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Move to Strip Boebert of Assignments; Opening Statements to Start in Potter Trial; Man Arrested in Christmas Tree Fire; Germany Swears in New Chancellor. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired December 08, 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]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yesterday alone. Its best day since March.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. House passed two pieces of key legislation overnight. A bill to create a one-time process that will allow Democrats to raise the debt limit with no Republican support and a national defense bill.
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The $770 billion defense bill includes military pay raises and policy changes to how sexual assault and harassment are handled in the military. It will likely get a vote in the Senate later this week.
SCIUTTO: Also, there's more money there to help Ukraine and defend against China. Lawmakers also passed a bill that will allow Senate Democrats to raise the debt limit with a simple majority rather than 60 votes. That bill now moves to the Senate, where the minority leader, Mitch McConnell expects to have the Republican votes needed. This despite pushback from some in his own party. Once that bill passes, Senate Democrats will vote on a separate measure to raise the debt limit but without any Republican votes. Congress has until November -- December 15th, rather, to avoid financial catastrophe and address the debt limit.
Erica, interesting, didn't that break the filibuster rule then there? A lot of talk about it.
HILL: Well, you know, things do get interesting, don't they? Yes, they do.
SCIUTTO: Just for that moment, but they did.
HILL: Just -- there you go.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HILL: Progressive Democrats also now moving to punish Congresswoman Lauren Boebert for her anti-Muslim remarks. Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley set to introduce a resolution which would strip the Colorado Republican of her committee assignments. This after Boebert implied on several occasions that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is a terrorist.
SCIUTTO: CNN's Lauren Fox joins us now live from Capitol Hill.
Lauren, I wonder, Democratic leadership doesn't seem to be in a great rush to do this, based on Nancy Pelosi's comments. Getting pushed by progressives. What's happening here?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is part of the challenge of Democratic leaders, right, when they have a Republican leader in Kevin McCarthy who doesn't take action against his colleagues and his own members when they make these kinds of Islamophobic comments, when the repeatedly make these kinds of comments. Remember, this wasn't something she just mentioned once, this was something that CNN revealed in multiple videos she talked about back home in Colorado. So that's one of the challenges for Nancy Pelosi.
Look, the Democrats are meeting for a caucus meeting right now. I've been asking sources whether or not this has come up yet in this meeting. Expect that this is going to be a delicate balance for Democrats because you have progressives who are arguing that you can't just let these kinds of comments go unanswered, that there has to be some kind of action taken when you have a member of Congress making up what has been seen as lies from Representative Lauren Boebert about incidences in which she argues that a colleague was a terrorist, or she compares her colleague to a terrorist.
So, that is what's going to be unfolding over the next couple of days and hours. We do expect that the progressives are going to unveil this resolution later today, basically asking that Boebert be removed from her committee assignments. But what action House Speaker Nancy Pelosi takes still remains to be seen.
And we asked her as she went into her caucus meeting whether or not she was going to take action. Pelosi argued that this is really a question for Kevin McCarthy.
Jim and Erica.
HILL: And we will see if, in fact, he agrees, at least publicly, I suppose.
Separately, Lauren, I do want to ask you, Lauren Boebert, perhaps not surprisingly, really it's on brand, is now jumping into this recent controversy involving Representative Massey, who posted, of course, a Christmas picture of his family fully armed. She is tweeting out a picture of her own with her children armed in support of Massey.
I say it's on brand because we know, well documented, she talks about it a lot, her love of firearms and of guns. But also, you know, you would argue she put that out there because she wants us to talk about it. She wants us to talk about this picture. She wants to talk about something controversial. FOX: Exactly right, Erica, and this is always the challenge with
someone like Representative Lauren Boebert. And really the challenges that Democrats are trying to grapple with right now in their own caucus, these are the kind of photographs, these are the kinds of stunts that get media attention, that get you fundraising, that get you noticed from your Republican base.
But, obviously, this is happening in the context of a horrible school shooting that occurred. And Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky faced a lot of backlash for a similar photo that he posted of his family holding firearms, holding long guns in a Christmas card. She basically is just jumping on that bandwagon.
But it goes without saying that this is something that she views as essential to her brand. This is something that she views really as going to win her points with the conservative base. And this is the challenge right now for the Republican Party.
HILL: Lauren Fox, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.
Just ahead, not exactly what you're going for when you light up a tree. This happened overnight here in New York City outside Fox News headquarters. What happened? Those details just ahead.
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[09:44:36]
HILL: In just moments, opening statements begin in the trial of Kimberly Potter. She's the former police officer who shot and killed a 20-year-old man near Minneapolis. That happened in April.
Now, Potter claims she confused her firearm for her taser when she pulled it out and shot Daunte Wright while trying to arrest him during a traffic stop.
SCIUTTO: Yes, because he had an air freshener on his rear view mirror.
Potter it charged with first and second degree manslaughter, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
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Potter has pled not guilty.
CNN's Adrienne Broaddus joins us now live from Minneapolis.
Adrienne, so video evidence at play here. I mean you -- this moment was captured on camera. What role will it play in the case?
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it will be critical. And you are talking about that body camera video worn by the former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter. But it will come up to this jury. The jury will have to decide whether or not they believe Kim Potter is guilty of these manslaughter charges. Let's talk about the jury for a moment. The breakdown right now, it's
made up of 14 people, 12 will sit on that jury panel, the other two will be alternates. Seven white men make up this jury, four white women, two Asian women, and one black woman. Notably, no black men were selected for this jury.
At the time of the shooting that killed Daunte Wright, I asked his family how did their son identify. They told me Wright, who is the son of a white woman, son of a black man, identified as a black male.
Meanwhile, opening statements will get underway here in Hennepin County later this morning. Hennepin County, it's a name you probably have all heard before. That's because this is the same county where Derek Chauvin was convicted. And this will all play out in the same courtroom as well, but a different judge.
Jim and Erica.
HILL: We will be watching.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HILL: Adrienne Broaddus, appreciate it. Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Well, police in New York have now arrested a man suspected of setting fire to a 50-foot Christmas tree outside Fox News' Manhattan headquarters.
HILL: Wild video there. A bystander captured that video of the tree going up in flames overnight.
CNN's Brynn Gingras is live there with an update.
I mean it is pretty remarkable to see, Brynn.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean the video is just stunning.
Erica and Jim, good morning.
Behind me, though, the shell of what's left of that artificial tree. I will say they have removed half of what the decorations were left after that enormous fire. It didn't all completely go up in flames, but that is what is left. And we now see NYPD around this area as well.
I'm told from police sources, a 49-year-old has been arrested on several charges, including arson. They were able to arrest him on the scene. They believe that he's the one who did it, saying he had a lighter in his pocket.
And the good thing, though, guys, to point out is that there were no injuries. Because I can tell you, as you guys know, we are not far from Rockefeller Center. The big tree, even after midnight when this took place, it could be pretty busy around this area. So the good news is, there are no injuries. And, again, a person under arrest on numerous charges, again, including arson.
Guys, back to you.
SCIUTTO: Brynn Gingras, thanks very much.
Still ahead this hour, it is the first day on the job for Germany's new chancellor. He is already weighing some serious issues alongside President Biden. We're going to be live from Germany next.
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[09:52:35]
HILL: For the first time in 16 years, Germany has a new chancellor. Olaf Scholz was sworn in this morning. He replaces the long serving chancellor, Angela Merkel.
SCIUTTO: Merkel leaves office after presiding over Europe's largest economy for four terms.
CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, he is in Berlin.
Fred, Germany has loomed large in so many of America's big foreign policy priorities in Europe, the unity of NATO, particularly standing up to Russia given all happening in Ukraine right now. Is Scholz expected to be a similar presence and partner for the U.S.?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's certainly what he aims to be. And I think that you're really hitting the nail on the head there because one of the things that Olaf Scholz has said in the past couple of days is that to him and to his new administration, relations with the U.S. are of the utmost importance. Obviously, you had Angela Merkel who also had very good relations with the Biden administration, pretty difficult under President Trump, though. And Olaf Scholz says that he really values the new multilateralism that he says that President Biden has brought to the table.
One of the things that Scholz talked about yesterday, in fact, at a press conference was he said that he really admired the way that President Biden, ahead of speaking with Vladimir Putin, spoke to the U.S.'s European NATO allies and then spoke to them again after he spoke with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
So, the Germans are saying that they do want very close relations with the United States and they want to be a strong partner within NATO and, of course, also maintain a strong leadership role within the European Union and a strong partnership with the United States as well.
One of the other things, Jim, to really keep an eye on, though, is Germany's new foreign minister. A really, really interesting person. Her name's Annalena Baerbock, first female foreign minister. She comes from the green party. And the thing about her is, she's extremely critical of the Nord Stream 2 project. And that doesn't mean that Germany is -- has any sense of leaving that project, but it certainly means that you do have someone in a senior government role who's very critical of that project.
By the way, the German government going on the road very quickly. Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor, on Friday, is already going to Paris to meet Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and he's also going to NATO as well. And that certainly is seen here in Germany as a big commitment to that transatlantic relation -- alliance and then ultimately also to relations with the U.S., as well, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HILL: Yes. And we'll be looking to see both how those meetings play out and it will be interesting to watch that dynamic too, as you just pointed out, between the two.
Fred Pleitgen, appreciate it. Thank you.
Still to come, Pfizer says three shots of its Covid vaccine, so your two initial shots and your booster, those three offer the same protection against the omicron variant as two shots had against some of the original strains of the virus.
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Could that impact current booster timelines? We're going to ask.
Stay with us.
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SCIUTTO: A very good Wednesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
HILL: And I'm Erica Hill.
We begin this hour with promising news this morning on just how well vaccines may work to fight the omicron variant of Covid-19.
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Pfizer's CEO says preliminary lab studies show three doses of its vaccine are able to neutralize this new strain.
