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New Day
Siblings Rally Against Electing their Brother; U.S. Hits China with Tariffs; Trump Backs Kavanaugh. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired September 24, 2018 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[08:33:04] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It will be an interesting Thanksgiving this year for Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar. He is embroiled in a high-profile family feud. Six of his nine siblings appear in a campaign ad supporting his Democratic opponent.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of this is pleasant for any of us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's horrible to have to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To speak up against my brother, it brings sadness to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Tim Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Jennifer Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gaston Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joan Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grace Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Gosar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paul Gosar is my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My brother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My brother. And I endorse Dr. Brill (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Brill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Brill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I wholeheartedly endorse Dr. David Brill for Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Now, Congressman Gosar responded writing, you can't pick your family. We all have crazy aunts and relatives, et cetera, and my family is no different. I hope they find peace in their hearts and let go all the hate. To the six angry Democrat Gosars, see you at mom and dad's house.
Joining us now is one of the congressman's brothers featured in the ad, David Gosar.
David, thanks so much for being with us.
I should note, we invited the congressman to come on and we did not hear back from his office.
Talk to me about why you decided -- you and your siblings decided to come forward. This is unusual.
DAVID GOSAR, BROTHER OF REP. PAUL GOSAR: Well, first, John, thanks for having me on today.
Let me back up and give you the short history.
He's been a congressman for eight years now. For seven of those years, we kept our peace, said nothing. Late last year, on Vice News -- well, you know, during the interim, you know, those seven years, you know, he was taking actions and casting votes that were -- that, you know, impacted our lives, you know, in regards to health care. Some members of the family, you know, his votes against health care would have ended with them losing their health care or being unable to afford it. He took other votes in other actions that impacted values that -- and interests that affected their children as well.
[08:35:10] So, despite all that, we kept our peace out of deference to his family and our parents. But when he appeared on Vice News and unnecessarily slandered George Soros -- we don't know George Soros. We have no allegiance to George Soros. But you don't do that. That's a matter of right and wrong.
He accused the guy or suggested that he was a Nazi collaborator when he was a 14-year-old boy and that he was also possibly behind the Charlottesville Nazi march, which ended in the tragic death of a young woman and other injuries to other people. And that's just a right and wrong matter. And at that point in time we felt we had to speak out and so we did.
And we wrote a letter. And I also appeared on Vice News and I opposed that action. And we called on him to apologize, which he never did.
Well, I, since that time, have been on Twitter responding to him and, you know, challenging him and what he does, which I think is appalling. And the Brill campaign saw that, they reached out to me. Initially there wasn't any thought of doing these commercials, but they came up with that idea and we decided to join in on that.
BERMAN: Right. Do you talk to your brother at all anymore?
GOSAR: No, I don't.
BERMAN: When was the last time you had contact with him?
GOSAR: It would be maybe a couple of years ago at his daughter's wedding. Very briefly.
BERMAN: And, again, the family stuff, what do your parents think about this?
GOSAR: Well, you know, I think you can see from "The New York Times" piece that my mom is conservative, my dad is conservative. And I haven't spoken to them about this. And I don't intend to. Those conversations, political conversations, like that in our family don't end well. So --
BERMAN: Right. Well, but now they're out in the public.
GOSAR: And I'm not going there.
BERMAN: Now they're very much out in the public for all the world to see. And let me just read one more thing that your brother, the congressman, said. He said, my siblings, who chose to film ads against me, are all liberal Democrats who hate President Trump. These disgruntled Hillary supporters are related by blood to me, but like leftists everywhere, they put political ideology before family. Stalin would be proud.
Now, the Stalin statement at the end there is just an ad hominem attack. But you guys -- do you hate President Trump, as your brother claims?
GOSAR: Well, let me add another thing he also put out there was, I guess this means I'm mom's favorite. Now this is -- this is a -- he's -- in a month he's going to be a 60-year-old congressman. And, you know, that's a kind of petulant, childish response that he offers, you know, which is right in line with the comment to Mr. Sterzok (ph) at the hearing, I'm a dentist and I read body language very, very well. He doesn't appear to be well. He appears to be getting more and more extreme. I --
BERMAN: When you say he doesn't appear to be well, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that he doesn't appear to be well?
GOSAR: Well, if -- if you -- if you watch him and how he conducts himself, he appears to be in a very hostile manner all the time. He talks down to people. He says bizarre things like that. I mean, if you interview him, you know, you'll be hard pressed to get a real coherent sentence out of him. And if you look at that Vice News piece --
BERMAN: David, let me -- let me just make clear also --
GOSAR: Go ahead.
BERMAN: The siblings, the group of you that did appear in the ad, is he correct that you all are Democrats?
GOSAR: No, I'm not a Democrat.
BERMAN: You are --
GOSAR: And I don't know who among those are Democrats, registered. I -- there's -- there's a few, I'm sure, but I don't know who they are.
BERMAN: Your ten children -- to be clear, there's ten of you, correct? So it's a big family?
GOSAR: Yes.
BERMAN: OK. And none of you who appeared in the ad live in Arizona, where he is a congressman?
GOSAR: No, we don't. And so I know -- I -- you know, I understand where your question's going. Well, he votes on issues that affect everybody nationwide, does he not? And in addition, you know, we're able to have an impact on him. As you can see, I'm interviewing with you here today. If I were to criticize another congressman I'm not related to, no one's going to hear our voice, speaking out against what I think is this extreme behavior by him and other members of his party. So there's that.
[08:40:14] And in addition, you know, you may not know this, but Paul doesn't even reside in the district that he represents. He never did. He never intended to. He owns a house in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is outside the district. So for him to, you know, make a point of that is pretty hypocritical.
BERMAN: David Gosar, thank you for coming on and sharing your story. We appreciate you being with us and wish you the best, sir.
GOSAR: Thank you.
BERMAN: Erica.
HILL: The trade war between the United States and China intensifies. The two nations hitting each other with their biggest rounds of tariffs yet. The bottom line, though, what does it mean for you? That's next.
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[08:45:02] BERMAN: It's time for "CNN Money Now."
The U.S. hitting China with the biggest round of tariffs yet, likely prompting Beijing to cancel trade talks. And you could soon -- you could soon pay the price.
Our chief business correspondent Christine Roman join us now with more.
Romans.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's getting real. At the stroke of midnight, the biggest rounds of tariffs yet on Chinese goods. President Trump slapped 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion worth, thousands of items, handbags, refrigerators, furniture, mattresses. China hit back, taxing U.S. goods, $60 billion worth of U.S. goods, and slamming the U.S. for trade bullyism.
Now, the administration's goal, of course, is to force China to end a laundry list of bad behavior and to negotiate, but that's not happening. On Saturday, Chinese officials canceled talks in Washington this week. A senior White House official said no new meetings are planned, nothing on the schedule here. American business, for years, has complained about China cheating, stealing technology and secrets, but business says, you know, tariffs are not the way to fix this. And the president often says that China pays these tariffs but American importers pay the price. They pay the taxes and either absorb the higher cost or pass it along to consumers.
That's why it will cost more to rebuild after Florence, you guys. The hurricane caused an estimated $50 billion in damage. That's according to Moody's. Trump's latest tariffs include construction materials like countertops, furniture, the stuff you use to make drywall. Home builders already pay more for steel and aluminum and wood. Homebuilders warn tariffs will raise total construction costs by about 30 percent, Erica.
HILL: Thirty percent. All right, Christine, thank you.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein still has his job. How long will he hold on to it following that bombshell report Friday afternoon from "The New York Times" which says Rosenstein suggested secretly recording the president? We discuss, next.
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[08:50:55] HILL: President Trump's allies urging him not to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the heels of that "New York Times" report alleging Rosenstein actually floated the idea of secretly recording the president and recruiting cabinet members to remove the president from office.
We'll tackle that in just a minute. But the president is speaking right now. Let's take a listen.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Lawyers -- you should look into the lawyers doing the representation. Judge Kavanaugh is an outstanding person and I am with him all the way. We'll see how it goes with the Senate. We'll see how it goes with the vote. I think it could be -- the chance that this could be one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen to a candidate for anything, but I am with Judge Kavanaugh and I look forward to a vote. And for people to come out of the woodwork from 36 years ago and 30 years ago and never mentioned it, all of a sudden it happens. In my opinion, it's totally political. It's totally political.
Thank you.
(CROSS TALK) HILL: President Trump, as you see there, live comments from the president, which we just brought you, talking about these latest allegations in an article in "The New Yorker" by Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer, saying these are one of the -- one of the single most unfair, unjust things to happen on a candidate, pulling on the fact that they had not been mentioned by the women who have come forward for years. He calls this all totally political.
Perfect timing to have CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joining us.
So, Jeff, the president's speaking out. Now, listen, this something we've heard from the president in the past when there is an allegation we do not often hear the president say, let's listen. We did hear it for a short period of time last week when he was talking about Christine Blasey Ford, saying, I want to hear what she has to say. Take as much time as you need. There was a pivot on Friday, as we know, where he put out this tweet and he said, listen, if it was really that bad, all these things that you say happened, Christine Blasey Ford, when you were 15, I find it hard to believe you wouldn't have come forward before. And now on the heels of this latest report, it would seem that he is clearly in that lane, Jeffrey Toobin.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, several things.
It's -- first of all, it's not true that these people haven't talked about it since the events took place. I mean to therapists, to spouses, to other people, I mean they have mentioned it in subsequent years.
The other constant of when Donald Trump talks about people accused of sexual assault of one kind or another, including of course himself, is that the people he never mentions are the victims, the people who -- you know, what it was like for them. He's always talking, as he was today, about the unfairness to the alleged perpetrators, never to what the experience of being a victim of this kind of behavior is like. That's just how he views these issues.
HILL: Which is that -- which, to your point, is exactly what we're used to hearing. He has been standing by his man from the beginning. Obviously this is his pick. This is his nominee. He wants to see this move forward. We heard from Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, of course, earlier this morning who said, look, if anybody has anything they want to say, they should come forward. But this is nothing but politicized. This is getting -- you know, we're hearing from, not for the first time, but we're hearing from Republicans, this is getting ridiculous. Stop holding things up. Which, you know, there are -- there are multiple cries of hypocrisy at that. Do you think at this point we end up with this hearing on Thursday?
TOOBIN: I do think the hearing will go forward. I mean I am sure there are -- you know, there are going to be some people who say, you know, Kavanaugh shouldn't put himself, shouldn't put his family through this kind of humiliating ordeal, but he really wants to be on the Supreme Court. And let's forget -- let's not forget, you know, Clarence Thomas went through a very humiliating ordeal in 1991. The record, as it has come out since 1991, entirely vindicates Anita Hill in terms of the truth of her accusations. And you know what we call Clarence Thomas for the past 27 years? Justice Thomas. He won. He got confirmed.
[08:55:22] Brett Kavanaugh looks like he feels like he can brazen this out. He can fight his way through. There are 51 Republican senators. None of them so far have declared their opposition. It looks like it's going to come down to Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, maybe Jeff Flake. Their votes seem very much in play, even with all these disclosures. It seems to me that both the president, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and Kavanaugh himself are saying, you know, to hell with it, we're going to -- we're going to keep pushing forward and we think we can get the votes.
HILL: We will be watching to see what happens.
TOOBIN: We sure will. Boy.
HILL: Yes. Well, we know where we'll be all week long, Jeff.
TOOBIN: Gosh, it's going to be pretty interesting, don't you think? Geez.
HILL: Just a little.
Jeffrey Toobin, good to see you, my friend. Thank you.
TOOBIN: Wow. All right.
BERMAN: All right, CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto pick up right after a quick break.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[09:00:03] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.
Just moments ago, President Trump addressed the latest upheaval in the already turbulent Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. A second
