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Dems Continue Gun Vote Protest After House Adjourns; Protesters Urge Lawmakers To Vote On Guns; Trump And Clinton Trade Blistering Attacks. Aired 7-7:30a 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.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do have breaking news, chaos erupting on the floor of the House. This was last night, but as we speak, Democrats staging an extraordinary protest holding a sit-in that is now in its 19th hour to demand a vote on gun control.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You're seeing it from Periscope and Facebook Live because the C-Span feed that we're used to seeing in Congress has been shut off. The question is what will happen next. We have new information on that.

And also this huge vote taking place right now in Britain that could rock your 401(k). So let's get after both of these the way only CNN can beginning with Sunlen Serfaty at the U.S. Capitol -- Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: Chris, it was a chaotic and at times very tense night here in the U.S. Capitol and Democrats kept the sit-in going throughout the night. They brought pillows and pizza and extra iPhone batteries, one member even saying that she brought a spare toothbrush from home.

Now the sit-in does continue on the House floor right now. There are about 18 members still out there and Republican leadership though, they are digging in and saying that they are really not budging saying that they have adjourned until July 5th, but Democrats too are digging in saying they intend to keep the sit-in going for days, if not weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would ask that all of my colleagues join me on the floor.

SERFATY (voice-over): It all started around 11:15 Wednesday morning.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LARSON (D), CONNECTICUT: We will occupy this floor. We will no longer be denied a right to vote.

SERFATY: Outraged Democrats seizing the House floor demanding a vote on gun control after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: 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 in the House floor on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suspected and known to be a terrorist, why -- why can you get a gun, a machine gun?

SERFATY: Democratic senators storming the floor in solidarity.

REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: This is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

SERFATY: Speaker Ryan lambasting the move as political (inaudible).

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 convening a session to vote not on gun control, but to override a presidential veto. Leading tension exploding in the chamber just after 10:00.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Permission the gentleman from Kentucky (inaudible) recognition.

SERFATY: As Republicans opened the floor to vote, the Democrats pressing against the podium, chanting and holding signs with names and faces of gun violence victims. Democrats yelling shame and singing the 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 a 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 VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Democrats have said that they intend to keep this going and intend to keep a presence on the House floor throughout this recess that lasts until July 5th. I just saw two members walking with blankets over their shoulders headed out to join their colleagues on the House floor. Now to note, Alisyn, the House has only had 66 days in session so far this year and they have taken already 24 days of recess -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: This could be a long one, Sunlen, or they could retreat this weekend. It's hard to know what the plan is, but their leader, Nancy Pelosi, speaking now at the podium so she is there at this hour.

[07:05:07] Well, the clash on the House floor that we are watching is prompting protesters outside the Capitol to demand action from their lawmakers. Even terrible weather did not scare some away. And CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is live at Capitol Hill with more. Tell us what you've witnessed, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. We were outside this morning and yes, there were about a dozen people who are still out there in the pouring rain. We got caught in that rain. They are not under any cover. They are drenched.

They are huddled together. They say they are going to be there for the long-term. They were there overnight and at the height of the support for the demonstrations inside the capitol there were several hundreds of them who gathered.

They were chanting and from time to time Congressman Lewis would come out or Nancy Pelosi would come out and thank them for their support. But it is amazing when you listen to their stories, you'll hear their stories.

I met a very special and important woman this morning. Her name is Lucy McBath. You might recall this was back in November 2012, her 17- year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed by another man because he was angry because he was sitting in his car and his music was too loud. This is why she is out there this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCY MCBATH, MOTHER OF JORDAN DAVIS: My son was murdered and just by the grace of God the other boys that were with Jordan were not murdered. They are still living today and they definitely have been impacted by this for the rest of their lives.

And I'm out here because I don't want this to happen to anyone else and I'm out here because I want our legislators to know that they are accountable to us. They are accountable to us. And they're supposed to protect and serve us and not be beholding to the lobby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Lucy and many other people who talked to say they will be back on July 5th when the Republicans come back to the House of Congress and she also says they're going to be making their views known when they vote in November. It is a very personal and important issue for them, and it really hits to the heart -- Chris. CUOMO: All right. Suzanne, so we have the issue and then we have the politics that are ongoing. We should let you know, right now you still have a lot of the Democratic leadership that are in that room. Nancy Pelosi is there and again, why is the picture not any better? Because the traditional C-Span feed has been cut.

It's the politicians that run the feed so whoever is in power runs it. This time it's the Republicans back in 2008 when they did their sit- in. Democrats cut the feed as well.

But a development, security just came in and asked the congressmen to leave because they have to do their routine sweep. Nancy Pelosi is said to have been quoted saying that is not going to happen.

Now, that could create a new wrinkle in this situation because if it becomes a security situation, you may see some different actions here so we'll keep an eye on that.

Guns and terror. Terror and guns. That is the combination dynamic that's coming out of Orlando that is causing this sit-in on the floor right now.

So let's discuss these issues separately and together with Congressman Sean Duffy. He is a Republican from Wisconsin, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Congressman, always a pleasure.

Let's start with what's going on, on the floor right now. The polls are so obvious on this issue and you know, we always chase after you guys about trying to please the polls but not on guns. No matter how strong the numbers are to do something more, the Congress, certainly your party doesn't want to. Why?

REPRESENTATIVE SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: Well, so first off, the polls are strong and that Americans don't want terrorists to have guns. That's true. But they also want to protect the second amendment and make sure that Americans who aren't terrorists don't get ensnared in the no-fly list and the "I can't buy a gun" list.

John Lewis who was leading the charge on the House floor was ensnared in the no-fly list. How does this list work? How do you get off it? That's a reasonable conversation.

CUOMO: But Congressman, you just made a good point. You're not having that conversation. We both know how the no-fly list works. If you get stuck on it and you don't belong there, which is a very small number of people you have due process.

DUFFY: No, you don't.

CUOMO: Sure you do.

DUFFY: How do you get off? Chris, hold on a second. You can't -- you can't tell me the criteria for which you get on the list and you can't tell me the criteria for which you get off the list. John Lewis, Ted Kennedy, the senator from Massachusetts, both of them could not get off the list and it was --

CUOMO: They both got off.

DUFFY: We're talking about terrorism right now.

CUOMO: Right.

DUFFY: And so we should have a sit-in at the White House to say you know what, Barack Obama? The inspiration for Orlando and San Bernardino and Boston is ISIS, radical Islamic terror. We want you to address it, Mr. President. We want you to take action. We want you to destroy it and defeat it. This has been rising under your watch and you refuse -- our generals say we could take ISIS out in weeks if not months --

CUOMO: Congressman, one --

[07:10:06] DUFFY: -- it inspires these radicals around the world. Let's address the real and the rising threat. This isn't about guns. Chris, did you listen to the video tape or the audio tape when Mr. Mateen called in 911 on the night of that horrible attack?

CUOMO: Congressman, I heard it. I won't even say the guy's name. I don't think he's worthy --

DUFFY: I know exactly what he said.

CUOMO: The answer is yes I did hear it.

DUFFY: Did Mateen pledge allegiance to the NRA or to ISIS?

CUOMO: ISIS.

DUFFY: To ISIS, so why are we talking about the NRA? Let's deal with this real threat.

CUOMO: I'm not talking about the NRA.

DUFFY: We are talking about guns.

CUOMO: But I don't see those two things as the same. As a gun owner myself I don't see the NRA as this problem. I think a lot of lobbies have sway. But let's unpack these one at a time. First of all, if you want to have a sit-in at the White House, I say go for it, brother. Go there and demand action.

I don't know what you're asking for that isn't done right now. The generals do say they could take out ISIS, but we know what they're asking for. They're asking for boots on the ground and you're part of a Congress that won't even have a vote on the authorization for use of military force against ISIS. What about that?

DUFFY: Let me tell you what because the president already has all the authority that he needs that we had given George Bush to act and defeat this threat. He doesn't need any more authority. He said, oh, my gosh, I can't act to defeat ISIS -- CUOMO: -- matter so much, why won't --

DUFFY: I'll gladly give him the authority again. But he as all the capability that he needs to go in.

CUOMO: Why has Congress -- you never do that. You never give the president blank power. All you guys do is try to check the president and I understand that, but not on this. You don't have a vote and say we have weighed in and said this is what we want to happen against ISIS.

DUFFY: The authorization that he sent to Congress actually restricted his power and authority to defeat this threat.

CUOMO: So debate it.

DUFFY: And it would expand the threat -- it didn't expand his authority, he shrunk his authority and we wanted to give the president all the authority necessary to defeat the threat.

Chris, but the point is on your show why aren't we debating terrorism? Why are we debating guns? The conversation should be -- Director Comey of the FBI, a great guy. He has great agents, but something is missing at the FBI.

We let, again, Boston, San Bernardino and now Orlando slip through the cracks. Something is going wrong. We should have a conversation about what tools do they need.

CUOMO: Absolutely.

DUFFY: What resources do they need? But when Democrats are weak on terrorism, they want to divert from terrorism and they want to talk about guns.

CUOMO: I think you need to talk about both. The FBI is asking for a very specific power that none of these bills touch.

DUFFY: We're not talking about that stuff. And when you have a president --

CUOMO: Because both matter. When people get these guns it continues to be an issue. You have 90 percent of the American people agree with that proposition.

DUFFY: When you have Benghazi and the president doesn't talk about radical Islamic terror, he talks about a video. When you have N Major Hassan who comes in Fort Hood and shoots people, he calls that work place violence. This president will not address this threat.

If you don't have a radical group like ISIS that inspires the Orlando shooter, you don't have an Orlando shooter. This is the president's job to defeat this radical group and he refuses to do it and Democrats are supporting his unwillingness to actually engage and win the fight.

And in my district, people know what the threat is. They know the threat isn't guns. They know the threat is radical Islamic terrorism and they sit home and they scratch their head and wonder why don't Democrats and this president want to engage in a fight that actually makes America win?

You wonder why we have a rise of Donald Trump because Donald Trump goes I want to make America great again. We're going to fight and win and defeat the threat. We're going to talk about the true issue that's inspiring this radicalism. We're not going to get sidetracked. Are we going to ban pressure cookers that were used in Boston?

CUOMO: Once.

DUFFY: Ban hatchets and knives?

CUOMO: They were used once. If you keep seeing it again and again as a tool, it would then start to fit the model of what see with semiautomatic rifles in these mass shootings. But I take your point on it. I want to have this conversation as often as you want to have it. You know that, Congressman.

We invite you all the time to talk about what matters. Two points for us to take going out of this for the next conversation. One is we have a lot of gun violence in this country, disproportionate to countries of our size and our amount of progress.

Two, I don't agree with you on the AUMF issue. I believe if it matters to Congress to dictate what happens against ISIS because the president is so wrong on it, in your opinion, you guys should debate it and come up with your AUMF.

It's your constitutional authority to do it. That's the only place where I see some kind of hypocrisy in what you're saying versus what you're doing.

DUFFY: I'll take your point on that, Chris, but I would say he has the authority it's already been given to him. What we're doing in Congress, we could give him new authority, but we didn't like what he sent over because it did shrink the power and authority, but point well made.

[07:15:03] CUOMO: I'm just saying you can debate it wherever you want just like you say you should be doing. That's all.

DUFFY: I know (inaudible) but I do think this is a conversation about terrorism and you don't hear anyone on the House floor talking about how we defeat the threat of rising terrorism. This is -- they've been wanting to talk about guns for decades and they're trying to use this issue to talk about guns instead of the real threat.

And in Middle America where I come from, that really frustrates people because they want to address this threat. They want to feel safe in their homes and in their countries and in their schools.

And they know that you can take away guns, but you're not taking away the real cause of the violence that's coming from the Middle East right now and that's what they want the Congress and the president to work on to eradicate and defeat.

CUOMO: Congressman, last word to you, Sean Duffy. Thank you for being on the show as always. Appreciate it.

DUFFY: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Throughout the morning, we'll be talking to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about why this sit-in is going on, what are the real issues and what can be done. All right -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tearing into each other. CNN's Chris Frates is live in Washington with more of what they've said -- Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. You're right. This 2016 slugfest continued yesterday with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump just wailing on each other and some of the jabs were clean shots and others, they hit below the belt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 is 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 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 deaths 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 VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: Now, Clinton spent the past couple of days hammering Trump on the economy and arguing that as president he would tank the world's economy. And just a few minutes ago, the Clinton campaign released a list of more than 50 business leaders who are endorsing Clinton along including big names like Warren Buffet and Magic Johnson along with a couple of Republicans.

It's yet another way Clinton is trying to demonstrate that she's a more capable leader on the economy than the billionaire businessman is -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, thanks so much for all of that. In just a few minutes, we will be joined by Gary Johnson, he, of course, the Libertarian nominee and he will discuss the 2016 race and the political standoff that is unfolding on Capitol Hill over gun control right now.

CUOMO: All right, so this man is said to be on the Clinton short list for vice president. Up next, we'll talk to Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about the race and what's going on in the floor of the House, right now the sit-in by fellow Democrats. What's the answer next?

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[07:23:30]

(VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. As we speak, House Democrats are still staging that sit-in on the floor of the House and coming up on 20 hours, and they of course are trying to demand a vote on gun control.

Virginia Democrat, Senator Tim Kaine, attended the sit-in in a show of solidarity with his House colleagues. He joins us now. Good morning, Senator.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VIRGINIA: Hey, Alisyn. Good to talk.

CAMEROTA: There are some scenes there that look pretty raucous from last night. What was the scene when you went over there?

KAINE: It was pretty amazing. They had shut the cameras off, they had shut the microphones off, and we were sitting in, I was sitting on the floor with a beautiful view of Congressman John Lewis sitting right there on the center of the floor kind of in a Zen-like place and it was amazing.

It was a real team-building exercise. We felt the same way when we did the filibuster in the Senate last week. We went on the floor to say, it's time for meaningful reform, because we cared about the issue.

But what we found is, being on the floor together made us feel stronger, made us feel like we were doing what our constituents want us to do, and made us feel like we were inching closer to the day when we break the grip of gun manufacturers on Congress and actually embrace reasonable safety reforms.

CAMEROTA: Well, beyond this team-building exercise over in the House, what will this accomplish there?

[07:25:06] KAINE: Well, let me tell you, on the Senate side, here's what's happened. After the filibuster last week, we had votes Monday night, Democratic proposals and Republican proposals, neither passed, but within 12 hours after the vote, I was part of a group of 10, 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, putting a meaningful bipartisan bill out that basically says terrorists shouldn't be able to buy guns.

We should add a new federally prohibited class of individuals and block them from weapons purchases, and this is something the American people overwhelmingly support, and it's important, Alisyn, that this bill, Susan Collins, Heidi Heitkamp, Martin Heinrich, a number of us worked on, it's important that it's bipartisan.

CAMEROTA: It is important that it's bipartisan.

KAINE: We will not make reforms without it being bipartisan.

CAMEROTA: Indeed. And so is that bill going to pass?

KAINE: Well, we're going to see. We could have a vote today or it could slip into next week. We think we're going to be close. Again, it's something that overwhelmingly, the American public supports.

If you are on a no-fly list, you're too dangerous to fly on an airplane, then you should be prohibited from buying a weapon. If you're on the special selectee list where our intelligence agencies have selected you out as potentially dangerous because of your ties to terrorism, you should be blocked from buying weapons.

We prohibit felons, we prohibit those under domestic violence protective orders, we should prohibit terrorists.

CAMEROTA: Senator, just to prove your point, we do have a new CNN/ORC poll out this week. I just want to put it up to reinforce what you're saying. When you even ask Republicans, do you favor preventing people on terror watch lists or the no-fly list from owning guns, 90 percent of the American Republican public say yes, they would favor that. Eighty-five percent of Democrats, I mean, counterintuitive that the numbers for Republicans are higher, and yet it's just been so hard to get traction on Capitol Hill.

KAINE: Well, Alisyn, you will see that poll number, you look at a lot of polls, we couldn't get that kind of a number for supporting Mother's Day. This is something that the American public deeply believes in, and that is why we think, when it's actually up on the floor, people just have to vote yes or no. The time for skirmishing is over, we think we've got a chance of getting it over the goal line.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what's going on in the presidential campaign. Donald Trump yesterday continued his attacks on Hillary Clinton. He's basically suggesting that she has -- for all intents and purposes, taken payola from other governments for the Clinton Foundation and it somehow colored her time at the State Department. Let me play for you what he said in his speech yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. 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. Then when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So Senator, has Hillary Clinton adequately addressed the questions about the money that has come into the Clinton Foundation?

KAINE: She has, Alisyn, and let me just lay out what this Trump speech showed yesterday. First, you've got to put it in context. This guy wouldn't know truth if it walked up to him on the street.

He's the guy who's gone around perpetrating the zany notion that President Obama was not born in the United States, that the Vince Foster tragic suicide, he wants to now raise it again and say it was a murder.

And remember, just like two months ago, he said that Ted Cruz's father was hanging around with Lee Harvey Oswald. This guy does not know truth and you can't trust anything he says.

And second, look at the contrast. Yesterday was supposed to be a speech by Donald Trump where he was going to make the pivot from criticizing Latinos, women, the disabled, Muslims, to show what a serious candidate he was.

So what does he do? His pivot is, OK, I won't criticize everybody, I'll just repeat a lot of zany stories and negative trashing of Hillary Clinton. In the meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was giving a speech laying out her plans to grow the American economy --

CAMEROTA: And trashing him a little bit.

KAINE: -- and painted a great contrast. She said, Donald Trump is the "you're fired" guy, and I'm going to be the "you're hired" president. And I think that was a great line, and I think the contrast between serious policy and just these rehashed conspiracy theories that Trump was babbling was sharp.

CAMEROTA: Senator, I hear your name dropped all the time in terms of who would be a good pick for Hillary Clinton's vice presidential person. Are you interested?

KAINE: I don't want to get into that guessing game. I'll just tell you this -- I have been supporting Secretary Clinton since April of 2014, first encouraging her to run, and then campaigning for her, especially in the place where I can help the most, which is Virginia. Critical battleground state -- if she wins Virginia, she's going to be president. I'm doing everything I can to help her there, but that's the only role I'm playing with the campaign.

CAMEROTA: At the moment. Senator Tim Kaine, thanks very much. Great to talk to you.

KAINE: Absolutely. You bet.

CUOMO: All right, Libertarian nominee, Governor --