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Khalid Masood Identified as Attacker; Nunes Apologizes for Not Sharing Info with Intel Committee; Xavier Advances to Elite 8 After Win; Trump's Dealmaker Reputation Faces Big Test Today; Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 24, 2017 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:06] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. Police making two significant arrests in connection with the deadly terror outside the House of Parliament in London. This is as we learned more about the attacker and his violent past.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh live in London with breaking details.

And Nick, this isn't just about some more of an interest on who this guy is. It's where he was in the system before and what might have been missed.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. How much knowledge did they have of, quote, "his potential radical tendencies." This man, I know he's a peripheral figure, according to the British prime minister. What was missed?

Now we know that his name at birth according to police was Adrian Russell Ajao. He went on to convert to the Islamic faith at some point and then became known as Khalid Masood.

Now police have received 2700 items seized and now part of their ongoing search. This is continuing at five addresses having completed at 16 others. There's a lot of stuff being plowed through here now. The key question, did radicalization occur? Is this a man otherwise with perhaps psychological issues? And did any foreign travel perhaps occur which may have assisted that, too.

So much of the question being asked in Britain now is about whether this is a homegrown extremism problem or quite what was the root of this, too. But now I stand here on Westminster Bridge where that rampage began. The fourth of his victims named now as Leslie Rhodes, a 75-year-old man who's succumbed to his devastating injuries yesterday. Life here comparatively back to normal. London I think doing its best to share that British (INAUDIBLE) and get back to its daily routine but still a devastating memory for those who pass here every day -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for being on the scene for us.

Well, House Intel chairman Devin Nunes apologizing for taking sensitive information directly to the president before briefing his Democratic colleagues. There are a lot of developments. We'll discuss them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: It's a judgment call on my part. And that's -- at the end of the day, you know, sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the wrong one but you've got to stick by what you -- the decisions you make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. House Intel chairman Devin Nunes there apologizing to his colleagues for briefing President Trump on information collected incidentally and legally by intel agencies during the transition before telling the committee's ranking Democrat or others, that would be Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat.

So let's talk about this feud, with Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst, and joining us again are Ron Brownstein and AB Stoddard.

Philip, let's get your take on this because it's more than that, right? You've got Nunes goes around the committee, takes this information and he says it was so important that he had to go to the commander-in-chief about it and the press. And it happened to have been unqualified in its benefit to the president's narrative. He then says after that that he is not sure. He needs more documents to understand what this was about and who might have been caught up. So I don't know how it could have been that urgent.

But what is your take on that difference and then him disagreeing with Schiff, saying, I don't know what proof Schiff is talking about, I haven't seen any proof that leads to any understanding of circumstances of collaboration?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: My take is thanks for the apology but you're toast. I mean, we're talking about the wrong issue here. One of the things we discussed in the past 48 hours is his approach to the White House. Inappropriate. I thought he showed great humility in apologizing.

Let's step back for just a moment. The American people deserve answers. Not only on what happened during the election, beginning with releases of information last summer, but how we protect ourselves into the next election. What are we getting from the conversations this weekend before? How do we unmask e-mails or, pardon me, the intercepts of American citizens, what we call incidental collection?

How do we investigate leaks? Both these are significant as an intelligence professional, both are smoke screens. The question remains, the question we're not answering this week, what happened with the foreign interventions on our elections and how do we protect ourselves? And my concern going forward, Chris, is that despite that apology what we will continue to see from a partisan committee is smoke screens that don't address the question. That's why I think we've got to get it out of the committee. CAMEROTA: AB, let's play what Chris was just referring to.

Congressman Schiff's answer to Manu Raju about what it is that Congressman Schiff has seen that makes him think that now this material goes beyond circumstantial evidence of the ties to Russia. Listen to this answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is there some new evidence that you've learned that makes you think there is more than just circumstantial?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: We have received additional evidence and materials -- new materials have been made available to the committee, as well as to the chair and ranking, and the chair and ranking have access to more than the other members of the committee or members of any other committee so we continue to get new information and I think makes a more complete picture of at least what we know at the outset of our investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: First of all, I would have settled for a yes or no, however, what he is saying --

CUOMO: This is politics.

CAMEROTA: Yes. What he was saying was that he and the chairman have seen more. Meanwhile, Devin Nunes says, I don't know what Adam Schiff is talking about.

AB STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Yes, that's very concerning if you combine it with what Devin Nunes did earlier this week, and earlier this month when he actually helped the White House try to shoot down a Russia story and he was of course part of the Trump transition. So he's really torn, I think, in terms of his loyalties to run an independent investigation and also really defend the president and so for Adam Schiff to say that and indicate that the information is new and also on top of director -- FBI Director Comey actually coming out and saying we are investigating collusion which is a pretty strong statement I think a lot of people weren't expecting him to do that on Monday, for Schiff to say that he's a man of measured words, he's not a showman, for him to come out and say that, and then for his chairman to say, I don't know what he's talking about, is really concerning because at this point Schiff has shown a little bit more integrity in terms of how to handle the -- you know, a bipartisan investigation with all of this partisan tension.

[06:40:14] And I think, you know, it would have been better for Nunes to say, I'm going to have to take a look at that and comment later. But to sort of almost disparage his -- you know, his co-chair on the committee is really a bad sign for the probe.

CUOMO: Well, seems to be consistent, right? I mean, Nunes has been trying to give cover to the White House consistently it seems. Most obviously recently. Look at that sky behind AB. CAMEROTA: I know. It's so striking.

CUOMO: It's beautiful.

CAMEROTA: Everything is a bright pink there.

CUOMO: It's like purple, the illusion of red and blue coming together.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Which we rarely see in the sky these days.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Ron Brownstein, although there is a little bit going on because despite what Nunes has done and not done in recent days Democrats are not calling for his ouster or recusal. In fact we had one on yesterday, Swalwell, who's like, yes, he's had bad days. He's had good days. This was a bad day. Let's see how he goes forward. What is that about?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I think the expectations were very modest for the House investigation as opposed to the Senate because of the history of, you know, basically the last 25 years in the House has become -- as hyper partisan institution. And if you think about the hearing itself, I mean, that was pretty daunting in terms of what you can expect from the House looking forward where you had the Democrats and Republicans seem to be holding different hearings with all the Republicans essentially asking about leaks and the Democrats are asking about collusion.

And it did raise questions about how seriously Chairman Nunes wants to, you know, focus on the collusion questions going forward. I think most people in Washington feel that is there is any ability for the standing committees of Congress to really unearth a lot of this, it will be the Senate rather than the House. I think there are pretty limited expectations and the events of this week have I think further lowered those expectations about what to look for out of the House side of this.

CAMEROTA: Phil, I know you just called for an independent commission. You're not alone. John McCain, among others, have said that that's what has to happen next but there doesn't seem to be any indication that that is what's going to happen next. So how will they get to the bottom of this?

MUDD: Well, this is pretty straightforward. Like most Americans, I don't trust any of these guys. And I think the real decision is going to be at the FBI.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

MUDD: The FBI director opened the door the other day in a way that surprised me. He's going to have to close it someday. That is he said there's an open investigation, that's either going to end with him announcing that he's closing it or indicting people. I don't think he can wait forever as we go into another election cycle I like a lot of Americans are going to be saying, do we have people involved in this party who were monkeying with the elections last time around? He's got to speak eventually. So forget about the Senate, forget about the House, what is Jim Comey going to do and when is he going to announce whether there are indictments or not? That's it.

CUOMO: But we're pressed for time but just point of order. Comey won't indict anybody. He's going to gather the proof. It's going to be on the DOJ and it's a meaningful distinction here. What would Dana Boente do in this?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Because Sessions has recused himself.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. X marks a sport in the NCAA elite eight. Xavier pulls off another big upset. Details in the "Bleacher Report." That's Xavier, not Javier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:13] CAMEROTA: The magical run continues for Xavier -- nailed it.

Andy Scholes has more on the "Bleacher Report." You know, it's not spelled like that, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It is not. It's not Xavier.

CAMEROTA: Right.

SCHOLES: It's Xavier. Good job, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I just figured that out.

SCHOLES: I'll tell you what, I can officially rip up my bracket this morning because I had Arizona winning it all, and they're now out at the hands of the lowest seeder manning in the tournament and that is Xavier. And I'll tell you what, Bill Murray is on one heck of a sports run right now. First his Cubs won the World Series, now his son is an assistant for Xavier. They're on the lead for the third time in school's history.

Now Arizona, they had a chance to win this game in the closing seconds but they missed this shot right here and you guys check out the Musketeers. They run out the clock and look at their bench. They go absolutely nuts when the clock reads zero, and we spot those two guys right there. I want you to pay attention. So excited they could not even execute a chest bump properly. Xavier moving on with this 73-71 win. Now they actually continues tonight a little after 7:00 Eastern. Vice

President Mike Pence will be on hand in Memphis to watch Butler take on North Carolina. Pence's wife Karen went to Butler. Now the late game you're going to have UCLA taking on Kentucky and Wisconsin playing Florida. You can watch that game on our sister station TBS.

All right. Tom Brady's Super Bowl jersey is finally back in New England. The FBI returning Brady's Super Bowl LI and 49 jerseys to Pats owner Robert Kraft after recovering them in Mexico. They sent out this celebratory pick. And the White House also announcing that they will be hosting the Patriots on April 19th.

Chris, the Patriots will be the first championship team to visit President Trump at the White House.

CUOMO: Very nice. Well deserved for them and a great perk for being the president.

You think anybody has got their bracket 100 percent at this point?

SCHOLES: No. Not 100 percent. But you're in good shape if you have, say, Kansas, North Carolina or Gonzaga winning it all. You're still in it.

CUOMO: You crumpled that bracket with a lot of anger in those CrossFit hands, Andy. I respect that.

SCHOLES: Thank, Chris.

CUOMO: Deal-making has been Trump's life. Right? I mean, the book put him on the map. "The Art of the Deal." So is that reputation on the line with the health care vote today? And if it is, what can the president do to seal the deal? We discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:12] CAMEROTA: Deal-making President Trump says is his strong suit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to make the great deals. I am going to make great deals for our country. I have built an extraordinary business on relationships and deals that benefit all parties involved, always.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. But first closing the deal on health care is his biggest test yet as president. Let's discuss how he is going to do it. We want to bring in executive editor for Bloomberg View and author of "Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald," Tim O'Brien, and CNN media analyst Bill Carter.

Gentlemen, great to have you here. So ,Tim, it must be very interesting for you because you've studies how Donald Trump does his deal making. To watch what he's done this week, we've seen the charm offensive. We have seen some sort of threats and now we see the ultimatum of I'll walk away today if you all don't do this. Is this standard issue Donald Trump?

TIM O'BRIEN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, BLOOMBERG VIEW: Well, remember the "Art of the Deal" was written by a ghost writer, and he had a long history of bad deal-making actually when he had to do complex transactions. He was actually never very good at them. And now you've got him in Washington where the stake holders are very different so it's someone who's I think exaggerated his prowess as a deal-maker who now is arriving in an arena where I think the incentives are very different.

Everyone in Congress that he's negotiating with in the health care deal are beholden to their voters ultimately. And they're in a corner now with the bill that if it goes through, it's passed, it's going to probably wreak some havoc on their voters and if they don't do anything it's going to disappoint their voters.

So first and foremost those Congress people are thinking about their voters. They're not thinking about Donald Trump. And what he's thinking about is his own reputation. And all of this is colliding now. So this isn't really about deal-making. It's actually about good policy making. And they're essentially in the middle of a car crash.

[06:55:03] CUOMO: You know, a side note on this bill is that the -- creep had gone on. The president at one point says look, I think it's going to pass but, you know, this is just politics.

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Right.

CUOMO: The problem is it's not just politics. It's real people, millions of who could lose their health care. You've got a lot of people out there who've been promised for years that this would change, right? Repeal and replace. It's easy to say, hard to deal with, it's being borne out. But what we're seeing in terms of media strategy with Trump is he's not put his arms around this, he hates if it's called Trumpcare.

CARTER: Right.

CUOMO: Breitbart, the mouthpiece for Bannon, right, bashing Ryan.

CARTER: Right.

CUOMO: Right? During the span of this when you want to be building Ryan up if you want this to pass. So what do you think the media play is? Is this a straight hedge we're seeing?

CARTER: Well, I think it is. And it goes -- if you look at that "TIME" interview it goes with his strategy which is, I don't ever -- I'm never wrong, so I can't take the blame for anything so he'll say -- he'll go embrace the thing to a point but say if it doesn't work the other guy made the mistake, not me, and I think he's put this now on the table that way. It's on -- it's out there, people can vote for it. If they don't vote for it, you go back to the old things, it's all your fault. You missed the chance. We set it up, it didn't happen, and you know, it's not my fault. Ryan screwed up.

CAMEROTA: Did we show some of those Breitbart headlines just now? Because I think that we should. Because it is interesting. In all of them, Breitbart calls it "Ryancare," not Trumpcare.

CARTER: Trumpcare.

CAMEROTA: And, you know, I think that, Tim, he's actually telegraphed President Trump that he doesn't care as much about this passing as he does about, say, tax reform. That's what he wants to move on.

O'BRIEN: Well, also remember that moment I think about a week ago when Sean Spicer said he doesn't care if this is named Trumpcare. This is -- he doesn't really care if his name is on anything, which of course he's had his own career putting his name on about anything he touches.

CARTER: Right. Putting it on everything. Yes.

CAMEROTA: But what does that tell you?

O'BRIEN: That he doesn't want his name on this because he suspects that it's not going to reflect well on him regardless of the outcome.

CUOMO: But he's savvy and he knows that this was supposed to be -- always going to be hard. I don't want to -- I don't want to minimize the challenge but this was always going to be the easier part of this process.

O'BRIEN: Right.

CUOMO: Because just because they get a victory here, he says victory with a small V.

CARTER: Absolutely.

CUOMO: It goes to the Senate. There's almost zero chance.

CARTER: Yes.

CUOMO: That the bill that comes out of the Senate is anything --

CARTER: Will resemble this.

CUOMO: Right?

CARTER: It won't resemble this.

CUOMO: And it will only make it worse.

CARTER: Yes.

CUOMO: And that's true deal-making. Can he pull it off?

O'BRIEN: I don't think he can.

CARTER: It will be amazing. It will be amazing if he can. Because it looks to me -- well, you said, there's -- what is it, 17 percent popularity? Has a bill ever had that little popularity and then passed? And if it does, what do people think afterwards? You put on a bill that I hate? I mean, it's really --

CAMEROTA: Well, it's higher than that with Republicans.

CARTER: OK.

CAMEROTA: The bill is higher than that with Republicans.

CARTER: But it's not even 50 percent with Republicans.

CAMEROTA: That's right.

CUOMO: Well, that's true. But there's a huge undecided within the GOP in the latest Quinnipiac poll, it's about 35 percent. That's big margin of undecided. And I'll give you the other side of it. I think it can pass because these people got put in office to repeal and replace. Forget about whether that's a faulty premise. Yes, we're seeing that bare out in real time. It's easy to say the ACA stinks. It's hard to find something better apparently. But that's the big lever here. I don't think it's Donald Trump's pressure. It's the pressure of what you're calling the constituency.

CARTER: Yes.

CUOMO: Which I see as potential negative outcome, which is you said you'd repeal and replace, you didn't. I hate you.

O'BRIEN: But that same constituency also wants its health care. That's the thing.

CARTER: Right.

O'BRIEN: Is that the Republicans have had seven years here to come up with an alternative. They didn't. We're now in the meat of it and they find themselves in a corner because they campaigned on the notion that Obamacare de facto is bad without coming up with an adequate replacement that they're going to effectively message around.

CARTER: But I think it might pass. I do think it will pass.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CARTER: Because I think he set up a situation and they've set up a situation where --

CUOMO: In the House or overall?

CARTER: In the House. I think -- if it doesn't pass in the House, obviously it will never get going there but --

CAMEROTA: Yes. No, we have heard that from our political pundits and --

(CROSSTALK)

CARTER: I think it still has a pretty good chance to pass.

CAMEROTA: But if -- if it does, I mean, and I know you've said that he's exaggerated his deal-making prowess, so when he does it right, what does he do well? What does he do well that has allowed for his empire?

O'BRIEN: He's a very effective promoter and marketer and if this does get momentum behind it, and he does take credit for it, then he will go to every gymnasium in the United States and do victory laps. And he's very good at that.

CUOMO: The worry is, he hasn't been pumping this plan the way he usually pumps things.

COSTELLO: Yes. But he is -- but he was pumping the brakes yesterday. Let me just show you very, very --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: He was very good with the horn.

O'BRIEN: Honking the horn and steering the wheel.

CAMEROTA: He was talking -- this is the "My Way or the Highway," the cover of the "New York Post." That was President Trump yesterday in a big rig. He was excited as you can see.

CARTER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: They turned it into --

CUOMO: That's just a shadow. He doesn't have on a jeans shirt and a biker --

CARTER: I don't think so.

CUOMO: By the way. It's just a shadow.

CARTER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right. Gentlemen, thank you.

Thanks to all of our international viewers for watching. For you "CNN NEWSROOM" is next. For our U.S. viewers NEW DAY continues right now.

CUOMO: It looks like a vest, though, if you look at it --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's time to vote.

CUOMO: President Donald Trump issues an ultimatum. REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We will repeal and replace this

broken law.

REP. MO BROOKS (R), ALABAMA: We're supposed to make health care more affordable. This legislation does not do that.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: It sounds a lot like Obamacare to me.

TRUMP: We have a very good chance but it's only politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The votes aren't there.

SPICER: It's going to pass, so that's it.

NUNES: Had a duty and obligation to tell the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What he did badly damaged the credibility of the --