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Soon, Judge To Rule On Britney Spears' Conservatorship Case; Top Military Officials Warn al Qaeda Or ISIS Could Reconstitute In Afghanistan In Months; Military Leaders Face Second Day Of Questions On Chaotic Afghan Pullout In House Hearing; Republicans Attack Gen. Milley For Conversations With Book Authors At End Of Trump Presidency; Former Press Secretary Details Life Inside Trump White House In New Tell-All Book; Vice President's Office Frustrated With "The View". Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 29, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:30:50]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: We are two hours away from a crucial court hearing for Britney Spears. The pop star is expected to appear virtually as a Los Angeles County judge weighs whether to end her father's role in that 13-year conservatorship.

Britney has called this arrangement, quote, "abusive." In testimony this summer, Spears claimed she has felt forced to perform, take lithium, and be on birth control against her will, along with a host of other restriction restrictions.

CNN's Chloe Melas is at the courthouse covering all of the twists and turns in this case.

Chloe, what will we hear from Britney today?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, that is the hope. Britney testified at two emotional testimonies at two separate hearings over the summer.

And I'm hearing that Britney is going to be calling in. Although, there are Free Britney fans holding out hope they will see an actual in-person glimpse of her.

There's that slight chance she could roll up in an SUV and be there in person in a courtroom and that would be incredibly impactful -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: What about "The New York Times" reporting about all of this surveillance of Britney, these illegal recordings of her in some of her most private moments. Will those come up today?

MELAS: Right. Matthew Rosengard, Britney's newly hired attorney, filed a petition earlier this week asking Judge Brenda Penny to launch an investigation into this shocking report by "The New York Times," as to whether or not her father hired a security company to place illegal devices in her home.

Because in the state of California, you cannot record somebody without their consent. It's expected that possibly the judge may address that.

Also, the big thing, Alisyn, is the judge going to decide whether or not Britney's 13-year conservatorship comes to an end today? Will she walk out of this courtroom, in person or virtually, and be a free woman, have personal control of her own decisions and finances again?

There's a chance perhaps Jamie Spears may be suspended and the conservatorship will continue. There are different scenario ss that could happen.

You know, everybody is hoping that this will be over once and for all, Alisyn. I imagine we'll hear another powerful testimony from Britney herself.

CAMEROTA: Chloe, are those the two possible outcomes today? A, she walks out a free woman, which is what she wants? Which obviously the Free Britney movement has wanted for years. Or that somebody else is installed as her conservator instead of her dad?

MELAS: Yes. Matthew Rosengard, Britney's attorney, filed a petition saying he want ss Jamie Spears suspended first and foremost.

That he wants to kind of address the termination of the overall conservatorship at a later date and appoint a man by the name of John Zable, a certified public accountant, to take over Jamie Spears' responsibilities of overseeing Britney Spears' $60 million estate.

We could see Judge Penny saying, OK, we'll discuss later if this conservatorship should be terminated. But today, Jamie Spears, you're out of there. We're going to put John Zable in Jamie Spears' place.

And the judge will ask Britney, do you want this? That's what we'll hear from the judge.

I'll be in that courtroom, Alisyn, and I'll come out and give you a play by play.

CAMEROTA: We know you will, Chloe. As always, bring us anything you get as soon as it develops.

Thank you for being there for us.

[14:34:05]

OK, meanwhile, the nation's top military leaders issue a warning about how soon al Qaeda or ISIS could rebuild in Afghanistan. That's next.

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CAMEROTA: Today, the top nation's military leaders say the Taliban is still a terror organization. That's just one of the warnings from General Mark Milley, Joint Chiefs chairman, during his second today on Capitol Hill. The secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, and CENTCOM commander, General Frank McKenzie, also again testifying about the chaotic U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. This time, before the House Foreign Services Committee.

Milley also said, while the terror threat from Afghanistan is less now than before 9/11, al Qaeda is poised for a comeback.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN, U.S. JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: I think, right this minute, it is lesser than it was on 9/11. However, the conditions could be set.

The conditions could be set for a reconstitution of al Qaeda and/or ISIS. And I gave some specific times in my statement. And I stand by those.

I think that it's a real possibility in the not-too-distant future. Six, 12, 18, 24, 36 months, that kind of timeframe, for reconstitution of al Qaeda or ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN Pentagon correspondent, Oren Lieberman, is here.

So, Oren, once again, the general faced more questions for his resignation as well today. So tell us what happened.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: There were certainly some substantive issues brought up throughout this hearing. Of course, that one, the reconstitution of Al Qaeda or ISIS, with the possibility of that in Afghanistan.

[14:40:08]

But this was also a bit of an opportunity, very much an opportunity for Republicans to attack General Mark Milley for the conversations he had with authors of some books about the end of the Trump administration.

Crucially the book "Peril," by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, where he detailed two conversations he had with his Chinese counterpart, one in late October and crucially one right after the capitol insurrection on January 8th.

They accused him of subverting the civilian chain of command, bypassing President Donald Trump, essentially trying to run his own foreign policy.

Here is how he defended himself, saying those conversations were just to maintain stability between nuclear powers.

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MILLEY: As part of that conversation, I said, General Li, there will not be a war or attack between great powers. If there was, tension would be building up. There would be calls going back and forth between all kinds of senior officials.

I said, we're not going to attack you. Trust me, we're not going to attack you. These are two great powers and I am doing my best to transmit the president's intent, President Trump's intent to ensure the American people are protected from an incident that could escalate.

REP. VICKY HARTZLER (R-MO): I understand your intent, but I think you articulating that, that you would tell him -- you would give him a call, I think, is worthy of your resignation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: One Republican lawmaker accused Milley of talking to the print media and authors in the media instead of talking to the House.

He wanted to see the intelligence that led Milley to believe that China was worried about an imminent attack or threat from the United States.

Milley held up a stack of papers and said, here is the intelligence, I shared it with the president, the director of National Intelligence, the secretary of defense and others.

So, quite a few heated exchanges there -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Yes, and dramatic moments.

Oren Lieberman, thank you.

A new tell-all book from former President Trump's ex-press secretary exposes what she describes as a culture of lies in the administration.

Along with new revelations about Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin and what he whispered to him and the friction with the first lady. That's next.

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[14:46:39]

CAMEROTA: Stephanie Grisham spent years at Donald Trump's side. She was former President Trump's press secretary, and then chief of staff for first lady, Melania Trump, before quitting her job, in protest after the January 6th insurrection.

Now, please remember, that Stephanie Grisham never held a press briefing as press secretary. But now she's ready to talk in a new tell-all memoir, which details her time inside the Trump White House.

In one passage, Grisham recalls how Trump catered to Vladimir Putin during their 2018 meeting, telling the Russian leader, quote, "OK, I'm going to act a little tough for you for a few minutes but they're for the cameras. After they leave, we'll talk. You understand?" Joining us now to discuss our CNN political commentators, Ana Navarro

and Natasha Alford.

That's not a surprise, Ana. When we talked about this, you and I, often, that he was so differential to Vladimir Putin. President Trump was a super fan of Vladimir Putin's.

Now we know that whatever bluster he claimed that he was so tough on Vladimir Putin, beforehand, he whispered to Vladimir Putin, I'm faking it right now.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I feel like there's not much in this book that we didn't know about. It's just reminding us of all the dysfunction we already knew about and saw in front of us.

I am troubled by the book, the nature of the book in general.

CAMEROTA: Why is that?

NAVARRO: And all of these people who, all of a sudden, resigned in protest on January 6th after she witnessed all these things, after she witnessed him kowtowing to Putin. She decides to resign after January 6th. It's a little late.

And I find the title of the book, frankly, is incredibly cynical.

CAMEROTA: It's, "I'll Take Your Questions Now."

NAVARRO: After she didn't take any questions the entire time she was press secretary.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

NAVARRO: So it is cynical and it is emphasizing she didn't take questions as a press secretary.

And, OK, now that you're going to buy my book and you're going to pay me, now maybe I will answer your questions and spill all the tea.

Well, girlfriend, it's a day late and a dollar short.

CAMEROTA: I'm glad you point that out. We could have used some of this information while he was president.

That does raise the question, Natasha, of why so few people in Melania Trump's inner circle, people who she once considered close friends and considered her close friends, have no loyalty to her. Afterwards, they are willing to discuss what they saw.

Why does she inspire such lack of loyalty in the people around her?

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If you think about some of the passages we saw in the book, frankly, she wasn't that inspiring.

She was portrayed as a first lady who was quite self-centered, who was pretty petty, who took jabs at both the media and her husband, due to, you know, rumors of his infidelities.

And, you know, just in general did not have that attitude of service you would expect from a first lady.

But I agree with Ana. There's so much hypocrisy with people like Stephanie Grisham, who once blasted the media, right, attacked the media as being biased. Said that reporters were using press briefings to get book deals. Now look who has a book deal.

This is not about courage. It's very much about convenience.

CAMEROTA: There's still some juicy stuff in there. So here's one.

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[14:50:03]

NAVARRO: I hate the book, I hate the cynicism, but give me the --

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CAMEROTA: This is about the Stormy Daniels stuff. She had a front row seat on everything that was going on behind the scenes when the Stormy Daniels stuff broke.

And so here's what she writes, "After the Stormy Daniels story broke and all of the allegations that followed from other women, I felt Mrs. Trump was basically unleashed."

"She had always been independent from her husband. But now as a wronged and publicly humiliated first lady, she seemed liberated to do whatever she wanted or didn't want to do."

But, Ana, as we all remember, one of the things she wanted to do was wear a jacket that said, 'I don't really care, do you," when she went to meet with children, unaccompanied minors at the border.

This was her big expression of her inner thoughts here.

NAVARRO: There were a lot of expressions of her inner thoughts. There was times she didn't go with him to certain events. She slapped away his hand. We all remember that dysfunction.

We thought Bill and Hillary gave us something to talk about. This was also pretty -- you saw a dysfunctional marriage on display.

The presidency is a fishbowl. And all of those things are exacerbated and being covered 24 hours a day.

I don't think she made many efforts, Melania, in hiding her anger and displeasure.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of President Trump's behavior around other women, here's an interesting nugget we haven't heard before.

There was apparently this young attractive press aide and President Trump acted so lecherously around this person, according to Stephanie Grisham.

Grisham write, "President Trump became obsessed with a young female press aide," who was not named in the book. The president constantly asked where the aide was during press events," Grisham wrote.

And allegedly once requested she be brought to his cabin on Air Force One so he could look at her butt, basically.

I mean, not surprising. But this is the kind of thing that you would expect from, you know, a middle schoolboy, not the president of the United States.

Natasha?

ALFORD: Nothing surprising about it, right? And yet, his followers, they would elect him no matter what, right?

We saw grabbing women by the private parts. He mocked rape accusers by saying that they weren't attractive enough to be assaulted. I mean, there's nothing here that is surprising.

But you know what I think is really some interesting tea is the way that Melania Trump responded to Stephanie Grisham's accusations.

Both of the Trumps kind of took this misogynistic stance towards her, and essentially said, well, you know, she's had failed relationships, she was bitter from a breakup.

And so Melania Trump falling in line with misogyny and falling in line with her husband's political agenda.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: They had her around for years, right? This is not, as Trump usually does, who is that? I don't even know them. This is a coffee boy or coffee girl.

She was around in one capacity or another in Trump world, Trump political world for years.

And, look, I don't even think it's Trump acting as a high school boy. I think it's Trump acting as Donald Trump.

That vignette you talked about harkens back to Miss Universe, when he would walk into the dressing room to see all of the women getting dressed.

It harkens back to him rating women, giving them a rank of she's a 10, she's an eight, she's a six. So, you know, it's very typical of Donald Trump.

And again, it just goes back to remind us what a horrible, disgusting, lecherous man was elected president of the United States.

CAMEROTA: I do feel the need to read his statement on her book, which is: "Too bad that sleazebag publishers continue to report this very boring garbage. We in the MAGA movement are totally used to it. And some day in the not-too-distant future, we will have our voice back and be treated fairly by the press."

That's the statement from Donald Trump.

About that -- just one last thing before we move on. About the rape accusation from E. Jean Carol. Stephanie Grisham also writes about that.

And she says Donald Trump told her, just deny it, he didn't do it. He looked at her in the face, just deny it. That was his strategy.

And before I let you go, I want to ask you about what happened at "The View." You got a false positive. You had no COVID. You were not infected by COVID. You feel great.

NAVARRO: Alisyn, I have had literally seven tests since that false positive on Friday. I mean, right now, I feel like I'm the most tested human in America. My nostrils are raw, and we're good.

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[14:54:58]

NAVARRO: So today, I can sit here telling you I'm negative. It was a fluke. It was a mistake. It was awkward. It was embarrassing. I feel terrible with the vice president's office.

And they were great. The vice president's office really, you know, rolled with the punches, stuck around, tried to make it work.

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CAMEROTA: It looked like it. We saw her in the satellite office with her earphones in.

Since then, her office has said they felt duped by "The View" because they had been assured you had tested negative.

Do you know anything about that, that they had been told by that?

NAVARRO: I have no idea. We got tested. I do know that the White House did request we get tested 24 hours out from the interview, and that did happen. We got tested right after the show on Thursday.

After that, you know -- all I do is lend my voice and lend my nostrils. I don't know what happened with the test results, and I wasn't at the point of contact with the White House.

And look, if they are angry, frankly I think -- and, you know, they're vexed, I think they have every right to be.

And I know that people at "The View," including myself, feel bad because I think this was an important interview for the vice president.

It was an important interview for us. Ad we had worked very hard to put it on the air, to ask tough questions, relevant questions. And I hope that we get the chance.

It was an important interview for our audience to see the first female vice president give her first interview. And really, it just, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: It was also unfortunate. I hear you. I totally understand.

NAVARRO: I'm so liked bummed about the entire thing.

CAMEROTA: I get it.

On behalf of your nostrils, we thank you for lending your voice here on being on with us.

And, Natasha Alford, thank you as well.

ALFORD: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, we're getting a clear timeline of Brian Laundrie's activities after the death of Gabby Petito and before he went missing. We have all of those new details ahead.

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