Education Secretary Struggles to Answer Basic Questions; Blast Reported in Austin After 2 Other Package Bombs.
BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Let's flash a picture inside that briefing room. We're watching and waiting for a briefing to begin. Lots to talk about today, the latest chapter in the Stormy Daniels saga, how the president feels on gun control, and specifically one issue that has arisen over his Education Secretary. Welcoming back my panel. In case people missed "60 Minutes" last night, Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary, was asked -- she had a tough time. Let me put it this way, she had a tough time answering some pretty simple questions when it came to schools back in her home state of Michigan. Here's a clip.</s>LESLEY STAHL, TELEVISION JOURNALIST, 60 MINUTES: Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?</s>BETSY DEVOS, EDUCATION SECRETARY: I don't know. Overall -- I can't say overall that they've all gotten better.</s>STAHL: The whole state is not doing well.</s>DEVOS: Well, there are certainly lots of pockets where the students are doing well.</s>STAHL: Have you seen the really bad schools, maybe try to figure out what they're doing?</s>DEVOS: I have not -- I have not -- I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.</s>STAHL: Maybe you should.</s>DEVOS: Maybe I should, yes.</s>BALDWIN: Leave it to Lesley Stahl, "Maybe you should," "Yes, maybe I should." Ana Navarro, to you first. How did you feel watching that?</s>NAVARRO: I was glad it wasn't me. It was almost a sequel of her confirmation hearings.</s>BALDWIN: Confirmation hearings.</s>NAVARRO: She's just not good at answering question questions. These were not rocket science questions. These were basic questions about schools. Sometimes basic questions about schools in her home state where she was so active on education. It wasn't just this question that was awkward and cringe-inducing. It was the entire interview that made you want to look away because you just can't believe that the education system in this country, which is important to every single American, is in the hands of this woman who can't answer the simplest of questions. I have not seen such a horrible interview since Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her backyard. I think this may have topped it.</s>BALDWIN: It was a tough watch. And isn't it also just the broader issue, Chris Cillizza, the fact that this is another day, another problem with the member of the Trump cabinet?</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. At this point, if you haven't been in Donald Trump's dog House because of bad publicity, you're the exception, not the rule. CNN did a report earlier today that people within the White House sort of watched, as I think probably Maeve, Ana and I did, sort of dumbfounded at the way in which she performed in that interview. There's another part that's gotten less attention. But Lesley Stahl asks her about sexual assault on campus, and Betsy DeVos says, well, any sexual assault is one too many, as is any false report. And Lesley Stahl says, are you saying they're the same thing? And her response is, "I don't know." You can't say I don't know. I guess you can. You shouldn't say I don't know to that. She seemed --</s>RESTON: Sorry, Chris.</s>CILLIZZA: No, go ahead, Maeve.</s>RESTON: There are people that prepare you for these interviews and talk to you about what --</s>BALDWIN: "60 Minutes!"</s>RESTON: Yes -- what kind of questions you might be asked, arm you with stats and facts. Again, it was another question of whether someone in the Trump administration, not only are they not prepared, but did they even prepare specifically for this.</s>BALDWIN: And it's not like they were asking -- it's not it was questions about Russia.</s>RESTON: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: That's right.</s>BALDWIN: This is her lane. This is education. And she was being asked about schools in Michigan.</s>RESTON: It's the competency level for a number of these controversial nominees is just appalling. And it's just -- people watch these things from home and say who is running these different departments? There have been scandals in almost every one. We had Ben Carson's expensive of dining set table. You have to wonder whether he was supposed to drain the swam, but it doesn't seem like anything is being run with efficiency.</s>CILLIZZA: And remember, he said he promised the best and the brightest.</s>BALDWIN: Go ahead.</s>NAVARRO: It's one insult after another of negative coverage of his cabinet secretaries. When it's not Donald Trump beating up on Jeff Sessions, it's Ben Carson's $31,000 dining set, it's someone resigning --</s>NAVARRO: -- a $139,000 set of doors. For that, he could have had an affair with a stripper and gone on a nice cruise.</s>BALDWIN: Sorry, that gave me the giggles. Chris Cillizza, let's talk about --</s>CILLIZZA: No comment.</s>BALDWIN: Sorry. Let's talk about Pennsylvania. Let's talk about Pennsylvania.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: We just were talking to Alex, who was there where Don Jr is stumping with the Republican. We have this in Monmouth poll where more than $10 million has been poured into this congressional district race by Republicans. We pointed out before, and you mentioned some of the one-liners, the zingers from Trump when he was in the state over the weekend with he talked more about himself than the Republican candidate. Here are some of the highlights.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know what? Do me a favor, get out on Tuesday, vote for Rick Saccone and we can leave right now.</s>TRUMP: Come on. We don't have to spend any time. Great guy. Personally, I like Rick Saccone. I think he's handsome.</s>TRUMP: And you did a great job on television today. I watched you, Rick. That was a great interview. But I need people that can help me. And this guy can really help me. This guy can really help me.</s>TRUMP: Rick Saccone -- and I've got him -- and he's got a tough race. He's got a tough race.</s>BALDWIN: On the tough race, guys, let's flash the Monmouth poll numbers up. These numbers just came out. So you have Saccone, who is the Republican, so far losing to the Democrat by six points, Chris Cillizza. Six.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Listening to Alex a moment ago, he was saying, even if the Republican ekes out a win by a tiny margin, that's still bad news for Republicans.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. Look, if you take every district in the country represented by a Republican, Brooke, that Donald Trump won by 20 points or less, which is basically this district is about 20 points, it's a whole lot of districts. It's a lot more than 24, which is what Democrats need. Some of this -- let's assume Rick Saccone loses, because I think he's probably going to, there will be an attempt by Republicans to say this was not about anything other than Tim Murphy, the Congressman representing that district, resigned amid a sex scandal. Saccone was sort of an older state legislator. Didn't raise any money. Wasn't a good candidate. Conor Lamb was a young veteran, a Democrat. A young veteran, who raised a bunch of money. That's part of it. But that's not all of it. This is a national environment. Even with all of that that I just said, Rick Saccone in a neutral environment wins this race by eight to 10 points. Even if he loses 10 points of what Donald Trump performed, there's a fair amount of national environment here. And it's dangerous, I think, for Republicans to whistle past that assuming Saccone loses. This is a district where I 2 percent of the district's population is black, 1 percent is Hispanic, the rest is white. This is not a district where you should see a sort of down- the-line, safe Republican. Maybe he's not all that charismatic but he's been a state legislator. He's not even in a close race, much less, more likely to lose. That comes back to Donald Trump.</s>RESTON: Yes, it's stunning.</s>NAVARRO: The alarm bells for Republicans have been ringing now on so many special elections. It's not just the ones that we saw in Virginia, the one in Alabama. It's been all over when it comes to state legislatures. Wisconsin, Florida, districts that were safe Republican districts, districts where Donald Trump won by 20 points. In this district, Republicans should be able to nominate a bag of mulch and that bag of mulch -</s>BALDWIN: Should be.</s>NAVARRO: -- if it hadn't been accused of pedophilia, should be able to win.</s>BALDWIN: We'll see.</s>NAVARRO: And yet, here they are in this very close race.</s>BALDWIN: We will be deep in coverage tomorrow. I want to thank all of you so much for the conversation. We got to move along. So let's roll the animation. We are now in hour two. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We have breaking news out of Austin, Texas. Police there are urgently warning the public to be vigilant and stay away from unidentified packages after a series of deadly explosions. You are looking at pictures of one of the scenes. This is the scene of the second blast today, the third this month in Austin. At least two people have been killed in these explosions. We begin this hour with Nick Valencia, who has been all over this. Nick, what are police saying?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Earlier, they gave a press conference. We're standing by for another one. At that press conference, Brooke, they mention this is a public safety alert. They're having people be watchful of potential suspicious packages. And they're investigating the first two incidences, one on March 2nd and one this morning, as being connected. They're too similar to ignore. We understand the victims in these first two cases, they found packages on their front steps, they opened these packages. According to police, they were hand delivered, not through any type of mail service. But once they were opened, they exploded. We know one person was killed as a result of that on March 2nd. And early this morning, another 17-year-old died as a result of his injuries from that blast. An adult female also taken to the hospital with non-life- threatening injuries. Now, no motive has been given for this, but they believe those two are connected. A third one, it's still unclear, Brooke, if it's directly related. But it's certainly eerie when you consider, an hour or so after the press conference --