CNN TO HOST BACK-TO-BACK NIGHTS OF SPECIAL POLITICAL PROGRAMMING MAY 15 AND 16
WASHINGTON, D.C. — May 10 — CNN will host two nights of special primetime political programming on May 15 and 16, focusing on the major issues facing the nation.
Chris Cuomo will host a Town Hall with U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, a key figure in leading the Democratic opposition against President Donald Trump’s agenda, on Monday, May 15 at 9 p.m. ET.
Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate a Town Hall Debate featuring Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Ohio Governor John Kasich at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 16. Sanders and Kasich were finalists for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations in 2016.
Less than two weeks after House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, and with tax reform a top priority for President Trump, Pelosi and then Sanders and Kasich will discuss and debate these and other issues before live studio audiences.
Both primetime events will air on CNN, CNN en Español, CNN International, CNNgo, Westwood One Radio Network and on CNN Channel 116 on Sirius XM.
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Transcript: CNN Presidential Town Hall: America's Military and The Commander and Chief
CNN’s Jake Tapper sat down with President Obama in Fort Lee, Virginia, home of the Combined Arms Support Command, for a CNN Presidential Town Hall to discuss veterans, national security and foreign policy issues impacting the US Military.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED
JAKE TAPPER, HOST : Good evening from Fort Lee in Virginia. We are coming to you from this U.S. Army installation for a crucial conversation with the military and the commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, about some of the most pressing issues facing the United States today, our national security, our leadership abroad, the service of more than 2 million troops in our active and reserve forces, and the condition of our more than 20 million veterans.
These exceptional men and women comprise the finest military force in the world, bravely tackling a host of challenges from conventional threats abroad to helping prevent terror from coming to our shores. Yet, it is a critical time for the military. With unresolved debate over size and scope and mandate, and the role of women in armed forces, and the treatment of veterans, who often come home only to feel as though they are still at war. FULL POST
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CNN to Host Town Hall with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on July 12
EXCLUSIVE ONE-HOUR EVENT WILL BE HOSTED BY CNN ANCHOR JAKE TAPPER
CNN will host an exclusive one-hour town hall with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan at 9pm ET on Tuesday, July 12 in New York City just days before the Republican National Convention.
Speaker Ryan will field questions from Tapper and audience members regarding the current state of the Republican Party, the House GOP policy agenda and his strategy to keep the House come November.
The event will air on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Espanol, and will be live-streamed online and across mobile devices via CNNgo.
Senator Johnson on ISIS getting a hold of nuclear weapons “Our critical infrastructure is vulnerable… It’s highly concerning”
Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), joined anchor, Jake Tapper to discuss ISIS, Brussels and more.
For more information, see http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/. Also, text highlights and a transcript of the discussion are below.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Contacts: Lauren Pratapas — Lauren.Pratapas@turner.com; Brooke Lorenz- Brooke.Lorenz@turner.com
CNN STORY: Ron Johnson on ISIS: 'Our critical infrastructure is vulnerable’
TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
Johnson on the possibility of ISIS accessing a nuclear plant: [TAPPER] “Are you at all concerned that ISIS could infiltrate a nuclear plant in Europe? Or is that just too far afield, do you think? [JOHNSON] “No, no, I'm highly concerned about that, but not only in Europe. Look at the attack on the Metcalf power station in California. We have not solved that. That is a very disconcerting chain of events here. So, trust me, our critical infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber-attack, to potential terrorist attack. And we're not taking this threat seriously enough. It's highly concerning.”
Johnson on the threat of another ISIS attack in Europe: “Well, we're being told there are no specific, credible threats. And I have to believe the officials. And it would make sense that there are probably more plots being hatched in Europe as we speak. Europe obviously is in greater danger. They're in closer proximity to the Middle East. We're seeing this surge of refugees. We now know that a couple of those terrorists came into Europe with that refugee flow. So what we're unraveling or what the officials in Europe are unraveling are these cells and these plots. And, unfortunately, this is exactly what Islamic terrorists are trying to sow, what you're seeing in Brussels today, the type of civil unrest. They're trying to destabilize different countries. And they're doing a pretty good job of it.
Johnson on his strategy to defeat ISIS: “We need to just have a more robust effort. We need to assemble that coalition of the willing. And the reason we haven't assembled them is because we have not shown the leadership. President Obama took off the table that - the same day that he declared the goal, he basically took off the table the very ingredient that was going to be necessary. And that's American troops on the ground. Now, I don't think we have to have that many of them. We haven't heard out of this administration a real strategy for defeating ISIS. But we actually have to show the leadership, so that the coalition of the willing will actually assemble around us. And let's face it. I think Europe is probably a little bit more primed to really join that coalition. This has got to be a long-term effort. The historic blunder of President Obama was leaving Iraq. After all the sacrifice, after the stabilization of the Iraq, we bugged out. And as a result, that coalition disintegrated, and ISIS was able to rise from the ashes of what was a defeated al Qaeda in Iraq. We have to learn the lessons of histories. We have to be relentless in our pursuit of stamping out Islamic terror.”
Johnson on using torture as an interrogation technique: [TAPPER] “…Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, said this week he would have talked a lot faster with the torture. Do you agree?” [JOHNSON] “What we really need to do - and I have been down to Guantanamo Bay and I have talked to the people that do the interviews. And the way you actually gather intelligence that's effective is over a long period of time. And what this administration has done, in their quest to close down Guantanamo Bay, we stopped capturing, detaining and questioning Islamic terrorists. Now, we're doing some of that. We're starting to capture some of the Islamic terrorists, some of the ISIS operatives. Fortunately, we captured one that was a former Iraqi chemical weapons expert. And that individual apparently started to sing like a canary. So, we were able to take out some of those installations. But we need a long-term facility for long-term detention. And that's really how you gather intelligence, is capturing people, detaining them, and interviewing them over a long period of time, finding discrepancies between themselves - between their own testimony and that of their fellow operatives.”
FULL POST
Senator Bernie Sanders: "A lot of these super delegates may rethink their position"
Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), joined anchor, Jake Tapper to discuss Western Saturday, Clooney’s Clinton fundraiser and more.
For more information, see http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/. Also, text highlights and a transcript of the discussion are below.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Contacts: Lauren Pratapas — Lauren.Pratapas@turner.com; 202.465.6666; Brooke Lorenz- Brooke.Lorenz@turner.com
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS:
Sanders: Clooney fundraiser is 'obscene'
CNN STORY: Bernie Sanders: 'I think we know who ISIS is’
TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
Sanders on his path to victory: “As you have just indicated, the last five - we have won the last five out of six contests, all of them in landslide victories. What we have said from day one is, the South is the most conservative part of America. We did not do well there. Secretary Clinton gained a lot of delegates. No debate about that….. I think the momentum is with us. A lot of these superdelegates may rethink their position with Hillary Clinton. A have not yet declared. And then you have got superdelegates who are in states where we win by 40 or 50 points. I think their own constituents are going to say to them, hey, why don't you support the people of our state, vote for Sanders?”
Sanders on potentially endorsing Clinton: [TAPPER] “So, Senator, you were asked this week what it would take for you to get behind Hillary Clinton if she were to get the nomination. You laid out five specific demands. One of them was single-payer health care. If Clinton wins the nomination, but refuses to endorse Medicare for all, you would refuse to support her?” [SANDERS] “No, I don't think we have ever framed things in that sense. What we obvious - first of all, I don't want to talk about, you know. what happens if we lose. We are in this race to win, Jake. And the reason that we have the kind of momentum that we have is, we're talking about not what media gotcha the questions are about. We're talking about the real issues impacting the American people…. I have a lot of respect for Secretary Clinton. I have known for her 25 years. We will see what happens at the end of the process, but, right now, our function and our goal - and we're working hard at it - we think we can succeed. And that is to win the Democratic nomination.”
Sanders on the war on ISIS: Well, it goes without saying that, when you have attacks that take place, when 30 people get killed in Brussels, something went wrong. This is not a criticism of the intelligence agencies. But we have got to improve our efforts to make sure that it doesn't happen again…… Obviously, you want to prevent those attacks before they take place. I think we know who ISIS is. We know those people who are planning against our European allies and against ourselves. And we have got to do everything we can to destroy them. Look, this ISIS is a barbaric organization. I agree with King Abdullah of Jordan, who said many months ago that the fight going on there is a fight for the soul of Islam. And at the end of the day, it will be Muslim troops on the ground - and we're beginning to see some success there - that destroy ISIS, with the support of the United States, the U.K., France, Russia, et cetera. But the real battle has got to be fought on the ground by Muslims nations. I will do everything that I can to make sure that the United States does not get sucked into perpetual warfare in the Middle East. One of the big differences between Secretary Clinton and myself, I voted against the war in Iraq. She supported that war."
Bernie on Clooney fundraiser for Clinton: “It is obscene that Secretary Clinton keeps going to big money people to fund her campaign. But it's not only this Clooney event. It is the fact that she has now raised well over $15 million from Wall Street for her super PAC and millions more from the fossil fuel industry and from the drug companies. We have, on the other hand, received six million individual campaign contributions, a record number in American history, averaging $27 a piece. So, I think what we're trying to do is run a campaign, to paraphrase - paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, of the people, by the people and for the people, not just reaching out to billionaires and the wealthiest people in this country. That's really a cancer on American politics. We have got to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. I believe, Jake, that we should move to public funding of elections…. Look, the point is - now, I have a lot of respect for George Clooney. He's a great actor. I like him. But this is the point. This is the problem with American politics, is that big money is dominating our political system. And we are trying to move as far away from that as we can. So, if you have an event - you know, we have events too. And our events, we charge $15 or $50 for people to come. So, it's not a criticism of Clooney. It's a criticism of a corrupt finance system where big money interests - and it's not Clooney - it's the people who are coming to this event - have undue influence over the political process.”
FULL POST
Kasich: "I really don't watch Trump rallies. I don't watch the news. I basically watch the Golf Channel when I'm traveling, believe it or not, but when I saw the violence in Chicago, I just had enough"
Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Governor John Kasich (R-OH), GOP presidential candidate, joined anchor, Jake Tapper to discuss Trump’s rallies and the Ohio primary.
For more information, see http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/. Also, text highlights and a transcript of the discussion are below.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Contacts: Lauren Pratapas — Lauren.Pratapas@turner.com; 202.465.6666; Zachary Lilly – Zachary.Lilly@turner.com; Brooke Lorenz- Brooke.Lorenz@turner.com
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
State of the Union: Gov. John Kasich full interview
TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
Kasich on the state of Trump’s rallies: “Well, there's no question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere pitting one group against another and name calling and all those kinds of things. Now, I think there are people that would go to a rally who would look to disrupt, but, look, the environment is there, and he needs to back off of this and start being more aspirational, telling people we can get it together…Well, Jake, look, in those debates I hear this and that, but it took me to see on Friday night what was happening at that arena. I mean, I really don't watch Trump rallies. I don't watch the news. I basically watch the Golf Channel when I'm traveling, believe it or not, but when I saw the violence in Chicago, I just had enough. And you might recall, it was in the third debate where I started saying that Trump was dividing us.”
Kasich on NAFTA and free trade: “I think that NAFTA has basically been a wash. I don't think we can walk away from free trade, but we have to be for fair trade. And what I've said is when countries violate our trade agreements, we need to have an expedited process to hold them accountable and protect the jobs of the American worker. In 2001, I helped the steel companies achieve a 201 which was basically a trade block to let the companies be stronger and get together. I have been a free trader, but I have been a fair trader, and if you go back and talk to my colleagues in congress they will tell you that. But we're not going to lock the doors or pull down the blinds and let the rest of the world go away. There's 38 million people who have jobs connected to trade.”
Kasich on the race in Florida and Ohio: [TAPPER]: “So Rubio seeming to encourage his supporters in Ohio to back you, but you're not encouraging your supporters in Florida to back him. Why not?”
[KASICH]: “Well, Jake, I mean, my people aren't like robots where go do this, go do that. I mean, I'm not really campaigning in Florida. I tried to actually call Marco last night to wish him good luck. I couldn't get through to him. But, look, at the end of the day how do you tell your people that are for you to go vote for somebody else? And after all, I'm not into a stop Trump as more as I am be for Kasich movement. Reward me for the experience in foreign affairs, reward me for the achievements I have had in balancing budgets and creating an environment for job creation both in the country and in Ohio. Reward me for that, for cutting taxes for having wages grow faster than the national average. Those are the things that I want people to think about as opposed to be against that person. I'm just trying to be be for me. I have run an unwaveringly positive campaign since I got in this and some of the time I operated in total obscurity.”
Rubio on the possibility of Trump violence turning deadly: “I'm very concerned about that...we don't know what's going to happen next”
Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), GOP presidential candidate, joined anchor, Jake Tapper to discuss Trump’s rallies and the Florida primary.
For more information, see http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/. Also, text highlights and a transcript of the discussion are below.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Contacts: Lauren Pratapas — Lauren.Pratapas@turner.com; 202.465.6666; Zachary Lilly – Zachary.Lilly@turner.com; Brooke Lorenz- Brooke.Lorenz@turner.com
CNN POLITICS STORY
Rubio: It's 'harder every day to justify' backing Trump
Rubio: Someone could die at Trump rally
TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
Rubio on the state of Trump rallies: “Look, some of these protesters that you saw in Chicago obviously were maybe organized, maybe even paid to disrupt an event, so I'm not excusing their behavior but these are not just the protesters in Chicago. This is now multiple rallies where people are assaulted and beat up, where a guy gets sucker punched by one of the Trump supporters, and then instead of condemning it, Trump is silent. When the guy is released from jail he says maybe next time maybe we should kill the protester, again there's silence. Then he goes on stage and makes things up. He keeps telling this story about a general who bullets in pig blood and shot a bunch of prisoners - Muslim prisoners. Not only is it outrageous, it's a lie. And then he claims that the guy that stormed the stage had links to ISIS. I mean, he has turned the most important election in a generation into a circus, into a complete fiasco and a carnival. And this country deserves better. I mean, at some point people have to wake up here. This is really going to do damage to America… I mean, all the rules that once governed our discourse have been blown away and we're headed in a very dangerous direction. And, yes, there are people out there that are unbalanced. There are people out there that do not have control of themselves. We don't know what they will do.”
Rubio on his concern that someone could die at a Trump rally: [TAPPER]: “Would I be overstating matters if I said you sound like you're actually concerned that somebody before this is all over, somebody might lose their life?”
[RUBIO]: “I'm very concerned about that. I'm very concerned - we don't know what's going to happen next here. I know that we have reached the point now where people in American politics have decided that if they don't agree with you, that they can get angry at you, that you're a bad and evil person, that they can say anything they want about you.”
Rubio on whether or not he could vote for Trump: Let me tell you that I think a significant number of Republicans will not vote for Donald Trump at the voting booth no matter what I say or anybody else tells them, they just won't do it. They'll abstain. And, you know, I have never argued that anybody should abstain in an election and I need to lead by example…It's getting harder… Yeah, but I'll be frank, it's getting harder every day to justify that answer. And I'm not prepared to say something different today other than to tell you that I hope we can avoid that. I hope that through this process somehow, some way we can avoid leaving the Republican Party with a nominee that basically people have to make excuses for or can't ultimately support. I know already some public officials have said that. And I don't know what else to tell you other than, you know, it's getting harder every day to justify that statement to myself, to my children, to my family, and to the people who support me.”
Rubio on the Florida primary and his path forward: “My intention is to run for president and as I said before to campaign in all 50 states and territories until either someone gets the delegates to be the nominee or this process ends. That's our intention. It continues to be. We're scheduled to be in Utah on Wednesday morning and that's where we're going to be. I intend to win Florida. It's a tough fight. Look, I mean, we're experiencing in Florid what the country is seeing, which is a very unusual election cycle. And I can tell you this - the only one that can beat Donald Trump in Florida is me... So, this notion that somehow it's now a two-man race and these two have the inside track is just fiction, and I know it's convenient for their narrative, but it's just not accurate.”
Sanders: “We are going to stay in this campaign to the convention in July”
Today on CNN’s State of the Union, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Democratic presidential candidate, joined CNN’s Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, to discuss Trump, the 2016 presidential election and more.
For more information, see http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/. Also, text highlights and a transcript of the discussion are below.
MANDATORY CREDIT: CNN’s “State of the Union”
Contacts: Lauren Pratapas — Lauren.Pratapas@turner.com; 202.465.6666; Zachary Lilly – Zachary.Lilly@turner.com; Brooke Lorenz- Brooke.Lorenz@turner.com
VIDEO: Sen. Bernie Sanders on State of the Union: Full Interview
CNN POLITICS STORY: Bernie Sanders says his policies aren't 'fantasy'
TEXT HIGHLIGHTS
Sanders on support in states with more racial diversity: “Well, for a start, Dana, what we are seeing in many cases is not just a racial divide, but a generational divide. We are doing better and better with younger people, whether they're black, Latino or white. Our numbers are getting better and better. In general, our numbers are getting better. Truth is, we have not done well in the Deep South. But I am - I am absolutely certain that our numbers will continue to get better. And what we have done, based on yesterday, at this point, we have now won seven primaries and caucuses all across this country, all with double-digit victories.”
Sanders on Trump: “We won with 67 percent of the vote in Kansas. If the turnout is high in Maine today, I think we have a good chance of winning there as well. So I think we're showing strength all across this country. And as the blurb you just played showed, we are doing better against Trump than Hillary Clinton is. I think there was a poll that came out today having us beat Trump in Michigan by 22 points. So if Democrats want the strongest candidate to defeat Trump, I think you're looking at him.
Sanders on his path to victory: “We have made enormous progress over the last 10 months. We have now 5 million individual contributions, campaign contributions. We don't have a super PAC. BernieSanders.com is doing fantastically well in raising money from ordinary Americans. We are going to stay in this campaign to the convention in July. Every state has the right to vote for the candidate of their choice…… BASH: No, senator, but will you do that even if Secretary Clinton gets the number of delegates needed in the contests before the convention? [SANDERS] Dana, you are - you are speculating. I don't think that's going to happen. I think that we have a lot of strength in very large states all across this country. I think we're going to do very well in New York State. I think we have a good chance of winning throughout the West Coast in California, state of Washington, Oregon. I think our message of a corrupt campaign finance system which has to be changed, a rigged economy where almost all new income and wealth is going to the top one percent, that is resonating all over this country. So I don't want to speculate as to what happens tomorrow or three weeks from now. We think we have momentum, and we think we're going to do just fine.”
Sanders responds to Clinton claiming he lacks a credible strategy: “I believe that the United States should join every other industrialized country on earth in guaranteeing health care to all people. Is that fantasy? If every - if Canada can do it, the U.K. can do it, France can do it - you know what? I don't think it's fantasy to say that we can do it in the United States. Is it fantasy to say that our young people should be able to go to college regardless of their income as we establish free tuition at public colleges and universities? Well, Germany has that. Scandinavia has that. Countries all over the world have that. Is it fantasy to say that we should end the obscene level of income and wealth inequality with the 20 wealthiest people in this country, now wealth from the bottom 50 percent? All of that may be fantasy to the ruling class and the big-money interests in this country. I don't think that's fantasy to the working people in this country who are work longer hours for lower wages who are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics…”
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