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Carson Calls Media Scrutiny 'Unfair'; Will Trump's 'SNL' Appearance Boost His Campaign?; Missouri Football Players Strike Amid Racism Protest; 6-Year-Old Fatally Shot by Police to Be Buried. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 9, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ben Carson taking on the media for focusing too much on his past.

[05:58:24] DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The burden of proof is not going to be on me.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has pathological disease. It is a serious statement, as I understand it. You can't really cure it.

CARSON: There's no question I'm getting special scrutiny, because you know, there are a lot of people who are very threatened.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One of us is a candidate of the establishment. The other candidate is prepared to take on the establishment. I'm not voting for Hillary Clinton. Let me be clear: I'm supporting Bernie Sanders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeremy Mardis, he didn't deserve to die like that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN BERMAN: A 6-year-old boy shot and killed by two marshals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was just an innocent little boy.

COL. MICHAEL D. EDMONSON, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE: It was the most disturbing thing I've seen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Itis Monday, November 9, 6 a.m. in the East. So Ben Carson is coming after the media. In his most aggressive stance of the election, he says he has nothing to prove, and he's not going to provide any additional information about the gaps in his personal narrative. The question is, should the questions stop. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Leave it to Donald Trump to stir

the pot. Fresh off "Saturday Night Live" hosting gig, Trump says he's, quote, "alarmed" by Carson's stories of a violent childhood. And he insists that all of this media scrutiny could spell the beginning of the end for his chief Republican rival.

Let's bring in CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. She's live from Washington with all the latest. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, it's pretty clear the GOP candidates, they want to get some things out before tomorrow's Republican debate in Milwaukee. For Dr. Carson, it is about going from defense to offense regarding stories about his past. For Rubio it's providing more information about his finances. And for Trump, it's about getting in digs at both of them, hoping that their troubles will stick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARSON: The burden of proof is not going to be on me to corroborate everything I've ever talked about in my life.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): Over the weekend, Dr. Ben's Carson's attacks on the media intensifying, the GOP presidential contending unleashing a firestorm of verbal attacks on reporters who challenged his stories about his past.

CARSON (via phone): Show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate at everything that they say.

CARSON (on camera): Well, you said this when you were in kindergarten. Give me a break.

MALVEAUX: Recent reports in "Politico" and "The Wall Street Journal," calling into question aspects of Carson's life story published in his book. "Politico" wrote that Carson's campaign changed their version of a story about receiving a full scholarship from West Point. The military academy doesn't charge tuition. In response, Carson's campaign clarified that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point.

CARSON: I said it was offered. I didn't say I received it.

MALVEAUX: Carson saying he's facing harsher scrutiny than any other presidential candidate, because he's seen as a threat.

CARSON: I have never seen this before. And many other people who are politically experienced tell me they've never seen it before either.

MALVEAUX: GOP rival Donald Trump calling it the beginning of the end of Carson's campaign. TRUMP (voice-over): When you say, though, hitting your mother

over the head with a hammer, when you're talking about hitting a friend in the face with a lock, padlock, and you know, you're talking about stabbing someone, that's a serious statement when you say you have a pathological disease. Because as I understand it, you can't really cure it.

(on camera): Look at this guy.

MALVEAUX: Meanwhile, Trump was all laughs as host of "Saturday Night Live."

TRUMP: Enrique.

BECK BENNETT, CAST MEMBER, NBC'S "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I brought you the check for the wall.

MALVEAUX: Garnering the highest ratings the show's had in years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: And "SNL" didn't pull any punches. The cast tackled most of the criticism regarding Trump, including accusations of racism, his immigration policy and questions around President Obama's birth certificate.

We also learned this weekend in Jon Meacham's new book. Here it is, 836-page biography of George H.W. Bush, that Trump was interested in the V.P. slot. Now Trump was on "STATE OF THE UNION." He clarified that, said it was the other way around, that a senior adviser came to him and said that he'd be great. But it didn't go much further than that -- Chris, Alisyn.

CUOMO: How much further does it have to go? Thank you very much for the reporting.

Let's discuss. We have senior politics editor for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich; CNN political commentator and political anchor at New York One, Errol Louis.

Let's keep going with Donald Trump. So what was our feeling about how he did this weekend? Errol Louis, did you think it was worth it? Do you think it was different? What's the plus/minus?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It was probably worth it for him. I didn't think it was all that funny, just in the sense that I don't think the cast really went at him. The jokes weren't that interesting. So, you know, that's -- comedy, of course, is personal. I personally didn't find it funny.

CAMEROTA: Why do you think that they pulled their punches? I mean, if you're saying they pulled their punches, is it because he wasn't approving some skits? I mean, why didn't they go after him more?

LOUIS: That I just don't know. I mean, when they went after Sarah Palin really hard. You know, so there's not some sort of a partisan bias here. They went after Sarah Palin really, really hard.

Trump if you think that they have a liberal sensibility, not their kind of guy, they just happened not to go after him.

I think, though, that it didn't do much for him. I'm trying to -- I'm trying to imagine somebody who didn't know about Donald Trump. He has very high name recognition. Didn't know about him, and based on seeing this would say, "Hey, I like that guy."

I don't know if that's what it was intended to accomplish, but there's almost no way it could have accomplished that. So it was a fun evening for Donald Trump. The people who hate him will continue to hate him. The protesters outside I'm sure were very happy, and life goes on.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, what do you think? I mean, the protesters outside couldn't be happy because they didn't get what they wanted, you know? They didn't want him on at all. But what do you think that this means going forward for his campaign?

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, "DAILY BEAST": I don't know that it has any deeper meeting. It was interesting the whole skit where they made fun of his entire platform. It raised an eyebrow.

Because he had one line, where he said, you didn't even tell us how you were going to do that. It's like, if you ask, it's just magic. It falls into place, which has been a criticism of him. That he doesn't really have any meat on the bones or any details of how he says he's going to get all these things done. So you wonder if that's going to be fodder for someone who might want to attack him later down the line.

CUOMO: Right. In truth, the onus is not on the cast of "SNL" to hold him accountable for how he's going to take care of it. You know, we struggled with it enough here. They were trying to make jokes.

All right. So Ben Carson, Errol, let's put it this way. Is this even a question as to whether or not when somebody's central narrative about how they became who they now are comes into question, that they have to answer those questions?

LOUIS: Well, one would hope so. In this case, Ben Carson, and you know, great interview that you did with him, he doesn't want to ask any questions. He wants to turn and sort of attack the question and attack the questioner and ask people where were you in 2008?

[06:05:10] You know, I started thinking back. I was part of the team that had to go out to Chicago and sort of look into President Obama's background and went to his church and all this kind of stuff.

But all of that stuff is so irrelevant. I mean, just as you say, if your biography is all about what you did, and you were very detailed about it; and you say it again and again and again, it is the job of the press to sort of ask you some of the details. And the fact that nobody can corroborate several of the key

stories is something he's going to have to answer. Now, he doesn't have to answer because we're asking. He has to answer because that narrative then starts to fall apart.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, you know, he has turned this around and said that this is an illustration of how the media is going after him and what's wrong with the process. So let me play for you what he said yesterday in Puerto Rico to reporters about how sick this process is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vetting is a normal part of the process. Did you not expect this?

CARSON: I have always said that I expect to be vetted. But being vetted and what is going on with me, "You said this 30 years ago. You said this 20 years ago. This didn't exist." You know, I just -- I have not seen that with anyone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was interesting. That wasn't the one that I was hoping for where he talked about how the process was sick. Let me know if we have that.

CUOMO: Blame the media.

CAMEROTA: I blame the control room. Let me know if we have that.

But what about that, Jackie? Is he being vetted more than other people?

KUCINICH: No. That's crazy. No, that's ludicrous. He doesn't have a legislative record. He has this book that he has based his entire -- it's his autobiography; it's how he tells his story. So why wouldn't the media, why wouldn't any of us want to fact check that? Because it is the central part of his candidacy. It's why people trust him. So that deserves to be looked into.

And the idea that, you know, going back into someone's past is off limits, I mean, how many times have we gone into the Clintons' past, into -- we were looking at when Joe Biden was talking about running, into what he did with the crime bill. I mean, this is part of the process. George Bush's -- I'm sorry, Jeb Bush's governorship, this is all fair game. This is part of the process. Welcome to the big leagues.

CUOMO: Well, the problem is, is that we've said many times on this show, everybody is saying, this happens, especially with the GOP on the right side, they came come off the media, make the media an enemy. In truth, all politicians do it when they're under siege.

I feel this is different, Errol. I think that the media has become made an opponent in a way that is going to damage our ability to cover this election going forward, because I wasn't surprised that Alisyn took heat for the interview. That's the nature of the game. It was the fact that she was asking questions at all that she was getting attacked. Not like "I didn't like your attitude. I didn't like how you did it. You wouldn't let him go. You were rude." None of that. It was, you shouldn't even be asking. And I think that it has traction with that base right now.

LOUIS: It's entirely possible. I mean, I think Dr. Carson will probably find out that, even after he answers the questions, that it won't damage his standing. That you know, answering the question...

CUOMO: It may help it.

LOUIS: Yes. I was a little wrong about this, it was 50 years ago. Just tell us the truth.

CUOMO: He raised $3.5 million because of the heat of all this.

LOUIS: I don't doubt it. But I mean, I do think -- you know, so much cannon probably should ask him the question, what exactly do you want people to do? Do you want people to just never check anything you've said and just clap for you and let you sort of give a speech, and then we'll just have an election? Is that what you think politics is? Because he's new to the game. Maybe that's what he thinks it's supposed to be.

CUOMO: Jackie makes a very strong point. Carson is largely a creation of his only personal life, you know, his genius as a surgeon, his fate, the way he came after President Obama.

CAMEROTA: His transformation that he talks about from angry...

CUOMO: That is what makes him so likable and desirable by people. That's the weird part about this for me. Of course that's going to be what we come after, Jackie. I mean, when you have ever seen this not happen?

KUCINICH: Well, right, and I'm sure you'd have some on the right that say that, you know, maybe the media doesn't check the elect the same way. And you know, maybe that's a fair criticism in some cases.

But when it comes to the presidency, it really is a gauntlet. And every -- you know, we check every "T" and every "I." That's just how -- that is the process. That is what happens.

But, you know, this attack against the media is a time-honored tradition on both sides that, hey, Ben Carson raised a lot of money. And I'm sure in the short term this is going to help his campaign. Down the road I would be surprised if you can attack the media all the time and all the way to the White House.

CUOMO: Well, look, one of the differences -- go ahead.

CAMEROTA: Let's be honest. It makes it somehow easier to say that he attacks the media and that the media is after him. It's an attack on journalism. Let's just call it what it is. An attack on journalism. Journalists ask questions. That's the process.

And if you don't like journalism, we should talk about that with presidential candidates. We will have that opportunity to do so. We will have the opportunity to ask all the questions that you guys have posed, because Ben Carson's business manager and friend, Armstrong Williams, will be here with us later. Also we'll have Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie.

CUOMO: All right. Michaela.

[06:10:13] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, an emergency meeting is going to be held today at the University of Missouri to deal with mounting racial tensions on that campus. The school's football players refusing to play until the university's president resigns or is fired.

CNN's sports correspondent Coy Wire joins us live with the latest on what's happening at Mizzou.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

Students on campus are making some brazen moves so that their voices are heard, and it's working. They've even caught the attention of Missouri's governor, Jay Nixon, who says racism has no place at Mizzou, and the students' concerns must be addressed.

Now with the members of the football team taking a stand, the spotlight on Missouri's racial incidents is burning brighter than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE (voice-over): The University of Minnesota [SIC] governing body just hours away from a special meeting to address the campus unrest as its racial climate comes to a boil. Missouri football's African-American players joining the deafening call demanding Mizzou president Tim Wolf resign over the way they say he's failed to handle matters of alleged racism and discrimination at the university, the athletes tweeting they would boycott football activities until Wolf is removed.

Their coach, Gary Pinkel, tweeting this photo with his players, arms locked in unity with white students, "The Mizzou family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players." One grad student even beginning a hunger strike against the school's president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My body is literally shutting down. And with each passing moment and each passing day, it gets a little worse. But that's not what I like to focus on.

Black students are not being heard. On campus. From those in power.

WIRE: Wolf giving no indication he intends to step down but meeting with several university officials Sunday night, hours after releasing a statement that read, in part, "It is clear to all of us that change is needed. My administration has been doing a tremendous amount of reflection on how to address these complex matters."

Tensions on campus brewing for months, escalating since September after protesters say Wolf failed to respond to several alleged incidents of racial abuse, including students openly using racial slurs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Missouri's next football game is Saturday against BYU. The football team brought in over $30 million in revenue last year. So we'll see now if the bold actions from these players will be the impetus for positive change where many on campus feel it's needed -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Coy. Thanks so much for all that background.

Meanwhile, this story. Questions continue to swirl about what led two police officers to fatally shoot a 6-year-old boy during a police chase. The officers are expected in court today as the Louisiana community mourns that young victim.

CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Marksville, Louisiana, with the latest. This is such a terrible story, Nick. What have you learned?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Such a tragedy, Alisyn.

Alisyn, good morning to you. Nearly a week since the fatal shooting of that 6-year-old, Jeremy Mardis, two outstanding questions remain. Why would police follow the boy's father into a dead end? And why would they use lethal force?

That 6-year-old, Jeremy Mardis, was buckled into the passenger seat of his father's car when police opened fire, hitting him at least five times in the head and chest, fatally killing him.

Now, those officers, as you mentioned, are expected to make their first court appearance later today. We have been looking into the history of those officers, and at least one of them has a troubled history. Thirty-two-year-old Derrick Stafford was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape back in 2011. A year later, those cases were both dismissed.

As far as we can tell, neither Norris Greenhouse Jr., one of those marshals charged with the murder of the 6-year-old, nor Derrick Stafford have never been convicted of a crime.

But perhaps to make this case even more bizarre, a source with knowledge of the investigation tells me that Norris Greenhouse Jr., that marshal, actually knew the victims prior to the shooting. How well he knew the victims and the extent of their relationship. Investigators will be focusing a lot on that.

Meanwhile, later today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the funeral for that 6-year-old little boy is expected to happen at 1:30 p.m. here local -- Alisyn. CAMEROTA: OK, Nick, thanks so much for all of that.

Later this morning, we will speak live with the superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, who's very involved in this case about what he knows.

CUOMO: All right. So an official says the U.S. is 99.9 percent certain a terrorist bomb broke down Flight 9268. The FBI is in talks to help with the investigation. But as of now, no plans to send a team to the region.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have arrived in Egypt conducting security checks at Sharm el Sheikh Airport themselves.

PEREIRA: President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting today at the White House for the first time in more than a year, looking to move past their very public dust-up over the Iran nuclear deal.

They are expected to discuss increasing U.S. military aid to Israel and the nearly two-month wave of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

CAMEROTA: The destruction in this video is shocking. Take a look at this. It's a massive sinkhole. It opened up in an IHOP parking lot Sunday in Meridian, Mississippi.

[06:15:08] The hole is about 50 feet -- 50 feet wide, 600 feet long. It swallowed more than a dozen cars.

PEREIRA: That's insanity.

CAMEROTA: That is insanity.

PEREIRA: That's not even a sinkhole.

CAMEROTA: A sink highway.

PEREIRA: The earth opened.

CAMEROTA: Yes. No one was hurt, I'm happy to report.

PEREIRA: That's amazing that nobody was walking to her car as it was happening or sitting in the car or on the phone or anything. That's drone footage, obviously, and it shows incredible...

CAMEROTA: Whoa!

PEREIRA: I don't think I've ever seen anything like that.

CAMEROTA: We report on sinkholes all the time but not to this level.

PEREIRA: That's stupefying.

CUOMO: What's constricting (ph) is they have to figure out what do you do now? Because that crevice instability is there. You've got that building there. We never follow up on these stories about what they do after.

PEREIRA: Right. Two Louisiana police officers facing second- degree murder charges for the shooting death we told you about a moment ago of a 6-year-old boy. Why did they open fire on that young boy's father's car? We're going to take a closer look at the story when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:13] CAMEROTA: Two Louisiana deputy marshals are expected in court today, facing second-degree murder charges after allegedly killing a 6-year-old boy when they opened fire on his father's car.

Joining us now to talk about this is Bryn Stole. He's the reporter for the Louisiana paper "The Advocate" as well as Matthew Horace. He's a 27-year veteran of state and federal law enforcement. He's also senior vice president of FJC Security Services. It's great to have both of you with us.

Bryn, let me start with you, because I know you've been covering this story since it first broke last week. What have you learned about the events leading up to the moment when these law enforcement officers opened fire?

BRYN STOLE, REPORTER, "THE ADVOCATE": Well, there's a number of things that still aren't entirely clear. For example, why these deputy marshals began chasing 25-year-old Christopher Few. But he eventually led them on a chase that ended in sort of an "L" bend in the road where the marshals blocked him in. A third vehicle responded, a Marksville city police officer.

And these two deputy marshals are believed to have fired, then, a total of 18 rounds into the vehicle, killing the 6-year-old boy and critically wounding the driver.

CAMEROTA: Matthew, I mean, what -- nothing makes sense in this story, to my ears. Nothing makes sense. Eighteen rounds, shooting a 6-year-old boy five times? What's going on here?

MATTHEW HORACE, SVP, FJC SECURITY SERVICES: This -- Alisyn, this entire incident seems reckless and haphazard use of deadly force. In my mind, based on our training standards, I don't understand how this happens. When you draw your weapon from that holster, you have to have a reasonable belief that you may have to use it. If you point it at someone, you have to know that you will use it. And with that, we need target acquisition. Know who your target is and who you're going to be with that, try to mitigate a threat.

CAMEROTA: Bryn, our reporter, Nick Valencia, he just suggested that one of the marshals may have known the dad. Do you know anything about that relationship or their background?

STOLE: I'm not sure, entirely sure about that. It is a very small town. It's a town of about 5,700 people here in central Louisiana. Wouldn't it all be surprising if they did? But I'm not -- I'm not entirely sure about that.

CAMEROTA: Matthew, when I heard this story, I mean, I'm not a police officer, but I thought this reeks of revenge. It reeks of anger. They said that they were trying to serve a warrant. There was no arrest warrant out for this dad. Something is going on here.

And when I heard Nick Valencia say that there was a suggestion that one of these officers knew the father, there has to be a back story.

HORACE: Well, in so many stories that we've seen, even most recently, there oftentimes is a back story. And I'm sure that over the next several days, Colonel Edmonson and the Louisiana State Police will get to the bottom of it, and we'll figure out what was behind this traffic stop. It was a bad stop. It was a bad shoot with a horrific ending.

CAMEROTA: Colonel Edmonson will be on our program. And he also talked about why he so quickly filed charges when he saw the evidence. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDMONSON: It is the most disturbing thing I've seen. I will leave it at that. Jeremy Mardis, 6 years old. He didn't deserve to die like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Bryn, when Colonel Edmonson said that "It's the most disturbing thing I've seen," I believe he's talking about this video that he saw of a body camera that one of the officers was wearing. Do we know what's on that video?

STOLE: That's right. We don't know exactly what's on that. I've asked the colonel several times. He won't describe exactly what's captured on the video. He will say that the body camera was worn by the on-duty Marksville police officer, The fourth officer to arrive on the scene. And he arrived just prior to the shooting starting. We do know that.

What exactly it captured, they won't say, although you have heard Colonel Edmonson's pretty grim description of apparently what is on the video.

CAMEROTA: Matthew, both of these marshals who first responded or who first fired the shots have been looked at in use of excessive force in the past. If you have something in -- on your record about excessive force, why would you be paired together?

HORACE: I don't know that organizations, and particularly small organizations, even look at that in terms of how they assign officers to work. And this may be something we look at in terms of their past. But as it relates to this incident, it's looking more and more like, No. 1, this is out-and-out criminal. No. 2, it brings in the light of any training standards that any of us are familiar with. CAMEROTA: But shouldn't that be looked at? I mean, if you have

a claim of excessive force, shouldn't you be with somebody who's known as a conciliator, not an escalator?

HORACE: Well, certainly. And that's what people have been calling for, for years: hiring, retention, recruitment and training. And those all add up to better situations, better trained officers and least (ph) incidents like this.

CAMEROTA: Bryn Stole, Matthew Horace, thanks so much for the information this morning. Again, we'll be speaking with that commander coming up on NEW DAY, so stick around for that.

Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: Of course, the big revelation will be if they find out that the officers knew that there was a little boy strapped into that vehicle.

All right. In other news, the Russians and the U.S. may wind up fighting ISIS together after all. Amid feelings that 9268 was a terror attack, Russia asking the U.S. for help. What they want and where it may lead. We're live in Sinai with the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:29:45] CUOMO: Dr. Ben Carson says he does not have to prove his stories about his past are true, and his supporters agree. Carson says he had a spike in fundraising as a result of the media onslaught, as he calls it, $3.5 million last week alone. But Donald Trump, for one, is not buying in.

He's after Carson, saying the veracity issues are disturbing. That Carson could have an incurable anger problem and this may end his campaign.

PEREIRA: The FBI now in talks to help investigate the crash of Metrojet...