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Synagogue Shooter Sentenced; Biden's Approval Rating; Family of U.S. Soldier Speaks Out. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 03, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Pence being on the stand and the prosecutor asking him to point out the person he was referring to, and him having this - this moment and this moment of just pure drama in the courtroom where he was pointing at Donald Trump, actually having the vice president of the United States testify against the president of the United States is something that this country has never seen before. And we have an opportunity to do that.

I don't know who Mike Pence was yesterday, but if this is a new Mike Pence, if this is someone that, you know, he's forced to pick a side now. He can no longer be (INAUDIBLE). He can no longer fence sit and try to play where the wind pushes him. He's on a side. He's a star witness against Donald Trump.

And so we'll see what happens. I don't think he's going to debate well, but I do think that this actually gives the best debater on that stage, Chris Christie, some good fodder. And, you know, I didn't think this debate was going to matter much because Donald Trump doesn't look like he's showing up. But, you know, Mike Pence and Chris Christie may be formidable debaters, able to carve up the man who is missing.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about the debate then. So, the latest that we know is that sources say that Fox executives had dinner Tuesday night with Donald Trump to try to convince him, implore him to show up to get on the debate stage when the first debate, which is being televised by Fox News, will be happening later this month.

Doug, do you think he will? If you're working for his campaign, do you think he should?

HEYE: I don't think he will. And if I were advising him, I would tell him to stay far away. Don't give oxygen -- just in a pure political sense, don't give oxygen to your opponents who may criticize you and give them that opportunity to do so. By staying away, Trump doesn't take any risk. If he goes there, there's inherent risk for somebody who has such a far lead in the polls. He should act like an incumbent in this case.

BERMAN: Bakari?

SELLERS: Yes, no, I - first of all I would tell him to stay far away. I mean there's no need. Sometimes you have to protect Donald Trump from himself. Nobody's been able to successfully do that. But maybe he will listen to people around him on this campaign.

But you have - I mean the - this is not even JV, the rest of these candidates. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, no disrespect to all my JV athletes across the country, but they're not even JV. I mean they are -- they are b (ph) league, middle school players on this field compared to Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Geez.

SELLERS: So, if I was - if I was Donald Trump, I would just stay far away and just let them - let them do whatever they're going to do on the stage, raise a couple of dollars and then continue to just smack them around in in the polls.

BOLDUAN: I'm surprised.

SELLERS: No disrespect to JV'ers. No disrespect.

BOLDUAN: We - no, I - no, says everyone who just disrespected JV'ers. I mean it's like no disrespect, Bakari, but your tie is ugly today. I mean you know what I mean. Like, don't even start with me.

I'm surprised though, I thought one of you would say that he should show up because he -- why would you - why would you look like you're hiding from a fight. But I'm in the minority, as always.

It's good to see you guys.

BERMAN: And, by the way, you're going to be hearing from -

HEYE: Don't -- remember, Kate, he did that in a debate in Iowa and he wasn't penalized for it. So, you know, history has shown Donald Trump that he can avoid these.

BOLDUAN: OK. Yes. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Thank you.

BERMAN: Doug Heye, Bakari Sellers, and the intramural athletic association, we thank all of you this morning.

Shifting gears here.

It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history. New developments after the killer was sentenced to death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:41]

BERMAN: Happening now, the formal sentencing for the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter is underway. He was sentenced to death by a federal jury for the 2018 mass shooting. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, killing 11, injuring six others.

CNN's Danny Freeman is live outside the courthouse in Pittsburgh.

Danny, what's going on there right now? DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, as you said, just a few

minutes ago court finally got underway for this final day of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial. As you said, we're expecting formal sentencing to happen, not just though for the death sentence, the jury, of course, locked that in yesterday. But also the judge has to make a decision on several of the non-capital crimes that Robert Bowers has been accused of. So we're expecting those decisions today as well.

And the other thing, John, that we're looking forward to is, we're going to hear some family impact statements today. And it's the final moment really in open court for family members of those who were killed and survivors as well to speak to the judge, illustrate what they have lost here, also while Robert Bowers, the shooter, will be in the room as well.

And I just want to note, the strength has really been inspiring of many of these family members and survivors, having to testify and take the stand. Sometimes multiple times.

I actually got a chance to speak with Andrea Wedner. She survived the shooting but her 97-year-old mother, Rose Malinger, did not.

Take a listen to what she told CNN exclusively yesterday about this verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA WEDNER, INJURED IN SHOOTING, MOTHER KILLED IN SHOOTING: I thought of my mother and I - I had a great sense of relief. And that there was justice. That she didn't die for not -- I felt that the punishment was well served.

When you have a near death experience, I think that changes you. And you just -- you see life differently. And I do. It's - it's been hard without my mother, but I know she would want me to live on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Again, just incredible strength displayed there.

Now, the government expects there to be at least 22 victim impact statements today and then this trial should be over after the sentencing hearing.

[09:40:03]

John.

BERMAN: You know, Danny, it is so emotional for these families and so important for them to voice their feelings. So, thank you for being there for so many days and covering this and covering them and their story. Appreciate it, Danny.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So true. So true.

Coming up for us, how do Americans think President Biden is doing at the job right now and why the Biden administration and the Biden campaign are probably looking very closely at how voters feel about the economy right now, specifically. We have the new numbers next.

And CNN has been working through the federal indictment of Donald Trump, identified 21 lies that he told that the indictment lists out. Bring you the facts on those, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:09]

BOLDUAN: New numbers out this morning detailing how Americans feel and think President Biden is handling his job in the Oval Office right now. Forty-one percent, take a look right there, of Americans approve, nearly 60 percent are disapproving of how Biden is handling the job.

CNN's Harry Enten is here with much more on this. It's not just the number as it stands right there, Harry. For you it's always how it stacks up against history of other presidents.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean the only one who was noticeably worse was Jimmy Carter. You know, we always said Donald Trump had such a low approval rating, right? But if you look, what you see is that Donald Trump's approval rating was actually slightly larger than Joe Biden's was at this point. Trump was at 43 percent. Biden is at just 41 percent. So, he's doing worse than Trump, who he was always saying was doing so poorly.

And I'll note the reason why that his approval rating is so low at this point is because it comes down to the economy. If you look at Joe Biden's approval on the economy right now, it stinks. It is well below 40 percent. You see it there. Thirty-seven percent approval on the economy. And that's the top issue in our poll. So, I don't think it's much of a surprise if you are thinking, on the issue that's most important to the American public, that your approval rating also stinks.

BOLDUAN: The timing of the poll is important as well. This is polled through the month of July. This is also as there's been a slew of good reports on the economy that's been coming in. That must be a real head scratcher for the Biden team.

ENTEN: I think it is a real head scratcher. And it's just something we've seen. Even as the economy has gotten better, Joe Biden's overall approval rating and his approval rating on the economy really hasn't gotten much better. But the thing I'll note, you know, inflation, yes it's down compared to a year ago, but compared to two years ago it's still way up. So I think people are taking the longer range view than just the shorter one over the last year.

BOLDUAN: And, again, it's such a personal issue, how you - how you feel -- how your economy is, how your personal economy is, and that's what voters have to - have to look at and have to - and have to deal with.

But also, on the -- in this - in this poll people are also asked who they trust more on the handling of major issues. This really sticks out.

ENTEN: Yes, it does. You know, they ask congressional Republicans or the president of the United States. And we know congressional approval rating tends to be very, very low.

BOLDUAN: Yes, like in the tank. I mean like you can say without even looking at the latest poll.

ENTEN: Yes, that's exactly right. Mass murderers sometimes have greater approval ratings than Congress. And - but what we see here is that more people actually trust congressional Republicans than President Biden on the most important issues of the day. And this, to me, is a very worrying sign for the president, going into the presidential election year, because the fact is, if he's doing this poorly against congressional Republican, imagine how he might do against a presidential candidate from the Republican candidate.

BOLDUAN: That's a really interesting number to dive into overall.

It's good to see you, Harry. Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: On major issues I trust Harry Enten.

ENTEN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: And Kate Bolduan for that matter.

Look, that new poll also found that nearly 70 percent of Republicans still say that Joe Biden did not win the election. In the new indictment that just came out, cnn.com identified at least 21 lies told by Donald Trump about the election as a matter of law. And as the indictment notes, it's not the fact that Trump lied that could be criminal. It's that he allegedly knowingly lied to get others to commit corrupt acts. And in his first public comments since the indictment, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is reiterating he made clear the claims that Trump was making were false.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I've been consistent since day one that there weren't thousands of dead people. We eventually found four. And there weren't 66,000 underage voters, there were zero. There were zero non-registered voters. So, every allegation that was made, we ran down the trap line and made sure that we had the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: In fact, you can hear Raffensperger on the famous tape where Donald Trump asked him to find votes. He told Trump that he was wrong about another lie circulated by Trump and Giuliani that two election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, had engaged in ballot stuffing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put them in three times?

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Mr. President, they did not put that. We - we - we did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So he was told and yet four days later, on January 6th, Trump repeated that lie again.

Similar stories played out in five other states. Trump claimed that there was a suspicious dump of votes in Detroit, even after the Michigan secretary of state and his own attorney general, Bill Barr, told him that was wrong.

In Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin, he claimed there were tens of thousands more votes than voters. All debunked by Republican officials. His own DOJ officials. And in the case of Wisconsin, a state supreme court ruling.

Finally, in Arizona, the indictment says that Trump and Giuliani claimed non-citizens and dead people had cast ballots. But in a December 2020 call with the Republican speaker of the statehouse, Giuliani himself reportedly said, quote, "we don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories."

[09:50:11]

Kate.

BOLDUAN: It has been over two weeks since a U.S. Army private ran across one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world, into North Korea. Now the family of Travis King is speaking exclusively to CNN, desperately seeking answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A CNN exclusive. The family of the U.S. soldier who crossed into North Korea last month is speaking out and saying they have no reason to believe that Army Private Travis King would defect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MYRON GATES, UNCLE OF U.S. ARMY PRIVATE TRAVIS KING: Sitting here today, I have - I don't know where he is. The only thing I know is there's a picture of him on the news from the backside, and they're saying that Travis King ran across the border. That's the only thing I know. I don't know nothing else.

JAQUADA GATES, SISTER OF U.S. ARMY PRIVATE TRAVIS KING: I know my brother. I don't know - it's just (INAUDIBLE). It's frustrating.

[09:55:03]

He's not the type to just disappear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The Defense Department has said that King, quote, willfully and without authorization crossed the border during a civilian tour of the demilitarized zone.

With us now, CNN's Kylie Atwood at the State Department.

Kylie, what's the latest here?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, a lot of confusion, frustration and really sadness in that interview last night with members of the family of Travis King who crossed over into North Korea just last month. We should note that the family members that were interviewed last night said that they haven't talked to U.S. government officials. They would like U.S. government officials to come to their house and talk to them.

Typically what happens is that the U.S. government reaches out to the next of kin. So that would be Travis King's mother. So it doesn't mean that there's been no contact between the U.S. government and his family. But his sister did say that the last time that she spoke with Travis was on July 15th. That's just a few days before he crossed into North Korea. She said that he had been sending her some bizarre messages. And she also said that this would be her message to him if she could talk to him today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. GATES: I just want you to be home. You know, I -- I really do want you to be home. The same way you left, I want you to come back, if not even healthier. But all these allegations and stuff, I don't believe them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: We heard this morning from the secretary of state, who said that the U.S. government wishes that they knew more about Travis King's whereabouts, about his wellbeing. We know that North Korea has acknowledged to the U.N. command their messages regarding Travis King. But, of course, the State Department has said that those messages, that acknowledgment hasn't been substantive, so they don't view it as forward progress.

John.

BERMAN: It's got to be very difficult for that family.

Kylie Atwood, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up still for us, today's historic arraignment. Donald Trump to be arrested for the third time in just four months. We're live at the courthouse. We'll take you there.

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