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Decision to Limit Mifepristone Nationally to be Decided by Supreme Court; Interview with Democratic Candidate for Tennessee House of Representatives Allie Phillips; Hunter Biden Offer to Testify Publicly Before House Committee; Interview with Former Public Policy Director for Mitt Romney Lanhee Chen; Law That Could Affect Trump's January 6 Lawsuit Will be Reviewed by Supreme Court; Israel-Hamas War; Israel Begins Flooding Gaza Tunnels with Seawater. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 13, 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]

ALLIE PHILLIPS (D), CANDIDATE FOR TENNESSEE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: About like you would think a prolife Republican man would. it was very, very laxed in his care and concern for what happened to me. One of the things that truly just took me off guard was he interrupted me mid-sentence and was like, wait a second, you already have a daughter? And I said, yes. She was five at the time. And then he said, well, I'm just a guy, but I always thought that only the first pregnancies went bad. And I was like, I mean, the first one can go bad, yes, but it could be any pregnancy.

And along with that, he has a daughter not too much younger than me, and I tried to humanize my situation to him and say, you know, if your daughter was going through what I went through, what would your advice be? What would you say to your daughter? And he said, you're not going to like my answer. I was like, I still want to hear it. And he said, the way he grew up was that he would tell his daughter he thinks she should continue her pregnancy. And I said even if it's putting her life at risk. And he said, that's just how I grew up.

And it was truly in that moment when it just solidified for me that these representatives don't even care about their own family. How are they going to care about the constituents and the citizens across the state?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: That lacked compassion, and I'm sorry that you went through that. What a horrible thing to have to listen to. I do want to ask you lastly about some of the things that have happened and just happened. The Supreme Court has said it will take up, this notion of the drug mifepristone and whether or not it is legal in this country. It is one of the most widely used drugs for women who are either having abortions or miscarriages. What is your take on this decision by Supreme Court, which could mean that it reverses it? That that drug is no longer available to women.

PHILLIPS: It is devastating. I saw the news as soon as it broke, and my jaw just drops. We knew that something like this was coming. It just -- it's hard when you actually see it happening in real-time. Mifepristone is such a vital medication for so many people across this country, and it helps terminate pregnancies from 10 weeks and under. A lot of women don't even know they're pregnant at that point.

And the women that do know they're pregnant and know that they don't want to continue the pregnancy or they're pregnant against their will, or whatever the reason may be, this medication is so important and it needs to be accessible. And I am -- honestly, I'm scared to see what's going to happen. I feel like we know what the ruling is going to be, and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for a bigger battle in 2024. But I just -- I -- there's this string of hope, there's this small string of hope that these Supreme Court justices will understand that the majority of Americans need and want access to this medication and just abortion care in general.

SIDNER: Allie Phillips, thank you so much for sharing your very deeply personal story with us, and good luck in your race. Appreciate your time.

Phillips: Thank you so much.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Obviously, that has huge implications. We're following the breaking news on abortion at the Supreme Court.

Also, a different case the Supreme Court just agreed to hear on January 6th that could have major implications for Donald Trump. And Hunter Biden's dramatic appearance on Capitol Hill, more fallout from that. So, what happens next?

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[10:35:00]

BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news on two fronts, developing in two stories which are big in and of themselves, but also have implications for the political season. Number one, we saw Hunter Biden go to Capitol Hill, offer to testify publicly before a House committee. This is part of the impeachment inquiry into president Biden. He offered to testify publicly. The House committee has refused. That's one major breaking news story.

The other is the Supreme Court just agreed to hear a case on restricting mifepristone, a widely used abortion drug. A decision could come as soon as July, which means abortion, front and center once again, in the election season.

With us now, Laura Barron-Lopez, CNN Political Analyst and White House Correspondent for "PBS NewsHour", and Lanhee Chen, who was Mitt Romney's policy director.

Laura, I just want to start with you. Hunter Biden Shows up at Capitol Hill, offers to testify, and then we heard from Democrats with perhaps a more forceful defense of Hunter Biden than we have seen to date. What do you make of this move? LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, I think that, Hunter Biden is certainly trying to show that he's willing to talk to Republicans, but in the public domain, in front of cameras, in front of everyone. Because what we've seen in the past with some of the depositions that have happened regarding this impeachment investigation is that there are selective information that comes out of the depositions before a whole picture comes out that sometimes these House Republicans, including chairman Comer, have decided to selectively pick different elements of the deposition, even if it -- if the full deposition disputes what they are trying to claim, which is that there is a connection between Hunter Biden's business dealings and President Biden.

We've seen that do that when Hunter Biden's former business partners have come to be deposed before the House committee.

[10:40:00]

And they have actually also said that there is no connection between what Hunter Biden's business dealings were and the president. So, I think that we're seeing Hunter go a bit more on the offensive now.

BERMAN: So, Lanhee, there is expected to be approval for a full impeachment inquiry, formalizing it in a full House vote later today. There are several House Republicans who are in Biden districts who seem to be willing to vote for this inquiry, but are under a fair amount of pressure going forward about how they treat it. How do you think they will respond to the continued struggle that we heard from Chairman James Comer there and others for them to directly tie what Hunter Biden may have done wrong to impeachable actions by President Biden?

LANHEE CHEN, FORMER PUBLIC POLICY DIRECTOR FOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, the risk here, John, is that in these marginal districts, in districts where Republicans have managed to win, notwithstanding the fact that President Biden won last time around, the big question is, you know, what is going to be the focus of the campaign this coming year?

Is it going to be on issues like the economy and immigration where we know from recent public opinion research that the public has some challenges with where President Biden is and President Biden's record on these issues, or is it going to be on the impeachment proceedings and on legal matters where, frankly, I think the terrain is much more difficult?

So, I think for these House Republicans, yes, authorizing the impeachment inquiry is something probably that shores up their political base is probably important to some who are looking at the situation. But in the longer term, if you talk about winning independent voters or winning Democrats over, one does wonder whether this inquiry actually distracts from the issues where Republicans could potentially be stronger and where I think the President and Democrats, frankly, are much more vulnerable.

BERMAN: And, Lanhee, as long as we're talking about what might be a more potent issue in the election. What about the Supreme Court now saying they will weigh in on possibly restricting mifepristone nationwide abortion every time it has been on the ballot since the court overturned Roe V. Wade? It has seemed to benefit Democrats there.

CHEN: Well -- and John, the timing on this very similar to what we saw with the Dobbs decision, you know, in terms of seeing some -- hearing initially, perhaps some sense of where the case will go in the spring. And it is a potent issue for Democrats. And I think it is the only issue, again, to go back to the survey research, it is the only issue where I think Democrats have, going into this election cycle, a significant political advantage, at least again, if you if you believe the numbers.

And so, Democrats are going to want to push this campaign in this election toward that issue which they know they can use, particularly with the female voters, with independent voters. And Republicans are going to want to push it toward the economy and immigration where they believe they have an advantage. But there's no question that the timing of this Supreme Court case potential decision in the fall has significant ramifications for the 2024 elections, not just at the presidential level, but down ticket as well.

BERMAN: Lanhee Chen, Laura Barron-Lopez, thanks to both of you.

And we should note on "Inside Politics," Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will sit down along with New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who just endorsed her with our Dana Bash. We haven't heard much in interviews from Nikki Haley, so this is a really important opportunity as she has just picked up this major endorsement, especially given all the news that's just fallen in the last hour.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: Absolutely.

Also coming up for us, the Supreme Court now says it's going to take up appeal -- an appeal by a man involved with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Centering on the obstruction charge that the Justice Department has used in many of these January 6th cases. What does this mean? We'll be right back.

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[10:45:00]

BOLDUAN: This just in to CNN, the Supreme Court now says it will take up the appeal from a man involved with the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Now, these centers on questions about the federal obstruction law used in January 6th prosecutions, a charge that's also been levied against Donald Trump.

CNN's Joan Biskupic joins us now with more detail on all of this. So, Joan, tell us more about what this is about. JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure, this has been a busy morning at the Supreme Court where it's told us some of the very last cases it will be taking for this term. And this is the first time it's announced it's going to take a case that's directly related to claims brought by people charged in the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

And this case involves trying to get clarity of a catch all provision of the federal obstruction law, which makes it a crime for anyone to obstruct an official proceeding. And it's brought by a man, Joseph Fisher, who's saying that the -- that broadly word statute should not apply here. And the court has agreed to come in at the request of the federal government to try to clarify it.

And now, Kate, I can tell you that this kind of thing could affect many, many cases. We don't know whether at all it would affect Donald Trump's, but it could affect probably other cases for sure. But we know that Donald Trump's case is actually back at the Supreme Court as Jack Smith this week has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a key question related to his defense against it. His election subversion claims brought by the Special Counsel Jack Smith. Kate.

[10:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Yes, multiple aspects of what happened around that day, now before the Supreme Court.

BISKUPIC: That is correct.

BOLDUAN: This is going to be a very interesting one with this January 6th rioter now that that appeal is getting up to this -- up to the justices. Joan, thank you.

Sara.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, the IDF takes on a new approach to try and cripple Hamas's tunnel network in Gaza. What it hopes seawater will do to the terrorist organization's underground maze, that's coming up.

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[10:55:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, CNN has learned that Hamas is not responding to efforts to get hostage negotiations back on track. Also, new this morning, the IDF says at least nine soldiers were killed overnight in Northern Gaza, operations around this area right here. That is the biggest loss of life in a single incident for Israeli forces since the ground offensive began.

On top of that, we have learned from U.S. officials that the Israelis have begun flooding the tunnels -- here's some video of the tunnels, begun flooding the tunnels with seawater. To discuss what that means is retired Major General James "Spider" Marks.

General, thanks so much. This is a map of what the tunnel complex looked like a few years ago. What does that mean? What are the implications of Israel starting to flood some of these tunnels?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST, HEAD OF GEOPOLITICAL STRATEGY, ACADEMY SECURITIES: What's significant is, and let's just zero in on this area. Let's assume this is the area that they're going to start the tunneling, which means they've already cleared this area in Gaza. The IDF is in here. They're confident that the tunnels do not hold hostages, which is key.

But the other thing you want to do is you want to deny the capability that these tunnels have provided Hamas for years. You want to deny that to them. And the way you do that, you load them up with water, which means this now becomes a no go, both for the Israelis and Hamas. And the Israelis now can direct forces in other locations to conduct other missions. It's an economy of force in this area. You can then maneuver forces to other areas. You still have to keep eyes on that, but you can maneuver other forces around it.

BERMAN: Well, it's interesting. Once you flood the tunnels -- and we have a diagram here of what some of these tunnels might look like, once you do flood this, how long is it unusable?

MARKS: Well, I would imagine if you've flooded it appropriately, this is going to be unusable for months, if not permanently. Because with the water that's in there, you're going to start to damage the architecture, the support structure that's in each one of these tunnels.

And look at this, we are down to almost 300 feet below ground. I'd hate to be the guy on duty down here who's told, this is where here -- this is where you've got to conduct the fight. And then as water starts pouring in, how am I going to get out of there? This is incredible.

BERMAN: And why use water rather than go in with troops if you're the Israelis?

MARKS: Well, I would assume that troops have gone in to a certain level to assess that there are no hostages there, that it can be denied to Hamas. And then you put the water in there so you can then shift. The water will do the -- will serve the purpose of what the presence of soldiers will for a time.

BERMAN: Spider, always a pleasure. Retired Major General James Spider Marks, thanks for being here.

MARKS: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: It's great to see the Major General in here in person.

All right. Coming up dramatic developments happening on Capitol Hill. The House Oversight Chair says, they are beginning to look at contempt charges for Hunter Biden despite Hunter Biden's offer to testify publicly. He came out in front of the steps to say so. Hear what Hunter Biden had to say in his defense and in his father's defense, that's ahead.

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