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New Day

Metal Fatigue on United Flight Engine; Supreme Court Allows Release of Trump's Tax Returns; Trump Offered Jong-un Ride on Air Force One. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 23, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:05]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Developing overnight, the NTSB says that a preliminary investigation shows that metal fatigue contributed to the catastrophic engine failure aboard that United Airlines flight over Colorado this weekend.

CNN's Dan Simon is live in Denver with more.

What do we know, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Alisyn.

These new images are really something, especially the picture that shows the gash to the body of the plane itself. But really the most important question confronting regulators is to determine what happened with this plane, was it an isolated incident or does it speak to a more chronic problem with this particular plane, the 777, or/and the Pratt Whitney engine used to power it.

What we can tell you is that the NTSB determined that the engine blade that caused this malfunction, well, they sent it to the Pratt Whitney lab and they're going to analyze it but it appears to show signs of metal fatigue or, in layman's terms, just basic wear and tear.

Investigators also want to know why the engine continued to spit out flames despite the fact that the fuel line going to it had been turned off. But the bottom line here, Alisyn, we want to tell you is that the flying public really should have no worries here because all of these planes have been taken out of service while authorities continue to investigate and issue any guidance as it relates to these engines.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Dan, thank you very much. Please keep us posted on all of the developments there.

So, New York prosecutors are about to see Donald Trump's taxes. Will the public see them? What's in them? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:38:29]

CAMEROTA: The Supreme Court clearing the way for New York prosecutor to get eight years of Donald Trump's tax returns. The former president fought fiercely, as you'll remember, for years to keep his taxes under wraps. Soon we could learn why.

Joining us now, someone who has seen Donald Trump's tax returns, but who is under court order not to disclose all the juicy details, biographer Tim O'Brien.

Tim, great to see you.

You likened this to the boy who has had his finger in the damn for all of these years, that's Donald Trump, and now the damn has burst. So, what happens next?

TIM O'BRIEN, SENIOR COLUMNIST, "BLOOMBERG OPINION": Well, what happens next is lawyers working for Cy Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, has a -- have a subpoena they're going to execute to the lawyers representing Mazars, which is Donald Trump's accounting firm. And they're going to get all of these records that Trump has kept tightly guarded for so long and they're going to bring those back to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office where he has financial forensic investigators. He's brought in outsiders like Mark Pomerantz, a very well regarded federal prosecutor with a lot of experience in white collar crime. And they're going to start to comb through all of those tax returns.

And not just the tax returns, by the way. They're going to get the work product from the accountants themselves. Communications between Trump or Trump's representatives of the Trump Organization about what they did or did not want to see in the tax returns or how to possibly manipulate some of the entries in the tax returns. And they're going to pour over these documents and use it as evidence and fodder for possible criminal charges against Trump.

[06:40:04]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You brought up something that is so important for people to understand right there. It's not just the tax returns.

O'BRIEN: Right.

BERMAN: "The New York Times" has seen the tax data and Suzanne Craig of "The Times" pointed out to me last night, you know, and I know this from doing my own taxes, there's not like there's a line item, hush money to porn stars, on the tax returns, right?

O'BRIEN: Right.

BERMAN: It's the work product from the accounting firm. It's the notes back and forth that could provide the decoder ring to understand the actual data in the tax returns.

Tim, what do you think would be the Holy Grail here in terms of what prosecutors are after? What could be the big thing they could find?

O'BRIEN: Well, first off, as you just put your finger on, John, you know, in a criminal case you need to prove intent. So that work product will be very important because it will establish what Trump or his representatives were thinking and what the accountants were thinking before they made the entry. So that's exactly right.

Look, this whole case has expanded from what I think began as a, you know, falsification of business records case involving payments to -- hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. And I think it -- from court papers, it surely indicates that it's blossomed into something much larger than that, tax fraud, possible tax fraud, accounting fraud, financial fraud.

To the extent that this starts to dig into the guts of the Trump Organization, it's going to test the loyalty of people who have kept their mouths shut about Trump and his actions and his finances for a long time. So that's important.

I also think, you know, the traditional journalistic guidance of follow the money and follow the money trail. This remains one of the, unfortunately, most underexplored and important facets of Donald Trump's past and how informed his presidency is. What are his financial relationships not only in the United States but especially overseas?

Well, I mean, Donald Trump says this is a fishing expedition. And so what exactly -- I mean is -- are they just casting a big net as you're describing or is there something specific that the D.A. is after?

O'BRIEN: This is not a fishing expedition. This is a criminal investigation predicated on evidence that Donald Trump, his eldest children, and other members of the Trump Organization, possibly put in false expenses for years in their taxes. For example, possibly consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump, that they inflated the values of properties they owned when they wanted to get a big bank loan and then deflated the value when they wanted to claim lower tax obligations on the same properties.

The only reason Trump is defining this as a fishing expedition is because he's petrified of drowning. The letter he wrote yesterday in response to this suit in which he said, you know, a Supreme Court which he himself handily populated while he was president is somehow politically persecuting him I think just shows the extent to which he feels cornered and he's very, very afraid of what this investigation entails.

BERMAN: One key thing here, this doesn't mean they goes public. We don't get to see -- the American people don't get to see the tax returns any time soon. How would that happen ultimately, Tim?

O'BRIEN: The public may never see them. You know, these aren't going to be put online. They're going to a grand jury. There are very tight -- evidence will go to the grand jury. Right now it's in the hands of Cy Vance's office and I presume he's going to be extremely circumspect about letting those out. Where it will become public is if they are introduced in public

filings to substantiate Vance's charges and outline his investigation of Trump. That's where you'll see them. But I don't think you'll ever see these full cloth dumped online.

CAMEROTA: Tim, thank you very much for all of the information for what's next.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, now to this, what's Mars really like?

BERMAN: Chilly.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that's what you think, OK, but I'm going to show you some stunning, new video and sound from the red planet that may give you more information.

BERMAN: What does Mars sound like?

CAMEROTA: I -- I'm not sure.

BERMAN: Disco. It's disco. This is like a non-stop disco loop.

CAMEROTA: That would be awesome. That would be awesome.

BERMAN: I guarantee it.

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[06:48:17]

BERMAN: Today, President Biden will hold his first bilateral meeting since taking office. It will be with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau. It will happen virtually because of the pandemic. Administration officials tell CNN the goal is to produce a road map for reinvigorating a relationship that became strained during the Trump administration.

CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, new details about the astronomical electrical bills hitting some Texas residents after those deadly winter storms. The city of Denton, Texas, just received $207 million energy bill, that's for just four days last week. That is nearly their entire annual budget.

And it turns out Senator Ted Cruz was not the only top Republican who fled the state as Texans suffered. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is under fire for traveling with his wife, a state senator, to Utah during the aftermath. At least 29 people in Texas died as a result of the storms. Millions still do not have safe drinking water.

BERMAN: You know, Texas, when the going gets tough --

CAMEROTA: Yes, the tough go right to Utah.

BERMAN: Yes, the Texans get on a plane, apparently. CAMEROTA: To a different country.

BERMAN: All right, so there's one question that has kept Alisyn up at night.

CAMEROTA: What is it?

BERMAN: What does Mars sound like? Now we know. So NASA just released this extraordinary video of the Perseverance rover landing on the red planet. This in itself is cool enough to see it touch down there. But wait, there's more. Actual audio. Sound of Mars. I'm going to play it for you. This is the full dance remix.

CAMEROTA: Let me hear it.

BERMAN: You hear that? Did you hear that?

CAMEROTA: John, it would have be so much funnier if you'd played Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive."

[06:50:02]

BERMAN: That is funny.

CAMEROTA: That would have been so much better.

BERMAN: That was sound, though. That was sound from Mars. And that's everything you've ever hoped for.

CAMEROTA: I really have a high threshold. If I don't --

BERMAN: That was sound from Mars. That was the wind. That was the wind. The answer, my friend, is blowing in Mars somehow.

CAMEROTA: Right. That's cool. OK, that's cool.

BERMAN: Yes. Yes. You apparently don't think it's cool at all.

CAMEROTA: Well, you did build it up like it was going to be disco.

BERMAN: When was the last time you heard anything from Mars?

CAMEROTA: I -- I don't know. I like the disco sound mix. But that -- OK, that's very cool.

BERMAN: It's really extraordinary.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we get to see Mars. It's awesome.

BERMAN: All right.

New reporting this morning that also will blow Alisyn's mind on the bizarre invitation that the president extended to one of America's most dangerous adversaries. Who you ask? Well, he's right on the screen right there.

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[06:55:00]

BERMAN: So, this morning, call it Frank Sinatra diplomacy. What do you say to a rogue dictator of a repressive state? Well, how about, come fly with me, seriously. A source confirms to CNN that the former president issued an invitation to North Korea's Kim Jong-un to take a ride on Air Force One.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us now with the details.

This is something, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, I had one source described it as like a teenager trying to show off his shiny new car. You can count on one hand the number of foreign leaders who have had the honor of flying on Air Force One. Former Soviet President Le Brezhnev, with Nixon in '73, and former British Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012. That's it. President Trump wanted to make number three North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice over): Air Force One, a symbol of American presidential power and prestige. In 2019, a stunning invite from then President Donald Trump to North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un. A former administration official tells CNN Trump casually offered to fly Kim back to Pyongyang as he was walking out of denuclearization talks in Hanoi, Vietnam. Trump just did it for his friend, the former official says, creating a potential logistical and security nightmare.

JEFFREY LEWIS, PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think it's clear Trump had no idea what he was doing and didn't really understand the kind of political constraints that somebody like Kim Jong-un would be under.

RIPLEY: Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, detailed the collapse of summit talks in his book, writing, Trump offered to fly him back to North Korea, canceling his evening in Hanoi. Kim laughed and said he couldn't do that. Trump abruptly cancelled a working lunch, leaving the table empty.

CHAD O'CARROLL, CEO, KOREA RISK GROUP: Kim Jong-un, this five-day train journey to get down there, lots of build-up. And then to just be sort of dumped publicly, I mean, I think it really, really upset Kim Jong-un.

RIPLEY: After the failed Hanoi summit, Kim reportedly disciplined several high ranking members of his entourage. Ambassador Joseph Yun says U.S./North Korean diplomacy under Trump never recovered.

AMBASSADOR JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO NORTH KOREA: So I think the first misstep was preparation was not enough. Second misstep was, I believe, Trump pulling back and leaving early without sitting there and negotiating.

RIPLEY: Yun says Trump's Air Force One offer was a failure to understand the North Korean leader's mindset.

YUN: He wanted to appear as an equal. He got nothing in sanctions. So a plane ride will do? No, that was not going to happen.

RIPLEY: Kim began work almost immediately, quietly growing his nuclear arsenal.

ANKIT PANDA, STANTON SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I think his legacy is in many ways a complete failure. Kim Jong-un has basically had the opportunity over the last four years to continue manufacturing warhead.

RIPLEY: Leaving President Joe Biden with a heavily armed nuclear North Korea and very little leverage, analysts say, extinguishing hopes of a nuclear free Korean peninsula any time soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: And that is where we stand in 2021 despite three face to face meetings between Trump and Kim in Singapore, Hanoi and the green demilitarized zone, despite that pile of so-called love letters that President Trump liked to show off. Kim has more nukes. He's more cozy with China than he's been with years and has signaled pretty much zero intention of negotiating with the United States, largely because of the collapse of that summit. That perhaps one opportunity for the U.S. and North Korea to transform its relationship in Vietnam, John.

BERMAN: Maybe he should have tried a tandem bicycle before offering Air Force One, right? I mean you've got to start low before you go all the way to Air Force One.

RIPLEY: I don't know.

BERMAN: Will Ripley, thank you very much for that. Appreciate it.

Dr. Anthony Fauci joins us live.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Half a million Americans dead from the COVID-19 pandemic.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll remember each person we've lost. We will get through this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now let's just go forward and be completely committed as a unified country to just go at this together. >

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Garland pledged an independent DOJ and pursue prosecutions aimed at confronting America's biggest problem.

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a 180. He said straight up, this is going to be my top priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

And this morning, flags at half-staff at the White House and federal buildings across the country. You can see barely there the U.S. Capitol and the White House, remembering the 500,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. The president pleading with the country not to be numb to the suffering.

[07:00:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We often hear people described as ordinary Americans.