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Biden Heads to Cleveland to Remarks on Economy; GOP Source: McConnell Asked "A Personal Favor" For Republican Senators to Vote Against Jan 6 Commission; Today: GOP to Choose Between Trump & Truth in Jan 6 Commission Vote; 9 People Killed When Coworker Opened Fire At California Rail Yard; Biden Orders 90-Day Intelligence Review of COVID-19 Origin. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 27, 2021 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's all for us today. John King picks up right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington a very, very busy news day in a moment, new details on the railroad rampage in California. The shooter who killed nine of his co workers in San Jose had two hand guns and 11 magazines of ammo.

A chilling eyewitness accounts suggest the gunman, let others live and targeted his victims. Plus, President Biden gives a 90 day mission to U.S. Intelligence Agencies. Go out and determine if COVID-19 started a Chinese market or if it leaked from a Chinese lab.

But we begin this hour with a crossroads moment for Senate Republicans. Donald Trump demands a no vote later today on the question of creating a bipartisan January 6 commission.

Right now, the mother of dead Capitol Hill police officers on Capitol Hill trying to change Republican minds asking them to defy the former president and choose truth and accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you can change minds today?

GLADYS SICKNICK, MOTHER OF FALLEN USCP OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK: I hope so. I hope so. And Brian had a work ethic like second to none. And he was just there for our country and for these guys.

And he just was doing his job and he got caught up in it and it's very sad. This is why I'm here today. And you know, usually I'm staying in the background and I just couldn't stay quiet anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There is power to a mother's grave. But Gladys Sicknick is unlikely to sway enough votes because Mitch McConnell is always methodical and rarely emotional. He is no fan of Donald Trump, but he wants to be majority leader again. And he believes keeping Trump happy is his best path back to power.

So McConnell will vote against having a bipartisan investigation of the Capitol insurrection and he expects most Senate Republicans to follow the leader and vote no as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned about losing ten Republicans on the January 6 vote if that may happen? Well, are you working in memory for voting against him?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Yes. I've made my position clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I've made my position clear. Finally, you heard from Leader McConnell there. CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel is with us. She has a new reporting on McConnell's arm twisting, Jamie?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: He's taking arm twisting to a whole new level is what I'm being told John, according to two Republican sources familiar with what's going on. But we know that Mitch McConnell has been pressuring Republican Senators to vote against the January 6 commission, as you said.

But we are told that in the last 24 hours, that McConnell has doubled down, started reaching out to particular Senators, he was afraid might be wavering and ask them to vote against the commission "as a personal favor", John.

KING: Jamie, it is not unprecedented actually happens frequently that a leader asked members of the caucus Democrats and Republicans I need this one. You have to take one for the team. But this is not any vote. This is not a budget vote.

This is not to somebody get a committee assignment. This is about an attack on the United States government.

GANGEL: Right. Exactly right. And I'm told the Senators we're really caught by surprise at his using that kind of language and just how insistent he's been. One Republican source said to me, "no one can understand why Mitch is going to this extreme of asking for a personal favor to kill the commission".

The source went on to say, how can you have an attack on the Capitol and the Republican leader is saying vote against it? The source ended by saying it is despicable. And John, our sources are suggesting that Mitch McConnell may really have been concerned that Mrs. Sicknick visits today would sway some Republican Senators.

KING: When you say he was worried about that any particular Senator, she was meeting with something about her agenda that had him concerned.

GANGEL: So let me go through the count, which is interesting. We know that at least 14 Republican Senators agreed to meet with her. Some offered to have staff meet with her. But we heard that from our sources 15 declined to meet with her and another 14 I believe, just would not reply.

That means that a majority of the Republican conference would not sit down and talk to the mother of Officer Sicknick who died trying to protect them John.

KING: Can vote the way you want to vote in the end kind of indefensible to not sit down with a grieving mother who came all the way up there to just ask for a few minutes of your time, Jamie Gangel, grateful for that reporting.

[12:05:00]

KING: The commission dies unless ten Republicans break ranks. So far we know of only a few just moments ago, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): We owe it to the brave men and women who defended our lives that day and in some cases did so at the cost of their lives. And that's why I feel so strongly about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill. Manu, you tried with the leader there at the top took him a long time to give you a short answer. What's the math right now? If you look, everything I've looked at says there's not ten Republicans ready to break?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's not and look, frankly, the Republican leaders have been confident for days that they have the votes to defeat this. Mitch McConnell has made his case behind the scenes telling members that there's concern that this commission could be politically damaging for the Republicans because they believe Democrats would use this to help keep their majority in both chambers.

He's made that argument privately behind closed doors. He's made that argument publicly and that has actually taken hold. The vast majority of the Senate Republican conference agrees with that.

And including one Republican Senator who had not said where she would come down until just moments ago and I asked her Shelley Moore Capitol, West Virginia, who's actually playing a key role on the infrastructure talks.

I asked her if she is going to vote to proceed to this legislation. And she said no, and she said her concern is that he's become, "to politicize" very clearly in line with the view of the Republican leader. So that argument is working.

And also Ms. Sicknick is going meeting with these members. Some of them are still planning to vote no. Others like Susan Collins are indicating they will vote yes.

But she's making her case very clearly and speaking in very visceral and personal terms about the loss that she experienced of her son who defended this Capital on that January 6.

She said, in a statement, I suggest that all Congressmen and Senators who are against this bill visit my son's grave in Arlington National Cemetery. And while there, think about what their hurtful decisions will do to those officers who will be there for them going forward.

But even some Republicans she met with like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin came out with the statement after their meeting and said, he will still try to seek the truth, he said, but he's not going to vote for this commission.

So it is unlikely to sway Senators and I can tell you in talking to the Republican leadership today, they are confident that they will maintain the conference will probably lose may 567, potentially, but they are certain they won't lose 10, which is the magic number here, John.

KING: Manu Raju live on the Hill, I appreciate the reporting. Let's bring the conversation into the room and with me to share their reporting and their insights, Lauren Fox, our CNN Congressional Correspondent and Jake Tapper, our CNN Chief Washington Correspondent, Anchor of the Lead and Author of a great new novel.

You see it right there, "The Devil May Dance". We focus too often in Washington on math or can you get this vote? Can you get that vote? This is power. I just want to start there.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KING: Please tell me if you think I'm wrong. But Mitch McConnell is no fan of Trump. He repudiated him after the insurrection. But he's done the math. It's a 50-50 Senate; he could be the majority leader after the next election.

One thing that might complicate that is an angry Donald Trump getting involved in every Republican primary, stirring up the pot trying to cut off fundraising.

This is about power, not about the truth, Officer Sicknick, the other brave heroes of that insurrection their legacy that that mother deserves an answer. She's not going to get it at least not in the independent commission format.

TAPPER: Yes, I mean, I think a couple things. First of all, he's not going to have a happy Donald Trump no matter what. I mean, he can acquiesce to what Trump wants here, but there's going to be something else and then there's going to be something else after that and something else after that. I mean--

KING: They never learned that lesson.

TAPPER: They never learned it. And you know, he is insatiable Donald Trump in terms of what he demands and it doesn't matter if Mitch McConnell and the Republicans bend the knee here. They're going to do something wrong later. So that's one.

And you're right. I mean, it's a lesson they don't learn. Two, I've been in Washington for a long time. John, you and I both have, I have never seen people, and not people on Capitol Hill not want a committee. I've never seen it happen before.

You don't have any investigations that weren't even ghazi 10. There were ten investigations, five in the house. Of those five one was a select committee. And you know what, as a journalist and as an American; I had no problem with that. I wanted to know more.

I wanted to get to the bottom of it. I wanted people with subpoena power, which I don't have to get answers. I wanted Hillary Clinton to testify why Republicans would not want this in an attack on their own workplace and an attack on the people's house is beyond me.

KING: But we know the answer, sadly or the evidence before us is pretty overwhelming. They don't want to because they don't want Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Leader to be in the Chair where Hillary Clinton had to sit and answer questions.

They do not want the White House Chief of Staff, the Former President Donald Trump would never come as a witness he would be one to have. What were you doing? Did you delay the National Guard? You know, what did you tell Leader McCarthy?

Did you really say the rioters seem to care a lot more about the election than you, Kevin? That's why they don't want it because the truth could be damaging politically.

[12:10:00]

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, John. The one thing that's very perplexing to me is that a commission, by its definition, by the way that this bill is structured would be more bipartisan than what you will likely get if Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker moves forward with something like a select committee.

A select committee puts the power in the hands of Democrats, now you can change the way that bill is written. But you can guarantee the Democrats are going to have control over who gets subpoenaed, who has to sit in the hot seat. And that's going to be a bigger problem.

Or perhaps it's equally as bad of a problem for Kevin McCarthy as the commission ever was going to be. And I think that that is really important to think about and important for Republican Senators to think about as they take that vote today.

KING: And Trump will cause Republican dissonance you're right, no matter what they do to please him, he always find something else and some of the other Republicans will continue to call dissonance. We'll see - will cause dissonance, we'll see what the impact is--

TAPPER: Look at Liz Cheney voted for the Trump agenda more than Elise Stefanik. I mean, it did - it doesn't - there's never any - that's good enough. Thank you.

KING: Right. So when you start when you're walking the halls like Manu on Capitol Hill, you start looking at is there any potential here? So I just want to put up on the screen, Seven Republican Senators who voted for impeachment, right?

Among them, Richard Burr is already a certain no, he says he will not support the commission, that you have Collins who says yes, let me try to come up here with this. Collins says, yes. Romney says yes.

And he says the perception is going to be Republicans don't want the truth. He doesn't believe that's McConnell's motivation. But he says that's the perception. What do we know about the others?

Will we get - will we get six or seven and it'll be close? Or will we get the two or three traditional breakaways and this becomes a traditional Washington, the leader wins.

FOX: I think it's going to be just a small handful of members. We're still waiting on someone like Pat Toomey to make up his mind. He has not come out publicly one way or the other in the last 10 minutes.

And I think that he is somebody to maybe keep an eye on but otherwise, I'm counting Murkowski Romney Collins, I don't know how you get much beyond that.

KING: And so the Democrats are trying to do whatever they can including listen, lastly, here to the last Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrat in the middle, if you will, and so many of the other issues that will come up in the weeks ahead.

But let's say the Republicans why, why this is an attack on our Capitol set Trump aside, let's have the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We need to put a stop to this cancer in the Republican Party. Senate Republicans must decide if they're on the side of truth or on the side of Donald Trump's big life.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): Is very depressing, when Senator McConnell came out against this commission, I was with him on January 6; we were at the so called secret location. I know how he felt he was angry and frustrated.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Democrats have basically, given everything they've asked for any impediment that would have been there. And there's no reason not to now unless you just don't want to hear the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joe Manchin says that Lauren Fox, but then he also again says he's not willing on other issues as well. So the Republicans poke him in the eye again. And he says he's still not willing to change the filibuster on other issues as well. So the Democrats essentially - they can have the votes but they're short.

FOX: Exactly. And I mean, Manchin is a very interesting player in these discussions about the January 6 commission because he's been talking privately to Collins trying to sort of bring her along and get her not to block or filibuster with the Republican lawmakers this bill, I think that he is sort of trying to play that middle ground.

But in some ways, as you've said, he stops Democrats from passing other important agenda items.

KING: Before we go, we got Mr. Tapper up here earlier in the day; I just want to hold this up. It's a novel, it's a historical novel, but it's a book that starts number one, you can't go wrong. The first sentence of the book has Frank Sinatra and a --bottle of Jack

Daniels, you cannot go wrong.

If a book starts that way, in my opinion, you cannot go wrong, but it's about dysfunctional relationships. It's about loyalty. It's about real people.

You're making a fictional account here, but it's about dysfunctional relationships, Sinatra and the mob, Sinatra and Kennedy that come to collisions where choices have to be made. That's kind of happening here.

TAPPER: It's very resonant, I think if I may say so. The title of the book is, The Devil May Dance. And that's a fictitious Sinatra song about what happens to you, when you dance with the devil now, if you're the Kennedys, dancing with the rat pack, or your Sinatra dancing with the mob, that's in the book.

But I also think that we're seeing examples of what happens when you dance with the devil play out on Capitol Hill today. Do you really think removing Donald Trump from it that Senate Republicans would vote against an investigation into the attack on the Capitol?

No, of course not, of course, they want to get to the bottom of it deep down, but they danced with the devil. Donald Trump in this case in this metaphor is the devil and the devil doesn't want them to. They made their deal with them and now they're beholden to them.

And that's kind of what the novel is about, except remove all the ugly, messy, contemporary politics from it.

KING: If you can, if that's your challenge reader, that is your challenge, remove the ugly, messy contemporary politics from it. Thanks for joining us, I appreciate it.

[12:15:00]

KING: Up next for us new details of the San Jose shooting, the guns used and a co worker's chilling account how the gunman selectively chose his targets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: New details today about the San Jose rail yard shooting that left nine transit workers dead the gunman had two semi automatic pistols. San Jose's Mayor says the shooter knew his victims.

They were co workers and a survivor who says he knew the gunman says he seemed to be carefully targeting his victims. Let's bring in CNN Security Correspondent Josh Campbell; he is live in San Jose with more. Josh what else are we learning?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes John, I spoke just a short time ago with the Sheriff here in Santa Clara County who provided some new information. Let's show our viewers what we know about this shooter and talk to the Sheriff and other officials.

We know that the suspect worked here at this rail yard at the Valley Transportation Authority and knew his victims. They were coworkers; this is being treated initially as a workplace violence incident.

[12:20:00]

CAMPBELL: We also know based on my interview with the Sheriff about the weaponry that was used, the suspect had two hand guns, eleven magazines if you think about that, just a serious amount of ammunition that this suspect brought here yesterday morning to conduct that attack.

Now our affiliate spoke with both the girlfriend and former ex-wife of the suspect who also described his history of abusive behavior as far - as well as speaking negatively about his co workers, so getting some insight into his mindset from people that knew him.

And then lastly, we know based on my interview with the Sheriff why we saw bought the bomb squad here yesterday. Why we saw those canines in and around this building police found as they were sweeping this building in the suspects locker explosive material. Take a listen here to what the Sheriff told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF LAURIE SMITH, SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA: Some of our dogs alerted on what was his lock or inside were precursor things for explosives. And so then there was the fire at his house and I know that there was another bomb squad they're looking at I know that they found additional rounds of ammo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now they don't have a motive yet that remains under investigation. Authorities are searching the residents. They're searching this area behind me. There is that investigative piece. But John, there's also a political angle here which you know more than most as we talk to people on the ground.

The questions are asking or not just why but for how long? For how long is this nation going to continue to see mass shooting after mass shooting and will there be any political will by elected officials to ensure that another American family doesn't wake up to news that their loved one has been killed by gunfire, John.

KING: Question asked way too often. Then I just said this call some boats on the floor casting votes some things will pass some won't but have the courage to vote Josh Campbell appreciate the reporting.

Nine people killed, nine more families grieving now grieving loved ones who were just trying to get through another day at work when all of this happened. CNN Correspondent Stephanie Elam joins us now live from Los Angeles was more on that the personal tragedies. Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right John, and that's why I think it's important that we actually see their names and hear the names of the nine people who senselessly lost their lives yesterday, so I'm going to read them to you. The first name is Paul Delacruz Megia, he was 42 years old.

Adrian Balleza, age 29, Jose Dejesus Hernandez III is 35, Timothy Michael Romo was 49. Abdolvahab Alaghmandan was 63, Lars Kepler Lane was 63. And we also know that Alex Ward Fritch was 49. He was transported to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in critical condition, but passed away last night.

And also going back to look at Taptejdeep Singh who was 36-years-old from our affiliate KGO in the San Francisco Bay area, finding out from family members that he was a light rail operator, a husband and had two children. His co workers told some of the family members that he saved at least one person, the family saying he was a good person who you could call on any time.

And another person that we're learning more about is Michael Joseph Rudometkin who was 40 years old. He's a lifelong friend of San Jose Council Member Raul Peralez. He was actually on the air yesterday, during one of those press conferences when I was talking to you, John and we were listening to what we were getting out as this was unfolding.

And he said he was still looking to see if he could find in front any information about his friend who worked there, turned out that he did lose his life. And he did post about his friend and the fact that he just dealing with all this and in his city having this problem.

KING: Stephanie Elam, grateful bringing those details to us and bring us more as we get them. We should remember the victims of another case of horrific in this case workplace violence. Stephanie, thank you so much.

Up next for us President Biden's 90 day mandate U.S. Intelligence experts settle the debate about whether COVID-19 was first passed from an animal to a human or whether it leaked from a Chinese lab.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: The Intelligence community has a new mission straight from the president sought out fact from fiction and determines which of two likely scenarios mushrooms into the global pandemic we now know as Coronavirus that COVID jumped from animals to humans or the COVID started in a Chinese science lab.

The presidential directive comes after new pressure amid new pressure and new evidence lending at least some credibility to the so called lab leak theory. Just last hour, President Biden promising he'll make whatever the intelligence community finds public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you pledge to release the report in - after 90 days?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes, unless there's something I'm not aware of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With me in studio still CNNs Lauren Fox, Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post joins us and also joining the conversation Infectious Disease Physician, Dr. Monica Gandhi. Dr. Gandhi, I want to start with you and first I want you to listen to an exchange that Dr. Fauci was up on Capitol Hill.

Republicans who have long thought the government was not doing enough to explore the lab theory were pressing him listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did you dismiss the lab leak theory as credible?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I didn't dismiss anything I just said it's a high likelihood that this is a natural occurrence from the environment of an animal reservoir that we have not yet identified. No one knows including me 100 percent what the origin is the reason we're in favor of further investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:30:00]