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Roger Stone to be Sentenced Today; Democrat Face Off in Fiery Debate Ahead of Nevada Caucuses; Trump Ally Roger Stone Sentenced Amid Political Firestorm; Harvey Weinstein's Sexual Assault Trial Enter Day 3; Goldman Sachs Warns of Market Correction. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 20, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: All four prosecutors then quit the case.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And this could to the controversy this morning. The president signaling in a tweet a possible pardon for Stone.

We're on top of all those breaking developments.

SCIUTTO: It's truly remarkable. Also this morning an ugly Vegas hangover after Democrats' fiercest debate yet. Candidates pulling no punches as former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg made his debate debut. Who is taking a victory lap this morning?

HARLOW: Obviously a lot to get to this morning but first to the Stone case.

Sara Murray is outside the courthouse in D.C. All eyes are on the judge, frankly, that Stone attacked in the middle of all this, Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. And she is going to be the one who has the final say over what Stone's punishment should be for those crimes he's been convicted of, as you mentioned. Obstruction, lying to Congress, witness tampering. He was found guilty on all seven charges.

Now Stone has just arrived at court here today. The sentencing is going to get under way around 10:00 a.m. Stone and his attorneys have said he does not deserve any jailtime for this. Prosecutors originally asked for seven to nine years before this extraordinary set of circumstances that happened where Barr intervened in the case, called that sentencing excessive and they asked for a shorter duration of time.

Now obviously, we've also seen President Trump repeatedly intervene in this case. We saw him do it again overnight. He posted this tweet, it's from a FOX News host, saying, something like this should never happen again to anyone in our country about Roger Stone. Presumably meaning, I guess that you should never be sentenced for the crimes you're convicted of by a jury?

We've seen the president say over and over again that Roger Stone has been treated unfairly, that this judge is biased. That Stone deserves a new trial. So, of course, the other thing that we're all on high alert for today and the coming days is the possibility of a pardon from the president.

The other thing that we should remember is that no matter what the judge decides today, Amy Berman Jackson, even if she decides that Roger Stone deserves jailtime, he is not going to be detained today. Stone has asked for a new trial and the judge said she will consider that request before he begins serving out any sentence.

Back to you, guys.

SCIUTTO: Remarkable events to follow. Sara Murray at the courthouse, thanks very much.

Michael Bloomberg got hit hard and often in his first Democratic debate last night.

HARLOW: Arlette Saenz joins us from Las Vegas. We knew that he was going to face incoming. The question was, how was he going to deal with it. Bernie Sanders is leading most polls. Bloomberg, though, got the front-runner treatment last night.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he sure did. It was basically a Michael Bloomberg pile-on last night. And one candidate who appears to have benefited a bit from last night's performance is Elizabeth Warren. Her campaign saying they raised more than $2 million on debate day. All of the Democratic contenders came ready to fight last night in what was the most fiery and contentious debate yet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ (voice-over): The Democrats were ready to rumble in their first chance to debate against Michael Bloomberg.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The mayor says that he has a great record, that he's done these wonderful things. Well, the fact of the matter is, he has not managed his city very, very well when he was there.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you look at Donald Trump and say, we need someone richer in the White House.

SAENZ: Front-runner Bernie Sanders delivering the first blow.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In order to beat Donald Trump, we're going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States. Mr. Bloomberg had policies in New York City of stop and frisk. That is not a way you're going to grow voter turnout.

SAENZ: Bloomberg firing back at Sanders throughout the night. MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think there's

any chance of the senator beating President Trump.

What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?

SAENZ: Elizabeth Warren was ready to strike, zeroing in on the former New York City mayor's alleged treatment of women.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians and, no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg. But understand this. Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.

SAENZ: Fighting to keep her campaign alive, Warren delivered attack after attack against Bloomberg.

WARREN: He has gotten some number of women, dozens, who knows, to sign nondisclosure agreements both for sexual harassment and for gender discrimination in the workplace.

So, Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BLOOMBERG: We have a very few nondisclosure agreements.

WARREN: How many is that?

BLOOMBERG: Let me finish.

WARREN: How many is that?

BLOOMBERG: None of them accuse me of doing anything other than maybe they didn't like the joke I told.

[09:05:05]

They decided, when they made an agreement, that they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody's interest.

WARREN: No.

BIDEN: Come on.

BLOOMBERG: They signed the agreements, and that's what we're going to live with.

WARREN: I'm sorry. This is also a question about electability. We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. SAENZ: Pete Buttigieg made sure Bloomberg wasn't the only candidate on

stage with a target on his back.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Most Americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. Let's put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.

SAENZ: And a midwestern melee igniting when Buttigieg called out Amy Klobuchar for not remembering the name of Mexico's president in her recent interview.

KLOBUCHAR: I wish everyone was as perfect as you, Pete. Yes, that's right. And I said that I made an error. I think having a president that maybe is humble and is able to admit that here and there maybe wouldn't be a bad thing.

BUTTIGIEG: But you're staking your candidacy on your Washington experience.

KLOBUCHAR: Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me here, Pete?

BUTTIGIEG: I'm saying you shouldn't trivialize that knowledge.

KLOBUCHAR: I said I made an error.

SAENZ: Klobuchar trying to shift the focus back on the candidates' real opponents.

KLOBUCHAR: We have not been talking enough about Donald Trump and what's -- let's just talk about Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: Now we are just two days out from the Nevada caucuses, and all of the candidates, except for Michael Bloomberg remain in the state today trying to make their final pitch to voters -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: OK. Arlette, quite a debate. Thank you very much.

Joining us now to talk all about it, Maria Cardona, Democratic strategist, and Jackie Alemany, author or the "Washington Post's" "Power Up."

Jackie, let me start with you. Elizabeth Warren needed last night, and she got it. The question is, is it too late? Is it enough to put her back near or at front-runner status?

JACKIE ALEMANY, AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST'S "POWER UP": I think it's definitely too soon to be making any conclusions after one debate performance. I mean, I think that she did have her Amy Klobuchar moment, the moment that we saw Amy have in New Hampshire that really put her over the edge and threw her into the top tier. And I think that's what Warren was gunning for, and what she realized

she needed to do to revive a fledgling campaign that has been overshadowed by Mike Bloomberg and the vast amount of money he's spent. And Bernie Sanders pulling away in the polls.

That being said, what Warren didn't do, which is the ultimate hurdle to her securing the nomination, is attack Bernie Sanders. The one person who she's, you know, really splitting voters with and, again, who is becoming a potentially formidable front-runner. But, you know, this debate performance, as Arlette pointed out, Elizabeth Warren raised a record amount of money in that first hour.

It's clear that she's picked up some energy. She might have that going into the caucuses on Saturday. And that's what she's looking for to translate into South Carolina for the primary the following Saturday.

SCIUTTO: Maria, looking at Mike Bloomberg's performance there, he knew going into this that he was going to have an issue with stop and frisk. He got ahead of it. Right? He went out there and apologized, he met with a congregation, et cetera. Owned it in effect.

On the issues, for instance, the NDAs from women during his time leading Bloomberg, didn't seem to have a great answer on that. Were you surprised he didn't have a stronger pushback on something he had to -- when he's preparing for these debates, he had to know that he was going to get pushed on that issue?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I was really surprised. And I think that a lot of people were surprised as well because it was clear that he was going to have the target on his back. You would think that he would have overly prepared for something like this. He has good people around him who should have told him that this issue is undoubtedly going to come up. And that his rivals on that stage were going to be putting that in front of him.

And he looked like a deer in the headlights. Not just giving really bad answers to those obvious questions, but also not being able to pivot, which, when you are in a position of not having a great answer to something that is being put in front of you, that is the tactic that you use to pivot. And in that debate, and not just him, but I think all of the candidates really missed the mark on really trying to go after Donald Trump on one key issue, Jim.

Here in Nevada with a population that is so critical, and that is Latino voters. I think they really missed the opportunity to push back on Trump's one main talking point about the economy and having record unemployment numbers in the Latino community.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CARDONA: And no one really did that. And I think it was a big miss.

SCIUTTO: Right. Right. And when you know that voters consistently put beating Donald Trump, Democratic voters, at the top of the list for the qualities they're looking for in the candidate, the Democratic candidate. [09:10:09]

CARDONA: Yes.

HARLOW: Absolutely. So what about this moment? Let me just replay it because it certainly struck me watching last night, ladies. Here was Pete Buttigieg going after Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: Most Americans don't see where they fit if they've got to choose between a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil and a billionaire who thinks that money ought to be the root of all power. Let's put forward somebody who is actually a Democrat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: He did not fare well in the latest national polling as well as he's been doing. Is this what Mayor Buttigieg needed to do last night, Jackie?

ALEMANY: Well, look, we do know that the mayor has a problem with voters of color, African-American voters.

HARLOW: Yes.

ALEMANY: He's barely registering in the polls. And I think despite his wins and his success in Iowa and New Hampshire, that might not be enough to potentially put someone who was at zero to a top tier in these more diverse contests. That being said, he does speak to, you know, a real craving and a need amongst voters that we're seeing. Bernie Sanders might have a plurality but not enough voters have coalesced around him.

And enough have spread across these other different moderate candidates. People are still really searching for that alternative. I think that's why Mike Bloomberg was such a topic of, you know, ire and fascination amongst voters as well last night because people sort of eyed him as that alternative to Biden. He's been able to really shoot that gap. And what you saw Pete trying to do there was, obviously, exploit that in a pretty smart way and, you know, and try to stake his claim in the race.

SCIUTTO: Maria Cardona, Jackie Alemany, probably going to come back to this topic a couple of times before November. Good to have you.

Join us tonight for two more town halls ahead of the Nevada caucus. Former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren live from Las Vegas. Starts at 8:00 Eastern Time only here on CNN.

HARLOW: Intervention tension. Less than one hour from now, Trump ally Roger Stone is set to be sentenced after the president lashed out over the prosecutor's sentencing recommendations and the Justice Department intervened. It's a political firestorm. We're all over that.

Plus, minutes from now, the jury begins their third day of deliberations in the Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial. And they've asked a lot of questions. What's going on?

SCIUTTO: And will this keep America safe? The president has named a new acting spy chief who does not have any intelligence experience. Why it matters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Less than an hour from now, long-time Trump friend and ally, Roger Stone is going to be sentenced. And this is in the middle of the president's repeated complaints against prosecutors and the judge and jurors in this case.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we're joined now by CNN White House correspondent John Harwood, "Reuters" White House correspondent Jeff Mason, and former federal prosecutor Laura Coats. John, if I could begin with you, given the president's public comments just in the last 24 hours on this, saying that Stone has been treated unfairly, given his seeming unleashedness since his Senate acquittal, is the presidential pardon here almost a foregone conclusion?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think so. I don't think anyone doubts that the president intends to pardon Roger Stone, and you can throw in Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort as a strong likelihoods of pardons in those cases as well. The president wants to protect his friends and malign his enemies in the judicial system. He's made that clear with his comments.

So this sentencing and the controversy here is really about the president. It's not about Judge Jackson, and we will see. She's an Obama appointee, we'll see whether she assigns a sentence in the original recommended range, which was pretty long, up to nine years or eases off. But I don't think anyone has questioned her integrity or her conduct. This is about the president inserting himself into the process, and if it doesn't go his way, we expect him to insert himself again.

HARLOW: Laura Coates, what are you expecting, not only in terms of a sentence here, given that initial recommendation and then the lower request from justice, but also in terms of whatever comments Judge Jackson chooses to make or not make, not addressing all of the sort of periphery here.

LAURA COATES, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, the first is to have a question about why there was a difference in the sentence recommendations here. It's important to know that the judge takes very seriously the prosecutor's recommendations.

They want to know it's not just based, of course, on throwing spaghetti against the wall. It's based on an actual sentencing guideline chart that's given to the courts, given to pre-trial services where they calculate what somebody, based on their criminal record and the current crime and any enhancements would actually receive. And so, she's going to be wondering why there is a departure from that

recommendation in general. But also I expect her to assert her whole independence and autonomy. The word recommendation should keep circling around everyone's mind here, Poppy, it is only a recommendation. It is the judge's decision on how to rule. And they should be politically insulated.

Now the president has attacked her, talked about the Paul Manafort case. Remember, if there's a pardon, if there is any sentence, remember that it is a jury who found this man guilty of seven counts. It did not rest with Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Jurors found that this person lied to Congress, tampered with witnesses and obstructed.

And so you have all of these issues at play. And if there's any decision being made, it's based on the facts and the jury as they saw it.

SCIUTTO: Jeff Mason, Laura Coates described how the system is designed to work, should work, the rule of law should work. But the fact is, it's not the president's approach to this. Is it? I mean, he's already signaling in public in ways that presidents should not do, right, and have not done, interference in cases.

[09:20:00]

But may very well use the pardon powers we've seen him do already to help out friends.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: He might. We don't know that yet, and I think it's important to note that this is still speculation, he hasn't pardoned anyone, he hasn't pardoned anyone related to the Mueller probe, but he did just in recent days pardon and commute the sentences of several other white-collar criminals.

And he has clearly shown a willingness and he has said that he has the right to weigh in on these cases. So, there's reason for that speculation, it's drawn or driven by the president himself. He also said just in recent days in front of a few of us at the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews that he's the chief law enforcement officer of the country. So that is the context with which he is looking at these cases.

But we don't know what he'll do. He may weigh some political considerations. He is obviously running for re-election, yes, he's emboldened from the outcome of the impeachment trial, but he does have to try to win again in November. Certainly, if he does decide to pardon Roger Stone, that's something that his opponents will use against him. He might decide to wait until after that election whether or not he wins again.

HARWOOD: Guys, I just want to add one thing quickly.

HARLOW: Sure.

HARWOOD: Jeff makes a very important point which is that, yes, Roger Stone is the president's long-time adviser and friend. And he wants to take care of his friends. But Donald Trump's number one friend is Donald Trump. And so he's going to make a decision based on the combination of, yes, whether it helps his friend, but does it hurt me? Does it have an adverse consequence for me? I think that is likely to govern his conduct.

HARLOW: That's a very good point. When it comes to the criticism that has been leveled against the jurors' forewoman, Laura, I think it's important to note this comment that Chris Cuomo last night had a different juror on his program who addressed the question about any potential bias in the forewoman. Here's what that juror said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH COUSIN, ROGER STONE TRIAL JUROR: Tamika Hart whom we elected as our foreperson on the secret ballot, Tamika actually was perhaps the strongest advocate in the room for a rigorous process, for the rights of the defendant and for making sure that we -- that we took it seriously and looked at each charge. Without her in the room, we would have returned the same verdict and we would have returned it more quickly and without looking as deeply into the evidence. I am firmly convinced of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How significant, Laura, to hear that, given even the president's attacks on her?

COATES: Well, very given that Roger Stone has moved for a new trial based --

HARLOW: Yes --

COATES: On what he perceived to be her bias. Now, of course, whatever sentence is handed down today will be suspended in light of that motion. But remember, the information about this potential juror, about her being -- about her background, about her viewpoints, that was all available to both the defense and prosecution at the voir dire according to reporting. Meaning that they could have asked her about these issues.

They could have asked her about potential biases, they could have asked her and inquired whether it would actually have an impact on her ability to receive the information objectively, and to decide according to the law. They had the opportunity. Apparently at the time, it did not impact their decision, and now they're asking for almost a second or third bite of the Apple because the president is now weighing in via Twitter.

And so, it really undermines the idea of the voir dire process and the idea that the jurors had every opportunity as did the defense to display and talk about whatever misgivings they may have had. They were not called on it. It wasn't addressed. And now after a conviction, suddenly it's a problem and after the president weighs in, it's just disingenuous at best.

SCIUTTO: Well, here's the thing, though, it's a created problem, right? I mean, Trump has created this sense that whether juries are -- jurors or Democrats or Republicans or members of the Justice Department have spouses who work for one party or another that, that creates bias in this system that justifies, right? This view as the outcomes of these processes as being inherently wrong.

I mean, this is the thing. I mean, John, Jeff, you've covered this for some time. You know, we can't treat that as a normal process here, that has not been a litmus test for years prior to judge whether a case is fair or not.

MASON: I think it's also worth --

HARWOOD: Well -- go ahead, yes --

MASON: Go ahead, yes --

HARWOOD: No, you go ahead.

MASON: All right. I think it's also worth noting that, you know, despite the fact that the White House will say the president has a right as a private citizen to weigh in on things like this, he is the president of the United States. He's the leader of this government. He's the leader of the country and he's the leader of the free world.

So when he issues comments that are critical of a judge, when he issues comments that are critical of a jury, it's beyond just being a private citizen weighing in on a case that he is -- that he has taken interest in. It has significant weight.

HARWOOD: And the -- and the point is that, he does not show particular concern for the country in doing so. Remember, what we're seeing is a judicial process which has moved to hold the president accountable in various ways or the president's allies accountable.

[09:25:00]

I mean, he doesn't like that. He tries to delegitimize the process.

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARWOOD: If the rule of law in the United States is holding him accountable, he is discrediting the rule of law.

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARWOOD: And that has consequences for the country. I wrote a story about this today. The ability of the United States to attract allies, to persuade others, to lead in the world, militarily, diplomatically, economically, depends on the rule of law, and so does the vibrancy of the U.S. economy. If people don't have confidence that we have honest government -- governance in the United States --

HARLOW: Yes --

HARWOOD: We are not going to have the economic --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARWOOD: Advantages we've --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARWOOD: Enjoyed for the last 100 years.

SCIUTTO: And the functioning of the system, right? And the attacks work because we see it in the polling. People's distrust in a whole host of institutions that the president has attacked, whether it'd be Justice Department, courts, the Intelligence agencies. You know, these kinds of things matter, and they have effects over time.

HARLOW: Your piece is great, John, especially the reference to --

HARWOOD: Thank you, Poppy --

HARLOW: Alan Greenspan and his warning. Because you're right, markets haven't responded yet, but they might. Thanks, guys, very much, and Laura, to you as well, we'll see what this verdict is in less than an hour or the sentence, rather. Jurors have more questions as they decide whether or not Harvey Weinstein is guilty of sexual assault, multiple counts of it. We'll take you live outside of that courthouse as day three of jury deliberations begins here in New York.

SCIUTTO: And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stocks are looking to dip slightly at the start of trading. Wall Street power house Goldman Sachs says markets are quote, "underestimating the potential fallout of the coronavirus. They are expecting the markets to drop at least 10 percent soon." That would be a correction. Today, China cut its interest rates to deal or attempt to deal with the economic impact of the outbreak.

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