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Carlson's Comments about General; Rush to Save Infrastructure Deal; Northwest Bakes in Record-Setting Heat; Couple Married for 59 Years Dies in Condo Collapse. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired June 29, 2021 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:33:44]
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump and some of his most prominent supporters have been openly critical of military officials, which some observers point to as a break with the previous orthodox of the Republican Party.
Joining us now, senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations and columnist at "The Washington Post," Max Boot.
Max, always good to see you.
So you just wrote a piece titled, "Imagine if a Squad Member Called a General a Stupid Pig. Tucker Carlson Just Did."
In case our viewers have not seen those comments for themselves, I want to play that quickly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've read Miles Satung (ph). I've read -- I've read Carl Marx (ph). I've read Lennon (ph). That doesn't make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend. And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and non-commissioned officers, of being, quote, woke.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: He's not just a pig, he's stupid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: So you pose the question, what would happen if a Democrat had said that. What do you -- what do you think would happen? What if it was a member of the squad, for example?
MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS AND COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, it's pretty obvious that people like Tucker Carlson would be having a hissy fit if it had been a member of the squad, AOC or Ilhan Omar or somebody else who had called America's top general a stupid pig, right? [06:35:08]
You could easily imagine people like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity and all the rest saying that, you know, these are remarks that show this person is a traitor. They're un-American. They ought to go back where they come from. And yet Tucker Carlson gets away with this vile name calling and there is not a peep of protest on the right.
Remember, Tucker Carlson, who has never served a day in uniform in his life is calling our top general, somebody who is not only a graduate of Princeton and Columbia University, but has served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, who has risked his life, who has been away from his family for years at a time, Tucker Carlson is saying he's a stupid pig, and the right seems perfectly OK with that. That, to me, is just vile and unacceptable but it's a sign of where the Republican Party is today in the post Trump era.
HILL: Where do you think that shift began? I mean is there a moment that sticks out for you where this shift started for the Republican Party, which has always been seen as, you know, very pro-military, and having a lot of support among veterans, even among active -- active duty, although, obviously, they're not saying it while they're -- while they're enlisted. Is there a moment that you think really kick started this shift that we're seeing?
BOOT: This is -- I think this is another example of how Donald Trump has transformed the Republican Party for the worst. All Donald Trump cares about is personal loyalty to Donald Trump. And so, therefore, he has been willing to trash the military when he feels like they're not doing exactly what he wants.
In fact, we've had some recent revelations of that in a new book by "Wall Street Journal" reporter Michael Bender, who writes about how Trump demanded last summer that the military crack the skulls of civil rights demonstrators. And he was furious when General Milley and other generals refused to go along.
In the past --
HILL: We actually have that, Max. I want to -- I want to --
BOOT: OK.
HILL: You led us into it perfectly. So, thank you.
BOOT: Yes. OK. Sure.
HILL: But we do have that available. So in this -- this comes to us, as you point out, from "The Wall Street Journal's" Michael Bender in his new book and it details the shouting match between Trump and General Milley. And we can see it up there on the screen where Trump said at Milley saying, I said you're in f-ing charge! Well, I'm not in charge!, Milley yells back. You can't f-ing talk to me like that!, Trump said. And Milley turns to others to say, there's a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities? Here Bill Barr steps in to say, he's right, the general is right.
That exchange, forget the fact that maybe the former president was not aware, right, of what his actual responsibilities are, what the legal ramifications could be, that exchange with the general says a lot to your point.
BOOT: Exactly. And in the past that we know that Trump has referred to our generals as dopes and babies, that's a revelation from an earlier book about the Trump presidency. He's also been reported saying that the people who gave their lives for this country, who are buried in our military cemeteries, are suckers and losers. I think that's an indication of Trump's world view, which is that it's all about Trump. He can't imagine somebody who is heroic and self-sacrificing for the nation and he can't understand why generals don't simply do everything that he wants, however unconstitutional, illegal or immoral it may be.
From Trump it's all about personal loyalty to him and about his agenda. And, unfortunately, I think a lot of Republicans are now copying that mindset. They've seen that Trump can get away with trashing our generals, trashing our war dead, trashing our military, and they realize that their base is perfectly fine with that, that all they care about is loyalty to Trump and loyalty to the -- some of the populist hard right positions of the Republican Party.
And so the base is not going to inflict any cost on them for disparaging the military. And that's why you see so many on the right now, including folks like Senator Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and so many others, Matt Gaetz, Congressman Matt Gaetz, so many others who are now trashing and mocking the U.S. military for supposedly being woke and for supposedly embracing critical race theory and, you know, talking -- and Trump is joining in that, talking about woke generals. I mean it's complete nonsense.
But it feels like the right is now waging this war on the U.S. military, which is the last thing I would have ever imagined having grown up as a Republican in -- at a time when the party saw it itself as being very pro-military.
HILL: Max Boot, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.
BOOT: Thank you.
HILL: Well, cracks are emerging in the bipartisan infrastructure deal as the White House sends mixed messages about the agreement. So just how fragile is this deal?
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[06:44:01]
HILL: Later today, President Biden heads to Wisconsin where he'll pitch the bipartisan infrastructure package announced last week. Now, this trip comes after Biden was forced to walk back comments that he would veto the bipartisan bill unless it came with separate Democrat- backed human infrastructure legislation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responding with this warning to Democrats. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): What I did this morning is to call on the president to ask the majority leader and the speaker to deal with these issues separately. To deal with them separately. That's the way the deal was negotiated according to the ten Republicans I can assure you who were in the discussion. There was no agreement that they would be linked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Joining me now, Melanie Zanona. She's a congressional reporter at "Politico" and will soon be a member of the CNN family as a Capitol Hill reporter, which we're very excited about.
MELANIE ZANONA, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": That's right. Me too, yes.
HILL: So, Melanie, as we look at these comments from McConnell, does he have the support to stop this bill?
[06:45:02]
ZANONA: Well, Mitch McConnell, as you know, is the self-proclaimed grim reaper on the Senate side. So, yes, I think it's an open question. He has a ton of sway over his own conference. He is very close with at least five of the ten Republican negotiators who worked on this deal. And it's very clear what he's trying to do here, he's trying to drive a wedge between Democratic leaders and Joe Biden.
Now, of course, Democrats are working behind the scenes to get a lot of these Republicans on board. They're dealing with a whole ton of different constituencies, not just Republicans, but also trying to work with the liberals, also trying to work with the centrist Democrats. So it's just a very, very fragile and complicated process for Democratic leaders.
HILL: Incredibly fragile and complicated and there's been so much focus on the messaging, the mixed messaging, the mixed up messaging. I'm just curious, this morning, where do we stand on the actual bill?
ZANONA: Well, the bill itself feels a little bit like Humpty Dumpty, it keeps falling off the wall and everyone's scrambling to put it back together again.
As of right now, it does appear that at least, you know, some of the five of the ten negotiators are back on board. The question now is whether liberals are going to be furious with Biden's walk-back and his pledge to not veto one of the bills unless he gets the partisan larger package.
The thing to keep in mind here, though, is that, ultimately, Pelosi and Schumer are the ones who control the legislative process. They're going to be the ones in charge of the sequencing, the timing here. So it's a lot to keep an eye on. Anything could blow up at any minute. And there's still a very long slog ahead because they not only have to write the bipartisan bill, so, remember, we still haven't seen bill text, OK.
HILL: Right.
ZANONA: So they still have to write the bipartisan bill, score it, pass it, then they have to do a budget resolution to tee up this reconciliation process, which enables them to overcome the filibuster. And then, finally, they have to actually pass the reconciliation package with near lock step unity in the House and perfect lock step unity in the Senate.
So a whole bunch of tasks ahead of them.
HILL: A quick, easy process.
ZANONA: Yes.
HILL: In all -- in all seriousness, what is the role of Speaker Pelosi right now? Because there is growing concern, specifically among moderate Democrats, that she may be putting up a roadblock here for some of them.
ZANONA: Yes, well, with moderate Democrats, and a lot of these vulnerable House Democrats, keep in mind, they're about to go back to their districts for an August recess for about, you know, six or more weeks in the summertime. And for them to have to go home without a bipartisan deal in hand, especially if it's already passed the Senate, that's going to be something difficult for them to explain.
But Pelosi has somewhat different considerations than Biden, right? She has her progressives, she has very slim majority. This might be her last term as speaker. She did not campaign on bipartisanship, unlike Biden. So even though they have a goal, they have a little bit of different factions that they're dealing with, different dynamics internally. So I think for Pelosi she's not only going to have to tend to her progressive base, but also keep the moderates happy as well.
HILL: Melanie, good to see you. Thank you.
ZANONA: Thank you.
HILL: A dangerous record-setting heat wave still gripping the Northwest.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is standing by with more on that. I mean breaking the records that we were talking about just yesterday, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yesterday. Right. Yes, breaking the record that we set yesterday that broke records that were 100 years old. Think of Seattle. Seattle, 108 degrees. Your normal high should have been 74. That's 34 degrees above normal.
This weather brought to you by ServPro, helping make fire and water damage like it never even happened.
So, here we go, back out to the west. It is cooling down now. The heat is moving to the east slightly. Slightly cooler today. Maybe 20 degrees. So that's, I guess, nice.
Back out here to the northeast, though, temperatures were hot yesterday, and they won't change today. We broke a bunch of records across the Northeast yesterday. Almost 100 in Boston for that matter. And if you get with the humidity, it felt worse than that. It will feel like 107 degrees today around Philadelphia. So one more day in Buffalo but two more days across a lot of the Northeast for this hot weather still to come. At least the west has broken some records but they've broken the heat wave now.
Erica.
HILL: All right, Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HILL: New pictures taken two days before the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, show significant damage in the building's parking garage. So what does that tell us? We're live in Surfside, Florida, next.
Plus, we'll bring you a new interview with a man who lives across from the condo building. A man who lost both of his parents when they building came down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was a tornado outside. I opened the door, and I told my wife, oh, my God. (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[06:54:03]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rescuers are searching for a sixth day here in Surfside, still hoping to find survivors in the rubble of the condo collapse. Among the victims that we know already, Gladys and Antonio Lozano. They were about to celebrate their 59th wedding anniversary. The couple's son and grandson, their grief still just raw, spoke with CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Antonio and Gladys Lozano lived on the ninth floor at the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida. It had been Antonio's dream to live on the beach. Their son, Sergio, had dinner with them at their condo just hours before the building collapsed.
SERGIO LOZANO, PARENTS DIED IN CHAMPLAIN TOWERS COLLAPSE: After dinner, I had -- I work early in the mornings. And I hugged my mom good night, kissed my dad. That was it. No more.
KAYE (on camera): Never imagining that would be the last time you saw them.
LOZANO: No. No.
KAYE (voice over): Sergio returned to his condo in Champlain East, the same complex but two blocks away, only to be awakened around 1:30 in the morning by a terrible noise.
[06:55:07]
LOZANO: I thought it was a tornado outside my apartment. I opened the door and I told my wife, oh, my God. (INAUDIBLE). And she goes, what do you mean? (INAUDIBLE) the building's not there. What do you mean? My parents' apartment's not there.
KAYE: Through tears, he said that his parents' apartment wasn't there, that the building was gone.
Sergio says he used to be able to see into his parent's kitchen from his own apartment.
LOZANO: I could see my mom cooking from my apartment when night would fall. Their kitchen where my dad would sit and watch TV, it wasn't there. It's just like -- I don't know.
KAYE (on camera): As the search continued, were you -- did you have any hope that they would be found alive?
LOZANO: I didn't. I was just praying to God that they went quick and that they were together.
KAYE (voice over): When officials told him his parents had died in the collapse, he says they told him they were found together.
LOZANO: I was told they were in bed together. That's the end of the romantic story. They were together.
KAYE: The Lozanos had been married 59 years. Antonio was 82. Gladys was 80. They first met in Cuba when they were 12 years old. After Antonio came to the United States, he sent for Gladys and they got married on Miami Beach. Antonio later became a successful banker. Their son says they often joked about who might die first.
LOZANO: My dad would say to my mom, if you die, I don't even know how to fry an egg, I'm going to die. And my mom would say that if my dad would die, I don't know how to pay the bills. I always told my mom, don't worry, I'll go and do it.
But they died together. It's not fair. Being crushed. Being destroyed. It's not fair.
KAYE: Next month would have been Gladys and Antonio's 59th wedding anniversary. Instead of planning a celebration, their son Sergio is planning a funeral.
Now, more than ever, he's grateful for happier times, like when he took his parents to Europe and how his mom cried visiting the Vatican. Sergio's son is also cherishing those final moments. He remembers one
of the last things his grandfather told him was that he was proud of him.
SERGIO LOZANO JR., GRANDPARENTS DIED IN CHAMPLAIN TOWERS COLLAPSE : You hear that news that same day, it's -- it's just -- it's unimaginable. Unimaginable.
KAYE: The Lozanos leave behind two children, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. A family that's in pain but at peace knowing Antonio and Gladys are still together.
LOZANO: They're just two amazing -- two totally amazing people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Now, the couple's son, Sergio, says that he has not been back to the building since this happened. He said he just can't bring himself to go there because every time he opens that glass door, like he did that night, he has flash backs and memories of that other building going down.
Also, as far as planning his parents' funeral, he told me that all of their belongings are lost as well as their lives so there aren't any clothes to dress them in for their own funeral. He told me he's going to have to go shopping to get a dress and suit to dress his parents in now to bury them.
John, back to you.
BERMAN: Our thanks to Randi Kaye for that story.
Erica, it just -- it breaks my -- it breaks my heart. And the way Randi told it was so incredible. But the idea that they were found together, and as Randi puts it, they are together now for what would have been their 59th wedding anniversary.
HILL: Yes, and that that gives, you know, some small amount of comfort to Sergio, to all of their family. But it is a small amount of comfort because, as Sergio said, you heard him say, it's just not fair. It shouldn't have happened.
BERMAN: No.
HILL: It is just -- it is -- it's heartbreaking. There's no other way to put it.
BERMAN: Yes. And he has nothing from their apartment. What he does have is their memory. And he will -- he will bear that and they will live on with him.
NEW DAY continues right now.
[07:00:08]
Welcome to our viewers in the United States.
