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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Aides Defend His Mental Fitness and Deny He Is a Racist; McCain's Daughter Says Trump Will Never Be a Great Man; Trump Goes on Tweet binge Over the Weekend; O'Rourke Campaign Raised $6.1 Million in 24 Hours Online; New Zealand Prime Minister Vows Gun Reforms Within 10 Days. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 18, 2019 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: The president went after among other targets, Fox News management, some Fox News anchors, unions, General Motors, a rerun of "Saturday Night Live" and the late Senator John McCain. Just to get that started.

And you'll hear in just a moment how low the President went against the war hero that died from brain cancer last year. But just in the last couple of hours the President added some staple targets to his grievance list among them Robert Mueller, the news media, and absent here in all of Trump's messages have been any words of condemnation after a white supremacist massacred 50 people inside mosques Friday in New Zealand. Now Trump's online onslaught has forced two of his top aides to defend him on the most basic level of human decency insisting the President of the United States is not a bigot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: He has denounced bigotry many times, and I wouldn't be working if I believed otherwise.

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I've seen the President stand up for individual liberties. The President is not a white supremacist. I'm not sure how many times we have to say that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: With me now, Daniel Dale, Washington bureau chief of the "The Toronto Star." Ann Guerin, White House reporter for "The Washington Post." Ann, I wanted to talk to you. Thank you both so much for being with me.

It was your piece. In your piece you wrote it was a weekend of nonstop grievances from the leader of the free world. My question to you is what's going on?

ANN GUERIN, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER FOR "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, Brooke, you know, tweets are the window into what's going on in not only in his head but in the White House most of the time, and this weekend is a good example. There were 50 tweets for the weekend. And he only left the house once. He went to church for an hour yesterday. And other than that what we saw was the torrent of tweets you ran down there, covering a lot of subjects we have heard before and more. It's clear when Mick Mulvaney has to go on television and

utter the fairly extraordinary sentence, the Pres. is not a white supremacists, they know, they, the staff, cannot rein him in from saying and doing things that are going to cause Mick Mulvaney and others to have to defend him.

It's important to note what the President has said and hasn't said on the New Zealand massacre. He's called the massacre horrible. He's expressed condolences to the family, he's spoken to the New Zealand Prime Minister. What he's not done is condemn the motives, self- suppressed motives of the white supremacist killer who clearly is already owning this himself and invoked Trump in his online manifesto. That we have not heard a direct response from the President.

BALDWIN: That's what he has said. What he hasn't said, we'll come back to Mick Mulvaney. Daniel, you have focused your career on fact- checking and you had to have been pulling double duty over the weekend. What did you think of the myriad of tweets, the biggest lies, the most egregious? Can you fact-check those for me now?

DANIEL DALE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE TORONTO STAR": Sure. I think there were two egregious lies, but I suppose there were others. He said the Democrats made an effort to steal the election at the ballot box. That definitely did not happen. I think that says something, that that barely even registered, that that's not a story today. Another one was his attack on McCain.

BALDWIN: Yes. Let me throw that on the screen because I wanted to make sure you went there. Guys, throw this on the scene and I want you to fact-check it. This is partly what the President said. "Spreading the fake and totally discredited dossier is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain, Ken Starr, former independent counsel, he had far worse stains this including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace."

Go ahead first on how that is just factually incorrect on the dossier.

DALE: There was another tweet about McCain I think just before that.

BALDWIN: About him being in the bottom of the class.

DALE: Yes. In that one, a new document has proven that McCain had tried to spread -- disseminate the dossier before the election, and that's not what the court deposition showed. What it said is McCain was informed of the dossier 11 days after the election in my country, Canada, what had previously been reported. So the substance of that attack was simply factually inaccurate.

BALDWIN: Entirely factually inaccurate. And then, of course, the late Senator McCain's daughter and how she responded, I'm going to play that for everyone the next hour. Want to skip ahead to Conway versus Conway. First George Conway tweeted this, which he has now pinned. The tweet is pinned, if we can throw that up on the screen, essentially saying his condition is worsening is the tweet I'm referencing to which she has responded saying this.

[14:05:00] KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't share those concerns. I have four kids and I was getting out of the House this morning before I got here, so I didn't talk to the President about substance. I may not be up to speed on all of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ann, what an extraordinary public dynamic and what makes this time different. George Conway is not criticizing the President over policy. He's questioning mental health, whether the President is fit to be President.

GUERIN: Setting aside, I have questions about what breakfast was like for them.

BALDWIN: Totally valid questions.

GUERIN: This is not the first of tweets with George Conway. He's had a series the last week or so that go straight to the DSM, the manual of mental health ailments, and basically is diagnosing the President as a narcissist and a variety of other things, which he says he is seeing play out in real time. He's kind of maybe a little bit joking but not really, and it's a pretty extraordinary thing to say for someone with a couple of unique things happening in the window of the White House. He's an attorney and is married to Kellyanne Conway. He's not some rando on the internet saying the President is a nut. He actually has some window, knowledge, and more informed opinions than a lot of us.

BALDWIN: Daniel, what do you think of that? That George Conway, not some rando troll on the internet, is legit in calling out the President's mental fitness?

DALE: It is extraordinary. He's not a rando, but we should treat this with caution. What's more important is, you know, let's look at the content of what he's saying. Even if you take mental health out of it, you know, this was a stream of lies, insults of Republicans and other allies. It was a call for the FEC or S.E.C. to possibly investigate "Saturday night live" for making fun of him. I'm more interested in the substance than trying to diagnose the President's mind.

BALDWIN: Mick Mulvaney has to go out doing the rounds yet again essentially saying the President is not a white nationalist. We're going to end it for now. Daniel and Anne, thank you so much for that conversation.

Speaking of such, John McCain's daughter hitting back regarding his tweets regarding her dad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN MCCAIN, DAUGHTER OF SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Listen, he spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it and I know it and everyone knows it, he will never be a great man. My father was his kryptonite in life and kryptonite in death. All of us have family. When my father was alive, we would spend our time together hooking, hiking, fishing, really celebrating life, and I think it's because he almost died, and I just thought, your life is spent on your weekends not with your family, not with your family, but obsessing, obsessing over great men you could never live up to. That tells you everything you ever need to know about his pathetic life right now. I genuinely feel bad for his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And Meghan McCain did not stop. Her "View" co-host from "Ripping A Man," considered one of her father's longest and closest friends in Congress Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Senator is getting some backlash for his weak defense of John McCain. For more on that let's go to CNN's politics reporter at large Chris Cillizza. He's now found himself sort of stuck in between his late friend and his buddy the President.

[14:10:05] CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR AT LARGE: That's exactly right. Let's run through the tweet first and get people caught up. This is after repeating attacks. Lindsey Graham says -- he stepped forward to risk his life for the country, et cetera, et cetera. The word "Donald Trump" not in here, the words, "he shouldn't have said any of that," not in here. For the country, et cetera, et cetera. The word "Donald Trump" not in here, the words, "he shouldn't have said any of that," not in here. Lindsey Graham is about relevance. Staying close to McCain kept him relevance. McCain was always in the mix. Any kind of compromise, any kind of deal, House and Senate, White House and Senate, Graham was next to that power.

Well, McCain is gone, Trump is the new power. And Graham like to be close to that power according to Graham himself. Take him at his word. He's doing this because he wants to be relevant. If Donald Trump isn't the President tomorrow and Mike Pence is, Lindsey Graham is probably going to cozy up to Mike Pence. He has said so himself. Brooke.

BALDWIN: There are some major points where he just refuses to recognize facts. So talk to me about that.

CILLIZZA: Let's go through them. You had a graphic up earlier when you were talking with Daniel Dale, all the information up. This isn't all of the things. But let's go through a few of the things. Denying the rise of white nationalism, according to the Anti-Defamation League, white supremacist-inspired murder is more than double in 2017, the last year they have statistics, Donald Trump says not a thing even in the wake of New Zealand.

On Sunday just days after the New Zealand shooting, Donald Trump focused on lots of thing but not New Zealand. I'll move on.

The threat of guns. According to the Centers For Disease Control, 2018 was the most violent year in terms of death by gun, many of them suicides but death by gun in this country. Donald Trump continues after every mass shooting whether that is in Pittsburgh, whether it is in New Zealand, whether it is in Parkland to insist that gun is not in any way, shape, or form the issue. Let's keep going through it.

News based in fact. Again, we literally could spent an hour on this. My former employer, the "Washington Post," fact-checker, does a great job of tabulating the numbers of mistruths analyze that Donald Trump has told. Last time I checked, it's been over 8,000. He's been President for two years. That should worry everyone.

Science of climate change. Donald Trump, he said that climate change in the ideal of global warming was a hoax cooked up by the Chinese. He has pulled us out of the Paris Climate Agreement. He has repeatedly tweeted things like, oh man, it's so cold outside, how could there be global warming. Which again bears no -- global warming is a long, long tail phenomenon. It is not about the fact that if you outside it is cold in June for example.

Let's finish up. Kim Jong Un's de-nuclearization and likelihood of it. Donald Trump continues to insist after he did the first summit, remember he flew back and he said, the nuclear threat from North Korea is over with. And foreign policy and national security experts were, I don't know if that's true. All of this is of a piece.

This is the most important one. News based in fact. Donald Trump tells himself a story of his life and of his presidency. He has done it for years. He goes bankrupt, he declares victory. Things go wrong for him, he declares victory. He lives in a self-created world in which he is the hero of the story. And therefore anything that doesn't fit into his reality, which frankly is often at odds with established objective reality, is ignored. This is a feature not a glitch of his presidency.

BALDWIN: A window into the President through tweets over the weekend. Chris Cillizza, welcome back from vacation.

Two big developments in the 2020 presidential election. Beto O'Rourke breaks the presidential fundraising record with $6.1 million in the 24 hours after his announcement. And Kirsten Gillibrand launches her bid for President. And just hours after the attack on the mosques, he President defend a Fox

News host who made incredibly offensive remarks questioning Congressman Ilhan Omar's patriotism because she wears a Hijab. So what's the American Muslim community think of all this? We'll ask.

You're watching "Brooke Baldwin."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: To think about a 2020 Presidential election? Look at Beto O'Rourke. The former Texas Congressman raised $6.1 million in online contributions. That surpasses the record of Bernie Sanders on his day one. This as CNN is learning former VP Joe Biden is strategizing how he may, emphasis on may, announces bid and how he can seize command of this already very crowded field of Democrats.

So with me now CNN political reporter Maeve Reston. $6.1 million is not nothing, but, number two, if Joe Biden is -- who knows where he is here and here, but what do you think he's thinking knowing that this guy Beto O'Rourke out of Texas has raised 6.1

Million.

[14:20:00] MAEVE RESTON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: It's such an interesting point. We haven't seen how Biden is going to do with small donors. He must be looking at these numbers like other strategists saying how are we going to compete with this and get the small dollar donors to get behind our bid. But clearly it

is a daunting haul that the former vice president is looking at. Matched up against Bernie Sanders, these two guys have shown the ability to really connect with everyday Americans that they can come back to over and over again for the small dollar donations.

We also have to remember it was the first 24 hours. Beto has had a lot of issues over the weekend. A lot of people are watching to see how his campaign looks as he goes through this minefield.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about those issues. I was reading my "Axios" this morning, my inbox. Mike Allen put it this way. Get ready for the most politically correct and politically incorrect election of our lifetime. In case in point, O'Rourke apologizing for his comments about his wife raising kids and comments about white male privilege, and for comments that he made to "Vanity Fair" about being born do this. Let's listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE, 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's absolutely valid criticism and it's constructive criticism. It's already made me a better candidate. Not only will I not say that again, but I'll be much more thoughtful going forward in the way that I talk about our marriage and also the way in which I acknowledge the truth of the criticism that I have enjoyed white privilege. Absolutely. Undeniable. I'm mortified to read it now, incredibly embarrassed, but I have to take ownership of my words and understand that the way they make people feel when they read them now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Juxtapose that with the President who taunts, never apologizes. So, to Mike Allen's bigger point about incorrect or correct, what do you think is the winning strategy?

RESTON: These two men are talking to distinctly different audiences that. Works for Trump because the people who are behind him love that about him. Beto O'Rourke's audience love that he's constantly reflecting, telling people what's in his head. That was his strength, and that was a really strong answer right there. They want to hear him apologize, say how his views is changed. We've seen that before with Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. People have an open mind, open ears. So far he's done a good job of showing people that, as shocking as some of his early writings may have been. But to the point of what Beto's about, we don't know that yet.

We have Elizabeth Warren's "TOWN HALL" tonight, she has put out policy proposal after policy proposal, people are just beginning to learn What Beto believes on all of these different issues. He's going to have to do a lot more on that front top.

BALDWIN: The "Washington Post" tried getting it out of him. He admitted in their "Vanity Fair" article it still stings, one of the questions, what about your immigration policy. He was like, I don't know. We need to talk with each and everyone of these folks. Maeve, thank you, and Maeve just remembered, let me remind you. Tonight, CNN will host a presidential "TOWN HALL" with 2020 candidate Elizabeth

Warren. Jake Tapper hosts it live Jackson Mississippi at 9:00 P.M. Eastern on CNN.

New Zealand, already taking action against guns after the deadly terror attacks inside mosques and hear what the Prime Minister is promising, plus, as New Zealand takes action, one state here in the U.S. cracking down on so-called ghost guns. What are these ghost guns? What are they doing about them? We will be right back.

[14:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In just 72 hours after the deadly mosque shootings in New Zealand, the government is acting so quickly to change gun laws. Families of the 50 people meantime killed are finally starting to receive the bodies of their loved ones, but the sheer number of the dead and the way in which they were murdered has made identifying them quite difficult and time consuming. What is more here -- more pressing, the Muslim tradition of burying the deceased as soon as possible. Martin Savidge live in New Zealand. Seeing the people paying respects, the memorial, the pieces of it, and, of course, the investigation. What can you tell me?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. The investigation has revealed there's only one and only one shooter and he's in custody. The question is there any way that that gunman could have received some type of support prior to carrying out this deadly attack that took place. They're looking into that. New Zealand is looking to put together the largest investigative team in history. They're looking to put a number of countries together. Australia, because that's where it's believed he's from. They carried out at least two search warrants on at least two residents that are relatives. We're told the family is cooperating but what we want to know is there any indication that the family had some idea of what was to come and did they support him in anyway? And the U.S. FBI was informed. So their expertise is valued.