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Greene Out of Freedom Caucus; Roberts Delivers Conservative Victories. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 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]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Headed down the elevator of this air traffic control tower when a noise stopped them cold.

MARY MAYCONICH-BEASLEY, FORMER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: It was like a repeat of a bad movie where you just, juup (ph), you droop.

ROSALES: The two were trapped and Marry began to smell smoke.

MAYCONICH-BEASLEY: Where there's smoke there's maybe fire. So, all I knew is a bad smell. And nothing comes good out of that.

ROSALES: Firefighter Raymond Sikes answered the call.

DEPUTY CHIEF RAYMOND SIKES, 165TH AIRLIFT WING FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had some people from the tower saying they could smell smoke. And somewhere along the way we found out we had people trapped in the elevator. They were at the very top.

ROSALES: At the tower he learned not two but three lives were in peril. Mary was seven months pregnant. With urgency he freed them all. Two months later, Malia Beasley was born. But as the years went by, they never reconnected.

MAYCONICH-BEASLEY: An opportunity came and I - I just took it. I'm like, OK, this is what I need to do. I need to realize people that made an impact on my life.

ROSALES: Malia's high school graduation, that opportunity to reunite. The problem was, Mary didn't even know the name of the man who helped rescue them.

MAYCONICH-BEASLEY: I called the phone number and I talked to Raymond and I -

ROSALES (on camera): Could you recognize the voice?

MAYCONICH-BEASLEY: No, but I didn't have to recognize the voice because he knew the whole story. And he told me all about it. It was nice to hear his side because I never talked to him since that day.

SIKES: And we just talked for probably 15, 20 minutes on the phone and, yes. Yes, I was there.

ROSALES: It's so - I mean you must have done hundreds of calls, answered hundreds of calls since 2005. How did you remember all that?

SIKES: I think those type of events you tent to remember a little bit more.

ROSALES (voice over): And it was at Malia's graduation Ray first laid eyes on her after 18 years.

ROSALES (on camera): So, you see her at her graduation.

SIKES: Yes. She looked nothing -

ROSALES: Malia -

SIKES: She looked nothing like the day we met.

ROSALES (voice over): Up until this point, Malia only knew of Ray from her mother's journal entries.

MALIA BEASLEY, DAUGHTER: A lot of people think it would make a big impact. And I'm like, oh, that'd be cool, you know. And, like, I'd be able to meet the guy from the journal that she wrote about.

I had a deeper understanding for Raymond and everything. I was like oh, that -- he's pretty cool for doing that and coming out.

SIKES: You get to the core of most of the guys and such, they - they do it just because of the genuine desire to help people. You don't realize how much you need that recognition until someone does it.

ROSALES: The reunion only lasted a day, but this time they're staying in touch. Malia is off to college in the fall and Ray is expecting another invitation in four years.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Savannah, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that is a call you remember.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: How about that.

BLACKWELL: A good story. A good story. Isabel, thanks so much.

All right, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, she knows controversy, right? But now a majority of her own GOP colleagues in the Freedom Caucus have voted to remove her. So, what was the final straw that had them saying enough?

HARLOW: Also, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign raking in $20 million in the first six weeks, but he's still lagging behind Trump in the polls. Will this help make up the difference?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:37:29]

HARLOW: Well, this morning, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's future in the Freedom Caucus is quite uncertain. Greene was voted out of the right-wing group by fellow lawmakers just before the Fourth of July holiday break. That's according to a fellow Freedom Caucus member, Congressman Andy Harris. So, he told reporters that they decided to remove her, quote, for some of the things she's done, closed quote. So, no specifics. But her profanity-laced altercation on the House floor two weeks ago with another member of the Freedom Caucus, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert was the straw, apparently, that broke the camel's back according to Harris. A spokesperson for Boebert declined to say how she voted at the June Freedom Caucus meeting. Greene has broken ranks from her colleagues in the past, embracing extremist conspiracy theories, even upsetting more conservative members of the Freedom Caucus with her support of Speaker McCarthy.

Now, Greene has not confirmed whether she's in or out at this point. Instead, she released a statement saying that she will never change and that she, quote, serves no group in Washington.

Let's bring back our team. Also joining us, Scott Jennings. He's a CNN political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush. Errol Louis at the table too.

So it was this and not all - and not all of the other things apparently. If she is indeed out.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I think the more noteworthy activity she's been engaged in lately has been helping Kevin McCarthy. I mean she's been one of his most reliable allies. She helped him become the speaker. Helped him on the debt deal. I mean she's really become quite important to him when he's wrangling the votes. And --

HARLOW: Do you think they're using the Boebert thing as cover for that?

JENNINGS: I mean, look, we're all just speculating here, but I - but I think the House Freedom Caucus wasn't created to help leadership and to help govern and to help pass bills and to help leadership get things done. But that's what she actually has kind of become for McCarthy, actually an important ally. So, you wonder how that played into it.

HARLOW: Interesting.

BLACKWELL: What do you think this is worth? What does it mean really?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, it signals that the unstable leadership of Kevin McCarthy is forcing people to take sides. I mean what she was trying to do, I think, was sort of straddle both worlds, be part of the Freedom Caucus and appeal to that political base, both nationally and in her own district, as well as support the speaker, the source of all of their power. If they lose effective control of the majority, the whole game is over. So, she was doing what politicians do, she's sort of trying to have it both ways.

Apparently that's not necessarily going to be the case. The Freedom Caucus, it seems to me, might be against speculation but they may be moving towards a showdown with the speaker and trying to invoke some of those rules that they put in place that could really sort of force him into a corner on some really tough votes.

[06:40:07]

I think that's what we should be looking for.

HARLOW: She's gotten so much more known. But my question to you is, how much more powerful? I mean it wasn't that long ago that Kevin McCarthy was condemning her and things she said and look how things have changed. How powerful is she in or out of the Freedom Caucus?

JENNINGS: Well, because the majority is so slim, any of these members are inherently more powerful because their vote means so much more.

HARLOW: Yes.

JENNINGS: You know, her power before was really more one of attention. You know, I can say crazy things, get attention, and then I can immediately raise tons of money, and that - that makes me politically powerful.

HARLOW: That's right. I mean she was profiled on "60 Minutes."

JENNINGS: Yes. Now, though, her power really is more derived from the inside game, which, look, if you're one of her constituents, you could be forgiven for wondering, what good does the grandstanding do? You know, what good does the outrageous activity - what good does that do me? You could look at her activities with the speaker and say, well, actually, this might do us some good because she's now someone who's viewed as an important governing partner by the people in charge, as opposed to somebody who just says crazy things.

BLACKWELL: You know, I think your first question on, it was this that broke the - the figurative camel's back.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: It was -- the camel's back was strong enough for the 9/11 conspiracy -

HARLOW: Everything else.

BLACKWELL: Strong enough for chasing down -

HARLOW: Parkland.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Parkland victims. But Republicans ran in 2022 on three things, inflation, the border and crime. This seems like just a huge distraction and departure. She doesn't help at all, even if she is closer to the speaker, does she?

JENNINGS: Well, she - Kevin has to have -- the speaker has to have every -- he needs allies all over the conference. You know, he --

BLACKWELL: He needs the gavel. I mean if he loses nothing -

JENNINGS: Yes. And so he can't - he can't afford for too many people to be, you know, not part of the team.

You know, since the debt deal there has been a sense, I think, that, you know, there are more conservative members of the conference who want to create confrontation with him, who want to make life more difficult for him. I'm sure a lot of them are in the House Freedom Caucus and they're probably mad if one of their own doesn't want to come along for that ride. I mean it would be important for Republicans to remember that they will be far more effective together than splintered. So, I guess if you're a conservative who wants to see the House - the slim House majority do well, the whole net result of this is -- we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves, we should be fighting the Democrats. But, of course, that's not what's happening here.

LOUIS: That's right. And, look, it reflects -- in her position in all of this really reflects the difficulty that Republicans are going to have in trying to run on, say, the economy.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

LOUIS: The economy seems to be improving. The president's going to get credit for it. He's branding his Bidenomics and - and every month seems to bring a decrease in inflation and some other good stuff. That means they're going to have to find some of the hot button issues. That's when they're going to start talking about critical race theory or trying to sort of, you know, go back to abortion and try and figure out some way to make it not work against some of their candidates, especially the marginal ones. Can she sort of be an important player in all of that? She absolutely will be.

HARLOW: Thank you both. Errol, Scott, appreciate it.

Chief Justice John Roberts pulling off big wins for conservatives this term, but we're going to take a look at his highs and lows as the Supreme Court term ends.

BLACKWELL: Plus, it's billionaire versus billionaire. We love these fights. Twitter now threatening to sue Meta over the new social media app Threads. What Musk is alleging Zuckerberg did regarding his employees.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:37]

BLACKWELL: There are condolences coming in this morning for two New Jersey firefighters who were tragically killed while battling a fire on a massive cargo ship in the Port of Newark. Fire officials say that Augusto Acabou and Wayne Brooks brought years of service to the job but became trapped by the intense heat. The mayor released this statement. I saw Newark's bravest struggling

with every ounce of their strength and every measure of their training to rescue and save their brothers who became trapped.

According to the firefighters union president, the main issue was getting enough water into and onto this fire. He says the water hoses that were used were too small. Six others members suffered burns, smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion. As of last night, crews were still working to completely extinguish that fire.

HARLOW: After the dramatic reversal of Roe vs. Wade last year, Chief Justice John Roberts faced intense backlash when he was unable to persuade his conservative colleagues to take incremental steps against the right to abortion. Now the chief justice is ending the Supreme Court term by delivering landmark victories for the right.

Our senior Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic joins us.

What a term. So we're going to look back at what this meant for the Roberts court. He was in the majority 95 percent of the time, Joan, when you look at it. Walk us through the wins that mattered most to the right in this court.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure, Poppy. Good morning to you and Victor.

You know, so many people were ready to count John Roberts out at the end of last term, but never underestimate John Roberts. And here are - here are four cases I'll mention that I think our viewers are particularly interested in.

And the first two are just so at the center of John Roberts' long-time agenda. And the first is, you know, an end to race-based university admissions. This is something that has been important to him since his - since the early 1980s when he was serving as a young lawyer in the Ronald Reagan administration. He has felt that even to take race into account as one factor of many in who gets admitted to any university is too much. And he prevailed very strongly there.

And then in the student loan case, Poppy, you know, that was so important for the way, you know, millions of people were wondering whether their loans would be forgiven. And he rejected the Biden administration's program but did it in a way that undercuts both congressional and executive branch power, as in when Congress passes a generally worded law and expects a federal agency to carry it out.

[06:50:15]

The chief, with the majority, of course, said that, you know, there has to be really much more specificity in these laws that are going to have economic and political significance.

And then two other cases, rejecting a fringe theory that would give state legislatures much more authority in elections, he rejected that with the majority. But, at the same time, Poppy, gave federal court judges - HARLOW: Right.

BISKUPIC: You know, enhanced their authority in elections. So, another important one that he controlled.

HARLOW: I was so struck by what he wrote in the last opinion. That was in the student debt relief case that came on the final day of the term. And he said, quote, it's become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary. He talks about reasonable minds may disagree. But then he writes, Joan, it's important the public not be misled. Any such misinterpretation would be harmful to the institution and the country. I mean he's addressing the elephant in the room that is their extraordinarily low approval rating and how partisan many people view this court.

BISKUPIC: You know, that's exactly right. And it's a strange set of sentences because in the first one he's criticizing the dissenting judges - justices for even criticizing the court. He's acting as if that's not a fair approach. But then he says, but for you public out there, don't take these disagreements as real disparagement.

But, Poppy, as you know, Elena Kagan wrote back, particularly in the student loan case, look, with this court rolling back so much precedent, it's fair to invoke criticism and it's also fair, she has written and said in other context, to question its legitimacy.

So, a lot of tensions on that front. And I felt like those statements of his were a little bit tone deaf. He's winning, for goodness sakes. Just leave it at that.

HARLOW: A very vocal Justice Jackson, Ketanji Brown Jackson, with her first term under her belt, especially what she wrote in her dissent in the affirmative action case. What struck you about her this term?

BISKUPIC: Oh, that was -- first of all, she - she was out there from the beginning. She - you know, a very active questioner during oral arguments, writing separate opinions, more so than many other first justices. But the comment that you've got up there that is so telling, you know, with a let them eat cake obliviousness today, the majority pulls the rip cord and announces colorblindness for all by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.

Poppy, that opinion, that's her dissenting opinion in the affirmative action case that will change campuses, she did it by data. She had so many data points. She made a very thorough argument and so tough in that dissent she provoked Justice Clarence Thomas to make a statement from the bench and then really tried to counter her argument very personally in his concurrence, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. We remember the late Justice Ginsburg, how her dissents, she didn't want to be sort of the dissenter in chief. Got so much attention. Now this dissent from Ketanji Brown Jackson also getting quite a bit of attention.

Appreciate it, Joan. Thank you. BISKUPIC: (INAUDIBLE).

Thanks, poppy.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump's chaotic 2020 Oval Office meeting during the final days of administration -- his administration, is now the focus of the special counsel's investigation. The multiple witnesses investigators questioned and where the probe is headed.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:29]

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. It's the top of the hour. Glad you're with us this Friday. There's a lot of news.

BLACKWELL: There is a lot of news for a Friday.

HARLOW: There is.

We begin with a CNN exclusive.

We are now learning special counsel Jack Smith's prosecutors are zeroing in on a chaotic Oval Office meeting as they near a decision on a possible criminal charge or charges for the alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election. The meeting happened just 19 days before the January 6th insurrection. And that meeting devolved into a screaming match between White House lawyers and a group of outside advisers who were pushing extreme ideas to keep Donald Trump in power. Prosecutors have asked specifically about those outsiders. You see them on your screen. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Attorney Sidney Powell, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne.

BLACKWELL: So, they floated ideas like having the military seize voting machines in key states that Trump lost, invoking martial law, appointing Sidney Powell as the special counsel to investigate supposed voter fraud. Rudy Giuliani was in that meeting as well, and prosecutors recently questioned him about it when he voluntarily sat down for a lengthy two-day interview with investigators. And we know that Trump's White House lawyers pushed back hard on those wild ideas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What they were proposing I thought was nuts.

PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: I don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. And so I didn't understand how they had gotten in.

DEREK LYONS, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: There were people shouting at each other, throwing insults at each other.

[07:00:00] SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Cipollone and Hershman (ph) and whoever the other guy was showed nothing but contempt and disdain of the president.