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New Day

Government Confirms Massive Hack; Senate Hearing Elevates Baseless Claims; French President Tests Positive for Coronavirus; Putin Blasts CNN Probe. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 17, 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]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: On debunked election claims. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, the U.S. government has finally confirmed a huge hacking campaign against the networks of several federal agencies. This attack has been tied to Russia.

CNN's Alex Marquardt live in Washington.

Alex, the government late to acknowledge this hack, late to discover this hack, and apparently late to understand the full scope of it. What do we know?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. John.

Let's look at the timeline. The first revelations about this hack on the U.S. government came out on Sunday night, so almost five days ago. And, since then, pretty much the only thing that has become clear is how extraordinarily widespread this could be. Otherwise, U.S. officials are still struggling to figure out which agencies and which departments have been hit, how badly, and what was taken or spied on by these attackers, who are believed to be backed by the Russian government. We actually may never know the full extent of the breach.

This is how the FBI, the intelligence community, and the Department of Homeland Security's cyber agency put it in an overnight statement, that they learned about it over the course of the past several days, saying this is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government.

[06:35:14]

That's a bit of an understatement. All across the federal government, we understand. The Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Homeland Security were all compromised. "The Washington Post" reported that Treasury was as well. The Pentagon, for its part, is still investigating how they might have been affected. It will likely take months for a full forensic analysis. This was a highly sophisticated attack that likely started in the

spring. So the Russians may have been in U.S. government systems for most of the year.

Now, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were both briefed on Wednesday. I was told by an official from the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Agency, which is known as CISA, that the Biden transition team was also briefed earlier this week.

This will be one of the major issues that the new Biden administration will have to deal with from day one, including how forcefully to respond to Russia. It is hard to think of a more sensitive time that this could happen, in the middle of a presidential transition in which the current president is refusing to concede that he lost. President Trump hasn't even acknowledged himself this huge cyber breach. The country, of course, is deeply divided and we are now the victim of one of the most significant cyber intrusions that we have ever seen.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's so disturbing, Alex. And, obviously, we need to know so much more about what happened here and what they got access to.

Thank you very much for all of that reporting.

So amid this massive ongoing security threat, the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security Committee held a hearing yesterday that elevated the baseless claims of election fraud that so many states, all of the swing states, have already investigated and resolved.

Joining us now, Anna Palmer, senior Washington correspondent for "Politico," and CNN political commentator Errol Louis, he's a political anchor for Spectrum News.

Errol, I just want to start with this breach, this massive breach for one second because I -- I know that I thought, and I'm sure I wasn't alone, when the cybersecurity and infrastructure agency came out and said, this election was safe, we didn't have Russian interference or other foreign actors. I thought, huh, I wonder why they gave up so easily. Hmm, wonder if there was anything else that they were trying to do.

The idea that Tom Bossert, former national security adviser, says that the Russians have had access to a considerably number of vitally important and sensitive information networks for the past six to seven months.

So, did we take our eye off the ball? I mean I know none of us are national security experts, but should the cybersecurity and infrastructure agency have seen that one?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they'll certainly need to answer some questions about what happened. Was there a bit of simplistic sleight of hand where we're all looking at the elections and, meanwhile, they're -- they're stealing the palace jewels out of Treasury, Agriculture, Homeland Security, and other vital agencies. If that's what happened, we need to know exactly why it happened.

We -- what we also know is that the head of CISA was fired publically and unceremoniously by President Trump for declaring that the elections, at least, were not the subject of attack. Meanwhile, it looks like nobody understood the full extent of what was going on.

And I guess, finally, it's really worth pointing out that we need public statements from the White House, not just because it's a good idea to be truthful with the American people, although that's certainly important, but you've got millions of federal employees and the contractors who do business with them. You don't just send out -- out a memo to millions and millions of people. We need a statement from the top of the government, telling people what they need to do to secure, even belatedly, the systems of the networks and the information with which they're entrusted. And something's got to be done. Simply trying to pretend that it didn't happen because it's going to be embarrassing to this administration is simply not acceptable, Alisyn.

BERMAN: Yes, Alisyn, your question, did we take our eye off the ball, I can answer that. Yes. And not only did we, you know, leaders in Washington still are proudly ignoring in a way these reports, ignoring this attack. You have the Senate Homeland Security Committee, yesterday, which held a hearing. It's their job to oversee this. Was the hearing on the huge hack? No! It was on this cooked up, discredited notion that there was widespread fraud in the election. Just watch what took place at this hearing yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): We're not going to be able to just move on without bringing up these irregularities, examining them, and providing an explanation and see where there really are problems so we can correct it moving forward.

[06:40:00]

Senator Paul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. -- Mr. Chairman, I've got to respond to that. I mean you're saying I'm putting out information --

JOHNSON: Try.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, one, I did -- had nothing to do with this report your talking --

JOHNSON: You -- you lied repeatedly --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did not author this --

JOHNSON: You lied repeatedly in the press, so that was spreading Russian disinformation. And that was an outright lie and I told you to stop lying and you continued to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman, this is not about airing your grievances. I know what -- I don't know what rabbit hole you're running down right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Anna, you know, what does it tell you that Ron Johnson isn't focused on the real attack this morning?

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": I mean he continues to be very focused on what he says is election irregularities. I think you saw a with that back and forth the frustration that not only Democrats, but a lot of Republicans have with him having the gavel, how he's chosen to lead on this issue, where there is this massive issue, right, a very serious issue around hacking, how long it happened, what secrets Russia knows now, what the implications are of that going forward. And, instead, you have one of the president's closest allies in the Senate continuing to go down this rabbit hole of election fraud and baseless claims. And it's really, I think, frustrating to a lot of members and their staffs who I've been talking to that they say, you know, this is not what we should be focusing on. The election is over. It's time to move on, but the senator just refuses to see reality.

CAMEROTA: Errol, one of the things that President Trump seems to be focused on instead of all of this hack is pardons. Apparently there's been this flurry of requests from all sorts of people, directly to the White House. So, his allies, some of his closest business associates, many high-profile criminals. And because, you know, President Trump has broken norms and doesn't sort of do things in the normal order, people are asking him directly for the pardons, instead of, you know, going through the proper channels. They're asking Jared Kushner, et cetera. CNN's reporting is that unlike practically any other matter related to the end of his presidency, his clemency powers are a topic Trump actually seems to enjoy discussing. In all, the president is considering pardons for more than two dozen people in his orbit whom he believes were targeted or could be targeted in the future for political ends.

What should we expect in terms of pardons in the next 35 days?

LOUIS: We should expect what we've seen already before from this president when it comes to pardons, is that they're done politically, they're done to people who are friends that -- and allies, political allies, and that it's done without any regard to the apparatus that's already in place by which you normally would sort of vet and screen and test legal principles and test precedent before you announce a set of pardons.

Now, far from doing that, this is a president who we know revels in his personal power, his personal authority, which is at its peak and really unchallenged when it comes to the pardon power. There are no other institutions that can sort of undo it or stop it. And so rather than have anything resembling an orderly process, it's going to be the personal whims. This is Donald Trump being able to act a little bit as a king in his 34 remaining days. And, obviously, from what we know about this president, he's going to savor every moment of those last 34 days. BERMAN: Anna Palmer, CNN's reporting that the search for the attorney

general nominee is down to two. Merrick Garland, who, of course, was Barack Obama's nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy, sits on the D.C. federal court of appeals, and Doug Jones, who is the outgoing senator from Alabama.

What do these two choices tell you and what does it tell you that it's complicated, right? A lot of this is complicated because of the probe that Hunter Biden has acknowledged being a part of.

PALMER: Absolutely. I think the Hunter Biden probe really does complicate who he chooses. Merrick Garland would certainly be seen as somebody whose above approach, has the judicial temperament, has a long history of that. I think in terms of being able to separate himself from the Biden orbit, he's not very close to the president- elect, for instance.

But we have seen time and again that Joe Biden is picking people that he's personally close with. He's much more personally close with Senator Doug Jones. Also, I think the other real kind of, you know -- you know, thing that Doug Jones has going for him is the fact that he has this very long civil rights background. Clearly the Department of Justice is going to have to focus on that in this next term, in terms of trying to get the Justice Department and the whole legal apparatus in a -- in a different position than it has been under the Trump administration.

CAMEROTA: Anna, Errol, thank you both very much for helping us understand all of this breaking news this morning.

And we have more breaking news right now.

The French president testing positive for coronavirus after developing symptoms. We have a live report with the details from Paris, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:44]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news.

We've learned a short time ago that French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus.

CNN's Melissa Bell live in Paris with all the details there.

Melissa, tell us what we've learned?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the time being we don't know much about his state, but we do know that he tested positive after displaying symptoms. John, what happens in France, as per French regulations, is that he will now isolate for the next seven days. We've also now heard that his wife, Bridgette Macron, although she is no symptoms, will also be isolating with him.

And, of course, when you look at the people he met -- he's met this week, there's a number of other people who have cause for concern. The Spanish and Portuguese prime ministers confirming that they have canceled certain events over the coming days. He also met with the entire French cabinet, all of France's ministers on Wednesday, although because of social distancing they are not being declared as contact cases.

Now, this is really a reminder of just how hard this second wave has hit Europe. The infection rates across the continent, not just here in France, John, remain stubbornly high. And what we've seen is restrictions really strengthening over the course of the last couple of weeks rather than easing, as authorities had hoped.

Still, as Ursula von der Leyen, who's the president of the European Commission, tweeted this morning, it is Europe's moment. We expect the first vaccine to be approved next week and Europe's vaccination campaign to begin on December 27th.

[06:50:05]

BERMAN: Yes, Melissa, it's also a reminder why leadership in general should be toward the front of the line for being vaccinated. Why the U.S. vice president will be vaccinated tomorrow morning. Why President-elect Joe Biden, we think, as soon as next week. Thanks so much for that report. Appreciate it. Keep us posted.

So, Russian President Vladimir Putin, moments ago, responded to CNN's investigation into the poisoning of an opposition leader. We have a live report and breaking details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: More breaking news.

Moments ago, after days of silence, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to CNN's exclusive investigation, along with Bellingcat, into an assassination attempt in Russia. CNN's exclusive investigation uncovered evidence that Russia's security service, the FSB, formed an elite team specializing in nerve agents that trailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny for years.

[06:55:04]

Navalny was poisoned with Novichok in August and nearly died.

CNN's Clarissa Ward, who broke this story, is live in Moscow, where Putin is still speaking.

And, Clarissa, kind of chest thumping in defiance over this report.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean it's always difficult when President Putin gives an answer. It's invariably long winded and you have to spend at least 10, 20 minutes translating it into English and then translating it in your brain to try and understand what he's exactly saying.

But the -- the sort of grist of it is that he's not refuting any elements, really, of our report, except for the actual poisoning. So what he said was, essentially, that Alexey Navalny, although he doesn't say his name, Alexey Navalny is apparently in cahoots or working with U.S. intelligence agencies. And as a result of that, it's normal, essentially, that the FSB, the security services, will be following him.

I'll just give you the exact quote. He says, of course our special services need to keep an eye on him, but that doesn't mean he needs to be poisoned. Who needs him anyway? If they wanted to, they probably would've finished it.

So that's pretty ominous there. But it does seem to underscore what he's saying is that, no, there's nothing incorrect about our reporting in terms of this FSB team trailing Navalny's every move for many years.

What he doesn't answer, though, John, the crucial question is, why would you have an FSB team trailing him who have experts in chemical agents and who are in regular contact with the Signal Institute, a laboratory here in Moscow, that is known to research and develop Novichok. That part of the question he did not answer.

CAMEROTA: And if he wasn't poisoned, what happened to him? Why did he almost die? What was -- why was he so, you know, terribly sick?

So has Alexey Navalny responded yet to what Putin said, Clarissa?

WARD: He hasn't responded yet, but it will be interesting to see. I'm sure he would have expected this. And, really, one of the most remarkable things about the way Putin deals with the topic of Alexey Navalny, who is really only the prominent opposition leader in Russia, who is a persistent critic of President Putin, is to never mention his name. So today in the press conference, he kept referring to him only as the patient in the Berlin hospital. He never said Navalny's name out loud.

And I think really that goes to show just how much of a threat Putin actually thinks that Navalny is, the fact that he refuses to say his name, and that he really wants to cast him as somehow being a stooge of the CIA, a stooge for U.S. intelligence services, who he really blames for this whole incident.

BERMAN: You know, I did travel down that long, winding road of Putin's response, looking at the translation. What struck me, in addition to the fact that he never used Navalny's name, like you point out, he really seems to know a lot about what your report says. This is something he has clearly -- has clearly put -- been put in front of him in great detail. It gives you a sense of the impact of this, Clarissa.

WARD: I think that's absolutely true and I think the fact that we didn't hear a word for two and a half days, basically, other than one flippant remark from the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, tells you that they've really been mulling over how to respond to this.

And even the way the question was phrased, and it's important to remember, they really do plant questions with their favorite reporters in the audience, the reporter kind of lumped it in with a bunch of other recent investigative reports, mostly about Putin's family. So he was trying to sort of not draw too much attention to it, to almost make it feel like it's not such a big deal. And you had to really sort of sift through the mud around it to get to the nub of what he was actually saying, which, as I said, appears to essentially confirm our reporting.

CAMEROTA: I don't suppose you were able to ask Putin a question, Clarissa?

WARD: No, surprisingly, perhaps not surprisingly, I should say, my accreditation did not arrive in time for me to participate in this event, which is still going strong more than three hours after it began.

CAMEROTA: Funny how the mail works.

Thank you, Clarissa. Thank you so much for all of this reporting. And, obviously, things happen by the hour, there are new developments. So, please, keep us posted on what happens next.

And NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

And breaking news, the United States shattering every coronavirus record on Wednesday, 3,656 American deaths were reported yesterday. That number is the highest ever, the highest all year. And more Americans are hospitalized this morning than ever before.

[07:00:03]

More than 247,000 new cases were reported yesterday.