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Garland Agrees With Special Counsel's Call for Speedy Trump Trial; Today, GOP Candidates Ramp Up Events in New Hampshire Ahead of Primary; 20 Minutes of Terror Nearly Over for Japan Moon Landing Attempt. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 19, 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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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Time is of the essence. In an exclusive one on one with CNN, why Attorney General Merrick Garland says it's imperative that Donald Trump gets a speedy trial in his federal election subversion case.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The New Hampshire campaign blitz, Nikki Haley says she's a stone's throw from overtaking Donald Trump there. But how strong does her arm need to be to make up the distance now?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And on the brink of an historic lunar landing, that is if they can get past the 20 minutes of terror.

I'm John Berman, very scared right now, with both Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Before we get to John's lunar landing, we're going to start here, a consequential message at a time when Americans unprecedented political, legal, 2024 collision predicament is rapidly approaching back-to-back state primaries, CNN's exclusive one-on-one with Attorney General Merrick Garland just days before the New Hampshire votes.

Now, the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government saying not only does he agree with Special Counsel Jack Smith's call for a speedy trial of Donald Trump, he says the public interest requires it.

CNN's Evan Perez, and now the exclusive sit down with him, Evan dissecting what Garland did and did not say in your interview is hugely important, especially at this time, as we go on to the first primary where voters are actually going to speak their piece. What more did he reveal to you about what is all going on in his mind?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. Look, it's very rare for us to get the attorney general to engage on the specifics of these cases. But, look, the fact is that this is a collision course between these two cases, the two trials of Donald Trump and the political calendar, which, as you pointed out, is well underway. And so I asked the attorney general not only about the independence of these investigations but also about the idea of bringing these cases going forward with these trials during this year. Listen to what he had to say.

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PEREZ: Is there a date in your mind where it might be too late to bring these trials to fruition, again, to stay out of the way of the elections as the department policies?

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I just say what I said, which is that the cases were brought last year. The prosecutor has urged speedy trials, with which I agree. And this is now in the hands of the traditional system, not in our hands.

PEREZ: Do you -- looking back now, do you think that the department took too long to bring these cases maybe?

GARLAND: Special prosecutors followed the facts and the law. They brought cases when they thought they were ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, look, Sara, so you have now, obviously the fact that these are going to go forward, at least the way the Justice Department would like it to go forward with this year, but the fact remains that Donald Trump himself is part of the reason why these trials got delayed, because he's been fighting the Justice Department over evidence.

And so some of the timing here is a result of Donald Trump's own doing, and now he's claiming that this is election interference, and that's where we're at now this year. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, there's just so many things going on, but it is remarkable to get that interview, you know, with Merrick Garland at this particular time. Clearly, he has things that he feels like he needs to say to the American public. And, Evan, you got him to say it. Thank you so much.

[10:05:00]

I appreciate you and your team for that. John?

BERMAN: Great work by Evan on that.

With us now, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director. Andy, what jumped out to you from what the attorney general said? Anything surprised you?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT: John, nothing surprising, well, beyond the fact that it's always surprising that the attorney general sits down with any reporter, and kudos to Evan for creating this opportunity for us. A couple of things that he mentioned that I thought were particularly important. The reference, the question about whether or not the Justice Department is essentially violating its policy of taking any action in the run up to an election, I thought was a really good one. I think people misunderstand the purpose of that.

That policy actually prohibits the department or the FBI from taking any overt step that would indicate or reveal the existence of an investigation in the immediate run up to an election. In this case, it doesn't apply because these investigations have been going on for quite some time, they've been public for a long time. So, to continue with the already public judicial process is not a conflict with DOJ policy.

But I also thought it was notable that the attorney general went out of his way to point out that there is a public need and an imperative to resolve some of these cases before the election. It's something that DOJ has been very cognizant about from the very beginning of the Jack Smith investigations. And I think it was good of him to say that.

BERMAN: So, God help me, Andy, but I've been on social media the last few minutes trying to see if there was any public outrage or at least social media outrage to the idea of the attorney general saying there should be a speedy trial here. I didn't find it. I didn't look hard yet.

Do you think that anything he said crossed a line? Should the attorney general be weighing in on how fast or slow a trial is?

MCCABE: Well, I'm surprised you weren't able to find outrage. That's usually pretty available on social media. But, no, he hasn't stepped over a line here. I think the attorney general did a good job of communicating that DOJ's first responsibility is not managing public perception or public opinions, but rather their first responsibility is to do justice. And that is to take appropriate action, make good decisions based on the facts and the law.

One of the legal requirements involved here that DOJ has obligated to protect is the speedy trial right. The defendant has a right to a speedy trial, and the public has a related right to have criminal matters resolved quickly, conclusively and publicly. And they are doing their best to preserve and protect those rights. That's the right decision in this case, especially with the fact that the person who's being investigated is a former and potentially future president.

So, no, I don't think they've done anything wrong, shouldn't provoke outrage, but sometimes even right things do.

BERMAN: Evan was dogged but very diplomatic and he did press the attorney general on basically why it took so long to get the special counsel to begin this process, the attorney general really didn't even acknowledge it.

MCCABE: He didn't because I think that there are very legitimate questions about that. Again, you know, our justice system essentially wasn't really made for this. It's a system that prizes patience and deliberation and good decisions and collecting evidence in ways that are solid, not necessarily quick.

So, the system isn't really built for this sort of test and there are some good questions about whether or not a special counsel should have been appointed earlier on, whether or not the FBI and DOJ should have been more aggressive in their pursuit of these cases.

But, nevertheless, that's water under the bridge now. What they have to do is move these cases forward at an appropriate pace, and they seem to be taking all efforts to do that.

BERMAN: Yes. You know, a country built on norms, sometimes it's hard to adjust when all those norms are blown up.

Andrew McCabe, great to have you on this morning, thank you. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Right now, we're going to show you some live pictures of Nikki Haley at her third campaign event already this morning in New Hampshire. Haley, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, all hitting the trail hard there today, literally no time to waste at this point, just four days until voters are going to be heading to the polls.

Will Donald Trump lock up the race with another landslide win there? Will Nikki Haley finally make the break to the front of the pack that she's been fighting so hard for there? And what are voters there saying about all of the attacks going back and forth?

CNN's Kylie Atwood is in Hampton, New Hampshire, this morning. Kylie, tell me what you are hearing from voters. We are hearing the campaign pitches, but what are you hearing from voters now just days out?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, I was able to speak with a number of voters here at Nikki Haley's event, and what they said was that they do think she could do quite well here in New Hampshire.

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One of the things her campaign has been doing is going after independent voters here in New Hampshire, and that's a critical piece of the electorate because they make up almost 40 percent of voters in the state. That is unique here in New Hampshire that those voters can partake in the Republican primary on Tuesday. And voters who are independents say they are looking to Nikki Haley.

Now, of course, the question is how many of those will go for Haley over former President Trump, because it really effectively is a two- person race here in New Hampshire. Ron DeSantis is here in the state today but he hasn't been aggressively campaigning in New Hampshire. He really put all of his eggs in the Iowa basket. He traveled to South Carolina this week. He was also in Florida.

Nikki Haley has put a lot of effort into the state of New Hampshire. And another aspect of her strategy that we've seen in recent days is going more aggressively after former President Trump, saying that he is going after her because he feels threatened, also lumping him in with President Biden, saying why would voters want two folks in their 80s running for president, and she responded to his racist dog whistles going after her earlier this week last night in the CNN town hall saying this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And, look, the name- calling, I know President Trump well. That's what he does when he feels threatened. That's what he does when he feels insecure. I don't take these things personally. It doesn't bother me. I know him very well, and this is what he does. I know that I am a threat. I know that's why he's doing that.

So, it's not going to waste any energy for me. I'm going to continue to focus on the things that people want to talk about and not get into the name-calling back with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, in terms of expectations for the primary here on Tuesday, Kate, Nikki Haley said that she wants to do better than she did in Iowa, where, of course, she came in third place more than 30 points behind former President Trump. So, that would mean coming in first or second here.

And folks close to the campaign quietly say she really needs to pull off a victory in this state. You talk to voters and they say she at least needs to come close to Trump in order to gain momentum and head into the rest of the Republican primary process here.

But her campaign clearly trying to get every voter they can with six events across the state today and a PAC schedule through Tuesday. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Kylie, thank you so much. Kylie is going to be following it every step of the way. Sara?

SIDNER: New Hampshire is also holding its Democratic primary next week, but President Joe Biden will not be on the ballot and no delegates will be up for grabs. It's all because of a dispute between state election officials and the DNC.

Despite that, Biden supporters and top Democrats are asking voters to show their support by simply writing in the president's name.

CNN's Isaac Dovere joins us now, sharing his reporting. Isaac, what's at stake here for Biden? He's not on the ballot. Could that cause some real problems?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's a really weird situation. The president, like you said, is not on the ballot because of this DNC dispute about what the first primary should be. The Biden campaign is going to ignore the New Hampshire primary results no matter what happens. But Biden supporters would like to see the president not have a loss in New Hampshire, to lose to Dean Phillips, the congressman who is running, or one of the other mostly prank or perennial candidates who are up on the ballot.

That requires them to, in this very low key way, convince a lot of New Hampshire voters to go into the voting booth and write in Joe Biden's name, because it won't be there. There are 21 names on the ballot. Joe Biden's is not one of them. That's a tricky situation.

On the other hand, those 21 candidates are not very well known, any of them. And so they are going to have a hard time between getting any level of support.

Where the voters lay, we don't know, all sorts of other factors here, including independents that might have been crossing over into the Democratic primary to vote for Joe Biden, seem like they might be more inclined to go vote for Nikki Haley. It's a situation that has never been seen in New Hampshire before, and we're all trying to figure out what's going to happen.

SIDNER: I am curious actually. Historically, have we seen this happen elsewhere or in New Hampshire before? Not New Hampshire, but elsewhere before?

DOVERE: I think best example would be in the Alaska Senate race a couple years ago when Lisa Murkowski lost the Republican primary and she ran as a right-wing candidate and won, but in New Hampshire, there has never been anything like this on the scale. And it really even comes down to on Tuesday night counting the votes, how that's going to happen. People don't know.

SIDNER: Yes, this will be actually really interesting and different from what we're used to seeing.

Isaac Dovere, thank you so much for running through that all with us. These are interesting times, John.

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BERMAN: Absolutely. All right, the state of Texas and a tense standoff with federal officials, the latest on the situation developing at the border.

We're just minutes away from a historic moment in space exploration. Look up to the lunar surface. That's lunar, L-U-N-A-R, surface, Kate Bolduan. We will tell you what to watch for.

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SIDNER: Prepare for landing, or as John effectually calls it, lunar landing. The so-called 20 minutes of terror are nearly over for Japan, hoping to complete its first ever landing of a robotic explore on the moon.

[10:20:00]

Now, it just started its vertical descent. There's just 328 feet of wiggle room for a safe landing that's smaller than the size of a football field. So, let's hope the craft nicknamed the Moon Sniper lives up to its name.

CNN's Kristin Fisher is keeping an eye on that landing along with us right here. Kristin, what does this mission mean for the future of space? And it's particularly for Japan. I know everyone is very excited.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, for Japan, I mean, just think about it. Up until this point, only four countries have successfully been able to land a spacecraft on the moon, and only two so far this century, China and India.

So, for Japan to enter that rank of countries would be just a huge deal for that country, especially since there have been so many recent failures. I mean, what Japan is trying to do right now, and, Sara, they are just, as you said, a few feet away from either success or failure.

We should know momentarily, right now, we're just being told that it's looking for a safe place to land. But there have been so many recent failures. I mean, Russia crashed on the moon back in August. Astrobotic, a private U.S. space company, their mission to the moon failed just last week. And there was another Japanese private company that tried to do this back in April. It too failed.

So, if Japan, Japan Space Agency, the government space agency, is able to do this, it will be a huge win for that country, and for all of humanity as well. Because what this spacecraft is trying to demonstrate, Sara, is some pinpoint technology.

We have just gotten word, actually, that this spacecraft has landed. I think it might be too soon to say safely if it's landed successfully, Sara, because we don't actually have live pictures or video. We're going strictly off data and telemetry on a screen. But it has apparently, according to the Japanese Space Agency, touchdown on the surface of the moon.

And so now the big question, Sara, is just how successful was that pinpoint technology, because previous lunar missions, the target landing site, spanned several kilometers. I mean, huge, huge distances. What the Moon Sniper, this spacecraft, is trying to do is land basically in an area the size of the football field, which is a very small distance when you're talking about landing a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. And they're trying to do it in a very dangerous location, actually.

If you think about where previous spacecraft have landed on the moon, like the Eagle, Apollo 11, back in 1969, they landed just south of the Sea of Tranquility, in an area that tried to be pretty free of big craters and boulders. But what this spacecraft is trying to do is land just south from there in a place called the Sea of Nectar. And so it's a more hazardous landing spot, big boulders, things of that nature.

But Japan believes that they have the technology on this spacecraft to be able to safely do it, because it has these things, Sara, called Smart Eyes. I'm going to read you the description, because it's pretty technical. But it's an image-matching-based navigation technology. And, basically, what it does is it just rapidly photographs the surface of the moon and transmits that to a computer on board the spacecraft. And then in real time, they use those photographs to find a safe landing spot.

So, too soon to say if it's a success or a failure, we just don't know what kind of shape the spacecraft is in. Is it all in one piece? Did it crash land? We just don't know. But it has safely landed on the moon, according to the data that's coming in.

SIDNER: That is the breaking news that you just brought to us, that this aircraft or spacecraft has landed on the moon. We don't know what exactly shape it's in, but we've been looking at images as to how they wanted it to land.

Now, what did you say it was landing in the Sea of --

FISHER: The Sea of Nectar. And I believe we have a map that kind of shows you all the different landing sites of spacecrafts in the past. But it's -- there you go, right there. The Sea of Tranquility, that's right by where the Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin landed, the first crewed lunar landing of the moon back in 1969. Number three there, that's the Slim Lander target, the Sea of Nectar, as it's called.

And so we should be finding out very soon. They're checking the status on the spacecraft right now, Sara.

SIDNER: I'm sure we'll get an update before we end the show, right? But, first, I want to talk to Kate about the Sea of Nectar, because that sounds like a place I would like to go.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask if there's all inclusives there, or is it something that we need to figure something out?

SIDNER: I think we need to build it up. We can glam -- we're going to --

BOLDUAN: I'll also reserve at Sea of Tranquility and we'll just go back.

SIDNER: Done, landing on the moon. I'm actually -- let's be the first.

BOLDUAN: I'll say just reading body language, the people at the bottom, very, very small boxes, the bottom of the screen on this giant wall, they seem non-plus about this moon landing.

[10:25:07]

So, if I'm reading from their faces, everything has gone well, but we'll see, booking now.

Okay, onto politics. I don't know how after that, but we shall. Coming up, Nikki Haley trying to thread an electoral needle in New Hampshire. What history tells us about how and if she can pull it off.

And several rounds of airstrikes that President Biden has been now says are not working. Why then is the United States conducting them?

We'll be back.

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