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Trump Tightens Grip on Party; Cuomo Apologizes Amid New Allegations; Attacks on Asian Americans Soaring; White House Facing Backlash over Saudi Arabia. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired March 01, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

EVAN MCMULLIN, FORMER CHIEF POLICY DIRECTOR, HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE: You know, there's -- there's cracks even among them with regard to whether they'll support Trump again.

Now, I still think it's his party, 97 percent said they supported his presidency, and so I think it's, you know, perhaps there's a group of them who are willing to move on from Trump, but maybe not trumpism. So that's another question.

The other leading, you know, candidates who participated or whose names were involved in this straw poll at CPAC, the leading contenders there would be considered heirs of Trump. They're very close allies to Trump. And those looking for a new direction barely registered in the poll at all. So there's both reason for optimism and pessimism.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: I wonder, Barbara Comstock, was Mitch McConnell, after delivering a blistering critique of the president following his acquittal vote saying he incited violence, right, he incited an insurrection, a deadly insurrection. Was his sense that he could just ignore Trump and party leaders and he would go away, was that naive in your view?

BARBARA COMSTOCK (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, listen, I think he is going away. I think you saw a very diminished, low energy Donald Trump yesterday. I mean he kind of ran off the stage at the end. He was an hour late to the speech and I think it was because he probably was pretty upset about that 55 percent given it was a family gathering and he only got 55 percent. That really is a pretty sorry performance.

So I think, like myself and Evan, I think Mitch McConnell doesn't expect Donald Trump will be president. I think a lot of people there are kind of treating him like this crazy old uncle where they want his approval, and they think they're going to get money or something out of him. But they're not -- the thing is, for one thing, he's not going to help anybody besides himself.

And I think because of all his financial troubles, all of his business troubles, all of his legal troubles, this is someone who not only lost the House, the Senate, the White House and 60 court cases, he's going to be a future loser in court again, whether it's paying fines or having, you know, further legal problems. He is going to have business problems. He is going to be very busy with all of those things.

And I think the, you know, 55 percent poorer performance at the family gathering shows that he doesn't have a political operation and he's going to be very occupied with his other problems, and he's not going to have the money to put into the -- or, you know, when you're the president, you have a lot of resources to use to get elected. That's gone now, so I think now is the time for Republicans to turn the page and have new voices out there who will have a strong agenda, because down ballot Republicans did well.

SCIUTTO: We'll see. Many of them too afraid to challenge him.

Evan McMullin, your background in the CIA. I want to talk just about the national security implications of a former president, less than two months out of a violent insurrection, continuing not only to peddle the lie about the election loss, but to attack the institutions who stood up to that lie, which was the very motivation for those crowds who stormed the Capitol. And, listen, this message lands with violent extremist groups in this country. Do you look at those words yesterday as radicalizing speech?

MCMULLIN: Look, absolutely. What I saw in former President Trump last night was what I saw when he first descended the escalators at his tower and announced his candidacy. I mean, it was the same far right rhetoric, anti-immigration, anti-elections, you know, that, you know, that would continue with his campaign and his presidency.

He attacked the media, new and traditional judges, you know, pushed fear and attacked truth. I mean it was -- this is a far right anti- democracy figure in America in the same way that you might see in Europe, in Viktor Orban in Hungary and elsewhere. And these leaders, they can lose and then come back to power again, as Viktor Orban did, and that's when they really attack democracy. They know more. They're more committed to holding on to power. And he -- Donald Trump is exactly that kind of figure.

So I think those of us who want a new direction for the party, we have an opportunity now. It's not a tremendous opportunity, but it is an opportunity. Numbers are slowly shifting in our favor, and we need to continue to fight for it, and it will be hard but we need to do it.

SCIUTTO: Well, thanks to both of you for speaking the truth, right? I mean that -- that is almost an outlier position today, right, speaking the truth about the election.

Former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, Evan McMullin, best to both of you.

MCMULLIN: Thank you.

COMSTOCK: Thank you. POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing some calls to resign. This comes after a second of his former aides accused him of sexual harassment. Governor Cuomo says he's truly sorry for the comments he's made. He says they were misinterpreted. We'll have the latest on what happens now, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:39:23]

HARLOW: This morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is apologizing following a second allegation against him of sexual harassment.

And, Jim, this comes in -- within less than a week of the other.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, the latest allegation coming from another former aide to the governor. Cuomo says he is, quote, truly sorry for comments he says were, quote, in his words, misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. Again, that's Cuomo's view. He's now agreed to let New York's attorney general appoint a private lawyer to conduct an independent review of these sexual harassment claims.

Let's go to CNN's Athena Jones. She's been following this for the latest details.

[09:40:00]

What more did we learn this weekend and what happens next?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Poppy.

Well, look, this is one of several crises the governor is dealing with. He's facing a federal probe into its administration's counting of nurse -- of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes. He's facing accusations of bullying and intimidation from a state Democratic lawmaker. And now not one but two women have come forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. There's going to be this investigation. And we'll see what more he says in response. But he has been forced to confront the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice over): Pressure mounting against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after a second former aide has come forward accusing him of sexual harassment. Cuomo addressing the allegations, writing in a statement, I now understand that my interactions may have been insensitive or too personal and that some of my comments, given my position, made others feel in ways I never intended.

I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation. To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.

The statement in response to a former aide who came forward and recounted to "The New York Times" instances where she says the governor inappropriately questioned her about her sex life in a June conversation. Charlotte Bennett says Cuomo asked her such questions as if she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had sex with older men. Bennett tells "The Times," I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared. Adding she, was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.

Cuomo denied Bennett's allegations in a statement Saturday. Bennett told "The Times" she reported the conversations to the governor's chief of staff and was transferred to another job. She left the governor's office in November.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There should be an independent review of these allegations. They're serious. It was hard to read that story as a woman.

JONES: Bennett's allegation came on the heels of former aide Lindsey Boylan's accusation last week. In a post online, Boylan says Cuomo asked her to play strip poker on his taxpayer funded jet. In another instance, after a one on one briefing with the governor in 2018, she says she got up to leave and walked toward an open door. He stepped in front of her and kissed her on the lips. She writes, I was in shock, but I kept walking.

Cuomo denied Boylan's accusations in December when they first surfaced.

Cuomo initially tried to appoint an independent reviewer to look into the allegations. But New York's attorney general, Letitia James, rejected that, insisting on an independent investigation by an outside law firm with subpoena power. Several high profile New York Democrats also rejecting Cuomo's effort, arguing that he should have no role in shaping the probe.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): If these investigations bear out, it really starts to, I think, call into question the leadership that we currently have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Now, CNN has reached out to Bennett for comment on this latest accusation, but has not heard back. And CNN has not been able to corroborate the allegations. And when asked for further comment, Boylan, who is running for a Manhattan borough president, said she wanted to let her medium (ph) post speak for itself.

Jim. Poppy.

HARLOW: Athena, thank you very much for that important reporting.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: We'll stay on it.

In the middle of this pandemic, we are seeing a surge in attacks on Asian Americans and they're happening all across this country. We're going to talk about that, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:58]

HARLOW: So, this morning, Los Angeles Police are looking for suspects after a Korean American man and Air Force veteran says he was attacked, look at that, called racial slurs linked to coronavirus. Police are investigating this as a hate crime.

And in New York, there are growing calls for hate crime charges to be filed after a 36-year-old Asian-American man was stabbed in the back in Chinatown. This as the NYPD says attacks on Asian Americans have jumped 1,900 percent in the last year amid racist conspiracies about the pandemic. And according to one group, an Asian activist group, more than 3,000 hate crime incidents were reported last year alone. The year before, only four were reported.

Shan Wu has written extensively about this. He's our legal analyst, and joins me now.

Shan, I'm so glad you could come on -- on the show. Your op-ed was very powerful and meaningful on this.

On top of everything that I just mentioned, you've now got the NBA investigating Jeremy Lin, saying that he was playing on the court and he was called "coronavirus."

You say there's a failure of law enforcement and the criminal justice system overall to protect Asian Americans. What is the biggest failure you're seeing right now?

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think the biggest failure is, while there has been some reporting and we can see the uptick in the incidents being reported, which is good, I think that there's still a reluctance on the part of prosecutors to actually charge the hate crimes. That terrible murder in San Francisco of the elderly man who was pushed over and died, that still has not yet been charged as a hate crime, and that's something that we have to be worried about. So --

HARLOW: That's right.

Can we talk specifically about that case because you're talking about an 84-year-old, and his name is Vicha Ratanapakdee. He was attacked on January the 28th. He was slammed to the ground in San Francisco by a 19-year-old. So state prosecutors have decided to charge that 19-year- old with murder and elder abuse, but not charge it as a hate crime.

[09:50:05]

And he died after being slammed to the ground.

Are you saying you're seeing a reluctance among prosecutors to go that next step and prosecute these as hate crimes?

WU: Yes, the statistics are hard to come by, Poppy, because the hate crime statistics are pretty complicated. They tend to capture the classification of the crime, not necessarily which instance got prosecuted. So it's kind of hard to delve into that.

Subjectively, when I was a young prosecutor, in my 11 years as a federal prosecutor, I don't recall bring a single hate crime charge. There had been one time I wanted to and I was dissuaded because I was told, and I think this is a popular reason for not doing it, that it adds an extra burden of proof and prosecutors, frankly, don't want that extra burden of proof. They're concerned with securing the underlying conviction.

HARLOW: Wow. Wow. You know, you write to that effect, just because a criminal justice system has fallen short in the past doesn't mean it needs to do so in the present or the future. And this is personal for you. It's beyond, you know, your former role and your legal expertise. You face bullying and assault growing up. You have daughters. And you've talked to them about your fear for your two daughters.

Are you confident this moment and this tragic surge changes anything?

WU: Well, I'm hopeful, Poppy. I'm not confident. You know, unfortunately, historically in our country, people of color have been the victims of violence and that has been very under prosecuted. I mean there is -- there were massacres of Chinese in the 1800s. Even in the 1980s, the terrible Vincent Chen murder, those defendants ultimately essentially got a slap on the wrist, even after federal civil rights charges were brought.

So I'm hopeful there's more conscience raised now. But the strain of not knowing where the attack or harassment may come from is very wearing. I think you're hearing that from the Asian-American community.

HARLOW: Yes. The U.N. put out a report in August and they talked about anti-Asian hate crimes rising at an alarming rate. We saw President Biden sign an executive order condemning intolerance against Asian- Americans when he took office. And Andrew Yang, who ran for president, who's now running for mayor of New York City, this weekend called for more funding to hate crimes task forces. And he talked about how a lot of these crimes actually go completely unreported.

Is that what you're seeing as well?

WU: Yes, that's a really important point, Poppy. With a lot of these communities, particularly immigrant communities, and even other people of color communities, minorities, there is a reluctance to interact with law enforcement, particularly folks from other countries may have had bad experience with oppressive police forces. So one thing that's really important to do is to do this community reach out to educate people so they know how to report the crimes because without people coming together and reporting them, there's no case for the police or prosecutors to bring.

HARLOW: Yes.

Shan, thank you for being here and thank you for what you wrote on cnn.com. It's really important. We appreciate it.

WU: You're welcome, Poppy.

HARLOW: OK.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: So sorry to see those attacks happening.

Well, the Biden administration is taking heat for deciding not to punish some of the Saudi leaders responsible for the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, this despite a campaign promise by Biden to do so. How the White House is defending that decision, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:42]

SCIUTTO: Well, a story we've been following for some time. This morning remaining questions concerning the murder, the brutal murder, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the U.S. response to it. CNN has learned that the name of three people who were initially on a U.S. intelligence report as being responsible for that murder were removed from that report.

HARLOW: Our Alex Marquardt has been following this really from the beginning.

And, Alex, that is the headline that you broke this morning about those missing names. But there's really a bigger question here as to what candidate Biden said in terms of holding Saudi responsible for this murder, that he would do and what the Biden administration is actually doing and not doing this morning, Alex.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right. Yes, there's a growing backlash that -- accusing President Biden of not doing anything to directly punish MBS, as he's known, for approving the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as the U.S. intelligence community said in a newly unclassified report on Friday.

So far the Biden administration has said that they will be sanctioning one former Saudi intelligence official, as well as the protective force known as the Tiger Squad, which protected MBS. They've also put into place what they're calling the Khashoggi van, which is visa restrictions for 76 officials who -- 76 Saudis, rather, whose names we actually don't know.

But this does fall short of what candidate Biden had said during the campaign when he said that he would hold MBS accountable for this murder.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered. And I believe in the order of the crown prince. And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them. We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Strong words there. The White House now arguing that they must maintain the relationship with Saudi Arabia, but that they are recalibrating it.

Listen to what White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to say on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Historically, and even in recent history, Democratic and Republican administrations, there have not been sanctions put in place for the leaders of foreign governments where we have diplomatic relations, and even when we don't have diplomatic relations. And we believe there is more effective ways to make sure this doesn't happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:00:02]

MARQUARDT: So then on Friday something strange happened.