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U.S. Attorney General's Press Conference about the Shooter in Charleston, South Carolina; Interview with Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 22, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It involves submissions from defense counsel. It involves consultation with the victims' families, and it involves a review of all the various factors that we would utilize to seek the death penalty to determine whether or not that we feel we could prevail on factors of the trial.

Ultimately after this review process which is both at the U.S. attorney's office level, it is then also here in main justice and ultimately it comes to my desk where I make the ultimate decision whether or not to seek the death penalty in any death-eligible case.

As I've said before, I do want to be clear that no decision has been made at this point in time as to whether or not to seek that penalty. We do have an obligation to place the defendant on notice that the penalty is an option and to allow his counsel the time to begin to prepare to make those submissions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Can you talk a little bit about what your office is doing in conjunction with the FBI? Can you talk a little bit about what your office is doing in conjunction with the FBI to sort of close some of the issues that came up with him getting in the first place?

LYNCH: Well, as Director Comey announced I think about ten days ago, he has initiated a review into the procedures that allowed that unfortunately led to us missing the fact that Mr. Roof had applied to purchase that gun. This was a matter of grave importance. It's something that was very disturbing, and frankly heartbreaking to all of us who were reviewing that matter. So that investigation is ongoing, and I look forward to receiving the results from it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: On a slightly different topic, yesterday you said you were looking at the bland case. Can you expand on that? Are you officially monitoring? Are you opening an investigation?

LYNCH: You're referring to Miss Bland who died in Texas while in police custody. As noted that matter is actually under investigation by local authorities. The FBI is monitoring that case as we often do in many situations, and we're weighing the results of local investigations as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Ma'am, could you talk a little bit about what your views are on the Planned Parenthood videos that have been out. I know you've received some letters from members of Congress. You know, there is an applicable federal law here and is that something that you are going to open an investigation on?

LYNCH: Well, I'm aware of those -- of those matters generally from the media and from some inquiries that have been made to the department of justice. And, again, at this point we're going to review all the information and determine what steps, if any, to take at the appropriate time.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: All right. So you've been listening to U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch taking a number of questions from media there, specifically on this case. She's just announced the 33- count indictment against the gunman there in that June 17th massacre in Charleston, South Carolina church.

Bakari Sellers, I still have you with me, CNN contributor and former South Carolina representative. And I think beyond the fact that she was talking about this counts beyond the fact that this case at the federal level, in addition to state could be, you know, death penalty eligible. And she couldn't go into the evidence. But did you catch how she was saying that they know that this man chose this church, chose mother Emanuel specifically, not just because of the regional historical significance, because of the national significance and also because apparently he wanted to kill these parishioners because of their prominence in this community.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: And, Brooke, to be honest, he wanted to kill them because they were black. I think that what Loretta Lynch went to say and what she said was that the DOJ, they don't take these matters lightly. They are very successful when they do. And they chose this matter because they know what was in that young man's heart. The evidence is there, and we're excited. We're happy.

And if I may I think that it's apropos that Loretta Lynch, an amazing black woman is prosecuting Dylann Roof. I'm not sure that he's too excited about that theory in his jail cell down in Charleston.

BALDWIN: Bakari Sellers, thank you so much.

You know, one question was asked of her about Sandra Bland, the case out of Texas, and I just want to give all of you the heads up. She, according to the sheriff there, committed suicide in her jail cell but the family is saying no, and in fact they order an autopsy. We're expecting to hear from family members of Sandra Bland momentarily and hear their reaction to this newly released dash cam video that shows why she ended up in a jail cell in Waller County Texas, at least paints a picture what have happened on the street before she ended up in the cell. 28-year-old woman was found dead there on July 13th, just three days after her arrest. Authorities say she killed herself. As I mentioned, the family not buying it. We'll bring you the news from her family coming up.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:39:01] BALDWIN: All right, 16, that is the number of Republican candidates in the race to become president, the one getting the most attention at this moment Donald Trump taking the political world by storm, skyrocketing to the top of many polls, leading his Republican rivals, including former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum who is polling at about two percent in the latest CNN poll of polls. And Senator Santorum is joining me now.

Thank you so much for being here.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Brooke. Good to be with you.

BALDWIN: And I know, you know, we're showing the polls and you said the focus shouldn't be on the polls, the focus should be on Iowa and New Hampshire. Tell me why.

SANTORUM: Because that who decides who is going to be on the short list of who is going to be president of the United States, not national polls seven months before the first election. And the fixation of that by the media is -- well, it -

BALDWIN: It would determines the first debate and the top ten.

SANTORUM: It would and it shouldn't. I mean, if you look at four years ago I think the people at the top of the polls, other than Mitt Romney, but I don't think he's out of that at the top right now. I think Rick Perry was at the top or Michelle Bachmann.

[15:40:03] BALDWIN: Rudy Giuliani actually.

SANTORUM: Rudy Giuliani. That was eight years ago.

BALDWIN: Eight years ago. That was Fred Thompson as well.

BALDWIN: Yes. And not any of those won a single delegate. So the idea that had that somehow is some barometer of success is just folly. And the bottom line is we should be looking at who has serious -- who are serious candidates and serious campaigns. And in this case candidly there's a lot. There are, you know, 15, 16 pretty good candidates out there.

BALDWIN: Four years ago you campaigned in all 68 counties, correct?

SANTORUM: That would be 99.

BALDWIN: Ninety-nine counties.

SANTORUM: Ninety-nine counties In Iowa.

BALDWIN: Ninety-nine counties, you won Iowa.

SANTORUM: Yes.

BALDWIN: Flash forward a couple years ago --

SANTORUM: And by the way, I was at one percent in the polls four years ago.

BALDWIN: OK. Perspective, but you know, everyone knows you now and you won Iowa, and you still aren't polling well in Iowa. Why do you think people there are rejecting you?

SANTORUM: I don't think anybody is rejecting. I think it's just, you know, understanding how things go in Iowa which is everybody feels like they need to kick the tires. And you know, you don't see anybody in Iowa at a very significant number. Almost everybody is within the margin of error in the polls, and what I'm hearing when I go to Iowa, I like you, you are on my list, that's it.

BALDWIN: Scott Walker and Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Bobby Jindal and then you.

SANTORUM: Yes. And again, if you go back four years in Iowa, I was at one or two percent in the polls, too. And I just -- my feeling is the people of Iowa are looking at and in -- in the showroom looking at different models, taking some test drives. Some candidates as they get national attention are going to rise in the polls. But eventually Iowa voters, New Hampshire voters, they are going to get serious about who they actually want as president. And when they did that four years ago, we did exceptionally well. We came -- we were basically zero to 60 in about a three-week period of time. I think will be a little bit more of a gradual buildup on that this time around but I have every confidence we will be there.

BALDWIN: Just one more on polls and then I promise we will move on. I see the eye roll, Senator. You know, knew you. They love you in Iowa. But then you also have Pennsylvania, obviously, as senator, you lost in 2006 as an incumbent. But again, when you look at the Pennsylvania polls, you aren't polling in the top there as well. And I'm wondering if that is because do you see a shift in Republicans, a shift in those constituents who would have voted you in a number of years ago? What's happening?

SANTORUM: Well, I can just say that four years ago when we -- before we dropped out of the race, we were running 15 or 20 points ahead of Mitt Romney in Pennsylvania. Again, I just think it's a matter of national attention, national perspective. We're not getting a whole lot of national attention and not, you know, rated high up in -- by the experts who talk about who the best candidate, is. And I think that has an impact on voters who are not paying a lot of attention. I think if you asked in the polls name three candidates who are running for president before you ask anybody their names, I think that most people have a hard time naming three much less all 16.

So I think a lot of these polls just really don't mean much at this point and the fixation that says well you're doing well or not doing well on something that really has no barometer of telling how well you're doing is I think is wrong headed.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about the latest fixation, if I many. I know you know where I'm going, cue the eye roll again here.

SANTORUM: I'm not rolling eyes. BALDWIN: Donald Trump.

Listen, he is polling well, but beyond that, when you look at some of the words, these are Republican -- just presidential candidates. You're hearing - forgive me, you're a family man, you are hearing jackass and idiot and bloviator. All of these thrown out back and forth. How would you characterize this Republican race right now?

SANTORUM: As descending into personal attacks which don't really benefit anybody who is involved?

BALDWIN: Personal attacks are one thing. This seems --

SANTORUM: Well, I mean, they are a bit of personal attacks. I mean, they are attacks on people's character. There are attacks on people's judgment. And I don't think that benefits anybody. I don't think it benefits either side that's doing the name-calling. And I pretty much decided that that's not a game I'm going to play.

I mean, I saw that four years ago where our -- where several of the candidates in the race conducted attacks, personal attacks and ended up, you know, being used by opponents in the fall election saying, hey, look, even his Republican opponent said this about him.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SANTORUM: There's something -- you can disagree as I do with several candidates on a variety of different issues and you point out those disagreements on issues. It's different if you then say, well, because they said something mean they are a mean person or they said something that you think is not very bright, they are not a very bright person. That's -- that's -- that goes too far. I think it undermines the entire field in my opinion.

BALDWIN: What about faith and Iowa because I think something that is getting underplayed is what Donald Trump said about faith, about forgiveness. I believe he called communion eating a cracker. How do you think that resonated with the evangelicals out there?

SANTORUM: Can I tell you, I went to a church the next morning in Oskaloosa, Iowa and the pastor at a Christian reform church that I went to got up and start talking about Donald Trump and brought that up.

[15:45:07] BALDWIN: No kidding.

SANTORUM: I think, that you know, certainly, again, like everything else. These are issues that people are going to start finding out about candidates. One of the things that I do know is that a lot of people know a lot of things about me, good and bad. A lot of candidates they don't know a lot about. They may hear some good things, they probably have -- at this point haven't heard a lot of bad things and that's what the campaign is about. You get to know who these candidates are, not just the positions they hold but who they are.

BALDWIN: But as a man of faith how did that sit with you hearing that?

SANTORUM: You know, I have a very -- I ask God for forgiveness continually throughout the day, and I probably will be after I leave here. I'm sure I said something I probably I shouldn't said quite right and I'll ask for forgiveness. He has a very different view of faith than I do. He's entitled to that view. He's an American. It is a free country and people are going to make decisions as to whether they are comfortable having someone like that in the White House. Some people will be attracted by that, others people won't.

BALDWIN: Issues that he's single-handed by put at forefront row, immigration, veterans issues. What's another issue that you think should be at the forefront?

SANTORUM: Well, I put at the forefront of my campaign the fact that middle America is hollowing out and the opportunity for particularly those who don't have college degrees, 74 percent of Americans, age 25 to 65, don't have a college degree. And if you look at the economy today and you look at what both political parties are out there messaging on, they aren't talking about helping those workers get good-paying jobs. And in fact, I would argue that this president is doing more to harm those workers by putting in rules and regulations and taxes that make it very hard for manufacturing to compete in America. And growing up in western Pennsylvania and seeing how manufacturing created things here in America, created a strong middle of America and the fact that when that went away, middle America started hollowing out.

We need to bring that back. We need to be competitive. This is all about competitiveness. And if we're going to create jobs and opportunities for those workers to succeed we've got to cut our taxes. We got to get our regulatory house in order. We got to get our trade policies in order.

You know, I'm -- I'm looking at -- I support the XM bank which is not -- I don't think there's any other Republican in the field who actually supports that. Why? Because I want to make sure our exporters can compete and keep jobs here in America.

So if you look at it and also immigration, another issue that we've had 35 million people come into this country over the last 20 years that. Can be a good thing or bad thing, but the bottom line is wages have flat lined over that 20-year period. The vast majority of people they are bringing into this country are low-skilled workers competing against Americans who are struggling to climb the ladder. And I think that we have to look at our immigration policy through that lens and determine what going forward we should be doing, and I've called for actually reductions in immigration because of that.

BALDWIN: OK. Senator Rick Santorum.

SANTORUM: Hey, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Great seeing you again.

SANTORUM: Thank you. My pleasure. BALDWIN: Thank you so much.

Any minute now we're expecting to hear from the family of Sandra Bland. We have been covering that story out of Texas, 28-year-old woman found dead in her jail cell three days after she was pulled over for what started as a traffic violation. Officials say she killed herself in that jail cell. Her family is questioning that.

Stay here. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CANNON LAMBERT, BLAND'S FAMILY ATTORNEY: Celebration that Sandy Bland will have here at this church. And as consequence of that home going and until that home going of hers, her mother has elected to forego anytime to the media at this time. So I will start off by asking that you understand and appreciate as you will not be taking any questions of any kind at this particular point.

I know that there is a lot of questions that are surrounding the dash cam and we wanted to take this opportunity to respond to getting the dash cam and what is displayed in it. If you look at the dash cam, I think that you see right out of the gate - right out of the gate, you see from that dash cam that this could have easily been avoided.

There was very little reason that can be glommed from the dash cam why Sandy had to be asked to put her cigarette out, why Sandy had to be asked to get out of the car, why Sandy had to be subject to the officer point a taser at her, why Sandy had to be thrown to the ground and hurt?

There are even more questions that have come out of Texas than we have when we were down there. Now, there is the dash cam and we don't know the circumstances surrounding the footage on the dash cam. We don't at the position where we are going to say that it has been tampered with. We are not in a position that it has not. We simply don't know. I'm not a forensic media examiner, but now I know that we are going to have to get one.

The long and short of it is, is that, we want everything that happened from the time that the police interfaced with Sandy up on to the time that she was found who have died and beyond to come to light.

Right now, Sandy is speaking and this family feels that Sandy is speaking. She is speaking saying find the truth. Find the answers. We want the answers and Sandy demands them. And we will find them.

The reality of it is that when this family have to see that dash cam, the emotion that it drew from them was extraordinary. And we want to give you an opportunity to talk to their spokesperson and ask him some questions about that.

So with that, should there be any questions of me, you certainly can ask me, but -- yes?

[15:55:12] UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: A couple things have come to light not on the dash cam but on the video -- on the dash cam she does say she suffers from epilepsy. In another video that she made, she said she suffered from depression and PTSD. Can you shed any light on that? And was she taking medication? And if so, what was she taking for that?

LAMBERT: I tell you that we take issue with the notion that she was suffering from depression. She was never clinically diagnosed, as this family understands. Everybody has hills and valleys, and the bottom line is that there was no medication that we are aware of that she was taking to address any sort of epilepsy or depression.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: So you don't -- it's not even clear she had epilepsy either?

LAMBERT: The long and short of it is, is that, with regard to her medical history, none of that has anything to do with why that stop took place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: No, no, the jail, what happened --

LAMBERT: What I would say is, is that, despite the effort to try and divert the energy and attention from what really happened, we will not fall subject to it. This happened because an officer was overzealous. This happened because an officer decided that he wished to overstep his authority. And that's where our focus is going to remain for the current time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: But it goes to whether or not (INAUDIBLE) raises questions whether or not she committed suicide.

LAMBERT: What raises questions is why it is that a 28-year-old woman who had received two job offers would take her own life. What it does is that it raises questions. It raises questions why a 28-year-old woman would call her mother in excitement about those two jobs, and then take her life. Sandy was a social activist. Social activists don't take their own life, particularly in jail. It just doesn't make sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: There's a newspaper report she told jailers she had tried to commit suicide in the past. Is that true?

LAMBERT: We can't wait to see what's in all the reports that they have. I know you don't have them all and neither do we. This investigation is ongoing. And we look forward to it being completed. We don't know what they are alleging that she told them. I know what the newspaper article said. But until I see the reports, I won't be in a position where I can respond to that question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Can you talk a bit about being an activist. I know we have seen that the videos she posted online. What other things that she do as an activist? Was she involved in protest? (INAUDIBLE) about that?

LAMBERT: Sandy daily - for the most part, daily made posts, inspirational posts, efforts to try to bring other people up. She put her arms around people. That's why there's been such a groundswell of support for her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Were there other components to the activism that we should know about? Protesting, things like that?

LAMBERT: Well, if you mean speaking up for the interests of the many, caring for kids and the generation behind her, yes, she was an activist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Sir, do you think Sandy did anything wrong during that traffic stop? Some people are asking, why didn't she just cooperate?

LAMBERT: Well, here's the problems. Citizens have rights. And when you lay down your rights voluntary, you forgo the enjoyment of those rights. And I don't know that you don't have an obligation to give away your rights. This country was founded on the citizens in it enjoying its rights - their rights. That's what Sandy was doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: But just a follow-up on that. If she had just gotten out of the car and not -- not in any way negative towards the police officers, whether he deserved it or not, if she had just, you know stepped out of the car and cooperated, could this all have been avoided?

SHARON COOPER, SANDY BLAND'S SISTER: Could I answer that question, please?

Sharon Cooper. I just would like to address the question. In looking at the video, I have seen the video in its entirety. Sandy was pulled over for failure to indicate a proper lane change, and in looking at that, as her sister, I simply feel like the officer was picking on her. Point-blank, period. And I personally think that it's petty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Do you believe he pulled her over because she was black?

COOPER: I think he pulled her over because she was not a resident (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Ms. Cooper, would you see your sister crying out a name, who would (INAUDIBLE).

COOPER: I'm infuriated and everybody else should be infuriated as well. From the petty charge to the officer asking her, let's be clear he asked her, can you take your cigarette out for me please. That's not an instruction.