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Iran State Media Reports, 100-Plus Killed in Terror Attack Near Soleimani Grave; Haley Campaign Announces $24 Million Haul in Q4; Trump Files Barrage of Appeals With 12 Days Until Iowa Caucuses. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 03, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nikki Haley just raised a bunch of money. Donald Trump just locked up a symbolic endorsement. President Biden's campaign just announced a big move on the anniversary of the insurrection. So, which of those will have the largest impact?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Also, you get an appeal and you get an appeal. Donald Trump and his team handing out legal filings left and right and more could come down today. What we are watching for and if this strategy will work out for him.

BERMAN: More than 60 House Republicans descending on the southern border led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, as cities across the country are taking the influx of migrants into their own hands.

Sara and Kate, they're away. I'm John Berman with Rahel Solomon. This is CNN News Central.

We do have breaking news out of Iran this morning. We're getting word that more than 100 people were killed, 140 injured, after two blasts struck near the grave of the Iranian military commander, the late Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani. Iranian state media captured the moment that one of the blasts happened near very crowded streets.

You can hear the fear of the screams there.

According to Iranian state media, officials describe the explosions, they are calling these explosions a terror attack.

CNN's Nada Bashir is following this for us. Nada, what is the latest?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is certainly a developing story, John. We are still getting more details from officials and media on the ground in Iran. But in the last hour or so, we have seen that death toll steadily rising, at least 103 killed and 141 injured, according to state media in Iran, citing officials on the ground. Some of those injured are said to be in a critical condition. And we have seen that dramatic footage emerging from the scene showing crowds running away from the site of the blast. We've seen ambulances and emergency services gathering, rushing people to nearby hospitals.

Now, of course, we are still getting more details around the specifics around these twin blasts. According to state media, again citing officials on the ground, the first blast took place about 700 meters away from the burial site of the late Iranian commander, Qassem Soleimani. The second blast took place about a kilometer away from the checkpoints and path in which pilgrims had been passing through to visit the burial site.

[10:05:01]

Now, important to note that there would have been huge crowds at the time of these blasts. Today marks four years since the commander, Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a U.S. strike on Baghdad International Airport ordered by then U.S. President Donald Trump. So, we would have been expecting to see huge crowds around there.

And, of course, this comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region. And while we are still waiting to get more details around the specifics of the motive perhaps behind the attack, who may have carried out the attack, Iranian state media, again citing officials, have characterized this as a terrorist attack.

But, again, there are tensions mounting around the region, particularly when it comes to groups that are either allied to or backed by Iran. That is certainly the case here in Lebanon. We are today expecting to hear from the secretary general of the Iran-backed group, Hezbollah. Hassan Nasrallah expected to speak in just about an hour or so. So, we'll be waiting to see what he has to say about the situation in Iran, and, of course, commemorating the death of Qassem Soleimani.

Important to note, of course, that this is just a day after we saw another attack here in Beirut, the building behind me, a senior Hamas commander, Saleh Al-Arouri, killed in a strike on Tuesday evening. According to a U.S. official, that strike was carried out by Israel. Hamas certainly pointing the finger squarely at Israel. But at this stage, Israeli officials neither claiming responsibility nor denying responsibility for that strike. John?

BERMAN: Obviously, a number of developments in that region. Nada Bashir, thank you for being there. Keep us posted.

SOLOMON: And let's discuss this further. Joining us now is retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson. General, good to have you today.

First, just your reaction to this news out of Iran, the timing of this, especially on this day, as Nada mentioned, four years after the death of Soleimani, what do you make of this?

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Well, thank you, Rahel. Obviously, a great concern that tensions could escalate and there would be more bloodshed. And somehow what's going on in the Gaza Strip escalates to something much bigger.

But I can tell you right now, I mean, I don't know for sure, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the United States had absolutely nothing to do with this. My suspicion is that this is an internal issue within Iran, particularly if you look at what was targeted, Soleimani, who was taken down four years ago by the United States.

But the last thing we want to do is take out civilian casualties like this and escalate tensions. I mean, everything is already on edge right now after the assassination yesterday of Al-Arouri in Beirut. And so there's no way the United States is behind this, and I suspect Israel as well. So, again, my inclination is this is an internal issue within Iran because they have a lot of competing factions within that country.

SOLOMON: And as you mentioned, I mean, that senior Hamas leader who was killed in Southern Beirut, how does that complicate any conversations or negotiations about the hostages who are still in Gaza?

ANDERSON: Well, it does complicate that significantly. I would point out, though, that, no doubt, the Israelis are behind this, but it was a precision attack and they very rightfully just targeted Arouri and two of his compatriots and they didn't take out any other casualties. And so their focus has been on Hamas. And I think they've made that very clear that they are trying to minimize casualties in Beirut.

I've been there a couple of times in the last couple of years, and it's a very vibrant city, but everybody knows where the Hezbollah areas are, where the Christian areas are, where the Shia or the Sunni areas are. And so everybody knows that this is where Hezbollah is hanging out, so to speak, and where Hamas, I'm sure that the headquarters there was well known.

So, the fact that they took it out and they minimized the casualties as they did, I think, is a good sign that Israel is doing everything they can to take down Hamas without escalating tensions further.

SOLOMON: What are you going to be listening for? Nada a mention in the next hour or so. We expect to hear from Hassan Nasrallah. Certainly, when he speaks in this environment, a lot of people pay attention. I mean, what are you going to be listening for when he speaks? ANDERSON: Well, obviously, we want to minimize Lebanon's involvement

in this, and that's why I'll be listening for how does he attribute this attack and what is he calling his people to do. There's already a lot of tension on the northern border of Israel, and, of course, there are 40,000 missiles aimed at Israel from north in the Lebanese area and Hezbollah-controlled areas.

So, I'm going to be looking for what is he calling his compatriots in Hezbollah, what is he asking the folks in the West bank that are obviously in support of Hamas, and then further, what is he saying to his leadership in Iran, because, of course, Iran is behind all of these activities. What I want to see is hopefully a de-escalation of tensions and in recognition that Israel did everything they can to minimize casualties and focus only on Hamas leadership.

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SOLOMON: General Steve Anderson, thank you for the time today.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, a symbolically important endorsement for Donald Trump. Tom Emmer, who is the number three House Republican, the whip, he now has endorsed Donald Trump. That means the entire House leadership has endorsed Donald Trump. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise did yesterday.

And this comes as Trump's really top rival now, it seems, arguably top rival, Nikki Haley doubled her fundraising haul heading into the New Year, the Haley Campaign reporter raising $24 million in the fourth quarter.

Haley is in New Hampshire today. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, they are in Iowa.

Also in Iowa, most importantly, CNN's Jeff Zeleny. Jeff, what do things feel like there? Does it feel like this is the final push into the caucuses?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, good morning. Well, 12 days until the voting finally begins in this 2024 campaign and it feels like there is no doubt that Donald Trump is still the overwhelming front runner.

But you mentioned Nikki Haley's money. She's using a lot of that newfound money to put television ads on and right now, this is a race for second place. We've talked about this a lot for the last several months. You can just feel that really taking shape though between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, through television ads, through their own messages, what their supporters are saying. It is clear that both of them are trying to slow the other's momentum.

In Nikki Haley's case, she believes a stronger than expected finish here could really end the candidacy of Ron DeSantis. We will see if that happens.

But, John, Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, he'll be campaigning here behind me in Waukee, Iowa, just west of Des Moines, a critical suburb where a lot of Republicans are and he's been making his case across the state, be traveling to four other spots today. But it is that race for second place that so many Republicans here have their eye on.

And, basically, it breaks down like this. If you're a supporter of Donald Trump, you've long been a supporter of Donald Trump and, yes, you will probably still be supporting him, but half the party that's looking for an alternative, they are split between DeSantis, Haley and perhaps still Vivek Ramaswamy and others.

So, that is the question here. Can either of those two kind of pry this race for second place loose? That's what they are trying to do. But, of course, our CNN town hall is here tomorrow, that debate next week. So, yes, it feels like caucus time is just around the corner, but it also feels like Donald Trump has its win and the second place is what everyone has their eye on. But that's important, of course, heading into New Hampshire the following week, John.

BERMAN: All right. Jeff Zeleny for us in Iowa, stay warm, Jeff.

With us now, Laura Barron-Lopez, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, also here, former Republican Congressman Fred Upton from Michigan.

Laura, I just want to start with you. Jeff laid out this battle for second place. And I get the expectations game. You want to be seen as rising, heading into New Hampshire. But second place in Iowa, maybe second place in New Hampshire, what do any of these candidates get long term out of being in second place if that's all they ever get?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, they're not going to get the nomination, if that's all that they ever get, John. And that's the issue right here. You're seeing that Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, at different points, are trying to still defend former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner. Maybe potentially candidates like Ron DeSantis are looking for some type of cabinet position. There's a bit of skepticism from really close Trump allies about whether or not Nikki Haley would be someone that the majority of his supporters really want as a potential vice presidential pick.

But right now, look, Nikki Haley appears to be gaining momentum in states like New Hampshire and is coalescing a lot more support and getting more money from donors, but it doesn't look like it's going to be enough.

BERMAN: So, Congressman, something just happened which is notable, which is that the House Republican whip, Tom Emmer, has now endorsed Donald Trump for president, which means the speaker, the majority leader, the whip, also Elise Stefanik, who was the conference chair, they've all -- all of the House leadership is behind Donald Trump.

Tom Emmer voted to certify the election on January 6th, if I remember. So, here, you have a guy, unlike Scalise and Johnson and others, who felt that Joe Biden won the election but is still endorsing Donald Trump. What do you see in all this?

FMR. REP. FRED UPTON (R-MI): Well, you got to remember, too, and Tom Emmer is a really good friend, remember, he was one of those that was running for speaker. He was on the fourth or fifth ballot back in October, after McCarthy took the hit that he did. And at the time, Trump called him a RINO. But now the entire leadership is with Trump. They see the writing on the wall. Trump is going to win in Iowa. He'd be really interested to see what happens in New Hampshire. I think it's going to close up a little bit.

[10:15:00]

But, you know, by most experts, most pundits will say that Trump is the leader, and now he's got the leadership not only in the House, but many in the Senate as well. Steve Daines from Montana is on board. You saw Tom Cotton get on board the last day or two as well. So, it's Trump's to lose.

And, you know, he's been pretty smart on the campaign trail. He knows that particularly Chris Christie will go after him in a debate. He'll force him to answer the question, why didn't Mexico pay for the wall? Why did you let the debt increase like it did? It hit $34 trillion now. He did all these things. They forced him to answer. He doesn't want to. So, he's just ignoring him. And by ignoring him, he's at 50, 60 percent of the Republican voter, literally not only in Iowa, but maybe in New Hampshire as well. We'll see.

BERMAN: Another campaign development, important development, this coming from President Biden's re-election campaign, Laura, is that they announced that there will be an event on January 6th in Valley Forge. The next day, he's going to go to South Carolina, Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston there, which, of course, was the site of the mass shooting several years ago, but leaning in, very much leaning in, the Biden re-elect campaign to the idea that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.

Just a few minutes ago, I spoke to the Biden-Harris deputy campaign chair, Quentin Fulks. Listen to what he said.

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QUENTIN FULKS, BIDEN-HARRIS PRINCIPAL DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: 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 moral responsibility of this campaign to paint that picture for the American people.

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BERMAN: Laura, what does it tell us that the Biden reelect campaign launch in 2024 really will be on that message?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, look, it really harkens back to his launch in 2019, ahead of the 2020 campaign. President Biden, when he launched then, also made this very much about threats to democracy and about what he saw as rising extremist forces, referencing Charlottesville repeatedly in his launch video when he ran in 2020.

And so we're seeing that again, that President Biden is saying that the threat hasn't gone away. And if anything, it's only grown because of January 6th and the insurrection on the Capitol, because of the very rhetoric from former President Trump himself, where rhetoric where he says that migrants are poisoning the blood of the country and echoing Adolf Hitler. And so that's something that we've seen the Biden campaign say that they are going to repeatedly talk about and then brought in that out more, the campaign officials have told me, to attacks on personal freedoms. So, it's not just attacks on the foundation of the country itself, but also they're saying that they're going to really be hammering what they see as not just Trump, but the larger Republican Party, attacks on abortion and potentially other freedoms, birth control and things like that, that they see as Republicans targeting.

BERMAN: Congressman Upton, how much of an audience is there for this message from the Biden re-elect campaign?

UPTON: Well, January 6th, I mean that I think most people have formed their opinion already in terms of what happened, they get to look to the future now. You have to look at the issues that are burning us today. You see all the -- many Republicans, 60, they're going down to the border tomorrow, or actually it's today or tomorrow, to look at the whole immigration issue. And, of course, that's the lynchpin in terms of trying to keep the government open with the continuing resolution the C.R. that otherwise expires in just two weeks with the House coming back next week. That's one of the lynchpins.

Trump probably is not going to want to see some type of acceptance on immigration because it's not going to be good enough. And so you're going to see this dysfunction really propel itself into the next couple weeks with the real threat of a shutdown across the government with no deal on the spending. The top line spending number still has not been agreed to despite Congress being out of session now for some three weeks. Negotiations were supposed to be happening on the side. But, really, there's been no breakthrough at all.

So, January 6th is going to be an issue way back in the past as people look at the issues that confront us literally in the next couple of weeks.

BERMAN: Congressman Fred Upton, Laura Barron-Lopez, thanks to both of you.

A reminder, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, they will both take questions directly from Iowa voters in back-to-back CNN and Town Hall events. Kaitlan Collins and Erin Burnett will moderate live tomorrow night starting at 9:00 Eastern Time.

SOLOMON: And, John, as his primary opponent's campaign, Donald Trump's attention has been focused on appealing the many court cases that he's tied up in. We'll discuss whether his legal arguments can hold.

Plus, we're live in Chicago as the city takes new steps to deal with busloads of migrants being dropped off at their door.

[10:20:03]

And embattled Senator Bob Menendez hit with a new superseding indictment in his bribery case. Hear which country he's accused of doing favors for now in exchange for some high dollar gifts. We'll be right back.

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BERMAN: We had a lot of new legal moves coming from Donald Trump and his lawyers. Last night, he appealed Maine's decision to remove him from the state's primary ballot. He also asked the federal appeals court to rehear his immunity argument, the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit. A new legal filing also submitted in a federal election subversion case as he seeks immunity there too. And in Colorado, they did not appeal, not yet, but they have a few more hours to get that appeal in, which is, of course ,expected.

CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid watching all of this, and by all, I mean, there is a lot of it.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of it, indeed, and we're waiting right now, first and foremost, for that appeal to the Supreme Court on Colorado's Supreme Court's decision to remove Trump from the ballot.

Now, notably, there is actually already an appeal on that decision from the state Republican Party of Colorado. So, technically, Trump wouldn't even have to appeal. He could let that case go before the Supreme Court, or answer the same questions.

[10:25:02]

But in speaking with his team last night, I'm told he does want to file his own appeal.

But, John, it's been over two weeks since he was removed from the Colorado ballot and timing is of the essence here, because we're trying to get some clarity, right, for the 50 states and, of course, the candidates as well, on this question of whether he is eligible under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

Now, there seems to be broad consensus that the Supreme Court really needs to weigh in here. The Republicans in Colorado have asked for clarity before Super Tuesday. So, the fact that they've taken over two weeks before filing this appeal is notable, but as you laid out at the beginning of this segment, they have a lot of different cases they're working on, and this is going to be a tough balancing test for them through 2024 and possibly beyond, trying to balance all of the legal casework with the usual behind-the-scenes sort of antics and chaos of Trump world with all of these critical election deadlines.

BERMAN: next week, we get oral arguments before federal appeals court, and this is in Donald Trump's effort to get immunity in the federal election fraud case here. This is a big deal. I mean, they will lay these arguments out. We'll all get to hear them. And then it really becomes how quickly this appeals court make a decision

REID: That is exactly right. Really, timing is an even bigger question than the constitutional arguments that they're going to make. Look, I talked to one of his former attorneys over the weekend, Tim Parlatore, and he told us live on air, he said, look, this immunity argument, this is not going to win. The goal here is to try to delay this case until after the 2024 election.

And it's unclear how successful they'll be if this will take enough time to potentially push this entire trial, which was scheduled for March back beyond the election, or if it's decided pretty quickly by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court does whatever it will or will not do here pretty quickly, they still might be able to squeeze in this case.

Parlatore put it at about 50-50 whether this case will go. But just as much as we're looking at the answers from the Court of Appeals on the constitutional question of whether Trump has immunity, we saw him doubling down on this argument last night in his filing. The bigger question is how long does it take to wrap up this issue so this trial may go forward.

BERMAN: Paula Reid, I always get very excited when you say, you're exactly right. Thank you very much for being with us, as always.

SOLOMON: All right. Let's continue the conversation now. With us now is former assistant special Watergate prosecutor and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Nick Akerman. Nick, Good morning.

So what do you make of Trump's main filing?

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: His main filing, he's simply trying to throw as much ketchup on the wall as he possibly can and hopes nobody washes it off. None of these arguments really carry any weight. The 14th Amendment is really straightforward. It says that if you had previously taken an oath of office to defend the Constitution and engaged in an insurrection thereafter, you are no longer qualified to be president.

BERMAN: But is that going to be the issue that if the Supreme Court takes it up, are they going to weigh into that? Because that seems to be the issue that legal observers say they're not going to want to get into the politics of this. They're going to perhaps choose a more procedural route.

AKERMAN: There's no procedural route here. It's very simple. It's like you've got to be 35 years old to be president. You've got to live in the United States at least 14 years. You've got to be a natural born citizen. If you're a president and you've won twice election for presidency, you can't run a third time. These are self-executing requirements that the Constitution sets out, that people have to be pre-qualified before they can run for president.

The issue before the Supreme Court, the only real issue is, was there an insurrection that he engaged in? And that's what they have to look at. And they're in a very unique position to look at evidence that neither the Colorado Supreme Court looked at or the secretary of state of Maine.

As essentially the body that oversees the federal grand jury system, they have the right to reach into the Washington, D.C. grand jury that brought that election interference criminal case, and look at the testimony that's there in camera to be able to review it, look at what Mike Pence had to say about what happened on January 6th, and look at what his lawyers had to say on those particular issues.

SOLOMON: Well, Trump's lawyers would say and have said, what about our due process? It's not up to the states. It's up to Congress to determine how the 14th Amendment will be applied. To that, you say?

AKERMAN: No, absolutely not. The only thing that Congress has is that there can be a two-thirds vote of each House of Congress that can essentially take away that disability from Donald Trump. Short of that, Congress has zero role on this.

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The amendment is unambiguous. It doesn't just relate to people that were Confederates in the Civil War.