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Petito Family Wants Answers; Laundrie's Parents Involved in Discovery; House Votes on Bannon Contempt Charge; Tonya James is Interviewed about Virginia's Race. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired October 21, 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]

NICOLE SCHMIDT, GABBY PETITO'S MOTHER: Probably, if not everything, they know most of the information.

I would love to just, face to face ask, why are you doing this, and just tell me the truth.

JIM SCHMIDT, GABBY PETITO'S STEPFATHER: We want vengeance and -- and we need --

N. SCHMIDT: And justice, you know.

J. SCHMIDT: And justice. And for him to pay for his crimes and to spend it in a prison for the rest of his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vengeance and justice. That's what Gabby Petito's parents say that they want.

Steve Bertolino, the Laundrie parents' attorney, say that he has instructed specifically to Brian Laundrie's parents not to speak, that more information, he says, will come out at the appropriate time.

But, again, a lot of suspicions about what they knew and when they knew it.

Brian Laundrie was, for weeks, the most wanted man in America. Last seen in mid-September when he allegedly told his parents he was coming to this nature preserve to go on a hike. That manhunt may have come to an abrupt end yesterday. We're still waiting on forensic analysis and, of course, the cause of death.

Jim. Erica.

HILL: Nick Valencia, appreciate the reporting, thank you.

Let's dig a little deeper now, discuss with former FBI assistant director for the Criminal Investigative Division, Chris Swecker, and CNN's Jean Casarez, who's also been covering this story from the beginning.

Chris, I want to begin with you.

As I'm listening to Nick's reporting, to where we're at this morning in this case, and how the Laundrie parents have or have not been cooperating with law enforcement at different -- at different times during the investigation, if you were speaking with them this morning, what are the questions that you have for Brian Laundrie's parents?

CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION, FBI: Yes, I think this is the first step towards closure here, the finding of the remains, which are -- high likelihood will be Brian Laundrie.

The question you ask the parents would be, you -- or the approach to the parents would be, you owe Gabby Petito's parents an explanation. We need answers now. If Brian Laundrie is deceased, there's nothing to protect, except maybe themselves.

So, you know, what happened when he got back? What did he tell them when he got back? Did they ask questions? He returned with her van and didn't report her missing to authorities. They had to have asked the question, where's your fiance, the one that's been living with us for several months? And they have to have some answers and I think they owe those answers to the parents.

SCIUTTO: Jean, what would this -- and, again, I don't want to get ahead of things here because there can always be surprises, but if it does turn out that these are his remains, what does that mean for the investigation into Gabby Petito's death? Where does that stand? It doesn't close the issue, right, because they still have many questions to answer.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's a great question. The FBI evidence response team is processing this scene.

Now, this is a death investigation, conceivably now, if these are human remains. And they are going to be looking for any type of evidence they can find.

Now, for example, Steve Bertolino told our own Chris Cuomo last night that his client, Brian Laundrie's father, happened upon this dry bag, as we just heard. And the dry bag had bramble around it. And so he removed it, and took it to law enforcement.

You know, I have covered so many cases in Florida and many of them have had to do with, normally it's victims, but are found in the swampy areas, in the forested areas. And Florida has such extreme environmental conditions. And the Casey Anthony case is the most important one that I covered that brought in forensic botanists, forensic entomologists, forensic anthropologists because of the conditions in the wild in Florida. And the bramble, and I've learned this through listening to this expert testimony in courtroom time and time again, things like bramble, that is wrapped around potential evidence, they can look at that and determine how the bramble grows in this season, in this time to denote at least a span of reference of when the last time the bag was touched. Because Steve Bertolino said that his understanding, the remains may have been there for a while. And, remember, Brian left on September 13th. So this is over a month

that the remains could have been out there. And it's important for the time of death to be established, if at all possible. And, of course, the manner and the cause of death.

HILL: What could, and in determining that, Chris, the manner and the cause of death, what more -- what more does that tell you, right, about perhaps the state of this -- again, if this is determined -- if it is determined that these remains do belong to Brian Laundrie, how important is that manner and cause of death?

SWECKER: Well, it's important because, you know, we want to establish that if he is the killer, that he did this by himself, you know, and he died by his own hand.

[09:35:07]

You know, you have to -- you can't rule out any possibility.

It also is important, I think, in terms of whether the parents aided and abetted, whether they obstructed justice, this is a federal case, there are several statutes that apply, harbored a fugitive. You know that, when he died, how much time lapsed between September 11th, when he got home, and the time that he actually perished? How long was he in the woods? You know, how well was he supplied? What was around him?

I think it's very unusual that they -- that the police allowed the suspect's parents to pick up evidence, retrieve evidence, put it in a bag, and actually search the area. They should have been pointing to the areas to search and standing back because evidence retrieval is important. How you retrieve evidence, how you process it, what you store it in, is critical when it comes to trace evidence?

SCIUTTO: Yes, that thought occurred to me as well, to have family members pick up evidence, remarkable. One of many questions still to be answered.

Chris Swecker, Jean Casarez, thanks so much.

SWECKER: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, Steve Bannon likely to be held in criminal contempt for defying the January 6th committee, putting the U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, at the center of a legal and political firestorm. We're going to have live team coverage, next.

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[09:40:59]

SCIUTTO: Today, the full House is expected to vote to hold Steve Bannon, a close ally of former President Trump, in criminal -- criminal contempt of Congress. This after Bannon defied a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. The vote would set up a referral on to the Justice Department, which would then decide whether to prosecute Bannon. The criminal contempt referral is expected to pass the Democratic controlled House with the vast majority of Republicans, however, expected to oppose it.

Joining us now, CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild and CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider.

So, Whitney, let's start with you. The committee is clearly fighting to enforce its subpoena power here.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Right.

SCIUTTO: So, what happens next?

WILD: Well, it's going to go to the House floor. It's very likely going to pass. And then it's going to go on to the Department of Justice, where Merrick Garland still has prosecutorial discretion here.

However, this is meant to do two things. One, it's meant to show to Steve Bannon that it doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter how much power, you have to abide by a subpoena that comes from Congress.

And then further, it is meant to be a warning shot to other people who are considering not abiding by the subpoena and not complying.

SCIUTTO: Right.

WILD: So the -- again, the dual functions here. And, tonight, we will know that this is going on to the Department of Justice, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough.

But before I go on to exactly what they're looking for, because I think it's fascinating, Jessica, Merrick Garland, I mean he has garnered some, you know, frustration from Democrats for not pursuing other things aggressively, including voting rights prosecutions.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

SCIUTTO: Is it clear here he's going to take up this referral?

SCHNEIDER: IT's not clear at all. I mean -- and the Department of Justice has specifically said repeatedly that they will follow the facts and the law to make a decision. And you can expect that is what the attorney general will stress repeatedly. He will not stray from that message during this testimony that's coming up in just a few minutes here.

I mean what was interesting is after the president said on Friday to our Kaitlan Collins that, yes, he believes people who defy congressional subpoenas should be prosecuted, within minutes the spokesperson for the attorney general came out with a very terse statement saying that the DOJ would follow the independent -- or would make an independent decision based on the facts and the law. At the end of the statement they put, period, full stop. And this is an attorney general, every time we see him in public, he

talks about the rule of law. And, in fact, in his opening statement that we have now, he will say in the first few sentences that he will -- he has to respect the rule of law.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: I'll read for you what he's going to say here. He said, that there will not be one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends, another for foes, one rule for the rich, another for the poor, or different rules depending on one's race or ethnicity.

This is a message we've seen consistently from the attorney general. No doubt the committee members here will be peppering him with questions about what the DOJ will do when it comes to this contempt referral. But I don't think Attorney General Garland is going to give any indication.

SCIUTTO: Well, deliberate effort to take the politics out of this.

I do want to ask about why Congress and this committee are pursuing these particular conversations because it -- the question, right, is the president's role on the day of.

WILD: Right.

SCIUTTO: What he was saying to his advisers, but even, you mentioned earlier, what he said in those video messages, in any event (ph).

WILD: Right. So here's the -- so here's the challenge with the former president. We all know he puts like next to nothing in writing. So all of the evidence they're going to have to get into his mindset and his intentions that day are going to come from him, from people he was very close with, the conversations he was having, and the committee hopes from the raw footage of the videos that he produced that day.

So they are looking into everything. They think that these internal records will be illuminating, especially the outtakes from the video because what we know is that there have -- he had to basically be convinced to put this video out.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.

WILD: So that those are the things they're drilling down on. Dan Scavino, due to apparently work with the committee in coming days in some capacity. And what they're look for from him I think is another two things, what he knew that day, what he saw that day, but also he's a confident of the president for more than ten years.

[09:45:03]

So they -- they're also, I think, looking for a character analysis there. They want to get into the mind of the president, that's crucial, to figure out was -- to answer the overarching question, which is, was this meant to be a violent insurrection. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, good question.

And, listen, we know the president was being begged by Republicans and Democrats, call off the rioters.

WILD: Right.

SCIUTTO: Didn't really want to do it. The ultimate public message was not exactly definitive.

WILD: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: So, were those other messages in a different category?

Whitney Wild, Jessica Schneider, thanks so much to both of you.

Erica.

HILL: Well, Democrats pulling out all the stops in Virginia, where the governor's race is now neck and neck. So will this planned string of high-profile surrogates have an impact?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:10]

SCIUTTO: We are less than two weeks from election day in Virginia. New polling, at least one of them, shows the governor's race in a dead heat. Take a look at this. A Monmouth University poll shows Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin each polling at 46 percent. And you can see that race tightening since September. Now McAuliffe is bringing in Democratic heavyweights to help, he hopes, in the home stretch.

HILL: Today, Vice President Kamala Harris set to visit Prince William County. It's the most diverse county in the state.

Joining us now is Tonya James, the chair for the Prince William County Democrats.

Good to have you with us this morning.

We should point out, this is a county that Joe Biden, the Biden/Harris ticket in 2021, with 62 percent of the vote. The fact that the vice president is focusing on Prince William County today, how concerned are you that this county is at risk?

TONYA JAMES, CHAIRWOMAN, PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA DEMOCRATS: Good morning. Thanks for -- thanks for having me, Erica.

I would say that it's not about concern, it's just about us being enthusiastic, us making sure that we don't take anything for granted. We talk to as many voters as we possibly can. All hands on deck to get out the vote and continue to push Virginia forward. SCIUTTO: We've seen -- we're seeing today Kamala Harris there. We've

seen former President Barack Obama, both campaigning there but also releasing a campaign ad. Less prominent has been the president, Joe Biden. I wonder, is that deliberate?

JAMES: Absolutely not. Joe Biden was one of the first surrogates here after our primary. And we expect the president to be back before Election Day.

HILL: Do you know when? I know there's been a lot of talk about a date for when the president will be there?

JAMES: I do not know exactly. I just know that he will be here before Election Day on November 2nd.

SCIUTTO: Here's the thing, though, big picture, right? Virginia was an easy win in the 2020 cycle, as was your county, right, an easy win. But now you've got, you know, the big guns coming there to try to drum up the vote. The president's approval rating is way down from just a couple of months ago. Why is Virginia closer than many expected? Is this frustration with Democrats? Do Republicans have a message here that you're concerned about?

JAMES: Absolutely not, Jim. I think, you know, with Virginia being one of only two states that has elections every single year, what we are experiencing now, because Virginia was an easy win, as someone who worked on that campaign for the president in 2020. So people are tired. Voters are tired. Volunteers are tired. But at the end of the day we have to -- we have to fight hard every single year. The commonwealth has been trending blue and has been blue overwhelmingly the last few years. We've just got to continue to make sure that voters understand just what's at stake. And Terry McAuliffe is the only candidate that has a winning message and a message to continue to push Virginia forward. And that's just -- that's just where we're at.

HILL: In terms of -- in terms of that messaging, the fact that your party, the Democrats, hold, right, the power in Washington, that should be a great thing to point to if you're running a Democratic candidate for governor. But the reality is that there are not a lot of political wins, legislative wins that can be pointed to today. And we've seen so much of the fighting that has gotten to this point where we're still waiting on those specifics for the reconciliation plan.

Is that hurting you?

JAMES: I don't believe it is. When we talk about wins, we can talk about the wins at the general assembly, who is -- we hold the majority, Democrats hold the majority, in what we have been able to accomplish within the commonwealth. And that's what we are focusing on now. We're focusing on protecting all of those progressive voting rights that were just passed by the Democratic-led general assembly. We're focusing on protecting the right -- women's right to choose.

SCIUTTO: Right.

JAMES: We're focusing on all of the -- all of the good things that we are -- we can control here in the commonwealth. And that's our message to voters as we still have a lot of work to do and that's just what we've got to do.

SCIUTTO: But to be fair, the candidate himself is worried about the lack of progress in Washington. He said so much publicly.

JAMES: Right.

SCIUTTO: McAuliffe has said, you've got to pass infrastructure and these things, in effect saying, if you don't, I'm in trouble.

[09:55:03]

JAMES: Absolutely. And, you know, I know that our Democrats and our delegation are fighting hard every single day to get those things passed. And I don't think that that's -- it's an either/or for us. I think we can focus on the good here in Virginia, while also making sure we support those Democrats that we sent to Congress. And that's what we're going to do.

SCIUTTO: We'll see very soon. We'll see very soon.

Tonya James, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

JAMES: Have a good day.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next, a critical day for the Biden presidency as Democrats seem -- seem on the verge of a breakthrough economic deal. Could Biden's agenda, though, still be derailed by a single senator's opposition to raising taxes? More to come.

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