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New Day
Racism in the U.K.; Cohen Met with Manhattan DA; Trump Pressured Georgia Official; Some GOP Voters Support Relief Plan; Texas Rangers Allow 100 Percent Capacity. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired March 11, 2021 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:55]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Britain's first female black member of parliament is speaking out in support of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after they accused the royal family of racism.
Joining me now is that member of parliament, Diane Abbott.
Thank you so much for being with us.
Look, Meghan Markle is the first person of color to be in the royal family. You, the first black woman to be a member of parliament. What insight does that give you into what she's going through?
DIANE ABBOTT, FIRST BLACK FEMALE MEMBER OF U.K. PARLIAMENT: Well, you have to remember that Meghan Markle got relentless media harassment. There wasn't a day when there wasn't a negative story about her in the newspapers. And, of course, the background to that was awful stuff online. She may not have looked at it, but she knew it was happening.
And I've been through a similar situation because of being a prominent black female member of parliament. And I know how awful it feels. And I can understand why Meghan and Harry thought they had to flee.
BERMAN: We understand that, moments ago, Prince William was the first member of the royal family to speak out loud about this. We're just getting reports in now, but he said something to the effect of, the royal family is not racist.
Your reaction?
ABBOTT: Well, you know, I don't think, for instance, that the queen is racist. Actually, she's head of a multi-racial commonwealth, a (INAUDIBLE) empire. I know that means a lot to her. I don't think Prince Charles is racist. He's always been, in all of his work, very concerned with diversity and multiculturalism.
But it's not just about them. It's about the whole royal household. And hundreds of equraies (ph) and aides and advisers of private secretaries and I don't think that the royal household is really up to date in thinking around race. And I don't think that many of them could accept having a mixed race American woman marrying into royalty. And that was the problem.
BERMAN: And it's also the system. The system by which your country is governed and has chosen to be governed. This is the royal family. You are a constitutional monarchy. So when the palace puts out a statement, which it did, saying it's going to handle these accusations of racism privately, how can it be private if we're dealing with a public institution?
ABBOTT: Well, I understand that the queen wants to deal privately with her grandson. But, as you say, it's also a public institution. And we need to hear, quite soon, more from Buckingham Palace about how they're discussing racism and what they're going to do.
For instance, I think they need to clear out of some of the aides and advisers who made the situation with Meghan much, much worse and refuse to defend Meghan in the media.
BERMAN: As you well know, this isn't just about England or the United Kingdom. The queen is the head of the commonwealth and the head of state for the nations who are part of the commonwealth realm. Many of these nations, by the way, are, you know, not white. I mean the residents there, a majority, not white residents there. And so there are questions about this system going forward.
You know -- and Australia's former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, says that these are questions that should be addressed after the queen's reign. He flat-out said, do we really want to have whoever happens to be the head of state, the king or queen of the U.K., automatically our head of state?
Do you think these are fair questions to be asked around the commonwealth?
ABBOTT: They are fair questions. I mean the commonwealth, whether it's Australia or Jamaica or Canada follow British politics very closely. And I think what they've seen about the way Meghan's been treated is extremely distasteful. And although I think the commonwealth and the current system will last as long as the queen is alive.
[06:35:07]
When she has passed away, and the commonwealth as a whole has to consider its future, I don't think the dreadful way that Meghan has been treated and the appalling briefing of her -- about her, for some time now, I don't think that will make much of an argument for the status quo among commonwealth country.
BERMAN: Might this be a turning point in terms of race and how it's handled in the United Kingdom?
ABBOTT: Well, I hope it's a turning point about the way that (INAUDIBLE) household handles race. Because the problem was, as I said, the people they had working there, and they simply had not had the debate that other British institutions had had to have, forming the whole Black Lives Matter sort of debate. They just hadn't really engaged with race in the 21st century. And I think the Meghan Markle, the terrible way she's been treated, it does represent a turning point.
BERMAN: MP Diane Abbott, we really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
So a new recording has emerged of President Trump, the former president of the United States, urging another Georgia official to find fraud in the 2020 election. So how is this going to affect the investigation, the criminal investigation into the president's actions? That's next.
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[06:40:35]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, CNN has learned that Michael Cohen, former Trump lawyer and fixer, met with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for a seventh time as their investigation of the former president continues.
CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now with more.
Does this mean it's getting closer, it's ramping up, what, Kara?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.
It does mean that it is ramping up. A source close to the investigation tells CNN that Michael Cohen met for the seventh time with prosecutors from the Manhattan's District Attorney's Office yesterday.
Now, Cohen first started talking to them when he was in prison for those -- facilitating those hush money payments on behalf of former President Donald Trump. But in the past recent weeks, his meetings have really increased in frequency and he has gone in now for the servant time.
Now, Cohen is someone who is of interest to prosecutors because he was involved in the hush money payments, which is an area they're investigating. He also testified before Congress, you might remember, saying that the former president had manipulated his financial statements, inflating the value of his assets when dealing with banks and insurance companies and deflating the value when it came time to pay taxes. So prosecutors are interested in speaking to Michael Cohen about this.
He also knows how the company works. He was the former president's fixer. He knows the relationships between the former president and his chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. This is a financial investigation. Knowledge about how the place works is really key.
Now, John Dean, the former White House counsel to President Nixon, reacted to this yesterday. And he said, I assure you that you do not visit a prosecutor's office seven times if they are not planning to indict those about whom you have knowledge.
But it's important to remember that this is a complex financial investigation. It involves taxes, it involves real estate, of which there are -- it's its own unique set of rules. So, you know, this is an investigation that is still underway. It has picked up in its pace. But we remember the prosecutors had only obtained late last month millions of documents from Donald Trump's former accountant or Donald Trump's accountant Mazars. That was that big Supreme Court battle. So they now have these millions of pages of documents that they're going through and we're going to see a lot more of these interviews continue.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK. We'll see if John Dean is right, that it's just a matter of days away from an indictment of some kind.
Meanwhile, also involving former President Trump, there's this new recording published by "The Wall Street Journal" of another phone call, yet another phone call that he had with this time Georgia's lead elections investigator. This was in December. So what does this one reveal?
SCANNELL: Right, Alisyn. So this is the second phone call. That first one we knew of when the former president had reached out to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and urged him to find the votes.
Well, this time, in December, just a few days before Christmas, he reached out to the chief investigator in the secretary of state's office, Frances Watson, and he had asked her to find the fraud. He said something bad had happened and if she found it, she would be praised.
Now, here's a portion of the recording that was appraised by "The Wall Street Journal."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I won everything but Georgia. And I, you know, and I won Georgia (INAUDIBLE) by a lot. And the people know it. And, you know, something happened. I mean something bad happened.
And if you can get to Fulton, you're going to find things that are going to be unbelievable.
Fulton is the motherload, you know, as the expression goes, Fulton County.
FRANCES WATSON, INVESTIGATIONS SUPERVISOR: I can assure you that our team and the GBI, that we're only interesting in --
TRUMP: Right.
WATSON: In the truth and -- and finding, you know --
TRUMP: That's great.
WATSON: Finding the information that's based on the facts.
TRUMP: It never made sense and, you know, they dropped ballots. They dropped all these ballots. Stacey Abrams, really, really terrible, I mean, just a terrible thing. And I will say this, when the right answer comes out, you'll be praised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCANNELL: Now, Watson had told CNN affiliate WSB that she did not feel pressured by the call. We reached out to the former president for comment, but we did not hear back.
Alisyn. John.
CAMEROTA: OK. Kara, thank you very much for all of that reporting. Obviously, we'll continue to cover it.
BERMAN: I know it's not about the grammar, but Fulton is the motherload is not an expression. So when he says, as the expression goes, he's literally making that up. I know that's not the biggest issue there.
CAMEROTA: I mean when you hear that, it's incoherent. It's incoherent. There's not a full sentence. But you get the point. You get the gist if you're on the receiving end of that call.
[06:45:00]
BERMAN: As the expression goes.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
Meanwhile, not one Republican voted to support President Biden's relief bill, but GOP voters seem to like what's in it a lot. So we'll talk to some of them, next.
BERMAN: As the expression goes.
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BERMAN: President Biden delivering his first prime-time address tonight as he prepares to sign into law the $1.9 trillion relief plan. No Republican lawmakers voted for it, but Republican voters, actual people, that's a different story.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now.
Vanessa.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And one thing about this pandemic, it does not discriminate economically against political party. And those Republican voters we spoke to say they are being affected by this pandemic. And while they may have some issues with this bill, they say it's badly needed for them and other struggling Americans.
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ALEXO BELL, REPUBLICAN VOTER: We're definitely feeling the crunch like most people.
YURKEVICH (voice over): Alexo Bell is a Donald Trump loyalist, but he's willing to put party affiliation aside to support President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill.
[06:50:05]
BELL: Whether it be Biden or Trump, I think the country needs that stimulus.
YURKEVICH: He's not alone. Sixty-one percent of Americans support it. One of the largest aid packages in history.
Bell's work as a promoter dried up during the pandemic.
BELL: I'm mostly a stay-at-home dad right now. I'm watching -- watching my little guys. And my wife is the primary bread winner right now.
YURKEVICH: Just 26 percent of Republicans support the overall bill, according to a CNN poll. But a majority approve of the family tax credits. One of those, an extra $1,000 per child for families who qualify.
YURKEVICH (on camera): And that's significant. You have two kids. That's an extra $2,000.
BELL: It is. And, you know, I think that the people that have more than two children will even be getting that much more of a break.
YURKEVICH (voice over): In the suburbs outside of Philadelphia, Frank Herron says his restaurant survived because of two PPP loans. This bill calls for $7 billion in addition PPP money and $25 billion in grants for restaurants and bars.
FRANK HERRON, VOTED FOR TRUMP TWICE: It actually gave us a lot of confidence that we would be able to make it through.
YURKEVICH: Herron voted for Trump twice and says while this bill is needed, he's concerned the massive price tag could boost inflation.
HERRON: I think it's very scary and the value of our money is going to decline significantly because of this.
YURKEVICH: Barbara Jankowski was a Republican for 40 years, but this past November, disappointed with Trump and the GOP, she voted for Biden and changed her party registration. She's all in on the stimulus bill.
BARBARA JANKOWSKI, SWITCHED TO DEMOCRAT: I think it's great because people are hurting.
YURKEVICH: She and her husband, both retired, say the previous $600 stimulus checks did little to help with bills. This time, she says, they can save some of their $1,400 checks.
JANKOWSKI: We also keep that money in case our children need help. If they would run into problems, that stimulus money would go to them.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The motion is adopted.
YURKEVICH: Zero Republicans voting in favor of the bill.
JANKOWSKI: Shame on them.
YURKEVICH (on camera): Well, what does it say about the future of helping Americans?
JANKOWSKI: Them voting along party lines was wrong because it was not right for America. It was not right for you. It was not right for me. It was not right for my children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YURKEVICH: One of the reasons that Republican voters liked Donald Trump is because they thought he was a pro-business president and that his policies resulted in a strong economy.
So I asked the Republican voters we spoke with how they feel President Biden is handling the economy. And they said it's simply too soon to tell. He's only been in office 50 days, John. But they did say that they are willing to give him a chance.
John.
BERMAN: People like getting checks, it turns out.
YURKEVICH: Yes.
BERMAN: Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
We want to show you just a plain, cool picture right now.
CAMEROTA: You feel as though you're in a fog. You're not seeing things. That's real. That's how foggy it is today.
BERMAN: I think -- I'm trying to figure out if there's a metaphor there.
CAMEROTA: There is.
BERMAN: That's the Statue of Liberty. America rising above the fray, rising above, you know, the smoke and fog right there.
CAMEROTA: That's a good one, John.
BERMAN: That's a lovely image.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
BERMAN: All right.
CAMEROTA: Dangerous on the roads, but lovely. Be careful out there.
BERMAN: Well, you're not going to drive in the harbor unless you have a special car.
CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).
BERMAN: The Biden administration struggling to provide shelter for thousands of migrant children surging at the border. A senator who has been there joins us.
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[06:57:54]
CAMEROTA: Opening day for baseball is less than a month away and the Texas Rangers are planning for a full stadium.
Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report."
Hi, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.
So the Rangers look like they're going to be the first team in U.S. pro sports to have a full stadium since is pandemic began. You know, they plan on selling every single ticket. They could end up with more than 40,000 fans at their home opener on April 5th.
Now, after the home opener, they do plan on scaling back attendance and using socially distanced section. Globe Life Park was brand-new last season, but only got to host fans in a reduced capacity for the National League Championship series and the World Series.
Now, fans will be required to wear masks there in Arlington, except when they are actively eating or drinking at their seats.
Now, the NCAA tournament is just a week away and senior vice president of basketball, Dan Gavitt, told reporters yesterday, as long as the team has five healthy players, they'll be allowed to play in the tournament. He did not say what would happen if a team didn't have a coach. The field of 68 for the tournament in Indiana will be announced on Sunday.
And, finally, today is the one-year anniversary that everything changed in the sports world. The Jazz and Thunder were preparing to tip off a year ago today when they learned Utah Senator Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. The NBA postponed that game and then suspended the season indefinitely. The NCAA tournament was soon canceled. And all sports was put on hold.
And, Alisyn, you know, incredible to think, it has now been a full year since that happened. You know, a lot of people remember that moment. You know, for me, it was the moment where you really got to realize how serious this pandemic was going to be. CAMEROTA: Yes, understood. It's been quite a year.
Andy, thank you very much.
And NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This bill represents an historic victory for the American people. And I look forward to signing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, Americans will start to get checks this month.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I think this is actually one of the worst pieces of legislation I've seen passed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health officials are urging caution as more than a dozen states are easing restrictions.
[07:00:03]
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you start completely putting aside all public health measures, as if you're turning a light switch off, that's quite.
