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U.S. Economy Adds More Jobs Than Expected in February; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Sues Trump and Allies for Inciting Capitol Riot; New York Times and Wall Street Journal Reports, Cuomo Aides Altered Data to Lower Nursing Home Deaths. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 05, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: In the very end of the survey period, you saw the real cold weather laid down in Texas and Oklahoma. So that's probably holding that back. I expect that could bounce back later this spring.

But bottom line, we're going in the right direction here. At this pace, it would take a couple of years to get back all we've lost, to say nothing of where we would have been without the pandemic.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWSROOM: Yes. Christine, thank you.

Joining me right now is Democratic Senator from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal. Senator, thanks for the time.

Christine was just laying out the jobs report. It is showing signs that the labor market is finally showing signs of recovery. I'm curious what that means on Capitol Hill right now. Does this mean that there is less of a need, less urgency for this huge of a relief package in response to the coronavirus?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): There is no less need and no less urgency, because this good news, it is encourage, means we have to continue the momentum. And that is why the investment in consumer demand and in other areas that will stimulate the economy is as necessary now as it was before.

We want to avoid the 2008-2009 scenario where growth is sluggish and slow over many years, even if it is growth. What we're seeing now is better numbers on jobs. But we need to sustain and, in fact, increase the momentum, really give it a good boost.

BOLDUAN: You're about to head into hours and hours of votes ahead. Are you concerned with this vote-a-rama, are you concerned at all about the amendment votes that are coming, that the bill could change enough to put its passage in peril when it obviously needs to head back to the House to be voted on?

BLUMENTHAL: I have no concern about that, Kate, because we're united as Democrats that we want no delay and no diminishing of the impact of this $1.9 trillion program. What is so important now is to provide the confidence and the real governance to the American people to make sure they understand that outcomes are important here. And so all of these amendments, mostly from Republicans, are designed to delay or diminish, dilute the program and I think we will be together as Democrats sending back to the House a measure similar to one they passed and then to the president's desk.

BOLDUAN: And real quick, when you talk about delay, what do you think of what Ron Johnson did yesterday, forcing a reading of the bill and then as he left the floor, I mean, what Democrats ended up doing is making the process actually go faster because he wasn't there to object?

BLUMENTHAL: I really think, number one, it was a stunt, designed simply to add hours, no substance. Anybody --

BOLDUAN: Senators, Democrats are good at stunts as well, as you well know.

BLUMENTHAL: Well, this stunt was designed simply to delay the bill. It had no effect. Anybody reading the bill knows that you have to really sit down with it and look at all of the related provisions. But, more importantly, no one was paying attention. My colleagues and I left the floor all except Senator Johnson and I think even his own colleagues on the Republican side recognized it for what it was.

BOLDUAN: Over the past couple of weeks, there have been, I guess, it would be a handful at this point, of hearings looking into what happened and what failed and what failed, and who failed, really, in the lead-up to and on the day of the insurrection. I'd like to play for you one exchange that occurred this week between Senator Gary Peters and the head of the D.C. National Guard. Please listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): My question is, in June of 2020, as violence was escalating during the summer protests, were you able to immediately receive approval from the secretary of the army and the secretary of defense to deploy National Guard to assist law enforcement at that time?

MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM WALKER, COMMANDER, D.C. NATIONAL GUARD: Senator Peters, I was, yes, Sir.

PETERS: Were you able to receive approval from the secretary of the army and the secretary of defense to deploy the National Guard on January 6th?

WALKER: No, Sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is striking, those answers coming from the D.C. National Guard, the commander. You're on the Armed Services Committee. I'm wondering, do you need to want to hear from the former army secretary now, Ryan McCarthy?

BLUMENTHAL: I want to hear from the former secretary of the army, McCarthy, and from his then superior, Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense. And I also want to hear what the story from the White House is because my suspicion is that there were communications between the White House and the Pentagon that may well have resulted in this the delay, three hours and 19 minutes, between the request and actual deployment of the National Guard.

[11:35:10]

BOLDUAN: You think that -- you think the White House was involved?

BLUMENTHAL: I want to know whether, in fact, White House officials said anything to create that delay, whether they discouraged an immediate response on an issue of that importance.

BOLDUAN: It is critical. It is critical. And I have to ask you, just real quick, we're out of time, you want to hear from them. Have -- why have the committees not asked for them to appear already, meaning McCarthy and Miller?

BLUMENTHAL: I think if they haven't been asked already, they will be either by the Armed Services Committee or by the other committees that are investigating.

BOLDUAN: We look forward to that hearing when it does happen. Senator, thanks for your time.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: All right. We'll be right back.

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[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: And we have breaking news coming in. Former President Donald Trump hit with a brand-new lawsuit this morning. This one brought by Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, Swalwell accusing Donald Trump in the filing of inciting the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. The lawsuit also names other members of Trump's inner circle.

Joining me right now is CNN's Jessica Schneider, who has been looking through all of this. Jessica, this is the second lawsuit now from a member of Congress. What are you seeing in this one?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kate, this one is a bit more robust than the one that we saw last month from Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson. In that, this complaint names more people and it names also more causes of action. It names not only the former president and Rudy Giuliani but it also names the former president's son, Don Jr., as well as Republican Congressman Mo Brooks.

Now, this is a lawsuit that has been filed by that congressman, Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California. He was also a House impeachment manager. And he alleges a lot of the same things that we saw last month in that, not only the former president but also his son and Congressman Mo Brooks, that they really incited this violence, that it was all of their repeated rhetoric that the election was stolen, that led to these rioters descending on the Capitol and then breaking in and attacking it. So that is the main claim here.

Now, there is also a few more claims. It is based on a civil rights claim but it is also based on some other claims invoking D.C. law against incitement to riot and also negligent infliction of emotional distress for the distress that the members of Congress faced here.

So this really could be another uphill climb, as we saw with that lawsuit last month that is still ongoing here, but what is important in this, is that if this moves forward along with that other one, it really could open up discovery against the president as well as possible depositions from the former president, as well as other people closely associated with him. And that means that the public could get maybe more of a glimpse as to what people inside the White House maybe knew about this attack.

But, of course, Kate, it also adds to the lengthy legal troubles that the former president is already in. We've seen investigations in Manhattan, New York City, as well as Georgia, a grand jury being convened to look into the president's potential election -- former president's potential election interference.

So there is a lot happening here, this lawsuit, Kate, just the latest. We did hear from the former president this morning. I'll read you a part of his statement where he essentially attacked the congressman bringing this suit, Eric Swalwell. He said, Eric Swalwell is a life with no credibility. It is a disgrace that a compromised member of Congress like Swalwell still sits on House Intelligence Committee. This statement issued by Jason Miller, a Trump spokesperson.

So, Kate, it is a similar statement that we saw when last month's lawsuit was filed, this though one a lot more scathing, directly attacking Congressman Swalwell. We'll see how this case progresses. It is possible it could get dismissed in the early stages. But it's also possible that this could play out and maybe result in a lot of information coming out for the public about what Trump knew and when. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Jessica, thank you very much.

Coming up still for us, New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, taking more hits on multiple fronts. One of his former staffer is accusing him of harassment and calling him a text book abuser. And new revelations also about the COVID nursing home scandal.

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[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: Two major developments in the scandal surrounding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporting, Cuomo's office edited a state health department report on coronavirus nursing home deaths in order to remove a higher death toll. Also one of the women and former employees of the governor accusing him of sexual harassment, spells out in detail what she says she endured in her first T.V. interview. Here is Charlotte Bennett speaking to CBS News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLOTTE BENNETT, ACCUSES NEW YORK GOVERNOR CUOMO OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT: He is a textbook. He lets his temper and his anger rule the office, but he was very sweet to me for a year in the hopes that maybe one day when he came on to me, I would think we were friends or that it was appropriate or that it was okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:50:03]

BOLDUAN: All right. Joining me right now is CNN's Athena Jones on this. Athena, if we could first on what I had said was the reporting from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on the nursing home data that we're learning about, what are officials saying about this?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Kate, well, this is just the problems really piling on for Governor Andrew Cuomo. The New York Times spoke with six people with direct knowledge of this. It started with a report last summer by the state department of health that focused on deaths from COVID-19 in long-term care facilities.

Now, the original version of that report, which was not released to the public, listed the number of nursing home deaths at nearly 10,000. But The Times and Wall Street Journal say, senior level aides to Governor Cuomo rewrote the report, cutting the number of deaths in those facilities nearly in a half. That meant that the state was not counting nursing home deaths. If the patient -- if their condition were worse, they had to be transferred to a hospital and died at the hospital instead of at the facility.

Now, the tension over the death count dates back to last March when the governor issued an order saying that long-term facilities could not turn away patients who had been treated for COVID at hospitals. Now, critics say that order helped drive a surge in infections in those facilities. Cuomo has said he was following a federal guideline, and that that if nursing homes weren't equipped to handle these patients coming back from hospitals, then they shouldn't have taken them on.

Now, in response to the reports, the special counsel to Governor Cuomo said, the out of facility data was omitted after DOH, the Deartment of Health, could not confirm it had been adequately verified. This did not change the conclusion of the report, which was and is that the March 25th order was not a driver of nursing home infections or facilities.

The state department of health has also responded, saying, while early versions of the reporting included out of facility deaths, the COVID task force was not satisfied that the data had been verified against hospital data and so the final report used only data for in-facility deaths, which was disclosed in the report. DOH was comfortable with the final report and believes fully in its conclusion that the primary driver that introduced COVID into the nursing homes was spread, brought in by staff.

Now, a state attorney general report in January said that the Cuomo administration had severely undercounted nursing home deaths, and so that pushed Cuomo to just in the past few weeks reveal that full picture of the data. At the time, he claimed that it had been held back out of concerns about an initial investigation by the Trump administration.

Cuomo has said he regrets the way this was handled and that he should have done a better job at handling the information. And we also know that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District are looking into the handling of this data. So, more bad news for the governor. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And also to what we just heard from Charlotte Bennett, one of the women who is speaking out accusing the governor of sexual harassment after she worked for him for years, can you tell us more about what she is now saying and also what the governor's office's response is?

JONES: Yes, of course. Well, now, Charlotte Bennett, we know from her statements, that she was not satisfied with the Governor Cuomo's apology on Wednesday. She has called his behavior predatory. She spoke more about that on CBS. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENNETT: I think it's really strategic. I think abusers look for vulnerabilities, previous traumas, the idea that maybe I'm more willing to accept behavior because I have a history of sexual violence. Perhaps I'm not as confident in myself because of my history.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think he knew that?

BENNETT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think he was grooming you?

BENNETT: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, when we reached for comment this morning, the governor's office said he won't have additional comment. They pointed to that Wednesday transcript of that press conference. The question here now, of course, is how much does this raise the stakes for the governor and will his other two accusers also be giving television interviews? Kate?

BOLDUAN: Very important questions. Athena, thank you very much. This year marks the 15th anniversary of CNN Heroes. And this week, we are introducing the first CNN Hero of 2021.

Growing up in Maine, one woman developed a passion for marine animals, and that is why she became a marine biologist and started this organization to help save wildlife. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Releasing a seal is really bittersweet, and as much as I'm excited to see that animal be released, it's also hard in the sense of seeing the animal now gone.

Just know that you're going back to the ocean.

So any seal that we rescue, the ultimate goal is for that animal to be released back into the ocean.

[11:55:03]

I feel this intense responsibility to help these animals and, really, this is what I was put on this earth to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: To learn more and to also nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero, go to cnnheroes.com.

We'll be right back.

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