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Rep. John Yarmuth (D) Kentucky is Interviewed About New Zealand's Assault Weapons Ban; Kentucky Governor Exposed Kids to Chickenpox; Going Gluten-Free; Hickenlooper on Woman VP Pick; Conway Talks about Husband's Tweets. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 21, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now, Congressman John Yarmuth, who's the chairman of the House budget committee and also co- sponsored a bill last year to ban assault weapons.

Sir, good to have you with us.

First, I'm just curious, your --

REP. JOHN YARMUTH (D), KENTUCKY: Good morning.

HILL: Good morning.

Your reaction to what we are seeing in New Zealand. And it is important to point out, we know this is a different country. We know that public -- public support is slightly different in New Zealand. But just your thoughts?

YARMUTH: Right. Well, I mean I think it's -- it's very gratifying to see a government take immediate response to a problem, which is approachable, which is maybe not -- can't be totally resolved, but certainly can be mitigated in some way. And I think that's what the prime minister did there.

We, obviously, went for eight years with a Republican majority where we couldn't even get a vote on a measure of universal background checks that has 90 percent support in the United States. So, yes, the atmosphere is very, very different. The role of guns in our society is very, very different. It goes way back as part of our culture, unfortunately.

You know, I wear this f pin because it's my rating from the National Rifle Association. And I wear it proudly because I'm one of those member of Congress who feels that we can make a difference, we can reduce the level of gun violence in the country. And while we can't prevent every gun death, we can certainly have an impact and we ought to do everything we can to save even the first life.

HILL: You point out Republican control. We have to give credit where credit's due. The Trump administration rolling out in December regulations on bump stock bans. I know that over a year ago you were, obviously, a co-sponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban. Where does that stand and what do you think needs to change in the conversation to even just move the conversation forward?

YARMUTH: Well, I think the conversation is changing. And I think the politics of gun safety legislation are changing radically. It used to be that while significant majorities of Americans favor stronger gun laws, it was never a voting issue for those people -- those people. It was, you know, somewhere around eighth, ninth, tenth of the issues they voted on. Now it's one, two, and three. So it's actually on parity now with what supporters of gun -- of guns feel on the other side of the issue.

I think the Parkland kids had a lot to do with it. The March for Our Lives a year ago had a lot to change attitudes. The moms group as well.

So, again, the people are letting the politicians know that they want something done. And that's a -- that's a dramatic change from even five years ago.

HILL: And just real quickly, too, before we move on to other topics, there has been change, some change, at the state level in certain areas. Is part of the reality here that -- that --

YARMUTH: Unfortunately, not in my state.

HILL: Well, not in your state, but in others, as we've seen. Is some of the reality, though, that this is an issue that is perhaps at this point for the United States in 2019 going to be best settled at the state level, not in Washington?

YARMUTH: Well, I think that's a very, very good observation and an accurate one. I think that's true of a lot of issues these days. But, clearly, there is a huge difference among states. Very different between Connecticut and Kentucky. We just passed -- our legislature just passed a law that says you can buy a gun, concealed carry it with no training and nothing. You can go out to a gun show, buy a gun and carry it concealed. It's, to me, insanity, but that's -- that's what we live with in Kentucky. I'm glad every state's not like ours.

HILL: We've been talking a lot over the last few days about the president continuing to attack John McCain. We have heard from some lawmakers, not very many Republicans. Just give me a sense, are you talking to some of your colleagues from across the aisle behind closed doors, even if we're not hearing from them publicly, are they sharing any thoughts with you privately?

YARMUTH: Well, sure. Most of them are mortified by the behavior they see from the president. Unfortunately, this is -- as many other things have been, this is all about Republican primary politics. And they're afraid to criticize the president because they will get a primary challenge the next time up.

HILL: Did they admit that to you?

YARMUTH: Oh, sure. Absolutely. I mean I have Republican colleagues who say when they go home every weekend all they get is, why aren't you supporting the president more? So I kind of get where the problems they face, but, still, you have to be in politics for a reason and you have to show some spine. And, you know, what we've seen recently is just very discouraging. It's like Republicans are redefining March Madness at just the wrong time. And, again, you have a few people who have stood up and have been willing to take the president on, but very, very few.

HILL: You are, of course, very important to point out the chairman of the House Budget Committee. I know you're planning to hold hearings next week. We know you were not happy with the president's budget, as you've told us on this program, next week. Which questions are you specifically hoping to get answered?

YARMUTH: Well, we're going to have someone from the state -- I mean from the Defense Department and also somebody from the Health and Human Services Department.

[08:35:04] On the defense budget, you know, we spend over $700 billion a year on the Pentagon. And, until very recently, they had never been audited. So if they want to continue to request these enormous sums, more than half of all the money that Congress controls on an annual basis, we want accountability and we want to ask very tough questions about waste and abuse.

We saw just a few weeks ago that the Pentagon spent $4.5 million on lobster and crab in one month because they had money left over in an account. Well, if that's the kind of thing that's going on in the Defense Department, we want to know more about it before we -- we appropriate huge, new sums for -- for them.

And on the -- on the Health and Human Services side, we want to talk about what the president's budget would do to health care in this country because it -- it cuts health care spending in Medicaid and Medicare by $1.4 trillion over ten years. That's going to have a significant impact on our citizens' health. And we want to get to the bottom of that as well.

HILL: Sir, can I just get a quick yes or no on this next question.

YARMUTH: Yes.

HILL: I know that you told -- you told us on NEW DAY, you see that we're at the beginning of the impeachment process. Irrespective of how Nancy Pelosi sees it. But new CNN polling shows a drop in public support for that. Does that change where you stand at all based on the public?

YARMUTH: No.

HILL: I think you're the first lawmaker to ever give me a yes or no question, which means, if I could give you more time right now, I would.

YARMUTH: You asked for a one answer (INAUDIBLE).

HILL: Congressman, I appreciate it.

YARMUTH: No, I think that -- I think -- I think --

HILL: Most of all, I appreciate that one-word answer.

YARMUTH: OK. There you go.

HILL: Thank you, sir.

I don't think.

YARMUTH: OK. Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: How did that work for you?

HILL: John, it's never happened. In like 20 years it's never happened.

BERMAN: That's never happened before. That's a television first.

HILL: that is something right there.

BERMAN: Oh, my gosh. Mark the calendar.

All right, Kentucky's governor says he deliberately exposed his children to chickenpox. You're going to hear from him and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:56] BERMAN: So in a new radio interview, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin says he deliberately exposed his nine children to chickenpox so his kids wouldn't need a vaccine for it. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MATT BEVIN (R), KENTUCKY: Every single one of my kids had the chickenpox.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BEVIN: They got the chickenpox on purpose, because we found a neighbor that had it and I went and made sure every one of my kids was exposed to it and they got it. They had it as children. They were miserable for a few days and they all turned out fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Here to discuss, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, just, first off, you know, what's the truth about the chickenpox vaccine?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The chickenpox vaccine works. I mean we -- you know, there used to be millions of cases of people who had the chickenpox every year. And, to be fair, we probably all had it because the vaccine didn't come around until the mid-90s and most people did fine. But there are also 10,000 people who were hospitalized. There are a

hundred people who died of the chickenpox ever year. So the vaccine has, you know, made a significant impact in preventing those problems.

People have concerned that the vaccine either doesn't work or isn't safe, you know, there's been tens of millions of these doses now given to people all over the world. There's real data on this. It does work. We can show the numbers on that. And it also -- there's no connection between one of the big concerns that people have, which is autism. There's no connection between these vaccines and autism.

HILL: It's remarkable how much real data is there, how much information, how much science, right?

GUPTA: Yes.

HILL: To note that these vaccines not only work, but that they are safe. And yet there it this -- it seems to be growing even louder, this anti-vaxer community. And there's a new study out that's actually looking into how it's spreading on social media and that impact.

GUPTA: Yes. You know, I - and I've got to tell you, when you look some of these comments on social media -- and there's a lot of people like Dr. Paul Offit (ph), who's been writing about this for years, I mean it is -- there's a lot of vitriol out there. I mean his life has been threatened. He's had to have security with him at certain times.

So this study was interesting because it actually started to break down what exactly -- it's easy to lump all people who are against vaccinations together. But they broke it down into four sort of categories, saying, and I think we have a list of those, but some of it was basically the trust -- I don't trust the medical establishment. Are there alternatives to vaccines? The safety of it, going back to this autism thing. And then is this some big conspiracy? Does polio even exist? There is a group of people. So it really breaks down into these four groups.

And what was interesting, and this was on FaceBook, what was interesting is that it does now provide a little bit of context in terms of how to address some of these either conspiracy theories or things that people believe out there by targeting the specific concerns that they have. Not everyone thinks it's autism, right?

HILL: Right.

GUPTA: They just don't trust the medical establishment. Other people think, well, I should get chickenpox instead -- instead of getting the vaccine. By the way, that will works, right? We're all inoculated because we've had the chickenpox vaccine.

HILL: Because we had it as kids, yes.

GUPTA: The real question is, what is the price to pay for that immunity? How sick do you want to let your kids get? How at risk do you want them to be?

BERMAN: A public official, the governor of Kentucky, weighing in on the way he did it, it has an impact.

HILL: Uh-huh.

BERMAN: Makes the discussion more difficult in some cases.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

HILL: And you can catch Sanjay's all new CNN original series "Chasing Life."

BERMAN: There it is, the rugged Sanjay.

HILL: It premiers Saturday, April 13th.

GUPTA: Fully vaccinated, by the way.

HILL: A fully vaccinated, rugged Sanjay Gupta. You can catch him April 13, 9:00 p.m., on CNN.

BERMAN: All right, a Democrat running for president is on the defensive. Hear the question and the answer that left people confused, coming up.

First, though, the right way for you to go gluten-free. That's this week's "Food as Fuel."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA DRAYER, CNN HEALTH CONTRIBUTOR: Deciding to go gluten-free should only be done with careful consideration. A gluten-free diet is designed specifically for those with celiac disease or a condition called non-celiac gluten sensitivity. Both disorders can cause symptoms, including abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea or constipation, joint pain and fatigue.

Foods that should be avoided include those containing wheat, rye and barley. That means no bread, pasta, cereal or beverages made from these grains.

[08:45:09] But there are still plenty of tasty options to choose from. For breakfast, you can enjoy a gluten-free waffle with cottage cheese and peaches. Or a baked sweet potato with broccoli and cheese paired with fresh fruit for lunch. And for dinner, you can have poached salmon with brown rice and garlic green beans, or gluten free pasta with seafood and grilled vegetables.

As you can see, a gluten-free diet isn't necessarily about what you are giving up but what you can gain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper was asked last night at a CNN town hall whether he would commit to considering a woman as his running mate.

[08:50:04] Take a listen to his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, MODERATOR: Governor, some of your male competitors have vowed to put a woman on the ticket. Yes or no, would you do the same?

JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, again, of course. But I think that we should be -- well, I'll ask you another question, how come we aren't asking --

BASH: But I'm asking the questions.

HICKENLOOPER: I know. I know. But how come we're not asking -- we're not asking more often the women, would you be willing to put a man on the ticket?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Let's get to "The Bottom Line" now with Dana Bash, CNN chief political correspondent, who hosted last night's town hall.

I do want to point out that both -- both John Berman and I recognized the most important part of that sound bite was, you're asking the questions, Dana, as it should be. And we love that moment. So there's that.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HILL: It -- what's interesting, too, is that, you know, he threw it out there. He defended that comment to CNN's Dan Merica afterwards --

BASH: Yes.

HILL: Saying, listen, you know, I just want to put it in the broader context of, we keep asking -- and this is, you know, sort of discounting the idea of a -- of a woman winning. How is that really playing out in -- with all the folks at the town hall?

BASH: Look, it obviously didn't come out the way he intended. Standing there with him, I got what he was trying to say, which is exactly what he told Dan Merica afterwards, which is, he was trying to, you know, sound woke. He was trying to make it sound like, you know, yes, he's a white guy running for president, but there are all these really phenomenal women also running. But it didn't actually come out that way.

And, look, the reason I asked him that question is because the men who are running, at least two of them before him, Cory Booker, of course, started this, understand that it is a completely different world in the 2020 field and that the expectation for a lot of people -- men and women -- is that there is a woman on the ticket and he is a man running for president. John Hickenlooper is a man running for president, which is, obviously, why I asked that question.

BERMAN: That is an established fact before even the event began.

And, you know, Harry Enten went over the poll numbers with us again, and particularly in the Democratic primary field, Democratic voters have said they want that combination.

BASH: Exactly.

BERMAN: That they are attracted to the notion of having a woman on the ticket and that, you know, they feel as if women haven't been represented. It's just a fact among the Democratic primary electorate.

BASH: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, again, which is why it's even part of the conversation. I mean I don't remember it being this much part of the conversation when men were running for president ever.

BERMAN: No.

BASH: And so the fact that, as you said, the polls show there is this expectation, desire among Democratic voters is really different.

BERMAN: Dana, we want to ask you about something else that has become a daily fascination, which is, what's going on with the president's adviser, Kellyanne Conway, and her husband George Conway, and the president of the United States. And it keeps getting stranger and stranger. And we're in a new phase, which is that Kellyanne Conway herself is speaking publicly and directly about this feud between George Conway and the president.

Listen to what Kellyanne just said in a new interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: My husband also has been very critical of the president politically, which is unlike him, just because he's traditionally been a very private person. In 2016, which was known as the year of the tweet, George Conway sent exactly zero tweets. So this is new. And what also is new is not supporting the agenda of the president and my work there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, again, this has been going on for some time where George Conway has been very critical of the president of the United States, says he's not mentally fit at this point to be president. The president has just respond by attacking George Conway on Twitter and out in public. But, again, what's really new is Kellyanne Conway is speaking out in public directly about this, Dana. And I'm wondering why.

BASH: She doesn't have a choice. Look, when I spoke to her a couple of times, but most recently about this for a series that I do, it was back in February and things were pretty calm then with regard to her husband. He was still sending out tweets, retweets. He had already formed his Conservative Lawyers Against Trump group. But it was kind of in a lull. Obviously that changed big time this week when her husband went after

her boss for being mentally unstable and continued to do it. And then, of course, the president of the United States fired back, not once on Twitter, not twice, but then on the South Lawn. So here you have Kellyanne Conway completely in the middle of it and commenting on it.

And, look, here's the reality. When they all talk about it and it is a very, very unusual -- even unprecedented situation, we discuss. I will tell you, on the substance of what she said, guys, she's right. I did a piece on Kellyanne Conway in the fall of 2016. I went to her house in New Jersey. She was a campaign manager for Donald Trump, the first woman to ever be campaign manager for a major Republican candidate. And she had her family there. George Conway was in the house, but he didn't even come say hello, which usually happens off camera. He was hiding from the cameras. He didn't want to have anything to do with it, which speaks to what she was saying about the fact that he was very, very private. He wanted no part of the publicity of it. And that he supported the president. She, in my interview, talked about the fact that on election night he was wearing his MAGA hat and he was all gung ho. And things changed. And things obviously changed in a very dramatic way in terms of his position, but also the way that he wanted to express it. And we're all seeing it play out in a pretty, again, unprecedented and unfortunate way.

[08:55:50] BERMAN: Dana Bash, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

BASH: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: Great to see you. Great work last night.

BASH: Thanks.

HILL: President Trump now insisting he wants the American people to see the Mueller report. Poppy Harlow has more on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Jim Sciutto has the day off.

[08:59:52] As the White House braces for the Robert Mueller report and the findings on the Russia probe, the president is apparently shifting gears. After repeatedly calling the entire investigation a hoax, President Trump changes his tune and now says the report should be made public.

END