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New Day

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) is Interviewed about the FBI Search; Life of Olivia Newton-John; Jane Seymour Remembers Olivia Newton-John; Hamilton Issues Cease and Desist Order. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 09, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Telling a Texas church to cease and desist their rendition of the musical because of the changes that the church made to the script.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Through a miracle of television, we are now joined by Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia.

Senator, thank you so much for being with us this morning and bearing through the technical glitches.

I do want to ask you, given the news from last night, the FBI executing a search warrant on the home of the former president. You, before you were a politician, where a big-time attorney. What questions does this raise for you?

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Well, obviously, it's unprecedented. I can't think of a similar instance. And it would only happen, that warrant, if a judge heard prosecutors and investigators put down a proffer of evidence and granted the warrant.

And so granting a warrant to do a search against the residents of a former president of the United States is a big deal. I have a million questions. But the bottom line, it just sends the message that there's no person in this country who's above the law.

BERMAN: How credible are you in theory with searching the home of a former president?

[08:35:04]

KAINE: If the evidence suggests to a judge that it needs to be done, it needs to be done. The president has immunity, as you know, from prosecution during the time a president is in office. And that was discussed significantly during the Donald Trump two impeachment trials. But once a president is not in office anymore, that immunity goes away. And that means the same standards apply to Donald J. Trump as apply to Tim Kaine or anyone else. And if that evidentiary showing convinces a judge that a search is necessary to uncover potential criminal conduct, then Donald Trump is as, you know, open for service of a warrant like that as much as anyone.

BERMAN: Some of your friends on the other side of the aisle in the Senate feel differently. There's been a whole range of responses, some of them pretty strident, including this from Marco Rubio. Quote, using government power to persecute political opponents is something we've seen many time --

KAINE: I'm sorry that the audio just cut out and I can't - I can't hear your question. So, I apologize.

BERMAN: Can you hear me at all? Senator, can you hear me at all right now? Senator Tim Kaine, can - can you hear - we - we are going to refresh Senator Tim Kaine's audio here.

I was referring to some of the reaction we have heard from Republicans, including this tweet, and hopefully he can hear this. This comes from Marco Rubio. Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from third world Marxist dictatorships but never before in America.

Senator Kaine, if you can hear me, what do you think of what Senator Rubio said there?

It is the type of response -

KEILAR: We are refreshing him.

BERMAN: Yes, this -

KEILAR: Yes, we're refreshing him. We're going to get him right back. But, yes, this is -- we're seeing this kind of thing from a number of Republicans. He's running for re-election, right, so -

BERMAN: Marco Rubio is.

KEILAR: Certainly. But we're seeing in concert all of these Republicans who are backing Donald Trump up very much -- even without having a lot of information to know exactly what is going on and also knowing Merrick Garland's pretty deliberate style and the fact that Christopher Wray was appointed by Donald Trump.

There is only one flow of information right now, and that is coming from Trump world. It was Donald Trump who more or less announced that this operation had taken place and since providing some of the details on it.

DOJ doesn't really talk, which is why we don't know what they were after. What was in the affidavit that caused them to meet the probable cause to execute that search.

Unfortunately, we did lose Senator Tim Kaine. I have a lot to ask him going forward.

And, by the way, the reason we asked him to come on is because he's been fighting with long Covid for two years. He's been having the aftereffects of Covid for two years now. And hopefully, at some point, we will get to talk to him about what he's been going through and what he thinks is lacking in the overall government effort to respond to long Covid and what a lot of people are going through.

Anyway, our thanks to Senator Kaine for trying at least to be with us this morning.

The Uvalde school district unveiling safety plans for the upcoming school year. How parents there are reacting.

KEILAR: And we're also going to be joined by actress Jane Seymour. She, like so many, are remembering, but it's her best friend, Olivia Newton-John, who died at the age of 73.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:38]

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

The FBI executing an unprecedented search warrant for former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Sources tell CNN that this is part of an investigation into the handling of classified documents taking them from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

KEILAR: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting today with the January 6th committee, a source tells CNN. The deposition will be conducted virtually.

BERMAN: Taiwan holding live fire artillery drills as China continues military exercises nearby. Taiwan says it's drills are routine and not a response to China. Tensions have been growing after the visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.

KEILAR: Parents in Uvalde, Texas, are demanding the school board take more decisive security actions before classrooms reopen there later this month. Nearly three dozen state officers will be assigned to buildings across the district. This all follows that botched response from law enforcement during May's deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School.

BERMAN: And Los Angeles Police say they are investigating Anne Heche for possible DUI and hit and run. They are waiting on the results of a blood test. A spokesperson for the actress says Heche is in critical condition and in a coma after her crash into a house last week.

KEILAR: Those are "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. Go to cnn.com/5things. And you can also find it wherever you get your podcasts.

BERMAN: All right, the world mourning this morning the loss of singer, actress and advocate Olivia Newton-John, who died at the age of 73.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Nowhere to hide since you pushed my love aside. I'm out of my head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I don't want to start talking. I want to listen to her singing "Hopelessly Devoted."

KEILAR: I know. I know.

BERMAN: That was Olivia Newton-John playing Sandy in "Grease." She also saying some of the biggest pop hits of the 1970s and early 1980s. And she was an inspiration to many through her battle against breast cancer.

We're going to speak live with one of her best friends, actress Jane Seymour in just a moment.

But first, a look back at her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (singing): You better shape up. You better understand.

ERICA HILL (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Olivia Newton-John shot to stardom opposite John Travolta in the musical blockbuster "Grease."

[08:45:04]

It was 1978. She was 29 years old but played an innocent teen in love with a boy from the other side of the tracks.

NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Hopelessly devoted to you.

HILL: Newton-John first one over devoted fans as an award winning singer in the early '70s.

NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Let me be there in your morning. Let me be there in your night.

HILL: "Let Me Be There" earned her a Grammy award for best country female vocal performance. And her 1974 chart-topping hit, "I Honestly Love You," won the Grammy for record of the year.

NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Love you. I honestly love you.

HILL: Over the course of her career, Newton-John sold more than 100 million albums, scored multiple number one hits, including "Magic" from her box office dud "Xanadu" and one that showcase her sexier side.

NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Oh, let's get physical, physical.

HILL: Born in England, Newton-John moved to Australia at the age of five. By the time she was a teenager, she was already performing on Australian TV shows like "Bandstand." NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Last night I spent the whole night crying.

HILL: In addition to her singing, Newton-John was well-known as a tireless advocate for breast cancer research and early detection. She was diagnosed with the disease in 1992. And her successful treatment inspired her to help others.

NEWTON-JOHN: Well, I'm really thrilled that now I can give back in some way and try and help other women who are going through that experience because it's a very difficult thing to go through alone.

HILL: The Australian singer faced another crisis in 2005 when her boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, went missing during a fishing trip off the California coast. He was never found.

NEWTON-JOHN: The pain will always be there. I'll always miss him. I love him. I miss him. But, you know, I can't do anything about it. We don't know what happened and I don't know if I ever will know what happened. But I've tried to go forward and so something positive with it by creating music for myself and hopefully for others.

HILL: And she never stop creating music, performing into her 60s during a three year residency a Las Vegas' Flamingo Casino.

NEWTON-JOHN (singing): Have to believe we are magic.

HILL: Newton-John's breast cancer returned in 2013. In 2017, she was diagnosed with spine cancer. Despite life's challenges, she always remained grateful.

NEWTON-JOHN: I don't think I'd change anything because I've had such an amazingly interesting life and done so many things and never planned on any of them, really, except singing, because that's all I can do.

GROUP (singing): We'll always be together. We'll always, be together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And with us now, her close friend, actress Jane Seymour.

Thanks so much for being with us. And we are so sorry for your loss this morning. It's really - it's all of our loss as fans this morning.

Just tell us about your friend.

JANE SEYMOUR, ACTRESS AND BEST FRIEND OF OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: Olivia was an amazing woman. And we know in this beautiful tribute that you just did, but, you know, really she was just very humble, very talented, very authentic. You know, she put it all out there. And she always cared about everybody else. So whenever I would be with her, she wouldn't even want to talk about herself. She would just say, how are you doing? How are your sisters? How's your life? How are the kids?

And the way we got together was her sister, Rona, older sister, was a patient of my fathers back in England. And my father delivered her baby. And that's how we met. Rona and I lived together for a bit. Meant Olivia. And then when I basically had my first baby, when I had Katie, more than 40 - almost 41 years ago, I came to the beach with - and saw Olivia and she held my baby in her hands and she just said, how do you do this? And I said, Olivia, you're not going to have a baby. And no, she said, no, but how do you do this? She said, you know, you're - you're very busy in your career. I'm very busy in my career. It's a big and heavy experience that very few people can really understand, you know, when you're in it. It's what everybody else things. But, how do you do that and raise a child? And so that was really our experience together. Our friendship was, you know, she was my confidant.

And, you know, we shared - we shared all our ups and downs. We - we shared a lot together because we could. You know, I knew her sister really well. She knows my sister - knew my sisters really well. My parents. You know, it was just a very - a very tight kind of bond and very rare for me to have - I mean the only time in my life that I've had a friend who actually would understand my experience of what - you know, what it was like being out there and making movies and stuff.

And - but the thing about her was she was always positive and she was always upbeat and she always turn lemons into lemonade. And she just, you know, she just - she was calm and she was an inspiration to me. And I saw her - I've got a picture here - I saw her not long before she passed. And I did have the privilege of seeing her, not many people did, when she was really, really ill.

[08:50:02]

And I spoke to a member of her family yesterday about her and he said that, you know, they were all with her and that she had been in so much pain and on -- had to take a lot of meds and things. But when I was with her the last time, I remember with my sisters, we sat there and we just looked around and she said, look at those hummingbirds and look at the sky and look - and smell that breeze. And isn't just life a beautiful thing? And that was who she was.

KEILAR: What are the memories, and especially -- it's so unique growing as you two did in your careers, in motherhood with children the same age. What are the memories today that are - that are standing out to you as you are thinking of her in this time?

SEYMOUR: Well, I think, you know, the quintessential one was when Chloe did her first music video and my son, Sean Flynn, was directing it. So, they were contemporaries. And there was Olivia backstage, you know, trying to - trying to help Chloe and just -- Chloe, yes, you know, can I help you, Chloe, and, you know, being behind the scenes and standing back and I'm there with my son trying to help him direct his first music video. And we looked at one another like, really, this is what we're doing? And there's not much we can do really. You know, they're getting on with it. We're just supporting them.

And then I remember a time when she really surprised me by coming out to Singapore, of all places, where I was performing in the Vortex (ph). And after the show she came and we were just laughing hysterically. And I realized she'd never seen me live. In fact, no one ever sees me live hardly. So - and I usually schedule (ph) her shows and things. And there was just this bond. We laughed a lot. We laughed a lot and we laughed about things that were really sad and really difficult, you know? I mean both of us have had recently turbulent lives at times and - but we love what we do, you know? She loved singing. She loved performing. She loved her daughter. She loved her husband. She loved life. She loved nature. And she loved helping people.

And I actually had the privilege of going to that hospital that she built in Melbourne. And it was the most amazing experience. You know, if you ever have cancer, that's really where you want to be. I mean it's so loving and beautiful. And it was body, mind and spirit, which was everything to her.

And then, you know, I remember her calling me one day and saying, you know, Jane, you can't believe this but, I - you know. I've got cancer again. That back pain I told you about when I was in Vegas, it's cancer. She said, and you know where I am? I said, no. She said, I'm in my own hospital but as a patient. And she said, and it's amazing. And I just thought, you know, she always found - she always found an edge of humor about everything and positivity about it.

BERMAN: We're going to have to let you go, but I do want to ask, just because we have you here, your favorite Olivia Newton-John song?

SEYMOUR: "I Honestly Love You."

BERMAN: That's sweet.

Listen, Jane Seymour, thank you so much for being with us and sharing these memories.

SEYMOUR: You're welcome.

BERMAN: You know, in the piece we did, Olivia Newton-John said all she could do was sing, but clearly she could do so much more and did so much more than that.

Thank you, Jane.

SEYMOUR: Thank you.

BERMAN: We're back in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (singing): You'd better shape up. You better understand. To my heart I must be true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:42] KEILAR: New this morning, the producers of "Hamilton" have issued a cease and desist order to a Texas church for its rendition of the Tony Award winning production. The McAllen based congregation put on two performances over the weekend. And they included substantial edits to the storylines in what is being called an unauthorized staging.

CNN's Alex Field is live with more on this.

Alex, tell us what these changes were and why they objected.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So we know of "Hamilton" as the Broadway smash hit about one of the founding fathers. The rendition that was performed at a church in south Texas not at all what the shows founders had in mind. In fact, there's plenty of social media video that shows references throughout the show to Jesus, to Christianity. There's also social media video that shows a sermon seemingly comparing homosexuality to drug addiction.

Now, we know the creator of "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda, is, of course, a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ community. I think many in our audience will remember the incredibly powerful acceptance speech he made at the Tony's in 2016 just shortly after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. He has not responded with any comment to the production in Texas. But the team behind "Hamilton" has. They've not only put out a statement reaffirming the shows support for the LGBTQ Plus community, but they have also said that they are reviewing all of the edits that were made to the show and they are considering further action.

The show was performed twice. Loyal fans actually brought it to the attention of the "Hamilton" team. They didn't even know that this production was happening. The show team apparently allowed a second production under the conditions that the show couldn't be streamed, recorded, shared in any way, but they say that was before they knew anything about the changes that had been made.

BERMAN: That's actually really interesting. They were being fairly generous as far as shows go because you can't just put on shows without paying for the permission to do it.

FIELD: You can't. Unauthorized. This wasn't a licensed use of the show.

Now, you know, under copyright law, there are some exceptions when it comes to religious services. You can often play copyrighted music, but it has to be a part of service. It can't be shared online. And you can't have a separate performance outside of a service.

BERMAN: And, of course, in this case, it was the political message ultimately that they objected to as well.

FIELD: Going forward with it and the edits itself, which are, of course, raising alarm for "Hamilton."

[09:00:00]

KEILAR: Are they going to have luck pursuing this and getting them to stop and taking action?

FIELD: Well, they've sent the cease and desist letter. There were just the two performances. We're not aware of any further performances that are planned. We have reached out of the door (ph), the church in McAllen, Texas. They have not responded to our comments.

KEILAR: All right, Alex, thank you for that report. We appreciate it.

A big day today. A big day.

And CNN's coverage will continue right now.