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tv   Anderson Cooper 360  CNN  June 19, 2019 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT

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good evening, john berman in for anderson. democrats got a new look at an old game after hope hicks went to testify. well, she went that much we know and as far as testifying goes, she claimed immunity for many questions a rather legal doctrine to executive privilege made all the more dubious as this isn't a white house counsel or senior advisor.
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it's communications director. regardless, she wouldn't answer many questions to see how far her white house counsel intended to stretch the immunity. democrats started asking basic questions like where was your desk in the white house? her lawyers objected. two sources said she wouldn't answer a factual question whether or not war broke out in the middle east during the trump presidency. this perhaps is what president trump meant today when he tweeted that democrats are putting wonderful hope hicks through hell. sounds awful. now hicks did answer one question about those white lies she testified to in a previous hearing that she would tell on behalf of the president. multiple sources say she testified today that those lies were not about anything substantial. now, keeping them honest, a lot that went on today for the past few months bears some fact checking. for starters, not about anything substantial.
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when hicks was the campaign spokesperson in 2016 she set up contacts with the russians, it never happened. there was in communication between the campaign and foreign entity during the campaign. not so according to the mueller report. quote, the investigation established multiple links between trump campaign officials and individuals tied to the russian government. those links included russian offers of assistance to the campaign in some instances, the campaign was receptive to the offer. let's not forget when the campaign was asked days before the election whether they knew about a payment between the national enquirer and mcdougal, hicks told the "wall street journal" we have no knowledge of this and any allegation of an affair was totally untrue. to steal a phrase, that's totally untrue. she might not have known about it but it wasn't true what she was saying. putting the truthfulness aside for a moment, none of this white house stone walling should come
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as a surprise since last month we've seen immunity claims for hicks and don mcgahn. we've also seen executive privilege games over documents pertaining to mcgahn, the census and the mueller report. treasury secretary steven mnuchin turns it over because he says the returns didn't fulfill a legitimate legislative purpose. all of these are dubious theories, collectively, they do have one purpose, one to this point is working very well for the president. drag it out. drag the whole process out as long as possible. preferably past november of next year. even if the supreme court said there is no absolute claim of executive privilege and it's difficult for hicks to climb immunity when she's answered some of the same questions from bob mueller, doesn't matter. drag it out. this from administration that claims it is the most transparent in history.
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the chairman of the house judiciary committee jerry nadler of new york expressed outrage at the answers or non-answers he got from hope hicks today. this is what he told cnn today. >> she answered some of our questions. we learned considerable information. the white house pleaded a non-existent absolute immunity and that will stay. >> more now on hicks' testimony today. democratic congressman joins me, she sits on the house judiciary committee. thank you so much. you called hope hicks' testimony a farce. did you learn anything today? >> i called the hearing or the interview a farce because she had white house counsel, her own personal counsel, about six different lawyers there telling her that she could not answer anything objecting to every single thing from, you know,
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answering a question where she sat relative to the oval office, later she was asked by the chairman did you tell the truth to robert mueller? and they immediately said objection, who objects to whether or not somebody is telling the truth to the special counsel. so this was clearly the white house trying to as you said in our opening comments, stymie the american people from getting information they deserve to have. we did not get a lot from hope hicks because of these executive, you know, the absolute immunity claim and one thing that was interesting, john, they did not claim executive privilege. they didn't claim executive privilege because they can't. they have already waived executive privilege so what they did is claimed this absolute immunity, which is absolutely it and they kept using that but what we were able to do importantly is show the american people which will be seen as the
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transcript is released that the white house is blocking even a witness that would like to come and compile and let's give hope hicks the benefit of the fact. she was there. the reality is that we weren't able to get a lot of information because the white house locked it. on going obstruction of justice. >> when the chairman jerry nadler did say you get quote a lot of good information, do you know the information he was talking about there? >> i think some of the -- she did start answering some questions around the campaign and it may be that he's talking about a few pieces there. we obviously are trying to continue to piece things together. we also had her read some of the very specific pieces in the mueller report that talk about her involvement, the typing of the notes that were given to her by corey lewandowski. the notes were taken because the
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president said write this down. to be delivered to sessions. a speech he wanted session to give basically even though sessions recused himself from the investigation, he wanted sessions to give a speech that said that trump is a great guy and this is an unfair investigation and never should have happened. he asked corey to write down what he dictated and corey corey lewandowski sometime later gave those notes over to hope hicks to type up and then to turnover to another individual and so we had her read some of those passages and i think that's very important because again, she is claiming that she can't answer questions that she already answered to robert mueller and i think that is significant. >> well, that of course, happened -- well, that happened when she was in the white house. you had her read that out loud in the white house and she agreed to it? >> she did read it out. it was from the mueller report. she read the passages and, you know, then refused to answer any
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questions because her lawyers objected and so she didn't answer any questions about whether that was truthful testimony or anything like that. she did read it out. >> that is interesting. one of the things chairman nadler said today is that he will destroy the immunity argument in court. i guess my question is when? when? >> well, i think you're going to see a number of things happening very quickly and i do think that the immunity argument is ludicrous. i think it will get destroyed. we just hope that it is destroyed extremely quickly. so when we go to court and i do believe that will be very soon, we will then, you know, ask for the judge to rule quickly because obviously this is a critical issue, this is a crisis situation, and we have to be able to get the information that we seek. >> was there any rational given why she wouldn't answer where she sat in the white house? >> it really was she will not answer anything about her time in the white house, and that
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includes by the way, this was interesting. that includes at the end, not at the end but at certain points, we said after you left the white house what is your reaction now to what you experienced at the white house? in other words, how do you feel about it now? she actually started to answer a question. this was about corey and she said it was odd. and his behavior. immediately, the white house lawyers objected and said you can't answer the question. she was shut down. >> were you given the impression there were questions that hope hicks wanted to answer that the white house would not let her answer? >> i did get the sense that she would have probably answered many of those questions but the white house clearly was engaged in on going obstruction of justice instructing her not to answer and she was following the instructions of her attorneys, both her personal attorneys and her white house attorneys.
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>> all right. some interesting color. congressman, thank you very much for mangling the name. thank you very much for being with us tonight. >> thank you very much, bye, bye. >> democrats were upset after today's testimony. ted lu of california said it was obstruction. obstruction of justice in action. the congresswoman said the same thing. for more, let's turn to jeffrey toobin and washington correspondent for new york magazine who did a profile story on hope hicks just before she left the white house in the spring of 2018. i want to get your big picture take on what we saw or didn't see but at least heard about happening in that hearing room. >> you remember on election night at the midterms, like the democrats are retaking the house. they will be able to conduct all these investigations and what do we know after six months? that the stone walling has worked. none of these investigations have produced really anything of importance yet because at every
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step whether it's documents, witnesses, all sorts of different committees, the white house has refused to produce anything and the court fights by in large haven't even begun yet. the strategy has been as you said drag it out but put it in the court system which is not set up on a political schedule. so, you know, the odds that there is a definitive decision on any of these issues, whether it's the tax returns or the documents or hope hicks or don mcgahn before the end of 2019, the odds are really remote even though these claims are really bad on the part of the white house. >> i do want to get to the law in a moment. olivia, i want to touch on something we heard from the congresswoman. she said she was left with the impression hope hicks would have answered some of these questions if not for the white house and in one case at the end there hope hicks started answering a question before the white house counsel stepped in. you've covered hope hicks at length.
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do you get the sense that she would want to talk if given? >> well, i mean, i can't speak for her right but i do think that if she's asked a question, you know, in a private setting, she's probably inclined to answer it like any person but donald trump does not want that to happen because hope hicks is one of the closest aids to him, was one of the closest aids to him and it's not like somebody, there is a difference with hope hicks. they were incredibly close. she was close with the family, with the trumps. she worked with the trump organization. she's been around for a very long time and for the record, her office if you walk outside of the oval office and turn left was a few feet away. that's where her office was. that proximity was important. she was around for some of the most important decisions at all hours going on at that white house. it's no surprise donald trump does not want anybody answering questions but in particular
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because of how close and how perceptive hope hicks is it doesn't surprise me they really would not want her to answer basic questions. >> jeffrey, to the law, it will take a long time and i know it will get dragged out but when a judge does hear this case, what deciding who's right and wrong, what does the law say? the argument there is some sort of absolute immunity that the entire subject matter is off limits i think is a clear loser. i think jerry nadler was right about that. the supreme court never defined the precise contours of executive privilege and what is off limits. it is true there are certain conversations involving decision making on policy matters where the president is entitled to get advice and not have those conversations subject to congressional or other sorts of compulsive disclosure, however, there is also a lot that congress is allowed to
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investigate and the idea that you can simply say no to everything is just clearly wrong but the court process is trump's allies because this will take months, the public's attention is fleeting, and these cases are often decided very much on the factual basis of each claim which could tie the process up even longer. so i think the stone walling has been much more effective than i expected and i think many people expected. >> olivia, do you get the sense hope hicks views what the democrats are doing or the mueller affair in the same terms that the president does? does she see this as a witch hunt? >> i don't know the answer to that. she obviously has not spoken publicly at all. she has been especially pry sit -- private since moving to california. it seems like she's attempting to move on with her life and the president in his tweet today
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defending her is trying to make it seem like this a prolonged victimization but of course, she was a public official. very powerful one at best and i think most would agree that's fairly ridiculous. i don't know if she views it that way. by being there, she's indicated she thinks that it's credible and they have a reason to be doing this or a right to be doing this. >> jeffrey, one last question -- >> everybody involved in this, everybody involved in this has a real victim complex and we saw that last night. he's still talking about it and attempting to campaign on it. >> seems to be a campaign plank. >> one of the only ones. >> corey lewandowski. he didn't work in the white house. ever. >> corey why don't you think democrats put him in front to answer questions? >> out of all the people whose names come up, corey has the weakest claim to any sort of privilege.
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i don't see how there is anyway he can claim legitimately a privilege but remember, by refusing to answer and throwing the matter in court, that's a win for the white house even if they ultimately lose in court because the circus moves on and people's attention doesn't last. even if he fights and loses, he's doing a service to donald trump. >> delay is a means to and in and of itself. thank you so much for being with us tonight. appreciate it. still to come, we have breaking news. joe biden just hit back at cory booker. we'll tell you what he said as a former vice president defends himself about comments of two segregationist senators and a veteran white house journalist will join me. sam donaldson will discuss a record set today, 100 days without a formal press briefing. cancer is the ugliest disease mankind has ever faced.
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we have breaking news on a back and forth. between biden and other democrats. in particular cory booker. biden hitting back after a booker aid said the senator was quote pissed off and disappointed by what biden said last night. the fight began when biden was at a fundraiser and sited two former segregationist senators as examples of colleagues he would work with in the senate. he named two saying while he didn't agree with them on much, quote, at least there were some civility, own quote. booker objected and moments ago biden shot back telling cnn exclusively he had nothing to apologize for. >> corey should apologize. he knows better. there is not a racist bone in my body. i've been involved in civil rights my whole career, period. period, period. >> perspective from david garrigan, an advisor to four presidents and political
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director david who i spoke about this with just before air. >> so david, these comments from vice president biden, how big of a problem are they? >> here is the problem. clearly, they are providing an opportunity for opponents to take shots a the him and caused concern in some quarters of the party and my guess is he's going to need addressing of that job. here is the larger problem, i think this feeds once again into what could be the most troubling narrative for joe biden, which is that he's of another time and out of step with where the modern day democratic party is. we saw this over the issue of the hyde amendment. trying to tell your time of the '70s to a point today about the leader you want to be is not necessarily the most relevant way to get to people and i just think it exacerbates that
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question over the biden canada see. >> it highlights his age. this is about people he knew and worked with in the 1970s before some of the democratic presidential candidates were born. david garrigan, the other side of this is that joe biden wants to lean on his experience. he wants to lean on his ability to reach across the isle although in this case he was dealing with democrats. but in terms of trying to have it both ways, can he have it both ways? >> i think that's a darn good question, john. i don't think you can have it both ways. i understand why he wants to celebrate his experience but he's going to turn it into a liability if he keeps talking this way. i think david is onto the right general point and that is from my perspective, the real issue here is that he seems to be looking at the world through a lens that was created back in the early 1990s and so he interpret things in a different way than what most other people do, especially younger people do today.
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it may well be we're working with a couple of segregations that got bills passed but a lot of young people today don't think you ought to celebrate that. you shouldn't celebrate segregationist. you should oppose them and i think he missed that, he missed that in his comments. >> david, i want to ask you about the university poll that shows joe biden out in the lead but shows elizabeth warren we've seen again and again in the polls vaulting up into this clear second tier either tied with or slightly ahead of bernie sanders. what's behind this war and momentum and who should be concerned about it? which other candidates should be concerned about snit. >> bernie sanders should be concerned. you're right. that's a tie there. 15% to 14% between the two of them. they are fighting over a swath of territory that involves a lot of the same voters, right? we saw in our iowa poll, john, that among sanders' supporters in the iowa poll, elizabeth warren was the second choice for a third of them.
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that's a big chunk. we do see them fighting over similar turf and by the way, bernie sanders is taking notice also if you noted today he used the opportunity where the democratic centrists group made nice comments about elizabeth warren to say i'm the only non-corporate backed democrat in this field now so he is definitely starting to find ways to differentiate himself from elizabeth warren. >> david, we should point out in these polls that vice president biden is still over 30%, still clearly in the lead but again at the elizabeth warren narrative, when people say oh, the reason she's on the rise is because she's highlighting policy, that's a heck of a thing to be people labeling you with. in a good way. >> that's right. the problem increasingly may be for joe biden that he doesn't seem to have any kind of fresh policies in the way she does and at some point, he's going to have to produce that and excite people with where he's going.
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let me say this, joe overall as long as there are four or five candidates in the race and joe biden has 30, he's in good shape. it is if elizabeth warren passes bernie and this become as two-person race, it could be much more challenging for him. >> that the very true, iowa and new hampshire is for true as more states vote and delegates get a portion. that becomes a real advantage for a front runner like joe biden. last question, according to the poll, some 86% of democratic voters said that a base will be important in determining who they will support. it's obviously a high number. so regardless of where things stand right now, they could easily shift once the debates begin, correct? >> absolutely. there will be six debates this year. six more once the voting begins next year the way the dnc set this up. there is little doubt when we gather for a conversation in december after democrats have seen six debates with those folks, they will be in a
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different place about this race than today. >> i look forward to many conversations before then. i'm not waiting until december. thanks for being with us. >> thanks. >> thank you. >> all right. one important note as this back and forth between cory booker and joe biden continues, cnn will have cory booker on cnn tonight later tonight with don lemon. be sure to watch that. in the meantime, a congressional hearing over reparations for african americans produced some outrage, not so much over republicans inside the committee said but what mitch mcconnell said outside of it. welcome to our lounge. enjoy your stay. thanks very much. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ find calm in over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide.
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fallout when republican senator mitch mcconnell was asked a question tuesday. he said he was against reparations but rational drawn the most fire. >> i don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us living are responsible is a good idea. we tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. we collected an african american president. >> joining me now is charles blow, a cnn political coleman commentator and senator from pennsylvania. two things that went on. mcconnell's comments about president obama and reparations. can i talk about mcconnell first? president obama not descended from slaves, his father was kenyan and mother was caucasian and mitch mcconnell should be
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noted as soon as barack obama was inaugurated said he would dedicate his job to make sure he doesn't get reelected. what do you make of the obama justification? >> obama has nothing to do with reparations. >> you can't look at what you hay consider to be racial progress and say that has something to do with whether or not we'll repair the sin. whether or not we're going to deal with the harm done. i mean, millions of people, black people died either enslaved or because they were enslaved or killed, right? we were a slaved country for 100 years longer than we have now been a country free of slaves. this is not a thing that happened 150 years ago. this is a thing that happened for 250 years in america. right? there is death, there is torture, there is terror.
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there is also 250 years of millions of people giving labor for which they were never compensated. it made america a rich country and id made people in america very rich and even if you're descended from somebody that wasn't a slave owner, the whole society benefitted. fy if i was rich, i would build a school or donate to the local events. and institutions. build a hospital. it made the society richer. everyone other than the slaves benefitted from the institution of slavery. it has nothing to do with barack obama. it has nothing to do -- he said the civil war, half the country fought to keep slavery and if they had one, we'd still have it presumably. he says that civil rights movement. half the people in this country did not want that to happen in the south. people died to get that. i don't understand this -- i
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think it's just -- this is, you know, kind of a self-delusion or something or being obtuse. >> senator, can i get your take on that? >> i think being critical of mitch mcconnell for simply recognizing that america has made tremendous progress since the days of slavery is pretty harsh. i think -- i don't think he meant anything other than the fact that progress has been made. to the point that the mr. blow is making, yes, clearly slavery is the original sin of american that did occur for a couple hundred years and it caused a horrific harm but it still was 150 years ago and so that's just the fact. i think the comments that he's making are very compelling comments and maybe 150 years ago, the congress should have had a hearing on this and actually seriously considered whether there was something that should have been done to deal with the harm that had occurred
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to the people who actually experienced the harm. but it's really curious to me because you said it, john, this is the first year when we had this issue in the history of the congress. why now? what's going on in the discourse in america that we now look back for something that clearly was horrific. your comments were riveting. but why now? why are we having this conversation now? what's going on politically within the democratic party because that's where this is coming from, this is an issue now that has some sense of urgency and that i think is the question that needs to be answered. >> let me say this. there is two problems with that, right? people keep saying it was 150 years ago. no, it didn't. we kept a kind of quasi slavery long after slavely was eliminated, right? we built into the 13th amendment the clause that says you cannot be forced to give voluntarily labor unless you're convicted of
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a crime, which is a backdoor that allowed southern states to basically accuse black people, even children of all sorts of crimes and to put them in convict leasing where they would lease out these bodies, again, free labor. to farmers and industry. to anybody. this happened until the 1930s. right? we built -- we allowed reconstruction to fail and we pulled federal troops out soft south. we knew what would happen when it did and right after it did, states started with mississippi in 1890 rush in, call constitutional conventions and they are not shy about it at all. they say we are here to white supremacy into the dna states. every southern state following mississippi. and write white supremacy in. they never had new constitutional conventions and
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those laws exist until the 1960s. the idea that we are just talking about slavery is false. the idea that all of the injury was happening 150 years ago is false. and we have to get our heads around what we did and how much we benefitted from that and how much of those tax dollars that we had that black people were paying were not being used at all. their schools were underfunded. i grew up in one of these segregated neighborhoods. i watched my neighbor's house burn down because there was one fire hydrant and by the time they got the water, the house burned to the ground. >> we'll talk more about this. hold your next thought. we'll take a quick break. when we come back, i'll ask you to respond. health is magnificent. so are the traits you love about your breed, but behind them are health needs you may not see. royal canin believes in tailored nutrition, to ensure his long back and playful spirit get the joint support they need.
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reparations are a volatile topic today. congress discussing a bill that would allow a study of the topic. a hearing, this hearing has been in the works for 30 years. back with us, charles blow and rick santorum. senator, this was a hearing to talk about studying reparations. it wasn't coming up necessarily with solutions, just saying it's something that should be studied. do you think that is worthwhile? look, again, charles makes some very compelling arguments about
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the slavery continuing on into the 1930s and some degree into the 1960s. we're still talking 90 and 60 years ago number one. number two, he said this whole country benefitted from the south having these slavery and post slavery repressions of actions. if the whole country benefitted, that would mean that those blacks who didn't live in the south benefitted, too. should they pay reparations to other blacks that are descendants from families. you look back to fix what happened in the past instead of trying to look forward and try to create opportunities for people in the future and that's really what i think you listen to tim scott and many others who commented on this in the focus should be going forward, what will we do to create opportunities and create equality in this country as opposed to trying to look back and punish some and reward others. it may or may not be connected
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to anything, any harm done to them individually. >> so there were two arguments you were bringing one. one, it was logistically hard. something we heard today. the other is an argument coleman jones made today, he testifies against reparations. he said there is a difference between acknowledging history and allowing it to district us from the problems of today. to the to issues. how do you respond? >> i don't know how you separate problems of today, right? so my mother is in her late 70s, right? so the idea that people were denied opportunity, jobs, access, that's her life. that's not some like distant life. that's my mom. right? i have people in my -- i know three of my great grandfathers, all three of them had land they thought they owned, didn't, was swindled or taken from them in some sort of way after they worked for it. thought they had paid on it or a
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sharecropper but was a good enough farmer, raised enough money to buy it out right and put the bad white man on them and couldn't shoot through the house. what is being lost in this is a whole structure that was designed to prevent the accruing and transferring of wealth and inner generational wealth. when people say, oh, well let's start now at zero, well, we can't start at zero because you had your family has had since they arrived here the chance to accrue and transfer in generational wealth, which is something denyed to mine and whether or not, that had nothing whatsoever to do with how hard they worked. >> what do you say to those who say how do you figure out who to pay to pay reparations? >> we agent like we can't figure this out. there are census records and dna possibilities. there is all kinds of ways to
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figure that out. if they are allowed to study this, they will figure easy ways to deal with that. those are road blocks people are putting up. america is, i believe, at its core allergic to the concept we would do something that would benefit black people and would be an i'm sorry on this issue. i think it makes people upset and angry when they think that we would pay for that sin. >> rick, we got about 20 seconds left. >> well, i don't think that's the reason that -- i think people recognize the sin and certainly feel obviously not anywhere near what you feel but feel that sustain on this country but i believe people want to look at creating a system for everybody and particularly those who have been harmed in the past to have an opportunity in the future as opposed to picking out certain
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people to be given benefits. i just thing that in itself seems to be a bridge too far for most americans. looking forward instead of looking back. >> rick santorum, charles blow, thank you for the discussion. appreciate it. >> you bet. the top prosecutor in the dominican republic reveals stunning new details in the shooting attack that left david ortiz fighting for his life. was he the intended target? the authorities are saying tonight and frankly, do you believe them? that's next. after walking six miles at an amusement park... bill's back needed a vacation from his vacation. so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. so you can move more. dr. scholl's. born to move. your but as you get older,hing. it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered...
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all right. red sox legend david ortiz was not the intended target of a murder for hire plot and was accidentally shot at a bar in the dough minute cab republic earlier this month. that is according to the attorney general for the caribbean nation who says the target was one of ortiz's friends who was sharing a table with him and was not wounded. both men were wearing similar colored pants. the top prosecutor has also revealed that the mastermind of the attack was victor hugo gomez who lives in the united states. gomez has alleged ties to a mexican drug cartel and is wanted by the dea. david ortiz's wife said tuesday that her husband had been upgraded from serious to good condition. he remains in intensive care at a boston hospital. chriss cuomo joins me now.
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chriss, i do have to say, i'm lilsening to what we're hearing from officials down there. it's a tough sell. david ortiz, it's hard to mistake him for someone else, in particular in the dominican republic where he is an even bigger deal than he is in boston. >> huge star, readily identifiable. physically distinct. we'd have to know what the friend is in terms of his physicality and see if there is any match up. the best facts for this guy is that ortiz was shot in the back, so he would say i didn't get to see him. but it doesn't make it okay if you shot the wrong guy. this was an obvious hit. the play on his part would be to try to curry some sympathy because shooting david ortiz was a national treasure might be regarded differently by the system there than if it were some, you know, body with curious connections to bad people. but under the law, you don't get a free pass because it's not who you wanted to shoot. >> you have a big show, chris,
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very quickly. >> i do. we have senator bernie sanders on tonight. here's the challenge for me with him. i don't want to debt too deep on policy. at the end of the day politics is about raw persuasion. how does bernie sanders beat trump? let's see if we can talk politics. >> excellent. chriss cuomo, thank you very much. primetime raw coming up. president trump formally launched his 2020 presidential bid last night with a campaign rally in florida. we're keeping him honest in what he said with legendary newsman sam donaldson. >> orlando, thank you. for a limited time join t-mobile and get the awesome iphone 10r on us.
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at least 15 lives told during the president's relaunch rally. we're now at 100 days without a formal press briefing. earlier i spoke about all this with legendary former white house correspondent and abc news anchor sam donaldson. sam, the fact that this was the president's announcement speech, the kickoff, and there were so many falsehoods in it, what does it tell you about what the next year and a half will be like? >> you know, there is an old saying, never quit a winning game. the opposite is true. quit a losing game. but he seems to say to himself, i won in 2016, i'm going to double down, i'm going to play to my base. immigration is going to be terrible. i'm going to make all of these things that i say happen, maybe, and i'll get reelected and he's foolish about that. he can't get reelected on that platform. >> you know, it's interesting because if you wanted to press
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the white house on any of the things he said in the announcements that weren't true, you wouldn't be able to do it in a press briefing because there hasn't been one in 100 days. what's your view of that? >> well, may not be another one. who knows. mr. trump wants to be his own press secretary. he wants to tweet in the morning, watch fox and friends, change policy because of it may be, and go about his business. gaggle once in a while in the driveway. reporters can't follow-up. reporters can't really trade with questions and get on his helicopter. he may have another press secretary, but if so, we know who it's going to be. sam, you know the name? i don't know the name. but can you see donald trump in his oval office with someone that he says to that person, look, go out there, dodge and weave if you want, put me in the best light naturally, but don't lie. are you kidding? to say to someone he wants as press secretary don't lie is like saying to a 500 pound man,
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i don't want you to have another dish of ice cream. we're going to have a press secretary who is going to follow the sarah sanders, sean spicer line. >> speaking of sarah sanders, she was at this event last night at this kickoff rally. the president called her up onto the stage. i want to play some of that for you. >> a woman who has been so good, so talented, so wonderful, and we're sort of going to be losing her. i have a feeling she's going to be running for a certain gubernatorial position. >> thank you, mr. president. this has been truly the honor of a lifetime. one of the most incredible experiences anybody could ever imagine. and that's because i've had the chance to be on the front row of history and watch you drastically change our country for the better. >> so, sam, she may have been in the front row, but it wasn't in the front row of the brady briefing room booze there haven't been press briefings, not for 100 days. just seven in the last 300 days.
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you spent so much time in there. you've asked so many questions to press secretaries. what is lost by the absence of them? >> we lost the give and take of a press secretary having to come clean whenever he or she can. when they can't, they can say, no comment. >> sam donaldson, the relentless pursuit of the truth, thank you for being with us tonight. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> the news continues, so i hand it over to chris cuomo, cuomo primetime starts in-n-onow. >> thanks. joe biden taking on opponents who have been taking him on for recalling the, quote, civility of two notorious segregationists. wait until you hear what the former vp said in response. and senator bernie sanders is here tonight. he's in the thick of this fight for all the policy plans. the real plan he needs is how does he beat trump. let's see if the senator has an answer you like. and what does he think of biden's battles with his