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White House Staffer's Ex: Trump Called Me A Liar' Democrats Demand Answers From White House On Rob Porter; Wife Of Shooting Suspect Called 911 From Bushes; North Korea's Fear Of Defections At Winter Olympics; Sightseeing Tour Turns Deadly In Grand Canyon; Latino Church Gathering Draws In 100,000 In California; A New Look At Trump's 1994 Interview About Women; Wild Week Takes Dow From Historic High To Huge Drop. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 11, 2018 - 17:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Our breaking news right now, the State of New York has filed a civil lawsuit against the Weinstein Company -- Harvey and Robert Weinstein.

Now, the New York attorney general says in a criminal complaint that the company, quote, repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination.

These allegations against Harvey Weinstein marked the unofficial start of the Me Too movement -- a movement the president has challenged this week. And now separately, we are also learning more from one woman tonight -- the ex-wife of a disgraced former White House staffer, taking on the President of the United States.

She says Donald Trump is calling her a liar and she's not standing for it. I'm talking about Jennie Willoughby. She was married to Rob Porter, who quit his job in the White House this past week, chased out by allegations that he violently abused her and another ex-wife -- again, Willoughby and another woman.

After Porter's resignation, the president praised him, wished him well, and took to Twitter with, quote, people's lives are being chattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. And that's the part that has Jennie Willoughby, porter's ex-wife, unable to stay quiet -- the president saying that her story is not true.

Willoughby wrote a piece for, Time Magazine today, and I'm going to read some of it for you now. She writes, the words mere allegation and falsely accused meant to imply that I am a liar, that Colbie Holderness is a liar.

That the work was doing in the White House was of higher value than our mental, physical, or emotional well-being, that his professional contributions are worth more than the truth. That abuse is something to be questioned and doubted. She goes on, everyone wants to talk about how trump implied I am not

to be believed, as if Trump is the model of kindness and forgiveness. As if he readily acknowledges his own shortcomings and shows empathy and concern for others. I forgive him.

Thankfully, my strength and worth are not dependent on outside belief. The truth exists, whether the president accepts it or not. Now, Willoughby also references the other accusations by women against powerful men, not only in politics, but entertainment.

She continues, amidst the recent rash of sexual assault revelations born of the Me Too movement, even if -- even I found myself questioning the accuser. I almost allowed my societal conditioning to override what my heart knows to be true.

Abuse is scary and demoralizing and degrading. It chisels away at your self-esteem and self-worth until you are unsure whether your version of reality is valid or not. Ultimately, this is not a political issue, this is a societal issue.

And the tone has just been reset by the White House. If the most powerful people in the nation do not believe my story of abuse in the face of overwhelming evidence, than what hope do others have of being heard?

What I just read to you was not the entire Time Magazine piece by Jennie Willoughby. Let's go now to CNN correspondent Ryan Nobles at the White House. Ryan, is this the fight that the Oval Office is prepared to handle right now?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, if you go by how they've responded up until this point, I think the answer would be no. And I think this op-ed by Jennie Willoughby -- this powerful op-ed in, Time, is an indication that this controversy for the White House isn't going away anytime soon.

And in part, because of the two big issues that Jennie Willoughby raises with this administration. And it's part of this big criticism that they've been dealing with over this past week. The first part being, what did they know about these accusations against Rob Porter and why did it take them so long to act?

And then, in the wake of these revelations, why are they talking so much about Porter's due process, as it relates to his job in the White House.

And today, a myriad of White House administration officials were on the Sunday talk shows, trying to explain their perspective on those two points. Here's just a sampling of what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: I spoke to the president last night. I told him I would be with you today. And he said, please tell, Jake, that I have full faith in Chief of Staff John Kelly and that I'm not actively searching for replacements. He said, I saw that all over the news today, I have faith in him.

MARC SHORT, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS: I think there was probably some, in the process, of lack of communication between different elements in the White House. I don't know, to be honest. I don't know who knew what, when, up to this point

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: And I think all the stories about replacing General Kelly are mostly being fed by people who are unhappy that they've lost access to the president under General Kelly's leadership as Chief of Staff.

[17:05:00] So, no, I'm extraordinarily pleased with the job the chief has been doing. Everybody in the west-wing is. The president is, as well. I think that talk about the chief's departure is much to do about nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And there are questions about John Kelly's future in the White House, specifically because there doesn't seem to be a lot of clarity as to how he personally responded when he learned about these accusations against Rob Porter.

At one point, he said that he actually confronted Porter directly about whether or not violence was a part of the stormy relationships that he had with his two-ex-wives, and Porter, pushed back and said it wasn't.

It wasn't until he saw the photo that Kelly and his aides are saying when he decided it was time to act. And when that happened, Porter, was quickly removed from his position. Ana.

CABRERA: And, Ryan, we know there are a number of Democratic senators who have written letters now to the White House demanding more answers on how all of this played out.

Thank you very much, Ryan Nobles at the White House. The allegations against Rob Porter are disturbing, if true but perhaps not a surprise to the White House.

At a time when there is an important national conversation about harassment and abuse, the claims against Porter draw attention to other allegations that have been made against Trump associates and even the president himself. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 2016, in Jupiter, Florida, following then he have candidate Donald Trump's press conference, a bizarre altercation caught on tape.

MICHELLE FIELDS, BREITBART NEWS REPORTER: I can't believe he just did that. That was so hard. Was that Corey?

KAYE: That's then Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, claiming Trump's campaign manager at the time, Corey Lewandowski, had grabbed her tightly by the arm and yanked her down.

Lewandowski denied it ever happened, calling the reporter delusional on Twitter. Despite several angles of video showing the incident, then-candidate Trump also insisted the reporter, fabricated the whole ordeal.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Everybody said nothing happened. Perhaps she made the story up. I think that's what happened, OK?

KAYE: In the end, Jupiter, Florida, police charged Lewandowski with simple battery, a misdemeanor, but those charges were later dropped. Trump's pick for labor security, Andy Puzder withdrew his name in part after claims of spousal abuse came to light. The fast-food executive's ex-wife had aired the couple's dirty laundry on The Oprah Winfrey Show, while in disguise.

LISA HENNING, ANDY PUZDER'S EX-WIFE: Once I made that break and once I made it public, and remember my ex-husband was a public figure, everyone knew him and knew what he was doing. And once I made that public, he vowed revenge. He said, I will see you in the gutter. This will never be over. You will pay for this.

KAYE: Later, Puzder's wife sent a letter to the senators, calling her ex-husband a kind man, saying he was not abusive. Mr. Puzder denied it all.

The man Trump chose to be his Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, also once faced charges for misdemeanor domestic violence, as Politico first reported.

A Santa Monica, California police report from 1996, detailed an altercation between Bannon and his then-spouse that left her with red marks on her right wrist and the right side of her neck.

The woman said she also complained of soreness to her neck. The responding police officer described the woman's eyes as red and watery, saying she appeared to have been crying.

A spokesperson for Bannon told Politico that Bannon had a great relationship with both his ex-wife and their twin daughters. The case was later dismissed. And the president himself had also once faced accusations of domestic abuse.

His first wife, Ivana, alleged in a divorce deposition that Donald Trump had raped her back in 1989. The accusation was first revealed in a 1993 book about Trump, written by a former Newsweek reporter.

Just before publication, Ivana composed a statement for the book saying, I felt violated as the love and tenderness which he normally exhibited towards me was absent. I referred to this as a rape, but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.

After Trump announced his run for the White House, Ivana said the story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends. Donald Trump has always denied the allegations. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Democratic senators are now demanding answers from the White House about Rob Porter's time there. Twelve lawmakers have sent a letter to Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn.

They want to know if the men were aware of the specific allegations against Porter, whether Porter disclosed them on his application for a security clearance, and whether Porter was ever denied a security clearance. .

Joining me now to talk more about these questions, Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California. Congressman, good to see you. Why is it so important to get answers to these questions?

CONG. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Ana, for your question. Let me first say, I believe the President of the United States needs to apologize for suggesting that people who come forward about domestic violence, including porter's ex-wives, are not telling the truth.

[17:10:03] That's exactly the reason more victims don't come forward. And in the case of Porter itself, we need to know if Chief of Staff John Kelly knew about these allegations and continued to defend Porter and praise him.

Not only would that show morally bad judgment, but it would affect his security clearance, and that's a national security issue.

CABRERA: Do you have other questions in addition to the ones I just read?

LIEU: Yes. So I wrote a letter with other members of Congress last week, asking John Kelly what he knew when. And keep in mind, the reason we have security clearances is to prevent blackmail.

So imagine if last year, a foreign power came to Rob Porter and said, we have photos of your ex-wife after you assaulted her. We want you to help her do certain things. What would Rob Porter do? We don't know. But no White House official should ever be placed into that kind of position.

And CNN's reporting is that Porter was having trouble obtaining a security clearance, because of these allegations against him. We're also reporting that between 30 to 40 other White House staffers still don't have full security clearances. Are you aware of exactly which staffers are lacking those full clearances?

LIEU: We are not. That's a great question. That's why I'm writing a letter with Congressman Ruben Gallego and Congressman Don Beyer asking exactly that question.

How many people in the White House currently don't have security clearances and are accessing classified information, which, by the way, is also a crime.

CABRERA: So if a staffer has an interim security clearance, are they allowed to handle classified material?

LIEU: They are, up to a certain level of classification. Politico reports that Rob Porter's interim security clearance actually expired January 15th.

If that is true, and he continued to be given classified information, that would be a crime and the person who gave it to him also engaged in criminal activity. So this is potentially a pretty big scandal.

CABRERA: So that we don't have confirmed independently, what you just mentioned. Politico is reporting. Of course, we'll look into that, as well.

But if somebody with an interim clearance is handling classified material -- again, if they have an interim clearance, people like Jared Kushner, for example, ways the big concern?

LIEU: That's a great question. So Jared Kushner is a very important person. He's a son-in-law of the president. It's been over a year now. If he can't get a permanent security clearance, it's not because the FBI doesn't have enough personnel to look into this.

It's because either they don't trust him or they think he's subject to blackmail or there's some other bad reason. So Jared Kushner really should not be anywhere near classified information.

CABRERA: Let me ask you about the Democratic memo, rebutting allegations of surveillance abuses at the FBI. Speaking of information that is classified, the president announcing on Friday he would not declassify this memo, because it reveals sources and methods, potentially compromises national security.

You tweeted about this saying, and I want to read it, I want to say, what is Trump hiding? But that's disingenuous because I read the Democratic memo and know exactly what Donald Trump is hiding.

Would I want to hide this information from the American people if I was Trump? I don't know how to answer that, because I am innocent. So Congressman, what are you implying the president is hiding?

LIEU: As a former prosecutor, we are trained to look at what's called consciousness of guilt. That's basically, what would a guilty person do that an innocent person would not?

Some of those things include lying, not talking to investigators, trying to obstruct an investigation, and in this case, not releasing a memo that would seriously rebut and undermine the Nunes memo that Donald Trump released earlier. And to me, this is just more evidence of his consciousness of guilt.

CABRERA: Now, White House aide Marc Short says the president supports transparency, but the Democrats intentionally put sources and methods in their memo so that the president couldn't actually release it. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHORT: We're not afraid of transparency and as (Inaudible). What the president said is that we believe that Congressman Schiff intentionally put in there methods and sources that he knew would need to be redacted.

And if we redacted it, there would be an outcry that said the White House is trying to edit it. So we said, take it back, work with the FBI, clean it up, and we'll release it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So Congressman, I know you have read the memo as you pointed out, even though you're not on the Intel Committee. Does it reveal sources and methods?

LIEU: I do not believe it does. And I also agree with Republican member of Congress Justin Amash who has the same opinion I do, which is that it does not endanger national security.

Keep in mind, the president overrode the FBI's objections in releasing the Nunes memo. Why does the president not override the FBI's objections when it comes to the Democratic memo? Again, it goes to consciousness of guilt.

CABRERA: And that's a question we will be asking your fellow GOP Congress members. What are the chances the public ever sees this Democratic memo?

[17:15:00] LIEU: I think the chances are high. I do believe that given what the White House said, that there will be redactions and then a memo will be released.

But those of us in Congress who have read this memo will know what was redacted. And I urge all my colleagues to read the memo, so that they can know what Donald Trump is trying to hide.

CABRERA: Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you very much for your time.

LIEU: Thank you.

CABRERA: Coming up, authorities in Ohio identify a suspect in the gunning down of two police officers responding to a 911 call. And as some North Korean athletes compete in the Winter Olympic Games, we'll show you how the North Korean regime is making sure their athletes don't defect to the South, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Authorities in Ohio just named 30-year-old Quentin Lamar Smith as the suspect in the shooting death of two police officers.

Police say officers Anthony Morelli and Eric Joering were responding to a 911 hang up call when they were shot trying to enter a home in Westerville, Ohio.

[17:20:04] I want to get straight to Kaylee Hartung with the very latest for us. Hi, Kaylee.

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ana. It all began with that 911 call. You could hear a woman crying for just a moment before that call disconnected.

A search of the number by the dispatcher revealed that number belonged to a Candace Smith, the wife of the man now identified as the suspect Quentin Smith.

This wasn't the first time she had called 911 in fear of her husband, so officers quickly responded to what they thought could be a potential domestic situation.

And once they arrived on the scene and came into contact with the suspect, gunfire was almost immediately exchanged. And then Candace Smith called 911 again. She told the dispatcher she was hiding in the bushes outside her home. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is 911, what's your emergency?

CANDACE SMITH, WIFE OF GUNMAN QUENTIN SMITH: Please help. Please help. Please help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's going on?

SMITH: He shot the police officer. Please hurry up. My daughter is in there, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your husband did? Where's your husband now?

SMITH: My daughter is in there, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's your husband?

SMITH: Oh, my god, I don't know. But my daughter's in the house. She's just 1-year-old, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARTUNG: Officer Eric Joering, a 17-year veteran of the police force, he died at the scene while Officer Tony Morelli died at the hospital later in the day. He was a 30-year veteran of the force.

Both men are being remembered as heroes, guys who did their job the right way and gave their lives in protection of others. A GoFundMe page for the two men's families at last check has raised over $180,000.

Now, I mentioned that this wasn't the first time that police responded to the Smith home to investigate domestic violence. Incident reports that we've obtained from the Westerville police department shed some light on the subject, Quentin Smith, and the tumultuous and troubled relationship that he has with his wife, Candace.

In fact, we learned that last year, Candace visited the Westerville Police Department. She was inquiring about getting a protection order against her husband.

She said that anytime she threatened to leave him, he threatened to kill her -- their daughter and himself. And she told police he always had a gun nearby.

CABRERA: Wow. So many questions and so much tragedy within this story. Thank you, Kaylee Hartung, for bringing us the very latest information.

Now Vice President Mike Pence is back in the U.S. today after his trip to the Olympics in South Korea. His attempt to keep North Korea from stealing the show, of course, drowned out by images of the two Koreas coming together as one.

Team Korea, clinching its first gold medal of the games in speed skating, as vice president pence insists there is, quote, no daylight between the U.S. and its allies on North Korea.

Those remarks, despite North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, extending an invitation to South Korea's president to talk diplomacy in Pyongyang.

An invitation that comes as officials in South Korea confirm there was a cyber attack on the games during the opening ceremonies that caused a partial internet blackout. But they still haven't said who may have been behind it.

As some of the athletes from the north and south compete together for the first time as a united team, our Paula Hancocks reports about what the North Korean regime is doing to isolate its athletes and prevent them from defecting while at the games.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Han Seo-hee was part of a North Korean cheering squad. She said she performed for the late leader Kim Jong-il before being chosen to join the group and had extensive training in how to behave when traveling abroad. She defected in 2006. But, Han, said she would not have dared to defect while on an official trip to South Korea.

HAN SEO-HEE, NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR (through a translator): I wouldn't even consider it, she says. It will be the same for the cheerleading squad this time. They have family back home. They know if they defect, their family will be terrified and punished.

HANCOCKS: Support staffs surround the cheering squad, the athletes, the art troupe. One former North Korean police officer who was in charge of surveillance, says intelligence officers would be among them with informant who is report back.

All of the delegation would be under 24/7 surveillance, he says. They wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom alone, informants monitor whom is talking to whom.

At the Olympic Village welcoming ceremony for the North Koreans Thursday, officials CNN spokeswoman, declined to talk about anything beyond the usual pleasantries.

The police chief of the games says North Korea was not allowed to bring its own security. He tells me he's organized a separate field team dedicated to the North Koreans.

LEE CHUL-SUNG, COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL POLICE AGENCY (through a translator): I wouldn't go so far as to say that the athletes are isolated, he says, but they are separated from the other athletes. We will have extra security for them.

HANCOCKS: The North Koreans have taken three floors in the Gangneung athlete's village and they've staked their claim, flying one of the largest flags of any country.

No North Korea will stay alone. All apartments in the athlete's village will house two people or more. The police chief says there will also be South Korean guards permanently outside their living quarters. One way to ensure the security of the North Koreans, house them on the ferry that actually brought them here.

[17:25:03] The athletes' accommodation for the first part of their trip, very difficult to get to close to, and very difficult to disembark undetected. Wherever the North Koreans go, so does the world's media. Han says they were trained in how to deal with that.

SEO-HEE (through a translator): The most important rule is not to speak, she says, when South Korean reporters asked something, we were supposed to remain silent.

Also, we were told not to make eye contact with anyone, which may explain why some in the North Korean delegation do not engage or even smile.

Once home, Han, said there would be a full debrief and a review on how each person represented their country to the outside world. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Pyeongchang, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Coming up in the Newsroom, a sightseeing trip to the Grand Canyon ends in tragedy. What we know, next.

[17:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Just a horrible scene today on the floor of the Grand Canyon. This is the burning wreckage of a helicopter that crashed there last night. It was a tourist helicopter, giving passengers an aerial view of the Grand Canyon.

Six passengers and a pilot were all onboard. Let's bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval staying on top of the details for us. And, Polo, you look at those pictures, really frightening and miraculously, there are survivors.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's incredible when you think about that, Ana. And let's go straight to the survivors in the latest on them, tribal police now confirming that they have all been removed from the scene.

And we also know that all the passengers aboard this helicopter, there were seven total, one pilot, and six passengers. They were all from the U.K., and also within the last hour, Ana, tribal police confirming that the pilot is among those who survived the crash.

That's important here, since this pilot could potentially provide crucial clues for investigators as they try to find out how this sightseeing expedition ended in this fiery wreck. Here's what we can tell you.

This chopper left the Las Vegas area yesterday for one of these very popular sightseeing tours when something went horribly wrong about 5:20 local time and 7:20 eastern, that's when this helicopter plummeted towards the area, resulting in the death of three people, which we now know were the passengers from the U.K. along with the rest of the survivors.

Something else to mention here, after the impact, the worst was not over from the survivors, Ana, because the rescuers who arrived on scene couldn't get help to essentially airlift them because the winds were so high.

Officials saying that there were wind gusts in excess of 50 miles an hour. So it is possible that the weather could have played a role here, because as we have seen and as I have seen in covering these kinds of situations, NTSB officials usually handle these investigations by taking a close look at the man, the machine, and the environment.

The man, of course, the pilot and how he was able to maneuver this aircraft, the machine, did it have any potential mechanical issues, and then the environment, did these heavy winds that kept emergency responders from removing both the dead and the survivors, did that also play a role?

CABRERA: I imagine as they investigate, they'll also be looking at the history of this tour company. What do we know about this?

SANDOVAL: The Papillon Airways, this is a sightseeing airlines that basically describes itself as one of the largest and oldest sightseeing companies in the world. They maintain a large aircraft fleet and provide tours both by ground and by air.

We're told that this was a single engine helicopter, very roomy, quite ample here, a lot of space, transported eight people. And according to its website, it claims that it abides by flight safety regulations and rules established by the federal aviation administration.

So that will now be the job of the FAA. And also, the National Transportation Safety Board to ensure that that actually is the case. And we did find at least one deadly accident that this same company was involved in, back in 2001, and in that case, it was, ultimately, pilot error.

But, again, that was back in 2001. We'll have to see what happens here. And last important point here, tribal police also confirming that at this point, they're going to stop all aerial sightseeing over the Grand Canyon, at least for now, as they try to get to the bottom of exactly what happened yesterday.

CABRERA: Right.

SANDOVAL: And how this should be an incredible experience, ended with tragedy instead.

CABRERA: Polo Sandoval, thank you very much.

SANDOVAL: You bet.

CABRERA: And coming up, another awful air crash today. This one is in Russia. A passenger airliner had just taken off from Moscow when it disappeared from radar today. Rescuers found this wreckage. There were no survivors, 65 passengers and 6 crew members all dead.

The flight data recorder, by the way, has been found, helping investigators find out what caused this crash. Nobody knows yet if weather was a factor in this, but we can tell you this area has had some of the heaviest snowfall recently in decades.

Still ahead, evangelical leaders are asking the president to take action on immigration. We'll hear from a former member of Trump's evangelical advisory board about what might get done.

[17:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Amid the U.S. debate over immigration, deportation, building a wall to separate the U.S. from Mexico comes this. A Mexico-based church is holding its most sacred ceremony in California.

This is a first and 100,000 worshippers are said to be in attendance. CNN's Sara Sidner talked with attendees and discovered differing views on immigration and the wall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basti Lopez is a DACA recipient. Isaac Felix is an American citizen. Both are of Mexican heritage. They came together in San Bernardino to take part in a religious gathering normally held in Guadalajara.

But for the first time ever, the light of the World Church has brought it to the U.S. Faith has brought these two together, but some of their political views couldn't be further apart. Is Donald Trump a good president in your view?

ISAAC FELIX, AMERICAN OF MEXICAN HERITAGE: I believe he is. I believe he is. I believe Donald Trump is actually trying to improve this great country. I believe that, you know, he's doing everything that he can to improve our immigration laws.

SIDNER: From immigration to job creation, for Felix, Mr. Trump's presidency has inspired hope. For Lopez, it's invoked a totally different feeling -- fear.

BASTI LOPEZ, DACA RECIPIENT: When President Trump came in and he started saying all these different things about immigration, there was a fear, all over the United States.

SIDNER: From the president's words to the wall, both say the rhetoric has energized them.

TRUMP: The wall will be a great help, and that it will happen. Believe me.

SIDNER: Are you in agreement with a wall going up on the border...

LOPEZ: I mean...

SIDNER: ... as a priority?

[17:40:00] LOPEZ: Personally, I feel if we look at it economically, I don't think it's the best investment. It's definitely going to cost us a lot of taxes. That's for sure.

FELIX: Like, this is what I want.

SIDNER: Felix says there is absolutely a need for a fence or wall.

FELIX: He wants the wall. I personally have lived -- living in Arizona, I have seen and I have worked at border patrol stations out in remote areas. There is no protection. All they have are the spikes that prevent vehicles from driving through.

SIDNER: But Felix and Lopez can agree on a few things, such as their reaction to the White House chief of staff's comments about DREAMers failing to sign up for DACA.

JOHN KELLY, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The difference between 690 and 1.8 million were the people that some would say were too afraid to sign up. Others would say were too lazy to get off their asses, but they didn't sign up.

SIDNER: What do you think about what he said?

LOPEZ: What I think is that, you know, honestly, I feel that's just very rude to be saying and demonizing people like that.

FELIX: Well, I believe that comment was wrong on the part of Chief of Staff John Kelly. You know, he shouldn't have made that comment.

SIDNER: And when it comes to DREAMers, they, like more than 80 percent of Americans poll are in support of allowing DREAMers to stay in the U.S.

FELIX: You know, we have our -- we have our political disagreements, but one thing that we've been taught is to love one another.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, San Bernardino.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Still ahead, President Trump reacts to allegations of assault by former staffer, Rob Porter. We'll talk to a journalist who interviewed Trump years ago and says she's not surprised by his latest comments, next.

[17:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Donald Trump and women. This is a relationship that's not always easy to quite figure out. Take the tweet everybody's talking about today. People's lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.

Trump tweeted this one day after he defended his senior aide, who was forced to resign amid domestic violence allegations. And the tweet reminds us of a couple of things.

First, Trump has offered similar defenses of men accused of acting badly in the past. Remember Roy Moore of Alabama? And then there's this, from a 1994 interview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: A softness disappeared. There was a great softness to Ivana. And she still has that softness, but during this period of time, she became an executive, not a wife.

NANCY COLLINS, JOURNALIST, INTERVIEWED TRUMP IN 1994: Well, you now are married to a woman and you -- who would like to continue her career. Marla says she does want to have a career.

TRUMP: There's a difference between having a career and working for me.

COLLINS: You have said you don't want Marla to work. You actually said that...

TRUMP: No.

COLLINS: Yes, on the day of the wedding, actually.

TRUMP: I think I'm probably mixed. I have days where I think it's great.

COLLINS: Yes.

TRUMP: And then I have days where I come home -- I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist, but when I come home and dinner is not ready, I go through the roof.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CABRERA: What? I want to bring in Nancy Collins. She is the journalist who did that 1994 interview. I love how you just straight at him, Nancy, and tell it like it is. What do you make of this new tweet from the president defending an accused wife abuser? Is that what you would have expected of him?

COLLINS: Yes. Unfortunately, he's always said inappropriate things about women. But what's new in this part of his life, the anger and the disdain that's attached to it.

In our interview, for instance, he said to me, I tell my friends who treat their wives very well and get treated like crap in return that if you rough them up, it'll make your marriage much better. And I said to him, do you hear what you're saying? And he actually doesn't. And he says, that's what I believe.

CABRERA: He doesn't even realize that that's a questionable statement, at the very least.

COLLINS: Not at all, no. And the irony, too, Ana, is that he loves the image of being a faithful one-woman, one-marriage married guy. Those are the people he admires most.

But I actually believe, by the way, that all this womanizing is highly overrated on his part. This is a guy who's a drastic germaphobe. He used to take four showers a day. Until he ran for president, he didn't let anybody shake his hand.

And as we all know, sex is messy, and I doubt he's going to invite so many unvetted women into his bed. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. But I think he likes the playboy image, the Hugh Hefner, who was his idol when he was growing up.

CABRERA: I want to ask you about that comment we just played, this idea, when I come home at night and dinner's not ready, I go through the roof.

I know there are things like that that he said to you, with at the time, in the '90s, he could kind of get away, I guess. But imagine somebody has his stature, a socialite now, saying those exact words in the spirit of the Me Too movement.

COLLINS: Well I -- now they can't say them at all. And I think what's great about the Me Too movement is women finally have a voice. They can kind of verbally and publicly get even. The thing about Donald -- and here's what's attractive about Donald.

He is fun. When you're with him, he's full of beans. He's got a lot of charisma. He can be fun. I mean that's why world leaders come in and see him, they are surprised.

Personally, he's not the guy who is the public -- his public persona is not who he is personally. That's not an excuse, however. This is a guy who, look, it's all about the mothers. His mother, you know, when he talks about his childhood, it's all about his father. You never hear him mention his mother. CABRERA: Why?

COLLINS: I don't think she was much of a player. I think that -- I think he learned how to treat women from the way his father treated his mother. And I think she was a bit of an afterthought. You know, she's a very interesting woman, she came from Scotland.

[17:50:00] The youngest of ten kids, very hard-scrabble, only got through the eight grade, when she came here, she was a domestic for four years. I mean, that's the real American story, but you never hear him talking that way about her or reminiscing about her like that, so much like kiss and bear.

CABRERA: Nancy Collins, thank you so much for the insight.

COLLINS: You're welcome.

CABRERA: Great to have you on.

COLLINS: Thank you very much.

CABRERA: Great to see you. And coming up, a volatile week for the Dow, a decline not seen since the worst week of 2008, if you can believe it, why and how does this affect you? That's next.

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CABRERA: It was a wild ride on Wall Street this week. Take a look at this. We went from the Dow reaching a historic high, 26,000 points just a couple of weeks ago to declines not seen since the worst week of the 2008 financial crisis.

But keep in mind, the market has been climbing for quite some time, so many analysts had predicted the market was due for a pull back.

[17:55:02] So what does this mean for you and your bottom line? Let's break it down with CNN Money's Cristina Alesci. So, Cristina, what is going on, on Wall Street?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: What's going on is the party is over. It's the end of cheap money and people are -- investors and traders expect interest rates to go up and as a result of that consumers may think twice about buying a new car, buying a new house, companies will likely have to pay more to borrow money, to hire workers.

And in and off itself will potentially have an impact on corporate earnings which are -- which is the foundation of the stock market. And that's why we're seeing the extreme pull back that we've seen.

And just put this into more context, we've seen 2,000 point drops in one weeks. That is the first time in history we have seen that kind of movement. So it's happening fast and hard.

Most people would say, like you pointed out, we were overdue for this kind of movement, right? Stocks don't go up forever, but it's the velocity in which it's happening that's a little bit unnerving. It doesn't mean it's unhealthy. It just means that it was really fast.

CABRERA: So, just to clarify, even though we have unemployment at record lows, consumer confidence, which is obviously up there and now we're hearing wage growth is also happening, that's what's turning investors off?

ALESCI: Yes, so unlike what the president would like us to believe. The stock market sometimes reacts positively to good economic news, but it's also looking forward, it's looking ahead. So it's seeing positive economic news and it's anticipating the fed to raise rates.

And given the good economic news potentially raise rates faster than initially expected, and that will curtail inflation, and so the market is looking ahead in this case and not looking at presently what's going on in the economy and knowing the fed will step in.

You know, as hard and fast as this has been, though, I don't want to overreact to this market move, right, because we needed a correction of some sort.

CABRERA: This is a little bit to be expected as we've mentioned a couple times but, of course, not everybody is invested in the stock market, so people at home maybe asking, why should I care? What's the impact to me? Could this have a ripple affect on everyone?

ALESCI: In terms of psychology perhaps, people look at the stock market and they kind of see it as a gauge of the mood of the market. What are the professionals thinking?

But I don't think that anyone at this point, in terms of the market movement is going to not buy, you know, a car or a house because the market has technically hit a correction this week. So I think it's more of like a psychological thing than anything else right now. So we're going to be keeping a close eye on it.

CABRERA: What about tax reform, because this was the first month in which the tax reform that was half the legislation at the end of last year really kicked in when it comes to out pay checks. Does that have anything to do with this?

ALESCI: That's a really interesting question because tax reform will -- and tax cuts essentially will act as a stimulus to an economy that's already what investors are saying is kind of overheated potentially.

So the question -- the big question is, did we really need this tax cut right now? And I think if you talk to very smart economists what they're saying is, look, you just took a tool out of the tool box, right?

Like if things do go bad and the economy does show signs of weakness, then the fed doesn't have as many tools -- I shouldn't say the fed. But the government doesn't have as many tools to blunt the effects of a potentially weak economy because we've already injected the stimulus. We burned through our fire power, if you will. So that's the danger here. CABRERA: All right, Cristina Alesci, thanks for your take.

ALESCI: Thanks for having me.

CABRERA: Talk about extreme baby cuteness. Take a look at little Lucas Warren, the baby winner of the Gerber's annual spokesbaby of the year contest. And for the first time in the Gerber contest 91-year history, the winner was a child with Down syndrome.

Now Warren was chosen for more than 140, 000 entries to its photo search contest. That means his parents will get a $50,000 prize, and 18-month old Lucas will be featured in Gerber's ads and social media channels throughout the year. Congratulations to Lucas and his family. What a cutie.

You are in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thank you for being here. Breaking news right now, one woman -- the ex-wife of a disgraced former White House staffer is taking on the President of the United States.

She says Donald Trump is calling her a liar and she's not standing for it. I'm talking about Jennie Willoughby, she was married To Rob Porter, who quit his job in the White House this past week, chased out by allegations that he violently abused two of his ex-wives, Willoughby and another woman.

And after Porter's resignation, the president praised him, wished him well and took to Twitter with this. People's live are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.