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CNN NEWSROOM

Exclusive Town Hall Meeting with Members of The Loneliest Club; Republican Leaders in the U.S. Senate Call for Vote Related to the Iran Nuclear Deal. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 10, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:34:30] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Thank you so much for watching today. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

I just want to continue to share with you really the most emotional, raw interview I think I've ever done in my 16 years of journalism. You know we cover tragedies in America and months and years later, the ones who suffered are left behind. The cameras are gone. They are left behind to survive to just keep breathing.

And so, last night I was in Washington, D.C., and I shared a room with some pretty phenomenal people. They are the loneliest club, 40 people brought together by everyone's worst nightmare. People who have lost their love ones in gun violence, others who have survived gun violence. And so today, they are on Capitol Hill to demand that Congress do whatever it takes to stop gun violence in this country.

And listen, no matter where you stand in this debate, these people, just like the rest of us, were just out and about living their lives normally and then their lives, in an instant, were changed forever.

So now continuing on in this hour, I just want to share with you those who have survived these tragedies, starting with this woman, really a hero, who stopped the gunman in Tucson, Arizona, a couple of years ago from reloading and doing much more harm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Pat, you played a unique role in what happened in Tucson. But you were there and you saw what happened and you were one of those who jumped in and stopped him from reloading. And I think of you, first responders, paramedics, police, all of these people who arrive on all of these different scenes and I have to imagine that you still have your own kind of recovery process and I'm wondering what that looks like.

[15:36:11] PATRICIA MALSCH, HELPED UNARM SHOOTER AT REP. GABBY GIFFORDS EVENT: I do say that I wasn't physically injured that day but it does take an emotional and spiritual toll on you.

BALDWIN: You don't have a physical wound but it's something that I imagine you think about this still every day or not as --

MALSCH: I do. And I often wonder, who is next? You know, who is going to need comforting from all of us next? Who is going to gain some appreciation for what the rest of us have been through? So I just deal with it as it comes. And my husband and my son -- my son lives in L.A. now but they were very concerned about me so I would do all my mourning in the shower. You can just cry your heart out in the shower. Nobody -- nobody would be overbearing about taking care of you. So that's how I --

BALDWIN: How many shower tears? Wow.

Let me move on to DeAndra. How is it your son survived? Tell me briefly, he was hit by a stray bullet at a birthday party.

DEANDRA YATES, SON ANDREW WAS PARALYZED BY STRAY BULLET: Yes.

BALDWIN: He survived.

YATES: He did.

BALDWIN: But every day it's a struggle?

YATES: Yes. Every day is a struggle. And I, too, like Pat, think why -- why did he survive? Especially after I have met everyone here and I rarely meet people whose kids survived. A lot of them who choose not to speak out for different reasons so I don't cross their paths often. But the child that I birthed at 18 years old, I no longer have. He doesn't talk. He does not walk. I know he knows me. He is doing better with yes or no head nods, but we do not know what he understands. And as happy as his spirits are, I don't think he understands that he's been shot. Why he was minding his own business, being an innocent child. When he was in my home -- he's in rehab now. It was a struggle. He could no longer be in his bedroom. He was in a den. He had different machinery and stuff that -- we needed space for. And I remember getting up and going to work and walking past that door and said, OK, I'll see you later. And he would just look around like, what?

My heart goes out to people who have lost their kids but to be faced every day with the reminder that he may never, ever be the way he used to and he lies in your living room in a hospital bed or he's in a wheelchair and you have to bathe him from head to toe, you have to stretch his fingers out so they don't get stuck, to be faced with that every day, I have to ask myself sometimes, did you make the right decision? Did you make the right decision? In my heart I know I did. But before he got to the point where he is now, it was a struggle with me wondering, who Dre want to live like this?

So my heart goes out, you know, to everyone and for parents who choose not for parents who choose to pull the plug. There's no judgment. There's no judgment. It's a complete change of life to see your baby so altered. He's supposed to be a freshman this year. All we ever wanted was for him to play football. High school football. And, of course, he wanted to go to college and play football. That was all snatched away from us by a stray bullet.

[15:40:13] BALDWIN: And the two of you connected?

YATES: Yes. We became friends on Facebook.

BALDWIN: Tell me who's your friend?

YATES: Diana Rodriguez. I used to see her commenting on a lot of stuff I would say and I thought, who is this lady commenting nonstop? And then, so she sent me a friend request and we've been bonded ever since. I remember when Dre was shot, I was like just needed someone who knows how I feel. My mom doesn't know. My grandmother doesn't know. I need someone with this common bond. And I believe God placed her in my life for that reason.

DIANA ALVARADO RODRIGUEZ, DAUGHTER SAMANTHA MURDERED WHILE WALKING HOME: My name is Diana Rodriguez. And I lost my daughter Samantha on mother's day in 2006.

BALDWIN: And you feel this connection?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes. I thank God. It was just one day I was just strolling and seeing that one shot survivor thing and it was through moms in action and I just friend requested her because I had seen her son and I thought, wow, he survived and I thought, Lord, thank you, not so many of them do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: It's a tough room and an emotional room. You know when your heartening (ph) photojournalists are asking for tissues, it's was incredible these stories that everyone was sharing. And really, the question moving ahead, what can be done?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I thought, something's going to happen now. We're not going to have all of these children mass murdered and we're not going to do something as a nation?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:00] BALDWIN: Forty survivors of American tragedies. We've shown you off and on different clips of my conversation, a pretty important conversation, a painful conversation sharing memories with these 40 people, never done before, all in this one room with our cameras rolling, going back and talking about the worst day of their lives.

But what we kept coming back to is why, why did this happen? Was it an issue of mental illness, racial tension, lack of background checks? It has become a mission for these survivors, not victim survivors, to find out why these tragedies happened and what can be done moving forward. And none has been more vocal about all of this fight recently that one of the club's newest members, Andy Parker. His daughter, Alison, was a reporter at WDBJTV in Roanoke, Virginia. She was murdered two weeks ago yesterday.

Here is the final piece of our exclusive town hall from Washington, D.C. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: What are you feeling? Can I get a microphone really quickly to the end? Was something said in particular that triggered a --

CLE LASHER-SIMMONS, SHOT BY ABUSIVE STEPFATHER ON APRIL 18: My name is Cle Lasher-Simmons and when I was 13, I was shot by my stepfather. And I have heard all of these stories as they came out in the news. I think the thing that is really speaking to me is that my worst horror, besides being shot and walking next to my body every single day is my children being shot.

Nobody is safe from this. I don't care of who you are or where you stand, nobody is safe from this. And until we stand up and ask and demand that people start acting with some sort of morality and change some legislation, what is going on?

After Newtown? I stood in front of the television camera saying to myself, oh, my God, something's going to happen. I cried for three weeks straight because I knew as a child what those children had been through. I knew! And I thought, something's going to happen now. We're not going to have all of these children mass murdered and we're not going to do something as a nation?

BALDWIN: Let's talk about what needs to happen. Colin Goddard, you're a survivor from Virginia Tech. You graduated from Blacksburg and have made this your life mission.

COLIN GODDARD, SURVIVED VIRGINIA TECH MASS SHOOTING: You know, I want to agree with the sentiment on one level. However, I also have been doing this work in gun violence prevention, talking to legislators before Sandy Hook and it is a world of difference now than it was on December 13th.

BALDWIN: Give me two examples.

GODDARD: I mean, the presence of this network is one. There has been no coordinated effort to bring people of similar experiences together to, one, just tell each other that you are not alone in this.

BALDWIN: You all are 700-plus strong, is that right? Over 750.

GODDARD: Over 750.

You know, people think that however that this conversation we're having is really about taking guns from everybody.

BALDWIN: It's not.

GODDARD: Or the other reality --

BALDWIN: That's a huge misconception. People think you all think people shouldn't have guns.

GODDARD: Yes.

[15:50:03] BALDWIN: That is not the case.

GODDARD: It's finding those common grounds to get people together how we are going to get things done. But the NRA cannot defeat us on background checks, straight up. They have to associate it with an extreme end point in order to muddy the waters and make people confused. Because when they do have a genuine background check conversation, the average American thinks this makes sense, this ought to be done everywhere.

(APPLAUSE)

ANNE HAYNES, HUSBAND RONALD MURDERED AT HIS HOME IN VIRGINIA: My husband Ryan Kirby was killed by a man who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He sent his girlfriend to buy the gun, and killed my husband right away. You have to ask, how can a mentally ill person who is a felon on top of that get away with sending his girlfriend to buy the gun, and they still haven't found the guns. And his death has been devastating for me. He was the love of my life.

BALDWIN: I'm sorry. Hang on just a second.

REV. SHARON RISHER, MOTHER, COUSINS GUNNED DOWN AT CHARLESTON CHURCH: I do want to make one point.

BALDWIN: Yes, ma'am.

RISHER: A lot of these shootings are just random and where people are, but not with my mother. Not with the nine people that were killed in that church. It was racially motivated, and this is something that we still have to talk about. It is not something that we can have vigil and light candles, and the next week it's on to the next story. As Americans, and as citizens and as people who have a moral heart, we still have to look at the racial hatred in this country. And I will not just let that go by because it's a big part of what happened in that church. And it's happened other places, but we don't want to talk about it, because it's a hard subject. Well, it's time to talk about all of the hard things.

(APPLAUSE)

BALDWIN: Andy, what's going through your mind?

ANDY PARKER, DAUGHTER ALISON WAS REPORTER SHOT AND KILLED ON LIVE TV: Well clearly I just, you know, I share your sense of loss. You know, we are club members that no one wants to join, but I think there is a -- there's a purpose here. I think we're all singing off the same sheet of music, and we're going to get something done. And it is going -- we are going to do whatever it takes because, you know, we keep thinking there was a tipping point. Maybe Alison's death is a tipping point. I think we have the American people behind us. This group behind us and I think we'll get the money behind us. And you know, if we have to outspend them, that's what we'll do.

(APPLAUSE)

BALDWIN: Thank you all so very much. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: In this group, wants everyone to know, if someone needs to talk about violence, visit their Web site everytown.org/survivors or text survivor, the word survivor to 877-877. Also please go to CNN.com. It's just been a phenomenal collaboration with digital on this town halls for portraits of each and every one of those 40. I sat with them at room last night in Washington D.C. in the Newseum. Thank you so much all for sharing your stories.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:02] BALDWIN: All right, quickly, in my remains time with you, let's go to Washington. Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate have just started this vote related to the Iran nuclear deal. We know that House conservatives stalled debate Wednesday and that demands for the administration to release more details on the deal. President Obama has promised to veto as you well know, any measure against the deal.

So in the newest members of the CNN family here, CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju.

Manu, what is going on with this vote? What is this about?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, this is an effort by Democrats to block disapproval resolution from landing on the president's desk. Now, what that means, Brooke, is that the Republicans want to actually kill this off-cord (ph). It's Iranian nuclear agreement. And the way that this law structured is that if the Republicans were to get two thirds majority in both chambers, they would successfully scuttle this huge, very significant nuclear agreement. They are going to fall wet short of that right now in the Senate. They are voting on this right now. Democrats will be able to block this measure and the Senate. Will not go to the president's desk. And as a result the president will have achieved a pretty significant victory here he can take to the international stage and move forward with this very significant nuclear agreement with Iran and five other world powers.

BALDWIN: So 20 seconds, Manu. I mean, ultimately it's just about an attempt, a show for Republicans?

RAJU: Well, it's really sending a message that a majority of Congress does not approve of this agreement. Republicans do not have the votes to stop it. But they're going to try to keep this issue a live, Brooke. Watch for the impossible to initiate a loss within the matter and then to fight on other (INAUDIBLE) ways in the coming weeks. So that's something we'll be watching very closely here at CNN.

BALDWIN: Manu Raju, welcome to the family. Thanks so much for joining me from Capitol Hill. Thank you. Thank you.

And thank you. Just a deep-felt thank you to all of you who watched today. It was a special day for us sharing pieces from the Loneliest Club. Again, we profiled every single one of those 40 I sat with last night in Washington. Go to CNN.com.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me. "The LEAD" starts right now.