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House Democrats Hold Sit-In over Gun Control; Trump, Clinton Continue Attacks. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- the House floor demanding a vote on gun control after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

[06:00:08] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many more mothers, how many more fathers need to shed tears of grief before we do something?

SERFATY: Prominent civil rights activist John Lewis leading the sit-in on the house floor.

Minutes later, House Speaker Paul Ryan called a recess shutting off cameras in the chamber, but that didn't stop Democrats from continuing their showdown, streaming live feeds from the house floor on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm suspected and known to be a terrorist. But why can you get a gun, machine gun?

SERFATY: Democratic senators storming the floor in solidarity.

PAUL RYAN, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: This is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

SERFATY: Speaker Ryan, lambasting the move as political theater

RYAN: We will not bring a bill that takes away a person's constitutionally guaranteed rights without their due process. This isn't trying to come up with a solution to a problem, this is trying to get attention.

SERFATY: In a confrontational move to regain control Republicans convene in a session to vote not on gun control, but to override a presidential veto. Leading to tension exploding in the chamber just after 10:00.

RYAN: What permission a gentleman from Kentucky Mr. Rogers seek recognition.

SERFATY: As Republicans opened the floor to vote the Democrats pressing against the podium, chanting and holding signs with names and faces of violence victims.

Democrats yelling shame and anthem of the civil rights movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house stands in recess subject to call of the chair. SERFATY: One republican disrupting the sit-in.

Arguing it wasn't guns that led to the Orlando attack.

Just before 1:00 a.m. the house calling a procedural vote to adjourn until 2:30 a.m., scheduling vote on a funding bill for Zika virus that Democrats oppose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have no response except to run away in the middle of the night.

SERFATY: After passing that bill, they passed another to adjourn for the July 4th recess.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house stands adjourned.

SERFATY: Republicans leaving the capitol indignant met by angry protesters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And as the house sitting continues into this morning the house of course is adjourned until the July 5th recess, but Democrats have promised that they will keep this sit-in going in some capacity. Some present continued on the house floor and there are numerous members still out there right now.

Now to note, the house has already this year taken 24 days in recess and they've had 66 days in session. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I'll tell you some stark contrasts. You're in statuary hall with all those remembrances of so many great men. And then we have this going on in the floor of the house.

This intense showdown on the floor prompting Americans to take to social media to demand action, others went right to the source of the problem. The U.S. capitol and are there this morning.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, live outside the capitol with more. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, we're on the house side of the U.S. Capitol and this rain really pretty bad weather has deterred a lot of folks. They've gone home but really there are about a dozen people on us, we can show who are still here, they're at the diehard at the height of this there were hundreds and hundreds of people who came out here and spent the night to show support for the members of Congress for that sit-in.

And I have to tell you we've been talking to people all morning and we found somebody very important, very special Lucy McBeth, she is the somebody out of Jacksonville, Florida.

You might remember this case, it was her son, Jordan Davis, just 17- years-old who was shot and killed. This was the loud music case that we covered in 2012. You've been out here, you changed your plans, you heard about this. Just tell us, I'm so sorry for your loss but what do you hope to accomplish being out here?

LUCY MCBETH, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: Well, the fact that something so historic such as this with the congressional sit-in. I wanted to come and show my support for our legislators that are standing up to the (inaudible) lobby, standing up to the Republican legislators that have refused to pay heed to what's happening within over 90 Americans every day that are dying senselessly in this country, hundreds more that are injured every day. And they have turned a blind eye to what's happening with gun violence and I'm here to support their efforts for standing up on our behalf.

MALVEAUX: I know it can't bring your son back, but do you see yourself being out here day after day and perhaps back when Congress comes back into session to keep this fight going.

MCBETH: We will be here when they reconvene July 5th. We will be here and we told them most definitely we will remember in November if they don't do right by the citizens of the United States.

[06:05:05] MALVEAUX: All right, Lucy, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and I now this is kind of tough conditions being out here, but as you can see, a lot of passion behind this. People are very serious about this issue and it impacts them very personally.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely and that mom just says it all, Suzanne, thank you very much for that.

Let's discuss this political showdown with our panel. CNN Politics Executive Editor, Mark Preston, CNN Political Analyst and Host of the David Gregory show podcast, David Gregory, CNN Senior Political Reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, we want to bring CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.

Mark, let me start with you. How significant is what we're seeing unfold there on Capitol Hill right now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Amazing, you know, look, I spent six years up there as a beat reporter in the Halls of Congress and I've never seen anything like this.

This is something you would see on the other side of the Capitol in the U.S. Senate. It is built that way. That's when we talk about filibusters and senators taking the floor and really trying to make a point. In the House of Representatives that's not the way that institution was constructed by our founders. It is run by the majority.

The minority in this case, the Democrat said, "We've had enough. We need to do something." That is why we saw them basically take over the House of Representatives, the floor of it and really what we saw last night in some ways was anarchy on the floor.

CUOMO: Let's take one more bit here. Let's look at a little bit of the right and wrong here. You mentioned the senate. They had votes. These bills went down there. It's not like there has been no action. You look at Ryan. he could have done other things. He cut the C-SPAN feed. We don't like that because that we wanted that main feed. But they're in control of it. But he kept the lights on and he waived the decorum rules to allow them to continue their protest.

So when you look at the right and wrong, who do you think is coming out on top rank?

PRESTON: Well, I mean, if you're somebody who believes in the follower of rules and decorum, then you would say that the Democrats were wrong because they did not win the majority. The Republicans were put in charge of the House of Representatives and that's how the House of Representative should be run.

However if you're somebody of popular opinion or you are somebody of a supporter of the Democrats you're going to say "You know what, to your point why didn't we have votes? We should have votes." That's what the American people want us to do.

But, you know, again, it depends who you talk to about who's right and who's wrong in this.

CAMEROTA: Nia-Malika, we're looking -- I mean, this is live right now on the split screen there. That's coming via periscope because as we know as Chris just said the feed was cut. So how does the leadership there in the house justify not bringing gun control to a vote?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Paul Ryan, has said there have been -- there have been votes on similar measures in the senate and this is essentially a publicity stunt.

You know, I mean I think he's right, it is a publicity stun in many ways its working, right. I mean they are getting publicity for this cause in talking to folks who are on the side of the Democrats, people at the Brady campaign, they really want to seize this moment and create a tipping point, see it as a tipping point, see the sort of a connection between terrorism and gun restrictions and even LGBT rights. They want to really want to seize the momentum here and keep this going.

And I think it really has been a remarkable shift we've seen. One the hand I think at the federal level we have seen stalemate after stalemate in terms of federal laws but at the state level there has been some movement for instance in Maine, in Nevada, there'll be ballot measures that would expand background checks in November.

And you can see Democrats very different now than they were in the early 90s afraid of the NRA. Now, at this point really seeing some sort of political gain by taking on the NRA.

So we have seen something of a shift, I think, over these last couple of years in this gun control debate.

CUOMO: And David, what do you see as the disconnect between the poll numbers that we put up all the time showing certainly over 50 percent of Americans. And, you know, probably somewhere between 70 and into the 80s, when you ask them questions about more background checks that are thorough, or more gun control or more measures, people generally favor. This is the, you know, this is just the straight one which is favor versus opposed 55/42. But when you get specific like the terror watch list, you know, and whether or not something needs to be done. The numbers are very high. So where is the disconnect that leads us to the dysfunction?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think its voter intensity, Chris. If you are a supporter of gun rights you will vote on that issue. If your representative does not support the 2nd amendment, does not support the NRA position, that's what you'll vote on.

I think a lot of supporters of these gun restrictions feel strongly about it. But they don't necessarily vote on it. It's not a foundational issue for them.

I think Democratic leaders want that to change. I think this is a stunt. This is an attention getting maneuver. This is a year, of course, when bucking the political order is getting a lot of traction. It's very popular among voters who are so disappointed in Washington in the political system.

So I think for Democrats, this is about creating this as an issue of bigger voter intensity, saying to voters, look, these are the stakes. Not only this mass murder in Orlando. How many of these events do we have to have?

[06:10:04] But it's also saying look, these are the stakes in the election year. If we could take back the senate, if we could take back the house we could get these gun measures through. It's almost like creating a Supreme Court pick and the stakes that are associated with that, trying to associate that with the issue of gun restrictions.

CAMEROTA: Sunlen, the president sent out a tweet regarding this. He says, "Thank you, Congressman John Lewis for leading on gun violence where we need it most."

So what does this sit-in that's happening right now mean for the White House? What their response?

SERFATY: Well, certainly, I think it's very interesting, Alisyn, that President Obama and the White House is sort of taking a role in this as well by tweeting at John Lewis, by -- in essence, you know, embracing the sit-in from the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue shows that they're in support of it.

And it certainly when you're thinking about President Obama where he is right now in his presidency, he's thinking about his legacy. He's talked many times about how one of the greatest disappointments of his presidency, one of the worst days was when they couldn't get gun control measures passed in the senate after Newtown. He's talked openly how that was one of the worst days of his presidency.

So certainly this is interesting intersection for our president near the end of his two terms in the office. And an important moment for Democrats it will be interesting to see if he ratchets up his involvement as this in continues.

CAMEROTA: Yeah.

CUOMO: What do you see happening?

PRESTON: Well, a couple of things, one is -- this is a very seminal moment in this election year. And I -- we have to wonder, "Is this going to be the new norm?" Meaning will we see house Democrats do this on other issues that they think that they can make political hay out of so to speak.

Now, we're going into a moment where this could simmer down because we're going into the July 4th recess. But right now politically Democrats are not expected to take back the House of Representatives. What we saw just a few hours ago and as we've seen right now, it could be a powerful political moment for them to rally their base and to try to chip away at support for Republicans in the house. Will they continue to do this, you know, throughout the summer and then into the election.

CUOMO: Now, they're fund raising off of this effort right now, that's certainly portrays it as a stunt.

PRESTON: Yeah, no doubt.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Unseemingly, why?

PRESTON: And in fact, we asked them last night, we were on air as you know all throughout the night and we had two Democratic congressmen on there and they acknowledged that they were doing it. They didn't have great answer initially until they said, "Listen, we're raising money up for this because we need to elect more Democrats to try to get laws like this enacted." But we're talking about 49 people who are murdered down in Orlando, more than 50 were injured. And yet, they're raising money in the middle of the night. I think it took away a little bit away of what they were trying to do symbolically on this issue.

CUOMO: So one other thing that place to the politics of it David, give us a quick take on this. One of the measures that the Democrats did not want, that they voted down, was a bill in the senate, this is obviously -- was a bill to further fund the existing background check system.

Now, one of the middle grounds in this debate that gets ignored a lot is why don't you enforce the laws you already have better? There are huge gaps. There are huge lapses of getting information so the background check is comprehensive.

Now, how do you think that plays once word gets out about that?

GREGORY: Well, I guess it depends in which audience because, you know, their argument is that to concede on that which is a legitimate point about more prosecutions you still don't close the loophole of the gun shows and private sellers and so to compromise means that you see that ground completely.

But that's really the argument. The argument around compromise is some way to split the different here. And then really polarize debate. And I think there's going to have to be some compromise and maybe smaller measures that move forward if we're going to break this log jam in some way.

Again, voter intensity is a big piece of this, not just among house of Democrats but even Hillary Clinton supporters, Democrats at larger really trying to drive the base around these issues to get them out in November.

CAMEROTA: Panel, stand by if you would. We have many more questions about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's response.

And throughout the morning we will talk to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about where this political showdown goes from here. So stick around for that.

CUOMO: So the dysfunction in D.C. matching the attacks on the campaign trail. Clinton and Trump are in hay maker mode, very negative, very personal, very often.

CNN's Chris Frates live in Washington with the blow by blow. Chris?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris, you're right. This 2016 slugfest continued yesterday with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump just wailing on each other and some of it just were clean shots and others, well they hit below the belt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald hates it when anyone points out how hollow his sales pitch really is.

FRATES: There's Hillary Clinton rebutting Donald Trump's onslaught of personal.

[06:15:00] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary Clinton, she's a world class liar.

FRATES: And professional attacks.

TRUMP: Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.

FRATES: Trump, going as far to say.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.

FRATES: And Clinton, firing back.

CLINTON: He's going after me personally because he has no answers on the substance.

FRATES: The two trading jabs over their popular catch phrases.

CLINTON: We shouldn't expect better from someone whose most famous words are "You're fired." I'm going to make sure that you'll hear "You're hired."

TRUMP: Her campaign slogan is "I'm with her." You know what my response is to that? I'm with you, the American people.

FRATES: Trump praised by his party for delivering a tightly scripted speech tried to tarnish Clinton's foreign policy record.

TRUMP: No secretary of state has been more wrong more often and in more places than Hillary Clinton.

FRATES: The latest CNN poll shows more Americans believe the former secretary of state would make a better commander-in-chief.

TRUMP: Her invasion of Libya handed the country over to ISIS, the barbarians.

FRATES: But even scripted, Trump still included falsities and half truths about Clinton, including the American death of Benghazi.

TRUMP: Among the victims of our late Ambassador Chris Stevens, he was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed. That's right, when the phone rang at 3:00 in the morning Hillary Clinton was sleeping.

FRATES: No, actually Clinton was awake. The siege started at around 4:00 p.m. eastern time, not in the middle of the night.

Trump was also claiming Clinton ran the state department like her own personal hedge fund that she'll end virtually all immigration enforcement and wants to abolish the Second Amendment, all false according to CNN's fact checking team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: But trump also rightly pointed out that Clinton has done some exaggerating of her own. Trump, criticize a story, Clinton told in 2008 where she said that his first lady, she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire when in fact she didn't.

Now, Clinton later said she misspoke. But I'll tell you this campaign is really shaping up to be one heck of a street fight, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for all of that back checking, that's really helpful, Chris. Thank you for the reporting.

So how was Trump's first major address of the general election receive? And how will Clinton counter those attacks and the allegations? All that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:24] CUOMO: All right, so while house Democrats grabbed control of the chamber demanding a vote on gun legislation, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton went at it with blistering personal attacks.

Let's bring back Mark Preston, David Gregory, and Nia-Malika Henderson. The main question is obvious, who did this help and why?

PRESTON: I mean, look, in the end I think that a couple of things. One, it's going to help House Democrats and by virtue of that it's probably going to help Hillary Clinton because that's who she is aligned with.

We'll see what happens with Donald Trump because Donald Trump has been at odds with some Republicans on the issue of guns. Maybe that's because he's from Manhattan and there's a different idea about gun regulation certainly here in the city. But we'll see what happens.

I mean, I don't know if this will become a huge issue in the presidential election other than what we did see Donald Trump say yesterday in his speech is that Hillary Clinton wants to take away your second amendment right. A very broad attack on her on that and he'll continue to say that to try to continue to get these gun owners and these fervent gun owners to back his candidacy.

CAMEROTA: Nia-Malika, more broadly how was trump's speech received? I heard many Republicans say that they felt relieved that he sort of hit on some good messages, particularly the slogan of "I'm with you." He said to the American people.

HENDERSON: Yeah, I thought that was perfect, this sort of rewriting of Hillary Clinton's campaign slogan which of course is "I'm with her."

You know, this is the Donald Trump that Republicans have been waiting to see. He's had a really bad couple of weeks prior to this so they want to see a Donald Trump who looks more presidential. He's certainly more scripted as well.

I do think though in talking to Republicans one worry is that the message is right, but there still questions about the messenger, right? Even if you look at some of the claims t that he's making about Hillary Clinton on the Clinton Foundation, for instance, that she's enriching herself.

Well, then that brings up the issue for Donald Trump of Trump University. Even on his criticisms of the Clintons' on NAFTA, then you can say, "Well, what about you Mr. Trump, you have made some of your products, your ties and your suits in China.

So he is vulnerable. I mean, it was interesting yesterday because he had Marco Rubio saying he was going to run for the senate and one that Republican I talked to said wouldn't it be great if somebody like Marco Rubio had been making this same case, of course Marco Rubio fleeing down on the primary. And Donald Trump is the presumptive nominees. But as a messenger I think there still questions that Republicans have even though he's got a good message, I think.

CUOMO: So David, the plus/minus is Republicans like hearing Trump attack Clinton. You know, of course they don't like him attacking minority groups, you know, and splintering what they want to see as a broad coalition.

But the question that becomes where does this take them, I mean, all I'm saying as a result of Clinton and Trump is just more intensity of the negativity in this campaign, more polarization.

GREGORY: Yeah, I think there's no question about that and if you're Republicans, you want to see Donald Trump start to attack his opponent. I mean, it is kind of interesting that he's getting plaudits for doing kind of campaign 101 which is giving a speech attacking his opponent.

And now it's a seminal moment in the campaign, but that's how far his campaign has fallen and that's the kind of tremors that he has inspired throughout Republicans. But they want to see him attack Clinton.

And mostly Chris, they want to see him take the attention off of himself and make it more of a contrast rather than a referendum on him.

I think that's going to be tough. I think Donald Trump's inclination is to make it a referendum on him. I think that's a lot of his rationale. But this question of negativity on both sides, if you're Trump you attack Clinton because you want to depress her potential turnout.

And I think if you're Clinton was flout (ph) who has problems with trustworthiness and all the rest, you want to fire up debates with a sense of anxiety, anger and fear. And I think you do that by this consistent theme of saying how dangerous and reckless he is. You may be able to inspire with the positives, but you might be able to inspire with negative against Trump. And I think that's where we're headed.

CAMEROTA: Mark, as you know, Donald Trump has called Hillary crooked Hillary. And he continued that line of attack. Let me play a portion of that from yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She ran the state department like her own personal hedge fund doing favors for oppressive regimes and many others and really many, many others in exchange for cash, pure and simple, folks, pure and simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:25:03] CAMEROTA: OK, so what he's referring to there is the Clinton Foundation and whether or not there was any quid pro quo, those questions do persist. How has Hillary done at responding?

PRESTON: You know, I think the Clinton is probably have failed in a big way in that they haven't been so open about how they raised money for the Clinton global initiative which has done wonderful things, you know, around the world, but there are questions about who they're taking money to help fund these ...

CUOMO: Put out the Clinton foundation, foreign donation list, just so we get some context for more statements. Right, no doubt, right and so, and then if you look at the polling when Donald Trump goes out there and says that she's crooked and she's a liar and what have you, you know, you also have Hillary Clinton at a deficit right now to Donald Trump on the issue of honesty and trustworthiness. So it's clearly working a little bit.

However, what he's saying is that that she is clearly making money off of, it's a pretty bold statement that isn't necessarily based in facts.

CUOMO: Not necessarily based in fact.

Nia-Malika, there are no facts to support the allegations against the Clintons. I mean, there's a reason that you're not seeing real investigations into this, but does that matter politically?

HENDERSON: No, I mean, I think in many ways, Donald Trump has sort of proven that we are post fact checking in many ways in this campaign.

His speech yesterday was littered with falsehoods. And then remember this is a candidate who's going to burst on to the scene in 2012 as sort of flirting with the presidency, of floating, birth or conspiracy theories. This is also a person who floated the conspiracy theory that somehow Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination.

So this is kind of the world and the discourse on the dialog that we've seen from Donald Trump which again I think goes back to his problems as a messenger. Is he a credible, is he sort of credible person in terms of advancing some of these ideas about Hillary Clinton, which as you said, aren't really a base in fact. But he's a master of that saying "Oh, well, there's questions about this," and even though he can't really prove them he sort of raises the idea and plants the seed and it works effectively for him.

CAMEROTA: And that raises the question, David, of whether or not Hillary Clinton should respond to each one of these and take them on because there is no direct evidence of any quid pro quo but there are questions surrounding the timing. So what should her campaign do about that?

GREGORY: Well, the apparatus is in place in the part of the campaign and Super Pacs that she coordinates with to respond the correct the record as they say. That's what that is a exist to do.

But I've talked to others in the Clinton orbit who say they want a measure of discipline, they don't want to go off in a million different direction attacking Trump or counter attacking. They don't want to have a discipline message that surround his fitness for office. That is the big scene that seeing cuts through his business, his statements, bigotry and all the rest. Fitness for office is what she wants to drive.

CAMEROTA: OK, panel, thank you very much for your perspective on all of this. And we do want to get back to this developing story. There is breaking news out of Capitol Hill. There is this sit-in being staged by Democrats. It is now in its 19th hour. They are demanding a vote on gun measure. So you're looking at live pictures right now. This is from periscope. And we will be talking to a congressman in the middle of all of this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)