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New Day
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) Makes Case For His Presidential Run; Bill Weld (R) To Challenge President Trump For GOP Nomination; Charlotte Mayor And Police Chief Grilled Over Police Shooting. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired April 17, 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] REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- the Democratic Party. That is America.
My administration, and probably my ticket, would represent the diversity of the United States of America. But I can't -- I've been in the race one week.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: You don't have all the answers? It's been seven days, Congressman.
RYAN: I hope I have that opportunity to sit back down and figure out --
HARLOW: All right.
RYAN: -- who my vice president is going to be.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, fun lightning round.
Here at NEW DAY, we love music. We play it all the time. We don't play it enough for the viewers but in our commercial breaks the crew plays it all the time and we have our favorites.
So, John Berman is a Deadhead. I'm trapped in the 80s. John Avlon is a U2 fanboy. Poppy Harlow tells me that she loves country music.
So, your favorite music genre?
RYAN: I'm a Dave Matthews junkie.
CAMEROTA: Hmm.
RYAN: Complete --
HARLOW: Red Rocks.
RYAN: And a -- Red Rocks, yes. Tim Reynolds, unbelievable.
And, I'm a Bruce Springsteen guy. I mean, you can't be from Youngstown, Ohio and not be head over heels in love with Bruce Springsteen.
CAMEROTA: Because he has a Youngstown song --
RYAN: Yes, he has a Youngstown song. But he --
CAMEROTA: -- which is not a flattering, positive song.
RYAN: Well, it speaks to the economic issues, you know.
HARLOW: There you go.
RYAN: And "Born in the USA" -- many people don't really get the lyrics of that, but that is our area. So in some ways, I'm a Bruce Springsteen Democrat.
CAMEROTA: So, your favorite band? Bruce Springsteen -- your favorite musician is Bruce Springsteen.
RYAN: Dave Matthews.
CAMEROTA: Oh, Dave Matthews?
HARLOW: Wow.
RYAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Interesting.
RYAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: OK. And what song best captures your campaign?
RYAN: We play -- I played for my opening "Closer to Free" by the BoDeans -- yes. So, you know, everybody wants to be free. Everybody wants to be closer to free. Everybody wants to be loved.
You know, it's just -- I thought it captured where we want to be you. The connection that we're missing, which is great with what music does -- these --
HARLOW: Yes.
RYAN: It connects us. That's the -- if you want to look at the underlying problem in our country, we're disconnected. We think we're more connected because we've got phones and e-mails and all this stuff.
But, as president, I'd really like -- if there's one thing we could do is reconnect the country.
CAMEROTA: Bring back music. I totally agree.
RYAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Music is healing.
RYAN: The art --
CAMEROTA: That's -- a countrywide concert is what we need.
RYAN: I like it.
HARLOW: Remember "Live Aid?"
CAMEROTA: I totally agree, yes.
HARLOW: Remember the "Live Aid" concert?
RYAN: Yes, yes, yes, absolutely.
HARLOW: Kumbaya.
CAMEROTA: Congressman Tim Ryan, thanks so much.
RYAN: Thanks, yes.
CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you.
RYAN: Great to be with you.
CAMEROTA: We really appreciate it.
RYAN: Yes, thanks. I handled the double-team OK.
HARLOW: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Not everybody can do that.
RYAN: Yes. I mean, I was real intimidated.
HARLOW: Tough cookies over here.
RYAN: I just want to say, I was a little scared.
HARLOW: When you've got two women in the chair.
RYAN: That's what I'm saying.
HARLOW: We're glad you came.
RYAN: I have a wife and a daughter, so --
HARLOW: So, you know.
RYAN: -- I'm kind of --
CAMEROTA: You know what you're up against.
RYAN: -- semi-used to this.
CAMEROTA: Got it. Thanks so much.
HARLOW: Take care.
RYAN: Thank you. CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you.
All right. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts governor, Bill Weld, is the first Republican to try to take on President Trump. Why he says he could not stay on the sidelines any longer. He's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:36:38] CAMEROTA: President Trump now has a primary challenger. Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld officially jumping into the race, saying that if Trump is reelected it would be, quote, "a political tragedy."
So what would he focus on and what's his path to victory? Let's ask him. Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld joins us now.
Good morning, Governor.
WILLIAM WELD (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Alisyn, great to be with you, as always from sunny Manchester, New Hampshire.
CAMEROTA: It looks beautiful there at the moment.
So, Governor, let's just start with your path to victory because as you well know, history does not have a lot of examples of primary challengers to incumbent presidents being successful. And so what makes you think that this moment is any different?
WELD: Well, actually, the last five primary challengers to a sitting president running for reelection, those presidents all lost. And when there's no primary challengers, those presidents all won of the last 10-such elections. So that's a data point.
Politically, if you want the nuts and bolts, my strategy would be focus initially on the six New England states with particular emphasis on New Hampshire because if I can show very well in New Hampshire or even win the New Hampshire primary, that has kind of a domino effect on other primaries around the country -- almost an electrical effect. A first in the nation primary is what gives New Hampshire a lot of its clout as a state.
I think my next stop probably would be the mid-Atlantic states. I've spent a lot of time -- I'm a native of New York. I've spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware.
Early on, I'll be doing, partly for fundraising and partly for political reasons, a sweep through the West -- California, Oregon, and Washington.
Mr. Trump and California don't seem to get along well, so that -- I think there's a real promise there. And California has moved its primary from the middle of June up to much earlier.
And then there's the Intermountain West -- some of the mountain states. And the last question would be the Rust Belt. I think a place like
Wisconsin, I could do well. I know the president won that state at the end. It was ignored by the Democrats the last 30 days of the election and the Republicans did not do well there in the midterms.
So -- and that's -- you know, there are places in the Deep South which would be tough, I grant you. But the rest of the country, fair game.
CAMEROTA: I think it's interesting to hear your strategy.
But back to history for a second. When the incumbents haven't won, basically, the primary challenger has weakened the incumbent. But it's not that the challenger has won. And so is that your strategy?
WELD: No, no, that's correct -- that's correct. But my strategy that I just laid out for you, that's a strategy to win. That's not a strategy to weaken anybody.
And I'm in this, I think, for the best reasons. I've spent a lot of time governing in an executive capacity.
When I was governor of Massachusetts, I cut spending in real terms. I was voted the most fiscally conservative governor in the United States.
I think, even with all deference to his office, I don't think Mr. Trump is an economic conservative. He hasn't vetoed one dollar of spending.
I like the tax cut. I cut taxes 15 times.
But I'm not sure how serious Mr. Trump is about governing, honestly. He has a one-word environmental policy -- "hoax." A one-word immigration policy -- "wall." And I think sometimes his lack of experience in preparation for the office shows.
CAMEROTA: Well, given all that, nine out of 10 Republicans approve of the job that President Trump is doing. Here's a poll. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans still say that they approve of the job that he's doing.
And so it doesn't sound like they're looking for an alternative at the moment.
WELD: Well, they haven't been offered -- they haven't been offered an alternative until now and now they have, and I get to start making my case.
And I've got to tell you. I've been in New Hampshire a lot since I gave my initial speech in February and I get a very good response. There's probably a couple of people a day who say I'm OK -- no, no, I don't want to shake anybody's hand. But everyone else says thank you so much for what you're doing.
So I think those polls you're reading about Republicans, those are dominated by the Republican state committee, town committee members who are absolutely under the thumb of the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign who have issued orders -- please keep there from being any primary. Please avoid any contests.
And at the end of the day, it's going to come out to who shows up to vote in those primaries. In New Hampshire and Massachusetts and 18 other states, Independents -- unenrolled voters -- can take a Republican ballot on primary day. And my job is to make sure that millennials, Gen Xers, suburban female voters who might not buy all of Mr. Trump's dog food, take that -- take that Republican ballot.
And I've heard from a lot of people, including Democrats -- not even all conservative Democrats. I've heard liberal Democrats say they're going to take that Republican ballot so they can come in and vote for me because they want to cast a vote directly against Mr. Trump.
So one of the questions is how many Democrats are going to say I'd like to cast a vote directly against Mr. Trump --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
WELD: -- instead of throwing a dart at one of 15 very good, but still one of 15 Democratic candidates?
CAMEROTA: No, that's interesting. That's an interesting math calculation to see how that goes.
Let's talk about the issues.
So, you brought up the economy. Under President Trump, the U.S. has added $2 trillion to the federal debt. How do you explain that Republicans don't seem to be that concerned anymore about this?
WELD: You know, I am. I think it's an unfair burden on millennials and Gen Xers who are going to have to pay that bill. And people don't understand the long-term consequences of these deficits.
You know, when I came into office, the outgoing administration said the state is bankrupt. We cannot pay our bills as they fall due.
Well, the federal government, going on $30 trillion in debt, could not pay its bill as they fall due unless the Chinese and others bought up our treasuries. And the day when the Chinese and other countries say we're not going to buy your treasuries any more, it's not enough that the dollar is the reserve currency. We'll be unable to meet our obligations as they fall due and that's called insolvency.
And nobody in Washington worries about that because they love to spend money. The Dems want to spend more money on social programs; the Republicans want to spend more money on military -- you know, five percent each.
Then they -- at the end of the day, they argue, argue, argue. Then they get together and decide to compromise by raising everything 10 percent.
You couldn't do that in a state government. All state governors are required by their Constitution to balance their budget. And the truth is we should have the same requirement for the federal government.
CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about this new report that the attorney general is changing the immigration law in order to hold asylum seekers indefinitely in detention -- in prison. To hold them even if they have a legitimate claim of asylum.
You know, there's a problem, obviously, at the border. There's a humanitarian crisis. The numbers have spiked of families showing up.
What's the answer?
WELD: Well, that's not the answer.
Listen, I knew Bill Barr in the old days and he is a helluva guy and a helluva lawyer and very strong. And as he said in his confirmation hearings, he intends not to be bullied.
But, he's zero for two, recently. Just hold them indefinitely in prison so they can't get asylum, that doesn't strike me as particularly lawful.
The thing a couple of weeks ago where he said if the FBI opens an investigation on the Trump Organization that that's spying. That's not spying. Our country separates the investigative and the prosecutive function.
I spent seven years in the Justice Department and I was head of the criminal division of Main Justice in Washington, trying to keep the politics out of law enforcement. It's very corrosive when that happens.
So, I resigned from the department because I thought the attorney general had not taken off his White House hat when he came over to head the Justice Department, so I take that very seriously.
And when an agency opens an investigation, it may be a lot of things. It may be bad news for the target. But it's not spying, it's just opening an investigation.
CAMEROTA: OK, very quickly.
The Mueller report is going to come out tomorrow. You have said you were his boss in the 1980s as the U.S. Attorney for District of Manhattan. You've said it was frightening to be Robert Mueller's boss. Why was that?
WELD: Well, no, he's not only one of the most -- he's the straightest guy I've ever met. Absolutely ramrod straight and a marvelous person and very, very thorough as a prosecutor.
That was our hallmark in the office, both in Boston and Washington, and it was negative all avenues of escape for the target of your investigation, and we did that. That's why we got 109 convictions out of 111 public corruption cases.
My political guess is that the release of the report is going to be a non-event. Whatever life there was in the report will have been squeezed out of it by the time it's released.
The truth is the whole damn thing should be made public, except for classified information. And I think it's OK to take out some of the derogatory stuff.
But I find it telling that the dominant emotion in Washington appears to be fear of the president's wrath. How that much anger can get into one head and stay there --
I don't know how he can even remotely approach getting the job done. He's so angry about so many things in so many directions all the time. You need calm in the Oval Office.
CAMEROTA: OK, now to our music lightning round. Here at NEW DAY we love music. We love to hear about people's favorite bands, et cetera.
I'm trapped in the 80s, musically. John Berman is a Deadhead. Poppy Harlow here loves country music.
What is your favorite music genre, Governor?
WELD: I came up on the Stones and then the Dead, particularly "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead."
A little bit later, I thought Suzanne Vega was very cool. Of current singers, Jesse Winchester -- you know, that type of country. I really like Little Feat.
K.D. Lang, I think is the best singer alive. If I get -- if I get in office, man, she's singing at the first -- the first party. And there will be a lot of parties in the White House and a lot of music parties. I couldn't be more "Under the Thumb," as Mick Jagger might say.
CAMEROTA: Governor, why didn't you lead with that? The fact that there are going to be concerts at the White House and parties at the White House, isn't that, alone, enough for people to vote for you?
WELD: Well, I think it might be enough for the millennials, and the Gen Xers --
HARLOW: Oh.
WELD: -- and the baby boomers, like me. We're -- you know, we're only stoners in the sense that we love the Rolling Stones.
HARLOW: Sure, sure.
CAMEROTA: Thank you for clarifying that.
Former governor Bill Weld, thanks for playing along. Thanks for answering all of the policy questions, et cetera. Great to talk to you.
WELD: Thank you, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: We'll talk again.
HARLOW: Ali, I love this new edition. Thank you to --
CAMEROTA: I do, too.
HARLOW: -- the show. I think every interview should end that way.
CAMEROTA: I mean, we need to start keeping track of what everybody says. OK.
HARLOW: All right.
CAMEROTA: Every single one for the rest of the show.
HARLOW: All right.
So, ahead, a community demanding answers this morning after the release of body cam video of a police shooting. We'll take you live to Charlotte, North Carolina.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:51:42] HARLOW: Residents of Charlotte, North Carolina are demanding answers this morning from the mayor and the police chief after the release of body cam video linked to the controversial police shooting of black man there.
Our Dianne Gallagher is live in Charlotte with more. What can you tell us?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Poppy, over the past couple of days now the community has said that they feel like they've waited long enough for answers. It's still under investigation so they're probably going to have to wait a little more.
But look, Danquirs Franklin was shot and killed by Officer Wende Kerl three weeks ago in that Burger King parking lot right there. The video, though, was not released until Monday. And since then, in these community discussions that chief of the police and the mayor have been having, the topic has been de-escalation tactics.
I want you to watch the video -- it is disturbing -- and we'll talk a little about the reaction on the back end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER WENDY KERL, CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT: Let me see your hands, now -- now. Uncross it, uncross it. Give it away. Sir, put the gun down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put it down. Put it down now.
KERL: Put the gun down. He's got a gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put it on the ground.
KERL: He's got a gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop it.
KERL: Drop the gun. Drop the weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put it down. Ma'am, get out of the way. Get out of the way.
KERL: Get out of the way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the gun.
KERL: Drop the gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop it.
KERL: Drop it, now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop it.
KERL: Drop the weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop it. I said drop the gun.
KERL: Drop the gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop it.
KERL: Drop the weapon, now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put it on the ground.
KERL: Put it on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put the gun on the ground. Put it on the ground.
(Gunshots)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: So, you may not be able to see this in the video because we have -- we've frozen it there so you can't see those last moments of Danquirs Franklin's life, but as those shots are being fired, he is removing that weapon by the barrel and appears to be putting it down.
And, though, so many in the community are upset about the fact that they feel that at that point he is complying with those orders being shouted by the officers.
Now again, it is still under investigation. The chief of police here has said that he is not going to vilify Franklin. He is not defending the officer at this time. He simply wants to wait for facts and the investigation to be completed.
Poppy, it could be -- and, Alisyn -- it could be six to eight weeks before the D.A., once they get that case, makes some sort of decision on whether to charge the officer.
CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, Dianne. It's so nerve-racking to watch that video and watch --
GALLAGHER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- how that all played out.
Thank you very much for reporting on it.
GALLAGHER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: All right.
Well, French officials threw cold water on President Trump's firefighting advice, much to Stephen Colbert's delight. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:58:20] CAMEROTA: Well, as fire engulfed the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral, President Trump tweeted out his advice to put out the flames. Then, comedian Stephen Colbert gave his analysis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": In the midst of all this when the fire was just raging at its hottest, Donald Trump offered his help, tweeting, "So horrible to watch the massive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!"
What does -- does he think every time there's an emergency in France they're like, "Claude, ze Cathedral is on fire. We must check Donald Trump's Twitter feed.
What is going on? Oh, no. Quelle horreur! Sacrebleu! He says we must act quickly!
Get the hoses, get the water. Why did we not think of water? We've been using -- we've been using cheese -- delicious cheese."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: It's just so good.
CAMEROTA: That is so hilarious. As you pointed out though, French officials later said that had they -- that President Trump's suggestion could actually have caused --
HARLOW: Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- the collapse of Notre Dame.
HARLOW: Pas bon -- not good -- not good.
OK, NEW DAY continues right now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBY PHILLIPS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president is feeling good. His aides are concerned that his mood might change once he sees what's in the report.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: They're worried about his wrath. You don't want to have the president coming down on you publicly.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're not looking at it that way at all. We know how we already feel, which is no collusion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It isn't just Paris. The whole world has come together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The structure is going to stand and that outpouring of emotion continues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has got the whole country rising up to say they are not going to.
END
