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"Modern Family" Producer Leaving Fox Studio Over Fox News Coverage; Giuliani Says He Was Interviewed by IG About Clinton Probe; CNN Speaks with Father United with His Son; Pediatrician Says Family Separation Amounts to Child Abuse and Can Cause Serious Trauma; NY Governor Cuomo to Sue Trump Administration Over Family Separations; Interview with Rep. Raul Grijalva; Guatemalan Women Sues to Get Her Son Back; Donald Trump Jr. Cancels George P. Bush Fundraiser. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 19, 2018 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Here's just a little snippet of what happened last night on their air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Since more illegal immigrants are rushing the border more kids are being separated from their parents. And temporarily housed in what are essentially summer camps.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: This is one of those moments that tells you everything about our ruling class. They care for more about foreigners than about their own people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter is with me. What's Steve now saying?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: What we're seeing today, Brooke, across the country, people's pain is turning into protest. Steve Levitan is one of many examples of that. We hear about lawmakers being inundated by calls from constituents. We see corporate America standing up. We see Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, making a donation saying this policy has to stop. We're seeing many, many examples of protests and nationwide protests being planned for later in the month.

So, what does that mean in Hollywood? How does that translate in Hollywood? It means someone like Steve Levitan saying I don't want to be associated with Fox anymore, as you said he is one of the creators of "Modern Family" which is on ABC, but the studio that makes the show is the Fox Studio out in Los Angeles. Levitan says he doesn't want to be associated with Fox anymore because of the Fox News part of the country.

Here are a couple of his tweets from the past few minutes where he made this announcement. He just sounds like he's fed up. He said the Fox Studio has been a wonderful home for most of my career, there are so many people who share my concerns about Fox News but are not able to speak out about it. He says have I no problem with fact-based conservatism such as "The Wall Street Journal" but he says Fox News is 23 hours a day support of the NRA, conspiracy theories and Trumps lies get harder to swallow every day.

So Levitan finished by saying, I look forward to seeing "Modern Family" through having the show and. And then setting up shop elsewhere. In other words, you want to take his own production company, leave the Fox lot and find a new home as a protest against Fox News. It's a really interesting example of someone not just speaking out but actually saying they're going to take action. We've seen other Hollywood celebrities show creators and others speak out about this policy, announce donations to the ACLU and others but Levitan is saying he's going to leave Fox as a result.

BALDWIN: Sure, he's in the big leagues over there, and it is significant for him to be doing that. Brian Stelter, thank you.

Next, we are back live at the U.S.-Mexico border where our CNN crew is actually just spoken to a father who was just reunited with his son. Don't miss this.

[15:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in, President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani is telling CNN that he was interviewed earlier this year by the Department of Justice Inspector General, specifically about the leaks regarding the Clinton investigation. Let's go back to Capitol Hill to our chief political correspondent Dana Bash. You just talked to Giuliani, Dana. What did he tell you?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he said he was interviewed in February by the inspector general's office about this question about whether he knew something via a leak about the Clinton investigation. If you go back in time to the fall of 2016, Brooke, you remember that Giuliani had said publicly something about another shoe to drop, suggesting that he knew something about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigations and that was before James Comey reopened the investigation.

So, the question all along has been whether or not somebody leaked that information to Rudy Giuliani. So, the inspector general's office interviewed him asking him that exact question. Giuliani told me his answer was no, that he was not leaked any information, that he was saying that publicly because there was speculation internally from FBI agents that he knew, former FBI agents I should say, so not internally but people who were in that world that there was another shoe to drop. But he said he didn't have any advance warning, any real inside warning, any leak about what we know now was Anthony Weiner's laptop with information from and about Hillary Clinton's e-mails and that is why James Comey reopened the investigation. But he did get an interview and apparently the inspector general was satisfied with the answers that they got.

BALDWIN: We also have some breaking news involving Michael Cohen. He's now hired a new attorney? BASH: He has. We reported last week he was parting ways with the

attorney who he had hired to deal with all of the issues facing him, the legal issues. That attorney was and is in Washington. It was mostly intended to get him through interviews that he had here on capitol hill. He's parting ways with him because his legal situation has changed since his office and home were raided by New York FBI agents dealing with the New York investigation. He has hired or is in the process of hiring a lawyer familiar with the southern district of New York, a man by the name of Guy Patrillo, who again has extensive experience and an understanding of the people who work in the southern district of New York, the U.S. attorney's office there, which is something that should be helpful to Michael Cohen as he's trying to deal with a potential indictment. He's telling friends that could happen, or potentially trying to plea out a case.

BALDWIN: Dana Bash, thank you very much on those two developments here. I want to get back to these children on the border. We've heard their cries and seen these images where little boys and girls are being separated from their parents. I talked to Ohio Governor John Kasich, Republicans, who is begging President Trump to have some empathy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO: I couldn't listen to it. I mean, I listened for a short period of time and it's -- it's almost enough to make you cry for these children. You think about the terror that these children go through when they're being snatched from the only thing that supports them and helps them and loves them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:00] BALDWIN: Let's get you back to the border where these family separations are happening. Polo Sandoval is in McAllen. You talked to a dad to actually was reunited with his son. Tell me more.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's our effort to try and tell more of the story, Brooke, having lived and worked on this border for many years. It's something very important that we differentiate here. There is long-term separation and short-term separation that is happening. The family we spoke to a little while ago Alexander Gonzalez from El Salvador, traveled here with his son last week, he told us he crossed the border illegally, was apprehended, taken into ICE custody and separated for his seven-year-old son for about a day and a half.

They were eventually reunited. They were given a court date. They came to this bus station in the city of McAllen, Texas so they could continue their journey north. He told me he does plan on showing up to his court date next week when he makes it to Florida and then of course it's up to the U.S. government whether or not he'll be able to stay here.

As for the more long-term separation, the source of so much anger among critics is what we're seeing lately, the U.S. government deciding that there are other mothers and fathers who cross into the United States illegally who should be subjected to these criminal laws. are criminally charged and the result is they're separated for their children. They are the ones who are very difficult to speak to, the ones still in ICE detention and are still away from their children.

So, the best picture that we can paint for you based on what we've been able to see, some of the tours that we've been able to get of some of these centers are some of those locations where these children are housed and those cries we've been able to hear on that recent recording. In the meantime, there is that other short-term separation that is still happening for those known around these streets as the lucky few. They are released, and they think it's because they have likely little to no criminal record.

BALDWIN: Thank you. Let me bring in Dr. Julie Linton, a pediatrician and a child advocate. Whether it's short term or long term, obviously these kids in the moment, they don't know. You're an MD this notion of being taken from your parents at a young age, what does that do to a child?

DR. JULIE LINTON, PEDIATRICIAN: Well, we know that highly stressful experiences, like family separation, can have a devastating impact on developing brains and can cause problems in short and long-term health. There's no science that shows that any period of separation from a parent or detention of a child is safe.

BALDWIN: Long-term damage to a brain. Like what?

LINTON: Well, when children are frightened or when you're in a situation of acute stress, the body releases hormones, like cortisol. You're in a flight response. Your body's prepared to be in that response for emergencies but is not prepared to be in that setting for long periods of time. And that chronic, prolonged, heightened stress response threatens the short and long-term health of children and families.

BALDWIN: There are also now these reports that these kids are being put on planes or buses to relocate them to group homes, foster homes. A young child may or may not speak English, maybe they've never been on a plane before. What effect could that have on a little boy or a little girl?

[15:45:00] LINTON: Well, when we see trauma in the short term, children manifest this in very different ways. We may see changes in bodily functions. So, they may have changes in eating, they may not be able to sleep, they may have bed wetting or soiling their pants. They may have problems with their behavior, so they may be anxious or detached or numb or depressed. Or they may have changes in their learning and development, things such as difficulty with organizing their thoughts, difficulty with concentrating or regression of basic milestones, like speech. In the long term, we don't know for these specific children, but we know from studies of highly stressful experiences over a prolonged period of time that this places them at risk for things like depression and diabetes and heart disease.

BALDWIN: So short term and long term. Dr. Linton, thank you. The President meantime also causing some concerns saying Democrats

want the U.S. to be infested, his word, by undocumented immigrants. We'll talk to a Democratic congressman from Arizona to respond. Stand by.

[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in, the New York governor said his state will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for violating rights of immigrant children and families at the border. On top of this, we're also learning that a Guatemalan woman has sued the administration for being separated from her 7-year-old son last month. And it happened along the Arizona border by agents there. She said she was coming across seeking asylum, kept in a cell for two days with her son before being separated and she has spoken with him one time and is demanding to be reunited.

This news comes as so many people in the country have been deeply affected by the audio recordings of the children of undocumented immigrants crying out after their parents have been arrested and taken to the holding facilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[crying children]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Arizona congressman Raul Grijalva joins me now, his district includes a border region. Congressman, welcome, sir.

REP. RAUL GRIJALVA, (D), ARIZONA: Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me.

BALDWIN: When you heard -- when you first heard the sounds of the children crying, what were you thinking?

GRIJALVA: It is heart-wrenching. I have five grand babies. We're very lucky and from age 11 to 1. And you can't put yourself in the situation of the moms and the children. But to think that these kids just like my grandkids are going through one of the most traumatic unfair and unnecessary experiences of their lives to me is heart wrenching and makes you angry that we have to tolerate this, and it doesn't end.

BALDWIN: And this is how the President put it this morning on Twitter, calling out your party, Democrats are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants no matter how bad they may be to pour in and infest our country like ms-13. Infest, congressman. Termites infest. Bed bugs infest. Immigrants?

GRIJALVA: Diseased insects. And I think that -- this is a rhetoric that Trump has used all along on the issue of immigration. That is what prevented any movement to try to deal with Dreamers and now the collateral damage in his mind of these children is kind of irrelevant. The only infestation, seriously, going on in this country is from the Trump administration.

Where we're infesting ourselves and losing or moral compass were facts about who really causes it and how this could be resolved with one stroke of the pen by President Trump in terms of kids being separated from their moms, he could do this. Democrats cannot do this. The infestation of lies and the loss of truth and the infestation of losing our empathy and our moral compass as a nation. That is what is at stake.

And the biggest threat to our character as a people and our character as a country comes from the administration and their persistence on using these children as negotiating pawns for a wall or part of a political strategy for the midterms, to keep people riled up around fear mongering and the bigotry that spews from this President time and time again.

And we're in serious times. I thought we could go no lower on this issue, but my god, children and moms, the separation and the heart- wrenching affects of that on everybody. Not just the children there. But everyone in this country has to be affected by what we're seeing and by understanding that that is not us. But that is our behavior.

[15:55:00] BALDWIN: There have been a number of critics to the administration who have been drawing these parallels to what is happening now on the border to Nazi, Germany and the concentration camps that separate families and the Attorney General Jeff Sessions was asked about that comparison on Fox News. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF SESSIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Well it is real exaggeration. Of course, in Nazi, Germany, they were keeping the Jews from leaving the country. But this is a serious matter. We need to think it through, be rational and thoughtful about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Your reaction to that, Congressman?

GRIJALVA: I think -- the ignorance of history and the ignorance of our times. Sessions is the dark architect of a lot of this. He bears a lot of responsibility, him and Miller in the White House and of course the President and Kelly. They bear a huge responsibility for the catastrophe of a human crisis on the border. I think that -- I don't want to make any blanket -- this is just like Nazi Germany was, but the fact remains that this separation of children, this isolating of children is not a democratic act in the big -- it is not an act this country values and law protect, and it is a harbinger of worse things to come unless the American people and Congress begin showing a spine and does something about stopping this.

BALDWIN: And also, even though the Republican governor of Maryland, I don't know if you saw Larry Hogan is responding and yanking the small group of Maryland guardsmen at the border until this changes and we've seen that from the governor in North Carolina and Virginia and news out of New York. So, we shall see. Congressman Grijalva. Thank you. More on breaking news. We're learning the creator of "Modern Family"

is leaving the Fox network over the coverage of these separations. That is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANE YOUNG, MEMPHIS INNER-CITY RUGBY: Rugby just doesn't build character it reveals character. I think it does set for our kids.

This is Memphis inner-city rugby. We are operating and serving six schools nearly 200 kids around the city. We've got boys and girls.

[16:00:00] In the communities that we are bringing rugby to so many of the kids are lacking outlets in life and pathways to opportunities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With Memphis inner-city rugby we have to have a certain GPA. There is like a zero-tolerance with the attitude.

YOUNG: Partnering with teachers allows us to fuse mentoring with these kids along with coaching them.

A hundred percent of our kids have been accepted to college or university, now a couple handfuls of our kids have earned college rugby scholarships.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really adore my coach. Sometimes you don't think you can do something until somebody pushes you to do it. And then you are like, oh OK, I just did that, what else can I do?

YOUNG: You did a fantastic job just like we always ask of you. The need for rugby can sound cliche because he really needs a sport? We leverage love for a game and accountability to a mentor to go the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I love that.

A feud of family dynasties is unfolding. Donald Trump Jr. has pulled out of a fundraiser for a member of the Bush family, specifically, George P. Bush after his father Jeb's latest criticism of President Trump tweeting in part, quote, "children shouldn't be used as a negotiating tool in this heartless policy." George P. Bush and Don Jr. had been friends after the younger Bush supported Trump during the presidential campaign.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.