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New Day

Joe Walsh and Fred Guttenberg are Interviewed on Gun Reform; Oksana Markarova is Interviewed about the War in Ukraine; Lawmakers Draw Battlelines; Activist Targets Mona Lisa. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 31, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOE WALSH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And isolate the NRA. I'm no longer a member of the NRA, haven't been for a few years, because they don't even want people like Fred Guttenberg and me speaking.

John, the NRA doesn't want Fred and I to find any common ground. To hell with them. We've got a -- the only way to pressure these Senate Republicans is responsible gun owners rising up.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I'm glad to be part of this forbidden love then if people don't want you actually talking here.

Assault weapons ban. All right. I'm going to throw those words out, Joe. What do those words mean to you?

WALSH: Again, I'll -- you and I will sit down, John, and we'll have a nice, interesting discussion. To me, every firearm is an assault weapon. To me that's a non-starter. If you want to get something done right now, we should focus like on a laser beam on the process before any firearm is purchased.

President Biden was out there yesterday talking about possibly banning certain handguns. These are non-starters, John, and, Fred, I'd say, if you want to get something done right now.

BERMAN: Fred.

FRED GUTTENBERG, FATHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM JAMIE GUTTENBERG: You know, listen, I have a list of things that I want to do. That's - while that I would call on a backup wish list, even though it's the weapon that was used to kill my daughter, an AR-15, the reality is, I would rather see background checks, not just on weapons, but extended to ammunition, raising the age, repeal of PLOCA (ph), extreme risk protection orders, things that can pass and have the support of the American people right now to get done, that will save lives.

Do I think we, as a country, need to be OK with AR-15s being sold, and companies, like the one that sold the one used in Texas advertising them to children, no, I don't. So maybe we can look at how these weapons are sold and where if we don't come to the place of banning them. But there's so much we can do to save lives that the majority of American people agree with, so let's go there. BERMAN: It really does seem like, if I take this - you know,

concentric circles of you two guys, you know, the vin diagram here, there's agreement on discussing raising the age to buying AR-15-style weapons to 21. There is agreement on expanding background checks.

So, handicap it. What are the chances, Joe, that in the next six months Congress passes that bill?

WALSH: Probably 50/50. And, sadly, it should be higher. My hope, John, again, is that conversations like the ones Fred and I are having will help compel responsible gun owners again to be part of this.

BERMAN: Fred.

GUTTENBERG: Joe's more optimistic than me. And I've already watched Cornyn fail multiple times in discussions with my dear friend, Senator Chris Murphy, previously. You need -- you need at least ten Republican senators. You're not getting them, unfortunately. I appreciate the effort. So, let's put it out there for a vote next week. No if, ands or buts. And you know what, let the two parties show exactly where they stand.

Joe and I, we plan on taking this discussion on the road. We plan on talking to Americans everywhere they are about why this matters, about the connection between this issue and the threat to our democracy. And simply put, if this doesn't pass now, and, again, I'm not optimistic for the reasons I laid out, this will be a political solution and it will be, honestly, I believe an ultimate voting issue come the next election.

WALSH: We have to keep the heat on.

BERMAN: Let the record show, I think we just had this discussion and no one yelled.

Joe Walsh, Fred Guttenberg, I appreciate it. I really do. Thank you.

WALSH: Thanks, John.

GUTTENBERG: Thank you.

President Biden toeing this line now between helping Ukraine and provoking Russia by ruling out certain weapons. How do Ukrainians feel about this? We're going to speak to their ambassador to the United States, next.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And Mona Lisa still smiling, or smirking, after getting what appeared to be caked. We'll tell you what was behind this stunt.

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[08:38:36]

KEILAR: In a new development, President Biden says the U.S. will not be sending Ukraine long range rockets that could strike targets within Russia. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Are you going to - are you going to send long range rocket systems to Ukraine?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, this comes after CNN reported that the administration is preparing to step up the kind of weaponry it is offering Ukraine by sending advanced long range rocket systems that are a top request from Ukrainian officials. Now exactly what the range is, is really the question at hand.

Joining us now is Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova.

Ambassador, thank you so much for being with us.

I do want to know what your understanding is of what Biden said and what that means for Ukraine.

OKSANA MARKAROVA, UKRAINE AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Good morning. Good morning to everyone. And thank you for having me.

Well, I think the main question here is what are we working on together with the U.S. as our strategic partner. And I just want to repeat once again, which -- everything that we said during the past eight years, that - and especially during the last almost 100 days of this brutal, renewed invasion of Russia in Ukraine.

Ukraine was, is, and always will be a peaceful country. We never attack anyone. We never planned to attack Russia. We never planned to attack Russia now. But we need to defend our territory.

[08:40:01]

We need to repel the aggression. We need to get the enemy out from our territory.

And this is what we have been doing. And we're very grateful to the United States for all the support we have received so far. And we are working very hard now on the next packages, which will include very needed capabilities.

So, again, I don't want to get into the discussions of, you know, specific phrases, but, again, just to repeat, we never planned to attack Russia, and I think we are in very good discussions with the United States on the capabilities that we need right now for this phase of the battle.

KEILAR: When we look at this phase of the battle, Ukraine is losing territory. What does that mean for this war and for Ukraine's future? MARKAROVA: Well, this battle is very difficult. It is an artillery

duel, where Russia has put everything after losing Kyiv, after losing so many battles in -- at the beginning, after losing the blitzkrieg, which they thought they could take whole Ukraine in three days. Now they have put everything that they have in the east and south. And it's a very difficult battle. That is why we need more artillery. That is why we need the (INAUDIBLE). That is why we need all the capabilities that will be helpful in this phase of the battle.

KEILAR: Are you losing territory because you don't have these weapons?

MARKAROVA: Well, it's a full-fledged war. And we are fighting against the enemy, which is, yes, not motivated, yes, fighting for their own cause, but there are so many of them, and so many of the weapons that they have. So, you know, I'd rather not discuss this specific aspect of the battles, but just want to say that Ukrainians are as resolved as we were at the beginning of this, as resolved as we were during the eight years of this war, and there will be difficult parts in every battle.

Of course, we would like to win all of them, but for that we need all of our friends and allies supporting us. And we still positive that we will win this.

Now, there will be difficult days. There will be difficult weeks. We do understand it. But we are ready and resolved to win this war.

KEILAR: The EU, now announcing as part of its latest round of sanctions, it's banning the vast majority of Russian oil imports by the end of the year. However, there is a bit of a work around because the deal does not include oil that's imported by a Soviet era pipeline that goes to Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

What is your reaction to this ban?

MARKAROVA: As we repeatedly said, you know, sanctions are as important in this fight for democracy and freedom as weapons. So, we need tighter sanctions on Russia. We need isolation of Russia everywhere. And we need to ban everything that helps them to finance this war. Again, I want to repeat, the war is not only on Ukraine, the war on democratic values, and pretty much on the world order.

So, again, we welcome all the decisions, new sanction packages, and we will continue working with all of our friends and allies on more sanctions. And I want to commend the U.S. here on leading in so many fronts of the sanctions, but there is also still much more we can do together. For example, Russian banks, all of them should be sanctioned. All of them should be on the full bocking (ph) list because there is no such thing as peaceful banking in Russia anymore.

KEILAR: Ambassador, we do appreciate you being with us. Thank you.

MARKAROVA: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: Coming up, the battle it redraw the nation's voting maps for the next decade, why judges are stepping in to stop lawmakers from rigging the system.

BERMAN: Plus, new, unprecedented steps to track down the person who leaked the draft Supreme Court opinion that seeks to overturn Roe v. Wade. We have exclusive CNN reporting.

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[08:47:57]

BERMAN: Lawmakers drawing new battle lines ahead of the midterms. So, what effect will fresh congressional maps have on this year's elections?

John Avlon with a "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right.

The gun debate that's reignited after the massacre of kids and teachers in their Texas school is also reminding Americans about the deep dysfunction of our polarized political system. Because we can have common sense gun safety reforms supported by a super majority of Americans -- like 87 percent -- for preventing people with mental illness for purchasing guns and still there is this sense that nothing is going to get done in Congress.

But it's evidence of the anti-majoritarian incentive structure in our politics. A direct result of a declining competitive congressional districts. And that's by design. Now, get this, the number of swing seats in the House fell from 164 in 1997 to just 78 in 2021, that's according to the Cook Political Report, which now lists just 32 seats as tossups. And that means that the vast, vast majority of the 335 House seats are effectively decided in these low turnout, largely close partisan primary elections that don't represent anything close to a majority of constituents.

Now, this doesn't make sense, right? Unless you're a professional partisan. And that's where the rigged system of redistricting comes in, where once a decade legislative congressional maps are drawn.

Now, we are down to the last few states in that process. And I got to say, the situational ethics this cycle have been something really special.

Now, take New York, where Democrats got greedy and tried to push through a lopsided map that could have given them all but four of the state's 26 congressional seats. Now, you know the old saying, pigs get fed, but hogs get slaughtered? Well, that's what happened here. New York Republicans took the map to court, saying it was unrepresentative, judges agreed, arguing that it also violated a ban on partisan gerrymandering passed by state voters in 2014. So, the court appointed an independent arbiter to fix the mess. He returned with a more competitive map that suddenly has incumbent Democrats facing off against each other in an August primary. This is chaos for people who haven't seen a competitive election in decades.

[08:50:03] Now, Republicans rejoiced, of course, with the chairman of the state party saying that the competitive maps meant a good day for democracy because citizens deserve free and fair elections. Indeed, they do. But those principles should apply no matter what party is trying to do the rigging, right? And that's not happening. Instead, the hypocrisy is sickening with blatant partisan power grabs underway in two of the last high-stakes states.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis pushed through a hyper partisan congressional map that gutted black Democratic districts. A map that even some of his fellow Republicans warned might not survive a challenge. It's now ping-ponging through the courts. And first smacked down by a DeSantis-appointed judge, then reinstated by an appeals court, which means that the DeSantis map might go forward unless the state supreme court intervenes. The clock's ticking.

A version of what Ohio Republicans have been trying to pull off as well, ignoring a state constitutional amendment and multiple rulings from the state supreme court to put forward blatantly biased maps. The state's centrist Republican chief justice, Maureen O'Connor, has slammed their utter refusal to comply with this court's orders as rulings of law.

But this past Friday, a federal court voted to allow Ohio's legislative map to go forward this cycle, despite the fact that it's been declared unconstitutional multiple times. It essentially rewards the run out the clock strategy, while also ignores U.S. Supreme Court's previous decision that federal courts shouldn't weigh in on state redistricting.

This is cynical and lawless through the looking glass stuff. And while we wait for the final congressional maps in Ohio, it's no wonder that the respected election law blog called what's happening in Ohio a case study in the failure of democracy in America. Because those are the stakes. It's been happening beneath your nose on a state by state basis, because the same principle should apply no matter which party is in power, but the rot is in the rigged system of redistricting.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: It really is astounding. I mean there's no level playing field to create the unlevel playing field. It blows your mind.

AVLON: That's exactly right. But we're down to the last two, so keep an eye on it. Huge implications.

BERMAN: John Avlon, thank you very much.

We have heart-stopping new video of kids running on the train tracks, coming within inches of this high-speed train.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:56:29]

KEILAR: Mona Lisa still smirking this morning after being targeted in a stunt at the world-famous Louvre.

CNN's Nada Bashir has the details.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, Brianna, visitors hoping to see the iconic Mona Lisa on Monday were met with quite the surprise after a man attempted to vandalize the painting with cake.

According to the Louvre Museum, the individual used a wheelchair to get up close to the Mona Lisa before smearing frosting over the glass casing protecting the portrait. In video shared on social media, the man can be heard shouting, think of planet earth, there are people destroying the planet, while being escorted by security.

Now, the painting itself wasn't damaged, but the suspect was arrested and taken for a psychiatric evaluation. That's according to the Paris prosecutors' office, who have since launched an investigation into the incident.

John. Brianna.

BERMAN: All right, glad the painting is OK.

Much more news ahead. Stay with us.

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