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Biden Unveils Criminal Justice Reform Plan; Trump's Border Wall Claim; FDA Campaign on E-Cigarette Dangers. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 23, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All of this and we're going to have you walk us through it tomorrow.

So, great to have you, John Dean.

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for being here.

All right, now to this. Former VP Joe Biden just came out with a new criminal justice reform plan. So next week's CNN debate lineup could have something to do with this timing. We'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, former Vice President Joe Biden is just out with a new criminal justice reform plan. This comes days before the CNN Democratic debates next week. Was that a plan?

There's something about Harry, so let's get "The Forecast" with CNN's senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten.

Harry, great to see you.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Shalom. Good morning to both of you.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

So, Joe Biden's criminal justice plan, this way at the debate when he is asked about the old crime bill from the '90s --

ENTEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: He'll be able to say, may I refer you to my new plan just out.

ENTEN: Yes, that's exactly right. I mean take a look at this. So this is the podium line-up that we have going on here. I think so many people have been paying attention to this potential matchup. But the one that actually interests me most is actually Biden versus Booker. And why is that? We were mentioning criminal justice reform. And so take a look at this. So this is basically -- oh, no, that's -- that's the wrong slide. Well, I've got -- in any event, the point is, as we are make our way --

[08:35:05] CAMEROTA: Our seamless system never shows this.

ENTEN: Our seamless -- our seamless system -- well, what I would point out is that Booker's been going after Biden so much on criminal justice reform. You know he said, oh, it's been -- the 1994 crime bill is an awful bill. Why did it take Biden so long to, you know, say that it wasn't exactly a perfect bill?

And, more than that, what we've seen is that Booker has really suffered with African-American voters, right? We've seen him only at 4 percent in the recent average of polls, while Biden has been well ahead of the field at around 40 percent. So basically what I think what you're going to want to see is that Booker is going to try to attack Biden in order to try and grab some of that African-American support.

GREGORY: Did Harris have an appreciable gain?

ENTEN: She did have an appreciable gain. So she basically jumped up from the single digits, all the way up to about 20 percent. Biden did drop about 10 percentage points after the first debate, but he still leads the field by about 20 points among African-American voters.

CAMEROTA: What's the next wrong slide you've got --

ENTEN: Yes, right. So, you know, one of the things that I think is sort of important to point out as we sort of switch topics here is basically, what was the key story of 2016, right? Why did Donald Trump win that election? And one of the key reasons that he won that election was because of this group, the both unfavorable group. I keep pointing this out over and over and over again. But David's here new, so I'm going to point it out for him as well. And what did we see? Among that group that made up 18 percent of the electorate, the reason Trump won that election was, he won that group by 17 percentage points. That is he was the lesser of two evils.

And this, to me, is just so important because there was a new Marist poll out yesterday that found that Trump's approval rating was only 44 percent with a 52 percent disapproval rating. But take a look at this. They also asked the ideas if the Democratic presidential candidates are generally going to move the country in the right or wrong direction. Only 43 percent said right direction. Forty-eight percent said wrong direction. So, to me, this looks -- this is starting to give me almost, you know, a dream of 2016 where both sides are not very well liked. And that's exactly what Donald Trump wants.

GREGORY: Because there's just disaffection with the political class?

ENTEN: There is disaffection with the political class. And so, you know, the big question is, you know, we keep saying, well, Trump's in trouble, Trump's in trouble because of his low approval rating, but if they don't like the Democrats either, that's going to be big trouble from them going into 2020.

CAMEROTA: I mean when they winnow down the field of 20, that might change.

ENTEN: Of course it could change, but this, to me, is a big thing right here, the fact that so many people aren't necessarily liking the policies on the Democratic side.

And one of the big things of that, it's immigration, right? What's a bad idea, decriminalizing illegal border crossings. Sixty-seven percent say that's a bad idea. That's something Julian Castro's been bring up over and over again. Giving immigrants here illegally national insurance, they were raising their hand, remember that during that debate, they were raising their hand. And less than a third of -- so if you want to look back at 2016, why was it that we had that big sort of shift in the Midwest, is because less than a third of Clinton voters said they wanted undocumented immigrants deported, but two- thirds of Obama/Trump voters in the Midwest did and two-thirds of all Trump voters did. This is the type of topic that could definitely shift things.

GREGORY: Right.

CAMEROTA: And health care very quickly.

ENTEN: We have health care very quickly. This is another thing. Look, we've seen the Democrats going over and over again, the leading three -- leading four, except for Biden, they want only a public plan, just 40 percent think that's a good idea. And, remember, that was such an important issue, health care. So important in the midterm elections, 41 percent said it was a top issue. Democrats won it by 52 points. This, to me, could tell you that maybe that advantage will be lost.

CAMEROTA: Well done, Harry Enten.

GREGORY: Really good.

ENTEN: I try my best, folks.

CAMEROTA: Thank you very much for all of that information.

ENTEN: I try.

GREGORY: It's really good information. Thanks, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

GREGORY: So, President Trump claims that he deserves credit for building a new wall at the border since we've been talking about illegal immigration. We will fact check that claim right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:22] GREGORY: President Trump lashing out at the media again because he says he gets no credit for the work that he's done on the border wall. The president tweeting this, when we rip down and totally replace a badly broken and dilapidated barrier on the southern border, something which cannot do the job, the fake media gives us zero credit for build a new wall. We have replaced many miles of old barrier with powerful new walls.

We're going to get our facts with our fact checker Daniel Dale now.

So, Daniel, bring us up to speed here on what is fact and what is fiction with regard to barriers and walls and protecting the border.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Sure. So Trump has replaced existing fencing and other barriers. There has been about 50 miles of replacement barrier erected during Trump's presidency.

What is also true, though, is that no new miles of barrier have been built. So no additional parts of the border have been covered by barriers under Trump. Basically what's happening here is not Trump making a false claim, but him trying to change the definitions. So him saying, look, you're criticizing me and saying I'm not building any wall. Why don't you count that replacement barrier as wall, even though that's -- that's, of course, not exactly what he campaigned on.

GREGORY: Right, because the argument was that barriers were not effective. They were falling down or they needed something stronger. So -- and just a replacement would not be -- you know, of course the new wall that Mexico was going to pay for.

"The Washington Examiner," a conservative newspaper had this headline. Trump has not built a single mile of new border fence after 30 months in office. Obviously this signals to a base of supporters who wanted him to really come through on not just replacement but really extending that barrier, and that hasn't happened.

DALE: Yes, so I think what he's trying to do with that tweet is convince his base that he is delivering. And we know that he's been often successful in reframing issues to convince his base that something is true when by most definitions it isn't. So I think this is his attempt to persuade them that even though there's no new wall, what he has built is new wall because he says so.

GREGORY: The overall investment and the idea of a barrier, a fence, a wall, he's been stymied by not getting more money, but how much has he directed towards the overall effort?

DALE: So we have at least a couple of billion. And it's hard to give a precise figure because Trump, of course, declared a national emergency to essentially appropriate funds from within the federal government to the wall effort. So we don't know exactly how much he has been able to grab through those means so far.

GREGORY: All right, Daniel Dale with an important fact check on what the president is saying and doing with regard to his signature campaign promise. Thank you, as always.

[08:45:06] DALE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, David, the Food and Drug Administration is using magic tricks to try to get kids to quit vaping. And that's not a figure of speech.

GREGORY: But first, helping foster families succeed in today's "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I get a foster kid, when I look in their eyes, I look at a kid that wants to be loved. And that's what I'm willing to give.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These children, they need people who will step up for them, who will be their heroes. What we want to do here at Bloom is setup up our foster families for success.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want The Incredible Hulk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Bloom Closet, we give away free clothing and supplies to foster children. Last year at The Bloom Closet, we saw 3,800 foster children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oftentimes these kids come into the system with nothing. And so an advantage to The Bloom Closet is that it's right there. You can come the same day and get what you need to provide for these kids and it gives you a good start.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to be working and learning all the tools that it takes to help these children feel comfortable and safe in our homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And in Bloom University so often these kids come into care and they're -- they've had significant trauma in their lives. They've had lost. And so Bloom University equips families to deal with the needs of these kids and it allows positive outcomes to take place that these kids begin to heal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean having a support system, also having the social workers help you, like they always say it takes a village to raise a child and that's what we've got here with Bloom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:51:01] CAMEROTA: "Here's Your Health."

The Food and Drug Administration has just released its first anti- vaping TV ads aimed at teenagers. The ads use street magic to highlight the dangers of e-cigarettes. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now watch very carefully.

Boom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's pretty cool.

So CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now.

So, Sanjay, I know you probably think that these are great but overdue.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean it's always cool to look at street magic. Who doesn't like that?

But as we -- you know, we talk about the epidemic of vaping, I think people have been long asking, where is the FDA in all of this? What is their role exactly? And this is a little bit of a hint. There's more to come from the FDA. But these ads are a big part of this FDA's campaign to try and get kids to not start smoking.

Let me show you a stat that I've always paid attention to because I think it's really important. When you look at people who start using e-cigarettes, what is the likelihood that they will then transition to combustible or transitional cigarettes? That's a number the FDA as looked at. Let me show it to you there. You look at new cigarette use, 21, 22 percent are attributable to past e-cigarette use. So just think about that. Really important statistic. E-cigarettes were supposed to help people stop smoking. The concern is it could get some people to start smoking, a new generation of young people. That's what this $60 million ad campaign's all about.

GREGORY: And, Sanjay, I'm right there with you. I applaud the FDA. I do think it's overdue. I'm so glad you describe this as an epidemic.

And what's so -- to me what's so powerful about the part of the ad that I saw, if you ask young people, middle schoolers, because we're talking about middle schoolers and high schoolers, would you like to smoke a cigarette, they would say, gross, who would ever do that?

GUPTA: Right.

GREGORY: And they don't realize how much -- they're not -- and they're not ingesting tar, but they are getting a ton of nicotine and they're getting hooked. They're doing it in between classes. They're losing focus. They're hanging out in, you know, in their room or in dorm rooms doing it. It's a big problem.

GUPTA: Yes, no question. And then again the idea that if you get hooked on the nicotine that you might transition to the combustibles, which have all those other things, David, that you're talking about.

Social media is a big part of this. I mean we've done stories on this showing the impact of social media. But this FDA campaign, you know, you may dismiss it or, you know, not be sure what to think of it, they've done previous campaigns and they've shown -- for example, they've been able to prevent 350,000 young people from starting smoking with previous campaigns. This particular on that you're looking at has been viewed some 2 billion times by teens. So it's an interesting -- it's really interesting to see these sort of digital campaign wars around messaging.

CAMEROTA: And how big of a problem is it, right? I mean my kids are younger than this, so I haven't dealt with it yet. How big of a problem is our kids and vaping or kids and e-cigarettes?

GUPTA: Well, we can have -- we have the numbers on this. I mean these numbers are pretty good numbers. But take a look at this. 2017, 2.1 million. But it's this -- it's this delta, this change between 2017 and 2018. Another million and a half kids started vaping. These are middle school and high school students. So starting pretty young as well. We don't know the 2019 numbers, but, you know, they're going to be very interesting to see if they continue to go up.

GREGORY: But, Sanjay, wouldn't you agree, first of all, if you're a parent out there, go online and find out what these -- what the pods look like and what the devices look like.

GUPTA: Yes.

GREGORY: Juul markets a product shamelessly to children that looks like a thumb drive. And it's so easy to conceal because the vapor is very hard to smell. It doesn't have any odor and it's flavored in good flavors that kids would like. The other thing, of course, is that people are getting pods that have THC, which is the ingredient in marijuana.

GUPTA: Right.

GREGORY: So they're getting high using Juuls. They're not just ingesting the nicotine.

GUPTA: Yes, and, you know, you go on YouTube and, again, we've done some stories on this, but you see how they're actually changing out these pods, two pods that have -- that have cannabis in them as well. So it's a real problem.

[08:55:01] By the way, there's these hearing that are going to go on this week in Washington, health experts, politicians and industry experts from companies like Juul are going to be on Capitol Hill talking about this. I -- my understanding is there's something -- some other big things happening in Washington this week, but this is a -- this is pretty big one in the public health world and it's going to be a spirited, I promise, conversation.

GREGORY: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right. Well, we'll watch.

GREGORY: I just think it's so important that Sanjay is reporting on this and that we're shining a light on it too.

CAMEROTA: He has been for a long time.

GREGORY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay's been out ahead of it. Thank you for all of the new information, Sanjay.

GUPTA: You got it.

GREGORY: Thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you. Thanks, guys.

GREGORY: Well, it was good to be with you today.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you. Thanks so much for all your help.

GREGORY: We'll be watching, obviously, in D.C.

"NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto will pick it up right after this break. See you soon (ph).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:06] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow. We're happy to be.

END