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President Biden to Lay Out Climate Plans; Georgia Election Probe Escalates; Missing Secret Service Text Messages. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 20, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: And John Fetterman today giving his very first interview since suffering a stroke.

The Democrat, who is running for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, is telling "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" he is -- quote -- "really good" and has nothing to hide about his health. He adds that he's 100 percent ready for a tough campaign and plans to get back on the trail -- quote -- "very soon."

And thanks for joining INSIDE POLITICS.

Ana Cabrera will pick up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York, a busy day here in the NEWSROOM.

We're following multiple developments at this hour all connected to the January 6 attack, from Capitol Hill and new details about those missing Secret Service text messages from the time of the Capitol attack, to the grand jury probe in Georgia into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election there. Rudy Giuliani, by the way, has just been ordered to testify.

And we have this just in. We are learning there's a bipartisan effort under way in Congress now to protect future elections.

We are covering all this from all angles. We have a team of reporters and analysts standing by.

Let's begin with CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.

Manu, tell us about this new legislation.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the first direct response, the most significant legislative response to the events of January 6.

A bipartisan group of senators just moments ago announced they have a deal to change how the so-called Electoral Count Act, a law from 1887, works, and essentially make it harder to overturn an election and what we saw Donald Trump try to do that has come out through the course of these hearings and before about how he tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results, pressure state officials to disregard the election, refuse to concede, claim that the election was stolen without any evidence and prove widespread fraud.

What this legislation aims to do is make it very clear that the vice president's role in overseeing the electoral results on the day of certification is simply ministerial. Also, it limits federal resources to individuals who are the clear winner of the election during the transition period, when that winner -- it's apparent that that's who the winner is.

It also takes additional steps to significantly ramp up penalties to -- when election workers and other officials are threatened, any threats made towards those officials. It takes other steps to bolster states' security systems as well.

Now, this proposal is the result of negotiations that came from nine Republican senators, eight Democratic senators, needs 60 votes ultimately in the United States Senate to get there. That means they need 10 Republicans to actually vote for this legislation, which is divided up into two separate proposals.

And the sponsors of this bill believe that this will take some time in order for it to get through the Senate, go to the respective committees, ultimately come to the Senate floor and see if they can actually get the votes, push this through and get this out of the House, but still a significant moment, two sides coming together, a deal cut by -- pushed by Susan Collins of Maine, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and other senators from both sides coming together to see if they can get a response to January 6 into law -- Ana.

CABRERA: Manu Raju, thank you for that reporting, again, that just happening on Capitol Hill.

We're also learning today that a judge has ordered Rudy Giuliani to testify as a witness before a Georgia grand jury investigating Donald Trump's attempts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.

Let's bring in CNN's Jessica Schneider.

And, Jessica, this is a big deal. What else are you learning?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is really a significant step here, Ana, for the Fulton County DA, also really a victory for Fani Willis.

She has this wide-ranging investigation into election related crimes. And she's been trying for a while to get several Trump allies into the special grand jury for testimony. And now Rudy Giuliani is being ordered by a judge to appear August 9 in Georgia.

So Giuliani was fighting the subpoena in a New York court. But Giuliani actually failed to appear for a court hearing on the subpoena last week. So a judge there ruled that Giuliani must appear now next month. We have not gotten any response just yet from Giuliani or his lawyers. But this is really notable, because it marks the first very close

Trump ally that the special grand jury will hear from. And we know that Rudy Giuliani was among the key voices pushing Trump to try to overturn the election.

The DA, interestingly, down there in Georgia, she's also fighting to get other Trump allies to testify, including Senator Lindsey Graham. They're fighting it out in a legal proceeding right now. The Georgia DA really has the most active and aggressive criminal probe ongoing right now. We're seeing a lot of activity from it.

And, Ana, it begs the question here. Now that Rudy Giuliani will go testify, how much further will the DA go here? There's a lot of question, will she subpoena Trump himself? Could she eventually charge Trump or his allies for these state crimes, including conspiracy to commit election fraud, other charges?

This is really ramping up, and she's being very aggressive in this investigation all centered in Georgia -- Ana.

[13:05:04]

CABRERA: Yes, because the other new development involving this Georgia investigation is the 16 so-called fake electors there in Georgia have now been notified by prosecutors that they are targets of an ongoing criminal investigation, right?

Explain.

SCHNEIDER: Right, upgraded from witnesses to targets now.

It's these 16 people who formed that slate of fake electors. And by being told that their targets, that means they could face charges. And that actually includes, as we previously reported, the state Republican chair there, David Shafer.

So you see here, Ana, that this special grand jury, it's moving quickly. It was just impaneled a few weeks ago. It goes to about mid- 2023. So they have a lot of time here. But they're moving quickly. And they have broad power to subpoena, get testimony, records, and then ultimately issue a recommendation about who should be charged and for what.

So we're seeing some rapid development, possibly just the beginning, though, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Jessica Schneider, thank you.

And Alan Baron is here with us now. He's a lawyer who has been special counsel to both Senate and House committees over the past three decades.

And, Alan, first, how significant is this that Rudy Giuliani has now been ordered to testify?

ALAN BARON, FORMER HOUSE SPECIAL IMPEACHMENT COUNSEL: I think it's extremely significant.

I'm sure there are some federal prosecutors who would like to have a shot at him. But there seems to be a very serious investigation going on down in Georgia, and the fact that a judge has now said, you can't ignore us, which he did earlier, we expect you to be here when you're called upon, and you're going to be called upon to testify.

He may take the Fifth Amendment and refuse to testify, but, at the very least, he has to show up.

CABRERA: It feels like this investigation in Georgia is moving quickly. If you're one of these 16 fake Trump electors who got this letter, what does this mean for you?

BARON: Well, they must be very scared and asking themselves, why has there been a change from being witnesses to now being targets?

They would claim, I suppose, that they were simply unwitting dupes, and, if so, they shouldn't be criminally liable. If that's the case, and if that's ultimately the way it turns out, who was behind all this? What were they told when they were enticed into becoming electors?

There are a lot of open questions on this. Above all, why did the prosecutors shift from being -- them being witnesses to them being possible defendants?

CABRERA: Is it standard procedure to send a letter to a witness who becomes a target?

BARON: Yes. In fact, they're known as target letters.

It usually warns them not to destroy documents. It also puts them on notice of where -- what their status is. But, yes, it's a very routine, and it's very significant.

CABRERA: As far as the legislation in Congress that Manu outlined, how significant is that?

BARON: Well, it's great to see the -- both sides coming together on something for a change.

I think it's important, because there was some alleged ambiguity in the old statute, and this should clarify it, so that people won't be able to say, we didn't realize what the law was, we thought this was OK.

So I think that's got to be seen as a positive development. Any time when Republicans and Democrats can get together on anything these days, you have to feel good about it. So, yes, I think it's a really good thing that's happened, and clarification of an old statute is an important progress.

CABRERA: Yes, I think the big question is, will it safeguard democracy? Will it safeguard a peaceful transfer of power in the future? Stay with me, Alan, because all that is happening as the January 6

Committee continues its investigation. We're getting new details now about those mystery -- the mystery around the Secret Service text messages.

Let's bring in CNN's Whitney Wild.

Whitney, we now know the Secret Service turned over a single text message responding to that request by the inspector general for all the text messages related to the January 6 attack. So, bring us up to speed here. What else are you learning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're learning is that the Secret Service has handed over more than 10,000 records to the House Select Committee after they issued a subpoena to the Secret Service requesting volumes of documents.

This comes after the inspector general basically complained to congressional Oversight committees, saying he had tried to get relevant documents, including text messages that may have been sent on January 5 and January 6 of 2021, but he couldn't get them.

And our reporting is that he went to Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. He didn't get anywhere. So then he went to the Hill. That is where we are right now. Ana.

Again, this huge delivery of records includes a single text message, but it also includes, Ana, documents. And these were handed over to the inspector general as well, documents, policies, briefings, interviews, radio traffic, and communications.

[13:10:00]

However, what is really at issue here is these text messages. And here's why.

The agency maintains that there was an ill timed e-mail migration at the same time that the I.G. was hoping to collect this information. So, this e-mail migration began January 27. The I.G. came back to Secret Service in February and said that they were requesting this information.

So that's the timeline at issue here. However, prior to that e-mail migration, Ana, the Secret Service employees were told twice that, if they were obligated to back up records, that they had to do it themselves. And they were given instructions exactly on how to do that -- Ana.

CABRERA: The Federal Records Act applies to the Secret Service, as I have learned in the past as we have been covering this story.

Alan, they turned over one text when asked to turn over a month's worth from 24 different Secret Service personnel. What's your reaction? BARON: It doesn't pass the smell test, to put it bluntly. Something

very fishy is going on here. I guess anything is possible, that, suddenly, if you're being warned, told to preserve these documents, they disappear right at the -- the ones involved in the crucial time frame.

I don't buy it, frankly. It certainly calls for some very serious investigation. It certainly calls for some, I don't know, maybe heads to roll. The Secret Service is there to do one thing is, in essence, to protect the president or any other public official. They're not there to play politics.

And if they, in fact, have deep-sixed records because of political reasons, there's something terribly wrong with that agency, and it needs to be investigated.

CABRERA: Again, the Secret Service continues to say there's nothing nefarious here. And as Whitney pointed out, thousands of other documents and other communications have been turned over to the I.G. and others -- other committees investigating the January 6 attack.

But, Whitney, what do we know about this single text that was turned over? Do we know who it belonged to, what it said, when it was sent?

WILD: So we do.

There's a lot of information that we do know about this. This was between a former chief of the Uniformed Division at the Secret Service. So this is their group that's basically their police force, so not agents that you might see with the suit and then earpiece, but these are the Uniformed Division officers, who look more like police officers.

And it was the chief of that unit texting Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, saying, basically, what do you need? There was -- those kinds of communications went on throughout Washington as law enforcement leaders tried to figure out what Chief Sund needed.

So the question here is why this person, Tom Sullivan, again, that chief of the Uniformed Division, felt compelled to keep this record, where others may not have kept similar records. But the question, Ana, still, it's not totally clear that -- records that were improperly destroyed.

So that's what Secret Service is trying to go through now. So they're going back through these phones. And that review includes going through the metadata for some of these phones to try to figure out, were text messages sent? Were those text messages supposed to be preserved, part of the public record -- part of the federal record, or would they have fallen into another category, which would have alleviated this requirement to keep them in general, Ana?

CABRERA: So, Alan, though, what is a normal protocol when it comes to preservation notices, like the ones we're talking about?

BARON: It occurs both in the context of civil litigation. It occurs in the context of criminal litigation.

When you are put on notice that documents are to be preserved -- and, usually, they're described with some particularity -- you had better do that. And if you don't, you run the risk of contempt of court. You run the risk of contempt of the grand jury. You run the risk of all kinds of adverse inferences being drawn against your side of the litigation or whatever case I involved.

You can't get away with this. And it's going to be a very difficult argument to sustain that the Secret Service, after being warned that they should not destroy these records or deep-six them in any way, that they went ahead and did it. There's no excuse, frankly.

CABRERA: But I wonder, Alan, if they were to say, like, we didn't know you wanted texts specifically, like, if the request was so broad, like all documents related to January 6, and it didn't specify text messages, does that give them an out in some way?

BARON: No. No. Nice try, but that's not going to fly.

CABRERA: OK.

BARON: In fact, the broader it is, the less of an out they have.

Alan Baron, Whitney Wild, interesting. Thank you very much for being there for us.

[13:15:01]

Any minute now, President Biden arrives in Massachusetts to lay out his plans for combating climate change, but it looks like he will stop short of declaring a climate emergency. Why?

And this comes as millions of Americans endure extreme, potentially deadly heat today. Tom Sater joins us next.

And later: The paychecks of CEOs are big. You already know that. But now we know how much bigger they are compared to the average workers. This story might make your blood boil.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Misery by degrees. A dangerous heat wave covers much of the country right now.

One in every three Americans is under warnings and advisories. And blistering temperatures across much of Europe have broken records and claimed more than 1,000 lives already.

[13:20:07]

Next hour, President Biden discusses his next move to fight the climate crisis with or without key support from Congress, including members of his own party. Meteorologist Tom Sater is here to walk us through this now.

Tom, how bad are things here in the U.S. and overseas?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's historic, to be quite honest with you, Ana.

Over the next week, 87 percent of the U.S. will have temperatures over 90 degrees; 20 percent will be over in the triple digits. Look where we are, highs today. Vegas, sure, you're hot, but that's well above average, but you have got 90, Boise 101, Chicago, St. Louis.

Here are the advisories, but now they're extending eastward to the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley and to the larger cities up in areas of the Northeast. Emergency right now set for Boston as well. Sure, these temperatures in the desert are hot.

Phoenix, your average is 107. So continuing to have days at 114, 115 is just staggering. And, of course, the records continued to be set, Austin San Antonio, Dallas, Oklahoma City 107 degrees. So it's really expanding.

In Europe, this cloud cover is pushing the heat now away from the U.K., London, unbelievable, over 40 all-time records yesterday. It feels like 75 right now, but notice the heat, Milan 94. Forecast tomorrow, the heat continues to move. It's across Germany. It's up into Sweden. It continues across Warsaw and Poland.

So these warnings for all these countries, over 21 of them, continue. And it's relentless in the Iberian Peninsula. The fire is amazing. London's Fire Brigade had its busiest day since World War II. And the drought, I really think this will be our next story across Northern Hemisphere, Ana.

We're going to have some agricultural yield problems with the drought across all of the Northern Hemisphere.

CABRERA: We know major U.S. cities have now opened cooling centers. Is the danger greater in urban areas?

SATER: Yes, the heat island effect.

All the concrete, all the steel retains that heat. We don't have the vegetation. Many construction companies now are building, putting a climate vegetation, a climate-friendly grass, greenery, something to help absorb carbon dioxide, help keep it cooler. Sometimes, they're just painting the roofs white.

But, again, the buildings and the concrete retain it. It's worse at night. But many times the cities are two, even seven degrees warmer. The problem is, there's homeless. Some are staying in their cars. Sure, there are cooling centers, but that's not enough. Many do not have air conditioning as well.

But there's also an increase in the pollution and the ozone. So respiratory issues become really exacerbated when you have these high ozone levels with this high heat. So it's very dangerous in the urban areas all across the world.

CABRERA: Important information. Thank you so much, Tom Sater.

And just minutes from now, President Biden will discuss his administration's response to the climate crisis. He's trying to regroup and he's scaling back after fellow Democrat Senator Joe Manchin walked away from a deal to address climate.

That's the second time now in seven months that Manchin delivered, for all practical purposes, the death blow.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Somerset, Massachusetts, where the president will arrive later this hour.

And, Jeff, what are we expecting to hear from him?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Ana, we do know President Biden is on his way here to Somerset, Massachusetts.

And this is the site of a former coal-fired plant. You can see the remnants sort of behind me here up against the river. But what this is now is a plant that makes power cables essentially to help offshore wind projects connect back to the power grid.

The president and the White House using that as an example, as a metaphor, if you will, for how this country needs to readapt its climate plans, given the crisis that Tom was just laying out there, a third of the country under excessive heat warnings, some 100 million Americans.

So President Biden will say that he is going to take executive actions, a series of executive actions, beginning with the ones he will announced here later this afternoon, which include an increase in funding to communities for specific cooling centers.

And he will also be announcing other targeted projects, adding funding to offshore wind projects. But, really, Ana, this is simply a drop in the bucket, not what the president wanted to be announcing. But, really, it's all that is left of his domestic climate agenda in the wake of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia essentially torpedoing the bigger spending plan on improving the climate goals, trying to reach those targets here in the U.S.

So the president says this is going to be the beginning of the executive action, saying, if Congress will not act, he will with his executive authority of his pen. But, clearly, that is not nearly as good as legislation. So I'm told by an official that the president is going to call out Congress for not joining him on this, and he's going to begin a series of actions.

But, again, this is not enough for climate activists. And, again, coming in the middle of July here, as the U.S. and the world is experiencing this record heat, it could not make this crisis more apparent -- Ana.

[13:25:02] CABRERA: Jeff Zeleny, thank you, reporting there in Somerset, Massachusetts, as we await the president's arrival.

And joining us now is Ali Zaidi, White House deputy national climate adviser.

And, Ali, thanks for being here.

Jeff just laid out what President Biden is expected to announce next hour. That doesn't include a national climate emergency declaration. This isn't a climate emergency in real time? What will it take?

ALI ZAIDI, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY NATIONAL CLIMATE ADVISER: It's really important to underscore what the American people are seeing in their communities right now.

And that is undeniable, 100 million Americans seeing extreme heat impacts their lives, their livelihoods. And the president wants to be speaking clearly and boldly about the emergency that we face and about the executive actions, the executive orders, the declarations that he will, in the coming weeks, make and move forward on.

CABRERA: So he is going to make some kind of an emergency declaration in the coming weeks?

ZAIDI: The president has been increasingly upping the ambition and scope and scale of what he intends to get done on climate.

This is a crisis. This is something that demands action. And it's something where, if we take action, we unlock tremendous economic opportunity. And that's going to be at display when the president visits Massachusetts today, an opportunity to revitalize manufacturing and create jobs in communities that, frankly, had been left behind.

CABRERA: It seems like an emergency declaration would help accelerate some of his ability to take action. It would allow him the power to redirect some spending when it comes to accelerating renewable energy. It would also give him legal power to block oil and gas drilling or other projects.

Why does he not feel those steps are necessary right now?

ZAIDI: What you're going to see from the president today is executive action that helps us move forward on the opportunity with offshore winds, reversing previous actions that created uncertainty, making sure that we open up new areas for advancement of this opportunity.

Getting relief and support in the hands of the American people and communities who are grappling with heat right now, that is what's front of mind for folks. And he's taking action on the thing that's front of mind. And he's being very clear. He is going to come over the coming weeks and continue to lay out more and more ambition, more and more action, as we rapidly move in the direction of his climate goals.

CABRERA: Respectfully, I don't feel like you're answering my question, though. It's why not now? You say doing this in the weeks to come.

Why not do an emergency declaration right now?

ZAIDI: Look, there are a broad set of authorities that are available to the president. There are authorities that he's taken advantage of already, whether it's setting standards for cars and trucks under the Clean Air Act, whether it's boosting investment into our grid through the investments he secured in the bipartisan infrastructure law, whether it's the $2.3 billion he's advancing on resilience today.

And a number of tools remain on -- at his disposal, and he's making it very clear that he intends to use those tools in the face of this situation.

CABRERA: The situation being Congress' inaction, right?

The president's current obstacle in Congress is coming from within his own party. Yes, you can argue all the Republicans aren't on board. And if you could just get 10 of them, then they could get this passed in the Senate. But, right now, he can't get all 50 Democratic senators to move in the same direction.

Just this past week, Senator Joe Manchin torpedoed the climate legislation after months of negotiations. How upset is President Biden with Senator Manchin right now?

ZAIDI: Look, what I can say is, there is no stop in Joe Biden when it comes to climate action. That's been the case since day one of this administration when I walked through the doors.

It's been the case every single day as we have moved out to accelerate clean energy and electric vehicles, climate-smart agriculture, boost our ability to withstand these impacts.

Just to go to the topic of heat. You guys were talking about the urban heat island effect. The president secured funding to go after the urban heat island effect by addressing that pavement and getting trees planted in those communities.

He's -- you talked about cooling centers. We're literally sending out money that will help expand cooling centers right away. Folks who don't have air conditioning in their home, states now have the resources to get that air conditioning to low-income and vulnerable individuals.

[13:30:00]