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CNN NEWSROOM
Democrats Stage Sit-In in House on Gun Control Legislation; Polls Open for Brexit Referendum; Trump Attack Clinton in Speech, Clinton Responds; Jury Deliberates "Stairway to Heaven" Lawsuit; Same- Sex Marriage Anniversary as Orlando Shooting Targets LGBT; 2 California Democrats Fight for Senate Seat. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired June 23, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:00:15] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everybody. This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'd like to thank you for joining us. I'm John Vause.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Amara Walker.
Chaos on Capitol Hill. Democrats are demanding a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting. And they are in a stand off with Republicans right now. Republicans say the Democratic sit-in is a publicity stunt and they will not give in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPRESENTATIVE: It's time for a real debate on these issues.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPRESENTATIVE: Radical Islam. Radial Islam.
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The Republicans are planning a series of votes this hour but not on the gun bill. Democrats are furious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: The Democrat sit-in started Wednesday morning. Shortly after it began, the House speaker declared the chamber in recess and cameras were turned off but members of the House used their Smartphones to stream their protests live, of course.
VAUSE: Let's turn to Eric Bradner in Washington following all of this. And it's 2:00 a.m. there in the capitol.
So, Eric, we understand that the House has been adjourned for another 30 minutes. What happens at 2:30?
ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: So, it sounds like Republicans are going to move towards a series of votes that would likely pass, a Zika funding measure, and then adjourn for nearly two weeks. Basically, taking the audience away from Democrats. Telling Democrats that you can sit here if you want but there will be no votes, there will be no action to try to influence. Attempting to undercut this Democrat protest that way. That seems the direction Republicans are moving, although there's not been a final decision from House Speaker Paul Ryan on that.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been trying to figure out what they would do if Republicans went that direction. Would they stay and keep going for the rest of the night and keep this up tomorrow? Would they pack it in and try again in a couple of weeks when Republicans come back to town? That's all up in the air. And we will see as the House comes in for some wee morning hour votes here in the next half hour.
WALKER: The scenes, Eric, have been so extraordinary. Just tell us what you've been witnessing there. The House Democrats threatening to stay overnight. I imagine some have their blankies with them. What's been happening? I know there have been moments where it's gotten really intense as well.
BRADNER: This is chaos compared to what the House is normally like. Democratic members, staffers for some Democrats have been bringing pillows blankets to the House floor. They've been threatening to stay in the chamber all night, even if the lights are turned off.
But there have been tense moments. Representative Louie Gohmert, of Texas, a hard-line Republican, got in some Democrats' faces and shouted at them that they should be talking about radical Islam, not about gun control, and that really angered some Democrats. So, there was nearly a clash on the House floor about that.
There have been a lot of arguments between protesters in the House gallery and members of the House, with Republicans hoping to sort of shush these gallery members while Democrats were really egging them on to keep up their vocal calls for gun control.
This is a scene that's really unusual here at the capitol. And there's no real indication of where it's going to go next. We don't know how Democrats are going to react if Republicans try to adjourn.
VAUSE: "Really" unusual would have to be the understatement of the night.
Eric, we will check in with you again in about 25 minutes from now to see where all of this is heading.
For now, thank you.
WALKER: Thank you for that, Eric. House Democrat John Lewis is leading the sit-in, which started
Wednesday morning. Lewis is a civil rights icon. In the 1960s, he led sit-ins demanding an end to segregation. Lewis said this sit-in reminded him of his days advocating for civil rights for African- Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN LEWIS, (D), GEORGIA: Deadly mass shootings are becoming more and more frequent. Mr. Speaker, this is the fight. It is not an opinion. We must remove the blinders. The time for silence and patience is long gone. We're calling on the leadership of the House to bring common-sense gun control legislation to the House floor. Give us a vote! Let us vote! We came here to do our job! We came here to work! The American people are demanding action. Do we have the courage? Do we have raw courage to make at least a down payment on ending gun violence in America?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[02:05:40] VAUSE: The top Republican in the House, Speaker Paul Ryan, is standing firm. This is what he told Wolf Blitzer earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is nothing more than a publicity stunt, point number one. And point number two, is this bill was already defeated in the United States Senate. Number three, we're not going to take away a citizen's due process rights. We're not going to take away a citizen's constitutional rights without due process. That was already defeated in the Senate. And this is not a way to try and bring up legislation. Let's focus on the issue at hand here, terrorism, and let's find out what we need to do to prevent future terrorist attacks. And if a person is on a terror watch list and they go try to buy a gun, we have procedures in place to deal with that. We want to make sure those procedures are done correctly and that's something we should be able to do in a calm and cool manner without these sort of dilatory publicity stunt tactics to try to bring a bill that already died over in the Senate to the House floor.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: John Lewis and these other Democrats on the floor. It was really not televised by C-Span cameras controlled by you because you called a recess, which shuts off those cameras. Some are suggesting you're trying to sensor this protest. Are you?
RYAN: No. Look, this is the way the rules work in the House, and they have ever since we've had TV. We had a similar protest when we were the minority in 2008. Not only did the cameras not go on, they turned the lights off on us. This is what you do when you go into recess subject to the call of the chair. These are the House rules and they've been this way for years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: All right. Joining us here in L.A., Ron Brownstein, a CNN political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic"; and Seema Mehta, political writer for "The Los Angeles Times."
Ron, I want to start with you.
You've been covering politics for a while. What has been going through your mind as you've been watching these scenes play out? Clearly, the Democrats are at a breaking point. They're fed up.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Both the cause and the tactics are striking. The tactics, disrupting the House floor in this way, is continues the trend that we've been on where essentially all of the rules of the Geneva Conventions of American politics are being shredded. And both sides feel enormous pressure to use any means available to advance their agenda against the other. And it's an exorable increase in kind of the tension and the confrontation.
And the second thing that is equally striking is they're drawing this line over gun control, an issue that really for over a dozen years Democrats viewed as highly toxic. When Al Gore in 2000 lost to George Bush, the conclusion among many, including Bill Clinton, by the way, was that gun control was a critical part of why he lost. John Kerry didn't run on it in 2004, Barack Obama in '08 and 2012 did not. But Democrats are concluded that in their modern coalition, they've essentially lost the voters, the blue collar and non-urban white voters that they feared losing by emphasizing gun control, and the people who do vote for them, which are essentially minorities, Millennials, and socially liberal whites, especially in urban areas, that this is again a winning issue for them. It's enormously striking to see not only the way they're fighting but the cause they're fighting over.
VAUSE: I want to ask a procedural question. It appears the Republicans plan to adjourn through July 4th. They're going to have a vote on the Zika Virus and it's all done. The Democrats say when Republicans plan to do that, they plan to come back in next week during a pro forma session. Explain to us what that is. They'll maintain a sit-in with some presence throughout the week. How does it look like it's going to play out?
SEEMA MEHTA, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: What's interesting is the Republicans have -- while we saw Paul Ryan call it a publicity stunt, this is the way we do things, they haven't taken all the actions they could take. They could have had the House police take the Democrats off the floor. They could have turned off the lights. They haven't done that yet. But I think there's a measure of caution. With the Democrats, it's clear they're going to continue to press on to try to keep this in the headlines.
And the other thing I think is remarkable, even though the cameras were turned off, because of social media, Periscope and Facebook Live and all that, we were able to see these images that 10 years ago we would never have been able to see.
WALKER: Even if the vote was called, it would be rejected, right? I mean the attempt happened on Monday. So what can this accomplish?
[02:09:47] BROWNSTEIN: No. What it can do is just sharpen and crystallize the debate. Look, the Democrats -- gun control advocates in general have a fundamental problem in that, in rural America, gun control is deeply unpopular. And the way the Senates works, there's two Senators for every state, regardless of population, it magnifies the influence of small rural states. When combined with the filibuster, it makes it hard for gun control to win. The only way it wins is when Democrats are able -- because they also lose some of their red state Democrats. The only way it wins is when they're able to build enough pressure on blue state Republicans. For example, you see someone like Pat Toomey, who represents the state of Pennsylvania in the Senate, has been trying to author a compromise on this. Really what they're trying to do is try to force this issue. It's a long- term fight. It's a very uphill fight, particularly in the Senate. And especially also in the House now, we have a Republican party that is almost completely absent from urban America in the House. Very few feel of these members feel a lot of pressure for gun control.
VAUSE: This didn't come out of the blue because, last week, there was a 15-hour filibuster just to get a vote on these gun control measures, which then got voted down. There is the escalation in the tactic.
MEHTA: I think it's showing the level of the frustration. There was Columbine how many years ago, and then every year it seems there's another shooting. Newtown was one that caused a deep reaction across the country and Orlando seems to have really resonated. It you look at the polling, there is support for some of these measures, including Republicans. Some of the background check measures, the idea that you're on the no-fly list you shouldn't be able to buy guns. I think Democrats are counting on trying to make this a moment that is a catalyst for change.
BROWNSTEIN: That dialogue, everything kind of doesn't work. For most Americans, the idea that you have to choose between gun control and focusing on terrorists is like insane. Why can't you do both? Yet, you hear Democrats shouting gun control and the Republicans are saying, no, no, no, Islamic terrorism is the issue. It's possible that both could be the issue. And in rational politics --
(CROSSTALK)
WALKER: Absolutely.
VAUSE: Ron Brownstein, Seema Mehta, thank you so much for sticking around. It's a late night. We very much appreciate you being with us. Thank you.
And the polls are open. Voting is underway in the U.K. The question on the ballot reads: Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union? Pretty simple.
WALKER: A record 46.5 million people have registered to vote in the referendum. British citizens aged 18 and up are eligible to vote.
WALKER: Senior international correspondent, Nima Elbagir, joins us live from the polling station in north London.
Nima, we are now in that period of time when a whole lot of election laws come into play. And because we are seen across the United Kingdom, we are limited as to what we can and cannot report.
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Some pretty stringent electoral guidelines across all broadcasters in the U.K. And given the strength of sentiment, given the strength of feeling in the run-up to this referendum, they're going to be very closely monitored by the broadcast regulator here.
Record number of voters. Whether that will translate into record turnout, you can see the weather behind me here isn't particularly playing along. We've seen the first few voters come in this morning braving the rain but it is a concern for both sides of this question. How much the weather -- the weather in the U.K. always uppermost on people's minds, never more so than on polling day. And both sides are going to be biting their fingernails, looking at their maps, and wondering how much of this is going to hit me and how much is going to hit the other side of this?
We're hoping by the early hours of tomorrow morning this is going to be done very similarly to how a regular election is run. When it becomes mathematically impossible for the other side to make up the momentum, then we're going to start seeing a lot of these places called.
It almost feels, for a lot of people this morning, waking up, anticlimactic. This has been a question that has dominated British discourse for so long, especially under the auspiciousness of a conservative government, that finally that the day is here, so many people just want to get to the other side of this -- John?
VAUSE: And since we can't talk Brexit, so, family's good, everything's good with you?
(LAUGHTER)
We'll leave it at that.
Thanks, Nima.
WALKER: Thank you, Nima.
And be sure to stay tuned to CNN all day for special coverage of this referendum. We'll have key interviews and the very latest on the results from Christiane Amanpour and the rest of our London-based reporters. We also --
VAUSE: Look at them all.
WALKER: We have a lot of correspondents reporting on reaction from across Europe and beyond. And we'll have extensive coverage online at CNN.com --
VAUSE: We're the only ones.
WALKER: -- on that referendum.
(LAUGHTER) Well, Donald Trump is on the offensive attacking Hillary Clinton during his latest speech. Trump questioned her character, qualifications, calling her a world-class liar with a deadly foreign policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:15:04] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions and trillions of dollars and unleashed ISIS across the world. No secretary of state has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton.
She believes she's entitled to the office. Her campaign slogan is, "I'm with her." You know what my response is to that? "I'm with you, the American people."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Clinton used her own campaign speech to go after Trump, saying her criticisms of his economic failures in a speech a day earlier must have got under his skin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's an understatement to say that Americans face a choice in November.
(LAUGHTER)
As I said yesterday in Ohio, Donald Trump offers no real solutions for the economic challenges we face.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: He just continues to spout reckless ideas that will run up our debt and cause another economic crash. I'm here today to offer an alternative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: And CNN has a reality check team dedicated to separating political speech facts from fiction. On Wednesday, Trump said Clinton accepted $58,000 in jewelry from the government of Brunei plus millions more for her foundation. Find out if it's true or false at CNN.com/realitycheck.
VAUSE: We'll be back in a moment. You're watching CNN.
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(SPORTS REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [02:20:50] WALKER: Welcome back. This election season has seen just about anything. But even long-time Washington observers are surprised at this. As I speak, there are protests taking place on the floor of the House of Representatives straight out the American civil rights era.
Here's how it all began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEWIS: Deadly mass shootings are becoming more and more frequent. Mr. Speaker, this is the fight. It is not an opinion. We must remove the blinders. The time for silence and patience is long gone. We're calling on the leadership of the House to bring common-sense gun control legislation to the House floor. Give us a vote! This cannot stand!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's Representative John Lewis. He was a prominent figure in the 1960s civil rights movement. And just like the '60s, Democratic lawmakers staged their sit-in.
WALKER: And Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan tried his best to bring a degree of order with a procedural vote on an unrelated matter. You can hear the chaos there in the background. Here's how all of that played out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: -- consideration. On the veto message on House Joint Resolution 88, the clerk will report the title of the joint resolution.
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Republicans are in the majority, which means they can decide when to turn off the cameras that were transmitting images live whenever they want, and they eventually did that. But Democrats kept streaming live pictures over their Smartphones.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: All right. So, to recap what's been going on, we're following the sit-in protest taking place right now. It's still going on, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Right now, the House is adjourned for the next few minutes and still Democrats are demanding a vote on a package of gun reforms. It would almost certainly fail if put to a vote in the Republican-led house but they're insisting on it all the same. We continue to bring you any updates as we follow this story.
(HEADLINES)
WALKER: A jury in Los Angeles is deliberating in a copyright infringement suit against the rock band, Led Zeppelin.
Stephanie Elam was in the courtroom and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Amara, we're talking about music written some 45 years ago. The issue here that the jury is tasked with deciding on is whether or not the intro to Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," about the first two minutes of that song, whether or not they actually stole that music from a group called Spirit that wrote a song called "Taurus" in 1968. The group Spirit went on to really find more fame in the '60s with their second album. But still this instrumental version of the song is what is at issue here.
What the jury is looking at is whether or not Jimmy Page and Robert Plant actually interacted with the band and took the music, something that's hard to prove in this era without social media, when you can't prove that a group was at the same concert venue. But that's what they're looking to do. The song was written by a man by the name of Randy Wolf. He passed away in 1997, so it's actually his estate that is suing Led Zeppelin about this song.
It's been about five days now. It's a jury made up of four men and four women. And they will continue deliberating on Thursday -- John and Amara?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:25:32] VAUSE: Stephanie Elam, thank you for that.
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has started serving a 15- month sentence in federal prison. Hastert entered the facility in Minnesota on Wednesday.
WALKER: He pleaded guilty to hiding money used to silence victims he allegedly sexually abused in the 1960s and '70s. CNN affiliate, WGN, reports that the judge who sentenced Hastert called him a "serial child molester."
After a short break, we're going to take you back to Capitol Hill in Washington where Democrats are staging a sit-in, demanding action on gun control still.
VAUSE: And for the first time ever, the race for one of California's seats in the U.S. Senate is being fought over by two Democrats. We'll tell you how this could have happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WALKER: Welcome everyone. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Amara Walker.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Welcome back everybody.
The U.S. House is expected to reconvene any moment. It's just gone 2:30 Thursday morning in D.C. Democrats demanding a vote on gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting. They've been staging a sit-in for 15 hours now. Republicans, though, standing firm. They're planning a series of votes this hour but not on the gun bill.
WALKER: Let's turn to CNN's Eric Bradner following this story live from Washington.
Eric, last time we spoke with you, you said House Democrats were huddling, trying to figure out what their next steps might be, with their blankies and pillows in hand.
[02:30:07] BRADNER: That's right. So it now looks like Republicans definitely will vote to approve a Zika funding bill and adjourn the House for a period of nearly two weeks. That means Democrats are not going to have the audience they were hoping for. They're not going to have Republicans here in Washington casting votes that they could try to interrupt.
What will Democrats do? Right now it looks like they will keep some presence here at the capitol. Some members talking about gun control on the House floor, even though the House will not be in session. But it's a move by Republicans to sort of take some of the drama out of this and really sort of lessen the impact if Democrats were to continue on into another day or week.
VAUSE: So, Eric, what is the end game here for the Democrats? Apart from a lot of publicity right now, what are they actually hoping to achieve? How do they hope to move the needle on this issue by doing this?
BRADNER: Right. So Democrats are hoping to make a public show on their position of gun control. They're advocating restrictions on suspected terrorists buying firearms and an expansion of background checks, but they have no way to get that done. Republicans control the House and Senate and have defeated similar measures in the past. There's no real clear path forward right now for these measures the Democrats are talking about. So they're hoping to draw a lot of attention to these issues.
If they can't force Republicans into a vote on the record, that they could use against them in November's elections, then at least they can point to this chaotic episode and say look what we did, we made an issue of this, we tried everything to get Republicans to vote, and they wouldn't do it. So, this is obviously a move that we will see sort of replayed in November's elections. Not just presidential election but down-ballot races for the House seats and Senate seats the Democrats are hoping to retake from Republicans.
WALKER: Eric, it's interesting, you have the House Speaker Paul Ryan calling this a publicity stunt and, on the other side, you have President Obama basically praising John Lewis's efforts in leading the sit-in. And this shows the bitter partisan divide when it comes to any kind of meaningful gun control measures.
BRADNER: That's right. Absolutely. We saw a clash on the House floor a couple of hours ago. Representative Louie Gohmert, of Texas, a hard-lined Republican, was shouting at Democrats that they should be talking about radical Islam rather than gun control, and Democrats got agitated, and we nearly saw them clash.
Here's a fun one for you. Thursday evening is the annual congressional baseball game. The Democrats are going to be playing the Republicans. We could see that a bit more heated than usual.
VAUSE: I hope they use soft bats.
(LAUGHTER)
We should also mention, Eric, these are live pictures of what's happening right now. This is the official television feed of the floor of the House. When they went to recess, the television cameras were cut. The Democrats used their cell phones to stream images, but now we have the official feedback because the House is being gaveled back to order. So, we'll find out what happens in the next hour or so.
But, Eric, we appreciate you being with us.
It's 2:33 in the morning in Washington. It's a late night. It's almost unprecedented. We'll continue to follow what's happening there.
In the meantime, a short break. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:37:27] VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. Just about 11:37 in Los Angeles. 2:37 in Washington. Our breaking news, the U.S. House back in session but they will not be voting on gun control, even though Democrats have been staging a sit-in to push that vote.
WALKER: Republicans digging in as well. We've now learned House Republicans plan to leave for the July 4th recess after voting on these unrelated bills. Democrats say they still plan to come next week and continue the sit-in, though the House will not be in session.
VAUSE: Just a few days from now, the LGBT community in the U.S. will mark the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's historic decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states. But it comes in the wake of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history which targeted the gay community in Orlando.
Jim Obergefell was the plaintiff at the center the case for marriage equality. He's also co author of "Love Wins," the story of the legal battle to marry his partner, John Arthur, who was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, so John could be remembered as a married man.
Jim joins us now from San Francisco, California.
Jim, thanks for being with us.
There has been a lot of talk, a lot of speculation about the gunman's motives in Orlando, but is it enough just to focus on his role or should there be a bigger discussion taking place right now about what happened?
JIM OBERGEFELL, PLAINTIFF IN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LAWSUIT & AUTHOR: I absolutely believe it should be a larger discussion. His actions did not occur in a vacuum. They occurred in an environment that's been created and perpetuated by leaders across the country, whether they be elected officials, politicians, religious leaders, people across the country who have helped create an environment in which the LGBT community is treated as less than human, and that has contributed to this feeling of encouragement to commit acts against our community.
VAUSE: Now a year ago, the LGBT community was celebrating the right to marriage. Since the Supreme Court made that decision, what sort of backlash has there been.
OBERGEFELL: We all expected some backlash but I'm surprised at how vicious it is. And unfortunately, that backlash is really concentrated on the most vulnerable part of our community, our transgender siblings. I think in a lot of ways the opponents for equality for the LGBTQ community realize they are losing. We won marriage equality. There's greater acceptance of our community, especially the LGBT part of our community, and the opponents of equality have latched onto the most vulnerable part, our transgender siblings, and they're taking out their disappointment, their hatred against that community.
[02:40:15] VAUSE: "The New York Times" reported some data from the FBI which shows that LGBT people are the one minority which is most likely to be targeted in hate crimes, but yet this seems to go unnoticed, unreported. Why is that?
OBERGEFELL: Well, I think a big part of that is in so many places there aren't protections for the LGBTQ community. There aren't those employment protections. There aren't' antidiscrimination protections. And so when there's violence against our community, it just falls within that gray area, between the cracks where we aren't noticed, we aren't talked about. So, I think that's part of it. And it could be some of the victims aren't willing to be public about it because they might not be out in their life and they're afraid to come out and report this.
VAUSE: There has been though so much support since the shooting in Orlando for the gay community there. Do you see this maybe that's one good thing which has come out of this, that this could be some kind of tipping point?
OBERGEFELL: I hope so, John. That is my greatest hope and wish is that this atrocity, this hate crime galvanizes people across the country, not just members of the community but our allies to realize just what danger we're in. This was the first time in my adult gay life where I suddenly felt afraid. I felt fear for my safety. And I realize that fear that I felt is what our transgender family feels every single day. And I hope this will cause people to understand and realize what danger our community is in. So I do look at this horrible attack as something that might move us forward. No matter how horrible this was, some good could come out of it.
VAUSE: From your lips to God's ear.
Jim, thanks for being with us.
OBERGEFELL: Absolutely, John. Thanks for having me.
WALKER: And we'll take a short break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:46:17] VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. Just around 2:46 on Thursday in Washington. And the U.S. House back in session but they will not be voting on a gun control bill, even though the Democrats have been staging a sit-in for about 15 hours to push for that vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: Just moments ago, House members started voting on another unrelated bill. Republicans plan to leave for their July 4th recess after all the votes are finished. Democrats say they will still come in next week and continue the sit-in, though the House will not be in session.
We're joined by CNN's Sara Sidner.
We're talking Democrat versus Democrat. What went so wrong for the Republicans?
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's not looking good for them. They're not going to be involved in this race. You will not see a whole bunch of yelling like you've been seeing on the floor of the House tonight. And you will not see what we've been seeing in the presidential race. We're talking about a political race that could make history twice, not once, but twice, depending on the outcome of the race and it does not involve a Republican.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Now wait a minute. Wait a minute.
(CROSSTALK) SIDNER (voice-over): Democrat versus Democrat. No, not these two, but these two. Embroiled in a political battle that is happening for the first time ever in California history.
SEN. BARBARA BOXER, (D), CALIFORNIA: I want to come home. I want to come home to the state that I love so much, California.
SIDNER: The fight is for California Senator Barbara Boxer's seat. When she stepped down after nearly a quarter of a century, there was a deluge of candidates scrambling to fill her seat, 34 candidates to be exact --
REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ, (D), CALIFORNIA: Tonight, Californians vote.
SIDNER: -- including California Attorney General, Kamala Harris --
KAMALA HARRIS, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I know you are some of our strongest supporters.
SIDNER: -- and California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, and the former Republican state party chairman, Duf Sundheim, along with 11 other Republicans.
But not one Republican ended up on the November ballot, leaving two Democrats to duke it out. How did that happen? Republicans have themselves to thank for a 2010 proposition authored by a Republican State Senator and backed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It calls for the top-two primary vote getters to advance to the general election regardless of party.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So if there are two candidates from the same party, the idea is that at least one of them, if not both, will make some effort to reach out to nonaligned voters and voters from the other party.
SIDNER (on camera): The bill was about getting moderates in place?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, absolutely.
SIDNER (voice-over): In this race, Attorney General Harris received more than 40 percent of the primary vote, Sanchez, 18 percent. The race giving her new life and a chance to tout her 20 years of service as a U.S. representative. But that comes with a caveat. Most analysts agree she'll need support from across the table to catch up with Harris. And that's where the Republicans just might have their say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been some indications that a lot of prominent Republicans and other pro business interests in California may decide to support Sanchez in the fall, not because they think she's wonderful, not because they think she's perfect, but because they think she's better.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE) SIDNER: So you have the first time that two Democrats are going for the Senate seat here in California. That is a historic moment. And then if Sanchez ends up being the winner in the race, you'll have the very first Latina Senator in the United States.
VAUSE: You have a situation where the best the Republicans -- the best the Republicans could do was 8 percent of the vote? What does that say about the Republicans right now in California?
[02:50:03] SIDNER: It's a really good question. And I've been talking to political operatives who I asked the same question to. I said is the party dying in California. They wouldn't go that far but they said it sure is in big trouble. If you look at the numbers, they've gone down about 3 percent since the voting in 2012, since the big election then. And that makes them about 28 percent of the electorate, Republicans, 28 percent, Democrats around 43 percent.
But there's another number really important and that's Independents. Their numbers are growing. So, it gives you an idea that perhaps people aren't happy with both parties but certainly the Democrats far out weigh the Republicans, which means we'll likely be seeing this scenario again in other races.
WALKER: It will be interesting to see how she broadens out, Sanchez, her support, appeal to the Republicans, the Independents and the Democrats without losing her base support of the Democrats.
SIDNER: That's exactly right. She is going to have to get the Republicans to come out to vote. They may decide with two Democrats there --
VAUSE: What's the point?
SIDNER: But guess what might be the clincher here?
VAUSE: Do tell.
SIDNER: Donald Trump.
VAUSE: How so?
SIDNER: The Trump effect. Because pundits are looking at this, saying the Latino vote, they may come out because they don't want Donald Trump to be in the presidential seat. So she may get a boost because so many Latinos may come out to vote to try to keep him from office and may end up putting her in office.
VAUSE: Wow.
WALKER: That is complicated.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Everything we've done tonight, everything that's going on -- (LAUGHTER)
-- this is the last straw.
WALKER: We'll have to discuss that again.
Thanks so much, Sara.
VAUSE: And now in sports news. In Cleveland, more than a million showed up for the first championship parade in more than 50 years.
WALKER: A nearly two mile parade with 40 or 50 people deep. It ended with a rally where star, Lebron James, spoke passionately to the basketball teams' fans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS BASKETBALL PLAYER: Thank you for all the Lebron wishes and coming home wishes and all that but I'm nothing without this group behind me. I'm nothing without the coaching staff. I'm nothing without the city.
(CHEERING)
JAMES: You guys are unbelievable and these guys told me I got to turn around.
(CHEERING)
JAMES: So I'm nothing without y'all.
(CHEERING)
JAMES: I love all you all. I love all y'all.
(CHEERING)
And (EXPLETIVE DELETED) get ready for next year.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A lot of love. OK. This is Cleveland's first world title since the Browns won the National Football League championship in 1964. A long time.
WALKER: No wonder they are so excited.
Well, the Euro 2016 knockout round is taking place and Ireland secured its spot after defeating Italy, 1-0.
VAUSE: Belgium also qualifies after a victory over Sweden. Northern Ireland and Wales meeting in Paris on Saturday.
WALKER: And Iceland, one of the smallest nations in the tournament, is set to play England on Monday.
VAUSE: Good luck, Iceland.
WALKER: Donald Trump is known for his brash, off-the-cuff comments, especially during his raucous campaign rallies.
VAUSE: But in an effort to appear more presidential, the White House hopeful is learning a new way of speaking.
CNN's Jeannie Moos has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The teleprompter may once have prompted disdain from Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: We should have a law that when you're running for president you're not allowed to use the teleprompter.
MOOS: The Donald would have broken that law a handful of times by now. One critic alls it
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The TeleTrumpter.
MOOS: And though still a little wooden, he's getting better. When he stumbled when talking about Hillary lying, and he caught himself with an ad lib.
TRUMP: A total and -- look, this was one of the beauts.
MOOS: There were lots of little ad libs.
TRUMP: God help us, we just can't take it anymore.
MOOS: And one particularly soulful one.
TRUMP: Americans, Americans, the people that we love, Americans. America first.
MOOS (on camera): Using a teleprompter seemed have an unusual side effect on the Donald.
TRUMP: She gets rich inside the United States. The barbarians.
MOOS (voice-over): "Donald needs a Breathe Right strip," tweeted one critic.
TRUMP: That she's against it.
MOOS: Another poster wrote, "I got so distracted I started Googling nasal disorders."
We understand the Donald is not suffering from a cold or allergies. Call it a sniff, call it a snuffle. Sometimes he both ad libbed and inhaled. TRUMP: Tell me, folks, does that work? I wonder why. We will lose
our country.
[02:55:11] MOOS: Previously Trump's performance tethered to a teleprompter had been criticized as stiff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was almost as if he was like a circus lion who had been tranquilized because he had bit too many people.
MOOS: But for a guy used to winging it, reading just takes practice.
Miss one little "the" on prompter and its sounds like you have meat on your mind.
TRUMP: This is why stakes in November are so great.
MOOS: Steaks are pretty great anytime.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: Especially if they're Trump Steaks.
(LAUGHTER)
He is getting better. He is getting better. Although it does seem like he's reading a book. And he'll stop and pause and ad lib something and go back to reading a book. But it's a skill. It takes a while.
WALKER: It is. It was fascinating to see him so disciplined up there.
Well, that's all we have for you. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Amara Walker.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause.
The news continues with Rosemary Church. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[03:00:09] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN breaking news. I'm Rosemary Church, at CNN Center.
