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New Day

CNN Reports, U.S. Intel Began Reviewing Trump Documents in May to Assess Risk; Ukraine Launches Major Operation in Russian-Captured South; Serena Williams Honored in On-Court Tribute After First-Round Win. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 30, 2022 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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RICKY NASH, FATHER: To try to get away from me.

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But the only thing that kept running through my mind is that I can't let him do this to another kid.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Now, McPherson has been arrested on other charges. The girl's mother is thankful that the doorbell camera captured this terrifying incident. She says the family is now looking into moving at their daughter's request.

New Day continues right now.

Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. It's Tuesday, August 30th. I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman this morning.

CNN has learned that intelligence officials have been evaluating evidence taken from Mar-a-Lago since May. The document-by-document review is required to determine whether efforts are needed to protect sources and methods and national security.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The hearing is set for Thursday to consider Donald Trump's request for a special master to oversee the review of the Mar-a-Lago search, to go through the documents to see if any of them were privileged. The judge says she has a preliminary intent to appoint one.

Today is the deadline for the government to respond to Trump's request in writing. There was supposed to be a 20-page limit for this filing. But the Department of Justice has asked for up to 40 pages. One might infer they have a lot to say. And this filing will be public. So, just in terms of page count, this could be more than we've heard from them yet.

All this, as the Secret Service official at the center of the January 6th hearing steps down, more on Tony Ornato's departure in just a moment. Joining me now is CNN Political Analyst and Senior Political Correspondent for The New York Times Maggie Haberman, who has been helping to lead the coverage of the Mar-a-Lago search.

I'm very interested in the filing today we will see from the Department of Justice today. The subject is the discussion over a special master. But I used to write term papers, I never asked them to double the length of the assignment. And you certainly don't do, I won't think, unless there's stuff you want to get off their chest.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I think get off their chest is the right phrase. I think they are seeing this as an opportunity, John, to talk. They are seeing this as an opportunity to respond to things that the Trump folks have put into their legal filings and they, I think, are going to argue that those things inaccurate, and they are going to go point by point on some of them . As you said, we're talking roughly 40 pages. That is a lot.

Now, the DOJ has not taken, at any point since that search, they do not go first. They don't go out and talk. They have generally done something after Trump has. So, when you saw Merrick Garland talked, it was after Trump talked. When you saw the affidavit get unsealed partially, that was at the request of media organizations and others. And now you are seeing in this response to an action the Trump folks took.

They are basically speaking two different languages, DOJ and Trump's world, and we talked about that in the paper this weekend. I think this will be another instance of that.

BERMAN: What's interesting is what has come out before, though, with the DOJ releasing things that they had done prior to the search. What we will see, maybe as soon as today, is something they're writing in response, as you note, to things that Donald Trump and his lawyers have been saying. Do you have any hunch about where they want to respond or what things they want to respond to?

HABERMAN: I think there's a whole range and I think we don't know until we see this filing, what they're looking at. But as you said, they showed point by point what they did in response to Trump. That was actually affidavit. So, that was all of the material in there. That was to check boxes essentially in order to get a search warrant and the judge found probable cause in that affidavit.

This is in response to things the Trump folks have been saying. I don't know that it will be things that they were saying in public. It certainly will be things that they were saying in court. And the Trump folks have been fighting this on T.V. much more than they have been in court. So, it will be interesting to see what this document looks like.

BERMAN: And this is a chance for the DOJ again to respond in public. This is the way they do it, through a filing.

Senator Collins in The Times today had a terrific piece what might be part of the strategy from the Trump team by asking for this special master. It's about delay.

HABERMAN: It's about delay and I think it's about muddying the waters. I think it's both.

Now, they way they have gone about this has been eyebrow-raising, even to people who are supportive of Trump or who have worked for him in the past, which is they waited until two weeks after the search to file this request for a special master. The request for a special master does not reference attorney/client privilege. It references executive privilege. The Biden administration has already said previously on other issues and other rulings in this that Trump does not have a right to privilege.

So, these, again, I said two different languages, that's what we're talking about. It could have the effect, because we don't know what the judge is going to do. The judge has already indicated, which is unusual, that she is leaning on toward doing this even before the other side spoke out and responded. So, if this happens, this could end up dragging things out. And where that would be helpful to Trump is not that it gets rid of the issue entirely but it could drag it out until when he is a declared candidate, assuming he does run for president.

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BERMAN: Drag it out until declared candidate, which would make things much more complicated for Merrick Garland.

HABERMAN: Right.

BERMAN: And just to illustrate some of the difficulties in here and why it's hard to wrap your head around. I mean, this is new legal territory that everyone is going into here.

Say the judge does appoint a special master and the special master does say this document is covered by executive privilege. Normally, with a special master, what that would mean, is that the document would be returned to the defendant or the person being investigated here, but Donald Trump doesn't own these documents.

HABERMAN: No, the presidential privilege -- executive privilege applies to the executive branch and he is not the executive anymore. So, again, we are getting into very bizarre territory if it ends up going that way. It's hard to imagine what it ends up looking like. BERMAN: Tony Ornato stepping down from his job at the Secret Service,

remind us his position in the January 6th hearings, what they still want to find out from him.

HABERMAN: So, actually, I want an asterisk on this. I don't know what they want to find out from him, because I don't believe they've actually spoken to him yet.

BERMAN: Right.

HABERMAN: And I think there was some effort by Secret Service to try to get him with investigators for the House select committee to talk in response to, and this is your question, testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, who has emerged as a key witness for this committee.

She told a story during the public hearing, and this is really important for people to remember, she did not allege she knew this. She told the story drawn out by the committee that she said she was told by Tony Ornato about Trump lunging for the steering wheel in the presidential vehicle after the January 6th rally at The Ellipse, wanting to be taken to the Capitol, and that he tried to harm physically the driver, the person in the seat, or one of the agents.

Now, the Secret Service has said that that didn't happen. Whether they're going to say that Ornato never said anything like that, I think that's the open question and why the what the January 6th committee has been doing is different than what we do, which is these people are under oath.

BERMAN: Anything to see or read into the fact that he seems to be retiring from the Secret Service?

HABERMAN: Look, I think there will be people reading a lot into it. He did have retirement age at this point. He had, I think, served five presidents is what he said in response to a statement when we asked if he was indeed retiring. I think a lot of people will find the timing of note. Whether it is meaningful in the investigation, I think, is unclear.

BERMAN: And just last question to go back to the investigation of Mar-a-Lago and the search there, you've done a lot of reporting on the legal team surrounding Donald Trump. Is there any increased stability among the lawyers there? Are they still sort of flying by the seat of their pants?

HABERMAN: I mean, look, I think that they would take issue with that characterization that we made, and they have. I think that they are still trying to find additional lawyers. I am sure they will find at least one because he always finds someone but he has been rejected by a lot more, and it is because this is being run -- A, this is a very serious issue. This involves national security information. This involves classified documents. There are a lot of people who have begged off of this already. There are people who don't want to jump into the fray to say things for a client who doesn't always tell his lawyers everything.

BERMAN: Maggie Haberman, great to see you this morning. I look forward to your next piece in the paper. Brianna?

KEILAR: While the former president has fumed about the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, former First Lady Melania Trump has been quiet about it. But we're now getting the first details of her reaction to the search.

CNN's Kate Bennett joining us with her new reporting. It's interesting, Kate, she's annoyed but maybe not for the reason you would think.

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, listen, as Donald Trump rants and raves and goes into this very specific battle, Melania Trump, as usual, is just sort of upset that her privacy was invaded. You know, being part of the Donald Trump orbit means these things happen. But she was more upset that basically people were in her home, in her closet, searching her house where her son lives of whom she's rightfully protective of, but not upset to the extent of making a statement or coming to his defense or getting involved in all of this back and forth with the U.S. government and the DOJ and what the former president is doing. She's just sort of like, don't mess with my stuff. Don't go in my closet.

KEILAR: They went in her closet. They went in her sleeping quarters, which are separate from the former president's. Did they go through everything?

BENNETT: Well, it sounds like they did. The search warrant did have the right to go in the rooms in the suite that the president frequents.

Now, as you just mentioned, they do have separate bedrooms. Here suite of rooms is down the hall from his, not too far. But this is a first lady who is not hiding a letter from Kim Jong-un in her dresser drawer. She is certainly -- his business is separate from hers. She has never let the two overlap. She's very vocal about that. So, it's not as though he's like, hey, I'm going to put this box in your closet, that was certainly not the case and likely never will be for Melania Trump.

BERMAN: Her business, you mentioned, separate from his. She does have business. She's doing this NFT thing.

BENNETT: Yes, and that's a great to put it, this NFT thing, because it's very hard to decipher.

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First ladies, there's no playbook for after they leave office of what they have to do. Some of them choose to go on and use their initiatives to build global platforms. Melania Trump has chosen to invest her time for an NFT business, which is for-profit on a website called USA Memorabilia, where they sell NFTs, which are digital, non- fungible tokens collectibles for like $50 moments in the Trump presidency.

It's very unorthodox for a former first lady to develop a business that is for-profit explicitly, as this website is. She has millions of Twitter followers. She doesn't tweet that much. But almost half of her tweets since February have been re-tweets promoting the NFT business and the sale of these NFTs.

It's an unusual, very strange sort of path for a former first lady not to continue the giant global platform she has to talk about, you know, whatever, children, in Melania's instance, but, instead, she's chosen this route, which, again, is unorthodox, and Melania Trump has always been sort of an enigma, the first lady, and she continues to be, and it's her right.

Listen, first ladies only get a $20,000 pension a year when they leave office, and that's after the president dies. So, it's not unlike a president who gets money to support an office. The first lady doesn't get that much.

KEILAR: Really interesting look behind the scenes. Kate, thank you for that reporting.

BERMAN: New details this morning about the Oregon Safeway Grocery Store shooting that left two people dead and two others injured. The suspect has been identified as a 20-year-old man. Police say he plotted the attack for months in online blog postings and that he blames coronavirus and social distancing for worsening his mental health.

Police now are praising the store employee, Donald Surrett, for trying to disarm the suspect. They say he likely saved lives while sacrificing his own.

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SHEILA MILLER, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, BEND POLICE: Surrett engaged with the shooter, attempted to disarm him and may very well have prevented further deaths. Mr. Surrett acted heroically during this terrible incident.

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BERMAN: Now, the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police are now working to determine if he possessed the firearm legally.

KEILAR: So, turning to a big development in Ukraine, we're learning that the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern part of the country is now under way in an effort to retake that key city of Kherson, which is currently occupied by Russian forces.

Joining us now is Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto. Tell us about this counteroffensive.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So, first of all, big picture, in the sweep of this war, we're six months in, a few days over six months in, this is a remarkable moment, right? This is the Ukrainian forces feeling not only that they can defend territory, as they have effectively around Kyiv, and pretty much held the line in the east, but that now they have the capability, the resources, the weapons, to take back territory from Russian forces.

And that is the intention here. That's the ambition. Zelenskyy said that last night had in his address. He says, we're going to go back, bring it back and we're not going to be satisfied with the borders as they stand. So, this is the attempt to do so. And they are make something progress, you know but also managing expectations. I think they got four villages yesterday. They have said deliberately, we're not going to gain this all back in a day. This is a slow grinding operation. But that's the intention here.

And I've been speaking to U.S. officials about this for some time. They saw the shaping operations, as we were discussing yesterday, preparing the battlefield for it. And now what we're seeing the ground operations following those shaping attacks, attacks on ammo depots, missile defenses, infantry units, et cetera.

KEILAR: Russia is acknowledging this but downplaying what's happening.

SCIUTTO: Well, I think, listen, anything that comes out of Kremlin, you should just take --

KEILAR: Sure.

SCIUTTO: -- with 47 tons of assault. I mean, they just have no record for credibility. But, listen, what we have to then watch is what actual progress there is on the ground, because Ukrainian forces and leaders are going to put the most positive spin on this possible. You know, this is a difficult moment for the country and they want to encourage their people to have hope, right, that we cannot just defend the lines but gain back territory. So, we'll have to see how much they can gain back and can they hold it.

KEILAR: We're also learning from U.S. sources that Russia now has Iranian drone capabilities. These are armed drones that they have gotten access to and training in Iran and in Russia here this summer.

SCIUTTO: Not dissimilar from the drones we've seen the Ukrainian forces have been using, these kamikaze drones, we've talked about them, Switchblade drones, as well as Turkish drones that they've used for targeting.

The U.S. views of this is that it shows Russia's desperation to some degree, right, that they have to reach out to Iran for help, for weapons at this stage of the war, when, initially, the Russian expectation was they were going to sweep across the country in a matter of days. That, of course, hasn't happened and, really, both sides digging in for a long conflict here.

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Now, these drones are capable and could have an impact on the battlefield. But are they game-changers? I haven't had anybody tell me that. I mean, I would say the far more significant addition to the battlefield has been these HIMAR weapons systems, HIMARs that we've been talking about for a number of weeks now.

KEILAR: That Ukraine has gotten from NATO and the U.S.?

SCIUTTO: Long distance, highly accurate, allowing the Ukrainian forces to hit Russian targets from a distance with accuracy, And I'll say in this counteroffensive, we've seen them used in a way that we haven't prior, which is not just on targets far away but on positions, infantry positions, et cetera, as part of a battlefield advance. It's a coordinated Ukrainian assault.

KEILAR: Yes, it's such an important week in this conflict. Jim, thank you so much for taking us through it.

Ahead, how some Republican candidates are softening their stance on abortion as the midterm elections approach. BERMAN: And could the U.S. Open be the last hoorah for Serena Williams? What she is now saying after last night's win.

And none of it had to be this way, Meghan Markle giving one of her most candid interviews yet since leaving the royal family.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're celebrating you, Serena Williams.

You felt the crowd with you tonight.

SERENA WILLIAMS, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know you did.

WILLIAMS: The crowd was crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are still with you.

WILLIAMS: It really helped pull me through. Oh, my gosh. Oh my God, I love you.

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BERMAN: Just listen to that. That was long after the match. Tennis legend Serena Williams, she received rousing applause by the crowd at the U.S. Open after winning her match and advancing to the second round.

Here's the question, though. Is this really, this tournament, the last we will see of her?

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WILLIAMS: Yes. I've been pretty vague about it, right? Yes. I'm going to say vague because, you never know.

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BERMAN: CNN Sports Correspondent Carolyn Manno joins us now. And, Carolyn, you were there last night.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: What was it like to be there?

MANNO: It felt like a final. I mean, it was just as crazy as it sounded on television. It was this amazing juxtaposition of some of the biggest stars who always show up to see her play, and so many fans all over the country that made T-shirts and drove there to see her play and a chance of maybe like getting a ticket. I mean, you had this incredible crowd that just welter on, and I'm telling you, they played this video tribute, she declined to do the pre-match interview, she was just very, very nervous.

But when she stepped out on to the court, the whole place just went wild. And not only that, but when she asked them to calm down -- you could see the 7 Line Subway. I mean, you could hear a pin drop. I mean, they just rode the wave of what she wanted and gave her everything that she needed, and she won 10 of the last 13 games. I mean, she relied on them at times. She was a little bit nervous coming. But I do think this is her last grand slam. She is leaving the door open for us. I don't know why she is doing this?

BERMAN: Well, why? Why is she being so vague? Why is she deliberately not saying?

MANNO: Because it's so hard for her to say goodbye. I mean, she has spent her entire life giving her undying passion and love to this game. It has dominated at the facet of who she is. I think that it's hard for her to reconcile this decision even still.

And when she goes out and moves better than we've seen her move all year, you know, in the back of her mind, I think that there's always going to be that little bit of doubt that says, ooh, can I play again? What if I get more matches under my belt? Could I win another grand slam? Could I get to Margaret Court Singles Record? I mean, she's human. She feels human emotions of it all and she's the greatest of all time.

It's a difficult decision. It's a gut-wrenching decision. It's been an emotional process for her. She hasn't said very much. But when she was surprised with that impromptu ceremony last night, she was forced to kind of tell us how she was feeling.

BERMAN: It's just -- it's so cool. I don't know another word to say it, but it must be weird for Serena Williams when no one expects her to win but everyone in the world wants her to. So, it's a unique position.

Carolyn Manno, thanks so much.

The midterm election just ten weeks away. Why one right-wing host blames Donald Trump for the Republican Party's slowing momentum.

KEILAR: And Elon Musk calls low birth weights a, quote, bigger risk to civilization than global warming. But what does the data say?

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KEILAR: The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade has energized voters and made abortion rights a flash point in the midterm elections. It's given Democrats a boost. Now, some Republicans candidates who were strongly opposed to abortion are suddenly softening their stance. CNN's Kyung Lah has more.

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BLAKE MASTERS (R) ARIZONA SENATE NOMINEE (voice over): Most people support common sense regulation around abortion.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Republican U.S. Senate Nominee Blake Masters surrounded by his children trying to reset the debate over abortion rights.

MASTERS: I support a ban on very late term and partial birth abortion, and most Americans agree with that.

LAH: Just after this digital video dropped, Masters' campaign site scrubbed strict anti-abortion language. Before, Masters wrote he's 100 percent pro-life, calling Roe v. Wade a horrible decision, then listed a series of strict stances on abortion. Now, a softer tone, Roe went from horrible to a bad decision. The words 100 percent pro-life removed from this section. And that list of positions, shorter.

JOHN THOMAS, NATIONAL REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: There's no way getting around that abortion, in his particular race, is a hot, hot issue for one of those swing coalitions. He has to speak to that issue and being pro-life 100 percent of the time isn't going to get him there. So, he has to attempt to make that pivot.

LAH: Masters' campaign says he remains 100 percent pro-life. But he's not the only one retooling.

In Michigan's 7th congressional district, challenger Tom Barrett fundraised in the Republican primary as 100 pro-life, no exceptions. Over the weekend, his website that listed a value section to protect life from conception is now gone. Barrett's campaign tells CNN, we regularly update the website.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should all abortions be illegal in this country?

LAH: In Iowa's Republican primary to represent the third district.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All abortions, no exceptions.

LAH: The man in the center, Zach Nunn, won the Republican nomination. The incumbent, Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne turned that primary debate moment into a campaign ad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even in the case of rape, even in the case of incest, even if a woman's life is in danger.

LAH: Nunn's campaign did not respond directly to CNN's request for comment on the Democratic attacks but Nunn wrote in an editorial that the ad was false and says, while he opposes abortion, we must be compassionate toward both women and unborn children.

In Minnesota's gubernatorial race, Republican Nominee Scott Jensen, a doctor, said this in a radio interview before the primary.

SCOTT JENSEN (R) MINNESOTA GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: If a mother's life is in danger, I think that that would have to be a medical consideration and an area for potential exception.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No exceptions for rape or incest?