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Biden's Doctor: President's COVID Symptoms Have Improved; U.K. Intel Chief Says Russia Is "About to Run Out of Steam" in Ukraine; Ukraine and Russia Sign Grain Export Deal; Jury Has Reached Verdict in Steve Bannon Trial; Breaking News: Jury Finds Steve Bannon Guilty. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired July 22, 2022 - 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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[14:33:31]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: We're getting new information about how President Biden is doing after being diagnosed with COVID.
His physician issued a letter this morning saying that the president had a low-grade fever overnight but responded well to Tylenol and his other symptoms have improved.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The White House tweeted this new photo of the president working in isolation.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House.
Jeff, what else is the president's doctor saying?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The president's doctor, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, released a one-page letter here and it ticked through a few of the updates.
It said his temperature had climbed overnight to 99.4, which is just on the touch below the fever. A fever is actually 99.6. So fairly close to that. But was still given Tylenol because of that.
He also now has a dry cough, which is nonproductive, the doctor said, and he has a runny nose and fatigue.
Otherwise, White House officials say the president is feeling just fine. They say he was meeting with his national security team this morning by Zoom from his residence of the White House.
And he'll be holding a meeting this afternoon with advisers about gas prices, as well as a meeting with advisers talking about the legislative priorities.
So you get the sense, clearly, the White House is trying to show that the president is engaged. Yes, he is slightly sick. You saw him with a mask there. Unlike we saw him yesterday. He did not have a mask on when he was sitting at his desk in his residence. But, look, they're trying to show he's essentially business as usual
as he's riding out this isolation of COVID.
[14:35:00]
But we are going to get a briefing in the next hour, at the top of the next hour, from Dr. Ashish Jha, who is the COVID coordinator here. So he'll be giving an update on the president.
And, of course, one question here is his age, 79 years old. How are his oxygen levels? The doctor said this morning that they are normal and fine. And they are clearly monitoring him at the White House.
But twice vaccinated, twice boosted and on Paxlovid right now, the antiviral. So clearly, being treated here.
That briefing starts in the next hour -- Victor and Alisyn?
BLACKWELL: We'll look forward to that in about 25 minutes.
Jeff Zeleny, thank you.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal that could ease the global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.
BLACKWELL: And the head of the British intelligence services says that he believes Russia is about to run out of steam in Ukraine. Hear what he tells CNN next.
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[14:40:28]
CAMEROTA: Russia's war on Ukraine is approaching the five-month mark. And the chief of MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service, has a new assessment of where things stand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD MOORE, BRITISH CHIEF, MI6: I think they're about to run out of steam. I think our assessment is that the Russians will increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower, material over the next few weeks.
They will have to pause in some way. And that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back. Their morale is still high. They're starting to receive increasing amounts of good weaponry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: CNN's Nic Robertson is with us now.
Is there a sense, Nic, there, that Russia will have to pause and regroup?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's a hope and there's a belief from the president's office, on down, that Ukraine can push Russian forces back.
I haven't heard a specific intelligence assessment here saying that they think Russia will have to pause.
But Russia's hitting them hard at the moment in many different places, north, east and south, all the way along the hundreds and hundreds of miles of frontline. And Russia is not gaining any territory.
I think one part of what the head of MI6 had to say was important. It's important that Ukraine continues to make gains because that boosts morale. And the coming winter is going to be a really tough one.
So I think that was a very important message for the international community and an acceptance of reality.
Whatever gains Ukraine can make, his assessment appears to be that they're not going to be quick.
Russia, he says Putin has made a strategic failure, may have lost more than 15,000 troops, may be forced into this pause.
But it doesn't mean the rest of the fight is going to be easy. And that's, I think, the real ground reality here right now.
CAMEROTA: Nic, tell us about this very important deal that was reached today between Ukraine and Russia that will allow for the grain export from Ukraine. What does this mean for the global food supply?
ROBERTSON: Yes, for the global food supply, it means there should be more wheat becoming available. Maybe a week or two weeks' time it should start hitting the international market.
And what I found interesting in this was it wasn't Russia and Ukraine signing a deal together. Indeed, they didn't even sit at the table and sign the document at the same time. They were at the table at different moments.
This is a deal that Russia has signed with the U.N. and Ukraine has signed with the U.N.
And it's interesting because what Russia gets out of this deal is for it to be able to export its food and its fertilizer, which is kind of interesting because they're the ones that have been stopping Ukraine getting their food to the world market.
The world generally sees Russia as holding Ukraine's grain stores hostage to ransom here.
It's about 20 million tons of grain that are expected to be released. And there are about 37 ships that are currently in Ukraine's ports ready to go because they've been stuck there since the war began. So that should be the sort of leading edge of the wheat getting out.
How does it get out? There's agreed with the U.N. and Turkey some safe sea channels. And Turkey, along with the U.N. and Russia and Ukraine, will oversee what comes in and out of the Black Sea in those ships.
But there's a real lack of trust. There's no hard cease-fire here.
Ukraine has made it clear that if Russia continues its shelling -- and remember, just a couple of days ago it was shelling one of Ukraine's ports, Odessa -- but if that sort of thing continues, then there will be a military response.
So right now, this is great, it looks good, but it's tenuous.
CAMEROTA: OK, Nic Robertson, thank you for helping us understand all of that.
[14:44:12]
BLACKWELL: So in just a moment, we'll introduce a teenager who said this, "I felt something on my foot like a bear trap." Turns out it wasn't a bear trap. It was a shark. He joins us with more of his story. And these pictures in a minute.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BLACKWELL: The breaking news is a verdict has been reached in the criminal contempt case against Steve Bannon.
CAMEROTA: CNN's Sara Murray joins us from the courthouse.
Sara, what have you learned?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The judge and the parties just returned to the courtroom. The judge has announced a verdict on the two counts for criminal contempt of Congress that Steve Bannon faces. We do not know yet what that verdict is.
This jury have been deliberating for a little bit under three hours. They left a little before noon. They were meeting and then they had lunch. So now we are waiting to see their verdict is.
Of course, we heard the closing arguments just this morning. And now we wait.
Steve Bannon did not have a lot of defenses available to him. He did not put on a defense. He did not take the stand. He did not call a witness.
But the burden of proof, of course, is on the government to prove that Steve Bannon was guilty and that is what they hope the jury will conclude.
As of right now, we do not know the verdict. We are standing by and waiting for the judge to go over this in court.
BLACKWELL: All right, let's bring in Elie Honig, our CNN senior legal analyst. Three hours. We don't know, again, the verdict. But if you're the
prosecutor in this case, how are you feeling?
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CAMEROTA: Hold on, hold. We have the verdict.
Go ahead, Sara.
[14:50:00]
MURRAY: We now have the -- we now have the verdict. The jury has found Steve Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena, guys. That is the latest that we are hearing.
Again, as I pointed out, they did not mount a defense. He did not call witnesses. It's been pretty clear from his attorneys that they are hoping to go to an appeal.
But finding him guilty means that Steve Bannon faces a minimum of 30 days behind bars. He faces potentially thousands of dollars in fines.
And this is a big deal for the House Select Committee. They are still trying to get information. They are still trying to get witnesses to testify.
This is an affirmation from this jury of their investigative powers, of their subpoena powers.
Frankly, it's also a win for the Justice Department. This has been a very public, highly scrutinized case.
And the Justice Department has come under a lot of attention and some criticism for how they are investigating the January 6th attack at the U.S. capitol.
Obviously, Steve Bannon is a big name in all of this.
BLACKWELL: All right, let's go back to Elie now.
Guilty on both counts. There was a count for testimony. Also a count for document production.
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So this is a real moment of accountability. No matter what, Steve Bannon has to serve 30 days at least in a federal correctional center.
(CROSSTALK)
CAMEROTA: Can he have more?
HONIG: Yes, it can be more. It can be up to a year on each count.
Now in all likelihood, the judge is going to sentence concurrently, which means both counts at the same time. He's not going to serve the sentences back-to-back. So his sentence, in all likelihood, will be somewhere from 30 days up
to one year.
Now, he has the right to appeal. He will appeal. I don't see any real basis on which he will succeed in this appeal.
And let's just remember the history here with Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon has flouted justice a number of times.
He was indicted for a major fraud case by the Southern District of New York back in 2000. And he was pardoned by Donald Trump on Donald Trump's last night in office.
Meanwhile, two of Steve Bannon's co-defendants from that case have been convicted. They pled guilty. They have not been sentenced but they likely will go to jail.
While Steve Bannon got away with it. Why? Because he has this relationship with Donald Trump.
Then he gets the subpoena, a perfectly lawful subpoena, from the January 6th committee, and he doesn't just defy it. He gleefully defied it. He celebrates his defiance.
And now a jury has spoken and he's going to prison for at least 30 days.
CAMEROTA: And we're going to hear right now how he responded to that guilty verdict.
Sara, what was he like in the courtroom?
MURRAY: We are told that Bannon smiled as they read the verdict. And to be honest, this is kind of indicative of how he's been behaving the entire trial.
He has been pretty nonchalant in the courtroom. He was pretty nonchalant in the run up to his trial, even though he decided not to take the stand on his own behalf.
He has been coming out of the courtroom every day, and talking to the reporters, slamming the House Select Committee.
I also think this is indicative of what their strategy is going forward. They are absolutely eyeing an appeal. I think, you know, they hope they may have a better chance on some of the legal arguments.
And they have been laying out in the courtroom, they didn't feel like the court allowed them to put forward their best defenses.
I think what we are seeing is a very defiant Steve Bannon, even in the face of being convicted on two criminal contempt charges.
BLACKWELL: Elie, could those 30 days, or whatever the sentence is, start immediately?
HONIG: Theoretically, yes. I think it's unlikely here.
Now sometimes in a situation like this, where you have a defendant who's been out on bail, as Steve Bannon has, when they get convicted, the prosecution will say, Your Honor, we now move to remand to send this defendant to prison and often the judge will do that.
Here, given that we're talking about a real sentence but a fairly light sentence, it will be a year or less, I think it's unlikely the judge does that. It's possible.
I think what's more likely is the judge lets Steve Bannon stay out until he's sentenced.
Usually, sentencing would be three months from the verdict. So we're looking September, October, into the fall, Octoberish, November, when he will be sentenced.
CAMEROTA: Oh, so we're not going to find out the sentence today?
HONIG: No. The judge will not set the sentence today. There's usually a 60-to-90-day period during which there's about investigation done, the parties submit letters and recommendations.
He'll set a sentencing date today. So we'll know today when the sentencing will happen.
BLACKWELL: But this did not have to go to trial. And also Steve Bannon didn't put up a defense.
HONIG: Right.
BLACKWELL: Is that taken into consideration when typically the sentence is determined?
HONIG: So first of all, it didn't have to go to trial because Steve Bannon could have complied with the subpoena. Let's start with that.
Anyone has the option to plead guilty. If you do plead guilty, under the federal sentencing guidelines, you usually do get a sentencing reduction. If you don't plead guilty, you don't get the sentencing reduction.
The judge does take into account things like, did you lie to the court?
I mean, Steve Bannon didn't even testify so he didn't put himself in danger of lying to the court. Perhaps that's one of the reasons he didn't lie to court.
And I want to say this. It's actually not all that uncommon to see a defense put on no defense. Naturally, you would think, wouldn't any defendant want to defend himself?
[14:55:03]
It happens, quite commonly, that defendants say, no case, Your Honor. Our argument is the prosecution has not met their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That's what happened here.
The jury had little problem, given the speed of the verdict with the strength of the evidence.
BLACKWELL: All right. Elie, thank you.
Sara Murray, stand by.
We will have more on the breaking news. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What in the world is going on in Texas right now?
ANNOUNCER: The ruby red state gets redder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Money is what's pushing Texas to the far right.
ANNOUNCER: Why?
LAVANDERA: Is this about being conservative or is it about control?
ANNOUNCER: CNN investigates "DEEP IN THE POCKETS OF TEXAS, Sunday at 8:00 on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[15:00:07]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BLACKWELL: Top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Victor Blackwell.
