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Senator Ben Cardin Deliver Message In Baltimore; Judge Orders Trump Administration To Reunite Migrant Families; Police: Man Stabs 9 People At Toddler's Birthday Party; American Tourist Dies In Boat Explosion In The Bahamas. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 02, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

[07:32:34] SEN. BEN CARDIN, (D) MARYLAND: Yes, Congress should pass immigration reform. We need it. But President Trump caused this crisis.

He separated the families at the border. He did that and he can change in tomorrow. This is enough (INAUDIBLE).

(END AUDIOCLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Senator Ben Cardin delivering a message at a family's belong together rally this weekend in Baltimore. It was one of hundreds of marches protest and rallies that to place across the country calling for the immediate reunification of more than 2,000 children separated from their parents by the U.S. government.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. Senator, thanks so much for being with us. The last count that we got from the Trump administration was more than 2,000 children still separated from their parents. Have you been able to get any updates about how many reunifications there've been?

CARDIN: No. In fact they've been very tight lipped about it where the children are, where the parents are whether they're here in the United States or they've been deported. How many have been reunited. They won't give us the numbers. We've requested it. Congress has I think an absolute responsibility to get the facts out to the American people and the Trump administration has not made that information available.

BERMAN: What's the hold up do you think?

CARDIN: I think they are trying to do damage control. They recognize that this policy is just not what America stands for. They do not want to, you know, release the numbers because the numbers are just wrong.

Now the courts may require them to do it. They know that they could reunite families in a much more efficient way. But quite frankly, that some of these parents and the children, they may be in a situation where it's going to be extremely difficult to get them back together again. And the administration is certainly concerned about that information being made public.

BERMAN: Have you seen any evidence the administration is trying to get these children back with their parents?

CARDIN: No. Not at all. We do know that there're certain responsibilities for taking care of children that are in custody of help the human services, but we have seen no urgency in getting the children back with their parents.

So, we really haven't seen an effort being made. We do have a court decision, let's see how it's implemented. We really do need to have much more transparency by the administration as to where the children are, where the parents are. There has to be an effort made to find the parents and get the children back with their parents, and we have not seen that by the administration.

[07:35:08] BERMAN: Senator, in the wake of this, one of the things that we have started to hear from some, not all, but some Democrats is they would like to see ICE abolished and something new in it's place before from Senator Warren, Senator Gillibrand, the candidate here in new York city, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Do you think ICE should be abolished?

CARDIN: My priority is to abolish this administration's policy on immigration that separates parents from children and that the nice people come into this country to seek asylum for domestic abuse or gang violence. We got to change the policy of this administration that's the problem. Mr. Trump policy does the problem at our border.

BERMAN: Is calling for the abolition of ICE helping change that policy?

CARDIN: I think, well, there's a great deal of frustration because the people they're carrying out the president's policies are certainly individuals that are being tested today. So we -- we're going to have an agency, the question is what policy does that agency carry out and the policy its set by the president of the united states and president Trump those policies do not represent American values. That needs to change.

BERMAN: Can I just get you on a yes or no, do you want ICE to exist?

CARDIN: We have to have an agency at the border. I want that policy to reflect not with President Trump has done. I don't want them being ordered to separate families at the border.

I don't want them -- that we said that you can't have a process to seek asylum in your fear of your life. I want America to carry out a traditional role of accepting those that are the most vulnerable in the world, our refugee numbers. That's where I want to have America change its policies and those that are called upon to implement it that they'll carry out a fair policy not President Trump's policy.

BERMAN: All right. It doesn't seem like you're directly answering the question about whether or not you'd like that to see the ICE or somewhat else. To be clear, you're not answering that part of the question, correct? It could ICE, it could be another agency in the --

CARDIN: Well, no, there's going to be an agency. We're going to have an agency at the border. We're always going to have an agency at the border. It's a policy set by this administration --

BERMAN: Right.

CARDIN: -- that's causing the frustration against ICE.

BERMAN: And look to be crystal clear here that has nothing to do with the 2,000 children who've been separated from their parents, abolishing ICE., keeping ICE, that's not going to get the 2,000 children back with their parents and government decision and initiative.

Well, let me ask you were on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Senate. You've been watching this very, very closely. As far as we can see, if you're looking at the reports over the weekend, North Korea is expanding its missile manufacturing. It does not intend to surrender its nuclear stock file according to other reports and has an underground uranium enrichment facility that wasn't previously reported. Do you think the president's discussions with Kim Jong-un are bearing fruit?

CARDIN: Well, we very much want to see diplomacy succeed. That's the best way for us to resolve the Korean nuclear issue. So, we want to see diplomacy succeed. We have not seen anything yet that indicates in any real progress has been made in regards to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

What I find absolutely outrageous is that the Republicans in congress who control both the House and Senate that they held no briefings for the members in Congress as to what the administration is doing North Korea. We have again a responsibility of oversight and yet we're in the dark as to what is happening. That's not good.

BERMAN: Based on these news reports that you've seen, and then I think you and I probably seen the same one. Does it look to you like North Korea denuclearizing?

CARDIN: No. No. The first think you do is get a full listing of their nuclear program, all of the venues for international inspectors in, so you know where you're starting from. That hasn't taken place. That's the preliminary. So we haven't even gotten to the preliminaries of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

BERMAN: Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland thanks so much for coming in. Do appreciate it.

CARDIN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: It is extremely hot outside. I don't know if you've notice that and in fact the temperatures are soaring, so millions of people are under heat warnings today. We'll give you a forecast and tell you how to keep cool.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:29] CAMEROTA: OK. So the clock is now ticking on the Trump Administration. A federal judge has order that migrant parents be reunited with their children sometime in the next 25 days. But more than 2000 children remains separated from their parents this morning.

CNN's Kaylee Hartung is live in Miami where a mother and daughter are back together after being separated for what, two months, Kaylee?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. When this 7-year-old girl wrapped her arms around her mother for the first time in two months yesterday, she asked that they never be separated again. This reunion just as emotional as one could imagine. There were tears of joy and relief, also some laughter when it was agreed that 7-year- old Yoona (ph) would get her favorite meal of pizza for dinner.

Buena Ventura (ph) came to the United States looking for a better life for her family. There was gang violence and crime in her home country of Guatemala that they wanted today escape. So in the early May, she and her then 8-month-old son came to this country a week later, her husband and daughter followed. But in the time between their arrival, the zero tolerance policy was put into effect. And so this family was split up across the country.

While Buena was detained and then released with her son, her husband and daughter were separated forcibly. The father sent to Georgia, the daughter to Michigan. Buena says she felt helpless apart from her daughter and the effort to get her back, even more helpless when she spoke to her daughter on the phone and learned that her head was hurting, that she had a fever, that her mouth was aching, and she's gotten no medical attention. It turns out her daughter had a tooth infection that was then dealt with.

[07:45:11] Another reunion for another Guatemalan family yesterday also at LAX as this mother and daughter separated when they crossed the Arizona border. At one point, this 12-year-old girl told here mother that she would rather the U.S. government deport them just so that they could be together, but they are together now, John, in L.A. seeking asylum. These two reunifications all too rare, given the fact that this deadline is looming.

BERMAN: The government will not tell us how many people have been reunified. Kaylee Hartung, thanks very much.

Police say a man stabbed nine people, including six children at a toddler's birthday party in Boise, Idaho. Authority say the suspect identified as Timmy Kinner, who's seeking revenge after being kicked out at the apartment complex. Four of the victims have life- threatening injuries. This development has as refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Ethiopia. Police say, Kinner is not a refugee and there is no indication the stabbing was a hate crime.

CAMEROTA: A charter boat explosion in the Bahamas has killed one American and injured 10 other people. Policy say an engine exploded and engulfing the 40-foot tour boat in flames. A coast guard says four Americans were flown to a hospital in Florida, others were treated at a hospital in the Bahamas. The cause of this explosion is under investigation.

BERMAN: Let's back to the drawing board for a Japanese startup after an unmanned rocket crashed and explode seconds after lift off on Saturday. The head of Interstellar Technologies says he believes there was a glitch. He believes there was a glitch. I can serve the second source here.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I'm no rocket scientist but that was like a glitch.

BERMAN: I think there was a glitch. I think there was a glitch somewhere in that rocket.

CAMEROTA: Are we going to say this again?

BERMAN: Yes. That looks like a glitch.

CAMEROTA: Well, that looks like a glitch. When the glitch happen?

BERMAN: Wait a second.

CAMEROAT: Right there.

BERMAN: My understanding is --

CAMEROTA: That's the glitch.

BERMAN: -- was supposed to happen -- the rocket is supposed to keep going upward.

CAMEROTA: Go upward. Upward.

BERMAN: Yes, yes. It did not keep going up. They've got to fix that going up part.

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, there's a brutal heat wave that continues to grip much of the U.S.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Meyers has our forecast. What are you seeing, Chad?

Chad Meyers, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More hot weather. I mean, that's the case here. Now Chicago, you've cooled down a little bit. You'd only be in the middle 80s. But New York City, it will feel like 100 to 105. Already on the 84. That's how cold it feels right now.

So we're not even cooling down at night. So you can't even open up the windows and cool things down and say, "Oh, at least I have temperatures in the 60s now." No, your apartment is still hot. It feels like temperatures will be 110 in spots today. Albany, you'll feel like 105.

Now, Coney Island will feel like 90. Morristown, New Jersey will feel somewhere right around 107, so you can get away from the heat if you get closer to the ocean. Get a little bit of the sea breeze and temperatures will feel better.

But if you're working in the city and you can't do that, you're just going to have to suffer with the hot weather, get slightly cooler by tomorrow, only a few degrees. But the cold air, the cool air, the real air that we were supposed to have, John, finally will get here on Friday and Saturday.

BERMAN: All right. Chad Meyers, thanks very much.

One of the most inspiring people I've spoken to as far back as I can remember is Maria Hiaasen is the widow of Rob Hiaasen killed at the Capital Gazette in Maryland. She joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:02] CAMEROTA: The victims killed in the shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Maryland are being remembered. Assistant managing editor Rob Hiaasen and four of his colleagues died in the newsroom on Thursday. Tonight, family and friends will come together to remember Rob and honor his legacy.

And joining us now is his wife, Maria Hiaasen. Maria, thank you so much for being here. We can only imagine what these past four days have been like for you and your kids and family. Tell us how you are today and how you're preparing for the memorial service tonight.

MARIA HIAASEN, WIFE OF SLAIN JOURNALIST ROB HIAASEN: Wow. I'm going to speak of fundamental, the weather, we needed it not to rain but we would have loved for it to be cooler and just having heard your weather person talk, I couldn't help remark on that. But it does take me back to preparing for my wedding, oddly in the backyard at my mom's house in Raleigh, North Carolina 1985. It was hot. I claim it was only 85, others are telling me it was warmer.

But Rob wisely said then, tell folks to bring their shorts because after the magistrate, you know, the equivalent of the justice of the peace marries us, we're going to adjourn to another zone of the yard and break out the shorts and Frisbees, listen to some jazz and drink some beer and celebrate. Oysters on the half shell. And we just want people to be comfortable. That was my husband.

So, I have said that line and meant different things by it today. We want people to be comfortable as -- for their physical well being, of course, in this heat but we want people to be comfortable to share what they recall. And so --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: -- we're just trying to remember what makes us feel good.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: And celebrate that.

CAMEROTA: And, in fact, I read that you are saying -- you're telling people again, that Rob would never want people to have to put on a suit for him. And so you're saying that the attire is summer casual and that shorts are welcomed.

HIAASEN: Correct. Correct, correct. In fact, my mom was just confirming that. She's here from North Carolina. And the family from Florida reiterated it to them last night. So it will be a casual affair. A celebration if you will of Rob's life which, you know, when you're sitting here in the sunshine, even though it's muggy and these beautiful flowers that he and I just had installed this spring, it's easy to say I guess that it's beautiful and this will be so refreshing and it will. But it takes an awful lot to remove the memory of signing a death certificate or, you know, the forms to get a death certificate. And the hell that my children and I had to go through yesterday.

So we're trying and I want to thank Barb Hiaasen for reminding me, one day at a time there's a reason for cliches.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: So we're trying to live in this moment and celebrate the great stories of Rob Hiaasen, some that he wrote, that are worth just reminding people of and some of the poignant moments we shared a couple here. And a lot of reporters in this family or former reporters in some cases but we sat around a dwindled to a small group of I'll say 10 (INAUDIBLE) last night and Rob's nephew Scott shared just a classic real sensitive story --

CAMEROTA: And can you tell us what that was?

HIAASEN: -- from -- Yes. As a former co-worker of Rob's, great writer named Ron Hayes. And back in the '80s when Rob was doing a story on David Acer, the dentist in south Florida that apparently revealed yes or confirmed aids could be transmitted via a dentist, the Kimberly Bergalis case.

[07:55:08] Rob found himself in need of going to a gay bar to try to find if this dentist had associated with other gay men.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: And he walked around and around and around the block a few times and he just couldn't quite do it and he comes back and talks to Ron and as Ron Hayes could tell the story like no other, by the way. Ron is a gay man and Ron said, I just have to tell you that I just walked around this gay bar three times and I'm trying to develop the nerve to go in and I feel bad about myself that this is a thing. And Ron just looked at him, don't worry, first time I went in the gay bar I felt nervous too.

So they're just with journalists there are always stories and, you know, that says so much about Ron Hayes and his gentility --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: -- and it says so much about Rob, feeling guilty about that and --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: --again, what I've said maybe too many times but humanity of us all is what is important. And that's what lovers of poetry and words -- who can still be pragmatic --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: -- and great intellects -- that's what they show.

CAMEROTA: And that's what Rob I know did love. I mean he was a lover of words and I heard you describe him as that. Every single thing that I've heard from colleagues of his and everything I've read, he was just a very special person. He was a special person. And I mentored people and everything -- I mean everything -- I understand why it's hard for you to narrow it down to an anecdote, but I want to read something that his paper put out yesterday in terms of their editorial.

Because I think it's really important about where journalism is right now and how journalists do feel under siege, not necessarily every day in the newsroom but there is a feeling of unease and here's what the paper -- the Capital Gazette Editorial Board wrote. No, we won't forget being called an enemy of the people. No, we won't forget that because exposing evil shining light on wrongs and fighting injustice is what we do. And Marie, I'm wondering, did rob talk about ever feeling threatened lately in this climate as a journalist?

HIAASEN: Well, he would but usually I would be the one bringing it up because of course I was worried about him. And you can envision that after the terrible school shooting in the spring in South Florida, he'd bring it up on my behalf are you safe in a school? So, I -- it just makes me think of two things about Rob. He of course was attuned to what was going on in his profession and the threat to journalism. He cared about those principles and he's a man who believed in voting. We had a primary in Maryland. We've got to read up, we've go together then I'll go in late for the election coverage, you know.

So, he was a civic minded person, a man who believed in the press. And yet, a human being. And I think that's what made him the great editor that he was. He understood -- that's a human being that composed the words that, damn, might suck a little need help right now. That's a human being I'm on the phone with and I'm pestering a third time today to see if they'll do something that the reporter forgot to ask about and I'm sending them back out as you know, people in small shops have to do all kinds of chores.

So, yes, he did talk about -- he did talk about journalism but it didn't consume him the way you might have envisioned.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HIAASEN: But he cared about people and he stood on his integrity. I mean he just said I tried my best to be a man of character. I chose this profession because I believe that it too is a profession of character. It serves a function in our democracy and we are blessed with a piece of property with woods and tranquility and, you know, we could wax poetic about things like is that a bluebird or what not or we could talk about the ethics of should I drive your car even though you've got a Barack Obama sticker on it in 2008 and I have to borrow yours? I mean he worried about things like that. He was a man of principles. And that is journalism.

I mean those who get -- I mean I'm a former journalist, let me confess and an English teacher now. But those who go into journalism, if they are doing it for the right things and I think most of them are, are doing it because they want to uncover the truth. It's impossible to get the absolute truth. It's impossible to understand everything. Lord knows I know that today.

But that's the goal, to put out as close as you can the truth ad Rob Hiaasen, every Hiaasen (ph) in his even beer a journalist, every Hiaasen (ph) knows that.