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House Approves Sending Impeachment Articles to Senate; Debate Puts Spotlight on Which Candidate Can take on Trump; State Department suddenly Cancels Two Classified Briefings on Iran; Entire Russian Government Resigns Over Putin's Constitutional Changes. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 15, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN. CNN HOST: Back to our top story. We are one step closer to the start of this impeachment trial of President Trump. After a one-month delay, the House voting to send the articles to the Senate.

And Tim Naftali, I CNN presidential historian and the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, is here.

And you want to just take a minute to school us all in just how big of a day this is?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: So in 1998, this happened in '98, the selection of the managers and the signing of the articles of impeachment happened right after the House voted two articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton.

This time around, it's taken a few weeks to happen, but it's happening now. Had this is a very formal process. These are very, very significant documents. They will get enormous protection.

And they will physically and spiritually be sent over to the Senate and the Senate is now supposed to act on them.

This is a huge day. It's a sad day. We don't like this to happen in our country, and it's only happened three times.

BALDWIN: The House managers, diverse group, seven men, women, folks from all over the country, you want to talk about any of them in particular?

NAFTALI Well, I also want to mention that the Constitution does not stipulate how many managers you have to have. We are now back to the same number of managers that were there for the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson.

There were seven then. There were 13 for the Clinton trial, there are now seven again.

What's very interesting is that if you look at the backgrounds of these managers, they all speak to not just a part of the national community that is America, but also to the charges against the president.

You have Jason Crow, a hero, captain in the U.S. Rangers, fought in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He understands national security policy. He can speak to why this mattered and why the president's actions were really a corruption of that system.

You have Zoe Lofgren. She has sort of a historical view of all of this.

BALDWIN: Been through it all.

NAFTALI Went through it all. She was a staffer in representative Don Edwards staff. And Edwards was on the House Judiciary Committee

during the Nixon impeachment process, and she was herself a member of Congress for the Clinton impeachment process.

So she has a great deal of understanding of this process.

BALDWIN: The subject of this whole thing, President Trump himself. I mean, this is the first time in history that we will, I'm assuming, see a president who is going to be the subject of this impeachment trial tweeting while watching coverage. How will that shape the contour of the trial?

NAFTALI: OK. Lawyer's nightmare, historian's dream. Absolutely wonderful, the best thing we could have is live tweeting from the president because obviously this would give us a sense of what's on his mind. This will give us a sense of this will be a historical document of great value. I'm sure his lawyers do not want him to do it.

[14:35:12]

BALDWIN: But you're looking forward to it.

NAFTALI: As a historian, of course, I'm looking forward to it.

BALDWIN: Tim Naftali, thank you very much.

The State Department abruptly canceling not just one but two classified briefings today on the strike that killed the to the Iranian general, the question is why. CNN has been told the staff is and I'm quoting them, pissed.

And why one Iowa voter says beating the president is the top priority, but he can't decide which candidate is the best to do that. You're watching CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just weeks before the first votes in the nation, the Democratic candidates squared off in Iowa over substantive policy issues like Iran, health care, and policy issues. CNN political commentator, Van Jones, was underwhelmed with those

candidates and dismayed to see the skirmishes between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

[14:40:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, " THE VAN JONES SHOW": Every progressive, to see those two have that level of vitriol was very dispiriting. And I want to say tonight for me was dispiriting. Democrats are going to have to do better than what we saw tonight. There was nothing I saw tonight that would be able to take Donald Trump out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN political commentator, Mitch Landrieu, is the former mayor of New Orleans.

Mitch Landrieu, that was a wow for Van Jones, do you agree with what he said?

MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I don't agree. I was with Van last night and I got a chance to watch the debate. I thought that that moment was unnecessary, and it was small, especially in light of the impeachment today, the national security crisis with Iran and of course the potential trade deal with China.

But I think that Elizabeth Warren did fairly well last night given her performances in past debates. I thought Vice President Biden held his own and didn't take a hit.

Yes, I would have liked him to have done better but I'm not as negative about last night's performance as van does.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So you weren't underwhelmed?

LANDRIEU: I think the Democratic candidates performed very well. There are a number of individuals up to the task of beating Donald Trump in the general election.

But these debates are not in isolation. They're done in the context of everything else that is happening in the country. And I think the level of expectation is rising because of the seriousness of the moment and the need to have a chief executive officer and a commander- in-chief that puts the country first, doesn't abuse their power, and uses the power for the good of the American people.

I do think the voters are beginning to tune in, and their expectations are getting higher.

BALDWIN: I think Iowans are right where you are. They are super-duper tuned in. You look at the numbers, and you talk to them, and they are extra undecided this go around. And yes, maybe that has to do with the fact there are so many candidates now.

But is that not slightly concerning for a Democrat if there's not decisiveness and, you know, overwhelming excitement for these candidates coming from Democrats?

LANDRIEU: Well, I think there are two sides to that. Number one, competition is always good. You know, the last time everybody ran people were mad because there were so few candidates. Now people are concerned there are too many.

It's a pretty exciting run in Iowa right now with four candidates seeming to vie for it, and all of a sudden this impeachment trial comes right in the middle of the campaign where at least three of the candidates are going to be taken off the field. We don't know what the consequence of that is.

I can tell you after the debate I a chance to talk to a number of Iowans who express real interest and concern and uncertainty about which of these candidates they're going to vote for.

It's an open -- it's an open race at this point as relates to Iowa. New Hampshire, South Carolina, maybe that's a different story. But Iowa is on the map today.

BALDWIN: Let me play some sound -- speaking of Iowa - O. Kay Henderson, of Radio Iowa, was on CNN this morning. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O. KAY HENDERSON, RADIO IOWA: They're very focused on finding someone who they believe is the best match against Donald Trump in the general election.

So, for instance, I was on the campaign trail last weekend and a gentleman told me he was weighing a decision between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. They have very little, you know, in common in terms of ideology.

What this voter had been looking at was the polls, and the polls told him that those two voters had the best -- those two candidates, rather, had the best chance of defeating President Trump in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, just think about that, between -- she's in between Biden and Sanders, it's not like it's a Warren and Sanders. That's quite a choice, and it seems to me -- and I'm curious what you're hearing, whether this choice early on for Democrats is less about, you know, party and policy and more about who can take Donald Trump down.

LANDRIEU: I believe that it's about who can beat Donald Trump. I think everybody has their feelings, you know, the Democratic Party is split between those people that want a revolution and those people that want stability and experience.

Joe Biden represents one of those, Bernie Sanders represents another, and everybody's interested in that.

When you dig a little bit deeper with them, every one of them, notwithstanding my personal feelings, I'm going to vote for the person that I think best can beat Donald Trump and restore some sense of rationality to how we're acting in the country at this point.

I think that's going to become more important as we get closer to the caucusing in Iowa. That is the prevailing idea that I hear from most of the voters that I talked to here.

BALDWIN: I want to ask you, you brought up the impeachment trial a second ago, do you think that Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg have an advantage over the Senators running because, you know, their eye will be on what's happening in D.C.?

LANDRIEU: Well, Elizabeth Warren addressed this last night, and she said notwithstanding that fact, it was her duty to make sure that she's at the center where she belongs.

But there's no question about it, if you withdraw from the playing field, which is essentially what is involuntarily happening to the Senators and you leave the playing field to two individuals that are doing fairly well, that they've got an advantage over you, and so yes, the timing of this thing does not help the Senators in the race and does help those that are not currently sitting in the United States Senate.

[14:45:17]

BALDWIN: Mitch Landrieu, a pleasure. Thank you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you, Brooke. Good being with you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Just a short time from now, House Democrats will officially deliver those impeachment articles to the Senate. So stand by for that historic moment.

Plus, a shock announcement today in Russia as the entire government resigns. Is this a blatant Putin power grab?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:05]

BALDWIN: Amid questions over the shifting reasons for the killing of the Iranian general, the State Department has abruptly canceled two classified briefings connected to the strike. One House aide tells CNN that people are, to quote them, "pissed."

Kiley Atwood is at the State Department.

Kiley, why'd they cancel them?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: So there are two different briefings on Iran that were canceled today. One of them was for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was focused specifically on Iran. That one was canceled.

The other one is for the House Foreign Relations Committee. That one was also canceled.

Essentially that committee has a monthly hearing. They focus on embassy security. This one was supposed to focus on Burundi. They asked if they could focus that one on the Middle East and a global assessment of embassy security worldwide. So that is what they were expecting today.

But with both of these briefings canceled, there are staffers up on the Hill that are extremely frustrated. Now, some are saying that this was just a scheduling change, and the State Department is going to reschedule it, but others are pointing to the fact that there's no date yet on the calendar for these briefings to be rescheduled.

And this comes on the heels of continued questions about the president's justification for the Soleimani strike and our reporting that senior officials here at the State Department involved in embassy security didn't know about a justification that was linked to an imminent attack against four specific U.S. embassies -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: All right, Kiley, thank you.

Let's go to Russia now where a seismic political move could signal Vladimir Putin has no plans to leave power behind when his term as president ends in four years.

Just hours ago, Russia's entire government resigned, entire government. That would be like the U.S. House and Senate just walking out this morning and calling it quits. Putin is now moving to make sweeping changes to Russia's constitution that Putin's critics call a power grab.

Let's go to CNN contributor, Jill Dougherty, who spent a great deal of time in Russia as CNN's Moscow bureau chief.

So, Jill, what is this power play?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we kind of wish we knew ultimately because, you know, let's put this in context. Right now, we know, everyone in Russia knows, that in 2024, according to the constitution, Vladimir Putin has to step down. He can't run anymore. But nobody really believes that he is going to kind of walk away into the sunset.

So how does he stick around? And that's the question that has been consuming Russia, you know, literally, you know, for years, but most specifically in the last year.

So what he has done is he comes out to a state of the nation speech, and in that he says we are going to have major changes in the government and these are going to be long-lasting and important. And at that, two hours later, the prime minister steps down, government leaves. Now, that is -- I would say that this is kind of the first step, and we're beginning to see the outline of what could come at the end of Vladimir Putin's term.

So he goes to the Security Council, which is an important position. He has a position created for him by Vladimir Putin, and he's come kind of Vladimir Putin's alter ego. He can move him around.

Remember back in 2008 they switched positions. Putin became prime minister, and then the switch-aroo back again that's one.

Then a faceless bureaucrat comes in, nobody really knows too much about him, the man who's the head of the federal tax service. He comes in as prime minister.

Then we have what I think would be very interesting. The parliament begins to get more power, a little more power, and this group that's called the state council gets more power.

And then finally, you know, the president ostensibly looks weaker, finally, this is all surmisable at this point, but you could take a body like the state council. You could give it more power.

Now it's officially part of the constitutional government. You could give it more power and then President Putin at the end of 2024 steps back, maybe takes over the state council, as a strong body and is kind of the power behind the throne or a major force in Russian government and in politics.

BALDWIN: The man doesn't want to leave. Thinks he can maybe rewrite the rules. This is what happens in Russia.

Jill Dougherty, you are incredible at covering all of it, thank you very, very much. We'll watch to see what happens in the next four years.

[14:55:04]

Our breaking news coverage continues. As the House prepare to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, will new evidence force Republicans to accept new witnesses?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

[15:00:02]

The House's role in the impeachment of President Donald Trump may be winding down this Wednesday afternoon, but over in the Senate, it is just beginning.