tv Inside Politics CNN February 19, 2018 9:00am-10:00am PST
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welcome to "inside politics." i'm john berman in for john king. president trump holed up and fired up during a weekend in mar-a-lago after special counsel robert mueller charged 13 russians with a plot to interfere in the u.s. election. and students beg lawmakers to act after that deadly school massacre in florida. the other white house says the president supports approving federal background checks. plus, heartbroken and
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blindsided, the family who opened their home and hearts to the shooter before the rampage speaks out. >> everybody seems to know we didn't know. we had rules and he followed every rule to a t. >> and before he moved into your home, how well did you know him? >> i had met him a couple times before. he had spent a night at the house, and he was very polite. he seemed normal. >> cnn has learned that the parkland, florida school shooter had obtained at least 10 firearms, all of them rifles, according to law enforcement officials in the year prior to the shooting. meanwhile, president trump may have found an opening to take action after last week's massacre. today the white house is signalling a willingness to talk, saying in a statement, all discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, and the president is supportive of efforts to approve the federal background check system. it's possible the president is is reacting to the strong language from the students at the margery sto ri stoery stone
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high school. students are gathering every microphone within reach to take action. >> if president trump wants to see us, he should have taken our first invitation. we're not coming to him, he needs to come to us. >> i'm going to ask him how much money he received from the national rifle association. >> mr. president, you control the house, you control the senate and you control the executive. you haven't taken a single bill in mental health care or gun control and passed it. and that's pathetic. >> you're either with us or against us. we are losing our lives while the adults are playing around. >> many of those same students also reacted when the president chose to connect the tragedy in florida to the russia investigation, suggesting the fbi was spending, quote, too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion, the president said.
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here to share with me their reporting and their insights, bloomberg's tulia rampa, jonathan martin and mary kathleen ham from the federalist. tulia, i want to start with you because we're seeing the pressure that students are putting on lawmakers, putting on adults around the country right now. has it changed the parameter of this discussion? this morning we saw the president come out and say, you know, i could support perhaps federal background checks and tweaks there. >> it's very clear that the words from these young people is something that's differentiating this particular tragedy from previous tragedies we've seen in the past where we've heard about thoughts and prayers and not very much action happens afterwards. now these young people are actually calling out lawmakers, calling out the president by name. you know the president spent a lot of time watching tv this weekend in mar-a-lago, he tweeted as much, and it's clear he's hearing the voices of these young people. i think that's part of the reason why you're seeing the
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white so you say we're open to some type of gun legislation, which is something the president has supported very wholeheartedly the nra, he didn't think as much. he didn't think any new laws would restrict gun owners. now they're looking at maybe a bipartisan bill by senator cornyn and the senator from connecticut, chris murphy, because they realize that something needs to be done. we've seen these tragedies happen over and over and not much action in congress. >> so the question is, do they and are they, right? because this legislation that the white house seems to be open to from john cornyn, the texas senator, this was introduced in the wake of the sutherland springs shooting. this deals with background checks, this deals with domestic abuse, this deals with the military discharges and the like. is there room for common ground here? can this get past? >> look, i don't know if the underlying big issues of this debate have changed, because frankly you always have the two sides who are pretty dug in.
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i do think there has always been some opening for some of these tweaks. the issue, of course, is that in 2007 we actually did an ncis improvement amendments act post virginia tech's shooting which allowed for connecting databases and making sure mental health stuff has been reported. it has not gone that well, so i think the quickest path, i think, is to go for some of these tweaks that improve what already exists on the books and allows for things to be more openly shared. but as always, in the united states of america, liberty and security are going to butt up against each other and you are going to have some issues as the aclu did with obama's actions on the mental health part of this and gun checks. >> bump stocks changing that wide support, not particularly controversial at this point. you would think if there was a will, they could get that done quickly. the president down in mar-a-lago asking the people staying there, apparently, what he should do on this. fae affected, we are told, by
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meetings with his people on friday. and this morning before he goes golfing, we see this on the background checks. what do you make of it? >> this is sort of a n nonidealogical president who sort of asks people's opinions. this is nothing new, but going to the primary he had to make some accommodations to secure the nomination, right? guns, abortion, i think. he made it clear where he was to the republican base, and he's not really wavered on those issues. this is the first time you're seeing some wavering. he sees the media coverage, that's what drives him. he sees kids on tv and i think that bothers him so now he's looking at, what can we do? for him it's more how can we stop the media coverage of these kids and change the tenor of the coverage?
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i think if that is this cornyn background check, he'll be in support of it as long as the nra is okay with it and many senators. you mentioned bump stocks. if a week from now or a month from now, this has faded and we're on to ten new things and there is not any kind of urgency in the congress, then he's not going to be for it because they've moved on. >> the students are organizing this march on march 24, so there is a month here, at least. you have a month-long window, i think, at a minimum for this to happen. kaitlyn, you know, it's interesting, we've seen lawmakers speak about this just this morning on cnn. both from florida, one republican, one democrat talking about where they might be able to meet on this. let's listen. >> we should be done talking about this and these should be pa passed and signed into law next week when we're back in washington. >> ted can put me down on his legislation right now. i will add my name to it as soon as he is ready to file it. i think that republican
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leadership is starting to realize that americans aren't going to accept that this is the new normal. americans aren't going to accept that we may drop off our kids at school one day and that they may not come home because someone slaughtered them. >> you know, one of the words they used there, kaitlyn, was leadership. paul ryan, what's he going to do next week when they're back there? is this something that will be a priority, do you think? >> i think what you bring up about the issue of momentum especially on gun control issues is so critically important. we've seen that over and over and over again. yes, there is bipartisan support for background checks broadly, but again, it depends on what the details are. we've already seen big issues with big bipartisan support in the public go down and fail, really. daca was the recent example. and also you also have this kind of new bogeyman of sorts in the fbi. people are pointing to the fbi mistakes as, okay, let's focus on that. so it's a lot more complicated than just support, and it also depends on what the president's
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endorsement is actually, right? is it an endorsement for this bill? will he be kind of whipping votes if they do decide to bring it to the floor? there are so many question marks left. >> the real question is, is there acceptance to agree on the things that are already agreed on? i know that sounds counterintuitive. if they wanted to, they could get something done very, very quickly. are they going to keep that debate in the area where there is agreement, or are you going to see both sides try to shift it. i want to play rush limbaugh who was talking about this over the weekend. let's listen. >> the solution is we need concealed carry in these schools. if we are really serious about protecting the kids, we need a mechanism to be defensive when this kind of thing -- if we're not going to take action to stop it, we better have mechanisms in these schools to stop it when it breaks out. if we don't do that, and all the rest of this is nothing more than political pog pos tosturine
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2018 midterms and the election. >> it's no more than political posturing for 2018. i'm not sure people like the political posturing. it's a tough issue for candidates sometimes. >> it's a tough issue for not only republicans but a lot of red state and conservative area democrats who have seen in the past when they've voted for gun control type bills, they've been voted out of office. so this is something that -- in some ways they want to keep in a very narrow section. they want there to be areas where there is both bipartisan support for things like fixing background checks, but when you talk about putting more guns in schools or arming teachers, then you enter a more politically thorny environment and it will be harder to get a bill passed. >> in places like atf where they have had issues with some of these shootings having missed these red flags, a work study group of some kind who studies that and looks to how it can be improved would be helpful, too. >> they were told january 5 and
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there was no action taken. that clearly has to be addressed. that may be a separate issue completely. just where we began this discussion with kids -- i keep calling them kids -- these students who keep bringing up this discussion, how can you counter that if you are the white house or if you are guns rights advocates? how do you need to address that, kaitlyn? what is the difficulty? >> it is difficult, and i bring up the attention that this is getting, right? we have seen -- i am really curious to see how democrats try to kind of harness this -- the momentum and energy among young folks. thinking about a lot of these students who are seniors in high school potentially eligible to vote at some point, whether that is kind of the goal instead of right now, legislation right now, whether elections are the goal. stand by for one minute. it is a painful day in florida as more victims killed in the
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this is happening now outside the white house in washington, d.c. these are live pictures of students protesting gun violence. they're laying on the ground, i think, for three minutes at a time, again, to protest the government inaction the last several years on the issue of gun violence and the call for action now. let's go to ryan nobles who is standing by at this protest. ryan, what are we seeing right here? >> john, what you're seeing is is a group of high school students from the washington, d.c. area who saw what happened in florida last week and decided to take action. this group, basically through social media organizing and telling their friends and neighbors to come here to the white house north lawn, and they're staging what they call a die-in here. just a few minutes ago before we came to you live, they read off
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the list of victims of gun violence in schools over the past decade, and then this group of young people, these are all students in high schools in the area, laid down on the ground in front of the white house, a white house that i should point out is still displaying a flag at half staff in honor of those victims of the parkland shooting. what they're attempting to do here is represent the number of young people that have been killed as a result of gun violence in schools across the country. their message is pretty clear, john. they want members of congress to take action, and specifically they want them to take action to write and pass into law stricter controls for firearms across the country. they believe that is the big problem here, and that they're sick of members of congress talking about this and not doing anything. we've seen some shirts that have said "enough of your thoughts and prayers, it is time for action." as you can see here, john, this
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is a pretty dramatic moment of symbolism for these young people trying to send a message to their members of congress. john? >> ryan, i don't know if you had a chance to speak with any of the people out there now, but is this something they intend to keep up for a period of time with a march coming in washington on march 24? >> absolutely, john. i think what these young people have expressed here today is that different than some other kind of flashpoint moments in the debate over gun control, they don't want this one to just fade away, that they are not going to just give up on their calls for new laws as it relates to gun control, that they're going to continue the fight and that they're going to be in the face of these members of congress and the president of the united states who they feel at this point are not doing enough. it's worth pointing out, john, that many of these young people who are lying down on the ground, many of them probably not even old enough to vote yet,
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as were many of the victims of the shooting in florida, they want to make it clear to members of congress that in the not too distant future, they will be one of these voters who will be casting votes in these crucial election. in particular, the 2020 race for president. they're going to make their voices heard, they're going to put the pressure on. they're going to lobby members of congress. as you mentioned, a big rally planned in washington, d.c. in the coming weeks. these young people do not plan on going away, and this symbolic move, although it is symbolic at this point, they hope it turns into real action. they're specifically pointing to members of congress, though, john. they think now is the time for action to take place. >> ryan nobles outside the white house. again, as we look at the live pictures of this protest, high school students in the
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washington, d.c. area with a lie-in outside the white house now. right now two families are saying goodbye to their 15-year-old children. they were both freshmen at marjory stoneham douglas high school. diane is near where one of those funerals is being held. diane? >> reporter: yeah, john, two freshmen in high school today, those funerals, the service for elaine petty is happening in the church behind me right now. her family described her as quick to smile. she was kind to others. they say she dedicated her very short life to service for others. she was in jrotc. she was active with her church family. after hurricane irma, she went and helped to rebuild. one other member of this congregation of this church, ali milford, was injured in this
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shooting. she is still in the hospital recovering, but we hear her parents are going to leave the hospital to pay their respects to this 13-year-old girl. luke hoyer, 15, his family described him as a good guy. his aunt told "people" magazine he didn't know what he wanted to do. he was a 15-year-old kid. he was excited to be in high school. he liked lebron james, he liked basketball, he liked hanging out with his friends. really, that's what resonates with these people. their lives were so short. and alaina petty will be talked about, what she was able to accomplish in her short years. several members are here at this funeral today. peter wang is being hailed as a
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hero. his last moments were sacrificed for others. he held the door open so people could escape when the shooter was in the school. they have a petition up and they hope he will at least get recognition. his funeral is tomorrow. >> thank you so much, diane. we'll be right back. any chance of an upgrade? any chance of an upgrade? upgrade? pretty please? look into my eyes. could be twins. have you thought about being a model? don't upgrade your seat. upgrade your airline. fly emirates. the best economy class in the world.
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my ci can worry about it,ine. or do something about it. garlique® helps maintain healthy cholesterol naturally. and it's odor free. and pharmacist recommended. garlique.® this may change any second, but look at the president's twitter feed. so far no mention of this, a pending plea agreement for a former top trump campaign aide. cnn was the first to report last week that rick gates is finalizing a deal with the special counsel. it could happen as early as this week. the tradeoff, as reported this weekend by the los angeles
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times, a lighter sentence in exchange for his testimony against paul manafort. shimon porcupesz with the latest on this. shimon, tell us what we can expect on this deal. >> reporter: it appears things are moving rather quickly in this case. we reported last week that gates and his attorneys have been negotiating with the special counsel about a month, work to go reach a deal where he would flip and cooperate with robert mueller. in fact, sources have told us gates has already done a wide-ranging interview with mueller's team and essentially told them everything he knows about his co-defendant, paul manafort, and likely other information he has pertaining to the special counsel investigation. this would make him the third person connected to the president to flip and team up with prosecutors and investigators. and it means gates essentially would have to agree to testify against manafort and anyone else who is eventually charged. >> so is it, though, shimon, really just about the manafort piece of this investigation, or
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will it drift in to the white house and perhaps the president himself? >> it could. john, when defendants sign these kinds of deals, they have to come in to speak to investigators and they essentially have to tell them everything they know about any crimes that have been committed. so essentially anything that he knows that the special counsel would be investigating would have to be something rick gates would have to tell them. so yes, it could. it could spread into anything else that is within the purview of the special counsel and that the special counsel is investigati investigating. >> shimon porcupecz, thank you very much. the president spent most of his weekend shuttered inside with what critics call an unusually large tweet rant. quote, if it was the goal of russia to create discord, disruption and chaiyasombat os within the u.s., then with all
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of the committee earings, investigations and party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. they are laughing their asses off in moscow. get smart, america. >> no porn stars there at all. >> our bar is quite high. we saw the president writing extensively this weekend. it was a statement made by a deputy press secretary, though, that really put this all in perspective. listen to hogan gidley. >> there are two groups that have created chaos more than the russians, and that's the democrats and the mainstream media who continue to push this lie on the person people for more than a year, and quite frankly, americans should be outraged by that. >> so to me that said everything, that even after 13 indictments from the special counsel, jonathan martin, the deputy press secretary is saying, you know what? it's still not the russians, it's still the democrats and the media. >> it's an outrageous statement
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that any other presidency of either party would be wildly condemned by folks on capitol hill, there would be calls for the staffers' head. but we're not in a traditional presidency now, so we all kind of move on. how many members of congress do you think even notice that? how many would even know who that is? there is so much every day in this gusher of news that sometimes we overlook these statements that are quite remarkable and basically a paid white house staffer saying that the u.s. media and the opposition party were somehow worse actors than a foreign adversary. >> a multi-million-dollar spy ring trying to hack the election. >> exactly. but it's so par for the course here. bob dole once said, where is the outrage, right? >> he's still saying that, as
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far as i'm concerned. hogan gidley said what he said. the president was criticizing aspects of the investigation. listen to what rush says. >> the danger for the president is, it would be very seductive for him to embrace this. see, see, i've been vindicated. the worst thing he could do in his world is validate this whole investigation by claiming victory here. because what if, down the road, there is another indictment or a series of indictments that do name trump or do name the russians and trump campaign colluding, because that's what this is about. >> so it's interesting, because the president did say, aha, look at this, there is no allegation of collusion inside this indictment, i'm vindicated, but rush limbaugh says that's a trap. >> right, and if you look at rosenstein's comments, a lot of people were pointing to the way in which he said, this indictment does not show collusion. we know the president is unable
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to separate out allegations of collusion with russian meddling in the campaign as some republicans on capitol hill have been able to say, look, we're not questioning the results of this election, but we do have to look into ways we can safeguard the u.s. from this happening. again, especially when you have the intelligence chief saying just last week in front of congress that this is continuing to go on. my question, though, kind of heading forward is, how long does the president kind of keep pinting to this, and does he still have those allies in congress who are continuing to kind of undermine the investigation as it continues, kind of still try to muddy the waters. i think that might give us a view of how he's still thinking about this. >> i think one thing that gives a view of how he's thinking about this is he was nonstop all weekend writing about it, free association with anything and everything. >> and as usual, he does himself absolutely no favors, particularly the connection of it to the shooting, which is a tragedy and you're using it as a political gain.
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i would say the phenomenonof not being able to tell the difference between meddling and collusion is not a phenomenon. there have been comments hysterical and some of them from russian sources, and i think we need to be tempered about that. i am not backing up the spokesperson who said it's worse, i'm just saying the coverage of the topic has been a bit overdone at times. >> the normally private rex tillerson talks about his life, his relationship with the president and other issues in a pretty candid interview with "60 minutes." stick around.
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time for a look at some of the other stories on our political radar. a message from the border to washington, keep trying. mike pence says capitol hill need to keep working on an immigration plan even though four have failed in the last week. >> our whole administration is to work with republicans in the house and senate, to work with democrats in the house and senate and find a way to build this wall and to solve the daca problem and reform our immigration system. it's absolutely imperative we do it. >> daca protections were set to expire on march 5th before the courts got involved. scott pruitt postponing a flight to israel amid complaints
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of expensive flights he's taken. pruitt would have stayed at a five-star hotel as he meets israel's economic challenges. he has been talked about buying everything first class. rex tillerson says we're not using a carrot to get north korea talk. >> the president communicates in his own style, his own way, his own words. from time to time i will ask him, are you changing the policy? because if we are, obviously i need to know and everyone needs to know. >> you would have thought he would talk to you about changing the policy before he tweeted. >> and to finish the thought, that has never happened. every time i talk to him, he
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says, no, the policy hasn't changed, and i'm good. that's all i need to know. >> he's taking a victory lap because the policy wasn't changed on twitter, unbeknownst to him. you would think there would be a concern that the policy was changed on twitter unbeknownst to him. >> people are seeing these tweets and wondering if trump is changing the policy. are we on the brink of car with north korea or some other crisis? no one can figure out at a moment's notice, are we changing the policy? it's clear from that interview that the secretary of state finds out changes on world policy from twitter, and that's not the way the world wants to find out. >> he's admitting he doesn't know whether the president is changing policy on twitter, and then he's expressing relief to find out after the fact, or
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satisfaction. >> almost like a victory lap. >> yes. it wasn't changed without me. i just find that weird. >> this is a terrible, terrible way of doing business. >> this isn't the way it's supposed to be? >> professionalize it, man. they're not going to do that, i understand, that's not how this president works. we're all playing a new game now, learning new rules, but particularly on foreign policy, make the policy before you tweet the policy, brief everyone on the policy. there is merit in doing everything well and right, and the way the swamp has done them in the past which involves these policies. >> if the swamp includes the secretary of state and the president changing policy, it's not the worst of the swamp. the secretary of state was asked repeatedly about the comments he made last summer where he called the president a moron. he was asked to deny whether or not he said it. and he wouldn't. he said, oh, that's been asked and answered, i'm not going to dignify that question with a response. it was sort of fascinating.
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>> it was so fascinating for exactly what he didn't say or wouldn't say or intentionally didn't want to engage. we've seen him kind of dismiss that before. i think to the point we're all talking about this not communication between the secretary of state and the white house comes amid the backdrop of continued questions about rex tillerson's own future. when you have several months questions about whether your secretary of state is going to continue on in this role, those questions still persisting, it was clear -- we all know he doesn't do these kinds of interviews. this was a different kind of thing, and it was as if he wanted to assert himself in some way a year into this tenure while questions still remain about the status of his tenure. >> he's there 13 months now and going, outlasting what a lot of people thought would happen. up next, dozens of staffers in the white house operate with only interim security clearances, but that's about to change this week. could it threaten the president's son-in-law, jared
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garlique.® new security clearance for teachers go into effect at the white house this week. john kelly is overriding it in the wake of the tragedy. will the new protocol threaten the standing of jared kushner, the president's senior adviser, and maybe more importantly, his son-in-law? not so, says a white house official now. jonathan martin, obviously, look, the president can give anybody clearance he wants to give clearance to right now. they say it's not directed at jared kushner but he seems to be the one more drebtirectly at is. a senior adviser with top secret documents that doesn't have
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clearance. >> he is is woworking with sens issues regarding security, but again, it sort of speaks to this issue about the unconventional white house, we're a year-plus in now, and the top person there doesn't have a security clearance and keeps amending his financial disclosures over and over and over again, and has lawyered up because he may have some kind of jeopardy we don't know when the special counsel. and this is the kind of world that we're in. so i would have to say, to be totally blunt with you, john, the fact he has not yet gotten a clearance doesn't shock me. >> there was a call from abby lowell, his counsel on this. >> which is a high-powered attorney. >> do we feel like he's out of the woods now, the chief of staff, after being on the rocks last week with the rob porter mess? is this the way to move past it?
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>> he's going to try. perhaps the news cycle changed in a significant way. the rob porter story was not the fbi's part where they flagged these things, it was the white house's dealing with the flagging. in the case of jared kushner, the issue is not what they are giving him, it's how the white house deals with that. the president can make this choice, but i think it's a problem for them because it is going to center on jared if you're truly going to fix that process. >> that seems to be the i go issue here. yes, there are dozens of others involved but he seems to be the one. let's go back, if we can, to talk about russia a little bit more on the investigation. after the indictments came out on friday, the president's national security adviser h.r. mcmaster speaking overseas basically said what the intelligence agencies and others have been saying for a long time, yeah, russia did it. listen to this. >> as you can see with the fbi indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and
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available in the public domain. >> hang on one second, guys. this is the shooter in florida who killed 17 people last week at parkland, florida at the marjory stoneham douglas high school. this is a court appearance he is facing right now. my understanding is this is just some procedural issues, sealing and unsealing of documents in the case. the hearing will be held before judge scherer on the matter right now. we don't know much more about what to expect or if we will hear it, but that is what you are looking at right now. are we going to stay on this for a little bit, or do you want to -- okay, here's what we're going to do. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back with much more on this just ahead. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance.
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florida. that right there is the shooter from the marjory stoneham douglas high school who killed 17 of his classmates and faculty members at that high school last week. this hearing is to seal and unseal documents in procedural matters. we're keeping an eye on it. look, it's hard to see this person sitting right there, and we don't want to dwell on it too much, but there could be developments in this proceeding, which is why we're watching it very, very closely. we will bring you the legal goings-on when they begin. in the meantime my panel is still here with me. talulah, again, as we're watching this right now we are engaged in this national discussion as to why it happened, and to keep it from happening again, we are stuck with these images of evil. >> we will continue to see these images unlike previous past shootings where the shooter died, like the one in las vegas,
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in texas where the shooter was killed right there on the scene. in this case we have the shooter who survived the event and it's going to go through courtroom proceedings. this is going to keep people talking about, does he deserve the death penalty and also whatever policies need to change in order to stop this from happening. we may at some point hear from him about moeftives, about whatever mental health issues he's going through, and that may allow for the conversation that members of the school want to keep talking about. it will help it not get lost in the rush of news we have in our current news cycle. we will be seeing these images for week, if not months, to come. >> kaitlyn, i am struck by this where we saw students in the washington, d.c. area lying down at a lie-in, trying to get the government to change what they see as gun laws not protecting them. >> exactly. and that planning the march event, march on washington, so to speak, next month. we have seen out of these
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instances, especially with sandy hook, you have really compelling figures come out of this to try to affect change. but with the sandy hook families, i remember covering the 2013 version of that background check bill. they would lobby members of congress, go to their offices, have these really heartfelt conversations and still there wasn't the support in the senate at that time for a background check bill despite the efforts of these really compelling figures. we'll see if this is different. i think you bring up a great point that this case will offer a lot of different data points that weren't available in others. >> mary catherine hamm, you brought up fascinating points when we went to commercial before, for these students who are asking for the government, demanding change from the government right now. they're injecting themselves in the middle of something right now and they might not be fully aware of the consequences.
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>> they have moral authority, they have righteous anger with so many good reason. they are also minors who have just gone through an incredibly traumatic experience, and as someone who has seen these experiences in the public eye, it is a tricky thing, and i imagine their parents, teachers and activists who are working with them are cognizant of that and i hope they have mental illness professionals around them to support them. i think a lot of people will think there is no political downside for the things they're asking for, but there will be talk of bans. it will not be all targeted, narrow solutions, and though that will come with a bunch of moral authority, in the political realm does that play as well, democrats and many who have to deal with these red states where trump won might find that's not the case. >> i hope they all find time to
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grieve. i want them to take the time they need to get over this. maybe one of the ways of grieving for them is activism. >> and the fact he was taken alive, which is strange, i hope offers some closure to families as well. >> we are watching the hearing for this shooter in ft. lauderdale. >> you were saying the killer did survive this shooting and is going to be in the court system at least through this calendar year. keep in mind the implications that could have politically this fall in florida where you've got a top flight governor's race, and if rick scott runs, it's a major senate race in addition to three competitive house races, too. it could be very much elevated this fall against the backdrop of the puerto rico hurricane which brought thousands of folks to the mainland. the president's comments about haitians which have really stirred the haitian community.
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now you've got gun safety. >> they'll have to grieve as best they can. thanks for joining us at this court hearing in ft. lauderdale right now. right there the killer from the school shooting in parkland. wolf blitzer picks up our coverage right now. hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. from wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks so much for joining us. let's begin with the breaking news. the parkland, florida shooter is back in court. he's making an appearance in a ft. lauderdale courtroom in a procedural hearing right now. you're seeing live pictures coming in. we're also learning today that the shooter was able to obtain at least 10 rifles. because of his age, he was unable to acquire any handguns, you have to be 21 years old to get a handgun, but an
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