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Fight Begins Over Supreme Court Vacancy as Breyer Retires; Ukraine: 'If Russia Decides to Fight, We Will Fight Back'; China Demands U.S. Stop Interfering with Olympics, Taiwan; Top German Cleric Admits He Neglected Priest Abuse Scandal; 'Bomb Cyclone' Blizzard to Slam Northeast; North Carolina Drivers See Gas Prices Increase. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 27, 2022 - 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: Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Thursday, January 7, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

[06:00:29]

We are beginning with a rare opportunity for a struggling president to reenergize his party and to make history in the process. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer set to announce his retirement at the White House today, giving President Biden a chance to deliver on a campaign promise to nominate the first African-American female justice to the bench.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go right to the White House to get a sense of the timing, the short list, and potential Republican plans to slow down the process.

Jeremy Diamond is there. So Jeremy, fill us in to the details here.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we learned yesterday that Justice Breyer is set to retire from the Supreme Court after nearly 30 years.

But the president yesterday, he was tight-lipped on this. Without a formal announcement, the president would not weigh in. But today, Justice Breyer and President Biden set to make this official.

And this opening gives Biden a chance to nominate a justice to the Supreme Court and potentially make history by nominating the first black woman to serve on the bench.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DIAMOND (voice-over): After nearly 30 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, today Justice Stephen Breyer set to announce his retirement and join the man who will nominate his replacement at the White House.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every justice has the right and opportunity to decide what he or she is going to do and announce it on their own.

DIAMOND: The 83-year-old is the oldest and most senior liberal justice, nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

STEPHEN BREYER, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I, Stephen Breyer, do solemnly swear.

DIAMOND: Breyer is expected to stay on the bench until the end of the court term this June and until his replacement is confirmed, a well- placed source familiar with the matter tells CNN.

Senate Democrats vowing to act fast.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): In the Senate, we want to be deliberate. We want to move quickly. We want to get this done as soon as possible.

DIAMOND: The big question now, who will President Biden pick? On the campaign trail in 2020, then-candidate Biden vowed to make history and nominate the first black woman to the bench.

BIDEN: I've committed that if I'm elected president and have an opportunity to appoint someone to the court, it will be -- I will appoint the first black woman to the court.

DIAMOND: The likely front-runner, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal judge and former Supreme Court clerk for Breyer.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): We will start with Judge Jackson.

DIAMOND: She was vetted by Biden and his team just last year and comfortably confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, with three Republicans joining Democrats in support.

JUDGE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, D.C. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS: When you become a judge, you take an oath to look only at the law in deciding your cases, that you set aside your personal views about the circumstances.

DIAMOND: A close second choice is California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger. A former acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration, she once clerked for the late Justice John Paul Stephens and has argued cases in front of the high court.

JUSTICE LEONDRA KRUGER, CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT: Oral arguments doesn't very often change the outcome of cases. Occasionally it does. Occasionally, oral argument reveals a new dimension.

It is also, in the United States Supreme Court, the first time that all the judges sit down together. DIAMOND: Other names circulating, Minnesota District Court Judge Mimi

Wright; outgoing NCAA legal defense and educational fund president, Sherrilyn Ifill; Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Eunice Lee; Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, and South Carolina Judge Michelle Childs, who has the backing of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the man who convinced Biden to publicly pledge to nominate a black woman.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): She has the kind of diverse background, in life and education and work. An incredibly smart woman that I believe would do well.

DIAMOND: The eventual nominee will face a high-profile confirmation process, with the 2022 midterms looming. Senate Democrats don't need Republicans to confirm Biden's nominee. But Republican opposition could still be a factor.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We don't know who the nominee is yet. So that's something that the president has an opportunity to make, should there be a vacancy.

DIAMOND: Whoever is picked, Breyer had this to say about the job.

BREYER: Really, when you put on that black robe, you understand, whatever the appointment process, however politically involved it was, once you put on the robe of a judge, you're a judge. And that means you're a judge for every person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:05:06]

DIAMOND: And this decision by Justice Breyer to retire comes after he came under a lot of pressure from liberal activists to avoid changing the balance of the court and give President Biden an opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice.

But the president himself and the White House, they have been relatively silent over -- amid all of that pressure. But this does present President Biden now with a huge political opportunity ahead of the 2022 midterms, particularly as his legislative agenda on voting rights and on the Build Back Better agenda has been stalled. This could be a huge win for President Biden.

And we know Democrats want to move quickly to nominate and confirm a successor to Justice Breyer -- John.

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond at the White House. It will be interesting to see what the president and Justice Breyer have to say today. Thank you.

KEILAR: Let's talk about this now with Thiru Vignarajah. He is a former federal prosecutor, former deputy attorney general for Maryland, and a former clerk for Justice Breyer.

And Irin Carmon with us, as well. She's a senior correspondent at "New York" magazine. She is also the co-author of "Notorious RBG."

Thiru, to you first. Who do you think, you know, you would pick? Give me the first two that you would pick.

THIRU VIGNARAJAH, FORMER MARYLAND DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Look, I think the short list is full of exceptional candidates. It's going to be a very difficult choice for the White House.

But I think the two that everybody are talking about would be natural fits. Not only are they exceptionally accomplished jurists; they're proven; they're trusted. In the case of Judge Jackson, you have somebody who went from Harvard to Harvard Law School, "Harvard Law Review," and then clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Breyer.

I wouldn't be surprised if people thought she was a natural heir apparent to Justice Breyer's seat.

BERMAN: And you clerked with her. Can you tell us about her?

VIGNARAJAH: I clerked with Justice Breyer. So I don't have any --

BERMAN: But you worked with her, right?

VIGNARAJAH: -- direct interaction with --

BERMAN: OK.

VIGNARAJAH: We overlapped briefly. The clerks know one another. We obviously have a chance to interact. But I would be overstating it if I said that.

BERMAN: All right. Irin, you know, President Biden has promised this historic nomination. Talk to us about the significance of that.

IRIN CARMON, JOURNALIST/CO-AUTHOR OF "NOTORIOUS RGB": Of course. Well, I think it's important to remember that this is an institution, the Supreme Court, that, like many institutions of government, in the past declined to recognize the humanity of black people in general and of women in general. And of course, black women. The Supreme Court has a grim history of doing so.

I just wonder what about all of the talents that we never got to know the names of who were blocked from the Supreme Court.

President Biden has also made a priority of nominating black women to the appellate courts where they've also been underrepresented. It's interesting to contrast it with the priorities of the Trump administration, which actually disproportionately nominated white men to the bench.

But this is also something that people hoped that President Obama would do when he had the opportunity to fill, or at least nominate somebody to Justice Scalia's seat. The hope was somebody like Ketanji Brown Jackson, who President Obama actually interviewed, could potentially galvanize people ahead of that 2016 election. It did not happen. He chose Merrick Garland. And so with this, President Biden has an opportunity to say to a core

constituency of the Democratic Party but also a constituency that has long been overlooked, underrepresented, is disproportionately affected by many of the court's decisions to say, you know, your voice matters, that your qualifications matter.

And just listening to the names that happened -- you know, Justice Ginsburg used to say it would be enough if there were nine women on the Supreme Court. I think you could easily fill the court right now with nine qualified black women.

KEILAR: I wonder, Thiru, what you think about age playing a role in this selection process. You look at these candidates, you know, one of them, who is 61, is considered maybe a little too old because the idea is obviously that Democrats would like to keep a justice on the Supreme Court for too long.

You look at Leondra Kruger, she's 45. I mean, that's someone who could have a very, very long career on the bench.

VIGNARAJAH: It's a remarkable trend. But this has become a very real factor.

The court that Justice Breyer joined was far less politicized. It was far less contentious. Every one of the justices on the court he joined was unanimously confirmed or confirmed by overwhelming margins.

Today, it's very different. Each one of these processes is highly polarized, and the votes are often quite contentious.

And that means that the person who gets there needs to be there for a very, very long time, because you don't necessarily know when the next appointment is going to come. And both parties from contributed to this. Both parties are guilty of this.

And at the end of the day, there was a time when the average distance between one appointment and the next was just two years. When Justice Breyer joined, it was then 10 years before the chief justice, Chief Justice Roberts, was appointed to the court. And that, I think, has become part of the modern trend of appointments to the Supreme Court.

BERMAN: You know, Irin, I think that the age has to be a primary consideration. The difference in age between Leondra Kruger, for instance, and Michelle Childs is 10 years.

CARMON: Yes.

[06:10:10]

BERMAN: That's two and a half presidential terms. I mean, that's an entire presidency, maybe, too. I just think the Democrats, not on the value, just on the game theory, that they -- you know, why wouldn't they go as young as they can? Why not find someone in college, practically?

CARMON: I mean, look, President Trump nominated some extremely young people to the federal bench and to the Supreme Court. He nominated -- I believe Amy Coney Barrett is 48; Justice Neil Gorsuch, 49. And so this was certainly something that Republicans were doing.

Conversely, you know, Justice Ginsburg was 60 when she was nominated. Merrick Garland, you know, President Obama's attempted nominee who never got a hearing, was 63.

And I remember as a reporter at the time, somebody saying to me, before he was named, There's no way. He's too old. So this is something that has frustrated progressive activists, not to think strategically about age.

I'm not sure that there's a huge difference between 45 and 51. But you're not going to see, I think, a Democrat nominate a 60, 63-year- old again. For the same reasons that, you know, again, look at the track record. Look at these people in their late 40s on the Supreme Court, nominated -- Trump got three nominees. And they are now set to enact a conservative agenda for many decades to come.

Anybody who does join the court, at least in the short-term, is really going to be in the minority. They're probably going to be dissenting. This is the role that Breyer reluctantly found himself in. So you also want a young person, potentially, if you have a more progressive agenda, that perhaps they can live long enough to see the balance of the court change, as well.

KEILAR: Yes. Look, this is going to be an historic proceeding ahead of us. And I appreciate you, Thiru and Irin, for being with us to talk about it.

CARMON: Thank you.

VIGNARAJAH: Thanks for having us.

KEILAR: Coming up, why did a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust just get banned from Tennessee schools?

And then overnight, heated words from China on Taiwan and the Olympics. Why the foreign minister just told Antony Blinken, Stop playing with fire.

BERMAN: Plus, major new developments in the sex-trafficking investigation involving Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. A third witness now cooperating. We have new details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:25]

BERMAN: Overnight, fiery words from China's foreign minister in a phone conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In addition to the crisis in Ukraine, they discussed the Winter Olympics and Taiwan.

And China said, quote, "The U.S. should stop interfering with the Beijing Winter Olympics, stop playing with fire in Taiwan issues, and stop creating all kinds of anti-China 'small circles'."

CNN has reporters around the world with the latest developments, starting with Sam Kiley in Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sam Kiley in Kyiv, where the foreign minister has said that it will be up to Russia to make further concessions.

This follows letters, written positions, both from NATO and the United States, insisting to the Kremlin that there will be no negotiation on the opportunity, or not, of Ukraine joining NATO. Effectively putting in writing what has been said out loud now for many, many weeks.

But on top of that, there continues to be a buildup of Russian forces on or near the Ukrainian border and continued statements coming out of the government here to remain calm but also prepare for the worst.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I'm Nic Robertson in Moscow, where the Kremlin conforms President Putin has now received and read the written response from the United States.

The Kremlin considering their response and whether or not they'll make that response public. It could come in the next couple of days. Not today, they say.

Their response, however, likely tinged with disappointment. The spokesman saying that it doesn't really seem to address or take into account Russia's core concerns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And this just in. Moments ago in Munich, Germany, the archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, holding a news conference after a damning report found that both he and Pope Benedict XVI mishandled sex abuse cases in the archdiocese. Marx has apologized to the victims, saying that he is shocked and ashamed.

CNN's Delia Gallagher, live for us in Rome with more -- Delia.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the press conference is still going on. It's been going on now for about an hour.

Cardinal Marx did not address the two accusations of mishandling against him. He has been speaking more generally about, he says, repeatedly being shocked reading this report.

Let me give you a few things that he said. He said the report represents the dark side of the church. The church was a place of fear and harm. That the report holds up a mirror to them now. And it's part of an honest view.

He was asked about Pope Emeritus Benedict and those accusations. Here's what he said. He said the pope welcomes cleaning this up, that he will make a statement, and that each person is responsible for responding to this report on their own.

So one of Cardinal Marx's comments with regard to victims in this is he said he accuses himself of not having seen the perspective of victims.

But as I say, he didn't get into any of the exact details or response to his particular accusations. We'll see if the pope emeritus does that in a coming statement, which he says he needs some time to go through. This was a 1,900-page report spanning 75 years.

But we are also expecting something from Pope Emeritus, but we don't know just when -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be waiting for that. This is just so important, what is happening right now with the church. Delia, thank you for that.

Well, get the snow boots and the shovels ready. The sleds, too. A bomb cyclone headed toward the northeast. What you can expect to face this weekend.

[06:20:10]

BERMAN: Plus, Sarah Palin seen dining at the same restaurant just days after testing positive for COVID. New York City Hall (ph) just weighed in. We'll tell you what they said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:01]

BERMAN: Brace yourself. Bomb cyclone coming. A big winter storm headed to the northeast. How big? How bomb-y?

Chad, what are we talking about here?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're talking about a low that's still in the Rockies that has to make its way all the way across the country and get into the Atlantic Ocean and then run up the East Coast.

It's going to use the water, the warm water from the Gulf Stream -- it's relatively warm -- and it's going to bomb out. It's going to get very deep and very low pressure, like what a rapidly intensifying hurricane would do, except we don't have that warm of water out there. It's very cold. We have cold air in place.

Now if we put the moisture, that's where we get the problem.

This weather was brought to you by Safelite, your vehicle glass and recalibration experts.

So where do we go from here? Well, winter storm watches are posted, all the way from Massachusetts all the way down to the Carolinas, along the coast. This is not a storm for State College, or for Scranton, or for Albany. This is a coastal storm. So if you're thinking you're going to get snow and get some snow days, east of, let's say -- I would say from Buffalo to Binghamton, no, this isn't for you. This storm is a coastal low that's going to run up the East Coast.

Now good news is, it's a Saturday storm. At least there's something about that. You may not have to drive in it.

But this is the European model. It's putting down quite a bit of snow, more snow than the American model, for sure. Take you all the way through Saturday and then on into Sunday. And you can see that the snow is along I-95 and then even east and west of there.

But the American model says, not so fast. This is going out into the ocean. And all the snow will be in the ocean, except maybe for the cape and up into down east Maine. Yes, Massachusetts will get an awful lot of snow, too, the east part. But the American model is much different than the European model, which says 14 inches for New York City.

So, you know, the American model of 2, European at 14, 2 to 14 is not a forecast. So we can't really settle on this yet, because it's going to take some time. We're going to need another 24 hours for these models to maybe agree.

Because I've looked at some models overnight that are saying some spots in Rhode Island all the way up toward Massachusetts. They could get 30 inches of snow.

So where does it go? And if it's close to land, the snow goes to the west. If it's over this perfect spot, that's where the heaviest snow is. And John, if it's off to the east, where the American model is, we get very little.

BERMAN: I had some plans to be up in the Boston area this weekend. And I saw one of the forecasts that was talking more than two feet of snow, possibly, Chad.

What needs to happen? What are we waiting to see? What's the determining factor here?

MYERS: We're waiting for the low that's in the Rockies to get get the way down to the Gulf Coast and then run up the East Coast. And if it takes this line, lots of snow everywhere. Maybe even a little bit of mixing with some sleet for Boston.

If it takes this line over what we call the 70-40 marker, that's the perfect spot for a storm, to put a lot of snow right along the big cities, then we probably get that 12 to 24.

And if it goes over here, off to the east, that's when we're talking about very little snow. Sure, I mean, Nantucket will get snow. The Cape will get snow. Even Boston will get 12. I mean, even on worst- case scenario, we're talking Boston 30. Best case scenario, probably 12.

So yes, the train to Boston may be the best part. But you may want to take your work-from-home stuff with you. BERMAN: Chad Myers. Bombs away. Thank you very much.

MYERS: You bet.

KEILAR: Bomby, B-O-M-B-Y, Berman. Is that -- that's -- is that even a word?

BERMAN: I just in invented it, just now. It's worth five letters.

KEILAR: I was going to say, I don't think that's going to fly on WORDLE at all. We'll sese. I'm going to try it.

Drivers in North Carolina are feeling the pain at the pump as gas prices hit their biggest increases in seven years. Companies there fear that this could put them out of business as AAA is warning that prices aren't coming down. They actually might end up going even higher.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich live for us in Charlotte, North Carolina, with more. Well, that is bad news, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It's bad news. And prices are up five cents a gallon in just the last month. And that makes an impact for drivers here in this state,, those coming to the state, driving through the state.

And we saw maybe a glimmer of hope, prices stabilizing over the holidays. But now these prices are right back up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The price of gas. on the rise again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every week, we use a whole lot of fuel.

YURKEVICH: And when you're filling up 500 trucks a week, it gets expensive.

SHAWN BROWN, VICE PRESIDENT OF SAFETY, CARGO TRANSPORTERS INC.: How you doing?

Diesel fuel is one of our single biggest expenses to run these trucks.

YURKEVICH: Shawn Brown is mayor of Claremont, North Carolina, and works for his family's 50-year-old trucking company.

BROWN: Each truck has 200-gallon total capacity in their fuel tanks. Drivers run on average, you know, around 2,000 miles a week. Some more, some less. You do the math on that.

YURKEVICH: We did. And with diesel up more than a dollar a gallon on average in the last year, that's about $736 each time one of these fills up, $200 more per truck, on average, from a year ago.

BROWN: Any cost that goes up will hurt your profitability.