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New Day
Soon: Trump Lawyers to Deliver Impeachment Defense; 3 GOP Senators Meet with Trump Lawyers During Impeachment Trial; Source: Doctors Considered Putting Trump on Ventilator During COVID Battle. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 12, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): The evidence is clear. President Trump incited an insurrection that he alone had the power to stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has condemned the violence and doesn't in any way want to be associated with what happened in this violent incident.
REP. DIANA DEGETTE (D-CO): All of these people who have been arrested and charged, their leader must be held accountable as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president continued to say the election was stolen, whether the president felt that's stolen. So, how do you defend that? How do you describe that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The defense has its job cut out for them. They just have a bad client. They just have bad evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world.
[05:00:00]
It is Friday, February 12th, 5:00 in the East. This is a special edition of NEW DAY.
And we have breaking new information about how the former president's defense team will make its case today. It all happens in just a few hours. We're told they will use only a fraction of the 16 hours they have been granted.
Why so short? Why so little to say? When the former president is charged with inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that led to five deaths? As one of our analysts notes, they have bad facts but a good jury. How good?
Well, we're told that Republican Senator Rick Scott was filling out a blank map of Asia during arguments. Maybe Senator Scott can tell us where exactly on that map he has located the U.S. Capitol.
But wait, there's more. Three Republican senators, Ted Cruz among them, huddled with the former president's lawyers to craft strategy. When you're fixing a fight, everyone has to be on the same page.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: House impeachment managers wrap up their case by warning of the potential for future violence if former President Trump is not convicted and barred from ever holding office again. Prosecutors argued that the deadly capitol insurrection would not have happened had the mob not been invited and incited by Trump.
Despite their compelling video evidence, most Republican senators appear ready to acquit Mr. Trump. At one point, our producer witnessed 15 empty seats on the GOP side during the trial.
But let's begin with CNN's Lauren Fox. She is live for us on Capitol Hill.
What do we expect, Lauren?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the House managers used two days to make their case to this jury, these 100 senators. We expect that Trump's team is only going to spend a couple of hours today making their case, and that's because, like you said, many of these minds on Capitol Hill, they're made up. Even though these are supposed to be impartial jurors, we know there are not likely to be 17 Republicans ready to convict Trump as early as tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOX (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump's defense team will have their turn to explain why they believe he is not responsible for the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. And despite having 16 hours over the next two days to present their case, Trump's lawyers could make their defense as short as three hours. That's according to a source close to the former president's legal team.
DAVID SCHOEN, TRUMP'S DEFENSE LAWYER: There's no reason for us to be out there a long time. As I said from the start of this thing, this trial never should have happened.
FOX: They will use their time attempting to show no connection between Trump and the January 6th insurrection and video examples they say demonstrate Democratic leaders using what they call similar language to the former president.
One possible clip is of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking outside the Supreme Court last March, the source close to Trump's team says.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.
FOX: The argument despite no violence after Schumer's speech like it did following Trump's rally on January 6th. The former president's lawyers also meeting with three Republican
senators Thursday night. Even with their roles as jurors, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said they discussed Trump's defense strategy.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I urged the Trump defense lawyers, let's focus on the point I just made, which is that the legal standard in all 16 hours of the House managers' presentation, they spent only 15 minutes on the legal standard for incitement and they created this brand new standard that's found in no criminal code.
FOX: One Democrat calling the efforts by the group of GOP senators desperate.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): They're worried and they should be. In these two days, the House managers have put together a powerful case against this president.
FOX: In their final arguments, the House impeachment managers urging senators to hold Trump accountable.
NEGUSE: We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of. If we let it go unanswered, who's to say it won't happen again?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were invited here!
FOX: Focusing on how many rioters they say were following the former president's direction that day.
DEGETTE: Donald Trump had sent them there. They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president's orders, and we know that because they said so.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought I was following my president. I thought I was following what we were called to do.
FOX: Their presentation including a time line showing how Trump embraced violence even before becoming president, and examples of how Trump showed no remorse after the attack.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: My speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence and everybody to the T thought it was totally appropriate.
[05:05:02]
REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): He knew that people died and his message to all of us was that his conduct was totally appropriate.
FOX: The House prosecutors sending this warning, saying an acquittal for Trump is a dangerous risk.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate, so he gets back into office and it happens again, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOX (on camera): After Trump's team concludes their arguments, which could come, like we said, as soon as today, we expect there would be just about four hours of lawmaker questions, perhaps even fewer than that. Then if there are no witnesses requested by the House managers, there could be a vote on whether or not to convict Trump as soon as tomorrow evening. That's as soon as this trial could wrap up.
Of course, that's one of the shortest impeachment trials for a president in U.S. history -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Lauren Fox, thank you very much.
Joining us, CNN senior political analyst, John Avlon, and Laura Jarrett, anchor of CNN's "EARLY START" who spent years covering the Justice Department.
Laura, three to four hours for defense for a charge of inciting insurrection. Why so short?
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Because it appears they have some of the jurors on their side. As Lauren laid out there, you have three senators not even making an effort to seem impartial, even though they took an oath to protect the Constitution, an oath to be impartial. They're strategizing how to get the client off.
It's shameful. It shouldn't be surprising. These are the same people who cultivated the big lie with the former president, but it's still remarkable.
CAMEROTA: So given that, John, why are we going to go through the charade of a defense? Why don't they just wrap right now? Why don't they say you know how we all feel? The Republicans who have not even attempted to be impartial jurors, why are we putting this on?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think a three hour defense is equivalent to that. Are they going to answer any of the actual evidence put forward? Are they going to acknowledge it and try to rebut it?
No. It sounds they're going to have a couple of hours of what-about- ism. They're going to basically say the evidence doesn't matter and we all know most Republicans aren't going to vote to convict. So, you know, let's call it a day because they don't have a case.
I'll just say acting like the oath they took to do impartial justice to the Constitution is an open joke is a huge insult to the Constitution, the concept of oaths and the Senate. The standards need to be enforced. They need to be reinforced. Treating this whole thing like kabuki is a big mistake.
BERMAN: It strikes me that three to four hours might be a long time to stage a defense which is basically, give me a T, give me an R, give me a U.
AVLON: The cheerleading routine? BERMAN: Yeah. I mean, it doesn't take long to get through that.
Laura, I was interested in the prebuttal of the House managers particularly on the free speech point which, again, the Republicans as they often have succeeded in framing this as a debate in which there is no legal debate. However, what do you expect to hear from the former president's defense, former president's defense, and why is it as the House managers say, flawed?
JARRETT: So, I think that's right. You see Jamie Raskin trying to be a real trial lawyer trying to make the case because he knows what's coming here on the First Amendment. But at its core, the First Amendment really is besides the point here because it's always about making sure that private citizens are protected when the government tries to restrict their speech.
It's about protecting presidents -- protecting public officials from abusing their office, abusing their power, and that's what this case is about. And so, you'll see the defense team try to assert that First Amendment defense, try to say that the president didn't intend for any violence, that the violence wasn't reasonably seen because he happened to use the word peaceful at that rally, ahead of the riot.
But it's not going to cut it. It wouldn't cut it in court and it shouldn't cut it for the jurors here but we know they're baking the case together. We know they're in the room huddled up together all trying to figure out how to piece this together in the best way they can.
CAMEROTA: But, John, they're also going to make the case, I believe, that the other side, Senator Chuck Schumer, Kamala Harris --
AVLON: Right.
CAMEROTA: -- that they've used heated rhetoric in the past. What's wrong with that argument?
AVLON: Because it's what-about-ism argument. We talked about what- about-ism. It's the old, you know, originally KGB technique of deflecting any attack on you by saying what about them? It's literally being enshrined in an impeachment trial right now. They're going to do a mash-up to try to reinforce it.
[05:10:00]
Of course, the big problem is, after all those statements, you remember when the mob rushed Chuck Schumer, right? Oh, no, you didn't because it never happened, you know?
Because for all the time that politicians use incendiary rhetoric as an aside, it's not -- the core appeal to their supporters, as Donald Trump, and we have never in our history had an attack on the capitol by a president's or any politician's support injuries in this way. And that's what's different. If you can't figure this out, you're not paying attention.
JARRETT: I think that's also why it's so compelling to show members of the former president's own party begging him, pleading with him in real time, make it stop.
If this is all just fine as the president said, nothing to see here, I did nothing wrong, then why were members of his own party going on Twitter? I mean, people in his former administration begging him, you were the only one who could make it stop.
We heard from the rioters who said that they were invited there by the president of the United States but we also heard from Congressman -- Chris Christie going on television saying, make it stop.
AVLON: It's such an important point, right? They are calling on him, in some cases literally trying to reach the president who's ignoring them saying, please, tell them to stop. That is an acknowledgment by Republicans in real time that only Donald Trump could stop this crowd.
BERMAN: The problem with the defense of the insurrection, it happens to be the insurrection. The insurrection gets in the way a little bit of that defense.
We have much more to talk about. Don't go far.
Whatever happens in the U.S. Senate, the president's -- former president's legal problems clearly not over. We have new details about the investigation going on in Georgia that very well could lead to criminal charges, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): January 6th was not some unexpected radical break from his normal law abiding and peaceful disposition, this was his state of mind. This was his essential M.O. He knew that egged on by his tweets, his lies, and his promise of a wild time in Washington to guarantee his grip on power, his most extreme followers would show up bright and early ready to attack, ready to engage in violence, ready to fight like hell for their hero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: House impeachment managers wrapping up their arguments by saying that an acquittal will set a terrible precedent for future presidents to try holding on to power by force.
John Avlon, Laura Jarrett are back with us.
John, I thought they did a very effective job of reminding the jurors how long president Trump did invoke violence. It wasn't just January 6th, it was in so many of his campaign rallies in 2016. It was in so many of his tweets. He does use violent rhetoric in a way that primed the crowd.
If you don't think the crowd was primed for violence that day, why did so many show up in tactical gear? Why were they all wearing tactical gear if they didn't expect violence that day?
AVLON: They came dressed for war. The message boards made it very clear. It was part of a pattern of incitement and violent rhetoric the president set even during his first campaign right through. This was part of his strategy.
If you don't believe it, ask yourself this, would the attack on the Capitol have occurred if Trump wasn't there, if Trump hadn't been encouraging them to be there, if he didn't give a speech? Of course not.
And so, every Republican senator who votes to acquit is basically endorsing the president's lies, endorsing this rhetoric and violence and they're normalizing what happened. They can come up with all kinds of ornate excuses for why it's not a case, that's a lie too.
BERMAN: Flex coats are the new tambourine at demonstrations, it turns out.
AVLON: That's the worst band ever, John.
BERMAN: Ted Lieu had a line which hung out there. I'm not afraid of the former president running, I'm afraid of the president losing because we see what happens there.
Laura, I just want to one more time, you've been eloquent about this, the witness thing. I know at this point it's open and shut, that no one is going to call witnesses, Republicans don't want them because it would prolong the trial and probably embarrass them. Democrats don't want them because it would get in the way of the Biden agenda.
I just -- I'm just not so sure. I'm not so sure that's the case. If the goal is the historical record, why not get them on record? Joe Biden has been pushing through the relief plan. There's been a lot of progress over the last few days. I'm not sure I get it.
JARRETT: If you're going to do it, why not just do it, right? If you are going to lay out the historical record, what do you have to lose by calling one of the black officers who repeatedly heard the N-word that day, why not call one of the officers who had his eye gouged out? There are so many instances of testimony that you just would not be able to sit there and doodle through.
But instead, I think they feel they made their case through argument and the video is so compelling. I think that they feel like their work is done here. But I don't see what they lose. If they think that -- if they think they're going to lose the case anyway, why not make their case to the American people and lay out that case for history.
AVLON: I think that's such an important point, and I agree. This is the window of opportunity. Already more reporting is coming out about Trump's state of mind, whether he knew Pence was in the capitol under attack when he sent the tweet.
What about getting people from the White House? I know there's a risk, but what was the president's state of mind? Was he enjoying the attack on the capitol? If so, why? Let's get the record out and make people defend it if they can.
CAMEROTA: That's an interesting point. Call their bluff. Call the defense team's bluff. What Lindsey Graham said if you call one wall -- one witness, it's open Pandora's box.
[05:20:03]
AVLON: Whatever, Lindsey.
CAMEROTA: We look forward to that.
BERMAN: When you opened Pandora's box, what you got was the truth, by the way. He's frickin like recollection of what that all is about, it drives me crazy. That's an aside, sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: John may have outbursts throughout the show. I just want to warn the viewers.
But all of that, John, it sounds like at least one mind, Senator Bill Cassidy, from what he has said, maybe we can play what he said yesterday, he -- it sounds like -- has listened, believe it or not, to the evidence and that he has been swayed by it. I think we have that sound. Listen to what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): The president continued to say the election was stolen. Well, the president built that story. How do you defend that? How do you describe that? Because again, the people will be telling me that Dominion rigged their machines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Do you think there might be other surprises, John, of other people.
AVLON: Yeah, I do. I don't want to -- you know, Cassidy is doing exactly what impartial jurors are supposed to do. He's actually fulfilling the oath he took. That should be the norm.
The cynicism of trying to conspire with the defense lawyers should be the aberration. I don't know -- look, everybody knows it's a 2/3 bar. It's very high. It's never been hit in American history.
But this idea that this whole thing has been over it started and we shouldn't pay attention, buying into the B.S. and the cynicism. More senators should be acting exactly like Cassidy, look at the evidence, ask the questions.
BERMAN: So, whatever happens this weekend, for the former president, he's not out of trouble. The trouble might just be beginning. I want to play for you some new comments from the Fulton County district attorney, this is in Georgia, who has announced an investigation that clearly involves the former president. This has to do with but not only the phone call he made to the Georgia secretary of state trying to get him to find votes that didn't exist. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: What I know about investigations is they're kind of like peeling back an onion and as you go through each layer you learn different things so, yes, the investigation seems that it will go past just this one phone call.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Laura, the president's got no -- the former president's got no protection here in a sense. I mean, this is something he's going to have to defend himself from if it goes forward.
JARRETT: This is where things could get real very fast. Also because she's empanelling a grand jury as soon as next month, which means people are going to have to go in front of the grand jury and tell the truth or risk being charged with perjury. She can call Mark Meadows and find out, what exactly did Trump say not just on that call with Raffensperger, but on other calls. We know that she's widened her scope to look at calls with Governor Kemp, calls with another top elections investigator where Trump apparently said, find the fraud.
We know that she's also looking at why was the top prosecutor in Atlanta ousted after the president -- former president complained to the Justice Department that enough wasn't being done on election fraud. So, I think she has -- she has a host of evidence in front of her and the benefit of a grand jury so people can't squirm out of this.
CAMEROTA: And a host of charges that she's looking at, John.
JARRETT: Exactly.
CAMEROTA: I mean, and Laura.
I mean, everything up to racketeering. These are going to be serious if the grand jury decides that.
AVLON: Yeah, because, you know, you're not supposed to have a president or anybody call to try to intimidate a secretary of state to find votes. That's mob boss behavior. We got a little bit numb to it and normalize during the Trump era. You know, also, as the call you might have to answer for, Lindsey Graham.
BERMAN: Yeah.
AVLON: So --
BERMAN: Under penalty of perjury is such a big problem I think for -- I'm sorry, John, I didn't mean to interrupt.
AVLON: No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying that like if the Senate is going to dismiss its duty to try to find the truth, ultimately, the law may catch up with them in one way or another.
BERMAN: Yeah, and again, the under oath part for all of them having to do with any of this, that's a real issue.
JARRETT: You start to see people act in their self interests.
CAMEROTA: All right. That will be interesting.
Laura, John, thank you both very much.
The Trump administration and President Trump's doctors spent weeks downplaying and misleading the public about the former president's battle with coronavirus, but now, we are learning that President Trump was much more sick than we initially knew. The brand-new details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:28:53]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And also to move up the delivery dates with an additional 200 million vaccines to the end of July, faster than we expected. That means we're now on track to have enough supply for 300 million Americans by the end of July.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That is President Biden announcing the government has purchased enough vaccine supplies to inoculate most Americans by mid to late summer. For the first time, more than 2 million Americans were vaccinated yesterday. That number keeps on rising.
Now this comes as CNN has learned that the former president was in much worse shape than previously known. Frankly, he was in much worse shape than his doctors told us. They lied to us about his condition.
CNN's Boris Sanchez live in West Palm Beach, Florida, with all of this reporting -- Boris.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Yeah, as the former president's attorneys get set to defend him during the Senate impeachment trial today, we're learning that Donald Trump's bout with coronavirus was far more grave than the White House and his doctors made public at the time. Sources indicate that Donald Trump had such difficulty breathing that there were discussions about putting him on a ventilator.
Meantime, "The New York Times" is reporting.
