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Religious Leaders Find Hope after Tragedies; Defining Issue in Year Two of Trump Administration. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys. It's a total witch hunt.

[06:00:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make no mistake. There's going to be a lot of sleepless nights at the White House.

RUDY GIULIANI, DONALD TRUMP'S LAWYER: Mueller should turn their attention to Comey, Strzok, Page.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Prosecutors say Manafort repeatedly lied after he agreed to cooperate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the relationship between the campaign, the Russians, WikiLeaks?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Mueller probe is moving along.

BRETT KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: You may defeat me in the final vote, but you'll never get me to quit.

CHRISTINE BLASEY FORD, ACCUSES KAVANAUGH OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter.

TRUMP: It's a very scary time for young men in America.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: The Republicans do not want the truth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh takes his seat on the high court.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I sent her to school yesterday. She was supposed to be safe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump, please do something. These kids need safety now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened yesterday will not break us. It will not ruin us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can and we will change the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Welcome to a special Christmas day edition of NEW DAY. Merry Christmas, everyone. Merry Christmas.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Merry Christmas to you.

CAMEROTA: We have a very big show for you, because we are going to look back at 2018. It was, of course, a very big year in politics. The midterm elections happened, if you can remember those. It was the president's second year in office. Of course, a little thing called the Mueller investigation has been gearing up. The summits in Singapore, the submit in Helsinki. There's a lot to remember. The Supreme Court battle. A lot.

BERMAN: Snuck that one in here. Also, these two men are helping their congregations deal with tragedy this holiday season, a pastor and a rabbi whose Houses of worship became the sites of unthinkable acts. They bring us their message of hope.

CAMEROTA: And this show would not be complete without talking about holiday returns. You know, you may get something today that you don't exactly like.

BERMAN: Slacks.

CAMEROTA: A vase. Did you give me one of those?

BERMAN: I got you slacks.

CAMEROTA: I got you a vase. We have some tips to help you navigate the post-Christmas rush. All of that and more ahead. But first, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and merry Christmas. I'm Manu Raju.

The government shutdown doesn't take a break, not even for Christmas. Negotiations have stalled between Democrats and Republicans. President Trump tweeting yesterday he's all alone in the White House, waiting for Democrats to come and make a deal. At a Christmas Event last night, the president stayed on message.

TRUMP: There's nothing new. There's nothing new with the shutdown. Nothing new. Except we need border security.

RAJU: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and presumed incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a joint statement, accusing the president of spending Christmas Eve, quote, "plunging the country into chaos." The president ended his day with his wife, attending services at the National Cathedral.

The Dow and the S&P 500 suffered their biggest Christmas Eve declines in history on the heels of a tweet from President Trump that was critical of the Federal Reserve. Stocks initially fell after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted that he had spoken with bank CEOs to assess the health of the banking system. The market recovered by late morning but slid even lower after President Trump tweeted, "The only problem our economy has is the Fed."

On this Christmas, Pope Francis delivering a message condemning materialism. While leading a service in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican for the traditional Christmas Eve mass, he called on people living in developed countries to live a simpler and less materialistic life. Pope Francis also condemned the massive divide between the world's rich and poor.

And people from around the world flocked to Bethlehem in what is believed to be the city's largest Christmas celebration in years. Huge crowds gathered for a massive parade and also flooded the Church of the Nativity, revered as the traditional site of Jesus' birth.

I'm Manu Raju. Merry Christmas. More headlines in 30 minutes.

CAMEROTA: Christmas is often a time to reflect, but in a year where so many people dealt with trauma and grief, it can be difficult to find sparks of faith and joy. And our next two guests are here to talk about growing from adversity through faith.

[06:05:04] So joining us now is Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue of Pittsburgh, where this year several worshippers lost their lives in a massacre. And Pastor Eric Manning is the senior pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, where in 2015 the same thing happened.

Gentlemen, it is so good to have you here with us in studio to help us celebrate Christmas. Rabbi, of course, all of our viewers know you so well after what happened at the Tree of Life, and I came out to visit your congregation. How is everyone doing today?

RABBI JEFFREY MYERS, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: I would say that the entire range of human emotion is apparent. People who are coping, people having difficulty coping, people in various stages of mourning; and it's all rolled into one, because you can't put one adjective on a community.

CAMEROTA: And so what do you say to a community who's going through all of the different stages of grief?

MYERS: We work on it together. We help each other, that no one is alone in their grief.

BERMAN: Pastor Manning, one of the things, one of the most remarkable things we saw in the aftermath of what happened at the Tree of Life Synagogue is you went; you went to be with Reverend [SIC] Myers and that community after that massacre, I think, to share what you had learned. What was that like? What do you talk about? How do you approach something like that?

REV. ERIC S.C. MANNING, EMANUEL AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Again, John, it was really just to be there, as I have said before, from the ministry of presence, just to let Rabbi Myers know and the Tree of Life Synagogue know that they're not alone. That there is a place that shares their grief and understands firsthand what they have experienced, what they have gone through.

So when we went to be with Rabbi Myers, it was just to let him know that he's not alone.

CAMEROTA: Both of these crimes broke the country's heart. I mean, they were -- they were so searing, both of them, because they, of course, seemed so unnecessary; and they came out of hate.

And you know, I know that, having spoken to both of you on our program, I know that you say that God is with us through all of this. God doesn't prevent us from feeling pain or keep tragedies from us.

But I'm wondering how you make sense of the violence, of the hate that spurred these crimes. Are we -- is that evil? Is that what -- are these gunmen evil? Are they misguided? Help us process how we're supposed to see those people.

MYERS: Well, from my own theology point of view, I don't see it that God is the one who sent this person to us to perform that. God is not in some divine control room pushing buttons to let the sun rise and set and to say, "I'm going to send a gunman there."

God's the one that I turn to and my congregation turns to in times of challenge like this, to say give us the strength to get through these challenges.

CAMEROTA: Pastor.

BERMAN: I mean, this is no small thing. This is a theological question dating back thousands of years. "How could God let this happen" is one of those questions that people have faced for tens of thousands of years.

MANNING: Yes, and exactly. It is a question that many people continue to ask. People have asked me on a number of cases, as far as "Why would God allow for something like this to happen?"

And several weeks ago, I dealt with a similar topic from Romans 8:28 perspective. We know that all things working together for the good, so then we love the God and are called -- who are called according to his purpose.

And I think realistically, when you think about that text, it's hard to come to terms with, because how is this working for my good? And to what rabbi has already said, we may not be able to fully see the good right now and, again, timing is everything. You never share that text when someone who is fresh off a trauma. But through the process of time, you can begin to see how God has taken a particular tragic event and has turned it so that some good can benefit from it.

CAMEROTA: I mean, forgiveness is hard for people, too. Obviously, people are angry about what happened there. And even for people who didn't live through the devastating mass murders that you guys did, what about people who are just struggling? You know, it can be a dark time for people around the holidays; they can feel sadness. What do you say to people for how they get through?

MYERS: I can't tell you how many thousands on thousands of letters, e-mails and calls there have been that reassure me that the scale is imbalanced, that one act of evil is not going to be outweighed by tens of thousands of loving gestures.

It's just unfortunate that something like this brings out all the good and the love that's not just in the country but in the world. It would be nice to see that on a regular basis to reassure us there are so many many good people out there. And that -- that uplifts me. And I've shared those letters with my congregation on a regular basis to help uplift them, as well.

[06:10:11] BERMAN: What's their reaction when you read those letters? I'm curious.

MYERS: Just open mouths and shock and awe that, wow, people really do care. And people have said to me, "Thank you for sharing all of them." And they come from all around the world, from consulates, from religious leaders, ordinary people, all faiths, no faiths.

CAMEROTA: I remember, I mean, when I came to your service, you know, the first Shabbat service after the tragedy; and you had letters from Africa. You had letters from children in grade schools in Asia. You had -- I mean, it was so -- it was so heartwarming and touching. But again, it is a crying shame that it takes something so bad to be able to see that silver lining.

MYERS: It is. It would be nice that we could see the goodness come out on a regular basis. Unfortunately, that's perhaps just not the way we're programmed.

BERMAN: Pastor Manning, it's been three years, more than three years since the tragedy took place in Charleston. Is there a point where you walk into the congregation, you walk into the church, and the memory of that awful event isn't there? Or is it always there?

MANNING: John, it has to always be there, because one of the challenging things is through the process of time, if we forget. We have to remember. We have to remember what took place. We have to remember the hate that spawned that. Then as well, we have to remember the love that overcame that.

And I think realistically, the further we get away from any event, the tendency is to kind of just let it, you know, go back and say, "Well, OK, it's a longer focus. The news cycle has changed. There's something out there going on."

But when we are at those particular places, I think we have to make sure that we always remember; we never forget. Because if we forget then it's almost as if the tragedy has robbed us of the very things that the members may have lost while they were there.

CAMEROTA: What's happening with the Tree of Life congregation and synagogue? When we were there you didn't know what the future would be of where you would meet and what would happen in that building that then had become a crime scene. And so now what are your thoughts?

MYERS: Well, we are going to rebuild. I can't give you a time frame, because that's just really far in the future right now. But I've said before that I'm not going to let the "h" word chase us out of your building ever.

So we're really examining what type of institution are we to become because of this horrific event? How will it define our vision and mission moving forward? Because that will then tell us how do we build? What do we build for?

So we're really in these complex conversations, eliciting information from our congregants, from the leadership: how are we going to do this? But we will. We're going to figure this out. I don't know how long it's going to take. There's no guidebook for this. I can't go into a bookstore and pull it off the shelf and say --

BERMAN: Let's hope there's never a guidebook for us. Let's hope we never need --

MYERS: I hope the book we're writing gathers dust, John, and is never opened again.

BERMAN: Rabbi Myers, Pastor Manning, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Thank you for everything you've done in your communities. And thank you for being an example to the whole country on grace, as you said. Really appreciate it.

MYERS: Thank you.

BERMAN: President Trump finishing his second year in office. So what accomplishments, what controversies will define his 2018? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:25] CAMEROTA: From the many indictments in the ongoing special counsel investigation to the high-stakes summits with North Korea and Russia and the contentious confirmation battle of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, it's been quite a year. It's been quite a consequential second year in office for President Trump.

BERMAN: That's one way to say it.

CAMEROTA: Yes. So let's discuss all this with CNN political analyst David Gregory, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon and CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. Merry Christmas, everyone.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for being here. So is there any way to sum up the year, David Gregory, of what it's been like?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I just think for -- the head space for President Trump is so clouded by the Mueller investigation and any perceived slight to him. I mean, he walks around with a sense of being aggrieved and under siege. And he's so reactive. He's reactive to all of that. That his -- as a gut player, that temperament and that gut feeling of always searching for a fight is foremost on his minds.

And it really is what has clouded everything else, including areas where he's shown some promise. That's the piece that I think really hangs over the second year, is the desire to fight and the inability to restrain himself or to have anyone restrain him from that instinct.

BERMAN: I think that's exactly right. And I think if you took the Mueller investigation as an overlay to everything else that happens, it would be sort of instructive, right? You would have a sense of what his mood was approaching each and every one of those things.

And I, on the one hand, I understand the frustration. I mean, the president feels that too much attention is being paid to it. But on the other hand, he's letting it get to him. He's letting it dictate all the other things that he should be doing.

HENDERSON: Yes, I think that's right. I mean, if you were to look at his Twitter feed over this last year, it would be dominated, in many ways, by talking about the Russia probe, about Mueller, about this idea that it's a witch-hunt, this idea that he doesn't see any collusion.

So, yes, I mean, he can't find a way out of it. I mean, if you compare what happened with Bill Clinton, for instance, Bill Clinton was sort of a happy warrior, while the Starr investment and impeachment hearings were going on, kept saying, "I'm going to focus on the people's business." What you have with President Trump doing something very different, focusing very much on Mueller, trying to damage his reputation. And then you have, obviously, the Republicans having to get pulled into this, in many ways, respond to the way he's responding to Bob Mueller. So it's been a bit of a mess, I think.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's also interesting that there is -- I talked about Democratic strategists recently, who said, you know, the thing about President Trump, he overwhelms the system. He certainly overwhelms the media with how much he says, on how many subjects he says it.

[06:20:12] So Mueller alone, if you think about Twitter, if you did a word cloud for Donald Trump, there would be so many words on so many subjects, so outside the lines. It's literally hard not to feel overwhelmed. The system itself feeling overwhelmed. And I think that says a lot about him.

BERMAN: Not to mention spell check overwhelmed.

CAMEROTA: Right. Dictionaries are overwhelmed.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We're making up new words every day. The dominant emotions of the president's output on Twitter and elsewhere do tend back to these tools of -- what he sees as tools of fear and anger. And it's Christmas, and so President Scrooge doesn't exactly fit the day.

But you'd hope that he would find a little bit more redemptive in the powers of the presidency and less about simply venting his spleen and the power of resentment, because he'll point to the good economy, and he'll say he's not getting adequate credit. I think you could find silver linings in his presidency even if you disagree with the president.

And I think, you know, that that's perhaps an exercise that's worthwhile on a Christmas morning. But the fact is that this president has consistently focused on the negative emotions of the presidency, and history shows that does not end well for anyone.

BERMAN: I think any exercise is valuable on a Christmas morning. Because you need to stretch out. You need to get the body moving.

I think -- first of all, it's hard to believe that the two summits, Helsinki and Singapore with Kim Jong-un, happened this year. Right? It feels like 100 years ago that they happened. But I feel like they're so instructive when figuring out this presidency.

Take just Singapore with North Korea, because this is something that I think only Donald Trump could have done as president. I don't think any other president -- no other president has; and I don't think any other president would.

CAMEROTA: And he wanted to break convention, and he wanted to shake it up. And he wanted to do things that other people couldn't achieve. And so becoming friendly or pen pals with Kim Jong-un, having a good relationship, as he often said he wanted with Vladimir Putin, he attempted to do both of those this year.

BERMAN: Is it worth it with North Korea as we sit here at the end of the year? Is it worth it?

GREGORY: It might be. I mean, what was happening before wasn't working. But part of that period of time of decades of not working North Korea, achieved what it wanted, which was a nuclear deterrent. It was able to mature its nuclear program to the point that it was satisfied.

Now, provocations of the West and Trump saying, "We're not going to put up with that anymore," and then the summitry, and the "I love you" notes and all the rest and pressure on China to try to wield some influence. I don't know that any of it's done any lasting good except for lower the temperature for now.

AVLON: Yes. I think the flow-through, what you're describing isn't a doctrine. It's an elevation of self. But because it is the Christmas season, he certainly is effusive about feelings of love for Kim Jong- un and dictators around the world.

And perhaps there is the flow through. He does have an affinity for dictators. And perhaps a belief he can break through some stalemates with some version of realpolitik sort of, you know, sugared with his personal charm. But the actions don't actually change. This is the problem, as we know through CNN's own reporting, that

missile silos are being built, just inland, that the underlying threat hasn't changed but the temperature.

What's strange is seeing the leader of the free world, the president of the United States expressing love for the North Korean dictator. Creating cover for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia in the face of the murder of a journalist, an American resident. And refusing to, of course, ever say anything bad about Vladimir Putin.

That's the closest we come to a Trump --

BERMAN: Helsinki in, like, 15 seconds or less, before we move on to different subjects, with the benefit of hindsight now, five months, the Helsinki summit, where he stood side-by-side with Vladimir Putin --

AVLON: Doesn't look any better.

HENDERSON: Yes.

GREGORY: The president has been woefully ignorant of who Putin is and the threat that Russia poses. That is clear, based on what we know so far from the Mueller investigation about all of the contacts with Russia. No one ever saying, "This could go down a really bad road." They think of them as just kind of another actor with whom you can negotiate, not seeing it for what it is.

CAMEROTA: OK. So a victory for President Trump this year. Supreme Court justice is seated. After all of the drama of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, the president won.

HENDERSON: Oh, he won, and conservatives and Republicans won. I mean, this has been a dream of Republicans for decades, to have that controlling vote on the Supreme Court; and that's what they have at this point.

So we'll look for any number of decisions down the pipe about abortion, about affirmative action, about voting rights, about the death penalty. All of these things, you've got Republicans excited about what this new court will bring them. And, you know, their strategizing paid off. I mean, the real victor, too, obviously Trump, but Mitch McConnell, as well.

BERMAN: David, Nia, John, thank you very much. Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you all.

Well, the Democrats managed to capture the House in the midterm elections, but what will the fallout for both parties be at the end of this year? We look ahead in the new year, we dissect all of it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:32] BERMAN: Good morning. Welcome back to this special Christmas edition of NEW DAY. We have a lot to get to this half hour, including a look back at the midterm elections. What happened --

CAMEROTA: I can't remember.

BERMAN: Well, they're still counting in California. And what will it mean for the new Congress.

CAMEROTA: Also we take a moment to honor the troops serving overseas as we celebrate the holidays.

BERMAN: And many happy returns. We help you navigate the post- Christmas rush. First, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk.

RAJU: Good morning and merry Christmas. I'm Manu Raju.

The government shutdown is the lump of coal in America's stocking this morning. Negotiations have stalled between Democrats and Republicans. President Trump tweeting yesterday he's all alone in the White House waiting for Democrats to come and make a deal. At a Christmas event last night, the president stayed on message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There's nothing new. Nothing new in the shutdown. Nothing new. Except we need border security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the presumed incoming House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, releasing a joint statement, accusing the president of spending Christmas Eve, quote, "plunging the country into chaos."

The president ended his day with his wife attending services at the National Cathedral.

In Afghanistan, at least 47 people are dead, 25 others injured following a seven-hour assault on a government building in Kabul. A police officer and four attackers are among the dead.

The attack happened Monday afternoon, when a car bomb blew up at the gates of the building.