Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Senate Showdown Just Six Weeks Away; Loud Music Killing Retrial; Ray Rice To Claim TMZ Edited Knock-Out Video; Mike Lupica Talks "Fantasy League"

Aired September 22, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES OF AMERICA: I agree with her. I would have taken the chance. I also agree with her when she said we came from nowhere and that's one thing you have to be careful when you make these commitments because you can't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": A former president and I think a smart advice, you don't know, you are never sure. But he did say, Jackie, he would have taken the risk. Is that a criticism of the current president, the risk of hers?

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I don't think so. I mean, the Clintons can't have a lot of daylight between Obama on foreign policy at this point. I mean, Hillary was the center of their foreign policy for a number of years.

It makes sense when he says this, I think when Hillary comes out and criticized the president it has made headlines. And I don't think they want to do right now especially.

KING: His language is a measured in the sense, sure, I agree with her, let's not make too big a deal about this. We don't know if it would have worked.

OLIVIER KNOX, "YAHOO! NEWS": In that big interview where she says she would take the steps to train and arm the opposition. She said there is no way to know whether it would make a difference or not. Remember the first half, this is a really mild break with President Obama, his top advisers, most agree on a controversial stance on the one he eventually took.

KING: Let's spend some time now as I said six weeks from tomorrow, 43 days from today, the midterm elections, the biggest prize in the mid- term elections right now is control the United States Senate.

Republicans need net gain of six seats. On the left, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, those are three currently held by Democrat seats. The Republicans think almost a lock we are going to win those three.

So if you'd give them those three, then they need three more. Now look at the chart on the right, Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Iowa and Colorado.

Those seven all held by Democrats, all very competitive right now. Republicans think they have a chance in all of those races. Then you have Kentucky and Kansas, those are Republican held seats, Jackie.

Kansas my favorite at the moment because Republicans are in trouble in Kansas and what is supposed to be a good term election year. When you look at this out, the "New York Times," they've crunched the data. They say it's a 56 percent chance in their interview of Republicans winning the Senate majority.

Nate Silver's "Fivethirtyeight" blog says 54.8 percent. The "Washington Post Election Lab" puts it at 63 percent. So in the 55 to 63 percent rate. I think that's about right. I think about a 6 in 10 change if you crunch all the state numbers.

Look at the national dynamic. When you look at this, is there a particular race you care most about? Do you think will be an indicator or what's your thought heading into the six weeks?

KUCINICH: I'm really excited about Iowa because I think it's going to go right down the line. We didn't really expect as close of a contest as we have right now in Iowa.

You can't talk about this election year without talking about Kentucky and to see if Mitch McConnell's strategy of attacking early and often is going to work. He could potentially be the next majority leader.

KING: Imagine the irony if Republicans take back the Senate, but Mitch McConnell loses in Kentucky. He is in line to be a majority leader, something he has wanted for some time.

Again is there -- in Iowa, I think you're right about watching out for the blue states. Republicans do very well in the blue states, Iowa and New Hampshire, the two big blue states meaning Obama carried them twice.

That would give you a sense that they've got to win back in their end. When you watch this, anything in particular you think is key?

KNOX: Yes, I really like watching actually the Arkansas race where incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor is trailing, freshman Republican Tom Cotton within the margin of error.

It's a real test for the White House approach to these midterms where they have taken a largely hands off approach. They've raised a lot of money for Democrats, but they are letting politicians like Mark Pryor judge their own voters, make their own calls.

Great with the White House. People in the White House say Mark Pryor is a talented politician, who knows Arkansas better than the folks inside the White House and they are going to let him run this one.

KING: The president's approval ratings are down. A lot of Americans, clear majority, almost two-thirds think the country is on the wrong track. That tells you Republicans will have a good year. But to your point, Olivier, if you go state by state and you look at the chest, Mark Pryor, a big family name in Arkansas. We'll see how that will play out. The 91-year-old Bob Dole, the former presidential nominee, the veteran senator from Kansas.

He's cuts a new ad. He is going to be on the campaign trail today out of Kansas because Pat Roberts, the Republican incumbent, he has the Dorothy problem, there is no place like home.

A residency issue, there are questions. To me it's unbelievable. That Republicans knowing they had this chance. I didn't check all the boxes early make sure their guys are in great shape so he didn't this in the last few weeks.

KUCINICH: This is a classic problem of a Republican incumbent candidate. I don't think they expected Pat Roberts to have a problem and they do know. And then you have a Democrat dropping out and then you have this independent candidate.

There are a lot. You are right, which is why you see not only Bob Dole, John McCain, lots of other top Republicans headed down to make sure Kansas is solid.

KING: Imagine waking up the morning after the election and an independent candidate running in Kansas, when he am I with the Democrats or the Republicans, could decide the Senate majority, is that actually feasible?

KNOX: It's feasible. I'm not sure how likely it is. They ride to Pat Roberts rescue. It will be a test whether they can pull it out in the 11th hour. But I -- still (inaudible).

KING: A lot of folks say it doesn't matter. They think either the Democrats or the Republicans will end up with 51 or 52. The Republicans will probably keep the House and then we get, what, two more years of gridlock, but it does matter.

It matters in the Senate who gets to be chairman. It does matter who gets to lead the negotiations with the president. So six weeks ago, if you haven't tuned in yet, it's about time to start thinking about it. Olivier, Jackie, thanks for coming in.

I will deep you out of this one, another big Senate race in Louisiana, Mary Landrieu in a very tough race. A lot of people think she could end up in a run off and this one wouldn't be decided until December.

But here's voter outreach tail gate style. Mary Landrieu at the cake stand, you see a constituent there at the LSU game. I don't know a good thing to turn out the youth vote or a bad example as United States senator or is this why don't we let it go?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, John, I think my inclination is to treat this entirely lightly. I say there are two points of marriage. One, of course, in that state, we have the famed expression, let the good times roll. She is living that. And if you see the left hand, the placement on the tube of the keg spout strong, strong choice, helps the flow, helps the man drink respectively.

KING: It seems like you have a little experience at this.

CUOMO: No, none. You told me all of these things in the last break.

KING: All right. On a Monday morning. Why not?

CUOMO: See you tomorrow, my friend.

KING: Take care.

CUOMO: So the man accused of killing a teenager in a dispute over loud music goes on trial again. Remember this story? It matters even more. This time we are going to tell you why this trial is happening again and we are going to go live to Jacksonville for a preview.

And the NFL in hot water. It's pretty familiar headline these days. The question is, are they doing anything to finally get it right? Critics are taking on Roger Goodell.

The commissioner after his statement Friday saying he is still clueless and Ray Rice is trying to deflect blame from that damning elevator video. What can he say to help this cause? We'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back. It was a gripping trial that highlighted issues of race and self-defense and was capped off by dramatic testimony from the man who pulled the trigger himself.

Today the retrial of Michael Dunn begins. Dunn was convicted of attempted murder and firing into an occupied vehicle. The jury deadlocked on a murder charge. The 17-year-old Jordan Davis was killed when Dunn fired on his vehicle after a dispute over loud music.

Dunn said that he believed Davis had a weapon and that he feared for his life. Now his family hopes this trial will get justice for Davis. Alina Machado is live for us in Jacksonville, Florida, with a preview of this re-trial. What should we expect, Alina?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, jury selection is expected to begin here in just a couple of hours. The hope this time is that this jury will be able to deliver a verdict on that murder charge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on the jury's inability to reach a verdict as to count one, I would declare that mistried.

MACHADO (voice-over): After 30 hours of deliberations, deadlocked Florida Jurors could not unanimously convict Michael Dunn of first degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. The hung jury on that one count back in February also left the teen's family confused and heart broken.

RON DAVIS, JORDAN'S FATHER: I feel like we didn't get justice for Jordan.

MACHADO: Davis was shot and killed almost two years ago when an argument that began over loud music got out of hand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is shooting out of their car.

MACHADO: Dunn fired ten shots at the SUV Davis and three friends were in outside a Jacksonville area gas station. Dunn testified that he feared for his life and thought one of the teens had a weapon.

MICHAEL DUNN, DEFENDANT: I'm looking out the window and I said, you are not going to kill me, you son of a (inaudible) and I shot him.

MACHADO: But no weapon was ever found in the teen's car. Jurors convicted Dunn on three counts of attempted murder for shots fired at the other three teens. When it came to the first degree murder charge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We could not agree.

MACHADO: Juror number 8 in the first trial told me she believed Dunn was guilty of murder, but others on the panel did not. So hours after the first trial ended, Prosecutor Angela Corey decided to retry Dunn on the first degree murder charge.

ANGELA COREY, DUVAL COUNTY PROSECUTOR: Retrying the case is something we all had to do. We will continue to do and will give it the same full attention.

MACHADO: According to some legal experts, it won't be easy. The key for both sides could be jury selection.

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If the defense particularly and prosecution as well, but if the defense does not do what they need to do to vet out their jurors again through social media, background work, it can be a devastation to the case.

MACHADO: The new trial will be tough on Jordan Davis' parents who will now have to relive their son's death all over again.

DAVIS: No matter what happens to Michael Dunn, whether it's a hung jury or whatever, I still have that loss that's greater than any other verdict.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO: CNN has reached out to Dunn's new attorney. The attorney would not comment. It is worth noting that Michael Dunn is already facing decades of prison time because the first jury did convict him of several charges including three counts of attempted second degree murder -- Brianna.

KEILAR: You will be watching today there in Jacksonville. Alina Machado, thank you.

CUOMO: The NFL controversy keeps on going. On Friday, the commissioner wanted to answer questions. He wanted to seem like he was moving forward. He achieved none of those things. He's still getting heat over how the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases were handled.

Meanwhile now, as proof of how poorly it was handled, Rice is expected to challenge that awful elevator video and the penalty that went along with him knocking his fiancee unconscious with a single huge hook.

He was saying the video was edited and that made it an unfair appraisal. We will give you the latest on the troubles with the league and this appeal with Mike Lupica straight ahead about it and his new book.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The NFL still doesn't get it. That seems to be the feeling as the criticism continues to grow over the league's handling of domestic violence or not handling of it. Commissioner Roger Goodell's press conference did little to change minds Friday. It may have made it worse for some parts of critique base.

Now Ray Rice appealing his indefinite suspension, seems to be challenging the commissioner, the least popular person in the NFL. He's tried to discredit the video that sunk in by arguing that TMZ edited the tape of him knocking out his future wife. What will this mean? How do they move past this?

Let's bring Mike Lupica, the syndicated columnist for "The New York Daily News" and best selling author of the new book "Fantasy League." I know you are on tour. We will talk about your book. I am very excited about it. Fiction.

Some say you have been writing fiction for years, Lupica, but not me. I say you are a straight shooter. You make an interesting point. Your book is called "Fantasy League."

But you say the real fantasy league is the NFL. How is this happening? Yes it's a sport. It's not Congress. They're sophisticated people. They know they didn't have to see this video to understand what they needed to do in this situation. Why can't they get it right?

MIKE LUPICA, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": Chris, they misidentified how serious this issue is from the start. I heard Robin Gibbons who once got bounced around by Mike Tyson saying the other day that you know why we will get change with domestic viewers now because guys have finally identified it's a serious problem. You know what's ironic about this.

This appeal of Rice on his suspension may turn out to be Goodell's undoing because Goodell said again the other day that Rice's version was inconsistent with what happened inside the elevator. The commissioner is going to get deposed in this thing. Whatever version he has told so far, it better be the truth because if he's the one who's lied about anything then he's going to lose his job.

CUOMO: Let's be honest, what's the chance that the explanation Ray Rice gave didn't include the words, then I punched her and knocked her out? Like zero, right?

LUPICA: Chris, how about this idea that TMZ edited the tape. Unless they edited the part with her pulling a weapon on him. You know, Muhammad Ali probably wishes there was a way to edit that left hook that Joe Frazier threw at him a thousand years ago.

I don't think -- Commissioner Goodell once said Rice's account was ambiguous. I want to know what was ambiguous about what happened in that elevator. Here's the question he's never properly answered. Why he needed the elevator video in the first place. Did he think Janay Palmer knocked herself out after the elevator doors closed?

CUOMO: Brianna made a good about. She says it's not about that video being out, what was edited out. You would have had to edit in scenes like him punching her in order for any difference to be made.

The only break I'm giving the NFL on this is there's such intense focus on them as if they were the center, the flash point of the domestic violence issue. I think there's hypocrisy in that because there are such obvious problems.

Remember the prosecutors gave this guy a plea deal. He was indicted on whatever evidence they had. He pleaded not guilty and got a deal. Nobody was outraged, enough about that I would suggest, certainly not like what we're seeing over the NFL.

LUPICA: Here's what's inconsistent about the way the NFL has handled this from my view. Roger Goodell has set himself up to be the enforcer. We've all been writing about that for a couple of weeks.

He posed for the cover of "Time" magazine. He became the final authority on everything and then he let this prosecutor in Atlantic City take the lead on this. If you're the enforcer, this guy on the cover of "Time" magazine, you're the one who should have taken the lead. He has been leading from behind on this from the beginning.

CUOMO: Look. What you have to see what you have to give Goodell the benefit of the doubt about this, he's leading from behind on this. We are behind on this. We don't treat domestic violence the way we need to.

If you look at the Adrian Peterson case, it's even more proof of that. Hitting the kid was fine. The law says it. The culture says it. It's depressing as hell, but the culture says it.

It was that he hit him too hard. That's the why the league was able to go easy on Adrian Peterson early on. Frankly a lot of people were OK with that. Weren't they, Mike? LUPICA: Yes, and Chris, here's the thing about the elevator video. What happened with Greg Hardy of the Panthers back in May, none of us got outraged. Have we reached the point in this country where we actually, in an Instagram world, we actually have to see the pictures to get outraged about an issue this serious?

CUOMO: We're going to talk about it later on in the show. Mike, when you get back here from your glorious book tour. I'd love to have you on talking about these issues that are being ignored. Focussing on the NFL but not domestic violence in general and why problems allow.

Focussing on Adrian Peterson, but not the fact that you got 80 percent of the American people say hitting kids is OK. In fact, there's so much depressing news. We need a distraction.

Mike, we need something that can take up our attention that's pleasurable and enjoyable. You know, like a good read. Why don't you write something that's a good read for us?

LUPICA: You know what, for ten years Chris, I've became known as king of reluctant readers. Fantasy league, people like my league in this new book a lot better than -- Charlie Gains is a 12-year-old kid who's the pin ball wizard of fantasy.

His bestfriend is the granddaughter of the old man who has brought pro football back to L.A. By the way, I bring pro football back to L.A. in this book. He makes a couple of suggestions about players that work out for the team.

It turns around the fortunes of the team and then the world finds out that a 12-year-old has become the de facto general manager. Even though I have found out in own my life and it's the central theme of this book, kids know a lot more about sports than we do.

I've got sons who think they could do a better job running their own teams than the guys running them are doing.

CUOMO: I've got to tell you. Our boss here has a teenage kid who's a wonder with sports and the media. Sometimes kids are just precautious geniuses. What I want to ask you, Lupica, is that you're not. How did you get all this great information and detail about how fantasy leagues work in this story? It's like money ball for kids.

LUPICA: Chris, I have three sons. Sunday afternoons at my house are a blood bath because they're not watching the games, they're competing against each other. They're interest is beating each other. My general manager is my youngest son. After the way the season has started, I'm hoping we're not going to make a change. Firing your own kid is never pretty.

CUOMO: Especially when the mom finds out. I've got to tell you, Mike, especially now it's great to have something people can get into that's positive, has a great ending, tells a true story and you've done that. Congratulations to you. Thank you for bringing something good to a tough environment right now.

LUPICA: Listen, thanks for having me on to talk about it. We will talk about pleasanter subjects down the road.

CUOMO: I would like that. When you come off this glorious tour of 550 cities or whatever, come in. We need your voice.

LUPICA: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Mike Lupica, everybody. Please make sure to check out his book. It's called "Fantasy League."

Security at the White House under the microscope, and for good reason. How did a fence jumper, the man in the highlighted portion of the screen, make it through the front door of the White House? New video tells the story for you.

And the latest in the search for the missing UVA student Hannah Graham. There she is on the screen. Police issuing a warrant for the man last seen with her, but not in connection with her disappearance. It's a confusing story. We'll tell you about it ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)