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All U.S. Forces Have Left Bagram Air Base After 2 Decades Of War; Prosecutors Warn Trump Probe Not Over Despite Charges; McCarthy "Shocked" At Cheney, Says She's Closer To Dems "Than Us"; F.L. Gov. Ron DeSantis Praises Biden For Condo Collapse Response; Documents: Repair Efforts Not Completed So Pool Could Stay Open. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 02, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: As a top U.S. general warns of a looming civil war there, CNN is live on the ground.

Plus, after Donald Trump's longtime money man is slapped in cuffs. Prosecutors warned, the investigation is far from over.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight and a new clue into what may have caused the deadly condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida.

And a battle of the billionaires, how Richard Branson is gunning to beat Jeff Bezos in the space by a matter of days.

BERMAN: All right, good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Today is Friday, July 2.

And the breaking news overnight, a major military milestone for the U.S. in Afghanistan. For two decades Bagram Air Base was a symbol of the U.S. presence there, the nerve center of U.S. power. This morning, planes carrying the final U.S. troops to be based at Bagram lifted off.

The full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years is said to be imminent.

HARLOW: And this comes three months after President Biden announced his decision to end America's longest running war. Sources tell CNN the pace of the troop drawdown has caught many by surprise there. And in Washington, there is significant concern, of course, about the Taliban gaining ground in Afghanistan as the U.S. leaves.

BERMAN: CNN's Anna Coren is live in Kabul, Bagram.

You know such a symbol, Anna, of the U.S. presence there over the last two decades. Where in some ways, the U.S., entire U.S. presence has been coordinated out of? It is very significant that there are no more U.S. troops there at this point.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. The last plane load of U.S. and coalition forces left Bagram airbase at 6:30 a.m. this morning. There were two flights overnight, and then that final flight this morning.

But as you say, this wraps up America's longest war, certainly their physical presence, training, assisting, advising Afghan National Security Forces. They have handed Bagram back over to the Afghans.

We know that there are 4,000 Afghans in place at Bagram. They have moved in over the past few months ever since President Biden announced that America was going to be pulling out of Afghanistan.

It certainly has caught many by surprise. You know, this was shrouded in secrecy, obviously, for security reasons, but also because of the optics. You know, this is not something to celebrate. Yes, this has been a long war, but it comes at such an enormous cost.

You know, the blood and treasure that has been spent here, $2 trillion, more than 2,400 U.S. troops, more than 1200 coalition forces. Not to mention the more than 100,000 Afghan lives that have been lost during this conflict and the 10s of 1000s of Afghan forces that have also died on the battlefield and continue to die.

You know, America is leaving at a time when the Taliban are making extraordinary advances across the country. This offensive that they are launching in the North has caught the governments and forces by surprise.

We met with Dr. Abdullah Abdullah yesterday, he was head of the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. And he said that this has come as a shock that the Taliban is gaining momentum, the country, you know, security situation certainly is deteriorating, and that there will be dark days ahead, John and Poppy.

HARLOW: And that also means imminent threat for the more than 18,000 interpreters and translators who worked alongside U.S. troops, U.S. diplomats. U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton told me yesterday this about any plan for evacuating them to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Have you seen a plan, Congressman, that makes you confident?

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): No, I've not seen a plan yet. Nobody to my knowledge on Capitol Hill has seen a detailed plan.

We need a plan that explains exactly where these men and women, these heroes are going to go. How we're going to get them to the airport.

I need an assurance from the White House that no matter how long this takes, we'll see the mission through to completion. We cannot leave anyone behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How imminent, Anna, is the threat to them this morning from the Taliban? COREN: Yes, it looks certainly. I mean, the Taliban are 10 to 15 kilometers on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital where we are here. And there are a lot of people, a lot of local Afghans who are concerned about out their security, their safety because of their work with Americans and coalition forces over the last 20 years.

[06:05:07]

As you heard just then, there isn't a firm plan as to what to do. We know that there are 18,000 applications that there have been some that have been identified, and obviously the process is underway. But this is a gargantuan task ahead.

You know, and then there are people who fall through the cracks, who don't meet the criteria, perhaps because of technicalities. And some that we are learning have already been harassed by the Taliban, a deeply concerned about their safety.

You know, it's not just the people who work with Americans, it's the local Afghans as well who can't get a visa and travel to another country. There's almost like an exodus of people wanting to leave this country, educated people who perhaps with a future of Afghanistan, they say there is no future for them here anymore. Poppy.

HARLOW: Anna Coren, thank you for your reporting on the ground very much.

BERMAN: There is new CNN reporting this morning about President Biden's determination to complete the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And of course, as Poppy was saying, fears about what the U.S. may leave behind.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us live now with that.

This is something that Biden has believed in for years. And he seems to be falling through at this point, Natasha, no matter what.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: For years, John dating back to, of course, when he was the vice president, and he was arguing with the then President Obama about standing up in his words to the military and getting out of Afghanistan. Of course, now, he actually has had the power to follow through on that. And there is no second guessing going on inside the White House, we're told about this withdrawal.

Now, the pace of the withdrawal has caught some in Washington by surprise, because it was originally supposed to be completed by September 11. That is the date that the President had put on it for the last troops to withdraw.

But as we're seeing this morning, Bagram Air Base is being completely devoid now of U.S. troops. They've traveled back, they're traveling back now to the United States. And that really marks the end of the American presence, the robust American presence in Afghanistan.

There will be some troops there that will remain to guard the embassy. But that really is a symbolic move showing that the American presence there has ended.

And so, what we're hearing is that the White House was really boxed in, they feel, by the previous administration's commitment to the Taliban that they would be out by May 1. And how the White House is feeling about this is, well, if we kept the troops there any longer, then they would be attacked, they would be put in danger.

A lot of things remain outstanding, though, as the pace of this withdrawal kind of picks up and as we reach this critical turning point today and into next week. Including the fate, of course, of those Afghan translators of the Afghans that helped American troops over the last two decades of war there. The fate of Kabul airport, whether the Turks are going to be helping the Americans secure that so that it's not overrun by the Taliban. And, of course, the future of counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, whether or not the U.S. is going to be able to carry out counterterrorism missions there, given that all of our bases are no longer going to be available.

So, having to find those military bases in and around Afghanistan is another kind of big fee that the Biden administration has not yet worked out yet.

BERMAN: Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for being with us this morning. A milestone indeed.

BERTRAND: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. Well, this morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James is warning that the investigation into the Trump Organization is not over, saying more charges could come. This also follows prosecutors charging the former president's business and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg with operating a 15-year scheme to defraud the government.

Donald Trump taking a page from a familiar playbook attacking prosecutors and their charges as politically motivated.

Joining us now, investigative reporter and author of the book, "It's Even Worse than You Think What the Trump Administration is doing to America," David Cay Johnston.

David, good morning. Thank you for being up early with us morning.

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Good morning.

HARLOW: I want to get your take on the response and the pushback from the Trump Organization because there was a key statement, a key line in their statement that you say is just a flat out lie in response to this. Explain why.

JOHNSTON: Well, the assertion is that cases like this are never brought. We don't bring nearly enough tax fraud cases in this country at the federal or state level. But we bring cases like this all the time. And this is garden variety, tax fraud, a very calculated tax fraud, Poppy, including keeping two sets of books.

So, Trump is essentially just lying that nobody would ever bring a case like this. That's absurd.

He's also by the way, saying he's special. You know, people like him shouldn't have to face penalties for stealing from the rest us through tax fraud.

[06:10:02]

HARLOW: Explain the history here. Why does having two books matter so much? What does history indicated can mean?

JOHNSTON: Well, this is how a lot of mobsters back to Al Capone have ended up in prison. You keep one set of books so that you know internally what you've paid to people what you owe to people, and you keep another set to show the tax authorities and your official accountants and it is a badge of fraud.

And that they did it here is kind of surprising because they probably didn't need to do so given Weisselberg's longtime knowledge after 48 years with the Trumps.

HARLOW: What do you make of A.G. Letitia James saying there could be more to come?

JOHNSTON: Oh, I think there absolutely will be. Well, in theory, Allen Weisselberg is facing 15 years in prison if convicted, there is no requirement for any prison if he's convicted. And the reason they brought this case was to put pressure on him to flip on Donald Trump.

Allen Weisselberg is a wholly owned psychological subsidiary of Donald Trump. It will be very difficult for him to break. I expect they will eventually bring a state racketeering charge. And they bring other charges along the way to increase the pressure on Weisselberg and as they develop more evidence from the roughly million pages of documents that they obtained.

HARLOW: Because I would think, and I think a lot of folks would think well, you lead with the big fish, right, or the Trump card, forgive the pun. But this grand jury can meet, I think, still three times a week through January. So, maybe they didn't lead with the biggest one here.

JOHNSTON: Well, it's also not uncommon that you build cases by starting at the bottom of the pyramid or with the little fish and you work your way up. The big problem here is Donald Trump doesn't keep records. He tears up his calendars at the end of the month. He doesn't use e-mail.

So, you don't have the usual records that would allow you to bring a case against Trump easily. They can still bring a case against Trump, but it will be a lot easier if Allen Weisselberg decides that his best interests and his moral duty are to tell the truth.

HARLOW: David Cay Johnston, thank you.

JOHNSTON: Thank you. HARLOW: Next, Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, denies threatening members over joining the January 6 committee but makes an accusation about Liz Cheney

BERMAN: Plus, breaking overnight, CNN attains a letter warning of extensive concrete damage to the condo building, the collapse, in what might be a big new clue.

And COVID cases on the rise in the United States as we head into the holiday weekend. The new numbers ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:02]

BERMAN: This morning there is a select House committee to investigate the insurrection on January 6, but there are no members appointed by Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. At least not yet.

Liz Cheney is the sole Republican named to the committee, but she was appointed by Speaker Pelosi.

CNN has reporting that McCarthy said he would strip any members who accepted an appointment from Pelosi from their committee assignments. Now, he denies that. But he had this to say about Cheney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MINORITY LEADER: I don't know in history where someone would go get their committee assignments from the Speaker and expect them to have them from the conference as well.

I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi. It would seem to me, since I didn't hear from her maybe she's closer to her than us. I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now, former Republican Congressman from Florida, Francis Rooney.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. Isn't this literally and demonstrably putting party before country for Kevin McCarthy? I mean, Liz Cheney is accepting a position on a committee to investigate an insurrection. And he's saying she should put her party first.

FRANCIS ROONEY (R-FL), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Yes, it's even worse than that. It's putting Trump above party and country. This -- it's all about him. And the one more step by Kevin and the other Republican leaders to do whatever Trump wants and not take any chance of incurring his wrath.

BERMAN: It just seems particularly brazen to me. And I'm hoping you can explain how he feels comfortable, McCarthy doing this. CNN has reporting that he threatened to strip committee posts from any member who accepted an appointment from Pelosi. And this is the same guy, by the way, who was against stripping committee posts for Marjorie Taylor Greene, who hasn't done anything to punish Paul Gosar or Andrew Clyde or anything like that. So, you can cozy up to white nationalists and Holocaust deniers and keep your committees but not serve on a committee to investigate the insurrection?

ROONEY: But you know, there's no great surfeit of principle in the Congress. But I think we may be reaching an all-time low. And to me, it all results from the almost futile power that Trump has over the Republican Party now. And they're taking these very strange actions as you're commenting about to keep him happy and to go from 35 Republicans voting for an independent inquiry one month ago to now two shows how the heats been turned up.

BERMAN: We talked about this level of partisanship in this really new page some ways in partisan politics in the country. I want to actually show something that is the opposite of that because frankly, we need it.

President Biden went down to Florida, your home state yesterday, went to Miami to visit with the families of the condominium collapse there and he met with Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, who's a partisan. You know, in this is -- I mean, look, we're in a world where there are Democrats, Republicans and Ron DeSantis may very well run against Joe Biden in 2024, but the two of them managed to have an important moment of bipartisanship. And I want to play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:09]

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You recognize the severity of this tragedy from day one, and you've been very supportive.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, what's good about this? We got a nation (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.

BIDEN: And it was really important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You know, I think what was so striking all of us, it's a reminder that this can happen. People can just go do their jobs, Congressman.

ROONEY: Yes, unfortunately, it takes a horrendous disaster to bring about a bipartisanship moment, like you just mentioned. I'm thinking of when Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio toured the damage after Hurricane Irma were very similar than yet, but it took a hurricane to get it there.

BERMAN: Do you think there'll be any repercussions? I remember when Charlie Christ was governor of Florida, a Republican at that time governor of Florida, he embraced Barack Obama. And that was it for Charlie Chris.

I mean, he was no longer welcome to the Republican Party after that. Will DeSantis be punished for this?

ROONEY: Oh, no, I don't think so. This is a little different. This is a very natural or not a natural disaster where a lot of people have lost their lives. And the President has a role to play. And the governor of Florida has a role to play to help draw the President in. And I think Ron did exactly the right thing, and continues to show his leadership in Florida.

BERMAN: It was nice to see on both sides of it just that they could keep politics out of it even for just a moment.

Congressman, you're also a former diplomat. And I want to get your take on the major news overnight that the last U.S. troops who were based at Bagram Air Base. Bagram was symbol of U.S. power in Afghanistan for two decades. The last U.S. troops have left that airbase.

How do you feel about that? What are your concerns about security in Afghanistan going forward?

ROONEY: Well, it was really, really an unfortunate thing that we tried to create a democratic country in an area where there weren't institutional elements capable of sustaining it. And I don't think there's much difference in Afghanistan now than it was 20 years ago.

They don't have much of an economy. They're basically controlled by tribes, the Pashtuns and the Taliban, and it's going to degenerate into the same kind of problems that were there before. In fact, the same problems have been there anyway.

We didn't make a lot of headway south of Kandahar in the last 20 years. So, I would just say let's get out, let's move on and pay attention to our own problems for a while.

BERMAN: Congressman Francis Rooney, it's a pleasure to have you. I hope you have a nice Fourth of July weekend. Happy birthday, America.

ROONEY: You too. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: Coming up, new details about the extensive damage at Champlain Tower South and why critical repair work was delayed.

HARLOW: Plus, an alarming rise in coronavirus cases with the Delta variants spreading. We'll give you the numbers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:04]

HARLOW: This morning really troubling new details about the extensive concrete damage discovered at Champlain Tower South last fall and why work was not performed to fix it. According to documents first obtained by USA Today, a consulting firm hired to investigate and remediate the building wrote in October 2020, quote, "Full restoration and repair work could not be performed because the pool was to remain in service for the duration of the work and because the necessary aggressive excavation of concrete at the pool could affect the stability of the remaining adjacent concrete constructions."

Joining me now is USA reporter -- USA Today reporter who broke that story first, Romina Ruiz-Goiriena. Thank you for being here.

This is critically important and tragic all at the same time. When I read that, I think they wanted to keep the pool open until they didn't fix it. Is that a correct reading?

ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA, NATIONAL HOUSING AND SOCIAL SERVICES REPORTER, USA TODAY: So, I think the important thing is to understand that this is not a smoking gun, we haven't found that one critical piece and an investigation is still underway.

But what this does point to is the fact that the owners of the building were being spoon fed information and that decisions were being made that could seem that these issues were not as dire as we now know that they were.

HARLOW: Right. There is also the statement from the consultants who came out with that assessment. This is Morabito Consultants saying they did their job just as they've done for nearly four decades. They'll continue to work with the investigators to figure out what happened.

How are the families responding to this? Because it's this 2018 report, then it's this October 2020 finding, then it's the April 2021 assessment letter, just there are so many warnings.

RUIZ-GOIRIENA: So, this is incredibly tragic. I have been speaking to families all week, and you know, they're going back and forth between trying to get the bodies of their loved ones or trying to find out if there's anyone who is still alive in that pain. And at the same time, you know, they're going through -- they're telling me like, you know, my mom would tell me that something was wrong and that she didn't trust this condo association. Like, there -- all these grievances.

And what they have actually told me is that their family members did not shy away from wanting to pay for the work and wanting to do the work.

HARLOW: Right.

RUIZ-GOIRIENA: But they had a lot of questions about the integrity of the condo association and the integrity of the service providers like Morabito.

HARLOW: Romina did their questions get answered? Or did they feel stonewalled when they -- I would assume went to the board with these questions?

RUIZ-GOIRIENA: Well, I think, you know, based on the document.

[06:30:00]