Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Shootings Mark Anniversary of Brown Killing; Syrians Expect Civil War to Last Years; Will Trump's Surge End After "Blood" Remarks? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 10, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:32] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news overnight: on the first anniversary of Michael Brown's death, as peaceful protests take an ugly turn while you were sleeping. Two rounds of gunfire, one incident involving plainclothes officers.

Let's turn to Sara Sidner. She's been on the ground all night.

And what are we learning this morning as dawn begins to break?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, we just got some new information that two more people had been shot. One in the chest, the other in the arm and chest in Canfield. That's where Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson who was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

But I can tell you that earlier in the day -- earlier in the night, I should say, there were other shootings. This is a total of three so far shootings. Two of those shootings happened along West Florissant where polices say that it started with two people shooting and police engaging and shooting one of the suspects. That suspect had a stolen .9 millimeter gun on him.

I happen to be in the area when this was happening as protesters were coming and standing in front of a line of police. This happened hundreds of yards from where that protest was, but it happened right along West Florissant where the unrest happened just one year ago to the day.

Here's what happened when I was talking to the new interim police chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERIM POLICE CHIEF: We just want to be as patient as possible.

(GUN SHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Everyone ran and took cover, including the police. There is one person hurt. A police officer was hurt in a non-shooting-related incident hit with a brick. Very, very tense times, but those have calmed down now. We'll wait and see for tomorrow when people say they are going to do a day of civil disobedience -- Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Sara Sidner, always unpredictable in Ferguson, and sadly, this is like deja vu. Thanks so much.

Also with us this morning to discuss further. We have Harry Houck, CNN law enforcement analyst and retired NYPD detective. As well as Mo Ivory, attorney and radio personality.

I want to start with you. First, your reaction to one year later new unrest, new violence in Ferguson, Missouri.

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY AND RADIO PERSONALITY: Yes, it made me very sad to see that happen because prior to that, it had been so peaceful and it had been refreshing to see that there was a celebration going on to really, you know, celebrate that there has been some movement to come together and commemorate an incident that was so tragic. I just was on a panel this past weekend with attorney Benjamin Crump where we talked about solutions and what Black Lives Matter really meant as a movement.

So, it was very sad to last night late I started seeing Twitter and I started seeing the coverage and I was saddened there was some, you know, fools, is what I call them, that had nothing to do with the protests to be out there doing this sort of thing.

But I want to also say that we just have the police version of what went on last night. We do not have any information further than what is being told to us by police. We also have to keep an open mind as to what the true picture is about what's going on.

CABRERA: And I want to ask you about police response, Harry, specifically.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

CABRERA: You know the history of Ferguson. If you're a police officer there, you know all of your actions are going to be scrutinized, as we have seen unfold in the past year. And police in general around the country having actions scrutinized and situations that have probably come to the surface that may not have otherwise if Ferguson hadn't happened.

[06:35:08] HOUCK: Right.

CABRERA: So, you're there and these protests are happening. As a police officer, what's your mindset in terms of going into that situation?

HOUCK: Well, you've got to basically make sure it's peaceful. That's the bottom line there. But we also have a gun violence problem in Ferguson. And as you have seen with this incident that occurred where police had a shootout with somebody, we're going to find out what happened here. But the perpetrator did have a weapon on him. The fact that officers returned fire and he was shot.

So, let's not rush to conclusions that the police officers did anything wrong here. But, you know, the whole thing is you want a peaceful demonstration. This demonstration had been very peaceful.

You're going to have some thugs that might try and disrupt it, might try to start a riot. And that's what the police are trying to do is find those people and get them away from the majority of the demonstrators to make sure this stays peaceful.

And police officers have to take action. I mean, we saw in Baltimore where police officers were pummeled and did nothing, we can't have that happen in Ferguson. We have to make sure police officers act accordingly.

CABRERA: Mo, we know that there were two unmarked police cars damaged from gunfire. There were a couple officers reportedly pepper sprayed by protesters. One of them took a rock to the face.

If you're a police officer there, do you feel like when you're look at these police officers, kind of damned if you, damned if you don't, are their actions beginning to be criticized no matter what?

IVORY: Yes. Well, I mean, I think that there's a real reason why police officers' actions are going to be criticized. There's an awful history of excessive police brutality against African-Americans in Ferguson, and for that matter, across the country.

So, I don't think from a police officer's side, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't, just don't. Don't use excessive force and then you won't be in that situation.

So, there's a psychology of why we feel this way. It's just not pulled out of a hat. We want to think every officer is doing something wrong.

We have a problem in our country with police officers using excessive force. And so, the ones doing the right thing don't have to be worried about video coming out, don't have to be really worried about their actions being scrutinized. It's the ones that are not doing the right thing, which is a large number, that is creating a problem for the ones who are not.

CABRERA: How do you breakthrough that and how do you balance ensuring safety with restraint as well?

HOUCK: Well, first of all, you know, as a -- you know, you can look at the incident with Michael Brown here, where Michael Brown was a criminal who tried to kill a police officer and is dead as a result of that, all right? You've got an incident there --

(CROSSTALK)

IVORY: That's a real dramatization. HOUCK: The facts indicate that.

IVORY: People do not believe that Michael Brown was a criminal.

(CROSSTALK)

HOUCK: I know that facts don't matter to you, madam, but that is a fact.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Well, the fact of the matter Darren Wilson was cleared, but the Ferguson police department, however, was in the wrong, according to the Department of Justice.

IVORY: That's correct.

CABRERA: In terms of the bigger picture. I think you both have a point here.

But, Harry, finish your point.

HOUCK: I read the report. There are some things wrong with that police department. There's no doubt. We have a new police chief, interim police chief. A new judge that was brought in

We still haven't seen too many changes in Ferguson. So, where is the money that's supposed to be coming from these politicians so police officers can have the resources to be able to utilize them in the city and put more cops on the street. You know, the issue isn't that we need a black police chief or we need a black judge, and all of a sudden, things would be fine. It doesn't matter, as long as somebody is doing the correct job to make sure that police officers in the community come together so that we can do away with violence and the Ferguson police department and the people can heal.

CABRERA: It seems like there's a trust gap that still remains, which is maybe on --

HOUCK: On both sides.

IVORY: Harry, by the way, resources are not the reason why there's a systemic problem in the Ferguson police department. That was found in the Justice Department report that police officers were acting, so let's not say it was because of resources.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Mo Ivory and Harry Houck, I know you guys both are very passionate about this issue. We've got to go for now.

HOUCK: OK.

CABRERA: But we'll continue the conversation today and in the coming days. Thanks to both of you so much.

Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You're touching on exactly the dynamic. Competing interest there is and it's going to take time. That's why we're following the story.

Well done, Ana. Thank you very much.

So, what do you think? Was Donald Trump saying that a FOX moderator was hormonal? If he did, do you care? Is this a window into the party's larger problems with women? We'll test all of it, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:33] CUOMO: Donald Trump, GOP frontrunner, insist he was not talking about a female fox moderator being hormonal when he told CNN she had, quote, "blood coming out of her wherever during last week's Republican debate. Trump's comments getting him disinvited from a big conservative event over the weekend. He responded by calling the event's organizer a, quote, "total loser".

CABRERA: Breaking news overnight in Afghanistan where a suicide bomber killed four people and injured 15 others near the Kabul airport. The terrorist blew himself up around noon local time, so far no one has claimed responsibility but it comes after a series of attacks last week in Afghanistan in which 50 people died.

PEREIRA: Heavy fighting meanwhile raging overnight in northern Syria. ISIS forces battling Syrian rebels for control of four strategic villages along that border with Turkey. As the fighting rages on, what is life like for the people of Syria living under Bashar al Assad's rule?

We go live now to Damascus and CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen for that part of the story -- Frederik.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Michaela. You know, it's been one and a half years since the Syrian government has actually allowed us to come in here. And I have to say that the mood here on the ground is a lot more skeptical than we have seen before.

In the past, when we came here, people in the street would say we think this conflict is going to be over soon. We think our side is going to win soon. They saw something like light at the end of the tunnel.

[06:45:01] But when you speak to people nowadays, you know, they're seeing that their military has had big losses against ISIS in the northeast of the country. They are also seeing the military situation on many other fronts as well. Still, many of them can't fathom that, for instance, a city like Damascus could fall into the hands of ISIS.

There's no one who will tell you they think this is all going to end soon. A lot of the people say it's going to take a very, very long time. They are not sure how it's going to end. Many people say you can't really say anything for sure. And also when you look at the situation here, prices for fuel have gone up massively. The prices for food have gone up massively. Many items aren't available anymore that we're available.

So, certainly, there is a downturn in the mood, even though people try to put a good face on it. You see people in the streets trying to have a normal life. We also asked them about the U.S. increasing airstrikes against ISIS. They say they are skeptical as well. They don't think it's going to make a big difference -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Fred, appreciate the reporting. Thank you very much.

So, severe weather started in the Midwest. Really did damage there, now heading east.

Let's get to meteorologist Jennifer Gray telling us what happens next.

Answers, please?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Chris. These storms are on the move. They are now impacting places like Memphis, Tennessee, this morning. And they will continue to move east throughout the late morning hours and the early afternoon. Once temperatures start to heat up, these storms could turn strong to severe.

So, we'll be looking at severe threat of damaging winds, large hail, anywhere from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, all the way down to Atlanta for today, as well as Birmingham. You're included in this. As we move forward in time, you can see the storms starting to fire up once we get into the late evening hours in the southeast and that Pittsburgh, Detroit, you're looking at storms through the late evening hours.

The other big story today: it is hot. We have heat warnings in effect anywhere from Jackson all the way to northwest Louisiana. Heat advisories in place. Dallas has not seen measurable rainfall for 32 days. So, we are going to continue the heat with heat indexes into the triple digits: Dallas the 107, Shreveport, 109.

Good news, Michaela, though, temperatures are going to relax a little bit in the coming days.

PEREIRA: Thank goodness. That 110 in Jackson takes your breath away. My goodness.

GRAY: Yes.

PEREIRA: All right. Jennifer, thank you so much for that.

PEREIRA: Donald Trump defiantly standing by his blood comment aimed at Megyn Kelly. Could this latest controversy hurt Trump support among female Republicans? We'll discuss it, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [06:51:58] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do all this stuff. Do you think I would make a stupid statement like that? Who would make a statement like that? Only a sick person would even think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Donald Trump does not think he's a sick person and that's whew he's defending his comments saying he would never suggest that Megyn Kelly was tough on him because she was hormonal.

OK. Do you believe that? Does it matter? Does the GOP have a bigger issue in drawing women into the tent?

Let's speak to two right-leaning CNN political commentators, although they're pretty much sitting straight right now. Margaret Hoover, a Republican consultant, and Tara Setmayer, she's a former communication director for Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

That's great to have you both here.

First, let's play what Donald said, OK? Here's the bad sound, as people are interpreting it.

We're silencing here.

All right. So, I'll pretend I'll be Donald. She was really angry. She had blood in her eyes, she had blood coming out of her wherever.

Do you think he was making the comment that is being ascribed to him right now about her being --

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I have no idea. I don't care to what Donald Trump was trying to say about Megyn Kelly. I really don't. I think --

CUOMO: So, you're saying it doesn't matter?

HOOVER: No, I don't think it matters. You know why it doesn't matter because he's still going to be the head of the national polls. None of this is going to put a ding in his patina. He's going to continue to garner attention, until the rubber hits the road. The rubber is going to hit the road come Iowa and New Hampshire when thoughtful Iowans and thoughtful folks in New Hampshire who are in the primary have to think seriously about who they want to be the next commander- in-chief.

CUOMO: But we keep saying this, Tara, but he keeps going up and up. Those people defends (ph) him more and more.

(CROSSTALK)

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's because it's the reality TV-ization of our political process.

Listen, this is what he is conducting his campaign the way he does "The Apprentice", the way that he has marketed himself brilliantly for years. This is all about him tapping into a low denominator of anger and things that people are upset about the political process, upset about Washington and they like to see a train wreck.

This is like, why people watch Jerry Springer --

CUOMO: They say they like to hear someone being honest. They don't believe politicians. At least he's saying what he believes.

SETMAYER: Except there's a point where you cross the line of decency.

CUOMO: So, you think this line --

SETMAYER: Well, I think he's crossed the line more than once. This is compounding --

CUOMO: But on this one, because now everybody is jumping on him.

SETMAYER: I mean, absolutely, when you start talking about periods, and the presidency in the same line, I mean, we can say we don't know what was in his mind. We don't. But we know how people react. If you have to explain yourself the way he has, you have already lost the debate. This is terrible political course.

CUOMO: Unless people are hunting him to try and get him out anyway they can because the party doesn't like him being around.

SETMAYER: He doesn't need any help.

HOOVER: Look, I don't think it matters. This guy has got staying power. He's going to be around. He has tapped into enthusiasm from disaffected Americans who feel like the economy is not representing them, the government isn't representing them, the political institutions and their cultural institutions aren't representing him.

Is it going to last? No, I don't think so. We just don't know hot it fizzles.

CUOMO: What I think is interesting here is -- hopefully Donald Trump is going to come on tomorrow.

[06:55:03] It will be his first interview on NEW DAY. And we'll talk to him about this.

But I think that the reason I'm kind of brushing past this is I don't think this is the problem for the GOP with women. We interviewed Marco Rubio. He is the one who says I'm about the future. His position on abortion is very strict. He does not believe in a carve out for rape or incest and he talked about something in the interview that I think is much more important to addressing the party's relationship with women than what just happened with Trump.

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm proud to say that my faith influences me. It teaches me that God knew us when he formed us in the womb. It does influence me to believe that all human life is worthy of protection, even human life that doesn't have a birth certificate, even human life that maybe scientists wants to have a debate about.

But I think the science is clear that when a child -- when there is conception, that is a human life in the early stages of its total development and it is worthy of the protection of our laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Yes, here's something interesting -- what he said galvanized his support. His team says they believe this interview did as much to help him as the debate itself did. What I was trying to address with him, he says, I'm about the future, not the past. There's no scientific consensus on when we have a person for the purposes of attaching rights to the unborn, right?

The idea that human life begins at conception, I think it's hard to argue against that, that it's not human life at the beginning of conception. What else it's going to be? I get that. But that's not how the law works.

When women hear Marco Rubio say, "I'm the future and don't believe in a carve out for rape or incest, and I think science already decided, you're a person at conception", how does that help with women?

HOOVER: Look, what you did was helped him in the primary of the Republican Party. You're making a very astute point about science. But what he's saying --

CUOMO: I've never been accused of that before.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: But he's making a totally different point that's going to help in the primary. You make a good point -- 75 percent of Americans last time polled in 2011 said they agree with the option of abortion in the case of rape and incest. That position does put him far outside the mainstream of the American public when it comes to the general election.

CUOMO: But he's good with --

SETMAYER: But in fairness to Marco Rubio, he has never actually taken the point where he said I'm not going to vote against something if it has a rape and incest exception. He's saying he believes that the life should not -- that the baby growing inside that person should not have to pay the price for how they got there.

CUOMO: Yes.

SETMAYER: I think a lot of people of faith, a lot of Christians, they understand that. CUOMO: Absolutely.

SETMAYER: And morally, the American people are very divided on abortion and these kinds of things. And I think most people say pragmatically, rape and insist, it's hard for you to say you're going to force a woman to carry to term. But Marco Rubio is not advocating that.

However, he's saying personally, on my faith I believe in life in all circumstances. But he's not doing anything legislatively to overturn a woman's right to make that decision.

HOOVER: He can make the point that politics is the art of the possible.

SETMAYER: That's right.

HOOVER: And that even though this is what I personally believe, here's what I will support legislatively.

CUOMO: I don't know which way it will go, but I just think that a leader who wants to be future minded should want a scientific answer to that, to the extent that you can get one. And we'll just see where it goes from there. But I thought it was an interesting as a future leader and what he was saying on that issue. Tara, Margaret, as always. Appreciate it.

SETMAYER: Thanks.

CUOMO: And as far as the Donald Trump scenario, he will be here on NEW DAY tomorrow. We'll talk to him, and he can explain for himself and he can tell you what he thinks matters and then you can judge.

A lot of news this morning. Some big stories to tell you about. What do you say? Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The one year anniversary of Michael Brown's death. Gunshots ring out in the streets of Ferguson.

(CHANTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Members of Congress going to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a complicated piece of business. You don't negotiate deals with friends. You negotiate them with your enemies.

TRUMP: Blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. Political correctness in this country is out of control.

I cherish women. I want to help women.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Donald Trump said is wrong.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no excuse.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Good morning, and welcome back to your NEW DAY. Ana Cabrera joins us here in the studio.

We begin with breaking news -- overnight while you were asleep, multiple shootings erupting in Ferguson, Missouri, on the first anniversary of Michael Brown's death. The violence turning what had been a peaceful march during the day into chaos once night fell. At least three shootings reported. We now have new video showing the moments shots rang out and protesters ran for cover.

CUOMO: It reportedly involved plainclothes police officers who responding to the fire that you hear right now. This new video some might find disturbing shows the alleged shooter laying face down on the ground, unconscious. He's now undergoing surgery. We don't have any more word on it.

But let's get the latest from Sara Sidner. She's been on the scene all night, witnessed the gunfire.

Sara, you were interviewing the new chief for the county when all of a sudden this happened. Take us through it.