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El Chapo Recaptured; Protests in Germany Over New Year's Eve Assaults; Powerball Craze; Will Obama's Gun Moves Face a Legal Challenge?; Billionaire Glenn Hutchins: A Lesson in Economics. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 9, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:03] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 4:00 Eastern, 1:00 p.m. Pacific. You're in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

A sigh of relief south of the border today when the president of Mexico said these words, "mission accomplished, we have him."

They are talking about this man, one of the most wanted fugitives in all of North America, Joaquin Guzman, known by his drug lord nickname El Chapo. He is back behind bars right now, finally recaptured after a brazen prison escape six months ago.

Mexican special forces tracked him down to his home state where people loyal to him were providing him shelter and protection. It was not exactly a quick and clean arrest. At least five of El Chapo's associates died in that shootout with police. Guzman himself escaped through a sewer.

CNN's Nick Valencia outside the prison in Mexico City where El Chapo is once again locked up. Nick, this is huge, this is also the same prison where he escaped from in July, and you can't make this stuff up, the story about what led them to him finally. What was it?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely not, and it appears it was his own ego and his intention of trying to make a biopic that may have tipped off authorities to his whereabouts, or at least aided in the discovery of El Chapo's whereabouts.

We understand the home was under surveillance for quite some time, but El Chapo had recently reached out to some producers and actors to make a film about his escape from this very same prison that's behind us, the (INAUDIBLE), maximum security prison. I spoke earlier to a Mexican law enforcement source who tells me that El Chapo is back in this (INAUDIBLE) prison, heavily watched, 24-hour surveillance, guarded extremely well, according to this official. They don't want to take another chance of El Chapo escaping from this prison again, Poppy.

It was an extremely embarrassing moment in the presidency of Enrique (INAUDIBLE), only for him to strike a much different tone, as you talked about, one of pride, one that said this removes the stain on his legacy as a president, and now it appears that El Chapo may very well be extradited, that of course is a huge question, a lot of people are asking here, Poppy.

HARLOW: No question whether he will be or not, because the United States not happy at all. Previously when he was captured with the help of U.S. special forces, the FBI, et cetera, and not extradited, what's the likelihood, Nick, realistically that Mexico will say, all right, he can go to the United States and face charges there?

VALENCIA: Sure, I spoke to a senior law enforcement official, a Mexican senior law enforcement official who tells me it is very likely, but won't happen any time soon. They were unwilling to give me a timeline on exactly when they believe El Chapo will be extradited, but this really is a significant step in the drug war here in Mexico and its significant and symbolic step and gesture between the Mexican government and U.S. government.

We have recently seen in recent weeks and months high profile operatives, cartel members that were extradited to the United States. We have (INAUDIBLE) in a federal court room just this week in Atlanta, and now it appears that El Chapo, the most notorious drug trafficker of them all, will very likely be extradited.

Of course, there are people who have their suspicions, a lot of people raising their eyebrows that he's back in the very same prison, many people think that he might escape again, but Mexican officials that we have spoken to, Poppy, assure us that that won't be the case this time around. It would be too big of an embarrassment for him to escape a third time in the history of this most notorious drug trafficker. Poppy?

HARLOW: No question. All right. Nick Valencia live for us today in Mexico City. Thank you so much for that.

Turning now to presidential politics and a new poll from Fox News showing Hillary Clinton trailing three leading Republican contenders in a hypothetical general election matchup. Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz performing best against Clinton. Rubio has a nine-point advantage over her, Cruz with seven points, Donald Trump topping Clinton, as well, by three points, Jeb Bush tying her at 44 percent.

All of the Republican candidates, of all of them, Trump has launched the most personal attacks on Clinton, specifically going after her husband, former president Bill Clinton and his past infidelity, notably with Monica Lewinsky. Here's one example in an Instagram ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights once and for all. Let's keep fighting for opportunity and dignity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining me now, CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza. Ryan, you wrote a piece, a fascinating piece this week for the "New Yorker" called "A Lunar Theory of Bill Clinton." Let me read part of that you write. "Bill's unique political assets are like the phases of the moon. Sometimes they have shown brightly and bathed Hillary in a warm glow, at other times they have cast her campaign into darkness." We all remember 2008. Where are we in the lunar Clinton cycle now?

[16:05:05]

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think right now he's like a super blood moon. I mean, his popularity, frankly, is very high, and his approval rating or favorability rating is up in the 6, depending on the poll, in the 60s, low 60s to mid 60s. There's not a single politician out there, the ones that we cover every day running for president that approaches that kind of approval.

Now, part of that is he's been out of the fray for a while now that he's back in the fray you have to expect those numbers to go down, but Bill Clinton is popular, and that certainly is extremely popular among Democrats. So right now he is a huge asset to Hillary Clinton. He also started the 2008 campaign as a huge asset to Hillary Clinton -

HARLOW: Right.

LIZZA: He was very popular, and we know what happened there. He's, you know, blamed by a lot of Democrats for messing up her campaign in 2008 and going after Obama in a way that really strayed from the core Hillary Clinton campaign strategy.

HARLOW: Right, right. I was going to say - go ahead.

LIZZA: He's been in politics since the '70s, and he has been, you know, declared politically dead more times than one can imagine, and I expect we'll go through a few lunar phases this year.

HARLOW: When you think back to South Carolina, for example, in 2008 and what happened with Bill Clinton there, just one example.

LIZZA: Yes.

HARLOW: Let's talk about their child, Chelsea Clinton, right. So she's hitting the campaign trail this week, she's going to be in New Hampshire on Tuesday. She's interestingly really good friends with Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump. And that's part of what we talked about when I sat down to interview Ivanka back in October. Listen.

LIZZA: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: You are very good friends with Chelsea Clinton and she gave a recent interview, and she said "I love Ivanka and she said that both of your parents running potentially against each other in the general election has not affected your friendship." How do you guys navigate that? Do you not talk politics? Do you talk kids?

IVANKA TRUMP, EXEC. VP, DEVELOPMENT & ACQUISITIONS, THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION: It has not been an issue for us. I have great respect for her, she's been a great friend to me, I've been a great friend to her. The politics of our parents is not relevant to our friendship.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Politics of parents not relevant to our friendship. When you look at Ivanka Trump as a surrogate and you look at Chelsea Clinton as a surrogate, what does it mean that she's hitting the trail this week?

LIZZA: Well, I think - look, they are children of politicians, nobody holds their parents' views against them if you disagree with their parents, so it's mostly upside when the kids go out there and campaign for the parents, but I have to wonder if that relationship won't be tested considering the things that Donald Trump is saying about Bill right now.

I noticed one of the rallies, I was watching Trump in a few rallies over the last few weeks and Trump actually mentions Ivanka and Chelsea, he alluded to that relationship and sort of, you know, he was going back and forth between hitting the Clintons and saying, but I used to be friends with them and he was sort of noting that the kids are friends and they've got this history.

Remember, the Clintons were at Donald Trump's last wedding, his third - I don't know if they were at the first two, but they were at the third.

HARLOW: Right. Before I let you go, you were on the trail this week, right, you were on the trail covering Ted Cruz a bit this week in Iowa, and, you know, it's interesting when you look at things and you look at this new poll it shows him still leading Trump in Iowa, over three weeks away from the caucuses.

If Cruz wins Iowa, is he banking that being the anti-Trump candidate will carry him all the way to the nomination?

LIZZA: I think so. I mean, look, he's got a difficult road here. He's doing Iowa the old fashioned way, he's doing four or five events a day out there, deep organizing in the states, he's got the endorsements of key conservative leaders out there. Trump is doing it differently, popping in doing big rallies, not doing bus tours or anything like that, he's not on the ground, and so for Trump to beat him, a lot of new people are going to have to show up in Iowa. Cruz is likely to get the Iowa regulars.

If Cruz wins, depending on the margin, he may take Trump out of this race. Trump has been declaring he's going to win Iowa for so long and expectations are so high, that may be it for Donald Trump. Things will move to New Hampshire, and New Hampshire's a very different electorate, you have independents, you have more moderate Republicans there, it's not a state tailor made for Ted Cruz.

HARLOW: No, he's third, he's behind Rubio and Trump significantly there.

LIZZA: Yes. Now things change, right, when people in New Hampshire see the results in Iowa, that may affect their vote one way or another. Obama won Iowa and then a lot of people in New Hampshire said wait a second, if he wins New Hampshire, this whole thing may be over, maybe we want to slow it down.

[16:10:00]

So people vote strategically, they really - in that final week a lot can change, so Donald Trump could get knocked out or it can be very close. What happens if Cruz and Trump are neck and neck? And it's only a point? Then the two of them come into New Hampshire and maybe it's a Cruz-Trump race and Christie and Rubio and those guys don't get a second look. You have to take into account that possibility, as well.

HARLOW: No lack of excitement in this one, right, Ryan Lizza?

LIZZA: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Thank you very much, as always. Appreciate it.

LIZZA: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Coming up next I want to take you overseas.

A day of protests and, frankly, rage in Cologne, Germany.

This is the number of criminal complaints jumps dramatically followed a New Year's celebration marred by sexual assaults. Not every one who took to the streets is on the same side. We're going to break this down with a live report, next.

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HARLOW: More than one week after a series of mass sexual assaults and muggings were reported in Cologne, Germany, once again you're seeing protesters on the streets tonight.

Some of them protesting violence against women, some groups on the right protesting in anger over the country's refugee policy. More than half of the sexual assaults suspected, no suspects have been identified so far asylum seekers.

CNN's Atika Shubert is in the middle of the demonstrations all evening, she takes a look at how it unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, today it's a day of protests here in Cologne, this is the first one to kick it off, solidarity from both women and men who live here in Cologne who want to protest against these apparently dozens of assaults of women right here in this square on New Year's Eve.

Take a listen to what some of the protesters have said about why they came here today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (through translator): I want to keep our space. I don't want to give it to someone else. I have daughters. I may not be young anymore, but I don't want anything to happen to them. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We have to be loud. Do

what these women are doing right now. If someone comes up and touches a woman, she should point the finger at them and stand up so other people can come help her.

SHUBERT: An outpouring of solidarity, but this is only the first protest of the day.

[16:15:00]

(on camera): Following alongside with the (INAUDIBLE) protest, the right wing protest here, and police have just announced to them that they won't be allowed to wear any face coverings, any masks, and that they must stop firing these fire crackers, these fireworks, as they march along.

As you can see, the numbers are much smaller here, just about several hundred, 300 or so according to police estimates, that's much smaller than the 1,300 on the left protest on the other side of the train station. But there is heavy, heavy security. Riot police in place here to keep the two groups apart, to keep them from clashing.

There's been a few scuffles with police and they have now brought in, I'm going to pull you around here to take a look. Sorry, there's some bottles being thrown here at the moment, so we might have to move back. That as you can see over there, that blue truck is a water cannon. It's being put into position now. That is a fire cracker, they've been letting these fire crackers off all day.

It is one way for these protesters to cause chaos and disorder, to intimidate people. But really it's just a loud sound, it's not really a danger to anybody nearby at this point, but it also allows them to scuffle with police a bit, cause some disorder, push forward and so forth.

As you can see, demonstrations from both the left wing and the right wing have now died down, many have gone home. Riot police are here just really as a precaution, they've taken off their helmets, but it was a very tense few hours there in Cologne and in the days ahead this is the challenge for police and authorities, to try and deal with that public anger about those mass assaults that happened here on New Year's Eve.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Cologne.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Atika, thank you very much.

Also, in Iran. A new development. CNN has obtained radar footage of an Iranian missile coming dangerously close to a U.S. warship. This is an incident that happened the day after Christmas in the Strait of Hormuz. The radar showing an Iranian rocket coming about 1,500 yards of the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Harry Truman. At the time the Iranian military was conducting a live fire exercise. U.S. military officials said the Iranians did not appear to be targeting any specific ships, this was just an exercise, but for the first time we're seeing it play out on video released from the U.S. Navy.

Just ahead, all of you are going crazy for Powerball, no question about it, with the jackpot now nearing $1 billion. That's right, it just went up another $100 million. We'll speak live with this man, lottery executive, about the method behind the madness.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:30]

HARLOW: $900 million. You know that number, you've bought your ticket. We're talking about the lotto. No U.S. lottery has ever come even close to nearly a billion dollars until, well, today. It would be Powerball winners lined up in stores across this country hoping they might win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Take care of my family, that's number one priority, moving everybody out of the rough neighborhood we stay in. That's number one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're all optimistic that any one of us could win at any time with any number, and why not me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Why not me, right? I think she's got a good point. As luck would have it, many people in Missouri right now temporarily shut out from buying tickets. Snow on satellite dishes has taken the system offline in 89 different places in Missouri, so how does a lottery like Powerball actually work?

What determines your payouts? Why was it $800 million yesterday and $100 million more today? Gary Grief is with me. He is the chair of the Powerball Game Group. He's the executive director of the Texas lottery. Thank you for being with me.

GARY GRIEF, CHAIR, POWERBALL GAME GROUP: My pleasure, Poppy.

HARLOW: I am fascinated by sort of how you determine, because you were telling me earlier it might go up to a billion before the drawing. Can you just walk us through what goes into the formula?

GRIEF: Well, let me give you some facts and figures to kind of give you some background. Yesterday alone across the country we sold more than $277 million worth of Powerball tickets. Now by the time we quit selling tonight, just today more than $400 million in Powerball tickets will be sold.

Right before we got on air, Poppy, I checked our latest statistics, we're selling more than $700,000 in Powerball tickets every minute throughout the country. So our players are so excited about this $900 million jackpot.

Those of us that work in the industry, we are just as excited, because 40 cents of every dollar goes to great causes throughout the country. Things like college scholarships, public education, helping our veterans, so when people play Powerball for this great $900 million jackpot, Poppy, everybody's winning.

HARLOW: Yes, including Uncle Sam, because they are going to get a big tax bill in the mail, as well. What happens if no one wins tonight?

GRIEF: Oh, if no one wins tonight, it's a word I've tried not to use for a long time and that's the "b" word, but we've put it out there, Poppy. If no one wins tonight, we're going to roll this jackpot to $1.3 billion, but let me tell you, that is a guesstimate on our part, because we've never been in these waters before. We don't know what sales might be at that point. But that's a reasonable conservative estimate that we've come up with and I think it's one that certainly caught everybody's attention.

HARLOW: So I sort of took it, Gary, the easy route, because I just sort of ask for five tickets, they printed it out, gave it to me, and the woman after I bought mine came in and she had this whole list of numbers, she spent a lot of time thinking of, her lucky number. Do you guys know in the past if most winners have had a random selection of the numbers or have chosen their numbers?

GRIEF: Well, most players go the quick pick route, more than 90 percent of players choose quick picks, so the math tells us more than 90 percent of our winners have chosen quick pick, as well. But I love to hear stories about players picking their own numbers. That's part of the fun. We know the odds are long of winning the jackpot prize, but where people really see some value is they put down $2 for a Powerball ticket, then they sit back and they dream about what might happen if they are the lucky winner of that $900 million. I'd say that's worth a couple of dollars right there.

HARLOW: I think you're right. I do not disagree with you, sir. Thank you so much. Have fun tonight, the drawing is at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Tickets stop being sold at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you, Gary.

GRIEF: Thank you, good luck to everyone.

HARLOW: Good luck, everyone.

[16:25:00]

Gun owners reacted with strong words after President Obama's town hall on guns right here on CNN. My next guest is a former police officer. He owns a shooting range and he says that schools should consider gun safety education. We'll talk about that more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Gun owners and enthusiasts gathered around a major television screen in a small Florida town. They watched President Obama on CNN discussing his executive action on guns this week. Our Gary Tuchman was there. Here's his report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Okeechobee Shooting Sports Range in Okeechobee, Florida, they shoot before the sun goes down.

And after it sets, we join people who fire guns here in front of the TV in the range store to see what they will think about what President Obama says during the CNN town hall meeting.

(on camera): How many of you think it's a good idea that Barack Obama took executive action? Pretty silent here. None of you happy about it?

(voice-over): The president will have to do some convincing.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: What can you say to somebody tonight to convince them that you don't want to take away everybody's guns and you're not coming for their guns?

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, Anderson, I think it's useful to keep in mind I've been now president for over seven years. The conversation has to be based on facts and truth.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: That would be great!

TUCHMAN: As early as the one commercial break, it was clear the president wasn't going to convince this group of much.

KEN LEMOINE, GUN RIGHTS SUPPORTER: I think he's just lying to the nation to allow for his agenda.

TUCHMAN (on camera): What do you think his agenda is?

LEMOINE: To keep on infringing on our second amendment rights.

TUCHMAN: What President Obama is saying is that by taking executive actions, that he will make this country safer. Won't be able to eliminate all tragic shootings, but maybe some. Do you not believe that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I don't believe that by taking executive action and being a bully over the existing legislative process is going to provide any resolution like he seeks.

[16:30:08] TUCHMAN (voice-over): After the commercial break --

OBAMA: This is not a recipe for solving every problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not a recipe for solving any problem.

TUCHMAN: This group's feelings towards the president only stiffened. They did not like when Mr. Obama angrily said it's fair to call it a conspiracy, the ridiculous he says that he's creating a plot to take everybody's guns away. OBAMA: Maybe when I propose to make sure that, you know, unsafe drugs

are taken off the market, that secretly I'm trying to criminal the entire drug industry or take people's drugs away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not trying to take your guns and you can keep your doctor if you want it, and you can keep your health care plan.

TUCHMAN: When the town hall was over, I asked --

(on camera)So, do you have a better idea about the president?

WILL FARRUGIA, GUN RIGHTS SUPPORTER: Yes, enforce the laws that exist, the current laws that exist.

TUCHMAN: Criminal laws.

FARRUGIA: Yes, criminal laws. I mean, at the end of the day, crimes are being committed by the criminals.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Jeff Wait is owner of the gun range.

(on camera): When the president says fewer guns mean fewer violent crimes, you don't think that is not accurate?

JEFF WAIT, OWNER, OKEECHOBEE SHOOTING SPORTS RANGE: Well, how can you get fewer guns without confiscation?

TUCHMAN: So, when he says he doesn't want to confiscate, you don't agree with that?

WAIT: How else do you make fewer guns? They don't evaporate.

TUCHMAN: So, you don't trust the president?

WAIT: No, I don't.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): At this gathering, President Obama changed no minds.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Okeechobee, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Really interesting to hear from them.

Let's get another perspective. My next guest owns a gun store, a shooting range and a shooting center north of Atlanta. His perspective on firearms is also unique because it comes from a law enforcement perspective, protecting people from gun violence. Tom Deets is a full-time police officer for four years in DeKalb County, Georgia. He still serves as a volunteer officer in a suburb north of Atlanta.

Thank you for being with me.

TOM DEETS, OWNER, SHARP SHOOTERS USA: Thank you, Poppy, for having me.

HARLOW: After this town hall, which I'm sure you watched and so many around the world watched, I'm interested in what conversations the customers in your store were having the next day.

DEETS: Well, our customers weren't impressed and didn't believe anything the president had to say. I think he was disingenuous with what really needs to be done to solve the problem with gun violence in America.

HARLOW: How so? How did you find him disingenuous? What was it?

DEETS: Because the biggest single problem we have is keeping guns out of the hands of individuals, and if we look at our background check system that we have today, there are huge holes in that that need to be fixed. For example, right now about 38 states are only submitting about 80 percent of the prohibited individuals, felons, domestic violence convictions, people who are indicted for felonies and those adjudicated mentally defective.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: And, Tom, to be fair, that system would have been changed under the legislation proposed after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown. That failed in Congress and when you look at the state of affairs in Washington today, they are not going to get comprehensive reform through, even the universal background checks. So what is it specifically you wanted the president to do?

DEETS: Specifically that NICS system needs to be strengthened. The first step towards hiring more FBI agents, more ATF agents to be involved in active enforcement --

HARLOW: But that is part of what he, I mean, what he proposed is hiring an additional 230 FBI examiners to work on background checks, funding for 200 more ATF agents. You're not supportive of that?

DEETS: I am supportive of that, but what we need to see at the federal level and at the state level is prosecution of people who are caught with firearms that are prohibited to begin with.

If you look at people who lie on the form that you have to complete when you buy a firearm, it's called a 4473. In 2010, 80,000 people lied on that form. They didn't walk out of the store with a firearm because they were denied, but only 44 of those 80,000 people were prosecuted.

We see time and time again that police officers at the state, local, and federal level do an excellent job of stopping individuals with firearms that committed crimes that when we get to the prosecution stage, charges are being reduced, and those people continue to go back out on to the streets and commit crimes again.

HARLOW: So, is there -- the polling on this shows that a majority of Americans, 57 percent, don't think that the president's executive action on guns will actually reduce gun deaths in this country. Also a majority of people, 54 percent, oppose that he use executive action to do this.

Tell me if I'm hearing you wrong, Tom, but it sounds to me like you do want the president to do something, you just wanted something different.

[16:35:05] Is that right?

DEETS: I want the president to enforce existing laws that are in place today. There are mechanisms in place today with mandatory sentencing guidelines for people who commit crimes with firearms, there are laws in place for people who conduct straw purchases, and prosecute those people. We had an individual at our range about three or four months ago who purchased a firearm, paid cash, he came in a few weeks later and purchased another firearm and this time he was delayed. He walked out of the store and got into a car with somebody, it raised a red flag with us, so we stopped that sale.

When he came back, we told him we're not going to complete this sale. I contacted an ATF agent, they came out and started an investigation. When he told me, frankly, one of the problems we face is that unless this individual has conducted a number of straw purchases, the federal prosecutors won't try this case, they won't take the case. We've got to be more vigorous in going after people now.

HARLOW: Final question, you said that previously on CNN school, should consider gun safety education. Can you walk me through what you think that should look like?

DEETS: Sure, absolutely. You know, if we look at schools across this country, we do fire safety training, stop, drop, and roll. We teach children about the dangers of being approached by strangers. We talk about drug abuse, we talk about sex education, we talk about everything. But there are great programs that are out there, firearms safety education programs. Not teaching children how to shoot a firearm, but what to do if they encounter a firearm.

There are free materials from the National Shooting Sports Foundation with its child project safe, National Rifle Association with the Eddie Eagle program. That's the first step, educating children what not to do. The industry has done a terrific job over the past 20 years, the number of accidental deaths in this country have declined dramatically. We can still do more, everybody can do more.

HARLOW: One word, I got to go, should we have smart guns, more smart guns, yes or no?

DEETS: No.

HARLOW: No?

DEETS: I'm not convinced that technology is viable. There's a lot of reasons. That's a whole other discussion.

HARLOW: All right. Why don't you come on with me again, we'll have that discussion, it's an important one.

DEETS: Love to. Thank you very much.

HARLOW: Tom Deets, thank you.

Straight ahead, what a constitutional challenge to the president's executive action on guns hold up in court, the Supreme Court? Next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake Olson doesn't look at football like his teammates. In fact, he can't see the game at all.

The long snapper for the University of Southern California is blind.

JAKE OLOSON, BLIND USC FOOTBALL PLAYER: When I was eight months old, I was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called retinoblastoma. When the doctors found my cancer, it was completely taking over my left eye. The greatest fear is the cancer spreading through the optic nerve through the brain.

GUPTA: To save his life, doctors removed that eye. Jake endured chemotherapy and laser treatment to save the right one, but the cancer kept coming back.

OLSON: After about eight times of that happening, you know, the doctors finally said, listen, we pretty much exhausted all treatment options.

GUPTA: Jake was 12 when he found out he would lose his other eye. But former USC head coach Pete Carroll heard Jake's story. He knew the boy was a huge life long fan and invited him to meet the team.

OLSON: That team was there for me in my darkest hours, something I always be grateful for.

GUPTA: Despite losing his eyesight, Jake played football in high school.

OLSON: A lot is just feel.

GUPTA: Last year, he brought that talent to USC as walk-on player for his beloved team.

OLSON: I went in to play football with the mentality I had nothing to lose. Life's unfair, it's taught me to keep fighting.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:42:27] HARLOW: Welcome back.

In CNN's town hall "Guns in America" this week, President Obama made his case for gun reform, straining to convince some skeptical audience members of his argument that his executive actions on guns are, according to the president, pretty modest and incremental. He's also admitted that he's largely powerless when it comes to making any sweeping changes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Issues like licensing, registration, that's an area where there's just not enough national consensus at this stage to even consider it, and part of it is people's concern that that becomes a prelude to taking people's guns away. I mean, part of the challenge in this is that the gun debate gets wrapped up in broader debates about whether the federal government is oppressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Whether the federal government is oppressive.

With me to talk about all of it, Adam Winkler. He's a constitutional law professor at UCLA. He's also author of the book, "Gun Fight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America." Thank you for being here.

ADAM WINKLER, UCLA CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR: Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: You make the argument, this is a quote, that a laundry list of relatively minor reforms that could together make a small dent in America's gun violence epidemic. That's how you describe what the president laid out in his executive actions this week. Explain.

WINKLER: Well, the president doesn't have the authority to make real sweeping changes. Federal law really restricts what he can do to change America's gun policy. So, what he's done is used his executive power to make very small changes in how federal law is going to be interpreted in the hopes that will lead to a little bit of a reduction in gun violence.

HARLOW: Will the changes, in your opinion, you wrote a whole book on this, will they make those changes?

WINKLER: Potentially, but I think we do have to have very reasonable goals. As the president made clear in the town hall last night, which was that there's only so much you can do. When you have 320 million guns already out there, Congress is not willing to pass sweeping legislation to have background checks or other kinds of restrictions on guns, and so, you're going to get small moderate changes and the goal is maybe if you have enough over time, you can really make a significant reduction in gun violence.

HARLOW: Let's look at some of the numbers from this new CNN poll out this week, focusing on this executive action on guns, and what it shows is that while much of the American public is supportive of the president's executive action on guns, less than half of those polls say the changes will actually reduce gun-related deaths, and most of the people do oppose how the president went about this. [16:45:01] So, executive action. You're a constitutional lawyer. Did

the president have any other options that would have stood up in a court of law and been more effective?

WINKLER: He had very few options. I think the president and his advisers probably looked very deep into this question and there wasn't a lot he could do. What he did is a series of very small reforms here and there, but there really wasn't the kind of sweeping changes. He really wants to see universal background checks and you can only do that --

HARLOW: Failed after Sandy Hook.

WINKLER: You can only do that through Congress and he's going to need the help of Congress to make that kind of significant reform.

HARLOW: He couldn't get it through then, now we're arguably even more divided.

WINKLER: And it's likely no matter who's elected in 2016, we're not going to see any significant federal gun laws. Congress is -- the House, at least, is likely to still be in the hands of the GOP and opposed to new gun restriction.

HARLOW: What about a Supreme Court challenge? If we were to see a Supreme Court challenge to the president's executive action on guns, would it hold up?

WINKLER: I think without doubt. First of all, the Second Amendment is not the biggest barrier to gun control. In fact, the courts have upheld the vast majority of gun control laws out there. The Supreme Court has said there is a right to bear arms, but there's also plenty of room for legitimate and effective gun control laws. And his reforms are, like I say, very minor. There are some still things to come in terms how the executive orders get implemented that might raise questions, but as of now, no significant constitutional challenges to be brought.

HARLOW: The NRA was not present, didn't send a representative to the town hall. CNN did invite them. There were audience members who were NRA members there.

But in your book "Gun Fight," you argue this, you say that the NRA was not always a ferocious opponent of gun control, you talk about historically the history of the NRA saying at points they actually really promoted certain forms of gun control. Take us back to when that was and what changed.

WINKLER: Well, that's right, the NRA for most of its history, which goes back to just after the civil war, was a very moderate gun rights organization and the president of the NRA even testified once in Congress that the Second Amendment imposed no limits on federal gun control policies.

HARLOW: But millions of members now say they are still moderate. WINKLER: Well, perhaps, and what we see with the NRA is a real shift.

In the 1970s, there was a revolt at the annual membership meeting of the NRA where a group of hardliners committed to a no compromises approach to the second amendment and literally took over the NRA overnight, ousting the moderate leadership and installing a whole new board of very no compromises, Second Amendment stalwarts who were opposed to gun control laws and really America's never been the same since.

HARLOW: When you look at mass shootings in America, you make an interesting, perhaps controversial argument, you say we the public are focusing too much on mass shootings in this country when it comes to gun control and this debate and that we should be focusing on the other gun deaths. Walk me through that.

WINKLER: Well, very difficult to stop mass shootings when you do have the easy availability of guns in America and as long as we have so many guns, there will be easy availability. What we should be focusing on, though, is reducing the daily death toll from guns. You know, something like San Bernardino where a dozen people die makes a lot of news for weeks on end. What we forget is that 40 people are dying every single day from gun violence.

HARLOW: Look, what's happening on the streets of Chicago, for example.

WINKLER: That's right. And so, the goal should be to bring down the daily death toll in the same say that we didn't eliminate drunk driving overnight, and we still haven't eliminated it. What we've done is put laws in place to try to reduce the number of accidents every year, if you decrease a little bit every year, that's a few more people that go home to be with their family that night rather than the morgue.

HARLOW: All right. Adam, thank you so much. Adam Winkler, we appreciate it.

Quick break, we'll be right back.

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[16:51:44] HARLOW: In this week's "American Opportunity", billionaire Glenn Hutchins made his name in venture capital. He is the director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is vice chairman of the Brookings Institution. He advised former President Clinton on economic policy in the '90s and he recently wrote a fascinating op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" titled "The I-Word Our Debates Are Missing."

So, what is that I-word? It's not income inequality. I sat down with him this week for more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLENN HUTCHINS, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK: A lot of people talking about inequality. Not -- nobody was really talking about insecurity. So, I thought it was important to bring that issue to the surface.

Now, how did I find it? I struck upon it because I was trying to figure out, as you know I do, how our economy was working and why, because there's a conundrum at work in our economy today, which is even though we've created a lot of jobs, those jobs haven't translated into increased wages, and those wages, what wages that have been created haven't translated into increased consumption.

Income insecurity is an outcome what's going on in our job markets and economy, but what I learned is that a very large number of Americans, and this is across almost every element of the income spectrum, except for the very, very wealthiest, experience -- had three features. One is that they have very little in the way of savings. They spend all of their liquid income every pay period so they build up no savings and as a result of what's going on in our economy today, are experiencing swings in both income and spending in any month that if they happen simultaneous are greater than their liquid assets.

If you imagine that as your household economics, that defines -- that describes a household economics.

HARLOW: But that's a scary reality for a lot of Americans who, I think, would be defined by most as middle class. You're saying a lot are living paycheck to paycheck.

HUTCHINS: Sure, even those described as middle class, half of them have experienced this.

HARLOW: Did you write this as a message to the candidates?

HUTCHINS: No. There are two or three things happen in the job market post the Great Recession. Only one of which is really related to the technology. One is that there is an increasing amount of part-time work, contingent work, independent work, people who aren't connected to full-time jobs.

HARLOW: Yes.

HUTCHINS: The second is that the jobs that were lost were disproportionately in middle income, very stable, very predictable construction and goods producing jobs. And the jobs that replaced them are in the lower wage, less predictable service jobs in places like retail and health care.

So, you've got a lower wage and more unpredictable wage or insecure wage kind of type of jobs created, and then the third piece of it is that we now have technology that's enabling us to take what might have otherwise been full-time jobs, chopped them up into gigs, as they call them, and then have people do the jobs that way.

HARLOW: Call it the gig economy, or call it the uber economy.

HUTCHINS: I call it the sharing economy. Whatever you want --

HARLOW: Sharing, this is our reality.

[16:55:01] HUTCHINS: Sure, absolutely.

HARLOW: And yet it has created more opportunity at the same time as more economic insecurity.

HUTCHINS: You said that very well.

HARLOW: What do you do about it? What are your solutions?

HUTCHINS: You adapt. You adapt.

You can't stride across, stand astride history and say, "stop". That's not going to happen as it goes forward. There are huge benefits associated with the technology that we're all using. I think one of the things that happens is when economic historians look back on this period, they are likely almost certainly to conclude that our economy was growing more rapidly than we think, right?

HARLOW: OK.

HUTCHINS: Because we have much higher productivity than we're measuring today. Much higher productivity growth, but that also means that prices and inflation is lower than we think, because that's how the math works. So I think what's going on, we're in the midst of a massive revolution in our economy from an industrial age to education age.

HARLOW: As a true capitalist at heart you would argue the market system works, and it works, you argue for increases, the earned income tax credit, which is something Warren Buffett has pushed a lot, as well. Are these government things that have to be enacted to make this economy work for more people?

HUTCHINS: We have a set of social -- one of the elements of the adaptation we talked about earlier is adapting the social policies that we have that address work, that address employment. Those are designed from the Industrial Age and not for the Information Age. They need to be retooled. Earned income tax credit is an example of that. There are other examples of that which would be the nature of our unemployment.

Today, you -- we pay people not to work if they are unemployed. We don't pay them to work, and there are a number of unemployment systems, most notably in Germany, that pay people -- pay employers to keep people working.

HARLOW: So, you would propose -- that's a radical idea.

HUTCHINS: It's worked very well.

HARLOW: You think that would be accessible to corporate America?

HUTCHINS: Yes, it's being experimented with all over in many states and cities.

HARLOW: One of the arguments is you have to raise taxes on the wealthy to afford to do all the things they're proposing. You don't think that's the best solution.

HUTCHINS: I think what we need to do is to -- we need widespread tax reform. In that context I do think that taxes need to go up, but that needs to be paired as part of a grand bargain. Remember, we used to talk about years ago with long-term reductions in government spending, that gets us to a point like we accomplished in the Clinton administration late '90s where we have our house in order.

HARLOW: You were former executive adviser to President Clinton.

HUTCHINS: That's correct. I would be able to pay higher taxes in an environment where I was investing in, two things. One is fiscal sanity, and the other is where we were using what the money that we raised in taxes to invest in the future of our country.

HARLOW: When you look at segregation within cities, within neighborhoods, within schools, Chicago is now the most segregated major metropolitan area in the country. How much does that factor in, in your opinion, when it comes to economic insecurity?

HUTCHINS: It turns out that it's the inequality in the community rather than your household income. So, kids who come from poor families who live in communities where there's not a lot of inequality do just as well as the other kids in that community, whereas kids who come from poor households that live in communities where there is a lot of inequality do very poorly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Glenn Hutchins, thank you so much for that.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

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