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Honoring 9/11 18 Years After the Attacks; Trump to Have His 4th National Security Adviser After Firing John Bolton; Republican Dan Bishop Narrowly Wins North Carolina's 9th Congressional District; President Trump Seeks for a Fourth National Security Adviser After Firing John Bolton; House Judiciary Approves Gun Violence Prevention Legislation; Pressure Builds on President Trump to Plot Course on Guns. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 11, 2019 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:07]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto. Can you believe it's been 18 years?

HARLOW: No.

SCIUTTO: And today a nation comes together to reflect, to remember. Right now, memorials and ceremonies under way honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11th attacks. Just minutes from now, a moment of silence and bell ringing at Ground Zero to mark the very moment the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit. Loved ones are right now reading the names of all of those who were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My cousin Jeannine Damiani-Jones. I wish I got to meet you. Love you.

HARLOW: So heartbreaking. Also, this hour names of the fallen will be read at the Pentagon and President Trump will give his remarks a little bit later this hour. You'll see that live. And next hour the vice president will speak at the ceremony right outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, of course, where Flight 93 went down.

And now, nearly two decades after this attack, this is staggering. Only about 60 percent of the 2,753 victims of the World Trade Center have been identified. That now includes firefighter Michael Haub. The 13-year veteran was laid to rest just yesterday in his hometown in Franklin Square, New York, after his remains were finally conclusively identified.

Let's go to our colleague Brynn Gingras. She joins us this morning from the tribute down there.

It is just -- you know what, Brynn, I remember that day like it was yesterday. And today with the blue sky and the sun out, feels just like that morning. BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I was thinking the same

thing, Poppy. It really does. The clouds are sort of dissipating from the top of One World Trade, the Freedom Tower as it's been called. You guys saw the first moment of silence happening at about 8:46 this morning. And then the second one, as Jim just said, we're about to embark on it at 9:03. The time that the hijacked plane went into the South Tower.

There are four more this morning marking those catastrophic events of the morning. The times the towers fell. The time the plane flew into the Pentagon. The time the plane flew into that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

And you're watching that ceremony happen in between those moments of silence, when these family members come to the podium and they read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed on that day 18 years ago.

And this is the part, I can hear it in my ear, that just makes me shake because it's that moment when the family members not only say the name of those who they lost but also maybe give a message like we miss you or give an update on their life, something that's happened in the last 18 years. It's just a very powerful moment.

And this is all happening actually a quarter mile from where I am right now. And that's because purposely, it is closed to the public. This is a time where the reflection pools, where those towers once stood, are only open to those family members, to those first responders, to the people that rushed to that area to help on that horrible, horrible day.

Poppy and Jim, go back to you for the next moment of silence.

HARLOW: And let's take that now. In just a moment we will get that second moment of silence at Ground Zero for United Flight 175 crashing in to the South Tower. 614 people perished in that tower. Brynn --

SCIUTTO: You know, Brynn, you look at -- here's the moment of silence.

(BELL RINGING FOLLOWED BY MOMENT OF SILENCE)

SCIUTTO: Listen, if you ever go down to the Ground Zero Memorial it is powerful. It is mesmerizing on any day. On a day like today during that moment of silence, particularly so.

HARLOW: So, we're going to continue to honor these victims for the rest of the two hours. We'll bring you all of those moments of silence. And we'll bring you some really beautiful stories of those left behind and those who are serving this country in the wake of 9/11.

In the meantime, the president is looking for his fourth National Security adviser in less than three years.

[09:05:05] This is after John Bolton was -- well, abruptly exited the White House yesterday. Was either fired if you listen to the president or resigned if you believe Bolton. The last disagreement over -- was over how Bolton left the White House was apparently just the latest in a string of arguments and disagreements between the two.

SCIUTTO: According to CNN's reporting, the two clashed on policies over North Korea, Iran, Venezuela.

For more on what happened exactly, CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins us live.

So there was a series of disagreements over time but, Joe, they came to a head in what sounds like a fiery disagreement a day and a half ago.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they certainly did. And whether you are a critic or supporter of John Bolton, it's pretty clear that he was very much a skeptic of idle talk especially with dictators and the president was all about talking. That was one of the big things. He didn't like that. It was pretty clear to us that this National Security adviser did not trust the president to go too far as it were with dictators.

The president, for his part, one of his big problems and one of the things we heard repeatedly from people here at the White House is the president was concerned. John Bolton was going to start a war or at least wanted to and that covers some of those countries you talked about there. So, it all did come to a head with this decision by the president to get rid of him.

Interesting, also, sort of a good example of the relationship between these two men in a nutshell is the fact that they can't even agree on whether Bolton was fired or resigned. So, to the very end, bitter disagreements -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: OK. So, Joe, the question now becomes who is going to replace Bolton. I believe Stephanie Grisham, the spokesperson for the White House, said there's no one really at the top of that list but of course we're seeing names floating around this morning. One of them is Steve Biegun, who has been leading the North Korean negotiations. Who else are they talking about?

JOHNS: Well, I think you have to first mention Charlie Kupperman.

HARLOW: Sure.

JOHNS: This is a longtime Bolton aide who really just came in around January, but he's been with him for a long time and is the acting National Security adviser. But being, if you will, a loyalist to Bolton, the question is whether that would cause problems for him.

There's some big names on that list as well. And one of the most interesting, I think, is Keith Kellogg. Now he's already had one stint. Very briefly as National Security adviser over here. He came in just for a week or two after Mike Flynn had to go at the beginning of the administration. Also interesting about Kellogg, he was at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 and then went over to Raven Rock, which is sort of the underground facility that the Pentagon uses in case of attack or emergency.

The other name I would mention on that list that a lot of people know about is Pete Hoekstra, that's a former congressman also, was a longtime member of the House Intelligence Committee. He's the ambassador to the Netherlands now.

Back to you.

SCIUTTO: And Kellogg served under H.R. McMaster, I believe.

HARLOW: That's right.

SCIUTTO: When he was National Security adviser.

Joe Johns, at the White House, thanks very much.

Thousands of North Carolinians will finally have representation in Congress more than 10 months after the 2018 midterm elections. Last night Republican state senator Dan Bishop narrowly defeated Democrat Dan McCready in the special election for the state's 9th District. North Carolina, you should remember, was forced to redo the election after there were ballot fraud allegations and charges linked to the 2018 GOP campaign.

HARLOW: That was not the only win for Republicans last night. North Carolina's 3rd District elected State Representative Greg Murphy replacing Republican Walter Jones who died in February.

Let's go to our Washington correspondent Ryan Nobles, He joins us from Charlotte this morning.

So the president voicing his elation on Twitter. But the DNC chair Tom Perez says this, quote, "Those results should send waves of fear through the Republican Party at every level."

Which is it?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, no doubt the president claiming victory after what happened here last night. This was a Republican seat before. It remains a Republican seat today. And this is what the president said on Twitter. "Big night for the Republican Party. Congratulations to all."

But I talked to several Republican operatives last night as the returns were coming in. They felt confident in a win but the sense I got from many of them was relief. Relief that they were able to hold on to this seat that's been in Republican hands since the Kennedy administration. This was a seat that President Trump's won this district by 12 points. It was a traditionally Republican district in every sense. And yet Republicans were still forced to plow millions of dollars into this race.

[09:10:04] It required President Trump to come here for a last-minute swing through the district on Monday to help push Dan Bishop, the Republican, over the finish line. And already this morning, Bishop is talking about President Trump's impact on the race. And he does give him quite a bit of credit for helping him win last night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN BISHOP (R), NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: I've only been in six months. And really, just six weeks did we have a level playing field financially with a campaign on the other side that was running with, you know, $10 million, $12 million of outside money, seeking to flip the seat blue. So, we were far behind. We were making progress, but the president and Vice President Pence coming in, I think it put us over the top.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And he's right about that. And Republicans are cautioning us to not take too much into the fact that this was such a close margin of victory because of the conditions here on the ground. This, of course, was a race that was run after a fraud scandal that forced a do-over. That the former Republican candidate was involved in. The Democrat in the race Dan McCready has basically been running for this seat for 27 months, had nearly 100 percent name ID. So they believe the odds were stacked against them.

But the fact remains, Jim and Poppy, when you take a look at the areas where I am today, near Charlotte, the suburbs of Charlotte, more densely populated, a little bit highly educated, the Republicans did terribly. McCready won by big margins. In the more rural part of the state, at the other side, the eastern side, where President Trump won, that's where Bishop did really, really well. If this plays out across the country, that could be good news for Democrats.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's interesting because it's a phenomenon you saw in the midterm elections, right. Big Republican losses in suburban areas, particularly among women. But what was interesting here, too, Ryan, was it not, that Republican losses in those suburban areas but gains in the rural areas? Are they even stronger than in past elections there? Is that right?

NOBLES: Yes, that's right. In fact, if you just compare it to the race that was run here less than a year ago, Dan McCready did particularly well in some of these more rural counties in the eastern part of the state. And in fact, some of these Republican operatives were wondering whether or not they should continue to play up their gains in those areas and try and turn the tide. They were able to do that, and that really was the difference because McCready did much better in this part of the state, the western part of the state, than he did less than a year ago, but did much worse in the eastern part of the district. And that turned out to be the difference.

So, essentially what you're almost seeing here is a polarization of this district. The Republican areas becoming more Republican. The Democratic areas becoming more Democratic. In this particular district, that's an advantage to the Republicans because there are more Republicans in totality. That's not necessarily the case across the rest of the country.

SCIUTTO: Right.

HARLOW: Shocking to see it getting more polarized in this country. I wonder what he thinks of that moment the president called last night and basically took credit for the win and he was on speakerphone.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: A win is a win.

All right, Ryan Nobles, thanks so much for that.

We've got a lot ahead. What does the latest shakeup at the White House -- Bolton's exit -- mean for the president's foreign policy going forward? We'll speak with a member of the House Intelligence Committee about that.

And Democrats are -- all lawmakers back on Capitol Hill, but Democrats are set for a critical vote for them tomorrow, deciding which way they go here on impeachment proceedings. We're live with that.

SCIUTTO: Plus, we're going to speak with the son of a Ground Zero first responder. Luis Alvarez, he died just a few weeks ago after just memorable testimony before Congress. We're going to speak to his son. Promised to be a powerful moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Welcome back. President Trump says that he fired National Security adviser John Bolton and is now looking for his replacement. The move comes after the two reportedly clashed on how to deal with North Korea, Russia and Iran, not to mention unrest in Venezuela and most recently peace talks with the Taliban.

So, what does this latest White House departure mean for U.S. policy moving forward? Joining us now to speak about it, Congressman Peter Welch; he's Democrat from Vermont, he's a member of the Oversight and Intelligence Committees, I should also mention he's the Chief Deputy Whip of the Democrats in the house. Congressman, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.

REP. PETER WELCH (D-VT): Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So, first on Bolton's departure, of course, we're looking now to our fourth National Security adviser under this president. Do you feel better that Bolton is gone?

WELCH: I do, but I think there's two issues really, one is personnel, and essentially what I think happened here is Pompeo won and Bolton lost. Pompeo has got the ear of the president, and basically he's been willing to defer to whatever the Trump policies are.

Bolton was in the president's face and was quite unpopular in the national security apparatus. But second, and this is really more significant, the president is going to be his own national security adviser. That's essentially what's going on.

And that does concern me. You need a process by which you evaluate what options are, that has to be done thoughtfully and carefully. The president doesn't like that, he likes to be impulsive, he has enormous confidence if he just sits down with an adversary leader, everything is going to work out.

And that is alarming to me because that is a go-it-alone kind of approach when, in fact, you need a real apparatus to get things done.

[09:20:00]

SCIUTTO: And it fits a broader pattern in this administration on a whole host of policy initiatives. I wonder, in your view, does this president expel advisors who disagree with him?

WELCH: Absolutely, I mean, there's no question about that. You've got to tow the line with him, and I think even more than that, you've got to praise him. You've got to reassure the president every day that he's the brightest, best president we've ever had.

So, that's not a good way to operate, the president absolutely needs to get the full range of opinions, even when he doesn't want to hear it.

SCIUTTO: Yes, on another topic, I know, that's close to your heart, and that is the issue of guns. On this program yesterday, my colleague, Poppy Harlow spoke to Republican Tom Reed who on the air signaled openness to a red flag law going forward. Is there -- are there bipartisan negotiations under way in the house for a red-flag legislation?

WELCH: There are. As you know, the Judiciary Committee met last night, and they are in support of three bills. One is the red flag, the extreme risk. And I think a lot of my Republican colleagues support that, we passed that in Vermont with a Republican governor.

The more controversial ones that I think are quite necessary are the high capacity magazines. I mean, in a space of 32 seconds, nine people and --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

WELCH: Over 20 were injured, and that's a high capacity magazine that really is the culprit. And then the hate speech or the hate conviction bill which would deny a person convicted of a hate crime from having a bill -- from having a gun, that legislation has been marked up as well.

You know, we passed the background check with bipartisan support. We put this on the floor, a lot of our Republican colleagues are recognizing that in their districts, their constituents want us to do something. So, I think we could do something together. They getting it through the Senate is another matter.

SCIUTTO: Now, Republicans, particularly in the Senate and Majority leader McConnell in particular will say they need the president to lead on this. But the fact is on background checks, the president has waffled repeatedly after these latest tragedies. I was in El Paso and Dayton, but also going back to the period after Parkland, do you believe the president is going to show leadership on background checks, particularly when we know the NRA opposes a universal background check measure?

WELCH: I know, I don't think he will. I mean, that's my judgment because he -- right after -- there's a pattern here. After the tragedy, the president speaks and says the right things, he talks to Wayne LaPierre from the NRA and suddenly it's a 180. So, I don't think that will happen. You know, with McConnell, he's made a decision just like he did when President Obama was the president.

When it was Obama, he said he wanted to make certain that Obama was a one-term president and he did everything to make that possible and failed. But with President Trump, his goal is to make him a two-term president, and that's why he's been blocking the Senate from even voting or debating on a lot of these issues that are really important to the American people. It's a real abuse of power, just say no.

SCIUTTO: Final question, if I can. As you know, I had reporting yesterday that regarding the president and his aversion to using or listening to intelligence sourced from foreign spies, even inside hostile countries in part, I'm told because he feels that such spying will damage his personal relationship with foreign leaders. You sit on the Intelligence Committee, does an approach like that make the U.S. less safe?

WELCH: Yes, it does. I mean, if we have access to information that threatens the national security and we get it because we have assets in Russia or in another country that's threatening us, that is really good news to have for the president and for our national security team.

And the idea that the president is going to jeopardize his relationship with a guy like Putin -- I mean, Putin is not our pal, and he may make President Trump think they are pals, but Russia is not our -- is not our friend.

SCIUTTO: And as you know, that was a disagreement he apparently had with Bolton. Bolton for instance did not want the president to invite Russia back into the G7. Congressman Peter Welch, we do appreciate you joining the show this morning.

WELCH: Thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Still ahead for us, are Democrats on the same page? We know they're not all, but how many of them are when it comes to moving forward with impeachment proceedings against the president. This all depends on who you ask, tomorrow they will cast a vote on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote tomorrow on a resolution to formalize the rules of its investigation into President Trump.

HARLOW: So, Democrats say the goal is to decide whether or not to go forward, which would be to recommend articles of impeachment against the president. So far, they're just not all on the same page. Lauren Fox follows us with this. So, you've got 134, I think is the count now in the house of Democrats who are for this? So, where does this go?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, the biggest question is, is it an impeachment inquiry or isn't it, Poppy? And I think it depends --

HARLOW: Right --

FOX: On who you ask at this point. Jerry Nadler; the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, he's arguing, yes, this is an impeachment inquiry. We are looking into whether or not to recommend articles of impeachment against the president of the United States.

We are expanding that probe to include questions about whether or not the president is enriching himself in office, what his role was in paying off two women who had alleged affairs against President Trump during the campaign, all of that is part of their inquiry.

But if you ask leadership, they have a different tact. They basically say, no.

END