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CNN This Morning
Power Back on After Targeted Power Grid Attack; Trump Team Finds Two Documents with Classified Markings at Florida Storage Unit; First Harry and Meghan Episodes Released as Palace Braces. Aired 7- 7:30a ET
Aired December 08, 2022 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: Orchestrated reality show. Yes. It is, you know, rehearsed. It was like we did the thing with the press and went right inside, took the coat off, sat down, did the interview. It was all in that same moment.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Orchestrated reality show. That's what she's saying about what's happening. Good morning, everyone. We're so glad you're here. We're talking about obviously -- that was Meghan Markle. And we're talking about her and Prince Harry. They're talking about race, the royal family and their comparisons to Diana. What did we learn? This is in this new Netflix series. What did we learned as Buckingham Palace responding live for you in London this morning.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And also it could be the first major development, something these families have really been seeking, the case of those four murdered University of Idaho students. Investigators are now looking for a car that was spotted near the home where they were killed could help provide more information.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: We also know this morning that investigators are zeroing in on two possible motives centered around extremist behavior in that power grid attack in North Carolina.
COLLINS: And new CNN reporting on the team that was hired by Trump's attorneys and found two more documents marked as classified inside a storage unit in Florida that has raised new questions about where else documents the former president might be keeping documents.
Trump's former Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney will weigh in next.
LEMON: But, first, this, this morning, a possible new clue in the murders of four University of Idaho students. What in the world is going on there? Police in Moscow say that they are looking for a 2011 to 2013 white Hyundai Elantra and whomever was inside of it the night the students were killed. They don't have a license plate number but they say it was spotted near the home where the victims were stabbed to death. It is the first major development in the investigation since the November 13th murders.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a very active case. We're doing a lot of work. Granted, not a lot of it that can be seen in public, but behind the scenes, there's a lot of people working on the case and we're going to continue.
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LEMON: Authorities are also now removing the students' belongings from the home. They say that those items are no longer needed for the investigation.
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CHIEF JIM FRY, MOSCOW, IDAHO POLICE: We're going to be getting that -- those items back to the families. It's time for us to get those things back that really mean something to those families and hopefully to help with some of their healing.
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LEMON: The items will be moved to a secure location until families can collect them. Meanwhile, the house is still considered a crime scene.
COLLIHNS: Power has been restored to some grateful residents in Moore County, North Carolina, this morning after two attacks on the power substations over the weekend. Thousands of people spent days in the dark in what officials say they do believe was a targeted gun attack. Multiple law enforcement sources now telling CNN investigators are zeroing in on two possible motives centered around extremist behavior.
CNN's Whitney Wild is live in Moore County, North Carolina. Whitney, what can you tell us about what they believe this motive could be?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, they haven't definitely said but they're looking at two threads. And the first thread is calls on the internet among domestic violent extremists who are encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure. So, that is something that law enforcement is looking into.
And the second thread here involves reviewing a series of disruptions to LGBTQ events around the country. What we know is that, at 7:00 P.M., just as the power went out here, there was a drag show scheduled in Moore County. Law enforcement looking very closely at the correlation of the timing there, that there was this drag show that was supposed to take place at 7:00 P.M., that the power was cut shortly after that, the attack happening somewhere pretty close to that 7:00 P.M. timeframe when the power shut off. So, that's what law enforcement is looking into, although they haven't, again, been able to definitively connect those two events. Meanwhile, law enforcement here is working around the clock. The FBI has been on scene all week at this location where I am in Carthage, North Carolina, that's where one of those substations was attacked on Saturday. Law enforcement also appealing to the public, the FBI putting out a poster hoping someone will remember something, that someone will come forward, law enforcement trying to encourage that.
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Now, state officials, local officials have upped the reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever did this. That reward, Kaitlan, now $75,000.
COLLINS: Yes. We'll be watching to see what these developments are. Whitney Wild, thank you.
HARLOW: Well, this morning, President Biden is renewing his call for an assault weapons ban despite the slim chance of one passing in Congress right now. He spoke at a two-hour candlelight vigil for victims of gun violence and he called a ban on military-style weapons, quote, commonsense. He also promised that his work was far from done.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We've seen you turn pain into purpose. Together, we made some important progress, the most significant gun law passed in 30 years but still not enough, still not enough.
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HARLOW: Our M.J. Lee joins us this morning from the White House. M.J., good morning to you. I mean, in the past few weeks, we've heard him, the president, the White House talking about this more. Is there a belief that they think something could happen in the near term in this Congress in the lame-duck?
M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I think last night was a great reminder that when we hear President Biden giving a speech calling for legislative action, he's not necessarily always doing it because he thinks there's a good chance that this can happen. Look, President Biden and White House officials know very well just how difficult it would be for Congress to get through an assault weapons ban.
They couldn't do it the last two years when Democrats controlled Congress. They know that it is going to be nearly impossible when they don't control both chambers come next Congress. But the president has been clear that he is going to continue talking about this issue and calling for an assault weapons ban because the gun safety bill that he did sign into law earlier this year he simply just sees as not being enough.
LEMON: So, M.J., another thing atop the president's mind, avoiding a government shutdown, what are you hearing?
LEE: Yes. Let me just break this down for you. So, December 16th, that is the date that you want to circle on your calendar. That is when government funding runs out and one of several things that needs to happen in order for the government to not shutdown. Congress needs to pass a spending bill. That's what normal Congress, government behavior would be, or it can pass a short-term resolution, that's a stop gap measure, or a longer term C.R. for about a year, for example.
Now, what does the White House want? They want Congress to pass a spending bill. They are saying, even as of yesterday, there is plenty of time to get it done. Maybe not a lot of time but they can get this done. There is recognition that a short-term stop gap measure might be necessary just to buy Congress a little bit more time. But one thing I can tell you that the White House does not want is the one-year C.R. They are saying that would have disastrous consequences for key areas of funding.
And then the last thing I will tell you is that any talk of a government shutdown, at least in the building behind me, they are just not even contemplating that right now, that is how unacceptable it is to White House officials. And I will tell you, there's a lot of lobbying going on right now on Capitol Hill by White House officials and that's only going to ramp up as we get closer to that deadline of next Friday.
LEMON: M.J. Lee live for us at the White House as the sun is coming up, thank you very much for that.
So, let's talk about this new twist in the Trump Mar-a-Lago classified documents saga. Two documents with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit. A team hired by the former president's lawyers found them during a search. Those documents were handed over to the FBI. A source says no other documents with classified markings were found.
So, for more on this, we're joined now by the former acting White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, Mick Mulvaney. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Mulvaney. I appreciate it. As I say, we have a long way to go and a short time to get there. I got a lot to get through with you this morning. So, appreciate you joining us.
More classified documents, was it irresponsible for the former president to have classified information sitting in a Florida storage unit?
MICK MULVANEY, FORMER ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE: Yes, and no. Thank you for having me. It shouldn't be there in the first place. That's not the right place for classified documents. But it's just the most recent in a string of mishandling of documents. There's no question about that. Again, I put this aside mostly to incompetence by staff than something sort of underhanded stealing documents and selling them overseas. I don't think anybody is actually is seriously offering that right now.
On the other side of the ledgers, at least the stuff was found by the Trump team, by his lawyers, and turned over, which is the proper way to handle it. It doesn't fix things. It doesn't sort of excuse things the misdeed on the front end, but at least that part of the process seems to be working well. Again, add this to a long litany of ways that the move out of Washington D.C. at the end of the Trump administration and into Mar-a-Lago was mishandled by the Trump team.
LEMON: To follow, should he face consequences for failing to turn over documents when the National Archives asked him the first time or holding classified documents now that he is not president? I mean, he was president, he did, the documents are there, most citizens cannot claim ignorance of the law, why should he be different? Should he face consequences?
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MULVANEY: He shouldn't be treated any different. Everyone should be treated. And the penalty should be commensurate with the type of documents. Keep in mind, we heard a rumor early on that these were nuclear codes. Clearly, that's not the case. So, we just need to make sure that the penalty is commensurate with the actual offense.
That being said, so often, Don, you and I both know that it's often the cover up and not the crime that gets people in trouble. It's not the necessarily taking of documents but perhaps the certifying to the court or to the FBI that all the documents had been returned. That could be more problematic for the Trump team as you going forward.
So, again, I think this is going through the proper procedures. It's being investigated by the FBI in the right fashion and things seem to be moving in the direction they would with any other citizen.
LEMON: Let's talk about now the fallout from the midterms, shall we? Republicans just lost a crucial Senate seat in Georgia, I'm sure you're aware of that. A total of 14 candidates handpicked by Trump lost their elections. Was Trump the problem? Was he a problem for Republicans in the midterms?
MULVANEY: He was a problem in a couple different places. I think more than anything in picking those candidates, Trump picked and selected and was a proxy for some really, really bad candidates, people who had not run for office before. It's not easy to run for Senate. It's not easy to run for governor. It's not easy to run for Congress.
That being said, he also wasn't helpful in the general elections. He was able to get Herschel Walker, for example, across the line relatively easily in a primary in Georgia because Donald Trump still has tremendous sway amongst Republican primary voters. But he wasn't able to get Herschel Walker across the line with the general electorate in Georgia, which sends the message that Donald Trump is still weak with swing voters in swing states.
He lost Georgia in 2020. The Republicans lost two Senate races there in 2020, and now they've lost yet another Senate race there in 2022 at the same time that statewide Republicans who are not being supported by Donald Trump or at least recruited by Donald Trump are doing extraordinarily well. So, it does expose a weakness that Donald Trump has in swing states that he's going to need to address if needs to be taken seriously in 2024. LEMON: Well, the GOP is going to have to address it, because you make a distinction, you said, between primary voters and general election voters and swing voters. That's a problem then for the GOP if you have a candidate who is not viable. So, my question is, is he the right person to be at the top of the ticket going forward for the GOP nationwide? MULVANEY: I think there's a growing group of Republicans, myself
included -- listen, there's always been a group of Republicans who can't stand Donald Trump. And so the fact they don't like him now or they don't think he's the best candidate in 2024 really doesn't change anything, it doesn't move the needle.
But there's a growing group of Republicans that supported Donald Trump in '16, supported him in 2020, like myself, worked with him in the administration, who think that he's actually our weakest candidate in 2024. He's the one most likely to lose, because if he runs in 2024 as the Republican nominee, that election becomes a referendum on Donald Trump. Either vote for Donald Trump or against Donald Trump.
He lost that election under that sort of structure in 2020 and has shown no ability to sort of change that dynamic going into 2024. I believe that if he is the Republican nominee, he stands just as much losing two years from now as he did two years ago.
LEMON: Do you think he will be?
MULVANEY: I think the smart money is that he will be the Republican nominee, just because while he can be beaten in a one-on-one race, he's going to pull about 35, 40 percent of the Republican primary voter regardless of what happens. If he runs against one person, he loses with 35 percent. If he runs against five, he wins with 35 percent. And as you know, most of the states, Republican states, are winner-take-all or some variation on that. You can win the nomination without winning a majority of the Republican primary vote. So, I think the smart money is that he is the nominee.
LEMON: Do you think he should be the nominee?
MULVANEY: Well, no, because, as I mentioned before, I think he's the weakest candidate that we have. We have got a really strong bench of Republicans who I think could win in '24. I think Donald Trump could easily lose.
LEMON: If he is, will you support him?
MULVANEY: No. I'm going to support other folks in the primary. There's no question about that. I think the time of there are a lot of Republicans who are just tired of explaining to people why they supported Donald Trump. We were okay with it when the policies were really good. We're getting tired of supporting why he is having dinner with a white supremacist, why were we supporting him while his companies are being convicted of crimes and so forth. The baggage is getting heavier and heavier for more voters who are looking for other options.
LEMON: You're answering like three questions that I have ahead for you. So, I'm glad that you mentioned all of that.
So, given -- having said that, he called to terminate the Constitution. You believe, I assume, that that should disqualify him? I don't want to put words in your mouth.
MULVANEY: Again, disqualify is a strong word and it was a long tweet. But that was stupid. It just was. That's the kind of thing that an undisciplined candidate says and it's just adds to that long litany of reason that many people, myself included, are looking for better options in the Republican Party in 2024. We're tired of defending that kind of activity.
LEMON: Okay. So, you're reading ahead in the text book here. So, let's talk more about it. The former president spent the last few weeks associating with people on the fringes, including posing for photos with a prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist who believes that Trump is dismantling the deep state to end the cabal of sex traffickers, plus his dinner with Hitler-sympathizer Kanye West and holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
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Is this who a Republican leader should be hanging out with, the leader of the Republican Party right now?
MULVANEY: No. And there're all sorts of ways to explain it away, if you want it to, or if it was a one-off kind of occasion. My guess is he didn't know who Nick Fuentes was, the white supremacist. And I understand the fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago was a fundraiser to raise money to combat human trafficking. That's a defensible thing. So, there's another side to the story if this was a one-off type of thing. It could also be explained on bad staff work, if it was a one-off type of thing. But it seems to happen with President Trump more and more.
He needs to take the position more seriously. He's a candidate for president right now. He shouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes. And as I mentioned, all it does is divide his base. It doesn't add anybody to his voting base. There's nobody in the country who said, you know what, I wasn't supporting Donald Trump, but since he had dinner with a white supremacist, I think I'm on his team now. That's not how this works. He is slowly eroding his base and folks are looking for other options within the Republican Party.
LEMON: Well, you said it's bad for his base but it's also bad for the Republican Party. Because then the Republican Party has --
MULVANEY: It's bad for everybody. It's bad for the country to have any famous politician to say, I think we should throw out the Constitution.
LEMON: Of course, but it puts the Republican Party -- with all due respect, it puts the Republican Party in a bad position because you may have, as you well admit, someone who is running for president on the Republican side who has done all of these things and who is sympathizing with anti-Semites and such. It does put the Republican Party in a very tenuous and odd position. MULVANEY: It sure does.
LEMON: So, what then do you do? What does the party do?
MULVANEY: Well, you can't kick him out, obviously. And it weighed on the party in the midterms, right? You can talk to members of Congress in Florida, for example, who said, how wonderful it was to have Ron DeSantis at the top of the ticket and how he actually brought votes for Republicans in other office. Then you talk to Republicans nationwide who say what a drag it was to have Donald Trump at the top of their ticket and now their voting base eroded because of that.
So, no, he has become a weight on the party nationwide. Again, come back to the same theme here, Republicans are looking for other people and they're looking for other people for the right reasons.
LEMON: All right. Mick Mulvaney, thank you for your time this morning, I appreciate it, in London, as a matter of fact. Wow. Thank you, sir.
MULVANEY: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Poppy?
HARLOW: All right. This morning, more than 1,000 members of The New York Times Union are strike. The guild saying this in part, this is their letter, quote, we are ready to work for as long as it took, but -- to reach a fair deal but management walked away from the table. We know what we're worth, this after more than a year-and-a-half of stalled contract negotiations with their management.
Let's bring in CNN Media Analyst and Axios Reporter Sara Fischer. I was just reading, Sara, through their demands here, and they're asking for what they deem to be fair wages, ensure health care fund, no company cuts to their retirement benefits, remote work policy, this is probably one of the big stickers, and a performance rating system with safeguards against bias that they have uncovered. There's a lot here unresolved. Where does this go?
SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I think, ultimately, they are going to reach a point where there is a contract, but I think it's going to take a few more months. It's been already over a year-and-a- half, as you mentioned. And I think both sides are still not quite ready yet to back down.
But I think they've been making some progress on the wage increases. One of the big sticking points was that they didn't want their salary increases to be pegged to the lowest band. They want it to be pegged to their own performance. The union won on that. They won on pension. So, they've slowly started to make a little bit of progress. But I think in order to get a contract signed before the two-year mark, there's still a few more things they're going to have to work out, like some of those remote work policies.
HARLOW: Can you talk about who -- I think we think of The New York Times and you just largely think of reporters whose names you see in bylines. It's a lot more than that too.
FISCHER: Yes, it is. So, in full disclosure, I worked at The New York Times. I was in the advertising department. So, I was in that union. It's people who are on the business side, a lot of people who aren't yet in management, people who are in sales, marketing, et cetera. And then it's also people who are in the newsroom, people who are reporters and also aren't managers.
Within this particular union, there're 1,400 people, which is pretty huge, Poppy. Now, of those 1,400, about 80 percent work in the newsroom. So, the vast majority are journalists. But not all of them are waling. About 1,150 said that they're going to be participating in the walkout today. That means about 300 are not going to be participating.
COLLINS: In essence, it will be basically the world seeing what it's like without that journalism that comes from all of those employees for 24 hours.
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FISCHER: It is. And their head editor said, look, we're going to put out our paper today. Subscribers aren't going to knock at journalism, but it's going to be a lot harder to do.
HARLOW: Sara Fischer, thanks very much.
COLLINS: Ahead, a look at Prince Harry and Meghan, this documentary that's been released overnight. We'll tell you what are reporters who are live in London outside Buckingham Palace are seeing not just in the documentary but also the reaction coming from the royal family.
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PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: In this family sometimes, you know, you're part of the problem rather than part of the solution. And there is a huge level of unconscious bias. The thing with unconscious bias is it's actually no one's fault. But once it's been pointed out or identified within yourself, you then need to make it right.
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HARLOW: Prince Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex, opening up about being part of the royal family.
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This is part of their Netflix documentary series that just dropped overnight. It is worth noting, Netflix reportedly paid in the tens of millions of dollars for this.
Bianca Nobilo is standing by live outside of Buckingham Palace. Let's first, though, go to our CNN Anchor and Royal Correspondent Max Foster in London. Max, what do you think? I mean, you've seen so far, we've got about half of the episodes. Everyone wanted to know would there be just shocking revelations. Are there?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a really interesting insight into their thoughts and their process. We've only had the first three of six. So, we've yet to see the probably more controversial part, which is the run-up to them leaving their royal roles.
It has unruffled some feathers here, I have to say. Because right at the beginning of the series, it says the royal family declined to comment in this series. My sources are telling me that no one in the royal family was approached for comment nor in the palaces. So, that's one bit of response we've had, but I'm not expecting any mayor comment from Buckingham Palace officially today or indeed next week.
But here are some the highlights from what we've seen so far.
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FOSTER (voice over): It's been billed as the firsthand account of the relationship between Harry and Meghan, their families and the media and in their own words. The first three episodes of the Netflix docuseries on the couple dropped in the early hours of this morning and it returned to some familiar themes.
PRINCE HARRY: And that sort of press pack of royal correspondents is essentially just an extended P.R. arm of the royal family.
FOSTER: Harry comparing Meghan's experience to that of his mother, Diana's. He feared she would be driven away by the media harassment.
PRINCE HARRY: As far as a lot of the family was concerned, everything that she was being put through, they have been through as well. So, it was almost like a rite of passage. And some of the members of the family were like, right, but my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should you be protected? And I said the difference here is the race elements.
FOSTER: Ultimately, Harry says, he had to leave the U.K. to protect his family.
PRINCE HARRY: I accept that there will be people around the world who fundamentally disagree with what I've done and how I've done it, but I knew that I had to do everything I could to protect my family, especially after what happened to my mom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's your Grandma Diana.
PRINCE HARRY: And I didn't want history to repeat itself.
FOSTER: We heard from Meghan's mother for the first time.
DORIA RAGLAND, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX'S MOTHER: And I remember when I first met him, too. He was just like 6'1, handsome man with red hair, really great manners.
FOSTER: Harry says when he introduced Meghan to his family, they didn't think the relationship would last.
MEGHAN: The actress thing was the biggest problem, funny enough. There's a big idea of what that looks like from the U.K. standpoint. Hollywood and there's this easy for them to typecast that.
FOSTER: The couple says they felt unprotected by the palace against a barrage of media attacks. The palace is yet to comment.
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FOSTER (on camera): They are quite a divisive couple if you're a Meghan fan or a Harry fan. I think there's a huge amount in here that you'll find really fascinating, really useful insights. If you're not, perhaps you're not even watching it.
HARLOW: Max Foster, thank you very much. That's the most I've seen of it because it dropped when we were coming into work.
LEMON: We have to get some sleep sometime.
HARLOW: Yes, we also had to like read the news, too.
Joining us -- Don, read it.
LEMON: That's all right. It doesn't matter.
COLLINS: You guy need me to step in here?
LEMON: Kaitlan. CNN's Bianca Nobilo joins us from Buckingham Palace and here in New York is --
HARLOW: Trish Goddard, CNN Contributor and Host of The Week with Trish Goddard, and Erin Vanderhoof, Senior Writer for Vanity Fair. Good morning, guys.
LEMON: Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us.
So, can we go to Buckingham Palace, because Bianca is at Buckingham Palace? Bianca, thank you so much.
I just want to pick up on something quickly that Max said, that there's a discrepancy about the palace being asked to comment and then saying, well, we're not going to comment. Can you clarify for us?
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm afraid I can't, because nobody has better royal sources than Max Foster. He's actually in the documentary as well himself, saying something in praise of Meghan in the middle of episode 2. But it does highlight how this can begin to be divisive as it gets dissected and we get a response from the palace officially, if we do.
But as Max alluded to, you do get the sense as you're watching it that it's building up to a crescendo. Because what the first three episodes do is lay out their love story, which is quite touching in part, and the early stages of the engagement and Meghan's initial reception here in the United Kingdom.
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