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Woman Suspected as Shooter at Rite Aid Distribution Center in Maryland; Aides: Trump Feeling Vulnerable, Unprotected over Russia Probe; Trump Has Railed Against A.G. Jeff Sessions but Hasn't Fired Him; Republican Reaction to Kavanaugh Accuser Could Impact Midterms; Trump Administration to Take Money from Health Care Programs to Fund Immigrant Children; How the Supreme Court Justice Feel About Kavanaugh Hearing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 20, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You would rather investigate before.

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, everybody, stick around.

There's more news we're following. We are following new developments out of Maryland. A shooting at a Rite Aid distribution center. Multiple people are dead, others wounded. A woman suspected of being the shooter now in critical condition.

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[13:34:55] BLITZER: We are following breaking news out of Maryland where multiple people have been shot and killed. The shooting happened at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, about 30 miles north of Baltimore.

CNN's Brian Todd is near Aberdeen for us, the site of this deadly mass shooting.

Brian, you have new details about the shooting. What are you learning?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Speaking with multiple law enforcement sources, here's what we have got for you. According to a law enforcement official, five people were shot at least and at least three people are dead. According to other law enforcement sources, the shooter is a female and according to one law enforcement source, she was a disgruntled employee of this distribution facility and after opening fire, she shot herself in the head once, but that attempt fail and she shot herself in the head a second time according to a law enforcement source. According to the Harford County sheriff, that suspect is now in critical condition in a local hospital. They said that the suspect used only one weapon, the hand gun. The call came from the distribution center at about 9:00 a.m. This morning. The sheriff said, unfortunately, officers got there within five minutes and were able to secure the scene. They did not discharge their weapons. According to sources, at least five people shot and three killed in this incident. This occurred at a Rite Aid distribution facility which according to a Rite Aid official has about 1,000 people working there. This could have been conceivably a lot worse if indeed the information we have is going to be current. We can tell you the suspect is a female and shot herself once in the head and that failed. She shot herself a second time and she is now in critical condition.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, on the scene near Aberdeen, Maryland, thank you.

Other news we're following, President Trump is going through the motions right now as commander-in-chief and visited the storm-ravaged Carolinas Wednesday, met with the president of Poland, the day before that. But behind the scenes, very angry and feeling unprotected. According to a new report in the "Washington Post," aides say the president does feel vulnerable and that feeling has to do with more than just the Russia investigation. Aides tell the "Washington Post" it's become personal.

Our politics reporter, Chris Cillizza, is joining us with a closer look at this new reporting.

Chris, what's getting to the president?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER & CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: A lot of things. I will run through them quickly because there are a bunch. This is the universe of Donald Trump's mounting problems.

Brett Kavanaugh, that's a big issue one. This is looking like a sure victory turning the court more conservative for decades, potentially. We have a self-imposed deadline Chuck Grassley put in place for tomorrow the hearing for Christine Blasey Ford.

Paul Manafort, the guy most stalled about not making a deal, he made a deal and is cooperating. His former campaign chairman is cooperating with Bob Mueller.

This one, whoever wrote the "New York Times" op-ed, who said there's a semi-official coup around the president when it comes to decisions he is making on foreign policy and national security.

Bob Woodward's book, "Fear," continues to roil the White House. Most of the big details are out and it's a massive bestseller influencing the way in which the president is viewed.

Down here is Jeff Sessions. Obviously, the president earlier this week went off on Sessions again saying I don't have an attorney general, saying that Sessions is a very sad situation.

Honestly, we could probably fill out down here, Wolf, if we needed to with other issues, including the midterm elections that are plaguing Donald Trump, but this alone is a lot for any president to handle, much less that doesn't have a lot of close advisers around him.

BLITZER: Speaking of Sessions, the president is railing on the attorney general for over a year. If the president dislikes the attorney general so much, why not just fire him? CILLIZZA: That's a question I've asked myself and came up with three

basic theories. I will go through them. He's afraid of antagonizing Republican Senators. Every time he attacks Jeff Sessions, they said he should stay where he is. Theory two -- and it could be a combination of these -- it would make him look guilty on Russia. We had James Comey fired. Do you want to remove the guy who ss the head of the Justice Department? Theory three -- and this is a big one -- Republicans can't confirm a replacement. If you thought it was hard the first time, imagine amid an ongoing federal investigation that Donald Trump is bad mouth and with a person in the White House who said there's a deep state experience in the Justice Department. That would be a massive confirmation fight and not something that Mitch McConnell or John Cornyn or the rest of the Republican leadership in the Senate relishes -- Wolf?

[13:40:17] BLITZER: He has been berating and humiliating the attorney general for a year. And this week in a new interview with "The Hill," he said, "I don't have an attorney general. It's very sad. I'm not happy at the border and I'm not happy with numerous things, not just this."

But still, he is the attorney general and the president continues to rail against them. It's very awkward to say the least.

Chris Cillizza, thank you very much.

CILLIZZA: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: Coming up, the GOP's big gamble. How will Republicans' handling of the Kavanaugh controversy affect their standing with women as the midterm elections get closer and closer? I will ask a Republican Congressman, Ryan Costello, of Pennsylvania. He's is standing by live and will weigh in.

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[13:45:30] BLITZER: Republicans are walking a rather fine line right now with the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and how they treat the allegations of sexual abuse. What they say now could potentially have an impact on what voters think when they head to the polls in a few weeks in early November.

Joining us now is Congressman Ryan Costello. He's a Republican from Pennsylvania.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. RYAN COSTELLO, (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Good afternoon.

BLITZER: Let's talk about Chuck Grassley in a moment. I know you're in the House. This is the Senate. But the chairman of the Judiciary Committee said it's more appropriate for the Senate to investigate and not the FBI. Do you believe that? If there's nothing to hide on Judge Kavanaugh's part, why not let the FBI do a background check?

COSTELLO: The FBI is charged with doing confidential investigations, which probably should have happened six or seven weeks ago when Senator Feinstein learned of this information. If you go back to 1991, when the Anita Hill allegations were made public, Chairman Biden appropriately charged the Senate committee with doing an investigation. And the final point, Wolf, is credibility determinations will be made by the Senate committee. The best the FBI can do is obtain information, hand it over to the Senate, but the Senate will be the arbiter on who to believe and who not to believe and how to vote. There's nothing confidential at this point in time. That would have been the purpose of an FBI investigation.

BLITZER: Don't you think Judge Kavanaugh deserves to have a complete and thorough investigation by the FBI, and others? If the Senate Judiciary Committee staffers want to investigate on the Republican side and the Democratic side, that's fine as well? The arguments the Democrats make is why the rush for Monday? Give it a week or two and let there be a full investigation and let others testify at the same time.

COSTELLO: I think many of us feel that the Democrats are looking to do whatever they can to prolong the investigation for political reasons, whereas, what I think Republicans and what Chairman Grassley is seeking to do is have this woman's voice heard, accommodating her, however practicable, whether in private or in public, she feels comfortable saying what she would like to say. This is a 36-year-old allegation. It comes down to two people, her and Judge Kavanaugh. To the extent that there are two or three others, I believe the Senate Judiciary staff has reached out to them in an effort to get interviews from them. I would also harken back to what this woman's attorney said this past Monday, which is no one reached out to us, she wants to be heard. I believe that Chairman Grassley has done everything imaginable in order to accommodate her so she can be heard in a form she would like.

BLITZER: There's a debate on that.

And I want to get to another issue. I know our time is short. It's a sensitive matter. The Trump administration, Congressman, is planning to take money out of critical health care programs to cover the cost of caring for immigrant children who have been taken into custody away from their parents and it includes more than $16 million from Head Start, nearly $6 million from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, $13 million from the National Cancer Institute, and $87 million from the National Institutes of Health.

Do you believe this is where the administration should be cutting money and should be taking funds to take care of these children who have been separated from their parents?

COSTELLO: The short answer is the money appropriated for other health programs should be used for those programs. But, Wolf, what sometimes happens is that the end of a year, often times, there's left over funding in some programs, and so there's an attempt to use those unused funds for programs that need spending on them. So I want to be clear, the AIDS funding, some of the other programs you said, they should be properly appropriated. If those funds aren't spent, at the end of the year, that's one thing. We need to make sure that they would be additionally appropriated the year after.

But I also would say, those are reports. I haven't seen that formally submitted as part of a spending bill, but it is something I'm keeping an eye on. And you're certainly right to ask the question.

[13:50:01] BLITZER: Well, because, if the funds aren't spent, they could be held over and used in the next fiscal year, right?

COSTELLO: They could. They would be rolled over, but we would also be appropriating dollars in the next fiscal year for those very same programs.

BLITZER: It's a sensitive issue, indeed.

COSTELLO: Very much.

BLITZER: Certainly, on the surface. And I know you're going to look much more closely at it, but certainly on the surface, it does not look good. The National Institutes of Health and these other important, important areas of the U.S. government are so critical, indeed.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Coming up, there's more news we're following. How do the current justices on the U.S. Supreme Court feel about this rather contentious confirmation battle that is now underway? And more importantly, how do they move past this whole issue? We're going to discuss that.

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[13:55:15] BLITZER: There are eight people who have not weighed in on the scandal of the partisan politics swirling around Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, the current Supreme Court justices.

Let's bring in our CNN Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic.

Joan, let's talk a little about these eight Supreme Court justices. What's stopping them? Can they speak out? Would it be appropriate?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN LEGAL ANALYST & CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: They might, but they're not going to. They didn't speak out in the whole Merrick Garland incident in 2016. So I wouldn't expect a single one of them to speak out publicly.

They all have their personal views about the process. They don't like that it's become more politicized. Chief Justice John Roberts has said that it taints the court. But a group of them have personal connections to Brett Kavanaugh, so there's some differences among them that I think are worth exploring that we're not going to hear from them publicly, but we know.

BLITZER: Tell us about that. BISKUPIC: For example, the chief has spoken about how, you know, if

people see an individual get on the court through a very political process, people will necessarily think of the new justice as political. So he doesn't like this. But at the same time, he has a very deep relationship with Brett Kavanaugh. They knew each other back in the solicitor general's office in the early 1990s. Brett Kavanaugh had a hand in his appointment, getting on to the D.C. circuit. And he also had a hand in his appointment to the Supreme Court, when Kavanaugh worked for George W. Bush. So they have a connection there. And I'm sure the chief is interested in Kavanaugh as a new colleague.

And then take two other people --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You're talking about John Roberts, the chief justice?

BISKUPIC: Yes, the current chief.

And take Clarence Thomas. He can't help but feel a real personal identity to what's going on with Brett Kavanaugh now, because that happened to him.

And Neil Gorsuch, who also was an old-time friend of his, who went to Georgetown prep, and just think of all that's been dredged up about Georgetown prep.

On the other side, you have Ruth Bader Ginsburg, someone who's spoken out a lot about the importance of the "Me Too" movement and charges being explored. So as much as she doesn't like all of these politics around it, she has an interest in perhaps hearing from Christine Blasey Ford.

And then, finally, Elena Kagan, who worked behind the scenes both at a White House and with a Senate Judiciary Committee during other confirmation hearings. And she also was once someone whose documents were sought for a confirmation, and her documents were turned over in a way that Brett Kavanaugh's weren't.

So they all have these kinds of personal political interests, at the same time that they don't want confirmations politicized.

BLITZER: And they're all being silent, at least for now.

BISKUPIC: Yes. Yes.

BLITZER: Joan Biskupic, thank you very much for that analysis. Very good analysis, indeed.

Coming up, there's more news. A student pilot accused of jumping a fence and boarding a passenger jet at a Florida airport. We're going to have a live report.

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