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Report: Trump Holds First Cabinet Meeting; Rep, King Says Can't Restore a Civilization With Somebody Else's Babies; Prosecutor Says New Brown Video Pathetic Attempt. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 13, 2017 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: There was inevitably some vintage Trump, what he calls in his own book what he called truthful hyperbole. I was struck by the reality that you have in that room, the two administrations, as it were. You've got all these really serious, sober people from Mattis at defense, Tillerson at state, Kelly at homeland security, his economic team, Gary Cohn, bright, serious guys. Then there is the reality TV show of Donald Trump who couldn't stop himself from attacking the Democrats, pointing out that in his view he had done more by far than anybody had done up to this point. So, I think this is going to be the drama of the administration. There is going to be serious people doing serious work and then there will be, you know, what Trump seems to be doing is kind of running a never-ending campaign. This is very unusual, a first cabinet meeting of the President essentially back in campaign mode, talking about touting his accomplishments, how it's much better than anybody has ever done before. I think --

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Saving money on the planes, on the jets.

ZAKARIA: Exactly. You're never going to get the reality TV star to -- there you go.

BALDWIN: There you go. Just a reminder, we'll be watching Fareed's documentary tonight, "Vladimir Putin: the Most Powerful Man in the World," tonight on 9:00 p.m. eastern. Raju, you're watching the deadline clock ticking for the DOJ to provide house and Senate intelligence committees with evidence of Donald Trump's wiretapping claims.

MANU RAJU, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's right, we don't know if they'll provide any evidence of the claim that the President made on that early Saturday morning tweet nine days ago, saying he had been wiretapped and spied on by former President Barack Obama. I talked to both the house intelligence committee members, sources on the committee in the last half hour, they still have not heard back from the justice department. The justice department itself is not commenting yet on whether they will in fact respond this afternoon. And of course, Brooke, this comes after Sean Spicer said at his briefing today, had said he's not going to respond about whether they will respond, pointing to the justice department.

So, we don't know exactly what they will say or when they will say it. But the members are waiting for that key piece of information. We do expect on the health care issue some estimate from the Congressional budget office, probably within -- it could be within the next hour, we really are expecting a lot of anticipation of that number. And Republicans are bracing for a very bad report. It will show that their health care legislation will not go as far as current health policies in covering Americans. That's one reason why you're hearing a lot of pushback from Republicans saying it's not possible for the CBO to make an estimate accurately, given the complexity of the proposal. So, that on the CBO side, the estimate, we expect that sometime today. Department of justice response, uncertain as of yet, but that will get a lot of attention in the coming days and hours.

BALDWIN: We'll look for you in that CBO reported today, thank you, and also from the DOJ.

Coming up here on CNN, Republican Congressman Steve King doubling down on his controversial tweet where he tweeted, "we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." My next guest takes issues with the Congressman's words and she says she's ready to challenge him for his seat in Congress.

[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King is facing all kinds of backlash now after this tweet which critics are calling a racist attack on foreigners and immigrants, referencing far right Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Congressman King tweeted this over the weekend, quote, wilders understands culture and demographics are our destiny, we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. Republicans, including speaker Ryan, have denounced his words. But here is Congressman King on CNN this morning defending his views.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONGRESSMAN STEVE KING, IOWA: We've aborted 60 million babies in this country since 1973. We'll have to replace that void with somebody else's babies. That's that push to bring in much illegal immigration into America, living in enclave, refusing to assimilate into the American culture and civilization. Some embrace it, yes. But many are two and three generations living in enclave pushing back and resisting against the assimilation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:00] BALDWIN: Let me bring in Kim Weaver, an Iowa Democrat who ran against Steve King and lost. So, Kim, thank you so much for coming on. Before we get to what this may main for you as far as maybe giving it a go again, your reaction when you first read the tweet.

KIM WEAVER, IOWA DEMOCRAT: Well, you know, I've kind of gotten used to him saying some pretty obnoxious things. As the great- granddaughter of someone else's baby that came from Norway, I was pretty offended myself. And we're actually celebrating a holiday on Friday, St. Patrick's Day, that a lot of people have brought into this culture. At one point, Irish immigrants weren't welcomed here. It was a completely ridiculous statement. And unfortunately, those of us in the fourth district and in the country, are starting to get used to those things that he says.

However, as disgusting as the things he says, we have to realize he also constantly supports legislation that will actually hurt the people of his district. And that's why I'm looking at another run. As an example, his attempt to appeal to no more hungry kids will affect one in four students in our district. His support to repeal the ACA will reflect 11,000 families that are on the ACA, in addition to people that would benefit from the Medicaid expansion or traditional Medicaid.

BALDWIN: Staying on his comments, you know, it's your point, he's made other controversial comments in the past. This is a man who has gone to Congress in 2002. He was elected, he was reelected. You know the good people of Iowa and there are a lot of people who keep saying yes to him at the ballot box and clearly agree or don't find a problem with some of what he's saying. Because they keep electing him.

WEAVER: Right. What we're finding is a lot of people, believe it or not, are not as plugged into certain news media outlets and the really don't hear what he's saying. A lot of the older demographic are not on twitter, they're basically on fox news, they read their local newspapers, where there just isn't information about what he's doing. It's like, Congressman king is having a town hall. But they don't talk about the things he's saying. Now there's a lot of people rising up, as an example, I've got $54,000 in donations in just the last two days. And over 5,000 new twitter followers. So, there's a lot of people who are starting to wake up about what he's saying. And they're saying no. We are not this way. This is not Iowa. This is not our country. These are not our values.

BALDWIN: So, you're going to give it a go again and try it one more time?

WEAVER: If I can get the support. I've said I need to raise $100,000 by September 1st. I need volunteers in every county. So, you can follow me, me, @kimweaveria on twitter. It's all low dollar donors, I'm not getting the big bucks. I'm getting real people who care about real issues.

BALDWIN: : All right, Kim Weaver, good luck. We shall see, we'll follow it. He's been around a while, but good luck. Thank you so much.

WEAVER: I'm ready to go. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you. On CNN, all kinds of new questions out of Ferguson, Missouri surrounding the deadly police shooting of Michael Brown. This filmmaker is now defending previously unreleased video that he argues is proof of what really happened hours before that deadly encounter. Moments ago, the prosecutor slammed him.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: St. Louis county's top prosecutor is slamming the new documentary that raises questions about the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown, calling it multiple times "pathetic." A filmmaker revealed this new video at The South by Southwest Festival in his documentary, "Stranger Fruit." it appears to show Brown inside the Ferguson market and liquor store, the same store he was accused of robbing a couple of hours later. The filmmaker claims the video shows Michael Brown giving a small bag of marijuana to store employees then receiving cigarillos in return for surmise negotiated deal. He says it was filmed sometime after 1:00 a.m., several hours before brown apparently returned to the convenience store, and later that day, around 11:52 a.m., police responded to a call of a robbery at a convenience store. Moments later, officer Darren Wilson encounters Michael Brown, an altercation occurs, and Brown is shot and killed. Let me first play you the short clip of some of the commentary from this documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: I couldn't believe what I had read. Michael was in the store the night before he died. At St. Louis county, saw the videotape, and they didn't tell us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was some type of exchange for one thing for another, that these people know each other well enough that this is the relationship that they have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In response to this video and this documentary, the attorney for the store says the video is manipulated and does not tell the whole story. Here is his statement, quote, "I can now confirm that the uncut video shows the clerks throwing bag back to Mike Brown, the filmmaker edited it out." As I mentioned, we heard just a little bit ago from the top cop in St. Louis county about the video. Here he was.

[15:50:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MCCULLOCH, SAINT LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Over the weekend there was a pretty pathetic attempt at a video production regarding the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. That was released at a fair somewhere in Texas, I believe. Contained in that was a very poorly edited snippet of a security video taken from the store in Ferguson. It was clearly an attempt to distort this and to turn it into something it isn't, to get back to another big lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's talk about all this with Areva Martin. Civil rights attorney and CNN legal analyst. Nice to see you. I talked to this filmmaker and we'll play some of that in a second. First, your reaction to the prosecutor's comments about the quote-unquote pathetic film. Should we dismiss the new video altogether?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think we have to deal with what appears to be really different stories. I watched the filmmaker yesterday on CNN when he was first interviewed about his new documentary. I also watched your interview. And we have two completely different stories. We have the filmmaker saying this video was available at all points but yet it was buried by the St. Louis Police Department. We have the prosecutor saying, no, this video was provided to the family and to investigators. It was provided to the federal investigators, so it's nothing new here. We also have the lawyer for the store saying the video has been distorted, it's been edited in a way to tell a story consistent with the documentary.

So, we have these really conflicting stories about this whole videotape. I think the most important point for me, Brooke, when I look at this is the narrative I think that the filmmaker is trying to suggest. What he is really trying to say it, you all were told, you all being the public, that Michael Brown robbed this convenience store. I want you to know that's not true. I want you to know Michael Brown did not strong-arm rob the store for cigars. He was painted in a negative light when in fact what happened was a negotiation for cigars in exchange for marijuana. According to this film maker this is common practice in this neighborhood at this store.

BALDWIN: Let me play a little bit of my interview. Jason Pollock sitting alongside Michael Brown Sr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON POLLOCK, DOCUMENTARY FILM DIRECTOR, "STRANGER FRUIT": You guys issued several sunshine requests to the Ferguson police. You were given not what you asked for. You were given half a video. You asked for the videos, and you were not given them. I don't know if that's a law break right there, but this seems like suppression of evidence. This seems like legitimate new evidence. I don't know if the grand jury saw this video. We definitely didn't see it. The world didn't see it, which shows that they were trying to trick us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I mean, that interview went on for 11 minutes. He levelled serious allegations against the police department, as you outlined. It's like two totally different stories. What's the truth is what I am asking. I am looking at this father sitting there, watching pictures of his son two and a half years later on loop in the news. Does this affect his civil case, Areva?

MARTIN: Even though the filmmaker wouldn't let Michael Brown Sr. comment too much on the civil case, clearly there will be discussion, conversation, probably discovery about this videotape as it relates to the civil. We don't know if the videotape has been provided to the family, to the family's attorneys. Again, that's what is in dispute. I think we have to look at the videotape from the issue of trust. What this videotape says to me and the narrative that's being projected by the filmmaker is that we can't trust the police department. There was a video out there, and when they showed us the tape about Michael Brown robbing the store, they didn't show us this earlier videotape. So, I think a lot of this could be cleared up if we could get a statement from the prosecution that really, you know, tells us, was the video available and was it, you know, provided to the family and to the public.

BALDWIN: Yes. We don't know. I was trying to ask when it was provided to the family. I don't know the answer to that. It sounded like to me from the prosecutor that it was available all along. There needs to be more clarity. Areva Martin, thank you very much.

Coming up next, snow. A snowstorm closing in and forcing President Trump to delay his meeting with the German Chancellor tomorrow. All of this as millions of people in the northeast prepare for some monster blizzard. Let's get the real truth, next.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: This week Washington, D.C., was supposed to start celebrating its annual cherry blossom festival. Might be with a douse of snow. Washington and much of the northeast are about to get clobbered with a major winter storm. Tom Sater is joining us now, Tom, I can take it.

TOM SATER, METEOROLOGIST: Can you? OK.

Let's hope the cherry blossom trees survive. Heavy amounts of snow, it will snap those branches. We have worse concerns. Everybody just wants to know what's going to fall in my back yard or my street. Let's break this European model down. Begins tonight after midnight in Washington, D.C. warmer air is moving in. That keeps it a couple inches of slosh to the south. A foot in Baltimore. Philadelphia, how about 19.5. New York City. 19.5. Everything in pink is a foot, Brooke. The darker areas are more than 2 feet. You go up toward Boston. 19.2. We have a lot of problems here. We have already had about, I would say, 1500 flights canceled. This will go down in the record books.

[16:00:00] Greatest snowfall one day for March New York City 16.5, 1888. That will go down most likely in the books. 2 inches in Chicago, the first show they have had since the 17th of December. All in pink, winter storm watches. Something you don't see very often. 25 million in blizzard warnings, that now has been extended into the Hudson area. That means trees will come down. Could have thousands without power. Have enough food for three days because the storm hasn't even developed yet. It develops tonight, moves up as a classic nor'easter. Coastal storm flooding. A lot of problems. Will lose power and have about 5,000 cancelations, Brooke.