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Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed about Russia; Trump's Statement Differs from His Attorney's; Weekly Jobless Claims Released; Mail Ballots Rejected under New Texas Law; Marc Klaas is Interviewed about Missing Children. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired February 17, 2022 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Proactively authorize sanctions on the banking system.
I do also think it's true that President Biden has the authority to impose those sanctions immediately if there's a Russian further invasion of Ukraine and then when we return from a week of recess where many of us are traveling around the world, or going to our home states, we'll promptly enact the authorizing legislation.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: But if that's really the case, I mean why were Democrats and Republicans showing a united front here in the last month about moving forward and acting if, in the end, you're saying, oh, you know, we don't even actually have to do this?
COONS: Well, Brianna, I cannot tell you how frustrated I was that after days and days and days of negotiating, ultimately, we could not get Republicans and Democrats to agree. That wasn't for a lack of trying and it wasn't for a lack of willing to be reasonable and accommodating and to make compromises.
The public statement that is out, that has the chairs and rankings of all the relevant senior committees here in the Senate and our leadership, makes it clear that we support President Biden's effort to reinforce the eastern flank of NATO. We've sent 5,000 American troops to several countries on the front lines to stand strong with Ukraine and its territorial integrity and independence and to stand ready to impose crippling sanctions on Russia.
KEILAR: The Republican alternative is to put sanctions in now. What are you worried about -- what do you worry will happen if that -- if that is the plan, if that is something that you would move forward with? COONS: Brianna, there were just slight differences over how much of
the Nord Stream related sanctions to do immediately versus giving our ally, Germany, a number of days or weeks for them to impose sanctions on this pipeline project. Having met with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as did a number of other senior leaders here in the Senate when he was here, I was convinced, as were many of my colleagues, it's best to let our close ally and partner, Germany, take the steps they've said they would take. And then, if for some reason they don't due to internal politics, make it clear that we would.
When President Biden met with Chancellor Scholz, President Biden said, if Russia further invades Ukraine, that pipeline is over. It will be ended one way or the other.
So, forgive me, Brianna, what really matters here is that there is public unity in the face of Russian aggression, not the ins and outs of whether we could get three senses this way or that way on legislation.
KEILAR: OK. And just -- I want to ask you just very quickly because I am out of time here, but what does a -- I mean what does a public statement, what -- a resolution, what does that really do?
COONS: It shows solidarity by the Senate and its leadership that we will oppose Russian aggression against Ukraine.
KEILAR: All right.
Senator, thank you so much.
Senator Chris Coons, we appreciate you being with us.
COONS: Thank you.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, we have new CNN reporting this morning concerning the New York attorney general's investigation of the Trump Organization. The AG's office now says that a Trump public statement, one issued by the former president, differs from what his attorney is telling the court about the former president's financial health.
CNN's Kara Scannell here with the latest on this.
I found this to be really interesting. This was sort of Trump's belligerent response to the Mazars news. It may be even getting him in bigger trouble.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I mean, the New York Attorney General's Office is certainly trying to use that statement against them and to further their efforts to try to get a judge to compel the former president to testify under oath as part of their civil investigation. And in their investigation so far they've alleged that multiple assets on Trump's financial statements have been inflated.
Now, Trump's lawyers, in a court filing on Monday, said he doesn't have enough knowledge to be forced to answer questions about all of these very specific and detailed things. The very next day, Trump issues a lengthy public statement where he
points to, he's got a lot of cash, he's got little debt, he says this doesn't even include my brand value, which would be an additional billions of dollars.
Now, the AG's office is saying, well, hold on a minute, you know, this doesn't comport with what your lawyers said just the day before and they want a judge to compel him to testify. There's a hearing in that today.
BERMAN: The same day the lawyers are saying he doesn't really know what's going on, he basically puts out a spreadsheet release.
SCANNELL: Right. He puts out part of the financial statement. He's pointing to saying, I know that this doesn't include, you know, this value he wants to add that says the Trump brand is worth, you know, $8 billion. He's saying, oh, I know we didn't include that. So, that's something that now the AG's office is saying, you do know something about this.
And, you know, Trump has been deposed under oath in the past many times. He has answered questions about his financial statements. He did in a defamation lawsuit against "The New York Times" author who wrote a book, Tim O'Brien, and he answered specifically how certain of these numbers came to be. You know, his lawyers were trying to say, he doesn't know this, but he put it right out in the public again that he might.
BERMAN: It's really interesting to watch. Clearly on some thin ice here.
Kara Scannell, thank you very much.
So, Texas voting rights advocates say their worst fears about the new election law are already playing out before their eyes.
KEILAR: And just released, the weekly jobless claims, after sky high retail sales, but also record inflation.
[08:35:07]
What it all means for the economic recovery.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: So, just in moments ago, weekly jobless claims.
CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans has the numbers.
What are they?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and they ticked up a little bit, 248,000. So these are layoffs, first time unemployment claims in the week. That is still near pandemic levels. These are numbers that you want to see. And when you look at the trend, you can see the trend is very clearly tapering off of these -- of these layoffs. This is a job market that is humming along and these numbers pretty much reinforce that.
Inflation, of course, is the big story. Not the job market. The job market's so strong it might be contributing to inflation in these higher wages that we're seeing across the board.
But the inflation story overrun a little bit yesterday by retail sales. John, retail sales up 3.8 percent in January. This was a big surprise. This tells you the American consumer is powering ahead despite the higher prices. Still buying lots of stuff, still with great demand coming out of the Covid economy here.
[08:40:07]
So, the consumer is still powering ahead here.
Walmart had earnings this morning to show the same sort of story. Of course, Walmart is a low-priced, you know, super retailer. So, inflation pays into its sort of business model. But Walmart had a very good quarter.
And, finally, this new report from Fidelity I want to tell you about. Fidelity looked at all the people who invested in 401(k), in retirement accounts in the last quarter. Guess what, 38 percent of people investing in their 401(k) raised their contribution, they're contributing even more. And even all that job hopping last year, very few -- very few were cashing out of their 401(k)s. It still paints this picture of despite the head winds from inflation of a strong consumer position here right now, John.
BERMAN: People still taking care of their bottom line, they're still buying stuff, even though it is costing more.
Christine Romans, thank you very much.
KEILAR: In Texas, voting rights advocates say their worst fears are becoming reality just weeks ahead of the state's March 1st primary. Thousands of mail-in ballots are being rejected and sent back to voters after a Republican-backed law introduced sweeping changes to the Texas election code.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher live for us in Houston with this story.
This is sort of what was warned about coming true, Dianne.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There was testimony that predicted exactly this. You know, Texas is the first primary of the 2022 season. It's also one of the first tests of those sweeping restrictive voting law changes that were put into place across the country last year. And if you're voting by mail, for some of those voters, Texas simply is not making the grade.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAM GASKIN, TEXAS VOTER: I have been a voting rights activist for a long time. I have registered voters in this county for 25 years.
I'm angry. I am -- I'm righteously angry.
GALLAGHER (voice over): After decades of helping others make a plan to vote, a controversial new election law landed 74-year-old Pam Gaskin in unfamiliar territory. Her mail ballot application was denied, not once, but twice.
GASKIN: I am Pam Gaskin. You know, super voter. How could this happen?
GALLAGHER: First, Ford Bend County had yet to update applications under the new law, which now requires voters to add their Texas driver's license, or partial Social Security Number, to the application, which is what Gaskin did in her second attempt.
But, there's a catch.
GASKIN: The law says it has to be the number that was on your application when you registered to vote.
GALLAGHER (on camera): When did you register to vote?
GASKIN: Forty-six years ago in this county.
GALLAGHER (voice over): Because she wrote her valid license number but had registered with her Social, the application was rejected.
KENNETH THOMPSON (ph): People aren't going to vote.
GALLAGHER: Ninety-five-year-old World War II veteran Kenneth Thompson's (ph) ballot application was also denied twice. In 1940s, Harris County, he didn't use either number to register, so, no match.
In Texas, only a person who was over 65, disabled or out of the county can vote by mail. But days before the application deadline, there are thousands of rejections across the entire state, all political parties, and this isn't the only problem.
ISABEL LONGORIA, HARRIS COUNTY ELECTION ADMINISTRATOR: Death by 1,000 cuts.
GALLAGHER: A tight timeline to implement changes means less training and voter education, says Harris County election administrator Isabel Longoria. Fourteen percent of mail ballot applications there have been rejected over ID issues so far.
LONGORIA: We're still getting emails on all these tweaks in the law. What we're leading to now is a higher than usual, almost double, rejection of mail ballot applications.
GALLAGHER: But now the actual ballots are also being flagged and returned across the state. Nearly 40 percent so far in Harris County, overwhelmingly due to the new ID requirements, which voters need to write again in a space under the flap on the external ballot return envelope. There's so much confusion, she's double staffing at phone banks.
LONGORIA: We got 8,000 calls in January alone, 5,000 of which were about mail ballot voting.
GALLAGHER: Texas is one of 19 states that passed restrictive voting legislation in 2021.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Now let's make this final.
GALLAGHER: But before Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 1 into law late last year, activists warned lawmakers about potential snares, like ID match and complicated envelopes.
SARAH LABOWITZ, POLICY AND ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, ACLU OF TEXAS: The challenges that we're seeing now are a feature of SB-1, of the voting law, not a bug (ph).
GALLAGHER: The secretary of state's office telling CNN in a statement, our office has been working as quickly and diligently as possible, within a compressed time frame to provide guidance to both election officials and voters on changes to the voting process in Texas. For Gaskin, the long journey is almost complete. An online ballot tracker, now required under the new law, says hers have been received.
GASKIN: Twenty-eight days, three attempts, success.
What worries me is that everybody is not as tenacious as I am.
[08:45:01]
They're not going to stick with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GALLAGHER: Now, look, election officials, like Longoria, want voters to know that if their ballot is returned with missing or incorrect ID information, that in most cases they can correct it.
Also, early in person voting began this week in Texas. Activists are going to be watching because that new law, Brianna, well, it also included further empowerment and access for those partisan poll watchers. So there's concern about potential intimidation in this already very charged climate.
KEILAR: Yes, certainly.
Dianne Gallagher, great report. Thank you so much.
So we do have some brand-new details on the rescue of that six-year- old girl who had gone missing two years ago, found by police under this staircase.
BERMAN: And the huge backlog at the IRS. Nearly 24 million Americans still waiting for their tax refunds from last year. How long are you going to have to wait?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:04] KEILAR: A little girl missing for two years was found this week, hidden under a wooden staircase with her mother, who had lost custody of her.
Paislee Shultis was four years old when she was reported missing in 2019, as seen in this photo that was released by police. Officials had visited the home where she was found several times while investigating her disappearance, but it was after two and a half years that investigators finally obtained the necessary search warrant that led them to a tiny pair of feet in a secret space under the steps leading to a basement.
The girl's biological parents are facing a judge, they did that yesterday, for charges related to her abduction.
And joining us now is Marc Klaas, he is the father of Polly Klaas, who was abducted at knife point and killed in 1993. He is also the founder of the KlaasKids Foundation, which he says he started to help other kids and to give meaning to his daughter's death.
Marc, thank you so much for being with us.
What did you think when you heard about this case?
MARC KLAAS, FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, the very first thing that popped into my mind is how much hope this must give to other parents of missing children. We see this happen occasionally, somebody -- some child will be missing for -- for years and then be recovered safely, and it just brings joy to the heart of certainly people like me, but also to the hearts of people that have currently missing children, because if this girl can come home, so can their child.
The other thing that really struck me was the extreme situation that she was living in. Having to live an invisible life and hide in that horrible little room under the staircase. So I'm really glad this thing resolved itself well.
KEILAR: So, you know, you look at this case and I think, yes, it was a success, there were also all of these misses. And I think police kind of felt it, right? That's why they kept going back. And there were misses as well when we look back at your daughter's case when it came to apprehending the man who murdered her, almost -- almost, right, with the police apprehending him. So I wonder what you think the lessons are for law enforcement when it comes to how they handle these missing and endangered child cases.
KLAAS: Well, sure. When Polly was kidnapped, there were no missing child protocols. So that every time a new case was reported, law enforcement would reinvent that wheel time and time again. And we all know that the more time that passes after a child is abducted, particularly in a stranger abduction, the less likely you are to recover that child alive. So it was heartening to see the protocols adopted after Polly's case. But, obviously, there are still loopholes, there are still holes that need to be filled and then I think this case points out some of those. It needs to be easier for authorities to get into these homes, to be
able to -- to be able to search for these kids. Because like I say, she was invisible. The neighbors hadn't really seen her. Anytime somebody would come over, they would hide her in this little room. It's a terrible way to live.
KEILAR: What do you think recovery looks like for her?
KLAAS: Oh, I think she's going to have a great recovery. I mean she seems to be a resilient young child. She now needs to get an education because she hasn't done that at all. But she needs to reunify. And the reunification process is probably key to the whole thing. She'll obviously need psychological counseling to put her head back into a place where she understands that she's loved by people and that she does have opportunity. But I think that the prognosis is very good for her.
KEILAR: Well, Marc, we want to thank you for coming on. You're doing tremendous work with the KlaasKids Foundation and bringing hope and purpose to so many families as they're in really tough times. And we thank you for being with us this morning.
KLAAS: Thank you so much for having me.
KEILAR: Coming up, the touching moment that L.A. Rams receiver Van Jefferson learns his wife is in labor, minutes after his Super Bowl win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JEFFERSON, L.A. RAMS RECEIVER: Mommy's going to have a baby. We've got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:58:36]
BERMAN: It is time for "The Good Stuff."
Super Bowl Sunday was truly super-sized for Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson. This was him before the game, alongside his very pregnant wife and daughter. During the game, she went into labor and was taken to the hospital. He didn't find out until after the Rams' victory. And now, for the first time, we're seeing that very moment captured on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JEFFERSON, L.A. RAMS WIDE RECEIVER: Can I get a hug? Oh, my goodness, I haven't gotten a -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Van -- Van, your wife's giving birth right now.
JEFFERSON: Oh, my gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy? Where you going?
JEFFERSON: Mommy's going to have a baby. We've got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Daddy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
JEFFERSON: Yes, mommy's going to have your brother.
Mommy's going to have your brother. We've got to get to the hospital. Are you ready?
We've got to (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So after rushing to meet his newborn son at the hospital, Jefferson tweeted this picture of mother and child with the message, MVP. That -- his response was so good. It was like not a moment of hesitation. Oh, my God, we've got to go.
KEILAR: Yes.
BERMAN: This is on. It's on.
KEILAR: The clock is ticking, especially on baby number three.
But I will say, I love that he put her as the MVP, because she truly is the one who delivered the win on that day.
What a day for him, though, right?
BERMAN: What a day for him. And I -- you know, he had just won the Super Bowl, but his response was what every other father's response would be at that very moment.
KEILAR: Should be.
[09:00:02]
BERMAN: Well, actually, is, I think, for most of us. It was such a lovely, lovely moment.
And Van Jefferson is set to join us live on NEW DAY tomorrow morning.
All right, Secretary of State Blinken set to address the U.N. Security Council very shortly.
Our coverage continues right now.
