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Biden to Deliver Speech on Moral Case for Voting Rights; Texas Governor Threatens to Arrest Democratic Lawmakers Who Fled Special Session; Book: Giuliani Advised Trump to 'Just Saw We Won'; 7 States Move to Block Vaccine Requirements in Schools. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 13, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. On this NEW DAY, Texas Democrats leaving on a jet plane, not sure when they'll be back again as they protest a Republican voting bill, and the state's governor threatens to arrest them.

[06:00:19]

Plus, as France considers mandating the coronavirus vaccine, the White House backing local mandates here in the U.S. So what happens now?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden facing two new crises at the country's doorstep. An assassination in Haiti and an uprising in Cuba.

And even the lawyers knew. A newly-discovered e-mail shows that the Republican Party's top counsel called Donald Trump's 2020 legal efforts a complete joke.

KEILAR: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Tuesday, July 13.

And developing overnight, at least 50 Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state of Texas and landing in Washington, D.C., in an effort to block new voting restrictions being pushed by Republicans.

The Texas lawmakers vowing to stay away from the Lone Star State until a special session to take up the legislation comes to an end, and they are calling on Democrats in the U.S. Senate to do more to address voting rights now.

Governor Greg Abbott is now threatening to have the Democratic lawmakers arrested.

BERMAN: So President Biden dives head first into the issue later today when he delivers a speech on voting rights in Philadelphia. The president expected to lay out the moral case for voting rights and launch a pressure campaign to fight efforts by Republican-led state legislatures to restrict access to the ballot.

Arlette Saenz joins us now from the White House. Arlette, the White House is calling this a major address today. What do we expect?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, President Biden has been promising this speech for weeks. And today he is traveling to Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy, to argue that voting rights is a fundamental right that must be protected.

The president is expected to call out those restrictions that we've seen on the state level as anti-American and authoritarian.

But even as the president is flexing his political muscle with this messaging push, real questions remain about what actually can be done as voting rights is at a standstill in Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ (voice-over): President Biden set to use the bully pulpit in Philadelphia today to argue protecting voting rights can't wait.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He'll lay out the moral case for why denying the right to vote is a form of suppression and a form of silencing, and how he will -- he will redouble his commitment to using every tool at his disposal.

SAENZ: Biden is expected to speak out against the push by several Republican-led state legislatures to impose sweeping voting restrictions and call out his predecessor's efforts, continuing to spread the big lie.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the president plans to address the false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, head on.

PSAKI: He'll call out the greatest irony of the big lie, is that no election in our history has met such a high standard, with over 80 judges, including those appointed by his predecessor, throwing out all challenges.

He'll also decry efforts to strip the right to vote as authoritarian.

SAENZ: The president has made protecting voting rights a critical part of his domestic agenda, repeatedly condemning any attempts to limit them since taking office.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Voting rights is maybe the most consequential thing. This sacred right is under assault with incredible intensity like I've never seen.

SAENZ: Biden also tasking Vice President Kamala Harris with leading the administration's efforts to protect the right to vote.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do believe that fighting for the right to vote is as American as apple pie. It is so fundamental to fighting for the principles of our democracy.

SAENZ: But after a meeting at the White House last week, several top civil rights leaders urged them both to do more, pushing the president and vice president to speak up about the threat of restrictive voting legislation. SHERRILYN IFILL, PRESIDENT, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: This is the

moment. There is no more time. We must have legislation. We must have the president use his voice, use his influence, use his power.

SAENZ: It's still unclear how much Biden can change without the support of Congress after Democrats failed to pass sweeping reform in the Senate last month, roadblocked by the filibuster, a Senate rule which requires a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation.

This challenge is extremely concerning to many state legislators like the group of Texas Democrats who arrived in Washington yesterday, who fear their GOP colleagues' attempts to pass voter suppression laws will continue to take place across the country.

[06:05:02]

CHRIS TURNER (D), CHAIRMAN, TEXAS HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS: You have to act, and you have to act now. There's no more waiting. There's -- there's no more -- there's no more chances here. We need Congress to enact strong, federal voting rights legislation to save our democracy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAENZ: Now, those Texas Democrats are hoping to meet with Senate Democrats while they are in Washington.

And one big question that remains in the Senate is the future of that filibuster. President Biden is feeling a lot of pressure from Democrats and activists to either eliminate or reform the filibuster. But for the time being, President Biden has not budged on his position, and the White House said it is up to the Senate to act and to vote on that matter. But right now, those votes simply are not there.

BERMAN: No. Making the moral case. We'll see if it goes beyond just an issue of morality to one of action from the White House. Arlette Saenz, thanks so much for this -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Texas Democrats hoping to use their time here in Washington to pressure Senate Democrats to take federal action to protect voting rights. Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatening to have the lawmakers arrested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): What the House of Representatives can do, the speaker can do, is issue a call to have these members arrested. In addition to that, however, I can and I will continue to call special session after special session after special session, all the way up until election next year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested. They will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And joining us now is Texas state Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, who helped organize the Texas House Democrats' trip to Washington.

OK. He's threatening to arrest you. Are you and other Democrats expecting that is what will happen?

TREY MARTINEZ FISCHER (D), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: You know, we can't be, you know, worried about that. And, you know, I would also, you know, caution the governor to not refer to elected officials that he's going to corral them and put them in a cabin. I mean, we re not property. We are elected officials.

But this is the risk that we take to stand up for democracy. I mean, we are talking about voting rights here. There were people who were beaten with clubs, and attacked by dogs, and people who were murdered to protect the sacred rights. So this threat and this finger pointing by the governor, you know, is not going to intimidate all of us. We are strongly united, and we want to bring, you know, voting rights reform to this country.

KEILAR: So it sounds like you don't care if you're going to be arrested, but you're not sure if that's going to happen.

FISCHER: You know, we always care. You know, I'm a husband. I'm a dad. You know, we have folks that are in very emotional pain to come up here, but we have a job to do. We're elected by the constituents to be their voice. They have no voice. And voting rights is fundamental. So I think we have to have, you know, the courage, and we have to have the conviction, and sometimes a little bit of defiance.

KEILAR: We've seen something like this happen previous times in Texas politics. What we've learned from that is that you can't really stop what's going to happen, but you can delay it. Is that how you see this?

FISCHER: Well, you know, not necessarily. I mean, we have one of the biggest speech -- speeches on voting rights happening tonight in Philadelphia. We have a deadlocked Senate. You know, the eyes of the nation are on Texas, and we hope to rally the country. And we hope that the Senate will hear us and act.

I mean, this is where we are. This is a now or never moment. You know, we're not going to stay home. We're not just going to take our medicine and lose in defeat. I mean, we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can, and this final push to bring a resolution to a very controversial issue in this country.

KEILAR: Last time we spoke, you had been able to talk with Senator Manchin's staff, I believe. Have you been able to secure any appointments with senators Manchin or Sinema on this trip?

FISCHER: So we landed late last night. We will be on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. this morning, and we are scheduling meetings, you know, by the hour, by the day.

KEILAR: Anything specifically on the books with them? Have they said, Yes, we'll meet with you?

FISCHER: As of right now, to my knowledge, no, but it is only Tuesday.

KEILAR: OK. It is only Tuesday.

So this bill, well, it's really two bills. It's a House bill and a Senate bill when we're talking about these voting rights measures in Texas. But they dropped in this, Republicans did, the Sunday voting prohibition. And they also dropped the process that would have made it easier to overturn an election outcome, which I think was the most concerning measure from Democrats' perspective. What do you oppose now in these bills?

FISCHER: I mean, we need to quit criminalizing elections. I mean, you know, everything -- every mistake, every technical flaw, whether you're registering someone to vote by mail or giving somebody a ride to the polls, shouldn't be a crime.

And frankly, you know, I don't want the Proud Boys to have the ability to be poll watchers in my elections, looking over my shoulder with those threats of intimidation. I mean, we're talking about voter intimidation at its worst, and that's still embedded in the bill. And it should come out.

KEILAR: The poll -- so it's the poll watching. It's very -- OK. So it's the poll watching.

You did -- There is a photo that was taken of you and your colleagues on the plane, and reportedly, your caucus took two charter planes to get here. I know that you've heard Governor Abbott say that you are flying on the taxpayers' dime. Is -- is that true?

FISCHER: I think the governor knows more than anybody about flying on the taxpayer dime. We raised this money privately. This is a House Democratic caucus, privately fundraised and a private expenditure. As a matter of act, the hotels we're staying in tonight I'm paying for, for the entire group, out of my campaign account.

[06:10:12]

And so this is not a government junket, as the governor, you know, knows how to do. These are lawmakers using all the resources that we have privately to speak out on this issue and represent the state of Texas in Washington.

KEILAR: So that's a no, it's not being paid for by taxpayers, just to be clear?

FISCHER: That's correct.

KEILAR: And so these are private planes. Is there a reason why you all flew together on charter planes, instead of flying commercially?

FISCHER: Absolutely. One, when you break a quorum, you want to be successful. So I think everybody wants to see, you know, 51, 52, 55 Democrats on the same plane. That's reassuring.

No. 2, you know, to get a flight out of town at a time certain, with you know, getting everybody to come in from across the state, you need to fly privately. And as you can see from the picture, we're talking about using the same kind of plane that the public uses every day. There's no -- there's no fancy couches or anything like that. This was just a regular plane that moved us from one state to another.

KEILAR: So you'll be gone for a month, it sounds like.

FISCHER: If that's what it takes, yes.

KEILAR: All right. He said he'll call special session after special session. Eventually, we'll see this come to a head. But in the meantime, thank you so much for joining us today.

FISCHER: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: Texas state Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, we appreciate it.

We have some new details and how some states are looking to block vaccine mandates for children in schools.

BERMAN: Plus, just in: the first excerpt from what's billed as an explosive new book on the final days of the Trump presidency, including how the big lie started.

And new CNN reporting on the assassination of Haiti's president, how some of the suspects were previously U.S. informants.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:01]

BERMAN: So a new book by "The Washington Post" reporters Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig goes behind the scenes to document former President Trump's final years in the White House.

Seconds ago, literally, seconds ago "The Washington Post" released the first excerpt from the book, "I Alone Can Fix It," and to discuss it with us now, senior political analyst John Avlon.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: The excerpt they released goes into election night in great detail. And what seemed to be a push among some to just go out and declare victory, no matter what the results says.

The book has a scene that involves former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. I'm going to read that now.

"After a while, Rudy Giuliani started to cause a commotion. He was telling other guests that he had come up with a strategy for Trump and was trying to get into the president's private quarters to tell him about it. Some people thought Giuliani may have been drinking too much and suggested to Bill Stepien" -- the campaign manager -- "that he go talk to the former New York mayor. 'Just say we won,' Giuliani told them. Same thing in Pennsylvania. 'Just say we won Pennsylvania,' Giuliani said. Giuliani's grand plan was to just say Trump won state after state, based on nothing. Stepien, Miller and Meadows thought his argument was both incoherent and irresponsible."

AVLON: Yes. What you're looking at there is perhaps the genesis of the big lie, denial. It's a strategy without any strategy, masquerading as a will to power. Somehow you could force this through, absent any facts.

And Stepien and Miller had worked for Rudy Giuliani in the past, and apparently, they knew enough to say, Look, this is incoherent. This is irresponsible, which it definitionally is.

But when you look and see the big lie and how it unveils over the course of the coming days, weeks, months, it may have begun at that particular moment: just say you won, absent any facts.

BERMAN: The former president was incredibly receptive to this.

AVLON: Sure, of course.

BERMAN: And had been saying for weeks and months that, if he didn't win, it was going to be rigged. So in essence, this was repeating the same claim that Trump -- Trump was almost destined to make.

AVLON: Absolutely. And here you see that sort of confluence between Trump's need and knowing how to play to your client in that case. Just blowing up democracy in the process.

Trump -- this excerpt shows that Trump had been briefed by Bill Stepien to say, Look, it's going to be a long night. Initial returns may look good. But then, you're going to have more than election day balloting coming in, and things are going to tighten up.

So he knew, as we had been reporting, that this was not going to be decided on election night. And yet, he decided to go forward even that night and, you know, build on that foundation of falsehood by saying that he had won.

AVLON: I will say this also paints a story of almost everyone in that building and the world knowing it's not true, except for the president and a, according to this, you know, drunk Rudy Giuliani. And no one laying down on the floor, saying, You can't do this. You have to stop telling this lie or I'm going to go out publicly and say you are lying here.

No one stood in his way.

AVLON: No. Because that's what happens in cult of personalities. And Donald Trump clearly wanted to take this tack, and his counsel was advising it. And the train went off the rails from there, from that moment inside the White House.

And to be clear, I don't think it's -- you know, we should say that Donald Trump, you know, necessarily even thought he won. He decided to lie, because it seemed like the smart thing to do. It was emotionally satisfying for him to do so. BERMAN: We're going to have Michael Wolff on, who wrote this book

right here.

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: And all of these books sort of intersect a little bit. Wolff makes the claim that both Trump and Giuliani are so untethered from reality, it's impossible to know whether -- what they think is true or not, that those were the two who can't tell lies from the truth.

There was deep concern, according to the Rucker-Leonnig book, within the military.

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: And the chairman of the joint chiefs, Mark Milley. And there is this quote from this new excerpt just released by "The Post," too.

"Around 10:30 p.m. on election -- election night, with results from most key states still far too close to call, Milley received an interesting call from a retired military buddy, who reminded him of his apolitical role as chairman of the joint chiefs. 'You're an island unto yourself right now,' the friend said, according to the account Milley shared with aides. 'You are not tethered. Your loyalty is to the Constitution. You represent the stability of this republic.' That's just chilling."

AVLON: Yes.

[06:20:20]

BERMAN: That the chairman of the joint chiefs is being warned, and honestly, must feel as if he has to stand in opposition to the political claims coming from the White House.

AVLON: To the commander in chief, because he knows that the commander in chief is imminently capable of trying to undermine the republic by lying about election results.

So he's, in effect, getting a pep talk from an unnamed former -- former buddy from the military, saying, you know, Your loyalty is to the Constitution, which of course, Milley had internalized and, indeed, echoed later.

BERMAN: He repeated it a few days after that.

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: Milley clearly thought this is dangerous stuff.

AVLON: A hundred percent.

BERMAN: I will say this is clearly dangerous stuff. If the U.S. military is concerned about what the president is doing, that's scary.

AVLON: And the U.S. military was concerned, and I think it just underscores. And this book, you know, this excerpt takes us inside the White House on election night. There are a lot of these books coming on right now. But it should make clear to anybody who doubts how dangerous this moment and this election was to our republic.

BERMAN: Look, and again, this is a new excerpt from Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig.

AVLON: Great reporters.

BERMAN: Later, we've got Michael Wolff, who's got this book. We've got Michael Bender later in the show, who's got a new book, "Frankly, We Did Win the Election."

All three of them make the same basic case here, which is that there were people who knew how dangerous this was, yet didn't stop it. And that is something that is serious and needs to be discussed in much greater detail.

John Avlon, thank you very much.

Coming up, new details about efforts across the country to block vaccine requirements in school.

KEILAR: Plus, the White House backing local vaccine mandates but rejecting federal action. The surgeon general will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:16]

KEILAR: Efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus among kids in school is facing a challenge in a number of states. New CNN analysis finds at least seven states have passed laws prohibiting public schools from requiring vaccinations or proof of vaccination from students.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard is joining us now with more. Jacqueline, tell us what health officials are saying about this.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, health officials I've talked to say they're concerned. The worry is that these laws could hinder efforts in the future to control the virus, if a variant emerges that is more transmissible in schools or has more of a direct impact on children. So that's what health officials are thinking.

Now, states that do have these laws in place, they're arguing that these laws are to protect individual medical privacy, but health officials say the argument should really be more so about public health and public safety.

Now, the seven states identified in our analysis, we should have a map here. They include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, but the focus there has really been more so on universities. There's also Montana, Oklahoma, and Utah.

And the legislation does vary state by state. So if you look at Indiana and Florida, for instance, they're focused more so on prohibiting this idea of vaccine passports. So prohibiting requiring documentation of your vaccination status, whereas the other states are really focused on prohibiting the actual requirement of getting vaccinated.

And it's interesting, also, Brianna, when you look at the public's opinion of this, a Kaiser Family Foundation Poll found that among the public, about half of people surveyed support COVID-19 vaccine requirements in schools. When you look at parents, about one in ten say they'll only get their kid vaccinated if it's required in school. Forty-two percent of parents of kids ages 14 to 17 say their child has already been vaccinated or they already have plans to do so.

So this is an interesting conversation -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. And as school approaches, so too will more of this conversation. Jacqueline Howard, thank you.

BERMAN: So this morning, the White House is voicing support for more vaccine requirements at the local level after Dr. Anthony Fauci said they are necessary. This is as the Delta variant becomes more dominant in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I have been of this opinion, and I remain of that opinion, that I do believe at the local level, Jake, there should be more mandates. There really should be.

We're talking about life and death situation. We've lost 600,000 Americans already, and we're still losing more people. There have been 4 million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So I am in favor of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

Elizabeth, I pushed White House press secretary Jen Psaki on this a lot a week ago, about whether or not the White House was in favor of mandates or would push them. They draw a distinction between any kind of federal mandate. But now it does seem that they're at least open to or maybe even encouraging some at the local level.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, that's right. And let me show you why they're open to it. Because these numbers do not paint a pretty picture.

So let's look big picture first. You can see there from that circle, one-third, nearly one-third of Americans, American adults have chosen not to get vaccinated. Right, I'm using that language intentionally. The vaccine is out there. It can't be very far from them. It is free. They have chosen not to get vaccinated all these months into the rollout. Now, let's take a look at why and sort of their attitudes about

vaccinations. So if we look bigger picture, 68 percent of American adults say they're already vaccinated, or they're planning on doing so soon. And then 10 percent are waiting and seeing. Six percent say only if required.