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Up To 1,200 Migrant Children Expected At Dallas Facility; Calls For Hate Crime Charges After Atlanta Area Spa Shootings; Asian- American Communities On Edge After Deadly Shootings; Fauci Tells Sen. Rand Paul That Masks Are Not "Theater"; NYT: Current Cuomo Aide Alleges Sexual Harassment In Deepening Scandal; Twelve Republicans Vote Against Honoring Capitol Police Officers Who Protected Them During Capitol Riot; George W. Bush: Capitol Riot "Made Me Sick To My Stomach"; Trump's Private 757 Jet Abandoned & In Need Of Repairs At New York Airport. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 20, 2021 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:00:34]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Thanks for joining us live. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
And the Atlanta community paying its respects and demanding justice today for the eight people killed in a mass shooting spree. Flowers and signs now filling the areas in front of the three spas where the shootings took place. Six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent, leading to questions about whether this crime was motivated by race.
Although the FBI director has said the attacks don't appear to be racially motivated, local officials say it's too soon to make that determination. New surveillance appears to show the man police say has confessed to carrying out these killings that shows him pulling up and parking at a spa where he allegedly fatally shot his first four victims. Police say he then drove to two other spas in the Atlanta area, and killed four more people.
For the latest on where the investigation now stands and the lives cut short by this horrific mass shooting, here's CNN's Amara Walker.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While authorities say they are still investigating to determine whether the spa shootings in the Atlanta area were racially motivated, FBI Director Christopher Wray told NPR on Thursday that he doesn't believe race played a role.
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: And while the motive remains still under investigation, at the moment, it does not appear that the motive was racially motivated. But I really would defer to the state and local investigation on that for now.
WALKER: The FBI is currently playing a limited role in the investigation into the killing spree. Director Wray's comments upsetting leaders in the Asian-American community.
CAM ASHLING, CO-FOUNDER AND CO-CHAIR, ASIAN AMERICAN ACTION FUND, GEORGIA CHAPTER: It's infuriating. Everybody who is looking at this is looking a the it and they smell and they say it as a hate crime.
DR. MICHELLE AU (D), GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: I want to point out two things. One, in the state of Georgia, 4 percent of the population is Asian-American. However, of the victims of this crime, of the eight victims, 75 percent of them were Asian-American.
WALKER: CNN is learning more about the lives that were violently taken on Tuesday, all four killed at the two spas in Atlanta were Asian women. Seventy-four-year-old Soon Chung Park, 69 year old Suncha Kim, 63 year old Yong Ae Yue, 51 year old Hyun Jung Grant. Her son Randy Park set up a GoFundMe page and writes that Grant was a single mother who dedicated her whole life to providing for my brother and I. Losing her has put a new lens in my eyes on the amount of hate that exists in our world he wrote.
At Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County, the victims have been identified as Xiaojie Tan, 49. A friend tells CNN, Tan, owner of Young's Asian Massage was loving and unselfish. They would call each other family.
Daoyou Feng, 44, Paul Andre Michels, 54, and 33-year-old Delaina Ashley Yaun.
Her family tells CNN affiliate WGCL that this mother of two and her husband went to the spa on a date when she was attacked, and that her husband survived by locking himself in a room.
CONSTANCE SEATS, DELAINA YAUN'S AUNT: This is so heartbreaking. He took a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister for no reason. This family is broken because of this man. It is so hard on everybody today because of this man taking this innocent angel from us. He took an angel from earth, who would do anything for anybody.
WALKER: Thirty-year-old Elcias Hernandez Ortiz was shot in the head, according to his wife who started a GoFundMe page, but he survived. His wife tells CNN he called her on the phone and said, I have been shot. Please come. I need you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: That was Amara Walker reporting. And my next guest warned about these alarming hate crimes and the rise in violence against Asian-Americans just one day before the shooting.
Georgia state senator, Dr. Michelle Au, spoke at the Georgia State Capitol Monday morning before she knew of the terror that would unfold in her very own state just 24 hours later.
Senator, it's good to have you with us.
I understand you met with President Biden and Vice President Harris yesterday. What can you share from that conversation? STATE SEN. MICHELLE AU (D-GA): Thank you, Ana, for having me.
Having President Biden and Vice President Harris come to visit us and spend really a significant amount of time meeting with AAPI leaders in our community meant a tremendous amount to all of us. And the reason I think primarily that it meant so much is that for at least the past year, but really many years and decades before that, many people in the AAPI community felt that our problems and this type of discrimination were not seen, that our cries for help were not heard.
And, finally, here was our president and vice president come and saying, we see you, we hear you, you are not alone, we're going to help.
CABRERA: Investigators haven't specified a motive yet for these shootings. They say nothing has been ruled out, but we know Georgia passed the first hate crimes law last year. It's pretty broad, to include race, gender, religion and national origin.
So how does this case fit into this new law?
AU: Well, I think that we're right to be prudent and, you know, measured in what we ascribe to be the motivations of this case. However, certain things do jump out at us, right? As noted, 75 percent of the victims were Asian. Seven out of eight of them were women.
So if this is a random sampling, it's very unusual, and I think that we cannot look at these aspects of being race-based motivated crimes versus gender-motivated crimes and tears them apart, because sometimes these things exist together, and we know that in the cases of AAPI violence, over the past year that have been recorded, 70 percent of them have been inflicted on Asian women in particular. So, we know this is a vulnerable subsection of our population for this kind of crime.
CABRERA: After investigators came out and said initially that this did not appear to be motivated by race, a reporter at "The New York Times" wrote that suggestion was met with incredulity by many Asian American women, for whom racism and sexism have always been inextricably intertwined.
Can you expand on that, and why that may be?
AU: Yeah, I think that when we see something with our own eyes, we keep being told the problem that we're seeing is not reality, then I think that people do tend to react with disbelief, because as, you know, we can count, we can see what's happening in front of us. And not just that, but this most recent crime from Tuesday is happening in the setting, in the ecosystem of really escalating violence and threats against Asian-Americans over the past year, right?
So it's difficult to take that piece and separate it out from the crimes we've been seeing all along. We've been trying to tell about our communities are being in danger and we're kept being repeatedly told, no, no, you're not. It's not because of your race, it's something else that strikes a chord with us and doesn't play right. CABRERA: As we talked about, you were warning about this rise in
violence. You've said this hate and this violence was a long time coming. How did we get here?
AU: Yeah. You know, racism and discrimination against Asian-Americans is not new. Violence against women is not new. I think some of the things we've been seeing recently are sort of an acute problem on top of a chronic problem. I'm a physician in my normal life. So, I always think of, you know, a disease setting, acute and chronic, an exacerbation or something that's been taking place all along.
And it's hard to deny with the coronavirus pandemic over the past year, and particularly the rhetoric we have heard from our former president specifically blaming and, you know, using Asian people as scapegoats for the spread of the coronavirus has not escaped our attention, let's say.
CABRERA: What about stereotypes? Because I know, as a woman of color as well, stereotypes can do great harm by inaccurately portraying and defining an entire group of people. What are some common misconceptions, and what do you want people to know about how assumptions based on stereotypes may be harming the AAPI community here in the U.S.?
AU: I think from the types of narratives we've heard lately, what we've learned is that something we've been aware of all along, which is that casual, open racism towards Asian-Americans is really allowed to exist in plain sight, and it's not treated in the same way that other forms of racism are.
For some reason, it feels like it's more accepted, it's more palatable, it's more tolerable for large swaths of the population to joke about Asian people eating dogs, or hypersexualizing, or fetishizing Asian women, making fun of our names, making fun of our features. These are some reason it seems more okay than other forms of racism, right?
So, what it tells the AAPI community when we hear these sort of casual racism being bandied about right in front of us, it makes us feel as though racism towards Asian-American people is perhaps even more American than we're considered to be, right? I think it's come to a head and we're saying enough is enough, and we're starting to speak up.
CABRERA: And I think it's important that we also talk about the victims. You reveal that your Senate team actually knew one of the victims, Hyun Jung Grant. She lives behind two sons who have no other family here in the U.S. besides their mother. Now, we know that a GoFundMe has been set up to help them and it has now raised more than $2 million.
[16:10:06]
What does that kind of response mean to you?
AU: I'm incredibly heartened by the community response and how we're really trying to come together and turn or focus to the victims, to the families, to the businesses that have been affected, right? Because I am sick of narratives about the murderer. I'm sick of sympathizing with, and thinking about the motivations of the murderer and humanizing the murderer, when for really many days we did not know hardly anything about any of the victims, particularly the Asian women that were killed. We didn't know their names. We didn't have their pictures. We didn't know their stories, right?
This is starting to come out more and I really do appreciate you for reading all of their names, pronouncing them correctly and humanizing them in this moment when they are the ones who suffered and their families are suffering. So I am heartened that there's focus on the families and we're going to continue to work with these families to get what they need.
CABRERA: Georgia state senator, Dr. Michelle Au, thank for you joining us.
AU: Of course. Thank you for having me.
CABRERA: There's still so much more to discuss about all of this.
Join Amara Walker, Victor Blackwell, Anderson Cooper and me for a look at this disturbing trend violence against people of color and what are the solutions. A new CNN special report, "Afraid: Fear in America's Communities of Color" begins Monday night at 9:00 here.
Coming up, it's a sign of the growing surge at the southern border. Twelve hundred migrant children expected at their new home for now at least, a convention center in Dallas. We'll take you there live.
Plus, what happened to what was once upon a time the high-flying symbol of the former president's gold-plated life.
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[16:10:45]
CABRERA: Beginning this hour in Dallas, up to 1,200 unaccompanied migrant children are set to arrive at the Dallas Convention Center in the next days, serving as just the latest sign of the surge that continues along the U.S.-Mexico border.
CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez is there.
Priscilla, what do you know about these children and what should we expect once these children arrive where you are?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Ana, these are children that crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. And what the administration is trying to do here is getting them out of Border Patrol facilities and into an emergency intake site, which is what the Dallas Convention Center is right now.
So, this is a massive convention centering transformed to accommodate children. It's been outfitted with cots. We are learning that they are setting up entertainment like games, and books, as well as medical services to serve these children.
This is where they stay until case managers can relocate them with family in the United States. Now, this is key, because the administration right now is facing a ballooning number of children in Border Patrol custody. We learned today that now, there are more than 5,000 children in Border Patrol facilities. These are facilities that look more like jail cells, they have concrete benches, concrete walls and not designed to care for children.
So, the convention center behind is being called an emergency intake site. This is where children are being taken so that they can continue through the process before being reunited with family. Like you mentioned, we are expecting up to 1,200 children. The facilities in whole can take more than 2,300.
CABRERA: And how long, Priscilla, might they be at that convention site?
ALVAREZ: So, right now, the plan is to keep them here for a short period of time, somewhere around five days to get them to family. But on average, children are in HHS custody for about 30 days before they can be placed with family. Now, this is a new site, so we'll see how quickly they can get them out of the facility and with family in the United States. But again, on average, it can usually take 30 days. Here, they're trying to get that down to five.
CABRERA: OK. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for that update.
Is it the next big lie? Just ahead, why vaccine misinformation is running rampant among supporters of former President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do I want somebody to push something on me (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm perfectly healthy. I'm not going to die for it. And you know what? If we do, then it was our time to go, because we believe in God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[16:22:31]
CABRERA: Welcome back.
Parts of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida are now temporarily resource due to a COVID outbreak. This is according to an e-mail sent to Mar-a-Lago club members yesterday and shared with CNN. The resort closing the dining room and suspending beach club services for guests. Still open, the Mar-a-Lago banquet and event services.
Now, according to the email, the COVID outbreak is among some staff and the resort is implementing appropriate response measures in accordance with CDC guidelines.
Both Donald Trump and his wife Melania were sickened by COVID-19 last fall while they were still in the White House. They were vaccinated in January, although that was only disclosed just recently.
As more vaccines become available, the Biden White House is increasingly worried by resistance among Republicans to getting the vaccine. A CNN poll found 46 percent of Republicans have plans to try and get the vaccine. The good news is Trump finally encouraged his supporters to get vaccinated earlier this week. But will that make a dent in the misinformation already spreading among conservatives?
CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Have you guys got your vaccine yet?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we're never going to get a vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do I want somebody to push something on me (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm perfectly healthy. I'm not going to die for it. And you know what? If we do, then it was our time to go, because we believe in God.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): Former President Trump's team quietly at the start of March that Trump had taken the COVID-19 vaccine at the White House in January.
On Tuesday, he told Fox News --
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly, but, you know, again, we have our freedoms. And we have to live by that.
O'SULLIVAN: Trump takes credit for the vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, he's giving them what they want. I think people are so brainwashed. They need to get a vaccine just to get on with their lives again.
O'SULLIVAN: A gathering of Trump supporters in Ventura, California, in February, hardly anyone said they would take the vaccine. Some didn't even think Trump would take it.
So you're not going to take the vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.
O'SULLIVAN: What if Trump came out and said, please, please take this vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't believe he'll take it.
O'SULLIVAN: Vaccine hesitancy in part fueled by dangerous misinformation is higher among Republicans and Trump voters than other parts of the U.S. population. Speaking at this event was Judy Mikovits, a discredited researchers, and known peddler of dangerous misinformation about COVID-19.
[16:25:01]
A lot of people who'll say the message you are spreading anti-masks, anti-vaccine is dangerous.
JUDY MIKOVITS, DISCREDITED RESEARCHER: And every piece of data says it's not dangerous. Has the mask helped up? No. You're going to get sick with a bacterial infection.
O'SULLIVAN: Mikovits is wrong. The CDC and science says masks do work. Mikovits was the star of "Plandemic", a video that went viral on YouTube and Facebook last year, which was full of false claims about the coronavirus.
And now, false claims about the vaccine spreading on and off-line. Fear-mongering using false information about death rates and posts like this falsely claiming people over 60 need to be monitored for weeks after getting their shots.
Are you planning on taking the vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: You are?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have an elderly father. He's 93 years old. I have to take it. I don't want to get him sick. I don't want to get anybody else's parent to get sick.
O'SULLIVAN: You're the first person to tell me you're going to take the vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Serious?
O'SULLIVAN: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a lot of the people who are angry and said they don't want to take the vaccine, a lot of them are more angry at he establishment, the lockdowns. So they take their anger in different directions, and they may say screw the vaccine, screw all Dr. Fauci, all that other stuff.
I think a lot of them out of anger say stupid things, but I believe that a lot of everyone knows that this is real and it was a contributing factor to my mother's death three months ago.
O'SULLIVAN: Sorry to hear that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, thank you. O'SULLIVAN: A conservative voice condemning vaccine misinformation,
QAnon and other dangerous conspiracy theories. But on the Ventura Promenade, as on the national stage, it wasn't long before it got drowned on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN is fake news. Why would you talk to him? He lies 24/7.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen this guy before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fake news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's even probably framing you to look small, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was basically speaking up for the conservatives. I'll be honest with you, I don't like CNN, but I'm talking to you because I want to get my point across.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: That was CNN's Donie O'Sullivan. Eye-opening, right?
Let's bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner now, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University and a CNN medical analyst.
Doctor, you heard people there peddling dangerous conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines.
What do you say to these people?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I say that our science has been politicized. A year ago, when the spring pandemic -- our first surge was so deadly in so many parts of this country, you know, we were wishing for a way out, and now we have the way out. It's a testament to just brilliance and courage, and innovation and so many people in this country don't believe it.
And they don't believe it, because elements of conservative media and the prior administration have planted big lies in the heads of large numbers of this country. And even now, you know, we have learned that almost a quarter of members of Congress, mostly Republicans, have not yet gotten vaccinated, or will not acknowledge that they have gotten vaccinated. What kind of message does that send to an already hesitant population?
CABRERA: Right. Former President Trump we now know got the vaccine in January, but we didn't know about it at the time. It was kept secret. This week, he did come out and say he would recommend the vaccine, but then he added, again, we have our freedoms, we have to live by that, and I agree with that also. That was a direct quote.
You and I talked about this about the staggering hesitancy among Republicans, according to the new polling that we have. Is this what you wanted to hear from the former president? REINER: We heard today from the former president, his claim that the
election was stolen from him. So this president still has a soapbox. He has a very effective soapbox when he wants to use it.
What I would love to hear him say, even if it's the kind of word salad that he released today, is a statement urging all of his supporters to get vaccinated. Tell them this vaccine works, that the vaccine is safe, that he and Melania got it, and he urges everyone who supported him to get it, saying it just like that.
You know, we heard this week on Fox News, we heard Tucker Carlson question, you know, the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He said, what do we know about vaccines? The next night, he said why aren't people talking about the down side of masks? Because there are no down side of masks.
When you raise these questions, and then don't answer them, it validates the hesitancy in large swaths of this country.
[16:30:00]
You know, right now, about 40 percent of GOP voters are not planning on getting vaccinated.
That's over -- if you just go by the number of people who voted for the president, that's over 30 million people. That's the total population of about 18 states.
That's the difference potentially between achieving herd immunity in large parts of this country and not.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: And that means that --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: -- that's the difference between us being able to get back to normal life or not.
This week --
REINER: Exactly.
CABRERA: -- in the hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Senator Paul insinuated that people who are wearing masks, or have been vaccinated or previously infected, is just theater.
So to those who may genuinely be wondering why people who are vaccinated need to keep wearing masks, what is the answer?
REINER: The answer is twofold. First of all, our vaccines, while spectacular in their efficacy in their efficacy, are not perfect.
You can still acquire the virus if you've been vaccinated. Not in large numbers, but a very definite number of people who will be vaccinated will still get the virus. It is not perfect.
Secondly, we know that you can propagate the virus if you acquire it.
And finally, prior infection, people who have had the virus, are not fully protected from getting the virus again.
A recent study coming out of Denmark showed that about -- the protection from future infection was about 80 percent if you've been -- have had a prior infection. But if you're over the age of 65, it was less than 50 percent.
So even, you know, prior infections with a coronavirus doesn't protect you. That's why you need to continue to wear a mask.
CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, good information. Good to have you here. Thank you.
REINER: My pleasure. Thank you.
CABRERA: Coming up, deepening scandal. The latest accusations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are now coming from someone who currently works in his office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:36:15]
CABRERA: Allegations are mounting against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. "The New York Times" now reports that, for the first time, he is being accused of sexual harassment by a current aide in his office.
Alyssa McGrath joining a chorus of women who allege the governor has now behaved towards them in an inappropriate sexual manner.
According to "The Times," the governor called her and her co-worker "mingle mamas." Enquired about her lack of a wedding ring and the status of her divorce.
She recalls him telling her she was beautiful in Italian. And as she sat alone with him in his office awaiting dictation, he gazed down her shirt and commented on a necklace hanging there.
Cuomo's attorney responded to these allegations by telling "The Times," quote:
"The governor has greeted men and women with hugs and a kiss on the cheek, forehead or hands. Yes, he has posed for photographs with his arm around them. Yes, he uses Italian phrases like 'ciao, bella.' None of this is remarkable, although it may be old-fashioned. He has made clear he has never made inappropriate advances or inappropriately touched anyone."
That wasn't the only story to drop. In another, by the "New Yorker's" Ronan Farrow, Cuomo's first accuser and former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, recalled an incident in which the governor made a crude joke after his new puppy tried to jump on her. Farrow writes, "When the dog jumped up and down near her, Boylan said
she reached out to calm him and then backed away. Cuomo, she said, joked that if he were a dog, he would try to mount her as well.:
Boylan said that she did not reply. "I remember being grossed out but was like what a dumb third-grade thing to say." She added, "I just shrugged it off."
Joining us now, former Clinton White House adviser and CNN political commentator, Paul Begala, and former Republican congresswoman from Virginia, Barbara Comstock.
Paul, even though the government is facing more and more allegations and more calls from his own party to resign, he is still choosing to ride this out.
That kind of strategy seemed like an outlier in politics, at least in the past. It's now becoming the norm. Why is that?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think, in his case, he's saying he has a right to an investigation. I think a lot of Democrats aren't buying that, to tell you the truth.
You have a Democratic attorney general in that state, Letitia James, he has been charged with conducting an independent investigation. Everyone I know saying she'll do a good job and be very thorough.
President Biden himself has said, if the investigation finds these charges are true, Cuomo has to go.
But it's interesting that most Democrats -- the Senate majority leader from New York, Senator Chuck Schumer, the other Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, AOC, the rising-star congresswoman from New York, have all called on him to resign, even before the investigation.
And I think, first, I think that Democrats really want to clean up their party.
Second, the Democrat Party is based on the votes of women. And these allegations of improper conduct toward women are especially harmful for a Democrat.
But, third, I think the contrast with the Republicans is amazing. You have Congressman Jim Jordan accused of covering up sexual assaults and harassment of the wrestlers that he coached at Ohio States. He denies it but there's been no investigation, much less calls for a resignation.
New Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a rising star in his party, from North Carolina, has been accused of terrible misconduct as a college student. No investigation for that. He may be innocent of that but nobody is calling for an investigation, much less his resignation.
Ronny Jackson, the new congressman from Texas, who was the White House physician for both President Obama and President Trump, there has been an investigation of Congressman Jackson. The Pentagon's nonpartisan inspector general interviewed 78 witnesses
and found sexually inappropriate comments and the use of drugs, the sleeping pill, Ambien, and alcohol while he was treating the president, while in charge of the president's medical care.
[16:40:05]
So it's just interesting. Democrats want a resignation even before an investigation. Republicans don't even want an investigation.
(CROSSTALK)
And they aren't calling -- and that's true. Republicans definitely handle this difficultly than Democrats, this issue, which we've also discussed about where there is a double standard here.
But I am curious, Congresswoman, to get your take on -- you know, the governor of your state, Ralph Northam, once faced calls to resign over a yearbook photo of him in black face. He obviously didn't step down. He rode out the scandal. Obviously, these cases are completely different.
But do you believe Cuomo can survive in the way Northam did?
BARBARA COMSTOCK, (R), FORMER VIRGINIA CONGRESSWOMAN: We also had a lieutenant governor accused of rape by two women. He has still ridden out the storm.
I think what you have, as Paul has pointed out, it is sexual harassment and these kinds of scandals are bipartisan.
Unfortunately, they, being partisan, where Democrats will attack Republicans for this kind of behavior, Republicans will attack Democrats.
I'm proud to say, you know, I have called out everyone from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump and everyone in between. I don't think this should be partisan.
Because sexual assault and sexual harassment are a misuse of power in the workplace and cannot be condoned. And it impacts women in their careers long term.
And what we found when we did the sexual harassment legislation, when I was in Congress in 2017, when all of the me-too things came out, is women were so fearful of the power that these men held in politics, that they were very reluctant to come forward. And when they did, they were often attacked. We've seen those stories now.
Credit to "The New York Times" for reporting so many of these stories about these women that Cuomo allegedly victimized.
Because this is the kind of thing that makes women fear to come forward even when there are already, you know, seven, eight, and we expect more people. I think he should resign. I called on Donald Trump to step down back
in 2016. And I also -- we had quite a few members of Congress who stepped down for a lot less than this.
CABRERA: Yes.
COMSTOCK: I point out, you know, Weinstein resigned after three days. Roger Ailes after a month.
So what Cuomo is doing here, he thinks he can be a Clinton or a Trump and ride this out and just attack the accusers and misuse his power. That is the very problem that we have tried to change with sexual harassment laws.
CABRERA: I do want to move on to other political news, but I think it's fair to point out it is a bit different in how Democrats have treated Republicans, but their own.
You're hearing a lot more voices that are Democratic saying --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: -- the Democratic governor should resign.
And you are an example of Republican who has held both sides accountable. But that's not the case with the majority of the Republican Party, as we saw especially during the Trump years and some of the examples that Paul listed.
Let's talk what also happened on Capitol Hill this week. Because 12 Republicans in the House voted against honoring the Capitol Police who protected them during the riot.
And part of the reason was that some of them just objected to labeling what happened at the capitol an insurrection.
Paul, fact-check here. It was an insurrection. What's your reaction?
BEGALA: Words have meanings. I just finished an article on this. It's on CNN.com. I'll plug my own work.
Words have meaning. "Insurrection" is the attempt to change government by violence against your own country. That's what this was. This is a textbook definition.
But for a few -- it's only a few -- but for a dozen Republican members of Congress to not even want to honor the Capitol Police officers, three of whom are no longer with us, one killed in the act and two died by suicide, it's really outrageous.
This is gaslighting. This is Orwellian. This is telling you not to believe your own eyes. It's a dark stain on those dozen Congress members.
CABRERA: Congresswoman, we very rarely hear from former president, George W. Bush, so it made news this week when they talked about the events at the capitol.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was sick to my stomach to see our nation's capitol being stormed by hostile forces. It really disturbed me, to the point where I did put out a statement. And I'm still disturbed when I think about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: To hear him, a former Republican president not that long ago, describe the pro-Trump mob as hostile forces, that couldn't be further from what we're hearing from current leaders of the Republican Party.
Congresswoman, do you see your party trying to do anything to change the direction it's headed?
[16:45:03]
COMSTOCK: Well, they certainly need to.
I totally agree with President Bush. I felt the same way. I felt on that day, January 6th, it certainly was an insurrection. I felt very much the way I felt on 9/11, just horrified at what was going on in our capital city.
As we read each of these cases -- I do. I go and read many of these cases as these new people are charged. It's clearly a problem.
I think we still need to have that 9/11 Commission that we can -- and it should be bipartisan, evenly divided. I mean, like the 9/11 Commission was. We need one on the January 6th insurrection.
I've been sorry to hear that that sort of -- the interest in that has died down. I think we very much need to have that.
We need to see these people, such as the Proud Boys, and others who are very much a white nationalist element to the people that were there on that day attacking our police.
We've heard many police testify as to what they -- and we've seen ourselves what they endured that day.
CABRERA: Yes.
COMSTOCK: So I'm ashamed of those 12 Republicans, and I think every Republican should be, that they couldn't honor the Capitol Police who saved their lives while they were hiding under desks and chairs.
If they thought these people weren't dangerous, why didn't they go out that day and talk to them and tell them to cool it. These are their people.
CABRERA: There you go. Thank you. Thank you, former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock and Paul
Begala for your perspective and insights. I appreciate it.
It was the ultimate status symbol, a frequent site in the sky during his first run for president. Why is Trump's private jet now sitting idle, abandoned, and in disrepair?
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[16:51:26]
CABRERA: OK, listen to this. A San Antonio museum had to move a wax figure of former President Donald Trump to a storage room, because customers kept beating him up.
A manager from Ripley Entertainment confirming to the "San Antonio Express News" that visitors punched and scratched the figure, inflicting so much damage that management had it pulled from public view.
The wax figure, which you can see here on display, alongside Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un, was at one point, was transferred to the lobby so staff could keep a better eye on him. But that did not stop the attacks.
A museum official saying, quote, "We've always had trouble with the presidential section because, no matter what president it was, Bush, Obama or Trump, they've all had people beat them. Ears were torn off of Obama six times. And then Bush's nose was punched in."
The glory days of the gold-plated jet that Donald Trump once used as his calling card seem far away. It's now grounded and in disrepair.
CNN's Kate Bennett reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BENNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the ultimate status symbol, Donald Trump's Boeing 757.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Nice to see you. Have a good time.
BENNETT: A regular presence on the 2016 campaign. At his marquee events, there was his plane.
TRUMP: They've never had anybody that owned a Boeing 757 before.
BENNETT: From rallies --
(CHEERING)
TRUMP And you know --
BENNETT: -- to KFC. Today, however, the massive jet sits abandoned at an Upstate New York
airport. One engine mostly missing, one wrapped, idle in apparent disrepair. According to records, it hasn't been flown in months.
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It has been sitting on the ramp for at least a year or two. And the left engine has been taken off probably for service.
BENNETT: The crown jewel of Trump's fleet now future unknown. The cost to fix it, says one aviation expert, well into the six figures if not more.
SOUCIE: That engine goes out for service, it's going to need anything from -- could range from the low $100,000 up to nearly a million dollars if it had to be replaced.
BENNETT: An asset that Trump is apparently setting on the sidelines.
And though it's unclear why it's grounded, it comes at a time when some of his businesses have racked up losses.
TRUMP: So let's sit down, folks, because we're taking off.
BENNETT: The customized private plane, bought at the height of "Apprentice" popularity, was Trump's calling card of wealth, power and prestige.
His favorite flying toy, he once called it, nicknamed Trump Force One.
Those Rolls Royce engines Trump liked to talk up.
TRUMP: It's a different company that made the engines. I think those are Pratt & Whitney. And I have Rolls Royce. Sorry.
(CHEERING)
BENNETT: In reality, those engines weren't special to his plane. They came standard on that model of Boeing 757.
SOUCIE: It really is a vintage aircraft.
BENNETT: The plane, built in 1991. Trump purchased it in 2010. It had already been a commercial airliner, then a private plane owned by a Microsoft executive.
SOUCIE: There are a thousand -- a little bit over a thousand of these aircraft built. And almost all of them are out of service right now.
BENNETT: A Trump-sanctioned documentary about the plane says he paid $100 million for it. But similar 757s are up for sale at a market price of about $7 million to $10 million.
But Trump did trick it out, covering every metal surface, from seat belt buckles to doorknobs, even the faucets, in 24 karat gold. Price tag $250,000 for that alone, according to the interior design company who outfitted the entire plane. Seats, the finest leather. Ceiling panels in cream suede. Embroidered Trump family crests in gold thread. Fabrics flown in from Paris customized from the master bedroom to the private dining room.
[16:55:05]
(CHEERING)
BENNETT: On the campaign trail in 2016, the plane the ultimate marketing tool. The tangible symbol of Trump's success. Promising he could do the same for the country.
TRUMP: When I fly on that big plane, I'm paying for it.
BENNETT: Behind the scenes, a gilded expense. As much as $18,000 an hour just to fly.
Four years in the White House with access to Air Force One, and the 757 was grounded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: That was Kate Bennett reporting.
Up next, we head back to Atlanta, the site of a deadly shooting spree that left eight people dead, six of them Asian. Our heartbreaking interview with one of the victim's daughters, right after this.
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