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Illegal Immigrant Accused of Killing Woman Pleads Not Guilty; Hillary Clinton Gives Interview; Mounting Fallout Over Cosby Drug Revelations; Accusers Speak Out About Cosby Revelations. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 8, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday July 8th, 8:00 in the east. Up first, developments in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman. CNN learns the undocumented immigrant who allegedly killed Kate Steinle pulled the trigger using a federal agent's gun.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now, reports say the weapon was stolen from the agent's car last month though it is still unclear if it was stolen by the alleged shooter. Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez pleading not guilty despite that apparent videotaped confession. CNN's Dan Simon is live for us in San Francisco with the latest, including all the questions around that so called confession. Good morning, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. This case is now a week old, and every day seems to bring some kind of new development. And this one is really striking, that the suspect in this case somehow got a hold of a federal agent's weapon. How he got a hold of it, that's all under investigation. This all happening as the suspect had his first appearance in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not guilty.

SIMON: Undocumented immigrant Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez pleaded not guilty at this arraignment Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you shoot Kate Steinle?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SIMON: But just three days ago he told a reporter that he did shoot and kill Kate Steinle on this popular California pier last week. His attorneys content that he may not have understood the reporter's question.

MATT GONZALEZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Mr. Sanchez is not a student of the law. He has a second grade education.

SIMON: Also developing, a source close to the investigation says the gun that killed Kate belonged to a federal agent. The "San Francisco Chronicle" reports the 40 caliber pistol was stolen out of an agent's car back in June. Sanchez, who has never been convicted of a violent crime, claimed in

that same interview that he found the gun wrapped in a t-shirt near a bench and he didn't mean to fire it.

GONZALEZ: This very well could have been a completely accidental discharge of a firearm.

SIMON: The seven-time convicted felon has been deported five times to Mexico.

SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R) WISCONSIN: He was released into general society to create a murder. Does that make any sense to you?

SIMON: At a Senate hearing, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, berated an immigration enforcement official about why Sanchez wasn't handed over to authorities.

JOHNSON: Tell me specifically what is preventing us when we have people in this country illegally and they have had seven prior felony convictions, why aren't we able to deport those individuals?

PHILIP MILLER, ICE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: In that particular case our detainer was not honored. San Francisco Sheriff's department did not honor the detainer that we lodged.

SIMON: San Francisco with its so-called sanctuary law doesn't comply with detainers to keep undocumented immigrants in custody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And this has been a sanctuary city since 1989. But there seems to be real questions in terms of how we're going to move forward from this. Both of California's senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein are both saying perhaps new legislation is needed so that something like this doesn't happen again. We should point out that Diane Feinstein is a former mayor of San Francisco. Now she is calling on the current mayor, Ed Lee, to start following federal policy. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We should also point out there's some 70-plus jurisdictions in the United States that are so called sanctuary cities. So this is obviously going to have repercussions there in those cities as well. Thanks, Dan.

PEREIRA: We turn now to Hillary Clinton's first national interview of the 2016 race. It is a CNN exclusive. Clinton defends her actions in the controversy over her e-mails while she was secretary of state. Senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar has more now in her third part of her interview with Clinton. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. Hillary Clinton's first nationally televised interview comes as our poll shows nearly six in 10 Americans don't believe she's honest and trust worthy. I asked her if she bears some responsibility for that because of her recent controversies involving her e-mail practices while she was secretary of state, and corporate and foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation. She did not bite on that. Instead she blamed Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: One of the issues that has eroded some trust is the issue of your e-mail practices while you were secretary of state. I think there's a lot of people who don't understand what your thought process was on that. So can you tell me the story about how you decided to delete 33,000 e-mails and how that deletion was executed?

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, let's start from the beginning. Everything I did was permitted. There was no law. There was no regulation. There was nothing that did not give me the full authority to decide how I was going to communicate. Previous secretaries of state have said they did the same thing. And people across the government knew that I used one device. Maybe it was because I am not the most technically capable person and wanted to make it as easy as possible.

KEILAR: But you said they did the same thing, that they used a personal server.

CLINTON: Well, a personal e-mail.

KEILAR: And they deleted e-mails from them?

[08:05:01] CLINTON: You know you're starting with so many assumptions. I've never had a subpoena. There is -- again, let's take a deep breath here. Everything I did was permitted by law and regulation. I had one device. When I mailed anybody in the government it would go into the government system.

Now, I didn't have to turnover anything. I chose to turn over 55,000 pages because I wanted to go above and beyond what was expected of me because I knew the vast majority of everything that was official already was in the State Department system. And now I think it's kind of fun. People get a real-time behind the scenes look at what I was e-mailing about and what I was communicating about.

KEILAR: Wearing warm socks as you said --

CLINTON: Exactly.

KEILAR: Working a fax machine.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: Yes, a secure fax machine, which was harder to work than the regular. So, yes, this is being blown up with no basis in law or in fact. That's fine. I get it. This is being in effect used by the Republicans in the Congress. OK.

But I want people to understand what the truth is. And the truth is everything I did was permitted. And I went above and beyond what anybody could have expected in making sure that if the State Department didn't capture something, I made a real effort to get it to them. And I had no obligation to do any of that. So, as I said, prior secretaries of state -- I mean Secretary Powell

has admitted he did exactly the same thing. So let's set the record straight. And those 55,000 pages, they will be released over the course of this year. People can, again, make their own judgment.

KEILAR: There has been a lot of controversy surrounding your family's foundation, the Clinton Foundation, corporate and foreign donations that have gone to the foundation and the work that it does. Has it made you think seeing this controversy that has come about, has it made you think about if you are president, what will happen to the Clinton Foundation? Have you thought about perhaps shutting it down?

CLINTON: Let me start by saying I am so proud of the Clinton Foundation. I am proud of the work that my husband started, that my daughter continued. I'm proud of the very small role I played in being there for about a year and a half.

And I'll give you an example of why what the Clinton Foundation has done is so critical. When I became secretary of state, the United States government was using our tax dollars to treat 1.7 million people around the world with HIV-AIDS. I looked at the contracts that the Clinton foundation had been negotiating to buy medicine and pass it through, working with foreign government who is provided the funding to buy the medicine to treat more people. So we negotiated lower prices.

By the time I left, thanks to contracts and work that the Clinton foundation had done, the United States was treating 5.1 million people. That's just one example.

Now, maybe it's because my husband knows so many people in the world and he's so creative and he's so smart, but he was able to put together solutions to problems, whether it was HIV-AIDS, or childhood obesity in our country, or expanding farm produtivity in Africa that was hard for others to do. And, yes, did people say that's good work? That's a charity we want to support? And they should have because it produced results. I have no plans to do or say anything about the Clinton Foundation other than to say how proud I am of it, and that I think for the good of the world, its work should continue.

KEILAR: Let's talk about Republicans.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: That's a big crew.

KEILAR: It is a big crew. Right now the front runner is Jeb Bush. Can you believe that a quarter century after your husband was elected there could be another Bush-Clinton race?

CLINTON: Well, we'll see. That's up to, first, the Republicans on his side, the Democrats on my side. What's great about America is that anybody can the run for president. That's literally true. You have to go out and do what everybody else does. You have to make your case. You have to have your agenda, you have to raise the money, you have to work really hard. So whoever is nominated by their respective parties will be the nominee and then we'll see who's on the other side.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You could see she didn't want to highlight this issue of a political dynasty. Polls show voters don't like that, and Hillary Clinton is trying to position herself as a strong candidate very separate from her husband. Chris?

CUOMO: That's the game. Give them what they like. Brianna, thank you for that interview.

So did it help? Did it hurt? Let's discuss, CNN political commentator and political strategist Kevin Madden and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala, Paul also senior advisor on a super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton. So I ask you each, starting with you, Mr. Begala, why did this help? And Kevin, you tell us if you think it also hurt. Go ahead, Paul.

[08:10:04] PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it helped a little. Frankly, most of those questions were about process. You got to answer them. I don't think voters give a rip snort about whether her e-mail system, which was the came as Colin Powell's, was private or public. I don't think they care. These are legitimate questions. Brianna was right. The answer doesn't get you a vote. What got her a vote was the part that we've seen on other shows which is her talk on immigration. And she went out of her way to pop Jeb Bush to take a very strong progressive stance on immigration. That's an issue people actually vote on. On Monday she says she told Brianna she's going to give a major speech on the economy. That's what this election is going to be determined about, not about these kind of process matters, which she has to deal with and I thought she dealt with very well.

CAMEROTA: Kevin, what did you think were her strengths and weaknesses?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I think the fact that it was making news that she was giving and interview was a problem. Every other candidate right now is giving interviews on a regular basis. So that's one part of it.

I think the questions about she was asked to address about whether or not American's trust her, I found that to be the most illuminating part of the interview. You could tell that she was very uneasy handling these questions, that she didn't want to talk about it.

I think one of the other interesting things is that while she talked about issues of trust, everything she said as part of her defense wasn't true. There have been subpoenas involved. The email system that she was using was not the same as what happened with Colin Powell. She did not go above and beyond the law of what was required. These are actually State Department regulations that are crystal clear that she should have been following and wasn't.

And I think the other interesting part was that during the course of the interview she blamed the right wing for all of these problems related to her trust. Hillary Clinton has nobody to blame but herself. Every story or every answer that she's had for what was wrong with the e-mail system that she had has been debunked. And so I think that is at the heart of why Americans have trust issues.

And let's not forget, these are not Republicans that were bringing this up. This was the "New York Times," this was CNN, this was the AP that broke stories about her e-mail server.

CAMEROTA: Paul, let's talk about that.

BEGALA: I need to defend my friend. I need to defend my friend.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead.

BEGALA: There used to be a governor of Massachusetts whose name was Mitt Romney. Kevin worked for him. When he left Massachusetts, 11 top Romney aides plus the governor wiped their entire hard drives. Did that become an issue? Did the press ask Romney about it? No. This is a double standard. Romney is the son of a CEO, so we can't question him.

MADDEN: Classic Clinton play book.

BEGALA: It's a total double standard.

MADDEN: Classic Clinton playbook -- distract, then demonize.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: Distract and then demonize. Every time this happens.

CAMEROTA: Hold on, Kevin. It's not just the e-mails. It's the CNN poll which shows her trustworthy numbers from voters are upside down. And do you, Paul, think it was a good response, a winning strategy, to say that's because of a barrage of GOP attacks only?

BEGALA: Yes. Yes. Yes. First of all, it was a good strategy because she is the Democratic frontrunner and Democrats don't like Republicans. Second, it has the virtue of being true. Third, by the way, the only entity with lower numbers on trust is the media. Literally, she is at 42 in the CNN poll on trust and the media in the Gallup poll was at 40. Finally, I worked for another Clinton in the 90s who on Election Day -- can you imagine, this? Ron Brownstein pointed this out in the "National Journal." I went back and looked, Brownstein, as usual was right. On Election Day Bill Clinton's trust was 41 percent. And yet he won 31 states plus the district of Columbia, 379 electoral votes. Because of that point Hillary made, the trust question for voters is do I trust you to fight for me and not for special interests.

CUOMO: That's kind of a sad commentary, Paul, across the board. I mean it just is. Who knows who's to blame, whether it's the politicians, whether it's the guys like you or the guys like us, who knows? But we know that we're in a bad state of affairs. Kevin, let me ask you, though. There is so much distraction surrounding all of these candidates with how they're playing their game. Do you believe it is a mistake for the media and also for the candidates to play so much to the inside and seem to be apparently ignoring the interests of the people who will eventually vote for them?

MADDEN: Well, I think there's often too much emphasis put on the horse race. As much as I love the horse race, right, that's one of the things that we all love about politics is how it is that you actually go out and engage voters and beat your opponents, but where I think the media and the focus is right is on the question of attribute attributes. I think voters do take that very seriously. That's why the trust issue and the focus on the trust issue is very important with Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: Paul is saying if they want to find a high integrity person and that's who they're going to vote for, you're never going to find anybody because everybody's numbers stink on that.

MADDEN: Well, the interesting thing is people want to know that they can trust you, that you're going to reflect and fight for the issues that they care about.

[08:15:04] One of the things that is interesting, though, with Hillary Clinton is six in ten Americans don't trust her. But also, in recent CNN polls, what we've seen is, and I think this is the reason that we're seeing a Bernie Sanders boomlet, is many Democrats feel that she's not as good on reflecting Democrat values as some of the other candidates.

So, I think that is why you're seeing a lot of energy go towards Bernie Sanders. And Hillary Clinton starts to again -- she's had to face a lot more questions about her viability in some of these early primary states.

CAMEROTA: Paul, why do you think there's so much energy going towards Bernie right now?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, because there's a lot of energy in my party, on the populist left. I said many times -- I think it's a good thing. He -- Bernie is not attacking Hillary. You noticed yesterday, Brianna gave Hillary every opening to go after Bernie, she chose not to. I think that's wise.

For Hillary, the most important day of her campaign second to the announcement is going to be Monday. She told Brianna she's going to give a major economic speech. This is where the campaign needs to go. I think everybody who wants to be president needs to answer the question, what are you going to do to boost the incomes of the American middle class?

The American middle class is under enormous pressure. We're dying out here. Well, we, the middle class, I once was one. And we want somebody who can fix that middle class economics quiz. And that's the most important thing.

MADDEN: She was asked about taxes, Paul, she wouldn't even answer a straightforward question about taxes. She wouldn't address it.

BEGALA: Madden, she says I'm going to speech. You can't -- you're a press guy. You can't scoop your own speech in an interview on a Tuesday when six days later you're giving this major address.

MADDEN: Are you higher taxes or not?

BEGALA: Tune in Monday.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Paul, Kevin, thanks so much for the debate and your perceptions of that interview.

Tonight, everyone will get to hear what Donald Trump has to say when he sits down with Anderson Cooper on "AC360". That airs tonight, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

CUOMO: You want political news? Of course you do. So, go to CNNPolitics.com. That is our big clearing house of information for you.

Mick?

PEREIRA: All right. More fallout this morning for Bill Cosby. Disney and at least two TV networks distancing themselves from the comedic icon, this after revelations that Cosby got prescriptions for sedatives to give to women he wanted to sleep with.

CNN correspondent Boris Sanchez is here in our studio with more reaction -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

The fallout continues for Cosby. That 2005 deposition where that information was revealed, the strongest evidence so far for more than two dozen women who claim the 77-year-old comedian drugged and raped them.

Now, not everyone is distancing themselves from Cosby. You mentioned Disney. A CNN affiliate reporting that they're removing a statue of him from their Hollywood Studios theme park and two networks removing "The Cosby Show" reruns from the air. But as I said, not everyone distancing themselves from him. Yesterday, long time Cosby friend, Whoopi Goldberg, defending him on "The View".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": In America, still I know it's a shock, but you actually were innocent until proven guilty. He has not been proven a rapist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Cosby has denied all the accusations against him. His attorney has declined a chance to comment on that deposition. His publicist also saying there are no plans for a statement -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Boris, thanks so much for that update.

We'll be speaking with two of the accusers momentarily. Meanwhile, the Defense Department announcing cuts, 40,000 troops from

the Army bases across the country, 17,000 civilian employees will also be cut be from the payroll by 2017. The Pentagon warns the cuts could grow deeper of the there are additional budget cuts. Defense officials expected to layout specific cuts at individual bases in the coming days.

CUOMO: A scare for a Pittsburgh Pirates groundskeeper who literally got swallowed up by a tarp by the wind. He's caught up in there. Here he is, right? They have a rain delay. We all know how this works. And, all of a sudden, he's just gone. The players who were watching all of a sudden went to his aid. Luckily they went out there and were able to peel it back and find the guy. There he is.

PEREIRA: It's the most incredible video.

CUOMO: Everybody clapped, but I have to tell you something, that was a very dangerous situation.

PEREIRA: Totally. Those gusts are so strong.

CUOMO: He could run out of air.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: If they wrapped him up tight, he knows if they find them, get him out.

CAMEROTA: You heard the announcer say it looked like a tsunami. It did seem like waves were coming and knocked it down.

PEREIRA: I watched that video about ten times because I couldn't believe how quickly it happens, right? This thing happened in an instant, my goodness. The power of Mother Nature.

All right. So, we'll talk Bill Cosby more when we come back -- his image crashing down in the last year amid these accusations of sexual assault. These charges took years to surface. A lot of people were talking about them. Did race play a factor in keeping some of the accusers from coming forward?

We have two of the accusers here. We'll talk to them coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:23:26] RAVEN SYMONE, ACTRESS: I don't really like to talk about it that much because he's the reason I'm on this panel in the first place. He gave me my first job. But at the same time, you know, you need the proof and then I'll be able to give my judgment here or there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Yes. CAMEROTA: Well, that was Raven Symone, whose career took off when she was cast as Olivia on "The Cosby Show". She's one of the people who have been hesitant to go after Cosby, who, of course, has this status as an icon in the African American community, as well as across the country. And, of course, it's been a source of pride for blacks for years.

But did his status keep other accusers from coming forward?

Once again, we are joined by two of Cosby's accusers, Kaya Thompson and Jewel Allison.

Ladies, thanks so much for being here.

Kaya, I want to start with you, because you shared that with Raven Symone. You too were a young actress. You were an extra on "The Cosby Show".

So, do you understand her feeling of not wanting to speak out against someone who you considered your mentor?

KAYA THOMPSON, BILL COSBY ACCUSER: Yes. Initially, yes. And yes, I do understand that feeling.

CAMEROTA: But it changed for you?

THOMPSON: Drastically.

PEREIRA: Jewel, I want to ask you about that same sort of thought because you wrote this very, very thoughtful piece in "The Washington Post", and I want to read a little portion of it.

"As an African-American woman, I felt the takes for me were even higher. Historic images of black men being vilified en masse as sexually violent sent chills through my body. Telling my story wouldn't only help bring down Cosby, I feared it would undermine the entire African-American community."

Imagine that weight you carried.

[08:25:00] JEWEL ALLISON, BILL COSBY ACCUSER: And still do. And still do.

You know, "The Cosby Show" came out, as I mentioned in the article, that it came out during a time in the '80s. And this was a time when the Central Park jogger case was full throttle in the media.

CAMEROTA: It was about a young black man attacking a white woman.

ALLISON: Yes. And the way black men were being portrayed in the media was really bad.

PEREIRA: He was a needed icon in the community.

ALLISON: We needed that sense to feel good about ourselves, I think, I think, you know? I think that it made us feel validated and we wanted to feel, you know, better about ourselves. Particularly in the '80s, you know, we had the crack epidemic come forward and then again the Central Park jogger case happening at the same time. So it was a time when I think the black community having this wonderful image of a black family in a positive light was really a wonderful thing for us.

PEREIRA: And you didn't want to bring all of that crashing down?

ALLISON: No. To have that weighing on your heart and your mind and knowing that if you came forward, that you would perhaps be tarnishing an image that was so important to the black community.

CAMEROTA: So, Kaya, what did turn it around for you? Where did you get the strength to speak out against your mentor?

THOMPSON: I tried many times initially right after the incidents. And it was not accepted well. I had medical professionals not believe me. So I learned kind of the hard way unless I really, really liked someone and felt safe not to discuss it.

In 2005, when I was Jane Ddoe two and there were going to be 13 of us, it was extremely rewarding to know there were other women who were speaking up. And to kind of put him aside, my concern was for all the people who could be hurt by his actions by my not speaking up.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMPSON: And that was -- go ahead.

PEREIRA: I was going to say, but it's come with a price. I mean, both of you have struggled very individually not only with the experience, right, but then also with coming forward. You have been vilified. You have been called names. You've been attacked. Both of you have dealt with that. In terms -- that must be extra painful when some of that vitriol was coming from within your own community, Kaya.

THOMPSON: It is. It is it is very painful.

Many of the women I've spoken with, we've had similar things we've had to walk through, be it PTSD, suicide attempts. It's not easy at all, and this has not been. And the reward, though, of knowing for myself knowing personally, I don't really want to go down in the books being known for this.

PEREIRA: Of course not.

THOMPSON: But to know I don't have to lie about this time in my life anymore and that maybe I could school somebody in that industry, or a little bit better how to move forward in it. I'm here to help, so, to serve.

CAMEROTA: Jewel, I want -- thanks, Kaya. I want to read to you two tweets from famous singer Jill Scott who has evolved on this. Back when your story first came out she didn't believe it. She tweeted to people she didn't believe it. Back then, this was December 1st, 2014, "I'm respecting a man who has done more for the image of brown people than almost anyone ever. From Fat Albert to the Huxtables." She was angry that this was coming out and that people were accusing him. After the revelations that he got Quaaludes prescriptions to give to women he wanted to have sex with two days ago, she tweeted this, "About Bill Cosby sadly his own testimony offers proof of terrible deeds, which is all I have ever required to believe the accusations."

ALLISON: God bless her. God bless her.

The truth hurts. It really does. I mean, imagine how I personally felt going through it and feeling the same way that the whole world felt about him, and then having my own feelings and images and expectations of him inside my mind and in my heart destroyed, you know, as you're going through it. It was very, very, very painful. It still is a very, very painful process.

But at the same time, I have learned that it's important to come forward and speak your truth. This has fallen at the doorsteps of the African American community. And now I think we need to decide what we're going to do with it.