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Search for Missing Sub Entering Dire Stage as Air Supply Dwindles, Banging Sounds Detected Again; Federal Prosecutors Hint at Multiple Recordings of Former President Trump in Classified Documents Case; House Passes GOP-Led Censure of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

CALDER WALTON, AUTHOR, SPIES, THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: And I hope that U.S. authorities are now going back over some of those old cases.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It's just how important -- you say you're not an investigative reporter, but what you have uncovered here really is, in terms of trying to get some answers for those people as well, Calder. Thank you. And I'm sorry that we're out of time.

WALTON: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

HARLOW: Congratulations on the book.

WALTON: Thank you.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crews frantically searching for the missing submersible after hearing more sounds. A former OceanGate contractor says some cutting-edge technology on the Titan was considered controversial.

CAPT. JAMES FREDERICK, U.S. COAST GUARD: We're searching where the noises are and that's all we can do.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They will not stop until they determine what has happened to the Titan.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: For only the third time this century, a member of Congress was censured in a deeply partisan vote.

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): Adam Schiff put the American people through four years of an endless impeachment hoax.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Your words tell me that I have been effective in the defense of our democracy.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): They've turned it into a puppet show. You look miserable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a new court filing that reveals discovery is already under way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Special Counsel Jack Smith and his prosecutors hint that they have multiple recordings of the former president.

FMR. GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): Clearly, there's more to it than simply the facts laid out in the indictment, which are very, very substantial. This case is moving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A tornado has struck Matador, Texas. Matador's mayor says there are many injuries and many structures destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another town official tells CNN her home was completely destroyed and most of her farm animals are dead or missing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It will be no surprise to anyone if Victor Wembanyama is the first name called at tonight's NBA draft.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really special for me and my family. Our life is going to change. I have such high expectations for myself.

I always remember I know what I want to do. Nothing is going to stop me from doing it. And it doesn't just to stop basketball. It's about life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. We are so glad you're with us. Did you watch the draft?

MATTINGLY: It hasn't happened yet.

HARLOW: It's tonight?

MATTINGLY: Thank you, Poppy. I needed that.

HARLOW: Well, it's happening tonight. We're going to get to the NBA draft.

MATTINGLY: That's a great tease, by the way.

HARLOW: And we're going to get to the NBA draft in a moment and what is going to happen tonight. We're going to get to that and have fun in the show. But we do begin with very serious news this morning that we've been following all week, and that is the desperate race to find a missing sub that vanished while diving for the Titanic wreckage.

This race is reaching a critical moment. At this point it's feared the five people onboard may have little to no breathable air. That's the big concern we've been talking about. But banging sounds were detected yesterday, again. The U.S. Coast Guard hasn't been able to find where or what the sounds are coming from, though. This is video of a surveillance plane that has been dropping sonar probes into the ocean listening for that sub.

MATTINGLY: Well, more ships with special equipment have been racing to join the massive search and rescue operation as that window for survival closes. The Horizon Arctic, seen here, is bringing a U.S. military remotely-operated vehicle. U.S. Navy's Deep Sea Salvage System has also arrived in Newfoundland. It can retrieve vessels deeper than the Titanic, but it's unclear when it will reach the search area.

Paula Newton joins us live from Halifax, Nova Scotia. And, Paula, what's the latest right now?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is going to be a day like no other out there, Phil, and that's incredibly good news given the time line that we're dealing with. There could be up to ten ships on the scene. And, principally, what's important more capacity to actually dive deep beneath the ocean there as far as perhaps that Titan is resting now, perhaps as much as 13,000 feet, maybe two and a half miles on that sea bed, and be able to actually locate it given those noises that have been heard now at least for two days.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERICK: When you're in the middle of a search and rescue case, you always have hope.

NEWTON (voice over): Hope is running out against a dwindling oxygen supply --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very confident that these banging noises come from the submersible.

NEWTON: -- it also rests on the indistinct banging noise detected by sonar.

FREDERICK: The noises were heard by a Canadian P-3.

NEWTON: U.S. Coast Guard has disclosed that noises were picked up by sonar Tuesday and Wednesday during the search following the deployment of a sonar buoy by a Canadian aircraft.

FREDERICK: I can't tell you what the noises are. But what I can tell you is -- and I think this is the most important point -- we're searching where the noises are, and that's all we can do at this point.

NEWTON: Acoustic information sent to the U.S. Navy has so far been inconclusive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are very aware of the time sensitivity around this mission.

NEWTON: The search area has expanded to twice the size of Connecticut and up to two and a half miles deep with more ships and aircraft arriving today to join the around-the-clock aerial and below the surface search. DAVID GALLO, SENIOR ADVISER FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, RMS TITANIC INC: We need to go full speed, regardless of what that time is, and find that submarine.

[07:05:04]

NEWTON: The sub was en route to explore the Titanic wreckage on Sunday but lost communication about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent. Five passengers were onboard including OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, who is now facing criticism for the engineering of the sub.

STOCKTON RUSH, CEO, OCEANGATE: I've broken some rules to make this. I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me. The carbon fiber and titanium, there's a rule you don't do that. Well, I did.

NEWTON: Two former employees raised safety concerns about the thickness and integrity of the submersible's hull. One employee was fired. He sued for wrongful termination. The other resigned. The lawsuit was settled out of court and OceanGate says it conducted further testing on the sub.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And, Paula, I think one of the questions I've had, who is paying for these very wide scale, multiple countries' search efforts that are ongoing on right now?

NEWTON (on camera): Yes, that's an interesting question, Phil, and the answer is you and I. Canadian and U.S. taxpayers essentially are footing this bill. Joyce Murray, the Canadian minister in charge of the Canadian Coast Guard, was asked that question yesterday and she was very blunt saying, look, we're human beings. They're in distress. In terms of international norms and law, if you and I were out on the high seas and sent out a distress call, they would come. The Coast Guard would help. And this is the kind of search and rescue they're doing.

That is not to say, Phil, that there won't be questions asked in the coming weeks and months as to whether or not this kind of deep sea exploration by a private company is warranted or advisable. And you can bet that there will be many questions about that coming in the next few weeks.

HARLOW: Paula Newton, we appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, let's turn now to one of the few people on Earth who has actually been to the Titanic wreckage in a submersible, Dr. Joe MacInnis, he's a physician and diver, and in 1985, he was a member of the first expedition to locate the wreck of the Titanic. Thanks so much for joining us.

As somebody with experience, both very specifically in this case but also just generally, what are the things that you would run through in terms of what could go wrong in an expedition like this since we have so little we know about what happened here?

DR. JOE MACINNIS, MEMBER OF THE FIRST EXPEDITION TO LOCATE TITANIC WRECKAGE: Well, I don't know the sub. I don't know the OceanGate company, but for all of us who work in the deep ocean, there are three areas of focus, and they are fire, entanglement and through hull failure. And we take extraordinary steps to prevent them and to be ready in case they happen.

So, fire is a possibility because of the number of electrical connections inside. And then there is entanglement, where you get caught up in something on the wreckage, for example. The debris field is very large in the Titanic and there's torn pieces of metal and tangles of industrial wires. So, that's a possibility that we all try to avoid. And the third is through hull failure where there's a breach in the hull. And we all know the story of 1963 where the USS Thresher was on a test dive (ph) and it went through its collapse depth and there was a massive implosion. So, these are the things that run through our minds and we really work hard to prevent in our systems and in our procedures.

HARLOW: One of your friends is onboard that sub, P.H. Nargeolet, and you called him an extraordinary leader in a situation like this. I want your reaction to one thing that the CEO of the company, Stockton Rush, who's also on board, said in the past about innovation and breaking rules. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH: I'd like to be remembered as an innovator. I think it was General MacArthur said you're remembered for the rules you break. And I've broken some rules to make this. I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Specifically, he's spoken about combining carbon fiber and titanium on a vessel like this, which hasn't really been done. What is your reaction to that knowing all of your experience?

MACINNIS: Well, let us understand, I'm a physician, scientist, who specializes in leadership. I'm not an engineer. So, I don't want to go near that subject, but I want to say one thing, and that is that for all of us who work in the deep ocean, there are two fundamental rules. And the first rule is take care of each other. And the second is take care of each other.

[07:10:00]

And as your reporting has told us for the past four days, this international search team has done everything possible to try to find the vehicle and rescue the occupants. And they've moved heaven and earth to make this possible. So, they have honored that code.

And so I think no matter what happens, we, all of us, have to respect and admire and be very grateful for what they're doing and what they've done. MATTINGLY: To that point, or the point of Poppy's question, I think you want to focus on the now, and that is trying to find and save the people inside the submersible vessel. I understand that you're not an engineer. But in terms of you lay out the three kind of critical issues that you're dealing with in exploration, like this, and the ability for a ship to actually do this technologically is pretty key to that.

And that's why I think I'm trying to figure out is the balance between innovation and safety. How much can an innovator or somebody like this CEO push that given that the downside is death here, and not just death to one person, but the entire crew?

MACINNIS: Well, this is all speculation and frankly, an area that I just would like to stay away from now. All of those questions are going to be answered. It's going to take a lot of more information and analysis. The focus for me right now is those five human in that vehicle.

And, again, I'm so impressed as an individual who's had a lot of time working with really extraordinary people in the deep ocean to see what they do, how they do it, and to be so grateful for what they're doing for us today.

HARLOW: Dr. Joe MacInnis, thank you very much for your time and your perspective.

MACINNIS: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: And also this morning, just in, the U.S. Coast Guard says a remote operated vehicle has, quote, reached the sea floor and has begun searching for the missing submersible. The ROV comes from the Canadian vessel, Horizon Arctic. Another ROV from a French vessel is also preparing to enter the water.

HARLOW: That is a good sign in this search as we keep up hope.

Meantime, overnight, a second deadly tornado in Texas in less than a week, it has killed at least four people. The tornado just devastated the small town of Matador. That's in the western part of the state. It ripped through homes and businesses, leaving a path of destruction. At least ten people we know this morning have been injured.

And in Colorado, something we don't often see, look at that, twin tornadoes spotted in the town of Akron, and the storm threat not over yet. Colorado is on alert for severe thunderstorms and flash floods, also hail larger than an inch in diameter has been reported in Denver, severe storm alerts continue across Northwestern Texas and Nebraska and Wyoming. That includes large hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes.

MATTINGLY: All right. Well, it looks like Special Counsel Jack Smith might have multiple recordings of former President Trump in that classified documents case. The big revelation came in a new court filing as Trump and his defense team received the first batch of evidence against him from federal prosecutors. CNN Senior Crime and Justice Reporter Katelyn Polantz broke this story. She's broken so many. Katelyn, we previously only knew about one audio tape. We believe you broke that story as well, to some degree. What actually happens now?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Phil, now the Justice Department has to hand over all of the evidence that they have in this case against Donald Trump. Whether it's going to come up at trial or not, they have to give it over to his defense team so that everybody can be fully prepared for the trial.

And in this court filing last night, pretty late, we did get indication from the prosecutors exactly what they're turning over already, what they gave to the team yesterday. So, let's go through the list so far. So, they're handing over recorded interviews, plural, interviews. So, they say that that does include that Bedminster July 2021 audio recording of Donald Trump holding up a document related to Iran and Mark Milley and talking about it.

But there are other interviews that they have. We don't know how relevant they may be to the case, but Donald Trump apparently is on tape by his own consent speaking to people, and that is part of the case, part of the evidence.

In addition to that, grand jury testimony transcripts, other information that they've gathered from witnesses, defendant Walt Nauta's testimony. He actually spoke to investigators twice, once in an informal interview and then in the grand jury. He's charged with making some false statements there as part of this case. So, they're going to get a full sense of what they have to deal with, both for the Trump defense team and Walt Nauta's defense team when they go to trial with him, what he said specifically to investigators.

[07:15:02]

There's also CCTV footage in this case. We know surveillance footage was quite a part of the Justice Department's ability to understand that there were documents being kept at Mar-a-Lago.

But, Phil, the thing in putting all of this together is that the Trump team now is going to get a really good sense of just how strong this case is by the Justice Department and specifically who has been talking, what they've said.

HARLOW: And just a reminder that everything wasn't in the indictment here, which is pretty clear. Katelyn Polantz, thanks very much.

MATTINGLY: Well, unrelenting extreme heat is scorching Texas and breaking records. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us live to explain the dangers people are facing right now and how they can stay safe.

HARLOW: Plus, sources tell CNN and Speaker Kevin McCarthy is warning House Republicans now is not the time to try to impeach President Biden. We'll talk about that. Astead Herndon, Josh Barro, they're here, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIFF: This is basically Trump and MAGA world going after someone they think is effective in standing up to them.

I think the investigation of his misconduct was very important. It ultimately led to his impeachment, which I was proud to lead. And it led to the first bipartisan vote to remove a president in U. S. history. I was also proud to serve on the January 6th Committee and I would do all of that again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was Congressman Adam Schiff on CNN last night after being censured in the House. House Republicans sought the censure for what they said were misleading statements about that investigation the congressman referred to into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.

Now, House Republican hardliners are setting their sights not just on Schiff or the DHS secretary, but President Biden. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert introducing a resolution aimed at impeaching the president. Her effort appears to be providing yet another point of division and tension within the party.

We're going to bring in CNN Political Analyst and New York Times National Politics Reporter Astead Herndon and author of the Very Serious, Very Serious newsletter, very serious man himself, Josh Barro. Josh, welcome back. Astead, nice for you to join us this morning. Josh was here on the 6th, by the way. But we feel good about that with your presence.

I think we -- for every reason get caught up in kind of the whether the profanity-laced battles between people, the Republican conference and where that splits and divides, I think the most fascinating thing is they have a very slim majority and the people who gave them majority are 18 Republicans, 18 Republican freshmen who won districts that Joe Biden won in 2020. And they hate that this is happening.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely.

MATTINGLY: How does this end?

HERNDON: I mean that's a great question. This has been the kind of struggle that Speaker McCarthy has found himself in, even before he got the gavel. The reason it took him so long to be able to win the speaker gavel in the first place was because the kind of hard line right of the GOP conference was refusing to really step down after the midterms. This was a midterms that should have been really just empowering for them. We saw the country kind of universally reject those type of hard line messages, particularly in swing races. But that's not how they saw it. They saw it as another attempt with that slim majority for them to kind of bring Speak McCarthy closer to them. I mean, actually, I think we have seen impeachment efforts coming from this wing, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congresswoman Boebert, since before the midterm election. The fact that it's even coming back up now, I think is actually a sign of Speaker McCarthy's relative strength and being able to manage this caucus.

It's going to keep coming up, these divisions, because of that slim majority. But I think you're really going to see them trying to increase the pressure on Speaker McCarthy as the presidential race comes around, because they're seeing this as an opportunity to score kind of messaging points rather than actually kind of the serious effort of policymaking.

HARLOW: But, Josh, is the question whether those messaging points got them anything, or did they help elevate Adam Schiff in his race for the Senate in California?

JOSH BARRO, AUTHOR, VERY SERIOUS NEWSLETTER ON SUBSTACK: Well, I think Adam Schiff is laughing all the way to the bank on this, as you've noted.

I think in terms of that messaging, I think Republican candidates for the House in the midterms outran Senate candidates. The Republicans in the House typically tried to run sort of more normal campaigns on issues that were good for Republicans, like crime and inflation. You had candidates in a lot of these Senate races who were running basically trying to re-litigate the 2020 election, obsessed with Donald Trump and vindicating him, and they underperformed the House candidates.

And so I think this sort of stuff where you're trying to do impeachments and that sort of thing, I don't think that's in the GOP's political bread and butter. And I think if you're someone like Mike Lawler, who's one of the Republican congressmen representing a Biden district in New York, you can't be happy about this sort of thing.

But I think a majority of the conference has clearly been lining up with McCarthy on this stuff. I thought it was impressive on the debt ceiling deal, the he got 149 Republicans behind that bipartisan deal, because you had some of these agreements, like ten years ago with John Boehner and Paul Ryan, where you actually had less than a majority of the Republican conference having to depend mostly on Democrats to pass these things.

Here, you got a large bipartisan majority. It seems like it's a clear majority of the conference is behind his strategy of trying not to end up in these sorts of things like the Biden impeachment, and they'll be able to use a procedural move to basically take this thing off the floor without actually making Republicans vote on whether to impeach Joe Biden.

HARLOW: Don't let folks start talking about procedural moves.

HERNDON: And he's had some kind of Trump aligned support in doing those efforts. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been someone who's become sort of an ally to Speaker McCarthy in these type of efforts. I think that shows you that he's kind of gotten this caucus together by really leaning into his ability to get kind of favor on the Trump side.

So, I mean, I think there's been some underestimation of Speaker McCarthy that has really kind of paid off for him here, but the task that he's up against remains so difficult, because as you keep going and as maybe Donald Trump becomes more of an imprinted figure when the Republican primary, it's going to become harder and harder to keep that wing of the GOP silent.

MATTINGLY: And I think that's my big question, right, is because, unquestionably, he got more votes than anybody would have ever expected on that deal, he got a deal, there wasn't a default. He's kept his conference in line for far longer with far more unity than I think anybody suspected, particularly after the 15 votes it took him to become speaker.

[07:25:04]

But there's also kind of a feeling almost constantly that's pervasive in Washington of like, all right, he got to tomorrow. What about the next day?

And so I think my question is, are people just persistently underestimating him in a flawed manner, or is eventually this all going to come to a head?

BARRO: Well, the next day is they have to pass spending bills by the end of the year, either by September 30th, or they might do a continuing resolution sometime by the end of the year, they have to have an agreement. And, basically, with the last agreement on the debt ceiling, he really rolled the far right part of his conference, which I think was surprised by the way that worked out. And then they basically said, well, okay, you had this deal, but now you have to pass spending bills that actually spend less money than that deal said.

The problem is the House is going to spend those bills -- pass those bills. The Senate is going to throw them in the trash. The Senate is going to write appropriations bills that actually align with the deal that McCarthy made in the first place, and I expect he will then roll that right wing end of his conference again. There will be another likely bipartisan vote for the more detailed spending deal, and I think they will be caught by surprise again.

But I think he showed that he has the bulk of his conference behind him to do these sorts of agreements, and if he was able to do it once, I don't see why he can't do it again.

MATTINGLY: It's going to be fascinating to watch. I do want to know one, Poppy. I also avoided getting drawn into an appropriations discussion.

HARLOW: What? Do you want to know when the NBA draft is?

MATTINGLY: No. Let's talk about that later. It's later, by the way. But I also want to focus a little bit on Astead's shoes right now because I saw walking in. HARLOW: Are they --

HERNDON: Thank you, they are comfy.

HARLOW: Are they called Dunks?

MATTINGLY: No, those are Air Force 1s.

HARLOW: I knew that.

MATTINGLY: I mean, that's solid. Could you rock those? You probably have those.

HARLOW: I bought some for Sienna, for my daughter. But, yes, I knew --

HERNDON: I think this is in your future, both of you. I can see us having a full Air Force 1.

HARLOW: Can we have Air Force 1 One or Dunk Fridays? I like that.

HERNDON: Yes, I like that.

HARLOW: Thank you, Astead, thank you, Josh.

MATTINGLY: Thanks so much.

HERNDON: Thank you.

HARLOW: Coming up, we return to our top story this morning. We're going to be joined by someone who knows two of the passengers aboard the missing submersible, the Titan. He also tried twice to make that same voyage to the Titanic. Both attempts were canceled.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]