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FAA Takes Action to Avoid Collisions; Stock Markets Rise; President Biden Celebrates Anniversary of Obamacare; TikTok CEO on Capitol Hill; Trump Grand Jury Meeting Today. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 23, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor celebrating Adam Sandler. That's Sunday night 8:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

Appreciate your time today on INSIDE POLITICS. We will see you tomorrow.

Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington, and we're following major developments in multiple criminal investigations surrounding former President Trump.

First, in Manhattan, we have learned that the grand jury investigating the hush money scheme will not be voting on a potential indictment today. They are meeting today. They are not planning, though, to discuss Trump.

The Manhattan DA's office now hitting back at House Republicans, accusing them of launching an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. And, in a separate case, this is some video here of Trump defense attorney Evan Corcoran arriving at federal court this morning. He's there for a sealed hearing on whether Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury investigating Trump's role on January 6.

But, tomorrow, Corcoran will face another grand jury as a witness. This comes after an appeals court quickly ruled Corcoran can no longer invoke attorney-client privilege in Trump's classified documents case.

We have reporters on the scene in New York and in Washington.

First to CNN's Kara Scannell, who is outside the courthouse in Manhattan.

Kara, what's going on with the grand jury there?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as you said, the grand jury is meeting today, but they are not hearing any testimony related to the investigation into hush money payments and former President Donald Trump's alleged role in those payments. Now, the grand jury can hear multiple cases at one time. So it's not

unusual that they would be meeting and not hearing this case. But, as we have been reporting, this investigation is very much ongoing, and the grand jury will again hear testimony related to the Trump-related investigation Monday.

And sources tell us that the district attorney's office is weighing whether they should bring in at least one other witness. Now, other sources say that they're debating whether that -- one of those witnesses would be Michael Cohen. He, of course, is at the center of the hush money payments.

These are all indications that the grand jury work isn't done yet. And we're waiting for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to make a decision, the unprecedented decision, of whether to seek an indictment of a former president -- Brianna.

KEILAR: His response to House Republicans, Kara, it is just blistering.

SCANNELL: Yes, they fought back in a letter that they made today public to the House Republicans who wanted Bragg to come in for testimony, saying that the Congress is a federal body, and they have no role and no place in a state or a local DA's investigations.

So, in this letter, Bragg's office writes: "The letter," referring to the House letter, "is an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution. The letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day, and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene. Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry."

So, they're putting this squarely on the congressmen, saying that they're doing this at the behest of Donald Trump and calling out Trump's false claims that he would have been arrested on Tuesday -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Katelyn Polantz, tell us about this appeals court ruling that a Trump defense attorney has to testify in the classified documents case. This is set for tomorrow. What more can you tell us?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right.

Well, Brianna, this is the end of the road, it appears, for Donald Trump trying to hold back his defense attorney Evan Corcoran talking about conversations that the two had during their response to the federal criminal investigation into the keeping of classified records at Mar-a-Lago, so a really big situation that the special counsel's office has been pushing for answers to.

They want to know what happened with Evan Corcoran, what he heard, what he said to Trump, what Trump said to him. And we did get word from the appeals court yesterday. We don't have the full set of filings of what's going on here. It's all under seal. But we were able to see that the appeals court in D.C. in this courthouse ruled that Evan Corcoran would have to turn over documents to the special counsel investigation, as well as appear before the grand jury.

Again, we expect him to come tomorrow. And he's been pretty busy this week, not just with that, but he was just here at this courthouse taking part in another hearing, sealed hearing, before the chief judge in the separate criminal investigation into January 6 that he was arguing alongside other lawyers for Donald Trump about Mike Pence's testimony, whether he can be having certain things blocked when he may go before the grand jury as well under a subpoena.

So, a lot of stuff happening in this courthouse, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, so busy right now.

Kara and Katelyn, thank you to you both.

Let's talk now with Shan Wu, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, and also Laura Barron-Lopez, who is a White House correspondent for "PBS NewsHour."

[13:05:04]

So, Shan, you have Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA, responding in a blistering way, as we were talking about, to these House GOP chairmen, saying that what they want his office to do is illegal.

Are House Republicans asking for something illegal here?

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, they're completely overstepping their authority here.

It's very hypocritical that the party of states' rights is trying to ride roughshod over New York state's sovereignty here. First of all, even if this were a federal criminal investigation, Congress really would have no business sticking their nose in it, because it's active. It hasn't even been charged yet at this point.

Then, when you add in the fact that this is a state criminal investigation, they really just have no basis for that. But the letter is blistering. And it's kind of funny too. It's a little tone of humor there, because they're saying, well, to extent you're asking about federal funds being used here, we will write you a separate letter to let you know how the federal funds are being used, because that's the barely slightest hope they have of jurisdiction over this.

KEILAR: Yes, the tiny, tiny hook.

WU: Yes.

KEILAR: So, Laura, you have Joe Manchin, right, who's kind of an outlier here, Democratic senator with very particular politics in West Virginia, warning that the court system shouldn't be seen as getting involved in politics.

But, largely, Democrats have been pretty quiet on these Trump legal issues. What is their thinking here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right, Brianna.

Democrats at large, as well as President Biden in the White, House and the White House, writ large, they don't want to be seen as trying to interfere at all in these investigations, that whether it's the investigation in New York or the DOJ's investigations regarding classified documents or January 6 and the -- and Trump's efforts to protect to overturn the election results.

They don't want to touch it at all, because they want to show that these are independent investigations, which they are. Republicans, on the other hand, particularly a growing number within the House GOP, have decided to really send a signal with these investigations, which right now are just based solely off of Trump's comments earlier this week, which is that if you investigate or try to hold the former president accountable for potential wrongdoings and criminal acts, then the House GOP is going to investigate those investigators.

KEILAR: Yes, a safe bet, probably.

So, Shan, when you look at this grand jury -- and I know part of this is Donald Trump set up this expectation of when he would be indicted, right, that has sort of come and gone already. But what's going on with the timing here. Is the DA stalling?

WU: It's really hard to say, because, typically, the grand juries do hear more than one case at a time.

The time right now could be used to be drafting an indictment, because they would need to give some careful thought to the drafting before they present it for a vote. But from the reporting that they may put in other witnesses, that could be that they need to decide who to put in and to prepare the witnesses.

Now, personally, I hope that they don't put in too more -- too many more witnesses, because the grand jury is not the final place to resolve the case. You're really just either using it for probable cause to charge, or the DA is using it kind of proactively to lock in testimony that they want to know about ahead of time, either defensively, if it's a defense witness, or affirmatively, to make sure their own witnesses are solid.

Certainly, I don't feel they need any more testimony from Michael Cohen. He's already testified so much. And it can look like a sign of weakness to put him in to rebut something Costello said, because it gives the grand jurors the idea perhaps that the DA thinks there's an issue, a real issue, that Costello raised.

KEILAR: That's very interesting.

And politically here, Laura, I know that some Republicans don't really want to be talking about this, right? They want to move on. They want to move on into the future. And it seems like this is what's actually going to occupy so much of this Congress, though.

BARRON-LOPEZ: That is. I mean, there are -- there is a segment of Republican leaders, more, I would say, in the Senate than in the House, that don't want to be talking about this, that also wants to be seen as impartial and not touching this.

House Republicans and the leaders there, though, have taken a very different track. You saw immediately after Trump tweeted about the fact that he thought he was going to be arrested that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy came to his defense, as did the chairman, Jim Jordan, who is saying he's going to investigate Alvin Bragg and try to discredit this potential -- this investigation and the potential charges.

So, they are very...

KEILAR: Laura, I'm so -- I'm so sorry to interrupt you.

I actually do, though, want to go right now to the White House, because President Biden -- or -- President Biden is there. This is on the 13th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and here are comments that he's making.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thirteen years ago today, we gathered in this room as President Obama signed into law the Affordable Health Care Act.

[13:10:01]

Hard to believe, 13 days -- 13 years ago. It seems like 13 days ago.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Most -- I think it was the most -- I think most people agree, the most consequential piece of health care legislation since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

I talked to the president yesterday, got a chance to speak with him. We did a little thing together. And it's an extraordinary achievement by President Obama. And while the Affordable Care Act has been called a lot of things, Obamacare is the most fitting description.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Obamacare.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Many of you joined us that day after fighting for decades to make it happen.

And I remember three words I used at the time. I thought it was...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I thought it was a big deal.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: And I stand by the fact it was a big deal.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: It's also -- I also called it at that time a historic day, because history is not merely what's painted and printed on walls and in textbooks.

You know, it doesn't begin or end with the stroke of a pen. History is made when we decide that there's a greater risk in accepting the situation they cannot bear than steeling our spine and embracing the promise of change.

And no one has more in her spine than the greatest speaker in the history of this country, Nancy Pelosi.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Nancy, it's no exaggeration to say this would not be law without you. It would not be law without you.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: If it weren't for the speaker's relentless push to get this law passed and then defend it at every single turn, that -- we wouldn't be here today.

And, Kamala, I want to thank you for everything you have done to defend this law as vice president...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: ... as a United States Senator, and as attorney general, along with my son Beau Biden. You brought -- both brought cases to defend it.

And I also want to thank Kamala for her leadership and fight to protect reproductive rights for women. She's leading...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, so many of you here worked so hard to make history that 13 years ago today.

And I just want to start by saying thank you. And I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. There's millions and millions of people who owe you, because you stuck with it and you keep defending it; 13 years later, it's easy to forget what life was like for hardworking families before the Affordable Care Act.

But all of you remember. Remember when a parent with heart disease or diabetes or a child with asthma couldn't get coverage because of a preexisting condition? Remember when women had to pay more for insurance because they had a preexisting condition? They were a woman.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Not a joke. Say it today to people, they look at you like, you're kidding me. But that was the case.

Remember when you couldn't leave a dead-end job because you couldn't risk losing your health insurance. Remember when a 22-year-old kid who you kicked off his parents' plan because he graduated from college. Remember the doughnut hole when seniors on Medicare reached a point every year when they had to pay the full cost of the drugs out of pocket.

Remember when millions of low- and middle-income families, especially were -- particularly those families, were locked out, locked out of health insurance because there was no way they could afford it, none. I said earlier -- my friends heard me say this before. I can remember. We lived in a three-bedroom split-level home.

And my bedroom was up against the wall where my parents' bedroom was. And the -- and my dad's headboard was there. And I remember when I was like 14 years old. And I remember my dad. I could see -- could hear he was just restless.

And I asked my mom the next morning, went to work, what's the matter? And she said: "Well, his company just told him they're not going to pay for health insurance anymore."

How many people lie in bed awake wondering? Remember when insurance companies would cut you off halfway through chemo when -- because you reached the limit of what they were willing to pay? I remember -- I talked to you about this, Chris -- when my son Beau was dying of chemo -- dying in the hospital because he had stage four glioblastoma.

And I got a call from someone asking me for help because they thought they were going to have their insurance cut off because it ran -- they ran out of time. And I thought to myself, what in God's name would I do had they come along and said, sorry, you have run out of your coverage?

[13:15:11]

Folks, at the most vulnerable point in a person's life, the moment when you really need it, you could hear the word, sorry, your insurance has run out.

Folks, our MAGA Republican friends -- and, by the way, I want to be clear, there's some good, decent Republicans out there. I'm not suggesting this is all about bad Republicans.

But this new crowd is -- it's not your this ain't your father's Republican Party.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: They may have forgotten all I just said, but I haven't. You haven't. All Americans deserve the peace of mind that, if an illness strikes or an accident occurs, you can get the care you need. But the truth is, too many folks lie in bed at night and look -- staring at ceiling wondering, my God, what happens if she gets breast cancer or I end up with a serious cancer?

Or what happens to the kids? What then? What then? Do we have enough insurance? Can we afford the bills? What's going to happen? If it gets bad enough, maybe we have to sell the house. We don't have any more equity.

You know, I think it's a matter of what you value. And I think all of us in the room value peace of mind for everybody. Everybody deserves a little peace of mind for everybody. Everybody deserves a little peace of mind for things they can't control.

That's why my administration has focused intensely on building on the progress of the Affordable Care Act, getting more people affordable insurance, lowering prescription drug prices, giving families more breathing room. We have passed historic laws to get that done.

And now we're moving quickly to implement them, so people can feel the effects in their everyday lives. The Affordable Health Care Act expanded Medicaid to cover an additional 20 million people. Before it was passed, 20 fewer million -- 20 million people -- fewer people had insurance.

So, it expanded to cover 20 million more people on Medicaid. That means more cancers detected early, more mental health treatment available, less medical debt and fewer evictions.

I signed the American Rescue Plan, which went further and allowed states to extend Medicaid coverage to new moms for up to one year after they gave birth, instead of only for 60 days. You remember, Gov, what that did, what you guys did; 36 states and counting, and now we're extending to a full-year coverage.

(APPLAUSE)

KEILAR: All right, President Biden celebrating on the 13th anniversary of Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, drawing a contrast there with Republican budget proposals, making the case that the ACA is under attack by Republicans.

Wall Street cheering the news that rate hikes may be coming to an end, the Dow up here, as you can see, over 200 points. The Fed raised interest rates for the ninth straight time yesterday. You can see there we can barely fit them all on one chart, right?

But Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled it could be the last rate hike of this aggressive cycle. That means the borrowing costs will stop rising and the Fed thinks its harsh medicine on inflation may finally be kicking in.

But banking fears and also the knowledge that rate hikes tend to bring on recessions still have economists and executives jittery.

CNN's Matt Egan is here to explain.

OK, Matt, so maybe we don't have to worry about fitting more columns on the chart. Nonetheless, will Powell's comments help smooth out this recent turbulence?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Brianna, hopefully.

I think, for now, though, the roller-coaster ride, at least on Wall Street, continues. If we look at the Big Board, the Dow is up 200 points, 0.6 percent. That is nice to see. But this comes after a whole lot of volatility. I mean, there was a late-day sell-off yesterday. The Dow fell more than 500 points.

We have seen a whole series of ups and downs in the market. And a lot of this is really being driven by concerns and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve. Now, Powell is really trying to thread the needle here, right?

On the one hand, the Fed is going forward with this war on inflation by raising interest rates. But they're also signaling a real willingness to pause their rate hike campaign. But there's just a lot of uncertainty right now.

And Powell smartly left himself a lot of wiggle room. I think the biggest question is how much damage this banking crisis is going to do to the economy, because, in a lot of ways, the stress that we have seen in banks is actually doing the Fed's job for it, right? It's cooling the economy off by making it harder for us to get loans and more expensive to have credit card debt and mortgages.

Powell even said we can think of this as basically the equivalent of one interest rate hike, or he said maybe more. And I think that's actually the whole problem here is, no one, not even the Fed, knows just how much damage this is going to do to the economy.

[13:20:05]

And, ironically, Brianna, if this proves to be a brief episode, which we hope it does, and the banking situation stabilizes, the Fed may actually have to do more work to cool off inflation.

KEILAR: All right, Matt, thank you so much, Matt Egan.

We appreciate it.

Both sides of the aisle coming together today for a brutal grilling of TikTok's CEO. How the executive responded to tough questions about its Chinese owners, American data collection and the abuse of children on its platform.

Plus, the FAA laying out new steps for airline safety after a series of terrifying near-collisions. We have details ahead.

And the dentist accused of poisoning his wife with an arsenic-laced protein shake has just been charged with her murder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:06]

KEILAR: A rare display of bipartisanship today for the grilling of TikTok's CEO on Capitol Hill, the executive of the controversial and incredibly popular app facing some tough questions about child safety data collection and its Chinese ownership.

The chair of the committee today says that TikTok should be banned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS (R-WA): We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values, values for freedom, human rights and innovation.

TikTok has repeatedly chosen the path for more control, more surveillance and more manipulation. Your platform should be banned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Alex Marquardt is in Washington.

I don't know of a hearing that may have captured more attention of a broader spectrum of Americans. Alex. Tell us what happened here.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Brianna.

It is a rare moment of true bipartisanship on Capitol Hill among Democrats and Republicans, both in the House and in the Senate, over this deep concern over the potential for Chinese access to more than 150 million Americans' data, as well as the potential for China to potentially in the future carry out some kind of information or influence campaign.

We should note that, at the time being, for now, we know these are just potentials. This is not something that China has been seen to do. But there is serious concern. And that is why the TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, was up on Capitol Hill today trying to assuage these lawmakers of their concerns.

He does not appear to have been terribly successful, blistering responses from these lawmakers, as you said, one Republican from Florida accusing TikTok of literally leading to the death of children. The chairwoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, saying that TikTok is a weapon of the Chinese Communist Party.

But, Brianna, so much of this concern does focus on how this data is accessed, how it is managed. TikTok has tried to argue that they are able to firewall it and block it off from access by China through something called Project Texas.

Let's take a listen to a quick exchange about that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BOB LATTA (R-OH): Yes or no, do any ByteDance employees in China, including engineers, currently have access to U.S. user data?

SHOU ZI CHEW, CEO, TIKTOK: Today, all U.S. user data is stored by default in the Oracle cloud infrastructure, and access to that is controlled by American personnel.

(CROSSTALK)

LATTA: The question is, do any ByteDance employees in China, including engineers, currently have access to U.S. data?

CHEW: Congressman, I would appreciate -- this is a complex topic.

Today, all data is stored by default...

LATTA: Yes or no? No, it's not that complex. Yes or no, do they have access to user data?

CHEW: We have -- after Project Texas is done, the answer is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So, the CEO there saying that China would not have access.

But lawmakers and many experts do not believe that. They still believe that China would exert influence and control over this Chinese company ByteDance. That is something that's been echoed by the U.S. Department of Justice, citing China's national security law.

So the U.S. has said that TikTok could face a ban unless ByteDance were to divest from TikTok. ByteDance and TikTok have said that that would not solve the U.S. concerns. So, if the U.S. were to proceed, Brianna, this would likely end up in the courts with a lengthy legal battle.

And, of course, if it were to be banned could have major ramifications for these more than 150 million Americans, particularly young Americans, who actively use the platform -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, use it, and use it for hours a day.

Alex, thank you for that. We appreciate it.

Tune in to "CNN PRIMETIME" tonight, when Abby Phillip takes a look at TikTok future. She's going to host "Is Time Up For TikTok?" tonight at 9:00 Eastern.

The FAA is laying out some new steps to help prevent close calls between airplanes. This is coming after an alarming number of these near-collisions that we have been seeing this year at airports all around the country.

We have CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joining us live. Tell us what we learned about these new guidelines, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Brianna, just spoke about this on Capitol Hill.

And he says that Category A and Category B runway incursions, what they're officially called, the most severe type of these on or near runway collisions, were happening at a rate of about one every month. Now he says the rate has doubled, which has really caused the FAA to try and act here.

They have really laid out two different prongs of this, reissuing a bulletin to pilots underscoring to them that they should be extra vigilant as they fly, but also this five-point plan to air traffic controllers, laying out steps that will be taken in air traffic control towers and facilities across the country, more supervisors, more training for unusual circumstances, which also is really interesting here, is that the FAA wants to improve training.

[13:30:00]