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House January 6th Select Committee to Hear Testimony from Former Trump Campaign Manager Bill Stepien; President Biden to Visit Saudi Arabia; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Does Not State Explicitly Her Support for President Biden's Possible Reelection; White Nationalists Arrested for Conspiracy Near Pride Parade; Gas Station Owners Say they are Taking Loss to Help Customers Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired June 13, 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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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER HEARD, ACTRESS: Again, how could they, after listening to three-and-a-half weeks of testimony about how I was a noncredible person, not to believe a word that came out of my mouth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The jury ruled that Heard owes Depp millions in its verdict.

NEW DAY continues right now.

Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, June 13th. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar. The January 6th committee front and center just a short time from now, live hearings with a surprise witness, Donald Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Bill Stepien facing cameras and the country. What does he know, what is he willing to tell the committee? CNN has learned that Stepien is appearing under subpoena, which does add a wrinkle of uncertainty into just how much he will be cooperative.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Today's hearing will focus on Trump's lies about election fraud and how they helped fuel the mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6th. And we'll hear evidence that Trump knew the claims were baseless but spread the lies anyway. A member of the committee telling NEW DAY it's part of the proof that could lead to the potential prosecution of Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA) JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: We are laying out a roadmap for the American people to understand all of the facts. And I think the Justice Department is watching very closely. And like the chairman said, all of the information to the committee has collected will be shared with the Department of Justice in a way that they can evaluate it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Elaine Luria says they will show with evidence with not just one congressman, but other congressmen sought pardons from Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA) JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: We've been asked, is there hard evidence? There is evidence. There are -- we have the receipts, essentially, to show that Congressman Perry and then others did explicitly request pardons from the Trump White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now, CNN chief political correspondent and co- anchor of STATE OF THE UNION Dana Bash, and CNN anchor and senior Washington correspondent Pamela Brown. Take us through, Pam, what we are going to see today.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are going to be five key witnesses, Brianna. And taking center stage first off, is Bill Stepien, the former Trump campaign manager. A source familiar tells me he has spoken with the committee previously. He will be testifying today under subpoena. And it will be a big deal if he comes out and does say that President Trump -- former President Trump lost the election and that he knew it, that he was advised of that.

We don't know exactly if he's going to come out and say that, if he's going to be cooperative. One source telling me he's not necessarily going to be a friendly witness. He is advising, and this is interesting context, he is advising a candidate that is running against the Vice Chairman Liz Cheney who was endorsed by Trump. So that just gives you a little bit of context there.

And again, he was the former Trump campaign manager, so he was there behind the scenes during those key meetings after the election where they were looking at the data and they were seeing the writing on the wall that Trump lost the election and advisers were telling Trump this.

He's going to be paired with Chris Stirewalt, the former FOX political director, who called Arizona for Joe Biden, causing a backlash, and he was fired after that. So that's going to show, that pairing, I think, is going to show how the lie that the election was stolen permeated Trump world and beyond the GOP, and how money was raised off of this lie.

Then there's going to be the other three witnesses, all Republicans. B.J. Pak, former U.S. attorney in Georgia who Trump wanted to come out and say that there was rampant election fraud in Georgia. He wouldn't do it, so he resigned. You have Al Schmidt, the former Philadelphia city commissioner, also a Republican, he was overseeing the election in Philadelphia. Of course, as you know, Trump was trying to zero in on Pennsylvania, falsely saying there was election fraud there. We know there wasn't. And then Ben Ginsberg, a renowned conservative attorney, very

respected. He's going to come out and talk about all these court cases that the Trump campaign lost. He's going to come out and say, according to a source familiar, that there was no widespread election fraud. So again, you're going to see the committee use words from Republicans, from people inside Trump world trying to use it against the former president.

KEILAR: There are a lot of questions about what the campaign was doing, fundraising knowingly off of what was a lie. But the committee is really going to try to stay zeroed in on Donald Trump, right, what he knew, how much, how often he was told, no, you didn't win the election.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think both. Pam's absolutely right about all of it, but particularly on fundraising. We've probably all have seen, even to this day, the fundraising emails and texts from Trump world talking about the election lie. That is a part of it.

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But you're right that what the focus is for this committee, in total and particularly on this day, is to prove intent, to prove that Donald Trump knew that he lost the election, and yet still actively not only spread lies with false information, but actively tried in the case of Georgia with the former U.S. attorney B.J. Pak, actively tried to use the levers of government to put forward that lie to overturn the election.

KEILAR: There's a question about what DOJ is going to do with what, if anything, they learned. They obviously may already have a lot of this stuff, right. But you asked Congressman Jamie Raskin if he believed the DOJ should indict Trump, and here's what he told you, Dana.

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD) JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: Attorney general garland is my constituent, and I don't browbeat my constituents. I think he knows, his staff knows, the U.S. attorneys know what's at stake here. They know the importance of it. But I think they're rightfully paying close attention to precedent and history as well as the facts of this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What did you think of his answer?

BASH: Well, he's being careful, understandably so. They're coming off of a former administration, the Trump administration, where people, where the president and people who supported the president actively tried to strong-arm the Justice Department. And the whole -- one of the arguments that then-candidate Biden took and that now President Biden is trying to take is I'm going to let the DOJ do their job. He was involved in an impeachment. It was a different kind of issue, but it's the same idea.

But the fact -- I was asking him not just as a member of the committee, Bri, but he's also a constitutional expert. He is a constitutional professor. He taught constitutional law. So, I was also asking about not just in terms of whether they have the facts and whether they have the goods to indict the former president, but whether they should -- it's never been done in the history of this country. Now, the argument that clearly he and others are making, well, there's never been an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in order to basically steal the election from a sitting president either. All of this is unprecedented.

KEILAR: You also had a very interesting interview this weekend. It was with John Kirby, who, of course, is the former Pentagon spokesman, now working at the White House. And as President Biden faces these record high oil and gas prices that Democrats could pay dearly for during the midterm elections, he's entertaining this idea of going to Saudi Arabia and meeting with MBS, even as critics say Saudi Arabia hasn't paid for the death of Jamal Khashoggi, "Washington Post" columnist. Here is what Kirby told you, Pam.

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BROWN: What price has MBS paid specifically?

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Both can be true. You can pursue values and national security interests at the same time, and President Biden has done that. And there has been accountability measures put in place, sanctions --

BROWN: But for MBS specifically.

KIRBY: Sanctions on the Saudi Royal Guard as well as other bans put in place on travel for people -- for regimes who continue to persecute and conduct violence against protest -- or activists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, I asked him there, he talked about accountability for Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Khashoggi killed. And I said, well, what about MBS specifically, what price has he paid? And essentially, he couldn't answer it specifically to MBS. And this is putting the administration in a tough spot, right, because you have Joe Biden as private citizen, as a candidate, on record saying that Saudi Arabia was a pariah, that the way Donald Trump handled Saudi Arabia didn't reflect U.S. values. And now in the wake of the administration releasing a report saying MBS was central to the killing of "Washington Post" columnist reporter Jamal Khashoggi, that the administration is planning a trip for Joe Biden to go over to Saudi Arabia and potentially sit down with MBS.

We don't have details yet. And we should note, John Kirby didn't officially confirm the trip, though we do expect the White House to announce it is happening, but the administration is softening its stance toward Saudi Arabia and kind of doing this dance, as you heard there from John Kirby, because of the need to meet with them in the wake of these record high gas prices. And as John Kirby said, the strategic national security interest, weighing the human rights with that.

KEILAR: It's a line. It's a tough line to walk for any administration, right, when it comes --

BASH: It's virtually impossible. Like you said, it's one thing to stand on the campaign trail and criticize.

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And listen, the then candidate, now president, Joe Biden, had every right to do so. But when you are in the White House and you have so many factors there, you have to weigh, this is from his perspective, human rights and the fact that this leader, according to their own report, murdered a journalist, with the fact that the reality is that the Saudis control a lot of -- they pull a lot of the levers that are causing people in America to go to the gas station and pay a lot of money -- record highs for money. It is very, very difficult. But we do have Joe Biden's words, very tough words about the human rights aspect of it. And he will be held to that.

KEILAR: He's not making good on his campaign promise.

BASH: So far. We'll see what happens.

KEILAR: You interviewed AOC, asking her whether she would support Joe Biden in 2024. And here's what she said.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I think if the president has a vision, and that's something we're certainly all willing to entertain and examine when the time comes.

BASH: That's not a yes.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yes, you know, I think we should endorse when we get to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Dana, what did you think about that?

BASH: Well, I'll tell you -- rather than tell you what I think, I'll tell you what AOC put on Instagram afterwards.

KEILAR: Very good point.

BASH: A very long post about it where she said, part of my issue is that I answer questions and I try to do that honestly, which is true. It is true. And I've interviewed her a number of times, and she does try to answer honestly. And in this case, trying to answer honestly means she doesn't have an answer for that. And she put on her that she should try to take some lessons from Bernie Sanders on how to better pivot when she gets a question that she doesn't necessarily feel ready to answer yet. So, I think the non-answer was telling, but the fact that she's so openly reflective about it is also telling.

KEILAR: Would she call it a curveball?

BASH: She called it a curveball. But you've seen me play softball, right?

KEILAR: She swung at it. I'll tell you, she swung at that curveball.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Dana, Pamela, thank you so much to both of you. Great work this weekend, great interviews.

A group of white nationalists discovered inside a U-Haul in northern Idaho. Where they were headed, what they had with them. The city's mayor joins us next.

BERMAN: Wall Street bracing for an ugly day. Bear market territory ahead of a key decision by the Federal Reserve.

And Russia's new take on McDonald's after the fast food chain left the country.

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[08:16:23]

BERMAN: This morning, 31 people affiliated with the White nationalist group, Patriot Front are out on bond following their weekend arrest in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

The men were found packed inside a U-Haul after a concerned citizen tipped off police about what looked like quote, "a little army."

According to officials, the members were en route to a pride parade with riot gear, a smoke grenade, and paperwork that resembled an operations plan.

With us now is the Mayor of Coeur d'Alene, Jim Hammond.

Mayor, thank you so much for being with us this morning. What more at this point, have you learned about their potential plans?

MAYOR JIM HAMMOND, COEUR D'ALENE, IDAHO: I haven't learned anything more, the police have kept that to themselves.

BERMAN: Why do you think your city, this Pride Parade? There are Pride Parades all around the country. Why was this one chosen?

HAMMOND: I think that this still goes back to other groups that have tried to form in our area that we've managed to chase off. And also, we're a smaller city. So they probably thought they could get away with more in a smaller community as opposed to a large city. BERMAN: You've said that your police did a good job at spotting this

before anything bad happened? How did they manage to spot it? Were they on a higher alert?

HAMMOND: They were. They were on alert. The Chief and I had talked about that the day prior, and they had received some threats actually from a different group that were also meeting in another city park. Those threats proved to be wrong.

But at the same time, the PD had planned and had plenty of people around the park and the whole vicinity of the area, so that we had enough personnel to be able to deal with an issue like this. They were working with the State Patrol and our County Sheriff's Office, all on high alert to make sure that this event went off safely.

BERMAN: So they were on high alert. There had been warnings, but not specifically for anything to do with this organization.

HAMMOND: That's correct.

BERMAN: Talk to me about the history, a little bit of your city and the run-ins that have happened in the past with extremist groups.

HAMMOND: Well, we had an Aryans Nation group that had a compound, you know, about 15 miles north of Coeur D'Alene, and they even in the past, this goes back over 20 years ago, had even a Couple Parades in Coeur d'Alene over the years, and with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, we were able to shut them down and completely obliterate any evidence of the Aryans in our area.

BERMAN: How is your community --

HAMMOND: And the importance --

BERMAN: Go ahead.

HAMMOND: And the importance of that is that the community pull together and we -- you would find in every business, some kind of a slogan that said, "Idaho is too great for hate," or "Idaho, the Human Rights state." And we were trying to recognize that at that time and still recognize that everyone has a right to be who they wish to be, and we need to honor that and respect that.

BERMAN: I was just going to ask, that's how they responded to that last outbreak. How do you expect your community will respond this time?

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HAMMOND: I think they will respond just as well. We have a large faith community and I have no doubt that they will be working with their parishioners to pull people together and to help any of those who feel like they're being discriminated against.

BERMAN: What might have happened? What do you fear might have happened had the police not stepped in in this case? HAMMOND: Well, I have not seen that these people had any firearms. So

I think it would have been mostly just disruption and trying to cause fear.

The sad part about this -- have you seen the photos of these young men?

BERMAN: I have.

HAMMOND: They're young -- very young men. They seem to not have a purpose, and so here they are coming to a small town from all over the country, and trying to cause trouble in this town.

It almost makes me wonder if we shouldn't once again, initiate some kind of forced armed service so that these kids would have a place to go and a purpose.

BERMAN: Mayor Jim Hammond, I do appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

HAMMOND: You're welcome. Thank you.

BERMAN: This is a live look at the Supreme Court this morning. The protests they're obviously taking place. What an internal memo reveals about possible confrontations ahead of the release of high-stakes decisions.

KEILAR: Plus, with the national average of a gallon of gas topping $5.00 and inflation hitting a 40 year high, when will Americans see some relief?

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[08:25:45]

KEILAR: Two gas station owners in Phoenix say they are losing money in order to help their customers. They have reduced gas prices significantly below what they pay their supplier for a gallon of gas. They charge their customers only $5.19 when most other stations charge more than $5.50.

Joining us now are gas station and CK Food Mart owners in Phoenix, Jaswinder Singh, and his wife, Ramandeep Kaur.

Thank you so much to both of you for being with us. Can you just tell me a little bit about your decision to do this? Why did you decide to do this?

JASWINDER SINGH, GAS STATION AND CK FOOD MART OWNER: Because gas is too high, people don't have any money to get food, lunch, dinner, you know, so we decided for the community -- for the community that will at least teach us to help other people.

KEILAR: And certainly they need it and you're doing it, you know, if they fill up a full tank of gas, that's a lot of money you're saving them. But Ramandeep, you're taking a loss. So you know, how are you guys faring?

RAMANDEEP KAUR, GAS STATION AND CK FOOD MART OWNER: Actually, when they come in, then they buy something else and then we get some more customer coming in the store. And we are making a little bit more from inside, so that's kind of we will cover up?

KEILAR: Does it does it make up for it though? Does it fully cover the drop?

SINGH: And to fully cover, but some of something they spend like people know we are losing money. Everybody know we are losing money, they spend money inside and some people give us a lot of tips and we appreciate that.

KEILAR: Yes, I know, and I'm sure you do. What do you want officials to know about what your customers and what your community is dealing with when it comes to these high gas prices, when it comes to inflation.

KAUR: It's very hard time for them, like especially people doing jobs, like regular job, nine to five jobs. So it's very hard for them to spend $5.00 a gallon. It's really high. So, we decided to lower our price. We are not -- we decided not to make any money from gas. So it's going to be a little easy for them. They can save some money so they can buy something else. They can buy food for their families.

And so it's our decision to lower the price, so we don't make any money and it is a little relief for our community, our neighbors.

KEILAR: Yes.

SINGH: Yes, money will be -- money, we can make it later. Right now, in this situation, it is very bad. And I am requesting to everybody to help each other. You know, we like stand together, then we get stronger. You know?

KEILAR: Oh, I know. And it's amazing to see where you're doing. Jaswinder and Ramandeep, thank you so much for being with us to talk about it.

KAUR: Thank you very much.

SINGH: Thank you. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, stock futures down nearly two percent. The Dow down nearly two. The S&P down more than two percent this morning, inching ever closer to a bear market that would be in bear market territory. This is with inflation soaring.

Here now, financial analyst and founder of Threadneedle Ventures, Ann Berry and CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans.

Romans, the futures look bleak this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're right back to where we were about three, you know, about three weeks ago and this would be bear market territory for the S&P of course. The NASDAQ has already been there. I mean, the NASDAQ is down 27.5 percent this year.

So when you look at the broader market, that's probably what is in your 401(k), the S&P 500 it has unwound all the gains going all the way back to March 2021. So all of those gains of the last year plus have evaporated.

What's happening here, it's called risk off, right? I mean, investors are adjusting to a new reality of slower growth, higher inflation, higher interest rates, and so the stock market is downshifting.

BERMAN: Ann, the question here as we look at inflation, we just talked to those lovely gas station owners in Arizona who are trying to help.

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