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Deadly Border Clashes As Maduro Blocks Aid; Former Sen. Harry Reid Takes On Trump After Cancer Battle; R. Kelly Returns To Court After Spending Weekend In Jail; Pope Francis Vows To Combat Sex Abuse, Falls Short On Specifics. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 25, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: -- that since Singapore, North Korea has actually been expanding their nuclear and missile program. So the threat from North Korea continues to grow worse.

And I share the concern that Susan just expressed, which is what will Trump give away so that he can march out of Hanoi and claim this was the greatest deal ever?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What's he bringing in his back pocket?

BOOT: Right.

CAMEROTA: What's going to move the --

BOOT: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- needle here?

BOOT: Right, exactly.

I mean, I think the real concern is that he's going to make concessions such as giving a peace declaration to the North Koreans, given the relaxation of sanctions. Or worst case scenario when they get one-on-one, what if he decides to give up the U.S. troop's presence in South Korea? That's unlikely but with Trump you never know what's going to happen.

CAMEROTA: Susan, let's move on to another hot spot, of course, Venezuela, and it's not getting better, and what's happening there.

So let's listen to what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said about any further action this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: America's policy has been very clear. We've supported the Venezuelan people and we will continue to do that.

There will be a meeting of the Lima Group on Monday where further action will be contemplated. There's more sanctions to be had. There's more humanitarian assistance I think that we can provide and I think we'll find other ways to make sure that food gets to the people who need it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Obviously, that's been a challenge, Susan. The humanitarian assistance is not getting to the people who need it. And I don't know about what more sanctions would accomplish but what else can the U.S. do?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well look, we are sort of in an escalatory spiral here, if you can have a such a thing, in the sense that we have taken, along with 50 other countries around the world, the step of recognizing as an interim leader of the country -- the leader of the National Assembly. And yet, Nicolas Maduro remains in power inside Venezuela.

Ever since that declaration a few weeks ago, the conflict has escalated with no obvious way out.

Now, you're going to have Vice President Pence today speaking -- meeting with the members of the Lima Group. That's the regional group that has been sort of leading the response to this increasing crisis.

The concern, of course, is that President Trump finds himself in a situation where the military option, as he himself called it several times, begins to look more and more attractive if there's no other diplomatic way to force Maduro's hand.

And so, this conflict -- the clashes over the weekend at the border with Colombia on bringing humanitarian aid in -- in fact, the hope was among opponents of the government that you would see soldiers refusing to carry out Maduro's orders. That you would see basically the beginning of crumbling of the authority, but that didn't happen.

And so I think we're left with a situation where nobody knows what's next, except escalation.

CAMEROTA: Max, what do you think happens next?

BOOT: Well, again, as Susan says, I don't think anybody has a good idea. I think one thing that we do know is, as she suggests, is that there is no good military option here.

I mean, this is a country of something like -- this is an oil-rich country of something like 30 million people and we've tried occupying one of those before. It didn't work out so well. So I think they need to tamp down any notion that there will be any kind of military response.

I think the best we can do now at this point is simply to keep the sanctions on. The U.S. stop buying Venezuelan oil. That's their major source of export earnings. So this is going to continue keeping the pressure on the Maduro regime. And this is one instance -- and I don't say this very often -- where I think the Trump administration is on the right side because they are lined up with our allies against the dictatorial regime. So I wish them well, but it's not clear they have a game plan to achieve their objectives.

CAMEROTA: Max Boot, Susan Glasser, thank you very much for the insight -- John.

GLASSER: Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we have a CNN exclusive. A famous fighter from the Senate getting up off the canvas again. Our Dana Bash speaks to the former majority leader Harry Reid about the fight of his life and his strong feelings about the Trump presidency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:45] BERMAN: We have a CNN exclusive.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a tough battle with cancer, but if you've followed Harry Reid's career you know he doesn't shy away from any battles.

CNN's Dana Bash sat down with him for a really revealing discussion and joins us now with that -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, earlier this year, the political earth shook after Mark Leibovich at "The New York Times" reported that former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid does not have long to live. Well, as you mentioned, he was diagnosed with cancer -- pancreatic cancer -- last year. He is now in remission.

And I went to see him in Nevada and found a very-much alive Harry Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (on camera): How are you feeling?

HARRY REID, FORMER SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: You know, I'm feeling so -- I feel very good.

BASH: Your cancer is in remission?

REID: Yes. I had pancreatic cancer and it's in remission. The chemo's all gone many months ago. That was -- that was worse than the surgery.

BASH: The chemo?

REID: Yes.

BASH: So for people who are concerned about you, understandably so, your message is? REID: I'm doing fine. I'm busy. I work quite hard. I enjoy my family.

BASH (voice-over): A big part of what keeps him going, his love affair with wife Landra of nearly 60 years, whom he met at age 15.

REID: She had on a pair of Levis and she just looked so good.

BASH (on camera): That's amazing.

REID: But it's true.

BASH (voice-over): Reid retired from the Senate in 2017. A former boxer and ever the fighter, not being in the arena with Donald Trump is hard.

BASH (on camera): You've had some choice words for President Trump -- spoiled brat, con man, human leech, big fat guy. And, amoral seems to be your favorite right now.

Is there anything you think he's doing right?

REID: Is there anything that I think that President Trump is doing right? I just have trouble accepting him as a person and so, frankly, I don't see anything he's doing right.

BASH: You told "The New York Times" that President Trump is, without question, the worst president we've ever had. About a dozen years ago I remember coming here to Nevada and you telling me almost the same thing about George W. Bush.

REID, THEN-SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: President Bush is the worst president we've ever had.

[07:40:00] REID: In hindsight, I wish every day for a George Bush again. I think that he and I had our differences but no one ever questioned his patriotism. Our battles were strictly political battles.

BASH: I just try to wrap my head around somebody who covered you and was with you real-time all those years ago in the Bush administration when you were his chief antagonist in the Senate, calling him a loser, calling him a liar. And now, you're saying please, I wish I had George W. Bush in the White House again?

REID: There's no question in my mind that George Bush would be Babe Ruth in this league that he's in with Donald Trump in the league. Donald Trump wouldn't make the team.

BASH (voice-over): Chemotherapy compromised several vertebrae. He can no longer walk unassisted. But wry sense of human firmly intact, he was eager to stand and show us a 2010 letter from Donald Trump hanging in his Las Vegas office.

BASH (on camera): "Dear Harry, Congratulations, you are amazing. With best wishes, Donald Trump." REID: Well, that was in the days when he didn't know if he was a Democrat or a Republican.

BASH (voice-over): President Trump has tweeted about Reid's 1993 speech opposing birthright citizenship.

REID, THEN-SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: How about offering a reward for being an illegal immigrant? No sane country would do that.

BASH (on camera): You've said those comments were a mistake.

REID: Yes, I -- they were a mistake. I had a staff member that was -- I shouldn't have listened to as closely as I did.

But that ended pretty quickly when my little Jewish wife whose dad was born in Russia reminded me the first time she heard about it. She said what are you doing? Don't you realize my father was born in Russia?

BASH: What do you make of the president using that tweet?

REID: I guess everything's fair. He found it and let him use it.

BASH: What's your view on impeachment?

REID: Well, first of all, unless you get some Republicans joining, it's a waste of time. The Republicans in the Senate are so afraid of Trump that they're not going to get involved in this.

BASH (voice-over): Still, he says House Democrats should do what they think is right.

BASH (on camera): You don't think there would be a political backlash against Democrats for doing that before an election?

REID: I don't think there would be a backlash because the vast majority of the people know something's wrong with Trump.

BASH (voice-over): That's his basis of advice for Democrats running for president.

REID: The candidates running need not talk about how bad President Trump is. They just need to talk about what's good for the country. Everyone knows -- even those people that support him knows what problems he has.

BASH: Reid served with many of the would-be and declared Democratic candidates. Many call him for advice.

REID: I've had the good fortune of having a number of them come and see me at my home. I think it's wonderful that we have this wide range of talented people.

Joe Biden has been to my home and spent an hour and a half with me. I think so much of him.

BASH (on camera): Should he run for president?

REID: These are personal decisions. If he wants to run for president I think everybody's going to have to catch up with him.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.

BASH (voice-over): He likes Amy Klobuchar so much in 2016 he recommended her for the Supreme Court.

REID: I thought she was perfect to go on the Supreme Court.

BASH (on camera): This is if Hillary Clinton won?

REID: Yes, that's right.

BASH: Any truth to the story that you had to pull Sen. Klobuchar aside and say go easy on your staff?

REID: You know, I don't know where stuff like that comes from. If I did that, I have, honestly, no memory of it.

BASH (voice-over): Barack Obama credits Reid with being the first to seriously urge him to run for president.

How about Beto O'Rourke?

REID: When you're a new candidate like Beto O'Rourke, you have to be tested because you, the press, love to have virgins out there --

BASH (on camera): (Laughing).

REID: -- and they go after them pretty quickly. So he has -- he's not tested yet.

BASH (voice-over): Tested -- something Reid knows a lot about growing up in this shack with no running water in Searchlight, Nevada, which he invited me to see in 2006.

Now, he hopes his come from nothing story is the core of his legacy.

REID: One of the things that I hope that people will look back at me and say if Harry Reid can make, I can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Wow, what a discussion, Dana. That was fascinating. "I wish every day for a George Bush, again."

BASH: I know.

BERMAN: I never thought I would hear Harry Reid say those words out loud. And I understand there's more here because talk about the bad blood between Reid and Bush, bad blood also between Reid and Mitt Romney when he was the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Where is that now? BASH: Very bad blood for a lot of reasons. The biggest is that Sen. Reid stood on the floor of the Senate and accused Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes without offering real proof. And so, we never really thought the two of them would have a meeting of the minds.

But, Reid told me he did reach out to the now-senator before he was senator and asked for a meeting. The two of them met in Salt Lake when Sen. Reid was there and he said they made amends.

[07:45:00] I said why do you do that? He said, you know, I saw that Abraham Lincoln used to do this -- try to reach out and, you know, cover up problems or put problems beside you after you have real big political fights. And he said I wanted to do that with Mitt Romney.

BERMAN: I've got to say, when you face your own mortality I think you perhaps see a lot of these political feuds in a much different way.

Dana Bash, terrific interview. Thanks so much for giving it to us this morning.

BASH: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

CAMEROTA: That was remarkable. So much --

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- news in there.

All right. R. Kelly, meanwhile is in jail this morning. How his financial troubles will affect his legal battle, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: R. Kelly is expected back in an Illinois courtroom today after spending the weekend in jail. The singer was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims. His bail is set a $1 million.

CNN's Sara Sidner has been following this. She is live in Chicago with more. So what do we expect, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, this is the second time that R. Kelly will be in court in the past 48 hours. It's a stunning development in a case that spans more than a decade. The state's attorney saying he is guilty of sexual abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (voice-over): One of the most successful R&B singers ever, R. Kelly, left his studio, turned himself in to police, and was booked and taken to the Cook County Jail Friday night. He is still in jail more than 48 hours later. His attorney says that's because Kelly has been unable to pay the $100,000 in bail money. [07:50:12] STEVE GREENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR R. KELLY: This is someone who should be wealthy at this stage of his career. And through mismanagement, and through people -- hangers-on, and bad contracts, and bad deals, and bad leases like he had on his studio, he really doesn't have any money at this point.

SIDNER: A Cook County judge set a $1 million bail in the case, $250,000 for each of his alleged victims.

KIMBERLY FOXX, STATE'S ATTORNEY, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS: Robert Kelly was indicted before a Cook County grand jury on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims.

SIDNER: Cook County state's attorney Kim Foxx says the abuse spanned 12 years between 1998 and 2010, and three of the four alleged victims were underage girls at the time of the abuse.

There is also physical evidence, prosecutors said, including a videotape that shows multiple sex acts, allegedly by R. Kelly and a girl who repeatedly refers to her 14-year-old genitalia. That tape given to prosecutors by attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing several people connected to the case.

For decades, Kelly has faced accusations of sexual misconduct with minors. He was acquitted in a 2008 trial after being charged with 14 counts of child pornography in a case where a videotape showing sexual activity was also a piece of evidence. Eleven years later, he is facing 10 new charges.

Kelly's attorney gave a hint of what may be part of his defense.

SIDNER (on camera): Do you think these women are lying?

GREENBERG: Yes.

SIDNER: All of them?

GREENBERG: I think all the women are lying, yes. One of the charges appears to involve the same alleged victim from the earlier case and double jeopardy should bar that case.

And he won that case. A jury heard the facts in that case. A jury acquitted him, fair and square. It's over.

SIDNER (voice-over): Avenatti, who represents one of the victims, responded.

MICHAEL AVENATTI, ATTORNEY, REPRESENTS R. KELLY ACCUSER: He's called all of the women victims liars who are outrageous and completely unprofessional. Mr. Greenberg also seems to not recognize what double jeopardy really is. None of the counts that have been alleged against Mr. Kelly involve double jeopardy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: The battle in front of the cameras now in the courtroom. And we do expect to see Mr. Greenberg, Mr. Avenatti, and the assistant state's attorney in court, as well as R. Kelly.

We should also mention as far as his money problems, we learned with court documents that he owes more than $160,000 in back child support as well -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Sara Sidner for us. Thank you so much, Sara.

Pope Francis calls for an all-out battle against priest sex abuse after a Vatican summit. Why many say they're not satisfied with this. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:56:37] BERMAN: Pope Francis is vowing to combat priest sex abuse and acknowledging past cover-ups, but he fell short on giving any specifics on how he will do that.

CNN's Delia Gallagher live in Rome with the details on this. Delia, so what's the upshot of this weekend?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Look, John, it's been an intense four days here at the Vatican. You had survivor groups out in full force and Pope Francis calling priests who abuse children tools of Satan and declaring an all-out war on abuse. The problem, John, is that there are different ideas about what that battle plan should look like.

We did have a surprising revelation during the conference from German Cardinal Marxs who admitted that some files containing evidence of sex abuse have been destroyed in Germany. He said he did not know who was responsible for that but that he didn't think Germany was an isolated case.

And the other thing in the conference John was there were some refreshing voices from women, including a nun from Nigeria, Sister Veronica Openibo, who had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SISTER VERONICA OPENIBO, NIGERIAN-BORN NUN: We proclaim the Ten Commandments and parade ourselves as being the custodians of moral standards. Hypocrites at times? Yes. But why did we keep silent for so long?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And, Vatican officials tells us they are already meeting this morning for follow-up on the summit. They are going to publish guidelines for bishops around the world. But survivors are saying that's not enough. They want to see bishops who have been accused of cover-up held accountable -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Delia, they want real action. The time is well past due, they say.

Thank you very much for the update from Rome. Now to this story. A California man is getting a $21 million settlement after spending 39 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Craig Coley was convicted in 1979 for the murder of Rhonda Wicht and her 4-year-old son.

The case was reopened in 2016 after law enforcement officers said they felt it had been quote "mishandled." Coley was pardoned by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017 after new evidence and DNA proved he did not kill the victims.

BERMAN: All right, I want you to see some amazing video here. This is a food cart exploding in Eugene, Oregon Sunday. It damaged three surrounding buildings.

The early-morning blast blew the door off a pub next door and triggered the taps, spilling beer everywhere. That's the tragedy here. I can't believe we didn't lead with that.

CAMEROTA: It really is, yes.

BERMAN: Nobody was injured. Fire investigators say the explosion may have been caused by a malfunctioning gas line.

CAMEROTA: All right, that worries me.

OK, imagine this, John. Peeking out and seeing this outside your door. A doorbell camera captured a 100-pound mountain lion on the prowl in a California residential neighborhood -- oh, boy. The area was immediately cordoned off and people were urged to stay inside.

After a few daring escapes, authorities finally captured the cat using a tranquilizer gun. Animal control says once the cat was awake it was released back into the wild -- not the suburban neighborhood, I hope.

That's the best advertisement I've ever seen for those doorbell cameras.

BERMAN: Well --

CAMEROTA: They should use that.

BERMAN: But it's not like the mountain lion was going to ring the doorbell.

CAMEROTA: Well, if it did -- if your doorbell ever rings and you say who's there, and somebody says meow, do not answer that door.

BERMAN: Mountain lion. Mountain lion, who?

CAMEROTA: Don't answer that. Don't open that door.

BERMAN: It's my favorite joke ever.

All right. A critical week for the Trump presidency. NEW DAY continues right now.

END