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Federal Judges' Association Calls Emergency Meeting After DOJ Intervenes in Roger Stone's Case; Judge to Hear from Roger Stone's Defense Team and DOJ Amid Sentencing Chaos Today; One Hundred and Fifty-Plus Quarantined Americans to Be Released Today; Mike Bloomberg Qualifies for Democratic Debate in Nevada. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 18, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:14]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. Good to be with you. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

He is in. Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg qualifies for tomorrow's Democratic debate setting the stage for a tense battle with his Democratic rivals who say he's buying his way into this election. So far, Bloomberg has shelled out more than $400 million in ads.

And this morning, a new poll appears to show that it's working. Look at this. OK. There you see Bernie Sanders on top surging to 31 percent support nationally. But Bloomberg has risen all the way to the second spot coming in at 19 percent of national support. These two already throwing jabs. So tomorrow could get feisty.

Let's go to our Cristina Alesci who is following the Bloomberg campaign very closely along with Arlette Saenz.

Arlette, break those numbers down for us. How significant is it to see him there?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, this new national poll isn't just showing us that Michael Bloomberg will be on the debate stage tomorrow but it's also showing major gains for both Michael Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders. And if you take a look at this same poll compared to when they released a poll in December, Bernie Sanders is up nine points, far and away leading the pack right now.

Then he is followed by Michael Bloomberg who is up 15 points since this poll was conducted back in December. You're seeing Joe Biden in third place. He's dropped nine points. Elizabeth Warren has also dropped a little bit, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg has also dropped five points while Klobuchar has gained. So you're seeing quite a bit of movement within the Democratic field on the national scale right now.

But then if you also take a look at head-to-head matchups between these Democratic contenders and President Trump. Right now Joe Biden is the one who is actually the furthest leading Trump in those head- to-head matchups. He's at 50 percent and Donald Trump at 44 percent. He's then followed by Michael Bloomberg which is at 48 percent, President Trump at 44 percent and Bernie Sanders, 48 versus 45 against President Trump.

So this is all coming as the Democrats are preparing to take the stage. There will be six contenders. Michael Bloomberg being on that stage for the first time against his Democratic rivals where he could take quite a bit of incoming fire -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. I think that's a pretty sure bet, Arlette. Thank you so much.

All right. Let's turn to Cristina Alesci. You've covered this campaign before it was a campaign very closely. He wasn't going to run and then he's running, and you've been on top of it all. Let's just start with his strategy. What do you know about Mayor Bloomberg's strategy going into his first debate tomorrow night?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So the campaign is keeping this very close to the vest.

HARLOW: Yes.

ALESCI: But based on my reporting it looks like they're going to try and take a very strong hit at Bernie Sanders.

HARLOW: OK.

ALESCI: And we saw a preview of that yesterday when they released that ad really criticizing Bernie Sanders for not doing more to curb some of his supporters who use these aggressive tactics on social media. So they may try and make this case that Bernie Sanders is being divisive.

But, listen, Michael Bloomberg has spent $400 million to get on that debate stage. Now he has to prove that he has what it takes to confront his opponents head on because if you go -- and I've been to the rallies. You go to the rallies. Michael Bloomberg is very scripted. He doesn't take questions from the audience. This is the first time --

HARLOW: Yes.

ALESCI: -- that voters are going to see him interact and have to deal with information real time and take that fire and not hide behind the ads.

HARLOW: And let's just -- OK, I've interviewed him before. He doesn't always love tough questions.

ALESCI: Oh, boy.

HARLOW: So, you know, it's going to be really interesting to see how he responds on the debate stage. You know this. Looking at the numbers, he has not made any ad spend, though, in Nevada, in South Carolina. He's been skipping those four first states.

ALESCI: Exactly.

HARLOW: How is he preparing for what will be hard questions from the moderators and from his opponents?

ALESCI: You definitely know him well. He has very little tolerance for questions, especially from reporters. He's preparing by doing what candidates do which is mock debates. And, you know, one of his campaign -- one of his most senior advisers is playing Bernie Sanders. They're doing a lot of role playing. They intentionally kept his schedule light this week so that he can do that. He has one event after the debate in Utah. But they purposely kept his schedule pretty clean this week.

But it's very clear that they want a three-way race or a three-way conversation. They want the conversation to be about Michael Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. In fact, his campaign, Bloomberg's campaign manager messaged me just before I got on set and he said the primary is now Bernie's to lose and Mike's to win. There's really no math for anyone else in the delegate race. So this is the story that they want to tell.

HARLOW: OK. It will all play out on stage tomorrow night.

Cristina, thank you very much. And Arlette, thank you.

[09:05:03]

Let's talk more about this. Our panel is here. CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Aisha Moody-Mills and Anna Palmer, senior Washington correspondent at Politico.

Ladies, thank you so much for being with me.

Aisha, let's talk about that and the expectations for Bloomberg come tomorrow night and the lack of practice as he takes the stage.

AISHA MOODIE-MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes, I think that, you know, he probably should be doing a bit of debate prep right now because he is going to get hurled at with questions about stop and frisk for sure and his tenure around mayor and all the comments that just came out that he seemed to very fluidly say over the last five or six years about how he felt about, you know, race relations, how he felt about crime, and who the perpetrators were.

And he's going to need to be prepared to take on his colleagues who are going to be attacking him around it, and answer some tough questions from the moderators as well. So this idea that he doesn't like to get into, you know, a tough debate or be able to -- isn't able to respond for himself, Well, that's going to all play out here. And it's really important when it comes down to this base of people who are going to be voting for him as well. He thinks he's siphoning off African-Americans. So he's going to need to be able to speak to us.

HARLOW: It's been -- a few thoughts. It's been interesting to see his polling nationally among African-American voters surge in the last few weeks as Biden's has fallen. We'll see what that means state by state.

But also, Anna, to Aisha's point about, you know, he doesn't like tough debates, I don't know that he doesn't like tough debates. I just -- I think the question is, as Politico put it in their piece, can he keep his cool when he gets asked those tough questions? Because I think any reporter who's interviewed him knows, you know -- you know, he'll often respond not exactly in the coolest manner if he doesn't like the question he's being asked.

ANNA PALMER, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Right. He can be pretty dismissive certainly. I think the question is going to be a lot of people are going to be tuning in. He has had the ability to flood the air waves and put out his message of what the candidate he wants to portray for America. The question is going to be, can he live up to that on the debate stage?

I think it's going to -- he's going to face questions like Aisha was saying but also I think that he's going to be facing questions about potential sexism, things in the workplace that he's going to have to answer to that he regularly does not like to when he is pressed because he will be pressed. How does he respond? Do voters think that he is the guy who can go up and match up against Donald Trump or does he seem like a hothead or, you know, somebody who's out of touch billionaire who's just spending his own largess to try to get on the ballot?

HARLOW: You know, talking about money, guys, Dana Bash did a fascinating interview with Jim Clyburn, obviously key when it comes to South Carolina, over the weekend. And she asked him about Tom Steyer, you know, polling in the double digits in Nevada and in South Carolina, and what money means in this race, right? And here was his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): I've always said money is the mother's milk of politics. He has money. And he has been spending it. And so I think that will always make a difference. Where was Bloomberg nationally among voters a month ago? But he has money. He's been spending it, and he's changed the calculations a lot. So for us to just pretend that money doesn't make a difference, that would be foolhardy. Money makes a difference. Steyer has it. He's been spending it, and he's reaping the rewards.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Aisha, money makes the difference. And up until tomorrow night, you know, the debate stage, it's going to be money that talks for Bloomberg in terms of the ads. But the debate is something different than that. And that's what Amy Klobuchar was calling for saying, I think I can beat him on the debate stage. Can the other candidates beat Bloomberg on the debate stage?

MOODIE-MILLS: Well, one, I want to go back to this money thing. Yes, money matters in politics. It's very expensive to wield a national campaign to fly from state to state to state to connect with voters. But all money ain't good money, and that's really what this boils down to. Bernie Sanders has a ton of money. Elizabeth Warren is raising money. Pete Buttigieg is raising money, but is that money coming from people

who are invested, dollar by dollar, in the message and the campaign? Because they feel compelled to participate? Because they believe in a vision of someone? Or are you just simply spending your own money as a vanity project to like market your way into name recognition?

HARLOW: Well --

MOODIE-MILLS: Those things matter. And I think that when we talk about money, like that's really an important distinction.

HARLOW: Yes.

MOODIE-MILLS: And I think that that's going to play out ultimately on the ground. On the debate stage, sure. It's great that like he's bought the polling -- that Bloomberg has, you know, gotten his polling numbers together. But we can now see him be able to have a conversation with people because he's not actually out there talking to people. He's not doing town halls. He's not connecting with voters.

And so I think that this debate stage is going to be really important because it matters that voters get to hear where candidates stand on the issues in their own words. And I do think that there are all the other people on the stage are practiced and prepared. They've been debating, they've been doing their town halls, they've been doing this for months. So it will be interesting to see how Bloomberg jumps into the fray.

HARLOW: Anna, do you think that that might be writing off Bloomberg too quickly? Because, yes, he spent $400 million but Tom Steyer spent almost $200 million nationally and he's not even registering anywhere near the top in this new PBS-NewsHour poll.

[09:10:10]

Is it something beyond the ad spend that's resonating with voters about Bloomberg?

PALMER: I mean, clearly his message, I do think, is actually resonating. I think a lot of that has to do with how poorly Joe Biden has done coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire and certainly when I talk to establishment Democrats, operatives and people in Washington, they are very nervous, and they are starting to coalesce around Mike Bloomberg as the answer, the antidote as they see it to a Bernie Sanders nomination.

And so I think he has the money. I think we are going to see he's going to be put to the test. How does he hold up on the debate stage? We also see them kind of tempering expectations. He hasn't maybe been speaking to voters. He hasn't been on the stage before. Others are more tested. So I think as long as he doesn't have a massive flop tomorrow, it's probably a win for the Bloomberg camp because listen, we're all talking about him all day long, today, tomorrow, and the following day.

HARLOW: Well, when you have a surge like that, you get the headlines, for sure.

PALMER: Right.

HARLOW: Thanks so much, Anna Palmer, Aisha Moodie-Mills. Appreciate it. We'll see what the debate brings.

Join CNN for a series of live town halls with several of the top 2020 Democrats. It is in Las Vegas ahead of this week's Nevada caucus. The two-night event starts tonight and continues on Thursday, 8:00 Eastern, only right here on CNN.

Still to come, members of a group of more than 1,000 federal judges calling for an emergency meeting. Why they say the Justice Department is in crisis. And this cannot wait.

Also, 13 coronavirus patients being treated in Omaha this morning. We'll give you a live update on their condition ahead.

And the deadly virus is having a major impact on China's economy. We'll talk to the president's top trade adviser Peter Navarro about what the fallout could be here in the United States, next.

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[09:15:00]

POPPY HARLOW, ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: All right, welcome back. So, in the wake of Attorney General Bill Barr's intervening in specific federal cases, "USA Today" is now reporting that a group of more than a thousand federal judges is calling an emergency meeting because they find what they call a crisis at the Justice Department so alarming they say they couldn't wait until their regularly scheduled conference this Spring to discuss it.

Let's talk about what this means. CNN Crime and Justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is here. How significant that this is being called -- by the way, the lead judge, leading this group is a Bush appointee.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's very significant. And you can tell the concern that the judiciary branch now has over what the president and what the Attorney General have done here. Just in the last week. So it is very significant. They were supposed to have this meeting in Spring. The woman, the judge as you said, she decided that they wanted to do

this meeting now. They needed to have this emergency meeting to discuss what's going on. So they're having this meeting today. It's going to be a telephone conference. And we'll see, they're calling it -- according to "USA Today", she's calling it a deepening crisis over what -- how politicized the Department of Justice has become.

And that is one of the reasons why they have decided to have this emergency meeting, this phone call today with this group of judges.

HARLOW: Also today, another phone call.

PROKUPECZ: Yes --

HARLOW: This is between the judge who essentially -- finally going to decide on whatever sentence Roger Stone gets and sign off on it. Judge Amy Berman Jackson is having a call today at 11:00 a.m. with the defense team and the prosecutors.

PROKUPECZ: Right, and the new prosecutors --

HARLOW: New prosecutors --

PROKUPECZ: That were just assigned to the case, because as we know, the four prosecutors who were initially prosecuted, Roger Stone withdrew from the case --

HARLOW: Right --

PROKUPECZ: Over the fact that Bill Barr intervened in the case. We don't know exactly what's going to happen today. It's billed as a scheduling conference. It's going to be a phone call. It could very well be that they postpone the sentencing --

HARLOW: Right --

PROKUPECZ: Because of all the drama surrounding the case. We'll know at around 11:00 a.m. But what's significant today, this is going to be the first time we hear from this judge.

HARLOW: Yes --

PROKUPECZ: Of course, she, too, has come under fire from the president. He's tweeted about her. So it's going to be interesting to see if she says anything in response to the four attorneys who withdrew from the case, and also --

HARLOW: Yes --

PROKUPECZ: Is she going to question the department --

HARLOW: Or ask questions about why they left?

PROKUPECZ: Exactly, what happened? Why all of a sudden, there's this change in the Department of Justice concerning Roger Stone's sentencing? HARLOW: And quickly, when was Stone supposed to be sentenced?

PROKUPECZ: Thursday --

HARLOW: Thursday --

PROKUPECZ: This is supposed to happen Thursday.

HARLOW: OK --

PROKUPECZ: It still could happen --

HARLOW: OK --

PROKUPECZ: But we'll know better today after 11:00.

HARLOW: And there's that motion for a new trial.

PROKUPECZ: Well, that too --

HARLOW: So --

PROKUPECZ: That's right --

HARLOW: Thank you, Shimon, I appreciate it. Let's talk about all of what's developed on that front. CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti joins us, and CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. Good morning, guys. Renato, let me just begin with you --

MARGARET TALEV, POLITICS & WHITE HOUSE EDITOR, AXIOS: Good morning --

HARLOW: And for example what Preet Bharara; the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York tweeted about this, quote, "I hope and expect that this means the judge will probe why the four prosecutors felt the need to withdraw from the Stone case." I mean, what do -- what do you expect to play out on this phone call?

RENATO MARIOTTI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: You know, it's a great question. And I think if the judge does get into this, it could be a can of worms. I think a lot of judges would want to hear from the Justice Department exactly what happened. But I -- you know, I think more likely her focus is going to be on going forward, how is this going to impact the Justice Department's ability to proceed on time?

Because this sentencing was scheduled for the 20th. It's right around the corner. I think what she wants to know is, is the Justice Department prepared to go forward? Has anything been raised by the defense that changes the circumstances here? She may ask some pointed questions about why the Justice Department changed its position on sentencing one day after it told her that the sentencing guidelines were appropriate. Such an unusual thing. I'm sure she's going to ask questions about that.

[09:20:00] HARLOW: So in terms of what this means for Bill Barr and the president and his ability to do his job independently as he complained about, Margaret, in that "ABC" interview, saying the president's tweets make it harder for him to do his job. The tweets haven't stopped. I mean, this morning, you see more tweets from the president specifically going after the Stone prosecutors, even repeating the words of a "Fox" commentator saying that, you know, not only does Stone need a lighter sentence, but needs an entirely new trial questioning, you know, the lead juror in this case. What does this mean for that continuing saga between the two?

TALEV: I mean, look, there's no other way to see this other than this is an inflection point and a real moment of crisis for the independence of the judiciary, the Justice Department, the prosecutorial system. We have talked often over the last three years about how President Trump stress tests different institutions. And the stress test now is there.

It's on judges and it's on the prosecutors inside his own government. And I think it is impossible to see the emergency call of these judges today separately from this letter that now has 2,000 signatories of former Justice Department officials from Republican as well as Democratic administrations calling on Barr to resign. There is a real effort now in this community to rally around judges to say we have to support judges who are following the guidelines of the law and to signal very strongly to the president and to his team and to the Attorney General to take politics and political considerations out of the administration of justice.

HARLOW: And you know, Renato, to Margaret's point, I mean, you now have more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials, veterans of both Democratic and Republican administrations calling on Barr to resign. And on top of that, you now have a judge, a U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, appointed by former President Bush, calling together this emergency meeting of a thousand judges to say there's a crisis at DOJ.

Where should the American people expect this to go in terms of actually changing anything or should they not?

MARIOTTI: Well, in the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the people who signed that letter, and we were pretty clear in the letter itself that we didn't expect Attorney General Barr to resign. I don't think anyone expects him to do that, even though that's what the letter called on him to do. But I think that what the concern is, and I think the message has been heard by Attorney General Barr, is that we have to have confidence and the public has to have confidence in our system going forward.

And we can't -- you know, the public can't believe that if you're a friend of the president, you're going to get special treatment. And so, I think that judges -- I can't presume to know exactly what they're going to talk about, but what I would expect is how they can restore confidence in the judiciary and in our system at a time in which the president on the one hand is attacking the judiciary for being biased. And in another -- on the other hand trying to do what he can to weight

the system in favor of his friends and associates.

HARLOW: Let me just turn the corner here before we have to go, because Margaret, John Bolton spoke last night, he actually not -- he didn't just speak at Duke. He did an interview. When generally in interviews, you attempt to get answers, substantive answers, especially from someone like John Bolton at such a pressing time, who has said that he would testify if subpoenaed.

But he didn't give a lot of answers last night. I mean, he called that the president has been wrong on North Korea and wrong on Iran. But when asked about the Ukraine phone call or anything substantive like that, he just, you know, teased his book. He's often identified himself as being a patriot, will declining to testify then dodging questions and teasing chapters of his book damages reputation or I guess just helps sell more books.

TALEV: Well, look, I think the book is eventually going to come out. It's not clear what parts of the book are going to be blacked out or not make the final cut. And it seems that that's certainly what he's negotiating for right now. It's either to get the White House and the NSC not to block sections or at least to juice book sales before the publication date next month.

But look, the house Democrats so far have decided not to subpoena him because they think politically, it's time to move on. I'm not sure that's going to change. I'm not sure that President Trump is going to be, you know, goaded into engaging by this. And so, there are real questions about what can come from this Peter Favor(ph) who did the interview yesterday, has worked for Republican and Democratic administrations on national security --

HARLOW: Yes --

TALEV: If anyone could get it out of John Bolton, he could, but he was not able to. So, Bolden has promised major new revelations on the Ukraine. A lot of people were saying, if they're so important, why don't you just tell us what they are.

HARLOW: Yes, and he has said because he can't. His hands are tied by the White House. Well, we'll see. He speaks again, I think on -- later this week at another university. So we'll see what happens --

TALEV: Yes --

[09:25:00]

HARLOW: Margaret, thanks, Renato --

TALEV: Thanks --

HARLOW: Appreciate it. This morning, more than 100 Americans quarantined at a military base in California. They will be free as several hundred more are just beginning their isolation. Of course, this is all tied to the coronavirus. We're also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stocks trending lower to start the shortened holiday week of trading. The coronavirus still has investors uneasy.

Apple stock taking a hit this morning after the tech giant warned the outbreak will affect its bottom line. Apple says it will likely miss earnings targets for the quarter because the virus has shut down all of its stores in China and halted manufacturing there for some time.

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