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New Day Saturday

Source: Kushner Testified He Did Not Recall Contacts With Wikileaks But Senators Say He Did Receive E-mail About Wikileaks Contact; Eighth Woman Claims Roy Moore Groped Her; Democrats Accuse Jared Kushner of Withholding Russia Docs; Deficit Hawks Question Tax Reform Price Tag; Police Search for Suspect in Florida After Fourth Deadly Shooting. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired November 18, 2017 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jared Kushner told Congressional investigators that he did not communicate with Wikileaks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Jared Kushner is in trouble. This "House of Cards" is coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room, any Russians? Anybody been to Russia?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't. I think that's a very clear distinction.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mrs. Moore echoing Candidate Moore, that he is not going anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He will not step down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a full assault. He was very, very flirtatious.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not just a problem in the legislative halls. It is a problem of male power over women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. This morning, the Russia investigation is causing more problems for the White House. Did the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, lie to Congress about the campaign's communications with Wikileaks and Russia?

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Sources tell CNN that in his testimony to Congress, Kushner said he never communicated with Wikileaks and didn't know anyone in the Trump campaign who had? But a new report shows Kushner did receive an e-mail about Wikileaks and that he forwarded to senior campaign officials. BLACKWELL: The significance here is really hard to deny. This week, a Senate committee accused Kushner of withholding documents related to the Russia investigation. Democrats are accusing Kushner of lying under oath. Kushner has already had to amend his security form, SF- 86, several times because he did not list meetings with foreign officials. Here is CNN's Evan Perez.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Jared Kushner told Congressional investigators that he didn't communicate with Wikileaks and didn't recall anyone in the Trump campaign who did. We now know from disclosures this week that Donald Trump Jr. sent an e-mail to Kushner and others in the campaign last year to pass on information that he learned from Wikileaks.

Kushner then forwarded that e-mail to Hope Hicks, one of the closest aides to then-Candidate Trump and now the communications director at White House. What this latest revelation does is it turns up pressure for Kushner to go back to Capitol Hill for more interviews and to explain himself.

We heard this week from the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who sent a public letter to Kushner's lawyers, saying Kushner had failed to turn over documents that they know exist. That includes information about Wikileaks.

Abby Lowell (ph), Kushner's attorney says the Wikileaks question is a gotcha question. He adds that, quote, "In over six hours of voluntary testimony, Mr. Kushner answered all questions put to him and demonstrated that there had been no collusion between the campaign and Russia.

Lowell also disputes the Judiciary Committee's letter accusing Kushner of not turning over documents and also says that the Senate Judiciary Committee should ask other congressional committees for their transcripts of their Kushner interviews and that they should ask the White House for all the documents. Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

BLACKWELL: Evan, thanks so much. Errol Louis with us now, CNN political commentator and political anchor for Spectrum News, Melissa Quinn, breaking news reporter at the "Washington Examiner," and Joey Jackson, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney with us as well. Good morning to all of you.

Let's start with you, Joey. Just find out the legal exposure here for Jared Kushner. He was not under oath reportedly when he was in front of Senate investigators, although, it is still illegal to lie to those investigators.

What's the legal exposure for Kushner if he, indeed, said he did not have any knowledge of anyone having communications with Wikileaks, but did receive these e-mails from Donald Trump Jr.?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Victor. The legal significance is high, right, but the reality, though, will be whether he was lying. Whether it was a knowing and willful misrepresentation to Congress. And so, to your point, whether or not you are under oath, you raise your right hand and have your right hand on your lap, it doesn't matter. The issue becomes because of the federal statute, which says, if you knowingly and willfully lie to a legislative branch of government or any federal official for that matter, in that sense, it would be problematic.

But you know, the excuse has been repeatedly and you have seen this this past week, Victor, We saw the hearings as they related to our attorney general. You heard him invoke those words. I do not recall.

And so, I think similarly, in this instance, when you are dealing in a very chaotic environment and you could remember when he gave public information, Jared Kushner's opening statement to the committee, where he said, look, I was dealing with a number of different things, receiving a number of different e-mails, you know, having a number of different conversations.

Did I pass some e-mail on? OK, I may have, but to the extent that he says he doesn't recall, that would take it out of the knowing and willful spectrum.

[06:05:12] And it could become problematic to prove that he willfully made a misrepresentation.

BLACKWELL: So, Errol, now to you. I mean, does the content of these e-mails and the clarity of the question as we are receiving it from sources allow for the possibility that speaks to what we heard from Attorney General Sessions. That things are moving so quickly. We are flying by the seat of our pants.

He could have received an e-mail from Don Jr. mentioning Wikileaks and just then sent it on to Hope Hicks without reading and really understanding it or is it just so clear here that it is hard to deny?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, it is a pattern that has emerged, Victor. Honestly, we start out and we have seen this with Mike Flynn, Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump Jr., with a number of top campaign officials including Paul Manafort, the campaign manager.

Where they start out by saying no, there was no connection whatsoever, we never, ever spoke to anybody. Then, evidence comes forward that, well, you did get these communications and all of the sudden, the story changes.

They fall back and say, well, but there was no collusion, which is not a legal term in any event. And so, the pattern that seems to emerge is one in which they were either too busy or too inept to recognize what was going on and/or they are trying now to either cover that up or to cover up the fact that there was some kind of conversation going on.

Maybe it was a quiet conversation. Maybe it was a disconnected conversation. Maybe it wasn't something that ever rose to the level of an absolute strategy within the campaign, but clearly, something was going on here.

And to the extent that they don't come clean, even after the fact, I think they are going to continue to have political problems.

BLACKWELL: So, Melissa, there was the amendment to the SF-86 form to get the security clearance, and then, there was another amendment to that form and now more revelations as the months go on. There was a period during the summer during which Democrats were suggesting they were going to really fight the security clearance for Jared Kushner. He has this interim security clearance now. Where is that fight?

MELISSA QUINN, BREAKING NEWS REPORTER, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": I think that the revelations from this past week are only going to amplify those calls from Senate and House Democrats. This is, just like Errol said, this is a pattern that has been emerging over the last few months involving top members of the Trump campaign and now top White House officials.

Obviously, when we found out about the meeting at Trump Tower in June, 2016, that started the calls for Kushner's security clearance to be revoked. I think now, learning that Kushner did, indeed, receive e- mails and forwarded them on mentioning Wikileaks, I don't expect this issue to go away any time soon.

BLACKWELL: Errol, back to you, sources tell CNN that Special Counsel Robert Mueller wants to talk with that British publicist, Rob Goldstone, who arranged the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian officials. You remember those e-mails that went back and forth. There was a suggestion he had information about Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump Jr. responded, if it is what you say, I love it. Remind everyone what he can offer to this investigation.

LOUIS: Well, what he can offer is he appears to be able to connect some important dots. He knew or possibly knows what the Russians were after. The attorney and the other operatives that were in and around that meeting might have been looking for.

He also knows who he spoke to, because these different denials, this ever-changing story in which Trump campaign officials and White House officials start backtracking. They start with one story and then they start changing it depending on what they knew.

Well, Rob Goldstone has the answer to a lot of that, who did he speak to, when did he speak to them. He can help let's be kind about it, refresh their memories perhaps, and if he does under oath, it could provide some really valuable information.

BLACKWELL: Joey, the attorney for Paul Manafort on the day that he surrendered for that indictment a couple of weeks ago, I believe it was October 30th, said that there is no evidence of collusion. We have heard from the president, there is no evidence of collusion. However, the people who are coming before this special counsel seem that that line of investigation is very much still open despite what we are hearing from the White House.

JACKSON: Well, it very much is. Now, you have to remember, there are many pieces of the puzzle here. We talk about connecting dots, you know, you have to look at each official and each member of the campaign, what they knew, when they into it, what, if any, involvement they had with Russian officials, what this meeting was about in terms of the British publicist.

What the intent of the parties were, was it about adoption or something more significant? And so, this investigation is not done in a vacuum. It is not any one official that is going to tip the scale. It is the collective effort of the campaign.

[06:10:11] When you talk about collusion, right, collusion represents a term in which the people collectively working with the Russian government and the campaign to influence an election.

When you do that, you have that investigation, you look at each particular party and what, if any, role they had and what, if any, intention they had to further the aim of the collusion. So, it is significant.

BLACKWELL: All right. Joey Jackson, Melissa Quinn, Errol Louis, thank you all.

PAUL: Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is finding some humor in the Russia investigation, it seems, cracking jokes just days after his fiery congressional testimony on the Russian investigation. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was just thinking, I want to ask you, is Ambassador Kislyak in the room, before I get started here? Any Russians? Anybody been to Russia? Have a cousin in Russia?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: He got a warm reception from the conservative lawyers there who are in attendance. At least one Democrat, though, already calling the comments inappropriate.

BLACKWELL: Russia rejected another U.N. resolution to extend an investigation into Syria's use of chemical weapons. It's their third veto in the last month against the Joint Investigative Mechanism or JIM.

Now Russia gets veto power from its status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. It claims the investigation is biased while ambassadors from the U.S. and the U.K. tore into Russia for protecting the Syrian regime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR IN THE UNITED NATIONS: Russia's veto, its second in 24 hours, shows us that Russia has no interest in finding common ground with the rest of this council to save the JIM. Russia will not agree to any mechanism that might shine a spotlight on the use of chemical weapons by its ally, the Syrian regime. It is as simple and shameful as that. MATTHEW RYCROFT, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: This third veto in a month, clearly exposes, if it wasn't already obvious, Russia's determination to protect their Syrian ally, whatever the harm that causes, to the ban on the use of chemical weapons, to the wider international system of rules, to Russia's own reputation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Today, it has been more than a week now since President Trump largely silent on the sexual misconduct allegations against Roy Moore. Listen to what the newest accuser is saying about the GOP Alabama Senate candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA JOHNSON, ROY MOORE ACCUSER: The moment we walked in, it was full-on assault. He was very, very flirtatious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Plus, the White House says, everyone is getting a tax cut for Christmas. Independent analysts are questioning the White House's promises.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:19]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLA MOORE, ROY MOORE'S WIFE: Even after all the attacks against me, my family, the foundation, and now my husband, he will not step down. He will not stop fighting for the people of Alabama. In his words, and I quote, "I will not stop until they lay me in that box in the ground."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: That's Kayla Moore there, wife of Roy Moore, accusing the media of lying about the Republican Alabama Senate candidate's alleged sexual misconduct with underage girls.

BLACKWELL: Well, now an eighth woman has come forward, Tina Johnson, says Moore grabbed her buttocks in his law office when she was there over child custody battle with her mother. That was in 1991. She was 28 years old at the time. Listen to what she told Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNSON: The moment we walked in, it was full-on assault. I mean, he was very, very flirtatious. He was commenting constantly the whole time and it was not like for five minutes. It was like was there for a long period of time. It was so uncomfortable. I knew something was up, but I just ignored it, just what it was. He proceeded to come to the end of the desk and really close-up on me.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: You said so close you could sort of feel his breath.

JOHNSON: Right. Actually, I think his knee might have been touching my knee. His hands were not on me. He just like maybe his knee was brushing mine or something. Then when it was time for us to leave, my mother had got up and left the room to go out the front door.

Well, when she was going out the door and I proceed out, he grabbed me from behind on my buttocks and squeezed it really hard. I remember thinking, I'm so ashamed. I felt humiliated in that moment. It took everything out of me.

BURNETT: One question a lot of people have with these stories coming out now is why now? Why, Tina, did you choose to speak out now? Why not sooner?

JOHNSON: Because you couldn't. People didn't want to hear it. Your own family members, don't talk about that. Shut up. Why are you bringing that up?

BURNETT: What has changed, the environment? Other women came forward giving you the courage to come out and tell your story?

JOHNSON: Yes. What really did it for me is when I've seen a citizen of Edwell County say that the 14-year-old, it was OK. It was no big deal.

[06:20:12] BURNETT: Someone told you that?

JOHNSON: It was on the news. I mean, I've seen it on live tv. They said it was OK. She was 14. Oh, well, that's OK, that it was fine.

BURNETT: And then you decided that you had to speak out?

JOHNSON: I was so angry. A 14-year-old? A 14-year-old child and it was OK. When is that ever OK, ever?

BURNETT: What would you say if his campaign comes out and claims, OK, Tina, you want pay back because he was representing your mother on this custody issue. If they come out and say that to try to discredit you, what do you say to that?

JOHNSON: The Lord that I serve is not the one that Roy Moore serves. My Lord knows that he did it. He knows it and I know it. He can say whatever he wants to say. The truth will stand when the world won't. That's the truth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: CNN has reached out several times to Moore's campaign for a response, a reaction to Johnson's claims. They have not responded. But Roy Moore and his campaign have denied all other accusations against him.

PAUL: Despite all the accusations against Roy Moore, President Trump has not come out publicly to say anything about the revelations. He was quick to slam Senator Al Franken for his sexual misconducts, which resulted in some backlash and critics reminding the president of sexual allegations against him during his campaign. Here is CNN's Ryan Nobles.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, good morning from the White House. When the president decided that he would weigh in on the Al Franken allegations, less than 12 hours after they were initially reported, it really opened the White House up to some criticism on two different fronts.

Of course, there are those past allegations by women about the president and sexual impropriety. There is this Senate race in Alabama where the Republican candidate, Roy Moore, facing a host of accusations, including inappropriate contact with a woman underage.

Now White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was specifically asked about both points in the White House press briefing. Listen to how she responded about the differences between the accusations against the president and those against Al Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Senator Franken has admitted wrongdoing and the president hasn't. I think that's a very clear distinction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Sanders also said that this isn't an issue was litigated heaving during the election and that the president still won the election. As to that election coming up in Alabama, the president has, for the most part, not weighed in all that much about Roy Moore.

Shortly after he won the Alabama primary, he said that he'd make a great senator, but since then and since these allegations have come to light, the president has said that he doesn't know that much about it. He also said, if the allegations were true, that Roy Moore should step aside.

Sara Murray pressed Sarah Sanders on that point specifically how the president and Sanders may feel about the victims in this case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Can you tell us whether the president believes the women who are making these allegations against Roy Moore, and would he be willing to ask the Alabama governor to delay the election or take a step like that to try to intervene in in electoral process in Alabama?

SANDERS: The president certainly finds the allegations extremely troubling, as I've stated yesterday. He feels like it is up to the governor and the people in the state of Alabama to make a determination on whether or not they delay that election or whether or not they support and vote for Roy Moore.

(END VIDEO CLIP) NOBLES: As you heard Sanders say there, she left the door open to the possibility that the Alabama governor, Kay Ivy, could change the date of the special election, possibly delaying it from its December 12th date. That's something that at this point, Governor Ivy has said she will not do.

But we know that in a memo crafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and sent to this White House that was one possible option as to how to deal with this Alabama Senate race and Roy Moore. Christi and Victor, back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Ryan, thanks so much. Republicans promise an economic boost from their tax cut, that the plan will help every family lift all boats. But are Americans believing that? We'll look at the fine print.

PAUL: Also, President Trump changes his mind in regards to allowing elephants to be hunted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:55]

PAUL: Good morning. Happy Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you.

PAUL: So, there is a new question for the White House this morning regarding the Russia investigation. Did Jared Kushner lie to Congress?

BLACKWELL: So, a source tells CNN, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser told Congressional investigators he did not communicate with Wikileaks and did not know anyone on the Trump campaign who had.

PAUL: But a new report says he forwarded an e-mail to senior campaign officials from Donald Trump Jr. In that e-mail, according to "The Atlantic," Trump Jr. said he had made contact with Wikileaks.

BLACKWELL: So, this comes after accusations this week that Kushner withheld Russia-related documents from the Senate committee. Here is CNN justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The questions about Jared Kushner's cooperation continue as Congress is asking for more documents and they are implying that Kushner has not been forthcoming with handing them over.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: The Senate Judiciary Committee is calling Jared Kushner's disclosures into question, labeling what he submitted so far incomplete and demanding more documents. The letter sent by Chairman Chuck Grassley and top Democrat Dianne Feinstein points to revelations Monday that Donald Trump Jr. exchanged direct messages with Wikileaks over Twitter during the campaign. [06:30:08] Trump Jr. e-mailed Jared Kushner and other top campaign officials telling them WikiLeaks had made contact. The committee wants Kushner to hand over the e-mails. They also want all documents relating to a so-called Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite, Kushner's communications with former National Security adviser Michael Flynn and any e-mails relating to his firing. All documents related to his security clearance.

JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: My name is Jared Kushner.

SCHNEIDER: Kushner had had to update his forms three times for not reporting several meetings with foreign officials and all communications with Sergei Million, a Russian business who the "Washington Post" reported is a source for the dossier.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: He is definitely apparently omitting documents. And that is the reason that I have long advocated subpoenas for all of the documents. That's the only way we will know whether he's producing all. He certainly is doing himself no favor by withholding some apparently. And I think he ought to be subpoenaed to appear before the committee in open, under oath, at a hearing.

SCHNEIDER: Kushner's lawyer releasing this statement.

"We provided the Judiciary Committee with all relevant documents that had to do with Mr. Kushner's calls, contacts or meetings with Russians during the campaign and transition which was the request," adding, Kushner will continue to voluntarily cooperate.

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO ROBERT MUELLER: I don't think it's obstruction. I think he is saying, look, Congress, write us a clear letter and we'll give you a response to your clear letter.

SCHNEIDER: Meanwhile the special counsel has subpoenaed the Trump campaign, according to sources. The subpoenas seeks more records based on expanded search terms suggesting investigators believe there are still documents that haven't been handed over. The campaign had provided documents to the special counsel that had also been given to congressional investigators.

One source describes the request as covering a large amount of material. The Trump campaign hasn't responded to requests for comment.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after he initially failed to disclose he met with then Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice during the campaign, made light of the situation at the same hotel where he encountered Kislyak at a speech during the campaign.

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room?

(LAUGHTER)

SESSIONS: Before I get started here. Any Russians? SCHNEIDER: And on Russian television this week, Kislyak joking about

the investigation, saying any list of his contacts with Americans would be too long to list during the show.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And also in the coming weeks, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team plans to meet with key White House staffers for interviews. They include White House counsel Don McGahn and 29-year- old communications director Hope Hicks, who has been a crucial part of the Trump organization and campaign and administration.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So the next step for the GOP tax bill on the Senate side, a good debate on the floor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Now one of the major questions is how will this bill affect one of the core issues for a lot of the Republicans who supported the national debt?

Here's CNN's senior Washington correspondent Brianna Keilar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republicans are hard at work trying to overhaul the tax system.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're working to give the American people a giant tax cut for Christmas.

KEILAR: And it has a giant price tag, $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Even as Republicans argue questionably that economic growth will help cancel out the big addition to the national debt, it's a costly plan for Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan who have built their brand on fiscal conservatism.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: We face a crushing burden of debt which will take down our economy.

KEILAR: That was back in 2011 when Ryan was House budget chairman. In 2013, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the debt and deficit --

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: The transcendent issue of our era. Until we fix that problem, we can't fix America.

KEILAR: But now Republicans are championing a plan that many deficit hawks say is anything but fiscally responsible. The tax plan's $1.5 trillion price tag is a lowball figure. It's the price tag they need to come under in order to use special Senate rules requiring them to need only 51 votes.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscally conservative advocacy group, puts the real cost at $2.2 trillion.

MAYA MACGUINEAS, PRESIDENT, COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: There are a lot of gimmicks they're slipping into the bill to make the costs look less than they actually are.

KEILAR: Here's one major gimmick. While the corporate tax cuts would be permanent, the tax cuts for American taxpayers would expire after 10 years, on paper anyway, even though it's expected Congress would ultimately just make the cuts permanent. That fishy math allows Republicans to claim a smaller price tag.

MACGUINEAS: On one hand, they're saying, sure, there's all of these expiring tax breaks, but don't worry, we fully intend to extend them and you won't have to worry about your taxes going up. And on the other hand, they're saying don't worry about the cost of the bill.

[06:35:02] Sure, we're borrowing $1.5 trillion, which I would say everybody should be worrying about, but we're not going beyond that limit, when really they are.

KEILAR: Some Republicans say they are not quite as committed to this charade that the bill won't add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit, such as retiring Senator Bob Corker.

SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: If I believe it's going to add to the deficit, I'm not going to vote for it.

KEILAR: Critics say it will add significantly to the deficit, just as the Bush tax cuts did. Exactly what Republicans warned against in the past.

RYAN: It is unconscionable to leave the next generation with a crushing burden of debt in a nation in decline. Washington's obsession with the next election has come at the expense of the next generation.

KEILAR (on camera): There was also a dubious promise that the White House is making about the tax overhaul. The congressional liaison for the White House, Mark Short, saying that every income bracket will see a decrease in taxes and every working family will see a decrease.

That is not fully true. Independent analysis shows that American families earning less than $75,000 a year are over time going to pay more in taxes.

Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Brianna, thank you.

So President Trump has announced that he's taking another look at a policy that allows elephant trophies to be imported into the U.S.

BLACKWELL: So the president tweeted this last night. "Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts under study for years. Will update soon with Secretary Zinke. Thank you."

The earlier decision meant Americans would be able to hunt endangered big game in Zimbabwe and Zambia and bring the trophies back to the U.S. Now it reversed restrictions placed by the Obama administration.

PAUL: There is a desperate search for answers this morning particularly in Baltimore here because officials are upping the ante for any clues about who murdered a Baltimore police detective.

BLACKWELL: Plus a neighborhood in Florida is really waiting for some answers from police as the search goes on for a possible serial killer responsible for four murders over the past month.

We'll have the latest in that investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:29] BLACKWELL: The reward to help catch a cop killer in Baltimore is now up to $200,000 -- more than $200,000. Authorities are desperate for some information in the killing of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter. Suiter was investigating a murder scene Wednesday when he was shot in the head. Police are struggling to find the circumstances surrounding his death.

Baltimore's police commissioner says the officer's service weapon was the only gun recovered there. And it had been discharged more than once. Well, evidence shows the shooter might have been injured.

PAUL: In Tampa, Florida, the FBI, the police have been searching door-to-door for a possible serial killer after a fourth person was shot and killed in the Seminole Heights neighborhood. Now in the last month, four people, with no apparent connection to each other, were murdered within a few blocks of one another.

All of these victims were alone at the time of their deaths. And as a result, officials have warned residents do not go out alone at night, stay alert. Police have released a new video as well.

Take a look at this, if you would, please. That, they believe, is the suspect and they hope someone will come forward with some information on that person. They have received more than 2,000 tips thus far.

CNN law enforcement analyst Art Roderick is with us now.

Art, thank you so much for being with us. Let's listen together here real quickly to the Tampa police chief, what he said this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF BRAN DUGAN, TAMPA POLICE: We need someone who is thoughtful, cares and has the heart and the fortitude and the bravery to step forward and tell us who this person is and give us the identity. I don't need speculation. We don't need profiles. We need names.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So they talk having more than 2,000 tips, no arrests. This has all happened in a month. Do you hear some frustration obviously from that police chief and are you surprised that there has not been more solid evidence thus far? ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I am surprised on the one

hand but not on the other. I mean, I lived through the D.C. sniper case both from being just an individual that lived in the area but also an individual that worked on that case and managed a lot of the investigation that went into that.

The issue regarding the police and what they are doing down in Tampa right now is very similar to the shooting that occurred in Phoenix, as you might recall, back in 2015 and 2016, where that particular individual shot and killed nine people over a period of almost a year. And it took another eight or nine months before they were able to arrest that individual.

But the interesting thing about that case and I think it compares to this one, and that's what law enforcement does. It looks at previous cases to find out what techniques were used to arrest the individual and how the individual was arrested in Phoenix was based on video, ballistics, and tips from the public.

So the chief is exactly correct. They need somebody to come forward. There is enough video out there now to, I think, be able to at least identify who this individual is and to report this to law enforcement so that we can end this.

It's a huge public safety issue here right now and a lot of times, there is a balance between what law enforcement wants to put out and a public safety issue. In this particular case, they are letting out as much information as they can because they have to stop this individual from continuing this crime spree.

PAUL: Sure. Right. Without compromising the investigation.

[06:45:02] Now we know that they are reluctant to call the shooter a serial killer per se because they say they don't have enough evidence for that. What evidence need to be there to label that, to put that characterization on this?

RODERICK: Well, I think it's -- it's going to come down to the ballistics. They also have this individual now at two or three different scenes that involved the shooting so it looks like they're honing in on the specific individual. They've put out a description in this individual. They have now a $100,000 reward out for information leading to arrest. So I think once this has all boiled down to it, it's going to come down to the video that we see there.

And I know at the shooting the other day that just occurred a couple of days ago, there was video, I believe, from a local Laundromat or something. So they're closing in on this individual and hopefully they can close in on him very quickly here before he commits another horrendous crime like this.

PAUL: Art, how likely is it one person?

RODERICK: It's very difficult to keep a conspiracy going. And I think this is probably a lone shooter as was in Phoenix. And I think probably the two of those particular cases are going to mirror each other. We probably have an individual that's acting by himself. But I'm sure as the chief was pleading with the public that he understands, as do I and everybody else that's in law enforcement, that somebody out there knows something and just has to pick the phone up, Christi, make a call and end this right now.

PAUL: It's possible they know something, they don't realize it's something the police need or they don't call for fear of that person?

RODERICK: It could be both of those circumstances.

PAUL: OK.

RODERICK: Somebody could be in fear for their life or they just don't want to place a call to law enforcement. But I think they are quickly closing in on this particular individual.

PAUL: All right. Art Roderick, we so appreciate your perspective. Thank you, sir.

BLACKWELL: We're a couple of weekends out from the big Army-Navy game, one of the biggest rivalries in all of college football. We'll show or introduce, rather, to you a top high school recruit who passed over bigger schools in order to play in this game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:43] BLACKWELL: So high school football is full of big name recruits looking to be signed to one of the big schools and maybe one day fulfill that goal of playing in the NFL.

PAUL: For some players such as Jason Taylor here. In high school in Georgia, top recruit committed to the Naval Academy where he didn't just sign up to play football, he signed up to serve his country as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON TAYLOR: A dream for me is to get in the Army Navy game. I was ranked top 100 safeties in the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you have such a dominant, well-respected leader of a football player, you expect them to go big FCC or ACC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Football itself is a four to five-year thing when you leave here. And when we talked, I told him, I thought that Navy was one of those schools that would help give him the best four-year decision.

TAYLOR: It was a different atmosphere than other colleges. Everyone was one sign, one mind, there's focus on one goal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you want to be a kid in school and just party. He will be a man day one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Having him make the decision that he is going to go and dedicate his life to fighting for our country if need be, I had to really just fall back and say, hey, this is his decision.

TAYLOR: I really want to go to Navy so I knew that I had a great plan for my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could say there was something different about him. And I just want to (INAUDIBLE) something about his character that's different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is a gentleman, he's a scholar and he just happened to be a heck of a football player on top of that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has within him the capability to be a great natural born leader.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just really proud that he's I think made us proud, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very proud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is a testament to our parenting that I didn't know was so great.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That's good. That's good. Now listen to this. This is an interesting element because Jason has committed to play at Navy but he continues to take these recruiting visits to other schools as a way of bringing some of his fellow teammates along in hopes that one of those schools will give them a shot.

PAUL: That's a good kid there.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: All right. We're talking about Jared Kushner today, he is taking on Capitol Hill over the Russia probe, blasting Democratic senators for calling him a liar.

BLACKWELL: Now when we come back meet one of our Top Ten CNN Heroes for 2017.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:29] PAUL: Listen, guys, we need your vote for the CNN Hero of the Year. Yes, your vote counts here. It's one of the year's Top Ten Heroes. And we want you to meet now Leslie Morissette.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE MORISSETTE, CNN HERO 2017: Get set. Go.

My son, Graham, passed away two years after he was diagnosed with leukemia. We spent two years pretty much in and out of the hospital. When he was sick, the computer definitely helped him stay in contact with his school and friends.

When you lose your child, the love doesn't go away. It has to find a place.

I really wanted to make a difference with the families and the children that I had met in the hospital.

So I heard you like iPads. Is that true?

We give away free technology to children with cancer and other serious illnesses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I love it.

MORISSETTE: We love to say we are connecting kids when the world is out of reach. One of our major goals is to connect kid to their classrooms which really helps them continue their education.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Philip is going to have a bone marrow transplant. We are going to be here in the hospital like six weeks. Thanks to that robot, he is not going to miss out on anything.

MORISSETTE: Nothing makes me happier. The joy that they have fills my heart back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Vote for Leslie or any of your favorite top 10 heroes now at CNNHeroes.com. Thank you for doing so.

Our top story this morning, the cloud of the Russia investigation is once again hanging over the White House. The president's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner accused of lying --