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At This Hour

House Republicans Subpoena Comey, Lynch; Comey Requests Open Hearing Due to "Selective Leaking"; Trump Says Arctic Cold Front Gripping Northeast Disproves Global Warming; Rain Could Drench Camp Fire but Threatens Flash Flooding, Mudslides. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired November 22, 2018 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00] BILL PRESS, HOST, THE BILL PRESS SHOW: That's what's wrong with you and the whole Trump operation. You cannot accept any criticism.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, I did predict accurately it would be an interesting discussion, and it sure was.

Thank you for delivering on that, gentlemen.

PRESS: Thank you.

BROWN: Bill Press, Steve Cortes, thank you.

PRESS: Happy Thanksgiving.

STEVE CORTES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

BROWN: And still ahead on this Thanksgiving Day, developing this hour, House Republicans issue subpoenas for former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Comey responding to the request with a request of his own. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:07] BROWN: Well, on this Thanksgiving morning, House Republicans are serving up subpoenas for former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

I want to bring in CNN justice reporter, Laura Jarrett, joining me now.

Laura, what other details can you tell us about this?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Pamela, House Republicans making a last-ditch effort during this lame-duck session to talk to both Comey and to Lynch. But Comey firing back right away in a tweet this Thanksgiving morning. I want to read it to you: "Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I'm still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions but I will resist a," quote, "closed door thing because I have seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let's have a hearing and invite everyone to see." I also got a follow-up statement from his lawyer who is ready to take

this to court, saying that he, "embraces and welcomes an open hearing, but because of this abuse of process, Mr. Comey will resist in court this abuse."

We don't know yet how Loretta Lynch, the former attorney general, will respond to this, but it all may be for naught when Democrats take back the House in January -- Pamela?

BROWN: Laura, thank you so much.

I want to bring in CNN legal analyst, Jennifer Rodgers.

Jennifer, thanks for coming on the show.

Off the bat here, Comey is tweeting he is happy to testify but not behind closed doors. Is this concern about selective leaking justified?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It definitely is, Pamela. There's no question there has been massive leaks with hearings in the past, and Comey insisted before to testify in public. So I think his concern is right. I think his insistence on a public hearing is right. He hasn't been FBI director for a long time. There's really nothing that hasn't been already gone over with a fine-tooth comb. This looks more like a lame-duck committee chair pulling a Hail Mary here to try to do something political before they lose their positions there. And especially in the wake of reporting that the president tried to actually prosecute Comey or at least was thinking about prosecuting Comey, you know, for what, who knows. But it makes it seem more and more like this is really just a political stunt and not the basis of any legitimate investigation going on in that committee.

BROWN: Looking at the other side, for the committee, what would be the reason they would need to do a closed-door briefing with Comey and with Loretta Lynch? Would it be because they would need classified information? What would be their reasoning?

RODGERS: That is the reason for closed-door hearings. You know, the director of the FBI and, in Loretta Lynch's case, the former attorney general, of course, are privy to all sorts of classified information. And if they were testifying about matters that shouldn't be public, either because they're classified or just confidential for some reason, they would need to be behind closed doors. But there's been so much public testimony from James Comey, at least already, it doesn't seem to me that anything they would be legitimately be looking into couldn't be public or they could take a small portion into closed session.

BROWN: So James Comey's attorney calls the subpoena process an abusive process, a divergence from House rules and its presumption of transparency. What's the case they have to prove here? As Laura said, they're clearly willing to take this to court.

RODGERS: What's most likely to happen, Pamela, especially considering the timing of the turnover of the committee, is the clock is going to run out. So you know, they have a subpoena outstanding. David Kelley, the lawyer for Jim Comey, will challenge the subpoena, and you know, you'll take it to court. But in reality, they're going to get a court date a couple of weeks out. By the time this all starts to shake out, the clock will run out and the Dems will take over the committee and probably withdraw the subpoena or at the very least make the subpoena -- make the hearing a public one.

BROWN: How long could this fight go on? You think it's sort of they're doing this last-ditch effort in the lame duck or could it go on beyond?

RODGERS: I don't think it will because I don't think the Democrats will find any reason to speak to Comey yet again. I think they will probably end up withdrawing it. If they didn't, I don't think there would be a fight. Either way, I think once the Democrats take over the committee, they'll have him in an open hearing testifying or they'll withdraw the subpoena altogether. I can't imagine what they possibly need him for at this stage given how much he's testified already.

BROWN: Jennifer Rodgers, thank you so much.

RODGERS: Thank you.

[11:39:19] BROWN: And still ahead on this Thanksgiving, arctic cold weather gripping the northeast. And President Trump is suggesting that it disproves global warming. The facts up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, an arctic cold front is gripping the northeast, and dozens of cities are bundled up for one of their coldest Thanksgivings on record.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now.

When can we go back outside, Chad?

[11:44:17] CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: When can you go back outside? I have seen your office. And there's not a Murphy bed in there, so I think you're going to have to go outside this afternoon. The high today will only be 27, though, and it should be 52. So we're 25 degrees colder. Now, it's only going to last for another 36 hours and then it's all finally gone. But we did break new records today. We tied one in Central Park. Not for the day, but for the Thanksgiving Day. The day long ago was much colder in 1880, something like 13. We didn't break that. It's 18 right now in Boston. The windchill is one. It feels like 11 in New York. It feels like 14 below in Montpelier. I got tweets from Ottawa saying, hey, minus 14, what are you talking about, it's minus 25 up here. Yes, it gets colder the farther you go north. We will break some more records coming up tonight. Not all of the records. We will break some of the records. Probably 20 or so cities will break record lows tonight.

Where do we go from here? Tomorrow morning, 17 and then 27. And then by Sunday, the low will be 46. So we're going up from here. We're not going to get to 60 by the afternoon, but the normal high should be 52. And on Sunday, that's exactly where you should be in New York City. The rest of the country for today, great snow in parts of Colorado, in Utah for skiers that went out there for Thanksgiving. An awful lot of rain and snow in the Sierra. Lower elevations there near the burn scars of the Paradise area there, that Camp Fire -- not started by a Camp Fire, that's just the name of it -- but that really does have the possibility of debris flows today. And the nice weather in Denver all the way up to 61 there -- Pamela?

BROWN: All right.

I want to go to this tweet from the president about the cold weather. Here's what he said: "Brutal and extended cold blast could shatter all records. Whatever happened to global warming?"

Your take?

MYERS: Well, we take a look at the map behind me. This is the high temperature change from where we should be for today. So this is what compared to a normal day on record -- and climate isn't a day, climate is a long-term -- but this is what the cold air mass looks like in the northeast right now. The rest of the country is well above normal. Let me zoom that out now one more time for you and show you the rest of the world. Find a lot of blue on this map? No. Not really. There's one real spot of blue, and that just happens to be over New York City, over Washington, D.C., over Boston, over Ottawa. And that's the big cold mass. Now, just because we have one cold area with the rest of the area being red and well above normal, I don't think that one little blob says anything at all -- Pam?

BROWN: OK, Chad Myers, thank you so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BROWN: And still ahead on this Thanksgiving, a Dallas apartment building is engulfed in flames and people are forced to jump from the windows to survive, including a 1-year-old baby. You have to see this video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:43] BROWN: Now to California where there's good news and potentially bad news. Heavy rain is expected this week and not only could it drench northern California's Camp Fire, but it could also snuff out the risk of new wildfires for the rest of the year. But fire evacuees are bracing for the threat of flash flooding, mudslides and rivers of debris that could hit cities already devastated by the wildfire.

I want to bring in CNN's Nick Watt, who joins me from Chico, California.

Nick, what are you seeing?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, where we are now is one of the few bright spots in northern California. You can see the shock blond hair that is Guy Phiery (ph) and you have Chef Andreas (ph), and they will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 15,000 people. Over here, this is another interesting angle. Costom Vallone (ph) from Sonoma, which suffered wildfires last year, they caravanned yesterday with their smokers, preparing these Turkeys, 90 Turkey breasts in each one.

But as for the fire itself, as you mentioned, the rain is going to be an issue. The fire is 90 percent contained, but we had heavy rains last night and we'll get more heavy rains tonight. That is when the fear of mudslides and debris flow coming in. Some evacuation orders have been lifted this morning. Some people are going back in to see if there's anything left of their homes but no one yet allowed back into the town of Paradise, that town of 27,000 people, which was pretty much burnt off the map. We're talking about, in total, nearly 14,000 homes have been destroyed by this pain. A lot of pain and hurt here this Thanksgiving. This, one of the few bright sports. They will serve dinner here, two other locations, and also delivering food to shelters to bring Thanksgiving cheer in an otherwise desperate situation -- Pamela?

BROWN: They are certainly heavy our hearts this Thanksgiving.

Thank you so much, Nick.

I'm going to turn to Dallas and a special reason there to be grateful this Thanksgiving. We'll show you why. A raging fire sweeps through an apartment building. If you look closely in the highlighted circle, a baby is dropped out of a window. A 21-year-old man who rushed to the fire safely caught the child. Other Good Samaritans stacked mattresses to soften landings for trapped residents who had to jump. Remarkably everyone in the 24 units safely escaped. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Wow.

[11:54:12] Still ahead, people are calling it "The Match." Two golf superstars, Tiger Woods versus Phil Mickelson, and there's a lot of money at stake, not to mention bragging rights. That's next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: What says post-Thanksgiving meal more than golf? Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson's big 13-hole showdown is tomorrow -- 18 I should say -- is tomorrow afternoon but their trash talk is under way, including Mickelson offering a $100,000 side bet that he'd birdied the first hole.

Our own Hines Ward sat down with both of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HINES WARD, CNN SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: I love how you set the tone with a little bet.

(CROSSTALK)

PHIL MICHELSON, PRO GOLFER: The tough thing was getting him to bite. Not only did he take it, but he totaled it. (LAUGHTER)

He said it was awesome. I can't believe how well that turned out.

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: These challenges will be escalating as we go along.

(LAUGHTER)

Because eventually, we're trying to outdo one another, one up one another, and trying to get in each other's heads. Yes, this is the start of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:00:04] BROWN: You can watch it on "BLEACHER REPORT" live at pay for view, tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 eastern.