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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Democratic Presidential Candidate Deval Patrick is Interviewed About His Campaign; Sheriff: Two Teenagers Killed, Three Injured in California School Shooting, Gunman in Custody; Fight Over Trump Tax Return Likely Headed To Supreme Court; CNN: Trump D.C. Hotel Sales Pitch Highlights Foreign Govt Business; Putin Controlled Media Relishes Impeachment Chaos. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired November 14, 2019 - 16:30   ET

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

DEVAL PATRICK (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, the same things that attracted me to think hard about -- and in fact, plan for a run in 2018 are present today.

[16:30:06]

Meaning, an appetite for solutions equal to the size and difficulty of our challenges is just in the most incredible occasion right now that I can think of in much of my life -- in much of my life.

I think the field is enormously talented and the emphasis on fixing broken systems is huge. But the way you actually getting lasting change in my experience, whether it's in government or in business or in civil rights advocacy or so on is bringing in people who may not agree with you, but have to be a part of the conversation about how get a lasting and meaningful change.

And I think alongside that, we need a strategy and I am presenting a strategy on how we grow the economy, so that we're expanding out to the middle and the marginalized, and not just up to the well- connected.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Well, now, let me just ask you this question about the technicalities of all of this. When I say you're getting into the race in the last minute, you have missed the filing deadlines for two of the Super Tuesday states.

PATRICK: That's right, that's right.

TAPPER: Other candidates have had nearly a year to raise money, win over voters and meet voters. What's your path to the nomination? How do you win it?

PATRICK: You know, first, I should say that the reason I didn't get in, the penultimate reason I didn't get in over a year ago is you may remember my wife, Diane, was diagnosed with uterine cancer just around this time last year and --

TAPPER: God bless, she's OK. Yes. PATRICK: Yes, she is. And it is a blessing, indeed. Thank you.

She -- we celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary in May and she's cancer free. It was found early. She's -- she went through the surgery brilliantly. And her forecast is really, really positive.

And so, you know, that's the sort of thing that brings your feet right back to earth. And it seemed to me that no matter how tempting this moment in our civic and political life is for the kind of leadership that I wanted to offer, I had to focus there first.

She's better. We had a lot of conversation with an awful lot of people who have been encouraging me to run. And I think some of the most profound and moving and meaningful encouragement has come from people I don't know, people that have just found their way to me and said, you need to reconsider.

And so, we came to a point where I thought, you know, I really need to understand not just the sense whether the electorate is undecided, and I think that's very much the case, but whether practically you can make it happen at this point. And that decision we came to fairly quickly, but fairly recently. And we've been building a terrific team in short order. And we're going to be very, very competitive. I'm confident of that.

TAPPER: So, let me tell you one thing that you're going to be hit on if you haven't already figured it out. You have ties -- deep ties with big corporations. You just resigned from Bain Capital, which Democrats obviously pilloried Mitt Romney for having worked for in 2012.

PATRICK: Right.

TAPPER: You were brought onboard ACC Capital Holdings to help fix its subsidiary, Ameriquest Mortgage Company, which was accused of predatory lending. You have said --

PATRICK: Right.

TAPPER: -- that you can't win, you don't think, if you don't allow a super PAC to be built. And this is a big debate going on in the Democratic primaries.

How do you convince all of these Democrats, liberals, progressives that you're not part of the problem?

PATRICK: Well, listen, I think that, you know, you know I'm a capitalist. I'm not a market fundamentalist. I don't think private markets in the private sector solves every problem that needs to be solved in our society right on time.

And capitalism has -- particularly the way we have practiced it here in the United States for the last, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 years, has a whole lot to answer for. As part of the work I have been doing, the work I did at Texaco to fix a broken employment system and make it fair and transparent. Similarly at Coca-Cola, and now in investing or recently in investing, in companies that can deliver both a financial return and meaningful social or environmental impacts, so that you can show you don't have to trade the one for the other.

I brought that same spirit of reform, big, systemic reform, setting an example of what's possible in my work as a lawyer, in my work in the governor's office in eight years. And I'm proud of that.

And I think that being able to understand all of those different sectors and actually have gotten your hands dirty, solving problems in those different sectors, and frankly, all over the world, is a unique contribution of skills to bring to bear --

TAPPER: Right.

PATRICK: -- on this very, very ambitious agenda that we have.

TAPPER: But when you see the crowds for Senator Elizabeth Warren from your home Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the crowds for Bernie Sanders from neighboring Vermont, the energy in your party is not with people who are proud capitalists who are looking for practical, pragmatic solutions that bring in Republicans.

[16:35:05]

They are for revolutionary change. That's where the grassroots of the Democratic Party is, right?

PATRICK: And revolutionary change, we shall have, because we've been waiting for it for a long time. Frankly, the anxiety and even anger that folks are feeling in towns and rural communities about the way the economy has kind of kicked them to the curb and moved on and the way opioids have come in to fill the void. And the way their issues, our issues, back issues only at campaign time. That's something I -- that's very familiar to me, from having grown up on the south side of Chicago. That's what we've been feeling there, and in communities like it for a long time.

The opportunity that presents is not for some corporate person to solve the problem. That's not who I am, Jake, and you know that. That is about seeing the opportunity to make big systematic change as a way to bring us back together.

We have a president today, as you well know, who seems to wake up every day looking for division. And replacing that with our own better version of division is not the ultimate solution. Because we need to think beyond defeating President Trump, as critical as that is, to how we create meaningful and lasting change.

And I think the opportunity to do that through a campaign that is about everyone everywhere and not just big crowds and early voting states, and not saying one thing to this group over here and something else to that group over there, so that nobody gets aroused, but that is about an ambitious agenda, that engages people in it, as their agenda, not mine, not my campaign's, but theirs.

That's the way I've campaigned in the past. That's the way I've governed in the past and that's the way I've tried to live my life.

TAPPER: Well, Governor Deval Patrick, welcome to the race, congratulations.

PATRICK: Thank you.

TAPPER: And most importantly, we're so glad that your wife is OK. Thanks so much. We'll see you out there on the campaign trail.

PATRICK: Thank you so much, Jake. I appreciate that. Look forward. Take care.

TAPPER: OK. You too, sir.

Imagine the millions you could make off of foreign government if the president didn't own the hotel. A look at the sleek sales pitch the Trump Org is making to unload their hotel in D.C.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:45]

TAPPER: Tragic breaking news. Two teenagers were killed earlier today, three other victims injured in a school shooting at a high school in California.

And as CNN's Nick Watt reports for us now, a teenage gunman opened fire on his 16th birthday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was absolutely terrifying.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least two students dead, others injured.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Active shooter at Saugus High School. All schools in the vicinity are on lockdown.

WATT: Around 7:30 a.m. at a high school about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, students were arriving, starting their days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we heard the first gunshot, we thought it was not something serious, then we heard two more.

CAPT. KENT WEGENER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: Detectives have reviewed the video at the scene which clearly show the subject in the quad withdraw a handgun from his backpack, shoot, and wound five people, and then shoot himself in the head.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard the gunshots and we just were like, let's go. Let's run. We had to go underneath the pipeline. So we literally crawled underneath the pipeline.

WATT: Six injured students were triaged and rushed to local hospitals. It turns out one of them was the shooter.

LARRY EVERHART, SANTA CLARITA RESIDENT: I saw all kinds of kids running up the street, screaming, crying, yelling. They were saying, can we go in your house? And there was like, I don't know, there must have been 20 of them went in my house. I wanted to make sure they are safe.

WATT: Students have prepared for this, trained for just such a terrifying active shooter situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard from our friends who were still stuck in school that they're hiding in closets. They're just trying to find anything --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're texting us that they're scared to die and they're hiding in closets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very sad.

WATT: This mom had just dropped off her 16-year-old son when the gunfire started.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just panicked the whole entire morning until I heard from him again. And he said that he was OK.

WATT: The panic is over. The gunman no longer a threat to others. He is in grave condition in the hospital.

WEGENER: The weapon that he used was recovered at the scene. It's a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol which had no more rounds in it, had no more bullets in it.

WATT: But the grief remains. So, too, the fear for those injured and the shock. We all know these shootings happen, but when it happens in your community --

REPORTER: You won't let go of your daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I'm scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very scary. We ran -- we heard the one shot and then four after and we just started running. And just all I heard was all of these kids running and just screaming and calling their parents and it was just very sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Still no motive, still no ideology, but the shooter's girlfriend and mother have been taken in for questioning. And we know his weapon was empty, so he shot five of his fellow students and saved the last round for himself -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Nick Watt, thank you so much.

And I've said it before, I'll say it again. They didn't have school shootings like this when I was a child. The adults of this country are failing the children of this country.

Coming up, what do you think of this? We're selling, because we couldn't break the law by making money off of foreign governments. Well, that's the sales pitch being used to try to sell Trump's D.C. hotel. Stay with us.

[16:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our "MONEY LEAD" now. The Trump Organization is now trying to sell the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. Let's talk about this. Jen Psaki, I'll start with you. An investor brochure obtained by CNN contains this sales pitch. Tremendous upside potential exists for a new owner to fully capitalize on government related business upon rebranding of the asset. The president has long insisted that he's lost money because of the presidency. This has been -- his family are not cashing in.

[16:50:01]

JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: OK. I mean, this is the least surprising piece of news we've seen today perhaps. Obviously, he's been financially benefiting. We've seen that in the many lines of business that his family members have had. So I guess they're sort of honestly selling it, I suppose.

Although some of the reporting suggests that they haven't shown kind of what -- how much business they have taken in. So who knows what the actual facts are here.

TAPPER: And Congressman, the President is both the seller and the boss of the GSA who actually owns the land given that he's the president of the United States. Is there any other conflict of interest there?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: No, I'm kind of surprised that took them this long to do this because the sheer beatings they took. And if there's a business entity, a licensing entity and a business entity, and if you're all getting beat up, nobody's happy and the money probably not worth it.

And if you look at it, I mean, some say tomato, I say tomato kind of thing. They were probably trying to follow the law. Remember, there's a lot of other business hands in that pot. We're trying to follow the law. And I'm sure they came to this conclusion like this thing is a -- this is killing us. It's in a prime spot. Let's just get rid of it.

TAPPER: And you know, the Republican National Committee just announced that they're holding their winter meeting at the Trump Doral resort, which is you know, that's a political party. So there's no government conflict of interest, but boy, they're making a lot of money. I got so many e-mails from Republican campaigns and Republican businesses pushing me to buy Donald Trump, Jr.'s book. I mean, the family is getting --

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: They are. I mean, this is -- you know, and Trump obviously is pushing the hotels all the time talking about the hotels visiting the hotels. He wanted to have that -- I guess the G20 or the G7 or whatever down at the Doral, got in trouble for that, so they have to pull it out. But yes, I mean, obviously, this winter meeting will be down there and I'm sure he'll be pushing it to all who will listen.

PSAKI: Trump cocktail.

TAPPER: The grift never end.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I mean, this has been his M.O. as a businessman and Hillary Clinton ran lots of campaign ads talking about how we ripped off small contractors. I don't think any of this is a huge surprise. But as he often points out, he won the presidency.

TAPPER: He did.'

TOOBIN: With everybody knowing all this stuff.

TAPPER: Coming up, from Russia with love. Apparently they have a lot to say about the impeachment hearings and Vladimir Putin's country. Stay with us.

[16:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our "WORLD LEAD." You've got to see how Russian state media is reacting to the impeachment inquiry here in the United States. CNN's Fred Pleitgen filed this report from Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Kremlin is feasting on the impeachment inquiry in the U.S. State run media clearly taking President Trump's side. Even echoing talking points used by Republicans during the first hearing trying to discredit testimony from America's top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): You didn't listen on President Trump's call and President Zelensky's call?

BILL TAYLOR, ACTING UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: I did not.

JORDAN: You never talk with Chief of Staff Mulvaney?

TAYLOR: I never did.

JORDAN: You never met the president.

TAYLOR: That's correct. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): And one of the main witnesses in this case turned out to be almost a stool pigeon. It came to light that all his information his third hand. He never met Trump and spoke to Zelensky about everything except the main thing for everyone, the military aid.

PLEITGEN: Ignoring other damning evidence Taylor laid out. The Russians rejoicing believing President Trump has shown he cares about investigations into political rivals, but not Ukraine itself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You're being used without even asking for any permission. You know what the term for that is? All those important people in America are now talking with strange people you are and how you can be used.

PLEITGEN: But Russian state media support for President Trump goes even further. One news report even attempting to reveal the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint brought the controversy around the Trump-Zelensky call to light. Even as the President continues to claim there was nothing wrong with the calls.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information including my call with the president of Ukraine, which was a perfect call.

PLEITGEN: The cozy relations with President Trump are paying off for Vladimir Putin. Perceived lack of support from the U.S. president has weakened Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky as his country continues to face a Russian backed insurgency.

Zelensky was recently all about forced to agree to a Russian approved negotiating formula and asked for talks Moscow leading to protests against him in Kiev. And Zelensky was challenged by veterans on the front line who felt he was bowing to the Russians after losing America support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the president of this country. I'm 41 years old. I'm not a loser.

PLEITGEN: As Ukraine's president struggles to navigate the fallout of President Trump's Ukraine moves, Kremlin controlled media is in a feeding frenzy, hungrily awaiting the next impeachment hearings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: As you can see, their Kremlin controlled media are very much in a free feeding frenzy there, Jake. One of the things we have to add is that the Kremlin itself actually didn't comment on all of this today. Vladimir Putin, of course, right now is in Brazil. But as you can see, the Kremlin controlled media really doing the talking for Vladimir Putin and for the Kremlin.

Essentially their messages, they believe that President Trump has dumped Ukraine. It's time for the Ukrainians to make a deal with the Russians. Of course, only one that's favorable to Moscow, Jake. TAPPER: All right, red flag come in Moscow, thank you so much. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @JAKETAPPER. You can tweet the show @THELEADCNN.