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Haley: Trump's "Lying," Won't Debate Me Because I'll Call Him Out; Judge Sets Feb. 15 Hearing On DA Fani Willis Allegations. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:14]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Moments ago, Nikki Haley punches back at Donald Trump, some of her sharpest comments yet out loud and online. We have new reporting just in.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And an alleged affair putting the election subversion case against Trump and Georgia in jeopardy. Fani Willis now ordered by a judge to respond. And she's now against the clock.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a fresh look at a decade's old murder conviction. The Innocence Project now coming through old evidence in Scott Peterson's case, who's now serving life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, we are seeing something different in New Hampshire this morning. Is this Nikki Haley unleashed? Just moments ago, she hit back at Donald Trump who's gone after her on everything from her strength to her ethnicity, to her name. Listen to this.

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NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are multiple instances that we need to start asking Donald Trump the questions and start taking what he's saying to be golden. The fact that Donald Trump's lying, it's another reason why he won't debate me because he knows I'll call him out on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, that was out loud. Nikki Haley is doing this online. Also, just a few minutes ago, a tweet from Nikki Haley. She said another reason we need to move on from Trump, too many lies, she said. Democrats can't vote in the New Hampshire primary. They haven't been able to change your registration for months. I was tougher on China and Russia than Trump ever was. He praised Xi a dozen times after China gave the world COVID. I passed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country as governor. I did more to protect South Carolinians than he did to protect Americans. But we all know that's why he won't debate me. Have a great day.

So that's what Nikki Haley is writing online. On the subject of who can vote in the New Hampshire primary, she's absolutely right. Donald Trump has been saying, oh, Nikki Haley is going to do well in New Hampshire because Democrats can vote there. They can't. Democrats cannot vote in the New Hampshire primary. They would have had to have changed their registration months and months ago. Who can vote? Republicans and undeclared voters.

Now a lot of undeclared voters in New Hampshire and they do vote but they make up Independents. A lot of them may be leading Republican anyway. They are a focus of Nikki Haley. Also a focus of Nikki Haley and a reason why she thinks she can do good in New Hampshire, who the voters are and where they live. I want you to look at the population of New Hampshire and see where it's centered here.

In the southern part of the state, Manchester, Nashua, these are really suburbs, big suburbs. I can pull up the map here and show you what they're really connected to. Think of this, and I'm not saying this to be mean to New Hampshire, I love New Hampshire, this is really sort of suburban Massachusetts, suburban Boston right there. Everyone -- everywhere from Manchester on down here, it's within an hour commute to Boston.

And the voters here in this area, more heavily populated, behave not unlike voters do in Massachusetts, maybe not as a Liberal, but certainly in that direction. And if you think about candidates who have done well in New Hampshire in the past, you have to look no further than John McCain, who won big in New Hampshire.

Now, I know that was 24 years ago, but John McCain won big in New Hampshire. And his biggest share of the vote came from those undeclared voters. You can look right here. He won 61 percent of those Independent voters which are really undeclared there, and that's where he ran up the margins on George W. Bush. This is the type of thing that Nikki Haley would like to do in New Hampshire whether that's possible or not, we will see. But that certainly is the goal here. Sara?

[11:05:11]

SIDNER: All right, joining us now is the chair of the New Hampshire Young Republicans, Virginia Drye. Thank you so much for coming on to talk through what young folks are looking at. I'm curious what you think is different about young Republicans in this election cycle? I want to know what the issues are that are top of mind for them?

VIRGINIA DRYE, CHAIR, NEW HAMPSHIRE YOUNG REPUBLICANS: Well, so I'm going to say that young Republicans are basically no different than any other Republican. We still have the same issues that we've talked about, Social Security, the environment, the economies, border control, and also national security. So we have issues that older Republicans also align with.

While we may be different on some subjects, such as the environment, we still have that same conservative lineup that we connect with with the older Republicans.

SIDNER: I think it's interesting that you bring up the environment, because that has not been a big talking point. And some have sort of pushed back against the green economy, if you will. How do young people see that? And how do you think they will break through to candidates on that particular issue? Has it been difficult?

DRYE: Well, young voters have been bringing it up to the candidates when they're here in New Hampshire. For example, my whole group, we did a roundtable with several presidential candidates, not just on the environment, but the economy as well as education. So topics that are near and dear, the kind of three E's that young people are thinking of when they go to the polls.

SIDNER: Economy, education, environment. All right, so those are the top three. I do want to ask you which candidates that you've seen or that you're hearing from your young Republican colleagues. Which candidate seems to be appealing to younger Republican voters the most?

DRYE: Well, I think all the Republicans are appealing to the young voters. I mean, you got to look at the ballot. Biden is not on the Democrat ticket. And so young people are looking to the Republican ticket for solutions, and for them to hear their concerns. And so many candidates have come to New Hampshire, to hear from young builders, from the ones with the most social media to the ones with the least, they're all here to talk to us for the first in the nation primary.

SIDNER: All right, Nikki Haley has said that politicians and lawmakers over the age of 75 be required to take a mental competency test before they're allowed another term in office. She has gone after, of course, Joe Biden and Donald Trump for their age. Does this matter to young Republican voters? Are they worried about the age of the candidates that are before them?

DRYE: Well, I think it's interesting with the young Republicans in particularly, so there's Young Republicans, my organization with the Capital Y&R and there's the young voters in the sense of young Republican in lowercase Y and R. And there's such a draw for all the candidates. And while there's a large range in age for the candidates, there's, you know, preference for some candidates, and some don't matter about age, but to others, it's more about the topics that they're talking about.

So in the sense of age for office, you know, I remember that Nikki Haley was talking more about federal offices. And, you know, we vote on all offices. So it's really about personal preference of the young voters.

SIDNER: I'm curious about two things that I didn't hear you say young voters being particularly interested in. One is gun violence at schools in particular, as they are younger voters. And two, is the abortion debate. How are those playing with young Republicans?

DRYE: So it's a topic that we're discussing. And it really is a topic that we have to think about as state oriented as well. So that's where most of the discussions is going on is state and presidential does play in the larger sense of the national aspect, but also we have to consider the state aspect as well.

SIDNER: Virginia Drye, thank you so much for coming on and explaining all that to us. Appreciate it.

Now as voters prepare to head to the polls and Granite State, who has the momentum? The 2024 New Hampshire primary live coverage starts Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. right here on CNN. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, will Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA overseeing Trump's Georgia election subversion case, will she be disqualified from the case? There are new details on what the judge is now ordering her to respond to.

An unimaginable failure, that is how one top Justice Department official is describing what they found in the police response to the Uvalde School tragedy. What does this mean now for the calls for accountability from the families.

[11:09:54]

And the notorious Scott Peterson murder case back in the spotlight nearly 20 years after he was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child. Why lawyers are taking up his case now? We'll be back.

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BOLDUAN: A new deadline and a new hearing are now set in Georgia as Fulton County DA Fani Willis is fighting against misconduct allegations. Now Willis has been ordered by the judge to respond within two weeks. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has much more on this. Katelyn, this involves an alleged affair and also allegations brought by one of Donald Trump's co-defendants charged in this case, enormous, enormous stakes here. What are you hearing?

[11:15:14]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right, Kate. So the co-defendant of Donald Trump, one of the campaign operatives with him, who's charged in Georgia has raised this issue, as part of the case saying that the relationship that District Attorney Fani Willis has with the top prosecutor there, Nathan Wade, somebody that is paid by her office brought on to prosecute the case against Trump and 18 others, that that is potentially a problematic conflict in this case.

Now, the judge is going to look at that. This defendant is saying there may be an improper relationship there. At very least, it's a distraction and something that could really hurt the credibility of these prosecutors as it continues being something that's an issue in this case, the judge is going to talk about it at this February 15-ish hearing, talking about the legal ethics here and these prosecutors working together on this.

Now, separately, Fani Willis, the District Attorney in Fulton County, she's been subpoenaed to give a deposition to provide information sit for an interview in the divorce proceeding of Nathan Wade. She's been subpoenaed by the person who will become his ex-wife, his current wife that he's been filed and they both agreed to divorce about two years ago.

Her deposition is scheduled for next Tuesday. She doesn't want that to happen. And she is saying in a filing trying to get out of that deposition, that the defendant Joycelyn Wade, Nathan Wade's wife, is using the legal process to harass and embarrass District Attorney Willis. And in doing so is obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution. She is also, Fani Willis in her filing, accusing Joycelyn Wade of potentially conspiring with some of these election interference defendants to try and get this to be part of the milieu of what's going on in this case.

Now, Joycelyn Wade and her attorneys did release a statement yesterday saying this is a personal matter. And Fani Willis is using her public platform. So a lot to watch here, very messy, at least in the divorce proceeding.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Let's see what happens from here. But messy is a word for it. Katelyn, good to see you. Thanks for the reporting as always. John?

BERMAN: All right, with us now CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jennifer Rodgers. Counselor, the fact that the judge agreed to hold a hearing on this, does that tell us anything in and of itself?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Not too much. I mean, a motion has been made. The judge has to dispose of the motion somehow to move any evidence. They said the evidence is coming. So I think the judge is, let's sort it out. I mean, if there's no evidence forthcoming at the time of the hearing, there was something about information being sealed that had to be unsealed. He, of course, won't be able to do anything with it. But I think he's thinking that if there's meat there, they'll know by the time of the hearing like that.

BERMAN: The question is, and again, we don't know anything about the specific allegations, nothing has been proven. Let's just stipulate that. But there are questions that have to do with perhaps ethics and business practices inside the DA's office and in whether a relationship is appropriate or not. But then there are issues about how it should apply to a prosecution and if it matters there. When does it cross the line into actually mattering in a courtroom in a case?

RODGERS: So it would have to impact the way that they handled the investigation and the case. So if, and this is a big if, of course, if this prosecutor was brought on inappropriately without the proper experience, that again, would be just kind of an internal matter. If though, they extended the case law thoroughly more expansively than they should have, dragged it out, in other words, to build more so that they could use this money somehow, for personal reasons. That would be something that would impact the case and therefore, potentially result in the removal of Willis.

BERMAN: -- say where's the line between embarrassing and disqualifying?

RODGERS: Impacting the case effectively. If they did more than they should have, if they not investigate more thoroughly in a way but overdid it, right, in other words. If they said we have to drag this out, because we want to go on vacation next month, so, you know, let's add another count so that we have to go before the grand jury more times. That's the sort of thing when it impacts the case could result in something --

BERMAN: How much information do you expect will come out in this hearing? And again, there's this hearing before Judge McAfee which is in the election subversion case in Georgia. And then there's also the separate divorce case, but inside McAfee's hearing, what are you expecting to hear?

RODGERS: Well, they're going to have to bring evidence that backs up these allegations, right? So the judge is going to say, you know, what do you have? If they don't have anything then there's nothing to rule on. So we're going to have to see what it is they have. I mean, we don't know anything right now because they've just made these bald faced allegations. They're going to have to bring evidence of what they're saying. I don't know what that's going to look like.

[11:20:03]

BERMAN: It is not his job in this case. We don't expect to hear from the judge. Oh, this shouldn't be if something was going on in this office, it shouldn't be going on. That's not his place to say that. We want to hear that here, would we?

RODGERS: No. What we're going to hear is, is what impact are you alleging that this had on the investigation itself and the charges and how do you back that up?

BERMAN: Do you expect we may hear from McAfee ruling from the bench that day? Or is that something you would take under advisement?

RODGERS: If they bring what they have and they say, we don't have any hope of getting anything more. This is what we got. And it's not enough then I expect him to rule if not from the bench, then promptly.

BERMAN: All right. Jennifer Rodgers, thank you very much. We'll be watching that needless to say. Sara?

SIDNER: A scathing DOJ report blames law enforcement officers for failing to take courageous action to stop a school shooter in Uvalde, Texas. Texas State Senate Roland Gutierrez is joining us next to talk about that damning report.

Plus, we are waiting for final confirmation was in a historic landing on the moon by Japan. We will have details on that, ahead.

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[11:25:52] SIDNER: On our radar this morning, violent threats on the rise. New data from the U.S. Capitol Police shows that last year, 2023, they investigated over 8,000 threats made against members of Congress. That's a jump of about 500 cases from the year before both Democrats and Republicans faced a variety of direct threats and constrain statements sent through mail, e-mail, phone and online platforms.

Well, so take a look at this video coming up now, sparks seen from a cargo plane flying over Miami or not, the engine malfunctioned about three minutes into the Atlas Air flight last night. Take a look. All right, we've shown a little bit to you earlier we're trying to get it back to you. But it was scary to see the plane on fire.

We are told the crew followed all the standard procedures and safely landed at Miami International Airport. A post flight inspection revealed a softball sized hole above the planes number two engine which FAA incident reports a malfunction. The flight was only in the air for three minutes before the flames appeared, prompting a mayday call from the cockpit. And Atlas Air plans to conduct an inspection to figure out exactly what caused that issue.

Also, Dolly Parton, I mean don't we love her. She's doing the gift giving on her birthday today. Four surprise songs never before released out today in celebration of her 78th birthday. She just doesn't stop. The music legend herself shared the news posting that her songs go with her new rock star album and writing, I hope you all have a happy birthday for me. Working 9:00 to 5:00 Dolly. Love her. We'll be right back.

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