Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Man Cites Trump Defense; Trolling Trump with Pics; New Report on Separated Families at the Border; Truth About George Soros. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 24, 2018 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Complaint there.

Frank, you know, we talk, again, you know, the president uses course language, or kids using course language, et cetera, et cetera. Is there a tie here or is this just a --

FRANK BRUNI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm the first person to say the president is a terrible role model and I'm the first person to write or say that I'm worried about the effect on children. This passenger is grasping at straws. I don't really believe that he thinks it's OK to grope women because Donald Trump said so on "Access Hollywood." I think this is someone who got caught doing something awful and is just grasping at straws.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the international president for the Association of Flight Attendants felt differently and last night on CNN she said, when there's a culture of misconduct, it happens because people think it's OK. And when you have the highest authority in the land leaving us hanging there with that "Access Hollywood" tape, with other accusations, the only thing that should be said from the highest authority of the land is that it should never happen.

BRUNI: Do we -- do we need a new president? Yes. But this man needs a therapist.

CAMEROTA: Frank Bruni, Ana Navarro, thank you very much.

The White House's former top photographer uses pictures of President Obama to throw shade at President Trump. Well, today, he steps out from behind the camera and tells us what he's really doing. He's here next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:08] CAMEROTA: Pete Souza spent eight years as the chief official White House photographer for President Obama. Since leaving the White House, Souza has spent a good deal of time throwing shade at President Trump in the form of photos. His new book, in fact, is called "Shade: The Tale of Two Presidents." It juxtaposes images of President Obama in the White House with moments from the Trump White House.

And Pete Souza joins us now. Good morning, Pete.

PETE SOUZA, FORMER CHIEF WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER: Good morning. Thanks for having me on.

CAMEROTA: OK, did I read it correctly that you didn't even know the term "throwing shade" until recently, and you had to look it up?

SOUZA: Well, I didn't know it at first. I wouldn't say it was recent. I would say it took me maybe into the first couple of months of 2017 to know what that meant.

CAMEROTA: OK. You seem to have mastered the art of it now in the book, "Shade," as we said. So let me show people some examples of what you do.

So, when the story comes out where Donald Trump claims that President Obama had him wiretapped or Trump Tower wiretapped, you posted these pictures of President Obama with the caption, say what? What was your point here in these photos?

SOUZA: My point was, I know President Obama so well that I still couldn't determine what his reaction might have been. I can say for sure it was one of those was his reaction, but I'm not even sure how he reacted.

CAMEROTA: OK. Then when you heard President Trump talk about the Robert Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, you posted this photo. I'm not sure that everybody can see it. Maybe we can somehow zoom in. This is a picture of, I guess, the White House Christmas -- sorry, Halloween party, and you wrote, a different kind of witch hunt, Halloween 2010.

SOUZA: I mean that kind of speaks for itself, right?

CAMEROTA: It does. It does.

Now, when you heard President Trump talk about little rocket man, you posted this photo of President Obama meeting with Elton John.

SOUZA: There's only one rocket man.

CAMEROTA: Oh, gosh.

So these are entertaining and funny, and I'm wondering, have you spoken to President Obama about these?

SOUZA: I saw him a couple of weeks ago to tell him that I was doing this book because once it was already printed I figured I would -- it would be OK to tell him. I didn't want people to think that this was something that I did with his cooperation or with his knowledge. So, you know, I just -- I didn't want people to think that.

CAMEROTA: Yes. So how did he respond?

SOUZA: He just kind of laughed. CAMEROTA: So you told him you were doing it and he laughed?

SOUZA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting because, as I look through the book, I also read that you sometimes, when you were looking back through the photos of -- that you had taken of President Obama that you sometimes felt driven to cry. Can you tell us more about that?

SOUZA: Well, it really had to do with putting together a presentation for my book tour and trying to determine which pictures to use. And I was looking through some pictures from 2016, and I did. I started to cry because of -- I saw this president who respected people, who didn't call the press the enemy of the people, who didn't denigrate our intelligence agencies, who worked really hard in this job, who took it seriously, who respected the office of the presidency. And compared to what we have now, it brought me to tears.

CAMEROTA: I read also that you took two million photographs, you think, of President Obama during those eight years. Can you just tell us what that was like? I mean were you constantly at his side? You know, we see those photographs that we're putting on the screen of private moments, contemplative moments of his. And were you just always hovering around?

SOUZA: Well, the -- you know, the job of the chief official White House photographer is to document the president for history. So, yes, I essentially was his shadow for eight years every day.

CAMEROTA: And what was that like in those private moments? Were there words exchanged or were you just a fly on the wall?

SOUZA: I was a fly on the wall. I was not a participant. My job was to be a recorder with my camera of what was taking place. Did I talk with him? Yes. But not during meetings or during events. Maybe in between I might exchange some conversation with him.

CAMEROTA: Do you know your predecessor who does your job now in the Trump White House? I mean, sorry, your --

SOUZA: My successor.

CAMEROTA: Yes, your successor.

SOUZA: I do. I don't know her very well. It's Shealah Craighead.

CAMEROTA: Did you give her any advice?

SOUZA: I mean, she was hired so late in the process that I had maybe a one hour phone call with her a couple days before the inauguration. And that's, essentially, the only time I've talked with her.

[08:40:11] CAMEROTA: And what did you tell her?

SOUZA: I said, remember what your job is, to document the president for history. CAMEROTA: Last, one of the questions that people have asked when they

read the book is how do you have recall for all of -- because you -- you're active on Twitter, right? So you -- this, I think, stemmed from what you had put out on Twitter where there would be a moment in the news and then you would seem to come up with the perfect juxtaposition of a photo that you had taken for President Obama. And people have wondered how you have recall of those two million photos. So how do you access them so quickly?

SOUZA: You know, maybe I'm a stable genius.

CAMEROTA: Is that your final answer?

SOUZA: No. I have to say that most of the time it's in my head. As soon as I see a tweet or a news story, I know exactly which photograph that I want to post.

CAMEROTA: I mean, that kind of is a photographic memory.

BERMAN: I see what you did there.

CAMEROTA: He's not going to dignify that one.

All right, the book again is "Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents."

Pete Souza, thanks so much for sharing your history with us.

SOUZA: Thanks for having me on.

CAMEROTA: John.

BERMAN: He's a human shade machine there. The stable genius. I mean it was ice cold.

CAMEROTA: Oh, he is. No, he's made that his new cottage industry for sure.

BERMAN: Ice cold.

And I did like the photographic memory thing. You got some shade of your own there.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: A government watchdog report reveals a stunning failure by the Trump administration in an effort to track and reunify families separated at the border that it separated at the border. We have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:47] BERMAN: All right, just in, a government watchdog report released just moments ago reveals that the Trump administration had an alarming lack of internal coordinations when it separated parents and children at the border.

CNN's Rene Marsh is live in Washington with the very latest here.

Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this report details not only the lack of coordination, but a lack of preparation by the Trump administration as they dealt with more than 2,600 separated children at the U.S.-Mexico border. Of course this was the result of the administration's zero tolerance policy. The policy calls for criminal prosecutor for people crossing the border illegally, parents who are placed in criminal detention and separated from their children.

So the GAO found that the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, two agencies involved in carrying out the policy, quote, did not plan for the potential increase in the number of children separated from their parent or legal guardian as a result of the attorney general's April 2018 zero tolerance memo. In fact, officials at these two agencies told GAO they weren't even aware of the zero tolerance policy until it was publically released.

The report also says that the administration didn't have a consistent way to determine whether families had been separated until 16 days after the policy had been revoked. And even then, they didn't always follow the procedures. And staff at shelters said in some cases children -- they weren't told that children had been separated. They found out from the children themselves.

Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: That's such an important follow up, Rene. Thank you very much for bringing it to us.

MARSH: Sure.

CAMEROTA: So, President Trump says he will probably meet with Vladimir Putin in Paris next month. The two leaders will be in France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Putin told National Security Adviser John Bolton that direct dialogue will be, quote, useful, since President Trump's decision to pull out of a long standing nuclear weapons treaty was, quote, unprovoked and less than friendly.

BERMAN: All right, it's like something from a TV sitcom. A group of apparently dim would be robbers in Belgium took a store owner's word when he told them to come back later because he didn't have enough cash in his register. The owner immediately called police. When the group returned early, the owner told them to come back a third time. When they actually did, officers were waiting. Five suspects were quickly arrested.

CAMEROTA: All right, I just see that as polite. They're just polite. They're, like, would 3:00 be good for us to rob you? 3:00? Can we agree on that? OK, we'll be back then.

BERMAN: I wonder if they get like some dispensation for good behavior for being polite? CAMEROTA: I hope so.

All right.

BERMAN: All right, he is a billionaire philanthropist and a frequent subject of conspiracy theories. Why the far right is so obsessed with this man, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:34] CAMEROTA: So who is George Soros and why do Republicans find him so scary? There's only one man who can answer that question.

Let's get a "Reality Check" with senior political analyst John Avlon.

Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Ali.

So it's getting near Halloween, so I want to start by trying to scare you, OK? Ready? George Soros. Does that spook you? Well, if you're on the far right it might.

The 88-year-old liberal billionaire has been a bogey man for fringe groups for a long time. But lately conspiracy theories about Soros have moved from the outer reaches of politics to the highest reaches of government.

Earlier this month, President Trump accused Soros of funding anti- Kavanaugh protesters. Last week, Congressman Matt Gates accused him of funding the migrant caravan. A baseless claim made even more explicitly by a top Republican Senate aide turned lobbyist Kelly Johnson.

Now, that's not all. Congressman Paul Gosar even blamed Soros for the violence at the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Now, these kinds of fact-free accusations find fertile ground because they build on years of conspiracy theories. For some, Soros' name has become code for old, anti-Semitic tropes, often cloaked in debates over globalization. (INAUDIBLE) nationalist autocrats like Viktor Orban, in Soros' native Hungry, use posters of him to fuel anti- immigrant fervor in an election campaign. And, not surprisingly, that graffiti over his head there, that's an anti-Semitic slur. And, of course, he's been the repeated target of Vladimir Putin.

Now, here at home, Donald Trump's campaign used Soros' image as part of its closing ad as a way to characterize a corrupt, global elite. Soros has even made an appearance in at least one campaign ad this cycle approved by the Republican Congressional Committee.

Look, trolls are going to troll. But when this toxic nonsense makes its way to Washington and the White House, it cries out for a "Reality Check."

So Soros may not be your cup of tea politically, but he was first known as an anti-communist trying to rebuild the wreckage left by the Soviet state through his Open Society Foundations. In the U.S., Soros became notorious to some when he went all in for John Kerry against George W. Bush. He backed Obama bigtime, but expressed disappointment when he couldn't get his phone calls returned by the president. This is not exactly the influence you'd expect from a man that Fox News once dubbed the puppet master.

There are plenty of corollaries to his big spending on the right. For example, Soros spent an estimated $25 million on the 2016 election. That's real money. Sheldon Adelson has already spent four times that to support Republicans in this year's midterms.

What we've got here is selective outrage and situational ethics. The real problem is when political opponent become regarded as personal enemies with strangers fury fueled by conspiracy theories. And this can come at a cost.

[08:55:08] On Monday, an explosive device was sent to Soros' home in the New York suburbs. Now it's a reminder that ideas can become actions. The demonization of people we disagree with can court dangerous forces if we are not careful. Unhinged accusations, rooted in anti-Semitic tropes, should not be dismissed as play to the base entertainment. And responsibility is still a virtue that we should seek, especially in our elected officials who should know better.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: You know, as you say, people can criticize Soros' politics if they want, but some of the critiques of him and the images that are used are just single (INAUDIBLE) are flat-out anti-Semitic and there's no other interpretation.

AVLON: That's exactly right, and yet they percolate it up from the outer reaches of politics to some very powerful places.

CAMEROTA: But, John, that was really helpful because so many people have heard George Soros' name but they don't know his background or necessarily what he stands for or why the right has made him such a boggy man. And so I liked also that you worked in the Halloween element as we approach that.

BERMAN: Seasonal -- seasonal fact check.

AVLON: Seasonal.

CAMEROTA: Seasonal.

Do you know what I'm going for this Halloween?

BERMAN: What?

CAMEROTA: Dana Bash.

BERMAN: I'm going as Jake Tapper.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE)? BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Let's do that.

BERMAN: Let's do that.

CAMEROTA: OK.

BERMAN: All right, President Trump says there is no proof of his conspiracy about the migrants in southern Mexico. So, is he going to keep on saying what he's been saying? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:04] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello from New York. A very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

We are 13 days until you, the voters, hit the polls. And the president is digging in on his midterm strategy, which is