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CNN NEWSROOM

President Trump Silent on Roseanne Firestorm; Spy Conspiracy Theory; Michael Cohen Returns to Court for Status Hearing; New Guidelines Get Colon Checked at 45, Not 50. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 30, 2018 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:27] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Well, so far President Trump has been silent on Roseanne's downfall. I mean, this is significant because just weeks ago not only did the president praise Roseanne's ratings on Twitter, he personally picked up the phone, gave her a call to congratulate her on her show's success. So why the crickets now from the White House?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us now is Doug Heye, CNN political commentator.

And Doug, it is crickets from the White House. The White House says the president doesn't have time to deal with, he has other things to focus on, he had a lot of things to focus on a few weeks ago when he called her and then talked about it at length at a rally. But you do have Democrats drawing a through line in saying the president has created an environment where people like Roseanne think it is OK to say this and they point to comments from the president for the past two years like these.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. Look at my African-American over here. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) off the field right now? They call her Pocahontas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Also with us is Michael Nutter, CNN political contributor and former mayor of Philadelphia, and Mayor, I was just asking, Doug, so Doug, respond to this, I mean, is that fair for people to say the president has created the environment where this is -- some think this is OK to say?

DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think he's created it, but he sure has contributed to it. You know, for a little bit of context, Poppy and Brianna, as you know, I worked for Jesse Helms, Michael Steele and Eric Cantor. That is the GOP in race over the last 30 years in pretty much every direction you can look at it, and before Donald Trump came along there were people talking about the birther issue. Before Donald Trump came long we had a black Obama impersonator telling, quote-unquote, "black jokes" that the Louisiana GOP hired for a southern Republican rally.

Every message that Republicans send to African-American voters is essentially, you know what? We don't like you and we're going to make fun of you and we don't really want to work with you, or it's one of a malignant neglect where we don't pay attention to what goes on in African-American communities, we don't have relationships with minority newspapers and minority radios, we don't communicate with those voters about our policies that we truly believe will help them.

That's a separate conversation. But if all they hear is that we don't like them, they're never going to hear whatever policy prescriptions we have. President Trump contributed to that but unfortunately it's existed long before them.

KEILAR: And Mayor, what do you -- I mean, what do you think about that? Do you think that you can connect President Trump as Doug says he's contributed to it, maybe he's not responsible for this tone, but what do you think?

MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's amplified it about a hundred times. It's been said before but it bears repeating. You know leadership really does start at the top and you expect certain things and you don't expect certain things from the president of the United States of America. You can go back to the beginning of the campaign. You played a clip, look at my African-American. He talked about punching people in the face.

I mean, that led to serious violence at a number of his rallies. He stokes that fire. He is the ultimate dog whistleblower. He uses language that incites people and continues to do that, and we're seeing it right through the Roseanne incident. You know -- and it will continue to happen because he can't help himself because he clearly does have within his heart some sentiment of the white supremacist. The clip again you showed where he talked about there are good people on both sides. That's a moment --

HARLOW: Technology fail there. Doug, I'm going go to you and we're going to get the mayor back.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes wrote this on Twitter last night. "Roseanne's problem turned out to be that she far too authentically represented the actual world view of a significant chunk of the Trump base." Now former congressman -- and the mayor is back with us. Former congressman and now radio show host Joe Walsh responded this way. "BS," he says. "Roseanne's problem is that she is a conspiracy loon who tweeted something ugly and racist today. Your problem, Chris Hayes, is that you and way too many Democrats believe most of Trump's supporters are racist. That is as offensive as what Roseanne said."

[10:35:03] It's interesting. Who is right?

HEYE: Well, I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, unfortunately. Look, the GOP has a stain on its soul that again pre- dates Trump. You know, I can tell you, before anybody really talked about Donald Trump running for president, much less becoming president, I remember being in a House Republican conference meeting at Open Mike where a member of Congress made a joke about the president being from Kenya. Not only was it not funny, certainly this was a private meeting. But what is the worst message we can send to our African-American neighbors?

It's telling them that the first African-American president isn't American. That's a terrible message for white voters, Hispanic voters, too. But what are they supposed to think about a Republican Party where that kind of conversation is -- you know, is acceptable? And again it's not just the president.

We have a broader problem that if we don't really address not just now, but after Donald Trump is president, we're not only losing these voters in the short term, we're losing these voters another generation at a time which we lost generation after generation and again it's a stain on our soul.

KEILAR: If you're talking about soul-searching within the Republican Party and just sort of the appeal, Doug, we have the mayor back with us right now.

Mayor, I wonder what maybe you think about this. This was a show that a lot of people looked at if you can separate it from Roseanne Barr. They look at the show and they said you have people with different points of view, it almost reflected that kind of quintessential Thanksgiving dinner, when everyone disagrees and there were a lot of people who connected with that, Roseanne and her tweets, her racist tweets, her conspiracy theories aside, but now she's associated with that.

So I mean, what do you think about this? This idea that this is -- now these things are sort of inextricably linked. Someone who has these views and then trying to connect with a larger swath of America?

NUTTER: Yes. I think it's just very, very tough and the American public is only going to put up with so much. I mean, you know, we have all those shows in the '70s, you know, "All in the Family" and Archie Bunker and all that. The people understood, you know, what that was really about and what was going on. It's been said before, you know, Roseanne is hailed -- she has been outrageous for a long, long period of time. And it's just really finally catching up with her.

You know, I think if people really want that kind of television then, you know, maybe they should watch WKKK Network or something, I mean, you know, but most Americans are just not going to put up with that kind of commentary. She's, you know, calling Valerie Jarrett a name that she probable doesn't even know. Valerie is a fantastic person.

You've got a rabbi who met the Kushners in Israel at the embassy opening, he has referred to African-Americans as apes. The rise of these groups and organizations supporting Donald Trump for president. He cannot escape the level of responsibility for all of this and now as the president and doesn't denounce it, doesn't say it's unacceptable, and talks about equivalency and, you know, the good people on both sides and let me leave it at that. That's nonsense.

HEYE: And Brianna and Poppy, if I can say very quickly.

KEILAR: Yes.

HEYE: You know, we know that Donald Trump spoke to forgotten communities, rural white Americans, to some extent, those are forgotten communities, but it's important to remember that African- American communities -- go to inner city Baltimore, those communities are often forgotten by America as well.

HARLOW: Yes.

HEYE: And we can talk about which party has the best policies for them, but if we're not talking to them as Republicans, if we're not talking to them, then we're ignoring them and there's no reason for them to feel that we've done anything, but forget them.

KEILAR: Doug Heye, we do appreciate you being with us. Michael Nutter, as well, thank you.

NUTTER: Thank you.

HARLOW: Ahead for us, the president's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, is headed back to court this morning as we're learning the feds are poised to receive more than a million files that have been seized from his phones. Detail ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:54] HARLOW: President Trump's attorney and self-proclaimed fixer Michael Cohen is in court right now for a status hearing. This as we've learned that federal prosecutors are set to receive more than a million files seized from his phone.

Our Brynn Gingras is outside of the courthouse in New York.

What is today about? I mean, why is this a significant hearing for this case?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just like you said, Poppy. It's a status hearing. This is just so all parties involved can give an update to the judge on all of those documents and other items that were taken during that FBI raid of Michael Cohen's home and his office and his hotel room last month.

So basically you said there, a million items are going to be handed over to the government according to the special master, who is in charge of sifting through all of those to documents, all of those items to determine if there's attorney-client privilege there between Michael Cohen and the president or other clients. And a million just coming from three phones.

She also mentions in paperwork that was filed prior to this hearing that there was other documents that she's gone through and about more than 250 of those items are going to be handed or considered rather attorney-client privilege. So the government will not be able to look at those. However, there are hundreds of thousands of other items that the government will be able to look at and it's just the beginning. The special master noted in her documents and her filings that she is not -- that she is going to be receiving more production of items taken from that raid to be sifting through them -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And you've also got this guy known as the Taxi King who, you know, the feds said came down hard on to get him to agree to a plea deal to some are thinking potentially case about Michael Cohen who he's worked with on this taxi medallion business here in New York City. He already got a pretty sweet offer, a plea deal offer, but now they've sweetened it, is that right?

GINGRAS: Yes, that's right, Poppy. He pled guilty to tax fraud and he's basically not going to see any jail time for that. He was sort of in partnership with Michael Cohen many years, and we know according to "The New York Times" that it's possible he could be helping the government, he could be helping state authorities with their separate investigations, and we heard -- we were reporting rather on CNN that that deal got sweetened after that FBI raid of Michael Cohen's properties.

[10:45:14] And so there's certainly that to be looking forward to, to see how that plays out as well with these court hearings.

HARLOW: Yes. And Michael Cohen for his part says look, we're not partners, we never were. The court will decide.

GINGRAS: Right.

HARLOW: Brynn Gingras, thank you.

It's a disease expected to claim the lives of more than 50,000 Americans this year alone. Coming up, the new screening guidelines for colon cancer that have just been released.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:03] KEILAR: There are new guidelines this morning from the American Cancer Society. They're lowering the recommended age for colon cancer screening to 45. It was previously 50. And the move is coming in response to rising colon cancer rates and deaths in young adults.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here with us now to break it all down.

This is a significant move, dipping this age for screening by five years.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Brianna. I think people got 50 in their head, that's when I need to start having colonoscopies but now the American Cancer Society is saying really everyone ought to start at 45 and there is a really simple reason. They started noticing that rates of colon cancer were going way up

among people under 50. 51 percent higher over the past 25 years. That's a big increase. So the American Cancer Society said, you know what, let's start getting colonoscopies or other types of screenings at age 45 instead of 50.

Now, Brianna, some people might be thinking, wait a second, my doctor already told me to start at 45. Some people for years now have been told to start at 45. They are especially at high risk because they're African-American, they have a family history, so some people have already been doing 45 for some time now -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And does the screening work pretty well, Elizabeth?

COHEN: It does work. So when you look at people over the age of 50, so the group that has been screened their colon cancer rates have gone down by about a third over the past couple of decades. That's a huge decrease so that's another reason for this new rule. They're saying, hey look, this worked in people over on 50, let's try it in people under 50.

KEILAR: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much for that.

Still ahead, Serena's statement. The tennis star returning to the French Open and in smashing fashion. The "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:56:20] HARLOW: The Philadelphia 76ers have launched an investigation into a report that the general manager had five secret Twitter accounts that he used to criticize his own players and coaches. Yikes.

KEILAR: And -- total yikes, right? Hines Ward, you're here, with more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

HINES WARD, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, bizarre story, I mean, an anonymous source tipped off the Web site, the Ringer, back from February, linking Bryan Colangelo to five Twitter accounts.

This "Bleacher Report" is brought to you by Ford, going further so you can.

The accounts criticize the 76ers players calling star Joel Embiid a bit lazy and selfish. They also accuse the head coach of sabotaging the team. Bryan Colangelo confirmed he does operate one of the accounts but he only used it to follow others and monitor news.

Now he released a statement denying the report saying, "The story line is disturbing to me on many levels as I'm not familiar with any of the other accounts that have been brought to my attention nor did I know who was behind them or what were their motives that may be in using them."

Now he joked about the tweets, posting, "Joel told me that former GM Sam Hinkie is better and smarter than you, #burneraccount." Now he also told ESPN that Colangelo called him yesterday to specifically deny the story.

Now a week after the NFL owners approved a new policy requiring players on the field to stand during the national anthem or face a fine, now players are speaking out. Wide receiver Torrey Smith says the rule might not put an end to demonstrations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TORREY SMITH, CAROLINA PANTHERS WIDE RECEIVER: I think it could stir things up which is a problem because you're stirring things up because you've been told to be quiet, and when it could have been done together to figure out what we can do to move forward, and what would be best for the players.

CHRIS LONG, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES DEFENSIVE END: I've had a lot of people, some of my friends tell me, well, I have to -- I can't politically protest at work, but at their job they don't have to stand in front of millions of people for the anthem and not have a choice on how they do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: Now Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich says he wants the president to visit the locker room to see what the environment is like.

Last week Trump supported the new policy saying players who don't stand should leave the country.

Now finally Mama Serena Williams is back and playing like she's never left the court. Serena won her first-round match in the French Open yesterday. It was her first grand slam appearance since giving birth to her daughter Alexis eight months ago, and of course, she did it in style going with the all-black jumpsuit looking like Catwoman.

Now after the win, Serena tweeted, "The cat suit was for all of the moms out there who's had a tough pregnancy."

Now, Poppy, I know you're a new mom, and Brianna, I know you're a mom to be, so I'm sure you ladies can appreciate Serena in her superhero outfit.

HARLOW: Yes. She is fierce.

KEILAR: You have to embrace it.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: You have to embrace the spandex, right, Poppy?

HARLOW: Yes, I think I wore the same black dress on this show for the last three months of my pregnancy. Man, she is fierce. Go, Mama. I am so impressed with her.

WARD: Yes, she is.

(LAUGHTER) HARLOW: Hines, thank you very much.

KEILAR: Hines, you're the best. Thank you.

WARD: Thank you, ladies.

HARLOW: Thanks everyone for being with us today. I'm Poppy Harlow.

KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar, "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. How do you like to start your day this way, with your boss wishing aloud that he'd never hired you. That's what Jeff Sessions is up against again today. The beleaguered attorney general, once again beleaguered, taking another public Twitter beating from his boss. This time President Trump tweeted that he wished he'd picked someone else to be his attorney general.