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New Day

RFK Junior Invokes Nazi Germany. Trial in George Floyd's Murder; Boris Johnson Drops Covid Restrictions; Beijing Olympics Begin Amid Controversy. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 24, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JUNIOR, ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYER: Ambition of every totalitarian state from the beginning of mankind, to control every aspect of behavior, of conduct, of thought, and to obliterate dissent. None of them have been able to do it. They didn't have the technological capacity. Even in Hitler's Germany, you could -- you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you can hide in an attic, like Anne Frank did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Anne Frank was in the Netherlands, not Germany. But, you know what, facts be damned here, because, as I said, that's simply deranged. Never mind they fact the Nazi's wanted to withhold vaccines as their genocidal policy.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp.

S.E., I don't know what to say.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it defies -- I mean, what can you say? You can't deal with the argument on its merits because it's bonkers. It's also really embarrassing. That's ugly, ignorant stuff. And you can sort of sense the embarrassment from -- from Democrats, from members of his own family. I mean a couple of years ago, members of RFK Junior's family wrote an op-ed that said, we love our Uncle Bob, we love our brother Robert, but the stuff he's saying is wrong, and, in fact, it's dangerous. And you can sense the embarrassment and the heartbreak there.

And it's not just -- it's not just anti-vax stuff. I mean it's anti- vax stuff going back even before Covid. But he's into 5G conspiracy theories. He spends his days posting memes of Bill Gates as Dr. Evil on social media. He's been deplatformed several times because he has spread so much disinformation.

It's embarrassing because he's an incredibly educated person. And someone that would bring some credibility to a lot of these idiotic conspiracy theories, baseless conspiracy theories, from, you know, one of America's, you know, favorite families. So, this is ugly, ignorant stuff.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: It also has this effect of just downplaying the Holocaust, which, clearly when you look at what people know and don't know right now, S.E., they need to know about it. They are ignorant. You know you're seeing that trend.

CUPP: Yes.

KEILAR: And we actually have a full screen where you can see just -- this is a tiny sample of what is going on here, from Lauren Boebert, to Congressman Warren Davidson, to Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend. This happens all the time and it has the effect of diminishing just how bad the Holocaust is at a time where people need to know.

CUPP: Yes. Well, absolutely, at a time where anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews and temples and synagogues is not an uncommon thing. And there is this very weird, and someone who studied this should really look into this, there's this very weird intersectionality between anti- vaxers, conspiracy theorists and folks who really like to doubt the severity of the Holocaust, right? I mean you put some up there. There's Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lara Logan. It's a weird Venn Diagram. And I think there's -- there's some, like, water crossing going on when it comes to this kind of stuff. And you're right, it needs to be pointed out every time.

When the Auschwitz Memorial is, you know, disappointed in you, I think -- I think that's pretty much the worst place you could be.

BERMAN: S.E., I'm going to shift gears here and make clear that this next issue is so completely different -- so completely different, I don't want to give any indication that it's connected to the deranged comments that Robert Kennedy made before.

CUPP: Yes.

BERMAN: The only thing they have in common is these are words actually spoken out loud, you know, in people who breathe air. That's it.

CUPP: Humans. Right.

BERMAN: Jen Psaki was talking about the failure of the voting rights legislation in the Senate. And she's trying to give some Democrats and progressives who are upset that it didn't pass, she was trying to give them some guidance about what to do with their energy.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: My advice to everyone out there who's frustrated, sad, angry, pissed off, feel those emotions. Go to a kick boxing class, have a margarita, do whatever you need to do this weekend, and then wake up on Monday morning, we've got to keep fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: S.E.

CUPP: Listen, I did not hear that the way other people did. And I know, you know, outrage culture is real.

I didn't think she was saying, relax, I don't know what everyone's so worked up about. Just go have a drink. I thought she was saying, I understand your frustration. We have so much more work to do. We're only getting started. Do what you've got to do this weekend to recharge because come Monday morning we're back at it. So I didn't have a problem with the content.

However, I will say, there is -- there is a lightness and a -- and a kind of cockiness around some folks in the Biden administration right now that I do not think matches the tone, the climate and the political environment in an election year around voting rights.

[06:35:17]

I don't like fearmongering for the sake of it, you know, just to get people mad. Mad at their neighbors, mad at invisible boogiemen. I think that's a little dangerous, in fact. But what I've been telling Democrats now is, go -- like, go ahead and fearmonger because what Republicans are doing is terrifying. What they're doing around voting rights is really, really scary. And if voters don't sense from you the urgency and seriousness of this issue, because you're on "The View" and you're saying, you know, just go have a drink and take a kickboxing class, I don't think that's a politically smart tone to take.

It's an election year. These are really important issues. And any time you have the chance to talk about them, I would sort of make the distinction that this is -- this is the difference between like a functioning democracy and a failed state.

KEILAR: It's sort of a needle that this administration and the president himself has had a hard time threading. I think we saw that last week in his press conference, right? How do you sound the alarm on what's going on, especially at the state level as they're dismantling the things that held in the last election, but then also say, you know, tell people they can have confidence in their system?

CUPP: It has been tricky. And I don't think the administration has always done a great job of that. And it's not unfair or inaccurate to say that the stakes are incredibly high. That doesn't mean elections will be rigged. But the stakes are incredibly high.

Republicans are already succeeding at undermining voter rights and access and they're not even -- they don't even have the majority yet. Those are just facts. And I think if you point to the facts and you don't have to get out over your skis on that, if you point to the facts of what Republicans are doing, what they say they want to do, I mean the stakes don't get much higher than that. And that is what's on the line.

So, again, I don't think the tone was right. I don't think the content was wrong. And I don't think she was saying it's no big deal. But I think there needs to be less cockiness, less lightness and, frankly, a little more doom and gloom from Democrats, because that's what's happening right now.

BERMAN: S.E. Cup, happy times, thanks so much for joining us this morning. Appreciate it.

CUPP: Thank you. Yes.

BERMAN: A little more doom and gloom.

All right, this morning, the federal trial begins for three officers accused of violating George Floyd's civil rights. Who defense attorneys will blame.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm done with Covid.

It's a pandemic of bureaucracy. It's not -- it's not real anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Comments that set off a firestorm both for and against. You're going to hear from a doctor who says she needs to grow up and stop acting like a child.

KEILAR: And he spent $1,400 on a flight and a hotel, $700 to see his favorite singer, Adele. And then she postponed her concert. What she decided to do to make it up to him and others.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:27]

KEILAR: Opening statements are set to begin this morning as adult film star Stormy Daniels faces off in court with her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti. Daniels accuses Avenatti of cheating her out of $300,000 in proceeds from her 2018 book deal. Avenatti is being charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and has pleaded not guilty. He says he mostly worked unpaid for Daniels and had an agreement to receive a cut of her book proceeds. Daniels is expected to testify tomorrow.

BERMAN: Also this morning, jury selection begins in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against "The New York Times." Palin is suing the paper over a 2017 editorial falsely linking her to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords that put a political action committee ad that showed crosshairs on a map of Democratic electoral districts. Though "The Times" quickly apologized and correctly the error, and a judge dismissed the case, it was revived by a federal appeals court in 2019. The trial is expected to last about two weeks and could reflect sort of a reframing of First Amendment protections for the press.

KEILAR: Today also marks the first day of a federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers who were on the scene of George Floyd's deadly arrest. They're accused of violating Floyd's civil rights by failing to provide medical care as Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live for us in St. Paul, Minnesota, with more on this.

Omar, what are we expecting?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna. So this is the first trial for the other three officers charged in the killing of George Floyd. They all face a charge that they showed indifference, as you mentioned, to Floyd's medical needs. And at least two of them, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, face a charge that they did nothing to stop and intervene with Derek Chauvin as his knee was on Floyd's neck.

Now, Chauvin is not a defendant in this particular case. All four of the former officers were initially going to be tried together, but last month Chauvin pleaded guilty, so the judge severed his proceedings from this trial.

In this trial, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, all former Minneapolis police officers, have all pleaded not guilty to their charges. They still face state charges, but that case was moved back so this trial could move forward.

Eighteen jurors were selected in just a day, including six alternates. As the judge has indicated, he is concerned about a Covid outbreak and wants to have those alternates. No black men or women were selected as part of that. Some might be asking as well, why we're in St. Paul when this happened in Minneapolis.

[06:45:02]

Well, at the federal level, cases are randomly assigned to judges. And this one just happened to be in St. Paul.

When things get going a little bit later this morning, we're expecting to hear from the individual attorneys for these officers, along with the prosecution for about 30 to 40 minutes each as part of their opening statements for a trial that's expected to last about four weeks.

Brianna.

KEILAR: A significant day. We know you'll be tracking it. Omar Jimenez, thank you.

And up next, from governor to substitute teacher. How New Mexico is tapping into unconventional resources as the state faces extreme staffing shortage because of the omicron variant.

BERMAN: Prime Minister Boris Johnson set to ease the United Kingdom's Covid restrictions this week, saying that folks should learn to live with it, just like the flu.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:03]

BERMAN: A crucial week for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fight to stay in power. Johnson has been in hot water for weeks over these bashes, these parties he threw at 10 Downing Street when the rest of the country was under strict lockdowns. He's hoping to reset his overall agenda and the ton there and he announced plans to drop Covid restrictions when they lapse on Thursday. All this while a report on the party-gate sensation is set to be released this week.

CNN's Scott McLean joins us now live from London.

You know, Scott, this might be an issue of trying to change the focus from his own problems.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And it may be working, John.

Look, the restrictions that England has been under since December were called plan b. But later this week we'll be back to plan a, which means almost no restrictions will be in place at all. So the government has already announced last week that people no longer have to work from home and that masks are no longer required in the classrooms. And, Thursday, the mask mandate in place across England, the indoor mask mandate, will be going away. So will the need for Covid passes, which were required for large gatherings and for nightclubs as well.

For most people, the only difference they will notice between this Thursday and pre-pandemic is that, of course, if you test positive, you have to isolate. But the government has even managed to shorten the isolation period down to as little as five days.

The government's new approach here is to live with Covid and to treat it essentially like they treat the flu. And the reason that they think they can do that is because omicron seems to have peaked, cases are falling sharply, so are hospitalizations and deaths have seemed to have leveled out at a pretty low level. It also helps that almost two- thirds of the eligible population has gotten their booster shot.

Across the channel, though, it is a very different story. Some 50,000 people were out this weekend in Brussels to protest restrictions there, and things turned violent. In France, the president's plan to, in his words, piss off the unvaccinated is working quite well. There were protesters on the street of Paris to protest the French health pass law, which comes into effect today and it requires people to show proof of vaccination to access things like bars and restaurants and a range of really everyday activities. A negative test in France starting today, John, no longer good enough.

BERMAN: Wow. All right, Scott McLean, keep us posted. Thank you very much.

So, the winter Olympics brought to you by a country accused of genocide. How athletes, sponsors, NBC should face the reality of what is happening inside China.

KEILAR: And just in, Pope Benedict admitting he was at a meeting where an abusive priest was discussed. Who he now blames for his earlier denial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:54]

BERMAN: Only a few days to go until the winter Olympics in a country accused of ongoing genocide. So, how should athletes, sponsors and the like challenge China at the Beijing games?

Joining now is Josh Rogin. He's a "Washington Post" columnist and CNN political analyst, and the author of the book called "Chaos Under Heaven."

And, Josh, I have to say, I'm fascinated by this. I don't know how NBC handles this, right? The Olympics, the lights come up, you're in a country accused of genocide, what do you say, welcome to the winter Olympic games? Aren't you happy to be here?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, on one hand, there's the optics of it because you have a lot of sponsors, not just NBC, but all the corporate sponsors who are not a just part of it, they're paying for it, they're sponsoring it. They're paying -- they're putting their money on the line and actually giving that money to the regime that credibly accused of genocide. And, you know, for a news organization, of course, that's doubly difficult because they're supposed to be objective, but they have an interest in the outcome, so that's a total conflict on one hand.

And, on the other hand, you have these athletes. And the athletes are really in the toughest position because they're being threatened by the Chinese government. And last week the Beijing Olympic Committee said they could be arrested for speaking out in any way that offends the Chinese Communist Party. And that could be almost anything. And then they're going to force them to download an app that is a health monitoring app, but it could also be riddled with security vulnerabilities that could put their speech at risk according to independent research groups.

And then, you know, you look at all of that and you say, oh, my gosh, you know, what are we doing here? Why are we celebrating this country that's committing all of these atrocities. And if you're not celebrating it, you're just paying for it or you're just participating in it, do you have an obligation to say something. I think the groups involved say that you do. And I think for these participants, it's going to be a really tough call to make.

KEILAR: You know, you mentioned this in your column about this, the part-owner of the Golden State Warriors saying that nobody cares about what's happening to the Uighurs, that anyone who claims the contrary is virtue signaling.

And, look, when I heard that I was appalled and yet you raise a very interesting question, which is, in a way, maybe he's right when you look at sort of the conundrum and the way that companies, et cetera, are acting.

ROGIN: Right. This is a part owner and tech billionaire who was on his own podcast who said that nobody cares, especially he didn't care. And that shocked a lot of people. But, you know, I don't think he's right, I think he's just more right than wrong because if you look at these corporations, and we're talking about the International Olympic Committee, we're talking about Airbnb, we're talking about the German insurance company Alliance, we're talking about all of the sponsors, they've made a financial calculation. They've decided, apparently, that not enough people care, that the shame of them paying for and endorsing a genocide Olympics is greater than the benefits that they're going to get from it financially. And those benefits could be access to the Chinese market. Benefits could just be, you know, whatever they think they're going to get out of participating.

And, you know, it reveals an ugly truth about our society, which is that our elites are often up for bribery.

[07:00:00]

That they're often easily corrupted, even in the face of the world's worst atrocities. And that, of course, is what the Chinese Communist Party thinks of us, that we can all be bought off, that all of our morals are just