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GOP Congressman-Elect Faces Scrutiny Over Resume Discrepancies; House Committee To Release Trump's Tax Returns Within Days; Drag Story Hour Protesters Arrested After Targeting New York Councilman. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 21, 2022 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON, (R) ARKANSAS: What America needs to understand is there's going to be options on the Republican side. We'll be making a decision the first quarter of next year, so stay tuned.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You're saying there's a chance.

Thank you, Gov. Asa Hutchinson. We appreciate it.

HUTCHINSON: Thank you. Good to be with you.

LEMON: Yes.

So after a lengthy, legal -- well, he's saying there's a chance, maybe.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In the first quarter. Set your calendar.

LEMON: I think he's leaning toward -- leaning toward it, yes.

There you see the former president up there. So, how much resistance is Trump getting to these release of his tax returns? Some may be public. He's not happy about it, obviously. We're going to speak to a member of the House committee that is releasing those records.

COLLINS: Plus, an incoming New York congressman now under serious scrutiny as he's been accused of stretching the truth quite a bit on his resume. But, could he face legal trouble?

LEMON: That is an interesting question right there.

COLLINS: I don't --

LEMON: I don't know. I think he's going to do it.

(COMMERCIAL)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN BRADY (R-TX): Opposition Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee have unleashed a dangerous new political weapon that overturns decades of privacy protections for average taxpayers. REP. RICHARD NEAL, (D-MA: I want to say this. After a long process -- that this was not about being punitive. It was not about being malicious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:35:07]

COLLINS: All right, welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING.

Coming up in the show, a member of the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee, which is talking about those decisions on Trump's taxes, will join us live after that decision.

Plus, after more than a month of no suspect, no motive, and no answers in the murder of four Idaho college students, could the investigation move in a new direction?

And protesters who attempted to disrupt a drag queen story hour are taking their anger to a New York council member's door. We'll show you those images.

LEMON: And so, this morning, a top Republican in Nassau County, New York is calling for incoming Republican congressman George Santos to address the discrepancies in his resume. An investigative report by The New York Times and CNN's review of Santos' biography found that key parts were either contradicted or not supported by the evidence.

Democrats in the state are now calling for him to resign. In a statement to CNN, the Nassau County Republican Committee chairman said that the issues raised by the reports are serious but Santos, quote, "...deserves an opportunity to address the claims."

Santos' biography says that he received degrees from NYU and Baruch College, and worked at a -- at Citigroup and at Goldman Sachs. Well, spokespeople for both schools told CNN that there were no records of anyone with his name attending the institutions. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs also told CNN that they had no record of his employment.

So joining us now to discuss, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson. And CNN's anchor and correspondent, Audie Cornish.

This is a 'you know what' show wrapped in a conundrum, wrapped in a -- everything.

OK, Joey -- good morning to both of you.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

LEMON: You're the legal expert here. So we have been saying that this is discrepancies in his resume, but there's also the law.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Yes.

LEMON: And there is this Ethics in Government Act. Failure to file or filing false disclosure statements -- there are consequences for it.

Are we at that point yet?

JACKSON: So, we'll see, all right? So there's a couple of issues.

Obviously, there's the political issue and I think certainly, there's political trouble here with respect to lying to voters and obtaining your position under false pretenses. But then we get into the legal realm. And when we get into the legal realm we're about facts and we're about context, and we're about specifically what you did.

And so, I think that there's two points to be made here.

Number one, in terms of the law. People lie every day, unfortunately. What is the nature of that? Did you lie on a federal form? Did you otherwise indicate when you were signing a form that you were swearing under penalty of perjury? All of that has to be investigated.

The next step, you talk about a congressional inquiry -- an ethics inquiry. They will look, they will examine, and they will make a determination as to the specific lies that he told and what references he made on forms.

If that happens, Don, the answer is there is trouble here big time. If that didn't happen, then he has to explain to voters why he made up these things concerning his education, concerning his employment, concerning his philanthropy, concerning his employees who died at the Pulse nightclub. It's -- it could be a much bigger story moving forward.

LEMON: Just real quickly, but don't candidates have to sign these forms and say that --

JACKSON: They certainly do. That has to be produced, though.

LEMON: OK.

JACKSON: Did he sign the form? Show me the form. Evaluate where he signed and when he signed. The nature of how he signed. Then we're talking about the legal realm, trouble, and criminality.

COLLINS: Yes. Like, any campaign finance violations maybe.

JACKSON: Correct.

COLLINS: What about the political aspect, though? Voters don't like being lied to. They don't like hypocrisy, at least last time I checked, I think.

When it comes to Capitol Hill, though, I saw some Democrats saying that Kevin McCarthy should refuse to seat him in that Republican majority that he is -- he's supposed to enter in just a matter of weeks. But does that seem like something realistic?

CORNISH: They can say that but that really doesn't matter to Kevin McCarthy or the GOP caucus. I do want to come back to something you said, though, about campaign finance. You know, it's not just about padding the resume. This is a person who reported a net worth of less than, like, $50,000 one year -- and two years later, he was claiming $11 million.

Where did that money come from? What is the source of it? How did he get it? Who is he leveraged to?

These are actually the more serious questions that I think people should care about, in a way. It's the same reason why people are interested in Donald Trump's taxes.

It's not just this idea of, like, show us something because we should see it. It's who are you leveraged to? Who can have any kind of influence over you and your policymaking? It is a very basic follow- the-money story.

And I just want to give a shoutout to the local Long Island paper columnist that actually paid attention to this prior to the election --

LEMON: During the campaign, yes.

CORNISH: -- and during the campaign. And it really underscores the need for, like, local journalism --

[07:40:00]

COLLINS: Yes.

CORNISH: -- and underscores the need for people who can investigate these things before The New York Times thinks it's going to do a puff piece on a freshman and ends up finding out his entire resume is full of thin air.

LEMON: But in this environment that we're in with deny, deny, deny or this is -- you know, they're smearing me -- because the response -- his attorney says, The Times was attempting to 'smear' the congressman-elect with 'defamatory allegations.'"

So -- and they're saying well, he deserves the opportunity to respond to these claims. But he's not directly responding to them. The response is this is a smear campaign.

CORNISH: Yes.

LEMON: And, of course, The New York Times is out to get me -- but not saying this is untrue. This is untrue. Here is my diploma. This is, you know --

CORNISH: Right. And I think it's easy as journalists for us to get caught up in the tactics.

LEMON: Right.

CORNISH: So the tactic that we're messing with right now is the end of shame.

LEMON: Yes.

CORNISH: Let me brazen this out. Let me not answer any of the issues directly. Let me just basically use the distrust that the public has in the media, which we know from many Gallup polls, against it. And maybe I just ride it out, right?

We're seeing politicians across the spectrum do that and it is the result of our own struggles as an industry the last couple of years. And it's very easy to spend all our time being, like, what do you mean? Did I -- but, but, but instead of where is the information? Where is the evidence here?

JACKSON: It's called deflection --

CORNISH: Yes, exactly.

JACKSON: -- right? You deflect. And it could be -- look, the bottom line is that he will have to answer to specific instances if those forms do come out, right?

LEMON: Before you finish here --

JACKSON: Sure.

LEMON: -- this is -- his Democratic opponent who lost was on yesterday and responded to this. I want to hear what you have to say --

JACKSON: Of course.

LEMON: -- but I think it's important to hear from him and then we'll hear what Joey has to say.

JACKSON: Absolutely.

LEMON: Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, (D), FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, 3RD DISTRICT: This man is a fraudster. He's -- the allegations are fraud and corruption are well-documented in the Times story. And there has to be a House Ethics Committee investigation into him. And there has to also be a Department of Justice investigation.

First, he either has to resign because of the pressure of the investigations and the exposures of the corruption and fraud that clearly has defined him as George "Scantos" in the media, or it's going -- or he has -- or, for that matter, Congress removes him. There won't be a special election until either step is taken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JACKSON: But here's the point. When you have campaigns, you have opposition research, right, and your opponent should be doing due diligence on you such that they can make a determination and make the case to the voters that you're lying. That you're not being truthful with the voters. That you're exaggerating. That you're fabricating.

And so, to the extent that you don't do that, to come back now and say hey, what happened here? What happened here is that you had an obligation as his opponent to expose this and it wasn't exposed until now.

But stand by, Don, because certainly, I think in terms of the investigation, if those forms start coming out and those signatures start being unearthed where he signed things that are false, you're looking at federal crimes, potentially.

COLLINS: Well, and you can basically guarantee now every political opponent is going to be making sure that so and so went to Baruch College and has an IRS tax exempt --

JACKSON: Yes.

COLLINS: -- nonprofit.

LEMON: Do you have a podcast this week?

CORNISH: We do. This week is -- actually, we're talking about the objectivity wars in journalism. We're talking about this issue of the value of local news, and talking about the ways the media has struggled over the last couple of years with the last two administrations.

LEMON: Yes.

COLLINS: A perfect topic for this.

LEMON: An example for --

CORNISH: It is. It is.

LEMON: -- what we're dealing with right now.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINS: Good timing.

LEMON: Thank you very much.

COLLINS: Audie Cornish, Joey Jackson, thank you both.

The newest episode that she was just talking about there with that focus on journalism -- "The Assignment with Audie Cornish" will be available on Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

And ahead, we're going to take you live to the U.S.-Mexico border where we have been all week talking about what's happening there as the Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court what to do about Title 42. LEMON: Plus, what the Capitol police chief is now saying about the

attack on Speaker Pelosi's husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I'm told by a House aide that for Speaker Pelosi, there hadn't been a security assessment at her residence in San Francisco since 2018. Is that true?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:48:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): This has never been about one person. This has been about the office of the presidency and separate from every one of us that files our taxes and may go through an examination under the mandatory review procedures of the IRS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: We are just days away from seeing former President Trump's taxes, finally. After years of battling legal battles in court, the House Ways and Means Committee -- which is led by Democrats, we should note -- voted to release six years of his taxes to the public. Those documents are expected to be redacted and released within a matter of days, giving us new and detailed insights into his financial standings, including a revelation that the former president paid zero dollars in federal taxes during his final year in office.

In two separate reports, committee members revealed that the IRS failed to follow its own policy mandating annual audits of sitting presidents because they did not audit Trump during his first two years in office.

So joining us now to talk about this is the Democratic delegate and member of the Ways and Means Committee, Stacey Plaskett. Thank you for joining us.

I know you spent four hours behind closed doors with your committee yesterday. What did you see?

DELEGATE STACEY PLASKETT (D), VIRGIN ISLANDS, WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE (via Skype): Well, first, thank you for having me, and happy holidays to you and to all of your viewers.

You know, first, let me say that I think that Chairman Neal conducted a very civil discourse between both sides in the discussions, and the staff was absolutely amazing in the amount of detail and the care at which they went about this process.

Remember, we've been trying to do this for four years. And what Chairman Neal wanted to do was to see if the mandatory audit -- the mandatory presidential audit, which has been in place since 1977, was working.

[07:50:00]

And we needed it to work because, as you know, President Trump was the first president who had not released his taxes in many years. And so, there was no way for us or the American people to be able to ascertain whether or not he had conflicts of interest. Whether he was utilizing funds and making decisions as the chief executive -- as the commander in chief that had pecuniary and financial benefits for himself.

The only way that could be done was through the mandatory audit process. And what we found was that it didn't take place. They did not even begin an audit. None of the audits have been complete -- but only began it when Chairman Neal sent them a letter asking about it.

COLLINS: Yes, and they have this responsibility to audit his taxes and they weren't auditing them. So do you -- are you satisfied with the IRS's explanation, so far, for why that wasn't happening?

PLASKETT: No, we are not. We are not satisfied at all with that.

But let's also recall that for some time now, the Republicans -- when they were in power in 2014 and else -- and moving forward were taking money away from the IRS. And we know that the IRS has not been able to do audits, particularly on very complex individuals' taxes. And we recognize that regular Americans are much more likely to be audited than the very rich -- the very wealthy who have more complex taxes and need special assistance and special agents who are able to audit those taxes.

COLLINS: So the IRS is basically saying it's more of a manpower issue, which is why they were delayed in doing that.

My understanding is they are still not done conducting that audit. Is that correct?

PLASKETT: That's correct. None of the president's audits during his time in office have been completed.

COLLINS: I know your committee and Chairman Neal really wants to codify into law that this has to happen, but are you concerned given Republicans are about to take over the majority of the House in just a matter of days, really, that Democrats have basically run out of time to get something like that passed?

PLASKETT: Well, I know that the chairman has spoken with the Senate side about how important this is, but we have gotten signals from some of our Republican colleagues that this is important to them as well. The mandatory audit of presidents alone is something that they may be interested in supporting also.

COLLINS: Delegate Stacey Plaskett, thank you for joining us this morning. We also hope your family has a good time during the holidays.

PLASKETT: Thank you. Same to yours.

COLLINS: All right. Ahead, our coverage of President Zelenskyy's historic visit to Washington will continue. What could we hear from him and from President Biden? They're going to hold a joint press conference. And the White House's John Kirby will also join us in just moments.

LEMON: And Dionne Warwick is a music icon -- a legend -- 56 worldwide hits, six Grammy awards, and one extraordinary legacy. She brings her exclusive story to CNN in the new film "Don't Make Me Over," which premieres New Year's Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dionne Warwick, one of the great female singers of all time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dionne was the first African-American woman to win a Grammy in the pop category.

DIONNE WARWICK, SINGER: The music I was singing was nothing like anything that any of them were singing. The legacy of my family, music -- pure and simple, music.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over" premieres New Year's Day at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:58:12]

LEMON: We need to tell you about this story. This morning, police have arrested two women for vandalizing New York City councilmember Erik Bottcher's apartment building. It happened just days after the women joined a protest to disrupt a Drag Story Hour Bottcher attended at the New York Public Library.

Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would love to be in drag and read the Bible to the children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How come you don't have police officers reading to the kids? How come you don't have firefighters reading to the kids?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So officials with the library say there were no arrests during the story hour and the event went on as planned.

Police say that the women left vulgar graffiti in Bottcher's hallways and on his sidewalk.

Bottcher has been a vocal advocate for gay rights in New York. He tells CNN if the protesters think that these tactics are going to silence us, they are badly mistaken.

COLLINS: It's an important message --

LEMON: Yes.

COLLINS: -- because he said that's essentially what their goal --

LEMON: Yes.

COLLINS: -- is to intimidate --

LEMON: It's just --

COLLINS: -- and to stop this.

LEMON: Going to someone's home is just --

COLLINS: Over a nonprofit --

LEMON: Right.

COLLINS: -- book hour thing. I know.

LEMON: Yes.

COLLINS: All right, we'll have more on that to come. And CNN THIS MORNING is going to continue right now.

LEMON: Good morning, everyone. It is the top of the hour. You don't see Poppy Harlow because she is off. And we've got a lot to catch up on and we're going to start with the five things that CNN wants you to know about this morning.

Six years worth of former President Trump's taxes are set to be released. The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee says it will release Trump's tax returns within the next couple of days. The release ends a nearly-four-year legal battle Democrats waged against the former president after they took control of the House in 2019.

COLLINS: Also, the Taliban has suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan. This is just the latest in a brutal clampdown on the rights of Afghan women.

[08:00:00]