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Jared Kushner Said To Have Used WhatsApp To Talk To Foreign Leaders; Facebook Staff Had Access To Millions Of User Passwords; Midwest Farmers Hit Hard By Devastating Floods; Dr. Sanjay Gupta Examines Stress In New HBO Documentary; Beyond The Call Of Duty: Police Officers Rush To Save Man From Burning Car. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 22, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:33:42] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some live pictures of some cold journalists on the streets of Washington, D.C. They are outside the special counsel's office. They are awaiting the possible release as soon as today -- or the release of the information that the Mueller investigation is over.

Robert Mueller, as soon as today, could turn over his report to the Attorney General of the United States, which would mean he is done investigating and would set off the beginning of an intense political and legal fight.

We're going to talk a lot about that over the next hour or so.

Joining us now is Michael Smerconish, CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "SMERCONISH".

Michael, before we get to Mueller, because we've been talking about it quite a bit, there is this other development that Erica was just discussing.

Elijah Cummings, chair of House Oversight, says he really wants much more information from the White House about how Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been using their private e-mail and private communication services to conduct government business.

CNN had reported some time ago that Jared Kushner was communicating with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia via WhatsApp, which is a secret, private, encrypted communication service.

And before I get your take on whether or not this is important, I do want to do a dramatic reading from one Michael Smerconish, which was an op-ed that you wrote about Hillary Clinton and her e-mail use on a private server some time ago.

[07:35:00] You say that "Her actions imperiled the public's right to know. Despite her claim to the contrary, her communication choice was never a matter of simple convenience. It was about asserting control at the expense of transparency and possibly, national security."

Do we have a similar situation at play here?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH", HOST, SIRIUSXM, "THE MICHAEL SMERCONISH PROGRAM": I think we probably do.

That was my take and it remains my take that it was -- it was really then all about her not wanting to have to undergo the FOIA process -- the Freedom of Information Act process with regard to private communications.

When I first heard this story, I was disbelieving because WhatsApp is something that our family used on a vacation when we went abroad last year because we didn't want to have to pay cell tower rates to communicate with one another. You know, that's how I'm familiar with it.

It seems, John, terribly imprecise as a means of fulfilling your obligation to the Records Act. I mean, we're asked to believe that he took screenshots and forwarded those as a means of fulfilling his obligation. Well, what didn't he take a screenshot of? You know, you'd want to see the totality of the communication.

But my understanding, having been a user of WhatsApp, is they'd be gone and there'd be no way that you could then later obtain what was the full extent of that communication. It seems like a very odd way to communicate with world leaders.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: You know, and something else that's interesting which, John, you pointed out earlier this morning is we're learning about all of this, obviously, through Elijah Cummings.

And this information now being made public that there were discussions all the way back in 2017 under Trey Gowdy. We should point out that both Gowdy and Cummings met with Abbe Lowell, the attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner back in December and they're asking for more information.

And what Cummings is telling us now is they're not getting any of that information. The White House isn't ponying it up, and all we're hearing from the White House is they're reviewing the letter -- not even -- at least not at 7:36 a.m. on March 22nd, not even a firm denial of no, this didn't happen. This is not still happening.

SMERCONISH: Elections have consequences. We wouldn't be knowledgeable about this but for Elijah Cummings in a leadership position pursuing the matter. If the House hadn't changed hands in the midterm election we'd be none the wiser. So, what we don't know is still more than what we do know, but I'm mindful of the fact that it's in a better position than it would have been.

BERMAN: Yes. You use WhatsApp because you don't want to necessarily pay international calling fees. You also use WhatsApp because it's encrypted and it disappears without a trace.

SMERCONISH: Right.

HILL: Though not encrypted by the U.S. government which is the issue, right?

BERMAN: Not encrypted by the U.S. government, which is not the issue.

Michael, I want to get your take on something else, which is the discussion for the last five days, largely because the president repeatedly has been attacking John McCain who passed away in August.

One of the things he said that many people find to be the most outrageous was he seemed to go after the McCain family for not thanking him for providing some government services for the McCain funeral.

And I just want to read a statement from the National Cathedral. Of all places, the National Cathedral, a place where America should be able to come together and pray together.

The Cathedral felt the need to put out a statement on this, which said, "Washington National Cathedral was honored to host the funeral service for Sen. John McCain. All funerals and memorial services at the Cathedral are organized by the family of the deceased.

Only a state funeral for a former president involves consultation with government officials. No funeral at the Cathedral requires the approval of the president or any other government official."

So, the Cathedral felt the need to come out and say, you know what, we didn't need the president for this. You may have needed the president to get a military plane to carry the casket and for some transportation, but we didn't need the president for this.

It just, I think, goes to show the smallness of this discussion from the White House side.

SMERCONISH: I guess that means that it's number 9,001 for those who are keeping track. I keep wondering what's the upside for the president, politically, in going continually after a dead American hero.

You know, so often we talk about the politically incorrect things that he says, and I do a calculus and I say well, there's someone in the base that appeals to that or that he is appealing to. But with regard to McCain, where is the constituency that is cheering him on in this regard?

When he made the statements that he made in Ohio this week -- in Lima, Ohio at that tank-building factory, nobody applauded those statements.

So let me tie together all of the subjects that you're talking about this morning.

The only thing that I can come up with is that he's laying the seed. He's laying away the foundation so that if, in fact, this Mueller report has some basis in it that he doesn't like, he's going to point to John McCain and say it's all fruit of a poisonous tree. It was John McCain who handed over that document to the FBI -- the dossier -- even though the FBI had it to begin with. The only thing I can come up with is he's trying to get ready for a

defense of what the report might have.

BERMAN: Michael Smerconish trying to use logic here.

[07:40:01] HILL: Sadly.

BERMAN: I see what you're trying to do there. It's hard, it's hard.

Michael Smerconish, great to have you on with us today. You may have a lot to talk about tomorrow morning.

HILL: One or two things, perhaps.

SMERCONISH: I could.

HILL: You can watch "SMERCONISH" Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. only on CNN.

BERMAN: And again, as we release -- await what could be the imminent release of the Mueller report -- Mueller turning over that report to the attorney general.

Facebook is under scrutiny -- a new level of scrutiny. What the social media giant admits to doing that left millions of users' passwords exposed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Time for "CNN Business Now."

Facebook is admitting millions of users' passwords were stored insecurely.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with more. I mean, add this to the list of --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": It's been a year of I'm sorry from Facebook -- a full year now of I'm sorrys.

And here's the latest one from Facebook. Facebook acknowledging it mishandled sensitive passwords for hundreds of millions of its users. Now, Facebook said it didn't properly mask the passwords and stored them in an internal database that staff had access to.

[07:45:00] Now, this primarily affected users who use Facebook's Lite product. That's a simplified version of Facebook designed to work on slower Internet connections.

A Facebook vice president said this. "The passwords were never visible to anyone out of Facebook. No evidence anyone abused those passwords."

Hundreds of millions of users of Facebook Lite were affected here, tens of millions of regular Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users here affected. It has been a year of constant issues for Facebook -- cybersecurity

concerns, a possible fine from the FTC, regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and even more in Europe, and a lengthy outage just last week.

Earlier this month, Facebook said it was pivoting to a privacy focus model by adding end-to-end encryption to its various messaging services.

But guys, it has been a year of mea culpas, no question -- John.

BERMAN: I like the idea of pivoting to privacy. Pivoting to a system where your passwords aren't necessarily exposed to a lot of people.

ROMANS: Exactly.

HILL: It's amazing that the pivot had to be made in the first place --

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: -- and you weren't there.

BERMAN: All right, Romans. Thank you very much.

ROMANS: Bye, guys.

BERMAN: Midwest farmers already hit hard by tariffs and a record number of bankruptcies. Now they are getting slammed by devastating floods.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is live in Iowa with the very latest here. And this could go on for some time, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, John.

I'm standing at the edge of farmland right now that is completely covered by water. We are about 6 1/2 miles from where the Missouri River line should be, and according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture, 100,000 acres in the state are flooded.

And most of the farmers here haven't even been able to get to their farms to assess the damage, and some say they don't even know if they'll able to plant a crop this year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): It came fast and it hasn't stopped. The Missouri River flooded to record levels across Midwestern states, taking with it homes, crops, and livestock, and leaving farmers with hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.

YURKEVICH (on camera): As you stand here and you look at this flooding, what are emotions that come to you?

DUSTIN SHELDON, IOWA FARMER: There's a lot of pain and uncertainty of your future.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This, on top of new tariffs which have lowered prices on crops and livestock, implemented by a president many farmers here support.

Dustin Sheldon is a fifth-generation soy and corn farmer in Percival, Iowa. He hasn't been able to get to his 2,000-acre farm since Sunday.

YURKEVICH (on camera): How much of your land would you say is underwater right now?

SHELDON: Ninety-five percent.

YURKEVICH: What is the damage that you're looking at?

SHELDON: It's in the -- it's over a million dollars.

YURKEVICH: Over a million dollars --

SHELDON: Yes.

YURKEVICH: -- lost.

SHELDON: Yes.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The Nebraska Department of Agriculture estimates losses of up to $1 billion. Here in Iowa, preliminary damage is estimated at $150 million, and according to their Department of Agriculture, it's expected to rise dramatically.

SHELDON: These are the people out here that feed America and without these people, America's going to suffer -- the whole economy's going to suffer.

JEFF JORGENSON, IOWA FARMER: Boy, is it a mess.

YURKEVICH: Standing on the edge of his family farm, Jeff Jorgenson's cornfields are now lakes.

JORGENSON: That's just more money straight out of my pocket. I need to be able to farm this ground. I need to be able to do my job. We're passionate about what we do.

YURKEVICH: According to the American Farm Bureau, farm bankruptcies were up almost 20 percent in 2018, the highest level in more than 10 years. It's something Midwest farmers have been forced to consider.

SHELDON: It's always a possibility with everybody. You know, you might sell everything you own to pay off what you owe, then you've got nothing.

YURKEVICH: Key to their survival is aid. President Trump approved disaster relief funds for Nebraska and Sheldon is hoping he'll do the same for Iowa.

SHELDON: I don't think they're going to forget us because I think he knows how important that agriculture and grain farming, cattle farming, raising hogs -- it is to our country. So let's give him a chance to do it and go from there.

YURKEVICH (on camera): Yes.

SHELDON: If it works, it works. If it doesn't, I guess we'll have to see about making a change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: All of the farmers that we've spoken to say they would like the president to declare this area a disaster zone so they can get that badly-needed federal funding.

And, John and Erica, more flooding is expected. Record snowfall in the North is expected to melt and head down the Missouri River right this way -- John and Erica.

BERMAN: Yes, this is just devastating. And as you were saying, it's not about to be over anytime soon. This is a deep concern and we're talking about generations that could be suffering here and the livelihood. It really is staggering.

Vanessa, thank you so much.

HILL: For the first time in more than 100 years, life expectancy in the U.S. is declining. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta set out to uncover what is happening and why in a new HBO documentary "ONE NATION UNDER STRESS."

[07:50:03] Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stress is an epidemic of monstrous proportions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the surest way to make our have not (ph) feel poor? Put him in a lot of income and equity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And not only do you feel helpless, you feel rage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just seemed like we didn't matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People have this ideology that competition is good for you, but that's a trick.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Could it be that a society gets so stressed out that it actually starts to break?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. We were just saying in the break --

BERMAN: Yes. HILL: -- we're so excited to watch this and to see you tackle it because it is and should be a major concern.

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, it's hard to believe, right? I mean, we're one of the wealthiest countries in the world. We spend close to $4 trillion a year on health care and our life expectancy is going down.

I mean, you said it hasn't happened in 100 years. You know what was happening 100 years ago? We were in the middle of World War and a global flu pandemic at the same time. So, that just gives you some context.

The top three causes of -- new spiking causes of death -- drugs overdoses, which we talk a lot about.

HILL: Yes.

GUPTA: Suicides have gone up 30 percent.

HILL: Wow.

GUPTA: Thirty percent. I mean, there's an existential stress going on here. And liver cirrhosis due to alcoholism.

BERMAN: Wow.

GUPTA: These are all -- they're called the deaths of despair and it's something that's predominantly happening in this country.

BERMAN: And again, I just can't say this enough. It's -- all the other news that goes on in the world, when you see the headline that life expectancy --

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: -- in the U.S. is going down, that should concern you before you see anything else.

Is there something unique about the United States?

GUPTA: Well, it's worth pointing out that you look at the developed world. We're the only country where this is happening.

So you could say well, this must be an economic story -- it's not. A labor force story -- it's not. Lifestyle, like obesity and diabetes. Other countries have those problems as well.

You know, many -- when you look at this problem more specifically it's really predominantly the white working class in the United States where mortality has continued to go up -- sons and daughters of the greatest generation.

I mean, when we looked at this in the film -- this idea that they were -- you know, this population was supposed to inherit the earth or at least inherit the United States. And instead, they see jobs leaving, they see wages going down, and now, they see themselves dying at a faster rate than any similar population around the world.

It's this notion of dashed expectations and broken dreams, in some ways, causing a constant level of stress.

BERMAN: It is fascinating and it is crucial to pay attention to this.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: The documents, "ONE NATION UNDER STRESS" premieres Monday night at 9:00 p.m. on our sister network HBO.

HILL: Two police officers save a man from a burning car with just seconds to spare. Their story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:56:52] BERMAN: Two Georgia police officers put their lives on the line, coming face-to-face with flames to rescue a man from a burning car.

CNN's Victor Blackwell tells us how these police officers went beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Give me your other hand, buddy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anybody else in the car with you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anybody else in the car?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN ANCHOR, "WEEKEND NEW DAY" AND "CNN NEWSROOM": These are the chaotic seconds that two Georgia police officers say made the difference between life and death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That car could have exploded with us in it.

BLACKWELL: Officers Kelly Horne and William Palmer were driving through Henry County, about 30 miles southeast of Atlanta, late one Sunday night in December when Officer Horne noticed something alarming under a car.

OFFICER KELLY HORNE, HENRY COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT, MCDONOUGH, GA: The gas was leaking out, which was leaving a trail of fire behind the car and leaving tire debris and everything else behind it.

BLACKWELL: With lights flashing and sirens blaring, Officer Horne chased the car until it eventually stopped.

HORNE: Get out of the car.

He didn't get out of the car, so I got up to the car and I got my fire extinguisher and tried to put the flames out on the driver's side. They wasn't successful. The flames quickly ignited back.

So I went to the passenger side --

I hear him coughing. Come on, get out.

And started breaking the windows out with my baton so I could see in the vehicle and let smoke out.

BLACKWELL: Officer Horne radioed for help.

OFFICER WILLIAM PALMER, HENRY COUNTRY POLICE DEPARTMENT, MCDONOUGH, GA: I stepped it up and I got to him as quick as I could.

BLACKWELL: Officer William Palmer rushed in to try to put out the flames.

PALMER: Come on, get out.

HORNE: Don't let it hit us.

PALMER: We got him out just enough for me to open the door and instruct the driver to crawl over to us.

Get out. Give me your other hand, buddy.

Seeing his arm, I grabbed it and I immediately started to pull him out.

Is anybody else in the car with you? Anybody else in the car?

BLACKWELL: Seconds later, an explosion.

HORNE: If we didn't get him out I think he would have gone down Highway 81 until the car blew up. I mean, he would have -- he would have died in the car.

BLACKWELL: The driver was fine. He was charged with driving under the influence.

As for Officers Horne and Palmer, they were each honored with the department's lifesaving medal for going beyond the call of duty.

HORNE: I don't think I went above and beyond. I just was trying to get a guy out of a burning car, you know.

PALMER: I strap on a gun, and a vest, and a badge every night and if the same call was to happen tonight I'd do the same exact thing.

BLACKWELL: Victor Blackwell, CNN, Henry County, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Just amazing.

HILL: It really is.

Is today the day? All the cameras are trained. Everybody is waiting with bated breath. Could Robert Mueller hand his report over today?

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They are hopeful Mueller will not find that the president has committed any crimes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to see a real report about what the Russians did and with whom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American public is going to expect transparency. If they hold too much back it's going to be a real problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president didn't have any of his own officials there. We need to have an account of what was discussed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hired Trump to be our chief negotiator. He is entitled to a great degree of executive privilege.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a responsibility to oversee and to hold this administration accountable, and we're going to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you're using WhatsApp.

END