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Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) is Interviewed about Impeachment; Gender Gap in 2020 Election; Two Women Claim Assault on Flight; Netanyahu using Trump's Playbook. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 26, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): Political situations there. Doug Jones won a very difficult election and Roy Moore helped him win it. But I don't think if he doesn't support impeachment after the facts are laid out and I think he'll be an honest, independent juror, I think it will hurt his base support and I think that will be difficult for him. I think Doug Jones wants -- will do the right thing, and I -- and I suspect that all the other Democrats will, too.

You know, the Republicans, it was nice to see Lisa Murkowski come out, as she's done in the past. The arc -- Dr. King said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it always bends toward justice. And it does. And I think that you'll see Romney and maybe my senator, Lamar Alexander, and Susan Collins and some others come around to want fairness in the process. They may not vote to impeach the president, to convict him, but I think they'll want fairness in the process.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: Have you spoke with Senator Alexander in particular about this? Is that something you would talk to him about?

COHEN: No, I haven't, but I know that he's a decent human being. And if you're -- if you're a decent fellow and you're not running for re- election in particular, which makes it easier to be a decent fellow, it seemed to be more fairness. And Lamar has always been for fairness.

NOBLES: All right, so let's talk more about that. And you mentioned Lisa Murkowski. She said she was disturbed by the way that Senator McConnell was handling this and perhaps his coordination with the White House.

I mean how important is it to at least set the stage in the Senate for the rules of the game here as to how this trial is going to go forward? And do you think that is the most critical role some of these Republicans that are willing to break from their party from time to time will play in all of this?

COHEN: Being in the United States Senate is a high honor, a great responsibility. And one of the things you're responsible for is the public's support for our system of government and for respect for the United States Senate. And that will fall, if there's not a fair trial -- and over 70 percent of the public wants to see witnesses. So I think you'll see Republicans rise to the occasion. That's the highest honor most all of them will ever have. And they would not want to besmirch the reputation of the body in which they serve, in which they would like to contribute to its stellar position as a place of respect in the United States' system of government. And I think they'll support a fair trial.

NOBLES: All right, I want to talk to you now about the letter, the holiday letter that Speaker Pelosi sent to you and your colleagues. And in it she says, quote, the number of people who want to be managers is indicative of our strong case. So I'm wondering, give us some insight here, Congressman, who wants to be an impeachment manager, and are you among the folks asking for that responsibility?

COHEN: I think there are a lot of people that would serve it best, who would be honored to serve. This is the highest -- one of the few sole responsibilities of the House is impeachment. And the Constitution says it's the sole body that has impact on impeachment.

There are several committees that have been involved besides Judiciary, Intel, also Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Government Reform. So there's a lot of people to choose from. There's a lot of talented folks. And I think Speaker Pelosi is looking at a demographic mix. She's got a lot to consider and I'm sure she'll have a good team. And if I'm on it, I'm honored. And if I'm not on it, I'm going to support the team and I'll have my way to support the effort.

NOBLES: Have you asked, though? Do you -- have you specifically told her you'd like to be a part of the team?

COHEN: I think that Speaker Pelosi likes to make her decisions on her own, and I don't think she wants to be burdened by people lobbying for the position or necessarily seeking it out.

NOBLES: OK.

So let's talk about her strategy now. She's, as you know, of course, she's holding on to these articles of impeachment. She said she's going to hold on to them until she feels that the Senate is going to handle the trial responsibly.

From your perspective, what would it take for the speaker to lift her finger off of these and send it to the Senate? What would you like to see in terms of the parameters for a trial to make you feel comfortable?

COHEN: Well, I think they need to see witnesses. I mean this is a most serious offense a president can be charged with. And he's been impeached. And the fact is there were at least four witnesses -- Mulvaney, Duffey from OMB, Bolton, who could shed a lot of light on what the president actually did. We've got documents that have just been released that show within 90 minutes of the discussion with President Zelensky that Duffey told folks to not send the monies, the military aid to Ukraine and to keep it on a need to know basis. I think there's other damaging information there. And I think documents need to be provided and witnesses need to be heard from. And they're the president's own witnesses. You know, this is America. It's kind of hard sometimes to realize it's America because you've got a Mueller report looking into obstruction of justice and collusion or conspiracy with Russians involved in interfering in our elections.

[09:35:12]

And much of the data that's in the Mueller report, which said this is up to Congress to determine what to do because we are the sole powers of impeachment is being kept from us by Bill Barr with redacted portions of that testimony, and he has not gone to the court and asked that they allow, which other attorneys general have, the committee responsible for impeachment to see those documents.

The most important information available, the direct evidence, is being held from the Judiciary Committee and from the Congress. And the most important witnesses in this impeachment trial are being kept from the American people and not to be allowed to go forward and testify so that the people can hear the facts and that the witness -- the jurors, the senators can make a fair verdict based on all of the statements.

You can't do what truth dictates and justice demands without all the information. And this is America and sometimes it's just astonishing to me what we've seen happen with the hiding of the Mueller report, the orders of -- wholesale orders of no testimony and no production of documents. You know, the lady doth protest too much.

NOBLES: All right, well, Congressman Cohen, obviously a calm here before the storm before you head back in the new year. We appreciate you taking the time. Have a happy new year, sir. And we will see you when the Congress comes back in January.

COHEN: Well, if Memphis beats Penn State in the Cotton Bowl, we'll have a Happy New Year.

NOBLES: Right. We'll have to see. Good luck with that. Thank you, Congressman.

President Trump lost women voters by an overwhelming margin in 2016. Does he have a shot of changing that in 2020?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:51]

NOBLES: The gender gap could be a huge story once again in the 2020 election. In 2016, it was historic. More men voted for Donald Trump while women turned out for Hillary Clinton by an overwhelming margin.

What will we see next year?

Well, CNN's senior political analyst and writer Harry Enten, in his beautiful sweater, joins us now.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND WRITER: Look at this.

NOBLES: It's gorgeous.

ENTEN: Isn't it gorgeous.

NOBLES: And we want -- we need one that says "NEWSROOM." on it, though, too, right?

ENTEN: Well, we're going to work on -- we're going to work on that, Ryan, we're going to work on it.

NOBLES: OK. All right.

ENTEN: You know, look, let's take -- let's take a look at what we saw in 2016, right? If you take a look at what we saw was that women voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, while men voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. So women voted for Trump -- women voted for Clinton, excuse me, by 14 points. Men voted for Trump by 11 points. That's a 25-point gender gap.

Now, let me put this into an historical context for you. So I looked at all of the post-election polling I could look at since 1952 and what we see is the line is going further and further to the left the closer we get to 2016. That means that, at least compared to history, women are voting more Democratic compared to men, and increasingly doing so. You know, if you look back pre-1980, there pretty much was no gender gap in presidential elections. Now there is a clear one, a consistent one, and one that's growing larger with women continuing to grow more Democratic compared to men.

NOBLES: All right, so, Harry, what's causing the record gender gap? And I wonder if the Democratic nominee turns out not to be a woman, could that impact all of this?

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, look, I looked at our polling that we've done over the last two times, Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, and I essentially looked at that and said, OK, how are men vote -- how they say men are going to vote and how do women say they're going to vote? And what do we see there? What we see is that the gender gap, if anything, is expanding compared to 2016. We see now that women are voting overwhelmingly for -- say they're going to vote overwhelmingly for Joe Biden while men say they're pretty much going to stay consistent.

Look at this. This is so important. So if you look at 2016, right, what you see is that in 2016 the actual margin, women voted for Donald Trump -- women voted for Hillary Clinton by 14 points, men vote for Donald Trump by 11.

Now, look at the Biden versus Trump. What you see is, women say they're going to vote for Joe Biden by 24 points. Men are going to vote for Donald Trump -- voted for Hillary Clinton by 24 points -- or voted for Joe Biden by 24 points. Men say they're going to vote for Donald Trump by 10 points. So what we see is women are driving this gender gap. It is women who are moving further and further to the left and indeed women say they're going to vote for Joe Biden by a greater margin than any Democratic nominee since 1964, which, of course, was the year in which Lyndon Baines Johnson won overwhelmingly. NOBLES: Right. All right, so what about -- how does this break down

along educational levels? Is there an impact when you -- if you break it down from that perspective?

ENTEN: Yes, I think this is rather important. So take a look at white women without a college degree. This is so key because that was a group that voted for Donald Trump by 23 points in 2016. Now take a look at how they're looking in the 2020 polling. They say they're going to only vote for Joe -- vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden by just four points. So the gender gap is expanding wildly among white women without a college degree, which 27 points in 2016, 2020 right now the polling suggests a 39-point gender gap. That is huge. That's historical. Ryan, I've never seen anything quite like it.

NOBLES: Wow, women going to be such an important part of this political process in 2020.

Harry, thank you so much for breaking it down. Thank you again for allowing the world to see that beautiful sweater. And no one rocks it better than you possibly could, so it's a win all around.

ENTEN: I try my best. And, of course, Ryan, go Buffalo Bills, even though this game's week doesn't mean anything.

NOBLES: Right.

ENTEN: The playoffs is where we count.

NOBLES: This is our year. This is our year, Harry. Go, Bills.

All right, thank you, sir.

ENTEN: Thank you.

NOBLES: Two women say they were sexually assaulted on Frontier Airlines flights but claim their requests for help were ignored. Now they filed a federal lawsuit. Those details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:49:16]

NOBLES: Two women have filed a federal lawsuit against Frontier Airlines saying they were sexually assaulted during flights last year and that flight attendants ignored their requests for help.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov joins me now with more on this story.

Lucy, good morning.

What is the latest?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ryan, good morning.

This is a federal class action lawsuit against the Denver based budget carrier. It alleges that Frontier Airline failed to prevent, report, as well as respond to the sexual assault of passengers on its flights. One of the plaintiffs is a U.S. Army veteran. She says she was sleeping, trying to rest in the back of a red eye flight when she felt the hands of the passenger behind her reach through the seat and grope her. She says she alerted the airline flight attendant right away, who told her to return to her seat, who allegedly refused to let her switch seats in get away from the assailant.

[09:50:05]

And in both of these cases, in both women's cases, the flight attendants allegedly did not report the incident to anyone else. They did not ask that law enforcement be present or contacted to meet the plane upon landing. And according to the complaint, in both cases, Frontier Airlines simply refuse to help the women with evidence concerning their assaults, including providing the identities of the assailants, as well as potential witnesses.

Now, the airline did issue a statement saying that the safety of its passengers and crew members is their number one priority. They're not commenting on the specifics of this case. But, Ryan, according to law enforcement, these kind of incidents are a growing concern. The FBI, which is the agency in charge of investigating these kinds of assaults in airline -- in flights, said that last year the number of sexual assaults reported during commercial flights were increasing at a, quotes, alarming rate. The agency itself acknowledges that these are notoriously unreported crimes. There's no central clearing house for statistics on this. And so it could be a much bigger problem than we realize according to this lawsuit, Ryan.

NOBLES: OK, Lucy Kafanov, thank you so much for that report. We appreciate it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing two critical votes that could determine his future in politics. So he's turning to President Trump's playbook in a big to stay in power.

Plus, two best friends, one epic night. Ring in the New Year with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. "New Year's Eve Live" begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:56:05]

NOBLES: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the fight of his political life. Right now members of his Likud Party are voting in leadership elections. Netanyahu has to win this vote today to lead his party in what will be Israel's third national election in just one year. And to drum up support, Netanyahu is using the playbook of a friend, President Donald Trump.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us now to explain all of this.

Oren, what is the situation there?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ryan, today some 116,000 Likud voters will decide who will lead their party. It is expected, from political analysts, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will emerge victorious, but it has certainly been a tough campaign, including last night when Netanyahu was hosting a campaign event in the city of Ashkelon (ph) had to be rushed offstage because of incoming rocket fire. It was not a good look for an embattled prime minister trying to hang on to his job and control of his own party using the playbooks, the strategy of a political friend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIEBERMANN (voice over): This is becoming a familiar image among friends, a black and white picture of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointing at the camera. The caption says, they're not only after me, they're after us.

It's copied from President Donald Trump, who used a similar image with a similar message days earlier.

The well-documented political bromance has been a focus of Netanyahu's messaging featuring heavily in election campaigns.

On Christmas Eve --

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends.

LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu promising another political gift from the Trump administration.

NETANYAHU (through translator): We are going to bring American recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and pay attention in all of the settlements, those in the blocks and those that are not. That's the next step. It's in our hands. And only I will bring this.

LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu and Trump share much more than style. As Trump faces impeachment, Netanyahu faces criminal indictment, charges of bribery and fraud and breach of trust in three corruption investigations. Netanyahu has insisted he's innocent, calling the charges an attempted coup and a media driven witch hunt.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I called it the rigged witch hunt.

LIEBERMANN: Language we've heard from Trump as well.

In messages like this, Netanyahu has painted himself as the victim, while leaning once again on his relationship with Trump to boost his standing.

But Trump borrowed this one.

TRUMP: I want to especially thank a great man and a great leader, the leader of India, Prime Minister Modi, my friend.

LIEBERMANN: It was with another populist leader, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that we first saw the message.

NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER: Our great American president, Mr. Donald Trump.

LIEBERMANN: Modi's supporters created and spread a meme, a picture of the Hindu leader with the words, in reality, they're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way. With his India first style of politics, Modi has celebrated Trump's America first brand.

MODI: I admire him for something more. A sense of liberty, a passion for America, a concern for every American, a belief in American future and a strong resolve to make America great again.

LIEBERMANN: Modi has also shown his love for Netanyahu. In 2017, becoming the first sitting Indian prime minister to visit Jerusalem. While Modi isn't facing any personal corruption scandals, his government has been facing massive protests after the passage of a controversial immigration law that critics say discriminates against Muslims.

[10:00:07]

END