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Melania Trump in Kenya; Melania Trump to Visit Orphanage. Justice Stevens on Kavanaugh Confirmation. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET

Aired October 05, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:17] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news.

This year's Noble Peace Prize has been awarded to Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for their efforts to end sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Mukwege and his staff have treated thousands of sexual violence survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Murad was abducted with other Yazidi women in 2014 by ISIS in Iraq. You'll remember, in Sinjar, and held as a sex slave. Her family all murdered. The committee says she has shown uncommon courage in recounting her own sufferings. These two people are inspiring.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: First Lady Melania Trump is turning her attention to conservation as her four nation tour of Africa brings her to Kenya today.

CNN's Farai Sevenzo joins us now live from Nairobi where the first lady has spent today.

Good morning. Good afternoon, I should say.

FARAI SEVENZO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Erica.

Yes, she has been carrying on her African charm offensive, and it's been quite a success by the standards of someone who's launch really evolved in these kind of trips. Yes, she went to feed the elephants this morning at a wildlife trust just outside of Nairobi, where the elephants were very happy to see her feeding them with a bottle. She was dressed really in the classic kind of out of Africa by Sydney Pollack Wade or even (INAUDIBLE) "The African Queen." The jumpers, the boots. But the color was there and the stylist should be very proud of himself.

How is she being received? Everybody's very happy to see her here. I think they know which Trump they prefer. But there is a disparity between her mission to promote her Be Best educational things where her (INAUDIBLE) beyond Syria initiative, also looking after mothers and young children and the policies of her husband's administration in Africa. Remember, the still have ambassadors missing in the DRC. The very issues that she wants to talk about like child education, the United States has not tried to fight the U.N. special recommendations on the rights of children. [06:35:13] But all of this is besides the way at the moment because Mrs. Trump is being received very warmly and tonight he'll be heading off to the national gallery to get a bit of culture.

Back to you now, John.

BERMAN: All right, Farai Sevenzo, thanks very much for that report from Nairobi. We're following the first lady's trip very, very closely.

An unprecedented comment from a retired Supreme Court justice, pulling his support for Brett Kavanaugh. Why John Paul Stevens says Kavanaugh isn't fit to sit on the bench. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We're just hours away from the first vote on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. One former Supreme Court justice, John Paul Stevens, now says that Kavanaugh should not be confirmed.

Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS, FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: At that time, I thought he had definitely the qualifications for the -- to sit on the Supreme Court and should be confirmed if he was ever selected. But I -- I've changed my views for reasons that have no -- really no relationship to his intellectual ability or his record as a federal judge. He's a fine federal judge, and he should have been confirmed when he was nominated. But I think his performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:40:34] BERMAN: His performance during the hearings caused me to change my mind, Justice Stevens says. He was speaking to a reporter from "The Palm Beach Post," Frank Cerabino. He joins me now, along with CNN legal analyst and Supreme Court biographer Joan Biskupic.

Frank, let me start with you. How did you get this out of John Paul Stevens? Did you have to pry this out of the former justice?

FRANK CERABINO, NEWS COLUMNIST, "PALM BEACH POST": No, actually, this was part of a scheduled event that had nothing to do with the Kavanaugh confirmation. It had been scheduled months before by a group that provides educational opportunities for retirees. Judge Steven's bridge partner set the thing up and he agreed to speak. And this was sort of set up in the summer, and they wanted somebody to sort of lead a conversation with the justice, and they asked me to do it. And I -- I was planning to ask him about it, but he actually brought it up first.

BERMAN: He brought it up first unprompted.

CERABINO: We were talking -- yes. Well, we started talking about Citizens United, and -- and -- which is -- he wrote a very spirited descent, 86 pages, and he said that Judge Kavanaugh had been one of the judges who cited his dissent favorably. And he said, I looked at that, and then he made a joke saying something like, so I guess he's a good judge. And then -- then he went on to talk about how the confirmation hearings really soured him on Kavanaugh.

BERMAN: So, Joan, give us the history here. How unusual is it for a former Supreme Court justice to weigh in like this on the nomination of a potential justice?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's very unusual, John. And a couple things. You know, I watched the interview and Frank did a very nice job drawing out a range of comments that made it clear that Justice Stevens was not speaking off the cuff, that this was an idea that he had had and he revealed it.

And to your question of, do they usually do this, I know from looking at the correspondence of justices that they often will reach out to a nominee and say things privately, very positively behind the scenes to somebody who they're happy has been nominated, and maybe publicly give some hints of satisfaction of a new nominee, but very minimal even in that regard. But to say something so critical, I can't recall it ever happening, at least in modern times, just because the justices themselves, even retired justices, like to stay out of the fray and they certainly do not want to influence this Senate vote at this crucial point.

But I think Justice Stevens gave voice to what, frankly, many lawyers and judges and possibly even justices were thinking.

BERMAN: You say possibly even justices, which is intriguing. Do the members of the Supreme Court e-mail each other, text each other and say, hey, can you believe what this guy said?

BISKUPIC: I don't -- I don't think we will get that kind of paper trail, John. But I know that, you know, they -- they all are watching. They all are individually paying attention. Every one of them knows Brett Kavanaugh in various professional ways. Some in even personal ways. So they are paying attention. They are distressed by the turn of confirmation hearings and how politicized they've gotten. I'm sure some of them fret for what this particular nomination has become. And I know that some of his testimony last Thursday, exactly what he's tried to counter, and what Justice Stevens was speaking to, made individual justices draw back. But they are very careful not even to get a conversation going among a large group to say, get a load of this.

BERMAN: So, Frank, you know, people look at John Paul Stevens and say, oh, he was a liberal justice. He was a Republican nominee, not for nothing, although things can change or things often change over time.

Did he go into detail or did you get a sense of exactly what bothered him from Brett Kavanaugh?

CERABINO: Yes. And I -- without specific comments, as far as specific comments in Kavanaugh's testimony, he just said that really what bothered him is that he exhibited the kind of bias that would disqualify him to hear a certain number of cases.

[06:45:05] And he made the distinction between Judge Kavanaugh and Justice Clarence Thomas, where he said Justice Clarence Thomas defended himself in a way that didn't jeopardize his standing on hearing cases, but he thought that Judge Kavanaugh did.

BERMAN: You know, it is interesting, there is that distinction that he did make with Clarence Thomas. Clarence Thomas used some of the same language that Brett Kavanaugh and did and said high-tech lynching, but did it in a way that wasn't as heated rhetorically.

And, Joan Biskupic, what happens then when -- and I think it's more likely when than if -- Brett Kavanaugh gets to the Supreme Court. If the feeling of John Paul Stevens is shared by the other eight justices, will they hold this over him?

BISKUPIC: Absolutely not. My experience with the justices has been that they close ranks, even when they might not agree with some tone that an individual justice has set, they will, you know, they will close ranks against the media and against outside critics.

Also, they're very mindful of the fact that they're appointed for life. There's a great incentive to get along. I do not -- I cannot anticipate Chief Justice John Roberts saying anything to Brett Kavanaugh that would be admonishing in tone for what he has done.

You know, we've been here before with comments that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had made that were politically charged in 2016, and the chief did not speak to her about the comments that she said about Donald Trump being a faker, frankly, that she had said to me at one point. He's concerned about these, but he's -- they're not going to suddenly shun him in any way. They're going to -- they're going to want to repair damage and I think they'll all work together towards that sort of institutional integrity, to give the signal to the public that they are not as partisan as it appeared during this hearing, when they're already fighting it because, John, as you know, this is a 5-4 very split court.

BERMAN: Yes. When you face the prospects of sitting next to somebody for 30 years, someone -- sometime it shapes how you receive them.

Joan Biskupic, Frank Cerabino, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

Erica.

CERABINO: Thank you, John.

HILL: In the only other story that can grab John Berman's attention this morning, because he had to sleep through it last night --

BERMAN: There he is.

HILL: The Patriots winning --

BERMAN: That was Tom Brady -- HILL: I know, he's your man crush, Tom Brady. Meanwhile, my children

--

BERMAN: And Julian Edelman, by the way.

HILL: My children are waking up crying about the Colts. But we'll celebrate John Berman and the Pats.

BERMAN: You know what, they'll get over it. They'll get over it.

HILL: We're going to take a break. I'm going to talk to John Berman --

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[06:51:36] HILL: At 41-years-young, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is showing no signs of slowing down, and that makes John Berman very, very happy, which, by the way, is Tom Brady's (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: You know, I --

HILL: You're happy.

BERMAN: It's working. It's working.

HILL: Lindsay Czarniak has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

LINDSAY CZARNIAK, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It's a mutual admiration society.

HILL: Yes. Yes.

CZARNIAK: Good morning.

I don't know how you're still walking right now because you stayed up to watch that game.

BERMAN: I'm glad I did.

CZARNIAK: I know. It was --

BERMAN: It was inspirational.

CZARNIAK: An amazing outcome for you.

Tom Brady just keeps getting better. We know that he is one of the greatest of all-time. But last night we saw Brady hit another major milestone in a game that showed just how dangerous this Patriots offense is again.

Brady got one of his biggest weapons back. That was a huge story line because wide receiver Julian Edelman back after missing the first four games of the season. They connected on the first play of the game. You saw it there. But it was another player on the receiving end of history. Brady now only the third quarterback to throw 500 career touchdown passes on a 39 yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to Josh Gordon, making his Patriot's debut. Only Peyton Manning and Brett Favre have more. So now, listen to this, Brady has thrown touchdowns to 71 different receivers. That is wild. So that sets another NFL record. But it's all about the team to number 12.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: I just think of all the people that, you know, have really worked hard and, you know, and a quarterback doesn't throw them to himself. He needs people to catch them and block and defense and make plays and coaches to coach and these are all, you know, great team awards.

ROB GRONKOWSKI, PATRIOTS TIGHT END: So I just heard on a Thursday night football said I've caught 76 of them, and it's just an honor to be part of that, to have those numbers and part of Brady's 500 touchdown passes. I mean he's unbelievable. He's a -- he's a (INAUDIBLE) man out there at the quarterback position. It's just an honor to be playing with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CZARNIAK: That's right, Berman, he said (INAUDIBLE) man. He said he is a specy (ph) man out there. Gronk just makes everything better, right?

BERMAN: Just to be clear, Erica is a Gronk person. I'm a Brady person. What does that say about us?

HILL: I do like Gronk. I do like Gronk.

CZARNIAK: All right, well, I love Gronk also. But, by the way, obviously, the Patriots got that win. And then we have another moment for you, of course, baseball, huge, coming up tonight, the Red Sox, the Yankees. So, good luck to you.

BERMAN: High stress.

HILL: This is a good Friday for you John.

BERMAN: High stress.

CZARNIAK: That you can find on TV (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

CZARNIAK: You got it.

BERMAN: Thank you for bringing us the Tom Brady story.

CZARNIAK: You know, he just keeps making it easier, right?

BERMAN: Thank you. Thank you.

CZARNIAK: So, I'm just really doing my job.

BERMAN: Thank you.

HILL: You're still a giver, Lindsay, let's be honest. CZARNIAK: Thank you.

BERMAN: A critical vote. This is a big, critical morning. Which way will the vote go on Brett Kavanaugh? We sit here about three hours or so from the first votes in the Senate, and we don't know for sure, but there are some signs where it's leaning. We'll tell you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:32] BERMAN: Brett Kavanaugh and the FBI investigation, the subject of late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVER NOAH": The FBI investigation is officially complete. But I -- I don't know if we can call a five day investigation sufficient. Although I get why the White House thinks it is. I mean they've never spent five consecutive days on anything. Yes. They're probably like, this investigation was so thorough, it lasted half a Scaramucci.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": The Republicans seem satisfied. Maine's Susan Collins says, it appears to be a very thorough investigation. No, it doesn't, Susan. They interviewed nine people over five days. I've had more thorough investigations to find my air pods.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Here's a list of things that last or lasted longer than this FB investigation. Here we go. Bananas, yogurt, the reboot of "Roseanne," Anthony Scaramucci, Lobsterfest, cold sores, Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian, Vienna Gerard and Jake Pavelka, and the in my feelings challenge.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Today, for example, the FBI finally delivered its report. And if you're wondering how that's possible, it's because their investigation lasted less than a week. They delivered the report in under a week. I had to do a report on the Louisiana Purchase in sixth grade and it took me a month and I got a C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You've got to feel for Anthony Scaramucci. Two mentions -- two mentions in this.

[07:00:00] HILL: Hey, listen, your name's still in the headlines. Isn't that a win?

BERMAN: Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right.

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