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Tennessee Democratic Lawmakers Face Expulsion Over Gun Violence Protest; Judge Won't Allow Cameras To Broadcast Trump's Court Appearance; Source: Chinese Spy Balloon Was Able To Transmit Data To Beijing. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired April 04, 2023 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Isabel, the question now is those three lawmakers have already lost their committee assignments and now they may lose their seats entirely?
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, good morning to you. They are certainly facing very serious consequences here.
Tennessee House Republicans -- they claim that their Democratic counterparts, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson -- that they breached chamber rules last Thursday right here -- right behind me at the State Capitol when they supposedly approached the podium -- contrary to the rules, without being recognized to speak -- with a bullhorn.
So now they are certainly facing expulsion from the House and that is very serious, and they have been stripped from their committees. This is according to CNN affiliate WSMV, citing the Speaker of the House of Representatives Cameron Sexton.
Republicans have also likened this to -- the action of these three lawmakers to an insurrection, writing in the resolution that the three, quote, "...did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collection actions."
Now, these three lawmakers -- they joined protesters here last night chanting, holding hands. They also spoke to reporters and these lawmakers said that they were not surprised by these resolutions brought up against them -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN PEARSON, (D) TENNESSEE STATE HOUSE: What we're seeing today from the speaker, from the leadership, from the majority -- white majority Republican caucus is fear. It's fear of having folks who are going to speak up about gun control.
JUSTIN JONES, (D) TENNESSEE STATE HOUSE: This is a political lynching. They're trying to make an example out of us because we're three of the most outspoken members here. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSALES: And this final vote on these resolutions -- they will come on Thursday. Meanwhile, here in Tennessee, we're seeing widescale protests that just do not seem to stop. Of course, many students and parents demanding gun reform -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Yes, making their voices heard after those murders at Covenant School.
Isabel, thank you very much -- Don.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Disney is taking aim at Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis. The company's CEO Bob Iger slamming the Republican, calling his actions anti-business and anti-Florida yesterday. Iger said that Gov. DeSantis is retaliating against the Disney company for coming out against the state's so-called Don't Say Gay bill.
Now, the comments came the same day that Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered an investigation into the board in charge of Disney's special self- governing district. The state appointed a new board to take over that district but last month the current board quietly stripped away its own powers and handed them directly to Disney before those state- appointed officials could even take control.
Now, DeSantis is vowing to take action if investigators find the board committed any legal or ethical violations.
Our coverage of the former president's upcoming arraignment continues. Kaitlin is standing by outside of the courthouse. And we have new insight into how Americans are feeling about the incident.
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:36:58]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome back.
We are live outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Trump is set to surrender just hours from now. Right now, he is at Trump Tower as he is preparing to turn himself in and become the first ex-president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
Here is what we're expecting today for now though a lot is still unknown.
Trump is set to appear in court in the 2:00 hour today. After his arraignment he is planning to return to Florida and give a primetime speech at Mar-a-Lago tonight addressing this publicly for the first time since he got here yesterday.
The judge has decided overnight that he will not allow news cameras in the courtroom during Trump's hearing. No laptops, no phones. That means the American public will not be able to watch the hearing -- though, Poppy and Don, we should note, of course, there will be still photographers in the room at the beginning. So we will see some photos of Trump in the room, there just aren't going to be those cameras after --
HARLOW: Yes.
COLLINS: -- we did see yesterday Trump's team argued against having them in there.
LEMON: A lot of folks did want them, though --
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: -- even some folks we respect a lot.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: Andrew McCabe said I thought it would cut down on the chaos (PH).
HARLOW: CNN was part of the media organizations that, you know --
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: -- wanted it. But for anyone who says well, we -- we're not going to know what's said in court --
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: -- yes, you can. You can read the entire transcript of what happens in that courtroom. But yes, it would have been helpful to see.
LEMON: Let's bring in now CNN political commentator and former special adviser to President Barack Obama, Mr. Van Jones. Former Trump campaign adviser and Republican strategist, Mr. David Urban.
HARLOW: He doesn't say my name that way.
LEMON: Poppy Harlow.
But listen, we need a little levity because there's --
HARLOW: Yes, we do.
LEMON: I mean, this is -- good morning to both of you.
HARLOW: Good morning.
DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.
LEMON: This is big. This is big, Van, yes? Put us in -- give us some perspective on this.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Look, I mean, some of the images today will be in history books 100 years from now when people are talking --
LEMON: Photos in court. JONES: The photos in court will be in history books. This is a really, really big deal.
And the question is does this prove that our system -- no one's above the law. That the law applies to everyone. Are we going to be stronger as a result or is this going to be seen as something that was more political? That this was a witch hunt. That's going to be the debate today and for a very long time.
HARLOW: We'll know a lot more today though. That's going to be helpful just in terms of facts or misinformation and assumptions that have been made. We'll see the indictment. That will be unsealed.
But then tonight we know we'll hear from the president. He's going to speak from Mar-a-Lago.
LEMON: Former president.
HARLOW: Former president, thank you.
What do you expect --
URBAN: Soon to be.
HARLOW: What do you -- we'll see. What do you expect him to say?
URBAN: Look, I don't know. That's the -- the only thing you can tell about the -- the only thing that's certain is uncertainty, so I don't know what he's going to say.
I do agree with Van though in terms of the historic nature of this, right? You can't overstate how important it is. And unfortunately, I do believe -- I mean, we had polling yesterday. CNN's poll had 76 percent of Americans --
LEMON: Most Americans think it's political.
URBAN: Yes, think it's politically motivated, right?
HARLOW: Yes.
URBAN: There's a Quinnipiac poll out the week before. It said 62 percent of that. And then --
HARLOW: And that includes -- that includes --
URBAN: Yes.
HARLOW: Democrats.
URBAN: Yes, Democrats and Independents.
[07:40:00]
LEMON: But does that -- should we read into that they don't believe it should happen because that's a -- URBAN: No. I think -- no, I don't think -- I don't know --
JONES: The majority of people think it should happen.
HARLOW: That's right.
URBAN: Yes, but they do believe it's politically motivated, right? And so I think that to Van's point, and I've said this before.
Twenty-two years ago I was a young chief of staff of the United States Senate during the Clinton impeachment. And Clinton, just like Trump -- he was impeached. He was tried in the Senate and acquitted.
And then he had legal jeopardy kind of lingering over him. He had this indictment -- possible indictment for lying to a grand jury. And Robert Ray, who was the special counsel at the time, said -- you know, it was a lot of pressure for Robert Ray to indict Bill Clinton. Go back and look at the clips and you'll see it was tremendous.
And Ray, on the last day of the Clinton presidency, January 19, 2001, cut a deal with the president to not indict him. And he said history and the American people will judge whether I did the right thing here or not. And I think history, looking back, says that Robert Ray did the right thing in not indicting the president for that charge.
I think history won't be so kind to Alvin Ray (sic) in this case because I do think in this case -- this individual case here that we're talking about is too political.
LEMON: You mean Alvin Bragg.
URBAN: Alvin Bragg, I'm sorry.
HARLOW: The difference was that was when Clinton was president.
URBAN: Oh, no. He was leaving the presidency. The last day --
HARLOW: Right.
URBAN: The last day of his presidency --
HARLOW: Right.
URBAN: -- he cut a deal with him.
JONES: We --
HARLOW: We remember from -- I was just going to bring up the Jones case and the Clinton --
URBAN: Yes, Paula Jones.
HARLOW: -- and what the Supreme Court said in that case. That was civil, not criminal, but it did say that you can hold the president accountable.
(CROSSTALK)
URBAN: A big op-ed, yes.
JONES: But I'll say we don't know yet. We haven't seen anything.
LEMON: Right, we don't know.
JONES: We have been speculating about the speculation of the speculators. Until we see what Bragg has, I think it's premature for us to say that he doesn't have anything. I do under -- I do -- I do understand that people are concerned but that's what I'm saying. It's in the balance right now. We just don't know. And that's why I think you're going to have the eyes of the world today looking at this courtroom, looking at our process.
But what I will say is this. Donald Trump is not the only human being going down today who is going to be having his life in the hands of a prosecutor. So many Republicans are saying this is terrible. This seems like maybe they're being tougher on our people.
That's every day in our justice system. You have prosecutors who are making decisions about who to charge and how to charge, and you have human beings who are there in front of the full weight of the court and the full face of the state.
And the Republicans who are so upset right now about what's going on with Donald Trump -- I hope that they're this concerned about the other hundreds of people who are down there dealing with prosecutors.
URBAN: There's prosecutor -- prosecutorial discretion, right, is abused in lots of different places across America so I don't --
LEMON: It's overreach.
URBAN: Yes, I don't disagree with that. I was the -- at some other point in time I'll tell you over a beer. I was a jury foreman in a rape trial in Alexandria, Virginia a long time ago and it was an incredibly eye-opening experience for me. And I suggest most Americans -- if you get a jury summons don't try to get out of it, right?
HARLOW: Serve.
URBAN: You know, serve. Do your duty and serve on those juries because exactly what Van says -- it happens every day.
LEMON: He's raising a lot of money -- Donald Trump.
URBAN: Yes.
JONES: So he says.
URBAN: No, I believe it. Again, it points back to that -- the CNN survey, right. It's saying if 76 percent of Americans believe it's politically motivated. Ninety-plus percent of Republican believe that it's politically motivated. It's easy to press a button and say hey, help me right back on this political attack. LEMON: Yes.
URBAN: He raised money.
LEMON: Hey, Van, we've got to go. Donald Trump's doing all the talking; President Biden not. What's their strategy?
JONES: I think just to stay out of it. Stay out -- a class act, class act. You really don't want the President of the United States weighing in on any criminal case against anybody, let alone an opponent -- a potential future opponent.
LEMON: Yes, only saying that he trusts the legal system --
JONES: Yes.
LEMON: -- is as much as he would say.
JONES: Class act, Joe Biden.
LEMON: Thank you, David. Good to see you.
URBAN: Thanks for having me.
LEMON: Thank you very much.
HARLOW: Good to have you guys.
LEMON: This morning we're learning just how high-tech the Chinese spy balloon was. What it's able to collect -- what it was able to collect just as it flew over the U.S.
HARLOW: Also, first lady Jill Biden has suggested inviting LSU and the team they beat, Iowa, to the White House. That didn't go over very well with LSU's breakout star.
LEMON: Right?
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:47:36]
LEMON: So the Chinese spy balloon that crossed U.S. airspace over a period of days in January was able to capture imagery and some signals -- intelligence from American military sites. A source tells CNN that the balloon was also able to transmit that information back to China in real time.
I want to bring in now CNN's Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon this morning. Good morning, Natasha. Good to see you.
What else has the intelligence community been able to gather from the balloon wreckage?
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Don. So the FBI is still investigating that wreckage and we're told that they have been able to learn some interesting things about, for example, the algorithms that power the balloon's software and other things about how the balloon was actually able to maneuver. And, importantly, how it was able to communicate back with Beijing.
We are told that this balloon when it was traveling over the United States back in February -- it was able to capture images as well as collect signals intelligence about sensitive military installations across the United States, and it was able to send that information back to China in near real time. Now, we are told by officials that they are not overly concerned about what the Chinese balloon was actually able to collect because it is not that much more sophisticated than what a Chinese satellite, for example, would be able to gather every day.
But we're also told that it is still unclear to the U.S. government whether or not this balloon was effectively controlled by Beijing in such a way that China could then basically erase the data from that balloon and make it virtually impossible for the U.S. to know for sure what it actually collected.
But the deputy Pentagon press secretary -- she did say yesterday that regardless of what exactly the balloon collected, which the U.S. is still assessing, it clearly had a very deliberate trajectory over the U.S. and knew what it wanted to surveil. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SABRINA SINGH, DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT: We do know that the balloon was able to be maneuvered and purposely driven along its track, but I'm not going to get into specific sites it was able to hover over. But what we did do is take precautionary steps to limit the intelligence value that it would be able to collect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERTRAND: So the U.S. now saying they knew pretty much where this balloon was going to go and they took steps to protect those sensitive sites from being able to be surveilled really closely by this balloon, Don.
HARLOW: Yes, wow. Just think -- and the ability to transmit in real time.
Natasha, thank you very much.
[07:50:00]
It is a busy morning of news, but in Connecticut it is a morning of conversation. UConn has completed its impressive run through the NCAA tournament. Next hour we'll be joined by the coach, Dan Hurley.
LEMON: Look at that picture.
HARLOW: I'm so excited for this.
Kaitlan, we're finding this out in real time. Everyone is too because we didn't know that at the start of the show.
COLLINS: Yes, that's going to be so exciting. I can't wait to watch it. Obviously, they had a massive win last night. We are tracking that.
Also, of course, the historic developments that are happening here outside the Manhattan Criminal Court. That is where Trump is set to be arraigned in just a matter of hours from now. Our special live coverage continues next.
(COMMERCIAL)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NCAA FINAL FOUR ANNOUNCER: Seventy-six-59. Every dog has his day and this day belongs to the Huskies. UConn has its fifth National Championship in school history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[07:55:01]
LEMON: I mean, this jumping around and playing. Remember when we had that much energy once?
HARLOW: When was that?
LEMON: Once when we were young.
HARLOW: When was that?
LEMON: But it's about them, not us.
The University of Connecticut Huskies are officially this year's NCAA Men's Basketball champions. The Huskies taking home their fifth national title after blowing out San Diego State, winning 76-59.
The Huskies took a 16-point first-half lead but San Diego State put up a fight there cutting UConn's lead down to just a 6-point before the Huskies ran away with it again, closing out one of the dominant runs in tournament history.
As the old school people used to say, tunament.
A hundred --
HARLOW: Did they, though?
LEMON: Yes, but I -- maybe that was something that we did in Louisiana. Maybe it was just my family.
Hundreds of excited fans went pouring into the streets to celebrate. But then some students began climbing and taking down lamp posts -- not good. One was even used to break one of the doors to the student union building. Police took several students into custody. Ah, sadly that happens. Excited for them. But we shouldn't let that ruin the celebration and the night, right?
HARLOW: And who is going to join us?
LEMON: Well, the coach.
HARLOW: The coach. I'm so excited.
LEMON: It says Poppy. The coach.
HARLOW: Very soon we're going to be joined by the Huskies' coach Dan Hurley.
LEMON: I can't wait. I love that picture. Maybe he'll do the -- he'll repeat it while he's here.
HARLOW: All right, now to the women's national championship. The LSU Tigers will be invited --
LEMON: Go, Tigers.
HARLOW: -- to the White House as is tradition. But yesterday, the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, said she's also considering inviting the runner-up, Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I know we'll have the champions come to the White House -- we always do. So we'll have LSU come. But you know what? I'm going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game. So -- right? So winner and losers -- that's sportsmanship. That's good sportsmanship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: We'll see what happens. I'll tell you a star LSU player Angel Reese tweeted her response to that idea, calling it, quote, "a joke" as losing teams don't normally get an invite. Reese has been receiving a lot of criticism for making that hand gesture toward Caitlin Clark as LSU won the title on Sunday.
When asked about the backlash Reece agreed Clark is a "helluva player" -- that's a quote -- but she pointed out hey, Clark made the same gesture to another player --
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: -- during the semifinal.
LEMON: So look, I've got to tell you I am keenly aware of the double standard in society when it comes to Black and white --
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: -- especially folks who are in positions -- on television or in high-profile positions.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: I understand what she is saying. I think she's right about that. I do, however, think -- and I think she's right about it -- double standards -- because the other player did the exact same thing.
HARLOW: On the hand gesture.
LEMON: On the hand gesture.
Look, I think the first lady -- I don't think her sentiments are off, right? I think that she is coming from a good place with this. But the tradition has been, no matter what sport it is, that the winner goes to the White House. Now, perhaps a winner -- there can be a compromise -- can go to the White House -- the winners, and then there would be a separate event because of how monumental and historic this is for women's sports.
HARLOW: Yes, that's a good point.
LEMON: It stays elevated. So we've had conversations --
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: -- here. This does -- women's sports need to be elevated. It should happen. And this will elevate it if you have both of them at the White House and there's some sort of Kumbaya after the winners got the White House, right, and you have some sort of summit and whatever. This elevates women's sports --
HARLOW: I like that.
LEMON: -- and I think it's a good idea, yes. I actually don't think it's a bad idea.
HARLOW: And I think it was the highest-scoring game --
LEMON: Yes.
HARLOW: -- ever, right?
LEMON: And it was just exciting to watch.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: It was just really exciting to watch. You had the athleticism but also then the coach as well -- what she's wearing. And I so related to that because that's how we dress.
HARLOW: What's she going to wear to the White House? That's going to be a great one.
LEMON: Exactly, exactly.
HARLOW: But it's been amazing to watch and we're very happy for them. OK.
LEMON: Yes. Congratulations to all.
HARLOW: And a huge day ahead right here in New York, so CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.
LEMON: Good morning.
COLLINS: Good morning, everyone. We are just hours away from witnessing history here in Manhattan, Poppy and Don, as you know well. Trump is preparing to turn himself in to this building me. That is 100 Centre Street. That is where, for the first time in American history, an ex-president is going to appear in court as a criminal defendant.
LEMON: Yes, and I think what you were looking at earlier, that was Trump Tower where the president is going leave in a couple of hours to head down there to where Kaitlan is. But we won't be able to watch that on T.V., meaning the hearing part. We'll see how he gets back and forth. The judge has decided that there will be no cameras, meaning like video cameras or live cameras in the courtroom during the proceeding, but still cameras will be in the beginning.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: We'll explain all of this.
HARLOW: Yes, we will.
Also, Trump is shaking up his legal team with a new addition right before this historic arraignment.
Kaitlan, you've got some new reporting. What can you tell us?
COLLINS: Yes, this may be something -- that new addition to the legal team doesn't want to see.
