Return to Transcripts main page

CNN RIGHT NOW

Sources: Ex-Bush Official Briefs COP Lawmakers that 2 Psychiatrists Rate Trump a "10-Out-of-10 Narcissist"; Anti-Semitic Attacks Trigger Even More Hate Online; FBI Tells Florida 2 Counties Were Hacked in 2016 Election; Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Forced to Leave Their Home. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 16, 2019 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: They rated Donald Trump a 10 out of 10 narcissists. I'm not sure if that is a formal psychological diagnosis there. They say he doesn't have the capacity for long-term strategic ideals or goals. This was part of a project to analyze the U.S. China trade talks.

So how does that fit together?

Let's check in with Phil Mattingly on the Hill.

First off, just kind of take us -- take us through it. And it seems likes this was a characterization, of course, by this economic adviser. But this wasn't just about President Trump. This was about the Chinese president.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's important to get the proper framing. Larry Lindsey, a well-known economic official here in D.C., was invited to talk to senior House Republicans, members of leadership, committee chairs. He kind of walked them through what he was seeing on the China trade talks. It's obviously a huge issue up here on Capitol Hill and a huge issue for Republicans.

And as part of that, he said he hired two psychiatrists to really do an analysis of both Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, and President Trump to kind of figure out what they were working with.

And as part of that, they noted they found that president rated 10 out of 10 on the narcissist scale and didn't have the best foresight in the history of the world.

And also found that President Xi was a 10 out of 10 on the narcissist scale. And made clear that they were different in this sense. Xi, according to this analysis, that was read out to me by sources, didn't care about his people, didn't care, and treated poorly his deputies. That something he diverged from President Trump on.

Why he laid this all out -- I'm told this was four minutes at the beginning of the presentation. Certainly it was head-turning, according to one member who was in the room. It was a little bit jarring. They're all supporters of President Trump. It was to try to set the dynamics of the current Chinese trade talks. And as he went on in the presentation, something that several people

noted to me, he very clearly is behind the president and his strategy at this front, making clear that the president has taken these talks and the pressure campaign, the increased tariffs, to a place that no American leader has, even though everyone acknowledges Chinese trade practices affect negatively the U.S. on technology transfer, on I.P. theft.

And because President Trump was willing to go this route and willing to go away that other U.S. presidents and leaders haven't been willing to before, they need to push this until the very end.

He said the U.S. economy is better positioned than China is right now. And because of that, even though Lindsey told these lawmakers that China would most certainly go to the mat -- we've seen retaliatory tariffs from the latest tariffs the president put on, the U.S. economy has the ability to outlast China, to last longer than China in this fight and to ultimately win.

The closing message was essentially stick with President Trump on this, he's already at this point, he needs to see it through.

But as you noted, at the beginning of the briefing, there a couple of Republican who were a little perplexed by the decision to lay out the mental side of President Trump, if you will.

KEILAR: So where do Republicans stand now after this briefing?

MATTINGLY: Well, it's really interesting. You can almost separate where the Republicans on the Hill are generally. Brianna, you know the party, you know Capitol Hill better than anyone. Ideologically, Republicans are on the exact opposite side of the president when it comes as using tariffs as a tool to try to win trade battles.

But there's also a sense of, as one Republican told me earlier this week, helplessness. They have long since ceded the trade powers to executive branch. President Trump has not been dissuaded on their concern about tariffs.

I'm told by some Republican aide, this is the issue, using tariffs that have come up in private phone meetings and private phone calls with the president, more than anything else over the course of the last two and a half years. And the president feels deeply and strongly that this is the route to go.

On China, they have become more and more calm to the idea that they are not going to dissuade the president from where he is and, therefore, they need to stick behind him, particularly because they agree with the fact that China has been using unfair practices according to them.

On other trade issues, things like the national security and steel aluminum tariffs, tariffs on autos, those are issues they are more concerned about. But on China itself, at least for the moment, Republicans, despite the fact that they are ideologically opposed to where the president has gone on this, seem to be sticking with him -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Phil, on the Hill. Phil Mattingly, thank you.

MATTINGLY: Thank you.

KEILAR: And ahead, just as the White House refuses to sign on to an international pact to abolish online extremism, a CNN investigation finds an alarming spike in hate speech on social media.

[13:34:00] And right now, the Democrats reading the entire Mueller report, unredacted. And this comes as the attorney general says he's not holding Mueller back from testifying. So why isn't he?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A CNN exclusive investigation uncovering alarming results. Just as the White House refuses to sign an international pact to stamp out online extremism, we're seeing a spike in hate speech on social media in the immediate wake of deadly attacks. Not sympathy for victims, but accolade for attackers.

Our Sara Sidner takes a closer look at what some experts call a formula for hate and what's being done to combat this disturbing trend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER (voice-over): Total of eight down. One rescued at this time. We need armor.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The deadliest anti- Semitic attack in American history last year shocked the world. It also triggered something shocking online. More people in the U.S. conducted anti-Semitic Google searches the days following the attack than any other time in the preceding 12 months.

That is one of the alarming trends we found when CNN investigated what happens online after an attack based on hate.

There was also a spike in anti-Semitic searches following the latest synagogue shooting in Poway near San Diego.

While the world mourned the loss of 11 Jews shot to death while praying at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh by a suspect white nationalist ideals, users took to Google and searched for, "Jews must die," and "Kill Jews," and "I hate Jews," at a much higher rate than on average CNN found.

[13:40:08] Chatter on sites like 4chan and 8chan, which are havens for anti-Semitism and bigotry, revealed another trend, no sympathy for the victims. Hyper-focused on the shooter, who is either depicted as a saint -- "Give him a medal," one post reads -- or a failure because he didn't kill enough Jews."

JOANNA MENDELSON, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCHER, CENTER ON EXTREMISM, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: There seems to be a formula. Right after a massacre, we see white supremacists embracing the attack as someone who has engaged in violence against the system.

SIDNER: Joanna Mendelson is a senior investigative researcher for the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism.

MENDELSON: What we have now are attacks that are not only designed to kill, but they are designed to be replicated online. They are designed with that in mind to be spread like wildfire, to spread their poison across the Internet and to inspire others.

SIDNER (on camera): It is working.

(voice-over): The 19-year-old Poway synagogue shooting suspect and the 46-year-old suspect in the Pittsburgh killings both repeated poisonous rhetoric being spewed on an 8chan forum or Gab, which has become a bastion of bigotry.

The suspected gunman in Poway posted praise for 8chan just before the shooting, saying, "I've only been lurking for a year and a half, yet what I've learned is promising. It's been an honor."

And 8chan was also used by the suspect in the worst mass shooting of Muslims in New Zealand. The gunman linked to his manifesto and to Facebook where he live-streamed the massacre. The Poway suspect tried to copy his tactics but his live-stream failed.

On its Twitter account, 8chan claims they deleted the post nine minutes after it was published. There are only screen caps available and no archives exist since the post was deleted so quickly. But other calls to violence remain.

In the latest congressional hearing on domestic terrorism, Republican House member, Mike Rogers, asked the Department of Homeland Security about how to deal with Gab and 8chan.

REP. MIKE ROGERS (R-MI): Do you have any recommendations for what to be done to address the viral hate speech and incitement of violence found on fringe sites like 8chan and Gab? And that's for any of you?

You all don't have any suggestions for us? That's scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, the -- sir, I would add --

(CROSSTALK)

ROGERS: We can't make policy without got advisement.

SIDNER: George Selim says therein lies one of the problems. The other is funding to fight home-grown radicalization. Selim ran the Countering Extremism Violence Task Force at the Department of Homeland Security. He worked under Presidents Bush and Obama and, for a few months, President Trump.

GEORGE SELIM, FORMER DIRECTOR, COUNTERING EXTREMISM VIOLENCE TASK FORCE, HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT: In the first seven months of this administration, there continued to be a decimation of people, resources and prioritization placed on the federal government programs, specifically at DHS, that were aimed at addressing and intervening in the process of radicalization.

SIDNER: DHS says there are tens of millions of dollars in funding to fight domestic terrorism.

For Selim's former office at DHS, though, funding numbers show the budget dropped from more than $21 million in 2017 to $2.3 million in in 2019.

Ultimately, experts who investigate hate say the trend towards violence as being fueled online and more must be done to stop it.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: An alarming revelation from Florida's governor. He says Russians successfully hacked two Florida counties during the 2016 election but he won't reveal which counties.

[13:43:41] And before the birth of Prince Archie, Harry and Meghan went the extra mile to keep the duchess secluded during her pregnancy. We now know why they were forced to leave their home instead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Happening right now, House Democrats are in the process of reading the entire redacted Mueller report out loud on Capitol Hill. Let's listen to part of this.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Ongoing manner, redacted, ongoing matter. And recall telling the conference call, the "Access Hollywood" tape was coming. Corsi said that he was convinced that his efforts had caused WikiLeaks to release the e-mails when they did. In a later November 2018 interview, Corsi said that he thought that he had told people --

KEILAR: They started this just before noon, and they are not expected to finish this until around midnight tonight.

So why are House Democrats doing this? And what are they hoping to accomplish? Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon says they want to make the public aware of the, quote, "alarming breadth and depth of the unseemly acts of the Trump campaign and the administration."

At the same time, we're still learning about all the ways that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election. Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis revealing this week that the voter databases of two Florida counties were hacked but he says no votes were affected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, (D), FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Said there was no manipulation, didn't have any affect. But there are two counties. And I'm not allowed to name the counties. I signed a disclosure agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Today, one of Florida's largest papers, "The Sun Sentinel," says it wants more. Its ed board has published a piece titled, "Come Clean, FBI, Tell Floridians the Whole Hacking Truth."

[13:50:10] And in it, they write this, quote, "The secrecy that surrounds this election, which happened two and a half years ago, is unsettling. Have we learned nothing from Florida's past election controversies? Secrecy undermines trust. Absent transparency and accountability, how can citizens be confident that country election officials are prepared for similar hijinks in the 2020 presidential election?"

I want to bring in CNN senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez.

And, Evan, lawmakers were briefed about this hack today. They spoke to you afterwards. What did you learn?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE REPORTER: Look, you can't have election controversy without Florida. This is exactly what we have. The lawmakers are still not allowed to say which counties were breached, the circumstances or what exactly happened. There's a lot of information that the FBI said it is still classified.

What we did learn in the briefing was that at least we know that the FBI contacted the counties, the Florida counties that affected, that were targeted, and that there was some back and forth with those counties about what was happening. Two of them came back and said they noticed suspicious activity.

Bottom line is, as the governor said, and as the lawmakers repeated, there's no evidence that any votes were changed, that the voting rules were tampered with, at least at this point.

And the FBI is still holding on to a lot of information, which is frustrating to these members of Congress.

KEILAR: Is there a reason for them to not allow this to become public, which counties were hacked?

PEREZ: They say -- the FBI said that essentially it is because these counties were victims and there's a rule that says you have to protect the identity of victims.

But here is the deal. This is -- the bottom line, as the editorial said in "The Sun Sentinel," there's undermining the faith of the voters in the system, in the election results. This is exactly what the FBI was worried about --

KEILAR: How do you know if you were a victim? Right?

PEREZ: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- if you are on the voter rolls? PEREZ: This is what they were worried about. And they were concerned

that essentially they would do the job of the Russians by letting this stuff out. You could see where they're kind of caught in between the two places.

KEILAR: The governor says we not -- you're actually hooked in on your microphone so we won't have you pick up the pen you dropped.

The governor said votes were not manipulated. But these were voter rolls. Were the rolls manipulated?

PEREZ: Right. That is the key. They say that they have no evidence of that, right? But the fact is that the Russians got in. And the concern is, and even today, the concern for the security officials, the intelligence officials is that now they've gotten in, they know the architecture of the system and they know how to get around. You could simply do this in a few places around the country and undermine faith in the system.

And that is the concern going forward that, just because they got in and they didn't do anything then, is it possible they could come back? And --

KEILAR: And try to knock people off the voter rolls.

PEREZ: Right. Exactly. Exactly. That is the big concern. And I think that is -- that is why you see these members going out there today and speaking out.

KEILAR: Evan Perez, thanks for that report.

As the trade war with China intensifies, another real-world consequence, Walmart is raising prices on American shoppers.

Plus, a major cultural moment in America. Starting tonight, two of the biggest TV shows of the decade are coming to an end within days of each other.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:58:13] KEILAR: New parents, Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, just won big in a photo controversy court case. This couple was forced to leave the country home after aerial paparazzi pictures were published this year, breaching their privacy.

CNN's royal correspondent, Max Foster, has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Prince Harry took the Splash News and Picture Agency to court following an incident on January 9th earlier this year.

And in a statement to court, Prince Harry said this: "The agency hired a helicopter, the helicopter flew over their home in Oxfordshire at a low altitude, allowing Splash to take photographs of and into the living and dining area of the home and directly into the bedroom."

Those photographs were published by "The Times" newspaper, says Prince Harry, and other online publications as well.

They immediately instructed lawyers, which resulted in this case and, ultimately, the agency has apologized to Prince Harry and substantial sums in damages have been awarded to Prince Harry.

Now his argument was this. He said the publication of the photographs very seriously undermine the safety and the security of the duke and the home to the extent that they were no longer able to live at the property so they had to move out as a result of this invasion of privacy.

This news came to us via a press statement from the palace. So the other thing we can draw from this is that Prince Harry is putting the message out, if you cross that line, he's going to take you to court.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thank you, Max.

That is it for me.

"NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

[14:00:00]