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Biden Says MAGA Extremism Threatens the Republic; Biden Rebukes Trump; U.S. Economy Adds 315,000 Jobs; Judge May Release More Detailed List of Mar-a-Lago Search; Awaiting the Judge's Ruling on Special Master. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:28]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. Poppy is off today. And it is a very busy Friday morning.

President Biden delivered a stern warning to the nation in a televised address last night. The president denounced what he called MAGA Republicans who still support former President Trump, alleging they, quote, thrive on chaos, as he called the MAGA movement a threat to equality, democracy and the soul of the nation, and referred to the upcoming midterms as a battle against extremism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: MAGA forces are determined to take this country backward. Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: While Biden slammed what he called Trump's threat to democracy, the former president publicly dangled pardons for the rioters who violently stormed the Capitol on January 6th, attacking police officers, and threatening the lives of lawmakers at the Capitol of both parties. This as two former Trump White House lawyers are expected to appear today before a grand jury in D.C. investigating the January 6th attack.

Plus, a significant development surrounding the Mar-a-Lago search. A federal judge signaled she may release a more detailed inventory of the items seized by the FBI, as we wait for her ruling on Trump's request for a so-called special master to review those documents for anything that might be privileged lawyer/client communication.

Let's begin this morning with CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, this was quite a sharp speech, a stern warning from the president last night. A fiery speech, you might even say. The sharpest rebuke yet of former President Trump, and Republicans still loyal to him and his ideology, calling it a threat to the republic. I mean a remarkable and you could say political speech in primetime. What was the administration's goal here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, listen, President Biden's message last night was an unmistakable one, Jim. And that was to say that democracy is under assault and that President Biden believes that former President Trump and his allies are the ones assaulting it. President Biden saying last night that Trump and the MAGA Republicans represents a, quote, extremism that threatens the very foundation of the republic. He laid into the former president and those allies, arguing that they are continuing to level their assault against democracy.

Listen to some of the president's remarks last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they're working right now, as I speak, in state after state, to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And you can hear some of the charged political language that President Biden was using in that speech last night. This was billed as an official event. And the White House insists that this was not a political speech, saying that the issue of democracy is not a partisan or political issue.

But make no mistake, President Biden, last night, was very clearly trying to raise the stakes of these midterm elections, framing the choice that voters face in November as an existential one as it relates to the future of American democracy. That, of course, drew some pretty strong Republican criticism, including from Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): Well, I think it was a political speech. It was a divisive speech. And that's not presidential.

In his speech he said we should look at each other as Americans and not enemies, and yet he singled out a segment of Americans and said basically they're our enemy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And, listen, President Biden did, last night, try and draw a distinction between what he called MAGA Republicans and the majority of Republican voters, saying that he doesn't believe that the majority of Republicans are MAGA Republicans, and aligning themselves with these anti-democratic forces. But he did say that President Trump and those MAGA Republicans are the dominant voice in the Republican Party, and he felt a duty to call it out.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond at the White House, thanks so much.

So, joining me now to discuss, Van Jones, CNN political commentator, former Obama administration official, and Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, former RNC communications director.

Doug and Van, it's good to have you on this morning.

And, Van, I wonder what your reaction was to the president's speech and do you worry, looking back, that this could be a deplorables moment for Biden as we saw with Hillary Clinton when she dismissed, criticized a portion of the Republican voting public as deplorable?

[09:05:17]

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think President Biden did a good job in calling out some of the extremist elements in the Republican Party. And somebody needs to do that because it's starting to get scary. I mean when you're talking about apologizing for the insurrection, when you're talking about trafficking in violence, when you're talking about attacks on voting rights and women's rights, it's starting to get scary. I think he did a good job of calling that stuff out.

I think he could have done a better job of calling some of those folks in. You know, when you just say, you're bad and I don't like what you're doing, but you don't offer, hey, I want you back home. I think that the people who are in the MAGA movement are worthy of a better cause and a better leader than they have now. I want you back home. I wish he had called more in, but he had no choice but to call out.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Doug, as you know, elections, in this day and age, are won and lost really in, well, what is a shrinking middle, right, a shrinking block of independent voters. In the last election, many of them did move to Biden from Trump. I wonder, did Biden, in effect, portray too many of the former president's supporters as extremist and thereby risk losing some of those folks?

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I don't think he risked losing those folks. You know, the folks who voted for Trump the first time, voted for Biden the second time, aren't sure what they're going to do in 2022 or 2024. They're still gettable for Biden.

But I think the challenge for Biden here is, a lot of those voters are look at a whole lot of what's happened in the country and are discouraged by what they're seeing. And I didn't disagree with some of the things that Biden said about certain parts of the party, about Donald Trump, the rule of law, and political violence. And Van's right, it is getting bad out there.

It's what Joe Biden didn't say, which Van referenced. We didn't hear about, if these Republican candidates are so bad that they're a threat to the -- our very democracy, a threat to the country, and I agree that some of them are, why did the Democratic Party fund these people and elevate their ideas?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HEYE: And if we're concerned about political violence, and while we should be, well, then also these threats and people showing up at Supreme Court justice's houses are something that Joe Biden should be able to criticize. And that's where he will get some Republican buy-in here on saying, OK, this isn't purely political, he is being more presidential.

SCIUTTO: Van, your reaction to that, because, as Doug was noting, the Democratic Party did fund some MAGA candidates in GOP primaries, basically playing political art of war, if you want to call it that there, but does that undermine their position on those forces being a threat to the democratic process?

JONES: Look, I think that was reckless, and I spoke out against it. I'm very concerned.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JONES: You know, sometimes he elevates somebody. Maybe they win the election and you say, geez, I wish we hadn't elevated him, or you just legitimate them and they're still there.

I think the main threat that Biden is trying to point to is that there's something growing in this party that is very, very concerning to just most people. You never thought you'd be in a situation where the American Capitol could be attacked in this way and people are still defending it. You never thought you'd have an election that all these judges said was fair and people still, in large numbers, think it was illegitimate. That is eating away at some of the core of the American democratic experiment and somebody's got to defend it.

I'm glad he's trying to defend it. Now, I think, you know, we can argue around the edges, can you be more inclusive, can you be more - can you be smarter about it, but somebody's got to stand up to this stuff because it's starting to get really scary. It's - I mean this is -- this is a nightmare. When you look at how democracies die, this is the pathway you're on.

SCIUTTO: We do have to draw a distinction, Doug, between the comments of the president last night, and comments of the former president yesterday, openly, publicly, dangling pardons, saying he will very, very seriously consider pardons to the folks who violently attack the Capitol on January 6th, threatened the lives of lawmakers of both parties, as they acknowledged at the time, even if they don't acknowledge today, Kevin McCarthy among them, but also attacked. I mean we've seen the video repeatedly. They attacked officers of the law.

That's the current leading candidate for the Republican Party in January 2024. How serious are those comments from the former president?

HEYE: Yes, it's very serious for two reasons. One, what you've outlined on what the effect that would be of people who've assaulted police officers, stormed the Capitol and did awful things in the Capitol and are being sentenced to real time in jail for this. There's also the political problem of this, that for Republicans they still are positioned to have a good electoral year, as long as they're focused on those things that have the direction of the country at 70 percent of the people thinking we're moving in the wrong direction, that have Joe Biden politically under water. If Donald Trump is that topic of conversation, or one of the leading topics of conversations, Republicans are less able and less likely to talk about inflation, rising crime, the situation at the border.

[09:10:05]

Those things that Republican candidates should be focused on.

SCIUTTO: Van, you know the conventional wisdom and know that we should always take the conventional wisdom with a grain of salt. But if we were talking six weeks ago, it looked like a red wave. More recently the generic ballot polling has narrowed between the parties, but we've also seen a handful of special elections which showed Democratic candidates outperforming from as recently as 2020.

Where do you read the midterms right now, Democrats' chances and Republicans' chances?

JONES: Coming into Labor Day weekend, you're starting to see the beginnings of what could be a blue wave. I mean that you - I don't think people understand on the Democratic side how upset and now motivated Democrats are. There was a season of shame from the time that the Afghanistan exit was botched and this whole year of getting nothing done where Democrats had our heads held down.

Now, because Biden has been so successful on his legislative agenda, and Republicans have been so scary in what they're talking about, taking away women's right to vote - I mean women's right to choose, attacking the vote. And then you have Donald Trump basically saying, if you come to Washington, D.C., and have beat people up on my behalf, I would give you a pardon. That scares the crap out of people. And that's making people want to stand up and go vote.

And so now you have the economy on the one side, which I think motivates the Republicans, but you have this sense of democracy under threat motivating Democrats. Biden was speaking for tens of millions of people yesterday. Last night, and I think that you're going to see this clash now, it's not going to be just a red wave. It's going to be a blue wave fighting back.

SCIUTTO: It's going to be interesting, no question.

Van Jones, Doug Heye, good to have you both on this morning.

HEYE: Thank you. SCIUTTO: Well, speaking of the economy, this just in, the U.S. economy added 315,000 new jobs in August. That figure exceeded economists' expectations. It is, however, below July's report, where employment surged well above expectations at the time. The unemployment rate ticked up a bit to 3.7 percent.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans is following.

You're always so good at taking all the indicators together as best you can. Read this report for us, what it says about the economy.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It says the job market is normalizing a little bit. Remember the Fed chief had said that the job market was out of whack, the labor market was out of whack, and it was potentially really inflationary, right? The Fed's trying to fight inflation.

But I want to show you the trend of the jobs added over the past year. Some 5.8 million jobs, that's remarkable added over the past year. But a slowdown from the last couple of months, from July to August. You can see, if you draw a line there, you know, I always say the trend is your friend. The trend there is slowing job growth. And that's what the Fed wants to see.

By the way, slowing from a red hot unsustainable pace. And 315,000 jobs added. And the jobless rate inching up to 3.7 percent, Jim. And that's for a good reason because a whole bunch of people entered the labor market, which is what we want to see. And the jobs gains are broad-based.

SCIUTTO: So, they want to slow the economy, but not too much, right?

ROMANS: Right.

SCIUTTO: They certainly want to bring down inflation.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: But in doing so with interest rate hikes, not kill other parts or stifle other parts of the economy.

ROMANS: Right. It's tricky.

SCIUTTO: It's early. But do we have any indicators, folks you talk to, do they think a soft landing is possible?

ROMANS: So, a number like this, you put in the soft landing camp. If you can see a few more months of this, of slowing job growth, that maybe shows that the Fed's medicine is working. And you want to see a pathway for a soft landing for the Fed. The Fed doesn't have to try to, you know, almost, you know, really hurt the economy to try to kill inflation, which we have done before, remember, in the '70s. That's what you really want to try to avoid.

SCIUTTO: Yes. ROMANS: So, this might show that the Fed's very tough, front loaded medicine is starting to work. But I always say, it takes more than one month, which is why I like to look at the line through the chart to see what the trend is.

SCIUTTO: Yes. The trend is your friend.

ROMANS: The trend is your friend.

SCIUTTO: You should make - you should make t-shirts like that.

Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: This morning, former White House Council Pat Cipollone will testify in the Justice Department's criminal investigation into January 6th. Details on that grand jury appearance just ahead.

Plus, goodness, a terrifying moment caught on camera. There it is, Argentina's vice president came within inches of a gunman who intended to assassinate her. Hear why that plot failed.

And later, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will join me live from Kennedy Space Center. There's the rocket. Will the Artemis mission launch tomorrow? A few days late? We hope so. We'll be watching.

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[09:18:39]

SCIUTTO: A federal judge could rule very soon on former President Trump's request for a special master to review all those documents, many of them classified, seized during the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago. That same judge also considering publicly releasing a more detailed inventory of all the documents that were found there.

CNN correspondent Kara Scannell is following the latest.

So, Kara, it's been quite a drama on this of many legal decisions, court decisions to come, but tell us what's going to happen -- what happened in the courtroom yesterday, what happens next?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim.

So yesterday in court lawyers for both former President Trump and the Justice Department were sparring over this idea of whether a special master, this independent third party, would be appointed to oversee a review of the records that were seized at Mar-a-Lago three weeks ago. Now, Trump's attorneys were trying to downplay the seriousness of the issue that the former president has hundreds of classified documents in his possession at Mar-a-Lago causing the FBI to go in and seize them, saying that this was essentially the same thing as a fight over an overdue library book. He also said their request for a special master was a modest one and thought it was extraordinary that the Justice Department would object to it. Now, the DOJ lawyers said that none of the president's rights have

been violated. That Trump's attorneys haven't even suggested or provided any evidence that his rights have been violated. And so they were saying that a special master is not needed. In fact, that they've already had an FBI filter team, unaffiliated with the investigative team, go through these records and determine that there might be about 520 pages that could potentially be covered by attorney/client privilege, but a prosecutor in court said that it is unlikely that the vast majority of those actually would.

[09:20:15]

But then Trump's team turned this into a discussion about executive privilege. That is one thing that they want a special master involved with. Department of Justice lawyers saying that there is no need for that. It can, in fact, jeopardize the criminal investigation, and also the intelligence agency review of these documents and whether any steps need to be taken to protect sources and methods.

The judge here saying -- both asking prosecutors and Trump's lawyers saying that Trump's lawyers, what would a special master even do at this point? The search was three weeks ago. Trump's lawyers saying they want someone to separate the presidential records from the personal records, as well as get into a debate over this issue of executive privilege. The judge saying here that she's not convinced there's settled law on whether a former president has any claim over executive privilege once he leaves office. Asking the prosecutor several times, what's the harm in doing this and appointing one? She also stressed she would carve out some kind of protection for the intelligence review.

Now, Jim, the judge has also said importantly that she will unseal this detailed inventory list of property that was seized and she would also unseal an investigative status report that the Department of Justice put together and has provided to Trump's attorneys.

SCIUTTO: A lot there. Kara Scannell, thanks so much.

I want to get to that question of whether they're opening up a new executive privilege claim here.

But joining me now to discuss, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers.

First on this decision. If the judge does appoint a special master here, and at the same time would require the DOJ to block -- temporarily block the DOJ's investigation, how much would that impede the DOJ probe and for how long would we expect?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we don't know how much it would impede. You know, they had an investigation going on long before the search, so they could continue all those avenues.

SCIUTTO: Right.

RODGERS: And it depends on the scope of her order. I mean it's one thing to put the documents aside. Are they also going to tell them that they can't remember what they've reviewed? In other words, if they saw names of potential witnesses, and have already reached out to those people, could they still talk to them? So there's a lot of muddy stuff here.

But it could take weeks because someone would need to be chosen, they would need to be cleared and then they would need to do the review.

SCIUTTO: And that may be part of the attention, let's be frank, of Trump's legal team.

What Kara raised there really caught my attention. The judge said, I'm not sure it's settled law that a former president does not have executive privilege. Did that just open a legal can of worms?

RODGERS: Well, she's right, technically. You know, this issue squarely of, does a former president ever have any sort of executive privilege has not been squarely decided. And that's what gives everybody wiggle room in these situations.

The problem here is that there's never been precedent for this before, an executive privilege review by a special master, and the Trump team hasn't made the legal case for this. There's no basis for doing it. That's really the problem. That leaves the judge to say things like, well, what's the harm if I do it? You know, the harm is, there's no precedent for it. They haven't shown irreparable harm from the investigation continuing. And so, really, she's kind of got it backwards here, which is my big concern.

SCIUTTO: OK. So, with apologies to folks at home because we always have to sort of signpost which particular investigation we're talking about, beyond the investigation of the mishandling of classified information, you have the ongoing DOJ investigation and the possibility of criminal charges around January 6th. And you have key witnesses going in today to the grand jury, the former White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his deputy, Patrick Philbin.

How essential is their testimony to determining whether the Justice Department finds criminal exposure for the president in that investigation?

RODGERS: Well, I don't know that it's essential, but I think it's very helpful. You know, they were involved in all of this back and forth about what should be happening with challenging the election, you know, all leading up to January 6th, trying to pull Trump and some of his closer advisers back from what they were doing. So I think it will be very helpful in terms of his intent.

The question is, how much are they willing to testify about? You know, they wouldn't talk about any conversations with Trump when they testified before the committee. Have they now given that argument up because it's DOJ and a grand jury investigation.

SCIUTTO: Right.

RODGERS: Are they going to fight it? Does DOJ have to go to court about this executive privilege issue? That we don't know yet.

SCIUTTO: OK. In the midst of all this, the former president said yesterday, on a conservative radio station, that he will look, and I'm quoting here, very, very seriously at full pardons for folks involved in the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Beyond the obvious political, national, constitutional implications of him outright endorsing those folks, several hundred of whom have been charged criminally and some who are currently in prison, does that look to you like potential witness tampering?

RODGERS: So, it's really hard to look at a pardon dangle as anything other than, hey, you know, if you stick with me, I'll do right by you if I have the chance when the time comes.

[09:25:03]

It's not as egregious here in a way because before we were talking about people like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, people with actual criminal cases (ph), to whom he was really speaking directly, though publicly, this is much more amorphous. I mean, who is he talking to? Hundreds and hundreds of people have been charged. Even so, I think if you're one of those defendants and you're thinking about becoming a cooperating witness -

SCIUTTO: (INAUDIBLE).

RODGERS: You think, well, gee, you know, if he gets back into office, this may all go away for me in a couple of years.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

RODGERS: You know, there might be something to that. So it's still inappropriate for sure.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Well, one of many incredible things to cover today.

Jennifer Rodgers, thanks so much.

Coming up next, chilling, frightening moments caught on video. Here's the moment, a loaded gun within inches of the face of the vice president of Argentina. Ahead, details on just how this assassination attempt failed, thankfully.

Plus, we may have seen the last of Venus and Serena Williams on the doubles court at least, but tonight Serena looks to continue her run on the singles side at the U.S. Open. We're going to talk about all that - it's exciting -- coming up.

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