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Feds Launch Investigation Of Driverless, Deadly Tesla Crash; Biden's 90th Day In Office: Job Approval Remains Steady; Eric Cantor Reacts To Boehner's Blistering Remarks On GOP. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 20, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is investigating a fatal crash in Texas involving a Tesla where police say no one was in the driver's seat. But Tesla's CEO says autopilot is not to blame.

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now. What's going on here?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning.

You know, two men are dead now after this crash over the weekend. The scene was just horrific. It took firefighters four hours and 32,000 gallons of water to put out that fire. The batteries, they said, just kept reigniting.

One man was found in the back seat, the other in the front passenger seat. No driver on this Tesla.

But Tesla's Elon Musk says the data logs show the autopilot feature was not engaged. Even if it were, autopilot couldn't have worked on that road because the street the car was on didn't have lanes -- lane lines. No details from Musk about what the data logs did show or if they cover the moment of the accident.

But some have criticized Tesla's autopilot system, including the worst -- the use of the word autopilot. Some have said that the name encourages owners to believe the car can actually drive itself.

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are both investigating the crash, you guys.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And let's talk about Peloton. This is something I've been talking a lot with my friends and family about. They're facing intense pressure to recall their treadmills, which cost about $4,000 --

ROMANS: Yes.

KEILAR: -- these are pricey things -- after there have been dozens of accidents. But the company is pushing back strongly on this. What's happening?

ROMANS: Over the weekend, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said if you have this Tread Plus you should not -- and have children or pets, you should stop using it.

Here is video that the government released. It shows two little kids playing around this tread. You can see one of the children has a ball there.

If you watch, you can see things completely unravel. The kid gets stuck under there and at one point, sucked completely below. One child running away to get help, the other child sucked, eventually, completely under this tread and he manages to free himself and get out of there.

Now, the company says -- the CEO says look, there is a safety key and our instructors are going to continue to remind users when they start a class to use that safety key, and that's where they are right now.

But they are not -- they say they will not recall this product. Thirty-nine injuries. The company itself outlining one death earlier this spring of a small child getting messed up in one of these treads.

BERMAN: Look, I mean, we have a treadmill that's 15 years old, but I have to say we used to unplug it all the time, making it impossible for the kids to --

ROMANS: Way before Peloton, treadmills could have been dangerous. There have been fatalities before. It's just a reminder to parents with gym equipment, no matter what kind of gym equipment it is be mindful of the safety procedures and follow them. Don't just jump off and take a shower or take a stretch and leave it so that a kid can get caught up in it.

KEILAR: Yes.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

KEILAR: Thank you.

Usually, when a former president gives his first interview after leaving the White House, they wait longer than three months and they have something new to say. In Donald Trump's case, unfortunately, it was neither. He sat down for Sean Hannity's propaganda hour and just like person, woman, man, camera, T.V., we've heard these hits before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a total fraud.

I've rebuilt the military. Nobody was tougher on Russia. That's doubled, tripled, and quadrupled coming in because that's pouring in right now. Drugs are pouring in.

If you look at mainstream media or, as you say, lame stream --

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST, THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW: (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: -- I got tremendous numbers. Nobody's ever gotten the numbers I got.

Lisa Murkowski is a disaster. The China virus, or whatever you want to call it. You're going to see a lot of big things.

Russia, Russia, Russia. Five and a half years of investigations and hoaxes and you get impeached for doing nothing wrong. Very unfair. And then you get a second impeachment for doing nothing wrong.

I could write a great book.

As far as North Korea is concerned, I have a great relationship with a certain man that's got great power over North Korea. Getting along with Vladimir Putin is a good thing and I got along with him very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Of all the times to proclaim this, the U.S. just took action against Russia for its unprecedented attack on the U.S. government, a Russian dissident is said to be dying in prison, and the Russians are staging tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border.

Objectively, there is a lot to ask Donald Trump, including how the multiple investigations that he is facing post-presidency are poised to derail a potential run for the White House that he keeps teasing. Instead, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Welcome to Hannity as we continue as we're broadcasting from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

I know a lot of people that are around you every day. This is what they're all telling me. You are working as hard as you did when you were in the White House, except you play a little golf more. That you -- you're keeping an insane schedule seven days a week. You really don't stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Stop, won't stop, and won't stop the conspiracy theory either. This is what they discussed, literally, from the retirement home in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Let's start with Joe Biden. Now, I get criticized because the Joe Biden I see now -- I can show you tapes of him in 2016, I could show you takes of him in 2012. And to me, he looks extraordinarily weak, frail. I think it's very transparent he's struggling cognitively.

[07:35:13]

But in fairness, his aides said that the wind -- it was very windy. The wind might have blown him over. Did the wind ever blow you over when you were --

TRUMP: Well, Air Force One is a very big plane and usually what they try and do is shield the wind.

HANNITY: Let me ask the question from this perspective because there are hostile regimes and many hostile actors on the world stage. I'm sure they're studying Joe Biden. Do you -- are -- knowing what you know, things that I wouldn't know, are you concerned about their perception of an American president that seems somewhat frail and weak?

Let me ask this. He's -- so, Joe Biden's been in Washington 50 years. He's the ultimate swamp creature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: If there is anything newsworthy from this mean girl group chat it is Donald Trump telling his skeptical supporters whose vaccine hesitancy may prevent the U.S. from reaching herd immunity in the non- masked casualty way to get vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, they all want me to do a commercial because a lot of our people don't want to take vaccines. You know, I don't know what that is exactly -- Republican. I don't know what it is.

HANNITY: You encourage people to get it?

TRUMP: I encourage them to take it, I do. But they want me to make a video --

HANNITY: Did you get it?

TRUMP: They want -- yes, I did. They want -- I had it and I took it, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Took it in January. Americans didn't find out he had until March, about six weeks after he left the job.

And now, Sean Hannity is pulling teeth to get Trump to tell his supporters that it's safe and necessary. Maybe if he promoted these shots in the arms the way he promoted the conspiracy theory of Biden getting, as he put it, quote "a shot in the ass" before he won the election, maybe some people would actually listen.

And ahead, President Biden's nearing 100 days in the White House. What grade are voters giving his job performance, so far? Harry Enten has the stats.

BERMAN: Plus, former House Speaker John Boehner says the Republican Party of today is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives. We'll speak with the former House majority leader Eric Cantor to respond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:34]

BERMAN: All right, we are almost at President Biden's 100th day in office. We're going to get a jump on it. CNN is first. This is his 90th day in office and we want to know how Americans think he's doing in his job.

So let's discuss with CNN senior political writer and analyst, Harry Enten. So, Harry, the president's job approval is not the highest we've ever seen at this stage but it may be among the more stable.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: That's exactly right. And I should point out the three-month anniversary of being in office, so that's the easy milestone, instead of trying to get to 100.

Look, here's the situation. To me, it's very interesting to see -- look, three months in and his approval rating 53 percent. One week in it was 53 percent. There's no shift that's going on.

If you look at the last two presidents, Trump and Obama -- remember, Trump was -- had one of the steadiest approval ratings of all time but he actually dropped three points in his first three months. And Obama, who started off so popular at 68 percent dropped all the way down to 59 percent, so a nine-point drop.

Biden is very, very steady at this point.

BERMAN: The other guys were dropping, Biden staying the same. And you posit it, Harry, that one of the reasons is the issues he's choosing to focus on.

ENTEN: That's exactly right.

So look at this, the key issues. Look at this. Biden's approval rating on the key issues -- coronavirus, 68 percent; economy, 55 percent.

Look at the nation's most important issue. This is what voters -- Americans say. Look at this. The top issue was the coronavirus, 25 percent; the economy at 19 percent. So what Biden is doing is on the issues in which he's strongest, those are also the ones in which the nation's Americans -- the Americans think are the most important issues.

And he's not necessarily paying too much attention to gun policy, where his approval rating is just 41 percent, or immigration, 38 percent, but those are much less important to Americans. Biden is focused on what Americans care about.

BERMAN: It's interesting because he was getting it from the right -- or is -- on immigration and getting it from some on the left on gun policy. He's sticking to these things which, again, Americans say they care about the most.

And this is a contrast, you say, to the first months of the Trump administration.

ENTEN: So remember the first major policy push. So these were the approval ratings of Joe Biden in his first major policy push on the COVID stimulus package. That got a 63 percent approval rating.

The Trump travel ban -- remember, Trump, right out of the gate, passed that executive action. The Trump travel ban, just a 40 percent approval rating on that.

But look at what the president's not focused on, right? Biden's border policy -- he's not really focused in on that. He's just at 35 percent.

But look at Trump -- his infrastructure bill, which would have been so popular, a 76 percent approval rating.

Trump was focused on the policies that were unpopular. Biden's focused on his strengths on the policies that are popular.

BERMAN: Trump never did his infrastructure week. He always promised infrastructure week; never did it. He had a 76 percent approval rating.

And the reporting on this -- Maggie Haberman always says Chuck Schumer was terrified that former President Trump was going to do infrastructure because he knew how widely popular it would be if he tried it. Didn't do it.

ENTEN: He didn't do it. Trump's political focus was on the wrong issues. He had the wrong ideas of what the American public would like. Biden, so far, has the right ideas.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, as always, a pleasure to see you. Thanks so much for being here.

ENTEN: Thank you, sir.

BERMAN: Brianna.

KEILAR: Many tribute the polarization of U.S. politics and the far- right positions of top Republican leaders to the rise of Donald Trump in 2015.

But in a new memoir from former Republican House speaker John Boehner, he describes his chaotic years during the Obama years.

Boehner writes in his new memoir that upon taking the gavel in 2011, in his words, he became the mayor of crazy town. Quote, "Crazy town was populated by jackasses, and media hounds, and some normal citizens as baffled as I was about how we got trapped inside the city walls. Every second of every day since Barack Obama became president, I was fighting one bats-h-i-t idea after another." [07:45:21]

Joining me now is the person who served alongside Boehner in Republican leadership during those years, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Thank you so much for being with us. I covered you when you were minority leader, then again as majority leader.

And I wonder when you hear what the former speaker said here -- he says he doesn't recognize the Republican Party of today. Sir, do you?

ERIC CANTOR (R), FORMER HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER, VICE CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, MOELIS & COMPANY: Brianna, it's good to be with you, and congratulations on the show.

Listen, I don't doubt for a second that the level of craziness has increased in Washington over the last few years in both parties. But certainly, when we were serving back during the Obama administration, there was plenty of indicators that we had an extreme element on both sides of the aisle.

One of the things that happened early on in the Obama administration was he laid down the gauntlet with his so-called stimulus bill and drew the party line really brightly, which encouraged some of this backlash on the extreme end of the spectrums on our sides and his.

KEILAR: So you think he encouraged it? You wrote in --

CANTOR: Well --

KEILAR: Sorry -- go on.

CANTOR: Well, Brianna, if you recall, as the former segment just indicated, Barack Obama came in with a tremendous popularity rating and he had a great opportunity to bring the two sides together to pick up the pieces after the great financial crisis in our country.

Unfortunately, though, during the time in which John Boehner and I went over to the White House to try and see if we could find consensus on that stimulus bill -- if you recall, Barack Obama told me, Eric, elections have consequences and I won and I'm going to do it my way.

And so, it was sort of that tone, it's my way or the highway because the incentives were in place and that was it. And from then I think we saw a continued escalation on both sides of the aisle indicating there'd be no compromise.

KEILAR: I wonder how you reflect back on the era of the Tea Party that ushered -- the Republican Party that ushered you into leadership in the House. It was based, it appeared at the time, around fiscal conservatism. In retrospect, it was clearly populist and it has now grown into what we see the Republican Party being today.

Fiscal conservatism appears to have been thrown out the window. That does not seem to be any sort of rallying cry that is the primary thing that is causing cohesion in the Republican Party.

How do you see that era contributing to where your party is now?

CANTOR: Look, there's no question, Brianna, that the Tea Party arose -- if we recall back in '09 and '10 -- around the passage of the ACA -- the Obamacare legislation. And if you remember, the Tea Party was taxed enough already. That was the acronym. So you rightly say there was an indication that individuals were upset about the overreach of government and the lack of fiscal discipline.

But what we saw over the years, even during the time when I was on the Hill with John Boehner and the majority in the House -- what we saw is increasingly -- it wasn't necessarily a dedication to fiscal discipline, it was really about anger. It was really about anger towards everything Washington. And what we saw is that laid the seeds for the rise of Donald Trump and the real populism that has been put in place in the Republican Party.

KEILAR: You, ultimately, were pushed out by a Tea Party candidate. I remember this was a stunning upset. I know you remember.

Those voices are now louder. They are consumed very much by disinformation, not just anger. Is former President Trump responsible for that era of disinformation and mainstreaming it and radicalizing it?

CANTOR: See, I think, Brianna, we've got to look at the whole picture and not just choose to say hey, he was an individual that wasn't always everyone's cup of tea. Let's just say that is an understatement.

But you've got to remember there are -- it's half this country, at least, that continues to manifest in the public polling where they don't trust the information coming out of the mainstream media, such as this channel and many others, both in mainstream T.V. and over the Internet.

So we had --

KEILAR: But is former President Trump not responsible for encouraging that in that cycle?

[07:50:00]

CANTOR: Well, there's no question he was a large contributor to it. And as we saw what happened, if you -- if you continue to try and traffic and half-truth and untruths and the rest, there are consequences. And we saw that on January sixth.

KEILAR: If he ran for president again would you support him?

CANTOR: Well listen, again, I would say look at the whole picture. Look at the whole picture. Who is going to be running against Donald Trump? Because if the opposition is going to be about policies that I wouldn't agree with, I would support Donald Trump.

I mean, we've got to remember --

KEILAR: I --

CANTOR: -- when presidents are elected they -- their policies and what they stand for have consequences.

So if you remember, Donald Trump was for lower taxes, he was for less regulation. We had an economy that was moving along before the pandemic hit. And obviously, he didn't handle the pandemic so well. One thing he did do though was Warp Speed, which has allowed us to have this incredible advantage on the vaccine front now.

KEILAR: So you would support him again?

CANTOR: Well, again, I want to see about what the -- what the landscape is going to be. I mean, I'm a Republican. I believe I'm a limited government conservative Republican. And as you suggest in your prior questions, my party has not necessarily been dedicated to those principles that got me involved in politics many, many years ago.

So I'm hoping to see that the party would return to -- would return to those kind of principles and get off of some of these really divisive issues that continues to breed this anger and brings out the other side's anger. I mean, listen, we've got a great opportunity right now to see the country come together and I'm not seeing a lot of that really make progress in President Biden's Washington now.

KEILAR: And then finally, Speaker Boehner said that he would not run again. In fact, he also -- he said something very colorfully about this. He said that he would rather set himself on fire than re-run for office.

What about you?

CANTOR: Listen, I texted him after I heard him say that because I think it's so classic Boehner. It was a very funny line.

And I said to my wife -- I said I'm not sure I'm at that point that I would say that because I care so deeply about our country, about my party, about my state, and there's a lot of work to be done. And any way that I can help contribute to bringing us back towards some type of civil debate in terms of the future of our country, given the competitive nature of the global economy right now and, frankly, the national security issues that are out there as well. We've got a lot of work to do and I look forward to continuing to try and do my part.

KEILAR: And then, just finally before I let you go. On infrastructure, it does sound like the president is pushing to get at least 10 Republicans to join.

Do you think that there is a place where Republicans could join with President Biden on infrastructure, or do you expect and would you suggest that they take more of a page from the book of House Republicans when President Obama came into power when it had to do with healthcare reform, and they were very much just opposed in the House to anything?

Would you suggest that is something that Senate Republicans should consider?

CANTOR: Well, first of all, as I said before Brianna on the -- on the trajectory of the ACA bill and the Obamacare bill, the inability to work across the aisle was sort of set in stone initially by the president when he said it's my way or the highway.

But I would say now -- I'd say the likelihood of Republican participation and the requirement that there be 10 Republicans in the Senate get on board with an infrastructure bill that raises taxes, I'm not sure I see that happening.

Now, if the White House backs off of the requirement that taxes go up in this country, I think that there's a discussion to be had, and a discussion to be had in the type of pay-fors that would apply to a much smaller bill than what is being discussed right now out of the White House.

KEILAR: Eric Cantor. Mr. Leader, thank you so much for joining us here today.

CANTOR: Brianna, it was a pleasure.

KEILAR: Great to see you. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Still ahead, a jury in Minneapolis set to resume deliberations over the fate of Derek Chauvin. A closer look at the key evidence they are considering.

KEILAR: Plus, we now know what killed Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick one day after the insurrection. But what does it mean for the suspects charged in his assault?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:58:33]

KEILAR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this new day.

The Derek Chauvin trial is now in the jury's hands and we are on watch for a verdict in just a matter of hours, days.

Plus, backlash over Florida's brand-new law cracking down on protests. Could it be used to target minorities?

BERMAN: The medical examiner reveals the cause of death for the Capitol officer who died after the insurrection. Does the ruling affect the charges against the rioters?

And, what crisis? The White House now backtracking just days after President Biden used that word to describe the situation at the southern U.S. border.

KEILAR: A very good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world on this Tuesday, April 20th. The eyes of the world are fixed on a Minnesota courthouse as

deliberations resume this morning in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Twelve jurors deciding the fate of the former police officer who is charged with the murder of George Floyd. One of the charges that Chauvin faces, second-degree unintentional murder, is punishable by decades behind bars.

BERMAN: Overnight, protests in Minneapolis. Local leaders are pleading with everyone to remain calm.

Two hundred fifty members of Washington, D.C.'s National Guard now at the ready as the nation's capital braces for possible unrest.

KEILAR: So what is the jury considering this morning?

Joining us live, CNN legal analyst.