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U.S. Disapproves Turkey's Syria Offensive; Biden's Campaign Blasts New York Times in Letter to Executive Editor; Bernie Sanders Retracts Remarks About Scaling Back on His Campaign; Trump Warns Mitch McConnell About Disloyal Republicans; House Dems Prepare a Flurry of New Subpoenas; Death Toll Climbs as Turkish Forces Advance in Syria. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2019 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:40]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in Washington this morning. Jim Sciutto has the day off.

It is the phone call that you cannot screen from the president of the United States. This morning, we're learning that the president has been privately calling Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell up to three times a day, according to a source, warning him to keep his troops in line on impeachment.

As for Democrats, the next phase in their fight, a wave of new subpoenas we hear are coming. And some are even suggesting they call the president's bluff and hold a formal vote on impeachment.

Now White House lawyers called the impeachment inquiry illegitimate without that vote. But in that same letter this week they also said the president had a country to lead and was getting back to work. Yet, for someone supposedly set on moving on, the president is spending a lot of time on rallies, on tweets about impeachment and on hiring more lawyers to fight back against it.

Part of that strategy will be on display tonight. The president heads to Minneapolis for a campaign rally in a state that his team thinks they can flip.

And look at the latest polling. It shows a little bit why the president may have reason to be concerned about this. It is a brand- new FOX News poll, and it shows support for impeachment is rising across the board. It is also rising in key demographics of those usually very loyal to the president.

Let's begin with our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Well, this president as we all know spends a lot of time on the telephone, and the CNN reporting that the president has, in fact, been calling Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell up to three times a day really just underscores that the president understands how critical it is to try to maintain unity among Republican senators in the event, especially if the House of Representatives approves Articles of Impeachment and then it's up to the United States Senate to hold a trial and decide whether those charges that were brought by the House are confirmed.

So, the president has not only been talking to Mitch McConnell, although McConnell's office denies it, the president has also been issuing on his own on Twitter what will happen to Republican senators if they criticize him on certain subjects. For example, Mitt Romney. The president really went after Mitt Romney who criticized the president's comments on Ukraine and China.

So, one other interesting note, the president has not lashed out at Republican senators who have criticized him over his take on Syria and the Kurds. That's an interesting development in and of itself -- Poppy.

HARLOW: It certainly is. Joe, thank you very much for that reporting.

This morning, Democrats plotting their new move in the impeachment inquiry, preparing a flurry of new subpoenas.

Lauren FOX is on Capitol Hill again for us this morning.

So more subpoenas. Is there more confidence among Democrats that they will actually get documents and testimony, though?

LAUREN FOX, CNN POLITICS CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think at this point, Poppy, they just are taking a more aggressive stance. So subpoenas are obviously the next step. Now whether or not anyone complies with those subpoenas, that's still an open question. But I will tell you, subpoenas are being prepared to potentially be handed out to Rudy Giuliani's associates, and then of course tomorrow we're all going to be watching whether former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, shows up for her deposition.

If not, another subpoena could go out. And then next week the president's former top Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, is expected on Capitol Hill as well. So all of that is coming in just a few days' time really. It just shows you just how quickly Democrats want to move forward with this impeachment fight.

Meanwhile, Democrats behind closed doors are having a little bit of a debate about whether or not it makes sense to have a formal vote on an impeachment inquiry. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, has said that's not necessary. There are plenty of moderate members who do not want to take that vote but I will tell you that there are some members who say if the White House is arguing that's the reason they won't comply, let's just call their bluff.

So that's where we are at the moment. Tomorrow, Democrats will have a caucus-wide call. Of course impeachment is likely to come up -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Lauren, thank you very much for that.

We've got a lot to talk about this morning, including some new important reporting from Bloomberg. Let's get to it. Jeff Mason is here. Jackie Kucinich and Shan Wu, all join me.

[09:05:04]

Shan, let me just begin with you on the, you know, wave of subpoenas that is coming. I mean, should the American people expect that to actually result in something different? Meaning, increased cooperation, or, say, if Democrats vote overwhelmingly to move forward officially on this impeachment inquiry, does that mean that the White House will all of a sudden cooperate?

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I don't think it's going to make a difference in terms of the White House's strategy on this. But legally it's an important step which is, by actually issuing the subpoenas they lay the foundation for two things. One, they can start to enforce them legally and number two, it lays grounds for a Nixon- type Article of Obstruction in the impeachment articles.

HARLOW: But ultimately, when you look at the -- we had an impeachment lawyer on yesterday, Ross Garber, who's represented a number of governors who have gone through impeachment. And he argues the obstruction article is not enough to bring down the president. It is not enough because he pointed to what happened with obstruction articles in the Clinton impeachment and Nixon. Does he have a point?

WU: He has a point, but that's not a legal point. That's a question of whether you can win it in the so-called trial and whether the politicians will vote one way or the other. But legally, it's actually a great technique from an ex-prosecutor standpoint that you can add in basically an obstruction count for the target's behavior. So it's very powerful actually.

HARLOW: OK. So, Jackie, the calls to Mitch McConnell's office. McConnell's office is denying this. Our reporting is that the president has been calling McConnell at least -- you know, up to three times a day to say keep the Republicans in line. The troops in order, if you will, on impeachment questions. Warning our reporting is that he may come out and attack verbally those who don't, like he has done to Mitt Romney. Is that enough to keep them in line?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No. I mean, Mitch McConnell can do what he can. He obviously has a lot of clout in that conference. And it's questionable how much power the president can actually have when he's talking about threatening these senators. I mean, threatening your potential jurors is not really a good look. Him going, how many people can he possibly go after on Twitter? How many people can he possibly --

HARLOW: A lot is the answer to that question, Jackie.

KUCINICH: No, it's -- no, you're absolutely right. However, to what end?

HARLOW: Yes. Fair enough.

KUCINICH: You know, because if -- you know, if somehow he manages to lose the Senate for them, that's not great for them either.

HARLOW: New polling out from FOX News, and it is significant, Jeff Mason. 51 percent of Americans believe the president should be impeached and removed from office. An additional 4 percent think at least the impeachment proceeding should proceed. So that's, you know, 55 percent. And look at the numbers among key groups. Among evangelical voters, the number that believe this is up 8 percent. Among rural white Americans, it's up 10 percent. Among men without a college degree, white men without a college degree, it's 8 percent. Sorry, evangelicals is 5 percent.

I think we may have to flip that but we'll get you the right ones in a moment. But the increase in all of those, what does it tell you?

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: It tells me there's a good reason for the president to want to be calling Mitch McConnell three times a day. I mean, I think that they're probably worried. And have a reason to be. Not necessarily that if it gets so far as getting into the Senate that it's going to lead to conviction. I think that's -- there's a long road to getting that many Republicans to all of a sudden ditch this president.

But certainly, the fact that the polling is suggesting that people are supportive of this is not a good thing for the president. I think we're also seeing that reflected and the fact that his strategy is getting a little bit clearer. For a few weeks we haven't seen much of a strategy at all from the White House. To the chagrin of some Republicans who have been wanting talking points, who have been wanting some sort of direction from the leader of the free world and of their party about how to defend him.

And that hasn't been coming. And we got this letter this week, of course, which lays out the fact that they are not going to cooperate and lays out a political argument as well suggesting that he's being treated unfairly. And that, no doubt, is something we're going to hear from him tonight at his rally.

HARLOW: But let's listen to this conversation. Preet Bharara has a podcast. He had George Conway on the podcast who's been very critical of the president. He also happens to be the husband of Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to the president. Let's listen to a bit of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CONWAY, HUSBAND TO PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER KELLYANNE CONWAY: I mean, the absurdity of the letter.

PRETTY BHARARA, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Let's go back to that because you had strong feelings about that.

CONWAY: I mean, what --

BHARARA: It's nine pages.

CONWAY: It's just garbage.

BHARARA: It's one of the worst letters I've seen from the White House Counsel's Office, and they write very well and they make good legal arguments when they can be made.

CONWAY: This was trash. I mean, this was trash.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: OK. So, is that just two people with -- who don't like the president talking or do you agree with their legal argument that there was no there, there in the White House letter pushing back on Democrats?

WU: There was a teeny bit of there, there in the footnotes, to make the point that they actually cited a case. But primarily, it was a PR move, talking points move and really, I thought the letter started out with a roar, very blustery and ended up with a whimper which was, can't we all get along and maybe do some policy?

[09:10:01]

HARLOW: There is fascinating, troubling reporting in Bloomberg this morning, Jackie. Bloomberg is reporting that President Trump in 2017, in an Oval Office meeting pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to push the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian man. This was an Iranian gold trader. And this was for violating sanctions that were part of the Iran nuclear agreement.

That Tillerson immediately objected because he said that would flat- out be illegal. Apparently talked to John Kelly in the corridors of the hallway after that. No indication the DOJ did anything. They didn't act on this. But that person was a client of Rudy Giuliani.

KUCINICH: Right.

HARLOW: How serious is this for the president? And the White House, at least to Bloomberg, is declining to comment.

KUCINICH: Rudy Giuliani is like the "Where's Waldo" of all of these scandals. He just keeps popping up. But this shows -- Tillerson said this in public that the president would approach him with something and he would say, I can't do that. It's illegal. And it would test our relationship. But this is the president again testing the levers of power within the White House and seeing how far he can push it.

HARLOW: Jeff, what do you make of that? I mean, this is the first time that this has been reported at all.

MASON: Sure. Yes, no, it sounds like really good reporting, and it raises a couple of questions. Number one, as Jackie said, about the role of Rudy Giuliani, both in his relationship with the president as an attorney but also in his sort of broader role of influencing policy for the United States. And number two, it also shows probably one reason why Rex Tillerson and President Trump didn't get along. He said no, and there aren't that many people around the president these days who are doing that.

HARLOW: Quickly, Shan, is there anything illegal about asking for that?

WU: There could be something illegal if you develop it more obstruction but it's classically within the realm of abuse of power. I mean, the whole point as the president, maybe his arguments as the executive he can tell them who to charge, who not to charge, but the whole point is you let the criminal justice system be run independently by your Department of Justice. Classic abuse to weigh in on the side of one of your crony's clients.

HARLOW: Thank you one and all. Good to be here with you in Washington. Thank you for weighing in on that. We appreciate it.

Also, of course, we're keeping a very close eye on the situation in northern Syria. This morning, Turkey is attacking those Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria for a second straight day. Now Turkey's president has a stark warning for any European nations who criticize that military incursion too harshly.

Clarissa Ward, our chief international correspondent, is live for us this morning in northern Syria.

What are you seeing, Clarissa, in the face of this threat from President Erdogan?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Poppy, we are just outside a town called Tel-Abyad and essentially what we have been seeing throughout the course of the morning is a steady stream of artillery coming in from Turkey hitting various targets all around where we are. And I'm sure you can see in the background behind me those black plumes of smoke. They aren't actually from strikes. They appear to be from burning tires.

Kurdish forces have been burning tires in an apparently coordinated attempt to create some kind of a smoke screen to try to protect themselves from this incoming artillery. We've also heard some outgoing artillery, too. So the Kurds are trying to defend themselves. They are trying to fight back.

And earlier, we even saw a group, a small group of protesters, Poppy. Ordinary civilians who were trying to march right up to the Turkish border to protest against President Erdogan's military incursion. Now somebody from the YPG or from the Kurdish forces here stopped those protesters. Came on a microphone and told them to come home immediately as the strikes were coming in more and more regularly at that point.

But really, this gives you a sense of, A, the defiance from the Kurds and, B, the defiance from President Erdogan which you just touched on there. There is no sign, despite international condemnation, that this operation is slowing down in any way, shape or form. If anything, Poppy, it's escalating, and we heard President Erdogan earlier on today warning nations that if they call this an occupation if they're too critical of what turkey is trying to do, he'll simply open the floodgates and allow 3.6 million Syrian refugees to head over to Europe. So quite a threat to be making, but certainly indicative of just how seriously Turkey takes this -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And, Clarissa, before you go, I mean, what is the reaction on the ground there to the president's comments yesterday that essentially, oh, by the way, and I'm paraphrasing here, you know, the Kurds didn't help us in Normandy. The Kurds didn't help us in World War I.

WARD: I think that's a mixture of disbelief and bitterness and resentment because obviously, Poppy, regardless of whatever he's talking about in Normandy it is the Kurds who have been fighting and dying on the front lines in the battle against ISIS. There are entire graveyards across this stretch of border dedicated to martyrs, people who have sacrificed their lives in this fight.

[09:15:00]

More than 10,000 of them. And they feel very strongly now that they're essentially being hung out to dry.

That basically the U.S. is now giving cart blanch to President Erdogan and the Turkish military to do whatever it wants with no sense or no reassurance, despite threats from President Trump that he would economically decimate Turkey if they hit too hard. No one here is buying that. No one here is believing that. And there's very real concern that nobody here has their backs.

POPPY HARLOW, ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Right, and now it's the president's move, right? They have -- Turkey has done what we knew it would do if the U.S. pulled out. The president said they would decimate them economically. Let's see what is next to come. Clarissa, it is invaluable to have you there. Thank you very much.

Still to come, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger will join me to talk all about what is happening in northern Syria. He has been incredibly critical of the president on this front. What is his message to President Trump this morning? And former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign is slamming the "New York Times", sending them a new letter, saying the "Times" has not learned the lessons of 2016.

Plus, Bernie Sanders says he misspoke when he said he was scaling back his campaign after his heart attack. What can we expect from him in the weeks ahead?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. As Democrats ramp up their impeachment fight, more and more Americans are leaning in that direction. Four polls this week show an increase in support for impeachment of the president including a "Fox News" poll released late yesterday. It shows 51 percent of people now favor the impeachment and removal of President Trump from office.

Joining me to talk about this and of course the situation in northern Syria is Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. He sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Good morning, sir, thank you for being with me.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Good morning.

HARLOW: When you look at those numbers, it's not just 51 percent of Americans. There's an uptick in white men without a college degree, an increase of 8 percent there, an increase of 5 percent among evangelical voters and in all, you know, parties, independents, Republicans, Democrats, it is trending higher. Should the president be concerned?

KINZINGER: Yes, I think he should, and I think his team should be concerned. I don't think the president is going to get removed from office before the election, but this is obviously something that should be concerning for the campaign when it comes to the re- election. And you know, the Ukraine situation right now and the phone call is really confusing to a lot of people. And it just appears to be both sides are in their partisan corners.

And so, I don't know if that's going to flex anything much. But you know, with decisions like were being made in Syria and watching the abandoning of the Kurds, I think it does takes people that are supporters of the president and they're kind of like, well, what is it then because I used to think it was good at foreign policy and that this is a rash decision. And I think all that factors in.

HARLOW: Well, you brought up the Ukraine call with Zelensky in July that many have said has made America less safe, has harmed our national security. You're obviously very troubled by what you're seeing in northern Syria. So, I guess between those two, I mean, you said in no uncertain terms this week, the president failed to destroy ISIS.

So between that and the phone call with Ukrainian president, do you believe Congressman Kinzinger that the president right now is making America safer?

KINZINGER: It's hard to tell. You know, look, I think there are certainly decisions like what's being done with ISIS that isn't. I don't think the Ukraine situation will necessarily make us safer or not safer. I think that there's a lot of information that's going to come out there. And the Democrats problem quite honestly, and I don't want to go all into this, but they started by calling it an impeachment inquiry and they did it before they even saw any evidence.

And so it's really tainted this whole -- what I want to have answers to, inquiry in the beginning. But on this issue frankly of Syria, yes, I can't imagine, you know, when the president says, well, the vast majority of these released ISIS will go into Europe, like that's a good thing, and then today tweets that, well, at least we got the big two, you know, that the British guys -- I'm looking at that going, how does this -- how does -- the president who loves to talk about his campaign promises, how is this fulfilling his campaign promise to defeat ISIS? This is actually just pleasing Rand Paul. That's all this is.

HARLOW: But it's significant that you cannot say definitively this morning as a Republican member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, that the president is making this country safer. You are not only a member of that committee --

KINZINGER: Well --

HARLOW: You -- go ahead.

KINZINGER: You just can't -- you just can't take it with a broad brush. I said these decisions are not making us safer --

HARLOW: That's what I mean --

KINZINGER: A stronger military we have certainly is, but yes -- no, I mean --

HARLOW: Yes --

KINZINGER: This is a really bad decision, and it was a really bad --

HARLOW: OK --

KINZINGER: Action.

HARLOW: So you, obviously, also were an Air Force pilot, you served in Iraq and Afghanistan. You're currently still in the National Guard. You're the founder of the Friends of a Free, Stable and Democratic Syrian Caucus in the house. So, to the president this morning who says, look, you know, they didn't help us in world wars, they didn't help us in Normandy, the Kurds, what do you say to him?

KINZINGER: I mean, how do you even compete with that logic, right? Yes, the Kurdish folks were not involved in Normandy. Sorry about that. You know, there's probably a lot of people that weren't involved in Normandy that we can be friends with. But I'll tell you what they were involved in.

[09:25:00]

We've lost 17 American lives in this fight against ISIS from direct combat-related action. The Kurds have lost 10,000. That's more than we lost by the way in Iraq and Afghanistan over the entire fight of those wars. And this is a much smaller population that's in. So they took those casualties for us, we lost 17. So, you know, whether or not they were involved in Normandy, OK, they were involved in fighting ISIS on behalf of the United States of America willingly because we didn't want to put forces on the ground.

And I was the one of the -- I think I was the first congressman in Iraqi-Kurdistan after they beat back the ISIS attack. And they were very determined to work with us. It's a shame. It's really a shame. HARLOW: The president says those ISIS members will just go back to

Europe. What does that mean for security in the west and for U.S. national security?

KINZINGER: Well, it concerns me a lot because it's the president basically saying what I'm worried is in his head, which is, I only care about what happens here in the United States. And we don't have enough time in the show to go into why the post-World War II order is not just us doing a favor to the world, but why it has been so beneficial to the United States of America, including us --

HARLOW: Right --

KINZINGER: Absorbing the industrial capacity of Germany and Japan, shipping lanes, everything. And to throw that out and say, I don't care if ISIS gets into Europe, I hope it's not what he meant, but it totally sounded like what he said.

HARLOW: Well, it's what he said, so we have to take him at his word --

KINZINGER: Right --

HARLOW: Because that's all we have. I'd like your reaction to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Judy Woodruff did a fascinating interview with him last night. And this really struck me when she asked him this question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY WOODRUFF, ANCHOR, PBS NEWSHOUR: Have you personally changed your thinking about being -- viewing the YPG as U.S. allies?

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE, UNITED STATES: The Turks have a legitimate security concern. We've talked about that. I've talked about that repeatedly. They have a terrorist threat to their south, and we've been working to make sure that we did what we could to prevent that terror threat from striking the people in Turkey while trying to achieve what is in America's best interest, the threat from radical Islamic terrorism emanating from Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: As someone who just said this week, God bless the Kurds, what is your reaction to that response from Pompeo when he's asked essentially, you know, are the Kurds still our allies?

KINZINGER: Yes, so, I don't know. He made a right point which is, look, there are legitimate issues with the PKK that the Turks have, but they have painted the Kurds with a broad brush, and we have this framework between Turkey and the United States that was working, and actually the Kurds basically took down their defensive barriers against Turks as we asked and then we walked away.

So yes, Turkey can have concerns with the terrorists, of course, but that's not the large because -- and we have empowered the Kurds to fight for us and then to turn around and walk away. I guarantee those 50 American advisors were all teary-eyed when they walked away from the people they fought and trained with.

And you saw Jennifer Griffin from "Fox News'" tweet chain where she basically said the exact same thing. It's really a sad stain right now, and I don't understand how a president that claims he's the toughest president ever would do such a weak move like this.

HARLOW: Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you for your time this morning, and of course, thank you for your service to the country. We appreciate it.

KINZINGER: You bet. You bet.

HARLOW: All right, so after weeks of attacks, Joe Biden has had enough. He is directly calling for the impeachment of the president and calling out the "New York Times", we'll get to that in a little bit. Plus, we're moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stocks look like they may drop slightly at the open here.

Of course, the focus right now is on those U.S.-China trade talks. A new round of high level talks start this morning, could last a few days. Tensions are high especially after the Trump administration blacklisted more than two dozen Chinese firms, put visa restrictions on some Chinese officials. We'll have more on that delegation coming to the White House.

You see Mnuchin there with the Chinese delegation. That meeting under way right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:00]