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Sen. Susan Collins to Introduce Gun Control Legislation; Will Marco Rubio Run for Reelection?; Trump Has Plan for Fundraising; Oakland's Police Chief Crisis; Remembering Julianna Snow. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired June 21, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


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[15:30:14] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour, you're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

On Capitol Hill today, we got the news just in they found Republican Senator Susan Collins from the beautiful state of Maine announcing that she will indeed introduce a gun control key legislation. Senator Collins wants to deny guns to those who are on the government's no-fly list like the Orlando shooter.

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SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R), MAINE: Surely, the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and in Orlando that took so many lives are a call for compromise are a plea for bipartisan action.

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BALDWIN: This is tough for her, even as a moderate Republican, we know that the Senate has rejected four different gun control measures aimed at enforcing stricter background checks and blocking gun sales to those on that watch list. President Obama not at all pleased with the Senate's inaction on Twitter today writing that "Gun violence requires more than moments of silence. It requires action. In failing that test, the Senate failed the American people."

Let's go to the Hill to CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju. So What do you know about a potential vote and anything in this piece of legislation's future?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I would say that this bill had a chance of passing, Brooke, but a very slim chance at best because even though this has a bipartisan coalition of senators behind it, influential senators like Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Tim Kaine of Virginia, what it does not have it the numbers.

Republicans were concerned about some of the provisions in this bill. They want -- if this bill -- if someone is denied the sale of a firearm, it gives them a right to appeal after the fact. Republicans want that decision to be made before. They want the government to look at this before to determine whether someone should be denied a sale if they are on one of those watch list.

And the Democrats don't have their own concerns. The Democratic leaders do not believe it has enough teeth to it. The justice department has actually laid out a number of concerns as well. And they want those concerns address. And also you have politics, politics they missed.

The NRA, which of course is very influential, has not taken a position on it. we're hearing that actually opposed and lobbying against it on Capitol Hill and that's influential with the Republicans and Democrats don't necessarily want to lose a phone (ph) issue of gun control on this very, very issue on denying terror suspects, guns on what they believe is a watered down bill, all of which makes things very hard. And we haven't talked about the Republican the chance of passing there is very slim as well.

BALDWIN: Yeah. Yeah. All of this actually directly in the wake of what happened in Orlando, last week in Orlando as we know the president and vice president went down to pay their condolences to talk to law enforcement survivors. Also, along with them, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Senator Marco Rubio.

Now, Marco Rubio, Manu, I understand, you caught up with him and you talked to him about a possible run to hang on to his senate seat. What did he say?

RAJU: Absolutely. He's got until Friday to make a critical decision about his future and about the chance -- and about the Senate seat as well. Republican leaders are pushing him very, very hard to run for re-election but it's very clear that Marco Rubio is really struggling with this decision.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: When I make a decision and I'm ready to announce it, I'll tell you, I promise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you run, will you commit to serving six years as a senator if you run and win?

RUBIO: Well, when I make my decision, if that's a pertinent question, we'll answer it. But we're not ready to answer it yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you personally struggling with this in any way?

RUBIO: Look, we'll have a chance to talk bout all of these things when the time comes to do that right now, we're focused on other things here regarding our work.

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RAJU: Remember, Brooke, that Marco Rubio said he was going to take the weekend, this past weekend to talk about this with his family and a lot of folks, Republican leaders especially, were hoping that he would come back and be ready to run. But it's very clear that he has some maybe second thoughts or has not made a full decision yet in his head a very critical decision ahead. Republican leaders are watching very closely and Democrat too.

BALDWIN: You were going to just keep asking him questions until he walked through that door, Manu Raju. Excellent job. Thank you for catching up with him. It's important. Thank you.

Coming up next, Donald Trump he has pledged to match donations dollar to dollar with his own money up to $2 million for the next few days. Would that be enough though to reverse his massive fundraising deficit against Hillary Clinton and her campaign? We'll take a closer look at how the campaign went to tackle its money problems.

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[15:38:10] BALDWIN: When it comes to raising money for the general election, Hillary Clinton is crushing Donald Trump. We have the numbers. The Clinton campaign raised 27 million last month compared to 3 million by the Trump camp. Clinton's cash on hand at the end of May, 42 million. Mr. Trump, 1.3. But, Donald Trump speaking to NBC says he has a plan in mind to infuse more cash into his campaign if donations do not pour in.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESUMTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: It gets to a point. What I'll do is just do what I what do to the primaries. I spent $55 million of my own money to win the primaries. 55. Now, you know, that's a lot of money, I mean, by even any standard. I may do that again in the general election. I have a lot of cash and I may do it in the general election. But it would be nice to have some help from the party.

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[15:40:01] BALDWIN: So we now know he will do that. Jake Tapper is joining me. CNN Chief Washington Correspondent host of "THE LEAD" and "STATE OF THE UNION," he will be matching donations dollar for dollar with the next days with the cap of two million. But here's my question to you, my friend, you know, not so much is to whether or not into the self-funding notion but, you know, weeks away from Cleveland, from the convention, the fact that, you know, mega Republican donors are not writing checks. How concerning do you think that is for the campaign?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's very concerning although I should point out there are efforts now to raise that money. Mr. Trump has done something along the lines of, what is it, 10 events in nine days to raise more than $8 million and then there's a group called Rebuilding America now that is (inaudible) $32 million in pledges, they say. So there will be I think in the future at D.C. reports more money in the Trump and pro-Trump coffirs. But that said, of course, this is a big concern. You don't want to be outspent in the general election. Although, we should note that of course he was outspent quite a bit in the primaries that he did go on to victory. He does believe his ability to garner all sorts of free media will compensate for whatever chasm there is between what he's able to raise and what the Democrats are.

BALDWIN: OK. Just looking though at -- if it moves in his campaign within, you know, 24 hours, you have Corey Lewandowski fired. You have, you know, this fundraising, I know Senator Sessions when I talked to him last 24 hours, he did not want to call it a stunt, but whatever he want to call this matching donations for two days, you have that, and then, you know, his big speech tomorrow. How do you see this? Do you see this OK, makes sense, you know, team Trump pivoting towards the general election appropriately so or is this sort of panic time?

TAPPER: Well, I mean, both. I think that after the last few weeks, look, Mr. Trump has had a very rough few weeks. And I think there is a recognition of that fact within the Trump campaign and certainly within the Republican National Committee and an effort to right the ship and get him to focus on the issues that were so appealing to so many voters when it comes to trade and immigration reform and the like, I do think that, of course, it's not unprecedented to get rid of a senior campaign person. McCain did it in 2008. Al Gore did it in 2000.

And it's meant in some ways usually to send a signal to the donors and the party that everything is going to be OK. They're getting things under control and it's also -- generally also a substantive move to fix a problem to change something. Now what actual change will take place, I don't know. At the end of the day, Mr. Trump is Mr. Trump.

BALDWIN: He said this morning, he said, he will not change. Jake Tapper, we'll see you at the top of the hour on "The Lead."

TAPPER: Thanks Brooke.

BALDWID: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Meantime, libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson has been picking up about 10 percent of the vote in recent polls. And CNN is give you a chance to get to know Governor Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld. If you're not miss libertarian town hall hosted by Chris Cuomo, it is live tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Coming up next, several scandals rocking the Oakland Police Department. Officers there accused of having sex with an underage girl, others sending racist text messages. Nancy Grace will join me live to sound off on this one, next.

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[15:47:25] BALDWIN: The mayor of Oakland, California, must be wondering when it will be safe to appoint the new police chief. Three department leaders have either been fired or quit in less than two weeks. Now, the specifics are entirely being spelled out, but the shake up started with the sex scandal. 18-year old former prostitute so she had sex with a number of police officers beginning when we she was 17. Mayor Libby Schaaf says she's dealing with unrelated scandal involving some officers whose sending racist text messages. Oakland's police force is now being run by a civilian administrator for now. Nancy Grace, HLN host, former prosecutor, I wanted to bring you in here just to try to walk us through. There are all kinds of twist and turns and layers to all of this but the bottom line it's a mess.

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: It's a huge mess. And you know what tip it all off, is when an officer shoots himself, commits suicide. None of this had apparently gone to internal affairs, nothing. And it only comes to light when O'Brien shoots himself.

Now catch this. About year and a half ago, in 2014, his wife commits suicide. I was briefly a homicide investigation but didn't end up being called suicide. This cop, O'Brien, we believe was one of officers involved with the underaged girl.

Now, she's not underaged anymore but remember, the statute of limitations on statutory rape of underaged sex is about six years in this jurisdiction. So these officers are not just looking at getting thrown off the force. They are looking at criminal prosecution. I want to tell you one other thing. I will never forget. I had worked with these three APD officers like a hand in the glove advice. We were trying to crack an underaged child prostitution ring. We worked for months out on the street. I remember it was bitter cold. We got a conviction and I remember about a year later I found out they were busted, these three cops, for robbing dopers. I could not ...

BALDWIN: Oh wow.

GRACE: ... have been more shocked and upset. So when a police officer does something like this, it's doubly, doubly upsetting.

BALDWIN: Four, you know, chiefs, 10 days, the mayor in Oakland says the sex scandal isn't related to the texting scandal so we can only assume -- obviously she's trying to figure this whole thing out and then ultimately hire a new police chief.

[15:50:02] GRACE: Well, yeah. There's been a three police chiefs I believe it goes in the last two weeks. So you got to -- not only the sex scandal but just tipped off by an officer killing himself over it, but now you got these racist texts.

Now, they've been very vague about what the racist texts are about and the content of them. I've read several articles about and we've been digging a around to find out what was the content of them but I can't confirm it yet, but what we're hearing is they're pretty bad, and they include racist images, and they were reportedly sent -- I know. Reportedly sent by African-American police officers. Don't know if any of that is true, but we do know that racist texts were sent and there's investigation going down, and, again, that may not be a crime because you've got free speech in our country. You can be a racist and it's not a crime, although it's loathsome, but when you're a cop and you do it, that could be a civil rights violation. Think Rodney King. Yeah.

BALDWIN: Wow.

GRACE: It ain't over yet. BALDWIN: We know you're on it on HLN.

GRACE: I am on it.

BALDWIN: Thank you, Nancy Grace. We'll watch you ...

GRACE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: ... week nights at 8:00. Thank you, thank you. We'll stay on it here as well.

GRACE: Yes, ma'am.

BALDWIN: Coming up next though, an incredible lesson in bravery taught by a 5-year-old little girl with a terminal illness. How her parents gave her the power to decide how she wanted die.

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STEVE SNOW, JULIANNA'S FATHER: Julianna's disease was like a prison for her body but not her spirit. But now that prison is broken up and Julianna can soar. On angels' wings.

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[15:55:56] BALDWIN: This is a bit of a tear jerker but it's an important one to end this day on. A big and fabulous tea party complete with a cupcake stand, but this was not a birthday party. This is how the parents of 5-year-old Julianna Snow honored her memory after she died from an incurable disease. Julianna, you see, had made it known she wanted to go to heaven rather than keep going to the hospital.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more now on what Julianna's parents did after she took her final breath.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: A Christmas carol in June because it was Julianna Snow's favorite song. She passed away last week at the age of 5. Her mom, dad, and brother arranged a celebration more than a funeral with all of her favorite things. Mourners decorated cupcakes and painted their nails. Children played with her toys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because you don't usually think of cupcake stations and nail polish stations and decorations and pink balloons for a funeral.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She would say why not? She loved bright, fabulous, more is more, fun.

COHEN: Every day, Julianna wore one of these princess dresses. What princess are you today?

JULIANNA SNOW, DIED FROM AN INCURABLE DISEASE: Cinderella. COHEN: Yes, Cinderella.

Today we visited her last October her nails were painted in pink and white polka dots. And despite her breathing mask she sang for us another one of her favorite songs.

JULIANNA SNOW: (Singing)

COHEN: Are Elsa and Anna, I forgot are they cousins or ...

JULIANNA SNOW: They're sisters.

COHEN: Oh, they're sisters.

JULIANNA SNOW: It's Anna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's Anna.

COHEN: Oh it's Anna. I said Anna. It's Anna. I'm sorry.

JULIANNA SNOW: I forgive you.

UNIDENIFIED FEMALE: She forgives you.

COHOEN: Julianna was dying from an incurable neuromuscular disease, and she had a very specific request for her parents. You blogged about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

COHEN: Let's take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, me, Julianna, if you get sick again, do you want to go to the hospital or stay home?

Julianna, not the hospital. Me, even if that means you will go to heaven if you stay home? Julianna, yes. Me, and you know that mommy and daddy won't come with you right away. You will go by yourself first. Julianna, don't worry, God will take care of me.

COHEN: Julianna told her parents she hated the hospital, especially a procedure called nasal tracheal suctioning.

STEVE COHEN: Basically you stick a tube on suction machine and on you stick it up the nose, down past the tongue, back into the throat as deep as you can go and you start suctioning. If given the choice of me or one of the other respiratory techs she would usually ask for me to do it.

COHEN: Was that hard to do?

STEVE COHEN: Yeah.

COHEN: Could you watch her go through this again do you think?

STEVE SNOW: No. If I had to, I'd do it. COHEN: Would it save her life to do it again if she were to get an

infection?

STEVE SNOW: I don't think so.

COHON: A year and a half after Julianna made her wishes clear, she died not in a hospital room but in her pink princess bedroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She went after 18 beautiful months. She didn't go after a year of horrible hospitalization. Things got a lot easier for us when we started following her lead and listening to what was important to her.

Does it make you happy to be home?

JULIANNA SNOW: I love all this stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She died I think exactly where she wanted to die.

COHEN: Her family says Julianna arrived in heaven on her terms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julianna's disease was like a prison for her body. But not her spirit. But now that prison is broken up and Julianna can soar on angels' wings.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, Vancouver, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: My goodness. What do you say to that? Just with everything we've been covering, everything going on in the world. That gives us perspective. Just squeeze your little ones. Squeeze your loved ones and remember what is important. We all need to. I'm Brooke Baldwin, thank you so much for being with me here today. We'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, to Washington we go. "The Lead" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke. What would board room Donald say about his campaign clash flow issue?