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Powerful Winter Storm Blasting Northeast; Senate Passes $95 Billion Foreign Aid Bill; Trump Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Immunity Claim. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, hundreds of U.S. flights canceled as a heavy winter storm intensifies in the northeast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please stay off the roads. It's looking like it will come down pretty heavily, pretty fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This nor'easter will be quick, but it will pack a punch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not our call. It's Mother Nature's call.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump taking his case to the Supreme Court to press his claim of total immunity as president.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hoping to further delay his federal trial on election interference.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're rehashing arguments that have been rejected by four federal judges.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Will they even agree to take the case? And will the Trump strategy work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: NATO strikes back after Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack alliance members who haven't paid up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frankly, I think this is exactly what Putin loves to hear.

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's what happens when he gets off the teleprompter for two minutes. He becomes unhinged. He becomes undisciplined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether you're a Trump supporter or a Trump opponent, don't think he's kidding about this one.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Phil Matting with Poppy Harlow in New York. It's the top of the hour.

And right now, we are tracking a monster winter storm as it pummeled the northeast with heavy snow, powerful wind and coastal flooding. More than 30 million people are in its path.

This is a live look right now here in Manhattan, New York City bracing for the most snow we've seen in years. We're expecting up to eight inches here.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Parts of New England could see a foot of snow. This nor'easter is colliding head on with the morning rush hour and really creating just treacherous conditions. More than a thousand flights have already been canceled.

Let's start this hour with Meteorologist Derek Van Dam in Central Park. New York City schools closed today. That's for sure. What are we going to see in the next couple of hours?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Poppy. Well, the landscape here in Manhattan in New York City is being transformed right before our eyes. It's a winter snow globe.

We are at Columbus Circle and I want to just have my cameraman look down. This is normally a very busy exit and entrance to Columbus Circle and the subway underground. And that is just not the case, assuming that people here are just listening to the advice of the mayor, stay at home, perhaps work remotely if they can.

You know, I get the sense that people are almost yearning for a snowstorm because it has been so long since New York City and many of the East Coast cities have had a significant storm. We're contending with one of the warmest winters on record. And you have to go back to January 2022 since the last time that a winter storm warning was issued here where I'm located in New York City.

This is extremely heavy, wet snow. You don't have to look hard. You can just squeeze out the available water. We call this a one to eight- inch liquid to snow ratio. Basically what that means is it's very, very heavy, difficult to plow, exhausting to shovel. So, be very careful.

There have been 700 salt trucks deployed across the city already before that first snowflake even fell this morning.

I want to get straight to the graphics, talk about what has happened and what's to come. We believe that the snow actually came a little earlier than anticipated. We expected a little bit of rain to start off this forecast this morning, but that was not the case. I stepped outside my hotel this morning and it was already snowing those big chunky, chunky wet snowflakes.

And as we zoom in a little closer, that I-95 corridor from New York all the way down to Philadelphia, seeing that transition already take place. So, that could increase our snowfall totals. And we could see more snow today alone than we have seen in the past couple of years on any given day here in New York City.

Five to eight inches, that's the official forecast for the New York City area, Central New Jersey and into Long Island as well. This storm will enter and peak during rush hour, as you can see directly behind me here in Columbus Circle, but it will exit just as quickly as it entered into the equation.

So, you know, a lot of the public schools here have been canceled, actually changed over to remote learning. I guess, Poppy and Phil, if I was a child, I think I'd feel a little bit cheated this morning because, you know, you still have to learn today and don't --

HARLOW: Not our kids.

MATTINGLY: Yes. I feel like that's a 50-50. This is like one of those split screens. Jubilation, jubilation for the kids, and parents are just tired. They're tired. We are all very tired.

Derek Van Dam, thank you, my friend.

And we do have breaking news from Capitol Hill this morning. After a marathon vote that ended just last hour, the Senate has passed the $95.3 billion foreign aid package with money for Israel and Ukraine. The vote was 70 to 29.

We have team coverage. Starting us off, CNN's Eva McKend joins us from Washington. Fred Pleitgen is joining us from London.

Eva, I want to start with you. The Senate has cleared this bill.

[07:05:00]

It was a big lift. They got it across the finish line, big bipartisan vote. Do we have any idea what's going to happen in the House at this point?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Phil, it faces an uncertain future in the House. This vote really highlights the wide foreign policy divide in the Republican Party right now. If you look in the Senate at who supported this, you know, they fundamentally believe that in terms of America's national security, what happens in Ukraine matters to the United States.

People like Senator Joni Ernst, for instance, of Iowa with a military background, that is some of whom supported this bill. And then also at play is the Trump factor. Many of these lawmakers, they're weighing how much they want to distance themselves from Trump. We know that Trump has been a vocal opponent for a long time of foreign aid.

So, here's what's in the bill, $60 billion to Ukraine, $14 billion to Israel, $9 billion in humanitarian assistance, over $4 billion to the Indo-Pacific.

Now, Speaker Mike Johnson, he already said that this is dead on arrival in the Senate. He said he won't put this foreign aid supplemental on the floor, because it is silent, those are his words, silent on provisions on the southern border. But as you all well know, there was a bipartisan border deal on the table that House Republicans could have adopted. They rejected that. And so, you know, we are really now in uncharted territory here.

He argues that America has to secure its own border before sending additional foreign aid around the world. He rejected Democrats' significant concession. So, all that to say right now, $95 billion in foreign aid, we don't know what the state of that will be.

We do know, of course, that at their disposal, Republicans could band together with Democrats in the House in a procedural fashion in order to advance this bill, but that could take quite a deal of time. And, really, these -- Israel, Ukraine, they would argue they don't have time at this stage, Phil and Poppy.

HARLOW: Eva, thank you for that. And, Fred, I want to go to you because President Zelenskyy already expressing gratitude to the Senate minutes after we saw this pass.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Poppy. He certainly is. And, of course, one of the things that we know is that Ukrainians obviously have been watching all of this meticulously, because for them, they say that all this is obviously about survival.

I want to read you some of what President Zelenskyy just tweeted relatively a couple minutes ago after this news came out, he says, for us in Ukraine, continued U.S. assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror, as he puts it. It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war, is what he says. So, obviously, the Ukrainians very happy with this.

They, of course, also understand that there is still a long way to go. And in the House of Representatives, there could be some serious issues. And, you know, I've been traveling the frontlines in Ukraine over the past month, month and a half or so. And the thing is that U.S. assistance is absolutely key in so many of those places.

It's about weapons, of course. We did a lot of reporting about the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle playing a huge role in defending some of those Ukrainian cities where the Russians are pushing. But the other thing, of course, is also ammunition as well for the Ukrainians. They face a big deficit. And, of course, now that's already become even worse with some of that U.S. aid being delayed.

I was actually yesterday able to speak to both a German chancellor and the prime minister of Denmark about this issue, about U.S. assistance. And the German Chancellor, he told me, look, there's absolutely no two ways about it. U.S. assistance to Ukraine is indispensable. The Europeans are saying that they are ramping up, for instance, their ammo production.

They're looking to get the Ukrainians more tanks and other weapons as well. But, of course, they also say that assistance from the U.S. has been so key so far and they hope will be in the future. Of course, a lot of them also still reeling from some of those remarks that former President Trump made about possibly not helping NATO allies and, in fact, possibly encouraging Russia to take it to NATO allies.

And Olaf Scholz, I can tell you, was not very happy with those comments. He said that NATO is absolutely indispensable for Europe. But they also say that Europe in NATO is also indispensable for the United States as well, guys.

MATTINGLY: Yes. You realize and, Fred, you know this better than anybody talking to European leaders, it's not a game. It's not a negotiation. It's very real.

Eva, we just got the statement from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. It says, quote, history settles every account and today on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink, like this has been a cornerstone focus for Minority Leader McConnell for the last several months, moving against obviously the likely Republican presidential nominee, and also some of his party in his party, which have gone in a different direction. And there's no better example of that than Lindsey Graham.

And I just want to make -- I want to get your sense of this because I was stunned last night. Lindsey Graham, one of the foremost hawks in the Republican conference, has been to Ukraine so many times, goes to the Munich Security Conference, was always the wingman of John McCain, talks about the importance of all of these alliances, and now, echoing completely, the former president says that he will oppose any aid to Ukraine unless it's a loan, and also making the play about the southern border.

[07:10:15]

Let's be very clear, of the $60 billion going to Ukraine here, the vast majority of it actually goes to U.S. manufacturers. It's not money that goes in. Why is Lindsey Graham doing a complete 180 just to mimic Donald Trump, Eva?

MCKEND: Well, it shows you the significant hole that Trump has on this party. It's not only Lindsey Graham, but many senators making this calculation. How much do I want to distance myself from Trump is what they're asking themselves.

But, listen, Senator McConnell, he's also very far apart from many members of his own conference. They have been really vocal, Senator Hawley, Senator Vance, Senator Lee, many others, they've been really vocally opposing him.

Traditionally, senators that went up against Mitch McConnell, who, to be clear, still holds the purse strings in terms of fundraising for Republicans, they've been sort of quiet about their disagreements. But in recent days, they've really been vocally against this foreign aid.

But McConnell and the other Republicans that supported this, they say, listen, this is a matter of national security. What happens in Ukraine is ultimately going to impact America, and that this investment is worth it, essentially, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Eva, you and I have sat in many a gaggle on Capitol Hill with Leader McConnell and others. This is a different Republican conference in the Senate, certainly than we've ever covered before.

Eva McKend, Fred Pleitgen, I greatly appreciate your guys' expertise. Thank you.

HARLOW: And there is no end in sight for Donald Trump's legal battles, the former president once again pressing the Supreme Court to resolve an issue that could undermine his presidential campaign. Trump asked the High Court yesterday to block a unanimous decision from the D.C. Circuit last week that rejected his claims of presidential immunity in the January 6th case.

His attorneys write to the high court, quote, conducting a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump's ability to campaign against President Biden.

MATTINGLY: Now, the request thrust once again the Supreme Court in the middle of a presidential election. This would be the second time and how the justices respond could influence whether the likely GOP nominee will be put on trial in the midst of his campaign.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. All right, Elie, let's ask you the most obvious question. First, when is the Supreme Court going to decide what they're doing here?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Phil, the first thing that we're going to hear from the Supreme Court on this could come as soon as today. I think what they're going to say is, okay, Donald Trump, we've heard what you want us to do. Now we need to hear from Jack Smith fairly quickly. Then they're going to have to make the big decisions.

First, do they issue a stay, meaning a pause, putting everything on hold, and if so, for how long? And then the real big decision, does the Supreme Court take the case?

If they reject this case, or if they summarily dismiss it, then, in all likelihood, we will see this case go to trial late spring, early summer. But if the Supreme Court takes this case, Phil, all bets are off and there's a fairly good chance we don't see this case tried until after the election. So, that's how high the stakes are with this particular exchange.

HARLOW: Four federal judges, as Paula Reid rightly pointed out last night, have said the same thing on this. Do you think it's likely that -- which, by the way, when it gets Trump's argument -- do you think it's likely that the Supreme Court takes this up, Elie, because it's such a big question that hasn't been answered definitively by the highest court?

HONIG: So, this is going to be such a close call, really important that people understand. Of course, you need five of the nine Supreme Court justices to win a case, but you only need four of them to take a case.

And, Poppy, the argument that you said is exactly what Jack Smith is saying. He's going to say, well, we've now heard from the trial court judge and then three court of appeals judges, all of them agreed. All of them were very strong on the fact that Donald Trump does not have immunity. What Donald Trump says in his brief yesterday, first of all is, this is why we have you, Supreme Court, because this is a massive issue. It goes to presidential powers. It goes to the functioning of the government.

One thing that Donald Trump does is he actually quotes Jack Smith. Because remember, two months ago, Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to take this case directly. And Jack Smith in that brief said, hey, Supreme Court, only you can resolve this case. You have to resolve this case. So, I think this is going to be a 50-50 call whether the Supreme Court takes it.

MATTINGLY: Elie, Trump's legal team also says you in this filing. So, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you what your take was on being -- seeing yourself in here and why.

HONIG: Okay. First of all, they cited me in the brief for something I said on air, which I totally stand by, that Jack Smith has been disingenuous in refusing to acknowledge that the reason he's trying to rush this trial is because he wants it done before the election.

[07:15:00]

That is obvious to any sentient observer.

But I want to say this. Anything I say on air, anything I write is fair game for anyone in the world to use for whatever purposes they want, but lawyers, no. The things I say are not binding on the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices are not going to feel bound by anything that I say anywhere. Go ahead, have at it, but it's not going to persuade them.

MATTINGLY: You sound a little defensive there, Elie. You know, I feel like everything you say is binding, except for Rutgers football is good. Everything else, though, seems very binding to me.

Elie, we appreciate you

HONIG: Listen, I'm happy that people use my words.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Thanks, Elie.

Well, new reporting on how the Biden administration feels about the Israeli operation that rescued two hostages from Hamas, but also led to the death of more than 100 Palestinians.

HARLOW: Also, the future of the United States and NATO could hang in the balance if Donald Trump wins the presidency in November. We're going to talk about all of this with his former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci.

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MATTINGLY: Well, this morning, there are growing concerns about the future of NATO if Donald Trump wins another presidential term.

[07:20:04]

This is how he responded when asked about defending a NATO ally.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: They asked me that question, one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay, you're delinquent? He said, yes. Let's say that happened, no, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.

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HARLOW: With us now, former White House Communications Director under Trump Anthony Scaramucci. He is also the author of a new book by the way, From Wall Street to the White House and Back, the Scaramucci Guide to Unbreakable Resilience. It comes out April 16th. Congrats on the book, by the way.

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: It's a dark comedy, Poppy. You know, it's a little bit like Veep, but worse.

HARLOW: Yes? Do I see a T.V. show on the making? We shall see it too.

SCARAMUCCI: I don't do T.V. show, but it was a fun book to write.

HARLOW: Good, I look forward to that.

So, John Bolton was pretty clear with Kaitlan last night. Our Jim Sciutto has a new book coming out where he's got some reporting also where Bolton talks about, who is former Trump National Security Adviser, saying NATO would be in real jeopardy, I think he would try to get out. What do you think, having been so close to the president?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, he wanted out in 2016. He didn't like the treaty in 2016. And so he told everybody during the term that if he got re- elected, he would do everything he could to pull the U.S. out of NATO. And remember this whole thing with the you got to pay sort of thing, he doesn't really understand the treaty. No one has actually sat down with them to explain the treaty.

HARLOW: Are you reading Phil's mind? He really wants to --

MATTINGLY: It's what drives me insane. Like how -- I remember when this happened in -- it was right before the convention in 2016 where he first weighed in on this and it kind of was like a bomb dropped.

SCARAMUCCI: Right.

MATTINGLY: And I assumed at some point over the course of the next eight years someone would have sat down and been like let me explain to you how percent of GDP means X, Y and Z.

SCARAMUCCI: But to really understand him, you can't explain something to him because he doesn't want to appear that he doesn't know something. So, let's say like H.R. McMasters in the Oval Office trying to explain the difference between the Shia and the Sunni, he doesn't want to hear it and he certainly doesn't want to be lectured by anybody.

We were on the campaign plane once and the Sykes-Picot Treaty came up, which was obviously the treaty that led to the footprint of the Middle East today, and he got distracted and then I turned to him and said, well, what about the movie, Lawrence of Arabia? Do you remember that? And he said, sure.

And if you tell Mr. Trump a story, then you can get the information into him that way. That was a lot of what went on on the economic stuff related to trade. You can ask somebody like Robert Lighthizer that.

But he doesn't understand the treaty. He thinks it plays well for him. For some reason, he has a love affair with Vladimir Putin. And so I don't think anybody in the western leadership understands that love affair. I don't think anybody in intelligence agencies understands that love affair because Vladimir Putin has called for objectively reattaching republics to the former Soviet Union.

He's doing something right now as a direct violation of international law. The United States had an obligation to the Ukrainians. Let's just remind everybody. They gave up the nukes. President Clinton signed a treaty with them to provide security support.

For those of you listening at home, that was called Operation Porcupine, where we were going to fill them with anti-tank missiles, all types of support to prevent a Russian invasion.

HARLOW: Defensive support.

SCARAMUCCI: Defensive support. Okay, we allowed for Russia to take Crimea. I think the Obama administration thought, okay, they want that warm water port, they will stop. Okay, they didn't stop. They went into Ukraine.

Now, people are saying, well, once they get whatever they want in the Ukraine, they will stop, but they're not going to stop, okay? And so when Mr. Trump is talking like that, okay, he's going after the interests of the United States and he's going after the footprint of global peace and global prosperity.

So, why people are not explaining that to the American people, I don't understand the current milieu of candidates. You know, the president, President Biden has got to get out there and explain what a disaster this guy would be if he returned to the presidency.

This would harm the everyday citizen in the United States and it would raise the cost of capital for people here in the United States because we'd have more wars going on.

MATTINGLY: Yes, connecting that to voters has been a huge missing piece from 2015 on and Trump has been able to take advantage of that.

The personal attacks on Nikki Haley's husband, bringing that up, and we heard Haley clap back and people have been pretty furious about it, except for Republicans who support the former president. The motivation behind Trump doing that, what is it?

SCARAMUCCI: It's narcissism. He believes that the people that support him are actually pro-military.

[07:25:00]

He believes that they're pro-patriotic. And he's slapping his supporters in the face. He wants to see how hard he can push his supporters to support him. Remember, he's talked about killing people on Fifth Avenue, and these people still support him.

And so he loves the fact that he's got this great support in South Carolina, which there's a military culture in South Carolina, pro- patriotism culture in South Carolina, and then he can malign our veterans.

You know, you could ask General Kelly about that or any of the other people that have heard him talk this nonsense about he doesn't want to go to the cemetery because it will upset the hairspray in his hair, or he doesn't understand why somebody would want to give up their life in service for the country. He likes doing that because he can push the goalposts.

HARLOW: Always good to have you, the inside look.

SCARAMUCCI: It's good to be here.

HARLOW: Thank you, Anthony.

SCARAMUCCI: All right, thank you, guys.

HARLOW: Well, later today, House GOP members bring articles of impeachment again on Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. This is the second time they'll attempt to do this. A key member who could make their vote a success this time, that's ahead.

MATTINGLY: And after 128 days in captivity, two Israeli hostages have now been reunited with their families. More on their rescue, that's next.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: A perfect operation, a perfect execution, and I want to tell you how proud I am of you. I'm proud of you, of the Shin Bet, the IDF.

[07:30:02]

You work together like an oiled machine.

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HARLOW: That was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praising Israelis.