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CNN This Morning

U.S. Senate Passes $95 Billion Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan Despite Pressure from Former President Trump against Bill; Winter Storms Hit New York City; Jon Stewart Returns to "The Daily Show"; Police: Security Guard Shot Woman Who Opened Fire in Joel Osteen Megachurch, Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ZOE SCHIFFER, MANAGING EDITOR, "PLATFORMER": Prior to Elon Musk, Twitter did have enormous problems. From 2006 to 2016, the company failed to turn a profit. Jack Dorsey was largely an absentee landlord. And what employees told me time and again is that the company was very slow. It was very inefficient. It was hard to ship product and get things done.

Elon musk has come in. He's made the company extremely top-down, extremely hierarchical, and it's also faster and more efficient.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Congrats on the book, "Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter," so we appreciate it. We just want to let you know, we did reach out to Elon Musk for comment, also X. We did not hear back.

CNN THIS MORNING continues now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D-NY) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Today we witnessed one of the most historic and consequential bills to have ever passed the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. So glad you're with us. A lot happened probably before you even woke up. Overnight, the Senate passing the $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, despite pressure against it from Donald Trump. House Speaker Mike Johnson basically saying it won't go anywhere in the House. What lawmakers plan then is to do with it today.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And happening now, voters go to the polls to replace expelled Congressman George Santos, how this House race could play a crucial role nationally.

HARLOW: And 30 million people on alert as a winter storm barrels through the northeast during rush hour. Some cities could get their most snow in years. CNN THIS MORNING starts now. All right this is where we begin. Senators passing a more than $95

billion foreign aid bill with crucial funding for Ukraine and Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This vote, the yeas are 70, the nays are 29. The bill as amended, passes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The bill passed, I should note, with 22 Republicans voting in favor despite fierce criticism from Donald trump, who says the U.S. should stop providing foreign aid to anyone unless it's in the form of a loan. This bill includes $60 billion to support Ukraine's fight against Russia. A lot of that, by the way, would go to U.S. manufacturer. More than $14 in security assistance for Israel and $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza.

MATTINGLY: Now the House Republicans are setting up a showdown and vowing to potentially kill the measure as Speaker Mike Johnson considers focusing on a standalone bill with aid only for Israel. That bill, of course, already failed. We'll see procedurally what they decide next.

Also, they're pretty much focused on another vote that also fell last week, whether to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. It comes after the efforts suffered that surprising and, I would say, rather embarrassing defeat last week, trying to give it another run potentially today.

CNN's Eva McKend live for us on Capitol Hill, Fred Pleitgen is live for us in London. Eva, I want to start with you. The Senate, this a big vote. It's a big bipartisan vote, 22 Republicans in favor despite Donald Trump's protestations. Do we have any idea what happens next in the House?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: You know, Phil, Speaker Johnson has made it clear that he has no appetite to take up this foreign aid package in the House. And this really underscores the large divide in the Republican Party on this issue. You have Senator McConnell celebrating this passage, saying in a statement that history will record that the Senate did not blink. Well, a much different response from Speaker Johnson, who says national security begins at our border, and he sort of chastised members, arguing that Congress has been silent on the border. Those are his words.

But listen, Speaker Johnson had the opportunity to take up some of the border priorities that he has long championed. That's the problem with that argument, of course. There was a bipartisan effort the Speaker Johnson, other Republicans in the House could have hopped on if he wanted to address this border issues.

So now Congress is in a position where some Republicans in the House could band together with Democrats in a procedural fashion and try to advance this bill. But that is a very lengthy and difficult process. Unknown if they are going to take that route, Phil and Poppy. And Fred, just minutes after this passed the Senate, we heard from

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy very grateful for what the chamber did know, no?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Poppy, and I think it really goes to show just how closely the Ukrainians are watching all of this, because of course they understand that for them and for the soldiers that the Ukrainians on the ground, a lot of this is literally about life and death, especially as the Russians are pushing right now on many front lines in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians have been suffering from those ammo shortages, which of course have also been exacerbated by the fact that there isn't additional ammo right now coming from the United States.

I want to read you some of what a lot of Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He said, quote, "I'm grateful to Senator Schumer and Leader McConnell and every U.S. senator who has supported continued assistance to Ukraine as we fight for freedom, democracy, and the values we hold dear."

[08:05:04]

And then this is probably the most important part, "For us in Ukraine, continued U.S. assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror," as he calls it. It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war." Of course, all this as the Ukrainians really on the backfoot on some of those front lines. And I've been traveling to a lot of those frontlines, Poppy and Phil. And the biggest concern for the Ukrainians really is a lack of continued ammo supplies that they need to stay in the fight to keep their troops in the fight and to keep their troops in the trenches alive as well, guys.

MATTINGLY: Eva, back over to you because I do want to ask about what House Republicans are going to be trying to do today. I think this is take two of impeachment festival 2.0, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Do they have the votes today? Is this actually going to get over the finish line before it gets killed out in the Senate?

MCKEND: It appears as they may. The last time that they tried to take up this effort, they had some absences, and you know that they can ill afford that when they're to do anything with such a thin majority. So they may be able to achieve this today. Americans will have to decide if this impeachment effort has merit or if this amounts to a policy dispute.

What has struck me, though, is the response from Secretary Mayorkas. During the last impeachment vote, he was in California meeting with A.I. executives about recruiting more A.I. professionals to the department. That's what he told "The L.A. Times." And so he has really taken this position of being totally unbothered by this, no reporting to suggest that him or anyone on his team has tried to engage House Republicans to dissuade them from this effort.

The articles are willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law. The other article is breach of public trust. No indication, though, that if House Republicans are successful in this effort, that the Senate is going to take up this impeachment, Phil and Poppy.

MATTINGLY: All right, Eva McKend, Fred Pleitgen for us. Thank you.

Well also right now, a powerful winter storm is blasting the northeast with nearly 50 million people and its path. This, you're looking at right now, a live look at Rocky Hill, Connecticut, northeast of New York, could get up to a foot of snow. Now, as we speak, the storm is intensifying and colliding head-on with the morning rush hour. This is a live look at Boston. The snow just started to fall.

HARLOW: New York City expected to get up to eight inches of snow. Parts of New England could also see a foot of snow, more than 1,000 flights this morning have already been canceled. New York City is bracing for the most snow that we've seen here in years. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is live outside on the streets of New York. Good morning to you. it would normally be so packed with people trying to go to work there. I don't see anyone behind you.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK, you just wait, because there are some hearty New Yorkers coming out here running and enjoying Central Park in the snow. I think a lot of people waiting for this moment, because it's been 744 days since the last winter storm was issued here in New York City. And we are seeing the city landscape just transform into a real life snow globe right before our eyes. I think it's kind of a welcome sight for some people who were yearning for that snowfall to actually take place.

The National Weather Service has just recently highlighted an area right over the tri-state's region, including the New York City metropolitan region of intense snow band as this kind of access and pivots right over New York City, the potential for one to two inch snowfall totals per hour is in the forecast. If we receive that amount of snow in one hour, that will be the most snow that the city has received in a day's time over the past couple of years. That's really saying something.

Check out my graphics, because this is interesting. Some of the first snowfall totals coming in, look at that, 10.5 inches in Pennsylvania, even some reports over a half a foot upstate New York into the Port Jervis region. But what's interesting to note is what's happening in Central Park, 1.2 inches of snow. And again, we can -- this is very, very unofficial, but bear with me here. Yes, that can be confirmed. If we get past that two inch mark, then that'll be the most snow that Central Park has received in over two years.

We've been able to squeeze out the water earlier this morning. I think the temperature is cooling down, so things are changing here. But the bottom line is this is heavy, wet snow. It's sticking to the roads, coinciding with, of course, rush hour traffic this morning. And we expect the heaviest snow bands to continue through about 11:00 a.m. this morning. It's the city that never sleeps. We've got New York Fashion Week this week, and of course, a special election is happening in Long Island today. So lots of snow impacting big time impactful activities here in New York City in the tri-state region. Poppy, Phil?

MATTINGLY: Derek, you tell him the overachievers running, it's like your producer Grace would probably do this later today, just knock it off. You're making the rest of us look bad, and I don't --

[08:10:02]

VAN DAM: I will be here -- if I didn't have 20 pound snow boots on right now, I'd be running in the snow as well.

MATTINGLY: I have no doubt. I have no doubt. Derek Van Dam, as always, my friend, thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: President Biden joining TikTok despite most government phones banning the app. The security concerns as he tries to appeal to certain voters.

MATTINGLY: And Jon Stewart returning to "The Daily Show," and skewering Biden and Donald Trump in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Why am I back, you may be asking yourselves. It's a very reasonable question. I have committed a lot of crimes.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: And from what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: It doesn't make a lot of sense, but take it up with the founders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": The Kansas City Chiefs are world champions, which means the decades long plot in which Travis and Taylor brainwash America into getting routine vaccinations is complete.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: But now that it's over, nine months till action and the exciting, people.

(APPLAUSE)

STEWART: And the exciting part is we already know our candidates. It's -- drumroll please -- these -- guys.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Jon Stewart making his long-awaited return to "The Daily Show" last night, didn't seem to be rusty at all.

HARLOW: Not at all. Stewart left in 2015, right before the Trump- Clinton election. He's now back on the desk, at the desk once a week, Monday nights, to resume his role there.

With us, writer and host of the "Very Serious" Newsletter and Podcast, Josh Barro, CNN.com opinion contributor Dean Obeidallah, and CNN senior media analyst, Sara Fischer.

[08:15:00]

Sara, let me start with you, because on that serious note, if I could hear, like 12 percent of folks got their news from "The Daily Show" back in 2015, right before he left. So he plays an important service for a lot of folks, as well as giving us many, many laughs. Has the audience changed?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: It's changed a lot, Poppy and it is not just for "The Daily Show," but all late night comedies have seen the traditional TV audiences wane in the past few years as more people flocked to streaming.

What's also changed, though, is that we have a new avenue of social media in the form of short form video, like TikTok, like reels, which you get on Instagram and Facebook.

And so some of the monologues they used to be, you know, posted on YouTube, but really mostly just watched on television, are now able to go viral in a way that they can reach young people that they couldn't before.

So even though these TV audiences are smaller, there is actually opportunity for Jon Stewart to have an even bigger impact this election than he did prior to 2016 when he left in 2015.

MATTINGLY: You know, Dean, it was interesting, you know, his primary monologue, very clearly took some shots at the current president and his team, but also he roasted the press conference pretty good. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW" HOST: You didn't mess up. You didn't -- no, no, no. Don't stop. Wait. Hold on. Hold on, sir. Don't. No, know you killed this. Take the W. What are you doing?

Allow me to present to you a one-man show about what Joe Biden's advisers were doing when he turned around and went back to the podium.

The show is called, "No."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I mean, it's funny, but I'm also pretty sure it's mostly true.

The thing I'm interested in is it's not necessarily who's watching in terms of the broader audience, people at the White House will watch this. They just will and I'm interested if they're going to watch it and actually take anything from it.

DEAN OBEIDALLAH, CNN.COM OPINION CONTRIBUTOR: Well, let me just say in the big picture, Poppy and Phil, America is back. Jon Stewart is back on TV. I feel so much better about the country.

It's morning in America. He is the Taylor Swift of comedy. He's going to trigger the right and bring so much joy to the rest of America.

So, looks, I love Jon Stewart. I'd be honest, if the people on the right watch this episode, the first one, I think I would like a lot of it.

Jon is even handed in the idea of, I have to do both sides. He calls out things, the voice of reason being what he is, but using comedy. So yes, you can -- he raised a lot of questions about Joe Biden's memory, but he also raised a lot about Donald Trump.

These are what people are talking about, so yes, will the White House watch it? I believe they will. I understand Joe Biden -- President Biden watches TV a great deal and I think they're going to watch this. Will it affect them? You can't change. You can't change who President Biden is, and that was a point of Jon Stewart. You can't change who Donald Trump is, but these are the choices we have in 2024. God save us.

HARLOW: Dean. Can we also listen to this part about taking the show on the road to the diners of America? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Where are you going to be reporting from this election season?

DESI LYDIC, COMEDIAN: : Jon, I'm going to be spending the next nine months here in a Michigan diner because diners are where real Americans eat.

MICHAEL KOSTA, COMEDIAN: And I'll be in the same diner as Desi, but the realer part of the diner, not the booth section with all the coastal elite Democrats and their fancy back support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I've never requesting a booth again, outside of that. Josh, your thoughts on his return?

JOSH BARRO, HOST, "THE VERY SERIOUS" PODCAST: You know, it was better than I expected it to be. I didn't care for his Apple TV show. I think I may have been the only person who watched his Apple TV show.

But well, you know, but now he's back on real television, and I thought the monologue, I thought it was very strong. I was little -- I liked it a lot better than I expected to.

And also, it is kind of a funny thing. I mean, he's talking about, you know, the two oldest candidates ever for president breaking the record they set just four years ago.

HARLOW: He said it should be called the Antique Roadshow.

BARRO: Right. Exactly.

And here he is back, hosting the show and he poked fun at himself about this, having the hammer zoom in close on his wrinkles, and then pointing up he is still 20 years younger than these two people.

But it's -- you know, I mean, this is a country where "Frasier" is back. It's sort of reflective of our inability to come up with new things. The best person available to host "The Daily Show" it turns out actually is Jon Stewart, and so among other things, that means we're failing to create the new generation of "Daily Show" hosts just as we were doing with the president.

HARLOW: I don't know. Are you sure this says we can't create new things? Trevor Noah was great, I thought.

BARRO: I think Jon Stewart is better, but I think -- but I mean, it is a broader thing in our culture where we are living through all of these reboots at the same time...

HARLOW: Fair.

BARRO ... that we are seemingly unable to move on in our politics to a new generation of leadership. I think that -- I don't know, I think the American public is seeking something nostalgic or something like that.

And even though the polls show people complaining about both of these candidates, you know that's who the party has nominated. Dean Phillips tried the theory that you know maybe America wants generic Democrat, but younger than Joe Biden and there was almost no market for it. So here we are.

[08:20:11]

MATTINGLY: Sara, to that point, the audience of "The Daily Show," it's older, it's smaller? The reach of it, I think it's far more, you seen clips of it to some degree at this point. Do we know what the expectations are? What the goals are for Jon Stewart in coming back? Does he have a sense of what he wants to reach? What he wants to accomplish?

FISCHER: I think he wants to be relevant ahead of 2024 and he doesn't really have a platform to do it anymore. So he had a show on Apple TV+, "The Problem" with John Stewart, and it got cancelled after you know, I think it was just like 20 episodes. He tried to do a project with HBO, that didn't go anywhere.

So for him, this is a pretty good platform where he gets his old show back, he gets the audience back, and he doesn't have that much room for failure. Unlike the other streaming ventures, this is something that he has leverage in because they need him for ratings more than he needs them.

He also, by the way, gets to be the executive producer on the show, Monday through Thursday, and so that's something I think he's excited about just as much as being in front of the camera hosting on Monday nights.

HARLOW: One of the things I have loved of the many things I think Jon Stewart is great at is speaking out for people without a voice or a platform, and what he has done in Washington to advocate for people, Dean, you're nodding, you know, to advocate for our veterans, for those who, you know, helped save this country after 9/11.

I just wonder if we'll see a little more of that mixed in at the show this time around?

OBEIDALLAH: I think you will. And you know, I wrote about it in CNN opinion that over the nine years he left, he did more than just joking about things or raising an Apple TV. He was out there in the trenches on Capitol Hill, lobbying for first responders, and then for the military veterans with the PACT Act.

So I think his audience on some level is broader, that you're going to have people who are in the center, and even some on the right, a lot of that was covered in the "Military Times" I know, my article, that they kind of like Jon now, and they might tune in and I am sure, if they watched this first episode, I think they'd get a lot of laughs.

I think what Jon does so well is say, let's have an honest conversation about issues. Let's not just shut things down with oh, you can't talk about President Biden's age, or you can talk about Donald Trump or you can't talk about the issues in Gaza because he raised it slightly during this. I think we'll see it more in the future.

I guess for -- and using comedy to do it is a great way to reach people. It's funny. It's entertaining. It's not a speech. That's why I think it's a broader reach than serious conversations on certain issues.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it would be fascinating to watch over the course of the next nine months, nine months, literally nine months. He was right about that. We have a long way to go.

Sara Fischer, Dean Obeidallah, Josh Barro, thanks, guys.

BARRO: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, this morning, we have new video of people hiding during that shooting at Joel Osteen's megachurch. Police revealing what they found on the shooter's rifle.

HARLOW: And people brave the snow to vote in the special election today to replace George Santos. What's at stake in what could be a crucial House election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:47]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG WILLIAMS, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We are extremely thankful for the quick response of the two officers working security at the church at the time that engaged the shooter. I think all of us here would agree that if it weren't for them, the number of casualties and victims would have been much higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That is the FBI praising the swift actions of a security guard who shot the woman who opened fire Sunday inside of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston. There's new video this morning of the moments that people ducked for cover as the shots rang out.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

MATTINGLY: Now, the shooting started just before a Spanish language service began. Officials say 36-year-old Genesee Moreno walked in with her young son and opened fire before she was killed. The child and another man were injured.

Police say they found antisemitic writings connected to Genesee in her home, as well as a "Palestine" sticker on the butt of her AR-15 rifle.

Joining us now CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst, John Miller.

We're starting to get threads, but there are still so many unanswered questions. What dots have been connected at this point?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, from the law enforcement perspective, that team you saw, the press conference, their first goal was to make -- was to determine did she act alone? Or are we looking for someone else? Was this part of a larger plan?

They are all but certain that she acted alone, but they're still going through material from the search warrant. And then the second was to determine what is the motive here? Why is that important? Because sometimes at the end, when we hear the motive we are like, it doesn't even make sense.

But they had to determine because of the sticker on the gun, because of the antisemitic writings, is this an act of terrorism? Or is this the act of an unhinged person who has their own thoughts and something that might not make sense to us and it appears to be more the latter?

HARLOW: Yes. The fact that she had her seven-year-old with her and shot, do we have any update on their condition this morning? MILLER: So the seven-year-old boy is in extremely critical condition.

The hospital is not giving out a lot of details on that, for normal privacy reasons, and the fact that it's a minor. But what we do know from police was he sustained a gunshot wound to the head, which in any case, whether you're seven or 70, is going to be a very high-risk situation.

So all we can do for him is pray.

MATTINGLY: Do we know next steps in terms of the investigation?

MILLER: So there's a few questions that are going to need to be answered here. I mean, what we know about Genesee Moreno is she is a 36-year-old woman, she had a string of minor arrests between 2005 and 2009. But then she emerges into a self-run, self-founded real estate business that seems to be doing well. It's involved in everything from condos to, you know, strip malls, and she's very positive on life.

And this is going backwards kind of peeling back the layers of her social media, but the subplot is that there is a bitter custody battle between her and her mother-in-law who is a rabbi in Colorado, and that seems to be the source of the animus, the antisemitic writings, the impetus between this and at the same time she's talking this is her in her own writing, she is talking about mental illness, talking about needing help, talking about needing to tell her story.

[08:30:17]