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Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez Meeting; Biden Dominates in New Polls; GDP Beats Expectations; Same-Sex Couple Sues Over Daughter's Citizenship. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 26, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:32] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, we have some breaking political news. A sit down between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is scheduled to get underway right now. This is their first meeting since their private feud spilled into the public.

So let's go to CNN's Lauren Fox, live on Capitol Hill.

We just watched Nancy Pelosi arrive for this. Is AOC there as well?

LAUREN FOX, CNN POLITICS CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's right. This meeting has already started at this point, Alisyn. And, you know, it's just a reflection -- Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most progressive members in this caucus. She is someone who, since coming to Washington, has pushed the speaker on the green new deal, on impeachment. And, of course, a couple weeks ago there was that feud over the emergency border supplemental bill, which Nancy Pelosi attacked Ocasio-Cortez and three other Democratic freshmen for not supporting. And then Ocasio-Cortez argued that the speaker was going after them because they were four freshman women of color.

This meeting today obviously high stakes. It represents a meeting between the old guard establishment in Washington, people who want to come to a compromise, and those freshman Democrats who really want to push the envelope for a more progressive agenda.

And just last night, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that her hope for the meeting was essentially just to open up a line of communication so that the party can work together moving forward. We're going to see how this meeting goes and we'll keep you updated as they come out.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Lauren.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very interested to hear what they have to say.

So, when President Trump addressed young conservatives at the Turning Point USA student summit this week, the presidential seal behind him was a fake. See if you can notice the difference here with the real presidential seal. The fake shows an eagle holding a pile of cash in one claw and a set of golf clubs in the other. That's a tip off.

CAMEROTA: No. NO.

BERMAN: Because golf clubs not in the original. Also, the eagle in the fake is a two headed eagle, similar to the symbol on the Russian Federation Coat of Arms. And also instead of e pluribus unum, a banner reads in Spanish 45 is a puppet.

CAMEROTA: Another tip off.

BERMAN: So the president, again, there he is, standing right in front of it.

How did it happen? The Turning Point group says it was a last minute audio visual mistake.

CAMEROTA: Mistake.

BERMAN: You don't -- you don't say.

CAMEROTA: Wow.

BERMAN: So the aide responsible for it has been let go.

CAMEROTA: Well, that makes sense.

Yes, you've got to -- I guess you have to look really closely at those seals from now on.

BERMAN: Yes.

The golf clubs, not part of what the founders had. Yes.

CAMEROTA: I like that. All right, good point.

Robert Mueller's testimony giving late night hosts something to crow about. Here are your late night laughs.

BERMAN: Or eagle about. (INAUDIBLE).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": The critics have decided, and they're panning Mueller's performance. Look at these headlines. "The New York Times," the blockbuster that wasn't, Mueller disappoints the Democrats. AP, Mueller hearing makes for less than compelling TV drama, and he's only gotten 35 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON": We have a great show tonight. I'm so excited and fired up to be here. I -- I'm pretty much the opposite of Robert Mueller. I really am. I -- everyone is still talking about Mueller's testimony. Democrats were hoping it would, quote, breathe life into the effort to impeach Trump. But afterwards they were like, forget impeachment, someone should try to breathe life into Robert Mueller.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Your slogan does seem to -- to be a shot at Donald Trump. It's not me. Us. That is your campaign slogan.

Now, let me ask you just a quick question, is it smart to put the words "not me" in your campaign for president?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He's laughing, but he's so mad right now. That's --

CAMEROTA: That's the biggest laugh I've ever seen Bernie Sanders give.

BERMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: So he must have found --

BERMAN: That's how I laugh when I'm being made fun of and trying to brush it off. I mean, like, I get the joke, but I hate you.

CAMEROTA: Awesome.

Joe Biden wants voters to believe he is the Democrat who can beat President Trump. And, at the moment, the polls back that up

So Harry Enten is here to explain all of the numbers for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:00] BERMAN: We've been reporting all morning, Joe Biden has a new debate strategy and some brand new poll numbers which show some gains. This is all ahead of next week's Democratic debates right here on CNN.

Here to break it down the numbers, CNN's senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten.

And you've really looked at all the polls we've seen and compared them in time to where Joe Biden was after that first debate, which people didn't think he did so well in.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes. And, first off, I just want to say, it's Friday, so let's have some fun.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

ENTEN: Fun times.

CAMEROTA: Harry just shot out of a canon. Prepare yourselves.

ENTEN: I've shot out of a canon. Whoo!

So, take a look at this. So these are the polls immediately following the debate, June 28th to July 1st, a live interview national polls. And these are the polls following that from July 7th to 23rd. And what do we see? We saw, of course, that Joe Biden had dropped

post-debate, but we've seen him gaining back some of that, jumping from 25 percent immediately following the debate, to 30 percent in the last two weeks.

Take a look at Harris. She remember jumped up. She got all the way up to 17 percent. She's dropped off to 12 percent. And basically what we have is a top tier of Joe Biden alone nationally and then sort of this three-way tie for second, Warren, Sanders and Harris.

CAMEROTA: It's interesting. I mean so the debate thing doesn't last forever.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. It's a bump. It's a bounce. It's not something that lasts forever.

And, you know, Elizabeth Warren, we've actually seen her go up a little bit more. And I think that her bounce, you know, she -- she didn't really have a bounce. She's sort of had that slow, steady climb, and that is much more sustainable.

BERMAN: And this is the national number, the average of them. But when you look at the single states, also the same story.

ENTEN: Yes. So take a look at this. So this is South Carolina, right? That's a key state. It's the fourth in the nation contest. Large African-American vote. And what do we see here. And I've broken it down both overall and among African-Americans.

Joe Biden overwhelmingly ahead with 39 percent of the vote there. This is a recent Monmouth poll. Harris all the way back at 12 percent. You know, this is a guy who's well alone all by himself.

And look, among African-Americans, who make up a majority of the electorate in South Carolina, Joe Biden all the way at 51 percent. They are powering his lead despite the attacks he's taken from Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

CAMEROTA: Tell us about Ohio.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, one of the key arguments that Joe Biden has for his candidacy is, I'm the most electable, folks. I'm the electable guy. And, you know what, the polls right now are backing it up. Key swing state, Ohio, right, no Republican has ever won the presidency without it. Joe Biden, in a recent Quinnipiac University poll, he is the only one ahead. He is up by 8 percentage points. The rest of the Democrats are basically within the margin of error of Donald Trump.

[08:40:17] BERMAN: And we've seen similar things in other big states, right?

ENTEN: We -- that's exactly right. So, you know, Quinnipiac has polled all these states, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas. These are all states that Donald Trump won back in 2016. The truth of the matter is, is if Joe Biden were just to win one of these, he might actually be in a pretty good position. He is actually leading Donald Trump at all these, 50-41 in Florida, Pennsylvania, 53-42, and look at this, Texas, this is a state that hasn't gone Democrat since 1976, 48-44 percent. And Joe Biden is the only one leading in the state of Texas among the Democrats and Biden runs strongest among all the Democrats in all the key states.

CAMEROTA: You have something on Elizabeth Warren.

ENTEN: I do. So I think that this is just sort of interesting. So jumping back to that Ohio poll. Why is Joe Biden running ahead in Ohio where the other Democrats are?

Well, if you look among Democratic voters, what you see is Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden are basically running the same, right, 96 percent for Biden among Democrats, Warren, 94 percent. But look among independents and Republicans, among independents Warren's only at 48 percent. Biden's all the way up to 55 percent. And among Republicans, although, of course, Donald Trump is crushing them there, Joe Biden gets a little bit more of that vote at 10 percent versus Elizabeth Warren, who's all the way down at 4 percent.

BERMAN: I mean if you step back and look at this, the big picture here is, as long as Joe Biden maintains his solid leak among African- Americans, and as long as Joe Biden maintains his edge among moderates, whatever their political affiliation, he's in good shape.

ENTEN: He's exactly in good shape. And as long as he maintains that electability edge that's driving his lead, those three factors are driving his lead in the Democratic primary, and that's why we're seeing him continue there (ph).

CAMEROTA: You've got 10 seconds. What would you like to tell us?

ENTEN: I just want to say that the Buffalo Bills reported to training camp this week. My season forecast is misery likely with a chance of desperation. Folks, I'm a huge Bill's fan. But, look, they've only made the playoff once since my bar mitzvah.

CAMEROTA: Which was last year.

ENTEN: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: All right, thank you all.

CAMEROTA: I can play that game.

OK, they're -- we have to tell you about this story, because a same- sex couple in the U.S. is suing the government because the State Department says their daughter, born in Britain via surrogate, is not a U.S. citizen. So the family is going to join us with their struggle, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:30] BERMAN: Breaking news, the government just released a key reading of economic growth, GDP for the second quarter.

Our chief business correspondent, the star of "EARLY START," Christine Romans here with the numbers.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

BERMAN: A slowdown.

ROMANS: Yes. A deceleration really when you look at the second quarter. And 2.1 percent economic growth. You guys, look at how that is a full point less than we saw in the first quarter.

Now, there could be a couple of things going on here. One, in the first quarter of the year, you had companies that were rushing to buy goods to build in inventories before tariffs were going to be raised, so they really kind of stockpiled, and so that can take away a little bit of the growth later on.

Also, you've got -- the fact that Boeing was a bit of a drag on the economy. We've been watching to see how -- I mean Boeing is a huge manufacturer, a big component in the American economy. And that 737 Max problem is something that has -- has stopped production of that airplane, frankly, and kept millions of dollars of airplanes in the airplane hangars.

Let's look at the year because this is important. That's last year, 2.9 percent, about 3 percent if you go fourth quarter to fourth quarter, which is right in line with the White House estimates. But you're not seeing that super charged economic growth yet, you guys, that the president promised because of tax cuts, cutting regulations and for the Trump economy. Remember, he had promised 3 percent, 4 percent. You heard him in his most hyperbolic to say, you know, 5 percent, 6 percent. You're not seeing that yet. And, in fact, you're seeing the effects of -- the good effects of the tax cuts starting to fade a bit.

Now, so it's a deceleration. But what does it mean overall? Well, 2.1 percent economic growth is still hanging in there, you guys. These are the kind of numbers that we posted routinely in the Obama administration that this president -- the current president really used to slam. But it is holding in there. Is 2.1 percent economic growth, is that reason for the Fed to cut rates like the president wants? It doesn't look so -- like it.

BERMAN: Not historically.

ROMANS: No, not historically at least.

BERMAN: To be sure.

All right, Christine Romans, thank you very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Interesting to see if the president touts these numbers as much as he often touts some of the numbers.

ROMANS: Or blames the Fed.

BERMAN: Uh-huh. Thank you, Romans.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Christine.

All right, now to this story.

A same-sex married couple in Georgia is suing the U.S. State Department for refusing to recognize their baby as a citizen. Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg had their daughter Simone with the help of a surrogate in England last year. Both fathers are listed on the birth certificate. Both are U.S. citizens. So why is their daughter not considered one?

Joining us now are Derek Mize, Jonathan Gregg and their one-year-old daughter Simone.

Guys, thank you so much for being here with Simone. We can see how adorable she is.

Guys, can you -- can you just explain to us why the State Department doesn't recognize Simone as a U.S. citizen?

DEREK MIZE, SUING STATE DEPARTMENT OVER DAUGHTER'S CITIZENSHIP: Well, thank you for having us, first of all.

I mean the shorter answer is we don't know why they're not recognizing her as a citizen. We understand their explanation is that they don't see us as a married couple. They're treating her as a child born out of wedlock because we used a donor egg and IVF to create her.

CAMEROTA: I mean basically what they're trying to say is that because she has a biological connection to the surrogate, who is British, though you are both the parents on her birth certificate, she is not a U.S. citizen, is that how you understand it?

[08:49:58] MIZE: It's a little different than that. She has a biological connection to my husband, Jonathan, although we don't distinguish between the two of us as to, you know, who's the dad. We're both the fathers. And her other biological connection is to an anonymous egg donor. And this is someone who we've never met and she has no idea who we are. But out of the goodness of her heart, without compensation or coercion, she decided to donate her eggs so that she could help create life to an egg bank, and we were the very lucky recipients of those donor eggs. And those are the eggs that we used to create our daughter.

CAMEROTA: OK. Understood.

Now, people here in the U.S. use egg donors, sperm donation all the time, OK, and don't have this problem. The problem seems to come in the British surrogate who -- because Simone was born in the U.K. But -- but even that doesn't -- I don't quite understand because, you know, what about adopted children who were born in other countries and U.S. parents who adopt their children from countries? Why don't they need a biological connection in order to become citizens?

MIZE: Yes, I wish I could answer these questions for you. I think it would require someone from the State Department to explain how they are reaching these decisions because they're not applying the law. You know, the law is that if a child is born abroad to two married people and one of them is a citizen, then the child is a citizen. And there are separate laws for adoption.

So, in our case, we're just asking them to apply the law as it's written. And I think the point that you're making is that these questions about who's biologically connected to their children are seemingly only being asked to couples like us. When we went to the embassy to get Simone's passport, there were a lot of different sex couples that arrived after us and left before us and no one asked them questions about whether they were both biologically connected or whether they needed to use IVF. We were the only ones that were targeted that day.

CAMEROTA: Well, we appreciate your suggestion to ask the State Department. We have tried to ask the State Department these questions. They gave us this statement that I will read.

We do not comment on pending litigation. Our operational guidance with regard to citizenship transmission in cases involving assistive reproduction technology, in other words using a surrogate or IVF, is long-standing and the relevant policies and section of the regulations have been unchanged for several years.

So that is not the most satisfying statement.

MIZE: No.

CAMEROTA: But -- but just tell me the upshot of all of this, Derek? I mean in terms of you're -- so Simone, your daughter, is here on a tourist visa right now?

MIZE: She is. I mean, honestly, the upshot is that we have a beautiful daughter, and we're going through a very difficult time right now with the anxiety of having to sue the State Department. But it's far outweighed by the joy we have every day of being with her notwithstanding the time we spend on live TV. So she's a pleasure. And this is about her. And we're going to fight for her right to be in her country. And I hope we're going to win. I hope people are going to see us as the family that we are.

CAMEROTA: Well, we certainly -- any parent recognizes those dulcet tones of the one-year-old who doesn't necessarily want to sit still. So, guys, thank you very much for explaining this lawsuit that you've filed. And, of course, we will watch it to see what -- yes, and you as well, Simone. Yes. We will be watching you very closely as well to see what all of your fate is.

Thank you all very much for being with us.

MIZE: Thank you so much.

JONATHAN GREGG, SUING STATE DEPARTMENT OVER DAUGHTER'S CITIZENSHIP: Thank you.

MIZE: Thank you.

BERMAN: Let' me tell you something, she's perfect.

GREGG: Bye-bye.

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: She's perfect, first of all. And you can see the love there. And you just want everything to work out for this family.

CAMEROTA: And I just don't understand the State Department saying that there has to be a biological connection. There's all sorts of families right now that have no biological connection from adopted to those who have used assisted reproductive technologies. So they need to clarify that law.

BERMAN: And I like his statement there, you know, this is all about her, Simone. I think everything as far as Simone is concerns is all about her based on what we just saw there.

All right, every week we honor CNN Heroes, everyday people doing extraordinary things in helping others. But becoming a CNN Hero begins with a nomination from you taking a few minutes to fill out an online form could turn your mentor or someone whose work you admire into a CNN Hero and change their life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I met my hero when we were volunteering.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's making a big difference for kids in our area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is my second mom, my mentor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt like it was very important for people to know about Sister Tesa (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt honored that I was able to honor her in such a significant way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so proud of myself because I was like, oh, my goodness, for everything that she's done for me, I did something for her, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:55:03] BERMAN: And that could be you. If you know someone who deserves to be a CNN Hero, don't wait. Nominations close Wednesday night. Go to cnnheroes.com and do it now.

CAMEROTA: OK, sorry, I'm busy nominating you right now, John.

BERMAN: There's a fantastic example. I'd love to hear why.

CAMEROTA: OK. OK, well, I'm going to write all that down right now. All right, have a great weekend, everyone.

BERMAN: See you from Detroit on Monday.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

And "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto picks up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

[09:00:01] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

Happy Friday, everyone.

After weeks of tension they are finally meeting. The highly anticipated face-to-face between House Speaker Nancy.