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President Trump To Accept Border Deal To Avoid Shutdown; Interview With Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL); Union Demands Apology From Lawmaker Over Confederate Book Displayed In Office; Two History-Making Women Lead Powerful House Committee; Parkland Survivors Remember 17 Killed One Year Ago. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 13, 2019 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: -- it is that is confusing. He says, last night, "Regardless of wall money, it is being built as we speak."

What do you think of this new narrative that he's claiming that his wall is already being built?

REP. CHERI BUSTOS (D-IL), CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE: Well, I think CNN ought to send a crew down and find out exactly where this is happening.

I know, it was baffling. And as you started out your question to say he tweeted something that was confusing -- well, it's kind of the state of affairs these days.

But I think if you look at this big picture, it was a huge, huge mistake to close down the government -- to shut it down for 35 days. To have 800,000 federal workers not getting a paycheck. I just heard a report about how many of these workers had to dip into their retirement, how many are late on their house payments. Just the terrible financial toll and the emotional toll that this took on so many people.

And again, if you look at this from a broader perspective, we are going to have policy differences with the President of the United States. Democrats and Republicans are going to have policy differences. This does happen. But that is what the legislative process is all about.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BUSTOS: We work through these and we don't have our federal workers not get paid as a result of us working out our policy differences.

CAMEROTA: But, I mean, I think that this is more than just one of the president's confounding tweets. I think that this one is really jaw- dropping because it sounds like he's referring to the 40 miles of replacement barrier that is being shored up. And if that's the case, the 40-miles of replacement barrier -- so, it already existed. It's not a wall, but it's a barrier. If he's talking about the improvements that are being done to that,

then why was the government shut down for 30 -- if he's satisfied, in other words, with that -- with that, he can tweet to his followers that the wall is already being built, then why was the government shut down for 35 days?

BUSTOS: Well, it was a total waste. As I said, it was unnecessary.

The president -- all he had to do is say he was willing to take a look at a negotiated -- a compromised proposal, and that is what is coming out of this -- the talks between the Senate and the House, Republicans and Democrats. I know they are still working out the fine details but this is how legislation is supposed to happen.

What I find interesting about this latest proposal -- and we don't have all the fine details, by the way -- but that we have people kind of on all sides are kind of more of the outside of the spectrum saying they are unhappy with it.

And I come from a district that Donald Trump won. I'm a Democrat, and so I understand the importance of negotiating, of compromise. And I would say if you got this side a little upset and this side a little upset then we probably, at least, have something that's workable.

CAMEROTA: I mean -- and I also just want to say that Nancy Pelosi had said not a dollar -- not a single dollar for his wall. And it turns out that Democrats are going to be giving $1.3 billion for a barrier. I mean, I don't know if you make the distinction between a wall and a barrier, but Democrats are giving money after it sounded like Nancy Pelosi had sworn that off.

BUSTOS: Well, there is a -- the report that I'm being given, and that obviously you're reading as well, is $1.37 billion for a barrier. It's slats, it's fencing, that sort of thing. This has really gotten down to the semantics of the wall.

The president, as candidate Trump, spent about two years on the campaign trail saying that, you know, build the wall. It was every place he went to his cheering, adoring fans. And so to him, it's got to be a wall.

To Democrats, we know that -- we believe in border security. We want to make sure that our citizens are safe and our country is safe. It is just what we -- what it is being called and that has become kind of a sticking point on all sides.

But the deal right now, as we stand here, is $1.37 billion for a -- for fencing. It's no new design of any sort.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BUSTOS: So what the president is saying that this is some giant, big, long concrete wall -- that is not the case.

And so hopefully, because of what we are agreeing to and what the Republicans in this deal are agreeing to that we can all say OK, we're getting something that hopefully we can all live with.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

I want to ask you about another thing the president -- that's on President Trump's mind that he's tweeted about, and that is that he thinks that Congressman Ilhan Omar should resign from Congress after she has apologized for what many saw as anti-Semitic statements. Or he thinks she should at least be stripped of her committee assignments.

Your response?

BUSTOS: Well, you know, I guess I -- we hold our own, so to speak, accountable. Within a matter of hours, we had asked Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to apologize for her tweet.

[07:35:00] Probably within less than an hour, Congressman Max Rose, a fellow freshman with Congresswoman Omar, called her out and said that he highly was -- you know, wanted to make sure that she corrected this.

And then it was within probably hours of our calling her out that she apologized.

You know, if you want to compare what's going on here, it took, what, 16 years of Steve King's horrible comments and behavior for the Republicans to officially call him out?

So, I mean, I think we're pretty good as Democrats of when we have one of our own saying something, doing something that is offensive that we -- that we want to make that right.

CAMEROTA: So as far as you're concerned it's over?

BUSTOS: Well, it -- my hope is that Congresswoman Omar doesn't tweet any more comments like this one. She did apologize. I will take her at her word that she was sorry that she did this and that we move on.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, great to talk to you. Thank you very much.

BUSTOS: Thank you, Alisyn. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: John --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Federal Labor Union members demanding an apology from a congressman. Why did a book inside his office -- why is that book causing controversy? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Some breaking news overnight.

A veteran New York City police detective was killed in an apparent case of friendly fire. Police say officers were responding to a robbery call at a cell phone store in Queens and they opened fire on an unidentified 27-year-old suspect last night.

[07:40:09] Brian Simonsen, a 19-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was shot in the chest and killed.

Another officer was wounded and you can hear him on police scanners informing dispatch that he has been hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired, shots fired. Be advised, I'm shot.

Perp's still at the location. Please set up a route going to Jamaica.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Police say the suspect was carrying a fake weapon. He was shot multiple times and he remains hospitalized.

BERMAN: Members of a federal labor union are demanding an apology from Republican Congressman Drew Ferguson. They discovered a 19th- century Confederate book in his office that they consider racially offensive.

CNN's Lauren Fox live on Capitol Hill with the latest on this. Lauren, what's going on here?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, John, this week, there was an interesting observation when members of AFSCME were sitting in the congressman's office waiting for a meeting to get started. And one of them, Octavius Miller, noticed a book that was in a glass case, and the book was titled "General Robert Edward Lee: Soldier, Citizen and Christian Patriot." It was a 19th-century book and it was open to an offensive page, according to the members who were in that office.

The page said, "The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially, and physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their instruction as a race and I hope will prepare and lead them to better things."

Now, a member of the federal employees union, Octavius Miller, said that he was shocked when he saw this page that was open in the congressman's office. And a leader from AFSCME actually called the congressman's office later to ask what was going on. We need you to issue an apology. We need you to remove this book from the office.

The chief of staff actually called Octavius Miller the next day and apologized, but they want a more formal apology. And they have -- the office has said that they've removed the book from this office.

But, you know, my colleague, Ellie Kaufman, who spoke with Octavius Miller, said that Miller was deeply, deeply disturbed by this book and the fact that the page was open in the congressman's office -- John and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Lauren. I mean, and reading that excerpt is also stunning. FOX: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for the reporting on this.

Well, for the first time in history, two women are leading the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Their bond and their willingness to work together played a key role, we're told, in the spending deal that could get President Trump's approval to avoid another government shutdown.

And, CNN's Dana Bash is live in Washington with their story -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, you know that old saying, if you want to get something done you ask a busy woman. Well, how about two busy women on opposite sides of the aisle determined to, in their words, show them how it's done.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. NITA LOWEY (D-NY), CHAIRWOMAN, HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: What an honor it is to serve as the chairwoman of this committee.

BASH (voice-over): A moment for the history books. Democrat Nita Lowey, the first woman to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

REP. KAY GRANGER (R-TX), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: I look forward to continuing our very productive relationship.

BASH: And with Kay Granger, the top Republican, this is the first female duo to lead any House panel since 1977, and that was a committee on the House Beauty Shop.

LOWEY: Too bad it was disbanded. I could use a House Beauty Shop. I never knew there was a House Beauty Shop here.

GRANGER: Me neither.

BASH (on camera): You're in charge of the committee that performs the most important task, constitutionally, of Congress.

LOWEY: Yes, it is.

GRANGER: The power of the purse.

BASH (voice-over): Translation, they write bills to fund the government and were key players in cutting a border security deal to avert another government shutdown. The duo joked it could have been quicker if they were left alone to hash it out.

LOWEY: We'd do it. Give us an hour, 30 minutes.

BASH: They've worked together for years across party lines.

GRANGER: Nita always said we're going to be friends. We're going to show how well two women can get this done. We're going to disagree but not be disagreeable and work things out. Do it on time, do it the right way.

BASH: But don't let their congeniality fool you.

GRANGER: There would be times when someone would come to the podium and misunderstand that beautiful smile, that nice way she handles it. I'd watch -- I'd say he's in for such a surprise because she's a very -- she's a very tough lady.

BASH: A male colleague even gave Lowey an ice pick as a gag gift.

LOWEY: He said watch out for that smile. She has a silver pick in her hand.

BASH: Granger, the first female mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, is no different.

BASH (on camera): You probably have steel-toed cowboy boots.

GRANGER: Yes. One member of leadership said if you're going to be in a knife fight make sure Kay's on your team.

[07:45:01] BASH (voice-over): Lowey, age 81, and Granger, 76, marvel at the influx of young women in Congress.

BASH (on camera): Do you feel a sense of responsibility to mentor the younger women?

LOWEY: Absolutely.

GRANGER: We do.

LOWEY: Absolutely. I interact with the young women, the middle-aged women, and reach out and try and be as helpful as I can.

BASH: You're one of 13 Republican women -- that's all --

GRANGER: Right.

BASH: -- in the House, and that's a total of 102 women which is pretty remarkable. Only 13 are Republicans.

GRANGER: It's very disappointing. We have a lot of work to do.

BASH (voice-over): A big part of their job, traveling to see firsthand how taxpayer dollars they appropriate are spent, like Granger's recent trip to the southern border.

GRANGER: Talking about it in a room in Washington is one thing. When they see it for themselves, it's a -- it's a -- it's a game changer.

BASH: Man, man, man, man, man. Back in Washington, walking through the Capitol's Statuary Hall, it's hard not to notice the statutes are mostly men.

BASH (on camera): These men probably never imagined that women would be in charge --

LOWEY: Yes.

BASH: -- and you are.

GRANGER: Yes.

BASH (voice-over): A female oasis of bipartisanship on a crucial House committee.

GRANGER: This is what I gave her when she became chair. And when I became -- when I was elected by the steering committee she was the first one to call and congratulate me. We have that sort of relationship.

BASH (on camera): Do you actually use that at the hearings or it's ceremonial?

LOWEY: I use it for lots of things.

GRANGER: Oh, my.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And Lowey and Granger each have three children and they have 11 grandchildren between them. I ask if they bond as grandmothers. Alisyn, they paused, they looked at each other, they looked back at me almost surprised to realize their answer is no, they don't.

It's not that they're not doting grandmothers. They realized at the moment they're too busy working. And, Lowey said to Granger, isn't that something? We don't talk about our grandchildren.

CAMEROTA: I totally get it. I mean, they're focused when they're at work. I understand.

I just interviewed Lowey yesterday.

BASH: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I am now afraid of that silver ice pick. I'm --

BASH: You should be.

CAMEROTA: -- going to try to still be a tough interviewer but I'm a little nervous about it.

BERMAN: And what is she hitting with the gavel? I feel like that just hung out there.

BASH: Just use your imagination, John Berman.

BERMAN: Now I'm really scared.

CAMEROTA: Well --

BERMAN: All right, Dana. Thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. It will be one year ago tomorrow that the high school in Parkland, Florida became the site of a deadly mass shooting. So the survivors of the attack demanded action almost immediately. Up next, we have the Parkland survivors and they're going to tell us what they want today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:46] CAMEROTA: Tomorrow marks one year since a gunman murdered 17 students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The morning after the attack I flew to Parkland and I met David Hogg, who had an immediate call to action though he had just survived the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR, CO-FOUNDER, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: Please, this is the 18th one this year. That's unacceptable. We're children.

You guys, like, are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together, come over your politics, and get something done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now are Parkland survivors David Hogg and Ryan Deitsch. Both of them are co-founders of the gun violence prevention organization March for Our Lives. Guys, it is great to see you again this morning.

And before we get to all that you've accomplished in the past year and all that you still want to do, David, if I could just go back to that morning -- that morning that we first met. The morning -- I mean, it was just really a few hours after the horror that you'd endured inside your high school and so many people have been struck by how composed you already were and how you had already switched into action mode, and how that was possible.

And I just want to get your thoughts after a year of how you were already trying to tackle this back then.

HOGG: I think, really, it's because of two classes that I had taken throughout my high school career, which were speech and debate, where we previously had to debate things like universal background checks and digitalization of ATF records. And also, my experience in T.V. production as the school's T.V. news anchor co-host and also the news director of the school.

CAMEROTA: I mean, that's remarkable. I remember you telling me that day, David, that that was part of your composure and that you were comfortable sort of public speaking in a way that not everybody is.

But in terms of emotionally, what has this year been like for you?

HOGG: Oh, it's been an absolute rollercoaster. But I think essentially, from that day onward -- the reason why I went out and spoke so early on was because for the first time in my -- in my life, leading up to that point, I had felt, like, emotions.

I had felt like my sister -- I felt empathy for my sister because at school that day she had lost four friends and I didn't want anybody else to have to go through that pain. I didn't want anybody else to have to hear the suffering that my sister went through that day.

So I wanted to make sure that I was able to go out there and speak for those that couldn't at the time, like my sister or someone like Manuel Oliver and the other parents and siblings that had lost either siblings or children that day. For those that couldn't, at the time, so that this wouldn't just be another mass shooting in the history of America.

CAMEROTA: So, Ryan, what has happened? What has changed over the past year since that horrible day?

RYAN DEITSCH, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR, CO-FOUNDER, MARCH FOR OUR LIVES: I mean, you can just see it in the laws that have been passed and the lives that have been saved in this country since those laws have been passed.

We've had -- through our activism, through our speaking out, and working with both politicians on the federal and local level, we've seen over 67 state laws be passed since the -- since the tragedy at our high school. And we see more and more federal bills being introduced and more and more likely, they are looking like they can pass.

[07:55:12] And we need them to pass because we know that with these laws and with the change that we need to see happen that these tragedies can be prevented because we don't want another -- we do not want another tragedy. We do not want another school shooting, the same that we don't want another shooting on our streets.

CAMEROTA: And just to put a finer point on that let me just put up a graphic that we've put together of the things that you all were able to get passed in Florida.

You marched to the State Capitol. I was there reporting on it. I think it was the week after the tragedy.

You've got the minimum age raised to purchase a firearm in Florida to 21 from 18. Banned the sale or possession of bump stocks. Funding for mental health assistance in schools. You gave law enforcement greater power to seize weapons and ammo from the mentally unfit, which so many people thought could have helped in this situation.

Providing additional funding for armed school resource officers. And then, there was also the idea of whether or not to arm teachers.

And I want to ask you about that -- both of you guys -- whoever wants to take this. Every public school in Florida is now required to have one armed security guard because of what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. And, you know, there's so much debate about whether that's dangerous or whether that's the right answer.

How do you all feel about that?

HOGG: I, for sure, don't think arming teachers is a good idea. I think, overall, we have to work to make sure that we're stopping shooters before they get on campus because by the time they get there it's already too late because we know that somebody else is going to be lost through that process.

We have to be working together, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans attacking the source of evil and being able to stop and reduce harm and stop violence before it happens -- reduce it as it's happening. And increase, for example, ambulance response time after a horrible incident like occurred at our school.

CAMEROTA: And, Ryan, just this week, something's happening in Congress, OK -- not just Florida. But on a federal level, there's this bipartisan bill and it is from Congressman Mike Thompson of California, a Democrat, and Peter King, a Republican of New York. And it is a universal background check bill they'll be voting on this week.

Do you draw a direct line from what happened a year ago to this?

DEITSCH: Absolutely. I mean, just from the activism that we have been able to inspire throughout the country, just through the work that our many chapters have been doing on the ground, and through other organizations like Moms Demand, we have seen that this change has occurred directly because of that work.

We've seen gun-sense candidates like Lucy McBath be introduced into Congress. We have seen people like our congressman Ted Deutch actually speak out on these issues more and more, not only to the press but on the floor of the House.

And we've seen that these introductions of these bills -- we are working with them -- almost every single day we have people lobbying in D.C. Teenagers, just like us, lobbying in D.C. every day to speak out on issues like HRA. And we want to make sure that these pass because these can and will save lives.

HOGG: And, Alisyn, I think another important aspect is that we have to make sure we're properly funding violence intervention programs, especially in city communities like Life Camp, where in Jamaica Queens, for example, one community before an amazing woman known by the name of Erica Ford was able to go in in 2001. There was 17 murders a year in the one community.

And through violence intervention programs and better mentoring programs and interrupting violence as it's happening without increasing mass incarceration, they were able to take it from 17 murders in one year to one murder in the past 17 years.

CAMEROTA: And, guys --

HOGG: We need federal funding for those programs.

CAMEROTA: That is remarkable.

But, guys, very quickly -- we're out of time, but how has this changed your life trajectory? I know that you're both approaching college or maybe already in it, Ryan. But what do you plan to do with your lives?

HOGG: I plan to make sure that nobody else, no matter the zip code, has to live in constant fear of gun violence. And I plan to make sure that our generation is the last generation to have to -- that has to live with the constant scourge of gun violence, no matter whether it's 17 people that are killed at our high school or one person that's shot and killed on their way to school because we have to end gun violence in every zip code in every single part of the United States.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

DEITSCH: Yes, and I mean just, frankly, me and David both took a gap year this past year to work on this. And even though we might be going to college in the fall we are going to continue this work.

CAMEROTA: Guys, we are thinking of you this week. We know that the entire movement -- the March for Our Lives is going to go dark from tomorrow through the 17th to honor all of your friends and loved ones that you lost.

David Hogg, Ryan Deitsch, thank you very much. We'll be following you.

DEITSCH: Thank you.

HOGG: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We have new reporting on what President Trump will do with this bipartisan spending bill. NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: And, good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

END