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CNN Interviews Guaido; Mueller Probe Close to Wrapping Up; Troops to Colombia; Cold Grips Much of the U.S. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 29, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: There, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking news.

Four undercover Houston narcotics officers were shot while serving a search warrant during a drug raid. Police returned fire killing two suspects at the scene. Houston Police tweeted that two of the wounded officers are in critical condition. The other two are in good condition. A fifth officer was also injured.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, no end in sight for the trouble in Venezuela. The U.N. says 40 people have died, 850 were arrested in protest to oust embattled strongman Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. is turning up the pressure on Maduro with new sanctions.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's self-proclaimed acting president, Juan Guaido, says his movement to oust Maduro is gaining momentum.

CNN en Espanol's Fernando Del Rincon spoke with Guaido and he joins us live from Miami.

What did he say, Fernando?

[06:35:01] FERNANDO DEL RINCON, CNN EN ESPANOL ANCHOR: Hi. How are you? Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Well, we talk about this situation because it's -- it's become a global situation when you think about the countries that are backing Guaido and the ones that are backing Maduro. We're talking about the United States backing Juan Guaido and Russia supporting Maduro's regime. So when you think about this, there is a lot of powers involved and the situation can get more worse, not in terms of Venezuela, but global-wide. So I asked him if he was ready to see conflict, if it happens, just to achieve what they want, remove Maduro from power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEL RINCON: Well, are you prepared to seek conflict to achieve the goal of removing the Maduro government?

JUAN GUAIDO, INTERIM PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): We are sure we can achieve a peaceful transition. A transition and eventually free elections. Now, during this period where we end occupation because Maduro has seized the executive power. His administration ended on January 10th and there was no election that endorses him. We must use great pressure for a dictator to leave, install a transitional government and have free elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEL RINCON: It's really interesting to add, Guaido has offered amnesty to the military, but he's not only offering amnesty for the military. He's offering amnesty also to Nicolas Maduro. That means that he could be a possibility in the case that Maduro wants to get rid of some of the charges that he's accused from the opposition, we've got to remember that this has been said and it's been started in the international court.

So we'll see what Maduro's next move is. The situation definitely gets complicated global-wide.

CAMEROTA: So, Fernando, what did Guaido say about the support that he's received from the Trump administration?

DEL RINCON: Well, he's grateful. And at the same time it seems that there's some sort of coordination. He told me that he accepted that he had spoken to President Trump, not once but a lot of times, not revealing what they had been talking about. I asked him about a military option, that if it was possible to go through that path, and he told me that everything was on the table. The same response we get from the White House.

So, we'll see. The next days are going to be real important in terms of the move from the government and what is going to happen with the money that has been blocked from (INAUDIBLE), the state-owned oil company.

CAMEROTA: Fernando Del Rincon, thank you very much for sharing your interview with us.

DEL RINCON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: John.

BERMAN: All right, in the Mueller probe, there have been no charges of collusion or conspiracy yet, but the man who oversaw U.S. intelligence says that he does see evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia. What does he mean? That's next.

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[06:42:11] BERMAN: In just hours, Roger Stone will appear in federal court. This as the acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, suggests that the special counsel, Robert Mueller, his investigation is close to wrapping up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATTHEW WHITAKER, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Right now, you know, the investigation is, I think, close to being completed. And I hope that we can get the report from Director Mueller as soon as we -- as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, joining us now is James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, and a CNN national security analyst.

Director, thank you so much for being with us.

Look, after the Roger Stone indictments came out last week, everyone noticed there were no charges of conspiracy or collusion there. However, and you've had a chance to read through this, you say you do see, and you're speaking as someone looking at this all now, you do see evidence of coordination and collaboration. What do you mean?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, for me, John, what was in the indictment kind of reinforced something I discussed in my book about the striking parallels and similarities between what the Trump campaign was doing and saying and what the Russians were doing and saying, particularly their pervasive use of social media. And -- with specific respect to Hillary Clinton and her health and all that.

And so what the -- while the indictment doesn't overtly allege collusion, whatever that is, or even conspiracy, it certainly reinforces the notion of coordination or synchronization or whatever euphemism you want to use. Clearly, there was interest, intense interest, on the part of the campaign at senior levels about what WikiLeaks had and, of course, WikiLeaks, through a cutout, received these stolen e-mails from the DNC and from Podesta, John Podesta. And, to me, that sort of reminded one of the Trump Tower meeting in June of '16, in which there was also great interest in, quote, dirt on Hillary Clinton. And the same interest evinced in the verbiage in the indictment.

BERMAN: Let me just read what it says there after the July 22, 2016, release of stolen Democratic e-mails by Organization 1, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information the organization had in regarding the Clinton campaign.

Are you suggesting that, again, there's legal issue here and there's a counter intelligence issue here and Robert Mueller may not have enough to charge on a criminal offense of conspiracy, are you suggesting that there is a legitimate concern about looking backwards and forwards that there was a counter-intelligence purpose there and that Americans should be worried about the connections between the Trump campaign and the Russians?

[06:45:07] CLAPPER: Well, obviously. And I -- I think that -- that was a concern very early on in all of this going back to, you know, before I left the government, about the counter-intelligence implications and the Russians, as is their want, to seek access, seek influence and seek insight, and, to the extent that they could, influence the outcome of the campaign. So that, to me, is a very serious counter- intelligence concern.

BERMAN: Do you agree with Sarah Sanders' assertion, and she did it on this show on Friday, she did it at the briefing yesterday, that none of these charges against Stone or the other people who have been charged or convicted, none of these things have anything to do with the president. Do you agree with that?

CLAPPER: Not really. Although, one thought that occurred to me when I heard that quote was, well, then, you shouldn't be -- have a problem with the completion of the investigation, since, according to that line of thought, the president is going to be -- you know, found to be innocent. It's just very curious that this collection of characters that were close to the president, certainly during the campaign and afterwards, have all been found guilty of principally lying about the relationship with the Russians.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about Venezuela now. Obviously the United States announcing new sanctions against the Maduro regime. And then there was this. There was a picture of the national security advisor, John Bolton. Hopefully we can put it up there. He had a yellow notepad. And on that notepad, you can take my word for it, it said 5,000 troops for Colombia there, if you read it carefully.

CLAPPER: Right.

BERMAN: Send 5,000 troops to Colombia, which, of course, borders Venezuela.

Do you have concerns or do you think the administration is handling the Venezuela issue in the right way?

CLAPPER: Well, I think it's the right thing to do to press the Maduro regime, who is, I think by any measure, illegitimate. I do worry about sort of the pickup baseball appearance, maybe that's not the case, of what we're doing there. And I trust that Colombia, if we're considering deploying troops to Colombia, that we've consulted with them. I'm not sure what those -- you know, any kind of troop deployment like that would do, other than perhaps to be there ready to rescue our American citizens.

I was a little concerned about the way the -- it was handle with respect to announcing we no longer recognize the Maduro government, but we're going to leave our diplomats there, which kind of left them, in my view, hanging out. And at least in the last administration, one of the things we always seriously considered and gave a great deal of thought to, particularly from a planning perspective, if our people were -- there was a prospect to our people being at risk is, you know, how we -- how we might protect them and extract them. And it doesn't appear to me that there's a whole lot of thought given to that.

BERMAN: Director James Clapper, always a pleasure to speak with you. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

CLAPPER: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Alisyn. CAMEROTA: All right, John, life threatening cold weather will grip much of America. Some areas will feel the most frigid temperatures they have felt in a generation. We give you the forecast.

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[06:52:27] CAMEROTA: Much of the U.S. will plunge into life threating temperatures with some parts of the Midwest seeing windchills below -- 60 below zero.

BERMAN: That seems like a lot.

CAMEROTA: That is a lot.

CNN meteorologist Jennifer Grey has the bone-chilling forecast.

Oh, my gosh, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you can't even wrap your head around it. It's not even 30 to 60 below freezing, it's 30 to 60 below zero. A huge difference. And we are going to see conditions where we could see frostbite set in, in as little as five minutes.

So here are your current windchills. Chicago, feels like 15 below zero in Chicago. Feeling like 24 below zero in Minneapolis feeling, 11 below in Des Moines. And this is nothing compared to what we'll see tomorrow morning where we'll be actually colder.

So the windchill threat where windchills could be 30-60 below zero is all of this area shaded in purple. And that does include places like Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis. And so it is going to be incredibly cold there.

That arctic air is going to settle in all the way through the middle part of the week. Some of these areas will see temperatures dip below zero this morning and not get back above zero until Thursday afternoon. So Chicago feels like temperature 24 below, by tonight and then tomorrow morning it will be 46 below is what it will feel like tomorrow morning.

So, John, this is incredibly dangerous cold all the way through the Midwest and the northern plains.

BERMAN: Yes, I hope people are paying attention to this and are making plans to keep themselves protected. Stay inside and make sure the power is working, make sure you can be warm.

GRAY: Right.

BERMAN: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks very much.

Long-time Trump confidante, Roger Stone, is the gift that keeps on giving for comics. Here are your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": His heels are completely dug in. When asked if he would accept less than $5.7 billion for his wall, Trump said, I doubt it. So, just to be clear, he's making the exact same offer, backed by the exact same threat, but somehow he expects different results. Well, you know what they say, the definition of insanity is Donald Trump.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": This is his actual outfit from the inauguration. And by far the best thing about his arrest is we can make fun of this picture again. I mean, look at that. Did Quentin Tarantino remake "Lincoln"? I didn't know "Downton Abbey" had a pimp. If he weren't a political consultant, he'd be the world's oldest chimney sweep. He looks like he got kicked out of the magic castle for vaping.

[06:55:05] COLBERT: As he left, Stone bid a fond farewell by doing his best impersonation of Richard Nixon. Ah, yes -- ah, yes, impersonating Richard Nixon, the universal sign for, I'm innocent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And Roger Stone loves it.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I've never seen him happier than when he came out to the courtroom stares to take on all of his hecklers and his supporters and the applause. That was quite a moment.

BERMAN: More jokes, please, he's saying this morning.

CAMEROTA: All right, Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker says the Mueller probe is close to wrapping up. Why his comments have Democrats rattled, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW WHITAKER, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: I hope that we can get the report from Director Mueller as soon as possible.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: He is a total Trump supporter. I'm very cautious about anything that he has to say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's improper and you do wonder if he is trying to put pressure on Mueller to close up shop.

[07:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just indicted Roger Stone. There is too many pieces that need to be resolved in court before we can anticipate the Mueller report.