Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

DOJ Seized Data of House Democrats; Queen to Meet G7 Leaders; Deal on Infrastructure; Passengers Test Positive on Cruise Ship; Record Heat in West; Risks of Bezos' Trip to Space. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 11, 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]

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Members of Congress on the House Intelligence Committee, their staff, but also the personal staffs, which would presumably have very little or nothing to do with the work of the House Intelligence Committee, further, and included family members, including a minor. So what we're seeing is, again, no boundaries. There's nothing off limits if federal prosecutors thought they could justify it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And just talk a little bit more because when Adam Schiff calls it a phishing expedition, as opposed to something I think in opposition something to be targeted or specific --

WILD: Right.

BERMAN: What's the difference there? Why does that matter?

WILD: Well, I think, you know, it -- it -- I'm sorry, can you -- just explain that a little bit more. I want to make sure that I'm answering your question correctly.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The difference between -- between knowing, right, something specific.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, you want to see the subpoena. This --

WILD: Right, yes, knowing that something's there.

BERMAN: Yes.

WILD: So, yes. So this is actually something we, as journalists, have to consider sometimes when we're doing these FOIA requests. If there's something there and you're trying to search for it, that's a big difference between just saying, hey, we think that there might be something afoot. Let's cast as wide a net as possible and collect as much information as we can. Sometimes that is less justifiable in the eyes of the judiciary.

However, what I would really like to see, and I'm sure Elie would say this too, is how the subpoena is written. What was the justification for doing such a broad reach that reached, you know, beyond the work that they were trying to target and into the personal communications. It's the personal communications I think are the most chilling. That, again, as I said before, that there was nothing off limits.

BERMAN: That's exactly what I was asking. Thank you so much for clarifying that.

WILD: Right.

KEILAR: Because, Elie, to borrow from this example of say a FOIA request, as a journalist, let's say you know that there was a conversation or you know that there was a communication between two entities and you felt like under FOIA you were privy to that. You could put in a request searching for, from this time to this time, between this person and this person, these emails that you want, because you actually maybe have an idea that something is there.

This is not that. Why is that such a big deal?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Exactly. To Whitney's point, it's so important that people understand. Prosecutors have almost unfettered power when it comes to issuing subpoenas. All that we have to rely on, all that we have to save us is the prosecutor's good discretion. You need what's called predication, which means you can't just guess. You can't just say, let me take a look and maybe I'll find something. You have to have some reason to think you might find evidence there.

Prosecutors have an awful lot of power when it comes to subpoena. When I was a prosecutor, I literally had a stack of subpoenas in the right- hand corner of my desk and I would hand them out if I throughout there was a good-faith reason that I would find evidence there. That power, however, can be abused. And that's one of the big questions here, what was the predication, what was the basis DOJ had to subpoena, not just Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, but their family members and their staff members. That's a question that has to be answered by DOJ and by Congress as well.

BERMAN: Prosecutorial discretion, that has been broken, was broken by everyone I'm hearing from overnight by the Trump Justice Department.

Elie, any recourse here for the people who had their records seized? Can they go back and say, hey, this was unfair, this was maybe even illegal?

HONIG: It's very difficult for Adam Schiff or Eric Swalwell, in their personal capacities, as we saw in the E. Jean Carroll case. Prosecutors have very broad coverage for things they do in terms of personal liability that are related to the job itself. So, in other words, it's going to be very difficult to sue DOJ.

However, that does not mean there could be no accountability here. DOJ itself, Merrick Garland, has a very serious job to do. He needs to first figure out, are there more of these gag orders in place? Is there more that's going to come out? He can figure that out. And if there are, he needs to seriously think about going to the courts right now and saying, we need these gag orders lifted, we need to come clean on this. Merrick Garland also needs to empower DOJ's inspector general to do a

full report on this, a public report, and Congress has to dig in here. Congress has to ask, where did the impetus for this come from, the White House, Bill Barr, elsewhere? Who authorized it? What was the factual basis or predication for this?

So there's a lot of accountability that needs to be had here.

BERMAN: Elie Honig, Whitney Wild, thank you both so much.

So, as President Biden prepares for meetings with world leaders, First Lady Jill Biden getting ready for a royal rendezvous with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

KEILAR: And the showdown within the Democratic Party over Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's criticism of Israel and the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:18]

KEILAR: Here in just a few hours, President Biden will partake in the G7 family photo with other world leaders before the initial day of activities gets underway. And this is going to follow Biden's busy first meeting with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The two signed a new Atlantic Charter. It outlines key areas where the U.S. and the U.K. will collaborate. And this builds on the historic declaration from 1941 that set goals for the world following World War II.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is traveling with the president. He's with us live now from Falmouth, England.

And a special guest today. What are we hearing of this, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we are just learning that Queen Elizabeth will be making an appearance here this evening in Cornwall with other members of the senior royal family. She'll be having a brief hello with leaders of the group of seven nations, President Biden chief among them, and then she will be departing before these leaders have their dinner.

So this is a bit of a prelude, if you will, for that one on one meeting that President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be having on Sunday at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth. But she's making a rare visit here to the southern coast of England.

Of course, she's 95 years old, has not really been traveling at all in the wake of the pandemic. So this will be a rare appearance that she'll be making this evening.

But this is all coming at the end of what is going to be a very busy day here with President Biden meeting other leaders of the group of seven nations. And he will be having a family photo, as you said. And, Brianna, as you know from covering the White House, this is the time when leaders stand side by side. You can read so much into the body language and the new partnerships and friendships. But so much substance also being discussed here. This is very much of a momentous occasion, coming out of the global pandemic.

[06:40:03]

The economy certainly front and center in all of these conversations, as are the rising threats from a Russia and China. So this is a central part for Mr. Biden to become part of this club of leaders that he has long eyed.

But even as these conversations are happening, Brianna, one of the central things here that President Biden has been trying to do is to show that the world and Europe that America is back. That the frayed alliances from the era of President Trump are no more. But with the headlines back in Washington that you've been talking about all morning long, that makes it much more difficult for President Biden to make that case that the Trump era is indeed over, that America first is still a reigning policy in some parts of the U.S. government.

When you talk to European leaders and others, they are very much attuned to U.S. politics because of the Trump era and they are seeing these headlines, which certainly complicates the Biden administration's plans to try and move beyond President Trump.

So a few challenges on that front. But also some light-hearted moments. We saw First Lady Jill Biden having a jacket yesterday saying "love" on the back. She said she is bringing America's love over here to the United Kingdom. Perhaps a bit of a subtle reply to Melania Trump's own jacket that she wore several years back that had about the opposite message.

But First Lady Jill Biden, speaking of her, she'll be meeting in this hour with Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. They'll be touring an elementary school.

So, a lot of things happening on this busy Friday here in England.

Brianna.

KEILAR: It is -- I'm glad you brought up the jacket. It is very hard to imagine that that was any sort of coincidence.

Jeff Zeleny, live for us in England, thank you.

ZELENY: Right.

BERMAN: I think it was just Jeff's birthday, by the way, so happy birthday.

KEILAR: A belated happy birthday to Jeff Zeleny.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy birthday.

BERMAN: Happy birthday to Jeff Zeleny. And if it wasn't his birthday, let's just salute him anyway. So, while the president focuses on his foreign agenda, work continues at home and on Capitol Hill on the infrastructure plan. This bipartisan group of ten senators announced last night that they have a framework for a deal that maybe, they hope, could appeal to Democrats and Republicans.

So let's bring in CNN's senior political analyst Mark Preston, in the flesh.

It's so nice to see your face, by the way.

PRESTON: Senior because of my age, thank you.

BERMAN: That's fantastic.

Look, talk to me about what is -- what we know about what is in this deal.

PRESTON: Right.

OK, so what we do know is that five Democrats, five Republicans come together. They said they have a framework for a bill that they enjoy, but not necessarily everybody else.

So let's look at it right now.

As you said, $578 billion in new spending. It's going to cost, well, less than a trillion dollars over five years, $1.2 trillion over eight years. No tax increases.

But look at this right here. Joe Biden wanted $2.3 million it started off. Then he cut it down to $1.7 million. And now we're looking down at about $1.2 million. So it is nowhere near where the White House wants it, nor where progressives wanted it.

BERMAN: And, to be clear, we don't exactly know this money is on exactly.

PRESTON: Right.

BERMAN: Nor do we know how they pay for it with no tax increases.

PRESTON: Pay-for, as they call it.

BERMAN: We don't know exactly yet.

PRESTON: Right.

BERMAN: Those details will come out, and they're very important.

Now, before the announcement of this deal yesterday, a whole lot of Democrats have started to come up and say, enough, we're fed up with this effort for bipartisanship. I don't know if this deal will sort of cool them off a little bit. But talk to me about that fed up caucus.

PRESTON: Well, and, you know, let's just look right here. Just as you go across. Kind of the ideological spectrum. Look at Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut. I really think it's time to pull the plug now and take action promptly and robustly. Elizabeth Warren, who heads the progressive caucus for Congress, says, let's face it, it's time to move forward. The Republicans has held up long enough. This is very interesting, actually. Nancy Pelosi, who's been critical of Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator, who really is the linchpin to Democrats getting anything done, because he really is the 50th vote in many ways. We say it's Kamala Harris. It's really Joe Manchin. But she says I'm giving up on Joe Manchin, sending a subtle message right now that we're not pushing you away. Not pushing moderates away right now at a time where the Democratic Party is really in a -- is influx about their -- it's direction.

BERMAN: All right, how hard will it be to get a compromise like this through?

PRESTON: Oh, it's next to impossible right now. And that's the reason why, as you look right now, 51 votes. Democrats have 50 seats in the Senate, 48 Democrats, two independents who are definitely -- well basically --

BERMAN: Bernie Sanders is one of them.

PRESTON: Yes, Bernie Sanders, who is more Democrat than most Democrats, right? So there's 50. But the problem is, is of the 50 Democrats, you need 51 to get it through. Of the 50 Democrats, Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, two moderates from Arizona and West Virginia, they're the ones who hold all the cards right now. And we'll see what's going to move forward with that.

BERMAN: They're part of this group.

PRESTON: They are.

BERMAN: They've both a part of this bipartisan group. So you know they're on board with this plan. The question is, would they be willing to pass the plan with only 50 votes in the reconciliation process. A discussion for another time.

Mark Preston.

PRESTON: A discussion for another time.

BERMAN: All right, so two passengers onboard the first cruise in North America after more than a year testing positive for coronavirus on the fully vaccinated ship. A live report is next.

KEILAR: Plus, former President Trump's border wall may be a thing of the past, but now Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the state is going to build its own.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:49:09]

KEILAR: It is the first major international cruise with American passengers since 2020. This is a big development. However, despite requiring everyone to be vaccinated, the Celebrity Millennium still could not avoid the coronavirus. There were two people sharing a room on the ship and they actually tested positive on Thursday. This was just two days before the cruise was scheduled to end.

So let's put this into contact. CNN's Polo Sandoval is with us now on this. I think what we're waiting to see is, is this a sign of maybe some sort of breakdown or is this maybe a sign of success with limiting the spread here?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, statistically, this was inevitable. So you see the two infected passengers are traveling together in (INAUDIBLE), the 500 fully vaccinated adults that are on board that Celebrity Millennium that's in the Caribbean right now. They are asymptomatic. They are isolated. They are doing OK according to the cruise line. So that is further indication the vaccines do work. Remember, they don't prevent full protection -- or at least they don't provide full protection against infection, but they do against severe illness.

[06:50:06]

Remember, COVID's incubation period is also up to 14 days. It's also highly possible that the two people weren't even infected onboard the ship as all of them were required to provide negative COVID tests before sailing out of St. Martin on Friday.

This is, however, noteworthy because this is the first major cruise ship that's allowing American passengers since the pandemic forced a pause on the industry. Celebrity Cruises said in a statement that this is essentially showing that rigorous health and safety protocols did work, they are working in protecting not only their passengers, but the crew as well.

This may, however, add a little bit more fuel to that debate that's happening right now between some cruise lines that are hoping to require proof of vaccination while Governors Abbott in Texas and DeSantis in Florida are making it illegal for cruise ships to do so.

So, in short, this is certainly not raising any alarms, John and Brianna, but it's certainly noteworthy because these cruise lines that have been preparing for this relaunch already, and they've had about a year to do so, are now putting these plans to work and they seem to be working.

KEILAR: Yes. Royal Caribbean says it is just going to suggest or recommend that passengers get vaccinated, but Norwegian Cruise Lines are saying, you know, if this is what happens, we may just have to go someplace besides Florida. So we're going to see who is going to win out in this ongoing debate.

Polo, thank you so much.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, guys.

KEILAR: There is some breaking news, and it is an extraordinary abuse of power against the legislative branch. We're going to speak with someone who served as the deputy director of the FBI at the same time that secret subpoenas were issued and he was actually being looked at.

BERMAN: Jeff Bezos headed to space. How dangerous is this trip? A real-life rocket scientist from NASA joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:07]

BERMAN: Record heat in the west, a region already dealing with an intensifying drought, and in in other parts of the country severe storms and flooding possible.

So let's get right to meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

Jennifer, what's going on here?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John, a lot going on with the heat as well as the rain.

And we'll start in the east with the rain, because we have had relentless showers and storms over this region for several days now. There is a flash flood threat, especially across portions of Virginia, West Virginia, a level three out of four when you're talking about the flood risk. So that's huge for today into this afternoon.

But look at all this rain all across the southeast. We're looking at two to four inches of rain possible through Sunday. And this is on top of what has already fallen. So this is a region that has just been soaked over the last few weeks.

On the flipside of that, the west is suffering from exceptional drought. And 89 percent of this region in drought. And you can see a large chunk of that in exceptional, which is the highest level given to drought conditions. And the heat is only going to make it worse. Temperatures well into the triple digits. Phoenix hitting 115, 116 by Sunday and Monday. Even Vegas well into the triple digits. Denver, close to 100 degrees. And then across the east, temperatures aren't quite as hot, but we are seeing warm temperatures in Atlanta. The northeast actually looks pretty pleasant going into the weekend.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks so much for that.

KEILAR: You know, Jeff Bezos is boldly going where no billionaire has gone before, outer space. And this isn't without its risks, right? The world's richest man is set to ride on the first manned flight of his space company's spacecraft, New Shepard, in mid-July. It's a ride that may only last 11 minutes. But this voyage is grueling and it's dangerous, quite frankly. How dangerous is this going to be, this first flight for Jeff Bezos?

Let's talk about this with Keith Cowing. He's the editor for NASAWatch.com and he's a former NASA space biologist. All right, how risky is this, do you think?

KEITH COWING, EDITOR, NASAWATCH.COM: Well, Normally I'd say it's like, you know, your commute in the morning, but I came in this morning and there was nobody on 66, so I guess I'd have to use another example.

But, this vehicle has flown a dozen times and it's been flawless. So in terms of, you know, the one -- one flight to the next, it's not that risky. But then you're getting on a rocket ship and you're going into outer space, so there's some risk.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, there have been issues in the testing of these suborbital flights, right? Wasn't it Virgin Galactic pilot -- didn't a Virgin Galactic pilot die?

COWING: Yes, and that's a -- these are totally different types of spacecraft too. Virgin Galactic had a problem. They've had a lot of delays. And, of course, now there's the issue of, is Branson going to try and one up Bezos? And there's been some Internet chatter back and forth as to whether now that Bezos has said he's going to go up on one date in July, will Branson fly ahead. I think his safety people got to him and said.

KEILAR: Hold on there, buddy, right?

COWING: One more flight. One more.

KEILAR: One more flight.

OK, so, look, when astronauts go into space, they have to be healthy. There are many considerations for what it takes to go into space. What about, you know, just taking kind of -- I mean Jeff Bezos is not Joe Shmoe, right, who has appeared on this show this week I think. He's not just anybody, but what needs to be considered here for his fitness to go into space?

COWING: I've actually done the training for this. I've done the centrifuge thing.

KEILAR: You just knocked a huge hole in my assentation's there, right?

COWING: Well, this is what you -- I mean it's -- I've done the weightlessness thing. If you -- if you're relatively healthy and you don't mind being in an enclosed space for a period of time and you know where a few switches are, you should be able to survive it. But the issue really isn't the risk of, you know, isn't whether you turn to your spouse and say, honey, I want to sell the house for a, you know, a 10-minute ride into space. That, to me, is a bit more of a risk.

KEILAR: The financial cost.

COWING: Yes.

BERMAN: You talk to Elon Musk a lot, right? You're --

COWING: I talk -- I know Elon. Elon knows a lot, yes.

BERMAN: So how ticked off is he that Bezos is beating him?

[07:02:00]

COWING: He's zen about a lot of this stuff. I think he's -- he knows the more of these things that go up, the better. The rising tide lifts all boats.