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Protesters Rally In Sacramento After Stephon Clark Autopsy; Police Release New, Graphic Video Of Alton Sterling's Killing; Advertisers Flee After Fox News Host Mocks Parkland Student; Trump's Inner Circle Of "Yes" Men; Stormy Daniels' Attorney, Michael Avenatti, Is Playing The Game That Trump Has Played So Well; New York Just Passed A New Law Requiring Convicted Domestic Abusers To Surrender All Firearms. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 31, 2018 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: President Carter is the only president to run an administration for an amount of time without a chief of staff, by the way, something we're hearing President Trump may be looking into.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is 5:00 Eastern, 2:00 out west. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for spending part of your holiday weekend with us.

Right now, an American city's anger is showing in the voices and the outrage of its people, rallying today to demand accountability from their police department. This is Sacramento, California. A crowd gathering this afternoon after a day of mostly peaceful protests.

These are people who are mourning the death of Stephon Clark, and not accepting the police explanation of how he died. Officers opened fire on him because they believed he had a gun. He didn't. In a just released autopsy report, it shows Stephon Clark was shot six times in the back.

CNN's Ryan Young is in downtown Sacramento right now. Ryan, you were talking to people today who knew Stephon Clark personally.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is a tough story from both sides, for everyone involved in the story. You got to think about from the emotional standpoint. So many people here have been talking about what has been going on the last few days. We talk about that autopsy that was released, an independent autopsy.

The family lawyer had that done by a pathologist. We know that Stephon Clark was shot in this area and maybe his body turned, according to the attorney, and hit six time in the back and once in the leg. You could hear people gasping as that was going on, they were explaining it.

And then you had this rally here today where now we had support for Stephon Clark, but at the end of the day, some people are giving support to the police chief because says they need to make things happen, things need to change. They can't throw out the entire system. So, you had a balancing act.

The rally has pretty much ended, but we wanted to make sure we had sort of all the sides of the story and this is one woman who was on the stage, not only talking about the loss of Stephon Clark but also the pain that his brother is going through. First of all, when you talked about Stephon, give us the feeling that you had every time he entered the room, that you remember.

JAMALIA LAND, CLARK FAMILY FRIEND: Love. Love. He was full of love. He was always smiling. He was happy. He wanted everyone around him to feel loved. He wanted them to be happy.

YOUNG: You talked about -- so much conversation around the country has been around his brother, clearly his brother has been struggling a little bit. Talk about that pain that you've witnessed firsthand.

LAND: Well, what I would like people to understand first and foremost is that Stevante is not crazy, not high off any type of drugs. He is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. In addition to that, he's had a psychological snap.

I don't think that people understand that there is a different type of process that you go through grieving when someone has been violently taken from you. The normal steps of grieving that one would go through, he has not allowed.

And on top of that, this is very public. So, he has not had any opportunity to really be able to rest his mind. Stevante has lost two of his brothers to gun violence. So, it's very traumatic for him, the home that he grew up in is now not only a crime scene, but it is still his home.

Could you imagine the pain of going home to find bleach stains on the ground from where your brother's blood has been attempted to be washed up? What I understand people to understand is, and I'm calling out for help. We need help within the communities. What he's displaying in his behavior is not as off as people might think. We just have never had the opportunity to see it.

YOUNG: I was glad you brought that point up, in fact people in the crowd started cheering at that point. Obviously, you have people grieving not only in public but the idea that they've had to watch this video over and over again. They're calling for change, asking for mental health services. They also want a change in the community. I want to thank you so much for taking time with us. Ana, back to you.

CABRERA: Ryan Young in Sacramento, thanks.

Meantime, there are some new developments in another deadly police shooting. Nearly two years after the death of Alton Sterling, police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have just released graphic body cam footage showing Sterling's final moments.

He was shot six times during an encounter with two police officers in 2016 outside a convenience store. While the officers were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, one was fired just this week and the other suspended.

CNN's Kaylee Hartung walks us through this new video and a warning for you, it is extremely disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Graphic and disturbing new video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I do? What I do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't (inaudible) move. I'll shoot your (inaudible). Put your (inaudible) hands on the car.

HARTUNG: Showing the controversial shooting death of Alton Sterling in July 2016. The Baton Rouge chief of police announcing Officer Blane Salimoni, who shot Sterling six times during a struggle with him, will be fired over his actions.

[17:05:12] CHIEF MURPHY PAUL, BATON ROUGE POLICE DEPARTMENT: The violation of command of temper has been sustained. Officer Blane Salimoni has been terminated from the Baton Rouge Police Department effective today.

HARTUNG: This week, Salimoni refused to answer any questions during a disciplinary hearing, the chief said, while Howie Lake, the other officer involved, answered them all. Lake, who the chief said, made mistakes but controlled his temper during the encounter and was given a three-day unpaid suspension.

PAUL: Two different perspectives, and one officer did not follow the tactics training, professionalism, and organizational standards.

HARTUNG: The police chief making it clear their administrative investigation was separate from the federal criminal charges both officers were already cleared of. The police department released four videos from the night of the shooting, including this surveillance footage from the Triple-S Convenience Store.

That's Sterling at the front of the store, sitting at a table where he's selling CDs. Minutes into the tape, he's seen conducting a transaction with an unidentified man. Here he removes what appears to be a gun from his front pocket followed by money from the same pocket.

Within seconds, Sterling is seen jokingly making a shooting motion towards the man. That night police were initially called to the Triple-S Convenience Store responding to a 911 call from a witness who saw a man with a gun. Watch closely as things escalate quickly. From Salimoni's perspective, you can see a brief struggle, then his gun is trained on Sterling's head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to shoot you in your (inaudible) head. You hear me? Don't you (inaudible) move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Hold up. Hold up. You're hurting my arm. HARTUNG: Sterling then was pinned to the ground and tased twice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground! Get on the ground!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pop him again, Howie!

HARTUNG: Before being fatally shot. Previously released cell phone videos recorded by bystanders show at this point in the encounter Salimoni believed Sterling was armed. A gun was recovered from Sterling's body. But the federal and state investigations determined that the officer's actions were reasonable and couldn't prove that Sterling wasn't reaching for a gun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: That was CNN's Kaylee Hartung. Let's discuss, with us, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Page Pate, and CNN contributor and "Washington Post" reporter, Wesley Lowery. He wrote the book "They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America's Racial Justice Movement."

So, Wesley, your reaction first to this disturbing new video that was just released, the body cam video in Louisiana.

WESLEY LOWERY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Certainly, I mean, the first reaction to some extent is a surprise, because we had been led to believe that the body camera video wouldn't show us anything revelatory. Now that we've seen this video almost two years after the shooting, we see all types of new details that would have helped us interpret the shooting back in July 2016.

What we see is the immediate escalation of the interaction by Officer Blane Salamoni. We see Alton Sterling being stunned with a taser even as he was at least partially complying. In that moment when the officer tackles him to the ground leading to the shooting, it appears from this video that Alton Sterling was standing with his hands up.

And so, it does raise some new questions about the police tactics even if this new video doesn't raise to the level of prompting legal charges.

CABRERA: Page, on one hand it's hard to watch the video. On the other hand, it's hard not to watch it, it is disturbing on so many levels. We know Sterling did have a gun, that's important here. But based on what you witnessed, is there a case to be made that the officers were justified in how they handled it?

PAGE PATE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Ana, I don't think they were justified in how they handled it. I understand that both federal authorities and state authorities decided not to pursue criminal charges. But I think when you take these recent videos and put them into context and you think about the officers' actions from the moment they arrived on the scene.

They had this mindset that this individual, Mr. Sterling, is going to comply or he's going to die, and that is not the legal standard cops are supposed to use in these encounters. It's not a question of compliance. It's a question of whether Mr. Sterling at that time posed an immediate threat of physical harm to the officers or someone else.

The fact that he had a firearm is certainly relevant, but he wasn't doing anything with that firearm that put those officers at risk. So yes, I think, and I know that they saw these videos initially, I think that the law enforcement officers who were investigating this case for prosecution would take a second look at it, perhaps they would reach a different conclusion.

CABRERA: Guys, let's turn to what's happening in Sacramento right now in the case of Stephon Clark. Page, the independent autopsy appears to contradict the police account. The autopsy shows Clark was shot in the back multiple times. The police involved said Clark was coming toward them. How do you interpret this?

[17:10:07] PATE: If law enforcement is authorized to fire at a suspect, they're authorized to continue firing at that suspect until he no longer poses a danger. If Mr. Clark was actually facing the officers and approaching them at the time, which I don't think is crystal clear from the video, once he's not facing them anymore, he clearly poses no risk.

He's not approaching them. If he has a cellphone in his hand, once he's turned away from the officers, I don't see how any reasonable officer in that position could perceive Mr. Clark as a threat of using deadly force and justified in using force to shoot him, and that's really the key here.

It's not whether that officer personally thought, he may have a gun, I need to keep shooting him. It's whether a reasonable officer would have done the same thing. I think if they review this, it may be a tougher call. We may see criminal charges here even if we didn't see them in the sterling case.

CABRERA: Wesley, I've participated in officer training simulations to get a sense of what it's like to be in the officer's shoes. They literally have a split second to decide whether to open fire and it can mean life or death for them and for the suspect, of course. Is there risk to the public rushing to judgment?

LOWERY: Well, look, I don't necessarily think there is a risk in that. I do think it's important, that's a point well made. I've also participated in those types of drills and simulations. I think it is important. I think the public does know and appreciate that police officers have at times a very dangerous and tough job.

That said, police officers are emissaries of our government. The police are the government and the way our democracy works is that when the government kills someone, it's our job and obligation to ask questions about not only was this legal but could it have been prevented.

We all want to live in a world where the police don't kill anyone. The police first among those folks don't want to kill anyone. I think having these tactical conversations -- there was a piece this weekend in "The National Review," a very pro-law-enforcement publication that was arguing that in the Stephon Clark shooting even if they thought perhaps there was something in his hand, these were officers who were crouched behind a fence, they could have taken one step backwards and reassessed.

The idea is very often, I've heard this from police trainers, that the way we train our officers is that everything is forward motion and that sometimes the smartest thing to do is pause, take a step backwards, and reassess what's going on.

CABRERA: Wes Lowery and Page Pate, thank you, guys, for the thoughtful conversation. Have a great weekend.

Fox News Host Laura Ingraham is taking the next week off as advertisers flee from her show after she mocked a Parkland shooting survivor. That survivor, David Hogg, joins us next in his first interview since Ingraham announced she was taking a break. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:17:00]

CABRERA: Fox News Host Laura Ingraham is apologizing and now taking the next week off as advertisers abandon her show. So far about a dozen companies have pulled their ads after Ingraham attacked Parkland school shooting survivor, David Hogg. Ingraham mocked Hogg's grades and the fact that he failed to get into four colleges despite having a 4.2 GPA. When asked whether he accepted Ingraham's apology, this is what Hogg had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HOGG, STUDENT, STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: She's only apologizing after a third of her advertisers pulled out. I think it's really disgusting the fact that she basically tried promoting her show after apologizing to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: David Hogg joins us now. So, David, first, what surprised you more, Ingraham's apology or the powerful response from advertisers?

HOGG: I think what was more surprising to me wasn't the apology, because that was kind of expected, especially after so many of her advertisers dropped out. That was one of the things that disturbed me most. There were multiple tweets in between her first tweet calling me out and the other one where she basically tried apologizing.

There were multiple instances when she could have done an apology and didn't. I'm glad to see corporate America standing with me and the other students at Parkland and everybody else because when we work together, we can accomplish anything and it's important to remember that. CABRERA: What's been your biggest take away or lesson learned from this experience at this point?

HOGG: I think my biggest takeaway from this is when somebody, no matter who somebody is, no matter how big or powerful they may seem, a bully is a bully and it's important to stand up to them. There are a number of instances where Ingraham has tried calling out people, for example, Dartmouth University, because of their sexual orientation.

She told Lebron James to shut up and dribble. I don't see any apology for those people. It's sad, it's disturbing to know that somebody can bully so many people and just get away with it, especially to the level she did. I think now with advertisers standing with us, we can accomplish anything.

CABRERA: The word "bully" stands out because some people are calling you a bully, in fact, conservative commentator, Erick Erickson, I want to read you what he has said, he said having someone apologize to you and then refusing to accept it unless conditions are met is what bullies do. What do you say to that?

HOGG: I don't agree with it. Just like Laura, she can have her opinion, he can have his. It's up to them, but I don't agree with it, personally.

CABRERA: Laura Ingraham has invited you back on her show for a, quote, "productive discussion." Would you consider doing that?

HOGG: I would only consider doing that after she apologizes to all the people that she's hurt throughout her professional career, because of her immaturity and unprofessionalism, it's not right, and I think she needs to apologize to those people she's hurt.

CABRERA: Sadly, Ingraham probably won't be the last person to attack you. Do you worry about this kind of back and forth becoming a distraction to your main mission and what you're trying to accomplish with gun reform?

HOGG: Absolutely, because I think when people call us out like this, what they're really trying to do is distract from the bigger movement here, in that we're not trying to take anyone's guns, we're simply trying to save lives. That's all we are trying to do.

[17:20:10] And when Laura uses divisive language like many people on her show have when she calls us the left and right and doesn't acknowledge the fact that we're just Americans and our diversity is our strength, she needs to acknowledge the fact that everybody's opinion matters, even in, from my perspective hers does too, but what matters most is we come together as Americans.

And what I think shows like hers do is divide us even more and I think division is the last thing this country needs. We need to come together as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans.

CABRERA: So, I understand you're taking a gap here, you're deciding not to go to college right now. What are you planning to do? Are you trying to harness something more in this movement and have politicians reach out to you?

HOGG: Yes. Some have. What I plan on doing during this gap year, which I still may not be taking, I haven't made a final decision on, is I'm going to be working on a candidate basis, because there are Republicans who are supported by the NRA and not supported by the NRA. There's Democrats that are supported by the NRA and Democrats not supported by the NRA. I'll be working on a candidate basis to ensure that the best people that are willing to serve their constituents and not special interests are getting into office.

CABRERA: Which candidates have reach out to you?

HOGG: There is one that's going against Steve King in Iowa that's reached out to me. A few have reached out to me. I think at the end of the day what's important is we all come together and work on this not as Democrats and Republicans but as Americans to solve this issue and realize that our strength is in our diversity of people and our diversity of ideas. This is not an issue that has one solution. There are multiple solutions we must work at to implement to fix this.

CABRERA: Thank you, David Hogg, for joining us. Best of luck to you.

HOGG: Thank you.

CABRERA: Coming up, we'll sit down with David Axelrod and ask him what he thinks about the latest staff shake-ups at the White House and why he thinks the president may have met his match in Stormy Daniels' attorney, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:33]

CABRERA: It was a gracious goodbye for a White House that's become known for firing people in less than gracious ways. President Trump's most trusted aide, Hope Hicks, getting a kiss on the cheek and a handshake from the president as she left her job as communications director this week.

Sources say top aides are worried that the president will, quote, "unravel without his so-called Trump whisperer." At the same time, CNN is learning other Trump allies are telling the president he doesn't need to replace her or even to have a chief of staff, for that matter.

Joining us now is former Obama senior adviser and host of "The Ax Files," David Axelrod. David, the president defies precedent, he tweets what he wants to tweet, he makes policy and personnel decisions on the fly. What about this idea of going without a communications director or even a chief of staff? Could it work?

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER AND HOST OF "THE AX FILES": No, I don't think in the long term it could work for him or the country, but that's not his orientation. He looks at his own experience, and he says, look, I defied all the conventional rules to get here, I went by the light of my own instincts, and that's why I'm here, and if I had listened to all these geniuses, I wouldn't be here, and so I'm just going to run the government that way.

So, you get his spur of the moment decision to accept the invitation from Kim Jong-un and the tariffs decision and some of the other decisions he's made lately. Clearly, what's happened is that Donald Trump has decided that he's going to follow his own instincts, and he doesn't need a phalanx of people around him to bridle him and tell him what he can't do.

No president has all the information they need to make considered decisions, but he clearly is not a student of history or government. He's clearly setting himself up for a catastrophe down the line. But clearly that's what he's decided.

I have to say this, Ana, I'm sure he's looking at his polling numbers, which have improved a little lately, still not good, but they are much better than they were a few months ago. He's saying, hey, this is working for me so I'm going to go with it.

CABRERA: The poll numbers, the ratings, it's affirmation to him. He likes to surround himself with people who make him feel good, familiar with, who are loyal to him, his daughter and son-in-law both became senior advisers, his long-time bodyguard was director of oval office operations.

Hope Hicks had been a former Trump Organization employee before she was brought to the White House. So, David, where is that line between having people you trust with you and just having a roster of yes men or women?

AXELROD: I think every president wants some people around him or we've never had a her, we will someday, but who are close enough to them, loyal enough to them that they know them, and they know their loyalties are completely with them.

And so, I think actually the loss of hope hicks is going to be felt because she was someone he knew was very much loyal to him on his team. He trusted her, and she apparently could tell him things that others couldn't tell him.

That's very, very important in any White House. You do not want to be surrounded by people who constantly affirm your judgment.

[17:30:00] Presidents need people around them who are willing to say, sir, that's not a good idea. And it's unpleasant, I can tell you as a former Presidential aide, it's unpleasant to tell the President things that he doesn't want to hear. But that is the job. And if you surround yourself with only people who are going to affirm your points of view, you're likely to make mistakes.

CABRERA: Let me switch topics. It's been nearly a week since porn star Stormy Daniels detailed her alleged affair with Trump in that interview with Anderson Cooper. Since then her attorney has been on a nonstop press tour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL AVENATTI, STORMY DANIELS' ATTORNEY: We want to know the truth about what the President knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it.

This is legal buffoonery. I mean, it is just gets -- these guys are making it up as it goes along.

Why we haven't heard from the President as to these allegations is really beyond me. I do not understand.

Your friend is a thug. Thug, thug, thug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So David, you tweeted the whole Stormy deal is a squalid side show but watching her very sharp, audacious, media savvy, hot dog of a lawyer joyfully torment Trump world. It occurs to me that he is giving them a taste of their own medicine. What did you mean by that?

AXELROD: Absolutely. Well, look. Avenatti is playing the game that Trump has played so well. He is using the media. H is getting in the face of the Trump world, of Michael Cohen, of the President himself. He is pushing them. He is prodding them. He is taunting them. And he has been pretty effective at it.

He has proven himself to be a major league media talent. Whether or not his legal case will hold, because Stormy Daniels did in fact accept $130,000 and no one forced her to do it, I assume. That there is obviously -- there are legal questions that have to be resolved. But in terms of the media wars, there's no doubt this is one case where the Trump world is losing out.

CABRERA: So you have a brand-new episode of "THE AXE FILES" airing tonight featuring NBA hall of famer Charles Barkley. And you two discussed race relations in the U.S. and why he believes Democrats are taking advantage of black voters. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AXELROD: I remember on election night you said that Democrats have taken black voters for granted.

CHARLES BARKLEY, NBA HALL OF FAMER: Forever.

The Democrats, and I told Mr. Jones this, and love - they have taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time.

I have been a Democrat for 55 straight years. And first of all, I want to make clear, I don't think the Republicans are better. But I think we as black people have not held Democrats accountable for taking our votes for all these years. I look at my hometown. I don't think, other than the fact that I was able to dunk a basketball, I don't see a lot of change in my neighborhood or my state.

I have an issue with both parties. But I think speaking as a Democrat, we, we, have not held the Democrats accountable. Like everybody in my life has voted Democrat our entire life. And now we're starting, like, well, how much has it really helped us. Like I say, we know the Republicans aren't better, let's get that out of the way. But if you are going to have us vote for you, we have to start holding them accountable. Our neighborhoods are not better. Our schools are not better. Crime is not better. So we have got to start holding these politicians accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So David, you worked for a Democratic black President. What's your reaction to what we just heard from Barkley?

AXELROD: Yes, Charles elsewhere in the interview talked about how emotional it was for him when Barack Obama got elected President. He also, you noted, that grew up in segregated a d Alabama and that how much they have changed. And they have change in part because the Democratic Party fought for civil rights at some cost to Democratic votes in the south which once was a democratic bastion.

But look, in one way I agree with him, which is that there is a tendency to take these votes for granted. And one of the things that happened in 2016 is you saw a laggard turnout in the African-American community because a lot of people felt they were being taken for granted.

So the Democratic Party has to consider how it's going to engage, even as it promotes programs and principles that are important to the poor, important to minority communities. If they are not communicating and engaging with those communities, then they are at risk of facing the same result that we have seen, that we saw in 2016.

[17:35:00] CABRERA: David Axelrod, as always, thank you, sir.

AXELROD: Great to be with you, Ana.

CABRERA: A brand-new "AXE FILES" airs tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

Then, tomorrow, an all new episode of "the Kennedys" premiers. Confronted with racial injustice, the Kennedys realize that America needs civil rights legislation.

"American Dynasties: the Kennedys" new episode tomorrow night at 9:00 here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:46] ANNOUNCER: this is CNN breaking news.

CABRERA: Breaking news this hour, the state of New York just passed a new law requiring convicted domestic abusers to surrender all firearms. Now, in announcing the law's passage, governor Andrew Cuomo said quote

"the recent waves of mass shootings is horrifying. The federal government's failure to act on any form of meaningful gun safety laws is you be consumable.

Joining us now on the phone, New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Governor, thanks for joining us. Previously domestic abusers only had to surrender all handguns. Specifically, what prompted this expansion now to cover all firearms?

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK (on the phone): Well, thank you. It is good to be with you, Ana.

New York state passed which called the safe act after the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut where we saw schoolchildren -- appalling to me this that federal government has done nothing after the Florida massacre. We are looking for ways to even further improve our gun safety laws. And one of them is about protecting victims of domestic violence.

Half of the women who are murdered in this country are murdered by an intimate partner. And our new law says if you are arraigned for domestic violence related offences, the judge can determine to take your guns. 4.5 million women say that they have been threatened by an intimate partner in this country with a gun. It makes no sense to have a person arraigned on domestic and then let them go home with their guns when you know there's tension and violence in the home.

CABRERA: Of course some gun rights supporters say this is a slippery slope.

Governor Cuomo, this week we heard retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens say he thinks the second amendment should be repealed. Do you agree?

CUOMO: Look, I think the NRA's argument is everything is a slippery slope. Waking up in the morning is a slippery slope, according to the NRA. We passed the strongest gun safety law in New York five years ago. Legitimate gun owners have their guns. Hunters have their guns. But mentally ill people can't buy a gun. Dangerous people can't buy a gun. And that's what a sensible gun control law will do. Even gun owners agree with that.

This slippery slope argument is just to frighten the gun owners. It's a red herring. If you allow any government regulation, they are going to come take your guns.

1938, this nation outlawed machine guns because they were too dangerous. 1938. You didn't see a slippery slope since 1938. We outlawed the sale of assault weapons in New York. We outlawed high capacity magazines in New York. We started a mental health database in New York that now has 77,000 people on it who could have bought a gun before we passed that law. 77,000. But legitimate gun owners can still own a gun. So it's --

CABRERA: So just to answer the question yes or no, if you will, do you believe the second amendment should be repealed?

CUOMO: I don't know the second amendment should be repealed, because you are playing into the NRA's hands, which would be saying, see, I told you they want to take your guns. And you would lose that argument nationwide if you say we're going to take guns from people and no one can have a gun, you will lose. That's not our argument. Mentally ill people shouldn't have a gun.

CABRERA: Andrew Cuomo, thank you so much, sir, for joining us. We appreciate you spending part of your holiday weekend with us and explaining where you are coming from.

CUOMO: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: More than 40 percent of children and teens sent to juvenile detention in Texas once will be back within a year. So a Dallas chef opened a cafe. They build a training program to make sure they get the opportunity to serve meals instead of more time.

CNN hero Chad Hauser describes his aha moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:45:11] CHAD HAUSER, CNN HERO: I remember consciously thinking that the system is rigged, based on choices that were made for him, not by him. The color of his skin, the part of town that he was born into, the schools he had access to. I thought, it's not fair. He deserves every chance that I had. And I said if you are not willing to do something yourself, then you are being a hypocrite, so either put up or shut up. And that was it for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: For more of Chad's story, go to CNNheroes.com. And if you know someone who deserves to be a CNN hero, make sure to nominate them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:08] CABRERA: Jury selection begins Monday in Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial. The judge has hinted he may ban Cosby's prior testimony about giving the women preludes before sex. That could hurt the prosecution's plans to portraying the 80-year-old, former comedian, as a serial predator.

Well, tonight, CNN's Jean Casarez has an in-depth look at the case against the man once known as America's dad and the accuser at the center of this trial.

So Jean, you have been poring through what is publicly available out there. And you have been speaking to those who are involved in some way in this case.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is a fresh look tonight at the Bill Cosby case. And I really wanted to get to know who Andrea Constand was. She is alleged victim. We don't know her. We have spoken to her. We seen her but her sister agreed to talk with me and this is the first time that the Constand family is really speaking out. We have never heard from them. And also, Mr. McMonagle who was the initial first defense lawyer, the lead counsel, Brian McMonagle for Bill Cosby. I sat down with him right after the mistrial last June. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: So you believe they had a romantic relationship?

BRIAN, MCMONAGLE, BILL COSBY'S LEAD COUNSEL: I don't think that's any doubt about that fact. I mean, the testimony in this trial was that Miss Constand had been to his home on a couple of different occasions, that there had been romantic settings, romantic interludes.

CASAREZ: Constand testified that the relationship was not romantic. He was a Temple friend, she said, somebody I trusted, a mentor. As for the romantic interludes McMonocle says happened, Constand insisted they were passes from Cosby that she rebuffed which made sense to Diana Parsons who said her sister has no interest in romantic interludes with men.

DIANA PARSONS, ANDREA CONSTAND'S SISTER: Andrea was actually 16 years old when she told us that she was gay.

CASAREZ: Cosby's attorneys used phone records to try to prove a romantic relationship. Pointing to more than 50 calls Constand made to Cosby after the alleged assault and before March 31st when Constand left Temple.

MCMONAGLE: I found it to be the game changer. There were calls after the so-called sexual encounter. There was call after call after call after call.

CASAREZ: Constand testified she was just returning calls from Cosby a Temple trustee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: And there is no forensic evidence in this case because it's an old case. It's from 2004. And so Ana, they really have to go be the credibility of witnesses. Who do you believe? Do you believe Constand? Do you believe Bill Cosby?

We don't think he will be testifying but some of his statements will come into this trial. It is believed. So he will through those will be speaking and he said it was consensual.

CABRERA: What do you anticipate because this is round two being different this time?

CASAREZ: Well, we don't know a lot. That the sides have said what they want to come in, but the judge hasn't made rulings but the defense wants the confidentiality agreement to come in. Because once criminal charges were not brought in 2005, she sued civilly and there was a settlement. It's confidential. There was a money amount. No one has ever qualified what that is but the defense wants the jury to hear it. Because they want to portray her as greedy. That all she wanted was money. Prosecution says OK, we don't want it in, but if it's coming in we

want the negotiations in because Bill Cosby tried to negotiate with her that she would never participate if any criminal charges were ever brought against him. That was not part of the finality of that agreement, but that's what Cosby wanted. So they want the jury to hear that.

CABRERA: It is going to be interesting. And of course, in the era of the Me Too movement, a lot of people will be paying even more attention to what the result is at the end this time.

Thank you very much, Jean Casarez. I can't wait to watch the special tonight. Again, it airs at 8:00 p.m. eastern on CNN. And then at 10:00 CNN's Christiane Amanpour takes us to Beirut, to Lebanon, in a brand-new episode of "Sex & Love Around The World." Here is the peak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This city, sometimes you wake up and you feel like it doesn't love you. And so sometimes, I wake up at 5:00 a.m. I sit on my balcony. And I have tears in my eyes thinking Beirut, why don't you love me back?

CHRISTIAN AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Dee Mata is a writer and an artist who hosts a monthly storytelling night that's LGBT friendly. Even in liberal Beirut, homosexuality is still criminalized like around the rest of the Arab world.

[17:55:04] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before I came back to Lebanon, one of my friend's friend said you're going back to Beirut, and I said, yes, I am. And she is like, you are not scared? And I said, yes, I am. And she said, but it's OK because then you get to fight the beast from within.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Christian Amanpour's "Sex and Love around the world" airs tonight at 10:00 only here on CNN.

That's going to do it for me. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for spending part of your Saturday with me. I will see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

"SMERCONISH" followed by an all-new "AXE FILES." The case against Bill Cosby and a brand-new sex and love around the world.

Have a great night.

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