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Ocasio-Cortez Calls Migrant Detention Centers Concentration Camps; Investigation into Harvard Coach; Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R- WV) is Interviewed about Deal Reached on Border Crisis; White Sox Extend Netting. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired June 19, 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] SARAH ISGUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Don't work that well.
That being said, if their -- if 2002 is, you know, football in the arena, this is like some dude's out on the tailgate kind of picking with each other about who's going to win the game. This is everyone picking their own side and, you know, rallying around their person. Hypocrisy runs amok in these situations. And I think that's what we're seeing again. And there's some real outrage out there, perhaps, but a lot of faux outrage, I would say.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think it's more serious than that. I mean, first of all, I mean the Holocaust is the Holocaust. Holocaust metaphors are beyond problematic, quote/unquote, and it's clear because she said never again means something, that she was referring to it. She said later she meant to make the comparison to internment camps. Look, internment camps are horrific. The key different being millions of people systematically murdered by a state. And so that doesn't fly.
And when we start to rationalize it and put it in context, we're saying basically words don't matter anymore in politics. We've all become numb to it. This is across the line. It's not that hard to apologize. She should do it. This is unacceptable.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I will say it was the never again part that --
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: The part that's controversial because concentration camps -- we've been talking about concentration camps in China with the Muslims there and the Uighurs. Three weeks ago, I mean, Marco Rubio, Chris Smith in New Jersey, it's part of a bill. You know, the assistant secretary of defense is talking about concentration camps in China recently. So that phrase in and of itself isn't the problem here. It may be the way she used it.
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: Alex, I want to talk to you about a project "The New York Times" is working on and I don't want to give it the wrong title, because I did before and you made fun of me in the break. But it's 18 questions for -- tell me --
ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's 18 questions, 21 candidates. We brought through basically every single candidate in the field to ask them the same set of questions. It was, you know, what you said before was the comfort food project because we did ask them what their favorite comfort --
CAMEROTA: And we have it. Let's watch a moment of this.
BURNS: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you're a vegan, that means lots of veggies on the go.
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D-HI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I try to stay away from it, but vegan cupcakes is probably a real threat on the trail.
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Any kind of fast food.
STEVE BULLOCK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love to good hamburger.
SETH MOULTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean you can't beat a burger for a quick, classic American meal.
JOHN DELANEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Grilled chicken sandwich from McDonald's, no sauce, two of them.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A baked potato.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I mean you don't go to McDonald's for the chicken, which may explain why John Delaney is -- is where he is today (ph).
BURNS: Well, you know, you've got -- you've got to respect his decisiveness there, right?
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
BURNS: No sauce. Two.
CAMEROTA: Two. Yes.
BURNS: It's forceful.
BERMAN: But you were telling me -- there is a lot of interesting stuff in here.
BURNS: That's right. I mean we asked probably three or four of the softer personality driven questions, which were actually pretty revealing in some cases.
CAMEROTA: Telling. Very.
AVLON: Yes.
BURNS: You know, who's your political hero? A lot of Roosevelts involved there.
CAMEROTA: What time do you go to sleep? I like -- or how much sleep do you get? I like all these.
BURNS: How much sleep do you get? Yes. I don't think everyone was honest about that one. But a lot of substantive answers too about Afghanistan, about sort of how they believe the tech companies ought to be regulated, about expanding the Supreme Court.
One of the big takeaways for me was, there is not as much support in this field of Democrats for single payer Medicare for all legislation as you might think based on the number of people who sort of speak vaguely about the concept of Medicare for all. Even some very liberal candidates in this race, people like Elizabeth Warren, people like Kamala Harris talk about Medicare for all as a concept, but then very, very quickly get away from the Bernie Sanders version of the idea.
CAMEROTA: When is Joe Biden going to sit down with you.
BURNS: You know, we're watching the clock and hoping any day now.
BERMAN: Wow, he didn't say never there.
All right, John Avlon, Alex Burns --
AVLON: Have a vegan cupcake.
BERMAN: Sarah Isgur, we hope we didn't scare you away. Come back again very soon. Great to have you on with us.
ISGUR: You bet. Thank you.
BERMAN: All right, a Harvard coach under investigation after he sold his home for double its value. Is this connected to the nationwide college admissions scandal? This is a crazy story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:37:32] CAMEROTA: A federal grand jury is now investigating a Harvard fencing coach after he sold his home to a wealthy businessman who was trying to get his son into -- wait for it -- Harvard. Is this connected to the college admissions scandal?
CNN's Brynn Gingras joins us now with the details.
Sounds like it could be connected.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly has the same attorney looking into it. So that's important to note. We reported before that Harvard was looking into this independently but now a federal grand jury is too, according to a source. Now, that source confirms that the same U.S. attorney, again, who leads the college admissions scam, sent a subpoena to a town board in accessors in Massachusetts asking for years of tax documents on a specific property as part of its investigation.
Let's back up a little bit because you might have heard about this.
In 2016, the property in question was owned by the Harvard fencing coach Peter Brand. He sold it to a man named Jie Zhao for almost twice what tax records say the House was worth. And then Brand bought a condo for close to the price Zhao paid him for his home. At the time, Zhao's two sons were part of the Harvard fencing community. One graduated, another was actively looking to go to the school to join the team. Seventeen months after buying the house, Zhao sold the property at a $300,000 loss.
Now, "The Boston Globe," who first reported about this transaction, in April, quoted Zhao saying he was trying to help his friend the coach. Brand's lawyer denies any wrongdoing to CNN and says they're not aware of this investigation as of yet. But, certainly, we may hear more about this, John.
BERMAN: Double the price and fencing has got all the ingredients to be suspicious.
All right, Brynn, thank you very much.
As the president threatens to begin deporting millions of undocumented immigrants next week, an important breakthrough overnight. You might have missed this. Key senators reach an emergency deal to address the humanitarian crisis at the border. We'll speak with one of the senators who helped cut that deal. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:43:23] CAMEROTA: President Trump appears to have revealed a federal law enforcement operation to deport undocumented families living in the U.S. CNN reports that there were not a lot of happy faces at the Department of Homeland Security with this revelation.
This morning, though, senators have reached a deal to address the humanitarian crisis at the border. What does that look like?
Joining us now to talk about all of this is Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito. She is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee that had this emergency funding.
Senator, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, (R-WV): Good morning, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: First things first.
Yesterday, President Trump's late night announcement about deporting millions of undocumented people, even families that are here in the U.S., do you think that this is the way to go? Is this the right strategy for stopping the crisis at the border?
CAPITO: Well, I think what you're going to see us voting today in the Appropriations Committee is where we feel the greater emphasis needs to be, and that is with the border patrol at the southern border. We are at a crisis. We are overwhelmed with those 133,000 people that came across last month. That's what you're going to see reflected in the emergency appropriation that we're going to do. So I think that's where the better -- the better consensus is among Republicans and Democrats where we need to meet the crisis.
We do --
CAMEROTA: And before we get to the appropriations --
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Because I really do want to hear about what that money is going to go to.
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: But are you saying that the president should not redirect the border patrol agents to begin deporting the millions of undocumented people that he announced he would start deporting next week?
CAPITO: You know, I think we need to still do internal enforcement, but I think the greatest amount of our resources, manpower and other resources, need to be at the border because that's where we're sort of breaking apart at the seams.
CAMEROTA: So --
[06:45:10] CAPITO: So I would rather see our dollars -- and that's what you're going to see reflected -- move towards those kinds of efforts, yes.
CAMEROTA: The last question on this --
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Do you think the plan is going to happen next week? I mean, given that, do you think the president is going to go through with the plan that he announced?
CAPITO: You know, I think he's going to have a hard time enforcing that with the way we're seeing lack of resources, lack of people to be able to enforce the numbers of children that we see coming across, which takes a greater amount of people and resources to be able to care for them properly. I think we need to still look in this country and those folks, particularly the ones that are breaking the law again, need to be -- and already faced deportation notices, need to be removed from the country, yes. But the border is where I want to put my focus.
CAMEROTA: OK, so let's talk about this emergency funding.
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: This was a bipartisan effort, which is encouraging that Democrats and Republicans are coming together to do something at the border.
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: $4.6 billion. How will that solve the problem of migrants coming to the border?
CAPITO: Well, let's look at what we're doing right now. Right now we're holding children who are unaccompanied for longer than we really should. We should have them placed -- we should have the resources through Health and Human Services to be able to place those children. This will give us those resources.
We're also housing people and -- and you've seen the pictures -- in areas that are less than desirable. This will also provide the resources for us to do temporary facilities that I think match what our humanitarian philosophy is better to take care of people while they're being processed.
It also has medical supplies. It also has, you know, diapers and food and other things like that that we're finding because there's so many families, we're finding that we need the resources for.
And those are the -- we'll also have some IT in there that will help us go with quicker processes so we can move people to a better situation for them as they're waiting to have their cases heard.
CAMEROTA: And all of those things do sound like they will ameliorate the crisis.
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: However, they don't sound like they will address the root cause. And so how does spending the $4.6 billion here on beds and on helping kids address the fact that so many in unprecedented numbers, at least since 2006, are showing up at the boarder? Would the $4.6 billion be better spent in Guatemala and in Honduras rather than cutting aid to those countries to try to solve some of the violence and the problems that are happening there that are causing the influx of migrants?
CAPITO: Well, I think that's what the president tried to address last week or two weeks ago when he forged the agreement with Mexico, saying to Mexico, we need more help, your help, more robust help. And that's what I think Mexico has agreed to in terms of tightening up their southern border from those three countries that you mentioned, but also allowing us to work with Mexico to help us hold people --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CAPITO: To try to deter the flood of people coming into this country. But the bottom line is, we need to change our asylum laws. They are too loose. We're being taken advantage of. You see the children that are coming in as part of families. That is in reflection of, you know, a very loophole part of our law that says you can only hold children for 20 days.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CAPITO: So this is a bigger issue, yes. But right now we need to meet the humanitarian crisis.
CAMEROTA: Yes. Understood. But let's be clear, the enforcement -- Mexico's enforcement also doesn't address the root problems and the president is cutting funding to those three countries.
CAPITO: You know, we're still working with those countries to try to -- in some -- and I think in some of the immigration bills that you're going to see coming forward, working with those countries to allow people to declare for their asylum before they actually leave the country, trying to work with them to find a system where if you are under tremendous duress in your country and you can no longer -- you're, you know, you're no longer safe to stay in your country --
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CAPITO: To have that option. But the flood of people that we see coming now, it's obvious to me, and many others, and I think reflected in our bill, this has got to be addressed and it's got to stop.
CAMEROTA: Very quickly.
CAPITO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: The whole ugly and embarrassing episode with Patrick Shanahan, do you think there's a vetting problem?
CAPITO: You know, I just read that yesterday and, quite honestly, shockingly so. And a sad story, really, for his family and others related to that. I think the right thing was done. He stepped down and moved forward. I guess I'm a little surprised that it got as far as it did. But I know that the secretary of the Army is a great guy.
CAMEROTA: I mean he was Senate confirmed for the deputy position. So how do you think the Senate missed it?
CAPITO: That I can't answer. And I think that's a good question.
CAMEROTA: Are you concerned that there's vetting problems with the White House's choices?
[06:50:00] CAPITO: You know, I think it -- I think we've seen at times that it's maybe been too quick and then folks have had to pull back or the White House has pulled their nomination. That's troublesome, but I don't think that's the first time that's ever happened. I think that we need to -- we need to find great leaders at all these areas. I think the president's trying to find that and has great leaders now.
You know, I would like to see the vetting be more in-depth, of course, so that these things don't come up at the last minute. But, you know, the right thing was done here. He pulled his nomination and we're moving forward.
CAMEROTA: Senator Shelley Moore Capito, thanks so much for being on to explain everything that happened last night with the funding for the crisis at the border.
CAPITO: Thanks, Alisyn. All right.
CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you.
CAPITO: Great. Thanks.
CAMEROTA: John.
BERMAN: That was a great discussion and nice to be able to talk about bipartisanship for a change.
CAMEROTA: So rare. Absolutely.
BERMAN: We should put the breaking news banner up, even bigger, bipartisanship.
CAMEROTA: It still exists.
BERMAN: All right, the reaction is pouring in this morning to the president's 2020 campaign kickoff. How did he fair in the daunting Stephen Colbert primary? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:56:12] BERMAN: All right, a first for Major League Baseball. The Chicago White Sox have announced that they are extending the protective netting at their stadium all the way to the foul pole. This is a big deal.
Andy Scholes has more in The "Bleacher Report."
Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.
You know, after more fans have been injured by foul balls this season, you know, teams all around baseball said they will look at extending their netting at their stadium. The White Sox, though, the first to announce that they're going to take that netting all the way to the foul poles.
Now, currently, all MLB stadiums have netting to the end of the dugouts, but after a little girl was recently hurt at an Astros/Cubs game, there were renewed calls to extend the netting even further. And the White Sox announced their change is going to happen as soon as possible. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred had said this is something baseball will look into. But changes during this season are tough because it's a structural issue.
All right, at Nationals Park, meanwhile, Max Scherzer was working on his bunting yesterday before the game was rained out and Scherzer didn't lay that one down. The ball hitting him right in the face, breaking his nose. The team said a CT scan was negative. The three- time Cy Young award winner was scheduled to pitch today, but the team said his status was to be determined. All right, finally, meet Julia "Hurricane" Hawkins. The 103-year-old taking gold in the 100 meter dash at the national senior games. Now, Hawkins says running has helped keep her mind and body sharp.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA "HURRICANE" HAWKINS, 103-YEAR-OLD SPRINTER: I hope I'm inspiring them to be healthy and to realize you can still be doing it at this kind of an age.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Hurricane Hawkins started running competitively just two years ago. She holds the record for fasters 100 meter by a woman over 100 years old.
And, guys, she says she's practices by running around in her garden in Louisiana. And she actually preferred not to be called Hurricane Hawkins. She'd rather be called flower lady.
BERMAN: Look at that.
CAMEROTA: Oh, we'll do it. Whatever she wants to be called, we will call her.
BERMAN: It's like grease lightning. Look at that. No, seriously. I mean that is super impressive. Good for her.
SCHOLES: Get out and exercise today, right?
BERMAN: I've seen Alisyn -- I've seen Alisyn trying to run.
CAMEROTA: And -- and that woman runs faster.
BERMAN: That's what I (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: I mean that is absolutely the truth.
BERMAN: I didn't say it, you did, but I'm not going to deny it.
CAMEROTA: Thanks, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
CAMEROTA: Thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "NEWSROOM" is next. For our U.S. viewers, President Trump's 2020 campaign kickoff has some familiar themes. NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Democrat agenda of open borders is morally reprehensible.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: He shows no desire whatsoever to try and actually seize this moment to do something different. JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: The idea that Trump should
listen to some speech writer rather than his own political instinct seems crazy to me. This is who he is. This is how he won. Why should he change?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump announcing his pick to lead the Pentagon will withdraw before he's even been formally nominated.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Questions were being raised about his ex-wife, what had happened there. This was a nomination that was dragging on.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It says something about the vetting process in this White House. They have a problem here.
REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), CNN MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: Maybe he just thought it was going to be too hard to get through a confirmation battle. This sounds like he did the right thing for his family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
CAMEROTA: And good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.
President Trump launching his re-election campaign, rehashing some of the greatest hits from 2016. They were filled with grievances and attacks on his foes. Mr. Trump offering no new policies or vision for his second term, other than that keep insulting his opponents and the Democrats and the press.
BERMAN: In meantime, this is developing this morning.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is out. He decided not to go forward with the confirmation process. And this all has to do with a report, "The Washington Post" put it out first, that exposed incidents of domestic violence in Shanahan's family. His sudden withdraw and resignation has senators from both parties questioning the White House vetting of nominees.
[07:00:08] Want to discuss. Joining us this morning.
END
