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Biden Vows Response After Drone Strike Kills Three U.S. Troops in Jordan; Trump Silent on E. Jean Carroll Since $83.3 Million Verdict. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 29, 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: Tensions rising in the Middle East after a drone attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan killed three American soldiers. President Biden is vowing the U.S. will respond and Republicans push for him to strike back. What we're learning about the response.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: E. Jean Carroll speaks out this morning about Donald Trump after being awarded more than $83.3 million in damages. What she says she plans to do with the money.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is Joe Manchin still flirting with a presidential run? The new reporting as the West Virginia senator travels from New Hampshire to places like South Carolina and Georgia. And why Manchin says he shaped everything in President Biden's agenda.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: For the first time in nearly a month, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has returned to the Pentagon following his recent hospitalization. And we expect to hear from him. But whether he will address the deadly attack on U.S. troops in Jordan is still unclear at the moment, right now, though, President Biden said to be still weighing his options on exactly how to respond. But there will be a response, he promised.

Three U.S. service members were killed, dozens others injured. U.S. CENTCOM says the strike came from Syria, hitting near the living quarters at a military base known as Tower 22. The U.S. has not yet named a specific group responsible for that attack.

CNN's Oren Lieberman is following this for us from the Pentagon. Oren, what can you tell us on the latest on the strike? And it's still a question as to exactly which group is responsible for this, correct?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, the National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, said it looks like it was groups supported by Kata'ib Hezbollah. That's one of the largest and most powerful Iranian-backed groups operating in the region there and a group that the U.S. holds responsible for carrying out many of the approximately 160 attacks on U.S. forces in the region that we've seen since the beginning of the Gaza War.

Of course, none of those attacks have been anything close to what we saw over the weekend here on Sunday when a drone hit a base known as Tower 22 in Jordan right on the meeting point essentially between Jordan, Iraq and Syria. That drone struck near the living quarters at the base. There are approximately 350 U.S. service members there and this attack, three of those service members, three soldiers, in fact, were killed in the attack, a number of others injured. As of the latest update, 34.

But that number is expected to rise because of how long it can take traumatic brain injury to show its symptoms. Eight of those service members had to be Medevac to launch to a regional medical center in Germany for further treatment. According to the U.S. official, they are in stable condition.

One of the key questions here, how is it that the drone got through U.S. air defenses at the site and was able to kill and wound so many service members? So, we're looking for some accountability on that question as the U.S. looks for what group was responsible and the response.

President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, all promising a response. The expectation is that it's bigger than the U.S. strikes we've seen in the region to this point over the past few months. The question, of course, is how. There is pressure from congressional Republicans to strike Iran itself. That is not the expectation because the Biden administration is still trying to make sure that this doesn't escalate into an open wider regional war here and trying to contain the conflict to Gaza itself.

[10:05:07]

But, clearly, the U.S. needs to make a point, send a message, carry out strikes. The question, Iraq or Syria, perhaps both, weapons, facilities, going after leadership, these are all on the table, as we understand it. Biden was briefed on his options over the weekend by the defense secretary, the national security adviser and others. The question, where, how and how big at this point. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, I think that's the question everyone in the region is asking, especially after strikes in Iraq, Jordan and the Red Sea. We will be watching this closely. I know you will be. Thank you so much for all your reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right. With me now is CNN Anchor and Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto.

Jim, people will see here on our map where this attack took place. It's right where Jordan meets Syria and Iraq here. That is where Tower 22 is. You've been speaking to administration officials. What are they telling you?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I spoke to a senior administration official last night, and a key question is exactly how this drone got through the base's air defenses.

Now, the possibilities range from a lucky hit, right, that one gets through, that shouldn't have gotten through, but they are investigating the possibility that this was something more significant, that it had the capability to evade what are quite sophisticated air defenses put in place exactly for this reason, exactly to protect against attacks like this.

Now, if you look at another battlefield in Ukraine where drones have been used by both sides enormously, you've seen enormous progress over the course of this war, nearly two years, both in terms of the drone's capability, but also in terms of air defenses. But that, John, is a constant battle with constant adjustment over time, allowing drones that a month ago weren't able to evade certain air defenses to do so the next time around.

The concern here right now as they investigate this is, was there a step along those lines, or was this an outlier? And that, of course, has implications going forward, because force protection for U.S. forces in the region at a number of bases, not just in Syria, is the primary priority at this point, and you could imagine going forward to avoid something like this being repeated.

BERMAN: Yes. Because if this is more than a fluke, there's a whole lot of U.S. troops tracing into this region there who could be at risk. I mean, thousands and thousands if you include Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and whatnot, you can see why it's of such concern.

The range of possible responses, Jim, because if this was an Iranian proxy, the question is, do you attack that proxy, whether it be in Syria or Iraq, or do you strike inside Iran? What are the considerations?

SCIUTTO: Listen, again, when I spoke to the senior administration official, this is exactly what they're wrestling with right now. They know they will respond. They have to respond, and they have to respond to a greater degree than they have in the past.

To Oren's point, the outlier here is to strike Iranian targets inside Iranian territory. The concern there, that puts the U.S. directly, not necessarily at war, but certainly shooting at each other directly, and that poses a whole host of risks in terms of escalation.

Now, you have options short of that, and beyond what you've seen so far. So, listen, and this is a judgment, John, that goes into it. When you attack, say, the base of an Iranian-backed militia, are you aiming for facilities or people or both? Do you intend to kill Iranian fighters in response to this?

And this is a judgment they've made in the past, where they either attempt -- and, by the way, every attack has the risk of doing that, but do you attempt to avoid that, or do you make that part of the plan? That would be a step up, even if you don't strike Iranian territory per se, because there are a whole host of Iranian, not just Iranian-backed, say, fighters in Syria who are Syrian or in Iran who are Iraqi, but there are Iranian leaders and commanders based in those places, and that could specifically be your strike.

Now, there's precedent here. You'll remember this, John, going back to the Soleimani strike, when the Trump administration ordered his assassination, the head of the IRGC, that was not on Iran. It was in Iraq while he was visiting Iraq, but certainly an Iranian target, a very senior leader.

Of course, the Trump administration had a similar question there, whether that would lead to further escalation, and there was a whole host of concern about how Iran would strike back after the Soleimani assassination, none of which met the worst concerns at that point. It doesn't mean that's repeated, right, if you were to take a decision like that. But these attacks have been carried out before. The administration now has a choice as to how far they go.

BERMAN: And these are discussions that are taking place actually not just now but have been taking place even before the U.S. service members were killed because I think they had a sense that something like that, frankly, sadly, was inevitable.

Jim Sciutto, always great to get your insight here, thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, a retired judge in Illinois says Donald Trump engaged in insurrection on January 6th, but should stay on the state's ballot.

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Details on his recommendation to the Illinois Election Board.

Also, E. Jean Carroll speaking to CNN this morning after a jury awarded her more than $83 million in her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. That's ahead as well.

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SIDNER: It has been three days since jury awarded Writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for Donald Trump to faming her, and in a rare move, the former president has stayed mostly silent about that verdict. This morning E. Jean Carroll spoke to CNN about the trial and what it was like being in the same room as Trump for the first time since he was accused of sexually abusing her.

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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: What was it like to be with Donald Trump in that courtroom? He did not attend your first trial, but he was there when it came down to the money what it would cost him. You hadn't seen him since 1996.

E. JEAN CARROLL, WON $83 MILLION IN DEFAMATION CASE AGAINST DONALD TRUMP: I hadn't seen him since he assaulted me in the dressing room. And preparing to see him was terrifying. The days leading up brought me around stronger and stronger. It was so -- I hadn't slept. I hadn't eaten. I couldn't think. I lost my language when she was trying to prepare to go to do testimony in front of Donald Trump.

And then when we were in the courtroom and Robbie went to the lectern, she said, good morning, E. Jean. Please state your name spell it for the jury, for the court. And there he was and he was nothing, just no power. He had -- he was zero. That was -- I was flabbergasted.

And from then, we just sailed through it. She brought me in. She said, say your name. And I just looked at Robbie, saw he was nothing and it came out from there.

HARLOW: Did you make eye contact with him?

CARROLL: Many times.

HARLOW: And what was that like?

CARROLL: He's an emperor without clothes. It's like looking at nothing, it was like nothing.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Were you surprised by that? Because the environment -- no, I can imagine. But the environment, not just from what you went through, but also the environment in that courtroom was a very different, very volatile, very heated environment in terms of both Donald Trump's attorney and Donald Trump for it to end up like that. Were you surprised?

CARROLL: Yes, yes, I had been prepared for the worst force, you know, on the earth today, the most powerful, the most effective, the most money, the richest, the most, you know, you know -- and there he is, he's nothing. It's just the people around him who give him the power. It's the emperor without clothes. It's Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, you know? People just gave him clothes when he wasn't wearing any that -- remember the fairy tale? So, that's Donald Trump.

HARLOW: Robbie, you're giving your closing argument and Donald Trump gets up and he walks out. And I'm not sure if you could see him out of the periphery, right? I think you're back was to him. But what did you think when you learned that he walked out?

ROBERTA KAPLAN, E. JEAN CARROLL'S ATTORNEY: Yes. So, it's true, I didn't see him at all because I was facing the jury and he was to my left. But the judge said something. He told me that -- he told the whole courtroom that he'd gotten up and walked out.

And I thought to myself, whoa, like in a case about whether you can follow the rules or not, and you can not be a bully, not following the rules and acting like a bully is not a good move. So, I thought to myself, like, okay, that's just going to give us more money, honestly.

HARLOW: You got it awarded $80 -- over $83 million from this jury. Trump is obviously appealing. He has the right to do that. Big question in the next couple weeks, is he going to get a bond for that $83 million? If he doesn't when could your client see that money or some of it?

KAPLAN: So, he has two choices. He either has to post a bond, it's called an appellate bond, which requires him to put down 20 percent, or he has to deposit, which is what he did for the first verdict, the entire amount with the court. So 83 plus 9 percent, so call it $89 million. If he can't do either of those, then we can start collecting right now, and we will, for sure.

MATTINGLY: Do you believe he can do either of those?

KAPLAN: I don't know. I don't know. He didn't get a bond last time, so maybe he's going to try to deposit the funds. I don't know what he'll do.

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SIDNER: All right. Joining me now is Caroline Polisi, a federal and white collar criminal defense attorney.

You just heard that question. This is the first question out in my head, because a lot of times these cases come up, there's these big awards, and then it's years and years and years, sometimes decades before the person who won the award gets any of it.

What would it look like if he doesn't pay? I mean, they talked about taking things, right, seizing things. How does that work?

CAROLINE POLISI, FEDERAL AND WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. So, Trump has already appealed the first case in this, and he's actually posted the full $5 million that he was awarded in the first jury verdict on this matter. And as Robbie Kaplan noted there in the interview, Trump has a decision now. Within the next two weeks, he has said he will file an appeal, which I believe he will.

But in order to do that, Sara, he has to actually post either a bond for 20 percent of the total amount or the total amount plus interest. You note there, she said about 9 percent. I mean, there will be interest on this. It goes up to about $89 million.

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He posted the full amount in the first case. We'll see what he does now. He has about two weeks. But as Kaplan noted there, if he doesn't do that, she can immediately start going after his assets.

Now, $89 million is a lot different from $5 million. So, you know, it could be a different story at this time.

SIDNER: When they talk about going after assets, does that mean things like going into his apartment, taking art, I mean, that sort of thing, where there would have to be, you know, the investigators with you when they would go in and --

POLISI: Yes, it could, attaching his assets, things of that nature.

Now, throwing another wrench in this plan is the fact that, you know, Donald Trump is currently in a monitor ship with the Trump Org. And so many of his properties are actually being monitored by a former federal judge, Barbara Jones, who would have to approve any transfer of assets in order to potentially pay off this judgment. So, it's a complicated web.

SIDNER: Very complicated, all right.

So, this is another wrinkle. This has nothing to do with the E. Jean Carroll case. This is now about reporting and about Smartmatic, a company that says it was defamed by Donald Trump and those around him.

CNN is learning that the president of the far-right network, One American News, that's OAN that a lot of people know it by, sent an explosive email to the Trump campaign lawyer, Sidney Powell, with a spreadsheet claiming to have the contact, contain the passwords of employees from the voting technology company, Smartmatic.

Holy smokes. Is this criminal, first of all? And second of all, what could happen in this case?

POLISI: Yes. Well, we don't know yet if it's criminal, but the details are a little bit murky. The court hasn't really noted who has been -- who was actually emailing those things.

However, we do know that the timeframe is concurrent with, remember, Sidney Powell, obviously, we all know her because she'd recently pleaded guilty to Fani Willis' RICO claims. She was really the architect of the Coffee County voting machine breach, which had to do with, you know, similar allegations that she was sort of spewing about Dominion and Smartmatic, their machines being, you know, somehow faulty or turning Biden votes to -- Trump votes to Biden rather.

And so it all sort of adds up when you look at those facts. Those are all circumstantial. We still have a lot to go in this case, but it does seem like it could be a pretty explosive finding.

SIDNER: We've seen what happened with Dominion. Do you see going forward that Smartmatic, that same thing may happen, where they come to an agreement? And it was a huge number that Fox News has to pay.

POLISI: Yes. Look, the fact is that most cases like this do end up settling. You know, Dominion really -- it hurt Dominion when it came to the discovery process. They didn't want a lot of those sort of secretive internal emails and discovery things disclosed and Smartmatic may feel the same way. We'll just have to wait and see.

SIDNER: It will be really interesting.

All right, I also want to ask you about what we were talking about earlier today, that the retired state judge, a Republican, recommended that former President Trump be allowed to be on the ballot, even though it was determined that he was part of the insurrection. What do you make of this?

POLISI: Yes. Well, it's a very good example of why the Supreme Court has chosen to take this case. The reasoning there is specific to Illinois state law. The retired judge said, yes, although I do find that he engaged in insurrection for the purposes of Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, I don't think that his due process rights are covered so that the voting council can actually do this. It would have to be voted on by a court in Illinois.

But it shows, even though he came to the same conclusion, Colorado and Maine, it shows we could have just complete chaos reigning if the Supreme Court doesn't step in and say, look, a blanket statement once and for all whether or not the states can make these decisions for themselves. I don't see them leaving that choice up to the states. I think we will get an answer from the Supreme Court that is all or nothing.

SIDNER: Too many different decisions the Supreme Court needs to weigh in. Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming in. Lots of different questions today. All right, over to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: How Senator Joe Manchin could singlehandedly upend President Biden's re-election bid. Does he want to? The new CNN reporting on why Manchin says he shaped, quote, everything in President Biden's agenda.

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BERMAN: New this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is one of several Republicans calling for a quick and forceful response to the attack in Jordan that left three U.S. service members dead. McConnell says, quote, there needs to be serious crippling costs to Iran, not only frontline terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor.

With me now is White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Karine, thank you so much for being with us.

Serious crippling costs to Iran, not just the terror of proxies. What's the White House response to that?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, let me first say, John, thank you so much for having me on today. So, let me just first say that we are mourning with Americans across the country today who are mourning the deaths of three souls, three service members who lost their lives, as we all know yesterday.

Yesterday was a very dark day. Today is a very difficult day for Americans. So, our deepest condolences go out to the families, the friends and the units, obviously, who lost three friends, three colleagues. So, let me just say that first.

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Look, the president -- you heard it from the president yesterday. I know you've been showing the clip of what the president said in South Carolina. He said, we shall respond.