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Brittney Griner Lands in U.S. After Release from Russian Prison; Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) Leaving Democratic Party, Will Become Independent; DOJ Seeks to Hold Trump in Contempt Over Classified Documents. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 09, 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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KEN NIUMATALOLO, NAVY HEAD COACH: Give everything they have.

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But when they graduate, they've be one-on-one team and they'll be protecting our freedoms as a country.

MARQUEL BROUGHTON, ARMY DEFENSIVE BACK: It's amazing that this one game can represent so many people. And it's a great feeling and I'm just honored and I'm just honored to be able to be part of it.

KIP FRANKLAND, NAVY OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: It's awesome. You get presidents. You get all these celebrities that come. I mean, America is truly watching this game and I'm so excited that I get to be part of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Each team will be wearing special uniforms for the showdown. Army will honor soldiers of the 1st Armor Division during World War II, Navy wearing space-themed uniforms honoring the 54 mid shipmen who became astronauts.

CNN This Morning starts right now.

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SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-AZ): Removing myself from the partisan structure not only is it true to who I am and how I operate, I also think it will provide a place of belonging for many folks across the state and the country who also are tired of the partisanship.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: That's Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema declaring that she has left the Democratic Party.

Good morning, everyone. We are live in Washington D.C. this morning. Don is off. Senator Sinema says that she's registered now as an independent. We'll tell you what her political shift mean for the newly minted Democratic majority in the Senate.

HARLOW: Also breaking news this morning, and good news to share with you, Brittney Griner has landed on American soil after ten months of Russian detention. In a moment, we will be joined by the commissioner of the WNBA to get her reaction.

COLLINS: Also this morning, major questions about potential new legal jeopardy for former President Trump. A federal judge is going to consider the Justice Department's request this afternoon to hold the former president in contempt of court for failing to comply, they say, with a subpoena for all classified documents.

HARLOW: And Hawaii's erupting Mauna Loa volcano is drawing crowds and warnings not to get too close, but some people just cannot help themselves. They are addicted to the flow.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lava junkie, the kind of the term we call out here, we all call ourselves lava junkie. It's kind of fixed, we going out. It's what gives us our excitement. It's what gives us our adrenaline for the day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: But, first, this morning, Brittney Griner is home. She's back on U.S. soil a day after she was released from Russian detention in a one for one prisoner swap that involved arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner landed in Texas early this morning.

Let's get to our colleague, CNN's Rosa Flores, in San Antonio. What a day, what a moment to be there.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Poppy. Good morning. There was no big public spectacle, there was no big fanfare to welcome Brittney Griner here to the United States. What we could see from the ground was her plane land here at Kelly Field in San Antonio, then WNBA star walked off the plane and she walked into a hangar. Those were her first steps as a free American on U.S. soil.

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FLORES (voice over): Brittney Griner is finally home. The WNBA star landed in San Antonio early this morning after nearly ten months detained in Russia.

CHERELLE GRINER, WIFE OF BRITTNEY GRINER: The most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude.

FLORES: Griner is returning home to her family, teammates and a legion of supportive fans.

CHINEY OGWUMIKE, VICE PRESIDENT, WOMEN'S NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION: We love you and we are here for you. We know that the journey that she has just experienced was a very difficult one but we're here to walk with her step by step. FLORES: The Biden administration secured Griner's release in a high- stakes prisoner swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout after months of negotiations.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm proud that today we have made one more family whole again. So, welcome home, Brittney.

FLORES: Griner is seen here leaving Russian detention boarding a plane, given her passport and realizing she is heading home.

REPORTER: Are you ready for flight?

BRITTNEY GRINER, WNBA STAR: Yes.

FLORES: The swap took place in Abu Dhabi, where the two were seen passing each other on the tarmac.

The WNBA star was detained in Russia in February after cannabis oil was found in her suitcase at an airport in the Moscow region. She was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony after losing her appeal.

Paul Whelan, another American detained in Russia, was notably left out of the exchange. The Biden administration has come under fire for not securing his release.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: This was not a choice of which American bring home. The choice was one or none.

FLORES: A senior official tells CNN the Biden administration has ideas for new forms of offers they're going to try to Russia in an effort to bring Paul Whelan home. President Biden spoke to Whelan's sister on Thursday.

ELIZABETH WHELAN, PAUL WHELAN'S SISTER: There are a lot of people moaning and groaning about Viktor Bout going back to Russia. But I have got to say, it's an amazing thing to be able to get Brittney back.

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So, I would urge everyone to keep their partisan sniping out of it.

FLORES: CNN spoke by phone with Whelan.

PAUL WHELAN, AMERICAN DETAINED IN RUSSIA: I would say that if a message could go to Biden, that this is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly.

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FLORES (on camera): And back to Brittney Griner, U.S. officials not saying exactly what will happen once she is on the ground now that she is here on U.S. soil, but they do say that she will be transferred to a medical facility for an evaluation. And, Kaitlan, I should mention that just moments ago, our colleague, M.J. lee, learning from officials who spoke to Brittney Griner, saying that she is in good spirits and incredibly gracious. Kaitlan?

HARLOW: That is great to hear. Rosa, thank you for being there.

Well, the WNBA, the NBA, their players never gave up. They kept Brittney Griner in the public eye during ten months of detention in Russia. They highlighted her initials on their courts, they wore her number at the all-star game and continuously to push on her case. Griner's team, the Phoenix Mercury, tweeted each day, every day, counting how many days she was detained. But yesterday, this is what they tweeted, no more days. She is coming home.

Joining us now for her first television interview since the news is WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Commissioner, thank you. What news. I'm so happy that we can show this with us viewers. And I just wonder what your thoughts are this morning.

CATHY ENGELBERT, WNBA COMMISSIONER: Yes, what a day yesterday. Obviously, we knew for a couple days that negotiations were intensifying, but this has been a ten-month process and the brave men and women of the State Department and the administration, that's why that you heard so much gratitude, it's just an amazing outcome for Brittney and her families. I can't imagine as a mom myself, her parents, her mom and dad right now, and her wife, Cherelle, and just what's going on down in Texas in a reunited situation. I can -- just so much joy and Brittney really deserved to be home, she was wrongfully detained and we're happy that she's reuniting with her family today.

HARLOW: Now that she's home, can you take us behind the scenes of the past few days, these indications you were getting? Because you have said that you had been working, the WNBA, with the State Department, and the Biden administration, to help free her, and there was really nothing you say while you were working on that. But now that she's home, what can you share?

ENGELBERT: Well, again, since February, since her detention, and then in April, when the State Department deemed her wrongfully detained, we've been working with the presidential special envoy for hostage affairs knowing, Poppy, how geopolitically complex the moment was and the situation and how hard these men and women of the State Department are working. You know, they would say we're all Brittney all the time and obviously working on all wrongfully detained Americans around the globe.

So, really just the courage that they showed, the resilience that Brittney showed, I mean, this was not an easy ten months and just we're anxious to get to talk to her. We're anxious to talk to her, the WNBA players kept her front and center and they're the rock stars as well.

HARLOW: She wrote you letters from there. And I know she wrote you even just a few months ago. I wonder what you can share and also what you're going to say to her when you get to talk to her. ENGELBERT: I will say her letter handwritten before she got moved further outside of Moscow was inspiring. She was hanging in there. She ended the letter with just thankfulness, gratefulness to me personally and to the WNBA for the support. And, again, there were various strategies over the course of the ten months about how to best put Brittney in the limelight, how to stay behind the scenes, how to work with the state department. We knew legal and diplomatically we didn't have a lot of options, so, really, the prisoner to prisoner exchange was the only option. That became very clear early on.

So, you know, we were writing her about every six weeks. Remember, she was not there for the entire season. So, she was very missed by the players during the season. They had kind of a heavy burden to play without her, especially in Phoenix, at the Phoenix Mercury. And I can't wait to talk to her and just tell her how much we were thinking of her the whole time, because it was very hard. We couldn't call her, she couldn't call us. Just how much we thought about her and how much, you know, we'll give time and space and whatever she needs, but I know the players are very anxious to fly anywhere to see her right now, and as am I.

HARLOW: Cathy, I want to take this moment to highlight an issue you and I have talked about for many years now since you became commissioner, and that is disparity in pay for WNBA players and real lack of equality. The reason Brittney Griner went and why -- New York Times reports about half of the WNBA players go abroad to play in the off season is because of financial reasons, it's because of pay disparity. Could you speak to that in this moment she wouldn't have been in Russia were it not for them -- were not for that?

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ENGELBERT: Right. So, one of the things we're chipping away at, we're trying to transform the business economics of this league and of women's sports. Women's sports are very much underinvested in, less than 1 percent of all corporate sponsorship dollars goes towards women's sports in the sports world and less than 5 percent of all media coverage of sports goes towards women's sport.

So, we're trying to move the needle on those numbers and we're chipping away at that. We have our WNBA change makers, our big corporate partners now that are helping us drive higher pay. We have tripled the pay at the top player. A players can now make up to 700,000 for about the 4.5-month season that we run. So, we're chipping away at the benefits are getting better, but we're literally transforming this organization and we hope we put up a half million dollar prize pool for our in-season competition, the Commissioner's Cup. So, I understand the frustration.

And I also think as a former college athlete, WNBA wasn't around when I came out. But I also think players want to play. This is their craft. They are professional working women, and they want to play. And a lot of them want to play year round and some of them don't get a lot of playing time in the WNBA. So, we're never going to say they can't play in other leagues in our offseason but we're focused on driving higher pay, for sure, driving opportunities to pay the players and to get them better benefits. But we need the sports ecosystem to step up here and help value the league.

HARLOW: I was just going to say, this is a moment for those big corporations, big media companies you're talking about to step up to that.

Quickly before you go, does this experience mean that you will advise WNBA players against playing abroad, at least obviously they can't go to Russia right now but in other countries with similar real geopolitical concerns, China and others?

ENGELBERT: Yes. What we do is -- players are going to make the best decisions for themselves, especially our younger players who need to improve their game, and they're going to play year round, they're going to train year round. But we're providing more opportunities here at home, whether it's internships, player marketing agreements, we'll have ten players under marketing agreements in this offseason, so they don't go overseas, they get paid by us, spend about $1.5 million on that this offseason.

So, again, as I said, Poppy, we're chipping away at it. Rome wasn't built in a day but we're not going to prevent them from doing it. They know their bodies. The average tenure of a professional athlete in our league is five years. So they want to get as much play and they want to get as great as possible to put the greatest product on the court. So, we're never going to say no.

We advise them of a security risk in different countries. We just had one in Turkey. We have players right now in Turkey. There was that explosion in Istanbul. So, we're always advising players of kind of the geopolitical risk and mostly the security risk of playing where they play. But, again, we're not going to prevent them from doing that but we do want to provide a better, holistic player experience here at home during the WNBA season.

HARLOW: Cathy, thank you for your time this morning. We are elated, to say the least, for the WNBA. And thanks for fighting for equality on all those fronts.

ENGELBERT: Yes. Thank you, Poppy. Thanks so much. A great day for Brittney landing in Texas. Thank you.

HARLOW: Kaitlan?

COLLINS: We have big, breaking news this morning when it comes to here in Washington. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is no longer a Democrat. She has now registered as an independent. That's an announcement that could potentially bring down the mood of Democrats just celebrating their brand new 51-seat majority. So, the questions are, what does this mean? We'll talk about the big political implications of what it looks like on Capitol Hill in just a moment.

But, first, we want to show you more of what she told CNN's Jake Tapper about this move.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're here to make a significant announcement.

SINEMAN: I've registered as an Arizona independent. I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but, actually, I think it makes a lot of sense. A growing number of Arizonans and people like me just don't feel like we fit neatly into one party's box or the other. And so, like many, across the state and the nation, I've decided to leave that partisan process and really just focus on the work that I think matters to Arizona and to our country, which is solving problems and getting things done.

TAPPER: So, your voting record is pretty capital D Democratic. I mean, your views are generally that of a moderate, centrist Democrat. How does leaving the party change how you do your job?

SINEMA: Well, I don't think anything will change about how I do my job. Arizonans sent me to the United States Senate to be an independent voice for our state and I'll continue doing that.

What I think is important about this decision and this move is that I'll be able to show up to work every day as an independent and not be, you know, stuck into one party's demands of following without thinking.

[07:15:00]

And as we've seen in recent years, both parties have created this kind of requirement or a pull towards the edges that you just unthinkingly support all of one party's viewpoints. It's made it difficult to find folks who are willing to work together and solve problems.

TAPPER: Ever since Raphael Warnock, Senator Warnock, was re-elected earlier this week, the balance of power right now is 51 Democrats or 51 votes for the Democratic Party, that includes two independents, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but that's 51-49. What you're doing today doesn't change that? It's still basically going to be 51-49?

SINEMA: Well, I know you have to ask that question, Jake, but that's kind of a D.C. thing to worry about. What I am really focused on is just making sure that I'm doing what I think comports of my values and the values of Arizonans. So, when I come to work each day, it'll be the same. I'm going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I've been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues of both political parties. And I'm not really spending much time about what the mechanics look like for Washington D.C. And to be honest, Jake, I don't think anyone in Arizona is caring about that either.

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COLLINS: We'll find out.

So, joining us now to talk about that amazing interview that Jake had with Senator Sinema is CNN's Capitol Hill Reporter Melanie Zanona and CNN Political Commentator Van Jones. Thank you both for being here this morning. What she said there, Melanie, was so interesting about the aspect she said. Jake basically said, does this change the makeup of the Senate, the new Senate that just got after the Georgia win on Tuesday night. She said that's kind of a D.C. thing to worry about. But it's a real big question.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: It's a big deal. That's a valid question. It's a question a lot of us are wondering. Look, it's a little unclear at this point. I would point out there are two independents who already caucused with Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Angus King.

She didn't say whether she was going to caucus with Democrats but she did say she was going to keep her committee assignments, she's going to vote the same way, she's not going to caucus with Republicans. So, if that promise holds, Democrats are still going to have controls over the committees, right? And that was one of the big deals about when they finally got the 51 Senate versus the split Senate, they have control over committees. So, theoretically, that won't change.

But when it comes to the floor, Democrats aren't going to have necessarily the neat and tidy 51-49 Senate that they perhaps anticipated. This potentially gives Joe Manchin outsized influence once again. And so the question here is whether, A, Sinema is going to feel even more emboldened to vote freely and, B, does Joe Manchin follow suit?

HARLOW: I was just -- what do you think?

ZANONA: Well, he is also up in cycle in '24. He has said repeatedly that he's not going to become a Republican. But it could put some pressure on him to do the same. However, I think because this takes some of the pressure off of Sinema to do this, she has a little breathing room now, it might make it harder for Joe Manchin to do that.

COLLINS: Van Jones, I wonder what you make of this.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it could be a difference without -- a decision without a difference. There are three questions you have got to ask. Who is she going to caucus with? Who is she going to support in leadership? And who is she going to vote with? If those three things don't change, then the structure of the Senate doesn't change that much. So, we've got to figure out what that's going to be.

But here's the thing. The other independents, you have an understanding about who they are and what they're about. She's less of an independent, more of an enigma. The challenge I think that Democrats have with her was that, in the middle of the biggest negotiations for the most important parts of Biden's agenda, you just didn't know what she actually wanted. You knew what she didn't want and she would sort of do this thing. She was a confounding political presence.

And I don't think that that actually is what people in Arizona are looking for, or anybody is looking for. The reason that you have someone like Bernie Sanders as an independent, he has a consistent world view that doesn't quite fit and can tell you what that is. With Kyrsten, you just never knew, what do you want. You say you're representing Arizonans. Well, which ones and what do they want? And it was just confounding.

So, in some ways, it's more truth than advertising when she says she's not a Democrat. But I think that she evolved. It would just be helpful for us to know what do you actually stand for and what do you stand against besides the sort of being a contrarian that basically gums up the Democratic Party's processes?

HARLOW: Van, I want to get your reaction, and, Melanie, jump in too. Let's just play what Senator Tom Cotton just said about this. Here he was.

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SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Well, it's a reflection on the Democratic Party and just how extreme and left wing it's become in recent years. They've essentially drummed Kyrsten Sinema out of their party.

Look, we don't agree on many issues but I told her over the last few years that if she wanted to dip a toe in the Republican Party's pool, we'd be happy to have her jump in with us as well.

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HARLOW: A lot of Republican love for Kyrsten Sinema this morning.

[07:20:00]

I mean, Van, you're shaking your head but it was just a few months ago that Mitch McConnell called her the most effective first term senator I've seen my entire time in the Senate.

JONES: Look, when you're getting praised by Tom Cotton, who is horrible on LGBTQ rights, horrible on basic justice issues, horrible on every issue, I don't think that's great for people in Arizona to hear her being praised in that way.

Look, I think that, fundamentally, what you got see now in Ruben Gallego's is going to almost certainly now challenge her for that Senate seat. There's been a lot of pressure on him, a younger progressive Latino in her state. I think he probably steps up. You have got to watch what he does.

I agree, this puts Manchin in a very interesting position. What everyone is worried about is that 2024 calendar where you have a lot of vulnerable Democrats. And in some ways, this can seem like it's above partisanship, et cetera, et cetera, it also could be her reading some tea leaves in her home state.

Again, I agree with her. These parties are difficult to navigate. But I would have more confidence that she means what she says if she were consistent in what her actual values were, what her priorities are. She's not an independent. She's an enigma. And that is very, very different. And so I think Ruben Gallego going forward. Watch Joe Manchin going forward. But if she caucuses with Democrats, supports Democratic leadership, and choose to mainly vote with Democrats, it doesn't change Joe Biden's hand as much as you might think.

COLLINS: Yes. And that's what we're hearing from the White House, is they're saying, look at all the times that she has voted with us.

Melanie, what Van says there about Ruben is so important, because he had said he would primary her. But now, basically, I guess the question is could she have won if she does run for re-election as a Democrat in that primary?

ZANONA: Yes. I think that was part of her calculation, right? This would have been an ugly primary. She's facing a ton of pressure from the progressive wing. I think Ruben Gallego would have challenged her. So, now, this immediately eliminates that threat. Whether she can make it as an independent in Arizona, we're kind of in uncharted territory here, but there are more registered independents in Arizona than there were before, there a lot of split ticket voters in the last election. And for some, this makes sense practically. She's always had an independent streak.

I think she likes being called an enigma, to Van's branding there. She probably relishes in that. She likes the praise from Mitch McConnell. And a lot of people don't remember but she actually got her political start running as a member of the green party. So, it makes sense politically for her and I think it makes sense practically as well.

HARLOW: Thank you both, Melanie Zanona, Van Jones. Have a good weekend. We appreciate it.

COLLINS: And a little later, we're going to talk to Jake Tapper about this interview and what his takeaways were when it comes to her decision to step away from the Democratic Party and what it means for her party on Capitol Hill.

HARLOW: We also have new polling, CNN polling this morning, on how all of you are feeling about President Biden and the economy following the midterms.

COLLINS: Also this morning, what we are learning about the Justice Department's attempt to actually hold former President Trump in contempt of court. We could see movement on that as soon as today.

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HARLOW: Welcome back to CNN This Morning. Coming up for us, CNN is live in Hawaii, speaking to people who are choosing to get close to the lava. Wait until you hear what they call themselves, by the way.

Another key measure of inflation, we will get that coming up, key indicator of the U.S. economy.

And Brittney Griner is home, she is finally free and back on U.S. soil this morning. Ahead, we'll speak to the White House's John Kirby about all of this.

COLLINS: But this morning we start, a new CNN poll shows President Biden's job approval rating actually now stands at 46 percent. That is after it drifted as low as 38 percent back in June and July of this year. The vast majority of Americans do not like the direction that the country is moving in right now. According to this new poll, only 35 percent say that things are going well in the United States today.

With surging inflation expected to continue into next year and the concerns about a recession still present, still mounting, today, 53 percent of Americans say that the economy is still in a downturn and only 17 percent say they believe it is starting to recover.

When it comes to their biggest concerns, 63 percent of Americans say they're very concerned about the cost of living, followed by 42 percent who say they're worried about the rising interest rates, another 15 percent who say right now they fear losing their job.

HARLOW: All right. This morning, pressure on Donald Trump is intensifying. The Justice Department asks a federal judge to hold the former president in contempt. That is remarkable. And it is all over his failure to comply with a subpoena to turn over classified documents. A team hired by Trump's lawyers recently found, you'll remember Kaitlan's reporting, two more classified documents at this Florida storage facility after the earlier Mar-a-Lago search.

So, let's go straight to CNN's Katelyn Polantz outside the federal court in Washington for more. Am I right that it's sort of remarkable for this ask to be made? And then the obvious question is like is the judge going to do this?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Poppy, exactly. This is a pretty intense escalation of where things stand in this really long-running fight over whether or not Donald Trump has given back all of the federal records in his possession. The Justice Department has really wanted to make sure that any national security secrets that he may be keeping anywhere in any of the places that he lives or works, that all of that is back in their hands.

And as of right now, almost two years after the end of the Trump presidency, the Justice Department is still not satisfied. They believe that there is the possibility that Donald Trump could potentially still have classified records or records with classified markings on them that they need to get back.

And so today, we do believe, this is Kaitlan's reporting and mine as well, that in this courthouse, there is going to be a federal judge holding a hearing.

[07:30:02]

This hearing is going to be under seal. We don't believe we're going to be able to see anything or hear anything. We may see the lawyers walk in.