captioning sponsored by cbs >> cordes: today on "face the nation." teenagers at a florida school map out a new national movement to curb gun violence. >> not because another statistic but because we are not going to be the -- >> cordes: can they change the political dynamic we'll talk to five students from marjorie stoneman douglas high school about their plans to march on washington and hold a national day of protest. and after the fbi failed to follow through on warnings about the suspected shooter, president trump slams the agency for wasting time trying to prove his campaign clueded with russia this has special prosecutor robert mueller hand down a blockbuster indictment against

13 russian nationals saying they communicated with unwitting individual associated with the trump campaign to coordinate political activity. russian officials call the indictment, a fantasy, is the u.s. doing enough to safeguard the next election. we'll talk to the head of house oversight committee republican trey gowdy and delaware democrat chris coons and south carolina republican tim scott. hillary clinton's campaign chairman, john podesta will be here, too. plus, congressional republicans are retiring in record numbers. we sat down with four of them, florida's ileana ross lehtinen, charlie dent and arizona senator jeff flake to find out why they're leaving. when you talk about immigration, mass violence, opioid, has congress lost the ability to solve these problems? >> you know, it would be hard to

argue that we haven't. >> cordes: it's all ahead on "face the nation." good morning and welcome to "face the nation" i'm nancy cordes. we've got a lot of news to get to but we're going to begin those students at stoneman douglas high school in park land, florida. they are channeling their anguish into what they hope will be a new national movement. they rallied yesterday just a few miles from the scene of the massacre that took 17 lives. we spoke with five of them just moments ago. >> we're going to do a march in march on washington. students all over the country are going to be joining ups because the adults have let us down. the people that we put into power who should be working for us they have us working for them. and that's pitiful. that's pathetic and we have to do the dirty work here, we're going to do the dirty work, we're going to shoulder this heavy burden and we're going to do it well. >> from here on we are creating a badge of shame for any

politicians who are accepting money from the nra, special interest groups that has most certainly not our best interests in mind. and this cannot be the normal. this can be changed and it will be changed, anybody who tells that you it can't is buy can into the thought by the people who have all the blood on their hands. >> cordes: we'll have lot more that have interview coming up later in the broadcast, right now we turn to congressman trey gowdy the head of the house oversight committee who is in greenville, south carolina, this morning. mr. chairman, good morning. what do you say to these kids who argue that politicians like you who take money from the nra have blood on their hands? >> well, first thing i would say to those children and my own is, i'm sorry that you have grown up in a generation that is only known violence and there's no sanctuary, there's no place of refuge, the schools aren't safe, churches aren't safe, concerts. i applaud their activism i would

encourage them to look at three components. the shooter himself, the instrument mentality and then any form of mitigation whether it is magazine capacity, whether it is the speed with which the projectile is ex spelled but you have to look at all three. you have to look at the shooter and you have to look at the instrumentmentality by which the shooter is shoot can people. i applaud their activism and if i were them i'd be as angry as they are. >> cordes: are you suggesting that weapons that can kill or injury many people in a short period of time should be more restrict than they are now? >> well, you can certainly look at that but of course, nancy, some of the more heinous mass killings we've had involved semi automatic pistols and i have had people when i was a prosecutor, kill with all manner of instrumentmentality from shovels to brick. they're equally dead.

>> cordes: you can't kill -- wait a minute, congressman, in las vegas the shooter was able to injury 500 people in minutes. you can't do that with a shovel or a brick. >> , no you cannot. and that's why i say you should look at the instrumentmentality and magazine capacity and speed with which the projective including bump stocks, but you also have to look at the shooter. nancy, in almost half the instances of mass shootings there was notice provided to someone that the person was going to do what he ultimately did. school shootings almost 80% of the time there was notice provided. so you have to look at all of it. if you only look at the instrumentmentality and you don't look at the person who is pulling the trigger you're doing a disservice to everyone who wants to see an end to killings including mass killings. >> cordes: i think what these kid are saying, we have looked at all of these things, just haven't done anything y., for example, hasn't congress taken

action on bump stocks, this is something that both sides agree should be curtailed. if you're saying that we need to make it easier for law enforce tomorrow step in when someone exhibits symptoms of violencey don't we make it easier for them to do that? >> well, you could impose a duty to disclose. we have it in other categories of law. could you impose a lawful duty to disclose if you hear that someone is planning to do something. and shooting in florida, you didn't need a duty to disclose, people did come forward and put the fbi on notice, bump stocks turn semi automatic into fully automatic weapons, fully automatic weapons are already illegal. i am fine with doing away with any instrumentmentality that converts semi automatic a fully automatic. >> cordes: -- going to vote on that. >> i'm not a member of leadership but i'm happy to ask them when and if we're going to see a vote.

i don't know that it requires a vote of congress. i think atf can regulate bump stocks tomorrow. >> cordes: you're the chair of the house oversight, i want to get your take on 13 russians who were indicted on friday. you're a former prosecutor, what do these tell us how sophisticated this operation was and whether they're going to try it again? >> well, they're definitely going to try it again. what this indictment tells us what some of us have known all along. russia is not our friend. russia has tried to subvert the fundamentals of our democracy for those of us who supported bob mueller from day one did he said give him the time and resource and independence to do his job, this is his job. that is exactly what we wanted him to do. i have known all along that russia tried to subvert our 2016 election they're going to do the same thing in 2020 and every election thereafter. unless and until we do what the indictment said which is we view this as america being the

victim. and this particular instance they used the clinton campaign. they tried to disparage her campaign. next cycle it could be republican. but americans are the victims of what russia did. not republicans, not democrats. all of us are victims. >> cordes: why hasn't congress passed any legislation to safeguard our election, we have known abut this russian meddling now for 1 months. >> you're right. congress doesn't regulate state election. jeh johnson, whom i've been critical of in the past tried to put the states on notice in the fall of 2016. it didn't get a lot of media coverage because there was "access hollywood" tape that came out that same day. you're better able to speak from your line of work as to why, what jeh johnson warned us of in the fall of 2017, didn't get much media coverage but i don't think you want congress regulating the states in their election. >> you do have control, for example, over legislation that could require more disclosure from people on social media about who they are, who is

backing them when they air ad online, for example. >> yeah, i had that conversation with the three media giants, you and i just got through discussing the second amend. that is the first amendment. i ask facebook, i asked twitter, i ask all of them how does a functioning democracy benefit from false information? i can't imagine how we benefit from someone perpetuating lies. but i got silenced. that's a first amendment issue when you begin to regulate information and i happen to believe in something called the truth. i actually believe that certain things are true and not true. but i couldn't even get the media giants to agree to that. that's a first amendment issue, i would tell all my fellow citizens be really skeptical of anything you read on social media and dough your own independent research. >> cordes: sounds like americans are all going to have to get a lot more skeptical of what they see on social media. congressman trey gowdy of south

carolina, thanks very much. >> yes, ma'am, thank you. >> cordes: joining us now is delaware democrat chris coons, he sits on the senate judiciary and foreign relations committee. senator coons, thanks for being with us. what is your biggest take away from these new indictments by robert mueller, shows point blank, noz if the president says that a lot of other folks, law enforcement leaders and others say it neither proves nor disproves collusion. it shows the strength and organization of the russian campaign to interfere in 2016. it does show three different couple campaign officials were contact by russia but didn't realize they were russians. i'll remind you there was that famous june 9th meeting in trump tower where campaign officials welcomed with open arms russians who claimed they had dirt on hillary clinton. that hasn't yet been proven that there might have been collusion but i think it's getting closer. >> cordes: what do you think the chances are that it did

affect the house come of the race. >> a race this close moving 140, 150,000 votes in three states one way or the other could have changed the outcome. it's hard to say that this didn't affect the outcome. it was an exceptionally close election, rile remind you one candidate won the popular vote, the other won alone material vote. it's not yet clear whether the russians succeeded in actual plea changing votes. what's clear they spend millions of dollars and had hundreds of people working in a toll farm in st. petersburg to potentially undermine one candidate, hillary clinton, and support another, donald trump. >> cordes: why aren't democrats out there banging the drum on this issue, pushing legislation to protect our electoral system? >> we are. as you know i've introduced bipartisan to try to protect robert mueller. i'm concerned about the possibility that his investigation will be interfered with by the president. we just heard last week in some of the house intelligence committees from donald trump's intelligence leader, his head of

cia, fbi, direction for of national intelligence we can expect the russians do do this again. we should be taking action against russian interference. >> cordes: are we taking enough? >> we aren't. the most important thing the president should have done by now is to use the new sanctions authority that the senate gave him by vote of 9-2 last year, to push back on russia and impose some pain, some cost for having interfered with our election. so far, no overt sanctions have been imposed. no real action has been taken. >> cordes: you think that is em boldens the russians? >> absolutely. with someone like putin he's only going to stop when we stop him. >> this is purely fantasy in their words. should the u.s. be retaliating beyond sanctions in ways that we aren't right now? >> there are actions we should be taking town crease the pressure on russia to back off. we should be engaging our european allies who match commonality of interest in this. we should be using the sanctions authority that the senate also

given to president trump to me the most maddening questions why is president trump failing to act to protect our democracy when there is indisputable proof now that russia interfered in our 2016 election. >> cordes: let's talk about this florida shooting. given what we know right now, is it possible that legislation, any legislation could have prevented the tragedy that we saw there? >> possible. yes. likely that that action will be taken in this congress, no. and i have to say, nancy, having heard the voices of other teenagers from parkland whose high school classmates were gunned down, it is heartbreaking, i am heart sick over the fact that we in congress have failed to act to protect our teenage turnovers protect schools and churches to, protect america's safe space from the scourge of gun violence. there are things we should do to make it harder for people with mental health problems, people who are convicted felons, people who have domestic violence conviction, from easily getting

guns. there are bipartisan bills in this congress and last one that have not been taken up and acted on. >> cordes: has your party lost some of its drive on this issue? you talk about bipartisan legislation, you had a big break through it seemed a couple of months ago after the shooting in las vegas, democrats and republicans cosponsoring legislation to limit bump stocks, these devices that makes semi automatic weapons more lethal. we haven't heard anything about that in months. why hasn't your party kept the heat on? >> there have been efforts. but let's be blunt. one party controls the floor in the senate and the house, the republicans determined what is going to get a vote. >> cordes: there's no word of optimism that you can offer to those students in florida who are -- >> i am usually a very optimistic person. i work tirelessly across the aisle. he i have not optimistic that until there s real action by the american public to demand change in congress that we're going to see real action to confront gun violence out of this congress.

>> cordes: senator chris coons of delaware, thanks so much for being with us today. >> thank you, ma'am. >> we'll be back in a moment. ronoh really?g's going on at schwab. thank you clients? well jd power did just rank them highest in investor satisfaction with full service brokerage firms... again. and online equity trades are only $4.95... i mean you can't have low cost and be full service. it's impossible. it's like having your cake and eating it too. ask your broker if they offer award-winning full service and low costs. how am i going to explain this? if you don't like their answer,

ask again at schwab. schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. >> cordes: we're back with republican senator tim scott in mount pleasant, south carolina, sector, good morning. >> good morning, nancy, good to be with you. >> cordes: you heard from those students at the top of this broadcast and you i'm sure understand the pain that they are going through because your constituents lived through their own terrible shooting at a church in charleston a few years ago. but you have always pushed for fewer gun restriction, do you stand by that? >> i stand by the position i've always been in i'm not sure that i've been pushing for fewer gun restriction. what i have pushed for us to use common sense how to solve the problem. remember that just couple of years ago charleston, south carolina, nine murdered in a church. i want to make sure that we can solve that problem.

when you look at core components that are missing it seems to be the system has not top the right job. in charleston the background check could have prevented that perp from getting a weapon. the domestic violence incident that have been report could have prevent perhaps that situation from occurring. we all say if you see something, say something. and parkland community, we saw people reporting, there were 20 calls to the sheriff's department, they responded. the fbi received legitimate, credible tip and it was not followed up upon. what we have seen in three major atrocities is that the system that was in place simply was not followed. my focus is not on having or not having a gun debate. we're going to have that, the students are very clear, march is coming we're going to have that debate i look forward to participating in that conversation.

the reality of it is that three incidents could have been avoided, prevented if the system itself had worked. i would not have gone to the -- good friend if the system had worked. so we need to fix that and unlike my good friend who i do appreciate, senator coons, i believe that we will get something done this year. >> cordes: why haven't you gotten something done already, senator? you've cosponsored legislation to fix these background checks, why hasn't it gone anywhere? >> absolutely. we are putting more pressure on our system and to include in the senate to make sure that that legislation gets to the floor. senator grassley has been very clear the chairman of the judiciary committee, plans to bring that legislation up it is bipartisan legislation support fred folks like chris murphy in connecticut and myself in south carolina. the reality of it is that we have a sense of urgency about getting that done i'm very hopeful that this is the time

that we see this nation's leadership united to solve a problem that could have prevented atrocities. >> cordes: i think a lot of people are hopeful about. that i want to get your take on something president trump. very sad that the fbi missed all of the many signals sent out. this is not acceptable they are spending too much time, the fbi, trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion. i know he doesn't like the investigation is it fair to link it to the deaths of these children? >> we have to separate the issue without any question. the first issue is in fact the fbi missed an opportunity to weigh in heavily perhaps prevent something from happening that is a tragedy that should be investigated. i believe that oversight in the house and senate will do so. a separate issue is how they spend their time and whether or not the time is well spent on this russian situation. i will tell that you from my perspective that so many folks

in the fbi are doing all they can to keep us safe the reality is that they are two separate issues. >> cordes: and so where do we go from here on the issue of russian meddling, you know, you've got 13 russians who were indicted, but congress has failed to act and a lot of people would say that the administration has not taken this seriously because the president himself still does not seem to believe that russia meddled in our election system. >> there's no question. the russians have done all that they can to meddle in our election without any question in my mind or my heart. the question is, was it effective. and the answer is, it was not effective. >> cordes: we don't know that, senator. we don't know, how do we know that? >> well, so far intelligence agencies and mueller investigation have all come to the same conclusion so far that the impact that the russians

had, to change the outcomes so far there is no evidence that suggests that it has been effective. so we're going to continue the investigation i support mr. mueller moving forward in his investigation because i think it is very important for the american people to have a crystal clear perspective on whether or not the russians' efforts were in fact impactful. >> cordes: with all due respect, the special counsel has said that they can't make a conclusion about whether it was effective or not. but moving forward, south carolinians go to the polls again in june, what has congress done and what have you signed on to that can assure them that these are going to be free and fair election and that they won't be influenced by russians or other bad actors. >> that's a great question. as you heard from my friend, trey gowdy earlier, the election process is by and large a state function. i believe that we have been

sending very clear signs and the in together grey tee our system has proven to be very eye necktive at this point and very good. there has been very, very few incidents of challenges at the ballot box based on the russians' influence. reality is when you look at what they were attempting to do it was social discord and to use advertising as a mechanism to change voters' minds and to bring hostility and challenges between our races in this country. the polarization is part of the russian objective but there's been no evidence, none at all that they -- >> cordes: thank you so much for joining us, we'll really appreciate it. we'll be back in a moment. we're facing 20 billion security events every day. ddos campaigns, ransomware, malware attacks... actually, we just handled all the priority threats. you did that? we did that. really. we analyzed millions of articles and reports. we can identify threats 50% faster.

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the white house hammed the domestic abuse against former staff secretary rob porter. here are arizona senator jeff flake, pennsylvania congress than charlie dent, florida's ileana ross late ten and california's ed royce. when other countries see that this white house can't even get it's story straight on something as simple as security clearance, the rest of the world thinks what? >> security clearances for people who have not passed those check marks, just not the normal way that we should be hamming classified information. i think it's sort of shocking when you see the list of all of the folks who have had access to sensitive documents who have not been cleared in order to view them. i find it shocking. >> cordes: should john kelly step down? >> no, i don't think john kelly should step down. i think we are in a process now where the committee of

jurisdiction here is doing an investigation of just this issue. and i think you wait until you get the facts and then you can move forward from that. >> cordes: do you agree? >> i think he ought to step before a microphone and explain how this latest situation came to be. i think we do need a better explanation. but i think it can if he'll done it. >> it's bigger than one man, anyway, get another chief of staff, the problem continues. >> the white house completely mishandled this porter situation. that said, prior to john kelly coming in to the she of staff's job, the white house had been pretty much chaos and anarchy was very dysfunctional. did he bring great degree of stability and order and discipline to the management of the house until this recent episode. i'd like to find out. >> cordes: the rest of our conversation with those four members about why they're leaving congress will air in our

next half hour. we'll be right back.

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>> cordes: our next guest, john podesta was the chairman of hillary clinton's 2016 campaign, his private e-mails were hacked and released publicly by russian-backed entities during the campaign. mr. podesta thank you so much for being with us. >> nice to be back. >> cordes: for anyone who voted for hillary clinton these new indictments mean what? >> well, look, it's a tragedy for the american people, really. as mr. mueller said in his indictment this was an act of information warfare against the united states, against our democracy. i think it's obviously disappointing to those of us who were on the receiving end of these russian active measures but i think the real victims are the american people because there was direct interference with our democratic institutio

institutions. >> cordes: the deputy attorney general was very careful on friday to say that we don't know whether or not this operation swayed the election. you've had a lot of time to think about this, where do you come down on the issue? >> this is one part of a complex, active interference. this didn't even deal with the hacking this was about what was going on in social media and the information campaign that was being done l. but there were 0 people, millions of dollars spent and one of your previous guests, senator coons noted. we won the popular vote by three million votes. they were pushing votes to give one example to joe stein, her vote in michigan, in pennsylvania and wisconsin was greater than the gap between donald trump and hillary clinton in those states. you can't prove that it did affect the outcome. but it certainly seems likely that it had some impact. >> cordes: it does beg the question, how is it that these russian operatives knew to focus

on purple states like michigan and wisconsin and your campaign didn't? >> of course we spent a lot of time and energy and effort in all those states. >> cordes: hillary clinton did not spend much time. >> we had tim kaine was there, barack obama, she spent enormous time in pennsylvania and michigan. we spent a lot of effort, we had staff in wisconsin that even president obama had in 2012. that begs the question. we focused on the places we thought were -- that were in contest and the end of the day we fell short in those states and i think that this act active effort by russians could have tilted the election in donald trump's favor. i think what the real issue is, how he's reacted to it. in that context if this is information warfare then i think he's the first draft dodger in

the war. he has done nothing but tried to undermine the mueller investigation, he hasn't implemented the sanction, is that were passed by congress that he signed in reaction to the activities in the 2016 election. we learn understand week he's ordered no effort to try to get the intelligence community, get together to try to prevent further activities in the 2018 election. >> cordes: why do you think that is? i do think it's because to do so would be to admit somehow russians might have influenced this election? >> you know, i think that mr. trump's psyche is complicated. people have said a lot about it. but he certainly can't accept that this activity may have helped him and i think he just constantly tries to move the ball away including what was i

think despicable tweet about the fact that he's blaming the fbi for investigating the russia investigation somehow relating that to the tragic killings in florida. but who knows with mr. trump. but he clearly, i think, has failed in carrying out his duty as president of the united states which is to protect our democracy. >> cordes: mid term election are coming up, it's been reported that democrats are telling your former positives, bill clinton, that in light of the me too movement they think he should sit it out he should be benched they're not looking for him to actively campaign for them. is that true and do you think that that is the right call? >> look, i think he remains i think a figure who is popular with lot of democrats across the country. i think that people are calling him and asking for advice, whether he's going to be an active participant i think that is not really on top of his mind right now.

i think he's doing other things and people make their own judgments about whether he can be helpful in the campaign. >> cordes: do you think it's good idea for him to sit it out? >> i think that if i was an advising campaign and candidate about what to do, i would sort of judge whether he could be helpful. i think some place he can be probably some places he's more of a lightning rod. >> cordes: thank you so much, campaign chairman for hillary clinton and we'll be right back with our panel of republicans who are leaving the house and senate.

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>> cordes: mid term election are always perilous for the party in power. a record number of republicans have already decided no to the run for reelection. two dozen are retiring from the house and senate plus five are leaving to run for higher office. why so many? well that's the question we put to four departing republicans including ed royce who is one of ten committee chairmen who have announced they're hanging it up. that's a lot of experience out the door. >> it is. there's a debate. i think we should look at maybe the length of our chairman ships, at the same time i think the term limits are probably good from the standpoint of bring ink new blood, new ideas so that's one of the things we have on the republican side. >> cordes: when you left our house colleagues went to the other side of the capitol i'm sure you intended to serve more than one term in the senate. >> i always thought probably two

terms. but i got out of step with my party. makes it very difficult to have the position that i have and win re-election in republican primary. >> cordes: have you changed or has the party changed? >> i don't think i've changed that much. but i do think the party has changed considerably. >> cordes: do you all agree with that? >> from my standpoint, i think that the party has always been a big ten party. i think there is room in the party for lot of different viewpoints. >> cordes: do you think that the tent is as big as it used to be? >> no, i don't, actually. i think what is happening in congress is the political center is collapsing. but that's not true across the country. what i found was that become enormously polarized here in congress. that led to a paralysis, the very simple, basic tasks of governing, just keeping the government open. >> cordes: if folks like you leave don't things just get worse? >> i think that part of the

answer here, though, is for us to look at what we can do to change the fact that no longer do we really have the types of friendships across the aisle that we once had. that's important. >> cordes: when you look at the future of the republican party i think that we will be foolish to not see that we're heading into trouble. very few women are running for -- on the republican party ticket for office. far greater numbers of women -- have been applying themselves as being in the democratic party. minorities that have always been traditionally a group that we should really be going after. i don't see that we really have a recruiting program that's active to get minorities involved in our party so the growth of our party it seems to be very limited in the specific group where as the demographics of our great country is changing

greatly. when you look ahead, what is our future going to be? are we going to end up a marginalized party? i think we need to look toward the future and we need to have the policies that attract millennials, women and minorities. i don't see that. >> cordes: people have been sounding that alarm bell within the party, you're doing pretty well right now. you have the white house, house and step at, what incentive is there to change? >> there's a fundamental political realignment happening. look where the democrats are, they have gone -- bernie has taken over the party. on our side donald trump took over republican party. i do think that this political ground is shifting, under our feet, nobody knows quite how it will settle. in our party a lot of members have adjusted their politics to seek the president. it's about -- given principles or ideals that's what's changed. >> i would agree with that.

i agree where republican party is going, the danger. if you look every four years, every presidential election cycle, we are as a counsel try 2% less white. voters of color, it's changing that way. i don't think that we made enough of an effort as republicans to appeal across the broader electorate. then with young people as well given some of the position and behavior that the president has exhibited i think it makes it very difficult for young people to identify with the republican party. i think they have been walking away from the party in general. i think they're at a dead sprint right now and we've got to change that. >> we don't need to change our principles or change what we stand for but not every vote is a loyalty vote whether you are for or against the president. and that's how it's framed all the time. you have got to be a soldier, i don't think people feel as

comfortable that the moderate republicans feel is comfortable with this kind of tone. >> this issue, if you think about individually, what we are doing, we have recruited female candidates, asian candidates, hispanic candidates, we've helped elect three now, you've got three members who are hispanic that i know played a large role in their election. i think we'll continue in this vein. >> cordes: she is pro immigration reform. minimum wage, pro same sex marriage. could you have gotten elected in a republican primary for the first time now? >> i think so. it depends a lot on the personality of the candidate and getting back to what the republican party used to be, where we were accepting of all types and, yes, we're doing a pretty good job in recruiting candidates at the local level, the state level, when you look

at the make up of the democratic party here in congress, i don't see those asian women and those minority women serving in the house g.o.p. or in the senate g.o.p. that is the reality. maybe we're a farm team that's slowly coming up but we used to be more accepting of having moderate position and now it's getting harder. >> it starts at the top. i agree with that. candidates matter we have responsibility. but at the top when the president makes incendiary comments on hispanics, muslims, women, charlottesville situation and others, i think it narrows our appeal. i do believe that we have to be much broader in our thinking and show that we want -- the welcome mat is out. >> it's like charlie said, it's become a loyalty test to the man rather than to principles then the problem is, if you as a

candidate or as elected official align yourself to a person rather than principle, then you're wedded to that person wherever he or she goes. and that's dangerous. it really is. i see that a big problem for the party going forward. >> and he's got the freedom caucus, this group of conservatives telling the speaker of the house, you are your leadership position is at risk if you stray too far from where we want to be on immigration. >> you know, i've never support these types of tactics. trying to sack your own quarterback is not a strategy frankly that usually when you're working as a team is going to lead to success, right? threats usually don't lead to success. >> cordes: they have had some success. >> i don't think that's successful in terms of getting

legislation into affect. >> cordes: senator, when you talk about immigration, mass violence, opioids, has congress lost its ability to solve big problems? >> you know, it would be hard to argue that we haven't. in the senate we have 60 vote requirement for most legislation, we've had a hard time coming together. there are things that we should on the gun issue, obviously the bump stocks, no fly, no buy, those kind of things. there's broad consensus in the country certainly and there should be. i hope that we can move legislation like that. there's no reason we shouldn't be able to. >> but on immigration you look at the president's position on what he says on monday maybe different than what i says on wednesday, would be different on friday. so it's very hard i think for leaders on daca, on dreamers like jeff flake to figure out a way forward. it's schizophrenic who is coming

out of the policy on immigration and dreamers. >> cordes: and we'll be right back with those high school students who are crafting a plan to take on washington.

>> cordes: joining me now are five students who attend marjorie stoneman douglas high school they are david hogg, alex and emma plus cameron and jacqueline. thanks for joining me. cameron i'll start with you. you say the adults have let you down. >> well, the adults in office have let us down absolutely. fortunately we have a lot of support from the older generation here but what we're trying to do here in march for our lives say, the adult politicians have been playing around while my generation has whether losing my lives. you see how they treat each other in office, the nasty, dirty things going on with them, it's sad to think that that's what they're doing while 17 people are being slaughtered, gunned down only yard away from where we're sitting right now. and march for our lives has

support from everybody and at the end of the day this isn't a red and blue thing, this isn't democrats or republicans, this is about everybody and how we are begging for our lives and we're getting support but we need to make real change here. that's exactly what we're going to do. >> cordes: so, emma, what is the plan? you say you want to spark a national movement, it's one thing to talk about it it's another thing to actually make it happen. what are you going to do? >> well, what we have set up right now, we have a website march for our lives, we're going to be doing a march in march on washington where we get students all over the country are going to join you go. these kids are going to make this difference because adults let us down. and at this point i don't even know if the adults in power who are funded by the nra i don't think we need them any more because they're going to be gone by mid term election. there's no time for them to safe their skins if they don't turn

around state their open support for this movement they're going to be left behind because you are either with us or against us at this point. >> we're giving a lot of the politicians that we feel neglected by a clean slate. because that's the past. and we understand that. but from here on we are creating a badge of shame for any politicians who are accepting money from the nra it is a special interest groups that has most certainly not our best interests in mind and this cannot be the normal, this can be changed and it will be changed. anybody who tells you that it can't is buying into the facade created by the people who have blood op their hand. >> cordes: david, a lot of people saw the reporting you did from inside the school while the shooting was taking place. i'm truly sorry that all of you had to live through that. but i want to read to you what president trump said last night, he said that it's actually the democrats that have let you down because they didn't pass

legislation when they controlled congress, does he have a point? >> president trump, you control the house of representatives, you control the senate. you control the executives. you haven't taken a single bill for help tall health care or gun control and passed it. we've seen a government shut down. tax reform. but nothing to save our children's lives. are you kidding me? you think now is the time to focus on the past not the file tour to prevent the death of thousand of other diminish you sick enemy. >> cordes: what kinds of laws do all of you think should be on the books that aren't right now? >> well, what i think need to be on the books right now that isn't is the literally any lives from either side of the political spectrum, if you support mental health care we want you out there making your voice heard that's just as important as gun control or gun safety laws. because democrats also want gun safety rules and we can't get into any more debates. we need discussion, we've had the debates.

people have died as a result. children have died and will continue to if we don't stop now and look at both side of this. because we can't wait around any longer. children are dying as a result. we need to take action i call on president trump and republican controlled house and senate and executive branch to work together, get some bills passed and stop taking money from the nra because children are dying and so is the future of america as a result. >> i just want to say something i've heard a lot is the word gun rights. that has connotation that we're trying to strip people of their rights. first of all, we have the right to live and second of all, here at marjorie stoneman we don't want to take the guns away from americans. my father is a police officer, he has guns. i understand that having concealed weapons is good for protecting yourself. an ar-15 is not needed to protect your house from robbers or hunt bears and ar-15 is weapon of war, and 19-year-old who is mentally challenged and

has problems was able to buy an ar-15 easily. we don't want to disarm america. we want to make america have to work for their weapons and we have to make sure that everybody who has this kind of power in their hand, has been cleared to have it. because if nikolas cruz had gone through five minutes with any medical professional, they would have said this person does not need an ar-15. this person needs a counselor. and 17 people would not have needed graves. >> cordes: alex, your own senator marco rubio says that anyone who wants to commit violence is going to find a way to get a gun. >> if you think that senator rubio, then change the way it's easier to get a gun, knock if you think it's too easy to get a gun, do something about it. make it not easier to get a gun. march 24 on the march for our lives is only the beginning. this is the first march but i can guarantee it will not be the last. we will be marching for the 17

we lost at our school, we will be marching for everyone we lost at the newtown sandy hook, at virginia tech, orlando at the pulse shooting and las vegas. that is only the beginning. march 24th things are going to change. >> it's not our job to tell you senator rubio how to protect us. the fact that we even have to do this is appalling. our job is to go to school, learn and not take a bullet. you need to figure this out, that's why you were unfortunate plea elected. your job to protect us our blood is on your hands. >> cordes: i know that millions of people are watching to see where you take this movement. you've already got tens of thousand of followers online and we'll be watching to see if you're able to change for the entrenched political dynamic here in washington. thank you so much to the five of you for joining us today. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you. >> cordes: weep be right back.

>> cordes: >> cordes: for watch can. tune in to "60 minutes" for margaret brennan's interview with secretary of state rex tillerson. for "face the nation" i'm nancy cordes, we'll leave you today with the memorial of the marjorie stoneman douglas high school shooting.

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