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John Boehner Resigns; Pope Francis Visits New York. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired September 25, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: An interfaith prayer service.

The pope then walked the museum that is dedicated to September 11.

Here now, some highlights of the Holy Father's day so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): I have many different feelings and moved by being here at Ground Zero, where thousands of lives were taken in a senseless act of violence and destruction.

I met some families of the first-responders that fell. The family members show us the face of pain, pain that leaves us speechless, but that screams to heaven, peace in our homes, in our families, peace in all the places in which war seems to be endless, peace in this wide world that God has given us as our home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Later this evening, the pope will lead a mass before some 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden. And to get there, he will be going through Central Park.

Take note there of that light blue line there on the left of your screen. Once again, throngs of followers and admirers have gathered all along this route.

And CNN's Jason Carroll and Carol Costello are both outside of Central Park watching all of this.

So many people there. Jason, let's start with you. What are you seeing?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have been in line all morning, actually, with thousands upon thousands of people still trying to get into Central Park.

You can take a look behind me. If you see like those white tents there, those are where the folks have to eventually get to try and check in. The problem is, Brianna, you still have tens of thousands of people who are still trying to get into Central Park and haven't made it there because the lines are so incredibly long and it's taking so long to have everyone come through the checkpoint area and have their bags checked.

This is what's really holding things up. The concern now is that people simply aren't going to be able to get in. I spoke to one officer who said that they had hoped to have everyone basically in place and inside Central Park by about 3:30, maybe 3:45, maybe 4:00.

But I have to tell you, from looking at the lines now, that's not going to happen. They are not going to have everyone in a half-hour from now. They are not going to have everyone in 45 minutes from now. They are not going to have everyone in an hour from now. I can tell you that just from looking at the thousands of people who are still waiting to get inside.

Everyone is going to be patient at this point. Again, things are supposed to get started inside the park about 5:00 or so. The pope is supposed to be coming through with his Popemobile for just about 20 minutes or so. Everyone who is supposed to be inside is supposed to have one of these. This is what the ticket looks like allowing you to come inside the green zone.

But once again right now, Brianna, from the looks of things, it's going to be a very long time before everyone who is standing in line is going to be able to get into Central Park.

KEILAR: All right, Jason, we know you will be monitoring that.

I want to get to Carol Costello. She is at Columbus Circle.

This is one of, I think, the entry points there. Carol, tell us what you're seeing.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would have to agree with Jason Carroll, because look at the madness. There's a subway stop right there and people are coming up the stairs, and then there's a security person standing there directing people to go to the right.

And, as you can see, there are venders all around. This lady is selling pope calendars. If you take a look over here, there are other venders, T-shirts. People are stopping by And they're spending lots of money on this paraphernalia and not getting in line.

The other thing to keep in mind, according to a police officer that I just talked with, is not everybody has a ticket, because, remember, this was a raffle. They gave away 80,000 tickets, but not everybody got one, but New Yorkers are assuming, hey, I'll be able to get in. It's Central Park.

So, they are also standing in line. That's like clogging things up. And then, as Jason Carroll said, you have to go through security. Your bags are checked. You're not allowed to bring in backpacks or large objects.

[15:05:01] The largest thing you're able to bring in is a stroller and that's it.

A couple of blankets, maybe some water, and that's it. If you have other paraphernalia, they are confiscating it. And like what do you do with it?

That's also slowing things down. I find it hard to believe that everybody is going to be inside Central Park where they are supposed to be in just, what, 25 minutes? Ain't no way, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. No, I think both of you are right there. We will keep monitoring these crowds. Thanks to both of you. We will be coming back to you here in the coming hours, as we see if everyone does get inside. They certainly will be very disappointed if they don't.

Well, now to a really stunning announcement from Capitol Hill just a short time ago. John Boehner is resigning as speaker of the house.

CNN's Dana Bash asked him if he felt pushed out by members of the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: It's become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution. So, this morning, I informed my colleagues that I would resign from the speakership and resign from Congress at the end of October.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, this is of course just one day after Boehner showed a whole lot of emotion during yesterday's meeting with Pope Francis on Capitol Hill. And getting the pope to speak in front of Congress was arguably one of the pinnacle moments of Boehner's career. He had tried with two previous popes.

This also comes at a time when we are nearing a government shutdown, a possible shutdown. Although abrupt, the timing of this is certainly no coincidence.

With me now to discuss that is chief political correspondent Dana Bash.

It really couldn't have been an easy decision for the speaker to come to, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, clearly, it wasn't. Obviously, he's at peace with it.

But, look, I think the way to kind of explain why he did this -- I was just thinking about this, Brianna -- is to tell you a little story about what happened right where I am in Statuary Hall earlier this year. It was right around one of the many, many fights that John Boehner was having with his own Republican Caucus about funding where the government, whether to use the power of the purse to fight the fights that they wanted to do, whether it was on repealing Obamacare or now currently it's taking away funding for Planned Parenthood.

But, at the time, it was whether to fund the Department of Homeland Security. And I was talking to some of Boehner's closest allies and they said that they had gotten rumblings that there would be a coup attempt on John Boehner and that would have taken place in the House chamber. Somebody would use the rules to raise their hand and say, I move to vacate the chair, which is effectively saying move to get rid of the speaker.

And then there would be a whole round of votes to try to figure out who the next speaker would be. That didn't happen because it became public and that group of conservatives kind of backed down for a time. But because that was already in the water and things were getting even more hot for John Boehner and even more pressure on John Boehner from those conservatives, it clearly became too much for him to take.

And that's why he said -- and you heard in that sound bit and in the press conference earlier that he didn't want to put the institution through it all because it was obvious to him, he said he read the papers, obviously talked to some of his colleagues as well, that that movement was continuing and it was growing stronger.

I believe we have a sound bite from Matt Salmon, who is one of the rank and file members who voted for John Boehner in the past as speaker and probably wouldn't have in the future. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT SALMON (R), ARIZONA: When anybody becomes the issue instead of the issues at hand, it's time to move on. And I think that it was a very selfless act. I caught more guff from my voters over my votes for John Boehner both times than any other thing.

I would like to come back and reflect the will of my people. We promised many, many things if we took the Senate. Those things haven't materialized.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, there you see an example of somebody who was clearly going to join the group. Probably at the time, it was 25 Republicans or so and to the right in the caucus. But it was growing to join them to say, enough, we want to try to replace the speaker.

With that kind of move -- Bri, you know -- you walked these halls with me, you covered this place -- it would have been a very painful process. And at the end of the day, the speaker of the House is a constitutional position. The entire House has to vote for speaker, which means the majority, 218 members.

To find somebody who is going to fill that role who was not John Boehner while he was still there was very, very difficult to do and it would have been turmoil. And that's kind of a bit of the inside story of why this happened to Boehner and it really speaks to the turmoil within the Republican Party and the desire to change over institutions and stick to principles, even if it means shutting down the government or doing whatever they need to do or pushing out a speaker.

[15:10:10]

KEILAR: Yes. Yes, such a tough atmosphere for him there. Dana Bash, thanks for your report from the Hill.

The pope's address to Congress, it was not only personally thrilling, but it was really a political high point for John Boehner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEHNER: Just yesterday, we witnessed the awesome sight of Pope Francis addressing the greatest legislative body in the world. And I hope that we will all heed his call to live by the golden rule.

But last night, I started thinking about this. And this morning, I woke up and I said my prayers, as I always do, and I decided today is the day I'm going to do this, as simple as that. That's the code I have always lived by. If you do the right things for the right reasons, the right things will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now, CNN political commentator Carl Bernstein. He wrote -- co-wrote, I should say, the bestselling book "His Holiness: Pope John II and the History of Our Times."

Thank you so much. It's so good to have you on here.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be here.

KEILAR: And I wonder, obviously, to say that the speaker was facing some difficult political headwinds within his own party is a bit of an understatement.

But I wonder also as well how much the pope's visit in his address to Congress and almost sort of this moral authority talking to Congress, how much that weighed in on this specific timing.

BERNSTEIN: Well, these two stories are clearly intertwined. We saw a remarkable event, the pope yesterday in the well of the House speaking about humility in the political process, speaking about common good, speaking about the need to do away with zealotry.

And clearly Boehner has tried not to be a zealot. And who has driven the agenda that's now forced had him to resign? The zealots of his party. And those zealots are winning the soul of the Republican Party. And it's going to figure in the presidential address -- election as well. This is a really sea change that makes it possible for many, many people who didn't quite get was going on to see what, as Peter King -- he called them crazies.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: More moderate Republicans.

BERNSTEIN: I'll leave the language to Peter King.

KEILAR: Yes.

All right, so I want to ask you because we heard the pope at the White House, the pope spoke to the bishops in D.C., and then to Congress yesterday. He's speaking at the U.N. General Assembly -- or at the United Nations, I should say. And he's talking not just to the U.S. He's also talking to the world. So, today, he did.

So, how was the message different here?

BERNSTEIN: He's the preeminent leader in the world today because of what he is preaching.

He is preaching this message of the common good, of humility, that we must join together to protect humanity, to protect the marginalized, the poor. He uses the example of the unborn as well. But he has a very whole notion of a philosophy of doing good and doing good to each other. He cites and takes his name from Saint Francis. He recites the Saint Francis prayer, which is about loving not to be loved, but to love another, and to love the other and serve.

That's a message that we don't get to hear very often and pause to think about it. We often dismiss it and say, oh, that's pie-in-the- sky stuff. He gets our attention. And he's won our attention in the media, as well as the people of this country and around the world in a way that no other leader is and he's saying things and people are saying, as they did in his address to Congress yesterday, except for -- perhaps for those who have now pushed Boehner out -- you can listen to Ted Cruz and I don't think the pope's message had much of an effect on Ted Cruz.

But he's saying, wait a minute, let's look at the logic of what we must do for mankind, for the goodness of others, for ourselves, for solidarity, a word that he uses constantly. His message is very much the same as John Paul II's was, especially when he gets into talking about economic disparity, about the excesses of capitalism.

This is Catholic social teaching at its greatest. And Catholic social teaching is an enormous, immense contribution to mankind.

KEILAR: I also wonder, too, he's sort of at a time when I think we know Americans are frustrated. Maybe some proof that they also gravitate towards this message of hope as well. Carl, thank you so much for being with us.

BERNSTEIN: Good to be here.

KEILAR: We appreciate it.

And, next, I will speak live with a reporter who spoke at length with John Boehner last night. Wait until you hear what the speaker told him.

[15:15:00] Plus, fiery moments today when Marco Rubio and Donald Trump addressed

conservative voters. At one point, the crowd booed one of Trump's comments.

And very soon, the pope is going to be departing for his visits to Harlem and to Central Park, where the crowds are building. We will bring this to you with CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pronounce you speaker of the House.

BOEHNER: Thank you. Thank you.

This isn't some damn game.

Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-O.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The son of a barkeep, the speaker of the House.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BOEHNER: I have spent my whole life chasing the American dream.

[15:20:05]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for sharing John Boehner with us.

Pope Francis: We share a common responsibility.

BOEHNER: I want to thank my family.

You come here humbled.

This maneuver going on today is chicken crap, all right?

QUESTION: Are you going to kill it? You going to vote on it? Have you had this discussion?

BOEHNER: When I make decisions, I'll let you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Speaker of the House John Boehner says that he has no regrets as he announced his plans to step down from Congress at the end of next month.

Boehner, as you saw there, even broke into that sort of refrain that we have heard before, zip-a-dee-doo-dah, while he was speaking with reporters earlier today. Twice, he broke into that. He showed his relaxed side, perhaps even his relieved side and his quintessentially emotional side as well, after having been dealing with this intense pressure from conservatives in his party. Joining me now to talk about this is CNN chief political analyst

Gloria Borger and Robert Costa. He's the national political reporter for "The Washington Post."

And, guys, I want to begin by showing part of that press conference that the speaker showed where he's describing a moment with the pope that was out of public view.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEHNER: I was really emotional in a moment that really no one saw.

As the pope and I were getting ready to exit the building, we found ourselves alone. And the pope grabbed my left arm and said some very kind words to me about my commitment to kids and education.

And the pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulls me to him and says, "Please pray for me."

Well, who am I to pray for the pope? But I did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's tough, Robert Costa and Gloria Borger, I will say, covering John Boehner, when you want to cry when other people cry. I will just say that is tough.

But that's a really interesting story, Robert, and you already knew this story because you wrote about this, a great piece today, describing how the speaker reenacted this very moment with you. Tell us about that.

ROBERT COSTA, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It was an emotional moment last night for Speaker Boehner. It was late at the Capitol, right here, a few steps away.

I was with my friend, Politico's Jake Sherman. And we were waiting for the speaker. We had heard rumors from his friends and his associates that he may be thinking about retiring. So, we thought might as well just hang out, see what happens, ask him a question.

Usually, Boehner, when he comes out of his office, goes towards his caravan of SUVs. He doesn't take questions. But he took questions from us. He brought us over to this little area and he said for me to stand right where the pope stood,and he reenacted this whole scene, as if he was trying to savor the moment while the memory was still fresh.

KEILAR: And he described to you, right, where he said that the pope said, "Pray for me" to the speaker. Right?

COSTA: It was.

And Boehner standing inches from me kept repeating this. He said, "Please pray for me." And then he kept saying it as almost if he was saying it to us and to no one in particular. "Please pray for me." And he seemed to be a man at a peace. We had heard these resignation

rumors, but he wasn't talking to us about that. But this was a different Boehner I saw up close tonight, a Boehner who was more lively, at peace, surrounded by all this tumult in the House, and he just seemed to really think that the pope's visit was the capstone to this long political career, the pinnacle of sorts for a devout Roman Catholic.

KEILAR: Yes, sure was for him.

Gloria, we heard today in this press conference the speaker saying that Kevin McCarthy would make a great speaker and that his number one responsibility as he had communicated to McCarthy would be to protect the institution.

What do you think, though? Obviously, there are a number of other Republicans who will be considering this position. What could the next regime look like?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's probably going to be -- it might look more like a coalition government, if you will.

I'm not so sure Boehner saying McCarthy would be a good speaker is good for McCarthy.

KEILAR: Sure.

BORGER: Particularly with the Freedom Caucus of conservatives who want anybody who has not been tied to Speaker Boehner.

So, I think you're going to get some conservatives deciding they may want to run for the speakership against McCarthy, who is also conservative, I might add, by the way, and who has had a very rapid rise in the House leadership.

But I think people are trying to sort of figure that out right now. One more point about Speaker Boehner being at peace, I was speaking with somebody who is close to Boehner who had clearly communicated with Boehner about his decision.

[15:25:01]

And he said to me, "You know, I think the speaker is more at peace with his decision than I am."

And I think if you are an establishment Republican right now, and you look at what Boehner did, which is essentially say, you know what, I don't have to go through this anymore, I'm going to leave anyway, and why do I want to this, if you're an establishment Republican now running for president, you look at what's happened to Boehner and it doesn't give you any great comfort.

I mean, Barack Obama was nicer to John Boehner today than Ted Cruz or Rick Santorum were. Right?

KEILAR: Yes, as was Harry Reid.

BORGER: Exactly. Exactly.

KEILAR: It was really amazing to watch. That's a great point you make.

Gloria Borger, Robert Costa, thank you both so much.

Next, really just some amazing pictures that are coming into us right now. You see thousands of people there lining up inside and outside very close to Central Park there getting ready for the pope's arrival. It's history in the making.

And we will take you there live. This is CNN's special coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)