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Trump Fearmongers Again About 'Invasion' from Migrants; Funerals Begin Today for Victims of Anti-Semitic Attack; Trump Launches Racially-Loaded Attack on Andrew Gillum. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God's the one I turn to to help lead my flock through this difficult time.

[05:59:17] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to hug somebody. We have to lower the rhetoric.

BILL PEDUTO (D), PITTSBURGH MAYOR: It would be best to put the attention on the families. If he were to visit, choose a different time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president who should be unifying, instead, he is inciting people.

SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has denounced racism, hatred and bigotry in all forms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's not responsible for what happened this week, but going forward, if he does not change, he will be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, October 30, 6 a.m. here in New York.

Funeral services begin today for those who were murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. They were killed because they were Jewish. That's all. Not religious, but Jewish.

Among those being laid to rest, brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal and Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz.

This afternoon, President Trump and the first lady will travel to Pittsburgh along with his daughter, Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Some have welcomed the visit; others have not. You heard a member of the congregation here yesterday, say the president's rhetoric is too toxic to be healing. Pittsburgh's mayor believes the president should wait so the focus can be on the victims' families. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So as the country grapples with the

deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, the president is fueling more conspiracies about that group of asylum-seeking Central Americans who are more than 1,000 miles away in Mexico.

The president is calling the migrants, quote, "an invasion." That's the same type of language the synagogue mass murderer suspect used in online posts.

And the president is ratcheting up political attacks in the final stretch of midterm elections, including another racially-loaded attack on Florida's Democratic candidate for governor.

Voters head to the polls one week from today. But let's begin our coverage this morning with CNN's Jean Casarez. She is live in Pittsburgh with our top story -- Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, today is an extremely serious day here in Pittsburgh. because it is the first of quite a few funerals that will take place in this city.

Today Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz and Cecil and David Rosenthal will both and all have their funerals. And while those funerals are going on it was last night that there was a tribute, not only to Pittsburgh, but to the victims, to the heroes in all of this.

Blue lights on so many of the downtown buildings here in Pittsburgh, a tribute to what this city is going through and for those who have survived and are victims themselves.

But it was business as usual yesterday in the downtown area, because in light of the massacre, there is now a defendant, and that defendant made his initial appearance in federal court.

I was in that courtroom when the defendant was wheeled in in a wheelchair. He also had been shot by police, but he did survive. He was released from the hospital just hours before this court proceeding.

As I looked at him in court, he appeared extremely aware, he was very cognizant, he was calm, he was not nervous. There was no anxiety that I could see on the outside. And the judge asked him many questions and he replied in a very loud, booming and confident voice. His next court appearing is set for actually tomorrow.

But today, the President Trump and the first lady will be coming to Pittsburgh. They are coming to pay their respects to those in the hospital and to the victims. The mayor of Pittsburgh had a response to that. We want to let you hear it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDUTO: We did try to get the message out to the White House that our priority tomorrow is the first funeral.

I do believe that it would be best to put the attention on the families this week; and if he were to visit, choose a different time to be able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Now, the rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue where, we are right here, where it all happened, thinks otherwise. He said, "This is my president, and he is always welcomed here in Pittsburgh" -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Jean Casarez for us in Pittsburgh. Jean, thank you very much.

You heard the plea from the Pittsburgh mayor, but President Trump is going to visit that city today. CNN's Abby Phillip live at the White House with the latest -- Abby.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

It has been a bit of a balancing act for the White House over the last day, trying to figure out how to make this visit. But the president did ultimately decide to make this visit to Pittsburgh this afternoon. He's going to be leaving this White House early this afternoon with his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both of whom are also Jewish. They're going to be paying their respects to that city in mourning.

But at the same time as Jean pointed out, there are some mixed feelings in Pittsburgh right now. The mayor has asked the president to perhaps delay this visit, and others have said perhaps he shouldn't come at all, but President Trump last night defended his decision to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm just going to pay my respects. I'm also going to the hospital to see the officers and some of the people that were so badly hurt. So -- and I really look forward to going. I would have done it even sooner, but I didn't want to disrupt any more than they already had disruption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And the president's visit is expected to focus, in some ways, on the first responders, some of whom were injured in the fire fight or hospitalized, perhaps some of the victims to remain hospitalized at the moment, but less so on the grieving families as they are burying their dead this week.

At the same time, the White House really is struggling with this issue of tone. Does the president tone it down? And so far, really, he hasn't. He's continued with his attacks on the media. He's continued with his attacks on his political opponents, seven days now to the midterm elections.

But as he goes to Pittsburgh this afternoon, we have been told by White House aides that this visit is going to be fairly understated -- John and Alisyn. CAMEROTA: OK, Alisyn, thank you very much.

Let's bring in our CNN political analysts. We have John Avlon and David Gregory and staff writer at "The Atlantic," Emma Green, who is in Pittsburgh for us this morning.

David Gregory, I'll start with you. Historically speaking, this is what presidents do. They go to Sandy Hook or they go to Ft. Hood after a horrific act like this.

What do we think is different, if anything, about President Trump going?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I think in this political climate, I think President Trump is a polarizing figure. I think, to be even more precise, within the Jewish community, President Trump is extremely polarizing.

The Jewish community is divided in a way that I've never seen it before between support for a president who's very strong on Israel, which itself is controversial, because there's lots of views within the Jewish community about Israel and its leadership and its relationship to the Jewish diaspora, particularly in America; and those who have some real problems with the president and the way he talks about immigrants and in other ways he expresses himself.

But look, I think as a country, we have to do a couple of things. We have to recognize that this is what our leaders do, that sometimes our leaders are controversial, but this is still the right thing.

And in my view, I take a lead from Rabbi Myers at Tree of Life, who understands that this is our president, and he has some solace to provide in this time of need, in this time of grieving, and I expect he'll do all of that in a sensitive way.

BERMAN: Look, the reason it's controversial could not be more crystal clear, which is, No. 1, in a vacuum, a president should always be able to go and help a community and help a nation heal.

The thing is, in the moments, in the days, in the hours since this attack, the president's rhetoric on issues very much related to all of this has not changed one bit.

Since the murder of 11 people in the synagogue, the president continues to talk about asylum seekers as invaders, which is the language of the murderer.

Since the bomb sent to members of the media and his critics last week, the president continues to attack members of the media as enemy of the state.

That's the controversy. This is not a vacuum. This isn't just any president doing this. That's why there is some concern expressed about this.

Emma, you're on the ground there. Do you have a sense of what people there want?

EMMA GREEN, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": You know, in the communities I've been talking to at vigils, victims who are related to people who were in the synagogue, even people who are just random Pittsburghers who have come out in sign of support, these topics have been top of mind.

I walked into the vigil on Sunday with a woman who identified as an Episcopalian. We got to talking, and she immediately said, "I feel so conflicted about the president coming here. I want to show support for my community, but I don't necessarily want to support the president."

But what really strikes me is that this community is reeling. The Jewish community is on day three of the after of this attack, and they have to bury the first of the people who were killed. And so to try to balance that and the intense emotions of that with a presidential victim [SIC], I think is going to be hard for members of the community here.

CAMEROTA: So that's the conflict right there, spelled out.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. And, look, there are logistical issues for a city when a president comes, and having worked for a mayor, you know, that can be straining. And that, I think, is what sincerely, the mayor of Pittsburgh was saying. It was a logistical issue.

But as John Berman just pointed out, the reason this is difficult is because he -- the president has shown no interest in being the comforter in chief, a role that usually comes easy to people in that position, because there's an empathetic quality to most politicians. This doesn't -- that doesn't compute for this political animal.

And the fact that he has doubled down on language of invaders, which was exactly the language the shooter used. That's beyond tone deaf. That seems callous and showed a degree of intent.

So you've got this contradictory strategy. He's trying to use -- talk about being a uniter, but also campaign on being a divider. Those two things are fundamentally contradictory, and they only make sense unless you think swing voters are stupid.

GREGORY: Can I just -- I want to raise a point kind of in response to you, John. Look, I think the president should be held accountable for failing to lead us more adequately in these times by projecting empathy, which his aides say is so difficult for him to do, which seems obvious for all of those who have watched him; for failing to cool passions during this time, which is what I think a leader's role is to do, to help us rise above sometimes our instincts as a society and our -- the more unfortunate aspects of our nature.

I think he has to be held accountable for the fact that he is stoking fear more generally in politics, to suggest that Americans' way of life is under attack from immigrants, from elites, from the media. All of that, I think, he should be held accountable for. But I also think that this conversation is becoming too narrow. You know, anti-Semitism is so old in this country, it is very much an American story.

If you go back to the 1930s and Kristallnacht and what was happening in Nazi Germany, it was on the front page of newspapers all over America; and nobody wanted to do anything about it in this government and in this country. It is beneath the surface in this country and has been for a very, very long time. That is not Donald Trump's fault. And the truth is we ought to be talking about why anti- Semitism is on the rise separate from our political leaders.

BERMAN: Hey, David -- David, have you heard anyone in the administration -- anyone in the administration, Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway here suggest any discussion should be had about the very things you're talking about there, the terms that are used?

GREGORY: But John -- but it's not a point -- I hear you, but just because they're not saying it and they should be held accountable doesn't mean that we should not be leading a conversation that goes beyond --

BERMAN: And we are. And we are. All I'm saying --

GREGORY: But, John, what I'm saying --

BERMAN: Hang on, David. Hang on, David. I'm not saying -- hang on.

GREGORY: You're making a very specific point. I'm trying to widen it out.

BERMAN: The point I'm making -- the point I'm making, you were suggesting the president should be able to go and console. He absolutely should.

All I'm explaining is why it's so controversial. And it's not just that the president, you know, maybe has trouble expressing empathy. I think in some places, he's gone, and he's been very empathetic. And it's great that he's gone to all the disaster zones afterwards.

The reason this is controversial is because of the things he's saying in addition to condemning anti-Semitism over the last few days. And Kellyanne Conway said we're cherry-picking. I'm not. I'm just taking the totality of his message, which is crystal clear. The message he is delivering and the tone he has set since Saturday, there's a dichotomy in it. It's both at the same time. And I don't think you can pick one and not the other.

GREGORY: I'm not disagreeing with you, but you're not listening to me, which is that we could be having a conversation about the connective tissue of anti-Semitism in this country and the social context in which that's happening, the geopolitical context not just hear but in Europe in which that's happening. The ability for a shooter like this to connect on social media using apps I'd never even heard of that has always been a problem that now has even gone deeper. AVLON: Yes.

GREGORY: That's what I'm saying.

AVLON: David, to your point, this is part of a geopolitical trend, and it's part of a backlash against globalization, ethno-nationalist forces that are stoking the fires of anti-Semitism.

And I think part of the problem is that this president -- you know, you talked about the 1930s and how many Americans turned a blind eye to Kristallnacht and other things.

At that same time was the original incarnation of "America first," a group of isolationists that did not want to intervene against Hitler. And they were accused of anti-Semitism with great credibility. And this president has adopted that mantle without any apparent caring of that legacy. So it all flows together.

The president is not anti-Semitic. And I think having Jared and Ivanka travel to Pittsburgh today is a salve for the community; it shows a degree of personal investment.

But it's that lack of a holistic view of the problem or apparent concern about elevating the discussion and really digging in to help heal our wounds, that's the president's problem. And that's where he's shown a lack of intent or curiosity to help lead.

GREGORY: I agree with that totally.

CAMEROTA: Emma, you know, when the president sticks to the teleprompter and sticks to the written speech prepared, he often says things that people find comforting. He says words that sound, for lack of a better word, presidential. Do you know what Pittsburghers are expecting from the president today?

GREEN: The things that I've been hearing from Pittsburghers are about their brothers, mother's friend who was killed in the attack. The person that they know. Everyone knows someone.

The people here are feeling local. They're feeling that this is their tragedy, and they're just trying to surround each other.

But the thing that really has stuck with me in my time reporting here is that the Pittsburgh community, the Pittsburgh Jewish community knows what it stands for.

At the vigil on Sunday night I cannot tell you, the loudest applause line was when clergy stood up and talked about welcoming immigrants into this city; talked about hate not being welcome here; talked about the words and rhetoric of politicians that maybe don't create an environment.

There's that veiled sense that they are pointing their finger, perhaps, at some of our elected officials who don't create an environment where all people are respected, but they also know what they stand for. And I just cannot tell you how unified the community here is in trying to rally around those who have been directly affected and also to rally around each other. Everyone here is experiencing this as a direct loss.

GREGORY: Can I just add to that? I think Emma makes an important point, and I go back to the point, John, that you were making, which is, you know, if we look at this in kind of a national sense, international sense, why this is controversial, it's one discussion that we've been having.

[06:15:05] But, again, in particular in any Jewish community in this country, it's so polarizing because of how the community views Trump. And I thought Emma summed it up.

You know, you have Jewish federations. You have congregations that have more conservative members that say, "Wait a minute. This administration is so pro-Israel, right? They're real Zionists."

On the other hand, you have progressive synagogues like my own, Temple Micah in Washington, D.C., or like Tree of Life, who are going to put a real emphasis on groups like HIAS who are doing the work of welcoming immigrants, a core Jewish and American value; and that's where they see the conflict with this president.

BERMAN: It's really interesting to see. And David, Emma, John, thank you very much.

There is clearly a political tonal struggle in the White House, because the president's closing message on the midterm election is to talk about invaders to this country and to talk -- and to attack the media. Those are two pillars of his closing argument, and now they are complicated.

CAMEROTA: Because those are the two things that we saw -- the two -- two of the targets last week of the violence, the hate-filled violence. So that is a real tough sell at this point.

BERMAN: We'll talk about what it means. We're one week from the midterms. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:06] BERMAN: So after the hate-filled murders in Pittsburgh, after the bombs sent to critics of the president last week, the president's closing message for the midterms is crystal clear. I want you to listen very carefully to what he says about the Florida Democratic nominee for governor, Andrew Gillum, who happens to be African-American.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You have Ron DeSantis, who is a Harvard Yale guy. He's had a really terrific -- you know, he's a very good person. He's going to be -- he's going to be a very good to a great governor.

This other guy is a stone-cold -- in my opinion, he's a thief. How can you have a guy like this? And you just look at his record. Also, look at the job he's done as the mayor of Tallahassee. He's a total disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "Harvard Yale guy" versus thief. Whatever message could the president --

CAMEROTA: The president apparently likes Ivy League elitists. I didn't know that that was part of his --

BERMAN: Yes. Interesting. So the Democratic nominee, Andrew Gillum, responded to the president on Twitter, saying in part, quote, "As my grandmother told me, never wrestle with a pig." The nominee's grandmother also talked about dogs. He brother that up in a debate. Dogs and pigs. Andrew Gillum's grandmother, a very colorful imagination.

Back with us, John Avlon, David Gregory and Abby Phillip. Look, that is a racial dog whistle, pure and simple. He did it on Twitter. He took it out, tried it out in New Haven on Twitter earlier on the day, talking about Ron DeSantis' Harvard Yale degree and Andrew Gillum being a thief there, trying to set up that dichotomy.

And I cannot stress enough, when he is doing it, he's doing it after the bombs sent around last week, after the anti-Semitic attacks last week. The president very much still directly engaged in this type of identity politics.

Abby, why is this so important to the White House with one week left to go?

PHILLIP: Well, John, let me start by saying calling someone a stone- cold thief that can't be in your opinion. It has to either be a real thing backed up by facts or not.

But as you heard there, the president is basically making up a moniker for Andrew Gillum in this race, something that he thinks, based on the way that he's done this in the past, goes at something that his supporters will identify in Andrew Gillum as true.

Now, why they might think that about Andrew Gillum it's not clear, but as you pointed out, this has been a racial-charged race. This Florida governor's race has been -- they've been dealing with these racist robocalls.

One of the very first things when Andrew Gillum became the nominee on the Democratic side was that there was a controversy in which Ron DeSantis used the term "monkey it up" in a conversation about this race.

So it's there. It's in the undercurrent. And it's not surprising that the president is not -- not even attempting to kind of distance himself from that.

But this race is important, to your question, because Ron DeSantis is the Republican nominee because of Donald Trump. He is a staunch supporter of the president's. He spent a lot of time on television boosting Trump, basically making himself the kind of FOX News candidate for Donald Trump.

And he is struggling in this race against someone who Republicans never really thought could put up a serious fight in the general election.

So that's why we're here; and President Trump is doing his best to kind of hang onto this race. Because a loss for DeSantis would be personal for Trump, and it would be about the president more than any other race in this country, I think, right now.

CAMEROTA: John, Abby makes such a good point.

In the press we can never call somebody a thief unless somebody is convicted. The president is throwing around a term that is racially charged that maligns someone without -- like that -- it is stunning when you break it down the way Abby did, that the president can libel somebody or whatever the word is, this publicly.

AVLON: And yet he rails against false information and the enemy of the people.

Look, this is stone-cold racism. This is not subtle, as John Berman pointed out.

There's the absurdity of the Harvard, Yale, Ivy League educated populist Trumper; and then just a flat-out libel of the Democratic candidate.

You know, there is an FBI investigation regarding Tallahassee and the mayor's office. It has nothing to do with allegations of stealing money. This is a racial appeal.

And it's not a phrase Trump uses often. I want to point this out. I actually looked in a Trump database. He does not use "thief" very often. In fact, since he's run for president, he only used it one other instance in the '16 campaign regarding Hillary Clinton. This is not a typical phrase he defaults to. That indicates intentionality. He knows what he's doing, and he's intentionally trying to have a late-inning argument that polarizes the electorate around race.

And the problem for DeSantis is what can help you win the Republican primary, hugging Donald Trump, hurts you in the general.

AVLON: And again, we know, because we see what the president is doing, what he wants his closing message to be, and he wanted it to be this before the bombs were sent last week and before the anti-Semitic attacks. He wants it to be about immigration, and he wants it to be about attacks on the media.

[06:25:12] On immigration we just got breaking news this morning. According to Axios, the president is talking about doing -- he hasn't done it yet -- it's one of these things where he says he will do it because he wants us to talk about it -- is to do away with birthright citizenship. That's the idea that, if you were born in the United States, you are a citizen of the United States. Let me read you what the 14th Amendment says about this. The 14th

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." That's the 14th Amendment.

This is what the president wants us to talk about a week before the election. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN SWAN, AXIOS: Some legal scholars believe you can get rid of birthright citizenship without changing the Constitution.

TRUMP: With an executive order.

SWAN: Exactly.

TRUMP: Right.

SWAN: Have you thought about that?

TRUMP: Yes.

SWAN: Tell me more.

TRUMP: It was always told to me that you needed a Constitutional amendment.

SWAN: 14th Amendment.

TRUMP: Guess what, you don't.

SWAN: You don't.

TRUMP: No. 1, you don't need that. No. 2 --

SWAN: I mean, that's in dispute. That's very much in dispute.

TRUMP: Well, you can definitely do it with an act of Congress, but now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order. Now, how ridiculous -- we're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, and it has to end.

SWAN: Have you talked about that with counsel?

TRUMP: Yes, I have.

SWAN: So where in the process --

TRUMP: It's in the process. It will happen. With an executive order. That's what you're talking about, right?

SWAN: That's exactly what I'm talking about. TRUMP: I didn't think anybody knew that about that but me. I thought

I was the only one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It's in the process; it will happen. Wants us talking about it one week before the election, and it is very much -- it's more than in dispute. Many, if not most Constitutional scholars, say it could not be done with an executive order.

David, the point is not the legality. The point is the discussion. The point is this is what the president wants to be talking about seven days before and --

CAMEROTA: And we're taking the bait.

BERMAN: And Republican strategists want it to.

GREGORY: Yes, there's no question about it. I mean, this is the hardline immigration message, the fear of immigrants changing the way of life of Americans. This is what the president hit upon so hard in 2016.

And you know, this idea of what fuels the president, what feeds him, you know, we talked about how much doubt there is in the White House about how to calibrate different messages right now. This is natural to Trump, because he goes out to rallies, he can -- he can talk about issues like this. He can talk about changing laws and executive orders; and he can hear the chants of "Build the wall," you know, and "Keep them out."

And he can order troops down to the border to keep a caravan out that's still thousands of miles away from the U.S. border by people who haven't committed any crimes.

And this is what gets people going.

You know, there is this quote that I guess our colleague, Jake Tapper, unearthed from Bob Woodward's and Robert Costa's reporting in "The Washington Post," that -- that he inspires rage in people, that he gets the rage out of people. The president is saying that himself about -- about voters.

And he's doing this intentionally, whether he thinks he can control that rage or not, or whether he thinks about the potential consequences or not. This is the issue where he knows there's rage, and that's what he's looking for.

BERMAN: But this is theater. This is theater, too. I mean -- and I think Jonathan Swan is a terrific reporter, but clearly, there's White House theater where it looked very much like someone told Jonathan Swan, "Hey, we're considering this. Ask the president about it," and the president feigned shock that somehow this reporter --

GREGORY: And it's theater, by the way, as to whether he'd actually follow through with it. I mean, look at how embarrassed he was by the family separations because of this, you know, attempted deterrence, and within a week they backed off of that saying, "Oh, no, no, that's an awful thing."

PHILLIP: I think it's -- we should just really point out quickly, though, that even if it's theater, it can still be very real, as we've learned in the past with this administration. Maybe the travel ban was theater. It became real. And even when it was struck down initially, they went and they tried again.

And these things do have an effect on established law in this country. So I think this is one of those things we really should pay attention to, even as much as it is kind of get-out-the-vote tactics seven days before the midterm elections.

CAMEROTA: John, your thoughts, final thoughts?

AVLON: I think Abby makes all the right points, but there's just this. Picking a fight with the Constitution is usually a losing proposition for a president.

Beyond all the ironies of, you know, the anger that Republicans and conservatives used to have about executive orders, this is a campaign tactic. I think it's exactly as Berman laid out. This was floated, and now it's the conversation they want to have. It's not a fight they're probably going to win, but it's serious, because it shows their intent.

CAMEROTA: All right. John, Abby, David, thank you very much.

Now to this, an airplane mystery. After a commercial plane crash in Indonesia kills all 189 people on board, what brought down this brand- new Boeing jet?

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