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New Day Sunday

Protesters Clash With Police In Hong Kong For 17th Consecutive Week; Seven More Suspects Arrested In The Death Of 16-Year-Old Student; Man Accused Of Shooting, Killing A Pioneering Texas Sheriff's Deputy; Historic Winter Storm Blasts Part Of U.S.; Trump Appears To Revive Conspiracy Theory On DNC Hack. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired September 29, 2019 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:16]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: News that President Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden's son. Boom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see that the White House is right now in chaos.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I say to the president, and I'm saying to you, you've come into my wheelhouse now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump on Saturday after a day of golf going on counteroffensive. In a series of tweets, the president insists that he should not be impeached.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Trump administration is ramping up its investigation into -- get this -- former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails.

ALEC BALDWIN AS DONALD TRUMP: Get me Rudy Giuliani on the phone.

KATE MCKINNON AS RUDY GIULIANI: Hi, Mr. Trump. What is new?

BALDWIN: What do you mean what is new, Rudy? I'm being impeached!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday to you. This week starts with an impeachment investigation into the sitting president of the United States and our sources say White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney he is in trouble with the boss. We are told that the president blames Mulvaney for the swift backlash from the whistleblower's report. The White house denies Mulvaney is in any trouble.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We have also learned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell actually encouraged the White House to release the rough transcript of the president's call with the Ukrainian leader. Why? Well, he thought it would exonerate the president.

BLACKWELL: Plus, what will learn from Kurt Volker when he appears before three House committees this week? The former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine stepped down from his post on Friday.

PAUL: There's a lot to talk about here. And our coverage of the impeachment inquiry kicks off with Kristen Holmes. She's in Washington right now.

Kristen, what are sources there saying that is their frustration in the White House, that there was no plan as we understand it, to deal with the transcript once it was released and that is why President Trump and part of the administration is so frustrated?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Victor.

That's absolutely right. We have to keep this in mind there are a lot of White House aides who did not want this transcript to be released. Many argued against it. Now the big idea here is not that President Trump is upset that it was released but in fact there was a lack of response to this backlash.

Keep this in mind last weekend we were talking about how the White House was mulling over whether or not to release this transcript. That means they had days to prepare some sort of strategy, some sort of response. Once they did in fact release the transcript and of course we didn't see that from the White House.

It was actually very quiet. They stood by the transcript but really no explanation of what exactly was going on there. So this has caused a lot of tension within the White House not just about this but moving forward.

What is this going to look like around an impeachment inquiry? We did see a little bit of how that strategy might play out from the White House.

Take a look at this. This is President Trump's tweets yesterday. There are dozens of tweets here.

You can see he went through everything. He slammed the Democrats. He released a video at one point saying that he was the victim of a scam. We know that saying that he is a victim is a big part of his strategy.

This is his direct appeal. You see that big one there. Presidential harassment. He is going off on Twitter doing his appeal to his followers, to his base. But is this going to work or not?

And I want to kind of go back in time here and talk about the Clinton administration and when he was going through the impeachment process. They had an entire war room set up. This was to deal with just this process. To deal with the media surrounding this process. President Trump's team does not have that. And I want to point to a statement that was given to us by Trump's private counsel it says that there is no war room that is going to be set up. He says I am confident that over -- that our existing legal team will be in a position to respond appropriately to any developments.

But again, a lot of tension in the White House. Do they need to set something up? Is this Trump appealing directly through Twitter, through these statements painting himself a victim is that going to work in something of this magnitude?

PAUL: All right. Kristen Holmes, I know a lot to cover. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. So let's take a minute here to fact check some of the president's claims on Twitter. Kristen just showed some of them.

Yesterday the president tweeted this. "How do you impeach a President who has created the greatest Economy in the history of our Country, entirely rebuilt our Military into the most powerful it has ever been, Cut Record Taxes & Regulations, fixed the VA & gotten Choice for our Vets (after 45 years), & so much more?"

Well, that is a lot. Glenn Kessler, "The Washington Post" fact checker sums it up best. He says this, "Not greatest economy, didn't rebuild military, not biggest tax cut, not record deregulation, did not create VA Choice.

[06:05:05]

Bottomless Pinocchios galore!"

In case you're not familiar with "The Washington Post" fact checking gauge they use Pinocchios to rate the false statements.

PAUL: Yes. The president also attacked House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff with this tweet. "The only people that don't like my conversation with the new Ukrainian President are those that heard Rep. Adam Schiff read a made up and totally fraudulent statement to the House and public." So we want to get the record straight here as well Schiff did not read the transcript word for word rather. He began the hearing by reading what he called the parody of the president's phone call.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doubling down now on the impeachment probe against the president. Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival last night she said, Democrats will go ahead with it regardless of any political consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: I said to the president, and I'm saying to you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PELOSI: -- you've come into my wheelhouse now. (LAUGHTER)

PELOSI: To tell you the truth I've been prayerful about this. I'm heartbroken about it. I would just have hoped there would be something exculpatory, something that would say this is not what it seems to be. But that's not where we are right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: And Speaker Pelosi also said she has a responsibility to protect the constitution, which is a system of checks and balances.

BLACKWELL: All right. So much to talk about this morning. Let's go now to Daniel Strauss, a politics report for "Politico." Daniel, good morning.

DANIEL STRAUSS, POLITICS REPORTER, POLITICO: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here. The president it's reported is upset with Mick Mulvaney, his acting chief of staff. Jay Sekulow, the president's personal attorney, says that they are not establishing a war room to handle the legal elements or the messaging.

If they are upset with how the first week went, they are disappointed, what are they doing for week two, week three as this goes on to change that?

STRAUSS: I mean, we really don't know what is going to happen in week two, week three. But it is unusual for the president to be upset with Mick Mulvaney. Of all the chiefs of staffs he has had this is a chief of staff who has been in the president's good graces the longest, has consistently pleased him. So it is unusual here that White House officials and people close to the president and the president, himself, are dissatisfied with something that this chief of staff is doing right now.

BLACKWELL: Yes. He's had three jobs in this administration, over consumer protections and office of management and budget, and now acting White House chief of staff.

You know, there is the question of in addition to the conversation with the president of Ukraine, there is the reporting over the weekend that there also in this classified server, record of conversations about with Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Also President Putin of Russia.

Is there any concern in the White House, the appetite in Washington to declassify those conversations as well?

STRAUSS: I mean, they is strong appetite in Washington to declassify as many of these conversations as arise. I've been surprised by the willingness of the White House to come forward and declassify as quickly as they have these conversations. But I don't really know at this point how eager they are going to be going forward.

But what they have done in acknowledging them and declassifying what has come out so far is they have shown that they are taking this inquiry very, very seriously.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We will see in a couple of days. The deadline is Friday for that subpoena for the secretary of state Mike Pompeo to hand over documents to those three House committees.

Let me turn now to former now U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker who will be deposed by several House committees this week. In addition to Rudy Giuliani's text message that he showed on that iPad on Fox News, there is this from the whistleblower's claim. Let's put it up.

The claim that Ambassador Kurt Volker and Ambassador Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the E.U. for the U.S., has reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to -- quote -- "navigate the demands that the president had made of Mr. Zelensky," the president of Ukraine. Detail just how critical this deposition on Thursday could be.

STRAUSS: I mean, highly critical. This is going to be someone who was close and at hand through the most sensitive parts of these discussions between President Trump and the president of Ukraine. And it's something that is going to play a major role in this inquiry. The fact that he resigned and he is also willing to come forward and participate in this deposition means that this will be a high profile event.

BLACKWELL: All right. Daniel Strauss with "Politico," thank you so much.

STRAUSS: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: All right. Breaking news here in Hong Kong. For the 17th week, protesters have taken to the streets there and clashed with police.

[06:10:02]

This is happening days ahead of China's national day. We will get a live report. Our Will Ripley is there.

PAUL: Also he made history in Houston as the first Sikh officer to wear a turban on deputy. Still ahead what we've learned about Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal's killing and how a community is offering his life now.

BLACKWELL: Plus, the presidential candidates suspending the weekend talking about the whistleblower scandal and their support for an impeachment probe. A closer look at how it could define the 2020 election.

PAUL: And speaking of that "Saturday Night Live" has a take on how the 2020 election is going to be different than 2016. Here is Larry David returning as Bernie Sanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY DAVID AS BERNIE SANDERS: The last time my slogan was feel the burn. This time it's let's burn this place to the ground!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Fourteen minutes past the hour right now. Good morning to you.

So, Democrats and the House moving forward with impeachment and they say they are hoping to finish the probe by this fall which could mean a vote by the full House later this year or early into 2020.

BLACKWELL: Now with the Iowa caucuses coming up in early February, impeachment is likely to take up a lot of the action (ph) in the presidential race. Now after months spent mostly avoiding the topic the Democratic candidates on the campaign trail are now weighing in more forcefully.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:15:04]

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a president who is confessing on national television to an abuse of power rather than leading the American people where we need to go. We are in trouble.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen. This administration, in particular, Donald Trump, is going to do everything he possibly can to try and distract from the fact that he has been running a corrupt administration, that he is in the process of being impeached, and that he has violated the trust of the American people and sold out our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, "Politico's" Daniel Strauss is back with us here. Daniel, good to see you this morning.

STRAUSS: Yes.

PAUL: Listen, "The New York Times" headline today, Democrats 2020 campaign message is not impeachment. What is it?

STRAUSS: I mean, I think they are still figuring that out. We are very early in the primary right now. But this is an uncomfortable situation for Democrats to be in. The last time a party moved to impeach a sitting president, they felt a backlash and there are party leaders on both sides of the aisle who think that might happen again.

Look, there is a possibility that there could be a situation where impeachment is proceeding right around the time where voters will really come out and pick a candidate and some will see this as a partisan move by Democrats. I mean, we already know that the White House is going to paint it that way. The question is if these polls that have recently come out showing a rising sense of approval for impeachment are going to last or if Democrats are going to suffer the consequences because some voters think that it's just a partisan move.

PAUL: OK. So, here is the question, what happens if impeachment is not fruitful, if it doesn't go through?

STRAUSS: I mean, right now, it doesn't look like it's going to be a slam dunk, right? Republicans control the Senate and they play a role in this. But, at the same time, the argument that I'm hearing from Democrats publicly and internally is that it's the inquiry, itself, that has some merit, it's not necessarily the removal of the president but that there is an investigation going on and Democrats who are running for president are presenting themselves as responsible arbiters of malpractice.

PAUL: OK. Daniel, I know that there is a little deja vu going on this morning. Everybody woke up and went, what is this? Just when you thought the 2016 election was over, "The Washington Post" reporting this morning on yet another investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

As many as 130 current and former State Department officials have been contacted by State Department investigators. The Trump administration reportedly looking back at emails sent to her private server years ago. Some of them have been retroactively classified opening up the officials to potential security violations.

Daniel, when you heard about this, what was your first thought?

STRAUSS: I mean, look, this is yet another example that Republicans and Trump's closest allies feel that Hillary Clinton and her conduct with this email server need to stay in the national spotlight years and years later.

PAUL: Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.

STRAUSS: OK.

PAUL: Did something happen to prompt the resurrection of this investigation? I think a lot of people probably see the headline and they say, why again, why now?

STRAUSS: I think some skeptics would say that this is a move to counter the impeachment investigation. I can't really say one way or another but I think that is what the skepticism is.

PAUL: But there's nothing you know of that happened that would have resurrected this investigation?

STRAUSS: There is nothing I know of at this moment that would spur this.

PAUL: OK. About these 130 officials who were contacted in recent weeks, "The Washington Post" reporting this, "Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations."

I want to like put ourselves in that position where you're an official and, suddenly, you think everything is finished and you get this call that it's not. What steps do the official have to take? Are they lawyering up right now?

STRAUSS: I mean, they have to consider that, right? It's still unclear this early on whether they need to find their own lawyers on what this actually means. I mean, retention of these emails in a classified setting is a serious, serious thing.

So, the fact that these officials, 130 of them, that is a lot, have to even consider or recall emails from years ago and think about the severity of them now after we thought that this investigation had concluded is something they have to take very seriously.

PAUL: Daniel Strauss, we appreciate you taking the time for us this morning. Thank you, sir.

STRAUSS: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: President Trump has been busy this weekend, spreading false information on his favorite platform -- Twitter. Retweeting Fox News clips and debunked conspiracies and there was golf.

[06:20:07]

Brian Stelter joins us next to break it down.

PAUL: Oh, seven states are under winter weather alerts this weekend. We are talking five feet of snow possibly that could blanket certain parts of the country. We will talk to you about weather too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Twenty-three minutes after the hour.

And White House chief of staff, acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney is on shaky ground with President Trump. That's what sources are telling CNN. The president is blaming him for major consequences stemming from the release of the transcript of his phone call with the president of Ukraine.

PAUL: Now, the president and other White House aides reported are angry that Director Mulvaney had no plan to deal with the backlash from the call or the whistleblower's complaint. The White House denying those reports we should say.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer though says he is on board with the House's impeachment inquiry.

BLACKWELL: The New York senator said that he has been speaking constantly with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: In the coming months ahead, Congress has a serious job ahead of us. We are in rare constitutional waters but you have my word that Speaker Pelosi and I will treat this matter with the gravity and seriousness and dignity it demands.

[06:25:09]

But Donald Trump, make no mistake about it, if the facts merit as Alonzo -- as Alphonso David said, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are coming for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, as the House pushes on with the impeachment inquiry, let's look at how the next few months might play out here.

So, House Democrats have already been conducting multiple investigations through six committees. Impeachment inquiry now centers and the intelligence community and specifically on this call with President Zelensky of Ukraine.

Critical to the investigation will be an interview with the whistleblower who filed the complaint something the House Democrats are pushing for and witnesses from the White House's Attorney General Bill Barr and the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Once all of the investigations are done and those separate committees, a House committee could draw up articles of impeachment and the formal set of charges that initiate the impeachment process.

PAUL: So, if that process moves forward, it's time then for some key votes in the House. The House Judiciary Committee goes first and it would need to approve any articles of impeachment before the full house takes a vote.

Now, according to the latest count the vast majority of Democratic lawmakers do support the impeachment investigation that does not however automatically mean that they will vote to impeach the president. Vulnerable Democrats in red states might hold out, they might vote no and we don't yet have a gauge of any Republicans who may cross the aisle.

BLACKWELL: If the charges are formally approved by the House meaning that President Trump has been impeached then you go to the trial phase. Everything would then be in the hands of the Senate.

Chief Justice John Roberts would be the one to preside over the televised trial in the Senate. All 100 members of the upper chamber would serve as the jury. Sixty-seven guilty votes are needed for a conviction. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would play a central role in setting the rules for the trial.

How many days it would last, how many witnesses are called. Republicans control the Senate so they have the power to write the rules the way they want them. And it's important to remember no president has ever been convicted by the Senate during impeachment proceedings, so that's the next potentially the next few weeks to months.

PAUL: Yes. That's the process here. And impeachment fears are growing throughout the White House. We know President Trump seems to be showing a little bit of that. He is unleashing on Twitter.

BLACKWELL: All weekend, he's been sending out these vitriolic tweets railing against House Democrats, retweeting supporters, Fox News clips, debunked conspiracies about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Joining us now Brian Stelter, CNN chief media correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES." Brian, good morning to you.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

BLACKWELL: So, I was in bed last night and I have an alert -- many of us have an alert for when the president tweets. And the phone just lit up back-to-back-to-back all night. The president was retweeting some Republican talking points. But a lot of what he has been tweeting over the weekend have just -- it has been really vitriolic. Calling Democrats savages. Walk us through it.

STELTER: Yes. It's a disinformation campaign. It really is a disinformation campaign led by the president and his aides to try to smear this whistleblower's complaint and attack the credibility. And it's something that we have seen for several days now.

And you're right. I think it's getting worse as the weekend goes on. Perhaps as the president watches news coverage and realized what a pickle he is in.

I think we should watch out for in the weeks to come more of that dehumanizing language that you mentioned. Words like savages that he used against Democrats on Saturday. In the past week he has also used words like sick and scum to describe reporters. The dehumanizing language might get worse as time goes on.

I think we should watch out for his right wing media allies to use extreme language. They've been describing this whistleblower whose complaint was deemed urgent and credible by the Trump administration as a spy, as someone who has created a hoax trying to set up the president. This has been called a hit job and a witch hunt on Fox News and other right wing media sources.

Now, that is really partisan vitriolic language as you said but it's the kind -- it's very persuasive. So, ultimately it's up to House Democrats and other Democratic politicians to make their cases, to persuade the American people about legitimacy of this case, about the seriousness of this case. And we have seen Nancy Pelosi and others do that this week.

Look at how they tried to wrap themselves in patriotism. Pelosi with flags behind her referring to the constitution. Other lawmakers referring to the founding fathers. They are saying they are doing this impeachment inquiry out of patriotism which could be a persuasive argument.

BLACKWELL: All right. We will certainly watch it. Brian Stelter, thank you. We'll see you at 11:00 for "RELIABLE SOURCES."

STELTER: Thank you. Thanks. PAUL: So, we want to get to Hong Kong right now live. Protesters are lighting fire bombs there. They are clashing with police. This is the 17th consecutive weekend this has been happening.

CNN's international correspondent Will Ripley is there.

[06:30:00]

Will, how are you? What is going on?

[06:30:00]

RIPLEY: We are standing right in the middle of the frontline between the protesters here in Wan Chai, one of the districts in Hong Kong that has been a scene of weekly violence.

And you can see them just shooting their laser beams in the direction of the police officers, the riot police, just down that way, who could be moving in here really any minute now. We see bricks strewn all over the road. They were pulled up from the sidewalk there. That's one of the weapons protesters have been using along with Molotov cocktails used to light fires, just like this one a short time ago.

This is the barricade. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. But if past weeks are any indication, all police down that way are going to charge this way. Protesters may hurl petrol bombs and police may very likely fire tear gas.

This has been a situation that's continued to escalate, and we're just two days away now from the 78th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. October 1st could be a very, very violent day here Hong Kong because police have said that any demonstrations like this will not be allowed, which means that they will be beefing up their resources.

Protesters beefing up their resources, and, in fact, we just saw some tear gas fired right by that Watson's pharmacy over there. So police officers obviously firing from that direction, standing by from that direction behind me as well.

And so as we have, week-after-after, this is the 17th consecutive week. Victor and Christi, we are out here, the streets of what should be a bustling business district turned into a scene of combat between young people who say they are fighting for their future and Hong Kong police trying to maintain some semblance of law and order in this city.

PAUL: Will, we hear it happening behind you. Do take care of yourself, you and the crew there. Thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:00] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN NEW DAY: Seven more people have now been charged in the stabbing death of a teenager at a mall in Long Island. It was recorded and shared on Snapchat.

Police say close to 50 teenagers watched the fight but did nothing to save 16-year-old Kasheen Morris. Police believe Morris agreed to walk home from school and that caused the suspects to come after him.

PAUL: Tyle Flach, 18-year-old who allegedly stabbed Morris multiple times in the chest has pleaded not guilty on murder charges. Yesterday, his family watched the arraignment of the new suspects and then drove to bury the one they loved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just a nice person, you know? He's just really funny, loved life. And this shouldn't happen.

This (INAUDIBLE) for real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Police believe more teenagers have video of this fight and they're asking those witnesses to come forward.

Jovial, kind, a trailblazer, this is how people are describing in Houston a Harris County Sheriff's deputy who was killed in the line of duty.

BLACKWELL: Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Friday. Police say he was returning to his patrol car when the suspect who was wanted on a parole violation shot Dhaliwal from behind.

Almost five years ago, Dhaliwal became the first deputy in his department to wear a turban and beard while in police uniform, and both are symbols of his religion.

Videos like this of Dhaliwal playing with a child who was deaf are being shared. Maybe you've seen them on social media, showing the depth of his connection to the community. The 42-year-old father of three was known for reaching out to everyone, especially young people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember he would always come check up on me and my friends. I remember he knocked on my door when I was outside because I wasn't feeling well. He would go to me if I'm all right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If he see any children, he just start playing with them, and people -- some kids, like they cannot -- he's still trying to play with them on Christmas. He brings them gifts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: FBI Supervisory Special Agent and CNN Law Enforcement Analyst James Gagliano is with us now. James, thank you for being with us.

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thanks, Christi.

PAUL: You know, when he hear a sound like that from a child and we see this video, and we know that the sheriff's office created this official policy to allow him to be who he is on the force, what does that tell you about the man and the people who worked with him? I mean, they are family.

GAGLIANO: It's been a sobering and somber weekend for law enforcement, Christi. And, look, this deputy was the best of the best. I mean, he truly epitomized what it's like to be a sheepdog protecting your flock.

And to your point about being a trailblazer, the part about him that made him so unique, I mean, he was a courageous man, he's a practicing Sikh, and as we know, the Sikh religion, which originated in India and has about 500,000 followers in the United States, is a proud warrior religion that protected religious freedoms and its worshippers from tyranny and from outside intervention.

So it's no price that this deputy decided as a Texan and as a practicing Sikh that he wanted to become part of the Harris County Sheriff's Department. The fact that he was allowed to be a trailblazer and the fact that he could -- grooming standards were relaxed, he was allowed to wear a turban. I think it was an outstanding bridge to the community. You'd never think that East Texas would be a place that celebrated diversity and multiculturalism, but it does. And he was really bridge builder.

This is a tragedy. It doesn't just impact the law enforcement community folks like me that grieve when we hear about cops being killed, our American family grieves, Christi. This is a tough time for America.

PAUL: And his killing was so brutal. What's striking about it is, first of all, Dhaliwal's dash camera is what helped identify the suspect in this case, Robert Solis, who does have a background.

[06:40:07]

He had been in prison for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He'd been out since 2014. But this was a routine traffic stop. There was no argument. Dhaliwal was walking to his car after he had conversed with Solis. So Solis got out of the car and charged at him with his gun and shot him twice, once in the back of the head. No indication this was happening, at least it didn't like it was Dhaliwal.

Help us understand how you pull somebody over in a routine traffic stop, would there not have been a sign in any way? And I'm not thinking that Dhaliwal should have done anything differently, but to go from I'm having a conversation with you to the minute you turn your back and you're at him and you kill him, that that is hard to wrap around. GAGLIANO: I've argued for a long time as a former FBI SWAT team leader that the most dangerous job in law enforcement is the lone police officer, the lone sheriff's deputy, the lone state trooper that approaches a car on a vehicle stop. And in this instance, it was a traffic violation. It was a failure to signal.

And as the Deputy Dhaliwal approached the car, he knows nothing about the inhabitant, about the occupant, the driver of the vehicle, extremely dangerous. He has got to proceed with caution. He exchanges a conversation with the driver, he turns, he goes back to his vehicle and that's when Solis jumps out of the car, pulls a weapon, fires two shots at him, one of them striking him in the back of the head.

Awful, awful situation, the deputy in this instance could never have known that this was going to happen. You pull somebody over for a broken taillight. You don't know if they just committed capital murder somewhere, and that's what makes the job so dad-gum difficult and dangerous.

PAUL: James, I'm sorry for you and the whole police community there because we know that you are a family. Thank you so much.

GAGLIANO: Thanks, Christi.

BLACKWELL: A historic snowstorm is blasting parts of the U.S. this weekend. Seven states are under these weather alerts. CNN's Allison Chinchar will break it all down for, us next.

PAUL: Well, listen, Woody Harrelson hosted Saturday Night Live last night. We want to show you a little bit of SNL's take on the impeachment inquiry and the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

ALEC BALDWIN, AMERICAN ACTOR: Bill, you know I'm going to need somebody to take the blame for this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. But where are you going to find a sacrificial patsy that will do anything you say? Not it.

BALDWIN: Don't worry, I've got the perfect stooge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello?

BALDWIN: Big Mike, how is church going? You still waiting on what's his face to come come back?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean Jesus, sir?

BALDWIN: Yes, that's the guy. Sure. Listen, I'm just calling you about this whole Ukraine whistleblower thing. It's looking pretty bad for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For me? But you're the one who broke the law.

BALDWIN: Hey, wait a minute. Don't try to drag me into your mess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like plastic straws. I've been around forever. I've always worked. But now you're mad at me? Drink up, America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last time, my slogan was, feel the burn? This time, it's lets burn this place to the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

PAUL: So we're having a conversation this morning.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we are having a conversation. If snow snowflake falls in September, is it winter weather?

PAUL: It is what we would think would be winter weather. This is all coming down to semantics because Victor is saying, it's snow. It's not winter because it's still September.

BLACKWELL: Is it a winter weather advisory, because seven states are under those right now, as much as five feet of snow, maybe blanketing parts of the Rockies by Monday?

PAUL: CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the latest. Allison, clear it up for us.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This may confuse you even more, Victor, because the weather service defines anything that happens after July counts as the next winter season.

BLACKWELL: How?

CHINCHAR: I know. I know.

PAUL: Winter starts December 21st officially, right?

CHINCHAR: technically, yes. But, apparently, what we've learned this weekend, the snow can happen at any time. And we've been talking a lot of snow, record snow for some areas. In fact, Spokane, Washington set their all-time snowiest month of September ever yesterday from the snow that fell, albeit it wasn't as much as some of these other areas are seeing, but, again, look some of this current snow depth. You're looking at 12, 18, 24 inches of snow. And here is the thing, it's still snowing.

This is an image taken just around Glacier National Park in Montana. Look at that, just about 18 inches of snow. And that was from yesterday. We have seven states under some type of winter weather alert for this weekend because it's going to continue through the rest of the day today. Here is a look of that.

Now, you've got rain on the front end. That's going to be impacting a lot of areas in the plains, may even have some severe storms out of it. But on the back half of this, that's where we are talking about snow and very heavy snow. Some this coming down several inches an hour in some of these cases.

So, yes, in the lower-lying areas, maybe only about an additional two to four inches is expected from here on out. But those higher elevations, the mountains, you could still be looking at an additional foot of snow on top of what they already have.

And if that wasn't bad enough, it just feels really cold outside. When you factor in the temperature and the wind, it's going to feel like 20 degrees when folks in Helena wake up this morning, 32 in Billings, 24 is all the warmer it's going to feel like in Spokane when you get up this morning. But an entirely different story on the other half of the country, about 170 possible record highs over the next several days.

And here you go, Victor and Christi, just for you, Atlanta's forecast, the average this time of the year is 78. Look at this, 95 on Thursday.

PAUL: I want the average.

BLACKWELL: 70 is perfect. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Allison. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

PAUL: So President Trump apparently brought up investigating Hillary Clinton in his call to Ukraine's leader.

BLACKWELL: He asked President Zelensky to possibly look into a U.S. cyber security firm to find a missing computer server.

CNN's Brian Todd has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's one of the more bizarre comments made by President Trump in his phone call with Ukraine's president, the suggestion that somehow a computer server tied to the 2016 election is now mysteriously in Ukraine.

According to the rough transcript of the July call, Trump says he'd like his Ukrainian counterpart to, quote, do us favor, and alludes to the Mueller investigation before saying, I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine. They say, CrowdStrike, I guess you have one of your wealthy people, the server they say Ukraine has it. I would like to have the attorney general call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. The only problem, experts say there is no evidence of any of this.

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: This is really a deep state conspiracy theory. It's not supported by the facts.

TODD: The server Trump refers to appears to be the Democratic National Committee's server, which federal indictments filed by Robert Mueller say was hacked by the Russians during their 2016 election interference campaign as part of the Kremlin's effort to help get Trump elected.

CrowdStrike, which the president mentions, is the cyber security firm hired by the Democratic Committee to investigate the Russian hacks. Trump, in more than 20 interviews, tweets and other public comments, has harped on the debunked idea that the DNC server somehow contains unrevealed evidence and might be in mysterious hands.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying.

[06:55:02]

TODD: Trump regularly points out that the FBI never had access to the original DNC servers. That's in part because of the FBI's practice with working with copies. But the DNC says none of its original servers were ever missing. The DNC and CrowdStrikes say they ultimately gave the FBI copies of the DNC servers once they determined there was a Russian hack, something then FBI director James Comey didn't object to.

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Best practice, always to get access to the machines themselves but my folks tell me was an appropriate substitute.

TODD: So why would the president think someone in Ukraine has a DNC server? We got no response from the White House. CrowdStrike did previously do work for the Ukrainian government but that was totally unrelated to the DNC or the 2016 presidential election. And Trump once mistakenly asserted that CrowdStrike was owned and run by a Ukrainian, a comment apparently driven by online conspiracy theories.

Analysts say Trump is either just repeating these false online myths or is trying to misdirect and muddy the waters.

HONIG: I think he is looking continually for a counternarrative to the Mueller report, constantly trying to shift the blame.

TODD: Then there is the matter of Trump telling the Ukrainian president that he wanted Attorney General Bill Barr to contact the Ukrainians to get to the bottom of the server question.

Legal analysts says it would be inappropriate for the attorney general to become involved in any of that. A Justice Department spokeswoman tells CNN, the president didn't ask Barr to contact the Ukrainians on that or any other matter and that Barr never communicated with the Ukrainians on his own.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BLACKWELL: The next hour of your New Day starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:00:00]