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More Reporting on Mueller Report Release Aftermath; Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) Interviewed Regarding Mueller Report; Latest on Notre Dame Fire Investigation. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 19, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:00:00]

GLASSER: It's an important dynamic going forward, which is that we're a long way from complete and total exhortation and vindication and the initial phase of literally four weeks ago today was when this report was delivered. It was sat on by the Trump administration Justice Department.

It was misrepresented, that's clear from yesterday's performance by the attorney general and actually having a chance to read it. Sitting back having seen a lot of these reports in Washington come and go, what strikes me is that this is probably one of the most damning insider portrayals of a White House that any of us has ever seen.

It's not just another best selling book with anonymous and un-sourced accounts that you don't really know which part is true and which part is hyperbole.

There is testimony, there's contemporaneous records, there's phone calls, there's notes, there's e-mails and so when you see the President of the United States calling a report produced by the former FBI director totally BS, which is what he did on Twitter this morning, it really - it can't erase this from the history books.

And I think that you know we don't know how this story ends yet of the Trump presidency. There's that one dramatic scene - I open my column with it because I think we're going to remember one way or the other, May 17, 2017. President Trump has already fired one FBI director in the hopes of shutting down the Russia investigation.

He's interviewing people for another FBI director. He wants to get rid of his attorney general, which he ultimately does because he doesn't trust him and he should "unrecuse himself". The attorney general walks out of the room, comes back in, says there's a special council, Trump slumps over in his chair, and says, "I'm f'ed. This is the end of my presidency".

We're going to remember that quote no way or the other. What we don't know is there any shift in the political wins. So far we all agree that it doesn't seem that senatorial math is changing just because of this.

I think your interview with the republicans right now, Chris, really suggested to us that you have the fringe of the Republican Party - the extremely vocal, pro-Trump margins willing to defend the President.

I'd like to see some other republicans here on CNN and hear what they have to say about this conduct and how that's going to look in the history books.

CUOMO: Well if history is any predictor, Susan is we hold it on a second, you hear that? That's the sound of the other republicans. They're going to say nothing because this president is supremely popular in that party and most importantly, he's an active enemy.

And as we both know that strong medicine in politics, but good points.

CAMPBELL: Can I point out? I just want to say...

CAMEROTA: You have 10 seconds.

CAMPBELL: If you think its bad now it's going to get worse and Abby mentioned the president's tweet using profanity this morning. Law enforcement's work is done. This now moves into political arena. It's going to be a lot messier than the last two (ph).

CUOMO: So what happens? We heard from the republicans. Thank you very much everybody, appreciate it. Look at my hand - big hand.

So the idea of what are the republicans going to do? They want to go back to the beginning. They want to look at how this all started and investigate the investigators. OK.

What do the democrats want to do? What is their path forward? They have the power, at least in the House. Let's get after that next.

[08:33:30]

(COMMERCIAL)

CAMEROTA: The Mueller report details at least ten episodes where the president potentially obstructed justice to try to end the special counsel's investigation, but it tosses the responsibility for what to do about that to Congress. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley. He sits on the Intel and Judiciary Committees. Congressman, good morning.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY, D-IL, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Good morning. The Appropriations is my other committee. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Oh, you're busy. OK. I'm sorry I didn't get all your credentials in that intro, but we only have so much time.

QUIGLEY: I Gotcha.

CAMEROTA: Congressman -

QUIGLEY: Gotcha.

CAMEROTA: - what now? What this morning? For - for - for voters, let's say, Democrats who feel frustrated by everything they have heard and read in those 400 pages of all of the wrongdoing, what does Congress do now?

QUIGLEY: Look, I think the American public is curious. This is a sample from the report. Is anyone curious what's in the rest of this document that was redacted by the attorney general?

CAMEROTA: Well, Judiciary Chair Nadler is, as you know.

QUIGLEY: At this point, does anyone trust -

CAMEROTA: I mean, he's trying to actually -

QUIGLEY: I'm sorry.

CAMEROTA: This morning the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, has subpoenaed - is planning to today subpoena those 36 pages that you just held up.

QUIGLEY: Certainly, I think we need to - it's hard to imagine anyone trusts the attorney general after his performance so far that he would redact this fairly and appropriately. We'd certainly like to know about that, certainly like to know about those 14 referrals that the special counsel made on other potential criminal wrongdoing.

And this began as a counterintelligence investigation, finding out whether or not the president of the United States was compromised. This report, the redacted report, ought to make people curious about that. If the president was willing to do at least 10 instances of obstruction, how far would he go in terms of being compromised to other foreign governments?

CAMEROTA: But Congressman, are you saying that you think that there's going to be a bombshell in those pieces of redaction that you just held up, those 36 pages? When you read around those - around the margins of those, do you really think that there's something in there that you're going to be able to hang your hat on and then move forward somehow with changing the equation and the president?

QUIGLEY: Look, I think the redacted portions are bombshells. The president of the United States, I believe, obstructed this investigation, and the only reason it wasn't worse is because of two things, the special counsel is extraordinarily fair.

I think he still could have found -- I think he told us he still could have had a finding of obstruction, but in fairness to the president and the fact that he couldn't go to court to defend himself, he didn't do that and he left it to Congress. So I think what you're going to find in the redacted portions is more of the same and that ought to be enough for the American public to appreciate just how profound all of this is.

CAMEROTA: What did you think about Attorney General Barr's press conference yesterday?

QUIGLEY: Yes. And I appreciate the fact that you just had some of my Republican colleagues on. I think it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic to compare them to Frank Drebin, "Nothing to see here," and then, again, launching into an attack on their own process.

The bigger picture here is everyone in the intelligence community with a high level of certainty agreed the Russians attacked our Democratic process to help one candidate and hurt another. Special counsel agreed with that. And how do the Republicans respond? By joining in the attack on their own country.

I've watched the kinds of things they're threatening to do for over two years now. They have come up with absolutely nothing. But what they've done is permanently impact the integrity and the independence and the ability of not just the Justice Department, but the intelligence community to keep us safe -- all to protect the president politically and legally.

[08:40:04]

CAMEROTA: Congressman Eric Swalwell wrote this on Twitter, "Russia attacked us, the Mueller report details the multiplicity of contacts between Russia and Donald Trump's team, and that Trump and his team materially impaired the investigation, yet our attorney general acts as Trump's defense attorney. He cannot represent both, Barr must resign." Do you agree?

QUIGLEY: Oh, I don't think that the Attorney General ever should have been put in that place. I think it was apparent that he had already made up his mind when he wrote this 19 page memo arguing against the theory of law necessary to find obstruction.

It's noted in this memo, this report that came out yesterday -- the special counsel specifically disagrees with the attorney general on that matter. He was wrong, people knew it ahead of time but he went forward lying to the American public about what was in this report.

Trying to be not just his special counsel but also his chief of P.R., his press counsel -- holding a press conference furthering that lie and trying to protect the President of the United States. The Justice Department's independence has been extraordinarily damaged by its own attorney general.

CAMEROTA: So you want him to resign?

QUIGLEY: Oh, I think he never should have been put in place --

CAMEROTA: Well I mean, he is there --

QUIGLEY: He never should have been approved by the Senate --

CAMEROTA: And so if you're saying he doesn't respect the DOJ --

QUIGLEY: And he should resign.

CAMEROTA: Tell me again?

QUIGLEY: I think he has extraordinarily damaged the Department of Justice, he never should have been there -- he should resign. My saying that will do absolutely nothing, all I can do is make sure that we find out the rest of what the American public has a right to know, and move forward in attempt to never have something like this happen again.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Mike Quigley, we appreciate getting your perspective this morning, thanks so much for being here.

QUIGLEY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Chris.

QUIGLEY: Take care.

CUOMO: All right, different story matters especially today. New clues on what caused that massive fire in Paris. The latest on the investigation on Good Friday, next.

[08:42:30]

(COMMERCIAL)

[08:45:54]

CUOMO: So here's the latest. Fire investigators say a short circuit may have sparked that inferno inside Notre Dame. Work to salvage paintings and artifacts continues this morning.

A French official says there was no significant damage to paintings in the cathedral's chapel and that's where a lot of the precious works were. France's president is meeting with the U.N.'s cultural agency today as he tries to fast track the reconstruction of the cathedral.

Eastern weekend services have been moved to other nearby churches.

CAMEROTA: All right. Deadly storms are moving into the southeast today bringing hail, tornados, flash flooding, and damaging winds. Millions of people in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama are in harms way today.

The system called three people in Mississippi on Thursday.

CUOMO: Sylvia Hatchell has resigned as the long time coach of the women's basketball at the University of North Carolina. An internal probe determined she made racially insensitive remarks and exercised undue influence on medical decisions within the program.

Hatchell, who has built a hall of fame career over more than three decades with the Tar Heels, was placed on paid leave by the university earlier this month due to issues raised by student athletes and others.

Earlier this month Hatchell's attorney told CNN she may sometimes be tough on her players, but insisted she doesn't have a racist bone in her body.

CAMEROTA: OK. So what does legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein think now that he's read through the Mueller report? We'll find out next.

(COMMERCIAL)

[08:47:22]

CUOMO: This morning President Trump using profanity, slamming the Mueller report calling statements made about him, "total B.S." but he used the full word.

Joining us now is Carl Bernstein, one of the legendary investigative journalists who helped break the Watergate Scandal and a CNN Political Analyst of course.

Carl, one of the parallels you've drawn in the last couple of days is that like Watergate, this story has become about what you see as a cover-up. What is it in the Mueller probe that you believe gives you that license?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think it's license, I think it's just Robert Mueller's recitation of the facts, very much the way Leon Jaworski the Watergate prosecutor laid out the facts -- not in a pejorative way, just fact upon fact stacked up and there is absolutely no question that this has been a vast, presidential cover- up and that we have in Mueller's report a narrative, a timeline narrative of the cover-up by the president and his actions.

And it's also very clear that (ph) contrary to what the attorney general said, that it was the intention of Robert Mueller -- that those citations in the report, those facts should reach the Congress of the United States without the kind of muddled water that the attorney general put in to the process with his rather ill-formed formulations that mischaracterized Mueller's report.

CAMEROTA: But Carl, I mean thanks to you -- thanks to our other fine journalists across CNN, we knew much of what was in these 400 pages. So what part is the cover-up that you see?

BERNSTEIN: The cover-up is in the 10, or that we see is in the 10 or 11 areas that the special prosecutor laid out as possible or likely obstructions of justice -- however you want to label it. But there's another -- the whole report especially when you read the part about what the Russians did, the first part of the report.

It fits together with the obstruction of justice part, and what you get -- there's a great story that's leading "The Wall Street Journal," today the headline is "Putin Has Won -- Mueller Report Details the Ways Russia Interfered in the 2016 Election." It is a great story, and Rupert Murdoch's -- the owner of Fox's premier newspaper "The Wall Street Journal," which has done great reporting throughout the last two years on President Trump and what has occurred here.

And that story makes clear that the Russians were very successful in getting people in the Trump campaign to embrace their efforts -- no collusion is cited whatsoever in the piece or in the Mueller report. But it's clear that there was an embrace and willingness, just as we see in Donald Trump Jr.'s willingness to take that meeting at Trump Tower to go along with getting things from the Russians.

And when you add it all up, you get a picture in which the two parts of the report fuse together and it is a picture of an administration, and a presidency, and a campaign that crosses boundaries such as we have never seen with a possible exception of Watergate.

CUOMO: But the boundary is going to be subjective, and it's a function of census and political will. You don't have felonies, you don't have crimes as you did in Watergate to be acted on, or even as you had in Clinton in that investigation that lead to an impeachment. So what do you see as the right path forward?

BERNSTEIN: I am not (ph) recommending anybody's political path here, what I would say is that there are redactions that are so pronounced, and obvious, and evident that contain some information that's very important that all the American people see.

[08:55:00]

But particularly right away the so-called Gang of Eight, the leadership of the House and the Senate and the intelligence committees, particularly Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader. I have a feeling that if Mitch McConnell were to see the fully redacted report, un-scrubbed, he is going to be in a very difficult position to continue to defend this president and his conduct, because it's clear, as I say, this is a vast presidential cover-up. And it fits together when we see the Russian part of the investigation as well.

I think there is a lot to be learned yet. And obviously the conduct of the investigation and the conduct of the press is what the president is going to continue to go after here, but what indeed we have seen in this report is that the conduct of Mr. Mueller, the conduct of Mr. Barr, the conduct of the president of the United States and the conduct of the press are all very easy to parse and look at in an open-minded way if you read this report. And there's great clarity about what has happened here in the last two years for those who are willing to read the report and keep an open mind about it.

CAMEROTA: Carl Bernstein, we appreciate, as always, your perspective, your reporting. Thanks for being with us.

BERNSTEIN: Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Have a wonderful Easter.

BERSTEIN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for being here.

CUOMO: Pleasure.

CAMEROTA: It's been an intense past two days.

CUOMO: Yes. It's not going to change because, you know, very much we see things kind of leave us in the same position that we were when we went into it. People are seeing here what they want to see. CAMEROTA: All right. Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer pick up our coverage

after this quick break. Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:00]