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Today, Jared Kushner Voluntarily Met With 1/6 Committee; DOJ Widens 1/6 Probe To Examine Rally Prep, Financing; Romney: There's A Deal "In Principle" On $10 Billion COVID Package; Chris Rock Speaks Out After Will Smith Slap At Oscars; Academy Asked Will Smith To Leave But He Refused; Biden Announces Record Oil Release To Reduce Gas Prices. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired March 31, 2022 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The January 6th Select Committee talking for the first time to a member of Donald Trump's family today, just wrapping up an interview with Trump's son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: His appearance comes as the Justice Department is widening the investigation to those who planned the pro- Trump rally before the capitol attack, not just the capitol rioters.
Joining us now is former deputy assistant attorney general, Harry Litman.
Harry, good to see you again.
Let's start with Jared Kushner. He was not in the White House. He wasn't in the country in the days leading up to January 6th.
So what can they learn from him?
HARRY LITMAN, CNN POLITICAL & LEGAL COMMENTATOR: A few things. First, he does figure in -- and we've been hearing about him in the last week, Victor, including in one of the emails between Mark Meadows and Ginni Thomas. She refers to having forwarded one to Jared Kushner. That's one.
But the most important, I think, is Ivanka. They can ask him things about her. She figures centrally. She's the person that people tried to prevail on repeatedly to have Trump call off the dogs.
Just his testifying makes it, I think, more likely or puts more pressure on her to testify. She's in voluntary negotiations now, and they can ask him about her.
I think you're generally right that he's not a big font of information here. He was out of the country working on the Abraham Accords.
CAMEROTA: Harry, talk to us about the expanding probe from the Department of Justice. They're not just looking at the violent rioters. Now, they're looking at people who may have planned it. Also that slate of fake electors.
LITMAN: Yes. The biggest news of the day, and it's a big news day, so we know they're doing at least that. We know now there's been a grand jury meeting for a couple months.
And we don't know it's limited. They certainly are looking at who funded it. They're looking at so-called VIP attendees at the January 6th rally.
But they may be looking at the whole sort of Stone and Flynn kind of netherworld and the Willard war room. And they're just generally looking at legislative and executive branch officials.
When you undertake an investigation of that, who is at the tippy top -- not to say they'll get there -- but who's at the tippy top? Donald Trump.
So that means they really have shifted focus and are including the broader look at what everyone has been so anxious about for them to actually make headway on.
BLACKWELL: Harry, on these slates of fake electors or the fake slates of electors, either way you want to go, how deep does the exposure go?
Just the organizers, top level people, or to all the people who signed on to these documents?
LITMAN: Right. So, look, a conspiracy here, they call this a hub and wheel, meaning everyone who is involved is responsible for everyone the conspirators did.
That means at least the six or more people in each state. And these are not people, unlike D.C. people, who are likely to fall on their swords for Donald Trump.
It looks very blatant. So blatant, maybe there's a defense of, oh, I thought it was OK. It looks like a very clear violation of law to which there may be some kind of intent defense.
But these are exactly the people who were on the phone with him leading up to it. And they may have a lot of information to give.
In general, this is the game now. They want to get information from people leading up and up and up, and not just the ragtag folks at the rally.
CAMEROTA: Harry Litman, thank you.
BLACKWELL: Senator Mitt Romney says there's an agreement in principle on a bipartisan deal on the proposed $10 billion package to continue to battle against COVID-19.
The goal is to pass the bill next week before the congressional recess. BLACKWELL: CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill with the latest.
Manu, this is a high priority for the Biden administration. Tell us when this could happen.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a significant moment because Congress has been struggling for weeks to get a package together to deal with the COVID response, the U.S. COVID response.
The White House have raised, that President Biden raised that resources are being depleted dealing with everything from monoclonal antibody treatments, as well as testing sites as distributing the vaccines to people later this year.
And they need more money. But Congress has struggled to get that together because they have not figured out exactly how to pay for this package.
But just earlier today, Mitt Romney, the lead Republican negotiator, told a group of us they have a, quote, "agreement in principle" to have about a $10 billion package to deal with therapeutics, to deal with vaccines, to help with more tests and the like.
And this would be offset -- the money would come from the American Rescue Plan, which was the package passed last year. There's some money that is left over they said that could be redirected in different ways to help offset the $10 billion cost.
Now this $10 billion is still a fraction of what the White House wanted. They wanted more than $20 billion to deal with this.
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And even earlier, in March, there was an agreement among the leadership to do $15 billion in the COVID response.
But Democrats in the House had rebelled against how it would be paid for against the so-called offsets, forcing Nancy Pelosi to pull back that package.
And ever since, there have been these bipartisan negotiations happening in the Senate to see if there can be an agreement before the Senate and House leave for a two-week Easter recess at the end of next week.
Now they have this $10 billion agreement in principle, they have to draft the language, have it scored officially, the official cost of the bill. And then the Senate can act potentially as early as next week. And we'll see if the House does as well.
We'll see if any other snafus emerge, which is always possible in the legislative process -- guys?
CAMEROTA: Manu Raju, thank you. Also, a federal judge in Florida today struck down portions of the
state's controversial election law, ruling that it unconstitutionally targets black voters.
In a scathing 288-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker writes, the restrictions on drop boxes and voter applications were enacted, quote, "with the intent to target black voters because of their propensity to favor Democratic candidates."
BLACKWELL: The judge put Florida under the Voting Acts provision known as preclearance. That requires certain states to seek the OK of a federal judge or the Justice Department when making changes to its election rules.
Chris Rock spoke last night for the first time about that Will Smith slap at the Oscars. We'll tell you what he had to say, next.
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BLACKWELL: Comedian Chris Rock spoke during his first public appearance since getting slapped by Will Smith during Sunday's live Oscars broadcast.
CAMEROTA: CNN has obtained audio of what Rock told the sold-out audience in Boston.
BLACKWELL: Taking it off the screen is the only way to read that.
CAMEROTA: Basically, he said he was still processing it.
BLACKWELL: Yes. We'll try to get you the audio.
He says he didn't really have much to say. He's still thinking his way through it, understandably.
CNN entertainment reporter, Chloe Melas, was there for both of Chris Rock's shows last night.
So what did he say and what was the mood inside the theater, particularly his mood?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes, look, I'm here in Boston. Right behind me is the Wilbur Theater where Chris Rock performed two shows last night.
I have to tell you, everyone was so excited to see Chris Rock. When he came out, he didn't get just one but two standing ovation ovations.
He was wearing all white. And he appeared to get emotional. At one point, he said, "I'm getting misty. Just let me do my show."
He said, "I'm still processing everything and at one point I will address this. It will be serious. It will be funny." And then later, in his second show at 10:00 p.m., he said, "Despite
what you've heard, I haven't had any conversations yet." And he's meaning with Will Smith.
Diddy had come out and said that they squashed things and they had not.
CAMEROTA: Chloe, I think we have the audio right now. Let's see if we can hear him in his own words.
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(CHEERING)
CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN: Welcome to the show.
You all got me misty and (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I don't know like a bunch of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) about what happened.
If you came to hear that, I'm not -- I wrote a whole show before this week, and I'm still kind of processing what happened.
Like, I am --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
ROCK: So at some point, I'll (EXPLETIVE DELETED). And it'll be serious. It'll be funny. I'm going to tell some jokes --
(CHEERING)
ROCK: -- and talk about it.
It's nice to just be out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: OK, that was worth the wait. Not so much to hear him but the crowd's love, that roar of support for him, Chloe. I don't know that I was expecting it to be quite that loud and enthusiastic.
But also, Chloe, while we have you, tell us what happened with the Academy's board of governors, what came out of the meeting, what's next for Will Smith.
MELAS: Yes. So, first of all, this was all happening at the very same moment.
So the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences, their governor's board was literally having a meeting about what to do about Will Smith in their annual postmortem they have after the Oscars.
And they put out a statement CNN obtained. And part of it says that: "Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated. While we would like to clarify Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused. We also recognized we could have handled the situation differently."
They said, Alisyn and Victor, that they've given Will Smith 15-days' notice. He can respond in writing. And on April 18th, they will announce on or around that time what they're going to do, what are the repercussions.
Will he be suspended from the Academy? Can he not be a part of next year's Oscars? We will have to see what they decide to do.
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We still haven't heard anything yet from Will Smith. And even though he publicly apologized to Chris Rock, it doesn't sound like he's directly apologized to Chris Rock at all.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
CAMEROTA: OK. All interesting. And we'll see what the Academy does. There's no playbook for this.
Chloe Melas, thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: That's an interesting element and a bit disappointing there has not been, according to Chris Rock, any communication between the two of them, that Will Smith has not apologized to Chris Rock even just by phone, personally.
CAMEROTA: He did do it on Instagram. He did it publicly.
One of the interesting things I think about this how public it all was, the public humiliation of this for both of them, getting slapped publicly on this international stage, then the public apology.
It's very sort of celebrity driven rather than, as you say, just one- on-one.
BLACKWELL: When you saw me on the phone, I went back to look at Will Smith's social media to see if there had been anything posted since then. And it's just that white lettering on a black background: "I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris," and all of that.
He has a fantastic social media team. They shoot videos of him and his family. And they can get a camera and have him sit down, even if he won't call, and on camera, apologize to Chris Rock.
I'm not saying this isn't heartfelt, but you haven't called the man. And all these videos and well edited and shot videos, all well-lit, and you post this written statement.
It may be heartfelt, but you walked up on global television and slapped a man across the face.
CAMEROTA: I think that Chris Rock has given us all a master class in how not to escalate. He didn't escalate. He went on with the show.
And then he told his crowd last night, I'm still processing. I don't have any words for you right now. I'm still working it through, which I think is also just a really interesting and good lesson for all of us.
BLACKWELL: We'll see if the conversation happens.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, President Biden announced an unprecedented release of oil from the Strategic Reserves this afternoon. How that will impact gas prices, ahead.
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CAMEROTA: President Biden today announcing an unprecedented release of oil from U.S. emergency reserves in an effort to lower the sky-high gas prices.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our prices are rising because of Putin's action. There isn't enough supply. And the bottom line is, if we want lower gas prices, we need to have more oil supply right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: A million barrels of oil will be released every day for the next six months.
CNN's Matt Egan is here.
What do we know about the impact this will have?
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, this should help. But no one should expect gas prices to suddenly get cheap.
This is really all about supply and demand. The war in Ukraine set off this massive supply shock.
The White House, they can't force U.S. oil companies to add supply. They definitely can't force OPEC to add supply. And they can't do anything to lower demand.
So this is really the only lever they had to pull. And they really pulled it, 180 million barrels being released. That is three times bigger than anything we've ever seen before. The previous record was set just a few months ago.
Within minutes of this coming out, we did actually see oil prices come down sharply. They're down about 6 percent, 7 percent as we speak, trading just above $100 a barrel. So lower than they have been but not cheap. Experts I'm talking to do expect gas prices to possibly come down a
little bit. But they're still concerned about prices going up this spring and summer as demand ramps up. They say gas prices could hit record highs this spring and summer.
Two big obstacles. One, this is a big move. But the size of the shock is even bigger. There's estimates of three million barrels per day from Russia coming offline. So this would not fully offset that.
The other big issues is the SPR is not a bottomless pit of oil. It was at a 20-year low for emergency reserves before this move. This would bring it down to the lowest level since 1984.
Either that oil gets replaced, which adds demand, or it doesn't, and that's less firepower for next time. Either way, it could support prices.
BLACKWELL: All right, Matt Egan, thank you. Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Thanks, Matt.
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BLACKWELL: President Biden says there's some indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is self-isolating and punishing some of his advisers. We'll have more on that and the latest from Ukraine, ahead.
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BLACKWELL: Today, the Biden administration is marking International Transgender Day of Visibility with a series of changes supporting transgender Americans.
Including the option to choose "X" when identifying gender on U.S. passport applications. That starts next month.
And then, starting next year, the Social Security Administration will no longer require doctor's notes to update gender information.
CAMEROTA: But some states are curbing transgender rights. Just yesterday, Republican Governor Doug Ducey, of Arizona, signed a bill banning surgery until 18 and another bill that prohibits trans- athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports in some schools.
We want to tell you about a weather alert. Because parts of Virginia and North Carolina and eastern Maryland are under a tornado watch.
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Already, we've had a record number of tornadoes in the U.S. this month. At least 214. This is according to the Storm Prediction Center. And that's the most since recordkeeping began in 1950.
BLACKWELL: The previous record was set just last year, 191 tornados reported in March.
