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At This Hour

McConnell Facing Resistance over Health Care Bill; Irish RT News Reporter Recalls "Bizarre" Oval Office Incident; Fake "Time" Cover Featuring Trump; 3 Chicago Officers Charges with Conspiracy. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired June 28, 2017 - 11:30   ET

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

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[11:33:50] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Delayed but not dead yet. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is back behind closed doors to try to hash out a new deal on health care by Friday. Can he do it? Can anyone do it? Who has the secret sauce at this point?

Let's bring in people with lots of secret sauce. Ana Navarro, CNN political commentator; Simone Sanders, CNN political commentator and former press secretary for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign. And with us also, former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, an advisory board member for President Trump's re-election campaign and a board member of the Independent Women's Forum.

Let's get to it.

Congresswoman, you're here so you get the first question. It's back to the drawing board of sorts for the Senate in trying to figure out what they're going to do. You have one Republican who they are trying to win over, who is Susan Collins. She puts it as tinkering is not going to do it. She needs a major rewrite of the bill. Do you think that's even on the table at this point? Do you see that as plausible?

NAN HAYWORTH, FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN & ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER, DONALD TRUMP'S RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN & BOARD MEMBER, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: Kate, I do, actually. I've been talking about it for a long time. There is a way for us to get the broader reforms that would really free up the marketplace in ways that would make a lot of the arguments about how this bill makes sense for people, put people back to work, make health care more affordable, health insurance more affordable, and protect those in need. Easier to make that when we can do some broader market reform. But with the reconciliation bill, because of the legislation being held up going to the floor, they are left with this --

(CROSSTALK)

[11:35:21] BOLDUAN: It's not necessarily Dems' faults. I mean, this is how Dems pushed it through.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: This is how Republicans are going to have to push it through. I mean --

HAYWORTH: Totally get it. Point being, that we are left with very narrow mechanism if we want to go through the regular Senate process. The American people shouldn't have to care about this. But it's there. Mitch McConnell, master tactician, could use parliamentary procedure to let a broader bill come to the Senate for a vote without needing to have 60 votes to get it to the floor.

#L: Can they get to 50 even though on anything at this point? I'm talking Republican versus Republican on this.

Ana, let me play for you what Mitch McConnell, what he had to say after they went over to the White House to meet with President Trump. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: It will be dealt with in one of two ways. Either Republicans will agree and change the status quo, or the markets will continue to collapse, and we will have to sit down with Senator Schumer. And my suspicion that any negotiation with the Democrats would include none of the reforms that we would like to make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I heard that yesterday, and I'm wondering, is that a threat or promise he is making to his own party?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's a little bit of both. But imagine, Kate, what kind of world we're living in where the threat of having to work on a national crisis issue in a bipartisan form is considered a threat. The horror of having to work across the aisle. The horror of having to work with Democrats in order to be able to solve what is an issue for so many Americans. That's exactly what should be done. Democrats should work with Republicans and Republicans should work with Democrats. This is what we are seeing. When the Democrats did it unilaterally, they came out with an imperfect product. Now the Republicans did it, they have come out with an imperfect product. Maybe just maybe, we should try to see what they can come up with together. That's what we sent them there for. We sent them there for --

BOLDUAN: It's this mythical thing called bipartisanship.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: It wasn't. I'm so old that the "C" word used to be different. Now it's compromise.

(LAUGHTER)

And I will tell you this, do not underestimate Mitch McConnell. Do not underestimate Donald Trump. This health care bill, this thing is like Jason on "Friday the 13th." Just when you think the damn thing is dead, it comes back to life to haunt you in your nightmares. BOLDUAN: Simone, top that. There's your question. No, wait.

SIMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I can't.

BOLDUAN: I heard this from a Democrat on the show today. He said, we're ready to negotiate. Do Democrats -- Democrats have some fault here, too. They're going to walk into Mitch McConnell's office and he will say, I don't want to hear your ideas?

SANDERS: He might. The fact of the matter is, Kate, Democrats want to negotiate. But Democrats are not here for repeal and replace. The Democrats are talking about we need to fix the current health care law and make it better. What the Republicans have done is put a bill on the floor that rips health care away from potentially 22 million people, penalizes folks who cannot afford insurance by not letting them have insurance for the next six months. That raises costs, a tax cut for the wealthy. That's not what the Democrats are talking about. That doesn't fix any of the problems that exist within our health care system. What needs to happen is folks need to honestly come to the table. But the Republicans haven't done that.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: If you talk to any conservative, this isn't close to repeal or else they would be on board and ready to vote for it.

I want to change topics. A little thing happened on the way to the Oval Office yesterday. It was a strange moment when reporters went in the Oval Office. Here is the president. He is on the phone with the -- with Ireland's new prime minister. Something seemed to catch his eye. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we have a lot of your Irish press watching us. They are leaving the room.

Where are you from? Go ahead. Come here. Where are you from?

We have all of this beautiful Irish press.

Where are you from.

CAITRONIA PERRY, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, RT NEWS: I'm from RT News.

TRUMP: RT. Oh, good.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Caitriona Perry. She has a nice smile on her face. So I bet she treats you well.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The reporter is a Caitriona Perry, the U.S. bureau chief of RT News. She later described the encounter as bizarre.

Simone, you get first crack at it. How would you describe it?

SANDERS: Let me tell you something. I would describe this as how Donald Trump always acts when there are women in the woman. It was condescending. It was creepy. Why is the president of the United States picking out reporters who just happen to be aesthetically pleasing and telling them they have a nice smile? It's just absolutely disgusting.

[11:40:12] BOLDUAN: Ana, awkward or kind?

NAVARRO: Kate, I have so many issues with Donald Trump, starting with his lying ways. The fact he ogles at women, I have come to accept as it is what it is. This is a guy, who ran beauty pageants, he likes women. This is the way he acts. He is a 70-year-old guy. Do I give him a pass for it? No. Out of the litany of issues that I think he is doing that is non-presidential, this goes on the bottom of the totem pole.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, final word on this.

HAYWORTH: The president has incredible charm and naturalness. This was just Donald Trump being President Trump, and also the kind of guy who will notice when someone has a lovely smile. I don't think there's any harm to it. I think it's another way of kind of bringing the world to a level of grace and reality in some ways.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I get final word.

You all have very nice smiles today. I'm just going to leave it there.

SANDERS: Never forget the president grabbed vaginas and talked about it.

BOLDUAN: I get last word. I get last word.

Great to see you guys.

(CROSSTALK)

SANDERS: -- Kate, put some order. It's your show, baby.

BOLDUAN: I'm just saying, nice smiles. I'm ending it there. Fine.

Great to see you.

Coming up, the president often slams media outlets as fake news. So why did a literal fake magazine cover featuring himself show up in more than one of his golf clubs? Coming up, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:46:06] BOLDUAN: Pop quiz. Can you tell which of these "Time" covers is real and which is fake? Time is up. It's the one of President Trump. Not only is it fake, but framed copies of it were found mounted on the walls of on several Trump properties. What's going on here?

CNN contributor and "Washington Post" reporter, David Fahrenthold, is behind the story. He's here with me now.

Great to see you, David.

DAVID FAHRENTHOLD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You, too.

BOLDUAN: How did you figure this out?

FAHRENTHOLD: Well, I happened to be at one of Donald Trump's golf courses. I happened to see this on the wall. It struck me right away there was something a little odd about it. The design is a little off. It doesn't look like a regular "Time" cover. Mostly the headlines. "Time" never writes a story that says, "Everything about this guy is great!" That was the whole them with this cover. There were two headlines about Donald Trump with exclamation points. It looked odd to me. I took a picture and I went to "Time magazine and I asked, is this real? Did do you this? Their answer was no.

BOLDUAN: How many covers have you found were there? How many properties?

FAHRENTHOLD: Well, so far -- we're still getting ones today. We found it at seven. Five in the U.S. and two overseas.

BOLDUAN: That's what is very striking to me. It's not one, which could be a mistake. It could be seven or more.

FAHRENTHOLD: More. That's what struck me about this, too. I don't know who made it or why. Why anybody -- whether Trump knew it was a fake or whether he thought it was real. Yes, one, if it was one, you think it was a gag gift, maybe it was a prop from "The Apprentice." I can account for one. But seven or more? That was a serious effort to reproduce it and frame it and send it to Scotland, Ireland, Mar-a- Lago, all over the Trump empire.

BOLDUAN: "Time" asked the Trump Organization to take them down. Do you know how many remain up?

FAHRENTHOLD: I don't know. We're trying to figure that out. I don't know. The Trump Organization has not responded at. The Trump organization has not responded to my questions about how this got there, who made it, why they made it or --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Or how long.

FAHRENTHOLD: How long --

BOLDUAN: Do you know how long they have been up?

FAHRENTHOLD: The date on the fake cover is 2009. You would have to assume it came from around then. It references real-time headlines that were from 2009. You would have to think it was created in 2009, 2010. But some of the clubs -- what was interesting is some of the clubs where it's hung up, were redecorated by Trump in the last couple of years. One opened again in 2014. This was not just something that they did once. It was something they kept doing and kept hanging up.

BOLDUAN: David, the context here is important, as you point out. This comes as a time of tension between this president specific and this White House and the press. The president, again, this morning was talking on the media, making claims of fake news out there. Is that irony, I wonder, then that he decorated the walls of his clubs with literal and physical examples of his own actual fake news?

FAHRENTHOLD: Fake news, right. To me, it shows how important -- this is something we already knew but it shows how deeply it goes. How important it is to President Trump to be loved and liked and praised by the media. We know that he attacks us as fake news. We also know he reads us and watches us more than anybody in the country. He cares so much about what the media says about him. In this case, either he ordered or somebody else ordered for him -- when he couldn't get press he wanted from "Time" magazine in 2009, he had the news faked. He had somebody make up a fake "Time" magazine and hung it up on the wall as if it was real. So it shows you sort of his relationship with the truth and also his need for the news media to approve of him.

BOLDUAN: It's just strange. It's just strange.

Great to see you, David. Thank you so much.

FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you.

[11:49:37] BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, President Trump now on defense after reports claim he doesn't have a handle on the details surrounding the health care fight. But didn't he run on that as well? He's not a details guy, he's a deals guy. What do the folks on Capitol Hill have to say? What does the White House have to say about that now?

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BOLDUAN: New details on the Laquan McDonald shooting death. Three officers, including one who is still on the force, have now being charged with conspiracy. You'll remember, 17-year-old McDonald was killed when Officer Jason Van Dike shot him 16 times in October of 2014. Van Dike pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Here we're going to show you dash-cam video from the shooting. It's become a focus of the case. Very difficult to watch. It shows McDonald walking away from police. He had a knife in his hand at the time. Officers said there was some lunging towards the officers. The video seems to dispute that. It seems to contradict a lot of what the police had to say happened that night. That has now become the focus of this investigation. CNN's Ryan Young is live from Chicago with more on this investigation.

Ryan, fill us in. What's the latest?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPODNENT: Kate, this is a tough story. This sent shockwaves through the community here. And there was protests. Protesters walking the streets, saying 16 shots and a coverup. I'll never forget people walking through the straights crying, saying they could not believe that a young man could be killed like this on the streets of Chicago. Since then there's been drastic changes to the Chicago Police Department that have been made.

But now we're seeing, as this investigation continues, this special prosecutor indicting these three officers. They're not only being charged with conspiracy but with obstruction of justice and official misconduct.

The conversation goes to what exactly happened, what we don't see in this dash cam. It says the three officers together tried to make sure that certain parts of the evidence never came to light by not interviewing witnesses who had a different account from the officers alleging that McDonald lunched at them with the knife and that he committed assault. That knife is only four inches long. You see, if you watch the entire video, of him fall to the ground and the shots continue.

This has been a case that has sent such shockwaves in the city, that we now know that Jason Van Dike, when he appeared in court this morning on a totally separate case, had to wear a bullet-proof vest because they're worried about his safety.

There's been drastic changes here in Chicago. There's a new superintendent in charge of the police department. There have been protocols put into place to make changes within. But people are still disgusted with this case, and especially the idea that there could have been some code of silence among officers that tried to make sure that certain parts of the evidence never came to light.

BOLDUAN: Ryan, when it comes to what they're indicted on now, what kind of jail time could they be looking at?

[11:55:05] YOUNG: We saw the felony charges. I think some of the counts even have 10 years associated with them, with a $25,000 fine. What we're also told is this investigation is continuing.

Something to remember is that more officers could be charged. These officers could also face more charges as this special prosecution looks into the entire bit of that night.

One thing to note when you watch that footage in the dash cam, there was no audio. And we figured out that the audio was actually turned off that night. So a lot of people are trying to go back and trying to figure what protocols should be put in place. We know the Chicago Police Department now has body cameras. The audio has to be turned on. You can get in trouble for that. So you can see some changes being made. But this definitely has a

ripple effect throughout the city, but especially within the police department.

BOLDUAN: And as you're pointing out, not over yet, by a long shot, it appears right now.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Ryan, thank you so much. Thanks for the update. We appreciate it.

Coming up soon, we're going to hear from President Trump who's holding a meeting at the White House. He's holding a round table on energy. It's Energy Week, if you didn't know. Will we hear about how much energy there is right now behind health care reform and where the bill stands right now? That's coming up.

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