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Washington Braces for End of Mueller Investigation; Kushner Used WhatsApp; Trump Recognizes Israel's Claim to Golan Heights; Roberts Switched Vote Twice to Save Obamacare; March Madness Update. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 22, 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] SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They'll probably be able to see it as well. And that's going to be the first line of defense to communicate with him to figure out what parts of this do we not like, do we want to exert executive privilege over.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: They're also -- we've been talking about this letter to Chuck Grassley that you brought up that -- that was -- that resurfaced in the last several hours. And I know one of the things that stood out to you, Shan, is sort of the lengths that this letter went to by Rod Rosenstein to emphasize the DOJ's historical resistance, as you put it, to certain congressional requests. That is setting up an interesting little fight, I would say, in and of itself.

WU: Yes, it certainly is. I mean it was really kind of drawing a line in the sand. I mean as someone who's worked at DOJ in the leadership offices, that's certainly true. I don't think either Congress or Rosenstein needed to be reminded of any of those tensions.

But he's saying, look, the special prosecutor, under our regulations, is a DOJ prosecutor like anybody else. And, historically, we don't like Congress looking into our business. And also he takes a little dig at Congress. He saying that the congressional investigations tend to be adversarial. There's no rules of evidence. All suggesting that, you know, you guys are kind of like all over the place when you try and interfere with our business. So he's putting that message loud and clear that watch -- that we are not going to want to be having to disclose a lot of information to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very quickly, Toluse, the other big story today that is being overshadowed to an extent by the expectation over the end of the Mueller investigation, is this reporting and information coming from the House Oversight Committee of new questions about personal e-mail and WhatsApp, which is a messaging service -- it isn't a government messaging service -- being used by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to communicate, maybe to official communications here. And I'm not so sure we've received and official, no, it didn't happen, from the White House. We have Jared Kushner's personal lawyer saying, well, some of it's above my pay grade. You have to ask about it. But there seemed to be some legitimate questions here.

WU: Oh, I mean --

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": Yes, and you have to remember that --

BERMAN: Go ahead, Toluse, and then Shan quickly.

OLORUNNIPA: There's been no (ph) sort of public reporting that President Trump intervened to make sure Jared Kushner was able to get a security clearance, even though there were officials and experts who thought that that was something that might be problematic. And the president had to intervene. So the idea that he was not only given a security clearance by the president but then went on furtherer to have these private communications with world leaders not using government equipment, not using the government system, potentially violating some of the records acts, is something that would open up Jared Kushner and even Ivanka Trump to the type of oversight that they have not seen over the last two years with a Republican Congress. Now that the Democrats are in charge, they could be called up to explain what they were doing on these private servers.

BERMAN: Shan, very quickly.

WU: I was just quite struck by Abbe Lowell's remark that it's above his pay grade. That's not the typical reaction of somebody defending their client. So he might have been a little bit blindsided by that.

BERMAN: Yes, usually you hear, no, not ever, no chance. Above my pay grade isn't any of those things, particularly not from a lawyer with the capability of Abbe Lowell.

Shan Wu, Elie, Toluse, thank you very much.

WU: Good to see you.

HILL: Changing 50 years of U.S. policy in one tweet. What President Trump's message about the Golan Heights means for hopes of Middle East peace and the upcoming Israeli election. That's next.

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[06:36:49] HILL: President Trump reversing decades of American policy in the Middle East, announcing it's time to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is live there for us this morning with more.

Oren, good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Erica, I'm standing here in the Golan Heights. And this was seized by Israeli forces from Syria in 1967 during the six-day war. Since then, 52 years ago, it's been considered occupied territory and no country on earth had ever recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan until now with President Donald Trump's reversal of decades of U.S. policy and going against the international consensus.

The question, why now? And there the apparent answer is, Netanyahu is facing a tough re-election campaign and that campaign, the election itself, is only a few weeks away. And this appears to be the Trump administration blatantly campaigning for Netanyahu to win those elections.

On top of that, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was here during the announcement. And, in just a few days, Netanyahu will head to Washington, D.C., for the AIPAC conference where he'll meeting with Trump in what will effectively be a campaign stop for Netanyahu with Trump. That despite the fact that Pompeo didn't mention the elections, neither did Netanyahu, and Trump said he barely knew about them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: It's not about Netanyahu's re-election?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. I don't -- I wouldn't even know about that. I wouldn't even know about that. I have no idea. I hear he's doing OK. I don't know if he's doing great right now, but I hear he's going OK. But I would imagine the other side, whoever's against him, is also in favor of what I just did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Despite the fact that many Israelis do agree with Trump and see this as a good, perhaps great move for Netanyahu and for Israel, this isn't likely to take any of the international community with it. Serious that this is a sign that the U.S. is blatantly biased towards Israel. Russia weighing in, saying that the U.S. can't simply ignore on its own U.N. security council resolutions and international law. So the condemnation has started to pour in, isolating U.S. foreign policy.

It is worth pointing out that Pompeo, in an interview with a Christian news network, was asked, do you see the Lord at work here on behalf of Trump helping to protect Israel from Iran? Pompeo says that's certainly a possibility here and he sees the work of the Lord here.

John, also worth pointing out, that very much matches the language of some religious leaders here, Jewish religious leaders here, who, when Trump was elected, said they see this as the coming of the Messiah.

BERMAN: That is fascinating rhetoric.

Oren Liebermann for us in Golan Heights. I imagine the president knows full well that Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a tough re-election battle, but the president is right, already those running against Netanyahu have expressed support for the president's moves.

We have a CNN exclusive. Some reporting on a Supreme Court decision that changed health care in America. What led Chief Justice John Roberts -- what led to his 11th hour change of heart on the core issue of Obamacare? We've got some new, remarkable reporting on this, next.

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[06:43:20] BERMAN: We have a CNN exclusive.

New insight into one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions of our time. Chief Justice John Roberts switched votes on the Affordable Care Act not once but twice in order to save President Obama's signature legislation. The dramatic ordeal is covered in the stunning new biography "The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts" by our award-winning Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic. The book comes out Tuesday.

And, Joan, I have to say, it's one of the great journalistic joys I have to get to speak to you about the Supreme Court.

And this is really interesting because at the time you could tell something was up with John Roberts and there had been reporting that a vote was changed, but the details that you now have, he changed two votes on this. Lay it out for us.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure, John. Thanks a lot.

And what a lot of people don't know is not just that second vote, but that two other justices switched their votes also.

You know, remember back to 2012, we're in an election year. The Supreme Court is holding this historic three days of oral arguments over President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement. And when those arguments are done, the nine justices go into their private conference room and they first vote to strike down the requirement that all Americans have health insurance. And they vote to uphold expansion of Medicaid for needy people as the poverty line to get more insurance there. There were a lot of others provisions of the law, but these were the two crucial ones.

But over the course of the next couple weeks, the justices, with the -- because of the chief's leadership and maneuvering on this, end up completely switching on both fronts. The chief decided that he didn't want to doom the entire law, and that's where they had been at originally in conference with the five conservative justices, along with Chief Justice John Roberts, voting to strike down the core of the law. But essentially ensuring that the whole thing would fail, all the provisions of this law would fail.

[06:45:28] And Chief Justice Roberts decided he just didn't want to go that far and he began looking for different alternatives here. And that's when he came up with the rationale that said that the law could be upheld on the basis of Congress' taxing power. Not its power to regulate interstate commerce, but its taxing power.

And that was something that the justices had never even voted on in conference. And then, as I said, he switched his voted on the Medicaid expansion, as did Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer, which meant that that then would actually be invalidated to an extent. And there was just a lot of tension behind the scenes. Even right into June, when the decision was announced, some of the justices didn't know what was going on.

And I think, John, the bottom line is that even though we have a chief who talks about the umpire role, just calling them as balls and strikes, there's a lot more going on behind the scenes.

BERMAN: Oh, there seems to be tons going on behind the scenes. And this seemed to be political maneuvering, not necessarily legal maneuvering. And part of that plays out, as you note, in the fact that his actual decision, the justification as he wrote it, isn't exactly perfectly coherent or cogent?

BISKUPIC: That's right. And he drew a lot of criticism from fellow conservatives for that reason and I think sowed some distrust among his colleagues inside the court and certainly outside of the court. Donald Trump, who back in 2012 wasn't even on the radar as a presidential candidate, and he was -- he started tweeting against it. Many conservatives were editorializing against it. And as I said, the -- while he drew the wrath of his brethren on the right wing, he also sort of baffled the liberals in terms of his motivation here.

BERMAN: And, again, the book is "The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Time of Chief Justice John Roberts." It really explains how the chief sees his legacy as the court and its place in history and is working to maintain that.

Joan Biskupic, thanks so much for being with us. Look forward to the release.

BISKUPIC: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Erica.

HILL: March Madness is underway. Not the one in Washington. You know, the basketball one. And win or lose, one team certainly feeling the love. The "Bleacher Report" is next.

BERMAN: You know (INAUDIBLE) always win (ph).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:48] BERMAN: So how's your bracket hanging this morning? No, it is not a deeply personal question. No big upsets on day one of March Madness.

HILL: Wow.

BERMAN: Auburn surviving a scare against New Mexico State.

Andy Scholes has it all in the "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

Yes, unfortunately for me, New Mexico State was my Cinderella. It turns out it was not a good pick. They had so many chances to pull off this upset against Auburn. They were down two in the closing seconds. AJ Harris passes up a game-tying layup to pass out for the three. Terrell Brown misses it, but he got fouled. So he got three free throws, but he would miss two of those three free throws. But Auburn knocked it out of bounds. Aggies get one last chance, but Trevelin Queen air balls it. Auburn escapes. Alum Charles Barkley was watching back in the studio. He was pretty pumped up about it. Tigers, they're going to face Kansas now in round two.

And two seed Michigan State, meanwhile, losing at half time to Bradley, so tensions were high on the Spartans bench. Second half, Coach Thomas was ripping into Aaron Henry. The freshman was like, what did I do? The heated exchange continued during the huddle, during the timeout. Izzo's players actually having to hold him back. Spartans were able to win this game easily, 76-65. Izzo didn't apologize after the game saying it's one and done time. My bags are out the window.

All right, the west region's top seed Gonzaga having no problem beating Fairleigh Dickinson 87-49. But there was a really cool moment at the end of this one. Knight senior Nadi Beciri, he had been injured since November. He was able to get in, in the final minute of this game. Beciri gets the bucket and the foul. And then watch him embrace his coach, Greg Herenda right there. Pretty cool way to end your college career coming back from that injury.

And, Erica, the action gets going again a little after noon Eastern today. Luckily for you guys, NEW DAY is over at 9:00 a.m. so you can lock in and watch ballgames (ph).

HILL: Oh, that's right, we're going to be getting -- we'll have a strategy session about how we're going to watch the game at noon. It's going to be amazing.

BERMAN: It's going to be fantastic.

HILL: Yes.

BERMAN: Andy, I'm sorry you lost your Cinderella. But know this, you are our Cinderella.

SCHOLES: Oh, I really appreciate that. It makes me feel so much better. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, thank you, Andy, appreciate it.

HILL: John Berman, I just want to say, on the record, you are on fire on this Friday morning.

BERMAN: It's Friday.

HILL: Check out the Twitter. "West Side Story." He's got it going on.

BERMAN: Heavily caffeinated.

HILL: Mueller, the musical, is apparently playing in your mind.

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: And, as you said before the break, we all need hugs. So, there's that.

What else do we need today? Well, a lot of people would like a Mueller report. Here's a live look for you outside of the special counsel's office. Plenty of folks waiting for the arrival of Robert Mueller. The investigation, is it over? Could the report find its way to the attorney general today? We'll take a closer look at the chain of events as we wait for the big event to kick off.

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[06:58:38] HILL: The comics tackling President Trump's feud with Kellyanne Conway's husband and the 2020 race. Here's a look at your "Late Night Laughs."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Yesterday Trump called George Conway a whack job, a stone cold loser and a husband from hell. I guess Melania's Be Best campaign hasn't quite started to kick in.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": According to a new poll, 55 percent of American are in favor of abolishing the Electoral College. But, unfortunately, because of the Electoral College, 55 percent is less than half.

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": You can tell how main stream the idea of reparations has become because pretty much every single one of the 89 Democrats running for president has gotten on board.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe it's time to start the national, full-blown conversation about reparations in this country.

NOAH: Wow, that is really great to hear. Although, I have my eye on you, Elizabeth Warren. I feel like as soon as reparations are passed, she'll be like, there's something I didn't tell you about my ancestry results. I'm also 1/20th black. Who knew? I accept pass (ph) check or Apple Pay!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, thank you to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "TALK" is next. For our U.S. viewers, Robert Mueller's investigation could be wrapping up today. We have live cameras set up on the watch. NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:06] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be able to see the report, weigh in. I'm sure they're nervous.

END