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New Day

White House and Republicans Far Apart on Details of Pandemic Relief; House Democrats Move Quickly to Remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Committee Assignments; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Says, Loony Lies Spread by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Are a Cancer on GOP. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 02, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Five straight days of negative test.

[07:00:02]

But you have to imagine that's the NFL's biggest fear right now, either these teams having now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: A very different year, to be sure. Andy Scholes, thanks so much for the reporting. I appreciate that.

New Day continues right now.

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

A battle for the soul of the Republican Party is playing out on Capitol Hill this morning. Last night, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell condemned Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's lies and conspiracy theories as, quote, a cancer on the Republican Party, though he never actually used her name. McConnell says he's had enough of what he calls loony lies.

So, what will Leader Kevin McCarthy do now?

Meanwhile, on Monday we saw this, a cordial bipartisan meeting at the White House. Don't adjust your sets. This really happened. President Biden and a group of ten Republican senators compared their plans for economic relief. Huge gaps remain between Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion package and the Republican's $600 billion counteroffer. We have new details about what happens next in those negotiations even as Democrats prepare to introduce the framework for passing their version without Republicans.

Now, John, you can take it.

BERMAN: That was the flash frame in Who Framed Roger Rabbit right there.

An important day in the impeachment trial of the former president, we're hearing for the first time from the president's new, maybe more affordable, impeachment lawyers. Yes, CNN and others reporting one reason for the split with the old team was the price tag. The new attorney has unveiled new details about the defense even as Republicans issue a warning about the one case they say the president's team should not make.

First, let's get a quick update on the relief talks. Jeremy Diamond is at the White House. And, Jeremy, there was this genuinely friendly meeting between the president and Republican senators, and that in and of itself is something. I don't want to diminish that at all. But where do the talks go next on a relief bill?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. President Biden having his first meeting with lawmakers at the White House and choosing to have that first meeting with these ten Republican senators, trying to show that he is serious about reaching out to Republicans and attempting to get a bipartisan deal, but at the same time, no clear signs that they are any closer to an agreement. Both the White House and those Republican senators saying that it was a good faith discussion and that there were areas of agreement and they agreed to talk more.

Here is Senator Susan Collins talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): It was a very good exchange of views. I wouldn't say that we came together on a package tonight. No one expected that in a two-hour meeting. But what we did agree to do is to follow up and talk further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And there's going to need to be a lot of follow-up if, indeed, they're going to reach some kind of a bipartisan deal. Just look at how far apart these two sides are. You look at the White House's plan, $1.9 trillion compared to just a third of that cost, $618 billion for the Republican plan. You see a difference on the size of the stimulus checks that they are both proposing. And also state and local aid, a key Democratic priority, $350 billion in the White House's proposal compared to zilch, zero dollars in the Republican proposal here.

Now, even as these two sides had that discussion in the Oval Office and you can see the optics of bipartisanship, very clear that they are no closer to actually reaching a bipartisan deal. The White House reiterating that President Biden made clear he intends to act boldly and urgently and if necessary through that reconciliation process.

House Democrats, Senate Democrats both moving forward to set up that process. The White House making clear that Republicans can join on board, but, again, all signs pointing to the fact that Democrats could pass this $1.9 trillion package simply along party lines. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Okay. Jeremy, please keep us posted if you get any developments from the White House. So today is the deadline for President Trump's defense team to submit their response to that article of impeachment that charges the former president with inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

[07:05:01]

Sources tell CNN that Mr. Trump's defense will challenge the very constitutionality of the trial.

Joining us now with her reporting, CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, she's a Washington Correspondent for The New York Times. Maggie, great to see you.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.

CAMEROTA: What else could they say other than charging the constitutionality of trying a former president, what else -- what other trick do they have up their sleeve? And, number two, this one has the benefit of the fact that they know that 45 senators agree with this. 45 senators already said they don't think that it's constitutional.

HABERMAN: That's absolutely, true, and, Alisyn, that is a different vote than the vote that's going to be taken on whether to convict or not convict on the articles of impeachment, but it is true that the former president's team is feeling very good about the fact that there was this vote on this procedural matter that Rand Paul brought up 45 Republicans voted saying or arguing the unconstitutionality of holding this trial while the president is now no longer president. They are going to talk about that in terms of their argument.

They're also going to talk about whether, and this became clear in something David Schoen, his new lead lawyer, said to The Atlanta Constitution, they're going to make clear that they don't believe that his language rose to the level of incitement of violence.

Now, remember the main charge in the House articles is incitement of insurrection. Not everyone around the former president thinks that it's actually worth debating the substance of the article. Some think that that actually just elevates it and it's not a good idea to go there. Schoen clearly is going to go there.

And I think part of it is because the former president feels like he wants to be defended. He has continued telling people he doesn't think he did anything wrong and he has continued arguing his baseless claims of election fraud. That is not going to be argued. But I think if he got his way, that would be included.

BERMAN: I'm an avid reader of reporting for Maggie Haberman. One of the things I did though, Maggie, was you say the president is still -- former president is still --

HABERMAN: It takes getting used to it. Yes.

BERMAN: The former president is still obsessed with the election lie that he told. Obsessed how and how might that manifest itself in the impeachment trial and what kind of pressure does that put on Schoen and Castor?

HABERMAN: He continues to talk about it, John. He tells advisers that, you know, it was stolen from me, right? He was saying this literally up until the final hours in office. He has continued saying things like that to people since. He treats every moment, and you know this, you both know this from watching him for a long time, he treats every public forum moment as if it's a fresh opportunity to sell. And that is, in his mind, what he would like to see.

Schoen has made clear and Castor, Bruce Castor, the other lawyer, made clear that's not appropriate. That's not something they're going to argue here. That is something that if they did argue that, it would really risk alienating a lot of Republican senators who don't want to hear that argued again, who do believe privately even if they don't say it publicly that what the president was doing fomented a climate or that riot occurred.

So I don't think you're going to see the falsehoods about the election told again. I do think you could see some reference to procedural changes or irregularities here and there. I don't think you're going to see a broad-based argument.

CAMEROTA: But, I mean, his lawyer's argument is that his words don't rise to the level of the incitement, somebody should tell the mob that because it sounds like the Democrats, the impeachment managers are going to just play the words of the rioters who say that they were taking their cues from President Trump.

HABERMAN: Well, that's exactly right. And, look, again, as I said, that's the main argument, and that's the main thrust in the articles of impeachment. They're going to argue, the former president's team, that the merits of that case in particular are not true. They're not just going to argue on the procedural grounds. They're going to say that, legally, there is no culpability here. And since that's the thrust of the argument the Democrats make their case, the former president has a right to respond.

Again, that's the meat of what the case is about. Not everybody around the former president thinks it's worth even going there. Some of them would refer just to argue on the procedural issue related to constitutionality.

BERMAN: So, Maggie, something remarkable happened in Congress yesterday where Mitch McConnell, whether veiled or not, made a direct reference to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican member of Congress from Georgia, basically called her loony and a cancer on the party. We're going to talk a lot more about that in our next few segments.

But where it dovetails with your reporting, is we're talking about Mitch McConnell here. We're talking about what Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader, has chosen to weigh in on and where he has chosen to use his political capital.

And you have got this unbelievable reporting in The New York Times that you and others have put together, doing piece by piece through the former president's lie about the election. And one of the things you guys talk about is this period that McConnell really helped create the permission structure McConnell helped create after November 3rd for the president to begin to spread his lies.

So Mitch McConnell now is talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene, and that may be great, according to some people, but he let the president go on and on and on, spreading the lie which may have contributed to the insurrection on January 6th.

[07:10:11]

What did you find?

HABERMAN: So, a couple of things, John. Look, in our reporting, we were reporting this in real-time too, as were you guys. Mitch McConnell was concerned about two Senate run-offs in Georgia. There is concern among Republicans about the idea that they need Donald Trump to turn out base voters. On the other hand, Donald Trump is telling voters this election was rigged. It's not a great motivator for voters to keep voting.

So that was a lot of where McConnell's head was. He was also getting reassurances that were just not based on anything from Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in- law and senior adviser that the president, at the time, the president would eventually bow to reality and recognize what was going on, that obviously didn't happen. You saw McConnell early in December say that Joe Biden was the president, made clear that he was going to welcome them.

It is true you did not see a clear denunciation of a lot of what the president was saying by a lot of Republicans until January 6th, until the hours after that insurrection. And I think that is something that the party is going to grapple with going forward.

CAMEROTA: And do we think that Mitch McConnell's words last night about Marjorie Taylor Greene, though he didn't use her name, as John points out, will that hold sway with Kevin McCarthy today if he's going to meet with her?

HABERMAN: I certainly think that Kevin McCarthy is concerned about what the congresswoman has been saying. It's not -- I don't think that he wants to see Liz Cheney targeted, as former President Trump has been doing. I do think he will say these things. It's just not clear how much power McCarthy is actually going to exercise, especially because she does represent a very active wing of the Republican Party right now. And that wing has grown since Donald Trump was in office.

I do think it becomes easier for McConnell to do it because it's not his conference.

BERMAN: So, Maggie, we talked a lot about what Bruce Castor and David Schoen, the new impeachment lawyers for the former president, will do. Then there's the old team that split with the former president. And there had been reporting that one of the reasons was because the former president was pushing them to spread the election lie. But now, there is other new reporting from CNN and others that money came into it also. It just seems -- well, explain what happened there.

HABERMAN: Sure. So, a couple of things, John. There are a lot of reasons this didn't work out. One of which was there was absolutely no chemistry between the former president and Butch Bowers, which is not something most people prize in their legal representation or that everyone does but it's certainly something Donald Trump does in all of his relationships. He did want people talking about election fraud, and that was a sticking point.

But it's also true that, according to reported first by Axios, which we have confirmed, that the team that Butch Bowers was leading had initially cited a figure of about $250,000 but then they came back for an expanded figure of representing a number of -- paying for a number of lawyers as well as paying for expenses and reimbursements and research, and it was closer to $3 million. And the president did not like that -- the former president, excuse me.

Donald Trump tends to see all money he has raised for electoral purposes as his money. He repeatedly call it my money when he was talking about the RNC or he was talking about his own campaign. The money in his legal defense fund is not his money. It was raised by donors but he sees it as his and he didn't want to pay that price and it added to the pile of other reasons why this didn't work out.

CAMEROTA: And we have just a few seconds. How much is the new team charging him?

HABERMAN: I don't know yet. I suspect we'll find out when we see the receipts with the FEC at the other end.

BERMAN: Good luck getting paid. That's all I can say. Maggie Haberman, thanks so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate it.

HABERMAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, House Democrats have issued an ultimatum to Republican leadership over Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. We have a lawmaker behind the effort to remove Greene from her committees next and the father of a student killed in the Parkland massacre.

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[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing new backlash over her insane conspiracies and lies. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell condemning Greene's action, calling it a, quote, cancer for the Republican Party, end quote.

House Democrats issuing an ultimatum to force Congresswoman Greene to be stripped of her committee assignments, including the Education Committee, where they say they will take action.

Joining us is Fred Guttenberg. His daughter, Jaime, was one of the 17 people killed in the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He is also the co-founder of Orange Ribbons for Jaime. Also with us, Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch, who represents the Florida district that includes Parkland. Gentlemen, great to see both of you.

Fred, what are you calling for? What do you want Congressman Kevin McCarthy to do today when he will reportedly meet with Marjorie Taylor Greene?

FRED GUTTENBERG, FATHER OF PARKLAND VICTIM JAIME GUTTENBERG: First, good morning and thank you. I want Kevin McCarthy to grow a spine today. He needs to do more than talk. If we learned one thing, what her comments yesterday, she's really not going to change what she has to say about anything. Kevin McCarthy needs to tell her to leave.

You know, we're in the middle now 17-day lead up to February 14th. And every one of these days, we're going to honor one of those who was lost on February 14th. Today is the day where my local community is actually going to honor Jaime. It happened. It is real. And while she's making comments that really are making no sense to try and undo some of the damage, she can't.

Kevin McCarthy, if he -- if Kevin McCarthy wants to actually have any chance of being a leader going forward, he needs to get rid of her today. This is not an option.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene has done -- we've seen a lot of stuff that has come out that she has done. I don't know what's more dangerous.

[07:20:01]

I don't know what's more reprehensible and disgusting. She's threatened the life of Nancy Pelosi. She's promised violence against President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

As we know from the tape that Fred, himself, put out on social media, she chased after David Hogg, one of the student survivors of Parkland, to heckle him and to threaten him, basically.

And so what do -- first of all, what's taken Kevin McCarthy so long, do you think, Congressman? And what do you want to see happen today?

REP. TED DEUTCH (D-FL): Well, good morning, Alisyn, and it's good to be with Fred always. I can't tell you what's in Kevin's mind. I don't understand the lack of leadership. I don't understand the refusal to acknowledge that when someone engages in conspiracy theories and dangerous racist and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic lies, when someone harasses kids who were trying to keep their fellow classmates safe, and insults the memory of the loved ones lost by Fred and so many others around the country, I don't understand why Kevin McCarthy can't simply say, there's just no place for this person on any committee but especially on the House Education Committee, whose job is to help keep our kids safe.

So he's got to make the decision. It's a line in the sand moment for him and his caucus. But if he refuses to do the right thing, then someone has got to stand up for the integrity of the House, the memory of the lives lost and for people like Fred. And that's what we're going to do, if Kevin McCarthy won't act, we will.

CAMEROTA: And what would you do, Congressman? What can Democrats do?

DEUTCH: Well, Kevin McCarthy has been given opportunity to take action on his own, to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, so that she can't spew these dangerous lies and she can't talk about school shootings as false flag events from her perch on the Education Committee. If he doesn't do that, then the House is going to move forward on its own to strip her of those committee assignments.

I hope that he will act. But if he doesn't, we will.

CAMEROTA: And, Congressman, what about her warning? So, Marjorie Taylor Greene is unapologetic. She said she will never apologize. And what about her warning on Twitter yesterday where she says, if Democrats remove me from my committees, I can assure them the precedent they are setting will be used extensively against members on their side once we regain the majority after the 2022 elections. And we will regain the majority, make no mistake about that.

I mean, her warning, who knows if they'll regain the majority, but her warning is Democrats should be careful of what they do now because revenge could come back to haunt you all at some point.

DEUTCH: Alisyn, can we stop talking about politics for a second? We're worried about statements that she's making, about what she's going to do as a member of Congress. Can we go back to what happened here? The fact that she's been spewing these dangerous, hateful, awful, conspiracy theories that she harassed kids, that she insults the memory of people whose lives have been taken at the hands of killers through gun violence, which Congress must and will act on? That's what this is about.

So, we don't have time for discussions about politics later. Right now, we're calling on Kevin McCarthy to do the right thing, to be a leader, frankly, and I didn't think I would ever say this, to listen to Mitch McConnell and acknowledge that someone who does everything that we've been talking about just doesn't belong on the House Education Committee setting policies that are going to influence our kids.

CAMEROTA: Fred, how do you, as a father, deal with this? You're Jaime's father. How do you deal with somebody who is an elected official saying that these things didn't happen, that Parkland, maybe it was a false flag, that maybe it was some sort of grand scheme, that maybe Sandy Hook didn't happen? I mean, what happens to your head when you hear somebody say something like that?

GUTTENBERG: You know what, Alisyn, and I think you gotten to know me over the years, I stand up and I call it out. You asked about her warning. Her warning is so meaningless and so irrelevant and who cares. This is a woman who has said because of my last name, I carry a laser. This is a woman who has called some of our nation's most amazing kids retards. Who cares about her warning? This is a woman who has said my daughter, who is on that photo behind me was a false flag, who Said Sandy hook was a false flag, who said Las Vegas was a false flag and has a conspiracy theory built around all of it as well.

[07:25:03]

Her warning is meaningless. It's irrelevant. She should be shown her way back to Georgia and that's where she should stay. She should not be anywhere around the halls of Congress.

CAMEROTA: Fred, Congressman, thank you both very much for being here. Fred, we're thinking of you, as we do so often, but particularly as February 14th approaches this year. We really appreciate you always being available and coming on to talk about this. We know it isn't easy.

GUTTENBERG: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes a very personal revelation as she tells the story about what she experienced during the attack on the Capitol, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning. This is what Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, quote, loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country. Somebody who has suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre- staged, and that the Clintons JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality.

[07:30:08]