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Conway talks about Assault. Richard Haass Talks about Syria; Richard Haass Talks about Saudi Arabia; Arctic Blast Grips Midwest. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 08, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:16] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump's counselor, Kellyanne Conway, is speaking publicly for the first time about an alleged assault last fall while she was at a Maryland restaurant with her teenage daughter. Conway spoke with our Dana Bash.

Dana joins us now from Washington with the details.

Dana, what have just learned?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I sat down with Kellyanne for my series "Badass Women of Washington." And during that interview she spoke for the first time about being in a restaurant with her middle school-aged daughter, some of her daughter's friends and their parents in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb right here in Washington. It was in October of 2018, right after the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the tensions were very, very high.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S COUNSELOR: I was assaulted in a restaurant and that person --

BASH: Assaulted how?

CONWAY: And that person has to go to court soon. (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: Assaulted how?

CONWAY: I was standing next to my daughter and many of her friends at dinner. I mean she was right here, right next to me. And her friends were too. And somebody was grabbing from behind, grabbed my arms and was shaking me to the point where I thought maybe somebody was hugging me, one of the other parents coming to pick up his or her daughter. And then as I turned around, it just felt weird. It felt like, ah, that's a little aggressive. And I turned around and the woman had grabbed my hand. She was just unhinged. She was --

BASH: Just a stranger?

CONWAY: She was out of control. I don't even know how to explain her to you. She just -- her whole face was terror and anger and just -- and she was right here. And my daughter was right there. And she ought to pay for that. She ought to pay for that because she has no right to touch anybody.

She put her hands on me. I said, get your hands off me. She put her hands on me was shaking me and then was doing it from the front, with my daughter right there, who then videotaped her. And let me tell you something, she just would not leave the restaurant. She kept going on and on. She went outside. She just wouldn't stop.

This woman thinks it's OK to touch someone else. It's not OK. It's not OK by her own standards and not OK by the law.

BASH: So you called 911. The police came.

CONWAY: I called 911. The police came.

BASH: Did they arrest her?

CONWAY: They -- she left.

BASH: With the police?

CONWAY: No, they had -- no, she had already gone.

BASH: You told the president about it?

CONWAY: I did, but long after. I told other people (INAUDIBLE).

BASH: What did he say?

CONWAY: What he always says, are you OK? Are you OK? Was your daughter OK? Were the other girls OK?

BASH: How was your daughter? That's so traumatic.

CONWAY: Tough.

BASH: I mean I would imagine for you, but as a mother, probably the first thing you're thinking of is your daughter.

CONWAY: But that's what I cared about. There were other people's kids there. Which is why I didn't want to talk about it publically. But I don't want it to become a thing. I just wanted it to become a teachable moment for everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, during the interview I asked Kellyanne about incendiary rhetoric coming from her boss, the president, like, calling the press the enemy of the people, for example, and whether she views that too as contributing to the toxic atmosphere. She shot back by saying, sarcastically, that I violated her challenge to form a sentence without mentioning Donald Trump. But then she argued flatly, she believes the only person responsible for the conduct that she described is her, the woman who committed the alleged assault, John.

[06:35:17] BERMAN: And, Dana, the alleged assailant here has been charged with second degree assault and disorderly conduct?

BASH: She has. And a trial is actually set for March in Maryland state court. Our colleague, David Shortel (ph), who got the police report here, other records relating to this, also reached out to the alleged assailant, Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, to her attorney, who disputed Conway's account. She gave us the following statement, and I'll read it. Ms. Inabinett saw Kellyanne Conway, a public figure in a public place, exercised her First Amendment right to express her personal opinions. She did not assault Ms. Conway. The facts at trial will show this to be true and show Ms. Conway's account to be false.

And, John, her attorney says she will be pleading not guilty.

BERMAN: All right, Dana, that was a really interesting interview. You know, no one should be harassed or assaulted in any restaurant in any circumstances.

BASH: No, they should not.

BERMAN: Thanks, Dana.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, tributes are pouring in for former Congressman John Dingell, who died yesterday at the age of 92. Dingell's wife, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, says he passed peacefully at home in Dearborn, Michigan. The Democrat served in the House of Representatives for a remarkable 59 years, making him the longest serving member of Congress. A source told CNN earlier this week Dingell had cancer and was in hospice care. He became known for his entertaining Twitter feed. His last tweet, which he posed on Wednesday reads, the lovely Deborah is insisting I rest and stay off here, but after long negotiations we've worked out a deal where she'll keep up with Twitter for me as I dictate the messages. I want to thank you all for your incredibly kind words and prayers. You're not done with me just yet.

BERMAN: He's the walking embodiment, he was, of history. His father had filled that seat before him and had taken him to the House chamber many times. I believe that John Dingell was in the chamber during FDR's, you know, this day, a day that will live in infamy speech, after Pearl Harbor. I mean this is a guy who was history.

HILL: Yes, lived it. Lived so much of it.

A "New York Times" report could shed some new light on the role of Saudi crown prince and the role that he may have played in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. We have those details for you, next.

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[06:41:02] BERMAN: "The Wall Street Journal" reports that the Pentagon is preparing to pull out all U.S. troops from Syria by the end of April, even though there is no plan to protect the Kurds. Joining us now is former Ambassador Richard Haass. He's the president of the Council of Foreign Relations.

Richard, thanks so much for being with us. What do you make of that report? That report says -- "The Wall Street

Journal" says that by the end of April all U.S. troops will be out of Syria.

RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Well, as you say, it's a real act of undermining American support for the Kurds, who were the principal fighters and partners against ISIS. And it gets back to ISIS. The idea that you've defeated a terrorist group seems to me to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the enemy. Terrorist groups come and go. They fade into the populations. So if we leave in totally and we leave quickly, it seems to me it only guarantees that groups like ISIS will reestablish themselves in parts of Syria and it's only a matter of time before we find ourselves pulled back in.

BERMAN: It seems very important to the president that he be able to declare that the United States has defeated the caliphate. Just the other day he said that as soon as next week he was preparing an announcement to say that they're 100 percent defeated.

What's going on there, do you think?

HAASS: Well, again, you know, that sounds to me more like politics that he made good on a campaign promise. It's one of those things that it's a good news sound bite in the short run. But the day will come when groups like ISIS or al Qaeda will reestablish themselves. Americans will die at their hands. American interests will suffer at their hands.

And, in the meantime -- I've just came back from Asia -- to give you an example. The rest of the world is watching what we do in Syria. And even if they don't have a stake in Syria, they look at this American departure and they go, wow, if the Americans, after partnering with a group like the Kurds, can suddenly pull away, and they're talking about leaving Afghanistan, what does that mean for us? So the rest of the world sees this as a real -- as real evidence of a lack of American reliability.

BERMAN: And that's exactly what I was going to ask here because what's happening, if the United States does in fact pull all the troops out by the end of April, all over this "Wall Street Journal" article, is concerns for people, including government officials, about what this means for the Kurds. Is there any assurance you could give these U.S. allies that they would be safe?

HAASS: The short answer's no, and particularly because of Turkey, another so-called American ally, going after the Kurds is the principal objective of Turkish foreign policy. They don't see them as fighters, they see them as terrorists. So we're setting the stage for yet a new round of fighting in Syria, plus we weaken our ability to influence whatever happens here -- from here on in terms of trying to set up some sort of a political process.

Right now what we're essentially doing is leaving Syria to the Syrian government, which has committed all sorts of atrocities, it's Russian and Iranian partners, the Turks and others. This is what a post- American Middle East looks like. And I've got to be honest with you, it's not pretty.

BERMAN: All right, we're talking about the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, obviously, has been a thorny issue for this administration, particularly the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. And by today the administration needs to provide a response to Congress because of the Magnitsky Act about how they view the crown prince and his role in the death of Khashoggi.

Do you expect them to say anything other than there's no smoking gun here?

HAASS: No. The administration seems to be doing the Saudi's bidding for them. There may not be a smoking gun. The Saudis themselves have made the calculation that they can weather this storm. But anyone who understands the first thing about Saudi Arabia knows that nobody freelance there's. This is a country that's essentially run by the crown prince. So the idea that something like this could have happened, the murder of a prominent journalist of who was a, you know, main critic of the Saudi regime, the idea that people close to the crown prince would simply have been acting on their own, that's preposterous.

BERMAN: You know, there may be no smoking gun, but if you read "The New York Times" this morning there may be a pointed bullet. "The New York Times" reports -- and let me quote here -- that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia told a top aide in a conversation in 2017 that he would use a bullet on Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed in October, if Khashoggi did not return to the kingdom and end his criticism of the Saudi government, according to current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of intelligence reports.

[06:45:02] HAASS: Well, my guess is the Saudis and the administration will say he was venting, he was blowing off speech, it was a figure of speech. It's like a former king who said who will rid me of this troublesome priest, and that will be the -- that will be argument.

BERMAN: Yes. I will tell you, one of the more interesting things here, though, is that someone within the intelligence community, according to current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of intelligence reports, wanted "The Times" to report that today.

Why is there such concern within the government, current and former officials, about what the United States is doing in regards to Saudi Arabia?

HAASS: Because there's concern in and out of the government, in the foreign policy community as well, the United States is being taken for a ride by essentially giving the Saudis unconditional support when they've been involved in a murder of a journalist. More broadly, they've also started an irresponsible war in Yemen. And many of the -- they've picked on -- had a fight with Qatar. They've kidnapped, for a while, the Lebanese prime minister. This is a country that purports to be a close American ally and we see this pattern of behavior across the board where people are saying, hold it, this is not what responsible allies do.

So this is a -- this is a battle being fought out, not simply about the role of the crown prince and his inner circle and the murder of an innocent man, but more broadly, what should be the nature of the U.S./Saudi relationship.

And this is not just happening in a vacuum. Right now, if we were looking at the world, we'd have to say the part of the world where we're most likely to see a serious crisis is a war is this one involving Iran. And the United States have to be awfully careful about what the Saudis and others do vis-a-vis about Iran -- via-a-vis Iran because we could find ourselves drawn in.

BERMAN: I don't know if there's a connection between what the administration is doing vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia and Jamal Khashoggi and this explosive information about Jeff Bezos and AMI today, but one of the things that Bezos suggests --

HAASS: I was hoping to get through this interview without that.

BERMAN: But Bezos suggests that there is a connection between AMI and the Saudis because Pecker and AMI published a glossy portfolio for the Saudis there.

HAASS: The honest answer, I have no idea. People will be looking at it. You know, look, what we've seen in the last couple years is all sorts of things. We didn't know what the connections were, whether to Russia --

BERMAN: Yes.

HAASS: And the details and the campaign, who knows about this. I'll leave this one to others. I simply don't know.

BERMAN: But the one thing that that is clear is that the Saudi royal family, and MBS in particular, you know, he is trying to ingratiate himself, not just necessarily with the president and his family, but perhaps with people close to him?

HAASS: Oh, there's obviously been all sorts of ties between this administration and the Saudis. And, again, this administration seems to be defending the Saudi line about Khashoggi. We seem to be bending over backwards to cut them Saudis some slack, to give them the benefit of the doubt. The administration will say it's for strategic reasons. Maybe. I try to get into the game of discerning people's motives. I would just question whether there's a pattern of behavior here that is not clearly in the best interests of the United States.

BERMAN: Richard Haass, always a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much.

HAASS: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, Erica.

HILL: Millions of Americans are under a windchill alert. What you need to know about this arctic blast.

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[06:52:20] HILL: Severe windchills. That may be putting it mildly. Thirty-five below zero. That is forcing public schools in the Twin Cities in Minneapolis and St. Paul to close today. A second arctic blast will have millions shivering in the Midwest this weekend.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers joining us now with your forecast.

Boy, this is two rough ones in a row.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. Just up and down and up and down. We're back down well below freezing. The feels-like temperature in Chicago now 13 degrees below.

This weather's brought to you by Jared, dare to be devoted. Valentine's Day not that far around the corner, guys.

Here we go, Louisville, yesterday you were 70. Today you're going to be 30. Atlanta broke a record. The old record was 72. Eighty degrees in Atlanta yesterday. Now, New York, you didn't quite get to spring, and you won't get there for the next few days. The rain's coming in. Colder air coming in. The highs today somewhere around 45 or 50 for New York City.

The forecast radar takes the rain away. At least by 2:00 things begin to clear up. Even some sunshine. But the wind in New York is going to be 35. Boston, maybe 50. Same story in Buffalo, New York. So the highest temperature today, Detroit 21. It's going to feel like 5. And for the rest of the weekend, we stay below normal.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Chad Myers. And, Chad, thank you especially for warning us about Valentine's Day. A messenger of love. Weather cupid.

Chad Myers, thank you very much.

HILL: Weather cupid.

BERMAN: Appreciate that.

HILL: I sense a hash tag.

BERMAN: You're going to get that image in your head for a long time.

All right, the comedians, they're taking aim at the president's tax returns. Here are your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": A job on Trump's re-election campaign can't be easy. It's like being a mall Santa. I mean it's only temporary. It's completely degrading. And you're constantly getting outrageous demands from a child. JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Every other president or

presidential candidate has released his or her taxes. Why won't Donald Trump? Is it because he doesn't make as much money as he claims he does? Is it because he donates nothing to charity even though he claims he donates millions to charity? Maybe he tried to deduct his tanning bed as a home office. We don't know.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": According to one committee aide, the tax returns are only one evidentiary piece of the larger puzzle about Trump's finances. A larger puzzle? A don't care how large it is, I think it's going to be pretty easy to solve. Look, I'd like -- I'd like to solve the puzzle, Pat. Is it witch hunt?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Stephen Colbert there having some fun.

HILL: Just a wee bit.

BERMAN: Just a wee bit of fun.

All right, in a few hours, the acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, he will be in the hot seat before a House panel. Will he answer questions from Democrats about his conversations with the president on the Russia probe? We have new information for you, next.

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[06:58:56] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D), CALIFORNIA: We want Matt Whitaker to share what he knows. The concern is, is that he is going to stonewall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whitaker's going to be a private citizen next week, so it seems ridiculous to be conducting an oversight hearing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a process that we have to follow to compel questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bezos blog post is full of hints that there were larger, political connections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a long alliance between AMI, Donald Trump, David Pecker.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Whether these details add up to a crime or not it is clearly unethical action.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Chief Justice Roberts, who has been against abortion rights stopped the application of the law for the time being.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's an institutionalist and he'll sometimes vote to upheld precedence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It will be interesting to see how this plays out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: All right, good morning and welcome to your new day. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me this morning for a busy morning.

HILL: It's a rather busy Friday.

BERMAN: Yes, we have some major breaking news for you about the courts, Capitol Hill, the White House and the world's richest man.

[06:59:57] We're going to start with the Supreme Court blocking a Louisiana law that would have restricted abortions. They blocked that law from going into effect for now. The vote was 5-4 and the key here, what makes this so interesting, is that the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, joined the court's four liberal judges voting for the stay.