Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703 : vimarsana.com

It was the reunion phil has been waiting for. All five members of Nsync On One Stage together. You can hear to here. How excited phil at the vmas last night. This hour of cnn this morning starts now. These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. They warrant further investigation by the house of representatives. There is not a shred of evidence that President Joe Biden has committed a crime. This is an illegitimate Impeachment Inquiry, period, full stop. That was House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries reacting House Speaker Kevin Mccarthys Impeachment Inquiry in President Biden. It comes two weeks after mccarthy said he would not open a probe without a house floor vote. Hard line conservatives have been pressuring him on this issue and Government Spending for weeks. Republicans have been investigating President Biden since they took control of the house in january. They campaigned on the issue. They have shed more light on Hunter Bidens Business Dealings which the white house has said that the president has no involvement. Mccarthy faced questions tuesday since no concrete evidence of misconduct has been found. So joe biden acted, official action is this an impeachment or Impeachment Inquiry . Impeachment inquiry is the ability to get the information to answer the questions. Thats all were doing. America needs the answers. Now the white house is planning to send a letter to u. S. News organizations, including cnn, urging them to intensify scrutiny of mccarthy and House Republicans for launching the probe without evidence of a crime. Ian sams wrote that letter. He will join us in a few minutes. Before that, our senior data reporter harry enten. What does the polling show about what americans feel . J is Kevin Mccarthy doing this . He is feeling a lot of resch from republican congressmen and the republican ways. Republican voters who think joe biden did something illegal, this tells you basically that you need to know. The vast majority of Republican Voters nationwide believe that joe biden did something illegal regarding Hunter Bidens Business Dealings and they are putting a lot of pressure on their own congressmen. Ic Kevin Mccarthy has a math problem going on because he has a fiveseat majority. Basically five republicans go against him, that could be big trouble for him. Remember, there were 20 republicans who voted against Kevin Mccarthy for speaker. Those are on the right. They are pressuring him to launch this Impeachment Inquiry. Then there is the 18 republicans who represent districts that joe biden won in 2020. So he is feeling this tug from the right, pushing him are towards this Impeachment Inquiry and the tug from the middle saying, no, we dont want to go there. Its a hard math problem for Kevin Mccarthy. What about americans overall . Democrats, independents . Yeah. So take a look here. I think there is this idea that a lot of republicans, hey, Donald Trumps in trouble, so lets put joe biden in trouble, too. Americans dont see it this way. Voters who think they did something illegal, 38 of americans believe that joe biden did something illegal with regards to his son Business Dealings. 53 of americans believe that donald trump did something illegal trying to overturn the 2020 election. So americans overall do not see those two things equally. Now, you mentioned independents. I think there are a lot of democrats who are salivate ago at idea of doing something on this because independents dont like joe biden. 66 of them hold an unfavorable view of him. Get this. Just 34 of them think he did something illegal. I think there are a lot of democrats looking at the numbers and saying, hey, republicans are going to go A Bridge Too Far and maybe we will be able to turn this around on its head and be like bring this forward because this 14 a fight that they want to have, something they think could help joe biden going into 2024. Harry, thank you for the numbers. Phil, a lot of interesting numbers. You have the perfect guest to respond to this from the white house. Take it away. Yeah, thanks. I want to dig through the numbers. A lot going on here. First we start with the specifics of whats being followed by House Republicans and what the white house things. Joining us now the spokesman for the White House Counsels Office ian sams. I want to start with something House Oversight Committee Chairman james comer said. One of the three Committee Chairs leading this process, said a lot of things about what that Investigation Entailed up to now. Take a listen. The president in administration was cooperating with our investigation. We wouldnt have to do Impeachment Inquiry. Unfortunately, we do. We now have every tool we need to move forward successfully. Thats where were headed. The idea that of cooperation and thats why the republicans are here to this point, what are the areas in which you guys have not been willing to comply up to this point . Thats a great question for chairman comer. His own Committee Just on monday members of his own Committee Put out a memo that outlined that he has received through this process access to reports from the treasury department, access to departments from the fbi, witnesses from the doj and the irs. Not to mention, outside of the government. His subpoenas, he has received 12,000 pages of bank records, 2,000 pages of documents from treasury. So dont take my word for it. Just a couple months ago james comer went on fox and said, you know, as the chairman of this committee, everything i have subpoenaed, i have gotten 100 what i asked for. When you ask this question about, oh, what is he talking about . Are We Obstructing . That question needs to go to him. He needs to be held accountable for the fact that he is saying things that are patently untrue. When he talks about the potential for going to court, the tools they believe they have by using an inquiry. Is this Administration Planning to continue to utilize the 2020 office 2019 opinionrelated to impeachment, its not valid if there is a floor vote. I think republicans in congress have proven these sorts of poking around inquiries are nothing but a wild goose chase that are illegitimate. That question you asked specifically, again you should ask that of speaker mccarthy. He ten days ago went on television or talked to breitbart or whatever far right News Organization they are selling these lies to today and said we will have a full vote of the house. Cant be declaration by fee at. He said in 2019, if there was not a vote, it would be edevoid of merit. Just from an Administration Legal perspective, as you view process, are clearly prepared for it. From an administration perspective, do you view that counsels opinion as the Guiding Force as you deal with this . Yeah, i understand the question. I think we are going to see what they are going to do. I dont want to speculate on what the House Republicans may or may not ask vote. They wont even vote for it and even say what they are impeaching him for. We will have to see. What they are impeaching him for, republicans have been clear that they dont have a lot of republican moderates are clear they havent seen direct evidence yet. Mccarthy laid out as the rationale for going this route. The idea that there are dhs there was a trusted fbi nft enlt that provided information about alleged bribes to the biden family. What is your response to that allegation . Whats interesting about that is that the source of this alleged bribe told the congress during president trumps first impeachment that thats not true, he had never asked President Biden of anything. So the very source of this socalled allegation has already refuted it. And thats come out as part of the years of republican investigations targeting the president , baselessly going after him without any evidence, just to try to score political points that they have been doing almost half a decade now. I think that the question we need to focus on here, is this what the congress should be focused on . The American People need their leaders in washington to be focused on them. Thats what the president is doing. You see him talking about our investment to take on Cancer Research today i understand. I just want to when it comes to the bribe, you know, these are allegations they have been making without matter its for months the point i am trying to make sheer is to and this has been your position for long time and i have covered the policy side of this white house quite a bit over the last several years. I understand that. I want to tick through these to have you respond. This is the basis of it. The idea of Bank Records Show that nearly 20 million in payments were directed biden Family Members and associates. The Trade Deaeasury Department flagged as suspicious activity. Anything in there the response to in terms of how links to the president . The Washington Post fact checked that and found it false. The members of the House Oversight committee stated that there was no tie to President Biden. So yet again they have had access to these documents and they have turned up no tie to the president. And thats from their own members. The idea of there has been Special Treatment the president s family afforded Special Treatment by the Biden Administration as to relates to Hunter Bidens plea deal and that eventually fell apart and where it stood. Yeah, i mean, the president is clear about this since before he even took office, that the Justice Department and his administration is independent. He has not been involved in that case. He has not talked to anybody about that case. Dont take his word for it. Take the words of the gops own witnesses in the house who testified in an open hearing that neither Attorney General garland nor President Biden interfered in this case. So their other witnesses, their own investigations. Not only are they not turning up evidence of the allegations they claim, they are actively refuting the allegations that the speaker is leaning on to launch this baseless impeachment. Another allegation is that the president was present at some of the meetings between hunter biden and his business associates. Why was the president at those meetings on those phone calls . Well, again, this is part of the rightwings Misinformation Machine to try to confuse people about what the truth is. The truth is that the president , as he said publicly for years, calls his family every day to check in. He calls his son every day to check in. He calls his other Family Members to check in to see how they are doing. He loves them. They are a tightknit family. What the gops own witness testified in this case is that thats exactly what the president was cog. He was checking in with hunter during a particularly hard time, a time where the family was going through hunters brother beaus illness. Of course the president checks in. Again that witness testified no Business Dealings of Hunter Bidens or anyones was discussed in these conversations. Then they are trying to make this sort of strange connection when their own investigation has disproven these claims. Before i let you go, is the president in terms of how the president reacted to this, especially somebody who has been in politics and in washington for as long as he has about been, the idea that he is subject to an Impeachment Inquiry as president of the united states, what is his response to that . The president has been in politics for a long time. I think as he would say, he has seen a lot of malarkey along the way, but this might take the cake. He focused on issues that matter to the American People. You just saw him, our economic interests in asia. Showing American Leadership on the world stage. He coming become here. He is announcing today a quarter billion dollars investment in Cancer Research to try to finally cure cancer. Thats what he is focused on every day, the actual needs of the American People. And i think what he would say is maybe the House Republicans should join him. You know, one thing and this will be my last one. A lot of people in washington right now and i know this is probably going to drive your team crazy that i ask it this way because it matters because its accurate because the columnist is well respected within the building behind you. What is your response . Its not about the president , its about the Vice President who you worked for in the 2020 campaign. I am governed by the i want to be careful. The president has announced he is running for reelection and the president is going to make his case to the American People. And ill refer you to the campaign for campaign questions. This president has a lot to be proud of and to run on. He delivered some of the most consequential achievements and economic progress, the chips bill, the inflation reduction act, thats what he is going to be talking about versus these sort of political sideshows that Congressional Republicans are starting to launch into right now. Any expectation he will weigh in on this anytime soon . The president can speak for himself. I think he will focus on what the American People want him to focus on, which is improving them, their lives, their families, not these political attacks on him and his family. Ian sams, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. Thank you zoo. Really important with the questions and trying to get some answers that the American People deserve this morning. Our senior political analyst john avlon, errol lewis. Thank you all for being here i want to start with you. I think phil, you know, did a masterful job of saying here is mcc what mccarthy said. Why isnt President Biden answering these questions or coming out proactively and saying let me detail for you American People my interactions with my son, when they happened, why they happened, and what the substance was . Probably what the White House Team wants to do is not elevate those claims. If you say that the claims are bogus, politically motivated and unimportant to the American People, the fastest way to reverse that impression is to have the president take time and i am not suggesting i am have the president take time and i am not suggesting i am not suggesting a direct response to each of the claims. But coming out and saying here is, you know, is and what were my interactions with my son. Here is the truth. Io oblition to go out andelp them. If the fact th arenown as phil laid out, and i hdid grt job, ithats what its, those of us who lieve that impeachment is aolemn ans detai obvious claims of malfeasance, high crimes and merchandise is misdemeanors ithe language, a phone call six yea go about Ausiness Transaion . What are we talking about here . I would beotherethe president took timto answer a claim that had so litt behind it ithey he re that yb we can tking about. Anything is worthy of investation. The investigations to date havent turned up a lot of hard eviden, incling the people interviewed by in commtee. So rushing to an impeachment historic Gravif Imachment E Proceedings which traditioll are ask undertaken when the present has the whiteouse is not takinthis seriously. Is that wi . Is that nable . I dont think he should give Checker Speech now. Mccahy is rced by right flantohe extent he doet wa