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Sheriff Says, Trump Expected to be Booked at Fulton County Jail; 106 Confirmed Dead in Maui as Anger Grows over Government Response; Biden to Mark One-Year Anniversary of Inflation Reduction Act. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 16, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- place that they were once the special investigation concludes.

[07:00:03]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Kara Scannell, thanks for staying on top of it.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: CNN This Morning continues right now.

Good morning, everyone. It's the top of the hour. We're so glad you are with us.

There's a lot to get to. Let's start with five things to know for this Wednesday, August 16th. Donald Trump now has nine days to turn himself in after facing his fourth indictment. We're now learning he's expected to be backed at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia.

MATTINGLY: And new reporting reveals that Trump ally Rudy Giuliani is staring down hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills and sanctions amid mounting lawsuits and criminal charges, all related to his work with Trump after the 2020 election. On court, Giuliani says his legal troubles have left him effectively out of cash.

And the death toll is rising in Hawaii, surpassing 100 now at 106. President Biden says he will travel to Maui soon once his visit will not interrupt the recovery efforts on the ground.

HARLOW: And the family depicted in the Oscar-winning film, The Blind Side, is pushing back this morning on claims from retired NFL Star Michael Oher that they withheld millions of dollars from him. They claim Oher he would plant a negative story about them in the press unless they paid him $15 million.

MATTINGLY: And in just one month within to Miami, Lionel Messi has his team reaching new heights. Messi scored his ninth goal in six games after a 4-1 victory over Philadelphia Union. And Miami now heads to the league's cup final. He's good, Poppy. He's very good. CNN This Morning starts right now.

HARLOW: So, I want to take my kids to Miami just to go take them to see Lionel Messi.

MATTINGLY: Just to see Lionel Messi?

HARLOW: Yes.

MATTINGLY: You should use my expert analysis that I just gave you that he's good at soccer. You're welcome.

HARLOW: Thank you for that, Phil Mattingly. This morning, we are tracking several developments as Donald Trump faces felony charges for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. This is what's new overnight. The Fulton County sheriff says the former president will be arrested and booked at the county jail when he surrenders. The district attorney has given Trump and his 18 co-defendants until noon next Friday to turn themselves in.

MATTINGLY: Now, Trump says he will be holding a, quote, major news conference on Monday to prove the election was somehow rigged in Georgia, even though multiple recounts and court cases have proven over and over and over again Joe Biden was the winner and Trump's lawyers lost, withdrew every one of those cases they brought in court.

Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump's alleged co-coconspirators, says he will surrender in Georgia sometime next week, and he's slamming the D.A. for using RICO racketeering charges, the same type of charges he used to prosecute mafia leaders back in the '80s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: He's a politician and not a lawyer, not an honest, honorable lawyer. This is a ridiculous application of the racketeering statute. There's probably no one that knows it better than I do.

This is not meant for election disputes. I mean, this is ridiculous what she's doing. Also, I don't know if she realizes it because she seems like a pretty incompetent, sloppy prosecutor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And another co-defendant, Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is now fighting to move his case from state court to federal court so he can try and get it dismissed.

HARLOW: That's the most fascinating part of all of it for me. We'll get to that in a little bit.

But let's bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Good morning. Okay. So, we know these new things out of Georgia, Fulton County. What does this tell us?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So, all four indictments are now in. It's a lot. So, let's take a moment. Let's assess where we are and what's next. Of course, Fulton County is the newest one.

So, what's happening in that case? The judge has given the parties until August 25th to surrender. I should say, the D.A. has given the defendants until August 25th next Friday to surrender. That's the easy way. If they do that, they come in themselves, they are processed. If anybody does not surrender by then, then the D.A. has the right to send out law enforcement officials to make an arrest. We'll see if anyone tries to press that.

The other big issue, and we just said this, word, removal, get ready for a lot of talk about removal. Mark Meadows is already trying to do this. Donald Trump will try to follow. In a nutshell, what this means is if a federal official gets charged with a state crime that relates to that federal official's official job duties, you can get the case moved from --

HARLOW: Like being president or chief of staff?

HONIG: Right, within the legitimate scope of those jobs, important qualification. You can get the case moved over to federal court and then potentially dismissed. So, these are really important motions. Mark Meadows has already done this. Trump is sure to follow.

The other thing that we're watching for here is we have 19 defendants in this case. That's a lot. And a lot of these folks are facing criminal charges for the first time. Are people going to try to save themselves, cooperate and flip? And if so, are they going to be able to take prosecutors up and up this essentially hierarchy chart? Watch and see if anyone starts pleading guilty. Watch and see if there's any cooperation agreements or what we call an information which sort of would cooperation.

[07:05:03]

HARLOW: A lot of what's in the Georgia indictment is part of Jack Smith's, one of his most recent indictment talks. Walk us through those three other outstanding cases.

HONIG: Yes. So, now, we're into the federal cases. This is Jack Smith's 2020 election interference case. The big issue there is what will the trial date be.

Now, DOJ last week put in a brief asking for January 2nd, 2024, pretty aggressive timeframe. Trump is not responding yet. His response is due later this week. I think it's fair to say he's going to want later, maybe never, certainly after the election. And then the judge who is holding the hearing to decide the trial date and other scheduling issues on August 28th, a week from Monday.

Now, the other Jack Smith federal case, now we're talking about the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, they are going through how are we going to handle classified documents.

Now, remember, DOJ returned a superseding indictment, a sort of version 2.0, where they added this third defendant, Mr. De Oliveira, and added three charges against Donald Trump. And so the question is, is that going to compromise the May 2024 trial date? Again, the dynamic, Trump is going to want to push back. DOJ is going to want to say, let's keep it.

And then, finally, let's not forget, the first of the cases to land, the Manhattan D.A.'s case, about the hush money payments, they are going through pretrial motions and they have a trial date of March 2024.

HARLOW: Calendar?

HONIG: Okay. Look how wide open 2024 is, this looks great. We have an election in November of 2024. New York, the hush money case, their trial is scheduled for March. That's definitely going to go through April. Mar-a-Lago, the Florida case we are talking about, that is set for trial starting in May. That's going to go into July.

Now, where are the other cases going to fit? Let's take Jack Smith's January 6th case. They want to start it in January. They do not have enough time to get that in before the New York case. And then we have Fani Willis' case. There's no place for that.

HARLOW: Because you can't so close to the election.

HONIG: They're not going to start -- if they start a trial in August, that's going to run right through the key months of general election. There's no way we're going to have a trial.

HARLOW: Especially a RICO case.

HONIG: Especially a RICO case. So, I don't see any room for Fani Willis' case before the election. Even Jack Smith's case, someone has to get rid of this case. I mean, Alvin Bragg, the D.A. on the New York case --

HARLOW: You mean, move it?

HONIG: Move it, yes. Not dismiss it, but move it, let's be clear.

Alvin Bragg has said publicly, he's on a little bit of a P.R. campaign, where he said, hey, if I have to I try to come off this trial to accommodate the others, I'm willing to try to do that.

HARLOW: All right. Elie, thank you so much. We'll get more with you in a little bit. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Well, the only thing keeping pace with Trump's mounting legal woes are apparently the strategies to defend him. Here is a sampling of how some of Trump's allies are responding to this Georgia indictment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FMR. REP. NEW GINGRICH (R-GA): Imagine if this had been applied to Al Gore's supporters when he contested Florida in 2000. This is a direct threat to the American system of the rule of law.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There were also alternate electors set in 1876. There were alternate ones set in 1960. On advice of counsel, Trump asked Pence to kick it back to the states for recertification, where state legislatures constitutionally empowered to determine elections. That's called politics. CHARLIE KIRK, FOUNDER, TURNING POINT USA: Alternate electors had legal precedent of being selected and chosen in the Kennedy-Nixon 1960 election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now is CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Political Correspondent for The New York Times Maggie Haberman. Maggie, there's a lot to dig into here. But one of the things I want to start with, I think the team, Poppy knows, they've been talking about this all morning, I think yesterday afternoon, last night, too, is the alleged report that the former president has decided he's going to release, definitely going to definitively lay out fraud that everyone and their mother and every court has repeatedly said is not true. The intent behind this, what is it?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So, my colleague, Jonathan Swan, and I reported yesterday that a number of Trump's aides and allies woke up yesterday several after hours after he had been indicted in Georgia for allegedly trying to subvert the election and being part of a conspiracy to do so to find that he had posted this social media posting saying there's going to be a major news conference on Monday where he's going to show this report.

We dug into it. We learned that Liz Harrington, a Trump aide who works in communications, at least in part, compiled what is more than 100- page report about Georgia specifically, as we understand it, and about what she believes and what he believes despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary is widespread fraud in that race. And that this is what he was going to move forward with.

It's unclear whether this press conference goes forward, but that's what it refers to.

And, Phil, we should note to the point that you guys were just making about the various layers of his legal travails here, Liz Harrington is an aide who shows up, albeit unnamed, in another of the indictments that Trump is facing, the one related to Mar-a-Lago documents. She was in the room, according to multiple people, when Trump was brandishing what he described as a secret military document that he could have declassified as president.

[07:10:08]

HARLOW: Your piece with Jonathan is so interesting this morning. The headline is Trump taunts test limits of release. And you write, Mr. Trump is now probing the limits of what the criminal justice system will tolerate and the lines that Judge Tanya Chuckan sought to lay out about what he can and cannot say. He is really pushing here in a way that could really hurt him in terms of how this trial is conducted, when this trial is conducted.

HABERMAN: So, Judge Chutkan, and he has been attacking prosecutors and other judges in these various cases, but Judge Chutkan, who oversees the J6 case against him at the federal level warned at a hearing on Friday with the two parties that there was clearly going to be a limit to Trump's free speech.

Now, his lawyers and his advisers argue he's the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. He's a political candidate. He should have a fair amount of leeway because of that. And she was suggesting there are going to be limits despite that because the laws of the court have to come first.

He went within a short time of that hearing and began posting on Truth Social, his social media website, other people's posts, I guess we'd call them truths, about Judge Chutkan, adding some of his own commentary.

Generally, it was other people's, one included a very large picture of her. And so he is very clearly testing the terms of his release, both in that case and, I would say, with these attacks on prosecutors in others.

Poppy, some lawyers say, and we talk about this in the piece, other defendants, if they were doing similar things, would be in jail. Now, it's very complicated to think of something like that happening to somebody with a Secret Service detail. But there is the question of will the judge or the prosecutors seek some kind of recourse as he continues to talk?

HARLOW: Well, she did threaten to move it up the more he talks about not the personal threats but about discovery.

HABERMAN: Right. It's what she suggested was that she may be forced to preserve the sanctity of the jury pool and witnesses. She may be forced to move the trial date up sooner if this continues. And so we'll see if the government tries to suggest that he has already breached that.

MATTINGLY: Maggie, for the last several months, probably long, there's been a lot of speculation about Mark Meadows, his role in all of this regardless of the special counsel investigation or the Georgia investigation, he was obviously indicted in the Georgia case. He moved alone yesterday, or his legal team moved alone yesterday to try and shift things from state court to federal court.

I was interested in the fact that he did it by himself. He didn't do it with any of the other 18 indicted co conspirators, including the former president, and then he moved first. What's your sense of that dynamic right now?

HABERMAN: I think the moving first was significant, and I think that you are going to see a pretty aggressive defense by Mark Meadows in that case. I think that they are trying to lay down a marker that this ought to be in federal court.

I'm not really surprised, Phil, that it was only him. I don't think that in a RICO case, where defendants are arguing they're not part of a conspiracy, that they all want to necessarily move together. I think that Meadows is going to make a specific argument as a former chief of staff. But as you note, Meadows is a focus of specific attention for a lot of people, for people around Trump, because people have wondered what he has said for prosecutors, because he's one of the people who knew a lot.

Now, he clearly was not especially helpful to investigators in Georgia. I mean, you can just read the indictment and see that. But I think you are going to see him try to argue very extensively that he should not have to face trial in a state court in Georgia.

HARLOW: Does it indicate anything to you, though, that he was not indicted in Jack Smith's probe about January 6th, and he is indicted here just in terms of cooperation?

HABERMAN: I don't want to speculate about what he may or may not have done in other cases. We know that with January 6th house selection committee, he partially cooperated. He turned over thousands of texts and then would not give an interview. Here, he does not seem to have done a whole hell of a lot, although, as I understand it, he had been brought in, I think, at some point by prosecutors.

He is very apparent in the federal indictment, as you say. There are scenes that relate to him but he was not indicted, but a number of people, Poppy, were not indicted by Jack Smith in that case. And so I would like to see where this goes as we go forward.

HARLOW: Yes, that's fair.

MATTINGLY: All right. Maggie Haberman, thanks as always. So, we have new CNN reporting this morning revealing just how financially taxing defending the former president has been for Rudy Giuliani.

MATTINGLY: And new, overnight, the death toll in Maui has risen. CNN gets a first look on the ground of the devastation in Lahaina. The White House is promising money, federal assistance to residents and a visit from the president to the disaster area.

Next, we're going to speak with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the president's response.

Stay with us.

[07:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Brand new this morning, we're getting our first look at just how badly wildfires have ravaged Lahaina, charred cars houses that look like they melted. The scope, it's almost hard to grasp or even fathom.

FEMA is on the ground looking for missing people. Here's how the governor describes the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JOSH GREEN (D-HI): If you're lucky in a circumstance like this, you get to see fingerprints. So, it's very hard. But that's why what we're doing is we're asking all of our loved friends and family in the area who have any concern to go get swabbed at the family support center so that we can match people genetically.

This is much like you see in a war zone or what we saw with 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, President Biden has issued a federal disaster declaration. Again, you're looking at this new video right now. It's absolute devastation. It's almost hard to get your head around. The federal government has deployed significant resources to the area.

Biden, however, didn't actually weigh in himself publicly until yesterday, speaking out while visiting Milwaukee, touting his Bidenomics agenda.

[07:20:02]

Biden telling the crowd that he and the first lady, Jill Biden, do plan to visit Maui, would make clear they don't want to infringe on the recovery efforts up to this point.

Joining us now is White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Karine, we're looking at this new video. I know you've been -- the West Wing has been receiving regular reports from the ground from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. At this moment, does the president believe that the administration is doing absolutely everything it can or are there things that on the federal side he wants to add given the scale of this tragedy?

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: First of all, Phil, first of all, thank you for having me. I want to say we are praying for those who have lost so much, who have lost loved ones, their community, their household and their businesses. We are incredibly thankful to the first responders and the really very brave firefighters who have been dealing with this fire from the moment it began.

So, I want to be very clear, and as you mentioned, you heard -- you all heard directly from the president he takes his job incredibly seriously, which is why he mobilized the federal government to make sure that we did everything that we can on the ground. You talked about the major disaster declaration.

The president was able to approve that within hours when the governor requested that because that's how seriously he took this, and he is taking this.

We have dozens of agencies, federal agencies and departments who are working hand in hand with our local partners and our local state officials to make sure that the people in Maui are getting what they need. And you heard the president talk about what the FEMA has been able to do. When you think about 50,000 meals, more than 50,000 meals being delivered, 75,000 liters of water, think about thousands of cots, thousands of blankets, all of these things are incredibly important.

You see the Department of Transportation dealing with working closely with commercial airlines to get folks out. And so we are taking this incredibly seriously.

The president has mentioned, you heard him publicly say, that the first lady and himself are going to be going to Hawaii when we know they are not being disruptive. We see FEMA search and rescue. They're sifting through ashes, five mile radius of ashes. And that's going to take some time.

And you all are reporting more than 100 souls lost. This is a city that has been completely devastated. You think about the history, the native history, generations of history on that island that have now been ruined. So, we are going to continue to be there not just for the short-term, not just for the short-term, but for the long-term.

And, sadly, this president has had to deal with many disasters in the past two years and he has shown up and he has been there and we have federal assistance continuing in those certain other states and cities that are still dealing with their own disaster. So, we are going to be here for the people of Maui until they need us

throughout this time.

MATTINGLY: It's a good point that you bring this up. I've heard from a lot of people inside the White House the focus on disaster relief. It's one of the primary issues the president puts a lot of pressure on his team to deliver on. It's a critical component of what the federal government can do, which is why I want to ask you this question, and you guys will probably think that it's minor and we're making too much of it, but the idea of not saying anything until yesterday publicly. Why?

JEAN-PIERRE: Well, I would disagree with that, Phil. The president was -- when I was with him in Utah and he was out there to talk about the PACT Act, as you know, an incredibly historic, important piece of legislation. When he was out there, at the top of his remarks, he talked about what was going on in Hawaii and how we were moving forward with the federal whole of government response. So, he has been talking about this.

You saw the FEMA administrator in the briefing room yesterday, actually zoomed in the briefing room on Monday, and I shouldn't say yesterday, while she was in Hawaii talking about the efforts, what we're doing, the federal government, I just listed out all the things that we have been doing since day one. Day one, we have had dozens of federal agencies and departments working with the folks on the ground, doing everything that we can to be helpful. And it doesn't stop there. Again, this is a long-term effort.

And so, look, you're going to continue to hear from the president. Obviously, he's eager to head out to Maui to see for himself. And you see the president. If you know this president, you know how much he cares about people. You know how much he cares about folks who have lost so much. You have covered him, Phil. You know how he deals with these types of unfortunate situations.

So, of course, he's eager to go out there. We just have to make sure it happens where we are not disrupting what's occurring on the ground, the rescue efforts that are occurring on the ground. And that is incredibly important.

MATTINGLY: You know, based on our interactions in the briefing room, I have about 3,000 questions related to the IRA in a second. But before I get to that, you guy s-- I know your position on the special counsel, on the president's son, on any of those related issues.

[07:25:06]

But I have picked up some frustration from some of the president's advisers that it ended up in a special counsel situation. What's your read? What is the president thinking right now?

JEAN-PIERRE: So, first of all, Phil, we miss you in the briefing room. Congratulations on your -- on moving to New York, my home city, really excited for you.

Look, you know our position as you just stated, as you were asking this question of me. We're going to be very clear here. We're going to be consistent, as we have been throughout the past two years. The Department of Justice is independent. We do not comment on any criminal investigation as it relates to what's occurring with the former president, as it relates to Hunter Biden. We've been very clear. We refer everyone to his representatives.

The president loves his son. He is proud of how his son is rebuilding his life. And as far as anything specific about any investigation, any criminal investigation, we just are going to be consistent and just not common.

MATTINGLY: I do want to ask you about the Inflation Reduction Act, about to turn one, I think tomorrow. The thing that --

JEAN-PIERRE: It's today, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Is it today?

JEAN-PIERRE: It's today.

MATTINGLY: You know, the year just flew by. You mentioned the PACT Act as well. It was a burst of legislative wins for the president, and the president made clear that this year was going to be about implementation, and there has been very clear results related to implementation.

You've got, you know, $110 billion in clean energy manufacturing, $1 billion in resiliency grants. You talk about the 15 million people saving, I think, an average, according to you guys, $800 on health insurance, the capping of insulin. The thing that I think, and this has been an issue for you guys for the last two-plus years, connecting that to how the public feels or what the public knows, if you look at poll after poll after poll, continues to be an issue. And yet there seems to be a sense inside the White House, it's going to turn. People are starting to figure it out. How do you know that? Why?

JEAN-PIERE: So, look, if you think about the Inflation Reduction Act, yes, it's a one-year anniversary, and it's a key part of Bidenomics. That's also important to note. And, look, we're talking about investing in America. We're talking about a fair tax code. We're talking about the biggest, largest climate action investment ever, as we were just talking about what's going on in Maui and the extreme weather. These are all incredibly important things here.

Here's an example of, as I'll provide to you. The president was in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin yesterday. He went directly to the American people, in Milwaukee, right? He talked about how the Inflation Reduction Act and also the bipartisan infrastructure legislation and also the Chips and Science Act, all of these important historic pieces of legislation are creating a manufacturing boom.

He went to Ingle Team (ph), a manufacturing company that is now, because of the Inflation Reduction Act, is going to double their efforts when you think about the wind turbine generators, when you think about the bipartisan infrastructure law, it's going to now manufacturing E.V. charging stations. All of these things are important.

And you look at Wisconsin, just specifically, looking at Wisconsin, $3 billion of companies are investing -- $3 billion in Wisconsin. 150,000, more than 150,000 jobs were creating in the last two years because of the president's Bidenomics, right, because of his economic plan. All of these things are important, 2.5 percent unemployment in Wisconsin. And you think about the national unemployment level, which is under 4 percent.

So, this is what the president's going to continue to do, talking about how his plan is investing in America, how we're lowering costs for the American people. And that's what they want to see.

So, we're going to continue to have those conversations. You're going to hear from the president, you're going to hear from the vice president, you're going to hear from his cabinet secretaries, and we're going to continue to talk, speak directly to the American people.

And also I think what you were asking me about, the polling, you were asking me why we think --

MATTINGLY: Yes, I mean, to that, he's underwater in Wisconsin. You're talking about Wisconsin. He's underwater in Wisconsin.

JEAN-PIERRE: I know and I understand it. But you have to remember, Phil, these are long-term investments, right? These are long-term investments, which Americans are going to start to see. And as you know, Phil, you know this probably better than I. You've covered a couple of administrations at this point. But, you know, polling, don't tell the whole entire story. That's why we are going to continue to tell that story.

MATTINGLY: All right. Karine Jean-Pierre, very professional, when the landscapers drove behind you, been there, know that. I appreciate your time, as always. Thank you.

JEAN-PIERRE: Awesome. Thanks, Phil.

HARLOW: Great conversation, Phil.

All right, ahead for us, the family made famous by the Oscar-winning movie The Blind Side is now pushing back hard against retired NFL star Michael Oher, who claims they withheld money from him. What they're saying, next.

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