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Nationals Force Game Seven; Boeing CEO on Capitol Hill; New CNN Poll Numbers for 2020 Race; Revelations in Impeachment Inquiry; U.K. to Hold Early Election. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 30, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:32:59]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, three people are dead, nine others hurt after a shooting at a home in Long Beach, California. Officials tell "The Los Angeles Times," most of the dead or injured are in their mid-20s. They found that they were both inside and outside of the home. Police, at this point, are looking for the gunman. It's unclear if there was more than one shooter, but we're continuing to follow this developing story and we'll bring you any breaking developments as they come into us.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, on a much different front, game seven, the best two words in sports besides Tom Brady. That's what we have tonight in the World Series after the Nationals beat the Astros. This loss a bitter pill for Astros fans, including this poor guy, Andy Scholes, he's live in Houston with the "Bleacher Report."

Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a rough night for Astros fans, John, and a shocker, the road team wins again in this series. It's the first time ever in the NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball, that the road team has won the first six games of a series. What can you say about this Nationals team, they're a resilient bunch. Every time they've had their backs against the wall, whether it be the regular season, the post season, they have just found a way and they did so again in game six with the score tied at two.

Juan Soto, the 21-year-old phenom, coming to the plate and hits an absolute bomb off Justin Verlander. That gave the Nationals the lead. Then in the top of the seventh, we had some controversy. Trea Turner hustling for an infield single. He's called out for running inside the base pad (ph). Dave Martinez and all of Twitter just going off on the umpires. Martinez so upset he would get ejected from the game. The Nationals protested the game, but just one batter later, Anthony Rendon, the Houston native, making National fans feel much better as he crushed a two-run home run. Stephen Strasburg was just fantastic in this game, giving up two runs in 8 and the 3rd innings. The road time wins again. Nationals up 7-2 at the final out in this one, setting up a winner take all game seven tonight.

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DAVE MARTINEZ, MANAGER, WASHINGTON NATIONALS: I'm just really proud of the boys and the way they came out and played today. I mean that's -- that's all I want to say about that. You know, we've got another game tomorrow and we'll just come back tomorrow and win again.

[06:35:05]

AJ HINCH, MANAGER, HOUSTON ASTROS: If I'd have told you this series was going to be 3-3 going to a game seven, I don't think there was a person in the building that would have assumed that all road games -- or road teams were going to win. We just got to make sure that last one's not the same.

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SCHOLES: Yes, and Max Scherzer is going to be on the hill for the Nationals tonight as they try to win their first ever World Series.

And, John, you know, I've been to all six games of this series this far, it's been really depressing because the road team has won every single game. So every night there's 40,000 people walking out with their heads down just upset. We'll see if it changes tonight.

BERMAN: That's such a good point. It's been such weird energy to watch on TV because the electricity that's usually there hasn't been because the wrong team has been winning each game. That's a great point, Andy, thank you so much.

I'm so glad, by the way, that was a terrible interference call. A terrible call by the umpires. And I'm glad the game didn't turn on that.

HILL: Yes, me, too.

BERMAN: One man's opinion. One man and 200 million other baseball fans.

Boeing's CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, will be back on Capitol Hill today after being grilled by senators and confronted by grieving family members. More than a dozen of them sat behind Muilenburg yesterday holding large pictures of loved ones they lost in the 737 Max crashes.

CNN's Rene Marsh is live in Washington with more. This was contentious, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN GOVT. REGULATION AND TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was. And, I mean, when you saw the images of families holding the photos of their victims, of their family members, their loved ones who were killed for simply boarding an American-made passenger plane, it really puts this story all in perspective.

It was the image that the CEO saw, Boeing's CEO saw when he walked into that Senate room to testify. And, as expected, lawmakers hammered him for pushing its 737 Max passenger plane through the certification process despite flaws with the plane's system. Take a listen to lawmakers just yesterday.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): You're the CEO. The buck stops with you. Did you read this document? And how did your team not put it in front of you, run in with their hair on fire saying, we got a real problem here?

SEN. JON TESTER (D-MT): I've got to tell you, and I think I told you guys this some time ago, I would walk before I was to get on a 737 Max. I would walk.

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): This is my frustration. Boeing has not told the whole truth to this committee and to the families to the people looking at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: All right, well, Muilenburg, he revealed that he was aware test pilots raised concerns about the safety of the jet prior to the second crash, but he says he didn't know the details of those internal e- mails and messages that you heard Ted Cruz mentioning there.

But we are just hours away now from part two, where members of the House will get their chance to grill Boeing's CEO. And I can tell you, Erica, it's not going to any easier for him.

HILL: Yes. That doesn't sound like it would be.

Rene Marsh, appreciate it.

On the politics front, CNN out with a new poll in New Hampshire. And the news, not all that great for one of the leading candidates in the Democratic race. We're going to break down the numbers, next.

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[06:42:05]

BERMAN: New warning signs this morning for former Vice President Joe Biden. This is a new CNN poll out of New Hampshire that shows the former vice president trailing Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Now, Biden has dropped nine points since July. Statistically significant movement there. And you can see Sanders and Warren largely staying the same.

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Alex Burns, he's a national political correspondent for "The New York Times," and a CNN political commentator Jess McIntosh, she's the former director of communications outreach for the Hillary Clinton Campaign.

And I guess before we talk about Biden, I want to give Bernie Sanders his due there because he is in the top tier in New Hampshire after everything that's happened, and not just his health, after, you know, being seen as slipping back in the polls, Elizabeth Warren rising. He's right there on top.

JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He has a really strong base of support that I don't think it's going anywhere. It remains to be seen whether he can bring in new people from the 2016 coalition that he built. But the coalition that he built in 2016 is very strong and largely still with him. I think it's been a testament to his stamina that he's been able to rebound from -- I mean he's an older candidate who had a heart attack and he's out there on the trail looking healthier than ever. So I think people are responding to that.

HILL: And people aren't really talking about his health, which, for him, is a win, right?

MCINTOSH: Sure.

HILL: I mean we're talking about what's happening with this polling.

In terms of the new polling that we're looking at, we have just over 100 days until Iowa. How much stock do we put in this today, October 30th?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, I think it's pretty significant. Look, I wouldn't necessarily extrapolate out from this what's going to happen precisely in New Hampshire, but the trend lines really tell you something, the fact that Bernie Sanders has been so resilient in New Hampshire, the fact that Elizabeth Warren has continued this sort of steady, gradual, not meteoric rise in most of the early states, the fact that Joe Biden is slipping. That's probably the most consistent trend that we've seen in the early states, other than Warren's climb is Biden's steady fall. It's not that he's out of the game by any stretch of the imagination, but for a guy who came into the race as a clear frontrunner and who would have a natural constituency in a relatively moderately state where independents can voters in Democratic primaries, those are pretty concerning numbers.

BERMAN: It gets to this multifactor game very quickly. When you start looking at polls like this, and the one we saw in Iowa before, which had a three top-tier grouping -- we can put that up on the screen where you have Biden, Warren and Sanders grouped up in the top in Iowa. You have the possibility of four early state contests with four different winners.

MCINTOSH: Yes. Yes, you do. I mean with a field this big -- and it's a very strong, diverse field. This is a field that I think Democrats can be proud of.

[06:45:01]

There are a lot of people on that bench who would be just fine in that top tier, even if they aren't yet.

I think Biden is in particular trouble, though. The entire rational for his candidacy is electability. That is -- that is what he's running on, that's what his team is running on, that's what people seem to want from him. If he comes in a third place or even a second place in Iowa, it's going to show that that campaign is not that strong. And he has all of the sport right now in South Carolina, but we don't know how soft that is. If he shows weakly in Iowa and New Hampshire, that soft support is going to go somewhere else. And we can't predict right now which candidate that will go to.

HILL: I think it's fascinating, too, not only that we're hearing more from Joe Biden. I mean the fact that he's doing more interviews, right, calling in, in an interview yesterday. Of course he's going to say he's not concerned about the numbers. What else would you say? But, privately, his campaign manager, Alex, is starting to get concerned.

BURNS: Sure. And they've privately acknowledged to their donors, to people whose support they want for weeks now that there's a very realistic chance that they lose both Iowa and New Hampshire. And they're making the case that he is a strong enough candidate that he has the sort of goodwill from Democrats around the country, and particularly support from Democrats who aren't white, in minority communities, African-American voters in particular, that he could be resilience, even if he loses those first two states. That's not what the former vice president is saying in public.

And I think, look, if he had been as aggressive, and I'm using that term relatively speaking, but if he had been as aggressive in putting himself in front of media and going out there and sort of making the case more clearly for his agenda and against the other Democrats' agenda, you know, starting in April, May, June, if we had seen him doing these kind of sit-down interviews as soon as the Hunter story broke, as opposed to more than a month after it happened, maybe he would be in a different place in this race right now. But the concern among people who are strongly supportive of him, who are admirers of him, people who are not eager to defect to Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, is that he has kind of let that pitch go by.

BERMAN: All right, Jess, Alex, thank you very much.

The evidence mounting this morning against President Trump as the impeachment inquiry enters this new phase. We're going to break down what the key witnesses have revealed so far. That's next.

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[06:50:21]

BERMAN: So, as the impeachment inquiry enters week six, the evidence is mounting against President Trump. Two more witnesses will testify today. Here to break down the biggest revelations so far, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. He's a former federal prosecutor.

And I think this is helpful, Elie, to find out what we've learned. We've heard from 13 witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry. Talk to me about the top line. What's the top line here?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, John, the most important person we've heard from so far a Donald Trump himself. And any discussion of the evidence here has to start with the July 25th call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian President Zelensky. To give a quick recap of that call, Donald Trump talks about the

United States has been very, very good to Ukraine. I wouldn't say it's reciprocal necessary. What he's saying there is, we do a lot for you. You don't really do much for us.

Now, Zelensky, very quickly, picks up what Trump is saying and he responds, I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. Area of defense there refers to the hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid that the United States provides to Ukraine, which is engaged in an ongoing conflict with Russia.

Donald Trump then responds to that with I think the ten words that will live in history, I would like you to do us a favor though. And then Trump explains what favors he wants. One is an investigation into this Crowdstrike, which is this wacky conspiracy theory about the DNC server. And the second thing Trump wants is, he says, the other thing, there's a lot of talk about Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

BERMAN: So this is the ask. And many people, Democrats think in and of itself, this is enough to impeach the president. But, wait, there's more.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: There's this issue of the quid pro quo.

HONIG: Right. It could be enough, but you want to build your case out if you're an investigator. And that's where the witnesses become so important. I think the most important witness so far is Ambassador Bill Taylor, who is the top U.S. diplomate in Ukraine. He testified the other day. The first thing he established is that there was what he called an irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy making set up with respect to Ukraine led by these three, Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, no business dealing with Ukraine, Rick Perry, secretary of energy, and then Gordon Sondland, who's the ambassador to the EU. Ukraine's not part of the EU, although it's tangentially relevant.

Taylor also told us the two things that Trump was insisting on, he learned, was that Zelensky go to a microphone and announce, again, same two things, investigations of the 2016 election and the Bidens.

BERMAN: All right. So you have the text messages there.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: And there are -- there is some evidence that -- that Bill Taylor was trying to leave a record here, right?

HONIG: Absolutely. But prosecutors and investigators love text messages. It shows you what the people were thinking at the time in black and white. Famous text from Bill Taylor, which is consistent with his testimony, he says, are we now saying security assistance and White House meeting are conditioned, quid pro quo, conditioned on investigations? The famous response from Gordon Sondland, another thing I think we'll be hearing about for a long time, call me, right? And then the other text, Taylor says, again, as I said on the phone, like you said, John, making a record, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance to help with the political campaign. Almost a five-hour gap. Middle of the night. From just after midnight to just after 5:00 a.m. where he talks to the president and then comes back with this sort of cover-up statement.

BERMAN: So you have the text message chain on the quid pro quo. Alexander Vindman yesterday, Colonel Vindman yesterday, goes back to the original call, the original sin of the Trump evidence you told us about.

HONIG: Yes. So, again, Vindman's testimony is so important because he tells us the same two things were in play here, he wanted -- the president wanted an investigation of the 2016 election and the Bidens.

And the thing that's so important about Vindman is he is the first witness who actually listened to that July 25th call when it happened.

BERMAN: An ear witness.

HONIG: An ear witness, right, exactly. And he says his reaction to hearing that was, it is not proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen. He was worried that it would be perceived as a partisan play. And he thought it would undermine U.S. national security. You wonder -- no wonder why Donald Trump and others seem so fearful of his testimony. No wonder they're lashing out at him in sort of personal ad hominem irrelevant attacks on his character.

BERMAN: And, of course, his testimony calls into question that of another peculiar witness here, Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to EU. It's hard to figure out where exactly he fits here.

HONIG: He is a strange witness. He's got -- he says some things that ring true, but he's also got some real credibility problems.

So, first of all, Sondland said he was, quote, disappointed by the president's direction that we involve Mr. Giuliani. Disappointed is a strange word choice there.

BERMAN: Right.

HONIG: Maybe an understatement. But that is one thing that he said.

And, again, consistent. You see the consistency witness to witness and the phone call. The same two things the president wants.

By the way, he's not looking to bust corruption. Generally, all he wants is an investigation into 2016 and into Burisma and the Bidens.

[06:55:02]

Now, Sondland, I think, has real credibility issues. If I'm thinking about him as a potential witness, as a prosecutor, or an investigator, I'd think twice. A couple things Sondland said that don't really ring true. One, he said, I heard about Burisma but I didn't know there was a Biden connection. I mean Rudy's out there at the time publically talking about it. Both witnesses we've heard from, Taylor and Vindman said, oh, he knew. We talked about it.

He also said -- Sondland also said, nobody ever shared their misgivings with me. Well, Vindman, Taylor and others have refuted that. They've said, no, no, no, there was plenty of concern raised to Sondland. And he also said with his call me text, he said, oh, I just like to talk to people one-on-one. That's my style.

BERMAN: So, beyond Sondland, Taylor, Vindman, there have been a number of other witnesses, and in some cases have provided some pretty explosive testimony.

HONIG: Yes, there have been a lot of -- some other important witnesses. Dr. Fiona Hill, who was one of the top White House Russia advisers, talked again about this shadow diplomacy, this group led by Rudy and Perry and Sondland. And the -- I think the most explosive -- no pun intended -- explosive thing she said was that the reaction to Rudy being involved from Bolton was that Rudy was a hand grenade, meaning he could cause all sorts of damage.

We also heard from the displaced Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch who talked about this concerted campaign to remove her because she was in the way of Rudy's agenda.

BERMAN: Can I ask you, big picture, who would you prioritize? If you were the Democrats running a public hearing in two weeks, who would you put on the stand publically?

HONIG: Yes. Bill Taylor and Vindman are ace witnesses. I think their credibility is unassailable. They are nonpartisan. And I think their testimony gets right to the heart of the matter here and is consistent with the phone call and the texts. They are fantastic witnesses to build around.

BERMAN: You think Vindman shows up in uniform, like he did yesterday?

HONIG: He should. It's appropriate. He's there on official business.

BERMAN: All right, Elie Honig, thank you so much for going through this evidence. It's instructive to look back and think of everything we've learned over the last 30 days or so. Really appreciate it.

HONIG: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Erica.

HILL: Well, Britain is headed for yet another general election as it tries to break the deadlock over Brexit. Lawmakers approving the early vote for December 12th. This as the U.K.'s departure from the European Union is delayed until early next year.

CNN's Max Foster is live in London this morning with the very latest for us.

So, Max, bring us up to speed. MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, some progress at last

for Boris Johnson it seems. He gets his election on December the 12th, as you say. And his big gamble here is that he can get a majority in that election and push his deal that he's reached with the European Union through the parliament. But it is a huge gamble because Britain is really set around a two-party system and that's broken down effectively.

There are five parties that will effectively split this vote. So you've got Boris Johnson's party with his deal on Europe. You've got the opposition Labour Party with a slightly different deal. But also, to his right, he's got the formidable campaigner, Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party who don't want a deal at all. You've got the liberal democrats at the other end who want to cancel Brexit, as does the Scottish National Party. So five parties there with different strategies splitting the vote, which is why this is such an unpredictable election.

So, more parties, but only one issue, normally you have multiple issues in an election, one issue dominating, that's Brexit. And the reality is, John and Erica, that even a general election might not unlock all of this gridlock that we've got in parliament and find a solution.

BERMAN: The only thing that the U.S. has going for it right now in terms of political chaos is we can look across the Atlantic and say, hey, maybe ours isn't so bad.

FOSTER: Yes, we've got more. We're the winners on that.

BERMAN: All right, (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: At least we don't have Brexit. There you go.

BERMAN: At least we don't have that.

Max Foster, thank you very much.

We do have brand new details about what today's witnesses will say in the impeachment inquiry.

NEW DAY continues right now.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has all of the hallmarks of what was done in Nixon's era when they tried to ascend incorrect transcripts of the tapes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bottom line, you can't trust this White House.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got pretty fired up when I saw Republicans attempting to get the identity of the whistleblower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To interrupt us continually, to not let us ask questions, I have never, in my life, seen anything like what happened today.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Airing (ph) the whistleblower is an unpatriotic action.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How could we out someone who we don't know who it is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democrats are planning to bring this to the floor on Thursday for a vote.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Every single Republican will be voting against the resolution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me this morning.

HILL: Good to be with you.

BERMAN: For yet another morning of breaking news and new developments.

We have new details about what two State Department officials will tell impeachment investigators in just hours when they testify behind closed doors.

CNN has learned that foreign service officer Christopher Anderson will tell lawmakers about a June meeting with National Security Adviser John Bolton where Bolton cautioned about Rudy Giuliani's influence on U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

[05:59:57]

Special Ukraine Adviser Catherine Kroft (ph) will describe a meeting one week before President Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president where she learned that an informal hold was put on Ukrainian.

END