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McConnell Haunts Democrats With Pledge To Block Biden Court Nominee; New E-Mails: Trump And Allies Pressured DOJ On Fraud Conspiracies; U.S. On Verge Of 600,000 Americans Dying From Coronavirus. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 15, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: The contract of a Catholic foster care agency because the agency refused to work with same-sex couples as potential parents. So the agency turned around and sued and they said that's a violation of our free exercise rights.

This court has already -- the conservative court -- moved the court to the right when it comes to religious liberty, so we'll see how far they go to talk about what the government can do to limit laws that impinge on religious freedom.

And then there's an interesting voting rights case. A lower court struck down two provisions of an Arizona voting rights law, saying that they violated the historic Voting Rights Act. Remember, the court, in past years, gutted one provision of the Voting Rights Act -- that was Chief Justice John Roberts. So all eyes are on the justices to see if they're going to further limit this law.

And, of course, it comes when Republican-led states are moving very aggressively to push more voting restriction laws. So all eyes on the Supreme Court on that.

And finally, there's a really interesting student school speech. So, it goes to how far schools can go to regulate speech that occurs off campus, not on campus.

It was brought by a cheerleader who was trying to get on the varsity cheerleading squad. She didn't get on. She posted over the weekend a profanity-laced social media post. The school saw it. They suspended her from the J.V. squad and her parents turned around and sued -- said that violates free speech.

Schools can't reach outside of campus to restrict speech. So the justices will look at that.

Of course, it comes in the age of the Internet and also as students have been working remotely. It will be a fascinating case to watch.

There's still a handful more. And it's very odd that we haven't yet gotten a big decision, so far, so late in the term.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it certainly is.

I'm really watching that student speech one. I think she sent the social media post from a convenience store but clearly, a lot of people saw it at her school. So what is this going to mean for students -- we'll see.

Ariane, thank you so much.

DE VOGUE: Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to talk a little bit more about the new Mitch McConnell marker. So let's bring in CNN chief legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin.

We heard Mitch McConnell say that he would do the Merrick Garland thing all over again. The last year, if the Republicans control the Senate -- absolutely, he would block a nomination. He said that out loud.

But he also said more than that, Jeffrey, when Hugh Hewitt asked him well, what about if the Republicans take over, the full two years -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUGH HEWITT, SYNDICATED RADIO HOST, "THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW": If you were back as a Senate Republican leader -- and I hope you are -- and a Democrat retires at the end of 2023 and there are 18 months, that would be the Anthony Kennedy precedent. Would they get a fair shot at a hearing -- not a radical, but a normal mainstream liberal?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, we'd have to wait and see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: No, that's what he meant -- no. There is going to be no Supreme Court nomination even heard if Joe Biden is still the -- presumably, he'll still be the president after the midterms and the Republicans take over the Senate. Now, we don't know whether they will but if they do, that's it for Supreme Court nominations for a Democratic president.

So the window for a vacancy to be filled is now shrinking to about a year and a half, and that's not -- that's not a long time given how long these things can take.

BERMAN: Now, everyone on earth -- everyone in the United States -- certainly everyone in Washington seems to recognize that at this point, that that's the timeline that is being worked with here, except for one man.

TOOBIN: That's one person.

BERMAN: And that man may be Stephen Breyer --

TOOBIN: Exactly.

BERMAN: -- a justice on the Supreme Court who was nominated by Bill Clinton and seen as one of the more liberal judges -- now how old, eighty --

TOOBIN: Two.

BERMAN: -- 82 years old. And there are Democrats who want him to retire now so Biden can nominate someone to fill.

TOOBIN: There are all the Democrats now who want him to leave, but it's up to him. And, Breyer has a very distinctive view -- many people think an archaic view of the Supreme Court, which is that it should be seen as an apolitical institution and that the justices should not time their resignations based on who is the president or who is in control of the Senate.

He has -- he has said to me many times -- Stephen Breyer has -- you know, I hate when you all -- you journalists say the Democratic nominees voted one way and the Republican nominees voted the other. You know, we're all judges. We're not politicians.

The Democratic response to that, by and large, is are you out of your mind? Do you not see what's going on? Do you not see the way Trump and McConnell have manipulated this process to install their judges and prevent Democratic presidents from installing their judges?

But he's in charge of whether he resigns, so it's just up to him.

[07:35:03]

BERMAN: Do you think he would budge?

TOOBIN: I do. I do think that he may leave anyway.

He likes -- you know, he is also in touch with the real world to -- in his heart. But the way he speaks publicly -- and he's also -- unlike Ruth Ginsburg in her 80s, he seems to be in vigorous health. He has not had many bouts with cancer, so he seems to -- and he is fully got all his marbles. But it's a -- it's a -- it's up to him.

BERMAN: All right, stand by one second, Jeffrey, because there's something more we want to discuss -- some developing news that Brianna has here.

KEILAR: So there are new e-mails, John, that reveal how former President Trump and his allies pressured the Justice Department to investigate baseless claims of voter fraud and conspiracies in the 2020 election.

And CNN's Whitney Wild is with us now with her new reporting. What did you find out?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we see is -- from this document dump that we got, a list of e-mails that really show the evolution of this relentless pressure from the White House beginning about mid-December all the way through the beginning of January to try to convince the Department of Justice to take their side in these election fraud lawsuits.

So a couple of examples of that are we see several members of the White House as well as people who were sort of the in private Trump orbit -- so these are attorneys that were floating around Trump world at this time. And they are continuously reaching out to the Department of Justice and saying things like the President of the United States has asked me to reach out to you and he has seen this lawsuit. I would like you to file that backs up our election fraud claims.

And so, again, many people apparently thinking that if they invoked the president's name and said that they were working on his behalf, that would somehow convince the Department of Justice to take up their side.

And over this several-week period, we've seen an evolution of people within the Justice Department at least having a conversation, allowing these e-mails to come in -- but they grow more and more frustrated.

So this culminates in two ways.

The first is with -- basically, there was this Rudy Giuliani ally who was peddling this outlandish conspiracy theory that there were Italian satellites that were somehow manipulating the vote counts here in the United States.

And this person had asked then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to broker a meeting between this person and the FBI. And Jeffrey Rosen says look, if this guy has any evidence he can walk into the FBI's Washington field office and tell them everything he knows. But then he gets so frustrated and this is what he writes to his number two at the Justice Department, Richard Donoghue.

He says, "I flatly refused." I flatly refused to broker this meeting. I said -- "said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his witnesses and reaffirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this."

So the moment he figures out this guy is working on behalf of Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Rosen had had it and said he's absolutely not doing that.

And then there was another moment where this really highlights the anxiety within the Justice Department about how this was all going to play out.

There was a January third meeting in which a guy named Jeffrey Clark and then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and others went to the White House. And Jeffrey Clark, who was -- who was at the time heading a civil division for the Department of Justice -- was trying to convince the president to name him acting attorney general. And he was -- hit pitch was basically I can take this election fraud over the finish line -- pick me, pick me. And, Jeffrey Rosen argued his case. And in the end, cooler, more legally sound minds won. And so afterward -- after that meeting, which was -- they were worried it would be extraordinarily consequential -- there was a conference call and Jeffrey Rosen and others within the Justice Department breathed a sigh of relief.

And then finally, there was another person within the Justice Department who says this in an e-mail. It appears that the cause of justice -- sorry, that full screen is a little far from me. "It sounds like Rosen and the cause of justice won."

So again, this big sigh of relief within the Justice Department. But we are talking about just three days before the riot. And again, what it shows is this evolution within the Justice Department. People are growing more and more frustrated by this relentless pressure -- but in the end, they didn't break, Brianna.

KEILAR: I like that you said that full screen was far away. I thought I was the only one that it was very far away.

But this is -- I mean, this is an incredibly bizarre attempt at an end-run around the normal process, right?

WILD: Absolutely.

And so, one of the -- one of the things that we saw in this -- and this was 230 pages of documents -- is a private attorney going to the Department of Justice and saying hey, I have this lawsuit we'd like you to file. This is modeled after some of the other Texas lawsuits -- or the, excuse me, this single other Texas lawsuit.

You can file this. And the president has seen it. He's on board. Go ahead and take that to -- you know, take that to court. Take that to the Supreme Court.

KEILAR: Yes.

WILD: Just a reminder. They have attorneys at the Justice Department who write their own lawsuits. They don't need private attorneys to be peddling these lawsuits --

[07:40:01]

KEILAR: Exactly.

WILD: -- about election fraud. It is --

The e-mails really highlight and bring much more detail to this idea that there was just a lot of hysteria within the White House at this time. Numerous outrage from Mark Meadows trying to convince the Justice Department to look into these allegations. I mean, it just went on and on. And again, in the end, the Justice Department had just had it by early January, Brianna.

KEILAR: It's pretty stunning Berman, when you look at what we're seeing. BERMAN: Indeed.

All right, Jeffrey Toobin is back with us on this front. And Jeffrey, I have two reactions here -- 2 1/2. The first one is wow.

TOOBIN: Yes.

BERMAN: The second one is so Jeffrey Rosen was the last line of defense for democracy there? And then my extra half-reaction is wow, again.

TOOBIN: Well, and good for Jeffrey Rosen. You know, we have belabored the Trump Justice Department for its politicization throughout the four years of his presidency.

But it is worth remembering by this point, William Barr, who had done a lot of Trump's bidding, had quit more or less in protest about the crazies who were in charge at the -- at the White House. And Rosen, who is known as a less political figure, is in charge and he held the line.

But I think Whitney mentioned a very important point here, which is that the proximity to January sixth -- that, you know, this hysteria is building in the White House. And if -- you know, this is part of the story of how January sixth happened.

You have, on one hand, these people pushing these really wackadoodle legal theories and so-called evidence about fraud. At the same time, they're gathering people in Washington to protest. And what the White House's complicity is in January sixth is a question we still don't know, but this is part of that story and it's crying out for an answer.

BERMAN: I have to say -- I mean, democracy held but the more we learn the more it feels like it held barely.

TOOBIN: It was fragile.

BERMAN: All right, Jeffrey -- thank you very much.

Up next, doctors sounding the alarm on a coronavirus variant that's spreading fast right now. Who should be worried and why.

KEILAR: Plus, our very own Christiane Amanpour reveals her cancer diagnosis. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are about to cross 600,000 American deaths from COVID-19 -- a sobering milestone that is coming as vaccination efforts have slowed the virus down considerably, but it's still taking a toll.

Let's talk about this now with CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. I mean, Sanjay, I just rewind to the beginning of this when we thought about the numbers that we were told we might see. I don't think anyone was prepared for this and yet, this has become our normal -- 600,000.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT, AUTHOR, "CHEATING DEATH": Yes, it seems incomprehensible and every time I've been thinking about these numbers it sort of still takes my breath away. I still get some tightness in the -- in the chest just thinking about this.

[07:45:06]

I mean, you look at the trajectory of sort of where we've been and one of the things that really strikes me is that I remember having this conversation with Ambassador Birx -- Deborah Birx, who was the task force coordinator for coronavirus.

And she told me at one point that after those first 100,000 when we were still sort of grappling and trying to understand what had happened here, she believes that basically, all the rest of the deaths after that could have been greatly mitigated or prevented, which is hard to say. I mean, that's 500,000 people.

We knew that going into this pandemic if you looked at indices around the world, the United State should have been the best prepared in the world given our resources and our ability to respond to these sorts of things. And if you look overall how we did compared to other countries we did the worst. I hate saying it -- it's the truth.

We are four percent of the world's population. We had about 16 percent of the world's deaths. And when you compare this to other countries and see what's happening -- and obviously, we're still -- this is still not over. But that is sort of what happened here in the United States.

I think the question really going forward is have we learned the lessons not only for the future -- everyone talks about the possibility of another pandemic, which is a real concern, but also this pandemic still. We're talking about these variants. We're seeing what's happening in other parts of the world.

We've got to make sure that the lessons which we've learned -- which we already knew, to be candid, even before this pandemic -- that we actually apply and execute because they can make a huge difference.

BERMAN: Let's talk about the now. Let's talk about one of these variants -- the Delta variant first spotted in India.

There are these new studies that find that it doubles the risk of hospitalizations. I mean, clearly, it seems more contagious and more dangerous. What else do you know about it, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Yes. So if you look at some of the data, we've got to look around the world here. That's the nature of a pandemic. You can start to gather sort of clues from around the world.

We can see, first of all, what's happening here in the United States -- the numbers of the newly diagnosed people. What's the likelihood that their diagnosis will be due to the Delta variant. It's sort of roughly doubling every couple of weeks or so. It's exactly the same sort of pattern that we saw with the U.K. or Alpha variant.

So if something is more transmissible -- this appears to be about 60 percent more transmissible than the U.K. variant, which was more transmissible than the strain before that -- that means it will become the dominant strain. It's just a question of how long that takes. And because it is more transmissible and we know it causes more hospitalizations, that's the -- that's the real concern primarily for people who are not vaccinated.

Let me show you quickly the effectiveness of the vaccines against these strains. I think this is really crucially important.

When these vaccines came out we know -- we knew they were very protective against the circulating strain at that point. But we have learned -- and this is good news -- is that they also appear to be very effective against these variants as well. So, 92 percent with Pfizer against the Alpha strain and it drops down to 79 percent, but still very effective and very effective against severe disease. That's the good news for people who are vaccinated.

I think there's two things that are concerning. Obviously, people who are not vaccinated are at higher risk. They may have gotten away with encounters where they did not get infected. But if something is 60 percent more transmissible than even the U.K. variant, it's very hard to get away with things.

As Barney Graham, who is the deputy director at the NIH, said to me, we keep thinking of America as vaccinated and unvaccinated. What happens, if you look at this, is that America becomes vaccinated and infected. It is just very hard to escape the contagiousness of this virus.

The second thing is as the virus continues to spread, you get more variants. I mean, hopefully, the variants do not become -- are not problematic, but if you do develop a new variant and that starts to escape immunity more and more, that puts the vaccinated at risk again -- and frankly, the whole world. So that's what's -- you know, that's what everyone's trying to avoid by trying to get the vaccines out as quickly as possible.

So having said all that, the message remains the same -- get vaccinated. Get vaccinated because of those variants. Get vaccinated so we don't have more of them.

KEILAR: Yes. It's so dangerous as we watch this new variant. It's pretty stunning how different it is compared to other ones for folks who are unvaccinated.

I do want to talk to you about our Christiane Amanpour, Sanjay, who I think I can say our CNN family is standing firmly behind here today, giving her all the strength that we can as she made the following statement on our air about being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Like millions of women around the world, I have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I've had successful major surgery to remove it and I'm now undergoing several months of chemotherapy for the best possible long-term prognosis.

[07:50:08]

I'm fortunate to have health insurance through work and incredible doctors who are treating me in a country underpinned by the brilliant NHS.

I'm telling you all of this, of course, in the interest of transparency -- but in truth, mostly as a shout-out to early diagnosis, to urge women to get all the regular screenings and scans you can. To listen to your bodies. And, of course, to ensure that your legitimate medical concerns are not dismissed or diminished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I mean, she is nothing if not strength and grace as she meets this challenge here. And she's using this as a moment to talk to other women about the importance here of early detection. She says listen to your body, which is something that we've heard so many times from people who are dealing with ovarian cancer. Listen to your body.

How important is this? What do people need to know, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Yes. Well, first, like you -- I mean, I'm sending lots of love to Christiane. I mean, she is grace, she is courageousness. I mean, she's the reason a lot of people went into this field, to be honest. And so, sending her lots of love. We were trading some e-mails yesterday.

It -- these are -- these are critically important messages. Ovarian cancer can be very hard to catch early because sometimes there's not symptoms, and that's why screening can be very important. We know that about only one in five women who have ovarian cancer catch this cancer early. Christiane is lucky to be one of them. And if you do catch it early, survival is 94 percent at five years. So it makes a huge difference catching this early.

But oftentimes, there's -- again, there's not symptoms -- early symptoms of ovarian cancer, which is why you have to a) look for any even mild symptoms and pay attention to them, but also make sure that you get screened.

One thing that happened during this pandemic is that a lot of people put off going to the doctor. I mean, they were worried and I understand people just were not leaving their house.

You need to go out there and make those appointments and get those things scheduled for everybody. I mean, everybody that's listening probably has put off some appointment like that. Now is the time. Go out and do -- get your vaccine and then go out and do those things.

BERMAN: It is time. And again, we are thinking of Christiane who is fierce in all things. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

GUPTA: Yes.

KEILAR: A Georgia supermarket is the latest scene of a deadly shooting and it follows an argument over masks.

CNN's Laura Jarrett is with us now with the details. This is horrible, Laura.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Brianna, it's the nightmare scenario business owners have been worried about all along -- a fight over a mask escalating in the worst possible way.

Authorities say 30-year-old Victor Lee Tucker, Jr. entered a Big Bear supermarket in DeKalb County and was asked by a cashier to simply comply with the store's mask policy. Tucker left without buying anything, only to return to the store moments later with a handgun. And then he shot the cashier, killing her.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the two had gotten into an argument over the mask.

Here's the store's owner speaking to a CNN affiliate WXIA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY KIM, OWNER, BIG BEAR SUPERMARKET: He had a mask. She's just a very cautious person so she had asked him to pull up his mask. He refused and walked out. He came back in and did that.

A kind, loving human being. We can't understand. There's nothing to understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: The store's security officer, a 30-year veteran of the police department, exchanged gunfire with Tucker and he was arrested as he tried to crawl out of the front door of the store. He and the sheriff's deputy were taken to the hospital and we're told remain in stable condition according to authorities.

The DeKalb County Police Department is investigating this shooting -- the shooting. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has been asked to as well.

We've seen plenty of debates over the masks in the past year Brianna, but as more and more cities open up, it's the workers on the front line of these fights now forced to deal with hostile people angry about times when they are simply asked to wear a mask inside.

KEILAR: Yes, it is horrific.

Laura, thank you so much for that.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a key Central American nation is backsliding to autocracy, but the Biden administration indicating it won't put up with that in this hemisphere.

John Avlon with a reality check.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: From the G7 to NATO meetings in Europe, President Joe Biden's been sending the same message -- democracies must stand up to autocracies. It's the defining challenge of our time.

But the slide of democracy towards autocracy can be seen in our own hemisphere as well. Among the most urgent examples is Nicaragua where Daniel Ortega's Sandinistas have arrested 13 opposition leaders ahead of this November's election, leaving him virtually unopposed for a fourth consecutive term.

Now, the Biden administration slammed new sanctions on key members of the regime, including Ortega's daughter, with the State Department tweeting that arrests "...should resolve any remaining doubts about Ortega's credentials as a dictator."

[07:55:08]

But, Ortega's evolution to autocratic thug has been a long time coming.

In 2018, police and paramilitary groups killed hundreds of protesters, according to human rights groups.

During the pandemic, Ortega echoed populist virus denial, refusing to accept social distancing, proclaiming the pandemic a sign from God and saying that his country had been largely unaffected. But there were reports of COVID deaths being suppressed -- hidden with express burials of the dead of night. And Ortega's government called these reports fake news.

So, yes, Ortega and his rusing socialist Sandinista party have become authoritarians.

But the seeds were there long ago, even when they were celebrated by some on the left after pushing out the cruel and corrupt Somoza regime in 1979. This misplaced sympathy accelerated after the Reagan administration funded the anti-communist Contra guerillas, raising the old specter of Yankee imperialism.

The Sandinistas drew praise from the then-mayor of Burlington, Vermont -- a guy named Bernie Sanders.

And long before he was mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio traveled to Nicaragua on a pro-Sandinista volunteer mission, defending them as late as 1990 when he told "The New York Times" they gave a new definition to democracy. Not so much.

But a lot of folks were drawn in, including the greatest punk rock band of all time, The Clash, which titled its arguably worst album "Sandinista."

But that was then and this is now and there is no excuse for misty- eyed memories of this dictatorship. Because since Ortega returned to the presidency in 2006, he's used the autocrats' playbook to consolidate power, demonizing the opposition while turning the government into a corrupt family business with his wife serving as vice president and children controlling the media and major companies.

Term limits have been overturned. The judiciary turned into a partisan tool. Journalists jailed. International election observers restricted as paramilitary groups patrol the streets in pickup trucks acting as regime enforcers.

The flag of the Sandinista party flies at the border while the national flag has been criminalized. And opponents are deemed enemies of the state.

Now, the Biden administration increasingly talks tough in action over Ortega's vicious power grab is a step in the right direction because putting human rights back at the heart of U.S. foreign policy means confronting autocrats, especially in our part of the world.

Cracking down on corruption for a Biden foreign policy goal can also put new pressure on these self-enriching (INAUDIBLE) populist regimes. And by taking a harder line against the Ortegas and their patrons in Venezuela, the Biden administration could also help silence the socialist slurs that proved so effective in swinging Hispanic communities in Florida towards Republicans in the last election.

The struggle between democracy and autocracy is the defining fight of our time and we must be consistently on the side of citizens fighting for basic rights, not turning away from smaller nations in mid- struggle, especially in the Americas.

And that's your reality check.

BERMAN: So, John, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul had an interesting comment to "The New York Times" on another front here, although it has to do with democracy.

He said, "The idea of democracy and majority rule is really what goes against our history and what the country stands for. The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That's what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others."

What's he talking about?

AVLON: It's hard to be more wrong in fewer words.

First of all, he's given up the ghost to the extent that a lot of Republicans, beginning with Sen. Mike Lee and others, are basically saying they've got a problem with majority rule. This goes way beyond the old conservative trope about we're a republic, not a democracy. And it give -- it really pulls the curtain back on a lot of the voter suppression efforts today. But the Jim Crow line particularly galls because if you know anything about history -- and the senator from Kentucky probably should know a little bit more about southern history -- you know that the Jim Crow laws came after the Civil War after African Americans were granted basic rights -- 13th, 14th Amendment and local laws were passed to diminish their power -- to throw up obstacles. To make it more difficult for them to participate as full citizens in our democracy after a brief period in which they did participate.

So, Jim Crow is about a reaction to majority rule, not a reflection of it at all.

BERMAN: John Avlon, thank you very much for that.

NEW DAY continues right now.

KEILAR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this new day.

President Biden's summit strategy. What he should tell Vladimir Putin when they're face-to-face tomorrow.

Plus, a key player in the Ukraine scandal speaking out on the Rudy Giuliani tape. Does Lev Parnas now feel vindicated?

BERMAN: A man who just helped lead America's COVID response claims the Trump administration made crucial and costly mistakes at the beginning of the pandemic. What he calls Donald Trump's deadly sins.

And, Amanda Kloots opens up about losing her husband Nick Cordero to COVID and why she decided to share her gut-wrenching grief with the world.