Return to Transcripts main page

CNN RIGHT NOW

Trump Sets Up Constitutional Crisis with Census Question; Mississippi GOP Gubernatorial Candidate: Female Reporter Needs Male Chaperone; Merkel Seen Shaking Again, Sparking Concerns about Her Health. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 11, 2019 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:01] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: In the next few hours, the president is expected to announce an executive action on adding a citizenship question to the U.S. census. This is despite the Supreme Court telling the administration that it cannot do that, at least not until it provides a better reason for wanting to add the question.

Critics say that a citizenship question is going to lead to minorities being undercounted, to people being undercounted who may not be documented. And that would then throw off population totals. And it could, therefore, change the balance of power in the House, giving Republicans a clear advantage for decades to come. It could change how resources are allocated.

The president has basically admitted that was the purpose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You need it for many reasons.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Number one, you need it for Congress. You need it for Congress, for districting. You need it for appropriations. Where are the funds going? How many people are there? Are they citizens? Are they not citizens? You need it for many reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now to discuss is Kim Wehle, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore. She's also the author of a new book, "How to Read the Constitution and Why."

I would say, Kim, it's a good length, a nice digestible length.

(LAUGHTER)

First things first, on this executive action, what is this likely to do? KIM WEHLE, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF LAW &

AUTHOR: It's likely to prompt another court battle. It's unclear if this would go directly to the Supreme Court. There would have to be an emergency motion probably. So it will probably start in the lower courts.

It's quite -- I can't imagine it will get resolved in time for the actual census. But as some people have suggested, it could chill people, noncitizens, from responding to the census even if there isn't a definitive action on whether the executive order is constitutional or not.

KEILAR: How likely would the president be to prevail on an executive action over the census question if his administration has -- they've already tipped their hand about what their explanation was and the Supreme Court didn't buy it.

[13:35:03] WEHLE: Yes, but these are two different legal regimes. When the secretary of Commerce did what it did, it did it pursuant to The Census Act. So Congress gave the secretary authority to implement the census.

There's another statute called The Administrative Procedure Act that sort of is oversight when agencies do things. This would be taking it out of that process and saying, I'm president, Article II of the Constitution gives me the authority as the executor of laws, and I'm going to do it by the stroke of a pen. That's squishier.

The Supreme Court, in certain circumstances, famously with President Truman in the steel seizure case in the 1950s, has said that there are limits on the execution of executive power. That can be unconstitutional.

But this is a really gray area. I think it's possible Justice Roberts could jump from the minority to the majority in this instance if there were time. But I also think it's a real problem for the separation of powers because it's an end run not just around the Supreme Court but also around The Census Act.

KEILAR: You have a new book, "How to Read the Constitution and Why."

I'm assuming the "why" is so we can navigate issues like this.

WEHLE: Exactly. It's sort of -- the idea is to train people to start thinking through these problems on their own. It gives a framework for how to start to answer them on their own. Because a lot of people are confused and worried and intimidated by the Constitution. We hear things from lots of different sources.

My objective here is to get people to start thinking these things through for themselves or help them get there, because it's really important right now.

KEILAR: Kim Wehle, thank you so much.

WEHLE: Thank you, Brianna. KEILAR: A candidate for governor in Mississippi doubling down on his decision to bar a female reporter from an interview unless she had a male chaperone. You're going to hear from both of them.

Plus, there's growing concern after another video shows Angela Merkel shaking for a third time in less than a month. She just responded.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:41:26] KEILAR: A Republican running for governor in Mississippi says he is standing by his decision to deny a female journalists' requests to cover him for the day without a male chaperone.

Here's State Representative Robert Foster. He's explaining on CNN why he made this decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE REP. ROBERT FOSTER (R), MISSISSIPPI GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): I didn't want to end up in a situation where me and Miss Campbell were alone for an extended period of time throughout that 10 to 16-hour day. So out of precaution, I wanted to have her bring someone with her, a male colleague.

And the other thing that I think is important to point out is that this is my truck. In my truck, we go by my rules.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

FOSTER: And that's my rule.

LARRISON CAMPBELL, POLITICAL REPORTER, MISSISSIPPI TODAY: Look, we've got to call this what it is. When a woman isn't given access to the same things a man is given access to, it's sexism.

BERMAN: Representative, just yes or no, you don't deny, you would give a man this access, yes?

FOSTER: I would. And I stand my ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now is CNN's chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, you're female.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: So are you.

KEILAR: I am. I'm a reporter. You're a reporter.

BORGER: Right.

KEILAR: When you watch this, think for yourself what it would have meant for your ability to do your job if you had to secure personally a male chaperone for every interview that you did with a male lawmaker.

BORGER: I think it would have had a tremendous effect. And I can't even remember all the campaigns where you are traveling with somebody who's running for Congress, in particular running for the Senate. And this is in the old days when you did have more access. And you would pop in a car and say, oh, can I have an interview for 20 minutes. And then you would get that interview.

Or you would say, I want to spend a day with you, as this journalist is doing, and say I want to have a day-long conversation with you because that's the way you get to know who a candidate really is.

Ironically, in refusing to let her in his truck, we did find out who this candidate really is, without her having to spend 15 hours with him.

KEILAR: Good point.

So Foster brought up -- he said this is a promise I made to my wife. He also brought up the #metoo movement. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER (voice-over): I think it's also important to point out the fact that, because of the #metoo movement now, men are under attack all of the time. Sometimes those accusations come out to be true. But there are many times they have been proven to be false.

I'm not going to allow myself to be put in a situation where someone -- and I'm not saying Miss Campbell would ever do this -- but I'm not going to be put in a situation with any female to where they could make an accusation against me and there's not a witness there to refuse that accusation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What do you make of that?

BORGER: I don't think this is about a #metoo movement. I think he's turning it into a political issue and trying to use it to his advantage.

But he also said this is a commitment he made to his wife. I'm presuming that he was married before the beginning of the #metoo movement. I don't know.

But I think this is political. And what he is saying here is, look, you know, this has gone too far and that's what this is about.

Of course, that's not what this is about. If he is uncomfortable with a female journalist, then what is he doing running for political office, which is something that I think Kirsten Gillibrand kind of tweeted today. I would ask the same question. Female journalists have to be given the same access as male

journalists. I can't believe I even have to say that, right, in this day and age. It's kinds of stunning.

KEILAR: What if the roles were reversed? Can you imagine if a female politician had a rule like this?

[13:45:00] BORGER: She'd be laughed out of office. You know? If a female politician said, I don't want to have this male journalist hanging around with me because of #metoo, or because of the potential for misinterpretation, I mean, I can't even imagine a woman doing that.

And, you know, there are now as many female journalists as male journalists. So I just can't imagine that we're really talking about this in this day and age.

We have women running for president. Imagine if one of the female candidates running for president would say that to a guy covering them. It's almost unthinkable, right?

KEILAR: There aren't as many female lawmakers, however. So if this were a rule that were implemented widely, this would be very detrimental even though there are a lot more female reporters.

BORGER: Right. It would be detrimental.

But I think this candidate -- and I applaud his candor in one way, in saying, look, it's my truck and it's my rules. It is his truck. It is his rules. And he's being very candid about it and came on TV this morning to defend himself.

But I think he's turning this into a political issue that might work for him back then.

KEILAR: Yes, I think you're right.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I think it might work for him.

BORGER: Right.

KEILAR: Gloria Borger, thank you so much.

BORGER: Sure.

KEILAR: Angela Merkel once again seen shaking in public sparking concerns about her health. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join me.

Plus, a murder mystery in Crete after an American scientist is found dead in a Nazi war bunker.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:36] KEILAR: A rare break in protocol today in Berlin. You see German Chancellor Angela Merkel taking a seat during the national anthems of Germany and Denmark. She was welcoming Denmark's prime minister.

And the unusual seated display comes as Merkel has been bombarded recently with questions about her health. Yesterday, Merkel was seen shaking visibly for the third time in as the last couple of weeks.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is CNN's chief medical correspondent.

Sanjay, the German government blamed dehydration for the first incident. Merkel referred to her shaking yesterday as a phase. And she said, just like it came, it will go away.

What do you make of this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've obviously seen this happen a few different times, Brianna. At the time, they talked about this potentially being dehydration, they may not have known specifically what this was.

But there's been more clues over the last few weeks. There's still not a definitive diagnosis.

But I think it's important to look, as you watch this video, there's a couple of things to sort of -- clues. First, you can see the shaking, and it's hard to watch, Brianna. You can sense her own discomfort with this.

But I want to show you this next video, as well, and point out something that changes. She's shaking here as you watch her. And it becomes quite noticeable. What we -- it looks like it's primarily coming from her legs. As soon as she starts to walk away, that tremor seems to go away as well. That's an important clue.

When you think about things that cause tremor, whether it's Parkinson's disease or another neurological disorder, they often stay. So whether you're at rest, whether you're moving, those things tend to be something that will stay.

With the type of tremor we seem to be seeing here, something known as orthostatic tremor, it's really only present, or primarily present when someone is standing. So if they are sitting, if they are walking, if they are moving, that tremor seems to go away.

It's a rare type of tremor, Brianna. It's more common in women. But that's -- that's sort of what it looks like. Again, we don't know for sure. But that's what it appears to be.

KEILAR: What would the treatment be for that?

GUPTA: Well, when I say this is rare, I mean, really rare, like a one-in-a-million sort of thing. I bring that up to say, there hasn't been great trials with regard to treatments because there aren't many patients with these trials.

But what they typically use are medications that are a type of muscle relaxant. It's really the legs that are starting to tremor significantly when someone is standing. So you can relax the muscles.

They even use certain medications that are typically used to treat seizures. This isn't a seizure. But sometimes those medications can be helpful as well.

We may be seeing this unfold in real time, Brianna, in the sense that she may have noticed these symptoms herself. This is the typical age when someone gets diagnosed. She may be going through the evaluation process, trying out different medications and seeing what works.

I should point out, Brianna, unlike with Parkinson's disease, this typically is not something that sort of ultimately leads to someone becoming increasingly disabled. It really is a tremor primarily when someone is standing still.

KEILAR: That is very interesting.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

KEILAR: It's a stunning number. Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers proposing a bail package valued at more than $77 million.

[13:55:03] Plus, a new update just in on the potential hurricane headed for Louisiana in what's being called a never-before-seen water event.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:59:59] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

People are kayaking in the streets of New Orleans right now as Tropical Storm Barry is dumping bucket after bucket of rain across the Deep South.