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Pelosi on Trump's Address -- I Tore Up A Manifesto of Mistruths; Stakes High in New Hampshire for Biden And Warren after Iowa; Biden Concedes He Expected to Do Better in Iowa; Interview with Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) on The Biden Campaign; Trump Attacks Faith of Romney And Pelosi; Madoff Victims Respond As He Seeks Early Release. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 06, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: Dignity. Is it OK to start saying four more years in the House of Representatives? It's just unheard of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: And it was Manu Raju who asked that question, our CNN senior Congressional correspondent. And I mean, listen, both of them say they want to get things accomplished for the American people, but how is it possible with this kind of animosity?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very unlikely, unless they're facing some sort of crisis that requires both sides to cut a deal, like such as a government shutdown, that threat is always looming at the end of the fiscal year.

Other fiscal crises, perhaps, if there's a ruling on the healthcare law that strikes down aspects of the healthcare law, there will be an effort to try to cut a deal to try to get something done. But other than that, that would still be incredibly difficult to accomplish. It's hard to see anything legislatively getting done.

These two people, the Speaker of the House, the President have not spoken since October. That was a meeting which the Speaker walked out of that meeting after the President insulted her, called her a third- grade politician. They had not spoken since, and of course the State of The Union then happened, the President did not shake her hand. She ripped up that speech.

She obviously feels perfectly fine, in fact, she said that she feels liberated by all of this. She feels she gets support within her caucus about this. But notably, too, when the two sides did work together on the U.S., Mexico, Canada Trade Agreement that was passed that has been approved, that measure was cut because of House Democrats and the Trump administration.

The President and Pelosi did not talk during that period. She questioned whether the President even knew what was in that deal because when the President came to Capitol Hill and delivered his State of The Union, he applauded Republican efforts in it. He did not give credit to House Democrats.

So perhaps some things could get done not between those two talking, but other of their emissaries working behind the scenes, but besides that, Brooke, hard to see anything of magnitude happening unless they are absolutely forced to do so this year -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So unfortunate all the way around. Manu, thank you.

All eyes are on New Hampshire now and the 2020 race, the pressure is on for the Democratic Party after the debacle that was Iowa. We will take you there live for details on what to watch.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: After the mess with the Iowa caucuses, there's new emphasis on New Hampshire, the next state to cast votes in the 2020 Presidential primary, and that happens next Tuesday, February 11th. A Monmouth University Poll that released just in the last few hours shows Senator Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg running neck and neck.

Casey McDermott, she's a politics reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio, she is with me now. And Casey, I mean, now that we saw what happened in Iowa, we know the DNC Chair is calling for a recanvassing of the vote, how much pressure are people feeling where you are in New Hampshire?

CASEY MCDERMOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC RADIO: Well, speaking of that, I actually just left a press conference that was convened by our state's top election officials, the Governor, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Hampshire, and the message that they were really trying to send there is that New Hampshire is ready. New Hampshire has a lot of processes in place to make sure that our elections run smoothly.

And really, we're going to do what we've been doing for years and years and years here. We're going to vote on paper ballots. People are going to go into the polling place, cast their votes and they're setting the expectation that we may know the results hours after the election barring anything unforeseen.

BALDWIN: OK. Knocking on this desk right in front of me that New Hampshire goes smoothly. Moving on as it's always been, you know, for a century, Iowa, and then New Hampshire. I just talked to the editor of the Boston Globe. They published this opinion piece this week. And the headline is "Kill the tradition, New Hampshire and Iowa should not vote first."

And your own station is doing a podcast. It's called stranglehold, about how one small state got its hands around picking presidents and won't let it go. Do you think it's time, Casey, for things to change, and do you think the Democratic Party would actually get behind the change?

MCDERMOTT: So, we are not taking a position on whether or not New Hampshire should be first. What we have been trying to do with that podcast is really raise questions about how representative New Hampshire is, and what kind of things have happened behind the scenes to allow New Hampshire to stay first.

This is not necessarily that something that has kind of continued on organically. There's a lot of people in the state, a lot of institutions in the state that have really fought hard to keep New Hampshire's place as first in the nation. So that's really what the podcast is focusing on.

Some of the unseen things that people might not be aware of that have gone into protecting the first in the nation status. That said, I can say that we've heard from people both outside of the state and also within the state who have told us, look, we really appreciate being first in the nation, but the podcast made them think a lot differently about that status and made them maybe consider that perhaps it's time for a change.

BALDWIN: Yes. I want to ask you about something you tweeted a couple of days ago. Some numbers showing the voters in New Hampshire are much more likely to register as an Independent rather than identify as a Democrat or Republican, and I'm just curious, what do you think that signals?

MCDERMOTT: So that's actually been a long-standing trend in New Hampshire. I would say around the time of the 2000 election, we saw a real shift in the state's kind of voter makeup.

[15:40:00]

And independent voters or undeclared voters as they're called here in New Hampshire, actually make up the largest group of voters here. And that can mean that they can act as something of a wild card, particularly in Presidential primaries.

I know I talked to voters here a few months ago right before the party change deadline who were saying that they were switching either from a Republican or from Democrat to undeclared because they wanted more options here.

And I think what that says is that New Hampshire voters really wait a while to make up their minds and they want to have a lot of flexibility. That's also something that I know I and my colleagues are hearing when we go out to talk to people, even in these final days before the election. They're telling us they still don't know who they're going to vote for on Tuesday.

BALDWIN: I appreciate you keeping your ear to the ground for us there in New Hampshire. The big day is Tuesday, maybe we'll talk again. Casey, thank you very much. And just a reminder to all of you, CNN's second night of live

Presidential Town Halls begins at 8:00 Eastern this evening. You have Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Deval Patrick, they're all taking questions tonight, live from New Hampshire, so please tune into that.

Coming up next, I'll talk to Congressman Cedric Richmond who is supporting Joe Biden. Hear what he thinks the campaign needs to do to get back on track after a bit of a disappointing result in Iowa.

And Bernie Madoff in the headlines today. He's asking a judge for early release from prison because he is dying. We'll get reaction from two people who lost their life savings in his massive Ponzi scheme. Do they think he should get out?

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I expected to do better, and I expected that our organization would perform better, but the fact is, I'm happy to be here in New Hampshire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Former Vice President Joe Biden speaking at last night's CNN Presidential Town Hall acknowledging that everything didn't exactly go as planned as they hoped for him in Iowa. And as it stands right now, Pete Buttigieg and Senator Bernie Sanders are still in a tight race for first, Senator Elizabeth Warren is in third, and Joe Biden still holding onto fourth place.

So what will team Biden need to do in New Hampshire? With me now Congressman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, he's the National Co-Chair of the Biden 2020 Campaign, so Congressman, a pleasure, sir, welcome.

REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D-LA), NATIONAL CO-CHAIR, BIDEN 2020 CAMPAIGN: Thank you for having me, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You just heard the former Vice President himself admitting, yes, there were operational issues for his campaign in Iowa. What do you think went wrong?

RICHMOND: Well, I think that we didn't do as well as we wanted to do. I think that some of it was the fact that we have a strong base of African American support, and Iowa is 3.5 percent African American. And so because of the demographics, I think the deck was stacked against us. That doesn't necessarily excuse not having an excellent ground game, but Iowa's in the past. We're moving on to New Hampshire.

It's not the first time that the Vice President has been knocked down in his life, and everybody knows that. But the strong point and his strongest quality is the fact that every time he gets knocked down, he gets back up. He fights harder and he wins. BALDWIN: I hear you on the lack of diversity. I also know he has

spent a whole heck of a lot of time in Iowa. And he's had a relationship with a lot of folks there for many, many years. I'm wondering, Congressman, if you think that this recanvassing will at all change the results for him?

RICHMOND: I'm not sure. Look, we're running a long race. We never thought it would end in Iowa. We didn't think that this would be easy, so we're really focused on New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and then Super Tuesday.

BALDWIN: On New Hampshire, where -- where does Joe Biden need to finish just to make sure he has a strong performance and he has that momentum moving forward?

RICHMOND: Well, again, look, we love the people in New Hampshire, but New Hampshire only has 1.5 percent African Americans in New Hampshire, and so -- and I don't want to sound flippant, but our base consists of a lot of African Americans. We have a very diverse coalition supporting the Vice President.

The first two states are not very diverse. And so what we're hoping for is that the diverse voters in the other states will not necessarily let the momentum of Iowa and New Hampshire sway their decision-making or make an electability determination about two states that are over 90 percent white as opposed to being diverse. And look --

BALDWIN: So it sounds like -- but it sounds like the expectations have been lowered now, going into New Hampshire?

RICHMOND: No, the expectations are realistic. And so if you are asking me if this was Nevada or South Carolina, I would have a different answer. We have to understand the circumstances of where we are. And look, we're fighting hard in New Hampshire, and we want the people of New Hampshire to know we want their support.

We're not taking it for granted, and we're not writing it off. We want their support because we know we're the strongest nominee to beat Donald Trump.

BALDWIN: What about just fundraising. Congressman Richmond? We know that the numbers came in for January. Senator Bernie Sanders raised some crazy huge amount, 25 million just in a month, and the Buttigieg campaign just announced that they raised 2.7 million just in the days since Iowa.

And the Biden campaign has had fundraising challenges. What will they do? What will team Biden do to work on its cash issue?

RICHMOND: We're going to keep raising money. And look, our online stuff has been impressive since the Iowa race. I think people are starting to understand what's at stake, and that it would be very hard for a self-described socialist or a candidate that does not have any diversity in their support to beat Donald Trump.

[15:50:00]

And I think if you saw him at the prayer breakfast, if you saw the State of The Union, I think people see very clearly that we have a clear and present danger in this President and we have to beat him. The stakes are too high.

BALDWIN: All right, Congressman Cedric Richmond, thank you.

RICHMOND: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Let's get back to President Trump's freewheeling and vindictive speech in the wake of his Senate acquittal. Among the insults he hurled at Senator Mitt Romney and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the President also questioned their faith. Hear how they are responding to that, ahead.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The man behind the world's largest Ponzi scheme says he is dying and would like to get out of prison early. In a court filing, Bernie Madoff says that he has terminal kidney disease and has only 18 months to live.

Remember, he was sentenced to 150 years for swindling billions of dollars from unsuspecting investors. So far, he has served 11 years but is now looking for a compassionate release. He also has asked President Trump to commute his sentence.

So with me now, two of Madoff's victims, Ronnie Sue And Dominic Ambrosino. So thank you both so much for being on. And it's my understanding you lost your entire savings because of this man. And here he is asking for this compassionate release so he can die the at home. Do you think he should get it?

DOMINIC AMBROSINO, VICTIM OF BERNIE MADOFF'S PONZI SCHEME: Absolutely not.

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: VICTIM OF BERNIE MADOFF'S PONZI SCHEME: No. Definitely not.

DOMINIC AMBROSINO: Definitely not.

BALDWIN: Tell me why.

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: Well, first of all, he's in jail for actions that he took on his own accord. We've been in jail, as well as the other victims, for his actions. And you know, we can't forget that it's not just Bernie Madoff who is responsible for this.

We have in place, insurance companies, quasi government SIPC insurance company. We have the SEC. Those are agencies that also should be responsible that haven't been held responsible for the oversight. And with Bernie Madoff possibly getting out, that's another case where there's no responsibility for illegal actions. BALDWIN: What about the fact he's even asking. What does that tell

you?

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: Well, you know, that's really not much of the issue. I have a very dear friend who's got kidney failure. And I would also like to discuss that, if I can. He's looking for a kidney transplant.

And I have no compassion for Bernie Madoff, nor do I think he has any right to ask for it when my friend needs a kidney transplant. And if I may throw out his contact information, if anybody is willing to or wants to learn more about kidney transplants, they can go to "our guy needs a kidney" on Facebook. And message the family.

BALDWIN: Is this person a Madoff -- is this a Madoff victim as well? Or is this just a friend?

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: It's a very dear friend. But when the word kidney comes up, I can't help but go in that direction.

BALDWIN: OK. I appreciate that's near and dear to your heart. But, yes, if we can just stay on Madoff because he actually told "The Washington Post" in a phone interview, quote, I'm terminally ill. There's no cure for my type of disease. So you know I've served 11 years already and quite frankly I've suffered through it.

So he says he's suffered to the two of you. Dominic, I haven't heard as much from you. How much have you suffered?

DOMINIC AMBROSINO: We've suffered, we've suffered, tremendously. And it's not just us too. It's hundreds, if not thousands of victims out there. There's people that committed suicide. There's people that didn't see their life through after the debacle that Madoff caused.

And they died, they are dead. Things happen in life. He committed this. He perpetrated this whole fraud. He needs to pay. He needs to stay right where he is. He ruined a lot of people's lives in this world. He needs to stay exactly where he is. He needs to die there.

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: And if I can just --

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Ronnie Sue.

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: I'm sorry throw in. We have rules. We have laws in this country and they should be abided by. And we have two government agencies that are also responsible for this that we can't forget about that. The SEC and SIPC who are here to help every investor, not just Madoff investors. They insure your money, they oversee the brokers and they failed in their actions. And there's been absolutely no accountability but them for the victims.

And you know, and then Madoff wants to get out. So it's a three-prong piece. And none of these are showing any, any compassion for the victims. Any legality of being responsible for lack of oversight, fighting the victims for the insurance money that we were due. BALDWIN: Sure, sure, no. It was such a huge story but to be so personally impacted by it and then to hear this man wanting to get out early so he can die in peace outside of prison. I wanted to instantly talk to the two of you.

Ronnie Sue and Dominic, thank you. And I wish your friend well, thank you both very much.

RONNIE SUE AMBROSINO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I do want to squeeze this in before we go -- thank you.

Before we go, I want to say, welcome home and congratulations to this incredible woman. The NASA astronaut returned to earth today after a record breaking 328 days in space. It is the longest single space flight by a woman. And while she was at the International Space Station, she was also part of the first all-female space walk.