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New Day Saturday

Top Dem Candidates Signal Aggressive Debate Strategies; Trump Declares "Big Victory On The Border Wall"; U.S. Signs Asylum Agreement With Guatemala; Trump Downplays North Korea Missile Tests; Criminal Justice Reform To Be A Key Issue In The Presidential Race; Pelosi Denies "Trying To Run Out Clock" On Impeachment; Two Americans Arrested Over Killing Of Police Officer In Rome; Teens Testify JUUL Told Ninth-Graders Its E-Cigarette Was "Totally Safe". Aired 7-8a ET

Aired July 27, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:00:00] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Good morning to you, I'm Victor Blackwell.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone! I'm Jessica Dean in for Christi Paul this morning.

BLACKWELL: We are counting down to that highly anticipated CNN Democratic debate next week. We're learning some of the candidates are taking a more aggressive approach this time around.

DEAN: Former Vice President Joe Biden pushing to take the top spot, telling reporters he was overly polite during the last debate. CNN's Kyung Lah has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): He tells them to go back to where they came from? What do we say? We're not going back. We're not going back. And in fact, I'll tell you all where we're going -- we're going to the White House.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kamala Harris on the attack against President Trump just days before the second Democratic debate. She did not swipe at Joe Biden or mention their much-anticipated rematch on the stage. Asked if she'll be polite at that face-off, Harris told one reporter, "I was raised to be polite," after Biden said this about his approach at the first debate --

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was probably overly polite.

LAH: Ahead of next week's debate, Biden has previewed a more aggressive posture against Harris and Cory Booker, which is a senior campaign official says is being driven by the former vice president.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I think beating Donald Trump is a floor, it is not the ceiling. LAH: Biden is still holding onto his frontrunner status in a national

Fox News poll with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Harris all in double digits. In the run-up to the debate, the top candidates are (INAUDIBLE) with competing policy rollouts. Harris before primarily black audience of the National Urban League --

HARRIS: I will make a $60 billion investment in STEM education at HBCUs and other minority serving institutions.

LAH: That's aimed at closing the racial wealth gap, investing in historically black colleges and universities and an additional $12 billion to support black entrepreneurship. Before the same audience, Pete Buttigieg also attacked Trump.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My generation saw this country elect its first black president. And then turned around and elected a racist to the White House, and we ought to call that what it is.

LAH: And rolled out a new economic policy to help gig economy workers unionize. Buttigieg is targeting big tech for outsourcing their employees and their benefits. Elizabeth Warren announced she crossed a threshold, receiving more than one million donations so far this election. Bernie Sanders previously crossed one million donations. Both have rejected high-dollar fundraisers.

Elizabeth Warren is campaigning in New Hampshire this weekend. Bernie Sanders is holding a fundraiser in Detroit. Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, still out on the trail this weekend. But Kamala Harris, Joe Biden dialing back those public appearances as they get closer to the debate. Kyung Lah, CNN, Indianapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Our thanks to Kyung for that. Let's discuss all things 2020. There's a lot here. Joining me now: Kelly Dietrich, CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee; and Maria Cardona, CNN Political Commentators and Democratic Strategist. Good morning to both of you. Thanks for getting up early with us.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Jessica. Thank you.

KELLY DIETRICH, CEO, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC TRAINING COMMITTEE: Good morning.

DEAN: So, we are now just four days away from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being on our CNN debate stage together. And as we saw in Kyung's piece, their back and forth continues to escalate. Now, originally, this is what Joe Biden said about his fellow Democrats. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I will not speak ill of any of the Democratic candidates. I will not do it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: But as we have continued down this road, we have seen the attacks from the former vice president sharpen. What do each of these candidates, Harris and Biden, need to do to make the most of this moment, Maria?

CARDONA: Well, I think that if you are somebody that's going up against Biden, then you do want to continue to focus on what you believe are his drawbacks and his record. You know, he's been in public life for 40 years. That means that you have terrific accomplishments, but you also have some things that your opponents are going to go after you on.

And I think you saw that in the first debate with Kamala Harris. You've seen it recently with Cory Booker. I think those two specifically probably plus Warren, as well, even though she's not going to be on the same debate stage, that they're going to continue to go after his record. They're going to continue to try to contrast their own accomplishments and what they would do moving forward versus what he has to offer. That's the nature of being the front-runner.

[07:05:06] You know, a lot of folks say that he did badly in the first debate. He certainly didn't shine, versus his opponents. But he is still the front-runner. You saw a couple of polls come out recently, both nationally as well as in the early states, and they look really good for Joe Biden. What that means going into the second debate is that there's going to be even a bigger focus on him in terms of trying to knock him down a couple of notches by his rivals.

DEAN: Uh-huh. I want to get to the polls in just a moment. But first, Kelly, we've also seen Cory Booker coming after Biden, calling him the architect of mass incarceration, and Biden in turn questioning local police practices during Booker's time as mayor of Newark. How effective, do you think, the strategy is for Booker of going after Biden? We've seen Harris do this very effectively in this last debate. Do you think it will work for Cory Booker who is polling at a lower place than Kamala Harris was?

DIETRICH: It might work. I agree with what Maria said. The challenge for these candidates is that a majority of the Democratic primary voters have voted for Joe Biden previously. They may have voted for him in 08; they may have voted for him in 12. It's a difficult, a more challenging task for someone to convince a voter that they are a better option than someone they already know. People know Joe Biden. It's everyone else's challenge to convince them they're a better option. That's not easily done.

DEAN: And I want to talk about that polling that Maria mentioned. Let's take a look. There's a new poll out of South Carolina from Monmouth University. It shows Joe Biden as the clear front-runner in that race there in South Carolina, a key early state, of course. Also, there's a Fox News poll that looks at the national picture, and it shows Biden in the clear there, so matched him up against President Trump, and he was the only one out of the margin of error beating him. Maria, how much does this bolster the Biden campaign's argument that he's the one that can beat Trump, and how much does it bolster that front-runner status?

CARDONA: I think it bolsters it quite a bit, Jessica, because if you've seen a bunch of the polls leading up to this, all of the candidates running, what you see mostly is that Democrats more than anything are desperate for a candidate who can beat Trump. Even more than a candidate who would match up with their own values on every single issue and whom they agree with on every single thing. The most important thing for the Democratic base and for, frankly, those people who want this president out of the White House, and right now, that's the majority of Americans, that they want somebody who can beat Trump.

So when these polls come out, this is something that the Biden campaign can really focus on and can really show in terms of the -- that he is the one right now out of all of the 20 Democratic candidates that are running, that can beat President Trump, and that can beat him handily. And the other thing that I think really helps Biden is the fact that Trump himself is responding to him. The fact that Trump himself is responding to him shows me that Trump, his aides, the people around him at the White House, are very concerned mostly right now about Joe Biden's candidacy.

DEAN: And Kelly, we're also on the other debate stage, on the other night, we're going to see Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren go head to head in our debate. And it's the first time we're really going to see these two candidates side by side. They appeal to a lot of the same voters. How do you think they're going to differentiate themselves from one another, and what's the challenge there for those two?

DIETRICH: Well, it's going to be fun to watch. It is interesting. They both have a very distinct style. Very separate and different from one another, but I don't think we'll see them clash directly head to head in the kind of personal attacks or direct attacks we'd see with Booker, Biden, and Harris. Instead, I think Harris and -- I think Harris and Bernie are going to let the voters decide based upon the merits of their policy. They're going to trust the voters to make a decision based upon the details they've laid out as what they would do for a president. That's more to their style, that plays to their strategy to win this race.

DEAN: Yes. Well, we will certainly be watching on both nights. Kelly Dietrich and Maria Cardona, thank you both.

CARDONA: Thanks so much, Jessica.

DIETRICH: Thank you.

DEAN: See you soon. Well, the lineups are set now for the CNN Democratic presidential debates. Two big nights. Ten candidates each night. Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:00, live from Detroit, only on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Now, a win for the White House. The Supreme Court says the president can use billions of Pentagon dollars to build a border barrier. The high court overturned a lower court decision allowing the money to be spent while the legal fight continues. And while the battle is not over, the president is declaring victory. CNN White House Reporter Sarah Westwood joins us live from Washington

now. So, this is not as simple, clear cut as the president says, big win and we're done, continue to build, no stopping us now. There are some caveats here. What are we hearing from the White House and give us an idea of what this decision means?

[07:10:15] SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Victor. This isn't the Supreme Court determining that the White House is necessarily right in trying to use these Pentagon funds that have been re-programmed to build the border wall. But what the Supreme Court is saying is that while the court case continues to play out this challenge from among other groups, environmental groups worried about the impact along the southern border, the Sierra Club for example, that money can be spent.

But that doesn't mean that in the end, the Trump administration will prevail. Although, the 5-4 justice majority wrote that they believed that the challengers to the Trump administration did not have "sufficient showing" to challenge the Trump administration's move here. So, the White House obviously touting this as a big win because ultimately it is, who knows how long that lower court decision could take to come. So, the Trump administration, in the meantime, now has $2.5 billion to make progress on the construction of the border wall, something that President Trump ran on.

And one of the major undelivered promises from his campaign that could have haunted him in 2020, now he has one more barrier removed to achieving that. Now, the liberal justices, three of them: Elena Kagan -- Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that they would not have allowed the money to be used while this was being decided. Another justice, Justice Stephen Breyer, wrote that he would have allowed the funds to be used to finalize the contracts but not to actually construct the border wall.

But again, showing the importance of the ideology on the Supreme Court along ideological lines. The Supreme Court handing President Trump what could be considered one of his few major court victories. Obviously, Victor, as you know, the president has often been stymied by the courts when tries to use executive power to circumvent congress.

BLACKWELL: Yes, this is a win, no doubt. But of course, the context is important here. Sarah Westwood, thank you for offering that.

DEAN: And as the border battle continues, the U.S. has signed a deal with Guatemala that's going to make it harder for some migrants to claim asylum here.

BLACKWELL: So, President Trump announced the agreement from the oval office. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are now at a point where we are -- we just get along, and they're doing what we've asked them to do, and I think it's going to be a great thing for Guatemala. They don't want these problems either. So, we were able to get this done, and we got it done fairly quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, as part of the agreement, Guatemala will agree to give asylum to anyone who claims it as they move through that country on their way to the U.S., than if they claim asylum here, they can be returned to Guatemala.

DEAN: Iran has test fired a new medium-range missile. What this could mean for an already tensed U.S.-Iran relationship, that's ahead.

BLACKWELL: Plus, why is President Trump so interested in the arrest of rapper, ASAP Rocky, in Sweden? We'll discuss that, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:12] DEAN: According to a U.S. official, Iran has test fired a medium-range missile. And it flew more than 600 miles across the country but did not threaten U.S. Military bases or shipping. Now, this test comings as tensions between the U.S. and Iran are already strained. And joining me now, David Sanger, CNN Political and National Security Analyst and National Security Correspondent for the New York Times. Good morning to you, David.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Jessica.

SANGER: All of this follows this pointed exchange between the U.S. and Iran over missiles. The Trump administration has said Iran has to stop its missile testing as one of these 12 conditions to end the administration's maximum pressure campaign. So, what do you think Iran is signaling with this?

SANGER: Well, the Iranians have been carefully calibrating their escalation now for weeks. You saw them edge over the production limits in the 2015 nuclear accord. They're now producing slightly more uranium than they were allowed to. They're purifying it at a higher level. Each of these steps is meant to up the pressure mostly on the Europeans who have promised to help Iran evade the U.S. sanctions by setting up a barter system with them.

It's simply not working for the Iranians at this point. They're just not getting any revenue out of this barter system while their oil revenues have dropped dramatically. And I think each one of these escalations, sort of a message to the Europeans, that says you better make this work, or the entire agreement -- which the Europeans are trying to preserve -- will fall apart.

DEAN: Almost like acting out. Well, and this didn't violate any U.N. resolutions. What can anyone do about this? What are the reactions or the steps that can be taken?

SANGER: Well, in fact, if you believe the United States, it did violate a U.N. resolution because it was a resolution passed alongside the nuclear agreement in 2015 that said that Iran cannot test any missiles that are nuclear capable. And this Shahab-3 missile, which is what the U.S. believes it was, could be fitted with a nuclear weapon. And in fact, we've seen some examples of design work mostly on paper, the Iranians did years ago that suggest that they may have had that in mind.

The bigger issue, though, here is how the U.S. will react; and I thought it was interesting that it was a very mild reaction yesterday. You heard virtually nothing from the State Department on this or on the North Korean tests that have gone on just a day before which tells you that they're trying here to calculate how they can make use of this without turning it into another big confrontation.

DEAN: Right, not drawing it out or making it bigger than they want it to be. I want to talk a little bit about North Korea while we have you here as well because President Trump is downplaying North Korea's latest short-range missile tests. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're short-range missiles. And my relationship is very good with Chairman Kim, and we'll see what happens, but they are short-range missiles. And many people have those missiles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, the president there appearing to believe these tests not a setback to the denuclearization talks, that they're not a major thing. Do you agree with his assessment on that?

SANGER: The North Koreans are doing a lot of what the Iranians are doing. But what I find interesting is that the president, more than a year after his initial meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore -- and he's now, of course, had two more, one in Hanoi, and one at the DMZ -- is basically willing to excuse anything the North Koreans are doing. And while the missile tests, I agree, were not a big deal, what is a big deal is that the North Koreans have been continuing to produce uranium, plutonium, by the estimates of the defense intelligence agency they may have added up to a dozen nuclear weapons in the time since the president's been exchanging all those good letters with Kim Jong-un.

So, the question is, is he being played by Kim Jong-un? In other words, is Kim just writing him the letters, continuing to hold these summits, making no progress and adding to his arsenal. And it raises the big question of whether the president should have gotten a nuclear freeze ahead of time the way Bill Clinton did in 1994, and at other moments that the U.S. has sought that while the negotiations are going on. Otherwise, Kim's adding to his arsenal.

DEAN: Right. Well, it is a big question, and it sure seems like the answer might be yes to it. All right. David Sanger, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

BLACKWELL: Issues of race, policing, criminal justice reform are important issues on the campaign trail. We'll talk about those and what we should expect from the candidates this week in the CNN debates.

[07:21:00] DEAN: Plus, the Justice Department wants to restart capital punishment after nearly two decades. We're going to discuss the potential legal obstacles to that. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Criminal Justice Reform is a key issue in the 2020 presidential race. Just this week, Joe Biden and Cory Booker sparred after the former vice president proposed a $20 billion grant program aimed at eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent crimes. Joining me now: Civil Rights Attorney and Former President and CEO of the NAACP, Cornell Brooks. Welcome back, sir.

CORNELL BROOKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: It's good to be with you.

BLACKWELL: All right. So, these two men, the former vice president, Senator Booker will be side by side on Wednesday night at the CNN debate in Detroit. I want you to listen to what Senator Booker said, this was at the NAACP convention this week about the former vice president and this effort now to launch Criminal Justice Reform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: And now, (INAUDIBLE) unveils his crime bill for a guy who helped to be an architect of mass incarceration. This is an inadequate solution to what is a raging crisis in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Listen, at the time, and we went back and read the statements from the NAACP in 93, 94, 95 about the crime bill. And it warned against just that thing mass incarceration of black and brown people calling it draconian. Quoted as saying that it was a crime against the American people. If the president, then a senator, was responsible for that crime against American people as the NAACP is quoted as saying he was, how does he atone?

[07:26:20] BROOKS: Well, the vice president is doing what he needs to do and what he has -- what he needs do and what he has to do. Namely, make the affirmative case for what he's going to do in the future with respect to deconstructing this architecture of the carceral state -- this architecture of mass incarceration.

That is to say to address sentencing, sentencing disparities with respect to crack-cocaine and powder cocaine, addressing the overuse, I should say not overuse but the use of private prisons, the death penalty, focusing on preventing crime as opposed to simply locking up more and more and more people in this country.

So, he's trying to do that with respect to the policies that he's proposing as a way of atoning for the policies he has supported. Because the fact is and he is not really taking full responsibility for this, the crime bill drove mass incarceration across the country. And he needs to say that, take responsibility for that and move the conversation forward. But policy-wise, he's doing what he has to do. BLACKWELL: Let me ask you something, and I'm going to ask -- we have

another guest: Democratic Strategist, a little later this morning -- considering how important Criminal Justice Reform is important to the Democratic base in this race, is he on secure enough footing considering his 1994 crime bill to go on the offensive against Kamala Harris and Cory Booker as we saw him try to do on his record in Newark this week?

BROOKS: He has to. The fact of the matter is Kamala Harris has a record as a prosecutor and she's trying to make the affirmative case there. Senator Booker has long labored for Criminal Justice Reform as mayor, as senator. I certainly got to know him in that context. And so, the vice president must, must make the affirmative case for Criminal Justice Reform in the course of this presidential campaign, particularly at a moment in which you have two -- more than two million Americans behind bars, bail reform is such that we have people who are essentially incarcerated for being poor, and we have our prisons and jails as the drug treatment facility of last resort. So, he has to make the affirmative case.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn to the, the latest polls out of South Carolina, the first primary state where African-Americans will have the loudest voice in choosing the nominee for the party. Joe Biden with 51 percent here over Harris at 12, Sanders at 10, Warren at two, Buttigieg at one. Cory Booker not even on the rundown there. To what do you attribute that? Is this exclusively that Vice President Joe Biden served with President Obama, and how long is that distinction going to hold a 51 percent lead with African-American in South Carolina do you expect?

BROOKS: I think it's a measure of the fact that he is a known quantity in a crowded field, number one. Two, certainly he has association with the nation's first African-American president. But that is a positive number, certainly a number for vice president Biden to take credit for and assert on every occasion that he can.

[07:29:55] But it's not insurance because we all know what happened when Senator Barack Obama went into South Carolina more than eight years ago, the lead of Secretary Clinton evaporated. I'm from South Carolina, and I would draw no comfort from

the fact that Vice President Biden is in the lead at this moment. It's still early, and it's a crowded field, and a lot more will happen and has to happen.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you quickly, a sentence I never expected that it would come up in our conversation. Let me ask you about ASAP Rocky. The president has tweeted several times about the American rapper who was jailed in Sweden. He tweeted, "Sweden has let our African American community down in the United States."

As the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where does the case injustice for ASAP Rocky fall in the rank of issues that this president should focus this much attention and time on? And what do you make of his putting this case in the framework of, you're letting black people down, #free Rocky? BROOKS: That's right. That's right. Two points here. First of all, with respect to you that the president's tweet about our African American community, I simply posed a question when do we become yours. Namely, given the racist xenophobic rhetoric coming out of this White House, our African-American community is certainly not the African- American community of the president, point one.

Point two, with respect to ASAP Rocky becoming the cause du jour, the poster trial of criminal justice reform for this White House, it's insincere and incomplete. It's really tokenizes the issue.

In other words, this president intends to focus on criminal justice -- criminal justice reform at the hands of celebrities who are well- meaning on often well-informed, but there people like Congressman Bobby Scott, the people all across this country are in communities, in the universities who are making the case for criminal justice reform across the wide range of issues that we need to address. From juvenile justice reform, bail reform soon and so forth.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

BROOKS: He needs to listen to the breath of the African American community and other communities. Not merely entertainers and rappers and athletes as important as they may well be.

BLACKWELL: All right. Cornell Brooks, always good to have you on the show, sir.

BROOKS: It's good to be with you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jessica?

DEAN: Well, still to come this morning, the impeachment effort is intensifying. House Democrats suing to get grand jury information from the Mueller report. The details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:36:14] DEAN: Now, to some legal stories were following for this week's legal brief. The impeachment effort is growing. There are now, at least, 101 House Democrats calling for an impeachment inquiry into the president. And now the House Judiciary Committee is seeking the grand jury information behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report with a lawsuit.

The Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, says he needs that information in order to move forward with an impeachment recommendation. The move is the first step in a lengthy and very likely divisive process.

And joining us now is a federal and constitutional attorney, Page Pate. Good morning to you, Paige.

PAGE PATE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Jessica.

DEAN: So, Nancy Pelosi says she wants all the information before they can make a decision on impeachment. Take a listen to what she said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA): No, I'm not trying to run out the clock. Let's get sophisticated about this OK? OK? Would that be?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But how long do you think this court fights will take?

PELOSI: We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed, not one day sooner. Their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage. I have no complaint with what they are doing. I'm willing to take whatever heat there is there to say when we -- when a decision will be made in a timely fashion. This isn't endless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, much of the chagrin of some of the more liberal members of her party, she wants to go through this process methodically, leaning on the courts to first get this information for their investigation. Do you see that as an effective use of the courts by Democrats?

PATE: Well, Jessica I'm not sure that a judge will see it that way because the only way that the House Democrats can get access to this grand jury material is to first, convince a district judge in Washington that they are in a judicial proceeding or about to be in a judicial proceeding.

So, the more they hedge about whether or not they're in an actual impeachment inquiry, the less likely it is that they're going to get the material that they say that they need.

DEAN: That's very interesting. And in addition to that, the next thing that Democrats plan to do is file a lawsuit. Another lawsuit to enforce the subpoena of Don McGahn, former White House Counsel who refused the committee subpoena at the direction of the White House.

So, you're saying -- you know, what they're going to have to prove in this first lawsuit. What are the chances of this one being successful?

PATE: I think they have a better chance actually at getting Don McGahn under subpoena and requiring him to testify as to some things. I do think there's a legitimate claim of privilege -- perhaps executive privilege as to some of the information that he may be able to provide the committee. But it's not absolute privilege as the president has said before.

So, I think in connection with that lawsuit, which we expect to be filed at some point next week, a judge will parse through the information that the committee want and likely require Mr. McGahn to answer some of those questions. And maybe that information will get Congress to the point where they can formally say, we are now in an impeachment inquiry. Because I think they have to say that if they want access to the other grand jury materials. DEAN: May have been hesitant to say that formally. All right, let's move on to the next story. The federal government's announcement that it plans to resume executing death row inmates for the first time since 2003.

Attorney General Bill Barr ordering the execution of five men on death row starting in December. That could be delayed by legal challenges. We know there are currently 62 inmates on federal death row.

And Page, I want to get your thoughts on this. What kinds of process does the Justice Department have to go through? I mean, can they just say they want to do this and make it happen? How is this all going to play out?

PATE: No, it is a lot more complicated than the attorney general is making it sound. I mean, first, they actually have to change the protocol. And to do that, you have to go through a process. You don't just sign a press release and say, "OK, it's all on now, we're going to start executions again."

You have to establish a protocol, what type of drug are you going to use? How is it going to be administered? And all of that has to be approved. They haven't done that yet. And we also expect that once this protocol is put into place, you're going to see more legal challenges from the people that are facing execution. And that is almost certain to delay it, at least, until sometime next year.

And then, there's the availability of the execution drug. That has been an issue in several states, and we don't know where the federal government intends to get this drug or how they have to get it produced.

[07:40:45] DEAN: Yes, a lengthy and complicated process there. Page Pate, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

PATE: Thank you, Jessica.

BLACKWELL: Up next, two American teens on vacation in Rome are accused of killing an Italian police officer. We'll have a live report.

But first, a new original series, "THE MOVIES", continues tomorrow. The latest installment explores the films of the 1970s. Here is a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you, thank you for everything.

ELLEN BURSTYN, AMERICAN ACTRESS: This was right at the beginning of the women's movement, and I found this script for Alice. This studio said who do you want to direct it?

MARTIN SCORSESE, FILMMAKER AND HISTORIAN: Francis Coppola told Ellen Burstyn, this is kid who made this film main streets, you should talk to the studio about hiring him. BURSTYN: So, I asked to meet Martin and I said, "I want to tell this story from a woman's point of view, and I can't tell from watching this film if you know anything about women, do you?" and he said, "No, but I'd like to learn.

SCORSESE: I was trying to deal with it just to ask a person, and I had Ellen as a guide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boy, you really need someone to talk to, don't you?

ALLISON ANDERS, INDEPENDENT FILM DIRECTOR: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, it was a revelation for me. Because there have been no films about single moms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long do you think I'll have to stay in this hellhole?

ANDERS: She's not only got all this heart, but she's funny, and she's strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you mind to turn around for me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turn around for you, why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to look at you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look at my face, I don't sing with my ass.

LISA CHOLODENKO, DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER: I felt like that was one of the early films I saw that like took the veil off of it. And said, people are messy and they're complicated, and you could still love them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, God, waitress.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: "THE MOVIES" airs tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on CNN. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:46:45] BLACKWELL: Two 19-year-old Americans have been arrested in Rome for allegedly murdering an Italian police officer.

DEAN: Italian police have a stabbed an officer eight times over a stolen backpack. Joining me now, CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau. And Barbie, what started this alleged attack?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's a really complicated story. But what we're hearing from the police who are the only voice in this narrative right now, it must be said, that these two young men tried to buy cocaine.

When they found out the cocaine they bought was actually powdered aspirin or crushed aspirin, they got angry and tried to get back to the pusher, stole the backpack. Somehow the police got involved, the scuffle broke out and the boys are accused of killing this police officer. 35-year-old man who had just returned from his honeymoon just back on the forest, stabbed him dead.

They escaped then to their hotel room and police found them there with they say the knife, bloody clothes and plans to go back to the United States. But what's important, I think, in the stories, we haven't had any access to the boys, to any legal representation to the boys.

The U.S. Embassy is close here in Rome on the weekend and we haven't heard from the State Department. So, the narrative is driven by the Italian police right now who lost one of their own and are certainly getting their side of the story out.

BLACKWELL: All right, Barbara Nadeau, from Rome. Thank you so much.

DEAN: Just ahead, how was America's biggest e-cigarette company able to reach children and teenagers in schools and summer camps? Troubling details next.

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[07:52:12] DEAN: Washington, D.C. police have arrested a 17-year-old who they believe was part of a group of teenagers caught on camera, attacking two men outside a hotel.

BLACKWELL: Police, say as many as 10 teenagers took part in the beating earlier this month. And the suspects, some as young as 13. You see them here punching, kicking even spitting on one of the victims. Police are still searching, they say that the beating might have been a case of mistaken identity. The police are not releasing the name of the teen arrested because he is charged as a juvenile.

DEAN: The e-cigarette company Juul, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund youth programming. That's according to a newly released document.

BLACKWELL: The two teenagers testifying before Congress that a Juul representative told a ninth-grade classroom, the e-cigarette was totally safe. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the story.

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MEREDITH BERKMAN, CO-FOUNDER, PARENT'S AGAINST VAPING E-CIGARETTES: We faced an entire generation of kids addicted to nicotine, who are human guinea pigs for the Juul experiment overall.

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): Many of Juul's tactics seemed to be right out of the big tobacco playbook.

JAMES MONSEES, CO-FOUNDER, JUUL: We never wanted any non-nicotine user and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Juul hasn't provided -- DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We seen passionate

exchanges between tobacco opponents, Juul executives and members of Congress at a two-day congressional hearing on Juul's role in the youth vaping epidemic.

But perhaps, the most surprising exchange came from high schoolers, who revealed that Juul had sent a representative to their classroom last year and that teachers were asked to leave the room.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Did the presenter call, Juul, "totally safe", more than once?

CALEB MINTZ, TEEN ADVOCATE: Yes.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: What impacted those "totally safe" comments have on your classmates, some of whom may have already started vaping?

MINTZ: For my classmates who already vaping, it was a sigh of relief because now they were able to vape without any concern.

GUPTA: We asked Juul about this. And they said, presentations to students were made as part of a short-lived educational and youth prevention program, which was ended in September 2018. The company says its purpose which was to educate youth on the dangers of nicotine addiction was clearly misconstrued.

The company also said it has taken actions to prevent youth vaping. Like scaling back its social media accounts. Platforms that critics say had particular appeal among teenagers. But according to one expert who testified, that was too little too late.

DR. ROBERT JACKLER, STANFORD RESEARCH INTO THE IMPACT OF TOBACCO ADVERTISING: You would have thought that hashtag posting would decline. But, in fact, it surged.

GUPTA: Surged in part because the hashtag itself gained a kind of social currency, even after the brand had largely exited social media. Jackler and others say this video should scare anyone, normalizing the use of these devices even in a young toddler.

[07:55:04] JACKLER: We've seen lots of outrageous postings on #Juul. It's remarkable the lack of boundaries many posters have.

GUPTA: For its part, Juul says it agrees. These posts by other users are a serious problem and has gotten more than 30,000 of them taken down. But, with more than half a million posts still tagged on Instagram alone. Jackler's new research shows that still hasn't stopped Juul's online popularity.

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GUPTA: Well, Jessica, Victor, it's also worth pointing out that there's increasing evidence that these e-cigarettes -- this sort of technology can be an effective smoking cessation device.

Meaning, that it can help adults stop smoking. But, if the trade-off is that it also enables a new generation of smokers, that's not something anybody is willing to tolerate. That's what this debate is fundamentally all about.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you. We just got this into CNN. We're learning that several U.S. water polo athletes, they were injured in a nightclub in a southwestern city in South Korea.

DEAN: This incident we're told occurred after an upper floor in a nightclub collapsed early Saturday. This is according to a statement issued by USA Water Polo. Members of the USA water polo senior national teams were celebrating the Women's National Team winning the World Championship on Friday, when this happened, of course. Once we get more information, we'll pass it along to you.

In the meantime, stay with us. The next hour of NEW DAY starts right after this break.

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