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CNN This Morning
House Impeachment Probe Passes Along Partisan Lines; Sullivan to Meet with Israeli Leaders; Trump, Ramaswamy Hold Campaign Events in Iowa; Legal Woes Impact Biden, Trump Campaigns. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired December 14, 2023 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:21]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The House has now spoken, and I think pretty loudly, pretty clearly, with every single Republican voting in favor of moving into this official impeachment inquiry phase.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: It has now been formalized. A new election-year headache for the president. House Republicans have officially opened an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden as they look into the family finances. This morning continued questions, though, for proof, any proof of a high crime or misdemeanor.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And a big courtroom win for Donald Trump. A judge pushing pause on the federal election subversion case against the former president. So what does it mean now for that March trial date?
MATTINGLY: And a CNN exclusive: U.S. intel says nearly half of the Israeli munitions dropped on Gaza are, quote, "dumb bombs." That means they're unguided, imprecise, and they could be contributing to the staggering civilian death toll.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
Well, House Republicans have officially launched their impeachment inquiry into President Biden, even though they've struggled to say what exactly he did wrong or show any evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, even after 11 months of digging.
Republicans voted along party lines unanimously to formally approve the probe, with zero support from Democrats. They denounced the investigation as a political stunt, a stun ordered by Donald Trump for revenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): After 11 months of this, no one can tell us what President's -- President Biden's crime was. REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): They know their whole impeachment inquiry is
a sham, and it will evaporate into thin air when people realize what a pathetic joke it is.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): The puppet master in chief, Donald Trump, has directed the sycophants to target Joe Biden as part of an effort to undermine President Biden's re-election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: House Republicans are insisting they needed to take this step to give them full subpoena power to gather more evidence, subpoenas, and fight any legal challenges from the White House.
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REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We have a simple question and I think an overwhelming majority of Americans have: What did the Bidens do to receive the tens of millions of dollars from our enemies around the world?
We're very pleased with the vote today. I think that sent a message loud and clear to the White House. We expect you to comply with our information requests and our subpoenas.
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): This is an impeachment inquiry. That's all. What are my Democratic colleagues afraid of, if there's nothing to see there?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez starts us off this morning, live from the North Lawn of the White House. Priscilla, White House officials haven't been holding back their feelings about this inquiry the last several weeks. The president last night making clear his views aren't subtle either.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He's calling it, quote, "a baseless political stunt," and the president taking time in his statement to also kick off by noting all of the work that's still stalled in Congress, particularly with his supplemental aid for Ukraine, aid for Israel, and also border security.
And in a statement, the president said the following, quote, "Instead of doing anything to help make American lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their jobs on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts."
Now, Republicans have telegraphed for some time now that they planned to open up an impeachment inquiry. Aides here at the White House have been preparing for that possibility. And what they're making clear now is that their focus is on governing and calling this inquiry a political stunt -- Phil. HILL: So Priscilla, Hunter Biden was also on the Hill yesterday. His
role in this really can't be understated. Republicans are now talking about moving to hold him in contempt. What more are we hearing from the White House specifically about Hunter Biden?
ALVAREZ: Well, and this is also a sensitive matter for the president. It was front and center yesterday.
Now the president's son, Hunter, rebuked Republicans yesterday and demanded to testify publicly. And in his remarks, he conceded that he made mistakes, but what he also made clear is that this is not grounds for impeachment and that his father was not involved in any of his dealings.
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HUNTER BIDEN, SON OF JOE BIDEN: My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.
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[06:05:00]
ALVAREZ: Now, the White House has indicated they got a heads-up before that statement yesterday, saying the president was, quote, "familiar" with what his son was going to say, but they wouldn't elaborate beyond that, saying what they have said the entire time, that the president loves and supports his son, and they'll leave it at that.
MATTINGLY: Priscilla, as all of this is happening in the House, you walk across the Capitol, there are actually very real negotiations ongoing about that national security emergency aid package.
You've got new reporting on concessions that the Biden administration has been willing to make on the border in order to secure aid to Ukraine and Israel. Is everyone on board with what's been put on the table here?
ALVAREZ: Well, the short answer is no, and allies to the president tell me they're frustrated with what he's willing to give up on the border.
These are concessions that, taken together, would amount to a significant shift in immigration law and also, in some cases, are very similar to what the Trump administration has tried to do.
And so Democrats here, according to one source, are really in a box. They're in a position where they're having to embrace or support policies that not long ago they were criticizing and tying directly to the former president: for example, expelling migrants without allowing them the time to make their asylum case.
And those are the concessions that the White House is floating and ones that are concerning to his allies. MATTINGLY: Trying to reach that deal. Priscilla's been doing great
reporting on this. Priscilla Alvarez from the White House, thank you.
HILL: Right now President Biden's national security chief is back in the Middle East for what the White House is calling, quote, "extremely serious conversations" with Israeli officials. And it's a trip that comes just after Biden warned Israel is, quote, "losing" international support for the war because of its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
MATTINGLY: This morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to continue his mission to destroy Hamas, and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen says the war will, quote, "continue with or without international support."
CNN's Alex Marquardt is live for us in Tel Aviv, where Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will be today, traveling to the Middle East over the course of the last several days. What do we expect from these meetings, Alex?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil and Erica, of course, Jake Sullivan is the most senior adviser to President Biden when it comes to the war in Gaza.
So this is an extremely pivotal moment. You have countries around the world, including some of America's closest allies, calling for an immediate ceasefire. And that, of course, is something that the U.S. continues to resist.
The U.S. -- Jake Sullivan in -- as part of these extremely serious conversations as they're calling it, he's expected to press the most senior levels, senior ministers in the Israeli government. So the prime minister, the defense minister, the war cabinet, on their efforts around civilian casualties.
He wants to emphasize that the U.S. really wants to see them being more surgical, more precise when it comes to targeting Gaza, in order to minimize the number of civilian casualties.
But guys, of course, this is something that the U.S. has pushed for for a very long time. We continue to see those civilian casualties mounting in a very significant way.
At the same time, Sullivan is also expected to pressure the Israeli government on getting more aid into Gaza. Sullivan himself has been very vocal, specifically about the Kerem Shalom crossing, where I was the other day. That they want to see that crossing used for aid to go directly into Gaza. Right now, as you guys know, it's going in through the Rafah crossing in Egypt.
And these meetings -- very, very important meetings as Israel continues with this high-intensity phase of the war -- comes after those very stark, pointed comments by President Joe Biden in which he said that Netanyahu needs to change tack in this war.
He criticized the right-wing government for wanting retribution against Palestinians, for fully rejecting a two-state solution, and remarkably, Erica and Phil, the president saying that Israel is carrying out indiscriminate bombing in the Gaza Strip.
HILL: There's also -- we want to ask you about this exclusive, Alex, CNN reporting that nearly half of the munitions Israel is using in Gaza are known as dumb bombs, unguided missiles. We're hearing this just happens in a war; it depends on how they're used. What more have you learned?
MARQUARDT: Well, this really does speak to what the president was talking about in terms of the bombing. This assessment is a new U.S. intelligence assessment that my colleagues, Natasha Bertrand and Katie Bo Lillis, were told about.
Well, the -- around half of the 29,000 air-to-surface bombs, so bombs that have been dropped by planes, according to this assessment, are so-called dumb bombs or unprecise. They are not precision -- precision-guided munitions. So that is 12 to 13,000 bombs that have been dropped on Gaza are not precision-guided.
Now, our colleague, M.J. Lee at the White House, asked the White House's John Kirby yesterday how they can square their belief that Israel is trying to protect civilians as much as they can with those comments by Biden about indiscriminate bombing. Take a listen.
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JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SPOKESMAN: Sometimes in war -- and again, I'm not speaking for the Israelis -- sometimes in war your best plans, your best execution of those plans doesn't always go the way you want it to go. Doesn't always go the way you expect it to go.
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MARQUARDT: And Erica and Phil, I reached out to the IDF about this assessment. They told me that they do not comment on the munitions that they are using in this war -- Erica, Phil.
HILL: Alex, appreciate the reporting, thank you.
And an important note: just a little bit later here on CNN THIS MORNING, our chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, will take you inside Gaza to see the humanitarian crisis. This is the first time a Western media outlet has obtained access into Southern Gaza to report independently since the start of the war. You'll want to stay with us for that.
MATTINGLY: Well, the Supreme Court's taking up critical cases that quite literally could reshape the 2024 election. Abortion access, January 6th prosecutions, all on the docket. We'll explain, next.
HILL: And Vivek Ramaswamy using his CNN town hall to push his favorite conspiracy theories. His attempt to appeal to the Trump base. Next.
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VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Reaching and inspiring the next generation of Americans, I think I'm the best person in this race to do those things, and that's why I'm in it.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; This is far more than a campaign. This is the greatest political movement in the history of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Dueling campaign events, dueling messages, the same populist appeal, though. Donald Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy campaigning in Iowa just one month before the Iowa caucuses.
MATTINGLY: Both candidates pushing some of the conspiracy theories that have been critical to their campaigns on the trail. Trump speaking in Coralville, Iowa, while Ramaswamy attended the town hall hosted by CNN in Des Moines.
[06:15:08]
And that is exactly where we find our Jessica Dean, who's been camped out in Iowa the last several days and probably the next five weeks.
Jess, your takeaway from watching these two candidates last night about the state of the race?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it is my new home here in Iowa. They're very friendly and welcoming.
It was interesting to see these two particular candidates hosting or taking part in events last night, because you have the frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, who's running, in the latest polling from "The Des Moines Register" and NBC News, at 51 percent here.
And Vivek Ramaswamy, kind of this upstart young candidate at our CNN town hall last night, who is polling in single digits, but really trying to go after Trump's base.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: We're just 33 days away from Iowa, first in the nation. I wonder how you got that? You got that because of me.
DEAN (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump, sharpening his closing message to voters in Iowa, mocking his GOP rivals.
TRUMP: So we're leading with 51 percent, while Ron DeSanctimonious is at less than 19, and Haley is at 16. What happened to the Haley surge? You know,, there's a surge going on.
DEAN (voice-over): And launching attacks on President Biden over his fitness.
TRUMP: Just incredible that he can, frankly, be even running anything. They guy can't -- he can't put two sentences together.
DEAN (voice-over): And his handling of the economy.
TRUMP: Families all across America are struggling under the brutal weight of Bidenomics. You know, Bidenomics means a lot of bad things.
DEAN (voice-over): Trump's rally coming on the heels of what his campaign called a big win in the federal election case against him. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan deciding to pause the proceedings while appeals over Trump's immunity unfold.
The pause potentially delaying the start of the March 2024 trial, with the Supreme Court also agreeing to expedite consideration of the special counsel's request to rule on the immunity issue.
TRUMP: They're fighting like hell, because they want to try and get a guilty plea from the Supreme Court of the United States, which I can't imagine, because you have presidential immunity, but strange things happen.
DEAN (voice-over): Meanwhile, at a CNN town hall in Des Moines last night, Vivek Ramaswamy repeatedly trying to appeal to Trump's base, even defending his embrace of a January 6th conspiracy theory.
RAMASWAMY: If you had told me that January 6th was, in any way, an inside job, the subject of government entrapment, I would have told you that was crazy talk, fringe conspiracy theory nonsense.
I can tell you now, having gone somewhat deep in this, it's not.
The reality is we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in that field. We don't know how many. I think it's shameful -- Let me finish this answer.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let me just -- I'm going to go ahead and interrupt you here, because --
RAMASWAMY: Because I know the --
PHILLIP: -- saying that there were --
RAMASWAMY: -- the establishment doesn't approve of this message. I know this.
PHILLIP: You're saying there were federal agents.
RAMASWAMY: But we should be able to talk about this.
PHILLIP: You're saying that there were federal agents in the crowd.
RAMASWAMY: This is important to talk about. This is important.
PHILLIP: You're saying there were federal agents in the crowd on January 6th.
RAMASWAMY: Yes. PHILLIP: There's no evidence that there were federal agents in the
crowd on January 6th.
RAMASWAMY: So --
DEAN (voice-over): The Biden-Harris campaign blasting Ramaswamy, saying, quote, "His town hall tonight was an exercise in bombastic rhetoric, offering zero solutions to the real issues that Americans demand action on."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN (on camera): Tomorrow we will be one month away from the Iowa caucuses, which of course, kick off the 2024 election.
In terms of who's in Iowa today, Erica and Phil, just Vivek Ramaswamy. He has been all over the state. He holds some seven events today. He had some ten yesterday. So he's trying to really crisscross the state. But the election is upon us.
HILL: Indeed it is, as is your new residency. And we look forward to seeing you there over the next several weeks, my friend. Jess, thank you.
DEAN: Great.
HILL: Well, these legal issues hitting the Biden and the Trump campaigns. We're going to take a closer look at how this delay now, this pause in one of Trump's cases, could potentially impact the race for the White House.
MATTINGLY: And right now Russian president Vladimir Putin holding his annual year-end news conference. What he just revealed about his end game in his war against Ukraine. Stay with us.
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[06:23:07]
MATTINGLY: This morning, it's looking more likely that the two candidates in the 2024 general election will be facing some perilous legal problems.
The House moving forward with its impeachment inquiry of President Biden, even though Republicans have yet to provide any evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.
HILL: Donald Trump, of course, is facing 91 federal and state criminal charges. His campaign, though, is calling a new pause in his federal election subversion trial, which is set to begin in March, they're saying it's a win.
Let's bring in CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson; CNN political and national security analyst and "New York Times" White House and national security correspondent David Sanger; and former Republican strategist and pollster Lee Carter. So Joey, let's start right there. So we're hearing from the Trump
campaign, this pause is a big win. Is it?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Not yet, all right? So let's pause a characterization like that. And I'll tell you why.
The reality is, is that, of course, he wants to pause it, to slow it down, to potentially become president, and then there's nothing to see here. We don't know that that will occur.
We know that in addition to, the judge said that the judge wasn't vacating the dates, meaning eliminating the dates, but simply pausing them and will revisit the issue of whether those dates can move forward.
Now, there will probably be a delay, but we know that, as the court reviews this, the D.C. Circuit Court, on an expedited basis, what did Jack Smith do? Went and said to the Supreme Court, Hey, can you guys take a look at it, too.
So if the Supreme Court now gets involved, and there's an ultimate determination as to no immunity, right, then the case proceeds. The question is when.
And so I think the timing question, in terms of when specifically it will move forward, is an open question. And if it still happens but not in March, maybe in May, maybe in June, maybe in July, how big of a win really is that?
The big win would be if the Supreme Court said, You have immunity, or let the appellate court move forward and then after -- say the Supreme Court real quick, Supreme Court says no right now. We're not going to hear this to Jack Smith's request.
[06:25:03]
It goes to the appellate court, and then the Supreme Court revisits it, and there's another pause. Ask me that question. I'll say that's a win, because we'll probably get to that potentially after the election.
MATTINGLY: So there's a lot of steps here.
HILL: A lot of steps.
MATTINGLY: Maybe declaring victory --
HILL: There's a lot to keep track of.
MATTINGLY: Yes. It turns out the legal system has layers.
HILL: It does.
MATTINGLY: Tiers, to some degree.
JACKSON: Yes. MATTINGLY: Can I ask about the impeachment inquiry, the formalization of the vote, every single Republican voting yes, including the 17 Republicans who are in Biden-won districts, which I think was always kind of always the target for Democrats trying to oppose this. There was a really clarifying moment with two -- a Republican and Democratic congressmen on the House Rules Committee. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question I'm asking you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Go ahead, ask.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What -- what is the specific constitutional crime that you're investigating?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're having an inquiry so we can do an investigation and compel the production of witnesses --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And what is the crime you're investigating?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- and documents. High crimes, misdemeanors, and bribery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What high crime and misdemeanor are you investigating?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I will -- Once I get time, I will explain what we're looking at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: The reason is the bar of what should launch an impeachment -- an impeachment inquiry, I think, is in a very different place now than it ever has been in history.
And what I'm trying to figure out is, do people actually care? Like, does this register -- yes, base voters, I assume, care. But I've looked at polling, general election polling, Republican polling. This isn't in the top -- even with Republicans, this isn't in the top five or six.
CARTER LEE, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: No, it's not in the top. The whole issue is, there's a whole lot of theater that goes around this. And among the Republican base, there's a huge appetite to say there's this two-tiered system of justice.
Seventy-eight percent of Republicans agree that there's a two-tier system of justice; it seems unfair. And they want the same standards applied to the other side.
And so this is really popular among Republican voters. It's not one of the driving forces, but they want to see their -- the Republican leadership fight back, so to speak.
Now, does that mean that there is evidence? Does it mean it's the right thing to do? No. But this is absolutely something that is very popular among, especially those Trump supporters who feel like there's this unfair way of treating the different --
MATTINGLY: And do you think that that's really the primary reason they're doing this?
CARTER: I do.
HILL: The also interesting thing is we see the reaction from Republicans after that vote yesterday. Mike Lawler of New York, right, Biden-won district, noting, Well, it's not political. He's saying this is about facts and evidence; it's not political. We have to follow the facts and the evidence.
To both of your points, is that what we're seeing happening here? Can Republicans just say, Hey, look, we have to do this? Is that -- is that point selling?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You could go off and do that without having a formal vote on an impeachment inquiry. Obviously, they've been doing that now for months, right?
So what's interesting here is, whether or not we have now routinized the idea of impeaching anybody for whom there is even the vaguest suspicion, with no real evidence out there. And that's not really what the founders had in mind about impeachment.
I mean, this was supposed to be a truly rare event. You know, we went a long, long way, you know, from getting to impeach -- one impeachment in the 1800s, up until -- until Bill Clinton, and now where are we?
I think what's really driving this, in the end, is that Donald Trump was outraged that he was twice impeached and basically just demanded, I want an impeachment of Biden. He didn't really care about what the impeachment was over.
So we've got a set of -- an impeachment inquiry in search of some -- some evidence and charges.
CARTER: I do think, though, that there are a fair amount of Republicans who think that there's something to see here. I think there's a lot of people who say that there's money that's changed hands that doesn't make sense, and they want to understand it. They want it to be transparent.
And to your point, it doesn't necessarily need to be an impeachment inquiry.
SANGER: Yes. You can do that.
CARTER: But there are a lot of people who say there's something really not right happening here.
JACKSON: So let's say that's true. Is that the vehicle? If something's not right, right, that's why we have investigations. We have investigations to determine whether or not there's something to see here.
And to say, We're going to launch an impeachment inquiry into the clip you played to find out what we need to find out, if there's something wrong, what's the high crime and misdemeanor? We're investigating. Well, what did he do? We'll let you know. What is that?
You get an impeachment inquiry or you move to impeachment when there's some firm legal basis. How about we do the investigative work first? How about we do the homework first? How about we have a core issue? And then, if there's something to see, you have an impeachment.
But we're going to impeachment inquiry to find out if there's something to find out where we can impeach you.
We have to have a justice system that works. We have to have a process politically that works, and this to me seems like retaliation, David, to your point.
HILL: It reminds me of something you said wise, I think it was you the other day, Phil, when I was watching.
MATTINGLY: If it was wise?
HILL: If it was wise, it was definitely Phil Mattingly, for the record. Just about what has worked, right? And to your point about, we all have questions. It's the throwing out there of the "but what if, but what if?" And it's not just Republicans that do it.
MATTINGLY: Because the inference that way looks terrible. There's no way it was worth $10 million to be doing X, Y, or Z. However, there's never been a direct connection to the president, certainly during his presidency.
