Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Trump Baselessly Appears To Blame FAA "Diversity Push" For Collision; 67 Presumed Dead In Mid-Air Collision Over Potomac River; Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard Face Confirmation Hearings; Sources: FBI Agents Association Officials Urged Patel To Protect Agents Who Investigated Jan. 6 Violent Crime. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 30, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:32:19]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: From a moment of silence to partisan finger- pointing without evidence to back that up, we heard Donald Trump waste no time turning a national tragedy that left 67 people dead into a time to take aim at diversity programs in the federal government.

I want to bring in CNN's Rene Marsh who has been talking to your sources. Rene, nice to see you in the aviation world and specifically in the government about the President's remarks. What are you hearing?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, I will say I was watching the President's press conference live. And as I was watching, I received a couple of text messages. One notable one from a former crash investigator, plane crash investigator with decades of experience saying just simply, absolutely insane, irresponsible.

Because the thing that everyone knows working within the aviation safety industry is that there is no room for politics. The two just don't go together. It is seen as taboo and they will tell you that the reason why the U.S. is the safest when it comes to air safety throughout the world is because they have been able to operate void of politics.

And so something to watch and that I'm going to be watching is, it is clear that the President and his Cabinet members, Department of Transportation and DOD, Department of Defense secretary are starting to craft a narrative around the cause of this crash.

And it is an important time to remind everyone that the NTSB is an independent entity. They will investigate this based on the facts. And we should remind folks there are still bodies literally in the water that they are recovering.

The NTSB has yet to recover the black boxes. And those are the pieces of evidence that is going to lead them to the root cause. So, again, something to watch as the president, you know, plays in politics and starts to craft a narrative around the cause here.

The NTSB will have the answers and they are an independent entity charged with doing that, Dana.

BASH: Rene, thank you so much. Appreciate that reporting.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids from the state of Kansas. She sits on the House Transportation Committee and Aviation Subcommittee. First and foremost, we are just so sorry for the loss that many people in your state are feeling right now in your state of Kansas.

Let's start there. There are 67 people that are believed to be dead, including 64 on that commercial passenger flight from Kansas. What are you hearing at this point from your constituents?

[12:35:13]

REP. SHARICE DAVIDS (D), KANSAS: Well, thank you for expressing that. This is absolutely heartbreaking. Every single Kansan, we're a pretty small state. Every single Kansan is going to be impacted in one way or another by this.

And certainly all of us are praying for the families and the loved ones and friends and community of all the people who are -- have been impacted by this. I will say that, you know, I've been hearing from so many folks.

You know, we've also had a lot of people nationally just reaching out to everyone in our delegation to make sure that everyone in Kansas and everyone else who's been impacted, including our military personnel, including the first responders and the people who are out there trying to do everything they can to do the recovery operations. There's a lot of outpouring of love during this heartbreaking time.

BASH: So you have several jobs right now. One is to constituent services to the people in your district. And the other is oversight, particularly given the fact that, as I mentioned, you do sit on the House Transportation Committee and the Aviation Subcommittee.

Given that, I want you to please respond to the allegations that we heard from President Trump saying that this is because of the diversity and equity programs in the FAA, that people who were hired are not the best and the brightest. And specifically, well, we can leave Pete Buttigieg aside for a second.

Just talk about that because you know about the nuts and bolts of all of how the FAA hires because that's your job on the Oversight Committee. But inside of that is the way that these DEI programs, which, by the way, don't exist anymore because Donald Trump got rid of them, but how they did work.

DAVIDS: Yes. Can I just -- I feel like I need to acknowledge that right now, there are so many people who are both heartbroken. But when we see a tragedy like this, people get scared and have anxiety. And I think it is -- it's such a human thing for folks to want to understand as quickly as possible why this happened, how this happened.

And so in some ways, I do think there is, you know, there's a natural human response to start grasping for answers. What I can tell you right now is, I do think it is irresponsible for anyone in the government to be making -- to be trying to come up with reasons for how this tragedy happened.

We absolutely owe it to every single person impacted, to the families, the loved ones, the victims, the first responders, the -- everybody who's impacted to allow a thorough investigation to take place.

I also think it's really important for folks to know that the National Transportation Safety Board or NTSB, you guys are going to be hearing about them so much in the coming weeks, months, probably years, they are career professionals. They're folks who know what they're doing.

They're working closely. I literally just got done with a briefing from folks with NTSB. They're working with the FAA. They're working with the military. They're working with the FBI. Because that's a standard process.

The American airspace is safe because we try not to ever have tragedies. When we do have them, we take a hard look. And then those of us in Congress, and when we do our oversight, we're going to be checking to make sure --

BASH: Yes.

DAVIDS: -- based on the investigation and the facts, that we change processes if necessary. But right now it's so early.

BASH: Yes.

DAVIDS: We have to let this investigation play out.

BASH: Yes, I totally understand. Thank you so much for being on, particularly at this very tough time in your home state of Kansas. Appreciate it, Congresswoman.

And we --

DAVIDS: Thank you.

BASH: Thank you. And we heard from the President of the United States about wanting to have the best and the brightest in all parts of his government. Well, there are two confirmation hearings that are happening right now on Capitol Hill for some of the most important, a couple of the most important positions in the U.S. government.

Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, how is that going? What do the senators who hold their fate in their hand think about whether they are qualified? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:44:40]

BASH: With all this other news, it may be easy to not understand that there are other really important things happening in Washington, including and especially two really key Senate confirmation hearings that are going on right now.

It's Kash Patel, who is the President's pick to lead the FBI. He's been testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. And Donald Trump's choice for the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has been facing questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

[12:45:09]

CNN's David Chalian is here with me now, along with Evan Perez and John Miller. John, I want to start with you. And first, I want to just run a bit of what went on in the Intelligence Committee, an exchange between the top Democrat on the committee and Tulsi Gabbard.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: These are your quotes. Brave. Please join my bipartisan legislation calling for charges to be dropped against him. Do you disagree that legislation was not appropriate? Do you believe he is brave or not?

TULSI GABBARD, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE: Yes --

WARNER: Back those words?

GABBARD: Once again, Senator, Edward Snowden broke the law. He also released information --

WARNER: Ms. Gabbard, I'm not talking --

GABBARD: -- that exposed the United States government's illegal programs.

WARNER: I'm asking you a question whether your legislation in your words are still your beliefs. Yes or no, please.

GABBARD: I'm making myself very clear. Edward Snowden broke the law. He released information about the United States government's illegal activities.

WARNER: Ma'am, I --

GABBARD: If I may just finish my thoughts, Senator. In this role that I've been nominated for, if confirmed as director of National Intelligence, I will be responsible for protecting our nation's secrets. And I have four immediate steps that I would take to prevent another Snowden like leak.

WARNER: Ma'am, I would simply ask you again. I don't think you're going to answer. I agree with Tom Cotton, he's a traitor. You for years until you got chosen by President Trump have celebrated this guy as brave. You've called for him to be pardoned for his charges to be dropped.

I cannot imagine a director of national intelligence that would say that kind of behavior is OK. (END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Now, John, I don't know about you, but the issue that I hear more than any other from Republicans who will decide whether to vote for her or not is this Edward Snowden issue. And the fact that she did support through legislation the notion of dropping the charges against Snowden.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Dana, first of all, in full disclosure, I'm a former assistant deputy director of National Intelligence. So I served in the place where she is proposed to be the leader at a time when the Snowden business was unfolding, where we had had another massive leak from another member of the military prior to Snowden.

So I think what we saw today, the hearing was fascinating, which is this became a where you stand is where you sit moment where she was not committed to her former legislation that Snowden should be pardoned or her language that he was a hero. But you saw that again when they talked about 702 collection.

So you can see that there was some backpedaling here and even under pressure, although she did maintain poison control throughout the entire hearing, even when pressed. What she didn't do was answer those questions directly about, have you changed your mind about things you tried to make law?

BASH: Yes, you're exactly right. She was very prepared to say the things that she wanted to say, her four points on going forward, but not about whether she explicitly dismisses what she believed in the past.

Evan, I want to ask you now about Kash Patel, because this got -- I mean, both of these hearings got heated, this one especially, because the thrust of the questions from Democrats is not only qualification, but support for people involved in the January 6 insurrection, and other questions about retribution. And the list goes on and on.

Let's just listen again to some of what happened in that hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D), RHODE ISLAND: We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. Is that a correct quotation, Mr. Patel?

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE: Senator, that's a partial quotation.

WHITEHOUSE: But it's correct.

PATEL: In part.

WHITEHOUSE: Regarding his publication of his enemies list, Mr. Patel proclaimed, the manhunt starts tomorrow and reposted a video depicting him taking a chainsaw to his political enemies. Is that you, Kash Patel, re-truthed, reposting that at the top of that page?

PATEL: Senator, I had nothing to do with the creation of that.

WHITEHOUSE: Is that you reposting it, was my question.

PATEL: And that's me at the top.

[12:50:01]

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: If President Trump were to order you to open an investigation into any of these individuals, let's say Vice President Harris, would you?

PATEL: Any law enforcement investigation, if I'm confirmed that the FBI will only be launched on the following qualification, a factual, articulable, legal basis to do so. The President has said publicly that he will allow the FBI to remain independent, and I have said as much as well.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BASH: Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I mean, there's a time-honored tradition in Washington to, when you go before the Senate for a confirmation, that you distance yourselves from all of the wild things that you may have said on social media and in interviews.

You know, Kash Patel, though, has done thousands of appearances on podcasts. And, you know, part of his persona has been to be as provocative as possible. So what they're doing is they're just playing all of the things that he has said, and he is basically, as you can see there, he is trying to say that that is not him, does not represent him, and that, you know, he's trying to pivot back to his own experiences.

And so, at this point, it does appear that Republicans are pretty much firmly in line to confirm him, despite all of those things that you heard him say. And also, by the way, I mean, he is now -- the boss is someone himself who has said really, you know, outrageous things, and he got elected President of the United States. So, I mean, what is supposed to happen to Kash Patel, right?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I mean, with both of the nominees that you've put forward there, Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel, we're getting at the core of what you said about the boss, which is, you know, the FBI and the intelligence services in this country, this is the very heart of the so-called deep state that Donald Trump believes --

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- was against him from the start back in 2016 and onward. He blames these universes of government workers for a lot of his own personal legal jeopardy and pain and all that he has had grievances about very publicly. And he clearly is putting in people who are aiming to be real disruptors to those organizations.

Here's the difference. You just noted it. Republicans, they're not bringing up Kash Patel's past statements that they -- some of them in private will tell you they thought are a little off the wall, too.

PEREZ: Right.

CHALIAN: They are sort of lining up behind Patel and believe bringing that kind of disruption to the FBI is critical. Gabbard is another question right now.

BASH: Yes.

CHALIAN: As you saw Mark Warner allude to chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Tom Cotton, and his thoughts about Gabbard, and what has been made clear, that if Gabbard doesn't -- by John Thune, the majority leader -- if Gabbard doesn't get out of committee, he doesn't see her getting a vote on the floor for full confirmation.

So this is now about not just Republicans broadly, but the Republicans sitting on the Senate Intelligence Committee, if they are fully aligned, to take someone they have questions about in this role and advance her because she is Trump's nominee.

BASH: And John Miller, just to bring you back in, you mentioned your experience in the intelligence community. You also were an assistant director of the FBI. You have years of experience in both of these areas where these individuals are being nominated, as David said, very clearly to disrupt them in various ways.

Each of them explicitly said that they believe that they are the right person or people for the job because they believe that they were victims of -- I'm going to use the words deep state, they didn't necessarily use them, although Kash Patel did in his book, but that's sort of the thrust of that. Can you talk about their nominations through that lens?

MILLER: So we're looking at the same thing in both cases when it comes to the core questions that are being asked by people in the law enforcement community, people in the intelligence community, and frankly, between the FBI and the ODNI, where those communities cross over.

A large part of what the FBI does is intelligence-based. The summary of that kind of question was enunciated by Senator Mark Warner at the beginning of the Gabbard hearing when he said -- he cited the law that said that the intelligence community, DNI, needs to have significant experience in the intelligence community. It's in the statute that created the job.

And he said, and I quote, "We need serious people with sufficient experience". Raising the question, was that her? With Kash Patel, you switch over to the same question, which is Robert Mueller was the head of the criminal division of the Department of Justice before he became the FBI director. He had been a prosecutor, a line prosecutor before that and a significant attorney. Louis Freeh has been a federal prosecutor and then a federal judge. The same with William Webster. So when you have somebody who is coming out of a number of government jobs and policy positions coming into the FBI director, where someone with no significant experience in the intelligence community as DNI, the core question -- and David has mentioned this before is, are we picking people who Donald Trump feels will be intensely loyal, even if they are barely qualified when compared to others?

[12:55:14]

BASH: You have some new reporting. I think we have like 15 seconds. I want everybody to look at it online, but real quick.

PEREZ: Real quick. I mean, you know, we know the FBI agents association met with Kash Patel recently to ask him to essentially to spare agents who were assigned to the January 6th cases or the Trump cases. He didn't give any reassurances that he would not target those people once he got confirmed.

BASH: I mean, that's -- OK. I've said it was quick, but apparently we have 20 more seconds. That's really key because people are -- part of the big theme here is retribution, including people who are --

PEREZ: Which he has spoken about in the past. And, you know, today, he was asked a question about this and he said FBI agents will be held to absolute same standard and no one will be terminated for case assignments. Agents have already been getting threats for working on cases related to Trump, so we'll see what happens.

BASH: Thank you so much. Thank you to John Miller.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics today. CNN News Central starts after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)