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U.S. and U.K. Carry Out Strikes Against Iran-Backed Houthis in Yemen; GOP Race Loses Fiery Trump Critic as Christie Bows Out; Trump Returns to Iowa Today After Delivering Five-Minute Rant at $370 Million New York Civil Fraud Trial. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 12, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- law enforcement stresses that this is a dangerous hoax.

[07:00:03]

They point to a 28-year-old Kansas man who was actually killed after someone called in a fake 911 emergency about a hostage situation at his home.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: So scary.

CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ACHOR: White House confirming that the U.S. and a handful of its allies, including the United Kingdom, have carried out military strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Yemen.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They're intended to degrade the Houthi's ability to target shipping in the Red Sea. The potential for escalation is very real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've conducted this significant multi-nation operation in order to send a clear message to the Houthis that the kinds of attacks will not be tolerated.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: More than a dozen targets were hit. The targets included not only radar systems but also storage and launch sites.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden making pretty clear he will not hesitate to direct further measures.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): He certainly should have come to Congress. I'm concerned of retaliation in Iraq and whether he could draw us into a Middle East war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a good Friday morning, everyone, I'm Phil Mattingly with Erica Hill in New York. Poppy is off today.

And we are following the big news from overnight, a U.S.-led coalition launching retaliatory strikes against multiple Houthi targets in Yemen. It's raising fears of an escalation of a conflict in the region.

This is new video released by the U.K. Defense Ministry overnight. Five people were killed, six were injured, according to a Houthi military spokesman.

U.S. military officials say a, quote, significant percentage of Houthi assets were destroyed in those strikes. 16 locations were hit, including command centers, weapons depots and launching systems that were targeted.

HILL: President Biden says the strikes are a direct response to the unprecedented drone strikes and missile attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis on commercial ships in the Red Sea. Those attacks have forced more than 2,000 ships to divert thousands of miles around the Red Sea. That, of course, is also causing major delays and directly impacting the global economy.

The U.S., for its part, has spent a number of weeks trying to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from sparking a larger conflict in the region, but says the Houthis had repeatedly defied those warnings of retaliation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: If it doesn't stop, there will have to be consequences, and, unfortunately, it hasn't stopped. But we want to make sure that it doesn't stop and we're prepared to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, now, President Biden saying he, quote, will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.

MATTINGLY: Now, the strikes not only raising tensions globally, but also having a very real economic impact. Oil prices rising sharply this morning, U.S. oil coming 4.2 percent to $75 a barrel in recent trading. Brent Crude, the world's benchmark, jumped 4 percent and crossed over the $80 a barrel mark.

Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who's live for us in the north lawn of the White House. Priscilla, the warnings were coming four weeks from top U.S. officials that this was possible. It has now happened. Do officials know what's going to happen next?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Phil. The White House has been saying for some time that these attacks in the Southern Red Sea were intolerable, going so far as to give a final warning. But the last straw here, according to administration officials, came on Tuesday when there were additional Houthi attacks in the Red Sea targeting U.S. commercial vessel, as well as U.S. military vessels alongside it. That prompted President Biden to convene his national security team for military options, and then the president went on to direct Defense Secretary Austin to carry out the response.

Now, in a statement overnight, the president said the following, quote, these targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate acts on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes.

Now, the Houthis have condemned this. This is an Iran-backed rebel group. They control most of Northern Yemen, and they say that they're ready to retaliate. Saying in a statement, quote, this is a massive, aggressive attack, and warning that America and Britain will, quote, pay a heavy price.

So, what is clear here is that these strikes were part of growing international alarm as this very critical waterway was coming under threat. As you mentioned there earlier, major shipping companies were having to go around the continent of Africa, and that risked or threatened the global economy. And that's what senior administration officials said they had to respond to.

Now, of course, the concern here is that any -- that this would escalate tensions in the region. This came, of course, on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Middle East. His message, according to officials, when he was there, is that if there were strikes against the Houthis, that it was as a defense mechanism not to escalate any tensions. The question, though, is will that remain the case as in the days to come?

HILL: Priscilla Alvarez live for us at the White House this morning, thank you.

MATTINGLY: Joining us to discuss is Ian Bremmer, president and founder of the Eurasia Group and GZERO Media.

[07:05:03]

Ian, this has been telegraphed by U.S. officials for several days. The scale, though, is pretty significant. What do you make of what happened last night?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Well, I want to put in the biggest context, which is the Iranians have several of their proxies in the region that are engaged in escalating war against the United States and Israel. I mean, that's the big concern. I mean, oil price is up 4 percent, but they're still under $80. The concern for the United States is what happens if we end up in direct conflict with Iran. Then we're talking about 150 or 200, then it's a global recession, then Biden is going to lose. That's what's at stake here.

And we are on a path of military escalation against Iranian proxies, and they are providing the weapons. They are very happy with the fact that these attacks are actually occurring. That's the broader context. But, yes, as long as the Houthis continue to engage in strikes against civilian tanker traffic, and they've been doing it for weeks and weeks now, the Americans and allies are going to respond.

HILL: Is this, in any way, a deterrent? What we saw overnight, right, the hope is that in some way this is a deterrent. The language wasn't working, so this will.

BREMMER: The hope has been for weeks that the U.S. will be able to deter further escalation, and at every step it's failed. It started with nuisance strikes in response to what were seen as nuisance attacks. That's what the White House was privately saying.

Now, we have more significant target attacks against boats and that killed a bunch of Houthis. That didn't work. Then there were some economic sanctions against some countries that were helping to facilitate the financing that the Houthis were getting. Then you got a multilateral alliance with the United States and a bunch of other countries, only one in the region, Bahrain, but a bunch around the world.

HILL: Also, where the Navy's fifth fleet is important to point out.

BREMMER: I understand. No, I mean, the Americans are sort of not just -- they're not just kidding around in this region. And at every single step, deterrence has failed.

There's no reason to believe, despite the fact that this is a significant escalation, that the Houthis are now going to put down their toys. Why not? Because the Iranians are going to continue to provide those toys.

So, I think this is a very dangerous situation and the likelihood that the war is going to escalate beyond the territory of Gaza and beyond, Israel versus Hamas is virtually certain. It's hard to see this as skirmishing.

MATTINGLY: You talk about the U.S. and its allies, allies we haven't heard from, Saudi Arabia, UAE. You talk about Bahrain, where the secretary of state was, and they were publicly out in support of the coalition that conducted the strikes last night. Where are the Saudis on this? Where is the UAE on this? What are they saying behind the scenes that they won't say publicly?

BREMMER: Well, Bahrain isn't exactly a sovereign actor in this environment. They wouldn't be supporting if the Saudis weren't okay with it. But, of course, the Saudis and the Emiratis have been involved in a civil war that they are trying to bring to an end, trying to engage in a ceasefire on the ground in Yemen.

And part of what the Houthis are doing right now is not just a flex in response to the genocide, as they call it, against the Palestinians, but it is also because they want to improve their lie, improve their position in negotiations ongoing inside Yemen. So, it's hard to make this off.

But, again, the reason I started with Iran is because this could end easily if the Iranians were prepared to cut the Houthis off. They're not. So, this is a proxy war that the Americans are fighting and the Israelis are fighting against Iran.

And the question is how much closer are those principal adversaries going to be? Because Iranians don't want a direct fight against the Americans, and yet if their proxies start getting blown up in large, large numbers, and this also includes Hezbollah in the northern front in Israel, then the likelihood that the Iranians get directly involved goes way up.

HILL: So, to Phil's point, though, about other allies in the region, right, so Saudi Arabia putting out this statement overnight in response that they're urging restraint, as we look at this here. Behind the scenes, what is -- give us a sense of what is the level of conversation and even in some cases coordination on these moves with those other folks in the region who we're not hearing from as much publicly.

BREMMER: The Americans have certainly told gulf allies that these attacks were coming, as the military plans were being put into place over the last several days. No question in my mind about that. And no one in the region would have expected the Americans to sit on their hands given this. The fact that it's not just the U.S. and the fact that a multilateral coalition has put and put together does reduce the tension somewhat, it also increases the level of deterrence against Iran. Does Iran really want to have a fight against all of these countries?

Remember, the Iranians now have normalized their relationship with the Saudis and the Emirates. How did that happen? Well, because the Chinese actually facilitated it a year ago. So, you'll remember it was eight days before October 7th. And Jake Sullivan came out and he said, hey, we've never seen the Middle East so stable. He obviously jinxed it.

[07:10:00]

But the fact is that a lot of the underlying stability that he was talking about, like the fact that the Saudis, the Emirati, the Iranians can talk together now, like the Abraham Accords that Trump facilitated meant the Israelis still have relations with a country like the UAE. That's still in place.

And, frankly, we're glad for it because it does create a little stronger buffer and tripwires around, headlong, we're going to be at war with Iran. But, again, every single one of these headlines, what we need to be paying attention to is how much closer are we getting to the Israelis striking the Iranians directly, the Americans striking the Iranians directly. How much closer are we getting to the Iranians?

And remember, they're not just a unified government, the IRGC that occasionally acts autonomously, are they going to be involved in a direct strike or are we going to end up killing inadvertently a whole bunch of their actors when we're engaged in strikes against Houthi bases?

All of that would change this game for the Americans domestically and internationally overnight. HILL: Ian Bremmer, always good to see you. Thank you.

BREMMER: My pleasure.

HILL: A group of congressional Republicans are now pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson to walk away from the spending deal that was struck with top Democrats. Why they're making that push and what it could mean especially as this partial government shutdown looms.

MATTINGLY: And Senator Joe Manchin, he's in New Hampshire this morning at an event usually reserved for presidential candidates. Could he make a third party? But why is he in New Hampshire? We're going to ask him, coming up next.

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[07:15:00]

MATTINGLY: Well, a little over an hour, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is scheduled to speak at New Hampshire Politics and Eggs Series. That's significant because this particular event has become a traditional stop along the campaign trail for presidential candidates, potential presidential candidates now. The senator has yet to announce his intentions, but his decision to retire at the end of this term from the Senate and his ties to the No Labels organization have certainly been fueling speculation that he could run on a third party ticket. We're going to ask him about it.

Joining us now, Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. Senator, it's always good to see you, sir.

I will start right there. You are in New Hampshire.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): You too, Phil. How are you doing?

MATTINGLY: I'm hanging in, man. It's good New Year. Good New Year. Going to be a good year.

In terms of you're in New Hampshire right now, you're doing Politics and Eggs, covered campaign trail long enough to know what that tends to mean. Are you planning to run for president?

MANCHIN: Phil, I'm not up here as a candidate for any office. I'm up here basically promoting Americans Together. My daughter, Heather, has started an organization, which I very much support and appreciate this type of a movement for people who feel homeless and helpless in a political arena.

The Democrat Party and the Republican Party have gone to the extremes, pushing people to make a decision on what extreme party do you belong to, and there's so many that don't. And this is not a better place than New Hampshire to find out the people, the Bellwether state, to find out what they believe and why they believe that they feel homeless and how we can bring this country together.

And it's all about the United States of America. It's not about a Democrat or Republican Party, and we've lost that. We've got to bring it back.

MATTINGLY: You've spoken regularly, particularly in the last couple of months, about trying to, quote, mobilize the middle, trying to see if you can mobilize the middle before deciding what you're going to do next.

MANCHIN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: You view this group as kind of a vehicle to do that, to give you that gauge when you make up your mind?

MANCHIN: Well, yes, it does. And no matter who makes up their mind, we're just trying to get good people involved.

The character of a candidate means everything. If you can get somebody that looks at our country in the purpose of public service and not self-service and not party identification, that's what we're looking for. Those people are willing to serve for the purpose of service, not self-service. And they have nowhere to go right now because they've been driven to pick a side. And there's only one side, the American side.

So, with Americans Together, we're forming a vehicle, a purpose, and a movement that people can come together. They feel they have equality within the process. Their voice will be heard.

Here in New Hampshire, 40 percent, the majority of people who register are no party affiliation.

MATTINGLY: Right.

MANCHIN: And it's always been a bellwether state pretty much telling you where the country was going. What better place to be and have that dialogue back and forth to find out what moves them, where are they going, what are they looking for. And when I was invited to come up, I absolutely accepted the invitation and looked forward to it.

MATTINGLY: You know, you make a good point, and it's also the reason why Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, was really focused on the state in his run, which I think was certainly different than other Republican candidates. He decided earlier this week he did not have a path forward, and he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again. And that's more important than my own personal ambition.

I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Senator, I was struck in listening to his entire speech that a lot of the elements of it that he was discussing reminded me of things that you talk about on a regular basis. But to that point, it does still look like it's going to be a binary choice, a Democrat and a Republican. It looks like it will be Donald Trump as a Republican, Joe Biden certainly is the Democrat. Where does that leave you?

MANCHIN: Well, Phil, first of all, Chris Christie and Mary Pat, his wife, are dear, dear friends of mine and Gayle. So, we've been friends ever since we were governors together. Governors think alike. We don't pick sides. We can't. Every day we have a problem from a constituent. We can't say, oh, you're Democrat or Republican or independent, you support me or not. We just try to fix problems. And Chris is a good man, and he's going to be involved one way or another, I'm sure. I wish him the best.

I just know that there's a movement in the middle. Is there enough of a movement to make a difference? Is there enough of a lane for candidates to be involved? We're going to find out, but this is beyond the next election. We're building a platform that's going to go on beyond the next election and even further to where people have a home, a political home.

[07:20:04]

MATTINGLY: You've always had -- you have an interesting relationship with the Biden administration because you and the president, I think, are actually fond of one another, understand one another, some of the senior advisers as well, others not so much.

MANCHIN: We know each other pretty well.

MATTINGLY: Yes, exactly. I've always been fascinated in covering the dynamic over the course of the last several years. Have you spoken to the president, spoken to a senior team recently? You raised some concerns, very specific concerns. Have they responded to you and about those concerns?

MANCHIN: We have communications. You have to have communications. You can agree to disagree. You can have a relationship and still find a pathway forward. That's what we work on all the time.

Joe Biden, I've known for many, many years and we've worked together. We can agree to disagree to how we implement different things and what our differences are and have a dialogue that's really productive. That's good. And I encourage that and I welcome that.

So, we're losing that because people are pushed to the side. Well, if you're talking to that person, that must be the enemy on the other side.

I've never seen a Democrat or Republican politically that I've looked at as an enemy. I've looked at them as sometimes a competitor, but we can always collaborate and find a pathway forward.

And that's what Joe Biden, with 36 years of experience in the Senate, understands. He says, I understand we disagree on this. Can we work together? Yes, let's do it. And if we disagree, I'm going to continue to call you out on it if I think you're wrong. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not personal.

MATTINGLY: No, I understand that and it's why your dynamic and relationship has been effective legislatively over the course of the last two and a half, three years. But it's also I don't understand why you don't want, you aren't committed to seeing him back in the White House, why you're so reticent to back him now that he's running for re-election.

MANCHIN: I want to make sure that this moderate middle, this common sense where we run our lives from, where you run your life on a day- to-day with you and your family, Phil, and all of your colleagues, where we run our life where we're expected to make decisions that are sensible and reasonable. We're not doing that now.

And I want to make sure that we can bring the Democratic Party that's gone so far to the left, the national party, back to the center, center left, if you will, and bring our Republican Party and our friends and colleagues back to the center right. And between the center left and the center right, you're going to have a lot of good decisions that continue to keep the United States of America the superpower of the world.

That's what I'm -- that's my efforts, that's what I'm concerned about, and that's what I will continue to do.

MATTINGLY: I don't blame you for being in New Hampshire, given the current state of affairs on Capitol Hill. I think also people would understand why you might not want to run for re-election, given the current state of affairs. But given where that stands right now --

MANCHIN: Phil, so let me just --

MATTINGLY: Yes, go ahead. Go ahead.

MANCHIN: Let me let me say that because I know you're asking the question, why am I not running again, okay, and why did I not run again, and could you win or not win in a state such as -- a red state such as West Virginia.

I knew that I could win. It would be a very tough race, but I knew that I could win. I'd be sentenced again for six more years in Washington, in the Senate, that I know is not going to change from inside That's why I'm doing what I'm doing outside with Americans Together. And we're going to create a movement that I think that the sensible, reasonable, responsible middle will have a home.

MATTINGLY: Sentence, I think, is a deliberate use of the word there. Senator Joe Manchin, sir, we always appreciate your time, I really appreciate it. Come back soon, please.

MANCHIN: Thanks, Phil. Take care.

HILL: And from the Senate to the House. In our next hour, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will join us. We'll get her reaction to the strikes in Yemen overnight, and, of course, the state of the 2024 race. During the final day of his civil fraud trial, former President Donald Trump certainly found a way to be heard, multiple ways to be heard. How that trial itself is wrapping up ahead of his next one.

MATTINGLY: And it's cold in Iowa today because it's January, but it's historically cold in Iowa today and the impact the brutal winter weather is having on candidates just days before the caucus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

HILL: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump returning to Iowa this weekend to hold his final campaign events before the caucuses on Monday, this after, of course, he chose to spend yesterday attending his $370 million civil fraud trial here in New York, bringing that campaign trail to another courthouse.

On Thursday, he ignored the judge's order to focus on the facts of the case, giving several speeches inside and outside the court with some very well-worn familiar rhetoric.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a political witch hunt, the life of which nobody's ever seen before. They owe me damages for what they've done.

We didn't have a jury. We had no rights to a jury.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, inside the courtroom, the judge forced Trump to cut off the courtroom rant, which was, of course, off-camera, telling his legal team to control their client. New York Attorney General Latisha James reiterated in her closing argument that Trump acted with intent to defraud.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has been following all of this and joins us now. Brynn, what is the decision to launch into this monologue tell us about where Trump is on this trial, how he thinks this is going to end?

BRYNN GINRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, listen, this monologue that happened inside the courtroom was allowed by the judge, but it really was just a condensed version of what we heard several, several times, as you guys just said, some familiar rhetoric both inside and outside the courtroom.

Listen, his brand is at stake here. The New York Attorney General's Office trying to basically get rid of the business certificates, prevent him and his sons from doing business inside New York. And so he even said his reputation has been damaged by this trial, and he wanted to take that opportunity to make that very clear.

He also wanted to take that opportunity, as we have been saying, to make this a campaign stop. And he took the time also to attack the attorney general. I want you to hear more from him and the attorney general's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have a great company. We're a very innocent company. We did everything right.

It's all a conspiracy to try and get Biden, who can't put two sentences together, trying to get him into office.

[07:30:01]

LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: This case has never been about politics, personal vendetta or about name-calling. This --