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Trump Asked to not interfere in Georgia Race; Grand Jury Indicts Navarro; Fetterman Heart Condition More Serious than First Revealed; Parents Give Breast Feeding a Second Chance; Warriors Rebound to Rout Celtics. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 06, 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]

GABBY ORR, CNN REPORTER: Georgia is a state that he lost in 2020 and he does not want to have enemies in that state if he does decide to run.

And a surefire way to develop enemies in Georgia is to run against the incumbent Republican fighting for re-election.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Do you want to get Republicans in the state used to not going to the polls also, right? Just continually depressing the vote there. I wondered that as well.

I also -- this is pretty fascinating because, separately, because Kevin McCarthy, his allegiance to Trump, at least post his criticism, right, after the attack on the Capitol, his allegiance to Trump has been hansilly (ph) rewarded, right?

ORR: It has. And Donald Trump just endorsed him over the weekend, which actually came as a big surprise to a lot of the former president's allies.

Matt Gaetz wrote on Twitter this morning that Jim Jordan is much more of a fighter than Kevin McCarthy and that there should be a leadership takeover in the House. And so this is definitely something that has upset quite a few of Trump's sort of biggest MAGA defenders inside the House of Representatives.

And, you know, I think the reason that the former president did this and sort of the reason behind all of his calculated moves with McCarthy is to keep him close and sort of keep dangling his power over McCarthy because he knows that there's a good chance Republicans take back the House this fall and he can then utilize all of that capital that he's built up to control McCarthy and the things that he does if he becomes speaker.

KEILAR: Control McCarthy. Those are the keywords, I think, that you said there, right? He clearly thinks that he can.

Gabby, great reporting. Thanks for sharing it with us.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A federal grand jury has indicted former Trump White House Adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with the House Select Committee on January 6th. But, here's the question, why him? Why is the DOJ charging him and not others?

Joining us now, former federal prosecutor and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

So, Bannon, Navarro charged, Scavino, Meadows not.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, John.

BERMAN: How do you explain that?

HONIG: Good question.

So, four people. All of them received subpoenas from the January 6th committee. All four of them defied those subpoenas. All four of them were held in contempt by the committee and referred over to DOJ. And now DOJ has drawn a line right there. They've indicted Bannon. They've just -- Friday they indicted Navarro. But they also announced we will not be indicting Dan Scavino and Mark Meadows.

Now, how could they have drawn that line there? I see two possible ways as a former prosecutor. One could be executive privilege. The defense any of these guys will use or would have used is, well, we can't comply because this would violate executive privilege. Mark Meadows, as former chief of staff, would have the best executive privilege claim. I don't think it's a winner but it's the best of the four. Steve Bannon, didn't work for the government, would have had the worst. It's hard to separate these two on executive privilege.

There's also the fact that Meadows partially complied. He turned over a couple thousand texts, until he stopped. Dan Scavino at least negotiated with the committee before he defied them. These two outright defied the committee. Now, I think that's a very shaky basis for DOJ to reward people for partial cooperation. But if you have to try to understand why DOJ drew the line where it did, I don't necessarily agree with it, but I think that's what they were looking at.

BERMAN: There is this notion floating out there in the ether that maybe Scavino and Meadows are cooperating with the Department of Justice. How likely is that?

HONIG: I don't see that at all. I worked at DOJ. I worked with dozens of cooperators. Rule number one, if you're cooperating with DOJ, you have to admit what you did and plead guilty to whatever your crimes are. DOJ announced just the opposite on Friday. They said we will not be charging Dan Scavino and Mark Meadows. So, I do not think that's likely at all.

BERMAN: Let's talk more about Peter Navarro. How will this case progress?

HONIG: So, first of all, Navarro is charged with two counts of contempt of Congress, one for failing to testify, the other for failing to turn over documents. The maximum -- this is a misdemeanor, which means it's less serious than a felony, maximum of one year in jail for each count. But this is important and unusual. There is a minimum of one month in prison if he gets convicted no matter what.

Also important, John, this does not force Peter Navarro to testify, even if he's convicted. It's about punishment, not forcing compliance.

Now, the judge here is Judge Amit Mehta, put on the bench by Barack Obama back in 2014. He has another January 6th case. The civil lawsuit by Eric Swalwell against Donald Trump. He refused to throw that out and he made some strong comments about January 6th. He said January 6, 2021, was supposed to mark the peaceful transition of power, violence and disruption happened in other countries, but not here. This is the United States of America. It could never happen to our democracy but it did that very afternoon.

Now, what's going to come next? Peter Navarro was arraigned on Friday. He is representing himself, God bless him. He has that right. Not sure I'd advise it. He will then bring motions. He'll ask the judge to throw the case out. He'll say, I'm being targeted. He'll say, the committee is illegitimate. I don't think those will succeed. He has the right to plead guilty. Peter Navarro doesn't seem like the guilty pleading type to me. If he does not, he will go to trial. And, remember, if he's convicted, he will then go to sentencing. Has to be at least one month in prison. There's no probation here. And then he has the right to appeal.

[06:35:00]

BERMAN: Again, as you noted before, none of this, though, leads to him testifying if he doesn't want to.

HONIG: Exactly.

BERMAN: Only being penalized, perhaps, if he does not.

All right, if you're the January 6th committee right now at this point, how does this all affect you, particularly the part about Meadows and Scavino receiving no sanction for refusing to cooperate with them?

HONIG: I think I'd be frustrated. The January 6th committee is frustrated. They issued a negative statement about DOJ saying, you need to explain yourselves here.

Look, it's a mixed message at best. Some people who defy the subpoenas may be indicted but others, powerful people, won't. So, the committee is going to have to do the best they can at the hearings without Mark Meadows, without Dan Scavino and probably without all the other people who have put up resistance.

But, let's keep in mind, they still have the texts. Those texts are going to speak powerfully from Mark Meadows. Even though he's not testifying, he already turned them over. The cat's out of the bag. The committee has them. They are fair game. They are very damning. And I think we're going to hear from other witnesses who have shown

they're willing to testify and not defy the subpoenas. People like Cassidy Hutchinson, former White House aide, Marc Short, key adviser to Mike Pence, and Jeffrey Rosen from DOJ. So this happens sometimes in trials, in hearings, you don't get all the witnesses you'd like. DOJ has undermined the committee's ability to do that here, but they're going to have to make the best they can with the witnesses they have.

BERMAN: And we'll see how they do it starting Thursday night. Don't have to wait much longer.

HONIG: You got it.

BERMAN: Elie Honig, thank you very much.

Pennsylvania Senate Candidate John Fetterman's heart condition is more serious than he originally led on. Michael Smerconish joins us ahead.

KEILAR: And a gas giveaway by a pro-Herschel Walker group fueling anger among Democrats in Georgia.

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[06:40:53]

KEILAR: Democratic Senate Candidate John Fetterman's heart condition is more serious than first revealed. Details released from his cardiologist and a statement from Fetterman says he almost died after ignoring his heart condition. The revelations now raising concerns among Democrats and questions about why he wasn't fully transparent from the beginning.

So, joining us now is CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. He is the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH" and the host of the "Michael Smerconish" program on Sirius XM.

Michael, hoping that you can help us realize how vulnerable Fetterman may or may not be here, because he's like the no BS candidate, and it turns out he kind of BS'd us. So, what do you think?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think, Brianna, we really won't know until we see him on the campaign trail because he hasn't been seen in public since the election, since this diagnosis. If, in the end, he looks vibrant and he looks healthy, I think that this will all be forgotten.

We have the most exciting Senate race in the country playing itself out in Pennsylvania right now. Neither of these two, Dr. Oz or Fetterman, I think, have distinguished themselves on a substantive or issues basis. Instead, it's kind of a battle of the brands. You know, on one hand you've got the Democratic every man in Fetterman. You've got the TV star in Oz. Now, a different way that you could categorize it, you've got the heart patient in Fetterman against the heart surgeon in Dr. Oz. And the issue that you're making reference to is the fact that

Fetterman and his campaign for 17 days did not explain his need for a defibrillator. They minimized it. And that is, as you say, at odds with his, you know, no BS straight talking persona.

KEILAR: He's trying to make himself just sort of like a normal guy, right, Berman, with his statement, if we can read that.

BERMAN: Yes, I can read that for you.

Fetterman put out a statement and he said, like so many others and so many men in particular, I avoided going to the doctor even though I knew I didn't feel well. As a result, I almost died. I want to encourage others to not make the same mistake.

So, he's trying to make it about all of us, Michael.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, don't we all know that guy?

SMERCONISH: Right. We all - we all do know that guy. I mean, look, Fetterman's a guy who, when the president came to western Pennsylvania to look at an infrastructure issue, greeted him in cargo shorts. I mean that is the way in which he runs. He's the guy that you want to have a beer with. But, you don't want to have a beer with a guy who BSs you either. So, you know, like, therein lies -- I'm sure that Oz, in the fall, is going to spin this if at all as a manner of candor. You just can't trust Fetterman because, after all, he wasn't completely forthcoming about his health. But I go back to where I began, which is that when he gets out on the campaign trail, if he looks vibrant - you know, he's a big dude. He's 6'8" and he's imposing, the kind of guy who takes up the oxygen in the room. If that's the way he still comes across, I think this will largely be forgotten. It remains to be seen.

BERMAN: You know, senators -- electing a senator is not like electing a governor or a president. The health of the candidate doesn't usually play into things. That's not - you know, there are people who get elected senators into their 90s. So it's not necessarily something in and of itself that's a campaign issue, Michael.

SMERCONISH: Hey, John, I'll go you one better. Bernie had a heart attack and it - and a lot older than John Fetterman in the last presidential cycle and it really didn't impede him. You know, in the end, he was still Bernie. He was out there and it didn't cost him at all.

I think if he had not been active, vibrant, looking healthy after the heart attack, it would have been a different story. And the same rule applies here.

KEILAR: Would this be a much bigger problem for him if he wasn't facing off against Mehmet Oz? I mean, for instance, you said this is, yes, he is a cardiac surgeon, but Oz also has his own problems, right? He got hammered by Congress for hawking diet products, whereas Fetterman is a guy who actually, like, he lost weight, 148 pounds. You say he's a big guy. He was a much bigger guy before. [06:45:02]

He talked about that being embarrassing.

SMERCONISH: Yes.

KEILAR: I mean he is the -- he loses the weight, and the other guy is the one who's hawking the diet products.

SMERCONISH: Hey, none of this is to -- I mean Fetterman's the guy who's the subject of today's focus, but none of this is to excuse the negatives that Oz brings to the table.

Brianna, remember, at primary time, in the last surveys, Oz was viewed unfavorably by half the Republicans. Now, he went on to win, but he went on to win because he had the support of Donald Trump and I think that provided him just enough to get past both two other candidates who were in that race.

But neither of them had such deep support with the party's stalwarts. Fetterman presided over the state senate for eight years as lieutenant governor. He didn't have a single Democratic state senator support him in the primary. Oz had poor standing among Republicans and was able to just squeak past Kathy Barnette and Dave McCormick.

KEILAR: Yes, look, it is tough. It is tough over and over for politicians to be forthcoming about their health. But sometimes these things just -- look, they get out there. You see them. And we're going to see it when he's on the debate stage, I think we'll know, Michael. And I know you'll be watching along with us.

Michael Smerconish, thank you so much.

SMERCONISH: You bet. Thanks.

KEILAR: So, the baby formula shortage has led some mothers who actually had quit breast feeding to go back and give it a second chance, and they are not happy about it.

BERMAN: And Rafael Nadal has no match at the French Open. He just won his 14th title at Roland-Garros, his 22nd grand slam overall, and CNN just sat down with him. That's ahead.

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[06:50:55]

KEILAR: As baby formula is being shipped from overseas to curb the shortage in the U.S. and parents struggle to find product on shelves, some mothers have opted to give breast-feeding a second chance.

So, let's bring in CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

I imagine this looks sort of -- you know, it takes many different shapes here, whether it's people trying to reestablish their supply, or they're trying to continue as they go back to work when maybe they weren't going to, Elizabeth.

What are you finding?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. So, every woman's story is different, but what we're finding is that this infant formula shortage, it's having ripple effects. It's changing people's lives in ways that you might not really have thought of.

So, let's take a listen, take a look, at two moms who we met in the Jackson, Mississippi, area.

So, Amy Gauff (ph), she has a daughter, Eva (ph), and she went back to work and she switched to formula. But then she couldn't find the formula that her daughter liked. She tried others. Nothing went down well for her daughter. And so she is now, after six months of not nursing, trying to relactate and give it a second try.

Now, I want to be clear, she loved nursing her daughter, but she had gone back to work and this is -- there's something bittersweet about this for her.

Also, very similar for Stratton Brown. She was planning on weaning her baby, Zoe (ph), but she realized that she couldn't because of the infant formula shortage. She just couldn't find the formula that they needed. So now she's going to continue breast-feeding and pumping. Again, it's not that she doesn't want to do this, it's just that it can be really difficult.

Let's take a listen to Stratton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STRATTON BROWN, MOTHER WHO'S TURNED TO NURSING AMID FORMULA SHORTAGE: I have no complaints about nursing, it's the -- it's the extra on top of it. It's the pumping. It's the schedule. It's rigorous. It's not getting the sleep through the night. It's - it's kind of frustrating in that sense to not have control over, like, what - what I'm doing with my - my life at this point surrounding feeding her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, Brianna, no question, the moms we talked to, they're not complaining, but they're saying this is a struggle. They really were planning on weaning, stopping breast-feeding, and they say now they can't.

And this is going to go on for some time. Over the weekend, the Abbott plant in Michigan did reopen. That was the one that was closed for months. But it's going to be weeks before they can make product and get it out on to supermarket shelves.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, it's about the time. It's about fitting it in between meetings or on your breaks from whatever your job is. COHEN: Right.

KEILAR: You know, it's - it's tough. It's impossible for some people. And we really have to note that.

Elizabeth, thank you so much for --

COHEN: It really is.

KEILAR: Yes, thank you so much for focusing on this sorry.

COHEN: Thanks.

KEILAR: The Golden State Warriors bouncing back to even their series with the Celtics at one game apiece. Hooray. "Bleacher Report," next.

BERMAN: Boo.

KEILAR: Hooray.

BERMAN: Plus, as the Senate returns today, a big revelation to CNN about what's not included in the bipartisan gun reform talks.

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[06:58:00]

BERMAN: A setback in the NBA finals, but one we can all hope the Celtics will overcome.

Coy Wire has this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Good morning, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

It's shaping up to be an awesome finals, right? The Warriors defensive star Draymond Green said that they needed an attitude adjustment after losing their first game one there against the Celtics. The series headed to Boston on Wednesday. They were provoking and annoying the Celtics all night, including John Berman. They were pestering them on defense. The Warriors had 15 steals in the game. Three of Boston's starters had just two points.

Offensively, Steph Curry shining bright, hitting one of his five three-pointers from near the bench. Game high 29 from him. His play elevated his teammates like Jordan Poole, helping the Warriors go on a run in the third from half-court at the buzzer. It's money for Poole. Plus 21 is the Warriors best point differential in any quarter of any finals they've ever played in. A 107-88 blow-out win for the Warriors. Series tied now at one apiece.

Let's go to Paris where the king of clay reigned supreme yet again. A master class by Rafael Nadal, blasting past Casper Ruud in straight sets, winning the last 11 games. Celebrating his 36th birthday on Friday. And yesterday he claimed his 14th French Open title and record extending 22nd grand slam. He's now 112-3 all-time at Roland-Garros.

He sat down with our Christiane Amanpour just hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I mean, there we have it, the great trophy.

RAFAEL NADAL, 22-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Fourteen times, 22 grand slams, a whole load of other, you know, U.S. Open, Australian Open, two Olympic gold medals. Are you ready to declare or at least have people say that you are now the greatest of all time? You wouldn't agree when I asked you last time.

NADAL: I honestly don't think much about that. And from the bottom of my heart, I really don't care that much, you know? I mean, I -- I think it doesn't matter. You know, I think we achieved our dreams.

[07:00:00]

I achieved my dream. And I enjoy what I am doing.