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Sanders Announces 2020 Run; New Developments in Smollett Case; States Sue Trump over National Emergency. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 19, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] JOE LOCKHART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Candidates and he lost. The left progressive lane is much more crowded. I think he's going to have a hard time getting traction this time. There are many more -- I think much more dynamic candidates that will appeal for these younger voters. He does have a base. He will be a player in this. But I think, ultimately, as I said before, electability is going to be the single most important thing. And I think most Democrats think that he has changed the debate in a positive way, but he's not going to beat Donald Trump in 2020.

JOHN AVLON, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's probably true, but don't forget, he won Michigan in the primaries last time around. This was not a fringe candidate. He fought his way. And one marker of his success is that the Democratic Party, for the first time in recent memory, there are more self-identified liberals than moderates. It's still pretty close, but that shift is not insignificant.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, guys, thank you very much for being here with us through this breaking political news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, much more on that throughout the show because it's obviously developing before our eyes.

In the meantime, was it a hate crime or a hoax? What Chicago Police now say about the alleged attack on actor Jussie Smollett. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:19] BERMAN: Chicago Police say two brothers who were arrested in connection with the alleged attack on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett are no longer suspects. The two men are speaking out as sources tell CNN that new evidence suggests that Smollett paid them to orchestrate the attack.

CNN's Ryan Young is live in Chicago with the very latest new developments.

Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, this continues to turn. In fact, we know the two brothers are actually talking to police. They've turned over their cell phones, which they've been able to download some of the information there. You can thinking maybe there might be some messages back and forth.

We know at some point Jussie Smollett's attorney actually admitted to the fact that he may have hired the men to be his personal trainers. We also know that the noose found around his neck was actually bought by one of the brothers because of their financial record. And just yesterday they released a statement that said that -- to WBBM. The brothers say, we are not racist. We are not homophobic, and we are not anti-Trump. We were born and raised in Chicago and are American citizens.

Now, just to think about this. When they put out that grainy image that had those two men walking away, police were able to track down these two men. Apparently they had gone to Nigeria. When they came back, they were greeted by Chicago Police officers who took them into custody. And first they were under arrest. They were released Friday with no charges. So now we know, based upon the evidence they've gen to police, they want to talk to Jussie Smollett again.

What we did get late last night was a statement from representatives from the actor saying, there's no time table for him to meet with detectives. Detectives from Chicago Police desperately want to talk to him to try to figure out the piece of this because, obviously, so many changes have happened here, so many questions about this original report. It will be interesting to see how things flow together this morning.

I can tell you, today, Tuesday, they're expecting to get some more evidence. They weren't necessarily telling us all of the parts of what they were looking for, but they believe today might be a significant day in terms of pushing this forward in the investigation.

John.

CAMEROTA: I'll take it Ryan. That would be helpful because there are still so many questions. Thank you very much for all of the reporting.

So, 16 states are now suing President Trump to challenge his emergency decoration to fund his border wall. We will talk to one of the people leading the charge, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:19] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: We do have breaking news in the 2020 presidential race, major news. Moments ago, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced he is in. He is making a second run for president. The independent senator announced it on Vermont Public Radio just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: All over this country. I think the current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment to our country. I think he is a pathological liar. Every day he is telling one lie or another. And it gives me no pleasure to say that. But I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap, political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants. And --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Senator Sanders is running as a Democratic once again. You'll remember, he was the runner-up to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race in 2016. A long and hard-fought race.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, 16 states have filed a lawsuit last night challenge President Trump's national emergency declaration. The suit says their aim is, quote, to protect their residents, natural resources, and economic interests from President Donald J. Trump's flagrant disregard of fundamental separation of powers principles engrained in the United States Constitution.

Joining us now is William Tong. He's the attorney general of Connecticut, one of the states that is suing.

General Tong, thank you very much for being here.

WILLIAM TONG, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CONNECTICUT: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: On what grounds are you suing the president?

TONG: The president's breaking the law and he's shredding the Constitution. He has declared a national emergency where there is none. You know, we know that on the border we have the lowest level of border -- illegal border crossings in 45 years. We have more border patrol agents than ever in history. This just isn't happening. There isn't a national emergency. And the president said so himself. He said he didn't have to do this, and then he went off and played golf.

So it's pretty clear that he's perverting the National Emergencies Act to do something that Congress explicitly forbid him from doing, which is building the wall.

CAMEROTA: His senior advisor, Stephen Miller, obviously has a very different take on it, believes that it is a national emergency, and, furthermore, believes that the statue, the law, gives him the right -- gives any president the right to do this.

So let me play this for you, his reasoning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: They passed a law specifically saying the president could have this authority. It's in the plain statute. That's a discussion that Congress made. And if people don't like that, they can address it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so the statue he's talking about is the National Emergency Act. And, I mean, it does say that it requires, without regard to any other provision of law, the president may undertake military construction projects. That's what he's trying to do.

TONG: Yes. The statute was passed by Congress, I think, in 1974, to limit presidential power and to make sure the president doesn't do something like this, which is contravene the will of Congress and say, OK, Congress, you've said I can't do something, I can't spend money on building the wall, I just don't care, I'm going to flagrantly disregard the Constitution and go around you. That's never been done in the declaration of 59 national emergencies that we've had in this country, never once has a president said, you know what, Congress said no, but I'm going to do it anyway.

CAMEROTA: But if this is about seizing the power of the purse from Congress, where do you come in? Where do states attorneys general come in? Isn't this Congress' battle to fight?

TONG: No. It is in part Congress' battle to fight, but it's been very hard for Congress to fight that battle and it's become very clear that the states and state attorneys general are the firewall. We're what stands between this president and his, you know, attack on our way of life and the Constitution.

And so what we're seeing is the president said that he's going to take, he's going to steal, frankly, money for military construction, drug interdiction, you know, drug forfeiture money. That's millions and millions of dollars the states like Connecticut and our 15 other sister states that have also joined us in this suit, that we rely on. And so we need that money to help fund public safety and national security in our own states.

[06:45:25] CAMEROTA: Give me an example. What will Connecticut lose if the president is able to use funds for the border wall?

TONG: So, for example, there are military construction projects around Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Connecticut. There are projects around Groton in the submarine base. We're monitoring several projects that might be implicated by the president's taking what I think is a constitutional larceny, taking of funds directly away from the people of my state and other states in order to fund this unprecedented boondoggle at the border that's totally unwarranted.

CAMEROTA: How long will this legal battle take? Because it sounds like Stephen Miller and the president sometimes are planning for it to extend up until 2020.

TONG: Yes, it's pretty clear that the president sees this as a political card for him to play and he, you know, he said in his press conference that he expected a long, legal challenge. We hope to get to the merits of this case as soon as possible, get an injunction to stop this president from shredding the Constitution.

CAMEROTA: Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, thank you very much for explaining all of this to us.

TONG: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: John. BERMAN: We do have breaking new this morning. Senator Bernie Sanders making a second run for president. He just announced it moments ago. We're going to look at the numbers behind this candidacy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:19] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, a big move for the 2020 race. Moments ago, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced he is running for president. This is his second run. Of course, he finished behind Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Joining us now, Harry Enten, CNN politics senior writer and analyst.

And, Harry, we wanted to look at the numbers around this big move by Senator Sanders. Where is he now in the Democratic field?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, so he's second to Joe Biden in the Democratic field right now. He's polling at 16 percent in the latest Monmouth University poll. That's about where more of the polls have him, a clear second place to Joe Biden, which is better than where he started off in 2016, but obviously worse than where he ended up with about 42, 43 percent of the Democratic national primary.

CAMEROTA: And that's name recognition? I mean he just jumped in. So why does he have that position?

ENTEN: I think that a lot of that is name recognition, along with what Joe Biden is going. If you look at the names that are lower down on the list, they tend to have less name recognition.

I should point out that he is well liked by a number of Democratic voters, so it shouldn't be too surprising. But, yes, I mean it's not too surprising that the two people with the highest name recognition are at the top.

BERMAN: Many passionate supporters who no doubt have --

ENTEN: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Coming through from 2016.

ENTEN: Yes, he definitely does have a passionate base.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about something Senator Sanders brought up in his announcement on Vermont Public Radio. He went out of his way to reach out to African-American voters, which, of course, I will note, in Vermont, doesn't make up a giant percentage of the base.

ENTEN: There's not a lot of them.

BERMAN: So why is he doing that?

ENTEN: I mean if you look back at 2016, if you were to pinpoint one reason why he lost that Democrat nomination, that was simply because Hillary Clinton won African-American voters by an overwhelming margin. I believe it was right near 60 percent -- a 60 percentage point win for her among African-American voters. She swept the south. And, of course, here's the key thing, they make up about 20 percent of the Democratic primary vote nationwide. So if Bernie Sanders is going to be able to compete in 2020, one place where he definitely needs -- definitely needs to improve is among African-American voters.

CAMEROTA: There's an interesting poll, I believe it's Monmouth University, where Democrats are asked, who don't you want to run? I think that's an interesting way to phrase it. And what did you find?

ENTEN: Yes, so, you know, none of these names are particularly high up. But if Bernie Sanders does one thing, he elicits strong emotions from both sides of the Democratic Party. A lot of people like him. But if you look here, the number one person for who they'd least light to see as the 2020 Democratic nominee, Bernie Sanders at 10 percent. There are a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters who didn't necessarily like the way that he went after her last time.

BERMAN: So he's got passionate supporters. He elicits a lot of passion on both sides. I can see that on Twitter. I was asking people on Twitter what they think and you get a lot of very passionate supporters (ph).

ENTEN: I would say that if my mentions are any indication of the types of emotions that Bernie Sanders elicits, it's both very positive from his supporters but very negative from his subtracters.

BERMAN: It is interesting. You talked about his need to make outreach and inroads in the African-American community among Democratic voters. Women also is an area where he lagged behind Hillary Clinton four years ago.

ENTEN: Exactly. I mean if you were to look at the Democratic primary exit polls, you would see basically a gender gap that you'd actually expect in a general election where Bernie Sanders actually did OK with many, basically tied among them in the average state. But among women he lost them by 20 percentage points or more in the average state. And that, of course, is a big problem because women make up about 58 percent of Democratic primary voters nationwide.

And you basically see this all along. He does his best among the groups that are actually smaller in these divides and so he needs to get into the majority of Democratic voters and do better in those groups, whether it be women, older voters, African-American voters. He needs to do better among those groups that take -- make a very big splash within (ph) the party.

CAMEROTA: But the lack of female support last time, was that about Bernie Sanders or about Hillary Clinton?

ENTEN: I think we'll find out that question coming into this field. Remember, we have a record number of women that are running this time. So it could have been that Hillary Clinton was a unique candidate. She was obviously a woman. She was going to be the first major party nominee. So -- but I think Bernie Sanders, if he is going to do well, he needs -- he, simply put, needs to do better with women and African- American voters. It's as simple as that.

BERMAN: What about independent voters because they could make up a bigger percentage of the electorate this time because there's no real Republican race?

ENTEN: Yes. I mean if you were to look -- we -- if you asked in the exit poll, are you a Democrat or an independents, among independents he actually won in many, many states and won them by an overwhelming margin. And if they make up a large percentage of the Democratic primary electorate, he can do fairly well in those states, especially with no Republican primary. But among Democratic identifiers, those who say identify as a Democrat, it shouldn't be so surprising that the man who self-identifies himself as an independent lost them overwhelmingly. And in 2016, they made up about 75 percent of Democratic primary voters nationwide. If, in fact, they drop a little bit -- here we have it up on the screen right now -- if they drop a little bit, then he may, in fact, do better.

CAMEROTA: There's something about Harry. Harry Enten, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: These are really fascinating numbers. Thanks for breaking them down.

ENTEN: I could be a fun ride.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: You look really excited.

ENTEN: Oh, I feel like it's Six Flags all over again. Alex Bursa's (ph) sixth grade party.

BERMAN: And Bernie Sanders was there.

ENTEN: He might have been.

BERMAN: All right.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Thank you.

[06:54:59] Breaking news, more on Bernie Sanders' big announcement this morning and that lawsuit by 16 states challenging President Trump's emergency declaration. All that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

And we do begin with breaking news because moments ago Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announcing that he is getting into the presidential race. This will be his second bid. The independent senator, he was the runner-up, you'll remember, for the Democratic nomination in 2016. He joins an already crowded field of at least 10 Democratic candidates.

[06:59:54] BERMAN: Sanders lost the hard-fought battle to Hillary Clinton for the nomination in 2016, but he did win more than 20 states and he shook up the Democratic Party. There is no question about that. He made his announcement on Vermont Public Radio and now has a campaign video for his 2020 bid.

END