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Turmoil Tests Trump's Agenda; Dashcam Video of Woods' Arrest; Ohio Sues Drug Makers. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 01, 2017 - 09:30   ET

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


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[09:32:52] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The Russia investigation, climate change, foreign policy, covfefe, Donald Trump has a lot on his mind right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was the first mention of that word in this show, by the way. We waited -

HARLOW: In the 32 minutes.

BERMAN: We waited 32 minutes. So we deserve some from credit from that.

In just the last few days the president went an hours' long Twitter tirade against the fake media. Sources told CNN's Gloria Borger that the president now lives within himself and is emotionally withdrawing and then, of course, there was that half-finished midnight tweet. That was two nights ago. Last night there was some overnight Twitter wars with Hillary Clinton.

Where is the president's head these days? That is a key question.

I want to bring in a man who has some insight into this. CNN contributor, author of "The Truth about Trump," Michael D'Antonio.

Michael, thank you so much for being with us.

Really interested in our perspective on Gloria Borger's reporting that the president is withdrawing. You know, in some ways, unhappy inside himself. Knowing him like you do and watching him now, does that ring true?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it does. When things don't go well, the president tends to close ranks around himself. So he's going to make that circle of advisors even tighter. He also does show his temper. You know, there's a famous story about his Trump Tower project when an architect gave him a little bit of a hard time and he kicked a foot stool across the room and ruined his shoe. And it was a very expensive shoe. So he is a fellow who reacts emotionally to things. I think he trusts his own instincts and his own judgment and tends to dismiss people if they're leading him astray or if he thinks they're leading him astray. HARLOW: So we are going to hear from the president in just a few hours

and our reporting is that he's expected, Michael, to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. And I think our Christine Romans just made a great point saying, this is one of his campaign promises, but it's one that he can check off. I mean he - it's one of the only ones he can totally do himself. You say that much of what -

D'ANTONIO: Precisely.

HARLOW: What drives this president right now is with the Obamas in his sights. Tell us more. Is that what this is about?

[09:35:00] D'ANTONIO: Well, if you think about what his campaign presented, it was often about reversing what his predecessor had done. So if Obama was big on climate change, big on alternative energy sources, Trump is going to be naturally against it. And he can do a lot here without anybody's help. This is not about going to Congress and getting them to go along with him. It's not about winning a case in federal court. He can, with his own order, get out of this Paris Accord and strike another blow against Barack Obama.

It's fascinating to me to see how personal this is. He's still fighting with Hillary Clinton. He's still fighting the legacy of Obama. He must imagine that this is what got him elected and that this is what his base wants. And I think to some degree he is right. You know, the antipathy toward Barack Obama was great in - among the people who voted for him and he's giving them what they expected.

BERMAN: Michael, you note - one of the things out there now is that a lot of Republicans think the president has got to surround himself with better people, he's got to bring in new people, he's got to listen to people. And you know - one thing you've learned from Donald Trump over the years is actually when things get the worst for him and maybe look their bleakest, that is when he has listened to some advice to help dig himself out.

D'ANTONIO: Well, right. When things got really bad in the '90s, he did turn to both his legal advisors and his financial advisors. He actually did deals with about 150 lenders that got him out of a jam. So he's able to turn to the experts when it's really a desperate moment.

The problem for him is that he also likes to dismiss the people he calls "eggheads." You know, he's one of the few politicians around who will use that term and get a big applause out of his audience when he dismisses them. So it's hard for him to turn to the folks that he naturally doesn't like.

I think if they have stars on their shoulders, that will help. So if he has a general come in and tell him something, it's going to have greater weight. And there are many generals who are intellectuals. So he could get some good advice from the people who are already in the Oval Office on a daily basis.

HARLOW: But he's not listening to the man with the star on his shoulders, his secretary of defense, General Mattis, when it comes to this climate agreement. He's going against what Mattis said and a host of other folks inside the West Wing.

Michael D'Antonio, thank you.

D'ANTONIO: Well, and that's true. Yes.

HARLOW: Yes, he is.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you. Bye.

HARLOW: All right, coming up for us, confused, even struggling to walk, new dash cam footage this morning of Tiger Woods and his DUI arrest.

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[09:42:00] HARLOW: New this morning, police released body cam video from the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando. It's been nearly a year since the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Before we show this to you, we need to warn you, it is difficult to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I see your hands now!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me see your hands!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come out with your hands up or you will die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This footage was obtained by "The Orlando Sentinel." You can see police trying to rescue victims at the same time that they are searching for the gunman. You also see the final shootout. Forty-nine people and the killer died in the Pulse massacre, 53 others were injured.

All right, new pictures this morning that show what happened in the early morning hours when Tiger Woods was arrested on suspicious of DUI. The photos of his car are now being made public. When police pulled up, it was apparently halfway out of the right lane. You can see a imagined and flat tire right there.

HARLOW: And according to the police reports, Woods was found asleep at the wheel. Police are also now releasing dash cam video of his arrest. He appears sleepy, stumbling, confused. More now from our Rosa Flores.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you remember being asleep in the car?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly released police dash cam video showing famed golfer Tiger Woods visibly impaired and confused during a DUI stop in south Florida.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you had anything to drink tonight?

TIGER WOODS: I have not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you sure?

WOODS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A hundred percent?

WOODS: A hundred percent.

FLORES: His speech, slow and slurred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, have you taken any illegal drugs?

WOODS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Have you taken any medications?

WOODS: Yes.

FLORES: The medications included the pain killer Vicodin and two anti- inflammatories, police records show. Woods, who recently had back surgery, released a public apology saying he had an "unexpected reaction" to those drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to keep your feet together just like that, OK, and I want you to keep your arms down by your slide, all right? All right?

WOODS: Yes.

FLORES: On the golf course, his form and precision brought him fame and fortune, but during the field sobriety test he wasn't quite up to par.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left foot and then right foot with your heel touching your toe of your left foot.

FLORES: The officer even offering Woods a second shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to try this one more time or do you want to move on?

FLORES: Woods also has trouble following a light with his eyes, tying his shoelaces and when he was asked to say the a, b, c's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, what were the instructions?

WOODS: Not to sing the national anthem backwards.

FLORES: Shortly after reciting the a, b, c's, he's handcuffed, put in the back of a squad car -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, what I want you to do is go ahead and place your hand behind your back, OK?

FLORES: And charged with suspicion of DUI. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right, that was Rosa Flores reporting. The arraignment for Tiger Woods is on July 5th.

[09:44:59] All right, the Ohio attorney general says that drug makers use smooth talking glossy brochures to sell opioids. Now he is suing those companies for fueling the opioid crisis. We're going to speak to him next.

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BERMAN: All right, Ohio's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against five major drug companies. The suit claims that they fueled the opioid epidemic that led to, quote, "death waves." The Ohio attorney general, Mike DeWine, says the companies purposely misled doctors and consumers about the risks and effects of these drugs. More than 30,000 people died from opioid and heroin overdoses in 2015. In Ohio alone, opioid deaths jumped 36 percent between 2015 to 2016.

[09:50:01] HARLOW: So we reached out to all of those drug makers. Allergan told us it doesn't have a comment, Johnson & Johnson said, "we firmly believe the allegations and the suit are both legally and factually unfounded." Teva Pharmaceuticals said, "Teva believes that it is better for all concerned if the industry and public officials devote their resources to addressing the important public health issues relating to opioids rather than litigation." And Purdue Pharma told us, "we share the attorney general's concerns about the opioid crisis. We are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions." Dndo (ph) did not return our request for comment.

Joining us now is the attorney general of Ohio, Mike DeWine.

Thank you for being here.

MIKE DEWINE, OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning. Thank you.

HARLOW: Good morning.

So let's get to the evidence, because everyone agrees that the opioid crisis is real, it is urgent, it is devastating American families and claiming far too many lives. The question is who's to blame. So your lawsuit takes on big pharma, takes on the big drug makers, and it states that these companies overstated the benefits of prescription opioids and understated the risks. You say the evidence shows that they did this to boost profits and deceive physicians who were prescribing these. What's the core of the evidence there?

DEWINE: Well, this - this we will show in court when we go to court. There's been a consistent pattern year after year to really understate, you know, the danger. And they were leading physicians to believe that this product was not very addictive. They knew that that was simply not true.

The epidemic we have in Ohio is fueled primarily by the pain med problem. We think about three-fourths of the people who - at least three-fourths of the people who are on heroin started with pain meds. The same thing would be true with fentanyl and carfentanil. So it's not just the people who are dying in Ohio of overdose of the pain meds. It's what ultimately that leads to. They get them addicted, and then they move on from there.

So, you know, this is really cutting at the heart and soul of Ohio, you know. It is hard to describe the gravity of this problem. We have children's services who are overflowing in foster care with children because one or both parents are drug addicts. Fifty percent of all the kids in foster care in Ohio are there because one or both parents are drug addicts. We've got emergency rooms that are overflowing. We've got coroners who simply have run out of money and, you know, it's hard for them to even do the autopsies. It's hard for them to even find space. So it's a tragic problem.

BERMAN: Indeed. Yes, the numbers - and the numbers are devastating. The numbers are simply devastating, Mr. Attorney General. And some of the statistics you cite in your own suit, you know, in 2012, for instance, opioid prescriptions in Ohio, 68 pills a year for every resident, including children. That is staggering.

But as to the suit itself, why take it up with the manufacturers and not the distributors? Why not go after the people getting these drugs out there or the doctors or the hospitals prescribing them?

DEWINE: Well, we have not said we're not going to go after the distributors, but we looked at this evidence, I've looked at it very long and hard and made the decision that we clearly feel that we, you know, we have the evidence to prove this in court. And that's why we have filed.

What they - you have to understand, what they did is they targeted general practitioner doctors. That's who they went after. They did not really go after the pain specialists. They go to the people you and I would go in to see about any kind of problem. They set up basically fake groups or groups that they funded that were supposed to be impartial, very similar to what the tobacco industry did, and they funded them and these groups, of course, you know, were promoting the product and saying it's not very addicting. You know, their sales reps were going out and telling doctors, this is really not very addicting. So they -

HARLOW: Mr. Attorney General -

DEWINE: Grossly understated the danger.

HARLOW: Mr. Attorney General, not to interrupt, but we're running out of time and I want to get you on this.

DEWINE: Sure. Sure.

HARLOW: President Trump has promised - well, it was a big campaign promise, I will stem this - you know, I will stem this wave, this epidemic, I will help find a solution for this.

Looking at the Trump budget that's been proposed, it indicates that the Office of the National Drug Policy will receive cuts. And a recent "Politico" report notes that the 2018 budget proposal by the White House would slash funding significantly to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Those are the vehicles through which help comes to people in your state that is reeling right now. Would you support any cuts to either of those departments?

DEWINE: Well, we certainly need more help. And one of the things that Senator Portman has done and other senators have done is to pass a bill last year, very, very significant. We're starting to see the results of that as some money is coming back to Ohio.

So, no, everybody has to be involved in this fight. And one of the things that I said yesterday is the fact that we have filed this lawsuit against the five pharmaceutical companies should not in any way tell anyone in Ohio or anyplace else that we need to stop doing what we're doing. The story in Ohio is that while this tsunami continues to come, we've got people in many counties, many communities who are doing great work.

[09:55:16] BERMAN: Yes.

DEWINE: They need to keep doing that and we need to keep encouraging them to do that.

BERMAN: This is something that needs to be handled nationally as well. It's a national crisis. We all need to pitch in.

Attorney General Mike DeWine of Ohio, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate your time, sir.

HARLOW: Thank you.

DEWINE: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, we have some new pictures coming in right now. Check this out. A family photo of the U.S. Supreme Court. This is the first time they have been filmed sitting like this, the new Supreme Court with the new junior justice standing in the right in the back there, Neil Gorsuch. You can see all the junior justices standing in the back row with the Chief Justice John Roberts right there in the middle. They look like a happy family.

HARLOW: There you go.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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