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DNC Drops Donor Threshold; Iowa Voters Caucus; Chinese Stocks Plunge Amid Virus Fears; Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is Interviewed about Impeachment; Chiefs Rally to Beat 49ers. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired February 03, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: The nomination so you have to be getting delegates or you have to be polling and show real support in the polls and be in double digits. So we've been more than fair. And what Michael Moore said was completely false and divisive.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Brianne, you cover these races. You're on the ground there. And, granted, as Mark Preston said a few minutes ago, now polls don't matter anymore. Now it's up to those conversations in each of those caucus rooms.

That said, when you look at the polls going in, Bernie Sanders seemed to be having something of a surge. Tell us what you're feeling on the ground there, talking to other reporters, talking to campaigns, because you also, at the same time, have the Biden team doing what appears to be some expectations management.

BRIANNE PFANNENSTIEL, CHIEF POLITICS REPORTER, "DE MONIES REGISTER": Yes. I think what we're seeing in the polls is reflected in what we're also seeing on the ground. So Bernie Sanders just had a rally the other night that drew 3,000 people in Cedar Rapids. So the momentum that we're starting to see in some of these polls, and kind of the rolling average, we are seeing that play out on the ground as well.

But, you know, as far as unpredictable, we've seen a really solid top tier of Democrats, these four candidates, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg really clustered together and kind of flip flopping. And so I think that's what people are looking for going in.

And when we talk about this 15 percent viability threshold, that's going to become really important with so many candidates, and even some of these top tier floating around the 15 percent mark. If they're not viable, that's when these ground games are really going to matter, the organizations that campaigns have put in place to win over people on that second alignment.

SCIUTTO: Yes, Iowa is a place that really makes ground game important.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. SCIUTTO: It's always important. There especially important.

HARLOW: Yes, yes, totally, totally.

Patti, just talk from your campaign experience working with the Clinton team, leading the Clinton team back in 2008. The division that we're seeing, what we saw, whether it's from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, you know, saying, OK, I'll go ahead and boo Hillary Clinton, whether it's Hillary Clinton going on, you know, the podcast just a few days ago taking aim at Sanders, what are you think it -- I mean are you glad to see this? Part of the process? Do you wish the party would be more unified especially right now? What do you think?

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: No, of course I'm not happy to see this. It's clearly not helpful for Democrats to be divided this way. For me personally, it's not even on the issues. It is -- it's not about health care. It's not about climate change. It's very personal booing, you know, the former nominee. The former nominee saying that one of the frontrunners is -- nobody likes him. It's just -- it seems petty to me and not helpful to Democrats in order to beat Trump.

HARLOW: But do you -- do you think -- I don't mean to interrupt. I just want to -- I was just thinking this in real-time, I mean, you know, the president won by doing that. Like, it worked for him to just insult people and go after them. Then Marco Rubio tried and it failed for him.

Do you think they're taking a page out of the president's playbook?

DOYLE: Hillary and Bernie Sanders are not taking a page from the president's playbook. I think there are some deep seated resentments from 2016 and not particularly -- maybe not from them personally but certainly from their supporters and it's coming out again right before Iowa.

I think that the president's playbook does not work for Democrats. I think people are tired of the, you know, demeaning characteristics, making fun of people for their height. I think people are tired of that. And that's not what the Democratic Party is about and we want to turn the page.

SCIUTTO: Yes, my kids even notice it. They're tired of it.

Xochitl Hinojosa, Brianne Pfannenstiel, Patti Solis Doyle, thanks to all of you. We know we're going to be talking to you again as we see the results come in.

China says the United States is overreacting to the coronavirus outbreak. Who do you believe here? The number of confirmed cases is growing, as well as the number of confirmed deaths. We're going to tell you all the latest.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:37:52]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

This is another story we're following closely because the signs are getting worrisome. There are now 11 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus here in the U.S. the U.S. enforcing strict new rules on citizens arriving from China, including a possible two-week quarantine. It's remarkable. More planes are also being sent to China to evacuate Americans there. But it's not clear when those flights will begin or if China has authorized those flights.

HARLOW: Well, today, Chinese stocks had their worst day in trading in years, giving up 8 percent on the day. Worries about the virus caused the Dow to plunge 600 points here on Friday, rebounding a little bit this morning.

Our David Culver is in Beijing.

David, so much to ask you. Let's just begin here. China says the U.S. is fueling mass hysteria and not helping them fight the outbreak. What are the facts on that?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, Poppy and Jim, I can tell you this is coming out of the foreign minister in particular and they held their first press conference of sorts, although it was online because they didn't want the journalists to gather together in concern of perhaps spreading the virus.

So, even in this online chat, the foreign ministry, first time speaking since the lunar new year holiday, saying that they are furious with the U.S. They consider this to be an overreaction, speaking specifically to these travel restrictions. They're upset because they feel like the U.S. set a precedent here that was followed by several other countries. You saw Australia, New Zealand, many countries essentially restricting and isolating mainland China and all 1.4 billion of its people.

Now, you know, this is -- this is a reality that now China is having to face, and it's obviously feeling the pressure under it. But there seems to be now something political going on here where, you know, we knew that there were evacuations scheduled for today, for example, for those Americans within the city of Wuhan. I was talking to some of them and they said it got delayed for some reason. We're not sure what's going on.

And we asked the foreign ministry about this and essentially they said, look, we don't have capacity at the airport to just have empty planes coming in. We need planes that bring supplies. Clearly making a reference that the U.S. wasn't helping out with supplies.

SCIUTTO: Yes, interesting.

I mean here's a question because early on in this China was actually clamping down on people on social media in China talking about the outbreak. [09:40:04]

Then they, you know, went the other direction and is closing off entire cities there, which is a remarkable step.

Is there concern at this stage that China might be understating both the spread of the virus but also the number of deaths from the virus?

CULVER: An interesting study, Jim, came out last week from Hong Kong researchers where they estimated that the numbers within the city of Wuhan alone were 75,000 or greater, the number of people infected. That's what they believed.

Now, the reason we believe that the numbers are not fully accurate is based on people we've been speaking with, doctors and nurses. My team and I here in Beijing talking to many who are on the front lines and patients and loved ones of patients. And what they have told us is that some people have gone to the hospital, been turned away essentially because they don't have the resources in that moment, they don't have the testing kits available. Finally, when they get a test, it will be days before they actually get the results.

Even in one case, we talked to one man who told us that his mother passed away around the same timeframe as all this was going on. The doctor pulled him aside and said, off record, it was that pneumonia, but they never confirmed it and, hence, her death didn't go towards the total count.

HARLOW: Wow. David, we're glad you're there bringing us the facts every day. Thank you very much.

A major week for the White House and the candidates who want to be in the White House. The president facing a final impeachment vote this week and, of course, addressing the nation tomorrow night in State of the Union address, as Democrats ballots it out in Iowa in the election's first big contest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:46:04]

HARLOW: Well, just over an hour from now, closing arguments begin in the impeachment trial of the president.

SCIUTTO: Barring a shocking development, the president will be acquitted come Wednesday.

We're joined now by Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Senator, thanks for taking the time this morning.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Jim and Poppy, good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: So where do we stand now? Where does the Senate stand after this process? Where does the president stand? I wonder if you're concerned that he will be emboldened to do more, rather than less, of what he was accused of in the impeachment articles?

VAN HOLLEN: Oh, I'm very worried for the country, Jim. The Senate will be lowering the bar on presidential misconduct, giving Donald Trump a green light to abuse his power. And I should say that while the final decision on the president will come on Wednesday, the verdict on the United States Senate is in. And the United States Senate is guilty, guilty of dereliction of its constitutional duty by failing to hold a fair trial. And when Republican senators voted to deny a single witness or a single document, they did become complicit in that cover- up.

And that's not good news for the country because that means the final outcome is tainted. And I think it will not be accepted by many in the country, not because of what the ultimate decision is, but because of the way it was arrived at and the fact that the whole process was tainted.

HARLOW: You know, Senator, it's not just Democrats who are saying that the president acted inappropriately or it wasn't a perfect call or they wouldn't have done it. Joni Ernst said as much. Lamar Alexander said as much. But they're going to acquit the president.

We're interested in whether you think there is a Republican appetite to censure the president, right? You've had Congress censure Andrew Jackson, Joe McCarthy (ph). Is there a Republican appetite to do that?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, that's a very good question because while we've seen some statements from some Republican senators that the president did not behave appropriately, that sounds like a speeding ticket compared to the gross abuse of power we've seen.

I mean claiming that he had lapses in judgment just really gets him off the hook. If they were serious about punishing misconduct, and they don't want to vote to impeachment and remove, at the very least -- at the very least they should have enough respect for the system to introduce a resolution of censure after Wednesday.

I don't see that happening right now, but these kind of whispers about, you know, inappropriate conduct only give the president a green light. And the fact that more Republicans are not standing up and actually condemning his conduct is very alarming.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about 2020. I'm curious as you have the first official voting now in the caucus today for the Democratic challenger to President Trump. In your view, do Democrats emerge stronger or weaker from impeachment in challenging Trump but also senators, right, in those key races?

VAN HOLLEN: So, overall, this was a moment where everybody had to do their constitutional duty. The House of Representatives was right to move forward given the president's abuse of power. In terms of the election, I don't see a major difference one way or another except very possibly in some of the Senate races where you had Republican senators really failing to do their duty by participating in the cover-up. It could make a difference there. As we know, 75 percent of Americans recognize that a fair trial requires witnesses and documents.

[09:50:06]

And, you know, when Republican senators voted to deny the public and that information, that could have an impact.

HARLOW: Senator, I'm not sure if you heard your colleague Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday on Fox News, but he -- I mean, when he was speaking to Maria Bartiromo, he said they're going to do a lot to basically strike back against the Bidens, the whistleblower, et cetera. He called on Jim Risch and Chairman Burr, of those committees, to call these witnesses and he said, we'll deal with the whistleblower, we'll deal with Joe Biden's conflict of interest, we'll deal with FISA. What do you think Americans should expect now from your Republican counterparts?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think it's absolutely disgusting to hear Republican senators now doubling down on the president's abuse of power and to try to succeed through the United States Senate at doing what the president tried to do by getting a foreign power to interfere in our elections. That would be simply abusing the process of the Senate, the institution of the Senate, for purely political purposes.

I don't know what we're coming to here. But to use the powers of the United States Senate to interfere in the 2020 election would be a real abuse of power by the United States Senate. People can go out and conduct their own opposition research. That's fine. They can do that. But to use the instruments of government --

SCIUTTO: OK.

VAN HOLLEN: For these purposes would be another abuse of power by the United States Senate.

SCIUTTO: Final question before we go, who is the best Democrat to challenge Trump, to beat Trump in 2020?

VAN HOLLEN: Oh, I don't know. I think that's going to be a decision for the voters, which, of course, the first round begins tonight in iota. I think the key thing is that whoever emerges from this process, everybody has got to come together, they have to unite, to make sure that we defeat President Trump in November.

SCIUTTO: All right. We'll be watching. Senator Chris Van Hollen, great to have you on the program this morning.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: Another epic comeback. It was just remarkable to watch. In a post season full of them. The Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City, Missouri, by the way, are Super Bowl champs for the first time in half a century. We'll be live from Miami, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:19] SCIUTTO: Hail to the Chiefs. Kansas City celebrating its first Super Bowl victory in 50 years. And it was a great game, start to finish, halftime show included. Just a ball.

HARLOW: Kansas City, where?

SCIUTTO: The state of Missouri, I believe.

HARLOW: Thank you very much.

Let's go to Coy Wire. He was there last night for all of it, including that amazing halftime show. He joins us from Miami.

What a night. What a game.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy and Jim, the Chiefs will forever more be known as the comeback kids.

It all starts with Patrick Mahomes. They overcame 10 and 24 point deficits in their previous two playoff games just to make it here. And then last night, that stunning comeback to win the Super Bowl.

Let's watch this.

They were down 10 with seven minutes to go and Patrick Mahomes, he was looking human in this game, two interceptions so far, but then the Mahomes magic took over. Twenty-four-year-old throwing a haymaker to Tyreek Hill to give them the spark they needed.

Mahomes then would throw two touchdowns in about a four-minute span, including this one to Damien Williams. He's stretching and straining to give the Chiefs the lead.

Mahomes looking to become the first quarterback in NFL history to lead three double digit comebacks in a single post season. Really feeling it. And it would be Williams then who put this out of reach for good. And 31-20 in the end.

The Chiefs, after decades of heart break, finally champs. Head Coach Andy Reid no longer the winningest coach without a Super Bowl title. And Mahomes, he's the youngest player ever to win both a league MVP and a Super Bowl ring. We caught up with him moments after the big win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MAHOMES, SUPER BOWL MVP: Hey, we're coming home. It's going to be amazing. Everybody be out there for the parade. We're bringing the Lombardi home.

ANDY REID, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS HEAD COACH: And I got a great bunch of guys, man. They're phenomenal. So I could coach another 20 years with this group.

WIRE: The comeback kids, how? REID: Heart, man. You know that. It's heart. So, I'm proud of them.

WIRE: You're just the third African-American quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl. What does your story -- what does that message send to kids all across America?

MAHOMES: I think it just means, no matter where you come from, no matter -- no matter how you were raised or what race you are, that you can -- you can go out and follow your dreams. And that's what I've always believed. No one thought I was going to be a football player. Everybody thought I was going to be a baseball player. But I followed my dreams and now I'm here winning the Super Bowl with all my teammates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, speaking of dreams, look at this seven-year-old tweet from Patrick Mahomes talking about how incredible it would be to be a quarterback who wins the Super Bowl and being able to say I'm going to Disney World. Well, he did last night.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patrick Mahomes, you and the Kansas City Chiefs just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do next?

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEF'S QUARTERBACK: I'm going to Disney World!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Indeed. Championship parade already set, Kansas City on Wednesday.

[10:00:02]

Jim. Poppy.

HARLOW: Oh, my gosh.

SCIUTTO: So if I tweet that now, does that give me a shot at quarterbacking the Super Bowl?

HARLOW: Of going to Disney World or being a QB?

WIRE: You still have it in you.