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New Day

Barrett Dodges Questions; Unmasking Probe Ends with No Charges; Americans Already Casting Ballots; Pandemic Update from Around the World. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 14, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Citing a 2017 article she wrote in a Notre Dame Law School journal. In it, she criticized Chief Justice John Roberts for upholding a key provision, writing Roberts, quote, "pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statue."

On the presidential election, multiple Democratic senators raised the president's insistence that he needs to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in case the court must weigh in on possible disputed election results.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Will you commit to recusing yourself from any case arising from a dispute in the presidential election results three weeks from now?

AMY CONEY BARRETT, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Yes, I certainly hope that all members of the committee have more confidence in my integrity than to think that I would allow myself to be used as a pawn to decide this election for the American people.

SERFATY: On discussing a peaceful transition of power, Barrett was reluctant to answer.

BARRETT: To the extent that this is a political controversy right now, as a judge, I want to stay out of it.

SERFATY: But when pushed by Senator Cory Booker, gave this response.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I'm just asking you, should a president commit themselves, like our founding fathers, I think, had a clear intention?

BARRETT: Well, one of the beauties of America from the beginning of the republic is that we have had peaceful transfers of power.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Republicans again are trying to move very, very quickly here. After the questioning today, tomorrow the committee will hear from outside witnesses. And then the committee will move to vote very likely at some point next week. Now, this sets up a Senate floor vote for her final confirmation,

Alisyn, by the end of the month.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the timing is remarkable. Remarkably fast.

Sunlen, thank you very much.

SERFATY: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: So, President Trump pushes a lot of conspiracy theories and the one about unmasking seemed to be a particular favorite. Well, this morning, we have the results of the big DOJ taxpayer-funded investigation. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:55]

CAMEROTA: This morning, "The Washington Post" reports that the DOJ's investigation into the president's claims that Obama officials improperly unmasked individuals named in intelligence documents, well, it turned up nothing. No charges against anyone. And, interestingly, no written report released.

Joining us now, CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip.

Abby, it's so nice to have a finish line with this because we've heard it for so many years, unmasking, unmasking, unmasking. Everywhere. And it turns out what -- what people on our air, our experts, who had worked in the DOJ, said this was common practice in every administration when intelligence officials or lawmakers need to know about what's happening with some sort of, you know, intelligence operation, they ask for it to be unmasked. They saw nothing wrong with it. It turns out DOJ found nothing wrong with it. I mean no -- no wrongdoing found even though they had appointed this U.S. attorney. But the American public is never going to hear about this because no report. It all just evaporated.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is really peculiar that after all of this effort, there's nothing to show for it. DOJ apparently doesn't want to comment on it.

And I also think it's really reflective of Attorney General Bill Barr's prejudging of the situation from the beginning. In congressional testimony, in public statements, repeatedly insinuating that there was wrongdoing and that he was basically tasking investigators to find it. Turns out there was nothing.

And I do think it kind of explained some of the president's behavior over the last several weeks where he seems to have been really spinning into a frenzy over this issue, repeatedly over the last several weeks. And it seems that the reason for that is because perhaps he's concerned that all of the years of arguing that he's been spied on, that he's been -- that there was an illegal coup against him, will actually turn up nothing in either this report or in the other report, the Durham report, that has yet to come out and it's unlikely to come out before the election.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, look, it's an example of the tail wagging the dog here. And I think everyone needs to reflect on what happened here because unmasking is legal and it is common. And the fact that the president shouted it, Fox News shouted it for months, it ended up seeping into everyday discussions. And the fact that we let ourselves hear so much about it, I think at this point, it's revealing to the dangers of listening too much to those news sources.

Abby, the last 24 hours of the campaign have been some of the least subtle that I can remember in common times. We had the president going to Pennsylvania and basically saying women love me. I mean I'm not even saying "basically." Explicitly saying, women, please love me. And then Joe Biden going to Florida saying, seniors, you need me.

So if we can play those sound bytes back to back. And, again, this is the least subtle campaigning I can recall.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Suburban women, will you please like me? (INAUDIBLE). Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Oh, he throws super spreader parties at the White House where Republicans hug each other without concern of the consequences. How many of you have been unable to hug your grandkids in the last seven months?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This seems like two campaigns looking at the polls saying, these are the buttons we need to press.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean I think the time for subtlety is completely gone at this point. But the -- the president's comments about suburban women remind me of, you know, in the 2016 campaign when he was -- he was like, what the hell do you have to lose to African-Americans. I mean it's sort of -- this is kind of how he approaches this problem. And it's almost as if he was sort of just reading his poll numbers just before going out onto the stage and looking at the numbers that show him losing women by double digits and losing suburban women, who he's been trying to appeal to by warning that -- that poor minorities are going to invade their suburbs.

[06:40:07]

Look, I think that both sides here are trying to kind of consolidate or to really double down on what they need to do in these last few weeks. The president knows that he has to shore up his support among women, but also among older voters, which is why he's been talking recently about how they're his favorite people in the world.

And Biden, on the other hand, is trying to consolidate his lead among those groups, which might help him actually be competitive or even pull out victories in two key swing states, Pennsylvania and Florida. Those are the two that I think both of these campaigns are kind of laser focused on in these last few weeks.

CAMEROTA: Abby, I'm just curious, does begging work on suburban women?

PHILLIP: I don't know. Apparently -- I mean apparently not.

BERMAN: You tell me. You tell me.

CAMEROTA: Not since college.

PHILLIP: Yes, well, scaring them seems to have not worked. So I guess begging them is the next sort of logical step for the president.

CAMEROTA: I mean the begging is an interesting tactic. But it also, I think, is revealing, Abby, in that it shows that, you know, the president often says, I have great polls. The polls I see show me, you know, that I have a great lead. It shows that he has seen some polls that he's not doing great with suburban women, or why would he have used that desperate ploy?

PHILLIP: Totally. I mean the idea that the president is looking at polls that are radically different from virtually every single public poll that has come out in the last eight months is not the case. They know that they have a problem with suburban women. He knows that he has a problem with suburban women. He's tried to fix it with, honestly, perplexing strategies. I think this idea that you can scare suburban women with Senator Cory Booker just never really seemed to make a whole lot of sense.

BERMAN: Yes.

PHILLIP: And so now, I guess, begging is the strategy.

But underlying all of this is the president's handling of this virus. Truly, I think, has been one of the more damaging things for him. But also, his -- the tone and the tenor of his campaign. And he's done nothing to change that. Going back to the debate, when he had such a massive platform and the president behaved in a way that really seemed to repel suburban women. He's not changing his behavior, holding these super spreader rallies, as well, also seem to be doubling down on a losing strategy for the president.

BERMAN: Yes, Cory Booker, who will come shovel your driveway, may not be the threat that the president thinks he is.

PHILLIP: Right.

BERMAN: Abby, you know, people like to say of these Supreme Court nomination hearings, oh, we don't learn anything, it's just kabuki theater. Actually -- actually, there were some revealing moments yesterday. First of all, what Amy Coney Barrett refused to say. She refused to say what she thinks about the peaceful transfer of power, she refused to weigh in on voter intimidation or whether the president can move Election Day, but also abortion and Roe v. Wade. She talked about the importance of precedent and she would rely on precedent so much, except, except on Roe v. Wade, which she says is not a super precedent issue, which means that it doesn't deserve, I think, the same place in judicial consideration as some past hearings. That's revealing. That tells us something, no?

PHILLIP: I think it does. I mean it tells us about as much as we perhaps already knew, which is that she was selected because she is someone who is likely to not support abortion rights in the courts. I mean that's -- it's as simple as that. She would not have ended up on President Trump's list, endorsed by the Susan B. Anthony list of pro- life organization, or an anti-abortion organization, the Federalist Society, she would not have ended up on these lists had she not had these ideological positions on how the law looks at the issue of abortion.

So, you know, the fact that she's stating explicitly that she does not believe Roe is a super precedent, and that is in comparison to other precedents like Brown versus Board of Education or Marbury versus Madison, is -- it tells you that she is a conservative, she's going to be a conservative justice and is going to look skeptically on these -- on Roe as a precedent.

And I also think that it is actually somewhat honest in a sense that while she probably will never say -- and you won't find any justice going before Congress and saying, this is how I'm going to rule on Roe v. Wade, I do think that she's being clear that she doesn't view it as something that is untouchable, and that's very telling for Democrats, but also very telling for conservative who want her there for that reason.

CAMEROTA: OK, Abby Phillip, thank you very much for all of the analysis.

So early voting is underway in Texas and the turnout is shattering records. And that's not the only state with lines stretching for blocks. We have all of the details for you in a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:59]

BERMAN: It is Election Day across the country and has been. And 10.5 million votes have already been cast. Twenty more days to cast your ballots. Texas shattered turnout records on the first day of early voting. More than 127,000 people voted in Harris County alone. That, I think, is double -- double the first day four years ago.

CNN's Kristen Holmes following all of the headlines here.

What are you seeing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, there certainly does not seem to be a lack of enthusiasm around

voting this election cycle. Remember, many of these voters are choosing to wait in line for hours rather than just come back another day before the election. They are anxious to make their vote count and make it count as quickly as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice over): It started before dawn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's come out to vote here. Lines around the corner.

HOLMES: Thousands of people waiting hours for early in-person voting.

[06:50:01]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just came out. So I would say about two and a half hours.

HOLMES: And drive-through voting in Texas Tuesday.

In Harris County, which includes Houston, the highest turnout during early voting ever. And that count came hours before the polls even closed, with lines still out the door.

All the enthusiasm after waking up to news of a late-night ruling upholding Republican Governor Greg Abbott's directive limiting ballot drop boxes to one per county, a major issue for densely populated counties where voters could spend more than an hour driving just to cast their vote.

CHRIS HOLLINS, HARRIS COUNTY CLERK: More than 50 miles in some cases to drop off their mail ballot. It's unfair, it's prejudicial and it's dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everyone.

HOLMES: The day not without mishaps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are aware of some glitches in our voting system.

HOLMES: Fort Bend County now extending voting hours by two hours this week to compensate for lengthy waits due to widespread voting issues.

It came a day after a similar start in Georgia, where voters waited for hours to cast their ballots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be out here and be able to share my voice.

HOLMES: Georgia setting an early voting record, with nearly 127,000 ballots cast on day one. Tuesday, no different. More voters, more long lines.

In Gwinnett County, some voters sitting in line for eight hours, determine to be heard, no matter the obstacles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many people have sacrificed before us, so it's almost a spit in their face if we don't take the time to show our kids that they have this right and it's best used as early as possible.

HOLMES: More than 10.5 million Americans have already cast their ballots in this election, 6 million of them in the most competitive states in the country.

In the battleground state of Ohio, more than 193,000 people already voting early in person, tripling the roughly 64,000 at the same time in 2016.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And if those numbers weren't striking enough, we have new voter registration numbers out of Travis County, Texas. That is Austin, the capital and the surrounding area. More than 852,000 people there have registered to vote. And, John, just for reference, that is 97 percent of eligible voters now registered to vote in that county.

BERMAN: I'm so glad you brought that up, Kristen. I had to read that like ten times because I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. That is extraordinary. So, clearly, enthusiasm incredibly high around the country.

Thank you so much for your reporting.

So, coronavirus cases surging all around the world. Leaders preparing to take drastic action. Details on what many are now calling a definitive new wave. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:05]

CAMEROTA: Russia setting another record for new coronavirus cases and officials in France are warning that the ICU admissions there are climbing.

CNN has reporters all around the world bringing you the latest developments on the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Bordeaux.

Here in France, the figures continue to rise. Nationally, the positivity rate now above 12 percent. That is nearly three times what it was on September 1st. And more regionally, concerns for cities like Paris. In the greater Paris region, more than 44 percent of ICU beds now taken by COVID-19 patients.

It is because of those worrying numbers that we will hear from the French president tonight, who will speak on television. We expect him to announce fresh restrictions. Possibly, there's a lot of speculation about this, the possibility of curfews. Anything, say government sources, to avoid what they fear would be an economically catastrophic second lockdown.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott McLean in Berlin, where coronavirus tests are in high demand in this country as the number of new cases continues to surge. The doctor that runs this testing facility says that about one in every ten people are testing positive for the virus.

Later today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel with meet with the premieres from Germany's 16 states and potentially announce new coronavirus restrictions. One of those premieres says that this country is at risk of losing control of the pandemic and says that serious conversations need to be had now to avoid a second national lockdown.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Fred Pleitgen in Moscow, where Russia's health minister announced this morning that the situation around the novel coronavirus in this country remains, as he calls it, intense. This comes as Russia records yet another record daily increase in new coronavirus infections, with 14,231 in a single day. The hardest hit region is the capital, is Moscow. And at the same time, the Russian authorities seem to be acknowledging that a vaccine, which they approved without going through the main safety and efficacy tests, that that will not be available to the broad public anytime soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to all of our correspondents around the globe.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The number of states with increases in new cases keeps going up. The country averaging nearly 50,000 new cases a day.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: As they do many more things indoors, we're seeing an uptick in test positivity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now is the time to act. Now is the time to do something about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another state, another day of hours in long lines, as voters go to the polls.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm due tomorrow morning. I wanted to go ahead and get my vote in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Suburban women, will you please like me?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: (INAUDIBLE) are qualities the president has never, ever shown. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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

[07:00:00]

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

Nearly 216,000 Americans dead from coronavirus and new measurements this morning.