat up by this President.

The fact that they have the Speaker now coming out in support of them cannot be understated. In light of also the fact that we have an Inspector General report probably coming out within the next week which is going to hit the FBI very hard on some of the handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation and some other stuff, so this happening today is significant for many reasons.

Also, for the Special Counsel because Robert Mueller and his team, they - the FBI there still has a very active investigation into Russian interference. Again, this idea that the FBI planted a spy in the campaign, certainly some of the people who I have talked to, who have said, this idea is ludicrous, it is ridiculous. It never happened.

Yes, there was a confidential informant whose name is probably out there now as we all know, no longer confidential, yes, that has happened and that is out there and they did use a confidential informant, but there was never a spy.

They never used any one to spy on the campaign. I don't think that this could be understated. What this will do for the FBI, I would not be surprised that if people within the FBI, the leadership at the FBI was trying to put some pressure on people on The Hill, certainly leaders on The Hill, a Republican leader to come out in support of them and this is what this does today, this sort of helps the FBI, it supports the FBI and their mission and what they have been doing in this investigation.

HARLOW: Shimon, thank you for that reporting, and let's also bring back Carrie Cordero, our legal analyst who is with us as well. And Kerry, just talking about how the FBI operates within the legal bounds of its ability to do its job and to run counter intelligence investigations.

Remember, this all started in 2016 because they were concerned - top intelligence officials about Russian meddling in our election. This confidential source was placed where they were placed to find out about nefarious action by Russia, not to spy on then Candidate Trump.

CARRIE CORDERO, LEGAL ANALYST, CNN: Well, that's right, so it is so important to remember that history which is that this investigation began originally as a counterintelligence investigation in the FBI even before there was ever a Special Counsel.

[10:35:14]

CORDERO: And so, what they have determined from the intelligence community and from the FBI's own investigation is that there were certain things that were concerning from a counterintelligence perspective and they needed to find out more about whether or not there was inappropriate or potentially illegal or intelligence operations being conducted by the Russians against the Trump campaign.

And so, placing an informant, using an informant in an investigation is something that actually it is considered from an investigative standpoint, least intrusive. It's low intrusive. In other words, it doesn't require a court approval. It doesn't require probable cause and so it is an investigative technique.

Is it unusual to have to do it in the context of a Presidential campaign? Of course. But there is not anything credible that has been asserted that reveals that they did anything inappropriate and Trey Gowdy coming out recently and making that point has really been important and Paul Ryan now also underscoring that Trey Gowdy's assessment that there really is no credible allegation that the FBI did anything wrong and there is no credible support for the President's allegation is very important.

KEILAR: All right, thank you all so much for talking with us about this. Carrie Cordero, Shimon Prokupecz, Manu Raju and Mark Preston as the House Speaker, the Republican House Speaker cast doubt on President Trump's spy gate conspiracy theory, poking some big holes in it, Poppy. And we will be right back with more.

[10:40:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Well, this morning, we're still counting ballots in parts of California, but also this morning, Democrats and Republicans have plenty to celebrate. Our Miguel Marquez says, I think Miguel had been up all night, am I right?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: I have been up all night and most of yesterday as well, so God knows what is going to come out of my mouth for the next couple of minutes.

HARLOW: Oh, I am bracing myself. Well, tell me what happened. Tell me what happened.

MARQUEZ: Well, look, they both do have something to celebrate. Republicans weren't sure that they were going to have anybody at the top of the ticket in California to drive voters out in November and they may have two.

Certainly, at the Governor's race, Gavin Newsom; the Democrat former Mayor of San Francisco. He advances easily. That number two spot though, that was the big question. John Cox who got the support of Donald Trump, he will face Gavin Newsom in November and the Senate race isn't decided either.

Dianne Feinstein advances easily to the general, but that number two slot - will it be Kevin De Leon from her left or will it be a Republican from her right. those votes are still being counted. Democrats are also very concerned about whether they were going to lock themselves out of races here because of the jungle primary where regardless of party, the top two vote getters advance to the November general that didn't happen.

There were several races, one, two, three races that would have complicated their effort to retake the House in November. It looks like in every district, Democrats will be on the ballot in November. There are still two that are being counted, California 10 where the Republican, Jeff Denham will go on to the general election, but there is a Democrat and a Republican who are still looking for that number two spot, and then California 48, that's again a Rohrabacher seat, he will go on to November, but then there are two Democrats and one Republican all fighting for the second place and those voters are still being counted. Lots of votes to be counted across California.

But as Donald Trump sort of - his sword sort of cuts both ways, as well. He helped John Cox in California. He hurt Martha Roby in Alabama. This is a Congresswoman who was very critical of Donald Trump in 2016 when the "Access Hollywood" tape came out. She now faces a runoff in Alabama. One other possible sort of indirect Donald Trump effect is women. Women did very well across the country, a few notable ones in South Dakota, a Republican, Kristi Noem. She won the nomination there, so she could very well be the first female Governor of South Dakota. In Iowa, two women - Democratic women will advance to the general election and they could very well become the first women - female members of the Iowa House.

And in New Mexico, the land of my people, Deb Haaland, she may be the first Native American female to be in Congress. So big night for women across the country. Back to you.

HARLOW: A lot of potential first there. You made it through, Miguel, now go take a nap. Thank you. KEILAR: That was so funny, all right, let's bring in...

HARLOW: That was such an impressive performance. When I get no sleep, I mean, I can't even put a sentence together.

KEILAR: I know, amazing that he can keep it all straight. I want to bring in CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer and Nina Turner to talk about all of these with us. So, Nina, not - you know, this wasn't a shellacking for Democrats. It's not the blue wave either though.

NINA TURNER, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Well, you know, there's still more time. I mean, the key for the Congress, in particular the House is for Democrats to gain 23 net seats. Last night showed that they are solidly in position. I believe, they want to try to get one third of those seats to happen in California, so the Democrats are out. They are energized and we've got more primaries to go.

HARLOW: Tara, let's talk about the California governor's race. I mean, John Cox - the President tweeting about him. Support helped a lot. He doubled the amount of votes that Villaraigosa, the Mayor of Los Angeles got. How big was Trump's endorsement for him?

[10:45:10]

TARA SETMAYER, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: Well, obviously, it had - its impact there, which I think should be concerning to the Democrats given how much money the DCCC and others have invested in California. They squeaked by in a lot of these areas.

I mean Cox is still a long shot for the Governorship, but it's certainly was not - I don't believe, if you look at even with the Congressional races, it really wasn't the knock out performance I think Democrats wanted.

I mean, it's better and despite having a 69% increase in turnout since 2014 for Democrats, in this competitive seven districts, almost all of the Republicans performed over 50%. So, that's probably not where a Democrat necessarily want to be. So, they are going to spin this and say, "Well, at least we made it into the top two."

But for the amount of money and resources they put there, it is not a slam dunk for them in California.

KEILAR: No, it's not and Tara, I mean, according to our reporting, the Cox campaign wasn't even expecting that endorsement, right?

SETMAYER: Right. Because he wasn't a Trump guy really. He kind of wasn't initially.

KEILAR: Yes, and then it comes through and it seems to make really all of the difference for him, so that's got to be pretty startling for Democrats.

SETMAYER: Absolutely. I think Nina would probably agree that seeing that level - that kind of boost in California, which has been ground zero I think for Democrats in a lot of ways thinking that they are going to be able to pick up some seats there and because it seems the energy is - the momentum is on the Democrat's side, historically, even in the term elections, that is usually the case when the Party - for the Party of out of power, but to see that level of that kind of a surge where Republican state-wide in California is an interesting dynamic.

HARLOW: So, what do you do about that, Nina? I mean, what does your Party- you've held public office? What do you have to do between now and November?

TURNER: Well, it's turnout and it is organized and it is engaging voters and you know, let us not forget that you know, competition is good. I mean, I know they are both political parties, I don't necessarily like it, but this is good for a little democracy.

But the Democrats will turn out. They will be engaged and energized and November is you know, doing the work and planting the seeds that are necessary to continue to have those conversations with the voters, understanding what their lives look like. Now what they want to see into the future.

But we know that every single election cycle is about turnout and turnout is incumbent upon energizing the base and I believe that in California, we will be just fine.

KEILAR: So, Tara, Paul Ryan the Speaker, just sided with Trey Gowdy really casting doubt on this spygate conspiracy theory that the President has propagated which is you know, he says that this FBI confidential informant, he basically calls it a spy, put in his campaign by the Obama administration, something that is just factually incorrect.

What do you make about this. The House Speaker sometimes, you know, keeps his powder dry, coming out and saying, "Look, the FBI as far as he can tell did what it was supposed to do."

SETMAYER: Well, I am glad to see that there is still a shade of the old Paul Ryan that I once knew and loved and respected is still in there. Look, Paul Ryan is retiring, so he is not under the same pressure to have to twist himself into political pretzels to placate the caucus or the President.

And then something like this which has been just so dishonest on the part of the President of the United States and frankly, on the part of Devin Nunes, shame on him for the mockery he has made of the intelligence committee and that chairmanship.

I mean, Paul Ryan should have removed Devin Nunes. He is so compromised. The intelligence committee is not usually one that is supposed to be so politicized, but for them to allow that to go this whole spygate nonsense to go through for so long, is ridiculous and Trey Gowdy is a respected member, the fact that he has come under this kind of criticism for being honest that the FBI did not do what they President of the United States has been claiming, thank God, Paul Ryan came out and said that and thank God, Paul Ryan came out and said the President is not above the law about the absurdity of him pardoning himself.

They would never put up with that if I were Democrat with that assumption ever.

KEILAR: A bit of a double smack down there that we just heard there on The Hill. Thank you ladies so much...

HARLOW: Yes.

TURNER: Freedom is a beautiful thing.

KEILAR: Nina Turner - Nina, thank you so much. Tara, thank you so much to you. you know, the Philly Eagles, they didn't get a White House visit, Poppy, and the winner of the NBA finals, well, they are not going to get one either.

Andy Scholes explains why in this morning's "Bleacher Report" and we will have that next.

[10:50:00]

HARLOW: LeBron James and Steph Curry, both saying no matter who wins the NBA Finals, the teams aren't going to go to the White House.

KEILER: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." This is pretty interesting.

ANDY SCHOLES, SPORTS CORRESPONDENT, CNN: It certainly is, Brianna. Good morning to you, Poppy as well. You know this is "Bleacher Report" brought to you by Ford. Going further so you can.

Both LeBron and Steph Curry, they have spoken about this before and were asked again yesterday about a potential trip to the White House if they win the NBA Finals and LeBron saying, you know what, he was not at all surprised when he heard that the Eagles had been disinvited by President Trump.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: It's typical of him, and I am not surprised no matter who wins this series, no one is getting invited anyway, so it won't be Golden State or Cleveland going.

STEPHEN CURRY, PROFSESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER: I agree with LeBron, I am pretty sure the way we handled things last year, kind of stay consistent with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: President Trump also disinvited the Warriors last year after they won after many of their players said that they would not celebrate their championship at the White House. The team instead took a group of local kids in the nation's capital to the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Again, three of the finals is tonight. LeBron and the Cavs in a must win situation if they hope to keep their Championship dreams alive.

Tip off for that one at nine Eastern.

All right, some baseball - last night, Gabby DiMarco just taking in the Padres' Braves game with their friends when this foul ball finds its way...

[10:55:16]

SCHOLES: ... in to her beer. The crowd around her absolutely loved it and they actually started chanting for Gabby to chug that beer which she did like a champ and Poppy, Brianna, you know, it's one of baseball's unwritten rules that if a foul ball lands in your beer, you have to chug it.

KEILAR: Love it.

HARLOW: Good thing it didn't land in your beer, Bri...

KEILAR: Right.

SCHOLES: I have to pass that one off...

KEILAR: Right? Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

HARLOW: Thank you everyone for being here. Still ahead, a lot of breaking news this morning as you just saw. Sources tell CNN that President is prepared to use his pardon power in a very broad way. Stay with us for the latest.

[11:00:00]