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Dad Speaks to CNN About Son Killed on Navy Destroyer; Senate GOP to Reveal Health Care Plan Tomorrow; Pregnant Woman Shot to Death After Calling Police for Help. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 21, 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] DARROLD MARTIN, FATHER OF XAVIER MARTIN, DECEASED SAILOR: We talked maybe two hours on Sunday. And that was the first time I had smiled all that -- during all that, because we were exchanging stories, you know, and stories that he expressed to me and then she knew the other parts of the stories. So, fast forward to yesterday when he was out in Dover, I'm just sitting in the rocking chair, and her and I -- I mean, it was just a sense of calmness, and we talked for two hours, and during that time frame, I could -- it wasn't even like I was there. I can't even describe where I was. I was sitting in a rocking chair, just rocking.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Did you feel numb?

MARTIN: We were just reminiscing. I felt at ease, just talking to her.

BALDWIN: You did.

MARTIN: And then when the -- when the -- yes. And then when the chaplain came and said, OK, this is what we have to do, then it got real right then. And we went through the procedures, what we're going to do, and when the bus showed up to go over to the tarmac, it got really emotional. And then we pulled up to the tarmac and I saw the plane and you know, you could see one casket in there and it was draped with the flag and I could barely get off the bus. As a matter of fact, they gave me an option that I could stay on the bus and my mom was there, she says, no, you have to do this for Xavier. And they -- it was -- wow. It's phenomenal. Just the service that they had presented.

And he was the number two casket that came out, and all I can say was, just crying, just don't -- don't do this. Don't -- don't. And it was very difficult, very difficult, and then I inquired, okay, where are they going, and they were saying, well, they're going over to get prepped, and I just -- no parent should have to bury their child, and it's just very emotional. Very emotional. I can't -- I was telling the pastor there -- I'm sorry, the chaplain there, I don't deserve sunlight. I don't -- I don't deserve anything. He's my son. He's a hero in my eyes. He did all this and talking to his friends, because I -- he was my best friend, period, but I'm finding out now that every day there was not a day that I wasn't mentioned, saying that my dad is my best friend.

And so many people I've talked to over there, I mean, from different walks of life, and all of them have said the same thing. You were his world. It was so important that all the achievements were because of you. He wanted to make you just proud. That was -- that was his ambition. When he became e-6, he did it on his first try. I mean, he was a super nova. I mean, he was a bright, shining star. No one at his age makes e-6 the first time go around. And he did that for me. It was just so important that I was proud of him.

BALDWIN: Mr. Martin, you're choking me up just talking about him being your best friend. Forgive me.

MARTIN: Well, let me explain something.

BALDWIN: Forgive me.

MARTIN: I -- when he was born, I cut the cord, I held him before his mother did. I leaned -- I fell in love with him right then, and I leaned over and I whispered to him -- he was, what, 15 minutes old, if that much, and I leaned over and I whispered to him, I would never leave you. And I realize it was just a body response with him, but he grabbed the -- with his right hand, he grabbed the tip of my right pinky and the bond was there. It was there, period. You know, it -- two months later, we were at the mall together, pampers, strollers, there was no place that he couldn't go -- where I couldn't go that he couldn't go with me, you know, other than job-wise or what have you. But still. He was my best friend.

BALDWIN: Mr. Martin, I just want to --

MARTIN: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

[015: 35:00] BALDWIN: MARTIN: No, no, I just really wanted to spend quite a bit of time with you because I think the nation and the world needs to know about your son. So, thank you.

MARTIN: Absolutely. I want the nation to know.

BALDWIN: Thank you. We'll be right back.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Republican leaders in the Senate want to hold a vote on their health care bill by next week, but exactly what's in the bill, that's the big question. Far the bill has been drafted entirely behind closed doors but Republican leaders promise details are coming soon. Senator John Cornyn says starting tomorrow all the anxiety surrounding the bill's secrecy will, quote, evaporate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN, TEXAS: A working draft will be released tomorrow. I think all of the concerns people have had about the process will evaporate. Because I think there will be unlimited opportunity for people.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: With me now from the White House, Mark Lauder, a special adviser to the President. He's also the press secretary for the Vice President, Mike Pence. Mark, nice to have you on, sir. Welcome.

MARK LAUDER, SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for having me, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, let's begin with health care. You know, Republicans are getting hammered for keeping this whole process, this bill a secret. Have you or has the President actually laid eyes on the bill?

LAUDER: Well, I think what the important thing is that we focus on the end result, and that is something that the President has been talking about --

BALDWIN: Hang on. If I may, could you just answer the question? Have you or has the President seen the bill? Before we move on.

LAUDER: Well, what I'll tell you is that the vice President has been in meetings every week for many weeks now almost every week, he meets with all 52 Republican senators in the Senate. They've been talking about the fine points of the health care legislation, even before this passed the house, they were already talking about opportunities and the ways that they might be handling things in the Senate so this has been a very open process for all of the Senate in terms of putting their input in and what we're going to see in the next few days is you're going to see a very hope and thorough process. Are we delivering on promises to improve access for people and today as we find out one of the largest insurers in the country, Indiana and Wisconsin, Indiana being the home state of Anthem, it is clear this is a rescue mission.

BALDWIN: I would rather talk specifics but let's talk about what we do. And what we do know is that Medicaid and benefits for disabled low-income children and the elderly even have it harder in this iteration of the bill than the house bill. I know you guys say that President wants heart in this bill, that's what we heard from Sean Spicer yesterday. But is it -- is what we're talking about now the opposite of heart.

LAUDER: I think what you're going to see in this bill is you're going to see that the federal government is going to give the states the flexibility to design health care systems for the neediest, for those low-income people, that can suit the needs of the people in those states. As the Vice President did when he was governor of Indiana, they used that flexibility to provide an innovative, healthy Indiana plan that provided consumer choice, it provided a sense of ownership, and actually improved health care access to people while also making sure that those who could afford to pay did so just a little bit and those who couldn't afford it, they had their needs covered as well.

BALDWIN: All right. We'll wait to get more details on that come tomorrow when we'll be able to learn more about it. But mark, let me ask you about other news items of the day. Your own administration says Russia meddled in the election. You got intel chiefs, previous and current saying that entire intelligence community says Russia meddled in the election. Why won't the President acknowledge the same?

LAUDER: The President addressed this back in January. I know Sean Spicer said that he was going to be checking in with the President.

BALDWIN: In January, he said, that that big press conference, has he definitively said yes, it's Russia? Because I don't think he has.

LAUDER: I'd refer you to what the President said in January. I also know that --

BALDWIN: I checked the transcript.

LAUDER: Having continuing conversations with the President but you'll see. As opposed to looking backwards.

BALDWIN: Hang on. Before we move on, hang on. Does the President believe Russia meddled in the Presidential election?

[15:45:00] LAUDER: I would tell you that the President addressed that in January and while many people are trying to look backwards, and we've even had a number of Democratic senators and other major media outlets saying when you talk to the voters out there, this is not what they're focused on.

BALDWIN: But Mark, this isn't looking backward. This isn't looking backward. This is diplomacy. This is protecting the nation from future hacks.

LAUDER: The President is taking action through the voter integrity commission that is going to be chair bid the vice President that is looking at ways to make sure that we have integrity in our system and as you heard in testimony today, there is no evidence that any vote or any vote totals were altered in the 2016 election, so now's the time for us to come together as Americans, this voter integrity commission will have secretaries of state who run elections at a statewide level on a bipartisan basis, looking for ways that we can move forward to making sure that we're protecting our systems in the future, but again, that's what this white house is doing under President Trump, looking forward, health care, jobs, the economy, not looking back and trying to relitigate things that have taken place six months and years ago.

BALDWIN: I'm with you looking forward, but I think it starts with acknowledging the problem. Let me move on. John McCain says North Korea murdered, was his word, this 22-year-old American student, Otto Warmbier. Does the President agree with that?

LAUDER: What I would tell you that the President and the white house have expressed their outrage over the treatment and the untimely passing of Mr. Warmbier. And what we're now focused on is making sure that we're continuing to work with the global community and taking the steps necessary that are going to seek lasting changes in the North Korean regime. The fact of the matter is, this is something that we've been focused on since the President took office. Vice President Pence was in South Korea meeting with our leaders just about a month and a half, two months ago, all across the Asia Pacific, bringing the kind of pressure and bringing unity in the Asian Pacific community so that we can deal with the very real threat that is North Korea.

BALDWIN: When, Mark, will the President make his announcement about the tapes?

LAUDER: I would just refer to you what Sean has said that. That's a decision that the President will be making forthcoming and when that time comes, that's -- that will be a decision he announces then.

BALDWIN: Jackie Spears says he's made the whole thing up. Is that even a possibility?

LAUDER: I'm not going to get into addressing speculation and rumors and those kinds of things. I'll just tell you that as Sean has said from the white house behind me on many, many occasions, when the President's ready to make his decision, he will announce that to the American people. But once again, here we are focusing on the past when the President and the administration is looking ahead at the things that really matter to the American people.

BALDWIN: He brought it up. He brought it up.

LAUDER: Well, what I would tell you is that what we're focused on right now is cutting taxes, the speaker, the Vice President yesterday talking about moving real tax reform, cutting tax rates for people across the board and corporations, later this year, health care is on the stage for this summer. So, there's a many positive things that are going on in the administration right now and those are the things that are actually resonating out in America with American people sitting around their dining room tables.

BALDWIN: Mark Lauder, thank you for the time.

LAUDER: Thank you, Brooke.

Coming up next, a pregnant mother of four shot and killed by Seattle police after she called to report a burglary. Officers claiming she had a knife. You'll hear the dash cam audio of this tragic incident and be the judge for yourself.

[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A pregnant Seattle mother calls police to report a burglary, but moments after they respond to her call, she ends up shot and killed by those same officers. Investigators say Charleena Lyles was armed with a knife when this confrontation erupted and the family grief stricken and outraged that officers resorted to lethal gunfire. They say they previously told the police that she suffered from mental illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONIKA WILLIAMS, SISTER OF WOMAN KILLED BY SEATTLE POLICE: What are you doing? I could take her down, I know you can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could have tased her, anything. She's no threat! She's no threat! (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Last night hundreds of people marched the streets with Lyles' family, calling for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: I appeal to you, regardless of your race, let's stand together with Charleena's family.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Our community deems this to be murder and we expect the government to treat it as such.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Say her name!

PROTESTERS: Charleena!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Stephanie Elam joins me now with the police dash cam audio with exactly what happened. Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you listen to it, Brooke, you can see how quickly this situation goes from them coming to her aid about a burglary and changing tones until shots are fired really quickly. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLICE DISPATCHER: You said an Xbox was taken.

CHARLEENA LYLES, WOMAN KILLED BY SEATTLE POLICE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED POLICE OFFICER: Get back! Hey! Hey! Hey, get back! Get back!

[15:55:00] ELAM: Really quickly, you can hear it change tones and you hear that the shots are fired there. What we do know now is that Seattle Police Department has released the name of the two officers who were involved in the shooting, Steven McNew and Jason Anderson. The police department also saying it's their policy for officers to carry other less lethal tools such as batons, pepper spray, tasers. But if you listen back to what we just heard on that part of the audio, you can hear one of the officers say "tase her" and the other officer said, "I don't have a taser."

When asked about these other tools they had on them, they said to go back to the transcript and to listen to that. Based on what you heard, it seems like there wasn't a taser available to them, and that's the issue for everybody hearing this story. Why was such lethal force used on a woman who was pregnant with her three children there in the apartment? If you listen to audio early on, Brooke, you can hear the two police officers say in her file she had an officer safety caution. The officer asked if she had a mental caution as well, and the other officer said no, but that goes against what her family is saying. A travesty for someone who has lost their life. A Go Fund Me page has been set up for Lyles' family, and at last check it was over $79,000.

BALDWIN: Stephanie, thank you very much.

Coming up next, the President has now been briefed about that stabbing of an airport police officer in Flint, Michigan. What we're learning about this attacker and any possible motive.

Representative Scalise is now listed in fair condition, which is a great sign, after being shot in the hip at that Congressional baseball practice. He is beginning, quote, an extended period of healing and rehabilitation. Moments ago, they posted this on twitter. Bono met with team Scalise staff today and signed get well soon cards for Steve and Capitol Police. We wish everyone well that was involved in that horrific shooting. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.