Return to Transcripts main page
Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Dow Plunges 600+ Points After British Vote; U.S. Stocks Plunge After; Brits Vote To Quit European Union; Financial, Political Turmoil After British Vote; At Least 20 Dead In West Virginia Flooding; Deportation Fears; Immigrant "Dreamers" Fear Deportation After Supreme Court Ruling; Britain Voted to Leave the European Union; Donald Trump Travels to Scotland for Golf Course Reopening. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 24, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In with a brutal wakeup call that millions of Americans got this morning. Simply put, their retirement savings, for some even their jobs, may depend on the historic choice the British voters just made to leave the European Union. And that's just the money impact here.
For Britain it means a new prime minister and perhaps the end of the United Kingdom as we know it. It means that decades of the European unification after the Second World War could be fracturing. It means a measure of turmoil, even chaos, where just 24 hours ago there was a predictable set of rules. Now everyone is in uncharted waters. This has never happened before, not even close. And we will hit all the angles tonight. First, though, the bottom line here.
That's an ugly bottom line. Stocks took a pounding. The Dow Industrials down more than 600 points. American markets lost more than an estimated $800 billion in value on a single trading day. The volatility index, the measure of the jitters, through the roof.
Veteran financial journalist Ali Velshi is a good guy to turn to in bad times.
Ali, thanks for being with us. Great to see you. You know, the market hung a crooked number today, to use a baseball term. And a lot of Americans are looking at their 401(k)s this evening and -- this evening and they're sweating. I mean, to them what do you say?
ALI VELSHI, FINANCIAL JOURNALIST: I say don't worry too much about this. There was a time when I would really worry about numbers like that. To put it into perspective about 3 and change percent. We have seen this, anybody who's sort of more than 20 years old has seen swings in the market that are of this magnitude.
This is because as you said yesterday we had a predictable set of rules to play by. This is a different set of rules. This is -- no one knows what the rules are. So mostly people have said, let me take my money out of here and I'll get back in once somebody tells me it's OK to get back in.
Veteran investors were actually piling in through the course of the day which is why you saw the markets swing from sort of 600 points lower on the Dow to 300 back to 600 toward the end. Now it closed on high velocity and in a downward direction and at the lowest point of the market which indicates that more will happen on Monday. And so you're going to see a little unsettlement, but I don't think ultimately when people do the math they're going to realize that this isn't all that influential for U.S. stocks and U.S. investments.
BERMAN: It makes for an uncomfortable time and an uncomfortable weekend but, you know, we can survive.
VELSHI: Yes.
BERMAN: Now connect the dots, though, because in Britain there are real problems.
VELSHI: There are real problems.
BERMAN: Their economy faces serious questions. They're worried now about a recession. Connect the dots between a possible recession there and what it could do to the economy here.
VELSHI: Well, we are -- we are on sort of a knife's edge. We've got the Feds saying they want to raise interest rates, they say they have -- they've only done once in many years because they're thinking the economy is now strong enough to stand on its own. Well, they were going to raise it four times this year . Then the Fed has sort of hinted that it might just be, you know, once. Now you're talking about Britain maybe, maybe turning into a recession.
Well, that means the Fed is not going to think the U.S. economy is strong enough. So for those who are waiting for interest rates to go up, that's not going to happen probably. Will it trigger a recession, there's a chance that the U.S. could go into a recession in the next 18 months. This is probably not the triggering event. The trade -- U.S. trade with the EU is good. U.S. trade with UK on its own is not that meaningful. So again this is a serious political issue. It's a very, very serious issue for the UK, and a relatively serious one for Europe, less so for America.
BERMAN: In it of itself maybe not a problem but it goes into that soup, which could be --
VELSHI: Right. Right.
BERMAN: All right, Ali. Stick around. A lot more to talk about with you shortly on the global aftershocks.
Right now, though, let's get straight to the epicenter of this whole thing. CNN's Clarissa Ward reports from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the biggest shock in the history of modern British politics and possibly one of the greatest political miscalculations ever made. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The total number of votes cast in favor of
Remain was 16,141,241. The total number of votes cast in favor of Leave was 17,410,742. This means that the UK has voted to leave the European Union.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WARD: Hours later, the prime minister announced he would resign.
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think the country requires fresh leadership to take it in this direction.
WARD: The people who masterminded the Leave campaign were quick to praise the prime minister, but are convinced that their approach is the correct one, including former London mayor, Boris Johnson.
BORIS JOHNSON, FORMER MAYOR OF LONDON: There is certainly no need, in the 21st Century, to be part of a federal system of government based in Brussels that is imitated nowhere else on earth. It was a noble idea for its time. It is no longer right for this country.
WARD: Some Londoners didn't appear to welcome Johnson's role in the campaign, yet there is now much speculation that he could become the next prime minister.
While some celebrated the way the counts unfolded, the results provoked widespread concern about the state of the economy and general confusion about what the future holds.
[20:05:09] President Obama, an early supporter of remaining in the EU, said in a statement that the people have spoken.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: While the UK's relationship with the EU will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations. That will endure. The EU will remain one of our indispensable partners.
WARD: The vote divided Britain. People in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London wanted in. Everyone else wanted out. Immigration was the primary issue on the campaign.
NIGEL FARAGE, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Let June 23rd go down in our history as our independence day.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WARD: How these differences are reconciled and what role Britain will now have on the world stage are issues that will likely take years to resolve.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Clarissa ward joins us now. Also want to bring in Richard Quest, anchor of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," and Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent and anchor of "AMANPOUR." An international all-star team with us. And you guys have been working really hard frankly because this is
beyond unusual. You know, yes, there was a vote. I suppose we all knew it could go either way.
But, Christiane, over the last 24 hours now, the dominoes that have fallen are simply shocking.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, they really are. Look, this is the first time any country has left the EU voluntarily. You heard Nigel Farage talk about independence day as if Britain wasn't a free and sovereign and democratic country. On the other side you're hearing things like, you know, self-inflicted wound and economic suicide, and I have been talking to foreign leaders, I have been talking to the British foreign secretary. All are convinced that this is bad matter for Britain no matter how much they want to stabilize the situation.
Britain's voice will be less strong and that is -- there's no question about it. Britain will take a serious economic hit as all the economists have said and Britain will find it very difficult to negotiate not just the divorce from Europe but a whole slew of new trade agreements for the future. The Germans told me that today because they don't want to see a contagion.
But I think the saddest, saddest commentary today was from the young people who voted overwhelmingly to remain and who, according to, you know, projections, will have 69 years to live with this decision while the oldies who voted overwhelmingly to leave, will have only 16 years to live with this decision. And a lot of young people are really angry. We're hearing it within families, we're hearing it on the streets, the young are very, very angry about what's happened and the gamble that's being taken with their future.
BERMAN: You know, all this, and David Cameron, the British prime minister, Clarissa, one of the most prominent leaders in the world, quit. He up and quit. I mean, he says he's leaving in the fall but he's quitting his job because of this vote after one of the just worst political bets or biggest failures of a political bet of all time.
WARD: That's right, John. And I think what everybody is struggling with or just trying to get to grips with essentially is how shocking it was, even though the polls has said over and over again that this was neck-in-neck, that this could go either way. Certainly the reaction this morning from Britons on both sides who voted to leave and who voted to remain using words like stunning, momentous, astonishing.
It only really started to sink in, I think, this morning waking up in this new Britain, the depths of this decision and the ramifications potentially for the future. And while Conservative Party MPs have come out before and said, David Cameron, we still support him, he should continue in his role as prime minister, I think behind closed doors there was absolutely the realization that there were simply no way he could stay on in the face of having catastrophically lost such a big gamble.
BERMAN: You know, one Brit who expressed a great deal of shock over night was Richard Quest.
Richard, I was watching you last night. You called this the vote of your lifetime and you looked frankly just very surprised. You know, 24 hours in, you know, what's your feeling?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Still surprised, still shocked. When we started covering it last night -- look, I traveled Britain all of the last couple of weeks. I knew by the time Brexit was probably going to win. And then you have the murder of Joe Cox. And I thought that that would tip it maybe in the opposite direction. And when we started last night, John, it really did -- it was obviously going to be 48-50, to one way or the other. But which way. And it went backwards and forwards until those first results came in.
And then we realized that Leave was winning by two or three percentage points more than expected and where Remain won they were winning by two or three percentage points less than expected.
[20:10:01] And the majesty of an election night is as the process goes on, you realize the result that's going to come out and it becomes mathematically impossible for the other side to win. That happened about 6:00, 5:00, 6:00 in the morning.
It was startling, amazing, shocking, wonderful. You know, all these adjectives could be thrown up simply because the British people rightly or wrongly, as Christiane points out, the British people spoke last night.
BERMAN: And that was just completely unknown and uncertain what happens next.
Christiane, as you look at this, how much of the vote can be attributed to the issue of immigration. This idea of securing the borders that we heard so much about in the months before the election.
AMANPOUR: Well, it turns out that it was about immigration and of course here's where the fault is because this was a referendum on staying in or out of the EU, not a referendum on immigration policies, so those who voted to get out and hoped to see a complete wholesale change in immigration policy are going to find it is not going to be like that. There are all sorts of other issues involved here, including that more than half of Britain's immigration comes from outside the EU, so that all those issues, plus as you know the Nigel Farage group, the UK Independence Group, which is an anti-immigrant group, which has had barely veiled racist posters and commentary, that group has been the one that has pushed this referendum and who has obviously succeeded in the tactics of fear and hate and all of that.
And that's what happened. That's what played out. Because yes, people are concerned about immigration but no, this, according to all the other experts, was not really going to be the way to control immigration, plus the idea of take our country back, take back control, these were slogans that the Leave campaign used that meant nothing because it is a sovereign country, Great Britain, but really resonated. Britain, by the way, unlike any other European country, is not in
Schengen. Therefore has borders, you have to show passports. It can keep criminals and others out. And now it's going to see that it may not have access to the European arrest warrant, it may not have easy access to be able to get criminals extradited or back in terrorist cases like they worked so hard to get. So this really is another leap into the dark and the unknown and the Leave camp have not been able to tell us exactly what the -- what the future is going to look like.
We asked over and over and over again, ever since the referendum date was set in February, and there were no specifics from the Leave camp.
BERMAN: Largely because it's unknown. It hasn't happened before.
AMANPOUR: Right.
BERMAN: Clarissa Ward, over here it's being seen as an anti-elite vote. Obviously it's something that people think could happen or has happened during the primaries in the United States as well. How much of this do you see as being anti-elitism?
WARD: That's definitely a component here. And I think there's a very real sense on the ground as everybody tries to get their arms around this that there's a lot of soul searching that needs to be done. How was it that as Donald Trump himself put it that the prime minister so misread the mood of the country. How was it that most people did assume that somehow the establishment would prevail.
And when you look at those geographical maps and you see the breakdown, the demographics of the vote, and you see that with the exception of Scotland and Northern Ireland, and London, that essentially most of the country voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, you realize that there is a sense here in the UK as you have seen as well in the U.S. that perhaps the establishment, the so-called elites, are not fully in touched and understanding and feeling the mood on the streets and other parts of the country.
BERMAN: All right. Stand by. We have a lot more to talk about ahead, including just that. Donald Trump's reaction from his golf course in Scotland. The credit that he claimed, the blame that he leveled on President Obama, and the controversy he caused both there and here. All of it.
And later, breaking news out of West Virginia. Fire, flooding, 20 lives lost so far. We're going to bring you a late update on what tomorrow can bring.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:00] BERMAN: Whatever you think of Brexit, Donald Trump was making the case. It's what he's been saying all along just with an English accent. He drew explicit parallels today between the British -- what British voters did last night and what he is hoping American vote will do this fall. That remains to be seen. However, his remarks this morning in Scotland stirred up controversy both there and back here. More on that from CNN's Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't look now but Trumpism just crossed the Atlantic. At least that's how Donald Trump sees Britain's so-called Brexit from the European Union, even drawing parallel to his own race.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: People want to take their country back and they want to have independence in a sense. They want to be able to have a country again. So I think you're going to have this happen more and more, I really believe that, and I think it's happening in the United States.
ACOSTA: At the grand reopening of this Turnberry Golf Course in Scotland, Trump hailed the vote in the UK as vindication of this push against what he considers to be the scourge of open borders. And the presumptive GOP nominee shrugged off the immediate panic in global financial markets as a potential business opportunity for Britain and himself.
TRUMP: And when the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly.
ACOSTA: Trump seemed to welcome the political fallout in London where Prime Minister David Cameron announced he is stepping down. The two leaders had tangled over Trump's proposal to ban Muslims entering the U.S. and chose opposing sides over Brexit.
TRUMP: He was wrong on this, he didn't get the mood of his country right.
ACOSTA: Trump had misread part of Brexit himself, tweeting that Scotland was going wild over the vote. But the return showed Scotland had actually decided to remain in the EU.
TRUMP: The world doesn't listen to him.
ACOSTA: But this was a victory lap for Trump as he slammed President Obama and Hillary Clinton for wading into British politics against Brexit.
TRUMP: I thought it was inappropriate and then she doubled down, and she did the same thing. And obviously for the 219th time, they were wrong.
ACOSTA: Clinton responded to Brexit in a statement, saying, "This time of uncertainty only underscores the need for calm, steady, experienced, leadership in the White House."
[20:20:06] Her campaign savaged Trump's reaction as frightening.
JAKE SULLIVAN, CLINTON FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER: He's not concerned with the American people or their retirement accounts or their security. He is concerned with himself and that's it. ACOSTA: Trump says it's his skills as a businessman that the country
needs.
TRUMP: Do we have a problem?
ACOSTA (on camera): People will say the country is not a golf course.
TRUMP: No, it's not, but it's -- you'd be amazed how similar it is. It's called -- it's a place that has to be fixed and there's nobody that knows how to fix things like me.
ACOSTA: Trump opened his news conference with a lengthy sales pitch for his golf course turning the mic over to three of his adult children who in turn praised their father. And Trump pledged to keep on using his properties for his campaign events. Asking why go anywhere else?
TRUMP: My properties -- number one, I have the best properties. Why should I use somebody else's properties?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Jim Acosta joins us now.
Jim, because this is 2016 the Clinton campaign already has part of what Donald Trump said as part of a campaign video. What can you tell us about that?
ACOSTA: That's right, John. It doesn't take long. Hillary Clinton has an ad out that focuses on Trump's comment that he made earlier today that the Brexit could actually be beneficial to both the British economy and his golf course here in Turnberry. Now we should mention Trump is also fundraising off of the Brexit results. In an e-mail to supporters earlier this evening he says, "With your help we're going to do the exact same thing on Election Day 2016 here in the United States of America."
And, John, we should point out tomorrow he will visit another one of his golf courses here in Scotland in the town of Aberdeen where some residents have raised Mexican flags to criticize his rhetoric on immigration. So he'll have one more opportunity to tee off tomorrow on Brexit -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Jim Acosta for us, thanks so much.
Back now with us, Ali Velshi. Joining us is Clinton supporter and New York Democratic Party official Basil Smikle, Trump New York campaign co-chair Joseph Borelli, a city councilman here. Conservative Trump critic Tara Setmayer and Rick Lazio, Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate race opponent, former member of Congress, and also with us, Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord.
Jeffrey, you are not here. You will get the first question. Donald Trump just said the British pound falling, it could be good for Turnberry. That's his golf course in Scotland where he gave the news conference. He also cheered the decision made by British voters, that as the stock market here in the U.S. dropped some 600 points. Is it dangerous to be cheering like that for him?
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No. John, this is capitalism. You know, I think one of the things that we've gotten too used to both in America and Britain is what Margaret Thatcher used to call the socialist ratchet, the conservative parties kept moving the country left, although at slower degrees. The very fact that Donald Trump is there, celebrating this golf course, that is a capitalist institution. This is all for the good. We need more of this, not less of it.
BERMAN: Notable also that you're on a first-name with Margaret Thatcher, Jeffrey.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Joseph Borelli, Councilman, let me ask you.
JOSEPH BORELLI, TRUMP NEW YORK CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR: Not on a first name basis.
BERMAN: Not on a first name basis but still an official. Donald Trump is claiming that he is tapping into the same sentiment here that exists in Britain. Do you think that's true?
BORELLI: Yes, I think it is. Largely the Brexit was motivated by a couple of issues, the economy, trade, immigration. Who has been talking about that? I think the Democrats are going to be a little concerned that a guy with a big flowing blonde head of hair helped convince the Brits that perhaps, you know, being united in this globalist economy is not the right thing to do.
The interesting -- the most interesting takeaway for the Democrats I believe is to look at the Labour Party. The Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbin was unable to work their white middle class voters. The base of their party. They got the activists to vote for Remain but they lost the white middle class voters who went with the notion that this system is not working.
And now you have Hillary Clinton out there saying, you know, we were wrong, but trust the establishment, trust the establishment. It's the wrong message.
BERMAN: Tara, you know, is what happened in the UK stay in the UK? Or are there reverberations here?
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that as long as we continue to draw that parallel people will hear and say yes, well, that's kind of like what's happening here like Joe just did. but I think -- yes, I mean, I actually -- I don't have a problem with the Brexit vote. And I -- a lot of the issue is sovereignty and what's not on and the disaster the EU has been, so I get it for them. But I think more importantly what we should be upset about or concerned about is Donald -- the fact that Donald Trump had no idea anything about Brexit, what the implications were, didn't even know that Scotland voted for it.
It wasn't until a Hollywood reporter interview a couple of weeks ago where he was like what is it, and they explained it to him. He was like, oh, yes, I think they should get out. I mean, I think that just malpractice on the part of someone running for the presidency and it's a blown opportunity to campaign over there, since his campaign is paying for this trip, his business trip. For him to show that he is actually learned on these issues and take some interest in them. He admitted that he really wasn't paying attention. Why not?
Britain is -- our greatest ally in the world. And you're not paying attention? Why not? For seven weeks he's been the presumptive nominee. What has he been doing instead? He's been running around insulting, you know, American judges and worrying about lawsuits for his businesses.
[20:25:01] And that's the part that concerns Republicans like myself about his readiness to be president of the United States. Is he serious about this or is it about Trump golf courses, which are losing money, by the way? And he's reviled in Scotland.
BERMAN: Congressman, he was asked during that news conference, you know, had he spoken to his foreign policy advisers? Did he bring them along to consult with during this trip because what's happening over there is obviously a huge consequence. His answer was, you know, I talked to them, but what's really to discuss? There's not that much to discuss.
RICK LAZIO, FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: Yes. You know, obviously this is a -- action is going to have implications for the U.S. and the rest of the world. The most important voice in terms of advancing free enterprise within the EU was the UK and with them not being part of that, it's going to be -- it's bad news for American business on the telecom side, terrible news frankly for the financial services sector where the UK was consistently a voice for more moderate regulation and a better understanding of financial markets.
So if you're looking at it in terms of what the implications are for the U.S., it's not as great as for the people of the UK, not as much as for the EU, but we're going to be affected by this as well. And I think what he missed was the opportunity to show some nuance.
Yes, you could argue it's a reflection of a subpar economy that people are looking for better jobs, there's a lot of economic uncertainty. Yes, there's concern about immigration and these other forces that seem to be affecting workers in the UK like we are in the U.S., so you can draw some of those parallels, but he really needed to show that he understood what the implications of an exit were for the world, for the EU, for the U.S. alliances and for the U.S. itself.
BERMAN: All right. We're going to get to that on the other side of this break. We have a lot more to discuss, including the political impact of the Brexit vote back here in the United States.
And just ahead, the impact of that split decision by the Supreme Court had on immigration policy could have big impact on five million people here. And we'll tell you what it means through the eyes of one young woman. Rosa's story when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:30:53] BERMAN: President Obama spoke by phone today with David Cameron, Britain's outgoing prime minister now reassuring him according to the White House with the special U.S. British relationship remains the vital part of U.S. policy. He spoke as well with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, the two leaders expressing regret for the outcome but saying they respect the choice the British voters made.
The president also waiting for the canvass about why as he sees it, they've voted the way they did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: I believe we are better off in a world in which we are trading and networking and communicating, and sharing ideas, but that also means that cultures are colliding, and sometimes it is disrupted and people get worried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That kind of disruptions, it says a feature of a lot of places on the planet that not including here at home, whether it's economic change, immigration, assimilation, mistrust of government and distrust of the experts, all parts of the mix in Great Britain and France, The Netherlands also in the United States.
As you saw, Donald Trump said as much today, he also blink President Obama for a good deal of it, including the outcome of the vote in Britain last night.
Back now with our panel, Basil, among the things that Donald Trump said, is Hillary Clinton if she knows foreign policy so well, she was the Secretary of State four years, she served in the Senate, then how was she so wrong on the British vote. Does he have a point?
BASIL SMIKLE, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I don't know, he doesn't have a point. Look, he proved in one moment that he is deplorable leader and unfit to be president of the United States.
Listen, let me go back a little bit, I think when you look at these vote, it was led by a very bombastic leader, in Boris Johnson also with (inaudible). I might have. A bombastic leader Boris Johnson, fueled in part by a lot of right wing groups that have been popping up all over Europe. I think austerity budgets then, you know, things that you see in Greece and so on are part of the story, immigrations another part of the story but I think the common thread there is fear.
And what I think Donald Trump has done to sort of to bring them two together. What Donald Trump has done, is he's campaign on fear, and he has stoked that fear. So I don't care what he thinks about Hillary Clinton's role in this. What I, what I believe is that he is stoking that fear, makes him unfit to lead.
BERMAN: Well, you're saying, you're explaining why you think Britain voted the way it did. They did in a majority, more than a million people voted more for that five on the other side, whether not you agree with why they voted that way they did and if Donald Trump is able to stoke the same fear here. Ali?
ALI VELSHI, GLOBAL AFFAIRS & ECONOMIST ANALYST: Yeah, right, so I have actually been getting into a little bit of a Twitter battle with people saying I don't know why, what you have to be critical about the people have spoken. But there are two things you can be critical about here, one, is there was no reason for this vote to happen, there was no Grassroots movement forgetting out of the EU.
There are little movements all through Europe. David Cameron was getting pressure from the right side of the caucus, of the Euro Skeptics, they're all over Europe, people that don't like this idea.
To placate them he said, let's have this referendum and he miscalculated. And you can be mad at that the leave campaign which it didn't talk about what the EU does or doesn't do, they ran a campaign that was emotional, fear based, xenophobic, and talking about immigration.
As Christian pointed out very wisely -- this is not the Schengen again system, you know, you want to Schengen country, go in once, and you can roam around Europe generally unmolested. You can't do that with the UK you show your passport every time you go in and leave. So they created, they answer those who voted in favor of leaving answered a question that wasn't being ask. There maybe some proportion of them that really just belief and not liking to EU but a lot of them were voting again ...
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: The question that was asked because of David Cameron which I know, probably, it's political professionals, all of you get, you know, get the willies, you can think about the fact that he called for these referendum and he walk it.
JOSEPH BORELLI, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: Those to anything, it was no outcome, is this.
BERMAN: Joseph, I want to ask you this. I was talking to Ron Brownstein, senior CNN analyst and great demographer, he points out that in the UK, north of 85 percent of voters are white, 87 in this case, some of the exit polls they can be north of 90 percent of people who showed up to vote in the UK are white, so how far do these similarities really go between there and here? Because in the U.S. in the national election year, which nowhere near that number.
[20:35:02] BORELLI: Look, you know, I don't profess, I'm stand the actual racial politics of Great Britain other than that, there is an issue with immigration there that is somewhat similar to here where people perceive that people are coming and they're taking jobs. And that's would, that what drove a lot of this.
I am not sure you can draw a that much of the parallel other than the fact that people are perceiving a problem. Barack Obama himself talked about the problem of illegal immigration in his book with Audacity Hope in 2004. He is the one who even started, I mean not started but he's the one who mentioned how people coming from outside compete with people for jobs.
BERMAN: But Congressman, I want to -- I give you the last work here, we're about 45 seconds left. A lot happened, this week, we have speeches back and forth from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, we have this Brexit vote, you know, what a week. Where are we right now in this election? Is Donald Trump better off than he was at the beginning of the week or not?
RICK LAZIO, FMR NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: He set three disastrous weeks in a row it seems to me, he hasn't really helped himself much with this, I mean the one thing to keep in mind though, is this fear that we're talking about in the UK was not created by Boris Johnson, in the U.S. it wasn't created by Donald Trump. These two-thirds of Americans, they grow in the wrong track. There's enormous amount of ink of economic insecurity and fear out there.
The candidate who can effectively speak to that and Trump has yet to I think it really hit that sweet spot, is going to win the election.
BERMAN: He is trying though.
LAZIO: He's beginning. He's going to having a narrative, and he's got to have depth. He's got to have a policy prescription to address the issues that effecting the economy.
BERMAN: All right.
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It cautious, that's caution, it doesn't plan -- that doesn't, you know as a minority in the Republican Party, who has watched this many, many years go on, the way Donald Trump is doing it, he is placating a certain aspect of the Republican Party that's not a good one and that is fear. And that's not going to be the big 10, a result that we've been trying for years to accomplish with Republicans, when you go after people base on ethnicity. It has to be an economic message. And he has yet to put one together that isn't based on that.
BERMAN: All right, June 24th, we'll see what happens on June 25th thanks so much guys.
More to talk about next, including what the British Ambassador to the U.S. has to say about all this, and how this vote is being felt even in countries you might never imagine as well as just how complicated global affairs could be because of all this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:05] BERMAN: Our breaking news tonight, financial and political fallout at the surprise vote by UK voters to exit the European Union. Here in the U.S. the Dow industrial sank more than 600 points. A lot of people wondering what this vote could means for the U.S.-British relationship.
This afternoon, I got some thoughts on that when I spoke to Sir Kim Darroch Britain's Ambassador to the United States. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERMNAN: Just in simple terms, how much harder is your job today than it was yesterday?
KIM DARROCH, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Look, what struck to me since the vote happened, since the result was clear, was how many people, whether President Obama with my prime minister today, or Speaker Paul Ryan or Secretary of State Kerry have spoken publicly to me about their continuing support for the special relationship and how the United States and UK relations will be strong as ever. And I believed that is right, I think we will continue to work together really closely on the world's hot spots and trouble spots and I think the relationship will continue to be in great shape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Joining us again from London, Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, what about it, the special relationship between the UK and U.S. less special or just different special now?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR "AMANPOUR": Different special, maybe just as special, but less effective, I don't know. I spoke to the ambassador's boss, the foreign secretary Phil Hammond as this resolve was becoming clear.
And he said of course we'll continue to have strong defense, intelligence, security and other cooperation with the United States. We'll still have a strong bilateral relationship, but we will be diminished in leverage. Part of our leverage is being part of this big union, the EU and certainly the Americans have always looked to Britain to kind of, you know, add some throw way, to increase the leverage, to really bring other Europeans to doing a lot of the foreign policy goals and aims that the U.S., you know, wants to do.
So he said diminished and people thought it was quite blunt, quite frank to say that kind of thing, but I think there's no question that for instance people have said, you know, why should the Chinese listen to the British as much as they used to when they going to have less influence on the U.S. because they have let influence with the EU which is the big, big block.
BERMAN: Richard, I was struck by something we heard today from a lot of leaders, we heard from President Obama, Vice President Biden, the treasury Secretary Jack Lew, we heard it from the Fed, you heard it from David Cameron in Britain, everyone trying to calm the nerves of inventors, reassure everyone that everything is going to be OK.
Well, these are the same people that 24 hours ago and that for the last several months have said the sky is going to fall if Brexit happens, so it doesn't this make the case that leave voters and leave supporters were saying, that the things won't be as bad as everyone is saying it to be?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": That is exactly the argument that just being put forward, that having said crisis apocalypse, disaster, calamity, now they all got to turn around and say it will actually may not be as bad if we do the right things and we do it in the right order, but that is the world of politics.
You know, you take the facts as you find them and now the people have spoken. You have to live with that. I think the reality is, that the fundamental first goal is to make sure that the global economy which we already know is extremely fragile is not made much worse by this event.
It would be very easy. It is not going to throw the U.S. into recession, it is not going to cause a massive depression across Europe but it certainly could so imbalance this very weak apple cart of the economy that everybody will suffer, and that's why they're flooding the market with liquidity, the Fed, the ECB, the Bank of England have all made it quite clear, whatever it takes, they will make sure no bank goes under because of it.
BERMAN: Richard, if you look to Europe right now, who is next, who is the next likely country to try this type of thing if any?
[20:45:05] QUEST: Oh, there's plenty of candidates from the Dutch, to many apparent in France to the Spanish, the Italians, they've all got right wing or extremist groups that has been calling for referendum over the last 24 hours.
But the likelihood of anybody getting one off the ground is remote and the reason is because in the case of the UK the Fox was well and truly in the cabinet, in the government. It was the ruling party that was causing the problem. So it was easier to get this thing started. The rest of them will just be noise, disturbance. There will be sort of a lot of froth and distress but nobody else has really the capacity at the moment to get something like this off the ground.
BERMAN: Richard Quest, Christiane Amanpour, thanks so much.
Up next, flooding like you have never seen it before. That is a house on fire being swept down a creek in West Virginia. At least 20 deaths reported in that state so far. We're going to get an update from the weather center.
Plus, deportation fears at the Supreme Court blocks president Obama's plan for millions of undocumented immigrants to kind of legal status. You will meet Rosa who worry she could be force out of the country.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:13] BERMAN: More breaking news tonight. At least 20 people dead across West Virginia after devastating flooding. Here is alarming video. A house on fire, that's a house moving down a flooded creek in White Sulphur Springs after heavy rains. Wow.
There are many towns are underwater. Tonight 44 counties in the state have declared a state of emergency. At least 200 members of the National Guard have been mobilized. Meteorologist Derrek Van Dam is in the CNN Weather Center. Derrick we have heavy rains, historic flooding what's the latest tonight.
DERREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: John the National Weather Service is describing this as a thousand year event. Meaning the likelihood this happening or occurring is one in 1,000 years. This is extremely rare (inaudible) the deadliest flood event of (inaudible) 2016 and in fact it's killed more than all tornado events so far this year.
Here is a Google earth image, we're going to zoom into the hardest-hit areas we've been talking about Charleston and the Elkview Region. We know the old average to that it's water seeks its own level. Well, unfortunately when people build on the slopes of steep mountain sides and right along banks of the river, eventually we're going to have problems.
And when we see rainfall that continues to move over an area for a continuous period of time, dumping heavy amounts of rainfall, you're going to have a flash flooding. We have rainfall totals in excess of nine inches in a few location. Keep in mind that a lot of this rain fell in about a 6 to 12 hour period, so a lot of rain in a short period of time. You can see that in southeastern sections of West Virginia as well as the central sections of the state.
Now, we talked about rivers cresting with it's flash flood that took place. The Elk River which I showed you on Google Maps, that broke a 125 year crest record.
It's already dropped below flood stage, which is good news and the rain realm fortunately has subsided for that particular region. Here's a look at the latest flood warnings from the National Weather Service. Southeastern portions of West Virginia, including Lewisburg region just outside of Charleston. You can see the rainfall starting move away from the state. John?
BERMAN: All right Derek Van Dam, I suppose that is good news there. Thanks so much.
VAN DAM: It is.
BERMAN: Our other breaking news tonight, UK voters shocking the world, leaving the European Union or voting to. Many did so out of an open stated belief that immigration was out of control, that Britain as they see it would soon longer be British. There are some parallels here, some people see.
Donald Trump made it explicit in a talking about Britain's borders and our own. On top of that, yesterday's Supreme Court decision blocking a key part of President Obama's immigration policy put the question even more squarely into the presidential campaign.
Tonight, though the impacts not on millions of voters or even million of immigrants, tonight the story of just one. Our Rosa Flores is in Chicago tonight with one woman that worries that her American dream could be over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's it like to live in the shadows?
ROSA, MEXICAN IMMIGRANT: Scary because you don't know if one day you're going to come home and your going to see your family there to move.
FLORES: She wants to be known only by her first name, Rosa. She says she's been forced to lead a secret life close to 20 years. She was only nine years old when her parents carried her across the border from Mexico illegally. They settled in Chicago and she was raised as an American.
ROSA: I have been here my whole life. I would say just because I wasn't born here but I went to school here from kindergarten to high school, college.
FLORES: And being forced to return to a country she doesn't know is a fear she says she has lived with her most of her life.
ROSA: I would always like imagine myself growing up here living here forever.
FLORES: Her dream finally seemed possible when President Obama announced his executive action on immigration in June, 2012.
What was your reaction when President Obama issued his executive order?
ROSA: I knew that I could stay here for at least whatever the permanent I was that I could stay here at least living without having to be scared.
FLORES: Rosa had just graduated from high school and was attending college when she applied for a work permit. She received it six months later and immediately found a job. But her sense of security was short-lived. It ended Thursday after the Supreme Court's deadlock on the immigration plan.
ROSA: I feel kind of scared again because I know that the permit is only for so long, and I don't know what's going to happen in future.
FLORES: What would you tell critics who say that President Obama overstepped his boundary, that he doesn't have the executive power to allow undocumented people to stay here?
[20:55:02] ROSA: I feel people should educate themselves more about both of the side. I know a lot of people are afraid just taking one side is like, oh I don't see why they should be here they shouldn't have been here in the first place.
FLORES: Her parents are also undocumented and may be forced to leave as well. She says her entire future could be in the hands of the next president of the United States.
FLORES: Do you have hope that something good will happen for you and your family? ROSA: I feel I have to have hope or else I'm like kind of like doomed and doomed myself to be upset the whole time. So, I have to have hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Rosa Flores joins us now. Rosa, what does the family plan to do now?
FLORES: You know John, this family has been a really tough situation. Rosa's father tells me that he is thinking about moving his family to Canada or Mexico. He puts it like this. He says, Rosa, you know, I would rather move my family away and avoid the fear that we've been living with all of these years, and that fear he is talking about is having immigration agents come to his home or come to his place of employment and take him away.
And so he thinks that by doing it his way, by self-deporting that he would have time to sell his property and move his family with a little dignity. John?
BERMAN: Rosa Flores thanks so much. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:12] BERMAN: That does it is for us. "CNN Tonight" with Don Lemon starts now.
