Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Saturday

U.S. and South Korea Will Not Pursue Hostile Policy Against North Korea; Malinowski Family Passionate About Passing Judy's Law; States Pushing Back Against Trump administration's Request for Voter Information; Another Holiday and Another Severe Weather Threat. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired July 01, 2017 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNIE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He'd better not try that on President Trump. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed and frankly, that patience is over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. military remains on alert watching for any hint of a missile launch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been fascinating and frightening and really sad for our country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he has been very clear that when he gets attacked, he is going to hit back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I am very concerned as to what this once again reveals about the president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was chaos and confusion in New York City after a man with an assault rifle walked into one of the city's busiest hospitals and started shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the sudden, the hospital was on lockdown. It was a scary situation.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: May day, may day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The plane collided, spun across the freeway and burst into flames.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pilot and his passenger are injured but alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. We begin with breaking news out of Arkansas. Police in Little Rock say at least 17 people have been shot inside a local nightclub.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the gunfire erupted early this morning at the Power Ultra Lounge. Cell phone video from inside that club captured the gunfire and the panic. Let's listen together.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: I just can't believe how many shots we heard being fired there. Police say, in addition to the people who were shot, there were people that were injured while they were rushing the doors trying to get out. No fatalities we're told. At least one person, though, is in serious condition at the hospital this morning.

BLACKWELL: Now police are saying so far that this does not appear to be terror related. They also don't believe that there's an active shooter in the area right now. Investigators, though, do not know the exact cause of the shooting, what prompted this, but the suspect may have started this after a dispute inside the club.

PAUL: Well, President Trump kicking off the holiday weekend in New Jersey this morning. He will be back in Washington later today. He is set to deliver a speech at the Kennedy Center celebrating the Freedom Concert in honor of veterans. Now the president also preparing for the G20 Summit.

BLACKWELL: Yes. It's happening at the end of the upcoming week. It's there he will come face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time. The question is, will the president bring up Russia's interference in the 2016 election? And will there be any chance of improved relations as both leaders hoped for back in November?

PAUL: In the meantime, fallout from the president's disparaging tweets at a TV news hosts, now leading to claims of a tabloid hit story and questions about whether the president issued a threat for favorable media coverage.

We've got all of that covered for you this morning, every angle. I want to start with CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Standing with the South Korean president, President Trump issued yet another dire warning on the threat posed by North Korea.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed. Many years and it has failed, and frankly, that patience is over.

ACOSTA: But as the president was leaving the Rose Garden, nearly all of the questions shouted at him were not about national security, they were about the president's tweets and his ongoing war of words with MSNBC hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who now alleged White House aides made them an offer, go softer on your coverage of Mr. Trump, and the president will kill a story about the TV hosts in the "National Enquirer."

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST, "MORNING JOE": He said if you call the president up and you apologize for your coverage, then he will pick up the phone and basically spike the story.

ACOSTA: A White House official confirmed Scarborough did speak with the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, but the official denied there was ever any offer of a quid pro quo. Top White House adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said it is all about counter punching critics in the media. Critics Conway described as unpatriotic.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: It doesn't help the American people to have a president covered in this light. I'm sorry, it is neither productive nor patriotic.

ACOSTA: The president is also disrupting Senate negotiations over health care tweeting, "Republican senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately repeal and then replace at a later date." That mirrors the suggestion from some GOP lawmakers who are growing frustrated with the law jam in the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I am recommending is that we give comfort by the American people by repealing the maximum amount of Obamacare that we can but add a one-year delay before that would be effective so there is an action forcing event so that we get to work.

ACOSTA: The problem is it is not what the president promised.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We are going to do it simultaneously. It will be just fine. We are not going to have like a two-day period and a two- year period where there is nothing. It will be repealed and replaced.

ACOSTA: Even some Republicans say splitting up repeal and replace won't work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is we know how Washington works. Sometimes on deadlines, we still don't get things done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: As for health care, the White House tried to clarify the president's stance saying officials are looking at all options. As whether the president now favors just repealing Obamacare, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, Mr. Trump's thinking has not changed. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

BLACKWELL: With me now is CNN political commentator, Errol Louis, and CNN political analyst and reporter for "Real Clear Politics," Rebecca Berg. Good morning to you.

Rebecca, let me start with you. Considering the CBO estimate of repeal now, replace later, would leave 18 million people without coverage, in addition to those who don't have coverage right now, in the first year, and then 32 million by 2026, politically, is the president's suggestion plausible?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely not. And this is something that Republicans have pretty much agreed on for weeks now and this is why we've seen Senate Republican leaders and House Republican leaders before them pursuing this course of action to try to do everything at once.

Because the political concern for Republicans would be leaving people in the lurch, and pulling the rug out from under them. So what they want to do is prevent that from happening as much as possible to make the transition as smooth as possible.

And repealing first and replacing later would be the exact opposite of that. It would leave people uncovered and also potentially affect premiums in an adverse way. This is something the Republicans have been trying to avoid all along.

And that is not even mentioning the pragmatic sort of practical reasons for pursuing it all together now to make sure that they only need a simple majority in Congress to pass this legislation.

BLACKWELL: So Errol, obviously, some of the more conservative members of the Congress have gotten to the president and convinced him at least to kind of float this idea. He has to know, at least one would expect that he'd know the numbers from the CBO report that came out earlier this week, the ones I just read. How did it get to the point where the president was floating this idea while Mitch McConnell was pushing the bill that he initially endorsed?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, this is what you get, Victor, when you have somebody who has no experience in legislation, right? To try and craft something as large and complex as this as quickly as this White House is trying to push it without any experience in how to do that, this is what you end up with.

You also have a president who wants any kind of a win. If you think about that kind of crazy White House ceremony where he was celebrating as if there was a signing ceremony, after barely getting something through the House of Representatives, he wanted any kind of a win.

Then he wants any kind of a win now, and then I guess, finally, one thing we should never lose sight of is that for many conservative members of Congress, this is all about a tax cut, really, all they wanted to do was repeal of the tax cut on the very wealthy that supplies a lot of the subsidies.

What happens to the 18 million people? An utterly secondary conversation, so they're perfectly comfortable with getting the tax cut now, repealing the Affordable Care Act so that they can get the tax cut, and then worry about the 18 million people later.

I mean, that really is the politics of many members of this caucus. There are others who arrived at the same legislative position for entirely different reasons and that's the problem.

BLACKWELL: So, Rebecca, I wonder what this tweet meant to the Republicans in the Senate who for whom this will be a difficult vote, to vote in support of repeal? So, if we look back to May where the president said he was full-throated, endorsing the House plan.

And then in June, called it mean, if they are out pushing this Senate bill, and the president's already thinking about his plan "b," how do they receive this tweet?

BERG: Well, I think it's clear to Republicans in the Senate and just in general on Capitol Hill, that the president doesn't necessarily have their back on this, and that's what Lindsey Graham said recently.

In fact, that Republicans should not be depending on the president to defend them, to defend the bill. They have to be able to defend this themselves and that's a really difficult position for congressional Republicans to be in because try as they might.

No matter what they do or say, they're not going to have the platform of the presidency to sell this bill. They don't have the megaphone that Donald Trump has. Be that Twitter or be that just any presidential statements that he makes.

And so it would help if the president were on the same page, if he were on the same message, but he hasn't been throughout this process and that certainly has complicated things for Republicans.

BLACKWELL: Errol, anything we're talking about now is a far cry from what the president promised during the campaign. The president prides himself on promises made, promises kept. Let's remind people of what the president promised during the campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, how do you fix it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: There's many different ways, by the way, everybody's got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because a lot of times they'll say lower 25 percent, they can't afford private but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Universal health care.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it will cost me votes or not. Everybody is going to be taken care of much better than they are taken care of now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The uninsured person?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I would make a deal with existing hospitals to take care of people. You know what? This is probably --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make a deal? Who pays for it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: The government is going to pay for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, broader question, what does the president want now?

LOUIS: That's a great question. I do think -- I do think he wants anything that could be characterized as a win. I mean, what you just heard him describe is utterly 180 degrees the opposite of shrinking the Medicaid expansion, right?

I mean, Medicaid which takes care of the elderly, which takes care of the poor, is one of the parts of the Affordable Care Act that is most popular including with Republican governors, I might add. They want to dial that back now. So, yes, there's other inconsistency.

And I guess you'd have to add the people who believed what was said in September 2015 to the very, very long list of people who have been disappointed by this president, including before he went into politics. You know, I mean, the bankruptcy, the commercial dispute, Trump University. A lot of times, you have to be very careful in trusting what this man says.

BLACKWELL: All right, Errol Louis, Rebecca Berg, thanks so much.

PAUL: All right, I want to show you some live pictures we're getting, look at this out of Hongkong right now. Fireworks over Victoria Harbor there. Hongkong marking the 20th year anniversary since the handover from Britain to China.

Scuffles have broken out, though, we know in recent days between pro- China group and pro-democracy protesters who are angry about China's growing control over that city.

Chinese President Xi Jinping saying Hongkong's sovereignty is, quote, "non-negotiable." But what a celebration that is, my goodness.

All right. Coming up there was a small plane that crashes on one of the busiest highways in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, move back from the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just breathe, just breathe, OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: The frightening moment as that plane crash landed in the middle of rush hour traffic.

BLACKWELL: Plus, doctors describing that deadly shooting at a New York City hospital, called it a war zone. Live updates from New York.

PAUL: And finally, an arrest in the case of a missing Chinese grad student. The news from investigators is not good, however. What they're telling family members this morning. Stay close. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: This is just frightening, listen to these audio recordings of the dramatic moments right before a plane crashes on one of the busiest highways in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Mayday, mayday, I lost my right engine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Apparently, the plane's engine gave out midair. We're told the pilot attempted to land the Cessna 310 at an Orange County Airport just did not make it, and you see the aftermath there. The plane crashed, exploded in the middle of the 405 Freeway.

Now people did run to try to help, but the pilot only clipped one vehicle on the way down. That driver suffered minor injuries. The pilot and passenger of the plane did survive the crash and they were taken to the hospital.

New, this morning, authorities are investigating the motives behind a disgruntled doctor's shooting rampage at a New York City hospital yesterday.

BLACKWELL: CNN correspondent, Polo Sandoval, joins us live from New York. Polo, I understand you're learning more about what happened?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, guys. Henry Bello is the 45- year-old man that police say hid an assault rifle under his white coat and then went into a hospital in the Bronx and opened fired shooting and killing one person and then injuring at least six others.

This is what we know at this point about what took place. That individual had resigned from that hospital so he not only worked there but actually practiced medicine there as a medical doctor before his resignation in 2015, after a relatively short stint according to what hospital officials told me.

At this point, after having spoken to one of the head doctors at the facility, I can tell you that the main focus is on five of those people who are still fighting for their lives, who also happened to be doctors. Many of them young medical students.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SRIDHAR CHILIMURI, PHYSICIAN-IN-CHIEF, BRONX LEBANON HOSPITAL: We have to do what we have to do. My team is working hard how to see how to manage all of the patients that we have now. Stabilize everyone, including the ones who are injured. So, I think there will be other time where we'll reflect on it, right now, we have jobs to do and we're still at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: Now sadly, one doctor did not survive. All we know about her is that she practiced family medicine there in that hospital. Interesting information coming from authorities, they don't believe that she actually knew this man that would eventually turn the gun on himself.

Again now identified as Dr. Henry Bello, who had worked for a short period of time in that hospital and then resigned under unknown circumstances. But going back to detail about the people who survived.

And unfortunately, this person who did pass away, I'm told that the death count really could have been much higher, had it not been from some of the heroic acts coming from some of the staff members who shifted into triage mode while this gunman was reportedly still opening fire on the top floors of that hospital -- Victor, Christi.

BLACKWELL: All right, Polo for us in New York, thank you.

PAUL: Well, authorities in Illinois fear a missing Chinese grad student is dead and they have arrested a man that they believe kidnapped her. FBI investigators say Yingying Zhang disappeared June 9th from the campus of the University of Illinois.

Surveillance video, take a look, even caught her getting into the car driven by the suspect who has now been charged in her disappearance. And investigators say that suspect visited websites about kidnappings and allegedly confessed to the crime.

Despite what officials believed is saying, Zhang's family is not giving up hope that they are going to find her alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIQIN YE, AUNT OF MISSING GRAD STUDENT (through translator): To the person who did this and we wanted to tell this person please be kind to her and let her come home. And we're waiting for you at home, and you have to be persistent and fight because we're all waiting for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Zhang's disappearance has triggered widespread concern in China. That suspect, by the way, is expected in court on Monday.

BLACKWELL: Police in Pennsylvania are searching for the driver involved in a road rage accident that killed a high school graduate. Here's a sketch of the suspect. The incident happened Wednesday afternoon west of Philadelphia.

Police say the surveillance video shows the moment the suspect who was in that red truck shot the young woman in the head. Her car veered off the road, crashed into a tree.

The victim 18-year-old Bianca Roberson. Her family said that she was heading to Jackson University in two weeks to start her freshman year. Police are offering a $5,000 reward for any information. PAUL: President Trump and South Korea's president meet in Washington, however, they have differing messages when it comes to North Korea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So glad to have you with us. It's 26 minutes past the hour on this Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you. Next week, President Trump will meet Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg. There are no details yet on the format of the meeting or what will be discussed.

PAUL: Also, GOP leaders struggling to muster enough votes in the Senate for that GOP health care bill. The president tweeted, quote, "They should immediately repeal and then replace at a later date," unquote. That's not what he had promised earlier, however.

Also more Republicans slamming the president for his Twitter rampage this week, attacking a female TV anchor. They say it's distracting from the agenda and damaging the presidency.

Ahead of Independence Day, the president is spending the weekend at his New Jersey Golf Club. CNN White House reporter, Kaitlan Collins is live from Bridgewater, New Jersey right now. Help us understand what is on his agenda this weekend -- Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, as you said, the president is spending his weekend here at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He will go back to Washington briefly tonight to attend a rally with veterans at the Kennedy Center and then return back here tonight.

He'll likely spend the rest of the weekend preparing for his upcoming foreign trip this week. He is going to Poland and then Germany where he will attend the G20 Summit.

While there, he's expected to meet with several foreign leaders, but the one that everyone's keeping their eye on is his first meeting with Vladimir Putin since he took office in January.

Everyone is wondering if he will bring Russian meddling in the election, but White House officials say the agenda and final details of the meeting have not been set yet.

PAUL: Certainly, everybody will be watching that. But, of course, a lot of eyes were on the president telling GOP lawmakers to repeal Obamacare now and then replace it later. We have to point out that's not what he promised earlier, right?

COLLINS: Right. That's exactly right. Republicans in the Senate have been negotiating back and forth for the past few weeks over a bill that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but Donald Trump really threw a wrench in that Friday morning when he tweeted that maybe they should just repeal it and then replace it later on. That was after Senator Ben Sasse had gone on TV earlier that morning and suggested the same thing. Donald Trump was essentially giving it his blessing yesterday morning. Well, that really provides a headache for leaders like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who have been doing this on Capitol Hill because Donald Trump was the first one to suggest repealing it and then replacing it immediately.

In an interview with "60 Minutes" in January, he said there wouldn't even be two days between the repeal and replace that he wanted to do immediately. Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders disputed that the president has changed his thinking on health care yesterday in an off-camera gaggle. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: The president hasn't changed his thinking at all. I mean, he's campaigned on, talked about since he was elected repealing and replacing Obamacare. We're still fully committed to pushing through with the Senate at this point, but we're looking at every possible option of repealing and replacing Obamacare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So the president has changed his stance. Though, he cheered the bill that the house had passed in May and said it was a great idea and had this huge ceremony in the Rose Garden, he later denounced the bill and called mean.

So he's made this a little bit tough for legislators on Capitol Hill to enact his agenda. And with his tweet yesterday morning, it doesn't look like there's a vote in sight.

PAUL: Caitlin Collins, appreciate it this morning, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Do the U.S. and South Korea disagree about how to deal with North Korea? So President Donald Trump is warning that Washington's patience is over, but South Korean President Moon is urging open dialogue.

PAUL: He said President Trump and I will not pursue a hostile policy against North Korea. We had no intention to attack North Korea. We do not wish to see the regime replaced or collapse. CNN's Barbara Starr has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's first White House meeting with South Korea's newly elected President Moon came with a message for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed. Many years, and it's failed. And frankly, that patience is over.

STARR: But now what? How does the Trump administration intend to stop North Korea's rapidly accelerating effort to build a missile and a nuclear warhead that could hit the United States?

TRUMP: We're working closely with South Korea and Japan, as well as partners around the world, on a range of diplomatic security and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as North Korea.

STARR: The U.S. Military remains on alert. Watching for any hint of a missile launch or even another underground nuclear test. Trump initially leaned on China to help stop North Korea's weapons testing.

TRUMP: The relationship developed by President Xi and myself I think is outstanding.

STARR: Pressuring Chinese President Xi to use his influence with Kim, but that appears to have changed. The Trump administration issued new sanctions against a Chinese bank for allegedly helping North Korea. Then hours later, announced a massive U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province. Beijing is furious.

UNIDENTFIED MALE (through translator): The U.S. arms sale to Taiwan has seriously violated international law and basic principles of international relations.

STARR: With diplomacy uncertain, U.S. Military options for North Korea have recently been updated.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: The threat is much more immediate now. The President has directed to us prepare a range of options, including a military option, which nobody wants to take.

STARR: But a U.S. Military strike could trigger catastrophe.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: I think that if the U.S. chose to strike North Korea in any way, we would most likely see an immediate North Korea response. That could take different forms. It could be a counterattack on South Korea. It could be another cyberattack.

And Kim Jong-un, feeling as emboldened as he does, would likely react in a very strong way. And a North Korean counterattack could have a massive human toll, millions of South Koreans and 28,000 U.S. troops and families at risk. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Barbara, thank you so much.

Now, the Pentagon is delaying a decision on allowing transgender people to enlist in the military. Today was the original deadline for defense secretary Jim Mattis to make his decision. According to a memo obtained by CNN, the Pentagon will not make that announcement for another six months.

Remember, former defense secretary Ash Carter originally said last year that transgender recruits would be able to openly serve in the armed forces. BLACKWELL: The President's Voter Fraud Commission is asking states for information on their voters. Several states are pushing back, saying they have no intention of complying, even one republican secretary of state telling them to go jump in the Gulf of Mexico.

PAUL: And a young woman was set on fire by her ex-boyfriend. Her family is now pushing for tougher sentences after that man got just 11 years in prison. The victim's mother and her daughter up are with us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: A horrific attack against a young woman prompted her family to push for tougher laws in Ohio. Judy's law is now heading to Governor John Kasich's desk. It requires harsher punishments for people who commit crimes like the one against Judy Malinowski.

Her ex-boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her on fire back in 2015. Here's Judy before. She passed away just this week after battling through almost 60 surgeries. Judy's law is something that her family is just so passionate about.

In fact, let's listen to her daughter, Kaylyn here, testifying at the Ohio state house.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYLYN MALINOWSKI, DAUGHTER OF JUDY MALINOWSKI: -- committed a horrible crime and only received an 11-year sentence. By the time he gets out, I'll be 22 years old, and no one knows if he'll hurt again. While he got 11 years, my mom, my sister and I all got a life sentence.

Please pass my mom's law, because together, we can prevent these types of situations. We can prevent this from happening to other families.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Well, Kaylyn, Judy's daughter and Judy's mother, Bonnie, are both with us now. Thank you so much. I can't imagine the week that it's been for you. We are so grateful that you've been gracious enough to join us here.

First of all, Bonnie, how is everybody?

BONNIE BOWES, MOTHER OF JUDY MALINOWSKI: They're doing very well. As good as could be expected. I'm sure Judy would be proud of all of them.

PAUL: Kaylyn, we were just watching you at the state house there. What has this been like for you? And did you have fears about standing up and -- in front of legislators and trying to persuade them?

MALINOWSKI: Yes, I did. It was really scary because I was scared that I'd messed up, but I got through it. PAUL: Bonnie, I understand that you were next to your daughter almost daily in the hospital. And something that we really have to make sure people understand is that she lived for two years.

And as I understand it, they didn't think she'd live for 48 hours. Help us understand what that was like for you, for that 696 days that she was in that hospital?

BOWES: You know, it's really indescribable, but I was blessed that God chose to let her live 696 days. And she fought, you know, I was messed to see her fight that hard for 696 days.

And they were long days, they were joyful days and tearful days that she fought so hard to live and fought for justice. And fought for those two little girls.

PAUL: What did you talk about during that time?

BOWES: We talked about a lot. She said mainly, mom -- you know, she originally wanted to just help him, and then she woke up after eight months out of a coma, she said she had to fight for her girls and to just get her story out to tell -- to help just one person.

And then she went on to fight for justice, you know, to testify. And to back off on all of her pain medicine, which is just horrific for her to do that, to make a tape, asking the house and senators on why the law should be stiffer in Ohio.

PAUL: It's really astounding that she had the wherewithal and the strength to fight in the condition she was in to fight so hard to make sure that nobody else suffered like she did.

Did you know Michael Slager, the man that did this? Did you know him? Did you fear him at all? Did she fear him?

BOWES: She feared him. She had tried numerous times to get away from him. She had quoted to a lead detective, he's going to kill me. But, you know, it's so hard to catch them. They have to be there, restraining orders aren't perfect.

And she was just right, I -- you know. Yes. She succumbed to her injuries. So she did try. She wanted to help him. She thought she had been where he was. And unfortunately, it transpired into, mom, I just want to help one person.

And she said, nobody, no human being should ever, ever suffer, mom, the way I am, not even an animal.

PAUL: Kaylyn, what did you think of the fact that your mom held on so long, and probably really held -- in large part, held on for you? Because she wanted to be there for you.

MALINOWSKI: I thought it was really, like -- I thought it was really nice that she held on just for my sister and I, because we needed her. And we still need her. But I think that we'll get by in a -- or it'll take a while, though, but we'll be okay. And we -- my sister and I are really proud of how she fought for so long.

PAUL: She is fighting so hard for people who are in abusive relationships. I heard some sound from her where I think, Bonnie, you were talking about, and she said, if you are in an abusive relationship, you need to get out, you need to get help, you need to take care of yourself.

A lot of people were enraged that the suspect here, Michael Slager, convicted, only received 11 years. Now that she has died, however, homicide charges are being sought against him, Bonnie. How do you feel about that?

BOWES: I hope the -- I hope justice will prevail on Judy's behalf. Especially because, you know, she suffered for two years, you know, homicide is one thing. But it was almost like a cruel -- well, it was a cruel death to suffer for two straight years and battle every day, and then succumb to homicide. So, I hope the laws of justice will prevail.

PAUL: She is definitely one of the bravest, strongest people I think I've ever had of. Bonnie Bowes and Kaylyn Malinowski, we're wishing the very best, sending our thoughts and our prayers to you.

And thank you so much for sharing her story.

BOWES: Thank you for having us.

PAUL: Of course. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: States are now pushing back against the Trump administration in a request of secretaries of state for information on their voters.

Now, the President's commission on voting integrity says the they need the information to combat what they say is widespread voter fraud. Now, remember, there's no documented evidence of the fraud.

And now, both republicans and democrats are saying they will not comply with the administration's request. Here's part of a statement from Mississippi's republican secretary of state, Delbert Hoseman. To the commission, he says this, they can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi is a great state to launch from.

Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: So many cities are corrupt. And voter fraud is very, very common.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a quest to root out allegedly rampant voter fraud, the President's commission wants an ocean of sensitive information about every voter. Including the person's full name, address, daylight of birth,

political affiliation, voting, military and criminal records, part of his or her Social Security number and more.

States, particularly some democratic blue ones, are pushing back hard. California is flat out refusing to hand over the info.

ALEX PADILLA, SECRETARY OF STATE, CALIFORNIA: The President's allegations of massive voter fraud are simply not true.

FOREMAN: So is New York. We will not comply. And Virginia, too. There is no evidence of significant voter fraud.

But some states that went republican red for Trump are also balking, including Utah, Alabama, Iowa and Wisconsin. They'll hand over only some data. And still, others are dismissing the whole idea of voter fraud run amuck.

MATTHEW DUNLAP, SECRETARY OF STATE, MAINE: You might find some illegal activity, but not to the spiel that's been described.

TRUMP: People that have died 10 years ago are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting.

FOREMAN: As a candidate, Donald Trump insisted fraud was a real problem. Even after he won the Electoral College, he lashed out at news, more people voted for Hillary Clinton, tweeting I won the popular vote, if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.

TRUMP: So many things are going on.

FOREMAN: To help steer his commission, he helped choose Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who calls the state's complaints complete nonsense.

KRIS KOBACH, SECRETARY OF STATE, KANSAS: We're looking at all forms of election irregularities, voter fraud, registration fraud, voter intimidation, suppression.

FOREMAN: Kobach has zealously hunted vote cheaters back home for months, yet he's found less than a dozen provable cases out of more than a million and a half registered voters.

What's more, he's a champion for voter I.D. laws, which many skeptics consider a way to suppress minority votes. And he was fined by a federal judge in Kansas just last week for his conduct in a lawsuit involving voting rights.

Connecticut's take? Given Secretary Kobach's history, we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this Commission.

Underlying it all is this simple fact. There is simply no credible evidence that there's ever been a widespread voter fraud problem. That's adding, clearly, to the hesitancy of many of these states. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Well, millions of you are under a severe weather threat for the holiday weekend, believe it or not. Allison Chinchar is tracking it for us. Good morning.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you.

We're already starting to see the storms fire up around Dallas. In fact, Dallas Fort Worth Airport, right now, delays of 30 to 40 minutes. But this isn't the only spot. We'll talk about where your hotspots are going to be for severe weather, including the northeast. Coming up.

BLACKWELL: The original Chinatown in America is deep in the heart of San Francisco. On the next "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA" W. Kamau Bell talks with the people there on the streets in Chinatown and asks about how they're choosing to honor their Chinese heritage in the face of racist stereotypes. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

W. KAMAU BELL, HOST, UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA: San Francisco has the first Chinatown. It seems like the identity of the city.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: Exactly. But years ago, it's a (INAUDIBLE) Like, it's another country.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: And people began to have these fears of Chinese- Americans.

BELL: Chinese people and Thai happen to stay in Chinatown.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: yes.

BELL: That's a stereotype (INAUDIBLE) don't talk about. People like to promote San Francisco as an all-accepting and welcoming place, but that's not always true.

How important was it to you to grow up, owning your Chinese-American identity?

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god. You have opened such a terrible mess.

BELL: Is it important that Chinese-Americans retain this culture? I've seen the hyper sexualization of the Asian female.

UNIDENTFIED FEMALE: It's something that we've had to deal with all of our lives.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: With Asian male masculinity, it's perceived inferiority at genetic level.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

PAUL: Another holiday and another severe weather threat. Go figure. BLACKWELL: Yes. Millions of people could be affected by this. Let's go now to Allison Chinchar. Who's under the gun?

CHINCHAR: Well, depends on which day you're asking for.

So, we start with today. We take a look at the forecast. Again, you'll see the green highlighted areas. That's where we have the risk for severe weather.

Now, the yellow, more targeted areas are where you have the best chance of damaging winds and also the potential for tornados. But this is just Saturday.

As we push it forward, you'll notice we also have a severe threat on Sunday. It's just going to be in a different region. This, more kind of in the heartland of the country, more the Midwest and into the plains region.

Albeit, the threats themselves actually remain the same. We're still going to be looking at the potential for damaging winds and tornadoes. That's because as that first system begins to exit later on today, another one begins to push back into its place.

So that means if you have any holiday plans over the weekend, you're going to be looking at multidays here where you have the potential for rain. In fact, right now, we're starting to see some showers and thunders from spire (ph) up across portions of the northeast.

Syracuse, Buffalo, also around Albany. And then as we go later into the day, we're talking New York City, also into Boston, Philadelphia, and that could potentially cause some airport delays.

We already have some airport delays on the southern fringe of the system, around Dallas right now. About 30 to 40 minutes. So keep that in mind if you have some travel plans at the airports throughout the weekend.

Here's a look at your actual 4th of July forecast. There are going to be some nice spots. Not everybody is going to be dealing with a washout. In fact, New York actually looks relatively nice. Temperatures in the low to mid-80s with some sunshine.

It's the further south you go, that's where you're going to encounter some problems. Cities like Raleigh, Charlotte and Atlanta, albeit hot, you're also going to have to contend with some showers and thunderstorms.

Dallas, you won't necessarily have a huge storm threat, but you're going to be dealing with the hot temperatures. Victor, Christi we're talking some spots. We're going to be looking at nearly triple digit numbers.

So maybe the pool might sound like a great option for July 4th for some folks.

PAUL: Anything like that in triple digits, yes, ma'am. Please. BLACKWELL: I'll take it. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

PAUL: Well, aren't you up early? Nine o'clock, actually, on a Saturday morning. At least here in the east. I'm Christi Paul. We're so grateful to have you.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell.