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Trump Claimed No Business in Russia; Influence on Russia Policies; Prison Reform Bill; Cowboys Beat Saints. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET

Aired November 30, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: For the president to address this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, a dramatic life or death moment captured on body camera. A sheriff's deputy captures his escape through the deadly Camp Fire. We'll show that to you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We do have some breaking news right now which could escalate tensions with Russia at the G-20 Summit.

CNN has just learned from two sources that British investigators have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved those nerve gas attacks which nearly killed that former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, earlier this year. British officials have warned allies that Russian intelligent agents risked killing thousands of people when they smuggled that perfume bottle packed with the deadly nerve agent into the U.K. Just this week, Britain's new army chief called Russia a, quote, far greater threat than ISIS.

[06:35:00] BERMAN: I was going to say, just when you thought there couldn't be any more layers to the complicated U.S.-Russia relationship as the president --

CAMEROTA: During the G-20 Summit.

BERMAN: As the president cancels his meeting with Vladimir Putin. Wow.

All right, breaking overnight, a U.S. deputy marshal shot and killed in the line of duty. Police say it happened while the marshal and a team were delivering a felony warrant to a suspect in Tucson who had allegedly been stalking a law enforcement officer. The suspect surrendered without incident after police surrounded his home. The marshal's name has not been released.

CAMEROTA: Authorities now say they have arrested the gunman behind that Thanksgiving Day shooting at an Alabama mall. Twenty-year-old Erron Brown was arrested at a relative's house near Atlanta. He's facing an attempted murder charge. At the time of the mall attack, you'll remember, police mistakenly shot and killed a different man, Emantic Bradford Junior, incorrectly identifying him as the gunman.

BERMAN: We have dramatic, new video of a deputy's narrow escape from California's deadly fire. The one that's called the Camp Fire. Butte County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Parmley's was looking for four missing nurses. He turned on his body camera when his car broke down and his search progressed on foot. Parmley says he flipped the switch fearing it would capture the final moments of his life. This is just stunning video. He was able to find those nurses.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh.

BERMAN: A bulldozer was able to bring them all to safety.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, what a selfless -- I mean these are the people, the emergency responders, that we rely on and they do selfless acts like that, thinking it's going to be their last.

BERMAN: It just gives you a sense of what they're seeing and feeling during those incredible moments.

CAMEROTA: All right, so now that Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about that Trump Tower Moscow project, what other questions do lawmakers have for him? Is this the beginning of Michael Cohen's revelations? A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee joints us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:44] BERMAN: All right, a very interesting moment from Buenos Aires. There is the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto, who's got, I think, two days left in office. At this moment he is giving a special award to the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner. He is giving him the Order of the Aztec Eagle, recognizing the work that Jared Kushner has done in U.S.-Mexico relations. Kushner was vital in negotiating the updated NAFTA deal, which will be signed, a version of it will be signed, or a step along the way will be signed by the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. president in moments.

So this is the ceremony you're watching right now. Jared Kushner is there. Ivanka Trump is there. And the president is there as well. You just can't see it from our camera angle. Maybe when we pull out, you'll see the back of his head or his hair. But that's what you're looking at right now.

We don't expect the president to speak at this. We do expect to hear from the president in about 20 minutes where we think he will take questions. And, obviously, so many of the questions will focus on the breaking news, the swirling scent of scandal surrounding the White House now that Michael Cohen, the president's former attorney, pleaded guilty to a new charge to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, lying to Congress, lying to Congress about business deals that the Trump Organization was trying to negotiate with Russia during the presidential campaign.

Joining us now to talk about that is Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He is on the Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.

It all comes together at once before our eyes here, senator.

Let me ask you, the president, in a tweet this morning, basically said, yes, I was a businessman. I was trying to do business while I was running for president for a while. There was this deal that was in the works with Russia. We didn't decide to do it, so it went away.

What's the problem there? Is there any legal problem there in your mind?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D), DELAWARE: Well, John, first, that makes it clear that now President Trump was just flat outlying as candidate Trump when he said publically, when he tweeted repeatedly, I have no business interests in Russia. He didn't say I just wrapped up a business deal. He didn't say just a few days ago I stopped communicating with the Kremlin. He said, categorically, I have no business with Russia.

That's not illegal, it just says something about the character of then-candidate Donald Trump. But it is complicating and it does have legal consequences for individuals like Michael Cohen who came before committees of Congress and submitted both spoken and written testimony and who then agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Mueller. Special Counsel Mueller has now charged him. He has now plead guilty to additional lies to Congress and that puts him in legal jeopardy. So given that President Trump has now submitted written answers to questions from Special Counsel Mueller, the reason this is of such great interest or concern is that he may have submitted answers that follow exactly the same pattern as his counsel, Michael Cohen.

BERMAN: We don't know whether he lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in those written questions.

COONS: We don't know.

BERMAN: That's a huge deal if he did. Rudy Giuliani and the legal team say the president's answers aligned with what Michael Cohen is now saying.

I have no problem calling out lies when they are clear. I think it's important to call a lie a lie here. However, if you parse the president's statements and put them up in terms of the timing here. When he said I have no deals with Russia, he said that in July of 2016. In theory, if you follow Michael Cohen's timeline, the deal fell apart in June. So, technically, if you parse when the president said I have no deals with Russia in July, was that a lie?

COONS: If that's the exact timeline, then no, it would be --

BERMAN: OK. It is.

COONS: I think a misleading statement but it would be actually true if in July that's when he first made that statement.

BERMAN: It appears to be. And we've gone back and pulled these things and the president's on this were always, I have no business dealings with, I have no deals, it was always after that June moment. Again, whether or not the president should have told us that up until that point -- or that candidate should have told us that for six months while he was running for president he was also trying to secure a deal with Russian government officials, that's another story. Do you believe that he crafted his Russia policy? And I'm talking about from January 2016 to June 2016, while he was a candidate for president, because of financial interests?

[06:45:07] COONS: Well, that's an important issue for the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Foreign Relations Committee to investigate further. It certainly seems that way to me.

What is striking about this revelation by Michael Cohen as well, John, is that this wasn't a conversation with some intermediary, with some sort of shadowy business figure in Russia. This included direct negotiations with Kremlin officials. That's put in sharper relief just how significant these conversations were while Donald Trump was a candidate.

BERMAN: Yes, we have to know whether or not then candidate Trump knew that his people were negotiating with Kremlin officials for financial gain. That's a key question.

This week measure that you have worked so hard to get passed in the Senate once again was blocked. And that's the law -- that's the bill that you've worked on, with Republicans, to protect Robert Mueller.

Why do you think that there are Republicans still blocking this?

COONS: That's a great question, John. Senator Flake of Arizona and I, along with Senator Booker, went to the floor again this week and asked for a live vote on our special counsel protection bill. We got a hearing and a vote on it earlier this year in April. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 14-7 bipartisan vote. Even Chairman Grassley, the Republican leader of the Judiciary Committee, voted for it. But the majority leader has blocked it in person saying that there's no need for it, that there's no imminent threat.

President Trump tweeted within the last day that the Mueller investigation should be shut down and now that the person in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice is Matt Whitaker, not someone confirmed by the United States Senate, immediately following the forced resignation of Jeff Sessions, he was put in control of the department and this investigation. I think there's more urgency than ever before to our passing this bill.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Matt Whitaker did know about the plea deal from Michael Cohen and did not stand in his way, as far as we know. Does that allay some of your concerns about him?

COONS: So far I haven't seen any clear evidence that Matt Whitaker is interfering with the investigation. That is encouraging. But the problem here, John, is that we wouldn't know likely until after he made critical conditions that either closed it or sharply narrowed it.

BERMAN: Senator, I want to ask you, because the business of the nation goes on here even as these investigations continue. And one measure that might be before the Senate this month, we don't know for sure, is the first step back criminal justice reform, which you worked so very hard on. You have a meeting on this today.

We've heard that there could be as many as 70 votes for it in the Senate. Are you convinced it will get to the floor for a vote and, if so -- and, if not, why not?

COONS: Again, just like the special counsel protection bill, it is the majority leader who is preventing it from getting a vote at the moment. He has said several times that he'll whip his caucus, check how many votes there are for it. And if it's got enough votes, he'll give it the opportunity to pass. I pray and I hope that that's the case.

This is a broad bipartisan bill. There's many of us who have worked on it for years. It would provide significant relief to thousands of families who have family members who have been in jail for long sentences, most of them non-violent, low level drug offenders. This would be a significant, bipartisan step. And to have the president supporting it, Republicans and Democrats supporting it, and have it not get a vote in these last two weeks I think would be a real mistake.

The majority leader has some Republicans in his caucus who strongly oppose it, but the overwhelming majority of the Senate supports it. It should get a vote, so should the special counsel protection bill before this lame duck session wraps up in two weeks.

BERMAN: Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, you have your work cut out for you over the next few weeks. We appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you.

COONS: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, we're about to look at some live pictures there that are in that little box but the -- we understand that Russian President Vladimir Putin has just arrived here at this location, I believe that's the Hayat in Buenos Aires.

BERMAN: I think that's him in the plane at the airport.

CAMEROTA: I think that's right. I believe he is just arriving at the airport.

BERMAN: The Hayat may be big, but I don't think the plane will --

CAMEROTA: Very funny, John Berman.

But we do expect to hear from President Trump at this location momentarily where we expect him to take some questions from the press about everything that is happening, from the G-20 Summit to the Mueller investigation. We'll be right back.

BERMAN: Are you going to yell at me during the break?

CAMEROTA: Yes, I am.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:58] CAMEROTA: It's a Texas-sized upset as the Cowboys put the NFL's hottest team, the Saints, on ice.

Coy Wire has more in our "Bleacher Report."

How well am I selling this, Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Killing it. I love it. Yes, the Saints had won ten in a row behind the NFL's highest scoring offense and this week's "Sports Illustrated" cover boy Drew Brees. But the Cowboys were thinking, the bigger are, the harder they fall. Quarterback Dak Prescott was on point like decimals. He completed 24 of his 28 passes, including this touchdown to Ezekiel Elliott.

But then it was time for Dallas' defense to shine. They were physical. Huge hits like this one on Saints running back Alvin Kamara. Surprisingly no penalty called here. Dallas had a goal line stand in this one. They sacked Drew Brees twice and put this one on ice with Jourdan Lewis' interception with about two minutes to go. The Saints held to just 176 total yards. That's their lowest total in the last 17 years. Cowboys win 13-10.

[06:55:00] Now, I'm here in downtown Atlanta on the rooftop of the iconic Hotel Clermont. A huge SEC championship between number one Bama and number four UGA this weekend. And Bama favored by 13.5 in this one.

But before we go, Warriors star Steph Curry is making one little girl's holidays extra special. Nine-year-old Riley wrote Steph a letter saying that all she wanted for Christmas was a pair of Curry 5 (ph) shoes for the new basketball season, but online they were only listed under the boy's sections. Steph saw her letter and wrote a handwritten note right back. Not only did he get Under Armour to put the shoes under the girl's section, he told her that he's going to send her a special surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RILEY MORRISON, NINE-YEAR-OLD BASKETBALL PLAYER: So surprised because he's such a busy person. I was not expecting anything like that. I was just expecting Under Armour to see it, not say anything and fix it. So -- and then I wasn't expecting him to say he'd give me the Curry 5's and then the Curry 6.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Curry, whose daughter is also named Riley, invited his new friend Riley to his international women's day event as well next March. Back to you.

CAMEROTA: What a fantastic gesture. That is just rewarding her sort of activism. That was great.

Thank you very much, Coy.

BERMAN: Good businessman and a good person right there.

All right, President Trump expected to speak very soon answering questions perhaps about the new swirl of scandals surrounding this administration. Stay with us.

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