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Trump: "I Feel Very Badly for" Ex-Campaign Chief Manafort; Trump Repeats False Claim Judge Said No Collusion with Russia; Trump Says Democrats Have Become "Anti-Israel", "Anti-Jewish" Party; Democrats May Investigate Kushner's Troubled 666 Fifth Avenue Property; Fight to Defeat ISIS' Self-Declared Caliphate Grinding Down. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 08, 2019 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] KEVIN SHARP, FORMER FEDERAL JUDGE: The system favors the wealthy and the white. I don't think you can look at the data and disagree with Congressman Sellers on that. My time off the bench, I've been very outspoken about what I think are incredibly harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, mandatory sentences myself. I had to sentence a young man to a mandatory life in prison for a crime that I think probably deserved eight, nine, 10 years maximum and so I can see why someone looking at this sentence would be very, very frustrated with it. The system works differently for those who are wealthy and for those who are white. It's hard to argue with that.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: That being said, sentencing isn't over for Manafort. He's going to face another judge this month. In fact, next week, for his conspiracy charges and also for the lies he apparently told after striking a plea deal. The first judge, of course, was outspoken against the special counsel, at least very critical of Mueller's team.

Bakari, do you think this next judge will be tougher?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't have the audacity to believe that I can get in the head of these amazing jurors -- judges, but what I can say is, even though Paul Manafort got four years at 69 years old, that is still a very long time and I'm not sure if the sentences will be running concurrently or consecutively. I'm not sure how the federal bureau of prisons will look at that, per se. What I can say is for anyone who believes that the president's former campaign manager, the individual who ran the campaign for the president of the United States to now two years later be serving substantial amount of prison time, to say that's not a big deal is just false. This is a big deal. He will get more time and for someone who's 70 years old, although the sentences aren't what we want them to be by any stretch, these are still very long sentences for someone his age.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: We heard the president say on his way to Air Force One -- did you want to comment on that as well?

SHARP: I was just going to say, you have to remember that -- that the sentencing next week, the judge will be looking at a very different set of crimes and so she will sentence based on the guilty plea that's in front of her. So I think you will see a different sentence, much more harsh.

CABRERA: On the issue of collusion, the president seemed to jump on some words from Judge Ellis, saying that the sentence means no collusion. He tweeted both the judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was no collusion with Russia. I want to make sure our viewers very clear here. The judge said he

was just giving a reminder that is this sentence specifically is not for anything related to 2016 election interference, but he didn't say there was no collusion, period.

So, Kevin, is the president misrepresenting the judge's comments?

SHARP: Well, that wasn't what this trial was about, right? This was bank fraud. This wasn't about collusion. This was failure to pay taxes, and so that it's not about collusion, not surprising. That's not what he was on trial for. That will wait for Mr. Mueller's report.

CABRERA: Bakari, I want to get your take on freshman Congresswoman Omar's comments that led the House to pass an anti-hate measure this week. An article in "The Jewish Journal" criticized this move, compared it to saying All Lives Matter instead of Black Lives Matter. Is that a fair comparison?

SELLERS: No, I do believe that not only were -- not only has Congresswoman Omar's language been troublesome or beyond troublesome, something that needs to be dealt with in conversations with leadership, but many of our House leadership's response to this has been disappointing at best. Democrats should not have any communication issues when it comes to renouncing anti-Semitism. In fact, that should be something that we should easily check off our list of things to do. To see us stumble and meander just in dealing with these basic issues has been disappointing at best and see us not be able to get our messaging on point has been very disappointing. My hope is that words matter and anti-Semitism in any shape, form or fashion has no place in the political discourse of dialogue. It's very difficult for us to continuously call out that anti-Semitism and racism on the right when we allow it to permeate our messaging on the left. The leadership has to do a much better job of getting its caucus in line.

CABRERA: And now we have the president jumping on this issue that you just brought up and calling Democrats the party -- the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel party. I know you would disagree with that and we'll discuss a little bit more in the next block.

Bakari Sellers, Judge Sharp, great to have both of you with us. Thank you so much.

SHARP: Thank you.

SELLERS: Thank you. [14:34:52] CABRERA: He is one of the loudest critics of the president and happens to be married to Kellyanne Conway. Why George Conway says the U.S. is nearing a banana republic?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: President Trump taking a stunning parting shot at Democrats for passing a resolution condemning hate and bigotry. Before departing for Alabama, the president accused the Democratic Party of being anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. His comments come as the House overwhelmingly passed a broad resolution condemning many forms of hate, including anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination. This vote started as an effort to rebuke freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar for her controversial comments about Israel. In the end, there were 23 no votes against this resolution condemning hate and bigotry, and one "present" vote, all from Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought that vote was a disgrace. And so does everybody else, if you get an honest answer. If you get an honest answer from politicians, they thought it was a disgrace. The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party, they've become an anti-Jewish party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:08] CABRERA: CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, is with us now.

Dana, let's just rewind and remind people of what President Trump has said himself during his APAC speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Is there anybody that doesn't renegotiate deals in this room? This room negotiates deals. Perhaps more than any room I've ever spoken to.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Maybe more.

He raised $125 million, which means he's controlled totally, totally controlled by the people that gave him the money. That's why you don't want to give me money. That's OK. You want to control your own politician. That's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That on top of President Trump's Charlottesville comment that there are good people on both sides of that Neo-Nazi rally that turned deadly. You have Jim Jordan's, Senator McCarthy, their questionable tweets. Just days ago, Steve King retweeting known white nationalist who have called for the elimination of Jews. Why would the president go there on this one?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Who knows? It was offensive. It just was, because it's obvious on it's face what the president is trying to do. It's kind of -- the political version of trying to, you know, shoot fish in a barrel. Trying to expose a real rift within the Democratic Party on how to deal with this issue, which we can get to in a second. Of course, in typical Donald Trump fashion on these issues, he takes it 700 steps too far. The Democrats are anti-Jewish and anti-Israel? I mean, are there splits within the party, sure, but tell that to the Jewish Judiciary chairman, the Jewish Foreign Relations chairman, and on and on and on. And that's probably giving that statement more credence than it needs to be. And it's unfortunate because he makes so many over-the-top comments that people just shrug their shoulders but this one, it shouldn't be a shoulder shrug. That was outrageous.

CABRERA: Never mind CNN's 2016 exit poll showing Hillary Clinton won 70 percent of the Jewish vote, Trump brought in 23 percent of this vote. Now you have 23 Republicans, Dana, who voted no on a resolution against hate. Who and why? What was their calculation to vote no?

BASH: It's really interesting. It is, for the most part -- and each of these 23 Republicans gave slightly different reason. But for the most part, the gist was, that they thought -- they argued it was watered down and it was their way to protest what Democrats have done, meaning, the Democrats started out by saying that they would put a resolution on the floor of the House that was just condemning anti- Semitism and then when there was backlash against the Democratic leadership from other minority groups, Muslims, for example, then they added that and then it just went on and on and on. So it was so broad that what many of these 23 Republicans. Including Lee Zeldin, for example, a Jewish Republican from New York, argued was that it was pointless and it was -- it was -- it didn't make any sense. The flip side of that is, you can make that argument that it's pointless, but you are still on the record voting against a resolution condemning, not just anti-Semitism but basically hate across the board. Is that really what you want on your record because you're trying to make a political point?

I think the most interesting and noteworthy of those no votes, Ana, was Liz Cheney, who is now a member of the House Republican leadership. She's an important role. She is the House conference chair. She's supposed to be and she is in charge of messaging for House Republicans. She broke with the House Republican leadership and voted no on that. She made similar arguments to what I just said but it certainly is -- it's interesting because Republican leaders generally do things together and the question is whether a lot of Republicans who I'm talking to today or questioning whether she's trying to send a message to members of the Republican leadership and elsewhere.

CABRERA: And they certainly made this story now about Republicans when it was about Democrats.

(CROSSTALK) BASH: This is about Democrats. This is the Democrats trying to figure out a way to please their very, very new, very raucous, very diverse caucus. And there are Democrats -- Jewish Democrats and others who aren't Jewish who are not happy with the way that Nancy Pelosi handled it, but leading is hard.

CABRERA: No doubt about it, especially on issues that are sensitive as this one.

Dana Bash, always good to have you with us.

BASH: Thank you.

[14:45:01] CABRERA: Big announcement today from presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren, her plan to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook. How would that work? We'll get the details.

Michael Cohen says under oath he did not ask for a pardon and now the president says, oh, yes, he did. So who do you believe now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. The president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is facing even more scrutiny from lawmakers. House Democrats say they want to learn more about his family's flagship office towers, 666 Fifth Avenue, and the Qatar-backed cash infusion that helped his family rescue itself from $1.1 billion of debt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:50:09] REP. STEPHEN LYNCH, (D), MASSACHUSETTS: That's an issue of major concern especially with respect to Mr. Kushner's family finances and then some significant investments made by people with interests in the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, Brookfield and the property is 666 Fifth Avenue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Why are lawmakers concerned about Kushner's private real estate bailout? Well, Kushner took on a unique role at the White House, helping conduct Middle East policy and, most recently, holding private meetings with Saudi Arabia's crown prince.

Joining us now Dan Alexander, a reporter for Forbes.

Dan, first, remind us what we know about this 666 Fifth Avenue deal and what we don't know.

DAN ALEXANDER, REPORTER, FORBES: We know that it was an enormous problem for the Kushner family for years. It was purchased right before the real estate crash. Jared Kushner goes in there, makes a big deal and, right away, it becomes a failure because of the huge crash. So all of a sudden, this thing is way under water and it's become an albatross for them for years now. They've got to figure out some way to save it. And how do you save it if you're looking for big money? One of the places you'll look is overseas. He was looking overseas during the campaign. That created a lot of controversy. And then, ultimately, they got a bailout here from Brookfield, which stirred up more controversy because of some of the connection that's Brookfield has with other investors, particularly ones from foreign countries.

CABRERA: So it's a foreign investment. That's the question, are those having an impact? What is the Kushner camp saying about all this?

ALEXANDER: The Kushner camp says that it had no impact and Brookfield says it has no impact. And the Qataris, who are investors in Brookfield, say that they didn't even know about it until the deal happened. I think that that's probably true, that this probably was just a business transaction. In the world of New York real estate, if you're looking for big money, you've got to go to foreign places. The business world at that level is so interconnected. But that points to a greater point which is, why is it that Jared Kushner decided to hold on to his assets and open up all these questions. He didn't have to do this. And if you look at who his mentors were, Carl Icahn taking a position there, holding onto his assets, Wilbur Ross holding on to his assets, of course, the president holding on to his assets. When you have that many people setting an example, then we get to this point in the presidency where there's serious questions around all of their finances.

CABRERA: But hasn't Kushner divested?

ALEXANDER: He's divested from 666 Fifth by selling it to a transfer that his mom now controls. But he held on to some of the businesses in the other portfolio. If you have this huge property, does that impact the other things he owns in the family portfolio, not to mention the fact that if your mom now owns it or controls it or the rest of your family does, does that effect the way you think about it? Is it now -- legally you're OK there but is it going to influence the way you're considering things?

CABRERA: Good point.

Thank you so much, Dan Alexander.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Really appreciate that.

New today, we're learning more about the Florida day spa where Robert Kraft stands accused of soliciting prostitution. "The Miami Herald" has found a photo of the woman who once owned this place with President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:55] CABRERA: Now to Syria where the death toll among people fleeing ISIS's shrinking caliphate is on the rise. According to the United Nations, 97 people, two-thirds of them children under the age of 5, have either died trying to reach a refugee camp or died upon arrival. The U.N. reports thousands more are expected in the coming days.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is in eastern Syria. And he was with a group of ISIS fighters as they surrendered their vanishing territory.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In defeat, gone is the bravado and the cockiness. The defeat, the men of the so-called Islamic State bow their head and cover their faces. The sharp contrast with the shrill triumphalism of ISIS's early days.

"We couldn't fight any more so we surrendered," this man says.

In the last few days, hundreds of ISIS fighters have surrendered to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Some have yet to give up. This video shot Wednesday of the group's last enclave shows men on foot and on motor bikes moving about in broad daylight.

Vanquished ISIS may be, yet among a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Syria hasn't given up. He concedes defeat today, but not tomorrow.

"Maybe the Americans rule the world today," he tells me, "but God Almighty promised the Muslims that in the end the world will be ruled by Islam."

Their state is close to death, not their delusions.

"Despite the war and all the problems imposed upon it, I think the Islamic state was a success," this man tells me. "No one gave it the chance to offer anything to the world."

The state where men claim to rule in the name of God and women obeyed is on the brink of extinction. And the children and the women are paying the price. Caked in dust, dazed and confused, hungry and thirsty.