President Obama Blasts House Republicans; Chicago Gun Violence
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go, top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You may have seen it here live, the president speaking in Missouri last hour after House Republicans voted once again to defund Obamacare. It's about the 40th time they have done so. Each time, they have come up empty because the Senate won't agree to it. It's just that simple. But this time, the House Republicans coupled their anti-Obamacare bill to this measure, this continuing resolution to fund the government past September 30th. That means this urgent bill to avert a government shutdown is dead on arrival in the Senate, because it now includes this anti-Obamacare provision, and Democrats considered Obamacare to be really his biggest achievement, as Republicans seem to think it a blunder. Here was the president.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Republicans in Congress, they have tried to repeal or sabotage this more than 40 times. They have had these repeal votes. Every time, they fail. This law that is in place is already providing people benefits. It's not holding back economic growth. It's helping millions of Americans, including some of you or your family members that you may not be aware of.</s>BALDWIN: I want to bring in another Republican to talk about this, CNN political commentator Ari Fleischer. He's also the former Bush II press secretary. Ari Fleischer, nice to see you. You know, I was talking to Newt Gingrich last hour, and he told me there is absolutely no problem with the Republicans coupling this bill to fund the government with this anti-Obamacare measure. He said, you know, Brooke, coupling legislation, happens all the time. But my question to you, Ari, is this -- the government funding bill, this is emergency legislation, is it not? Why weigh it down with something that spells doom?</s>ARI FLEISCHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. The way Washington works, it's not going to be emergency legislation until about October 30 or October 31 -- 10 days out is forever the way they do it in Washington. But, look, Brooke, if the president were to sign this bill, it would keep the government open and it would get rid of Obamacare. And that would actually be very popular among a lot of independents, ticket- splitters, moderates in this country. Obamacare has been an economic albatross across our country. It's making people move from full-time work to part-time work and making people lose their health insurance overall, and force them on to the exchange. So it would be popular. The problem is the president won't sign it. And therefore, in the next 10 days, something needs to be done. The Senate won't pass it. Something needs to be done to keep the government open. I suspect this is just the preliminaries and the real work is about to happen.</s>BALDWIN: OK. What about your party? Let's talk Republicans because you have this divide now between the so-called moderates and then the so-called conservatives. And now you have these conservatives, they're fighting one another over who's fighting harder to kill Obamacare.</s>FLEISCHER: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: I want to play some sound. I know. Listen to this House Republican talking about Senate Republicans.</s>REP. SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: We are going to give them exactly what they have asked for, the opportunity to fight in the Senate on defunding Obamacare. You saw us explode with anger publicly when they stood up and start waving the white flag, saying, listen, we're not going to fight here. We're going to surrender. We can't win. We have been abused by these guys for so long. What I see happening now is people coming out and calling them out for the hypocrisy of these big, tough, conservatives who know how to fight, but will never get in the ring.</s>BALDWIN: So I know, Ari Fleischer, you could come out and you could say, hey, Brooke, you know, a good debate is a healthy thing even within your party. But it's not unusual, is it not, to hear one Republican calling another Republican a fraud, which we heard last hour, and now you saw Republican Sean Duffy, we heard him right there, calling other Republicans hypocrites, all talk, no action.</s>FLEISCHER: This is internally destructive for the Republican Party. Republicans need to stop setting their sights on one another. They need to start doing what's best for the country. The reality is, so long as the Senate is controlled by the Democrats and the president is President Obama, Obamacare is not going to be repealed. So it's disappointing when people raise expectations to give the indication that we can repeal it. All they do is let down the base of the party that would sorely love for it to be repealed. It's just not realistic. What is realistic is to fund the government in the next 10 days, to fund it at the level that it's funded at last year, which is actually recognizing Republican victories, it recognizes cuts in spending which we got through, and it should kept at that funding level, and then on to the debt limit fight, which is going to be another problem. President Obama says he refuses to negotiate. Well, that's just as obstructionist as anything else we have heard. Of course he has to negotiate. He's the president of the United States.</s>BALDWIN: This budget issue may just be the preview to the debacle that is the debt ceiling. I'm sure, Ari Fleischer, we will chat again. Mr. Fleischer, thank you very much. Nice to see you.</s>FLEISCHER: Thank you, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Now I want you to take a look at this, this adorable little face. This is Deonta Howard. He is 3 years of age, and his family says he will need plastic surgery. It's not because of something he was born with. It's because of something seriously wrong with where he lives, Chicago. Deonta was shot in the face, one of 13 people hit by gunfire just last night at a park on the city's South Side. Chicago police say today it was likely gang-related and his family is thankful little Deonta is expected to recover. But, as for Chicago, where gun violence has killed more than 300 this year alone, the frustration, the fatigue, you can hear it all in the voice you're about to hear. Shundra Robinson's son Deon (sic) was murdered three years ago sitting on a porch in Chicago. And she was part of a group of activists, including parents from Newtown, calling this week for more gun control.</s>SHUNDRA ROBINSON, MOTHER OF MURDER VICTIM: And everybody wants to talk about the Second Amendment right. What about our children? They have a right to live. You guys can leave here and go on with your lives. We have got to go on to empty rooms, because our children's lives were taken away by people who should not have had guns anyway. Most of our children's lives were lost by people under 21. This universal background check is a start. We need healing, you guys. And it's a global thing. It's beyond an epidemic. This is genocide in America.</s>BALDWIN: Her son Deno -- Deno -- forgive me. Shundra Robinson joins me live from Chicago. Ms. Robinson, we played that actually earlier this week when you were on the Hill. I can hear your voice. I want to get to your personal story in a moment. But, if you can, just as a mother, given your perspective, can you just react to waking up this morning and hearing the news, 13 people shot, including a 3-year-old?</s>ROBINSON: My heart is so heavy. I have been crying all day and praying all day for the families, because I know how they feel. And there's no words that can describe the feeling of losing a loved one or a loved one being shot, like I said, like animals on the street. And there is a big problem in America, in Chicago, definitely, and as well as America.</s>BALDWIN: And I thank you for coming on. I wanted to have the discussion with you. There's so much talk, especially when we talk Chicago, about gang vs. gun. And I read an interview that you did with a Chicago TV station after Deno was killed. And you didn't deny, you know, that Deno was probably a gang member. You talked about, you know, being pulled in two different directions. So, you know this better than anyone. Do you think in Chicago, is it a gang problem or is it a gun problem?</s>ROBINSON: It's bigger than a gang problem. We know that. That's just a small entity, but it's definitely a gun problem. As I said before, in most of these cases, they were under 21. So how did they get guns? So it's bigger than a gang problem, much bigger.</s>BALDWIN: How did they get guns? If you, you know, are familiar with the culture, I have to presume much of it, is it illegal?</s>ROBINSON: I don't know how they're getting these guns. But we know that they're getting them illegally, of course. They're under 21.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>ROBINSON: So how could they get guns in their hands? You know, so much gun trafficking going on, there's no telling how they got the guns.</s>BALDWIN: On the issue...</s>ROBINSON: Somebody knows.</s>BALDWIN: Several people know, I'm sure. But on the issue of guns, Ms. Robinson, there is -- it's a perspective from a colleague of mine. He's Don Lemon, and so he was on this radio show and he was wondering out loud, basically, if lawmakers aren't enacting tougher laws, which I know you and folks with the Newtown families were calling for. You know, that might mean, and I'm quoting Don, that by some of us not owning a gun or at least embracing the idea of one, are we setting ourselves up to be victims in a movie theater, in a school, a public building, most of all in our streets, in our own neighborhoods and in our own homes, and armed with just our cell phones, our fists, and our wits, are we setting ourselves up to be sitting ducks? Does he have a point at all? Are we defenseless?</s>ROBINSON: Yes, we are setting ourselves up. And I believe that's what has to happen. It has to hit some of their homes for them to realize that it's bigger than an urban community issue. It's bigger than black-on-black crime. As I said, Newtown can justify that, as well as Washington, on a Naval base. This is a big issue that has to be dealt with. We cannot continue to put a Band-Aid on it and nurse it like it's just a scratch. This is a cut. This is a deep wound that is infected. You know, just like when you get gangrene on your foot, you have to cut it off. This has to be dealt with, and it has to be dealt with soon. We cannot wait any longer. How many more lives have to be lost, as I said before, before they deal with this issue?</s>BALDWIN: Shundra Robinson, I'm sorry about your son. Thank you so much for coming on.</s>ROBINSON: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Coming up next, do you remember this man?</s>MARK KESSLER, FORMER POLICE CHIEF: Here's what I got to say. If you didn't get enough the first time around, go</s>BALDWIN: That is a small-town Pennsylvania sheriff who had a pretty stern message for anyone who he thought was threatening his Second Amendment rights, including some city council members. And now those city council members have a message for him. Plus, a controversial school field trip, students pretending to be in a slave ship, picking cotton, even having slave masters, at one point even called the N-word, an education in history or a lesson gone too far? We will ask the man who runs the program coming up.