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House GOP Kills Gun Vote, Dems Continue Sit-in; Trump Faces Cold Welcome in Scotland; Trump Sees Surge in Campaign Donations. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:07] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Nearly 22 hours and counting on Capitol Hill.

Democrats refusing to budge from their sit-in on the House floor, demanding a vote on gun control in the wake of the horrific shooting rampage in Orlando.

This is a live look from the floor. Their protests virtually unprecedented. And ultimately unsuccessful at least for now. Republican leaders shutting off the TV cameras and shutting down the session, ordering the House into recess for the next couple of weeks.

The House Speaker Paul Ryan calls the sit-in a publicity stunt. Democrats call it just the beginning.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more live from Capitol Hill. Good morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Well, a short time ago Capitol Hill police officers came out to the House floor for a regular security sweep. They asked members to clear the floor, it was then when Nancy Pelosi and other members refused to leave and kept going on with their sit-in and making their speeches.

They kept this sit-in going throughout the duration of the night into this morning. Fueled by pizza, they brought extra pillows, blankets, extra iPhone batteries. One member had been telling us that she brought out -- brought from home her spare toothbrush. But Republicans, they're really not backing down, and they have adjourned for recess for the next two weeks. And Democrats, they too are digging in, saying they intend to keep this sit-in going.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: I would ask that all of my colleagues join me on the floor.

SERFATY (voice-over): It all started around 11:15 Wednesday morning.

REP. JOHN LARSON (D), CONNECTICUT: We will occupy this floor. We will no longer be denied a right to vote.

SERFATY: Outraged Democrats seizing the House floor, demanding a vote on gun control after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

LEWIS: How many more mothers, how many more fathers need to shed tears of grief before we do something.

SERFATY: Prominent civil rights activist John Lewis leading the sit- in on the House floor. Minutes later House Speaker Paul Ryan called a recess, shutting off cameras in the chamber. But that didn't stop Democrats from continuing their showdown, streaming live feeds on the House floor on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suspected and known to be a terrorist, why, why can you get a gun, a machine gun?

SERFATY: Democratic senators storming the floor in solidarity.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: This is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

SERFATY: Speaker Ryan lambasting the move as political theater.

RYAN: We will not bring a bill that takes away a person's constitutionally guaranteed rights without their due process. This isn't trying to come up with a solution to a problem. This is trying to get attention.

SERFATY: In a confrontational move to regain control, Republicans convening a session to vote not on gun control, but to override a presidential veto. Leading to tension exploding in the chamber just after 10:00.

RYAN: The gentlemen from Kentucky seek recognition.

SERFATY: As Republicans opened the floor to vote, the Democrats pressing against the podium, chanting and holding signs with names and faces of gun violence victims.

Democrats yelling "shame" and singing the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The House stands in recess subject to the call of the chair.

SERFATY: One Republican disrupting the sit-in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Radical Islam killed these people.

SERFATY: Arguing it wasn't guns that led to the Orlando attack.

Just before 1:00 a.m., the House calling a procedural vote to adjourn until 2:30 a.m., scheduling a vote on a funding bill for a Zika virus that Democrats oppose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no response except to run away in the middle of the night.

SERFATY: After passing that bill, they passed another to adjourn for the July 4th recess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The House stands adjourned.

SERFATY: Republicans leaving the Capitol indignant, met by angry protesters.

PROTESTERS: Do your job. Do your job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Democrats have promised to keep this going. They say they intend to keep a presence on the House floor over the next two weeks until the House re-adjourns on July 5th. But it's really not clear right now at this point, Carol, how that will exactly take form and how robust that effort will be -- Carol.

COSTELLO: There's so many unusual twists to this story, Sunlen. Lawmakers are taking pictures of that sit-in with their cell phones. That actually is a violation of House rules. Republicans say they'll not reward rule breakers. So will anything really come of this?

SERFATY: Well, we -- that totally remains to be seen. I think right now what we will see later this morning is the Democratic leadership intends to huddle and kind of figure out their strategy going forward.

[09:05:07] But certainly, as you know, there has been a remarkable level of rule breaking going on, including all of those pictures being taken, but that in large part has what -- has fueled this movement. There are protests overnight, outside the capital and into the morning, getting that attention from social media. It's exactly what the House Democrats wanted for this sit-in, and in large part, why they're continuing to keep it going -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I know, one million people are watching on Twitter alone.

Sunlen Serfaty reporting live from Capitol Hill this morning.

The "New York Daily News" calling House Speaker Paul Ryan the NRA's little lapdog. But the NRA sees it quite differently. On its radio show, an NRA host compared some Democrats staging the sit-in to terrorists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAM EDWARDS, NRA HOST, CAM AND CAMEROTA: They've got their smartphones, and some of them are streaming this on periscope, and others are taking their selfies or they're having a staffer take their picture and they're posting this on social media, in violation of the House rule on photography.

In order to push legislation, now the sponsors say would not have prevented the attacks in Orlando, Florida, they're also going to flout the House rules. Kind of like, you know, criminals and terrorists flout the rules that we have in place right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Some might find the name-calling funny, but snarky humor does not cut it in the real world. That when you've lost a child, a mother, a father, a friend to gun violence.

With me now Andy Parker whose daughter Alison, a TV reporter, was shot and killed during a live report. I'm also joined by Nicole Hockley who lost her son Dylan in the Sandy Hook massacre. And just to be clear Andy and Nicole do not, I repeat do not want all guns banned. They just want lawmakers to do their jobs.

Andy, I'll start with you. Are these lawmakers staging this sit-in terrorists?

ANDY PARKER, FATHER OF SLAIN JOURNALIST, ALISON PARKER: I find that comment completely offensive and ridiculous. The real terrorists are the folks at the NRA. Those are the terrorists. And unfortunately, you have politicians that are complicit with -- they pledge allegiance to the NRA versus the United States of America, and the safety of its citizens. And it's -- I've called them treasonists and I will continue to call them treasonists.

COSTELLO: But, Andy, lawmakers -- at least the lawmakers would say that this is -- especially the orlando shooting is about terror because this gunman pledged his allegiance to the ISIS leader. And lawmakers should be focusing on terror and not gun control.

PARKER: Well, it's -- you know, they go hand in hand. In fact ISIS put out a communique that said,you know, America, the United States, it's the easiest place in the world to get a gun. So go get one. And that's exactly what they've done. So when you have -- when you have these obstructionists like Bob Goodlick who told me to my face that he would never hold a hearing on gun -- on any kind of gun legislations, you've got 100 bills sitting there, between him, Mitch McConnell, Mike McCaul, and Eddie Munster -- I mean, excuse me, Paul Ryan.

When you have those people that are obstructionists, and to me, if it were up to me, they'd be wearing orange jumpsuits right now. They will be first in line.

COSTELLO: Nicole, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, called this sit-in a stunt and Republicans went home. So how helpful is this sit-in really?

NICOLE HOCKLEY, SON SLAIN IN SANDY HOOK SHOOTING: I think the sit-in is incredibly helpful because it draws attention to this issue, and you know I've been waiting for this to happen for the last three and a half years since my son was killed. We have seen action build and then stall, but then momentum continues to build. And this sit-in is saying we need a vote. And for Speaker Ryan and the other Republicans to disappear in the middle of the night to go off to celebrate America, on the 4th of July, without doing their job, is just insulting and unacceptable.

Rather than do name-calling, rather than disappear, come up with solutions. If you don't like what's being proposed, come up with something else. But walking away and doing nothing, that is not -- that is not helping America. That's not helping your constituents and it's certainly not ding to save lives. So they should be ashamed of their inaction.

COSTELLO: And, Nicole, I'll ask you the same question I asked Andy. Many Republicans say Orlando was all about terrorism, not the gun control. They say your child's death was about mental health, not gun control. What do you say?

HOCKLEY: I say they'll call it whatever they want to call it, rather than addressing the fact that over 30,000 people a year in this country are dying at the hands of a gun. So whether it's terrorism, whether it's mental health, we do have to focus on the person behind the firearm, absolutely, and closing the terror gap and background check loopholes are all about ensuring that only people that should access firearms can.

[09:10:08] But we also have to address the problem of the weapon that is being choose -- that is being chosen to kill so many people as well. This is an epidemic. This is a public health crisis. This is a social crisis. And it's about time we addressed it.

COSTELLO: Andy, ultimately, what do you think will come of this sit- in?

PARKER: Yes, I think it's the first step. And obviously the conversation continues. I think this is going to be -- this issue is going to be a key component in, if not the key component, in the -- in congressional and presidential elections coming up this fall. So I this is the first step, and as long as we -- our side keeps the pressure on, I think we're going to -- it's coming along faster than I thought it would be.

And I -- you know, I want to go back to what you initially said about taking people's guns away. The other side makes this about the Second Amendment. We're coming after your guns, and that is absolutely -- like Nicole said, this is not what we're looking for. We want to keep the guns out of the hands of the wrong people. That's it. And so -- but I think this movement is growing, as Nicole said. It's gaining momentum. And I think we are going to make a change in this country. Sooner than later.

COSTELLO: All right, Andy Parker, Nicole Hockley, thanks to both of you. I appreciate your being with me this morning.

Democrats are not just focusing on Orlando's mass shooting, they're focusing on all gun violence and the numbers are just absolutely stunning. I'm going to get to the numbers in just a minute. But first I want to bring in Eric Pratt. He's the executive director for gun owners of America.

Welcome, Eric.

ERIC PRATT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA: Hi, Carol. Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. I just want to read you some statistics. Every year more than 100,000 people are victims of gunshot wounds. And we should point out that that number does include suicides as well. According to the CDC, in 2013, more than 33,000 people die from firearms every single year. Isn't that too many?

PRATT: Well, what you failed to point out, Carol, is that the CDC also, pursuant to President Obama issuing a decree to have them study this issue, they found that anywhere from 500,000 to three million times a year, guns are being used in self-defense. So that means for every negative tragic use of a firearm you have guns being used 16 --

COSTELLO: Wait -- wait a minute. Wait, I just -- I just want to point out facts. I don't know what study you're citing, but the CDC has been barred from doing any research on guns.

PRATT: The very same statistics.

COSTELLO: Congress won't fund the CDC from funding any gun research on gun violence. So I don't know what --

PRATT: He commissioned an executive order in January 2013, ordering the CDC, in fact, Slate wrote an article after the CDC published those statistics and Slate is certainly no pro-gun magazine, and they pointed out -- the article was entitled "The Surprising Findings by the CDC." And certainly they were surprising to people on the left. The fact that 16 to 100 times more often guns are being used to save lives than to take lives.

Now the president since then seems to have ignored that CDC study. How ironic he wants more research, et cetera. But when the research was done, it actually found guns are saving more lives than are being taken by them. And as you look all around the country, Carol, actually you see time and time again that people have stopped mass shootings in their tracks. People -- good people with their firearms, like a year ago this month, in a bar like the Orlando bar in a Youngstown bar, a bar employee who was a concealed carrier, used his gun to stop a mass shooter. No innocent lives were taken as a result.

COSTELLO: Well, let me --

PRATT: If that guy was in orlando, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

COSTELLO: I'm sure there are instances when people have prevented gun violence with a gun. I am positive of that. And I'm not arguing that fact. I just don't know how many because I haven't seen the study that you're talking about. But I hear you.

PRATT: The CDC.

COSTELLO: But let me -- let me run this by you because most Americans are armed, and I'm going to put this starkly. Civilians own about 270 million guns. One in 3 Americans own a gun. Yet 30,00 -- more than 30,000 people are still dying every year. How many more guns can there be out there?

PRATT: You know what, you're overlooking is that, as you pointed out, we do have more guns than we ever had, more than 170 million new guns have been bought since 1991, and you know what has happened to the murder rate during that time?

[09:15:03] It has dropped 50 percent. We're actually safer today with more guns. So you know, you're trying to scare people by saying look, there is more guns, but we're safer today. Just look at the FBI statistics.

COSTELLO: You think we're safer today when 30,000 people are dying every year?

PRATT: Well as you pointed out, a lot of those are (AUDIO GAP) in Japan, they actually have a higher murder -- strict gun control laws. So they use other means to commit suicide.

Actually, our murder rate is not even in the top 100 of countries around the world. And the top 100 countries, guess what? They have much stricter gun control than we do. Look at France. They have the gun laws, Carol, that you would dream of. It is impossible to carry a firearm in France, and yet that didn't stop the terrorists from --

COSTELLO: That's right. But you do no heart -- but you do not hear the number of mass shootings in France that you do in the United States. You don't. Because --

PRATT: Actually more people --

COSTELLO: No.

PRATT: That's not even true. More people died last year in mass shootings in France than in all the prior years of President Obama's presidency. That's absolutely not true. People are far less safe in France when it comes to mass shootings than we are here in this country.

COSTELLO: Well, I will check out your stats. I hear you. I will look into them. I promise you.

Erich Pratt, thank you for joining me this morning.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: forget high level meetings with foreign officials, Donald Trump, Scotland bound, attending business. But the billionaire is getting anything but a warm welcome.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump, off the campaign trail today, off to Scotland, where he and his golf courses face growing hostility. Many locals say he broke promises and bullied landowners. And that's not even counting his racially charged remarks. The half million Brits has signed a petition calling it a hate speech and saying Mr. Trump should be barred from the country.

CNN's Chris Frates is in Washington with more on this. Good morning.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.

Well, Donald Trump as it again, going where no presidential candidate seems to have gone before, taking what amounts to a foreign business trip in the middle of a heated presidential campaign. And it's not presidential candidates don't take foreign trips. They do.

Barack Obama went to Europe in 2008. Mitt Romney hit England, Israel, Poland back in 2012. But both men were really trying to burnish their foreign policy cred.

But Trump isn't going to Scotland to meet with foreign leaders or discuss Brexit. He's opening a golf course. And after the ribbon cutting, he'll visit a second course in the long running fight with the locals, where some say Trump tried strong arming them into selling their houses to make room for that course. And a few of the residents plan to hang Mexican flags during his visit, in solidarity with another group that he has insulted.

And the stories of angry homeowners are show to remain American voters of Trump's controversial take no prisoner style at the exact time Trump's really been trying to temper his approach and turn the spotlight on to Hillary Clinton. And it comes as a majority of voters say the billionaire should spent less time with his businesses.

In fact, a recent CNN/ORC polls show 70 percent of voters believe he should step down from his business activities while running for president.

And, Carol, there's no doubt many Republican officials probably feel the same way and wish that Trump would stay home and keep taking the fight to Clinton, instead of jetting across the pond and largely ceding the field to her, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chris Frates, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

And as Mr. Trump heads to Scotland, his campaign gets a much needed cash infusion. As of last night, the Trump Victory Fund, as joint fundraising account with the Republican National Committee, raised some $5 million online. That's just since Tuesday morning. Separately, a fund-raiser at a New York City restaurant brought in $6 million, according to -- that's according to Trump's son Eric.

Here to talk about this more, Errol Louis, New York 1 political anchor and CNN political commentator, Alex Conant, former communications director for Marco Rubio's Senate bid and he's also an advisor to Marco Rubio's Senate bid right now. And also, Scottie Nell Hughes, is a Trump supporter.

Thanks for being with me.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So, Errol, $11 million in one day, impressive?

LOUIS: That's a pretty good hall for one day. He'll have to multiply by about 1,000 in order to get into the reigns that he is going to need to sort of pull this off.

It is also important to keep in mind when you're talking about these victory funds, a small portion of that goes to the presidential candidate, the bulk of it goes in many cases to the party organization. That's supposed to help the rest of the ticket that has obvious benefits for Donald Trump, but it is not as if he has $11 million at his disposal today right now necessarily.

So, he's well on his way to doing something that many of his critics, including some friendly critics have said he should have been doing all along.

COSTELLO: OK. So still, Trump's son Eric, he was on Erin Burnett's show last night. He says raising big money is still not a big deal. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC TRUMP, SON OF DONALD TRUMP: We don't need the kind of money that Hillary needs. She has 730 people staff. And how many we have? We have 70. I mean, her operation is bloated. It's crazy.

You know, we want a lean operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELL: This is a little confusing to me, Scottie, because we've heard the Trump campaign is actually doubling its staff. Clearly they need to raise more money, because they did last night. So help us understand.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I'll help you understand. First of all, the reason why Mr. Trump was able to raise $11 million is because he asked. That's the simple respond. He actually finally asked for help and e America people and his voters and his supporters overwhelmingly responded, which talks about the engagement that his voters have and the loyalty they have to their candidate.

Now, why he doesn't need as much money as Hillary Clinton?

[09:25:03] Simple, because whenever someone goes and opens up their paycheck and look at how much taxes are being taken out, whenever they try to go to the doctor and they can't get in or even when they do, they have to pay very much bloated costs, that is the best campaign commercial for Donald Trump. It is called reality. The last eight years have given the American public and Mr. Trump represents that he is going to stop it.

Just turning on the news this morning, that helps Mr. Trump, because it shows the dysfunction and how Washington, D.C. has more of themselves in mind than the American people. So, they're acting like they are this morning. That is the best campaign commercial for Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Alex, I want to read you something that Mark Cuban tweeted out. He said, "If Donald Trump were fractionally as rich as he said he is, he would write a $200 million check to propel his campaign. He simply doesn't have the cash."

So, Alex, why doesn't Mr. Trump just write the check? Because he has repeated it, since his low fundraising numbers came out, that he might self-fund.

ALEX CONANT, PARTNER, FIREHOUSE STRATEGIES: Yes, it's an excellent question, and the truth of the matter is, we don't know exactly how much Donald Trump is worth, because in part because he won't release his taxes. That said, look, let's be honest. Donald Trump is on a trajectory to lose by an embarrassing margin this fall, and it's going to have ramifications long-term for the United States. He has to raise more money or contribute more money if he wants to be competitive this fall.

With all due respect to what the Trump campaign is saying, having 70 or 140 staffers is not going to cut it in a nationwide race, where his only pathway to victory is by mobilizing lots of voters who traditionally don't vote or don't vote Republican. That requires people on the ground, making sure people are registering to vote, know where to vote, that requires resources. You can't just run for president on cable TV or let alone Scotland, visiting golf courses.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about Scotland, Errol. Mr. Trump will go to Scotland to open golf course. How unusual is that in the middle of a presidential campaign?

LOUIS: It is pretty unusual. On a trip this, even if you do have interests, you'll meet with some donors, you'll meet with some Americans overseas, at the minimum, you'll meet with diplomats, you'll sort of burnish your foreign policy credentials, maybe you'll make a speech at a university. That's normally what you're seeing done.

So I think what is not part of the trip is maybe the most unusual part of this. I don't know if anybody begrudge the reality that he has a business to run and this is how he runs his business. So, he is going to go, cut his ribbon and so forth.

Let's keep in mind, Carol, hopping in a limo that takes you to a private plane and getting out on the other side, I think for the Donald Trumps for the world akin to the rest of us going to Costco or something like that. I mean, it is not a huge personal inconvenience.

But it does I think represent in some ways a wasted opportunity to really weigh in. Especially coming the day after this major, incredibly important vote that deals with international trade, which is supposed to be one of his strong suits.

COSTELLO: Well, Scottie, there is this, too. I want you to take a look at the "Washington Post." The headline reads Trump's top example of foreign experience, Scottish golf course losing millions. "The Post" writes, "Trump lost $6.9 million since 2012 on the Aberdeen course."

So, won't his trip there just highlight this?

HUGHES: No, I think the trip is there to sit there and celebrate the opening of apart of his business venture. This has been a project of the Trump company, the Trump Organization. It is kind of like you and when we go to our kid's piano recital.

This has been a project of his family. He is going to support it. And Errol is right, it's not like it's a big deal to get in a plane and come back over. It is a minor trip.

Listen to what we're complaining about, Carol. We're complaining about somebody who's accomplished the same thing on a smaller staff, a smaller budget and the people are responding immediately and donating when asked.

These are what we need in our government today. This is what we need in our candidate. To sit there and criticize because he doesn't have these bloated staff and these millions of dollars, I guarantee those same people last year said he would never beat 17 other primary candidates. He has done that. He has defied what has been the typical Washington, D.C., not realizing those types of complaints are the reason he has the energy and fire and the people behind him.

COSTELLO: All right. I have --

CONANT: Carol, can I just add to that, though. I don't think anyone would begrudge Trump going overseas or having a small staff if things were going well. Right now, he is trailing Clinton by big margins.

HUGHES: By five points. He has gained eight points since he announced in that same CNN poll.

CONANT: At least five points. He has not led a poll within the margin of error of a poll for weeks. His unfavorable ratings continue to climb. It's very concerning to Republicans like myself who don't want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there, I do.

Errol Louis, Alex Conant, Scottie Nell Hughes -- thanks to all of you.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, fed up and not giving up, heading back to Capitol Hill where Democratic lawmakers say they're staying put until there is a gun reform vote.

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