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Quentin Fulks is Interviewed about Biden's Presidential Campaign; New Audio in Japan Aviation Accident; Cornell William Brooks is Interviewed about Harvard's President Resignation. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 03, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, we're learning new details of how President Biden plans to kick off the election year. A speech on Saturday near Valley Forge, in the battleground commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Valley Forge is where George Washington and the continental army spent a brutal winter as they fought to throw out the British in the revolution. But, of course, Saturday is also January 6th, the anniversary of the riot at the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election.

With us now is Quentin Fulks, the Biden/Harris deputy campaign manager.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Why Valley Forge for Saturday? Are you expecting a cold winter?

QUENTIN FULKS, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, BIDEN 2024: No. You know, we're expecting a very good winter come next November.

But look, we chose Valley Forge, George Washington, as you just said, you know, unionized the colonies there and brought them all together and then he became president and set the precedent for, you know, a peaceful transition of power. Something that Donald Trump and Republicans refused to do as just as late as yesterday.

And, you know, we believe that they pose an existential threat to democracy. And over the last four years that threat to democracy has only grown. And our campaign wants to communicate that message to voters that, you know, Donald Trump is telling us every day who he's going to be if he's re-elected president, a dictator on day one, ripping health care away from millions of people. These are threats to democracy, and we feel that the American people deserve to hear these things from us. And it's a more responsibility of this campaign to paint that picture for the American people.

BERMAN: So in your release, in the announcement of this campaign (INAUDIBLE), which is Valley Forge and also ultimately South Carolina as well, you said, "every single day Donald Trump tells us point blank, if he wins a second term he will do everything he can to dismantle American democracy, strip Americans of their hard-fought and fundamental freedoms. We should take him at his word."

"We should take him at his word." The reason I was highlighting those words, because it sounded like something we heard way back in 2016 from Hillary Clinton.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mexican immigrants, rapists and criminals, saying John McCain was not a war hero, being reluctant to denounce the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke. And the list goes on. And so, for me, I think you have to take him at his word at how he's behaved and what he has said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, if taking him at his word didn't work for Hillary Clinton in 2016, why will it work for the Biden re-election campaign this year?

FULKS: Well, first of all, Secretary Clinton was right, we should have taken Donald Trump at his word.

But the difference here is that Donald Trump has now had four years to prove exactly what he would do. So, maybe you're right, maybe we should take him at his words and his actions because when he was president he did all the things that he said he would do. And so that's the major difference that we have now heading into 2024 is that American voters have seen what Donald Trump would do.

[09:35:06]

American voters know what it feels like to wake up every day and be afraid of what their president is going to tweet, if he's going to start a world war because he can't control his temper, right? Like these are the things that are at stake. And voters know that now. They've seen Donald Trump, which is exactly why the most people turned out than ever before to send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House in 2020.

BERMAN: So you're saying two things. You're saying Americans know this. At the same time you're saying you're going to remind them of it. Donald Trump hadn't really gone away over the last several years since, you know, he was beaten in the last election. Why is it that Americans need to be reminded? Don't they know these things already?

FULKS: Because, unfortunately, Donald Trump continues to remain a part of our political system.

But look, Americans aren't waking up every day thinking about this. Americans are waking up every day and they're thinking about how they're going to put food on the table. They're thinking about, you know, all the things that they need to do, how they're going to take care of their kids, the schools that they're going to send their kids to.

And while Donald Trump, you know, when he was president, he did everything he could to make those things harder. And so these aren't an either or. They're a both and. We've got to communicate to American voters about what we're doing to make their lives easier, but also remind them, because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have gotten to work and done a lot of the things that they promised to do in 2020 for the American people. But we have to remind them that those things can be taken away by somebody who's already done it before, right?

We just came out of a hole. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got to work bringing this country back from the brink of destruction that Donald Trump left to them. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got to work in this country bringing back jobs, 14 million. They got to work investing in our schools. They got to work, you know, equalizing the playing field for minorities in this country. And Donald Trump poses a threat to all of that.

These aren't just, you know, threats to the grand scheme. I know these sound like big things, freedom and democracy. But, unfortunately, that's where they are. It's across the board. It's from foreign policy to domestic policy. Donald Trump and the Republicans pose a threat to all those things. And so, yes, we do have to remind voters and we are going to remind voters of just that.

BERMAN: How do you know Donald Trump's going to be the nominee?

FULKS: Look, we don't. But at the end of the day, all the Republicans pose a threat to freedom and democracy. Just the other day Nikki Haley refused to say that slavery was the cause of civil war. Ron DeSantis said that African Americans got workforce skills from slavery. This is who is on the Republican side right now.

So, regardless of its Donald Trump or anyone else running in the Republican Party --

BERMAN: Do you not see - do you not see a difference - do you not see a difference - o you not see a difference between Nikki Haley and Donald Trump?

FULKS: No, we don't see a difference because - no, we don't see a difference. The Republicans running against Donald Trump in the primary has had several times on the debate stage where he was not there to point out exactly who Donald Trump is and where they stand against him. And what we saw is them baffling over themselves, whether as to raise their hand when they say, do you believe that Donald Trump won the January 2020 -- or won the 2020 election? They refused to raise their hand. Do you believe that Donald Trump is right on abortion? They refuse to raise their hand. They're showing us who they are. We should believe them, too.

BERMAN: Yes -

FULKS: So, no, I don't think that there is a difference in their (INAUDIBLE). BERMAN: There's a number of court cases facing Donald Trump, legal

issues facing him, potentially in the next year, but there could be delays here. In fact, any or all of these cases could be delayed until after the election. In your mind, what happens if they are delayed?

FULKS: Nothing. It doesn't change what this campaign is doing. This campaign is focused on making sure that we deliver our message to the American people about exactly what I'm here to talk to you about today, which are freedom and democracy, what's at stake, also what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing.

So, the judicial system is going to play out. There's nothing that our campaign can do about that. But what our campaign can do is make sure that we're in a position to continue to deliver the message that we want to deliver about what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have done on the economy, bringing the economy back from the brink of destruction, as I mentioned, and the threats that the Republican Party, including Donald Trump, pose to their daily lives.

BERMAN: Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign manager for the Biden/Harris re-election campaign, please come back on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Thank you for your time.

FULKS: Thank you, John. Always good to be with you.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, protests are planned now that Harvard University President Claudine Gay ha resigned. What now for Harvard's community? We'll speak with one of the professors who had supported her, coming up next.

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[09:43:11]

BERMAN: This morning, search and rescue efforts are underway after the earthquake that hit Japan earlier this week. Satellite images from before and after show the true scope of the damage there. Seventy people have been rescued in the last day. At least 73 people were killed. Roads are still blocked in and around the peninsula on Japan's west coast, which was the epicenter. An airport there is still shut down. Thousands of households are still without power.

A pre-trial hearing about to start for a Chicago area landlord accused of killing a 6-year-old boy. Authorities say Joseph Czuba stabbed Wadea Al-Fayoume 26 times in October because the little boy was Muslim. The child's mother also suffered more than a dozen stab wounds in the attack. She told police Czuba confronted her about the Israel- Hamas war days before the attack.

So, the value of the social media platform X, which we all know is Twitter, continues to drop. Investment company Fidelity estimates the shares of X are now worth 71.5 percent less than when Elon Musk bought it in 2022. Fidelity did slightly increase the estimated value last summer when X got a new CEO. But not long after leadership changes, Fidelity started cutting its values once again. SOLOMON: All right, today a number of flights are canceled in and out

of Tokyo's Haneda Airport, as John just mentioned, following a deadly coalition. Video captured the moment a Japan Airlines plane crashed into an earthquake relief aircraft Tuesday and then burst into flames. Everyone on board the commercial flight got off safely but five of the six people aboard the smaller coast guard aircraft were killed.

And now newly released audio reveals air traffic control cleared the plane to land and pilots on board confirmed landing logistics moments before impact.

Let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley, who joins us from Tokyo.

Will, that feels like a pretty big development there.

[09:45:02]

I mean what else are we learning?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this investigation, Rahel, now really focusing on those four crucial minutes from 5:43 p.m. Local time to 5:47 local time when that Japan airlines jet basically landed and struck the coast guard plane that was on the runway right in the path of this giant, you know, A-350- 900 as it was - as it was landing on runway c at Japan's Haneda Airport.

The question is, if the Japan airliner, as these recordings reveal, was told it's OK to land, the coast guard plane was told to hold point, in other words, stay in the place right before takeoff, just sit there and wait, where was the mix-up? Did the coast guard plane actually go to the wrong spot or did the air traffic control tower not know where they were?

Listen to both of those recordings back-to-back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: JAL516, continue approach 34R.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cleared to land runway 34R.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: JA722A Tokyo tower good evening. No. 1. Taxi to holding point C5.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: Now, that recording confirmed by the official transcript released by the Japanese transport ministry here in Tokyo today. They also revealed that they have found the cockpit voice recorder of the smaller coast guard plane but they're still searching for the black box of that Airbus. And, in fact, the Airbus has sent a team of investigators to assist with the technical operations of locating that cockpit voice recorder and getting that information processed because another key question is going to be, why did none of the three pilots in the cockpit of that Japan Airlines jet not see that there was a smaller plane in their flight path on the runway when the weather conditions were clear and aboard the landing before that collision took place?

But we all know, in the seconds that followed, as the plane was slowly becoming -- actually very quickly becoming engulfed in flames and there was black smoke billowing through the cabin, the nine flight attendants in the back performed a pretty heroic effort of getting everybody off, even though passengers say some of the exit doors were not operational. And as this video reveals, there was also no functioning communication system inside the aircraft. So they basically had to use megaphones and shout to get those hundreds of passengers, every single person on the plane, off safely.

Take a look.

We don't have that video, but you saw it yesterday in our coverage. It was a pretty incredible thing, Rahel, to see those flight attendants basically shouting to people, getting them all off in a matter of seconds.

Of course, at least five coast guard crew members died in this accident and there are a lot of questions, key questions being asked right now about how this happened. Where was the mistake made. Was it human error. Was it just a miscommunication. Was the pilot of the coast guard aircraft lost. Is that how he ended up in the middle of the runway. Or was he following orders and just the wrong orders. Those are questions that Japanese investigators intend to have fully answered so that they can do what they can to prevent anything like this from happening again on an airport in Tokyo, in Japan, or anywhere in the world. A lot of crucial lessons learned from this, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. I mean we can see in the video it's dark, but as you say, the weather appeared relatively clear. And so, still so many questions remain.

Will Ripley, live for us in Tokyo.

Will, thank you.

RIPLEY: Yes.

BERMAN: So, protests now planned at Harvard University after its president resigns. We have the new fallout ahead.

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[09:52:20]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

This morning, new calls for protests after Claudine Gay resigned as Harvard University president. Reverend Al Sharpton announced that he and the National Action Network plan to picket outside of hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman's office tomorrow in protest of a so-called relentless campaign against Gay. Ackman, a Harvard alumni, has been a vocal critic in the months following her controversial congressional testimony. Others, like House GOP Chairwoman Elise Stefanik celebrated her departure. The Harvard graduate hinted online that a House probe could mean trouble for other universities.

I'm joined now by Cornell William Brooks. He is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the former president and CEO of the NAACP.

Cornell, good to see you today. Thanks for being here.

CORNELL WILLIAMS BROOKS, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: It's good to be with you. Good morning.

SOLOMON: Just your reaction to her resignation.

BROOKS: Well, as a citizen of this country, I'm distressed and dismayed by the departure and resignation of the first black and second woman president of Harvard University, particularly in the wake of this unrelenting campaign, racially motivated, gender motivated, to oust her. Bear in mind, she came into office around the time in which - I should say, after the Hamas attack in Israel and a rise in anti- Semitism and a concern among students and others about the safety and well-being of students on campus. And in the wake of legitimate concerns about anti-Semitism, she finds herself the subject of these unrelenting attacks. So, we start with the conversation about how to protect Jewish students and we end up in a conversation about assault on programs that benefit black and brown people, DEI, affirmative action, and the ousting of the first black president of Harvard. Very distressing, very disturbing and not particularly -- not constructive, destructive and divisive to the country.

SOLOMON: But on the issue of the accusations of plagiarism, I mean, what do you think should have happened? I mean did the -- did the review -- Harvard's review of her academic work go far enough?

BROOKS: Well, let's note this. Whether or not the review went far enough does not allow us to duck the question of why did the review began in the first place. So, in other words, the -- when three presidents go to Capitol Hill and they testify, it is the black president, the black woman president, the president of Harvard, whose entire academic career is put under a microscope.

[09:55:15]

Her credentials, her qualifications and her skills and abilities are called into question, not here -- merely her position on anti-Semitism and her policies and strategies to address a problem, but literally her legitimacy as a professional, as a leader, as a black woman. That's problematic.

SOLOMON: So, supporters of the decision would point, however, to Penn and Liz Magill and say, I mean, that's an example that this was not - there was not a racial component. What is your response to that?

BROOKS: It -- there very much is a racial component because those presidents were not subject to the same kind of assessment, the same kind of criticism. They were not categorically dismissed as diversity hires. They were not categorically dismissed as essentially affirmative action babies with their - literally there well-being - I should say their credentials, their skills, their abilities, qualifications called into question.

When the president of Stanford stepped down in the wake of falsified data in terms of his research, his skills and abilities were not called into question categorically, meaning his gender, his race.

Let's note, the Harvard corporation, as well as President Gay, both noted in their e-mails, their (INAUDIBLE), about her departure, racial animus. Racial animus is just another word for saying racial hate. When we look at the e-mails that she's been subject to, when we look at the way in which she has been characterized, this is not about plagiarism, it's really about an attack on higher education and an attack on diversity, equity and inclusion. And the reason we note that, and knew that, is because her critics spend more time talking about DEI and affirmative action than they talk about the legitimate concern about anti-Semitism. And they talk about her qualifications as opposed to talking about, how do we improve higher education.

This is really about distraction and diverse as opposed to paying attention to that which is most important.

SOLOMON: Cornell William Brooks, look, it's an important conversation. I wish we could continue it, but we are running out of time. We'll have you back soon. Thank you.

BROOKS: Love to. Thank you.

BERMAN: We are following breaking news out of Iran where more than 100 people were killed in two explosions. Officials there are calling this a terror attack. Obviously, this comes amid extremely heightened tensions in the region. So, this is potentially dangerous and fraught.

Stay with us.

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