Schiff Calls for Nunberg to Testify Before House Intel Committee; Republicans Signal House Intel Investigation Could Wrap Up Soon
COOPER: More on our breaking news tonight. Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg all over cable television today, saying he won't comply with a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller. And as we discussed before the break, sitting next to Erin Burnett answering a tough question about his state of mind.</s>BURNETT: We talked early about what people in the White House were saying about you. Talking about whether you were drinking or on drugs or whatever had happened today. Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath.</s>NUNBERG: Well, I have not had a drink.</s>BURNETT: You haven't had a drink? So, that's not --</s>NUNBERG: No.</s>BURNETT: So I just -- because it is the talk out there. Again, I know it's awkward. Let me give you the question so you can categorically. Have you had a drink today?</s>NUNBERG: My answer is no, I have not.</s>BURNETT: Anything else?</s>NUNBERG: No.</s>BURNETT: No?</s>NUNBERG: No, besides my meds.</s>BURNETT: OK.</s>NUNBERG: Antidepressants, is that OK?</s>COOPER: Well, back now, with our panel trying to unravel a frankly confusing set of declarations by Mr. Nunberg. Gloria, when Erin Burnett, I mean, has to lean across the desk and tell Sam Nunberg she actually smelled alcohol on his breath, even by the standards of the cable news political coverage, that is rare if not unprecedented. Again, I got to ask you, what is going on?</s>BORGER: Well, it's very difficult, and I think it's very sad. I mean a bunch of us at CNN had heard from people who are in Trump world after these interviews started. I heard from a couple people after I had interviewed him that, in fact, we ought to be careful, that he wasn't well and that he was fragile and that he -- you know, he is somebody who has some problems with alcohol or whatever. And so, you know, the question is, you know, you heard him answer it there, and he denied it. And so I guess, you know, you have to move on because what he was saying was clearly not helpful to the people who are Trump partisans. And let me give you a little bit of background here. He got fired by Donald Trump, and he does not like Corey Lewandowski.</s>COOPER: Why was he fired?</s>BORGER: He was fired because I think he -- I don't know. I mean I think he spoke out of turn. He disagreed with Corey. There was a whole lot of stuff. I think Corey was sort of the person he didn't get along with in the campaign. And I think that he was very close to Roger Stone. Both of them were kind of exiled from the campaign. And what he told me today was the special counsel believes that Roger Stone was communicating with Julian Assange on WikiLeaks. Now, again, this is his interpretation of what Mueller is asking about, and he said, you know, Stone is my mentor. And he did not collude with Julian Assange, and I'm just not -- I'm not going to talk about that before the grand jury.</s>TOOBIN: Anderson?</s>COOPER: Yes.</s>TOOBIN: It's really important to focus a little bit on what he was asked by Mueller's office, at least generally, because a couple weeks ago Mueller indicted 13 people for sort of the social media conspiracy, you know, the use of Facebook, Instagram on behalf of Trump. What was not included in that indictment was anything related to the theft of the e-mails -- John Podesta's e-mails, the Democratic National Committee e-mails. And there is certain reason to believe that Mueller may be building a case involving, you know, who was responsible for the theft of those e-mails. The questions that Mueller's staff wanted to ask Nunberg were about Roger Stone, who at least in part seemed to have advance knowledge that this hacking was going on.</s>BORGER: Right.</s>TOOBIN: So it does suggest that Mueller is investigating a sort of separate conspiracy related to the hacking of the e-mails. I'm not saying Roger Stone is guilty, Roger Stone was involved. But that general area of questioning seems to be something that's on Mueller's plate right now.</s>COOPER: Right. Anne, I should also point out I think one of the other reasons about Sam Nunberg being let go by the campaign was there were some controversial Facebook postings he had made.</s>BORGER: Oh, that's right. That's right.</s>LIZZA: Racist postings on Facebook that were unearthed.</s>BORGER: That's right. I didn't -- that's right.</s>COOPER: Anne, how much does Nunberg's public behavior tonight impact what the special counsel does next? I mean, do you back off, let this play out? Do you nip whatever this is in the bud? Obviously, he's like very publicly challenging the special counsel to do something.</s>MILGRAM: Yes, I mean, I think he is very publicly challenging the special counsel. It's also very clear that they have interviewed him. They did a lengthy interview by his account, and now, they've asked him to come to the grand jury, which means that they believe that he has both documents and oral testimony to give. So they want him in the witness box in the grand jury to ask him questions. And so, they've made that decision that he has relevant and important information for the investigation, and I think that they will follow through to get him there. Now, if he is represented by counsel, I'm positive that the special counsel team will reach out to his lawyer and say, look, we need him to come in. Otherwise, we're going to ask that he be held in contempt. And so, they will try to do everything they can, but I don't see Mueller backing down on this.</s>COOPER: Right, yeah. Thanks to everybody. Coming up next, more breaking news on this. We'll go live to the capitol for that.</s>COOPER: We've got two pieces of breaking news in the wake of Sam Nunberg's show of defiance in the face of a Russia grand jury subpoena. One, the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat wants him to appear before the committee. And, two, Republicans signaled the committee's investigation could wrap up soon. Reporting on both for us tonight is CNN's Manu Raju who joins us from Capitol Hill. So, the top Republican is signaling that the House Intelligence Committee investigation could be wrapping up. What have you learned about that?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes. That's right. Mike Conaway, the Republican who's running the Russia investigation, had a back and forth with me and other reporters just moments ago, saying that this investigation is closer to the end than it is the beginning, not really making any commitments to interview witnesses beyond this week when we were expecting the former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to return to the committee for a second time after he did not initially answer questions about any topics after he left the campaign in the summer of 2016. Conaway signaling that they can write a report pretty quickly. And other Republicans on the committee are being more forceful, saying it's time for this investigation to come to an end. So, pressure, Anderson, is growing from a number of Republicans on the committee who believe that they need to wrap up this investigation. But, of course, if they do, they're going to come to diametrically opposite conclusions than Democrats, who say there's a lot more to investigate as part of this probe, Anderson.</s>COOPER: And, Adam Schiff is calling for Sam Nunberg to testify as well.</s>RAJU: Yes, that's right. What really caught Democrats' attention, including Adam Schiff, were the comments that Sam Nunberg made earlier today that then-candidate Trump may have known or did know, according to Nunberg, about the Donald Trump Jr. meeting with the Russians in June 2016, before the meeting took place. I mean as you know, Anderson, for months and months and months, the White House has insisted the president had no idea about this meeting, even Donald Trump Jr. has testified before the House Intelligence Committee and other committee saying his father did not have any knowledge about this meeting before and immediately after it took place. But</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CALIFORNIA: Well, we'd certainly like to know the basis in which he makes that statement. There certainly were comments by the President about you're going to learn something on Monday about Hillary Clinton. We're share something you'll find very interesting. That speech that he teed up which was going to take place after the Trump Tower meeting, he never gave. Now, was that because the Trump Tower meeting didn't produce what he hoped it would produce, we don't know. But certainly Mr. Nunberg has light to shed on what the President knew, before a Trump Tower meeting, would be interested in finding out.</s>RAJU: Now, Mike Conaway said, did not really have nearly as much interest as Adam Schiff. Really suggested that perhaps, they don't need to go any further about that Trump Tower meetings that we know everything, we need to know about that meeting going forward. So it shows you Anderson, the two sides going opposite directions and a key point this investigation as it looks like its much wrap up pretty soon Anderson.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Manu thanks. Joining us by phone is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Congresswoman Jackie Speier Democrat of California. Congresswoman Speier, I mean is Congressman Conaway correct, when he says that the House Intelligence investigation is going to wrap up soon? I mean is it really complete?</s>REP. JACKIE SPEIER, (D) CALIFORNIA (via phone): It's not complete, but we've been hearing rumors since November of last year that they were going to shut down the committee work at the end of the year. So it doesn't surprise me that Mike Conaway is now saying that we're closer to the end than the beginning. But I can assure you that from the Democratic point of view, there is still another 20 or 30 individuals that we think are pertinent to this investigation that should be brought to the committee to testify.</s>COOPER: So, I mean, when the Republicans are talking about wrap up, what do they mean? Because, I mean has the committee covered everything they need to and is concluding or has the investigation got -- just got to a point where it can't go forward in a bipartisan way and its ending?</s>SPEIER (via phone): I think the latter probably more than the former. I mean when you have an institution that is no longer credible and I believe that when this committee is at such lagger heads and that you have committee staff who are leaking information and to media outlets that they support, that come as top secret and confidential from the sister investigating committee on the Senate side, when you have them making rogue trips to the UK to try and find Christopher Steele when they call up witnesses with less than 24 hours notice, I mean they are not intend on doing an investigation. And we don't have a credible effort. Your actually, you know, nailing the last nail into a coffin of this committee's ability to do it shut. Much likely is doing memos that we talk about the three weeks. I mean you had a -- a very weak one that was now offered up by the Republican that by its own admission, wasn't typically as comprehensive as it should have been and its conclusions not supportive necessarily by the information they provided and then you have the Democratic memo which was very comprehensive and 10 pages long that really put everything into context. You could see the interest in doing the job is not at the same level between the two staffs.</s>COOPER: Yes, that's truly doesn't go well for future investigations either. Congresswoman Speier, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.</s>SPEIER (via phone): Thank you Anderson.</s>COOPER: Coming up next, the trade war President Trump said would be easy just got harder, thanks to top Republican and Congress and that's not the only item raising question about how well or how poorly the President thought this true. Tonight, keeping them honest ahead.