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Gov. Cuomo: "I'm Not Going To Resign"; WH: Biden Does Not Want To End The Filibuster In Senate; Jury Selection Delayed In Trial Of Derek Chauvin. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 08, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The premise of resigning because of allegations is actually anti-democratic.

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Joining our conversation are CNN legal analyst Anne Milgram and POLITICO's Anna Gronewold. Anne, let me start with you. When you hear these Democratic legislators and let me bring two of them up on the screen here. The governor, Democratic Governor, this is the state Assembly Majority Leader and the State Assembly Speaker. First, the Senate majority leader, New York is still in the midst of this pandemic and is still facing the societal, health, and economic impacts of it. We need to govern without daily distraction. For the good of the state Governor Cuomo must resign.

This is the assembly speaker, Carl Heastie, I too share the sentiment of Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, it is time for the Governor to seriously consider whether he can effectively meet the needs of the people of New York. The Governor sounds dug in, but he's, shall we say missing, lacking strong Democratic allies, no?

ANNE MILGRAM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think one of the things to think about as we consider this is that the Governor is about to go through what I think will be, while not a public investigation by the AG's office, there will certainly be information that comes out as a result of that investigation. And we also know that there's an investigation going on into the nursing home data reporting, which basically means that we're looking at the next two or three months of a constant barrage of news related to Governor Cuomo.

And so I think that, you know, he's facing questions now about can, you know, the legislators are asking questions about how long it's going to take, and whether or not this sort of state of New York can go on with this situation. And unfortunately, as I think, you know, John, these things take time, from the time that the AG picks somebody, it'll be probably the quickest would be six weeks to two months is my guess. And so, you know, there's a certain amount of time that is just naturally going to have to take place. KING: And so Anna, when you hear six weeks to two months, and we've watched this different circumstances, but I covered the Clinton White House back in the days of the Monica Lewinsky episode and impeachment. There were some calls to resign then. The Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, still the Governor of Virginia back as a separate issue about, you know, blackface personal character issues, he resisted. Is that the Cuomo teams take that even though you have these powerful members of his own party in the legislature saying please, Governor, you can't govern that he can wait, wait this out, and that it will fade? Is that the strategy?

ANNA GRONEWOLD, CO-AUTHOR, POLITICO NEW YORK PLAYBOOK: You know, that seems to be his playbook for any time that he has tried to withstand a scandal of this sort. But I do think that the state budget needs to be negotiated by the end of the month. And the two leaders who questioned his ability to do that are the ones that he has these conversations with. That's -- they're looking at a budget hole of something like 15 billion right now, there's a lot of tough choices that need to be made in the state. And if they don't think that that's something he can efficiently and productively do with them, then maybe they're looking for a way that they can do it themselves.

KING: And Anne Milgram, you know, from your work as an attorney general, the process involved here, there are rules, there are text messages that will be gathered, e-mails that will be gathered over the course of this investigation. And there are also questions of how wide, if you will, or the potential witnesses. I want you to listen here. This is Debra Katz, an attorney for Charlotte Bennett, who's objecting to the idea that at least in some of these cases, it appears that women who felt that they were being harassed said I don't want to file it, I don't want to file anything, I just want to be transferred away from this. Listen to this.

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DEBRA KATZ, ATTORNEY FOR CHARLOTTE BENNETT: We are hearing that there is a pattern with the Governor, that when people get sexually harassed, they exit from their jobs, whether they get transferred to different agencies or different areas within his administration. And the people who are doing that transfer are failing -- they're failing the individuals who come forward and they're failing all of New Yorkers, they have a legal obligation to take action, and they fail to do that here.

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KING: You make the point, Debra Katz there essentially urging other women to come forward there. You make the point, I was reading some notes you sent to our staff that let's say, you know, a woman went to the Chief of Staff for the Governor's Council and said, I feel I'm being harassed, I am being harassed. I would like to be transferred. I don't want to file a complaint. That the woman certainly has the right to say that, but that whoever received that complaint has an obligation.

MILGRAM: That's exactly right. And this is such an important point, John, that I don't think has been made enough, which is that the way that the law works is, there's an understanding that there's often a significant power differential. And so a woman like Charlotte Bennett coming forward, for example here and saying, I was harassed, telling members of the Governor's senior staff, she should not be put in the position of deciding whether or not to accept, quote, a voluntary transfer, or whether or not she would go forward with an investigation.

There's mandatory -- there's a mandatory obligation on leadership. At that point, once the senior folks knew that there was this allegation being made for them to take that allegation seriously and to investigate it. And so I think a major part of this investigation is going to be the question of, what did the Governor staff know? When did they know it? What did they do about it? And what did the Governor know about these allegations as well?

KING: And Anna Gronewold, what is the sense of the Governor staff? He is someone who demands loyalty. Now he has a problem on his hand. What are the conversations among the Cuomo inner circle about what to do now and then obviously they have to cooperate with an investigation.

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GRONEWOLD: Well, there's been a couple things. I think that the Cuomo inner circle which is very small and very tight, especially in most recent days, is saying let's try to buy some time. Let's try to point out the good things that we've done. Let's look at, you know, today we saw the Governor in the Javits Center, pointing to the vaccination effort that's moving forward. It was a closed press event. He didn't take questions.

But he was trying to point out that New York is slowly moving out of the pandemic. But we've also seen a number of top staff kind of jumping ship now because they're not sure if this is a place that they want to continue to be tied to, especially as more investigations continue.

KING: And that's the time thing, what happens is we go ahead, do they stay? Anna Gronewold, Anne Milgram, grateful for your reporting, your insights, and expertise. We'll obviously stay on top of this as it plays out.

Up next for us, the President is about to get a big win. What does it mean if anything for the rest of the Biden agenda?

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KING: Is a question being asked at the Biden White House on this day 48 of the young administration, the President's first big legislative win should come tomorrow, final House action on the nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package. Yes, there will be a signing ceremony and the celebration in the days ahead, but then back to work.

In a memo obtained by CNN, two top White House staffers say this to the staff. There's still much more to be done, and absolutely no room for complacency. We're racing to finalize passage of this bill, and the President looks forward to signing this into law. And then the real work will begin.

Back with me now as our senior lay (ph). The real work, Phil, includes a bunch of things that will be very difficult, done reforms, immigration, healthcare, climate change, criminal justice reform, voting rights, all difficult issues. Just moments ago, the White House Press Secretary says it is still President Biden, former Senator Biden's preference do not do away with the filibuster.

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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President's preference is not to get rid of the filibuster, the door of the Oval Office remains open to bipartisan work. And I expect he will continue to work with and reach out to Democrats, of course, but also Republicans about ways to work together.

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KING: We talked a bit early about this is the Biden brand, at least try to be bipartisan, at least try to reach for the middle. Take us behind the curtain though, they understand that many of these issues, the answer is probably going to be no.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, go down the list that you laid out. Tell me how you find 10 Republicans in the United States Senate for any of those things.

KING: Maybe infrastructure after that --

MATTINGLY: Maybe infrastructure. And infrastructure immediately gets different. Democrat Joe Manchin yesterday was talking about one of the first things he wants to do if he wants it to be fully paid for corporate nonstarter for the vast majority of Republicans who all voted for the 2017 tax law. And so how you thread that needle, I don't know that anybody has an answer to it at this point in time.

That said a couple points I would make. And the White House has not been subtle about the fact that the President does not support changing the filibuster, there's going to be a tremendous amount of pressure that will only continue to build in the weeks and months ahead. You have seen moderate Democrats, some moderate Democrats in the Senate start to change their mind on the filibuster. I have not gotten any sense from anybody over there that the President is going to change his mind on the filibuster.

So how they are going to work through this next package. And I think the expectation is they will try and do something on infrastructure, they want it to be very large, they will likely try and package in some climate initiatives into that, too. That could be in the 2 to $3 trillion range. There is no pathway for Republicans on that right now. And so how long are they willing to give it? I think, is a big question there. The other thing too, and I picked up on this in the course of the last couple days, we're all talking about what's the next big legislative agenda item. They need this to work. They need the $1.9 trillion package to work. So don't sleep on the idea that implementation, if President Biden's theory of the case right now is that we are showing government can work again. And when we show government can work again, people will trust us, they will support us, and that will help us from the outside, push on the inside in terms of vote counting.

They need the checks to go out. They need everything to come into place. They need the vaccine distribution to continue, it's ramped up. They need people to be vaccinated. That I think is probably the most important issue that they've got going forward before they even get to the next legislative package.

KING: Keep the reservoir of goodwill out there in America while Washington has its Washington debates, smart if they can pull it off. I want you to listen here, Joe Manchin, he says he wants to preserve the filibuster. He says it's absolutely critical for the United States Senate to respect the minority party. Some heard this answer, Phil Mattingly, and saw a little bit of wiggle room.

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SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): The Senate is the most unique body of government in the world, a governing body in the world. It's deliberate. It's basically designed, Chuck, to make sure the minority has input.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

MANCHIN: That's exactly our founding fathers. And now if you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk. I'm willing to look at any way we can, but I'm not willing to take away.

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KING: We've learned, anyone senator can hold up the process, if they so choose. Is there wiggle room there in Manchin, or at least, if you don't do away with the filibuster on certain pieces of legislation, the Senate can change the rules?

MATTINGLY: I think right now what people are recognizing, given where President Biden sits, given where Senator Joe Manchin says, given where Senator Kyrsten Sinema sits, is that a fully doing away completely nuking the filibuster is not an option. Is there a way you can thread the needle to do something halfway or maybe on specific pieces of legislation or maybe as Senator Manchin was kind of pointing out there, forcing somebody to have to talk the entire time as opposed to just not getting 60 votes and calling it a day?

There's no clear answer yet. There are many people who are working through many different proposals to try and make this work. I think the bigger issue right now, though, is I'm not totally sure based on who I spoken to in the White House that the President would be for any significant changes of any kind to the filibuster right now. He wants to give it more time. He wants to see what he can do over the course of the next couple of weeks. So I've picked up in my conversations is that while no republican voted for the $1.9 trillion -- instances where the White House made clear that they were going to put in specific provisions for Republicans who requested them, or for Republicans hoping that that will pay off in the future.

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They're not going to point them out. They're not going to talk about which Republican they gave X or Y to, but hoping that that will serve as kind of a down payment, not in terms of buying people off, but that Republicans know, hey, this guy's a fair broker. This is somebody we can work with going forward. We'll see if that works. I know there's tremendous skepticism from Chuck Schumer on down the Democratic Caucus. But that is the theory of the case from the President right now.

KING: I would say pick the voting rights issue as one where there'll be a lot of pressure on the President --

MATTINGLY: Yes.

KING: If the Republicans won't cooperate on something to do something there. Lastly, we learned today, a fifth big retirement by House Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri says this.

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SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): After 14 general election victories, three to county office, seven to the United States House of Representatives, and four statewide elections, I won't be a candidate for reelection to the United States Senate next year.

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KING: Now, that means he's still in office. You know Roy Blunt very well, former -- served in the House, now a senator, sort of a traditional Chamber of Commerce, farm state Republican there. Not a fan of Trump, not a fan of talking about Trump, not a fan of saying he's not a fan of Trump, a big guy on infrastructure, for example. Is it the Washington chatter will be is that somebody President Biden can now get? Is that a worthy conversation or is that a no, he's just done, he wants to get out of here?

MATTINGLY: I think it's more of the former than the latter. Look, Roy Blunt, you know him well, is somebody who wants to work on things. He's somebody who understands the policy. He's somebody who's an appropriator. He's a close ally of Senator McConnell. He's not all of a sudden going to turn out and become a moderate Democrat. He's a conservative Republican, and that's not going to change. But he's somebody who understands how the Senate is supposed to work. He understands policy. And he's the type of Senator that Joe Biden would be used to working with during his 36 years in the Senate. So keep an eye on that. We'll see. It'll be interesting.

KING: We'll watch. There are many of those. There are a lot of fun interesting things to watch here. Phil Mattingly, grateful making the trip into the bureau for us.

Up next, the Supreme Court swats away another election challenged by, yes, former President Trump.

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KING: Topping our Political Radar today, the Supreme Court this morning declining to take up a challenge from Donald Trump's lawyers to the 2020 election results in the state of Wisconsin. This was the last 2020 election related petition from Team Trump at the nation's High Court. And it is yet another blow to the former President's continued false claim of widespread fraud and the 2020 election.

Later today, House members get a briefing from retired General, Lieutenant General Russel Honore about his task force report on security failures around the Capitol insurrection. That report recommends increasing Capitol Police intelligence gathering capabilities, mobile fencing, and a permanent quick reaction force according to a copy obtained by CNN, whether Republicans accept these recommendations is a big question especially after the House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy just yesterday said General Honore has quote, notorious partisan bias. And in McCarthy's view is helping Speaker Pelosi turn the Capitol into a fortress.

The campaign to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom says it has enough signatures now to qualify for the ballot. The recall Gavin 2020 coalition says it has collected nearly 2 million signatures. Those must now be verified by individual California counties. The coalition has until March 17th and needs 1.5 million validated signatures to put the recall question on the ballot.

Up next for us, an unexpected delay just as jury selection process will set to begin in the trial of Police Officer Derek Chauvin. Officer Chauvin, of course, charged in the death of George Floyd.

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KING: Jury selection in the trial of the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd is on hold for a day. The jury pool for the Derek Chauvin trial assembled in court this morning. But the judge then sends them home for the day while he awaits guidance from an appellate court about the charges in the case. Chauvin of course is the officer of the world saw using his knee to pin Floyd's neck to the ground for nearly eight minutes. Floyd's family members say they will take this trial one day at a time.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live for us outside the courthouse in Minneapolis. Omar, what's the latest?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, right now we are in recess until early afternoon. This is the scene outside the Hennepin County Government Center. You can see these barricades that are up really throughout the entire circumference of this property and windows boarded up as well because they do not want to risk this being breached in any form because of what happened last May, but also, as we understand from officials in part, the U.S. Capitol in January.

Now the reason we're in recess right now is over a third degree murder charge. In short, when you look at the charges that Chauvin is actually facing right now, he is facing second degree unintentional murder charges. He's facing second degree manslaughter charges, both of which he's pleaded not guilty to. But the third degree murder charge is one that prosecutors initially wanted to file against Chauvin, but it was dropped by the district judge in this case, Judge Peter.

Prosecutors tried to reinstate it by going to an appeals court judge ruled that the District Court should reconsider reinstating that motion, then the District Court judge says he does not have jurisdiction to reinstate it. And the reason we're in this recess is because they have now -- they are now waiting to hear from the Appeals Court judge if they should delay jury selection until this matter is resolved.

So it is a complicated ecosystem going on right now. But bottom line, jurors were sent home for the day until at least tomorrow, and we'll see how this case is -- trial is going to proceed.

KING: CNN's Omar Jimenez, grateful you're back in Minneapolis to take us through what must be a tense week in the city. Omar thanks so much. We'll check in again tomorrow.

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