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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Subpoenaed by Congress after Missing Two Deadlines to Turn Over Documents; President Trump Reportedly Told Two Russian Officials in 2017 He Was Not Concerned about Russia's Interference in 2016 Election; Kurt Volker Resigns as U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine; Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman Interviewed on Why She Would Vote to Impeach President Trump; President Trump and NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre Meet at White House; Officer Who Killed Man in His Own Apartment Takes Stand During Trial; Democratic Congresswomen Who Are Veterans and in Swing Districts Profiled; Video Released of Arrest of Chelsea Bomber. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired September 28, 2019 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:20]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. I hope Saturday has been well to you so far. It's Saturday, September 28th, in fact. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. You are in the CNN Newsroom.

We're starting with the increasing pressure by Democrats to accelerate their impeachment inquiry into the president. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been subpoenaed after missing two deadlines to turn over documents. Democrats are hoping he can give some insight, shed some new light on the president's attempt to get Ukraine to investigate his main political rival Joe Biden.

PAUL: And three sources tell us the special envoy to the Ukraine, Kurt Volker, has quit. He was mentioned several times in the whistleblower's report and allegedly told Ukrainian officials how to deal with President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

BLACKWELL: And there's a reporting from the "Washington Post" that in 2017 President Trump told two Russian officials that he was not concerned about Russia's interference in the 2016 election because the U.S. did the same in other countries.

PAUL: And CNN has learned that the president's phone call with Ukraine's president may not have been the only one the White House wanted to keep quiet. Our sources say details of his conversations with other world leaders including Russian president Vladimir Putin and Saudi crown price were subject to, quote, tighter than normal restrictions.

BLACKWELL: We have got all the angles of this story covered for you this morning. We've got White House producer Kevin Liptak, he's in Washington, and CNN's Sarah Westwood is at the White House.

PAUL: So to prevent leaks, no transcript was made of the president's calls with the king or his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Only Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then National Security Adviser John Bolton was in the room for those conversations.

BLACKWELL: Typically there would be several senior officials listening into a call with a foreign leader. A transcript of the call would be then passed out to those officials. Let's go now to White House producer Kevin Liptak in Washington. Kevin, good morning to you. And we've also learned that the details of Trump's calls with Russia leader Vladimir Putin, those were highly restricted as well. Very unusual. Explain why.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: It's really unusual. Typically when a president calls one of his counterparts overseas, a rough transcript is developed by White House aides and it's distributed among other senior administration officials who might have a role to play in the relationship with that country. In these instances, sources tell us that extraordinary steps were taken to shield the details of those calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Russian president Vladimir Putin. And why this is significant is it backs up one of the key allegations in that whistleblower complaint, which was that White House aides removed the transcript of the president's phone call with the Ukrainian president and put it into a highly classified electronic system that would prevent prying eyes from looking at it, not for national security reasons. There was no highly classified national security details in the transcript of that call, but rather for political reasons and to prevent embarrassing and sensitive information about the president from becoming public.

Now, the White House confirmed a key aspect of that report yesterday. White House officials said that national security lawyers directed that the classified document be handled appropriately. Kellyanne Conway also talked to reporters yesterday about how that document was handled. Listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: The president is always concerned when people are possibly leaking information that they shouldn't, if it includes national security or sensitive or highly classified information. I don't know how the Situation Room handles the transcriptions and I don't know how the NSC does. But I'm told by those who do know that everything was handled appropriately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, we're learning that the efforts to restrict access to some of these calls came pretty early on in the administration after some embarrassing leaks about the president's conversations with Australia and Mexico. The White House has said that the president was embarrassed by some of those leaks and wanted to root out the people who had done them and try and prevent it from happening in the future. Now, going forward, what we'll have to figure out is what other calls

may have been subject to this dream, Victor and Christi, and how the White House will respond when other agencies will start wondering where some of these details have gone.

BLACKWELL: Kevin Liptak for us in Washington, Kevin, thank you.

PAUL: Thanks, Kevin.

[10:05:00]

We have more now on the "Washington Post" report, and that says that President Trump told two Russian officials in 2017 that he was not concerned about Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

BLACKWELL: With us on the phone is Shane Harris, an intelligence and national security correspondent from the "Washington Post," one of the reporters who broke that story. Shane, thanks for being with us.

SHANE HARRIS, INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning.

BLACKWELL: Let's start here, because with the content, and then we'll get to how they tried to restrict access to it. The administration if not the president himself, but they have tried for quite a while now and tried pretty hard to convince the American people that keeping Russia from interfering in a 2020 election was a priority of this administration, a priority of this president. But your reporting would suggest that as far back as far as May of 2017 the president really didn't even care.

HARRIS: That's right. That is essentially what he told these two senior Russian officials in the Oval Office from what at the time you'll recall was kind of an extraordinary meeting given all of the attention on Trump and Russia connections and the FBI investigation that was going on. He said to these two men essentially it is not concerning to me that you did this because we do these kinds of things all the time, and was conflating what the Russians did in 2016 with what I think the president perceives to be efforts by the U.S. government around the world to influence their countries and to get them to do the kinds of things that we want, struck people, I think, in the White House as a very out of proportion false equivalence, but more importantly, seemed to signal that the president was giving some kind of a green light possibly to these Russian officials, saying I don't care about what you did in 2016, go ahead and do it in other countries and possibly even here again. And that's one thing that alarmed White House officials we're told.

PAUL: And is there any indication who else was in the room and what the White House is responding -- is the White House responding to your report this morning?

HARRIS: Right. Well, we know there were no American reporters in the room, which was also unusual for a visiting foreign leader. But there were White House officials who were present. And the memorandum of this conversation was very tightly held. You know your producer there Kevin mentioned this kind of pulling back of the memos that happened after the leaks from the conversations President Trump had with leaders of Mexico and Australia.

What we're told is that this memo of the Lavrov and Kislyak meeting was even more tightly restricted to a smaller number of people than the rules at that time already dictated. The White House did not respond to a request for comment last night. I have not seen anything from them this morning. I don't know if the president has tweeted about this. But as of now, we don't have a response from the White House.

BLACKWELL: All right, we'll see if the president -- at last check he hasn't tweeted about it -- but if he or the White House Communications Office, if they respond to your reporting. Shane Harris, thanks so much for being with us.

HARRIS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Now, if the allegations about the president not being concerned about Russia's interference into the 2016 election are true, CNN national security analyst Steve Hall says it sends dangerous message ahead of the 2020 elections.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's difficult to imagine a worse message to send to the Russians, when you've got sort of the backslapping session that we saw in the now infamous Oval Office meeting where you've got the president joking around with Sergey Lavrov, one of Putin's close advisers as well as former ambassador Kislyak. And what's his message? Well, among many messages, one of this is, hey, don't worry about that attack on our democracy that you guys authored. It's OK because we do the same type of thing.

First of all, it's not true, but secondly it sends the message to Russia, you got away with it, and if you want to continue to do it in the future, no biggie. Go ahead and do whatever you like. And that's how the Russians read that, and the Russians will no doubt remember that as we go forward into the 2020 election. So not a good message from the president of the United States to Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Shane mentioned there that he wondered if the president was going to tweet a response to the story. We just got an update that he would have to interrupt a round of golf to do that. The president is at his national golf club just outside of D.C. A landmark for President Trump, his 300th day of his administration at a Trump property, 233rd as one of his golf clubs.

PAUL: Let's go to Sarah Westwood, she's at the White House today. Wondering, Sarah, as we look at what's happening with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who's been subpoenaed now by three different House committees after he missed two deadlines to turn over documents. They're pushing him to do so now. He has to do so by Friday. I'm just wondering what are the chances the lawmakers will have those in their hands by Friday, and if they do not, what's the next step.

[10:10:03]

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Victor and Christi, House Democrats certainly stepping up their efforts to get these documents from the State Department, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Intelligence Committee, and Oversight Committee issuing those subpoenas to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And what they're looking for are documents related to that now infamous July call between President Trump and the Ukrainian President Zelensky who knew about the call, how that call record was handled. But they also want records related to the president's decision, which CNN reported came about a week before that call to suspend military aid to Ukraine.

Now, as you mentioned, Secretary of State Pompeo has already blown through two deadlines. House Democrats have been trying to get these documents all the way back on September 9th when they sent their first letter. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Richard (ph) Engel told CNN yesterday that the House Democrats did not want to issue that subpoena, but they felt forced to because the State Department had repeatedly ignored inquiries. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELIOT ENGEL, (D-NY): The subpoena is the last thing you should do, and we only did it because they turned a blind eye to whatever we asked for. We asked for information, we asked for documents, and we were stonewalled, not even so much as an answer. This administration thinks --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just ignored you.

ENGEL: Ignored us. This administration thinks that Congress doesn't have the right, the checks and balances we all learned when we were kids in grade school. This administration seems to feel that it doesn't apply to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: That was Democratic Chairman Eliot Engel. And the House Democrats also want depositions from State Department officials, including former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker. Sources tell CNN that Volker resigned from his position last night. Volker is mentioned several times in the whistleblower complaint. He is a really key figure here, alleged to have facilitated meetings between Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, and a top aide to Ukrainian President Zelensky. So Volker's role in this situation is also going to come under scrutiny. House Democrats want his and the other depositions completed by October 10th, Victor and Christi.

PAUL: Sarah Westwood, we appreciate it. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: She voted to impeach President Nixon, and she says she would do the same now for President Trump. Four-term Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman joins us next. PAUL: Also, we have some new video to share with you of a frantic

manhunt and eventual shootout that led to the arrest of a bomber who terrorized New York.

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[10:16:09]

BLACKWELL: Earlier this week former U.S. Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman who served as a Watergate Judiciary Committee member wrote an opinion piece for the "New York Times." Here's the headline. "I voted to impeach Nixon. I'd do the same for Trump." She's also the author of "The Case of Impeaching Trump." Former Congresswoman Holtzman joins us now. Good morning to you.

ELIZABETH HOLTZMAN, FORMER WATERGATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MEMBER: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So first question, one word, why? Why would you vote now to impeach President Trump?

HOLTZMAN: Well, there's been a case out for some time now that suggests that the president has abused the powers of his office in an egregious way and met the standard for high crime and misdemeanor. You can look at the elements of the Mueller report showing how he has tried to stymie investigations into him. There are other matters you could look at. The efforts to stymie include dangling pardons and a lot of other things.

But the issue that's come to light most recently is what especially disturbing and just another example but a very serious example of the president's using the power of his office to affect the outcome of the 2020 election by getting a foreign country, by bullying a foreign country to intervene. And the most recent statement by the -- according to the "Washington Post" that the president said he doesn't care if Russia intervened in our election, implying that it's OK to intervene again, the president take answer oath of office. He has to protect the United States of America. He protects the Constitution. He's a commander in chief. You can't let a foreign country come in here, invade in a way with electronic impulses and other methods, and undermine our election system. That's not what a president is supposed to do. The president is supposed to defend the United States, defend the Constitution.

So there are many examples now, unfortunately -- I thought I'd never live to see this again -- but unfortunately too many examples of the president abusing the power of his office for his personal gain and not for the benefit of the American people.

BLACKWELL: And you wrote in this op-ed. I had this conversation with our historian Douglas Brinkley earlier today that this is not like the Nixon impeachment investigation insofar that it's not how close do the allegations get to the president or the Oval Office, the what did the president know and when did he know it. We have the transcript of the call. The allegations are against the president. The question then is how many people outside of the Oval Office or around the president were cooperating or, as some Democrats allege, tried to cover it up, or even as this whistleblower alleged. But you write there are similarities between what we're seeing now and what you saw during the Nixon impeachment probe. What are they?

HOLTZMAN: Well, let's just take the example of going after political opponents. We see in this case of Ukraine what President Trump was trying to do was to go after Joe Biden, who's his most dangerous and most popular political opponent. Well, during Watergate, President Nixon ordered the IRS to undertake audits of, guess what, his political enemies. They weren't necessarily opponents, but they were people who were vocally opposed to his presidency, and that was part of the articles of impeachment against him. And the effort to create these audits to harass his political opponents, to get at his political opponents, was part of the articles of impeachment.

Another example -- there are a number of other examples, but that's one of the key ones.

[10:20:00]

BLACKWELL: Congresswoman, let me ask you this, because the latest polls show that the American public, they are divided at best on the question of impeachment. This NPR/PBS/Marist poll out just three days ago finds that 49 percent of respondents support the impeachment inquiry. There's the Quinnipiac poll that came out this week, 37 percent support impeachment and removal from office. We know that members of Congress will be back in district this week trying to make the case to maybe their constituents.

But your book -- let me ask you this. Your book "The Case for Impeaching Trump" has been out since January. That was before the Mueller report, before the revelations in this whistleblower report or complaint. Is there a fatigue that Democrats have created that now makes this case difficult or more difficult for them to make because Democrats have been talking about impeachment for more than a year, in some cases more than two years now?

HOLTZMAN: Well, first of all, we go back to Watergate, the break-in took place in June, 72, and by January, February, March, 73, the coverup of that break-in had exploded, had opened, and the Senate was holding hearings. We didn't have the vote on impeachment for more than a year later.

So it's not -- people don't get exhausted. There doesn't have to be a constant drumbeat of impeachment information. But Congress has to do its work. And part of the reason that the polls are not 100 percent for impeachment is because the case has never been fully made to the American people. The Mueller report was behind closed doors. People didn't really understand all the details of it. It was a 400-page report.

What Congress has to do is take a look at that report, see whether there are elements of that report -- I happen to believe there are -- elements that support an impeachment, that amount to a high crime and misdemeanor, because, remember, with regard to Richard Nixon, stymieing an investigation was one of the main grounds for his impeachment, the articles for impeachment.

BLACKWELL: The third article.

HOLTZMAN: So the American people aren't going to get tired of it. What they're going to get tired of is this sloganeering. What they want to see is Congress do its just in a professional, serious, dignified way, bipartisan if possible, which is how we handled the Nixon impeachment. If the evidence is there, they'll respond.

BLACKWELL: Former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, thanks for being with us this morning.

HOLTZMAN: Thank you.

PAUL: Still ahead, we have more details for you regarding the conversations between President Trump and foreign leaders and how those were kept secret, which cabinet members, for instance, would be included in the calls, and the excuse the White House is giving for wanting to keep them under wraps.

BLACKWELL: Plus what we're hearing about the president's meeting with the head of the NRA and what they discussed behind closed doors. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:27:05]

PAUL: Good Saturday morning to you, 26 minutes past the hour. We're following several major headlines this morning. First of all, CNN is learning more about White House aides taking remarkable steps to restrict access to President Trump's phone calls.

BLACKWELL: A former White House official and a sources familiar with the situation tells CNN that there were no transcripts made of the phone conversations between President Trump and Saudi King Salman or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In order to prevent information from leaking out, no transcript, and the only people in the room were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Let's get now to CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson. Nic, what have you learned?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We're not hearing anything from the Saudi's on this, and I think when we do they're very likely to say that this an internal issue for the United States to deal with, and this isn't something that they're going to wade into.

However, they do in Saudi Arabia among the leadership there are concerns about President Trump, there are concerns about his decisions on policy. Iran would be one of those issues right now that's very important for Saudi Arabia. And the concerns in Saudi Arabia center around whether or not President Trump will suddenly decide to have a meeting with President Rouhani of Iran and change course, change direction, and therefore, they think, make the situation in the Gulf region more unstable.

But when it comes to calls like this, without knowing what's in there, it's very difficult for them -- very difficult for us to imagine the consequences for the Saudi officials. Is it something that's negative for them, is it something that's positive for them. It's not clear. But we do know that these calls came not long after the murder of the "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a time when there was huge pressure on President Trump to take a stronger line with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who was seen as one the principal architects, perhaps not directly involved and certainly said that he wasn't, Saudi officials said they weren't involved, but one of those who was seen to have a hand in if not directly, a level of responsibility for that. So is there anything pertinent to that that would be sensitive to the Saudis?

But the very fact that these calls would normally have more administration officials on the call, that it's so restricted that there isn't a record, is undoubtedly going to raise concerns, and raise concerns for other United States allies as well.

BLACKWELL: Certainly. Nic Robertson for us in London. Nic, thank you.

PAUL: Meanwhile, an administration official has confirmed to CNN President Trump and NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre met at the White House yesterday.

BLACKWELL: According to the "New York Times" they discussed how the NRA could support the president during the impeachment inquiry and how they could help him get reelected. CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood is with us now. So give us an idea of how broad this conversation was and what else they discussed.

[10:30:04]

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This meeting, Victor, between the head of the NRA and President Trump yesterday at the White House drawing a lot of attention according to "The New York Times." The NRA chief Wayne LaPierre discussed how the gun group would help support the President through this impeachment fight, through his upcoming reelection battle in 2020. And in exchange, according to "The Times," LaPierre requested that President Trump stop the legislative games when it comes to gun control.

As CNN has reported, President Trump has been flirting with the idea of supporting a package of background checks after those two back-to- back shootings in August. Of course, the White House hasn't taken any action yet on any gun legislation.

Now, the NRA is disputing that any exchange was discussed between Lapierre and Trump, a spokesman for the group saying "The NRA categorically denies any discussion occurred about special arrangements pertaining to the NRA's support of the president and vice versa." But some gun control advocates are speaking out against this reported discussion between President Trump and LaPierre. The president of the Brady campaign, a gun control group said "Their actions in seeking what appears to be an unlawful legislative payback for defending President Trump's defense as he faces impeachment show an unprecedented level of corruption in our democracy. This political gamesmanship is literally taking Americans' lives."

After pressure from Congressional Republicans, from his own aides, and from the NRA, President Trump seemingly backed away from supporting any kind of sweeping background legislation, but White House officials, Victor and Christi, say they are still looking at taking some kind of action on guns. Of course, with all the impeachment situation going on, that seems to have taken a backseat to what the White House is dealing with now.

PAUL: Sarah, you've walked us through several different stories today. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: An ex-police officer charged with killing a 26-year-old man in his own apartment testifies in court about why she pulled the trigger. You'll hear it in her own words when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:36:16]

BLACKWELL: It's day six in the trial of a former Dallas police officer accused of killing a man in his own apartment.

PAUL: I want to show you some live pictures that are going on in the courtroom right now. A former police officer, I believe, on the stand, there. This man testifying for the defense. But I'm sure the jury cannot forget what happened yesterday when we had the actual defendant, Amber Guyger, on the stand breaking down as she told the court that she believed she'd entered her own apartment on the night she killed Botham Jean. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMBER GUYGER, FORMER DALLAS POLICE OFFICER: I had my gun pointed, and I was saying let me see your hands, let me see your hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you focused on?

GUYGER: Him.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger tearfully detailed the confrontation that ended Botham Jean's life. The 26-years-old accountant was alone when his apartment which Guyger pushed the door open, thinking it was her apartment. She says Jean shouted back, and that it all ended in a few seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey.

GUYGER: That's at that point whenever I shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somewhere in this area.

GUYGER: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you shot, what happened?

GUYGER: He fell down.

LAVANDERA: Guyger says that she walked through the door carrying her police gear on her left arm. She opened the door and heard loud shuffling and moving inside.

GUYGER: Whenever I fully opened the door, I saw this silhouette figure standing in the back of the apartment by the window.

LAVANDERA: Her lawyer then pulled the gun used in the shooting out of an envelope.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amber, when you pulled your weapon that night and you fired, why did you fire?

GUYGER: I was scared. Whoever was inside of my apartment was going to kill me. And I'm sorry. I have to live with that every single day.

LAVANDERA: Prosecutors hammered guyger for appearing more interested in her own well-being in saying Botham Jean's life, focusing on video showing Guyger talking to fellow officers who arrived at the scene, and texting with her police partner who she had been exchanging sexually explicit text messages with earlier in the evening.

GUYGER: I was alone with him. And that is the scariest think you can ever imagined. I just wanted help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you imagine Mr. Jean's perspective, an intruder barging into this apartment, somebody on the other side of that door being you, going with a purpose of finding the threat and taking care of it? Can't you imagine that being a little bit scarier than you being alone with him at the moment?

GUYGER: Yes, sir, I am.

LAVANDERA: Prosecutors also questioned why Guyger didn't just retreat and call for help when she heard someone behind the door, thinking it was her own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could have taken a position of cover and concealment. You could have called for help on your radio, and you could have had the cavalry there in two minutes.

GUYGER: I could have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And had you done any one of those things, Mr. Jean would probably be alive today, right?

GUYGER: Yes, sir.

LAVANDERA: Tension filled the courtroom. This was the first time the public heard Guyger talking about the shooting. GUYGER: I feel like a terrible person. I feel like a piece of crap.

I hate that I have to live with this every single day of my life, and I ask God for forgiveness. I hate myself every single day. I feel like I don't deserve a chance to be with my family and friends. I wish he was the one with the gun that killed me.

LAVANDERA: Amber Guyger says she heard someone inside the apartment as she opened the door, and as she saw the silhouette come toward her, she felt, quote, pure fear. But prosecutors pointed out that in her 911 call Amber Guyger mentioned repeatedly that she had entered the wrong apartment, but she never mentioned that Botham Jean was coming towards her or that she felt threatened.

[10:40:03]

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: They are the new faces on Capitol Hill, and a growing force among House Democrats. Coming up, meet the five moderate congresswomen who became unlikely leaders on the impeachment inquiry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: When a group of moderate house freshmen with national security backgrounds move from a hard no to a definite yes on starting an impeachment inquiry, it changed the dynamic for the House Democrats and the course of history.

PAUL: CNN's Dana Bash talked to the five women in that group who call themselves badasses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Even before they were elected --

You have adopted the badass label.

These freshman congresswomen created their own group, the badasses.

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN, (D-PA): We were out running for Congress across the country, and we kept running into each other. Badasses came organically from the group since we all had either served in the military or in the CIA.

[10:45:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a lot in common. We all were working to flip seats, to be elected in places where voters may not typically vote for people like us or with our backgrounds.

BASH: Navy veterans Mikie Sherrill and Elaine Luria, Air Force veteran Chrissy Houlahan, ex-CIA officers Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger, a band of sisters who bonded while storming the unfamiliar terrain of politics.

REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN, (D-MI): Being able to text folks and say I'm really get hit up on this issue, how have you been handling it? I'm not sure how to translate my service into something that's relatable. How do you guys do that?

BASH: Translating their service is exactly what they did with their 180 on starting an impeachment inquiry, going from a no to yes after hearing President Trump admit he spoke to Ukraine's leader about Joe Biden. Others followed suit, including the House Speaker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The specter of having the sitting president of the United States use leverage over a foreign leader to get dirt on an opponent. That very basic idea I think cut for us as national security people just close to the bone on our Democratic institutions.

BASH: They penned an op-ed, along with two freshman male veterans.

HOULAHAN: It was a great example of the power of teamwork and the power of putting country above party.

BASH: Was it all for one and one for all.

HOULAHAN: Oh, absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we all came to that conclusion together. We texted each other. And I think we were all going, OK, this has all changed. This is a bright line.

BASH: Backing an impeachment inquiry is risky politically business for these congresswomen, already some the most vulnerable in the House, Democrats who won in mostly Trump territory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe that if I am out there explaining what the allegations are and why they are so deeply concerned, the people will understand why we had to take a stand. All of us in our prior lives all the time had to make hard calls for the reasons we thought were right when we knew that not everyone would understand or even know. And that to me is something I feel comfortable doing because I've always had to do it.

BASH: Even so, this is a group trying to find their sea legs in politics.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I supervising an operation of a nuclear reactor, I never turned to a reactor operator and said, are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? It was new to jump into such a partisan environment.

BASH: They represent swing districts, very different from another more famous female freshman group, the squad.

So I'm just going to put it out there. The group of freshmen females that people know about is the squad. Are you guys the anti-squad?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I tell people in my district the leftwing of our party has created such momentum behind things like moving forward on our environment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of us is ever going to get in a Twitter war with anyone else. If we have a concern, we're going go right up to them and talk about it. And we're not going to add unhelpful rhetoric to an already bad tone coming out of Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think any of us want to be the loudest voice in the room. I just want to be one of the most effective.

BASH: Their previous service taught them to be fearless, which comes in handy now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's not a vertical chain of command structure.

BASH: Well, there is, but obviously it sounds like you guys aren't following it.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, no one can fire us, except the people that elected us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of us came from a district that wants to just sit here and be quiet and learn the ropes. They want us to engage, and they want change, and they want it now.

BASH: Dana Bash, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Dana, thank you.

So just ahead, shocking body cam video being released of the moment New Jersey police officers locate the Chelsea bomber.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:25]

PAUL: So when natural disasters strike, 2017 top ten CNN Hero Stan Hays, delivers a key ingredient -- comfort. And he does so in the form of barbeque. Operation Barbeque Relief, it mobilizes their army of pit masters and volunteers to feed survivors and first responders across the U.S. And now Stan and his organization are going international. They're setting up a mobile kitchen in Florida and flying in meals to the Bahamas by the thousands. We caught up with them as they hit a major milestone here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN HAYS, CNN HERO: We are getting ready to ship over to the Bahamas 10,000 meals. This is our first international mission, our 3 millionth meal since we started the organization in 2011. It's going over on this plane. For us that's a huge milestone. We hate to see disasters happen, but we're so blessed that we can provide them comfort through a good, hot, barbeque meal. The folks there just need a good hot meal, they need a lift up, and that's what these meals are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it.

HAYS: You bet. Thank you, sir.

If it takes their mind away from what's happening to them for a few minutes, it means a lot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Doing some good there. To see more of Operation Barbeque Relief's mission, go to CNNHeroes.com.

BLACKWELL: For the first time we are seeing when Chelsea bomber Ahmad Khan Rahimi was found by New Jersey police. The body-cam video you're about to see, it shows the exact moment an officer notices Rahimi crouched in a storefront. He asks them a few questions, then Rahimi pulls out a gun and fires. We have to warn you here, you may find this video disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ahmad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your last name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Khan. Khan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have I.D. on you, or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, I.D.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any sort of I.D.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you live?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm homeless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean you're homeless?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I haven't had a home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. Don't take it out. Don't take it out. Talk your hand away. Take your hand away from it. Take your hand away from it right now. Take your hand away from it.

Shots fired. Shots fired. He's running down Elizabeth Avenue. Shots fired. Shots fired. I believe he's got a handgun. Stand by. Put the gun down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:55:09]

PAUL: Two officers were wounded in that shoot-out. Rahimi is currently on trial for attempted murder. His trial started this week. He's already been sentenced to life in prison for the Chelsea bombing.

And with that we say thank you so much for being with us on this Saturday morning. We just love to know that you're here with us. Be sure to tweet us, too, because we always like to hear what you have to say. I'm @Christi_Paul, he's @VictorBlackwell.

BLACKWELL: Both on Instagram and Twitter.

There's much more ahead on the next hours of CNN Newsroom. Fredricka Whitfield is up next.

PAUL: Make good memories today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

[11:00:00]