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Trump Eyes Ex-Bush 41 Attorney General To Succeed Jeff Sessions; Jury Deliberations Set To Begin In Charlottesville Car Attack; Sources: John Kelly Expected To Resign Soon; Kevin Hart Steps Down As Oscars Host Amid Anti-Gay Tweets. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 7, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:18] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned that President Trump has a leading candidate to be the next attorney general or, at least, one he wants to nominate -- William Barr, who had the job before under the late President George H.W. Bush. So what are his chances of being confirmed?

Joining me now is someone who has a vote on this, the Democratic senator from the state of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono. She serves on the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Hirono, thank you so much for being with us.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI), MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Good morning.

BERMAN: Aloha, as you like to say.

HIRONO: Aloha.

BERMAN: Let me just get your first reaction to the news of William Barr being the leading candidate for the president to nominate for attorney general.

Is he someone you could support?

HIRONO: I would have a hard time doing that because here's another person who auditioned for the job by catching President Trump's attention by talking about how Hillary Clinton should continue to be investigated and questioning the Mueller investigation.

So, with President Trump, he looks for people who are going to protect him, who are going to cover for him. And there are two things that are important to this president, very clearly. One is protecting himself and making money.

And so, here's a person who auditioned for the job.

We already have somebody who is on the job and that is our deputy attorney general Rosenstein, who I voted for after I questioned him about whether he would resign if the president ever asked him to do anything unethical or illegal. BERMAN: Let me just -- what Sen. Hirono was talking about is that William Barr has defended the firing of James Comey, he's been critical of the political donations by some on the Mueller team, and has supported an investigation into some issues surrounding the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton. William Barr has made those public statements.

On the other hand, Senator Hirono, Patrick Leahy -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, a senior member on your committee, said of Barr, "He's a man I've always respected. The best thing the administration can do is get somebody who would have majority support from Republicans and Democrats alike for attorney general. Those are the best attorneys general."

He was asked, "Could he get that?" and Sen. Leahy responded, "Yes, he could."

Barr is someone who has been confirmed before by the Senate.

HIRONO: That's true, but on the other hand, these are not normal times. What's happening is we have a president who just cares about appointing people are going to do his bidding and that is not what we need as an attorney general.

And, by the way, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein was also confirmed in a bipartisan way in the U.S. Senate, so we already have somebody like that who is doing their job and who should be the next attorney general -- not Whitaker and not this person who is being touted and pushed forward.

BERMAN: This person -- again --

HIRONO: That's my opinion.

BERMAN: This person is William Barr, former attorney general of the United States, just to give him a name.

And we're talking about confirmations. CNN has also learned that the president is expected to nominate Heather Nauert, who is currently a spokesperson at the State Department, to be the next ambassador to the United Nations.

Could you support her nomination?

HIRONO: I would have difficulty because there are those of us who actually care about people's experience and qualifications, and I do not know that being loyal to the president is the uppermost qualification. It is for the president, but it isn't for me.

I think it shows, very clearly, that the president has great difficulty in finding people. And not the people who are going to kowtow to him, but finding people who are actually experienced and qualified for the jobs that they're being put forward.

And by the way, when I talked about the need for certain appointments to be made, we know that we've been in Afghanistan for 17 years now and we now have an ambassador to Afghanistan but we do not have an ambassador to Pakistan, to Saudi Arabia, and some of these other countries -- that we were only briefed yesterday and the day before in the Armed Services Committee.

[07:35:05] Now, these are countries that need to be very much involved with us in bringing about a reconciliation in Afghanistan.

BERMAN: No question, there are a great number of vacancies.

One of the things we've heard in regards --

HORINO: Yes.

BERMAN: -- to Heather Nauert as a possible ambassador to the United Nations is that Sec. Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, who actually had that job before -- they support diminishing its stature in the sense that it might not be a cabinet position any longer.

It's gone back and forth over the years. Do you think that would be something that would be OK?

HIRONO: I think that certainly comports with where John Bolton and some of the others are because they would like to be unfettered in whatever positions they want to take.

The United Nations is a place where we actually have to have -- behave in a diplomatic way with other countries and that seems to be a huge challenge for this administration. So I'm not surprised that they'd like to diminish that position. I would not be supportive of such a move.

BERMAN: All right, we've got you on the record on two votes you might very well have to take in the coming weeks and months.

Senator Mazie Hirono, thank you so much for being with us -- appreciate it.

HIRONO: Thank you, Aloha.

BERMAN: Aloha to you.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Kevin Hart is out as host of the Oscars. What he now says about past statements -- things he said were jokes -- which cost him that prestigious job.

BERMAN: But first, it's the time of the year when we honor some of the best humanity has to offer -- "CNN HEROES." Join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa as they announce the 2018 "CNN Hero of the Year" live this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're humans helping humans and they need our help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are truly giving the gift of mobility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're the best the world has to offer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're building something that matters a lot more than we do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're heroes today and every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is nice. What did you use for this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They also teach these girls how to program. It's all about solving problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We serve anybody who has ever raised their hand to defend our constitution.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My vision was to have a home where women could find safety and find themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our first goal was just to create this hospital- based intervention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I belong to each and every one of them. They are special.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa live as they name the 2018 CNN Hero of the Year.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, 2018 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR: We're here, once again, celebrating the best of humanity.

KELLY RIPA, HOST, 2018 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR: Don't we need this night more than ever?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "CNN HEROES: AN ALL-STAR TRIBUTE," Sunday at 8:00 Eastern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:41:17] HILL: This morning, jury deliberations set to begin in the murder trial of a man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia last year, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.

CNN's Sara Sidner is live in Charlottesville, Virginia. You've been covering all of this trial. Sara, good morning.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Yes, the jury has the case. They will reconvene around 9:30 local time here in Charlottesville.

All throughout this case, it has been very difficult for those of us who are in the audience to see because all of the evidence -- the video evidence, the pictures -- is pointed towards the jury and we can't see it in the audience.

That includes those who have already testified. Some of the witnesses here, some of the victims are all sitting and sort of blindly listening to what is happening in the court. However, the court has put out certain things, like pictures and documents, that we will be able to show you.

But I do want to remind you that we are going to be seeing some very disturbing video from the day, August 12th, when this ramming happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (voice-over): The jury in the Charlottesville Courthouse has one issue to decide in the murder and malicious wounding trial -- what was suspect James Alex Fields thinking when he did this on August 12th, 2017 after the Unite the Right rally broke up?

(Car being driven into crowd of protesters)

No one is disputing that Fields was behind the wheel, only whether he did this with hate or malice in his heart.

Beyond the video of his car running over protesters, opposing people with Nazi ideals like the ones Fields shares, the prosecution introduced evidence from Fields' cell phone and social media.

Three months before the rally, Fields shared this meme of someone running a car into a crowd of people, with the caption "You have the right to protest, but I'm late for work." Prosecutors told jurors the meme speaks to Fields' thought process even before participating in the white nationalist rally.

Prosecutors urged jurors to compare the meme he shared with this photo of Fields' actions on August 12th, 2017.

Jurors also saw text messages days before he ran into the crowd in Charlottesville.

Fields texts his mother -- "I got the weekend off so I'll be able to go to the rally." On August 10th his mother responds -- "Be careful." The day before the rally, Fields replies, "We're not the one who need to be careful." Attached to that text is a picture of Hitler.

One day later, Heather Heyer was dead. Fields' car hit her so hard it severed her thoracic artery, bruised her lungs, broke her ribs and her leg. A crash reconstructionist told jurors Fields was going 28 miles an hour when he ran through the crowd of people.

Many of those pictured in this photo who were injured testified at trial. Some sustained lifelong injuries, including Star Peterson, who still has to use a wheelchair due to her leg injuries.

Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, has been in court every day, silently relieving the worst day of her life, just as she spelled out in the 1-year anniversary of her daughter's death. SUSAN BRO, MOTHER OF HEATHER HEYER: My husband finally fell asleep exhausted and I sobbed in bed next to him because every time I closed my eyes I heard that she was pronounced at such-and-such a time.

SIDNER: Bro was there when prosecutors played audio of two jailhouse calls where the defendant talks about her. "She's one of those white commies," Fields tells his mother in the jail call.

Fields' mother replies sympathetically towards Bro. "She lost a daughter." Fields replies, "That doesn't f***ing matter. She is a communist, an anti-white liberal. She is -- she is the enemy, mother."

[07:45:04] Fields' defense team said Fields was caught in a perfect storm. He sobbed to officers when he found out someone had died in the crash. He was acting out of fear, not malice, defense lawyers said, after seeing violent clashes that day.

They also pointed to his remorse once police arrested him. "I'm really sorry," Fields repeatedly tells an officer who captured his words on a body camera. The officer replies, "Why are you sorry?"

Fields says, "I'm sorry that I've -- I don't know. I didn't want to hurt people. I thought they were attacking me." But not a single witness said they saw anyone at all around Fields before he barreled into the counterprotesters.

Prosecutors say this wasn't an example of a perfect storm, it was a man with hate in his heart who decided to turn his Instagram post into a reality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): Now, we have seen in the last two days, Fields' mother show up in court. She comes in in a wheelchair. She sits directly behind him and the two of them exchange glances.

But we have not heard a word from her at this moment. At first, she was a witness in this case but it looks like that is not going to happen because she's been in court listening to the testimony.

We do expect that there could be a verdict today. Back to you guys.

BERMAN: Sara Sidner, thank you for that.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news -- big news coming out of the White House. A shake-up of the highest order involving one of the president's top advisers.

Let's go straight to CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, live in Washington with this breaking news -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John -- well, John, we are expecting John Kelly, the chief of staff, to resign in the coming days. That is the mood in the White House right now because President Trump and his chief of staff -- though they are 17 months into what has been a very tumultuous relationship, it is no longer seen as sustainable by either party, I am being told by sources inside the White House.

John, their relationship has deteriorated so greatly over the last several weeks, where John Kelly's job security has essentially be seen as permanently endangered, that right now the president and his chief of staff are not even on speaking terms.

Now, multiple West Wing officials believe that John Kelly could resign in the coming days and they are essentially preparing themselves for a pretty big staff shake-up in the West Wing if that does occur because then it's going to raise questions about 1) who is going to replace John Kelly, and 2) are the people who are seen as loyalists to John Kelly in this administration going to leave and follow him out the door of the White House?

Now, John, President Trump and John Kelly have had a very tension- filled relationship at times, sometimes described as a love-hate relationship between the two of them where President Trump will go one minute praising John Kelly to his face and the next minute complaining about him to other aides.

But I should note that over the summer, President Trump asked John Kelly to stay on as the chief of staff and continue running the West Wing for at least two more years. And, John Kelly, we were told, had agreed to it at that point and then later announced that at a senior staff meeting.

But John, that does not seem to be the case anymore and we are told that President Trump is actively looking to replace John Kelly. Of course, that's going to raise questions about who it is that's going to take over that spot and who is going to be running the West Wing.

And one person who has been seen as a leading contender over the last several months is the vice president -- Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, who is this politically savvy young aide. But, of course, that could raise some problems as well because there are people working inside the West Wing who don't want Nick Ayers to be running the -- essentially, what's going on -- the Oval Office operations.

So there are still questions. Nothing is final, of course, until President Trump, himself, announces that John Kelly is on his way out the door, and they've been close to this before with people predicting that John Kelly could leave at any moment.

But, John, I'm being told by people inside the West Wing who know John Kelly well and who know the president well that things are different than they've been before and it is no longer seen as a sustainable relationship for either of them involved.

BERMAN: To that last point -- and I am not being glib here, Kaitlan because we have seen reporting over the last year that John Kelly is in his final days. What makes this "John Kelly is resigning or fired" story different than the other "John Kelly is resigning or being fired" stories?

COLLINS: Well, that's a great question and we have been here before where President Trump is actively asking people who should be my next chief of staff? So we've been in this place before.

But what's different about this is that President Trump and John Kelly aren't speaking. That doesn't seem -- maybe it seems to be just a petty disagreement, but when the president is not communicating with his own chief of staff that just creates ways for bigger problems.

And right now, President Trump and other aides inside the West Wing fully realize that they have got a difficult two years ahead of them, especially when Democrats take over the House in January. And they know that they need to have everything together running that West Wing, essentially to be prepared for the level of oversight that those Democrats are going to brandish.

[07:50:12] And that is why people feel that it's different this time and that this could be when John Kelly is actually going to leave the West Wing because President Trump feels ready to make a change and he feels like he needs someone to help him shape the last two years of his first term.

HILL: And, Kaitlan, do we know specifically over what? I mean, what is it --

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: -- that has led to this point where all of a sudden they're not speaking?

COLLINS: Well, it's not like that's new. It's not like the two of them had had this great relationship and then all of a sudden they had this falling out. Things have been very back-and-forth, up-and-down with the president and John Kelly over the last several months and they'd go through periods where it seemed like John Kelly was on his way out the door -- most recently, two occasions.

Once when President Trump was going on a big international trip over the summer and aides weren't sure if John Kelly would make it through the hour, essentially. And then, he and President Trump seemed to repair things and patch things up for the time being.

And a second occasion was when John Kelly got into a shouting match with the national security adviser John Bolton in the Oval Office while they were discussing immigration because John Bolton made a disparaging remark about the Department of Homeland Security secretary who John Kelly is very close to.

After that argument -- it was this profanity-laced shouting argument that essentially spilled out into the hallways outside the Oval Office -- John Kelly left the West Wing and people who work with him -- even people who are fans of John Kelly weren't sure if he was going to come back to work that day.

And that is just a highlight of just how up and down this relationship between President Trump and his chief of staff have been.

So, of course, sources always add a word of caution that nothing is final until President Trump announces it and until John Kelly packs up his office and walks out that door. But essentially, what our reporting shows is that things between President Trump and John Kelly are worse than they have ever been and people expect him to leave in the coming days.

BERMAN: Thirty seconds left, Kaitlan. Look, there's a big contrast between a retired four-star Marine general and 30-something political operative. Tell us very briefly about Nick Ayers.

COLLINS: Yes. If Nick Ayers does take over which, of course, that has not been at all finalized or we have no indication that that's what's happening, things will be very different in the West Wing because when John Kelly came in his idea was to essentially rule with this iron first.

He curbed Oval Office access that had been pretty freewheeling before. He restricted certain people who could call the White House switchboard to get in touch with President Trump. And he really tried to change the structure of the West Wing and have everyone, including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, answering to him.

With Nick Ayers, it's a question of whether or not that will be the same leadership ability. But we do know based on some of our reporting from the CNN White House team that President Trump has envied the way that Vice President Mike Pence's political shop is run, so you could see why he would find Nick Ayers to be potentially his ideal candidate for that.

BERMAN: Kaitlan Collins, big reporting. We're going to follow this very closely over the next hours because something clearly about to develop here. Kaitlan, I appreciate it.

HILL: Yes. On an already rather busy Friday --

BERMAN: Exactly.

HILL: -- and not just in Washington, we should point, too. There's a lot going on on the other coast. A lot happening overnight.

Kevin Hart stepping down as host of the Oscars after controversial comments from his past came back to light. We should say not the first time they've been brought up. What he's now saying after walking away from what he called his "dream gig" and how other people are reacting.

BERMAN: Look, John Kelly's available, maybe. He could be the host.

HILL: Hey, Nick --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:57:39] BERMAN: Kevin Hart is out as host of the Oscars just two days after he was tapped for the gig. The stunning turn of events following an uproar over past anti-gay tweets, even though he'd made past anti-gay statements in all kinds of routines.

Joining us now is Brian Stelter, CNN chief media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES." What happened here, Brian?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Yes, a lot of whiplash in Hollywood over this. Only two days ago, Hart was appointed the host of the Oscars, one of the most important gigs in television, one of the biggest audiences in television, and a dream gig for Kevin Hart.

But as soon as he was appointed, people on Twitter and Facebook and other sites started to remind folks about his past statements from 2009, 2010, 2011. At one point, Hart said he didn't want his son to grow up being gay. He made a number of homophobic comments -- in some cases, some slurs.

Hart tried to downplay this and dismiss the controversy early on Thursday. He said, hey, I've talked about his in the past, I've addressed it in the past. I'm not going to go through this again. I'm not going to let the Internet trolls win.

Well, this was about a lot more than Internet trolling, so by the end of the day there was a lot of scrutiny on ABC, which airs the Oscars, and on the Academy, which produces and runs the Oscars. There was a lot of concern about Hart hosting the show.

And at the end of the day, here's what he said in a statement. He finally did apologize. Maybe if he'd said this earlier in the day this wouldn't have ended this way.

But, Hart said in number of tweets is that "I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year's Oscar's. This is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists."

He said, "I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past."

So finally there, at the end of the day John, he apologizes, he backtracks, but he also quits the Oscars. So we don't know who is going to host the show now.

And I have to wonder, didn't the Academy see this coming? How could they have not realized that this could end up happening?

BERMAN: You would think.

Brian Stelter, thank you for this. As we said, this is a big deal. Perhaps the Oscars should have known better.

Thanks, Brian.

We do have some breaking news -- big breaking news. A White House shake-up imminent. Let's get right to it.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. BERMAN: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, December seventh, 8:00 in the East.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me. And, Erica brought the news this morning.

HILL: I do what I can.

BERMAN: Breaking news out of the West Wing. Chief of Staff John Kelly is expected to resign in a matter of days. Sources tell CNN that Kelly and President Trump have reached a stalemate in their relationship. They're not on speaking terms at this point.

We're getting this on what is already going to be a pivotal day --