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Erin Burnett Outfront
New Video Shows Police Arresting Mosque Massacre SuspectTrump Says White Nationalism Is Not A Rising Threat After Mosque Massacre; Rep. Andre Carson (D) Indiana Is Interviewed About White Nationalism Around The World; Major U.S. Cities Increase Security Around Mosques; Official; FBI Sees Uptick In Domestic Terror Arrests; Trump Slams "Fake Dossier" Despite Several Claims Being Verified; Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) Interviewed About President Trump Vetoing Measure to Reject His National Emergency; Sen. Warren's Ground Game: Selfies & Surprise Phone Calls. Aired on 7-8p ET
Aired March 15, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, CNN: Thanks very much and to our viewers, thanks for watching. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WOLFBLITZER. Tweet the show @CNNSITROOM. Erin Burnett OutFront starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, ANCHOR, CNN: OutFront next, President Trump dismissive of white nationalism on the day 49 Muslims are murdered by a white supremacist in their place of worship. Plus, new details about the man charged in the terror attack, how closely was he watching the United States? And Mueller, not done yet, two key Trump associates could have more to offer. Are more indictments about to come? Let's go OutFront.
And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OutFront tonight, the breaking news, we have new video of the arrest. This is the arrest of the 28- year-old mass murder suspect in New Zealand. You see him there on the ground in that video. He's just then surrounded by police. This is the alleged white nationalist who slaughtered 49 people and seriously wounded 20 more in the mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand. And tonight, President Trump's response was to minimize the issue of white nationalism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A dismissive answer on a day when 49 people were gunned down by an alleged white nationalist. The President had an opportunity to denounce white nationalism there loudly clearly with the emotion it deserved on a day like this. Something that should be easy and is important to hear from the President of the United States, after all the suspected New Zealand shooter praised Trump in his 87-page manifesto as a "symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose."
But it wasn't just the President's dismissal of white nationalism that was so jarring during his 27-minute appearance to talk about his wall today. It was his embrace of the same word the suspected shooter used in his manifesto when ranting against immigrants. That word is invade. It's a word Trump used today to talk about immigrants on the U.S. Southern border.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're on track for a million illegal aliens to rush our borders. People hate the word invasion, but that's what it is. It's an invasion of drugs and criminals and people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And when it comes to the 49 innocent people murdered by that white nationalist in New Zealand, "they were Muslims," another group where the President has stoked the flames.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you have people coming out of mosques with hatred and with death in their eyes and on their minds, we're going to have to do something.
I think Islam hates us. There's something, there's a tremendous hatred there.
It's radical Islamic terrorism, OK? There's a lot of hatred.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Right now the suspect in New Zealand is in court. Blis Savidge is OutFront in Christchurch, New Zealand tonight. And Blis, what more are you learning about the court appearance right now?
BLIS SAVIDGE, JOURNALIST: Yes, so the 20-year-old male has been charged with murder, but New Zealand police are saying that there are more charges to come. He actually finished his brief appearance in the Christchurch District Court right behind us not too long ago, so there's quite a crowd around us. Everybody trying to wait and see if they can catch a glimpse of him leaving. We did see an armored truck. We're not sure if that's what he's being transported in. For all we know, he could have already been whisked away.
But what we do know about his appearance, his brief appearance in court not too long ago was that he was in the jail attire, he was silent and according to our CNN journalist that we had in the courtroom, he had a neutral expression for the most part. Since then he since been taken back into custody and he's expected to reappear in court on April 5th. That's what we have right now.
BURNETT: All right, Blis, thank you very much. As you're, Blis, describing a neutral expression on his face. Tonight we're learning much more about that hate-filled manifesto. The one that used the word invade and praised the President. Manifesto, the shooter left behind. Alex Marquardt is OutFront.
ALEX MARQUARDT, SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN(voice over): It's a diatribe filled with hate, anger and vows of revenge. Eighty-seven neatly formatted pages of ranting about immigrants, minorities and Muslims. More than 16,000 words that the 28-year-old who says his name is Brenton Tarrant posted on social media shortly before the attack.
The attacker repeatedly calls immigrants invaders and says immigration must be crushed and like other white nationalists he falsely claims there's a genocide of white people underway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Jews will not replace us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: It's the kind of toxic message heard in Charlottesville and from the Charleston massacre shooter Dylann Roof, the New Zealand shooter references Roof's attack in his manifesto.
[19:05:04]
Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik who killed 77, mostly children is held up as an inspiration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: These are people who I would describe as having extremist views that have absolutely no place in New Zealand and in fact have no place in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: The U.S. President is also referenced once, calling President Trump a symbol of renewed white identity. Though he says he doesn't consider Trump a leader. The suspect claims to not belong to any organization and decided to carry out the shooting which he admits is terrorism on his own. An attack he said that he'd been thinking about for two years and chose the targeted mosques three months ago. He expresses no remorse for those he plan to kill even the children.
With white nationalism growing in the U.S. and in Europe, the gunman points to a number of global events that fueled his hate including a terror attack in Sweden's capital in 2017 when an asylum seeker plowed a truck into a crowd, killing five.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUARDT: Erin, New Zealand is usually such a calm and peaceful place and the gunman said that's why he chose it to show that nowhere is safe. As for the choice of the weapons that he used in this slaughter, guns, he said it was made specifically to rile up the debate here in this country, the United States, over the Second Amendment, Erin. BURNETT: Alex, thank you very much. I want to go now to Democratic
Congressman Andre Carson sits on the House Intelligence Committee, one of three Muslims currently serving in Congress. I appreciate your time, Congressman. The President, as you said, when - as you heard, I'm sorry, was asked specifically today about white nationalism and said he doesn't think there's any rise of white nationalism around the world. What do you think?
REP. ANDRE CARSON (D-IN), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I think it's unfortunate when he's speaking about Muslims, when he's speaking about Islam, Erin, he's speaking in absolute terms. He's speaking empathically very boldly. He's making broad generalizations unapologetically so. But when he talks about white supremacy and white supremacist, he's saying a few, some, and this is disappointing.
He's been dog whistling enough talking about making America great again, taking America to some mythical place that never really existed by the way. But he's giving a pass, he's been dog whistling to white supremacist since his campaign began and I think the message of xenophobia, Islamophobia as it relates to his presidential apparatus has been disappointing using trigger words like invasion, they, them, other. I think he's framing this as an us-against-them matter. He doesn't have to be as blatant with his relationship with white supremacists, dog whistling is enough and he's met the objective.
BURNETT: I mean can I just play again what he said when he was asked and as I pointed out, he appeared today to speak not with the purpose of speaking about what happened in New Zealand, he wanted to come out and speak about the wall, the Southern border in his veto. So when he was asked about white nationalism, here's the moment again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?
TRUMP: I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's what you're referring to, right? So there he says small group of people. When he talks about Muslims, he says, "I think Islam hates us. If you have people coming out of mosques with hatred and death in their eyes, we're going to have to do something."
CARSON: Again, small, some, Islam, they, he's speaking in broad terms about Muslims and the religion of Islam. But when it comes to white supremacist, he's saying a small group, synonymous with some. And I think it's unfortunate. There's an imbalance there in his language. There's been an imbalance with his campaign apparatus.
My hope is that President Trump will think more seriously in fact when the Congressional Black Caucus met with him some time ago, I was in that meeting, Erin, and I pressed the President about his language as it relates to Muslims, reminding President Trump that there are Muslims who serve in the federal government, who serve in our law enforcement agencies, who serve in our intelligence services, keeping Americans safe thwarting attacks that we'll never hear about on CNN or other news outlets.
And he responded that he'll think about what I said, but I also encouraged him to continue funding for law enforcement officers. And so I think President Trump is smarter than he leads on, given the fact that he's had Muslims work for his organization and his investments in Muslim countries.
[19:10:04]
But I'm disappointed at the fact that he's speaking to a particular part of his base that is very extremist and they've proven themselves to be ideologues.
BURNETT: Well, look he was - this suspect, of course, cited him as a symbol, a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose. I want to talk about something else though that this word echo of invade. And, obviously, that was what the shooter referenced in his manifesto when talking about the immigrants, anti-immigrant. The President of the United States, obviously, happened to today talk about his wall. And in a very, very eerie and unfortunate word echo used the exact same word to talk about brown people. Let me play that again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're on track for a million illegal aliens to rush our borders. People hate the word invasion, but that's what it is. It's an invasion of drugs and criminals and people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Congressman, you just said he's smart. He is smart. He knows not to say something like that today.
CARSON: He is smart.
BURNETT: So why did he say it?
CARSON: President Trump is very smart. I've met him several times. He's gregarious. He's charismatic and he's smart. And I think what's disappointing about it, smart people can be misleading, smart people can be duplicitous, smart people can be opportunistic as it relates to solidifying political power and rewarding those whom he felt helped him get and assume the power which he is doing right now, it's disappointing, Erin.
BURNETT: But in choosing to say that on a day like this, this horrific day, he knows that's a dog whistle. So then it's not a dog whistle, that's just white supremacy, isn't it?
CARSON: It is white supremacy, but I mean he is smart. He's smart enough to say I stand with white supremacist, so he has to dog whistle. He knows he cannot get away with being as blatant and I don't think he would ever do that. But what I do think he's not beyond is making sure that those folks in his base who probably can't be aligned with him publicly know that I still appreciate the support, I'm with you, I'm over here and they've heard the message loudly and clearly.
BURNETT: All right, Congressman, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight. I'm so sorry for this ...
CARSON: Thank you.
BURNETT: ... horrific thing and your community, what you are going through tonight. Thank you.
CARSON: We're standing firm. Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, cities all over the world on high alert tonight as a number of domestic terror arrests in the United States on the rise. Plus, Robert Mueller signals he's not done yet with two key trump associates. Could that mean more indictments are coming? And the President says the Steele dossier is fake. That's what he said today. But we know more tonight another thing in that dossier that has turned out to be true.
[19:15:00]
Breaking news, the United States on high alert tonight. Police across the country increasing security following the terror attack in New Zealand and this comes as we are learning the FBI has seen an increase in domestic terror arrests in the past few months. Josh Campbell is OutFront. He's the one with these news. And Josh, tell us about it. What about this rise?
JOSH CAMPBELL, LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST, CNN: Yes, Erin, we're getting some data from the FBI and, again, this is a snapshot in time. This is looking back to the last available data from the last three months of 2018. We're hearing that there were 25 arrests from the domestic terrorism side and this runs a spectrum across ideologies. This is what the FBI is dealing with. But on the domestic side, on the international terrorism side, the officials were describing the volume of arrests that they're having to deal with.
Now, it's important to note that it's too soon to draw an annual take away from that and looking at the last year, it is on par with some of the arrests that they've seen, but again some new data that we're receiving there. It shows and as we've learned as we talk to officials that although a lot of focus is on the international terrorism side, groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, the FBI continues to dedicate significant resources to stopping radicalization here at home on the domestic terrorism front.
Now, briefly on some of the mitigation strategies and challenges there, domestic terrorism is unique when compared to international terrorism, because if you think about an individual in the United States or around the world who might be communicating with the terrorist group overseas, those communications present a possible vector for intelligence agencies to intercept communication, to build cases, to share information. When you're talking about a domestic terrorism group that's insular in
nature and that is purely domestic, it's hard for officials to actually tap into that type of network. And so what we're told from officials that this really makes the public even more important, providing tips to officials if you see something suspicious. If you see people that are gathering weapons or they're talking about hatred, the officials want to know that.
And it's also important to note that in the United States, there's not a domestic terrorism statute which also provides an additional challenge.
BURNETT: All right, Josh, thank you very much. I want to go now to Juliette Kayyem, former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security and Bob Baer former CIA Operative. Juliette, so you have this increase in arrests and you have the rhetoric of what we're seeing. What is driving this uptick do you think?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: So there's probably a variety of factors. One is obviously the globalization of information and therefore hate. So that the individuals standing alone then feel like that they're part of a community. A second factor is the focus, as Josh was pointing out, of law enforcement in National Security to really focus the violent extremism on the Isis-al Qaeda side of the ledger rather than the sort of right-wing extremism side of the ledger.
And then the third is clearly a political atmosphere, whether it's here in Europe or elsewhere that does not condemn, I'll be safe here, does not condemn this kind of language. I think those three factors explain a rise in those other factors like the economy and globalization, but explain the rise. And so that's why we have to view this as a movement rather than isolating each case as a lone wolf.
[19:20:05]
If we don't see it as a movement, we won't put the resources or the knowledge ...
BURNETT: Stopping it.
KAYYEM: ... behind stopping it.
BURNETT: And look, Bob, the suspect in New Zealand, 28-year-old man, from what we understand what we are being told by the Prime Minister there, this person spent a lot of time traveling around the world. This person thought about doing this attack in a lot of places. One of them perhaps could have been here. He chose New Zealand, because it's a quiet place. He wanted to make a point. But he also wanted to make a point to the United States about guns.
I think one of the scary things here, it's not like this is some person who was a lone wolf and just in one place and in New Zealand. This is a person who could have done this anywhere. ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Oh, absolutely, Erin. We're
talked about this before getting weapons in this country illegally is very easy. You go to a gun show, buy one or even in fact use a card. That's never the problem. What he was doing in New Zealand is trying to incite Americans to pick up arms against outsiders. And this movement is much more dangerous right now than the Islamic state.
As Juliette was saying, we can intercept communications from overseas but domestically, the FBI needs a warrant and they're hard to get and it's hard to penetrate these groups.
BURNETT: And, look, Juliette, this is also the point when Bob says this is much more dangerous right now than Islamic terror. You have a lot of rhetoric out there that at best is problematic, no rise in white nationalism.
KAYYEM: Yes.
BURNETT: Using the word invade today to talk about people of color coming into the United States on the same day you have a person massacre people calling immigrants invaders. That's just some of the rhetoric.
KAYYEM: Right.
BURNETT: Coming from the very top in this country.
KAYYEM: Yes. And it's not an accident and Trump isn't careless or whatever.
BURNETT: No.
KAYYEM: This is a consistent feature of the President of taking one thing that say an African-American or a Muslim or an immigrant does and imploding that into a national emergency and then refusing to look at the totality of circumstances of the threat that right-wing extremism poses to us and sort of saying, "Well, maybe the guy was crazy." We don't know what he really believed.
The President knows exactly what he's doing. I cannot get into his heart. But what I can say is that the failure to condemn this from the top as compared to say what the New Zealand Prime Minister did, gives a sense of acceptance if not lack of condemnation to those who believe it.
Now, most of those people are not violent. Let's just be clear here. But some percentage of them will be and they will not hear the isolation of their hatred that needs to come from the top and it's not excusable, it's not carelessness, this is a purposeful tactic from the beginning, from coming down the elevator.
BURNETT: And what is the purpose here? What is the purpose here, Bob? I mean ...
BAER: He's appealing to his base. This is dog-whistle politics and it is racism and you can't describe it any other way. When he called immigrants animals, it was the same as Adolf Hitler used to call foreigners animals, Jews and gypsies. It's the same politics. It's neo-Nazism and he may not advocate violence, but for a lot of people that listen to him as Juliette said it's an incitement to violence.
BURNETT: Thank you both very much.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, could there be more investigations that impact President Trump? We're going to tell you what team Mueller is revealing tonight and the President ramping his attacks on Steele dossier today, he did tweet about that as we learn new evidence that supports yet another detail in the dossier.
[19:25:00]
New tonight, signs that there could be multiple ongoing criminal investigations which involve President Trump for his campaign. The Special Counsel Robert Mueller saying he is not ready for former campaign official Rick Gates, deputy campaign chair actually, to be sentenced because he's helping with "several ongoing investigations" and the government also revealing information provided by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is also part of an ongoing criminal process.
So Sara Murray is OutFront. So they're not ready to end those, so what could that mean?
SARA MURRAY, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, look it could mean that President Trump's legal woes will continue, but it definitely means that even when Special Counsel Robert Mueller does announce he's done with his work, this uncertainty is still going to be out there. We know there are these offshoot investigations that are still going on. When you look at Rick Gates, obviously, we know he played a huge role in the inauguration. We know that that is under investigation in New York. So it makes sense that he would still be cooperating with that investigation as well as with the Special Counsel.
From Michael Flynn, the tricky thing here is we don't know what other information he's given the Special Counsel. They may not need to continue talking to him, but they have all of these transcripts of all of these interviews that they've done with him and who knows what other investigations those could be used for. So I think there could still be this sort of storm cloud and certainly a big question mark hanging over the head of the President and potentially others in his orbit for quite some time, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Sara, thank you. And now Author of The Threat Matrix: Inside Robert Mueller's FBI and the War on Global Terror, Garrett Graff, former White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, April Ryan, and Harry Sandick, former Assistant U.S. Attorney with the Southern District of New York. So Garrett, let me start with you. Do you think this means more indictments from Mueller are on the way?
GARRETT GRAFF, AUTHOR, THE THREAT MATRIX: INSIDE ROBERT MUELLER'S FBI AND THE WAR ON GLOBAL TERROR: I do think that and I think we're going to see sort of one final round of indictments probably right at the same time he files whatever his finished report is. In part because there are just a lot of unanswered questions left in the cases that he has already filed and we know that he has been holding back information in certain parts of these indictments, holding back other halves of conversation, holding back information like in the Paul Manafort case that he still hasn't told us about the Konstantin Kilimnik meeting and the polling data.
We only know that from Paul Manafort's side and the redactions that his lawyer screwed up.
BURNETT: Right.
GRAFF: And remember, Mueller has gone out of his way in every court filing to tell us extra information, to tell us more than we need to know sort of what we call these speaking indictments.
[19:30:03]
[19:30:04] And so, the fact that he is not telling us information in certain cases leads me to think that he's saving it to tell us at a future date.
BURNETT: So, Harry, you know, I know you also believe what this means, right --
HARRY SANDICK, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Yes.
BURNETT: -- not ready to move on could mean Mueller has more to come, right?
SANDICK: I do think it means, and I agree with Garrett that there have been all of these little clues. Another one was in the Roger Stone case where they've said a senior campaign executive was directed to contact Roger Stone. I mean, you could say that sentence in a more direct way than that. Mueller and his team, they elected not to do that.
And so, what happened actually in that meeting. I think the Gates report today is the real tell because everyone else is being sentenced. They're ready for Flynn to be sentenced.
Manafort, they're obviously not going to cooperate him. Stone, I don't view as a potential cooperator. But they don't want Gates sentenced and they were very vague about why.
BURNETT: So, you know, April, this comes in the context of the president ramping up his attacks against Mueller, right now saying there shouldn't be a report which, by the way, goes against pretty much all of Congress, right? So he tweets today the special counsel should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller report. That is what goes against everyone in Congress, right?
This is a guy who everybody says witch hunt, hoax, no collusion or some combination of the three. If that's the case, why not say, bring it? Put it out there. I have nothing to hide. I've said that since the beginning. Please, dear God, Bob Mueller, put your report out.
APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDETN, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Erin, you know this president basically leans on the understanding that his name is everything and this Mueller report could not only taint his name but his brand and his efforts to secure the White House. You know, as Mueller is going for the original mandate of obstruction and conspiracy, you know, this can still -- whatever comes out -- we're not used to the thing normal people, average Americans not used to a lot of things that Donald Trump finds normal or President Trump finds normal or what he used to do as citizen Trump, we don't find those things normal. And he is afraid we will see how he works, who he really is.
BURNETT: Yes.
RYAN: This could be damaging for his persona, his image, his brand and, you know, it could be damaging for his family structure as well.
MADDOW: So, you know, Garrett, you know, I want to bring up a point that Harry just did, right? That there are just things out there that, you know, Mueller does everything very carefully, right? You don't put something out there that's going to cause everybody to wonder without having a plan, and by this, I'm referring to the Roger Stone indictment that Harry did, right?
The exact line was after the release of stolen e-mails by Organization 1, that's WikiLeaks, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about additional releases and other damaging information Organization 1 had. So somebody more senior than a senior campaign official is directing to get stuff from WikiLeaks. Obviously, Richard Blumenthal said, OK, that's either Donald Trump himself or Donald Jr.
I mean, Garrett, do you think that that's who it is? And do you think Mueller put that in there on purpose, we're going to know who that person is, that that's relevant?
GRAFF: I have to think that we are going to and that he's going to tell us as part of some final round of indictments. And you've sort of seen these bread crumbs across a lot of his indictments. Remember, going back to the GRU indictment last summer. He had that suspiciously precise phrase how when Donald Trump went out and made the Russia, are you listening comment, that the Russian hackers actually acted upon that and they returned to their office that night and for the first time attacked Hillary Clinton's server.
Again, when you say something like for the first time, when you say it was directed, you're actually changing the burden of proof that you as the investigator have to meet.
BURNETT: Right.
GRAFF: So, these are cases where Bob Mueller is adding additional information that actually makes his own job harder so he's only going to do that if these phrases matter, if the facts that he's pointing us to connect in a way that he hasn't told us yet.
BURNETT: Right. He could have said and that night they did it, but for the first time it implies a level of direction or, I don't know, coordination. We shall see.
Harry, Mueller got praise last night from somebody who is surprising and that is Abbe Lowell. That is Jared Kushner's attorney, OK? According to NPR, Lowell says Mueller has conducted his investigation with great integrity, saying, quote, I don't know of a special counsel who's done it better.
What is that all about? Jared Kushner has absolutely nothing to hide, there's nothing here? Or something else?
SANDICK: I think it is partly that. And I think also -- I mean, we've seen all of these attacks on Mueller from Trump's lawyers, but the normal way if you're a good defense lawyer to deal with the prosecutor is to say that you trust that they're going to be fair, that they're doing a good job, that you hope to be cleared, things like that.
[19:35:16] And that's more what Abbe Lowell is doing rather than going around screaming witch hunt over and over again. So, I think it's perhaps likely that he knows that Kushner is not within the scope of what Mueller is doing at this point, but I think it's also what you would say even if you weren't sure of the outcome in order to try to demonstrate to the prosecutor --
BURNETT: Trying to be a fair player, straight shooter.
SANDICK: Exactly. Exactly.
BURNETT: What do you make of it, April?
RYAN: I'm in total agreement. I mean, we're not used to sanity in traditional lawyers when we hear from those in the Trump family, I mean, i.e., Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen.
But, you know, this is -- this is a sign, again, that, you know, Jared Kushner's name has not been bantered about much in this whole scheme in the last few years of this investigation, not as much as others and others in his family. But this is a way to be fair and to make sure that they're saying, you know, we're expecting great things or things to be okay for our client. So, that's where he is.
BURNETT: All right. Well, we shall see. Thank you all.
And next, Trump loves to call the Steele dossier a fake, but we know some of it has been verified and we have new evidence tonight that could further support that dossier.
And Trump's first veto to find Congress to get his border wall. Can the veto withstand a legal challenge?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:40:29] BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump slamming the Steele dossier on Twitter, calling it the, quote, fake dossier paid for by crooked Hillary.
Now, let's just, of course, let's make sure we share the facts with you. It was paid for, right, by a conservative website funded by a Republican donor. That was who first hired the firm behind the dossier to get it started. And as far as it being fake, well, we have a lot we don't know. But we do know several allegations in the dossier are true and tonight we're learning about even more.
Pamela Brown is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New evidence about how Russian intelligence might have exploited a private web hosting company, a Russian technology entrepreneur Alexei Gubarev in an effort to trick Democratic targets into giving up their passwords. The fruits of those hacks formed the basis of the WikiLeaks email dumps that roiled the race. This, according to expert analysis done on behalf of "BuzzFeed" by former FBI cyber agent and CNN contributor, Anthony Ferrante, as part of a civil suit between "BuzzFeed" and Gubarev.
ANTHONY FERRANTE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The scope of our investigation, myself and my team, was to conduct a technical investigation to determine the accuracy of the allegations stated in the Steele dossier.
BROWN: The 35 page dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele claims Gubarev played a, quote, significant role in the hacking operation under duress from the Russian security agency FSB. Gubarev has denied involvement in the hack and sued "BuzzFeed" for publishing that portion of the dossier. The analysis does not show Gubarev or his company knew anything about whether the hackers used his company servers.
An attorney for Gubarev tells CNN special counsel Robert Mueller indicted the 12 Russians responsible for the hacking. Those are the folks responsible. Not us.
FERRANTE: What we determined was that there were 16 specific and unique instances in which we could tie XBT Infrastructure or its affiliates to significant malicious cyber activity.
BROWN: But it does not explore the fact that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The fraud of the -- the fake dossier, the phony dossier.
BROWN: Over the last couple of years, special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, as well as congressional committee probes, have corroborated some aspects of the dossier, including the claims of Russians trying to develop a closer relationship with Trump by offering him lucrative real estate business deals.
TRUMP: Zero. I mean, I will tell you right now, zero. I have nothing to do with Russia. Zero. Zero.
BROWN: Trump's former fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen testified that he and Trump were in fact negotiating a potential deal about building a Trump Tower in Moscow, with efforts continuing as late as the summer of 2016, as Trump was clinching the Republican nomination for president.
Despite past denials of ever doing business with Russia, Trump now brushes the project aside.
TRUMP: This deal was a very public deal. Everybody knows about this deal. I wasn't trying to hide anything.
When I run for president, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to do business. I was doing a lot of different things when I was running.
BROWN: And despite Trump's claims of little to no contact with Russia prior to his election victory and inauguration, we have learned that, in fact, at least 16 Trump associates had contacts with Russians either during the election or the presidential transition. One such interaction took place in June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York when Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort all met with several Russians who offered dirt on Clinton. And Vladimir Putin himself has admitted one of the central allegations of the dossier was true. He preferred Trump to win the election rather than Hillary Clinton.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Yes, I do, because he talked about bringing the U.S./Russia relationship back to normal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Now, it's important to note that other parts of the dossier have not been verified, including the claim that has gotten a lot of attention. The claim that Michael Cohen traveled to Prague in 2016 to coordinate with Russians in order to cover up the Russian election meddling. Cohen has repeatedly denied this, including just recently under oath to Congress -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Pamela, thank you.
And next, today the deadline for the White House to give Congress information about Trump's meetings with Putin. So, we've got a few more hours. Are they going to fork it over?
And how selfies and direct dialing are helping Elizabeth Warren pay for her White House run.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:45:07] SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Warren. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of town.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump signing his first veto after his own party rebuked him, voted to reject his declaration of a national emergency. That national emergency, of course, was declared to fund the president's border wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: To defend the safety and security of all Americans, I will be signing and issuing a formal veto of this reckless resolution. I have the duty to veto it and I'm very proud to veto it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu from California who sits on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees.
So, Congressman, the president signs his first veto, said he's proud to do it. Obviously, this will go back to the House. It does not appear you have the votes to override. So, his veto would stand.
What now?
REP. TED LIEU (D-CA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Yes. Thank you, Erin, for your question.
Let me first say my heart goes out to the families in the tragic mosque attacks in New Zealand.
Regarding your question, what's significant is not the veto, what's significant is that both Houses of Congress with clear and bipartisan majorities rebuked Donald Trump. That's going to help us in our court case because there's no way that Congress would have intended a law to be interpreted in such a way that we would have allowed the president to bypass our appropriations of powers when both houses just said no to him. So, I think it really strengthens our court case.
BURNETT: All right. So, when you say strengthens your court case, of course, the president's attorney general spoke out today and seemed to obviously think he's got the legal upper hand.
[19:50:01] Here is President Trump and Attorney General Barr.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're not going to be able to override. It's going to go very quickly. As your attorney general just said, it's a very strong case, a very powerful case. I think actually a national emergency is designed for a specific purpose like this. So, we have a -- we have a great case. BILL BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Absolutely, absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And that absolutely, absolutely, obviously was Attorney General Barr.
You're a former prosecutor, Congressman. Do you think that Barr is right, they have the upper hand?
LIEU: Actually not. Congress passed the national emergency law for the president to act when Congress could not, if there was a time issue, there was a real national emergency. Congress not only acted, we acted to say no with clear bipartisan majorities.
So, I think we're going to win this court case. But just on the facts alone, there is no national emergency. Based on Trump's own data from his own administration, border apprehensions have declined 75 percent from 2000 to 2018. Based on the FBI's latest data, violent crime and property crime are both down across America.
BURNETT: You know, Pamela Brown, I want to ask you, just a moment ago, was talking about the dossier, right, the Steele dossier, obviously highly controversial. She was reporting on another part of it that may prove to be true which specifically referred to how Russian intelligence hacked into Democratic targets during the presidential election.
Do you think that there are more revelations like this to come, further things that would prove the dossier to be true?
LIEU: It's certainly possible because over time, more and more allegations in the Steele dossier have been confirmed and corroborated. In fact, those who have read it and those who have gone through it don't say it's false. So, Devin Nunes' memo that he wrote with the House Republican intelligence staff, they say the dossier contains salacious details. They never say the dossier is false.
So, I think as we go more and more into this dossier, you'll see more and more items being corroborated.
BURNETT: I want to ask you about the news tonight, three House committees, your foreign affairs among them, said the State Department appear the White House, this was their day. They have until midnight to give you the information and details about President Trump's meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Have you gotten anything from them at all?
LIEU: I have gotten no indications from either my staff or committee staff that we have gotten any information from the White House. I would be pleasantly surprised if we actually got some information because Donald Trump tried to hide this information from his own administration. And the administration right now --
BURNETT: What are you going to do about it to get them to comply? Do you have any other tools?
LIEU: So, right now, the administration has been quite obstructionist and they are denying and really not trying to work with Congress on a number of requests that different committees have put forward. So, if they do not provide this information that we requested, we'll try to continue to negotiate but at some point, we're just going to have to start issuing subpoenas.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Congressman. I appreciate your time.
LIEU: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, campaigning for president 2020 style.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: I saw your tweet, and I am delighted you're all onboard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERIAL BREAK)
[19:57:23] BURNETT: And tonight, the political ground game, Elizabeth Warren taking her 2020 strategy to a new level by trying to do it through selfies.
M.J. Lee is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WARREN: It's Elizabeth Warren.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of town.
WARREN: No, it really is, Grace.
M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): In a crowded Democratic field, Elizabeth Warren is thinking small.
WARREN: I'm in this fight all the way and it means a lot to me that you're in it with me.
LEE: Picking up the phone to personally thank donors.
WARREN: I really do appreciate it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to fly well in Iowa.
LEE: For the Massachusetts Democrat, it's one way to take the pulse of the country.
WARREN: I get a chance to hear from people. I get to hear what's right at the top of their minds. Also I love it because it's just for a moment, a spark of this is how democracy is supposed to work. LEE: Like most of her Democratic competitors, Warren is rejecting
money from corporate PACs, but she's gone a step further, turning away money from all other PACs. She's also vowed not to solicit money from wealthy donors during the primaries.
WARREN: And I don't go off to closed-door meetings with millionaires. I'm here with you.
LEE: Instead of high-dollar fund-raisers, it's all about the one-on- one outreach and phone calls.
WARREN: So what pulls you into the fight?
LEE: And face time with supporters. After every campaign event, Warren spends sometimes hours taking photos with everyone who waits in line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at me.
LEE: The campaign is also looking for supporters through social media. Warren, surprising this Iowa woman with a phone call from the road.
WARREN: I saw your tweet, and I am delighted you're all onboard.
LEE: According to her campaign, Warren has done 29 photo lines this year and posed with over 9,500 people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It will be everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to definitely tweet it.
LEE: But the competition is stiff with the Democratic field growing by the day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll get a picture with you.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would love that. Come on.
LEE: This is social media savvy Cory Booker, and Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, both drawing big crowds.
Sanders also raking in big bucks. His campaign says it raised a stunning $10 million in just the first week of his 2020 bid.
WARREN: Hello, New York City!
LEE: Warren admits she's taking a gamble.
WARREN: I'm leaving money on the table, there's no doubt about that.
LEE: Hoping every phone call and every handshake will pay off in the end.
WARREN: Think of it as a foundation. It's really solid foundation of people who are truly committed, who get the issues, who are willing to put something of themselves into it.
LEE: M.J. Lee, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And don't miss CNN's presidential town hall with Elizabeth Warren, Monday at 9:00 Eastern, moderated by Jake Tapper.
Thank you for joining us.
"AC360" starts now.
