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New Day

Cuomo Faces Questions in Harassment Probe; Catastrophic Flooding Hits Europe; Haiti Assassination and Protests in Cuba and South Africa; Dangerous Heat Hits East Coast; Liberals Angary over Breyer's Undecided Retirement; WNBA Star Opts out of Olympics. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 16, 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]

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And this is really signaling that the now more than five month long investigation could be nearing its final stages. Remember, Tish James opened this inquiry after two former Cuomo staffers came forward accusing the governor of inappropriate behavior. And since then we've learned more women have made claims against him. Cuomo has denied those allegations and apologized to anyone who he says may have misinterpreted his remarks as unwanted flirtation.

Now CNN has reported several of those women spoke to investigators already, sometimes more than once. And there was also reporting that the lawyers have met with members of Cuomo's senior staff. So, the governor seems to be the likely last, or one of the last, at least, people they need to sit down with before compiling this report, though the attorney general's office has said it has no timeline on when we can expect that report to be released.

These allegations, though, are something that has just been really hanging over the two-term governor for the past few months as he's tried to take a business as usual approach toward governing the state. And we know he's been fundraising ahead of a likely announcement that he will ask voters for a third term.

But about tomorrow's meeting, Cuomo's senior adviser, Richard Azzopardi, saying in a statement, quote, we have said repeatedly that the governor doesn't want to comment on this review until he has cooperated, but the continued leaks are more evidence of the transparent political motivations of the attorney general's review. And those motivations, he's suggesting, are that the attorney general, Tish James, may also put her name in the governor's race next year. That is something that isn't confirmed. But, John, of course, that's something a lot of people are speculating about. We'll see if it happens.

BERMAN: Again, this is a key moment. Whether we find out what happens, you know, in this round of questioning, or when we find out, not sure but it's certainly important.

Brynn Gingras, thanks so much for being with us this morning. We do have breaking news. Catastrophic flooding in western Europe. Dozens are dead, many more missing in Germany and Belgium. We're live on the scene, next.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, can the U.S. economy handle trillions more dollars in COVID relief? We'll have that debate ahead here on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:16]

KEILAR: Breaking overnight, more than 100 people have died and hundreds more are still missing after catastrophic flooding ripped through parts of western Europe.

CNN's Melissa Bell is live for us in Pepinster, Belgium, where the death toll rose overnight.

I mean these pictures that we're seeing, the stories that we're hearing, this is devastating, Melissa.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, we've had to come up here to this hill to get a better signal so that we could speak to you today. The communication completely out and electricity out for so many hundreds of thousands of people down there in that valley and across the border in Germany. This, though, is what we just saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BELL: This is the village of Pepinster, and you can see the devastation that's been caused by the flood waters. They're still pretty high. But this is nothing compared to what the locals tell me they saw. Essentially they say that from Tuesday morning water started flooding the cellars of these houses. We're sitting at the confluence of two rivers, which is why this village was particularly vulnerable. We're told that the dam on one of them burst and that's why by Wednesday the flood rivers rose so high, they tell us, that the waters were above the levels of those doors. So, entire houses submerged by the water.

The rescue efforts are still ongoing. But for the time being, there is in this village and in villages all around here no electricity, no water and the rescue efforts are only just beginning now. People being rescued from their homes and from their roofs.

What we're told by locals as well is that as the waters began to rise dramatically on Wednesday, really submerging houses halfway up, there was very little in the way of response simply because authorities struggled to get here. In fact, what we've been hearing from local officials is that the army was simply not ready for a catastrophe on this scale.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BELL: So, Brianna, a lot of questions in Europe about why there wasn't better preparedness for something that experts have been saying would be an inevitable consequence of climate change for years.

KEILAR: Well, Melissa, thank you so much for bringing us that story live in Pepinster, Belgium.

BERMAN: Yes. And I think we're just beginning to learn the full scope of the damage in western Europe right now. We may get a sense it's much worse over the coming days.

We're also following the latest developments in the assassination of Haiti's president and the violent protests in Cuba and in South Africa. CNN has reporters standing by in all three countries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Port-au-Prince Haiti.

Ever since the assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moise, there have been open questions about exactly what all of the suspects in this case knew about this alleged assassination plot that was unfolding.

On Thursday evening, Colombian President Ivan Duque said that all Colombian suspects in this case bear responsibility for the death of the president, but earlier in the day speaking to another media outlet Duque left open the possibility that perhaps not all Colombian suspects in this case actually knew about this alleged assassination plot. Perhaps it was a smaller group of Colombian suspects within that larger group that only they knew what was about to take place.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA CORRESPONDENT: I'm Patrick Oppmann in Havana, where the war of words between the Biden administration and Cuban officials continues to heat up. Joe Biden, in a press conference, said that Cuba is a failed state that represses its citizens. He offered to restore the Internet that was taken down by the Cuban government during recent protests and even send vaccines here, but only if an independent organization would administer them.

Cuban officials are already hitting back saying they don't need vaccines and they accuse the U.S. government of provoking these unprecedented protests that have convulsed this country for the last several days. Clearly the standoff between these two Cold War adversaries continues to deepen.

[06:40:04]

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm David McKenzie in Durban.

The situation is calmer after days of unrest, but here you see the aftereffects of this hideous violence and looting in South Africa. This was a car of suspected looters that civilians torched and chased people away. There's a dangerous racial element to this. Many people say their president is coming to this part of the country later today to try to calm the situation.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KEILAR: There are scorching temperatures. Twenty-five million people in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia are now under excessive heat warnings ahead of severe thunderstorms that are expected this weekend.

So let's check in now with our meteorologist Jennifer Gray.

OK, tell us where to keep an eye on here.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's going to be some of the big cities, Brianna, across the northeast. New York City, Philadelphia, all under this heat advisory. And, you're right, ahead of some strong storms. The same storms we were talking about yesterday across the midsection of the country.

So we're going to see the heat index top 100 degrees for places like New York, Philadelphia, even southern sections of Maine. So the heat is far reaching for sure with temperatures running about 10 degrees above normal. Your actual temperature will be in the low 90s, 92 degrees in New York, Philadelphia at 95, even Boston hitting 95 degrees today.

But here's your relief. This is that slow-moving system that's been draped across the midsection of the country. Could see additional flooding in these locations here today. But then, by tomorrow, this is all going to push to the northeast. We could see some flash flooding across the northeast, but it will also bring down those temperatures by the end of the weekend.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jennifer, thank you so much.

And coming up, a brand new CNN investigation. One that you really have to see to believe here. It takes us inside of a PAC operation that raised millions of dollars impersonating Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Plus, growing frustration among some Democrats after the senior liberal on the Supreme Court told CNN he's not made any decision about whether to retire. And our reporter was left with the impression he's not going anywhere, at least not now. Justice Breyer's former clerk joins us coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:46:38]

BERMAN: New reporting this morning from CNN's K-File goes inside a PAC operation that raised a total of $3.4 million to date by impersonating Donald Trump. The PAC's in question are owned by Matthew Tunstall, better known by his online persona, Matt Nox, who claims to be an award-winning producer and artist according to one of his many LinkedIn profiles.

KEILAR: Yes, Tunstall has operated the most prolific political robo call operation for the past two years. They've placed more than 3 billion calls since October of 2019. And CNN's K-File has been following Tunstall actually for a few years now. He has solicited donations and contributions through these robo calls using former President Trump's voice. And these calls combine splices of public statements made by Trump in December of 2020 after he lost the election. At that point, the robo calls began parodying election lies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm Donald Trump.

Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint a winner even while many key states were still being counted.

The constitutional process must be allowed to continue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats and radical left are trying to steal this election and President Trump needs your emergency support right now. With no time to waste and results coming in by the minute, do your part to help the campaign until the very end by pressing 3 right now to contribute to elect President Trump.

Paid for by campaign to support the president. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So the period following the 2020 election in which such robo calls were made was actually one of the most lucrative fundraising periods for the PACs, but none of the money went to Trump or his campaign. Instead, most of the money raised either paid for more robo calls or went to Tunstall himself.

KEILAR: So what does this mean and what happens to Tunstall and these PACs? Campaign finance experts tell us that PACs like Tunstall's operate in a legal gray area, if you can believe that. The FEC is dysfunctional. It hasn't regulated this arena in quite some time. And the DOJ has prosecuted only a handful of cases against PACs, like Tunstall's, that use most of the money raised to either pay for more fundraising or to line the pockets of the PAC owner.

CNN's K-File reached out to Tunstall multiple times for this story and did not hear back.

BERMAN: Seems like an illegal gray area that should raise some red flags, no?

KEILAR: Definitely. It seems like something that obviously has to be addressed and it, you know, as we understand it, what K-File discovered was it was a lot of, I think, older folks who donated, who were duped here. And I'm sure that maybe they didn't think the money was going where it went.

BERMAN: Right.

All right, this morning, liberals furious after Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told CNN that he's undecided about a possible retirement. Many Democrats want the 82-year-old to retire before the midterm elections so that President Biden can appoint a younger liberal to the lifetime position instead of risking a Republican president making the selection or, frankly, Mitch McConnell, if the Senate gets the majority again, the Republicans get the majority, blocking any nomination from Joe Biden.

Joining me now is Thiru Vignarajah, he's the former deputy attorney general for Maryland and a former federal prosecutor who clerked for Justice Breyer.

Thank you so much for being with us, counselor.

Look, Joan Biskupic, who talked to your former boss, left with the impression that Breyer was basically saying, I'm not going anywhere yet.

THIRU VIGNARAJAH, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR AND FORMER JUSTICE BREYER CLERK: Look, I don't think anybody should read too much into the words during an interview.

[06:50:02]

He has a very weighty decision to make, and he'll make that decision on his timeline.

But Justice Breyer is very practical, but he's also deeply principled. And for his entire career he's been writing and talking about the Supreme Court as the one institution that is meant to be, that has to be separate from the ordinary tumult of politics. You know, for him, this isn't just a feature of institutional design, it's a predicate for institutional credibility. And I think that has to be weighing on his decision.

BERMAN: So this is what Jeffrey Toobin on our show said about that argument.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The idea that he is somehow preserving the court by pretending that politics has nothing to do with the Supreme Court, you know, is just delusional.

The fact is, if he waits, like Ruth Ginsburg waited, thinking that, oh, well, you know, a Democrat will somehow replace me, you know, then we will get another Amy Coney Barrett when Tom Cotton is president or, you know, whoever the next Republican is. You know, this is the kind of absence of strategic thinking that has done in Democrats on the Supreme Court and we'll see if it continues here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So what do you say to that, Counselor?

VIGNARAJAH: Look, this isn't a question of strategic thinking. Justice Breyer has a commitment, not to the Democratic Party, but to the Supreme Court, the institution that he has worked for and served and is such a proud member of for so long.

You know, he's often spoken about how the Supreme Court's credibility wasn't always this way. In the 1830s there was Cherokee Nation versus Georgia where the Supreme Court sided with Native Americans. That's the case where President Andrew Jackson supposedly said, John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.

After Brown versus Board of Education, President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne Division into Arkansas because the governor had ordered the state militia to block the schoolhouse doors.

Justice Breyer thinks that the way you maintain the credibility that the people will honor the decisions, and today we do. Whether it's Bush versus Gore, or the death penalty or abortion, once the Supreme Court speaks, the people listen. And we follow the decision.

BERMAN: Can I -- can I just ask, what do you think the pressure from liberals, what do you think the impact of that is on Justice Breyer? Does -- is he aware that there are people out there who feel this way?

VIGNARAJAH: Yes, look, Justice Breyer pays attention to everything. But just as he is aware of the overriding political climate in which any one of his decisions is written -- written a majority or a dissent, I certainly think he's aware of it. But he has the muscle memory of years on the court to put that to the side and make the decision based on his health, what's good for the court, what's good for his family.

BERMAN: Thiru Vignarajah, I appreciate you being with us this morning. I'm not sure this will be reassuring to a lot of people on the left who were looking for something else, but I really do appreciate your time.

VIGNARAJAH: Take care.

BERMAN: All right, coming up, new reporting about concerns within the Pentagon that former President Trump would try to start a full-blown war with Iran to try to stay in power after he lost the election.

KEILAR: Plus, with only half of America vaccinated fully, the White House is launching an offensive against coronavirus misinformation.

And the daughter of a coronavirus victim responds to right wing media's anti-vax propaganda, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:45]

BERMAN: A new high profile athlete announces she is pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics because of anxiety about the ongoing global pandemic.

Carolyn Manno here with more in the "Bleacher Report."

Good morning.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

Well, we saw some athletes decide to opt out of their season's earlier in the pandemic because of concerns about their physical health. But now we're continuing to see the mental toll that the rigidity of a bubble environment takes on some. And WNBA star Liz Cambage, who would represent Australia's Olympic women's basketball team, is opting out of the game. She's citing her mental health. The 29-year-old said she's been having panic attacks, not sleeping, not eating for the past month and, in a statement on social media, she wrote that the prospect of having no friends, no family, no fans and no support system outside of the team during the Olympics is honestly terrifying for her.

The Australian team is scheduled to play the USA in an exhibition game later on this afternoon.

In the meantime, tennis star Novak Djokovic is opting in for the Olympic games. The 20-time Grand Slam champion initially expressed some hesitation about going to Tokyo and being in the Olympic bubble. But after wins at the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon, he will now pursue the elusive Golden Slam, which is winning all four majors in a calendar year and a gold medal. And that would also mean winning the U.S. Open, of course, after the games. Steffi Graf is the only player who has a Golden Slam to their credit at this point in time. The decision to compete in the Olympics might reflect his desire to join her there and become the only man to earn that distinction, which would set him apart from his well-known contemporaries (ph).

NEW DAY continues right now.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar on this NEW DAY.

From Yankees to TV stars, new breakthrough infections among people who have been vaccinated, underscoring the urgent need to vaccinate even more Americans.

KEILAR: And a woman who says her dad died because of COVID misinformation is going to join us live with a message for Fox and Republicans who are pushing anti-vax propaganda.

BERMAN: Plus, Donald Trump's version of, if I did it, goes to the coup.

KEILAR: And is pouring trillions of more dollars into the economy right now a terrible idea?

[06:59:52]

We'll have that debate on CNN's NEW DAY.