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Trump Congratulates Barr for Intervening in Roger Stone's Case; All Four Prosecutors Quit Roger Stone's Case After Justice Department Undercuts Sentencing Request; New Hampshire Primary Shows Voters Divided on Moderates and Progressives; Bernie Sanders Wins New Hampshire Primary; Interview with Andrew Yang on Dropping Out of Presidential Race. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 12, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:26]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Very good Wednesday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

We have a winner in New Hampshire. This time it is Bernie Sanders edging out Pete Buttigieg. Now this race has two frontrunners and a new fight in the moderate lane. Right behind Buttigieg, a surging Amy Klobuchar. Now rolling resources into Nevada. As for Joe Biden, he is going all in on South Carolina after a disappointing fifth place finish.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Two disappointing finishes in a row for Biden.

Also this morning an emboldened President Trump congratulating his attorney general for, quote, "taking charge." Seeming to indicate that Bob Barr -- Bill Barr had a direct hand in the Justice Department's move to undercut prosecutors' recommendations to sentence Trump ally Roger Stone. They wanted Stone to spend seven to nine years in prison for convictions, we should note, on several charges including lying to Congress and witness tampering.

Hours later, Trump called that very unfair and the sentencing request was watered down. Now four prosecutors who won that conviction, they've quit the case.

HARLOW: Clearly we have a lot to get to. Let's begin, though, with the results in New Hampshire. Our Phil Mattingly is here.

Phil, what do you think we should focus on when we look at how this all shook out?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you guys, I want to start with the top two basically, right? If you go back to 2016, Bernie Sanders just dominated New Hampshire. This was a different race, this was a different field. There was different money, there was different organizations. There were different results. But there is a reason Bernie Sanders won. Bernie Sanders won the three largest townships in the entire state.

Ran up some numbers there. And that's obviously important for him. And not unlike 2016, he also won big public university towns. A lot of progressive voters, a lot of younger voters.

If you want to go into Plymouth, into Keen, into Durham, these are big areas that Bernie Sanders did well in. But as I noted, this wasn't just a Bernie Sanders blowout. Pete Buttigieg keeping a very, very narrow just behind him on that. And the reason why is this, Pete Buttigieg punctured an area Bernie Sanders dominated back in 2016. And that's the Vermont border. And that's where Bernie Sanders is from. You see some light green there. That's Pete Buttigieg.

Pete Buttigieg also doing well in the southern part -- southeastern part of the area. It's populated, it's also affluent. It's a little bit more educated as well. So that's why Pete Buttigieg kind of made some cracks in where Bernie Sanders dominated back in 2016.

But, again, guys, Bernie Sanders got the win. Equal on the delegates side. Top two clearly coming out of New Hampshire.

HARLOW: And what about Senator Amy Klobuchar? She needed this night. Right? She had her sort of own comeback kid moment.

MATTINGLY: Yes, kind of wild that the senator that was totally focused on Iowa, because it was the next-door state, ended up having her moment in New Hampshire. And the reason why I think is twofold. One, if you look around at some of the dark green here, this is Amy Klobuchar here. Down here as well. A lot of these townships are actually Republican-leaning townships that she capitalized on with her message.

Also very clearly late deciders moving heavily towards her. Clear momentum coming out of the debate on Friday. And something to keep in mind out of all three of these top candidates, including Amy Klobuchar, there's no ideological lane necessarily in how these townships broke down. First, second and third, in whichever order it was, almost throughout the entire map, was Klobuchar, Sanders and Buttigieg.

Klobuchar was in the top three in almost every single township in the state. And that's why she ended up in the top three at the end, guys.

SCIUTTO: That's a big overperform. Phil Mattingly, thanks very much for the latest from New Hampshire.

CNN correspondent Jessica Dean joins us from Manchester. Also CNN political commentator Karen Finney. She's in D.C.

Karen, Buttigieg overperformed again here. I wonder, beyond a win, and it is a win, although equal on delegates here, is that the real surprise from these first two races?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think, yes, because, obviously, Bernie Sanders had a 22-point -- having been there last time -- 22-point blowout last -- in 2016. So to see another candidate come on so strong, someone who did not necessarily have a near state, a neighboring state advantage like we expected to see potentially with Warren.

I think the other big message, though, coming out of here, great news, obviously, for Amy Klobuchar, but if you look at the combined effect of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, and you look at the number of votes that -- and the percentage of vote that Bernie Sanders got, that shows us that this moderate --

HARLOW: Yes.

FINNEY: -- more far-left dynamic is going to continue to play out. Now when we get to Nevada and South Carolina where we have much more diverse populations, you know, Amy Klobuchar has her own issues, for example, with African-Americans. So we'll see how she is able to build those bridges and let's see how she does in those areas.

HARLOW: Yes. I think that record as a prosecutor in Minnesota, et cetera, is going to come much more into focus starting right now.

[09:05:05]

Jessica, so Joe Biden actually went to South Carolina last night. And that says a whole lot. Right? How much are they banking on, on that state?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's everything to them right now, Poppy. I mean, I think his travel plans yesterday which were announced, you know, midmorning, tell you everything you need to know. They saw the writing on the wall here in New Hampshire. They had previously said they didn't have to win here or in Iowa but they certainly did not anticipate the results that Phil Mattingly was just showing us. They did not think he would be that weak here in New Hampshire.

So now they are hinging all of Joe Biden's fortunes on, can -- you know, can he deliver on this promise that he can build this diverse coalition that when Hispanics and especially African-Americans start voting in bigger numbers in this primary process, can he deliver? So now he's not only expected to win South Carolina, he's really got to blow it out.

SCIUTTO: Karen Finney, a lot of talk about, of course, the division between progressives and more moderates in these races. I mean, do you learn anything by adding up the returns for Buttigieg, Klobuchar, even Biden against the returns for a Sanders and Warren, more for the progressive wing, or really is it a mixed message at this point about where voters, Democratic voters' preference for the general? Is it more of a moderate candidate? Is it more of a progressive candidate?

FINNEY: Right. Look, I think that's a great question because we're not quite sure yet, right? It could be that what voters are trying to say, and let me just say, I think we're going to have a long primary so we will be having this conversation many times over because that's what we saw in 2016 and 2008. Voters could be telling us that they maybe want someone more moderate. I think what they're -- what voters are trying to sort out is who can beat Donald Trump, right?

And so the question -- the challenge for Senator Sanders, he has now got to explain to the American people, to voters in these upcoming states, why socialism, Democratic socialism, as he defines it, can win in other parts of the country? Because remember, as we get to -- like some of these Super Tuesday states, they don't have -- they have more of a mix in terms of Democrats who are not necessarily to the far left. You have more centrist Democrats.

So I think voters are trying to sort out between the two, but the strength of Senator Sanders is something I think, you know, we all have to pay attention to because clearly there are parts of his message that are very strongly resonating in addition to the strength of his supporters. So whoever ends up taking this is going to have to figure out how to walk that balance as well.

SCIUTTO: No question. And we're going to have a lot of opportunities to measure out who walks that balance best going forward.

Jessica Dean, Karen Finney, thanks very much to both of you.

As some 2020 Democrats look to build off big nights in New Hampshire, others are dropping out of the race entirely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW YANG (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am the math guy. And it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining us now is former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Andrew, thank you, thank you for being here. It's never easy on a morning when you make such a tough decision. We appreciate your time.

SCIUTTO: For sure.

YANG: I appreciate you, Poppy and Jim. Thank you. It was a tough night for many people, but we're really proud of the race that we ran. And we're excited to keep making progress on the issues that so many Americans have come together to say that, you know, we need to actually improve people's lives here on the ground.

HARLOW: You know, I saw someone, I was at the book store yesterday in Brooklyn. And a man was in there with his daughter. And as he was walking out of the store, he had a math button on the back of his hat and it made me think about you, obviously.

You've changed, I think, the party, the race. What do you think you left it with in this process?

YANG: Well, I hope one of the big lessons that the other Democratic candidates take from my campaign is that we can't just run against Trump. We have to run against the reasons that got him elected. That he's the symptom of a disease that's been building up in our communities for years. And we have to get to the harder work of curing the disease.

Too many Americans do not feel like there's not a place for them in the 21st century economy, that is transforming before our eyes. That we need to start rebalancing the most extreme winner-take-all economy in the history of the world and put more economic resources directly into families' hands.

SCIUTTO: OK. You're out of the race now. Who is the Democratic candidate best able to do that, to counter not just Trump himself but trump the message in the general election? Are you endorsing anyone?

YANG: Well, right now we're still, obviously, like reflecting on our own campaign. I am already on the record saying I will support whoever the Democratic nominee is. And this process is very important for voters to make their voices heard and see what the direction of the party is. So no endorsements right now, although other candidates have been reaching out to me over the last number of hours which I appreciate a great deal.

[09:10:04]

HARLOW: Andrew, I think many people discounted you way too early. Many people didn't think you'd make it this far. Are you going to run again?

YANG: Well, certainly the problems that animated my campaign are not going away. And I'm not going away. You know, the Yang Gang is not going away. So the plan is to keep on pushing the ideas of this campaign across the finish line. So we're not going anywhere. And I would certainly not rule out running for office again.

SCIUTTO: OK. You are aware of the split in the party. You have your progressive candidates running. Sanders of course winning the primary in New Hampshire. You have more moderate candidates in Buttigieg perform willing in Iowa and New Hampshire. Who gives Democrats the best chance? What kind of candidate? A left-leaning candidate or more of a moderate?

To address the very problem you're talking about, which is again, not just to go after the man Trump, but Trump and the forces that elected him?

YANG: Well, I genuinely think that the spectrum that we've come up with for left-leaning versus moderate capitalism, socialism, the entire thing is really out of date. We never anticipated that technology would come along that could do the work of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. There's a friend of mine who said something I thought was really apt. He said we never knew that capitalism was going to get eaten by its son technology.

So to me the labels are not very useful. We have to try and push our market economy to a point where it's actually built around making us and our families stronger and healthier and not maximizing the bottom lines of these companies. I don't know if that's a moderate, centrist idea or left-leaning idea but that to me is the future.

HARLOW: Andrew, how do you feel about the bottom of the ticket? Do you want to be a vice presidential candidate?

YANG: I would certainly be honored to serve as someone's running mate. I'm already on the record too saying if I can solve these problems as someone's vice president, a member of an administration, we just need to start solving these problems for the next generation. And I'm happy to do my part. I'm also happy to do my part to campaign for the nominee and beat Donald Trump in the fall.

HARLOW: Andrew Yang, thank you for your time and also just want to say thank you to your wife for coming out a few weeks ago so bravely in that interview with our Dana Bash about what she endured and the sexual assault. I think she helped countless women in this country. So our thanks to her for her bravery as well. We'll see you soon.

YANG: Well, thank you both. See you back in New York. And I'll pass that along to Evelyn, Poppy.

HARLOW: OK.

SCIUTTO: Good luck to Andrew Yang.

Still to come this hour this morning, the president congratulating Attorney General Bill Barr for, quote, "taking action," but the backlash over the DOJ's decision to reduce its own sentencing recommendation. That coming from prosecutors assigned to the case for an ally of the president, Roger Stone.

HARLOW: And President Trump also indicating the military could take action, punitive action, potentially against Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. Are these power plays just another sign of an acquitted president unleashed?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: This morning, President Trump is congratulating on Twitter his hand-picked Attorney General Bill Barr for, quote, "taking charge of the Roger Stone case." The Justice Department is facing backlash and so many questions this morning after it undercut its own prosecutors.

JIM SCIUTTO, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Officials revised the sentencing recommendation for Stone, a long-time Trump ally, just hours after the president called that recommendation by the career prosecutors who brought it about unfair. That move prompting all four of those prosecutors to quit the case. Laura Jarrett, John Harwood, Susan Hennessey here to discuss.

Laura, you were covering this as it happened. Tell us how it happened, and for instance, was the president's comment about this via Twitter, was it connected to the Justice Department's decision? LAURA JARRETT, CNN CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Well, that was the big

case on everybody's -- a big question on everybody's mind yesterday. And even if the Justice Department is pushing back on the idea that there was some direct connection, you can't ignore the tweets. They're there. He made his opinion very clear. But it starts on Monday night with the Justice Department filing this routine memo. And what they say is the recommendation is seven to nine years. That's the statutory -- that's the sentencing guidelines --

SCIUTTO: So that number was not picked out of the blue? That was --

JARRETT: It's not picked out of the blue, and part of what's happening there is, there's a sentencing enhancement for the witness tampering. So that's why you see such -- you might think an extreme sentence there for the recommendation. Trump then tweets, mere hours later, DOJ does a complete about-face on this, putting out a statement saying, they're shocked by it. And then, what do we see?

One by one, all of these prosecutors start dropping off like flies, from this case and then finally the culmination of a new sentencing memorandum, and it reads like a defense brief, guys. I mean, they talk about Roger Stone's age. They say basically, he should be -- he should be given leniency.

HARLOW: A sentencing memo that reads like a defense. I mean, that's amazing. John, to you, you've written about this president unleashed. Because it's not just this. You know, it's the firing of Vindman, more firings are now going to come. A top Treasury Position taken away potentially from someone else.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Listen, Poppy, when you put it all together, the things that Laura just described, those other cases of retaliation, the statements he's made about Adam Schiff hasn't paid the price yet, the invitation to Rudy Giuliani to submit information about the Bidens to the Justice Department, there's no other way to look at this than as a straight-up assault on the rule of law.

[09:20:00]

And the question is, what will constrain it? The president, as I've written on cnn.com this morning, is the first American president we've had who does not recognize our society's distinctions between truth or falsity, right or wrong, morality or immorality. And that means there's every reason to expect more of this --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARWOOD: As we go forward. The one possible break on his actions are Republicans in the United States Senate. They have given no indication so far beyond mild and ineffectual expressions of concern that they're going to do anything about it.

SCIUTTO: Susan Hennessey, you were a lawyer on the National Security Council. Explain to us as a lawyer and for folks at home who might not understand how unusual this is, to have this kind of intervention, not just from the president, but from the Attorney General. I mean, these were career prosecutors as Laura noted, who were following sentencing guidelines here.

SUSAN HENNESSEY, FORMER ATTORNEY, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: Yes, one reason we're seeing such tremendous push-back, not just from the Department of Justice alone, but also from the prosecutors who have withdrawn from the case, at least one actually resigned from the department over this, is because this is such a -- it's totally an astonishing assault on the notion of independent law enforcement.

And this is really an overt politicization of what is supposed to be a political process. So, there are processes within the Department of Justice to determine who to investigate, who to prosecute and what sentencing -- what sentence is appropriate and sort of serve the interest of justice. Now, that's not a perfect process. It doesn't always produce faultless or uncontroversial results, but it is a process that's designed to be based on the interests of justice and not based on who is the president's friends and who are his political opponents.

And so what happened in this case is that process produced this recommendation, seven to nine years, consistent with the sentencing guidelines. And what occurred here is that because that wasn't favorable to the president's political allies and political friends, the Department of Justice reached in and changed the rules and overruled people below it. And that really is an incredibly dangerous development.

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HENNESSEY: And I think John is absolutely right. We should understand it as an assault on the rule of law.

HARLOW: Yet, it was, you know, fascinating to hear the way that national security adviser, Robert O'Brien defended the president yesterday in the wake of all of these actions. This after a number of Republican senators have said over the last week, they think the president learned a lesson from what he was impeached for. Here they were.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would think he would think twice before he did it again.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you confident the president is not going to simply ask another foreign power to investigate a political rival again?

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Yes, I think there are lessons that everybody can learn from it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the message has been delivered.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, why do you have that feeling that he has changed, that he learned a lesson? SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Well, I may not be correct on that. It's

more aspirational on my part. It's more that I hope that he's listened to the many voices and the Senate who have pointed out that the call was very problematic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Our Manu Raju just caught up with Senator Susan Collins on the Hill to press on whether she regrets the acquittal vote and how she defends that statement now. Manu Raju, what did Senator Collins have to say?

RAJU (via telephone): Well, she didn't exactly answer directly about whether or not she still believes the president learned a lesson from his actions. I asked her directly in light of the president's actions, do you think there's any lessons to be learned from being impeached. And so she said, I don't know what actions you're referring to, then she made clear that she was -- didn't think anyone should be retaliated against.

And then she said that has nothing to do with the basics by which I voted to acquit the president. And then she defended her vote to acquit the president, said the house did not meet its high bar to making the case to remove a president from office, something that has not happened in American history. I tried to interject as she was entering a committee hearing about whether she did think he learned any lessons?

And she didn't answer that, she continued her argument about why the president should not have been removed from office, and at the end, she told me, she said I don't know why you're equating the two. And then I said, well, do you think the president learned his lesson? Do you think he learned any lessons? And she entered the hearing room.

So, she didn't -- she's not -- she hasn't quite said exactly views on this, this week in light of what we have seen since last week's acquittal vote, the president's celebratory speech in the east room of the White House, defiant speech. Also the president's efforts to dismiss two impeachment witnesses and, of course, the news from yesterday about the president calling for a lighter sentence into Roger Stone, his ally -- something to the Justice Department is now pushing for it --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

RAJU: As well. So she -- so those are the actions that I was referring to, and whether she believes the president still may have learned a lesson. But she didn't quite say directly, instead, said that what she has seen here is a president who did not deserve to be removed from office based on what the house managers have presented. Guys?

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: All right, Manu Raju, thanks very much. HARLOW: Appreciate it, and thanks to Laura for your reporting. John

Harwood, Susan Hennessey, thanks. A major headline out of New Hampshire. Progressives versus moderates as you brought up, right? What does this mean for the two factions of the party, and could the division ultimately help the president? We'll talk to a lawmaker in support of Mayor Pete Buttigieg, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, welcome back. A clear take-away from New Hampshire. Democrats are divided. Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders edging out moderate, Pete Buttigieg, and then there's the moderate divide. Buttigieg facing some new pressure with a big surge for Senator Amy Klobuchar. With me now is Democratic Congresswoman of New Hampshire, Annie McLane Kuster. She is endorsing Mayor Buttigieg. So nice to have you.

END