Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Saudi Crown Prince to Make Comments; Hurricane Makes Landfall in Mexico; Trump Attacks Fed Chairman. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 24, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:11] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours, the Saudi crown prince will make his first public comments after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. This comes as the U.S. announces it will revoke the visas of Saudi officials linked to the journalist's death.

CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul with more.

What have you learned, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that public appearance is going to be on a panel at, of course, that huge investment conference happening that Riyadh that has been dubbed Davos in the desert, Alisyn.

And the U.S. is still walking something of a fine line when it comes to all of this. But we are perhaps seeing a change in tone, or at the very least in President Trump's tone. He has come out and called this entire affair a total fiasco and said that it is the worst cover-up in history and that it was a bad original concept to begin with, not necessarily directly, at the very least pointing the finger at the crown prince.

But later in comments to "The Wall Street Journal," President Trump did say that he believed that King Salman did not necessarily have any information ahead of time about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. But when it came to the crown prince, here's what President Trump had to say. He said, he, the crown prince, is basically running things. So if anything were going to be it or have information, that would be him.

So maybe something of a change in the administration's position there, at the very least tone and pressure perhaps they are willing to put on the Saudis to come clean. As you were saying there, the State Department has declared they will be revoking the visas or declaring illegible for visas 21 Saudi suspects.

And we also had some perhaps disturbing images coming out on Saudi state media showing Jamal Khashoggi's son, Salahu (ph), had been, prior to his father's death, under a travel ban. He was shaking hands with the crown prince and was also seen in some photographs with King Salman himself. And, of course, here on the ground, the investigation into the whereabouts of Jamal Khashoggi's remains does continues.

[06:35:18] CAMEROTA: Yes, Arwa, that picture of the son of the victim having to shake hands with the crown prince is very gripping.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Devastating.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Arwa, thank you very much for that report.

So, back here, a powerful storm is making its way over Mexico. It could become a nor'easter very soon here in the U.S.

Chad Myers with the forecast, next.

BERMAN: And a major development overnight. You can see me hitting a game-breaking home run there, a pitch-hit home run.

CAMEROTA: That is (INAUDIBLE). And there you are running the bases.

BERMAN: There I am running the bases. Red Sox win game one of the World Series thanks to me. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, Hurricane Willa now making landfall in western Mexico overnight. That same system could become the first nor'easter of the season.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast.

[06:40:01] What's that going to look like this weekend, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, you think about nor'easter, you think about snow. But not really this time. This will be a rainmaker. Now, there will be some snow in the Green White Mountains. New Hampshire and Vermont will pick up a little bit of snow. That's good. But now Tropical Depression Willa, because it has now hit the Sierra Madre. That's the Rocky Mountains of Mexico. So things have really fallen apart here, down to about 35 miles per hour. But the moisture will be into Texas later on today. In fact, we already have some rain showers here now.

It does move across the Gulf of Mexico, across parts of northern Florida and then on up the East Coast. So that's what this low is going to be.

There's the low right there and it's going to turn to the left. It's going to go up like a nor'easter.

Now, talk about this in December, this would be a really big deal. This would be a major snowmaker, but it's going to be a wind and rain maker for us across the northeast and across the southeast as well.

How much rain? Probably an inch or two. But there are spots up here between New York City and the Poconos, all the way up even toward Boston. You could get two to four inches of rainfall as it works its way around. Now, we don't see any purple or white on the map. That means there's not a lot of snow because there's just not enough cold air in the mix to make that. Good news, and maybe there will be a little rain in and out for Boston for you, John, but I don't think we see too many delays. We'll have to watch that.

BERMAN: It won't stop us. Rain's not going to stop us, Chad Myers.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

BERMAN: Clayton Kershaw couldn't stop us. So rain --

CAMEROTA: You're (INAUDIBLE) right now.

BERMAN: Isn't going to matter.

CAMEROTA: You're drunk on power.

BERMAN: Just life and some other stuff as well.

Chad, thank you very much.

The Boston Red Sox draw first blood in the World Series. We keep showing my home run.

CAMEROTA: I know, that was a good one, John.

BERMAN: The "Bleacher Report" is next.

CAMEROTA: You're busy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:28] CAMEROTA: In a new interview with "The Wall Street Journal," President Trump stepped up his attacks on the Federal Reserve chairman. The president is suggesting that Jerome Powell likes raising interest rates to spite him and again he insists the Fed is the greatest threat to the U.S. economy.

Joining us now is Mike Bender. He's the White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal" and a CNN analyst. He was one of the journalists who interviewed the president.

Good morning, Mike.

MIKE BENDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi.

CAMEROTA: Hi.

Let me read for our viewers some of your reporting and what the president told you on Jerome Powell. He says, every -- the president says, every time we do something great, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, raises the interest rates. He almost looks like he's happy raising interest rates. It sounds as though it's gotten personal between these two.

What were you -- what was your impression?

BENDER: Yes, well the -- we got into a discussion about the Fed with an open-ended question. The president has been talking a lot about the economy heading into the midterms. So I asked him a very open-ended question about what the biggest risk to the economy was heading into the end of the year here and he had one answer, the Fed. And as you said, I mean the -- as he talked about this, it became increasingly clear that he views the economy in very personal terms. He talked about competing with President Obama, comparing economic gains under his watch to the economic growth during Obama's time. He sought to sort of, you know, undermine any growth under Obama by pointing out these interest rates, saying the interest rates were very low under Obama, and if rates were lower, under this administration, that the economy would be -- would be even hotter.

CAMEROTA: He also talked about his tariff policy, which, of course, has been controversial, and what the ramifications of that will be. He told you, we don't even have tariffs. I'm using tariffs to negotiate. Where do we have tariffs? We don't have tariffs anywhere. You know what happens? A business that's doing badly always acts like -- always likes to blame Trump and the tariffs because it's a good excuse for some incompetent guy that's making $25 million a year.

Does he not know of the tariffs that he has imposed?

BENDER: Yes, I mean, he pointed out the steel tariffs and said that they were very small. I know some foreign leaders and some -- and some -- and some business leaders who would disagree with that.

The president kind of went back and forth on -- in describing -- in the way he described his tariffs in our interview with us. Early on he talked -- in the interview, when he talked about the tariffs, he talked about all the money that they were bringing in. Later on, in this part of the discussion about threats to the economy, I pointed out that a lot of economists would -- don't see the Fed as the biggest threat but, in fact, his tariffs. And that -- he was disputing that point by saying that, in reality, a lot of the -- a lot of the issues around tariffs has been PR, that he uses -- he's used the tariff issue as a negotiating tactic. And the one data point he raised on that was the renegotiation of NAFTA and saying that he would never have been able to close that deal had it not been for his ability to threaten Canada and Mexico with additional tariffs.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's just remind people of some of the tariffs, just the facts here. It's 25 percent on steel imports, 10 percent on aluminum imports, 20 percent on washing machines, 30 percent on solar panel components, and then 25 percent on 800 categories of Chinese goods. Is it your impression that he regrets these or is embarrassed of these or doesn't want the public to know that these were on his watch?

BENDER: No, not at all. Not at all. He's very proud of that. And -- no, this was particularly in context of Jerome Powell and the Fed and his interest rates that he's very -- he's very upset about. And, you know, he says what the -- even at one point saying that the interest rates threaten -- you know, are threatening the economy, everything his tariffs have done for the economy.

CAMEROTA: Ah. BENDER: So what he was -- and I think what he was -- the point that he was trying to make there was that the tariffs are of a much smaller impact on the economy than the, you know, the handful of interest rates we've seen over the past -- increases we've seen over the past year.

CAMEROTA: Got it. OK.

You also asked him about Michael Cohen, his long-time personal attorney, the self-described fixer, constantly at Mr. Trump's side. He said this on Mr. Cohen. Trump said the lawyer who served him for more than a decade was like a public relations person who represented me on very small things.

[06:50:12] Is that revisionist history?

BENDER: Yes, a little bit. This is how, you know, the president distances himself from people and issues that he doesn't -- that he doesn't want to be associated with and Michael Cohen squares -- falls squarely in that category now.

You know, I mean, Michael Cohen had an office just down the -- just around the -- just basically next door to Mr. Trump in Trump Tower. So it's not -- we're not talking about a PR person here or a low-level assistant. This was a pretty central figure in Trump Organization and President Trump's life in the handful of years before he became president.

But this was him trying to create some distance from Cohen. He said he was surprised to hear the tapes and, you know, went on the attack a little bit saying that this was something that was unconscionable and created quite a bit of legal liability for Michael Cohen.

CAMEROTA: Yes, fair to say.

Michael Bender, thank you very much for sharing your reporting with us.

BENDER: OK.

CAMEROTA: John.

BENDER: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, the president says he is a nationalists. One of his biggest supporters suggest that maybe the president just doesn't know what that word means. Former White House communications director and new author Anthony Scaramucci joins us ahead for discussion and not interpretive dance.

CAMEROTA: Why not?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:38] BERMAN: I have to admit, I'm a little sore this morning. I had a long night. I had to work very hard. But somehow we managed to pull out game one of the World Series at Fenway Park in Boston.

CAMEROTA: I mean are you sore from clapping? I mean, what was your role exactly?

BERMAN: Look, I've been a member of the Boston Red Sox for 46 years now. And it was a hard night.

Andy Scholes has more from Fenway in the "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. You could definitely pull a muscle with all the fist pumps, you know, when the Red Sox kept scoring all those (INAUDIBLE). But I'll tell you what, John, your fellow Red Sox fans had this place rocking last night. The atmosphere was just electric. The fans, all kinds of fun chants all night long, including "beat L.A." Because, you know, Boston and Los Angeles, they have a longstanding sports rivalry. It's usually Celtics/Lakers. But it's playing out in the baseball diamond for the very first time.

And game one was back and forth early on in this one. And neither team's ace pitcher was able to get out of the fifth inning. Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale both run early from this game. He moment of the night coming in the bottom of the seventh. Two on, Red Sox up by one, when Eduardo Nunez comes through with a clutch pinch hit three-run home run over the green monster. Now, Nunez, once upon a time, was a member of the New York Yankees. He was actually considered to be Derek Jeter's replacement at short stop. That didn't quite work out for him, but after that home run last night, he's forever going to be a Red Sox legend.

Boston takes game one 8-4 to take the lead in the series. And the winner of game one has gone on to win 17 of the past 21 world series. Good news for Boston, but all hope is not lost for the Dodgers. The last two year the Cubs and Astros both lost game one, went on to win the series. But game two is going to be pivotal tonight. The Red Sox have David Price on the mound. The Dodgers countering with Ryu.

And, guys, it's going to be another chilly one. It's in the mid-40s right now and it is not expected to warm up much by game time.

CAMEROTA: John's warming up.

BERMAN: I'm loosening up my arm to get ready.

CAMEROTA: Here on set.

All right, well --

BERMAN: It's hard work. It's hard work. It's hard work.

CAMEROTA: I know. Staying up and drinking all that beer and watching them from your sofa. I wouldn't know.

BERMAN: See, you don't even give me any credit for this. CAMEROTA: No, I am excited for you. I'm very excited for you. And I love Boston too.

Here's what I'm also excited about, the lottery, OK, and the Trump family were comedy gold for late night comics. Here are your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": The lottery jackpot was the biggest in lotto history, $1.6 billion, which is a lot. Usually to get that kind of money for doing nothing, you would have to be -- Fred Trump would have to be your father.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": Trump and Putin are meeting in Paris on November 11th, which is just five days after the midterm elections. Apparently Putin told Trump, I want to get paid for my work in person.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": President Trump referred to himself as a nationalists, adding, quote, use that word. Wow, so he's just openly using the word nationalists, I don't want to say that Donald Trump is a Nazi, but I will say, Pat, I'm ready to solve that puzzle.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": You know why you're not supposed to use that word, because it's the second half of white nationalists. Chopping off the first word doesn't change what it means in our minds. Oh, look, look, I'm a Klux Klan. I have no idea which one. I have no -- don't judge me. There's all kinds of Klux Klans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's funny.

BERMAN: Anthony Scaramucci, who, traffic willing, we will speak to shortly --

CAMEROTA: Momentarily.

BERMAN: Says maybe the president just doesn't know what the word means.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, I think the president -- we know that the president doesn't read lots of history books or books and so we will have Anthony Scaramucci make that case to you.

BERMAN: Excellent.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have spent the last 18 months listening to unprecedented lies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's swinging for the fences.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I'm seeing these people being violent, extreme poverty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump is describing what he wants to be in the tax bill that moves next year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He realized that middle class and working folks aren't really benefiting from that tax cut.

[07:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president talking about taxes and border security are issues that continue to keep that enthusiasm up among the base.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Democrats have to choose hope over fear. We have to choose truth over lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY