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Several Hurt as Nipsey Hussle Vigil Ends in Stampede; Trump Punts Healthcare Until After 2020 Election; Whistleblower Raises Concern Over White House Overruling Security Clearance Declines; White House: 'Anyone's Guess' if Trump Will Close Border with Mexico; Sen. Kamala Harris Raises $12 Million in First Quarter. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 02, 2019 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police identifying a suspect in the murder of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

[00:59:23] Hussle called for peace. We're calling upon whoever killed Nipsey to turn theirself in. Nipsey was our hero. He was a role model to our youth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have people who have top secrets, and they have not been cleared. That should alarm every American.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Democrats plan to push forward subpoenas as part of their investigation.

JARED KUSHNER, SON-IN-LAW/ADVISOR OF DONALD TRUMP: I've been accused of all types of things, and all those things have turned out to be false.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, April 2. So glad that's over, April 1st. Six o'clock here in New York.

We do have breaking news overnight. A vigil for Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle has turned violent.

You can see the stampede there. Several people were injured after a fight caused this stampede. Hundreds of people ran from the storefront where the rapper was gunned down.

And Los Angeles police now identifying the suspect in the murder of Nipsey Hussle. Police want the public's help finding this man, 29- year-old Eric Holder, who was last seen fleeing the area in a white Chevy Cruze. CNN has also obtained surveillance video, capturing the awful moment of the deadly shooting.

BERMAN: And we will show you that video in just a moment.

Also breaking overnight, the president claims the Republicans will be the party of health care, just not right now. You heard that correctly.

After moving to strike down all of Obamacare in court, after White House officials and congressional supporters have been scrambling to say they absolutely have something to replace it, after all of that, the president overnight proclaims not yet. The Republicans will be the party of health care someday.

He says a vote on their plan will come after the election, the next one, in 2020.

Let's begin, though, with the breaking news from Los Angeles. Nick Watt with the details of what happened at this vigil for Nipsey Hussle and this dramatic new video we're seeing -- Nick.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, you know, Nipsey Hussle was a musician. He was an entrepreneur. He was a philanthropist. He was much loved in his South Los Angeles neighborhood. But overnight, the morning turned to violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (voice-over): Los Angeles police now identifying a suspect in the killing of Nipsey Hussle. Twenty-nine-year-old Eric Holder is wanted in connection with the rapper's murder.

Security camera video just obtained by CNN shows the suspect walking up to Hussle and two other men as they stood outside the rapper's store, firing at him multiple times before running to a nearby alley and fleeing in a car driven by an unidentified female.

"The Los Angeles Times" citing law enforcement sources, reports the gunman and Nipsey Hussle got into a fight before the shooting. The medical examiner says that Hussle died within an hour from gunshot wounds to his head and torso.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never been all distraught over somebody like this, like a rapper. You know what I mean? And it was more. He was more than just a rapper.

WATT: The beloved rapper's community heartbroken in the wake of his death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is someone who put our community on the map. People thought that our community was just about violence, and Nipsey put a change to that.

He was willing to partner to bring peace to this community that we are now going to lose.

WATT: A massive crowd of fans gathering throughout the day to honor Hussle. Then, chaos erupted Monday night. Hundreds of mourners scattering across the parking lot where Hussle was killed after police say a disturbance incited panic.

Aerial footage captures the crowd fleeing in all directions, shoes and smashed candles left behind. At least 19 injured in the stampede. One person was critically wounded after being hit by a car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely chaotic. Mass panic.

WATT: Mourners carrying the injured as firefighters treated people at the scene. Police dressed in riot gear rushing in, trying to disperse the crowd and breaking up fights that broke out amid the confusion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT: No word yet from the LAPD on a possible motive here, but we know that a half hour before Nipsey Hussle was shot, he tweeted this: "Having strong enemies is a blessing" -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much, Nick, for all of that reporting.

Overnight, President Trump did an about-face on health care, now saying the Republican plan will not be announced until after the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, a whistleblower says 25 security clearance denials were overturned by the Trump administration, including Jared Kushner's and Ivanka Trump's.

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House for us with more. What have you learned, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

You know, it does seem like it's two steps forward for this administration, one step back on some of the most difficult issues, including coming up with a healthcare plan in advance of next year's elections without annoying the voters.

And there's also this nagging issue of security clearances which has dogged the administration. That tends to show that congressional Democrats are keeping their promise to put in some vigorous oversight for this proceeding apace, regardless of what the Mueller report shows and whenever it's released.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KUSHNER: Over the last two years that I've been here, I've been accused of all different types of things, and all of those things have turned out to be false.

[06:05:04] JOHNS (voice-over): President Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, brushing off fresh concern over his top-secret security clearance after Tricia Newbold, a whistleblower working inside the White House, told investigators that senior administration officials overruled concerns for about 25 individuals whose security clearances were initially rejected.

A source familiar with Newbold's claim tells CNN that Kushner and President Trump's daughter Ivanka are two of the 25.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD), CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: What you have here are people who literally have the top secrets of the world. Recommendations have gone out to say they shouldn't have them. And so that should -- that should alarm each and every American.

JOHNS: House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings outlining Newbold's allegations in a new memo based on an interview she provided last month.

According to Cummings, Newbold alleging that her office had initially denied the security clearances due to issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use and criminal conduct.

CUMMINGS: She had gone to her supervisors, and they basically turned a blind eye.

JOHNS: Cummings telling reporters that he plans to subpoena the White House's former personnel security director Carl Klein as part of his probe into the security clearance process.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Ranking member Jim Jordan arguing that Republicans have been blindsided by the allegations, calling Cummings's memo "unfortunate and disappointing" and accusing Democrats of cherry-picking information.

The back and forth coming as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to vote tomorrow on whether to authorize a subpoena for Special Counsel Robert Mueller's full, unredacted report.

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I think all of us need to see the report and should settle for nothing less.

JOHNS: Meanwhile, President Trump announcing that he's sidelining his push for a new Republican healthcare plan until after the 2020 election, despite repeatedly touting the issue over the past week.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So we're going to get rid of Obamacare. And I said it the other day. The Republican Party will become the party of great health care.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: The president's about-face on health care comes on the heels of criticism from some members of the president's own party on Capitol Hill who say they're not ready yet. They don't have a plan to roll out, and they don't want another bruising battle over repealing and replacing Obamacare.

John, back to you.

BERMAN: All right. Joe Johns at the White House. Thank you, Joe. Yes, Joe. He just shifted that timeline in a major way. Joining me now is Karoun Demirjian, "Washington Post" congressional

reporter and CNN political analyst.

Karoun, let me read you what the president wrote overnight. And I remind you that his tweets are official White House policy. The president says of the Republican plan for replacing Obamacare, "Vote will be taken right after the election when Republicans hold the Senate and win back the House."

After the election, Karoun, isn't now? It's not even that soon. It's also not even when the courts will weigh in on throwing out Obamacare. He has completely pushed this way into the future.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He's pushed it into the future and he's, in a way, cleaned up one mess but created another.

The Republicans in Congress did not want to have to tackle health care this way, this year. They don't control both houses of Congress. It was messy enough, even when they did control both houses of Congress, to get past the whole repeal part to crafting an actual replacement that would work. There's not a coalition right now that's moving towards that. And so that was messy.

But now by kicking it off until after the 2020 elections, he's basically handed Democrats a talking point of what is to come if they re-elect Trump and if Republicans take over both houses, both chambers of Congress. And Democrats, for them, they think this is a gift, because they've run on health care before, in terms of protecting health care. And they think this is a winning message.

BERMAN: You know, as your paper reported yesterday, there is no plan. There is no Republican plan at the moment to replace Obamacare, and there's not even a plan for a plan.

So it seems to me that this new statement of official White House policy that came out overnight is the president sort of saying, "Never mind" now?

DEMIRJIAN: Yes. But also trying to cover himself and say, "Well, there's eventually going to be one. It's not that I was completely speaking off the cuff here."

The problem is that the president is good at slogans, and you have to fill in the policy behind those slogans sometimes. But health care is a massive, complex thing. You need something already moving before you promise the people health care, given that it's such an important part of everybody's -- of every American's bottom line, worried -- they worry about. And so difficult to actually craft something that works on Capitol Hill.

BERMAN: And by moving it to right after the election, if the president follows through with anything. And I have to say, that's a reasonable question whether that will actually be the case. But it makes it an election issue, which I would imagine Democrats might say, "Thank you, sir"? DEMIRJIAN: I believe that they are saying, "Thank you, sir." I think

the Democrats were always going to try to revive health care, because they think it's a winner for them.

[06:10:00] And then, when the president's Justice Department decided not to defend the ACA, and the president doubled down on this and then retracted his doubling down on saying that the Republicans would own the healthcare issue, it's just a series of presents that Democrats -- in the Democrats' view, that they didn't see coming, and they're going to try to capitalize on moving forward.

BERMAN: I want to ask you one question about security clearances, because the House Oversight chair, Elijah Cummings, made a comparison between this whistleblower, saying that 25 officials in the White House had their security clearance rejected, then overruled; he made a comparison to that and Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUMMINGS: I think this is a million times worse, because what you have here are people who literally have the top secrets of the world, and they have not been properly cleared. But even -- even more dangerous than that, they have been -- the recommendations have gone out to say they shouldn't have them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You can see how eager the Oversight chair is to continue hammering away at this issue.

DEMIRJIAN: Yes. Cummings is not going to let this one go. And it is a point of concern, not just for Democrats but generally speaking when you're talking about people who have the most access to the nation's most sensitive secrets. What are they potentially doing with them?

There's been all kinds of questions raised about various people in the administration and whether they have any sort of foreign sympathies or, you know, potential outsiders having leverage over them. And these are the things that the security clearance review process is supposed to take into consideration.

Now, it is the president's prerogative to be able to give security clearances to whomever he deems in his administration he wants to. But this goes to the general point that Democrats are trying to make about potential misuse of power by the -- by the White House and by the president himself.

And so you'll see Cummings continue to drive home this point. And this comparison to Clinton is because the Republicans have turned back to looking at the Clinton investigation; and the e-mails are such a recognizable thing that this is going to be a comparison and discussion point as long as they keep looking into this.

BERMAN: Karoun Demirjian from "The Washington Post," great to have you with us this morning. Thanks so much.

DEMIRJIAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, john. It is unclear at this hour if President Trump will follow through on his threat to shut down the southern U.S. border. Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller tells surrogates it depends on how the week goes. And a White House official tells CNN it is, quote, "anyone's guess" what the president will do.

CNN's Martin Savidge has been following this. He is live on the southern border in Brownsville, Texas. What's the situation there, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Alisyn.

Yes, as you point out, senior adviser Stephen Miller is saying that the president is going to be weighing out as to what Central and South American nations will be doing over the next day or so to try to stem the flow of migrants coming north.

The idea of this border shutting down in places like Brownsville, unfathomable. One point seven billion dollars' worth of trade comes across that border every single day. Half a million people cross that border every single day. Forty-five percent of America's produce comes across that border.

Let's just take a look at the impact on manufacturing alone. Auto parts would be impacted, TVs, computers, medical devices, clothing and apparel. Agriculture. You're talking avocados, tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, mangoes.

The states that would be most impacted by a shutdown: Arizona, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.

The mayor of Brownsville cannot believe it's an option. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TONY MARTINEZ (D), BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS: Trade, we have a lot of auto parts that come here that we eventually ship out to Ohio and to Michigan. We have tons of crossings in the sense, and we have some agricultural products that right now is the time and the season for the harvest.

How do we solve this problem? Otherwise, you're going to have rising car prices. You're going to have rising food prices. You know, there's -- the ripple effect would be tremendous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And if this is meant to try and solve a migrant crossing problem, well, the authorities here say, you know what? All those people that cross the border legally every day to go to their job, they're still going to cross the border, whether it's open or not. And that means, if they cross, it will be illegal. It will only add to the migrant problems that they are already dealing with -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, this is complicated. Martin, thank you very much for explaining all of that.

Joining us now to talk about it is CNN senior political analyst, John Avlon.

John, it seems to me that the president is torn between his desire to punish Mexico, Guatemala, et cetera and his desire not to hurt the U.S. economy, I would imagine. And so those two are at odds. Which one's going to win this week?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think the president is more inclined to go with tough guy talk, see if he can get some action below the southern border. But he's unlikely to want to torch the economy.

And look, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has warned that this would create economic calamity. It's not usually what you hear from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against a Republican president. Does he want to light his strongest asset on fire? No. He wants to see if it can intimidate his perceived opponents below the border.

CAMEROTA: I mean, the list that Martin just put up there, you know, all that produce. When you start messing with Americans' guacamole, it gets their attention.

[06:15:08] AVLON: This is -- yes, the long-threatened avocado shortage of 2019. Not good.

CAMEROTA: I mean, it's -- those are things that would have obviously -- the produce and the manufacturing would have a real impact. But it's the economic calamity that is the --

AVLON: Exactly. And let's look at the downstream effect. First of all, you'd have rising prices in America's heartland. A lot of those states depending on the trade. States that are going to be very much, I mean, pivotal in the 2020 election.

And then the prospect of also empty shelves in some areas. This really would go to the heart. People would feel it at home. That's why when the White House says, "We don't really know. The president will make up his mind," I mean, it's more evidence of the fact that this is largely a matter left up to the president's capriciousness. Because most actual people advising the president with expertise are saying, "Don't go there. This is a bad idea."

CAMEROTA: It also -- it also, John, might be illegal. Because of the Refugee Act of 1980 that sets up a system for people to seek asylum. So when they say they're illegal border crossings, and they're talking about asylum seekers, it's actually legal to present yourself at a legal port of entry and ask for asylum.

And so Steve Miller who says all these --

AVLON: Yes. CAMEROTA: -- he doesn't like the claims, but this is legal. There is a legal system to do that. And it would be -- instantly be challenged in court if you shut that process down.

AVLON: It would. But again, let's look at the absurdity of what's occurring. Because the president and the administration have been focusing on illegal border crossings. They've been focusing on, in March, 100,000 folks came across the border. This is creating the ballast for their argument of emergency.

Shutting down legal points of entry, as Martin just pointed out, is a totally different probably that would probably compound the problem of illegal crossings.

So if Stephen Miller and other folks want to cut down on asylum seekers, meritless, quote unquote, that does go against existing U.S. law. There's clearly an animus there, based on the administration's past actions, trying to lower the number of refugees. But it's going to end up compounding the problem they've tried to convince us is an emergency right now. So it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

CAMEROTA: I mean, by the way, they already had a victory, I would imagine. In they have asylum seekers now waiting in Mexico. So not in the U.S. The Trump administration did that. I would say that they should tout that as a victory. But he wants to go farther.

AVLON: I want to go further. And again, what is this really about? If you actually cut funding, for example, to those countries like Guatemala and Honduras, you potentially compound the problem of people seeking asylum, because they're trying to flee unstable environments.

It's about whether you've got a holistic view of the world or you want to just have a lot of bluster and aggressive action and see if you can get positive policy outcomes by wishing and hoping and intimidation.

CAMEROTA: John Avlon, thank you for all of the analysis, as always -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking news in the 2020 race. New signs of strength for one candidate.

Senator Kamala Harris reported her fundraising numbers overnight: $12 million in the first quarter of the year.

CNN political correspondent M.J. Lee joins us now with much more on that. Twelve million dollars is a lot of money.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and two presidential hopefuls have now released their first quarter fundraising numbers. Kamala Harris, as you said, announcing last night that she raised $12 million from 218,000 contributions.

You might have also noticed that her announcement was pretty carefully scripted, really trying to emphasize the lower-dollar donations. Her campaign said 98 percent of contributions were less than $100 and that the vast majority of donors could donate again. Compare that, of course, to the first quarter numbers that we saw

yesterday from Mayor Pete Buttigieg: $7 million from over 158,000 donors. This, of course, was seen yesterday as a very impressive haul for the mayor of South Bend -- John.

BERMAN: All right. There is a second woman now telling her story of a moment of, let's call it, excessive affection that she says was portrayed on her by former Vice President Joe Biden. What do we know about this?

LEE: That's right. And no question that this is another bad headline for Joe Biden.

The second woman coming out yesterday to say that the former vice president touched her inappropriately. This woman is Amy Lappos, telling the "Hartford Courant" that at a 2009 fundraiser in Connecticut when Biden was vice president, she had an interaction with Biden where he pulled her in and rubbed noses with her. She said it was not sexual. But he did grab her by the head and that when he pulled her in to rub noses, she sought he was going to kiss her on the mouth.

Now of course, this comes after allegations from Lucy Flores in Nevada who said Biden touched her inappropriately in 2014. So two fresh accusations now for Biden as he is expected to announce his decision on 2020 any day now.

BERMAN: We're told it will not affect that decision.

LEE: That's right.

BERMAN: That's at least what they said up until this point.

All right. You mentioned Pete Buttigieg and his strong fundraising numbers. He had another episode which didn't involve fundraising. It involved helping out a couple in South Bend.

LEE: That's right. He officiated a wedding. Buttigieg said on Facebook yesterday that a couple was on their way to the hospital for a C-section appointment. And look at that photo there. Just incredible. They wanted to be married before their baby came. And they walked into the mayor's office, had all the necessary papers, and asked the mayor to do the honors.

[06:20:07] He says he called in some staff to be witnesses, filled out the paperwork, and he married the couple. The couple then, of course, went on to the hospital, and the baby was delivered. And Buttigieg wrote that these are the kinds of moments he will miss when his term as mayor comes to an end.

BERMAN: Does a president have powers to marry people? Is that why he's running? You know, he wants -- I thought it was just ship captains.

LEE: To continue officiating weddings.

BERMAN: To continue officiating weddings. I knew Merrill Stubing on "The Love Boat" could. I didn't know South Bend mayors.

CAMEROTA: Right. It would have been better if he delivered the baby. I think. I mean, if you want a real story.

LEE: Can he be trusted to do that?

CAMEROTA: I don't know. We'll see.

M.J., thank you very much.

So the White House reportedly overturned security clearance denials for 25 officials despite their disqualifying issues. We get perspective from the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper, next.

BERMAN: Didn't Merrill Stubing marry --

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BERMAN: A White House whistleblower is raising concerns about security clearances in the Trump administration, claiming that at least 25 people were granted clearances despite being ruled ineligible initially by other officials.

Joining me now is the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper. He is now a CNN national security analyst.

And Director, I want to start going back to basics here. I know it sounds simplistic, but I think it's important. Why do security clearances matter?

[06:25:00] JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, what you're trying to gauge, John, is one's integrity, trustworthiness and, clearly, ability to protect classified information. And those are the kind of factors that adjudicators try to make in assessing whether some -- someone is trustworthy enough.

So when people have issues, say, with foreign influence or conflicts of interest or bad conduct or financial challenges, these are potential ways by which people could be potentially compromised, leveraged, influenced by others, notably foreign adversaries, to gain access or to -- to alter behavior.

So -- and it has to be said, though, that the president clearly has the prerogative. He's the ultimate authority for giving and taking away clearances.

BERMAN: Yes.

CLAPPER: But when you do this, particularly to me, just on its face, 25 is a lot, given the relatively small population of people you're talking about who are assigned to the White House, which is one place where all the -- all the nation's secrets potentially come together.

BERMAN: Twenty-five, that is the number that Tricia Newbold, who is this White House whistleblower, claims were initially denied clearance then overruled. And the reasons, you stated some of them: foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, criminal conduct.

What does it mean that the career officials, including Tricia Newbold, inside the administration denied these 25 people clearances?

CLAPPER: Well, what it means is that, in their judgment, because of -- and every case, you know, is different. And that's why being an adjudicator is a challenging job and why experience is -- in those jobs is so important.

And those are factors that over time, the intelligence and security communities, if you want to call it that, have learned are yellow or red flags for people who are then adjudged to be potentially vulnerable to coercion, influence or other kind of negative behavior from a securities standpoint.

BERMAN: I want to tap into your expertise to get a judgment call by you on something the chairman of House Oversight, Elijah Cummings, said. He compared this to the issues surrounding Hillary Clinton's emails and Hillary Clinton's email servers. And he said he thinks this, the overruling of 25 security clearances, is a million times worse than the emails.

Because what you have here are people who literally have the top secrets of the world. So he says a million times worse than the emails. Maybe not that hyperbolic, but compare the two.

CLAPPER: Well, it's hard, John, because you'd have to know what the individual cases are of these 25. What access do they actually have? How sensitive were their positions?

BERMAN: Well, Jared Kushner. We think Jared Kushner is one of them.

CLAPPER: Yes.

BERMAN: And he's negotiating Middle East peace. He's working on NAFTA. He's in constant contact with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. So doing some pretty important stuff.

CLAPPER: Well, exactly. I mean, that's -- obviously is a high-end sense of position, given you know, the diversity and breadth of his portfolio, some of which encompasses some very sensitive things.

So if -- and I don't know what his issues were. But if he did, well, that's -- that certainly presenting a vulnerability of security. But I can't gauge, you know, a million times or what in relation to Hillary Clinton's emails.

I will say that using private emails, which they've been accused of, if that's true, certainly more comparable to, you know, the private emails for conveying government business is, I think, more comparable to what Hillary Clinton's been accused of.

BERMAN: Very quickly. Tricia Newbold, who is the whistleblower, is back at work. As someone with, you know, decades of government experience, what must that be like for her?

CLAPPER: Well, that's always been the plight of whistleblowers. If they are put back in the work environment that they complained about, that's very difficult for them. I'll just say that.

BERMAN: James Clapper, great to have you with us this morning. Thanks so much.

CLAPPER: Thanks, John.

CAMEROTA: All right, John. You know, there's this mystery surrounding the women's basketball program at the University of North Carolina. Why was the entire coaching staff put on leave? What we know from our reporting, next.

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