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Nadler: Barr won't Commit to Releasing Full Mueller Report; Theresa May Offers to Resign to Get Brexit Deal Passed; Boeing Introduces 737 Max Software Overhaul. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 28, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he says that he wants Mueller to testify so that members can ask him how he came to those conclusions. Does that happen?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Right. So, Adam Schiff has said that he wants to see the full report. He wants to see all the underlying documentation because his investigation as a member of the Intelligence Committee into the issue of collusion is different than Robert Mueller's. He saying that his investigation is not about prosecutable crimes but getting to the bottom of the manipulation campaign that was spearheaded by Russia. But you know one reason that he says that the way he's going to do that is if he hears from Robert Mueller directly. Here's what he told CNN last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: He's going to have to come in and testify. At what point that takes place, so whether that's before or after we get the report or the underlying evidence may depend on how much Bill Barr stalls in providing that report to the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: There is a lot of suspicion by Democrats, especially in the House about Bill Barr's summary of this. Because Bill Barr had written a memo before he was in the administration questioning the whole theory of the obstruction of justice inquiry. And so, there is a lot of distrust here. The Democrats want to hear from Bill Barr. But they also want to hear from Robert Mueller to see the Bill Barr's summary of his conclusions is accurate. And so I think we will see Robert Mueller be called to testify. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Kara Scannell, always good to have you walking us through it. Thanks very much.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Jamie Raskin who serves on the Judiciary and Oversight Committees. Congressman, thank you for taking the time this morning.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: First question, you now see that Bill Barr will not meet Jerry Nadler's deadline. Do you trust that Barr will make this report as transparent as possible?

RASKIN: Well, the first thing is that we need to have the report turned over in its entirety as quickly as possible. And certainly by the April 2nd deadline. I'm very disappointed to hear that the attorney general is somehow wavering on that. They were able to come to a conclusion about the ultimate legal question raised about whether there was obstruction of justice overnight. And yet they are not able to actually just turn over the physical report to us within one week. And that's not just acceptable.

You know I don't think there is anything that's going to be in there that's more damning or reprehensible than the administration's determination to throw 20 million people off health care this week. But we need to know what happened and we need to correct the record because all that we have right now is that four-page press release that the attorney general put out at the beginning of the week.

SCIUTTO: Right. And it's a fair point because it's his summary, his interpretation. Let me ask you this. As you know, your chamber of Congress voted 420-0, all Republicans and Democrats, to make the report public to get on the Senate side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader is blocking any vote on it there. Has he effectively killed the effort by Congress to force this report into the public eye?

RASKIN: It's a public document. It has to be turned over. And we did have this unanimous bipartisan vote that it must be turned over as quickly as possible. But as the week goes on it just seems like the smell of a whitewash and a cover-up is getting thicker and thicker. It is almost as if they wanted to establish a certain imprint in the public consciousness about what this is and now they are going to try to drag out the process for many weeks of releasing the report. And that's just not an acceptable way for the Department of Justice to be proceeding here. And it seems to be a complete thwarting of the whole design of having a special counsel.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. Is the question of impeaching the president a dead issue now?

RASKIN: Nobody has been talking about that. I mean, I know that the media is obsessed with the whole question of impeachment.

SCIUTTO: I'm not obsessed -- because some of your colleagues are still mentioning it before this report. Many of your colleagues raised that prospect. I'm just saying, now that we have seen at least the summary of conclusions. In your view, is it a dead issue?

RASKIN: I mean, again, I don't want to read the Cliff Notes version of Macbeth. I want to read Macbeth itself in all of its gory detail. Yesterday, we learned that apparently it's 700 or 750 pages and it's been reduced to a couple of sentences by the attorney general. Look, impeachment should be neither a fetish for anybody around here and I don't think it is, nor should it be a taboo. Of course, the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for telling one lie about a private act of sex that he committed. That's not going to be the standard that the Democrats ever use in Congress. We're looking we would only be looking to impeach a president, any president for high crimes and misdemeanors like bribery or treason, offenses against the character of a Republic. It is part of the Constitution.

And so, you know, we should neither spend all of our time obsessing about it nor should we try to excise it from the Constitution. But we have a constitutional oversight function that's far broader than that. We have got to find out exactly what took place. And you know the public paid for that report. Give us the report.

[09:35:03] SCIUTTO: Yes. Politically though, set aside the constitutional and the legal issues. Politically though, is it time for Democrats to move on from this issue and focus on what you brought up yourself early on, issues such as health care.

RASKIN: We are defending pre-existing condition coverage against the administration's attempt to thwart it. We are trying to lower prescription drug prices every day. We want to give the government the power to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices in the Medicare program which is an authority we have in Medicaid and that we have in the V.A., but the Republicans don't want to do it because they are caught up in the special interest agenda. We already have --

SCIUTTO: That sounds like yes.

RASKIN: Well, but the point is we have been doing it all along. And I mean, we could say whether it's the Republicans are obsessed with it because they are the ones who appointed the special counsel or it's the media who is obsessed with it. I guess we don't need to get into that. The point is we have been working on the people's issues. We passed the toughest gun safety law in decades. To close the Internet loophole, to close the private gun show loophole. So, you know if people want to pretend that somehow we were the ones obsessed, that's fine.

The point is we are doing the people's work here and we're going to continue to do the people's work. Part of the people's work is oversight. And we're not going to neglect that function and sort of coerced out of it simply because of the attorney general's press release.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, a new poll out from Quinnipiac ranking the Democratic 2020 candidates so far. We'll put it up on the screen. I'll just read the numbers to you since you can't read the screen but you're aware. Joe Biden, 29 percent, Bernie Sanders, 19, Beto O'Rourke, 12, other candidates behind, Kamala Harris and others there. Is Vice President Joe Biden, former vice president the candidate most likely to beat Donald Trump in 2020, in your view?

RASKIN: I don't know the answer to that. He's a formidable candidate and defueled has astonishing strengths in it across the board. It reminds me of what happened in 2018 where everybody is saying the Democrats are disorganized. The Democrats are chaotic. And a lot of these congressional districts we had 10 or 12 or 15 candidates. And you what, we had our primaries and we are an open party where everybody comes and says what they believe. The final analysis, we picked the best candidates across the country. And we won back the House of Representatives. We plan on doing exactly the same thing in the Senate and with the White House. And we are not afraid of real Democracy.

SCIUTTO: Final question --

RASKIN: On the Republican side they are trying to drive out primary opposition to Donald Trump. I mean they have become a party that operates like a religious cult. It's an amazing thing to watch.

SCIUTTO: Just quickly. Three white men at the top of that list and that is notable as well. In a year when there is a push from many in the Democratic base to have someone different -- a woman, a person of color. Do you think that kind of result disappoints Democratic voters?

RASKIN: You raise a really interesting point because one of the great points of pride for our party is that we now have over a hundred women here in the House of Representatives. We got this magnificent diversity that's reflected here. And our party is open to everybody. I don't think our party is opposed to white men being involved in politics. I certainly hope not. And we have lots of great progressive white male politicians doing a great job. I don't think anybody discriminates in one direction or the other. But we've got a robust field of fantastic diversity. I think we're going to come up with a great ticket.

SCIUTTO: Congressman Raskin, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.

RASKIN: The pleasure is all mine.

SCIUTTO: British Prime Minister Theresa May is putting it all on the line, offering to step down now to save her Brexit plan. Will it work? We're going to be live in London with the latest on really just an amazing political crisis there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:58] SCIUTTO: The future of Britain, one of America's closest allies is uncertain right now as the Brexit deadline looms in days. And now in a last ditch effort to save the twice failed Brexit plan, British Prime Minister Theresa May is offering to resign her leadership.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us now live from 10 Downing Street at London, the home of the prime minister. Nic, what's happening? So, she's offered to step down but also all the various plans can't get a majority in parliament. What happens next?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, you would think as a prime minister if you're going to lay your career and all your political capital on the line you would get something back from it. And the reality is she doesn't seem to be closer yet to getting her Brexit deal with the European Union past the so-called Meaningful Vote Three. We've just heard from the leader of the House from the conservative party speaking today.

And when asked, are you going to have a vote on Friday, eventually the answer came out - Friday, tomorrow. No, that doesn't appear to be a vote. And what we saw last night with the so-called Indicative Votes, eight votes on a raft of different possibilities from no deal to no Brexit at all. And a couple were quite closely - were quite close, almost neck and neck. But actually nothing came forward with a clear majority.

So, you can say from that and particularly the way it broke down over party lines really nothing has become clearer. So you have a prime minister who said I'm going to step down. She doesn't have enough support to get a deal through. The deal still isn't through. The clock is ticking, two weeks and a day. We are out of the European Union, so far without a deal. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Just a quick follow there. What are the chances now of a second referendum? You know this is kind of been hanging out there as a possibility. Is there any chance that becomes a reality or is it more likely that just no deal and you drop out of the union?

ROBERTSON: There's big oppositional, broad cross party opposition to a no deal. There isn't a definitive mechanism.

[09:45:00] It hasn't been entirely stopped in its tracks. The issue of a second referendum - so the second referendum would work like this, whatever parliament agrees on if and when it eventually agrees then the rest of the country gets the vote on it. But when you look - and that got the highest number of yes votes last night, it lost by 27 votes. But it got the highest number of yes votes. I mean you look at that and you go, gee, maybe there is a way for the prime minister to work this in to her planning and that can bring people on board.

But you know what? Almost no one from her party voted for that. So if she was to adapt to that idea that would split her party. As we just said, she's said that she's going to resign and step down. What prime minister would ever step out of office with their legacy being not only failed Brexit but dividing the party? So I'm not sure what legs the referendum point has in it at the moment as well, Jim. It could change. Not clear today.

SCIUTTO: Country or party, right? Nic Robertson thanks. It's going to be active there. We'll come back when there is news.

A rare look inside a training simulator for a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane - it's a pretty remarkable story. CNN goes there. We'll take you with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:38] SCIUTTO: You and I have all likely flown this plane and now Boeing has failed an overhaul to its software system and the pilot training of its 737 Max jets, marking its most direct attempt to fix an element of the aircraft's original design that has been implicated in two deadly recent crashes.

Meantime, lawmakers grilled Trump administration officials about the decision to defer large parts of the 737 safety certification to Boeing, the company that makes it. FAA Acting Chief Daniel Elwell also defended the agency's delay in grounding the 737 Max fleet after the Ethiopian Air crash and after many other countries did it before the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL ELWELL, FAA ACTING CHIEF: I can't speak to the reasoning that the other nations took. I know that in communication with those countries and our request what data might they have, they did not have any data for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, they had enough data to make a decision themselves before the U.S. The department of Transportation's inspector general told senators that the agency's actions and response to the fatal crashes are Boeing's 737 Max aircraft had quote, "shaken confidence" in the FAA.

CNN's Robyn Kriel went with an Ethiopian Airlines chief pilot on an exclusive tour of facilities including the simulators used for training pilots and working out safety measures. The simulator is the only one in Ethiopia for the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. That of course, the type of plane that crashed on March 12th killing all 157 people on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are strapped in for a flight onboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight simulator at the airlines aviation academy. This is the only simulator in Ethiopia for the Boeing 737 Max 8. The aircraft that crashed two weeks ago, killing all onboard. The simulator, we're told was purchased in January of this year. Chief Pilot Yohannes HaileMariam takes us through the brief pre-flight checklist before take-off.

YOHANNES HAILEMARIAM, ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CHIEF PILOT: So, we are in Addis.

KRIEL: Within minutes, our simulator flight has begun.

The flight ET 302 took off in a similar way, from Bole International Airport, nestled in rolling green and gold nose. It was at this point, six minutes into the flight and still climbing to cruising altitude. That Ethiopian Airline flight 302 encountered major problems.

It eventually crashed into a field, south of Addis Ababa. How and why this happened is still under investigation. And it was also at this point the 13 minute mark, that Lion Air flight nearly five months before began its tragic and deadly dissent as well. Our simulator journey, however, continue safely. But, on board

October's Lion Air flight, the automated MCAS anti-stall system was trying to force the nose down.

HAILEMARIAM: This is what we call (inaudible) quick reference on the book.

KRIEL: Chief Pilot HaileMariam shows us the flight manual for a 737 Max 8. This manual contains everything a pilot needs for a flight or at least it should. A source with knowledge of the aircraft says there's no information inside about the new MCAS system.

A pilot on board a flight encountering problems could've found all kinds of emergency procedures and systems descriptions, but according to our source, nothing on the MCAS. Inside the simulator, the safest it is, our flight progresses smoothly. Chief Pilot HaileMariam flies the plane manually. Effortlessly even, but if an actual flight which we experienced an MCAS failure, the pilot would be left wrestling the airplane. These levers particularly, the pilot pulling up, the system pulling down in a tug of war, one that according to our source, the aircraft doesn't know to stop fighting.

Robyn Kriel, CNN Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:55:00] SCIUTTO: Imagine what the pilots faced in real life during those crashes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:59:17] SCIUTTO: So if you have any friends or family in Wisconsin, you may want to call them right now and hope their one particular people but person because just one particular ticket in that state matched all six numbers in the $768 million Powerball Drawn, the third largest jackpot in U.S. lottery history.

CNN's Nick Watt joins me now. Do we know anything about where this was bought?

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do. Just in the next few minutes, Jim, they're going to announce exactly which store it was bought at. But we know it was bought in New Berlin, Wisconsin in the southeast of the state, a small town, a population of around 40,000 people. We spoke this morning to Caroline in the rainbow diner who woke up at 3:00 a.m., saw the ticket being sold in Wisconsin and said her heart was racing, realized it wasn't her, realized she had to go to work.