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New Day Saturday

Bernie Sanders Returns to His Roots with Brooklyn Rally Today; Trump to Make First Public Remarks Since Returning to Washington; 159 Cases of Measles Confirmed Across 10 States; Rep. Schiff Sends Letter to Amazon Over Anti-Vaccination Content. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired March 02, 2019 - 8:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did some of the President's closest advisors, like Kushner, get access to top-secret information without clearance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a matter of our national security.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think I have the authority to do that. I'm not sure I did. But I wouldn't do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why does he keep lying about this stuff?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The parents of an American student who died after being imprisoned in North Korea, have lashed out at the President.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he is not normal for President United States. To praise one of the worst dictators on the planet, the President of United States insists he likes Kim Jong-un.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's very smart. He's sharp as you can be, and he's a real leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The President really is a master negotiator and he was able to walk away from a deal to tell you know, "Now, listen Chairman, I really appreciate this, thanks but no thanks. Got to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Christi Paul, CNN HOST: Well, good morning to you. So glad that you could be with us on this Saturday morning at 8 a.m. It's kind of early. Is it early for you normally?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've got two kids under three. This is--

PAUL: He's up at 55:30.

MATTINGLY: We've been up for six hours by now. Congratulations on making it through the week. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Victor Blackwell. PAUL: So in just a little bit 20presidential hopeful, Bernie Sanders is going to hit the campaign trail in his hometown of Brooklyn, expected to deliver deeply personal remarks. This is according to excerpts of his speech provided to CNN by a campaign source.

MATTINGLY: Sanders will touch on the struggles of his working-class family. Speech reading in part "Coming from a lower middle-class family, I will never forget how money or really lack of money was always a point of stress in our home".

I want to get right to CNN Correspondent, Ryan Nobles. He's up in Brooklyn right now. And Ryan, the personal touch of the Sanders campaign is something we didn't see a lot in 2016, why is it happening now?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You're absolutely right, Phil. And one of the things we're going to see is a big difference between 2016 and 2020 for the Bernie Sanders campaign, when it comes to Bernie Sanders telling that personal story about what made him as a man, and what led him to try and champion some of these big progressive causes that have made him a political superstar.

And while this campaign certainly want things to be different. In that respect there are a couple of things that they want to remain the same and that is big crowds showing enthusiastic support for Senator Bernie Sanders.

And if you can look here behind me, I mean this rally doesn't start for another three hours. It is cold and snowy here in Brooklyn and already there's a crowd forming. In fact, we're told that there were folks already here waiting in line hoping to get a good spot to see Senator Sanders as early as 6 o'clock this morning.

But getting back to that narrative that Bernie Sanders is going to paint this morning. He's going to talk about his experience growing up here in Brooklyn in a rent-controlled apartment with his brother and his parents. His parents are immigrants. He comes from a Jewish background and he wants people to tell that story.

He wants people to understand that that's part of the reason that he is championing these causes. For instance, causes like Medicare-for- All where he wants access to health care for everyone now.

The big question, of course, for Bernie Sanders is can he recapture that magic? The early reviews seem to indicate that he's heading in that direction. He's raised more than $10 million already for a campaign that's a little more than a week old. The polls show them either in first or second place both in the national polls and in some of these early state polls. But this is really just the beginning of what is going to be a long slog of a campaign.

And there's certainly a lot of resentment and some concern among some Democratic activists about the way the primary season went with Hillary Clinton, his former a Democratic primary opponent. And it's not quite clear quite yet, whether or not Bernie Sanders can unite all those factions to win the Democratic primary. We're going to get our first indication as to whether or not that's going to happen here this morning when he gives this big speech here in Brooklyn. Tomorrow that narrative tour continues as he heads to Chicago where he went to college and really began his work, particularly in the civil rights movement and really where he began that advocates - that where he became an activist for those progressive causes.

So the next two days really important for Bernie Sanders, his first campaign rallies of the 2020 season. Phil and Christi.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And Ryan as you point out, a noteworthy strategic shift. We'll see how it all ends up. Ryan put some gloves and a hat on. It looks cold.

NOBLES: Thank you. Ryan Nobles from Brooklyn.

PAUL: Take good care of yourself out there. Listen, also later this morning, we're going to hear from President Trump for the first time, in fact, since he returned to Washington from the second North Korean summit without a deal.

The President is speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference and it comes at the end of pretty rough week for the White House.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Joining us now with the latest on what to expect today, CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood. Sarah walk us through what the White House is or must be thinking at this point after the last five or six days?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Well, so President Trump is emerging from a week of tough headlines on all fronts from Russia to North Korea to his own family. So we expect to see the President try to change the conversation when he appeared on the CPAC stage later this morning.

[08:05:00] Just take a look at some of the headlines that emerged this week alone. The President's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen offered testimony before Congress that raised new questions about Trump's conducted business and on the campaign trail.

Trump emerged from those highly anticipated talks in North - on North Korea in Vietnam empty-handed. There were reports that Trump ordered his then Chief of Staff to grant Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, top- secret security clearance just weeks ago. He denied doing that.

Felix Sater, a former Trump associate will be testifying before the House Intelligence Committee soon about Trump Tower Moscow talks. And finally the parents of Otto Warmbier, that young American student who died after being released from North Korean custody, rebukes the President. After Trump said in Vietnam that he believed Kim Jong-un, when the North Korean dictator said he did not know how harshly Otto Warmbier was being treated.

So we can expect to see the President try to reframe some of that. When he heads to CPAC, it will be a very friendly audience. Trump has not missed this conservative gathering since he became President. And lots of people traced the launch of his political career back to a speech that he delivered to CPAC in 2011.

So this, obviously, will be a chance for the President to offer some red meat to his base after a rough week, Phil and Christi.

PAUL: Alrighty. Sarah Westwood, thank you so much.

MATTINGLY: And joining me now to discuss this and so much more John Bresnahan. Bres, my guy, what's happening? He is a Congressional Bureau Chief for POLITICO. All right, let's start with Bernie Sanders. You heard from Ryan Nobles. He's kicking off his campaign rally in a few hours.

And according to campaign sources, Bernie is going to really dig into his past, his family, his personal story. Now, we haven't seen this before. You didn't see it a lot in 2016. You've covered him in the Senate for years. Doesn't talk about this very often, why is it happening now?

JOHN BRESNAHAN, CONGRESSIONAL BUREAU CHIEF, POLITICO: Bernie Sanders is not a warm and fuzzy guy. When he's walking around in the Senate, he's - he's all business. He's all about policies, all about issues. He - Bernie, traditionally - Senator Sanders, he wants to talk about what he's doing in legislation, what he's doing on issues. He doesn't want to talk about himself.

And he you know he said in the past, these kind of personal discussions are a distraction from what's really important for the country. But I think it's clear that he has to widen his base inside the party.

Look, he's got - there's a certain element of faction of support for Sanders inside the Democratic Party. Ryan Nobles talked about his fundraising, which has been a really unbelievable so far early, far better than anyone else. So - but he's got to go, he's got to be able to prove to minority voters, especially in the Democratic Party, that he is someone that they can support.

I mean, this is - can he win in South Carolina in a Democratic primary? Can he defeat African-American candidates or Hispanic candidates in a Democratic primary? And so he's got to expand. Most of his voters are white voters inside the party, so he's got to expand his base support.

So he has to show - he wants to tell everybody his story, which is son of Polish immigrant parents, came here with nothing, grew up in Brooklyn, didn't have a lot of money growing up, and somebody who's a self-made man. So this is a story he and his advisors think has to get out.

MATTINGLY: Bres, I want to ask you. He - Bernie Sanders was asked on "The View" yesterday about Hillary Clinton, and I think he gave most of us flashbacks - bad flashbacks to 2016. But take a look at what he had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN MCCAIN, CO-HOST, THE VIEW: We're hearing about a lot of Democratic candidates who are meeting with Hillary Clinton for advice, though, so people like Amy Klobuchar. Do you think you'll do the same?

BERNIE SANDERS (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I suspect not. Hillary does not - she's not called me. Look, we have differences. She - Hillary has played a very important role in modern American politics.

MCCAIN: Yes, but you're not interested in any advice from her?

SANDERS: I think not. We have - look, we have--

MCCAIN: You think not.

SANDERS: Look, I think every Democrat is going to come together. Let me say what I've said before. I hope to be the Democratic nominee and I have the support of the whole Democratic Party behind me.

If I am not, and somebody else is, I will support that candidate, because what's most important is that Trump is defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: He's nothing if not honest. But it does make you wonder its 2016 ever going to end. But - from a tangible perspective --

BRESNAHAN: 2016 will never be over, Phil.

MATTINGLY: I appreciate that. But for a tangible perspective, will it actually have an impact on this race for Bernie Sanders, as you know, he tries to broaden his support.

BRESNAHAN: Well, in fact, POLITICO, did a story recently on - that kind of stirred up some of this bad - reminded people the bad feeling between the Clinton camp and the Sanders camp.

No, I mean - look, I mean, the - Sanders in a lot of way has won the ideological debate inside the party. What he was talking about in 2016 is now the message of the party. Medicare-for-All, expanding social services, this is what - he won the debate, the philosophical, the ideological, the political debate inside the party. What he lost was the personal debate.

And so I think we're going to see whether or not Bernie can be the face of the new Democratic Party? He was enormous important in the change of the party. We'll see whether or not he can actually be the nominee?

[08:10:00] MATTINGLY: Bres, I want to shift a little bit to kind of the week that was with the White House on Capitol Hill, and kind of a top-line question - 30,000 foot question. I feel like you and I have discussed a lot, waiting outside of meetings over the last couple of years.

BRESNAHAN: Way too many meetings.

MATTINGLY: Way too many meetings. Was the - the stories that we're having this week, will we forget them in two weeks or was there anything you saw this week that's going to resonate and matter over the course the next couple months?

BRESNAHAN: This week was unbelievable. I mean, you know you start off with - I mean, we have a story that early in the week about a former campaign staffer accusing President Trump of forcibly trying to kiss her, and that's not even in the lineup of what you're what you were talking about before. I mean, that's how unbelievable this week was.

Yes, I think - I mean the Trump style is chaos. We lurched from chaos to disaster to debacle and back again. But I do think there's a couple of things that are important. One, there were polls out showing Trump having you know very slim leads in Texas against either Joe Biden or Beto O'Rourke if they run, if they're candidates and is only a couple of points ahead of Bernie Sanders if he runs there.

If Trump - if there's a race in Texas, President Trump's in big trouble. And - but the other part of this is the economy. Look, the economy remains good, and that's bolstering Trump, if the economy where it were to turn or slowdown that would be a huge disaster for him politically. And I think as long as the economy good, he is good. Trump's pace is going to stay with them, no matter what happens.

But, look, the Muller report will be the story of the year. When that comes out that will be the story of the year and then what happens in the Southern District of New York, whether that - how far they go in the criminal investigation of the President and his associates. So I mean there's going to be a lot more you know highs and lows for Trump coming up.

And, yes, we'll keep talking about this stuff. But this is the Trump era, that's we lurched from high to high.

MATTINGLY: Yes, full employment for you and me. John Bresnahan, never accused of not being warm and fuzzy, thanks buddy, see you on Monday.

BRESNAHAN: Take care.

PAUL: So Congress wants to know how Jared Kushner got a security clearance over the objections of top officials in the White House. Well, Congress has now delivered an ultimatum to the White House. What happens if the White House doesn't respond? We'll talk about it.

MATTINGLY: And major league baseball is looking into a heated altercation between San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer and his wife Pam. Coming up Pam Baers' response to the eye raising video.

[08:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, The New York times reported this week that President Trump ordered a security clearance for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over the objections of other White House staffers. MATTINGLY: Now the congressional action was swift. The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings says, he wants to see White House documents on the decision by Monday. The Former Director for the government - for the Office of Government Ethics, says this could lead to serious questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER SHAUB, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS: Security clearances are serious business and I worked on nominees for two different Presidents for years and was surprised at the kinds of people who would get security clearances despite adverse information in their history that was uncovered during the background investigation.

So it has to be something pretty serious if at that level of government career officials are taking a risk and sounding the alarm. That really gives us real pause to wonder what worried the intelligence community so badly about Jared Kushner getting a clearance, and have those concerns come to fruition? Is there any danger that he's vulnerable to either carelessly or as a result of pressure revealing government secrets that could put people?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Alrighty. So what comes next on a legal front CNN Legal Analyst, Shan Wu with us now. He's a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. Sham, thank you so much for being with us. Is there any disqualifier that you see right at the get-go with Kushner?

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYSTS: No. And to Walter's point, having been through quite a few background investigations myself. There are no automatic disqualifiers. The agents, who do the interviews, always tell the interviewee, I'm just here to collect information. I'm not making any judgments.

Those judgments are made by higher-ups. In this instance, for Kushner, obviously, the highest of the higher ups the President made the judgment. There's nothing automatically disqualifying. It's really at the matrix of everything coming together that causes the people making the decision, should this person be trusted, could they be compromised and that is what's so troubling here.

Because there's no automatic disqualifier, we have to infer that something about this whole picture was deeply alarming people like Kelly and the intelligence establishment.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And Shan, I think that's actually the question I have. For John Kelly and for White House Counsel Don McGahn, reportedly to make contemporaneous memos of this. What - we don't know what they were seeing. But how serious does that kind of imply things are to you?

WU: It's very serious. You don't do a memo like that unless you are concerned to make sure you're on the record that there's a problem. And in this, as in so many of the Trump issues, all roads lead back to counterintelligence.

So they would be, in my opinion, making those contemporaneous memos because they want the record to show that they raised the alarm. They're worried that this person could be compromised. That they could end up being a foreign asset. That's what my inference is for them taking that highly unusual step to go on the record that way.

PAUL: So let me ask you about the Manafort sentencing. How likely is it that he will serve a longer term here or what do you think the prospects are for his team to be able to reduce a sentence?

[08:20:00] WU: I think the team is taking a good focus with Judge Ellis. The Sentencing Guidelines, just to remind all of us, they're calculated by the arm of the court, the Probation Office and it's sort of a mathematical calculation. Both sides get a chance to dispute it, to make some arguments about it.

But at the end of the day, it's a recommendation that's made based on a scoring of points. So what the Manafort team is doing here is they're using an argument called proportionality. And they're arguing that when you compare his history - his criminal history, lack thereof, his life, what other people received for crimes like this. They're arguing that the actual math that comes out isn't reflective of what he should get, that's the disproportionality argument.

I think they'll find some sympathy and Ellis is listening to that. He has had some concerns expressed previously that the whole prosecution was more geared towards the President than for Manafort, so I think they could make some ground here. And I think for Manafort's team, if they get that sentence down to 10 years or single digits, that's a big win for them.

I mean the problem, though, is for Manafort himself, at his age with his health concerns, any sentence of years is quite problematic.

MATTINGLY: Shan, some Democratic lawmakers saw the filing last night as, "Fishing for a pardon". They noticed some terminology that you might have heard in the Oval Office or from the Oval Office in some way.

You think that's - that was a strategy here from the defense team, which is very well - the team is very well regarded in D.C.

WU: Right. I think they're keeping that strategy in mind. I think the pardon issue for them - that's a Hail Mary pass. They need to make some plays that will gain some ground, that's what they're trying to do. They have to focus on Ellis at the moment. So I read most of what they were doing as focused on Judge Ellis.

They're preserving the possibility of the pardon and I think the real pardon message isn't in that message. The real pardon message is what is it that Manafort did not talk about? What is it he tried to lie about? If there's a coded message that's where it is for Trump's people to say, "Look, he was still trying to protect certain things. You should take notice of that".

MATTINGLY: Shan Wu, decoding all things for us. Really appreciate it my friend. Thank you.

WU: Good to see you.

PAUL: Thank you, Shan.

WU: Thanks.

PAUL: So president Trump says trade talks with Beijing are moving along. They're moving along well. So he's delaying tariffs on China. We're going to talk about those talks and how they really are going, that's next.

[08:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Well, good morning. So glad to have you here. I'm Christi Paul.

MATTINGLY: And I'm Phil Mattingly in for Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: So good to have you here too. So President Trump is delaying a plan to tariff hike on China. He tweeted, it's because talks are "Moving along nicely". Tariffs on Chinese goods were set to go up 25 percent from 10 percent. That was supposed to happen yesterday. The President says he's asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on U.S. agricultural products as well.

Josh Rogin, CNN Political Analyst and Washington Post Columnist with us here. So I do want to read this tweet so we make sure that we have the President's verbiage absolutely correct, Josh.

He said, "I have asked China to immediately remove all tariffs on our agricultural products, including beef, pork et cetera, based on the fact that we're moving along nicely with trade discussions and I did not increase their second tranche of tariffs to 25 percent on March 1st, yesterday. This is very important for our great farmers and for me". If China complies is this an all-out win no I don't think it's an all-out win?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I don't think it's an all-out win. I think what President Trump is talking about here is a half of the problem, right? And he's focused on trade deficits and market access for U.S. goods inside China. And those are real economic imbalances between the U.S. and China that he promised to fix.

And if he makes progress on those, great, soybean farmers will sell more soybeans and financial services companies will sell more financial services, and both of those groups will be very happy with President Trump as he runs for reelection.

But over on the other side of the ledger, there's the economic aggression and national security concerns, and that's what's not really making great progress according to my reporting. And this is talking about Chinese economic espionage, intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, all the real national security stuff.

And inside the administration there's a split between the people who care about the economic stuff and the people care about the national security stuff. And when they read those tweets by President Trump and the economic people are very, very happy and the national security people are really scared.

PAUL: So how much does President Trump care about the national security stuff as you say?

ROGIN: Well, it's hard to tell. He talks about it all the time. He definitely is aware of it. He knows about it. He promises that he's addressing it. But the devil is in the details, OK.

And, again, what the reporting shows is that we're going to have a lot of stuff in whatever trade deal they cook up to talk about all those things, intellectual property theft, economic espionage, forced technology transfer, dumping, all of the real stuff that China does outside of China. Not the stuff that China does inside of China.

But the question is, is any of that enforceable? And China and the United States have been signing agreements on all - on national security stuff since 1989, and China hasn't lived up to any of those agreements. It's been about 30 years. So we'll have to wait and see until we see the document, see if there's real enforcement mechanisms.

But there's a lot of concern that what they're cooking up is going to really let China off the hook in terms of those things. And if that happens and we release the sanctions, sure we're going to sell more soybeans. But what difference does that make, if they overtake our economy in the tech sector or something like that.

PAUL: So Josh, what is the gauge of what's really happening in these talks between the U.S. and China?

[08:30:00] ROGIN: Well, I think, the - what officials tell me on background is that the President is getting tired of this trade war, OK. He's thinks he's pushed it as long as far as he can. He's souring on those people inside of his administration like Peter Navarro and Robert Lighthizer, who are taking a tough line. And he wants to get a deal, OK?

And as we see with North Korea or whatever other international issue the President is willing to sort of disrupt, he'll go in and break a lot of things and then have a lot of people put them back together.

But eventually he wants to move on and there's a lot of pressure on the people inside the administration to come up with a deal. And even if that deals not perfect, our President Trump wants to get this done, and that's having a huge impact on the process.

PAUL: And you bought up something I wanted to ask you about, because we know that there is a relationship between North Korea and China. What happened this week between the President and Kim Jong-un, how does that affect, if at all, how the President moves forward with China?

ROGIN: Yes, it's a really great question, Christi, but it's really not clear to be honest with you. And the President's mind these things are linked. He wants Chinese help on North Korea and he thinks that if he - if the Chinese helping with North Korea, he should give them more stuff on trade, that's really good for the Chinese. The Chinese government would love to have us think that way.

But in the end, these two things are not really strictly related, right. We should be tough with North Korea because that's one problem. We should be tough with China because that's a different problem. By giving one to get another, we're kind of weakening our hand. But it's sure that in the President's mind he sees these two things as two big problems that he wants to solve and he wants to solve quick.

Because he wants to get them off his plate and run for reelection on these two big wins. And he's less concerned both with North Korea and China, what the details are, just he wants to get a deal. And you could be sure, if he wants a deal he's going to get a deal.

PAUL: We'll see Josh Rogin, thank you so much. Good to have you here, sir.

ROGIN: Likewise.

MATTINGLY: All right. Up next San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer and his wife are apologizing after a very public altercation in a San Francisco Park. We have the video that police are investigating right after the break.

[08:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: This morning, San Francisco police are looking into video that shows San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer and his wife having an altercation at a public park.

PAUL: OK. So we say altercation. This is something that got physical. CNN's Kaylee Hartung is with us now and she's got the video for us. Because when we first heard about this - what is this, and then you see the video and you go wait a minute.

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You see the video and you hear Pam Baer scream and I think this takes on a different meaning. Now Larry Baer is the public face of the San Francisco Giants management. He's the guy with a squeaky-clean image who's known to smooth over any public relations challenges, the organization has.

He's issued an apology for what you see here. But take a look at this for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARTUNG: Oh, my God help. Pam Baer screams as her husband, San Francisco Giants, CEO, Larry Baer tries to grab what appears to be a cellphone out of her hand. Caught in the struggle, she falls to the ground in the chair she is sitting. This video captured by a bystander and first released by TMZ shows just a few seconds of the scuffle.

After a cut in video you can see Larry Baer cellphone and cup of coffee in hand saying "Stop Pam stop, stop" and walking away. Bystanders are head yelling for her to stay away from him. The couple married for nearly 30 years says they were embarrassed by the heated argument over a family matter. In a joint statement they say they resolved the issue, but this video is now in issue for authorities.

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating the incident and so is Major League Baseball. A statement from the League says, "Just like any other situation like this, they will immediately begin to gather the facts". Major League Baseball's strict domestic violence policy apply as to executives as well as players.

Baer is part owner of the Giants and has seen as a major part of the success enjoyed by the organization which won the World Series three times in the last ten years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARTUNG: This altercation happened yesterday morning the video very quickly went public very widely with the help of TMZ, and in the time since we've received a series of statements from both Pam and Larry Baer. The first from Pam, a very casual seeming response as she said, "Ha, this was an unfortunate public marital argument. I grabbed his phone and I feel back. I love Larry more than anything".

Again an apology from Larry Baer followed another statement from Pam in which she explains she'd hurt her foot weeks or days ago and she didn't sustain any injury as a matter of this, but again focus is on the love she and her husband have for one another. But that's not stopping police, as we mentioned, and the Major League Baseball for investigating.

PAUL: You almost have to just to give some clarity to that.

HARTUNG: And I've spoken with players in the League, who say if this was video of a player there would be discussions immediately about that player's termination. We have seen how strict Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy is. It will be interesting to see how this evolves for a team owner and executive.

PAUL: No doubt, Kaylee Hartung, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

MATTINGLY: All right. Senator Elizabeth Warren is holding a campaign event this afternoon in Iowa. According to one poll she might need campaign a little bit harder. Antonio Felix, author of "Elizabeth Warren: Her Fight. Her Work. Her Life" joins me next.

[08:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren will be campaigning in Iowa today. The Massachusetts Senator who has been tough on the President and had this to say last night about President Trump's summit with King Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Trump proved once again that he is a terrible negotiator. He showed up without having done his homework. He then thought we could come in and sort of roll through it without any real preparation, and he walked away empty handed. He doesn't make America stronger, he makes it's a laughing stock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And of course, Senator Warren is in the arena and there is some scathing criticism coming her way as well. A column published in the Boston Herald, a conservative paper from her home state, asked "Does Elizabeth Warren see the bad news on the horizon?"

Now joining me to talk about Senator Warren is Antonia Felix, she's the author of "Elizabeth Warren: Her Fight. Her Work. Her Life". Antonia thanks so much for joining us. I want to talk to you about something we were actually talking about during the break, which is an interesting question I've had throughout this is.

[08:45:00] Elizabeth Warren's known as a policy person, right, and this has been kind of how she got to where she was from her time as a bankruptcy professor, attorney from her time in the Financial Crisis Panel to now as a Senator. Does that play in a time of President Trump, if you will?

ANTONIA FELIX, AUTHOR, "ELIZABETH WARREN: HER FIGHT. HER WORK. HER LIFE": It plays now more than ever. Here we have a candidate who really, among this this really exciting group of Democratic candidates, we have someone who is very strong on policy, on substance.

And the groundwork for that is laid in her 34 year career as an academic, as you noted who's been studying the economics of the middle-class. And she is proposing big ideas on the big issues like taking on corruption in government, and she's daring to offer up a new vision of what American capitalism could look like, if it worked well for everyone.

So she's got the big ideas. She has the background to really back it up. She's got that intellectual heft. And that comes along with her ability to be a plain-spoken, very strong communicator who can bring these big ideas into light in a way that everybody can understand and that's her very authentic oaky personality characteristic that really resonates with people.

MATTINGLY: Yes. You bring up an interesting point, because to some degree she's not alone and the kind of big ideas of the Democratic candidates, right? You've seen Democratic candidates kind of circle around bigger proposals than you've ever seen from Democratic candidates.

We want to throw up the Democratic field right now, you can really go through them from Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, obviously, everybody backing Medicare-for-All and so many people signing on Green New Deal.

I guess my biggest question is, how does she differentiate? Given that that's where the Democratic primary is, how does she differentiate herself from everybody else right now? FELIX: Yes. Well those are - you know those sound even - maybe even some people would think those are a radical, but those are regular progressive ideas. And Warren comes out ahead and she's she started this last fall with, as I mentioned, this Anti-Corruption Bill and Accountable Capitalism Act, and now a Millionaire Tax and Universal Childcare.

All of these things, we can't help but be reminded of large picture sweeping types of proposals that came out, like back in the 30s when FDR gave us the Social Security Act. These this was a response to the times as they were then. People needed some kind of security, because we lived in cities. We didn't live on farms anymore. We couldn't depend on that kind of security throughout our lives and people were demanding it.

And so we had that sweeping kind of big social change from the top. And I see Warren as that kind of a policy thinker. We're in an economy now where, for decades, we've had both men and women in the workforce, but we haven't had any kind of a serious focus on how do we deal with childcare when there's been that kind of a sea change in our society.

Well, Warren has come up with this idea and she wants to pay for it help pay for it - help pay for with the Millionaire Tax. And so I see her, it's that same kind of big thinker, very pragmatic at the same time here's how we're going to do it. But here's what we need to do on a big scale to keep up with how our country is changing.

MATTINGLY: Just real quick before our time runs out. One of the things that happened this week that I was interested by, there was a New Hampshire poll that came out and showed Elizabeth Warren at 7 percent, which I think is third or fourth on the list.

Is it that the big ideas aren't catching fire yet? Is it that she - people - enough people haven't heard from her yet? What's - you know her well or you know kind of her persona well, what's going to work for her in the months ahead that will change that number?

As she keeps getting out there, and look, she's already traveling all over. She's she has established these bases all over the country already. She's been very well prepared. And, yes, as this message gets out more people will be excited about what she is proposing big and small. It's just a matter of having more time. We're early in the process and there are a lot of people to look at right now.

You can't - it's a little harder to just focus on one person and really dig into what they're saying and what they want to propose. But she's great at explaining this in a way everybody is going to be able to grasp and there's a lot of excitement around her. When she appears, she's like a rockstar every time she walks out on to any kind of a stage.

MATTINGLY: It is early that is a very important caveat. Antonia Felix, thanks so much for your time I really appreciate it.

FELIX: Thanks for having me. MATTINGLY: All right. Presidential candidates and senator Elizabeth Warren joins David Axelrod on "Axe Files" tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

PAUL: And so we have got to talk about the measles outbreak in the U.S. this morning, the numbers are rising. How lawmakers now are getting involved to curb the spread of false information about vaccines.

[08:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Listen there is a significant rise in measles cases across the country and that's due in a big part to the spread of false or misinformation about the safety of vaccines. And this has become such a problem lawmakers are getting involved now.

MATTINGLY: Yes. That's right. Yesterday Congressman Adam Schiff sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asking him to address the public health issue on Amazon. Amazon is reportedly surfacing and recommending products and content that discourage parents from vaccinating their children.

The letter from Sheriff reads in part, "I am concerned by the report that Amazon accepts paid advertising that contains deliberate misinformation about vaccines; promoting these advertisements as suggested content ahead of intended search results.

[08:55:00] Every online platform, including Amazon, must act responsibly and ensure that they do not contribute to this growing public health catastrophe".

Congressman Schiff also requested information from Bezos regarding actions being taken by Amazon to address the spread of misinformation on its site, and whether Amazon accepts paid advertising from anti- vaccine activists.

MATTINGLY: Now there are 10 states currently reporting measles outbreaks. A Congressional Hearing this week focused on what's being called "A Growing Public Health Threat".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RAUL RUIZ, (D) CALIFORNIA: - but you ask yourself is there a potential to be deadly. History tells us unequivocally that's the case. I consider it really an irony that you have one of the most contagious viruses known to man juxtaposed against one of the most effective vaccines that we have, and yet we don't do and have not done what could be done, namely completely eliminate and eradicate this virus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So Jacqueline Howard is a Feature Writer for CNN Health & Wellness. Good morning, Jacqueline, good to have you here. Do me a favor, breakdown the numbers for us so we can really understand what's going on. JACQUELINE HOWARD, FEATURE WRITER, CNN HEALTH & WELLNESS: Right. So far this year, so that's within just the course of two months, we're already seeing 159 cases across those 10 states. And on the surface it can be really puzzling to see these cases emerge, because in 2000 the United States eliminated the measles virus, but now we're seeing these cases in 2019.

And really the reason why we are seeing outbreaks can be twofold. One, you might have someone travel outside of the country and they might travel to an area where the measles virus is already circulating. So we know that there are some outbreaks in Europe and Ukraine, Greece, Italy.

These are places where we have seen some outbreaks, so if you have a traveler go to an area where they're exposed to the virus, they may be infected, they can bring it back here to the U.S. And if they are in an area where many people are vaccinated, then people around them are protected and there's low risk of an outbreak.

MATTINGLY: So one of the big questions I've had is, what's the driving force behind the "Anti-Vaxxer Movement"?

HOWARD: Right, right. And a lot of these outbreaks are in communities where many people aren't vaccinated. And it's really to - several factors are at play here. People might have religious exemptions or philosophical exemptions, but they also might have medical exemptions.

So if someone has a compromised immune system, they could be unvaccinated and that's not necessarily by choice. Babies are also at risk as well. So that's really - what we are concerned about is even though some people are unvaccinated by choice, others might not be by choice and they're at high risk.

PAUL: So our tech company's really able and willing to do something about this or to help in some way?

HOWARD: Right. So we're already seeing three tech companies Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest entering this conversation. Pinterest decided to disable searches for vaccine related content on its platform. YouTube decided to demonetize videos that spread misinformation on its platform. And Facebook is looking into some way to reduce or suppress information that is false spreading on its platform.

MATTINGLY: And I guess, finally, what are some of the signs and symptoms of measles that people should be looking out for?

HOWARD: Right. So measles is highly contagious and often symptoms emerge within about a week after exposure. Those symptoms are high fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, but also a rash and that's usually the biggest prove that it's measles. The rash can appear as little red spots.

PAUL: Alrighty. Hey thank you so much we appreciate it.

HOWARD: Thank you. PAUL: Jacqueline, great information there that we have. So I want to read the CDC Statement to you since we've heard from them. And they say, "Since 2003 there have been nine CDC funded or conducted studies that have found no link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and Autism Spectrum Disorder, as well as no link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and Autism in children".

That is coming from the CDC because there has been so much of a gray area between symptoms that my child has or things that my child have medically that they're dealing with and whether a vaccine was related, CDC says it is not, so just to - just for clarity purposes there.

HOWARD: Exactly.

PAUL: Thank you, Jacqueline.

HOWARD: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Good stuff, Jacqueline, thanks so much. Thanks for starting your day with us. We're going to take the next hour off, pretty much mainline coffee. Hopefully find some type of food anything in the neighborhood. But we're going to tune back.

PAUL: We'll get you some food, I promise you. We'll get you to the food, yes. Yes, we will be back at 10 a.m. Eastern. I'll be speaking with Melania Trump Press Secretary and Communications Director Stephanie Grisham. I'm looking forward to that. Talking about the First Lady's three state "Be Best" tour. We will see you in just a little bit. First though you get to see Smerconish.