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Sen. McConnell's Office Releases Health Update; Ex-Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Being Sentenced; All 19 Co-Defendants have Pleaded Not Guilty In GA Election Case; Escaped Killer In PA Seen On Security Camera; McConnell Speaks On Senate Floor After Latest Freezing Episode. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 05, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:05]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Any minute, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is set to speak on the floor of the Senate for the first time since his latest freezing episode, as questions swirl about the future of his leadership. We're monitoring those remarks.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: The manhunt for a dangerous escaped murderer is now expanding. Pennsylvania authorities say the convicted killer was spotted outside of the original search area. Two school districts closed their doors as hundreds of law enforcement officers deployed to help with the search.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And more than 50 years after his heroic actions in Vietnam, retired Army Captain Larry Taylor will be honored at the White House. Captain Taylor will receive the nation's highest military award.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: This hour on Capitol Hill, the Senate is back in session after its August break and many eyes and ears are going to be trained on the minority leader. Any moment now, we're expecting to hear directly from Mitch McConnell amid questions over his health. It comes after two incidents this summer where he froze up in front of cameras while answering questions for reporters. Today, a Capitol doctor released an update on that.

CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill for us.

So Manu, what can you tell us about the Capitol physician's view of McConnell's health and whether we expect McConnell to talk about his health today?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are - it's unclear exactly what he will say on the Senate floor when they open just in a matter of moments. We do expect McConnell to address the Senate business. He typically does that. It's unlikely that he will talk about his health. He has been very reticent to provide any details about what was - what has happened amid these health scares. Twice this summer that he froze for roughly 30 seconds when cameras were upon him, including last week - in last week's episode in Covington, Kentucky, afterwards, we have not heard or seen him publicly.

So these remarks were the first public remarks he has made. He has met with members privately, including one Senate candidate, Jim Banks, late last week after that incident. I mean, the immediate aftermath had a fundraiser for him, spoke at that event. Banks later told me that McConnell seemed perfectly fine.

McConnell has spoken to other senators as well in the recent days, tried to reassure them about his health. And then today, a letter to try to ease any concerns about the 81-year-old Republican leader and whether he can continue to hold on to his powerful leadership post that he has held for the last 16 years.

A Capitol physician, Brian Monahan, said that he had consulted with several of McConnell's neurologists, four of them, in fact, the leader spoke with, as well as conducted a number of exams, including MRI imaging and EEG study to monitor electrical activity in the brain. And the result was that, according to the doctor, "No evidence that he has a seizure and no evidence that he experienced a stroke or a TIA or a movement disorder such as Parkinson's disease."

Now, that is where some of the concerns that could have been there. But here you're hearing the Capitol physician ruling it out. It is still uncertain exactly what caused McConnell to freeze. His office said that he was lightheaded at the time in both instances. And the Capitol physician said it's not uncommon for someone who has suffered a concussion to experience lightheadedness. McConnell suffered a concussion back in March when falling and hitting his head in a Capitol - in a Washington hotel.

So still, Boris, questions about this issue, questions about how you address it, including when he meets with his colleagues for the first time behind closed doors since they've returned from recess and that will happen tomorrow, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Manu, please keep us updated on his remarks from the floor. Thank you so much.

[15:05:01]

Let's discuss the politics of all of this now with David Chalian. He's CNN's Political Director.

So David, McConnell has been the leader of Republican senators for 16 years now. What does he need to do to ease their concerns about his ability to lead?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you just heard Manu describe Boris, I mean, he's working overtime, as is his team, to do exactly that to assuage any concerns. He's also going to be able to take the temperature of his conference when they meet behind closed doors to see how sort of much this concern is permeating through the conference, or is it not.

You don't become the leader for 16 years and the longest-serving leader in Senate history if you don't have a pulse of where your members are on this and so he'll work to do that as well. But you see, by putting out two medical letters within days of each other to try and provide an update, they're clearly trying to isolate this to something that is just about a sort of normal recovery from a significant concussion back in March and ruling out all other things or a lot of other things that it could potentially be.

SANCHEZ: Yes, David, it struck me that the second time he froze, it was actually following a question from a reporter about his decision to run for re-election in 2026. His singular focus now is trying to get Republicans back in the White House and back in control of both chambers of Congress.

CHALIAN: Yes. And most significantly, first and foremost for Mitch McConnell, is getting Republicans back in control of the majority of the United States' Senate. And I think that while he - you are right, he was being asked about his own re-election prospects in 2026. He's not up for election this cycle.

I think his immediate challenge about his own leadership post, Boris, is right now, in these days and weeks ahead, to try and put off any attempt or conversation that maybe he shouldn't be the leader of the conference through the rest of this Congress. I think whether or not Mitch McConnell is around to actually serve as leader of the Republican conference beyond the 24 elections, I think that is a much more robust conversation that Senate Republicans will be having in the months ahead.

SANCHEZ: Again, we look forward to hearing from Sen. McConnell at any moment on the Senate floor.

David Chalian, thank you so much for the perspective. Brianna?

KEILAR: Happening now, sentencing hearing for former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio. Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy over his role in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

We have CNN's Evan Perez, who is joining us live now from outside the federal district courthouse. Evan, what more are you learning?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Brianna, the judge is considering whether to add a terrorism enhancement, which would really up the sentences - the sentence that he is able to give or that he would give to Enrique Tarrio. It's something that he has declined to do in the previous four of these sentencings for four members of the Proud Boys that we saw in the last few days.

Just as a reminder, we've had four of them already sentenced: Ethan Nordean got the longest, 18-year sentence; Joe Biggs, 17 years; Zachary Rehl, 15 years; and then Dominic Pezzola, 10 years. Four of those men - four of these men were convicted of seditious conspiracy. Enrique Tarrio, of course, is the leader. He was not even here that day and that's something his lawyer, his attorney is really emphasizing to the judge, saying, look, he wasn't here that day. He wasn't in touch with them, with the members of the Proud Boys. He's not even - he wasn't even able to control them in some of the previous rallies in some of the previous altercations that they had with police.

But the judge said, that is something you argued to the jury, and they didn't - they didn't believe it.

Right now, the judge is saying that the judge is saying that he is looking to - to add that terrorism enhancement, which, again, would increase the level of sentence. Prosecutors have asked for 33 years. And so we - we're waiting to see what the judge decides.

His lawyer right now is saying, look, Enrique Tarrio is not a terrorist. He's just a misguided patriot, something the judge is not really buying at this moment. Brianna?

KEILAR: Not really buying. All right, Evan Perez, we'll see where this lands. Thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: The legal fallout of January 6 does not stop there. As of this afternoon, Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in Georgia have now pleaded not guilty to charges tied to racketeering and election interference. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows is one of the defendants who entered that plea today. He was hoping, you'll remember, to get those charges moved to federal court before this step.

[15:10:02]

A judge has yet to make a ruling on that move.

CNN's Nick Valencia has the latest from Fulton County.

Nick, none of these defendants have to appear in front of a judge and for cameras, at least for the arraignment tomorrow. Is that how prosecutors expected that to play out? And of course, it'll be different for the trials.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we had anticipated that this could be a possibility. Under Georgia law, these co-defendants have the right to waive their arraignment, have a right to plead not guilty or guilty prior to appearing in court. And that's exactly what these 19 co-defendants did.

What was once going to be a very busy day in court on Wednesday is no longer and Mark Meadows among the - one of the last of these co- defendants to enter a not guilty plea and to waive his arraignment. And Meadows has been charged with two state crimes, the RICO indictment, as well as solicitation violation or trying to get a public official to violate their oath.

And he'd been trying to get his case moved from state court to federal court. And it was recently that he was making his case in federal court, arguing under oath that the actions for which he's charged were done while he was operating under his official role as the chief of staff or the former president.

A federal judge still has not made a decision on that, so we're waiting there. Look, there has been a flurry of legal activity around this case in Tuesday. Today, that continued. Not only did Meadows enter a not guilty plea and waive his arraignment, there was also several others that did so, Jeffrey Clark, there was also John Eastman, the pro-Trump attorney, former GOP chair in Coffee County, Cathy Latham, the former GOP chair here in Georgia, David Shafer, among the many that entered these pleas.

And there are also, while this is all happening, there are several of these co-defendants that have filed motions to try to sever their cases from one another, some wanting speedy cases, others, like the former president, wanting to delay their case until after this proposed October trial date. So we're even seeing those that want to have their speedy cases done, try to sever their cases from one another.

The bottom line here, Jim, is that we're starting to see these complexities that come with this RICO indictment and charging these 19 co-defendants. Jim?

SCIUTTO: So the former Trump lawyer, John Eastman, one of those who filed to separate his case from other defendants seeking a speedy trial. When these folks are making the case not for a speedy trial, right, what is the argument they're making?

VALENCIA: Well, it's probably a scheduling conflict here when it comes down to the former president. Four indictments in the past five months, all of that takes time to try to figure out and coordinate among his many legal teams that are representing him in these trials.

For those that want a speedy trial, initially it was thought by some legal analyst that Fani Willis was calling the bluff of Ken Chesebro. He was the most vocal of wanting a speedy trial. And then we saw Fani Willis propose this October trial date. So pretty interesting to see all this legal activity surrounding this case, Jim.

Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

VALENCIA: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Boris?

SANCHEZ: We're also tracking major developments in the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Even though a trial date is set, CNN has exclusively learned the special counsel is widening his net. Prosecutors are now examining how Trump allies used false election claims to drum up donations and tried to access voting systems in key battleground states.

CNN's Zachary Cohen and Paula Reid broke this story. Zach joins us now. So Zach, what exactly are prosecutors looking for?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Boris. We're learning that this investigation is not only still ongoing, but that Jack Smith has expanded his probe. And it does include some of those folks who are referenced as unindicted co-conspirators in his indictment of Donald Trump, which obviously came out a couple weeks ago.

But one in particular has come into focus for investigators as they've questioned multiple witnesses in just the past few weeks, and that's Sidney Powell, the former Trump lawyer. And prosecutors want to know about money raised by Powell's nonprofit Defending the Republic. And they want to know if that money was used to fund efforts to find evidence of voter fraud.

And specifically, if it was used to fund efforts to get access to voting systems in key swing states around the country and we've seen invoices that show that her Defending the Republic did pay for certain individuals to gain access, unauthorized access, to voting systems in places like Georgia, in places like Michigan, in places like Pennsylvania.

So it's interesting that this is coming up now, even after Donald Trump is already facing criminal charges. It looks like prosecutors are now asking about some of those people around him and where that money was spent and how it was raised.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And Zach, obviously, there is a grand jury deadline of September 15th. How does that impact this?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, that speaks to the ongoing nature of this investigation, right. And we are bumping up against September 15th. That's, what, next week?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COHEN: But that invest - or that grand jury can also be extended for up to six months if prosecutors want to, so really not a hard deadline there. But if it is extended, that might be a sign, there's more to uncover and there's more to investigate from the prosecutor's side.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Really interesting how the federal case overlaps with the Georgia case, a lot of threads to keep up with.

Zach Cohen, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Still to come, police in Pennsylvania are expanding the search for an escaped serial killer.

[15:15:02]

So far, the only thing that has caught him is a security camera.

Plus this hour, a veteran is set to receive the nation's highest military award more than 50 years after his heroism in Vietnam. And then later, a possible deal between North Korea and Russia. What U.S. officials are saying about it ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SCIUTTO: Police in Pennsylvania are expanding their search for an escaped killer, Danelo Cavalcante. A trail camera spotted him outside the original search area. These are from the Longwood botanical gardens, a few miles from the prison that he escaped from just last Thursday. Two school districts are closed today as police scour the wooded areas about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. Helicopters and patrol cars are blasting an audio message from the escapee's mother urging him to surrender.

CNN's Danny Freeman is live in Chester County.

[15:20:06]

Danny, I wonder, what's the latest update from police.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, the latest update from police is exactly what you said, that this search is intensifying and this search is expanding.

Remember, it was just six days ago where Danelo Cavalcante broke out of the prison behind me, the Chester County prison. Well, six days ago is when he broke out, now we have six confirmed sightings of him since and five of those sightings was - were actually in a pretty confined two-mile radius a little bit south of where we are right here at the prison. But it was a sighting last night at Longwood Gardens that was outside of that perimeter, that sixth sighting that really escalated the manhunt and the search today.

And you've been looking at this picture that was, as you described, a trail camera surveillance video basically that was taken at Longwood Gardens. And you can see in the photo right there, Cavalcante, he is shirtless, but he's also wearing a duffel bag and still potentially those prison-issued pants right there.

And what police are taking from that is that Cavalcante has probably been able to either burglarize some homes or break into perhaps some cars to get things like a backpack, a duffel bag and potentially some other clothes as well. And that risk, Jim, was all too real for one homeowner that we heard from over the past few days who said that he came into contact with Cavalcante in his home. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN DRUMMOND, SAYS ESCAPED KILLER BROKE INTO HIS HOME: I woke up my wife, I said, hey, I think there might be somebody downstairs, get on the phone. What I decided to do was flip the light switch on and off three or four or five times, pause, and then he flipped the light switch from downstairs three or four times, which was the moment of like, oh my god, this guy is down there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FREEMAN: Now, even though at this point, obviously Cavalcante has still not been captured, Pennsylvania State Police are optimistic at this point because he hasn't gotten that far. He's only about five miles, at least the most recent search radius from the prison.

But also they believe that that sixth sighting out of the perimeter, yes, he was able to slip out of it. But that means that they're putting the pressure on and forcing Cavalcante to move and that's when police hope he will slip up, Jim?

SCIUTTO: Gosh, that encounter inside the home, I can only imagine.

Danny Freeman, thanks so much for us. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, 55 years after a daring rescue during a firefight in Vietnam, a helicopter pilot is about to receive the nation's highest military honor at the White House. We're going to bring you that ceremony straight ahead.

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[15:27:14]

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): ... straining families and business owners to the challenge of finding workers in a lagging labor market. I also had a chance to travel to the eastern part of Kentucky, where I met with health care and recovery workers in Manchester. Tragically, the substance abuse crisis has become even deadlier in recent years, especially in my home state.

So we discuss what we're doing to combat it and find ways the federal government can fill the gaps. I also welcomed Dr. Rahul Gupta, the national drug czar, back to the Commonwealth to hear more about what we're doing to fight back against addiction. I look forward to continuing working with Dr. Gupta to make Kentucky a safe and healthier place.

Throughout the month, I was pleased to see over $6 million go toward addressing the opioid crisis at home. This federal funding will go a long way in supporting programs that offer a lifeline to countless Kentuckians who struggle with substance abuse.

In Bowling Green, I met with community bankers to discuss what Senate Republicans are doing to put a check on the Biden administration's reckless spending and regulatory overreach. At the Kentucky State Fair, I had a chance to indulge in some of the best that the Bluegrass has to offer, like the Farm Bureau's famous ham breakfast.

This event is a highlight of mine every August and this year was no exception. I met with farmers from across the state to discuss their priorities and concerns as Congress takes up the all-important Farm Bill. This input will be vital to our work here in the Senate in the months ahead.

In Northern Kentucky, I wrapped up the month with local business leaders to talk about some of our landmark infrastructure investments underway in the state, like overhauling the Brent Spence Bridge and revitalizing our river ports and railroads. From rural farm families to businesses of all sizes, every Kentuckian I met voiced the same message.

[15:30:00]

There's too much government and too little being done to boost the economy and help everyday people.