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Interview with Shevrin Jones (D) Florida State Senator, Florida Senate Committee Approves So-Called "Don't Say Gay" Bill; Keys to Life I Learned From Rep. Elijah Cummings; Interview with Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), German Chancellor Scholz's Commitment to End Nord Stream 2 Pipeline; Vice President Harris' Husband Ushered Out of DC School Due to Bomb Threat. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 08, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

SHEVRIN JONES (D) FLORIDA STATE SENATOR: Well, first of all, thank you for having me. First of all, it's clear, I think the Trevor Project says it best based off the statics that LBGTQ youth are four times more like to commit suicide. Not because of their sexual orientation, but because of how their treated.

If you haven't listened to some of the testimony from parents and from children today it'll be extremely clear that what the state of Florida is doing is not only is it irresponsible of us, but it's also dangerous of us to be doing. Considering the fact that we have a state of 22 million people. A melting pot of many different race, religion and sexual orientations. The fact that the governor and the Republicans are spending their time on this type of legislation when there are other issues we should dealing with its unfortunate.

CAMEROTA: I don't even really understand how it's supposed to work. I mean, here's a little portion of the bill.

A school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students -- and it goes on to say basically that a parent can sue the school district if that happens.

So, can you just spell that out for me. So, a fifth grader goes to his or her teacher and says, I'm struggling in some way with my gender identity or my sexuality then what happens?

JONES: Well, that's the line of questions that the Democrats were asking today on the committee today. Because the bill, on the surface, is extremely vague. And let's be clear about something. Currently right now, parents rights are protected under the law -- U.S. and the Florida constitution. The vagueness of this is the problem.

School districts already right now allow parents to have an inside look about their child's education. But the fact of the matter is -- and I must say that last year we just voted on parental rights bill that gave parents this authority. And this year just blatantly just adding sexual orientation and sexual identity in it telling school districts that they cannot encourage that conversation is a problem.

I'll end with this, the problem is if you do have a child who come or who wants to speak about what they're gender identity is with their teacher, who they trust because they can't trust their parent, they can't trust their guardian and so they have trusted their teacher. What does the teacher say when they speak about it now? Do they say I can't have that conversation with you? What happens to that child? Those are the questions that we are continuing to ask.

I'll end with this, there was a parent in my office not only five minutes ago, with her son explaining how dangerous this is while the child is in here crying. It's unfortunate that here within the state of Florida, they don't care about that. It's only free, free to them but it's not free for everybody else. And that's the problem that we're having right now.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's see if an outside committee can it make it less vague so that everybody can understand what they really want here.

In the meantime, I want to ask you about this whole Joe Rogan thing. As you know, Joe Rogan appears to like using the N word on his podcast and broadcast. Spotify just removed 113 episodes in which he used it. That's not a one off. But he I think has said he'll do better, basically, and I think apologize. But Ron DeSantis, your governor, says not necessary. So, let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (D-FL): The mob will come after people and they are targeting Rogan because he's threatening to upset the apple cart on some of the things that they are holding dear. For I would say, don't give an inch. Do not apologize. Do not cow to the mob. Stand up and tell them to pound sand. If you do that there's really nothing, they are able to do to you. The only way they have power is if you let them get your goat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, your response, Senator to your governor.

JONES: Maya Angelou said it best, when people show you who they really are, believer them. And not only do I believe Joe Rogan, I also believe Governor DeSantis, based off of him not saying that apology is old. The word, the N word is inappropriate. Joe Rogan knows that the word is inappropriate. It's unfortunate that the governor won't denounce the word just the same way he won't denounce January 6th. And this is just the state that we live in.

The governor is more prone and more inept to appease to a base because he wants to run for president. But mind you, he does not want to represent all Floridians or all Americans, for that have you. It is unfortunate. He knows that word is wrong. And he knows Joe Rogan is wrong.

[04:35:00]

Florida state Senator Shevrin Jones great to have you on the show. Thank you.

JONES: Thank you.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: More U.S. troops have arrived in Eastern Europe. Diplomats are scrambling to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine again. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: It's black history month. And we are celebrating through a special series that we're calling "INSPIRING VOICES."

[04:40:00]

There's so many black artists and journalists, just leaders everywhere who have influenced my life, the lives of my colleagues. And Congressman Elijah Cummings and he was important to me. It's been more than two years since he passed away but his lessons, they are still with me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: This is personal for me. Congressman Elijah Cummings, as my mother puts it, is one of the people who gives you keys. He's given me keys at different points throughout my life.

For most of my life, he was the representative of my community home district, Maryland 7. And I first met Congressman Cummings when I was 16 years old. He had started this new youth program. Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel where a few students were chosen to travel to Israel for close to a month to learn about the culture and religion.

At the airport he showed up to say good-bye and wish us well and I remember something he said. He said, open yourself up. Make the possibility, create the possibility of learning, meeting someone, thinking of things in a different way. I kept that. That's one of those little keys.

Congressman Cummings was the Speaker at my high school graduation and he told his story of his personal and professional life and I remember him saying, never let anyone define you. He said that so many times.

ELIJAH CUMMINGS, AMERICAN POLITICIAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Don't let them take away your hope. I don't care who they are. And let no one define you. No one.

Now, I'm sitting there as, at that point, a 17-year-old who wanted to be on television, be a TV journalist. There was nobody on television with my build. I didn't know any openly gay television reporters or anchors. But 20 years into this business now, that key from Congressman Cummings never let anyone define you has led me to this point.

BLACKWELL: Thank you. BLACKWELL: In 2017 I was invited back to be part of the celebration of

20 years of the Elijah Cummings Youth Program. The Congressman recorded a video and to hear him speak about us, to speak about me in a way, I knew this was a personal investment.

CUMMINGS: And Victor, your ears should be burning because there's not a week that goes by that I don't talk about you and how proud I am to know that a young man who grew up in the neighborhood similar to the one I live in now has gone onto be the CNN anchor.

BLACKWELL: In 2019 when the former president tweeted that Congressman Cummings district, my hometown, was a rat-infested place where no human would want to live, that was personal. It was offensive and all of Baltimore was outraged by that.

CUMMINGS: Do not just criticize us but come to Baltimore and I promise you will be welcome.

BLACKWELL: Another key. Another key from the Congressman in the way that he responded to that vitriol with grace and hospitality. Congressman Cummings died just a few months after that. Some of those keys opened a lot of doors and helped me throughout my life are the ones that Congress Cummings gave me. And I think a lot of people have received those keys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, that's so powerful. What a wonderful tribute and what a wonderful role model you have.

BLACKWELL: He was a great role model. Even influential in my choosing Howard University. He is a Howard alum and said you should go to Howard.

CAMEROTA: That was a great story.

BLACKWELL: I am grateful.

All right, let's turn now to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just revealed that Germany's Chancellor told him that Germany will stand with the U.S. in stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine. But before speaking with McConnell, Chancellor Olaf Scholz repeatedly failed to make that commitment publicly during a news conference with President Biden and during a one-on-one interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. Joining us now Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat from Illinois. She's a member of the Armed Services Committee. Senator, thank you for your time.

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): It's so good be here. And by the way, I served under Elijah Cummings as a brand-new Congresswoman and he meant a lot to me as well.

BLACKWELL: Very special, I thank you for mentioning that. But let me ask you about this commitment that was made behind closed doors that the minority leader says came the Chancellor. But he would not say it publicly. If the point is to influence Putin, how much do you lose by Chancellor Scholtz not saying that out loud in front of cameras?

DUCKWORTH: Well, I think it's important for Germany to continue to maintain leverage over Russia and whether or not they will shut down the pipeline is one of the ways that they can maintain leverage. I know that Germany stands strong with the United States.

[04:45:00]

And I have no question as to Germany's commitment to stand with us should we need to impose sanctions on Russia.

BLACKWELL: So, you do believe that although we did not hear it from the Chancellor yesterday that Germany has agreed, has committed to shutting down Nord Stream 2.

DUCKWORTH: I think that they are committed to doing it if that's what it requires. But you know I have no question that they would stand with us if that were case.

BLACKWELL: OK, so let's listen to this exchange between the President yesterday and a reporter on that point. I want to get to another angle of this and this is the president yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again. Then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But how will you do that exactly since the project -- and control of the project is within Germany's control?

BIDEN: We will -- I promise you we'll be able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, the president said that if tanks or troops cross that border again then Nord Stream will end. If there's a major cyberattack, if there's an attack on the grid, do you think that that should that trigger a shutdown of the pipeline as well?

DUCKWORTH: I mean I think certainly that that should be on the table as part of what we do in response. I have a real fear that tanks will actually cross the border. Russia has significantly massed troops there and remember that Germany is a NATO ally, part of the Article 5 mutual defense treaty. And I expect that they will step up when we ask them to do this.

BLACKWELL: How far along in the negotiations are you all on this sanctions package, this bill?

DUCKWORTH: You know, we were pretty far along. I think there's a lot of agreement between both sides of the aisle on this. This is one thing that we affirm which is we must maintain our commitment to NATO. We must maintain our commitment to helping Ukraine. I'm from Illinois by the way and so I have real concerns because the

first NATO ally on the other side of the border is Poland and Poland has a significant relationship with the Illinois National Guard. We have a state partnership for peace program where we've been training the Polish military for 30 years now. And so should Russia invade Ukraine, the Illinois National Guard will be among the first to receive a notice of that happening.

And so, I do think that the way forward is through negotiations, is diplomatically. I don't want us to have to go to an actual, you know, pulling up of our forces and of troops, but we're ready, we're prepared to defend NATO if we need to.

BLACKWELL: We heard from the Ukrainian defense minister today that as Russians and the Belarussians in the north of the country are engaged in these exercises, these drills, there will be drills within Ukraine at 7 or 8 sites at the same time. What's your degree of concern that something could go wrong and they could accidently get into some conflict that would violate the border there with Ukraine?

DUCKWORTH: Well, I'm very troubled by the situation in Ukraine and Putin's clear and continuation of escalation of tensions in the region. And we know of at least two attempted false flags attacks that Putin has -- the information has been released that Russia has planned to stage a false attack on Russian forces coming out of Ukraine by Russian sympathizers.

So, I wouldn't put it beyond Russia to try to stage a false flag attack on their own forces to try to provoke some sorts of a confrontation. But I do agree with the Biden administration that diplomacy remains our best avenue to resolve this situation peacefully.

I think that if anything happens it probably will not result -- come about as a result of a mistake by Ukraine, but more as a result of a false flag attack planned by the Russians. And we've caught them twice now planning such an attack.

BLACKWELL: Senator Tammy Duckworth, thank you for your time.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, we have an update on that bomb threat that forced the Vice President's husband to be ushered out of a D.C. school. We are live on the scene, next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Let's move forward with the breaking news. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff was just ushered out of a D.C. high school after a bomb threat against that school.

[15:55:00]

CAMEROTA: CNN's Jeff Zeleny is on the scene. Jeff, what have you learned?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We are learning now that second gentleman Doug Emhoff is safe. He is in a location either at the White House or perhaps back at the Naval Observatory.

But we are getting a sense exactly of the timing that this all unfolded at. We're about a mile and a half northeast or so of the White House here in the northwest corner of Washington at Dunbar High School. And the second gentleman was here to speak at a black history month event.

But we are hearing from his spokesperson, she has tweeted a few moments ago that he is safe and sound. Let's look at that tweet.

It said: U.S. Secret Service was made aware of the security threat at a school where the second gentleman was meeting with students and faculty. Mr. Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated. We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. Police for their work.

So again, talking to some students here who were evacuated. At the moment they said they really didn't know exactly what was happening but Secret Service came and rushed the second gentleman out of the classroom where he was speaking.

And I can tell you it's a very calm scene here now. Students are curious, neighbors are curious. The Metropolitan Police Department and their bomb squads and canine units are still here on scene. The school has been evacuated. And the investigation continues.

But a police spokeswoman said this threat was believed to have been made by a telephone here in the school in the 215 area or so this afternoon -- 2:15 p.m. But the second gentleman was quickly taken out and he is no longer here and we're also told that he has spoken to Vice President Harris and she is grateful that he is OK as well -- Victor and Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Of course, of course. Jeff Zeleny for us there live on the scene. Thank you.

Well, some states are dropping their mask mandates for schools. But the debate, of course, over them has not ended. What pediatricians are saying. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Leslie Jones, one of the Olympics' most devoted fans, has been given the green light to continue with her, let's call it unique commentary on the winter games?

[16:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESLIE JONES, COMEDIENNE : Let's go Team USA! Sleigh all day. Let's go Team USA, sleigh all day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: What are the lyrics?

CAMEROTA: I don't know. But I would watch her read from the phonebook.

The former Saturday Night Live star has become known for posting her reaction to the events as she watches the games on TV.

Recently Jones said she would stop making these videos because they kept getting blocked, whatever that meant. It was very mysterious.

But today an NBC rep told CNN the block was the result of a third- party mistake, not NBC.

BLACKWELL: OK.

CAMEROTA: And Jones can continue posting her Olympics videos. I can't believe I've been missing these. I'm going to start following her. I don't know how I've missed this for past few years because I love her.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I love Leslie Jones. And some of the sports, you watch the Olympics, you've never heard of. Do you have a favorite?

CAMEROTA: Curling?

BLACKWELL: Curling. That's the one where you sweep and then you sway for something?

[16:00:00]

CAMEROTA: You sweep ice. I'm not sure.

BLACKWELL: What's your favorite?

CAMEROTA: Well, I guess figure skating.

BLACKWELL: OK.

CAMEROTA: Well, how about you?

BLACKWELL: I don't -- I love the summer sports. I'm not a big fan of the winter sports. I went skiing one time. I paid all that money to fall.

CAMEROTA: Right. Yes, the first time really is rough. But anyway, Leslie Jones is the best.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.