Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Trump Tweets About a Comedy Show and John McCain; Ethiopian Plane Crash Similar to Lion Air; Biden Accidentally Says He's Running; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) New York Announces Her Candidacy; New Zealand Government for Tighter Gun Laws; Two Hollywood Actresses on the College Admission Scandal; Mick Mulvaney Defends Trump on White Supremacy Issue. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 17, 2019 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00] (JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Instead of joining the world condemning this hatred and offering support to the Muslim community in New Zealand and across the globe, President Trump is tweeting that "Saturday Night Live" hurts his feelings.

His acting chief of staff made the Sunday morning show rounds and was repeatedly asked about why the president doesn't come out strongly and publicly against white supremacists like the suspected killer in New Zealand. And here was Mick Mulvaney's defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The president is not a white supremacist. I'm not sure how many times we have to say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That defense still doesn't answer why the president has yet to denounce anti-Muslim attacks and hatred himself. The president did use his direct line to the American people to take more cheap shots at an American war hero who's not even alive to defend himself. Trump again slamming the late senator John McCain today, he says, for trying to derail his run for the presidency in 2016.

Now, one of the president's defenders, most of the time, Senator Lindsey Graham, took issue with that tweeting this, "As to Senator John McCain and his devotion to his country, he stepped forward to risk his life for his country, served honorably under difficult circumstances, and was one of the most consequential senators in the history of the body. Nothing about his service will ever be changed or diminished."

Clearly not a position held by the president, who did, to his credit, go to Vietnam, although not until he was in his 70s and with Secret Service protection. Now, other Republican voices today have been quiet on President Trump's John McCain attacks. They've withheld putting public pressure on the president to take a stronger stance against white supremacy. And the official Republican Party twitter feed has posted a picture,

however, of Beto O'Rourke, photoshopped in a leprechaun hat. Let's get to the White House and CNN's Boris Sanchez. And Boris, it's striking to see what is on the president's mind today. Comedy show reruns that he doesn't like or he doesn't think they are funny, lashing out at a genuine American miliary hero.

And he's also had a number of tweets showing he's upset that someone who's very friendly to him on T.T. was taken off the air at Fox News. Is anyone else at the White House today addressing the actual pressing issues in the world?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, if twitter is any indication of where the president's focus is, it is not on white nationalism or on violence directed by white supremacists or white supremacist groups. As you noted, the president spent more time tweeting about a Fox News host than he did send out actual tweets condemning the violence we saw in New Zealand.

He also tweeted, as you noted, about "SNL" and Democrats. Critics of the president would like him to spend as much energy as he spends on that condemning and attacking white supremacists. As you said, the White House pushed back on that criticism of the president, saying that his condemnation of the acts in New Zealand was sufficient.

Mick Mulvaney at one point became a bit annoyed, having to answer questions about it, saying that it's one of the White House frequently has had to answer and go back to. But at the end of the day, Ana, if you look back at what the president told reporters on Friday, he didn't explicitly condemn Islamophobia and that's where a lot of the heat is coming from, from critics.

And as you noted, he has spent quite a bit of time attacking John McCain as well. So the question is when will the president come out and address this? It does not appear that he intends to do so any time soon, Ana.

CABRERA: And timing is everything, Boris. The president is attacking the legacy of Senator John McCain, notably on this weekend when his family is marking a bittersweet anniversary, 46 years since his release from a Vietnamese POW camp. How is the late senator's family reacting to this renewed assault by the president?

SANCHEZ: Well, Meghan McCain was very quick on twitter, sending out a stinging rebuke of President Trump. Look at when she wrote, "No one will ever love you the way they loved my father. I wish I had been given more Saturdays with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine?"

It's hard to say that the president is punching back at John McCain here. As you noted, he passed away more than seven months ago. It is a bit surprising, though, that there has been so much silence on the Republican side of the aisle with the exception of Senator Lindsey Graham, someone who was very close with John McCain.

We really haven't heard much from other Republicans. And that's notable considering that last year when John McCain passed away we heard so many moments and emotional tributes, such a vocal outpouring of support for the former senator from Arizona -- not so much now when the president is still attacking him, someone who the president said was not a war hero, Ana.

CABRERA: All right. Boris Sanchez at the White House for us. Thank you. For more on the president's renewed attacks on the late senator, I want to bring in CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston and CNN political analyst Julie Pace and Patrick Healy.

[17:05:06] Patrick, what does the president stand to gain or think he can gain by attacking a Republican senator who's widely regarded and very well respected by both parties?

PATRICK HEALY, POLITICS EDITOR, THE NEW YOR TIMES: Sadly, and I think this is largely about the president's own ego. It's not like he has a ton to gain certainly with independent voters who were shown in 2000 and 2008 to rally strongly by Senator McCain's side when he was running for president.

And there are certainly parts of the Republican base that very much like the kind of leadership that Senator McCain showed especially on foreign affairs, on the world stage, on America's strength. It seems like the president is essentially, you know, spending a lot of time watching Fox News today. The McCain issue kind of came out after he saw Ken Starr, it sounds like quoted on Fox News and, you know, sort of repeated throughout the day.

But the notion again of the dossier, of the -- sort of the early roots of the investigation, even though the president got incorrect what Senator McCain's, you know, influence may have been in all of that. You know, he still is looking for people to blame for this and what he sees as this witch hunt. And there's no line it seems like he won't cross. He'll even go in and blame the dead, you know, without knowing his facts.

CABRERA: Exactly. John McCain can't defend himself. He can't push back. We did see his good friend, Senator Lindsey Graham, push back. He's obviously somebody who has cozied up to the president in the last year. He tweeted praise for McCain's service overseas and in the senate, which we read earlier, but he did not make a direct mention of Trump. Graham was best friends with McCain, Julia, and yet he can't directly call out the president?

JULIA PACE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What we see here is that Republicans have basically made a choice when it comes to Trump's twitter attacks. They basically choose to ignore virtually all of them. But what happens as a result of that is that it often looks like they're accepting them.

They say that they don't want to be distracted. They would rather talk about other issues. But they are the president's party, and when they don't push back, then it does again, look like they're accepting them.

Lindsey graham is somebody who was clearly trying to strike some sort of balance today by talking about his best friend John McCain, but again, it does look like he is more scared of what the president would say in response to him, you know, than he'd feel strongly about having to defend John McCain.

CABRERA: Mark, this is all happening with the backdrop of the mass terror attack fueled by white supremacy overseas. Is the president simply trying to change the conversation or is there another strategy in play, do you think?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, a couple things. One is what we saw today is classic Donald Trump. Had too much time on his hands, as Patrick was saying, was watching Fox News a little bit too much and decided to really just open up the treasure chest of thoughts in his head and just release them.

As you can see, he was all over the place today. Not only was he critical of John McCain, but he went after General Motors. Then he went after the union president of the plant up in Lordstown, blaming him partly for the reason of G.M. deciding to close an auto plant up there. So he's certainly all over the place.

He doesn't show a whole lot of compassion and I do think that we've seen this time and time again, that perhaps we shouldn't be looking towards President Trump to be the consulter-in-chief to offer that compassion that as a nation we sometimes that we need or that another nation would like to hear from the leader of the free world.

I mean, it doesn't seem like he's capable of doing that. So I just wonder, Ana, should we just move beyond President Trump, knowing full well that he's not going to be that person and really just judge him on the person that he is.

I think for a lot of people when they are judging him on the person he is, they look at him and say, you cannot even show any compassion. You cannot even acknowledge that there's a rise in anti-Semitism, that there's a rise in anger, a rise in all types of things right now, white nationalism.

A lot of people will look at him and say that that in itself is the reason why he shouldn't be president of the United States. And that's why things have gotten so, so interesting as we look at him right now, but we're also looking at the Democrats who are running for president there, Ana.

CABRERA: And so stay with me because I want to talk 2020 with all of you in just a moment. But first, we have new developments in the investigation of the Ethiopian Airlines crash. An Ethiopian official now confirms to CNN preliminary data from the black box shows similarities between that crash and the fatal Lion Air disaster in October. Both planes were Boeing 737 Max 8s.

Now, Experts are analyzing that data to determine what exactly caused Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 to go down just minutes after take-off. Six minutes, in fact, after it took off, killing all 157 people on board.

[17:10:03] And CNN's Richard Quest is with us now from Amsterdam. Richard, what specific similarities have been identified?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: They didn't actually reveal what those similarities are, but it's sufficient to say even just the mere fact that the Ethiopian similarities are, but it's sufficient to say even the mere fact that the Ethiopian transport minister said there were certain similarities between Lion air and Ethiopian Air, that in itself is of course a major development.

Experts point to the profile of the flight. There were the dramatic altitude changes at a very early stage in both flights, the way in which the speed didn't pick up and then suddenly the planes were going much faster. In both cases, the similarities are there and they are markedly different to that which you'd expect from a normal flight.

So, we're going to get a preliminary report within 30 days from the Ethiopians. And Ana, it will be interesting to see if the investigators make any recommendations and safety guidelines in those first -- that preliminary report.

CABRERA: Again, just 30 days potentially from now. Richard Quest, thank you for that update.

Did Joe Biden almost reveal his 2020 plans?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FOREM VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the -- if anybody who would run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Another Democrat officially jumping into the 2020 race this weekend. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Now, she formed an exploratory committee a couple of months ago you may recall, but today, here's Gillibrand declaring her formal candidacy. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need a leader who makes big --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bold --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brave --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Choices --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Someone who isn't afraid of progress.

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D), NEW YORK: That's why I'm running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CABRERA: Senator Gillibrand's announcement ends with an invitation to join her at the Trump International Hotel on March 24th, next weekend, where she plans to deliver, "her vision of restoring America's moral integrity straight to President Trump's doorstep."

Gillibrand is now one of six women seeking the Democratic nomination. And former vice president Joe Biden coming very close to announcing his candidacy in the 2020 presidential race. And then he stops short. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm told I get criticized by the new left. I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the -- anybody who would run.

(CROWD CHEERING)

BIDEN: With anybody who would run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: As he gets a standing ovation, makes a sign of a cross. I want to bring in CNN political reporter Arlette Saenz. Arlette, usually a flub like that means a potential candidate is going to run. When is he going to make up his mind? Is there a timeline?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Ana, he seems to be leaving little hints and clues all along the way as we get closer and closer to that announcement. But those close to him say that any possible announcement would be coming as soon as April. So we're still potentially a few weeks away from knowing whether for sure he is going to run for president in 2020.

But last night in front of that home state crowd, there are a lot of friendly Biden Democrats in the room, he offered a bit of a preview of what his campaign could possibly look like and sounds like. He talked about the need for the country to rise above the meanness and pettiness in politics and work towards consensus building. And Biden also framed his possible message in terms of a contrast to President Trump. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We must be clear. Everybody knows who he is. We got to be clear who we are, who we are.

(APPLAUSE)

We've got to understand that we Democrats, we choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. And we choose truth over lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, that was a common refrain that Joe Biden used out on the midterm campaign trail, but it also seems like he was road testing that message once again, just in case he decides to run for president in 2020. But we're still a few weeks away from knowing for sure if he's going to go ahead and launch that campaign.

CABRERA: We know you'll keep us posted. Arlette Saenz, thank you. So a whole slew of 2020 Democratic presidential contenders are hitting the campaign trail on this St. Patrick's Day. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker are in Iowa. Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke is in Wisconsin.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is meeting voters in Tennessee. And then Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is in California. Former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro is in South Carolina. Back with us now, Mark Preston, Patrick Healy and Julie Pace.

So Patrick, the group of 2020 candidates just continues to grow. Is it more the merrier always here or are there disadvantages potentially for the Democratic Party to have such a large field?

HEALY: I think Democratic voters who are now are more in the more the merrier field. They want to know what the policy ideas and the issues are that will be the priorities for these Democratic candidates. For someone like Joe Biden, who is painting in pretty broad strokes right now, choosing unity over division, that sounds good but he's going to have a tough time if he does get in.

[17:20:00] If he just thinks that he can run as kind of the anti- Trump. OK, Trump's division, I'm unity, all the voters will get that. That's not really the case. The way things work and especially Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina, the Democratic voters who are so basically committed that they go out to all of these early events.

They want to hear specific policy ideas around Medicare for all, around tax rates, around the price of prescription drugs, the green new deal, understanding what that is, $15 minimum wage, these planks that have grown in popularity ever since Bernie Sanders introduced them in -- some of them, in 2016. So right now at least there's an openness. Certainly you talk to Democratic voters, they like all of the -- they like this energy.

CABRERA: Who wouldn't want the options, right?

HEALY: Absolutely. They're excited about having a historic number of women running certainly. But right now it's more of a menu of kind of policies and ideas, you know, than a really clear field.

CABRERA: I guess there's the other thought, though, Julie, that could be Democrats eat Democrats, and could they beat each other up so much in the primaries that it weakens the party in the general? What's your take?

PACE: Well, you're already starting to hear some of the candidates, most notably someone like a Cory Booker who's talking about that quite explicitly in his stump speech where he says, look, no matter what happens during this primary, we have to be united when we go in to a general election. And we can't have any lingering tensions like we saw in 2016 when some of Bernie Sanders' supporters never quite fully got on board, were never quite as enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton as they were about Sanders in the primary.

The other thing, you know, I think Patrick is totally right. A lot of voters I talk to say they are really enthusiastic about this big field. You do, though, sometimes hear people say, you know, the Republicans had a really big field in 2016. A lot of high-quality senators, governors, people with real experience, and look who slipped through.

It was Donald Trump who was able to capture the nomination with actually a relatively small percentage of the Republican primary electorate. But in a big field, you can divide it up in a way that you don't need the majority of support to get through.

CABRERA: Mark, Biden almost announcing. Does this mean, yes, Biden's in? And who could be impacted the most if he gets in?

PRESTON: Look, I think he is in. He has been dropping those little breadcrumbs as we spoke about earlier. I mean, the bottom line is that there's a yearning within the Democratic Party right now for Joe Biden to get in, not from everybody. Certainly not from the real energetic left, but really the center and a little bit of the left and center because they look at someone like Joe Biden and they say he's battle tested.

He can go one on one with Donald Trump, and he won't necessarily get down into the gutter with Donald Trump. And when he does, he can be effective. I do think Joe Biden is going to get in. Who would he hurt? He could potentially hurt the likes of Amy Klobuchar who's trying to really run more of a centrist campaign than the likes of Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or Beto O'Rourke, who are certainly trying to really appeal to the left and the liberal part of the Democratic Party, Ana.

CABRERA: Although, Joe Biden says he's the most progressive candidate that would be running for president. Patrick, I see you shaking your head like you don't buy it?

HEALY: There are more than a few Democrats who are going to carve up a statement like that, Ana. I mean, it's really, you know, Joe Biden has a record going back into the '70s that, you know, reflected Democratic sort of moderate centrist views through those decades where particularly the crime bill of the 1990s and the penalties that were put in place that led to the era of mass incarceration that created serious and exacerbated serious inequities in criminal justice for African-Americans.

And the reality is there's a lot on Joe Biden's record that does not look progressive at all to the Democratic left. So, you know, we'll have to see. He will be tested in those town halls. He will be called out by certainly journalists in interviews by what exactly he means by that. And, you know, he's not someone who necessarily has put a lot of details on current policy ideas that the progressive wing of the party says is important to them.

CABRERA: Mark, real quick since you're in Jackson, Mississippi, ahead of Monday night's town hall with Senator Elizabeth Warren. I know Warren is on this three-day swing through the south. Is she trying to court African-American voters? Is that the strategy?

PRESTON: Yes, no doubt. Look, symbolically for her to come down here makes a lot of sense. And strategically, it makes a lot of sense as well because we're going to see Tennessee. We're going to see Mississippi where I am sitting right now. We're going to see Alabama. They're all going to play important roles when it comes to the first Super Tuesday and the second Super Tuesday.

Her swing down here right now is clearly sending a message and really sending a message to three specific candidates. To Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and to Joe Biden, three candidates who have strong ties into the African-American community and she's trying to say, listen, I'm coming down here as well and I'm vying for their votes.

[17:25:04] So, it will be interesting to see what she has to say when she takes the stage here at Jackson State University tomorrow night.

CABRERA: All right. Julie Pace, I owe you a question first next time. Mark Preston, Julie, Patrick Healy, thank you, all for being with us this afternoon. Make sure you tune in tomorrow night for that CNN town hall with Senator Elizabeth Warren right here on CNN at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

Authorities are rushing to identify the victims killed in the New Zealand attack. The challenges facing coroners and why families may not be able to bury loved ones in accordance with Muslim tradition. You are live in the "CNN Newsroom." Don't go anywhere.

[17:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: As the world continues to mourn the 50 people killed in Friday's mosque attacks in New Zealand, a number of developments today. We are now hearing from a family member of the accused killer and cabinet ministers are already discussing new restrictions on firearms. New Zealand's prime minister saying, "Our gun laws will change."

Now, the massacre is also renewing questions about the oversight of social media after the gunman live-streamed his terror rampage. Facebook just announced that in the 24 hours after the attack, it deleted 300,000 videos of the shootings after they were uploaded. An additional 1.2 million videos were stopped as they were in the process of being posted. CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now from Christchurch, New Zealand. And Martin, what is the latest on the investigation?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, authorities have one person in custody that we know. He's been given one charge of murder, more charges to come. Authorities are not saying a lot about where the investigation stands right now, but there are two things we know for certain. Number one is that they are going to be investigating. They say that he acted alone in carrying out the killings, but did he have any kind of support in the lead-up to that?

One of the question marks that that has come forward are what CNN has found and that the gunman traveled extensively over the years. Let me just read you some of the locations he went. He went to Egypt. He went to Greece. He went to Turkey. He went to Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He went on to other places such as Pakistan.

All of that takes money. The question is where does a man who's essentially a personal trainer getting that kind of money? Which gets back to the issue of did he have any kind of support? Also being looked at here is, were there any red flags, any warning signs. Did anybody know? Did authorities in any way get a tip before it happened? That is all being looked at.

And then you mentioned the prime minister. She's meeting with cabinet members. She's already made it very plain that gun laws will change, however she doesn't have the power to do that. The cabinet can propose legislation. It'll be up to parliament. The mood right now in this country is definitely in favor of making some kind of change.

Lastly, behind us here you can see this huge, huge growing memorial side of flowers and people who have come. Sadly in America, it's a rather familiar sight. In this country, they have never seen anything like it, Ana.

CABRERA: Martin, I understand the accused killer's grandmother is speaking out. What's she saying?

SAVIDGE: This is the first time that we have heard from any family member representing the accused man himself. It is the grandmother. She's in Australia. She talks about the shock the family feels. Here are some of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIE FITZEGERALD, GRANDMOTHER OF NEW ZEALAND MOSQUE SHOOTER: We're all gob smacked. We don't know what to think. It's -- you know, the media is saying he's planned it for a long time so, he's obviously not of sound mind, I don't think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: The first funerals are expected to take place today. They will carry on through Wednesday, and I will not leave you without talking about the case of Naim Rasheed and his son, Talha Rashid. They were in the Al Noor mosque when the shooting began. Witnesses say that the father, Naim, ran directly towards the gunman to try to stop the killing.

He was killed in the process, and a short time later, his 21-year-old son was also killed. The Pakistani government, where they're from, says that they will honor them with a medal. That doesn't fill the huge hole in a family's loss and in a country's mourning. Ana?

CABRERA: Yes. Martin Savidge in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thank you. Two Hollywood actresses now in the harshest of spotlights after being charged in a massive college bribery scheme, how some old interviews and online posts could make matters worse for them. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom." Don't go anywhere.

[17:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Welcome back. The massive college admissions scheme revealed this week by the Justice Department has sent shockwaves through Hollywood and through campuses nationwide. Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are among another least 50 people accused of buying their kids admission to elite universities. And as CNN's Randi Kaye reports, their past comments online and on T.V. are now coming back to haunt them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As actress Lori Loughlin was preparing to appear in court after being named in the largest academic fraud case in history, it turns out her daughter Olivia Jade was cruising on a yacht. Not just any yacht, but the yacht owned by the chairman of USC's Board of Trustees. Billionaire Rick Caruso has told reporters once we became aware of the investigation, the young woman decided it would be in her best interest to return home.

LORI LOUGHLIN, ACTRESS: You know what, I don't ever it. I never push my kids to -- I always say do the best you can.

KAYE: That was Loughlin back in 2017 playing it cool as a parent, but prosecutors say she and her husband were anything but, paying as much as $500,000 in a cheating scheme to get both their daughters accepted to USC as members of the crew team even though neither ever rowed. Hard to square those accusations with this.

LOUGHLIN: -- you know what, give it your all. Do the best you can.

KAYE: Still, Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, apparently weren't taking any chances. Perhaps it had something to do with their daughter Olivia's attitude about school. In 2016, she tweeted, "College prep is the worst thing ever."

In 2017, Loughlin opened up on the "Today" show before her oldest daughter left for college.

LOUGHLIN: I think I'm in complete denial. I really am because when I think about it too much, it will make me cry.

KAYE: And this was her sounding like a typical college mom interviewed by "People" on YouTube with daughter Bella.

[17:40:02] ISABELLA ROSE GIANNULLI: I've actually finished like seven -- no, that's like 10 T.V. shows in the last like six months.

LOUGHLIN: Isn't that nice. Glad we came for that education.

GIANNULLI: Forget homework. LOUGHLIN: You can watch T.V. and not do your homework.

KAYE: Another actress, "Desperate Housewives" Felicity Huffman, is also charged. She's accused of paying $15,000 to get one of their daughters' SAT scores boosted with help from the same fake charity.

FELICITY HUFFMAN, ACTRESS: I want to model for my daughters being -- having a woman -- being a woman of agency, having a voice in the world. And then that means having influence and having power and to tell you the truth, having money.

KAYE: Her husband, actor William H. Macy, has not been charged, but an affidavit shows he sat in on a meeting with the head of the sham charity where the scam was apparently discussed. This was Huffman talking with Larry King back in 2016, sounding like a concerned mom.

HUFFMAN: The last time I cried, I would say two days ago. I was worried about my 16-year-old. I'm sure all you moms can --

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Something bad?

HUFFMAN: No, no. Just you know, worried about their future.

KAYE: And in August that year, she tweeted, what are your best hacks for the back to school season? In another tweet from 2017, she writes how visiting college with her 17-year-old makes her nostalgic. Meanwhile in January, William H. Macy told "Parade" magazine about his daughter, "She's going to go to college. We're right now in the thick of college application time, which is so stressful."

Any parent knows college applications can be stressful, but if these accusations are true, its worth remembering Felicity Huffman once said, "She believes good behavior is rewarded." And in a tweet just last year, Lori Loughlin wrote, "There are more important things than money like doing the right thing. Words to live by." Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Let's dig deeper now into the scandal. Jessica Calarco is joining us now. She is an assistant professor of sociology at Indiana University. Jessica, good to see you. Lori Loughlin's daughter, Olivia Jade, has now been losing sponsorships and partnerships.

Olivia Jade is taking a lot of the heat there in the spotlight because they're a famous family, but not everyone is well known. And it is still unclear if the kids knew what their parents were up to. Do you see the students as victims of all of this and what do you think should happen to them?

JESSICA CALARCO, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY: I don't certainly see them as victims. They are extremely privileged students who have benefitted from their parents stepping in probably from birth to pave the way for them to get to these kinds of top college slots. And certainly there were some parents in the suit who tried to hide as much as possible from their kids in terms of especially the most egregious parts of the cheating.

But we know there was one father, George Kaplan, who has taped in part of the tapes that came out through the trial, and he is quoted as saying that he told his daughter to be stupid while she was being essentially assessed for a fake learning disability in order to game the system, in order to have essentially use the legal system of accommodations to get to extra advantages, things like extra time on tests, things like a separate place to take exams, with the explicit purpose of being able to get higher grades.

And so certainly there were some kids who were fully aware of the kinds of advantages that their parents were getting for them. I would argue that certainly doesn't make them look particularly good in those kinds of situations.

CABRERA: As a sociology professor, I'm interested in your perspective on the motivations behind this scandal. The parents involved, are they really doing this to try to help their kids, or do you think it's for themselves in a way so they can say my child goes to such and such school?

CALARCO: Absolutely. I think there's two parts to this. Part of it is that they want to emotionally safeguard their kids. That they want to protect their kids from the possibility of failure because that makes them feel like good parents because especially as privileged parents, they're told that their job is to make their children's lives happy and make their kids successful.

And that they feel happy when their kids feel happy. And that's part of why I think they were hiding that kind of cheating from their kids, to make it feel to those kids as if they got into these schools on their own merit because even though our society is very much not a meritocracy, we like to think that it is.

And we like to reward people who are able to pull themselves up by their boot straps or get into Stanford or get into Yale by their own merit. But I think as you were mentioning it, I think there is something else going on here as well. There's this part of this where parents, especially these privileged parents, are trying to gain status for themselves and see their status as parents as defined by their kids' success and defining success in this very status driven way.

It's a very competitive, performative style of parenting where essentially they want to be able to post on Instagram the picture of their daughter with the Stanford sweatshirt on and they know that that Stanford picture is going to get more likes than a Sacramento State sweatshirt would.

[17:45:00] And so we can think about how that kind of performative parenting that for these parents it's really not about the economic value of a college degree especially in this elite case, but arguably for a lot of privileged parents that it's really not about the economic difference and the income level that a family and that a child will get if they go to Stanford versus a different type of school. It's more about the status. It's about the status that's associated

with that particular name, with that particular degree and that they're really trying to game the system to make sure that their kids have access to that kind of status and that they themselves are seen as good parents. And I think that's part of why they're cheating in the sense.

Is that they don't want to just take the sort of what we may consider traditional route of paying $5 million or donating $5 million to a university because they wanted to seem like their kids got in on their own merits because the status is stronger when they are able to say, oh look, my kid is so great, I must be such a great parent that my kid was able to get into Stanford or get into Georgetown and not because I just paid for a building or paid for a scholarship.

CABRERA: Right. That's interesting. Jessica Calarco, thank you very much. I appreciate your perspective.

CALARCO: Thank you so much.

CABRERA: In the wake of the New Zealand terror attacks at two mosques, President Trump's acting chief of staff is now facing new questions about his boss' reaction to the massacre. A White House on the defense and a president lashing out on twitter. We'll dig deeper, live in the "CNN Newsroom."

[17:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The White House on defense today following the president's response to the terror attacks in New Zealand. A massacre fueled by hate and white supremacy, and despite the alleged gunman's embrace of white nationalism, President Trump says he doesn't think such far- right ideologies are on the rise. Here's how the president's acting chief of staff is responding to the criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MULVANEY: We've seen the president stand up for religious liberties, individual liberties. The president is not a white supremacist. I'm not sure how many times we have to say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: While Mulvaney is doing damage control, the president is busy on twitter taking aim at the late senator John McCain and others. Mark Updegrove is a presidential historian and director of the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas. Mark, how concerning is it the White House staff feels it has to continuously tell America that the president is not a white supremacist?

MARK UPDEGROVE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Very concerning. Actions speak louder than words, and Donald Trump has yet to condemn these attacks in a way that's credible and denying that white supremacy is not on the rise is to deny what's been happening in the world. So I think, Ana, it's deeply concerning for our president not to come out more unambiguously around the subject of white supremacy. CABRERA: The president's not saying anything about this, no

clarification from him, but he is leaving no doubt about how he feels about the late Senator John McCain. You've been following presidencies for decades. How shocking is it for the leader of the free world to continue to go after a war hero and long-serving fixture in Washington?

UPDEGROVE: Well, it is surprising. And the thing is that John McCain is everything I think Donald Trump wants to be. He's a bonafide American hero and he had the respect of people worldwide, and I think Donald Trump doesn't realize what most bullies don't realize. You don't build yourself up by tearing someone else down.

I think Donald Trump is constitutionally incapable of putting his ego aside and while he mocks what being presidential is all about, being presidential is, I think, primarily about restraint and knowing how to put the office above one's self and not stoop to petty politics.

CABRERA: Tonight, an all new episode of "The Bush Years" premieres. This episode follows the presidency of George H.W. Bush within two years of assuming office. H.W. was handed one of the most important political moments of the 20th century, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and Mrs. Bush.

JOHN SUNUNU, FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: George Bush and Barbara Bush had to go to lots of inaugural balls. And I know the president is not a great fan of dancing. In fact, if you look carefully, even though it looks like he's leading, you really know she's in charge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's clearly Barbara's victory, too. She played a role through the endless campaigning and accompanying him to New York and Beijing and wherever he wanted to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barbara Bush is someone that people can relate to because she speaks her mind and she looks the way everyone's favorite grandmother looks and people are drawn to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So obviously that wasn't the clip I expected us to play there, Mark, but do talk about that relationship between Barbara Bush and her husband and really how integral her support and presence was to him as a man and as a president.

UPDEGROVE: Incredibly important to his rise in politics. I mean, she managed the family and allowed him to be him and to build his business and then to build his political career. But Ana, I would say going back to our earlier conversation about restraint, you heard there from John Sununu that president bush wasn't a very good dancer. But one of the high moments of his presidency came when the Berlin Wall fell, and what president bush refused to do was dance on the Berlin Wall. It showed his restraint not to pump his fist or spike the football or again, figuratively dance on the wall.

[17:55:00] It was important at that time to ensure that there was a good relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev, in particular, so that the Cold War which was simmering down ended with a whimper and not a bang.

CABRERA: Mark Updegrove, good to see you. Thank you so much.

UPDEGROVE: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: A new episode of the CNN Original Series "The Bush Years: Family, Duty, Power" airs tonight at 10:00 right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)