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New Day

Soon, House Impeachment Managers Begin Presenting Their Case; Security Around U.S. Capitol on High Alert for Trump Trial. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired February 10, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

They say if you can change one mind, you can change the world. Well, despite so many people saying everyone's mind was made up in the historic impeachment trial of the former president, at least one Republican senator changed his mind. And that was on day one of this trial.

House managers begin presenting the main part of the case in just a few hours. We are expecting lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin to introduce new video evidence that directly connects the former president's words to the attack on the Capitol. Raskin unveiled 13 minutes of horrifying footage at the open.

Now, I'm supposed to warn you that this is disturbing and the language is profane, but, truthfully, I think America should be much more concerned about the reality of what happened in the Capitol than dirty words on T.V.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need fresh patriots at the front.

PROTESTERS: Fight for Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: The case laid out by the impeachment managers played in sharp contrast to the one presented by Trump's legal team. Let's just call that one meandering. Even most Republicans called it week, including Senator Bill Cassidy, who joined with Democrats and five other Republicans voting that, yes, in fact, the trial is constitutional.

CNN has learned that Mr. Trump was fuming over his lawyers' performance and, quote, borderline screaming at the T.V. The reviews from other Republican senators were similar, words like unfocused, disorganized, awful, rambling, and rocky. Not exactly what you want to hear if you are a member of the Trump legal team. BERMAN: Joining us now, CNN Senior Political Reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, she is the co-host in the CNN podcast, Politically Sound, and CNN Legal Analyst Norm Eisen, he served as the impeachment counsel for House Judiciary in the first trial of the former president.

Ambassador, I want to start with you, because you keep saying, I follow you on Twitter, you know, you keep saying that you are expecting surprises today in the opening statements in the beginning of the presentation of the main case from the House managers. What surprises and why necessary?

NORMAN EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: John, Alisyn, good morning. Well, yesterday, we saw a surprise. It was something that we did in the first trial. We didn't just start and they didn't just start yesterday by answering the constitutional question, although they did answer the constitutional question.

The House managers put on their case in chief, John. And don't take it from me. None other than Mr. Castor, the president's lawyer, said they were surprised. That's the advantage of having an experienced trial team like you have here, both with the managers and with their very able counsel, representing them, helping them get ready.

And I think we're going to see more. I think there's going to be more footage that America has not seen. I think they're going to break down the case.

And Trump is going to be put front and center. He is culpable, he is responsible. We just heard the protesters, insurrectionists saying, fight for Trump. I think the hole that Donald Trump is in is going to deepen.

CAMEROTA: Nia-Malika, I mean, though all of us have seen the video so many times, the horrifying, grotesque acts that happened inside the Capitol, there were still things that I hadn't seen. When I watched this 13-minute performance -- I mean, you know, compilation, there were still things that even I had not seen. So, yes, of course, we can expect new things.

But I don't know why we should have to. I mean, just seeing it all over again is so horrible, it brings it all back. And yet, we've heard that there were some Republicans, like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, who took the time to just doodle. They were, you know, trying to sort of show that they weren't going to watch.

[07:05:02]

I don't know, maybe they had to avert their eyes because it's so grotesque or I don't know what they were doing.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. In some ways, you have to look away to be able to excuse this in the way that Republicans seem to be preparing to do, relying on this procedural and process argument that this is an unconstitutional trial, because you're trying a former president who is, of course, not in office anymore. But my goodness, that 13-minute video, the close-ups of those police officers under siege, certainly fearing for their lives, the raw anger, the charged up environment that was charged up by Donald Trump, they were carrying Trump flags, they were wearing trump hats. And this, of course, was after Donald Trump basically told them to go to the Capitol. He said he would go with them. He, of course, did not. He went back to the White House and watched it all unfold on television.

And you have Raskin playing as sort of his closing, Donald Trump's words from Twitter, when he said, this is what happens when a sacred landslide election is stolen. Of course, those are all lies. And, again, echoing the big he had been telling for months and months to his supporters about a rigged election if he ended up losing.

We will see what happens today. I imagine it's more video. That video is traumatic and hard to watch, but I think America has to look at what happened there to go forward and look at the real dangers that I think this mob of people present to the country going forward.

BERMAN: You know, Ambassador, I'm stuck on your surprise theory here, and it strikes me that maybe there were three surprises yesterday. Number one, how moved people were by the video, even people who were there, I think were still moved by seeing that footage yesterday. Number two was how meandering and weak the former's president's lawyers' presentation was. And then the third is there was a mind changed yesterday.

Louisiana Senator Republican Bill Cassidy changed his mind on the constitutionality largely because, he said of the lawyers' presentation. I just want to play for a second what Senator Cassidy said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): President Trump's team were disorganized. They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments. I'm an impartial jury and one side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand as an impartial jury, I'm going to vote for the side that did a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I mean, most people were just saying it bluntly, it was awful. It was awful. Senator Cassidy said it there before other people say, you've heard the client -- we have reporting that the former president hated the presentation also.

But I think what it means going forward is as interesting and important, Ambassador. It shows that there are people receptive to changing their minds. I don't want to overdo it. I don't want suggest it because Bill Cassidy changed his mind on one thing, there are 50 Republican senators who are. But there's answer audience listening here. EISEN: Well, John, you're right, and there will be more of those surprises. We trial lawyers know, trials often have surprises and there have been ones that I've gone into that you think are hopeless, but you just show up every day and things happen.

You know, another one of the things that we should note, as tough as an uphill battle as this is for the House managers to get from the six they have now to 17 that they will need to convict Donald Trump and disqualify him, that is six times the number of Republicans that we were ultimately able to persuade in the first impeachment trial, John. We just got Mitt Romney in the end of the day, so there's promising signs there.

Here is another one for us on this theme of the unexpected. I think after yesterday, someone else is on trial. It's no longer just Donald Trump. The United States Senate is on trial. And those 50 Republican senators are on trial, particularly the 44 who, so far, haven't been moved.

How can they take the oath and promise to be, as Senator Cassidy said, impartial jurors? There is no case on the law. There is no defense for Donald Trump there. There is no defense on the facts. Incitement of insurrection is a high crime. He did it. And they are not going to convict. They're on trial from today going forward. And the House managers have just begun to put on their case.

CAMEROTA: And, Nia-Malika, to that point, they also might change their mind out of just anger, the fact that they, you know, feel hung out to dry by Donald Trump and his legal team. I mean, we have, I think, become accustomed to a little bit of a keystone cops quality to some of the unqualified people that President Trump surrounded himself with.

[07:10:10]

But yesterday, I mean, it will be a blemish on their record if they side with at least the argument that was made yesterday over the other compelling case.

HENDERSON: And I think that's right, and made so poorly. In many ways, the argument about the constitutionality, that probably was the easiest part of the case. I mean, I think there's largely agreement that it is constitutional, but, you know, rely on law reviews, get some blowup photos or something. I mean, they did nothing. They just folded like a cheap suit up there. They didn't know what they were talking about. They were rambling. They were disjointed. They were confusing. They didn't make any coherent argument there. There wasn't a story for people to really grab on to.

Of course, if you're those Republicans, you sort of don't even really need that, because you've already made up your mind in terms of constitutionality. But you have a president who hasn't really taken this seriously. If you look at the people he put up there to represent him in this very serious case, that has serious implications for this country, serious implications for the world, in many ways, if you have this situation where there is a mob that is infringing on the Capitol in such a violent way, wanting to overthrow an American election.

So, sure, I think if you're a Republican, this is all you have, Donald Trump? We will see if they get better. It seems like from what we saw yesterday, I don't know if they necessarily have the ability to, in about a week to prepare, but what they put on, it looked like they prepared for a day or so, a couple of hours, that they were essentially just phoning it in. And we'll see what happens today. And we obviously know that there's going to be a lot of video and how you combat that. We'll see what they offer today.

BERMAN: Look, they did a bad job presenting the case. It may also be, they don't have a great case to present.

HENDERSON: No, I think that's right. Yes.

BERMAN: Ambassador, we're going to have Dick Durbin on later in the show. One of the things that he says is that he thinks this is important is to get this case, to get this on the record for American history. Regardless of counting the number of votes here and there, everyone is caught up in counting the number of votes, but what is that case? What is so important to get on the record for future generations?

EISEN: Well, John, even if the House managers are unable to pick up those remaining Republican votes, history needs to record -- and the ultimate jury, John, the American people, who Donald Trump may choose to run again if the senators don't do the right thing, they need to understand that it wasn't just Donald Trump's fighting words. He said, fight, more than 20 times in his speech and he told them that they wouldn't have a country left if they didn't fight, so let's march on Congress.

And the American people need to understand, he incited an insurrection, and those insurrectionists say over and over again, and I'm sure we'll see this today, they say, I'm here because of Donald Trump. And when he called them off, they said, I'm leaving because of Donald Trump. It's a strong case of incitement.

But, John, and this is another thing that we're going to get today, it didn't start on January 6th. For months, even before the election, Trump said, if I don't win, it's rigged. He told people he lied. It's the big lie that he won the election, that our democracy was stolen, stop the steal, what nonsense. The American people need to see that pattern.

And there's a conversation, I'm sure we'll hear, there's an audiotape of it, where he tried directly to steal the Georgia results. He told Secretary of State Raffensperger he just wanted 11,780 votes, one more than enough to win, imagine the conflagration if he had succeeded. so that pattern needs to go for history and so the American people need to understand they must never, never allow Donald Trump to hold public office again.

CAMEROTA: Norm Eisen, Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you both very much.

So, security around the U.S. Capitol is on high alert for this second Trump impeachment trial, and CNN's Josh Campbell is live for us near the fortified Capitol with more. What are you seeing, Josh?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn. It's been over a month since that deadly insurrection here at the Capitol, yet there remains this physical reminder of the potential threat that continues from these domestic extremists.

I'm standing here outside a Capitol police checkpoint. This did not exist prior to January 6th, but now we have officers that are out here checking vehicles as they enter, checking identification.

[07:15:02]

You can also see this unprecedented security. They've erected this eight-foot metal fencing, including razor wire on top, again, out of an abundance of caution, trying to keep people out in the event that there is some type of a repeat of what we saw before.

You can see in the background members of the National Guard who have now been deployed here. They have completely surrounded this building, working throughout the day, throughout the night in order to provide that added security.

Now, inside the Capitol building, I was there yesterday and I want to show you just what remains, these remnants of this attack. I took this picture of. You can see the shattered glass looking outside the Capitol toward the Supreme Court. That reminder for lawmakers and staff about what took place on that day, as these insurgents tried to make their way in. We know that as the impeachment trial continues for President Donald Trump, the security inside also remains very tight.

Finally, outside here with these members of the National Guard, we have to point out the hypocrisy. So many of those rioters who were here professed their support for law enforcement, professed their support for the National Guard, and yet what we saw after that insurrection were dead and injured police officers, and now members of the military out here, standing in the cold, trying to protect this building due to that ongoing threat of extremism.

Finally, it's worth noting that the toll that it has taken here is not just physical -- excuse me, not just emotional, it's also financial. The cost, Alisyn, of keeping members of the military here through next month, according to the Pentagon, nearly half a billion dollars. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, that really does drive a lot of us home. Josh, thank you very much.

So will the U.S. Senate hold Donald Trump accountable for inciting that capitol riot? We ask one of the jurors, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CASSIDY: If you listen to it, it speaks for itself. It was disorganized, random, had nothing -- they talked about many things, but they didn't talk about the issue at hand.

At one point, I leaned over to Cruz and I said, Cruz, are they talking to the point at hand, he goes, not now. So I'm thinking, maybe I'm missing something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You weren't missing something. That was Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy who changed his mind about whether or not this impeachment trial is constitutional based on the evidence presented on the House managers and based on the lack of evidence presented by the former president's lawyers. He is now one of six Republican senators who voted on moving forward with the trial.

Joining me now is Senator Alex Padilla. He is a Democratic senator from the state of California. Senator Padilla, thank you so much for being with us.

This was your first impeachment trial, your first chance to sit in that chamber when something of this historic importance was going on. What was it like for you?

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): Good morning, John, good to be back with you.

I don't think I'll ever forget yesterday. It was pretty darn sobering, not just to hear the House managers to present the case, but that video montage that made the case for itself. As horrific as the violence was on January 6th, I think equally horrific is that it doesn't come as a shock if you've been paying attention to what Trump has been saying for years.

BERMAN: Now, our reporting is that some Republican senators, Rand Paul, we're told, who was mask-less, doodling squiggly lines, and there were other senators there who were down in their papers weren't even paying attention to the video as it was playing. Did you have a chance to look around and get a sense of what your colleagues were doing?

PADILLA: Looked around a little bit, but frankly was riveted by the presentation being made by the House managers and pretty offended by the defense team. Their presentation would have been laughable if the subject matter wasn't this serious. We're talking high crimes and misdemeanors here, not just a violent, a deadly insurrection, rebellion in the Capitol, incited by the president of the United States. How could you not give your whole-hearted attention to the matters before us?

BERMAN: Now, we heard from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy just moments ago, who said he changed his mind on the constitutionality of it. In general, what else have you heard from your Republican colleagues behind the scenes? PADILLA: Look, I think it's not just a matter of keeping open minds, as jurors, you've got to keep open eyes, open ears to the evidence before us. It couldn't be clearer. I can't think of any other trial where the evidence to be considered was broadcast on television in real-time for the whole country, for the whole world to see. And if you agree with the basic value statement that nobody is above the law, and that there ought to be consequences for breaking the law, then this should be an open and shut case.

BERMAN: What happens behind the scenes? There was this ten-minute break, for instance, between the two presentations. What happens then? What's the interaction between you and your fellow senators?

PADILLA: Yes. I mean, I think during that break couldn't have come at a better time, given the emotional letter it reached after Representative Raskin shared what his personal experience was during that insurrection. So I think folks needed to take a breath.

One of the things that was palpable, and I think this applies for both sides of the aisle is that the trauma is still fresh. Think about this, John, the trial is happening at the scene of the crime. And to see those images, to see the video, to hear the president's words, we're living the experience for my colleagues who were there on January 6th and bringing back the flurry of emotions from 3,000 miles away.

BERMAN: how do you think the managers -- how do you think they should present their case today? What do you think -- what is the argument you think that they should make?

PADILLA: Yes. Look, I think, again, the evidence is clear for anybody who has been taking attention to Trump for the last several years. It wasn't just the beginning, the morning of January 6th that started this all. And if the presentations from yesterday ensuring that the constitutionality of going forward with the case is any indicator to what we're in for the next couple of days, I think the House managers are going to do a great job.

[07:25:12]

You know, the tweets are there, the video is there. The language is there and, sadly, the fatalities are there as a result.

The defense team, you know, a tough task, because I don't think Trump's actions are defensible in any way, shape or form.

BERMAN: What evidence do you need to hear about the former president's state of mind, what he was saying or thinking during January 6th?

PADILLA: Again, the whole world has been witnessing his state of mind for four years. On January 6th, we saw him take the stage and rile up the mob. He said he would be with them and to show strength, the stop the steal conspiracy theory, look, and sorry, not sorry for taking this a little personal, this big lie about stealing the election started even before he was sworn in as president in 2016, when he attacked the integrity of the elections in California and other states.

So we've been battling the lies and conspiracy theories for years and, sadly, five people lost their lives as a result of the insurrection on January 6th. There has to be accountability. We can't unite as a nation and move forward without letting everybody know, across the political spectrum, there are consequences when you break the law.

BERMAN: Very quickly, California is, if it hasn't already this morning, is about to surpass New York as the state with the most coronavirus deaths in the country. New York frontloaded its deaths, unfortunately, so much so early. California, you can see, it's been a long process. What do you think happened? What went wrong in California?

PADILLA: Yes. Well, there was a whole lot that went right in California in the early months. Governor Newsom was the first to order statewide stay-at-home, face coverings, et cetera. If only every governor across the country had been that aggressive early on, we could have mitigated a lot of the cases, and certainly a lot of deaths.

What we're suffering the consequences of now is purely the lack of a plan at all for the first ten months of the pandemic during the Trump administration. President Biden has been in for three weeks now, the numbers are starting to shift in a positive way but we still have a lot of work to do on increasing supply of the vaccine, logistics of distribution and equitable administration of the vaccine. The numbers are starting to trend in the right direction.

BERMAN: Senator Padilla, we appreciate your time, thank you so much for being with us, good luck as you sit and listen to the rest of the trial.

PADILLA: Thank you, John. Continue to stay safe.

BERMAN: We have fresh reporting this morning on how the former president is reacting to his impeachment trial, what he thinks of the defense team performance so far. The client, not happy, that's next.

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