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New Day

Chicago Elects First Black Woman, Gay Mayor; Susan Page on Barbara Bush's Diaries; Maduro's Government Closer to Arresting Guaido. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 03, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro. He has a new immigration policy and so we will dive into that. It's very interesting, some of the things that he's suggesting.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And all of his parents also born in Germany. All of them.

CAMEROTA: I don't think so. I do not think that's right.

BERMAN: All right, Chicago making history with its new mayor. We will tell you why, next.

And -- and we have an update on a story we brought you yesterday. Whether Alisyn wants to or not, this is about a little girl who was hit by a car. This terrifying video. She survived. But we have a big, new, wonderful development and also a development in the search for the driver.

CAMEROTA: I do want to bring this to people. I do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, Chicago made history. A double dose of history. Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor of that city. She is the city's first black woman to be elected and also the first gay mayor.

[06:35:04] CNN's Ryan Young live in Chicago with the very latest.

Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

An historic night here in Chicago as a former federal prosecutor, and a woman who has never been elected to office dominating last night's election here in Chicago. Lori Lightfoot, now mayor-elect after winning 74 percent of the vote. It's the first time an African- American woman, an openly gay woman, has been elected to lead a city of this side. Lightfoot told her supporters that tackling corruption and taking her mixed coalition of supporters to city hall is so important. The mayor-elect indicating that investment and the promise of a better Chicago should be something everyone in the city expects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), MAYOR-ELECT OF CHICAGO: Now we're going to take the next steps together. Together, we can and will finally put the interests of our people, all of our people, ahead of the interests of a powerful few. Together, we can and will make Chicago a place where your zip code doesn't determine your destiny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, the mayor-elect knows she faces some challenges, especially when it comes to crime and education concerns in the city. For years there's been talk of two Chicagos. But despite all that, the city has its first African-American female mayor. Lightfoot will be sworn in May 20th.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Ryan, thank you very much.

We also have a big update now on a story so many of you are interested in. Georgia police say they've caught the suspect in this hit-and-run crash that mowed down a 9-year-old girl who was just playing in her front yard. The suspect is named Gabriel Fordham, and his lawyer claimed that Fordham was fighting off a carjacker inside the vehicle when the hit and run happened. This home security camera captured the moment, as you just saw, when the car careens across the lawn and hit LaDerihanna Holmes. Her mother, Charlette Bolton, joined us on NEW DAY and described the harrowing moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLETTE BOLTON, LADERIHANNA HOLMES' MOTHER: I heard a very bad sound. And my house shook like an earthquake. I immediately knew something was wrong. I screamed, my baby, because I knew she was on the porch.

My baby tried to run. And I think that's what saved her and her tiny frame. I can't watch it. I can watch the suspects, but the impact is heart-wrenching. I cannot watch it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: During the interview, Charlette told us that her daughter was improving, but is suffering from multiple injuries, including a fractured skull and a broken pelvis. There is a Go Fund Me account for LaDerihanna. It is now at more than $44,000.

BERMAN: Well above the initial goal they set. It's wonderful news. Wonderful news. They need the help.

CAMEROTA: I'm so glad also they caught that suspect. We knew -- I mean they had video of him. I knew it couldn't be long. But it's great news that he's in custody.

BERMAN: All right, there is a new book about the remarkable life of former First Lady Barbara Bush. It describes her disdain for President Trump going back decades. But we also learn the words of advice she wrote to Melania Trump after the 2016 election. We'll speak with the book's author live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:06] BERMAN: So Susan Page got unprecedented access to Barbara Bush, interviewing the former first lady for hours during the final six months of her life and becoming one of only two journalists to read her personal diaries spanning decades.

Susan Page joins us now, the author of the new biography, "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty." She's also "USA Today's" Washington bureau chief and a friend to the show.

Thank you so much for being with us.

SUSAN PAGE, AUTHOR, "THE MATRIARCH: BARBARA BUSH AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY": It's so great to be here.

BERMAN: So why do you think Barbara Bush let you see her diaries and what did you learn from those decades of observations that you didn't know from speaking her or covering her for all these years?

PAGE: You know, the first time I interviewed her, she said, do not even ask to see my diaries, you'll never see them, which I thought was probably the -- the thing that she would hold to. And at the end of the fifth interview, which turned out to be our last interview, although I didn't know that at the time, she said, I've decided you can see all my diaries.

BERMAN: Wow.

PAGE: And my reaction was very unjournalistic. I said, are you sure? But she was -- she was pretty sure about what she wanted to do and she gave -- she gave me access to these diaries, which hadn't been archived yet. They were in big boxes. Pages were stuck together. They're not -- some of the pages are out of order. You open them up. You just can't imagine what you're going to find inside. Diaries she began to keep in 1948. And the last entry, 12 days before she died.

CAMEROTA: But why did she do that? Why did she want the public to see her most personal thoughts?

PAGE: So I -- I think that she felt she had a story to tell. I think we had built a relationship over these months of interviews. I also think she knew she was about to die. And she still had things she wanted to say. And she said them by letting me see her diaries.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. I mean what a remarkable gift to the world. I mean her -- she is an historic figure and maybe she just knew her place in history.

PAGE: You know, she was born five years after women got the right to vote. And she lived to see her son want to vie for the presidency against the first woman nominated for the presidency. I mean what a span of a lifetime. And what she saw, what she observed, what she felt about what happened

to her, it's really an American saga. You know, it's hard to -- you think -- I've covered ten presidential elections. In seven of those, Barbara Bush played a personal role. Who else in American history can say that?

BERMAN: That's astounding. It's just astounding when you put it like that.

And then you have her relationship and observations about so many key historical figures. I don't know where to begin because I want to ask about the Clintons, and the Trumps, and (INAUDIBLE) Gorbachev.

Let me just start with the Clintons here because she has some interesting views, even as her husband was drawing closer to Bill Clinton.

PAGE: Yes. So, Bill Clinton won over George H.W. Bush after they were both out of the white House. Barbara Bush was a harder nut to crack. She was more skeptical of Bill Clinton. She didn't like the fact that he cheated at golf. That was a particular offense. But she eventually was won over because of the friendship that her husband developed with Bill Clinton. She was never won over by Hillary Clinton. And in a -- and in one interview she compared Hillary Clinton's memoirs to Nancy Reagan's memoirs. And, believe me, that was not intended as a compliment.

[06:45:11] CAMEROTA: On a personal -- on a personal note, it's gotten a lot of attention that she had a bout of depression. And it was very -- a very serious bout of depression. And I think this is really helpful for viewers everywhere to know that someone this high profile and this seemingly sort of stoic could have had that kind of depression. What did she tell you about this?

PAGE: It was 1976. They had come back from China. Bush had taken over a head of the CIA job she had told him not to take, by the way. She couldn't -- she could no longer be involved in his -- in his career, in his work life because of the -- he was working for the CIA, full of secrets, and she said, I can't keep a secret. She had an empty nest at home. Her kids were gone away at school or as young adults. She was going through menopause. She -- so perhaps she had some kind of hormonal imbalance. She fell into a -- in a terrible darkness and she told me that she would be driving down the road and feel this urge to plow into a tree or to direct her car into the path of an oncoming car and that she would have to pull off the road and wait until that impulse passed.

CAMEROTA: How did she get out of it?

PAGE: She's -- she said, with hindsight, she wished she had gone to a doctor and gotten help. She didn't do that. The only person she told was her husband. And, you know, she did something interesting. She went to volunteer at a hospice. And she felt that that helped her pull out of her own depression. There might be a lesson there, too.

CAMEROTA: For sure. BERMAN: Her views about Donald Trump are well known. Not a fan at all,

for decades. But the letter she wrote to Melania, and I want to read this, because I hadn't seen this before, it's interesting. She writes, Dear Mrs. Trump -- this is after the election. Dear Mrs. Trump, the world thought I was writing this note to Bill Clinton. I'm glad that I am not. That's interesting in and of itself. I wanted to welcome you to the first ladies very exclusive club. My children were older and therefore I did not have the problems you do. Whatever you decide to do is your business, yours alone. Living in the White House is a joy and their only job is to make you happy. If you decide to stay in New York, that's fine also. When you come to the White House, let your son bring a friend. That's my unasked for advice. Such a Barbara Bush statement. God bless you.

PAGE: The unasked for advice she had also given Hillary Clinton when Hillary Clinton came to visit after Bill Clinton had defeated her husband's hope for a second term. She gave the same advice, let your single child bring a friend to the White House because it can be a lonely place.

She had never met Melania Trump. She wrote her this letter. She had already drafted a funny letter to Bill Clinton saying, we're looking forward to inaugurating you into the first ladies club. That was a letter, of course, she never sent.

CAMEROTA: But when she says, I'm glad that I'm not writing it to Bill Clinton. Why? I mean she wasn't a fan of Donald Trump. So why was she glad that she wasn't writing it to Bill Clinton.

PAGE: Well, she wasn't a fan of Hillary Clinton either. And when her husband voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, that was how against Trump he was, she wrote in a name, Jeb Bush.

CAMEROTA: Right. And so here is what -- when you asked her about -- if she still considered herself a Republican. So, let me read that. In an interview with me in October of 2017, she answered that question, yes. When I asked her again, four months later, in February of 2018, she said, I'd probably say no today.

What did she -- I mean, again, as the matriarch of a Republican family, what a statement.

PAGE: As a face of the Republican Party for decades, as someone who had worked for the Republican Party in a variety of roles, what a statement that was. And she said it, I think, with some sadness. She was not gleeful or triumphant about this. I think she was sorry about the direction her party had taken.

BERMAN: The book is "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty" by Susan Page. There's so much in here. So many nuggets.

Thank you so much for sharing just a few of them this morning.

PAGE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Congratulations on the book.

PAGE: Thanks.

BERMAN: And a quick programming note, don't miss the final episode of the CNN original series "The Bush Years" this Sunday night, 10:00 p.m. on CNN.

CAMEROTA: All right, the crisis in Venezuela is worsening. There are more blackouts and a threat to lock up the opposition leader. We have a live report for you from Caracas, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:00] CAMEROTA: Now an update on Venezuela. Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government is moving closer to arresting opposition leader Juan Guaido as support for Maduro dwindles in neighborhoods that were once strongholds.

CNN's David McKenzie is live in Caracas for us with more.

What's the situation there this morning, David?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Alisyn, the government, the regime, is piling on the pressure on U.S.- backed opposition leader for that possible eventual arrest, which will really ratchet up the tension here in Venezuela.

Meantime, a disturbing new draft U.N. report shows how bad the situation is really in Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (voice over): Venezuela's president could always count on this neighborhood in Caracas for support. Now they want Nicolas Maduro out.

ANTONIO PEREIRA, UNEMPLOYED MECHANIC: They no have water, no have electricity, no have security, no have so many things and the hospital. We have broke down. The Venezuela I know is broke down.

MCKENZIE (on camera): Are you angry right now?

PEREIRA: Oh, yes. Very angry. Very angry.

MCKENZIE (voice over): Angry and some are asking for help.

President Trump, come and help us, she says, we cannot take it anymore.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll see. We'll see.

MCKENZIE: Trump hasn't ruled anything out.

TRUMP: All -- just so you understand, all options are open.

NICOLAS MADURO, EMBATTLED PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): Donald Trump said he had all options on the table. They didn't go ahead with the invasion because they couldn't. They went ahead with the sabotage of the electrical service instead.

MCKENZIE: Maduro blames the nationwide blackouts on the U.S., but years of government mismanagement and corruption and little money for maintenance has hammered the grid. U.S. oil sanctions could make it difficult to fix.

So the shops are shuttered. And the people jam into buses for the shortened work day.

A draft U.S. report seen by CNN found that more than 90 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. Even in the capital, it's a struggle for the very basics.

[06:55:02] Listen, brother, us Venezuelans are very upset, says Xavier. If it was up to me, we would have forced this government out.

More than three million people have fled Venezuela because of this. The U.N. believes almost two million could leave just this year. But one man still refuses to go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: Well, John, there is a sense that Nicolas Maduro is really digging in now despite the humanitarian situation here in the capital and especially in rural areas. He says he's not going anywhere.

John.

BERMAN: All right, David McKenzie for us in Caracas.

David, thank you for being there and giving us that report.

House Democrats will vote very shortly to authorize a subpoena for the full Mueller report. We have new developments on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:59:57] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The House Judiciary Committee is expected to authorize subpoenas for the full Mueller report.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We could give them 800 pages. They'll always come back and say it's not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The public has a right to see. The president shouldn't try to hide it.