Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Barr's Unmasking Investigation Ends Quietly; Interview with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA); Courts Continue to Dispute Election Deadlines. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 14, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Some of us will take whatever we can get, but with a great deal of frustration as you say, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, unusually slim pickings, you might say. Joan Biskupic, always good to have you on. Thanks so much.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well for years, President Trump and other Republicans have hyped a Justice Department investigation into the Obama administration, claiming an enormous criminal scandal, even on the level of Watergate. But now, that investigation has ended with no charges and no public report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:09]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. A Justice Department investigation, which the president wants hyped as, quote, "a massive thing" has now concluded without charges.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Our senior national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt, is here with the details.

So, Alex, this investigation focused on the Obama administration's use of a practice that is known as unmasking, a practice that's actually increased under the Trump administration. But nothing to see there, is that the word?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is an investigation from the Justice Department that is ending very quietly. It really appears to be an anticlimactic end to this months- long investigation that had been hyped up by President Trump, by his allies, by the right-wing media.

"The Washington Post," now reporting that this investigation, which was launched by the attorney general, Bill Barr, to look into those instances of unmasking by the Obama administration during the 2016 election, has concluded -- as the "Post" wrote -- without finding any substantive wrongdoing.

Now, what is unmasking? It is that term, Poppy, that you mentioned, used for revealing the identities of American citizens who are caught up in foreign intelligence surveillance by the National Security Agency, which essentially eavesdrops on people around the world but primarily non-Americans.

Names of American citizens are always redacted, but certain officials do have the ability to unmask or to reveal them, and Republicans have repeatedly accused the Obama administration of improperly requesting the unmasking of Trump's eventual national security advisor -- his first national security advisor, General Michael Flynn.

So the investigation was launched in May, and the findings that the U.S. attorney who was appointed to the investigation, whose name is John Bash, the findings that he handed over to the attorney general -- int he words of the "Post" -- "fell short of what Trump and others might have hoped, and the attorney general's office elected not to release them publicly."

TEXT: The Washington Post: "Bash's team was focused not just on unmasking, but also on whether Obama-era officials provided information to reporters... But the findings ultimately turned over to Barr fell short of what Trump and others might have hoped, and the attorney general's office elected not to release them publicly."

MARQUARDT: So, Jim and Poppy, a whimper of an end to what the Trump orbit had really touted as a major scandal.

HARLOW: Thanks, Alex, very much, for that reporting.

Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is defending her decision to reject the White House stimulus proposal, but some Democrats in her caucus think it's time to just make a deal. One of them joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:48]

HARLOW: Well, welcome back. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is defending her willingness to reject the White House's latest stimulus proposal and to hold out for more money. She slammed the $1.8 trillion package. Some Democrats though, including California Congressman Ro Khanna, say it is time to make a deal. Here's how Nancy Pelosi responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: -- members of your own caucus --

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: -- if you ask me a question --

BLITZER: Even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion. Congressman Ro Khanna, for example --

PELOSI: Wait a minute, wait a second -- BLITZER: -- let me just -- let me just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well, I assume you admire him, he's a Democrat. And he just said this. He said, "People in need can't wait until February, $1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice the Obama stimulus... Make a deal and put the ball in McConnell court." So what do you say to Ro Khanna?

PELOSI: What I say to you is, I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position. Ro Khanna, that's nice, that isn't what we're going to do and nobody's waiting until February.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, Congressman Ro Khanna joins me now. Congressman, it's good to have you. I'd like you to respond to that, but also more about what the speaker said about you. Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: Ro Khanna, he's lovely. They are not negotiating this situation. They have no idea of the particulars, they have no idea of what the language is here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, Congressman, I know you want a deal. I also know you worked at Commerce, you have a degree in economics, you actually taught economics at Stanford. So do you have no idea of the particulars here?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Look, I have great admiration for Speaker Pelosi and her skills as a negotiator. I'm just talking about people I hear in my district.

I represent Silicon Valley. In Cupertino, where you have Apple computers, we have food banks, lines of thousands of people who don't have enough food to feed their kids. We have working families who can't pay the rent, we have people who are struggling with small businesses, immigrants who have restaurants and they're concerned 20, 30 years of work is going to go down the drain.

I'm speaking for them, that's my job as a member of Congress, to say we've got to help them get something done.

HARLOW: Well that's exactly your job, is to represent the people in your district. You've called it a moral obligation to do something, and your message was really clear. Speaker Pelosi, take this deal. She's not going to take this deal.

I wonder how many other members of your caucus have told you they agree with you but maybe they're just too scared to say it?

KHANNA: Poppy, a lot of members want a deal. And look, the speaker is right that there have to be some things that need to be amended. We need to get $75 billion for testing, we need a full comprehensive testing plan (ph), we need to make sure there's no violation of the ADA.

I believe we need to come to a spirit where we say we can get those done. We're not as far apart as the people may think, and we have an obligation to be constructive and get this done, and there are a lot of members who believe that.

HARLOW: But I'm confused. It really read in that tweet like you said, take this deal. Are you now saying don't take this deal?

KHANNA: What I said is we should make a deal. I'm not saying that we should take exactly the language of what the White House offered. What I have said is, we ought to be able to -- we're close and we should be able to make the deal. And I think we can.

[10:45:10]

I think we can say to the White House -- in I think subsequent tweets, I've put this out -- let's have $75 billion for testing, let's have the language correct. And I think we're very close. Most people believe we're close. And then put the ball in McConnell's court to pass it.

HARLOW: OK, but the speaker was clearly saying in that interview that you guys aren't that close.

There is the fact that the president's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, told Jake Tapper on Sunday that the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, may even offer more above the $2.2 trillion that Speaker Pelosi wants.

So what about Democrats who would say to you, no, no, no, listen to what Kudlow said, you know, Mnuchin and the president may go higher, we've got to wait for that? Is it wrong to wait? Is it -- like people in your district need this now.

KHANNA: Yes. Look, if the speaker has a way of saying, in one week, we're going to get a $2.2 trillion deal, then I'm not putting that -- ruling that out, great. I'm just saying, we've got to do something. We can't not do anything and just have back-and-forth partisan politics. We've got to help people who are in need.

If she believes that waiting a few days is going to get us $2.2 trillion, more power to her and I support that. What I am trying to say -- and a lot of members believe -- is that what is unacceptable is for us to go away with no deal.

HARLOW: Well, yes. I think it's a complete abdication of responsibility, duty. It is your job to make a deal on something that actually both sides agree need to happen, and you guys need to be able to agree on something for the American people.

But you brought up the food lines, right? In your district. And we looked, and Second Harvest, a food bank in your district, says that they are seeing an average of half a million people each month, that is double where you guys were pre-pandemic. And I wonder if you think part of the problem here is that so many

members -- most of the members of Congress -- are actually millionaires? The median income for people in Congress who filled out the financial disclosure forms is a million dollars. So are most members of Congress so rich that they don't really get what it's like?

KHANNA: Poppy, I don't think that's -- sure, I mean, look, I came from a middle-class family, but I've done very well. My district is one of the most affluent districts in the nation, in Silicon Valley. And yet the point is being in Congress, you have to represent everyone.

And if you listen to people in my district -- one of the most affluent places -- people are basically in tears that they're going to lose their restaurant, that they're going to lose their small business, that they can't make rent. FDR was wealthy, but he heard (ph) people. And I just think, I don't think this is rocket science.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: You don't think it's at all a problem -- and I'm not speaking to you specifically, I'm just saying the fact that there is such wealth in Congress, you know, many have reported over the years that that contributes to the disconnect.

KHANNA: I'd love to -- if your point is, should there be more working-class Americans in Congress? Absolutely, and we should talk about campaign finance reform, we should talk about the problems of incumbency, we should talk about why those roadblocks are there.

But given that we're not going to have an influx of working-class folks in the next two weeks, what we need to do, those of us who are in Congress have to say, why did we want to serve? We wanted to serve to help people. People are hurting out there, they're suffering out there.

We have a (INAUDIBLE) election, and people are going to get to vote for that. Let's just, on this one thing, in helping the American people, take that out of politics, get something done and do our duty at the time of crisis. And I really think that sentiment is actually widespread amongst the caucus.

HARLOW: Let me ask you one final thought -- and we should have that conversation about more working folks in Congress, at another time. But you repeatedly, over the spring, had been calling for $2,000 a month direct cash injections to average Americans, so much so that you and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan even, you know, put forward a bill calling for that.

That's not in this, so what changed? Did you find that that was just untenable, it wasn't going to happen?

KHANNA: No, that's what I would love. And I voted for the original HEROES Act, which was $3.4 trillion. I voted for the $2.2 trillion that the House Democrats have. I believe our House plans are better than what the White House is proposing. But the point is, I'm one of 435 members of Congress. There are two

chambers of Congress. The Republicans control the Senate, Trump is in the White House. And the point is I could say, well, let's have a Khanna-Ryan plan or nothing, or I can say, constituents of mine are hurting, we have to compromise, we have to get something done.

And I'd rather they get some stimulus check and some rent assistance than nothing, and that's really what we're talking about, is get something done, let's all compromise at a time of a national crisis.

HARLOW: That would help a lot of Americans, to have a little more compromise. Thank you. Thanks so much, Congressman Ro Khanna. Appreciate the time -- Jim.

KHANNA: Thank you.

[10:50:04]

SCIUTTO: Poppy, maybe there'll be an 11th hour deal, who knows. Never say never.

Well, people are coming out in droves, waiting -- sometimes for hours -- in long lines just to vote early. A live report on the record- breaking turnout in two states.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Well, Election Day's 20 days away but it's already starting. Rhode Island and Tennessee begin early in-person voting today, while Kansas and Oregon started mailing out absentee ballots to voters.

[10:55:08]

This as several legal battles over voting could still make a big difference. A coalition of voting rights groups has filed a lawsuit seeking to extend Virginia's voter registration deadline, this after the state's site went down on the very last day of registration.

HARLOW: In Wisconsin, Democrats are asking the Supreme Court there to allow absentee ballots to be counted up to six days after Election Day, November 3rd. This comes after an appeals court determined that ballots had to be in by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. That is a win for the Republican side.

And then in a federal appeals court, shortened the extension of Arizona's voter registration deadline. Voters must register by tomorrow.

Joining us now is CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes. On top of all that, there is California and the Republican Party there, setting up additional ballot boxes in several counties. I don't want to -- I don't know if the right word is fake -- I mean, they're taking ballots but they weren't approved to be there, right?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, they're certainly unofficial. It's a bizarre situation in which -- HARLOW: OK.

HOLMES: -- four counties started seeing these unofficial ballot boxes showing up. In some cases, they actually had the word "official" on them. And the California Republican Party has said that they did in fact put these out there, but that it was a legitimate way for them to gather and collect ballots and then return them to election officials.

Now, state officials say absolutely no way, that this is against the law here. That, one, there's no chain of command. And two, election officials are the only ones who can establish an official drop box. They have issued a cease and desist. Now, the big question is whether or not the Republican Party in California will comply.

SCIUTTO: All right, big images from around the country yesterday, long lines at voting stations in some cities, sometimes hours -- eight, 10 hours of wait time -- why is this happening, where are we seeing it happen?

HOLMES: Well, Jim, there certainly does not seem to be a lack of enthusiasm around this election. What we have to keep in mind is that for many of these voters, they could have easily gone home and come back another day ahead of the election. This is early in-person voting.

Instead, they wanted to wait the hours. They have told us that they were anxious to get their ballot in, and to get it in as quickly as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (voice-over): It started before dawn.

HOLMES: Everybody's come out to vote here, lines around the corner.

HOLMES (voice-over): Thousands of people, waiting hours for early in- person voting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just came out, so I would say about 2.5 hours.

HOLMES (voice-over): -- and drive-through voting in Texas Tuesday.

In Harris County, which includes Houston, the highest turnout during early voting ever. And that count came hours before the polls even closed, with lines still out the door.

All the enthusiasm? After waking up to news of a late-night ruling upholding Republican Governor Greg Abbott's directive limiting ballot drop boxes to one per county, a major issue for densely populated counties where voters could spend more than an hour driving just to cast their vote.

CHRIS HOLLINS, CLERK, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: More than 50 miles in some cases to drop off their mail ballot. It's unfair, it's prejudicial and it's dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everyone.

HOLMES (voice-over): The day, not without mishaps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are aware of some glitches in our voting system --

HOLMES (voice-over): Fort Bend County, now extending voting hours by two hours this week to compensate for lengthy waits due to widespread voting issues.

it came a day after a similar start in Georgia, where voters waited for hours to cast their ballots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be out here and to be able to share my voice.

HOLMES (voice-over): Georgia, setting an early voting record with nearly 127,000 ballots cast on day one.

Tuesday, no different. More voters, more long lines. in Gwinnett County, some voters sitting in line for eight hours, determined to be heard no matter the obstacles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many people have sacrificed before us, so it's almost a spit in their face if we don't take the time to show our kids that they have this right, and it's best used as early as possible.

HOLMES (voice-over): More than 10.5 million Americans have already cast their ballots in this election, six million of them in the most competitive states in the country. In the battleground state of Ohio, more than 193,000 people already voting early in person, tripling the roughly 64,000 at the same time in 2016.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And, guys, we are already hearing reports of long lines in Tennessee today.

SCIUTTO: Well, it's good to see people getting out there. Kristen Holmes --

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- thanks so much.

If you want to find your polling station, voter registration status or get information on absentee or early voting, go here. All the information is there, CNN.com/vote.

[11:00:04]

HARLOW: Thanks so much for joining us today. We will see you here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.