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New Day
Donald Trump Criticizes Outgoing CIA Chief; Growing List of Democrats not Attending Trump's Inauguration Ceremony; Interview with Senator Tom Coburn; Trump Vows "Insurance For Everybody" In Obamacare Replacement; Political Fight Brews Over Ethics Director; Police Video Captures Traffic Stop Beating. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired January 16, 2017 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00] SYMONE SANDERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: So I'm all -- the rhetoric is not enough. Rhetoric is not going to keep our kids out of the criminal justice system.
BRUNELL DONALD-KYEI, ATTORNEY: Absolutely.
SANDERS: Rhetoric is not going to bring back. We need action. And Donald Trump --
DONALD-KYEI: We needed it for the last eight years. And it didn't happen.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Brunell, quickly, quickly, President-elect Trump canceled plans to visit the Civil Rights Museum on the Washington Mall today. Do you think he should go?. Is that somewhere he would benefit from visiting?
DONALD-KYEI: You know what, I would say this, the president-elect, if he made the decision to not visit, I'm sure there is a reason that is probably just -- he just probably couldn't make it. I don't know his schedule.
SANDERS: He's adverse to stepping foot in the black and brown community.
DONALD-KYEI: I don't think he is adverse to stepping foot in black and brown communities. What he is adverse to is being attacked when he is the only person I've heard talk about putting $100 billion in African-American and Latino communities in the next eight years. So it's not that. It's surely a scheduling conflict.
BERMAN: Starting Friday he'll be president of the United States.
DONALD-KYEI: Absolutely.
BERMAN: And a lot of people go after you from every direction there. So as the legitimately elected president, he will face a lot of that starting on Friday. Symone Sanders, Brunell, thanks so much for being with us.
DONALD-KYEI: Thank you. God bless you and God bless America.
BERMAN: We're following a lot of news this morning, so let's get to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I do find outrageous is equating intelligence community with Nazi Germany.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump suggesting CIA director John Brennan may be behind the leaks.
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're not going to be able to make good situations without building some relationship of trust between yourself and that community.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: China's state-run tabloids slamming Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone can have access to affordable health care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president-elect is vowing insurance for everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't see the president-elect as a legitimate president.
BERMAN: A growing list of Democratic lawmakers say they are boycotting the inauguration.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a real disservice to our country. Donald Trump won a landslide election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
BERMAN: All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to NEW DAY. I'm John Berman alongside Poppy Harlow this morning.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Great to be here.
BERMAN: It's great to be here with you. Chris and Alisyn are off today. President-elect Donald Trump slamming outgoing CIA Director John Brennan after the direction said that the president doesn't fully understand Russia and warned the president-elect to watch his tone. Mr. Trump is now suggesting the CIA director may be behind the leak of that unsubstantiated dossier.
HARLOW: This is happening as the backlash intensifies in the feud between civil rights here Congress John Lewis and the president-elect. Now a growing list of Democratic lawmakers, 25 now, say they're boycotting Trump's swearing in. And the president-elect is vowing also insurance for everybody to replace Obamacare. Sounds a lot like universal health care. How is he going to do it? We are four days away from his inauguration. So let's begin our coverage this morning with our Sara Murray. She is live outside of Trump Tower here in New York. Good morning. SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Donald Trump's
fraught relationship with the U.S. intelligence community escalated further this weekend when he got in a bit of a war of words with outgoing CIA director John Brennan. Trump even taking to Twitter to say was this the leaker of fake news?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY: Donald Trump taking to Twitter to suggest that outgoing CIA director John Brennan leaked unsubstantiated personal and financial information that could be damaging to Trump.
JOHN BRENNAN, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY DIRECTOR: There is no basis for Mr. Trump to point fingers at the intelligence community for leaking information that was already available publicly.
MURRAY: Trump's charge coming hours after Brennan appeared on national television arguing the president-elect doesn't understand the critical threat Russia poses.
BRENNAN: I think he has to recognize that his words do have impact and can have very positive impact or they can be undercutting of our national security.
MURRAY: Trump has spent months doubting U.S. intelligence findings that Russia was behind the election cyber-attacks. And in a new interview the president-elect suggesting the U.S. could ease tensions with Russia. Trump telling the "Times of London" and German newspaper "Bild" "Let's see if we can make some good deals."
This as China blasts Trump's comments over the weekend that the One China policy which maintains Taiwan as part of China, is under in does. China's state-ran tabloid slamming Trump in an editorial, quote, "We were simply angry initially, but now we can't help but laugh."
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: There are no plans to change the One China policy. But certainly that policy is on the table if China doesn't also come to the table and work with us on trade, work with us on the South China Sea and what's happening there.
MURRAY: Meanwhile at home, Trump promising "We're going to have new insurance for everybody" in a new interview with "The Washington Post." The president-elect not revealing specifics but says he's close to finishing his plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. And part of that plan will be to specifically target the pharmaceutical industry.
[08:05:10] Over the weekend thousands joining rallies across the country led by Democrats to protest repeal of the law, while Trump's feud with civil rights icon congressman John Lewis intensifies.
REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D) GEORGIA: I don't see this president-elect as a legitimate president.
MURRAY: The controversial comment of course provoking Trump to tweet. "Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime infested, rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk, no action or results. Sad."
But Trump's assertion is wrong. Lewis represents an economically diverse area of Atlanta, thriving and wealthy in some area with poverty in others. Now dozens of Democrats say they'll boycott Trump's inauguration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY: Donald Trump's spat with the civil rights icon coming just before today, Martin luther King Day. While we did originally expect Donald Trump to travel to Washington, D.C. today, he has scrapped those plans and will sticking around New York for meetings. Back to you, Poppy.
HARLOW: All right, Sara Murray, thank you so much.
We have a lot of discuss with former Oklahoma Senator Republican Tom Coburn. Nice to have you on the program. Thanks for being here.
TOM COBURN, (R) FORMER OKLAHOMA SENATOR: Good morning.
HARLOW: Good morning to you. Let's begin with the feud between Congressman John Lewis and the president-elect. We know the list of Democrats who aren't going to the inauguration is now up to 25. Do you support the way that the president-elect responded to Congressman Lewis saying he is not a legitimate president? Should the president- elect have responded in that way, saying this is a man of all talk, no action?
COBURN: Well, I think Donald Trump is a user of Twitter to accomplish his means. I certainly wouldn't have responded that way, but that doesn't mean he won't. We've seen this pattern through his entire campaign to where he controls the talking points by using Twitter to counter somebody else's assertion. I think it's unfortunate that Congressman Lewis said that he's not legitimate because there's no basis in fact for that. But the point is at some point in time the president is going to have to turn to become more presidential. And that's not presidential.
HARLOW: It's not presidential, in about four days when he is the next president, the argument could be made. Today is Martin Luther King Day. And you can't ignore the context of all of this. Do you think today is a day that you would advise the president-elect to pick up the phone and to call Congressman Lewis and say, let's sit down, let's talk for the benefit of the nation?
COBURN: I think reconciliation is always something we all ought to be doing each day, whether it's in our own family or in our relationships with those that we work with. That's always a good idea. I'm not in a position to advise the president-elect on anything. I would just tell you as a principle, that's the way you solve problems and you move forward.
HARLOW: You would do that? You would call John Lewis? COBURN: I don't think I ever would have tweeted in the first place.
I would have had a private conversation and saying what is it that's illegitimate about my election, because nobody can claim that that's the case factually.
HARLOW: Let's talk about the way, also, that the president-elect has responded to the intelligence community, specifically the head of the CIA, John Brennan, who did have tough words for the president-elect on FOX News Sunday yesterday about Russia, saying he doesn't understand what's happening with Russia, et cetera, and asked him to not speak that way about the intelligence community. Here is what he tweeted, citing a FOX News article, the headline, "Outgoing CIA chief John Brennan blasts president-elect Trump on Russia, does not fully understand." Trump said, "Oh, really? Couldn't do much worse. Just look at Syria, redline, Crimea, Ukraine, the buildup of Russian nukes -- not good. Was this the leaker of fake news?" Insinuating -- more than insinuating that perhaps the head of the CIA is the one who put that 35-page unsubstantiated dossier out there. What do you make of his response?
COBURN: I think that's just typical Trump. It's undocumented, and he asked the question. He didn't state it. He raised the question which got everybody talking about that instead of the real issue, instead of the real issue. The real issue is how is the president going to work with the intelligence community, and is the oversight sufficient of the intelligence community so the president can trust what they say?
[08:10:03] And I can tell you having been on the intelligence community, knowing Richard Burr, I guarantee you the oversight is there that we can trust what they say. I think this is another one of those areas where time is going to make it where the president-elect is going to be more comfortable and more understanding of the information that he's getting.
HARLOW: Let's talk about some of the major issues because Donald Trump did give this interview to "The Times of London" and to "Bild," the German newspaper, calling NATO obsolete among other things, even saying that he would consider possibly banning some Europeans from coming to the United States. Europe is responding. The German foreign minister saying they are, quote, "astonished and agitated," this as he put Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin on the same ground in terms of who he would trust more. Does this concern you that our biggest ally in Europe is astonished and agitated?
COBURN: I don't really know how to answer that. Again, the question is how do you control the effect? What's the purpose of saying that? Is there a secondary goal that's not obvious to me or to you in terms of accomplishment? As somebody that served in Congress for 16 years, I would tell you that NATO needs to pony up a whole lot larger portion of the cost of maintaining NATO, and that would be all the European countries that are members of it, so that, in fact, it's not a burden on the American taxpayers, that it's a shared burden. And I think he's right in that regard. I can't comment on his other insinuations.
HARLOW: At this point given his comments, though, it does appear he's getting along better with Russia and Vladimir Putin than he is with Angela Merkel and Germany.
COBURN: I'm not sure you can say that. I'm not sure you can say that.
HARLOW: Why not?
COBURN: He may be playing a game of chess towards Putin and may have already sent a private signal to Merkel. We don't know that. All we know is what is coming out, which I think is an unfortunate way to lead the country.
HARLOW: Let's say perhaps that's the case. Should foreign policy be a game like that?
COBURN: I don't think so. But again, I said it was unfortunate. But we don't know and we can't know what else is going on. So our assumption is only what we see rather than thinking about, is there an ulterior purpose, is there another method, is there something else going on that we're not aware of?
The one thing I know and I learned is that Donald Trump is not stupid. And he is pretty savvy when it comes to controlling you all and other people in terms of controlling the message. So he may have messages out there just what he wants to have so he can come back in and heal things with Angela Merkel and he can get tougher with Russia. We don't know that.
HARLOW: All we have to base it on, though, are the words that he says and the words he tweets.
COBURN: That's right. And he's got all the press talking about what he tweets rather than looking what are the other things.
HARLOW: Now, we're talking about his actions. We're talking about his interview on substantial things such as NATO, such as Angela Merkel, such as Putin.
COBURN: Again, he has certainly got you covering what he said about it, and we don't know the ulterior motive. And I'm not defending it. I'm just saying, I wouldn't do it that way, but that's how he ran a whole campaign and how he won 270-some electoral votes.
HARLOW: All we can do is cover what he says and what he tweets until he takes action in four days. I appreciate you being with us, senator. Thank you very much.
COBURN: Thank you very much.
HARLOW: John?
BERMAN: Words to matter. Up next the president-elect says he is ready to unveil his plan for replacing Obamacare. He says it's better, cheaper, and will cover everyone. How's he going to do that? We're going to speak to a Republican lawmaker who voted against the repeal resolution. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:16:32] BERMAN: President-elect Donald Trump says he's in the process of finalizing his plan to replace Obamacare. He told the "Washington Post," quote, "We're going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. That's not going to happen with us."
So that's a principle at odds with some in his own party so can he win conservative support? Joining me now is Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, Charlie Dent. He is one of nine Republicans who voted against the House resolution that would begin the repeal process.
Congressman Dent, I know you wanted to know what it would be replaced with and when before voting to repeal. Let me ask you about what the president-elect said this weekend, "We're going to have insurance for everybody." What do you think he means?
REP. CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I think what he means is that every American should have access to affordable health insurance. I hope that's what he means. I think his instincts are generally on this issue good, where he wants to see as close to simultaneous repeal and replacement. I think his instincts are generally good. But I think he's really talking about access to affordable health insurance.
BERMAN: You think he's talking about access, but he says nothing about access there. He says we're going to have insurance for everybody, period, full stop. He said if you can't pay for it, there's a philosophy if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. That's not going to happen with us. So he makes it sound like the government is going to provide and/or pay for some level of health care for people.
DENT: Well, when you get beyond the sound bites, John, I think what you have to look at is how are we going to repair this individual insurance market? That seems to be failing. No one has quite figured it out yet. That's going to take a lot of work.
What's going to happen with this health care law is this, parts of it need to be repealed. Parts of it need to be replaced. Parts of it need tore overhauled and reformed. Other parts will be maintained. I think we have to all get our rhetoric right on this.
It's important for the House, the Senate and the incoming administration to fully develop and better articulate exactly what it is we're going to do. That's why I voted against the budget resolution the other day because I just don't feel we're ready to launch. I felt like we were about ready to get in the airplane and take off, but we don't know how or where we'll land yet.
BERMAN: You say, rhetoric, I mean, the facts matter here, the plans really do matter here because if you say you want to continue to allow insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, let people stay on their parents' insurance until they're 26, and now making sure that everyone has insurance yet, you're going to repeal a lot of provisions that pay for it. That's a system that can't work. That's a system that doesn't pay for itself in any way. That blows a hole in the deficit like we've never seen.
DENT: Well, look, repealing is the easier part of this process. That would only require 51 votes in the Senate, repealing the major tax and budget provisions. You can get a partial repeal through much easier than the replacement piece.
[08:20:01]And there are parallels here. When we replace this health care law, we have to make sure that those people who are currently being subsidized on the exchanges will experience no gaps in coverages. We want to protect those under 26 on dependent policies.
We want to make sure that whatever happens in this transition is the insurance markets can respond. We don't want to accelerate the collapse of that insurance market. Then there's a political question, John, and that is this.
To replace Obamacare would require a 60-vote threshold in the Senate for the most part. In the House we'll have those on the left who won't help if this replace this law if it's repealed and those on the hard right who will denounce any replacement package as Obamacare- light.
We need eight senate Democrats to help us replace and I'm not sure who those eight Senate Democrats are right now.
BERMAN: Congressman, can I ask you a question about ethics because you were the chair of the Ethics Committee in Congress and this is an area of your expertise. The chair of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz, has called in the head of the Government Ethics Office, Walter Shaub, to basically question him about why Shaub has been critical of President-elect Donald Trump, essentially calling in the watch dog and criticizing him for being a watch dog. Is that how you see it?
DENT: Well, I think we have to look at what President-elect Trump has said about ethics. The ideal situation would have been -- this is easy for me to say, it's not my business, the ideal situation would have been for the president-elect to sell his interest in the business, presumably to his family and then put those assets in a blind trust.
Obviously, he's not doing that. What he is doing I think has some merit. What the president-elect has talked about doing is setting up a trust that his children will control, he'll divorce himself from the business, any assets from foreign activities would be sent to the treasury.
So it does create a bit of a firewall, but it is not a blind trust, even though there is a trust that would be managed by the children. There's some vulnerabilities there, but I think it's an honest effort.
BERMAN: So it may be. But instead of providing Congressional oversight over that effort, instead of showing any interest in how that's being done, the chairman of the Oversight Committee is calling in the head of the Government Ethics Office, who has criticized what Donald Trump is doing. I'm just not sure -- do you think Congress has a role in oversight over what the president-elect and soon-to-be president is doing with his own finances?
DENT: Well, I believe we should pay close attention to it. I was chairman of the House Ethics Committee and my jurisdiction only extended to members of the House and House staff, not to the executive branch.
So there's a certain amount of deference -- I do think we have to give the Office of Government Ethics, which is the executive branch entity that oversees ethics, they have to give them some latitude. Even if I don't agree everything he may have said, we have to at least respect his comments.
BERMAN: It was a good call to call him up to task or do you think the chairman should have left him alone?
DENT: Well, I don't know. I probably wouldn't have called him in. That would have been me. But again, we're going to have to keep an eye on this whole situation.
BERMAN: Congressman Charlie Dent, always a pleasure to talk to you, sir. Thanks so much. What's your take on all of this, you can tweet us @newday or post your comment on facebook.com/newday.
HARLOW: Coming up, police dash cam video released showing a black man tackled and punched by police. This is in Evanston, Illinois. They thought the man stole a car. The car was actually his own. Up next, the lawmaker who pushed for that video to become public.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:27:47]
HARLOW: Police in Evanston, Illinois, releasing dash cam video that shows the moment a black doctoral student at Northwestern University was tackled to the ground. Police thought the car that he was in was a car that he stole, but it was actually his own car. Police have released 40 minutes of video and audio related to the arrest. Here is a clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Hands up. On the ground. On the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Get on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Turn around. Turn around. Turn around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm cooperating. I'm cooperating.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Stop resisting. Stop resisting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you are on video. FYI.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my vehicle, sir. I have evidence. UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: When we tell you to get down, you have to get down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. I understand.
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why am I being put in handcuffs?
UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: We have to verify the car is not stolen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is from 40 minutes released by the police department. The entire raw video has not been released. That part is edited. Lawrence Crosby, the civil engineer student that had this encounter back in October 2015 is now suing the city and four police officers for excessive force and false arrest. Police are not commenting on that case because it is an ongoing lawsuit.
Joining us now is Alderman Brian Miller of Evanston, Illinois who pushed for this dash cam video to be released. Thank you for being with us this morning.
I'm interested on whether or not you've spoken with Lawrence Crosby, the man who was arrested there, since this video was released and also your reasoning, why did you want it out in the public?
BRIAN MILLER, 9TH WARD ALDERMAN, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS: Good morning. Thanks for having me. I have not spoken to Mr. Crosby. It wouldn't be appropriate because he is suing the city. I asked for and called for the release of this video because for the last two years as alderman, there have been multiple incidents in our city where the police have not deescalated routine situations.
Most recently, over the Thanksgiving weekend, we had an African- American candidate, who is running for office in the city, collecting signatures to get on the ballot, police stopped him under suspicion of panhandling. It ended up charging with resisting arrest when he wouldn't identify himself.
So there's been about five or six incidents in the past two years that have called for the need -- or have shown the need for de-escalation of our police force.
