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14 Americans Test Positive For Coronavirus After Being Evacuated; 1,100+ Former DOJ Officials Cal On Barr To Resign; Nevada Caucuses Less Than A Week Out, Early Voting Underway. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: -- have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus, that is after they were evacuated from the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship in Japan.

[10:00:07]

Those passengers were part of a larger group of more than 300 U.S. citizens taken off a ship and flown to military bases here in the United States. They will now be kept in isolation.

Meantime, back on that ship, the largest single day jump in cases of the deadly virus to date, 99 more people testing positive. Just last hour, I spoke with the U.S. passenger who chose to stay on the ship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW SMITH, PASSENGER ON DIAMOND PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP: It is nothing short of a completely surreal experience and I told someone the other day, I thought it was like an episode of The Twilight Zone inside of an episode of The Outer Limits in a painting by Salvador Dali.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So that is one way to describe it.

We are covering this breaking story with our team around the world and here in the U.S. CNN International Correspondent Will Ripley is in Yokohama, Japan, CNN Correspondent Lucy Kafanov is in Fairfield, California. She's at Travis Air Force Base. That's where some of the evacuees are now staying.

So, Lucy, as we begin here, what happens now for these folks that they're back in the U.S.?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erica, you know, one crisis averted, they're finally off that ship, but now that countdown restarts and the passengers who arrived here at the Travis Air Field as well as those who landed in Texas now effectively face two more weeks under quarantine. They can't quite go home. But still I'm sure some feel like they've dodged a bullet, those number of infected rising on the ship. And here, at least, they're going to be monitored. We know that they'll have temperature checks twice a day, they'll have access to CDC and health officials, they'll be able to Skype with friends and family, they'll be able to -- they'll have to stay on base, but at least they'll be able to leave the facility in which they're housed and walk around and get fresh air, not like being cramped, confined in those cramped quartered on the ship.

Now, the big question on everyone's mind is how is it that those 14 infected Americans were allowed to come back to the United States because, remember, there are more than two dozen Americans who were diagnosed with that virus who weren't allowed to board the planes back home.

We're learning that it appears that those diagnoses were learned by U.S. officials after the Americans got off the cruise ship. They were being sent on their way to the planes when it was determined that they are infected. None of them were displaying symptoms, but they were put in special isolation quarters on the plane.

And we just checked before going on air whether there's any word on whether they'll be kept on the base or taken to hospitals. Officials are not commenting here. But it is likely that they'll be kept separate, of course, from those other healthy passengers, Erica.

HILL: All right. Lucy, thank you.

Will, meantime, I know you have some more information about the situation on board the ship itself.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, we continued to see the number of confirmed cases spike in recent days. 67 on Saturday, 70 on Sunday, and then 99 confirmed today during the overnight hours, 169 confirmed cases just in the last 24 hours.

It is alarming on the surface, but the important context is that Japanese health authorities are now, for the first time since this quarantine began, testing everybody on the ship. Previously, they were only testing people who had a fever or showing symptoms or had direct contact with someone who tested positive. But a lot of these new cases are people who were asymptomatic.

So it might be simply we're just now learning about these cases, but there were a lot more people infected on the ship than previously known. And they still have about 2,000 people that they need to test, so it wouldn't be a shocker to see the number of cases continue to rise here in Yokohama, even though the Americans are now off, there are still people from many other countries who are on this ship.

For those Americans, the journey home, may be not exactly what they were expecting in terms of how long things took, it was almost ten hours just to get them off the boat on to a convoy of waiting buses and then to drive 20 minutes to the airport, Haneda Airport here in Tokyo.

And, of course, the biggest frustration for some of the passengers is learning that they're going to have to endure the 14-day quarantine there in California, you just saw, and also in Texas. But I think it all depends on your frame of mind. And so we are hearing from people that have very different views of the same situation. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREY MANISCALCO, CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: They have sent over a dozen emails assuring us that there would not be additional quarantine. And they just told us that we would be re-quarantined for 14 more days. I've just lost a whole month of my life.

GAY COURTER, CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: I want to go somewhere where I can feel safe. And I just want to thank President Trump and the U.S. government, there has been a lot of silence on this and now we know silence has been putting together a brilliant plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: In a lot of ways, Erica, the whole experience of this really has varied from person to person depending on how they look at it.

[10:05:02]

Some people see it as an adventure, some people see it as an absolute nightmare. But regardless, they're one step closer now, the Americans were back in the states to finally getting back to their homes and their lives, which have been on hold for so long.

HILL: Will Ripley with the latest for us, from Yokohama, Will, thank you.

Also this morning, a scathing letter and a stunning rebuke, more than 1,100 former DOJ officials calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign. They're asking current DOJ officials, employees to honor their oaths by taking appropriate action to defend non-partisan apolitical justice.

Joining me now, Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and signee of the letter.

Elie, we know the Justice Department is under intense scrutiny right now over its handling of cases involving associates of President Trump. You and I talked a lot about this. What made you decide though to sign this letter, which calls for Barr's resignation?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. So, Erica, I'm aware that's fairly extreme act, but here is the thing, being a federal prosecutor is a great job in a lot of ways. One of the best things about it is you just get to do your job, do what's right, you deal with the facts and the law dictate in any given case. Politics never does, or in my experience, never did and should never enter into the equation. And I think that's changing now in a fundamental way with the way Bill Barr has handled himself throughout his first year on the ground, culminating last week with Roger Stone.

HILL: So, some of the things that you point out too and that we see in this letter, so it calls into question the attorney general's actions, calls for him to resign, but you're also calling on current employees to speak up, to report anything they see that is out of bounds or untowards.

HONIG: Yes, I think courage is contagious. And we saw it last week when the four prosecutors who had tried and convicted Roger Stone and then been publicly undercut by Barr, which such an unusual move, stood up and resigned either from the case or the Justice Department. And I'd like all the women and men who work at the Justice Department now to know that it is still okay to do the right thing. They can and should stand up against political influence, and that at least the 1,100 of us, alums who are out here in the real world, support them if they take that brave stance.

HILL: What do you think the impression of when it comes to the American people? What's the impression of the Justice Department these days?

HONIG: So the impression really matters, because the Justice Department has long been known for credibility, you can believe what they say, and for independence, for standing separate and apart from political influence.

And I think that impression, that public confidence is really being shaken by what we've seen from Bill Barr throughout his tenure, misstating Robert Mueller's findings, trying to keep the whistleblower complaint from going to Congress, even though the law said it should, interfering in the Michael Flynn case, interfering in the Roger Stone case. I think it's hard to look at all of those actions and make any conclusion other than that Bill Barr is really carrying out Donald Trump's political agenda.

HILL: There is always some concern when there is a political appointee in an office. When you're looking at the Department of Justice, the fact that it's led by the attorney general, who is appointed by the president, do you think that needs to change?

HONIG: No, I think it's the right way to do it. I think we found the right sort of balance over the years. That balance is being upset. Now, a lot of people are asking, well, where is the line? To me, it is perfectly normal and common for an attorney general to implement the policy preferences of a president.

So I was there through almost half my time under Republican administration, half my time under Democratic administration, four or five attorneys general, it is perfectly normal for a president to say, we're going to emphasize this kind of case, some presidents and attorneys general say, we're going to emphasize drug and gun cases, others say corruption and fraud cases, completely normal, policy is in play.

Where you step over the line is when you start getting involved in individual specific criminal cases, like Roger Stone. And that's why what happened last week, I think, was so problematic.

HILL: Really quickly, you talk about in the letter that you signed, it references the justice manual.

HONIG: Right.

HILL: But the bottom line is that manual isn't law, right? We're talking more about norms here. So how do you actually enforce that?

HONIG: Yes. So -- exactly. The justice manual is a book that every prosecutor gets, it's public, it's online, but that sets forth sort of the big picture dictate of DOJ. Yes, it's not a law, but norms. This is all about norms and protecting the idea that justice stands alone, the Department of Justice, and needs to be left out of politics and power like that (ph).

HILL: Yes or no, do you think Barr will resign?

HONIG: No way.

HILL: Thank you.

HONIG: Can't hurt to try though.

HILL: Thanks, Elie.

Just ahead for us, Mike Bloomberg spending hundreds of millions as he rises in the polls, prompting Democrats to unite and take aim.

Plus, some Bernie Sanders supporters accused of threatening members of Nevada's largest union and now former Vice President Joe Biden says Sanders hasn't done enough to condemn those alleged attacks. We'll speak with an official from that union.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:10:00]

HILL: We are just five days away from the Nevada caucuses and Democratic caucus-goers are already showing up in force, more than 18,000 people taking part in early voting on Saturday.

Despite that big turnout, there are growing concerns about the process for reporting results and fears of a repeat of that debacle in Iowa.

CNN's Athena Jones is on the trail in Reno.

So, Athena, at the end of the day, voters are still submitting their votes through a web-based technology in most cases and the biggest question is is that secure. Do we know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Erica. Well, party officials are saying that it is secure. The Nevada Democratic Party consulted with experts at Google.

[10:15:00]

They consulted with experts at the Department of Homeland Security. They also worked with the Democratic National Committee to update this reporting process to make sure that there is a two-source reporting process here.

But one thing I want to mention before we go into that, and that is that 18,000 number, it's nearly 19,000, and that number of people who came out to early vote or early caucus on the first day ever of early caucusing in the state of Nevada, that number already is about 20 percent, more than 20 percent of the entire caucusing electorate back in 2016. So that's why you're hearing party officials say they're enthusiastic -- they're happy about the enthusiastic turnout and believe that overall turnout could set new records.

But, of course, one of the big questions is will they be able to report out the results and will there be a debacle like we saw in Iowa? Well, that is why party officials here are not using that app. But as you mentioned, they are using some web-based devices. You check in on a Google Form and you access this caucus calculator through a secure Google Form.

Now, the chair of the Democratic Party here, William McCurdy, has said they are working day and night, around the clock to make sure that volunteers are trained on using this calculator and to make sure that the product is tested. They also point out that you can revert to pen and paper here. So that may allay some of the concerns.

But, you know, one precinct -- one caucus site leader said on CNN that, look, this is an untested caucus tool, fine. In Iowa you called it an app, here you're calling it a tool, there are still some doubts among some people that it might still go awry. But that is what Nevada party officials are hoping to avoid with the training and testing. Erica?

HILL: That's what officials are hoping for. What about in terms of folks you've met, talked with on the ground, are voters confident at this point in the process?

JONES: Well, this is interesting, because with early voting, one of the big concerns, at least on Saturday, was the long lines. You had caucus sites around Las Vegas where people were waiting 3.5 hours. By yesterday, that was down to maybe 45 minutes to 90 minutes.

So at first, the concerns at least on Saturday didn't have to do with an app or anything, they had to do with not having enough volunteers to check people in. So if you talk to voters, you're saying, look, at least I'm writing it down on a piece of paper, I feel like this might be secure, but, of course, everyone is waiting to see how it all really shakes out. Erica?

HILL: We will be watching and I know you will be, Athena, thank you.

Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst and National Politics Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Sabrina Siddiqui, also with us, Brittany Shepherd, National Politics Reporter for Yahoo News. Great to have both of you here.

As we look at those early turnout numbers, as Athena pointed out, the fact that this is almost 20 percent of what we saw from the electorate in 2016, officials, Sabrina, are really seizing on that number to talk about enthusiasm, to talk about people getting out there. What should we make of that number?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's early to say. These are, of course, the numbers coming from early voting. A lot depends on how many people actually show up to caucus next Saturday. But I think the bigger concern surrounding Nevada is whether or not they're heading for the kind of debacle we saw in Iowa. There are obviously officials from the state party there trying to allay concerns about the process.

But as Athena pointed out, there are many volunteers who have privately complained that they don't believe the training has been sufficient since the state party opted not to use the kind of app that was used in Iowa, but to still rely effectively on an electronic system to tally votes, and that includes the use of these iPads and a Google Form to submit results. There also have been concerns about whether or not the internet connection across these roughly 2,000 precincts is going to be reliable and secure.

And it's hard to really overstate how much is at stake in Nevada after those first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. This is not only the third state on the primary calendar, it's also the first state that has a significant population of non-white voters. So it could really either cement the status of the race as it currently stands with Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg as clear frontrunners or it could change the trajectory of the race if Elizabeth Warren is able to mount a comeback, if Amy Klobuchar builds on her momentum coming out of New Hampshire, if Joe Biden is somehow able to resurrect his campaign.

So there's really a lot at stake here. And I think that's why party officials are trying to emphasize turnout, really refocus this on the conversation around enthusiasm, despite the fact that there are very real concerns about the process.

HILL: Very real concerns about that process. And, yes, it could change the trajectory for the candidates. But there's also the impact, Brittany, on voters themselves and not just those who may be, you know, getting ready to caucus or even cast an early vote in Nevada, it's across the country as we look at these other contests that are coming up, of course, South Carolina and on.

If there is any sort of issue, any concerns about security or about whether votes are actually being counted and the caucuses are being tallied properly, that also has a broader impact, Brittany, on voters in general across the country and how they feel about the process.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, YAHOO NEWS: Well, certainly, if there is a blowup in Nevada, like we saw in Iowa, voters across South Carolina and Super Tuesday states might call into question the validity of the state of play, right? And candidates might be able to capitalize on that, someone like Joe Biden, who hasn't seen lush returns like he thought can say, you know what, well, this technology isn't working but enthusiasm is there for me and they can try to rewrite the actual narrative of what's happening if there is another technology blowup. And I think that's what we should be looking towards in South Carolina, which is happening just a week after Nevada, these candidates kind of distancing themselves from voting processes, not been as clear as it has been in previous races. There is such a tight race in the centrist part of the Democratic Party and towards the top of the ticket that I think this entire early state process might be called into question in elections going forward. And I think you're going to hear that kind of rhetoric coming out of the campaigns going into South Carolina.

HILL: We're looking at those who are part of it and who are not, Michael Bloomberg, feeling the heat increasingly, right, even though, obviously, he's focused mostly on Super Tuesday, as we know. But when we look at what is coming out, audio that surfaced from years past, comments he made in years past about stop-and-frisk, about redlining, and then over the weekend, once again, these comments resurfacing, attributed to Michael Bloomberg that are disparaging, to put it mildly, but comments that he allegedly made about women and pregnant women and the culture that that set at Bloomberg as a company. He said on Saturday, always be a champion for women in the workplace.

Sabrina, what does he have to do to convince voters that he is, in fact, a champion for women?

SIDDIQUI: Well, the campaign of Michael Bloomberg has issued a statement in which he has apologized for some of his previous remarks about women and certainly within the moment in this -- in culture where we are right now with the Me Too Movement. Of course, the comments that he made in the past are going to be looked at in a different light. I think that the fact that we're even talking about the impact that those statements might have on his campaign speaks to the way in which Michael Bloomberg has emerged as a factor in this race to despite entering the race the at a very late stage November.

And it does also signal that some of his rivals are perhaps trying to draw scrutiny over his record, not just on women, but as you pointed out, also on race relations with the conversation around his very controversial stop-and-frisk policy in New York. And that is, of course, because he has been able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, a number that eclipses the amount spent by not just the entire Democratic field combined, but also that spent so far by President Trump's re-election campaign.

And so he hasn't competed in the early states, he's primarily looking at Super Tuesday as a pathway in. But the fact that there is more scrutiny around his record, that really is because of Joe Biden has faltered and there is room for perhaps an alternative to someone like Bernie Sanders and that moderate wing of the party.

HILL: Brittany, I want to let you get the last word there to weigh in.

SHEPHERD: Well, also you've heard from other candidates like Amy Klobuchar saying that she wants to contest Michael Bloomberg on a debate stage and the debate cutoff for Nevada is tomorrow. Mike Bloomberg is just one poll away from qualifying, just two polls away from qualifying in South Carolina. Bernie Sanders obviously had a really sharp attack against Mike Bloomberg, obviously, being a billionaire, who's a foil to his campaign. And Mike Bloomberg himself could have dropped an attack-ish out on Twitter, saying that the Bernie Bros are the kind of negativity they don't want in the Democratic Party.

So I think if Mike Bloomberg does take the stage, that kind of scrutiny that you heard from Sabrina will really come into focus, laser focus.

HILL: Brittany Shepherd, Sabrina Siddiqui, thank you both.

SIDDIQUI: Thank you.

SHEPHERD: Thank you.

HILL: This week on CNN, we have five town halls for you. Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Biden and Warren will all be live in Las Vegas ahead of the next critical vote. And you can watch three town halls tomorrow night starting at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. We have two more for you on Thursday starting at 8:00, all right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

HILL: More now on that statement from more than 1,100 former DOJ officials calling on Attorney General William Barr to resign over his recent handling of high profile cases involving associates of President Trump.

I'm joined now by Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks, who also serves on both the Foreign Affairs and Financial Services Committee. Sir, good to have you in with us this morning. I'm interested in your take on this letter. We spoke with two former federal prosecutors this morning, both of whom signed the letter, felt that they needed to in a show of solidarity and to also call this out. Neither one believes that the attorney general will resign. What do you make of this effort?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): I think that -- I'm a former prosecutor also. What you want as a prosecutor is complete independence from any outside sources, particularly for someone who might be the president of the United States or the governor or mayor and things of that nature, because integrity is all that matters. You want the integrity in your investigations.

And what is happening with Barr, either in fact or the appearance of the moving in, specifically when you talk about cases that are closer to the president, it seems as though he's been the president's lawyer inside and on that side, and that thereby hurting the integrity and the independence of those career prosecutors who really just want to do their jobs.

[10:30:02] HILL: Do you think he needs to resign?

MEEKS: Well, I have long thought that maybe he should resign because he's not standing up for policy, seems to be --

[10:30:00]