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CNN This Morning
Alex Murdaugh Trial Update; Scrutiny Grows Over Santos Campaign; Mark Esper is Interviewed about China; Super Bowl Week Kicks Off in Arizona. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired February 07, 2023 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From being exposed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it unusual to see Alex Murdaugh at that residence that time of night?
MUSHELLE "SHELLY" SMITH, ALEX MURDAUGH'S MOTHER'S AIDE: Yes. On my shift, yes.
KAYE (voice over): This woman is the only witness who saw Alex Murdaugh around the time of the murders. Mushelle "Shelly" Smith worked as a caregiver for Alex's mother, and says Alex came to his mom's home sometime after 9:00 p.m. on June 7, 2021. That would have been shortly after the state says Maggie and Paul Murdaugh's phones ceased all activity, meaning they were likely dead.
Alex's mother had Alzheimer's. Smith said his mom was sleeping that night and that it was unusual for Alex to come visit her so late. Smith recalled Alex stayed about 15 to 20 minutes. Despite that, she says he told her the next day, unsolicited, that he was there much longer than that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just to be clear, what was the statement he said about how long he was here?
SMITH: Thirty to 40 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But his phrase was, I was here or you know I was --
SMITH: I was - I was here 30 to 40 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was he there 30 to 40 minutes that night?
SMITH: Not to my recall.
KAYE: Smith cried on the stand as she shared how that conversation with Alex made her so nervous she called her brother to tell him about it. She seemed to suggest Alex was sending her a message to say he was there longer the night of the murders. She also described for the jury how Alex seemed fidgety. The defense pushed back. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is his normal behavior kind of fidgety?
SMITH: Yes.
KAYE: Smith told the jury, days after the murders, Alex returned to his mother's house around 6:30 in the morning with what looked like a blue tarp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holding it something like this?
SMITH: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what did it look like?
SMITH: Like a blue tarp. Like a tarp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Blue?
SMITH: Blue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Was it vinyl?
SMITH: It was like a tarp that they put on a car to keep your car covered up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he say anything when he walked in?
SMITH: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What did he do when he walked in?
SMITH: He went upstairs.
KAYE: The prosecution argued in opening statements that investigators recovered a blue raincoat at Alex mother's home which had gun residue on it. This special agent with SLED, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, told the jury she found the blue raincoat tucked away in a closet at his mother's house.
SPECIAL AGENT KRISTEN MOORE, SLED CRIME SCENE UNIT: We located a blue raincoat in the coat closet on the second floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you found it, it was balled up like this?
MOORE: That is correct.
KAYE: Still, the defense injected some doubt, getting Smith, the caregiver, to confirm she thought it was a tarp, not a raincoat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was not a rain jacket, was it?
SMITH: No, it wasn't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a blue tarp?
SMITH: Yes. KAYE: The defense also pointed out the blue item, whatever it was,
didn't have a gun wrapped inside it, such as a murder weapon, which would have left gunshot residue. But the caregiver noticed more about Alex the night of the murders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you observe anything about his face? Any -- on his face?
SMITH: I think he had a little cut - a little (INAUDIBLE) cut or something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it -- ma'am, I apologize. I a little what cut?
SMITH: Like a - like a little bruise or something.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where was it?
SMITH: It was like above his forehead.
KAYE: What she didn't see on Alex was blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Alex have - Alex Murdaugh have blood on his clothes?
SMITH: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he have blood on his shoes?
SMITH: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he have blood on his hair?
SMITH: No.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And regarding that blue rain jacket, Poppy, that they found at Alex's mother's house, the witness who oversaw the testing on that is expected to take the stand today. And we do expect that she will say they did find gunshot residue on that raincoat. The prosecution has already said in their opening statement that we can expect to hear much more about that.
The trouble is, Poppy, we haven't heard from a witness who has testified to say that they actually saw Alex Murdaugh wearing that rain jacket the night of the murders.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So, defense will likely go that route.
Randi, thank you very much.
Kaitlan.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Back here on Capitol Hill, we're going to speak soon to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper after exclusive CNN reporting found that a Chinese spy balloon flew over the United States during the Trump administration.
Plus this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): I'm not a campaign (INAUDIBLE). I couldn't answer that for you. I -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, are you saying you're unaware those were sent (ph).
SANTO: I don't - like I said, I don't do my own treasury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: He says he's not a treasurer, but the person who did handle Congressman George Santos' campaign finances is now in the spotlight. We have new reporting on that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:38:51]
COLLINS: Embattled Republican Congressman George Santos says he is bringing 9/11 first responder Michael Weinstock, who suffers from nerve damage, to the State of the Union tonight as his guest to raise awareness about illnesses caused by toxic exposure. That comes as Santos is facing scrutiny over multiple lies he has told, including that his mother was present at the World Trade Center during the September 11th terrorist attacks. He has repeatedly claimed that his mom's exposure following 9/11 played a role in her death. But as CNN found, immigration records show that his mother was actually in Brazil between 1999 and 2003.
HARLOW: You follow the money in Congressman Santos' campaign that might lead to his longtime treasurer. Remember, Santos has dozens of campaign expenses listed at exact $199.99. Why does that raise eyebrows? Because it is one penny short of $200, where you would have to report and have receipts. And it turns out that same treasurer worked for another politician who had a lot of similar charges.
Kara Scannell has brand-new reporting on this.
Good morning to you.
So, we knew -- we talked weeks ago about the fact this number would raise eyebrows. What do you know?
[06:40:01]
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I mean, that number is one that has certainly raised eyebrows. And my colleagues, Fredreka Schouten and Greg Krieg and I, we were looking through these filings, talking to a number of people. And what we discovered is that Santos' treasurer, this woman, Nancy Marks, had also worked on the campaigns of Lee Zeldin, who ran for the governor here in New York. And what we discovered was that he had a similar pattern of 21 $199.99 entries all on the same day.
Now, we talked to Zeldin's campaign. His former campaign manager told us that he believed this was batched for accounting reasons, but it certainly raises a lot of questions.
And so we started to look at who is Nancy Marks, this treasurer. And what we discovered was that she did more than what your typical treasurer does, which is just -- would normally be kind of an arm's length books and records accounting. That she was involved in fundraising with Santos. That - that she was even setting some goals for people to reach in fundraising. And that she was involved with for profit entity that Santos had set up. So, their relationship goes much deeper. That is starting, you know, to draw a lot more scrutiny.
Now, Santos is distancing himself from her saying that, you know, he -- he wasn't involved with the filings. He had a treasurer for that. She resigned from the campaign at the end of last month. So, just a lot of questions here.
And I spoke to a long-time client of hers. He's been with her for 15 years. He called, after she resigned he called her and asked her, you know, have you done something wrong? And she said, absolutely not. He said, the big question to him, he doesn't know what's going on, is, is she the problem or is she the victim?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Is this $199.99 thing, has that happened to politicians across the board? Are they doing anything unusual or is it just the number of times that they were doing it or what?
SCANNELL: Yes, so it seems, when we talked to a number of campaign experts, that the number is very high. It's a unusual pattern that they have this. And the odd thing is that, if it's below $200, you don't have to report it. So, the question is, why are these coming in? And some of them do raise alarms. You know, the W Hotel in South Beach, I'd love to see when you can get it for $199 a night.
HARLOW: Never. Never.
LEMON: Poppy knows.
HARLOW: I mean you go there way more than me, but never.
Kara, thank you and great reporting, digging through all that.
OK, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: That is great reporting.
And now to more exclusive CNN reporting this morning. A U.S. military intelligence report from last year says there were sightings of Chinese high-altitude balloons in Hawaii and Florida during the Trump presidency. It's still unclear when the U.S. officials first became aware of them. That's reporting form CNN's Zach Cohen.
Joining us now to talk about it is former defense secretary under former President Trump, Mark Esper. Thank you for being here this morning.
Has -- the administration had said they were going to reach out to key officials from the Trump administration about getting a briefing on what's happened here, why these balloons -- they now know about them, but did not know about them when you were in office. Have they reached out to you yet?
MARK ESPER, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I haven't heard from them yet. But, we'll see. Give them a few more days.
COLLINS: Would you take that briefing if it was offered to you?
ESPER: Sure. Sure. If I can - if I can - if I can have the time to do it, if I can get - if they can give me the briefing at the right level of security. Maybe -- I'm curious, first of all, what happened, but maybe I can offer some insights, some ideas on how do we plug this gap in our intelligence.
COLLINS: What questions do you still have about this whole incident?
ESPER: Well, why didn't we detect it, right? That's question number one. So -- and how -- what are we doing to address it. So, that's a big issue.
Look, we - we took, during the Trump administration, we took our airspace sovereignty very importantly. People forget that in 2020 Secretary Pompeo and I pushed to withdraw the United States from the Open Skies Treaty because we were confident the Russians were cheating by using their over flights in unauthorized ways to gain strategic intelligence. So, we got out of the treaty because we were concerned it was damaging our national security. So, we take these issues - took these issues very seriously.
COLLINS: The top U.S. general, who's basically in charge of protecting North American skies, said that there was an awareness gap, and that's why these past incidents went undetected. Is that them basically saying they didn't see what they were supposed to see?
ESPER: Well, that's what it sounds like to me, that maybe it was lost in the noise, lost in the radar clutter, this balloon moving across the skies at 60,000 feet at a slow rate of movement. So, I don't know. That's what I think, if I were DOD right now, I would be ordering an inquiry as to what happened and why, and I'm sure Congress is going to do the same, to find out what happened, how did it happen, when did we find out and what are we doing to fix the problem?
COLLINS: Is it a mission failure by NORAD?
ESPER: I - I don't know. We need to dig into it. I mean clearly their mission is the defense - aerospace defense of the United States. And, you know, this is one of these unknown unknowns, as one of my predecessors would have said.
COLLINS: As you know, and we had Dianne Gallagher out off the South Carolina coast yesterday as this recovery effort for the downed balloon is ongoing, China is now saying that the U.S. -- that debris does not belong to the United States, essentially implying that they should send it back. Do you think the United States should -
ESPER: Yes. Look, it's -- it's ridiculous. And maybe we will send it back at some point, like they did with our EP-3 plane that they shot -- didn't shoot down but they knocked down in 2001, I think, and they eventually shipped it back to us in small boxes. Maybe we should do the same.
COLLINS: The president says he doesn't think this weakens U.S./China relations. Do you think that this incident does actually?
[06:45:00]
ESPER: Oh, I think it -- it certainly undermines U.S./China relations. It damages trust between our two countries, between our leadership. And to me, right now, that's one of the biggest questions is, what happened on their end? Did Xi Jinping know or did he not know? Was this the PLA military acting to undermine the Blinken visit, or was this just bureaucratic incompetence that they allowed this balloon to float over in the way it did at the time it did? I think those are really big questions because, look, Xi Jinping stumbled a few times in the last several months. The terrible Covid reversal. He has this issue. He has problems with demographic issues in his country. A lot of problems going on in China right now. And this just kind of adds to the slate of issues he's facing.
COLLINS: They also lied about what the balloon was. Initially they said it was a meteorology balloon, which I don't think anyone believes.
ESPER: I mean they've lied throughout this. This is what autocracies do, right, they lie in order to advance their own interests.
COLLINS: I want to ask you about Trump because, obviously, you served under former President Trump. You've now come out and been quite frank about your views on him now. He has done the same with you.
A new "Washington Post"/ABC poll found that few Americans are excite about a potential Trump/Biden rematch, but Trump is running for re- election. Are you surprised by that?
ESPER: No, but I've been saying a lot that we need a new generation of leaders from both sides, right? We need a new generation that can come forward from both parties and give the American more choice, the American people more choice, and that's kind of how I look at the situation, particularly for the Republican Party.
We -- it looks like we're going to have a good slate of candidates start to announce, and already have announced. And I think that will give GOP voters a lot of choice out there.
COLLINS: What do you do if Trump becomes the nominee and he is running against Biden?
ESPER: I think that's unlikely.
COLLINS: But if it happens?
ESPER: What do I personally do?
COLLINS: Would you -
ESPER: Well, I'm not going to support President Trump. But, look, I think, again, we're going to have a slate of very strong candidates, people that will advance traditional, conservative GOP policy objectives and will do so in a way that's uplifting, that will bring people together, that will unify the Republican Party and that can win elections. You have to win elections.
COLLINS: Mark Esper, thank you so much for your perspective on this. We talked to you on Friday. Grateful to have you back on again. Thank you so much.
ESPER: Great. Good to be back. Thanks, Kaitlan.
LEMON: Yes, and I'm sure we will see him back considering what's going on in the news. Thank you both.
Sibling versus sibling, and an historic matchup between two black QBs, I'm talking quarterbacks. Look at that. Super Bowl. Are you ready?
HARLOW: Yes. Are you going?
LEMON: Maybe. I don't know.
HARLOW: You go to like every fun thing. Go for both of us.
LEMON: We're live in Arizona ahead of Super Bowl LVII.
Why you putting my business in the street?
Coy, she's putting my business in the street.
HARLOW: Come on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:51:46]
LEMON: So, Super Bowl week is kicking off in Arizona as the Philadelphia -- remember, it's Philadelphia. You don't say the phila --
HARLOW: Says who?
LEMON: I used to live there. That's how you say it, Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Eagles, gear up to take the field this weekend. The Eagles' Jalen Hurts and the Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes are set to make history as it will be the first time in Super Bowl history that two black starting quarterbacks will be on the field. So, CNN's Coy Wire, live for us in Phoenix with more this morning.
And also, Coy, remember, it's not water, it's water -
HARLOW: Water.
LEMON: Water in Philadelphia.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: It's also the Iladelph if you're really fly, Don.
LEMON: All right. There you go.
WIRE: I'm from Pennsylvania too.
LEMON: Tell them.
WIRE: Here at Super Bowl Radio Row, folks are still waking up here in the desert. Good morning, lovely people.
These two teams, Don and Poppy, are eerily similar. Both scored 546 points. Both have a 16-3 record. Both have six all-pros, including a Kelce brother. It's going to be intense.
But last night, opening night, was all about embracing having made it here to the biggest stage in all of American sports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JALEN HURTS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES QUARTERBACK: It's definitely something you want to soak in. These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do I do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up with you? How are you doing, baby?
WIRE (voice over): Super Bowl opening night is back. First time fully back in three years. And you never know what you might see.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was this one guy that was wearing like -- just this, like, barrel. Like an old - like a whiskey barrel, you know, but he had his shirt off.
WIRE: Some of the bigger storylines swirling around this year, history making Super Bowl quarterbacks. The Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes and the Eagles' Jalen Hurts have the youngest combined age and this is the first time two black quarterbacks will start.
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: The motivating factor is to be the best. You're in the biggest game of your life, and you want to go out there and make memories with your teammates.
HURTS: To be able to be of affluence (ph) and kind of give - give the next generation a quarterbacks, something to believe in, something to look forward to, I think that's - that's nice, too.
WIRE: And history making Super Bowl brothers. The always entertaining Kelce brothers. Travis of the Chiefs and Jason of the Eagles are the first brothers to ever face off in a Super Bowl as players.
TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: We already know that he's got the little ones and that - that - that grows the heart even bigger for someone. So, he - he's definitely got mama's love more right now.
JASON KELCE, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES CENTER: Mom probably likes Travis more. She keeps trying to hedge her bet and say she likes me now because I have kids. And that's a good way. I've kind of leveled the playing field with Trav. But the baby always gets the love from mom.
WIRE: Super Bowl LVII, it's a lifelong journey and dream come true for most players, but one not achieved without sacrifice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes you've got to give up fun, like going out and hanging out with friends and stuff.
MARQUEZ VALDES-SCANTING, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS WIDE RECEIVER: I've never had alcohol. I've never smoked weed. Never had a drug. So, I guess that's the sacrifice I made.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My biggest thing was probably giving up McDonald's, I would say. But I didn't do that until after college.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Wow. All right, Coy Wire.
Coy, I'm digging the outfit, brother.
[06:55:01]
WIRE: Yes. I appreciate that coming from you. You're a fashion-ado (ph). You've been styling for a long time, Don. That's like one of the highlights of my career. Can you put that on my highlight reel, please, Don Lemon commenting on my outfit?
LEMON: I am digging the hoodie. Coy, everywhere I go, that's the only thing people talk to me about. I think I started a fashion trend.
HARLOW: The control room is scrambling to get a picture to remind our viewers of the epic - there it is. There we go. Look at the - look at your face, too. Your expression.
WIRE: OK, I -- hey, Don, your style's so ill it makes medicine sick. It doesn't matter what you wear, it's how you wear it. People can say what they want. It can't affect you, baby. Good morning.
LEMON: You know what they say.
WIRE: You know we'll have an awesome day today and we're going to look fly doing it.
LEMON: Haters are going to hate.
HARLOW: There you go.
LEMON: Thank you very much. Take care.
HARLOW: No one says it better. Coy, thank you.
LEMON: Thank you, Coy.
HARLOW: All right, ahead, we're going to take you back to Capitol Hill ahead of President Biden's State of the Union. White House communications director Kate Bedingfield will join us live.
Nice job getting that pic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:00:00]
