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Survivor Describes Horror Inside California Bar; CNN Reality Check: The Crucial Counties That Can Swing Elections; White House Issues New Rule Limiting Asylum Seekers; Acting Attorney General A Vocal Critic Of Mueller Investigation. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 09, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] SARAH DESON, SURVIVOR OF CALIFORNIA MASS SHOOTING, FRIEND OF VICTIM CODY COFFMAN: I was -- I was behind him and I tucked myself into his back kind of -- I don't know, just laying there in a ball. And then, I just remember I looked behind me and there was a smoke bomb going off and I think it was Cody who like told me it's a smoke bomb.

And that's when I was -- I saw him get up and apparently, when he got up I knew -- I knew I needed to go. And I guess he got up and stood up and said get out.

And that's one of the reasons my friend Cheyenne (ph) was able to get out because she knew when Cody stood up and said like you should -- you should like -- when he said something, that's when she was able to like escape and the same for me. I was -- when I knew he was up, I was -- I was following what he was doing.

I was so like shocked that I had no clue how to react and I just -- I just did what he did. And when he said leave and when he got up, I left and I saw one opening and I ran for it. And unfortunately, he wasn't behind me.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: When did you realize after getting out that Cody wasn't out -- Cody wasn't with you?

DESON: Well, I kind of -- I ran like as fast as I could and when I got into the cars and stuff I was -- I had gotten into multiple -- like a car that I didn't know the people and then into a friend's car that we had the keys to.

And we were sitting there and that's when it hit me. I was -- I was kind of like -- I was with one of my friends, Cheyenne, and she was telling me like you need to -- I was having like a little panic attack and she's like you need to calm down and we need to find your friends.

And after I called 911 and it was busy, I was like OK, they have it. I heard sirens and I'm like they have it. Now all I can do is hope that my friends are safe.

And it's like at that moment you don't know if you should call them and I'm glad I didn't call right away. It's just -- it's just -- it's scary because you don't know what to do in the moments like that. You want to call and you want to make sure they're OK, but you can't really do much.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Sarah. I mean, there's no handbook for something this traumatizing to happen to teenagers who are just going to a bar on a college country music night who are dancing and horsing around with each other. This is, obviously, not supposed to happen.

And so, how did you get the news that Cody was still in there and was killed?

DESON: All night, I texted him and when I was finally was like OK, we can call him, I called him. And it was like nothing and I was worried.

And we had friends around and I just kept asking like have you heard from Cody? Has anyone found Cody? Where's Cody?

And I finally -- after -- when I finally got to my friend's house at about seven in the morning, that's when her mom was on the phone and she confirmed to us that he had passed away. And it was -- it was absolutely heartbreaking.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We had a really heartbreaking conversation with his dad yesterday just, really, minutes before his dad got the confirmation and his dad was holding out hope just like you were. And his dad kind of knew what Cody would have been doing in that bar that night.

So let me just play this moment for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON COFFMAN, SON CODY WAS KILLED IN MASS SHOOTING: I'm afraid that Cody ran to the -- to the gunman instead of ran away from the gunman. That's the kind of boy that Cody was -- or is.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

COFFMAN: I'm sure he was there helping, shielding -- anything that or anybody that he could. I know that he went there with a few of his girlfriends so I'm hoping that he is OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:35:13] CAMEROTA: Sarah, it sounds like that is what was happening -- that he was shielding you.

DESON: Yes. He -- Cody was an amazing man and selfless in a way that -- and I know he was put here to protect people. He was a very -- that's why I keep calling him my hero because he was here for a reason to protect people.

Like I knew at one point he wanted to join the Navy or something like that and I know that's what his calling was -- to make sure people were safe. And when he -- when he -- what he did last night, he made sure people were safe.

And now, we all have a beautiful guardian angel watching over us and that's -- all we can do is pray and hope for peace.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, Sarah DeSon, thank you for sharing your beautiful thoughts about your friend Cody and about your story. We are praying for you and it's going to be a long road --

DESON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: -- and so, take care of yourself.

DESON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We want to remember those killed yesterday. Here are the names and faces of those whose identities we know. We'll be right back.

TEXT: Ron Helus, Cody Coffman, Justin Meek, Alaina Housley, Noel Sparks, Dan Manrique.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:24] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So what is a pivot county and what did it mean to your 2018 midterm elections? Quite a lot, actually.

John Avlon has your "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks, guys.

So, elections are generally won by swing voters in swing counties, and the crucial swing counties in the Trump era are the 206 pivot counties that voted for Obama twice and Donald Trump in 2016.

Take a look at this map and you'll see that many of these districts are clustered in the Upper Midwest -- Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Now, not coincidentally, these states carried Trump to victory. But how'd they vote in this year's midterms and what might that mean for 2020?

So, Democrats captured the governors' mansions in Michigan and Wisconsin and held onto it in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, while Republicans held onto Ohio and Iowa.

But let's do a deeper dive and really nerd out.

Of the 78 pivot counties in these five states, Republicans carried 55 for governor while Democrats won 23. In terms of these governors' races, a larger number of the pivot counties in these crucial five states lean GOP.

But, compared to the governors' races in the last midterm elections in 2014, Democrats actually gained ground in many of these counties, meaning their share of the vote increased.

So while, for example, Ohio's Stark County voted for a Republican governor this week by a vote of 74,000 to 59,000, Democrats increased their percent of the vote by more than 13 percentage points over four years earlier.

Democrats succeeded in pushing back the Trump tide in some populous pivot counties as well, like the legendary swing of Macomb County, Michigan and Trumbull County, Ohio.

Now, across the board, this year's midterm elections saw the best turnout in decades, so much that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf got more votes in Pennsylvania's Erie County than Donald Trump did two years before.

So what could all this mean for 2020? Well, if these governors' races are any indication, Democrats are still fighting an uphill battle to reclaim the pivot counties that President Obama won and Trump swung in '16.

But they're making gains and shifting voters in places like the Upper Midwest their way in counties that are outside their urban base and these pivot counties will be among the crucial battlegrounds going forward.

Overall, the demographics in this election speak to the deeper divide in our country. Democrats running for the House carried urban areas by a greater margin than they did in 2016. Republicans running for the house carried (INAUDIBLE) handily, but by a smaller margin than in 2016. And the suburbs were evenly divided, 49-49 with Democrats (INAUDIBLE) House districts in the suburbs.

One more thing. President Trump took unprecedented shots at some of his fellow Republicans who lost their seats this Tuesday.

He singled out Carlos Curbelo, Mia Love, Mike Coffman, Barbara Comstock, Erik Paulsen, and Peter Roskam, saying essentially, that they'd committed the sin of daring to distance themselves from his more divisive rhetoric and policies.

Here's one example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mia Love gave me no love and she lost. Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: You can really feel that one. Anyway, it actually turns out that Mia Love's race is still too close to call, officially.

But we went back and looked at each of these members of Congress and they did much better in their districts before Trump was on the ballot.

In 2014, they won their districts with relative ease. In 2016, the margins were mostly tighter with Trump on the ticket. And in the 2018 midterms, which were a referendum on the president, they lost their seats with Mia Love still TBD.

Look, there's evidence that their problem was not that they didn't, in the president's words, embrace him enough, but that he made the Republican brand too toxic in the more centrist swing districts for them to survive.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: All right, thank you very much, John.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- he's gone. He's been fired. His temporary replacement, a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation. So what might this mean? What checks remain in place and what's the president trying to do here?

[07:45:08] We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: President Trump wasted no time after the midterms firing attorney general Jeff Sessions and naming Matthew Whitaker acting A.G. Whitaker's a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation.

On his first day on the job, Whitaker announced a new rule that would give President Trump new power to deny asylum to migrants who are fleeing Central America.

Joining us now to talk about all of this, we have former director of the CIA and NSA, Gen. Michael Hayden. He's served in both Republican and Democratic administrations and is CNN's national security analyst.

General, we have a lot of national security --

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER DIRECTOR, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY AND NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- questions for you.

So look, as you know, from more than a month now we have been debating with people from the White House, with President Trump's surrogates about this group of migrants who are still some 800 miles from the southern border, making their way here.

They have tried to say that they are not entitled to come into the United States and that that is illegal. We have pointed out that it is perfectly legal to come and seek asylum in the United States and there's a process for doing that.

[07:50:05] Well, as of today, that process is changing and President Trump is going to deny asylum for asylum seekers. I mean, he's making it much, much more restrictive.

Do you think that this group of migrants are a national security issue? Does the president need to go to these lengths to change asylum laws? HAYDEN: No, I don't, and I called the full deployment of our forces to the border several weeks ago security theater rather than any response to a real bona fide threat to the United States.

And, Alisyn, if you read the background briefing given by the Department of Defense discussing the deployment there, you look at the intelligence estimate. It is inconsistent with the kind of language that we're hearing from the president.

This was all about last Tuesday, not what's going to happen in the next three or four weeks along our southern border. And then, with the president changing by executive fiat the processes for trying to claim asylum here in the United States, I think that's going to hit -- be hit with a court challenge very quickly. And we'll see if the president, indeed, has that authority.

CAMEROTA: One thing that is a national security crisis is gun violence in America. The number of mass shootings has increased and the number -- if I can just pull up for everybody -- these -- this is, I believe, since 2007. You can see these mass shootings that are 10 people or above, as we've seen again yesterday.

TEXT: Deadliest mass shootings since 2007.

58 killed -- Las Vegas 49 killed -- Pulse Nightclub 32 killed -- Virginia Tech 27 killed -- Sandy Hook Elementary School 25 and unborn child killed -- Sutherland Springs 17 killed -- Stoneman Douglas High School 14 killed -- San Bernardino 13 and unborn child killed -- Fort Hood 13 killed -- Binghamton, New York Immigrant Center 12 killed -- Thousand Oaks country bar 12 killed -- Washington Navy Yard 12 killed -- Aurora, Colorado movie theater 11 killed -- Tree of Life synagogue

CAMEROTA: And, I mean, just look at them. I mean, the numbers are so hideous, General.

I mean, from Las Vegas, 58 people killed. The Pulse nightclub, 49 people killed. Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook -- I mean, all of these have just been seared into our national consciousness. And in the past year alone, I believe there have been four or five.

So, President Trump has not made us safer in terms of these mass shootings.

What is the solution?

HAYDEN: Well, it's a long-term solution. And let me just say I am a strong supporter or the Second Amendment and I believe that as a country we are badly over-armed. And I don't think those are inconsistent statements at all. I mean, when events like this happen, Alisyn, we have folks pointing

out that these are likely inevitable and we're saying that in the only country in the world in which these kinds of events routinely happen.

I'm part of a group that's lobbying for better gun laws and the core of my belief here is that there are certain weapons that no one should have and there are some people out there who should not be allowed to have any weapons. And we can do that and still remain true to the Second Amendment.

CAMEROTA: I mean, it's just such a tough one because this person was a vet. He, I believe, had a gun legally but then he came back and had mental health issues. And the question is what do you do --

HAYDEN: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- with that situation?

HAYDEN: Well, again, we're very sensitive to our liberties. The Constitution is fairly explicit. We push back stronger than even our Western European or Canadian friends with regard to government intervention in these kinds of matters.

But as you point out, Alisyn, the statistics speak for themselves. We're not doing this right and we need to have an honest discussion without this reflexive emotionalism that we get when anyone brings up the question about limiting what kinds of weapons people should get or who should get weapons.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we appreciate that. We appreciate you being part of that discussion.

OK -- Matthew Whitaker. Were you surprised that Jeff Sessions was fired within minutes of President Trump determining that the GOP had held on to the Senate and that Matthew Whitaker was named acting attorney general?

HAYDEN: Well, I was a little bit surprised with regard to the speed. A little bit surprised that Attorney General Sessions wasn't allowed to stay until the end of the week which apparently, he had requested.

And frankly, Mr. Whitaker's credentials for the job are simply his personal and political loyalty to President Trump. So I can only imagine how this is playing out with the workforce in the Department of Justice and the FBI and I -- and I don't think it's positive.

CAMEROTA: Well, one of his credentials appears to also be disdain for the Mueller probe.

HAYDEN: Right.

CAMEROTA: So he has expressed on television and in op-eds that he thinks the scope is too broad and is not a fan of the Mueller probe. And so, I mean, look, this is -- this smacks of a conflict of interest.

And some people, including George Conway in an op-ed, have gone so far as to call it unconstitutional and illegal.

[07:55:03] HAYDEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Your thoughts?

HAYDEN: So you've got two questions here.

Number one, about the lawfulness of the appointment, and legal scholars are pointing out that this may, indeed, be unlawful, illegal, and illegitimate and his actions that he takes will not face the force of law.

And then you've simply got the wisdom of this person who has, as I said, this body of work in opposition to the Mueller probe.

Now, Whitaker's been quiet for the last 72 hours and I think that's a good idea. But, Alisyn, I think we can all agree that Rod Rosenstein was a firewall for the Mueller investigation. That firewall is now removed and so the odds that we're going to end up in a political or perhaps even constitutional crisis have been increased with the appointment of Mr. Whitaker.

CAMEROTA: All right. General Michael Hayden, thank you very much.

HAYDEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you.

All right, is it deja vu of 2000 in Florida all over again? The consequential recount battle looms over the Sunshine State. We have the latest vote totals for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His primary evidence seems to be that his voter margin is going down. That's not an indication that there is fraud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any Republicans who say that there is rampant fraud in America, prove it.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: This is a pattern of incompetence and it's embarrassing to the state.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ran for my life. By the grace of God, I got out through the front entrance.

JASON COFFMAN, FATHER OF MASSACRE VICTIM CODY COFFMAN: I talked to him before he headed out the door. The last thing I said was son, I love you.

GAVIN NEWSOM (D), LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, GOVERNOR-ELECT, CALIFORNIA: This is America. It's got to change. This doesn't happen anywhere else on planet earth.

MAYOR ANDY FOX, THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA: We are a hurting city, though the dawn will break. We are Thousand Oaks strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, November ninth, 8:00 in the east.

This morning, Florida is Florida, except more so.

This is the headline of "The Miami Herald" -- "The state that brought you the 2000 presidential recount will try to outdo itself in '18."

Three huge --