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Trump Pressured Then-Arizona Governor Doug Ducey To Overturn 2020 Election Results; President Biden Unveils Student Debt Relief Plan After Supreme Court Loss; Conservative Supreme Court Delivers Blow To LGBTQ Rights, Rejects Affirmative Action, Student Loan Plan; Trump Pressured Then-Governor Doug Ducey To Overturn 2020 Election Results; Former Trump Campaign Official Cooperating With Special Counsel In 2020 Election Interference Probe; July 1: New Fiscal Year Means New Laws Take Effect; 1,300-Plus Detained As France Rocked By More Fiery Protests Over Police Killing Of Teen. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired July 01, 2023 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:01:06]

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Hello. Thank you so much for sticking with me on this holiday weekend. I'm Sara Sidner in for Fredricka Whitfield. We begin this hour with new developments in Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A source telling CNN that after the election, former President Trump called then Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in an attempt to pressure him into overturning his state's presidential election results.

Sources say Trump also push then Vice President Mike Pence to help him overturn his 2020 election law. CNN's Jeremy Herb joins us now. Jeremy, what are you learning about the pressure that Trump was putting on Ducey after the election?

JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Sara. We're learning new details about this call that former President Trump held with then Governor Ducey after the 2020 election. Now at the time, November 2020, we didn't know this call occurred, but we didn't have any details about the specifics. Now sources are telling CNN that Ducey has said that he was pressured by Trump to try to find fraud in his state that would allow the President to overturn the election.

This may sound familiar. We've heard the President was trying to besort the of same efforts in multiple states. It's also -- we also learning from sources that the President asked his then Vice President Mike Pence to reach out to Ducey to also try and get him to work on pressuring the Vice President -- pressuring the then Governor. Pence did call Ducey. However, what we are told is that he did not pressure the Governor as he was asked according to sources.

This all of course, comes as a special counsel is ramping up his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which is separate from the indictment that came in the investigation into the handling of classified documents. Worth noting here that Ducey spokesman. He downplayed the significance of this call telling CNN in a statement. Frankly, nothing here is new nor is it news to anyone following this issue the last two years.

Governor Ducey defended the results of Arizona's 2020 election, he certified the election, and he made clear that the certification provided a trigger for credible complaints backed by the evidence brought forward. The Governor stands by his actions to certify the election and considers the issue to be in the rearview mirror. It's time to move on.

Now, Sara, it's also worth noting that D.C. spokesman told CNN that the for -- the former Arizona governor, he has not heard from the special counsel's office, Sara.

SIDNER: I -- that's what I took away that I thought was really, really interesting because the special counsel's office has been very thorough talking to a lot of people, especially Trump's inner circle like Rudy Giuliani just this past week. What is the explanation for that? Or is it just that we don't know whether or not he has reached out to Governor Ducey now that this reporting has been put out there?

HERB: Well, it is one of the more interesting aspects of this episode. And it's worth noting too. The special counsel this week, his investigators interviewed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Now, of course, Raffensperger is at the center of one of the most famous incidents where Trump was trying to pressure state officials. He asked Raffensperger in January 2021 to find him enough votes to win the state in Georgia.

That, of course, led to Fulton County in that state opening its own investigation. There are some key differences in those two episodes. First of all, we don't know according to the -- our reporting and our sources whether President specifically asked Governor Ducey to find votes as opposed to finding the fraud. Also, according to The Washington Post, which first reported on this new pressure, there is not a recording of this Ducey conversation unlike the Raffensperger conversation.

So, it's possible that that plays into the difference between these two states, Sara.

SIDNER: Jeremy Herb, thank you so much for those reports. All right. President Biden is now laying out a new plan to provide student loan relief to millions of borrowers after the conservatives on the Supreme Court, six to three blocked his student debt forgiveness plans.

[13:05:07]

They rejected the program aim to forgive up to $20,000 in relief to those struggling with outstanding debt. This now puts some 14 million plus Americans on the hook for those loan payments. CNN White House reporter Priscilla Alvarez is joining us now. There is a plan B that the President says he's working on. What can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: There is, Sara. But there's no question that this was a major blow for President Biden from the White House which had been touting student debt relief. And it is a signature issue too. That dates all the way back to Biden's presidential campaign. Now, the White House has laid out what they call a plan B. This is something that White House officials had been preparing behind the scenes in the event that the Supreme Court struck their original plan.

And it includes a couple of things starting with, for example, reducing levels for income driven repayment plan from 10 percent to five percent. It also has the Department of Education -- Department of Education creating a temporary 12-month on ramp -- repayment program when debt payments restart. So, these are a couple of things that are in the works. And they're going to take months to get done.

Of course, there were millions who were hoping that their student debt would be forgiven up to $20,000 in the immediate term, but the administration is trying to give reassurances and the President himself saying that they have been working on different options to try to provide some relief to students. Now he was still asked yesterday in his remarks whether he had given false hope to millions and this is what he had to say.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't give any false hope. The question was whether or not, I would do even more than was requested. What I did, I thought was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn't give bars false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given and it's real, real hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, you heard it there from the President. Republican snatched away. This is not just a signature issue for this administration and this president, it's also a political one, and one that they will probably be leaning into, as the 2024 campaign kicks into gear, Sara?

SIDNER: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. The U.S. Supreme Court ended their latest term with a bang so to speak, ruling against Biden's student loan plan. And as you just heard, upending precedents for affirmative action and limiting protections on LGBTQ rights. The conservative majority of the court weighing in on some of the most consequential and polarizing issue of our time.

CNN Supreme Court Reporter Ariane de Vogue had a front row seat to the historic term. Ariane, you've been following the court for a long time. What were your big takeaways, your thoughts on what we saw happen this past week? Have we seen such a polarizing precedent upending session in recent history?

ARIANA DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: You know, you're absolutely right. In the last few days, you really saw how muscular this conservative majority is changing the way Americans are living their lives. Blocking Biden's student loan plan, saying that businesses didn't have to sell custom products to LGBTQ customers. And then gutting affirmative action. If you look at just the affirmative action case, you see clearer than anything how absolutely divided this court is.

On the one side, you have Roberts, who has always been a foe of these racial preferences. And he says if you're going to take somebody's race into consideration, you better have a good reason. And these schools did not have a good reason he said. He said they could have used race neutral programs. He said that they discriminated on one race over the other. And then you saw Justice Clarence Thomas.

The second African-American male sitting on agreeing with Roberts going further saying, look, these programs taint the applicants and that's why they should go. And then you had Justice Jackson in her freshman term on this court saying we still live in a society where there is discrimination. This is not a colorblind society, and she giving this totally different perspective. We saw the same thing in that LGBTQ rights case here.

You had a web designer. She did not want to make Web sites celebrating same sex marriages. And Neil Gorsuch rules in her favor. It's the same, Neil Gorsuch who was just a few years ago was a real hero to the LGBTQ workers in a different case. But here, he looked at this through a totally different lens. He looked at this as free speech and he said, you can't force someone to express a message that don't agree with.

[13:10:00]

And that just mystified the liberals who said look, this has nothing to do with speech, this is about discrimination. Again, they're on two different polar sides. And then you had Chief Justice John Roberts, this term trying to draw everything together at a fraught time. He did rule in favor of the liberal position in two voting rights cases. But by the end of the term, Chief Justice John Roberts back in the saddle as a conservative leading this court.

And one more thing to remember about this conservative majority, they can afford to lose a vote if they want to because all they need is five votes to prevail, and they've got six. And the last thing to remember about them is it's a relatively young, conservative majority. They are going to be here which could be for decades. So, what we're looking right now, a hard right turn, could continue in the terms to come.

SIDNER: Yes. And this is why a lot of people talk about the reason voting is so important. These people are put in place and put up for a vote by the President of the United States, whoever that may be. Ariana, I do want to ask you something very quickly here. There was something quite notable that has come out after the Supreme Court decision in that Colorado web designer case.

The designer won her case, of course, refusing to make wedding Web sites for same sex couples. She identified a man in that case, I think his name was Stewart who requested such a web site she said but reporters have talked to him. And he says he never contacted her and has been married to a woman for 15 years. Could this -- does this have any impact on what the Supreme Court did? I mean, what is going on here? DE VOGUE: So, legally maybe it's not super significant. She basically said that she was being contacted by people who were saying, oh, will you please make a website for me? And one of the people she said did was this man, Stewart. She put that forward in court papers. And then enterprising reporters reached out to Stewart and he said, well, I have no idea what you're talking about. I never did that. In fact, I've been happily married for several years.

Legally, that may not be a big deal because there were other people she says in the record, who were asking her to begin this business. But it is interesting, this case that has been in the spotlight for a long time and no one ever thought to reach out to Stewart until the week of oral arguments. So, it was an interesting twist.

SIDNER: Ariane de Vogue, thank you so much for all your reporting. Quite a momentous time to be in that court watching all this unfold. Appreciate it.

DE VOGUE: Thanks.

SIDNER: The Supreme Court's decision to get affirmative action for college admissions has so many Americans worried about how this might impact higher education in the future. Some are celebrating that decision as well. But joining us now is Devon Bradley. He's a recent graduate of George Washington University. Congratulations. And a benefactor, he says of Affirmative Action. We first met him as a college student when he asked him a question at a 2019 Bernie Sanders town hall right here on CNN.

All right. Welcome to you to the program. When you first heard the decision on Affirmative Action, what initially struck you?

DEVON BRADLEY, BENEFITED FROM AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Initially anger. Anger -- I was overcome with anger. And I immediately saw this decision as an assault on diversity and minorities everywhere. And I feel that currently 2023 our youth should be witnessing their country becoming more accepting of them in our talents and our progress. And we're witnessing almost the exact opposite, a powerful movement of the opposite.

SIDNER: Can I ask you about how Affirmative Action helps you? And whether you would face people sort of saying to you, well, we know you only got in or you got an extra leg up because you happen to be black. Did you feel that pressure coming from other students?

BRADLEY: So, absolutely not. And to that point, Affirmative Action grants to talented minority the foot in the door. I am confident in my capabilities and talents to where I have never experienced that. But of course, that is a common topic. But no. Minorities are -- we are qualified and capable and we are in these positions from that.

SIDNER: Yes. I asked you that question because Justice Thomas who is the only black male on the court has said that he didn't -- he, you know, affirmative action helped him but that he did not like this idea that people were looking about -- looking at him and talking to him as if he was less worthy and was concerned about that. What do you make of that?

BRADLEY: You know, I make up that in -- I feel that as the generations have gone on. People are becoming more liberal and understanding. I have never felt that in my personal life. But, you know, I reject that notion from the Supreme Court justice.

SIDNER: Are you worried about how this decision is going to impact other people that that may find themselves in similar circumstances?

[13:15:05]

BRADLEY: I am. I am. I am currently benefiting and living the life of freedom because of these policies and because I had access to a quality education. So, I'm very concerned about the 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds who are currently sitting at home watching this concerned about if they will be able to change their lives, the ladder is constantly being pulled up from them, the mark of success being pushed farther away.

So, I'm very concerned about the morale that those want to have on our minority youth.

SIDNER: In California and Michigan, California in particular, voters came out and got rid of Affirmative Action many, many years ago. And those universities in California notice that they did have a much harder time bringing in a diverse student body. Are you worried about how this will be implemented? Do you have any sense that colleges will find other ways? For example, looking at the essays of the -- of applicants and looking at socioeconomic backgrounds which is also a big thing that is not as diverse on some of these campuses?

BRADLEY: Most definitely. I hope these institutions will continue to take these essays and the social economic factors into account, of course, complying with the law. But race plays a factor today and it always will in this country. So I hope that institutions will come together in compliance with the law to create policies that will help diversify their bodies and benefit us all collectively in the long run.

SIDNER: Devon Bradley, thank you for your excellence. Thank you for coming on to make your point. We appreciate it on this holiday weekend.

And coming up next hour. I'll talk to someone who sees this ruling in a different way and is applauding the Supreme Court's decision who also benefited from Affirmative Action. All right. Still ahead. Deadly heat, severe storms and dangerous air quality. We'll have your holiday weekend forecast coming up next.

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[13:21:02]

SIDNER: Dangerous weather could make a mess of your Fourth of July holiday weekend plans. Sorry about that. Tens of millions of Americans are at risk of severe storms and sweltering temperatures. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with the very latest. What are you watching right now? I can see the radar doing things, creating colors which isn't always a good thing.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, especially if you've got some travel plans out there. Yes, right now we're watching this cluster of very large storms that have started to develop just to the west of Nashville. And they're headed in. We've got several severe thunderstorm warnings at this time. So, if you've got some travel on two major interstates here 65, 40 or if you have plans to go in or out of the airport there or may be connect there, likely going to see some delays here coming up in about the next hour or so.

But that's just one of several clusters. We've still been keeping an eye on the one making its way through the Ohio Valley. Another section of showers and thunderstorms just to the west of Dallas and more expected to develop as we head into the afternoon and the evening hours. Basically, anywhere you see here along this map with these cities has the potential for damaging. Winds, large hail and even the potential for some isolated tornadoes.

We also have that secondary area located just in portions of western Texas. Now, two separate timelines here. We've already got the ongoing cluster of storms. But once we get later into the afternoon and especially into the evening, another round moves through many of the same areas that have already had some showers and thunderstorms today. By tomorrow, that main cluster shifts farther east into the mid- Atlantic portions of the Northeast.

But we also have separate showers and thunderstorms that will fire up across the southeast. Unfortunately triggering probably some more delays on the roads and in the air. Heat is also going to be another concern. A lot of folks, you get outside, you have barbecues, parades, all kinds of things going on this weekend. And the heat could end up causing some problems. We've still got excessive heat warnings and heat advisories across the southeast.

More developing out into the West as that next heatwave begins to take shape. Now down across the Gulf when you factor in the heat and the humidity, you've got that heat index very, very high in some spots. It feels like 107 right now in Little Rock, same thing for Birmingham, 105 and Memphis. Really at this point, you're going to finally get some relief, but it's going to take several more days before we really start to see those numbers coming back down closer to where they should be this time of year.

Out to the West, it's the opposite. Those numbers are going to continue to go up. Places like Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Palm Springs. Those numbers will continue to tick up especially into the middle portion of the upcoming week. Several areas also. We get it. It's summer. But these are well above average. So, because of that you're going to see the potential for some record high, Sara as well. Not just today, but all the way through Tuesday.

SIDNER: Oh, man. It's going to be hot, hot, hot. People need to be very careful out there. Lots of water. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. Just ahead. New revelations on the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election this time in Arizona. Details ahead.

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[13:28:11]

SIDNER: Back now to our top story and the new developments on Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Source telling CNN that after the election, former President Trump called then Arizona governor Doug Ducey to pressure him and to overturning the state's presidential election results. Sources say Trump also pushed then Vice President Mike Pence to help him overturn the election.

And we've learned that Pence did speak to Ducey multiple times about the election. Though he did not pressure the Governor as he was asked. This was first reported by The Washington Post. With me now to talk more about all of this is Michael Zeldin. He is a former federal prosecutor and the host of the podcast That Said with Michael Zeldin. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. Can I ask you about the legal significance of this reporting that Doug Ducey was called and we knew the calls happened early on?

What we did not know was what the content of those calls were. And now we're learning it was pressure from Donald Trump, according to sources to get him to overturn the election in his state. Your thoughts?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: It's very similar to what happened in Georgia, which is there's a phone call made by the President or phone calls made by the President could try to pressure the governor into investigating his belief that there was fraud in the election that if found, would tip the results toward him. In and of itself, Sara, I don't know that that is criminal. It's bad behavior.

But I don't know if it were nothing else it would amount to a criminal law violation. However, in Arizona, if you remember, there were multiple fake electors schemes ongoing. One by the Republican Party of Arizona, another one by a group called like the Sovereign Citizens of the Great State of Arizona.

[13:30:09]

Those were undertaken, allegedly, by the Trump campaign. All of that could rise to election interference under both state and perhaps federal law.

SIDNER: You remember the Cyber Ninjas who went into Arizona and recounted the whole election there. They actually found more votes went to Donald Trump, not less. So that was very interesting.

I want to talk about this electors issue. We are learning that the former Donald Trump campaign official, Mike Roman, is cooperating with the Special Counsel Jack Smith's team in the ongoing probe.

What significance would he have, what could he say that prosecutors may use if he has a lot to tell us about what happened with the electors? What might he impart to the prosecution that would help them?

ZELDIN: Right. So he's a critical witness in respect of the organization of and the implementation of this false electors strategy.

We know that the electors themselves have been brought in to testify about what they did, some with limited immunity. But they are just, if you will, the foot soldiers. Now Brown and others are more the orchestraters.

How did this happen, why did it happen, and at whose behest did it happen, and who has knowledge of the whole scheme?

So Brown can take this down toward the electors themselves or up to the organizers. He becomes a critical witness in terms of the implementation and the organization of this scheme.

SIDNER: I want to go back to this new information about Governor Ducey and the pressure that he was apparently receiving from Donald Trump himself to overturn the election in his state.

It was not recorded, unlike the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who did have a recording of what was said, which makes it very plain and clear what Donald Trump is asking for.

How much is that going to matter, that there is not an actual recording for if these go to a grand jury?

ZELDIN: It would depend on who participated in the call and what contemporaneous notes were made of the call.

Remember, the Raffensperger call, yes, it was recorded, for sure. But what was important about it, were it not recorded, is that Raffensperger also had with him other people.

You would have Raffensperger and the others who listened in the on the call to offer testimony about what the content of that call included, were it not recorded.

In this case, the same with Ducey. The call was not recorded, but if he made contemporaneous notes of it or spoke to his attorney general or chief of staff and said, look, I just had this call with the president, this is what he's asking, what's your thought about it.

Then it's not just a "he said/he said" sort of conversation, but rather it's, they said and he denies. It's important to know who all had knowledge of it at the time it was done or immediately thereafter.

SIDNER: It's corroboration that you need when you don't have the actual call.

We also know that Mike Pence had called the Arizona governor many, many times, but did not pressure him to overturn the election. You have to wonder what Mike Pence has already -- since he's already testified, what he has already said if those questions were asked of him. So much to unpack here. Michael Zeldin, thank you so much for coming on.

ZELDIN: Thanks, Sara, for having me.

[13:34:14]

SIDNER: Coming up, hundreds of new laws take effect across the country today, from abortion to LGBTQ rights. We'll break down some of the biggest cases, next.

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SIDNER: Today not only kicks the month of July but also a new fiscal year. That means a slew of new state laws go into effect. Nationwide, thousands of major legislative and polarizing changes are altering policies on abortion, firearms and child labor.

CNN correspondent, Isabel Rosales, has more details for us.

Isabel, several red states, controversial moves have been made there, including in Florida. Tell us about some of the changes people need to know about.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara. There's a lot going on here. But I'm going to highlight three major laws starting with immigration. Senate Bill 1718, a law going into effect as of today.

This is a sweeping crackdown that Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on targeting illegal immigration. Specifically, companies with 25 employees or more are now required to use E-Verify to check immigration status.

It also repeals a different law that previously allowed undocumented people to drive there in the state of Florida. They are no longer to drive there.

Or to become attorneys. Hospitals are now required to ask about immigration status in the admissions forms.

Critics say this is really an attack on an already marginalized community and that Florida's economy is going to feel the pain in three sectors, hospitality, agriculture and construction.

Now let's go into issues impacting the LGBTQ community. A series of new laws restricting gender-affirming treatments for minors. It is now prohibited for minors to partake in things like hormone blockers and sex reassignment surgery.

[13:40:12]

Also bathrooms at play here, prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms that match their identity. Instead, they must use the bathroom that matches their sex assigned at birth.

Also pronouns. No longer can teachers ask their students, what is their pronoun of choice. Instead, they must use pronouns, teachers, faculty members and students, that match their birth certificate.

Now let's move onto education. This is a big topic in the state of Florida. DEI, Governor DeSantis signing legislation defunding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs for all state universities.

They are now barred from spending state and federal money on programs that advocate for DEI or promote and engage in political and social activism. The governor calling that a distraction -- Sara?

SIDNER: Isabel Rosales, thank you for breaking that all down. Those are just a few of the laws that are changing.

All right, still ahead, buildings set on fire as well as cars, thousands of people arrested, and now elite riot police are heading to France after a fourth night of violent protests over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy. We'll take you there next.

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[13:45:50]

SIDNER: Protests are expected across France again today. More than 1,300 people were detained overnight as demonstrators continue to protest the death of a 17-year-old boy, known only as Nahel M., who was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop outside Paris.

Officials say more than a thousand cars were set on fire and hundreds of buildings damaged in major cities during the fourth day of unrest and night of unrest as well.

French police put 45,000 officers and armored vehicles on the streets as the protests grew. So far, the French government has resisted calls to impose a state of emergency.

For the latest, let's go now to CNN's Nic Robertson.

Nic, things looking calm there, but night has not fallen just yet.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It hasn't. Actually now, we've moved from where the boy was buried in a peaceful respectful service that involved about a thousand mourners to the center of Paris to the Champs-Elysees.

You can see a store behind me here, a popular brand of sports clothing. They put up these hard wooden board because they're afraid the violence is going to spill into the center of the city.

There's a heavy police presence. I'm looking at police vans driving up the Champs-Elysees now. Not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination.

But there is a strong police presence in the center of Paris tonight because there's a concern the violence that's been going on in the suburbs could come into the city center tonight.

But where the government seems to have its biggest concern is getting control of the riots in the central city of Lyon and Marseilles in the south.

The interior minister was speaking on television here in the last hour. He said that it's going to deploy more elite counterriot police to those two cities because they feel they need to strengthen their presence in those areas.

Remembering two police officers were shot and injured in the town of Lyon. It's kind of unusual to have that kind of gun violence on the streets in France.

The concern tonight, does the violence continue decreasing, as it did from Thursday into Friday? Does it continue on a decline, or is there a big spike and does it reach the center of the city here? That's what's worrying the government at the moment.

We understand President Macron is due to make a trip to Germany on Monday and has now cancelled that trip.

SIDNER: Nahel, as I understand it, played for a community rugby team. He was known in the neighborhood as a very good kid.

I wonder what you're hearing as to why this has sparked such a reaction. It is unusual for France not to protest. That happens there quite often. We've just seen a bunch of protests over the retirement age.

But to this extent, we don't hear this happening. This is something that happens in the U.S., a police shooting that creates heartbreak and then protest.

What are people saying about him and what has sparked their need to go out to the streets?

ROBERTSON: Yes. The biggest heartbreak, of course, for his mother, who told journalists that she -- on the morning that he was killed, she went out to work. He said to her, "I love you, mom."

She went to work and, within an hour, got a phone call telling her something happened to him. Of course, everything fell apart from there.

I think what's interesting, when you try to rationalize and understand why these underlying tensions in some of the poorer communities have exploded the way that they have, is perhaps, in part, because of the age of some of the people that have been arrested.

The interior minister said, of 2,000 people detained, the average age has been just 17. Some of the people detained have been just 13 years old.

But I think what it gets to is this real underlying frustration in some of these disadvantaged, poorer communities on the outskirts of the city where there's a sense that the police don't deal fairly, that there's racial profiling on how the police deal with the communities there.

That's even been echoed by the United Nations secretary-general as well.

[13:50:03]

SIDNER: Nic Robertson, you always have such good reporting. Thank you to you and your team so much for that and being here with us today.

And this quick programing note, 2020 was the year that changed everything. Go inside those memorable 12 months on a new episode of the CNN original series, "THE 2010S".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People came out to join a movement that had been in place since at least 2012, Black Lives Matter. And in cities across the country, not just big cities, smaller towns, it was one of the biggest mobilizations that we had seen in a long time, if not ever, in support of criminal justice reform.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You had rallies that were all white in states that were almost all white, saying Black Lives Matter. This was a massive breakthrough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want us to treat black lives as our own on a daily basis.

HASAN JEFFRIES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: This was the first time that we heard protesters, particularly white protesters, talking about systemic racism as a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The new episode airs tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern on CNN.

And we will be right back.

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[13:55:39]

SIDNER: CNN has been tracking the fate of a nearly 400-acre plot of land in west Los Angeles donated to the U.S. in the 1800s to house old and injured soldiers.

As CNN's Nick Watt reports, there's a new twist in the battle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All of this land in leafy, lovely west L.A. must, said the United States Congress in 2016, be used to principally benefit veterans.

But among other things, the swimming pool and pristine playing fields of the exclusive private Brentwood School remain.

The V.A.'s own inspector general has repeatedly found the school's lease in violation of that landmark law. The V.A. and the school publicly dispute that.

And now there's a new bill before the House that would essentially legalize that lease and curtail the inspector general's authority.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's insane that they're doing this.

WATT: It begs the question, why? Well, Brentwood School has spent at least $100,000 lobbying in Washington on this issue since January of last year.

"The school has been a reliable partner to V.A. and veterans since 1972, providing numerous school-funded services that many veterans and their families have come to rely upon," Brentwood School told CNN.

"To solidify these important relationships for years to come, we engaged counsel to help navigate the complex legislative process."

This latest twist in the long tale of this land began in January with this legislation, sponsored by Democrats, to extend nationwide Covid- era funding for needy veterans, set to expire in May. Republicans balked at the cost.

REP. MIKE BOST (R-IL): We currently are working on a package to address the issue. We will work with you. But we've got to actually sit down and work together to figure out the problem of the expense.

WATT: That Covid-era funding expired in May. In June, Republicans brought their package to the floor. It's basically the Democrats' bill, plus payment scales for entities that serve vets.

And this new controversial section, essentially legalizing Brentwood School's lease and allowing in-kind contributions to count toward the rent they pay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't understand why the west L.A. leasing and the matters pertaining to the Brentwood School interests in the property are being co-joined.

REP. MARK TAKANO (D-CA): Absolutely frustrating, absolutely ridiculous, the money that could go to support veterans is being held up because some members of Congress want to submit an amendment that's just foul. It really is.

WATT: Congressman Mike Bost, chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee and a co-sponsor of this bill, couldn't find time for an interview, gave us a statement.

(on camera): This was from Representative Bost. "It was Congress' intent in 2016 to keep Brentwood on the west L.A. campus."

In 2016, Congressman Ted Lieu said his legislation was to make sure all leases principally benefit veterans and their families.

(voice-over): This was sponsored by a freshman representative, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, of Oregon. She declined an interview. Her spokesperson told CNN she sponsored the bill "because homelessness is at a crisis level in Oregon and her constituents consistently raise this problem as one of the top issues they would like her to address."

The next day, she introduced another bill that includes a half- billion-dollar V.A. construction project around her district.

Her spokesman says she sponsored that bill "because it will help the Portland V.A. Medical Center expand and make necessary improvements."

But back to her bill that would, in part, benefit Brentwood School. the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion do not support those provisions, but the V.A. supports them.

BOB REYNOLDS, VETERANS ADVOCATE: The veterans in the Los Angeles area support this proposal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for that question. There has been veterans in the areas that had voiced that they're not in favor, necessarily, with that position.

[13:59:55]

WATT: And many of them are frustrated with the low progress, turning this land, once again, into homes for the homeless.

In 2016, the V.A. produced a master plan to renovate this rotting campus. And 233 units for homeless vets are complete.