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FOX Hosts Say I.G. Report Shows They We Right; Trump Rips His FBI Chief After Wray Knocks Down Conspiracy; Active Shooter Situation in Jersey City; Trump/Pompeo Meet at White House with Russian Foreign Minister; Trump & Democrats Reach Trade Deal on Day Impeachment Articles Unveiled. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 10, 2019 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:31:56]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: For two years, the primetime hosts of FOX News have backed up the falsehood the FBI planted spies in the Trump campaign. FOX personalities repeated it's a Russia hoax, calling it a deep state mob, even one time the FBI was labeled, quote/unquote, "old KGB."

Now that the inspector general has spoken, instead of standing down, they are holding up the report as proof they were somehow right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Actual report a disaster to the FBI. Obvious to anyone who read it. Everything we've reported for years was dead-on accurate. We were right every step of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED FOX NEW HOST: The report is a devastating indictment of our FBI and intel gathering apparatus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. CNN political commentators, Mandy Carpenter and former congressman, Charlie Dent, with me. Amanda wrote the book "Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us." Charlie Dent, Republican from Pennsylvania.

Amanda, start with you. Even add Bill Barr, right, to that chorus today. The last 24 hours, a microcosm of the Trump era. My question to you is, how damaging is this really?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's damaging, because our institutions are used to propagate the idea the Trump campaign was spied on en masse.

And I think Bill Barr is most dangerous in this, so tricking the way he's talking. In front of the cameras, essentially saying there was spying.

If you go back to his confirmation hearing, saying the same thing. Equating spying with any kind of surveillance that happened. Spying denotes there was something illegal, improper.

And then in some cases, the I.G. report does show that there were people, FBI informants, who conducted surveillance on at least three members associated with the Trump campaign, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. And there were problems with Carter Page.

What the report is about, saying why the investigation was warranted, why people needed to be worried about Russian interference in the election, and that stands. So the FBI did do that. It conducted properly.

But there were problems. An honest organization admits when their problems.

BALDWIN: Your word, "tricky. His words of tricky. Right.

Congressman Dent, I want to play this sound to further our point on the gaslighting. Former FBI Director James Comey, fired by the administration over this whole Russia investigation, saying the report vindicates him. And his mother-in-law he says was watching coverage on TV and thought that his own -- you know, that Jim Comey himself was at the risk of going to jail. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Every time we would visit, she would express that worry. I would tell her, it's all made up, zero chance of that. But she believes what she sees on television, and not unlike millions of others, drinking this in two years. Where does the FBI go to get its reputation back? We have to talk about this end result.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:35:13]

BALDWIN: James Comey's own family thought he was going to prison and people watching this 24/7, two years straight. What must they be thinking?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'll tell you what, Brooke. Here's the problem. A think a lot of ordinary Americans go about their lives, very busy, and they maybe don't distinguish between the newscasters on these shows, real journalists versus opinion folks, and deflate the two.

Watching FOX, very really news people and opinion people, and I think that people just --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Gets muddy.

DENT: Very muddy. That's a problem. I used to get those conversations from my mother-in-law too. See things, be concerned, call me. I'd have to calm her down because they believe what they're hearing.

BALDWIN: Yes. In a -- looking at the bigger picture, Amanda, certainly Trump feels emboldened. Impeachment hearings out today and he's embracing it, bring it on. I want a trial during Christmas.

Your point. Reading your tweets. You know, this could happen again. Impeachment. It's easy to scoff at that and laugh it all but you say, don't?

CARPENTER: Yes. The thing I'm worried about. Donald Trump has faced impeachment down in the House. If no Republicans take it seriously, it gets quickly to the Senate I don't see what will stop him soliciting election interference again. He's done with Russia and in 2016 and as president.

So you know, if he suffers no consequence, why wouldn't he do it again? It's not like the House will have time on the clock to impeach again.

So we worry a lot about what Donald Trump would do in a second term, unbound by any future election. I think we need to be very worried what he does this summer unbound by any way getting away with the House and not impeached in the Senate.

BALDWIN: To your point, the Attorney General Bill Barr -- Congressman, for you -- asked today if he still believes if there was, in fact, spying on the Trump campaign and he said clearly spied possible. That's what electronic surveillance is.

I asked Amanda, I wanted to ask you. What do you say to that? That this is -- this is the guy who's in charge of the Justice Department and questioning its own report?

DENT: Well, look. My view on this is spying is a very loaded term. Surveillance is a lot less loaded.

Christopher Wray, I give him a lot of credit. He stood up, defended his people, acknowledging they fell short of their own policies and procedures in respect to Carter Page. It seems Chris Wray was speaking to his people, speaking down, and Bill Barr speaking up to the president.

Stunning the attorney general and FBI director are not on the same page on this issue and that the FBI director is out to defending his department, his agency, and the attorney general is not. It's stunning.

BALDWIN: Congressman, thank you.

Amanda, nice to see you.

Thank you very much.

I want to jump back to the breaking news out of Jersey City, New Jersey. This active shooting situation.

Miguel Marquez is back with us.

Miguel, what's the update?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know now at least two police officers have been shot.

The governor of New Jersey, Bill Murphy, releasing a statement a short time ago saying, in part, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the men and women of the Jersey Police Department, especially with the officers, plural, shot during the standoff."

We have unconfirmed reports that as this has played out this afternoon, two individuals may have been shot. One of them possibly a police officer. Seems that at least two now are police officers.

And it is not over yet. We still have reports of active gunfire in possibly the area where this began. Possibly other areas of Jersey City. Schools in the area are on lockdown. And police are now en masse moving into parts of Jersey City to figure this out and capture and stop whoever it is responsible for this.

It is not clear that this was a targeted shooting, or shooter, or shooters. But it may have been a robbery or something along those lines that got interrupted by police and now here we are -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Stay on it for us. We'll come back to you. Miguel, thank you.

[14:39:47]

As articles of impeachment are announced today, a victory for the White House. Why House Democrats are throwing support behind the president's new NAFTA.

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BALDWIN: Right now, on this day when Democrats announced their articles of impeachment, President Trump is meeting at the White House with Russia's foreign minister. The president and Sergey Lavrov are talking right now behind closed doors. Lavrov meeting also with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

A short time ago, Secretary Pompeo insisted the us will push back against any interference by Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: On the question of interference in our domestic affairs, I was clear it's unacceptable and made our expectations of Russia clear.

[14:45:04]

The Trump administration will always work to protect the integrity of our elections, period. Should Russia or any foreign actor take steps to undermine our democratic process as we will take action in response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Just context. All remember what happened the last time Sergey Lavrov showed up at the White House. It was May 10, 2017, Trump bragged about firing FBI James Comey, calling him crazy, calling him a nutjob, saying it relieved great pressure on him over Russia.

In the same meeting, he allegedly divulged a top-secret Israeli mission in Syria to the Russians in the Oval Office.

For perspective, we always yield to David Sanger, national security correspondent at the "New York Times" and author of the book, "The Perfect Weapons, War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age."

A sense of irony that Lavrov and Trump are in the White House the very day that these articles of impeachment are announced against him?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That the articles of impeachment are announced against him, that the FBI, the inspector general has come out basically saying the FBI fundamentally was right in conducting their investigation, even if they made mistakes along the way.

And that the president this morning walks up to the edge and suggesting he might fire his new FBI director. The one that --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The finding of all of this.

SANGER: Yes. History is in, what is it? It doesn't repeat but it rhymes. We're heavily in the rhyming world.

BALDWIN: Yes, we are.

SANGER: What fascinating me now, though, is this particular moment with Lavrov. So on one hand you have Secretary Pompeo out there saying we will not tolerate election interference. The same Secretary Pompeo a month ago was out beginning to say, we should look what Ukraine did, too. Though he knows, because he was CIA director that Ukraine was not involved.

Second thing going on, President Putin put on the table the extension of the New START agreement, arms control agreement between Russia and the United States. It expires a few weeks after the next president's inauguration. So if you're going to extend it, you've got to get going now.

And at least from his comments, it made it sound like, that was going to be a very hard push.

BALDWIN: Is that what this meeting was about? Because it just got us thinking. Zelensky over in Ukraine. He's yet to get his first meeting. Lavrov gets two. Wondering why that is and what was the original purpose of this meeting?

SANGER: The White House never said what it was in the president's mind and, of course, what it was in the Russian's mind, Pompeo's mind and the president's mind may not all be the same thing.

The president has certainly talked in the past week when he was at NATO last week about wanting to extend the treaty, but only if he could bring in other nations including China. Because China has a significant nuclear force.

That sounds, Brooke, like it makes enormous sense, except when you stop to think that the Chinese have under 300 nuclear weapons that can reach us and the current limit for the U.S. and Russia is 1,550 for each.

You would each say build down to 300 weapons, which Donald Trump is not going to agree to do, or let Chinese go up to the Americans and Russian level which --

BALDWIN: Isn't that happening?

SANGER: -- doesn't make sense. I don't think either will happen. I think this will be the excuse to let the agreement die.

BALDWIN: Back to election interference. Play this, what Lavrov said denying any such interference ever happened. What he said just a short time ago as Secretary Pompeo was listening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translation): Understand that our joint work was hindered and continues to be hindered by the wave of suspicions that has overcome Washington. We have highlighted once again that all speculations about our alleged interference in domestic processes in the United States are baseless. There are no facts that would support that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What do you think of that?

SANGER: Give this to the Russians. They have been consistent. They have always said that they were baseless. In fact, President Trump himself meeting Putin says, well, Putin denies this and maybe has a good argument and the president pushing conspiracy theories.

That said, the United States issued an indictment in July of 2018 against 12 Russian military intelligence officers, and pages upon pages of, their emails back and forth with each other as they are working on breaking into the DNC, and the influence campaign and so forth.

So for Mr. Lavrov to say there's no evidence, he may contest it didn't happen, say they weren't guilty, but there certainly is a lot of evidence.

BALDWIN: David Sanger, thank you very much.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

[14:50:00]

Within one hour today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled articles of impeachment against the president and then announced a trade deal with him. Hear why she told her caucus, and I quote her, "We a lot their lunch."

Plus, look how historic this day is when it comes to the impeachment of a president.

We'll be right back.

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[14:55:16]

BALDWIN: On the very same morning House Democrats announced articles of impeachment against the president, an hour later, they announce add trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

That hands the president a giant legislative win. However, House speaker Nancy Pelosi claims Democrats won major concessions from the White House.

So this deal includes new regulations for car manufacturing. U.S. farmers get more access to the Canadian dairy market. And new rules for today's digital economy, including eliminating duties for things like music and eBooks.

With me, CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash.

I wanted to ask about a quote from Nancy Pelosi, "We ate their lunch." How the speaker says, the speaker described the White House concessions in this private meeting's we ate their lunch. What does that mean?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It means she's telling Democrats and her caucus, some of whom may be skeptical and worried about giving the president a win. Because this is a major, major victory for president even as a private citizen has been railing against trade, particularly against NAFTA.

This is his replacement deal that he and his administration worked on, but it has to be approved by the Congress.

And so what Pelosi is trying to do in saying that is, we got what we wanted.

And it is true the biggest labor organization, the AFL-CIO, is behind this deal. One of the reasons, not the only, one of the reasons it took so long to negotiate and to allow the House speaker and other Democrats to become comfortable with it is to get labor onboard with the way that workers are treated. There are many other issues as well.

The problem with that phrase getting out, Brooke, is that we're so not used to talking about compromise in this town or in this world, but there's a real compromise, as one of the lawmakers said to me via text, it turns out compromise isn't a dirty word.

Historically, you have a compromise, tout the things you got but be a little careful because it's not done yet and they to get Republican votes.

And Republicans are looking through the lens of Democrats thinking they got so much out of, it that might make it harder to pass.

BALDWIN: Appreciate all the context as always.

Dana, thank you.

BASH: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: More out of breaking news with two articles of impeachment against this president by House Democrats.

Plus, new CNN reporting on why the Senate majority leader and president are growing increasingly divided about the direction of the Senate impeachment trial as that he will be coming up next.

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