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Investigators Looking Into Dashcam Video of Sandra Bland's Arrest; Trump Escalates War of Words Against Lindsey Graham. Aired 06:00-06:30a ET.

Aired July 22, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


[06:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: They are demanding an independent autopsy. Ed is live in Hempstead, Texas with all the developments. Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Well, the family of Sandra Bland and investigators looking at the video trying to see if it puts together anymore clues or information as to why Sandra Bland ended up dead, here in Texas.

Newly released dashcam video of 28-year-old Sandra Bland's arrest is raising questions about what really took place just three days before she was found dead in this Texas jail cell. For starters, the 52-minute video of the traffic stop and her arrest appear to have several discrepancies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't touch me.

LAVANDERA: Watch as the white vehicle driving on the left suddenly vanishes from the road. And this brief moment where a tow truck driver walks away from the dashcam's view then quickly reappears at the truck's door, immediately following a scene repeats. All the while, the audio is playing uninterrupted.

It's not clear whether the video was edited or if an equipment issue is to blame. All of this casting doubt that the video reflects a continuous account of the heated encounter with Texas state trooper, Brian Encina.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to drag you out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you are - so you said, you're going to drag me out of my own car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car. I would like you up. Get out, now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For failure to signal? You're doing all this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get over there.

LAVANDERA: A bystander captured images of the trooper holding Bland to the ground. But dashcam video caught what she was saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you are a real man now, you're going to slam me knock my head on the ground. I got epilepsy, you moron.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.

LAVANDERA: Authorities say Bland later committed suicide in her cell. This is a look inside where she spent her final hours. The Texas Department of Public Safety said, Trooper Encina failed to comply with the department standards for professionalism. He's been pulled off patrol duty as state officials investigate. Police say, they are looking into Bland's death as a murder.

And Chris, this morning, we have calls out to the Department of Public Safety here in Texas as we've mentioned. We reached out to them late last night after we notice the discrepancies in the - in the video. They say, they will be looking into that to provide some sort of explanation. But we have not heard from Texas DPS officials to explain what exactly was wrong with this video.

Because as you can clearly see several moments in that nearly hour long video that show those glitches in - in - in the images. And as were trying to figure out was that deliberate or was that some sort of equipment malfunction. We will continue to monitor that throughout the day today, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's the right question, Ed. We have to know why the police - it's - it's - you know, what their explanation is. So you stay on it. Let us know how we can help you with that. We'll check back with Ed in a little bit.

Let's bring in Danny Cevallos, a CNN Legal Analyst and criminal defense attorney Mo Ivory, an attorney in Radio House. Thanks to both of you on short notice for this. Let's just go through these two things that we distill. OK. Here is the first one.

And basically, the concern is with this that the tow truck operator, who you will see. You know, we highlight him there. He - you - you saw it, it jumped, he moves, he reappears, he comes back. Now, underneath this video, which seems to be altered somehow or wrong somehow, the audio is consistent, which draws two inferences.

One, it means that the video was changed because the audio is consistent or two, were they both changed to accommodate some different point of reference of what this video means. What is your take to start off with Mo Ivory?

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY & RADIO PERSONALITY: Yes. Chris, you know, I started to see that last night. The first person that tweeted that was Ava DuVernay, the director of the movie "Selma." She's an editor of video. And she knows when footage has been edited.

And so I went back again and I watched the entirety of the video. And it's very obvious that it was edited. Now, when you - to determine whether the audio was edited, I kind of went back again and again and something like there might have been some audio that was completely deleted in that edit to match up with the video that was edited.

It could have been the slightest of a comment that could have been crucial to the case. So I don't know that we can say that the audio was not edited as well because we don't know if that consistency is really consistent. There were breaks in what he was saying.

CUOMO: Yes. Yes. Right.

CAMEROTA: But Danny, what we understand was happening in the audio at the time there was a video glitch or edit, is that the officer was talking to his supervisor. Did you hear anything - either of you that was damming or would have been damming in that conversation that would have required an audio edit, Danny.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I - the thing is - is whether or not there's an audio edit to even begin with and a video edit. You know, when it comes to this, the thing that strikes me about this video is in a relatively short amount of time, we, especially defense attorneys have gone from having lousy or nonexistent video of traffic stops to - in some cases pretty good video.

[06:05:00] And the real issue is what is the chain of custody of both the audio and video component after this stopped. If somebody went in there and altered metadata, altered audio, if it's digitally stored, that is something that can be discovered and, oh, what a risk a supervisor somebody else takes in going in and changing any of that if at all.

And I listen to the audio and I watched the video and I saw the jump. And I will say that in, say, some closed circuit TV video I have seen in the past, you see that kind of jump. But if it is an edit especially with the quality of video this is a really good quality as what I have seen.

CUOMO: This - this isn't a jump that's synchronized, that goes from 8:18 to 8:17 to 8:26, let's say. And I want to get through the next one. Because I want to talk about the stop, too. Because there are plenty of issues beyond the video. But this one, again, OK. Now, the police will say Sandra wasn't even on the scene right now, so what difference does it make. But this car clearly reappears, you know, then it makes a left turn, and it's going to come back again.

And you know, there it is again. In the same - same kind of thing happens and it disappears again. The - the - there was another piece of video that also has a group of cars that almost like in Fred Flintstones fashion, you know, they like drive past and then they drive past again like as a look background. Obviously, there is something amiss here. The question is why.

Now, Mo, the police may well say, she's not even here anymore. She's been taken off the scene. This is a tow truck thing. The audio is there. You hear the guy explaining it. Much to do about nothing. What's your counter?

IVORY: Yes. I completely disagree. Because like Alisyn said prior, he was talking to his supervisor, sort of explaining what happened. And he has a very different version of what happened from what I think I saw on the video. And he is saying, she was escalating and he even says I tried to de-escalate. At no point did that officer try to de-escalate the situation? If anything, he escalated the situation when he already put out his cigarette and she did not want to. So that audio is very important whether she's in the video or not to match up what he was saying and relaying the story to the supervisor.

CAMEROTA: Mo, we have that moment of escalation. Let's watch this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to yank you out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You're going to yank me out of my car? OK. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out. Get out of the car, now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why am I being apprehended? You try to give me a ticket for a failure...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said, get out of the car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why am I being apprehended? I'll open my car door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to drag you out of here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're going to drag me out of my own car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the car. I'm going to light you up. Get out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

CAMEROTA: Danny - OK, so that's the moment that Mo was just talking about where you hear him escalating and you hear her escalating. He says get out of the car, I will light you up. Danny, does someone who was pulled over have the right to ask officers why am I being apprehended? Why am I being apprehended? Do they have to give the driver a reason? CEVALLOS: Oh, they can - they can ask. But it's more than that.

What really the law that really jumps out of me is the fact that most people don't realize this. If this is a lawful traffic stop, police can order any driver out of the car. And that is the sticking point. The other thing is that police can continue their investigation even after they have given the warning and they say have a nice day.

I can't tell you how many defendants give up their right to privacy when they allow an officer to search the trunk after technically they were as the court would say, free to leave. So this is a classic escalation of an encounter.

CUOMO: Danny, you're saying two different things. I'm not saying you are being deceptive. Let's just take a step back.

CEVALLOS: No, I'm not.

CUOMO: Because we know what people are going to say. They are going to say this was unusual force by the officer or they are going to say, he was ordering her out of the car and she didn't comply. So let's just start, it's unlawful signal. She didn't signal. He pulls her over. Whether she was signaling or not. Whether she was supposed to or not. That's the stop. If the officer says, get out of the car, legally, do you have to, even if it's for a lane change?

CEVALLOS: Yes, you do. And even for a traffic stop. People will be shocked. It feels unjust, but, yes, under a Supreme Court case, called NIMS if the police - it the traffic stop is lawful, may order not only the driver but a later case, even passengers out of the car.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CUOMO: So Mo, when the cop says get out of the car and she starts asking him questions, what is your take and what's the result going to be?

IVORY: Yes. The take is that the officer is the one in control. And he is the one that has been taught to learn how to deal with different people, right? Some people are going to be just OK. And some are going to be obviously agitated. That's not an anomaly for her to be agitated. What he did not do is use his professional training to de-escalate the situation. When he asked her to put her cigarette out, she didn't want to. She didn't want to put her cigarette out. I can understand that.

She's fed up with the whole system of what's been going on. She has a right to be. He did not, at that point, have to start talking to her like a child. Like he was scolding. Get out. Right now. I mean, he is the one that took her agitation to another level and then abused his power in the rest of the arrest.

[06:10:00] CAMEROTA: Danny - Danny, she says, I'm in my own car, why do I have to put out my cigarette. Is that right? I mean, legally, whatever a police officer tells you to do, in a traffic stop must you do it? IVORY: No.

CEVALLOS: It's heartbreaking - it's heartbreaking, but the reality is most defense attorneys would say, as unfair as it is, comply with it. And we'll fight the bust later. That's why this is heart breaking to watch. But I did even say, I do not know the current state of the case law on ordering a driver to put out their cigarette.

But I will say this that if the officer's theory in this case, we are going to scrutinize it in the days to come and weeks to come. If the officer's theory was that the stop was completed, I was giving her only a warning, then telling her to put out her cigarette was clearly trying to engage her and trying to get her riled up. I mean, that is...

CUOMO: Even the police said what was going on. They said he violated their training protocols on how to do a stop. At least that's not an open question here as to whether or not he was doing the right thing in his manner, at least at this point.

IVORY: Yes. I'm really bothered by the narrative that you know, whatever a police officer tells you to do, you are supposed to do. If he pulls me over as a woman and tell me to take my clothes off and get in the back of a car, I know that's extreme, I'm not going to do that.

CUOMO: But it is an extreme example. What he was saying was, think about the cigarette and getting out of the car.

CAMEROTA: Guys we have so much to talk about. Mo, Danny, thank you. We'll talk more about this.

CUOMO: All right. Now, we know this is a dialogue and everything it brings up. So let's keep it as a discussion. Tweet us. Use the hashtag NewDayCNN or post your comment on Facebook. Just go to facebook.com/newday.

CAMEROTA: All right. He's at it again, Donald Trump. Escalating the war of words against GOP rival Senator Lindsey Graham, while hosting a rally, in Graham's home turf on Tuesday Trump called him an idiot and read out the Senator's private cell phone number, 200 of people in attendance asking them to call it.

CNN Senior Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is here with the very latest on the war of words. Hi, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. I mean, the Republican presidential race suddenly seems more like a free for all or a playground brawl. Donald Trump is off the campaign trail today, but still at the center of the conversation whether some Republicans like it or not.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's been a very interesting three weeks, I will tell you.

ZELENY: That's a Donald Trump size understatement. TRUMP: They didn't like the way, that you know, I'm a little -

I'm a little loud. I'm a little too strong. They don't like it.

ZELENY: After rocketing to the top of the GOP field, Trump is now trying to stay there. He's fighting Republicans who fear he will hurt the parties chances to win back the White House.

TRUMP: Every time I turn around, I have - I have some guy that is hitting me.

ZELENY: This morning, a new Quinnipiac Poll shows concerns of Republican leaders could be justified. In three key election battlegrounds, Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, nearly 6-10 voters hold unfavorable views of Trump. But for now, his rhetoric is resonating with republican primary voters. The war of words seemed to start when Lindsey Graham said this to CNN.

LINDSEY GRAHAM: He's becoming a jackass.

TRUMP: And then I watched this idiot Lindsey Graham on television on television today. And he calls me a jackass. He was a jackass.

ZELENY: Trump retaliated by giving out Graham's personal cell number.

TRUMP: He gave me the number and I found the card. I wrote the number down. I don't know if it's right. Let's try it. 202...

ZELENY: Jeb Bush said he respect Trump's supporters. But gently urged them to take a second look.

JEB BUSH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What am I supposed to call the guy too? It was Donald? I mean, whatever his name is, I'm going to call him Mr. Trump. If we embrace this language, of decisiveness and ugliness, we will never win.

ZELENY: And there are new signs Trump is starting getting the scrutiny of a front-runner. Opposing campaigns are pouring through, his old statements including many from CNN like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you identify more as a democrat or republican?

TRUMP: Well, you'd be shocked if I said that in many cases I probably identify more as a democrat. And it just seems that the economy does better under the democrats than the Republicans.

ZELENY: Now, it's those old views that is could come back to haunt Trump. We of course, are used to hearing him say a lot other the years. But many republican primary voters are just hearing about the political side of Trump for the first time. They may be surprised to know this republican front runner want to spoke to favorably about democrats. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you can spend a lot of time going through what he had to say. Jeff, really interesting perspective there. Thanks so much for that.

A huge gap for the Pentagon, U.S. officials confirming the death of a top leader of the Khorasan Al Qaeda group in an air strike in Syria. CNN Pentagon Correspondent, Barbara Starr has more on who he is. And how they are able to do this, Barbara. Good morning

[06:15:00] BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. This is someone the Pentagon wanted to get very badly, had been chasing down for months. Where did all of this happen? In a town called Sarmada in Northern Syria. This is the group's stronghold. It's an offshoot of Al Qaeda. It was July 8 when all of this went down. The Pentagon just confirming the death yesterday.

Musan Al-Fadhli, a top Al Qaeda operative, he was killed by a drone, a missile struck as he was traveling in a car in northern Syria. It say as good deal about U.S. intelligence and their ability to track targets like this. Why did they want to get him so bad?

The Khorasan group has been plotting external attacks outside Syria against the United States. They have bomb making expertise, the concern has always been that they will try to get bombs on airplanes. How important is this guy? He was one of the few Al Qaeda operatives that had advanced warning of the 9/11 attacks.

But maybe the most tantalizing thing here is, how they knew he was in the car at that point and time when they were overhead with a drone and fired against him. It may be a message to ISIS in Northern Syria. The U.S. may not have troops on the groundings, but they have eyes and ears and plenty of intelligence, Chris.

CUOMO: Well, said Barbara. Thank you very much. A British man accused the plotting and attack of U.S. military personnel based in the U.K. Prosecutors claim this 24-year-old was planning a hit and run style attack where he'd run over an American service member with a car and then kill them with a knife. Prosecutors arrested the man's uncle, claiming the two planned to join ISIS terrorists in Syria.

CAMEROTA: More disturbing surfacing about the Chattanooga gunman. Who killed five service members last week, investigators said, the 24-year old showed an interest in a prominent recruiter for Al Qaeda. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Chattanooga with the latest. What are investigators finding?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many new details about Abdulazeez. And all the signs increasingly seem to be pointing to a potential motive of being terrorism. The FBI has found Internet searches on his Smartphone where he does research in the days before the shooting, questioning whether someone could use martyrdom to atone for their sins like drinking. In his writings also date back to 2013, investigators have also found references to Anwar, he is the American born Yemenis, declared Al Qaeda leader who had recent attacks on the "Charlie Hebdo" and the Boston marathon.

Now, investigators right now are really focusing on the 42 to 78 hours before the attack, putting together a time line, interviewing everyone that may have been in contact with him. This comes as we learn Abdulazeez's uncle is now being held in question in Jordan. That's where he lived. He's being held by authorities there. This does not mean there's information that suggests he was doing anything wrong or involved in anyway. But certainly, Michaela, this adds one more layer to the complex puzzle investigators are trying to solve. Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Sunlen, we will dig deeper later in the show. Thank you for that.

President Obama joining Jon Stewart for the last time on Comedy Central for Daily Show. Stewart tackling the complicated dynamic of the Middle East, asking the president, point-blank, whose side we are on in Iran.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: This is an adversary. They are anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic. They sponsor Hezbollah.

JON STEWART: Sounds like a good partner for peace.

OBAMA: Probably, as has been said frequently, you don't make peace with your friends.

PEREIRA: The interview ended up with laughs. Stewart bringing up the prospect of a Trump presidency.

OBAMA: If people are engaged, eventually the political system responds, despite the money, despite the lobbyists. It's still response.

STEWART: I guess what you would say is after seven years, is that the advice that you then bequeath to future President Trump?

OBAMA: Well, I'm sure the Republicans are enjoying Mr. Trump's dominance...

STEWART: Anything that makes them look less crazy.

PEREIRA: Jon Stewart signs off August 6th. That was the last visit from the President.

CUOMO: They are laughing about it, but the GOP candidates aren't.

CAMEROTA: You think there's talks going on?

CUOMO: Look, politics is ugly but things are getting ugly in a whole new way in the Republican race.

PEREIRA: It's hard to believe it could get ugly in a whole new way. I have been doing this a while.

[06:20:00] CUOMO: Open your heart to the promise of tomorrow. Donald Trump calls Lindsey Graham an idiot that's nothing, gives out his cell phone number to campaign rally. After Graham insulted him and calling him a jackass. What's going on? How is any of this good for you?

Our panel weighs in on the future of Trump and the future of this election. Come on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Hot off the presses, brand-new polls to tell you about with interesting findings. Some of these polls show Hillary Clinton facing major challenges against her republican opponents in very key primary states. The numbers are looking not good in some regards for the candidate Donald Trump.

Let's talk about all that and bring in CNN senior Washington Jeff Zeleny as well as CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson. Good to see you this morning. Let's mix it up. Let's start with Hillary Clinton instead of Donald Trump.

So, here is Hillary Clinton's favorability match ups. This is in Iowa, obviously, the key primary state. She is losing to Marco Rubio and to Jeb Bush and to Scott Walker, as you can see. Nia, how do you explain what is going on here?

[06:25:00] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. If you look at the numbers, they came out at 6:00 a.m. she is doing terribly in terms of being honest and trustworthy and low marks in believing she cares about their issues. This has been a problem, I think, ongoing for her. You talk to folks in the campaign and they say, well, the campaign hasn't really started yet and the numbers being trust worthy.

The others will take on water as well as the campaign heats up and they face a barrage of negative ads. This is a turn of events for her and we have seen a steady slide in terms of poll numbers. They have believed along, they don't have to engage with the press in a public way and give the kind of interviews they gave to Brianna Keilar. They said they want to change things around and get out more. The polls send out a warning signal.

CUOMO: It is interesting after giving that interview, the numbers didn't change in a meaningful way. Before we go on to how Trump is getting punched in the nose, what do you think of the fact trustworthiness looms large for Hillary Clinton and that is the strength that a candidate named Biden would have?

ZELENY: It's really interesting. This is a place where she's campaigned the most, Iowa, of course. She has an apparatus there. They are reaching out to activists and voters have trust and credibility questions. Certainly, it leaves open the possibility. Bernie Sanders on one side. A lot of liberals like what he is saying. There's a hunger out there for someone else.

Chris, we have no reason to believe Joe Biden or any other democrat is going to ride to the rescue here. It is likely going to be the field as we have it right now. The trusting credibility numbers are not problematic yet, but troubling for the Clinton campaign. CUOMO: And consistent.

ZELENY: And consistent. This poll is interesting. It expands 11 or 12 days. Usually, in polling, it's not a good thing, because so much happens. In this case, it's instructive. It spans over a wide period of time. It shows they are not changing no matter what she is doing. This is going to be an issue she wrestles with.

One thing to keep in mind, Bill Clinton won re-election in 1996 and the majority of voters didn't trust him. Trust isn't necessarily the end all be all.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at Trumps numbers, in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, you can see his unfavorable outweigh the unfavorable.

CUOMO: And are moving he is also moving up. He's trending in two opposite directions at the same time. What is your read on that?

HENDERSON: No, I think, on the one hand, in the republican field, he's shooting up. With this, I mean, his comment about John McCain and him just being so out there in terms of talking about Mexicans, you can see he's had unfavorable ratings. It's not a surprise to see that people kind of judge him unfavorably. It's been consistent in a way. People have had negative feelings about him even though they know him and he has a high name ID. This ID of all publicity is good publicity isn't necessarily true for Trump.

CUOMO: What do you think about the move with Lindsey Graham and what happened there.

CAMEROTA: Do you want to hear the latest?

CUOMO: Let's play the back and forth, then get the take.

TRUMP: You have this guy, Lindsey Graham, a total lightweight. Here is a guy, in the private sector, couldn't get a job, believe me. He couldn't do what you did, you are retired and rich. He wouldn't be rich, he'd be poor.

CUOMO: That was the nice part. He then shows his cell phone number and says call him. He won't do anything, but at least he'll talk to you.

CAMEROTA: Gives out his private phone number.

ZELENY: And that is his phone number. I have used it over the years to call him. He is very accessible. Look at the expression on the voter's faces behind Donald Trump. They don't think that's funny. They like Graham. It's in his home state of South Carolina. This is why the poll numbers we saw a second ago, it is confirming the worries and fears of republican leaders, if he happens to get through a primary, some people like him in a primary. Some are looking for this in anything but Washington to tap into the anger that is out there. He does not play well in a general election setting.

CUOMO: When does he stop driving the momentum here?