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Trump Arrives at Courthouse; Dante Scala is Interviewed about the New Hampshire Primary; Iran Strikes Inside Iraq and Syria; Gilgo Beach Suspect Charged with Fourth Killing. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 16, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Nodding at the no leash (ph) corollary right there.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a - this is a different - not only is this a different environment, this is a very different judge. And I think what we saw in the civil case, the judge there, you know, he kind of entertained the cameras. He allowed the pool spray at the top. He understood access. He would kind of play to the cameras, joked a little. Still questions about whether that was even appropriate. He knew what he was going to get as soon as Trump stood up to address the court. He let him go on for a little while.

But federal court is different. I mean these judges, they don't play. They don't engage in antics. If they lay out rules and you blow past them, they are going to cut you off, potentially even drag you out of court. Now, you could argue that that would feed into the larger narrative. Maybe that's the three-dimensional chess they're playing here.

But, again, the big question is why today. There's no role. There's no camera. Will he get a return on his investment more so than going to New Hampshire or going to the border? Unclear. We'll see.

BERMAN: The only prism to look at this through is through the campaign prism not the legal prism. That's what we're trying to understand.

Paula Reid, thank you.

Jeremy Saland, thank you as well.

So, in New Hampshire, the other candidates, all of them, headed there. What has happened in the last few minutes since we last heard from Kate Bolduan? Back on the ground in New Hampshire moments from now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:38]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are live in Manchester, New Hampshire. The next stop in the Republican presidential primary. And the next big test for Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley after their second and third place finishes behind Donald Trump in Iowa. Nikki Haley arrived in New Hampshire overnight. She's focused a huge amount of time and resources here in recent months. She spent the most of any of the candidates, $28.6 million in advertising here since the start of last year. Haley's message heading here today, that the Iowa caucuses have now made this a race between her and Donald Trump, even after she finished third in Iowa behind Ron DeSantis.

CNN's Gary Tuchman, he watched the caucuses unfold with some New Hampshire voters to get their perspective. Some of them Nikki Haley supporters.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT GARCEAU, NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICAN VOTER: I thought she would be a close second to Donald Trump, but I did not envision her losing by that much. So, disappointed in the results.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nikki Haley's support, how do you feel?

DOUG HOWES, NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICAN VOTER: I'm - I'm a little bit more optimistic with tonight considering how much time and money that Ron DeSantis spent in Iowa. I think she fared really well and - and now she's coming to New Hampshire, where I think she's going to do very, very well.

TUCHMAN: If Donald Trump is the nominee of the Republican Party, are you all prepared to vote for Donald Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN: Anyone not definitive about voting for Donald Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not -- not definitive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Very interesting, right?

Joining me right now is the author of "Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics," professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, Dante Scala.

It's good to see you, Dante.

DANTE SCALA, AUTHOR, "STORMY WEATHER: THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY AND PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS": Good morning.

BOLDUAN: Thank you for being here. Let's talk first about the headline and then I want to get your take on what we heard from some New Hampshire voters right there.

The headline from Nikki Haley suggesting that she may not be at this ABC WMUR debate coming up on Thursday, trying to make it -- saying that she is now -- essentially suggesting she's looking past Ron DeSantis, not interested in debating him any longer. What -- how will people read that here, take that here?

SCALA: It's a risky move because so much about Nikki Haley's New Hampshire campaign has been, she does things the New Hampshire way. She doesn't do big rallies. She does the town hall meetings. She meets voters and so forth. And the debate before the primary is such a big tradition in New Hampshire. I can't help but think there could be a little bit of blowback toward her if she skips it.

BOLDUAN: It is - it is a big -- it's definitely a choice, especially when they're announcing it the morning that she is now hitting the ground once again in New Hampshire after the Iowa caucuses.

And speaking of the last debate before the primary, New Hampshire voters traditionally, historically, they break late. So, I'm wondering what you think, if anything, as we heard from those New Hampshire voters speak with Gary Tuchman, what New Hampshire voters are taking out of Iowa from the results.

SCALA: What they're taking out of Iowa is this growing feeling that Donald Trump is inevitably going to be the nominee of the Republican Party. And what Nikki Haley wanted to get out of last night in Iowa was to give New Hampshire voters a reason to believe, a reason to reset what they were thinking about how things were going to turn out. Things didn't quite work out that well, and --

BOLDUAN: Do you think it could - could -- you could almost argue it both ways, right? There's a sense of inevitability. So, you could go along with some of those New Hampshire voters that said, if it was Donald Trump, would you, in the end, vote for Donald Trump? Most of them saying yes. So, why not? Or, do New Hampshire voters want to make up their own minds, which New Hampshire voters do, and they say - they do take that opportunity to reset, or as Nikki Haley suggested and got some blowback when she was in Iowa saying, New Hampshire voters get to correct what Iowa did.

SCALA: Right. And I think Nikki Haley, this week, is trying to reach out to two groups of voters. She's trying to get independents, even those who lean a little bit Democratic, to join in, jump in the pool and vote, maybe vote against Donald Trump. And at the same time, talk to New Hampshire Republicans and say, hey. I'm perfectly acceptable as the nominee. Can you deliver both messages at the same time to two very distinct groups of voters? That's the challenge ahead of her over the next seven days.

[09:40:02]

BOLDUAN: Let me then play a little bit of the new ad that Nikki Haley's campaign put out this morning. It mirrors her final message as she was leaving Iowa last night, that she wants to - she wants to -- her candidacy is to help, in her words, stop the Trump -- another Trump/Biden nightmare.

Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two most disliked politicians in America, Trump and Biden. Both are consumed by chaos, negativity, and grievances of the past. The better choice for a better America? Nikki Haley.

NIKKI HALEY (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a different style and approach. I'll fix our economy, close our border, and strengthen the cause of freedom. We need a new generation of conservative leadership to get it done.

I'm Nikki Haley, and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What is she leaning into here as it relates to Iowa? Do you think it's going to be effective?

SCALA: It could work. She's leaning this - she's been slowly but surely reaching this point where she makes a more explicit message against Donald Trump. And here is - she's kind of trying to be -- tread (ph) the middle. And that's been so much about her campaign is trying not to offend, bring people together, saying Biden and Trump are two of a kind. Is that a way for her to become a crossover candidate who can build a coalition here?

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, is this the -- as direct as she's going to get in taking on Donald Trump? We will -- we will see, because she's definitely not going nearly as hard as we saw from let's say Chris Christie when he was still running - when he was still running, that's for sure.

SCALA: Right. Absolutely. And so with Chris Christie, the lesson there was, you can go too far. Nikki Haley's question is, has she gone far enough to persuade voters that she could be the alternative?

BOLDUAN: Yes. Where is that sweet spot? We'll see.

It's great to see you, Dante. Thank you so much for coming in.

SCALA: You too.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: I think I first talked to Dante Scala in 1996. He's just awesome at New Hampshire. Great to hear from him.

BOLDUAN: Both of you have never been smarter or looked younger.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. I appreciate that. I will send the check. All right, major developments overnight. Iran launches ballistic missiles at northern Iraq. What's going on here. Not far from where U.S. troops are located.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:46:42]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, we're seeing new images of an Iranian air strike inside Iraq. Now Iran claims it was going after a spy base they say was being used by the Mossad, Israel's spy agency. They say it was in Erbil in northern Iraq. Iran also says it fired ballistic missiles at what it called a terrorist headquarters in Idlib, in northern Syria. And there were other strikes in Syria as well. These were the strikes in Erbil, in the Iraqi/Kurdistan region.

With us now, CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Cedric, I glossed over what I think is the most significant part there. Iran says it conducted air strikes. We're not talking about proxies. We're not talking about Hezbollah or the Houthis. We're talking about Iran that did this. How significant?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's huge, John. And good morning to you.

Yes, the big thing here is that the Iranians themselves are in essence taking the veil off and they're going in and they're making these not only declarations but they're actually taking action, and they're admitting to it. So those are two main factors in this particular case.

There were a lot of reports as this was going on that some U.S. facilities might have been hit, like the U.S. consulate in Erbil. As far as we know, that is not the case. But the Iranians came pretty close and it was one of those things that really points to the fact that the tinderbox that is the Middle East is definitely going into a slow burn right now.

BERMAN: Yes, why is that a line for them? They're willing to attack what they claim is a Mossad base in Erbil in northern Iraq, but not apparently U.S. facilities.

LEIGHTON: Yes, so they see the Israelis as being more active against them from an intelligence operations perspective. And we've had reports over the years of the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies going in and taking out Iranian nuclear scientists and Iranian military leaders. So, this is the response that Iran has developed to go after the Mossad. And one of the key things here is -- one of the reports indicates that they went after a Mossad safehouse. That would indicate to me that they had some intelligence from an inside source, probably an Iranian who was working with the Mossad who cracked under pressure, probably under interrogation.

BERMAN: And, again, this is Iran claiming it did it itself, not some proxy.

I want to ask you about developments taking place in Ukraine right now, specifically in the Sea of Azov. Let's push in right there.

The Ukrainians say that they have downed two Russian communications aircraft. This is a picture of one of them, the IL-22-M (ph). You can see the damage that was done to the tail of that aircraft. And the other one looks even more high tech. It's the A-50 here. It looks a little bit like an AWACS plane right there. And this is used to monitor targets and, as I said, communication.

What's the significance if - if Ukraine did take out these two Russian planes, Cedric?

LEIGHTON: So, John, this is really big because the mainstay, the A-50 that you're showing right there, is very much analogous to the U.S. AWACS plane. The reason for an AWACS to even have that kind of an aircraft is to have command and control that you can exercise it over a large sector, much more so than you would be able to do just from the ground.

[09:50:08]

And because of the AWACS radar capability, or in this case the A-50's radar capability, it can seen beyond the horizon. It can allow for commanders to decide not only the air picture or the maritime picture, but in many cases also elements of the ground picture as well, and it allows for the Russians to move into positions that they otherwise wouldn't be able to see or discern from this kind of a vantage point. So, taking out one of these assets is a critical area. This is one of those high-value airborne assets that the U.S. Air Force would spend a lot of time protecting. And the fact that these assets weren't protected indicates that there's a weakness in Russian defenses.

BERMAN: Yes, as my Air Force buddies like to say, this is the type of aircraft that lets you project your power far overseas.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for being with us.

So, he is now accused of killing four women. The new information and new charges against the suspect in the serial Gilgo Beach murders.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:04]

BERMAN: All right, moments ago in New York, out on Long Island, the Gilgo Beach serial murder suspect was charged with a fourth killing. He was already facing first-degree murder charges in the deaths of three women whose bodies were discovered near Long Island's Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago.

CNN's Jean Casarez has been following this story for years.

Now, Jean, talk to us about this fourth possible killing. JEAN CASAREZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a huge development

because we have known from almost the beginning that Maureen Brainard- Barnes, who was found on Gilgo Beach, very close in proximity to the other three who he has already been charged with, authorities said that Heuermann was a prime suspect in her murder. But it wasn't until moments ago that this indictment was unsealed and he is now charged with second degree intent to kill/murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Now, let me tell you a little bit about her. She was 25 years old. She was a sex worker, as the others were also. She was last seen in 2007. And when she was still alive, there was communication with a burner phone that authorities believe was traced to Heuermann and her cell phone. But then in 2007, I believe it was June, she was never seen again after that. But days after that, her own cell phone was used. Her family didn't have it. And someone was calling her voicemail to check voice messages. Well, after that, the investigation went cold.

But in 2010, when her remains were found in close proximity when the others were found too, she was restrained with three different belts. And there was one hair on a belt. And when they finally started testing it, once this investigation was reopened in 2022, there was damage to that hair. So they could not determine whose hair it was. It had to go in for more sophisticated testing. We now know that through that testing they believe that it was Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, her hair. And her hairs were found on virtually all of the victims. But she was out of town for the other three when it's believed they were murdered. And now we have confirmation through legal documents they found credit card receipts that in 2007 she was in Atlantic City with her family for two weeks when it's believed that the murder happened.

There are other things in this 16-page indictment that he, before she went missing, he got shredding device for his computer. Apparently it didn't work. But now the issue is going to be bail, because this is someone now charged with four counts of murder. The prosecution, of course, requesting no bail.

BERMAN: Jean Casarez, these are important, major developments. Keep us posted throughout the morning.

So, for the first time in more than a decade, Donald Trump is in the same room as the woman who has accused him of rape and sexual assault. Why this is his first campaign stop after winning the Iowa caucuses.

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