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New Day

Biden and Harris' Tax Returns; Liz Mair is Interviewed about being Sued by Nunes; Severe Weather Threat; Student Forced to Cut Braids During Game; Bundles after New Media Powerhouse. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 18, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Federal income tax return, continuing an almost uninterrupted tradition. Maybe a subtle dig at the former president, Trump, who kept, of course, his taxes secret.

Now, the Bidens' joint federal return showed an adjusted gross income of just over $600,000. They paid $157,000 in tax. That's an effective federal income tax rate of 25.9 percent. Now the Bidens made less money in 2020. Of course, the candidate was on the campaign trail, right? He was not earning money through speaking engagements. Jill Biden brought home a salary from her job and speaking engagements and writing and the couple had earnings from their retirement plans.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentlemen Douglas Emhoff reported gross income of almost $1.7 million. They owed $621,000 in tax. The vice president earned money from her book, the couple maintained cash in their bank accounts and had a diverse portfolio of stock and bond funds.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House expects to continue the release of the president's tax returns as should be expected of all presidents, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is notable, Romans, as you point out, both the president and vice president fall in that income tax bracket where they could see their taxes increase under the Biden administration.

ROMANS: That is right. The Biden plan would raise the taxes for both of those people.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

Next, someone being sued by Congressman Devin Nunes reacts to the news that the Trump Justice Department tried to unmask one of his critics on Twitter.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a grift disguised as an audit. What Republican officials are now saying about the latest election audit in Arizona.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:35:33]

KEILAR: Newly-released court filings show that the Trump Justice Department tried to force Twitter to identify the person behind a parody account, a Twitter account, that mocked Congressman Devin Nunes. Nunes, who is well-known for his opposition to the unmasking of former Trump officials involved in conversations with foreign adversaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA): What the hell were they doing unmasking like this?

Unmasking.

Unmasked.

Unmasked.

Unmasking.

Unmasking.

Unmasking whoever that was and leaking it to the press, it's a big problem.

This should be rare that American names are unmasked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, CNN is now learning that last November, after the presidential election, the Trump administration was coming to Nunes' aid as it attempted to reveal his critics.

Joining me now is former RNC spokeswoman Liz Mair, who is being sued by Devin Nunes in two separate lawsuits for what she has tweeted and said about him.

Liz, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

What is your reaction to finding out that Nunes was getting aided by this -- essentially an unmasking attempt?

LIZ MAIR, FORMER RNC SPOKESWOMAN WHO'S BEING SUED BY NUNES: Well, I think like a lot of people, I'm still reading into this and processing this a little bit. But I am shocked and surprised. I said last night that I was shocked and surprised. And I continue to be this morning.

You know, fundamentally, though, there's going to be a lot of discussion of this today. For me, my main focus still has to remain on the fact that it has been over two years now during which Devin Nunes has been suing me in two different lawsuits for a total of $400 million. Those suits are ongoing and they are a real affront to the First Amendment.

KEILAR: Tell us about this. This is a free speech issue, as you put it.

MAIR: It is a free speech issue. That's right. I mean, at the end of the day, the Constitution specifically protects our right of free speech. And it protects that against government sort of intimidation and censorship. And at the end of the day, here we have a sitting congressman who is attempting to use litigation as a cajole to stifle my free speech, also apparently others.

You know, and at the end of the day, if we go back and we look historically and we see what James Madison, the father of the Constitution, had to say, he talked about the sensorial power resting in the people over the government, not the government over the people. And so I think what you've got with these lawsuits is a real inversion of that fundamental constitutional principle. And it's a real threat to every American's civil liberty.

You know, at the end of the day, these lawsuits are not about Liz Mair, they're not about protecting my right to mouth off on Twitter. They're about everybody's fundamental, basic human right of free speech that is constitutionally protected in this country and was recognized by the framers of the Constitution as God given.

KEILAR: What -- so $400 million in these two suits that are still ongoing. As you mentioned, it's been more than two years. You're still dealing with this.

MAIR: Correct.

KEILAR: What's the status of those cases and how much has this cost you to defend?

MAIR: Well, so they are ongoing. I do anticipate that my team will be filing in some short order motions to dismiss. We'll see how that plays out.

You know, I think to some extent some of this process has been lengthened a little bit by the pandemic and some of the effects that this has had. But, yes, I mean it's two years. It's a long time, right?

And, again, my -- I'm not going to be silenced. I refuse to be silenced. My concern here, though, is that this is the kind of thing that sets a precedent that will cause other people to sort of self- censor and to stifle themselves and to resist criticizing their government when perhaps they otherwise should and would. And so I really think it's important for that reason.

As far as what it's costing me, I'm very lucky that I have great legal representation that works extremely hard to keep costs down. And so, fortunately, I haven't incurred a ton of costs on this. But, yes, at the end of the day, the fact that this has been going on for two years and could go on longer, I am raising money to help defend against it because, as I say, this isn't about my rights per se. This is about every American, irrespective of their political persuasion or philosophy. It's about our rights collectively as a people. So if people want to support that, they can go to nunesvfreespeech.com

and donate. Certainly every little help. My hope is that I will never, ever have to use it.

KEILAR: That you will never have to use it.

[06:40:02]

I'm sure the cost in time has been real.

You hear Republicans and, look, you're a former RNC spokesperson. But you're hearing Republicans right now criticize cancel culture. What do you call what you have experienced and what you see with these lawsuits and this now attempt to reveal who's behind the criticism?

MAIR: Well, I don't call it canceling because I'm still here. I haven't been cancelled. I refuse to be cancelled. Devin Nunes would probably like it if a lot of critics would shut up and go away. I'm sure most politicians would. That's, frankly, why the First Amendment was written, right, because governments don't like to be criticized and the framers of the Constitution wanted to protect our rights to do that.

But, you know, at the end of the day, I'm still here. There are a number of people that I am highly, highly critical of, every single day, both parties, no party, right? And I think that that's a very important right for Americans to constantly exercise. I do and I hope that others will, too.

KEILAR: Yes, criticizing our public officials is quite American. It is, right?

MAIR: (INAUDIBLE).

KEILAR: This ability to hold them to account and to say certainly what --

MAIR: There's a reason that that right -- there's a reason that that right is the first that is protected in the Bill of Rights ahead of all others. That's my opinion on that.

KEILAR: Liz Mair, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

MAIR: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: A black high school athlete in North Carolina calling for change after, get this, she was forced to cut off her braids during a softball game. She's going to join us with her story, next.

BERMAN: Plus, a former staffer sues a congressman accusing him of disregarding COVID guidance and then trying to cover it up. That story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:02] KEILAR: This morning, millions of Americans in Texas and Louisiana are

facing the threat of severe weather and flash floods.

Let's check in now with Jennifer Gray for the forecast and to tell us exactly what they're looking at.

That does not look good on your map, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, it doesn't. And this is what happened yesterday across the deep south, the rainfall totals were pretty remarkable. Lake Charles saw more than a foot of rain. About six inches of that occurred in only two hours. Beaumont had more than 9 inches. Lafayette, more than 6.

This weather report is brought to you by Carvana, the new way to buy a car.

Now the rain isn't over yet. This is going to be a multi-day event where we have more excessive rainfall in these same areas, not only today, but also tomorrow. Now, we're going to see potential for more flash flooding across much of Texas, portions of southwest, Louisiana. The rain accumulation through Wednesday looks like this. We could see some areas across the hill country of Texas in the coming days receive about 6 to 10 inches of rain. Of course, where exactly these storms are going to set up is going to be hard to pinpoint. But not only the excessive rainfall, we're also going to see the severe weather risk.

This is for Tuesday, large hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes. Today, anywhere from Austin, Texas, San Antonio, all the way up through the Dallas Metroplex could even see the threat of severe storms for today.

So here's your high-res forecast radar. Put these storms into motion. You can see them rolling through throughout much of the evening hours as far as Dallas goes and then heading into Louisiana but the early morning.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, that looks very angry. We'll keep our eye on it. We know you will, Jennifer Gray.

Thank you so much.

BERMAN: So this morning, a black high school athlete from North Carolina is speaking out and calling for change after she was forced to cut her hair during a softball game last month. Sixteen-year-old Nicole Pyles says her hair was braided with beads and tied in a bun like she'd worn it in previous games when an umpire told her she had to either remove the beads or sit the game out.

Nicole Pyles and her father Julius join us now.

Thank you so much for being with us.

Nicole, just walk us through what happened and how it felt being told basically that the only way you could keep playing was to cut your hair, which if I'm not mistaken had been the same hair you had that entire game and the entire season.

NICOLE PYLES, HIGH SCHOOL SOFTBALL PLAYER FORCED TO CUT BRAIDS DURING GAME: Right. Actually, I had the braids in for four games prior. That was the fifth game. But on that day, April 19th, I did play a full inning. I had hit a double because I'm top of the lineup, so the bottom of the first is when my team had went up to bat. So I hit a double. We scored our points and we were leading at the time when they had brought it up at the top of the second saying my beads were an issue.

So my team had took some of the bands I had on my ponytail, right around the bottom, and stuffed them into my sports bra. Then I went out to go play and got our three outs and then I came back in to hit again.

Then -- then this is when they said, well, the beads aren't -- the beads are a safety issue. It's a rule. So I had to take them out. So they say either you take them out or you sit out. And so I made this decision that I was going to remove my beads and I was going to play my game.

KEILAR: Did you think it was really about the beads?

N. PYLES: Honestly, no. I think it was more because they were upset that they were losing to Hillside.

KEILAR: Julius, how did this feel for you as a dad?

JULIUS PYLES, FATHER OF NICOLE PYLES: Well, first, I would say thank God I wasn't at the game. I was at home. And when Nicole returned later on that evening, I asked her, how did the game go? And she showed me her hair. And I was like, what happened? And then she explained to me and I instantly became, you know, enraged about it because it shouldn't have reached that magnitude.

So I did the right thing, I thought, by calling the DPS in Durham and speaking with someone and in turn they got me in touch with an athletic director from Hillside High School. And when I spoke to that individual, he had me contact a gentleman by the name of Mark -- I don't want to mispronounce his name -- that was supposed to be over the athletics for North Carolina, the director that is.

[06:50:02]

And I wrote him a letter and I addressed it and he never -- when he responded to me, he was sending me back to someone else. And I was a little bit -- I'm still a little warm about that because I addressed it to him. And I've been getting a lot of calls and everybody seems to want to be apologetic but they can't make no decisions. It's like they're greasing the wheel and push it off on someone else. So it's not -- I need that rule changed so that our children, my daughter, anybody else children in the future don't have to even go through this. BERMAN: Nicole, it seems you're a fierce competitor, and a good one

based on the results that you've had on the field. But talk to me about, you know, what did your hair -- what does your hair mean to you in terms of a manner of expression?

N. PYLES: Well, my hair, I feel like is just a way that I express myself when I'm happy, when I'm sad, it's going to show through my hair because that's the first thing I love to do when I wake up in the morning is just drench my hair in water, put my curl cream in and feel amazing. And so that day I did have (INAUDIBLE) braids in, so it was -- I didn't really have to do my hair. It's just -- it's a part of me because my hair, I feel like one of my biggest features and because I have a lot of hair actually. So, you know, I love it.

KEILAR: And I imagine you don't want to be bothered too much with your hair especially on a day where you're playing a game, right? You just want to focus on playing the game.

N. PYLES: Right. Not at all. My hair is not my biggest worry on -- during a softball game, nor any other game that I ever played. And I'm confused on why it's another coach's worry when I'm not even on his team.

KEILAR: So, Nicole, I do want to point out that the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, so this is the body that governs high school sports in North Carolina, said, we empathize with the student athlete, that's you, and her experience. It is truly unfortunate as we believe this situation should never have occurred. And it's said that the expectation of the association is that coaches will know the playing rules and ensure that their players are also aware of them prior to participating in any athletic contest.

So this is a statement basically saying that your coach should have known the rules and intervened.

What do you -- what do you make of this statement?

N. PYLES: That makes me upset for one because they're trying to place the blame on my coach when, in reality, my coach makes sure he enforce every other rule. I'm not -- I'm pretty sure he may have not thought beads were serious, but he did enforce the no jewelry, no piercings. If you did, you have to take them out, or anything.

So for them to put blame on my coach when in reality it was another coach who was upset and brought it up because his team was losing makes me upset because what does that have to do with anything? Don't put blame on somebody who had -- who didn't do anything wrong. If anything he wanted to protect me but I already had made the decision that I was going to get rid of those beads and play my game.

BERMAN: Nicole, Julius, you know, hopefully this will inspire some change here. I think it might. Thank you for being with us this morning. Sorry you had to go through this. If you have more games, good luck on the rest of the season.

N. PYLES: All right, thank you. Have a good one. KEILAR: Good luck indeed.

BERMAN: So what does the Warner Media/Discovery deal mean for your TV streaming experience? What are you going to get in that next package? A guidebook, next.

KEILAR: Plus, could the new CDC mask guidance ultimately speed up your return to the office? We'll have that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:24]

BERMAN: So get ready for a new front in the streaming wars. In an interview yesterday, Discovery CEO David Zaslav says combining his company with Warner Media, the parent company of CNN, will create a global media superpower.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ZASLAV, CEO, DISCOVERY: You take -- you take this incredible IP that, you know, content at Warner that people would pay for before they pay for dinner, like "Superman" and "Batman" and "Game of Thrones," and you put that together with all of the local content that we have in the market and the relationships that we have, I think it gives us a big advantage in going global.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Before you pay for dinner.

Joining us now, Brian Stelter, CNN chief media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES."

So, Brian, I mean, first of all, again, Warner Media, parent company of CNN. It's not like we have no interest in this. But what kind of a package are we talking about when you combine Discovery and Warner Media?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's almost not enough room to fit all the logos on the screen. This is the proposed combination. You'll see CNN there in the middle. But all of these other brands, streaming brands, cable channels and hubs of programming.

You know, you were pointing out D.C. Comics over there. Such a treasure-trove potentially of superhero stories and villains, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. All these brands, if brought together, can create an even stronger way to compete with Disney and with Netflix. So that's really what this story is about. This is about Discovery and Warner Media trying to get more scale in the streaming wars.

BERMAN: Well who has more stuff, I mean, basically, right?

STELTER: Well, that's the thing, right now Disney is in a very strong, competitive position because they bought Rupert Murdoch's Fox (INAUDIBLE). That's a couple of years ago. That's why FX is on here, along with Pixar. That's why you've got 20th Century Television along with ABC. So Disney Plus, in some ways, has created not streaming services, created pressure on the rest of the industry to come up with ways to combine.

BERMAN: So you have these two mammoth enterprises, assuming that the Discovery/Warner Media merger goes through.

STELTER: Yes.

BERMAN: You have Disney Plus. But what does it mean for the as to be yet unmerged?

STELTER: Yes, well, that's an interesting question. The NBC Universal, for example, Comcast has to figure out what to do now. Do they want to go out and find a partner, find someone to go to the proverbial dance with? Would they do a dance with someone like Viacom/CBS. All of this is up in the air right now and these are questions that bankers and media analysts are asking overnight, wondering.

For example, if you're NBC Universal, you have a lot of assets here. You have everything from Telemundo to World Wrestling. You've got Sci- Fi, E, and CNBC. But is it enough? Is it enough to have a streaming service called Peacock or do you need even more scale?

And the same question is true for Viacom/CBS. There streaming service is called Paramount Plus. Do they have enough shows and movies and assets or do they need to grow?

[07:00:00]

And sometimes, John, I think the right word is not streaming wars, it's streaming Olympics, because there's going to be more than one winner in this. There already are more than one winner.