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DHS Warns Truckers Plotting Protest on Super Bowl Sunday. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 10, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:10]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Thursday, February 10th. And I am Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman this morning.

We are beginning with breaking news. Staff members at the White House residence discovered wads of printed paper in a clogged toilet on more than one occasion during the Trump administration and believed that it was the former president himself who was trying to flush documents. That and other explosive revelations in a new book by CNN political analyst and "New York Times" Washington correspondent Maggie Haberman, who joined us just moments ago.

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MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I learned that staff in the White House residence would periodically find the toilet clogged. The engineer would have to come and fix it, and what the engineer would find would be wads of, clumped up, wet printed paper, meaning it was not toilet paper. This was either notes or some other piece of paper that they believe that he had thrown down the toilet.

What it could be, Brianna, could be anybody's guess. It could be post- its, it could be notes he wrote to himself, it could be other things. We don't know. But it certainly does add, as you said, another dimension to what we know about how he handled material in the White House. We have known for several years since my colleague Annie Karni broke the story that Trump was ripping up pieces of paper and that his staff was having to tape it back together for archival purposes. This is how he has handled documents and pieces of paper all his life in terms of ripping them up. But this was something -- this was something different, and it was not, as I was told, an isolated incident.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And his toilet, like no mistaking whose toilet it was?

HABERMAN: In the pipes. It was in the pipes. And this was, this was his bathroom. So, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In the pipes more than once. This comes amid "New York Times" reporting that the National Archives found what are believed to be classified material in documents that former president Trump took with him when he left the White House. CNN's Whitney Wild joins us with this developing, changing, shifting, mind-blowing story.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Every minute there is a new, more surprising development here in this series of events. And at this point, all of these things combined are so troubling to federal officials at the National Archives that they are now asking prosecutors to try to figure out if this was just sloppy or something more sinister.

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WILD: "The New York Times" reporting, the National Archives and Records Administration believes they have found classified information among the 15 boxes of records they retrieved from former president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month. A source briefed on the matter telling "The Times" the Archives reached out to the Justice Department about the discovery, and the DOJ referred them to their inspector general to examine the matter. It's unclear if the DOJ will formally investigate.

CROWD: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!

WILD: During the 2016 presidential election, Trump repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton over classified material on her email server.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: After her private server was revealed last month, her staff deleted all the emails and wiped it clean. People who have nothing to hide don't bleach. Nobody's ever heard of it. Don't bleach their emails or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law.

WILD: A source familiar with the matter told CNN the Archives has also asked the Justice Department to look into Trump's handling of the White House records and whether he violated the Presidential Records Act and other rules, such as mishandling classified information. The act requires all records created by presidents to be turned over to the National Archives at the conclusion of their administration. The request follows reports that some of the documents were torn up and had to be pieced together.

ADAM SCHIFF, (D-CA): It looks very willful. And if there is evidence of potential willfulness in the destruction of documents, that is the kind of case that, if any case is going to be prosecuted, might be prosecuted. WILD: It's not clear if the Department of Justice will take the case.

And in a statement on Wednesday, the archives said "We do not comment on potential or ongoing investigations." And while it has been more than a year since the 2020 presidential election, more efforts from the Trump administration to overturn the election are coming to the surface. "The Washington Post" reporting that Rudy Giuliani asked a Michigan prosecutor to give voting machines to the Trump team in November, 2020.

SCHIFF: That's the kind of thing you see in the third world. You don't expect to see that in what we would hope would be the most best democracy in the world.

WILD: When reached for comment, the Michigan County prosecutor's office declined to comment.

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The county in question is Antrim County, which originally mistakenly showed Biden winning the conservative county on election night but was quickly corrected. No systemic fraud was found. An election official called it a human error.

On Capitol Hill, the House investigation into the January 6th attack continues with another member of Trump's inner circle subpoenaed, former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro. The committee interested in Navarro's efforts to overturn the election results in 2020.

PETER NAVARRO, FORMER WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: We were going to challenge the results of the election in the six battleground states.

WILD: Navarro responding to the subpoena by saying, "As the domestic terrorists running the January 6th partisan witch-hunt are well aware, President Trump has invoked executive privilege, and it is not my privilege to waive."

And as a byproduct of the January 6th attack, the GOP going after its own. Two members of the House select committee investigating the attack censured by the Republican National Committee, Representative Liz Cheney, and Representative Adam Kinzinger. But it's the three words the RNC used in reference to the January 6th insurrection that have people talking, quote, "legitimate political discourse."

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: They weren't referring to people who have broken into this building. Everyone understands that.

WILD: An early draft referred to the investigation as a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in nonviolent and legal political discourse. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell taking issue.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election. WILD: While other members of the party don't see it that way.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX): The word "insurrection" is politically charged propaganda. It is happily used by Democrats and the corporate media. January 6th, there were thousands of peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment right to speak.

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WILD (on camera): And to add to the growing list of investigations, the breaking news this morning, the House Oversight Committee now announcing it too will look into Trump's handling of presidential records. Back to you.

BERMAN: Whitney Wild, thank you very much.

KEILAR: All right, let's bring in the anchor of EARLY START and attorney at law Laura Jarrett as well as "Washington Post" national correspondent Philip Bump. This story is overflowing.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, EARLY START: You had to get that in.

KEILAR: I had to. But this, I can't believe we're talking about this. What do you make of this revelation?

JARRETT: On the one hand, it should not be surprising based off of what we know about this former president's behavior. The question is whether any of this is criminal, and whether he's going to be held accountable for it. As Whitney so, I think, aptly pointed out, was this just sloppy, or is this actual criminal behavior? And that's all going to come down to a question of the former president's intent, because for anything to actually stick in court, it has to be that he knowingly violated the law.

We have a lot of evidence to suggest he was, at least, on notice for a couple of these things. And there's two big, I think, criminal statutes on point here. We talked about the Presidential Records Act. Put that aside. That's toothless. Criminal law, there is one on actually the destruction of federal property. We know that that is potentially on the table here. Again, it would require him to knowingly break the law.

The second one is the mishandling of classified information. And that one is interesting because as the president, he has the ultimate classification authority. He is the commander in chief. As the former president, he has an obligation to protect classified information. Did he know it was classified and destroy it anyway? These are the sort of open questions we have and we need more reporting on.

BERMAN: All the reporting does say he was warned by chiefs of staff, too, not to destroy stuff, and also by the White House counsel.

JARRETT: They have burn bags. There is no reason for him to flush anything down the toilet. They have burn bags for a reason.

BERMAN: Several times the plumbers had to be called in, Phil. In the pipes. I can't get past the idea that flushing documents down the toilet requires some kind of intent.

PHILIP BUMP, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, you give me the good topic here. I think you're right. I think it's clearly the case that Donald Trump at some point in his life had this practice that he adopted of destroying things he was working on. Perhaps at Trump Tower there was similar problems with the plumbing. We don't know. But this may be something that he did.

It's absolutely the case, when we're talking about intent, I'm sure the chiefs of staff, lots of people around him were saying, look, you've got to do these things, you're the president now. But we all know that Donald Trump paid very little heed to either the norms or the regulations surrounding the presidency. That just wasn't his thing. He didn't pay any attention to that.

Does that let him skate on this? I don't think so. We will remember that Donald Trump Jr. avoided charges in the Mueller investigation by virtue of not knowing the law that he actually violated. So there is precedent here within the Trump family for intent giving them a pass.

But the other question here is, does the Biden administration want to actually move forward with the prosecution? And I think all of us in here, if Donald Trump were charged by the Biden administration, we recognize that as an extremely volatile decision to be made.

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Is that how justice should work? Absolutely not. Is that something that the administration will be paying attention to, or Merrick Garland would be paying attention to? One would have to assume so.

JARRETT: Before we even get to the issue of charging, they have to at least look at it, because as we were talking about off camera, think of all of the times that we have walked through all the rules and the regulations and the norms that this former president broke. And so if they don't even look at -- don't even look at the situation, what kind of precedent does that set for a person who may once run for office again? What message does that send the public about what the purpose of these laws are?

KEILAR: If we don't know what he flushed, then you can't -- you correct me if I'm wrong, you can't really know how bad this is.

JARRETT: It depends. If they're government property, it doesn't really matter whether it was a letter from Kim Jong-un or the weather map.

KEILAR: But doesn't it matter when it comes to the appetite to actually do something?

JARRETT: Yes, then you're marshaling more in the land of reality. We don't know what he flushed yet. But maybe they were drying it out. There is all --

KEILAR: They should have, to be clear.

JARRETT: -- you have to piece together the paper.

KEILAR: It was actually their responsibility to dry it out, I would presume.

BERMAN: Phil, pick up on what I think is one of the crucial points here, which you're both getting at, is Merrick Garland, the pressure that Merrick Garland is under now, if not to charge, to investigate. Talk about that.

BUMP: This is what the National Archives have done, right. They have made this recommendation that this actually be looked at more closely, which I think we all understand the National Archives is not the nation's premiere law enforcement agency, obviously, right. What they do is they say, hey, this is something that needs to be delved into further. So this is apparently what's going to happen next.

Now, there's a lot of question about what is happening at the Justice Department in regards to Donald Trump right now. There's a lot of speculation that perhaps Garland is not digging into this with all of the energy that he might. There is other evidence out there that suggests that there actually is a very slow prosecution that's being built, or at least a thorough investigation. We don't know. It is a black box, it's intended to be a black box. I think this is a very small part that will be added on to the black box.

KEILAR: Fascinating. Thank you.

JARRETT: Keep working on the names.

KEILAR: I know. Do you have one?

JARRETT: Flush gate.

KEILAR: It is like still so-so, though.

BERMAN: I don't want to diminish it, though, because I think it changes the nature of this discussion about the document destruction that we knew about, the classified information that we knew about, it now raises it because of an action that, to me, requires some level of --

JARRETT: There is no earthly reason for him to be flushing documents down the toilet. There are a different of ways to handle documents. That's not one of them.

KEILAR: It is not just a paper ripping fetish or something like that.

BERMAN: As long as there was toilet paper.

KEILAR: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Also breaking overnight, a new and potentially explosive scandal that threatens to blow up the premiere event at the Winter Olympics. CNN has learned that a Russian figure skater, a minor, has failed a drug test. The six person Russian team has not received their gold medal for winning the team event this week. The medal ceremony has been delayed for what is being described as legal consultation.

KEILAR: So it's unclear exactly when this positive test was taken. Was it taken during the Olympics, before the Olympics? We're still buttoning that down. The only minor, though, on the Russian figure skating team is the 15-year-old that I'm sure you've seen, Kamila Valieva. She made history on Monday when she became the first woman to ever land a quad, four turns, at the game.

Joining us now is two-time Olympian Kaitlyn Weaver, who is a figure skating Olympian you may recognize, a Canadian ice dance champion. Kaitlyn, thank you so much for being with us. What is your reaction as you hear this news?

KAITLYN WEAVER, FIGURE SKATING CHAMPION: Thank you for having me. I have to say that I'm disappointed. As an athlete, we want to have faith in our sport and in our system to be fair. And when this news keeps coming up in sport, you lose trust in the system. And so it's definitely hard to watch.

BERMAN: First of all, Kaitlyn, it's great to talk to you, longtime fan. If you were part of one of the other teams now, the U.S. team, who got the silver, what would be going through your mind right now, that you were defeated by a team where there is now this report of a positive drug test?

WEAVER: That always goes through an athlete's mind is hoping that everybody else that you're competing against is clean. And, the proudly clean athlete, you have to have faith in the system. But I do think that if I was there competing in Beijing, I think I would have a hard time wake up this morning and going to practice. And it's tough when you just don't know. And so I really think that it is on the ICU and the International Olympic Committee to make good choices going forward for the future of our sport.

KEILAR: This is a team, right, this is a nation of athletes that are essentially on probation. They're not even competing on the Russian team. It's the Russian Olympic Committee, which is because Russia was part of a huge campaign of doping.

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And they have been banned for these games.

What should happen, if this all plays out, there was doping, and they're on probation doing it, what should happen to Russia?

KAITLYN WEAVER, FIGURE SKATING OLYMPIAN: That's the question of the hour. I really don't know, Brianna. I mean, it is just hard to see this continue to happen year after year Olympic Games after Olympic Games. I think there is a big decision that needs to be made. I hope that this is the last instance we see of this.

And for it to allegedly be a minor, I think it represents a much larger issue about governing women's bodies and young people having agency over them, so I hope that this is the last time that we're going to talk about this. Change needs to happen. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And, look, I guarantee you what you're going

to hear, arguments, this was a heart drug, it didn't build muscles, this was several months ago, potentially, that the test happened, so what does that matter? It wasn't at the Olympics.

But, Kaitlyn, as someone who has been in the middle of this all, explain why it does matter.

WEAVER: It's really hard to say because you just don't know what goes on behind closed doors. And, you know, if there is any manipulation happening, that's where my heart goes out to, is the athletes and the victims of this, especially if it happens to be a minor. So, you know, it is just hard to have trust, I suppose. And when you're an athlete and even when you're a fan watching, you want to be able to understand what's going on and know that the right people are winning, the people that played fair and square, are the ones that get to, you know, earn the respect of the world through these events.

So it's hard to say what is going to happen. So I really am looking forward to hopefully the news coming out in the next few hours.

ROMANS: It is hard to have trust, especially when there is a delay like this, it does make you wonder. It makes you say who is talking to whom about what right now? What possible deals are being cut? I don't know there are any, but the delay makes you ask those questions.

Kaitlyn Weaver, thanks so much for being with us.

WEAVER: Thank you.

BERMAN: So a new warning from the Department of Homeland Security about the trucker protests spreading across Canada. How it could affect the Super Bowl.

And we are about to get our eyes on a critical inflation report. We'll bring you those numbers as soon as they're released.

KEILAR: And Team USA figure skating star Nathan Chen is now an Olympic gold medal champion. The advice that John Berman gave him more than ten years ago when he taught him everything he knows.

BERMAN: I said skate better than me. Skate better than me.

KEILAR: Well, he did that, for sure.

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KEILAR: A warning this morning from Homeland Security that a trucker convoy similar to the blockade that paralyzed Canada's capital could try to disrupt major events in the U.S. beginning with this weekend's Super Bowl.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is in Ottawa, which is Ground Zero for the protests against vaccine mandates. Donie, good morning to you.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna. As you can see here, Ottawa, part of Ottawa outside the country's main parliament building brought to an absolute standstill. And this is exactly what many figures on the right in the United States wants to happen south of the U.S./Canada border.

Have a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want all these mandates gone. And I'm not leaving until all the mandates are gone.

O'SULLIVAN: What is this stuff that you can't do right now as a non- vaccinated person?

SAMUEL GAUTHIER, SUPPORTING TRUCKERS PROTESTIING IN CANADA: I live in Quebec. It is a bit more intense than other places in Canada. But, look, I can't go skiing. I can't go to Walmart. I can't go to Canadian tire.

I can't go to Home Depot. I can't go to restaurants. I can't go to bars. I can't go to the gym.

O'SULLIVAN: Truckers have brought part of the country's capital to a standstill, right outside the national parliament.

DYLAN FRIESEN, PROTESTING VACCINE MANDATES IN CANADA: I was hired on at a job not too long ago for a transport company out of Ontario. I was let go due to not willing to get the vaccines for my job and, I mean, that's not right for companies to be able to decide that. And take away our right to earn money and support our livelihood.

O'SULLIVAN: Now this is all happening despite the protesters representing a small minority of Canadians. More than 80 percent of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated and the Canadian Trucking Alliance, which has condemned these protests, have said about 85 percent of Canadian truckers who regularly cross the U.S. border are vaccinated.

For you, why is it important for you to be here today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, because -- because like your --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't talk to them. This is fake news.

O'SULLIVAN: Despite the fact the people may be part of a minority in Canada, they are receiving a lot of support from conservatives and other right wing figures in the United States.

CHIEF PETER SLOLY, OTTAWA POLICE SERVICE: We are now aware of the significant element from the United States that have been involved in the funding, the organizing, and the demonstrating.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): The Canadian truckers are heroes. They are patriots. And they are marching for your freedom and for my freedom.

O'SULLIVAN: This is very much a 21st century protest, playing out as much on the internet as it is on the street. Viral memes and sometimes false and highly offensive historical comparisons that circulate online are being repeated verbatim here, like this.

Because you're not vaccinated, have you -- is there businesses, stuff you can't do in Canada now?

LAURIE BUNCH, SUPPORTING TRUCKERS PROTESTING IN CANADA: Yeah, I'm, like, basically if you want to compare Canada to anything, it is like Hitler's Germany, and we're like the Jews. One of the goals is to simply -- is to get a group of people you can get everybody angry with, and in this case, it is the unvaccinated.

O'SULLIVAN: There is a lot of people here streaming live online.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just going to follow you guys, make sure you tell the truth.

O'SULLIVAN: That's all right. Good.

Documenting every moment on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take those cans off of that truck! Is that your property?

O'SULLIVAN: In an effort to clear the protesters, police have begun confiscating gas canisters resulting in encounters like this, that clock up thousands of views online.

JIM KERR, SUPPORTING TRUCKERS PROTESTING IN CANADA: My name is Jim Kerr and I give a shit about Canadians. How do you feel? Hi, my name is Jim Kerr and I care about human beings, especially ones trying to keep themselves warm in their trucks while fighting for the freedoms of Canadians. How do you feel?

RYAN, PROTESTING VACCINE MANDATES IN CANADA: The main problem I have is the censorship going on. It is everywhere. People's accounts get taken down, even Facebook, if you don't say the right thing, even this convoy, a lot of groups started and people are even live streaming and all of a sudden I heard yesterday in the restaurant my feed was cut. My feed was cut.

O'SULLIVAN: Facebook shut down some groups on its platform supporting the truckers after the online outlet Grid News found that they were being administered by a hacked account that belonged to a woman in Missouri. So, whoever was really running the groups wanted to hide their identity.

And GoFundMe shut down a fund-raiser for the truckers after police told them the protests had become an occupation. But organizers here have still been able to raise millions of dollars through an alternative service, a self-described Christian fund-raising platform. Organizers say the money will help keep the truckers on the street. FRANCOIS, PROTESTING VACCINE MANDATES IN CANADA: The last time I saw

my wife was on January 28. I have not seen her since. I am here of my own volition, 100 percent. There are some groups with resources trying to help us, sending us money, helping us so we don't go bankrupt.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way.

O'SULLIVAN: Trump indicating he's supportive of truckers descending on Washington, D.C., other American right wing figures goading their audiences to act.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: The question is how long before protests like this come here?

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Will we need our own trucker rally to end all of this insanity once and for all?

O'SULLIVAN: What is the main goal, the main objective of the truckers here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Freedom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN: And, Brianna, just to stress, these are the minority here, 80 percent, 8-0 percent of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated. As you see here, a minority enough to cause chaos -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Eighty. Donie, thank you so much for that illuminating report.

A blunt admission from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Why he says the league has fallen short by a long shot.

BERMAN: Goodell sparking rumors of her own with this huge diamond ring.

KEILAR: Wow.

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