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New Day

Soon: Polls Open in Alabama's High-Stakes Senate Race; 56 Women Lawmakers Call for Congressional Probe on Trump. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 12, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROY MOORE (R), ALABAMA SENATE CANDIDATE: It's difficult to drain the swamp when you're up to your neck in alligators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think you can elect Roy Moore without getting the baggage of Roy Moore is pretty naive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're trying to give Judge Roy Moore a high-tech lynching. It's time that we put our decency before political party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked that Congress investigate Mr. Trump's history of sexual misconduct.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGY DIRECTOR: I thought we litigated that. Didn't the American people already vote on that one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House's preferred excuse is that this has all been asked and answered, but it really hasn't been.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: This was an attempted terrorist attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suspect had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We're not going to allow them to disrupt us. That's exactly what they want.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, December 12, 6 a.m. here in New York. Here's our starting line.

The bitter Alabama Senate race is now in the hands of voters. Two hours from now polls open in that state. Will they elect accused child molester Roy Moore, who President Trump has endorsed, or his challenger, Doug Jones, who hopes to become the first Alabama Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in 25 years?

The final pitch from both campaigns adding to the unpredictability of this race. Steve Bannon taking an apparent shot at the president's daughter, Ivanka, by saying there's, quote, "a special place in hell for Republicans who do not support other Republicans," end quote. While Roy Moore's wife defended her husband against claims of being anti-Semitic with a head-slapping explanation.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. What she said may not have been that helpful. We'll tell you about it.

And sexual allegations aren't only dogging Roy Moore. The president has 50-plus Democratic lawmakers in the House asking for a congressional investigation into the claims against him. The White House says they have eyewitnesses who can prove President Trump did not sexually harass or assault anyone before he was elected.

The White House again insisting the women accusing him are all making false claims that are all politically motivated. All this, as another Democratic senator says President Trump should resign over the same allegations of assault.

We have it all covered. Let's begin with CNN's Alex Marquardt, live in Brook -- Mountain Brook, Alabama, where Doug Jones is going to be casting his vote, we believe, sometime about 8:30 on our watch. Thanks for being there.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris, in a couple of hours. Now, Roy Moore has always known that his core passionate base of support would be turning out for him today on what is a chilly day in mid-December for the special election. It is Doug Jones who has had to work very hard to get people to the polls.

This has been a very uncertain race. It has always been a competitive race. But all the more so, extremely tight after these allegations came to light against Roy Moore. Of course, allegations that he denies.

Now, the secretary of state for Alabama predicts that turnout will be between 20 and 25 percent. That's higher than earlier predicted because of all this extra interest in this race. Now, that -- and we will see the big name of the game, the big question today is turnout. That is what we're going to be watching. That is the most important factor, as voters go to the polls today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT (voice-over): Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones making their final pitches to voters ahead of one of the most unpredictable elections in Alabama's history.

R. MOORE: It is time that we put our decency, our state before political party.

I'm going to tell you, if you don't believe in my character, don't vote for me.

MARQUARDT: Moore, bringing in a number of out-of-state conservatives, including the president's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who riled up the crowd by attacking Republicans who have been critical of the accused child molester, even appearing to take a shot at the president's daughter, who told the A.P. last month "There's a special place in hell for people who prey on children."

BANNON: There's a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better.

MARQUARDT: Bannon also naming names, calling out the state's most prominent Republican, Senator Richard Shelby, who told CNN on Sunday he did not vote for Moore.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: The state of Alabama deserves better.

MARQUARDT: And former secretary of state and native Alabamian Condoleezza Rice, who released a statement urging voters to, quote, "reject bigotry, sexism and intolerance." But did not mention either candidate. Kayla Moore insisting her mother is not a bigot.

KAYLA MOORE, ROY MOORE'S WIFE: Fake news would tell you that we don't care for Jews. One of our attorneys is a Jew.

MARQUARDT: While Doug Jones, who has been working to shore up much- needed support from African-American voters teamed up on election eve with basketball hall of famer Charles Barkley, who had this message for his home state.

CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA PLAYER: At some point we have to draw a line in the sand. So we're just -- we're not a bunch of damn idiots.

MARQUARDT: Jones also getting a boost from from former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden, who both reported robocalls for his campaign in the final hours, after President Trump did the same for Moore.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Go vote for Roy Moore.

MARQUARDT: Moore letting the president do much of his talking for him in the past few days, alongside very few select interviews, shunning the national media. And instead appearing in a political action committee ad, interviewed by a 12-year-old girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you think are the characteristics of a really, really good senator?

R. MOORE: Following the Constitution, adhering to principle.

MARQUARDT: Moore defending his near total absence from the campaign trail in the final week of this heated race, saying he was visiting West Point, his alma mater with his wife.

MOORE: Here I am, once again surrounded by this gaggle of media, which I've come to love and enjoy, while Roy Moore was not even in the state of Alabama over this weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARQUARDT: Now Doug Jones will be voting right here in just around three hours' time. He is then expected to make a number of stops, five different stops, in fact, at polling station to say hello to voters. We know that Roy Moore will be voting, as he always does, in his hometown of Gallant at a firehouse. As always, he will be riding his horse, whose name, Alisyn and Chris, is Sassy.

CAMEROTA: Sassy, I like it.

CUOMO: It's a male, which is weird.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much, Alex.

All right. Let's bring in our discussion, CNN political analyst John Avlon and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

OK. So John, here we are finally, election day. We've talked so much about this race. Here it is upon us. And you know, look, we keep hearing that Alabamians don't want outsiders telling them how to vote, how to vote. Of course, they don't. So in that way, is the Obama robocall a liability? And by the way, why isn't Steve Bannon an outsider? He's a multimillionaire from a big city. But because he doesn't comb his hair. Do you think that he's an insider from Alabama?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Just because you're a multimillionaire who lives in Beverly Hills doesn't mean you can't go down to Alabama and tell people how to vote.

CAMEROTA: I don't get that.

AVLON: In a safari jacket, a field jacket as if you're going into the bush.

CAMEROTA: Why isn't he seen as an outsider.

AVLON: Because the whole shtick is, you know, that Trump, the president of the United States is being framed as an outsider. The head of the federal government is being framed as someone who's in a, you know, death struggle with the federal government bureaucracy in deep state, quote unquote. Look, here's the deal. Of course Alabamians don't like being told how to vote. Of course, people try to stoke anger at the media and other folks. But that's why Doug Jones' campaign has been focused on a message that I think gets a bit lost. Which is you've got to vote the person, not the party that Roy Moore, if you know him, doesn't represent the best of Alabama, which is the point Charles Barkley was making more eloquently than me.

But there -- so I think there's a danger where some Democrats try to nationalize races and some candidates get a little bit afraid of their shadow. What if Barack Obama is seen as endorsing me? Guess what, folks? People know he's a Democrat, and Trump has already made robocalls. This race is nationalized, whether they want it to be or not.

CUOMO: All right. So let's hear Steve Bannon, because he put the finishing touches on his message to that effect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BANNON: That little Bobby Corker, all that establishment up there, all that establishment up there every day that doesn't have -- that doesn't have Trump's back. You know they don't have his back at all. What they want him for is that corporate tax cut. That's all they want him for. As soon as they get that tax cut, you watch what happens. There's a special place in hell for Republicans who should know better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: OK. So, professor, for all of the hype, this is going to come down to numbers in a very unique way. I did my best to try to figure it out. We knew we have Shelby as an outlier, was a Democrat back in 1992, switched after the contract with America. You know, Newt Gingrich's genius in 1994. They haven't looked at a Democrat twice since down there. And the numbers suggest it.

What do you see in the race with Moore versus Vance that lays out the blueprint? That was back in 2012, when Moore ran against Bob Vance. What does Doug Jones have to do to win this race in Alabama?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the first thing he has to do is reverse or overturn the dominant trend in modern Senate elections, which is to reverse what John said. They are increasingly about party, not person. I mean, Alabama is one of 13 states that have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1992.

Right now, Democrats have one of the 26 Senate seats in those 13 states. There are 15 states that have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992. Republicans now have one of those 30. So we're talking about an overwhelming trend to align presidential and Senate results. Voters are essentially voting on which party they want to see in control and less on the individuals. And this will test how far that has gone.

I think the model really is Virginia 2017, where you saw a surprisingly strong turnout among millennials and minorities and big margins for Democrats. The movement you saw among voters were in those white-collar suburbs, college-educated white voters, especially women, moving toward the Democrats. What you didn't see was any movement towards the Democrats, any erosion among Republicans among blue-collar and rural whites. That is -- we see that again in Alabama, that will be a big warning sign for Republicans in 2018. The problem is, given the underlying demography of Alabama, that might not be quite enough for Jones to win. He needs, I think, especially a big black turnout and a significant movement in those white-collar suburbs.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, John.

AVLON: Virginia has been trending purple for some time, right? Barack Obama, first Democrat to win it since Lyndon Johnson and Mark Warner kicking off a string of Democratic governors with one exception over the last decade. Alabama, deep red.

[06:10:00] Clearly, this is tribal politics. This is partisanship really masking tribal politics. So if Doug Jones can pull this off, it really is a revolution in terms of locality. But it's going to be rooted in the idea that Roy Moore is just too extreme; and Doug Jones, they're voting for the person, not the party.

CUOMO: But you have some demographic numbers. You know, rarely do I push Ron Brownstein for more numbers, but there are a couple of numbers to watch for people today in this race. Tell me if they're wrong. And again, let's look at it through the scope of Jones. Because frankly, you know, all due respect, I think the challenge is for him.

Roy Moore should win this race based on how the state breaks down. But 40 percent was the bar that Vance couldn't get past in the north and north central regions, heavily Republican, heavily manufacturing. And the number for African-American turnout they're putting out is 28. Those numbers, 40 to 28. Do they matter and why?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I think, yes, the African-American turnout, I think, is probably -- you know, given -- there are two pieces for Doug Jones moving. One are places like Mountain Brook, are those white- collar suburbs where you have voters who have been voting Republican for a generation but have resisted Moore even -- as you know, Chris, even before these allegations came out in his earlier races.

He needs to move the women in those places. And he probably needs some of the men to stay home, since they're going to be a tougher audience for a Democrat. And then certainly, the you know, kind of the foundation for any Democrat in the state is a bigger African- American turnout.

Now in the past, that turnout has been suppressed or depressed by a sense of fatalism, by the unlikelihood of a Democrat winning. Now you have the question of whether the possibility of winning is enough to change that dynamic, because the turnout mechanisms are pretty rusty for Democrats in Alabama. There isn't much of a state party. He has built an organization on the fly. So it's really going to have to be, I think, something more organic than something that is kind of built by a campaign.

CAMEROTA: I really want to move on to what Roy Moore's wife said last night in terms of defending him against claims of anti-Semitism. Let's play this again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

K. MOORE: Fake news will tell you that we don't care for Jews. I tell you all this because I've seen it all, so I just want to set the record straight while they're here.

One of our attorneys is a Jew. We have very close friends that are Jewish and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: "Saturday Night Live" just sent them a bouquet of flowers for this weekend. If that were written in the writers' room, they'd be like, too over the top.

AVLON: It's a little too on the nose. Yes. I mean, this is the -- some of our best lawyers are Jewish defense, which you know, this was not the greatest moment of American oratory. But look, it does speak, I think, you know, culturally, Alabama that -- you know, that seems to be the notoriety. You know, seems to be something that needs to be stated apparently. It's flatfooted in every way.

But it speaks to a certain tone-deafness. Look, politically, evangelicals have found a lot of common cause within recent years. We've talked a lot about that. But this is about a fundamental discomfort with diversity we see over and over again. Too often in characterizing Roy Moore's positions, put aside the allegations. We're framing them as being controversial. But you know, if he says that drive-by shootings are being caused by evolution, if he talks about how slavery was if...

CUOMO: It's not if. He did say those things.

AVLON: That's not controversial. And if you're casting a vote for Roy Moore those are things you're proactively endorsing.

BROWNSTEIN: And can I add real quick, I mean, that's why I think that if Roy Moore wins this election, it is just going to deepen the gulf, misunderstanding and incomprehension in red and blue America.

I mean, because you look at this in blue America, and you see the breadth of the charges, the credibility of the charges and, as John says, the history of intolerant remarks and in positions that Roy Moore has held.

And I think that I think this is something that is going to further widen the divisions in the country. Because it basically says that voters in Alabama are -- feel such antagonism toward kind of cosmopolitan and urban diverse tolerant America that they are willing to send this person to make the statement and I think it is kind of another turning point moment in our country that is headed -- hurdling toward greater and greater division.

CAMEROTA: We have to go, but maybe it's just because the voters are pro-life. I mean, we don't -- we haven't talked about that this morning. But we've talked to people in Alabama. They might just be single issue voters. And maybe that's what they're hanging their hat on here. But we will...

CUOMO: I guess that's just insufficient.

CAMEROTA: I understand.

AVLON: We're not single-issue people. You need to take everything in context. But you're right: for a lot of folks that will be sufficient. And Look, Alabama gets to the south. No one knows how to poll this race accurately. So this is the glory of democracy. It's game day. Go out and vote.

[06:15:07] CUOMO: Lindsey Graham says that if Roy Moore wins, it will be the gift that keeps giving for Democrats. So it will be interesting to see what happens. And then how it's spun.

Gentlemen, love you.

Growing calls for Congress to investigate sexual misconduct allegations and assault allegations against President Trump. The White House is fighting back. They say they have witnesses. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: More than 50 female Democratic lawmakers calling on a House panel to launch an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against President Trump. This as the White House fights back, saying that eyewitnesses have proven the claims are false.

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House with more. Joe, what does that mean?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, what has become to be known as the #MeToo movement has already taken its toll on a number of Washington politicians. So it's only a matter of time before it reinvigorated questions about the president's treatment of women, which reached a fever pitch during the campaign last year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): More than 50 female Democratic lawmakers calling for a congressional investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump. Insisting in a letter to a House Oversight Committee that the president's accusers cannot be ignored and referencing Mr. Trump's own words.

[06:20:05] TRUMP: When you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

BILLY BUSH, FORMER "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD HOST": Anything you want.

TRUMP: Grab them by the pussy.

JOHNS: Thirteen women have come forward, accusing the president of sexual assault, accusations the president has repeatedly denied.

TRUMP: The events never happened, never. All of these liars will be sued after the election.

JOHNS: Three of those women also calling for congressional investigation into the president's behavior.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was serial misconduct and perversion on the part of Mr. Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not holding our president accountable for what he is and who he is. JOHNS: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissing the allegations.

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This took place long before he was elected to be president; and the people of this country had a decisive election, supported President Trump.

JOHNS: Sanders also claiming eyewitnesses have backed up the president's accounts.

SANDERS: The president has denied any of these allegations, as have eyewitnesses.

JOHNS: A White House official, pointing to two reports when asked by CNN to provide specifics of the eyewitnesses' accounts.

The first, a "New York Post" article, citing Anthony Gilberthorpe, a British political activist put forward by the Trump campaign to refute Jessica Leed's account that Mr. Trump groped her on a flight. Gilberthorpe offered no evidence and had been known in British media for making claims about the sexual conduct of politicians.

The second, a "New York Daily News" article citing Miss Teen USA 2006, Katie Blair, who reportedly told TMZ she never saw Mr. Trump backstage during a beauty contest. But Blair was not present at the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant where Trump was accused of walking into dressing rooms while contestants changed, something Trump later bragged about to Howard Stern.

TRUMP: I'll go backstage before a show and everyone is getting dressed, and ready and everything else, and no men are anywhere. And I'm allowed to go in, because I'm the owner of the pageant.

JOHNS: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joining Democrats Cory Booker, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, calling for President Trump to step down.

GILLIBRAND: President Trump should resign. These allegations are credible. They are numerous. I've heard these women's testimony and many of them are heartbreaking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Intense questioning of Sarah Sanders in the briefing room as the White House continues to try to come to grips with how to deal with this new line of questioning, the White House choosing so far to attack journalists for their coverage of the issue.

Today we expect to see the president as he signs the National Defense Authorization Act. But the big thing at the White House, of course, will be watching to see what happens in the Alabama Senate race -- Chris and Alisyn.

CUOMO: All right, Joe, appreciate it. Thank you very much. Let's bring back John Avlon and CNN political analyst Karoun Demirjian. Good to have you both here. A little bit of a head-spinner from the White House. Let's start with Karoun on this. These allegations are false. The women are lying, and we can prove it. Because we have eyewitnesses.

CAMEROTA: To what never happened.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Eyewitnesses are not necessarily people that were in both cases, it seems like, eyewitnesses to the events that were happening. But the administration that the White House has been pushing back against this has been saying there's no "there" there. There's nothing to see here.

And now you've got, you know, reports that the president has actually been suggesting that -- that everything is made up, even though he was on television, apologizing for this before the election. That's pretty well established right now that that's the pattern of what's happening.

Clearly, the discussion around the Roy Moore candidacy coming up today has reinvigorated a lot of this. And every time the president gets pushed on this, which more and more people are doing as, you know, the question about what about the president comes up, the more they push back. And again, this is the latest issue about which is happening. The president does not respond to criticism by taking the response to criticism by pushing back and so do his subordinates.

CAMEROTA: It's not just Roy Moore, though. I mean, I take your point. Karoun, well said, but Roy Moore, obviously, it's the Harvey Weinstein "#MeToo" moment, John. And that is what Sarah Sanders in the press briefing yesterday seems to have overlooked. Let me just play for you why she says that this conversation should be off the table, you know, case closed. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: The president has addressed these accusations directly and denied all OF these allegations, and this took place long before he was elected to be president. And the people of this country, at a decisive election, supported President Trump. And we feel like these allegations has been answered through that process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Times have changed. Something is different now.

AVLON: The fundamental position seems to be that the American people knew about the "Access Hollywood" tape when they voted. They voted him in as president. Case closed.

[06:25:03] CUOMO: They knew about the allegations. They had heard from women.

CAMEROTA: I'm not sure that most Americans would say, "I knew there were 16 women."

AVLON: No, definitely not the number. Definitely not the detail but the "Access Hollywood" tape.

CUOMO: The number is not dispositive. The issue is going to what do you do about it? There has been a very hasty sense of, well, here's -- we're going to do something. A private corporation can fire whoever they want, Karoun. That's what they do. And they're just going to have to avoid a bad reason analysis.

But when it comes to government, we don't have a mechanism like that. You have an election. People knew about the allegations. They voted. He won.

So now you have the Democrats saying we're going to look into it. Karoun, how do they look into it in the House? What is the mechanism? What is the jurisdiction that would allow the House, let alone committees. They're all run by Republicans, to look into the president of the United States for allegations that the president denies?

DEMIRJIAN: Making a lot of noise is the biggest one. There are some parliamentary procedure we're told that might be able to give resolutions to the floor. But again, that's not necessarily going to win you an investigation.

And this is not something that can be automatically triggered and sent to the Ethics Committee, because the Ethics Committee looks at sitting members of Congress.

AVLON: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: You would have to launch a special separate investigation either by forming a new committee or getting oversight and government reform to do it. And the thing is that the Republicans are not going to crash the president on this one.

Just to clarify what I was saying before, what the president apologized for was just the "Access Hollywood" tape. There's always been blanket denials of these other allegations. And you're not going to find that the GOP is going to step out in front of that with the president and litigate that by stepping on the side of the Democrats, who they feel like are using this as a political football to play.

Even if they, you know, would -- even if they may say that they believe the women. Although we have not been asking -- not been commenting on that. The president's allegations, such as you know, the Roy Moore course, than Roy Moore's case specifically. But it's such a step to get the GOP to say, yes, we're going to investigate a president for these allegations when they're already kind of going along with the Russian investigation. That's a very high bar to clear.

AVLON: Yes, no, this is not -- you know, Congress, let alone Republican or Democrat, you know, they're not going to go investigate the president for -- for these sorts of allegations unless there's a criminal matter and there's one case going forward, maybe several.

But the point is this does not fall under any statute of removing a president. This is a political fantasy to indulge in that.

What's fascinating, too, is the sort of reversal of the script in the Bill Clinton era when, yes, the trouble they had was he lied under oath. Right? That was the argument. But really it was about moral outrage...

CUOMO: Right.

AVLON: ... in the White House. And clearly, all those considerations have been put aside for political purposes in our country. So, yes, the Democrats are trying to extend the Franken standard projected up to the president. But it really is political. It's not practical in terms of doing...

CUOMO: Although this point that they have witnesses may have been a misstep. Because certainly, we'll do it on this show. But everybody should be saying where are they? Prove it. Make the case.

Forget about the logic that it's very hard to prove the nonexistence of a fact. But if you have witnesses, bring them out. I want to meet them. I want to interview them on this show with Alisyn where they say I was there, it never happened. Here's one where this never happened, this never happened.

CAMEROTA: I think they've only suggested two names, one of whom wasn't there.

CUOMO: That's their proper. They should have to make good on it if they're going to say this settles it.

CAMEROTA: OK. So meanwhile, there was a very feisty exchange during the press briefing yesterday with Sarah Sanders and the press, because they are claiming -- you know, they use the term "fake news" for anything, anything that they don't like, any mistake, you know, heaven forbid, that the press ever makes. So that's not the definition, actually, of fake news. But here is this moment in the press room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would just say, Sarah, that journalists make honest mistakes, and that doesn't make them fake news.

SANDERS: When journalists make honest mistakes, they should own up to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do.

SANDERS: Sometimes and a lot of times you don't. There's a difference -- there's a very big -- I'm sorry. I'm not finished. There's a very big difference between making honest mistakes and purposefully misleading the American people. Something that happens regularly. You can't say -- I'm not done. You cannot say...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something that was completely fake, Sarah. And he admitted it. SANDERS: You cannot say it's an honest mistake when you're purposely

putting out information that you know to be false or when you're taking information that hasn't been validated, that hasn't been offered any credibility and that has been continually denied by a number of people, including people with direct knowledge of an instance. This is something that...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you speaking about the president?

SANDERS: I'm speaking about a number of reports that have taken place over the last couple of weeks. Simply say that there should be a certain level of responsibility in that process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Of course, Karoun, there is responsibility. I mean, of course, there are rules to journalism. Of course, when a mistake is made you do immediately disclose it and apologize for it. That has happened. But they're resetting the rules, actually. Certainly, the rules of engagement in the press briefing room.

CUOMO: Well, that's -- hold on a second. Let's not let it go that quick. The hypocrisy, the irony that Sarah Sanders is going to look at people and say, you know, there's just this stream of misinformation that's you know, calculated to deceive.

Yes, coming from you. Coming from the podium. Coming from the president.