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New Day Sunday

Democrats Make Their Case For Removing Trump From Office; Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Give Up Royal Titles And State Funding; Dem Candidates Campaign In Iowa Ahead Of Caucuses; Virginia GOP To White Supremacists: You're Not Welcome Here; National Archives Apologizes For Blurring Images Critical Of Trump; Top Movie Winner Could Offer Forecast Of Academy Awards. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired January 19, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Because either way, they're going to get a trip to the Super Bowl. Today's games to decide who actually makes it to the big game.

The AFC kicks off at 3:05 between the Titans and the Chiefs. Temps are going to be about 19 degrees there. Great football weather.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Coy, thank you.

WIRE: Uh-huh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first official look at how President Trump's newly assembled legal team plans to attack the charges that led to his impeachment.

PAM BONDI, FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: There is absolutely nothing there in the articles of impeachment. It's an insult to the American people.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): He gave us no choice. The president was self impeaching almost every single day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With his March 2020 aimed at a target date. November.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the most important thing is get out of the vote and whatever you do, vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After expressing a desire to step back from the royal duties, it's been decided that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will leave their royal lives almost completely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're now stepping back as working members altogether in the shock announcement from Buckingham Palace.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: One minute past 7:00. An early happy Sunday to you. I'm Christi Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Martin Savidge, in for Victor Blackwell.

It is good to be with you all.

It is the Framer's worst nightmare. At this hour, House Democrats are making the case for removing the president from office.

PAUL: Yes, the president's legal team have until noon tomorrow to layout their arguments. They are already on the offense calling the impeachment unconstitutionally or constitutionally invalid, rather.

SAVIDGE: And with his impeachment trial now only two days away, the source says the president appears distracted and, quote, can't understand why he is impeached.

PAUL: CNN's Kristen Holmes live in Washington for us.

So I know we are getting this preview of what the trial is going to look like, Kristen. What have you made of it?

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

Well, look, well, these are the first official legal filings in the Senate impeachment trial. And it really shows us how politically charged this trial will be. Before I get into it, I want to layout the terms here, there is a lot of confusion and questions still as to what this all means. We're going to talk about the House managers, which essentially are the prosecutors presenting the case against the president. Those articles of impeachment, those are the charges against the president.

And, of course, the senators will serve as the jury, who decides whether or not President Trump is going to be removed from office. So we saw last night these House managers presenting, laying out their case.

I want to read to you one line in particular here. It stood out to me.

Essentially, they call on the Senate to eliminate the threat that the president poses to national security. So, again, very politically charged.

Now, the goal on here to outline their case. They say that President Trump abused his power when he withheld not only that $400 billion of security aid from Ukraine, but also when he withheld a meeting with the White House and President Zelensky, the new president of Ukraine, essentially, in exchange for some kind of information announcement of an investigation into his political rivals, i.e., Joe Biden, the Bidens. They also go on to say that then President Trump hindered the

congressional investigation, he obstructed justice by stopping the subpoenas while they were looking into this withholding of aid from documents and witnesses as well. So, again, they layout their case here.

Now, President Trump's legal team responded only to the articles of impeachment. As you said, they have until noon tomorrow to actually respond to these filings. But this was just in response to the articles of impeachment. They kind of laid out their case here.

I'm going to read one part for you. It says, President Trump categorically and unequivocally denies each and every allegation in both articles of impeachment. It goes on to say the president didn't do anything wrong and that anything here is not an impeachable offense.

PAUL: All righty. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SAVIDGE: And joining me now to break down all the headlines is CNN political analyst April Ryan and former Clinton White House adviser Guy Smith.

Good morning to the both of you.

GUY SMITH, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Good morning.

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: April, I'm going to start with you.

We already knew pretty much what the House case is going to be. So the documents that came from House managers didn't tell me anything new. However, what came from the defense, the White House defense team here responding to the articles of impeachment does sort of well, not sort of, does directly tip their hand, don't you think, as to how they plan to defend the president, they don't refute the charges, they use the Constitution.

RYAN: Right. That's very interesting. And this White House is going back to, once again, something that started early on in the administration three years ago. When we started hearing about things, what was the way that they called not true, Kelly Conway came out with alternative facts.

[07:05:06]

This is very much an alternative fact type of thing. This is not scandal. This is not West Wing. This is the real Trump administration 2020.

What's happening is this president is impeached. He doesn't want people to believe he's impeached. The facts are the facts. It will be in history that this president was impeached by the House.

Two articles: obstruction of Congress and justice, you know, this happened during the president's watch. They tried to make people believe this is about this president's election. No, this is about what happened during his time in office.

The Ukraine, they didn't even go back with which they could have with the issue of the Mueller investigation. And they could have brought in perjury and other issues, other articles. And that's still not out of the realm at this point.

But this president wants to change the mindset. He's got these lawyers to include Ken Starr, who lost the last impeachment trial, to come out and do, try this in the court of public opinion.

And what Democrats have to do is have receipts and make sure people understand in layman's terms what's at stake, what this president did and you will have the other side trying to play the spin game of throwing out the alternative facts and playing this mind game. But the real truth has got to come out for the Democrats to turn away those who are listening to this Republican spin.

SAVIDGE: All right. Let me bring in Guy Smith on this.

I want to talk to you, Guy, about one of the things I learned from the documents that came from the House managers was that it appears that they intend to try or make use of the information that has come to light since the president has been impeached. Lev Parnas interview and some of the other documents and statements that have been brought forward.

Do you think they'll be successful in doing that?

SMITH: I do think they'll be successful and what is happening is there is this drip, drip, drip, literally every day, a new revelation and the -- we're seeing it -- you need to have 51 senators to vote for witnesses. Now, McConnell, who announced on day one, back in December, he was going to cheat, now can't cheat, because the senators, his Republican senators are coming to him and saying, hello, we need to have witnesses, 71 percent of the American people, there are polls out there show that many people want a fair trial.

RYAN: Right.

SMITH: And so -- and what we've got is a situation where it's not like the Clinton trial, which McConnell keeps trying to say, because all the witnesses in the Clinton trial, including the president, had already been interviewed and in their testimony was very -- here there is none of that. The American people are not stupid. They're going to see this.

And here's the other thing that's really important. The Fox News echo system is going to be overshadowed by what happens on the floor of the Senate and millions of American people are Fox watchers are going to see what the president did for the first time without the gaslighting that's been going on the whole time.

SAVIDGE: Well, that would explain why many of the legal representatives he has appeared so frequently on Fox. I mean, the audience is going to recognize them.

SMITH: You know, some of them, Starr, Dershowitz and these other guys have 350 hours on Fox News in the last year. And it's some kind of team. The only one that's ever read the Constitution is Dershowitz. He's reading it wrong, as April said, Ken Starr lost an impeachment.

RYAN: Exactly.

SMITH: And Pam Bondi is -- she looks pretty on TV. She was the one all implicated in the Trump University scandal.

I mean, this is a great team and this is the problem the president's taking here is he isn't taking this seriously. You can't win this on Fox News. You've got to convince real senators who are looking at the real Constitution and they're going to have to sit there and listen --

SAVIDGE: Let me bring April back. April, you know, I think everyone recognizes that unless something really dramatic happens, there is a foregone conclusion here.

So the audience that is being appealed to sheer not the 100 senators, but, in fact, all those people that tune in and the impact it will have on 2020, right? We are playing this out for a nation, not for the Senate?

RYAN: Right. The court of public opinion as we said before, you know these people that the president has employed are on Fox News and they do well.

But we have to look at history. And Ken Starr was the one who deposed Bill Clinton when he was president in the map room.

[07:10:03]

I remember that day, I was there that day. It was eerily silent in the White House as we waited to hear what was said.

And then President Trump at that time when he was civilian Trump talked about how crazy and freakish he thought Ken Starr was at the time, because Ken Starr basically wrote about how Bill Clinton had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.

So we have to look at history and how Ken Starr deposed this president. Which is different this president has not been deposed because he chooses not to Bill Clinton was deposed. It took a while, B.C., but he did it.

At the end of the day, there was a vast difference between this trial and that trial. It started with Whitewater, a land deal that went wrong to bad to sexual relations with an intern. And now this is about a president of the United States consulting with other governments about trying to investigate other candidates that he's running against.

This is not about the people's business. This is about his personal business for a win. So the bottom line, people need to look at history, use critical thinking. Again we're not in an alternative fact universe. This is about a serious, a serious issue for the United States, the people.

SAVIDGE: There is no doubt.

RYAN: The people need to see the truth.

SAVIDGE: No doubt on that, April, but it is incredibly serious. It doesn't get more serious when it gets to being the president of the United States and possibly removed from office.

April, Ryan, I'm sorry, we are both out of time. You know what, this conversation is only beginning. So thank you, both. We appreciate i.

RYAN: It's going to continue.

SMITH: Thanks for having us.

SAVIDGE: And be sure to watch the CNN special, "The Impeachment of Donald J. Trump". We'll have the latest developments and, of course, more expert analysis that will be tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

PAUL: Still ahead, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle no longer, quote, working royals. So what does it mean for couple now that they're going to be out on their own?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:07]

PAUL: So Harry and Meghan are getting out of the family business. Buckingham Palace making a big announcement that the duke and duchess of Sussex are no longer, quote, working members of the royal family.

SAVIDGE: So, here's what that means.

Come spring, the couple will no longer use the titles his and her royal highness, they are stepping back from royal duties and no longer officially will they represent the queen they are expected to pay back official money for the residence and they'll now spend the majority of their time in North America. But they'll still be known as the duke and duchess of Sussex.

CNN's Max Foster joins us from outside Buckingham palace with more.

And, Max, help us understand what's changing here, and what the queen is saying about this, because what she says is vitally important to all of it.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: It is, on the face of it, it's a soft tone, a grandmother speaking about her grandson and her admiration for his wife as well. So, it seems like a very soft statement. But the substance of it is something very different, it's steely and it's very firm. If you think they want to carve a progressive role within the

institution of the monarchy, the queens has said no to that, because they are leaving their royal roles altogether, they're no longer allowed to use the titles of his and her royal highness. They have to pay back public funds and are no longer a part of the senior royal form who have been so used to appearing on the balcony here of Buckingham Palace.

So the priority was to gain independence, do what they want to do freedom, essentially. They have been allowed that. But they haven't been able to cherry pick the parts of the constitution they want to keep. It's sad for Prince Harry, because his military appointments, for example, that he's had to give up were close to his heart, one was handed to him by Prince Philip, an important part of the monarchy. And they've have to give that up. So, there's been a lot of give here on the part of the Sussexes, but ultimately, they got what they wanted.

PAUL: Is there a concern at all for the transition period, particularly for Harry? Because this life with the royals is all he's ever known? Meghan has been like the rest of us a commoner so we haven't grown up in that. He is really moving on, when we say to a new life, we mean that in full.

FOSTER: I think it's going to be very difficult for him. He just doesn't know what it's like in the outside world. He's been brought up surrounded by staff and being able to get access to pretty much everything he wants. Even with his public work, he's had embassies and the foreign government departments. He won't have any of that we wonder what sort of staffing he will have at all.

Prince Charles will continue funding him to some extent. It's in the low millions. It's not nearly enough to keep him into the style, the lifestyle they have become accustomed to.

So, how is he going to cope with that? Having to operate like a private citizen. He's obviously thought about it. This has been building for months and months.

But it will be difficult for him I think. But the duchess as you say operated in the wider world. We have to see how they're going to finance themselves, there is also conflicts that come from that. They say they will respect the values of the queen, but the Buckingham Palace won't have any oversight of what they do.

But there will be a huge amount of sensitivity, if, for example, they do a deal with a brand that turns out to have some sort of toxic legacy, that will be very hard for the palace, which is why they have to distance themselves as much as possible from them.

PAUL: Wow. All right. Max Foster, thank you so much for the update.

Truly uncertain times here.

Our next guest knows a thing or two about royal relationships, because she's the author of the fictional "Runaway Royal" series and the "Reluctant Royal" series, including "A Princess in Theory". [07:20:03]

This is a "New York Times" notable book for 2018.

Welcome to Alyssa Cole.

Thank you so much for being with us.

ALYSSA COLE, AUTHOR: Good morning, thank you for having me.

PAUL: Thank you.

So, you wrote specifically about Harry and Meghan recently in "The Washington Post". I want to read part of what you said here. You said it might seem silly to pay so much attention to what is essentially a family matter. But Meghan and Harry's progressive move away from the royal family is important to the world whose boundaries are undervalued and abusive family patterns are set.

Did you -- when you say abusive family patterns, did you feel you saw some of that in Harry's family?

COLE: Well, I mean, when we think about the royal family even going back to Princess Diana, which was the dominant news story when I was growing up, when you saw all these toxic situation, affairs, how she seemed to be treated as an outsider in the royal family and it's very much being replicated with how Meghan Markle has been treated since Harry and her started dating with some additional layers.

And it, a lot of it started, some people believe, because Prince William was having an affair. That's totally not proven yet, but some of this seems to be Prince Harry and Meghan being a scapegoat for the family. We also have this situation with Prince Andrew hanging out with pedophiles.

So there are much more pressing stories to be told. But then royal family seemingly but the media kept focusing on how awful Meghan was and it seemed to be a scapegoat situation, which is a common dynamic and toxic family dysfunction.

PAUL: So, I need to point out we do not have other reporting of Prince William you are referring to I want to make that clear.

You say the black romance writer that you knew Meghan and Harry would flee British racism. What exactly -- I think there are a lot of people that aren't -- they don't understand they were facing when they were there. And how do you think that role plays in what will happen next for them?

COLE: Well, I think and what my series is about is all of the difficulties that come with being royalty and of the parts that are perhaps not so great, because we often think of the fairy tale ending of money, wealth and living a fabulous life. But in reality, a lot of that stuff is probably not that great and we are seeing that play out right now. You know, Meghan and Harry have this fairytale wedding. They seem to have an amazing romance and to be like the new representative of the royal family and they're like we're out of here.

So I think just kind of examining maybe things are not as wonderful being rich, famous and royal is not as wonderful as it seems.

PAUL: As it seems. Alyssa Cole, thank you so much, congratulations on your book series.

SAVIDGE: And still to come, there is a state of emergency in the capital of Virginia. That's ahead of a massive gun rally, a gun rights rally.

Coming up, you're going to hear from the founder of Moms Demand Action of proposed gun reform in that state of Virginia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:27:48]

PAUL: (INAUDIBLE) right now for the candidates. We're 15 days away from the Iowa caucuses and many of the 2020 Democratic candidates are campaigning in the state at various stops this weekend.

SAVIDGE: For the U.S. senators in the race, this is, of course, their last chance to make their case to voters before they head to Washington for the start of the impeachment trial.

CNN's Jessica Dean has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A number of Democratic 2020 hopefuls made their across Iowa over the weekend. They're trying to get in front of many caucusgoers as possible. As we ever get close to the February 3rd caucuses.

And remember that these Senate candidates, these senator candidates are going to have to go back to Washington, D.C. to sit as jurors in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And that's going to take many of them off the trail for a lot of time. It's critical time, especially right before Iowa. Iowans are used to seeing their candidates in person.

They're used to asking them questions in person, and those candidates are really going to have to rely on their surrogates, maybe their spouses, people that have endorsed them to make their way across Iowa and continue to get that message out leading up to the caucuses and the race continues to be a very tight race, right there at the top tier.

Here in Indianola, Iowa, Joe Biden talked to a group at Simpson College. One of the voters asked am question about his views on Social Security, it was the first time we seen him pointedly push back on what he called one of Bernie's people and what he says they've done. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is a little doctored video going around saying that put out by, should I list -- anyway, put out by one of Bernie's people, no, I'm serious, and I don't know if anyone on my staff has that video here, but -- saying that I agreed with Paul Ryan, the former vice presidential candidate, about wanting to privatize Social Security. It is simply a lie that video that's going around.

DEAN: Vice President Biden then said that he would like the Sanders' campaign to come forward and disown that video and that information. We have reached out to the Sanders campaign and have not heard back for comment.

[07:30:02]

In Iowa, Jessica Dean, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Republican lawmakers in Virginia are telling white supremacist groups to stay away from tomorrow's planned pro-gun rights rally.

PAUL: A state of emergency is in place until Tuesday, firearms have been band on Capitol grounds, last week, federal agents arrested several suspected neo-Nazis out of concern that they were planning attacks. This rally is from Virginia's new Democrat make majority.

Moms Demand Action is one of the many groups that are cheering on those reforms. I spoke with the group's founder about what's going on there now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER, MOMS DEMAND ACTION: I am concerned. Any time that you see people fomenting violence showing up arms in a state that, right now, has incredibly lacks laws will change soon. In fact, the governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency.

So, I am concerned. I hope that what happens on Monday is simply these people show up and it's a last ditch effort to intimidate lawmakers and nothing comes of it. I certainly hope we don't see what we saw if Charlottesville, which is what some extremists are hoping for. They are talking about another civil war. Just because they lost an election in November. It's absurd and it's dangerous.

PAUL: We know the FBI arrested three men believed to be from neo-Nazi groups planning to attend the Virginia pro-gun rally. I know you had experienced some really hideous threats and taunts on social media. Does that scare you at all?

WATTS: You know, it is, obviously, frightening that all of these armed extremists want to show up in one place in one day, but it's not as frightening as living in a state or a country with lacks gun laws that put our families and our communities at risk. So I decided long ago I would be the tip of the spear on this issue for Moms Demand Action and I'm honored to do this work every day. But again, I share these threats, these insults that I receive to show

that these are not responsible gun owners. Most gun owners are responsible. That's not what this very small group of gun extremists are. They are extremists. And they want to scare and silence and intimidate people.

PAUL: So, let me ask you this, because I want to make this very clear. For people out there who say these restrictions are you pushing for are in essence to take away the Second Amendment altogether. Give us some clarity on that what is your mission and is that part of it?

WATTS: That's absolutely not true. We support the second amendment. Many of our volunteers are gun owners, or their partners are gun owners. This is about restoring the responsibilities that go along with gun rights.

In the case of Virginia, specifically what we're working on is a background check bill, right now background checks are not required on unlicensed gun sales in the states. So, we want a background check on every gun sale and a red flag law or emergency risk protection order.

And that allows either families or police officers to temporarily remove the guns from someone who seems to be a danger to themselves or others. These are common sense laws. They are supported by the vast majority of Virginians and they are shown by data and research to work. This is not about undoing the Second Amendment.

PAUL: So let me ask you this, if you could sit down with some of these gun proponents who don't fully understand what your intentions are here, what would you want them to know? What would you say to them? Do you think you could get through to them?

WATTS: Well, I don't know. This is again a small minority of Americans who are very loud, right? It's a vocal minority. And they believe the rhetoric and the misinformation of the National Rifle Association and other gun lobby groups, which is any law whatsoever, no matter how small is somehow a slippery slope to having all of your guns removed or undoing the Second Amendment.

It's not true. We can look at many states that have strong gun laws, lower rates of gun suicides and gun homicides and still have high rates of gun ownership, like in the state of California. So, we know this can be done, it can be done well, but we're not going to let these gun extremists stand in our way.

We're not going to let them silence or intimidate us. Moms in this country will outspend, outwork, gun extremists, because our families are at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Again, that rally is tomorrow, and we're just learning to make sure we clarify this you get the update, seven men accused of longing to a white supremacist group the base were arrested this week in Delaware, Maryland, Georgia and Wisconsin. That's according to authorities. SAVIDGE: The National Archives is saying, sorry for displaying this

image. Find out why they now say it was a mistake.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:39:23]

PAUL: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour right now.

Lebanon's president is deploying the military to disperse crowds in Beirut of widespread anti-government protests. Take a look.

Now, the Lebanese Red Cross says at least 222 people have been injured. It erupted months ago over the government's failure to appoint a new cabinet and a lack of economic stability. That is what has led to now.

[07:40:03]

SAVIDGE: In other news, we made a mistake. That's a quote, not from us.

That's the apology from the National Archives after admitting that it had blurred in the recent display. It tweeted yesterday, quote, we are and have always been completely committed to preserving our archival holdings, without alteration, unquote.

That is a change from last week, when the Archives said that it had made multiple changes to the photo of the 2017 women's march blurred signs that were critical of President Trump, also words that referenced women's anatomy. The original photo is on the left side. You see the edited version on the right.

I am now joined by CNN Presidential Historian, Doug Brinkley.

And good morning to you.

DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good morning.

SAVIDGE: I have to get your reaction first and foremost as a man of history what you thought when you heard about this?

BRINKLEY: I could not believe the National Archives did such a thing. It's such a venerable institution. We all trust it. It's the depository of our national heirlooms and leavings.

And here it is doctoring photos to make Donald Trump look good. I mean to the idea you take the Women's March of 2017 which was largely anti- Trump march and start changing signs like one sign said god hates Trump. They just blurred out the word Trump so the protester sign says god hates. That was replicated many times. It was a very idiotic idea to have altered that photograph, but I am pleased a retraction has come our way.

SAVIDGE: Do you think this was mandated say by someone or do you think this was an agency that sort of self censored? BRINKLEY: I think it's an agency or someone within the agency that's

self-censored. But, you know, we are living in the age of Donald Trump, if you work in the government, you are very fearful of a vengeful Donald Trump. So, it may be very well they want to please him. At all costs we can't let Donald Trump see that we have a photograph on our display that says something negative about him.

We have to remember, this is a president we are dealing with on his inauguration lied about his crowd size and blew up the Interior Department because they weren't showing a photo that he wanted. So, this idea of air brushing anything negative about Donald Trump out of our current government institutions is starting to happen more and more. It's all the reason why we have to say knock it off, ever louder.

SAVIDGE: Well, what troubled me was that you know this is not so much a posturing for the moment or changing for the moment. This is for history. The National Archives preserves this for a nation and for the people of that nation. I know they're an independent agency.

But you know they're keeping the record of our nation and if there somehow distorting that record, it distorts the history of our country.

BRINKLEY: Absolutely. You know, I have a book called "The Nixon Tapes". I just found out in China, my book got printed it in Chinese, they censored out all sorts of things, not even telling me.

Here we have an America doing something that China does, oh, this doesn't look flattering this photograph to President Trump. Let's change the photo and present it to the American people. The archives this is our tax dollars, it's the United States government trying to hide and alter history.

There are a lot of, there may be people angry at those signs, there were people at that march that were angry. We don't air brush word documents from midway or cover up you know pictures from the bombing of Oklahoma City.

History can be ugly and messy. If they're going to use that photo, use it and use it properly without that kind of ridiculous doctoring.

SAVIDGE: Douglas Brinkley, with the perspective of history, we appreciate greatly. Thank you very much for coming in today.

BRINKLEY: Thank you.

PAUL: Possible upset at the Screen Actor's Guild tonight, see how foreign films can pave their way to the Oscars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:48:26]

PAUL: The Screen Actors Guild turns off -- or kicks off I should say tonight. Here's why it's so important because if you want at the SAG Awards, you pave the way to a potential Oscar victory.

SAVIDGE: Yes, a lot of people think it's kind of a key indicator here.

"Parasite", "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" and "The Irishman", among the contenders for the top honor.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has previous for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brad Pitt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brad Pitt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brad Pitt.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is year's best vets like Brad Pitt --

BRAD PITT, ACTOR, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD: Anybody who accidentally kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail.

ELAM: -- and Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland will get their first major Oscar test at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, since these voters also make up the largest bloc of Oscar voters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How was it for you, taking on this role and working with Tarantino?

PITT: It's good. My mom didn't like the language, but --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- violence?

PITT: You know what, she didn't mention the violence, funny enough.

ELAM: Pitt's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" will go head-to-head with "The Irishman." Once both Oscar frontrunners --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."

ELAM: -- "Once Upon a Time" has grabbed the momentum so far.

But the SAG Awards could bring a "Parasite" upset. The Korean film is paving its way to history, and could be the first international film to win a Best Picture Oscar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it OK with you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that just shows that "Parasite" has overcome the language barrier and the barrier of subtitles.

ELAM: It's a hill "Roma" couldn't climb last year. But the Academy keeps growing its international base. SCOTT FEINBERG, AWARDS COLUMNIST, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: Things that might have previously deterred the Academy, like subtitles, may not bother as many people who are used to watching even American movies with subtitles.

[07:50:02]

ELAM: Diversity or lack thereof is a running theme this awards season, with the Oscars shutting out both female director candidates and many actors of color.

SAG breaks that mold for nominations for performers including Lupita Nyong'o in "Us" and "Harriet"'s Cynthia Erivo.

CYNTHIA ERIVO, ACTRESS, HARRIET: Harriet Tubman.

I think there aren't enough roles for us yet, and I think that that causes upset.

ELAM: SAG continues the Robert De Niro snub, his disappointing awards season evident when he finally took the stage at the Critics' Choice Awards.

ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: I wasn't expecting it, frankly, at this point, but it's great.

ELAM: Still, the SAG awards come with consolation: De Niro will get a lifetime achievement award.

In Hollywood, I'm Stephanie Elam.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: In today's "Human Kindness", see how one mother used her battle with cancer to help a lot of people dealing with their own cancer diagnosis. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:39]

PAUL: Listen, this morning's "Human Kindness" is all about paying it forward, even during really difficult times.

Jennifer Lazo did just that in the last few months of her life. She battled cancer and at the same time helped to start Join The Flock, this is a nonprofit helping other families impacted by cancer get relief for mortgage payments. Whether you have cancer or not, you know how debilitating that can be, you know, that weight on your shoulders of paying a mortgage.

Well, this past Christmas, the tables were turned on her, thanks to Ellen DeGeneres.

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLEN DEGENERES, TV HOST: Oh, yes, there's some papers in here. Let's see what this is. You know what it is, it's your mortgage and it's $300,000 and what I want to do with that is just tear that up. Just get rid of that.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh, thank you. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: There are so many reasons to love Ellen DeGeneres and that is just another one.

Jennifer's dream is living on now as her organization is paying it forward. And to talk to me about that we do have Keeli Simpson. She's cofounder of Join the Flock. And Katie Walton, who is Jennifer Lazo's cousin and best friend and also, of course, with the organization.

Thank you both for being here.

What was it about her that made you say we have to keep this going?

KEELI SIMPSON, CO-FOUNDER, JOIN THE FLOCK: Well, for me personally I think any time someone has an aspirational dream like that when you're battling for your own life, I think you have to try to continue to legacy as much as you can. Because, you know, I don't know how in the midst of your struggle you're able to put your strength out there in that way. So, for us it was something that we felt that was so important for not only her family, her friends, but all of us.

PAUL: What was -- what was it about Jennifer that made her your best friend and made you say, we cannot stop here?

KATIE WALTON, BOARD MEMBER, JOIN THE FLOCK: Well, so many things. So Jennifer and I were born three months apart, and literally from birth we were the best of friends. I think that, you know, in part she started this organization and she gave us the way to continue to feel her presence in our lives. And continue to help her live on.

And it's just a great legacy and it helps us through our grief to be able to do something in her memory and help so many people.

PAUL: So, what -- what are you doing? What is the goal right now? And how -- you know, how are you making that happen?

SIMPSON: Yes, so we have raised the money to help out those impacted by cancer and we do that to try to provide financial and emotional relief for them. Once the mortgage payments -- typically the largest household bills so we're hoping that they would use that money on something that brings them joy instead.

PAUL: How do you vet the people and make sure that they're qualified for this? And then how long do you pay it? I mean, how do you make those decisions? It's lot to decide. SIMPSON: Yes.

WALTON: It is. It is. And it's a big burden that we're helping people with so the system is set up to help people with one month of their mortgage payment. We realize that wouldn't be life changing but we hope that it will give them a moment of relief. And maybe they can use that money to take a trip, to do something really special with their family. And make a great memory that their family can keep for forever.

PAUL: So, Katie, what do you think Jennifer would think if she saw the two of you in cahoots here continuing this?

WALTON: I know that she's thrilled and I know and I see and feel her presence through all of it. It's her dream coming true.

PAUL: Keeli, what keeps you doing?

SIMPSON: I mean, I think Jennifer -- I think about her all the time. She actually helped us decorate my youngest baby's nursery and I'll sit in her room and I'll think of her energy, and the joy she'd be feeling from this. As we meet these families that so represent what Jennifer was all about, I think the more you see that snowball effect of kindness moving forward it keeps us going every day and inspires us more and more.

PAUL: It is.

OK. Katie and Keeli, thank you so much for being with us. We wish you the very best. You can look up the nonprofit online.

Martin?

SAVIDGE: Yes, what a wonderful cause and a wonderful way to the end of the program.

Thanks for starting your morning with us.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH JOHN KING" starts right now.