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CNN This Morning

Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Criticizes Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley While Campaigning in New Hampshire Ahead of Primary; Co-Chair of Biden Reelection Campaign Mitch Landrieu Interviewed on President's Current Messaging against Likely Republican Nominee Donald Trump; Garland: Our Job is to Follow the Facts and the Law; DOJ: Uvalde School Massacre Could Have Been Stopped; Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Accuses the soon to be ex-wife of her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, of conspiring with people in the election interference case. Are they working together, she's raising that question there. On the other side, Jocelyn Wade is saying through her lawyers and a statement that we received at CNN that this is a personal matter and Fani Willis is using a public platform here. Take that at what you will.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much.

CNN THIS MORNING continues now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I've known Nikki very well. She worked for me for a long time. She would not be able to handle that position. She would not be able to handle the onslaught.

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't hate Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I agree with a lot of his policies. But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him.

TRUMP: She's not going to make it. She has no chance. She's got no way. MAGA is not going to be with her.

HALEY: The reason he's throwing these temper tantrums is because he knows I do have a chance. The reason he's doing this is because he knows he's not able to defend his record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. It's the top of the hour on a Friday. We're so glad you're with us. It is a race to finish in the first primary in the nation. Donald Trump, Nikki Haley launched some of their sharpest attacks now at one another. We are on the ground in New Hampshire as Haley holds a rally this hour and Ron DeSantis tries to salvage his campaign.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, CNN speaks exclusively with Attorney General Merrick Garland. He reveals to our Evan Perez why he supports the special prosecutor's push for a speedy trial for Donald Trump.

HARLOW: And new video shows people being rescued from the Rio Grande as the border standoff between the United States and Texas intensifies. What is happening today as the number of migrants crossing the southern border rises again.

This hour of CNN THIS MORNING starts now.

And it is indeed the final sprint in New Hampshire. Nikki Haley's already out of the gate this morning campaigning. Haley, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis all blitzing the state today just four days before the primary. The looming reality is that Trump can lock up this race on Tuesday with another dominant victory like he had in Iowa.

MATTINGLY: Haley is sprinting through six stops as she makes the case that she's the only one standing in Trump's way at this point. Just moments ago at a sandwich shop, she downplayed Trump's landslide win in the Iowa caucuses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you look at Iowa, I mean, President Trump won a state of 3 million people with 56,000 votes. We had a very low turnout night. We're going to have a really good turnout in New Hampshire. I think we're going to have a great day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: It's not an inaccurate point. Kylie Atwood is live at Haley's next stop. Big day in New Hampshire for Kylie and all the campaign reporters just a few days before the primary, just a few days before voters go to the polls. What was Nikki Haley's strategy last night? And is it going to separate her not just from Donald Trump but also from Ron DeSantis?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Phil, first and foremost, barnstorming the state here, this is 8:00 a.m. It's already her second event of the day here in New Hampshire. As you guys noted, former President Trump has a rally here later tonight. Ron DeSantis is also in the state. But DeSantis really isn't competing here in New Hampshire It is effectively a one-on-one race between Trump and Nikki Haley. That's exactly what her team wanted it to be right now in the state.

And there's a few pieces to her strategy here in New Hampshire. First, she is courting independent voters. And that's critical here in New Hampshire because they make up almost 40 percent of the electorate. It doesn't mean that all of them are going to support Nikki Haley, but her team feels pretty good about drawing them in and having them support her here in the primary in just a few days.

The other thing she's doing is tying former President Trump and Joe Biden into the same bucket, talking about the Trump-Biden nightmare, asking why voters would want two people running for president in their 80s. And then as Trump has been cranking up his attacks on Haley, she's been going back at him. She's been defending herself, she defended herself against his racist dog whistles earlier this week, saying that, in her view, that just shows that he is threatened by her. And when he said last night that she has no shot, that she doesn't have MAGA supporters, here's what she told Jake Tapper during that CNN town hall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If he thinks I have no chance and I have no hope, then why is he running millions of dollars of ads against me. If he thinks I have no chance and I have no hope, then why when I served in his cabinet did he say I was tough, the best U.N. ambassador he ever had, and no one could even move me. The reason he's throwing these temper tantrums is because he knows I do have a chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Nikki Haley also said last night that she wants to have a strong showing here in the New Hampshire primary, that she wants to do better than she did in Iowa, where, of course, you guys noted, she came in third. So she wants to come in first or second here.

[08:05:00]

Now, privately, her supporters are saying she really has to pull off a victory in New Hampshire, or at least come in really incredibly close to Trump. And of course, that's what she's trying to do with all of these events here in the state just four days out from the primary. Phil, Poppy?

MATTINGLY: Yes, huge stakes, and Kylie, you know this as well as anybody, big shout out to the campaign embeds who had that 7:00 a.m. start this morning. That is a painful morning start at this stage in the race. Kylie, our embed, thanks so much.

President Biden also on the campaign trail, making stops in the battleground state yesterday of North Carolina. He's pushing an economic message and sharpening his criticism of Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our approach is a fundamental break from trickle down economics, supercharged by my predecessor. My predecessor, everything was trickle down, but not a lot trickled.

By the way, did you hear he wants to see the stock market crash? Do you know why? He doesn't want to be the next Herbert Hoover. As I told him, he's already Hoover. He's the only president to be president for four years and lose jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: President Biden is entering the 2024 election with signs the U.S. economy is strengthening. Yesterday, new weekly jobless claims fell to the lowest level since September of 2022. Mortgage rates also falling after hitting nearly eight percent last year. But many voters remain skeptical. A recent poll found 31 percent of voters approve of the president's handling of the economy.

Joining us now, former White House infrastructure coordination and current national co-chair of the Biden re-election campaign, Mitch Landrieu. It's good to see you. I don't have to worry about the Hatch Act anymore in talking to you, so that's a nice little pivot now that you're on the campaign side.

MITCH LANDRIEU, FORMER SENIOR BIDEN ADVISER AND INFRASTRUCTURE COORDINATOR: It's great.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask you something that I have actually been thinking about a lot, given your expertise inside the White House, on infrastructure issues, on implementation. So many of the president's legislative accomplishments, the things he got passed, many of which were bipartisan, have a long time horizon. They take a lot of time to get in place. Whether it's the Chips Act, elements of the infrastructure act, the Inflation Reduction Act. Does that concern you? I understand that's part of the reason why they were enacted is the long time horizon and the build toward it, but does it concern you that some of these policies, people aren't seeing them?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, it's important just to note that for the past 50 years presidents have been talking about trying to rebuild the country and none of them were able to really do it. Joe Biden basically said if you elect me, I'm going to bring people together. And when we do things together, we can do big things. And he actually put the ball in the hoop in four of the biggest pieces of legislation that we have seen in the last 50 years in an effort to rebuild America, to invest in America, to invest in the American people, to create jobs, to create economic growth, and to give people, as he likes to say, a little breathing room.

And in fact, as of today, we have 40,000 projects, seeds that have been planted all over this country rebuilding the roads and bridges, the airports, the ports. He was in North Carolina yesterday talking about the importance of making sure that everybody has access to high- speed Internet, not only in the cities but in rural areas where it's critically important as well, making sure that we have clean air and clean water, getting rid of water in lead pipes, and then building a clean energy economy.

And so this president, it speaks a lot to his character that he's willing to do a deep dive investment that not only is going to have short term benefit, which we'll talk about in a second, but also the long term benefit. I'm fairly confident by the time this campaign is over, American citizens will be fully informed of the incredible work that he's done and the benefit that they have to them.

And as the president announced just a minute ago, just as one metric for the people of America, since he's been president, over 14 million jobs have been created. And since we're likely to be running against Donald Trump, it's worth noting that Donald Trump lost. He's the only president since Herbert Hoover that lost jobs. And it's minus 2.5 million. So when people ask, who is putting people back to work, who is really getting the benefit? Joe Biden is fighting for working men and women every day, and he's succeeding.

MATTINGLY: I hear you on the statistics. I also hear you on the implementation. I think the question that is long, I think, confounded not just me but some folks in your operation as well is, the economic comparative that the president has been talking about, that you laid out with the former president, people when they're polled think that the economy under Trump was better. When you talk about the infrastructure proposals, you talk to local officials, and they'll tell you ad nauseam how much they appreciated what's happening in their communities. You talk to people, and they have no concept of the fact that it may have come from this administration. You said that's going to change by Election Day. How?

LANDRIEU: Absolutely it's going to change, and these are the reasons why. Right now, Donald Trump is hoping that American citizens have collective amnesia that when he was president, he basically presided over chaos and destruction. And he thinks the American citizens are going to forget that. Well, we're going to remind them of it. We're also going to remind them in this campaign about all of the investments that we have made and the benefits to it. This is what campaigns are about and comparing the work that we have done.

[08:10:03]

Donald Trump also payments a mythical picture of a past that never was and tries to convince you that that's good for you. And everybody in America knows that that's not true. We have people in this country that are climate deniers, that are election deniers, that are science deniers. He's the king of the deniers. And we're going to remind them of what it was like when he was president. As a matter of fact, there was an article in the paper today, 17 people that worked for Donald Trump who know him really, really well, have now come out and said I cannot tell you how strongly we feel that he should not be president of the United States again. And that's why President Biden is running, to restore the soul of America and protect democracy, and then make sure that working men and women have a leg up in this country.

MATTINGLY: There's certainly no precedent to the point you're making about past administration officials with their boss running for re- election and where they stand. There's no question about that. The idea of the attacks against the former president, which you have made clear will come fast and furious in the weeks and months ahead, but also his supporters, it's upset some people, including Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan. I want you to take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE DIMON, JPMORGAN CHASE CEO: I wish the Democrats would think a little more carefully when they talk about MAGA. The Democrats have done a pretty good job with the deplorables, hugging their bibles and their beer and guns. Really? Can we just stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people with respect and listen to them a little bit? I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden's election campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LANDRIEU: What do you think when you hear that?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, I like Jamie. He's a friend. But to be clear about this, the president has always said that independents, Republicans, everybody is welcome in his tent. As a matter of fact, as he sent me across the country, he made sure, unlike Donald Trump, that this money got spent everywhere, not just for people that voted for him.

But it is true that there is a philosophy coursing across the country that we have to call something -- Trumpism, call it the far right of the party, a theory of governing that causes chaos. And that is what we're trying to point out. I think the president has profound respect for every human being. He doesn't call people vermin. He doesn't say that people poison other people's blood. But we do have to call out this extreme rightwing agenda that has threatened democracy in this country.

We'll figure out what to call it in a respectful way, but you can't hide from the fact that it's damaging who we are as a country and who we promised each other in America we'll be. And the president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden, is going to remind people of that. That's the reason why he ran, and that's why he's running again. He's, by the way, the only person that's ever beat Donald Trump, and he's going to beat him again.

MATTINGLY: That is an accurate statement, which some Democrats seem to forget sometimes. Mitch Landrieu, former senior White House official, former mayor of New Orleans, we appreciate your time, sir, thank you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you. Great being with you.

HARLOW: Attorney General Merrick Garland pushing back on the claim that he is weaponizing the Justice Department against Donald Trump. CNN's exclusive sit-down with the top law enforcement officer in the country, that is next.

MATTINGLY: And another top Justice Department official tells CNN why a new report detailing law enforcement failures during the Robb Elementary School massacre is so important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANITA GUPTA, ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: It means something to those families to have the Justice Department validate their pain and experiences. They have been feeling like everyone has just forgotten them, that the country has moved on, that the world has moved on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The mother of 10-year-old victim Lexi Rubio joins us to explain what the report means to her to remember her daughter. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, US ATTORNEY GENERAL: We follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. Politics is not a part of our determinations. It's -- it would be improper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Attorney General Merrick Garland sitting down exclusively with CNN insisting politics has no influence over decisions that are made in the Justice Department.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump disagrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have people running the Department of Justice surrounding him. They're young and they're smart, and they're communists and they're Marxists. They're fascists and they're running this country. They're running it right into the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our Evan Perez is with us. He did that exclusive interview. It is so rare that the attorney general will sit down particularly for a one-on-one, a really important conversation.

What else did you talk about?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, these are the most extensive conversations we've had from -- coming certainly from the attorney general.

He was defending the independence of these investigations by the special counsel, by Jack Smith, and really the timing of these trials.

As you know, there's a trial scheduled for March. Right now, it is still pretty much on hold while the former president litigate says, but it's obviously running straightforward into the political calendar. Here's what the attorney general had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: One of the trials for the former President Donald Trump is scheduled for March. You know, some of the polling recently shows that three quarters of Republicans believe that he is being targeted for political reasons.

Does it concern you that this public perception exists? And what can you do to try to change that? GARLAND: Okay. Of course, it concerns me. What we have to do is show

by the acts that we take, that we're following the law, that we're following the facts.

The prosecutions that you're talking about were brought last year and the special prosecutor has said from the beginning that he thinks public interest requires a speedy trial, which I agree with you.

PEREZ: You do?

GARLAND: I do, and the matter is now in the hands of a trial judge to determine when the trials will take place.

PEREZ: The department has policies about steering clear of elections. Is there a date in your mind where it might be too late to bring these trials to fruition? Again, to stay out of the way of the elections and as the department policies?

GARLAND: I'll just say, you know, what I said, which is that the cases were brought last year. The prosecutor has urged speedy trials with which I agree, and it is now in the hands of the judicial system, not in our hands.

PEREZ: Looking back now, do you think that the Department took too long to bring these cases maybe?

GARLAND: Special prosecutors follow the facts and the law. They brought cases when they thought they were ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:20:04]

PEREZ: And Phil and Poppy, you know, he also talked about the rise of extremist threats to public officials and of course all of these swatting incidents. He talked about how these essentially pose a threat to the fabric of our democracy.

HARLOW: Evan, thank you.

I encourage everyone to watch your full interview. We really appreciate it and Evan's interview includes an extensive conversation with the attorney general about the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Here's part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARLAND: Being there, seeing how small the two school rooms are and their attachment to each other, the holes in the wall left by the shooter, the places where the children tried to hide. It's just a different experience, both in terms of understanding why tactics were wrong, but also in terms of to understanding what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Yesterday, Attorney General Garland saw for the first time the evidence laid out in a new Justice Department report on the law enforcement response to the shooting which laid bare in excruciating detail the series of "cascading failures" that cost 19 students and two teachers their lives, failures in leadership, failures in decision making, in tactics and policy and training and a failure to take courageous action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANITA GUPTA, ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: Every day police officers run towards danger to keep people safe. In Uvalde, on May 24, 2022, that did not happen until far too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Ten-year-old, Lexi Rubio, you're looking at her big smile right there, she was one of the 19 children murdered at Robb Elementary School and those who love her most dearly remember her as a kind girl, a sweet girl who had a very bright future.

They described her appreciation for life, her love of softball, and her desire to be a lawyer. Lexi loved bright colors, liked sunflowers and butterflies, the ones you see right there at her memorial in Uvalde. The tribute represents Lexi's five siblings and also her love of math.

And take a look at this, this is the last picture that Lexi took with her parents after she was recognized with a Good Citizen Award during an honor roll ceremony at her school just hours before she was killed.

Lexi Rubio's mother Kimberly Mata-Rubio joins me this morning. Thank you for being here.

KIMBERLY MATA-RUBIO, MOTHER OF LEXI RUBIO: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: You told us back in May that you felt robbed of answers from authorities and I wonder has this report, the attorney general being there helped at all?

MATA-RUBIO: I'm very grateful for the DOJ and also for the attorney general for conducting this review, for telling the world what we, the families already knew, we were failed that day.

HARLOW: As Lexi's mother, you've talked about the answers that you want and need the most about the last moments of her life. Did you get any of those answers?

MATA-RUBIO: No. With every report that comes out, I'm beginning to realize that there are some answers I'll never receive, especially concerning her last moments. How fast was it? Was she waiting for us? Was she scared? Those are the answers I won't ever receive.

HARLOW: If we could talk, Kimberly, for a moment about your grief because something you've said that I will always remember is you said that your grief has only gotten worse. Grief is really complicated and it's messy for lack of a better word, and it is different for everyone. But I wonder if you could speak to what you've gone through to other

parents who have lost their children.

MATA-RUBIO: Navigating this new life is heartbreaking. I'm not the same. My family is not the same, we never will be and it doesn't get better, it gets worse because every day is one more day that we haven't seen her and it's already been so long. It's just a pain we will carry for the rest of our lives.

HARLOW: You also, Kimberly, talk with about carrying Lexi with you, not only you know in the necklace around your neck which is her thumbprint, but carrying her in your heart and mind with you and your husband, Felix, in everything you do. Can you talk about that?

MATA-RUBIO: You know, in our minds, she can't be gone if we take her with us, so we do. Everywhere we go, we take Lexi. She is with me. She is behind me. She is the reason I can continue advocating for change in her honor.

[08:25:06]

HARLOW: She must be so proud of all you have done to try to advocate for change. Kimberly, you talked about her as a girl who is going to make a difference in this world. You said, "Just wait and see."

Since she was killed, you have run for mayor. You have testified to Texas lawmakers, and I want to play that because you were pushing for an age increase in some gun legislation. Here is you fighting in your daughter's name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATA-RUBIO: Had this bill been the law in the state of Texas one year ago, the gunman would not have been able to purchase the semiautomatic weapon he used to murder our daughter and 20 others eight days after his 18th birthday.

It's too late for us. No action you take will bring back our daughter. But you do have the opportunity to honor Lexi's life and legacy by voting for House Bill 2744, which will make our community safer and save lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That bill is yet to receive a vote. Will you keep fighting?

MATA-RUBIO: Absolutely at the state level, at the federal level, every day with everything I have.

HARLOW: One of the things that I'm so struck by is the report laying out the failures for families and obstacles that you faced and you embody that that day, Kimberly.

I mean, you and Felix, running at one point, you barefoot running back to the crime scene trying to find your daughter, trying to get answers. From what you read on that, do you believe that laying it out in such

stark terms will prevent parents from ever having to do that again and facing so many obstacles?

MATA-RUBIO: Absolutely, that's what this report is for. It is to serve as a warning to other communities and to prepare law enforcement agencies around this country. But it is a very reactive approach, and I'm disappointed in the federal government for not taking action sooner and for not taking action after Uvalde so that we don't have to rely on something like this.

HARLOW: I do want to end on the fact that the sheriff at the time of Uvalde County, Sheriff Ruben Nolasco is named in the report and they talk about a failure to lead, a failure to respond appropriately.

He is running again for re-election and I wonder if you think he should not be running in light of this report.

MATA-RUBIO: There are several individuals named that are running for re-election this year and I hope voters take note of that.

HARLOW: Kimberly Mata-Rubio, we will always remember beautiful Lexi, thank you for being with us this morning.

MATA-RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]