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Democrats Sit-In on House Floor in Protest; Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Trade Attacks in Speeches; Interview with Congressman Peter King. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:05:00]: CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I'll just remind everybody --

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Have a notification --

CUOMO: That's fine. But it is a pretty easy fix. That's a pretty easy fix on a bill that won't even get consideration right now. That's all I'm saying.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It should be debated. That's my point. It is not being debated, one side sitting in and one side walking away. So it was a good discussion. I appreciate having it on NEW DAY. You know that, fellas, thanks to both of you.

FERGUSON: Pleasure.

CUOMO: There is an ongoing situation on the House floor right now. What is it about? What's going to happen? Let's get to it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: Good morning, again. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do begin with this extraordinary drama unfolding on the floor of the House. You just saw John L. Lewis, you just saw other Democratic leaders sitting in on the floor of Congress. Why? Well, obvious. Protest, live pictures now. The number on the podium to call the capital, call your lawmakers and get action on guns.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Even when the capital police showed up for security sweeps and asked the lawmakers to clear the room, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refused to leave along with her colleagues. Republicans, though, have ended their session and they have left town for the July 4th holiday break. So we have this story covered the way only CNN can. Let's go to Sunlen Serfaty at the U.S. capital. What is the latest, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, you're absolutely right. Capital police officers came out on the floor a short time ago and asking the members to clear the floor for a regular security sweep, but Nancy Pelosi and other members were there, did not back down. They stayed on the floor and get talking. They're right now about a group of 10 members still on the floor. They kept this sitting going through the night and into this morning with pizzas, spare iPhone batteries, pillows, blankets, one member even saying she brought a spare toothbrush from home.

But the Republican leadership, they are not bulging. They have adjourned for recess for the next two weeks, but Democrats are now promising to keep it going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D) GEORGIA: I would ask that all of my colleagues join me on the floor.

SERFATY: It all started around 11:15 Wednesday morning.

REP. 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.

LEWIS: How many more mothers, how many more fathers nee 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 on the House floor 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.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 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 convening 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: The gentlemen from Kentucky seek recognition.

(SHOUTING)

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

(SINGING) SERFATY: Democrats yelling "shame" and singing the anthem of the civil rights movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The House stands in recess subject to the call of the chair.

SERFATY: One Republican disrupting the sit-in.

(SHOUTING)

SERFATY: 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 a 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 house indignant, met by angry protesters.

CROWD: Do your job! Do your job!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Democrats have promised to keep this going, keep a presence on the House floor during the next two weeks recess.

[08:05:03] But it is very unclear at this point what form that will take, how robust that capacity will be going forward. But to note, this year alone, the House has taken 24 days of recess as opposed to having just 66 days in session. Chris?

CUOMO: Conviction of the moment versus blowing your barbecue plans, where will the Democrats come down on that? For now they are harnessing the fervor felt by many of you in just about every poll. The showdown on this House floor is bringing out that protest outside the U.S. capital as well late into the night. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has more from the capital.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It's pouring rain outside here in Washington. I got stuck in the rain. And there are at least a dozen people, however, there huddled together. There is no protection for them. They say they will be out there for the duration. They were out there overnight. And at the height of that demonstration, the sit-in there, you had hundreds and hundreds of people gathered outside, all of them have a story, but definitely in support of tougher gun laws, gun measures. There were times that Congressman John Lewis as well as Nancy Pelosi to thank them, to greet them, to them they appreciate their support. And this morning I had a chance to talk to a number of people, one of them very important, very special, her name Lucy McBath. She lost her 17-year-old son, his name, Jordan Davis. He was just 17. This was in November 2012. It happened when he was playing music. He was in his car in a parking lot and another man wanted him to turn down that music, and then he shot and killed him. This morning, Lucy told me why it was so important for her to be there in support of those members of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCY MCBATH, MOTHER OF JORDAN DAVIS: My son was murdered, and just by the grace of God, the boys that were with Jordan were not murdered. They're still living today. And they definitely have been impacted by this for the rest of their lives. I'm out here because I don't want this to happen to anyone else. And I'm out here because I want our legislator to know they're accountable to us. They are accountable to us. And they're supposed to protect and serve us and not be beholding to the NRA gun lobby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Lucy says that she is going to be out there throughout the day. She's going to be back July 5th when the rest of the members of Congress come back to session the Republicans. She says this is critical and something that is very important, very personal for so many people. They say they're going to express their views as well, make their views known November when they decide they're going to vote some of those folks out of office.

CAMEROTA: Suzanne, thanks so much for that.

We are joined now by Congressman Gregory Meeks, New York Democrat and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Congressman, thanks so much for being here.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS, (D) NEW YORK: Good being with you. Don't have much of a voice, but it's great being with you.

CAMEROTA: And you don't have much of a voice because have you been up all night there on the house floor?

MEEKS: We've been on the floor, yes. I took about an hour nap, but we're going right back to the floor as soon as I finish here.

CAMEROTA: And Congressman, how long can you keep this up?

MEEKS: We're going to keep it up. We're going to make sure we are here at least for 24 hours today, but whenever Congress comes back into session, we will continue. We said and we are serious about the fact that if there is no bill, there will be no break. When we come back, even while we're on break there will be things going on, folks will be here. We will continue to fight, until we get a vote on a couple of bills.

CAMEROTA: So -- MEEKS: These are bipartisan bills that we're asking for these votes

on.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, the Republicans aren't expected back until July 5th. You're saying people will be there on the House floor for the better part of two weeks?

MEEKS: I'm saying that we will have a strategy to continue this fight. We are going to giving this fight up. We will have a whip meeting today. We will continue to discuss and strategize. We talked to John Lewis last night. Again, John says he is going to be back out here. So this is not something that we're going to give up on.

The American people, you know, this is great democracy of ours demand that we have a vote so everyone knows where everyone stands on these bills. It is extremely important, and we're not going to in any way give in. We can just come as Congress has done, and just have a moment of silence after tragedy after tragedy. That cannot happen no more.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, we've had Republicans, several on our show this morning, and they say that they are trying to prevent Americans from having their constitutional rights taken away, if people are mistakenly on the terror list, that they should not be denied access to purchase a gun. What's your response?

MEEKS: My response to that is that's ridiculous. In other words, we can work if they are serious, we should be able to debate and work, and come up with something, and I think we have.

[08:10:02] That's why in the bills that we put forward, it is simply to say that if you are on the no-fly list then until such time that we can show or you can show that you don't belong on that list, then you don't have a weapon. That's for the good of the public, to be able to just go in to buy weapons of mass destruction. And I consider the type of weapons that have been utilized weapons of mass destruction. It just doesn't make common sense.

But to be able to purchase a gun, and we're talking about the loopholes, because there is two different things. If you go into Wal- Mart, for example, then you can, you have to have a background check. But if you go to buy something off the internet or one of the gun shows, you don't have to have a background check. And so it just makes sense. We've already -- if we're doing a partial background checks, and you know there is a hole someplace, fill that hole for the benefit of the nation.

CAMEROTA: And in fact, Americans seem to support that overwhelmingly in all of the latest polls. However, we had Congressman Sean Duffy, one of your colleagues on the Republican side just a few moments ago, minutes ago, and he also said that your focus is in the wrong place. You should be focused on terrorism, not guns. Let me play for you what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. SEAN DUFFY, (R) WISCONSIN: How does this list work? How do you get off it? That's a reasonable conversation. Why aren't we debating terrorism? Why are we debating guns? Listen, the conversation should be, listen, Director Comey called me at the FBI, 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 rules do they need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so a couple of things. Number one he thinks the FBI should do better investigations. But in terms of terrorism, his point, and we've heard it before -- if you do not -- terrorists will always be able to get their hands on guns, or they'll make pressure cookers, or they'll have knives, they will still perpetrate their crimes and that's what you should be focused on.

MEEKS: Look, it seems to me that that is just absolutely ridiculous. Number one, when you look at the facts in America, 33,000 people, 33,000 people lost their lives because of gun and weapons. And so in many of them, some by terrorists, some by not. So we need to do something in that regard. Clearly we're fighting the terrorists, but what we have now is individuals, some who are domestic, who are self- motivated. As a result, we must make sure that they don't have access to these weapons.

When you look at the suicides that have been taking place, people with mental illnesses, we've had to make sure we work collectively. We can do more than one thing at any time. We are fighting the terrorists. There's no question about that. When you look at the job that we're doing, whether it's abroad and protecting ourselves at home, it is what our responsibility is. We should be able to do more than one thing. When you think about the Republicans and how much money they spent, for example when four Americans died in Benghazi, look how much money they spent there, and yet we can't talk when we have 33,000 Americans that are dying? No, we've got to talk about that, and we've got to talk about it on the House floor and we need a vote.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Gregory Meeks, we'll be watching what unfolds on the floor today. Thank you for taking time for NEW DAY.

MEEKS: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Later this hour, we will get reaction from congressmen on both sides of the aisle. We'll have Peter King, Republican, and Steve Israel, Democrat, as well as David Jolly, all joining us here on NEW DAY. Chris?

CUOMO: Got a different kind of political fight going on in the campaign trail, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton trading haymakers, very personal about how they do it as well. CNN's Chris Frates is live in Washington with more. Chris?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. You're giht, this 2016 slugfest continued yesterday between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. They were just wailing on each other. Some of the jabs were clean shots, and others, well, 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 is Hillary Clinton rebutting Donald Trump's onslaught of personal --

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton, she is 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 catchphrases.

CLINTON: We shouldn't expect better from someone who is 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.

[08:15:00] FRATES: Trump, praised by his party for delivering a tightly scripted speech, tried to tarnish Clinton's foreign policy record.

TRUMP: No secretary of star h 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 is. 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 ambassadors, Chris Stevens, he was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton 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 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 facts checking team.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: But Trump also rightly pointed out that Clinton has done some e exaggerating of her own. Trump criticized a story Clinton told in 2008 where she said as a first lady, she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire, when, in fact, she didn't. Now, Clinton later said she misspoke. But this has hallmarks of a street fight, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It sure does, Chris. Thanks so much for laying all that out for us.

Well, Republican Congressman Peter King, he drafted a bill on gun control and Democrats actually wanted to vote on it, but then the Republicans skipped town. So Peter King is going to join us with his reaction to that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Action because of inaction, in the name of progress, which has not come yet. That is a good way to characterize what's going on with Democrats in the House, nearing 21 hours by our count on your screen. The sit-in. Why? To force a vote on gun control.

Well, there already was one in the Senate, right, the same bills went up and down. So what will come next? We've got vacation through the July 4th holiday. What happens after that?

Let's talk about the state of play with Representative Peter King, Republican from New York.

His bill on gun control one Democrats actually wanted to vote on and still do.

[08:20:02] Many people don't know, Congressman, that these are largely bipartisan bills. The criticism of your bill from your own, which the headline is, let's keep people from the terror watch list from being able to get guns -- they say you forgot due process. They say that what if Cuomo gets put on the list, like senator, u know, may he rest in peace Senator Kennedy, or Congressman Lewis, who is on the floor of the house right now in the hit-in?

Did you forget that provision and could you fix it?

REP. PETER KING (R), NEW YORK: No, absolutely not. And there is nothing to fix.

Chris, some history on this. I introduced this bill as far back as 2007 at the request of the Bush administration. This is a Bush administration anti-terror bill. Let me just say, you know, I resents sort of what the Democrats are doing, they controlled the house for four years, never allowed it to come to a vote when they were in charge. That's just a side note.

No, there is due process provision in this bill. Anyone who believes they are on the list wrongly can go to court within 60 days to get their name taken off. That to me is due process.

CUOMO: But hold on a second, Congressman, because your brothers and sisters on the right don't leave it at that. They say, no, no, no, no. There are criteria for how put on the list. No notification if you're on the list. There is no criteria for how you get off the list.

I'm going to have to hire a lawyer, I'm going to go into my pocket and I'm going to have to fight against the attorney general. And I'm going to lose in most cases. How do I fight the U.S. government? Fair criticism?

KING: No. First of all, Republicans say we're at war. If you're at war, there is extra power given to the government. In this case, extra power to the government, but you're giving can people. Again, out of maybe 800,000, 1 million names going on one list or another, mostly foreigners, there has been a handful, they used Ted Kennedy and John Lewis as examples but there are people arrested illegally, we don't open up all the jails.

To me, it is a -- you're going to balance the equities here by a small number of people that may be inconvenienced on the other hand saving lives. To me, the option is to save the you're on the terror watch list. To be technical, the bill doesn't talk about a terror watch list. It says at the attorney general shall again, simple names that he believes suspect for terror. So it is not that they've committed a crime. If you committed a crime, you wouldn't need a list. You can just go out and arrest them.

This is not in the area where they commit a crime, but in Orlando, he could have fallen into that category, the FBI could have kept him on the list. We're dealing with unusual times. You try to balance the equities. I believe the equity of my bill is balanced. I would be more than willing to work out a compromise. I said it on the columns as well.

That's what we should be doing. Listen, if like Senator Collins' bill. That's what we should be doing. If my bill isn't good enough, I have no pride of authorship, if we want to go with Susan Collins' bill, as understand that bill to be, that's fine. That would be a significant first step.

CUOMO: Is the reality that your party doesn't want to deal with guns? They want to make Orlando about terror. The failure to address ISIS, not about guns.

KING: To me, we have to do both. First of all, Orlando is about terror. I hear Democrats on CNN saying it is not about terrorism, it is. He was inspired by terrorism. He didn't say a word about anything else, other than ISIS in that last hour ranting he was doing. It's about ISIS, or it's about Allahu Akbar --

CUOMO: No question about that.

It may have been about other things as well. He seemed to have a lot of different derangement, but certainly what he said on the phone calls.

KING: The other people -- ISIS is appealing to people who are deranged, people who do have emotional issues. It is terror.

At the same time, there is a gun issue. Not to trivialize this, walk and chew gum at the same time. This is has to be a all out offensive. We have to do all we can to go after terrorism, but we have to try to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to obtain weapons, whether it's guns, exclusives or whatever.

Would this be a cure all? Absolutely not. Probably 90 percent of the terrorism crimes still being committed. But we have to do everything we possibly can.

CUOMO: And one of the things that you have offered to do in the past that your brothers and sisters on both sides of the aisle have refused to do is, if the congressmen care so much about how we're fighting ISIS, take your constitutional responsibility and debate the authorization for the use of military force.

Nobody wants to do that, and, Congressman, they down to really the fight and they want it both ways with the president. But you said you will debate, Congressman King. I appreciate that.

KING: First of all, yes, I don't think we need it, but I'm more than willing to do it. If it's what it takes, let's do it. We should not -- listen, we're either at war or we're not, confronting ISIS or we're not.

It is not just a gun issue. It is certainly not just a terror issue, even though terror is the prime -- let me just say, I really think for the Democrats is doing is wrong. This is like mob rule. You can't be taking over the House because you don't get what you want.

I wanted my bills voted on. There's a lot of bills I wanted to voted on over the years.

[08:25:01] I think this is unprecedented. This is like a third world banana republic. It's wrong. It demeans democracy.

CUOMO: Let's see what wins, their conviction to win on the floor or their barbecues over the July 4th weekend.

Take care, Congressman. The best to you. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.

KING: Chris, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And thanks for the dialogue. To me, it goes a long way. CUOMO: Absolutely. You're always welcome here. You know we talk about what matters.

Alisyn?

KING: Thank you, Chris.

CAMEROTA: So, Chris, time and again, we have watched President Obama console Americans after mass shootings. How will this house protest, this sit-in over gun control affect the president's legacy? We will speak to his former senior advisor, David Axelrod, about all of this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: It has been 21 hours, and a Democratic sit-in is still going on in the House floor. Lawmakers are demanding action on gun control. This comes after years of mass shootings, followed by congressional gridlock. President Obama has called this the most frustrating issue of his presidency.

So, let's bring in former Obama adviser, now CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod.

Good morning, David.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMETATOR: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So last year, to the BBC, President Obama called these mass shootings the most frustrating issue and the one on which he's been most stymied.