Florida School Shooting; Trump White House; Middle East War; Around 80 Schoolgirls Rescued After Suspected Boko Haram School Attack
JOHN VAUSE, CNN, HOST: You're watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, guns in America. Florida gun survivors and families demand change during an emotional CNN Town Hall. After a listening session with shooting victims, the U.S. President suggests arming teachers as a way to increase school safety. A major blow to the Israeli foreign Prime Minister as a former top confidante agrees to cooperate with corruption investigators. Hello, thank you for being with us. I am John Vause and this is the second hour of Newsroom LA. Well, students who survived the mass shooting at a Florida high school are angry and they are frustrated. But on Wednesday night at a CNN Town Hall, they showed determination, demanding that politicians stop taking money from the National Rifle Association and they demanded a ban on assault style weapons like the one used to kill 17 of their teachers and classmates. At the White House, President Trump met with families also affected by school shootings, and there he suggested arming teachers. He said it might help. At the Town Hall, one parent, though, lashed out at the President and Senator Marco Rubio.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your comments this week and those of our President have been pathetically weak. So you and I are now eye to eye because I want to like you. Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in this school this week. And look at me and tell me you accept it and you will work with us to do something about guns.</s>MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SENATOR: Now I think what you are asking about is the assault weapons ban.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.</s>RUBIO: So let me be honest with you about that one. If I believed that that law would have prevented this from happening, I would support it. But I want to explain to you why it would not.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Rubio, my daughter, running down the hallway at Marjorie Stoneman Dowels was shot in the back with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice.</s>RUBIO: Yes, sir.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too easy to get. It's a weapon of war. The fact you can't stand with everybody in this building and say that, I'm sorry.</s>RUBIO: Sir, I do believe what you are saying is true.</s>VAUSE: Joining me now, Political Commentator and Talk Radio Host, Mo Kelly and Republican Digital Strategist, Austin James. OK. There was a lot of raw emotion at the Town Hall, much of it understandably anger. It was directed at the NRA and as well directed at Republican Senator, Marco Rubio. Mo, to Rubio's credit, at least he showed up. Not only did he talk about supporting the raising legal age limit from 18 to 21 to purchase a weapon like an AR15. He also said he would consider his position on large capacity magazines. In a way, it's incremental but it seems progress, right.</s>MO KELLY, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's an encouraging first step if it's not a false step. What bothered me about Senator Rubio's comments, he was saying what he would support. It puts the cart before the horse because I thought our civil servants or should be a reflection of the constituencies in which they represent. I care less about what he supports and more about what his constituents would support.</s>VAUSE: Obviously, his constituents go way beyond the Town Hall.</s>AUSTIN JAMES, REPUBLICAN DIGITAL STRATEGIST: That's a great point. We have seen the recent ABC Washington Post poll, in which almost 80 percent of American polls said that mental health, if it were more effective could have done more to prevent this and other mass shootings. I think going after the guns and banning guns doesn't do more to ban evil. That's the bigger problem here.</s>VAUSE: OK, the support even from the President to raising the legal age limit for purchasing guns like the AR15 has been used in multiple school shootings. But there is opposition from the NRA to the move -- they argue if the age limit was raised to 21, then 18 to 20-year-olds would be deprived of their constitutional rights to self protection. And, Mo, that just seems insane.</s>KELLY: Not only that. Why are we putting the NRA at the top of the conversation? They are not the focal point. They should be the focal point. Yes, they have money involved but they shouldn't be a part of the -- going back to your comment about banning guns, why is it we're going to continue to let the perfect be the enemy of the good? If we can do something which approximates improvement, why not do that? Part of the problem is the proliferation of the specific weapon, the AR15. If we can move at least or limit that variable in the equation, then I think we are doing better, because no one would say we shouldn't do something to stop terrorism or that not a law would stop all terrorism. We would do something because it's better than what we have.</s>VAUSE: To your point, Mo, about the NRA, why are they taking center stage in all of this? Well, it was one of the students who survived the Florida school shooting who really put the issue to the forefront when it comes to NRA and politics. Cameron Kesskie really nailed it when he spoke with Marco Rubio.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Rubio, can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the</s>NRA. RUBIO: So number one, the positions I hold on these issues of the Second Amendment I've held since the day I entered office in the city of West Miami as elected official. Number two, no the answer to the question is that people buy into my agenda. And I do support the Second Amendment and I also support the right of you and everyone here to be able to go to school and be safe. And I do support any law that would keep guns out of the hands of a deranged killer. That's why I support the things that I have stood for.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the same of 17 people, you cannot ask the NRA to keep their money out of your campaign?</s>RUBIO: I think in the name of 17 people, I can pledge to you that I will support any law that will prevent a killer like this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, but I'm talking NRA money. No.</s>VAUSE: You know, Austin, the argument that Rubio was making is essentially the money follows the politicians. But the reality is the politicians follow the money. And Rubio is number six on the list of politicians, in terms of receiving money from the NRA over the lifetime of his political career.</s>JAMES: Listen, I'm going to be a little bit different. I grew in Alabama, right? So I think the idea of restricting -- I couldn't purchase a hunting rifle to go hunting with my father at the age of 18. I think that's a ridiculous thing to think about. We're giving the NRA a lot of power. We essentially are -- attacking the NRA would be equivalent to attacking an alcohol distribution trade organization because someone you knew was killed by a drunk driver. It's ludicrous, I think. My stance on this is I think that we have to go top of funnel and look at mental health, and then I think we go at the bottom of the funnel if we look at if someone slips through like they did this time, what can we do to protect the soft targets like schools, after 9/11 we locked airports down. It became common place, we took our shoes off got felt up and went through. It's going to be common place. I think we need -- you are going to have metal detectors at schools. You are going to have certain teachers who are going to be trained to carry concealed weapons. I think that's just the way this country is going.</s>VAUSE: We'll get to the armed teachers in a moment. But Mo, there is the debate in the country about the power of the NRA. That seems to me, the bleeding obviously that the NRA wields a lot of power because they have single issue voters supporting them and they wield that power. It's not just the money.</s>KELLY: They have the power because, to your point, they fund a lot of politicians and the politicians stay in office and to be able to have the beautiful campaign ads, they rely on this funding, and not to be blasted, no pun intended, by the NRA if they aren't in lock step with the NRA stands for. This is rhetorical in nature. I don't understand why a single organization has so much say and so much sway over politicians.</s>VAUSE: OK. Well, to Austin's point about arming teachers, the President held his own listening session today at the White House. He was invited to attend the Town Hall. He declined that invitation. Instead, he met with survivors from school shooting, not just in Florida but also in Sandy Hook and Columbine, and that's where he floated this idea of arming teachers.</s>DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES, PRESIDENT: An attack has lasted on average about three minutes. It takes five to eight minutes for responders, for the police to come in. So t attack is over. If you had a teacher with, who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly.</s>VAUSE: And Austin, this idea of arming teachers is straight out of a 2013 report by an NRA group when there was another previous gun debate held. The reason why the NRA likes this idea is because they are a gun industry lobby group. It's because it means they sell more guns.</s>JAMES: I think if I'm not mistaken there are 150 campuses that now allow teachers to carry firearms. I don't think Florida is one of those states. I actually tend to agree with it. Again, growing up in Alabama, I'm very familiar with the southeast. I don't want to make huge steps, but there is also a reason you're seeing a lot of the mass shootings happen at soft targets. You know Biden made these schools no gun zones. So when you walk in with an assault rifle, you know that it's you -- with almost no defense. There is a reason you don't see it at an Alabama Walmart, you know.</s>VAUSE: Just hang on a second because here is what one teacher at our Town Hall thought about the idea. She survived the Florida school shooting. This is what she thought of the idea of going to work every day carrying a gun.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I had those hundreds of terrified children running at me, my question to that is, am I supposed to get extra training now to serve and protect on top educate these children on how to be these eloquent speakers that are coming up and presenting issues to you? I mean, am I supposed to have a Kevlar vest? Am I supposed to strap it to my leg or put it in my desk? How am I supposed to go on that way?</s>VAUSE: Mo, someone should have asked the teachers.</s>KELLY: Well, not only that. There is a middle ground here. We look at what's going on here in Los Angeles. A lot of schools do have armed guards or police officers as a function of the city police who guard these schools. But if you're asking the English teacher, math teacher to be able to make that split second decision as far as life and death in a situation where they're not shooting at one person, there may be 35 people running in all directions and and an indiscriminant with an AR15.</s>JAMES: I don't think that we're talking about every teacher having a sawed off shotgun. You have air marshals that step up for training. There was a great interview on CNN where they asked a teacher would you like to have firearms, and he said he didn't know but he knew numerous teachers who wished they were able to stand and defend. Again, I think it goes down to what the people want, what the teachers want, and again I don't think we're asking every teacher to carry firearm. Actually, certainly, with all due respect to what she's been through probably would not be the right candidate to carry a firearm.</s>VAUSE: Well, President Trump also promised very strong background checks, but again at CNN's Town Hall, there was opposition even to this from the NRA.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This mad man passed a background check. How was he able to pass the background check? He was able to pass the background check because a system that's flawed. The Sutherland Springs murderer was able to pass the background check because the Air Force didn't report that record.</s>VAUSE: And Politico is reporting this, the White House is signaling support for a bipartisan bill that would enhance reporting of violent criminals to the FBI Background Checks Database in order to stop them from buying firearms. But house conservatives are willing to sign on unless the measure is coupled with concealed carry legislation backed by the National Rifle Association. Combining the two ideas would have the net effect of loosening gun control. Austin, how does this happen when you have a Quinnipiac poll which says 97 percent of the people in the country support universal background checks, and 97 percent of gun owners support universal background checks.</s>JAMES: Listen, I agree with you on that. I'm on the board of a new organization called Generation for Freedom, and its main mission is education and the main target are adolescents, millennials, and people who are going to be that ardent voice going into the next generation. I think the bigger issue is there are gun laws today that could have solved this had they worked from top to bottom. Listen, to your point if you look at what the constituents want they want the universal background checks. But that only works if you enforce the laws. And what we have seen from this unfortunate event and others like it, they did not enforce the law and there was a breakdown of the laws we have. That's what people are saying. When it comes to kind of going and casting the vote, are not the politicians necessarily, who we do hold congress accountable, but is the justice authority and those with authority at the justice level going to enforce the laws? They are not.</s>KELLY: Let's not ignore the other variables if the conversation. You said there is a mental health issue, to paraphrase you.</s>JAMES: Correct.</s>KELLY: But there are mental health issues all or the world, but there are only mass shootings right here. I could go to Australia and find people suffering from mental health issues.</s>JAMES: We do have an inordinate amount of guns. That's a fact.</s>VAUSE: I do want to finish with this. It seems President Trump needs a reminder that while meeting with victims of gun violence he needs to feel empathy. On his notes, there was a photograph which revealed the first bullet point was, what would you want me to know about the experience in the fifth point, I hear you. And so, Mo, think about that for a moment. Donald Trump needs a reminder to tell survivors that he hears them.</s>KELLY: If this wasn't about children dying, it would be funny. But it is so it isn't. If he needs to be instructed on cue when to be empathetic or how to be empathetic, and then he is incapable of being empathetic because that's not something you can be taught. It's not something that you can be directed. You just either are or you are not.</s>VAUSE: Very quickly, a couple of words.</s>JAMES: I would say this. He is someone who shoots from the hip. And I don't know that he wrote that down.</s>KELLY: No pun intended.</s>JAMES: No pun intended. Good one. And I would say this. It was something that someone from the PR Communications Department wanted to make sure he said and he wanted to make sure he got that heard.</s>VAUSE: It was unfortunate that it got out. OK, Austin and Mo, thanks so much. Good to see you. Appreciate it. And students across the United States walked out of their classrooms on Wednesday, a show of solidarity with the survivors$ of the Florida school shooting. At the state capitol in Tallahassee, they challenged lawmakers to keep them safe.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not know exactly what needs to be done. I just know what we're doing now is nowhere near enough.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The time for change wasn't now. The time for change was years ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My innocence, our innocence has been taken from us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never again should a student be silenced by gunshots. Politicians, if you're not with us, you're against us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My friend and community and I have stared down the barrel of an AR15 the way you have not. How dare you tell us we don't know what we're talking about?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 19-yeld who can't purchase an alcoholic beverage should not be allowed to purchase an AR15.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you for taking NRA blood money. We are not letting the United States be run by that terrorist organization. $,</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our blood, your hands.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knowing that you had the opportunity to ban assault weapons and you didn't, are you proud of that now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you kidding me? You think now is the time to focus on the past and not the future to prevent the death of thousands of other children? You sicken me. Your job is to protect us and our blood is on your hands. If Donald Trump wants to listen to us, he should have taken the first invitation. We're not going to come to him. He's needs to come to us.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call</s>BS. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not puppets. We are capable individuals who want change because we are the leaders of the future.</s>VAUSE: And you can watch the replay of CNN's Special Town Hall with students, parents and others impacted by the Florida school shooting. Stand up, the students of Stoneman Douglas demand action Thursday 9:00 a.m. in London, 5:00 p.m. in Hong Kong. Well, to Mumbai now and day three of Donald Trump Jr.'s visit to India and the way he tells it it's all about business. And despite a flurry of critical headlines back home, he insists he is there as a private citizen. And the Washington Post reports the American embassy in New Delhi has assured at least one U.S. Senator, the oldest son of the President has received no special treatment beyond Secret Service protection. He arrived on Tuesday. This week-long visit to promote Trump branded luxury apartments, interested buyers can pay a $30,000 booking fee for dinner and conversation with Trump Jr. on Friday. Critics say he is selling access to the first family. And that's raising serious concerns. But the Trump organization says many deals have been passed up to avoid conflicts of interest. John Defterios is closely following developments from Mumbai. He joins us now live. So John, Donald Trump, he is out there pushing the brand in Mumbai. What sort of reaction is he getting from local buyers?</s>JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there is a very big divide, as you know in India particularly in Mumbai between the wealthy buyers and the poverty you still see on the streets, John. It's mid day in the financial capitol, in the heart of Mumbai with the sky scrapers. So Donald Trump Jr. selling that brand yet again. And this is a big project even by the standards of the Trump organization. You see the high rises behind me. Behind that set of high rises in a prime section of town called the Park, you have the Trump Tower, and this is big in terms of scale, 400 units selling for $1.25 million each. We're talking about a project about a half billion dollars overall for the group, the Trump organization. But Donald Trump Jr. created controversy when he talked about India's smiling poor. He said they are very humble on the streets but it didn't pose with the wealthy pitches he has been making, suggesting Trump has arrived, have you? If you are willing to buy a big ticket property, you can get exclusive access to the President's son. He didn't step away from that at all, suggesting we have decided to hold off starting any new projects, anything before 2016. Stands nothing new going forward, and he pushed back about all the controversy. Let's listen to what he had to say first.</s>DONALD TRUMP JR., PRESIDENTIAL SON: There is the opportunity for the deals that we are not able to do that don't get us discussed. When people talk about it these days, it's profiteering from the presidency. Wait a minute I can't do deals. I've spent over a decade creating a relationship.</s>DEFTERIOS: Donald Trump Jr., John referring to the 2016 voluntary agreement that the President established for him to pull out of the organization, let Donald Trump Jr. and Eric run. But you can hear the frustration in his voice there, talking to a local TV channel, saying we could do a lot more if I was given some freedom. But of course, it's already raised controversy having the five major projects throughout India today for the Trump organization.</s>VAUSE: Very quickly, John, we're almost out of time. What do we know about this dinner, this $38,000 a head dinner and conversation with Trump Jr. Do we know who is signing up for that, what sort of people?</s>DEFTERIOS: He is trying to bring in a new round of buyers, John, in this fast growing economy. That's no hidden secret. This is something is doing in Delhi. But he's been courting the investors in all the different city visits that he's been doing. They are trying to tone down the external visibility of his trip. When he gets a chance in front of local cameras, he speaks his mind. But the Trump organization, for example, is limiting the photo op. We weren't allowed in just the local TV channels and even his speech where they talked about having the title of improving indo-pacific ties. We're now told that was an exaggeration. He is speaking as a businessman, but in fact, in front the Prime Minister, who has a very tight bond with Donald Trump these days in the White House.</s>VAUSE: Just seems an odd strategy for someone to pay $38,000 and then $1.6 million for an apartment. We're out of time, John. Good to see you, thank</s>DEFTERIOS: Yeah, thanks.</s>VAUSE: Next here on Newsroom LA, growing legal problems for the Israeli Prime Minister. This could be big. One of his closest former aides telling police everything he knows. And no refuge from the bombing, what children are facing in the besieged suburb of the Syrian capitol.