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Storm to Unleash Snow and Ice; Trump Challengers in 2020; Misconduct in Sanders 2016 Campaign. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 10, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:07] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Egypt this morning. America's top diplomat is speaking with their foreign minister. Earlier he attended a meeting with President el- Sisi. And in just a few hours, he's expected to make a major speech, what he is billing as a major speech on the U.S. commitment to the region. The secretary is expected to amp up regional efforts -- or call for amped up regional efforts to put pressure on Iran and ease fears over Washington's plans to withdraw troops from Syria.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump administration now signaling that the U.S. troop withdraw from Syria will not be as rapid as the president had declared. Senior defense officials meeting with Mr. Trump on Wednesday to discuss the pullout and fine tune their plan. Analysts tell CNN that the Pentagon may have to send hundreds of additional forces to Syria to safely withdraw the more than 2,000 U.S. ground troops.

BERMAN: All right, caught on video, a race against time to rescue a man trapped in his SUV after it burst into flames. This body cam footage shows officers and deputies just north of Orlando trying to break through the man's window and cut the door open. Look at that. They finally manage to pull the 22-year-old out and rushed him to the hospital in critical condition. Florida's Highway Patrol says the wrong way driver who caused the crash died at the scene.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, thank God for those heroes.

For the first time in nearly three decades, the Oscars will not have a host. This is according to "Variety." Insiders tell the magazine that producers will select a group of a-listers to introduce various segments. "Variety" says no new offers are out or are expected to be made for a single potential host. Kevin Hart, who was initially picked to host this year's Oscar show, dropped out over past homophobic remarks and he has since apologized.

BERMAN: I feel like they didn't see our dramatic reading. If they're looking for hosts, they did not see our dramatic reading from earlier in the show.

CAMEROTA: Well, thank you. But I also feel directors should be calling. I mean just to be in the movies, not just to host the Oscars, to be in the movies I feel now we will be getting those calls. BERMAN: Check out "House of Cards" on our reel.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: A developing storm is expected to blanket parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic with heavy snow this weekend while heavy rain could bring flood to the southeast.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, more than a supporting actor here, with the forecast.

Hey, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, John.

It is cold. It's the first cold day for a long time. And there's enough moisture in the air to make snow. Temperatures are in the 20s and 30s but the wind chill factor, Detroit right now, is 8. And those wind chill factors there will be here tomorrow morning in New York, in D.C., in Philadelphia, in Boston.

If you're flying today, it's going to be a slow day. The winds are 35 miles per hour. Across the runway, that's going to slow you down.

There's the snow for the weekend, Saturday into Sunday. I don't see snow for New York, but I do see snow for Washington, D.C., maybe even into Richmond, Virginia. Some of those spots could pick up six inches, especially south of D.C.

But the bullseye is right now St. Louis. We'll watch that for you for the rest of the week.

Temperatures are not going to warm up much. We are in the cold grips right now of a trough in the East Coast. Highs even in New York City on Friday will be 30. Morning lows 20. The wind chill factors somewhere closer to eight above zero, and at least it's positive and not negative, just trying to be the optimist here.

Alisyn.

[06:35:14] CAMEROTA: That's good, Chad, but I'm looking for a little more emotion from the scene next time we do this, all right?

MYERS: All right. Fair enough.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much.

OK, so the 2020 presidential field is starting to shape up with more Democratic hopefuls jumping in or out of the race, it turns out. What is the one big question they will all need to answer? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00] CAMEROTA: Billionaire Democratic donor Tom Steyer says he will not challenge President Trump in 2020 but will instead double down on his efforts to remove the president from office. As California Senator Kamala Harris told CNN's Jake Tapper that she

will make an announcement about her 2020 plans very soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), CALIFORNIA: I will make my decision soon, not at this very moment. We have to understand that the American public and the people of our country are smart people who will make decisions about who will be their leader based on who they believe is capable, who they believe has an honest desire to lead, to represent, to see them, to be a voice for them, even if they have no power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is national political reporter for "The New York Times," Alex Burns, and CNN national political correspondent MJ Lee.

Great to have both of you here.

Alex, what is the one burning question -- we just teased this -- that all the candidates for 2020 will have to answer?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, the biggest question that all of them have to answer, and I think Kamala Harris is a great case in point is, why are you running for president? Why are you the singularly important person to lead the country right now? I think we got a great example of how that question can be answered head on with Elizabeth Warren's launch, that there was absolutely no ambiguity about why she's in the race. She's in the race because of fighting corruption and fighting big corporations in Washington and economic inequality. No sort of fuzziness there.

You know, Kamala Harris obviously has enormous political potential. There's huge interest in her across the Democratic Party. She's probably the least defined of the really major candidates and could take her message in a number of different directions. I think you heard her in that interview with Jake use a line, use a concept that we've heard her sort of tease out a number of times about being a leader who would see everybody. And whether that becomes a bigger campaign theme I think we're going to find out in the next couple weeks.

BERMAN: It's the Roger Mudd question for people 40 and older, which is me, not you.

CAMEROTA: Well, no, no, but I've heard of it. I have read about that.

BERMAN: You've read about it in the history books. It's that Roger Mudd asked Ted Kennedy why should he be president, why are you running? And it is the one question that all candidates, every election cycle, needs to answer.

MJ, you were with Elizabeth Warren when she was in Iowa and you had the sense that the reason was clear to the people who were seeing her. MJ LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The reason was clear to her. And, you're right, the reason was clear, I think, to the people who were showing up to these events who were not necessarily decided on supporting her yet. But every person I talked to at least had a vague sense of what Warren was about, what kind of issues she had worked on. They could sort of draw a painting of a candidate who has worked on some of the issues that Alex just mentioned. Oh, yes, we know her as the woman who took on Wall Street. We know that she cares about x, y, and z issues.

And I think for Harris, that is certainly not a mistake that she is launching this book tour now because a big part of what she wants to do now is deliver that message to the people who are starting to be interested in her now, right? Introduce herself to them in terms of her biography, but also lay out where she is on the issues.

But I think we also have to keep in mind that a lot of the people are not going to be just making their decision based on the candidates and their policy positions, right? She has so much potential as well because of her biography and the fact that she is female, the fact that she is viewed as a younger candidate, at least compared to some of the other potential Democratic candidates.

So there's a lot potentially going for her. I think it's true that compared to at least someone like Elizabeth Warren, she probably does have a little bit more work do in terms of defining herself and answering that question of why are you running.

CAMEROTA: OK, so the flip side of that is, why aren't you running? And why isn't Tom Steyer running? I mean I've seen a million of his ads. He has billions of dollars. Why not go for it?

BURNS: It is kind of counterintuitive to spend this much money putting your face on television and not run for anything, right? But it is also super on brand for Tom Steyer to do that. He has thought about running for president before. He has thought about running for the Senate two times. He has thought about running for governor of California two times. He's never actually put his name on the ballot. And so this is consistent with that approach.

CAMEROTA: That's very trumpian of him.

BURNS: It is a little bit, although he did eventually run, right?

CAMEROTA: Well, that's my point, is that eventually he did.

BERMAN: Oh, yes. Yes. I remember that part.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I remember that. Yes.

BURNS: Yes. So, look, it surprised even people pretty close to him that he wasn't running because he did put together a pretty sophisticated political operation. It is one of the things to remember about these candidates with essentially unlimited financial resources, somebody like Steyer or like Michael Bloomberg, who's still thinking about the race, or like Howard Schultz, that it costs them, in their math, essentially nothing to do all the preparations that they might need to make in order to run and then say, you know what, I actually don't want to do this. I'm going to go spend my unlimited money in a different way. So it's harder to look at the preparations that someone like Steyer makes and say, this guy is really serious, than it is a candidate like -- a potential candidate like Kamala Harris or like Cory Booker who, you know, that money doesn't just come out of the couch cushions.

BERMAN: I am curious -- we were talking about it a makeup, where Alex and I have all of our best discussions --

[06:45:00] CAMEROTA: Oh, I'm sorry I missed that.

BERMAN: When the first top tier candidate will decide not to run, you know, how long do they have, MJ, before they, you know, they have to make a decision?

LEE: I think the clock is ticking for how quickly they have to make the decision either way. The thing about being in Iowa last weekend was that you could really feel the pent up energy, that people were not sort of going around the room saying, you know, I'm here to see Elizabeth Warren, but I do feel like we are two years away and not sure why this has to happen now. The total opposite of that, right? They were excited that someone was visiting their state to make the case. And especially when they're watching what's happening in Washington right now with President Trump, they are eager for that battle to begin on the Democratic side so that they can start making their assessment and their decisions of who they're going to support, who could potentially take on President Trump.

So I think that the timeline is that people need to make their decisions quickly, especially if the answer is going to be that they're going to run, because other people are going to be getting in before you and you don't want to miss out on that opportunity.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, Bernie Sanders. His top Iowa campaign adviser, Robert Becker, is accused of doing really gross things, really sexually -- more than suggestive, overt things, to a 20-something- year-old campaign aide. Does this hurt Bernie Sanders?

BURNS: Oh, there's no question that it hurts Bernie Sanders. And I think the people who are close to Sanders, or hoping he runs, are looking at this story, the other stories that have come out over the last few weeks. And with real concern that, you know, the 2016 campaign was clearly not a well-oiled super professional machine and there are a number of people who were implicated in episodes like the one the "Politico" story describes that don't seem to have been sort of banished from Sanders world, right? That the person who's addressed in the "Politico" story was calling around seeking support for Sanders 2020.

If Bernie Sanders wants to run for president, I think under any circumstances, but especially in the Me Too moment that we're in, he and his operation are going to need to show that they take this stuff seriously and that they have a plan to really clean it up and make things right in a way that Bernie Sanders himself has certainly not projected so far.

BERMAN: Were the people at the Warren events who were you were at in Iowa, were they still Bernie curious?

LEE: Oh, absolutely. I think Bernie was probably the name that I heard the most when I sort of, you know, took these unofficial polls and tried to get a sense of other people they were interested in. But I think timing, again, is an important question because for some of these people who were still Bernie curious, they wondered about the fact that he had already run before and whether it would be right for him to run again.

BERMAN: Alex Burns, MJ Lee, ba-bye.

CAMEROTA: John, you know that I -- that I believe the evidence now shows it's bye-bye.

BERMAN: We have uncovered some evidence, by the way. We will show it to you later in the broadcast.

CAMEROTA: We'll play it for you.

BERMAN: Candy and the government shutdown. It is just a taste of what you will get coming up in late night laughs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:38] CAMEROTA: Candy, the border wall, and the government shutdown, it pretty much sums up your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR NOAH, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": At 19 days we're only two days away from this becoming the longest shutdown in American history, which I think Trump is secretly going for. He's like, that's right, folks, mine is the longest.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president walked into the room and passed out candy. It's true.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": It's true, he handed out butterfingers and M&Ms. I guess -- I wonder if he hands out the brown M&Ms or he stuffs those back into the bag.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": No matter how much he talked about building a physical wall, to many of his supporters, the wall remained an imaginary thing. We're at a weird point where Trump is basically the last guy who wants a wall. I mean it's fun to chant build the wall, but they didn't expect it to happen any more than they expected Trump to actually lock her up. If you go to a Mets game you chant let's go Mets, but you don't really expect them to go.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Following this historic midterms, Democrats sent out some exciting, fresh young faces. Congressional Democratic leaders and direct to DVD Adams family, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. After Trump's low-energy performance, this was their chance to fire up the opposition. So juice it.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: Good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly to the American people tonight.

COLBERT: Oh, looks like America's about to get the sex talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's funny.

BERMAN: Can you imagine it from -- well, let's just say --

CAMEROTA: Wow.

BERMAN: Total breakdown.

CAMEROTA: Moving on.

BERMAN: Shutdown talks coming to an abrupt end. So today President Trump heads to the border, but he says it is a pointless photo op.

CAMEROTA: But first, a new CNN original series begins this Sunday at 9:00 p.m., "American Style." It gives a front row seat to the history of America's changing style trends. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY TRUHLER, FILM AND FASHION HISTORIAN: The '40s and '50s were definitely America finding itself.

TIM GUNN, FASHION HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: Americans felt very second rate when comparing ourselves to Europe.

VANESSA FRIEDMAN, CHIEF FASHION CRITIC, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Sportswear became the defining style of the United States.

GUNN: The bikini was the biggest thing since the atom bomb.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, AUTHOR AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, RICE UNIVERSITY: Through the '60, '70s, our style in fashion represents freedom.

DR. TODD BOYD, PROFESSOR, STUDY OF RACE AND POPULAR CULTURE, USC: When you look at hippie culture, it's really oppositional to the Vietnam War.

CHRISTOPHER REID, ACTOR, COMEDIAN AND RAPPER, "KID 'N PLAY": Disco was very important in terms of people being free to express themselves.

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY, MODEL, ACTRESS AND BUSINESSWOMAN: In the '80s, it was a lot of excess in every way.

REID: We had our Calvin Kleins and our Ralph Laurens and our Donna Karens.

GUNN: Calvin Klein's advertising was rather scandalous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His underwear ad stopped traffic in Times Square.

BOYD: By the '90s and 2000, things had become less formal.

TINA CRAIG, CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "BAG SNOB": Supermodels really brought fashion into every household.

JOHN A TIFFANY, FASHION HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR: Now, what's embraced is being yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Style gives you a voice. It's freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "American Style," premieres Sunday at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:42] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can all play games, but a wall is a necessity.

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MARYLAND: It is an immoral policy to take people hostage for the ends you want to get to.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: It wasn't even a high stakes negotiation, it was a petulant president of the United States.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), MINORITY LEADER: The president wants to solve this problem. That's why he's put offers on the table. Not once have the Democrats offered anything back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giuliani, he's a failed lawyer, and it's unfortunate he's decided to take this obstructionist approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This appears as the closest we've seen yet to real live actual collusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The question now is, what did the president know and when did he know it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

We are now in day 20 of the government shutdown and there is apparently a total breakdown in talks between President Trump and congressional leaders. The reality is that 800,000 federal workers will not get their paychecks tomorrow if this shutdown continues. Democrats say President Trump stormed out of the White House meeting yesterday saying bye-bye, and I'll tell you why that's important in a minute.

The president called the meeting a waste of time after Democrats said no to his demand for border wall money.

So, today, the president heads to the border as "The New York Times" reports the president says this trip is not going to change a damn thing.

[07:00:02] BERMAN: Ba-bye.

It looks ever more likely that the president might declare a legally challenged national emergency to try to get billions