Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) is Interviewed about Flipping Texas Blue; Measles Increase in the U.S.; Mar-a-Lago Security Breach Sparks Concerns; Huffman Pleads Guilty. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 09, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Focus or at least have a concentration in what was recently the ruby red state of Texas. And what makes you think that that's a good place for Democrats?

REP. CHERI BUSTOS, (D-IL): Well, we think it's a great place for Democrats because of the changing demographics of Texas. I think if you look at the next two, four, six years, the way Texas looks today and what it will look like will be completely different. We are saying that Texas is ground zero for Democrats going into the November 2020 cycle. In fact, you can break some news here, we -- we are going to invest heavily in four battle ground stations in Texas. And so we'll be in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. We will be hiring Texans who are good Democrat -- Democratic operatives to run the different congressional races in Texas.

But, you know, last cycle it was California. We picked up seven additional seats. This cycle it will be Texas, where we're going to target six seats. We already picked up two additional Democratic seats last cycle. So we just think that as -- as time goes on, and I'm hoping in the next two years we will see some tremendous -- some tremendous success in Texas.

CAMEROTA: Well, thank you for breaking that news.

BUSTOS: Of course.

CAMEROTA: I appreciate that for NEW DAY.

I do want to ask you about what has been described as this infighting between you, the DCCC and some of the progressives in the Democratic Party. "The New York Times" had an article yesterday describing, quote, open warfare between the DCCC and the party's progressive wing over weather Democrats should primary other Democrats basically, whether progressives should go after some of the incumbents that they don't think are progressive enough. You think not. Obviously people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes they should. And so -- so where are you with this open warfare?

BUSTOS: Well, I have one job to accomplish as the head of the political arm of House Democrats, and that is to make sure that we hang on to this what I call a fragile majority. We only have a 17 seat majority. So we've got to hang on to that. And then job number two is, what can we do to expand the majority. So, Alisyn, what I was just talking about, what we're going to be

doing in Texas with our monetary investment, with our personnel investment, that will be to expand our majority. But we have 44 what we call front line members of the Congress. And being on the front line means you come from a tough district. I happen to come from a district that Donald Trump won. And so I know a little thing about winning in tough districts. I won by a 24-point margin in a Trump district. That's the biggest margin of any Democrat in the country in a Trump district.

So my job is to hang on to this majority and then, number two, to do what I can to grow it. So every resource, every bit the energy and effort is going to be toward doing that.

CAMEROTA: Well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put out a message about the DCCC to her 3.8 million Twitter followers. She said the DCCC's new rule to black list and boycott anyone who does business with primary challengers is extremely divisive and harmful to the party. My recommendation is if you're a small dollar donor, pause your donations to the DCCC and give directly to swing candidates instead. And then she listed some great ones.

So what's your response to her?

BUSTOS: Well, I would say that that worked so well that we had record fundraising numbers for our first quarter.

But that said, look, my job, again, is to hold on to this fragile majority. And that includes the progressive members of our caucus. What I would tell the people who are thinking about whether they want to support the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is I would say this, last cycle we invested $30 million to elect progressive members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and ten of those are part of this front line program that we need to make sure that we're protecting.

So the resources that are coming in are not just to say that if you are more of a moderate member of the Democratic caucus that we're going to make sure that we're there for you, but also if you're a progressive member of our caucus we will be there for you as well.

CAMEROTA: All right --

BUSTOS: So, you know, I hope that people watching this show will say, look, this is a woman that you're watching right now who knows how to win in tough districts, but I'm going to make sure that we hang on to this majority. We are the firewall to make sure that important policies like bringing down the cost of health care and prescription drug prices, rebuilding our country, that we can get those things done.

CAMEROTA: Well, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, we appreciate you spelling all of this out for us on NEW DAY. Thanks so much for being here.

BUSTOS: Thank you, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: We have a quick programming note. Be sure to watch a CNN presidential town hall with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. It will be moderated by Erin Burnett. That is at 10:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

[08:34:53] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, measles was gone in the United States. Eradicated. But now it's not just back, but spreading in increasing numbers. We will bring you those numbers and what's being done about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: "Here's to Your Health." The CDC says 78 new cases of measles were reported in the United States in just the last week. Why is this happening nearly two decades after the disease was eradicated?

Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with more.

Sanjay, I mean I think you can hear it in my voice. There is something just so ridiculous about the fact there is these new cases of measles all over the country.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, there's so many health care problems we have a hard time fixing. This is one that we not only can fix, we had fixed, as you point out, John, back in 2000. We could have said measles was eliminated from the United States.

Now, what, we're 99 days into the year, and now we have the second highest number of cases over the last 20 years. Take a look, I mean, you know, we've been showing this map pretty regularly on your program. Now you can see in the blue there the states with cases of measles. And just over the past couple of weeks, new states being added to the list. So the total number now, 465 cases. Those new states, take a look, they're sort of all over the country as well.

[08:40:04] Back in 2014, we had 667 cases of measles. That was the record number of cases, people who had measles, you know, over the last 20 years. Again, now, we're already at 465. So without things changing, this is likely to be a brand-new record. It's going to eclipse the number of people who have had measles in years past, and that's the real concern from health officials all over the country.

CAMEROTA: We've obviously talked about all of the challenges for unvaccinated -- of unvaccinated kids. Are measles particularly hard to contain?

GUPTA: Yes. There's a few things to keep in mind here. Think about this a little bit like a medical mystery. First of all, measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases that we know of anywhere in the world. But after you're exposed and you become infected, it can take several days, up to a couple weeks even, for you to start to develop symptoms. That's important because how do you know where exactly you contracted it? Where were you exposed? You really have to go back and sort of piece together someone's life to figure that out. And even when someone does develop symptoms, typically the first set of symptoms are more flu-like symptoms. It takes a few days before you get the more characteristic rash.

And I think most importantly, again, speaking to the contagiousness of this, 90 percent of people roughly who have not been vaccinated and get exposed will get the measles, right? With lots of other things, you may or may not, it's a little bit -- you know, you may be protected somewhat, but that bottom line of this -- of this on your screen, 90 percent who were exposed and not immune will become infected. So that's why I think this is particularly challenging, the mystery part of it and just how contagious this is.

BERMAN: Yes, if you don't have the vaccine and you're near it, chances are you will get it. So the best thing to do, as Sanjay has always said, get the vaccine.

GUPTA: Get vaccinated. It's -- I - look, I have three kids. I got them vaccinated. I looked at the literature. I know that people talk about various concerns out there. They're not real concerns. Go ahead and get vaccinated.

BERMAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much for that advice. I hope people listen.

You can join Sanjay as he journeys around the world to find the secrets of living better for the mind, the body and soul. An all-new CNN original series "Chasing Life" premieres this Saturday at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

CAMEROTA: I'm going to do whatever Sanjay is doing because he seems to be doing it right.

BERMAN: Yes, I agree.

CAMEROTA: All right, did a Chinese spy penetrate President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? There is new evidence this morning that raises concerns about what is going on with security there. We take that up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:36] BERMAN: Stunning new details about the Chinese national who allegedly breached security at Mar-a-Lago. That's, of course, the president's estate in Florida. Prosecutors say she had multiple electronic devices in her hotel room, including a signal detector that seeks out hidden cameras. They also say she had thousands of dollars in cash and nine USB drives, one of which started to install malware on an investigator's computers. Officials do say they believe she could be a Chinese spy.

Joining us now, Robert Baer is a former CIA operative and a CNN intelligence and security analyst.

Bob, let me just read this list of things that in -- were in her possession or her hotel room. A signal detector to detect hidden cameras, nine USB drives, five SIM cards, four cell phones, two Chinese passports, an external hard drive, that thumb drive containing malware and more than $8,000 in cash. Bob, when you look at this and look at what happened, where she was

trying to go, do you see a spy or someone working for Chinese intelligence?

ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, she's definitely a spy. People don't carry that stuff around, especially the receiver looking for hidden cameras. That is very unusual. It's a very expensive piece of equipment. It detects, for instance, power modulations, signal modulations. It costs thousands and thousands of dollars. The passports and then the malware.

You know, ideally, the way I look at it, she was going into Mar-a-Lago to put malware on the smart TV, which would spread to the rest of the hotel and even, including the president's room, and then bleed signals out.

So now the question, was she working for Chinese intelligence or privately? But let me tell you, privately, if she did this on her own, a rogue operation, she's sent back to China, she'll go to jail forever. I mean the Chinese just don't do this, allow companies to spy on the president of the United States. So, you know, I come down on she was spying for China.

BERMAN: Either directly or indirectly because that's just the way it works typically for the Chinese intelligence services?

BAER: Oh, absolutely. They often will take a company, which is under Chinese intelligence, and let that be the buffer when they do a risky operation against Mar-a-Lago or anywhere else.

BERMAN: So when you say that based on the equipment she had, maybe she was trying to put malware into the television system there. Worst-case scenario, what could have happened? What could she have enabled there?

BAER: Well, she could turn on the cameras on TVs, the smart TV, and the microphone, and bleed that out. So if the president or one of his advisers was having a meeting in a hotel room, they'd get the whole thing. I mean it's -- that place is just wide open for espionage and there's no way for the Secret Service to protect it, none, because the perimeter is controlled by employees of Mar-a-Lago. They don't know what they're doing. There's no way to check the guests. There's thousands and thousands of them. And clearly someone thought they could get away with this.

BERMAN: Well, the president doesn't seem concerned about this. Let me play you what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I'm not concerned at all.

I think that was just a fluke situation and I think that the person sitting at the front desk did a very good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: If not for a receptionist, by the way, this individual may have been able to get in there and install whatever it was she was trying to install. But when the president says he's not concerned, does that ring alarm bells for you?

[08:50:03] BAER: Well, he doesn't understand counterintelligence. He doesn't understand the capabilities of the Chinese or the fact that the Chinese, Chinese intelligence, are robbing us blind. That message has not got across to him. And, additionally, he doesn't want to leave Mar-a-Lago. He finds the White House apparently isolating. And it is. And he likes to schmooze and he doesn't want to give it up and he wants to play golf. And we pay the price in terms of security.

BERMAN: And just, in closing, Mar-a-Lago -- does Mar-a-Lago, the presence (ph) of it and the way the president uses it, put the nation at risk, in your mind?

BAER: Oh, absolutely. He knows every secret we have. He has no conscious of what's top secret and what's not. And he's clearly talking to friends, as we know from tapes, and to advisers at Mar-a- Lago. And, you know, to pick up those conversations for the Chinese or the Russians or anybody is -- is pure gold.

BERMAN: All right, Bob Baer, a pretty blunt assessment, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BAER: Thanks.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, now to this. Actress Felicity Huffman one of 13 parents pleading guilty in that college admissions scandal. So will the former "Desperate Housewife" go to prison? Joey Jackson is here with what happens next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:00] CAMEROTA: Actress Felicity Huffman and a dozen other wealthy parents pleading guilty in that college admissions scandal that is rocking campuses across the country. Now prosecutors have to decide what to do with these parents.

Joining us now is criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

Joey, great to have you.

This has riveted the country, of course. Felicity Huffman is the celebrity face along with Lori Loughlin for this. So she has pleaded guilty. As I understand it, she could face -- OK, quickly, Felicity Huffman paid $15,000 worth of bribes, OK?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

CAMEROTA: She could face 20 years in prison.

JACKSON: OK.

CAMEROTA: She didn't murder anyone.

JACKSON: No, it's not that easy.

Alisyn, good to see you, of course, good to be with you.

Look, the way it works is that that's the maximum that the statute for which they are charged with would apply to, right? So you get these federal statutes that talk about on a services fraud, they talk about mail fraud and then there's this major statutory maximum which is 20 years.

In the grand reality of the way life works in the federal system, they have these federal guidelines, right? And without getting too wonky about it, what happens is, is that you look at the criminal history of the person and you look at what's called the offense category. There's a score, which is non-mandatory, but it guides the court with regard to how they sentence you. And if you look at that, Alisyn, I think she's in the range of zero to 12 months.

CAMEROTA: OK.

JACKSON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So let me just read to you what she has admitted. So she wrote this letter. She says, I am in full acceptance of my guilt and with deep regret and shame over what I have done, I accept full responsibility for my actions and will accept the consequences that stem from those actions.

So does the judge obviously look kindly on admissions of guilt and letters like this and do you really believe that she will go to jail?

JACKSON: So, look, I do think the judge looks upon it -- and more than that, statutorily, right, the law says that if you accept responsibility, remember that score sheet I just talked about, the federal sentencing guidelines, an admission, an acceptance of responsibility constitutes a reduction in the points. So you actually and technically get time off.

Now, to your question as to whether she'll see jail time, I think she could, and here's why. I don't think that celebrities should work for you, but I don't think it should work against you. And they're going to do, right, probation, something called a PSR, presentencing report, and in that report they're going to talk about her life and what she's done and what she hasn't done and her philanthropy and who she's presented to the community. And it matters. And so everyone is individually assessed by the court. And to the extent that you're a good person who's done tremendous things, that's not discounted.

At the same time, the judge has to deter, this is a major scandal involving people who used their privilege to game the system. And on that account, I think a judge could be inclined to deter others in the future to impose jail time even if its de minimis. CAMEROTA: All right, because I thought that prosecutors at this point,

because she had pleaded guilty, were suggesting a fine and supervised release, that means like house arrest, right?

JACKSON: And, yet, well, remember, prosecutors could suggest all they want. Ultimately a judge imposes the sentence. And I think prosecutors -- remember, the fact that she's pled early helps her significantly. But, again, when the court sees this and I think prosecutors are asking for some jail time, when a court sees this, I think a court could be inclined, based upon the deterrent value, to say, you know what, you're stepping in, if only for a few months.

CAMEROTA: That leads us to Lori Loughlin, OK. So she is the other celebrity face involved in this. She has not pleaded guilty. There's no indication that she plans to. And her crime, I mean according to prosecutors, allegedly, she paid half a million dollars --

JACKSON: That's right.

CAMEROTA: In bribes and different things to all -- for this whole scam. So that's worse than what Felicity Huffman. So what would she be looking at?

JACKSON: It is. So, what happens, Alisyn, is this, it's still early, right, and so there may not be indications yet that she's going to plead, and everybody is different, right? There may be circumstances that apply to her case that we're not privy to or it may very well be that we're not privy to plea negotiations. So the fact that yesterday did not see her plea doesn't mean that tomorrow, next week or next month will. And, still, if she accepts responsibility, then, of course, same rules apply, she gets a reduction.

However, to your point, because there's a half a million dollars involved, that enhances the offense level which exposes her to more jail time. But if she accepts responsibility, enters into a plea agreement with the government, then it becomes a less of a sentence that she's exposed to.

And, remember, we should say this, there are something called cooperators that are working with the government now, who know the scheme, know what went on, know who was involved. And facing that, it's kind of troubling and difficult to overcome that aspect (ph).

CAMEROTA: If she were your client, wouldn't you tell her to plead guilty to that?

JACKSON: You know what, in fairness, I haven't seen the entirety of the evidence, just exposed to the press reports. The press reports look pretty damning. But if that's the nature of the evidence that the feds have and they're working with other cooperating witnesses, in the event you are guilty, the job of the defense attorney is to be what we call, Alisyn, the agent of reality. So if we're going to do it, we're going to do it now, we're going to do it early and we're going to get you a points reduction so that you can spare yourself the disservice of jail. Not a nice place, (INAUDIBLE) jails.

CAMEROTA: Joey Jackson, you are -- you are always our agent of reality. Thank you very much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Alisyn.

[09:00:04] All right, Attorney General Bill Barr's testimony begins in just moments. CNN "NEWSROOM" has live coverage

END