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New Day

Stormy Daniels is Interviewed about the Investigation into Trump; Mexico's Election Violence Matters; Meghan and Harry Name Daughter. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 07, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

STORMY DANIELS, ADULT FILM ACTRESS: That I would love nothing more than my day in court and to give a deposition and to provide whatever evidence that they need from me. I mean I have all the original forms and emails and wire transcripts and all of that stuff and I'm happy to turn it over to the -- anybody who needs it, honestly.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, as of now, what contact have you had with either Manhattan DA investigators or New York state investigators?

DANIELS: I know that my attorney, Clark Brewster, has been in contact with them and very forthcoming with my willingness to participate. I've had meetings with them about other issues. I've given depositions willingly about other cases involved. And we honestly really thought that the Supreme Court was going to step up and do the right thing because this sets a really terrifying precedent that the president is above the law. And I really just -- whether you are on, you know, the side of Trump or not, I just don't understand how one man can go to prison for a crime and somebody else can't even be investigated.

BERMAN: But as of -- so as of now you haven't sat for a deposition or answered any direct questions involving this investigation into Donald Trump.

You mentioned Michael Cohen obliquely there. He has served time for this.

DANIELS: Yes.

BERMAN: Federal time.

DANIELS: Right.

BERMAN: For the illegal campaign donations.

And this is what he wrote the other day on Twitter. He said, I remain ready, willing and able to fully cooperate with SDNY on any prosecution of Trump, Weisselberg, et cetera, but not -- including, but not limited to, the Stormy Daniels hush money payments scheme directed by and for the benefit of Trump, for which I was convicted and sentenced.

So Michael Cohen wrote that and you sort of retweeted him and you wrote, same.

DANIELS: Exactly. Like --

BERMAN: If you had the chance -- what would you tell investigators if you had the chance, or the grand jury?

DANIELS: I would tell them everything I know. I would tell them that I was approached. I would tell them that I have evidence that the money came from an account set up by Donald Trump -- or at the direction of Donald Trump. I will tell them that the -- you know, that money was traced back to Russian funds. I would give them copies of the bank wires and all -- all of the transcripts for that. And I think that anybody should be really terrified that a normal citizen could take the fall for somebody in power. That should terrify anybody.

BERMAN: And, again, just to be clear on the Russian funds part, that's not something that CNN has independently verified.

But Michael Cohen did serve time for this. And, again, federal time for this.

Separately, there's been an FEC investigation and an FEC fine issued to "The National Enquirer" for its role in the hush money payments to Karen McDougal, OK. So the FEC acted against "The Enquirer" for the money paid to Karen McDougal.

But the FEC bailed. Republicans on the Federal Election Commission, they blocked an investigation into the former president himself in your case saying, quote, the public record is complete with respect to the conduct at issue in these complaints, and Mr. Cohen has been punished by the government of the U.S. for the conduct it issued in these matters, thus we concluded that pursuing these matters further was not the best use of agency resources.

So what do you think about the fact that they basically let the former president off the hook here?

DANIELS: Like I said before, I think that it's repulsive, and any citizen of the United States should be afraid.

BERMAN: Michael Cohen there, we just read the tweet there, and I'm not sure -- I think some people know this, I'm not sure everyone does. Michael Cohen's payments to you were what started this and started this whole big mess. Cohen served time. Obviously, you could see how there might be friction between the two of you. But, actually, you appeared in his podcast and now he is someone who you talk to. And I don't know if you're friends or not, but what would you say the nature of your relationship is and how interesting do you find that now this is -- this is someone you have a relationship with?

DANIELS: I wouldn't go so far to say that I have a relationship with him or that we're friends. He dodged me for a very long time and I thought that it took a lot of courage to face me live on his show. And he did apologize to me and I felt like he was very honest and forthcoming and I know that that must have been very difficult for him. And I do believe that people change. And I commend him for standing up

and doing the right thing because all of those things he said about me and all the vicious attacks and how many times he called me a liar and he wouldn't acknowledge the things he'd done, he was the one reaching out to me and -- and basically threatening me to make more statements. He was the one that leaked the fact that there was an NDA by trying to promote a book. All of this kind of goes back to him. And he took full responsibility and profusely apologized to me.

I do believe that he is trying to do the right thing and I do believe that he is sorry. And for that I am grateful.

BERMAN: I'm curious, the former president himself spoke at a rally over the weekend. Generally speaking, what do you think now when you see him as former president out there doing what he does?

DANIELS: I -- it's comical, almost. It's sad. And I really -- I didn't see what you were talking about, but I try not to -- to follow him anymore.

[08:35:04]

It's just absurd. And I almost feel sorry for him in a way because I don't believe he's all mentally there.

BERMAN: I don't know where you were on January 6th during the insurrection itself, but what was your reaction to that and his role in it?

DANIELS: Like I said, it's just utterly repulsive and disgusting. And every day I think this can't get any more ridiculous, that we can't really be living this. And it's like, you know, the Trump Organization's like, hold my beer. Watch what I can do now. And no one seems to stop him.

BERMAN: What do you think of the fact that he, in the statements that he makes and when he talks he leaves open the possibility of running for office again, running for president again. Do you, a, think he will, or, b, what would you think --

DANIELS: Well, I mean it --

BERMAN: What would you think about that?

DANIELS: Well, it's within his legal right, I guess, at this point in time for him to do so. I think that it's absurd. But, honestly, he's crazy enough to do it.

BERMAN: And what do you think about the fact that the Republican Party now, Liz Cheney and others, have been ousted for speaking out against Donald Trump but that there's an entire political party, one of two parties in the United States, that's really tying itself in knots to cater to this person?

DANIELS: I think that it's a very slippery slope and to -- something that we don't want to be. And, like I said before, I'm just astounded every day that people are making these choices and doing this. And collectively as a citizen of the United States, we -- citizens, we really should be paying closer attention. This should not be OK.

And whether -- and this is not personal against -- against Mr. Trump or the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, I just think people need to really wake up and really pay attention before it's in a state that we can't come back from.

BERMAN: And, again, it's been some time since we heard from you. Obviously, you sat down with Anderson and then we heard a great deal.

I'm wondering, you know, now, as we're halfway through 2021, how life has changed for you?

DANIELS: I mean we're going to need a lot more time to talk about that. It's changed in every way. You know, when I made the decision to come forward, I knew that I would be kind of the sensor of all this hatred and attacks, and that's OK to a degree. I have pretty thick skin and I knew that it was something that I had to do.

I was unprepared for how far those ripples would go to the fact of like having a hard time finding someone who will rent a house to me, not being able to find work. I had no idea that it -- the reach of the government was so far that they could put false charges -- 17 of them by the way -- on my FBI record to keep me from working for four months. I didn't know that it could impact me. So, financially, people think I made a lot of money off of this, but think about what I have spent.

And I was asked as recently as last night by your producer, do I regret doing this? And I made the joke, it changes by the hour. A lot of -- a lot of times I do regret it. I can't get back the time I lost with my daughter. I can't get back the friends that left. I can't get back the fact that no one's probably ever going to want to be in a relationship with me because -- well, for obvious reasons -- who wants to follow that? But just, you -- no privacy. Fear all the time that I've been shot at, you know, that I couldn't use the bathroom without bodyguards for years, all of that stuff. But at the end of the day, at least I can look myself in the mirror and know that I did the right thing for the right reasons.

BERMAN: Again, you know, we cannot independently verify what you just said about the FBI, but I appreciate what you said about how your life has changed and some of the things you have suffered over the last year.

Stormy Daniels, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for being with us.

DANIELS: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, nearly a hundred candidates killed and hundreds more attacked. We're getting the first results back from the Mexican election marred by virtually unheard of levels of violence. A "Reality Check," next.

KEILAR: And the brand new baby just welcomed by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. How her name could be a peace offering.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:43:04]

KEILAR: Israel's internal security director with a stark warning that echoes those heard ahead of the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol. He says the rhetoric against lawmakers expected to vote to end Benjamin Netanyahu's 12 year reign as prime minister has turned extremely violent and that it could become lethal.

BERMAN: Vice President Kamala Harris is waking up in Guatemala this morning on her first foreign trip in office. She meets with that country's president this afternoon before flying to Mexico City.

KEILAR: And Mexico's president lost some of his grip on power after Sunday's midterm elections. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's coalition still controls Mexico's congress, but early results show that they lost the super majority in the lower house. Sunday's vote was marred by a huge wave of violence here in the months before it, including nearly 100 political assassinations.

BERMAN: Yes, unprecedented violence in the Mexican election. A genuinely horrifying outbreak that people should find chilling, and not just in Mexico.

John Avlon with a "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: In the wake of the Capitol Hill attack with Senate Republicans' refusal to allow a bipartisan commission to investigate its causes, there's been a lot of talk about how political violence is in danger of being normalized. Other people scoff and say it can't happen here, but we can't take that for granted because democracy is under threat. Self-styled populists and nationalists have been on the rise worldwide, and even if their generally disastrous response to COVID shows that cult of personality are not particularly well equipped to deal with complex governing crises, Mexico's midterm elections shows how violence can disfigure democracy because, get this, at least 96 candidates or politicians have been murdered in Mexico since September. More than 900 candidates have been targets of crime during that time. That's according to El Tucket (ph), a Mexican consulting firm.

Now much of the violence stems from organized crime, corruption and political interests. And the vast majority of these crimes are being left unsolved.

[08:45:02]

But with ballots cast across the country yesterday, the election was seen as a referendum on the self-described left wing populous presidency of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO.

Now, politically, you might think this would be the opposite of Donald Trump. But those two populous had a surprisingly close relationship, with AMLO actually refusing to congratulate then-President-elect Biden for weeks as Trump pushed his big lie.

Which makes a lot more sense when you understand that AMLO refused to accept his own defeat in an earlier presidential election, going so far as to conduct an alternate inauguration ceremony.

Now "The Economist" (ph) wrote up a handy populist checklist that compared the traits of AMLO, Trump, as well as Bolsonaro, India's Modi and Hungary's Orban. Ignore science? Check. Fails to respect the law? Check. Undermines institutions? Check. Insults opponents in colorful ways? Check. Claims to represent the will of the people? Check.

The only area where AMLO doesn't line up is sewing hatred of ethnic or religious minorities. So thank God for small mercies.

But AMLO's been accused of political power grabs and undermining democratic institutions. His crackdown on corruption has been highly selective, punishing enemies, rewarding allies, and overriding court decisions. And his strategy of combatting drug cartels, commonly referred to as hugs not bullets has been an abject failure. And so the cartels seem more powerful than ever, often giving civil servants a choice between silver or lead, bribery or death.

Criminal groups have learned their lesson over the past few years that no matter what they do, including killing candidates or attacking public institutions, there are no consequences says Falco Ernst (ph), a senior Mexico analyst for the International Crisis Group. That's what he told "The Guardian."

If we look at the performance of the Mexican judicial institutions and actually solving the murders of politicians, it's pretty much zero.

Now, this is a stark reminder of why accountability for crime is essential, especially when democracy is at stake. There's no corrupt bargain with political violence worth striking. And unlike Trump, AMLO's popular and the opposition is fractured. With the polls closing late last night, it's too soon to get final results for the 21,000 elected posts at stake.

While AMLO's ruling coalition will keep control of congress, it seems like it's lost its supermajority in the lower house. But even on election day there were reports of violence. Several polling places closed due to threats while body parts were found in at least two other precincts.

We should not turn away from this or dismiss it as something that just happens over there. It's an urgent reminder that democracy must always be defended, especially against threats of political violence. There can be no partisan excuse or populist exemption.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: John Avlon, thank you so much.

So, could an American infant, just born in the United States, heal the rift within the British royal family? New details on the new baby girl and her name, next. KEILAR: And new comments from Liz Cheney. Why the congresswoman says it's hard to govern because she and others are worried about their personal safety.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:12]

KEILAR: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have welcomed their second child, a daughter, named Lilibet Diana. Lili, as she will be called, is named after Queen Elizabeth and also, of course, Princess Diana, Harry's mother, according to a statement released by the couple.

And this birth comes after interviews by Prince Harry that have caused controversy and turmoil surrounding the royal family to say that -- to put that lightly.

Here now with more is Diane Clehane, she's the royal editor of "Best Life" and the author of "Diana: The Secrets of Her Style."

OK, first, let me -- Diane, thank you so much for joining us this morning. But just talk about this name and --

DIANE CLEHANE, ROYALS EDITOR, "BEST LIFE" AND AUTHOR, "DIANA: THE SECRETS OF HER STYLE": Great to see you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And what this may -- what this may signal for perhaps some reconciliation between the Sussexes and the royal family.

CLEHANE: Well, it really seems like an olive branch to the queen and to the royal family. This is a very intimate name that they selected. Elizabeth got this name as a toddler when she couldn't pronounce her own name. King George V, her father, gave it to her. And, of course, it was a term of endearment that Prince Philip used for the queen. So that's very special, very personal.

I don't believe that she knew that they were going to select the name until close to the time but sources have told me that she did know in advance. And then, of course, Diana, there had to have been Diana in the name. We knew that. But I think that in terms of selecting a name and putting Diana as a middle name was really the perfect choice because being Diana, the second Diana, would have been a huge mantle for this child to carry throughout her life.

BERMAN: I have to say, the choice of Lilibet really does seem like intimate, like you're in on the inside joke -- not joke but the inside terminology, which I only learned by watching "The Crown."

CLEHANE: Right.

BERMAN: So, you know, how do you think this will be received?

CLEHANE: Well, it's interesting. I was sort of skimming the British papers today and it's kind of a mixed bag over there. I think there's a sense that there are a lot of people that think it's terrific that they're finally sort of possibly coming together. That both sides of what's been a tremendously stressful family drama one day -- you know, every day there's something else and the other side of it, there have been people like Piers Morgan and some of the other very vocal critical of the couple that have said, you know, you can't sort of diss the family the way that they've done over these months and then honor the -- honor the monarch of all things. You know, they've been so critical of the royal family.

But I -- they are a family, first and foremost. And I think a lot of them have come out and said that. So despite all these hurtful and just incredibly personal revelations from Harry, I think this very well may be an olive branch to the family.

KEILAR: I mean this baby is special, is different because this is the first person in line for the throne born outside of the U.K. How significant is that?

CLEHANE: That's extremely significant. I mean this -- this baby is a baby of many, many firsts.

[08:55:01]

It's the first, as you said, the first royal to be born on U.S. soil. She is the first biracial girl to be born into the family. Interestingly enough, because of where she falls in the line of succession, she will be one of the first -- the first in the line to not have to ask the queen or the monarch at the time for permission to marry whoever it is that she wants to marry. Harry needed permission. William needed permission. She will be eighth in the line of succession, behind her father. So she does not have to ask whoever it's going to be who she -- about who she can marry.

BERMAN: And, of course, as Max Foster points out, not only the line of succession to the British throne but also she could run for U.S. president. She's an American.

Diane Clehane, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

CLEHANE: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: Now here is what else to watch today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ON SCREEN TEXT: 12:30 p.m. ET, White House press briefing.

1:35 p.m. ET, VP Harris speaks in Guatemala.

4:30 p.m. ET, Biden meets with NATO Sec Gen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So we do have a programming note this morning.

Former President Obama joins Anderson Cooper for a rare one on one interview about his life post-presidency. An "Anderson Cooper 360" special "Barack Obama on Fatherhood, Leadership and Legacy" airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

And my first question is, was there like a mandatory wardrobe for this interview? They appear to be wearing the exact same outfit.

KEILAR: Yes, they coordinate clothes better than we do, Berman.

BERMAN: Well, clearly. Clearly. But I -- I -- you know, the -- the -- what is that, like a dark navy slacks and then a -- and then a blue shirt?

KEILAR: Apparently. Apparently there was a memo that went out.

Well, look, I just want to highlight the interview that you did this hour with Stormy Daniels because I thought it was so wonderful to hear from her and also, you know, it was interesting too as she talked about sort of her experience personally here in the last year or two, also just that she's really sounding an alarm, right? She's really sounding an alarm on what she is seeing and urging Americans to do, to really open their eyes.

[09:00:01]

BERMAN: And also, you know, the fact that she hasn't really been contacted by the Manhattan DA and that investigation when that was the basis of launching the investigation to begin with. That's interesting.

KEILAR: Yes, it's fascinating. Great interview Berman.

BERMAN: Thank you .

KEILAR: And CNN's coverage continues right now with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto.