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New Day

Trump's Absurd Law and Order Speech; Amos Hochstein is Interviewed about Russia Cutting Gas to Europe; AJ Kumaran is Interviewed about Buying Lotto Tickets for Employees. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 27, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Movement right there.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: It's a month by month movement. Trump doesn't want to be in the news with the general public. The general public doesn't like when Trump's in the news.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much. Interesting to see.

ENTEN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Former President Trump calling for a harsh crackdown on crime in a speech during his first return to the nation's capital since leaving office. But his pro police rhetoric now doesn't exactly square with his actions as president.

John Avlon with our "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: So, Donald Trump returned to D.C. to deliver a speech on law and order. That's the joke. Because no one has done more to undercut the GOP's traditional claims to represent law and order than the twice impeached ex-president currently under investigation by state and it seems federal authorities.

Calls to back the blue ring a little hollow when your supporters beat up cops in front of the U.S. Capitol, leading to deaths, arrests and prison sentences. While 21 of Trump's most hard-core House supporters opposed honoring those cops who risked their lives to protect Congress from the MAGA mob that day. And some of those 21 reportedly even asked Trump for a presidential pardon in his final days, presumably to protect them from prosecution related to their efforts to overturn the election on his behalf.

Every day it seems we learn more about how the people plotting with the president knew that their fraud claims were false, as in emails uncovered by "The New York Times" showing that one lawyer who helped organize pro-Trump electors called their fake electors plot just that, fake.

And thanks to the January 6th committee, we know that White House lawyers were warning the Trump election fraud flunkees that at least some of their plans were felonies. Here's Eric Herschmann recounting his conversation with Trump's DOJ enabler Jeffrey Clark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HERSCHMANN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said, good (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (INAUDIBLE), sorry, (EXPLETIVE DELETED), congratulations you just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Here's Cassidy Hutchison recounting White House Counsel Pat Cipollone's pleas on January 6th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY HUTCHISON, FORMER AIDE TO FORMER WHITE CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS: Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of, please make sure we don't go up to the Capitol, Cassidy. Keep in touch with me. We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Trump even managed to lie about law and order after he unleashed the mob and then watched the violence unfold on TV, because the next day he said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: No, that wasn't true. And neither were Trump's claims that he previously authorized 10,000 National Guard troops to be on hand.

Here's former Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller in testimony just released by the January 6th committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MILLER, FORMER ACTIN DEFENSE SECRETARY: I was never given any direction or order or knew of any plans of that nature. There was no direct -- there was no order from the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: But, yes, law and order. That's the ticket. And Trump's speech yesterday was all order, no law, proposing to put homeless people in tent city camps, executing drug dealers after quick trials and suggesting presidents should deploy the National Guard to fight crime rather than governors. What could possibly go wrong?

But, the American carnage cut and paste play works to some extent because Democrats have not played offense when it comes to combatting rising crime. Never mind that by most counts only a handful of far left members of Congress actually support the toxic policy known as defund the police, while President Biden and Democratic Party leaders have actually tried to increase funding for the cops.

In the absence of a clear crime bill, people are going to be tempted to vote for strong and wrong, as Bill Clinton used to say. But here's what should be really clear, Donald trump is the opposite of law and order. He is all chaos, and contempt for the rule of law. And Republicans cannot credibly run under the banner of law and order while excusing or ignoring his election lies.

And that's your "Reality Check."

KEILAR: John Avlon, thank you for that.

U.S. officials say Russia cutting off gas to Europe. It's their worst fear coming true. We're going to speak with the administration official who was urgently sent to Europe to deal with this.

BERMAN: And it is the shipwreck that inspired such a wonderful '80s movie. Why "The Goonies" going to love this new discovery off the coast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One-eyed willie. Yes, he was the most famous pirate in his time. My dad told me all about him once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:37]

BERMAN: Time now for "5 Things to Know for Your New Day."

The Justice Department, for the first time we understand, asking questions about former President Trump's actions. The federal grand jury prosecutors have been asking aides for the former president about discussions that the former president was part of. These aides to former Vice President Mike Pence, they were subpoenaed by DOJ to answer questions in this criminal probe.

Also, "The Washington Post" reports DOJ also received phone records of close Trump aides, including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

KEILAR: And record-breaking rainfall causing widespread flash floods in the St. Louis area Tuesday, killing at least one person and shutting down parts of the interstate there. The flooding also forced dozens of rescues from vehicles and homes. Multiple streets still closed today after water submerged cars and crept up to buildings.

BERMAN: New research suggests that the Covid-19 pandemic most likely started in live animals at a market in Wuhan. Two independent studies traced the origin of the virus to the seafood market where it likely spread to humans working in and living near the area.

KEILAR: And a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the northern Philippines has triggered dozens of landslides. It's impacted hundreds of towns. Officials say at least four people have died and 60 are injured. And the impact felt in the capital, Manila, more than 250 miles away.

[08:40:03]

BERMAN: So, archaeologists believe they have found remnants of the centuries old shipwreck that may have inspired the classic film "The Goonies." A team of volunteers unearthed more than 20 pieces of wood in a cave off the Oregon coast back in June, which turned out to be wreckage from a Spanish vessel that capsized in 1693 near Astoria, Oregon. There are many similarities between that ship and One-eyed Willie's pirate ship from "The Goonies," given its location on the Oregon coast and the mystery surrounding its fate.

KEILAR: Are there jewels to save the town? We don't know. We're still awaiting those details, though, right?

BERMAN: It was such a good movie. Sean Astin, Josh Brolin.

KEILAR: So fun. Loved it. Loved it.

So, those are the "5 Things to Know for Your New Day." More on these stories all day on CNN and cnn.com.

And don't forget to download the "5 things" podcast every morning. Just go to cnn.com/5things. And you can also find it wherever you get your podcasts.

The Mega Millions jackpot, which Berman is such a fan of, is now topping a billion dollars. We'll speak with a CEO who bought tickets for all 55,000 of his employees.

BERMAN: Plus, one of the most aggressive moves that Russia has made, but Europe holding strong after Russia cuts off natural gas supply. We're going to speak to a Biden official who rushed to Europe over the move.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:45]

BERMAN: New this morning, for the 44th straight day, U.S. gas prices are down. They have now dropped more than 70 cents from their high. It comes as European Union countries have struck a major agreement to reduce natural gas consumption by 15 percent. Now, this is a move they might have to make as Russia keeps squeezing natural gas supply to Europe. This is a move that U.S. officials told CNN was their biggest fear. Amos Hochstein is the White House presidential coordinator for global

energy. He joins us now from Paris, where he was sent to work on this.

Amos, thank you so much for being with us.

Why has this been such a big fear that Russia would limit its natural gas supply now, only putting about 20 percent of capacity for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline?

AMOS HOCHSTEIN, SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL COORDINATOR FOR INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AFFAIRS: Well, first, good morning and thank you for having me. It's good to join you from Paris.

Look, we've always known and we have said for over ten years now, in fact, dating to the early President Obama term, that Russia keeps using its energy resources as a weapon against European neighbors and is not a reliable supplier of energy products overall. So that is why we have feared that they would continue to use this weapon because they've used it before.

And what we're seeing today is that they are using a number of, quite frankly, in diplomatic terms, bogus arguments in order to cut supply to Germany and cut supply to other partners in Europe.

And they're doing it at a critical time. Europe uses natural gas primarily for heat and some for power. And the summer is when they buy enough gas to put into reserves so that they have enough to use when the winter comes and they need it for heating. And that's why it's so concerning to see the decline in these supplies.

But I will tell you that despite the fact that we feared this, it also means that we were preparing for it as well in our discussions between the United States and Europe. And President Biden announced a joint task force with Europe on March 25, which I co-chair, where we committed to certain things that we, the United States, would support Europe in this time of need. And, in fact, we're doing that. So, we're here discussing both the supply side, how much gas can we get to Europe, and also how do we address the demand side, how do we curtail or reduce the demand the Europeans have for gas and identify alternatives?

BERMAN: That 15 percent reduction in consumption, that agreement, is that going to be enough to make it through the winter?

HOCHSTEIN: So, the European Union and major European economies have been doing what they needed to do to increase their -- their consumption and their purchases of gas. We think that 15 percent, if we have an average winter, will be enough to be able to do that if we can actually implement and countries really live by this 15 percent cut.

At the same time, we have to identify alternative resources to diversify away from Russia. The United States is playing a significant role. We committed -- President Biden committed that we would supply 15 BCM or billion cubic meters worth of natural gas LNG above last year's levels and so far we're in line to do that. So we'll continue to surge from the United States, but also we continue to work with our allies around the world to support Europe as we all stay united in our fight against Russia in -- to make sure that they could stop the war.

BERMAN: They've -- the European Union has agreed to this 15 percent reduction in consumption. Are you calling on the American people to reduce their consumption of natural gas at all heading into the winter?

HOCHSTEIN: Well, our - our needs and our economy is very different than Europe. We are a major producer of natural gas ourselves. And we are an exporter. So, as you've seen prices in the United States have come up a little bit over the last several days, last week or so, mostly because of the major heat wave that we've had in the United States, that doesn't -- you know, our prices have inched up from $6 or $7 to $8 or $9.

[08:50:12]

The prices in Europe, just for comparison for the viewers, have risen from $5 last year to over $50 right now. So, the U.S. prices are still -- we have a supply. We are not in that same - we -- we never had a dependency on a foreign force and a hostile one at that the way Europe has. So, it's really not necessary. I mean I always call on people to conserve and to be efficient in their use of energy, but I think we're in a different place than Europe is.

BERMAN: And right there, we were just talking about LNG, liquefied natural gas.

Gasoline, what we put in our cars, is a whole separate thing. And I do understand that the president is releasing an additional, what, 20 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? What can you tell us about that?

HOCHSTEIN: So, John, as you know, the president, early on when we saw the war starting to heat up, even before the invasion happened into Ukraine, we knew that this would have an impact on the U.S. economy through the - through the energy markets. So, what the president did is he took decisive action early on, announcing 180 million barrels that he would release from the reserves over a period of six months.

So, we just announced yesterday through the Department of Energy that we're releasing another 20 million. But that's a tranche as part of that overall 180, which is -- translates into a million barrels a day. So that is unprecedented. No president has ever released that much, But not only in the United States. The president tasked us, and he himself engaged with our allies around the world, and we released another 60 million barrels from other countries at the same time.

So, we are taking whatever we have to do in the United States, as well as using our leadership around the world, to have a global response.

But we're still calling, while the price, as you said, the price has come down from $5 to $4.30, in record time, I might add, but at the same time it's still too high. And we want the prices to go down even further. We're going to see reporting, you know, of record profits from oil companies and refiners, we want them to use those profits to invest back in the United States. And that's what the president has told them to do, reinvest it in America, increase production, increase capacity for refining, so we can be those -- bring those prices even further down.

And, John, I'll tell you, even though the average is $4.30, the vast majority of Americans are actually seeing prices at the pump, gasoline prices, significantly lower than that in the $3.89 to $3.99. So we're really bringing prices down an enormous amount over the last few weeks against the backdrop of everybody telling us, remember the headlines a few weeks ago, crying that we are going to be predicting that we're going to go to $9 a gallon and $180 or $300 for oil. But, in fact, due to the -- some of the actions that we've taken and other factors in the economy, we're now seeing lower prices for the consumer.

BERMAN: Amos Hochstein, from Paris, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

HOCHSTEIN: A pleasure to be with you. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, Taiwan conducting military drills amid heightened concerns of potential military action by China. And the controversial trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:58]

KEILAR: This morning, the Mega Millions jackpot stands at just over $1 million after no winner was announced overnight. But the CEOs of fast food chain Raising Cane's purchased 50,000 lottery tickets, enough for all of their employees.

And joining us now is AJ Kumaran, Raising Cane's co-CEO and COO.

All right, AJ, because, look, those tickets did not win, so are you going to do this all over again?

AJ KUMARAN, CO-CEO AND COO, RAISING CANE'S: Oh, man, we have to, Brianna. And, by the way, today is National Chicken Finger Day. So today is our holiday. So, we're going to - we're in celebration mode already. So, nobody won. And we think it's going to be us.

So, we're going to do it all over again. At least we have a head start. It takes about eight hours to print those tickets. So, we're going to get a head start today and get them printed.

BERMAN: First of all, every day is National Chicken Finger Day as far as I'm concerned, all right. So, let's just stipulate that.

But, second, you lost. OK, let's just lay it out there, you lost. You spent $100,000 on tickets and you lost and you're going to do it again? Why not just give the money, give $200,000 to your employees?

KUMARAN: You know, we actually gave over $200 million in wage increases over the last two years. But, look, this is really more than about money. This is about, like, having fun, et cetera. By the way, you know, we have 50,000 crew members. If we did win, it's about just under $10,000 for a crew member, which doesn't make a material difference in terms if we just added that on wages, to be honest. So, $100,000 is not going to go a long way with 50,000 crew members if we give it (INAUDIBLE), et cetera. This is us taking care of each other, standing by each other as a family together. So, yes, I think we're going to do it again. I think this is good, though. Friday is it.

KEILAR: Friday is it. You think that's going to be the - you think that's where they're going to announce the winner and you think it's going to be one - it's going to be one of your tickets, AJ?

KUMARAN: So, Brianna, Joey Chestnut behind me, he's not with me, actually, he's actually going to set a Cane's record for eating the most number of chicken fingers today, live from Vegas restaurant.

[09:00:06]

So, we feel good about setting records and breaking some things this week here. So, I don't know. Chicken fingers crossed. I think it's going to be Friday.

BERMAN: Chicken fingers crossed. All right, I'm going to do that -

KEILAR: Chicken fingers crossed, AJ. Oh, thank you for being with us. Good luck. Good luck to you, AJ. Good luck to me. And we appreciate you being with us.

KUMARAN: Oh, thank you! I'm going to send you all some tickets too.

KEILAR: All right. Hey, all right.

BERMAN: I just don't want to be the guy who has to check every one of the $50,000 tickets to figure out if they won.

KEILAR: Exactly.

CNN's coverage continues right now.