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Barr Asks Connecticut Prosecutor to Look Into Origins of Russia Probe; Beto O'Rourke Relaunches His Presidential Campaign; Felicity Huffman Pleads Guilty in College Admissions Scandal. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 14, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The president is now threatening to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports, and he's putting Iran on notice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:11] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hearing little stories about Iran. If they do anything, they will suffer greatly. We'll see what happens with Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "The New York Times" reports that the president's top national security advisers are reviewing a Pentagon contingency plan to send as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East. That is Gulf War levels or invasion of Iraq levels, I should say.

Should Iran attack U.S. forces or speed up work on nuclear weapons? So that would be a major action. Interesting they're even discussing it.

Joining us now, CNN political director David Chalian; CNN White House correspondent Abby Phillip; and CNN political analyst David Gregory.

Abby, I just want to start with you on the reporting about what William Barr is doing. He's appointed John Durham, who is the U.S. attorney in the state of Connecticut, to launch a new investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, which is on top of the Utah U.S. attorney, who's been looking into this vaguely. He was appointed by Jeff Sessions. And a DOJ inspector general investigation by Michael Horowitz, which should be completed soon. So three is the charm here?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill Barr kind of has to do this. I mean, one of the whole points of having Bill Barr in this role, as opposed to Jeff Sessions, who the president grew to almost despise by the end of his tenure, is to have someone do exactly this, and I think that Bill Barr would have a really hard time continuing on as attorney general and having the confidence of the president if he didn't do this -- take this step and put his own spin on it.

That being said, it seems that he's appointed someone who has the -- has the experience in doing this under both Democratic and Republican administration -- administrations. This is, in some ways, a Durham specialty.

And so I think that there is the sense here that Barr chose someone who has specific experience in looking into this specific type of thing. But there's no question in my mind that Barr has almost no choice but to do this, because the president basically appointed him into this position in order to delve more deeply into this -- this very issue, which is almost of paramount importance to him after the conclusion of the Mueller probe.

CAMEROTA: I think it is interesting to look at who John Durham is, David Chalian. I think that that is relevant, because he's considered a dogged prosecutor. He's a career prosecutor. And as Abby said, he was used by Janet Reno to investigate corruption. He was used by Eric Holder to investigate the treatment of CIA detainees.

So on paper, he seems as though he is non-partisan. He seems as though he will be able to get to the bottom, if anything went wrong. But as we have seen before, sometimes, people who seemed to have all the right credentials on paper, once they get, somehow, into the Trump orbit, seem to become partisan.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, we're also fast- forwarding a step here, which is that we have to acknowledge, first and foremost, how just not normal this is, right, for the president of the United States to be giving directives of a wish list of investigations that he wants the Department of Justice to follow through on. That's just not the normal Oval Office/DOJ relationship.

And I think this is why, when you saw Attorney General Barr before the Senate Judiciary Committee, who had a pretty composed performance that day, except for one moment that really rattled him. And that was when Senator Kamala Harris --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- sort of went after him --

CAMEROTA: We have it.

CHALIAN: -- and -- Oh, sorry. You have the sound?

BERMAN: That's the magic of television.

CAMEROTA: You can re-create it, which I think would be fantastic, or here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir.

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes. But I'm trying to grapple with the word "suggest." I mean, there had been discussions of -- of matters out there that they have not asked me to open an investigation. But --

HARRIS: Perhaps they suggested?

BARR: I don't know. I wouldn't say "suggest."

HARRIS: Hinted?

BARR: I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: He lost his command of the English language for a second there, David Chalian.

CHALIAN: Yes. He just ended up with, "I don't know." I mean, that's where he ended up. And so she clearly got under his skin a bit on this very point of, now listen, it's no secret Donald Trump wants the investigators investigated. Right? He says that to us publicly every day.

But again, I think she was trying to get at, how much is the president directing the Department of Justice to do his wish list?

BERMAN: I have to say, based on the actions he took over the last 12 hours, an alternative answer, instead of that word salad, might have been "yes." It might have just been a simpler way out of it, although he clearly didn't want to say it quite like that, David Gregory, I should say. What do you make of all this?

[07:05:03] DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think if you're Vladimir Putin of Russia, you have to be saying, "Wow. What a return on a small investment. I've got the United States not only reeling from my interference in the 2016 race, but now we have the government turning against the FBI and the intelligence community rather than on us, when we were the perpetrators."

And now, we have a special counsel of high reputation detailing in graphic detail the extent, the active measures and other measures used to interfere by Russia. And that's not where the area focuses by the government.

So I think, you know, Jim Clapper said it a few minutes ago on our air. Let's remember the predicate here. There was real concern on the intelligence community, that somehow the Trump campaign perhaps was unwittingly compromised by Russian efforts to help the campaign. That has to be investigated.

The president's own successor to James Comey, Chris Wray, has defended the work of the FBI. Now, that doesn't mean that an inspector general cannot unearth those areas of an investigation that maybe went wrong, that maybe were excessive.

But the idea that the predicate for the investigation wasn't sound is exactly what President Trump, the aggrieved President Trump, and those closest to him, want people to believe, that this was some sort of deep-state conspiracy. I just don't think there's any basis for that. And I think this is timed, in effect, to give the president a new, shiny object to hold up in the election year.

CAMEROTA: To your point, it is strange that Bill Barr couldn't answer that. Where's the shame? If you believe that the intelligence collection activities were unlawful somehow, where's the shame? So why was he so tripped up by that? I mean, there -- clearly, there's something conflicted happening, because that should have been an easy answer.

BERMAN: Well, we now know from his multiple appearances before the Senate and the House that he is very careful with his answers. That he is meticulous with the words he chooses. And he, apparently, he was nervous of getting caught with some kind of either lie or admission there.

PHILLIP: But even as meticulous as he's been, he's also thrown out there, without evidence, the suggestion that there was wrongdoing in this probe. He's called it spying, which was not just a random word that he chose. He compared it to this illegal surveillance of -- or not illegal, I should say, but improper surveillance of -- of anti-war activists in the '60s.

And so Bill Barr has actually kind of gone way farther, I believe, than the evidence is out there. And he's declined to provide backing -- backing for his words.

And then, when other officials like Christopher Wray are asked about the similar topic, they say the opposite. That they, themselves, who have been there much longer than he has, don't have evidence to back up this idea that there was proper surveillance.

So there is -- you know, Bill Barr is a very experienced person. He doesn't say things by accident but -- and, yet, he has really thrown chum in the water on this very sensitive topic.

And you really have to wonder why. Given how careful he knows how to be, why does he continue to say things, but also at the same time, declining to provide any supporting evidence for his claims, and seeming to prejudge the outcome of this investigation that he has now authorized into the origins of the probe.

CAMEROTA: OK. So David Chalian, that leads us to the intelligence about Iran and what's happening with the escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

We know that -- I mean, according to "The New York Times," as recently as April, the intelligence suggested that Iran was not doing anything wrong, I suppose is the right word, or doing anything, at least, to exacerbate the tension, and then something shifted on May 3.

And now, you know, there are reports that senior advisers are being presented with contingency plan to maybe send 120,000 troops to that area, if necessary. So where are we?

CHALIAN: Yes, well, it seems to me we're in a classic saber-rattling place on this, rather than actually on the precipice of some big military conflict there. I think we have to remember how opposed Donald Trump is to getting the

United States in a military mess in the Middle East. I mean, that is -- that is sort of a through line throughout his campaign and sort of his foreign policy vision as we have it.

Unlike his consistency, let's say, on tariffs and trade that we're seeing with China, I think here he has time and again really wanted to remove the United States from any such kind of what would obviously be a really messy conflict. So it seems to me this is, right now, a bit more bluster, saber rattling, than something far more dangerous or serious than that.

BERMAN: But David Gregory, James Clapper was making the point that even saber rattling can be dangerous in this situation. You have Iranian forces and their -- you know, their naval vessels patrolling the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, now in close proximity to U.S. ships. If you increase the U.S. troop level there, something could go wrong by accident.

GREGORY: Right. That's what I worry most about, is miscalculation. And we've seen this before in -- in our coverage of these kinds of crises. You have to rely on a good internal process in the national security team. I don't believe that's in place.

And you hear the president, who escalates his rhetoric without any attention to detail or care. You don't give yourself very much room to maneuver. And the Iranians kind of -- you know, we should remember that the reason there was a nuclear deal in the first place was the economic pressure that was on Iran.

That's why they want the Europeans to get involved here, to -- to lessen that pressure, to try to revive the deal in some fashion. They're a little bit more comfortable getting into a back and forth with America and some kind of escalation, rather than dealing with the fact that they have an economy that's under such pressure, that got them to the negotiating table in the first place.

But I think miscalculation is the biggest fear here. And the fact that you have a national security team with some real hawks, as national security adviser John Bolton, as the secretary of state, to the point where the president in the position of trying to tamp that down a little bit.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, Abby, and some people, you know, foreign policy experts, are already hearing kind of echoes of Iraq and trying to make sure that the intel, which seems quite opaque right now, is buttoned up before this escalates too far.

PHILLIP: Yes, and the reason people are feeling or seeing the echoes is because of the way in which people around the president are behaving. Mike Pompeo flying all over the world, cancelling meetings. Basically, saying he can't go here, because there is an emergency happening somewhere else.

And I think that it's giving the sense of urgency and a sense of emergency but, yet, I think the public hasn't been explained to, what is going on here?

I think that this administration has not said very much at all, actually, about what is causing them to conclude that there is such a significant threat coming from Iran at the moment.

And as David Gregory pointed out, the president has been pulling back from John Bolton. He is uncomfortable with Bolton's seeming willingness to -- to saber rattle just quite so much on so many different fronts, in Iran and in Venezuela. And I think that the president does, in fact, have that instinct, to pull back.

But at the same time, I think we have to wonder, you know, will his aides really create such a unified force and present to him evidence that makes him believe that there is such a significant threat that we do, perhaps, accidentally end up in some kind of conflict, in one place or in the other.

CAMEROTA: OK. David, David, Abby, thank you all very much for all of the perspective.

BERMAN: Thanks, guys.

CAMEROTA: So Beto O'Rourke, he is -- You may not have heard that name for a while.

BERMAN: I remember him.

CAMEROTA: Well, he's trying to reboot his campaign for president. Because out of sight, out of mind in some ways. Where has he been? Harry Enten shares all of this in his 2020 forecast with us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:17:57] CAMEROTA: All right. Montana Governor Steve Bullock announcing a presidential run this morning. He becomes the 22nd Democratic candidate to challenge Donald Trump for the White House. "There's Something about Harry."

So let's get the forecast with CNN's senior politics writer and analyst, Harry Enten.

Harry, this makes -- it just makes your day. The field just gets bigger and bigger.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Twenty-two. I feel so glorious. Each week seems to bring a new participant onto the island. Of course, the question will be, who will be kicked off first? We'll have to wait and find out on that one.

CAMEROTA: But what is Steve Bullock's special lane?

ENTEN: Well, let's first talk about the fact there's nowhere to go but up, Steve. Congratulations on this. At only 0.5 percent nationally, 0.3 percent in Iowa, 0 percent in New Hampshire. So he's struggling a little bit in the polls. But as you pointed out --

CAMEROTA: I mean, he's only been in for an hour.

ENTEN: He's only been in for an hour. This, I think, is the selling point to him. And that is, electability. If electability is No. 1 in the voters' minds, he out-performed the 2016 baseline in his state of Montana by 24 percentage points. Now, that's good. And he's going to sell this hard.

But nine other governors outperformed that baseline by more from 2015 to 2018. So it's good, but it's not great. It's not like he's the greatest of all time. But he's good. He has a case to sell here. He won in Montana, a state that Trump won by about 20 percentage points in 2016.

BERMAN: It's not like that state is about to go blue, ever.

ENTEN: No. No, no, no. And this is the key thing to point out, is governor's races are different than federal races. He's not running in a Senate race, not running in a House race.

BERMAN: Right. Beto O'Rourke is doing something of a campaign re- launch this week. And you've taken a look at the numbers, and you've determined he's doing it, because he has to.

ENTEN: Yes. I would say that, look at this. This is Beto O'Rourke's polling average nationally. When he entered in mid-March, he was at 10 percent of this hike, right?

Today, he's at only 4 percent. He dropped from third place to sixth place. He is behind Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and even Elizabeth Warren, who had been struggling early in the campaign and has risen a little. But -- and it's not just that.

Take a look at these state polling averages. Since Biden announced -- or not the state polling averages, the best poll in each of these early states, 3 percent for O'Rourke in Iowa, 3 percent in New Hampshire, 2 percent in South Carolina. And these are the states, of course, that he's gone and visited so often. And it just doesn't seem so far like voters are responding.

BERMAN: It's within the margin of error of Steve Bullock, who got in ten minutes ago.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. I mean, he's much closer to the bottom of the pack right now than the top of the pack. Biden is in the mid- 20s, high 20s or greater in all these states in South Carolina. He's in the mid-40s. So he's about -- Beto O'Rourke is about 40 points behind Joe Biden in South Carolina.

CAMEROTA: Well, it sounds like his argument that he'll be making today is that he's been focused, sort of micro-focused on these town halls, these local town halls. He hasn't done any national media. So does that hold water for why they've been anemic?

ENTEN: I mean, look, if he's doing these town halls in these local states, then you know, in these small states, then he should be able to break through, and he's simply not. It's not just a national phenomenon where O'Rourke is failing. I mean, he's doing poorly nationally, but he's even doing worse in the early states. The voter -- the more voters get to know him, it seems, the worse they tend to like him.

BERMAN: You've got some other metrics on O'Rourke.

ENTEN: Yes. So I mean, look at this. This is another indicator. Right? We were talking -- you were just talking about cable news mentions, right? The fact that he doesn't have a lot of national attention.

Look at this: When he entered in March, the last week of March, he was first in cable news mentions. This past week, he was eighth. He was even behind Amy Klobuchar for cable news mentions.

And what about Google searches, right, you know, voter interest in these different candidates as they enter? And what we saw was he was first in Google searches the first week he entered. But this week, he was only sixth.

Again, he's behind Elizabeth Warren. That whole slew of candidates I'm not going to go through named again. So it's pretty clear from these that it's not just about the polls. It's also about the fact that he's lagging in cable news media.

And look, I think this is key. Right? Beto O'Rourke was sort of a cable news phenomenon. He was almost a creation of the media in some ways. And right now, he's just simply not getting that energy, that kind of boost.

CAMEROTA: Well, part of it. I mean, I don't know that it was the cable news creation. It was that he raised a lot of money. He raised a lot of money, and so that was notable.

ENTEN: And look at this. I have an answer for you right here.

CAMEROTA: Very good.

ENTEN: They're very good. We're doing great TV here, folks. Look at this.

On opening day, he raised eight -- $5.8 million. That was third best. I should point out, this was something that, John, you noted at the time, right? We were a little suspicious of exactly what was going on.

He initially, initially came across as $6.1 million, but that included $300,000 that he raised that could only be used on general election. Today, we don't know exactly how much he's raising right now, but he himself, his campaign acknowledged that fundraising has slowed down. That's usually not a particularly good sign for someone who's supposed to be a fundraising machine.

BERMAN: Can we just show -- we have adventures in signage for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, who is considering a run for president. He may announce in the next week. Can we put up this video of him. He was at Trump Tower. But well, we

gave away the lead here. So he's got these signs here, talking about the Green New Deal. But you can see the escalator behind him. Signs that say, "Worst Mayor Ever." Didn't go the way he was hoping here.

ENTEN: No. And in fact, less than 25 percent of all New York City Democrats actually want him to run for president of the United States. His polling in the early states is really not good, even though voters don't know him in a lot of the states. He has a negative favorability rating among Democrats. That's really something that's difficult.

Right now, if you're Bill de Blasio, the polling isn't looking particularly good either in New York City or nationally or in the early states.

CAMEROTA: You shouldn't do a press conference in front of an escalator. That's what I've learned.

ENTEN: Escalators are for riding.

BERMAN: It worked for Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Yes. But I mean, he --

BERMAN: He's the president.

CAMEROTA: -- invented it. He invented it.

ENTEN: He's just a copier of Donald Trump. And you go down an escalator.

CAMEROTA: OK.

ENTEN: That's what you use them for. One last thing I'll point out, do you want to feel old today? Look at this.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

ENTEN: "Seinfeld" ended 21 years ago.

CAMEROTA: No way!

ENTEN: It ended 21 years away today. People born on that day can go clubbing. They can go drinking, and they can go gambling. So someone who had no idea about what "Seinfeld" was going on when they were born, they can do all those things.

BERMAN: You know why I don't feel old, though?

Because she is on the best show in television.

CAMEROTA: She is keeping us young.

BERMAN: Yes.

ENTEN: No "Seinfeld" curse for her. BERMAN: Not at all.

All right, Harry. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, actress Felicity Huffman was crying as she pleaded guilty to a scheme to boost her daughter's SAT scores. Now, the former "Desperate Housewives" star has to wait four months to find out if she will be serving time in jail.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Boston with an update for us -- Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn.

Felicity Huffman walked into this courthouse yesterday holding the hand of her brother. And it was an emotional plea in front of the same judge who will sentence her later this year.

And she did cry. There were tears when prosecutors laid out the evidence they had against her, saying she paid $15,000 to convicted mastermind of this entire scheme, Rick Singer, to get a proctor to change the answers of her older daughter's test scores, boost -- test exams, boosting her scores.

And she said that she didn't know what Rick Singer was doing with that money, who he was shelling it out to as part of his big scam, but she said, "Everything else prosecutors said I did, I did."

And she -- they also laid out the fact that they had evidence that the money came from her account. So it kind of gives us a little bit more detail about the evidence that prosecutors had against her.

[07:25:05] What's next? Well, sentencing. She's going to be sentenced in September. And prosecutors say they will recommend the low end of that sentencing, four months. So we shall see what she shall get, and we will see in September.

Guys, back to you.

BERMAN: All right. Brynn Gingras for us in Boston. Brynn, thank you very much.

President Trump warning Iran that it will suffer greatly if it provokes the United States. We're going to get reaction from Iran's ambassador to the United Nations here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we going to war with Iran? Are you seeking regime changes?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it'll be a very bad mistake, if they do anything. I'm hearing little stories about Iran. They do anything, they will suffer greatly. We'll see what happens with Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Trump warning Iran after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Brussels to share intelligence with European allies about what the threat he says Iran poses to U.S. interests.

Joining me now is Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi.

Ambassador, thank you so much for being with us. Welcome to NEW DAY.

Thank you very much. Good to be here.

BERMAN: You heard the president say he's hearing little stories about Iran.

[07:30:00]