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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Twitter Saga Now Involves National Enquirer; Doctor Kills One, Wounds Six In Hospital Shooting; Trump Admin. Request For Voter Info Sparks Concern; Trump On New Coal Mine. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired June 30, 2017 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:17] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: The president arrived tonight in New Jersey for a holiday weekend at his golf club in Bedminister having already provided the fireworks back in Washington.
Today and yesterday he's feud with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and his apparently incandescent rage over the criticism of him lit the capital sky. It also sparked condemnation from plenty of Republicans over the distraction it's been from the party's agenda, the president's agenda as well. For more on the fallout and what's next let's go CNN Sara Murray who is traveling with the president. So what has been the White House's response so far to the allegations by Scarborough and Brzezinski?
SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we're now in day two of this, the president's fight with two cable news hosts this time over a "National Enquirer" story and whether there was an attempt essentially to go after these anchors with this story, whether they reached out to the president to try to get him to kill it, the president is insisting that Joe juror Scarborough called him but officially there's no comment on this from the White House.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders she wasn't even sure today if the president had seen sort of the news story that set this all off today. A lot of he said/she said in this case but, again, sort of the broader narrative here is this in the minds of many people who are members of Donald Trump's own party with another day wasted. Another day wasted for a president who has a lot to do, but instead spent the day feuding with cable news hosts.
COOPER: Wait, Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she wasn't sure if the president saw it. He actually tweeted saying that he watched Morning Joe for the first time in a long time which is an arguable point. But that -- he responded, here is the tweet, "Watched low rated @Morning Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show. Seems like he watched it.
MURRAY: It does seem like he watched it. It also seems like he read that New York Magazine story earlier --
(CROSSTALK)
MURRAY: -- coverage of the New York Magazine story.
COOPER: All right. So, how did --
MURRAY: Yes. I think it's a difficult place for those aides trying to defend this stuff at this point.
COOPER: Does, I mean is this it impacting the president's agenda?
MURRAY: I do think it impacts the president's agenda in the sense that what we saw from senators as they were getting ready, like sprinting out of Washington for this recess, because they were angry and they were embarrassed by the president and they were embarrassed by the way he is using the presidency.
They have been sort of clamoring in many ways for the president to offer air cover on difficult votes, to go out there to make the pitch for health care and why this legislation is good, for instance, why it's good for Trump voters and for the American people, and that's not how he's using the bully pulpit.
So in that sense I do think it might make people more frustrated. It certainly makes it harder for him to build personal relationships with these senators. Does that mean it's going to sway a vote? No. But he tweeted plenty of other erratic things today including on health care that will actually make it more difficult potentially for him to get the things done that he says he wants to do.
COOPER: Right. He said just go for repeal and replace later on. Sarah thanks for the update. This puts the spotlight on a publication (INAUDIBLE) knows how to put it on others especially politicians.
And lately, given the publishers friendship with the president, Democratic politicians, "National Enquirer" went after Hillary Clinton during the campaign and all but lionized candidate Trump. We'll talk about that shortly, but first CNN's Sara Ganim on the rest of "The National Enquirer's" track record.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA GANIM CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite the tabloid headlines there are times "The National Enquirer" has been spot on with the big political stories. Its most well-known scoop during the runup to the 2008 election when it accused Democratic front-runner John Edwards of cheating on his cancer stricken wife with his campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter, even fathering a secret love child with her. Back then an "Enquirer" reporter showed CNN how he tracked it all down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I say to him, Mr. Edwards, Alexander from "The National Enquirer," you know, we know that you've been with Rielle Hunter. Don't you think it's time to actually tell everyone that you are the father of this child?
GANIM (voice-over): Still, Edwards denied it for years. JOHN EDWARDS, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've responded to it consistently to these tabloid allegations by saying I don't respond to the lies.
GANIM (voice-over): Most media stayed away even when "The Enquirer" published a photograph reportedly of Edwards visiting Hunter and their little girl. Edwards called the photo fake. But eventually the lie unraveled. "The Enquirer" did a victory lap taking credit for Edwards fall from grace. (INAUDIBLE) reportedly even considered the publication for journalism's top prize. Something candidate Donald Trump supported.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've always said why didn't "The National Enquirer" get the pulitzer prize for Edwards?
GANIM (voice-over): "The Enquirer" declares it is the only publication with the guts to tell it like it is and it's been proven correct about other scandalous affairs. Like in 1987 when Democratic Presidential Nominee Gary Hart had been forced to suspend his campaign after news reports revealed a relationship with model Donna Rice. "The Enquirer" provided the visual proof publishing this memorable photograph of Rice sitting in Hart's lap on a yacht. That effectively spelled the end of his political career.
[21:05:27] And in 2001 Jesse Jackson admitted to having a love child with a top aide. As "The National Enquirer" prepared to uncover his affair in a story.
Then in 2003 Rush Limbaugh was forced to admit he had a painkiller addiction after "The National Enquirer" paid his housekeeper to reveal she'd been supplying the conservative talk show host with prescription pain pills. Law enforcement confirmed it and Limbaugh went to rehab.
No to say they always get it right. They don't. Week after week far- fetched stories accompanied by eyebrow raising headlines give it a questionable reputation. "The Enquirer" was just plain wrong when it published that Gary Condit's wife attacked his missing intern Chandra Levy in 2001 before her disappearance. "The Enquirer" settled a million dollar libel suit over the story. And during the contentious 2016 priamry campaign, stories about Ted Cruz, about alleged affairs, and about his father were widely criticized and never proven to be true. Sara Ganim CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Let's bring in the panel. Maggie Haberman, Scott Jennings, Maria Cardona, and Brian Stelter. Scott, let me start with you. If, in fact -- I mean the president in his tweet responding to this today seemed to indicate that he could have possibly gotten the story killed but he said no. If, in fact, the president has used "The National Enquirer" or has power over what the "National Enquirer" covers, is that a problem?
SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASST. TO PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: I think presidents by the nature of their office frequently have relationships with media outlets and the upper reaches of those media outlets to try to promote or kill certain thing. I don't think that's new.
I do think it is troubling, though, that if a media outlet is being personally wielded by the president against possible political opponents that is troubling fact. We don't know that to be the case here. That's been an allegation.
What I worry about in this whole episode is we're now 48 hours of punching down. You know, when you're the president most everything you do to attack someone is punching down because one is as famous or has the same stature as you. And for 48 hours he's punching down, and that's not helping advance the Republican agenda. And so I don't know what's going to happen with "The National Enquirer" but I know what's going to happen to Republicans next November if the agenda doesn't get passed that they ran on. And that's what I think overall troubles me about the episode.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean I think that's exactly right from what I'm hearing and that come ports with what I'm hearing from Republicans on the hill. I think Sara had it right, too.
Look, I don't think this is going to hurt him with the voters. And some voters basically see this as noise. The voters who like him still like him.
COOPER: Right.
HABERMAN: Those who didn't still don't. I do think that for Republicans on Capitol Hill and particularly a group of moderate women in the Senate Republicans, I think this is very, very complicated for them to defend. This is not what they want -- and they didn't defend it. This is not what they want to be talking about. There is the larger issue of health care and what is going to happen with efforts to repeal President Obama's signature legislation and this has been a week spent on -- it's not just something that voters really don't care much about. It's something that really is about the president talking about how he personally is being treated and this president has an ability to turn himself into a victim which, to be clear, lots of presidents have done, but few have done it so, you know, frontally and forcefully and bluntly as this one has.
And it raises another question of, you know, we're now basically at the six-month mark of this presidency almost and what is he pointing to beyond Neil Gorsuch for major accomplishments?
COOPER: Maria? I mean what he wants to is, you know, he says he's passed more bills than --
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But that's not true. So, right, yes.
First of all, that's not true and, really, what do those bills do in terms of real impact on the country? But in terms of "The National Enquirer" story it's just, again, underscores how bizarre this presidency has been. And we don't know what the issue is really there but it really does look like he did have some influence with "The Enquirer." In fact, in Toobin's awesome piece in "The New Yorker" he talks about how the owner of it or the publisher of it, talked about how he sees himself as the father of Trump's presidency and that he wants to protect it. That is something that you see in third world countries, right, when presidents are either owners of media or they control the media.
COOPER: I mean Jeff Toobin in the article talks about, I guess a former playboy playmate who's making allegations --
CARDONA: Right.
COOPER: -- and David Packer, the head of the "The National Enquirer" hired her to write a column for some other publications of his --
[21:10:03] CARDONA: As long as she didn't say anything bad about Trump.
COOPER: As long as she didn't say anything bad about Trump.
CARDONA: Exactly.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Catch and kill.
(CROSSTALK)
CARDONA: That's right.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I've never heard that.
STELTER: Catch and kill.
HABERMAN: That's the term you use in --
STELTER: And the one question we have is, how many other stories has "The National Enquirer" caught and then killed? You know, it's part of the pro-Trump media universe, if you think about shows on Fox, Breitbart, other websites and "The National Enquirer" is a big part of this --
CARDONA: Right.
STELTER: -- pro-Trump media universe. If we take what Scarborough and Brzezinski are charging on face value, this is the president saying call me, grovel, tell me you like me, tell me you'll be nice to me, and I will get rid of some bad news for you. That's very disturbing. It's not the first time there have been charges of this White House trying to neuter or silence --
HABERMAN: Yes.
STELTER: -- critical voices.
COOPER: I mean it does -- again, we don't know if he did this.
CARDONA: Right. Right. COOPER: Let's be fair about this. It's an allegation.
STELTER: -- Scarborough, at the time he told his colleagues including the head of NBC News PR, he started showing the text messages --
COOPER: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: -- so there is some contemporaneous.
COOPER: We should point out that we have not seen that. They have not released that.
STELTER: We've been asking all day and haven't gotten any.
COOPER: And the question is, you know, are they going to release it and should they release it?
STELTER: Right.
COOPER: But it -- because it does remind me of something he allegedly said to Director Comey which I -- I don't want to paraphrase and get it wrong but it was something about, you know, I've been good to you on that thing you talked about and sort of the transactional nature of things is something we talked about with this president.
HABERMAN: He treats everything like it's a deal.
CARDONA: Yes.
HABERMAN: Everything is a sliding scale of what he can get out of a negotiation which is part of why he has no problem changing his opinion which we have seen over and over again. He will say something about something one day. For instance on health care, on redoing the bill, he was all for the House efforts and then said this is dead and I want to move on and then a week later was suddenly reviving it and he said to my colleague and me in the Oval Office, Trish and I, that, you know, this was part of a negotiation. Don't you understand that?
Everything is a negotiation. And he doesn't see the limits or lines or the normal guardrails the way they exist in political and government media and in the White House.
COOPER: We got to take a quick break. We'll have more on this in a moment.
Also tonight what the women in the president's life have to say or not say about this and how they've defended him over similar allegations over the years.
Also, late details about the shooting in a New York City Hospital and what may have driven the gunman.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [21:15:53] COOPER: We talked before the break about how annoyed some the Republican lawmakers are with the Republican president. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER, (R) ILLINOIS: That's a tweet that's not even becoming of a city councilman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's beneath the stature of the president and it's a distraction. We should be talking about our strategy on dealing with North Korea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the members of the House and Senate to talk about something and they're focus on something other than what I think is so important in people's lives.
SEN. PAT TOOMEY, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: This is maddening. It's maddening frustrating because this is beneath the dignity of the president of the United States or at least it should be, and it's a distraction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: A distraction from their agenda which also should be -- the president's agenda. Take a look, these are some of the items that he ran on. As you can see from top to bottom there's a lot either unaccomplished or incomplete and other than Justice Gorsuch and minor legislation, no major legislative accomplishments other than that.
Back with the panel now. Scott, obviously somebody who wants to see the president's agenda move forward and move forward quickly, how much -- I mean we were talking during the break, you were saying he's two accomplishments away from being able to run well in midterms and help folks out.
JENNINGS: No question. I mean if they go ahead and get a deal on health care and get something done on taxes and/or infrastructure plus the Supreme Court confirmation that's a great set of stuff to run on for the midterm. But, you know, in Washington, I'll make a baseball analogy, I know you love sports analogies. You have to string a series of hits together to score a run. And after the Scalise Congressional shooting the president's tone was a solid double. And now these tweets of the last 48 hours are basically like getting picked off.
COOPER: Right.
JENNINGS: And so, we don't need hits followed by base running blunders. We need hits, hits, hits, and then runs will score and everything will be fine. And so, if he can get a couple of these bills across and string a few hits together, then it'll be fine in the midterms. We're not there yet.
COOPER: I mean, you know, I hate to use that word tone again, but the tone of the text is so and against what he said on the Scalise shooting which, again, got bipartisan praise and, you know, people felt good about.
CARDONA: Yes, so you know what the problem with what my friend Scott just laid out is that when he does hit the right tone, right, and they're very few and far between, but he has done it, it is because he is scripted to do so. It is because he has been forced by some force of nature that he has got to stick to that script at that moment. But then what happens? His own nature takes over. The person who he really is takes over. His instincts take over. You know, it reminds me, Anderson, of the -- one of the shows where George Costanza, right, was saying that, you know, he has all these wrong instincts and he started doing everything exactly the opposite of his instincts and things started going right, right? Do you remember this? Do you remember the show? And everything started going right with him. And this is what had this president and what people who support him are begging him to do. And it doesn't happen because it's not who he is.
COOPER: You know, Brian, what's interesting on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, Kellyanne Conway today said the coverage of the president is, "Neither productive nor patriotic." Which I just found interesting because I' mean we're covering the president's own words. You know, I get that she thinks it's not productive. The idea it's not patriotic, you know --
STELTER: Add that to the list of corrosive comments that contribute to the sense of hatred of the media. Its past is resentment of the media that's been fostered by Trump and his aides. It's hatred among some of his loyal fans. And when you suggest they're not patriotic you're contributing to that. She also said on "GMA" the president's being -- all this raw sewage on television, that he's treated so mercilessly. There is a lot of negative and very critical and very skeptical coverage. It is because there are a lot of challenges facing the White House. So we can't view the critical coverage in a vacuum. It happens for a reason.
COOPER: Maggie, do you actually believe the president hates the media?
HABERMAN: I believe he does now in all seriousness. I don't think he used to. I think two things were not the case before. The president would often say, you know, was said to live by the belief that all press is good press. I don't believe he actually felt that way because I think he was very bothered by a lot of the coverage.
[21:20:07] COOPER: And, frankly, when he was a civilian he would get, you know, more or less positive coverage.
HABERMAN: Generally speaking, sure. And that was when he would say things like that and then he knew how to deal, you know, in sort of, you know, deep down on bad coverage he didn't like. And I think that he -- I think that has changed. I think that on the "Access Hollywood" experience when that tape emerged, that October weekend last year. I think that had a defining effect on him.
And I think that he then believed that, you know, he won and that reporters were going to come around to him and he believed that he was going to be sort of praised for what he saw as great accomplishments which was winning when nobody thought he would win or most people didn't think he would win. And he's furious that hasn't happened and to Brian's point, I think that, you know, he doesn't quite see that this is not happening, you know, on its own.
And most every president feels like they he are getting bad coverage.
COOPER: I mean the Clinton it is the "New York Times" --
(CROSSTALK)
HABERMAN: He just sits and watches it in a different way.
STELTER: And today, President Trump, he had the South Korean President at the White House. He did not take questions from the press. He's breaking the precedent terms and not holding those kinds of joint press conferences. He hasn't given a non-Fox interview coming up here almost two months. He has isolated inflated himself.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: But I would say, if he does hate the press, if that's true, he's now reflection of his base. If you look at the trust among Republicans --
STELTER: Yes. That's true.
HABERMAN: No, that's absolutely true.
COOPER: Yes.
STELTER: It's historically low which is dangerous.
(CROSSTALK)
HABERMAN: He is undermining his faith in a key institution. He's helping even -- the press certainly we've done this to ourselves on certain things and I would argue the last two days is part of that, but he is also helping to push that along.
CARDONA: And that's dangerous to the country.
COOPER: All right. Thanks, everybody.
Coming up, how the woman closest to the president defends his attacks on women. Also, our defense Melania Trump said the anti-cyberbullying cause and Ivanka Trump stated female empowerment efforts. More ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:25:48] COOPER: With his tweet about Mika Brzezinski, the way the president treats and talks about women is again in a harsh spotlight, one that both Melania and Ivanka Trump seem to be shying away from. All we've heard in regard to Melania Trump is what her spokeswoman said in a statement yesterday, "As the First Lady has publicly stated in the past, when her husband gets attacked, he will punch back 10 times harder." Later, that spokeswoman clarified this was a restatement of what the first lady had said in the past and was not a direct response to the latest tweet. So we really do not know what the first lady's response is nor have we heard a response from Ivanka Trump, who is fashioned herself and father a champion of women.
This is not the first time the women in the president's life have had to decide whether to defend this sort of thing or not. Randi Kaye has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: If you elect him to be your president, he will fight for you and for our country.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When her husband needed her most, Melania Trump never wavered in her public support.
D. TRUMP: You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss.
KAYE (voice-over): October 7, 2016, just weeks before Election Day. The Trump campaign was in crisis mode. A recording of then candidate Trump on "Access Hollywood" in 2005 had just been released. On it, Donald Trump is heard bragging about not only kissing women but grabbing women's genitals all without consent.
D. TRUMP: And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
BILLY BUSH, ACCESS HOLLYWOOD: Whatever you want.
D.TRUMP: Grab them by (INAUDIBLE). Do anything.
KAYE (voice-over): Melania Trump insisted this was just locker room talk, and that her husband had been set up by the T.V. crew.
M.TRUMP: I was surprised because that is not the man that I know. And as you can see from the tape the cameras were not on. It was only a mike.
KAYE (voice-over): Donald Trump apologized to his wife who called the words her husband us used on the tape "offensive and unacceptable."
M. TRUMP: He apologized. I accepted his apology. I hope the American people will accept that as well.
KAYE (voice-over): Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump also called his remarks offensive and inappropriate.
IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: He recognizes it was crude language. He was embarrassed that he had said those things, and he apologized.
KAYE (voice-over): Both Ivanka and Melania Trump have long defended Donald Trump's treatment of women. I. TRUMP: Well, my father can be an equal opportunity offender. If somebody says something against him, he will speak his mind. And he treats women equal to how he treats men.
M. TRUMP: If you're a woman and he attacks -- they attack him, he will attack back no matter who you are. We are all human and he treats them equal as men.
KAYE (voice-over): What makes their defense so curious is that Melania Trump says she will fight to end cyber bullying.
M. TRUMP: We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media.
KAYE (voice-over): Yet her husband uses Twitter as a weapon. And Ivanka calls herself a, quote, huge advocate for women and women's issues, as a blog women who work, and writes op-eds about female empowerment. She also proudly tweets pictures of women and girls visiting the White House.
(on camera) Meanwhile, back during the campaign, Trump's team also pushed back against allegations by dozens of women that Donald Trump had kissed them or groped them without consent. Some of their stories dated back 30 years. Mr. Trump denied all of it, and once again his wife had his back.
M. TRUMP: I believe my husband. I believe my husband. This was all organized from the opposition. And with the details, did they go -- did they ever check the background of these women? They don't have any facts.
KAYE (voice-over): Ivanka Trump, however, stayed oddly silent at least in public.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: With me Maggie Haberman, Emily Jane Fox, and Michael D'Antonio.
Emily, it's interesting the women who are closest to him have really always stood by him throughout all of this in the campaign and even before.
[21:30:01] EMILY JANE FOX, WRITER, VANITY FAIR: Well, this is not unusual --
COOPER: Yes.
FOX: -- for the Trump family or the Trump children in particular. They are his closest allies, sometimes his safest sounding boards, and they are the most loyal disciples to Donald Trump.
I think what you have with Ivanka Trump is you have someone who does care about issues related to women and female empowerment. She happens to have a father who publicly says horrible things about women. So she is in a tricky position because she will never publicly say anything bad about her father. Everyone who I've ever talked to who is close to Ivanka, ever worked with her, knows her personally says the one thing she will never do is publicly come out against her father. So whatever she is saying behind closed doors she would never say that.
COOPER: And Maggie, we should point out we don't really know what, you know, Melania Trump says to him behind closed doors --
HABERMAN: That's right.
COOPER: -- or Ivanka Trump says to him behind closed doors.
HABERMAN: We don't. And I think she was right. I think she -- they are both women are in a tricky position because this is husband and father. I don't think that it is -- this is an unusual situation where -- certainly less so for the first lady but certainly to have a daughter of a president working in the White House.
And so a lot of this is just finding, you know, the right time for a new dynamic but -- and she has position herself as a champion of women. So that is part of the why the focus goes to her. But I do think it is tricky to expect any daughter of an elected official to openly criticize them. What matters is what's said behind closed doors.
COOPER: It's interesting, though, Michael. Because, you know, just as it's been much been commented on that the president steps on his own message. He's also stepping on Ivanka Trump's message. He's also stepping on what Melania Trump has intimated she would like her message to be about cyber bullying.
MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, AUTHOR, "THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP": Well, you're absolutely right and I think in some respects we could think, well, the only message that matters is the president's message and that's been true for Donald Trump as a businessman as well.
What's kind of sad to think about is that Ivanka Trump has been dealing with this problem of her father and what he says and does around women since her childhood. This was an issue in the divorce scandal that was played out over the tabloid press in the early 1990s and it arose again with Marla Maples. Time and again she's been put in this really difficult position of hearing and knowing these things about her father and being supportive but also quiet and abandoning herself in a way. And I think that's a terrible thing to do to a daughter, to put her in a position where she has to choose between loyalty to her own ideals and I think her ideals are more modern, more inclusive, and advanced, and mature, and her loyalty to her father.
And I think that last bit about whether Mr. Trump has evolved with the times is very important to consider. I think this is a fellow whose understanding of the relationship of the sexes and gender identity and roles is pretty well frozen in 1960 and it's almost to Hugh Hefner rat pack kind of idea. And I don't think that flies very well in our time.
COOPER: Emily, it's interesting, though, I mean you could also make the argument that he has surrounded himself throughout much of his life with strong women. And Melania Trump, you know, I mean I interviewed her I think last time, one of the things she said was, look, don't feel bad for me, you know, I'm strong. I'm a strong person. And she certainly projects that. I don't know, you know, I don't know her very well. But she certainly seems to be a strong woman. And certainly Ivanka Trump and do you think Ivana Trump who was, you know married to Donald Trump --
FOX: That whole casino business in Atlantic City.
COOPER: Right.
FOX: Well, you think about who is the one adult child who's in the White House with him and it's his daughter not his two sons who are still back in New York. And I think Ivanka Trump has made the point over and over again when she's asked to defend her father's treatment on women (INAUDIBLE), he has promoted women in his business my entire life, our whole life. He said, I could be whatever I want to be regardless if I'm a woman or if my brothers are successful. I can be successful, too.
I think we have to step back and say Ivanka Trump is there in the White House, though, promoting these messages because her father is there. It's not like she earned a place in government beyond being her father's daughter. So while her beliefs may be noble and she really does care about these issues. She is there because of her father's message and that message does clash with her own message.
HABERMAN: That's very true.
COOPER: And Maggie. She also -- I mean clearly projects herself as a moderating -- has project herself as sort of a moderating influence on her father. Is it clear to you how much power she actually has? Because it feels like every time, you know, he makes a speech that gets bipartisan praise, there's a leak that, oh, it was Ivanka Trump who pushed this part of the speech, but when something like, you know, this tweet happens we don't hear anything about what Ivanka Trump is saying.
[21:35:04] HABERMAN: Yes. I mean, look, I think that it is complicated for her and I think it's complicated for her husband but particularly for her. I think that there have been issues where they have pushed pretty hard.
When my colleague, Jodi Kantor and I interviewed her a couple of months ago, she did talk about how, look, I'm not there to sort of be the moderate wing. She said there were discreet issues in which she was going to try to impact policy. And even if on the margins she had an impact that was great. If not, but there really isn't, this has been said by several people close to the president and I think that there is a case for that, there's not a huge constituency for her policies among his base --
COOPER: Right.
HABERMAN: -- and among the people who elected him. So I just don't know how far that's going to go. And as much as we say that he is easily swayed by whoever he last talked to, there are certain key issues that he has firm beliefs on over many decades.
COOPER: Yes. Thanks, everybody. I appreciate it. Coming up, the president's election fraud commission asked all 50 states for the names, date of birth, voting history of every voter. Some states, even those led by Republicans, are balking about that. We'll have that.
Also tonight a gunman kills one person wounding several others in a New York City Hospital. Police say it was a doctor who opened fire. What we though about him in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:40:06] COOPER: Breaking news tonight, a horrific scene at a Bronx Hospital where a doctor who once worked there walked in with an assault rifle and according to people killed one person and wounded six others. The shooter then killed himself.
Police say this all happened while the fire alarm was going off because apparently the shooter tried to set himself on fire. Polo Sandoval is outside the hospital with the latest. What more do we know about how this happened?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, this certainly is -- at least five individuals who are usually treating patient instead they are critically listed here at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital after they were shot by this individual you just mentioned. Here is what we do know about him without necessarily having to share his name. But we do understand that he not only worked here at one point but practiced medicine here. Walked in wearing -- went up the 16th and 17th floor with that weapon you just mentioned and then began shooting, at least wounding five individuals. One of those individuals, a sixth person, a female doctor who were told practiced family medicine, did not survive. We're told she was shot and killed here in the same hospital that she practiced at. There a six individual that is currently still in the hospital right now. This person was the only patient who was wounded. However, their injuries are relatively minor according to one hospital official that I spoke to.
But Anderson, having been here this afternoon, I can tell you it was a fairly chaotic scene. There were family members that was searching for some other loved ones that were being treated here, there were also several people who I spoke to they were just wanting to make sure their loved ones are OK.
But again, tonight at least five doctors, many of them young medical students getting their careers started doing residencies, are not saving lives tonight, instead they're fighting for their lives, Anderson.
COOPER: It's just hard to believe. Do you know how long this went on for, this incident?
SANDOVAL: At this point, investigators haven't said. But we do know it was relatively quick when this individual walked in and took the elevator up to the 16th and 17th floor then open fire before turning that weapon on himself. But again, this are all going to be quick questions and, of course, how was he able to gain access to this facility if he had already submitted his resignation back in 2015? What were the security measures? All key questions as a family of at least one doctor continues to mourn.
COOPER: Polo Sandoval, appreciate it. Thanks very much.
Back on the national stage the president's election fraud commission is requesting mountains of personal information on every voter in every state in the country. Already many states are balking including red states citing both privacy and voter suppression concerns. Many voting rights advocates have been suspicious of the commission concerned it may be a form of vigilante justice for the president to justify his claims that millions voted illegally in the last election despite having no proof. CNN'S Tom Foreman has more.
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D. TRUMP: So many cities are corrupt. And voter fraud is very, very common.
TOM FOREMAN, AMERICAN BROADCAST JOURNALIST (voice-over): In a quest to rout out allegedly rampant voter fraud the president's commission wants an ocean of sensitive information about every voter including the person's full name, address, date of birth, political affiliation, voting, military and criminal records, part of his or her social security number and more. States, particularly some Democratic blue ones, are pushing back hard. California's flat out refusing to hand over the info.
ALEX PADILLA, CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE: The president's allegations of massive voter fraud are simply not true.
FOREMAN (voice-over): So is New York. We will not comply and Virginia too. There is no evidence of significant voter fraud. But amid privacy concerns, some states that went Republican red for Trump are also balking including Utah, Alabama, Iowa and Wisconsin. They'll hand over only some data and still others are dismissing the whole idea of voter fraud run amok.
MATTHEW DUNLAP, MAINE SECRETARY OF STATE: You might find some illegal activity but not to the scale that's been described.
D. TRUMP: People that have died 10 years are still voting. Illegal immigrants are voting.
FOREMAN (voice-over): As a candidate, Donald Trump insisted fraud was a real problem. And even after he won the Electoral College, he lashed out at news more people voted for Hillary Clinton tweeting, "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally." TRUMP: So many things are going on.
FOREMAN (voice-over): To help steer his commission, he chose Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, who calls the state's complaints complete nonsense.
KRIS KOBACH, KANAS SECRETARY OF SATE: We're looking at all forms of election irregularities, voter fraud, registration fraud, voter intimidation, suppression.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Kobach has zealously hunted vote cheaters back home for months yet his found less than a dozen provable cases out of more than a million and a half registered voters. What's more, he's a champion for voter ID laws which many skeptics consider a way to suppress minority votes.
And he was fined by a federal judge in Kansas just last week for his conduct in a lawsuit involving voting rights. Connecticut's take, "Given secretary Kobach's history we find it very difficult to have confidence in the work of this commission."
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[21:45:11] FOREMAN: Among the states raising questions about whether or not they can legally even comply with this is the vice president's own home state of Indiana. And with so much resistance, it's hard to see if this plan can even work at this point, Anderson.
COOPER: Tom, thanks very much. Up next, President Trump is fond of taking credit for a new coal mine in Pennsylvania even though he got approval before he took office, "Keeping Them Honest." Stay ahead.
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COOPER: President Trump is taking credit for fulfilling one of his campaign promises to get coal mining jobs back. He called out one new mine in Pennsylvania as an example of his success during his speech at the Unleashing American Energy Summit yesterday.
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D. TRUMP: We have finally ended the war on coal and I'm proud to report that Corsa Coal here with us today just opened a brand-new coal mine in the State of Pennsylvania, the first one in many, many, many years. Corsa, stand up. Come on. Congratulations. Congratulations.
[21:50:01] Employing a lot of people and we are putting the coal miners back to work, just like I promised, just like I promised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, there is just one problem. Corsa is a new coal mine actually got the green light during the last administration before President Trump took office. CNN's Martin Savidge traveled to the Pennsylvania mine, "Keeping Them Honest."
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Somerset County, Pennsylvania, folks can't remember the last time there was such a fuss over a hole in the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today marks a great turn around for our industry and for our company.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The opening of the new Corsa deep mine isn't just any mine. It is a brand-new coal mine.
When was the last time you heard about a coal mine opening?
MARK FRIEDLINE, SOMERSET COUNTY, P.A. RESIDENT: Oh, wow. Now you got me thinking there.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Though it will only create 70 to 100 full-time jobs, the new mines welcomed news in the town in an industry devastated by decline.
JOHN ROADS, OWNER, COAL MINER CAFE: Well, it's not 70 to 100 job, it's 70 to 100 families.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Trump mentioned the new mine as he withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, is now famous Pittsburgh, not Paris speech.
D. TRUMP: A big opening of a brand new mine is unheard of. For many, many years, that hasn't happened. They asked me if I'd go.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Trump didn't go but sent video congratulations.
D. TRUMP: As long as I'm the president of your great country, each and every day, I'm fighting for you.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): To hear the president tell it, coal is on a roll, and it is all due to him. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the U.S. added 400 coal mining jobs in May and 1700 since Trump took office.
Is it a turn around? Is this coal turning around?
ART SULLIVAN, COAL INDUSTRY CONSULTANT: No, absolutely not. Coal will continue to slowly die.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Art Sullivan worked his way from the coal mine to the corporate suite and now consults the mining industry. And where is that industry today?
SULLIVAN: That industry is maybe at a temporary point of stability.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): That hardly described a boom. More like a bump, as in a bump-up, and not even a Trump bump. Sullivan says the new mine has been in the works for some time, long before Trump took office. SULLIVAN: Planning was done during the Obama administration. The permitting was done during the Obama administration. The financing was done during the Obama administration.
SAVIDGE: This is not a Donald Trump coal mine?
SULLIVAN: No, it is not. It is a coal mine. We get another 70 jobs.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The new mine produces coal used to make steel, and then particular in this market accounts for most of the industry's modest gain. But most coal in the U.S. is used to make electricity. And power-generating coal mines continue to suffer losing 40,000 jobs in just four years.
Experts say the reason is simple. Natural gas is cleaner and cheaper. Markets, they say, not presidents decide coal's future.
And here in Somerset County, where three out of four votes were for Trump, they see it differently.
Do you think, because he is president, this helped to get the mine open?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, definitely. Definitely.
SAVIDGE: A lot of people feel that way here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, he is a man of his word.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Many are feeling better than they have in a long while, thanks to a new mine and a new president. Which is why instead of just another hole in the ground, here, they see hope.
(on camera) According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy, coal production in this country for the first six months of 2017 is up about 18 percent from the same time last year, which would sound good for places like Somerset here. Except the long-term forecast for coal, at least from industry analysts, is still very grim. Anderson.
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COOPER: Coming up, what does the health care battle have to do with (INAUDIBLE) porcupines? "The Ridiculist" is next.
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[21:57:23] COOPER: Time now for "The Ridiculist." And tonight, we present the first ever Ridiculist award for excellence in describing the health care battle using animal imagery, Senate edition. And the winner is -- Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, who when asked whether lawmakers could come together on a health bill said and I quote, even porcupines make love.
He went on told reporters, "Once in Glacier National Park I saw two porcupines making love. I'm assuming they produce smaller porcupines. They produce something. It has to be done carefully. That's what we're doing now." making love.
We actually found a video of some sweet, sweet porcuporn online, but we actually couldn't get permission to use it. So instead, here's a picture of one porcupine giving another porcupine a flower. Enjoy. Then they'll going to go neck and then they're going to make love.
Now, this is just one picture though, it sounds very scientific. So we looked into the actual making love rituals of porcupines, just to see if the health care analogy holds up. We went to two sources, National Geographic" and of course, "SNL."
The description from "National Geographic" is graphic. As it turns out to get things going. The male porcupine douses the female with urine. I did not know that. It's 100 percent serious to look at up. Now, to mention it was also confirmed by "SNL."
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His quills are also important in the mating process, see. The male impregnates the female by spraying her quills.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gotcha, that dirty talk.
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COOPER: So I guess the health care debate is kind of like porcupines making love. There are other rodent analogies that work, as well.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it is hungry, it's hungry. Ew, what's that in its mouth? Oh his got a cobra? Oh, it runs backwards? Now watch this, look snake is up in the tree. Honey badger don't care. Honey badger don't give a (INAUDIBLE), just takes what it wants.
Whenever his hungry, just ew, and it eats snakes. Oh, my God. Watch it dig. Look at that digging.
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COOPER: I don't care that it is six years old that never gets old to me. But there's always Honey badgers apathy has made me question my own capacity for compassion. And now I feel bad and don't want to leave you with the image of porcupine copulation stuck in your head. So (INAUDIBLE) moves bush, I believe they call it.
Here's a dog wandering on stage while an orchestra is playing at an outdoor festival in Turkey.
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COOPER: You're welcome. And if any lawmakers who happened to be watching see some legislative analogy in that video, please keep it to yourself.
[22:00:02] And that's it for us. Thanks for watching "360." Our "Special Report", the Pulse at Orlando, terror at the nightclub, starts now.
