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House Democrats Subpoena Bank on Trump's Finances; Redacted Mueller Report to Be Released on Thursday; First Quarter Fundraising Totals for 2020 Race; U.S. Faces More Severe Storms. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 16, 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] SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Who are escalating their efforts to obtain insight into the president's financial history. The House Intelligence and Banking Committees subpoenaing Deutsche Bank and several other financial institutions Monday. Chairman Adam Schiff calling the subpoena, quote, friendly, noting that Deutsche Bank has been cooperative. A source familiar with the matter tells CNN the committees are searching information about loans Deutsche Bank gave to the president and to the Trump Organization totaling nearly $300 million.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): And we want to know if the president or anyone in his family is financially compromised.

SERFATY: Deutsch Bank saying in a statement that they're engaged in productive dialogue with the committee and remain committed to providing appropriate information.

House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings also issuing a subpoena for financial information dating back ten years from an accounting firm that once prepared President Trump's financial statements. The request coming after the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, accused President Trump of inflating his net worth, in an attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills football team.

SERFATY: And Cummings said that his subpoena is also based on, quote, corroborating documents that he says raises grave questions about whether President Trump has been accurate in his financial reporting.

Now, Republican backlash to the subpoena has been very swift. The ranking member of the Judiciary Committee calling the request, John, a partisan fishing expedition.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Sunlen.

So why did the Justice Department announce the release of the Mueller report in advance? We're going to discuss that and more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:28] AVLON: In just two days we will finally get to see Attorney General Bill Barr's redacted version of the Mueller report. Now, the Justice Department announcing it will release the nearly 400 page report with redactions to Congress and the public on Thursday morning. So, joining me now to talk about it is Laura Coates, former federal prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst.

Laura, how common is it for the Justice Department to give a two-day heads up about the release of such a mammoth report?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I mean one that is such a mammoth like this, I think it should be more common, because, of course, we're all waiting on bated breath since we saw several weeks ago that four- page distillation. So I think to give a heads up in this context, I think, was important.

But also it was a little bit odd because we -- they must have been able to anticipate the amount of just sheer fury around it and fervor. The idea that he would be waiting to figure out how to get ahead of it. And as you see, particularly Rudy Giuliani has already come out to say that he has been preparing and reediting their rebuttal report in anticipation. So it does open a very big window to kind of have the narratives crafted in advance and in anticipation.

AVLON: Well, as you say, the White House strategy, they've been getting out ahead of it, make -- taking care of the pregame to make sure it's loaded with politics.

Let's take a look at Donald Trump's tweet on the subject. Pretty extraordinary stuff.

Mueller, and the AG based on Mueller findings (and great intelligence), have already ruled no collusion, no obstruction. These were crimes committed by crooked Hillary, the DNC, dirty cops and others. Investigate the investigators.

There you have it. They're going to be playing offense and trying to put essentially the Democrats on the hot seat. Do you think they'll get away with it when it comes to the balance of opinion with the American people?

COATES: Well, first, what's odd about that tweet is now it's great intelligence, John. It's been great intelligence. Somebody who has, frankly, derided the intelligence community for a better part of 22 to 23 months at this point. Of course now that it (INAUDIBLE) to his benefit on the no collusion aspect and potentially the no obstruction aspect, they're great intelligence. So that's one point to note.

But the reason it probably will not actually work successfully, as they have planned, is because there is still that very lingering question. The American people were confused about the nebulous concept of collusion. In fact, it wasn't their fault to do so. There was not the legal perhaps legal definition to actually allow people to understand what that meant.

But when it comes to obstruction of justice, we have been down this road before. Two American presidents have already had to tackle this issue of obstruction of justice. So the idea that we know -- we're much more sophisticated in this particular aspect. And so when there is a very clear statement that there has been a close call, that Mueller, with all of his credentials and all of his team, could not seem to put the pieces together to make a conclusion, for whatever reason, is going to actually make the American people's appetite even more -- even bigger because the president can't just say, I've totally been exonerated here.

There was a lingering question that removed the actual onus from Mueller, for whatever reason, and gave it to a person who already, as you say, pre-gamed months before, before he was even the AG, and gave a 19-page piece about why he thought it could never be possible.

AVLON: So as a former federal prosecutor, you're going to be looking at the rational for punting the obstruction claim to the attorney general. But also, as a former federal prosecutor, how much concern do you have about this track that they're pursuing, apparently within the Justice Department and without, to investigate the investigators?

COATES: Well, you know, this idea of guarding the guards has been, you know, one as old as time, frankly. I mean, in many ways, we have set this up in our actual Constitution to try to have these checks and balances. We know that's part of the American democracy.

What I'm concerned about here is that we've already moved on from the discussion of the so-called genesis of the investigation, John. Remember, for many, many months, the reason the president attacked what he calls now the great intelligence is because he had concerns about the FISA warrant and Carter Page and whether his Trump Tower office was spied on. The actual -- whether the Christopher Steele dossier should actually or could actually be substantiated in any way.

So the American people expected to move beyond the why it began in the James Comey era and now to the results of the investigation. So I'm concerned about the paradigm shift going right back over to the echo genesis.

AVLON: Sure.

COATES: So I'm concerned that we're not going to get more of the results of it because that is actually, essentially, if you're in trial and the jury says, hey, I know you just gave me a whole trial and a whole opening statement and closing argument, but what about the initial arrest?

[06:40:00] AVLON: So let -- I want to focus on the other open question --

COATES: I think that is (ph) lost.

AVLON: Which is highlighted by the House yesterday issuing friendly subpoenas to JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. One of the open questions is whether the Mueller report looked into the president's finances, the so-called red line.

We know the House is doing so. And the companies seem to be cooperating.

What's your take on that? COATES: Well, they should be cooperating. Remember, everyone, this is

-- I mean maybe you have a friendly subpoena I think is nice, John, but the idea here is that there were already always two parallel tracks, what Mueller was doing in the criminal context and what the legislative branch was doing to try to combat and deter any future interference with the election. So that they're actually pursuing that now may seem late in the game to people and maybe even overkill, but in reality the only reason they ever played second fiddle, as the -- as Congress is because there was the fear of incarceration and criminal indictment that slowed down their ability to get witnesses to comply and not to interfere. They actually should be pursuing this track. The president's so-called red line is obviously blurred, and it should be. It was for the emoluments clause litigation that happened. It now is over the -- in the Oversight Committee and other entities.

AVLON: Laura Coates, simply the best. We'll follow the money.

COATES: Thanks, John.

HARLOW: All right, we're learning about -- speaking of money -- how much cash Democratic presidential candidates have raised so far. What do the numbers tell us? There's just something about Harry, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:03] HARLOW: There's a little something called the 2020 race for the White House.

AVLON: You know, I've heard about this.

HARLOW: And we now have a glimpse at what those 2020 presidential candidates so far have raised, how much money they have spent, and what they have left in the piggybank.

There's just something about Harry. Also, let's get the forecast with our senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten.

By the way, you're definitely like the youngest senior of anything here.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: That's called getting it written into your contract. And then you become more important and you bring home the --

HARLOW: The bacon.

AVLON: It's also written into your soul.

ENTEN: Yes.

AVLON: You're a very old, young person.

ENTEN: I'm, at times, 90, but at other times, I'm five.

HARLOW: There you go.

ENTEN: If you talk to my mother, she'd tell you I'm both.

AVLON: It sounds about right.

HARLOW: None of us have as much money as these candidates have raised. What are we looking at?

AVLON: Well segued.

ENTEN: Yes. Very, very nice. My goodness.

HARLOW: Thank you.

ENTEN: So basically what we have here is the money raised in quarter one of 2019. Mostly individual contributors. We see Bernie Sanders leading the field. He has throughout the entire time with $18.2 million.

But I want to make this comparison with quarter one in 2007. And basically show that the top contenders this time around have raised considerably less than the top contenders did back in the quarter one of 2017. If you look at the top five here, it totals a little less than 53 million, versus here, a little less than $66 million.

AVLON: But, but, but.

ENTEN: There are -- there are a few buts. So let me point out a few buts.

AVLON: But it's interesting, right? I mean because you -- with all the enthusiasm on the Democratic side, to come up short of where they were at the end of the Bush era is sort of striking.

ENTEN: It is sort of striking.

One thing that I'll definitely point out that we have how many candidates running on the Democratic side right now, about 275 or so? I hear 18 in my year, but I'm going to go with 275. And what we see is, if we were to add all of them together, you'd get about $90 million, all 18.

AVLON: Ah.

ENTEN: But if you add all the candidates who ran last time -- excuse me, in 2007, what you get is about 85.

AVLON: Interesting.

ENTEN: So if you add all of them together, you get about the same amount. But here's the thing, let's -- let's look at the number of donors. So this is not necessarily something that's always released. But, look at this, the number of donors in quarter one of 2019, even Elizabeth Warren, who's at the bottom here, raised from 135,000 individual contributors. That's far more than any of the top candidates this time around.

HARLOW: Interesting. AVLON: And so that's a shift in the party towards small dollar donors, really in politics rite large, which Donald Trump did the same.

HARLOW: Yes, not just the party, right?

ENTEN: Right.

HARLOW: Even for some of the donations for the president.

ENTEN: Online fundraising has completely changed the game. And instead of going to big donors, you're going to individual donors. And, of course, that's so important because you can keep going back to them over and over and over again if they haven't maxed out.

AVLON: And the Bernie machine, by the way, I've got to say, his total number of donors is almost the next three combined.

HARLOW: It's huge.

ENTEN: I mean this is the strongest argument for Bernie Sanders in terms of his fundraising machine. And it's not the amount he raised, it's from whom he raised it. He can go back to these people over and over and over again. So, as we go beyond Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, he can stay in the game. That's exactly what he did last time when you can keep going back to these donors over and over again. You couldn't do that back in 2007.

Remember, John Edwards had to drop out after South Carolina.

AVLON: That's right.

All right, and the neighboring state as well.

Let's kick it forward.

ENTEN: All right, this is one thing I just want to point out. You know, we keep going over this, but how important is this stuff actually? Well, in the first half of the year, in non-incumbent primaries since 1980, the fundraising leader has won nine of 14 times. But, get this, the New Hampshire polling leaders has won the nomination 10 of 14 times.

AVLON: Interesting.

ENTEN: So you kind of want to look at all of these different factors for really understanding what's going on. Fundraising leaders don't always win. Polling leaders don't always win. If you add both of them together, you get a pretty good idea that someone like a Bernie Sanders or a Joe Biden, they are in pretty good positions at this point.

HARLOW: And that bringing us to Bill Weld in New Hampshire.

AVLON: Yes.

ENTEN: This is Bill Weld. Bill Weld. Welcome to the race, Bill Weld. You get your own little segment here. Isn't that nice? And if you look, what you see is that Bill Weld is in a lot of trouble. This is national poll from Monmouth. What you see is Donald Trump ahead 74 percent to 8 percent among Republicans nationwide.

HARLOW: Right.

ENTEN: So this is not exactly a close race at this particular time.

And why is that? Why is it?

HARLOW: No, wait, wait.

ENTEN: What?

HARLOW: Do you know who didn't believe the polls before?

ENTEN: Who?

HARLOW: The president.

ENTEN: The president.

HARLOW: Well, he had --

ENTEN: Well, that's not true. The president does believe the polls when it shows him ahead.

AVLON: Only when they're in favor.

HARLOW: These ones.

ENTEN: But, look, look, take a look at this, the president is really popular among Republicans. Nationwide, 89 percent. Iowa, 81 percent. New Hampshire, 84 percent. Why is that so important? Well, if he's at 89 percent nationally, look at this. I looked at presidents who earned less than 55 percent of the vote or less in the New Hampshire primary.

AVLON: Love it.

ENTEN: Look at them, they're all well below that 89 percent. George H.W. Bush, 75, Gerald Ford, 67 --

AVLON: Extraordinary.

ENTEN: Jimmy Carter, 65. And the two who dropped out after New Hampshire, 54 percent and 44 percent for Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

AVLON: That's some tasty political nerddom.

ENTEN: Well, that's what --

AVLON: Good digging right there.

ENTEN: I wanted to bring the political nerddom to my two favorite political nerds. HARLOW: Do you sleep?

ENTEN: No, I definitely don't sleep.

HARLOW: I think that definitely not.

AVLON: Through the week.

ENTEN: No, I actually never sleep.

So, look, Donald Trump is in really good shape for this Republican primary. Bill Weld will give him a good challenge. Bill Weld's a good politician, but it'll just going to be really tough.

HARLOW: Can I ask you just one thing before we move on to my favorite topic?

ENTEN: Yes.

HARLOW: And that is, do we have any idea from any reliable polling on how much of that, Harry, has to do with the economy? Like if this economy can hold until the election, that's one thing. But if it can't, that -- is that a whole nother ball game?

[06:50:04] ENTEN: Yes, I mean if it can't, remember, George Bush got that primary challenge in '92 because economy went south. Jimmy Carter got that primary challenge in '80.

AVLON: Inflation right there (INAUDIBLE).

ENTEN: Inflation. I mean there was also the Iran situation going on.

AVLON: Yes.

ENTEN: But that definitely played a role. And, you know, these were wars. These are not what's going on in these particular gentlemen (ph).

AVLON: Yes, Korean --

ENTEN: But if the economy goes south, yes, I think Bill Weld could be in better shape. But don't be surprised if another Republican also jumps into that (ph).

AVLON: We have politics, but we have baseball, and I don't want to lose this.

ENTEN: So this is very important. The Yankees, folks, under .500 versus Poppy's Twins who are running first in the AL Central with an 8-5 record. Those Yankees have more injuries than God knows what at this particular point.

HARLOW: Who is --

AVLON: Than the Mets.

ENTEN: Than the Mets.

HARLOW: Do you know what they do when Minnesota wins the World Series?

ENTEN: Well, I know what I do. I throw a ticker tape parade in my apartment.

AVLON: Go ice fishing, right?

HARLOW: Yes. They waive the homer hanky.

ENTEN: Oh, they what?

HARLOW: It's like this -- it's called a homer hanky.

AVLON: Really. Goes back to Herman (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Yes, it does.

AVLON: There's ice fishing, beer and Herman (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: My dad brought me one home from '87. I was five.

ENTEN: I preferred (INAUDIBLE) when they beat the Braves, but --

AVLON: I'll just say -- I'll just say, in the Yankees' -- my Yankees' defense, three world championships for the Twins. Great team in '91.

HARLOW: Yes.

AVLON: Forty -- 40 pennants and 27 world championships.

HARLOW: What do they say, the best team money can buy?

ENTEN: Yes, when was the last time they actually won a pennant though? I can't even remember. I think I was still in college at the time.

AVLON: I think you were in grade school, actually.

ENTEN: I might have been.

AVLON: All right, just checking.

HARLOW: OK, we have to pay for this segment and get to the commercial.

AVLON: Something about Harry.

HARLOW: Thank you. We appreciate it.

We're excited for what is coming up on NEW DAY. An in-depth interview with Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg. He'll join us live right here. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AVLON: All right. And next, a catastrophic fire ravaging Paris' famed Notre Dame Cathedral. We've got the latest on the investigation and what was saved and destroyed. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:54] HARLOW: All right, much of the U.S. this morning is facing the threat of more severe weather.

Let's go to our meteorologist Chad Myers with more.

The threat certainly not over yet.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, certainly. Another storm, a lot like the one we had on Saturday and Sunday, coming into the southwest right now. It will be in the Midwest for the middle part of the week.

This weather is brought to you by Allegra D, 24 hour relief of your worst allergy and congestion symptoms. Use as directed.

So let's get right to it. There's the low right here, almost over Las Vegas right now. But it gets to Texas for tomorrow. And more severe weather popping up.

Over the weekend, we had over 25 tornadoes on the ground. And this is a very similar system as we had over the past couple of days.

There it is for your Wednesday into Thursday. And then finally, on Friday, on up into even the northeast. There's the bull's eye for Wednesday right over Texas and Oklahoma. Then it moves farther to the east. And by Friday, that circle is right there, right up and down all the big East Coast cities because it's going to be warming up. When you get warm air, you get cold air, you begin to get the severe weather. Look at D.C. on Thursday, all the way to 81.

John.

AVLON: Warming up, Chad. Thank you very much.

So the rise of presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg and the battle over Trump's taxes is giving comics plenty to work with. Here's some "Late Night Laughs."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": Buttigieg is just 37 years old. And you can tell his age is making the other candidates nervous. Today, Bernie Sanders brought some Just for Men and a NordicTrack. (INAUDIBLE). Going to do this.

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": Sarah Sanders said that she doesn't believe members of Congress are smart enough to examine President Trump's tax returns. To where Eric Trump replied, hey, not being smart enough to read stuff is my thing.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": Trump has, in the last few months, moved on to a new excuse that his tax returns are too complicated for people to understand. That's what he said last year after Democrats won the midterms and gained the power to request them. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As I've told you,

they're under audit. They have been for a long time. They're extremely complex. People wouldn't understand them. The accountants are a very large, powerful firm from the standpoint of respect.

MEYERS: Why does the president of the United States always sounding like spam e-mail asking you for your Social Security number? Hello, I am with a very large, powerful firm from the standpoint of respect. Will you please send your bank routing number?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was good, right?

AVLON: That was good. I liked that.

HARLOW: Very good.

AVLON: The spam e-mail analysis. It's good.

HARLOW: OK, there are your "Late Night Laughs."

Thanks to our international viewers for joining us this morning. For you, CNN "TALK" is next. For our viewers here in the United States, the fire, the blaze is finally out in Paris. What was lost and what was spared at Notre Dame? NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We watched in silent shock as these flames just grew and spread.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The smoke was incredible. You could see it from blocks away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not just a tourist attraction. It's a place we went to be lifted up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The original (INAUDIBLE) it will never be (INAUDIBLE) will never be rebuilt (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thursday morning we'll see how much of this is going to be redacted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no question that Congress has the obligation to get the full report.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: There are questions about why Deutsche Bank decided to give Donald Trump money.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The president can stonewall, but they can't stop Deutsche Bank from turning over records.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. John and Alisyn are off today. I'm Poppy Harlow, here with my good friend John Avlon. We are glad you're with us because there is a lot of news.

We're getting our first look this morning at the extent of the devastation at Paris' iconic Notre Dame Cathedral. As officials now say this blaze was most likely accidental. Firefighters have finally extinguished it. It burned for more than nine hours, capturing the world's attention.

And look at this, before and after images from inside the blackened cathedral. And you can see that crucifix is still standing, and it is illuminated amid the destruction.

[07:00:05] France's president pledging to rebuild Notre Dame.

END