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Biden Speaks On 30th Anniversary Of Family & Medical Leave Act; Soon: FBI To Search Pence's Home, Office For Classified Materials; GOP-Led House Votes To Remove Ilhan Omar From Committee. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 02, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: A lot of times they say as - it just matters that it's dark, as dark as possible, so not when the sun is coming up or down.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Okay. We'll ...

BLACKWELL: And if ever, I'll buy a racehorse, name of that horse?

CAMEROTA: Green Comet?

BLACKWELL: Dirty Snowball.

CAMEROTA: Okay. I like it.

FISHER: Do you like dirty snowball?

CAMEROTA: Yes, I like that.

BLACKWELL: I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: (Inaudible), Kristin Fisher, thank you.

Okay. President Biden is delivering remarks at an event at the White House right now, marking the 30th anniversary of the Family & Medical Leave Act. Let's listen.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had my brother and my sister - and Chris knows them both well. I asked them to talk to the incoming governor. We elected a Democratic governor as well. But we hadn't had what was referred to as a "progressive senator" in Delaware for a while because it was a very conservative - it was - it used to be a red state. We didn't call it that then.

And so - but a group of senators who were, really, so good to me - saved my sanity - starting with Mike Mansfield and Tom Eagleton; and the distinguished senator from South Carolina, Fritz Hollings; and Tom Eagleton. And they all said, "Come and just stay six months." And at the time, I thought they needed - they said, "You have to help us organize." We had 58 Democratic senators. That shows you how smart I was. But the point was that I started commuting every day, 260 miles a day, on the train to come home with my kids. And that's because I was really, really lucky. I had a sister, who's my best friend, and a brother, my buddy - five years younger. And they gave up where they lived and moved into where I was. They helped me raise my kids.

And every morning, I dropped my kids off when they were little at my mom's house, not far from ours. And I thought to myself: I was able to continue to work and continue to be paid because I had the option of being able to - I had a family that was so supportive and a universal family just around me taking care of everything.

And I swore that since I was able to - and, by the way, when you're a senator and you only have one - you have a thousand bosses, but you only have one of you, and you make a decision to - if you're going to vote or not vote, and sometimes when there was an important event, a teacher meeting - not a joke - or a foot - a baseball game or whatever, I'd look and see what the votes of the day were. And if they weren't consequential, they were going to pass overwhelmingly, I'd stay with my kids. I'd go to the teachers meeting.

And I thought to myself that, you know, if, in fact, I could do that - I could do that - I was going to make sure everyone in my office is. Everybody who works for me gets a memo. And the memo says, "If you ever need time, you never have to explain why."

BLACKWELL: You've been listening to President Biden there on the 30th anniversary of the Family & Medical Leave Act. They're giving people up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious illness, also for the illness of a child. We also heard from former President Bill Clinton, before President Biden started speaking. Of course, he signed that legislation into law. And, of course, we will continue to watch what's happening there at the White House.

CAMEROTA: Also I do think it's interesting that he's talking about what he had to do when his wife and daughter were killed in that car accident. And how he was able to make it work because he had family close by, but before the Family & Medical Leave Act, that's what you had to do, cobble together and pray that you had family close by to help you with your kids and I think he's about to say what has changed ...

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... because of the act. So we'll keep listening and bring you any headlines.

Meanwhile, the FBI has another search site on its list to look for classified documents. This time, it's the home and office of former Vice President Mike Pence.

BLACKWELL: Sources say the feds will search his house in Indiana, his office in Washington, D.C.

CNN's Evan Perez joins us live now.

So what's the Pence team saying about this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Alisyn, they're trying to wrap this investigation up as soon as possible, which is why over a period of days, they have been having conversations with the FBI. And Jamie Gangel and I have been kind of keeping an eye on this. We've been told that in the coming days, we're going to see the FBI do a search of the home in Carmel, Indiana, as well as his think tank office, which is just across the street from the FBI building here in downtown Washington.

And the idea is this, that if they find - if they don't find any additional documents that are marked as classified or anything that is sensitive that possibly the FBI and the National Security Division here in Washington at the Justice Department can wrap up this investigation as soon as possible.

[15:00:12]

That certainly is the hope of the Pence team. They do not want, guys, they do not want a special counsel, which is what we have investigating the documents found with President Biden's home and office. They don't want a special counsel like the one investigating Donald Trump.

And, obviously, we all know that former Vice President Pence is considering a run for the presidency. And so the idea is, they can finish this up, then he can turn his mind or his sights to that goal, which we all know is in the future. Victor and Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Yep, make sense. Evan, thank you for explaining all that.

BLACKWELL: Joining us now, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, Andrew McCabe. He's the former Deputy Director of the FBI.

Andrew, after the three Biden FBI searches, I mean, how much is one investigation influenced the other? Was the Pence search inevitable?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely, Victor. I think the Pence search was inevitable.

We have to remember that for the government and for the FBI, the first and principal issue in any one of these questions of the misplacement of classified material in someplace that they're not authorized to be is to recover that material. They want to get out to that place, make sure they have everything that could potentially be there.

So yes, I think the searches were certainly the right way to go. It sounds like the Pence team has cooperated from the very beginning, which is also good to see and this is a necessary step.

CAMEROTA: But Andrew, is it a necessary step because of FBI policy or politics?

MCCABE: It's a necessary step because of the requirements of the investigation. I'm not sure that there's a - I'm pretty familiar with FBI policy, but I'm not sure that there's one about whether to or not search former presidential or vice presidential homes. I don't think that exists.

But in these cases - and there are many cases where people have access to classified, find out that they've misplaced something. They've taken it home. They contact the authorities. You go out there and you try to get it back. And while you're doing that, you want to make darn sure that you have recovered everything that's there. Maybe not just the one thing that the person has found to make sure there's nothing else remaining.

So I think it's - I'm not going to say standard. It doesn't happen that often, but it's the right course in this case.

BLACKWELL: So let's talk about Congressman George Santos. He has been accused of taking money from GoFundMe that he raised for a veteran's sick dog, the dog eventually died. I want to get a reminder here, this is Rich Osthoff, who was the owner of that dog. A veteran. This is his conversation with Don Lemon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD OSTHOFF, NAVY VETERAN WHO CLAIMS REP. GEORGE SANTOS SCAMMED HIM: He was going to pay me back for the trip to Long Island to bring the dog up to his veterinarian. He was going to pay me for gas, lunch, tolls. I was even gullible enough to give him my bank account routing number and my bank account number because he said he was going to directly put that money for the trip right into my account. That never happened.

Santos really took a piece of my heart when he did this. I - my opinion of humanity was very, very extremely diminished crashed into the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Santos denies that allegation. Explain what's the federal nexus here in this investigation, Osthoff said that he spoke with two FBI agents yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCCABE: So Victor, there's a lot about this that's really emotionally kind of appealing or really provokes people. But as a crime, as a criminal matter, it could be a federal criminal matter, because if Mr. Santos convinced this gentleman to participate in establishing a GoFundMe site ostensibly for the purpose of medical attention for his dog, and then took those funds, and never follow through on whether what he was supposed to do them, but instead kept them for himself. That could end up being a fraud, a wire fraud, a mail fraud depending on how the logistics worked out.

However, the amount is not an amount that would normally gather the attention of federal investigators and federal prosecutors. So therefore, in this case, I think the fact that FBI agents may - conducted this interview is a sign that they are likely looking at a broader scope of activity that Mr. Santos may have been involved in. We have all sorts of information now that indicate that he may have been involved in campaign finance fraud or other types of frauds connected to his alleged misrepresentations about himself. So I think it's much more likely that the feds are looking at this as one part of a much broader fraud investigation.

CAMEROTA: Andrew, let's talk about Hunter Biden. Because Hunter Biden's laptop, as you know, has been this kind of specter, I guess, floating over various campaigns.

[15:10:08]

And now Hunter Biden's own attorneys are calling for investigations into the people who allegedly disseminated the contents of that laptop. So what crime is that?

MCCABE: Well, it could be a number of different crimes, Alisyn. There's a - it's, of course, a crime to access protected electronic information without authorization or to exceed the authorization that you do have. That's the part that might apply to the computer repairman.

It is also a - it could be a federal crime to steal electronic information and then profit from it, use that information. It's essentially like using stolen property, so there are a number of different potential crimes here. I think what this really is, is an effort by Mr. Biden and his attorneys to recast his role in this whole saga as a victim of a crime rather than someone who, you know, this - the material on this laptop points to some sort of alleged malfeasance on his part.

And quite frankly, I'm surprised it's taken them this long to get around to it. It's a very calculated and I think effective strategy. It's one that reframes the controversy around the laptop in a way that's potentially very beneficial for him. So I think it's probably a smart move at this point and it's as effective as a public relations tool and as a tool managing his contentions with Congress as much as it is likely to inspire an independent federal investigation.

BLACKWELL: All right. Andrew McCabe, thank you.

MCCABE: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So now it's the Northeast's turn to face the bitter cold and icy weather.

BLACKWELL: Forecasts are saying an incoming wind chill could be the coldest the region has felt in decades. We're talking well below zero in the next 24 hours.

CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is here.

National Weather Service says this will be a generational arctic outbreak, so how low and how long?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Guys, get ready. We're talking about wind chills 60 below zero in Maine. New York City could be 20 to 25 degrees below zero. That's not below freezing. That's below zero as far as the wind chill goes.

We have wind chill advisories, wind chill warnings, in fact, for the Northeast, New England. Current feels like temperatures not too bad all things considering across the eastern half of the country. But that arctic air will really start to sink down by the time we get into Friday and then Saturday morning, that's going to be the big morning that we're talking about these dramatic temperatures. That's as low as the temperatures will go.

This Arctic air will reach the northeast by the time - this is Thursday evening, Friday morning here and temperatures wind chill feeling around one degree or so in Maine, Burlington 16 below. But then, whoa, look at this Boston 26 below zero, the wind chill by early Saturday morning and then New York City drops down to below zero wind chills as well.

So here's a look at Boston over the next couple of days. Friday, we drop to five below zero, Friday morning. And these are actual temperatures. These are not the wind chills. You're going to have very strong winds, blowing snow across New England.

And lastly, New York City, you can see dropping into the single digits by Saturday morning.

CAMEROTA: Obviously, you and I should work from home tomorrow, that's what I got. That's what I got out of that forecast.

GRAY: Yes, good idea.

BLACKWELL: Can do it, but ...

CAMEROTA: And you as well, Jennifer.

BLACKWELL: ... yes, all right.

CAMEROTA: All right. Thank you very much.

GRAY: Thank you. All right.

BLACKWELL: Let's go to California now where the family of Anthony Lowe, a double amputee is filing a wrongful death lawsuit after police fatally shot him last week. And just moments ago, they held a news conference calling for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EBONIQUE SIMON, MOTHER OF ANTHONY LOWE'S SON: My son, he broke down yesterday asking God, can he just get one more time. One more time with his dad. I said what do you want to happen? He said I just want the truth and justice. I want them to go to jail. I want them to get a jump on murder because (inaudible) will never be able to see his daddy again.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: Now, this incident occurred on January 26th when a - when police responded to reports of a stabbing. A bystander video appears to show the confrontation between officers and Lowe has now raising questions about whether police used excessive force.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is following the developments in California.

So Stephanie, what happened? What's the family is saying?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, the family at this point wants justice for Anthony Lowe. They want to know the names of the officers involved and they also want any video that may have been recorded from across the street from surveillance camera just outside of a building there that the police have. They want to see that too. They said they want justice here and so that is why today they filed this complaint with the city of Huntington Park.

[15:15:02]

Now, just let me take you back a second to let you know what happened.

The police department, according to the statement that they released, said that they were responding to a stabbing call in the middle of the afternoon here in Huntington Park. They said the suspect dismounted the wheelchair, ran to the victim without provocation and stabbed him in the side of the chest with a 12 inch butcher knife.

They then say that the suspect fled the scene in the wheelchair, ignoring the officers' verbal commands and threatening to advance or throw the knife at the officers.

Now, on social media, there are videos from this incident and you can't see them completely play out. But what you do see is the officers following behind the man who is moving away. Remember, he's a double amputee, so he is on his - what's left of his legs and he is moving away. There does appear to be something shiny in his hand as he's moving away, but he's moving away from the officers.

We then see that what it looks like they tried to tase him. The officers, according to statement, did try to tase him two times. And then he moves behind a car and you can no longer see Lowe. And this family confirming that that in fact is Anthony Lowe.

At that point, you see the officers pull out their weapons and begin to fire. So there was a lot of questions about what happens behind that scene. I asked the attorneys here today, Austin Dove. I asked him specifically what they have asked for from the police station and what they have heard back. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUSTIN DOVE, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING FAMILY OF ANYTHONY LOWE: It's been the stall tactic as usual. What we're using here is talking points and bullet points that don't really cut to the meat of the matter, the substance of what this family deserves and needs to know, because they've already concluded that the officers' force was reasonable here. They've concluded that Anthony was a threat to them. And when you do that within a few days of starting the process, you know where it's going to end up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And Ebonique Simon, who you heard from just a moment ago, was speaking about her son and how distraught he is. She says he's 15 years old. She says he's Anthony Lowe, Jr. and that he is distraught. He was a good child and had a good relationship with his dad and it's something that he'll never ever be able to get back again, Alisyn and Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Stephanie Elam for us there in Huntington Park. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So Congresswoman Ilhan Omar says the House vote to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee was quote revenge. We're going to discuss the implications, next.

BLACKWELL: Also ahead, the CFO of Alex Murdaugh's former law firm says that she confronted him over missing money the day his wife and son were killed. We're live from the South Carolina courtroom, next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Objection of totally ...

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[15:21:39]

CAMEROTA: Democratic Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, said she's the target of GOP revenge. The Republican-controlled House voted today to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee. Last year, Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said he would take this step after Democrats removed two Republicans from committees for violent rhetoric.

BLACKWELL: However, today Speaker McCarthy defended the vote saying it was not tip for tat, but a response to our past comments over Israel and other issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): We're not removing her from other committees. We just do not believe when it comes to foreign affairs, especially the responsibility of that position around the world with the comments that she make, she shouldn't serve there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With us now, CNN Political Commentator, Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist and CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein who's a senior editor at The Atlantic. Welcome to both.

Alice, the - if the threshold for removing people from committees is based on the comments that they make, although Congresswoman Omar has apologized for what she said, look at who's on the committee's now. I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene is now on Homeland Security. She's on oversight. Is that the threshold and is this not a tit for tat?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think it's really important to remember that Kevin McCarthy is now the Speaker of the House and he's in a position to put people on specific committees that he feels are the best fit. And look, Ilhan Omar is not the victim here. She is vitriolic. She has a long history of saying things that are anti-Semitic and just the tip of the iceberg are saying that lawmakers who are sympathetic and supportive of Israel are all about the Benjamins, she's also prepared (inaudible) ...

CAMEROTA: But she apologized, Alice. I mean, just to - that - but just to be clear, I mean, I don't want to act as though that's present day today. She - this was 2019 and then she apologized. So there has been a little history there.

STEWART: Exactly. And there are other comments also referring to 911 as someone who did something. But look, it's really important to consider this committee. This is the Foreign Affairs Committee and she's dealing with foreign dignitaries across the world and Israel is one of our greatest allies in this world. And when they're looking at someone on the Foreign Affairs Committee that has made such disparaging things about Israel people, it's not appropriate and that's why McCarthy made this move.

And look, she can serve on other committees and she will do her constituents very well on other committees. But Foreign Affairs is not something with someone was such a history of such comments. It's not appropriate.

CAMEROTA: Ron, your thoughts?

RONALD BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I mean, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene who have posted violent imagery of attacking other members of Congress who've talked about putting a bullet in the head of Nancy Pelosi, denying - describe 911 is an inside job, I mean, they are on committees, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know. There's not really a standard here that is being used to say well, there is a level of rhetoric that makes it inappropriate for you to serve on committees. And this is just kind of the general escalation of partisan conflict in Congress or any tool that can be used must be used.

The most interesting thing to me, though, about this, Alisyn was that ultimately, the Republicans from more competitive districts who raised concerns about doing this who kind of did fear that what's happening is simply a tit for tat escalation.

[15:25:07]

They ultimately fell in line. And I believe that is the bet that Kevin McCarthy is making all across his speakership. All of the concessions that he made to the Freedom Caucus and the far-right flank of his conference throughout, any one of them, the 18 Republicans and districts that Biden carried, the 16 more in districts that Trump won by five points or less, they can say no. But so far, he is betting that as in previous congresses, they are beginning to be the ones who buckle and right - and accept this concessions to the right, which includes removing her from this committee and so far that is paying off for him.

BLACKWELL: So we heard from President Biden this morning about his meeting with Speaker McCarthy about the debt limit. We also heard from the speaker. Let's listen to the President, and then the speaker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I don't know how we do that anymore, but we have to. We have to start treating each other in ways different than we have in my humble opinion.

MCCARTHY: I would like to sit down, find common ground and put us on a path to balance so we don't harm the future generation of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, they were both optimistic after coming out of that meeting, a little upbeat, cordial. Ron, do Republicans in the House want to hear a cordial, calm McCarthy after this meeting?

BROWNSTEIN: There was polling by Pew yesterday that showed that most Republicans want their party to stand up and fight Biden as opposed to most Democrats who want Biden to find common ground with Republicans. I mean, it is an asymmetry between the two parties.

Look, it's really important to understand what is and isn't happening here. Biden is clearly saying and has explicitly said, he understands that with Republicans in control of the House, he needs to have a conversation with them about fiscal policy and that he is perfectly willing to do that.

What he is not willing to do is to tie that conversation to a threat of defaulting on the nation's debt, which could have catastrophic consequences both for the domestic and the global economy. Now, I wrote a very detailed piece last week going through the evolution of the thinking in the Obama administration, because Obama in 2011 did have the kind of negotiation with John Boehner that Kevin McCarthy is now demanding, but that was so tumultuous for financial markets and brought the country so close to the brink of default that Obama said never again.

And in fact, through his second term, took the position that Biden is now that he would not negotiate over the deficit. Like he'd negotiate but not with the gun of default held against his head and I think that is the position that Biden is sticking to, and we will see whether Republicans can ultimately come up with even a plan that can get 218 votes that they would demand as the price of raising the debt ceiling.

CAMEROTA: Mm-hm. Guys, I'm sorry, we're out of time, Alice, we owe you one. Thank you both very much, I really like to get your insights ...

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: ... Alice Stewart, Ron Brownstein. Okay. So some Latino lawmakers want the word Latinx banned. We're going to speak to the bill's chief sponsor about that next.

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