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Chicago Mayor Warns Trump: "I Will Not Allow" Troops In City; Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) Discusses Trump Deploying Federal Agents To Democrat Cities, Trump's Opposition To Renaming Bases Named After Confederates, Tucker Carlson's Attacks; Lawmaker Reportedly Verbally Accosts Ocasio-Cortez; Update On Coronavirus Responses Around The Country; CDC: Data Reveals More Had COVID-19 Than Official Numbers Show. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 21, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:32:53]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump is threatening to send federal agents to Chicago and other U.S. cities. They have got one thing in common. These cities, they're run by Democrats, which the president himself has even pointed out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll look at Chicago, too. We'll look at it in New York. Look at what's going on. All run by Democrats.
This is worse than Afghanistan, by far. This is worse than anything anyone's ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The president insists the move is necessary to crack down on rising violence and crime.
A source telling CNN the DHS plans to send more than 150 Homeland Security investigations agents to Chicago this week to be there through the summer.
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot is pushing back. She tweeted, "Mr. President, or not -- I don't care one bit what your name is -- I will not allow troops in Chicago and I will do everything in my power to stop you."
This is following some shocking images that we have seen coming out of Portland where unidentified agents in camouflage have been sweeping the streets and taking protesters and tossing them in unmarked cars.
Illinois Senator Duckworth is joining me now. She is a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, a combat veteran of the Iraq war.
And I just wonder, what's your reaction to the president threatening to send federal law enforcement to Chicago and other cities like New York, Philadelphia and Detroit.
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): My answer to him is don't even think about it. Don't even think about it. It is disgusting. It is the further politicization of our institutions, which should be nonpartisan.
He did it with the military when he National Guard troops against peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square, and now he's done it in Portland, and he's coming to Chicago. Don't even think about it.
If you want to do something about gun violence, call Mitch McConnell. Let's have a vote on the floor today on universal background checks and on straw purchases of guns. Let's go after gun trafficking.
You want to do something? Call Mitch McConnell. The vote would pass. This is wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Do you worry --
DUCKWORTH: Yes.
KEILAR: Do you worry how it would play out? If you have the mayor saying that she is not going to allow this, and you have the president with his plan, and somehow there's kind of a clash, are you worried about how this plays out?
[13:35:12]
DUCKWORTH: Of course, I'm worried. But this is what this president does. He's overreached the authority.
And my understanding for what they plan on doing in Chicago is sending DHS and also ICE troops, folks to come after so-called human trafficking -- so they're not coming to work on gun violence. You know?
What are they coming for? In Portland, they did it to protect Confederate statutes. So they send troops in unmarked cars in riot gear with unmarked -- without any designation on it to go to protect statues of people who were traitors for this nation? That's what he is standing up for?
Don't even think about it in Chicago, and not anywhere in this country. It is wrong. And I'm going to work very hard to stop him.
KEILAR: I'm not in any way trying to ask you to get inside the president's head but I'm sure you must have considered what is his objective? And what do you think his objective is? Is it politics?
DUCKWORTH: It is politics. He is trying to politicize federal agencies. This is what he's done. Anyone that would stand up to him, he's fired.
So the only people he has in leadership at these federal agencies are lapdogs and folks who do whatever he wants and perverse the institutions of our nation.
He tried to do with our military and is now trying to do it with the federal forces.
We are not going to stand up for it. This is wrong. And I'm going to work very hard and working legislation right now to curb this.
But if you want to do something, Mr. President, about gun violence, call Mitch McConnell today, today, and let's have a vote on common- sense gun control legislation that 95 percent of Americans support, like universal background checks.
That would reduce the number of guns in Chicago and reduce the gun violence in the city.
KEILAR: I want to ask you about what the president had to say about the military being open to considering the names of base that is have been named after Confederate leaders, Fort Bragg among them, Benning, Lee and Polk and others.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: The military says they're for this.
TRUMP: Excuse me. Excuse me. I don't care what the military says. I'm supposed to make the decision.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: What is your reaction to that?
DUCKWORTH: He's made nothing but bad decisions as the commander-in- chief of the United States military.
It is shameful that he would defend statues and bases honoring dead traitors, people that raised arms against the nation to sell -- buy, sell and harm black Americans. Shameful that the commander-in-chief would actually support traitors.
We have 10 bases. They should be named for heroes of this nation. There are lots of wonderful people of color who have been recipients of the Medal of Honor that he could name them. And it's shameful.
He's threatening to veto the defense budget, which is what we're working on this week. So what he wants to do is to deny our troops -- some of whom are in harm's way right now, a pay raise to protect dead Confederates.
KEILAR: I want to ask you, turning now to something else that is happened since we last spoke, about the attacks on you by FOX News host, Tucker Carlson. We spoke a lot about them on this show.
And he made it a point to go after you when you said it was a discussion -- there was a discussion to be had when it came to removing monuments of American leaders. You were asked specifically about a question about George Washington and did not agree to the idea of removing a monument.
But you said there's a national discussion. He called you a moron. But I think what was more significant was that he called you a coward. He said that you, among other Democrats, hate America. He questioned your patriotism as a combat veteran who lost your legs in Iraq.
And I just wonder what your reaction is not only to that but also the fact that we are hearing these kinds of attacks on people who are clearly patriots more and more, and I wonder what you think about that.
DUCKWORTH: When you love the Constitution and you love this country as much as I do, so much so that you are willing to lay down your life to protect and defend her, then you must agree to defend the rights of the likes of Tucker Carlson to lie about you.
I truly believe in freedom of speech, that it is enshrined in the Constitution.
Of course, I don't want statues of George Washington torn down, any more than the Purple Heart he found it ripped from my chest. But I will defend the right for Tucker Carlson to be obnoxious person that he is and to lie about me because that's what our country is all about.
And if you truly love America and you truly love the Constitution, then you have to stand up for the people's right to express their opinions, even loathsome ones that are lies you don't agree with.
[13:40:11]
I'm, to this day willing. If you want to call me back up, and I'll put my uniform back on, throw my rucksack back on my shoulder, and I'll go back to combat to defend his right to be odious.
KEILAR: Do you think he singled -
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: He did go fishing, it is true. FOX said it was a previously planned trip.
Do --
DUCKWORTH: We all leave on a trip on Tuesday to go fishing, yes.
KEILAR: OK. You doubt. You doubt.
Do you think he singled you out because your name has been in the V.P. mix and he's trying to cut down what is clearly a strength when it comes to your resume?
DUCKWORTH: I think he singled me out because I'm Asian-American and I look different. Asian-Americans have always been the other in the society.
And don't forget that he -- I wasn't just -- not just my picture. I was not the only one he went after. This is going after people that he -- he doesn't want America to be as diverse as it should be.
And in fact, he used I think 10 words of the white supremacy statement on that.
And so this is what they do. They go after your strength but they also single others, who try to -- folks who try to make them others.
And my family has fought and defended this nation for over 200 years. And I am, to this day, willing to defend his right to have his opinions.
KEILAR: Senator Duckworth, thank you for being on. We appreciate it.
DUCKWORTH: Thank you.
KEILAR: The Republican sheriff of Jacksonville is sounding the alarm over security concerns at the Republican convention in his city. The Trump campaign will join me and we will ask them to respond.
Plus, the governor of Missouri says kids will get infected at school and they'll just get over it.
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[13:46:42]
KEILAR: New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she was verbally accosted on the steps of Capital Hill by one of her Republican colleagues and called a gender slur.
The heated exchange, first reported by "The Hill," was with Florida lawmaker, Ted Yoho, and concerned comments that Ocasio-Cortez recently made about rising crime and unemployment in New York.
Manu Raju, our senior congressional correspondent, there on the Hill, joining us with me or this.
Manu, what happened, exactly?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to the account of the reporter of "The Hill," Mike Willis (ph), who overheard the conversation of Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Yoho, the conservative, had an exchange.
And Yoho first approached her and told her, quote, she was, quote, "disgusting" in referring to her positions over unemployment and crime. And she responded, calling him rude.
And then as Yoho walked away from that conversation he called her an "F'ing 'B,'" actually using the words I won't use here, but calling her that, according to this reporter who overheard this conversation. Now, Ocasio-Cortez responded and confirmed the exchange yesterday on
the steps of the capitol, saying, "I never spoke to Congressman Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation's capital yesterday. Believe it or not, I usually get along fine with my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door. She said, "But, hey, 'Bs" get stuff done."
Now we reach out to Yoho's office for comment. Yoho's office denies he called her the "F" word or the "B" word. But he said he said a brief comment to himself as he walked away from the conversation summarizing what he believes are policies to be, which they bull "S." And they went on to deny he made those remarks.
So, you know, it underscores the tension that we are seeing here in the capitol between the two sides. Two lawmakers -- Ocasio-Cortez said she didn't do anything to provoke the conversation. We'll have to learn more about why Mr. Yoho decided to approach her that way.
Yoho, of course, as I mentioned, a conservative congressman. He's someone who walks around the capitol, one of the few members that doesn't wear a mask in the capitol.
I asked him about that about two months ago, why doesn't he wear a mask, and he said because he's trying to develop, quote, "herd immunity," which does not exist yet for the coronavirus.
But nevertheless, this exchange very testy. And what both sides certainly don't dispute is that this was a contentious exchange and Ocasio-Cortez came away thinking that he was rude to her -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Just to be clear, a reporter overheard this?
RAJU: Yes. A reporter for --
KEILAR: OK.
RAJU: -- "The Hill" newspaper, Mike Lewis, who has been covering the House for a long time, overheard the conversation and reported what he heard.
KEILAR: All right. OK.
All right. Manu, thank you so much, live for us from the Hill.
[13:49:49]
Just in, new CDC data reveals many more people have had coronavirus than what is showing up in the official numbers. Stand by for details.
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KEILAR: The state of Louisiana is dealing with another surge in cases. And the added hospitalizations are pushing some hospitals to the brink of capacity. This is a graphic that shows the dramatic rise in cases.
The governor of Louisiana is expected to make a decision on whether or not to extend a statewide mask mandate. He's also looking for a little divine help.
Martin Savidge explains as he kicks off the coverage of the national coronavirus headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge. Praying it away? Louisiana Govern John Bel Edwards is in his second day of fasting and prayer in response to his state's spike in coronavirus cases. The idea given to the governor by the state leaders by the state's faith leaders..
[13:55:07]
In a tweet, the governor said, "The people of Louisiana need our prayers right now. I encourage and welcome people of all faiths and denominations to participate."
The governor said he would be fasting for lunch each of the three days.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Tom Foremen, in Washington, where officials are worried about the whole country being short changed, literally.
Consumers and businesses coast to coast have a shortage of nickels, dimes, pennies and quarters. The problem began when the pandemic kicked off and cash-based businesses had to shut down. Now getting the flow of money started again has proved problematic.
Officials are asking people coast to coast, reach in their pockets and jars on the kitchen counters and get that change out there again.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Laura Jarrett, in New York. Missouri Governor Mike Parson not going back on his plans to get kids back into classrooms this fall.
Downplaying the risks in a recent radio interview, the governor saying, if kids go to school and get the virus, quote, "which they will, they're going to go home and they're going to get over it."
The governor's comments obviously coming in the midst of a national debate about school reopening plans. But what the governor failed to mention is that many public health experts warn that kids could carry the virus back to their older relatives at homes or give them to their teachers.
As CNN has reported, even if kids don't get as sick as adults, some can become dangerously ill, especially if they have underlying health conditions.
Thus far, over 1,100 people have died from COVID-19 across the state of Missouri, according to recent data.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Joe Biden is speaking moments from now, laying out his economic recovery plan in the wake of the pandemic.
Plus, just in, new CDC data that reveals that many more people have had coronavirus than what's showing up in the official numbers.
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KEILAR: We're coming up on the top of the hour here. I am Brianna Keilar.
In less than three hours, President Trump will do something he has not done since late April, hold a coronavirus briefing amid plummeting poll numbers. None of the White House task force members are expected to join him.
That means that, as of this hour, we will not be hearing from these doctors and experts, including the coordinator of the task force, the surgeon general, the heads of the CDC and the FDA, and leading infectious disease authority, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
More than 141,000 people in the U.S. have now died from coronavirus. And the number of new cases topped over 56,000 on Monday. But there are some signs of improvement.
And that is where I turn to CNN's Nick Watt.
[13:59:59]
Nick, before we get to the national picture, we're getting some new details on a CDC study that finds many more people are infected than the data shows.
