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To Withstand an Ouster Vote, McCarthy Would Require Democratic Support; Interview with Assistant Minority Whip Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY); Civil Fraud Case Against Trump Continues to Hear Testimony; On Three Federal Charges Involving Firearms, Hunter Biden Entered a Not Guilty Plea; Interview with Whitewater Investigation Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Senior Counsel and Former Federal Prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig; $250M Civil Fraud Trial Continues, Trump Back in Court; Finding Current COVID Vaccinations for Children Difficult for Parents; Young Children Hospitalized More Frequently Due to COVID; Suspect in Custody After Missing 9-Year-Old Girl Safely Located; As Saltwater Intrudes Due to Drought, First Barge Shipments of Fresh Water Arrive in Louisiana; Upcoming NBA Season Dedicated by LeBron to His Son Bronny. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 03, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

BOLDUAN: And can you, can Kevin McCarthy stay in -- continue to hold the gavel without the help of Democrats, be that them voting for him to remain as speaker, voting with him to, in this motion, to table, or not showing up so the threshold is lower? Can he do this without Democrats' assistance?

MALLIOTAKIS: You know, honestly, we have to see what happens. I think he can do it. Will he do it? I mean, it really depends on who shows up, who's in the chamber, and what time this vote is cast. I mean, that's -- at the end of the day what happens. But I would think that some of the moderate Democrats would certainly join with Republicans instead of joining with an extremist who's trying to derail the whole place. We have 43 days to go until the funding runs out. We need to do the work of the people. We can't do it if we don't have a speaker of the house.

So, I think anyone who's serious about governing and not here to just play games, should be voting to just table this motion and let's move forward and do the work that we need to do over the next few weeks.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, what is worse, Kevin McCarthy losing the speaker's gavel right now or Kevin McCarthy and you all needing the Democrats in order to keep it?

MALLIOTAKIS: Look, I don't -- think it would be worse if we do not have a speaker. I think that's the reality, because we won't be able to do our jobs. We can't do our work if we don't have a speaker of the House, and with 43 days to go --

BOLDUAN: And with that, do you acknowledge that Democrats have leverage today? We've heard some -- from some Democrats that they say the word of the week is leverage. Do you acknowledge the reality that that is the case right now?

MALLIOTAKIS: Yes, they have leverage thanks to Matt Gaetz. I mean, Matt Gaetz is constantly working with the socialist squad, with the Democrats to undermine our conference and our speaker, and that's the reality. We wouldn't be in this situation if Republicans stood together as a team and moved the ball forward.

Again, we have a lot of work to do. And I just feel that this is an opportunity for the center left, the center right to come together, table this motion, if necessary, if it comes to that. But I still think we have possibly the Republicans -- to do -- the votes to do it just within the Republican conference. I know the people that I've spoken with that, you know, we have assistant whips, as you've mentioned, all of my people are sticking with Kevin McCarthy, and we will have to tally the rest of that up today.

BOLDUAN: The -- at 1:30, when first votes are expected, is he going -- is Speaker McCarthy going to be bringing forward this motion to table, also known as the effort to kill this -- to kill this effort to push him out in the first place. Is that going to happen at 1:30?

MALLIOTAKIS: I don't know if he'll be bringing it. I imagine that there will be a motion to table from the floor.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, thank you very much. You guys have a lot the work out amongst the Republicans right now. Appreciate your time.

MALLIOTAKIS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you very much.

John, it is all happening as we speak.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: This is chaos. They have no idea what is going to happen.

BOLDUAN: It was really nice having the Congresswoman on though. She made it very clear. It is act exactly what you said, it is happening as we speak, unfolding before our eyes.

BERMAN: Yes, and --

BOLDUAN: They don't know if they have votes, if they need the Democrats, or if they can pull it off with Republicans. It's, again, wild to watch this play out.

BERMAN: What we now need to hear from is Democrats. We need to hear from Democrats. What they have decided behind closed doors? Will they stick together? Are they trying to get, you know, some kind of concessions from McCarthy. McCarthy says no, but standby, you just don't know what will happen in the next few hours.

In the meantime, we are getting word that Hunter Biden left a Delaware courthouse. He pleaded not guilty to three felony gun charges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:35:00]

BERMAN: All right. We have new video just in of Donald Trump inside of a New York courthouse where he is sitting through his civil trial. A judge in this trial has already determined that he and his adult sons committed fraud. They are liable for fraud. There are other counts being adjudicated. This is a bench trial. There is no jury inside of this courtroom. So, arguments are being made in front of a judge at this very moment.

Other legal news this morning, Hunter Biden just walked out of the Delaware federal court. He pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges.

With me now, once again, you saw his face earlier, Former Federal Prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig. Paul, thank you so much for being with us. Donald Trump has now fallen into this pattern. Over the last two days where he makes these big political charged statements then walks into the courtroom and sits and listens. What is the effect of that over the long term of this trial?

PAUL ROSENZWEIG, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLICY AND SENIOR COUNSEL, WHITEWATER INVESTIGATION AND FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: The political effect is the same as of all of his political statements on the general public. He is talking to his base. The effect on the judge, I think, is ultimately almost non-existent. Perhaps a little negative in terms of the effect it might have on the judge to the extent that President Trump is condemning the judge personally, but by and large, judges are pretty good at excluding the outside world.

And the New York judge is going to rule on this case based upon the evidence that is presented to him, I think. So, more or less, we are seeing two completely dissociated processes. A political process outside of the court, and a legal process inside the court.

[10:40:00]

BERMAN: Yes, we did see one moment where that may have crossed line, not with Trump, but with his lawyer, Alina Habba, where the judge had to step in and say, well, wait a second. Wait a second. You're railing against the system here. We've already decided -- I have already ruled that Donald Trump and his sons committed fraud here. That has been adjudicated. We've got to move forward to face other things here. How much can Trump's legal team -- if he had the best lawyers in the world presenting the best case in the world to this judge, how much could they improve his legal situation over the next days and weeks?

ROSENZWEIG: Well, I think they could improve it reasonably, substantially if they put their mind to it. The judge's ruling as to fraud did not address issues of intent, issues of damages, and issues of victimhood, that is to say whether or not anybody was actually injured by the fraud. All of those are issues in which President Trump has some reasonable things to say. And if he said them, he could mitigate in a legal sense, the harm to his brand and his image.

The problem for him is that he can't swallow the fraud charge at all. He can't admit to that in the first instance. So, his lawyers are constrained against trying to mitigate the damage. They have to fight this in a way that will not be successful.

BERMAN: And again, as of now, everyone is saying that Donald Trump will take the stand in this case. How fraught is that for him?

ROSENZWEIG: Well, I'm going to make a bet with you that he does not take the stand. But assuming he does, it's exceedingly fraught because, of course, then he is under oath, and he becomes liable for the secondary problems of perjury. If he testifies, you know, to approving the valuations that were -- that have been already deemed fraudulent to personally approving them, he runs that risk. If he denies having anything to do with them, he runs a concomitant risk of not -- of being a liable for not having managed his own company. Either way, he's kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.

BERMAN: Which is why he may not ever walk up on that stand. Paul Rosenzweig, thank you so much for sticking around. Great to have you on today. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Coming up, parents are scrambling to find scarce doses of the updated COVID-19 vaccines for their children as the U.S. sees a rise in hospitalizations among young children. That story and much more as we watch to see what happens on Capitol Hill, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BOLDUAN: There are new complications this morning in the rollout of the updated COVID-19 vaccines. Parents are struggling to find the new vaccines for their kids and, of course, we're heading into the fall, and this winter period where an uptick is expected.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on this, he's joining us now. Sanjay, it's good to see you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What are you learning about the problems that parents are running into?

DR. GUPTA: Well, they're having a hard time to getting the vaccine. I mean, people are calling their pediatricians offices and being told that they don't have supplies, that they could schedule visits further out. Keep in mind a couple of things, Kate, first of all, this is the first year where the federal government has not handled the rollout. It's not to say that the rollouts went perfectly in past, but now providers, you pediatricians, for example, needs to call the manufacturer, get the right number of doses, not over or under order. There's a lot that goes to it.

Another thing is, well, when the Public Health Emergency ended, Kate, that also meant that pharmacies could no longer give these shots to children under the age of six. So, now that the Public Health Emergency has ended, if your child is under the age of six, you have got to go to the pediatrician instead of the pharmacy, that can create bottlenecks as well.

I should just point out, to your point, Kate, if you look at, sort of, the demand for these shots, in the past they hadn't been super high, but we have seen a five-fold increase now in the number of children were being hospitalized with COVID. Back in June, it was 237. Last week in September, it was closer to 1,200, 1,175 children hospitalized.

So, you know, that -- those are obviously concerning numbers. I should point out that if you look at children under the age of four, they're making up about half of these admissions. So, it is really affecting young children primarily. And overall, kids, more than half of them, did not have any pre-existing conditions that were hospitalized. So, it is not just kids who are at risk for some reason. So, I think that that's added to the demand as well, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What is the CDC and the federal government saying about this, Sanjay?

DR. GUPTA: Yes, the basic -- I think, the thing that they're saying is hold tight more than anything else. We -- Mandy Cohen -- Dr. Mandy Cohen spoke about this specifically. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MANDY COHEN, CDC DIRECTOR: We do know that our manufacturers and distributors were getting out the adult vaccines first. So, that was what was shipping in the first number of days. And now, they are shipping pediatric vaccines. So, what I would say is that the supply is filling out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DR. GUPTA: So, again, it makes sense in some ways. People over the age of 65 are still the highest risks. So, making sure the vaccine was available for them first. But this should've been available before the start of schoolyear when we knew the numbers were going go up just like we've seen there. So, hopefully it will settle in as Dr. Cohen suggests.

BOLDUAN: Hopefully, but still, it's better to have access to it than to be hoping it gets here in time. It's good to see you, Sanjay. Thank you.

DR. GUPTA: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Investigators are revealing the clues that led to finding a missing nine-year-old girl who had been kidnapped, and they have arrested the suspect in her disappearance. We'll have those details for you ahead. [10:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: A nine-year-old girl is back home after being abducted while on a camping trip with her family. New York State Police say, they tracked down her alleged kidnapped, 46-year-old Craig Ross Jr. after he left a ransom note that had his fingerprint on him. And they cautioned parents about how quickly the kidnapping happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. RICHARD S. ALLEN, NEW YORK STATE POLICE: You know, Charlotte was no more than probably two-tenths of a mile from where she was camping, in a small area. And she was gone for her to ride her bike around that loop, it would take about four minutes, five minutes.

[10:55:00]

You know, we see -- you think they're safe doing that at nine years old but you just got to be cognizant and be paying attention to the things around you and your surroundings all the time. You know, these things happen in a hurry. And fortunately, today, this ended in the right way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: She was gone in just a few minutes, you heard there. Ross is being held without bail on a felony charge of kidnapping in the first degree, additional; charges are expected in that case.

Also, averting a major emergency when it comes to fresh water. The army corps has successfully delivered millions of gallons of fresh water by barge to water treatment plants in South Louisiana. The drinking water there has been threatened because extreme drought is allowing saltwater to intrude into the fresh water supply. The fresh water originates from unsalted parts of the Mississippi River and is then shipped downstream by a barge.

Also, for you, a touching tribute from LeBron James to his son. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar dedicated this upcoming NBA season to 18- year-old Bronny who, as you remember, went into cardiac arrest during basketball practice in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS: Bronny is doing extremely well. He has begun his rehab process to get back on the floor this season. You know, understanding that, it just puts everything in perspective. Ad no matter what is going on, you know, in your life at that point in time, that the only thing that matters is your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Those remarks last night, they're the first time the NBA's all-time leading scorer has actually spoken at length about his son's health scare.

John.

BERMAN: All right. Chaos on Capitol Hill. We do have breaking news, a vote scheduled shortly that will determine whether Kevin McCarthy will keep his job as speaker. It does seem he will need Democratic votes. And as of this moment, we have no indications that he will get it. So, standby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]