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Florida Judge Urges Both Sides To Ramp Down on Rhetoric As Florida Recount Begins; CNN Reality Check: The Truth Behind President Trump's Tweet On California Wildfires; White Supremacists Celebrate GOP Wins In Midterm Elections. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 13, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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


[07:30:00] REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL), MEMBER, HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: -- with Korea. But if you're not willing to have a military option on the table, diplomacy against an adversary will not and rarely ever works.

So I think if it's that time, we need to start getting on a stronger diplomatic footing, and I trust Mike Pompeo and the president to do that and the time's approaching near.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We will see.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, thanks. Nice to see you in person. Welcome -- come back.

KINZINGER: Take care.

BERMAN: Erica --

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: What is it like for candidates to be in the middle of a heated recount for a Senate seat? Well, few people know. Our next guest, however, does.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: One week -- that's how long it's been since Election Day. Some critical races, though, including some in Florida, remain undecided. A deadline to finish the recount looms. It is Thursday.

And now, a judge telling both sides it is time to cool off their heated debate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JACK TUTER, CHIEF JUDGE, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: I am urging because of the high public nature of this case to ramp down the rhetoric.

If someone in this lawsuit or someone in this county has evidence of voter fraud or irregularities at the supervisor's office they should report it to their local law enforcement officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [07:35:11] HILL: Joining us now, former Republican senator from Minnesota, Norm Coleman, who lost his seat to Al Franken after a contentious recount in the 2008 election.

Sir, good to have you with us this morning. You certainly have a perspective that is important at this point.

NORM COLEMAN (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR FOR MINNESOTA: Reliving the nightmare?

HILL: Just what you wanted to do, right?

COLEMAN: Now let me say this. You know, even based by -- and I was up 756 votes on election night.

When the machines were certified on November 18th -- which is what will happen in Florida, I think on the same date, by the way -- I think Gov. DeSantis -- it will be Gov. DeSantis. He'll be ahead on the machine count. I think it will be beyond kind of the margin it calls for mandatory hand recount and so that race should be taken care.

And then, the Scott race. But even the Scott race, by Coleman -- by Norm Coleman saying -- and Dino Rossi, by the way, ran for governor in 2004 and was ahead election night -- was ahead by 103 -- 130 -- or ahead by a number of votes -- a couple of hundred votes when the machine certified and ended up losing by 133 when it was all said and done.

And, by the way, the same team doing the Rossi race, doing the Coleman race, and now, doing the Florida race on the Democratic side -- Mark Rossi (ph) -- the same attorney -- the same team. They're very good --

HILL: Yes.

COLEMAN: -- at coming up with votes after the election's over.

But even by our standards, the numbers are just so great in the race -- in the Scott race, the Gillum race, that I can't even conceive that there'd be any possibility of the results being changed -- any possibility.

HILL: So looking at --

COLEMAN: There are just 2.9 --

HILL: In that respect then, sir, as you point out in your view -- this is going to work out pretty well, in your view, for Republicans when all is said and done.

Why, then, are we hearing such rhetoric from the president, from Rick Scott? There are claims of fraud. There is zero evidence.

If they're confident in what the outcome may be --

COLEMAN: So --

HILL: -- why not let it run its course which, again, as you pointed out and as we all know --

COLEMAN: I think --

HILL: -- is triggered by state law -- it's mandated?

COLEMAN: Yes, the -- except I actually applaud the fact that they're being vigorous. You -- maybe if you turn down rhetoric, OK, but don't turn down the spotlight.

So, in Minnesota, what happened is that we open it up --

HILL: But shouldn't they use facts in that spotlight?

COLEMAN: We open this up to -- we open this up to county officials who then, in Democrat counties, they poured in tons of votes and Republicans, they didn't. In the end, there were different standards applied in Democrat counties than Republican counties that went to the benefit, obviously, of Al Franken.

That race would have been decided different. I have no doubt if those uniform standards.

So, I -- sunlight is the best disinfectant. You may want to tone down rhetoric but do not turn -- tone down intensity, do not tone down the spotlight on what's happening in those -- in those local areas. That's where these races are lost.

Check out, by the way, whether there were felons who voted who shouldn't have.

So, I applaud the fact that --

HILL: But there is no --

COLEMAN: -- Gov. Scott is being --

HILL: Right -- rhetoric and light, sir.

COLEMAN: -- aggressive and being on -- and being on top of this.

HILL: But, rhetoric and sunlight and being on top of something, that's far different from saying there's fraud when there is zero evidence.

You have a judge saying listen, let us know if anybody has seen anything. We're hearing from the state we have no evidence at this point.

COLEMAN: Listen, I -- yes. First, I don't think -- I don't -- I don't think Gov. Scott has said anything other than he's going to be on top of this, that he's being aggressive, that he's bringing action. So I think all that needs to be done. And by the way, you know, in Minnesota we didn't -- we didn't litigate the fraud -- the fraud matter. We just didn't litigate it. Probably a mistake, you know.

It may come as a shock to some people but fraud actually happens in elections in America. And so, in the end, I think that folks are saying listen --

HILL: It does. We do know from the numbers, though it is rare and this is something that --

COLEMAN: -- let's check -- let's check this out --

HILL: -- it is rare and this is something that comes out, and we do need to point that out. It is rare and we have pointed it out a number of times on this network, especially in the last couple of years.

Listen, I do want to move on to this. I want to get your take on this because you're agreeing that the rhetoric needs to be ramped down, in the words of the judge there as we saw. What --

COLEMAN: But I'm not agreeing -- I'm not agreeing that the intensity of what Gov. Scott is doing has to be ramped. That would be a terrible mistake if you let the Democrats steal this race.

HILL: You said the rhetoric, though. You did just say -- correct me if I'm wrong -- just a couple of moments ago.

COLEMAN: Language -- oh, yes, yes, yes.

HILL: You did say the rhetoric should come down.

So let me ask you. How does that help anyone if the nastiness is at this point when we are again in the middle of a recount that is triggered by state law that is not done yet? So if there's so much nastiness at this point, what does that say moving forward, not just for the state of Florida but for this country?

COLEMAN: Listen, I'm not here to defend greater division in this country. However, elections are emotional. There's a lot at stake.

The fact is that if you go back to the Coleman race and the Rossi race there is a history. In fact, the same team of what many would say is stealing elections. So you have that -- you have that intensity.

It would be great if we could tone it down and just focus on what happened. That -- this is democracy. It's the nature of democracy.

It's not a subtle, quiet thing. It's a loud thing. Folks on all sides getting fired up.

So it would be ideal if we could follow the judge's dictates -- tone down the rhetoric a little bit. But don't tone down the intensity and focus on what happened and making sure folks know there's a spotlight on them so they can't get away with things that shouldn't be done. HILL: And focusing on what we know to be true and what we know that there is zero evidence to back, which is right now, these claims of fraud in the state of Florida.

[07:40:06] Always good to have you with us. Thanks for taking the time today.

COLEMAN: Great, my pleasure. Thank you.

HILL: John --

BERMAN: All right, thanks, Erica.

Santa Ana winds fueling flames in California. Is there relief in sight for the firefighters there? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Santa Ana winds are fueling the California wildfires and they could reach hurricane speeds today. Is there any good news for firefighters there?

Our meteorologist Chad Myers with a look at the forecast. Chad, what are you seeing?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Tomorrow -- tomorrow there is relief, not today. Overnight, just to the east of San Diego, a wind gust to 84 miles per hour. Here's the Woolsey Fire -- 145 square miles right now.

This weather is brought to you by the Shark Ion Robot system. One dock, two sharks.

We will see the wind continue today. Extreme weather conditions in San Diego County.

[07:45:03] Now, the problem is we already have sparks and flames up near Malibu. We don't have any sparks or flames in San Diego County.

And let's hope that doesn't happen because if we get wind gusts to 80, those fires will be just like what we saw around the Camp Fire -- just rapid, explosive, and acceleration moving to the west -- moving toward the coast and the same ideas that we had coming out -- those winds rolling out the mountains.

Dry, low humidity, very gusty winds, and hot. Three things you certainly don't want to blow in to a wildfire and this is what we're looking at today.

Tomorrow, much better. Winds will be 10 to 20, not almost 80 like we have for today. The high pressure moves away.

Guys, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Chad, thanks so much. Let's get to tomorrow.

HILL: Yes, exactly.

As these wildfires rage in California, the president tweeting. It was not one of support.

CNN senior political analyst John Avlon joins us now with a reality check -- John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks.

So look, no matter how divided we've felt in the past, Americans can usually depend on their ability to unite in the face of disaster. But not this time, at least by judging by the example sent by our president.

The wildfires raging in California are already the deadliest in Golden State history, claiming 44 lives with over 100 people still missing, and burning more than 200,000 acres across the state.

Now, in the face of so much suffering here was Donald Trump's response.

Quote, "There is no reason to believe these massive, deadly, and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now or no more fed payments!"

Now, the president's claims have been attacked as misleading, uninformed, and just plain wrong.

So let's look at what's really happening in California. There are three wildfires burning right now and winds are expected to get worse today, as you just heard.

The Woolsey Fire, just north of Los Angeles, isn't a forest fire at all. It started in Simi Valley, which Mr. Trump might recognize as home of the Reagan Library, and spread through suburban areas driven by high winds and dry conditions.

In responding to the president's tweet, the Pasadena Fire Association wrote, "Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong. The fires in Southern California are urban interface fires and have NOTHING to do with forest management. Come to SoCal and learn the facts and help the victims."

In addition, it's important to note the majority of California's forests, including much of Northern California's Camp Fire, are under federal management, not the state, and that's according to California's Professional Firefighters Union.

Oddly enough, this is a point that Guns N' Roses front man Axl Rose seemed to know before the President of the United States.

And because the feds control so much of California forests, it makes his repeated attacks on California forestry all the more absurd. In fact, President Trump's 2019 budget proposed cutting funding for

fire service programs. And the Center for Investigative Reporting found that the Trump budget also wanted to entirely defund the Joint Fire Science Program, which specifically studies the science of combating wildfires.

The problem is getting worse with wildfires claiming more lives and burning more ground. And according to Cal Fire, six of the 10 most destructive fires in state history, in terms of structures burned, have occurred since 2015, and they've been tracking fires for 100 years.

And according to a 2016 study by Columbia University, climate change is a major culprit, doubling the size of western forest fires during the last 30 years.

President Trump, of course, has described climate change as a hoax created by the Chinese and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accords.

At a time when people are suffering, lives lost, homes destroyed, and entire towns burnt to the ground, President Trump's first public statement on the tragedy was not one of a comforter in chief. Instead, his impulse was to blame the victim, as it often is.

You may recall Trump's persistent attacks against the Americans who suffered and died in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. The president's latest insult to the American island was a new White House proposal which would cut off federal disaster relief funding to Puerto Rico.

The president's job is to help, not hurt. But somehow this president's impulse is to try and divide us, even while Americans are united in their solidarity with the suffering.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: You sort of had us at Axl Rose.

AVLON: I thought you'd appreciate that.

BERMAN: I also -- they're not forest fires.

AVLON: That's right.

BERMAN: I mean, that seems like a pretty big deal if you're going to weigh in on this, Mr. President.

AVLON: It is. And look, you know, all those assertions just plain wrong as described by the people fighting the fires.

BERMAN: And not helpful to boot.

John Avlon, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.

HILL: Words matter, facts matter. BERMAN: Axl Rose matters.

HILL: Always matters.

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: Yes.

President Trump celebrating Republican wins in the midterms, as did some of -- some white nationalists online. The messages they think last week's elections sent. That's next.

BERMAN: Sweet child of mine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:47] HILL: White supremacists celebrating Republicans victories in the midterm elections. Why? They see the GOP hold on the Senate as a win for President Trump and a way to push forward their agenda of hate.

CNN's Sara Sidner is here now with more of those disturbing details. Disturbing might be putting it mildly.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is disturbing.

White nationalists sort of see this as a win for them, and what they're looking for is to create a white ethnostate. That is their whole idea about what America should look like. And when they hear some of the words of certain Republicans and the president, they think that they're talking directly to them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (voice-over): It was a meme for the midterms on a Web site visited more than 2.5 million times a month -- "Us If We Lose," it read, depicting white men ready for war, followed by "Them If We Win," showing Jews being led to their death.

KEEGAN HANKES, SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: They are begging their followers to go out and find ways to get Republicans in office because they believe it will be easier for these policies to sail through.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There was a big day yesterday.

SIDNER: When President Trump celebrated the Senate victory, so did white supremacists. "This changed history," neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin said on his site The Daily Stormer, which is the most widely-read neo- Nazi Web site in America. "This is a race war. Period."

[07:55:08] They also reveled in the reelection of Congressman Steve King, who has a history of making racists remarks like in this 2017 anti-immigration tweet saying, "We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." Or his unsubstantiated claim about immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico

border.

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: And they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.

SIDNER: "If last night was a referendum on Steve King's white nationalism, as the Democrats were trying to frame it, then white nationalism won," Anglin wrote on his site.

Both King and President Trump vehemently deny they are racists or enable white supremacists.

Trump pushed back at a recent press conference when asked if the Republican Party was seen as supporting white nationalists because of his rhetoric.

TRUMP: I don't believe it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you make of that?

TRUMP: I don't believe it.

SIDNER: But purposefully or not, the president speaks a language racists and neo-Nazis embrace, like his habit of linking immigrants to crime.

TRUMP: They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists.

SIDNER: The Government Accountability Office says right-wing extremists are responsible for the vast majority of deadly terror attacks in the U.S. since 9/11.

TONY MCALEER, FORMER NEO-NAZI, CO-FOUNDER, LIFEAFTERHATE.ORG: I was involved in the movement at the very dawn of the Internet.

SIDNER: Tony McAleer is a former skinhead. He says white supremacists look for any sign of approval from politicians in power.

MCALEER: The whole goal of people like me back in the day was to mainstream the idea.

HANKES: It doesn't take an overt slur for these individuals to basically become emboldened.

SIDNER: Take the president's threat to tell the military to consider rocks being thrown by migrants as guns being fired.

TRUMP: When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military police, I say consider it a rifle.

SIDNER: Those comments cheered online by racist trolls. "Hopefully, they throw stones," they write.

The Daily Stormer's webmaster, Andrew Auernheimer, is clear about their purpose.

ANDREW AUERNHEIMER, WEBMASTER, THE DAILY STORMER: We are trying to make a racist army.

SIDNER: White nationalists swooned at how the president described himself.

TRUMP: And I am a nationalist.

SIDNER: Translation, he's one of us.

STEVE MOORE, RETIRED FBI HATE CRIMES INVESTIGATOR: He doesn't mean necessarily that he's saying that. It's just that he hasn't said anything to convince them that he disagrees with them.

SIDNER: Critics of Trump's rhetoric believe his reluctance to rein in the radical side of his base has only empowered them -- their hateful agenda gaining speed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): And the key for white nationalists and neo-Nazis and members of the KKK is to try to normalize the way that they hate and normalize some of the words that they use, some of the memes that they use to make it mainstream. And they can see that happening in the leadership.

BERMAN: Sara, I've got to say a) it's lovely to see you in person.

SIDNER: It's great to see you both.

BERMAN: Don't love the reason --

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: -- for it because it's chilling to sort of see this. And you've worked so hard on this over the last several months and you can see the comfort level people have in talking to you. It's disturbing to me sometimes.

SIDNER: Yes. You know what? I always say this. I would rather somebody sit and talk with me about it and have a conversation than the unknown person who won't even bother talking to me because of the color of my skin.

HILL: Yes.

SIDNER: And I do want to say when people look at this as a whole -- you know, the president has said I'm not a racist. Steve King has said I'm absolutely not a racist.

But the words they use -- if you look at what white nationalists are saying or what white supremacists are saying or neo-Nazis -- call it what you want -- the alt-right -- they're very similar and sometimes exactly the same. And when they see that it is a sign to them -- a big sign saying you

are with us. We are here with you and you hear us. And they think this is their best hope for what they would like to see in this country, which is a white state.

HILL: It's chilling.

SIDNER: It is.

BERMAN: As I said, great to see you.

SIDNER: Thank you, guys.

HILL: Very good to see you in person. That's the one-up -- that we get to see you --

SIDNER: I'm sorry. This is hard for the morning.

HILL: But you know what? It's important and we need to keep talking about it. And you, as John pointed out, have done stellar reporting on this over the last few months and we know that you'll stick with it.

SIDNER: Thank you.

HILL: So, thank you.

SIDNER: I will. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right.

The deadliest wildfires in California's history -- by the way, where Sara lives her house is OK. The burning fires there are raging today. It could get worse before it gets better.

We have a live update coming up. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most destructive fire in California raging on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing left. All my neighbors, except one, are gone.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The death toll from Camp Fire has just risen to 42.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just utter devastation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole town was wiped off the face of the earth.

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA SENATE NOMINEE: We want free and fair elections, but we don't want any fraud.

SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: He's thrown around words like voter fraud without any proof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Gov. Scott takes his responsibility on honoring the will of the voter very seriously.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is dangerous to the process to constantly say the system isn't working.

ANDREW GILLUM (D-FL), MAYOR, TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: Let our people vote and let our votes be counted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

BERMAN: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, November 13th, 8:00 in the east.

Alisyn is off.