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Erin Burnett Outfront
Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is Interviewed about Trump, Climate Change and His Presidential Run; Bernie Sanders Confronts Walmart, Slams Its "Starvation Wages". Aired on 7-8p ET
Aired June 05, 2019 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Rice said his anniversary jump felt great and that he would do it again. God bless this young, young man. A wonderful event. Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next breaking news, no deal. The White House failing to strike a deal with Mexico as Trump threatens to slap the country with crippling tariffs. Is the president bluffing? Plus, President Trump trashes the Vietnam War, the same war Trump once told Howard Stern was like his dating life. And three Americans turning up dead at the same Caribbean resort. An urgent investigation underway tonight. What is behind the deaths? Let's go out front.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, no deal. The White House just wrapping up a high stakes meeting with Mexico for the day. So far no deal to stop the President's threat to slap tariffs on all goods imported to the United States from Mexico.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think they actually going to have to step up, but if they don't tariffs will go on and if they go high, the companies are going to move back into the United States. That's all. It's very simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, it is very simple. Companies aren't just going to move back to the United States. They can't and won't make decisions that quickly, they'll wait, because this is hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. They will instead just pass along the tariff in the form of higher prices to Americans for everything from cars to food. Republican Senator John Cornyn lays it out pretty clearly today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Tariffs on the other hand would be a massive tax. The U.S. Chamber estimates that Texas alone would face $5.35 billion in increased cost as a result of a 5 percent tariffs to take effect as early as Monday. This translates into about $1,000 more on a car.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: A thousand dollars more per car. Deutsche Bank says in fact
it'll be $1,300 dollars a car and that's just as the tariffs begin. And a new nonpartisan analysis estimates tariffs on Mexico could watch more than 400,000 jobs in the United States, 400,000 jobs.
Look, that's what happens when tariffs stay on. So here's the facts, the President is not going to risk 400,000 jobs over a patently impossible demand because, let's be clear, he has a clear demand. Tariffs are going to go on Mexico until illegal immigration via Mexico stops. Here's the tweet from the President of the United States.
He tweeted, "On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods coming into our country from Mexico until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP." All caps. And then he says the tariff will increase all the way up to 25 percent.
So let's be clear, illegal migrants coming through Mexico to the Southern Border is not going to stop by June 10th. It's just not going to happen. In fact, the latest numbers show a surge in border crossings more than 144,000 encountered or arrested in May alone. That is a 30 percent surge in just one month.
The surge in illegal migrants may be why the one Trump inner circle member who supports using tariffs for non-economic warfare is trying to move the goalpost. Here's Peter Navarro with our Jim Sciutto earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: We believe that these tariffs may not have to go into effect precisely because we have the Mexicans' attention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Oh, so now all we needed was their attention. Well, we already had that. Look, that is not bringing illegal immigration to a stop, that's getting their attention. It's a totally different thing than the President said and that's the fact.
The President has to do something to back out of his threat that it has to stop completely by June 10th or else the tariffs go on. Because his tweet will be outed as yet another empty threat like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Mexico is going to have to do something otherwise I'm closing the border. I'll just close the border.
North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.
Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Those lawsuits did not happen. There has been no fire and fury, thank God. And regarding the border, Trump said that on March 29th, seven days later the border is still open as it is now. But seven days later, Trump went on camera to declare victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I want to thank the President of Mexico. He's the first one. He's really been doing the job. He's helping Mexico to not only economically and not only because I won't be forced to shut it down or do the tariffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Deja vu? Pamela Brown is traveling with the President, out front live in Limerick, Ireland tonight. So Pamela, obviously no deal tonight. Now they're saying talks are going to continue tomorrow but certainly no breakthrough imminent at this time.
[19:05:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No breakthrough, Erin, and the expectation from administration officials is that this first go round there wouldn't be a deal from this meeting today with the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the DHS Secretary and Mexico's Foreign Minister.
I'm told by senior administration official that this was a meeting that lasted 90 minutes at the White House. Officials say that progress was made and the President tweeted that as well, but that it wasn't enough and that the foreign minister did put forward some ideas of how to stem the flow of undocumented migrants, but clearly it wasn't satisfactory to officials.
And so they've decided to continue the talks. In fact, Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State will be meeting later on in just a few hours with the Foreign Minister again in a one-on-one meeting and then tomorrow talks will continue. And even Pat Cipollone, the White House Counsel will be meeting with his counterpart.
But certainly all of this raises the question of what the objective is here, because you're right, the President has stayed firm saying that yes these tariffs will go into effect on Monday which is right around the corner. The clock is ticking. But then you have his top adviser say, "Look, we've got Mexico's attention. Maybe something will be worked out."
And privately we're told behind the scenes White House officials really do think that this could be averted. Officials have been purposefully vague on what the threshold is to prevent the tariffs for this reason, so that it's easy to say, "Look, we believe that Mexico has done enough of they've offered up enough to prevent the tariffs."
But certainly if it does happen, Erin, there will be a ripple effect not only to U.S. consumers but beyond even here in Ireland where the President is visiting his golf resort not far from where I am now. It'll have an impact here too because there are products that go from Ireland to Mexico back to the U.S. So it is something that people are paying close attention to, not just in the U.S., Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Pamela. And I want to go now to the Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley who sits on both the Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees. So let me just start with Peter Navarro. He says, "Tariffs may not have to go into effect once we have their attention."
But, of course, the President's demand of immigration stopping, he used all caps, by June 10th, which is five days from now isn't going to happen. It's not a possibility. Do you think this was an all and empty threat? Does the president have any intention of following through?
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, I don't think it's an empty threat, but it's a very bizarre strategy. Let me explain that this is not about tariffs for an economic deal. This is saying we're going to use it as a weapon in foreign policy.
Now, Mexico if they were talking to the U.S. would say, "The problems that have created the tremendous flow of refugees are first you, Mr. Trump or President Trump, you have kept saying you're going to seal the border. Every time you do that, the coyote is advertised and there's a surge. It's gone from 30,000 to 40,000 a month now to 150,000 a month because of you, Mr. President." So he's causing it.
And they'd also say, "And by the way, the instability in Central America, this is coming from the dollars that come from the American drug trade." So Americans, if you quit buying drugs from Central America, we won't have this problem. And if you quit shipping guns to Central America, allowing them to be smuggled out of the U.S., we won't have this problem.
In other words, that would be the Mexican side of this. And so using tariffs in this fashion is really not a feasible strategy and it's going to be very much opposed up here on Capitol Hill by Trump's Republican colleagues.
BURNETT: And they are, obviously, very clear that they're opposing using tariffs in a non-economic war. I mean it doesn't fit with any kind of policy that anybody would accept. However, the President points to these, the illegal immigrants that have been surging over the border, 144,000 according to Customs and Border Protection encountered or arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border in May. And as I said that's up about a third just since April.
MERKLEY: Yes.
BURNETT: So do you blame him for that or is what he's doing by forcing the issue you're forcing people to come and deal with this bigger problem? I mean isn't he right that this is a problem?
MERKLEY: Well, it certainly is a very high flow that's coming and instigated by President Trump. In other words, he's created this problem and now he doesn't know what to do about it, so he's threatening Mexico. But Mexico can't stop people from moving around the country.
BURNETT: But just to understand, I'm trying to understand your logic, why do you think it's his fault? I mean he's certainly not making it feel welcoming to come here, right?
MERKLEY: Yes. If we go back and track the numbers on the flow of immigrants from the roughly 30,000 to 40,000 that were coming for per month when it started surging, it started surging with the declaration of a national emergency and President Trump starting to talk about sealing the border. There were then the coyotes who advertised for clients said, "OK, if you want to go, you got to come now."
BURNETT: But isn't all of that doing is pushing the numbers early, because they think the border could close so they're coming in now. I mean you're not saying that the intent of who's coming wouldn't change, it's just when the numbers are happening, right?
[19:10:04] MERKLEY: Well, it's hard to say. It's saying to a lot of people if you've ever considered it now is the time you got to make a decision. Those people may never have decided to come in the first place under ordinary circumstances.
BURNETT: OK. So let me ask you, The New York Times had an interesting report today or, I'm sorry, it was on Monday, about the Mexican government's response to the President's threats. And they pointed out there were some raids by Mexican military last week where they went into a hotel by the Guatemalan border to try to get Guatemalans who were coming into Mexico to head to the United States to get them out, roadblocks 24/7 and they're breaking up some more caravans. Do you think Mexico is moving and being more aggressive at taking on this problem because of Trump?
MERKLEY: Well, they have been making efforts for much of the last year to try to figure out if there are ways to encourage folks to stay in Central America to make crossing the border more difficult, but it's not an easy thing to do. They have been making these efforts. They may be making more efforts now in response to this, but it's not going to stop the flow.
As long as you have this incredibly difficult street extortion that has taken a grip throughout the northern triangle of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. When people are being told, "Pay your extortion money now or we will kill you tomorrow or we will rape your daughter this weekend." People are going to flee. And so stabilizing those countries is going to be essential to change this dynamic.
BURNETT: Look, Republicans have been vocal about this that they're not okay with these tariffs. They're a bad idea, Senator Grassley, Senator Cornyn and many others. OK. Will they stand up to the President though when push comes to shove?
MERKLEY: I think the Republicans are going to stand up to him. They do not like the use of a national emergency. This is certainly the law was not written for a president to be able to use that clause in order to bypass the period to Congress, to give them 60 days, well, to give an alert on this and now switching to Saudi to sales. That's the other piece that's happened simultaneously.
This is really all about an imperial presidency and so the combination of the tariffs and the Saudi arms sales are really riling up Republicans saying, "This is not right. The president is not allowed to act. This is not a kingship. This is not imperial presidency. This is a democratic republic."
BURNETT: I mean, of course, you're referring to the President trying to sell arms to Saudi Arabia without going through Congress for the approval as would be the normal procedure for doing such a sale. Thank you so much, Senator. I appreciate your time.
MERKLEY: You're welcome, Erin. Thank you.
BURNETT: Next, President Trump saying he was not a fan of the Vietnam War, not the first time he's trashed it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam. It's called the dating game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, the President doesn't give an inch on climate change, 2020 candidate Governor Jay Inslee who has made this issue the centerpiece of his campaign is out front tonight. And the fight for 2020, Bernie Sanders takes on the world's biggest retailer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wal-Mart pays many of its employees starvation wages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:52] BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump offering up excuses when asked if he wishes he served the United States during the Vietnam War.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, ANCHOR, ITV NEWS: You were not able to serve in Vietnam because of a bone spur condition in your feet. Do you wish you had been able to serve? Would you have like to have served your country?
TRUMP: Well, I was never a fan of that war. I'll be honest with you, I thought it was a terrible war. I thought it was very far away. You're talking about Vietnam and at that time nobody ever heard of the country. And I was like a lot of people, now I wasn't out in the streets marching, I wasn't saying, "I'm going to move to Canada," which a lot of people did. But no, I was not a fan of that war.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Out front now former Army Commanding General for Europe and
the 7th Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, April Ryan and David Gergen who advised Four Presidents and also is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
General Hertling, let me start with you. President Trump says, "I was never a fan of that war. It was far away. No one had ever heard of the country." Your reaction.
MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: My reaction, Erin, is I was 18 years old in 1971 when I registered for the draft in Missouri. Everybody had heard of the Vietnam War. Everyone knew where it was. No one liked the war. But when your country calls and asked you to register for the draft, you serve.
In today's force we have, not a draft force, we have a professional force people can volunteer to go places. It just seems strange to me that we have soldiers listening to the president saying this where they might say, "Hey, I don't want to go to Afghanistan. Syria and Venezuela is too far away. Geez, don't get me involved in a war in Iran." All of those are bad things.
BURNETT: Well, I mean, look you could say if that's an excuse and you look at a 17-year war in Afghanistan, you can see a lot of people saying, "Oh, it doesn't fit with personal, I don't want to do it."
HERTLING: Right.
BURNETT: But yet people do, do it. They do it because it is the call of their country. They do it every day. April.
APRIL RYAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORKS: Yes. This cuts like a knife, Erin. My father served in the military. I have friends who served in the military. People who did four tours of duty, a dear friend of mine who's a lieutenant colonel who did four tours of duty in Afghanistan, he didn't want to go but he served this nation not knowing if he was going to lose his life. He had no option if there would be a war or if there wouldn't be a war.
This president used his wealth to get out of war, whether it was a popular war or not. He is a man who did not serve and now he is potentially sending service members, military members to Iran or any other place where there's a hot spot. They don't have an opinion or an option about it and it's a sad state of affairs for United States president to say that.
BURNETT: So David, a CBS poll last year was done on this issue what people thought about the Vietnam War. Obviously, the history of it, controversial, 51 percent of people believe the United States should have stayed out of Vietnam, 57 percent of those 50 or older think that. Obviously, it was a divisive war as the president alluded to. David though does that justify his comments as a sitting President of the United States?
[19:20:07] DAVID GERGEN, FORMER ADVISER TO FOUR PRESIDENTS: Absolutely not and let's be very clear, Erin, the only thing that veterans hate more than a draft dodger is a man who lies about it and that's what this president has been doing about his military lack of military service for a number of years now. Just to review the bidding, he had four deferments for education, fair enough.
But then he had the fifth deferment that kept him out of the war for so-called bone spurs and neither medical records have been lost but the daughter of the podiatrist who worked with him say that the podiatrist basically gave him that a letter that would disqualify him from service as a favor to the family. These bone spurs in a healthy man, an athletic man magically disappear later.
So the record is quite clear. I just want to say one other thing, it's particularly galling that these views would once again come up and be featured in a new story tonight on the 75th anniversary of D- Day. This ought to be a day when we solemnly remember and instead we've got Donald Trump parading this fraudulent story.
BURNETT: I mean, General, when you think about this, you've got what David refers to, the podiatrist's daughters, their landlord was Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father when they wrote this. I want to just play for you on this issue, President Trump today said that he would have been honored to serve if he didn't have bone spurs, that's what he said today, general. But, obviously, during the campaign, he did not remember which foot had bone spurs here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you not serve in the Vietnam War?
TRUMP: Because I was going to college, had student deferments. It's a long time ago, I had student deferments and then ultimately I had a medical deferment cause of my feet. I had a bone spur.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you had a bone spur, in which foot?
TRUMP: What?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which foot did you have the bone spur in?
TRUMP: You'll look it up in the records. I know it's in the records.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He didn't remember and obviously those records don't exist, General.
HERTLING: Yes, it's a repeating theme, Erin. It's just the same kind of thing we hear over and over again, making excuses for things he doesn't do. The other thing that's insulting about this, again, as David just said, it's divisive. There were a whole bunch of people during the Vietnam era that didn't want to serve either.
I was in the Army during that period and there were not a whole lot of people volunteering to go to Vietnam. No one wanted to fight that war and there are 50,000 plus names on a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. of people who went who probably didn't want to go and they sacrificed their life. So, again, this is just insulting to the military and I can't understand how people allow him to get away with this kind of BS.
RYAN: Exactly.
BURNETT: The other thing is, of course, when he does talk about Vietnam, when you looked it up and our KFILE did, we know the conversation with Howard Stern, the infamous one, where he said STDs were his personal Vietnam. But that wasn't just one time, it was actually a history of times he talked like that. KFILE found it. Let me play it, April.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Dating is like being in Vietnam. It's the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam. If you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam; it's called the dating game.
HOWARD STERN, HOST, THE HOWARD STERN SHOW: It is your personal Vietnam, isn't it?
TRUMP: It is my personal Vietnam.
STERN: It is, you've said that many times.
TRUMP: Like a great and very brave soldier.
STERN: You're braver than any Vietnam vet because you're out there screwing a lot of women.
TRUMP: Getting the Congressional Medal of Honor, in actuality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's been a joke for him for years, April. Those go all the way back to 1993, 1997 and 1998, those three clips.
RYAN: I'm going to use the word that David used, galling. The gall, the gall, the gall, OK, number one, the lack of capacity of this president to understand what service means and what the military does when they go overseas putting their life on the line, that does not compare to being a gigolo or a playboy, a rich playboy who had his Tic Tacs in his mouth kissing anyone he wanted, being married and having mistresses, having a wife and his mistress on a ski slope together, that does not equate.
It's sad when this president is not here for Memorial Day, the day before D-Day, the anniversary of D-Day he's saying this. He's talked about John McCain. No matter what anyone may think about John McCain that man stayed as a prisoner of war.
He could have been released. He stayed. He was broken. We saw him on the campaign trail. He could barely lift his arms because of the pain and abuse. He received the terror. He was terrorized and then he's going to talk against John McCain. I don't understand why veterans and those in the military have not
spoken up. People have been bullied into submission by this president. This is galling as David said and even worse terms.
[19:25:13] BURNETT: So, General, let me just ask you because obviously you're speaking out, but what do you think the feeling is among those currently there?
HERTLING: Well, I'm retired, Erin.
BURNETT: Are they torn about speaking out? Right, I know you're retired, but I mean people who are not yet retired.
HERTLING: I'm retired. I can't speak out.
BURNETT: Yes.
HERTLING: The individuals who are currently wearing the cloth of the country take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, obey the orders of the president. They don't get an opportunity to speak out unless it's an illegal or unethical order. But I got to tell you, I know having talked to people who are in the military that there are quite a few of them who are disgusted by this kind of action. They will never say it.
They will serve professionally. They will do their duty and they will continue to support and defend the Constitution, but they depend on other people speaking out. They depend on members of Congress speaking out. They depend on retired speaking out, retired people speaking out and that's what's happening.
BURNETT: David, final word.
GERGEN: Erin, I think one of the most important jobs of a president is to be a role model, especially for the younger generation. A recent poll found that 71 percent of American people do not think he's a good role model for children. I think it's just one more episode which adds to that notion that somehow he's been very dismissive of what's been so valuable to our country, what held us together.
We're finally coming to terms with Vietnam as a people or finally the old divisions are sort of starting to fall away. It's just really, really unfortunate, unhappy and galling that here on the eve of the 75th anniversary of D-Day we're talking about this.
BURNETT: The president, of course, will be in Normandy tomorrow. Thank you all very much. And next, president Trump doubling down on climate change. 2020 candidate, Governor Jay Inslee who has made climate change the core issue of his campaign is out front next. Plus, an American woman dies at a vacation resort in the Dominican Republic, days later an American couple dies at the same resort. What's happening?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:36] ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Tonight, President Trump downplaying climate change and making light of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, TV HOST: Do you personally believe in climate change?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe that there is a change in weather and I think it changes both ways. Don't forget it used to be called global warming that wasn't working. Now it's climate change now it's called extreme weather, because with extreme weather you can't miss.
Look, we have a thing now in tornadoes. I don't remember tornadoes in the (AUDIO GAP) to the extent, but then when you look back 40 years ago, we had the worst tornado binge that we've ever had. In the 1890s, we had our worst hurricanes and I would say we've had some very bad hurricanes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the presidential candidate who has made climate change the core issue of his campaign, Governor Jay Inslee of the state of Washington.
Governor, thank you for being with me.
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.
BURNETT: OK. So, look, this is the central issue your entire run. This is why you are there. This is -- you know, what you feel is your calling.
OK, what is your response to Trump's comments today to Piers Morgan?
INSLEE: Woefully inadequate to the most scientifically literate nation on earth. This would be embarrassing to any nation in today's day and age. But it's doubly embarrassing to the United States.
We are the people that put a man on the moon. We are the people that are developing the digital economy, curing cancer. And here we have a leader of our nation who has -- who has belittled the clear science.
By the way, this is science we paid for. Our tax dollars went into developing the science.
BURNETT: Right.
INSLEE: And for him to treat it as some trivial thing, it's a little bit like making, you know, laughing about cancer, because that's how serious this issue for our nation.
BURNETT: And, you know, he is referring to, oh, well, hey, in the 1890s and -- when he's talking about hurricanes. But, look, this is not new rhetoric for him governor. We have heard it before. 2012, he blamed the Chinese. He said, the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive, right, basically saying they are making it up to get us to close factories down so they can sprint ahead.
And he has been very clear in the past about where he stands like these times.
INSLEE: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Yes, I consider climate change to be not one of our big problems. I consider it to be not a big problem.
I am not a great believer in man made climate change. I'm not great believer.
I'm not denying climate changes but it could very well go back, and we're talking about --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that's denying it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And obviously that's denying it. But that's the way Trump does thing. I'm not defying it even as he does.
What I find interesting, Governor, is those views did not disqualify him. Obviously, that was in 2018 but the other times were before and during the election.
You're here in New York City. You are unveiling a new plan for the Council on Foreign Relations. Obviously, this is your core issue. You are talking about climate change and national security being inextricably related on your platform.
What makes you think voters will reject Trump for those ideas that we just heard when they did not reject for those the last election?
INSLEE: The world is changing dramatically. There are two waves cresting at the same time. First, the obvious urgency of this matter. This used to be a chart on graph. It used to be sort of an intellectual pursuit.
Now it's people watching Paradise, California, a town of 25,000 burn to the ground. It's watching the Midwest inundated with floods. People in Miami Beach having to pay taxes to build up the roads a foot and a half so they're not drowned.
And at the same time, there is another wave, and that's a wave of economic growth that we are experiencing.
[19:35:04] I was in Iowa the other day talking to young man named David who is really looking forward to his career as wind turbine technician. Donald Trump, president of the United States, says wind turbines cause cancer, but David knows, I know, the American people, that it causes jobs.
And we are going to win the next election in part on an economic revival message that I have put forward where we are growing 8 million well-paid jobs in America.
BURNETT: So, I want to ask you about one other big issue that came out today with Joe Biden who obviously is the Democratic front runner polls right now. His campaign came out and confirmed -- they said he still supports the Hyde Amendment.
The Hyde Amendment for anyone not watching this today basically prevents federal dollars from being spent on abortion services except in cases of rape, incest or life of the mother. So, only in those case was would federal dollars be allowed.
You opposed the Hyde Amendment. Pretty much everyone else running oppose the Hyde Amendment on the Democratic side except for Joe Biden.
Is his support of that disqualifying/
INSLEE: Well, I certainly cannot support that position. And it's quite shocking to me that he would fake in position, knowing that our party and our nation believes in fundamental freedom issue. This is a freedom issue of American women.
And in my state, I have fought for this for decades. We actually have passed the Reproductive Parity Act to make sure women get coverage and should have the ability to have coverage regardless of your income. So, actually, I have to tell you, I'm shocked by that. I have not heard the news before you told me.
If it's true, it's extremely disappointing. I think it's going to be a very disturbing to a lot of people in America. This needs to be a civil right. And what we have done in Washington state to make it equivalent of a civil right needs to be the law of the United States.
And we can do this. We don't have to depend just on the Supreme Court. We need to pass the laws that I have in my state to apply to protect the women's freedom interest across the United States. And I would intend to do that as president of the United States.
BURNETT: Before we go, you do want a debate focused on climate change. The DNC has come out and formally said, they want all topics out there. They're not going to do single issue debates, although I'm sure they will do an economic one broadly.
What do you say to the DNC?
INSLEE: Extremely disappointing. Look, the grassroots of our party are demanding that we pay attention to this existential threat. This is an issue upon which life depends itself, and the continued civilization that we now enjoy.
And it is -- it is totally unacceptable to me not only not to have a debate where we end up just having cliche and sound bites instead of forcing candidates to put their plans forward, but also they also said they are barring Democratic candidates from participating in other debates. That's outrageous to me to muzzle candidates who want to go out and have this debate. I will tell them that I'm hearing across the country is Democrats are
insistent that we call the candidates to a higher plane of discussion of this, which was ignored for the last 20 to 30 years. I hope that they reconsider. And I hope the other aspirants to this office join me as 11 have already asked the DNC to reconsider this.
America deserves it. Our party deserves it. We are the Democratic Party. We believe in democracy.
BURNETT: All right. Governor Inslee, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
INSLEE: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Bernie Sanders going head to head with the world's largest retailer, Walmart. And voters appeared to be taking notice today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is for the working people and he speaks for the working people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, an American tourist dies in the Dominican Republic and five days later, two more Americans found dead at the same resort. What's going on?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:42:29] BURNETT: Tonight, Bernie Sanders takes on Walmart, the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate confronting the world's biggest retailer, the largest employer in the United States at the company's annual shareholder meeting, accusing them of paying starvation wages, his words.
Ryan Nobles is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Bernie Sanders, Walmart is a familiar target.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will say to the Walton family, we are no longer going to provide corporate welfare for you.
NOBLES: Today, he took that message straight to Walmart shareholders in Arkansas.
SANDERS: Walmart pays many employees starvation wages.
NOBLES: Sanders invited by a Walmart employee to make the case to have hourly workers on the company board. During his remarks, he also demanded Walmart pay its workers a base page of $15 an hour and called out the company CEO Doug McMillon for his $24 million salary.
SANDERS: They're also outraged by the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality in America.
NOBLES: Sanders' message aimed not just as Walmart, but Democratic voters looking for a candidate willing to stand up to corporate America. Walmart defended its treatment of company employees by pointing to tuition assistance and management training programs. In a surprise, McMillon called for the federal minimum wage to go up.
DOUG MCMILLION, WALMART CEO: $7.25 is too low. It's time for Congress to put a thoughtful plan in place to increase minimum wage.
NOBLES: Dreama Lovett works as a Walmart associate in Jacksonville, Florida, and welcomed Sanders' presence at the meeting.
DREAMA LOVETT, WALMART EMPLOYEE, JACKSONVILLE, FL: He's for the working people and he speaks for the working people.
NOBLES: Lovett believes an employee on the board would go a long way to helping Walmart leadership understand what it means to live on Walmart's minimum wage.
LOVETT: Could you live off of $11 and something an hour? It's hard. It's hard, especially in our economy. It's up. And we're booming.
NOBLES: The proposal to add an employee to the Walmart's board was rejected by shareholders.
SANDERS: People cannot make it on $11 an hour.
NOBLES: And the company also did not make a substantive move toward raising employee salaries. And after his remarks, Sanders was skeptical Walmart leadership was listening.
(on camera): Do you feel that the CEO got your message today?
SANDERS: No, I don't. I think if he got the message what he would say is that we are going to do what many competitors are doing, what Amazon has already done, what Costco has done, what Target is moving toward and raise that minimum wage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[19:45:04] NOBLES: And it's not out of ordinary for Bernie Sanders to go after corporate America. He regularly hammers Walmart and Amazon on the campaign trail. That will continue this weekend when he heads to Iowa and will appear with McDonald's workers, pushing that company to pay its workers a base salary of $15 an hour.
And, of course, Erin, this, of course, a big move by Sanders to try and separate himself from this big field of Democratic candidates. He believes that many Democratic primary voters are with him when it comes to taking on corporate America -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Ryan. And next, what is happening at the Caribbean resort with three people
were found dead in five days? Search for answers intensifying this hour.
Plus, President Trump tweeting about the in the middle of the night. Jeanne Moos on what started it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, mystery deaths. Three Americans have died at the same resort in the Dominican Republic in the span of a few days. A 41-year-old woman collapsed suddenly, dying in her hotel room shortly after arriving. Five days later, a couple from Maryland were found dead in their room after missing checkout.
Are the deaths connected?
Rosa Flores is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Officials in Dominican Republic are searching for answers in the deaths of three Americans at this island resort.
Miranda Schaup-Werner, a psychotherapist from Pennsylvania, was celebrating her wedding anniversary with her husband at the Bahia Principe Hotel in La Romana just hours after checking in when she collapsed.
JAY MCDONALD, FAMILY SPOKESMAN: At one point, she was sitting there happily smiling and taking pictures, and the next moment, she was in acute pain and called out for Dan and she collapsed.
[19:50:10] FLORES: Paramedics were called and tried to revive the 41- year-old, but police say she died in her room. Schaup-Werner's family says she died after having a drink from the hotel's mini bar. The attorney general's office says a cause of death has yet to be determined but the resort says she died of a heart attack.
Jay McDonald, her brother-in-law, says the entire family is in shock.
MCDONALD: What we thought was a freak event, now we don't know.
FLORES: That's because just five days after Schaup-Werner's death, two more Americans were found dead at the same resort. Sixty-three- year-old Edward Nathaniel Holmes and his fiancee, 49-year-old Cynthia Ann Day, were found in their room after hotel staff after missing their checkout. Police say there were no signs of violence.
The national police confirming to CNN an autopsy found the couple from Maryland suffered respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, an abnormal buildup of fluid in the lungs. Police say various blood pressure medications were found in the room.
Coincidentally, all three checked in on the same day, May 25th, but were staying in different parts of the resort.
The hotel is saying in a statement today: To date, there are no indications of any correlation between these two unfortunate incidents.
But police are still investigating. And the families want answers.
MCDONALD: We really want an independent medical review here in the States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLORES: And you are not going to believe this. We found the taxi driver that drove Miranda Schaup-Werner here to this hotel from airport and he says that she was happy, she was excited to be here. He remembered that she was a great tipper.
Remember, she died a few hours after. So you can imagine his shock when he found out that she died -- Erin.
BURNETT: And, obviously, completely fine just before that.
Rosa, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT now, Steve Moore, retired supervisory special agent for the FBI.
So, Steve, I think, this is bizarre. What do you think happened?
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think it's too coincidental to be random. So I think what you have to start doing is finding out what was common with all three deaths or all three people right before their illnesses and what's common right now is they all checked in on the same day. That puts it way over the realm of possibilities. And then it's possible they all had something out of the mini bar.
BURNETT: All right. So, then, then, this is something malicious? I mean, what else could it be? Someone is putting something in a mini bar for people to randomly stumble upon and it kills them?
MOORE: Either that, or somebody is accident annually contaminating the things in the mini bar. I mean, hypothetically, one thing that could cause this pulmonary edema, respiratory failure, is an overdose of fentanyl. Well, fentanyl is something that is trafficked through the Dominican Republic.
Either somebody has -- they have come in contact hypothetically with this or somebody is intentionally putting this into a drink or whatever. But this is not -- these are not natural deaths.
BURNETT: And, obviously, the same management, it's the same resort, right? It's two different hotels but the same resort.
MOORE: Right.
BURNETT: There's no question it would seem as to whether this is related?
MOORE: No, it's absolutely related. And what you have to do here is you have to start to go backwards and find out what is common between those two rooms that were in. It may not be the maid service. It may not be, you know, something within that hotel.
But I'll bet you anything they get their liquor supplies, their food supplies from the same thing. Two hotels owned by the same people are going to do that. So you have to start bringing things down to the level of what's common for all three.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Steve.
And next, Jeanne, on a late-night Twitter war between President Trump and Bette Midler.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:47] BURNETT: You'll never guess what kept Trump awake during his last night in the U.K., Bette Midler.
Here's Jeanne.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Bette Midler sings, she does not count President Trump among them. But he was thinking of her. Even in the middle of the night in his trip abroad when he tweeted, calling her a washed up psycho and a sick scammer after she apologized for sharing a supposed Trump quote that he never actually said.
One calling Republicans the dumbest group of voters in the country.
It sounds so much like him that I believed it was true, tweeted Bette.
It's the latest round in a long feud: As a newly washed up psycho, I am very grateful for your thoughts and prayers, she tweeted fans who flocked to her defense. Cast a spell on him, Bette.
Oh, she's been casting spells, ripping offer a recent photo of the president in which he didn't quite look like his usual self. She tweeted. He actually looks better here. Maybe someone? His camp can gently give him a shiv. I mean, shove. A shiv being a makeshift knife.
Bette deleted that tweet after getting grief that jokes about knifing people aren't funny.
(on camera): If you look at Bette's entire Twitter feed, she feeds on President Trump.
(voice-over): When the queen gave him a rare Churchill book, she posted: Even more rare? The chance that Trump would actually read it or any book.
When he dressed in a white tie, she pounced with proportion fail, fire the tailor and hasn't yet reached the depths of the Rosie-Trump feud.
TRUMP: Rosie O'Donnell is disgusting.
ROSIE O'DONNELL, ACTRESS: Orange slob.
TRUMP: Living with this big face.
O'DONNELL: Snake oil salesman.
MOOS: The venom between Bette and Trump goes back to 2012. He called her ugly, Bette Midler sucked.
President Trump may be married to his third wife but this feud feels like something out of a First Wives Club.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh shut up. All you care about is --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are both selfish souls. Ahh.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And thank you for joining us. Don't forget you can watch OUTFRONT anytime, anywhere on CNN Go.
Anderson starts now.
