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NEW DAY
Trump Warns Of "Major Conflict" With North Korea; Sen. Bernie Sanders Live On New Day; Sen. Sanders On Trump's Tax Wish List; Thousands Expected For Climate Change March In D.C.; Trump Economic Report Card; Economy Grows At 0.7 percent Rate To Start 2017; Slowest Economic Growth In 3 Years; Sizing Up The 'Trump Bump' In The Stock Market; Solid Gains For Stocks Since Trump Took Office; Once Homelss, Now A Source Of Hope; Go To Cnnheroes.com For The Full Story; Tackling Race; New Season Of "United Shades Of America" Premieres Sunday; "United Shades Of America" Returns Sunday at 10PM ET; W. Kamau Bell On Trump's First 100 Days; W. Kamau Bell On His New His Book; The Good Stuff; Pizza Show Gives Man Renewed Hope At Life; Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired April 28, 2017 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump ramping it up with a major conflict warning with North Korea. Is the president escalating tensions with his words for a reason? Joining us now is former Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders. The Senator of Vermont, from Vermont. Good to have you, senator. Thank you for joining us.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: My pleasure.
CUOMO: So by ramping up the hot talk, the president argues that he has gotten China more involved than they have been in quieting North Korea in some time. The tough talk is working. Do you agree?
SANDERS: Well, I don't -- you know, clearly Cis the key to this whole thing. China is major economic partner of North Korea. China has got to apply the screws and tell North Korea that if their economy is going to survive, they cannot continue expanding their nuclear or arms program and their missile program. So China is in fact the key. People have been working on China for years. If Trump is doing that, he's doing the right thing.
CUOMO: Two out of three Americans say if North Korea attacks the South, the U.S. should use troops to stop them. Do you agree?
SANDERS: Look, North Korea, I don't want to be doing detailed foreign policy or classified stuff here. North Korea is a real danger to this world. And we have got to do everything that we can, A, to prevent a nuclear war to get them to stop their nuclear program and I think China and the rest of the world have to come together to demand that.
Right now, Chris, I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill worried whether or not the government is going to shut down and I'm very worried about a proposal being brought forth by the Trump Administration that we get $353 billion in tax breaks that the top tens of one percent at the same time as they want to cut back on health care, education, after school programs, and the needs of the American people. And I think the American people have got to stand up and say clearly, that a decline of so much incoming wealth and equality the last thing we need to do is give gigantic tax breaks that the top 2/10 of one percent.
CUOMO: The president argues growth, Bernie Sanders. I am bringing growth with my tax wish list. I'm going to free up the corporations that you democrats want to tax to death and I'm going to double the deductibility for those individual little guy families that I am the champion of.
SANDERS: Let's give tax the relief to the middle class, but that has nothing to do with giving hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country. And Chris, as you know what they're talking about is trickledown economics. If we lower the taxes for the largest corporations and one out of five major corporations, say doesn't pay a nickel in federal taxes, if you give tax breaks to billionaires, somehow that money is going to trickle down into good jobs for working families.
It is a failed economic policy. Trickledown economics has not worked. And on top of all of that what they're trying to do now, literally today or next week is bring back the disastrous health care proposal to throw 24 million people off of health insurance, cut Medicaid by of $800 billion, defund Planned Parenthood, end even more tax breaks for the top two percent. So what we are seeing in the Trump Administration and what this hundred days is all about is old- fashioned republican economics, tax breaks to people who don't need it, cuts programs to the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor.
CUOMO: Your party, arguably is losing the battle for the middle class. We saw that play out in this presidential election. Where are the bold democratic proposals to counter what we're hearing from the White House? Where is the agenda for the middle class?
SANDERS: That is a -- that's a good question and I can tell you that I think people like Senator Schumer are working on that and here is where we have to go. I just introduced as you know legislation that raises the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. I will soon be introducing legislation that says that the United States to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people's right through a Medicare for all, single payer program.
We've introduced legislation that says Wall Street needs a speculation tax so we can fund public colleges and universities tuition free. Every kid in this country who has the ability and the desire should be able to get a college education. We have, yes, tomorrow you're going to see hundreds of thousands of people marching on Washington. Donald Trump thinks climate change is a hoax. Donald Trump is dead wrong. The scientific community is virtually unanimous. Climate change is real. It is really causing devastating problems. We have the potential, Chris to create millions of jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel into solar, into wind, into sustainable energy, and energy efficiency.
CUOMO: The president argues that this is pie in the sky. They are not ready for wind power to take over fossil fuels. You're crushing jobs in this country at the -- in the interest of science that isn't present day reality.
SANDERS: That is total nonsense. In fact, corporate, the corporate world is now investing two out of three of their dollars in energy going to sustainable energy. The fact is that jobs in the solar industries, in the wind industry in this country and around the world are exploding. The future from an economic point of view is investing in sustainable energy and energy efficiency. That's where the jobs is -- are. From a health perspective, we have God knows how many kids in this country suffering from asthma and other illnesses related to pollution.
And clearly when the scientists tell us that we are right now on the verge of very, very, very serious problems because of climate change, drought, flood, acidification of the ocean now is the time to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels. It is really internationally embarrassing that we have a president who is so far out of touch from where the science is.
CUOMO: Well, let's see where the White House comes down on whether or not to pull out of a cue to agreement. Your points are well-made. Thank you for being on New Day as always, Senator Bernie Sanders.
SANDERS: Thank you, Chris.
CUOMO: Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY CO-ANCHOR: Chris, we have some breaking news. The first economic report card of Donald Trump's presidency is out. Did the U.S. economy grow in the first quarter? We have the numbers to show you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: And we do have some breaking news. We just got the first quarter GDP numbers. This is the first economic report card of the Trump Presidency. Does it live up to the president's promise of economic growth? We have Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans joining us now. Tell us the growth.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look at there. Well, this is the slowest economics' growth in three years, 0.7 percent, this is weaker than many people have been expecting and it feeds into this narrative of slow growth since the economy has come out of over session. We had a pretty decent quarter in the third quarter but then since then the main culprit here has been that personal spending, consumer spending which is two-thirds of the American economy has slowed a little bit.
So there's nervousness amongst consumers and that's holding back economic growth overall. So that's the GDP picture but Donald Trump tends to use the stock market as a barometer of his day-to-day success and here is why. The stock market is telling us it thinks Donald Trump will be able to enact policies that will get growth revved up. Here is what the stock market reflects, right? It's up 5.2 percent in the first hundred days. It tracks 500 companies and the profitability of those big companies is a broad measure of the stock market. And how does that has stack up to other presidents? Barack Obama had a bigger early stock market rally, but that's because the economy cratered in the first hundred days in, sort of, the stock market and then it roared back. Take a look at George W. Bush. He had a negative reading there. Bill Clinton went on to create a 23-million job by the way and have a stock market rally.
Here's George W. Bush and there's Ronald Reagan. Let me show you another thing here. This is what the Trump rally looks like, the Trump bump. You can see it here election, presidency, speech to congress, health care fails. This is France avoiding so called Frexit. That's what the bump looks like. But let me put it on top of the rest of the story. Look at that. This Trump rally is just the very, very icing on a very big cake here that began several years ago. What -- to continue this, what Donald Trump needs to do is get real good tax reform, get some infrastructure spending, rollback more regulations and boost the profits of American companies to match that and extend it. Guys?
CUOMO: And the reality is you're already testing the limits of an expansion in this period as we've seen. Christine Romans, thank you very much. So this week CNN here was living alone on the streets of Israel eating out of garbage cans at 14 years of age. Now, years later, she wanted to spare other struggling teens the same fate. So she created a safe haven called the Shanti House.
MARIUMA BEN YOSEF, SHANTI HOUSE: To be homeless in a young age, it's very lonely. When you don't have your family, you will also have a split heart. I know exactly what they are going through. I want children to breathe, I want them to feel alive, I want them to feel secure, I want them to feel that they can be hugged, and they will not be in danger. We can see it in a different way and win life.
CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE) a powerful story of giving back. You can see the full deal at cnnheroes.com. While you're there nominate someone that you think should be a CNN Hero. That's how they become heroes.
CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, comedian and CNN host, Kamau Bell tackling a very difficult loaded topic, race in America. He's going to go toe to toe with a white supremacist with Richard Spencer. This is in the season premiere of United Shades of America and it's now. He's going to join us to talk about it next, why he wanted to do this.
CUOMO: And what's in that cup.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: The new season of CNN's United Shades of America premiers on Sunday and Kamau Bell explores immigration issues in the very first episode. He also talks with the Alt-Right Leader, some would say white supremacist, Richard Spencer.
KAMAU BELL, COMEDIAN AND CNN HOST: So I think white people do need to talk about their whiteness more here and we're doing in it. RICHARD SPENCER, WHITE SUPREMACIST: We're here to talk about white
privilege. We want to bring it back, make America great again.
BELL: You -- so you're a -- so you're a fan of white privilege?
SPENCER: Oh, yes.
BELL: And what have you -- and what do you love about white privilege?
SPENCER: Oh, it looks great. Like, you know, I mean, the people are good looking and, you know, nice suits. Great literature. Like, yes, I just want to bathe in white privilege. It's great. It's the most awesome thing.
CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE) Kamaul Bell joins us now. He's the -- also the author of a new book, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell. Great to you see you.
BELL: Good to see you. Good to be here.
CAMEROTA: OK. What was -- I mean, you were laughing there because some of the things to you I'm sure sounded absurd of what he was saying but there -- were there moments where you were appalled or you and wanted to slap him or how did this conversation go?
BELL: Yes. I mean, there's moments where people played out you can see my jaw muscle dropping pretty heavily because the thing I think I try to do is try to listen to people, whether I agree with them or not because I want them to get their story out because I'm not thinking about what my response is, I'm thinking about what the viewer's response. And for a lot of people they -- you know, it wasn't long ago that we thought there was no way that President Trump was going to win. So there's still people in this country don't understand that the seed at the base of Trump's base are these people and that they are -- don't want the America for all of us.
CUOMO: What did you get from him in terms of how he views people who look like you?
BELL: There is this false historical narrative that he somehow baked into his head that America is for white people. And so he has this sort of -- he doesn't -- at least he didn't shared his play with me but somehow all of the black and brown people are just going to, like, evaporate back to their countries or somewhere. He told me I can stay in Berkeley which I appreciated.
CAMEROTA: Oh, that's nice of him.
BELL: Yes, it was nice of him.
CAMEROTA: But did you try to disabuse him? I know that you want a forum where people could voice their feelings and it's important to hear them and I wholeheartedly approve to that but does there come a point in the interview where you have to, sort of, give him facts and disabuse him of this very narrow image that he has of the country? BELL: Well, yes. There's a point in view where I push back a couple of times. Now, the thing is I am keeping the conversation light and back and forth trying to get him to, sort of, reveal things about himself that he maybe wouldn't reveal in other interviews, so there is this sense of, like, no, keep talking, man, keep talking. The whole show disabuses the viewer of those (INAUDIBLE) putting forward. I mean, he is, like, six minutes of the show.
The show is really centered on the beautiful story of immigrants and refugees that come to this country who want to be a part of this country who are fleeing, a lot of them fleeing horrible things but really want to go to on the idea what America is. The show is really a -- like a lump of those people so America could be reminded of that but also -- but you can't just show that because there is also this.
CUOMO: How do you think that plays into the election? You hear a perspective very often of people who were not Trump folk. Where they say, "You voted for Trump, you're a racist, and either you are a racist or you forgave someone who was pandering to racism." Do you accept that?
BELL: You know, I think electoral politics is, kind of, team sports sometimes. You know, there are people will only vote for republicans and people only vote for democrats. And so I think a lot of -- a lot of people don't think that deeply into it. You know, I think also, you know, we have to re-legislate this. Hillary was a divisive figure for a lot of people. Out in Berkeley it wasn't (INAUDIBLE) it was Hilary Land, you know. So I understand that, like, I do think that there -- those elements are at play in people who voted for Trump but I also know that, like, I have family members, my wife is white.
I have -- therefore, I have family members who are white and I know they have -- a lot of them voted for Trump because that's their team. And I think the one thing we need to learn for this election is we need to get out of the team sport of electoral politics.
CAMEROTA: Talk about your new book.
BELL: It's called The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell and it's about how I learned in my life that having awkward conversations like the ones I have on United Shades of America we need to be a smarter and hopefully better person.
CUOMO: Do you think we're getting more or less united?
BELL: I think right now we're at a critical point where it is quite and we could turn. You know, I think -- I live in Berkeley as I said earlier and right now in my neighborhood where I live there are -- it's like a weekly fight, you know, a weekly riot.
CAMEROTA: Between who?
BELL: Between elements who don't live in Berkeley.
CAMEROTA: Oh, hold on a second. That leads us to what happened with Ann Coulter. I mean, you see Berkeley, they canceled her speech, obviously she's a flamethrower, she likes to stir the pot, but that's -- you believe that she shouldn't be able to speak, yes or no?
BELL: Yes, I believe she should have been able to speak, I also think she needs to be responsive of the fact that she knows she's a flamethrower. People who are flamethrowers generally travel with lots of security because they know they are flamethrowers. People who are flamethrowers with the university and go, I know that what I do is divisive. Please help me. I don't think Ann Coulter actually wanted to speak at Berkeley. I believe she knows the story is that I got canceled.
CAMEROTA: Kamau, thank you. Great to you.
BELL: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Be sure to watch United Shades of America Sunday at 10:00 pm Eastern right there on CNN.
CUOMO: It's Friday, that's good but we have even better stuff ahead in the good stuff next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: How could you make pizza any better?
CAMEROTA: I don't know.
CUOMO: I will tell you as a good stuff. A message in a pizza box helped save a man's life. Dennis Kust. He lost his will to live after his wife Cheryl lost her battle with cancer. Little did Dennis know the pizza place he frequents on Long Island in New York obviously started a pay it forward with pizza campaign. The shop's owner bought Dennis a pie with a special message inside, stay strong.
DENNIS KUST: When you do something nice that works. You know, when you see somebody benefitting and, you know, he made me happy.
CUOMO: Beautiful. Dennis says the kind gesture helped lift him from a deep despair.
CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, that's beautiful. Sometimes small gestures, you can do something really small. A small act of kindness for somebody and it does change their day. It changes their life in that way. That's a good reminder.
CUOMO: And pizza.
CAMEROTA: Pizza helps everything.
CUOMO: Right. There it is.
CAMEROTA: I mean, that is the wisdom of this next man, John Berman.
CUOMO: Doesn't eat pizza, body beautiful.
CAMEROTA: Is that right, John?
CUOMO: Don't get that by accident.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWSROOM CO-ANCHOR: You know, it is carb heavy, it is carb but I will say pizza in kindness is worth the carb. Guys, have a great weekend. I really appreciate it. We got a lot of news so let's get to it. All right. Good morning everyone. I am John Berman.
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