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New Day
Pompeo Cancels Moscow Trip to Meet with European Allies on Iran; Global Markets Plummet as Trade War Fears Persist; Trump & His Allies Try to Block Congressional Investigations; Presidential Hopefuls on Trump Blocking Congressional Probes; Felicity Huffman to Plead Guilty in College Scam; Commercial Pilot Arrested in Triple Murder Case. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired May 13, 2019 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelling a planned trip to Moscow, making a last-minute detour to Brussels.
[06:59:10] MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Our aim is not war. Our aim is a change in the behavior of the Iranian leadership.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It's U.S. consumers who pay, correct?
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: I don't disagree with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American consumers will pay more. The president is wrong about this economically.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this the dagger?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goal!
(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 Monday, May 13, 6 a.m. here in New York. And we begin with breaking news, because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo abruptly cancelling a trip to Moscow to meet with European allies about the escalating tensions with Iran. A key ally is already warning of the unintended risks that this conflict could have.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are learning the United States is ratcheting up its military presence in the Middle East, including a new deployment of Patriot missiles. Defense officials say intelligence indicates that Iran and its proxies could be planning to threaten U.S. forces and interests in the region.
Our Michelle Kosinski is live in Washington with the breaking details.
Pompeo, the secretary of state, was supposed to go to Moscow. He's in the air, at this moment, headed to Brussels, Michelle. Why?
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Right, and this is the second time in a matter of days that the secretary has abruptly changed his travel schedule to deal with Iran.
So he is still planning tomorrow to go to Sochi, Russia, to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the foreign minister. But instead of first stopping in Moscow to meet with U.S. embassy staff and American business leaders, now he's going to Brussels, where he's going to meet with his counterparts from the U.K., France, Germany and the E.U. to talk about Iran.
Here's what the spokesperson for the State Department just said in a statement: "He'll meet with European allies to discuss recent threatening actions and statements by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Secretary Mike Pompeo will coordinate closely with our allies and partners to ensure the security of our mutual interests in the Middle East and around the world."
So the European partners that he's meeting with, they want to keep what is left of the Iran nuclear deal. But since last week, Iran said that it's no longer going to keep parts of that deal, European allies agree that there needs to be some response, if that is, indeed, what Iran is going to do. That will likely come in the form of sanctions. So the U.S. wants to talk about the threat, as well.
So this comes days after the U.S. sent additional ships, bombers and Patriot missiles to the Persian Gulf in the face of what it perceives to be a threat from Iran that it or its proxies could imminently attack U.S. interests or allied interests in the region.
It also comes one day after there was some incident involving commercial ships off the coast of the UAE in the Persian Gulf.
A State Department official just told me that this trip isn't because of that ship incident. This is more of convenience and to make the best use of his time.
CAMEROTA: OK.
KOSINSKI: This official said that the secretary, instead of having these meetings in Moscow that weren't considered urgent, given that the European leaders were already going to be in Brussels, he decided instead of refueling somewhere else, to stop in Brussels, meet with them and then continue on.
CAMEROTA: OK. Michelle Kosinski, that is really helpful perspective and context. Thank you very much. We'll check back through the program.
Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guard is ratcheting up the rhetoric as the U.S. deploys more military assets to the region. Can a confrontation be averted?
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Iran's capital of Tehran with more. What's the latest from there, Fred? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.
Yes, pretty strong reactions coming here from the Iranian side. They accuse the Trump administration of escalating the situation, saying the Trump administration is waging what they call psychological and economic warfare against Iran.
At the same time, you have the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps with some pretty tough talk coming out, saying that the U.S. will, quote, "get hit over the head" if it tries to mess with Iran here in the Middle Eastern region.
It was one senior Revolutionary Guard commander who called the fact that the U.S. has deployed an aircraft carrier an opportunity for the Iranians, saying that carrier strike group is, as he called it, "a sitting target" for Iran's ballistic missiles.
At the same time, Secretary of State Pompeo, before embarking on that trip to Brussels, with some pretty strong words for the Iranians. Here's what we (ph) had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: An attack on American interests from an Iranian-led force, whether it's an Iranian proper or it's an entity that is controlled by the Iranians, we will hold the responsible party accountable. President Trump's been very clear about that. Our response will be appropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: So a situation clearly heated up there.
And a little more on that incident that Michelle was talking about in the Persian Gulf that took place. Apparently, several tanker ships were prone to sabotage incidents that took place, some of them UAE tankers, some of them from the Saudis.
So far no one is outright blaming Iran, but of course, the U.S. had said that possibly attacking tankers could be something that the Iranians could try to do. The Iranians themselves, by the way, have also condemned that incident, as well. But of course, big tinderbox down there in the Persian Gulf with U.S. and Iranian forces very close together -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Thank you very much, Fred.
Fred, thank you very much. We'll check back in with you.
This morning, the futures markets are reeling in response to the turmoil in the U.S. trade talks with China. Negotiations broke apart Friday with no deal. And as of now, no new specific discussions are scheduled.
New heightened tariffs are in place on Chinese goods, which one Republican lawmaker told me amounts to a sales tax on U.S. consumers. Dow futures, you can see right there, point to a ugly opening. The
Dow down 347 points in premarket trading.
[06:05:06] Let's go to Beijing. CNN's Matt Rivers is there. And Matt, let's get an understanding of where things stand as of Monday morning.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, where they stand here, John, is that we're just waiting for what the Chinese side is going to do in terms of retaliation at this point.
The Chinese government has said it's going to respond in kind to those tariff hikes that the Trump administration put in place last Friday. But we still don't know exactly what that's going to look like.
One way it could happen is that the Chinese side could raise tariffs on American imports here to China. That would make those products more expensive.
But another thing we're looking at is might it affect U.S. farmers? U.S. farmers are already facing tough times right now because of flooding. And they really didn't sell, for example, their soybean crop to China last year because of restrictions put in place by the Chinese government as a result of this trade war. There could be more restrictions put in place, hitting farmers at a time when they can least afford it.
Meanwhile President Trump has continued to say that China is paying for all those new tariffs that the Trump administration has put into place, but that is simply not true. And his economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said as much over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: The tariff on goods coming into the country, the Chinese aren't paying.
KUDLOW: No, but the Chinese will suffer GDP losses and so forth with respect to a diminishing export market.
WALLACE: It's U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers who pay, correct?
KUDLOW: Yes, to some extent. I don't disagree with that. Again, both sides -- both sides will suffer on this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: Now unless there's some sort of deal struck, there could be a lot more tariffs on the way. Later today we're expecting the Trump administration to detail how they might put $300 billion more in tariffs on Chinese imports to the United States. That could hit everything from toys to iPhones, Alisyn. It's not over yet.
CAMEROTA: Interesting to hear the straight scoop from Larry Kudlow, when pressed. Thank you very much, Matt Rivers.
BERMAN: That's like admitting water is wet. It's like not something --
CAMEROTA: Well, it's the first time we've heard it.
BERMAN: Right. But the idea that the tariffs hurt U.S. consumers, it's not some stunning admission.
CAMEROTA: It's a given.
BERMAN: It's just the way things are.
CAMEROTA: Right. But it's -- but nevertheless, it still took Chris Wallace a while to get it out of him.
BERMAN: I know. Good on him.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
BERMAN: For asking if water is wet.
CAMEROTA: Indeed. All right. Now to Washington, where President Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations.
House Democrats are frustrated by what they call the unprecedented lack of cooperation. So they're discussing fining or even jailing Trump officials who do not comply with subpoenas.
CNN's Joe Johns has this part of the story live at the White House for us.
Good morning, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.
Up to this point, there's been a lot of rhetoric on both sides. And the White House strategy has just been to say no to congressional investigations with an eye toward pushing everything into the courts. But now, pressure is mounting on the committees to use what is called the inherent powers of the Congress, powers that have not been used for 80 years or more, in an effort to try to get uncooperative officials in the administration to cooperate.
The question is what will the White House do if it comes to that?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (voice-over): The Trump administration doubling down its stonewalling efforts against House Democrats, accusing them of breaking rules and norms governing congressional oversight, adding, "The White House will not and cannot comply with unlawful demands made by increasingly unhinged and politically motivated Democrats."
According to analysis by "The Washington Post," the president and his allies are working to block more than 20 investigations; and House Democrats say at least 79 congressional requests for documents, testimony, and other evidence. REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): The Trump administration has decided to say
a blanket no. No to any kind of oversight whatsoever.
JOHNS: But Democrats warn they have their own tactics to achieve oversight of the Trump administration, weighing whether they'll use congressional inherent contempt powers, like jailing or fining those who do not comply with subpoenas.
SCHIFF: I think if you fine someone $25,000 a day to their person, until they comply, it gets their attention.
JOHNS: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler already holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt, and he's threatening to do the same for former White House counsel Don McGahn.
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): We'll hold him in contempt if he doesn't obey the subpoena.
JOHNS: It comes as the IRS and Treasury Department face a new deadline of Friday to hand over Trump's tax documents. The House Ways and Means Committee also sending subpoenas to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the IRS commissioner.
A top Republican in the Senate giving public advice to the president's eldest son, who was subpoenaed last week by a GOP-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): You don't need to go back into this environment anymore. You've been there for hours and hours and hours. And nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation. I would call it a day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[06:10:06] JOHNS: Meanwhile, this week the battles are expected to proceed apace. A judge is expected to rule tomorrow on the accounting firm that the Congress wants the president's financial records from.
John, back to you.
BERMAN: All right. Joe Johns at the White House. Joe, thank you very much. Much more on this ahead.
Also, it's not even June and already, one Democratic candidate is relaunching his campaign. Find out which one. I just gave you a little bit of a hint.
CAMEROTA: I know, but it's -- most of these are women that you're showing. I feel like we can narrow it down.
BERMAN: That's why I said. Find out which one is relaunching his campaign.
CAMEROTA: I see that.
BERMAN: It's a clue. CAMEROTA: That is a clue. Right there. OK.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:28] BERMAN: Some important developments in the race for president. This morning, the leading Democratic candidates are tweaking their messages on the investigations into the president. South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg is making a new pitch to minority voters, and Beto O'Rourke with somewhat of a campaign relaunch already.
CNN's M.J. Lee joins us now with the very latest.
Good morning.
M.J. LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, as you know, more than 20 Democrats are now running for president. You can imagine how difficult it is for each of these candidates to try to carve out a lane. One of the ways they're trying to stand out is by taking on the incumbent, President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it is fair to say that we are looking at a crisis not only of confidence, but potentially, a constitutional crisis. Yes.
LEE (voice-over): As the 2020 race heats up, more Democratic candidates weighing in on increasing efforts to block Congress from investigating the Trump administration. Senator Kamala Harris among those taking issue with the president's persistent stonewalling of investigations into his administration and campaign.
HARRIS: A constitutional crisis is defined as, generally, when the system that we set up with the checks and balances, when each of the independent coequal branches of government fails to perform its duties. And I think that we are seeing a breakdown of responsibilities.
LEE: Senator Cory Booker sidestepping questions about impeaching President Trump but promising to continue oversight.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to make sure we get an unredacted Mueller report. We need to make sure that we have a chance to have hearings with Mueller himself before we come to conclusions. And that's on the Senate Judiciary Committee. I'm going to continue to push for that.
LEE: Meanwhile, Pete Buttigieg slamming President Trump for using identity politics in a speech to gay rights activists. The South Bend mayor has come under fire for the lack of policy specifics and diversity in his campaign. He offered this warning to fellow Democrats.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And these divisive lines of thinking have even entered into the consciousness of my own party, like when we're told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker and supporting a trans woman of color, without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color.
But above all, I am running as an American. I am here to build bridges and to tear down walls.
LEE: This as Beto O'Rourke attempts to hit the reset button this week with the relaunch of his campaign, appearing on the daytime talk show "The View" tomorrow.
O'Rourke started strong when he announced his candidacy in March, raising $6 million in the first 24 hours. But that momentum has fizzled out over the past couple of weeks. The latest poll in New Hampshire shows O'Rourke struggling, slipping down to 2 percent in a crowded Democratic field.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Now, Trump is not the only topic that these Democrats are talking about. Many of them are making their policy pitches, as well. Senator Bernie Sanders attends an event tonight with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talking about the Green New Deal -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, M.J. Thank you very much for that status report.
Meanwhile, Felicity Huffman is expected to plead guilty today for her role in the college admissions scandal. Could that mean less jail time for the "Desperate Housewives" actress? Bryn Gingras is live in Boston with more.
So what is she looking at today, Bryn?
BRYN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn. That's exactly what this could mean.
According to a law enforcement source, she could be facing four to ten months in prison for this guilty plea. Of course, that is a reduced sentence recommendation that the government is expected to give. Her actual sentencing isn't going to be until a later date. We'll learn that today. A judge will make that determination, though.
But let's remember: she was facing up to 20 years for this conspiracy to commit fraud charge when prosecutors said that she paid $15,000 to a sham nonprofit created by this college scam mastermind, Rick Singer, in order to get help for her daughter to boost her SAT scores.
So she's on the lower end of what prosecutors say allegedly happened in this entire scheme. However, she is, of course, one of two very famous names tied to this whole scheme out of 50 people in all charged as of now.
So what do we expect to see in court today? We expect her to have this formal guilty plea. And she talked a little bit about really being sorry for what she did not too long ago when she said she was going to enter this -- that plea.
And so she said, "I am ashamed of the pain that I have 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."
[06:20:10] We're not sure if she will make any more statements when she gives her time in front of a judge today. But certainly, we will find out, and we should learn more about her sentencing later today -- John.
BERMAN: Yes. Will she speak inside this hearing? Watching it very closely. Bryn Gingras, thank you so much for being there in Boston for us. Appreciate it.
High drama on an American Airlines flight before it even left the gates. A pilot arrested as his passengers were waiting to board, and now he's charged with killing three people back in 2015.
CNN's Natasha Chen joins us with the details on this. What's going on here?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is a long time coming here, a case that has developed over the years. As you said, these murders happened back in November of 2015, but no arrest happened until Saturday morning at the Louisville International Airport. That's where Christian Richard Martin was arrested, much to the surprise of the passengers about to board the plane he was going to pilot.
Now, we understand that Martin was neighbors with some of the people who were killed in this case: Calvin and Pamela Phillips and their neighbor, Edward Dansereau.
Now Calvin Phillips was found shot to death in his home, and his wife, Pamela, was found with Edward Dansereau in a burned-up car just a few miles away.
Yesterday, I spoke with Matt Phillips, the son of the murdered couple, who explained to me that his dad, Calvin, was about to testify in a case against Martin at the time. Here's what Matt told us yesterday about this entire journey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT PHILLIPS, SON OF COUPLE ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY PILOT: You know, finally. It's been three and a half years. We've been terrified. Our community has been terrified. My parents were brutally murdered. And I think a lot of relief has come. But you know, honestly, we're just one step in the next -- the next journey of this. The next phase.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHEN: The grand jury indicted Martin on Friday on three counts of murder and arson, among other charges. Now, I also spoke with Martin's former attorney, who vouches for his character. He said if there is a poster child for "life is unfair," it would have Martin's face on it. He also said Martin would have turned himself in, had he known that authorities were looking for him -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: What a strange story. Natasha, thank you very much.
So the White House is stonewalling House Democrats in nearly every investigation.
BERMAN: (SNEEZES)
CAMEROTA: God bless you.
BERMAN: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: So what happens if Trump officials do not respond to subpoenas?
BERMAN: That's nothing to sneeze at.
CAMEROTA: My gosh. The new plan next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:26:39] BERMAN: The most expansive White House obstruction effort in decades. That's quite a quote. And it is inside "The Washington Post" this morning as the Trump administration tries to block, essentially, every congressional investigation under way.
Joining us now, John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst; Joe Lockhart, host of "Words Matter" podcast and former Clinton White House press secretary; and Laura Barron-Lopez, national political reporter for "Politico."
Can I put up on the screen the number of investigations right now that are under way. You have to go to the wide-screen format.
CAMEROTA: You also need your binoculars.
BERMAN: Twenty, at least there, investigations that the White House is resisting, which is a lot, A, in and of itself, Joe. But the fact that there are so many and the fact that the White House is just saying, "You know what? Screw all of them." Does that make it more complicated for the Democrats?
JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you look at the list, and you think, "Well, that's a lot." Putting it in some context, I remember at one point during the Clinton administration there were 44 different committees and subcommittees of the House that was looking -- that were looking for documents or testimony. So in some sense, it's not a lot.
But I think, you know, it does look -- sure. This is a political fight. It's a challenge for both sides to get their message out.
The president has the bully pulpit, Twitter. And Democrats have to make sure that there's -- there is a rationale behind going after each of these things, coordinate each of these things, so it doesn't look like, you know, it's some fishing exhibition.
I think they've done a good job so far. I think Pelosi has done a good job of having this coordinated and rolled out. And, you know, you look at your list, and there are -- there are things that have very little to do with politics. They have to do with traditional oversight.
Puerto Rico, immigration, things like that. And the idea that the administration has just said, "We're not going to talk to you at all," is -- is not only an affront to the Democrats, it's an affront to the Constitution.
CAMEROTA: Laura, it sounds as though President Trump feels as though they cooperated for about 18 months with Robert Mueller, and so he's done. I mean, that's basically been his position.
But what he fails to acknowledge is that that investigation, along with others, only raised more questions. Things came up because of those investigations, for instance. Don Jr.'s inconsistency. Yes, Don Jr. already testified. And it turns out gave inconsistent testimony with some other witnesses. So they want -- Senate Intel wants him back.
And here is what the -- President Trump's friend and supporter, Lindsey Graham, said about that this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: As I understand it, this subpoena relates to what Michael Cohen said about some meetings and about the -- the Trump Tower in Russia. And if I were Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer, I would tell him, "You don't need to go back into this environment anymore. You've been there for hours and hours and hours. And nothing being alleged here changes the outcome of the Mueller investigation." I would call it a day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Is that how it works, Laura?
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": It seems to be the way it's working for this administration so far. They don't want to cooperate with any lines of inquiries that House Democrats have. And so it's very unlikely that they're going to want to cooperate with now the line of inquiry that Senate Intel has.
You know, what makes this one unique is that it was started by Chairman Burr, who is a Republican.
END
