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Republican Handel Wins in Georgia; U.S. Weighs Options of Retaliation against North Korea; Uber Founder Kalanick Resigns as CEO; Many Senators frustrated with Closed Door Process; New Dashcam Video of Philando Castile Shooting; Queen Will Officially Open U.K. Parliament Wednesday. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 21, 2017 - 02:00   ET

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


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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Amara Walker.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And I'm John Vause here in Los Angeles. It has just gone 11:00 pm. Thank you for being with us. And the most expensive seat ever in the U.S. House of Representatives goes to Republican Karen Handel.

WALKER: Ninety-nine percent of the vote is counted in Georgia's 6th Congressional District and Handel has 51.9 percent. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff has 48.1 percent. Now analysts peg this race as a litmus test for President Donald Trump and he is gloating about the win.

VAUSE: Let's go to CNN Politics reporter Eric Bradner, live in Atlanta.

It seems like these numbers are tightening just a little bit.

Are we getting to the point where there could be some kind of recount here?

What's the law in Georgia?

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the law is Georgia is there could be a recount if it gets within 1 percentage point. But it looks like they're not going to get there.

We have all but one precinct in at this point out of 208 in the district. So it looks like this is the margin, about 4 percentage points, where this is going to hold. It looks like Karen Handel is going to remain the winner. Jon Ossoff called her and congratulated her on her victory this evening.

And he seems to be conceding the race, bowing out at this point. So this was a really big race for a lot of reasons. As you've said,

President Trump was sort of the big issue here. The question was whether Republicans would stick with the party in this heavily Republican district and continue to back him, continue back his party after his first five months in office.

That's why this became the most expensive House race in history. The two sides combined spent $50 million here, a number that could actually increase as we get some of the final tallies.

And here's what Karen Handel had to say tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN HANDEL (R-GA.), HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: I need to also thank Speaker Ryan and the House leadership and so many of the members across this country who united to help us hold the 6th. And a special thanks to the President of the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRADNER: Now Democrats badly wanted this seat. It's one that's been in Republican hands for decades.

But Hillary Clinton came close to beating President Trump in November, just 1.5 percentage points behind him and so they hoped that it might be one that could be winnable and could really give a boost to the anti-Trump resistance, the momentum within the party.

But that did not end up happening, in part because the Republicans were able to turn out their base and convince voters to stay with the party, even if they have some qualms with President Trump. Here's what Jon Ossoff had to say this evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON OSSOFF (D-GA.), U.S. HOUSE CANDIDATE: So this is not the outcome any of us were hoping for. But this is the beginning of something much bigger than us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRADNER: So here's the deal. Democrats have now gone 0 for 4 in special elections for House seats during President Trump's tenure.

Now these were all deep red districts, tough places for Democrats to win but now the party has to confront questions about what sorts of candidates it recruits and what messages they need to try to send in these districts in order to start winning some of these races, all while progressive activists who are really engaged start to wonder, when are Democrats going to finally start to win?

VAUSE: OK, Eric. Thank you. Eric Bradner there with the very latest from Atlanta on this special election.

WALKER: All right. Let's turn to our panel now. Joining us CNN's senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers,

and Politico's senior reporter, David Siders.

VAUSE: Also with us, Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman and CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, John Phillips.

Dave, I want to start with you because if we look at some of the numbers, it looks like these numbers are coming back. They're tightening a little bit, clearly the last hope that Democrats have that there may be a recount here; probably isn't going to happen.

But that percentage differential is 3.8 percent. And if you compare that to the result that Tom Price had last year, when he won this district by -- I think by more than 20 percent, I mean, the Democrats do have a good story to tell here, don't they?

DAVID SIDERS, POLITICO: In some way. They can argue that this is a Republican, long-standing Republican district and they came close. But at some point the Democrats have to own, I think, that they need a win. They need to put a win in the column. And I'm not sure that they have --

[02:00:00]

SIDERS: -- as much a good story after this election as they have a look inward and some kind of division that they need to reconcile. That's really the story coming out.

It's not a unified Democratic voice coming out. You see progressives making an argument, openly criticizing the candidate now. And so I think that's the murkier story that comes out and the one that I think is dominant.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would just add in these things aren't necessarily black and white. It's very convenient when they're black and white on cable news, unless of course we have a runoff and there's nothing that cable news loves more than a runoff.

But the fact of the matter here is that Democrats are making extraordinary gains on Republicans and so Republicans should be worried. They should be worried that, in a red district like Georgia's 6th, that we're even talking about a runoff this late in the evening.

On the other hand, Democrats should be worried that, despite all of Donald Trump's low approval ratings, despite the fact that he's a terribly unpopular president, despite the fact that there's a crisis of leadership among Republicans, that there's also a crisis of leadership among Democrats.

They need start thinking about putting out a better message, putting out stronger candidates.

WALKER: And they play these remarkable games, like you said, I mean, they're not winning, right?

And their record, the Democrats' record, 0 and 4, is pretty demoralizing.

Caroline, where do the Democrats go from here?

It sounds like they need to reinvent themselves, find a new direction for the party.

CAROLINE HELDMAN, OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE: Well, I think they need heal the division. We saw this big split emerge with the Bernie Sanders folks and the Hillary Clinton folks, the establishment folks versus the more kind of liberal or radical folks.

And at the end of the day, that's a split that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party both have. They both have radical wings; about 20 percent of each party is holding out and is not willing to have centrist candidates.

Although in this particular race, Ossoff is exactly the candidate that they needed to run. He needed to be centrist. It is incredible that he even came as close as he did.

So I'm not entirely sure they need to reinvent but I do think that maybe the resistance needs -- they need something else because what happened is we were going to marches every weekend.

And then, all of a sudden, this race holds a significance or an importance that it doesn't really hold. We're a 1.5 years out from the House races and we're using this to project.

And it's not symbolic, it's not representative of something but it does signal in all of the races that we're in Republican districts, signal that Democrats are making gains.

The question is, can they translate that into actual electoral victories come 2018?

VAUSE: I bet if he'd won, it would have been hugely symbolic and a bellwether for everything --

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BYERS: But that's part of the problem --

(CROSSTALK)

BYERS: -- the Democrats made this symbolic. He talked about it being a referendum on Donald Trump. Strategically, maybe, the idea was not to make the big referendum on Donald Trump a race in a die-hard Republican district.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: -- the money (INAUDIBLE).

Just on the issue of -- the direction of the Democratic Party, and you've raised this as well ,Democrat representative Seth Moulton put this out on social media a short time ago. "Ossoff writes better be a wakeup call for Democrats. Business as

usual isn't working. Time to stop rehashing 2016 and talk about the future. We need a genuinely new message, a serious jobs plan that reaches all Americans, and a bigger tent, not a smaller one. Focus on the future."

John, I think that message or that -- you know, moving the party closer to the progressive side of the Bernie Sanders side of the party, how would the Republicans react to that?

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think they'd be fine with it because they already have the all people that want Donald Trump impeached. The people that they need to bring into their tent, if they're going to start winning these elections, are people that don't like Donald Trump but voted for him because they couldn't stand Hillary Clinton.

And they're doing the exact opposite of that. Politics is about coalition building. You look at coalitions that have worked for the Democrats over the years. FDR's coalition lasted for decades. Obama's coalition in 2008 led Democrats to believe that this was going to be a lasting coalition that would keep them as the governing party for decades.

And it worked for Obama in 2008; it worked for Obama in 2012. It fell apart in the 2010 midterm elections, it fell apart in 2014 and it's fallen apart in all of these special elections this year. And that should worry Democrats a lot.

WALKER: Why don't you think Jon Ossoff's candidacy or his message not work this time around, David?

I mean, he took a centrist position, hoping not to alienate disillusioned Republicans.

SIDERS: I'm not sure that his message didn't work. I mean, I'm not sure what to blame the loss on. It's a few percentage points, it's a couple of years out from the midterm. So I don't know if it was a message issue or if it was a -- I hate to say it on a panel -- a turnout issue.

But you do hear from progressives. Their argument is that clearly it wasn't strong enough and that he needed to do more to rally the base. And that -- I think that's the -- really the question that I can't answer and, if I did, I'd be paid more to work for the Democratic Party. I'm not.

BYERS: Well, I do think -- I think this is right. It might be that the message wasn't the issue.

[02:10:00]

BYERS: It might be that the district was the issue and then it becomes a question about the strategic efforts of the Democrats as a whole. And the question is we're all up, every single cable news channel is up talking about this right now. This is going to be the front page of all of tomorrow's papers, the big question about the referendum on Trump.

Did we -- did -- was the expectation about this election set too high?

And that's a question for Democrats.

Do you need to think more strategically?

Do you need to -- is it hubris on the part of Democrats to think that you can win in these elections?

And are you setting impossible goals for yourself?

And, therefore, are you ceding the narratives to Republicans, such as everybody in the Trump inner circle, who tonight tweeted -- you know, Democrats are 0-4 --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: You mean like Kellyanne Conway, who put this out, "Thanks to everyone who breathlessly and snarkily proclaimed Georgia's 6th is a referendum on President of the United States. Donald Trump, you were right. #winning."

But Caroline, here is -- there was a catch-22 by making it a referendum on Donald Trump. Jon Ossoff raised $26 million or more to Karen Handel's $4.5 million. So the money came pouring in but it seemed to be a blessing and a curse.

HELDMAN: Absolutely. And I would just point out that certainly one factor here is that he was so easily painted as an outsider candidate. As soon as you found that he didn't live in the district, for me, I was like, OK, this race is over.

How can he possibly even be as close as he is?

And you saw his poll numbers, Ossoff's poll numbers go from about a 7 percent lead, shrink down to nothing.

But at the end of the day, this was a local race. As much as we in California or New Yorkers wanted to make it a national race, both candidates ran away from Donald Trump. Ossoff initially went after Donald Trump and said this is going to be a referendum. And then he stopped talking about him.

Karen Handel, barely had him there for a fundraiser and you didn't -- you barely knew about it. She did not invoke his name. So for locals, this, I think, was much more about partisanship than it was for Donald Trump. And the proof of that is that Karen Handel's much more popular in that district than Donald Trump.

WALKER: So both candidates are running away from President Trump.

Is this a huge win for the Trump administration, even though the Republican candidate won?

PHILLIPS: Oh, absolutely. And I think if you look on Twitter, you'll find that they're very happy to pat themselves on the back on that.

But Donald Trump has a unique ability to speak to the people who are in the room and the Democrats have shown an inability to do that. Jon Ossoff is the perfect candidate for Democratic donors. But he's a guy who worked for Al Jazeera, who doesn't live in the district, who is running for Congress in Georgia.

That's not going to fly there. And they didn't seem to pick up on that before.

VAUSE: He doesn't work for Al Jazeera. He made a documentary, which was sold to Al Jazeera. I mean, this is part of the smear campaign that the Republicans ran against him.

BYERS: That's right. I think -- I think the important point here is that --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE) Al Jazeera --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- by Al Jazeera for a video.

(CROSSTALK)

BYERS: By the way, the point about outsiders, at the end of the day, all the donors in California and New York and Massachusetts, at the end of the day, the people voting are the people who live in the 6th district of Georgia. People don't like carpetbaggers, to your point. People don't like the perception that the support is coming from the outside. They want somebody who's a hero for them, who's a hero for them on the inside and that turned out to be the Republican and not the Democrat.

WALKER: So what's the way forward?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- candidate, right? Karen Handel was a solid candidate --

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: -- third time lucky, wasn't it?

You know, she tried for the governor and then she tried for the Senate.

HELDMAN: And she had high name recognition. And, you know, I'm frankly happy to see a woman in that position, the first Republican to go to Congress from Georgia. I mean it's 240 years of our democratic republic and we have 18 percent women in the House and the Senate.

So, in some ways, this is a big win for women, Republican women tonight.

BYERS: Sure. But you ask what the strategy is going forward. First of all, run people that actually live in the districts and focus on districts that you can actually win. There are enough districts, by the way, come 2018 for Democrats to take the House back if they're strategic.

VAUSE: Well, they need 24 and Clinton came within 5 percent of 23, I think (INAUDIBLE) I think.

But, David, what really struck me about what the Republicans did was how they essentially tied Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the lower house, to Ossoff in a really negative, bad way.

SIDER: It's really remarkable this still works. It's been years that this is going on. And it does.

And so we can talk about how local voters in districts vote the district and they vote the candidate there. But there's a reason that people spending lots and lots of money nationalizing the campaign. And it's because those people know that those messages are many times effective and clearly we saw that. She had a setback tonight.

WALKER: What do you think -- what about the congressional baseball shooting that happened last week, Dylan?

Do you think that had any impact on this race, considering that the shooter was apparently a liberal and had worked on Bernie Sanders' campaign as a volunteer?

BYERS: Well, I think it would be extraordinarily hard to infer that it had any effect whatsoever. The hope is that something that tragic would sort of bridge the partisan divides and the mudslinging that's gone on in our politics. And indeed, that's what we saw Speaker Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi try to do. I don't know if it had any effect, any more so than the last time we were talking about --

[02:15:00]

BYERS: -- a special election; the Republican candidate body slamming a reporter had any effect on the election. What I do think is important here -- and I'm sure it's a pointed John can speak to as he's spoken to often, is Nancy Pelosi, is this question of the Democratic leadership.

At what point do the Democrats need a new face?

VAUSE: How old is the combined age of the Democratic leadership right now?

PHILLIPS: Oh, boy. Nancy Pelosi is up there, Jim Clyburn is up there, Steny Hoyer is up there.

VAUSE: Compared to the Republicans with very young leadership right now. PHILLIPS: And that's counter to their base. Their base consists of minorities, young people, single women. And then you look at the leadership that they have in the House of Representatives and it's people who are pushing 80. And sometimes that message doesn't connect with their base. And it certainly didn't today.

BYERS: There's a good way to think about it. The next time there's a grassroots march, protest, rally among Democrats, who is the leader in Congress who could go up there and step up to the podium and give a speech that would appeal to all of them while not alienating the more moderate wing of the Democratic Party ?

I don't know who that --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can't think --

BYERS: -- I don't know who that Congress man or --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because there isn't one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elizabeth Warren?

BYERS: No, she'd alienate the moderate wing. I mean, that's the issue --

VAUSE: Well, whoever that person -- whoever that emerges to be that person is likely to be the candidate --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Gillibrand --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Debbie Wassermann Schultz thought it was going to be her.

VAUSE: Who's that?

PHILLIPS: Debbie Wassermann Schultz thought it was going to be here.

VAUSE: Yes, I'm sure. OK.

WALKER: All right, we're going to leave it there.

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: About a good many things.

WALKER: All right, thank you, guys. We'll be back with you all in just a moment.

When we come back, soldiers in Brussels fired volleys of bullets to bring a terrorist attack to an abrupt end. Next, what witnesses heard a man yell before he set off his explosives.

VAUSE: Plus anger is growing over the death of an American student who was sent back from North Korea in a coma. Now the U.S. is weighing its options for possible retaliation.

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[02:20:00]

WALKER: Belgian soldiers shot and killed a man suspected of trying to bomb the Brussels' Central Station. No word on the identity of the suspect but authorities are treating this as a terrorist attack.

VAUSE: No one was injured and witnesses say the suspect yelled Islamist slogans before setting off at least one small explosion in an underground area of the crowded station.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When I walked down the platform, there was a man screaming and screaming and screaming. He was talking about jihadis and things like that. At some point, he screamed, "Allahu akbar," and detonated this small suitcase he was holding next to him.

Then people started to escape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: No comment from officials on whether or not the suspect yelled, "Allahu akbar" or "God is greatest." Prosecutor's office has said the soldiers moved in quickly and neutralized the suspect.

WALKER: The U.S. is weighing its options against North Korea after the death of an American student imprisoned there for more than a year; 22-year-old Otto Warmbier died on Monday, less than a week after he was sent home in a coma.

VAUSE: With three Americans still detained in North America (sic), the Trump administration may have limited options in its response. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump expressing his personal anger over the death of American college student Otto Warmbier.

TRUMP: It's a terrible disgrace what happened to Otto. That should never, ever be allowed to happen.

TODD (voice-over): The pressure is now ramping up on the Trump administration to retaliate against North Korea for Warmbier's death.

TODD: Was this now a red line incident with North Korea?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime there's a death involving North Korean actions, it does cross a red line. TODD (voice-over): A military strike against Kim Jong-un's regime, analysts say, is too dangerous an option. Kim might retaliate by firing his missiles at Seoul, at Japan or he could attack the 28,000 American troops in South Korea. But a cyber attack on Kim's growing missile program could be an option.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There may be attacks, yes, we can take on missile launches. There may be attacks we can take on the command and control center to send a signal to North Korea. You will not see the result of that. But Kim Jong-un will.

TODD (voice-over): Experts say hacking the regime's internal calls and emails and putting them out in public is a possible retaliatory move. The U.S. and the U.N. have economic sanctions already in place against North Korea, targeting luxury goods and imports and exports, which help Kim's military.

Those could be expanded. But what could hurt North Korea more, analysts believe, is if the U.S. applies so-called secondary sanctions against Kim's chief ally, China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty well known that there are an extensive set of Chinese entities that help North Korea evade those arm sanctions by the United Nations. We've had a limited number of cases where we have gone after Chinese firms for those reasons. We could greatly expand that number.

TODD (voice-over): President Trump now signaling he believes China's efforts with Kim Jong-un have fallen short, tweeting, quote, "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi and China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried."

The administration says it's looking at a possible ban on American tourists traveling to North Korea to ensure no other Americans meet Warmbier's fate. Experts say the administration has to be careful in its response so it doesn't put the three Americans currently being held by North Korea in any more danger.

But the president, they say, likely has to show he's doing something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he fails to send a clear, visible signal after the death of a young American in the hands of this North Korean regime, he will be seen as lacking credibility. He'll be seen as weak around the world.

TODD: Experts say one broad stroke move that could hurt Kim Jong-un financially is if the U.S. pressures countries in the Middle East and elsewhere to expel North Korean laborers. Experts say there are tens of thousands of North Koreans working construction jobs and similar jobs all over the world. And they bring in hundreds of millions of dollars; most of it, they say, goes right into the pockets of the regime --Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: There's been a royal shakeup in Saudi Arabia as the king replaces the sitting crown prince with his own son. The Saudi monarch stripped Mohammed bin Nayef of his royal title on Wednesday, named deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman as the first in line to the throne. Bin Nayef was relieved of all positions, including interior minister.

WALKER: In addition to becoming Saudi Arabia's next ruler, Mohammed bin Salman also picks up the role of deputy prime minister and will continue his duties as defense --

[02:25:00]

WALKER: -- minister.

VAUSE: The former crown prince pledged allegiance to his replacement on Wednesday. Mohammed bin Salman then kissed the hand of his predecessor in a show of respect and humility.

WALKER: "The New York Times" is reporting a major shakeup in the business world as well. Travis Kalanick, who helped found ridesharing Uber, has stepped down as CEO after a shareholder revolt. He will reportedly stay on the board of directors.

VAUSE: Kalanick took an indefinite leave of absence last week after overseeing a disastrous series of PR nightmares, including sexual assault allegations within the company, a host of legal battles, a viral video Kalanick berating one of his own drivers.

With that, we will take a short break.

Senate Republicans could be introducing their health care bill soon. When we come back, we'll discuss the revision process, which has left both Democrats and Republicans wanting a lot more details. Back in a moment.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN HANDEL (R-GA.), HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: Tonight, I stand before you, extraordinarily humbled and honored at the tremendous privilege and high responsibility that you and the people across the 6th District have given to me to represent you in the United States House of Representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:30:05] VAUSE: Well Karen Handel there, the winner of that special election. More now in our breaking news out of the State of Georgia, CNN projecting Karen Handel has won that special congressional election for the 6th district. Democrats have hoped that the young upstart Jon Ossoff could the deal the White House its first election defeat since Donald Trump took off.

WALKER,OST: But Handel came out on top by almost 4 percentage points. The race took on a huge national profile as potential bellwether for 2018 midterms. Both sides poured tens of millions of dollars into what became the most expensive House race ever.

VAUSE: Well as the House has a new amendment, the health care bill it passed to the Senate could be reemerging soon. Republican leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to unveil a discussion draft on Thursday.

WALKER: The House nearly passed legislation to repeal Obamacare in early May, since then lawmakers have heard from their constituents and many of them hate the bill.

The Senate is now rewriting it and that is happening largely behind closed doors. Democrats and even some Republicans are frustrated by the secrecy, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you see -- what have you seen of the (inaudible)?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I haven't seen it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that problem?

MCCAIN: Oh no, never a problem. No, of course not, I always like to move forward with legislation that I haven't seen. That's one of the practices I have enjoyed around here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you get anymore clarification today sir?

MCCAIN: We have lots of conversations. Every lunch we have conversations. We have more and more conversations. It's wonderful the conversations we have.

(OFF-MIC)

MCCAIN: I haven't seen it, how can I put my support behind it if I haven't seen it? I know how frustrating that is to you but I haven't seen it. So how can I -- how can I just come down on something that I haven't seen?

SEN. MIKE LEE, (R) UTAH: It's not being written by us, it's apparently being written by a small handful of staffers for members of the republican leadership in the Senate. So, if you're frustrated by the lack of transparency in this process, I share your frustration. I share it wholeheartedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: All right, joining us now, CNN's senior reporter for media and politics Dylan Byers and Politico Senior Reporter David Siders.

VAUSE: Also with us Democratic strategist Caroline Heldman along with CNN political commentator and Trump supporter John Phillips. Dylan, classic John McCain.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, a little more so.

VAUSE: Yes. But, you know, clearly he's feeling the frustration along with a lot of Democrats. And compare what Obama did when they were passing Obamacare, the channels, the meetings, you know, the public hearings, they just seem to go on forever. This is a very different process right now.

BYERS: It's extraordinarily different process. And the lack transparency is extraordinarily troubling. When you're talking about something that's going to affect the lives of so many millions of Americans, you should not be trying to rush this through by doing it in secret and then passing it at the last minute before everyone has time to sort of review what the Congressional budget office report that hopefully will come out before they hopefully vote on this bill before July 4th.

I mean the issue here -- it's so convoluted. On the one hand you have Senate republicans doing this in secrecy because they're afraid of opposition from Democrats certainly and other Republicans. Even among the ranks of the Senate GOP who are working on that bill, there's disagreement over opioids, over Medicaid. I mean this whole this is has been such a disaster, and what's at risk here most importantly of course are the health care of millions of Americans, but then too you're risking the reputation of the president of the United States who's not going to have a health care bill to repeal Obamacare which is one of the great promises of his campaign.

WALKER: John is this the right way to do things in secrecy, drafting this health care bill?

JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well that's how the sausage gets made and you just played a clip from the vegan caucus. Very much opposed to that. I'm not --

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'm not a big fan of the bill. I don't like the fact that it's being written the way it's being written but it is politics. And right now Mitch McConnell and his colleagues are trying to figure out how to come up with something that will fix the problems that are there with Obamacare, that their people can go out and sell when they're running for reelection.

VAUSE: And Caroline, this is a plan which Donald Trump reported described as being mean, which is now being rewritten, but for Mitch McConnell the result in Georgia was pretty good news, it's a bit of a circuit breaker for the GOP. And now means the health care can continue on, you know, the way that it was going.

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: And you're right that -- actually did make this an issue. So they didn't make Donald Trump really an issue in the election although I don't know if you can have an election where he's not an issue. But she did run on being supportive of his plan.

With that said, I'll be critical of how Obama passed the Affordable Care Act.

[02:35:04] There's a lot of secrecy there too and they ended up -- even though they have public forums they ended up passing it in a way that I really didn't like, they bent some of the Senate rules. What we see now is way beyond that, and there's a reason for that, because when it came out of the house, 17 percent of Americans supported it, fewer than one in five. And having the President say it's mean and having John McCain, you know, curmudgeon, talking about how he doesn't like the way it's being done.

At the end of the day this isn't a health care bill, right? A health care bill offers or extends health care to people. What this does is according to the CBO in the last plan, takes it away from about 20 million people and gives the wealthiest Americans a tax break. So there is a very good reason they're doing this in secret, but that should be a red flag for millions of Americans.

WALKER: It's interesting that when you talk about the secrecy behind Obamacare, when that bill was drafter because Mike Pence when he was governor at that time was complaining about it, he tweeted about that, and now you have Republicans kind of doing the same thing.

PHILLIPS: What's the old saying, where you stand depends on where you sit, and right now the Republicans are in the position of power and so they're doing it in secret. And look, ultimately if the voters aren't happy with the package that they put out, it's going to be a problem in the midterms. So they better figure out before the Senate takes this thing to the President and passes whatever bill they're going to pass.

They have to be able to say this going to be significantly better than Obamacare and the people that are going to vote for them are going to have to buy into it.

VAUSE: And David, McConnel won't bring this to a vote unless he's got the numbers right. And he just want to, you know, back to the House as quickly as possible.

DAVID SIDERS, POLITICO SENIOR REPORTER: I think it's going to a vote. And just to the secrecy point, I'll say we should at least acknowledge that tactically it seems to have done him an advantage. That this bill is moving more quickly than people might have thought before. And so, if you're a Republican who wants repeal and replace, I'm not sure that voters on election day in 2018 are going to care about transparency and openness as much as journalist (ph) for example. Tactically this seems to be a win.

BYERS: I do think though that if he fails to get the numbers, and it only takes three Republican senators, they're going to look back on the fact that this was done in transparency and look at it as an example of Republican ineptitude.

VAUSE: That's true. I think it comes down to failure or success though and it's whether Republicans and this districts can say we got this done or didn't. WALKER: The devil is in the details, I mean how difficult, Dylan, is it going to be for Republicans to come up with a bill that the constituents will be happy with, without alienating another group or those getting angry.

BYERS: Well I think it will be extraordinarily difficult, and I only say that because there were so much, you know, opposition among Republicans to Obamacare before you had a replacement, but now there's been enough time where there are enough voters, Republicans, independents who look at Obamacare, they look at how many people will loose insurance without Obamacare, with the repeal of Obamacare. And at a certain point they have to question whether or not they're really against it based off of what it would do to them and what it would to their insurance.

And again before it even gets to the voters it's a questions whether or not you get those senators who decide that they're not willing to even risk to vote.

VAUSE: You know, (inaudible) basically on, you know, the President's timetable and the agenda, so that, you know, come Halloween, the end of the year you can look up and there's actually some runs on the board because right now there's not a lot of runs on the board.

HELDMAN: I think you're absolutely right. In fact the July 4th date is the one that's been put out. But at the end of the day it might be a win for the President but wow will this hurt Republicans if 26 million Americans, which was the estimate from the last, the CBO report from the last proposal is they don't have health insurance and Trump's area, Trump districts will be hit the hardest. That will certainly have an effect in the 2018 elections. It's bad policy and it's also bad politics. So it might be a win for Trump but it makes it really hard for congressional Republicans.

WALKER: John, what's your prediction? Will the lawmakers come up a bill that the lawmakers will sign on to and bill this out to the public?

PHILLIPS: I think they'll ultimately come up with something. What that something is, I don't know. They want a big -- by that I mean the White House. They want a big legislative victory, they've had some executive orders, they got, you know, gore (ph) through. However, I don't think this is the Achilles heel, I don't think this is the one thing that could potentially cause him tons of problem with this -- tons of problems with his supporters.

If he doesn't build the wall or he gets another Supreme Court pick and it puts someone on there that's not from that list, that's a problem. This is in a lesser category.

VAUSE: This is called a segue because John McCain also said, no American has seen the health care bill but he's sure the Russians have gotten their hands unto it. Then brings us to the Donald Trump's latest polling numbers, 36 percent, I think it is, the lowest ever according to CBS, approval rating. And so -- but in those numbers are also, essentially what's dragging them and it's the way he's handling the investigation into the Russia issue, collusion, 63 percent disprove of the way the President is handling that investigation.

[02:40: 12] So, Dylan clearly this language isn't going to go away for the forceable future, Mueller meets with Congressional leaders later this week, I think maybe Thursday or tomorrow, I'm not so sure.

So, Trump, you know, theirs is continual distractions despite his win in Georgia tonight. There's still these distractions, Michael Flynn, the Russia investigation --

BYERS: Right.

VAUSE: Everything he has to deal with.

BYERS: No, extraordinary distractions, and look he will certainly see many of Trump supporters say, look, this is just the media distracted with the Russia, this is sort of a media conspiracy to take down Trump, media and Democrats working in collusion.

The fact to the matter is there is so much smoke, there are so many questions, there's so much continued secrecy from this administration about the Russia connections, a failure to answer fundamental questions that could sort of clean all this up. You know, day after day after day with an investigation like this going on it begun to sort of eat away at -- not just the sort of reputation of the United States, it begins to eat away at this effectiveness in getting anything else done.

And at a certain point, look, there are more voters out there who are not paying attention to all of these discussions that are being had in Washington, but there are enough out there who thing -- OK, this guy said he was come in, and this guy said he was gong to be different. This guy went really hard on Hillary Clinton on the grounds that she might be subjected to an FBI investigation.

At what point -- at what point can is this guy, under so much scrutiny that he's trying to get anything done.

VAUSE: David, which is essentially why again there's so little to show for the first five months of the presidency, yeah?

SIDERS: Clearly has been a distraction. I'd say gong forward I'm not sure that voters, even if it's a reason that it's dragging down the President's polling numbers, I'm not sure that voters going to the polls consider Russia their top line issue. I think it's more likely to be jobs and the economy.

WALKER: As we saw in the Georgia election.

VAUSE: It's been a long marathon night so thanks to everybody for sticking with us.

WALKER: Thank you very much for the discussion. VAUSE: 11:22 here in Los Angeles.

WALKER: We'll have some mornings to come. A police involved shooting in the Minnesota sparking protest across the U.S. And now chilling images of that deadly incident has just been released. Stay with is we'll have more.

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[02:46:20] WALKER: A warning now, the police video you are about to watch in our next report is quite graphic. It has just been released and shows the chilling moments leading up to the fatal shooting of Philando Castile.

VAUSE: There was a big public outcry after a jury acquitted the Minnesota officer involved in the case.

CNN's Ryan Young has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir I have to tell you I do have load, firearm --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Newly released dash cam video showing the crucial moment that lead up to this deadly encounter last July.

WALKER: You shoot four bullets into him sir. He was just getting hi license and registration sir.

YOUNG: The shooting of this man, 32-year-old Philando Castile by Saint Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez ignited nationwide protest over the use of force by police, after Castile's girlfriend Diamond Reynolds broadcasted the shooting horrific aftermath on Facebook last July.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God, please don't tell me he's dead.

YOUNG: Just after 9:00, July 6, in Falcon Heights, a small predominantly white neighborhood outside of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Officer Yanez stops Castile believing he resembled a suspect in a rubbery and had a broken brake light.

Diamond Reynolds is seated in the front passenger seat, her four-year- old daughter in the back seat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your break lights are out. Can I have your license and insurance?

YOUNG: Castile could be seen handing Yanez what prosecutors in the officer's trial say was his insurance card. But then telling the officer he also has a gun. The situation turning deadly in just seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir I have to tell you I do have load. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

WALKER: Firearm.

WALKER: OK, don't reach for it then.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[02:54:22] VAUSE: Well the U.K. parliament opens in just a few hours with the traditional Queen speech. The annual event comes less than two weeks after a snap election backed by Prime Minister Theresa May costing her party their majority in parliament.

WALKER: Let's go to CNN's Hannah Vaughan Jones, she is near the Houses of Parliament in London. Hi there Hannah.

HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there to both of you. Yes, this is the official ceremonial opening of the -- opening of the state parliament. Usually full of enormous amount of punts and ceremony, there will also be some of it but we're told that this year, this particular part of the parliament opening will be dressed down, paired back, if you like.

Why? Well officially, we're told because of logistics. The Queen's official birthday which is on Saturday where they have the trooping of the color, also, as you mentioned in the introduction there, we have just had the snap general election, so we're told they haven't been able to form the usual procession that we're used do each year.

So, what does that mean? Well, the Queen, for starters will be wearing a hat instead of the official crown. She will be wearing a day dress instead of a state robes and crucially she will make her way from Buckingham palace to the sovereigns entrance just behind the palace in Westminster in a car as opposed to a carriage.

The Queen's speech itself is expected to last around 10 minutes. There will be some of the traditional ceremonial parts we used to. For example, Black Rod the representative of the House of Lords will go to the commons door to summon M.P. to hear from the sovereign. He will have that door shoved in his face to start off with, and then everyone will pile through into the Lord's chamber to hear from her majesty.

As I said the speech itself expected to last around 10 minutes. After that parliament is now then formally in session. What happens then is that M.P. will get together and start a debate and there will be a vote on the Queen's speech and the contents of it next week the 29th of June.

Now that vote is usually a formality but not so this year, well why? Well because Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, she still doesn't have a formal functioning government. She of course lost her majority in a snap election that she called seven or eight weeks ago. So, we are still waiting to hear from the DUP, the Northern Irish party at what kind of confidence apply deal they have got. And then this Queen's speech is supposed to last for two years, which would then take in Brexit negotiations, but of course if there's another general election called in that period, we'll be all here again for another Queen's speech in the coming months potentially. Back to you guys.

VAUSE: Let's have another election, OK.

WALKER: Why not.

VAUSE: Thanks Hannah.

WALKER: All right, you are watching CNN News live from Los Angeles. I'm Amara Walker.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause. The news continues with Rosemary Church.

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