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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Confirms Deportation Roundups to Begin This Weekend; Trump Rips "Baby" Paul Ryan Over New Book Comments; Harris Again Today Goes After Biden's Civil Rights Record; Poll 41 Percent Of South Carolina's Black Dems Back Biden; Progressive Event Reports Surge In Attendance Ahead Of 2020. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired July 12, 2019 - 16:30   ET

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

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And the vice president's trip follows the media being given access yesterday to one of the same facilities that the Democrats had toured a few weeks ago. There were very actually few migrants left in that facility, despite the dramatic overcrowding in recent weeks.

[16:30:05] That likely due to the fact that Congress approved funding earlier in June, likely easing some of the overcrowding by sending some of the children to HHS facilities, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Sunlen Serfaty on Capitol Hill.

President Trump confirmed today that on Sunday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE will begin nationwide deportation raids. The president insisted that the primary focus will be on criminals but sources tell CNN that among the targets this weekend are hundreds of families whose only apparent crime is that they are here illegally and have ignored previous deportation orders.

The pending raids and the confusion about them is creating fear and panic in some communities, and as CNN's Rosa Flores shows us now, one undocumented woman in Chicago whose children are U.S. citizens has even taken to hiding in a house of worship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Francisca Lino has lived in Chicago for some 20 years. She's the mom of four U.S. citizens who she raised in the out outskirts of town, but for the past two years, Lino has lived inside a church, away from her family and hoping to not be deported.

Lino who is undocumented said she gets in a panic thinking about getting pulled away and stashed in overcrowded detention facilities she's seen on the news. She took sanctuary in this church, a place federal agents avoid raiding.

(on camera): Do you have a plan if there is a raid here in the church?

FRANCISCA LINO, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: No. FLORES (voice-over): But now, she's worried that it could all come to

an end this weekend, when planned ICE raids in cities across the country, including Chicago, are set to begin.

For more than a decade, a time span covering administrations of both parties, Lino checked in with immigration officials twice a year and there was never any issue, until Donald Trump took office. CNN was there in 2017 the morning of her first check-in during the Trump era.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It brings me a lot of fear.

FLORES: It was an emotional affair for her entire family. First an immigration agent told her she could stay for another year.

LINO (through translator): I feel very happy because I was given another year.

FLORES: And then --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, cameras away from the building.

FLORES: -- her joy turned to heart break when she was asked to return to the federal building in four months with her bags packed and a one- way ticket out of the country. Her daughter became physically ill.

(on camera) : You were having a panic attack upstairs?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I couldn't breathe. I was choked up. I couldn't talk.

FLORES: Lino says that's what hurts her the most, about being hunkered down the last couple of years. It is not being able to simply hug her daughters out side of this church, especially when they needed their mom and that is something she may never do again on U.S. soil come this weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: And while Francisca Lino is taking sanctuary in this church, she is technically not in hiding. People in the community know she's here. The congregation of this church definitely knows she's here and, Jake, she's not the first undocumented migrant to take sanctuary here but here is what gives Lino hope, those doors that you see behind me, the front doors to this church, have never been busted by immigration officials before -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

And you can tune in tonight to CNN for a special report, "The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented America". That airing at 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

Coming up, a baby, a lame duck, terrible. Just a taste of the tirade President Trump had against a fellow Republican. What sparked the name-calling against Paul Ryan?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:38:06] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Paul Ryan was a terrible speaker. Frankly, he was a baby. He didn't know what the hell he was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: President Trump going after fellow Republican, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, after Ryan said some less than kind things about him in a new book titled "American Carnage" by Tim Alberta that's out next week. According to Alberta, Ryan suggested that he could not survive another two years as speaker with Trump and viewed retirement as a, quote, escape hatch.

So let's chew over this.

Laura, let me start with you. Here is more about what Ryan said about Trump in the book, according to "The Washington Post". Quote: I'm telling you, he didn't know anything about government. I wanted to scold him all of the time.

He added -- this is Ryan about Trump -- We helped him make much better decisions which were contrary to kind of what his kneejerk reaction was. Now, I think he's making some of these kneejerk reactions.

Do you think most Republicans on Capitol Hill see the world the way that Paul Ryan does, even if they don't say so publicly?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: I think there is a lot more that do -- that share Ryan's view and they'll talk about it on in the background to you but won't say it publicly at all.

But what is interesting, Ryan repeatedly defended Trump when he was speaker, and that it isn't until he's out of office that he's willing to say what he actually thinks, which is similar to Bob Corker and similar to Senator Jeff Flake.

TAPPER: And what did you make of all this, because Paul Ryan was -- he did help get the tax cuts, the Trump tax cuts through Congress. He did -- at least as far as Republicans in the House were concerned, get the repeal and replace of Obamacare through the House. He was in, in many ways, Trump's ally, at least in terms of his actions.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Legislatively, yes. But when you -- he also wouldn't comment on sort of controversial tweets when Trump was in office. He was a Republican who didn't think Trump would win. Let's not forget, after the "Access Hollywood" tape, Ryan was ready to step away from him and he did in a lot of ways.

[16:40:04] TAPPER: He told Trump not to come to Wisconsin for a fundraiser during the campaign, an event. Not a fundraiser, an event.

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: Yes, exactly. Yes, an event, right in the wake of that. So, he really betrayed Trump from Trump's perspective when Trump needed him most, and Trump never really forgot that, and he kind of played -- you could see that come back every so often with their relationship where he didn't think that Ryan was quite someone he could trust.

TAPPER: David, here is what President Trump said about Paul Ryan just last year. Quote: Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you, Paul!

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Paul Ryan was leaving, it is a nice -- it is like he's at his banquet, it's at his farewell banquet giving a toast. Look, it's no surprise that Paul Ryan and Donald Trump are two completely different people, right?

KUCINICH: Not even the same temperature.

URBAN: Exactly.

So, I know Paul Ryan. He's a nice guy. I worked with him on the Hill when he was a staffer. I know him as a member.

You know, Paul Ryan is a walking congressional research service report, a very wonk-ish --

TAPPER: Yes.

URBAN: -- very into like the, you know, the levers and buttons of how the policy works in Washington. And that's not how Donald Trump works. I mean -- so for Paul Ryan to say Trump doesn't know anything about Washington, it's -- that is why he was sent here, right?

People in American voted for Trump and sent him here because he didn't know about Washington and he wasn't going to be confined to this, whatever CRS reports said about him.

And the president, I know, for a fact, was very disappointed that Paul Ryan couldn't get the health care plan done, right? That was one of the first things out of the block. Needed to get done and they would deliver, couldn't count the votes and they failed miserably.

KUCINICH: Well, the president also undermined them.

URBAN: No, but the point is they kept saying, we're going to deliver this for you, we got this done, you know, please send it up, we've got it all teed up, you saw all this work, and then they couldn't do it. And I think also you see the president compliments Nancy Pelosi for holding her caucus together, keeping people disciplined and he said numerous times that Paul Ryan could never do that.

TAPPER: Because of the Freedom Caucus. KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Exactly.

I mean, look, a couple of things. Number one, you know, Paul Ryan should just shut up and go home with this. Come on, you were here, you had an opportunity to make a difference and it is hard to hear him whining about it now.

As you said, Laura, he's out of office, so that's easy. The hard work is what did you do when you were here? I mean, he says, oh, we stopped him from making bad decisions. That's not what leadership is about. So it is hard to hear that from Paul Ryan at this point.

But I think what his comments represent, this is what -- this is the reckoning for the GOP, this is what they brought. A lot of Republican members were opposed to Trump until he became the president and now, they're -- they've sort of made the devil's bargain and the book talks about that a bit, and they're sort of getting on board and the evangelicals are happy because they got the judges they want, people are afraid to speak out about him and it is -- it took Charlottesville, those horrible, horrible protests in Charlottesville and the death of Heather Heyer for people to speak out.

I don't hear many Republicans saying much about what's going on at the border. So, you know, this is the devil's bargain and at some point the Republican Party is going to have a reckoning, you let this guy become president and you didn't do anything to stop it.

TAPPER: Laura, there used to be more Republicans who spoke publicly out against the president. Senator Bob Corker and Senator Jeff Flake, both of them decided not to seek re-election. Justin Amash, a congressman from Michigan, he's just announced he's not going to be a Republican anymore.

With the exception of, I guess, Mitt Romney. Is there -- and occasionally, Will Hurd, is there anybody in the Republican Party in Washington who speaks against President Trump anymore?

BARRON-LOPEZ: None that I could think of, none that come to mind. And those that do, in Amash's case, do so knowing that it is a big risk because he is already facing threats of a primary challenge, Trump is very likely to back whoever runs against him, and so, this is very much the party of Trump now.

URBAN: So what does that tell you? He's wildly popular in all these Republican districts, these Republican states, he must be doing something right if the Republican -- the Republican base has not left him. The party hasn't left him. The party is embracing him.

TAPPER: It's certainly true in terms of the Republican base. Absolutely.

Everyone, stick around. We're going to talk about 2020.

New numbers out in a key early state that some of the Democratic presidential candidates are going to want to see. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:00] JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Senator Kamala Harris breathing new life into her criticisms of Joe Biden today, questioning in many ways his preparedness for the Democratic presidential race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're on a debate stage and if you have not prepared, and you're not ready for somebody to point out a difference of opinion about the history of segregation in our country and what was necessary to deal with that, which at that time was busing, then you're probably not ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So she's obviously talking about when she criticized Joe Biden for opposing busing and working with segregationists in the '70s to oppose busing when she was somebody in her view benefited from busing. What do you think?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think she's right. I mean, look, this is why we have a primary. I would far rather have Joe Biden have to figure out how he's going to answer a question like that now than in a general election context, and I think frankly for all of the candidates.

I mean, Kamala herself has issues that she's going to have to figure out how to respond if she gets challenged on these. And again, that is why it is important to -- I'd rather see these things happen early on in the primary than later in the primary where it could do real damage.

And it's also part of why I don't buy this whole argument. I do think there is a point at which you don't want things to get too personal and nasty, but we can't be afraid to throw a few punches here and there because you have to take those punches in the general election.

TAPPER: David, you're a Trump supporter but you've been rather bullish on Biden.

[16:50:02] DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I have been. Not so much these days.

TAPPER: You have been bullish on him and as a Pennsylvanian, you know that he worked well with Arlen Specter, your former boss. Take a look at this new poll out of South Carolina. It might answer questions as to whether the Harris strategy is working. 35 percent of Democratic voters in South Carolina support Biden as the party's nominee. The next closest is sanders at 14 percent and Harris at 12.

And when you look at black Democratic voters in South Carolina, they're pivotal in that state. They even more overwhelmingly support Biden 41 percent, with the next candidate at 15 percent. So if Harris is trying to make voters see Biden as not comfortable enough with civil rights in the '70s, it at least in this poll, it is not working with African-Americans in South Carolina. URBAN: Yes, look, those numbers don't seem to reflect it. What I

think -- what I think is more telling is when you see Joe Biden on the stage with people who are very nimble, he seems very flat-footed, just out of step. He looks like he lost a step like he's a former NBA player trying to play you know, with the current guys right now. He just -- he just can't keep up. And his stamina is not there, the agility is not there. And so I think if this continues to play out --

FINNEY: It's only one debate. Let's see what happens --

URBAN: Yes, but the -- but the one debate -- but the one debate is very telling, right. It is very telling. His answers weren't good. I mean, the follow-up, it takes weeks for him to respond to people, weeks to make decisions on things. It doesn't seem like he's -- you know, normally campaign is turned on a dime, stop the bleeding, pivot.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't disagree. It is the first debate and there is a lot of room for improvement from everybody, but this isn't Joe Biden's first rodeo. This isn't his first presidential campaign or his first debate. So I think that is why it was a little bit surprising that he was caught off guard by Kamala Harris.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Absolutely. I don't disagree with that. I also think that those -- I think that those polls are also pretty reflective of the generational split amongst the Democratic Party which is there are older black voters in South Carolina and they are in line with Biden's views.

But younger black voters in other states or younger Latinos in other states don't necessarily see eye to eye with him. And if you know, it could be a 2008 scenario where if some other candidate that isn't named Biden wins Iowa or New Hampshire, you could see South Carolina flip really quick.

TAPPER: Yes, and obviously South Carolina African-Americans -- I remember South Carolina African-Americans overwhelmingly supporting Hillary Clinton until Senator Barack Obama showed that he was a viable candidate by winning the Iowa caucus and they flipped and he won South Carolina overwhelmingly.

FINNEY: Right. Look, a lot of African-American voters in that instance were waiting to see, OK, if you could win the white vote, then we think you can actually get elected. They're a little bit afraid to actually support him when they knew he could do it.

URBAN: But there's other problem. We have 30 people running. Is anybody going to break out?

TAPPER: Yes, that is another question. The next Democratic presidential primary debate, by the way, I would be remiss in not mentioning, are going to be right here on CNN. And Dana Bash and Don Lemon will join me in moderating. That will be July 30th and 31st live Detroit, Michigan.

Coming up, the latest national hurricane update on Tropical Storm Barry. It's expected any moment. We're going to bring that to you. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:55:00] TAPPER: In our "2020 LEAD," a handful of Democratic presidential hopefuls will be courting the left wing of the party this weekend. And as CNN's Miguel Marquez now reports, there is one factor at the very top of the minds of these progressive grassroots voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Progressives here at Netroots Nation believe they can beat President Trump no matter who he's nominated.

SHERRIE COHEN, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Whoever wins the nomination including a BLT sandwich, I will go for that.

MARQUEZ: How badly do you want Donald Trump out of the White House.

SARAH SULLIVAN, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: Really badly. So badly that it's making me ill.

MARQUEZ: But as much as they want a win, progressives expect a candidate who shares their values or at least a centrist who adopts what they want.

AIMEE ALLISON, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, SHE THE PEOPLE: Will the candidates including Joe Biden accept that his base has changed under his feet, that we're demanding economic, racial, and social justice as the platform.

MARQUEZ: Biden isn't scheduled to appear, and neither as progressive stall wart Bernie Sanders but surging 2020 hopeful Elizabeth Warren and several other candidates will be there along with 3,600 activists expected to descend upon the annual conference, the largest ever according to organizers, progressive momentum picking up steam.

MARY RICKLES, POLITICAL DIRECTOR, NETROOTS NATION: We have our largest attendance ever about 30 percent is an indicator that the grassroots is very excited about 2020.

MARQUEZ: Community activists in the battleground state of Pennsylvania which Trump won three years ago hitting the streets nearly every day to building support, November 2020 a powerful motivator.

25-year-old Anthony Davis had never even registered to vote until the election of Donald Trump.

ANTHONY DAVIS, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST, ONE PA: Now I'm an active voter. I'll make sure that I go down to the polls every election. I make sure that I'm there. I show up.

MARQUEZ: And he's not alone. Activists across the left say President Donald J. Trump is keeping them focused. JOSEPH EMPSON, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST, ONE PA: Everybody is gung-ho.

Everybody has come out, kids, mothers, brothers in-laws, pets, dogs, if they could vote, they could wait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, we asked around quite a bit of -- a lot of progressives here at Netroots Nation and so far they say -- they don't see any -- there is no rancor or the division of 2016 when the party was so split. They think the DNC is being a fair arbiter. The DNC even taking part in some of the workshops here. From your home town, back to you, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, beautiful city. Miguel Marquez, thank you so much. And tune in on Sunday morning to "STATE OF THE UNION." My guest will be Democratic Presidential Candidate Mayor Bill de Blasio and acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli. That's 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on Sunday. I will see you then.

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