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Grassley Warns Against Ousting More Immigration Officials; Huffman Pleads Guilty in Admissions Scam; Dems Grill Barr about Mueller Report; Polls on Democratic Candidates. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 09, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": For President Bush. Maybe they stayed through the Obama years, or they were brought in or elevated by John Kelly or Kirstjen Nielsen. And both the president and Steve Miller both have a mistrust of some of these folks, or kind of want to clean house.

The problem -- but the problem -- one of the problems is that many of them also have worked with or for Republicans in Congress, including Senator Grassley, who both the citizenship services director and one of his top deputies had worked for, for quite some time. And so the president is testing both the courts and the willingness of leaders within his own party to draw the limits on this.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Let's just remember, too, that if the president wants to be serious about this, he should seek out partners in Congress who can solve the problem. And we should be covering ways in which we can solve the problem that is a real problem on the border.

But this is not the mark of a serious person. Anybody can get on the corner and rant and rave about what they don't like about immigration policy. Saying out loud, you know, you can't come in, we're full, you know, with the ugly history that this country has during World War II and before, keeping out immigrants, Jewish immigrants, who were seeking asylum. The whole asylum system grew out of the experience of the Holocaust.

And then, you know, to tell people not to follow the law, to go on and on for months about, oh, we should build a wall, instead of dealing with a very delicate situation, he's not approaching this seriously. That's where people in his own party and the courts need to really challenge.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, David, Margaret, Seung Min, thank you very much.

Actress Felicity Huffman pleads guilty in the college admissions scandal. How much time could she face behind bars? We have a live report, next.

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[06:35:45] BERMAN: Actress Felicity Huffman and 12 other wealthy parents, they pleaded guilty in the far-reaching college admissions scandal. The actress expressed her remorse in court, as she now faces prison time.

CNN's Brynn Gingras joins us now with much more on this. This is just the beginning probably for this group of individuals (ph).

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is just the beginning. And it was quite the statement that Felicity Huffman released. She said she has guilt, regret, and shame over her involvement in the college admissions scheme. The actress is one of 13 parents who will plead guilty to one federal count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Last month, Huffman was accused of paying $15,000 to the scheme mastermind, remember his name, William Singer, to alter her oldest daughter's college admissions test scores. Court documents show she and her husband, actor William H. Macy, considered doing the same for their younger daughter, but then decided against it. And, of course, Macy wasn't charged in this case.

In Huffman's statement, listen to this, she said, quote, I am ashamed of the pain I've caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues, and the educational community. I want to apologize to them and especially I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly. And she goes on to say in that statement that her daughter knew nothing about her actions.

Now, sources are telling CNN, the government plans on asking between six months and nearly two years in prison as punishment for the parents involved. Paperwork shows they will recommend the low end of punishment for Huffman in exchange for her plea, and she'll have to pay a fine of $20,000. But, of course, ultimately, it will be up to a judge.

And one final note. USC says it will take into account parents' plea agreements when considering the future of USC students connected to the scheme. Let's remember, actress Lori Loughlin's daughters attend USC, though Loughlin and her husband were not a part of this group of parents to take a deal. So, we'll see what happens.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that will be very interesting to see what they do because Felicity Huffman was on the lower scale of how much money she gave and how involved she was in this.

GINGRAS: And time is ticking because the prosecution says they will add more charges. So we'll see by very soon what course each person's going to take.

BERMAN: All right, Brynn, thanks very much.

CAMEROTA: Yes, thank you.

BERMAN: $15,000 for Felicity Huffman, right, and it was like $500,000 for Lori Loughlin? CAMEROTA: $500,000 for Lori Loughlin, yes. Absolutely.

Thank you, Brynn.

All right, Attorney General William Barr will face Congress this morning. What will lawmakers ask him? That's next.

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[06:42:03] CAMEROTA: Attorney General William Barr will appear before Congress for the first time since he got Robert Mueller's report, and they have a lot of questions for him.

Joining us now is CNN's senior political analyst John Avalon.

So, John, it's been more than two weeks since he gave Congress that four-page summary. They seem to be growing impatient, though he has promised that he'll give them more by, I think, the end of this week or next. So what do we expect today when he appears?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Rarely has an appropriations hearing gotten this much attention and scrutiny.

BERMAN: This is the sexiest appropriations hearing ever.

CAMEROTA: It really is.

AVLON: Ever. And that's saying something.

Look, this is going to be fireworks whether Barr wants it or not. You already see Democratic congressmen on the committee, Nita Lowey, Jose Serrano, saying, you know, we're going to be coming at you hard with real questions about whether or not your summary was an accurate representation, whether or not you were biased in your conclusions that benefited the president. And the question will be whether Barr engages or says, look, I said mid-April is when you're going to get the report, wait till then. Irresistible force meet immovable object.

BERMAN: I suspect the answer will be somewhere in between. I think he will have to give something. He won't be able to just stonewall for two days in front of two committees on this, even though they could see the report in a couple days. And the more specific the question, the more likely the answer.

AVLON: I think that's right. And, look, Barr is a highly respected lawyer. And so he is not going to simply stonewall for the president unless he's got a good reason rooted in precedent.

To your point, tomorrow he goes to the Senate. So you've got two days of inquiries with Barr that will draw a lot of scrutiny. And that mid- April mark is next Monday. Again, he did not say a specific day, but he and the Justice Department have been working on redacting. But there are a lot of open questions that are going to be attracting a lot of attention.

CAMEROTA: If there's one bit of bipartisan agreement, it seems, as of yesterday, that both parties want to hear from Robert Mueller. So Doug Collins, Congressman Doug Collins asked this of Jerry Nadler on Judiciary. Jerry Nadler said, I totally agree. And so they're going to call Robert Mueller.

AVLON: Bipartisanship breaking out all over. How about that, people?

CAMEROTA: Bob Mueller has created bipartisanship.

AVLON: Bringing us together. Who thought it would happen?

Look, that's the good news. But they're also going to be -- remember, this is one of the first times congressmen are going to ask Barr about the reports, that there's disagreement within the DOJ between the special counsel's office, Mueller's account, and the -- and the summary, the bottom line assessment of the report. There's a lot of new news that have come out that Barr's never had to answer questions about publicly. We could find the answers to them.

BERMAN: And that's where I think some of the most interesting questions are the most likely to be answered. You know, number one, did Mueller ask you to provide your conclusions about obstruction? Is Mueller helping you with the redactions now? And how much? You know, what did you do with the summaries that Mueller's own people provided you in the report?

AVLON: Can we expect to see those summaries? No, I think those are all really key questions because, of course, the key question on the -- on the issue of obstruction, which is what led to Bill Clinton's impeachment, which was the threat against Richard Nixon. Barr assumed responsibility to answer that question. But what the open question is, did Mueller simply say that it's up to Congress and the American people to decide, or, I can't make up my mind, help me AG Barr?

[06:45:13] CAMEROTA: It's going to be really fascinating. And there's still the open question about whether or not we'll ever see the questions the president answered, the written questions that he submitted to Mueller that he ever answered. There's so many things that Congress and the American public want to see still.

AVLON: This is fascinating and far from over.

BERMAN: And I will say there's some immigration questions that could come today, as well, about the law. For instance, is it against the law to order a border agent to lie to a judge?

CAMEROTA: Yes, it is. And I -- can't I just answer that right now? Do we need Bill Barr?

BERMAN: Absolutely. I mean -- yes, no.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it is.

BERMAN: Yes.

AVLON: You're saying that the president is asking people to lie and break the law is frowned upon, against the law? CAMEROTA: It's against the law.

AVLON: I think you -- it -- yes.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I --

AVLON: And this is -- look, this is -- this is one of the fascinate things in this purge that's going on. Remember, a lot of this is in conjunction with DOJ or questions about DOJ. Also reports that Barr resisted the president's desire to sign on to a law that would entirely obliterate Obamacare. Will he get questions about that? Change of Department of Justice procedure. So he is at the nexus of a lot of crucial questions that are ripped from the headlines and go to the heart of questions about rule of law in our country.

BERMAN: Hence the sexiest Appropriations Committee hearing ever.

AVLON: Ever.

BERMAN: Parental guidance advised (ph).

CAMEROTA: When I think Bill Barr, I think sexy.

AVLON: NC-17.

CAMEROTA: OK. Fantastic.

BERMAN: All right, there is a new candidate in the race for president. Who is getting in, and how does it shake up the 2020 field?

CAMEROTA: Is it that guy?

BERMAN: Oh, it's that guy. Here's a hint, it's that guy.

CAMEROTA: Sometimes our teases, I feel, give it away.

BERMAN: Yes, it's that guy. Harry Enten --

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[06:50:17] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And none of that is going to change until we get a leader who is willing to go big on the issues we take on, be bold in the solutions we offer, and do good in the way that we govern. I'm ready to solve these problems. I'm running for president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell. And he is running for president. He jumped in the 2020 race overnight.

So, where does he fit in this very large and growing field? One man has the answer. There's something about Harry. Harry Enten joins us with "The Forecast." HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Maybe I do. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

CAMEROTA: Way -- way to sell it.

ENTEN: You know, I feel like I'm Johnny Olson and lost my cue card. Now everyone's just coming on down.

Look, Eric Swalwell's polling at zero percent in Iowa, less than 1 percent nationally. Nowhere to go but up, so that's a good sign. The other thing I'll just point out, to make a historical comparison, we kind of defined what a major Democrat is, you know, running in certain states, making those visits, polling a certain percentage in the polls. He's the 16th major Democrat in the race for president. That ties the modern Democratic Party record dating all the way back to 1976. By the end of this process, we're going to go well, well past that, you know, with Joe Biden getting in, potentially other candidates. So, I mean, this is just a very, very crowded field. Who knows, maybe one of you two might actually declare.

BERMAN: Not going to happen. I wasn't born in America. But I will say that the Republican field last time was 17.

ENTEN: It was 17.

BERMAN: We've seen this recently. It can happen. It can work.

ENTEN: It can work. I mean I'm not sure this is necessarily the guy to do it given where he's polling right now. But, I mean, look --

CAMEROTA: It's early days.

ENTEN: Yes, it's early, yes. One candidate that we don't think right now is all that high up in the polls, we don't think has a good shot, may in fact have a breakout debate moment and may actually break out in the field and do particularly well. We'll see.

CAMEROTA: It's exactly 300 days until the Iowa caucus. We need to get ready.

ENTEN: Yes. We need to get ready right now.

BERMAN: And I will say, the 18 that we're counting, this is 16, but the 18 we're counting, including Eric Swalwell, does not include Joe Biden.

ENTEN: Does not include Joe Biden. So, again, plenty of people to get in. Also Terry McAuliffe isn't counted and we think he might get in the race as well.

BERMAN: Tell me about Joe Biden.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, Joe Biden is the most interesting case to me in the world, right? We obviously had all the allegations, accusations, came out over the last week. But in Harry's average of polls, he's still leading about 30 percent in the Harry's average nationally.

And I have to ask this question, do -- does the media, do we understand the Democratic electorate better than Joe Biden, or is it the case that Joe Biden understands the Democratic electorate better than many because --

CAMEROTA: What's the answer?

ENTEN: Well, to me, is that I think Joe Biden actually has a pretty good understanding, right. If you look at the polls, Biden's betting on older voters, right? I think a lot of people have this idea that the Democratic Party is these woke millennials. But, in fact, Millennials are only 31 percent of the party, at least according to the percentage they made up of 2018 Democratic voters. Those over the age of 50, your AARP crowd, are at 53 percent of the Democratic electorate. Those 40-49, that gen-xers, 16 percent. So, again, older voters vastly outnumber younger voters, even when you include gen-x, gen-y and gen-z.

CAMEROTA: That's such a fascinating point. So he might be what -- I mean, I agree with you, the narrative is all about what's new, what's fresh, the fresh face. Millennials are going to be running this. But he might be representative.

ENTEN: Older voters vote. People like my mother, not that she's that old, though she is over 50, hopefully otherwise, you know, that would be quite a thing (INAUDIBLE) have me.

BERMAN: Just keep going. Let's talk about liberals. Joe Biden and the liberals.

ENTEN: Joe Biden and the liberals. I don't want to get too much in trouble with my mother.

Look at this. You know, Joe Biden is running (ph) against very liberal Democrats, saying the Democratic Party hasn't moved. I think it has moved to the left.

But look at this, moderate or conservative Democrats made up 54 percent of Democratic voters according to the exit polls. Liberals only made up 46 percent. And Quinnipiac University, in their most recent poll, they found that very liberal voters, only 19 percent of all self-identified Democrats. So, again, the very far left -- the far left of the party is only a sliver compared to that moderate conservative, which is more than two times as high.

CAMEROTA: And working class?

ENTEN: Yes. Again, I think there's been all this discussion about how the Democrats are becoming much more educated, and that's true. You know, this is a much higher percent than it was at say the beginning of this decade. But those without a college degree, Democrats without a college degree are still the majority. And even among whites, even on whites, those whites without a college degree are still higher than whites with a college degree. And combined, look, those without a college degree make up the vast majority of Democratic voters. If you're going to build the Democratic coalition, you'd much rather go after older, moderate, and working class voters than the quote/unquote woke millennials with a college degree.

BERMAN: All right, so he has a path, according to you.

Who won the NCAA tournament last night?

ENTEN: I got great news, everybody. Not Duke. It's not Duke. Duke lost again. A team not Duke. That's now four years in a row in which a not Duke team has won the NCAA --

CAMEROTA: Why are you showering so much hate on Duke?

ENTEN: Because Duke is just, to me, the incarnation of everything that's wrong in America. I don't know why. Look, I just can't stand Duke. Mike Krzyzewski. Bye-bye.

[06:55:05] BERMAN: All right. There you have it. Harry Enten.

ENTEN: They're the Yankees of basketball.

CAMEROTA: I didn't see that coming.

ENTEN: They're the Yankees of basketball.

BERMAN: I hope you have kids one day who want to go to Duke.

ENTEN: No.

CAMEROTA: Oh, he will.

BERMAN: All right.

CAMEROTA: Just by definition, that will happen.

BERMAN: All right, Harry, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Ahead on NEW DAY, we're going to speak live with a Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang. He is among that list. He tells us he has qualified for the debates. He wants to give every American $1,000 a month. We'll discuss what that will mean.

Plus, we have three CNN presidential town halls coming up. Kirsten Gillibrand is tonight, live from Washington, 10:00 p.m., moderated by Erin Burnett, followed by Governor Jay Inslee tomorrow. And then former HUD Secretary Julian Castro on Thursday.

CAMEROTA: All right, President Trump ousting several top Homeland Security officials. We have new reporting on the president's efforts to bring back his highly controversial policy of separating families at the border.

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