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New Day

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Releases DNA Results to Prove Her Trustworthiness; Saudi Arabia Has Given Permission to Turkish Authorities to Search Their Consulate; Interview With Rep. Jim Himes. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 15, 2018 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Good morning everyone. Welcome to your New Day. She is running. At least that's what it looks like to me.

Some major breaking news in the world of politics this morning. It looks like Elizabeth Warren, the Senator from Massachusetts is running for president. Now, she did not announce it exactly out loud with words.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: But you're not letting that stop you.

BERMAN: Because she did everything but that. She released this video taking on her critics directly. Those who have said she is not Native American, no ancestry as she has claimed in the past. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: You know, the president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The facts suggest that you absolutely have a Native American ancestor in your pedigree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. We'll get into that. Also, breaking this morning, a diplomatic source has just told CNN that Saudi Arabia has given permission to Turkish authorities to search their consulate in Istanbul.

Today, there is growing international pressure for the Saudi's to explain what happened to missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. President Trump vows to punish the Saudi's if they killed "The Washington Post" columnist.

BERMAN: And, this all comes on the heels of the president's revealing, very revealing interview with "60 Minutes." The president acknowledged that Russian President, Vladamir Putin probably assassinates and poisons his rivals, but he seemed to downplay it because it doesn't happen on U.S. soil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LESLEY STAHL, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Do you agree that Vladamir Putin is involved in assassinations, in poisonings?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Probably he is. Yes. Probably. I mean I don't ...

STAHL: Probably?

TRUMP: Probably, but I rely on them. It's not in our country.

STAHL: Okay, but why not -- they shouldn't do it. This is a terrible thing.

TRUMP: Of course they shouldn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It's not in our country. Let's bring in "New York Times" columnist, Nicholas Kristof, former Clinton White House Press Secretary and CNN Political Commentator, Joe Lockhart and former Chief of Staff to First Lady, Laura Bush, Anita McBride.

Nick, I want to start with you here, because that sounds to me like the Trump doctrine. He laid it out in regards to Russia. Vladamir Putin poisons and assassinates people, but it didn't happen here in the United States. That's the exact same language he used about the alleged assassination of Jamal Khashoggi last week. He said, it didn't happen here.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, I wonder what the British are thinking today? I mean, the point of an ally and the point of U.S. leadership has been to try to provide that kind of leadership globally to try to change, support global norms and when we say, well okay, Russia poisoned people using poison gas in another country, it doesn't matter because it's not here.

I do think that undermines those norms and I also think that's kind -- that some degree that attitude that led the Saudi Crown Prince, perhaps, to think that he could get away with dispatching a critic, who was actually a permanent resident of this country. In the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the Crown Prince has gotten away with kidnapping a Lebanese Prime Minister, oh, but that wasn't in our country.

He'd gotten away with starving eight million Yeminis, but that wasn't in our country and it sure looks like he did one more thing, that again, wasn't in our country, but dramatically does undermine the global order and has consequences for America as well as everybody else.

CAMEROTA: But Anita, isn't his just what President Trump and his supporters would call America first. You hear him say and say often, we can't be the world's policemen. We don't have the resources to be America's policemen. We can't be that concerned about what happens in North Korea or Russia or Saudi Arabia.

The president is focused on America first and if means taking money from people who killed journalist, well that's good for American jobs is what the president is saying in terms of the Saudi Arabian connection.

ANITA MCBRIDE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFFTO FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Well sure, that's really troubling all of us that always want to remain -- America to remain a moral leader in the world and that is disturbing.

The one thing that I think is interesting and the language that Donald Trump understands, which is business and jobs and American opportunities overseas, but now we're hearing though from American business leaders that they're very uncomfortable with this and they're pulling out of this major summit that's happening in Saudi Arabia and that's a language that Donald Trump maybe will -- will understand, at J.P. Morgan, Chase and Ford Motor, two of the top companies that are now not going to participate in this summit.

And that's also a language that I think, Mohammad Bin Salman will understand too, who is very focused on achieving the vision in 2030 that he has of all this development and investment in his country. So, maybe with that pressure coming from the business side, if it's not coming from the political leadership will have a difference.

BERMAN: And it's interesting, I remember the 2004 inauguration speech, George W. Bush's second inauguration speech was all about liberty and spreading freedom around the world. It's just a starkly different message, Joe Lockhart, and Anita talked about business.

[07:05:00]

Well, part of the business of the United States is freedom. Part of the business of the United States is liberty, not just money, not just dollars and cents, and the president talks about in such a starkly different way.

Listen to what he said about Kim Jong Un. Lesley Stahl, who pushed him throughout this interview in really interesting ways, was asking about how the president said that he had a love affair with the North Korean dictator. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAHL: I want to read you his resume. OK?

TRUMP: Go ahead.

STAHL: He presides over a cruel kingdom of repression, who logs (ph) starvation, are reports that he had his half brother assassinated, slave labor, public executions, this is a guy you love?

TRUMP: I know all these things. I mean, I'm not a baby. I know all these things.

STAHL: I know, but why do you love that guy.

TRUMP: Look, look, I like -- I get along with him. Okay?

STAHL: But, you said love him.

TRUMP: Okay, that's just a figure of speech.

STAHL: Just like an embrace. No, it's like an embrace.

TRUMP: Well, let it be an embrace. Let it be whatever it is to get the job done.

STAHL: Yes, but he's a bad guy.

TRUMP: Look, let it be whatever it is. I get along with him really well. I have a good energy with him. I have good chemistry with him. Look at the horrible threats that were made, no more threats. No more threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joe?

JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think we always like to say the Bush doctrine, the Clinton doctrine, the Obama doctrine. We actually have one now, which is, and I think as Nick said, is this authoritarian trumps everything, it's power versus moral clarity.

If you look at the "60 Minutes" interview, he sharply criticized Europe, the E.U., NATO, the basic construct of our alliances and where we share normal norms. And he praised North Korea and Saudi Arabia as our -- as the new people and wouldn't take -- he was pressed multiple times on Russia and his answer was, well, China did it too.

So, I think, the interesting thing to me though is, you've seen the Senate and the House give up the oversight authority that they've had for the last two years because they're afraid politically.

Well, look at the Senators who went out yesterday and there are a couple -- some of them are a couple weeks from reelection, their fingers on the pulse. They're taking Trump on here, because they think politically that this is problem for Trump.

CAMEROTA: What does this mean, Nick? Does it mean this is a permanent sort of realignment of alliances? I mean what does it mean that the president so openly says that he courts Putin and Kim Jong Un and criticized Europe?

KRISTOF: I don't think it is. I do think that the fact that you see on the Republican side is well resistant. I mean I don't -- I think this is a temporary diversion. I will also make the point that even if you accept simply the American first prison and you don't care about global norms, then I think this has been, also frankly a failure. So, you look at Kim Jong Un, now he is still producing nuclear materials in Yongbyon and North Korea, still producing missiles.

CAMEROTA: But, you heard the president say no more threats, no more threats. KRISTOF: Yes, but if this was happening under anybody else and he

would certainly perceive it as a threat, likewise, with the case of Saudi Arabia. So, the reason the U.S. ported Saudi Arabia so much, it was essentially two fold.

One, that we could sell them $110 billion worth of weapons and nothing like that has happened. They promised that, but it hasn't been anything close to that. And the other was the idea that Saudi Arabia could support the Trump Peace Plan for the Middle East. And likewise, that simply isn't going to happen now.

BERMAN: Any sense that Saudi Arabia will come clean on this, given that all these folks are pulling out of this conference next week? Jamie Dimon, CNN, EuroTimes and others have said, we're not going, does the Saudi regime ever respond to pressure?

KRISTOF: One indication that they're not responding right now is, is that yesterday that they announced within Saudi Arabia that anybody who is spreading rumors, spreading false information can face five years in prison. That's not an optimistic sign.

I fear that they will try to pin this on somebody else, create some fall person and I don't see any indication they are coming clean on, what sure looks like a murder, at the behest of the Crown Prince.

CAMEROTA: And let's move on to the -- we have so much big news this morning, so let's move on to Elizabeth Warren. She has take the step of taking a DNA test, of releasing the results that say that she is somewhere between 1/32nd Native American and 1/500th, but she does have Native American blood and she has put out a five minute video interviewing her family members and DNA experts to talk about this. Why would she go to those lengths today?

[07:10:00]

MCBRIDE: Well, maybe part of it is a little bit to challenge President Trump on how he challenged her on this issue, but I think, you know what, she's a political force in her Party and she's certainly a woman - high level women political leader in this country, but I don't think that being one thirty-second or one five-hundred- twelfth Native America is going to be the issue that decides whether she becomes President of the United States or not.

But she's putting that to rest and she's going to move on because she's got bigger things that she needs to be talking about clearly than this.

BERMAN: Alisyn made fun of me before we came on here because I said she's running, because you don't -

MCBRIDE: Yes.

BERMAN: - to me you don't do this unless you're running. You don't do this just to satisfy world curiosity, but Joe Lockhart, why do it today? I guess I don't fully understand three weeks plus one day before the - or two weeks plus one day before the midterms. Why do it today?

LOCKHART: I mean, my theory on this is the thing that unites Democrats, the moderate centrists and the progressives, the very - the far left, is hatred of Trump and challenging Trump. And I think the timing of it is not that curious because over the last three weeks or so, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker, the people sitting on the Judiciary Committee, you know, had a chance to take Brett Kavanaugh as a proxy for Trump, and Elizabeth Warren was sidelined a bit because of that.

And if you look at - you know, I don't think - I wouldn't read very much at all into the CNN poll, you know, the first, you know, out here. It's too far out, but if you had told me a month ago that Kamala Harris would be pulling a significantly higher than Elizabeth Warren, I'd say, "she needs to do something," you know? And I think that signifies the time.

CAMEROTA: Ah ha. OK, so here's a portion of Elizabeth Warren's video. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you remember her heritage ever coming up during the hiring process?

RANDY KENNEDY: No.

OLIN GUY WELLBORN III: No.

JAY WESTBROOK: No, her heritage had no bearing on her hiring, period.

DOUG LAYCOCK: I was chairing the committee that year. In fitness (ph) even part of the discussion I would have known about it.

KENNEDY: Her name with respect to racial minority hires no. Never.

JOHN MIXON: That's nonsense.

HANK GUTMAN: Her reputation as a teacher was stellar. We decided to hire her because she was the best there was on the market.

STEPHEN BURBANK: Elizabeth was revered as perhaps the best teacher on the faculty.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, that's the point, Nick. That's the point. So it's not the - I don't think that the DNA test would ever quiet Trump and his supporters because they don't think that one thirty-second matters. It's that they say she exploited it and listed it as a credential to try to get, you know, special treatment.

KRISTOF: I think that's exactly right. This - you know, it would be worse if there was no ancestry at all from the Native American side, but I think the real vulnerability in a lot of American families was the idea that she gained in her career from this. And a few months ago it looked as if that might be possible. I don't know that her video carries so much credibility, but The Boston Globe a couple months ago did an extraordinarily good and thorough investigation of this and found that in every step, at University of Texas, at University of Pennsylvania, at Harvard Law School and every step she was hired as a white woman, and that these issues of Native ancestry played zero role. So I think that largely disposes - well, I'm not sure. I mean, it's too much to say it largely disposes, but I think it certainly helps to reduce that burden in her abilities (ph).

BERMAN: Well, disposes with whom, right?

KRISTOF: That's right.

BERMAN: Disposes with whom?

KRISTOF: Factually, it disposes of it.

BERMAN: Because...

CAMEROTA: Well, people who are independents. I mean, people who have been wondering about whether or not she played that card in order to gain an advantage, I think that this will help and what you said The Boston Globe will help, but obviously not with President Trump.

BERMAN: Not with President Trump, and she knows this, Anita, and she knows that it won't quiet President Trump, so she, to an extent, is inviting the one-on-one with President Trump on this issue, and I'm curious why?

MCBRIDE: And you know he'll take it on. I mean, you can just imagine what he's going to be saying at any of his future rallies now over the next 21 days, and I think he would invite having that one-on-one with her.

But I do agree with Nick and Joe. She's going to be measured on other merits in the eyes of the people that really matters and that's voters.

CAMEROTA: OK. Anita, Joe, Nick, thank you all very much.

BERMAN: You're just so happy Kristof agrees with you.

CAMEROTA: Yes -

MCBRIDE: Yes, about the baby.

BERMAN: (inaudible)

MCBRIDE: I'm a royal watcher, too, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Anita. We love love. Thank you.

BERMAN: I love love (ph). I do. I'm so happy for them as a couple, just not as a royal couple.

MCBRIDE: All right. OK.

CAMEROTA: They are a royal family. I'm not going to get into this right now. Thank you all very much. In just hours, President Trump and the first lady are heading to hurricane ravaged Florida. At least 18 people are dead across the southeast as the search for dozens of unaccounted people continues.

So CNN's Scott McLean is live in Panama City, Florida with more. What's the latest there, Scott.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Alisyn, it will be an eye opening experience for President Trump on the ground here because wherever you look there is widespread, catastrophic damage. This case in point is a middle school, and just imagine how strong the wind would have to be or how strong the wind was to do this level of damage.

[07:15:00]

Obviously it won't be open any time soon, and that's a big problem. There are 20,000 out of the 26,000 students in this school district that won't have a school to go back to. Yesterday we spoke with a man named Chad Frazier. Luckily his house is OK, but his auto painting business, it was flattened, and his son goes to this school, so he's going to be displaced.

He said that helped has arrived. Obviously FEMA's passing out food and water. They're also going to be taking applications starting today for transitional housing, but he said in the days and the hours after this hurricane hit, it was ordinary people who had come from out of town to bring food and to bring water to those affect. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD FRAZIER: The people who came - the people who came, man, they was - I mean, that was the biggest blessing to us. I didn't see nobody in panic mode. Nobody was, you know, in tears about being hungry. I mean, they was here like the next day. You got to believe in the Lord. You got to keep going. Don't stop right there (ph). I mean, my shop is down. I'm not in bad spirits. This just make my faith grow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Wow. Scott, listen, we're reporting that there's still people missing and I know you spent time with a group of firefighters yesterday, so what did they tell you about the search and rescue effort?

MCLEAN: Yes. They said that it is very much ongoing. There are, you know, tons of firefighters who come from all corners of this region to help with this effort, and they are literally going door-to-door, checking on missing persons reports, checking to see if there are people trapped. Obvisouly communications is an issue, so they may not have been able to call for help. The group that I spoke with, they said they came across a man who was on a ventilator and had died when the power went out. They expect to find more people trapped. They expect to find more fatalities in the days to come as well.

And these men and women who have signed up for this, well, they're not staying at the Hilton. They're actually staying in tents - air conditioned tents in the parking lot of the local mall. It's not exactly glamorous, and also remember that for a lot of the local firefighters, well, they're doing this work while also dealing with damage to their own homes. John -

BERMAN: Right. Scott McLean for us in Panama City. Scott, thank you for the work you're doing down there. Appreciate it.

President Trump has said that he will take action against Saudi Arabia, but what? He has also noted that it didn't happen in the United States, this alleged killing of a journalist from The Washington Post. So if the president doesn't act, what will Congress do about it? We'll ask a key member of the House Intelligence Committee next.

[07:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, into breaking news. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Democrat from Massachusets released a DNA test just this morning, and a video about her families Native American ancestry. She seems to be trying to dispel the criticism from the past that she claims people used to say incorrectly that she had Native American heritage to get advantages for finding jobs and what not. This video she has people testifying that that was not the case.

Joining us now is democratic Congressman Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee from Connecticut. Congressman thanks so much for being with us.

REP. JIM HIMES, (D) CT.: Good morning, John.

BERMAN: Is Elizabeth - Is Elizabeth Warren running for president?

HIMES: She and about 20 other people. Look John, we're at the moment in the cycle, the election is more than two days - I'm sorry two years away. There are going to be a lot of people who get talked about who do things like this to test the waters for a long period of time. A remarkable array of people will be showing up in New Hampshire. And that doesn't necessarily mean that they'll be on the ballot two years from now. But it certainly means their thinking about it.

BERMAN: Is that what this looks like to you? That she's thinking about running for president?

HIMES: Well you know not just this. And again I think there have been other indicators with respect to Senator Warren. You know, this is at one level this is sort of a silly thing, right? It's an honesty thing. You know, I guess I forget the exact details. But on some form at some point in her life she claimed some Native American ancestry. Donald Trump called her a liar, used sort of racially tinged language with Pocahontas.

And she's saying "Look, I wasn't wrong." And apparently she wasn't wrong and the president's accusations weren't (ph) right. That at some level is pretty silly. At a whole other level of course it's a conversation that we'll be having, as I'm sure your aware Harvard University is about to start a trial around affirmative action about whether race can be used for preferences in admissions to universities and other things.

So at a different less silly level, this is a sort of interesting conversation that we're going to be hearing about a lot in the next couple of weeks with respect to affirmative action.

BERMAN: Last question about this. But on a purely political level do you think it's smart to take the president on like this?

HIMES: Well, for somebody who may be thinking about appealing to the democratic primary electorate, that is to say the most activist Democrats, of course it is. So now yes, this is sort of a freebie. You know she's out there, I'm talking about her on CNN, on - at an ungodly early hour. And you know, she's sort of fixing a question and showing that the president was actually incorrect about her.

BERMAN: Another fascinating development overnight is that the president gave this interview to "60 Minutes" in which he was asked a number of things, but among them asked directly if he thought that Vladimir Putin poisoned and assassinated people. Listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE STAHL, 60 MINUTES REPORTER: Do you agree that Vladimir Putin is involved in assassinations, in poisonings?

DONALD TRUMP, US PRESIDENT: Probably he is, yes. Probably, I mean I don't --

STAHL: Probably?

TRUMP: Probably, but I rely on them. It's not in our country.

STAHL: OK, but why not, they shouldn't do it. This is a terrible thing --

TRUMP: Of course they shouldn't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: They shouldn't do it, but it's not in our country, seeming to diminish the importance of it. And we've been suggesting this morning this is a sort of new Trump doctrine, which is to say if it doesn't happen here the United States isn't going to get involved. HIMES: Yes, yes. No, and it's horrifying. And I've been sort of

ping ponging all over the place on the way Donald Trump has been talking about the possible Saudi murder of Khashoggi in Istanbul. You know he came out at first and said not a big deal. Then he said there's going to be severe punishment. Now we get this.

[07:25:00]

Look, what he is saying is profoundly inconsistent with who we have always been as a people. You know, whether it was Fidel Castro or Emperor Hirohito or Adolf Hitler or whoever it was, you know, we consider ourselves and exceptional country. There's a reason why we believe that, and that reason is that we're not just a collection of people who come from some similar heritage. We're a bunch of people who believe in a set of values and freedom of the press and liberty and individual freedom. And when people like Vladimir Putin or like the Saudis violate that, for 240 years of our history, we've said that's not OK regardless of where it happened.

So, you know, what really - so there's that, the damage to our values, but what's really scary is, you know, the Saudis in particular, you know, and it looks like they may have done this. Let's leave a little bit of uncertainty there until we know for sure, but when the President of the United States says maybe not a big deal, this is going to lead to more dictators around the world doing this kind of thing, and that's why we need clarity from the president saying you can't kill people in foreign countries, you can't people without a trial, you can't bomb school buses full of children, you can't try to kill ex-spies on the streets of England. If that language isn't coming out of the White House, we'll see more of that behavior.

BERMAN: One version of the president's language, he seems to suggest that he does condemn it. He told "60 Minutes" that we're going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment. You applaud that kind of language.

HIMES: Yes, I do. I mean, I'm not sure punishment is quite the right concept. You know, we're not a global parent who is here to impose a two week, you know, grounding on our child. We are a moral - or at least should be - a moral leader around the world. We should be leading the charge saying you don't get to kill people without trial, you know, all the stuff that we believe in around freedom and liberty, and we should be the leader for that around the world. We always have been, and if it's not us, who will it be?

So yes, look. I did applaud that, but now we're negotiating with ourselves. I read it in the paper, well, what about the arms sales? Well, what about what - look, on moral language, on key issues and values on the rule of law, on basic decency in our international behavior, we shouldn't be negotiating those things based on, you know, gosh, is that $100 billion arms sale or $25 billion arm sale?

If somebody is murdering somebody else abroad - again, the president was asked about assassinations - the answer shouldn't be surrounded by weasel words. You don't murder people abroad, period. BERMAN: The president will say, has said in the past, you know, we all do it. This has happened before. You don't think we kill people. Anwar al-Awlaki, is that different?

HIMES: Well, you know, look. If that's the way we're going to look at ourselves, we all do it, all of us have to rethink how we think about our own country because I certainly believe that we are different and that we stand up for what is right so we can renegotiate how we've always thought about our country as a moral exemplar but also standby because, you know, every kind of crazy and awful behavior, if we just say, 'well gosh, everybody does it," this is going to be a pretty ugly world pretty quickly.

BERMAN: And also to equate someone like Khashoggi with al-Awlaki or Bin Laden for that matter seems to be a vastly different thing. Democrats, if you take over the House, Laruen Fox of CNN has got an article out this morning saying there's going to be all kinds of hearings, all kinds of investigations. Is it reasonable to expect that that would happen if you take over the House?

HIMES: Well, you know, it is absolutely reasonable to assume that if the Democrats take the House of Representatives that for the first time in two years there will actually be some oversight of the Executive Branch. And that's not a Democratic thing. The Constitution sets the Congress up as a check and a balance on the president.

I'm here to tell you having lived in it for two years, that is not what it has been. So yes, of course there will be oversight, but John, you know, we Democrats also need to remember that oversight is not our only job. You know, our job is also to pass legislation and to move ideas and programs that will help the American people.

So I think if we do take the majority, we're going to have to sit down hard and think about, yes, we have to do oversight, we're going to have to do investigations, we're going to have to fight corruption, but what about prescription drug prices? What about an infrastructure deal? What about things that maybe we would even agree with the president on?

BERMAN: That was also part of Lauren's article to Democrats saying we have to be careful not to overreach Democrats telling her if we do take back the House with too many investigations. Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, great to have you with us in the morning. Thank you.

HIMES: Good to see you, John.

CAMEROTA: OK everybody, stick around because one of our signature voter panels is just ahead. How are the all-important independent voters feeling today?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Why are you feeling energized as you approach the midterms?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'm more feeling embarrassed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: The pulse of the people next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]