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CNN This Morning

Ramaswamy Calls White Supremacy a Myth; Menendez Hit with New Allegations; Harvard's President Resigns; Ran and Snow hit U.S. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 03, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

CHRISTINE QUINN, FORMER NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER: I don't see him as a candidate who is pushing a cause over their own election. He's running because he wanted to win. Not necessarily because he thought he could win, but he wanted to win. And I think we're going to see his race or his campaign end very soon because the bashing Trump, the vision he has, it's just not taking hold and there's only so long you can hold on when you're not making the debates.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: I've got a footnote that I think is actually a through line. It's about Vivek Ramaswamy, because he's been endorsed in the Republican primary by the form Iowa Congressman Steve King, who controversially had comments lamenting the term white supremacist, because who among us has not wanted to use that term.

So, Ramaswamy was asked about this endorsement and whether he condemns white supremacy. And here's part of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This myth of white supremacy, the closest you could find is Jussie Smollett, while you were actually speaking of trusting the media, jumping up and down over some false narrative. The best way you're able to find your best instance of white supremacy was a guy who was actually paying his other fellow people to be actually staging something that didn't happen. And so stop picking on this farce of some figment that exists at some infinitesimally small fringe of the American public today to open our eyes to the actual real threats that we face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I think this appeals maybe to the same person who doesn't think slavery was the cause of the Civil War.

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Exactly.

CORNISH: Can you give me a sense of what you're hearing?

CARTER: I can't get a sense of who he's appealing to.

CORNISH: But he's appealing to someone, right? CARTER: He's appealing to someone. But his polling numbers have dropped like a lead balloon. I mean he's down at 4 percent. And at one point he was as high as 13, 14 percent. The more people are hearing from him, the more ridiculous they think he is. I think this is the kind of statement that is really making him less and less popular. And the more I hear from voters is, the more they hear from him, the less they like him. And it's not just - you know, some people say, he remind them of an obnoxious kid in high school that was always raising his hand and had the answer but didn't really have the answer. But in truth what people are saying now is, they really just don't like this guy.

QUINN: But I think what they're trying to do with his statements, with Nikki Haley's outrageous and offensive statements - non-statements about slavery and then statements, I think they're - I think they think they're going to get to Trump voter if they make these really outrageous race-related statements. And that's a way to do it without attacking him. And that is vile on their part, but on top of it, is not working.

JASON OSBORNE, FORMER SR. COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST, DR. BEN CARONS FOR PRESIDENT '16: But I - I mean think Vivek is not -- the appeal with Steve King is -- he's taking votes away from Trump, if Steve King even has any votes, all right. So, I think when he's trying to do is really just kind of stir the pot again. And it's not that he didn't have the answer. He gave a five-minute response and had no answer within it. But he sounded smart to himself. And I think he's playing that reel back over in his head.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: He's literally the perfect person for this era.

QUINN: Yes. Yes.

OSBORNE: Unfortunately.

MATTINGLY: He -- five-minute answers that don't actually have the answer in them but it sound smart to yourself.

OSBORNE: Right.

CORNISH: Also standing in front of a sign that says "truth."

CARTER: (INAUDIBLE).

MATTINGLY: It says "truth." That's a really good point, Audie.

And it's also a very good point about Steve King. Like, the guy doesn't have juice in Iowa anymore or anywhere, for good reason, by the way.

OSBORNE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: All right, everybody, stick around.

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley take questions directly from Iowa voters in back-to-back events. The CNN Republican presidential town halls moderated by Kaitlan Collins and Erin Burnett, they're going to air live tomorrow night starting at 9:00 Eastern.

CORNISH: Also, new corruption allegations against Senator Bob Menendez, accused of accepting bribes from Qatar. How prosecutors say he tried to cover up his actions, next.

MATTINGLY: Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson heading to the border with GOP lawmakers today as migrant crossings hit a new record. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will join CNN THIS MORNING live to discuss what's being done about the crisis. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:27]

CORNISH: This morning we're learning new details from a revised indictment against Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez that accuses him of helping another foreign country. This time the nation of Qatar. Federal prosecutors say he accepted race car tickets and other bribes in exchange for using political clout to connect the Qatari royal family to a real estate investor and securing a major investment. Now, they point to the defendants attending a private event there hosted by the government there back in 2021, after which the developer said Menendez an e-mail that depicted computer screen photos showing luxury watches worth up to $23,000 and asked him, quote, "how about one of these?"

MATTINGLY: Last October Menendez pleaded not guilty to charges of, quote, acting as an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government after he and his wife Nadine were accused of accepting bribes. The charges stemmed from a raid on the couple's home in September where gold bars, cash and a Mercedez-Benz were found. The superseding indictment also suggested after that raid the couple tried to cover up their actions and repaid tens of thousands of dollars worth of bribes. That came in the form of payments for a home mortgage and towards that Mercedes-Benz.

CNN's Lauren Fox joins us now live from Washington.

Lauren, has there been any reaction on The Hill? I feel like it's been so divided between Republicans saying we've got to go, some Democrats saying we've got to go, and Chuck Schumer not saying anything at all.

LAUREN FOX, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I think there are a lot of questions right now, Phil, about how lawmakers are going to react when they return. And there are really two separate issues. One of the issues is whether or not Bob Menendez should actually stay in the United States Senate and truly he's the only person who is likely to make that decision. So far he has said that he plans to stay. He has said that he has done nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, you do have his Democratic colleagues, dozens of them, saying that he should resign. And many of them really not letting that go, repeatedly pushing Senator Menendez to step aside, saying that his actions were inappropriate. You also have a lot of questions about whether or not he should

continue to be able to attend classified briefings. This is an issue that our colleague Manu Raju, actually pressed Majority Leader Chuck Schumer about last month because there was that briefing on Ukraine. And Senator Schumer said that it was up to Senator Menendez to decide whether or not he should be attending those briefings, that he had the ability to attend them because he has a security clearance as a United States member of the Senate.

So, I think that there's a lot of questions right now about whether or not more scrutiny comes on Senator Menendez when they return next week on Capitol Hill.

[06:40:05]

But so far we have not heard any reaction to this latest superseding indictment from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office.

CORNISH: All right, Lauren Fox, thanks so much.

MATTINGLY: And back with us now, Jason Osbourne, Lee Carter and Christine Quinn.

Look, I guess when you have another indictment that talks about gold bars, it just seems a little bit kind of old to some degree. I do want to read what Bob Menendez's attorney is saying in a statement. He says, quote, "at all times Senator Menendez acted entirely appropriately with respect to Qatar, Egypt and the many other countries he routinely interacts with. The latest indictment only exposes the lengths to which these hostile prosecutors will go to poison the public before a trial even begins."

Look -

CORNISH: Now, yes, Christine, "the latest indictment" I think is key because in 2015 he was indicted for bribery and fraud at the time.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

CORNISH: Those charges were eventually dropped. So, this, is it the final straw? Is -- and why does it - why do Democrats sound sort of helpless in saying he should go?

QUINN: Well, I hope this is the final straw because if -- I can't imagine even more of this. It's not good for us Democrats to have, you know, someone who's been in the Senate for so long having more and more and more.

I think there's been a resounding call, particularly from New Jersey, if not from the United States Senate, that he needs to go. I mean after the prior last indictment, the governor came out like that. Cory Booker came out very quickly. So -

CORNISH: Yet he persists.

QUINN: He does. He's, you know, a very arrogant guy who got away with it. And when you're a criminal and you've gotten away with it, you think you're going to get away with it again. And that's just the mentality. And I think it really, if he had any concern for himself, for his wife, for the United States Senate, he would step down today. I don't think that's going to happen. He's going to go down in an ugly way swinging, but I wish and hope he would step down today.

MATTINGLY: It mean that would be the obvious thing to do, although know Senator Menendez, there's absolutely no chance he'll ever do it.

CORNISH: He's not going to do it, yes.

MATTINGLY: I think the bigger question right now, particularly in the wake of what you saw with things like George Santos, is, like, where's the majority leader? Is this all because it's a 51-49 Senate or not? And that - that, I think, is the bigger outstanding question.

OSBORNE: But that doesn't even - like, I've thought about that in the sense that this is different than the House, where the House, if you try to get Santos out, that reduced the Republican majority and you had to go through a special election and get that. In the Senate, it's -- as soon as he's out, the governor appoints somebody. So, there's not -- it would still be 51-49 because I don't see Murphy appointing a Republican.

CARTER: Right.

MATTINGLY: Right.

OSBORNE: But for the sake of the institution, I think he needs to step down.

CARTER: Yes.

CORNISH: To the public it all seems like congressional dysfunction.

CARTER: And - yes, absolutely.

QUINN: Yes, I think that's true.

CARTER: And let's not forget, more than 70 percent of New Jerseyans said after the first -- the last - the first - the last indictment that he should go. And so I'm sure even more are going to say that now.

And I think, you know, when you look at people's trust in the federal government, only 4 percent say that our political system is working well, 16 percent trust the federal government to do the right thing. We need to see people doing the right thing. When you see something like this, Trump's argument about a corrupt system that doesn't work for the American people just takes up steam and -

MATTINGLY: Gold bars, not good.

CARTER: No, those gold bars, that's bad.

CORNISH: But let me - let me add one thing, because lawmakers are trying to show they're trying to function. House Speaker Mike Johnson is heading to the boarder with other Republican lawmakers while they're still fighting with the president about this money for the border package.

So, first of all, how does this set up the policy fight ahead?

CARTER: Well, I think that immigration is going to become a huge center piece of this election or already is.

CORNISH: But can they show that they can do anything about it, right? These are the guys who spent the last year doing -

QUINN: Nothing.

CARTER: Nothing. And it's - I mean 75 percent of Democrats are saying this is a huge issue. We see that -- we're seeing a huge shift in sentiment. When you look at - only 30 percent of people during Trump's presidency supported the border wall. Now 56 percent of Americans support a border wall. People want to see more action on immigration. And it's going to be a real issue for Democrats. And I think it's going to be a big problem for Joe Biden.

OSBORNE: Well, and I think Republicans here have done the smart thing, right? In the years past, before they started transporting the migrants into other cities, they were having to deal with the brunt of it. And so the rest of the country was saying, well, that's kind of more your problem. It's not really an issue.

But Texas is - like, they spent 80 -- over $80 million transporting these migrants to cities that are now spending billions of dollars to take care of them and Texas is sitting back and saying, see, this is what we would have had to handle. And it's playing to the bases. At least Republicans in the state level are trying to take care of the issue as best they can without the federal government involved.

CARTER: And, look, 50 -

QUINN: But they're not thinking about playing to the base. The cities that these migrants are being sent to, New York, Chicago, et cetera, that's the Democratic base. And although this should be about playing to the base, they may have a real backlash because they're going to be ginning up people in New York, Chicago, et cetera, who are mad that the - they have -- the federal government has abandoned urban America in the middle of this crisis.

MATTINGLY: Yes, there's no question it's a - it's a huge issue in both the weeks ahead but also leading into November, to your point.

All right, Jason, Lee, Christine, thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

QUINN: Thank you.

[06:45:00]

CORNISH: Embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay is out of her job, driven by a firestorm over plagiarism and last month's disastrous testimony over anti-Semitism on campus. We'll tell you what's next for the university.

MATTINGLY: Plus, dramatic rescues underway from the wreckage of Monday's deadly earthquake in Japan. At least 70 people have been pulled overnight. The plan to find those still missing, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: The embattled president of Harvard University is resigning after a plagiarism scandal and disastrous testimony on Capitol Hill about anti-Semitism on college campuses. Claudine Gay, the Ivy League school's first black president had the shortest tenure in Harvard's 400 year history at just six months and two days.

Now, tensions have been running high at universities since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, with protests turning violent and claims of anti-Semitism.

[06:50:02]

Harvard saw large-scale pro-Palestinian protests and reports of anti- Semitism on campus.

Last month, Gay testified before a congressional committee and failed to explicitly say calls for genocide of Jewish people constituted bullying and harassment on campus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?

CLAUDINE GAY, FORMER HARVARD PRESIDENT: It can be depending on the context.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Gay later apologized for that response.

CNN's Matt Egan is here with us. He's been covering this every step of the way.

What's next?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Phil, the last few months have been a nightmare really for Harvard and everyone who cares about Harvard. But the fact that Claudine Gay has resigned does no end that nightmare. I mean their problems continue, including pressure from Congress. The House committee that is investigating this plagiarism scandal, they've made clear to me that they are still -- they still want that mountain of documents from Harvard. Harvard is still very much on the hook to turn over this mountain of documents.

And we also know that there's an anti-Semitism investigation from that same House committee. There's also a federal probe from the Education Department looking into allegations of anti-Semitism and islamophobia. And, at the same time, they've also got to find a new president of this school. One who's going to repair the reputation that has clearly taken a big hit.

Now, I also think how all of this has gone down the last few weeks has raised some questions about the Harvard corporation, right, that's the powerful and secretive top board at Harvard. It's chaired by Penny Pritker, the billionaire former Obama official. And there's a lot of questions about what happened here, right? I mean how do they go from saying they're unanimously behind Claudine Gay, to three weeks later accepting her resignation. How is the independent review into her academic writings done so quickly? And in hindsight, how is it so incomplete? So, that is all going to have to be answered.

I talked to former Facebook executive Sam Lessin, he's a venture capitalist and he's a Harvard grad. And he told me he would give the Harvard corporation a D over how they handled this situation. He said that Gay's resignation is just the beginning. He said it's a first step that demonstrates that Harvard is not lost and can change, but Harvard still needs to address the deeper leadership and governance failures that came to ahead this fall.

So, yes, Claudine Gay is gone as president, but the pressure on Harvard remains.

MATTINGLY: Yes, and definitely political pressure from Capitol Hill, as you noted.

EGAN: Absolutely.

MATTINGLY: Matt Egan, thank you.

EGAN: Thanks, Phil.

CORNISH: Turning now to the urgent rescue effort underway in Japan. First responders are still pulling people from the rubble of Monday's deadly earthquake. The country's chief cabinet secretary saying some 70 people were rescued overnight. Efforts are underway to deploy more rescue dogs to hard-hit areas. But the number of people still missing remains unclear. At least 64 people were killed in the New Year's Day quake shaking the Noto peninsula. That's on the western, more rural coast of central Japan.

The quake triggered tsunami alert, sparked fires and destroyed buildings. Photos, as we're seeing, across the region show entire multistory buildings have fallen on their side. There are piles of cinders and rubble where houses once stood. More on the rescue efforts throughout this morning.

MATTINGLY: And here in the U.S., a winter storm could bring snowfall to parts of the northeast last this week, in some areas for the first time in nearly two years.

CORNISH: And new polls show Republicans are likely to clear Donald Trump despite his actions in the January 6th insurrection. We'll discuss how it's impacting the race for the White House. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:28]

MATTINGLY: A storm on the west coast bringing rain and mountain snow to the region. Also some heavy snow expected in the four corners. But the bigger story, it's been nearly two years without any snow in some parts of the northeast. But the storm on the west coast could actually change that.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking all of it.

Derek, you have been disappointing winter-enthused children for weeks now on this show. Are you about to deliver?

CORNISH: No pressure. No pressure.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS CERTIFIED METEOROLOGIST: Great question.

CORNISH: You're good. You're good.

VAN DAM: Yes, I - this is - yes, this is important stuff. And so you're going to have to humor me on this one. We're going to do a little bit of wish casting instead of forecasting. How about that?

There is definitely a tangible reason to get excited. And I'll explain why.

This is the storm that's going to bring the energy to the East Coast. In fact, you can follow it as it traverses the deep south, pulls in some moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, brings rain to Atlanta. And then, yes, has its eyes centered on the East Coast. Exactly where, that is still to be determined. We know these are a game of miles when it terms -- in terms of the path of these snowstorms that potentially bring snow to the populated areas along the I-95 corridor, but certainly a chance. Will it bring snow to the coastline, New York City, Philadelphia, well, yes. I'm excited about that. But will it happen? We need to iron out those details in the days to come.

But it is not lost on us that New York City has not received over 1 inch of snowfall in nearly 700 days. And Philadelphia, you had your least amount of snow in 2023 ever. Only 0.3 inches of snowfall.

So, we talk about that exact path that is so important. A few different scenarios here. Focus your attention on this black dot. We call that the 40 west 70 north benchmark. And where the low pressure system ultimately ends up traversing depends on who will get the snowfall and who will get the rain. You can see the European and the American model showing some differences there. And that is the difference between rain and snow for our kids.

CORNISH: We've been joking about how we can't use our sleds -

VAN DAM: It's a real deal.

CORNISH: But, I mean, many U.S. cities actually saw their heat records broken in 2023, right? VAN DAM: Yes.

CORNISH: I mean it's been hot.

VAN DAM: Yes, well, it's - Audie, in fact, it's no secret 2023 will likely be rewriting the history books. The official data hasn't come out yet but we are more than certain that 2023 will be the hottest year on record. And that has translated to some of the warmest years on record for Central Park, Newark, the Islip (ph) area, Miami, New Orleans, San Antonio and Houston. Yes, you guys were scorching under record-breaking heat. Of course, the fingerprints of climate change, combined with an El Nino season, all working together to create that extreme warmth that has also brought the lack of snow that you saw on the maps a few minutes ago.

[07:00:07]

Hopefully we can change that this weekend.

MATTINGLY: Fingers crossed.