tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN March 4, 2021 5:00pm-6:00pm PST
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>> reporter: so vaccines go to the states and it is the states that distribute to the counties. so how quickly it goes out really does depend on where you live and if you live in a large and complex county it is going to take longer, erin. and that's why here at cobre valley medical center they scheduled a full day of second round shots. >> that's amazing. all right, kyung, thank you so much. and thanks so much to all of you. hopefully that's a hopeful note. anderson starts now. good evening. we begin tonight with breaking news. cnn has learned that the investigation into january's attack on the capitol has uncovered signs of a contact between lawmakers and january 6th insurrectionists. now, the precise nature of that contact is not fully known at this point. the investigation is ongoing. the mere possibility of contacts only compounds what was already such deep trauma for the institution for the people who were there, those who plekt them and everyone who watched the
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seat of democracy on earth turned to a battleground. in addition, this is happening as you know with the capitol still ringed by fencing and the house in recess due to a potential threat surrounding a date on the qanon conspiracy calendar. our shimon prokupecz joins us now with the latest. so explain what you've learned about what the fbi knows and doesn't know. >> reporter: right. one of the things that we've learned for certain is that there is information that the fbi has gathered from cell phone towers here at the capitol that indicates that members of congress were communicating with the rioters. there are pings off of cell phones that connect with lawmakers, the cell phones belonging to lawmakers. certainly raising a lot of questions. the fbi has gathered a lot of information. what they did is they went through the cell phone data to see who was inside the capitol on the day of the insurrection. also they were looking at data leading up to the insurrection. and what they found was these
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cell phones, some of them belonging to the rioters, some of them belonging to members of congress, were communicating. they don't know the extent of that communication. certainly they've not revealed it to us. they would need to do more work to get that. but of course it is troubling that they are finding some of this. my colleague evan perez who's been doing the reporting on this, he talked to a law enforcement official who said that certainly this is raising a lot of questions. the fact that they have this information, that they are seeing, that there was this communication. it's normally referred to, anderson, as meta data. this is data that is collected from cell phones that are communicating between each other. and they have this information now. the question of course is what do they do with it next? >> so -- excuse me. the alleged communication, is that actually during the attack or is it in the days around it? >> well, some of it is during the attack while some of the people were inside the capitol on that day, on january 6th.
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some of it is leading up to it. the thing is they don't know exactly, at least they haven't revealed to us what exactly that data is, whether it's text messages, whether it's people calling other people. so that is still the information that we don't have. but they do have this data. and what they've told us is that it is -- some of it is from the day of the insurrection and some of it is in the days leading up to the insurrection. >> and is there any sense of a timetable for this investigation? >> reporter: no, so there's a couple of things going on here. first of all, we don't have an attorney general. we have an acting attorney general. once there's an attorney general in place, perhaps we could see an escalation, some movement in this investigation. the thing is when you start talking about members of congress you need sign-off from the highest levels of the department of justice, the fbi. so you know, right now everyone is kind of in an acting role. and so certainly they're waiting for merrick garland to get into
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that spot. you still have the person, the acting -- who was the acting u.s. attorney here in washington, d.c. who's overseeing this entire investigation. he has yet to brief the incoming attorney general on this investigation. so there are still a lot of moving parts. there's really no rush here, anderson. certainly this could take weeks. it could take months. it could take a year until they gather this information. also the thing you can look at and see somewhere down the line is perhaps some of these insurrectionists cooperating with investigators. >> shimon prokupecz, appreciate it. thanks very much. on january 6th colorado congressman and former army ranger jason crow was pinned along with other lawmakers and staffers in the house gallery. that's a photo of him. he joins us now. congressman crow, good to have you back. so you heard this latest reporting. just the idea that there could have been some communications obviously troubling. again, unclear what the nature of that communication is or the extent of it or the meaning behind it. >> yeah, thanks for having me back, anderson. we don't know.
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i mean, the intent and obviously the details of this. that's going to be part of the investigation. as your previous guest just said, we have the data. the meta data is there. the signals, the pings on the cell phone towers. the firsthand witness accounts. there is plenty of video footage, closed circuit tv cameras around the capitol. that information has been preserved and the fbi will go through it. now, remember, last time we spoke about a month ago i said that we would follow a process, we wouldn't jump to conclusions, we wouldn't try to point fingers at folks, we'd actually look at the facts, we would follow where those facts lead us. and that's exactly what's happening. the fbi is doing that. they're doing it deliberately. and they will lead to where the facts go. >> it's also unclear, apparently some of this may also be insurrectionists, people who took part in the attack, bragging about contacts or talking about contacts with either members of congress or staff members.
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again, unclear if they actually have those contacts or if this is just people trying to puff themselves up and make them look for important to their fellow attackers. >> it could be. i mean, it could be all of the above too. when i sit back and think about this, you know, what's really sad is that i actually wouldn't be surprised if members of congress were involved and complicit in some of the riots -- >> you really wouldn't. >> i wouldn't be. i just wouldn't be. which is a sad testament to the state of affairs in congress right now to be honest with you and the state of affairs in our politics that there are some depraved people that serve in that chamber, that to this day incite violence and further conspiracy theories and show zero remorse for what happened on january 6th. and actually that morning were part of inciting the violence and encouraging people to fight. and they continue to do that. that is sad, but we're going to follow where the facts lead us.
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the fbi will do that. the doj will do that. we'll hold people accountable whether they're a member of congress or they're not. >> it's a pretty stunning statement you that feel that there are depraved individuals serving in congress in this important time in our history. i don't know how i would feel going to work every day in a place where i felt there were depraved people. >> yeah, it's not great. i can tell you that. and you know, i do want to be clear that i'm not meaning to paint people with a broad brush here. there are overwhelmingly really good people that want to serve, that are trying to do the right thing on both sides of the aisle, that are there to work and roll up their sleeves and do the work of the american people. but there are a handful of people that do not belong. that is the bottom line. and that are a disgrace to their districts, to our country and obviously to the institution of congress. and i've been pretty clear about that. i've voted accordingly to censure folks and remove folks
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from committees. and you know, continue to speak up because what we can't have happen is for this to become okay. right? we've talked about this before, anderson, this normalization of stuff. eventually this goes on long enough and the american people start thinking this is normal. this is not normal. this is not the way the united states congress and our government should run. none of it. and we can't be okay with it. and that's why i'm going to continue to speak up about it. >> congressman crow, i appreciate your time. thank you. >> thanks. >> joining us now cnn legal analyst carrie cordero, also cnn contributor and former fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. andrew, what kinds of things -- i mean, how does an investigation of this sort and this particular angle, i mean, obviously as the congressman was saying, that metadata has been gathered. what do you find from that? >> anderson, there's a couple of things that are important to clear up here. first of all, this is like fbi
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enterprise investigation techniques 101. right? this is what they do. they go out, throw the net out. in this case they've captured within that net the rioters that they've been able to identify who are in the capitol and now they're going deeper. they're looking at those individuals' phone records. they're looking at their text messages. they're serving legal process on the service providers to each one of those people. the data they're able to collect off of the cell towers is predominantly information that shows you who was in proximity of the capitol. it doesn't usually show you who was talking to who and it certainly doesn't provide the content of those communications but it shows you who was there. with that start they're now, as i said, looking deeper at going in and subpoenaing an individual's phone records and seeing who is talking to who. it's likely from those records that they're seeing individual rioters who are in direct contact with members of congress or who were talking to each
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other in text messages like ly about having spoken to members of congress. it's very concerning. >> it's interesting. the metadata which a lot of people have been talking about, that doesn't show a link between one cell phone and another cell phone. it's once you have the cell phone data of the person who's clearly inside the capitol at a place where they shouldn't be and then you dig deeper into their records. that's when you start to see who they're communicating with. >> that's exactly right. so you do your cell tower dump, it shows you who was in the area. let's say you're interested in john smith whose phone comes back on the returns from that request. now you go to john smith's phone, you serve a subpoena on the carrier to say who's everybody that john smith was talking to at that time, and you get the actual toll records of everyone that he called and everyone who called him. and that's likely where these connections are coming from.
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>> carrie, where would communications between someone in congress and someone who participated in the insurrection cross over from perhaps something unusual or inappropriate into something actually criminal? >> well, it would depend on who the people are, and it would depend on perhaps the timing of the contact. so if the investigation proceeds in the detailed way that andrew just laid out where they would first have the big data collection and then start giving targeted legal process against individuals who participated in the breach on the capitol, then they can start looking at okay, what's the timeline, who were they talking to or who were they communicating with through cellular communications and then they can start looking at the timeline of when they were in contact. now, if they then want to -- before they can even know, the fbi can know whether an individual was engaged in criminal conduct, you know, in terms of coordinating with the
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insurrectionists, then what they'd have to do is actually obtain contents of communication. so for example, if there were text message. but they would have to serve legal process based on probable cause to be able to get the content of those communications. so it's very early in the process to know whether these perhaps members of congress who were in touch with people, whether what they were doing would rise to the level of criminal activity, which would be basically that they would be part of the conspiracy that is being charged in this overall investigation. >> there's also, andrew, the very real possibility of just people bragging to each other about how important they are, the congress members they know or staffers that they're in touch with. >> that's absolutely right, anderson. and there's all kinds of ways that these contacts might be completely innocent. and you're not going to know that until you get that content collection that carrie just laid out. it's also not unreasonable for
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people who come to d.c. for the purposes of a rally or what have you to reach out to the office of their congressman to get a tour of the capitol or to get some information. so the simple fact that there's been contact between maybe someone who ended up in the riot and one of their representatives is not -- doesn't by itself rise to the level of criminal conduct or anything that might be nefarious. >> also, carrie, i mean, anytime you're talking about members of congress it's not like investigating your average citizen. how does that impact an investigation like this? >> that's right. so in the justice department any investigation, if the fbi actually wanted to open an investigation into a member of congress's involvement in the insurrection, in the planning of it, is part of the conspiracy. that would qualify as something called a sensitive investigative matter. and under the standard guidelines that would govern that type of thing, normally
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that would be something that would be at the pro approval of the attorney general. for example, you might remember that attorney general barr issued a special memo leading up to the 2020 election saying that there was going to be an investigation of anybody related to a campaign, related to interference in the election, that he personally wanted to approve it. i would expect that the justice department would have similar types of policies put in place for this scenario to ensure that there is the highest level of approval. and in this circumstance until attorney general garland is confirmed there is an acting attorney general. there also is an acting deputy attorney general who i believe is managing a lot of this nationwide investigation, and that's john carlin who was previously an assistant attorney general for national security, also a senior counselor at the fbi, and so is very sophisticated in terms of how to run these types of investigations. >> carrie cordero, andrew mccabe, a lot to learn still.
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thank you very much. more break news. despite one senator's effort to slow it down, the effort to stall president biden's covid relief bill, the concerns about it and a senator who plans to vote for it. later, another breaking story. one of new york governor andrew cuomo's accusers speak out about the intimate question she says he asked her. more ahead.
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penetrates fabrics where odors hide. spray it on your rugs, your curtains, your furniture, all over your home to make it part of your tidying up routine. febreze fabric refresher, for an all-over freshness you'll love. with millions of unemployed americans just ten days away from losing pandemic jobless benefits senate clerks are taking turns right now reading out the text of covid relief bill that among other things would extend those badly needed payments. they're going word by word page by page, and they've been at it for hours now. not because the bill's any secret. it's available online and you can read it yourself at cnn.com. as can senators who have staffers going through the language in detail. so then why is this happening, this ritual? well, it's because one senator, ron johnson, republican of wisconsin, demanded it. and he did that because he can. and because obstruction has the
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party seal of approval. >> this is a wildly expensive proposal largely unrelated to the problem. so we'll be fighting this in every way that we can. it is my hope that at the end senate republicans will unanimously oppose it just like house republicans did it. >> minority leader mcconnell's call for unified opposition follows the apparent calculation by democratic leadership in the white house that brief negotiations with a small group of moderate republicans aside this is where the gop was always headed. that's what the democrats certainly believe. so they are now prepared to pass the bill on their own and they're confident they have the votes to do it, which whatever you think of the legislation makes what's happening now and what's about to come next basically a stunt, one that will continue after the reading there will be 20 hours of debate followed by time to offer potentially unlimited amendments, which will also slow down the process. joining us now is michigan democratic senator gary peters,
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chairman of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee. chairman peters, you know senator johnson. he's a member of your committee. what do you think is behind the delay tactic of having the entire bill read on the floor and planning to offer a couple hundred amendments? >> well, i think you said it in the opening. it's just basically a political stunt and basically is delaying this bill from going forward. it's just so unfortunate that we're seeing this kind of behavior given the fact we've got people all across the country that are concerned about their future. you mentioned we have unemployment benefits ending in just a few days. people have that certainty. they're worried about putting food on the table, keeping a roof over their head. they want the certainty of knowing legislation has passed that will extend that through the end of august. we've got small businesses that are looking for funds so they can stay open. we've got fema that we're trying to provide additional resources so we can expand the distribution of vaccines so we
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can get it in as many arms as quickly as possible. we're in the middle of a health care crisis. we're in the middle of an economic crisis. and yet we're seeing a political stunt on the floor of the senate that is only delaying the inevitable. we need to be acting now. we shouldn't be delaying. >> senator romney, who's not really known for political stunts, says he supports what senator johnson is doing because it will communicate that the bill "has good objectives but is massively misdirected." do you think it's misdirected? what the republicans are saying, essentially this is way too much money and it's kind of too spread out. >> well, it is focused on dealing with the covid crisis to make sure that we deal with the public health aspects and getting the economy up and running as quickly as possible. if you'll look at economists and look at what they have said about this legislation, and these are economists all across the political spectrum that have said that the economy is in a precarious situation, we need to make sure that we're investing
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in it. and they said you need to be bold, this is not about a tepid type of reaction, you need to be bold, put the money into the economy to make sure that we can recover quickly. but at the same time making sure we're dealing with the public health aspects. that means ramping up production of vaccines and ramping up the ability to get those vaccines into people's arms. we're dealing with a national crisis. we need a national response. and it needs to be bold. it needs to be strong. >> after yesterday's hearing with the d.c. national guard commander which raised a lot of questions about the pentagon's response on the day of the insurrection and the orders that they gave him that he had to operate under, do you plan to call former army secretary ryan mccarthy or the former acting defense secretary christopher miller to testify? >> well, i certainly think we need to hear from them. there's no question. they were central in the discussion yesterday in the hearing. clearly they're in the chain of command with the commander in chief, the former president at the top of that. but decisions were delayed. you heard the testimony from general walker, who said that it made no sense to see this delay.
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he did not see a delay like that in the summer when there were protests going on in washington. the approvals came through quickly. and yet he sat there with guardsmen ready to go, sitting on buses ready to get to the capitol, and he testified very strongly that had they gotten there sooner it would have made a major difference. so why was there a delay? we know two individuals can give us some information. we're going to work to get that information. we're just figuring out exactly what process we'll go through in order to get it. >> yeah, last night we had on general mark hertling who was saying when you hear a general using the word, you know,ing? , something is very unusual twice, walker used it in his testimony, that's a huge red flag. it's an understatement, but for a general to be using those terms it means what was going on with this, why were there -- that he had to give special notice to the secretary of the army and an operational plan.
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that's he said highly unusual. >> it is highly unusual. he was very clear. and in the discussions i had with him before that as well. and part of it he says when you're in a situation like we were at the apt'll that basically it's the capitol police that are running that operation and when he sends members of the national guard there they're basically working with the police. the police are telling them what they need to have happen and where to go. so that's the plan. basically support the operations of the local law enforcement. that's the role of the national guard. but it was clear he said had those 150 people that he had ready to go sitting on buses, had they shown up and started unloading from the buses, from his years of experience, that would have had a major impact on that violent mob as it was attacking the capitol to see those soldiers disembarking off those buses. >> senator gary peters, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. just ahead, the governors of texas and mississippi have now both taken swipes at president biden after he called their decision to end state mask
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mandates "neanderthal thinking." the latest there on how the decision affects the mayor of one mississippi town when we continue. king night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live. i'm morgan, and there's more to me than hiv. more love,... more adventure,... more community. but with my hiv treatment,... there's not more medicines in my pill. i talked to my doctor... and switched to... fewer medicines with dovato. prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. with... just 2 medicines... in 1 pill,... dovato is as effective as a 3-drug regimen... to help you reach and stay undetectable. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed... and get to and stay undetectable... can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its ingredients... or if you take dofetilide. hepatitis b can become harder to treat while taking dovato. do not stop dovato without talking to your doctor,...
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>> the biden administration has been releasing immigrants in south texas that have been exposing texans to covid. some of those people have been put on buses, taking that covid to other states in the united states. the biden administration must stop importing covid into our country. that is neanderthal type approach to dealing with the covid situation. >> now, there's a number of problems with the statement. first, the governor appears to be pinning any potential blame for his own actions on undocumented immigrants. his comments also appear to be inaccurate. as a senior homeland security official tells cnn, abbott is actually stalling efforts to provide funding for testing immigrants released from custody and his decision has left everyone, including the texas restaurant association today, to develop their own protocols to encourage people to keep wearing masks. also the decision to end mask mandates in texas and mississippi comes when both are still struggling to contain the disease. compare the seven-day positivity rates earlier today of those states to those of connecticut, which today also announced they were ending capacity
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restrictions for restaurants and other institutions, although keeping masks. according to johns hop kooinz university, texas and mississippi are in double digits at 12.29% and 14.03% respectively. connecticut just 2.6%. its governor today, the governor of connecticut, said today, "this is not texas. this is not mississippi." and that "we are maintaining the masks." perspective now from a mayor whose residents are affected by the end of the mississippi mandate, eric simmons of greenville, mississippi. mayor simmons, thanks for being with us. so when you learned the governor's decision to rescind restrictions in the state including the mask mandate, i'm wondering what you thought. >> you know, anderson, we are at a crucial moment in the fight against this disease. and the path is unclear. and the number one and only priority of any leader during this pandemic should be the protection and safety of his or her people. not creating unnecessary risks for cities and towns, small and large, rural or urban, in
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mississippi. we cannot relax. we cannot loosen restrictions. we cannot lift mask mandates. we cannot let our guards down. especially as we approach spring break, easter and all these holidays. this move by this governor was premature and reckless, anderson. >> so why do you think he made this decision? is it -- i mean, it's not based on science. >> no, it's not. of course we've heard the cdc and dr. fauci talk about even double masking. he's not basing it on science. it's political pandering. and that is something we cannot continue to have endangering the lives of folks here in mississippi. >> so what do you do as a mayor? how many can you do? in your city greenville, masks are still required for the conceivable future i understand. how -- you're able to mandate that in greenville? >> you know, we have a citywide mask mandate here. this governor's order creates chaos. greenville's the largest city in
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the mississippi delta. it has the mall. it has all of the amenities that other communities surrounding us don't really enjoy. seven miles in one direction a town has a mask mandate. seven miles in the opposite direction the town does not have a mask mandate. we have the mask mandate. what it does, of course, anderson, you well know when this pandemic hits cities and towns across the country lost revenue as a result of the pandemic. so it's created more financial strain around budgets. if our police and fire have to respond to law enforcement making sure that folks are safe coming in and out of greenville. but also you saw major retail stores like kroger, best buy, walmart, cvs, all today and yesterday say they're keeping their mask mandate. so in this community we have a kroger, walmart, cvs. it's a huge challenge when residents leave home, they shop at one of these stores, and they question whether or not they should follow the mask order by
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the governor to not wear a mask but when you go into these stores or you're here in this city we require you to wear a mask but when you get to the kroger you have to either mask it or no entry. so it creates confusion between residents but also neighbors. when folks are traveling from local surrounding communities, they come into this city with a mask mandate when others are following the governor's. >> it also makes it -- makes a tough job for, you know, frontline workers even tougher. you have people working in kroger or in a supermarket, wherever it may be, saying that they -- you know, asking the customer, look, can you please put on your mass snk we don't allow people without masks. and the response will be, well, the governor says i don't have to so what are you going to do about it. >> that's right. i went to the kroger today and as i walked in i know all the folks, it's a small town of course, anderson, your father is from mississippi.
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and you know we say we go to make groceries here's. as i went to make groceries the employees at kroger recognized me, mayor, we have our mask on, thank you for following what our corporate folks are saying, thank you for keeping us safe. but another resident could come in and do otherwise. and so not only does it put that particular employee, the kroger folks at risk, but it also creates chaos and confusion and endangers the lives of folks in this community who's trying to question whether they should follow this less than scientific decision that this governor made here in mississippi. >> mayor simmons, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> more breaking news coming up. one of the women who's accused new york governor andrew cuomo of sexual harassment speaks out in her first television interview. what she had to say and the governor's reaction, next. and took risks. big risks. bring your family history to life, like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com
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breaking news now on the sexual harassment allegations against new york governor andrew cuomo. charlotte bennett, one of the women who's come forward with those accusations, has spoken on camera with cbs news's norah o'donnell. according to cbs, bennett alleges their relationship took a turn in may when she says the governor started asking her about her love life and was fixated, repeating over and over her history as a sexual assault survivor. bennett was also asked about an encounter with the governor a month later in june in the workplace. that's when she says she was called into his office to take dictation but she says he asked
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her to turn off the tape recorder. >> then he explains at that point that he is looking for a girlfriend, he's lonely, he's tired. >> you've just finished dictation and the governor is telling you he's lonely and looking for a relationship. >> yes. he asked if i had trouble enjoying being with someone because of my trauma. >> this seems highly inappropriate. >> yeah. the governor asked me if i was sensitive to intimacy. >> in his office? >> yes. during the workday. >> cnn's brynn gingras has more. what else did she say? >> yeah, anderson, charlotte bennett was very deliberate and descriptive in the way she explained these encounters with the governor in a one-on-one setting essentially saying he
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was asking her these personal questions that she really felt like she had to answer, basically questions where she said the governor asked if age mattered to her in a relationship and that he was fine with being someone older than 22 and she's 25 years old. and she talked about the shame that she felt having to answer these questions. take a listen. >> why did you feel shame? >> i feel like people put the onus on the woman to shut that conversation down and by answering i was somehow engaging in that or enabling it when in fact i was just terrified. >> people will watch this and say why didn't you get up and leave? >> it didn't feel like i had a choice. >> he's your boss. >> he's my boss. he's everyone's boss. >> bennett saying she very much felt that the governor wanted to sleep with her. now, remember, she is going to be part of this investigation by the new york attorney general. she is with a high-powered
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attorney. and they really want to come forward because they want others to come forward and that was part of her reasoning for actually going in front of these cameras. but i also, anderson, want you to listen more from her about what she says the governor was asking her. >> you have been quoted as saying that he also asked you about if you'd ever been with an older man. >> yeah. he asked me if age difference mattered. he also explained that he was fine with anyone over 22. >> and how old are you? >> 25. >> what were you thinking as he's asking you these questions? >> i thought he's trying to sleep with me. the governor's trying to sleep with me. >> has the governor responded to this interview? >> well, anderson, cnn reached out to the governor's office after this interview aired and we did not hear back. but cbs says they also reached out of course and they were told to refer back to the statements
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he made in that news conference yesterday where he apologized, saying that he didn't mean to make people feel uncomfortable, that he was sorry if his words were misinterpreted. and charlotte bennett clearly says it wasn't misinterpreted, you just didn't get what you want, in her really own words. so we'll have to see if he says any more. but of course he's going to be part of that investigation with the new york attorney general, anderson. >> brynn gingras, appreciate it. thank you very much. still to come, once a fixture by his father-in-law's side, jared kushner now appears to be m.i.a. cnn's dana bash joins us to explain what sources close to kushner are saying about the two men's relationship when we continue. hey, you! nice smartphone. you should switch it to tracfone wireless to get more control over your wireless plan. they give you unlimited carryover data — you pay for your data, you keep your data. really?
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all on the most reliable network? sure thing! and with fast, nationwide 5g included - at no extra cost? we've got you covered. so join the carrier rated #1 in customer satisfaction... ...and learn how much you can save at xfinitymobile.com/mysavings. as members the republican party still flock to the former president's side to win his approval, perhaps most interesting right now is the one boldfaced name from his inner circle who appears m.i.a. jared kushner, his son-in-law. once a fixture in the white house and on the campaign trail, sources are now telling cnn about a possible change in the relationship between the two men. we're joined by cnn's chief political correspondent, anchor of "state of the union" dana bash. what have you learned, dana? >> i did this story with our
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colleague kate bennett. and what we are told is that according to one source i talked to is that jared kushner is checked out of politics right now. certainly checked out of the trump political world. which is as you noted really stunning given the fact that he was such a presence and a player, wanted to be a player in virtually every facet of the trump administration. before that in the trump campaign. and definitely in the trump campaign in 2016 and definitely in 2020 as well. now, we are hearing from some who are noting with a very heavy drip of sarcasm and irony that this is classic jared kushner, that this is the reputation that he built, when things were really good he would run to the cameras and talk about winning, although i shouldn't actually overstate run to the cameras, he wasn't on camera that much, but
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he wanted to take credit for it, and when things got bad he would retreat and say my hands are off. but it is noteworthy that the former president has had a lot of discussions recently with his new political team and kushner is not one of them. >> and why might that be? >> well, several reasons. i'm sure this isn't going to shock you, anderson. it depends who you talk to in trump world to get a specific answer. some people we talked to say that it is his father-in-law, the former president, who casts some blame about his loss on his son-in-law, on jared kushner because he was very involved in the campaign. and others say that it is very much kushner. in fact, one source told me that he has just kind of had it, that even for somebody who is related by marriage trump wears on you and he just needs a break, he
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wants to focus on other things, he wouldn't mind focusing on some of the issues that he very much liked when he was in the administration. but the answer is we don't really know the real story but what we do know is that he's definitely not involved. he might be, we're told, if the former president does actually run again >> i mean, it always raises questions about whether he has interest in politics moving forward or other member of the trump family, ivanka trump in particular. >> yeah, and she said, you know, i guess pretty publicly at this point that she's not going to challenge the senator from florida, marco rubio. there was a lot of speculation she would do that once they moved to florida after they left really, really quickly in and around the inauguration of president biden. the person who was very much
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involved and in the loop within the trump family still is don jr. i mean, he is there all the time. he's very much focused, along with the former president's two former campaign managers, brad parscale and bill stepien, jason miller and others. but when it comes to the family, we're told that don jr. is really the person who is the most involved, very, very involved in the decisions that the former president makes, including continuing to put out statements that perpetuate the big lie, even as recently as today, anderson. >> it's fascinating brad parscale is back in the circle of love given what occurred there. the distance between kushner and the former president, what's interesting, it comes as allen weiss weisselberg, who is a longtime cfo of the trump organization,
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is reportedly under scrutiny by new york investigators interested in knowing what he may know and the idea being that if there was something untoward, he would know about it, and he then, if there was pressure on him, would he flip. >> yeah. >> is there any sense who the former president is leaning on, if jared kushner is -- he's not obviously, i guess, in contact with weisselberg. >> right. and that, the weisselberg story, "the washington post" was reporting on it. this is one of the most fascinating developments in all of the questions of whether or not the former president is really going to be in hot water legally for anything that happened, particularly with regard to his finances at the trump organization, because as we know, the supreme court allowed the new york attorney general to get -- new york city, i should say, to get the former
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president's tax returns. now the gentleman you just talked about, allen weisselberg, he somebody who is the person who knows most about trump finances. he's been working with the organization since, like, 1980. worked for fred trump, his father, and then him. so the fact that it seems as though prosecutors and investigators are putting pressure on him vis-a-vis his children is quite telling about how valuable they think he could be with regard to any case that they might have against the former president. >> dana bash, appreciate it. >> coming up, a definite change of pace. a trip to an ice fishing spot on a minnesota lake where the talk is about politics. it has three times the cleaning power to dissolve kitchen grease on contact. it works great on bathtubs. and even stainless steel. try clean freak from mr. clean. the harry's razor is not the same
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provides visibly smoother, brighter skin. for dramatic skincare results, try olay. and now receive 25% off your purchase at olay.com brand power. helping you buy better. as we end the program and the senate looks at the covid relief bill, we thought we would bring you tranquility. there appears to be optimism in the air. >> it's the end of ice fishing season. the one sport so slow, it demands food, drink, seating, and conversation. >> are you more optimistic for the future as an american? >> i'm way more optimistic than i was two years ago. >> in the conversations on lake minnetonka these days, hope is mixed with worry. >> i don't see it smooth sailing for biden. i see it always going to be
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obstructionism. but it's more cult. and i think it's going in the right direction. >> i'm really happy with our new president, mr. biden, coming in, and he's vaccinated i don't know how many people in not even 60 days. >> while love for biden is not hard to find in this blue suburb, young americans see a lot of promised unkept. >> they're putting the stimulus check on the back burner, the minimum wage hike on the back burner, and they're dropping bombs in syria. >> to a person, they all worry about division. >> there's no common grounds anymore. right? >> and everyone is so angry about it. i think we're just tired. >> i'm all about love. everybody should be loving each other. there shouldn't be this -- this -- >> so divided. >> so divided. there doesn't need to be that. it's really sad. >> we all got along, and now it's like those guys aren't my
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friends anymore because i know what they really think. >> that's heartbreaking. >> you can't hang out with someone who says i think it would be a good thing to as assassinate the sitting house majority leader. >> and then by the smoker, barbecue and brotherhood could be stronger than politics. >> you guys are different parties? >> oh, yeah. >> that's right? >> oh, yeah. we don't want to go there. we don't -- we're not going to go there. >> but tim can't help it. he goes there. >> what if trump ran for congress, right? or house, the house reps, and he got elected in the house, and then we took the house and we took the senate, and then he sent impeachment to both the president and the vice president? he would be president for the next two years, plus then he would be reelected for another four. good idea? >> that's a new one. he would be speaker of the house? >> yeah. >> all right. >> it's that old story of, you don't talk politics or religion with your friends or your family. >> ah, yes, the good fences make
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good neighbors theory of politics. at least here for now, the arguments are followed by laughter. >> going to be difficult for me to be here after all this. >> oh, no. i'm sorry. >> it's okay. it's okay. it's all right. >> nobody ruins a barbecue like bill weir. >> bill weir, cnn, lake minnetonka, minnesota. >> looks like fun. news continues. let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> thanks. i'm chris cuomo, and welcome to prime time. millions and millions of americans aredous prt and waiting for help. and right now, right now, the gopq is showing that their only position is opposition. they are delaying pandemic relief any way they can. now, their primary target are the democrats and president biden, but whom are they really affecting? the starving, the jobless, the suffering. america is still down more than 10 million
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