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New Day

Trump Faces Mounting Legal Trouble Post-Impeachment; Biden Pushes Congress to Act Quickly on $1.9 Trillion Relief Plan; New York Governor Faces Impeachment Calls Over Allegations of Cover-Up. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 15, 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 ANCHOR: Express still wearing his fire suit.

[07:00:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It looks like he was in a sensible vehicle there as opposed -- as supposed to the --

SCHOLES: (INAUDIBLE) mini SUV, let's go.

BERMAN: I know. It's like minivan. I always like to see what a NASCAR driver drives, a sensible vehicle in real life. Andy Scholes, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

New Day continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is a special holiday edition of New Day. Alisyn is off, Erica Hill with me, which makes it just extra special.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: Gee, thanks.

BERMAN: Happy Presidents' Day.

HILL: Happy Presidents' Day to you.

BERMAN: You got me anything?

HILL: No.

BERMAN: We should exchange gifts on Presidents' Day.

So this morning, the Senate trial is over but the legal problems for the former president just beginning. One of our legal analysts you're going to hear from in just a moment says that on a scale of 1 to 10, the former president's level of concern should be a 10, his financial dealings in New York under scrutiny, a criminal investigation for his attempt to overturn the election in Georgia.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell suggests his dereliction of duty during the Capitol insurrection was potentially criminal. And now lawmakers in both parties are calling for a commission to investigate the Capitol attack modeled on the September 11th panel. HILL: With the impeachment trial over though, President Biden, of course, looking to turn the page with a focus on getting his massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package through Congress. And researchers, as we're looking at coronavirus, have now identified seven strains of the virus here in the United States, many of them showing the same mutation as the variants first identified in the U.K. and South Africa.

We are also following breaking news on the weather front, a powerful winter storm gripping much of the country, frigid temperatures, scary conditions out there on the roads, more than 2 million customers making up this morning without power. We're going to follow all of that.

We begin this morning with those mounting legal troubles for Donald Trump. Joining us now, CNN Analyst Maggie Haberman, New York Times Washington Correspondent, also with us, CNN Legal Analyst Ross Garber, an impeachment law professor at Tulane Law School. Good to see both of you this morning.

And I think, Ross, as John pointed out, this -- as you're looking at this, you're saying a 10 out of 10 in terms of concern for his legal troubles, specifically involving the Manhattan D.A.'s Office. Why?

ROSS GARBER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, so that's where I'd be focused. And I've been representing public officials and former public officials and executives for decades in these kinds of cases. And as I look at the Manhattan D.A.'s investigation, if I were representing Trump, I would be very worried.

And, you know, there's this case that hasn't been finally resolved about getting the president's financial information, but already we know from court filings the Manhattan district attorney has already gotten a lot of the Trump organization's financial records.

And the reason I'd be concerned is these kinds of cases are investigated and brought all the time. And the focus for me, if I were representing Trump, would be on a kind of case where, on the one hand, there are representations made to tax authorities, which if you lie to tax authorities, that is a crime, on the one hand. And representations made to business concerns, for example, to get loans. If you intentionally lie about financial information to get loans, that can be a crime too.

And what prosecutors wind up doing is comparing representations about financial information made to tax authorities with representations about financial information made to, say, get loans. And if those things don't jive, that's a potentially very big issue. Again, those kinds of cases are investigated and brought all the time. I'd be very worried about that kind of thing if I were representing Trump.

BERMAN: Maggie Haberman, based on your reporting, what has the former president most concerned?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That case, in fact, John, the one in New York, the one in Manhattan by the district attorney has vexed them for some time. They were initially happy that they were able to get a stay on the question of whether his tax returns would have to be able to be turned over through subpoena to the district attorney. That has not been decided yet.

But as Ross says, the district attorney has gotten a bunch of other information and he has zeroed in on a couple of areas that the former president has real estate holdings, in a couple of ways in which he fashioned those real estate holdings. I think that that is the case that has not just the former president but his family and the Trump organization most concerned.

But there are a bunch of other cases, not just active right now. There is the potential the former president was warned while the events were unfolding on January 6th and after for civil litigation related to it. So he has a lot more potentially coming his way that we don't even see right now.

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HILL: The possibility of that civil litigation, Ross, how concerning should that be from a legal perspective?

GARBER: So Donald Trump is an expert in civil litigation. He's been sued umpteen times over the years. And so while I think if I were him I'd, be a little bit concerned about those kinds of things. He's very accustomed to dealing with lawsuits. I think the bigger issues are the criminal investigations. New York, but we also know about additional criminal investigations going on, for example, in Georgia over the -- over the call with Georgia's secretary of state. I'd be a little bit concerned about that one too.

BERMAN: Maggie, what are the former president's plans now? We saw a statement he put out on Saturday after the Senate did not convict him. But what is he going to do? There was a question about whether or not he would hold a news conference in Mar-a-Lago.

HABERMAN: He's not going to do that right now, John. It's possible that it will get put on. There's always -- he's still Donald Trump. There is still the danger in saying he's not going to do something and then having him change his mind because he sees news reports saying he's not going to do it. But as of last night, the plan for a press conference was off or at least discussions about it were off.

And I think that he has communicated at least to some advisers that he is going -- he sees the value in laying low for the moment. How long he can keep that up, we'll see. I do think without Twitter to lure him back into speaking constantly, I think it has been easier for him to stay out of sight.

HILL: Interesting. He may be laying low but we are seeing other names within the Trump orbit floated. And I'm thinking most recently of Lara Trump, of course, as we're looking at what's happening with the censure with Senator Burr in North Carolina, which is on the heels of Ivanka Trump being floated as a possible Senate candidate in Florida.

How much of that is really about, Maggie, keeping the Trump brand out there and keeping this strong press on the party?

HABERMAN: So just for chronology purposes, Lara Trump actually was thinking about running for the race long before this Ivanka Trump in North Carolina, along before this Ivanka Trump in Florida float began.

Look, it's impossible to discount that the Trumps are not doing some of this for publicity. I do think that Lara Trump was looking seriously at that race. I'd still think it's less likely than likely that she ends up running. She has told people she'll decide in the next couple of months and I think the events of January 6th, as our reporting showed, sort of soured her interest in doing this and I think made the Trumps recognize they would have a problem. But as time as gone on, things have gotten easier.

In terms of Ivanka Trump, I think it's much less likely that she runs, but it is interesting how concerned allies of Marco Rubio appear to be about it. And it just speaks to the hold they still have on the party.

BERMAN: It seems like every sentence, every tweet that comes out of his mouth is specifically designed just in case Ivanka Trump wants to run in Florida.

Ross, one of the ideas that has been floated by some Republicans but mostly Democrats since Saturday night has been the idea of a September 11th-style commission to investigate everything that happened on January 6th. I wonder what you think that would end up finally or what would be the goal of that and what jeopardy would the former president be under there as well?

GARBER: Yes, so one of the things that we didn't know before we know now is that an impeachment investigation is often not a great way to actually find facts. And I think we could all list probably a dozen questions that we still have about what happened on January 6th and about the president's role both before, during and then also after. And so, you know, a congressional investigation is the way to kind of get those facts and get them out to the public.

Based on what we know right now, I'm not -- if I were Trump, I probably wouldn't be that worried about a criminal investigation of Trump in that case. But there are more facts that could come out and that would be my concern if I were -- if I were representing Donald Trump is, you know, we don't know what we don't know and the more facts that get unearthed. For example, did the president -- former president have advance notice of potential violence? That would be an issue that if I were him I'd be concerned if he has got reason to be concerned, if he knows the truth, right?

BERMAN: Maggie, just very quickly, what level of concern do you think there is in the former president's orbit of that type of investigation?

HABERMAN: I think there is concern about it. I think that has continued to be the case. We know that the Washington district attorney is continuing to look at charging the former president. They are aware that there is a lot that's unknown. I do think there will be some kind of investigation in the House that they are also concerned about because people have not been called under oath yet.

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BERMAN: Yes. Some of this stuff is knowable, right? I mean, what was the president watching? What did you hear him say, that kind of stuff. If you could ever get that testimony, we would learn a lot more. Maggie Haberman, as always thank you for your reporting. Ross Garber, we appreciate you being with us as well.

HILL: All right. Now, a push to move forward, the Biden administration really looking to push through, of course, this coronavirus relief bill, $1.9 trillion, pushing lawmakers to make that happen quickly. CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House this morning with more. Jeremy, good morning.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. I can tell you in speaking with White House officials over the last week that they were focused on trying to show that they were governing amid this impeachment trial. But at the same time very much looking forward to that trial being over so that they could reclaim the spotlight, and that is what you will see President Biden doing this week now that the impeachment trial of his predecessor is in the books.

We will see the president tomorrow at a CNN town hall in the state of Wisconsin talking about coronavirus relief, the importance of it for the economy as well as for the health crisis brought about by this pandemic. And then on Thursday, you will see the president travel to Michigan to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing site as well. And you can be sure that the subtext, perhaps more than the subtext, more overtly than that, will be the coronavirus relief package that President Biden is pushing.

Now, to be clear, over the last week, we have already seen House Democrats working through this impeachment trial to actually write President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package into legislation. We saw the meat on the bones of those $1,400 stimulus checks, of expanding affordable childcare as well.

This week, we're expected to see the House Budget Committee actually begin to assemble all of those different bills into one piece of legislation in order for that to move forward to the Senate. At the same time, President Biden will be working to drum up public support for this package. Last week, we saw him meet with bipartisan mayors and governors to talk about the bipartisan support that exists perhaps not in Washington yet but certainly around the country for this coronavirus relief bill.

But, again, the timeline is really ticking here. 27 days before March 14th, which is the crucial deadline that the White House and House Democrats are looking at, that is when those federal supplemental unemployment benefits expire, and so 27 days to not only get this through the House but then to have it go through the Senate. And then, again, if the Senate passes a different version of the bill, it has to go back to the House. So 27 days really not that much time but the White House certainly working towards that goal. Erica?

HILL: The clock is ticking. Jeremy, thank you.

A quick programming for you, President Joe Biden will join Anderson Cooper for his first presidential town hall live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that's tomorrow night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern right here on CNN.

BERMAN: All right. We do have breaking news, more than 2 million customers without power in Texas alone this morning, as frigid temperatures there and snow paralyzing the area. Ice has knocked out power and made driving conditions treacherous. Temperatures in Texas lowest the state has experienced in decades. Wind chill in part of the state below zero this morning.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers with all the breaking details, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, very, very cold air. Oklahoma, all the way to Minnesota, and as far south as Houston, Texas, where right now the wind chill is 3 degrees below zero at Houston hobby. A little warmer closer to the coast, but that's no relief. Over a million square miles with wind chill warnings going on right now.

Temperatures departure from normal, almost 50 degrees below normal in Oklahoma for the high temperatures today alone and record lows at least -- well, still going on right now, temperatures are still going down. And we have ice and we have snow.

And we have rolling blackouts in Texas. The 2 million people you talked about in Texas are rolling blackouts trying to stabilize the grid because so many people need the electricity. There is the snow right now. It is snowing in Louisiana. It will be icing in Nashville later today.

Here is what the forecast looks like. That pink is the ice. So, Mississippi, Alabama, Nashville, all the way up even to South Lexington, Kentucky, ice today. To the north, heavy snow, Cincinnati, Columbus, all the way back up even toward Buffalo. There may be even some ice in New York City today. Temperatures will be very close to 32 and it's going to try to rain.

There it goes for your Tuesday. Things are finally gone by then, but the ice is coming down. Some spots will have one-half of an inch of ice on the ground by later today. And the snow comes in on the north side of that ice. Not one system, but two.

This is finally by Friday afternoon, those purple areas over a foot of snow. The cold is in place. Now the moisture is trying to get there and it's going to get there. Ice and snow, treacherous and power out when your wind chill is 10 below zero, it doesn't take long for your apartment or house to really, really get cold.

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BERMAN: I'm done with it. I'm done. I'm done with winter at this point, Chad. It had to go. It's time to go away. I appreciate you being with us. Keep us posted because this is a very dangerous situation for a big part of the country this morning. MYERS: Absolutely.

BERMAN: So Republicans in New York State calling for the impeachment of Governor Andrew Cuomo, and some leading Democrats now very upset also amid growing allegations of a cover-up of the scope of nursing home deaths. That's next.

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HILL: New York Republicans -- actually, there's a bipartisan effort, really upset with Governor Andrew Cuomo. Some Republicans calling for him to be impeached. This is on the heels of Democrats calling for him to be stripped of his emergency powers amid upon allegations that Cuomo's administration covered up the scope of nursing home deaths in New York State due to coronavirus.

CNN's Athena Jones joining us this morning with the very latest. Athena, good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. This is only just beginning. The New York Assembly Republican leader is now calling on the Assembly's Democratic leadership to call a special session this week to discuss expanding those expansive emergency powers you just mentioned, powers that were granted to the governor during the pandemic.

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This is something that both parties have said they would support.

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EMILIE MUNSON, ALBANY TIMES UNION: This is a very big deal.

JONES (voice over): New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing calls he be investigated. State Republicans going so far as to say he should be impeached.

NICK LANGWORTHY, NEW YORK GOP CHAIRMAN: The gravity of this cover-up cannot be overstated.

JONES: This after his top aide admitted to withholding data for months that revealed thousands more confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths of long-term care facility residents than previously disclosed.

MUNSON: Throughout the pandemic, you know, between his Emmy for his coronavirus press briefings to Governor Cuomo's book, to his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Governor Cuomo has been held up as the model governor in his coronavirus response, even though New York was so hard hit by the virus early on.

JONES: But now, according to a transcript of a private video call, Melissa DeRosa told Democratic state lawmakers that in response to questions, basically, we froze because then we were in a position where we weren't sure of what we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you guys, what we start saying was going to be used against us.

14 Democratic state senators saying in a statement, Cuomo should be stripped of his emergency powers. State Republicans echoing their call and going further.

LANGWORTHY: The Cuomo administration purposely lied and withheld evidence and information to avoid prosecution.

Andrew Cuomo must be prosecuted and Andrew Cuomo must be impeached if this evidence exists.

JONES: Some 15,000 residents in facilities like nursing homes died, according to the Department of Health, about a third of all COVID deaths statewide. The true death toll was revealed after New York Attorney General and Cuomo ally Letitia James issued a scathing report accusing the state of undercounting deaths in these facilities by some 50 percent by only publicly reporting those who died on site, not residents who were admitted to hospitals and died there or elsewhere.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, it's -- people died.

I wish none of it happened. I wish there was no COVID. I wish no old people died.

JONES: Cuomo has faced criticism over a March 2020 state health department advisory that required nursing homes to admit and readmit patients with COVID, something critics say may have further fueled the outbreak in those facilities. Cuomo has said the policy was in line with federal guidance.

DANIEL ARBEENY, FATHER DIED OF COVID-19 AFTER STAYING IN NEW YORK NURSING HOME: It was the absolute worst decision anybody could make in a time of a pandemic.

JONES: The controversial directive was scrapped in May. The Associated Press reporting more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York were transferred to nursing homes from hospitals early in the pandemic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (on camera): And what makes this so challenging for the governor is that this is someone who was put on a pedestal with the accolades and the bestselling book and the talk of higher office. So now, at least for many people, that image has been shattered. And this is all still playing out, but it's impossible to imagine this controversy not being a topic of conversation when it comes to Cuomo running for re-election in 2022. Erica?

HILL: Yes, certainly not a conversation that's ending any time soon. Athena, thank you.

Joining us now is Jesse McKinley, the Albany Bureau Chief for The New York Times. Jesse, great to have you with us this morning. As we look at what is in the works here, right, these bipartisan calls to strip Governor Cuomo of his emergency powers, some push for impeachment from some Republican lawmakers, what is the reality of what we could see happen?

JESSE MCKINLEY, ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I think impeachment is an overreach (ph). New York is a very democratic state. Both houses of the state legislature are dominated by Democrats. I don't think there's political will at this point to impeach. But as Athena pointed out, the political fallout from this seems to just be beginning.

The governor is anticipated to make his first remarks about this today. I think he's going to get hit pretty hard by questions as to why the data was withheld, why it took so long for this to become public and how political this actually was.

BERMAN: Yes. The thing about his response, and we played a little bit of it in the piece there, he seems to be saying nothing to see here, there's nothing to see here, why does it matter where they died? Well, if it didn't matter, why then are there allegations of a cover-up? Why then is there evidence that your administration tried to hide perhaps where all these people were dying, and it gets to the criticism over the policy that was in place? And part of this might just be Governor Cuomo's unwillingness to say, I wish we hadn't had that policy or that policy was proven wrong in the end. Go ahead, Jesse.

MCKINLEY: Yes. I mean, there's an uncomfortable dichotomy here. Keep in mind that Governor Cuomo, for months and months and months, said I'm the data guy, I'm the science guy, follow the facts, just the facts, ma'am, et cetera.

[07:25:08]

And then when this issue of these major facts about 15,000 deaths in the state's nursing homes was sitting there apparently available to the state government, they didn't release it. So those two facts just don't -- they don't right and there's no way to kind of reconcile those. And I think Cuomo is going to have to answer those questions today.

HILL: And also just to follow-up on that, just put in perspective for us why it does matter, right? So we're talking about COVID-related deaths for nursing home residents. Why does it matter, because it does, whether they passed in the facility or whether it happened at a hospital? Because the governor seemed to say it doesn't.

MCKINLEY: Well, keep in mind the actual death toll, the number of people that died, has not changed. But also Cuomo, for months and months and months, once again, said, look, we're one of the lowest percentage states in terms of nursing home deaths. We're 46th, we're 46th. That turns out not to be true when you actually look at the real numbers.

So if the numbers were being cooked, if the numbers were being withheld, that allows them to make a more credible case that he's doing a better job. So, if those numbers are not correct, then he was not doing ipso facto as good a job and that hurts his reputation.

And I think, as Athena was pointing out, this goes back to reputation, not only for his 2022 re-election campaign, which, once again, in a state like New York, looks pretty solid, but looking ahead towards 2024 when potentially a presidential campaign might have been in the works.

BERMAN: You said impeachment is unlikely because Democrats are in such solid control of both chambers at this point, but stripping him of emergency powers would also be possible. How would that happen and how likely do you see that scenario?

MCKINLEY: I think it will probably get through the state senate this week. The state assembly seems less likely to do it. And keep in minding, that would be somewhat of a censure but it would not direct --

BERMAN: I think we've --

HILL: We just lost Jesse.

BERMAN: -- frozen Jesse there.

We should note that we did invite the governor to come on the show. They did not respond to the invitation. What Jesse McKinley was getting at there is that impeachment is unlikely. Stripping him of emergency powers may be also unlikely, but just the mere push, which could be bipartisan, there're some Democrats calling for this too, is a rebuke on how his administration, Governor Cuomo's administration has handled things.

HILL: It certainly is. It's going to be interesting to see too what more we may here possibly this morning with that briefing that's scheduled.

BERMAN: Yes, look, contrition -- we'll find out. We'll find out.

We want to remember some of the more than 485,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. Frederick K.C. Price was one of the most prominent religious leaders in Los Angeles. He founded the Crenshaw Christian Center in 1973 and built it into one of America's first black mega churches. Price is survived by his wife of 67 years, four children, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren. He was 89.

Aviation Support Equipment Technician First Class Marcglenn Orcullo was a U.S. Navy sailor. He was working aboard the USS, home ported in Norfolk, Virginia, a native of the Philippines. He said, enlisting would be a way for his family to feel stable and know they had a place in America. He was 42.

Lucy Guitierrez (ph) was a beloved high school teacher in Houston. Her students say she was a light in her life. Her daughter says the lesson her mother would have wanted to leave her children is be to be prepared, wear your mask, take it seriously and take care of each other. She was just 45.

We'll be right back.

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