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New Day
Grassley Sets Friday Deadline; Trade War Kills Job Pledge; This is Life Premieres Sunday. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired September 20, 2018 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00] AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: These Republican senators. They were elected to serve the country. Dr. Ford is a private citizen. She came forward to tell her story first privately to Senator Feinstein. Now she's being forced, she's being bullied into showing up four or five days after this letter is leaked to make a statement, to give testimony before the American people without having any opportunity to prepare for this testimony, without there being a formal investigation, which we know is protocol in cases like this, to be questioned by 11 white men, none of whom, to our knowledge, have any expertise in investigating or questioning sexual assault victims. So it's not on her. It's on the senators to step up to do their jobs, to investigate this claim properly and to give Dr. Ford the courtesy and the fairness that any sexual assault victim deserves in a case like this.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Amy.
AMY KREMER, CO-FOUNDER, WOMEN FOR TRUMP: John -- yes, I mean, you know what, she knew that she was going to come forward with this. This is planned. She -- for two months Dianne Feinstein sat on that -- sat on this. And in that two months, she scrubbed her social media. She goes and hires an attorney, a Democrat attorney that's been associated with Al Franken, Bill Clinton and others. Then she goes and takes a polygraph test. It's leaked by the Democrats. It's leaked by the Democrats.
This has been planned from the get go. She's had every opportunity to come forward and she can talk. And it doesn't have to be public. And Dianne Feinstein did not have to put her identity out there. Dianne Feinstein had a responsibility to let her former -- her other committee members know, and she didn't do it.
This is not -- there's going to be no due process in the Senate. She has made a criminal allegation against somebody, and that should be tried in a court of law, not in a court of public opinion. Not in the court of public opinion.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know what --
(CROSS TALK)
BERMAN: Hang on. Hang on. (INAUDIBLE).
NAVARRO: (INAUDIBLE). BERMAN: Hang on.
NAVARRO: But, listen, let -- there's some things in life that should not be partisan. There's some things that should not be about left and right. They should be about right and wrong. When it comes to sexual abuse, that's one of those things. When it comes to having people that are -- that have the fitness of character to serve in the Supreme Court, practically the only office in the land that is unimpeachable, that has no term limits, that does not get to be decided by voters, that, you know, you don't stand -- you're not held accountable once you are put in that Supreme Court, that again should not be partisanship. I'm not talking about ideology. I'm talking about fitness of character.
And I think it behooves the supporter of Judge Kavanaugh, it behooves Judge Kavanaugh himself to call, to request for the FBI investigation because he doesn't want to go into that court with that cloud over him. Look, we already have one Supreme Court justice who a --
KREMER: Ana, he's going to
BERMAN: Hang on, Amy.
NAVARRO: A lot of the country thinks got away with sexual impropriety.
BERMAN: Areva.
NAVARRO: The last thing he wants is to be the second one on that Supreme Court.
BERMAN: Areva, go ahead.
MARTIN: I totally agree with you, Ana. And, Amy, just because you raise your voice doesn't make your arguments more persuasive. The reality is, you can't blame Dr. Ford for whatever mistakes you want to attribute to Senator Dianne Feinstein. And what -- whatever you think about the --
KREMER: I'm not blaming her. I'm not blaming her.
MARTIN: You know, actually, you are. You're talking about the time period that Dianne Feinstein --
KREMER: No, she has a right to be heard.
MARTIN: You know what, Amy, we allowed you to be heard and you need to respect us and allow us to be heard.
Dianne Feinstein handle this matter in the way that she handled it. That has nothing to do with Dr. Ford and her right to be given a fair process. And nothing can be fair when she's being rushed an arbitrary deadline. There are no deadlines set for when this confirmation vote has to take place. They've set this arbitrary deadline. They've said to her, you provide us with your statement by Friday, you show up here by Monday, and if you don't, you will forever be forbidden from telling your story, your truth about the -- KREMER: Areva --
MARTIN: Attempted rape occurring that is so critical to the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh. And Judge Kavanaugh, as Ana said, should want an FBI investigation.
KREMER: You're right. He should.
MARTIN: He should want the truth to come forward so that there won't be a taint on his potential confirmation. And the fact that he hasn't called for one I think calls into question his fitness to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
BERMAN: Amy.
KREMER: You know what, it's really interesting, John, because they take -- they talk about the highest court in the land and so on and so forth. This man was already appointed a lifetime appointment as a federal judge. He's already written 300 opinions. Where were they when he was appointed to that bench? Why weren't they coming forward then with that information?
BERMAN: OK. OK, Amy, I've got -- I've got to stop you right here -- I've got to because there's one thing you said that I just can't let slide. When you say Professor Blasey Ford, she knew what she was doing when she came forward. Now, she is an alleged victim of sexual assault, OK?
KREMER: Right.
BERMAN: She says -- she says --
KREMER: You don't get to accuse somebody of a crime and then not answer for it.
BERMAN: Hang on. Can I just say one other thing?
KREMER: She accused somebody of a crime.
BERMAN: Can I also say one other thing? You don't get to sexually assault a woman, OK, period.
KREMER: You're right.
[08:35:00] BERMAN: Now, I don't know -- I don't know if it happened or not. I do know that Professor Blasey Ford says it did. I also know that she did not feel comfortable coming forward with it for a number of years, 36 years.
KREMER: So --
BERMAN: I know when she decided to come forward, she felt that it was appropriate to come forward with anonymity. All of this fits a pattern we've seen with other victims of sexual assault. None of that is unusual at all.
KREMER: John --
BERMAN: So when you say she knew what she was doing, like she's got some obligation here, you know, she says she is the one who was attacked. She says she was the victim.
KREMER: You know what, when you accuse somebody of --
BERMAN: And you are blaming her -- you are blaming her for the way she chose to do this.
KREMER: No, when you accuse somebody -- when you accuse somebody of a crime, you have a responsibility. It's on her to prove it happened. And there are no witnesses. There's been no supporting evidence of it. And just as you say she says it happened, Judge Kavanaugh says it didn't happen. Now tell me when did we become a society that all of a sudden you believe one person over the other without evidence?
BERMAN: Areva, how many days should --
(CROSS TALK)
BERMAN: Hang on. I want to ask Areva -- I want to ask Areva because she's been in a courtroom about how many times she's seen a case like that.
MARTIN: Thank you.
We've never seen a case, John, where someone -- a judge says, put these witnesses on the witness stand without any discovery, without any investigation. Judge Kavanaugh himself has sat as a judge in a courtroom. He would never start a trial, ask two witnesses to be sworn in, to give sworn testimony, and there's been no investigation. There are no other witnesses that come forward, that are allowed to come forward. We know in this case there are some other individuals that have critical information about what happened.
And I just want to address what Amy said about, when you accuse someone of a crime what your obligations are. I don't know where you're getting this from. This isn't a law. There's no rules that we are aware of in the Senate as it relates to this. The rules are being made up as they go. They're being made up by Senator Grassley. He's not consulting with Senator Feinstein. He's making them as he goes.
KREMER: But the Democrats won't --
BERMAN: Hang on, Amy. Hang on, Amy.
MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE). You know what, you can say whatever you want to say, but he's setting the rules and there are no standards in this case. And we watched what happened to Anita Hill. We watched how her character was assassinated during the 1991 hearings that she was a part of. And I think Dr. Ford is being incredibly courageous and incredibly smart by not allowing herself to be subject to what's going to essentially be a circus.
KREMER: So you think it's OK -- BERMAN: Hang on, Amy. Hang on, Amy. I want to give Ana a chance to talk here.
(CROSS TALK)
BERMAN: I want to give Ana a chance -- Ana.
NAVARRO: That -- that -- that being said --
BERMAN: Guys, hang on, Ana's going to talk.
NAVARRO: Listen, despite --
MARTIN: You know what, Amy, you can't allow any other woman on this panel to speak, and that speaks volumes about this entire process.
NAVARRO: All right, despite --
BERMAN: Ana, go ahead.
NAVARRO: OK, guys, let's not do this. Listen, let's not do this. And let me tell you this, despite all of this back and forth, I hope that Dr. Blasey Ford, who has now come forward, who has now lost her anonymity, she's pulled the Band-Aid off, despite all these, you know, shenanigans and the Republicans badly trying to ram this through and not having what -- the due process that was afforded Anita Hill in 1991, I hope that she does take the opportunity to testify because if not it's all for naught. So she's so far into this at this point. The country is so far into this. I think we deserve and we want to hear from her. I think she's going to get a lot of support. She's also going to get a lot of ugly feedback, a lot of ugly pushback to the things she says, but she's also going to get a lot of support. This is now in history. And, again, I call on Judge Kavanaugh and his supporters to call on President Trump, to call on the White House, to call on the senators to get an FBI investigation for his own good, for his own legacy, for his own reputation. If he is so confident that he did not do this, he has nothing to fear and he only has something to gain from an FBI investigation.
BERMAN: All right, Ana, Amy, Areva, thank you very much for being with us. Do appreciate you coming on and stating your case.
KREMER: Thank you.
MARTIN: Thanks, John.
BERMAN: Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, I think we heard all of the perspectives there. And, obviously, it is a very fiery debate going on.
All right, meanwhile, the new season of CNN's "This is Life" returns this weekend. The premiere takes a look at the dangerous street gang MS-13.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LISA LING, HOST, "THIS IS LIFE": How old were you the first time you saw someone get killed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Lisa Ling joins us live, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:44:01] CAMEROTA: OK, it's time for CNN "Money Now."
America is in a trade war with China, and the result may be one million American jobs lost.
Chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us with more.
What's this about, Christine?
CHRISTIE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is about a million job pledge that just vanished. Last year the Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma promised to create one million new jobs in the U.S. Remember this high profile meeting with then President-elect Trump. Well, Ma is with him there. He runs China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba. But now he says his plan to create a million jobs here is off. He told China's official news agency this, the promise was made on the premises of friendly U.S.-China partnership and rational trade relations. That premise no longer exists today. So our promise cannot be fulfilled.
Alibaba confirmed to us Ma's comment. Ma has long expressed fear over a trade war between the U.S. and China, calling it a mess that could last two decades. His latest comments follow a fresh volley of tariffs. But analyst, I'll tell you, they have doubted Ma's million job pledge from the start. You know, Alibaba didn't plan on investing or building new factories here in the U.S. Instead, Ma wanted to help American small businesses and farmers sell their product in China.
John.
[08:45:13] BERMAN: All right, Christine Romans, thank you very much.
A new season of CNN's "This is Life" returns this weekend. The premiere episode explores the dangerous street gang MS-13. Lisa ling, she's here with us. She will join us, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: OK, this Sunday the CNN original series "This is Life" with Lisa Ling returns for a new season. In the premier episode, Lisa takes us to the front lines of the battle against the street gang MS-13. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LISA LING, HOST, "THIS IS LIFE": Armed with tactics of seduction, cohesion and threats, MS-13 as had no shortage of potential recruits. Over 100,000 unaccompanied minors have arrived in the United States since 2014, and most are vulnerable to recruitment. Under the cover of night, I met one such target, a young teen recently reunited with his mother after a decade apart.
[08:50:13] LING (on camera): How old were you the first time you saw someone get killed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine.
LING: You were nine years old? Did a lot of your friends join MS-13 in El Salvador?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Ten of my friends joined MS-13.
LING: And what happened to their lives?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of them are dead already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: And Lisa Ling, the host of CNN's "This is Life," joins us now.
Lisa, obviously MS-13 very much in the news. The president, among others, has helped put it there.
LING: They're public enemy number one for the president, yes.
BERMAN: What was it like trying to learn more about them? First of all, was it dangerous?
LING: So President Trump declares that this is this international -- trans-national criminal organization. But the reality is, it is a street gang. And one of the reasons why we hear so much about them is because their tactics are horrific and violent. But there are, according to the FBI, over a million street gangs in the United States. And MS-13 only is less than 1 percent. But because of their violence, they make headlines.
And the reality is that they prey on their own people. And over the last couple of years, they have found this pool of mostly unaccompanied minors and these are kids who have been separated from their parents, in some cases for more than a decade. They come here. They're vulnerable. They're looking for places to belong. And so they become prime targets for MS-13.
CAMEROTA: And what is MS-13's goal? Are they peddling drugs?
LING: So that's the thing, they're portrayed as this international criminal organization. But they really -- they make their money through extortion and human trafficking. They are not on the level of some of these big drug trafficking organizations. They are -- you know most of these gang members have experienced severe levels of trauma themselves and they have gone through civil war in their country. But MS-13 was actually born on the streets of Los Angeles.
And if you really want to understand this gang, there's a lot of complexity to this. And I really hope people will watch our episode on Sunday or read the piece that I wrote on cnn.com because the U.S. government actually has played a role in MS-13's monstrous evolution. And I think people need to know about that.
BERMAN: Dating back to El Salvador and the civil war there.
LING: Absolutely.
BERMAN: And so many of the people caught in the middle of this, both in the gang and the victims of this gang, are teenagers, are young people. And you actually spent time with a high school age person who was caught in the middle of it all.
LING: So -- so the people that this gang mostly prey on are young kids. And that's because, as we mention in the piece, they have this fresh pool to -- from which to recruit. They are mostly these vulnerable kids.
And we profile one really horrific murder of a young 15-year-old girl named Dimaris Reyes Reva (ph). Ten members of MS-13 were charged with her killing. But the girl who is responsible for insighting the killing is now locked up behind bars in Fairfax County. And we had an exclusive communication with her. And her story is really interesting because she fits the profile of the unaccompanied minors.
In fact, Dimaris' story and this girl who is sitting in the Fairfax County Jail fit that profile of unaccompanied minors. They both came to this country. They were from the same hometown. They didn't have much of a relationship with their families and they were -- they were both looking for a place to fit in. And now one is dead and one is potentially awaiting a life sentence for murdering her.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.
I want to talk about what else you have coming up on this season because it is fascinating.
LING: It's a very diverse array of topics.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, this is going to be riveting television. So gender fluidity.
LING: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Which so many of our kids, our adolescent kids, know about more than we do and talk about.
LING: There is a gender revolution going on and it's being led by young people. And it's fascinating. These are kids who don't feel they identity entirely with being a girl or a boy.
BERMAN: Can we put it up on the screen again just so I don't think we want to let one slide there. CAMEROTA: Yes.
BERMAN: That many people may have caught the bottom of that list, animal super-fans called "furries."
LING: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Why are you zeroing in on that, John?
BERMAN: I'm just saying, I don't want people to think we're ignoring it.
LING: So over the years we've gotten a lot of e-mails from people saying, you should cover the furry fandom and we kind of discounted it for a long time because I just thought that, you know, that they were --
CAMEROTA: It was a fetish?
LING: Like sexual, you know, deviance. But I hope people will watch this because the furry population consists of a lot of people who have severe social anxiety. And when they don these furry outfits, they come alive and they're able to interact with people in a way that they would never be able to without the costume.
[08:55:04] There was a father of a 14-year-old girl who cried, like guy's guy from Long Island who cried to me because he talked about how, for the first time, he was seeing his daughter in this animated way and he was just so happy that she has this outlet.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. All of them sound really fascinating.
Lisa Ling, we love when you come on.
LING: Thank you for having me.
CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for explaining all of it.
So the new season of "This is Life" with Lisa Ling premiers this Sunday after Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown," only on CNN.
BERMAN: I knew you'd back to me for taking your read earlier in the show.
CAMEROTA: Yes, that's right. That's what I did.
BERMAN: "The Good Stuff" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: It is time now for "The Good Stuff."
Volunteers rushing to help those in need after Hurricane Florence. Take a look at the United Cajun Navy in action. They're amazing. They navigated their way through the foods to get these supplies to a church in (INAUDIBLE) North Carolina. All kinds of things, from cases of water to food. The Cajun Navy has rescued more than 500 people across the Carolinas. The volunteer group is from Louisiana. It first emerged in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. They say its mission is to help people.
We spoke to them as the storm was hitting and they get there before because they know that their services will be in need.
[09:00:04] CAMEROTA: I love the Cajun Navy.
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: I was with them in Houston after Harvey. They are full service. And they kept us safe. We did all sorts of rescues from people who were trapped. And they brought lunch.
