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President Trump Unshackled?; Candidates Campaign in New Hampshire; No Evidence of Engine Failure in Kobe Bryant Helicopter Crash. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 07, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:18]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We have the breaking news now just in. The NTSB has just released this preliminary report regarding that helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven other individuals, so many parents and their own children, that happening two Sundays ago.

Investigators say -- this is the headline -- investigators say there was -- quote -- "no evidence" of engine failure.

Let's go straight to Nick Watt, who I know has been covering this crash for the last few weeks.

You have read this report. Run through it for me.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Brooke, this is a 10-page report.

It's important to note that these are just the facts. There's no analysis, there is no conclusion, but, as you just mentioned, this is possibly the key line from that report.

It says: "Viewable sections of the engine showed no evidence of an uncontained or catastrophic internal failure," so no indication that the engine failed and that is what led to the crash.

Also, examination of the main and tail rotor assemblies found damage consistent with powered rotation at the time of impact. As you also mentioned, the weather is an issue here, a potential cause of this crash.

The NTSB had asked people to send in photographs, videos of the weather that morning in the Calabasas area, and they say that that evidence depicts fog and low clouds obscuring the hilltop.

It also says that the helicopter was not equipped with a flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder. So, they are hoping to rely on the pilot's iPad, which was loaded with a flight app. They have not still said that they have confirmed that the iPad they found in the wreckage belongs to the pilot. They haven't examined that yet. They will try to, as they say, get inside his head to figure out what decisions he made and why he made them, but they can draw no conclusions, they cannot suspect him of doing something. It all has to be led by the facts. That iPad, they hope, will provide some of those facts.

About the pilot, they say he was 50 years old, was experienced, and they say the helicopter itself, all inspections were up to date. For a full report, for the full conclusion, that could take, Brooke, another year or more.

And we're also learning that there will now be a memorial for Kobe Bryant Monday, February 24, at the Staples Center here in Los Angeles -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Fittingly, the date, 2/24, to his daughter's jersey number, 24, his.

Nick, thank you.

Let's just get some analysis from this 10-page summary from the NTSB.

With me on the phone, CNN aviation analyst Justin Green.

Justin, tell me, you know, when you're hearing they're saying no evidence of engine failure, what does that tell you?

JUSTIN GREEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, a lot of times, spatial disorientation, which is suspected here, that the pilot entered, you know, the weather, the clouds, and lost control of the aircraft, it's done by process of elimination.

So, you know, without a cockpit voice recorder, without kind of knowing what the pilot might have been saying inside the aircraft, you have to rule out essentially all other potential causes.

So the first thing you look at, was the aircraft powered? The answer to that seems to be in the preliminary report that it was. Second, are there, you know, issues relating to the main rotor system or the tail rotor system? From the preliminary, it looks like they don't see those issues.

So, right now, they have really kind of started the elimination of potential causes, which would kind of narrow down the actual cause.

And the key point -- and your last guest made it -- is that this is a preliminary report. It's just a factual report. And the full investigation is going to take quite some time. They're going to do a complete tear-down of the engines. Right now, the word was, they looked at the visible parts of the engine. But there is a lot more investigation to be done.

BALDWIN: All right. Justin Green, thank you very much.

As soon as we get any more, we will pass it along. Let's talk 2020, the race for president here. The final sprint toward

New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary is in full swing. And the Democratic field is blanketing the state ahead of Tuesday's contest, of course, in search of votes, and also, for some, a badly needed boost after the Iowa caucuses.

And while the official tally won't come for a couple more days, here is how things stand right now. This is according to a new Monmouth poll. Check it out with me. Senator Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg hold the top spots, followed by Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Dana Bash is CNN's chief political correspondent. She is in Manchester, New Hampshire.

[15:05:00]

And, Dana, Joe Biden called his fourth-place finish in Iowa a gut punch. You know, despite that, we haven't seen a whole heck of a lot of him there on the trail in New Hampshire. You know, I was reading "The Washington Post" this morning. They actually went so far as to say the former vice president has gone, their word is missing.

I'm just curious what's your sense? Do you think he is just hunkering down ahead of tonight's debate, knowing the stakes are so high?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly what I'm told.

Apparently he's not missing. I was just texting with an aide who insists that he is in debate prep. He has very much been seen. But, look, it speaks to where he is, the reality of where he is right now post-Iowa, which is, this debate tonight is -- I don't want to go as far as saying do or die, but it is critically, critically important for the vice president, the former vice president.

We have seen so many debates where, you know, other people were really shining and he was considered, you know, kind of status quo. This is one of those debates where he's got to do much better than status quo, because of what you just said about the poll, but, more importantly, the results or at least where we think the results might be out of Iowa, and where we are right now, where I am, in New Hampshire, because it's not as if, you know, coming out of New Hampshire, the campaign thinks -- coming out of Iowa, rather, the campaign thinks that he's going to, you know, kind of skyrocket because he's got a really big well of support here.

It's not the case, because you have Bernie Sanders, who is a neighboring senator who did incredibly well here four years ago. You have Elizabeth Warren, who is a neighboring senator who is very popular here, and Pete Buttigieg is riding that wave.

So you have all of those factors, which is why it is pretty clear that the Biden campaign is trying to make it as easy as possible for him to do well. And that, for him, is prep.

BALDWIN: What about -- you mentioned Elizabeth Warren, right? So she also needs a strong debate tonight.

She has recently put a lot of money --

BASH: Yes.

BALDWIN: -- a lot more money into New Hampshire. As you point out, she's from neighboring state Massachusetts. Do you think that will help her?

BASH: It can't hurt, because, you know, in her campaign, they obviously understand that, although she did better than the former vice president in Iowa, she's also got to do very well here in New Hampshire.

And she is really competing for similar -- similar voting pools as Bernie Sanders, and that's just a reality for a lot of reasons. Now, you know, I saw, in talking to voters in Iowa, some of the way that voters looked at candidates won't -- didn't necessarily fit in the lane that they were in.

New Hampshire, it might be a bit different. And so, yes, it is critically important for her as well, because, remember, out of here in New Hampshire, it's Nevada, it's South Carolina and then it's a broad map.

BALDWIN: Super Tuesday.

BASH: And so it's a lot harder for -- exactly. It's a lot harder for candidates without significant resources. And compared to others, Elizabeth Warren has -- is doing OK.

But if you don't prove that you can do well, if you are Elizabeth Warren, really well in a state like New Hampshire, when you're from Massachusetts, it's very easy to see money drying up. And without money for any candidate who doesn't have a big -- you know, a big bank account on their own, it's hard to continue to compete when the map gets so big.

BALDWIN: Again, everyone goes to primaries Tuesday. Dana, thank you. We will look for you through the weekend.

The candidates may all be concentrating on New Hampshire, but their campaigns may not be leaving Iowa behind just yet. I say that because, four days after the disastrous caucuses, still no declared winner.

The Iowa Democratic Party has just extended the deadline on challenging the caucus results.

So, CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is all over this. He is in Des Moines.

And, Jeff, there are two new deadlines for these candidates to consider. Can you break this down for me?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Brooke. By noon tomorrow, the campaigns and the candidates are supposed to

report any inconsistencies they have seen in those Iowa caucus results to the Iowa Democratic Party. There has been a lot of discussion by these campaigns kind of complaining about inconsistent reporting of numbers and inconsistent things from caucus night.

So the party is saying, look, report those to us with evidence by Saturday at noon, and then by Monday at noon, if you want a revote or a recanvass or recount -- excuse me, not a revote, a recount -- you should ask for that by Monday at noon.

So, we will see if any of these campaigns actually do that. So far, there has not been any indication that they are.

But, Brooke, we're also seeing something else this afternoon that we have not seen before. The chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, Troy Price, is tweeting on his personal account something he has not yet said before.

Take a look at this. He said: "An independent investigation of what happened is necessary once we finalize the results."

[15:10:02]

So what I take to mean by that, Brooke, is, there has been a lot of finger-pointing between the Democratic National Committee essentially blaming things on Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party, of course, embarrassed by all of this, saying that they didn't have control over this.

So, calling for an independent investigation of all of this certainly is interesting, because the DNC, we do know, controls every aspect of the nominating contest and how they are voting here.

So long after the Iowa caucuses, long after this result is known, Brooke, there is going to be a lot of discussion about what happened here, but the reality is, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders neck and neck. Regardless of how that is, they're going to split the delegates.

And that is pretty interesting going forward here, choosing the youngest candidate and oldest candidate from different ideologic spectrums here. We'll see what the New Hampshire voters have to say about that next week, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will.

Jeff, thank you in Iowa.

ZELENY: And we will be there.

BALDWIN: And you will be there. You will indeed be there.

Meantime, the decorated veteran who testified at President Trump's impeachment hearings is expected to leave the White House sooner than planned. And the president is now retweeting messages that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman should be removed as soon as possible. Also, our breaking news, the NTSB is issuing its very first report on

that helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter, the seven others. We are now getting images showing the helicopter flying into the fog in low clouds before the crash.

So, we will share those pictures with you just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:53]

BALDWIN: We are back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

In the aftermath of President Trump's acquittal, former National Security Adviser John Bolton has been noticeably silent. You will remember sections of Bolton's book transcript were leaked during that impeachment trial.

He alleged President Trump directed him to get dirt on political rivals in Ukraine.

And CNN's Anderson Cooper sat down with all seven House impeachment managers to talk about what's next and whether they still want to hear from John Bolton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We reached out to John Bolton through his counsel after the senators voted down his testimony to see whether he would be willing to submit an affidavit under oath that would still be valuable during the trial.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Even if he wasn't coming to testify --

SCHIFF: Even if he wasn't going to come to testify.

COOPER: A sworn affidavit?

SCHIFF: A sworn affidavit. And he refused.

Now, he will have to explain at some point why he is willing to put this in a book, but not in after affidavit under oath.

COOPER: He is making paid speeches as well in which he drops sort of comments as well.

SCHIFF: Yes.

It is fairly inexplicable, but, frankly, it's more inexplicable that, when he was willing to come forward before the Senate, that the senators did not want to hear what he had to say.

And for those senators -- and there have been a few -- to say, we didn't need to hear from John Bolton because, basically, the House proved the president guilty, even without him, and we should let the voters decide, they could not explain why they don't want the voters to know the full facts.

COOPER: Did Bolton's attorneys explain to you why he would not even submit an affidavit?

SCHIFF: Not that I'm aware of, no, nor why he would distinguish between testimony in the House vs. the Senate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Don't miss this interview. It's a special hour on CNN at 8:00 Eastern.

One White House official who did testify in the impeachment trial may be leaving his post sooner than expected.

Sources telling CNN that Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman is expected to return to the Defense Department. His two-year stint at the White House is supposed to end in July, but, today, President Trump was asked about Vindman and whether he will be leaving soon.

And here is what he said:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm not happy with him. Do you think I'm supposed to be happy with him? I'm not.

QUESTION: Is he going to leave?

TRUMP: They will make that decision. You will be hearing --

QUESTION: Should he leave?

TRUMP: They will make a decision.

QUESTION: Should he leave?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) on the way out?

TRUMP: They are going to be making that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And then just a couple hours later, the president retweeted a tweet that Vindman should be removed ASAP.

CNN politics reporter and editor at large Chris Cillizza is here.

And so we know the lieutenant colonel isn't the only impeachment witness who has left his or her post.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: No, Brooke.

He's far from the only one. It's actually sort of remarkable, given that we're not that far removed from this, and we have just seen so much turnover. So, let's go through -- there's kind of two ways to look at this.

First, these are people who testified before the impeachment inquiry who left before their testimony. A couple things. Marie Yovanovitch wrote an op-ed this week in "The Washington Post" explaining that institutions need to be preserved.

She was not a political person. She was made into a political person. Also note, Kurt Volker, he resigned in September of 2019, right after the House announced three different investigations into all of this.

So he was in some ways the first casualty of all of it. But let's go to the next page, because there's plenty more here. This is after they testified. So, here is just one example.

Jennifer Williams, this is someone who was on Mike Pence's staff. Donald Trump called her a never-Trumper. There is zero evidence that Jennifer Williams is political at all, much less someone who is committed to hurting or hamstringing Donald Trump's presidency.

She has requested to leave before her time is up. Michael McKinley, former aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, expressly said that he resigned because he did not believe the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, one of Donald Trump's most loyal allies, was standing up for career Foreign Service officials.

And then, obviously, the man of the moment, the man in the news, Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman, again, a decorated military veteran, zero evidence of any political affiliation, partisan affiliation in any way, shape or form.

[15:20:05]

Not only did Donald Trump also, like Williams, refer to Vindman as a never-Trumper. Now we have him saying, they will -- as you played in that clip -- they will figure it out.

Well, who is they? And doesn't the president of the United States indicating that he kind of would like that to happen have some effect?

So what you have seen -- and we saw this with the Mueller investigation as well, but what you have seen, Brooke, is, Donald Trump leaves a lot of people in his wake.

The seven people we just showed up there, these four and the other three, none of those people are political people. They are almost to a person lifetime Foreign Service, national security professionals, all of whom who have had their tenures cut short because they touched this Ukraine investigation -- back to you.

BALDWIN: No, I want come back to Vindman with my next guest.

Chris, thank you for laying all that out.

Chris Whipple wrote the book "The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency."

And, so, Chris, nice to have you back.

CHRIS WHIPPLE, AUTHOR, "THE GATEKEEPERS: HOW THE WHITE HOUSE CHIEFS OF STAFF DEFINE EVERY PRESIDENCY": Good to be back.

BALDWIN: Just on Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, I had a former federal prosecutor come on last hour. And he was like, Brooke, this is textbook witness retaliation. What do you make of that?

WHIPPLE: Well, not only that.

Not only is it textbook retaliation, but you would think that if Donald Trump were smart, if he had any sense, any decency, he would simply leave Lieutenant Colonel Vindman alone and move on.

You know, one of the things -- but that's not who Donald Trump is. We saw who Donald Trump was in the East Room, where he gave that disgraceful performance --

BALDWIN: Sixty-two minutes.

WHIPPLE: -- when he attached the FBI and called them human scum.

That's who Donald Trump is. He's petty and he's vindictive. And, frankly, it's counterproductive to go after Vindman, because he runs the risk of reminding independent voters in all of those swing states about that parade of witnesses, public servants and diplomats who came forward, raised their right hands, and testified and told the truth.

They were, frankly, profiles in courage, especially compared to some of the administration officials who didn't have the guts to come forward, the Mick Mulvaney, the Mike Pompeo, and, frankly John, Bolton, who were -- let's face it, they were profiles in cowardice compared to those diplomats.

You would think that Donald Trump wouldn't want to remind people of that.

BALDWIN: Given what we're seeing now just in the last 24, 48 hours, what do you think a now acquitted President Trump looks like?

WHIPPLE: Well, I'm afraid that he thinks that he is now unleashed, unchained, unshackled, as it were.

He has a chief of staff now who is, frankly, just a sycophant. Donald Trump has never been interested in empowering a White House chief to tell him hard truths. He defies all the norms. And so we are now in a situation where he's politicized the Justice Department.

He wanted a Roy Cohn, and he found it in the form of Bill Barr. So, I think it's a very dangerous time. We saw what happened the day -- he is now past the Mueller report. He's past impeachment. We remember what happened on the day after the Mueller report.

BALDWIN: Picked up to call --

(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: -- Ukraine.

WHIPPLE: So I think we're headed into a dangerous time.

BALDWIN: You mentioned Mick Mulvaney, the current chief of staff. So we're hearing that he may go and could be replaced by one of the president's loudest, you know, allies in Congress, Mark Meadows.

And so, if that happens -- you talk about unshackled and emboldened. What may that chief of staff-president relationship do for him?

WHIPPLE: Well, I think the lesson from day one is that every president learns, sometimes the hard way, that you have to empower a White House chief of staff to execute your agenda and, most importantly, to have someone to tell you hard truths.

Donald Trump has never been interested in that. And Mick Mulvaney was a perfect example. He actually made John Kelly look like Nostradamus, because you remember Kelly famously said to Trump that, if you choose a yes-man to replace me, you will be impeached.

He choose Mulvaney. Bingo. He was impeached. That's forever. It's on his legacy. If he chooses another cheerleader like Mulvaney, then I think he's headed for more trouble, not less.

BALDWIN: Chris Whipple, thank you very much.

WHIPPLE: My pleasure.

BALDWIN: One of the key witnesses in the impeachment hearings, former Ambassador Bill Taylor, just sat down for an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper. You can watch all of that in full next hour on "THE LEAD."

Getting you back to the breaking news on Kobe Bryant, the NTSB has just issued its first report on the crash that killed the basketball superstar and father.

It includes images showing the helicopter flying into the fog, remember, right around that area in Calabasas. It was bad weather, low clouds before the crash.

What those images and the report can tell us -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:57]

BALDWIN: Here is more on our breaking news.

The NTSB has just released this preliminary report about that helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, seven others just nearly two weeks ago.