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New Day

Don Jr.'s Misleading Statement; Kelly to Rein in Chaos; Interview with Sen. Ed Markey on Stabilizing the Insurance Markets; Vote Against FBI Director; Story of Todd Crandell; Indian's Outfielder's Catch. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 02, 2017 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] JOHN PODESTA, FMR. CHAIR, HILLARY CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: And this meeting is evidence of intent to collude. Don Jr.'s statement that, you know, this is great and influencing the timing of when they might use the information.

Remember, this all goes back -- they like to say there's no crime. This all goes back to crimes that were committed, the hacking of the DNC, the hacking of my e-mails, the hacking of other Clinton campaign staff e-mails. Those are crimes committed by the Russians. And now we know that at a minimum they were encouraging them to use the fruits of those crimes.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I want to get to an op-ed that you wrote for "The Washington Post" in which you're offering some free advice to the new chief of staff, John Kelly, for the White House, from you, from your position as former chief of staff. Your first tidbit of advice was, don't take the job. He's clearly rejected that advice. So now that he's in the job and in the White House, what advice do you have for him?

PODESTA: Yes, you know, as I said, that had been overtaken by events before I wrote it. But, you know, look, I have tremendous respect for General Kelly. He has a very difficult job. I think day one he got rid of Anthony Scaramucci, or at least he got him out of the communications director job. And I think that the reason his job is going to be so tough is that there's a culture in the White House that really is sort of -- knows no boundaries and he's got to contend with a president, who, even after appointing him, has said that he's not going to stop tweeting. He's going to continue his current practices.

So I think he's tried to show some discipline in the White House. Hopefully that will be successful. We all want the country to succeed. And he has a tremendous record of service. He's also got to reestablish relationships with leaders on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. I think the White House, again, has no credibility. So I think it really is incumbent upon him to personally try, as a man of his word, to establish those relationships.

And as I noted in my op-ed, he's got to be the bulwark against interference with this Justice Department investigation. It is clear that no one else there will be and the president will want to continue to try to interfere in what's going on at the Justice Department. And Kelly has to just be firm in saying, we're not going to do that. That will get us in more trouble and really stand up to the president on that one.

CAMEROTA: And before I let you go, just because you are so close with the Clintons and Hillary Clinton and you were obviously so involved in her campaign, are you surprised then, is Hillary Clinton surprised at how often the president invokes her name, how often the White House talks about her. We are on Monday, 200 days into the Trump administration, and it seems that not a week goes by where he doesn't mention her.

PODESTA: Yes, you know, it's unprecedented. You never saw that behavior from any other president who's talking about the person they beat. I think it really just bugs the hell out of him than she got 3 million more votes than he did. And he keeps coming back to that.

Obviously, you know, we bear the burden of having lost the Electoral College. So, you know, I lose sleep about that every night. But I think that he -- it's, you know, it's partly strategic to try to deflect attention from his problems, but I think he's really under her -- she's really under his skin, because he knows that in the popular vote that she beat him and beat him solidly.

CAMEROTA: And what does she say about that?

PODESTA: Well, look, I think she'll have something to say about that when her book comes out mid-September. And, you know, I think she's reflected on the mistakes that she made, what she might have done different, but I think she'll also talk about where the country is and, you know, how to move forward. That's what she's always done in her life, which is -- when she's gotten knocked down, she's tried to make a positive contribution coming out of that. And I think that that's what this book will attempt to do.

CAMEROTA: John Podesta, thanks so much for your perspective.

PODESTA: Thanks for having me on.

CAMEROTA: Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so only six lawmakers have ever voted against confirming FBI director nominees. Five of those no's happened yesterday during Christopher Wray's confirmation. One senator who voted "no" is going to tell us why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:33] CUOMO: All right. You've got to let it sink in. But the word is that Republicans and Democrats are working together to stabilize insurance markets. Of course an open defiance of the president who has said that the ACA should be allowed to implode and fail and he wanted to do his part by not giving the subsidies that insurance companies are relying on to keep premiums where they are, specifically for lower-income people.

How real is this? How sustained will it be? There's some other big agenda items to discuss. So let's get the take of Democratic Senator Ed Markey, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thank you for being on the show.

SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you. Good morning.

CUOMO: Forgive me skepticism, but is it true that Democrats are taking this gesture from certain Republicans and trying to do the work of the American people instead of just playing to political advantage?

MARKEY: Well, two things happened last Thursday and Friday morning.

First, the Democrats and Republicans worked together to put together a set of sanctions on Russia, on Iran, and on North Korea, that were done in a bipartisan fashion and put restrictions upon what Donald Trump could do in lifting those sanctions. And so that was a good moment for the Senate. And then later on that night, on a partisan vote of -- the Republicans tried hard but couldn't receive all of the votes of all of their members and they failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

[08:40:08] And now it seems that Lamar Alexander and other Republicans are reaching across the aisle. And I do think it's happening because I think that's the natural inclination of senators, to try to find a way to solve these problems. Because, otherwise, the insurance markets could collapse, premiums could rise. We have to work together. And I am very heartened that perhaps this was an inflexion point and that Democrat and Republicans are going to start to work together on behalf of the American people.

Now, there's no guarantee. There are a lot of other issues. The budget ceiling. A tax bill. But hopefully this is a new phase after seven months of Donald Trump saying it's my way or the highway. It's the rule of Trump, not the rule of law. Maybe we now are moving on to a new era where the Senate exerts its constitutional powers and lets the executive wait for the United States Senate to dispose. The president can propose, but now the Senate seems to begin to understand and work towards having us exercise our prerogatives as well.

CUOMO: All right. So how do you reconcile this suggested move away from what you could call tragic comedy and towards comity, i-t-y, with you and others voting down Chris Wray, which has never been done before, which looked like a political tactic, and threats about not going with Republicans on the debt ceiling which is upcoming at the end of September. How real it this intention to try to work with the other side given those two moves?

MARKEY: Well, my concern is over the issue of surveillance and this tension that exists between privacy, liberty on the one hand and security on the other hand. As each one of those devices becomes more and more ubiquitous, we have to decide whether or not we want legally to have a back door be built into every device so that they can be ubiquitous surveillance in our country. And I think that in the public statements that were made, I did not hear an answer which gave me confidence that that balance towards the protection of the privacy, the protection of the liberty of Americans was basically a part of his philosophy. CUOMO: All right --

MARKEY: So I've been working on that issue for 20 years going back to the Clinton administration trying to build a clipper (ph) chip into every one of these devices. And it's something that I have continued, along with Senator Ron Wyden, to raise concerns about in our country.

CUOMO: All right, so it was policy, not personal, when it came to Chris Wray. And that leads us to the last topic this morning, which is, if you want to talk about Congress taking its power back, and in your case the Senate, there is no topic that goes under that heading more directly than the abrogation of constitutional duty to declare war that Congress has, not the president, and giving presidents, not just Trump, Obama before him, Bush before him, arguably Clinton before that, that you've given away that duty to the president. So now you want to start debating the authorization for the use of military force, to remind people we're still operating under one written in 2001, yet the world has changed so much. What are you hoping happens this time?

MARKEY: Well, in 2001, we voted for an authorization for the use of military force. It was after two planes were high-jacked from Logan Airport in Boston, which I represented, and flown into the World Trade Center. Thousands of people were killed. And we wanted justice for those who had perpetrated that act.

The we're 16 years later. No one who voted for that authorization for the use of military force thought that it would be used as a blank check to take us into country after country after group after group. So it's time for us to begin a new debate about which countries, which groups, which level of force, which types of force can be used under that 2001 authorization. We need a new authorization. And then we need to have sunset provisions included so that we periodically re-debate how that new authorization is being used. We haven't had a full-blown senatorial or House debate on this issue in 16 years, and no one who voted for that first authorization ever imagined how that power would be used.

CUOMO: And there is a suggestion that Congress has been ducking their duty, allowing presidents to carry the ball. No president's going to say no.

[08:45:04] But, senator, let's see if that changes with this debate. We'll stay on the story. Thank you for being on NEW DAY.

MARKEY: You're welcome. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, be well.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, I'm going to read sports now.

An incredible play you have to see to believe. Indians outfielder Austin Jackson flipping over a wall to make a catch. We have all the details in the "Bleacher Report." CUOMO: I feel like that every morning.

But first, an Ohio man overcomes addiction to become an iron man 28 times over. Recovery can be real. And that is the subject of this week's "Turning Points."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD CRANDELL, FORMER ADDICT: Everything bad that happened in my life and everything that is now currently good in my life is a direct result of my real mother committing suicide when I was three and a half years old. When I was growing up, I felt abandoned. I felt angry, depressed.

I took my first drink of alcohol at the age of 13. For the next 13 years, I was a full-blown alcoholic, cocaine, heroin, crack. I got my awakening at the age of 26. I received my third drunk driving charge an that's when I decided to turn my life around. The day I quit, I went cold turkey.

Exercise helped me deal with depression, from wanting to use drugs again. What made me pursue the iron man was simply the enormity of it. But I didn't know how to swim. I wasn't a bike rider and I wasn't running. And then, about six years into my sobriety, I started doing the iron man.

I have done 28 iron mans around the world.

We want to talk about how awesome it is to be sober.

My inspiration for forming Racing for Recovery was simply helping other addicts to show them what can be done when you're not using drugs.

I never, in a million years, thought that I would be alive, let alone doing what I'm doing today. And that's the best message I can deliver to someone who's currently battling addictions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:50] CUOMO: All right, talk about incredible. Any Major League outfielder can make a catch. But are they willing to give up the body to do so? We may have seen a certain choice for catch of the year.

Coy Wire, make your witness in the "Bleacher Report."

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Chris, if anyone is going to see just one highlight today, this is the one. It's still trending number one on bleacherreport.com. Unless superman gets signed by a team, Cleveland's Austin Jackson will have catch of the year. Watch this. Again, this guy stretches out like my waistline after Waffle House. He's 30 years old and somehow keeps an eye on the ball while jumping and running into and then flipping over the wall at Fenway Park into the bullpen. He robs Red Sox Hanley Ramirez of a home run. He can't belief it. He's impressed.

Now, they didn't even know if Jackson was going to make the roster during spring training. He's coming back after a knee surgery that he had last June. But as Chris mentioned, sacrificing the body. Unreal. The Indians ended up losing to the Red Sox 10-12 in this one, but Austin Jackson winning in my book, Alisyn. Impressive stuff.

CAMEROTA: I do that all the time as well, Coy, but by accident.

CUOMO: And let me just tell you, the only inaccurate thing he said --

CAMEROTA: What?

CUOMO: Coy Wire is in ridiculous shape. It makes me look like a chubby toddler.

CAMEROTA: You don't buy the Waffle House -- you don't buy the Waffle House waist expansion?

CUOMO: No, I've seen him. He's the real deal.

CAMEROTA: All right.

"Good Stuff," next.

CUOMO: That wasn't it.

CAMEROTA: No, we have more. We have more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:55:44] CUOMO: Time for "The Good Stuff." Cafe owner Val Spring. All right, so she makes a mean cup of coffee, right?

CAMEROTA: OK.

CUOMO: She realizes that the people who are coming there are really craving kindness as much as anything else. Why? Well, she recalled a mother who couldn't get her kids down for a nap, just wanted some coffee. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAL SPRING (ph): Well, you're in luck. Because you're having a bad day, your coffee's free and go pick out a pastry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Humanity.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

CUOMO: So it's part now of what she's made a pay it forward campaign. She's got a bulletin board and you write down your needs or what you can provide, and it's usually taken care of by the kindness of strangers. How's that idea, Camerota? CAMEROTA: I love this idea.

CUOMO: Enough for another book?

CAMEROTA: Thank you for always working in "Amanda Wakes Up." I know that you are midway through it, all done?

CUOMO: Well, last night I picked it up because I wanted to read it for the fifth time and it got even better.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. I'm so happy to hear that.

And tonight Chris will be hosting Don Lemon's show, "CNN TONIGHT," at 10:00 p.m. You did a spectacular job last night. I look forward to seeing what you have up your sleeve tonight.

CUOMO: She was dead asleep the entire time. She didn't see a second.

CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and John Berman is going to pick up right after the break.

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