Trump White House; Gun Control Laws; Sridevi
SESAY: U.S. President Donald Trump says he would have run into a Florida high school to stop the gunman even if he didn't have a weapon, accusing the sheriff's deputies of failing to stop the violence. Meantime, sources say the President seems to be backing away from the school to raise the age limit to 21 to buy certain firearms. It is a proposal the NRA opposes. While meeting with governors Monday, Mr. Trump urged them to ignore pressure from the powerful gun lobby.</s>DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: You guys, half of you are afraid of the NRA. There is nothing to be afraid of. And you know what, if they're not with you we have to fight them every once in a while. That's OK. They're doing what they think is right. I will tell you they are doing what they think are right, but sometimes you have to be very tough. We're going to have to fight them.</s>SESAY: Well, joining us here in LA to talk about that fight is Jessica Levinson. She is a Professor of Law and Governance at Loyola Law School, and a friend of the show, Jessica, good to see you. Let me just pick up, first of all on the President's comment that -- assembled governors telling them they shouldn't be afraid to fight the NRA. Sometimes, you need to take the fight to them. It does seem a little in Congress, given the relationship the President has had with the National Rifle Association.</s>JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE: Well, the President has been very open about touting his relationship with the National Rifle Association and talking about how they have been longtime supporters of him, and how he's been longtime supporters of theirs. And I think what -- there are so many incongruous parts of this, but I think what feels incongruous to the American public is that there is broad and wide support for sensible and control among constituents. But there is not broad and wide support for gun control among our elected officials. Those who are supposed to represent us in the nations capital, and that's largely because of the power of the NRA, in part because of the vast amounts of money that they can spend to help elect certain people or defeat certain people, and in part because they have a lot of members who go to the ballot box.</s>SESAY: You say that. We took a close look at that and we found that the NRA only has 5 million members in a country of 300 million plus. So again, the disparity -- the outside important or power, compared to how many there actually are.</s>LEVINSON: Yes. So in terms of numbers -- but if you look at where they're located and how often they vote, I would say it's not just an absolute number game. So you know in American politics, it matters if you live in a swing state and if you're a swing voter. It is so important -- absolutely important to emphasize that the money makes a big difference. And people talk about well you know, how we get sensible gun control, and what's completely left out of the debate is how are we going to get sensible campaign finance laws, because if we cut off the money spigot, and there so much money that is pumped into our system, then it deeply affects who we elect and what actually gets a floor vote and what type of legislation is passed.</s>SESAY: You know is this a different moment though because CNN's polling has the support for stricter gun control at 70 percent, which is higher than back in October, which is 52 percent after the shooting in Vegas. So 70 percent, is this a moment that is just different that lawmakers can bank on, if you will. If it's all about money, can they bank on that, that number, that 70 percent?</s>LEVINSON: I really wish I wasn't about to say this, but I think if we were right before the midterms, I don't want to under the sentence but basically the best time for a shooting is right before the midterm elections. And there's no there's no good time for a shooting. But if you want to think about basically giving elected officials cover to pass legislation, and or giving voters the motivation to go in and change who they vote for or support candidates because of where they stand on the Second Amendment, then really you want to look at for me the happens in October 2018. So unfortunately, we see these numbers for gun control kind of Evan flow depending on how recently children have been murdered in our country.</s>SESAY: And let's talk about arming teachers. It has many educators, you're an educator, how far do you go. Would you carry a gun?</s>LEVINSON: I mean this -- today in the classroom, my students watch me almost kill myself by trying to use the projector. So no, I do not want to be armed and I do not want to be in a situation where I am the only armed person in a room, because if an active shooter comes into my classroom and they know that the professor might be armed, who are they -- and at that point, I am of no use or protection to my students, where as if I am not the first target, then I can try and push a panic button, get them into a safe place. So I mean there've been a lot of jokes on social media going around, like my teacher didn't even know how to use the chalkboard correctly, should we really put a gun in their hands, but the truth is from a policy perspective, from a practical perspective, this is such a backwards way of looking at the problem. And that is because the Supreme Court has looked at this problem through basically in Alice in Wonderland like looking glass, where they said we need to protect the rights of individual gun owners, but they haven't talked about protecting the rest of us from being safe from guns. And they have -- they have not weighed the other liberty interest at stake.</s>SESAY: Jessica Levinson, it's always such a pleasure.</s>LEVINSON: I wish I had something more helpful to say.</s>SESAY: No, it's OK. We can handle the truth around here. Thank you. We appreciate it. Well, a top U.S. diplomat Appreciate in charge of North Korean policy is retiring at a critical moment to relations between both countries. It was completely his decision to retire but his departure adds to the uncertainty of President Trump's position on North Korea just days after the country expressed willingness to hold talks with the U.S. CNN Senior International Correspondent, Ivan Watson joins us now from Seoul. So, Ivan, how much significance should we attach to the timing of the Ambassador's decision?</s>IVAN WATSON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Isha, we've been talking to a number of former American diplomats, people who've left the State Department, who say that this is a big blow, at especially at a time that is critical in relation to intentions rather between the U.S. and North Korea, and especially at a time when North Korea has indicated that the doors open for talks with Washington. He is a veteran diplomat. He spearheaded North Korean relations, if you can call it that. He had very delicate diplomatic mission of retrieving auto one, this imprisoned American university student from North Korea who turned out was comatose and essentially dying. And he's basically dealt with this difficult part of the world for quite a long time, so former diplomat saying this man was the best of the best in the State Department. He says he is retiring for his own reasons, the State Department spokesperson says that the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson regretfully accepted that retirement. But again, this viewed as being significant because diplomacy is considered so important at this time, especially with concern that some officials in the Trump administration maybe considering using force against North Korea, a so called bloody nose, also at a time when there is no U.S. ambassadors here in Seoul, and one of the potential candidates for this another experience to Victor Cha was taken out of the running and then published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, warning officials in the Trump administration not to consider using force against North Korea because of the unimaginable casualties that that could bring, Isha.</s>SESAY: Lots of shifting pieces. Ivan Watson joining us there from Seoul, thank you. Now, new details are emerging about the death of Bollywood Star, Sridevi. Police say the 54-year-old actress drowned after passing out in her hotel bath tub in Dubai. She was attending a family wedding in the United Arab Emirates at the time. Her fans have gathered outside her home in Mumbai of to pay tribute to her life and a career that spanned five decades. Well, CNN's New Delhi Bureau Chief, Nikhil Kumar joins me now from India's capital. Nikhil, thank you for being with us, give us a sense of the reaction to all of this. It was all so very sudden and unexpected.</s>NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI BUREAU CHIEF: That's right, Isha. The reaction has really been shock, surprise, and disbelief. You know the news broke overnight. And by the time people look up in the morning just to digest this news coming out that the star was no longer with us. We went out on the streets of Delhi shortly afterwards to gaze the reaction of people here. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is shocking. She was very health conscious from what we expected something bad.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel so bad. She was a very good actress.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is a great loss for the film industry.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very shocking because it was a very untimely death. It's like a mystery to watch happened. It was too sudden for me to process.</s>KUMAR: So as you could see, Isha, a sense of shock and disbelief. And as I've said, really a sense of a loss for someone who was one of the tallest stars and what is the world's largest film industry, Isha.</s>SESAY: Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that, Nikhil. Give us some context. Tell us about her reach and her impact.</s>KUMAR: She had an immense impact. She started acting when she was still a child. She started acting in southern India, the non-Hindi films. And she did something that very few stars managed to do then or now, which is make the crossover from that industry to the mainstream Indian film industry with all of us know as Bollywood, which reaches people everywhere in this country and around the world. And she became in short order just by this year. She had a very expressive face. She was such a presence on the screen that she immediately became one of the biggest stars in the industry. So big in fact, that she maybe was headlining a movie, it didn't really matter who else was in the movie. The movie would be a hit. And for many people who grew up in the 80s and 90s, she is very much part of that cultural consciousness. She was an immense star with an immense reach, which touched possibly hundreds of millions of people, Isha.</s>SESAY: She certainly will be missed by all of them. Nikhil Kumar, good to speak to you. Thank you.</s>KUMAR: Thank you.</s>SESAY: Still to come on Newsroom La, the mobile industry promises insanely fast phone data in the not so distant future. We'll have the latest when from the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. And cracking down on Myanmar over the price of the price of the Rohingya Muslims, we'll talk to the leading activist next.