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CNN This Morning

Important NATO Summit Taking Place As War In Ukraine Continues; Biden To Meet With Zelenskyy During NATO Summit; Interview With National Security Council Coordinator For Strategic Communications John Kirby; In Atlanta, Grand Jury Handling Potential Indictments In Trump 2020 Investigation Will Be Chosen; Catastrophic Flooding in Parts of Northeast; Flooding In Vermont Capital At Near-Historic Levels; Trump Team Asks Court To Delay Setting Trial Date In Classified Docs Case; Sen. Tommy Tuberville Says White Nationalists Being Racists Is Just "Some People's Opinion." Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 11, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And right now, President Biden is meeting with NATO allies in a crucial summit, the war on Ukraine dominating the agenda. And Sweden is now poised to join the NATO alliance and a major blow employee to Russia.

National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby will join us live just moments from now.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And grand jury selection set to begin today in Fulton County, Georgia, where Former President Trump is facing yet another potential indictment, this time for trying to overturn the 2020 election. This hour of "CNN This Morning" starts right now.

BROWN: Happening right now, a crucial NATO Summit now underway in Lithuania. President Biden is meeting with allies as the war in Ukraine rages on with no end in sight. In a major show of force and unity, Sweden is now poised to join the alliance after Turkey gave its blessing. It's a huge strategic blow for Vladimir Putin. President Biden sat alongside NATO Secretary General as he welcomed Sweden to the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Following the agreement yesterday, we will soon also be welcoming Sweden as a full-fledged member. So, welcome to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: One of the biggest and most contentious topics of discussion today will be Ukraine possibly joining NATO in the future. President Biden is expected to meet face to face with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tomorrow during the summit. MATTINGLY: And joining us now is the White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby. John, thank you so much for taking the time from the north lawn. I want to start with the tweet that we saw this morning from President Zelenskyy. There is a significant show of unity right now at the NATO Summit in Lithuania. Obviously, the pathway being cleared for Sweden session, a big moment for both the alliance and President Biden. It's a lot of work behind the scenes here. But President Zelenskyy coming out and really, kind of, breathing some fire on the process of a NATO invitation for Ukraine as he's heading towards Lithuania. What's your response to that?

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: Well, I would tell you -- and we've said this many, many times, we believe that NATO is in Ukraine's future. I mean, that's something that the alliance agreed way back in 2008. Now, there are some reforms, good governance, rule of law, political reforms that Ukraine still needs to work on. And we understand that pretty hard to work on some of those reforms when you're at war. And of course, they are at war right now.

So, NATO membership in the immediate future isn't likely because that would put NATO at war with Russia. Now, what the allies will do over the next couple of days is talk about a pathway to get Ukraine there eventually, and what that pathway needs to look like. And part of that path, Phil, will be making sure that the allies stay united on two things.

One, supporting Ukraine in the fight they're in so that they can succeed in this war against Russia. And two, that we look at their long-term self-defense needs. What kind of security commitments are they going to need from the United States and from allies and partners as they work towards that path towards NATO membership? Eventually, they'll get there, but there's a lot of things that still need to be done before, you know, we are -- we reach that point.

MATTINGLY: You know, I think the question that I've had coming into this summit, we know where the president stands and the president stand (ph) alone in the sense that you can cannot invite somebody into NATO in the middle of a conflict or else Article 5 would obviously trigger, and everybody would be in that conflict. I don't think anybody questions that.

But in terms of long-term security guarantees, some type of umbrella or package that could be put together with actual tangible details, is that something that is expected to come out of these very specific guarantees from the alliance to a non-member?

KIRBY: Well, let's see where the discussion goes. I don't know that coming out of Vilnius, Phil, you're going to see, you know, an actual blueprint with great specificity of what those security guarantees or commitments will look like. But I think you will see the alliance united in the idea of long-term security commitments to Ukraine and making sure that they have all the self-defense capabilities that they're going to need after this war is over.

Now, we don't know when that's going to be, the war being over that is. And we don't know exactly what those needs are going to be for Ukraine. But one thing is sure, they're going to still have a long border with Russia that they're going to need to protect, and they're going to find in the United States, and they're going to find in now 32 members of the NATO alliance. A real strong resolve at making sure that they can continue to defend themselves.

MATTINGLY: Do you understand why there may be some frustration from President Zelenskyy and his top advisors about the ambiguity across the board here? Not just with the NATO invitation or the process to join NATO, but also with what a long-term security guarantee consists and would look like?

KIRBY: Yes, yes.

MATTINGLY: They're in the middle of a war right now.

KIRBY: Yes.

MATTINGLY: I think ambiguity is not necessarily helpful for them.

KIRBY: Of course. Of course, we understand that. I mean -- and they are fighting for their lives, literally fighting for that's lives. And you can't -- look, just around the world and not see how united so many countries, more than 50 are, to helping them succeed in that war.

[08:05:00]

But that's got to be the focus. I think you're going to see a lot of attention by the allies on immediate security needs. And as I said, long-term security needs as well. But, yes, there are frustrations. Their desire for more capabilities. Their desire to end this war quickly. All of that we understand, and of course, we share many of those concerns.

MATTINGLY: John, one of the questions I've had is significant, and I think to some degree very surprising move forward yesterday -- this morning, I've lost track of time, to some degree in terms of President Erdogan, kind of, clearing the pathway for Sweden's ability to join NATO. What do -- what's your understanding of what President Erdogan received in order to clear the pathway there?

KIRBY: Well, I think -- well, first of all, we thank President Erdogan for his leadership. I mean, this was a bold step that he took at a very critical time for the alliance and we're grateful for that. There were lots of conversations and lots of engagements by the administration over recent days and weeks with not just President Erdogan, of course, but with the prime minister of Sweden who was here at the White House, and there were many discussions here.

But I think, ultimately, this is good for the alliance. This is a terrific modern military that we're used to working with. We know they use western equipment and systems. They're really going to really add to NATO's eastern flank. We're grateful that President Erdogan was willing to make this bold step and move forward.

And I think a lot of it was, frankly, to your question, a lot of it was based on conversations and dialogue between Sweden and Turkey over Turkish concerns and making sure the concerns were appropriately addressed. And we believe and have believed for quite some time that Sweden had already met all their commitments that they put forward on the margins of the Madrid summit a year ago.

MATTINGLY: One thing before I let you go, on the issue of cluster munitions, you guys have been, kind of, very clear about your perspective and I think some of the pushback you've received and you've addressed that as well.

KIRBY: Sure.

MATTINGLY: My obvious (ph) question has been, there's been, kind of, two rationales for. One is, the fight that the Ukrainians are now in where Russians are very dug in across the front lines, these would be a helpful defense capability to have. The other is purely running out of --

KIRBY: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- defense industrial issues that the U.S. and its allies are having. Which is it? I've heard both as the explanation. Which is it?

KIRBY: Well, it is actually both. But the prime driver right now is the inventory issue. The Ukrainians are literally in a gun fight. It's an artillery fight and they're trying to get through minefields while being shelled by the Russians. So, it is a very heavily dependent -- it's a heavily -- it's a fight that is heavily dependent on artillery, and they are going through many thousands of rounds per day. And it's difficult for the west to keep up with the artillery shell production that they need, what we call unitary shells. Single explosive shells.

And so, while we are ramping up our production of those shells, and we are, we aren't where we want to be. So, as a bridge so that they don't run out of shells, so that they can continue to fight in this gun fight, we're going to provide them with a bridging solution of some cluster munitions.

Now, the cluster munitions do add some capability to them. They do allow them a little bit more flexibility in breaking through some of the Russian defenses. But the main reason is really to get us a bridge to a larger production rate of unitary normal artillery shells that they can continue to use in this counteroffensive.

MATTINGLY: All right. White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby, I trust that wasn't your car alarm, sir. But if it was, please rush back to it. Thanks, Kirby. Appreciate it.

KIRBY: I sure hope not. Thank you.

BROWN: All right. Well, less than two hours from now, grand jury selection begins in Fulton County, Georgia in the case for indictment against Former President Trump, members of his inner circle, and some Georgia state officials for their roles on allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election in that state. CNN's Nick Valencia is live outside the Fulton County Courthouse. Sara Murray also back with us. I want to start with Nick, though. Tell us, what potential charges will these jurors be looking at there?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Pamela. Fani Willis, the district attorney here in Fulton County, her investigation has really been wide ranging. It's been broad in scope and she's looking at everything from obstruction of justice charges, conspiracy charges, and even racketeering.

We've talked a lot about the special purpose grand jury over the course of it last year. They've met in the evidence phase of this investigation to gather evidence in this Trump probe. And they've already handed over their charging recommendations to Fani Willis. Willis will now take those charging recommendations to one of the two grand juries that will be selected today.

Those -- that grand jury, it'll be up to them on whether or not they decide to bring an indictment against the former president and some of the biggest names in his orbit. They will be selected from a pool of jurors in this predominantly Democratic-leaning County, and the process is expected to last the day with the anticipation that the decision about a potential indictment or indictments will come as early as August. Pamela, Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. Murray, you've been covering this case for months. When?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MATTINGLY: When?

[08:10:00]

MURRAY: We expect that she's going to make charging decisions, again, in August. She sent a letter to a number of stakeholders in Georgia, basically telling them to get their security position in order, suggesting that her staff was going to take some remote work days, and others may want to consider doing the same thing. And I think what's really interesting about what's happening today is you're going to choose grand juries that day-to-day are going to be hearing murder charges, they're going to be hearing armed robbery, they're going to bearing carjackings.

And at some point, we expect the district attorney's team to go into that grand jury where they would say, OK, today you're going to hear a different kind of case. And at that point, they're going to present their Trump case. Again, we're expecting, as soon as she decides to seek indictments, which at this point we still expect, and then we'll see if the grand jury decides to return indictments.

BROWN: We shall see. I know -- I mean, since January, they've been saying it's going to happen. It's going to happen. She'd been giving indications. Here we are July. The expectation, I guess it would be, somewhat too? MURRAY: Yes. I mean, it's hard to imagine that you would go to all of these lengths to set up all of these, sort of, security procedures and perimeters ahead of time if you are not planning on making some kind of a big announcement. But this is also, you know, a black Democrat district attorney in the south who's faced a lot of threats, so far, against her and her staff. So, I think that they want to be very thoughtful and very cautious whenever they come out with their announcement.

BROWN: All right. Nick Valencia, Sara Murray, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: All right. More catastrophic flash flooding in parts of the northeast this morning in what's being called a historic once in a millennium rainfall. Vermont bracing for more as it coves with intense rain, impassable roadways, and massive damage. Officials warning that two dams are expected to breach their spillways today. And more than 100 people have been rescued in six hard-hit counties. Others simply watch as their belongings are swept away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my home. That is my garage.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What have you lost?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't know yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know yet. All I know is there was a whole bunch of tools in there and we watched them go down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just saw how strong the current was. I mean, look at it, it's pretty strong. So, I mean, if it can knock a few branches off, imagine what it can do to a, you know, to a house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, as long as we're all safe, that's the important thing and we'll figure out all the other stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, CNN's Miguel Marquez is live in Montpelier, Vermont, one of the hardest hit areas. Miguel, you've been doing all of those interviews, you've been doing the reporting here. What can you tell us about what's happening on the ground right now?

MARQUEZ: It is stunning. OK. This is the Winooski River, it goes right through the capital city here. And around 2:00 this morning -- so, what, six hours ago, it was meant to have crested at about 21 feet. But we are just west of where the north branch of this river hits the Winooski. And this bridge, Taylor Street Bridge, we've been out here for about three hours now, the water keeps coming up.

I want to -- I want you to just listen to what this sounds like. The water on this river has started to overtopped this bridge. It's an old trestle bridge built in 1929. The concern here is that if enough debris gathers on this side, and we're seeing tons of trees and branches, I saw what look like pieces of some sort of building earlier hit this thing, it gathers for a while and then goes under, it is able to move.

But look at this walking bridge, this trestle bridge just to the west of where we are. It's starting to overtake that bridge as well. Keep in mind, we're a block from the state capitol here. The Wrightsville Reservoir is just north, on the north branch of the Winooski River. That went up 42 feet in about 12 hours. It had more rain on Monday in Montpelier than any day in the history, 47,000 days or something that they've been keeping records.

So, just a massive amount of water. The problem -- the biggest problem is that they've had so much rain over the last several weeks, the sponge is full. There's nowhere for it to go except over land. And the only question now, there are concerns about whether this bridge will stand. But there are a lot of rescues, over a hundred in the state right now, and a lot of concern about people staying safe. Back to you guys.

MATTINGLY: All right. Miguel Marquez in Vermont, great reporting. Thank you.

BROWN: Wow. Looking at those images, let's talk to someone on the ground there trying to help all of those residents as the water pours in. On the phone is the Assistant City Manager of Montpelier, Vermont, Kelly Murphy. Just looking at Miguel's live shot there, Kelly, it showed you how dire the situation is. What can you tell us about conditions there right now?

KELLY MURPHY, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER OF MONTPELIER, VERMONT: Yes, good morning. Thank you for having me. So, they are pretty dire. Travel conditions are extremely poor. We have had to evacuate city operations from downtown. We're currently at our water plant which sits uphill just off of one of the main arteries into town.

And so, we're monitoring things pretty closely, including the Wrightsville Dam, which was just mentioned. And, hopefully, we won't experience an overlap there. But it's getting close. So, we're keeping an eye on that. Yes, things are not looking great. Hopefully, they'll start to look better.

[08:15:00]

BROWN: You say it's getting close at 350 this morning. Your city manager posted on Facebook, saying the dam only had six feet of storage capacity left. Can you be a little more specific on where things stand out?

MURPHY: Sure, we're at about four and a half feet, and the waters rising at about a half a foot per hour. There's a little bit of lag time between sort of, you know, winds where the rainfall happens, and it comes through the dam. And so, we're watching we have somebody out there monitoring. We are evacuating along Spring Street to get folks out of that watershed.

BROWN: Wow. Yes, it's a race against time when you put it that way. How much is left for the dam, how much -- how quickly water is coming in? Water rescues are underway right now, we know. Tell us about that and we'll, of course, be able to get to people if the dam spills over.

MURPHY: So, we do have two swift water rescue teams in place and an operation. They rescued several people at this point and are continuing to go out to get folks. We've been encouraging folks, you know, they can get to higher ground. And then, you know, call 911 and we're here, we've got our dispatch up and running and we'll answer the call.

BROWN: What should residents who have not evacuated be doing right now?

MURPHY: I think -- so, first and foremost depending on where you are stay home and stay safe. And then, if the water is rising, seek higher ground and then call emergency services.

BROWN: All right, Kelly Murphy. Best of luck to you, as you help the residents here in Montpelier, Vermont Navigate --

MURPHY: Thank you very much.

BROWN: -- is historical rainfall and flooding there.

MATTINGLY: All right. Incredible pictures there. We are also getting new images this morning of the latest round of protests in Israel. Demonstrators are taking to the streets after Israeli lawmakers voted to strip the country's Supreme Court have the power to declare government actions unreasonable. This is the first of three votes and it's all part of a judicial overhaul to measures to weaken Israel's courts and to give more power to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We're going to keep monitoring this.

BROWN: Also, attorneys for former President Trump are asking the judge to postpone the start of the classified documents case until after the 2024 election. Why now? We're going to discuss the political implications with our very own Jake Tapper. Who by the way, if you haven't heard yet, he's got a new book out.

MATTINGLY: He's got a book?

BROWN: He's got a book.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Welcome back, Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, once again raising eyebrows over his definition of a white nationalist. Our Kaitlan Collins asked him last night to explain comments he made in May in which he said that he considered white nationalists to be Americans. Here's last night's exchange for you to hear. Tuberville explain it for himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The white nationalist's someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races. SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): Well, that's some people's opinion. And I don't think I mean, a lot --

COLLINS: It's not opinion.

TUBERVILLE: Pardon?

COLLINS: What's your opinion?

TUBERVILLE: My opinion of a white nationalist. If somebody wants to call them white nationalist, to me is an American, it's American. Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I'm totally against anything that they want to do. Because I am 110 percent against racism. That people that believes in everything --

(CROSSTALK)

COLLINS: That is white -- a white nationalist is racist senator?

TUBERVILLE: Well, that's your opinion. That's your opinion. COLLINS: It's not an opinion.

TUBERVILLE: But if it's racism, if it's racism, I'm totally against it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now is CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, Anchor of The Lead and State of the Union, Jake Tapper. His latest book, All The Demons Are Here, is out today. You should read it. But first I'm going to ask Jake to explain exactly what Senator Tommy Tuberville was trying to say there.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can't get into the head of Senator Tuberville. He seems to be trying to parse the difference between people who are abject racists like members of the Ku Klux Klan. And people who are merely white nationalists, who believe in the supremacy of white people. But this is not a difference, this is not a difference. A distinction without a difference, it doesn't make much sense.

His comments make more sense, when you consider what he said in October at a campaign rally with the most abjectly racist thing I've heard from a U.S. Senator in decades. and I'm quoting here, and he said this on tape. So, at some point later today, you can roll the tape and he said Democrats quote, want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want reparations, because they think -- they think the people that do the crime are owed that.

Now, as we all know, reparation is there's a debate going on about whether the descendants of former slaves should be paid reparations because of the -- of that history. But the idea that he defines the people that do the crime as the descendants of slaves is nakedly racist, that Senator Tuberville's own words. And I think that there are serious questions about his views when it comes to matters of race and white supremacy. BROWN: Yes, that was really illuminating. I remember what he said that. Wow. Let's talk about something else in the news today, Jake Tapper, and that is what Donald Trump's legal team is seeking to postpone the trial and the classified documents case. They're even signaling that they may want to wait until after the 2024 election because they argue it would be unfair to do so while he is running. Clearly, this a delay, a potential a delay would be advantageous for the former President.

TAPPER: Yes, absolutely. And it's not -- and it's not unexpected, it is what I would expect any lawyer to try to do. Obviously, he wanted to delay the case as long as possible. A, so, you can prepare for it and B, if President Trump is reelected in November 2024, then the case goes away. So, it's not anything that I would not expect his lawyers to be pushing.

And in fact, it suggests that his lawyers, at least in this case, have some idea of what they're doing and are aggressively representing their client. I do not expect the judge in this case to go along with that. That is -- that's not a legal argument, to say. I want to be able to push this off because I'm going to be busy running for President. But it is, I think right now, we need to keep an eye on the judge to see what she does.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And certainly, she's made a lot of nerves --

BROWN: Trump appointed.

MATTINGLY: -- very interesting to watch. All right, Tapper.

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: We got to -- we got to ask about your book.

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: I'm pretty sure it's the only reason you woke up early to hang out with us. But I'll take it. So --

TAPPER: 80 percent of the reason.

MATTINGLY: Charlie is now Senator.

TAPPER: Yes, Charlie (INAUDIBLE)

[08:25:02]

MATTINGLY: For those who don't know this is the third in a series that Jake somehow has found the time to write. This one --

TAPPER: But you don't need -- you don't need to read the previous two to understand this one. Because this one, they're all the books are standalone. And this one, stars are Charlie and Margaret's kids. Ike is an AWOL Marine, he's 20, he's working on the pit crew of Evil Knievel. And Lucy is an aspiring journalist in Washington, D.C. And she gets caught up in a brand-new tabloid. And I really tried to make this book about this incredibly bizarre time.

I was only 8 years old for neither of you existed for it. But the 1970s in America while they get a wrapped for being kind of like a time of lameness and malaise and the like, it was actually a really bizarre and weird time for this country. So, I really tried to dive into that Evil Knievel, Elvis, UFOs, Cults, The Rise of Tabloid Journalism, The Summer of Sam, the Son of Sam, a serial killer here in New York. And try to tell this amazing story in the context of all this really weird, legitimate stuff that actually was happening.

BROWN: And, you know, when you look back at the 70s, what parallels do you see, what was happening then and, in our world, today?

TAPPER: A lot, frankly. First of all, you had tremendous mistrust of the government. Disillusionment with the people in power. This is obviously following Watergate, and the Vietnam War. But you see a lot of parallels to the lack of faith and lack of confidence people have today. The Rise of Tabloid Journalism, that started in 1977. And I have Lucy joins up with a Rupert Murdoch esque character, who's starting a Tabloid in D.C.

It's fictitious but that was really the time that Rupert Murdoch got a toehold in the New York Tabloid scene, with the New York Post. And that's we're living with that today. I mean, Lucy's adventures in the world of Tabloids and how people are trying to push her journalism to -- into a place that she's not comfortable. It's apparently on a certain other channel, where we see that all the time the pursuit of ratings over facts and truth. And that's really where this really began in earnest in the United States.

MATTINGLY: There's a lot of parallels, I think that this affected kind of the Vietnam Veterans that that I guess with and kind of getting into the mentality of what they were thinking and what drove them to make decisions. I think you can draw parallels as well. It's a fascinating overall book but like everybody in Washington, I was obviously reading the acknowledgments and sources pages Jake. At the end of the book, just for clarity, I'm not in them, which is fine. You know, I'm not taking that personally, but there was a --

TAPPER: You are between the line, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Implicitly.

TAPPER: You are between the line.

MATTINGLY: But there's one that kind of caught my eye. Where you're talking about staying at one of your friend's fishing lodges in Idaho.

TAPPER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And that friend is Jimmy Kimmel because Jake is, of course, hanging out with Jimmy Kimmel.

TAPPER: (INAUDIBLE) Lovely family.

MATTINGLY: It says I was inspired by his and fellow guest P.J. Clapp's love of Evil Knievel. P.J. Clapp is who?

TAPPER: Johnny Knoxville.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

TAPPER: That's the real name of Johnny Knoxville.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Right. So, can you please elaborate on that? Because that's what --

TAPPER: So, I went -- I go on this fishing trip every year with my family. Jimmy is a very lovely host, and he loves Evil Knievel. And look, Evil Knievel the appeal of this guy who for those who don't know, he was this larger than life, stuntman, motorcyclist, and he was huge in the 70s. He would be on ABC Wide World of Sports. He would do these tremendously sensational jumps he did in 1974, he tried to jump over Snake River Canyon and ended in near disaster for him.

He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, he was on the cover of Rolling Stone. And Jimmy and Johnny Knoxville and also, Dax Shepard their love of Evil Knievel convinced me to look into him. And then, I made him a big character in the book because he has this quintessentially American character that you can trace back to P.T. Barnum, the salesman, the showman.

There are -- there are roots of Donald Trump and I don't mean that pejoratively. There are roots of Donald Trump in him in his ability to get media attention and his ability to, you know, shoot from the hip and get fans for that. So, that was very fun, and I do think, Jimmy, I'm not sure if Jimmy Kimmel has ever been the muse for a work of literature before but now, he is.

BROWN: Now, he is. So, thank you Jimmy Kimmel, book is out today. Congratulations, Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks guys.

BROWN: Incredible that you've been able to just churn out these books, right?

MATTINGLY: Yes. Infuriating but also --

BROWN: Infuriating and yes, I feel like a total slacker.

TAPPER: Well, thank you so much for your support. And thanks for reading them, guys. I appreciate it.

BROWN: Yes. Well, be sure to catch Jake on The Lead, today at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and the book is called All The Demons Are Here. It's available today.

MATTINGLY: All right, well, Bud Light is facing more fallout from its partnership with a transgender influencer. How it's hitting the beer brands bottom line, that's coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't give a (BLEEP) if you drink Bud Light, Miller Lite Coors Light. It doesn't matter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't like what somebody's selling? Just don't go there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)