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Arizona's Audit Restarts; Carol Leonnig is Interviewed about her Book on the Secret Service; Mickelson Becomes Oldest to win Major. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 24, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: In Arizona today, a controversial audit of votes in the 2020 election is set to resume. This is something that was put on hold for a week because of graduation ceremonies. But many questions and legal challenges to the Republican-led effort remain.

Joining us now is Jen Fifield. She is a reporter with "The Arizona Republic."

So, Jen, last we spoke, earlier in the month, you described to us a lack of transparency in this audit. Has it gotten better?

JEN FIFIELD, REPORTER, "THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC": It has gotten better in a few ways. For example, journalists now have a pool rotation where we're able to watch the audit proceedings and the secretary of state's office has been able to send observers in there. But it still remains -- there's a lack of transparency that still remains, including in the records involved. While we believe that this is a public activity reviewing ballots, Cyber Ninjas, the main contractor doing this work for the Arizona senate, has said that this is not -- their documents are private documents and they're not handing them over.

So a watchdog group actually filed a lawsuit last week -- the group is called American Oversight -- pushing for these documents, saying that this is a public activity, these are public ballots, you need to provide us all of your records and all of your financial statements.

KEILAR: Yes, because, I mean, explain that. This is -- this is a key legal challenge. You have the state senate, Republican-led, pushing for this audit, which, by all accounts, is unnecessary. There have been other audits that found no kind of widespread fraud that would have affected the outcome of the election. And this is an organization that they have doing an accounting of the ballots of voters, right?

FIFIELD: Yes. So this audit was commissioned by the Arizona senate through a subpoena, which is very unusual in terms of post-election audits. The county had already done all of the regular audits that take place, but the Senate wanted to do more. So they hired private companies and basically turned over all of our ballots in Maricopa County, our voting machines, which are $6.1 million machines, and all of our voter rolls and information to these private contractors. And now the argument is because they're -- it's under private contractors, so the public doesn't get to know how it's being funded, the communications involved, the exact processes involved.

So, we're fighting for all of that as journalists in Arizona, but also this separate group has filed this lawsuit. There's also been a threat last week by the county supervisors to get involved with this. They've asked them to retain all these documents just in case they decide to file a lawsuit.

KEILAR: Yes, seems pretty clear-cut. So we'll see how you track that, Jen, and we'll check back in with you.

Jen Fifield, thank you.

FIFIELD: Thank you.

KEILAR: Phil Mickelson defeating father time to win the PGA Championship. A look at "Lefty's" historic victory, just ahead.

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[08:37:13]

KEILAR: A new book is giving us a behind the scenes look of the 2020 election, focused on the men and women who protect America's VIPs. One passage explains that despite being the presumptive president-elect, Joe Biden was not offered the full protection of -- protection detail that the Secret Service usually provides, because, according to this book, it says, what few realized was that clusters of agents, including some on Trump's detail, were openly rooting for Trump, a fact hiding in plain sight. On FaceBook and other forums, some of these public servants, who promised to be above party, were promoting Trump's debunked conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines tossing Trump votes and a stolen election. Their views would harden over the coming weeks and shock colleagues as they cheered a president trying ever more desperate plots to overturn the results.

Joining us now is Carol Leonnig, national investigative reporter for "The National Post," and also author of -- of "The Washington Post," author of the new book "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service."

OK, this is fascinating what you have here. Also, you were very busy writing books. Very, very good books, I will say. So, Carol, what does this tell us that even Secret Service officers were buying into the big lie here?

CAROL LEONNIG, AUTHOR, "ZERO FAIL: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SECRET SERVICE": The Secret Service at this point had become increasingly politicized. I mean it's an incredibly elite protection agency, really noble history. And it's supposed to be above politics, beyond politics. But, in this case, they got very close to President Trump and they literally were promoting the conspiracy theories that the election was rigged.

KEILAR: That's wild.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Carol, I'm curious about the implications of that now because I have to believe that some of these same agents, certainly the same agency, is tasked with protecting Joe Biden. Are there concerns about having proponents of the big lie around?

LEONNIG: It's a good question, John, because before Joe Biden was inaugurated, his transition team was very concerned because they were hearing from friends inside the Secret Service that people were rooting for Trump, people on the president's detail, people who would become agents protecting Joe Biden.

And, remember, all of this happened under Director James Murray, who is the current director of the Secret Service. There was a lot of concern about the way in which the Secret Service either was used or let itself be used as a political tool during Donald Trump's presidency.

BERMAN: So interesting. You also talk about a 2007 report, which found that the White House was vulnerable to attack because of problems like staffing shortage, other issues. But it made me think, you know, if the Capitol could be overrun in 2021, if there were concerns about the White House in 2007, what does that tell you, and what's been done?

LEONNIG: Well, some things have been improved since that time period, I mean, thank goodness, but not everything.

[08:40:01]

And agents that I talked to, both current and former, say that the biggest problem is this sort of chronic failure to upgrade, you know, basically the protection, the safety net around the White House. So what happened at the Capitol was shocking because of the number of people. It wasn't shocking when you think about how poorly protected, how poorly barricaded it was, essentially.

The Secret Service needs not just more money and more people. It needs a commitment from the president and Congress to really bring it into the 21st century.

KEILAR: You also have a very interesting detail about President Trump, of course, being a golfer and how that was a potential vulnerability. Tell us about this.

LEONNIG: Agents were so worried because -- I mean, I think you've seen, too, Brianna, it was pretty ease to get a telescopic photograph of the president on his golf course.

KEILAR: It was.

LEONNIG: And CNN has had some wonderful photos of that. Well, it would be very easy to attach that same telescopic device to a gun. And so President Trump, like other presidents, but especially President Trump wanted to appear strong and he wanted agents out of the picture. That made them really uncomfortable. They wanted to create a bubble around him. And when he was golfing, he was super vulnerable because everybody knew where he was going to be on a pretty Saturday.

KEILAR: He golfed a lot.

BERMAN: Who has the final -- I mean who has the final word there, Carol? I mean can the president say, you know, I'm doing it, I'm doing it my way or can the Secret Service say no, no, no?

LEONNIG: You know, there can -- there's always a tension between a Secret Service detail leader and the White House that advises the president on his image. But during the Trump presidency, you know, Trump ruled. I mean he decided, bottom line. There was very little resistance to what he insisted on.

As you can tell, John and Brianna, from the time that agents allowed him to drive out of the White -- out of the, you know, forgive me --

BERMAN: Walter Reed.

LEONNIG: Thank you, Walter Reed and take sort of this joy ride while he was COVID positive. I mean he had a disease that could have killed him. And while he was on the mend, he still was highly contagious and vulnerable. So he was in danger and so were the people that were escorting him out to sort of do this drive to see his supporters.

BERMAN: You document, you talk about a lot of close calls. And some of them, I think, we've known about over the years, others we haven't. I mean there was one with Michelle Obama in the Beverly Hills Hotel or -- explain what happened there because I was surprised to see that.

LEONNIG: So, I mean, every mom can relate to this. You know, school ends. Michelle Obama takes her two young daughters to Disneyland in California. And there's some other fun things they're going to do while they're on this little summer trip.

But while they're in their hotel, the Secret Service agents that are supposed to be monitoring sort of all the entryways to this beautiful hotel in Beverly Hills, they end up deciding to cut, basically let go many of the agents that are monitoring the stairwells at the hotel, an entrance, a way to get in, and an intruder off the street, in the middle of the night, wanders in, gets on the elevator, goes through some of the stairways, and gets to the first lady's door essentially, her -- the floor of her suite.

I mean, luckily, of course, there's an agent there with a lot of weaponry, but if -- if somebody can get that close to the first lady, agents told me, you know, what else could possibly go wrong? That really worried them. And those agents were removed from the stairwell because basically there was a decision made that they didn't have enough people to cover all those bases.

KEILAR: Wow, that's amazing. I mean just the vulnerability of that.

We -- we also know -- and this is pretty interesting -- your details about former President Trump. You know, he -- like you said, he wanted to project strength. He also wanted to project a certain kind of Secret Service detail. Tell us about this. LEONNIG: Yes, he did. He really liked -- he liked a lot of his detail

members and they liked him. But he wanted them to be helping him in his, you know, effort to get re-elected. And that became so clear on June 1 when, you know, a Secret Service detail leader, who used to be in charge of the president's protection, became a White House political adviser, a deputy chief of staff, something that's never happened before.

And that person was in charge of planning and arranging for park police and Secret Service to forcibly remove peaceable protesters outside of the White House so that the president could walk across that square and, you know, look tough, look strong, be the law and order president while the Secret Service was sort of violating their own oath, which is to allow people to exercise their First Amendment rights.

KEILAR: We've seen this over and over, I think. You know, the military fighting to not be politicized. It seems like, judging by your book, the Secret Service -- you know, there were certainly failures with the military. It seems like there were major failures on the part of Secret Service that they're going to have to reckon with.

[08:45:04]

It's a wonderful book. Great reporting, Carol. Thank you for being with us.

LEONNIG: It was great to be with you.

BERMAN: Look, I learned a ton. I learned a ton. I don't know that I'm reassured.

KEILAR: Exactly.

BERMAN: I think I left being a little bit more uneasy with the way things are.

Carol, congratulations to you. Thanks so much for being with us.

LEONNIG: Thanks. Thank you for helping me ring this alarm bell for the agents that are inside.

BERMAN: It's important.

All right, up next, history -- history in golf. The oldest man ever to win a golf major. This is the year, 2021, the year of the well- seasoned. Grab your prunes. We'll be right back.

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BERMAN: Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship. The oldest man to win a golf major. So 50 is the new 40. Eighty is the new 60 in the AARP. The new Mickey Mouse Club.

Before Mickelson, the oldest man to win a major was Julius Boros, who was 48 when he won in 1968. [08:50:06]

But one of the players in the conversation was this guy, known as Old Tom Morris, who won the Open in 1867. He was 46. The 1860s were hard on Old Tom. But Phil is almost five years older than that. Old Phil, as we might call him, is actually older than Wilford Brimley was when he was cast in "Cocoon."

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WILFORD BRIMLEY, ACTOR, "COCOON": I feel tremendous! I'm ready to taken out world!

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BERMAN: So Phil is older than that and unlike Brimley, according to Marco Rubio, Mickelson was not aided by space aliens.

So how would is Phil Mickelson? Old enough to be married for more than 25 years and have a conversation like this with his spouse after winning the most important tournament of his life.

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PHIL MICKELSON, OLDEST PERSON TO WIN A GOLF MAJOR: I love you very, very much. I'll see you in a little bit. All right. All right, I got to -- I got to go, love. I love you. OK. I'll see -- I'll see you tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He's just like the rest of us married for decades. Yes, honey, just won the PGA, got to go. I left the oven on. I made history. Yes, I fed the dog. See you tonight. Got to go.

2021 is the year of the well-seasoned. Nancy Pelosi, 81, oldest person elected speaker. Joe Biden, 78, oldest person elected president. Donald Trump, 74, oldest person to lose and lie about not being elected president.

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ANTHONY HOPKINS, ACTOR: I'm not leaving my flat. I am not leaving my flat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Anthony Hopkins, 83, became the oldest star to win the best actor Oscar. Also the oldest to win an Oscar for a film no one saw. And the oldest not to show up to receive the award for a film no one saw. So he had the trifecta.

But to Mickelson, Hopkins and Pelosi, Tom Brady is like, hold my Metamucil. The oldest to play in a Super Bowl. The oldest to win a Super Bowl. The oldest to win a MVP. All records that will hold until at least next year when Brady wins again. So let's hear it for experience. Let's hear it for wisdom. Let's hear

it for grey. We wish them all many years of happiness, victory, and soft foods.

Joining us now, Turner Sports broadcaster Brian Anderson.

Brian, it's so great to see you.

Look, there's a reason why no one over 50 has won a golf major before. Mickelson just did it. It's really stunning to see.

BRIAN ANDERSON, BROADCASTER, TURNER SPORTS: Yes. First of all, that was beautiful, what you just did. You made me feel better. I've got a birthday coming up in a few weeks. So, fantastic!

Yes, that was, you know, it was an incredible sports day. Sunday we had the NBA playoffs. We had four epic games in the NBA playoffs. You had the NHL playoffs. The WNBA was in action. Every Major League Baseball team was in action. And for Phil to steal the spotlight in the sports world really proves that it was an historic moment and an achievement that has never been -- that we've never seen.

It's a really incredible moment in the sports world. We thought Tiger Woods had kind of captured that in 2019 at Augusta. But, for Phil, who's been on this new kick the last few years, a training kick, a diet and exercise kick, he's also gone in to the mental world, to the zen world, and to have that all show up on really one of the hardest golf courses in the United States, Kiawah Island, it was really an amazing moment. And for all of us approaching our 50th birthdays, like I am, it was a real shock. I'm really thankful that I got to witness that.

KEILAR: He almost, Brian, seemed a little shocked by it and was trying to make sense of really what had happened. I thought it was fascinating that he said perhaps he's tapped into something with his focus. You know, you mentioned he's kind of gone zen. But I think we see the physical decline of, look, all athletes, but let's talk about golfers. But that --

BERMAN: All 50 year old men? Is that what you're saying?

KEILAR: No, that is not what I'm saying. I mean, look, even -- even young athletes, right? But that mental game, which is so important in golf, it's almost like he's saying that has gotten better with age and maybe it's -- even though the physical decline is there, mentally he really is -- it's quite an achievement.

ANDERSON: Well, it is. And, you know, Brianna, the cruelty of being a professional athlete, having covered athletes my adult life, is that just when you feel like you're getting ahold of the mental game, you lose your physical skills. And then there's that sweet spot where, you know, you have the physical skills, you don't have the mental game, then you get into a little bit of a sweet spot in your career, the prime of your career, announcers like me call it, and then that usually fades pretty fast and then you have the mental acumen but you don't have the physical ability anymore. And so there's been a lot of athletes, John just mentioned, you know,

Tom Brady, but you look at Chris Paul in the NBA, what Derek Rose is doing in the NBA, a well.

[08:55:07]

There are so many athletes that are pursuing greatness at such an advanced age. I mean you -- the next guy on the list would probably be Aaron Rodgers, who continues to perform and excel even though he's starting to age a little bit. So I think a lot of these athletes, a lot of these players -- I just heard from Sue Bird just a couple of weeks ago talking about her training mechanism and developing her mental kills.

And so I do think this is going to be a new normal in the sports world. I think these athletes are taking it very seriously. It's not that you're going to slam down a couple of beers and throw down a couple of dogs in the club house after a double header of a baseball game. That really doesn't exist anymore. Athletes are finely tuned, they're developing their own camps with trainers, with chefs and getting into the mental aspect of the game that very few have been able to accomplish because they've never lasted this long.

So I do think this is going to start to be normalized a little bit in the next few years. A lot of athletes that are starting to age, and what we would call old -- older athletes are really going to start to perform well, I think.

BERMAN: Well, let's hope it extend beyond just the sports world.

Brian, thank you --

ANDERSON: Yes, in all facets.

KEILAR: Thank you so much for being with us this morning. It was wonderful to watch. And we appreciate your insight.

ANDERSON: My pleasure. Good to be with you guys.

BERMAN: All right, we got a lot going on this morning.

Our coverage continues right after this.

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