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Today: Trump Rallies In Iowa As Haley, DeSantis Attack; Today: Biden To Speak On Democracy Ahead Of 1/6 Anniversary; Report: 300,000 Lives Could Be Saved Over Next Decade If States Adopt Gun Laws Like CA, NY. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2024 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:01:20]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: President Joe Biden in full campaign mode today to make his case for reelection. He said to deliver major speech to voters about protecting democracy. One day for the third anniversary of the U.S. Capitol attack.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed, the new information from the more than 300 new pages just out.

SIDNER: And the U.S. labor market closed out 2023 real strong. The December jobs report just out this morning kicking butt, beating expectations once again.

I am Sara Sidner with John Berman, who was also kicking butt. Kate is away. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: The primaries have not even begun but you could make the case that today is the first day of the general election. President Biden delivers what his campaign is billing as a major speech on democracy near Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, which is of course where George Washington led colonial troops in the revolution against the tyranny of the British.

The purpose of the speech is to make clear the threat that Biden says Donald Trump poses to democracy. That is how the Biden campaign wants to frame the election year. Trump himself will be in Iowa a few days before the caucuses there. Priscilla Alvarez at the White House, Kristen Holmes in Iowa. Priscilla, let's start with you with the speech that the Biden campaign has really been leaning into as the beginning of 2024.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: And in these remarks, John, he's going to set the stakes for the 2024 election. Now protecting American democracy has been the centerpiece of the Biden campaign. And that is what the President is going to underscore today by calling back to the January 6th insurrection, and also explaining why the President, the former President Donald Trump, poses a threat to democracy. Now this is an extension of his 2020 bid for the White House where he talks about battling for the soul of the nation. But also going back to his reelection video last year where the first few videos and images were about the January 6th insurrection and his calls for freedom and protection of American democracy. All of this campaign officials say has only become more urgent.

In a statement, the deputy campaign manager for the Biden-Harris campaign said the following, quote, the President will make the case directly that democracy and freedom, two powerful ideas that united the 13 colonies and the generations throughout our nation's history have fought and died for remain central to the fight we're in today.

As you mentioned there at the start, John, the location of this speech is important. It's against the backdrop of the reference Revolutionary War site of Valley Forge. And the President is going to highlight George Washington and how he willingly gave up power after two terms as president making the contrast to the former President Donald Trump not wanting to accept the 2020 results.

He's also going to talk about political violence, and again, the January 6th insurrection ahead of that third anniversary tomorrow. But all of this goes to show that the campaign really sees this as the key priority to going into 2024. It's the President's decision to jumpstart this 2024 election year with these remarks on January 6th, and the threats to democracy. They're also laying the groundwork for the weeks to come releasing a campaign ad in key battleground states on this issue.

BERMAN: Very interesting to see for the Biden reelection campaign. It seems to be on right now. Thanks so much, Priscilla. Let's check in with the Trump campaign. Kristen Holmes is there, correct?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are here in Sioux Center, Iowa, John. It's very cold.

[10:05:01]

BERMAN: What can we expect today from Donald Trump?

HOLMES: Yes, so we're expecting him to deliver his closing arguments. He has two events today, one in Sioux Center, one in Mason City, has two events tomorrow. We're told by senior advisors that this closing message comes really in two parts. The first is urging supporters and not to be complacent. They've all seen the poll numbers. And there is a concern among Trump's senior advisors, that because there's such a wide margin that people won't be necessarily motivated to come out in caucus.

But those margins only exist if people actually caucus not just talk to pollsters. So they really want to get people out there on caucus day. Now, the other thing that we are told is that this is going to focus really beyond just the primary and into the general, a big topic today. And with him focusing on Biden asking Iowans, are you -- were you better off four years ago, under my administration, particularly when it comes to the economy, than you are now? And if the answer is, yes, then let's skip all this other stuff, put me back in, I'll go back to the White House. And I'll do for you again what I already did. And that's the messaging there.

Now, of course, we are going to wait to see if he's going to respond to Biden's arguments that he is a threat to democracy. I will say in the past. He's just tried to turn the tables on this argument saying Biden himself is the threat to democracy. And when it comes to January 6th, as we know, he has embraced the January 6 rioters, he has said that he would pardon some of them as even issue a government apology. So unlikely we're going to see any kind of different reflection there.

BERMAN: And Kristen, obviously, Donald Trump, while he's on the campaign trail is still dealing with the spate of legal issues facing him, including the 14th Amendment cases. Where do things stand there?

HOLMES: That's right. So we had two new filings yesterday, one in Illinois and one in Massachusetts. But I really think the most important part about those filings to point out is why this is so likely to eventually have to go to the Supreme Court. And that is because all of these election systems are different. And there's a lot of questions being asked as to what exactly this means, how exactly this can be done.

For example, in Illinois, that filing went to the State Board of Elections. In Massachusetts, it went to the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission. As we know, in Maine, it was the Secretary of State who made that decision. It was the courts in Colorado. All of this is really gearing up for that Supreme Court having to weigh in, and that is what Trump's team is expecting now. I will tell you, as I've said time and time again, his legal team believes that Trump will be on the ballot in all 50 states. But I have heard recently from allies of Trump's that he has shown some concern that if this goes to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court might actually rule against him to show that they aren't pro-Donald Trump. That was kind of an interesting new thought process that the former president has when it comes to these cases.

BERMAN: All right, Kristen Holmes for us in Sioux Center, Iowa. Stay warm out there, Kristen. And as President Biden delivers this speech today on threats to democracy, a new poll from the Washington Post/University of Maryland finds that a quarter of Americans think January 6th was orchestrated and encouraged by the FBI. This is obviously something the FBI says is ridiculous. I want to bring in senior media reporter Oliver Darcy. And Oliver in this poll, the people who were saying this, they generally share some commonalities.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yes. And the figures are alarming, obviously among the general public. But when you look at "Fox News" viewers and Donald Trump viewers, they're actually much higher in terms of believing this lie about the January 6th insurrection, 39 percent of "Fox News" viewers believe that lie and 44 percent of Trump voters believe that lie.

And I think John, what this shows is really the potency of propaganda and how it can so easily and quickly warp public perception about something we all watched with horror and dismay just three years ago. I mean, it wasn't too long ago. This is very recent history. And public perception has been warped by people who go on "Fox News" who circulate lies on social media, on talk radio. Those lies have not evaporated into the ether. They've actually taken hold in the Republican Party and among Trump supporters, and it has warped the recent history.

BERMAN: Three years ago, obviously, tomorrow, Oliver, and President Biden when he's on the campaign trail going to make this a centerpiece of his campaign. Oliver Darcy, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, President Biden will wrap up his message that Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy in a pair of major campaign speeches as he kicks off his reelection bid. CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash joining me now. These are big moments. How important is this for President Biden to do this, get this very right as we are coming up tomorrow on the anniversary of the attack on the Capitol.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's obviously about the anniversary but if you talk to President Biden's campaign advisors, his White House advisors, they argue it's important for this entire election year. And look, he has been making an argument about democracy being on the ballot since the January 6th attacks, since 2021. And did so very aggressively before the midterms, which a lot of people, if you looked at the polls then, thought it was a bit of a fool's errand, that people were much more focused on the economy.

[10:10:24]

It turns out, voters were focused on both. I just got off the phone with Biden advisor who argued that when you look at persuadable voters, Sara, those who are still very much open to the idea of voting for Joe Biden for reelection, they are very concerned about the future of democracy in America, which is why he is going to hit on that note very, very hard at his first official campaign speech of this election year.

SIDNER: Yes, it's really interesting that you bring that up. When it comes to the larger voting bloc, though, is democracy high up on that list, because the economy is actually looking pretty good, even though a lot of people can't quite feel it the way they want to. But it's looking up.

BASH: It's looking up big time. And that has been one of the things that I've asked, I know, you've asked as well, every time I have a Democrat on, how do you sort of bridge the disconnect between the numbers, new numbers this morning on jobs, just add to that trend of the economy looking better, and how people feel. And it is something that Democrats say that they have to keep talking about. In fact, Sara, yesterday, I spoke to that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who likes to try to take the lead on messaging.

And when I asked her about democracy, and about January 6th, which obviously, she's quite passionate about, she turned the answer to the economy. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): What happened on January 6th was, a manifestation of an assault on the personal freedoms that we have because it has assaulted the Congress, the Capitol, the Constitution of the United States. But it isn't all of his message, his message is about what we need to do as we go forward. And freedom gives us that opportunity. The kitchen table issues our motivation, and our mobilization to get the job done and win the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I thought that answer was quite interesting. And the question is, Sara, whether we're going to hear a lot more of that kind of combining the messages from the President and people in and around his campaign.

SIDNER: I just wonder when you sleep because you're just talking to people every hour, right before the show two minutes here at night. I mean, you just never sleep, Dana. And I know you don't. You text me late at night too.

BASH: I'm just trying to keep up with you, Sara Sinder.

SIDNER: No, no, no.

BASH: I'm just trying to keep up with you.

SIDNER: You're amazing, thank you for all your reporting, Dana Bash. And you can watch Dana later today on Inside Politics at noon, or you can take over now if you want John and I, we kick this up, right?

BASH: No. You're good. No way.

BERMAN: It's my favorite show, Inside Politics at noon. I think someone -- someone's Dana is here, right there feeding her information.

SIDNER: I know.

BERMAN: She's got new information right there at the end.

SIDNER: She's always on the phone. She knows everybody.

BERMAN: All right. There is new information about the mass shooting in Iowa. And as that comes in, there's a new report looking at how many lives might be saved if states enacted stricter gun laws.

A new batch of documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein is out and more could come today what we're learning about alleged efforts by Bill Clinton to bury stories about the late sex offender.

[10:13:37]

And the new jobs numbers are out, 216,000 jobs once again, beating expectations, the economy that keeps on giving.

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BERMAN: We have new reporting today from that deadly shooting in Perry, Iowa. The shooter is believed to have posted on social media in the moments before the attack at the high school that killed a sixth grader and wounded five others, including the school's principal.

Now a new study out today by every town for gun safety says, 300,000 lives could be saved in the next decade if states adopted gun laws like those in California and New York, which are some of the strictest in the country. CNN's Omar Jimenez joins us now. Omar, what does this report say?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. So this study from every town, the gun violence prevention, nonprofit essentially looked at the state gun death rates and compare them with the strength and gun laws as we look state by state and came up with a score and a ranking for these. So some of those top states, California, New York, Illinois, again a composite score of strength and gun law but also matched up with the gun death rate.

And what's interesting is New York and California actually had some of the lowest gun death rates in the country despite having some of the strictest gun laws, even though they have two of the biggest cities in the country and gun deaths includes homicides, suicides and accidental killings as well. On the other side of the spectrum, Arkansas scored the lowest by every town standards, because of its weak gun laws and high gun death rates.

Now, every town used essentially five foundational laws here to sort of judge strength in a state's, you know, gun laws or policies. So those are seeing them on your screen their requirements for background checks, permits for concealed carry, secure firearm storage, rejection of Stand Your Ground laws and Extreme Risk laws that temporarily remove firearms access. They also looked at other metrics, but those were essentially the five foundational ones.

And so based on the potential implementation of those laws, they believe that nearly 300,000 lives can be saved over the next decade, if every state put in place the gun laws that we've seen in some of their top ranked states, and that's based on what they found in this state which lines up with in this study, which lines up with previous versions that they find that a state's strength in gun laws is directly correlated with lower gun death rates.

And there are a number of states that have put in place gun violence prevention bills over the last year. The question is and what this study pushes for the idea of is, whether some of those gun violence prevention laws recently passed will lower the state gun death rates in the coming years.

[10:20:05]

BERMAN: Well, obviously we'd like to see those rates go down no matter what. Omar Jimenez, thank you very much. JIMENEZ: Of course.

SIDNER: All right. This morning we're learning new details about how accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, found and recruited young girls. One deposition from Detective Joseph Recarey lays out that process when asked by an attorney, how many girls he had spoken to about being recruited, Recarey answered, quote, I would say approximately 30 to 33. CNN's Jean Casarez is here with more details. Jean, what kind of documents are being unsealed? And what are they telling us beyond the names that we -- that are continuing to coming out?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Many different documents, you know, normal discovery in the course of a civil lawsuit, but you've got depositions that are being unsealed. You've got e-mails that are being unsealed. And there is one email that was unsealed, this from 2011. Virginia Giuffre who was the one that brought the suit against a Maxwell defamation suit. She had a really close confidant, a friend, it was a reporter, but the -- it was -- her name was Sharon Churcher. And she was helping her get interviews or get a book deal, get her story out.

And it appears as though that Churcher had wanted her to go to Vanity Fair to do an interview for them. And here is an e-mail just unsealed about what the response was from Virginia. She said, quote, considering that B. Clinton walked into Vanity Fair and threatened them not to write sex trafficking articles about his good friend, Jeffrey Epstein. So obviously, she had reservations.

Well, we at CNN, we contacted Graydon Carter. He was the editor of Vanity Fair from 1992 through 2017. And he said us, quote, it categorically did not happen. We also reached out to Clinton's representative who did not want to comment on this latest accusation, but did refer us back to Wednesday, when they said it's been 20 years since President Clinton has had any contact with Epstein.

SIDNER: There are a lot of names. And although the names are linked to Epstein, there has been no charges. We should make that clear. But it brings, it raises a lot of eyebrows about what more is going to come out in these documents because as you said, with deposition and e- mails, you get a lot of information. Not all of it might be proven, but you get to see it in a very big way.

CASAREZ: Yes. It's such an excellent point because it's under oath, right?

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: So it is testimony that they are giving. Some of its hearsay, so it couldn't make its way into a court of law, right? But here is some interesting aspects you're talking about the recruitment of the girls, right?

SIDNER: Yes.

CASAREZ: And he did say in that interview, a former lead detective for a case involving Epstein 30, 33, he went on to be asked by the attorney, and at the end of that massage, if the victim brought other friends, she would get paid for the recruitment of those friends. The answer he said, correct. And then goes on to say, so did you determine that massage was actually a code word for something else? Quote, when they went to perform a massage, it was for sexual gratification.

And there was one unnamed accuser that says between 15 and 17, she was asked to go and start doing massages, so she thought, OK.

SIDNER: Oh my god.

CASAREZ: She had no idea. And when she got in there and the environment and the ring that was involved, she realized what it was all about, but it was too late. She was there.

SIDNER: A lot of power in that room and fear for these girls. It makes your stomach turn when you think about what they went through. Jean Casarez, you always do a great job. Thank you so much.

CASAREZ: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Appreciate it. John?

[10:23:45]

BERMAN: The U.S. economy just keeps getting stronger, 216,000 jobs aided to add its labor market beating expectations. So when are you going to feel this?

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BERMAN: So the U.S. economy, running on all cylinders. The jobs report, released just a short time ago, shows 216,000 jobs added in December, beating expectations. The unemployment rate unchanged, very, very low, at 3.7 percent.

Joining me now is Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Madam Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

We keep saying beating expectations, beating expectations. Why do people keep underestimating this economy?

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, there has been a lot of pessimism about the economy that's really proven unwarranted. A year ago, most forecasters believed we would fall into a recession. Obviously, that hasn't happened. We have a good, strong labor market.

Today's news, as -- as you mentioned, showed that the unemployment rate remains low. And we added 216,000 jobs.

Now, the pace of job creation over the last three months averages 165. That's down from a year ago when the economy was still recovering from the pandemic. But it's something that's expected and desirable, consistent with an economy that has now recovered and has transitioned to stable and steady growth. So, the labor market continues to fire on all cylinders. Other reports this week, a low level of initial claims for unemployment insurance, job openings remain at healthy levels and, importantly, inflation has come way down.

[10:30:00]