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CNN This Morning

Trump Appeals Colorado Ballot Ban to Supreme Court; Tonight, CNN Town Halls in Iowa Featuring Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL); Pro-Iran Militia Base Struck in Baghdad, Commander Killed. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired January 04, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Something going on, like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, that is something you need to get treated.

[07:00:04]

Otherwise, of course, all the tips we always hear about for improving your sleep. Guys?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Relaxing bedtime routine was on the list there. I think I got four kids.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: New Year's resolution. Meg, we'll make work on it. Thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: We're working on it. Meg Tirrell, as always, thank you.

And CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling that took him off of the ballot under the 14th Amendment's insurrectionist clause.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They insist that it doesn't apply to presidents.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the U.S. Constitution. This is the U.S. Supreme Court that is the final word on what it means.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, the days to go before the caucuses, who's got more momentum.

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't play for a second. I never have.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think 2016, it was a lot of not America first. Now, I think it's more about Trump first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's awfully late in the game to start taking shots. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Court documents reveal the names of nearly 200 people connected to the late sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The former president, Bill Clinton, the former president, Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing yet that is kind of a blockbuster, but there's still more to come.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: House Speaker Mike Johnson and dozens of GOP lawmakers visit the southern border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They see what has to be done. We have, I think, House Republicans who've been trying to hold up those dollars that we need.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): This is not about sending more money down here. It's about changing the policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Well, good morning, everyone. It is the top of the hour. I'm Phil Mattingly.

And I'm Audie Cornish. Poppy Harlow is off today. The Supreme Court now has an extraordinary decision to make. Can a state remove Donald Trump from the ballot?

MATTINGLY: Well, Trump is now appealing the highest court in the land after Colorado's top court ruled he engaged in insurrection on January 6th and therefore was disqualified under the Constitution. Now, in Trump's appeal, the lawyers argue the Constitution's insurrectionist ban does not apply to the presidency. They say Congress, not judges, should decide if a candidate is eligible.

Trump's lawyers also insist January 6th was not really an insurrection, and that Trump told his supporters to be peaceful during his rally right before the march and eventual attack on the Capitol.

Here's part of Trump's speech his lawyers cited in their appeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: In their appeal, Trump's attorneys point out that he never told his supporters to enter the Capitol. Even so, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled that Trump did incite violence to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power during his January 6th rally.

Here are the specific remarks the justices highlighted in their ruling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to walk down to the Capitol. You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

We're going to try and give our Republicans the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

So, let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So, the nation's lawyers, I think, have been waiting with bated breath for what this appeal from Trump's team would look like. Let's go ahead and break it down with our senior legal analyst, Elie Honig.

Let's start with the appeal has officially been filed. What does it actually tell us?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Phil, every time we do this, I'm going to insist that we start with the 14th Amendment itself because we have to start with what grounds us here. The 14th Amendment tells us, no person shall hold any office, who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion or give an aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. We are learning now a lot more about how this works.

Let's look at the arguments now that Donald Trump makes in his brief. By the way, we have a case name now, Trump versus Anderson, Anderson, one of the challengers trying to get Trump thrown off. First argument Donald Trump's team makes in the brief, there was no insurrection and Trump did not engage in any insurrection.

Now, this I think is really not for the Supreme Court. I think this is largely for show. The Supreme Court does not rehear trials. They don't make their own independent findings of fact. This, I think, is not going to be the basis ultimately for the decision.

The second point that Trump's team makes, now we're into the procedural area. It is up to Congress to tell us how to enforce the 14th Amendment, not the states. The states can't all on their own use different procedures to go about this. And in support of that, Donald Trump's team cites Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, which says the Congress, that's the U.S. Congress, not the state legislatures, the Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. That's the second argument.

Argument number three, Trump argues there was no due process, meaning what was done in Colorado, A, they didn't follow their own procedures, and, B, the hearing that Donald Trump was given, a five-day hearing, with some witnesses, some hearsay admitted, this, he argues, is not enough due process for me.

[07:05:08]

I wasn't given a fair chance to defend myself, to make my case. The process itself was unfair.

And then Trump's fourth argument is that the president does not qualify as an officer for purposes of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment says it applies to senators, representatives and officers of the United States. And if you're wondering how could that be, it does take some linguistic gymnastics.

But here's another part of the Constitution. This is the impeachment part. It says the president, vice president and all civil officers. So, the argument there is, well, the president then must be different from all, doesn't say all other, all civil officers. So, they argue these are two different things. It's a linguistic argument. It worked in the lower court in Colorado.

So, we'll see. Those are the four main arguments.

MATTINGLY: I will forever point out that Trump's legal team in a different case has said he was an officer. Yes, neither here or there.

All eyes on the Supreme Court, we have no idea what they're going to do. There is no precedent here. Do we have a timeline of when things may happen and also do they have an off ramp here?

HONIG: Yes. So, first of all, the Supreme Court, they give deadlines. They don't take them. So, they will rule on this whenever they well like. But now that the petition is in, they can rule at any moment.

Important to note, four justices are needed to take a case. Five to win, of course, to get a majority. You only need four to take the case, but we should be on moment by moment notice.

MATTINGLY: All right. Elie Honig, we got a lot more to get to over the course of days, weeks, months, perhaps.

HONIG: This will stay with us for a bit.

MATTINGLY: I appreciate it, my friend. Audie?

CORNISH: Well, less than 11 days to go before the first in the nation ballots are cast in Iowa. Tonight, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley will participate in back-to-back live town halls hosted by CNN in Des Moines. That's where we find CNN's Steve Contorno.

So, Steve, first, just give us a sense of the last-minute strategies here. How's it resonating with voters?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Audie, Trump's rivals are spread out all across the early nominating states, and there's a palpable sense of urgency from their supporters that they need to do more to take on Donald Trump head on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO (voice over): With 11 days to go, the window closing for Donald Trump's top rivals to make their case to Republican voters before the Iowa caucuses. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the ground Wednesday in Iowa --

DESANTIS: Great to be back in Dallas County.

CONTORNO: -- where Trump's grip on the party will first be tested.

And former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley delivering her pitch to voters in New Hampshire. Both candidates in a frantic push to emerge as the leading alternative to the GOP frontrunner, stepping up their attacks of the former president on the campaign trail.

DESANTIS: I do worry -- look, I think he -- I don't think he could get elected in this country in spite of what they say.

HALEY: Chaos follows him. You know I'm right. Chaos follows him. And we can't have a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos.

CONTORNO: But also facing criticism from some voters that they haven't hit Trump hard enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why haven't gone directly after him?

In my viewpoint, you're going pretty soft on him.

DESANTIS: I've articulated all the differences time and time again on the campaign trail.

I think what the media wants is they want Republican candidates to just kind of like smear him personally and kind of do that. That's just not how I roll.

CONTORNO: Meanwhile, super PACs supporting DeSantis and Haley are spending millions on the airwaves in the early states, virtually ignoring Trump and almost exclusively attacking each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a world of chaos, the last thing America needs is another dumpster fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nikki Haley, questionable judgment, dangerous on China.

CONTORNO: They're leaving a lane in New Hampshire for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is rejecting calls from Haley's allies to step away. A super PAC supporting him releasing a new ad, attacking his opponents for refusing to take on Trump.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't mention his name. Don't criticize him. Don't do anything. I can't stand by and silently acquiesce to that. CONTORNO: During a campaign stop in New Hampshire Wednesday, Haley, pressed by one voter, if she would support the Constitution, should Trump pick her to serve as vice president.

HALEY: I don't play for a second. I never have, and I'm not going to start now.

And, yes, we will always follow the Constitution. That's the best part about our country. We have to protect it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CONTORNO (on camera): Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also spent Wednesday in Iowa. The race here is really intensifying. The ad wars have as well. $115 million has been spent on the airway so far in the Hawkeye State.

An interesting development lately, Nikki Haley is actually outspending Ron DeSantis here, which is a state he really needs to do well in order to get some momentum at his back. Audie?

CORNISH: I'm looking forward to tonight. Steve Contorno, thanks so much.

MATTINGLY: Well, also this morning, hundreds of new court documents have been unsealed in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case revealing new details in court depositions.

[07:10:01]

The names mentioned again in those court filings, Prince Andrew, the two former U.S. presidents, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and more than 200 other names are expected to be revealed.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial.

CNN Senior Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins us now. These three names, they have all been mentioned before. To what extent have we learned anything new this time?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, and you're absolutely right, Phil. I mean, these names are not new. We knew these names were going to be in these documents. Important to note that the names that we have learned, everyone in there has denied any sort of wrongdoing.

But what this essentially does is that it reveals some of the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and these individuals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PROKUPECZ (voice over): Long-awaited documents finally released. The first batch of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public Wednesday. The documents stemmed from a civil defamation lawsuit brought in 2015 against Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Prominent figures including Prince Andrew and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump included in a 2016 deposition of Johanna Sjoberg, a former employee of Epstein.

She says in the document that she and Epstein had a conversation and, quote, he said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls. When asked if Clinton was a friend of Epstein's, she said she understood Epstein had, quote, dealings with Clinton.

Clinton has not been accused of any crimes or wrongdoing related to Epstein and has denied any kind of criminal activity, but in 2019, he admits to having flown on Epstein's private plane, but knew nothing of the financier's, quote, terrible crimes.

Sjoberg also recalled the time she was with Epstein on one of his planes and pilots said he needed to land in Atlantic City. Jeffrey said, great, we'll call up Trump and we'll go to -- I don't recall the name of the casino, but we'll go to the casino.

She says in the deposition she never gave a massage to Trump. This is the first reference to Donald Trump, but he is not accused of any wrongdoing.

LISA BRYANT, DIRECTOR, JEFFREY EPSTEIN, FILTHY RICH: Right now, the only person who has been prosecuted is a woman, Ghislaine Maxwell, who certainly should be behind bars. But it's interesting in this network of all these men who have been trafficking young women and underage women for decades. And yet the only person that's been prosecuted is a woman. There are many, many other people that should be held accountable as well.

PROKUPECZ: The documents also contain excerpts of depositions taking of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who previously reached an out-of-court settlement in her sexual abuse lawsuit against Prince Andrew. Giuffre alleged in her deposition that Maxwell directed her to have sexual contact with people, including former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Prince Andrew and tech guru Marvin Minsky.

Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell said in a statement on Wednesday she has consistently and vehemently maintained her innocence.

This is the first set of documents to be unsealed under a December 18 court order with more expected in the coming weeks. The documents are expected to include nearly 200 names, including some of Epstein's accusers, prominent business people and politicians.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PROKUPECZ (on camera): And then, again, later this afternoon, we are expecting to see more documents released by the court and, again, everyone that has been named so far in these documents has denied any wrongdoing.

MATTINGLY: All right. Shimon Prokupecz, thank you.

CORNISH: Breaking this morning, a deadly strike hits a pro-Iran militia base in Baghdad, details on the attacks as fears of a wider conflict grow.

MATTINGLY: And right now, a manhunt is underway after a New Jersey imam was shot and killed outside of his mosque. What officials are saying this morning?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

CORNISH: Breaking news out of Iraq, a pro-Iran militia base was hit by a drone strike in Baghdad, killing a top commander and another fighter. It's unclear at this point who ordered the strike. Iran- backed militias have been ramping up attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since mid-October.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now. And, Paula, if we could just start with what we know and get a little into how this could play into the wider tension in the region.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Audie, we do have new information, this coming from an Iraqi military spokesperson saying that it was, in fact, a drone attack that carried out this, what we are seeing in that footage, the pro-Iranian militia base in Baghdad being targeted.

Now, what we're hearing from the Iraqi side as well is that they consider it a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Iraq.

Now, there hasn't been an admission of who carried out this strike, and it's not clear who carried it out, but according to that spokesperson, they say they believe that it was the U.S.-led international coalition. No comment from that side. At this point, they called it also an unjustified attack.

But what we have seen in recent months, in fact, since those October 7th attacks by Hamas in Israel is a significant number of attacks by pro-militias -- pro-Iran militias against U.S. targets in both Iraq and also in Syria. And there has been a significant increase in those attacks.

So, at this point, we are awaiting comment as to whether or not this was from the U.S.-led coalition. It's certainly what the Iraqi side believes. Audie?

CORNISH: Is there a sense that this is starting to escalate things?

HANCOCKS: Well, of course, this does come just a day after those deadly blasts in Iran, which, again comes just a day after a top Hamas official was killed in Beirut. So, put all together, there is definitely a concern that these worries of a wider conflict in the region, something the U.S., Europe, many others desperately do not want, could be becoming more likely.

So, with every event that happens, every incident like this, inevitably, the concern will increase.

[07:20:00]

CORNISH: Paula Hancocks, thanks for your reporting.

MATTINGLY: I want to bring in CNN's Kevin Liptak, who is live for us in the north lawn of the White House. Kevin, to that point, kind of the various elements, the various threads that are occurring right now in a region where the U.S. that president have tried extremely hard over the course of the last eight to nine weeks to prevent an escalation. What's the level of concern right now?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I can tell you, Phil, that it is a high degree of concern. And this has been ongoing since this conflict began. And, really, what is underlying the fears is that any wider conflict could potentially draw the U.S. in further, more directly, to this conflict in the Middle East.

And when you see this conflict and events that Paula was laying out there, the assassination of the Hamas leader outside Beirut, this blast in Iran yesterday, you do see these elements all sort of contributing to the growing fears of a wider conflict.

When it comes to what happened in Iran yesterday, we did hear from senior administration officials that this sort of bears the markings of ISIS and not necessarily Israel, but they acknowledged that it is somewhat mysterious what happened there.

But I think the greatest fear that you hear from administration officials is in the Red Sea, in these Houthi attacks on commercial and merchant vessels that are trying to pass through. And, certainly, yesterday, we did hear much stronger language from the administration releasing this joint statement along with 11 other countries, warning the Houthis to call for an immediate end to their attacks and warning that the Houthis would bear responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region's critical waterways.

And what we heard from officials is that President Biden did task his team with coming up with an effort to bring in his allies, American allies, to try and put out a more forceful statement on the Houthis, because the U.S. has stopped short so far of directly targeting the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The options do exist on the table, and President Biden eventually will have a decision to make whether to take some sort of preemptive action against the rebel group, take out some of the drone and missile sites that are causing so much havoc and disrupting commerce in the Red Sea.

So far, his effort has been focused on this maritime coalition of countries who are trying to beef up security through U.S. warships. But just last week, we did see the first direct engagement between the U.S. and Houthis when a U.S. helicopter shot and killed some of the boats. So, certainly, the tensions very much ratcheting up.

One thing that an official did say yesterday was that this would be the last warning to the Houthis going forward. So, certainly, there are tensions very much ever present in that region. Phil? MATTINGLY: Kevin Liptak, great reporting, thank you.

Also this morning, a manhunt is underway for a gunman who shot and killed an imam outside of his mosque in Newark, New Jersey. Police say Imam Hassan Sharif was approached just before pre-dawn prayer and shot several times. He was rushed to the hospital.

Officials do not know what motivated the shooting, but the evidence found so far does not point to bias. Members of Sharif's community are devastated. They say he was a, quote, beacon of leadership and excellence and a community advocate who protested against gun violence continuously.

Investigators are now searching through surveillance video to try to spot the assailant. They're asking members of the public to come forward with any information.

CORNISH: And the House Speaker and other Republicans visited the U.S.-Mexico border and saw the migrant crisis firsthand. Could this help the stalled talks on border funding?

MATTINGLY: And, ahead, we're going to show you the shocking video of a man leaping over a court bench and attacking a judge, you see it right there, in Nevada.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

CORNISH: House Speaker Mike Johnson blaming President Biden for what he says is a catastrophe at the southern border after migrant crossings surged to a record high last month. Johnson traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday with 60 House Republicans, where they toured Border Patrol facilities and spoke with local residents and officials.

MATTINGLY: That trip is happening at the same time Senate negotiators are still attempting to strike a deal on tying stricter border policy measures to critical aid for Ukraine and Israel. But some House Republicans say they won't support any deal that doesn't have the restrictions they passed in a sweeping border bill last spring.

We have team coverage this morning. CNN's Lauren Fox is live in Washington with the latest on those talks, but, first, Ed Lavandera in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Ed, you were there, you were on the ground. What did Republican lawmakers see and have to say after their visit?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they toured the border area in this here in Eagle Pass, which has become one of the main focal points along the U.S. southern border of the migration crisis over the last year. They also met with local officials.

It was interesting, at one point -- actually at two different points as the group of lawmakers was walking along the river area. There were two groups of migrants that crossed the river in the very areas where they were standing.

It was a little bit strange because there have been so few border crossings in recent days here. However, in December, there were staggering numbers. According to Homeland Security estimates, there were more than 225,000 illegal crossings here along the U.S. southern border in the month of December, numbers that we haven't seen in more than 20 years.

And because of that, these Republican lawmakers here on the ground really trying to ratchet up pressure, calling for a return to some of the Trump-era policies that they believe helped control illegal immigration here in the U.S. This is some of what they had to say yesterday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): The solution is to go back to the policies that worked. The solution is our legislation. Or the solution is simply, I think, one sentence, no money can be used to process or release into the country any new migrants, to just say suspend it now.

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): How do we fix this? We end catch and release. How do we fix this? We deport people that are here illegally by the thousands, not by the dozens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Phil and Audie, what is also really interesting is that I spoke with several of the Republicans who were here yesterday and many of them saying that they believe that if they do not get what they want in the border security bill that is being negotiated by senators, that they will support shutting down the government here in the weeks ahead.

And many Democrats, very critical of what Republicans are calling for, they believe that they don't necessarily believe that these ideas will really influence a lot of the illegal immigration. And what we did not hear a lot from yesterday is any kind of willingness to accept immigration reform or to negotiate on that as well.

[07:30:04]

Phil and Audie?

MATTINGLY: All right. Ed Lavandera, that tees us up perfectly for Lauren Fox, who's in Washington, D.C.