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Inside Politics

Gunman Shoots, Kills Former Japanese Prime Minister; Former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe Shot & Killed During Campaign Speech; Biden: Overturning of Roe was "An exercise in raw Political Power"; Biden Speaks on Former Japan PM Shinzo Abe's Assassination; Biden Signs Executive Order Aimed at Safeguarding Abortion Access. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 08, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's that real engagement that allows you to get the most benefit. It is social media after all. You can hear much more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Thanks so much, so much to Sanjay Gupta for that. Thank you so much for having me this week. I'm Boris Sanchez. Kate Bolduan is back next week. Don't go anywhere "Inside Politics" with John King starts right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello, everybody! Welcome to "Inside Politics". I'm John King in Washington. Any moment now the President of the United States at the White House we expect him to sign and explain a new executive order designed to protect abortion rights and access to abortion now that the Supreme Court has thrown out Roe V. Wade and Dobbs as the new law of the land.

We'll take you live to the White House any moment. But we begin the hour with the shocking somber news out of Japan. A political assassination Japan's Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gunned down in public the moment the fatal shot was fired caught on video a warning here what you're about to see is chilling.

KING: The gunman struck the Former Prime Minister in the back one of the bullets penetrating his heart according to doctors. 20 work to try to save him but they could not. The Former Prime Minister was pronounced dead 5:03 pm local time.

Already a massive investigation is underway. The police have arrested a 41-year-old man who they say has confessed and told them he used a homemade weapon to carry out the assassination. Japan has notoriously strict gun laws handgun ownership is illegal shotguns extraordinarily difficult to get. Abe 67-years-old was the longest serving Prime Minister in that country's history leading it for eight years. CNN Reporters are covering the story from all over the globe and we begin in Tokyo with CNN's Blake Essig live on the streets there a shocking assassination and just a shock to see gun violence in a country in which it is so rare, Blake?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It's just so rare. Just a devastating day here in Japan John, just in the past few hours we have learned more about the suspect in the assassination of Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Police are saying that this suspect a 41-year-old unemployed man has now admitted to shooting Abe. He was swarmed by security after the shots were fired and arrested while in possession of what NHK Japan public broadcaster is described as a homemade gun.

Police say that this man went after Abe because he hates a certain group that he believed Abe has ties to and that man is now being investigated as a suspect for murder with 90 police investigators dedicated to this case.

And while a controversial figure here in Japan and around the world for some of his policies, Abe is an incredibly important figure and news of the shooting his assassination has absolutely shocked this country.

During a press conference shortly after the shooting current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida really encapsulated the feelings of the Japanese people that he appeared emotional almost in tears while speaking to the press and said that this is not a forgivable act, John, and that we will comprehend the situation and take appropriate measures.

KING: Blake Essig for us live in Tokyo. I need to interrupt our conversation about the Prime Minister's assassination just a moment to go live to the White House. We're going to see the President of the United States any moment now. He is signing an executive order explaining its saying his administration will try to help women. Keep access to abortion keep access to medical services like contraception, in the wake of the big Supreme Court decision, what are we about to hear from the President?

MJ LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, we are going to see him talk about this issue again, and probably explain some of the details of this executive order that the White House announced this morning. And this is sort of kind of what some frustrated Democrats and abortion rights activists had wanted to see from the President.

And that is just any more action and rhetoric coming from this White House. But the reason that I say sort of kind of is because the details right now are not exactly clear. When you look at the White House fact sheet that was released this morning, there are some pretty broad strokes language about what the President says he wants to do.

He talks about, of course, wanting to protect generally, access to reproductive health care services, like abortion medication like contraception, those are ideas that the White House has already talked about. He also talks about wanting to protect privacy and information of patients.

But again, not exactly clear how exactly this administration will do that? There's also language in there about streamlining implementation of all these ideas, including the creation of an inter-agency task force.

So we'll just have to see whether this does anything to sort of quell the deep frustration that we have heard from Democrats women families across the country see that we - the President is coming out now so let's listen.

KING: Let's listen to the President of the United States in the Roosevelt Room.

[12:05:00]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: --Supreme Court's extreme decision overturning Roe I want to come in on one piece of good news economic good news today. Today the Labor Department reported that we added 372,000 jobs last month 372,000. Here's why it's important.

Our private sector has now recovered all of the jobs lost during the pandemic and added jobs on top of that. We have more Americans working today in the private sector than any day under my predecessor more today than any time in American history today.

And the second quarter of this year, we created more jobs than any quarter under any of my predecessors in nearly 40 years before the pandemic. Think about that. At a time when our critic said the economy was too weak or having already added more jobs in mind, we had already added more jobs my first year as president of any president in history. We still had more jobs in the past three months than any administration in 40 years.

Now, look, I know times are tough, prices are too high. Families are facing the cost of living crunch. But today's economic news confirms the fact that my economic plan is moving this country in a better direction.

The unemployment rate is near historic low of 3.6 percent. Private sector jobs are at a record high gas prices still way too high had fallen now 25 days in a row. And this week, we saw the second largest single day decrease in gas prices in a decade.

We still have a lot of work to do. I'm not suggesting there's a lot more work to do. But I am suggesting we're making significant progress. The program is working. Now the Vice President, Secretary Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Monaco, I want to talk about an executive order I'm signing to protect reproductive rights of women in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's terrible extreme, and I think so totally wrongheaded decision to overturn Roe V. Wade.

In both formalized actions that I announced, right after this decision, as well as adding new measures today, let's be clear about something from the very start. This was not a decision driven by the Constitution. Let me say it again, this was not a decision driven by the Constitution.

And despite what those justices the majority said, this was not a decision driven by history. You've all probably had a chance to read the decision and then the dissent. The majority rattles off laws from the 19th century to support that day that Roe was historic was a historic anomaly because states outlawed abortion in the 1880s toward the end. But that's just wrong.

The truth is today's Supreme Court majority that is playing fast and loose with the facts. Even 150 years ago, the common law, and many state laws did not criminalize abortion early in pregnancy, which is very similar to the viability line drawn by Roe.

But the Dobbs majority ignores that fact. And the Dobbs majority ignores that many laws are enacted to protect women at the time when they were dying from unsafe abortions. This is the horrific reality that Roe sought to end the practice of medicine should not exercise should not be frozen in the 19th century. So what happened?

The dissenting opinion says as clear as you can possibly say it and here's the quote, neither law nor facts nor attitudes have provided any new reason to reach a different result than Roe and Casey did and that's has changed, excuse me that all that's changed is this court".

All these changes this court that wasn't about the Constitution or the law it was about a deep, long, seething antipathy toward Roe and the broader right to privacy, as the Justice wrote in their dissent, and I quote. "The majority has overruled Roe and Casey for one and only one reason, because it has always despised them. And now it has the votes to discard them".

So what we're witnessing wasn't a constitutional judgment. It was an exercise in raw political power. On the day the Dobb decision came down, I immediately announced what I would do, but I also made it clear based on the reasoning of the court, there is no constitutional right to choose only the weight. The only way to fulfill and restore that right for women in this country is by voting by exercising the power at the ballot box.

[12:10:00]

BIDEN: Let me explain. We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice house to codify roe as federal law. Your vote can make the that reality I know it's frustrating and it made a lot of people very angry but the truth is this and it's not just me saying it's what the court said. Have a reality. I know it's frustrating. And it made a lot of people very angry.

But the truth is this. And it's not just me saying, it's what the court said, when you read the decision, the court has made clear, it will not protect the rights of women period, after having made a decision based on a reading of a document that was frozen in time.

In the 1860s, when women didn't even have the right to vote, the court now protect practically dares the women of America to go to the ballot box and restore the very rights they've just taken away. One of the most extraordinary parts of the decision, in my view, is the majority rights.

And I quote, when it comes to quote now from the majority.

Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who registered to vote and cast a ballot is consistently higher than the percentage of the men who do so" repeat the line.

Women are not without electoral and or political are or maybe precisely not and or political power. That's another same you the women American can determine the outcome of this issue. I don't think the court or for that matter, Republicans who for decades have pushed the extreme agenda have a clue about the power of American women. But they're about to find out in my view.

It's my hope, and a strong belief that women will in fact turnout in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have taken from them by the court. Let me be clear, while I wish it had not come to this, this is the fastest route available.

I'm just stating a basic fundamental notion the fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign up immediately upon its passes on my desk. And we can't wait extreme Republican Governors, extreme Republican State Legislators and Republican extremists in the Congress overall, all of them have not only fought to take away the right our rights. But they're now determined to go as far as they can.

Now, most extreme Republican Governors and state legislatures have taken the court's decision as a green light to impose some of the harshest, the most restrictive laws seen in this country in a long time. These are the laws that not only put women's lives at risk; these are laws that will cost lives.

What we're witnessing is a giant step backwards and much of our country. Already the bans are in effect in 13 states 12 additional states are likely to ban choice in the next coming weeks. And a number of these states the laws are so extreme.

They've raised the threat of criminal penalties for doctors and health care providers are so extreme that many don't allow for exceptions even for rape or incest. Let me say that again. Some of the states don't allow for exceptions for rape or incest.

This isn't some imagined horror. It's already happening. Just last week was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim. 10-years- old and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life.

That's last part is my judgment 10-years-old. 10-years-old raped six weeks pregnant, already traumatized was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl. Just I'm going to be series just imagine being that little girl 10 years old.

Does anyone believe that it's Ohio's majority view that should not be able to be dealt with or in any other state in the nation? A 10-year- old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist's child. I can tell you what I know.

I can't think of anything as much more extreme court's decision has already been received by Republicans in Congress as a green light to go further and pass a national ban. National bans remember to say the sand there's no right to privacy.

So therefore it's not protected by the constitution. So left up to the states and the Congress what they want to do. And now my Republican friends are talking about getting the Congress to pass a national ban in extreme positions.

And we're taking some of the states that will mean right to choose will be illegal nationwide. If in fact they succeed. Let me tell you something. As long as I'm President, it won't happen, because I'll veto it. So the choice is clear. If you want to change the circumstances for women, and even little girls in this country, please go out and vote.

[12:15:00]

BIDEN: When tens of millions of women's vote this year, they won't be alone. Millions and millions of men were taking up the fight alongside them to restore the right to choose, and the broader right to privacy in this nation which they denied existed in the challenge from the court, to the American women and men.

This is a nation. The challenge is go out and vote. Well, for God's sake, there's an election November vote, vote, vote. Consider the challenge accepted court. But in the meantime, I'm signing this important executive order.

I'm asking the Justice Department that much like they did in the civil rights era to do something, do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their rights in states or clinics are still open, to protect them from intimidation to protect the right of women to travel from state that prohibits seeking medical attention that she needs to state to provide that care.

Protect woman's right to the FDA approved Federal Drug Administration approved medication that's been available for over 20 years. The executive order provides safeguards to access care. A patient comes into emergency room in any state in the union.

She's expressing and experiencing life threatening miscarriage. But the doctor is going to be so concerned about being criminalized for treating her they delay treatment to call the hospital lawyer who is concerned the hospital will be penalized if a doctor provides a life- saving care.

It's outrageous. I don't care what your position is. It's outrageous. And it's dangerous. That's why this executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services HHS, to ensure all patients, including pregnant women and girls, experienced pregnancy - experiencing pregnancy loss, get emergency care they need under federal law, and the doctors have the clear guidance on their own responsibilities and protections. No matter what the state no matter what state they're in. The executive order protects access to contraception, so not about design. Justice Thomas himself said that under the reasoning of this decision, this is what Justice Thomas Edison in his concurring opinion that the court should reconsider the constitutional right to contraception to use contraception, even among married couples.

And what century we're in? Used to be a case called Connecticut versus - which was declared unconstitutional late 60s they said a married couple in the privacy of their bedroom could not decide to use contraception.

Right now, in all 50 states in the District of Columbia, the Affordable Care Act guarantees insurance coverage for women's health services, including free birth control. The executive order directs HHS to identify ways to expand access to reproductive health services, like IUDs, birth control pills, emergency contraception.

And equally important this executive order protects patient privacy and access to information which looking at the press assembled before me you probably know more about it than I do. I'm not a tech guy I'm learning.

Right now when you use a search engine, or the app on your phone companies collect your data. They sell it to other companies, or they even share it with law enforcement. There's an increasing concern that extremist governors and others will try to get that data off of your phone which is out there in the ether to find what you're seeking, where you're going, and what you're doing with regard to health care?

Talking about no privacy, no privacy in the constitution, there's a privacy period. This executive order asked the FTC to crack down on data brokers that sell private information to extreme groups or my view sell private information to anybody that provides private health information.

It protects private health information and states with extreme laws. The executive order strengthens coordination at a federal level.

[12:20:00]

BIDEN: It establishes a task force led by the White House Department and the Department of Human Services focus specifically on using every federal tool available to protect access to reproductive health care.

You know let me close with this. The court and its allies are committed to moving America backwards with fewer rights, less autonomy, and politicians invading their most personal decisions. Remember, the reason that a decision has an impact much beyond Roe and the right to privacy, generally, marriage equality, contraception, and so much more is at risk.

This decision affects everyone on related to choice beyond choice. We cannot allow an out of control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy. The choice we face as a nation and between the mainstream and the extreme, between moving forward and moving backwards, between allowing politicians to enter the most personal parts of our lives and protecting the right of privacy.

Yes, yes embedded in our Constitution. This is a choice. This is a moment, the moment a moment to restore the rights that have been taken away from us and the moment to protect our nation from an extremist agenda that is antithetical to everything we believe as Americans, I'm going to sign this executive order.

KING: Watching the President of the United States in the Roosevelt Room.

BIDEN: Access to reproductive health care--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what Prime Minister Abe said last night, say about the security situation in Japan? And can you give us an update on your thinking about lifting China tariffs please?

BIDEN: Let me - I tried to put a call in to the present Prime Minister. And he was very late there at night I'll be talking there in the morning. I'm going to be stopping to sign a condolence book at a Japanese Embassy and the way the CIA.

It says hasn't happened to Japan in decades and decades. I'm told all going back to the late 30s, mid 30s. And it's a homemade weapon. I've only seen a photograph of the Justice Department is going to be going in again in more detail later as they find out the detail.

But the fact is that one thing did strike my, again my attention that this is the first use of a weapon to murder someone in Japan, and I think we have us far have 3000 - I won't hold me to that number 688 or, I mean, between 3 and 4000 cases.

And so what we're going to learn more about as time goes on about motive about the whole. But Japan Fumio, the present Prime Minister is a very solid guy. Japan is a very, very stable ally. And we - I do not believe it's likely to have but I don't know yet likely to have any profound, destabilizing impact on Japanese security or Japanese solidarity. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you just give us your thoughts on China tariffs?

KING: The President of the United States, the Vice President, the Deputy Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services leaving the Roosevelt Room there. The President of the United States signing an executive order he says will help women in America deal with the new legal and political frontier of abortion rights now that the Supreme Court has wiped away Roe V. Wade and replaced it with the Dobbs decision.

The President there ostensibly to explain the executive order but he spent much of the time first commenting on today's jobs report, which is robust. We'll get to that in a moment. But then giving a big political speech saying the quickest way, the quickest way to put Roe back as the law of the land would be for Congress to pass a bill but he knows he does not have the votes at the moment.

So he's urging American women to mobilize and vote by the millions this November. Let's get to our White House Correspondent MJ Lee outside of the White House. I was struck by that MJ before the President did get to some of the specifics of executive order he focused much more on the politics.

[12:25:00]

LEE: That's absolutely right. And we heard some incredibly strong language, again, from President Biden on the Supreme Court's decision to overrule Roe V. Wade. He said this was a terrible extreme decision from an out of control Supreme Court that he said was driven by an antipathy towards Roe and the right to privacy.

And notably, he talked about how even though it's only been days; we are already seeing the cabin effect across the country. He of course, gave this awful example of a 10-year-old girl who was a rape victim and she had to be transported, traveling out of the seat, excuse me to receive an abortion.

And you saw Vice President Kamala Harris, standing behind him simply shaking her head as he told this story. But you are absolutely right, that primarily the message that we heard from the President in these remarks was a political one.

He said, look, I am basically limited in how much I can do from the White House. And the best thing that you all can do is go out and vote in November. But John, we were talking about right before he started his remarks, whether this would be enough to sort of quell the frustration that we have been hearing from Democrats from women from abortion rights activist across the country?

And that's really unclear because I think for a lot of people, if they turn on the TV, and they hear from the President, saying, go out and vote in November, November feels like a long time for them to wait. They feel like that is not immediate action But again, the President making clear that there are not many immediate actions that he can take from the White House.

KING: MJ Lee live for us at the White House. MJ thank you! Let's bring the conversation in the room with me to share their reporting and their insights Laura Barron-Lopez at the PBS News Hour, Zolan Kanno- Youngs of "The New York Times" and Dan Balz of "The Washington Post".

The President mentioned the quick action in the States following the Supreme Court decision and we can put up the map. There are a dozen states already where abortion is either illegal or significantly restricted and another 12 to13 states where that is expected to be the case within a matter of days or weeks.

Certainly, by the time the November election rolls around substantively how confident is the White House that it stands on legal ground when it says it wants the HHS Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to review way that if you are a woman in a state that now bans or significantly restricts abortions?

Can you get mail order, Medicaid, Medicaid abortion, if you will? Can you reach across state lines to get help with contraception if your state moves on that? The President says Obama Care guarantee some of these things. But states could then challenge that I expect this as part of the new legal frontier it

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And the administration has been very cautious to date simply because of the fact that they expect almost everything that they do even this, which a lot of Democrats consider low hanging fruit for the administration.

The announcement today but expects all of it to come under legal challenges. So the fact that they move forward with it and formalized stuff that they were already directing the agencies to do even immediately after the Roe decision came down means that they clearly feel that they have enough strong footing and legal footing to protect these.

And also for you know DOJ and HHS to do as much as they can to protect women who potentially come under lawsuits and to also shield the fact that they could come under lawsuits for trying to travel to other states

KING: Right, the President called the decision by the Supreme Court, terrible, extreme totally wrongheaded. Several times he said vote that he said this court will not protect the rights of women vote, please go out and vote.

Now, again, mobilization for the Democrats, if they can on this issue would be helpful and critical. But to the point MJ was making some of the abortion rights groups are saying sir, that's, you know, almost four months away. What are you going to do in the meantime?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What are you going to do now, especially for a decision where a lot of progressives are saying this is impacting human lives right now? I just this past weekend went to New Orleans where Vice President Kamala Harris was making a speech along these same lines.

Connecting this overall to a privacy rights issue, and once again, calling for folks to go and vote. But I also spoke to organizers there and people on the ground that have had to actually face people seeking this care.

And one question that they have brought up one issue they have brought up is these actions which we have heard before, this is really formalizing actions that were already announced, really don't addresses they say some of the people that would be the mostly impacted by this decision that tend to be poor woman who do not have the actual funds to travel across state lines?

Let alone the Justice Department, protecting them tends to be people also that are in so called contraception, deserts that may be around pharmacies, but have barriers to actually get those resources. So they're still looking for answers there on a response from the White House on what to do for those issues.

KING: But what do we know at this moment, Dan? What are what are Democrats and smart Republicans saying about the idea that how big of an issue will this be in November? I remember the 1992 campaign; we covered it together that was called the year of the women.

That was after the Casey decision which said states could impose reasonable restrictions and women oppose that didn't like Casey. And there was a significant turnout but it was also a presidential year and it was a Democratic leaning year.