Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Former Leader of Proud Boys Sentenced to 22 Years in Prison; Texas Attorney General's Impeachment Trial Resumed; Federal Judge Found Donald Trump Liable for Defaming E. Jean Carroll; Former President Barack Obama Appealed to Democrats to "Chill Out"; Interview with The Messina Group CEO and Campaign Manager for Obama 2012 Reelection Campaign Jim Messina; Interview with USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page; American Athletes Make History at U.S. Open. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 06, 2023 - 10:30:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the world's news network.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Before sentencing yesterday in federal court, Tarrio apologized for the pain and suffering of law enforcement, legislators and others that day adding, "The trial showed me how wrong I was." But the prosecutors pointed to my interview with Tarrio in February of 2021 saying he was not remorseful at all. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: You write, when the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.

ENRIQUE TARRIO, PROUD BOYS FOUNDER: Yes.

SIDNER: Doesn't that show that you are celebrating terrorizing people.

TARRIO: I was celebrating -- and I'll tell you, I'll celebrate the moment that the government does fear the people. At that point, again, and I didn't have all of the information that came in, why they were carrying or anything like that.

SIDNER: Do you with that you --

TARRIO: But I think --

SIDNER: -- that you didn't do that now that you know --

TARRIO: No, I don't --

SIDNER: -- what happened?

TARRIO: One -- another thing is I'll never regret something that I said.

SIDNER: They are doing the job that the people put them there to do. And if they don't like it, they can vote them out. They are still Americans. They are still human beings who felt that their lives were in danger. How can you not feel any sympathy or any empathy towards that?

TARRIO: I'm not going to worry about people that their only worry in life is to be reelected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: He certainly changed his tune while in court. In sentencing Tarrio to 22 years behind bars, the judge though slammed him for his, "Toxic ability to control others."

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Important -- really says something when you see that interview that you did now -- these years later now after what he's facing and many years behind bars. Great stuff, Sara.

The historic impeachment trial against Texas attorney general -- the Texas attorney general continues today. The man at the center of it all is Ken Paxton, you'll remember, pleaded not guilty to impeachment charges yesterday. Paxton is a longtime fixture in Texas politics and a Republican, but he has been suspended from the job ever since the Republican-led State House impeached him for abusing the power of his office, even bribery.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is at the Texas Capitol in Austin for us. Ed, they held a vote yesterday but what does it say and tell you about Paxton's future here?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, the state senators here had a chance to essentially dismiss the vast majority of the articles of impeachment against Ken Paxton before this trial even started, and really, kind of, looking at those votes to, kind of, get a sense of where senators are and where this might be headed. They could have dismissed this. It was a simple majority. But on all of those votes, Ken Paxton only got six to eight votes.

So, we're kind of reading the tea leaves, here, Kate. It seems like the attorney general has about six to eight votes in his favor. Now, whether or not that can withstand the course of a several-week impeachment trial is left to be seen. But Ken Paxton needs 10 votes to be acquitted.

So, it's not exactly clear as well if those votes are there for them, but there is a great deal of political pressure mounting on these senators, and all of this comes down to the Republican senators here who are listening to all of this. There are pro-Paxton groups that are mounting challenges and threats of voting these people out of office if they vote -- if they don't vote for Paxton. So, that pressure will continue intensifying. Kate. BOLDUAN: Ed Lavandera. Thank you so much, Ed.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: It's a real --

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: -- it's a real circus what's happening.

BOLDUAN: It's -- yes.

BERMAN: Huge implications.

Former President Trump running away from his Republican competitors in the polls, but you might be surprised by one reason his supporters say they back him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BOLDUAN: There's some breaking news just in to CNN. A federal judge has just delivered another blow to Donald Trump ahead of his second legal battle and court fight with E. Jean Carroll. Let's get over to CNN's Kara Scannell. She's got the details on this for us. Kara, tell me -- tell us more about what the judge has decided.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate. So, this is a blow to Former President Donald Trump. As you may remember, he was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll earlier this year for statements that he had made in October of 2020. There is a separate lawsuit and separate litigation relating to statements that Trump made about the same conduct and the same statements, essentially, in 2019, that case is set to go to trial in January.

What the judge has found now is that the jury's verdict holds on finding that these statements, both in 2019 and in 2020 were defamatory. So, that is something that this new jury will not have to find. So, in other words, the judge saying that the jury in this case coming up in January will only have to make the decision of how much money Donald Trump will have to pay E. Jean Carroll in damages for the statements that were defamatory.

And so, they're going into this trial with that conclusion already made, that the statements Trump made when he was president denying allegations that he had sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in the mid- 1990s, and his denials that he even knew her and that she wasn't his type, that will all be found in E. Jean Carroll's favor as this jury trial would begin in January.

So, the question on the table is how much he will have to pay her in damages? And the jury, earlier this year, already found that Trump has to pay her $5 million for the previous defamatory statements. Trump's lawyers had asked this judge to put a cap on any future damages. The judge saying here that he will not do that. So, it's just a matter now of how much more the former president may have to pay E. Jean Carroll when this case goes to trial in January. Kate. [10:40:00]

BOLDUAN: That's -- so this is a very big deal. It's no question, it seems, that Donald Trump, on top of the $5 million in damages that he has already been awarded that he's going to need to pay up. There seemed very little question that he is going to be facing even more damages he's going to have to pay an untold amount, we will see coming in January. Kara, thank you so much for the update.

John.

BERMAN: Yes. Also significant, is no longer a question of if. This second judge saying -- or this judge in this second case saying, it's not a question of if Trump defamed or sexually abused Carroll. That's settled. Only how much he has to pay for this second time. Very interesting there.

This morning, a brand-new CNN poll shows that Trump does have a huge lead in the Republican presidential primary feel. He is at 52 percent, a lot more than anyone else. Of course, the good question is why?

Let's dive into those numbers with CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten. It just turns out that in our poll, we more or less did ask why. What did we find out?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATE REPORTER: We did ask why. And this to me is so fascinating. The most important reason for supporting Donald Trump is issue agreement. It's not because of his character or personal traits. Look at this, 89 percent said it was because of issue agreement. And take a look here, who is best to handle these different issues? This is among Republican adults. Economy 69 percent say Trump. 65 percent of Republicans say Trump on immigration. And on Ukraine, 63 percent. So, it's issues that are really giving Trump this lead at this point.

BERMAN: It's interesting. And if Trump continues to hold the lead on the economy versus Joe Biden even though there's been all these months of job growth, even though --

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- there were job losses at the end of Trump's terms, thing like that. Let's talk about the charges, and we're actually not talking about E. Jean Carroll charges which Kate just reported on.

ENTEN: No.

BERMAN: We're talking about the other --

ENTEN: The other ones.

BERMAN: -- four cases, the four criminal indictments against Donald Trump. What impact do they have?

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, here's the situation, which is, is Donald Trump facing charges because of -- again, this is among Republicans. Look at this, the clear majority, 58 percent say it's because of political abuse of the justice system. This is why the Republican voters aren't leaving Trump, it's because they simply put do not think he did anything wrong.

And we can see this on a specific thing, even if they are true though. Even if they're true, charges should disqualify Trump from the presidency. The New York hush money case, just nine percent. Classified documents case, 13 percent. Overturning or the efforts of overturning 2020 election. Role in January 6th attack, 17 percent. So, even if these are true, I'm not thinking that any voters or every few Republicans will leave Trump.

BERMAN: Wow. If true, none of this above 20 percent.

ENTEN: Amazing.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: That was really interesting. Thank you, Harry and John.

Meanwhile, a new message for Democrats from the man who helped get Barack Obama reelected. The campaign manager for Obama's 2012 reelection bid telling "Politico" this morning the Democrats need to chill out about President Biden's chances at reelection.

We're joined now by Jim Messina and USA Today's Washington Bureau chief Susan Page. Jim, I'm getting right to your comments. You called people bedwetters. I almost spit my coffee out when I read your comment. Why are you so confident in Biden's chances for reelection?

JIM MESSINA, CEO, THE MESSINA GROUP AND CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR OBAMA 2012 RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN: Well, look, I spent most of my August break getting calls from panicked Democrats who ruined my vacation. So, I decided, Sara, to just look at the data and pretend we never heard of Joe Biden or Donald Trump. And just look straight at the data about the misery index about unemployment, about various statistics that really prove who is likely to win presidential elections.

And when you look at the data, Joe Biden has a much better chance than Donald Trump to win the presidency. It doesn't mean it won't be close because it absolutely will. It doesn't mean Trump can't win, because he can. But I just wanted to actually give real data to folks to say, if you were playing poker, you'd much rather have Biden's hand than Trump's.

SIDNER: What is it with the hand wringing? We see this a lot with Democrats. Sort of, a lot of hand wringing that they do in the lead-up to these elections.

MESSINA: Yes, Democrats are historical panickers (ph), and you know, I count myself as a proud Democrat. Part of it is Hillary's 2016 loss, which is Democrats couldn't get over and couldn't believe happened to Donald Trump. Part of it is Al Gore in 2000. We've had two major moments where what we thought was going to happen didn't happen. And so, now we just sort of panic at anything, and it's a natural, understandable thing. I just say, Sara, let's look at the data and try to figure out what it actually says as opposed to just panicking and calling me all August.

SIDNER: All right. Susan, now to you. One of the reasons, I think, why people panic in general is the polling, right? And what the polling tells you. "USA Today" had a poll of registered voters who say they are unlikely to vote.

[10:45:00]

But by three to one, these non-voters say that they would support Donald Trump over Biden if they actually did go to the polls to vote. Why is that?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: You know, watch out what you wish for. These are voters, disenchanted voters who many of them believe Donald Trump when he tells them that the election is rigged and politics is corrupt. And as a result, millions of them are not going to bother to vote, that's what they told us. But if they did vote, they would overwhelmingly support Donald Trump over Joe Biden. In fact, if these non-voters participated, they would change the landscape and you would not believe the panic we'd be hearing from Democrats calling Jim Messina.

SIDNER: His vacation would continuously be ruined. Susan, I do want to follow up with something. You know, what would it be that would get these non-voters to the polls? Was there any indication of that?

PAGE: Well, one thing, they would like candidates that liked better. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with -- on -- Americans with both candidates. The other thing is, seven out of 10 told us that if they thought their voted was really going to make a difference. It's going to put the candidate they prefer over the line, that might get them to the polls. But these are voters who have given up on politics and given up on elections. And they're going to be hard to get at to the ballot.

SIDNER: Yes, it's really fascinating because some of the rhetoric that is coming from Donald Trump himself is actually -- could actually hurt him in the upcoming election and may have hurt him in 2020.

Jim, now to you. I'm going to ask you about Mike Pence, he's going to be in New Hampshire, set to deliver a speech. And he's been talking, sort of, about the dangers of populism. Meantime, Donald Trump, the man who used to be his boss, if you will, he was the vice president, is making the case for populism. Is this an effect of message from Pence to say, look, let's get away from this idea of populism. Let's go more towards conservative principles, the sort of traditional conservative principles that he says he stands for?

MESSINA: It's a silly message for him for two reasons. One, the Republican modern party has had this fight and Donald Trump and the populists won. And Harry's numbers show that really clearly. Two, to beat the king, you got to take the king down. And all of these folks, especially Pence, are too scared to actually go hit Donald Trump and have a real debate with him and try to take him down.

And so, they're just playing -- they're trying to talk about issues, they're trying to talk about really philosophical questions about Republican ideology. And that's just not what modern Republican primary voters want to hear as Harry's own numbers talked about.

SIDNER: OK. I mean, I have to ask this question to the both of you. If the election was held today, you know, the polling is telling us that there is -- it looks like it's even-steven. Do you think that's going to be the case? Are we going have a really, really, really close election, do you think, coming up in 2024? I'll start with you, Susan.

PAGE: Yes, I would say that every sign is we're a closely divided nation, quite polarized, that would indicate a close election. And one thing to watch for is there a credible third-party candidate because that could scramble the arithmetic entirely.

SIDNER: Very interesting. And there could be that credible third- party candidate. We will see.

Jim, what are your thoughts?

MESSINA: Yes, I agree with Susan. I think any election in America for president is going to be close. But the national polls don't matter. We're down to seven states that really matter and will decide this election, and it's important to look at those seven states and not get, kind of, caught up in the national race. Because sadly -- I mean, I wish this weren't true, but sadly it is true that we're -- in the seven states and those are going to be close in this election.

SIDNER: Right. We're not a true democracy. We're a representative democracy, and there's a whole electoral college that makes a huge, huge difference. We'll be watching those swing states, of course, as with everybody else. Thank you both, Susan and Jim, for coming on this morning. Appreciate you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up, Coco Gauff continues to dominate on the course. Now, the first American teenager to reach the U.S. Open semifinals since Serena Williams back in 2001. We'll have all of those highlights and much more. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BERMAN: Special music which means history is being made by budding American superstars at the U.S. Open. Our Andy Scholes has the latest. Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Ben Shelton is the biggest American rising star in men's tennis right now. He is only 20 years old and he is having himself one great U.S. Open thus far. Shelton, you know, he won the men's singles national title in Florida just last year. Before turning pro, his dad, Bryan, his -- a former pro and his coach, he was in the stands watching his son battle Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals last night.

This was the first major quarterfinals match between two African- American men in the open era, which dates all the way back to 1968. The two splitting the first two sets. The third going to a tiebreak and Shelton, an incredible return right here to save set point. And that was big because he ended up winning that set, and this is what he had to say afterwards about this amazing return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SHELTON, ADVANCES TO 1ST GRAND SLAM SEMIFINAL: Sometimes you got to shut off the brain and close your eyes and just swing. And maybe it was a little bit of that down set point, but it ended up working out. Some may say clutch, but I don't know about all that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Close your eyes and swing. Shelton would win the match in four sets, become the youngest American man to make it to the U.S. Open semifinals since 1992. Now, waiting for him in that semifinals match is going to be Novak Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam champion easily beating Taylor Fritz in the three sets yesterday.

[10:55:00]

And after the match, well, the Jokes celebrated by leading the crowd there in New York with a little courtside karaoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: OK. Everybody, ready? You got to fight, for your right to party. Whoa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: I think they've been playing that earlier in the match or something and Djokovic just wanted to sing it.

Now, on the women's side, Coco Gauff cruising into her first ever U.S. Open semifinals. It only took the 19-year-old 68 minutes to beat Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets. Gauff is the first American team to make it to the semis since Serena Williams in 2001. John, she's going to face off against 10th seed Karolina Muchova tomorrow.

So, it's going to be fun to watch Coco and Ben, and see if they -- Ben can pull off the upset against Djokovic. Here's your schedule for tonight. Some more of the great matches there at Flushing Meadows.

BERMAN: Some really exciting stuff. I would give anything not to hear Novak Djokovic sing again. 23 Grand Slams does not mean, apparently, that you can carry a tune. Andy Scholes, thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: Listen, he's really good at one thing, we know.

BERMAN: He's very good at some stuff.

SIDNER: Tennis.

BERMAN: Not all, it turns out.

SIDNER: Singing? You know, not everybody has all the things that John has. You should hear this guy sing.

All right. We're just hours away from the first televised criminal court hearing for a former president, Donald Trump of course I'm speaking about. What to expect when the cameras turn on.

And Senator Tommy Tuberville is doubling down on blocking military nominations even as military leaders accuse him of threatening national security. The deputy pentagon press secretary joins us to discuss, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]