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New Day Saturday

President Trump's Campaign Dismisses New Lawsuit Filed by the Democratic Party Against the Trump Campaign, Russia and WikiLeaks; North Korea Claims Suspension of Nuclear Program; Several Former U.S. Presidents, Hundreds Attend Private Funeral for Former First Lady Barbara Bush; First Lady Biographer Myra Gutin Reflects on Barbara Bush's Life and Image; Smallville Actress Allison Mack Indicted for Sex Trafficking; Christiane Amanpour Returns to Shanghai in CNN Original Series Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World; CNN Hero Brisa De Angulo Helps Change the Culture of Sexual Abuse in Bolivia. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired April 21, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is New Day Weekend with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. After decades of name calling, threats of destruction and defined rocket launches this morning, an unexpected pledge from North Korea could finally bring a diplomatic breakthrough.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Kim Jong-un says his regime is stopping nuclear missile tests. This is an announcement that shocked world leaders. It's already being praised by some of the countries toughest critics though and it's worth noting what is not in this pledge.

So, let's just be clear, no mention of short range missile tests. No promises to let weapons inspectors into the country. No plans to get rid of the missiles and nuclear warheads. The country already has but it's undoubtedly a sign of progress as Kim prepares for historic meetings with President Trump and the leader of South Korea.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Ivan Watson joins us from Seoul. Now, Ivan, sources tell CNN that U.S. officials are cautiously optimistic this morning but it's worth noting that Kim Jong-un could have many different motives here.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right but it is still a remarkable announcement that the North Korean government made after a meeting of its Worker's Party and it spelled out kind of six points that were apparently made unilaterally. Yes, that it would suspend its nuclear weapons test. It would suspend its intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

And that it would discard in their words the nuclear test facility in the north of the country where last September North Korea conducted its most recent, it's sixth and most powerful nuclear weapons test which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb explosion. So, yes, a remarkable announcement there and seemingly an olive branch coming from Pyongyang just about six days before the North Korean leader will meet for the very first time with the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in in a one day summit that is expected to take place in the so-called Peace Village along the demilitarized zone.

Now the announcement that these nuclear weapons tests and the intercontinental ballistics missile launches would be suspended was made in companion with another announcement that North Korea has accomplished nuclear weaponization. In fact, that North Korea had accomplished the miniaturization and the lightening of nuclear weapons.

So, there's an interesting announcement that comes here. This isn't the first time that North Korea's declared itself to the world as a nuclear armed nation. That seems to be the rationale that Kim Jong-un is using to make the argument, hey we don't need to make bombs anymore - test bombs anymore because we've got them, we can put them on the tip on intercontinental ballistic missiles and we can use them should we feel the need to do so. Victor and Christi?

PAUL: Very good point there. Ivan Watson, thank you so much. President Trump is praising Kim Jong-un's pledge calling quote, "very good news for North Korea and the world." CNN's Abby Phillip joins us live from Florida where the president is staying right now.

So, President Trump also says he's looking forward to meeting with the dictator. What do we know about that?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Christi. President Trump seems to be pushing toward this meeting pretty aggressively. Especially in light of these latest developments. His two tweets last night lauded North Korea for their announcement. He called it as you said, "very good news for North Korea and the world. Big progress."

He said he's looking forward to our summit. He added in a second message, a note from North Korea's Kim Jong-un repeating that they will stop nuclear tests and launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. And he calls that progress being made for all. But there are still, as Ivan just pointed out, a lot of unanswered questions about this.

Will this announcement amount to really anything substantive especially for U.S. allies, Japan and South Korea.

[06:05:00]

In particular in this last week, President Trump spent two days meeting with the Japanese prime minister on this very subject and one of the big issues that the Japanese raised were prisoners who were - Japanese prisoners who were being held in North Korea and beyond that they want assurances that this isn't just a stopping of missile - of missile tests but also a ridding of the continent - of nuclear missiles and also short range missiles as well.

Now President Trump sent his CIA Director Mike Pompeo a few weeks ago to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-un in a secret Easter weekend meeting and in that meeting President Trump said they developed a very good rapport. And he has been urging his advisors to get this meeting on the books soon by the end of May or early June.

The president is very eager to do this. He is keenly aware of the prospects that a meeting with North Korea and a resolution to this problem that has vexed western nations for decades could be the key to his legacy, his political legacy. So this is something that he is so focused on and has been urging his advisors to get it done because he thinks it could be a huge political victory for him. Christi and Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right. Abby Phillip for us there in West Palm Beach, Florida. Abby, thank you. President Trump says that he is the reason that North Korea is willing to negotiate now after decades of failed talks but there's growing evidence that the tough sanctions imposed against the regime are also causing serious problems for the North Korean people.

PAUL: Yes, according to the New York Times, North Korean factories have closed, fishermen have deserted their boats, even the military is low on resources. The smugglers are having to find elaborate ways to get goods in and out of nearby countries. And foreign workers who made money for the regime in places like China have been sent home.

BLACKWELL: All right. Joining us now Gordon Chang author of Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World and columnist for the Daily Beast. Gordon, good morning to you. The administration reportedly is approaching this announcement from the North Koreans with cautious optimism. What is your degree of optimism?

GORDON CHANG, AUTHOR: I'm actually fairly optimistic. There is something that's new in all of this and that is the North Koreans, when they negotiation with the international community rarely put their concessions up front. And that's what they've done here. Now, one of the old things though is that Kim Jong-un's father, the father of the current ruler did something very similar in 2008 when he detonated the cooling tower for his only reactor.

That was in 2008 but in 2009 they walked away from the Six Party Denuclearization Talks. So there was this great wave of optimism and then followed by the pessimism. We can see sort of the same thing here but nonetheless, the fact that he's -- Kim Jong- un, the ruler now is willing to make this concession I think really says that the North Korean bargaining position is quite weak. That's a good sign.

PAUL: So, how does this change any face to face meeting he may have with President Trump? What does President Trump going to this meeting with, in other words, and what does he get out of? I apologize. We have lost Gordon Chang.

BLACKWELL: He's back.

PAUL: Is he back? Gordon, can you hear me?

CHANG: I can hear you. PAUL: OK, I'm sorry. So, well, let me just ask you again real quickly. How does this change the meeting that he will have face to face with President Trump? Does it change the president's intentions and what he gets out of Kim Jong-un from that meeting?

CHANG: Well, certainly. What it does is it sets a very good tone for this and at least it established a pathway for further progress. Kim Jong-un is not going to want to make other concessions but nonetheless, I think there now is a momentum and it's created not just by U.S. pressure but it's also pressure from elsewhere that will really force Kim into a direction he does not want to go.

BLACKWELL: So you tweeted out after the announcement that Kim thinks he's playing us but it really doesn't matter. How so?

CHANG: Well, because there is now this momentum of events. Remember, Victor, we've had one significant announcement after another recently. There's the one about the Peace Treaty, there's also a number of things that have occurred before and that is now, I think, creating this wave.

And it's going to carry not only Kim but of course also Kim Jong-un, I mean President Trump and the Japanese and the Chinese. And so, we've got now a very interesting situation and this is one of those I think times when history is going to made.

PAUL: Well, there are still three Americans who are being held prisoner in North Korea. And at the end of the day Kim Jong-un did not promise - we went through the things that he didn't promise. He didn't promise he was dismantling this program. He said the program was complete.

So, how do you balance that - those two things knowing that he probably has a stockpile there that he could put into use?

CHANG: Well, the purpose of these negotiations with Kim will be to make sure that he gives up that stockpile and that there will be the strictest inspections regime ever. There also - yes there are three Americans that we know the North Koreans are holding. There very well be a fourth, David Sneddon who has disappeared in China and is believed to be in Pyongyang.

[06:10:00]

So we also need an accounting from the Kim regime, to make sure that it's only the three that they're holding. So, there's a whole lot of issues and then you've got the Japanese and (inaudible) who have become a hot political issue and then there's North -- South Koreans who have been snatched by the regime as well. So, there's a lot on the agenda here and just because we've got progress in one area, doesn't mean we're going to have progress in the other.

BLACKWELL: Yes this not the first, as you detailed, the first promise from North Korea. We'll see if they hold to this one. Gordon Chang, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

PAUL: Thank you sir.

CHANG: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, coming up, President Trump hints Robert Mueller's Russia probe is illegitimate because it's based on leaked, as he says, classified information. What might that mean for the future of the investigation? Our legal expert Michael Moore is helping us make sense of that, it's coming up next.

PAUL: Also later this morning, Wolf Blitzer is going to be hosting our special coverage a former first lady Barbara Bush is laid to rest in Houston. President Trump not attending. He is staying at his Florida golf course while Melania Trump will be representing the first family there at that memorial today and the funeral.

Our guest later this hour, Myra Gutin. She's the author of "Barbara Bush: Presidential Matriarch" and she's got a lot of little tidbits you may not have known about her. That's coming up in the next hour.

BLACKWELL: Also, she was Clark Kent's friend on the TV show "Smallville." Hear what investigators say she was involved with. You won't believe this. Stay with us.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[06:15:00]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Quarter after the hour now. President Trump made a pretty stunning claim in a tweet last night, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation. Here's the tweet. "James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council?" His spelling of counsel, not ours. "Therefore, the Special Council was established base on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?"

Well, joining me now to try to figure out what that means, Michael Moore, former U.S. Attorney for the middle district of Georgia. All right, so from the President's perspective and then from your perspective, what does that mean?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: I think it's rich that he's talking about whether or not there's been information leaked, especially after he, of course, met with Russians in the Oval Office.

I don't think there's a great deal of importance on whether or not -- or how the Special Counsel, at this point, came about. I mean there's been and act, it's been authorized and remember this is a follow-up to basically what all of our Intelligence Agencies said about Russian meddling in the election. So, that could have been a Special Counsel appointed under a number of circumstances.

So, at this point I don't -- I think this is another example of the President simply getting excited about something and trying to cast doubt, both on the investigators and the investigation. And that's what he's done, really, from the beginning. The way that he's tried to come about and boost up his own credibility is to attack people who are looking at him.

BLACKWELL: It's also important to point out that the illegality of the leaking of memos, no question that James Comey leaked memos, right? He leaked those intentionally so they would get to "The New York Times," so that it would be a Special Counsel, he was successful there, but the illegality, that's being looked into by the Inspector General.

MOORE: That's right. There's an OIG review of that and that will take it's own course and there'll be a decision made at the end of the day about that. So what's interesting too is you remember, it was last week we were talking about whether or not the President was a target of an investigation.

BLACKWELL: Subject versus target.

MOORE: Right. And he's really come in and he said, I'm not a target, I'm cleared. You would think that if he believed that he wasn't a target, that he nothing to hide, he would be thrilled that we were looking into finding out what happened and how Russia was allowed to meddle into the investigation, because he would think he had -- we wasn't in jeopardy any. But, he seems to be fascinated with the idea that somehow he's going to get pulled in and maybe he is in jeopardy.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about this other case that really, sources tell CNN, that the President is consumed by. Story Daniels and Karen McDougal's former lawyer, Keith Davidson, is cooperating with the federal probe and to Michael Cohen's activities, which would leave Cohen's President -- President Trumps attorney, facing a very tough decision. Either he cooperates with federal authorities over the work he did for the President, including pay Stormy Daniels money to keep her alleged affair with the President quite, or he ends up facing time in prison if he's convicted here.

So first let's get to the significance of Keith Davidson participating and cooperating with this investigation.

MOORE: Well, I mean this is going to tell maybe some of the inner workings of what went on in the discussions about how to keep information quite, who was involved, who knew about it, whether or not the President had been involved about it. I'm sure there have been discussions back and forth between Davidson and Cohen and it's just a matter of time before those come out.

One thing about Cohen that I will tell you, when people get on there and talk about, I'm never going to flip, I'm never going to talk, I'm never --

BLACKWELL: Take a bullet for the President.

MOORE: That's right. They're going to take a bullet. Those are the ones you may as well just Katy bar the door, they're coming to the court house. I mean there's this movie "Flipper" about the dolphin. He can in the sequel, because he's going to be the next flipper and it's just a matter of time. Now, you can see it in his eyes, he's ready to go and he's not going

to go to prison, I don't think, to protect the President. He's got a family, he's not going to incur any significant legal cost.

He's not going to put his family in jeopardy over the President. The President talks about loyalty, but the truth is, the President likes loyalty to him, but it's not reciprocated all the time.

BLACKWELL: Stormy Daniel's attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted out that, while Michael Cohen says he would take a bullet for the President, he wouldn't take a water balloon for the President.

So, let me take from -- and here is the tweet from Avenatti, from you perspective, the President we know according the reporting is apoplectic about this case, about the raid, consumed by this, do you think with good reason?

[06:20:00]

MOORE: I think so. I mean he seems particularly fascinated with what information they may have gotten out of his lawyers office and my guess is he's counted on Cohen to be his fixer. And that means that Cohen knows a lot of the inner secrets and a lot things that have gone on that we don't yet know.

And so, my guess is that's why we're seeing him so agitated about it. I think you can look at the President and tell that he feeling the weight of that investigation and the possibility that Cohen that may have things to say about it.

BLACKWELL: Yes, one more on the Russia investigation --

MOORE: Sure.

BLACKWELL: -- before we let you go. The Washington Post is reporting that the Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made it clear to White House Counsel Don McGahn that, if the President were to fire Rosenstein, Deputy A.G., that that would put him in a position where he would have to consider resigning.

MOORE: You know, I think Sessions is in a unique spot. And that is that he probably doesn't want the weight of this investigation back, somehow, on him. That he's (recused) from it. He would have to have somebody to come up through the ranks in a line of succession to acting - to fill in Rosenstein's slot as an acting physician.

(And over) they would talk about bringing another Deputy Attorney General in. So, Sessions is probably back, in a way. I don't know who if it was made as much as a threat to the president as it was a, we better keep things status quo because as long as it's like his, you know, I - we've got some degree of control and monitoring over what's going on.

Rosenstein has, sort of, held the line as the case has moved forward. He's taken a lot of the rat off of Sessions. The President, now, is on to Rosenstein and wanting to talk about whether or not he's going to get rid of him --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOORE: -- and the things that have been done. And so, again, I think this is Session's way of saying, I don't want this thing, you know, I don't need it back in my life.

BLACKWELL: All right, Michael Moore. Thanks so much.

MOORE: It's good to see you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Christi?

PAUL: Well, President Trump's campaign calls a new lawsuit filed my Democrats a desperate sham. Next, why the President says, it could be good news. Also, a private funeral plan later today of for former First Lady, Barbara Bush.

From her profound work in literacy, to her role as a mother and a wife to former President George H.W. Bush, of course. We are remembering her and her legacy. Have some surprising stories about her coming up, stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Welcome back so good to have you here, I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell, good Saturday to you. President Trump's Campaign is dismissing the new lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party. Along with the Trump Campaign; the suit targets Russia; Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange and several relatives and associates of the president. It says they worked with Russia to disrupt the 2016 election.

PAUL: Now Trump's campaign manager calls it a sham lawsuit and a desperate ploy to raise money. The president tweeted this, "This can be good news in that we will now counter for the DNC server that they refused to give to the FBI". Former Attorney General, Eric Holder tweeted in response to the lawsuit, "If the opposition party refuses to protect our Democracy, the Democrats must win." Joining us now to talk about this, Julian Salazar, CNN Political Analyst and historian and professor at Princeton University is with us. Thank you Julian for being here, so the Washington Post points out a similar tactic worked for Democrats in the Watergate area. The suit was denounced at the time by Nixon's Attorney General, John Mitchell, who called it a case of shear demagoguery by the DNC, but the civil action was successful, it yielded a $750,000 settlement from the Nixon Campaign. It was reached on a day in 1974 that he left office. Is there a parallel here?

SALAZAR: Well the parallel is back then the Democrats were conducting the investigation into the Nixon Administration on many fronts so you had a lawsuit such as this, you had the Congressional investigations, a prosecutor and so that's where the similarity is. The difference of course is right now there's a very weak Congressional investigation so it's unclear that this lawsuit on its own will manifest itself the same way the Watergate lawsuit did.

PAUL: Kelly Jane Torrance with us now as well, Kelly Jane what was your initial reaction when you heard about the lawsuit?

TORRANCE: Well my first reaction Christi was the Democrats must be very confident about how they're going to do in the mid-terms this fall because for them to be spending their donors' money on high- powered lawyers, I was quite surprised. They obviously think that their resources in an important election year, that they don't need to spend them on candidates and elections, they're going to spend it on lawyers and I'm kind of surprised by that.

And you know I was reading that apparently during a call with big Democrats, at least one Democrat on the call expressed that exact same sentiment. They were wondering, hey why are you spending our money on this rather than the candidates? And I think that we may be seeing a little bit of unrest at lower levels with the Democrats worried about hey, this is not a good use of our resources this year.

PAUL: OK and you're leading me right into my next question, Julian for you.

[06:29:48]

There was a recent poll -- the Washington Post-ABC poll this week -- that said -- that showed the Democratic advantage in the Midterms is dwindling a bit. It was at four percentage points over Republicans -- still over Republicans.

However, since January, they've lost eight points. It was at 12 percentage points, in terms of a gap between Republicans and Democrats.

Now, once again, this is among registered voters, and a generic congressional ballot. But is there a possibility, then, when you look at the intentions for this lawsuit that they are trying to taint the Republican Party going into Midterms?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It might be part of the strategy. I mean, we also have to remember there's a lot of good indications of a wave election for Democrats, including a large number of retirements from the GOP.

I'm not sure the lawsuit is a strategic effort to excite Democrats by bringing back the problems of 2016. They don't really need the lawsuit to do that; that's already on the front pages.

I think part of this is a lingering anger, concern and fear about what might happen in the future election.

But I do think Democrats have a danger. They have to keep their on the ball. They have to remember, now it's Midterm time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

ZELIZER: It's not simply about what happened two years earlier. PAUL: So, Kelly Jane, would the DNC effectively be able to conduct its own investigation parallel to Mueller's?

KELLY JANE TORRANCE, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Yes, I'm skeptical, Christi, I have to tell you.

And you think -- I mean, Robert Mueller has an incredible team. These are people very, very experienced in conducting these kind of investigations, and they have a subpoena power and the threat of jail time, which is certainly -- you know, yes, the -- this lawsuit, you can threaten with depositions, and, hey, you know, we're going to have discovery.

But that's nothing compared with (LAUGHTER) the threat of jail time.

And so, I do think, you know, I -- it's like -- it's about money, I think. I mean, they're looking for damages here.

Of course, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and the Russian Federation are certainly -- even if they -- even if the Democrats won, they're not going to be getting money from those people.

And so, it is -- it seems to me it is a bit of a distraction from Mueller's investigation, and I certainly hope it doesn't make it any harder for those investigators to do their job.

PAUL: So, Julian, with that said, how does this affect President Trump, at the end of the day?

ZELIZER: I don't think this has a big effect on President Trump.

The investigation, the scandal, it's all out there. I don't think this will add to it. I think Robert Mueller is a much bigger threat on the legal front than the case will be. And, you know, the real absence of any strong investigation now, again, is in Congress.

So this just adds a little bit, but I don't think it profoundly affects him.

I think President Trump in some ways is fine with this story. He revels in the scandal, he revels in this kind of debate, and he's totally comfortable with it, in many ways.

PAUL: Well -- and I want to shift here to what happened over night with North Korea.

Kelly Jane, we of course have Kim Jong Un saying that they have -- and I -- and I want to read this -- this is from a North Korean official, said, "Kim Jong Un has completed the nuclear program, and no further nuclear tests are necessary, nor mid-range and intercontinental ballistic missile tests; and a nuclear test site in North Korea near the Chinese border has completed its mission, and will likely be closed."

Do you believe Kim Jong Un, Kelly Jane?

TORRANCE: Absolutely not, Christi.

And keep in mind that, you know, people are saying, "Oh, North Korea's stopping the nuclear tests"; no -- they're suspending them. And they have given no time frame for how long they're going to suspend them.

And I think that, you know, he did not spend all of this money creating this program. And, of course, in creating it, he knew that he was going to have to face sanctions that were going to harm his country financially -- he did not do all that work to then suddenly throw it all away.

And I hope -- I hope the people in the State Department that are preparing for this meeting are very, very careful about what they decide to give North Korea in exchange.

PAUL: Julian, who's credited with getting this point with Kim Jong Un, however?

Because I have to say, you know, Will Ripley who is there for CNN has just some unprecedented access that we've never seen to North Korea before, and he said, he was actually stunned by what happened over night by this announcement from Kim Jong Un and from North Korea.

With that said, who gets credit for getting to this point? Is it President Trump? Could it possibly be Pompeo, and his recent meeting that we've heard about? Could it be the economic sanctions? A collaboration of all?

ZELIZER: Well, I'm sure President Trump will try to take credit, and if this moves forward into some kind of agreement, he will be able to get that credit. We don't know if that's going to happen.

My guess is that it's like the collapse of the -- if this turns into something, it's a little like what happened with the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s.

[06:35:00] A lot of it's from internal pressures within the country; it might involve pressure from other countries, such as China, and it's not clear to me that President Trump would have been the instigator to having this kind of agreement take place.

That said, if this moved forward, and if an agreement actually takes place, he will be able to benefit from this happening, even if he wasn't the cause.

PAUL: All right. Kelly Jane Torrance and Julian Zelizer, always appreciate both of you. Thank you.

TORRANCE: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BLACKWELL: This morning, three former U.S. presidents and hundreds of others are expected at the private funeral for former first lady Barbara Bush. A look at her life and legacy with Myra Gutin, author of "Barbara Bush: Presidential Matriarch."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00] PAUL: Quite a life there. A private funeral for former first lady Barbara Bush is going to begin in just a few hours.

Several former U.S. presidents, hundreds of others, expected to attend this service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston.

BLACKWELL: President Trump will not attend in order to avoid disruptions, but first lady Melania Trump will attend on behalf of the first family.

Now, thousands visited the church yesterday for a public viewing while Ms. Bush laid in repose there. President -- former President George H. W. Bush alongside his daughter Dorothy greeted mourners as they paid their respects.

PAUL: Let's talk to Myra Gutin. She is a modern first lady historian, and author of "Barbara Bush: Presidential Matriarch."

I (ph) -- you've been writing about her for 15 years, Myra. Thank you for being here. I know that you have -- you've sat down with her --

MYRA GUTIN, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNICATION, RIDER UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF BARBARA BUSH: PRESIDENTIAL MATRIARCH: My pleasure.

PAUL: -- you've had conversations with her, and have known her on a level that we, of course, will never know.

Tell us something about her that maybe we wouldn't know otherwise.

GUTIN: Well, I think it's been discussed, but she really had such a nice sense of humor -- rye, dry.

When I first met her, she reprimanded me for having written something about her that she said just wasn't true.

And she said, "You need to get your facts straight." And I said, "Mrs. Bush, I do apologize, and I'll take care of that for you."

BLACKWELL: (LAUGHTER)

PAUL: (LAUGHTER) Yes.

BLACKWELL: What was it?

GUTIN: Let's just say that it had something to do with her child- rearing practices.

I had written that she had yelled at her children, and she said to me, "I never did that."

BLACKWELL: OK, sensitive topic. I can understand why she would be a little --

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: Sounds like she's got the mama tone with you --

BLACKWELL: -- concerned about it.

PAUL: -- though.

GUTIN: She --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GUTIN: -- yes. She wanted me to -- she wanted to be straight with me, and, you know, she wanted me to get it right.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: So you wrote a biography about first lady Barbara Bush, but you also wrote a book about --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTIN: Yes, I did.

BLACKWELL: -- first ladies across the 20th century.

How did she change the role of the first lady?

GUTIN: I really don't think that she brought substantive change to the role --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GUTIN: -- of first lady.

But what she did bring to it was continuity at a time when continuity was really important.

Remember that her predecessor was Nancy Reagan, and Nancy Reagan was combative, at time at odds with people in the administration and in the press.

So Barbara Bush was a breath of fresh air.

PAUL: I see you're wearing your pearls, something that we you know --

(CROSSTALK)

GUTIN: Yes, I am.

PAUL: -- Barbara Bush was known --

GUTIN: Yes, I am.

PAUL: -- for her pearls.

GUTIN: In honor of Mrs. Bush -- yes. PAUL: Did she talk about that?

GUTIN: Yes, she did.

PAUL: Did she talk about her love for them, or why she was --

GUTIN: Yes.

PAUL: -- had such an affinity for the jewelry?

GUTIN: Well, I know that she once quipped that she wore them to hide her wrinkles. But so (ph) --

PAUL: (LAUGHTER)

GUTIN: -- I think they were just a fashion statement she had made, and she wore them for many years.

BLACKWELL: How did that -- and we -- while we're on the topic of pearls there, the iconic pearls, the white hair --

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL -- the matriarchal image, and of course, her role in the family, how did those correspond with this image of "the enforcer" that we've heard so much about?

GUTIN: Well, certainly her public image was a grandma with -- as you've just said, gray hair and pearls, but to the family, she could be stern, and she could be "the enforcer," as all of her children have said.

But I think we should always remember that she enforced with love. She really cared about her kids, and I know that she also cared about people who worked in the White House, and she brought that same attitude of enforcing to the White House.

PAUL: I know that you said she was known for her common sense, and was fiercely protective of her family.

How did she manage that well in the White House? Because everybody knows, when you're a public figure, there is a scrutiny that goes along with that that can be -- it can be vile, it can be brutal. How did she balance all of that?

GUTIN: Well, I think that she had raised her family, and her relationship with the president was such that they understood that there was going to be a certain amount of criticism. And I know that the president would counsel Mrs. Bush to try to let it go by, but she had some trouble with that, and it bothered her. But I don't think that she betrayed a lot of that to the public.

And we'll really never know exactly how she felt about it, but she was fiercely protective of her children and (ph) her husband, and she really didn't like criticism of any of them.

BLACKWELL: Well, speaking of her children, there was one who was, I guess, nicknamed "the fifth son." Here

[06:45:00]

is first lady Barbara Bush talking about her relationship with former president Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY: My husband, Bill Clinton, and I have become great friends, and Bill visits us every summer, and we don't agree politically, but we don't talk politics.

I think that he thinks of George a little bit like the father he didn't have, and he's very loving to him, and I really appreciate that.

I love Bill Clinton. Maybe not his politics, but I love Bill Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That might surprise some people, considering, put that into context of the political environment we're in today --

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- that these two families had this affinity for one another.

GUTIN: Well, it -- it's really been interesting to watch the Bushes and the Clintons develop the friendship that they have.

And I really do believe Mrs. Bush when she says that she really loved Bill Clinton. He was very solicitous of her.

If you look at today's political climate, I guess we would all wonder if such relationships could be possible, because the political rhetoric is at such a high level that people become combative, and some of the things that are said in the context of political debate are hard to take back.

But with the Bushes and the Clintons, they were able to dial things down, and walk back, and I understand it was a very loving friendship between the four of them.

BLACKWELL: And, of course, the Clintons will be in attendance at her funeral later today in --

GUTIN: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: -- Houston.

Myra Gutin, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

GUTIN: My pleasure.

PAUL: Thank you. BLACKWELL: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:03] BLACKWELL: An actress best known for her role in the TV show "Smallville" has been indicted for allegedly recruiting women into a sex cult.

PAUL: Yes, we're talking about Allison Mack. She played Clark Kent's friend Chloe. In real life, though, she's accused of helping an alleged sex cult called Nxivm, and forcing at least two women to have sex with the group's leaders.

Now, we have more from our affiliate WPIX. But I don't want you to be caught off guard here. There are some disturbing details in this that may not be, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Suitable for kids --

PAUL: -- proper --

BLACKWELL: -- yes.

PAUL: -- thank you -- for children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON MACK, PLAYING CHLOE, SMALLVILLE: Clark, sorry I missed you, but I only have two minutes to try get back (ph) to Truman (ph) so we can get back in there (ph) --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She played Clark Kent's best friend on "Smallville" -- Chloe Sullivan, the brainy editor of the school newspaper. A hero on the show, she's now in a heap of trouble in real life.

She was arraigned in federal court on charges of sex trafficking and forced labor --

MACK: (INAUDIBLE) last season of "Smallville" was really --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- a far cry from the interview she gave Pix11 in 2010.

MACK: -- to honor my character, and honor what my character's done for women in sort of iconic positions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors say Mack is one of the top members of an alleged sex cult called Nxivm, and was involved in recruiting women and helping to turn them into sex slaves for the founder of the group, Keith Raniere, himself recently arrested, and is Mack's co- defendant in the case.

On the group's website, Raniere posted a statement saying there is, quote, "no merit to the allegations."

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the alleged victims in this cult is the daughter of actress Catherine Oxenberg, best known for her role as Amanda Carrington on "Dynasty."

Stanley Zareff, a friend of the Oxenberg family, spoke outside court and talked about the ordeal they've been going through.

STANLEY ZAREFF, FRIEND OF DYNASTY STAR CATHERINE OXENBERG: -- and she's deeply upset. Her family's torn apart. She loves her daughter, and she wants her daughter to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cult is based in Upstate New York, but authorities say it also has a presence in Brooklyn.

Prosecutors allege Nxivm operates under the guise of a secret self- help organization that empowers women, but instead, they were turned into sex slaves for Raniere, and his initials were branded on to their bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what do you say to that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zareff has choice words for Mack.

ZAREFF: So (INAUDIBLE) I want to see her put away. She's dangerous, she's sick, she's evil, she's dark, and she's harm to many people. Imagine having your initials burned into a woman's body. She's (ph) -- that's happened.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Mm, and we'll continue to follow this, but we want to thank our affiliate there WPIX for the report.

BLACKWELL: All right. Just ahead, North Korea hits at least pause on its nuclear program and says it's done testing missiles in what's seen as a major concession before a historic summit with the U.S.

Why would Kim Jong Un apparently give up so much before he even sits down with the president? We'll talk about that in the next hour of NEW DAY when we talk live and take you live to the Korean Peninsula.

PAUL: First, in tonight's CNN original series "Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World," Christiane returns to Shanghai, China to explore how the societal constraints of tradition, family, state influence -- and state, I should say -- influence sexual relationships and personal identity in one of the most rapidly evolving cities on the planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For years, marriage and relationships here have been controlled by three sacred areas (ph) -- family, tradition and state. I'm curious to find out to what extent people are taking back control of their relationships, their love, their desire, and their sexuality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN original series "Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World" air tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern only here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:54:08] BLACKWELL: Bolivia has Latin America's highest rate of sexual violence against women.

Now, this week's CNN hero grew up there and suffered sexual abuse as a teenager.

PAUL: Though she finally gained the courage, however, to break her silence, and in the process, discovered her strength to take on an even larger mission. Meet Brisa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRISA DE ANGULO, FOUNDER OF A BREEZE OF HOPE FOUNDATION, BOLIVIA, CNN HERO: I found out that I wasn't alone -- that there were tons of girls that were also being sexually abused, and I had to do something.

I had to use the rest of my life to prevent other girls from going through what I went through.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody can control (ph) that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who do you think controls (ph) that?

DE ANGULO: I think the biggest thing is giving the voice back to girls, and allowing them to speak up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:00] PAUL: At 17, Brisa founded the first support center in Bolivia for child survivors of sexual abuse. To learn about her and this incredible work that she's doing, go to CNNHeroes.com, and while you're there, nominate someone that you think should be a 2018 CNN Hero. We'd love to meet them.