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Beto O'Rourke Launches 2020 Presidential Campaign; 'Bomb Cyclone' Unleashes Severe Weather Across U.S.; Nadler: Former Acting A.G. Expressed Concerns about Cohen Case. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 14, 2019 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[00:59:51] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, March 14, 6 a.m. here in New York, and we do have big 2020 news that is breaking as we speak.

Seconds ago, former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke announced he is running for president. We have the video to prove it, and we will show that to you in just moments. This is a highly-anticipated moment, partly because O'Rourke electrified national grassroots support and broke fundraising records in his race for Senate in Texas, despite the fact that he lost that race.

O'Rourke has arrived in Iowa overnight for a three-day campaign kickoff. He told "Vanity Fair" in a cover piece that he feels called to run adding, quote, "Man, I'm just born to be in it."

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We also have more breaking news this morning.

A critical weather situation in the nation's midsection, a monster bomb cyclone, which is as bad as it sounds. It's a powerful blizzard with hurricane-force winds. It left Colorado with deadly whiteout conditions. Look at that. There are widespread power outages this morning. Thousands of flights have been canceled.

How bad is it? In one county alone, more than 1,000 drivers have been stranded in the driving snow. They are still doing rescues this morning. We will speak to someone involved in those rescues in just moments.

First, though, the huge, breaking campaign news. Beto O'Rourke is in, dramatically reshaping the Democratic race for president. CNN's Leyla Santiago live in Iowa, where Beto O'Rourke spent the night -- Leyla.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John and Alisyn. After four months of sort of saying, "Look, I'm thinking about this. This is something I'm considering for myself, for my family," he is finally making it official. All that anticipation coming to today, in which he releases this video with his wife, Amy, saying, "I'm officially in the race." Let me let you listen to a bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Amy and I are happy to share with you that I'm running to serve you as the next president of the United States of America.

This is a defining moment of truth for this country and for every single one of us. The challenges that we face right now, the interjected crisis in our economy, our democracy and our climate, have never been greater; and they will either consume us, or they will afford us the greatest opportunity to unleash the genius of the United States of America.

In other words, this moment of peril produces, perhaps, the greatest moment of promise for this country and for everyone inside of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: So let's note that this announcement comes ahead of a three-day tour here in Iowa, starting in Keokuk, Iowa, the southeastern part of the state.

And as I've talked to his staff, there certainly seems to be a focus on places where President Obama won and then later President Trump won, kind of giving a hint to details as to what his approach may be.

I actually had a chance to talk to him yesterday in the airport as he was heading here, coming into Iowa; and he was excited. He often says he wants to run for something, not against something.

Here's the thing. You talk to a lot of Democrats out -- out there right now, and they will tell you that they are running against something. What's important to them is to get President Trump out of the White House.

So I asked him, can he take the same approach that he did in the midterm elections against Senator Ted Cruz, where he sort of became this rising star in the Democratic Party, and apply that on a national level to do that, to get the Democratic nomination and beat President Trump? He seems to think that he can.

He is saying that is his goal and that he will take that approach, where he didn't use PAC money, where he didn't have pollsters, where it was a really grassroots effort in Texas, and apply that on a national level. Will that work? We'll have to wait and see.

When it comes to the issues in the weeks leading up to this, he was already e-mailing his supporters, really talking about immigration, the prohibition of marijuana, as well as the criminal justice system. Last night when I talked to him, he was really focused on climate change, and I expect that will be very much a part of his talks as he kicks off his campaign.

CAMEROTA: All right, Leyla. Thank you for the breaking news for us.

Joining us now to talk about all this, we have Alex Burns, national political correspondent for "The New York Times"; M.J. Lee, CNN national political correspondent; John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst; and Joe Lockhart, former Clinton White House press secretary.

Joe, I want your strategic brain here. So, just moments ago, Beto has announced. How does this reshuffle the deck as we know it?

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I think gives someone who's not on the most progressive part of the Democratic party, you know, out there with Sanders and Warren, a someone more to the middle but with charisma and with a life story and creating excitement. So I think it balances -- balances out the race quite a bit.

BERMAN: We're five minutes in now, four minutes and 30 seconds --

CAMEROTA: How are you feeling?

BERMAN: -- into the Beto O'Rourke era. Alex Burns, what did the other campaigns feel about this? How do they look upon Beto O'Rourke and who, perhaps, fears him the most?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I think most of the them fear him quite a bit. I think that's common to most of the rest of the field.

But talking to campaign strategists over the last few days, because they've all been anticipating that this would happen, whether it's today or next week, it's the candidates who are banking on a mood of, really, kind of generational change who feel the most nervous about this. That if you are a Kamala Harris, if you're a Cory Booker, and to some extent -- it's a little counterintuitive -- if you're Bernie Sanders and you're counting on a movement of younger people who are rejecting the system as it is, even though, as Joe said, Beto is somewhat closer to the political middle, there is just something about the way he talks and his personality and his mindset about the system that poses a real challenge to these other candidates, poses a real challenge to them, as well, in terms of their ability to mobilize small donors online.

A lot of young people who might have gone online to contribute to somebody who they liked in that first debate but hadn't seen before may already have their man now.

CAMEROTA: Look, there is something about him. I mean, according to "Vanity Fair," not everybody gets this treatment. I mean, he just announced five minutes ago, and he's today on the cover of "Vanity Fair." That is rock star treatment.

BERMAN: Annie Leibovitz. Literally, Annie Leibovitz. Rock star treatment.

CAMEROTA: Yes, of course. Rock star treatment. I mean, and so what is it, M.J., about him?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, the reason I'm just excited this morning, as a political reporter, with Beto getting in, is that I feel like this is a turning point in our coverage of our 2020 campaign. We now have a full field with, obviously, the very obvious exception

of Joe Biden and his decision. And for the people who are paid to do this every day -- and I'm talking about political reporters, people who work on campaigns, political analysts -- I think he has been the single person that has been the most difficult to sort of handicap and predict, what is going to happen when he gets in. And now that he is in, I think that we are going to start to get some of those answers.

Can he have and recreate sort of the moment that he had in Texas nationally? Can he do the fundraising that he did in Texas nationally? Is he going to have a clear message? Do we know what his policy positions are really going to shape out to be, again, on a national stage?

And again, I'm just excited that we are actually going to start finding out the answers to some of these questions.

BERMAN: Some of what seemed to excite people in Texas was the way he spoke, not necessarily what he was saying, but the way he spoke. There was a moment, and it had to do with the football players who were kneeling during the national anthem. And what he said about that went viral. Let's play that for a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'ROURKE: Peaceful, nonviolent protests, including taking a knee at a football game to point out that black men, unarmed, black teenagers, unarmed, and black children, unarmed, are being killed at a frightening level right now, including by members of law enforcement, without accountability and without justice. That is why they are doing it. And I can think of nothing more American than to peacefully stand up or take a knee for your rights anytime, anywhere, any place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: There's two things about that. One, he didn't put the music to that video.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I was about to say.

BERMAN: Now This did, which shows you the kind of treatment he gets in general. Again, it's the Annie Leibovitz, "Vanity Fair." It's the Now This, "we're going to make you viral" moment. We'll put it to music. That's what people like.

The flip side of that is where does he stand on all the issues that matter so much to Democratic voters? Do we really know?

AVLON: Well, he certainly is a person who's been very open about his beliefs, and that's core to his appeal. Right? It's the honesty. It's the passion, and inspiration; and he's not afraid of talking policy.

That position you just showed wasn't the easy position for someone to take running for Senate in Texas. And it's the fact he did it in an inspirational way, and he wrapped it up -- and actually, this an American tradition standard, that optimistic wrapping on a progressive message that can still resonate with the red state audience. That's what I think made him such an inspirational figure.

And of course, the other factor, other than the fact he lost. Let's not lose sight of that.

BERMAN: He did.

AVLON: He raised an unprecedented amount of money, and that is a gauge for how much he was able to inspire people. And whether that juggernaut can go on is the real question.

Historically Democrats have gone for the high hand. They don't go for next in line. And that's why it will be really fascinating to see a Biden/Beto dichotomy here, because there's no question, out of 18, he's been the hot hand.

But among the criticism he's going to get is this "Vanity Fair" treatment. You know, this is -- this is the largest sort of announcement being held in check by "Vanity Fair" since Caitlyn Jenner.

And -- and here he's going to -- and here -- no one gets that. And he's got to also be very careful to put the folks on the "we," not the "me," because that's an Achilles heel.

CAMEROTA: I hear him doing that. And I heard him start -- it sounds to me like he's very conscious of that. He starts with sort of "why I want to do it, and for us, and for we."

AVLON: He catches himself.

CAMEROTA: He catches himself. I mean, just -- I'm reading it in print here in the "Vanity Fair" piece. Does this change Joe Biden's calculus?

LOCKHART: Absolutely not. I think Biden is in, and he's just looking for the right way and the right time.

I think -- I go back to my old boss, Bill Clinton, as you know -- as a great political mind. And he says a couple things, which is that the optimist generally wins. I think Beto passes that test.

The second test, which is more important, is, is it about -- as John said, is it about me or is it about them? And I read the "Vanity Fair" story this morning. There was a lot about "me" in there and a lot about "why I want to do this" and not a lot about "why I want to get that" -- you know, "what I'm going to do for the people."

The last thing I'd say is, you know, politics is a -- often where you're defined by who you're up against. He was up against Ted Cruz, one of the most despised politicians on both sides of the aisle in the United States. He's now going to be compared with Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. It's a harder thing. I'm not saying that he doesn't come in here strong. But the thing that really struck me about the "Vanity Fair" -- and it

could just be the way "Vanity Fair" wanted to cover the story, was it was all about him. And I think that doesn't translate as well when you're trudging around the fields of Iowa and in the snow in New Hampshire.

BERMAN: I want to show you where Beto O'Rourke stands right now in Iowa, which is of course, the first state that will vote in the caucuses there. You can see him at 5 percent. That's below where he was in December, January. There's been some slippage. That might be just because it took him a while to get into the race.

The other key thing, and Joe brought up Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, M.J., is that this is seen as a moment by some where Democrats want to nominate either a woman or a minority. Beto O'Rourke is neither of those things. O'Rourke is a white male, and he's conscious of his white maleness.

And in this "Vanity Fair" piece, let me just read to you what he said here. He said, "So if I were to run I think it's just so important that those who would comprise my team looked like this country. If I were to run, if I were to win, that my administration looks like this country. But I totally understand people who will make a decision based on the fact that almost every single one of our presidents has been a white man, and they want something different for this country. And I think that's a very legitimate basis upon which to make a decision." Interesting.

LEE: Yes. I thought that was a really interesting way of acknowledging what he is up against. Joe, as you were saying, the biggest difference right now between his Senate race and what he's attempting to do now is that he's not just running against one person, and that one person also is not another white male.

The fact that there are the Kamala Harrises, the Cory Bookers of the world means that these people in Iowa and all of the other early voting states have a choice when they're looking at the field and deciding, "Who do I want to be the next president?"

And I also think that his Iowa schedule for the next few days, it's pretty interesting and potentially telling about the kind of model that he might be using in his Texas race for his presidential --

CAMEROTA: Why? What's he doing?

LEE: Well, he's doing a lot of sort of, as far as I'm aware, smaller retail stops. We don't know of sort of big rallies and big organizing events. And that's fine, and especially in Iowa, the retail is so, so important.

But again, the question is, can he do what he plans do, it looks like, in Iowa across the stage nationally, right?

One quote that stood out to me from the article, "I don't have a team counting delegates."

AVLON: Yes.

LEE: That's fine right now, but what does that mean? Alex, you can take --

AVLON: Yes.

BURNS: But that's also part of the whole shtick from his Senate race. "I don't have a pollster. I'm not a politician." And like, buddy, you're a politician. You're running for president. You did the "Vanity Fair" profile. You have a -- you may not have a pollster literally defined, but you've got a data team. Don't tell me --

AVLON: Yes.

BURNS: -- you don't have a delegate strategy even if you don't have somebody who is, like, director of delegate operations yet.

And this is one of these things that I think, as M.J. was saying at the beginning, is really going to be put to the test at the national stage, this sort of, like, "I just walked in off the, you know, road with my beat-up pickup and my dog" image is really going to be -- the authenticity of that is really going to be put to the test in a race with other candidates who have, you know, really deeply authentic stories of their own.

And the strength of that, you know, the moment that we saw in that now this clip, I wonder how much credit you get, as a white guy, for talking articulately about black football players dealing in a race where you have multiple African-American candidates running on criminal justice reform.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but I mean, hasn't ever Democrat at least tacitly acknowledged that the ticket, when it finally happens, will include a woman and/or a person of color?

BURNS: Bernie Sanders came out and said that he thinks people need to be judged on the basis of their ideas and not just sort of --

CAMEROTA: Well --

BURNS: Not their age, not their gender.

CAMEROTA: Sure. That makes sense for him.

LEE: Not their age.

AVLON: Well, he's bringing the Burlington to the national race.

But look, I think part of what -- what is inspiring folks about Beto, and I think he did inspire people, is that sort of punk rock politics ethos. And we will see how it translates.

But that authenticity is his greatest strength, as is that generational avatar. When you talk -- in the profile he's comparing this race to "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars," these sort of generational struggles. And if he can keep that narrative, and if he can keep that authenticity, he will, I think, continue to inspire people in a way than other politicians try and fail.

CAMEROTA: We shall see. We're 14 minutes in. Thank you guys very much.

We have another big breaking story to tell you about. Colorado is reeling from this ferocious bomb cyclone, as it's called. That's an actual meteorological term. Dangerous hurricane-force winds and white-out blizzard conditions. As you can see on your screen, it makes driving virtually impossible, also deadly.

[06:15:13] Rescues are still under way at this hour, with hundreds of motorists stranded from last night. CNN's Scott McLean is live in Lone Tree, Colorado, along a closed stretch of I-25.

What's the situation, Scott?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn, on any given morning you would see a steady stream of headlights and taillights down there, because this is Colorado's main North-South corridor. It is shut down for a 30-mile stretch south of Denver. It's also closed down north of the city, as well.

This storm yesterday brought nearly four feet of snow to one town in southern Colorado. The biggest cities, though, luckily saw less than a foot. But that snow, combined with hurricane-force winds, well, it can pile up in a hurry. And it did yesterday into drifts like this one, and it caused all kinds of problems here in Colorado and, really, across the west.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN (voice-over): A bomb cyclone stranding over a thousand drivers throughout Colorado leading to a 100-car pileup on Interstate 25. An El Paso County spokesman telling CNN, "We are in full saving lives mode" as authorities scrambled to rescue drivers who were forced to wait for hours in the bitter cold.

Colorado State Patrol Corporal Daniel Groves was killed after being hit by a vehicle while helping a stranded driver. The state's governor declaring a state of emergency as some areas got slammed with as much as 20 inches of snow.

In Colorado Springs, this park blanketed in snow in just four hours. Firefighters even having to dig out police vehicles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We drove here from Breckenridge to the Denver Airport, and it was horrible. There were roads closed and all kinds -- I'm surprised we got here.

MCLEAN: Low visibility and snow-covered runways causing major delays and thousands of cancellations at the Colorado's airports.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sat on the tarmac for about three hours, little over three hours. It was pretty difficult, pretty difficult, and the conditions began getting worse. MCLEAN: Weather watches, warnings and advisories spanning around 1.5

million square miles across the central U.S., stretching from Canada to the Mexican border.

The ferocious storm system unleashing winds up to 100 miles per hour, on par with a Category 2 hurricane.

In Texas, gusts tearing apart these mobile homes near Dallas, knocking semitrucks over onto their side, and flipping small airplanes like this one upside-down. The wind also contributing to this 26-car train derailment in New Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCLEAN: Now last night, the Denver Airport actually passed out blankets to the many stranded travelers who were stuck there last night. Luckily now, most of the runways are open, and so more and more flights should start getting out as the day stretches on.

Most schools, though, still closed down today. Businesses, though, and the government will get open again, though, as this storm moves off to the east, bringing with it potentially damaging winds and even tornado warnings from the Great Lakes all the way down to the South, John.

BERMAN: All right. Scott McLean for us in Lone Tree, Colorado. Scott, thank you very much.

Joining me now by phone is Jacqueline Kirby, a spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Colorado Springs.

Thank you so much for being with us. You're still rescuing people. Give us the status.

JACQUELINE KIRBY, SPOKESPERSON, EL PASO COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE (via phone): Well, right now we still have about 250 open calls that we need to respond to. Not sure if the vehicles are occupied or not, as we can't get a hold of those individuals by cell phone. And of those 250, we've got about 20 medical calls that will take priority.

BERMAN: How long, by and large, have people been stuck in their vehicles on these roads?

KIRBY: Well, I would tell you as of 11 p.m. last night, we still had 1,100 people stranded who had been there anywhere from an hour to seven hours. So we're looking at a significant amount of time that individuals have been stranded, especially those with medical conditions.

BERMAN: Seven hours stuck in your car, unable to move. How bad was this, as someone who went through it?

KIRBY: You know, I'll tell you, it has crippled El Paso County. Many of our main roads have been closed down. We've been able to clear the vehicles off some of those, but there's still a couple of highways, Highway 24 and 94, that we're currently working on right now, getting the vehicles off the road, getting the people rescued so that the -- when the plows come through, now that the wind has died down and the snow has stopped, we're able to get those clear.

BERMAN: Why were people even out there, driving in this kind of situation?

KIRBY: You know, that -- that was a big question of the day. I think it was -- it was kind of twofold. I think it was people who originally went to work. The storm hit hard. It hit fast. So we went from rain, literally rain to blizzard conditions within minutes. And so people stuck in their commute back home.

[06:20:09] And then individuals who think they're experienced Colorado drivers and that they can -- they'll be able to make their way through. So I think it was a combination of factors.

BERMAN: You said there are some severe medical conditions that you've seen. What are people suffering from, for the most part?

KIRBY: You know, we've had a variety of calls. We have diabetic individuals, people with children. We've had a pregnant woman. So just a range of different medical issues.

BERMAN: And people that are being rescued, being brought to shelters? Is there a shelter situation going on?

KIRBY: Yes, I believe there -- there are a number -- almost 20 shelters that have been set in place. So we will get those individuals to the closest place. And if that's their home, then that is where we will take them.

BERMAN: All right. We're going to let you get back to work, Jacquelyn Kirby, with some 250 outstanding rescues, perhaps as many of that still needing to take place. So thank you so much for giving us the latest there. I really appreciate it.

KIRBY: Thank you for your time.

CAMEROTA: All right, John, did the president try to meddle in the federal investigation into Michael Cohen? And did his acting attorney general lie to Congress about this? The stories has changed overnight. We have the new developments, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:08] CAMEROTA: House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler says former acting attorney general Mark [SIC] Whitaker has changed his tune about conversations that he had with President Trump concerning Michael Cohen. Nadler also says Whitaker acknowledged raising concerns with his staff about the Southern District of New York's case against Cohen.

Joining us now to help explain all this is Laura Jarrett, CNN justice correspondent; and Carrie Cordero, former counsel to the U.S. assistant attorney general and a CNN legal analyst. This is like a case of -- Matt Whitaker. This is like a case of

"Rashomon," basically, Laura, where the people in the room heard different things. So let's remind everybody what Matthew Whitaker said to the House Judiciary Committee just on February 8 about any conversations that he would have had with President Trump. So let's start there. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D), RHODE ISLAND: Did the president lash out at you after Michael Cohen's guilty plea for lying to Congress about a Trump Organization project to build a tower in Moscow?

MATTHEW WHITAKER, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The president specifically tweeted that he had not lashed out.

CICILLINE: I'm asking you, Mr. Whitaker, did the president lash out at you? I'm not asking what he tweeted. I don't have a lot of confidence in the veracity of his tweets. I'm asking you under oath.

WHITAKER: Congressman, that is based on an unsubstantiated --

CICILLINE: Sir, answer the question, yes or no. Did the president lash out to you about Mr. Cohen's guilty plea?

WHITAKER: No, he did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. Now let's listen to what Jerry Nadler said yesterday about what he heard behind closed doors in a much smaller meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY), CHAIR, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Unlike in the hearing room, Mr. Whitaker did not deny that the president called him to discuss Michael Cohen -- the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Laura, explain the significance.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: OK. So, as you said, Alisyn, this is really the tale of Whitakers. On the one hand you have Chairman Nadler, who's saying he didn't deny it.

And of course, why does any of this matter in the first place? Whitaker is gone. He is no longer the acting attorney general. It matters because our reporting and the follow-up story in "The New York Times" about the president calling Whitaker, trying to make sure his guy, the U.S. attorney there in the Southern District of New York, Jeffrey Berman, was put back on the case and un-recused from it. It all goes to the question of whether the president is trying to put his thumb on the scale of investigations where he is directly implicated. Of course, in this Cohen investigation, it was all about the hush- money payments to women before the election; and so the questions that both our reporting and "The New York Times" were trying to explore there is what were the conversations between Whitaker and the president on all of this?

Now, Nadler's saying he doesn't deny these conversations happened. In fact, he also admits that he had discussions with his staff about the scope of the investigation in the Southern District of New York. He thought there were pieces of it that were, quote, "specious," according to sources in the room.

But on the other hand, you have the top Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, who says, "No, no, no, that's not what happened at all." He's completely downplaying what Whitaker told lawmakers, saying there's no evidence at all that he discussed the Cohen case.

So it's really who do you believe here?

BERMAN: And again, it matters because of our reporting that, as recently as December, the president was trying to get involved and lean in on the investigation into Michael Cohen. And that's remarkable. I mean, this is something that happened not long ago, Carrie Cordero.

So I'm not sure this clears it up, but it's still significant, yes?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It doesn't clear it up. And that's a real problem.

You know, I thought from the beginning that the president's intent in putting Matt Whitaker in the position of acting attorney general was because he thought he would have a loyalist. And Matt Whitaker was not Senate confirmed. There were other people who should have been in that position.

However, Chairman Nadler really needs to have a transcript of this type of interview. And apparently, I read CNN's reporting several times that he said, he said, they said, according to what Chairman Nadler says, what Collins says, Representative Collins says, what the anonymous Republican staffers who were in this interview with what Matthew Whitaker said. They all are saying something different.

And so if the Judiciary Committee intends to be conducting a serious investigation, they need to have a transcript of this type of meeting so that observers can really understand and the members can really know what transpired. Because it doesn't sound to me like this meeting clarified anything.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's move on to this intermediary, Robert Costello, who was going between Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen. This was after Michael Cohen's office and hotel were raided.

Michael Cohen was clearly very nervous about whether or not President Trump would have his back and what was -- he was going to be facing.