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Transgender Guidelines; Trump's Former Butler Under Investigation; Man in CNN's "Chicagoland" Killed; Columnist Eats His Words; Anti-Trump Dating Site. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 13, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The debate drew a standing room only crowd last night at a north Georgia high school with emotions running high on all sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XAVIER EDEN, TRANSGENDER FORMER STUDENT: I was beaten up by two males who said that if I wanted to look like a guy, they would treat me leak a guy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They will never set foot in a (INAUDIBLE) school again. I will stay at home every day and home school.

TAYLOR GIBBS, MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: We shouldn't judge them because -- or discriminate them or anything because of their differences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, has more on what -- on today's new federal guidelines.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The Justice Department and Education Department coming together to give some guidance in the form of those letters to schools on how to apply Title IX, the federal law that protects equal rights in education, to transgender students, including how it applies to bathrooms and locker rooms. The letter says schools are supposed to respond to harassment and treat the students according to their chosen gender identity. It allows -- doesn't mandate but allows school to provide additional privacy options for students. According to the guidance, these students should not be required to use shared bathrooms or changing spaces if other options are available. Also says the schools should use the students preferred name and gender identify with no requirements for medical diagnosis or treatment, and no request for birth certificates, and/or medical evaluations.

These letters are not supposed to have the force of law. It's more of a clarification of existing law. But at a time when the federal government and the state of North Carolina have filed dueling lawsuits over related matters, it's one more sign this administration, in its late stages, is hitting this hard as a civil rights issue, Carol. COSTELLO: All right, Joe Johns reporting live for us this morning.

Thank you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The U.S. Secret Service is investigating Donald Trump's former butler. Tony Senecal threatened President Obama, posting this on his FaceBook page, that Mr. Obama should have been, quote, "taken out by our military and shot." CNN asked Senecal and asked him if he regretted the post, and he told us this. Quote, "I think I said hung. Either way, I don't care. Hanging, shooting, I'd prefer he'd be hung from the portico of the White House, or as I call it, the white mosque."

Senecal is 84-years-old. He worked as Trump's butler at his Mar-A-Lago resort for 17 years. And he now gives tours there. I interviewed Senecal in Miami a few months back. He was a man of few words, but there was no mistaking his loyalty to Mr. Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: When you watch Mr. Trump at these debates, is he the man you know personally or is he someone else?

ANTHONY SENECAL, DONALD TRUMP'S FORMER BUTLER: No, he's the man that I know. For twenty some years we carried on that same debate.

COSTELLO: What same debate?

SENECAL: The debate that he's having now. His interest in the American people. His patriotism. The man was born on Flag Day. He's a very patriotic person.

He's not the great, gruff person that people play him out to be. Sure, you attack him, he's going to fight back. But most of the time, he's just a nice man. I mean, I lasted with him for 20 years.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to --

SENECAL: He had to be pretty good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Trump's campaign has disavowed what they call Senecal's horrible statements about President Obama. Trump's camp does say Senecal has not worked for Mr. Trump in years, but Senecal's violent vitriol taints Trump, whether it's fair or not. It's what worries many Republican who are ready to embrace a more diverse America. The question many have now, if Trump is the new face of the Republican Party, how does that define the GOP?

So let's talk about that with CNN political commentator and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast," John Avalon.

Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: How would you define the Republican Party today?

AVLON: I'd define the Republican Party as being fractured along ideological lines. It's in war lord status. The cohesive elements I think are a belief in the rhetoric of freedom, but where that comes down in policy is still very much open to debate. The old divisions, even on fiscal conservative and social conservative I think have fallen away, at least in the form of Donald Trump.

And what you need to deal with is the gap between, you know, the Paul Ryan group that's interested in governing, interested in policies, interested in ideas and philosophy, and the conservative populous who many of -- whom were some type -- and Democrats in the past are now Republicans rallying around Donald Trump. And the comments by his butler, I think, indicate a larger problem, not just tone coming from the top within the Trump organization, because if someone believes those things and doubles down with that kind of rhetoric, there's no way you hide that over a two decade relationship. But if people like that are rallying around Donald Trump because they believe he speaks for them, that is a big problem for the Republican Party, whether they want to own it or not.

[09:35:25] COSTELLO: Well, in fairness, Mr. Trump's camp did come out immediately and disavow what Tony Senecal said on his FaceBook post.

AVLON: What else you going to do? Of course they are. But, again, this is -- this isn't a staffer of Donald Trump. That's true. But if you look over the course of President Obama and his administration, and, you know, I wrote a book called "Wing Nuts" a few years ago, really tracing, in the initial year, some of the populous pushback. And there are extremes on left and right, but the ugliness and the racial tone hatred towards President Obama on the fringes of our society, that stuff bubbles up. And when you see it -- when you capture it, its expression in something like a FaceBook page of a guy who's Donald Trump's butler for 20 years, it really unveils the ugliness behind a lot of the opposition. And those are forces that can't be encouraged and channeled and tried to move in a constructive direction. Those are deeply destructive forces that people still cultivate below the surface. And when they bubble up, they need to be called out, not just denounced, but the question of the character or the person you've associated yourself with for 20 years, that is a problem and tone comes from the top in organizations.

COSTELLO: So you would -- I know Speaker Ryan is concerned about the way that Mr. Trump talks. He wants to tone things down. He wants his party to be more inclusive. But it looks like he's moving toward unity, right? He's eventually going to get behind Donald Trump. So should Speaker Ryan do that or should he just hold out?

AVLON: No. No, look, I think the Republican Party right now is divided between people who are the resistance to Donald Trump and the people who are rationalizing their support in the name of party unity. But I think you need to really get your head around, if you're in that second camp, what your -- what it is you're owning and associating yourself with, because when it comes time to rebuild the Republican Party and to try to rebuild the big tent and make it more inclusive, association with the policies that Donald Trump's articulated in the primaries, from blocking out Muslims to, you know, building walls, to calling Mexicans rapists, you know, those are going to be things that are not incidental, no matter how much you try to put them to the side. They're fundamental. And so this is a time for choosing for the Republican Party.

COSTELLO: So it's worth losing the White House for the future?

AVLON: Yes. I mean, I don't think backing Donald Trump more assiduously is going to make the difference between Donald Trump winning or losing. The problem is going to come with swing voters and swing states, demographics he's under water with, and it's the demographic math and the swing states. And right now you've got a guy who's -- who's won the Republican nomination by appealing to the conservative populous base in ways that are kryptonite to swing voters you need to win a presidential election.

So, you know, Paul Ryan playing more cozy isn't going to make the difference between winning or losing. It may make the difference between winning -- keeping control of the House of Representatives or the Senate, and that's probably where the real fight is going to go. I'm not saying this election's a fait accompli. It's not. But, you know, the -- sometimes party unity asks too much. This is a question of principle. And the fact that both presidents Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney have said they can't back Trump, I think is a statement of principle.

COSTELLO: All right, John Avalon, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the man whose life was showcased by CNN is killed on the streets he once tried to escape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:49] COSTELLO: A man featured on CNN Docu series "Chicagoland" is found shot to death. Twenty-two-year-old Lee McCullum died Thursday morning. Police are now looking for his killer. In the CNN series, McCullum faced homelessness, past gang ties and a poor education. But we watched him make the honor roll and even becoming prom king. Ryan Young live in Chicago to tell us more.

Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Of course, people talk about this all the time when it comes to Chicago violence. They want to see a change. They want to see something happen differently. And this is one of those kids that people were watching, hoping that his life would move forward. The idea that this kid was also not only went from being a gang member to being a prom king and going to the honor roll, getting admitted into college, there were so many moments in the individual that we showed from "Chicagoland" where he was changing his life. And it was a moment with the principal that people remember, when she's talking to him on the phone, talking about what she wants for his life. Listen to this moment, Carol, because this really stuck with a lot of people in their hearts."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ DOZIER, FENGER HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: I think we all have to think that what's the long-term plan, you know, for your life, and who you want to be as a man.

LEE MCCULLUM: If those are the (INAUDIBLE), actually, I don't have a plan.

DOZIER: What do you think about maybe in January, what do you think about going away to college or to a trade school?

MCCULLUM: I wouldn't mind going away.

DOZIER: Give me your word and we'll meet up at some point next week. OK, you know me, I'll keep it 100 percent real. You know how I am. I don't want to, you know, be hearing nothing bad happened to you. I don't want to be going to your funeral.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And, unfortunately, we now know that will probably happen. The 22-year-old was shot and killed. Not even sure if Chicago police have a good lead in this case because he was left in the street dead. Now, we know Elizabeth Dozier, who cared so much for this young man, and she reacted to his death just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOZIER: Not Lee. That's (INAUDIBLE) -- come on, you know? So I called. I kept trying to process it. And I called -- like I just started calling people, like, to verify.

He really represented the complexity of the issues that our kids face, and that's one of the reasons why I thought his story would be interesting to have on the show, right, because it's -- it's complex. It's not as just easy like one size fits all. We'll just do this and then things get better. Just be like that and then you magically like -- so it's complex.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:45:05] YOUNG: And, Carol, you know, we can't cover every death that happens here in Chicago, but just to give you some perspective here, Lee's girlfriend was shot and killed just three weeks ago when they were together. They were standing in a crowd and a gunman popped out, stared shooting. She was shot and killed. Now, three weeks later, he's shot and killed on a street. We know violence has been at an uptick here in Chicago. We're on pace for 500 murder in the city. And, you know, a lot of people are worried about the summer months that are coming because they are scared there will be even more violence this summer with so many people who have been shot already this year. So a really tough position to be in, Carol, but this highlights the situation where a man is turning around his life, or trying to, and still ends up losing his life to the way of a gun. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's just heartbreaking. Ryan Young, thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:19] COSTELLO: A "Washington Post" columnist has officially redefined the term reader's digest. Dana Milbank promised last year he would eat his column if Donald Trump won the Republican nomination. And true to his words, or in this case 749 words, he ate them. Nouns, verbs, ink, paper, all in an eight course meal, complete with newspaper filtered coffee and liberal doses of Trump wine and, of course, Pepto-Bismol. A D.C. chef actually did the cooking and I have to say the meal -- doesn't that look delicious. Mmmm. Dana joins us now live to tell us how many times he got up in the night.

Good morning.

DANA MILBANK, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hey, Carol.

COSTELLO: Was it good?

MILBANK: The night, no, not so much, but the meal itself tasted -- it tasted just fine. You know, I -- and for your viewers who are considering eating newspaper at home, I recommend grinding it very finely. It's a -- it's a texture issue. The taste of the news print is actually just fine, particularly on a nice falafel or a dumpling.

COSTELLO: I know I was watching your FaceBook post of the whole thing and you said your worry was like, if you'd just eat the paper, it would turn into that spitball kind of thing and be gluey.

MILBANK: Right. I felt like I was -- yes, I felt like I was back in third grade, but this time you had to, you know, it's like the teacher caught you and you had to swallow it. But we did have the wine to make it a little easier.

COSTELLO: Hey, how was the Trump wine?

MILBANK: You know, let's just say that I'd rather eat a newspaper, but it's not -- we -- maybe we had a couple of bad bottles. So I shouldn't blame Trump or the winery, but, you know, it was near unto gasoline.

COSTELLO: Oh, my gosh. Did you ever think of not keeping your promise?

MILBANK: I don't think that was really an option. You know, the -- you know, some people said, well, you could have printed it out with edible ink on edible paper or made it into a smoothie, but I think that would have been cheating and really had to eat the genuine substance in some form that was somewhat close to newspaper. So, you know, look, whatever digestive pain I suffered is nothing like the pain that, you know, I expect to experience as a political journalist over the next six months.

COSTELLO: Why do you think so many political journalists got Trump wrong?

MILBANK: Well, you know, for a whole variety of reasons. A lot of people just thought he was a flash in the pan, just a showman. That wasn't what -- that wasn't what I thought. I thought he was dangerous and serious. I just thought the American voters in the end are better than that, than all of this sort of demagoguery we've been seeing. And, you know, most people didn't in the Republican primary, didn't vote for Trump, he got 38 percent, but it was enough to win. So, you know, fair is fair. I got it wrong. So I ate my words, and I'm going to be very careful about making predictions for November.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you what your prediction for president of the United States would be in 2016.

MILBANK: Well, it's easy to predict, but the question is what do you back it up with. So I've talked to Chef Victor Albiso (ph), who prepared this yesterday, and he said, let's have a celebratory meal if Trump loses rather than eat something painful if he wins. And I think digestion-wise, journalism-wise, this is just going to be the right thing to do.

COSTELLO: Dana Milbank, thanks for coming in. It was a lot of fun. Thank you so much.

MILBANK: My pleasure. Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, is voting for Donald Trump a dating deal breaker? Political views and romance collide on a new matchmaking site. Yes, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:58:03] COSTELLO: Anti-Trump Americans looking for love might be able to find it in Canada. Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You may not think of Donald Trump as a matchmaker, but he could inspire cross border romance between Americans and Canadians if Maple Match ever gets off the ground with its catchy slogan.

JOE GOLDMAN, "MAPLE MATCH" CREATOR: Make dating great again.

MOOS: The website's mission, "Maple Match makes it easy for Americans to find the ideal Canadian partner to save them from the unfathomable horror of a Trump presidency." Austin, Texas, resident and Hillary supporter Joe Goldman dreamed up Maple Match.

GOLDMAN: I've always liked maple syrup. I have about 12 liters of maple syrup at home. I'm a real fan of the flavor.

MOOS: Joe says Maple Match started as a fun experiment, but within days 20,000 Americans had signed the wait list and 5,000 Canadians. Every day the number grows. Sure, people have been joking about moving. JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: Will Donald Trump be our next

president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If that mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) becomes president, I'm moving my black (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to South Africa.

MOOS: Miley Cyrus Instagramed, "gonna vom," as in vomit, "move out da country, #aintapartyindausaanymo." Cher tweeted, "if Trump were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter." But some, like Lena Dunham, sounds serious.

LENA DUNHAM: That I'm 100 percent moving to Canada. I love Canada.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): Well, she has a "b" actor and has no, you know, mojo.

MOOS: Maple Match has mojo in terms of generating interest.

MOOS (on camera): But don't expect immediate results. It looks like Maple Match will be as slow as, well, maple syrup.

MOOS (voice-over): Questions about when the site might work got vague answers.

MOOS (on camera): Joe, I'm sorry, it's like talking to Donald Trump. Is it ever going to be really like a dating site?

GOLDMAN: At this -- at this time I really can't say for sure. We're -- we're really trying our hardest.

[10:00:04] MOOS (voice-over): Maple Match is asking who you'd like to shack up with before the shack is built.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: The next hour of NEWSROOM starts now.